The Most Important People in the Church

Senior Sarah Tucholsky from the Western Oregon College softball team had never

hit a home run in her entire career.

Central Washington College senior Mallory Holtman was her school's career leader in home runs.

But those two opposing players combined on a home run trip that celebrated what

is right about the human spirit. it.

The two teams were playing a doubleheader in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Neither team had been to the playoffs before. It was a beautiful,

typical Saturday afternoon of softball in April, right down to the few overzealous

fans who were heckling an easy target,

the diminutive Sarah Tkolsky, when she came to the plate in the top of the second

inning of the second game with with two runners on base, and the game still scoreless.

Sarah, as I said, was a diminutive player. She stood only 5'2",

and was not very big in herself.

She was not the kind of player that you would consider to be a home run hitter.

She was not a power herder. Sarah said, I just remember trying to block the hecklers out of my mind.

The first pitch was a strike, and she said she didn't even remember which pitch

it was, but she hit one of the pitches out of the field for a home run.

It was then that the afternoon changed and became a celebrated event,

not because of Sarah's home run, but because of what had transpired after that.

Full of exuberance, Sarah began to run the bases, and in her excitement,

she rounded first base, forgetting to touch the bag.

So while she was doubling back to touch first base before she went on,

her right knee gave out and she collapsed to the ground, unable to even get up.

It was later discovered that she had completely severed the ACL ligament in

her knee and would need operations.

The two base runners had already crossed home plate while Sarah still lay on the ground in pain.

Her coaches asked the umpires if they could help her up and get her to the base

and help her with that, and they said no, nobody on her team could help her.

If she could crawl back to first base, they would consider it a single,

and she could be replaced by a replacement runner.

But if she couldn't get back to first base, it would be an out.

The two other runners that scored, their scores would be considered legal,

but she could not be touched by any of her own players or coaches.

It was then that the voice of Mallory Holtman, the opposing team player

rang out calling to the umpires hey

excuse me but would it be okay if we

the opposing team helped her the

umpires conferred and determined that there was nothing in the rule books that

would prevent the opposing team from helping sarah and so it was mallory who

was facing knee surgery of her own along with her teammate liz wallace went

out of her and lifted up up to Kolsky, gently off the ground.

They carried her in a chairlift carry, and as they began their slow trip around the bases.

They went back to first, stopping at the base, lowering her down in almost a

dance move to let her dip her good foot onto the bag.

Mallory said, we all started to laugh at one point as we touched her foot down on first base.

We lowered her down to touch the base, and then we'd start to giggle and we'd

kind of trot on towards second base and giggling all the way.

It was then that the crowd noticed the extreme example of sportsmanship and

fair play and they jumped to their feet in resounding standing ovation.

As the three came around third base and came to home plate and touched it,

the crowd went wild as Sarah was handed off to her own teammates to carry her to the dugout.

Sarah's team did win the game that day, but it was close enough that they might

not have done so if she hadn't completed her home run.

Sometimes it's the seemingly small things that loom large in history.

Mallory and Liz combined to lift Sarah up and support her.

This morning, if I were to ask you, who do you think the most valuable people

or the most important people in the church are, I'm sure you would have a variety of answers.

Some would probably think that the most valuable player in the church was a pastor.

Others would say that the most valuable people in the church are the workers,

the teachers, the children ministries workers, and the board members.

And I would say yes that is true all of

those places are of leadership are important some would

say the givers those who sacrifice and give financially

so the work of God and could continue to

go forward and I thank God for everyone who gives so faithfully in the offering

and online to move the ministry of our church forward to glorify God but I will

also submit to you that the most valuable people the most important people in

any church and in our church are those who are are the supporters,

the ones who are behind the scenes lifting up the church and not taking any glory for themselves.

Among those, I believe that the most important people in the church are those

who are the faithful prayer warriors for the pastor and the leaders and the

ministries of the church.

The most valuable and important people in our church are those who covenant

together to to pray for their pastor, and to pray for the kingdom of God to

be advanced in this area of southwest Wisconsin.

We began our journey together as pastor and people with the emphasis on reading

and knowing the word of God, and you were invited to make a regular habit of

reading the Bible every day,

and we encouraged many of you to read through the one-year Bible every year.

Many of you have taken that up, and I'm very thankful for that.

But we also understand that to be truly led and blessed by God,

we need to be in continual communication with Him through prayer.

Prayer is the only glue that keeps us going. It's the only glue that connects us with the Father.

We have embarked on a mission to call all of our people of our church to covenant

together for a time of concerted prayer every Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock.

It doesn't matter where you are. We need to be in full unity before the throne of God.

But the real prayer warriors are those who seem to be in prayer all day long

for their pastor and their church and the people they know in their neighborhoods

and in their schools and in their families.

There are some dear ladies in our church in Peoria, Illinois,

that come to mind when I think of the real prayer warriors.

Margaret Williams, Mary Carmen Zind, Gladdy Gertin, Esther Goodenough,

Lenora Roloff, Myrna Moyers, and Lois Eberhardt.

Some of these were unable to get out to the church at all,

but they would regularly call each other to spend time on the phone praying

for their pastor and their church people and their families and people they

knew that were not followers of Jesus.

They didn't pray fancy prayers in public. They simply talked to God and petitioned

him for their pastor and their church.

I know one in particular who often prayed all night long.

She would stay up all night. Mary Carmen Zahn would stay up all night long praying

praying for her church and her family.

And I know we have several in this church as well. And it doesn't have to be

limited to ladies. Men, you can pray too.

But even more effective than a group of committed prayers is a group of prayers

who are righteous followers of Jesus, lifting their faith up to the Lord and

living it out in the community.

James 5, verse 6 says, the prayer of a righteous man or woman is powerful and effective.

James 5:6

It's not just anybody throwing up Christmas wishes to God.

It is prayer of a righteous man or woman, powerful and effective.

There's a story in the Bible that illustrates the power of being the one behind

the scene who lifts up the leader and the pastor.

The name Moses is very familiar to us as someone who we think is a very valuable

and important person to God.

He was a leader that God had chosen, and we read a lot about him.

But the two names that are not as well known, we don't read about very often.

These are men who are the real MVPs in this story. Their names are Aaron and Hur.

Exodus chapter 17, verses 8 through 16.

Exodus 17:8–16

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

Moses said to Joshua, Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites.

Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.

So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses,

Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning,

but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.

When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it.

Aaron and Hur held his hands, hands Aaron

and her held his hands up one on one side

one on the other so that his hands remained

steady till sunset so Joshua overcame

the Amalekite army with the sword then the Lord said to Jesus write this on

a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it because

I will completely blot out the name of the Amalek from under heaven Moses built an altar.

In these verses, we find that Aaron and Hur stood beside Moses and held up the

hands of their leader as long as they held up his hands.

And I don't know if any of you have ever done that. Have you ever just stood and held your hands out?

You know, after a while, even with nothing in them, your arms get a little heavy,

don't they? Even now, my arms are getting very heavy.

And it seems like we begin to slouch. But even in this situation,

they held up the hands of their leader.

As long as they held up his hands, God moved and the enemy was defeated.

Now, covening together in prayer with the pastor is nothing new.

In fact, in Acts chapters 1 and 2, we find that 120 people gathered together

Acts 1 · chapter mention

in an upper room and prayed for 10 days.

At the end of those 10 days, Peter went out, filled with the Holy Spirit,

preached for a few minutes, and 3,000 souls were saved.

Today, we pray for a few minutes, preach for 10 days, and many times not even

three souls come to Jesus.

Friends, the idea of lay people partnering in prayer with godly leaders is not a new concept.

Let me just share a few examples with you. Example number one,

the preacher was Charles Finley.

The year was 1830, and the place was Rochester, New York.

The result was that in one year, 1,000 of the 10,000 population of Rochester came to know Jesus.

Finney's prayer partner was a man by the name of Abel Clary.

Finney wrote, Mr. Clary continued as long as I did and did not leave until after I had left.

He never never appeared in public, but gave himself up completely to prayer.

Example number two, many of you will recognize the name of Charles Spurgeon,

who has become known as the Prince of Preachers.

His ministry saw great results. Thousands came every Sunday to hear him preach,

and the whole countryside was affected by his ministry.

One day someone came and visited what was known as Spurgeon's Tabernacle and asked Mr.

Spurgeon, what is the secret of your great ministry?

Mr. Spurgeon replied, rather than tell you the secret, I will show you the secret.

Meet me at the tabernacle early next Sunday morning.

So that Sunday, the visitor met Mr. Spurgeon, and he took him up onto the stage

where there was a trap door behind the pulpit, a door in the floor.

He opened that gate. As he opened that and lifted that,

it opened up to a huge room beneath the platform where the visitor said he saw

over a hundred people gathered in that room and they were praying for their

pastor as he would preach that day.

He said, that's my secret. During the entire service, they would be down there below the platform.

Now, I don't think you guys could fit under there, but they would be in that

room him under the platform praying that God would make himself manifest in that place.

In his book titled, Too Busy Not to Pray, Max Lucado writes this, when we work, we work.

When we pray, God works.

I'm convinced that God's hand moves when people and pastor pray together.

Through Through prayer, God makes the impossible possible.

It is through prayer that God greatly multiplies our efforts.

I wonder what would happen here if we had a number of people who covenanted

together to cover the people around them in the service in prayer.

And again, I thank God that so many of you are willing and faithful to drop

everything you're doing and spend time in prayer on Saturday afternoons.

But can you imagine what would happen if 20 to 30 people covenanted together

to take turns praying throughout every week, praying continually for the work

of the kingdom here in southwest Wisconsin?

And what would happen if the churches of the city did the same thing?

Well, let me tell you about a few things that happened in the communities where

we served that began with ministries of effective prayer.

In Peoria, Illinois, our mayor at that time, who was a very devout follower

of Jesus, spoke to our evangelical ministers group and said that he believed in the power of prayer,

and he and our churches and civic leaders called our city to a period of 40 days of prayer.

It was a holy convocation called by the leaders in the city.

During the first six months of that year, when we had been called to 40 days

of prayer, there was not one murder in the city, while the previous year during

that same time, there had been 14 murders,

some of them gang-related.

Coincidence? We didn't think so. Later in Ottumwa, Iowa, the mayor of the city

and some of the several city council members met with the evangelical ministers

in our prayer group and asked us to pray for the city.

So we and our churches were called to pray for the sins of the city of Ottumwa, Iowa, and the area.

Within the next six months, the XXX Theater, two bars, and a topless bar club

closed down due to lack of revenue.

Power of prayer, yeah, but even more so, the power of God moving through the people of his that pray.

What do you think would happen if there were a couple people every day of the

week, and they took that day to pray for their church and their pastor?

What do you think would happen if we had 24-7 prayer, we and others around us

in our church and in our businesses and our communities,

said, I will pray during this hour on Monday or this hour on Tuesday,

and we had 24 hours, seven days a week of consistent and intent prayer,

for our pastors, for our churches, for our leaders, for the people in our community

that God would move among us and make himself manifest.

I hear and read about the revivals of the past, and oh, we could do well for that.

You know, many people in the church looking at these days and the community

that we have, and we think this is the time, like Noah,

where every inclination of every heart was only evil all the time,

and it took one man, one leader, somebody who stood up and said,

I will be the one who redeems this world.

I wonder if we have some of those one peoples who might do that.

What do you think would happen if we did that?

Well, ask yourself this question, really, can prayer accomplish anything?

Let me share with you a few things that I know for sure. One is that prayer changes people.

First of all, prayer changes us.

It changes the ordinary man and woman and makes them extraordinary.

Prayer changes us by drawing us closer to God, changing and molding us into

his likeness in the process.

You know, the revivals in history, if you look at all those revivals from the

Welsh revival to the revivals in America in the 1970s and many of the New Hebrides

revivals, and if you look at all of these revivals, what they began with.

People in the church who said, I can do nothing but pray.

And they began to meet together and pray for the sins of the world,

sins of the city, sins of their community.

And what they then did is realized, how can I pray before a holy God if my life is not right with him?

And all of the stories and history of the revivals began with a time when church

men, primarily women as well, began to confess their sin to God and to each other.

Seems like there's a verse like that somewhere that goes something like this.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face

and turn from their wicked ways,

then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

Prayer changes us. us david understood prayer's

power as a personal change against against

sin in fact his prayer in psalm 25 verses 4 and 5 describes the process that

Psalms 25:4

prayer takes a person through it says show me thy ways oh lord teach me thy

paths lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the god of my my salvation.

I wait on you all day long.

These prayers contain three key phrases, show me, teach me, lead me.

When we pray, God shows us his standard and his will for our lives,

and he isn't always easy on us.

He convicts us of sin, but once we accept what God shows us,

he's able to teach us, and when we are teachable and growing,

he is finally able to lead us into to his plan and purpose.

You see, when God shows me, he has my heart.

When God teaches me, he has my mind. And when God leaves me, he has my hand.

However, despite God's promise of the power of prayer to change us in our world,

many Christians never tap into the force that is behind that prayer.

They come to Christ for salvation, but they live their Christian lives beneath

their their privileges.

We are God's holy people. We're his kids. We have extreme privileges as children of the living God.

We also have extreme responsibility.

It's as if God had prepared a huge banquet for them, and they decided they were

going to just sit in the corner, eat their bologna sandwich.

You see, the table has been set. We have received the invitation to come and

dine with the Master and receive everything that he's given us,

but we settle for bologna sandwich by ourselves in a little corner of the room.

Oh, I'm convinced that God can do far more for us than we could ever imagine.

In fact, a verse that was one of my favorites is Ephesians 3, verse 20.

Ephesians 3:20

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,

according to his power that is at work with us.

It's kind of like that one, every inclination of every heart was only evil all

the time. That's pretty total, right? Right?

This says, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,

according to his power, is at work within us.

That's pretty massive, don't you think?

God wants to do for us as a church far more than we could ever imagine or dream

or think about, and I believe that it only happens as we covenant together in prayer.

Can you imagine what would would happen if God's Spirit just fell on us like He's done in the past?

Not a little bit of taste every Sunday, but just an outpouring and a falling on us.

Dr. Wilbur Chapman tells of his experience when he went to Philadelphia to become

the pastor of the large Wanamaker Church.

After his first sermon, an old gentleman met him in front of the pulpit and said,

you're pretty young to be the pastor of this big church we've

always had older pastors but you preach the gospel

and i'm going to help you all i can in his

book dr chapman said that he looked at the old man and thought to himself what

an old crank but then the old man continued i'm going to pray for you that you

will have the holy spirit's power upon you and there are two others who have

covenanted join with me in doing so, Dr.

Chapman said, I was then humbled as I realized that what this man was going

to do to help me was to call on God.

And three became 10, and 10 became 20, and 20 became 50,

and 50 became 200 who were calling on the name of God to have the Holy Spirit

fill them and their pastor and their church.

In another room, 18 men met with Dr. Chapman and surrounded him with prayer before the services.

He said, I always went into the pulpit feeling that I would have the anointing

as an answer to the prayers of 218 people.

So what was the result? 1,100 people got saved in three years,

all as an answer to the 218 plus the pastor who gathered together before every

service and prayed for their church.

What an incredible impact a church can make when its people pray.

Then as a natural result of prayer, of prayer changing us, prayer changes others.

We need only to look at the stories and acts of thousands coming to Christ in

one day as the direct result of prayers of God's people.

These people met together in the upper room for days to pray and wait for the Holy Spirit to move.

Before any Billy Graham crusade or Louis Palau crusade, an advance team was

always sent out into the city months ahead of time to mobilize the city's pastors

and churches to prayer for the community.

And at every one of those crusades, God prepared the hearts of those non-believers

because of the prayers of God's people.

So that brings me to the second thing. There are five prayer requests for the

church in a passage in John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

Just hours before Jesus was crucified in what was known as the high priestly

prayer in the chapter 17 of John,

Jesus prayed this I have revealed

you to those who whom you gave me out

of the world they were yours you gave them to

me and they have obeyed your word now they

know that everything you have given me comes from you for I gave them the words

you gave me and they accepted them they knew with certainty that I came before

you and I came from you and they believed that you sent me I pray for for them.

I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for those who are yours.

All I have is yours, and all you have is mine, and glory has come to be through them.

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in this world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, he goes on to say, Holy Father, protect them by the power of your

name, the name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one.

While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.

None has been lost except the one who is doomed to destruction so that scripture might be fulfilled.

I am coming to you now, Jesus said, but I say these things while I'm still in

this world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within me.

I've given them your word and the world has hated them for they are not of the

world any more than I am of the world.

We have the saying, this world is not our home, we're just a passing through.

Jesus' prayer for the church is an excellent model for us when we covenant together

to pray for the church and the pastor.

It could be summarized as five prayer requests.

The first one is this, pray that people would sense the glory of God.

We find this in verse 22 of John, chapter 17, and the glory which you gave me,

John 17 · chapter mention

I've given them. The word glory in the Greek means the visible manifestation

of the splendor, power, and radiance of God.

It's known as the Shekinah glory, the glory that seems to shine about in everything

that we see. It is the manifestation of God.

So when Jesus prays these words, his desire is that when we meet together.

That we would continually sense the splendor, power, and radiance of God in our midst.

You see, when God's presence meets with us, we are lifted up supernaturally

and spiritually, and that is when great things begin to happen.

You know, when Moses met with God and was able to see God, it says in Scripture

that he would come down from the mountain in his face.

His countenance was so brilliant with the glory of God, people couldn't even look at him.

He had to cover his face so they were not blinded by the presence of God.

Can you imagine what it'd be

like if the people in our church were this filled with the Spirit of God?

The glory of God would live in our lives and change our lives and make us reflect

His glory to a point that people could not look at us without knowing that we were in God's presence.

Too many Christians come to the worship service preoccupied with their problems

like balancing their checkbook or whether the roast will be done when they get home,

or they're focused on what they can get out of the service

instead of what they can give to it but many

people focus on God and give him glory he comes

and makes the church a place of prayer I believe that

when a church begins to really worship and when people

really seek to please God that's what worship is about and have community with

him it draws non-believers like a magnet like moths to a flame it draws in people

in to see what god's doing oh if that wouldn't be us.

You see, the real value of any church is not its facilities.

It's not its pastor or its program. The church only has value when Jesus is meeting with them.

The church only has value when God is transforming the people in the church

into real reflections of the glory of God.

And that's what makes us different from other social and civic organizations.

We're not a group of people that meet here just for social reasons.

In fact, Jesus himself told us, when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.

And then two, we need to pray that we would follow the word of God. We find this in verse 8.

For I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them.

When people in our church are continually studying and learning the word of

God, they begin to change. The word of God is active.

It works in us and on us.

As people realize the word of God is relevant to their lives,

their lives take on new meaning and their values change.

When the disciples received the words

of jesus it gave their lives meaning motivation and

a mission that's what jesus referred to and that's what he said his desire was

for the disciples and that's what he desires for us as well the third thing

we see is that prayer that we would be pray that we would be united in the love

of god jesus prayed in verse 23 that they may be made perfect in oneness.

That's the word unity, one purpose, one mind, one being, and that the world

may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

Jesus prayed for all believers, and that's included us, to be unified through love. Do you know why?

Because spirit-filled Christians united in love and guided by one person they

truly believe in can do absolutely anything.

There is is nothing impossible for the church when the people live for Jesus

and filled with his presence.

What an amazing power and force the church has when the church is living as God wants it to live.

Jesus said that the gates of hell could not stand up against the church,

and I think it's about time we begin rattling and tearing down the gates of

some hells, some gates of hell.

But when a church is divided, it's almost powerless. It can't take care of its

own people, and it can't be effective.

Witness it to the people in the community. Thank God for the unity that we have here.

But as God continues to move and things happen, Satan is going to try to divide us.

So let's pray that we will be united in the love of God.

And then finally, we pray, of course, we pray that we would go forth in the mission of God.

Jesus prayed this in verses 17 and 18. he prayed, sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so also I send them into the world.

The word sanctify here means to be set apart and equipped for a special mission.

What is that mission? It is that we might leave the four walls of this church

and go back into the world with the good news of how Jesus Christ loves sinners

and died for them. And by the way, you remember this statement.

God is on a mission to redeem a lost world to himself, and he chooses to use

us, his chosen people, to accomplish his mission.

That's what the church is. We need to pray that we never lose sight of that

as a church, that we never forget the real reason we exist as a church.

It's not to keep a building open. It's not to pay the pastor, although I like that.

It's to be an example of christ and a witness in the

community the church is the only organization on

earth that doesn't exist for the people who belong to it

it exists for those outside the church the church does not exist to be a hospice

for the saints it is to be a hospital for the sinners and five pray that we

would experience the joy of god verse 13 says but now i come to you and these

things I speak in the world,

that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Jesus said that he wants us to have the full measure of joy that comes through knowing Jesus.

So what does give a church joy?

Obedience to God. Jesus talked about giving glory and joy, giving God joy,

giving God glory, following his words, being united in love,

and carrying out his mission.

That's what glorifies God. That's what gives Jesus joy, and that's what gives us joy.

And all these things are only possible as we pray together for our church and pastor.

I believe that our church can be absolutely transformed. I believe we can get

to a point where there are no seats available, not by taking seats away.

By people coming into the mission and the presence of God.

How does that happen? It happens when the people of the church confess their

waywardness in not doing what God wants us to do.

And we come together and we repent of our prayerlessness and we get on our knees

in fervent and covenantal prayer for God to glorify himself in and through us.

It will come through men and women who are covenanting together to be together in prayer.

So remember this, when we work, we work. But when we pray, God works.

Let's stand in closing. Heavenly Father, we are reminded through the story of

Aaron and her lifting up the hands of Moses that we need to be a people who

are lifting up the hands of all of us around.

We need to be a praying people. We need to be a people that is asking,

continually asking you to manifest yourself among us. Father, we want to be changed.

We want to be renewed. nude. We want to be transformed. We want to be confessional

people who know that it needs us, you need us to come to you for forgiveness and power and glory.

We want to be like Peter and the apostles on that day when we spend the time

in prayer and then as we begin to preach wherever we are. These were lay people,

Father. They were not pastors.

Wherever we are, where we're teaching the Word of God and showing the evidence

of Christ in our life, Father, we want to know that there There will be thousands

come to you, and it only begins with one. May we be your people.

In Jesus' name, amen.