Acts, Acts chapter 4 verse 23 through 31, Acts chapter 4, verses 23 to 31. Hear the word of God. On their release Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard this they raised their voices together in prayer to God. Sovereign Lord, they say. You made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our Father, David. Why do the nations rage in the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers together together against the Lord and against this anointed one. Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your Holy Servant Jesus whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders to the name of your Holy Servant Jesus. After they had prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly. Here is the reading of God's Word. May you live this morning to feed us, to nurture us in the abolition of the Self. Let's return to the passage and acts that we read with Mark just a few moments ago from Acts chapter 4. We will, we for those of you that are visiting with us this morning, we're glad you're here. We pray that God will bless you this worship. We have been involved for the last two years in a study of the life of Jesus Christ. According to the gospel of Luke, we're taking a break for this Sunday and the next couple of Sundays to talk about ministry right here where we are talking to me, talking to you, where you are what? The ministry of Jesus Christ in our lives and through our lives. Before we look at this prayer, prayed by some folks just like us when the church was just starting in Jerusalem. Before we look at this prayer, let's pray and ask the Lord Jesus who was there with these people and who's here with us this morning. Let's ask him to teach us. Let's pray together. Pray with me. Now Father, I look out and see these spaces, these people. And at first I feel just an awful, awful, awful burden. And Father, that burden would continue if I really thought that they came here to hear me, to hear my wisdom or hear what I have to say theologically. I Father, I can't possibly say anything that would make any difference in these folks' lives in terms of heart and soul, in terms of what Carly was talking about a few minutes ago in this destination that's meshed so deep into our character. But Jesus Christ is able to speak and these folks have not come here to hear me. They come to hear him. And so Father, we pray that in these next few minutes we would hear Jesus Christ speak to our hearts. We pray that he would speak in such a way that the change that was started in some of us years ago would continue. That change would go on and on. And Father, we pray that by speaking this morning that maybe some people will hear him and be changed for the first time. That's our prayer. Oh Lord Jesus speak to us. Changes. Our Father, we pray this prayer for His glory. And in His name, Amen. Are Your prayers well-ained? On more than one occasion, I have witnessed a phenomenon I call the Kent Miss syndrome when duck cutting. It is when a large group of ducks suddenly drop in out of nowhere. That doesn't happen often. But sometimes you don't have to use a duck call. The ducks don't work around to see if they want to land. There was nothing there. And then without warning, there are 20 ducks filling the air. Now many shooters, especially novice hunters, when that happens, don't take time to aim. They think something like this. There are just too many ducks to miss. I'll just fill the air with shot. Last year, I saw that happen with four duck hunters in a plane. Each hunter, some ducks came in, large group of ducks came in just out of nowhere. No one called. Here they were. They were just all over the place. Each hunter fired three times. It takes us 12 times. It sounded like a small war. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Out of 20 ducks and all that shot in the air, one duck was on the water when it was over. Kent Miss syndrome. One friend with whom I hunt will always say, John, take the duck on the left or John, take the duck on the right or take the one that's lower. He is espousing a shooting principle. Always being deliberate when you shoot aim at one specific target. The movie, The Patriot is a story of Benjamin Martin. Some of you remember it's about a South Carolina state representative and a plantation owner during the Revolutionary War. Martin and his two sons were about to ambush a party of British professional soldiers. They had taken his older son, prisoner. It was just three against this large group. Benjamin Martin reminded his two younger boys of how he had taught them to shoot. And he said remember aim small miss small. He was saying don't aim at a man's body. Don't aim at a man's torso. Don't even aim at a man's heart. Aim at the third button from the top of the shirt. Aim small miss small. That is a good lesson to learn if you or a hunter, I once heard an expert marksman giving advice about skeet shooting. I've tried to do this many times and I went out yesterday because I knew I was going to be saying this this morning to you and I went out to try it one more time. I've never been able to do it. This skeet shooter said I don't shoot at the clay pigeon. I don't even shoot at the color on the clay pigeon. There and if you look at a clay pigeon, there'll be rings going around. He said I shoot at the second ring on the clay. I don't know. I did that. I think he was telling the truth. He never missed. He was saying aim small. Many Christians adopt the camp miss syndrome in their attitude toward reaching out to the world. We think you know I live in a target rich environment. They're just sinners all over the place. There's so many non-Christians around me. If I just live in my Christian life, if I go to work and just live, some way I will reach some of them. Churches adopt that attitude toward outreach in their neighborhoods. We say we will live out our church life in this neighborhood. We'll have Sunday school. We'll have the best Sunday school that can be had for children. We'll build a building that's just incredible. We'll have great teachers. We have two Sunday morning services, worship services and programs for children and young people. And just maybe we will attract some of those folks. I've been asking myself a question for the last several weeks. And here it is. How deliberate is independent Presbyterian church in her prayers for specific friends who are not Christians? How deliberate is IPC in her prayers for specific friends who are not Christians? You know we just ended a week. Sunday, first day of the week. Looking back at last week, I wonder how many non-Christians in this neighborhood, this whole congregation, all of us, the thousanders say they're sitting here right now, I wonder how many non-Christians that this whole group has prayed for, for hearing this whole group has prayed. I wonder if there are five non-Christians, if you took this whole group, I wonder if there's even five that we could say that we pray for. That's a question for the house this morning. As we study this prayer prayed by these Christians in Jerusalem some 1,970 years ago, I want to ask myself and I want you to ask yourself, are my prayers well aimed? Am I deliberate about my prayers? First, as we look at this passage I want you to see a prayer aimed at the kingdom. This prayer first was aimed at the kingdom. You have to stand back to see this. The dead mention, the word kingdom is not used here but just sit back and watch and listen as we read through this. On their release Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this they raised their voices together in prayer to God. Sovereign Lord they said, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David. This is a strange prayer to Peter and John come away from a real threatening, hard situation and they turn in and they start praying and they start talking about some solve that David wrote a thousand years before. Listen, he said, you spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant our father David. Why did the heathens rage? Why the nations rage? And the people's plot and vein, the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. And then they say show how that's lived out. They say, indeed in our day, forget a thousand in our day. Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel and the citizens inspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. They did what your power and your will and decided beforehand should be done. Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your services to speak your word with great boldness. Now stand off and look at this prayer. When you stand back and look at it you say that is a prayer that is about the kingdom. Think about it. Peter and John had just been in serious trouble. The Sanhedrin that was behind the crucifixion of Jesus had arrested the two most prominent leaders of this fledgling church. Peter and John could have easily been killed or kept in jail. We look back on this but they were right in the middle of it in the heat of the battle. When they were released, Peter and John returned to where a large group of disciples had gathered. And look, record for us the prayer that that feeble congregation prayed. What's remarkable about this prayer? What would we have prayed? Look at it. There is no record here of prayers for their family. The families of Peter and John were there but there's no record of prayer for their families. There's no record here of a prayer of thanksgiving for their deliverance. There's no record here of even a prayer for their safety. Did you see that? They did not pray for Peter and John safety. They didn't pray for their own safety. Their prayer reached back to the Messiah's conflict with the world. They said since the beginning of time the kingdom of this world has been aligned against your kingdom, God. They remembered that they were involved in a life in dust that struggled over the souls of men. They remembered that Herod and Caesar's forces had been erased a raid against Jesus and against his kingdom. They said, just as David wrote and just as Herod and Pallet were reigned against Jesus, they're reigned that way right now. Their greatest concern was not for their safety. Their greatest concern was not even the deliverance of John and Peter. Their greatest concern was the kingdom of God. The kingdom of Christ was the central theme of this prayer.
You remember after September 11th? What happened in this country? A gigantic shift took place in our culture. Before September 11th, patriotism was considered passe. It was something at which the commoners on television often laughed. It was something that was antique. In fact, the polls told us that we had raised a generation in this church that said, I'll not die for the Constitution. I'll not die for my country. Personal peace and prosperity were the great concerns of individuals before September 11th. After September 11th, our culture moved toward a patriotism that loved and placed love of country above personal peace and prosperity. That really happened. It happened before our eyes. Well, we need something to happen like that in his kingdom, in this place. Most of us, as Evangelical Christians, and I'm not talking about the world. I'm not talking about non-Christians. I'm speaking about you. I'm speaking about me. We're more concerned about our personal lives than we are about his kingdom. We're more concerned about our lives than we are the patriotism toward his kingdom. Take our prayers this week. We prayed this week. A lot of us did. Let's take out from those prayers the words of thanksgiving that we prayed for for daily sustenance. So we said it, thank you for these meals. Let's remove the words of our prayers about personal safety and health.
Let's remove the words from those prayers that were about money, our jobs, our decisions, or sickness. What's left? Is there anything left in our prayers? I fear not. If we take everything out of our prayers that was not directed toward his kingdom, we'll find that most of us have a prayer, not with any concern about his kingdom. Jesus' first concern was his kingdom. The prayers of his early disciples centered on his kingdom. You know, room subservice is a great, great thing. You can just, you can be in a hotel and you can pick up the phone and you can order a late night snack or an early breakfast. You can have a rumple, suit, press, you can have shoeshine, you can have a blouse clean. Room service. You can even pick up a phone if you're sick, really, really sick, and you can order a nurse or a doctor. Whatever you need, just at that moment, die and let the hotel know. That's what many of us have made of prayer. Prayers nothing more than some kind for many of us, some kind of spiritual room service.
My prayers, my prayers when I look at them are concerned chiefly with me, with my family,
and showed little regard or little care for his kingdom. You know, some of us will receive the letter that from the church this week about living out the legacy. And we'll read that letter and we'll look at the commitment prayer card that's in our bulletin this morning. Whatever you do, I said this once, don't fill this out. I'll tell you why in a moment, don't do it. Today, just keep it. Look at it. But many of us will receive that letter and we'll look at this and we'll say, why should I want to do that? You know, what's that do for me? You see, their Christianity is about themselves and not about the kingdom. Do you think like that I do way too often? What did Jesus mean when He said seek first the kingdom of heaven? All of us know that verse. What did He mean? We think we say, well, Jesus meant when we come to Christ, we're supposed to love Him first. You know, when we become Christians, we're supposed to choose His kingdom over all the else in the world. Jesus, certainly you did not mean that we're to seek the good of your kingdom first in every part of our life. It couldn't mean that tomorrow morning, I'm to seek His kingdom first, the special forces of this country. We've enjoyed watching their work. We've enjoyed watching their dedication, their patriotism toward the United States. Do you think we as independent, that independent, are as concerned about the kingdom of Christ as our special forces are about the United States? That's exactly what Jesus said. That was the kind of patriotism toward the kingdom of which He spoke. You look at this prayer and you see a prayer aimed at the kingdom of God. Secondly, you see a prayer aimed at their own spiritual health. Look at verse 29, the last part of the verse, enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. They considered the physical danger which surrounded them and their families. Probably some of them did not really expect Peter and John to return from the Sanhedrin. They probably said, you know, they're going to put them in jail and they're going to do them. What Hera did to John the Baptist? What pilot did to Jesus? They're going to do the Peter and John as they considered the physical danger which surrounded them and their families. And they saw Peter and John return. They did not pray for their safety. They did not pray for their physical health. Their first prayer was not even for the conversion of the world around them. They prayed first for the spiritual condition of their own hearts. Look at it, enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. They knew what the temptation would be. They were saying father our greatest temptation will be to run. Our greatest temptation would be silent. Our greatest temptation will be to seek a physical safe haven. May our hearts, they were saying may our hearts be so filled with Holy Spirit that we will be bold. May our hearts be so filled with Christ and it turned to Christ that we will not become victims of the cowardice that tips us. These people didn't wear halos and wings. They weren't some kind of super spiritual people. They looked at this situation and they were scared and they saw the weakness of their own souls and they prayed about the weakness of their own souls on the commitment to prayer pledge that's in our bullet in this morning. The first commitment is not to pray for a friend that's not a Christian. The first commitment is I will focus on praying from our own spiritual health. If you had cancer and a friend of yours had cancer, would you pray only about your friend that had cancer? You would pray first for yourself and then you would pray for your friend. If you're going to pray for the conversion or spiritual health in a friend's life, before we do, we must pray about our own spiritual condition. You'd be so easy to read this. Of course, some of us would say, hey, I don't want to get something like this and not sign it. Somebody go and tell John or somebody go and tell the elders. They probably got spies out here seeing who's not filling these things out. I'm going to fill it out and hand it in right now and get it in. Be a good Christian. Let me tell you, do you realize what this is? Praying for the conversion or salvation of a friend is an act of war against the kingdom of this world, against Satan. It's an act of war. If you sign this and say, of course, you don't understand how hard it will be to do this. Neither do I want you to suddenly, neither do we want you to suddenly begin to pray for a dear friend that you know that's not a Christian. Listen, why? Why not fill this out now? Why not immediately begin to pray because you will not last long in your prayer for the salvation of a specific friend unless there's some spiritual health about your own heart? This is a battle, folks. Just try it. See what I mean. See how long you can pray. You can't do it. That's why we first pray for ourselves. Dr. Leon Mars, one of the greatest New Testament theologians of the 20th century, said this. Quote, when Christians evangelize, they are not engaging in some harmless and pleasant pastime. They are engaging in a fearful struggle, the issues of which are eternal in Quote. What he said, they're engaging in a fearful struggle. Let me tell you this more. If you're here and you're not a Christian and you're sort of listening to all this and you're looking for honest answers to honest questions, we're glad you're here. But understand this. God is real. Christ is really risen. This is a spiritual world we live in. And what I'm saying about myself, and what I'm saying to other Christians is this. If you're not a Christian, let me tell you, if we begin to pray, really, really pray. If 200 people, and this is unbelievable, 200 people, just 200 people out of a congregation of one tenth of us started praying specifically. Each of us picked out different individuals, and we started praying for 200 different individuals. Let me tell you what, they would be a storm worm come against us like we would not believe. It would be the hardest thing you could do to continue to pray day after day and week after week and month after month because the kingdom of this world, Satan would give you every reason your own sin nature would give you every reason not to do it. Mars is right. He said it's a fearful struggle. We cannot even have a concern about our neighbor's spiritual condition unless there's a spiritually vivacious heart inside of us, unless there's a spiritually sensitive heart within us. That's why we've got to start here with our own hearts. Last year a member came to me and he said, John, he said, I feel awful. I said, what's wrong? He said, well, I found out a friend of mine are probably my best friend has cancer and he said, I really just sit down and cry when I heard that because I don't want him to die. But he said, that's not why I feel terrible. He said, I feel terrible because I've known him for 20 years and we're so close and he said, all those years, I've known that he wasn't a Christian. He said, you know, it's not my judgment. I mean, he himself is a professing non-Christian. He says, I'm not a Christian. I've known that. He said, I've known he was perishing. He said, I've known he's had something much worse than the cancer he has. He said, that cancer is going to kill his body but he has something inside of him that will kill his soul unless something happens. He said, you know, I wept over his cancer. I've never shed one tear. Over that man's soul and he said, that's the reason I feel terrible. That man here, right on the head. That member hit it right on the head. The reason we're not praying for people like that that we know that aren't Christians. You know, the reason we're not praying. It's not because of them. It's not because we're too big. It's because of the condition of our own souls. That's where the prayer begins. The great Anglican leader, John R. Stark, put it this way, quote, nothing shuts the mouth, seals the lips, ties the tongue like the poverty of our own spiritual experience. In quote, how much are we praying from week to week about our own spiritual health? This was a well-aimed prayer they prayed. It was aimed toward the kingdom of God. It was aimed toward their own spiritual health. The man had just been told he had a terminal disease. I was visiting with him. He'd asked me to come see him. We sat across from each other and he cried. Really, really, really, really cried. He said, John, it's like I'm in a nightmare and I keep waiting someone for someone to wake me up. But this is real. Before I left, we hugged and he apologized to me for the scene I just witnessed a prolonged agonizing ovaries plight for all the tears. I laughed and said, let me tell you what, I would have cried much, much worse. Only later did God bring the irony that should have been obvious to me immediately. Only later did he bring that home to me. The irony that my spiritual condition and the cold and callous condition of my heart was just as serious as that man's physical disease, but does it bother me? Do I wake? No. I remember the guy that I referred to whom I referred earlier when he talked about his friend. He said this. He said, you know, John, he said, I really, from all honesty, I really cared more about beating him and God than it did about the condition of his soul. That's a serious spiritual deficiency in our own hearts. You look at this and you see a prayer aimed at the King of God. You see a prayer aimed at their own spiritual health. Well, that's the right kind of prayer to pray. Thirdly, and finally, you see a prayer aimed at the transformation of men's souls. Look at the last part of verse 29, dinner at verse 30, enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness, stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. I want to ask you a question. What was the purpose of their boldness to speak the word boldly? Why did they want to speak the word boldly? Their goal was that this hostile world be converted so they were praying for the conversion of people that they knew. And then they pray, in that 30th verse, they pray that the supernatural be brought to bear in their ministry, that people will be healed like a blind man will be made to see. But also, they understood that just that it takes something supernatural to make a blind man see it takes something supernatural to change these hearts, these sinful hearts of which Carly spoke earlier that are mesh deep into our souls. This hostility, the hostility of Herod, who can change Herod, who can change Pilate? Only God can change the leprous spots. And so they're praying because this has speak boldly that means hearts will be changed. They're praying for the conversion of the people that they bring the supernatural bear that means life will be changed. So when we pray, when we pray for a friend, I'm lost, let's say I'm not a Christian. And so I'm your friend and you begin to pray for me. I was reading a book the other day about evangelism. And someone said, and I've heard this for years, that before you go and take, but before you go and take the gospel to somebody, before you speak boldly, you should pray for them and they called it pre-avangilism. Now thanks, I read that and I threw the book down and I'm not going to tell you the vulgar word that I said. It's not appropriate for this crowd. But thanks, praying for someone who has lost is not pre-avangilism. We've got to redefine the definition. We've let a couple of groups redefine the biblical view of evangelism and narrow it down where it's only going face to face and confronting someone and telling them about Jesus, knocking door to door. That's evangelism. If I talk about doing evangelism in this room this morning, some of you have already done this. We grab ahold of our pews, whitenucklet and say, oh, I've got to get out of here as soon as I can. I mean, I don't want to do that. The truth is most of us do not have the gifts to go knocking on someone's door, sit down with someone and McDonald's and we don't even know. Have no idea who they're just saying, I'm going to tell you about Jesus Christ. There's some people in this room that can do that and people love them. They get away with it and they never get food thrown their face or anything. But most of us aren't like that. Thanks. Evangelism in Scripture is bringing the person to the gospel, taking the gospel of the person, bringing that person before God. That's not pre-avangilism. That is evangelism. That is evangelism. There's nowhere on this card that you will make a commitment to tell someone about Christ. Yet you're making a commitment to be evangelistic, how you're making a commitment to pray for a specific friend or neighbor by name that he or she would know Christ. That is evangelism. When Philip and Mindy pray for heavens, that's evangelism.
It's a well-in prayer, a prayer aimed at the transformation of an individual's life or heart. Archie Perry said it this way. He was visiting here this week. He is the PCA coordinator for Church Renewal. He was visiting here talking about this with us and he said this, we must spend as much time talking to God about the center as we do talking to the center about God. Make sense, didn't he? He understood what evangelism was. Start talking to God about the center before you go to the center to talk about God. Archie told me a great story about a friend of his and Atlanta. He's a friend. He's a friend of a friend of an elder and Archie does not pass to a specific church. He attends the church just like you do. And so he goes to church with this vegetarian elder and he said during the Easter season, just prior to Easter, they do what we're doing right now. They have an intense time of prayer. People sign up to do it and the person promises to pray every day for an individual that he or she knows. It's not a Christian. And so this elder told him, you know, he said, I've got some friends here that aren't Christians, but he said I'm scared to begin to pray for them because I'm afraid that it might get back to them. I mean, they live here with us. I'm afraid that they might get back to them that I'm praying for them. And that would not make for good in our work situation. So he said, I'm going to pray for a college buddy of mine. In fact, he said he's my best friend and don't seem very often. We talk on the phone hadn't seen him in eight years, but I'm going to pray for him. There's no danger it lives halfway across the country. There's no danger of him hearing that I'm praying for him. And so first evening, he fulfills his promise and he starts praying for this guy. Next day, he's in his office. Next morning, he said, not phone rings. This is pretty strange. In the phone rings and his secretary says, so and so is on the phone. And this is college shrinking, buddy. It's this pretty. He's just pray for him. He's never prayed for a boy. He's just pray for him. He calls. And that was all in up, but he picked up the phone and and the he hadn't seen him in eight years. He said, I'm at Hart's Field. I'm here in Atlanta. And again, look at these. I'm not believing this. You know, and the guy said, think we could get together. Think we could see each other. He said, well, certainly just laugh. I mean, yeah, he's just, you know, he obviously was not in control of this thing. And didn't the friend said this? He said, you know, you know me, I don't go to church, but he said, yeah, it's Easter. And I kind of like to go to church this Easter. Do you know when in place we could go? By this time, the friend really was holding the phone away from him. Look at that. I know what you're thinking. You're saying, well, that's a great story. But I promised you, if I pray for somebody, it wouldn't happen like that. Well, you don't know. It might. It probably wouldn't happen like that. But let me ask you a question. Do you think that guy would have called him if he's friend hadn't prayed? I know what you're thinking. You're saying, John, I can't believe you said that. You believe in the Savior of God. We believe in the Savior of God. God controls things like this. So did Jesus.
But you read his prayers and he prayed for the lost. So did James, he believed in the sovereignty of God. And what did James say? James says, you have not because you asked not. Maybe he wouldn't have called without the prayer. When Israel was perishing, the whole nation was perishing. God cried throughout the land through the prophet Ezekiel. He cried and asked, who will stand in the gap for us? And you want what? No one did. And that nation perished. You have a non-Christian friend. All of us do.
I want to ask you a question. Is there anyone praying for that friend? Maybe the reason you're living and breathing Christian is that God has called you to stand in the gap for that person.
What will happen if you don't? I'm not trying to be melodramatic. This is all for Scripture. What will happen if you don't? You have not. Because you asked not. Who's going to stand in the gap for the folks that you know that are dying and perishing without Jesus Christ?