New Years Day 2012
Acts 1:12-14
First Church – Jerusalem
Acts 1:14 – These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
Christ had just ascended to heaven – disciples went back to upper room and prayed.
I. Prayer
Prayer most important thing a Christian MUST do.
George Mueller – "I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming. Thousands and tens of thousands of times have my prayers been answered. When once I am persuaded that a thing is right and for the glory of God, I go on praying for it until the answer comes. George Mueller never gives up!"
Romans 15:30 – Paul said, "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive (synagônizomai – We get our word "agonize" from this word) together with me in your prayers (Proyooskai – earnest prayers) to God for me; (little boy being carried out of church – "ya'll pray for me, ya hear?" He wanted "earnest prayer).
Become complacent in prayer (same prayer at meals, bedtime, over and over).
Paul said in 1Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing."
This has to do with an attitude of prayer. I don't think this means that one is to stay on his knees all the time. But it means to pray regularly and to be constantly in the attitude of prayer.
Associated with that is this fourteenth commandment --
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1Thessalonians 5:18
Jesus told the church at Ephesus that "Thou hast left thy first love." How did that happen. First and foremost by a lack of communing with God. You husbands and wives try to maintain a good healthy relationship by not talking to one another and see how it works out. Parents, you try and keep the respect of your children and not communicate with them and see what happens.
When we ignore our prayer time and take it for granted, and it becomes second, third or fourth place in our lives, it can do nothing but go downhill from there. And then we wonder, "Where is God when I need Him? Where has He gone?"
Some people pray and think that's all there is to the Christian life, but there's more!
II. Preparation
Acts 1:21-26 – Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. 23 And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, 25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. 26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
They knew that Jesus had told them that the Holy Spirit was going to come upon them and they were waiting for that to happen. But in the meantime, they also knew that there was work to be done. Work that could only be done by them. They had to prepare themselves as best they could in order to carry out Christ's mission properly.
The first thing they did after prayer was to prepare. First they had to get another disciple to replace Judas Iscariot. But notice; they prayed through their preparation. They never lost sight of the fact that in order to properly prepare, they had to pray about it.
We have pastors coming out of seminaries (cemeteries) with big plans about how to make a church better. Things they learned in school. Well, if the school said it was OK, it must be OK! They neglect prayer and when they try to implement their fresh new ideas, they fall flat on their faces. Why? Because they didn't pray through the preparation process.
Our Vacation Bible School is a success here at Dorcas ONLY because we start praying months in advance. All through the preparation process people are praying for guidance and that children will be saved. We've even had some adults saved in our VBS classes. It's not because of the curriculum we use, it's because people care enough to pray for the school months ahead of time.
They prepared their hearts and minds for the tasks ahead of them.
You can't run a Sunday School class, a sermon, a business meeting or anything else for that matter without proper preparation. Pastor's can't preach without preparation; teacher's can't teach without preparation.
We have to prepare for success. And by the way, we also have to prepare for failure too! Not everything we do is going to be a success. We are going to fail sometimes. I truly believe that God allows us to fail so that we can get an "Attitude Adjustment." If everything went perfectly all the time, we, as human beings, would get a head that no hat would ever fit. Sometimes God has to take us down to build us up.
One of the biggest keys to proper preparation is to make sure that what we are planning is according to God's sovereign will.
We put the horse before the cart when we prepare or plan without making sure that what we are doing is OK with God.
Once all the praying and preparation is done, then it is time to:
III. Perform
Acts 2:4 – And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now look at verse 14, "But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Notice how that when they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, they immediately started performing what God had commanded them to do.
Not one time do you read in the bible that any of the disciples said, "Well, I'm a new Christian so I better wait to do anything for God." NO!!! Immediately they started serving God.
Let me ask you this; When does the Holy Ghost come upon a believer? After he/she is saved for 1 month? 2 months? 6 months? NO! Immediately upon repenting of their sins and asking Jesus Christ to come into their heart and save them is when the Holy Spirit comes into them. And that's why we haven't got a lot of Christians serving God because they feel that they haven't been saved long enough to do anything. The Greek translation of that word is "Baloney!"
Churches make a big mistake by not including new converts into the functions of the church simply because they are new converts. My feeling is that we should drop the expression "New Convert" and replace it with "Christian."
We ought not to worry about what they know as much as we should worry about what they are willing to do. In most churches today, the attitude is that the only thing a new convert is good for is to sing in the choir.
Sometimes I think that God takes people away from churches because they won't use the resources that they have, meaning the people.
So if you are a new Christian, don't use the excuse to not serve God in some capacity because you are a "new Christian." I don't buy that.
Everyone, men, women, boys and girls are called to perform once they get saved. There are too many rocking chair Christians and not enough rock willed Christians.
That leads me to say also that whatever God calls you to do, you should do it with all your heart, soul and mind.
(Use Gideon as an example: the people were not "non-chalant" about saying "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon." The bible says they "Cried" when they said it. Not with tears, the Hebrew word is qârâʾ which means to "proclaim." To shout, like the angels did when they were telling the shepherds about the birth of Jesus.
If you work for God, work with all your heart. Give it all you've got. Do whatever it takes to get it done.
And if you do all this, what are the results? Look in Acts 2:41, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Three thousand souls added to the church in one day! Read on, verses 46-47,
"And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Done right, God's plan works.
Close with this: Who is going to make 2012 the best year ever at Dorcas Baptist Church? I can't do it alone. The deacons can't do it…..it takes all of us….God's church; His body united together for one cause (for once) to reach the lost for Jesus Christ. Are you with me today? Let's pray.
