Over the next five weeks we will be studying five foundational essentials that existed in the New Testament church. This would be the church that existed in the years immediately following the return of Jesus Christ to heaven. The history of this church is recorded largely in the book of Acts. The reason it is important is that it is a record of church in its simplest form.

The church today is often cumbered with structure and traditions that have evolved over thousands of years. The church is to be a living organism, not an organization. I am basing this series on the description of the church that is found in Acts 4. Over the next few weeks we will look at the early churches:

Commitment to Prayer
Commitment to Unity
Commitment to Community
Commitment to Grace
Commitment to Ministry

If we want to be more than just a large group of people who gather on a Saturday evening and a Sunday morning we must focus on being spiritually healthy as a church. Today we are looking at one of the foundational and essential truths that a healthy church will be built on.

You cannot and will not experience the full power of God in your personal life or in the life of this church if we are not praying people and a praying church. There is no way around it. We are wasting God’s time to just show up and have our little structures and forms while denying God the ability to work like He wants to do.

He will not inhabit what we do if we don’t practice prayer. You will not experience the power of God in your own personal life if you don’t pray. Some of you wonder why you never seem to grow any closer to God, yet you do not stay in daily communication with Him. The primary purpose for prayer is to grow the most important love relationship in your life. God simply wants us to know Him. He wants us to talk with Him and share our lives with Him.

When you are in a human relationship, it will not grow without regular communication. If you don’t spend time with each other, talk to each other, share what’s on your hearts and minds, then that relationship will go nowhere. With that in mind let’s look closer at this scripture to learn a little more how prayer was vital in the early church.

There are six essentials of a healthy church regarding prayer. Let’s look at them together.

1. In a Praying Church there is recognition of the importance of prayer, and there is a spontaneous desire for prayer.

“As soon as Peter and John were let go, they went to their friends and told them what the high priests and religious leaders had said. Hearing the report, they lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer:”

Peter and John had been imprisoned, and immediately upon their release they joined the body of Christians in Jerusalem and reported on all that had been happening to them. When the Christians heard their report, what did they do? Did they hold a press conference? No they did what seemed to be as natural as breathing, they prayed. They recognized that prayer was fundamental, and not supplemental, and they all felt the same about it. Do we recognize the supreme importance of prayer and have we a spontaneous desire to unite in prayer?

Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path."

2. In a Praying Church faith looks toward God.

The prayer of the church in this story is recorded for us to read.

“O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,

'Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the LORD and against his Messiah.’

“In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

They turned their eyes away from man and from the problems on hand, and they turned to God who could solve every problem and who is in control of every situation.

       (1) He is the Sovereign Lord. Verses 24 and 28 indicate this.
       God is the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer, and He is the One who
       knows the end from the beginning.

       (2) He is a Self-Revealing Lord. Verse 25 tells us that God has spoken,
       and verses 26-27 tell us that He has spoken not only through the Prophets
       and in His Word, but finally and primarily in His Son. (Hebrews 1:1-2.)

       (3) He is a Seeing Lord. We are told this in verse 29. God does see all,
       and He waits to intervene and to accomplish His will in answer to the
       prayers of His people.

3. In a Praying Church the Great Commission is a Priority

While I believe in our mission (Leading people into a growing relationship with Christ.) it is directly connected to the mission that Christ left for the church. We are to: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing, teaching and training people in the things that God commands from His word.”

Listen to the prayer of the church as they prayed with Peter and John:

“And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.”

See how they prayed. Notice that they did not pray, "Grant that we may be kept safe"; "Grant that Peter and John may be protected"; "Lord, don't let it happen again!"; they prayed, "Lord, help us to get on with the job of proclaiming the Message.” In a praying Church the overwhelming desire of the members will be to make Christ known to a lost world.

4. In a Praying Church you should expect miracles.

“And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

My prayer has been of late, God deliver us from our lukewarmness. Deliver us from the fact that we have settled for so little of God in our lives. God is powerful and possesses the power to radically change lives. The worst thing that we can do is to give out just enough of this message to cause people to be really hungry for God but not practice it enough to see the power of God delivering people from their sinful ways!

5. In a Praying Church the Holy Spirit is there in presence and power.

“After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit...”

The Holy Spirit of God will not inhabit the lives of people who are not surrendered to God. He comes as a comforter but He also comes as a cleanser and purifier. There are some people who love to run around talking about the power of the Holy Spirit who turn and run when you begin to talk about the power of the Spirit of God to clean up your life. When we draw close to God in prayer as a church He will cleanse and clean up the areas of our life that prohibit us from being effective in our sharing of the message of Jesus Christ.

6. In a Praying Church there is a strength and power in “the Message.”

“After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.”

“Preaching,” in the context of this scripture should not be reduced to someone standing in front of others and talking. When it says, they preached the word of God with boldness, it means that the church went out boldly and with their lives, their actions, and they mouths they shared the Good News of Christ without fear.

Let me review and remember what God has done for us and continues to do through us as a church. In 2001 there were only around 275 of us that called this church our church. We were outwardly focused only to the extent that as a church changes in the way we did church were made and it opened the door for a multitude of people to come through our doors. Over the years, the staff has driven the mission and vision of this church to focus outside of its doors. We are fairly proactive and aggressive about reaching out to those who are in need, spiritually as well as economically. We are a giving church. This past Christmas we reached out to 17 families and provided them complete Christmases. We run a food pantry that is focused on building relationships not just handing out food. We reach out to schools in our neighborhood by trying to encourage teachers and in the case of Par Excellence providing uniforms for 18 kids that couldn’t afford them. There is a constant flow of help to those struggling financially and we try to build into their lives the value of budgeting and fiscal responsibility. We give away school supplies to hundreds of kids a year. We have provided a sports camp for those who might not be able to afford attending one.

We are investing in our own children, teens and families by focusing on family ministry. We are providing small groups and promoting community groups that allow people to meet other people and hopefully find some people who will do life together. We provide teaching and Bible studies for those who want to learn more. We are investing in buildings away from the Williams Street location so that we will have multiple options and sites where people can find their way to Christ. We have invested heavily in Real Life and now we are preparing yet another location in the form of The Firehouse. All of this has been done in an effort to bring Christ to more people.

This list of things we do could go on and on but there is one things about all of it that concerns me deeply. While God, I believe has opened these doors of opportunity for us as a church, there is something missing.

I know that there are some among us who pray daily and I am thankful for it but it seems that the missing ingredient to our future as a church and the source of power to see lives truly changed is prayer.

Can you imagine what God would and could do if all of those things I mentioned were bathed in prayer? Can you imagine what our church would be like if those in leadership positions and those in ministry would pray and seek God with all of their hearts?

Can you imagine what it would be like if an army of people assaulted heaven each day on behalf of this church and its ministry?

I ask you today, who will pray? Who will rise to the challenge of praying daily for this church and the people who come through our doors or those we touch in outreach? You see the sad truth is that without prayer much of what we do while admirable and even printable and noteworthy will be little more than a show if it is not surrounded and immersed in prayer.

Let me give you some reasons we should be prayers:

       1. People who pray love God
       2. People who pray love others
       3. People who pray love God’s mission on earth (Discipleship)
       4. People who pray want to be like God more than they want to be like the culture (Holiness)

Critical needs:

We need people who feel called to pray
We need people who will pray for the church and each other every day.
We need people who will lead and organize weekly times of prayer.
We need people who will carry the burdens of the church to God in prayer.

I have been reading the recently published biography of Eric Clapton. It is a sordid tale of alcohol and drug abuse, sexual promiscuity and a life long search for something to satisfy his inner soul. On page 238 I came across something that in light of my study for this sermon seems appropriate to share with you today. Clapton was at the end of himself and despairing that he would ever be free from the downward spiral of self abuse. Here is what he writes and then I will make an application to this message today:

“I was absolutely terrified and in complete despair. At that moment, almost of their own accord, my legs gave way and I fell to my knees. In the privacy of my room I begged for help. I had no notion who I though I was talking to, I just knew that I had come to the end of my tether. I had nothing left to fight with. Then I remembered what I had heard about surrender, something I thought I could never do, my pride just wouldn’t allow it, but I knew that on my own I wasn’t going to make it, so I asked for help, and getting down my knees, I surrendered.

Within a few days I realized that something had happened for me. An atheist would probably say it was just a change of attitude, and to a certain extent that’s true, but there is much more to it than that. I had found a place to turn to, a place I’d always known was there but never really wanted, or needed, to believe in. From that day till this, I have never failed to pray in the morning, on my knees, asking for help, and at night, to express my gratitude for my life and, most of all for my sobriety. I choose to kneel because I feel I need to humble myself when I pray, and with my ego, this is the most I can do.

If you ask me why I do all this, I will tell you. . . because it works, as simple as that. In all this time I have been sober, I have never once seriously thought about taking a drink or a drug. I grew up with a strong curiosity about spiritual matters, but my searching took me away from church and community worship to the internal journey. Before my recovery, I found God in the music and the arts. . . in some way God was always there, but now I have learned to talk to him.”

The point of that illustration is not to glorify nor endorse the lifestyle or religious experience of Eric Clapton. Here is what sent me to my knees. Most every one of us in this room has been touched by the life changing power of God. We profess to be followers of Christ. Most of us own multiple bibles and say that God is our Father.

Yet I would wager that most of us in this room have little contact with God on a daily basis. You see prayer is hard work and it is easy to drift away from it yet if we don’t pray as a church we might as well close the doors because we will do more harm than good. Here is Clapton who disciplines himself everyday to get on his knees and I am asking God where is your church?

As your pastor I am asking for some of you to take this seriously and start praying like you have never prayed before. Begin by asking God to renew a hunger in your heart and soul to know Him again.

Pastor Jim Cymbala, in his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, tells how God answered fervent prayer on behalf of his daughter. He writes: “Our oldest daughter, Chrissy, had been a model child growing up. But around age sixteen she started to stray,…not only from us but also away from God. In time, she even left our home. There were many nights when we had no idea where she was.

As the situation grew more serious, I tried everything. I begged, I pleaded, I scolded, I argued, I tried to control her with money,…nothing worked! She just hardened more and more.

While this was going on, (my wife) Carol needed an operation. (During the post-surgical depression that followed), the devil took the opportunity to come after her and say, ‘You have a big choir, and you’re making albums and doing outreaches at Radio City music Hall. Fine, you and your husband can go ahead to reach the world for Christ—but I’m going to have your children. I’ve already got the first one. I’m coming after the next two!’…One day (Carol) said to me, ‘Listen, we need to leave New York. I’m serious. This atmosphere has already swallowed up our daughter. We can’t keep raising our kids here!’

Then in November, …I received a call from a pastor friend I had persuaded Chrissy to talk to. He said, ‘Jim I love you and Carol, but Chrissy is going to do what Chrissy wants to do. She’s eightenn. She’s determined. You have to accept what she decides. You don’t have much choice!’

I hung up the phone. I couldn’t accept Chrissy being away from the Lord!

God strongly impressed me that I was to converse with no one but God. In fact, I should have no further contact with Chrissy—until God acted! Christmas came and it was nearly impossible to keep my composure, trying to open presents with the other children and no Chrissy. February came. One cold Tuesday night during prayer meeting, I talked from Acts 4 about how the church boldly calling on God in the face of persecution. We entered into a time of prayer, everyone reaching out to the Lord simultaneously.

An usher handed me a note. A young woman whom I felt to be spiritually sensitive had written: ‘Pastor Cymbala, I feel impressed that we should stop the meeting and all pray for your daughter.’

In a few minutes I picked up the microphone and told the congregation what had just happened. ‘The truth of the matter,’ I said, ‘although I haven’t talked much about it, is that my daughter is very far from God these days. She thinks up is down and down is up; dark is light and light is dark. But I know God can break through to her, and so I’m going to ask Pastor Boestaaf to lead us in prayer for Chrissy. Let’s all join hands across the sanctuary.’

To describe what happened in the next few minutes, I can only imply a metaphor: There church turned into a labor room…. There arose a groaning, a sense of desperate determination, as if to say, ‘Satan, you will NOT have this girl! Take your hands off!’ When I got home that night, I said (to Carol), ‘It’s over!’‘What’s over?’ she wondered.

‘It’s over with Chrissy…I tell you, if there is a God in Heaven, this whole nightmare is finally over!’Thirty-two hours later…as I was shaving, Carol burst through the door. ‘Go downstairs!’ she blurted. ‘Chrissy’s here! It’s you she wanted to see!’

I wiped off the shaving foam and headed down the stairs, my heart pounding. As I came around the corner, I saw my daughter on the kitchen floor, rocking on her hands and knees, sobbing. Cautiously I spoke her name.

‘Chrissy?’

She grabbed my pantleg and began pouring out her anguish. ‘Daddy—Daddy—I’ve sinned against God. I’ve sinned against myself. I’ve sinned against you and Mommy. Please forgive me—‘

Then suddenly she drew back. ‘Daddy,’ she said with a start, ‘who was praying for me? Who was praying for me?’ Her voice was like that of a cross-examining attorney.

‘What do you mean, Chrissy?’

‘On Tuesday night, Daddy—who was praying for me? In the middle of the night, God woke me up and showed me I was heading toward this abyss. There was no bottom to it—it scared me to death. I was so fightened. I realized how hard I’ve been, how wrong, how rebellious. But at the same time, it was like God wrapped His arms around me and held me tight. He kept me from sliding any farther as He said, I still love you! Who was praying for me Tuesday night?”