One Church (Acts 2) 3- United In Prayer

Good to see you this morning.

I hope everybody had a great week.

Hope everybody had a great memorial day and a great four-day work week.

I think we ought to make that a permanent thing.

That's just my opinion there.

But if you're new with us or you haven't been with us uh for a long time, we're in the part of the summer where Pastor Brandon takes a little bit of a break and he takes a sabbatical to pray and to uh think about direction and to recharge the batteries and such.

And so we are in that part of the summer, and during that time our teaching team comes together and they fill in the gaps, and so that's why you're seeing me up here today and not Pastor Brandon.

If I haven't ever gotten to meet you before, if you've not been here on one of the days that I've been teaching, my name is Brandon Gillum, and it's an honor to be a part of this church, and it's an honor to be a part of the teaching team as well.

I've been coming to RLC for I have no idea.

I should have thought of that before I said that.

I have no idea how long I've been here.

Quite a while.

My whole family comes here.

Uh, we followed my mother-in-law over here, and she used to be the children's pastor here.

She's great, and now my entire family comes here, and it is so good to be able to come in on Sunday mornings and to worship with them.

And it's so good to be able to come in on Sunday mornings and worship with you as well.

We're going to be continuing this morning in the series that we've been in for the last couple weeks called One Church.

But before we get into that, I want to give you a couple announcements that I almost forgot about.

First off, if you have a student and your student is between the grades of 6 and 12, it is not too late to sign up for Student Life Camp.

You can find information about that at the Welcome Center.

Uh stop, stop there and get information about that.

Also, the second thing is that our life group launch is today.

Amen.

Amen.

They launched today, and that's amazing.

But if you haven't gotten in one, it's not too late for that, too.

So you can check the board, find an open life group spot, and we'd love to have you in there as well.

Uh, our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade also, if you notice, came to worship with us this morning.

And so they took a little bit of time to get out in the back there, but they're going to be coming to worship with us from now on as we uh do the songs in the morning.

You'll see them in the back few roads there.

That's amazing as well.

Now that they've left, I want to start you off with a story here about my middle son, Carter.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the message.

I tried to fit it in, I tried to find a spot for it, but I'm just calling it the icebreaker.

But I got to tell you this.

This week he was helping clean some gutters for uh a neighbor of ours.

And uh he was with a friend, and they were they were taking turns getting up on the ladder and clearing the gutters out.

And he said, Um, you know, his friend asked him, Carter, how'd you get so how'd you get to be so smart?

You know, he's he's a an older friend.

He said, How'd you get to be so smart?

Where'd you get those smarts?

And so Carter's up there on the ladder and he's cleaning out the gutters, and and I could see him in my mind thinking he's he's a little genius, but uh he's thinking up there and he says, you know, he said, My dad's probably smarter, but my mom's more successful.

Yes.

My nine-year-old, that's what he thinks about me.

I don't know, I mean, I don't know if I'm offended or if that's a great thing.

So Lydia is very successful, and I'm fooling everybody.

So all right, before we get into God's word together, uh, like I said, we're gonna be in the one church series again that we've been in the last couple of weeks.

And if you've got your Bible with you, we're going through Acts chapter two, and specifically this series is themed by looking at verse 42.

Now, if I were to give you a breakdown of Acts chapter 2, this is a very pivotal moment in the Bible.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Okay, this is a very important story.

There's a lot of things going on here, and two very important things that happen that I want you to realize.

If you remember when Chris in the first week read Acts chapter 2 to us, this is where the disciples are baptized with fire.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This is where the Holy Spirit comes into the picture, and the apostles are finally introduced to this helper that Jesus is telling them about.

And also, the second most important thing is that this is the start of or the birth of the New Testament church.

So the apostles in Acts chapter 2, the apostles are all gathered in this one place, in this one house, and they're celebrating what's called Pentecost.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And Pentecost in the Old Testament was a celebration of God's provision over the harvest and over the crops.

And the chapter tells us that this roaring wind, this loud wind from heaven, came down and descended upon this house.

Okay?

And then tongues of fire came down and fell upon the apostles.

And a lot of times when you see a picture of it, this is what, this is the generated picture that you get.

You see this, these tongues of fire that are coming down, and all the apostles are are standing there and they're all smiling and they're in this house.

But that's not what the Bible says happens.

The Bible says that this roaring wind from heaven, this violent wind happened.

Now, I'm a firefighter, so it is not lost on me what happens when wind is introduced to fire.

It intensifies everything.

The flames intensify, the heat intensifies.

And the Bible tells it that this was a loud enough noise that everybody came running from around.

Everybody heard the noise.

This is probably more like what it looked like.

It was a scary situation.

And I don't know why I put all the rocks and stuff in there, and it it also put them in a cave, it looks like they were in a house.

But this is probably more like what it looked like.

It was scary.

And it is not lost on me that if we were there during that time, during the original descent of the Holy Spirit, you would know exactly what it meant to fear God.

You would be in awe of his power.

That's the kind of event that happened in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And then it goes on to say that all the disciples began speaking these different languages, languages that they had never heard before or never known before.

And people from all around came and heard their native languages.

Now, there's a few very important things that I want to point out to you here that happened.

During the time of Pentecost, this is important, there would have been many nationalities and many different people that gathered in Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost.

That's what makes the idea of them, the happening of them speaking in different languages so important.

All these people came to the house and heard their native languages that nobody in this region should have known.

And they were able to understand then the word of God.

So the disciples were tasked with spreading the good news of Jesus at this time.

This allowed them to be able to do that.

This is the fulfillment of the prophecy that Jesus was talking about when he said, I will send a helper for you.

The Holy Spirit is the helper.

And the third very significant thing is that it says that 3,000 people or more believed what the apostles had said and joined among them.

That's the birth of the New Testament church, those original group of people.

And so the theme or the idea of the series one church is focusing on these few key things that we hear about in verse 42.

And verse 42 says that all of the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to sharing of meals and to prayer.

And the first week, Chris focused on the teaching he walked us through is unity in God's word.

Unity in the apostles' teaching.

Now we have God's word.

And last week, Pastor Derek taught on the fellowship portion as he talked about the importance of unity in the community together.

Fellowship, sharing of meals.

Now we're in the third week, and I want to talk to you about what it means to be one church in the last part of this verse.

One church in prayer.

And if it's okay, we're going to talk about that.

And we're going to talk about what it means to be a strong church that prays together and is unified in prayer.

But I also want to take this opportunity to dive a little bit deeper into the subject of prayer by itself.

And my hope is that when we leave here today and we go through these things together, we'll be able to answer some questions about prayer, but we'll also walk out of here with a respect for the importance of what it means to be one church that prays together.

There's power in that.

There's power in groups of the body of Christ that get together and pray together.

So here's the questions that I want us to look at today is this what is prayer?

What does it mean?

What is it?

How should we pray?

When should we pray?

And then finally, why is it that we pray?

So let's talk about first what prayer actually looks like biblically.

Biblically, what is prayer supposed to be?

What are we doing in prayer?

See, I feel like a lot of times prayer for us, and I know for me certainly, it becomes sort of like uh an Amazon shopping cart of things that we want from God.

Until we need them, until we want them, we never open that app.

We never look at it.

But then when we when we do open the app, when we finally want it, we want it to be quick and easy, and we want it right now, at the footstep of our door.

Expedite the shipping on that prayer, please.

That's Amazon prayer.

And that's what prayer is a lot of times to us.

That's kind of what it becomes.

Or maybe you'll hear of a friend or an acquaintance on social media or on Facebook, and they say, Well, I need I need some prayer for this.

Or I'm struggling with this.

And then so prayer to us becomes this response to them on the internet where we send them some prayer emojis or some praise hands.

That's Facebook prayer.

Maybe, maybe if you're a devout friend, you'll close your eyes for a second and say, Lord, I pray for so and so.

Watch over so and so.

But for most of us, that's the extent of it.

Or maybe we sit at the dinner table together, and we sit at the dinner table and we say, Lord, thank you for this day, thank you for this food, bless it to the nourishments of our body.

Or we we teach our kids these great rhyming prayers, right?

Which I'm not knocking.

But those prayers that are meant for our children to turn their hearts to God first and foremost become our go-to as well, don't they?

Let's say the the kids' prayer tonight.

Let's get it done so we can eat.

To most of us, that's the extent of our prayer life.

And I know we do these things because I do these things.

That's the truth of it.

We're busy.

We have full days.

We've got to be here or there, or I've got to get this done.

And for me, in those moments, they're usually followed by great conviction.

And that's when I hear the Holy Spirit speak the loudest.

And a lot of times the Holy Spirit is saying, Oh, too much on your plate.

Whose fault is that?

Or is that really important?

Or are you doing that for me?

Or are you doing that for you?

Or maybe he just says, slow down.

Slow down and pray.

So what is it then that prayer is supposed to be?

And it's simple, in its simplest definition, is it is it just become a request for us?

Is it just a list of wants?

Because for me, a lot of times I find that it's my worries and my pain, my sickness, and my need, and my desires, and my wants, and my me stuff.

And I'm not saying that's all bad.

I mean, the Bible does say bring everything before the Lord, bring all your requests before the Lord.

But I think that prayer at its fullest and at its greatest intent in the Bible means so much more than just a list of desires and requests from God.

It's about worship.

It's about worship at the same time that you're crying out.

It's a lament.

Prayer is about confession and repentance.

Prayer should be as much listening as it is you speaking.

It's a gratitude, it is a direction.

It's seeking his will, it's seeking God's direction.

And it becomes this intimate conversation.

And the Bible says that prayer is not limited to simply words.

In scripture, prayer includes conversations, and it includes groanings, it's songs, it's tears, it's silence, and a lot of times it's just your focused thoughts toward God.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, 8, your father knows what you need before you even ask him.

Your father knows what you need before you even ask him.

So I tell you, you are doing God no favors.

Slow down.

Be intentional.

And here's what I want you to know focused prayer produces focused action.

And if you slow your prayer life down, you will notice your life start to slow down, and you will begin to have focused action on what's really important.

So then, if prayer is all of these things and any of these things all at once, how should we be praying?

There are all different types of prayer.

Simple conversation is great, and that's what most of us turn to.

Prayer should be intentional.

There are a bunch of great biblical resources on how to pray.

Some people journal, some people keep an ongoing prayer list or a prayer request list.

Those are great.

And structured prayer is a great way to start your prayer life.

Having structure in your prayers keeps your quiet time intentional and keeps it on that focus that I'm talking about.

So I want us to walk through one quick example of a structured prayer.

Okay?

And what a better way than the Lord's Prayer, the one that Jesus teaches us in the Bible.

Such a great thing to let the Lord's prayer be your temperate template.

The Lord's prayer says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Anybody know the last part?

Anybody?

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

You know that's not part of the Lord's Prayer.

Not in there.

When Jesus says it, that's from 1 Colossians, I think.

So just a little tidbit there for you.

So the Lord's Prayer says, Our Father who is in heaven.

This is the greeting.

Let's break that down together.

The opening that starts your prayer.

This is the initiation of your conversation in prayer.

Does God need you to do this?

Does God need to know that you're about to talk to him?

No, he doesn't.

But it is important because this part, the opening, the greeting to God, this postures your heart.

This reminds you who you're about to talk to.

The creator of all the heavens and the earth, God the Father.

You are about to pray with the good the one good true King.

And the Lord's Prayer says, Our Father who is in heaven.

Isaiah 65, 24 says, I will answer them before they even call to me.

I will answer them before they even call out to me.

And while they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers.

This first shows God's eagerness to talk to us.

He knows what we need.

He knows because he's always working for you.

Not for you, but for you.

But he waits for you to come to him.

He waits for you to say his name.

He's a father eager eagerly waiting to hear from his children.

He wants us, you and I, to seek him out.

He wants to hear from you.

And this is evident in James 4.8.

James 4.8 says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Did you know that God is only referred to like 15 times as Father in the Old Testament of the Bible?

About 15 times.

In the New Testament, he's returned referred to as Father or referenced as Father over a hundred and fifty times.

And if you remember in the Old Testament, God chose to dwell, or His presence with the people was in the temple, or it was in the tabernacle, or it became known as the Holy of Holies.

He would reveal his presence to them in this place.

And where this was was on the innermost part of the temple.

So this is a rendering of what Solomon's temple may have looked like.

And this would be considered the Holy of Holies, the very most center part.

This would be the Ark of the Covenant, and God's presence, the Bible says, rested between the cherubim on top, the mercy seat.

And that's where in the Old Testament the people of God would find his presence.

And this whole entire area, from the outer courtyard to the innermost holy of holies, this part that you see, you wouldn't have seen.

It would have been covered by a veil.

And the Bible says, a veil made of all these materials as thick as your hand, as thick as the human hand.

That's a huge curtain.

Look how big this area is.

And it was thick.

And God's presence was made known in this place.

And only one person could ever enter in the presence of God.

And it was the high priest.

And the high priest could only go into the presence of God one time a year.

And that one time a year was during the Day of Atonement.

And if you remember, the Bible says, if you were to come into the presence of God with any sin in your life, any unatoned for sin, you would fall dead instantly.

And so what they would do, the high priest would take the week before the Day of Atonement, and he would begin cleansing his life, confessing his sins, making sacrifices to atone for his sins, and they would burn incense to create a cloud around the presence of God.

And then the high priest would enter into the presence of God to speak for all the people, to speak for everyone.

And they would even tie a rope around the priest.

So if he got in there, should he have any unconfessed sin and he fell dead, then they could pull him out.

Because they wouldn't go in there and get him.

And now some would say maybe that's a little cruel that God would do that.

It's not.

It's his nature.

Just as fire consumes what is flammable, just as light consumes dark, God's holiness wipes sin.

It cannot coexist with sin.

This was so important.

One man would enter one day a year to talk to the presence of God.

And we know that when Jesus came and he hung on the cross and he gave up his life for us, the Bible says that a great earthquake came.

And the veil, the veil of the temple, here as thick as your hand, torn in two to symbolize that now all people, you and I, priests, third grade teachers, plumbers, everybody had access to the presence of God.

All of us.

That is what is happening in Acts two.

The Holy Spirit, the presence of God being made opened for us.

The importance of the word father, then takes on a whole different meaning.

He made a way for us to be with him, to be not only just the presence of God, but to be a father.

And there's an analogy that's often used.

I'm sure you've heard it before, maybe you haven't, but it kind of uh it kind of illustrates what the Old Testament was like versus what the New Testament is.

And it's I don't even know who said it, but it says, a servant that approaches a king with fear for a cup of water, but a child will climb into his father's lap in the middle of the night just to tell him he's thirsty.

That's us, the children of God.

And it says, Our Father in heaven, the greeting.

Hallowed be thy name.

How great is your name, O God.

This is where you give praise to God.

This is where you insert gratitude.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thank you, Lord, for fill in the blank.

Fill in the blank.

Tell him all you're grateful for.

If you cannot find something to be grateful for, you have not searched yourself hard enough.

Every single breath you take is a gift.

Every breath you should be grateful.

Every single breath, he is worthy of your praise.

And then it goes on to say, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Lord, we eagerly await your arrival.

Your will be done, Father.

Here's what I might say, Lord, I'm struggling with this decision.

I think this is the direction that you want me to go, but I'm seeking your will.

I'm listening, Lord.

Speak to my heart and continue to guide me in what you would have me do.

Let me not serve myself, but let me seek you out in all I do.

Keep me humble.

Search my heart.

Search my heart for pride.

I seek to carry the cross that you've provided for me.

And then it goes on give us this day our daily bread.

This is grateful for provision.

Lord, your provision over me and my family is a blessing, a blessing that we don't deserve.

Thank you for continuing to watch over us and provide for us.

Lord, should there be a need that I'm to fill today, please bring it to my attention.

Please help me to see the needs of others and provide as you've provided for me.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Forgive us our sins.

Lord, my sins are many.

I'm sorry for fill in the blank.

This is my longest part.

I'm sorry, Lord, for all of these things.

And like gratitude, if you don't have anything to put here, you have not searched hard enough.

I promise you do.

And the next part of the prayer is always the hardest for me.

Forgive those who sinned against us.

And this is a section where I always try and pray for somebody I just don't want to.

Somebody I'm just not right with.

But I promise you, if you will struggle through it and you will pray for them, it will be rewarding to you.

Release all of your anger, release all of your frustration and prayers over them.

Do it for them, and it will change you.

It is difficult to do, but it is very, very rewarding.

And it's a part of the prayer that Jesus Himself gives to us.

Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one.

This one's easy.

Lord, help me to put on your full armor today.

Protect me from the enemy, Lord.

Help me to discern when to fight, when to battle, and when to flee.

Help me to see sin, Lord.

Help me to not let the enemy take a foothold today.

That's a template of the Lord's Prayer.

And then at the very end, before you say Amen, but only after gratitude, only after gratitude and after your repentance, after your forgiveness for others, then God bring bring everything.

Your requests, your desires, the things that you feel that you need.

And then at the very end, just listen.

Just stop and sit in silence in the presence of God, the gift that has been given to you.

Just wait.

Slow down and just listen.

And there are several other biblical templates for prayer.

There's templates that actually walk through the um the temple and do prayers according to the parts of the temple.

And you can look those up.

But sometimes it is just easier to focus during your quiet time if you have a structure.

And I think it postures your heart right for that time.

It keeps you from rushing through it.

And then it always starts you with gratitude and forgiveness first.

And forgiveness is important.

Actually, it says in Matthew 6, 14.

This is the very, very next verse after Jesus talks about the Lord's Prayer.

This is the next verse.

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

That's the very next verse after the prayer he gives us.

That's how important it is.

That hurts.

Did you know that in the Bible there's actually eight very specific things that God points out as to why your prayers aren't being answered?

Anyone ever thought about that before?

Anyone ever?

I mean, I know that I've diligently put in the prayer time before, and I thought, man, I thought this is exactly where I was supposed to be going.

I thought this is exactly what I should be doing.

And I'm just not hearing anything.

I'm not feeling anything.

Let me list them for you, and I want you to take a look at these.

These are eight ways in the or eight reasons in the Bible your prayers may not be being answered.

And God lays them out to us.

If I had thought about it in time, I wanted to print these out on little um, you know, business cards and give them to you guys so you can be thinking about them.

But when you're praying, think about these things.

Take a picture of it.

Think about these things in your heart as you pray.

As you pray.

The first one is maybe it's because you didn't ask.

James 4, 2, you have not because you asked not.

You may not have received because you didn't ask.

Does God need to know what you need?

No, he knows.

But he wants you to ask.

He wants you to seek him out.

He wants to partner with you on how important that is in your life.

If you need something, ask for it.

You have not because you ask not.

Number two, your prayer may be going unheard because of unconfessed sin or cherished sin.

Psalm 66, 18.

If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

That's important.

Now I'm not talking about the sins that you commit unintentionally or advertently or inadvertently every now and then.

I mean, these are, the Bible says, cherished sins.

These are the ones that you feel conviction for, but you don't do anything about.

These are the ones that you're making your excuses for.

These are the ones that you hold deep in your heart.

They're locked away in the box and you don't want anybody to know about them.

These are the ones that you're that you're living in.

That's what cherished sin is.

And sometimes God will point to that sin to call correction.

And sometimes he'll let your prayers go silent to draw your attention to what you need to change first.

Number three is your prayers may not be an answer because you have doubt.

James 1, 6.

But when you ask him, be sure your faith is in God alone.

Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty, is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed in the wind.

Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Do you have doubt in your life?

Or is your faith fully in God?

Are you trying to do the things yourself first?

And then if that doesn't work, then you'll ask God?

Or do you ask God first and let his will be done in your life?

Number four, your prayers may go unheard because you have the wrong motives.

James 4, 3.

And even when you ask, you do not get it because your motives are all wrong.

You only want what will give you pleasure.

In other words, don't take the Lord's name in vain.

Don't put God's name on something in your life that He didn't give to you.

He's not gonna give you the lottery and a Lamborghini.

Let me just tell you up front, that's not the way he works.

That is a pleasure.

That is not a need.

Wrong motives.

God may not grant your prayers because you ignore the needs of others.

Are you generous?

Proverbs 21:13.

Proverbs 21:13

Those who shut their eyes to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need.

That is from the Bible.

Men only.

This is for you men.

I have to check this one all the time.

Your wives are your equal partner and get in uh in God a gift of new life.

Treat her as you should, so your prayers should not be hindered.

Men, you're married to the daughter of the Most High King.

If you are not treating her correctly, God says, Don't even think about it.

Treat your wife as she should be treated.

Number seven, the unforgiveness thing.

The unforgiveness thing that we talked about.

Holding unforgiveness in your heart.

Matthew 6, 14.

Reflect on these things.

There's one that's not up here.

One more I want to add to you.

This has happened a lot in my life.

God may not be answering your prayers simply because He's got something better for you.

You may not know what's best for you.

And sometimes He's got something different planned for you.

Check these eight things when you're praying.

Do I have any of these?

Did I ask right?

Am I cherishing sin?

Am I living in doubt?

Do I have the wrong motives?

Have I been generous to others?

Have I ignored others' needs that God's put in front of me?

Am I treating my wife right?

Do I have forgiveness?

So then when do we pray?

When is the best time to pray?

Here's my suggestion.

The moment you open your eyes, start praying.

Then don't stop until you fall asleep at night.

That's what the Bible says, right?

1 Thessalonians 5 17, Paul writes this rejoice always, pray without ceasing.

Give thanks in all circumstances.

Pray without ceasing.

What did Paul mean by that?

I don't think this is really a verbal prayer that you're praying all day from the moment that you open your eyes until the moment that you fall asleep at night.

I would say more that Paul is talking about in this passage that we should be in constant communion with God throughout the day.

I'm going to give you a very cheesy example of what I mean by this.

But it illustrates exactly what I think Paul is talking about here.

When my wife and I uh started dating, and we started talking back and forth, I was in the military.

So my wife and I, before we met, wrote letters back and forth.

It's actually how we met each other, old school snail mail.

So we were writing letters back and forth, and I was serving overseas, and eventually those letters turned to email.

And we would email back and forth.

But we didn't do phone calls because we were hours and hours apart.

And so I looked forward to letters and emails.

And in my head, continuously, I would always think, I wonder what she really sounds like.

I know what she sounds like in my head.

I know as she's talking to me up here, but I wonder what she's she really sounds like.

And so it built up this anticipation when I got back to the States of the first time that I was actually going to hear her voice, the first time that I was going to talk to her.

And we did talk the very first night that I got back to the States uh for seven and a half hours.

Never sounded nothing like what she sounded like in my head.

But maybe you did this with your spouse when you first met.

Me and Lydia stayed up, this cheesy, sorry, Lydia.

Stayed up probably for seven and a half hours on the phone.

And you can't fill conversation for seven and a half hours.

It's not what we did.

We just didn't want to hang up.

We would fall asleep for a little bit.

It'd be 2:30, 3 in the morning, we'd fall asleep for a little bit, and then I'd wake up or she'd wake up and I'd hear, oh, I can hear breathing.

And we'd go back to sleep and we'd stay on the phone.

And we did that probably for the first two, three weeks that we were getting to know each other.

And I think that illustrates exactly the communion with God that we need to have.

You're not in verbal communication the entire time, but your first thought is always who's on the other line?

God first.

Always talking to him.

And that's exactly what Lydia and I, as a matter of fact, my first phone bill was like$780 something dollars.

Yes.

This is back when we paid by the minute, folks.

Yeah.

And free nights and weekends.

That's a scam.

Don't ever fall into that one.

Just so you know, if you ever get called into free nights and weekends, I don't even think they do it anymore.

One very important lesson I could teach you is at 7 o'clock when your night starts, you must hang up and recall back.

Just so you know.

There's the scam.

Yeah.

$780.

But absolutely the best money I've ever spent.

So that's what you do when you love somebody.

When you love somebody, their silence, that communion with them in silence is just as important as anything that you could ever be saying.

So what would change in your life if God was a continual part of your prayer and a continual part of your day?

What if we lived letting a little bit of our life into our relationship with God instead of letting a little bit of God into our relationship with life?

Does that make sense?

What if your prayers became a daily discipline before they became a desperation?

What if you did it every day before you desperately needed something from God?

You know who prays well?

You know who's a model for good prayer?

The Muslim community.

Prayer to them is an important part of their culture.

You gotta give it to them.

They are devoted.

They're devout and they're religious.

Prayer and fasting to them has always been a part of their culture and it's ingrained into them since they were kids.

As a matter of fact, you could almost say that it's sort of that blind devotion that prevents being able to see the truth.

But imagine, imagine if that kind of community could come together and pray the truth and pray to Jesus.

A converted Muslim to Christian is a prayer warrior.

It is ingrained in them.

Matthew 6, 6 says this, when you pray, go into your room and close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.

Your father who sees it done in secret will reward you.

Do you have a quiet place?

Do you have someplace you go and shut the door?

Do you go outside?

Do you go someplace with your coffee and do you sit in silence and do you listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit?

Do you make that time during the day?

Are you able to pray and just sit still?

So then, when should we pray?

I would say every single moment made available to do so throughout the day.

Every moment you can talk to God.

He is the only thing that matters.

Not your job, not your worries, not your regrets.

But what he has for you is the only thing that you need to hear.

So then some would say, Why pray?

If God already knows everything and God's sovereign over everything already, which he is, then what's the point?

Why pray?

The simplest Sunday school answer that I can give to you is because he said so.

Because you're commanded to, because it's for your own good, it's for your own benefit, and because you're given the opportunity to talk and sit in.

Presence of the creator of the universe.

You're invited into the everlasting presence of God every single day.

Charles Spurgeon said this.

This is a quote.

Prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance.

It is far deeper than that.

It is a spiritual transaction with the creator of heaven and earth.

Prayer is our benefit.

We live in a world where the world and the flesh of this world are desperately trying to tear us apart.

And prayer as a community, as a church, and as a body of Christ is what brings us together.

Prayer will turn our minds and our hearts on each other's knees.

It focuses the heart on the will of God.

Prayer will increase your spiritual discipline.

It is your invitation to be heard.

It makes you able to vent, to release worry.

It's mission-mindedness.

It aligns the human will with God's will.

It's intimate.

It's emotional.

It's worshipful.

But it is also commanding.

Prayer is your God-given offensive attack on the enemy.

To call down the name of Jesus and to wage war against the things of darkness in this world, the things that are hurting your life, prayer is your protection and it's your peace.

And there are so many reasons to pray.

But if you can't think of any other reason at all, why not just pray because he's worthy?

Because he is worthy of every single breath that we have.

Surely that is enough to pray.

There's an account in the Bible, you've probably heard the story, it's Genesis 18 and 19, if you want to go back and read it later, but it's a conversation between a man named Abraham and God.

And Abraham stands with God and they discuss the outcome of a city, Sodom and Gomorrah.

And Sodom and Gomorrah at the time was a town that had completely lost itself to sin.

There was no evidence of God there between the people.

And God was to destroy the people and the city as punishment of that sin.

And Abraham has the courage to stand in the presence of God and plead for these people.

Awful people.

People that are doing wrong things.

People that don't care and don't love God.

And Abraham goes back and forth with God and pleads for mercy with these people.

And he says, Lord, what if I could find 50 people?

Would you save the city?

And God agrees.

And then it says, Well, what if I could only find 45?

Surely you wouldn't destroy them then.

And then 30.

And then 20.

And he says, Well, what if I could find 10 righteous?

What would you say then?

And there weren't even 10 righteous people in the city that could be found.

But one man stood in the presence of God and pleaded for them, anyways, on their behalf.

Because the lives of every single person in the city depended on it.

And Martin Luther once said, to be a Christian without prayer is as impossible as it is to be alive without breathing.

And I wonder, what would happen if we could come together as a church and we could pray together in the presence of God the same way that Abraham did?

What would happen if one church could unify in prayer together as if the lives of the people in their city depended on it?

What would happen?

Because it does.

It certainly matters.

Would it be worth it if we could save 30?

What about 20 lives?

Is that worth it?

10?

What if it was just one life?

Just as Jesus did for us.

When Jesus said to God, what if I could give you one righteous life?

Would you save them then?

And he did.

Would you pray then?

One church and one prayer for one life.

Because somebody did it for me once.

And I promise you, somebody is doing it for you as well.

And that's why we pray.

There is power in a church that will unify themselves and pray together and plead for the people of this world to see the goodness of God.

Let's do that this morning, church.

If you'll bow your heads with me.

Lord, let us sit here in the stillness of your presence.

Lord, we plead for mercy on this world that has lost themselves.

I ask for mercy in my own life, Father.

My sins are many, and my sins are great.

I'm sorry for every time that I fall short of your glory.

Unify us, Lord.

Make us one church that is mission-minded toward you.

I thank you for sending your son Jesus to die on the cross, Father, to tear the veil away and allow us the opportunity to come together on Sunday mornings, 2,000 years later, and just sit in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

That it would be important enough to you to be in this place with us.

Thank you, Father, that you've never forgotten about us.

That you've never let us fall away to our own sins.

That you've always given us the second chances that we don't deserve, Lord.

I pray for everybody under the sound of my voice, Father, that you would just rain down blessings upon them, Father, fill them with the Holy Spirit and open their hearts to see your goodness and the greatness of your gift of grace.

We ask these things in your Son's name.

Amen.

We're going to worship together one more time.

This is a very important part of the service.

And I think that we don't get up out of our seats enough and come and simply kneel before the Lord.

If you've never given your life to Christ, today is a very important day.

Do not wait.

The Bible says that He will return soon.

If you would like to unify with somebody in prayer, we've got people back at the prayer table.

You can step back there and they would love to partner with you in prayer.

If you would like to come up to the altar and kneel down and pray, you don't have to be accepting Jesus today.

You don't even have to need anything today.

What if we came together and prayed today just because we have the opportunity to?

Just because he is worthy.

Let's do that today.

Will you stand with me as we worship together?