Preached in Markham Baptist Church, April 27, 2003.

Text: Acts 4:23-31

START LOCAL - GO GLOBAL

HOW DO WE START: Part 1 - BEGIN WITH PRAYER

After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’ For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.   (Acts 4:23-31) (NRSV)

We Christians have discovered a great treasure. We have discovered the treasure of God in Jesus Christ. He has freed us from the power of selfishness, from the guilt of not attaining God's standards. He has freed us from the power of death and He has infused us with a joy, a hope and a love that cannot be bought with any amount of money. This is what Christ has done for us. He has given us life. Life in living colour. And in the midst of our celebrations in the midst of our joy over the treasure that we have received we dare not keep these riches to ourselves.

For there is a whole world out there that is spiritually starving to death for the love that we have experienced in Christ. There is a whole world out there that is starving death because they don't know that they are of infinite worth because God has created them in his image and because God has sent his son to die for them. There is a whole world out there that is starving to death for the good news of a risen Saviour - news that you and I feast on every day of our lives.

In the words of Theodore Williams, "We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ who is too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss."¹

But how do we start? What is our role? How do we go about sharing this treasure that we have in Christ - His love, His unmerited favour - with those around us and the world in which we live?

And this morning the answer comes back - "Begin with prayer".

It is clear from Scripture that God wants us to pray. The Christian faith is not about keeping a set of rules; it is about a living relationship with God. And like any relationship it needs to be nurtured through communication. The communication part of our relationship with God is called prayer. It is simply talking to God, it is saying thank you to Him, it is telling Him sorry when we mess up, it is asking Him for His help in all areas of life. And it is listening to what He has to say to us. It is being still before Him and allowing Him to speak to us. All of that is involved in that little word, pray - to communicate with God.

And it is clear from Scripture that God wants us to communicate with Him, He wants us to pray. There are times when we don't know what God wants us to do. Does He want us to go here or to go there? Does He want me to do this or do that? But it is very clear - if there is one thing God wants from His followers is for them to pray.

Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you."

Ephesians 6:18 - "Keep on praying."

I Thessalonians 5:17 - "Pray continually."

James 5:13 - "Is any of you in trouble? He should pray."

Clearly we are to be a praying people. United States Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson states, "You can organize until you are exhausted; you can plan, program, subsidize all your plans. But if you fail to pray, it is a waste of time. Prayer is not optional for us. It is mandatory. Not to pray is to disobey God."² And Oswald Chambers once said, "Prayer does not just fit us for the greater work. Prayer is the greater work." ³

The first step in sharing the good news of God's love with our friends, with our neighbours, with the whole world is to pray. It is an act of obedience to God.

Prayer is also an act of dependence upon God. My friends, we try to do to much on our own. We are so blessed in the North American church. We have the finest equipment available to us. We have multimedia, we have best instruments we have the most wonderful buildings. And literature? We have the most up-to-date literature. We have Bibles available in all sorts of languages. We have resources coming out of our ears. But have you ever considered that our greatest strength is our greatest weakness?

Two years ago I heard people say, "If we only had an organ - wouldn't our worship be great?" Or people are saying now, "O, if we only had the worship team more often wouldn't that be great the Holy Spirit would visit us in power." "O, if we had a new building or if we could add on to this building we could be better at what we do." "O, if we had a bigger budget - what we could do."

My friends, if we derived our strength from the things of this world, it would not be our greatest strength - it would be our greatest weakness. The things of ministry are not evil. Yes, let's honour God with the best materials that are available to us. But let's be careful, that our dependence is on God and rests on the strength and might and power of God alone. Let's be careful that we find our strength in the sovereignty of God who set the heavens and the earth in place. Let's be careful that we come to the world with the good news of Jesus Christ in the name of the Living God.

Let's learn from little David who took on that great giant of a man named Goliath with what appeared to be absolutely nothing. He came with five smooth stones and a sling shoot that's all he had as he stood before Goliath. He seemingly came with nothing but in reality he came with everything for he came before that giant in the name of the living God. He came in reliance upon God that he would win the battle, that he would save his people.

Here is the prophet Gideon who takes 32,000 men to fight against the Midianites. God tells him he has to many men to fight so 22, 000 leave and 10,000 remain. Then God said you still have to many - and the army is whittled down to 300. 300 men? Who ever heard of going into battle with 300 men against an army so huge, says the text that they were as thick as locusts? "They had so many camels that they could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore." (Judges 7:12)

Gideon seemingly had nothing - but in reality they had everything because they were made to depend on the Lord. He was on their side.

Here is the early church, experiencing their first taste of persecution. They are being jailed, they are being ridiculed, they are being harassed and they have apparently have nothing. And what is the first thing they do - organize a committee? No! With one voice they call out to the living God. They don't have anything but in reality they have everything for they have the sovereign Lord. They call out to Him in prayer, in dependence in His strength and His authority and power. And they ask God to act. O Lord they say, "You enable your servants". "You stretch out Your hand," "You perform the miracles." You work through us!

And the place where they were meeting was shaken! It was shaken by the presence of the Living God. The disciples were infused with the Holy Spirit and enabled to do what they could not possible do before they expressed their dependence on God in prayer.

Hear me clearly. There is nothing wrong with the equipment and the budgets and the bands and the instruments and the buildings in and of themselves. But my friends God help us if we depend on them to get to the job done. God forgive us if we mistakenly put our trust in the frills of ministry and thus fail to put our trust in the living God.

It is in prayer that we demonstrate our dependence on God. It is in prayer that we demonstrate our trust in God to do what we cannot possibly do. It is in prayer that we demonstrate the great truth that He is God and we are not.

Do you ever wonder why we have different postures for prayer? Some lay flat on the floor, some kneel, and others bow their heads. The posture reflects the attitude. We bow in reference certainly, but also in dependence. We bow because He is sovereign and we want to express our dependence on Him. So it is that it is only as we depend on God in prayer that lives are changed.

Prayer is an act of obedience; it is an act of dependence.

So we are seeking to pray for God's world mission. Here, we may ask the question "How can I pray?" You say, "Pastor I'm in agreement with you, now tell me how."

Obviously everyone in this world has the will to choose or reject the message of Christ's love. Therefore we cannot ask God to force people to be believers. Dick Eastman suggests that what we can ask is that God would cause people to ask certain heart questions about life that will ultimately direct their thinking toward the things of God.

So he suggests that we pray using six questions.

1. First pray that they would ask, "Whom can I trust?"

2. What is my purpose?

3. When will I really be free?

4. Why do people hate God?

5. How can I cope?

6. Where will I go when I die?⁴

Now this morning I'm going to give an invitation. Listen carefully, for the invitation is a little different. I'd like us to try a little experiment for the next three weeks. I'd like us to think globally. Let's begin praying these six questions for the nations in which we have partners in mission. Let's pray for the nations of Indonesia, Bolivia, Brazil, and Kenya. I'm going to ask you to convenent with me to pray for the next three weeks, for these four nations these six questions.

Then lets don't forget to start local. I believe we need to call out to God in prayer for those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. And perhaps there is someone here that would like to share a name of a person that you have been praying for - and what I'd like you to do is share the name of that person with all of us here. And we would agree to pray with you for the next three weeks - these six questions.

Let's pray.

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - April 2003