The early Church was deeply devoted to fervent prayer. They assembled in mass numbers, by hundreds and later by thousands, to pray together in the temple courts. Acts 3:1 tells us that Peter and John went up together to the temple at a preset hour for prayer. It was their custom! The early Church also assembled in medium sized groups to pray. The book of Acts begins in Acts 1:13-14 with one hundred twenty believers meeting in the upper room. They also assembled in small, life-giving groups. They prayed in their homes. This is evident in the Acts 2:42-47 snapshot of the early Church. Following the example of Jesus, we can also assume that they prayed in solitude, in private places free from distraction and in their prayer closets.
Prayer was a distinct component of the early Church's identity. They prayed powerfully and effectively. They prayed and God shook the foundation and walls of their gathering places. They prayed and lives were transformed. They prayed and the Church swelled in numbers. They obviously couldn't pray enough. They were compulsive prayer warriors. They were addicted to prayer. No one had to beg them to come to a prayer meeting.
But let's not forget that prayer was only one of a series of commitments that they made. The Acts 2 snapshot reminds us that they also devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching of the word of God, to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread in worship. No one aspect of their religious devotion was neglected. They weren't just about prayer, or teaching, or fellowship, or worship. They pursued all four commitments with equal dedication.
As I thought about this, I found myself asking a few questions. What if the early Church only hit on one cylinder? What if they just prayed, while neglecting any of the other three areas?
Prayer and devotion to God's word.
What if they were devoted to prayer, but not to the careful study of God's word? We know that the word of God is an anchor for our lives and for our faith. But what if we just cut loose from our anchor? What if we prayed, but never really took time to consider God's word?
Well, this is exactly what many Christians do. We pray, but rarely sift the scriptures. We talk to God and tell him everything on our minds, but we close ourselves to hearing him speak to us through his word. We close ourselves off to hearing God by not studying the Bible for ourselves, by not doing daily devotions, by failing to memorize scripture, and by not being taken deeper in the word by competent teachers in Bible school or other places.
Initially, this may not seem like much of an issue. But I believe that the perplexing crisis of unanswered prayer is often born out of imbalance. The problem isn't that God doesn't answer prayer. The problem is that we have disciplined ourselves to listen to God's answers. We forget that while our prayers consist of our words to God, the Bible is God's word and the Bible is God's answer back to man. We can't have dialogue with God if our prayers always take the form of a monologue. We can't expect to hear answers to our prayer if we never silence our hearts before God's word long enough to hear an answer. Our prayer must be a conversation. First God speaks to us through his word and then we respond back to God in prayer.
This cycle of listening to God speak to us through his word and then responding back in prayer liberates us from powerless, ineffectual prayer. The early Church knew powerful, effectual prayer because they disciplined themselves to listen to God's voice daily through his word. Because they immersed themselves in God's word, they didn't have to listen for some inner subjective voice. Instead, they could declare with great confidence that, "God has spoken. We have heard his voice. He has answered our prayers."
Prayer and fellowship.
The early Church was devoted to prayer in the context of a deep devotion to God's word. Prayer and devotion to the fellowship. What if they were devoted to prayer, but not also to the fellowship? What if the early Christians decided to forsake the assembly and just pray alone? We all know that such isolated Christians are a dime a dozen! There are many self-professed Christians who justify their private, exclusive spirituality by saying, "I don't need other Christians." But in the same breath they will also affirm, "I pray to God all the time."
I've often wondered what kind of prayer life you can have when you are out of fellowship with other Christians. The isolated Christian who regularly forsakes the fellowship is really deluding himself about his relationship with God. 1 John 1:7 (NIV) says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." To be in fellowship with God is synonymous with being in deep fellowship with other Christians. Likewise, to be out of fellowship with other Christians is to be out of fellowship with God. And what kind of prayer life can someone have who is out of fellowship with God? How many answered prayers do such individuals experience? Is there confidence? Or is there doubt? Is there fear, is there uncertainty, anxiety, or frustration?
In Matthew 5:23-24 (NIV) Jesus tells us the importance of being in proper fellowship with our brothers and sisters before approaching God in prayer and worship. He says, "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."
But there is another reason I ask the question. What kind of prayer life can someone have who forsakes the fellowship? I was at Sam's Warehouse a few weeks back and I saw a book titled All the Prayers of the Bible. It is authored by Herbert Lockyer. Good old Herbert went through the entire Bible and wrote out every prayer he found. He then summarized the content of each prayer and then he wrote the book All the Prayers of the Bible.
One of the discoveries that he made was that virtually every prayer in the New Testament is offered in the context of Christian community, the fellowship. The highly popular and more self-focused prayer of Jabez is not reflective of the prayers found on the lips of the early Christians. You will rarely find the first person singular pronoun (me, myself, or I) beginning the prayers found in the New Testament. Instead, the early Christians made one another the subject and content of their prayers. The early Christians moved beyond seeking God's blessing just for themselves to seeking God's blessings for each other and for those outside of Christ.
Even the Lord's Prayer, which is immensely popular among Christians, illustrates this. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)."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. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."
Now it isn't that we should never pray about personal concerns like our health, our circumstances, our struggles, or our worries. But we must realize that some of God's most powerful works and answers are seen as we pray God's blessing on each other's lives and not just for your own life. The early Church prayed for others to understand God's grace in its fullness, to receive Christ as Lord and Savior, to overcome sin, to resist temptation, to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives, to have effective ministry, to be protected from the evil one and from harm, and to be assured of their hope of eternal life.
And this makes us reflect back. When was the last time we moved beyond the prayer of Jabez type prayers in order topray according to the pattern that Jesus set? When did we last pray within the context of fellowship with God and other Christians? Prayer is most powerful when it is firmly grounded in God's word. Prayer is most powerful when it is exercised within the context of a Christian community.
Prayer and devotion to worship.
What if we were devoted to prayer, but not the breaking of bread and worship? We mentioned last week that the breaking of bread was a reminder of Christ's broken body on the cross. The early Christians never sat down for a meal, let alone for a time of worship, without first focusing on their savior Jesus Christ through the breaking of bread. The breaking of bread was the backdrop that gave meaning to their worship and lives. It reminded them of Christ's undying love, his eternal sacrifice, his limitless mercy, his abounding grace, and his majesty.
For this reason the breaking of bread is also the perfect backdrop for our prayers. How often do we find ourselves praying without first considering the nature of the one we are praying to? Sometimes we can ramble through our prayers without even a thought of God. Sometimes we can thoughtlessly repeat our old worn prayer clichés. "Be with them, guide us, bless us." We pray like this without first considering the fact that maybe God has already promised to be with us and to guide us through his word and to bless us under his Son's lordship. Sometimes our prayer is reduced to a mere formality that we ritualistically repeat before meals and during Christian gatherings to punctuate the offering, to dismiss the Church, or to fill dead space in a worship service. Is it any wonder our prayer lives seem empty and God's answers seem so far away?
All this can change when we first consider the one to whom we pray. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus encourages us to begin our prayers by thinking about the one we are addressing. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." One of the keys to praying powerfully is realizing that God isn't a formality or a lip service, but a living, dynamic, loving, all-powerful God who is listening. When we pray, we are commanding the attention of an almighty God, the creator of the universe, and the author and perfecter of life. Such a God should be approached with reverence, with fear, with respect, with gratitude, with humility, with preparation, and with faith.
We shouldn't approach him callously, ritualistically, with pride, arrogance, or presumption. Sometimes it's good to pray on bended knee, in submission. Sometimes it's good to pray staring up into the stars, so that your imagination can begin to grasp how infinite God's love, power, and knowledge are. Sometimes it's good to spend time in personal worship, singing and reading scripture before we approach the Father in prayer.
A heart of worship focused on Jesus Christ must always be the backdrop of our prayers. I know that when we come across a passage like Acts 2:42-47 we like to treat it like a smorgasbord. We want to pick and choose according to what we feel like. But Acts 2:42-47 is a snapshot of a deeply devoted church which is in proper balance. They were devoted to apostles' teaching. God's word took center stage. They were devoted to the fellowship. They served one another as if they were the very hands, feet, and mouth of Jesus reaching out to the needy. They were devoted to the breaking of bread. They slowed their pace and spent time worshiping God through Jesus Christ. And they were devoted to fervent prayer. Not monologue-styled prayer. Not self-centered prayer. Not mindless, ritualistic prayer. Not godless prayer. But powerful and effectual prayer that was grounded in God's word and exercised for the benefit of the fellowship and offered up to God in reverence.
Evaluating our devotion.
This morning we should ask how does the snapshot of the early Church compare with Lakeside Christian Church? How does it compare with my life? Where are we strong? Where are we weak? What changes do we need to make? How can we rebalance our commitments to advance God's kingdom? How can we deepen our understanding of God's word, personally and corporately? How can we deepen our fellowship and service with one another? How can we rekindle our love for Christ and worship always from the heart? How can we unleash powerful, transformational prayer? How can we more fully invite God's blessing into this congregation so that his kingdom grows and flourishes?
Four commitments.
The vision and the expectation thatthis leadership has for every member of this church parallels the four commitments of the early Church. We want to get everyone into the word. We want you reading scripture. We want you studying the Bible. We want you meditating and memorizing passages of scripture. We want you to be intimately acquainted with God's voice and know how to please him in every way. This can only happen as each of us becomes devoted to God's word.
We want everyone to move into an Adult Bible fellowship over the next year, where you can learn to specifically apply God's word to your life. We want everyone to join a small group to cultivate the basic habits that move God's word off the shelf and into our hearts.
We want to get everyone connected in meaningful fellowship with other Christians. We grow best in Christian community. We thrive when serving others, but we shrivel up and die when we drift into isolation and do not serve others. The Adult Bible fellowships are the place where we will be developing deeper Christian community at Lakeside in the coming years. The Adult Bible fellowship will be the place where we can have our needs met, but also meet the needs of others.
We want to get everyone excited about worship. We do not want Sunday morning to be the only connection this church has with God throughout any given week. We want our weekly worship celebrations to be the climax of a daily lifestyle of worship. Our desire is that whatever happens here will only be a continuation of what you began on Monday morning and continued doing into the weekend.
Last, there is a lot of work that must be done in the prayer department. We need to cultivate a deeper heart for prayer. Prayer is a conversation. It is an exchange between us and God. Prayer isn't just about us, it is about God's kingdom, his Church, and the purposes that he wants to achieve through us.