A Shared Focus

Good morning, church. We're glad to be back with you. We had a couple of Sundays off. We went to a family reunion in our hometown of Bristol, Virginia. I thought I had a Sunday off there, but the pastor there that I grew up under, who's in his eighties now, pastor Cook, called me a few months back and asked, “Hey, I understand you're coming Labor Day weekend. Can you preach for us at Victory Baptist?”

And I said, “Yes, sir.” As soon as I heard his voice on the phone, I knew who it was. And so it was a privilege to preach at the church I grew up in, and humbling as well, to be in the pulpit of one who's had 60 years in the ministry there. And so, speaking of family reunions, that's really what this series is about, “Real Community: Four Devotions of Authentic Fellowship.”

Now, I'm back with you. I feel like I'm at another family reunion, because you're my family. Many of you came to me in the lobby as you were coming in, saying, “Hey, we missed you” and it feels good to be missed. I mean, if you would have said, ‘You know, you could have stayed gone. We had a good time while you were gone” that would have felt different.

So I'm glad you're missing me, and I missed you, and I'm glad to be back with you today. Now, one of the things about a family, about a church family or any culture is, if you will, they have a shared belief system. Usually they believe in some similar things. They have a shared family, they have connectivity. They may eat the same kinds of foods.

We were talking about this last Sunday, that if I say, ‘I'm going to go eat Mexican’ or ‘I'm going to go eat Chinese,’ you know what I mean. It came from that culture, and it's a certain kind of food. But today we're going to be talking about a shared focus, a shared language, which is really the language of prayer. And so any country you visit has its own language. And so we go on a lot of mission trips with our church.

This past summer, we sent a team to Uganda, for instance, and I've been to Uganda many times. We've sent teams to Guatemala. I try to learn how to greet them in their own language because people seem to really care how you spend at least enough time to learn how to say “hello” to them. And so, if I'm in Guatemala, I say “hola como estas.” If I'm visiting someone from Haiti or from someone in France, I'd say, “bonjour.”

We've been on some trips in the past to Indonesia, some mission trips to Indonesia. Recently, I was going to lunch up in Rocky Mountain with my son, Jonathan, and we were looking for a sushi place. He said, “I don't think we have a sushi place in Rocky Mount.” I asked him, "What's this “Saku Sushi” thing?”

He says, “I don't know. I haven't been there.” So we went in there to check it out. Turned out to be really good. But the waiter that walked up to us didn’t look Japanese to me.

He looks Indonesian. Jonathan asks me, “Well, dad, how can you tell?” I said to him, “I don't know. It’s just something about the way he looks.” So, when he walked up to me, I said, “Hallo, selamat pagi al khabar.”

And the dude, like, his eyes welled up with tears. And he just starts speaking to me a whole lot in Indonesian. All I know is ‘hello and good morning.’

’How are you?’ That's it. That's all I can say. Oh, “Where's the bathroom?” I can say that, and that's all I have. But he was so thrilled that I could say that in his language.

The first time I went to Uganda, Uganda is a former British colony, so the official language of the country is actually English. We go to Kosoro, Uganda. They actually prefer their tribal language that they grew up with; it's called “Rufimbira.”

And so when I first got there, they taught me how to greet the church members. So when I would come to a church and I was getting ready to speak like I am today, I wanted to at least say something in Rufimbira. So they taught me how to say a greeting, “Yesu ashimwe.”

And I knew that “Yesu” was Jesus. I knew that. I wasn't sure about “ashimwe.” I wasn't sure what that meant, but I knew it was good. They taught me to say it as a greeting.

And so I'm saying “Yesu ashimwe” to people downtown when I'm buying souvenirs. Everywhere I go, I'm saying, “Yesu ashimwe.” Now, when I said it downtown, they didn't say it back to me. They looked at me funny and I noticed that. And I thought, Well, it's because, you know, I'm an American.

I'm white. Because they don't see very many white people where I was at. That's what I thought it was. And then when I come to church the next day, Pastor George says, “Pastor Gary, everywhere he goes, he says, ‘Jesus be praised.’ Even when he's downtown with non believers, he says, ‘Jesus be praised’ everywhere he goes.” I said, “Oh, that's what I was doing?”

But there's nothing wrong with that, is there? Really? Here's the thing: being part of a family system has its own language and the language of the first century church.

Listen to me. The language of our church, it should be the language of prayer. That should be our shared focus that we share, a language of prayer. How are you doing in this area? Do you pray?

Do you have a prayer life? If you're married, do you pray with your spouse? I mean, that's hard to do, isn't it? It's hard to pray with your spouse, because then the thing about prayer is you kind of expose your heart. Do you pray with your kids?

And I'm talking about real prayers. Like, I'm not just talking about memorized prayers. We teach our kids to memorize prayers, right? “God is good. God is great.

Let us thank him for our food. By his hands we all are fed…” Yeah, you guys have it memorized. It's a great prayer.

Listen, that's a great prayer, but we want our kids to grow up hearing us pray like we're talking to God, not with memorized little speeches, but to actually hear us talking to God. How are you doing with that? Are you praying as a family? And are you part of a group of believers who get together regularly to talk to God? That's what we're talking about today.

The fourth devotion that we're covering in this four-part series is the devotion to prayer, to have a focus of prayer. And that's really been the four devotions. “They were devoted to the apostles teaching to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers. And so they had a shared faith, a shared family, a shared food, and a shared focus.” And that's the focus of prayer.

So we're going to be looking today at three steps on how we can share in this focus of prayer. Let's look at it. We're going to be looking at the book of Acts, chapter two, starting at verse 42. Now, here's something we've done unusually these past four weeks.

We've “camped out” on the same text every week. And if you've been here now for four Sundays, hopefully this text is really becoming part of your DNA. This is the founding document of the church; what the church looked like. And I believe that the church of the first century can look like the church of the 21st century if we lean in and devote ourselves the way they did. Let's read.

Acts 2:42-47 (ESV) 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three steps on how to share the focus of prayer in Christ's community. Here's the first step:

Grow up together in communicating with God. I want you to look at verse 42 again. We've covered this word. This is now our fourth time.

The word, “devoted.” The word, “devoted;” it’s the Greek word, “proskartereo;” “pro” means “to face towards” and “skartereo” has the idea “to be steadfast at a thing, to be strong at it.” And so it means “to be continually facing a thing.” In other words, “to focus on it, to be earnestly focusing on a thing.” And so, this word, “devoted,” has the idea here. They had four devotions, four things that they kept their faces towards. They were constantly devoted to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and then to the prayers.

Notice, they “devoted themselves;” this is a corporate prayer life that they have. They “devoted themselves” and then notice the plural prayers. Now, I've noted that some English translations just say they were devoted to prayer. And I understand what they're doing. They're trying to smooth out the English so it's easier to read.

But they lost something when they did it here. I like what the ESV does here. It agrees with what the King James and the new King James do here. It leaves it as it was found in the original Greek, which the New Testament was written in Greek originally. And it's literally to the “prayers;” plural.

That's important. That's first of all important because that's what was written. But it's second of all important because it really includes two categories: One, the different occasions of prayer, because there are different occasions that call for prayer, and then there are different kinds or different types of prayer. So let's think about that.

”They were devoted to the prayers.” In other words, they were devoted to praying on all kinds of occasions and all kinds of prayers. All types of prayer, it says Ephesians 6:18 (NIV) “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests…” Paul's “unpacking” it here.

He does it again in Timothy. He says, 1 Timothy 2:1 (ESV) “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.” And so we see there are different occasions and different kinds of prayers. One of the acronyms I learned early on when I was being discipled as a young believer and one to help you remember different types of prayer is the acronym ACTS..

Have you heard of this before? The A stands for “adoration.” “Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” The C stands for “confession.” “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

The T stands for “thanksgiving.” “And give us this day our daily bread.” The idea of being thankful for God's sustenance. Then, “supplication” is the S. “Lead us not into temptation.” May your will be done in heaven as it is on earth. And so, ACTS is Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. That's at least four types. Paul actually mentioned another one.

He mentioned supplications and thanksgivings in 1st Timothy. But he also says “intercessions.” That's another type. What is that? What does it mean to “intercede” for somebody?

That means you're praying for someone else. So there's all types of prayers and there are all kinds of occasions that call for prayer. And here's what I want you to hear - the first century church, the church that turned the world upside down, the church that was the most effective of any church probably in 2000 years and seen the gospel go forth across the nations. That church was a praying church, and they were devoted to the prayers.

How did they learn, how did they grow up and know how to pray like this? Well, first of all, I would say to you, they asked Jesus to teach them how. Notice what it says in Luke 11:1 (ESV) Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

And a couple of the disciples knew that because they had formerly been disciples of John the Baptist. Who were they? They were John and Andrew. John and Andrew had been disciples of John the Baptist and John the Baptist when he baptized Jesus.

We had a baptism service this morning, a beautiful service. When John the Baptist was baptizing Jesus, he turned to them and said, “This is the lamb that takes away the sins of the world.” And so, they stopped following John and started following Jesus. And if you remember, that's when John and Andrew went and talked to their brothers and told Peter, the brother of Andrew, and James, the brother of John, about Jesus, and that they were going to follow him anyway. They knew about being taught to pray by John the Baptist, but here they go.

’We want to pray like you, Jesus.’ Why would they say that? Because they had heard Him pray. Now, they grew up memorizing Hebrew prayers. These are Jews.

And they had all kinds of Hebrew prayers, just like we had the prayer that you've memorized - “God is good, God is great…” They had the “baruch,” which they prayed. I understand that Stephen last week had you sing the “baruch” over the bread.

I'd never sung it before. I memorized it. I've led tours to Israel, and one of the things I try to do, like I do in other places, is to know a few things. And so I knew the Baruch, “Baruch ata adonai elohenu melacho, elam ham minha eretz, amenhenna.”

It means, “blessed art Thou, o Lord, king of the universe, who bringeth forth bread from the earth. Amen.” That's the prayer over the bread. Notice he does something different than what Americans do. We pray, ‘God bless our food.’

Which. That's cool, that's good. But instead, they bless the God who brings the food. We could learn from that, couldn't we? “Blessed are you, O Lord, king of the universe, who bringeth forth bread from the earth.”

I kind of like that correction from that memorized prayer. So they grew up with memorized prayers. But then when they heard Jesus pray, He would pray, ‘Abba, Father’ and just pour out his soul. They had never heard anybody talk

to the King of the universe. And so then He taught them how to pray. And we see two records of His teaching prayer. We call it the “Lord's Prayer,” but really it's the Lord's teaching prayer. The real Lord's prayer is in John 17. If you want to see how the Lord's praying,

read John 17. That's how he's praying. But this is His teaching prayer, “Our Father (Abba,) which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…”

And so He's teaching them. That's how they learned. So then, how did the first century church learn? They learned from the apostles and disciples, who learned from Jesus. Now, how did you learn to speak English, by the way?

How did you learn? I've been talking to some of you about this. Our church is like the church where people move down from the North.

We've got a lot of people here locally. I'm not from here. I moved down here. I was transferred down here by a corporation I worked for 30 some years ago before I answered the call to preach. But a lot of you are coming here because, well, maybe you tried Florida out first, and it was too hot, and they didn't have any seasons.

And we've talked about this like, you “fell halfback.” We call a lot of you “the halfbacks.” You left New York or New Jersey or somewhere up there, and you went to Florida. It was too hot. You didn't have four seasons, so you fell halfback to Wilson like that.

So welcome, “halfbacks.” Glad you're here. But your accent is different from the local accent, and my accent is different, actually, a little bit. If you're from the North, you won't notice it, but the Wilsonians noticed that my accent is different from people from Wilson. When I first moved here, I would hear strange things, like, ‘Where do you stay?’

And I'd be like, ‘I actually bought a house. I mean, I live here.’ They would go, ‘Hey, can I carry you…’ Carry me? What?

They meant, give me a ride. I also heard people referring to Wilson as “Wiltson,” like that. And then there's a county nearby called “Johnson,” which is spelled Johnston. And so my theory on that is they took the “t” out of Johnston county and put it in Wilson. I don't know how that happened, but there are these linguistic

differences.We learn to speak from the people who brought us up. And it's not like they had a class. We just heard them talk, and we picked it up. The little one says, ‘dada, mama’

and then the third word that pretty much all three of our children learned was “no.” That was the third word they learned because they heard us ask them, “Say, dada and mama. No, don't say mama, say dada.”

That was the competition me and my wife had a lot of, you know, say, ‘dada;’ say ‘mama.’. And then they heard ‘no.’ That would be the first word they learned apart from our names.

That's how you learn. It wasn't a class. You learned by hearing them speak. And then you began to speak the same way with the same accent, the same rhythms. How do you learn to pray?

For generations, believers all the way back to Jesus, teaching the apostles how to pray, you learn from the older christians, the ones who've been a believer longer than you. How do you learn? By taking a prayer class?. You could by hearing a sermon. It'll inspire you, I hope.

Here's how you learn; by praying with other christians that have been a believer longer than you, especially those that seem like when they're talking, God's in the room with them. And when you start praying with those believers like that, you grow up in communicating to God with prayer. You grow up in it because you're around others. Are you actively praying with others? Are you part of a weekly group, we call them “Community Groups,” that you're learning to pray and growing up with those that are praying with you?

Maybe you're in a ladies prayer group or a men's prayer breakfast or these kinds of things. Are you growing up in your prayer life? That's number one. That's the first thing to be devoted to. It means to grow in it, and to grow in it means to pray together because we learn from each other.

Pray together as the family of God. One of the benefits of praying together is it creates unity. It creates a family of believers.

Perhaps as much of any of the four devotIons, they're all critically important, but this one particularly creates a unifying experience for believers, especially when they pray transparently and authentically. When they pray real prayers, prayers from their heart. Notice verse 42 says “themselves.” So they devoted “themselves.” This is a gathering.

Verse 44 says, 44 “And all who believed were together and had all things in common.” The word, “common,” comes from the same root as “koinonia.” It's “koina,” “common,” “koinonia,” “fellowship.” And so they held all things together. Verse 46, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,”

Now, the ESV could have perhaps done a little better job right there. The idea of “one accord” is present in the Greek. The New King James says it like this, “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple.” And so they were together.

But the Greek word there has more of the idea of “being one, being so together” like that. There's something about prayer that creates that. It creates an environment of one accord. And here's the other thing I would say about it.

It also reveals if you're not in one accord. It does that. It creates an environment for it. But it also kind of reveals if you're not in one accord. Here's the mark of that first century church right after Pentecost.

It says in Acts 1:14 (ESV) “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” What's the description there in Acts 1:14? It is the description of the 120 that were praying in the upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit before Jesus ascended. Remember, Jesus ascended 40 days after His resurrection. For 40 days He appeared multiple times in front of multiple groups of people.

And on the 40th day, He ascended from the mount and the disciples saw Him ascend. And the angelic host there said, ‘Why are you looking up? Don't you know He's going to come back the same way he left? And what did he say to you? He said, return to Jerusalem and when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’

And so they've obeyed that. So they're in the upper room. And that day they had prayed ten days, the 120. That's a crowd up there in that room. Boy, they prayed for ten days.

And so we call that day, 40 plus ten is 50, right, Pentecost. That's what that means. The 50th day. And so on Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit fell upon them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

And Peter rolls out of that place and starts preaching in the streets of Jerusalem and a crowd gathers. So just kind of catch this up. Let's do our math for a second. They prayed for ten days,Peter preached for ten minutes and 3,000 people got saved.

Now, here's what the American church, here's what the Western church does. We do the same math, but we just flip it. We preach for ten days, we pray for ten minutes and wonder why nothing happens.

The first century church was a praying church. They recognized the need for prayer. They recognized that prayer is like the plow that plows up the hard soil, the human heart. They recognized that prayer is asking God to move ahead of them. Before we preach, before we share the gospel with a friend, before we go and visit someone in the hospital, we say, ‘Holy Spirit, go in front of me;’ we pray forward like that. I know of a pastor who built a new worship center and he said, “I want a prayer room built beneath the platform.”

So, the platform that the worship team and the pulpit is on has a prayer room below it. He said, ‘I'm going to call it the “furnace room.” It's going to be that which sets the heat of the service.’ He has people praying while he's preaching, while they're worshiping. He has people in the “furnace room,” the prayer room below. Prayer is that which moves people and puts them in one accord.

But it's also, as I said a minute ago, that might mark that you're not in one accord. Look what Peter says about it to husbands and wives. He says, 1 Peter 3:7 (ESV) “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Listen, men and women, it's hard to have a fight with your spouse and then pray together. It's hard to pray together, and you think things are right, but they're not. But may I say, if you have a commitment to pray together, it might be that thing that helps you keep “short lists” with one another, because it's just impossible to be transparent with God if you're not being transparent with each other.

Men, I believe the scripture calls you to be the priest of your house. You're supposed to lead your wives and your children to the altar of prayer. And I'm not trying to guilt you. I'm just telling you the truth. You're called to it. Trust me this.

Your wife and your kids will follow you there. If you'll lead, they will follow and sure, there'll be distractions, but if you'll lead, but if you will pray together. Often men feel less spiritual or less spiritually qualified than their wives. I don't know why that is. I suspect it's because women are often quicker to understand relational things, and perhaps men often are a little slower at that.

I don't know what it is. So they feel a little underqualified. My wife prays better than I do, like it's a prayer competition or something. I'm afraid if I pray in front of her, she will pick at it later.

Because, see, that's a warning to the wives. If he reveals his heart, then later on she asks, ‘Now, what did you mean by that? You were afraid about something?’ He's thinking to himself, Now, that's why I don't want to pray with her, because now she wants to pick at it instead of just recognizing, hey, I wasn't really talking to you. We were talking to God, and I wasn't trying to get you to counsel me, which is a good point for community groups, by the way.

If you're in a community group and you're praying together, that's not a time for everybody in the circle to give you a counseling session, right? That's called “cross talking.” That's where a person gives a prayer request, and then you start counseling them. Then, that person never wants to give another prayer request because they

weren't interested in what you thought about it. They wanted you to pray for them. They didn't want counseling. They wanted prayer.

Amen. And so one of the reasons that people aren't transparent in prayer is because of trust level.

One of the reasons that husbands and wives aren't praying together is trust.

Praying together reveals where you're at on your trust, but it also encourages and improves it if you stay at it, if you stay devoted to it. And then it becomes that thing, that habit in your life that you can't do without because it makes you more and more one. The purpose for marriage, God says, “The two shall be one flesh.” His desire for us is oneness.

What's His purpose for the church? That we should be in one accord. What's one of the greatest habits, one of the greatest devotions He gives us to make us in one accord? Prayer. Prayer.

I've noticed in my International travels, I've talked about visiting and hearing different ways of speech. But another thing I've noticed is there's a great difference in the prayer life of people in third world countries and American churches. What we have here is in American churches, we are wealthy in teaching seminaries, books, bible translations, air conditioning. And usually our “confidence monitor,” in the back, works. Usually.

Except for today. Right? So the band was up here with music stands today. But we have all the stuff, we have all the glitter, we have all the material things in the American church, and we learn to lean on it. In fact, we will say, ‘That church doesn't have enough parking or I don't like their style of music or it's too hot in there or it's too cold.

The preacher preaches too long. He doesn't preach long enough.’ We've got a lot of opinions because we’ve got a lot of available stuff here. I remember the first time I was in Kosoro, Uganda, and we had a prayer meeting.

Most of the people that were gathered there for the prayer meeting were American missionaries. And so we're pretty mature. We're mature believers. But then, also in the group were some Ugandans..

So we started praying. This is some good prayer. We're praying real prayers. We're talking.

And then one of the Ugandans started praying and they started calling heaven down in the room. And I was like, Okay, wow, we don't know how to pray, do we? Because they don't have material things. They have two sets of clothes if they're doing well. They have one pair of shoes.

They live in a little place with a dirt floor. They have to go get their food every day because they don't have refrigeration, so they go to the market every day to get that food for that day. And they'll walk 20 miles in the rain to come to a service that we're leading when we go there. And when they pray, they pray heaven down.

And we can learn a lot from them about the unity they have in prayer. Here's the third:

We've talked about how we can grow up in prayer. We've talked about how prayer creates unity, but it also reveals a lack of unity, which should move us to pray more, not less. And then finally we can come together seeking the presence of God in prayer.

Come together seeking the presence of God. Look at verse 43. It says, “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” For the word, “awe,” the Greek word there is “phobos.”

It's where we get the word, “phobia,” which normally would be translated, “and fear came upon.” But it doesn't mean fear, like trembling, like being afraid of a ghost or something like that, or being afraid of harm. It's more the sense of reverence, of awe, like God's in the house. And this sense of, “Holy Ghost goosebumps” on my arms.

Or like suddenly feeling like I'm going to cry for no reason when I don't want to cry. I'm a man and men aren't supposed to cry. It's what I was taught, don't cry. And then something happens to me and I'm praying and I'm praying with you and we're praying together, and all of a sudden my eyes start leaking.

There's like this sense of awe comes on me, and I realize I'm actually talking to God. He's actually in the room. He's actually in the house. I'm not just talking “Christianese” and going through the motions of prayer because we're supposed to. No, I'm talking to God in awe.

And so awe came upon them, and wonders, signs and miracles started taking place in this church. And they were praising God. Verse 47, “Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” The Lord was adding to their number. People were getting saved. Look at this church and look at this “furnace room,” if you will, of prayer.

Prayer is like the plow that plows up the human heart, so that when the seed of the gospel drops in, it takes root. Prayer is all the things that God does that you can't do, which is pretty much everything. But you can be obedient to pray and you can be obedient to proclaim, but He does the saving. He does the work.

He does the miracles. I want you to notice two places in the book of Acts that prayer meetings took place. And let's just notice some features about these two prayer meetings in the way God showed up and the way He was present. One is when Peter and John had been going up to prayer at the temple.

And as they were going up the steps to the temple, going into the gate, called “beautiful.” There was a crippled man who'd been crippled since birth. And he was doing his job. I guess his parents would carry him up there and set him up. There he would beg, “Alms for the poor.”

That's all he could do. He was crippled. And so as they were walking up, Peter sees him and he looks at him and he says, ‘Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give to thee. Rise up, take up your mat and walk in the name of Jesus.” The man jumps up and he starts walking

for the first time in his life. He's not satisfied with just walking. He starts leaping and jumping and praising the Lord. And he comes into the temple courts and they ask, ‘Aren't you the guy…’

And he replies, ‘I was, but that guy right there, and he's pointing at Peter…’ And they ask Peter, ‘How did you do this?’ He tells them, ‘I didn't do it. I did it in the name of Jesus.’

And a crowd gathers. And then before you know it, here comes the temple guard. And they arrest Peter and John for preaching in the name of Jesus. And they put them in jail overnight.

And the next morning, the Sanhedrin, which are the Jewish leaders, hold a court, and they command them to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. And Peter says, “Should we obey God or men?”

And so, they let them go and with a warning. And while this was happening, there had been an all night prayer meeting going on. That's where I'm finally getting to in Acts, chapter four. And so they come walking up into a prayer meeting, and here's what we read, Acts 4:23-31 (ESV) “When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord... look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” Man, I wish I could have been at that prayer meeting. Two guys, who were praying to get out of jail, showed up.

While at the prayer meeting, they come in. Hey, you know, the last time the Sanhedrin got some people together like that, Jesus got crucified. They were ready for it. But no,Peter and John got released. You'd think they would be praying, ‘Lord, protect us.” No, they prayed, “Lord, you handle their threats. Help us to keep proclaiming your word.”

And that place shook with awe and wonder. Oh, man, that's some prayer. Here's a second prayer meeting. This is a prayer meeting up in Acts, chapter 13. Saul hadn't been a christian long.

Now, Saul changed his name to Paul. Same guy, right? He changed his name to Paul, but he started off asSaul. He'd been a persecutor of the church, and so a lot of christians were afraid of him because they thought maybe he was trying to trick them.

Anyway, they were at this prayer meeting. Here's how it goes, Acts 13:1-3 (ESV) 1 “Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” Have you ever been at a meeting where the Holy Spirit spoke? A couple things I want to notice about this prayer meeting is that Saul's name is at the end of the list. He's the least; everybody named there is ahead of him

in their Christian maturity. They kind of tagged him at the end. But then as they're praying, the Holy Spirit says, “Set apart for me Barnabas” and so on. Now, how did the Holy Spirit say that? I suspect it looked like this because I've been in prayer meetings where similar things have happened, that somebody in the room said, ‘I feel like the Holy Spirit's telling us that we're supposed to send two of our men off.’

And then somebody else in the room says, ‘I know who they are.’

And then, the elder of the group that's leading says, “Don't quench the spirit. The Bible says, “Don't quench the spirit,” so who's in your heart?” ‘It is Barnabas and then, I think the Holy Spirit's saying, Saul.’

The reason I think they said it like that is because after they had heard the Holy Spirit it says in verse three, “Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” I think they were all in when they heard the Holy Spirit say, “Barnabas.” His name means in Hebrew, “son of encouragement.” He was well known, and so was Saul. But Saul was not well known for a good reason.

And so this is the first place where the church is laying hands. They were like, Okay, so the Holy Spirit said to lay hands on Saul. Now, Barnabas, we understand (I'm just kind of reading between the lines) but we better fast and pray another day. He really didn't mean Saul.

That's just me reading between the lines. However it worked in that community, the mind of Christ was present, and they began to speak to each other. I've been in prayer meetings like this where you only get part of the message. You feel like the Holy Spirit is pointing towards, we're supposed to launch a new ministry…

And then somebody else in the room agrees with that. He says, ‘I'm agreeing with you in prayer. I'm hearing that too. Holy Spirit, is that really you? Is that you?

Or is that just my thoughts?’ And then somebody else in the room says, ‘No, it's not just you. I was hearing the same word.’ So then, you get confirmation from each other. You can't do this kind of prayer by yourself, people.

You were with mature christians. You're not making this stuff up. You're being very sensitive. And then somebody says, ‘You're supposed to go.’ And then you go.

‘I knew it. I was not sure. But now that you're telling me, I know I have to go. Now it's God sending me.’ Man, what a prayer meeting.

The Holy Spirit shows up and starts speaking through each other, to each other. Now that's exciting. That's not just us getting together and praying for our next door neighbor's mother in law's hangnail. Not that she doesn't need prayer because it's a terrible hangnail, but when you're really getting together and praying, ‘Holy Spirit, move. Bring revival to our family. Bring revival to my marriage. Help me with my teenage son who's just not listening to the Lord right now.

Lord, help.’ Just get real. And the Holy Spirit speaks. Are you ready to pray together? Are you ready to pray with your family?

Are you ready to say “yes” to the Lord in community prayer? We've got a men's retreat coming up. There will be wonderful opportunities, men, to grow together in prayer. We have community groups that you can sign up for; we're always starting new groups that we'd love for you to get involved in. But there's a kind of prayer, you can pray by yourself and it's wonderful, but there's a kind of communal prayer that has these aspects that are worthy of our devotion.

I believe as we look at these four devotions, the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer, that we can see a church not unlike the church of the first century. Why? Because we serve the same God that they served. Speaking of prayer, let me pray for us now. Lord,

first of all, I just want to give You praise. I want to thank You, Lord, for Jesus. Thank You that we have the divine privilege to talk to You in His name. And we not only have that privilege, but we have the privilege of asking for anything according to Your will in His name, knowing that You will give us the very thing we've asked.

And so, Lord, we pray. First of all, I pray for that person that came in today far from You, but they're ready to surrender their heart and their life to you right now. Is that you, my friend? Right where you are,

right where you're seated,

would you pray with me? Pray like this. “Dear Lord, I'm a sinner, but I repent of my sin and I believe in Jesus. I believe He died on the cross to pay for my sins and that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today. I believe that and I invite Him now to come into my life and forgive me of my sin and I commit my life to Him to follow Him all the days of my life as my Lord and Savior.”

If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, the Bible says He will save you and He will make you a child of God. I'm praying for you right now. Others are here and you're a believer. You're a follower of Jesus, but you recognize that your prayer life is not what it should be. You're not praying with your family and you're not praying with your spouse. You're not in a community group, praying with other believers.

You're just kind of trying to muscle through things right now and your life is filled with heaviness, anxiety and trouble. You know better. Right now, would you repent and say, “Lord forgive me. Lord help me to grow in this calling to be devoted to the prayers.” May it be so. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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1. Grow up together in communicating with God.

2. Pray together as the family of God.

3. Come together seeking the presence of God.

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