April 26, 2009
Morning Worship
Text: Acts 4:23-31
Subject: Prayer
Title: Driven to Prayer
Have you ever stopped and thought about what it is that drives people to prayer? You can answer that question for yourselves, but when I stop and look at it I see that there may be many things that push people to the point of prayer. #1 is desperation. When you come up against something in your life that you don’t know what else to do people pray. #2, worship. When you begin to see God for who He really is and understand His nature a little better, then you know you can trust Him to answer prayer. #3, a religious practice. I suppose there are a lot of people who pray just because that is what they were taught to do. Not a bad thing, but I could never understand why people pray when they don’t expect anything to happen i.e. the people who pray for a healing miracle in their life but don’t believe that God answer those kinds of prayer. #4. People pray because they know that if there is ever going to be anything good come out of the church or out of their ministry or out of their lives, it will be because they have entered into God’s presence through prayer and have covered themselves in prayer.
Last week I called the church to a period of prayer and fasting in order to draw closer to the Lord in your relationship with Him. How many of you have done that? My desire is that during your fasting you become so dependant upon God that you begin to see Him like you never have before.
On Thursday I was at a lunch meeting with the other section 6 pastors and Pastor Robert Stephens from Edina shared testimony that began with a prayer request at last month’s lunch. A young lady in his congregation had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and had been given 13 months to live. He had asked all the other pastors in attendance to pray. Thursday he told us that he had received a letter from this young lady who had gone to Houston, Texas for surgery. She had been prepped for surgery. Her head had been shaved. She was ready to go. The doctors had just ordered another C/T scan to once again see what they were going to be dealing with. While she was waiting she sat on the edge of her bed and just prayed, “God, this would be a good time for You to do something.” Then before she was to begin the final prep for surgery the doctor came in and said he wanted to talk to her. Could she walk with him to his office? That didn’t make her feel too good about the surgery. She thought that she was going to get bad news. The doctor brought up two images on the screen – one was from the original scan and the second from the scan done that morning. The doctor said, “I don’t know how to tell you this but there isn’t going to be any surgery, because there aren’t any tumors to remove. They are all gone.” Then he added, “My associate and I have looked this over to try to figure out what was going on and we agreed that we have never seen anything like it before. The only word that we can use to describe it is that it is a miracle.”
Now I want to ask you a question. Why are we so surprised when God does what He said He would do?
At a meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Bobby Richardson, former New York Yankee second baseman, offered a prayer that is a classic: "Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen."
As we look at the Word of God concerning prayer today would you open your hearts to receive revelation so that you walk away changed?
Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
I. PRAYER BEGINS WITH PRAISE. As we begin today we need to go back just a few verse to see what has led up to this prayer meeting. 1) Peter and John had prayed for a man who had been crippled from birth to be healed and he was. They went to the temple to pray at the same time every day. 2) Everybody looked at Peter and John like they were something special but Peter gave God the glory. 3) The miracle produced an opportunity for the gospel to be shared. Because of the miracle another 2,000 men were added to the 3,000 who were saved on the Day of Pentecost. 4) The healing power of God working among Spirit filled believers aroused the anger of the “religious” leaders. 5) Peter saw this as an open door to share the gospel with these leaders. Acts 4:8-12, 8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11He is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. 12Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” 6) They were commanded not to preach in the name of Jesus any more. There were emotions of every kind that came from this whole story – joy, fear, anger, jealousy… The first thing that Peter and John did after this is seen in verse 23, 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. Now here is what I want you to see. Do you remember that last week I told you about how you need to enter into God’s presence when you pray God’s word, because it is in God’s presence that His word comes alive in your life. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. 27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. When you have a personal encounter with God through prayer you can only come to one conclusion – that He is able to do all things and that His word is true. We are nothing in our selves. We are earthen vessels. He gives living water. We are weak, but in our weakness He is shown to be strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9, my power is made perfect in weakness… You know, I am still amazed that God took two people who were really good at what they did for a living and called them to be the pastors of one of His churches. But that is what He did with Charlotte and I. We definitely were not qualified. We were not greatly educated. We were not prepared in the way that the world would consider preparation. The only things that we had were willing spirits and the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us. I have been blessed by comments from some of you. Some have told me that my preaching stirs them up. Some have told me that I am a good teacher. Others have told me that they believe that there is something special that happens when I lay hands on a people and pray for them – that there is something in me that I myself don’t recognize. The fact is, I do recognize what is in me. It is the Holy Spirit of God who is in me doing these things. It is not me. I want to give God the glory that when I preach something may be stirred in you. I want to give God the glory that when I teach the Holy Spirit is opening your eyes and revealing scriptural truth to you. I give God the glory that when I lay hands on someone and pray that the power of the Holy Spirit is imparted and something happens. God is doing in the church what He had intended from the very beginning. Mark 16:17-18 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues… they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” That is affirmed by verse 28, They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Praise God right now and give Him all the glory for what He is doing in the church.
II. PRAYER CONTINUES WITH PETITION After the believers had taken time for corporate worship they continue with corporate petitions. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 1) Consider their threats. Back in verse 18, Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. The believers were under oppression from organized religion not to speak or teach in Jesus’ name. You have to realize that this Jewish ruling council had some authority. They had their own laws and could carry out punishment. Peter and John were at a dilemma – should they or should they not continue to preach? 19But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 2) enable your servants to speak your word… Look at the language used here. Enable Your servants to speak Your word… Is that a great picture of humility? It was never the intention of the disciples to exalt themselves. At least after the Day of Pentecost. It is an interesting work that the Holy Spirit did on that day. He changed Peter from one who was afraid to admit that he knew Jesus just a couple of months before into one who would stand before Jews and proclaim His name and the Spirit turned John from one who thought he deserved to sit a Jesus right hand into the disciple who, when he wrote, would not even name his own name. 3) with great boldness… Psalm 138:3, When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted. Have you ever been in a situation when you spoke words and then had to stop and ask, “Where did that come from”? And then when you thought about it you knew that it had to be the Holy Spirit? That is what has happened to the disciples. They have been changed from the inside out. Changed by the Spirit of God and changed because of the word that has been brought to their remembrance by the Spirit. 4) 30by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” They began to pray God’s promises. Psalm 89:20-21, I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him. 21 My hand will sustain him; surely my arm will strengthen him. Jesus told the disciples in Acts 1:8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” John 14:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do… The very foundation of their prayer was that God would be glorified in their actions. They understood that signs and wonders would verify that God’s word is true.
III. PRAYER ENDS WITH PURPOSE Let’s look at the last part of our passage today. 31And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Three things that I want you to see in verse 31. 1) God wants you to know that He hears your prayer. Even in the church today His desire is to manifest Himself to you. Jeremiah 33:3, ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ 2) God wants you to be filled and refilled with His Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5:18, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. The word that is translated “filled” in the original language means to be filled over and over again or to stay filled up with the Holy Spirit. 3) God answered their prayer. What was their prayer? They wanted to speak the word of God boldly. He gave them everything they needed to do it but He didn’t force them to do it. They had to step out in faith, believing that what God had promised He was able to perform.
Let’s go back to the beginning. What is it that drives you to prayer? Four things I mentioned at the beginning – desperation, religion, worship, or because you want to see God’s will accomplished in the church and in your life. If prayer is just a religious practice – you pray because that is what you were always taught to do – then maybe we need to help you refocus your prayer life. But if you pray for any of the other reasons (and there are others besides what I have mentioned) you can rest assured that if you are entering into His presence when you pray that He hears and answers your prayer. It may be that your actions in the power of the Holy Spirit may bring an answer to your own prayers. Oh, God fill this church up with people… Or, it may mean that you have to step our in faith and trust the Lord to bring your healing, your provision, your blessing, or your miracle. Then pray and let Him do His work. Let Him show you that He is real and that He cares and that He is at work in your life.
