Fervent Prayer
Notes
Transcript
As we continue through Acts
One Biblical Principal shines through
1 Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them.
Following after Christ is dangerous
When you and I are obedient to what God calls to there is some physical danger
No where does it say that following after Jesus things will be easy
No where does it say that things will always be good following after Jesus
In case you didn’t know it but we live in a fallen world
And as we read through Acts maybe you have noticed that things really havent changed much
Herod who is the Roman Governor of sorts over Judah
He has arrested some of those who are believers in Jesus in order to beat them
In order to assert his power over the people
His thinking is lets squash these Christians so they quiet down
So I will arrest so of them to thwart others from joining along
You need to know that it will be difficult as you walk with Jesus
But
See how that word sort of stops the difficulties in its tracks
But Walking with Jesus is so amazing and worth it
To experience the living God is worth and better than any difficulty you have to encounter
And so what he does
2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
He puts James to death
This is James the borther of John
The Sons of thunder
The sons of Zebedee
They were fisherman by trade
This was the same guy who went deeper into the garden with Jesus
So church lets be clear this morning you will face presecution when you follow after Jesus
However Jesus is with you
Those are truths you hold to when you face the persecutions
James has been killed
Peter is arrested
These are some spiritual giants for the early church
This is sort of like what do we do now
The church is flourishing and yet in the midst of that and all the awesome things that are happening
Now this
This almost feels like the other shoe dropping
And because we don’t know what to do we spend most of our time talking about what should be done or complaining about the issue
And yet church what happens here is something the church should take note of
It is something to vital to a church that without it the church will die
5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.
Church in the midst of the other shoe dropping
James had just been executed and now Peter has been arrested
You have to think as part of the church in Jerusalem that now Peter is going to be executed
And look at what the church does
During a time of persecution they gather to pray
To pray fervently
And it should be noted that it is not just during a time of persecution that you are to gather to pray
But if you want to get real about church today we are under attack
It is not the attack outside but I do believe that it is from false prophets
I saw a video of a wanna be pastor lady who said we need a 3rd testament from the Bible because she doesn’t believe that it is the Word of God but rather words about God
This is a dangerous and sinkening place that is happening in our country and churches
And when we see the problems going on in our country
We often sit back and shake our head
Maybe you get frustrated and sit around and complain
Maybe you scroll through social media or watch the news
Maybe you put the news away and social media away
Maybe you attempt to shut out the world
Or mabye like the church thing to do you search your bible app for different Bible Studies
And yet church what we have an example here of the church going to prayer
It is not the prescious moments trype of prayer
It is not the gather and hold hands for a few moments and then fellowship for the next hour
It is a type of war praying
It says that they are praying fervently
Fervently - to act with intense passion, deep sincerity, or enthusiastic zeal
They gathered to pray passionatly
To pray boldly
To pray God sized things
And church dare I say it but have an example of how we are to be praying
To be praying passionatly
To be praying boldly and
To be praying Godly
Because when we pray things happen
6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer.
God sets free Peter
This is not a we pray to get something from God
We don’t pray to change the will of God to us but rather we pray to change our heart to the will of God
The truth is we change not God when we pray
And here we see that God sets Peter free
I love how the Angel wakes up Peter and gets his attention
God moves in such a mighty way
We have seen this happen in our own lives
We have gathered outside of the hospital to go to war and pray for people
And church that should ignite us to the point where pray is where we run and yet we struggle to gather as a church once a month to spend sometime in prayer
This is also how we should be in our personal lives
Charles Spurgeon had some things to say on prayer
There's a story about Charles Spurgeon, the 19th century pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. The church's ministry was well-known for its great impact on society. Countless souls came to Christ through the preaching of Spurgeon. This made the church a destination for many curious people, including many pastors and seminarians. One Sunday a group of young ministers came to check out this ministry for themselves. They wanted to know the "secret of success." After showing them around the building, Spurgeon led them down to the basement, offering for them to see the boiler room. They declined. Who would want to see a hot, dusty boiler room? Spurgeon insisted. He opened the door to a room filled with a hundred people praying. "This", Spurgeon said, "is my boiler room."
He also said that Prayer Meetings are the Lungs of the church
Let me clear church lungs are vital to a growing and getting better
If you and I expect to grow in our walk with Christ then we must be reading our Bibles and we must be praying
If you and I expect our church to be growing and being obedient to the Word of God then we must be praying
And when do God moves
Peter is free and knocks on the door
14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.” 16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed.
When she hears peter’s voice she doesn’t answer the door she goes back to the prayer meeting to tell them its Peter
She shows up and says Peter who we have been praying for is at the door
No way they say
When we pray church we should be praying GOd sized prayers so when it happens we know that it is of God and only God
They were praying God sized prayers
They should have expected Peter to show up and I think it shows us they are still human
Still have room to grow
Church when we gather to pray passionately
When we go to war in prayer for people we love
When we go to war in prayer for lost people we know and love
We need to be prepared for God to do some miracles things
Do we understand this example of how we are to be praying
Do we truly understand how vital prayer is to your personal lives
Do we understand how vital prayer is to the life of a church
And let me get right to the point
I get it
It is easy to say that here and now
However what does our actions say about what we say
And I know you may say I pray at home and as you should
You and I both need to be praying passionatly
You and I both need to be praying boldly
You and I both need to be praying Godly
We know we need to be doing that personally
But Church we must also be doing it corporately as well
This is putting action to our faith
This is not about a guilt trip to show to a prayer meeting but it is a call to action
It is a call to war to be praying and going to war in prayer
To pray passionately
To pray boldly
To pray Godly
So church as we come to our time of invitation
It is just that
To business with God
Maybe you are here and do not know Jesus personally
I would encourage you to come and speak with someone
Or church maybe this morning you need to come to the alter and spend sometime in prayer
Maybe this morning you are called or encouraged to be fervently praying personally
And church maybe you are be called to join the church to be in fervent prayer as a body of Christ
The alter is open
