So today we are going to be talking a lot about prayer. And so I wonder, as we start to think about that, what it is that you pray for when you pray, what is it that you pray for? Is there something that you find yourself praying for more often than other things? Are there types of prayers that you tend to offer? My guess is that if we were to look at these things and talk about our prayer experiences together, that we would find that we're praying in many similar ways. I mean, if you're like me, a lot of times, you're praying prayers of protection. You're praying, God, protect me, protect my family from danger, protect them and us from accidents, protect us from sickness and and injury, protect us from bullies and and suffering. And we're we're praying these prayers of protection against anything bad happening to us or to our family and those that we love. And so that's one way that I think a lot of us pray, is we pray prayers of protection. A number of us, again, if you're like me, pray prayers of blessing. We play. Pray a lot of prayers of blessing. God bless me, bless my family, bless me with good friends, bless me with a good job and bless me with a nice house, bless me with a good vacation and a good savings account, a great retirement account, and bless my kids and bless my grandkids and my friends and bless everyone we played. Pray. Bless me. Prayers. Sometimes we find ourselves praying for help. God. Help me in this sport that I'm playing. Help me to win this game that I'm playing in today. God help me to pass my test today. God help me to do well on this project at work, or help me to get this promotion. I need your help. God, we pray. Help me prayers. A lot of times we pray, prayers of fixing. God, would you fix my spouse? Would you fix my kids? Would you fix my neighbor or fix my co worker or fix my boss? Because they're getting on my everlasting nerve, we pray prayers for big decisions. God help me to make this decision about what person to marry or what job to take, or if I should buy this house or that house, or this car or that car, should I stay here? Should I move? What college should I go to? God, these are big decisions. We pray prayers for decisions. Sometimes we pray prayers for our country. We pray for our freedoms, and we pray for our our rights, and we pray for protection against our enemies. In other countries, we pray for our economy to do well, and those who are leaders within our government. And so these are some of the ways that we find ourselves praying prayers for protection, blessing help, fixing others, big decisions our country and on and on and on. Now I'm not saying this is true of everyone, but I'm speaking mainly for myself, although I doubt it excludes everyone else here. But if I'm being honest, I think that most of the time when I pray, my prayers are geared and aimed at making my life easier. My prayers are about making me more comfortable, making my family more comfortable just easier, not saying again that all of them are selfish, or that all of yours are selfish by any means, but I think if we're being honest, I think we would see that a decent number, if not a lot,of our prayer life is really ultimately aboutmaking our lives better, making our lives easier. So these are some of the things that I find myself praying, I'm sure that some of them are things that you are praying in ways that you are praying. But I wonder what the early church prayed for. I wonder how the Spirit led them to pray. This is a whole series about life in the Spirit, that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus and the spirit comes to dwell in us. He guides our life and empowers us to live the very life that God created us to live in union with Jesus Christ as we make ourselves available to him. And so today, we're going to see how life in the Spirit led them to pray. We'll talk about how that applies to us still today, potentially now, before we dive into Acts. Chapter four, verse 23 where I told you to turn you got to understand where we're at. You've got to know the context for what it is that we're about to look at. And many of you have been here over the last several weeks, and you know the context. But by way of reminder, when we looked at Acts chapter three, we saw Peter and John walking to the temple. They saw a lame man at a gate. He asked. For help. And they said, We don't have silver or gold, but what we have, we'll give to you. And in the name of Jesus Christ, of Nazareth, Nazareth walk, and the guy stood up and he walked, and he began to jump, and he began to praise God all throughout the temple. Well, that got a number of people's attention. And as that attention was gathered, Peter, empowered by the Holy Spirit shared with everyone around what had happened, that this wasn't him that healed anyone, that it was Jesus who healed the man, and that Jesus was the Messiah, the long awaited one that was prophesied about in the Old Testament, and connecting all the Scripture passages that were prophesied about him to help them see who Jesus was, and that they had missed him, that he was the Lord, that He was the Messiah, and that no one comes to the Lord except through Jesus. There's no other name, he says, by which men can be saved. But if they would turn and they would put their faith and trust in Jesus, then they could be forgiven and receive new life in him. And we're told that a few 1000 people did along with the 3000 or so other people that had before. And so there are, at this moment in time in history, there were about 5000 people or more who had had their lives transformed and changed. It at one moment, they're walking in their sin, and they're dead in their trespasses, and in the next moment, they're completely forgiven, and God Himself is dwelling within them, and they have new life in Christ, being empowered to live the life that they were created to live and never really could, because sin had separated them from their source, from their maker, and so this had happened to them, but because that caused a scene, and there were a few 1000 people that were gathered around and responding to this, it gets the attention of the religious leaders, and they were the ones in power, and they didn't like it when there was a commotion, and all the peace was being disrupted, because they were to keep it in order. And so they had to go address things they certainly didn't like it that they were talking about Jesus, because this was the same group of people that put Jesus on trial and sent him to the cross to get rid of him forever, and people are still talking about him. And so they call them in and basically what they do is they threaten them. After arresting them and them spending a night in a jail, they threaten them. Don't you dare, don't you dare go talking about Jesus anymore. You stop all this thing and this teaching about Jesus, or else they just threatened them. Remember, these guys had power. So when they threatened them, they meant business. It was not to be taken lightly. And so Peter and John, as we get into chapter four, verse 23 had just been threatened by these guys with power. They basically told them that if you don't stop doing this, you will be punished, you'll be arrested again, which meant that they could be beaten. They could be flogged. They could make their lives miserable, painful, and inflict suffering upon them. And now we're told in verse 23 how they respond to that says, on their release, on their release from jail, from the religious leaders who had put them on trial, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priest and the elders had said to them before we really get into what it is that they say and how they respond here, I just want to call this out because it ties into things we've talked about already, and things that have application for us today. And then I just want you to see the way that this is talked about. It says, When upon their release, Peter and John went back to their own people. Some translations say companions or their friends. This is basically in the original Greek. In idiom, it's, it's, it's kind of used to describe the church or this, this group of people that Peter and John go back to, right? This, this and the the idiom is kind of similar to the way we talk about it, in this way, we say things like, these are my people. This is my crew, or this is my tribe, or whatever it is that Gen Z says these days around those things. I don't pretend to know, okay, but these are my people kind of thing. It's an idiom, a way that he's saying that, and I just want to highlight again that that is what church is. Church is a people to belong to. We saw in Acts chapter two, how it's not just an individual faith or walk with Jesus when we put our faith and trust in Him for salvation, it's a community that we spiritually enter into a union with Jesus, and then we enter into that union with others who are also united to him, because we're his sons, we're his daughters, we're part of his family. We're brothers and sisters in Christ. And so this is what happens when we put our faith and trust in Jesus. That's what had happened to Peter and John. They were now brothers in Christ. All of these people were their brother. Brothers and sisters. They were united to them. These were their people. And the same thing is true of us when we're talking about the local church. God gives us a people. These are our people. And when we join a local church and become members, what we're saying, in essence, is these are my people. These are the people that I belong to. I'm united to them in a spiritual union. I'm going to do life with them. I'm going to grow in grace together with them. I'm going to serve alongside of them. I'm going to be a part of this adventure of God's mission together with my people.This is the church.It's not a building. It's not an event. You didn't come to church as an event. Today, church is a people that you belong to and that you do life with, and so my question is, is that the way you see church? Have you taken steps to get involved in community, or to serve with your people, truly be a part of this life together. Or do you just come to an event and leave? If not, what step is Jesus leading you to take when it comes to being a part of this church family, like a real part saying, These are my people. Maybe that's something the Spirit's doing, even as we look at what he's going to say today, they go back to their people, the people they belong to. They do life with. They were in it together, on this mission together. And what'd they do? They reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them, Well, what did they say? Boy, they threatened us. You got to know that these religious leaders, who have all the power threatened us. They said, Don't do this. Don't talk about Jesus. And they could make life miserable for us. Could throw us back in jail. They could inflict suffering and pain. They could do real damage to us. So they reported all that, they said to them, and then here's what they did next. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.Quite honestly, I would have too.I mean, if I had been before religious leaders like that, and I had been threatened like that and told that I could be punished and I could be arrested. I'd already spent a night in jail, and that there could be more pain that was coming if we continued to go in this way, I would have been praying too. I'd have been praying for prayers of protection, Lord, protect me against these people. I'd have been praying to put these enemies in their place and for them to be shown who was really boss. I'd be praying for God to make my situation and my circumstance better and easier and more comfortable. That's what I would be praying.Wonder what they pray for asverse 24 continues. This is how we're told they start their prayer, Sovereign Lord. They said, You made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Now why start the prayer that way? The very opening lines of their prayer is addressing that you made the heavens, you made the earth, you made the sea, that you made everything in it. In other words, what are they declaring You are the Lord of Creation? As we open up our prayer, we are going to declare we are led by the Holy Spirit to declare that you are the Lord of Creation. Why? Well, if you think about it, if you are the creator of everything, then guess what? That makes you the authority over everything, the one in power over everything. And so they're addressing that he is the ultimate one in power. But why? Well, again, because they had just met with these religious leaders who had power in their day and in their culture and in their area, and they had just been threatened from them, and they could make their lives miserable, and they're declaring that we'll use all of our power on you. And they start the prayer going, okay, they may think they have power, but we're praying right now to the Lord over all creation, the one who rules and reigns. You may remember one of the gospel stories, as a matter of fact, when Jesus was on a boat with the disciples and and there was a big storm that came up one day. And I mean it was a nasty storm, I mean wind and waves and thunder and lightning and so much so that they thought they were going to die. I mean, we're going to drown, we're going to die. It's going to tip over. This is going to be bad. And Jesus is just sleeping. They wake Jesus up, and he stands up. And we're told in the gospels that he does this, he wakes up, he stands before. Wind and the waves in the middle of the storm. And we're told that he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, quiet, be still. And guess what happened? The wind died down. The wind became still. The waters were calm. All of a sudden, everything changed. And do you remember what they say? You remember what how they respond? They said, Who is this? Who is this that even the winds and the waves, whatobey Him?Obey the wind and the waves obey him, because he's the one in authority over them. He's the creator of the wind, he's the creator of the waves. And so he has the authority and the power to declare those things and they have no choice but to obey. He's the one with the real power. We don't just see it in the way that he addresses them there. But even the way that he starts off, the word in Greek that they use for for Sovereign Lord here isn't the traditional Kyrios that we see a lot of times in the New Testament. This is the word where we get our English word despot from. Now in English, it carries a bit of a negative connotation, but that didn't carry this negative connotation in this day and age. What it really means is one who possesses undisputed ownership, someone that has absolute and unrestricted authority. And so they start right off the bat, saying You are the one with unrestricted authority. Why? Because you are the Lord of all creation. And so this is what they begin to pray. But now that the spirit has led them to declare that he's the Lord of creation and the one with the ultimate power, he goes on to say that he's the Lord of Revelation. He says in verse 25 you who God? You God the Father, the Sovereign Lord that they had just started the prayer off, spoke by how the Holy Spirit through your the mouth of Your servant, David, or your servant our father, David. And so we're going back to King David a long time ago, back in the past. We're going back there, and they're quoting something. You see the quotation marks here because now they're quoting something that King David said. It's found in Psalm two. But what they're acknowledging is that it didn't originate with King David. You see that, right? God, you spoke. How'd you do that? By the power of the Holy Spirit? How through David, he was your instrument, that he did it. You're the one who revealed this to him. Well, what did he say? Why do the nations again? This comes from Psalm two. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his holy one, or Anointed One. So what it is that the disciples are saying here is that this Psalm was pointing to something that would happen in the future. There would come a day and age. And I'll say this too. There's always something, if you go back and look at this, that's generally going on in the moment that the Spirit is leading David in to address a current situation. But then there's because God works on multiple levels of things in the moment, but then also has further purpose in them down the road as the Sovereign Lord, then he can do that, and then also have a more ultimate purpose for it later. And so at some point in the future, the nations would rage, and the peoples would plot in vain, and the kings of the earth are going to rise up. At some point, these rulers, at some point, we're going to see band together. And what are they going to do? They're going to band together against the Lord, against his anointed one. That's messianic language against the Messiah. And so the Holy Spirit tells David this, this will happen one day in the future. And what are they declaring that in this moment, that is what we see happening matter of fact, let's see how they say it in verse 27 I'll put it up here with all of this together, so you can really see it all together now. So so they quote Psalm two. This is all going to happen one day in the future. And now they take back over after quoting here, you see he goes and indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people in Israel, in this city, to do what to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, to do what to band together against the Lord and against his holy one. What you said would happen one day long time ago in the future. The future is now, and this all just happened here. And so one of the things that we see is every. Thing that was mentioned in Psalm two, they're referencing the current way that they're seeing that happen here. So he mentioned what, one day the nations would rage. Well, who are the nations? Anyone who's not Jewish, right? The chosen nation, just the Gentiles. Well, in verse 27 when we get here, we reference the Gentiles. So it was prophesied about, and then this is what happened in this particular time. He mentions the peoples that at some point in time the peoples were going to plot, well, right here we see the what the people of who Israel, the Jewish leaders, those who were out there and going, No, no, we want Barabbas. Just kill Jesus, do what you want to do with him. And so. So the Gentiles, the Romans, the people of Israel, the religious leaders and others, were conspiring against Jesus, were raging against him, banding together. Who else I meant to do this in different colors for you, so that you could see it and I forgot. So we'll do it this way. We'll go, peoples connect here, and then the people connect here, right? And then we'll go this way and say, we've got kings of the earth that we see mentioned in Psalm two. Will do see a king here. Yep, we see a king current right here. So we're referencing that to this. And then we go, oh, well, who else? Well, there were rulers that would band up one day. He's saying this would happen in the future. And oh, there was a ruler, Pontius Pilate, the governor with the king here, and the Gentiles that were mentioned in Israel. And they were doing all this to what conspire against your holy servant, Anointed One that you said was going to happen right there in Psalm two, many years ago. What are they acknowledging? Not only are you the lord of Christ, of creation, you're the lord of Revelation, like like you can declare and put it on people's hearts things that will happen in the future,and they happen. And they happen because of what he says next.They did. They acknowledge? Who's they? Well, the kings and the rulers and the nations that were raging, and all the ones that he just mentioned, they did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. So, so all of the people that were mentioned that we're going to be doing this, all the things that we see happening this, this conspiring together against Jesus. They thought that they were doing to get rid of him. They thought that they were they were doing this to make sure that they were squashing this movement that he had started. But it was all in vain. It was all in vain because God is sovereign, and therefore he is also the God of history.It's all hisstory, right? He's just writing one big story. He sits above it all and is somehow interacting in and with and causing things to happen, and allowing certain things to happen, all in such a way that all history is him as the Sovereign Lord. And so ultimately, so far, all the way through this prayer, what we've seen them doing is this, they've been acknowledging that God is the all power, powerful Sovereign LORD, and that this is evidenced. It's evidenced by the fact that he's the God of creation. He's the God of Revelation, and he is also the God of history. Now, why? Why is the Holy Spirit leading them to declare all of this before them? Because they're building up to a request. They're about to finally ask something in this prayer, and the thing it is that they're going to ask was based upon all the thing that they've declared to be true about God being the Lord of creation and the the God of revelation and the God of history. And again, if, if this is who God is, and he's he's all powerful, and he's the Sovereign Lord and over all creation and these kind of things, then he's the one that we base all of our requests upon. And as I mentioned a little bit earlier, if it's me, and I'm referencing this too, then the things that I'm now going to request for are protection, for revenge against them for blessing upon my life for better situations and circumstances. Why? Because he's certainly a God that can do that. Whatdid they request?Verse 29 now, Sovereign Lord. Lord, consider their threatsand enable your servantsto speak your word with great boldness.Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. Itthat's a different kind of prayer than I tend to pray.There's no prayer for protection,there's no prayer for blessing.There's no prayer to change their situation or their circumstance. There's no prayer to make their lives easier. No prayer to make their lives comfortable. Their kids' lives more comfortable, their spouse's wife more comfortable.This is a prayer for boldness.This is a use me no matter what will happen to me. Prayer. Use me in Your Kingdom. Work no matter what will happen. Use me to make sure that people are healed, that their needs are met. Use me to make sure that they hear the good news about Jesus, and they know that their sins can be forgiven and that they can have eternal life in Jesus. Use me even with the threat of danger they're not asking again for the danger to be taken away. They're praying for God to enable them to speak boldly, no matter what will happen as a result of speaking boldly. And again, that's just a different kind of prayer than I usually pray. I may have shared this with you before, but an example of this is a friend of mine who is a pastor of another congregation had supported some missionaries in India. They flew them over to give a report about how things were going and what they were supporting, and how they could encourage them and pray for them and all the above. And they asked them. They said, Hey, what are the things that you're praying for? What are the things that you're praying for? What is it that we can come alongside of you and pray about with you and for you? And they said, Well, this happens to be an election year. There's going to be election in our country. Who's in charge, and the two main candidates that have a chance in it. One is, is for the church, at least they're okay with the church. Life would be good if he got elected. The other one, he would persecute the church. He hates the church, and our lives would be miserable if he gets elected. And so my pastor friend said, Oh, okay, okay, I get it. Yeah, we'll, we'll certainly be praying that that this guy wins, and so that so that you guys can can have that foundation and be moving and and flourishing, and won't have to live. He goes, No, no, no, I don't I don't think you understand what it is that I'm saying. He said, we're not praying for the guy who won't persecute the church to win. We're praying for the guy who would persecute the church to win. Huh? Why? Would you be praying that? Here is his answer, we're praying for persecution. Because when the church is comfortable, it declines, but when the church is persecuted, it grows and it thrives. Youthe Holy Spiritled them to prayfor persecution,so that the church would thrive, so that more and more people would come to know Jesus, not that their lives would be made easier and more comfortable. Again, that's a very different prayer than I tend to pray. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that we abandon all prayers of protection. As a matter of fact, if you were to go back and read the Psalms, you would see a number of times the Holy Spirit led the writers there to pray for protection and to pray for refuge, and that kind of thing. We even see right here in verse 30, as part of their prayer and their request, Stretch out your hand to heal. Well, if you're praying for people to get healed, what are you praying their lives would get better? It kind of stinks, because they're dealing with whatever it is that's going on, and we're praying that you would heal. And would heal and make their lives better. And so at the same time that they're praying for this boldness and whatever would happen to them, they're also praying that people's lives and situations would get better. And so the Holy Spirit's going to work in and through all of those things. But my point is, I think what the Holy Spirit is saying to me, maybe he's saying it to you as well, is that the overwhelming majority of my prayers again, are about making my life more comfortable and making my life more easy.And maybe what he's leading me to do,and you is. It is to pray more use me, no matter what will happen to me. Kind of prayers to be bold and to speak the truth about Jesus and share the Good News of Jesus, regardless of the rejection that I may experience. The people who may say no, the ones who may make fun of us are the ones who might even have the power to persecute me or us. This is what the Holy Spirit led them to pray and look what happened after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God, what boldly we talked about this last week, filled with the Holy Spirit. Doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit left them and then came back. They've always been filled and dwelt by the Holy Spirit. This meant that they were enabled. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit. He granted their request enable us to speak more boldly, filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered by it, they went out and spoke the word, not in and of themselves. Great job, disciples. You did it. The Holy Spirit did it in and through them. They just made themselves available, willing to take the risk, step out into the adventure with him. You him. This is what life in the Spirit looked like for the early church. What doesthat mean for us today?Life in the spirit is praying for boldness to be used in God's kingdom work, no matter what the consequences will be, no matter whether they say yes or they say no and we experience that rejection or are embarrassed by it, the Holy Spirit will lead us if we're open and available to pray prayers for boldness to be used in his Kingdom work, regardless of what the consequences will be. You Jesus. So what is the Holy Spirit saying to you about your prayer life this morning? How is your prayer life going to look differently this week as a result of what you just learned today? What's he doing in your lifearound this topic of prayer,as you think about those things and continue to invite the Holy Spirit and how he wants you to respond today and this week, there's one other thing that I want us to consider, what life in the Spirit really looks like. I have to go back to chapter four, verse 24 just for a second. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. We said, youthe Holy Spiritled them to pray together,not just as an individual, not on their own personal walk with Jesus, but together. Why? Because this was their people. This was their crew. This was their tribe. They were united together in this mission with them. It doesn't just mean that they were physically together. This Greek word also means they were praying of one mind, of of one accord. They were all in agreement. They were praying this together. They were all praying that this would happen. Not one of them. They were in agreement, one mind, one accord, united around this together, because they were the church. And so while we're thinking about what life in the Spirit looks like in our own individual lives and what our own individual prayer lives, we also want to think about what this means for us together.And so what I want to do in this moment isto give you a chanceto see how the Holy Spirit really wants youto lead out in this moment, in this particular way, we've gathered together today, many of us as brothers and sisters in Christ family, united to Jesus and united to each other. Spiritually,you're my people, and I'm your peopleand the Holy Spirit, life in the Spirit looks like him leading us to pray together. So we're not doing a traditional invitation time today. We're going to allow the Spirit to lead us in a time of prayer together. It. And so I'm going to invite you in just a moment when Ashlyn begins to pray, and I'll open this time up in prayer for you to pray out loud as a group. The Holy Spirit leads people to pray together and to pray of one mind and one accord and in agreement with another, and their prayer was enable us to speak the word of God boldly. And so I'll invite you, if the Holy Spirit is leading you to do so, to gather around other people together and to pray not silently but out loud for them and with them, and for boldness and for us as a church who's going to leave here as the church to join him in the adventure of this mission that he's called us to, to speak with boldness the grace, love, truth and mercy of Jesus Christ, so that other people can come to know him and join in and experience the abundant life, eternal life, that we have with him too. You want that to happen? I know you do. You want those pews filled with more people, because that would mean that those people are having their lives transformed and changed forever.And so we we prayand ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with boldness, to invite people into that, to share the good news ways that he wants us to serve them and meet their needs, so we can invite them into our come be a part of our people. You want a people to belong to. It's how Jesus created you to live. Come do it alongside of us. If the Holy Spirit led the early church to pray in that way, then I want to allow some room, some space. It's the same Holy Spirit lives in us to do that just now. And it may be with a few people around you right now. It may be that you need to get up and you need to go to someone else and a bigger group of people, because the Spirit's laying them on your heart. I don't know what it looks like, but I'm going to trust that the Holy Spirit living in you will guide you, because he is a guide. And then, even if you get a little bit nervous and scared and may experience, I don't know how they're going to react,you just ask for boldness in that momentbefore I pray, I recognize that some of you are guests welcome we work hard sometimes and recognize that it's hard to walk into a church, especially if you haven't been to church in a while, or maybe ever, didn't really know what you were getting yourself into. And we really want to make you comfortable. We want it to be easy. We want you to know about the love and the grace and the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, because he's transformed and changed our lives. We want him to do the same in yours. Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads us to do tough things and to put us out in front of other people. And I'm not asking you to. I want to. It's not about me trying to embarrass you or any of those things. This is something the Lord's leading us to do, and it's in a lot of ways for you, because we're praying for you, we certainly want to invite you into it, even if you are a guest of ours. But even if you're not, don't feel pressure. It's not about guilt, not about shame. You don't have to go anywhere. Nobody's going to look at you and go. They didn't move. They didn't go anywhere. They're not praying. Maybe if your guest, or you don't know Jesus, you maybeyou are led to just pray silently in this moment,God, continue to reveal Yourself to me, show me what my next step is, or what's going on in my life. How do I give this stuff to you? I'm going to stay down front while you guys are praying. So if any of you need that prayer. You don't you have questions. Maybe you want to take a step of faith and get baptized, or join our church, or anything else. I'm going to be here if you want me to pray for you, but otherwise, I invite the Holy Spirit to lead you to pray with others. We'll pray for a few minutes as Ashlyn plays, and then I'll come back and close us all out together.