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A Praying Church part 4
We’re in a series where we’re trying to take it a step deeper in our prayer lives.
So many of you have mentioned to me throughout the past few weeks how you’re spending more time in prayer.
Maybe you’re being a little more intentional.
Several of you have mentioned that you’ve tried fasting for the very first time, took a day this week.
Last Sunday night we had over 800 people come to our prayer workshop.
It was so popular we put it on the Southeast website, so you can go there any time this week and you can watch it.
God is teaching us a lot of new truths and He’s stretching us, but I don’t want this to simply be another sermon series.
This has got to become a part of our daily lives.
In addition to that, it has to come from our hearts.
If it doesn’t come from our hearts then it’s not true, genuine prayer to Him.
Some of Christ’s strongest rebukes were for those who just went through the motions, people who didn’t understand what it was like to really have a heartfelt conversation with the Lord.
On the outside they did what was right.
They did everything they were supposed to—they’d look so reverent—but on the inside they didn’t have a clue what was going on.
They bowed their heads but they didn’t bow their hearts.
They’d speak eloquently but not fervently.
The truth be known they may not be certain why they do what they do.
We’re trying to be as practical as we can in this series, so before I get into our text today let me just give you some simple steps that can help you start your own prayer life or can kind of recharge your prayer life.
Now remember prayer, simply stated, is just this: It’s having a conversation with God.
That’s what prayer is.
I want you to think about the word “ACTS,”
A-C-T-S.
Maybe you can use that as something that will help you to kind of know what to pray.
The “A” stands for Adoration.
So think of it like an acrostic.
The “A” is for Adoration.
You can begin your prayer or your prayer-time by simply worshipping and adoring God for who He is and praising Him for what He’s done.
That is what we’re going to talk about mostly today.
The “C” stands for Confession.
You look in your own life and say, “What do I need to confess to God? What do I need to tell Him?
What sins have I not repented of?”
The Bible says that “If we confess our sins He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
The “T” represents Thanksgiving.
So whether it’s for a minute or for five minutes or for an hour—whatever—you spend that time thanking God for what He’s done.
Thanksgiving is not relegated to just one Thursday in November.
It should be part of our normal communication with the Lord.
The “S” stands for Supplication.
It is what we talked about last week.
That is another fancy word for intercession, which simply means “to pray for the needs of others.”
We get the word supplication because we are praying that God will supply the needs for someone else.
So the order of the letters flows in natural progression.
The “A” (Adoration) is looking upward.
The “C” (Confession) is looking inward.
The “T” (Thanksgiving) is looking upward again.
Then the “S” (Supplication) is looking outward.
That is what we can do when we pray.
Now we tend to struggle with the amount of time and forethought that we put into the first part.
We start to adore God and quickly it fades into something else.
And if we’re not careful, “How Great is our God!” becomes “Give us clean hands.
Give us pure hearts.
Give us this.
Give me that,” and it kind of gets twisted into “all about us” when it should start off being “all about Him.”
Today we’re going to learn in Acts chapter 4 that from the very beginning of the church Satan’s desire was to silence believers.
He always was trying to say to the Christian community, “Hey, just keep your voice down.
Just keep your voice down.
Keep that to yourself.”
Why don’t you take your Bible out?
And I want you to turn to Acts chapter 4. It’s very easy to find.
It’s in the New Testament.
It’s the fifth book.
There is a Bible right in front of you.
Just turn to page 773.
You’ll get a lot more out of this if you can look at Acts chapter 4 right in front of you.
The church of Acts knew that it was only through their voices being raised to God in prayer that they would be empowered by God.
The early New Testament church that we see in the book of Acts is constantly a bold church because of the prayers that they have offered.
Look at .
It says, “All the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God.” That’s what we want to focus on.
We want to focus on why we lift our voices up in prayer to the only One who is worthy of our praise.
We’ll work our way through Acts chapter 4, but before we pick up the story you have to know what has been taking place.
In the previous chapter back in , Peter and John…they head to the temple because it is a time of prayer.
So they go there to pray.
They come to this gate.
And I want you to imagine that every day when you go to work that maybe there is a homeless man or there is someone begging right outside of the office and you see this individual every day.
Well, that is how it was.
There was a man over the age of forty who was crippled, and he sat at this particular gate day in and day out.
This time when Peter and John went past he asked them for money, and Peter and John look at him and Simon Peter says to him, “We don’t have any money.
No cash on us today.
But what we do have we will give to you.”
And he takes him by the hand and he says, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
And this man, who everyone in the community had seen day in and day out for decades, gets up and he begins to walk and he begins to leap and he begins to run!
You can imagine the entire city is taken aback by this incredible miracle, and this throng comes around Peter and John and they begin to preach and they share the message about Jesus Christ coming back from the dead.
They are so upset—the elders and the chief priests and the religious leaders—that they have Peter and John arrested because of this huge crowd that has gathered to hear their story about Christ.
They are thrown in prison and they’re ordered not to speak about Jesus Christ anymore.
Peter and John look back and say, “Hey, we can’t do that.
We can’t stop talking about Jesus.
That is our DNA.
He’s changed our lives.
We’re not going to stop.”
Finally they relent and they let them out of jail.
Now look in your Bible back at verse 21 of chapter 4:
After further threats they let them go.
They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.
For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Now on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
You see, they raised their voices.
Notice that the very first thing they did, the way they began, was they talked about the greatness of God and they just said, “Sovereign Lord!” Skip down and look at verse 29:
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
Here is what I hope that you will accept today: A praying church worships God for His greatness.
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