Moving Forward Series Lesson 5 Moving Forward In Prayer Act 4:23-31 Introduction God is great God is good let us thank him for our food Amen Lord bless this bunch as they munch there lunch (Find some more cute prayers) Is that all prayer is? Is it just a couple of quick, lets get this over with and where good to go? No need for hands, how many of you have gotten into the rut of quickly praying and it becomes just something you say and you give no thought to what you are saying? Prayer has to be more then that right? As we continue to look back to move forward we get to this passage in Acts 4 WE going to look how the first church handled prayer We are then going to relate it to our lives The first thing we learn about pray is: I. (23-24a) How To Respond A. Explanation 1. Peter and John after there normal outing to go and prayer return to were their people were a) Understand when they start off on this journey they thought that they would go to the Temple pray for a while come home and eat supper b) That is not what happened, I do not think they ever made it to the prayer service, they healed the guy, and then got the opportunity to tell others about Jesus c) Then got thrown into Jail d) Got up the next morning, had to have a little conference with the Sanhedrin e) Got threaten that if they kept talking about Jesus, bad things would
happen f) And finally were let go, and they return to their people 2. You could imagine the reaction of the people when they heard the whole story 3. Quite and eventful experience 4. Well something had to be done 5. So they appointed a committee to investigate the legalities of the threat imposed on Peter and John 6. Then another committee began a petition to the Sanhedrin that Peter and John should be allowed to do this 7. While another group was angry about the trouble they caused, they did not want to ruin the reputation of the Christians 8. No, sadly that is probably how we would have responded B. Application 9. Take a look at how the first church responded 10. They raised their voices together in prayer 11. There was not the group in dissention 12. There was not a regularly schedule Board Meeting 13. The first thought, and their only thought, was to pray 14. After event like this, there is only one way to respond, prayer 15. Homework assignment number one: a) What events in your life should you not respond in prayer? 16. Think through that one C. Illustration 17. Do you remember what happened on September 11th 2001? That evening there were tons of people who went to their churches to prayer, their were people who pulled out their Bible dusted it off and started to read it, there were people all over the country meeting at Starbucks and praying 18. These meeting were not a result of a decisions that was made by the Elders 19. These meeting were not a result of a Pastor preaching about the importance of a healthy devotional life 20. These meeting were not a promotional event were if you prayed you got a free cup of coffee 21. These were people who responded to the situation 22. When we face any situation, we need to respond like that beginning of the church responded 23. With Prayer!
II. (24b-28) Who to Recognize A. Explanation 1. They began with recognizing God as Creator 2. Realizing that He is all and always will be All 3. Take the opportunity to thank Him for all that He had done 4. Despite how bad that whole Sanhedrin experience was There way Peter and John 5. Unharmed, still in good health 6. They also realized something very important 7. Being that they were of Jewish decent they were well versed in the Jewish Bible, which we refer to as the O.T. 8. They quote Psalm 2:1-2 then they realize that Herod and Pilate met together, and thus Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Psalm 2. 9. Now we do not know if this was a word by word transcript of the actual prayer 10. My guess would be that it isn t. The only way they had to record prayers was by pen and paper, it is hard to keep up with recording all that 11. My guess would be this is a summer of the prayers of the people, this is in essence what they were praying, a completion of the prayers offered B. Application 12. But these verse teach us some very valuable lessons on how we should pray 13. From verse 24-28 there is nothing requested 14. They took the time, to thank God a) For sending Jesus b) For keeping Peter and John Safe 15. They took the time to Thank God: a) `For the creation of the Heaven Earth, and see, and everything in them b) For speaking through the Holy Spirit to David Sometimes We neglect our job of praying, and then we try the buttering up approach with God That is not prayer, that is a joke! This prayer recorded here is not a buttering up act This is the disciples heart driven praise We need that same praise However, this need to come from the heart, to come with out trying to butter up 28. Homework assignment #2:
a) This one is a lot harder then number #1. b) I want you to offer God one prayer a day were you just thank God for who He is and What he does without asking for anything c) Think about it. Dear Lord, thank you for this food, and bless it to our bodies. You asked God to bless it, just thank God for who He is and What He does III. (29-30) How To Get Ready A. Explanation 1. After they had spent that time praising God, thanking him for all that He had done 2. They then move on to the asking God Part 3. Notice what they ask for 4. They ask for God to give them boldness 5. Not so they can beat up on the Sanhedrin, make fun of them, put them in their place, scold them 6. They ask for boldness so that they can tell others about Jesus 7. Now notice something and you might think I am playing with semantics but there is a very important thing to notice here 8. They did not ask that there hand would heal and perform miraculous sign and wonders 9. They ask that God would heal and perform these acts 10. Yeah yeah of course it we heal in Jesus name 11. Too many of us today are more interested in what we can do for Jesus 12. There concern was reaching people for Christ. It was not about what they could do 13. It was about what God could do for others 14. Don t ever forget that B. Application 15. How do we apply this to our lives 2000 years later? 16. 2 very important principles 17. The first one: a) They were not concerned with retaliating b) With getting even c) They were concern with telling people about Jesus d) We face persecution, as we said last week, that is going to happen when we speak about Jesus e) When we face that persecution we want to try and eliminate that persecution f) We focus on the persecution, and that is exactly what the Devil wants us
to do g) We then loose focus of why the persecution happened in the first place h) The persecution happened because of telling others about Jesus i) The church of acts realized this persecution, threats from the Sanhedrin and prayed for boldness to speak the word. Not to go after the Sanhedrin j) We need to do the same thing, we need boldness to do what God has called us to do, not to attack those who get in the way 18. The 2nd one: a) It not about me it is about all about God b) By there desire to have God stretch out His hand shows there focus c) They were not praying that they would have the ability to heal d) They were praying that God would heal people and from that healing other would see and be interesting e) And with the boldness given to them by God, they would tell them what Jesus had done for us f) WE need to make sure that we have that same desire, the desire not to take any credit 19. Assignment #3: a) I want you to think about what persecution you are currently facing (if you are not facing any, you really need to review last week message). I want you to figure out who is causing the persecution, and why the persecution started, and what do you should you do about it. b) Let me give you and example (1) We know that the Sanhedrin was causing the persecution because Peter and John were speaking about Jesus and they felt threaten. The persecution started because of what Peter and John were doing, so they prayed that they could continue doing what they were doing, telling people about Jesus Conclusion A. Looking Back to move forward B. I could speak about prayer every week and you would all agree it is very important, very powerful, a great thing to do, something we all need to more C. Boy that get old really quick D. Stop merely agreeing E. Start doing F. Let be honest, all churches pray G. However there is a huge difference between a church that prays and a church that is devoted to prayer
H. Fred Hartley, Pastor of the Lilburn Alliance Church in GA describes it like this: A Church that prays A Church that is Devoted to Prayer 1. Prays about what it does 1. Does Things by Prayer 2. Fits Prayer in 2. Gives Prayer a priority 3. Prays When there are problems 3. Prays when there are opportunities 4. Announces a special time of prayer and only some show up 4. Announces a special time of prayer entire Church show up 5. Ask God to bless what it is doing 5. Ask God to enable to do what He is blessing 6. Is frustrated by financial shortfall backs down from projects 6. Is challenged by financial shortfall calls for fasting and prayer and faith 7. Is tired, weary, stressed out Mount up with wing like eagles, runs and doesn t grow weary, walks and does not faint 8. Does things within it means Does things beyond its means 9. Sees it s members as it church Sees the world as it church 10. Is involved in the work of man Is involved in the work of God I. There is a difference. J. Assignment #4: What do I need to move from a person that prays to a person that is devoted to prayer? K. Now that we looked back, let us move forward L. (Pray)