A Praying Church

LW3370

Eyes Open

A Praying Church

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

After saying this, He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see Him.

INTRODUCTION

Good morning Southpointe, We are headed into a new year and I want to start this off this morning laying out the vision and the strategy for the future of this church.

It’s been quite a journey over this last year—just praying and seeing God respond to those prayers and bringing unity and clarity from His Word.

So we’re very excited about the direction things are going.

I want to give you three words to remember these three words is a strong vision for this coming year: “A praying church.”

A praying church. There are a lot of words you could use to describe a church, but it is our desire that when people think of Southpointe, they think of it (as) a praying church, when they think of us as followers of Christ they think of a praying people.

So that’s the direction we want to move and that’s what we want to be committed to: that this is part of who we are, (that) this is our core DNA, that we are a people of prayer.

Now when we talk about being a praying church, this isn’t just how we want to be described as we move into the future, but this is also an accurate way in which the first church was described in the book of Acts.

So what we want to do over this next month is we want to look at some of the distinctives of the early church in the book of Acts.

What is it that made them a praying church?

So in Acts chapter 1, let me give you a little bit of context here. Jesus has ascended into heaven (or is getting ready to ascend into heaven); He’s resurrected from the dead; He’s appeared to more than five hundred witnesses at this point, and now He’s getting ready to say His final goodbye to His closest followers.

So in Acts chapter 1, let me give you a little bit of context here. Jesus has ascended into heaven (or is getting ready to ascend into heaven); He’s resurrected from the dead; He’s appeared to more than five hundred witnesses at this point, and now He’s getting ready to say His final goodbye to His closest followers. So before He ascends into heaven in He calls His closest followers to Himself. These are the future leaders of the church and here is what Jesus says to them in . Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So before He ascends into heaven, He calls His closest followers to Himself.

These are the future leaders of the church and here is what Jesus says to them.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Now I’m sure that this vision, this mission for these church leaders would’ve seemed pretty overwhelming. I mean, Jerusalem is one thing. Judea…that’s a little bit more of a stretch.

Now I’m sure that this vision, this mission for these church leaders would’ve seemed pretty overwhelming. I mean, Jerusalem is one thing. Judea…that’s a little bit more of a stretch. But then Samaria and then to the ends of the earth? Well, that’s…that’s asking quite a lot of His followers. So Jesus gives them this great challenge. I’m sure it was pretty intimidating. But then in verse 9 it probably got even more overwhelming. It says, “After Jesus said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” So Jesus lays out this mission (and) lays out this vision of spreading this gospel to the ends of the earth, and then He’s like, “See you later! See you later!” and He heads up to heaven. I mean, that’s probably what it felt like to these early church leaders. That Jesus gives them this task that probably was pretty overwhelming and then He’s gone. And they’re not sure what to do because they’re under-resourced and they’re not especially educated men and women. They have no real political influence or connections. So what are they supposed to do now? What are they supposed to do now? In verse 12 we read that they head back to Jerusalem, which is a little less, it says, than a Sabbath day’s journey. So we’re thinking around three-fourths of a mile. They begin this walk back and I’m sure in their minds that is the question they’re asking, don’t you think? They’re asking themselves, “What am I supposed to do now?”

But then Samaria and then to the ends of the earth? Well, that’s asking quite a lot of His followers.

So Jesus gives them this great challenge. I’m sure it was pretty intimidating.

But then in verse 9 it probably got even more overwhelming. It says,

“After Jesus said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” Act 1:9

“After Jesus said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” So Jesus lays out this mission (and) lays out this vision of spreading this gospel to the ends of the earth, and then He’s like, “See you later! See you later!” and He heads up to heaven. I mean, that’s probably what it felt like to these early church leaders. That Jesus gives them this task that probably was pretty overwhelming and then He’s gone. And they’re not sure what to do because they’re under-resourced and they’re not especially educated men and women. They have no real political influence or connections. So what are they supposed to do now? What are they supposed to do now? In verse 12 we read that they head back to Jerusalem, which is a little less, it says, than a Sabbath day’s journey. So we’re thinking around three-fourths of a mile. They begin this walk back and I’m sure in their minds that is the question they’re asking, don’t you think? They’re asking themselves, “What am I supposed to do now?”

So Jesus lays out this mission (and) lays out this vision of spreading this gospel to the ends of the earth, and then He’s like, “See you later! See you later!” and He heads up to heaven.

I mean, that’s probably what it felt like to these early church leaders. That Jesus gives them this task that probably was pretty overwhelming and then He’s gone.

And they’re not sure what to do because they’re under-resourced and they’re not especially educated men and women.

They have no real political influence or connections. So what are they supposed to do now?

In verse 12 we read that they head back to Jerusalem, which is a little less, it says, than a Sabbath day’s journey.

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile.

They begin this walk back and I’m sure in their minds, they’re asking themselves, “What am I supposed to do now?”

So we’re thinking around three-fourths of a mile. They begin this walk back and I’m sure in their minds that is the question they’re asking, don’t you think? They’re asking themselves, “What am I supposed to do now?”

I want you to think back to a time in your life when you asked yourself that question. Maybe you’re in a season of that right now. You’re just kind of trying to figure out, “What am I supposed to do now?”

If you think about it, we tend to ask that question, you know, in different tones.

Sometimes it’s with the tone of desperation. Things have kind of fallen apart and we ask ourselves in desperation, “Well, what am I supposed to do now?”

Sometimes we ask the question out of desperation; sometimes, though, I think we just ask it out of confusion. It’s more as if we’re scratching our heads. “What are we supposed to do now?

Sometimes we ask the question out of desperation; sometimes, though, I think we just ask it out of confusion. It’s more as if we’re scratching our heads. “What are we supposed to do now? We’re not sure what’s next for the future.” So you parents probably remember this feeling. The first time you brought your first child home from the hospital you spent like an hour getting the car seat in the car just right, and then you walk in the house and it’s three of you now. You were prepared for the birth and you’ve thought through all of that, but now what? Now what are you supposed to do? You graduate from college and they hand you a diploma. Well, what are we supposed to do now? And it’s not that you’re in despair; it’s just that it’s not real clear. The future just isn’t clear. So what are we supposed to do now?

We’re not sure what’s next for the future.”

And it’s not that you’re in despair; it’s just that it’s not real clear. The future just isn’t clear. So what are we supposed to do now?

I think sometimes we ask that question with a sense of anticipation and excitement. Maybe you’re starting a new job with lots of opportunity or maybe you’re a newlywed and you’re beginning a new life together.

Maybe it’s as a church we hear this new vision, this mission for us as a church, this strategy; and there is a great deal of excitement and anticipation, but what are we supposed to do now?

So we find ourselves asking this question at different times in our lives, and I’m thinking that perhaps the disciples were feeling all these things as they walked back to Jerusalem.

There is a sense of desperation because Jesus is ascending into heaven. There is a sense of confusion. “‘The ends of the earth.’ That’s going to take some planning. What should we do?”

And I imagine there was some great anticipation because Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit will come on you in power.” And they ask, “What—? What do we do? What are we going to do now?”

Here is what I want you to know: Whenever you find yourself asking that question, “What am I supposed to do now?” there is always an answer. I think sometimes when we ask that question we think there is no answer to it.

So we don’t ask it to others; we just say it to ourselves. But there is always an answer.

In fact, the answer is always the same. Whenever you find yourself in life—whether it’s desperation or anticipation, whether it’s something very personal or whether it’s as a church family—whenever you find yourself asking, “What do I do? What am I supposed to do now?” there is always one right answer.

And the answer is always pray. That is the first and that is the right answer: to pray.

And that’s what we see here with these early church leaders. They walk back to Jerusalem.

They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.

They all met together constantly united in prayer.

Now, for many of us, I don’t know that that is how we would describe our prayer life—as constant.

In fact, for a lot of us, I think, if we were being honest we would say prayer is not necessarily a first response; it’s a last resort.

But that’s the first thing we read about these church leaders. The very first thing they do, they meet together constantly in prayer.

The word I want you to focus in on here is the word constantly. You can circle that in your Bibles.

I think this is a key word here as we talk about being a praying church. In some ways it is this way that separates a church that prays from a praying church, separates a person who prays from a praying person.

Because you can ask a hundred people…just random people… “Do you pray?” And if they were honest they’d probably say, “Yes, I pray from time to time.”

But if you ask, “Are you a praying person?” that’s a different question altogether. And this word constantly, I think, shows us what the difference is.

So we want to be a praying people. We want this to be our first response. When we don’t know what to do, we want to be people who just pray.

Yet I think it’s hard for a lot of us because of what we bring to the table. We’ve learned some things about prayer over the years that aren’t accurate.

So as we talk about becoming a praying people what I think we probably need to do is hit rewind and go back and unlearn some things.

The first thing I think we need to unlearn that there is a right time to pray.

Another thing we need to unlearn is that there is a way to pray. There is a way to pray and what’s the position? Head bowed, eyes closed.

There is a way to pray; there is a time to pray. And in our house I can tell you that if you were not in the right position, if your head wasn’t bowed and your eyes weren’t closed, that was a serious infraction, right?

I mean, it was a pretty big deal if you opened your eyes during the prayer because that’s how you prayed. You pray with your head bowed and your eyes closed. So we think that there is a certain time and there is a certain way to pray.

And what we’ve done is we’ve created this box and we’ve shoved prayer into it. “This is how you do it and this is the way you do it.”

But we didn’t get it from Scripture. We didn’t learn this from the Bible. Don’t misunderstand.

By all means, pray before meals, pray before bedtime. By all means, bow your head and pray at certain times.

But we’ve picked some things up along the way that I think have kept us from having the type of prayer that the Bible would want us to have (and) the Bible would teach is consistent in the life of a follower of Christ.

So what we’ve called this message is “Eyes Open.” What we want to put into practice as a praying church is “eyes open prayer.”

That is to say that our prayer with God is not just at certain times of the day when we bow our head and close our eyes, but that we have this consistent, ongoing conversation with God during the day where we speak and we listen to Him as we go about our day.

Never stop praying.

The King James Version says, “Pray without ceasing.”

Paul says, “Pray continually.” The King James Version says, “Pray without ceasing.”

So I just want you to imagine what it would look like in our lives if we actually did this as a church. Imagine the impact we would have on our community if we just prayed with our eyes open.

So when we went on our walks around the neighborhood, we’re not just walking; we’re praying. We’re praying for the neighbors we know and we’re praying for the neighbors we don’t know.

And when we go to work, imagine if thousands of us…when we bump shoulders with somebody in the break room, if we just whisper up a prayer to God. .

Imagine…imagine the impact this church could have if we just prayed with our eyes open.

It just changes the way you see things. So when you watch the news, you don’t watch the news; you pray the news. So when you’re watching the news you’re praying for the president and you’re praying for the nation of Israel as you hear about peace talks in the Middle East.

And when you watch a football game, you don’t just watch the football game and you don’t just pray for your team to win; you pray.

You pray that God would smite the heathens on the other side of the field. That’s what you do.

And you just make it a conversation with God, and it’s ongoing throughout the day

I wonder what needs the Holy Spirit would show us if are eyes were open and we were in constant prayer.

And what would happen if, as a church, we just said, “We’re going to pray with our eyes open. We’re going to have this conversation with God throughout the day”? I can’t imagine the impact we would have on this community and in this world if we would commit to just “eyes open praying.”

But what was it about the early church that allowed them to consistently and constantly pray?

I think as you read through Acts one of the things that you’ll find is that the early church had this constant awareness of their dependence on God.

I think that’s what it takes to be a people who are a praying people: that we have this constant awareness of our dependence.

Because if I went around and I asked you about a time in your life where you were really on your knees, where you were really praying in significant ways, I think most of you could identify a season like that.

And if you were honest, it would probably be a season that was not a good season. When you’re aware of your dependence, suddenly prayer becomes much easier, because you recognize, “I need some help here,” and you cry out to God.

Our prayer is kind of like this fire extinguisher and for emergency purposes only we’ll break the glass (and) we’ll get it out.

When life is hard, when we really need God’s help then we’ll start to pray.

But the thing is we always need God’s help. We see certain times where we recognize our dependence on God, but the truth is we’re always dependent on God. We just don’t always realize it or understand it.

One of the ways this is clearly illustrated in Scripture—early on in Scripture—is . we read about the nation of Israel being attacked by the Amalekites.

There is going to be this great battle but Moses, who is leading the people, says to Joshua, the commander, “Hey, you go fight the Amalekites down here in the valley and I’m going to go up to the mountainside and I’ll pray.”

Okay…it sounds a little bit like a copout, right? I mean, it is like, “You go fight. I’ll be praying for you.”

And that’s sometimes how we approach prayer when we really don’t want to do anything for the person. “I can’t help you move but I’ll pray for you. Pray that those boxes will be lighter.”

We say we’ll pray for a person because it doesn’t seem…to commit us as much. So at first glance it is sort of what it seems like.

Moses says, “Good luck with that. I’ll be praying for you.” But then something happens.

Moses is up on the hillside and he’s praying and his arms are raised in prayer; and Moses realizes that when his arms are raised in prayer the nation of Israel is gaining victory against the Amalekites.

The battle is being won by the Israelites. But after awhile his arms grow weary and tired and he lowers his arms; and when he lowers his arms the Amalekites begin to gain ground on the Israelites.

Now I would love to see the moment when Moses made the connection, right?

Because Moses is like and he’s up and down. You know, I don’t know what it was like. But at some point he figures this out. He figures this out—that there is this connection to his arms raised in prayer and the battle being won on the field.

Now this is not something that just happens in . This is life. This is just what happens every day.

We don’t always get to see it. We don’t always have this visual demonstration of the truth, but it’s the truth.

There is this dependence on God and there is this power of prayer, and it makes all the difference. Sometimes we think the battle is being fought in the valley.

The battle is not being fought in the valley; the battle is being fought on the mountainside with arms raised in prayer.

And I hope in this series…one of the things we’ll do is we’ll kind of challenge ourselves to step out of our comfort zone when it comes to prayer.

We read here that Moses has his arms raised in prayer.

As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage.

Moses' arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset.

As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.

Now in the Old Testament when arms were raised in prayer it demonstrated some things.

But really it has biblical roots—this idea of raising your hands to God in prayer. One of the reasons when people worship they’ll raise their hands to God is because it keeps worship from being singing and it makes it a time of prayer. (It is) similar to when you bow your head and close your eyes it is clear that, “Okay, I am praying now.” When many people sing and worship, you’ll see a hand or two raised because it is taking, for them…it’s taking the song and it’s not just a song anymore. This is a prayer that they are now singing to God. And we see this picture of his arms raised in prayer by Moses.

Now in the Old Testament when arms were raised in prayer it demonstrated some things. First it demonstrated that God is great and we are small. It was a way of glorifying God (and) lifting Him up. The second thing—what we see here in —is that when arms are raised in prayer it is an acknowledgement of dependence. Think of it as a child who is hurt or a child who has a need. What does the child do to the parent? First instinct—hands go up, right? If you’re a parent you know this. You walk into your child’s room and they see you, and they instantly see you…arms are out…arms are out. And sometimes they’ll cry and they’ll be upset. They cannot even speak. They don’t even know what to say. They’re so overwhelmed they can’t talk but what happens? Well, their arms are up. Their arms are up, and it’s an acknowledgement of dependence. That’s what we see here.

1) Arms raised in prayer demonstrated that God is great and we are small. It was a way of glorifying God (and) lifting Him up.

The second thing—what we see here in —is that when arms are raised in prayer it is an acknowledgement of dependence.

Think of it as a child who is hurt or a child who has a need. What does the child do to the parent? First instinct—hands go up, right?

So I would encourage some of you to step out of your comfort zone and to raise your hands in prayer, to raise your hands in worship as a way to say, “This isn’t just a song, but I am praying this to God. I am acknowledging my dependence on Him.”

So I would encourage some of you to step out of your comfort zone and to raise your hands in prayer, to raise your hands in worship as a way to say, “This isn’t just a song, but I am praying this to God. I am acknowledging my dependence on Him.” I know, for some of you, it’s difficult so let me see if I can help. I read a book by John Acuff. He has a few suggestions of some different ways that you can raise your hands in worship and I’ve added a few of my own. But what some of you might try is what we’ll start with. We’ll call it “the Ninja.” (Laughter as Kyle demonstrates the Ninja) And this is…this is the Ninja. And that is your hands are raised but nobody really knows, okay? I mean, you’re making it a prayer but the people around you have no idea. They don’t know what you’re doing. So that’s okay. If that’s kind of the way you’re wired, if you’re a Ninja, then be a Ninja. (Laughter) So it’s kind of the undercover hands in prayer. That’s what this is. There is what I call “Mama’s Helper,” and it’s this right here. Mama’s Helper. When I was a kid growing up, my mom would tell me, “Put your arms like this,” and then she would just load me up with things—you know?—to carry. You know, firewood, watermelons, and groceries— whatever. So she would say, “Go like this,” so that’s what I would do. So that is another… Some of you just…you can do the Mama’s Helper. You can do the Ninja; you can do the Mama’s Helper if you want to. Some of you…and this is the way I tend to be most of the time…is to do the Escalator. Now the Escalator means there is one up; there is one down. There is one up; there is one down. (Laughter) And if one goes up, the other one goes down. And you just… Never this. You don’t have them up at the same time. Always one up and one down. One says, “I’m praying and worshipping”; the other says, “There is nothing to see here.” (Laughter) That’s the approach that you want to take. And for some of you, get them both up there and do the Double High Five. I mean, that’s who you are so we need some Double High Five people. The Double High Five helps offset the Ninjas. So if you’re a Double High Five…do Double High-Five…then, by all means, we need some YMCA’s. (Laughter) If you’re a YMCA, be a YMCA. There is nothing wrong with that. But when we take a different posture it shows that this is not just something we’re doing; it’s not just a song that we’re singing, but it’s a prayer. It’s a prayer of dependence on God. It’s a prayer giving Him glory. But we show that these are not just words.

There’s different style of raising our arms:

a. ninja

b. Mama’s helper

c. Escalator

d. Double high five

e. YMCA

When we are praying or praising. It become more than a song that we are singing but it is a prayer. It is a prayer of dependence on God. It is a prayer giving Him glory.

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

You’ve always been dependent on God. So we want to live with this recognition.

There is one up; there is one down. (Laughter) And if one goes up, the other one goes down. And you just… Never this. You don’t have them up at the same time. Always one up and one down. One says, “I’m praying and worshipping”; the other says, “There is nothing to see here.” (Laughter) That’s the approach that you want to take. And for some of you, get them both up there and do the Double High Five. I mean, that’s who you are so we need some Double High Five people. The Double High Five helps offset the Ninjas. So if you’re a Double High Five…do Double High-Five…then, by all means, we need some YMCA’s. (Laughter) If you’re a YMCA, be a YMCA. There is nothing wrong with that. But when we take a different posture it shows that this is not just something we’re doing; it’s not just a song that we’re singing, but it’s a prayer. It’s a prayer of dependence on God. It’s a prayer giving Him glory. But we show that these are not just words.

You’ve always been dependent on God. So we want to live with this recognition. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In other words, there is this daily recognition of God’s provision and protection and God’s mercy and grace in your life. We’re daily…“Give us this day our daily bread.” But it can be difficult sometimes to pray with a spirit of dependence. It’s hard to pray, “God, give us this day our daily bread,” when we’ve got loaves of bread in the pantry and you’ve got to move the Pop-Tarts and the donuts out of the way to get to it. It can be hard to say, “God, give us this day our daily bread.” But we recognize our need and our dependence on God.

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In other words, there is this daily recognition of God’s provision and protection and God’s mercy and grace in your life.

We’re daily…“Give us this day our daily bread.” But it can be difficult sometimes to pray with a spirit of dependence. It’s hard to pray, “God, give us this day our daily bread,” when we’ve got loaves of bread in the pantry and you’ve got to move the Pop-Tarts and the donuts out of the way to get to it.

It can be hard to say, “God, give us this day our daily bread.” But we recognize our need and our dependence on God.

The other thing we see with the early church, as we finish up, is that there was just this constant awareness of God’s presence.

Before I came here about eight years ago, I started a new church in Los Angeles County, California. One of the things I learned as a church planter is that there is a different dependence that you just…you inherently know, because at the time I was 22 years old and I had no idea what I was doing. And we had very little

They were constantly aware of God’s presence. I think the reason for this is that the early church leaders had spent three years with Jesus. Jesus was there. He was just always there—to give them wisdom, to show them love. If they were hungry, He fed them. If they were afraid, He would calm the storm.

So I’m just praying that as a church family we would begin to see prayer not as something we do but as our chief work. It is the way things get done. I think sometimes on our staff we can have the attitude of, “Well, I’ll have my prayer time in the morning but when I’m at work I’ve got to get things done.” Well, the best thing you can do at work is to pray, because God is much more capable than we are.

And they just learned to live in His presence. So when Jesus ascends into heaven, what do they do? They continue to live in His presence. How do they do that? By praying constantly.

The other thing we see with the early church, as we finish up, is that there was just this constant awareness of God’s presence. They were constantly aware of God’s presence. I think the reason for this is that the early church leaders had spent three years with Jesus. Jesus was there. He was just always there—to give them wisdom, to show them love. If they were hungry, He fed them. If they were afraid, He would calm the storm. And they just learned to live in His presence. So when Jesus ascends into heaven, what do they do? They continue to live in His presence. How do they do that? By praying constantly.

Prayer allows us to constantly be in the presence of Jesus Christ.

I know that for some of you God is waiting for you to make a decision and to put your trust in Him, so we want to give you a chance to do that. If you want to talk to someone about your relationship with Jesus, or maybe you’re ready to make this your church home, we’d love to have you as part of this family. And you can meet me down front right over here as we stand together and as we pray.