Prayer Makes A Leader

1:14 And Steve's like, okay, go around the side. I'm like, why don't I just go up here? And then I almost fell right there. That was brilliant. Well, my name's Francis. I live in San Francisco. Pastor out there. What do you need to know about me? I've got seven children. One grandchild. I love life. I'm loving everything. I love this topic I've been given, which is prayer. I could stand here and speak about prayer for hours, honestly, and I want to. I want to. There's just so much. I could just stand here and tell you story after story all day long of how many times I just prayed to God something so specific. And then he answers me.

2:06 He does it even more specifically than I prayed it. I don't know if you ever had those moments in life where you pray something that you go, God, I can't believe you answered me. Times where you just get the chills because you think, he heard me. He listened to me. I am telling you, there's nothing like that on earth. Man, I've had a really blessed life. Crazy things have happened. Wonderful family. but nothing compares the greatest moments in my life have been those times when I pray something and he answers me so specific because you go, no way. I spoke to him and he answers me. Man, I hope you still get excited about prayer. Man, I have known God for like 35 years now and I have never been this excited about praying.

3:02 It's like all I wanna do. Like I used to just love to get up and teach and now it's like, gosh, in all honesty, I was back there praying earlier and I'm just thinking, God, I just wanna stay here and pray because this is where the stuff happens. I'm gonna pray specifically for some of you today, some of you guys that are watching wherever you are, just going, God, I want them to get it. I want them to get it because it's not something that I can make happen. It's not like I'm gonna talk you into loving prayer and being consumed with talking to God. It's something that I get on my face. You know, like Paul says in Ephesians 3 and Ephesians 1, he goes, I'm on my knees begging God that he would open the eyes of your heart. There's something supernatural that happens where suddenly deep inside of you, you just get it.

4:02 You just suddenly go, you know, everything on earth just seems so meaningless, so tiny compared to knowing him. I mean, like right now in heaven, there's this being who's looking at me and he determines if I take another breath, he determines if my heart beats another beat. I mean, what is more exciting than speaking to him who's keeping everything in control? It's up to him whether I walk off this platform. It's completely up to him whether tomorrow happens for me, for you. It's up to him all of eternity, everything. And I just don't get it anymore how people that say they know God, and yet prayer is like an obligation.

5:02 And I have friends that kind of go, yeah, I should pray more. I'm like, ah, do you get it then? Like, you know, it's like, are you in love with him? This isn't like part of Christianity. This is Christianity. It's like knowing him. It's just like, you know, like the other day I was with some, you know, friends and we just started praying. I go, I only got an hour. I only have an hour. I only have an hour. We ended up praying for 13 hours straight. Like it was just once you're going, I'm talking to God. I'm in his presence. Like where do I have to go from here? Like where am I going to go? I'm in the presence of the creator. in fact can we just pray to him right now we just join me and don't just close your eyes wherever you are i mean this is an honor we're going to speak to him and we have the right to speak to him if we believe in jesus that through jesus everything's been forgiven all the garbage all this sin.

6:16 And he says, now we have access to God. And I know he hears me. And I'm gonna pray specifically that something supernatural happens in this next half hour. Some of you came today and you thought, okay, another day at church, whatever you call it, another service, another message from another guy. and I'm just going to ask that he does something supernatural where a light goes on inside and you go, man, I just get it.

6:56 And so would you join with me as I pray right now? God, it is such an honor to speak to you. Oh, God. Thank you that my mind is working right now and that I can think about you.

7:28 Thank you that I'm breathing and I'm alive so I can brag about you another day. That's all I want to live for, God. It's just about you. thank you, thank you, you're so good. I pray that you would open the eyes of anyone who's listening that doesn't get you, Lord, that you would just pour your mercy out, your grace on them, that they would see the brevity of life. and your holiness, your greatness, your love, your forgiveness, open their eyes to eternity. Help those that come with so much shame to really believe from everything inside that they could be completely forgiven and just be the happiest people on earth because they know you.

8:27 Please, God. and help me, help me not to say anything that would draw attention to me. I just want only you lifted up. you deserve all of our attention all of our praise in Jesus name I pray Amen You know, I... I've known God since I was pretty young. So I was born in San Francisco and in Chinatown, the hospital there, but my mom died while she was giving birth to me. And so my dad sent me to Hong Kong and was raised there the first few years until my dad remarried. Then I came back to the States.

9:17 And we're living in Stockton. and when I was about seven, eight years old, my stepmother was on the Antioch Bridge and went off the side of it and she died. And then my dad got married again and then when I was 12, my dad died of cancer. And so when you're a kid and you've already watched them bury your stepmom and you're having these nightmares and you're just picturing like what happened there? And then you're watching them do the same thing to your dad a few years later. And even though I didn't have a great relationship with my dad and even though we never had a, it just was terrifying. And I just began to search. It's like, man, what do I believe? I've gotta know because I don't know if tomorrow's gonna happen.

10:11 You know, when you grow up like that, you just don't take every day for granted. When I put my kids to bed, I don't think, oh, I'll see you tomorrow. Oh, yeah, everything's going to be the same forever and ever. It's like you just don't think that way. And I thank God that I had the upbringing that I did because it causes me to value like every single second, like right now to go, man, this could be it. Man, a lot of times when I teach and I'm, you know, like right here, you've got these countdown numbers, you know, and it shows me how much longer I have. Seriously. Something I do is I'll look at these numbers and I'll just imagine, okay, what if that's the countdown of my life? I seriously think that. Then I go, what would I say to you? Because I think, you know what? If I got, oh, you know what?

11:03 I'll come back. You know, if I'm good enough, he'll ask me back. You know, and I'll give another message, whatever else. Like, I don't think that way. I just go, gosh, man, I don't know. Like, this is it. If that's a countdown, then what would I say? I would care less what you thought about me, and I would beg you to take this seriously. And go, man, some of you, you go, you come to the service. Maybe you've been going all your life, and yet when I talk about, oh, I just love being with him. I love knowing him. I just don't want to leave his presence sometimes. Some of you are going, what are you even talking about? You go, I don't feel like that. you'll read some of the scriptures where David says, man, this is the one thing I ask. Psalm 127, this is the one thing I ask. God, I just want to dwell in your house all the days of my life. I just want to sit there at the temple and just stare at you all day long because you're so beautiful to me.

11:56 You read that and you go, I don't get it. and I'm just saying, maybe you don't get it. Consider that. Life ends. Man, it's just over, and we're in his presence. Do you know him? Man, I went to services for years. My parents had me go. I was a pretty good kid, but I didn't know him. I didn't get it for myself. I didn't understand the thrill of knowing him. And if that's you today, you've got to get that right. Man, please. Man, I've been praying to him since that childhood as I started to find God in high school, and the craziest things began to happen when I prayed. And that's why to this day, still amazing things are happening and blowing my mind on a regular basis, it doesn't get old. When you know him, you're just going, God, I can't believe I'm speaking to you. Can't believe I get to speak to God.

13:08 You know, the topic today is leaders pray. And I used to pastor a church much like this. In fact, is called Cornerstones in Southern California. And we had satellite services and tons of services, everything else. But I used to tell my staff, I remember we'd have like 100 staff at a staff meeting, and I would say, hey, let me know if you're not praying like an hour a day average. At least, please let me know so I can fire you. seriously and hire someone who will because it's that big like like there's it's very telling it's not like this legalistic thing it just it just shows me where your confidence is like you really think you're gonna make a difference that it's about you like like do i really believe i can walk on this stage and talk you into surrendering your entire life, suffering anything you need to suffer for the cause of Christ,

14:25 then I can somehow talk you into loving one another just as Christ loved you? Can I as a human being walk up here and talk you into every time you take the bread and you take the cup, you think Jesus said, I'm supposed to love the people around me, love my neighbor, love one another, the other believers, brothers and sisters, and think, love them just as Christ loved me. And you're looking at the bread, you're looking at the cup thinking, wait, Jesus suffered. He was tortured for me. You're telling me I should love the people hear that much? and I'm going to talk you into that? There's no way. That's a miracle from God.

15:19 And so we get on our face. As we look at Nehemiah, it was the natural reaction. You'll be seeing it. As you continue to study the life of Nehemiah, he's like, I'm asked to do things that are impossible. So what else am I going to do? I know you looked at this last week as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. That was his natural response. He goes, what else am I gonna do? You know, sometimes I can get lost up here.

16:07 because I think, okay, what am I trying to do up here? Am I trying to talk you into praying more? Am I trying to convince you? Come on, just try it. Try two minutes a day. Try five minutes a day. Try this. Try this. Try this. Like, honestly, at this point in my life, it feels very weird when you're trying to talk someone into prayer it would be like if I showed up today and since you guys don't know who I am suppose I've got tons of money and I say you know what I'm going to go out to the lobby right now just meet me back there I've got cashier's checks for $100,000 per person okay then do I spend the next 40 minutes talking you into going into the lobby is that's just weird right no please trust me come on it's good money you can no i i shouldn't have to talk you into it is my point and i'm saying gosh forget a hundred thousand dollars forget a million like to be able to talk to the god of the universe i'm telling that's what this book is all about it's this mystery way you're telling me that me this fragile little human being, I can literally speak to him? You've got to be kidding me. I can talk to him. So I could go home right now, just in the quietness of my own house, and I can come into my presence, and he's going to hear me? That's all I need to tell you. You can talk to God.

17:51 you can speak with him that's what this book is about you see in the Old Testament they understood how does a human being talk to the creator like there's this passage I love it in Exodus Exodus chapter 19 it's when God says okay Moses I'm going to let you talk to me and everyone at that time is going you're gonna talk to him? You're a human being. You can't talk to him. And the story, it says in Exodus 19, verse nine, it says, the Lord said to Moses, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. And verse 10 says, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people, consecrate them today and tomorrow.

18:51 Let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. On the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, take care not to go into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. whether beast or man he shall not live when the trumpet sounds a long blast they shall come up to the mountain so in verse 16 it's on the mount on the morning the third day there were thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled and then moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. And they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.

20:13 Okay, do you get this scene? God is saying, I'm going to let a human being speak to me. So tell the people to get ready. Tell them to prepare because you don't just go into the presence of God. And when that day came, three days later, Moses is telling him, okay, remember, don't you dare get onto this mountain. Don't touch it or we will kill you. You just don't do this. But I'm going to go up by myself. I'm going to walk up this mountain. And this mountain is shaking. There's fire. There's smoke. And Moses is going up the mountain. And all the people are just looking like, are you kidding me? You're going up there. You're going. And it says that when Moses would speak to God, God would answer him in this thunderous voice. and all the people are looking on going, I can't believe a human being is speaking to God right now.

21:13 It was an intense moment. so how did we come to, yeah, I should pray more. Like, how did we get here to where it's just an ordinary thing? I speak with him. I remember one of my friends from India, one of my mentors, he called me one day because another pastor in America fell and, you know, just the sin and everything else, and he was weeping on the phone. And he was crying. I'd never heard him cry before. And he's crying, and he goes, Francis, I don't understand the people in your country. He goes, a lot of times I talk to people, even the leaders, and it just seems like they don't care to speak to him.

22:11 They'd rather speak to one of these Christian celebrities or one of these Christian band or speaker. It's like, man, it's like they want to, this was his words, it feels like they just want to take a selfie with Moses. And he says, don't they understand they can go up the mountain themselves? Why don't they want to go up the mountain? Thank you. I don't know. I don't get it either. This is our opportunity. We can go up there and speak to him.

22:50 And yet some of us get more excited about meeting a human being. like this is a fascinating fascinating truth see nehemiah understood that he knew what happened with moses in fact later on in exodus 33 it says that uh in verse 7 that moses used to take the tent and he'd pitch outside the the camp far from the camp and he called it the tent of meeting and everyone who sought the lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up and stand at his tent door and watch Moses till he had gone into the tent. And when Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent. And the Lord would speak to Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship at his tent door.

23:49 thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. This was a regular thing. It became a regular thing. The mountain experience suddenly came down into this tent of meeting. And so everyone would, they wouldn't go in that tent. They're looking going, Moses is going to go in the tent again. He's going to go in there. He's going to meet with God. And then God would descend descend in some physical way and they would just fall on their faces and worship. There he goes again. He's speaking to him. Man, is there any sense of awe when you speak to him? This is no different than what Moses did. And if you doubt that, that's probably why your answers aren't being answered. James says, if you doubt, you're not going to receive anything. And again, that's Nehemiah. He's just new. He goes, look, I could go try to start building the wall. I could try to do this, this, this. He goes, no, I'm just going to get on my face because he's in control of everything.

25:02 I love his prayer too. Isaiah's, I mean, Nehemiah's prayer in verse five. I said, oh Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we've sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We've acted corruptly against you and we haven't kept the commandments, the statutes, the rules that you commanded your servant, Moses. remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you're unfaithful, I'll scatter you among the peoples.

26:03 But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there. They are your servants, your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. And give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Nehemiah, I just love this prayer. He's on his face, he's fasting, he's praying, and he's praying the same thing over and over. Oh Lord God of heaven.

26:58 the God of heaven, and he starts confessing his sin and the sin of his people. and for some of us, that's where we have to start. We just go, God, okay, I get it. I've loved all these other things. I've been pursuing all these other things, and I'll give you some of the leftover time like this. Something's wrong with me. God, and I'm getting it right now. I want to humble myself before you and say, sorry, we've been thinking about so many other things, and prayer just feels like an obligation. and God changed that. and he's just praying, saying, God, just please hear my voice. and the whole testament you see you remember when david we know we we think of that um that uh you know national day of prayer we think of solomon's prayer in uh first chronicles 7 14 when he says look if my people who are called by your if your people called by your name will humble themselves and seek your face you know it's like god if we ever let's say we totally blow it, but when we humble ourselves and we seek you and we tell you that we're sorry, then will you hear us from heaven and forgive us our sins and heal our land? And then if you read on all through the Chronicles, you see that the kings, one after another, it's like one of them would get arrogant and God would curse them. And then suddenly he'd humble himself and God would relent again.

28:41 But one of my favorite stories, we used to actually have the verse painted on our wall, is 2 Chronicles 9.16 with King Asa, where it says, The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth. Let me read it directly so I don't butcher it. 2 Chronicles 9. Wait. 16.9, I'm sorry. 2 Chronicles 16.9. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. I love that.

29:27 Like God's not in heaven doing his own thing, and I've got to shout to get his attention, what it says is God's actually looking. I believe he's actively looking in every gathering right now going, who actually believes in me? Because I'm looking for someone to strongly support. I love that phrase, strongly support. His eyes are looking going, I want to empower someone. I want to give just total strength to someone. I want to make someone do something supernatural, amazing, but whose heart is blameless for me? Who actually believes this?

30:08 See, and this verse, what's crazy about this verse, it was spoken to King Asa after King Asa. You got to understand his story. He was this king, and they were defeating armies like so huge. But every time, King Asa, all I do is just rely on God. I say, God, I don't know how we're going to do this. I need you. I need you. I need you. But then, after he became powerful, there comes a point where an army is coming, and rather than praying, he calls the king of Syria, and he says, hey, I need your help. I need your help. This army is coming. Let's form an alliance. And nowadays, we would look at that and go, What's the big deal about that? He's using the resources that God gave him.

31:02 But it's in that context that this verse that a prophet comes to him in verse seven, and he says, because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this for from now on you will have many wars.

31:49 God says to him, look at your past, your whole life. What did I do? I rescued you, rescued you. You call out to me, I fix it. And now, oh, you're the successful king and you've got resources. So you call your buddy, king of Syria, come help me. He goes, because you did that, he's not gonna help you. In fact, you're gonna have the war for the rest of your life.

32:18 He goes, you did a foolish thing, don't you see? I'm trying to support, I'm looking, I'm actively looking. But you're gonna go somewhere else? Let's go somewhere else. Let's see what happens. See, nowadays this idea of self-reliance doesn't even seem like a sin to us, but it's huge. You just start doing something apart from God. Jesus says, you're gonna try to do something apart from abiding in me? He goes, that's dumb. That's like a branch trying to bear fruit when it's not even attached to the vine. He goes, that's you. It's not gonna happen. But for those of us who abide in him and rely on him, he says, look, watch what happens to your life.

33:05 There's a story, real quickly, a few chapters later in 2 Chronicles 26 about King Uzziah. And I love this verse, verse 15. It says, his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped. till he was strong. But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction. it says this guy got huge because he was marvelously helped because god was looking for someone to strongly support so god did that to uzziah and then once uzziah got strong he felt proud and it said to his destruction Thank you.

34:03 look, God has blessed this church, but the moment you start looking at people and say, oh, we got a great team. We've got this, we've got that, boom. It's over. We have to stay reliant. Some of you are doing well. You remember the time when you cried out to God, when you were at the bottom, and what happens so often. He told the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 8, when you go to the land, I know what's gonna happen. I get you in there and you start thinking, oh, look what I did. And God says, the moment you do that, you're done. That's why Nehemiah, he had all these examples. He knew the stories of Uzziah. He knew the stories of King Asa. He knew the stories of Solomon.

34:57 He'd seen it. He knew what Moses did. and that's why he's going, God, all we need is for you to hear my voice right now. That's it. That's it. A few, about a year and a half ago, A few, about a year and a half ago,

35:37 I guess it's been like two years now. There's this guy in my ministry that I just thought, he's the greatest, I love him. Young man, I've never seen anyone love God like he does. Like at his age, I was just blown away. At his prayer times, as he would share what God taught him, I thought, you must have been in my prayer room because I was hearing the same things from God, got the same things from that passage. Like it was eerie. and I told my wife, I go, this guy's amazing, and she goes, you're kind of weird about him, like you really like him, I go, I do, and I got to a point where I was praying to God, I go, God, I may be overstepping my bounds right now, but I'm just going to ask you, because you give me everything. I go, can you make him fall in love with my daughter?

36:37 Serious. Like they didn't know each other. I go, can you, can you do that? Cause I want him in my family. And nothing happened, right, for a couple months. And one day I'm saying, God, I don't know why I just feel a little distant from you. Like, can you just show me some love? I never pray that. I go, God, I just feel, you ever feel that way? Like I feel a little distant? I'm telling you, about an hour or two after I prayed that prayer, that kid Justin comes up to me and says, hey, can I ask your daughter out? And I'm like, yeah, can I pay for every date you ever go? So they went out in July and were married in December. Okay? And it was just the craziest thing.

37:33 You know, and I kind of messed with it a little bit. You know, got my hand. Because he had to borrow like a saw from my house. I'm like, honey, someone's coming over to borrow a saw. Pretend you just woke up. I look good. you know, and trust dad on this one, you know. And so there was a little of me involved, but it was God. And, yeah, and so last year I became a grandfather, and he's just like amazing, amazing. But I was thinking about, the reason I bring that up is not just another amazing answer to prayer, where I go, God, are you kidding me? Everything.

38:14 But I was thinking about how, like, I didn't know what was going to happen when Justin met Rachel. All I could do is say, hey, you know, yeah, go over to the house, honey. Trust me, just give him the saw and play with your hair, you know, and we'll see what happens, right? That's all I can do, okay? And in the same way, when I think about that, it's like my job up here is just to tell you, okay, there's this amazing, amazing being. He's keeping you alive right now. The Bible says he sits on this throne. There's lightning and thunder and fire coming from his throne. It says that he dwells in unapproachable light. And he's up there in heaven. And he knows everything you've ever done. And the Bible says that he loved you like he loved us human beings.

39:10 Like we should be punished for all the things that we did wrong. But this God in all of his glory says, but I love these people. Like, I love Francis. I know what he did, but I love him. And he must be punished. A crime was committed. Someone must pay. And he loves so much. He says, I'm going to show the greatest act of love ever. Ever. I'm going to have my own son, my one and only son. I'm going to have him take the form of this tiny human being. and I'm gonna have him crucified to pay for all of their crimes. That if they would believe in him, they could be forgiven. If they choose to just say, you know what, I believe. I wanna follow that Jesus. He says, I'll put my spirit in them and give them the power to start following me and speaking to me and knowing me and becoming like me.

40:09 That's the creator. That's the king. And I can just tell you, he's available to you right now. Like Moses going up on that mountaintop, you have even more right to go into his presence if you've been forgiven through the blood of Jesus. I'm just gonna make the introduction and go, okay, there he is. Here you are. Meet him. You could walk away today and go, oh, he didn't do anything for me. I'm more into my career, more into my family, more into my house. And I just go, you're insane. You are absolutely insane. But I can't make you love him.

40:54 I don't walk up here with some sort of, you know, magical speech to make you love him. But I got on my knees and said, God, would you just have a light go on? all these different services. You're watching from all these different places. I prayed for all of you. Just for some of you to go, what have I been doing my whole life? Where have you been my whole life? This is it. This is it. we have some people here today who want to pray with you. There may be some of you today, you hear this and you go, I have not been taking God seriously. I looked at prayer like an obligation. I didn't realize who I could speak to. and I need him to supernaturally open my eyes so I quit loving all these other stupid things more than him.

41:59 And I really believe that through their prayers, through my prayers, something could happen today. Like if you just walked out today, there'd be a certain course of events. But if you came forward and had someone come into the presence of God like Nehemiah did on behalf of the people, it changed the situation.

42:27 And we just want to offer that to you right now. In fact, if the prayer team could come forward, I believe the band's coming back up to lead us in some worship, but I'm just going to pray right now. because if it's just one human being talking another human being into it, nothing's going to last. But maybe God has moved today, and there's something in you that's saying, I need from the core of my being to know that God you're talking about. You can be forgiven of everything. and if that's you, even as I'm praying, I just invite you to come forward and pray with one of these people.

43:25 holy holy holy are you god you are so good you are so beautiful oh father i see you in all of your glory and there's just nothing on earth that compares to you i don't even get the thrill of talking to another human i don't care who he or she is and we can speak to you, almighty God. So, Father, right now, I ask that your Holy Spirit would move on all of the campuses. And by your mercy, would you just open people's eyes? as I introduce them to you, would you cause them to fall in love with you and run to you and seek your face now?