If you would please take your Bibles and I'm going to read very briefly from 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and from Acts chapter 4. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14 from verse 13, 1 Corinthians 14 from verse 13, therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, How will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say Amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say? For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified or built up. I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all, yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding that I may teach others also than 10,000 words in a tongue, that is, in another language. And then in Acts and chapter 4, Acts and chapter 4. From verse 23, the apostles were let go. They went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of your servant David have said, why did the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Let us pray briefly. Lord, give us, even now, unity of heart and unity of desire to know how we may serve you as a church. Call us, O God, to your throne, and may we come with eagerness, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning, God helping us, we're going to answer the second part of the question, what happens when we pray? And by we here, we're not talking about each one of us individually when we come before God for ourselves, but what is happening when in gathered prayer or corporate prayer, one person is speaking on behalf of other people? That has already happened several times today. Sometimes people say, why do you only have certain people leading in certain services? We've almost always got certain people leading in certain services. Why don't these people pray? Why don't women pray or children pray? Well, every time we gather there is somebody who is leading in prayer and everybody else is supposed to be praying with them. So we're asking the question, if that's a gathered worship service, if that's a prayer meeting, if that's a gathering of Christian friends, If that's you talking over the phone with a friend and saying, let's pray before we finish, if it's the concert of prayer tomorrow evening, if it's family worship, if it's you kneeling down with your wife or your husband or your children at the end of a day, what is taking place when we pray? Because typically, as you see, for example, in Acts chapter four, one speaks, but all engage. It's possible to talk of one voice for every heart in this place. So when we pray together, we've said, it's not one voice droning on while everybody else does their own thing mentally. It's not me praying my prayers while you pray your prayers. It's not all of us praying out loud simultaneously. It is one person who leads to the throne of grace as the rest of us gather behind with affection of heart and engagement of mind. And we looked at 1 Corinthians 14, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 4, and Acts chapter 12, last Lord's Day, to establish those principles. When we gather to pray in smaller or larger groups, it is to be with the spirit and with the understanding so that the whole group is edified and God himself is glorified. We're all to enter in in earnestly and thoughtfully. And so we started last week with some hints or principles for those who lead in public prayer. We said that's only fair because if the rest of us have to follow, then it's a good thing to instruct those who are leading. We want to make it as easy as possible because prayer is not easy for others to enter in with us. So we said that you need to actually be there in order to lead in prayer. to be prepared, to pray with God as your first, your primary audience, if you will, in prayer, to pray as part of the body, to speak on behalf of the whole, we and us, rather than I and me, edifying. These are not private prayers brought into the public sphere. To use language that is simple and scriptural, To be clear, to be audible, to be brief, to be varied, to be earnest so that others can enter in readily. To keep to track when we're praying together rather than to wander around so that we all get lost. to avoid provoking one another in prayer, to pray with humility, and always to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. That is, depending upon, relying upon him, not just in the words that we speak, but in our heart approach to the throne of grace. So I'd like you to at least begin with the principle that whoever is going to lead in prayer is going to do so in an exemplary fashion. Now, if that is the case, what are the principles, the hints, the suggestions for those of us who are engaging in prayer as someone leads us to God's gracious throne? And it's important that we remember as we think through these things, the privilege and the pleasure of pleading with our God in heaven. we come to our Father in heaven. And even that language there in Matthew chapter five, When you pray, say, Our Father who is in heaven. We're speaking on behalf of the whole believing body and that means that we are to be praying as much as the one who is speaking or leading when we are praying together. And that's why I sometimes make this emphasis. Someone is leading in prayer, but we're all praying. And my friends, that can be harder than it is to lead in prayer. Because when you're leading in prayer, at least you are speaking, you are engaged, your mouth is moving, your heart should be taken up. But there's a level of concentration that is sometimes required. Sometimes people say to me, I find it hard to pray privately. I say, find somewhere quiet and speak out loud. helps with your concentration sometimes and your focus. But when someone is speaking in prayer to God on behalf of the group, we should all be praying with that person. So in order to do that, what principles and suggestions can I offer? First of all, be there. You might say, haven't you got the wrong notes in front of you? No, I said it last week to those who are leading, I say it this week to those who are engaging. You need to be present for prayer. You need to be physically present, you need to be spiritually present. It is not that numbers somehow oblige God. He's not a God who hears either because of the many words of the one who is speaking on behalf of others or just because somehow we've got enough of us to make a difference. But it is because there's a unity which enhances and fosters that fervency and intensity. There is a sense in which our hearts gather together and together we assault heaven in the best use of that language. There's a weight of desire from the accumulated wishes of many hearts that are behind the one voice. It helps the person who is leading in prayer. Some of you will know what it's like to lead in prayer when it feels like everybody's a million miles away. And it's like climbing up a hill dragging a huge great weight behind you. Other times it feels like everybody's pushing you up the hill and then there's a freedom of expression. Not necessarily that you then pray for half an hour rather than for three minutes. In fact it may be that when the Spirit is present you do pray for three minutes rather than for half an hour because it's not the length. But if you are there, committed, as you ought to be if you're a member of this congregation, to being here on the Lord's Day and to gathering with the saints to pray to God together, we have a dedicated prayer meeting. It is where we build up a head of steam for all the other work that we do. And if you are not providentially hindered, that is if you don't have a good reason for not being here, then it should be your priority to be here in a timely fashion, ready to to engage. So if you want to be a part of the prayer meeting, if you want to engage in public prayer, be there when others are praying. Take the opportunities. Sometimes people say, why do I have to be? Why don't you want to be? Why wouldn't you want to be where God's people are gathered together asking for blessings from a God who is more willing to give than we are to ask? Be there and be prepared. Again, we started with this for those who are leading in prayer, get a promise, get some precept from God's word and come ready to bring it to the throne of grace. When we gather to pray together, we need to come ready to labour spiritually, to wrestle together. Sometimes you say, oh, I don't feel like it. if we're honest, how often do most of us feel like praying? Sometimes you don't feel like praying until you've started praying. And it's not that you do it as some kind of dry duty, but you go where God has promised to show himself. And sometimes people will say, I didn't feel like coming. but I'm glad that I did. You ever had that? After a prayer meeting or a cert? It felt like a great effort, but I'm glad that I came. You won't always float in on cloud nine. You won't always float out on cloud nine. But if you come with the intent and the desire, I have come to join my heart together with the other hearts in this place. I've come to throw my spiritual weight behind whoever will be leading in prayer. This, my friends, is spiritual preparation. And the best preparation for a prayer meeting is praying. If we are praying during the week, If we are engaged in private devotion, family worship, then it will help to stir our souls for those occasions when we either speak on behalf of others or enter in with one who is speaking. So be there and be prepared. Now some more specifics for those who are engaging in prayer with one who is leading. Follow the words. I know that sounds very simple and very straightforward, but concentrate. Seek not to let your mind wander. Listen to what is being said. Pay close attention. This is one of the reasons why often in our gathered prayer meetings we have different seasons of prayer where we're able to say now for the next few minutes we're going to be asking for these things or praising God in this connection or interceding on behalf of other churches or dealing with particular matters in the congregation. It's so that those who lead in prayer can get some momentum up, and that those of us who are engaging as one and then another leads, we can be thinking, yes, we know what track we're on, we're listening, we're following on, we're paying attention to these things. Sometimes it also helps to break up the prayer meeting in that way, because concentration isn't always easy. Especially if you come in at the end of a long day and you've had a busy week and you've had maybe a demanding few hours at work. What happens on a hot summer evening when you sit down on a beautifully padded chair, close your eyes? Especially if someone isn't praying in a way that helps you to listen. like the droning of bees sometimes, isn't it, in the background, and everybody just starts to drop off. But if there's something of that variety and intensity in those who are leading, and we're there thinking, no, I want to concentrate as this one speaks, and then as this one speaks, and then as this one speaks, we need to listen because we are praying with the understanding, which means we need to enter in to the words. then we must enter in. And the only way that I can describe this is to throw your spiritual weight behind the words of the one who leads in prayer. Someone may be speaking, but your heart and mine need to be engaged. We need to be, if it's somebody carrying a bag It's you who lifts it with them. The last time I was in the Philippines, I woke up very early from jet lag, and I went for a long walk on a very sweaty morning. And I walked down out of Manila, walked out from Cubao through a couple of other neighborhoods. And as I started to get out of the city, the hills started to rise and fall, and I thought, I need to be turning around and getting back because I've got to get ready for the services this morning. And I reached the end of a particular hill, and there was a man with a big cart that was loaded with watermelon and other things who was on his way into the city in order to sell on the streets. And he'd just reached the bottom of a big hill. And he had his bike on the front, this huge crate on the back, and he was starting to labour his way up the hill. And I thought, well, I can at least help. So I just put my hand out and lent on the back of his cart. How long do you think it took him to realise that somebody else was pushing with him? Half a second. This has gone easy. The hill is still the same, but the pressure has eased. Somebody is pushing with me. Now, you may not get that immediate physical sense in gathered prayer, but that's the pattern. Somebody is pushing with me, that these brothers and sisters, there's one heart and one voice here, one accord speaking to God, and we're all pushing that weight up the hill together. Now, we're not saying that it's our effort that makes prayer to be prayer. But this is one of the reasons why prayer is described as a wrestling, because it is hard work. And there is then this sense of every one of us putting our weight behind this petition, putting our intensity into this prayer. Have you ever sweated praying? I bet some of the saints of old sweated. I bet Elijah sweated when he was praying on Mount Carmel for the cloud that came in for the rain. Have you ever sweated because someone else is praying? That would be something, wouldn't it? Now again, I'm not suggesting that you measure the drops on your brow as a mark of your intensity. But if that one is praying on our behalf, am I engaged with him? Am I pouring my soul out? Am I right behind him as he pleads with God on my behalf? Enter in. You need to understand to do that. You follow the words and then you enter in spiritually. Then cultivate sympathy and intensity. Cultivate sympathy and intensity. We're told, are we not, to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice. Here is again a part of that entering in because there will be times and we will pray for things that you may not know a great deal about or that you may not feel a great deal about. you can cultivate sympathy with the person who is praying, because there will be proper occasions when whoever is leading is deeply moved. Properly so. If you read the sermons by Charles Haddon Spurgeon when he touches on the topic of prayer, he will regularly mention how often in the prayer meetings there are those who are brought to the point of deep groanings and weepings by the things for which they pray. That's not reserved for private devotion. We're not suggesting that it needs to be whipped up for public prayer. But when somebody is moved to the depths of their being, is there sympathy of heart together with them? Is there sympathy of heart for the objects of prayer? How are you meant to pray for prisoners, Christian prisoners in other places? What does the author to the Hebrews tell us we're to pray like? As if what? chained together with them. There's sympathy, there's intensity. When we pray for our brother Olaf, is there some sense in which, what would it be like if I were in his shoes? What would it be like if that were my husband, my wife? How would I feel then? We load our hearts in. as we lead and as we engage, especially if we come dull and cold. Make it like a fire where, okay, there's a hot coal here. Right, let's bank ourselves around the hot coal and let's all catch a light and then let's keep one another warm so that there's a momentum, a spiritual empathy that begins to develop, that we're getting alongside our brother or our sister. Sometimes this is easier when you're praying just with one or two others. Sometimes it's when you're hearing someone's tale of distress or someone's tale of joy and you say well let's pray together and you can put an arm around their shoulder and they may not even be able to speak but you can put words to their hearts and there's a sympathy, there's an empathy, there's a joining of soul together that is sufficiently intense and profound that the scriptural writers can speak of us talking to God with one accord. It's as if there were one huge heart speaking through one human voice to the God of heaven. Is that not a beautiful image? Who prayed? Everyone. Who spoke? That person or that person. Who was together? All of us. And there may be variety in speech, and there will be differences of approach, but we can all be entering in. Then let me encourage you to participate with patient love. To participate with patient love. Because I said, let's at least start with the assumption that this is exemplary leading. Whoever leads perfectly to the throne of grace. We're going to be too long on occasion. We're going to lose our way on occasion. We're going to start a sentence and forget where it was going and how it finishes. We're going to fall into some of those traps that we wanted to avoid of just rehearsing certain phrases or sentences over and over again. Someone who's leading a service or leading a meeting is going to say, please let's pray like this. And someone will pray over there. What would be the danger? that we could become frustrated, irritated, that we then perhaps try and correct or counter balance. Participate with patient love. Remember if you're leading what I exhorted you last week about not making this too necessary, but bear in mind that we are praying together. You ever heard a child pray? Your parents, got a little son or daughter who's learning to lisp the praises of God, says, I want to pray. And then maybe they pray for Teddy. You think, well, that's not a very hope. OK, I'm not saying that. But as a child, would you stop them and say, no, no, that's not the kind of thing we pray for. Now, maybe later on, you would say, maybe when we pray tomorrow, we can pray for other things. Let's talk about some other things that we could pray for. And you lift the child's eyes, you lift the child's expectation. Sometimes we make mistakes when we pray. You brothers, you've led in prayer publicly. You ever felt like just crawling under the pulpit in a fetal position by the time you finished? What did I even say or not say? bear with one another, bear with our learning, bear with our shortcomings, bear with the struggles and the stumbles of the saints, bear with the weakness and the weariness of those who are seeking to lead to the throne of grace and be assured that if there's a genuine problem then the elders of the church will typically try and deal with it. we might go to someone and say, brother, you've been wandering a little in your prayers. Might I encourage you to get a little more focus? Some of you have heard me say, after you've prayed, especially perhaps early on, when we're trying to pray, taking account of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the very early days of this church, there was a man who used to thank the Father for dying on the cross. He was doing so very deliberately. That's heresy. And he had to be corrected. Now sometimes you hear a young person pray and they give thanks to the Father and then while they may be thinking of the Son, they're still speaking to the Father and they thank Him for dying on the cross. Well again, you can go to somebody after a prayer like that and you might say, my friend I don't know if you're aware of that but you lost your way a little bit there and we just want to be very careful about those things. That's very different, is it not, from just getting in a huff with someone while they pray. There are ways of dealing with that. Sometimes you might need to step in on the spot. Spurgeon once famously interrupted a prayer meeting with a brother who was blethering on for who knows how long, while Mr So-and-so finishes praying, the rest of us will sing a hymn. Now I'm not sure whether or not I would have the boldness to do that, especially in a smaller congregation, but there may be occasions where you publicly intervene because something's going badly wrong. But typically speaking, if we bear with one another in love, what does love do? It covers a multitude of sins. It will cover the sins of our prayers. Let's bear with one another and seek to enter in. Then be ready. Be ready. Why? Because in a number of these occasions, you will be both engaging and leading in prayer. So take your turn as appropriate. If you can, if I can use this language, catch the mood of the meeting. Be ready to step up. Be like a relay race where the baton is passed on from one runner to the other. Sometimes it's appropriate for there to be longer pauses where every soul is bowed before God. Other times it's good for one after another to step in. Keep the coals burning. Keep the momentum of the prayer meeting moving. Be ready to participate if it is appropriate. Then can I encourage you to express your approval. Express your approval. Do it inwardly. Sometimes, I'm not saying you have to do this, but when someone else is praying, in my soul at least, I am saying yes. I'm saying it in my heart. I'm not speaking with my lips, but I'm there, and I'm, as it were, affirming before God that I am with that petition. Yes, what that person has said is expressing my heart. Yes, Lord, give those things also, and express it outwardly, sometimes as the prayer is going on. Now, let me bind in another one here. Sound your amen. Notice what happens in 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 16. If you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say? What's the assumption then in public prayer? that there's going to come a point at which everybody says Amen because they have understood and entered into what is being said. Now what does Amen mean? Yeah, it's a public affirmation. It's a verbal affirmation. So be it. I agree. That's what I think too. This is true. I'm behind these words. Now friends, we have then the language of verbal affirmation used in our prayers. And that can help you and the person who's leading, if there is some particular praise or petition that is offered in the prayer, that you can say amen to that. And that is not inappropriate. It can get inappropriate, I had a friend once who was preaching in a congregation, she said, please open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 17. Amen! And he said, I haven't even started yet. And there are some people who almost like they're muttering all the way through, which isn't particularly helpful for most of us. But at least during the prayer, and particularly at the end of the prayer, how can you verbally demonstrate your soul agreement with what has been offered to God? With the Amen. Now, very often it sounds as if in a reformed congregation we've got a herd of bronchial cows. That's not sounding the Amen, brothers and sisters. If you can enter into what has been prayed, what should you say at the end of the prayer? Amen. You can say it as you go along. It's not the only word. Sometimes people will say hallelujah. I know one brother in another congregation, his way, that's right. And you're praying, you can hear him type, that's right, that's right. And you think, well, at least he's with me. Now you're not doing this as a cheerleader, my friends, that's not the point. But there is a proper way of a whole congregation affirming, not just for the applause or appreciation of the person who's been leading, but as a testimony before God himself. We have been with him. We want what He wants. We desire what He desires. We've entered in where He's entered in. His confessions of sin have been our confessions of sin. His praises to God have been our praises of God. His adoration of the Lord has been our adoration of the Lord. He's spoken thanksgivings on our behalf, expressing gratitude to God. He's been pleading with God. with and for us, and we've been pleading with God with Him also. He has spoken on our behalf. Wouldn't you have loved to be in one of these prayer meetings in the book of Acts, when Peter was in prison in Acts 12? Can you imagine? They're all there because they want Peter to somehow be spared. And one after another, they're standing up. Lord, deliver this man. We don't even know how. The irony, isn't it beautiful? He's already on his way to the prayer meeting because the angels let him out. Can you imagine? How did the people know that they were one with another? Lord, will you spare this servant of yours who's been a blessing to the congregation? No. I think they entered in, don't you? Amen! Yes, Lord, give us what that person has asked for. Provide what we have desired. It is your testimony to your whole-souled agreement with what has been spoken on your behalf. Brothers, let's not be moaners and mumblers. Sisters, if you're entering in with whoever is leading, let us sound our Amen. Let us do it robustly and feelingly. Let us confirm and encourage in prayer. And then lastly, and here again, I repeat what I said last week, pray in the name of Jesus. Somebody mind just maybe steering out of the lobby? I'm just seeing a lot of faces turning in that direction at the moment. Thank you. Pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we said that this is important for whoever is leading in prayer and my friends this is not merely a verbal form. I think the verbal form is important. I think praying explicitly and deliberately in dependence upon the merits of Jesus Christ is important. We cannot come to God apart from Jesus Christ. We cannot do that individually and we cannot do that corporately. So whoever is leading in prayer must consciously, deliberately, verbally express that it is by Christ Jesus that we come into the holiest place made without hands. And my friends, when we pray, we must have the same sense of privilege. We must have the same sense of dependence. How can you come to God? How can we come to God? It is by Christ and Christ only. And there is no other way by which we can approach. My sins would bar me from God. My transgressions cut me off from God. Unless I have a mediator, I cannot come. And my friends, there is nothing on earth so powerful with God in heaven. as his people who are gathered together trusting in Jesus Christ for their acceptance with God. Remember how the Apostle Paul speaks to the Ephesians that we are accepted in the beloved. That's a prayer meeting. That's every one of God's people, as it were, following on as someone comes in Christ himself, the great leader in prayer, and us going in after him, so that, as it were, there we all are in the presence of our Father. Now again, it's not because of multiple voices that the Lord hears, but if God's given you more than one child, isn't it effective when they all come and speak to you together, fathers, mothers? You boys and girls, you want something from dad and mum? What often works, let's all go together. And dad perhaps is there and he's got all his children in front of him and they're all looking up with cheerful and expectant faces. Dad, we want this. All of us want this. You promised that you'd give it to us and we've all come together to receive it. My friends, I don't think there's anything inappropriate in using an image like that with our heavenly Father. Christ himself uses that kind of language, doesn't he? If a father has a son who asks for bread, is he going to give him a stone? No, Christ likens our Father in heaven. to the dealings of the best fathers on earth and says, you, if you had children who came to you, you, though you have evil hearts, how readily and cheerfully and willingly would you bestow these good gifts upon those who asked? My friends, do we think our heavenly father is going to be any different? God is more willing to be asked of by us than we are to ask him for what he has promised. God is more willing to give than we are ready to receive. He has assured us that if we will come to him in Jesus' name, that he will grant those good petitions, that he will receive our most stumbling praises. that he will be pleased with the adoration of our hearts, that he will smile upon our thanksgivings. There are various ways then in which we can express true gospel unity and true gospel affection, but there is little that does it better than a praying people. Friends, we need the blessing of God, do we not? We can do nothing without him. We rely upon him utterly and entirely. Every good and perfect gift comes from him. He is the God who delights to open the storehouses of heaven and to pour out upon us the blessings which we require. He is ready to receive us. How ready are we to approach him? Yes, we should do it individually in our private devotions. Yes, we should do it in families and amongst friends. But the example that you have over and over again through the New Testament, exhortations, illustrations abounding, is of the saints of God gathering to throw their weight together behind the voice of one who speaks on their behalf. It's a family gathering to pour out to our Father in heaven our needs and our desires. Brothers and sisters, let us be there together, with one heart, with one mind, one voice, expressing with one accord our adoration of the God whom we serve, the confessions of the sins that we've committed as a church, the thanksgiving of our hearts for all his mercies towards us, and our earnest and united pleas for the blessings that he is only too pleased to bestow. Amen.