United in Prayer

Introduction

Good morning....

Today we close out our series on prayer and I’m excited for us as we will begin our series in the book of Nehemiah next week…but for this prayer series...my prayer for us, is that it has been edifying, strengthening, informing, God glorifying and that it has pushed each of us to reflect and focus our lives on prayer. And that we see it’s immense importance and that it does matter…because our God says it does.

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As we begin our time, I want us to understand our great need to pray and pray individually…but also our immense need to pray corporately or in a gathering or in public.

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I believe prayer is completely neglected by most Christians.....proper prayer especially....that branches then into the neglect of privately praying as individuals but it certainly extends to the neglect of gathering together as the body of Christ to pray.

And that is where I wish to end our series on prayer as we discuss the importance and need for the body of Jesus Christ to regularly be gathering for the sole and primary purpose to pray.

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We will be jumping around quite a bit this morning as there is not just one singular verse or passage that says, you should gather together and pray…but there are moments and examples throughout Scripture that direct us to this great need.

The goal of our time this morning will be to see how God’s Word reveals to us not only the need for corporate or gathering prayer but also the teaching and equipping nature of it and the unity it brings to the body of Christ.

We will be moving around a lot today and I will be moving swiftly so if you miss something, a verse reference or something I say…just let know.

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Unity is what God expects and is what Christians should strive for.

We would be hard pressed to make our way through Scripture and not come across the call to be united. We even see the flip side of being united when over and over again we are being called out if we are not united with one another.

We see James admonishment of disunity in chapter 4 of James

James 4:1–2 ESV

1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

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The issue though is not just arguing and fighting…it’s about what brings about that disunity-sin and our need to be focused on the ONE that brings us unity.

From the very beginning after the fall…we immediately see disunity in the marital relationship when Adam blames Eve…it furthers when Cain kills his brother and then it’s even more realized that the separation from God is revealed as Cain rejects God and Godly living.

Our sin is the catalyst for our disunity.

And so because of that sin…we need something to rally us together around unity.

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For the believer…our unity is not found in fleeting moments…but has to be rooted in the one and only one that can unify people for all time. Christ Jesus.

Paul focuses on in Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:13–19 CSB

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,

Through His atoning and redeeming work on the cross…He has made it possible for the walls of disunity and hostility to be torn down and unlike fleeting moments in history that unite us…his work has united us under one household for eternity.

He holds us together....UNITED.

And it is that work that we must reflect on continually to keep us united this side of heaven. Because we are fickle and flippant sinful people. That is why there is reminders throughout Scripture to remain united in Christ.

We easily forget and allow trivial things to divide us.

Leaving church

These things can’t be....Because Scripture screams at us the theme of Unity. Unity in nearly everything.

1 Corinthians 1:10 CSB

10 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction.

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Acts 4:32 CSB

32 Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.

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Galatians 3:28 NASB95

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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It is so important that Paul tells us we actually should be doing everything we can and willing and wanting more than anything to keep the unity.

Ephesians 4:3 CSB

3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

If there is such a need for us to be united in thought, conviction, understanding, in possessions…how can we separate out such of gift such as prayer from that unity.

We can’t...

Please stand...

James 5:13–18 CSB

13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises. 14 Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. 17 Elijah was a human being as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.

Pray

We have a few passages we are going to look at this morning but I chose this passage in James because of the immense prayer focus that James employs…particularly that of gathering prayer.

In the verses prior to this, James is teaching, admonishing and warning about how we respond to the will of God, what our goal is with our finances and how we face the trials in our lives as we wait for the Lord to return.

It is by no mere coincidence that we come to these verses instructing us on praying righteously or effectively in the wake of those teachings.

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Praying with others is instructed by God.

We see here that James discusses prayer directly in every one of these verses.

Now, we don’t have time to break everything down in this and that’s not the intention…we are looking at how Scripture moves us to pray together.

Now, for some context, this passage can be horribly abused so hopefully we can dispel some of that. But James has been covering Christian suffering and how to combat that.

I don’t want us to get too bogged down here so I’m going to be very brief and if you have further questions, I invite you to ask me.

The Greek word for sick has a dual meaning. We see 18 times in the N.T. it literally means physical sick but heres the rub..14 times it’s used for spiritual weakness. And it’s similar usage in 2 Cor. 12 gives us an idea of James intention here…context is very important and all of Scripture provides us that answer and the context.

So, for all intents and purposes....this passage is not talking about physical healing of ailments as many have tried to use it. If it meant that, then we would be gathering and people would be healed daily…but that’s not the case. And it also doesn’t mean God won’t heal someone when we cry out to him…but as we have learned…it’s all about seeking His will.

Instead, as the beginning calls our attention to…is anyone suffering? Now that suffering may be physical....but along with our physical ailments....it affects us spiritually and we could probably make a case that that is often worse. Because in our physical ailments…it may result in death sooner or later…which is the case for all of us....but when we are affected spiritually…that is when it kills our spirit…our desire…and rattles our faith. And when our faith is rocked…we become idle vessels of the Gospel.

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That is why this moment is so important....

Are you suffering? Yes, pray....

If you are still suffering? Call on the Elders, the leaders of the church to pray over....to lift your spirits, to encourage your faith, to remind you you are not in this alone and that regardless what may happen physically…you have a hope in Jesus.

Tim

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And then we see the exhortation to confess things to one another and pray with one another… This is in addition to everything else. AND, it doesn’t mean tell me and I’ll pray for you later…this implication here is to be present with one another when you pray.

So, in these few verses…James has built the case via the inspiration of the Holy Spirit...that God has a desire for us to gather to pray with one another.

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Corporate prayer brings the body of Christ together in unity.

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Now that we are more than half way through this, let me offer up a definition of corporate prayer via John Piper-

Corporate praying is praying or prayers offered to God in the hearing of other believers who agree with and affirm the prayers. Prayers made in the hearing of other believers who then agree with those prayers and affirm them in some way.

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So, praying in a gathering of others is something that allows us to be actively praying together. It’s not meant to be something that has one person praying and everyone else checking out…while that person prayers we are involved, we are listening, we are affirming- whether in body posture or verbal Amens or yes lords.

This is what unifies us in prayer. We are together, crying out to God under a common interest.

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Our unity in prayer does not always have to be in person.

Though corporate prayer is most beneficial when we gather together…often time that cannot be the case and so we must join together to pray around a common cause apart.

We see this often as we send out prayers and petitions weekly to be prayed about. Paul himself when apart for the different churches appealed to them to be praying.

But, it also means that we are united apart in a common spirit.

When we understand that we are united together whether in person or not…that pushes us to rally together…particularly in prayer....and it always should fuel our desire to be with one another in person more.

Paul affirms this again in Ephesians

Ephesians 4:1–6 CSB

1 Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

We must maintain a unified spirit in all and that includes prayer...

Once again…that means it can be apart but to truly be unified....how more unified can we be then when we come together…physical…in person.

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We are going to take a step back now and revisit some verses we spent several weeks on.

Our Lord Jesus gives us this indication to be unified in Spirit within the Lords prayer.

Matthew 6:9–15 CSB

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. 15 But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.

As we look at this.... some words should leap out at us. That push us to this idea of corporate unification.

Jesus is very much to the point as he talks to God the Father-

OUR Father, Give US, Lead US, Deliver US

Even in our prayer template from our Savior… there is this basic idea that we are praying alongside one another and on one others behalf.

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The last thing I want us to see this morning…though there are many more and we could spend at the minimum several more weeks...

The body of Christ must be devoted to gathering together to learn, encourage one another, and pray.

It is through our time together that we learn, we hear from God’s Word together, we hold each other accountable, we lift each other up in encouragement, we just enjoy being with one another but we pray together. And I will say, we learn from each other when we pray.

Looking back at the Lord’s Prayer…we see the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray…obviously they were gathering and praying together..they heard Jesus pray and wanted to learn more from that

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Acts 2:42 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

This is towards the tale end of a much larger teaching section…and next Sunday is a Sunday when we observe Pentecost. We are having our Pentecost Sunday this week though.

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The whole idea behind Pentecost…and we don’t have the time to go deep into and it’s not really the purpose of our time this morning…was to bring together the church under one mission and unification…to take the Gospel to EVERYONE!

And so Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, and He transcended language and culture to bring unity to the body so that the message of the Gospel could go out to all nations, tribes and tongues.

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And then we see here in verse 42… after this very miraculous scene..where 3,000 people believed in Jesus..

And it tells at this point, they gathered together…they gleaned from teaching and instruction....they met together…they ate together....and they prayed together. The full context of this shows that they were doing life with one another in the most intimate of ways and prayer…going to God, was key focal point.

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We see a few verses later in 45 and 46.

Acts 2:46 CSB

46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts,

They kept getting together…and trust me…it wasn’t just to hang out…I’m certain there was recreation happening…but the primary focus was on the Lord…WORSHIP and PRAYER.

And we can be certain of that because of the need to be unified, they couldn’t as easily do it apart…they couldn’t send out letters or emails or make phone calls…to truly be unified they had to get together..

And I believe even with our tech advancements…it is still a practice we MUST be doing.

Closing

And we must be doing it because of Christ. Our God has told us it’s our line to Him....but when the body of Christ gathers, especially to pray…our hearts should be crying out and reminding ourselves and others of the beautiful message of the cross.

If when we gather to pray…it doesn’t remind and point us to Jesus…we aren't doing it correctly.

Our blessed assurance comes through the cross.

Gospel

We must know Christ! We must commit our lives to Christ!

And part of that is in prayer....and part of that prayer time must be done together!

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As I said at the beginning this morning…I pray…truly I do…that this series has highlighted the great need for prayer and how important it is and how to go about doing it.

Prayer Matters church...

Over the past as many weeks…we have heard testimony of answered prayer…of God working in the lives of His people…lest only we approach the throne in prayer.

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Let me end this prayer series and our time this morning with the words penned under the inspiration of God by King David of Psalm 34:1-3.

Psalm 34:1–3 CSB

1 I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. 2 I will boast in the Lord; the humble will hear and be glad. 3 Proclaim the Lord’s greatness with me; let us exalt his name together.

Pray