Untitled Sermon (2)

Driven By Prayer

In the light of protest and civil disobedience demonstrations that we’ve witnessed in the last two weeks, I believe God is up to something big and mighty in the world.

I’ve been thinking about life… I think about my life and, as your associate pastor, I think about yours. I think about the essential things we need every day to sustain us in life. And I realize we are all dangerously at risk.

We are most at risk because we take for granted those very things we need to live.

And, it’’s only when God awakens us to the necessity of these essentials that we would cry out with the late George Floyd, “I can’t breathe”

What is God doing in our land? What are these essentials?

According to Acts 2:42 there are four main essentials that we need

We need wisdom and doctrinal guidance to instruct us every day,

We need fellowship, love and community to live every day.

We need physical food... and physical sustenance each day.

And we need prayer, spiritual contact for sustenance and power for life every day,

But too often we take all of these for granted.

I don’t know about you but when I look at my life I realize this.

So many times I take life’s essentials for granted until somehow I get denied these essentials.

Then I cry out with George Floyd, I can’t breathe, I can’t live, I can’t survive without these essentials for living.

I am at risk unless I recognize how critical my condition is and stop taking these essentials for granted.

I’ve got to chase after these four essential elements every day amidst a constant sense I might be denied.

Every day I must astutely seek for guidance and teaching

Every day I must avidly seek for connection in family and fellowship

Every day I must ambitiously seek for daily bread and physical food and sustenance

And Every day I must actively seek for God’s power and sustenance through prayer

And if I get denied in my search for these essentials my existence as a man, as human being, and as a child of God will cease to exist and I will die.

And I declare that prayer represents the greatest of these essentials because through prayer we can gain contact with God almighty who is the very source of life and power.

Are you feeling my sentiments in this message? Am telling your story?

Have you ever paused to ponder what makes life happen for you?

What sustains your life?

Amidst all your daily routine, agendas, challenges and adversities where do you get access to life’s essentials?

What’s your source for guidance and teaching?

What’s your source for fellowship and community

What’s your source for daily food and sustenance?

What’ your source for spiritual power and rejuvenation?

And if you don’t get these essentials how will you survive?

How will you breathe and how will you live?

In the series about The Unstoppable Church so far we’ve explored what made the early Christian church unstoppable. We’ve talked about how

They came together “Centered on Jesus”

They worked together “Empowered by the Holy Spirit”

They grew together “Driven by Learning”

And today we see they lived and loved together “Driven by Prayer” that most powerful essential for life.

The early Christian church was driven and fueled by Prayer.

When you read their story in Acts you will see where Dr. Luke records their prayer life.

The early christian church began at exactly 7:00pm on a Wednesday night

How do you know that Pastor Peter.

I know because the church in was born in an upper room during a prayer meeting and that’s normally 7:00pm Wednesday evening.

Okay okay I’m not so sure if they followed a Wednesday night prayer meeting schedule but this one thing I know...praying together started the christian church

They prayed all the time and for everything.

They prayed during good times and bad times

You see these apostolic leaders of the Christian church had just gone to Jesus earlier before his crucifixion and asked him, “Teach us how to pray.” He did.

And he instructed them to teach others what he taught them.

From Jesus, tot he apostles, to the first- century Christians and on down through the years to us, believers have taught and practiced prayer.

These core values of the early church included prayer because it powered the life and heart of the people.

Indeed they were driven by prayer.

In many congregations today prayer has merely become the way they open and close the church and a means of showing concern and care for the sick and hurting.

We say glibly, okay my brother, my sister we will pray for you.

But corporate enjoyed major emphasis in the early church.

The disciples understood the importance and power of praying together from day one and they were driven by prayer.

From the day of Pentecost when they came together in one accord and in one place they met regularly for the purpose of prayer. Just read the record in the book of Acts.

Acts 1:14 records, “They all joined together constantly in prayer.”

Acts 2:32 our scripture passage for today - “They devoted themselves…to prayer.”

Acts 3:1 - we read, “going up to the temple at the time of prayer...”

Acts 4:24 - “They raised their voices together in prayer...”

Acts 13:3 - “…after they had fasted and prayed...”

Acts 20:36 - “…he knelt down with all of them and prayed.”

They didn’t merely meet together to pray so that they can accomplish something or gain some rich dividend or experience some desired outcome.

No no no no no prayer itself was the desired outcome.

Praying together was the was the purpose for coming together

Prayer was not the means to an end or the strategy for accomplishing their agenda…Prayer itself was the agenda…Prayer itself was the end and the goal and the results.

In other words they weren’t driven to pray, no no no…they were driven by prayer.

Often times in the midst of their prayer God prompted them to do something and they would stop the prayer meeting and just do it.

Just look at Acts 1:14 they came together with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren and in the midst of the prayer meeting they stopped to elect a replacement for Judas Iscariot.

I wonder what would happen if we could catch a glimpse of the power of this prayer life.

To flip the script so that we no longer see prayer as a means to the end but instead we see prayer itself as the end.

Those early Christians would agree with Joy Dawson who wrote, “Have we become so impressed by the world's systems of strategizing that we fail to avail ourselves of the simple method of waiting on God, listening to his voice, praying out his thoughts and obeying what the Master Strategists says?”

We read about a similar outcome in the church at Antioch where the leaders of the congregation met to fast, pray and worship.

And in the middle of the prayer meeting God initiated an outreach that would take the gospel where it had never been preached before

The text in Acts 13:2-3 says “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them..”

Verse 3 says, “And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

You see in the early church often times they just prayed for the simple sake of prayer itself and God shows up in the midst of their prayer

But I really like the record in Acts 4:24-31

Here we find a complete transcription of exactly what the disciples prayed during a time of crisis.

In this passage the police had arrested Peter and John unjustly and held them in jail and then the Sanhedrin ordered them to never speak or teach in the name of Jesus again.

You see police brutality, injustice and threat plagued the early Christian church as well.

Upon their release Peter and John returned to the believers and reported the threats made against them.

The believers responded by turning the matter over to their Lord in prayer.

They began praying by acknowledging the God’s power who created all things. They continued by affirming the truth of Scripture especially as they saw it being manifested in their lives.

They quoted the first two verses of Psalm 2 back to God in prayer, and applied those verses to the situation that Jesus faced when spiritual and governmental leaders opposed his ministry.

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.”

They also recognized the threats they currently faced as part of that same opposition.” In other words they rooted their problems in the adversity our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ experienced.

Now, notice until this point in the prayer, the disciples had asked for nothing.

But in Acts 4:29 they asked for boldness from God to continue preaching the good news of Jesus in spite of the authorities’ threats. Look at the text.

And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.”

You see they were driven by prayer itself

Yes it seems like the situation drove them to prayer but in reality the flipped the script on the situation and prayed so they could have power to speak the word of God.

These were the same disciples who once vied for power and position

John was the same disciples who once fixated on who would sit on the right and who would sit on the left of the throne of Jesus

Peter was the same disciple who once rooted himself in ego, arrogance and pride.

These were the same believers who once lived in disagreement and contention when saturated with concerns for self and drive to satisfy their flesh.

But now, filled with the Holy Spirit they lived their entire lives driven by prayer.

So, as I studied this passage in Acts 2:42 a simple question overwhelmed me.

Who is the “They” in the passage? Who are these powerful folks caught up in this brand new church culture where the Apostles teaching, fellowship with the saints, breaking bread together and being driven by prayer.

Who are these people who don’t just pray for an outcome or a resulting agenda, or for God to move on their behalf but consider prayer to be the outcome and just pray to pray for the sake of praying and making contact with God’s power.

The “They” refers to that diverse, devout community of newly converted believers that once rejected Jesus but now stood in solidarity, unity and togetherness because of God’s mighty, miraculous, move that connected all of them together in language so they heard the disciple’s conversations in their own language.

You can track their development and conversion in the chapter.

In verse 5-6 we read, “and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

Verse 6 - “Now when this was noised abroad the multitude came together, and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own langauge.”

Verse 7 - “ And they were all amazed and marvelled saying one to another, Behold are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

Verse 8 - And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we wer born?

Verse 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia,

Verse 10 Phrygiz, and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes.

Verse 11: “Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

And they were all amazed and were in doubht saying one to another, What meaneth this?”

This was a dispersed, diverse, disconnected community of people brought together by God’s almighty Holy Spirit’s power.

What a mighty move of God that created a vast movement so that people of all races and cultures and nationalities and language groups could hear the wonderful works of God in their own language.

What a mighty God whose miraculous power brought this diverse people together to hear a single message of the wonderful work of God.

And then in verse 14-36 Peter preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

In verse 38 Peter makes and appeal,

He gives the alter call…He says, repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And in Acts 41 they accepted and participated in a massive baptism of 3000 souls.

And then comes our verse… and they continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.

This passage represents a dynamic spiritual shift where ordinary people who once lived disconnected from God and from each other came to value the essential things of God.

And ultimately they came to rely on prayer as their power source instead of ego, pride and ethnicity.

But something majestic and marvelous emerges and arises if you overlay this passage on what’s going on in our nation right now.

And as I read the entire chapter the Holy Spirit prompted me to do that.

And I clearly recognized that hundreds of thousands of people the Lord loves have been living their lives without these essentials

They’ve been living without Biblical, Apostolic guidance and teaching?

They’ve been living without Christian fellowship and and participation in the sacred community

Many have been living in poverty struggling to break bread each day… hungry for a source of daily food and sustenance?

And they’ve been living without the power of prayer… trying to live with no spiritual power and rejuvenation from the Holy Spirit?

They’ve been crying and sighing and dying with George Floyd and begging for breath

And through George Floyd’s killing I believe God has awakened them

You see in the last two weeks we saw them... people of all races and cultures and colors galvanized by this brutal police killing.

But they unify together with an amazing solidarity marching together and singing together and everyone of them hearing the clarion call for repentance, reform and a restoration of justice in everyone’s language.

I believe it might be a mighty, miraculous, move of God in these last days to bring about a corresponding unity and an understanding of a universal divine call for justice for all people. That’s the wonderful works of God that has prompted the majority of this nation to rally around a cry for justice.

Did you see them marching together, protesting together and declaring in one voice, “No Justice, no peace...” and “I Can’t Breathe”

Justice, peace, I can’t breathe the breath of life…All that is God talk...

That’s the common preachment and the song and the conversation of the people of faith

God and God alone can awaken a nation to the need for justice, for peace and for the breath of God.

And we don’t have Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites and Mesopotamians and Judaeans, and Cappadocians and Phrygians and Pamphylians in our land.

But we do have Caucasians, African Americans, Caribbeans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and Polynesians in our land.

And most of them compelled by a mighty, miraculous move from God to stand up and protest and cryout for truth, for justice, and for peace in every city and in every State.

Now is the time for the church to stand up with Peter and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ like never before and then introduce them to the four essentials of Acts 2:42

That’s the only way for them to learn to live a redeemed life.

That’s the only way they will be pricked in their hearts and fall prostrate and the foot of the cross

That’s the only way they will take up the gospel of Jesus Christ where they give up their ego, pomposity and nationalistic pride and live a new life through the spirit

We must introduce them to the Apostles Doctrine, Christian Fellowship, Breaking of Bread and ultimately the power of prayer.

They’ve been living without these essentials and their lives are at risk.

Let us be unstoppable as the Temple City People of faith and the body of Christ so that we don’t only continue to join in the conversation about justice and peace and equality and the cry for breath....but let us also talk about these essentials that make the christian life liveable and worthwhile and form the culture and character of the early church

Let’s talk about

Our need to provide and benefit from biblical guidance and teaching?

Our need provide and be in fellowship, friendship, love and community

The need for daily food and sustenance?

The need for the power of prayer that drives us and fills us with spiritual power and rejuvenation?