Just a quick announcement before we get into the Word this evening. Some of you may have seen that an email went out from Grace Missions. We usually get at least a monthly email from Dr. Woodrow in the ministry there in Mozambique. And one of the things that was in that email was a video put together by Tim Challies and a videographer, or a group of videographers. that highlights, over about 27 minutes, the ministry of Dr. Woodrow and all the many things that the Lord is doing through him and his team there in Mozambique. So next Lord's Day evening in the Vesper, in place of a lesson, we're actually going to watch that update on the ministry. And there's a few reasons for this. Number one, one of the things the elders are constantly striving to do better, is to make you aware of our missionaries. We not only want to be praying for them corporately in our time together, we want you to be praying for them individually, but we also just want you to know what they're doing. As the elders are at the same time thinking through how we could better serve the youth, it's just crossed my mind, and I'm not making any promises, but wouldn't it be amazing one day in the next few years if The youth could do a mission trip to Mozambique and we can see what's going on there with the Woodrows and just be a part of it, have a hand in it. So we want to expose you more to what's going on in our missionary endeavors, but then also we want to take an opportunity after that video to pray specifically for the Woodrows. So next, Lord's Day Vesper, we'll be watching a video on the Woodrows and be praying for them. Well, tonight I want to consider the third installment, if you will, in the question or the series, Why Are Church Prayer Meetings Important? We've been talking about this for about two weeks now. Now this is the third week. In the first lesson we saw at least four things. We saw that the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to the fellowship, and to the prayers. And we have bent over backwards to explain to you that this is basically just the means of grace. and the early church devoted themselves to the means of grace. They believed that they were the divine channels through which God communicates grace, and so we want to be about them as the 21st century church. We also saw, secondly, the Reformation and Revival were almost always preceded by a corporate prayer of God's people. Thirdly, we saw that the Lord has given us Sunday, the market day of the soul, both morning and evening, for us to make diligent use of these means of grace, especially prayer. We saw also that, we were reminded by Spurgeon actually, that he said, we shall never see much change in our churches in general until the prayer meeting occupies a much higher place in the esteem of Christians. And then last time, we just looked at three things. We looked at something of a scriptural warrant for the corporate prayer meeting, okay? It's one thing to say, hey, it's a good idea to get together and pray, which I don't know that you would find somebody, a Christian, that would disagree with that. It's another thing to say, hey, we're called to this. This is something that we are obligated, it's not only a privilege, but we're obligated to do that. And so last time we sought to mine out the scriptural warrant for a prayer meeting, and we saw three things. Number one, that the native instinct of man is to cry out to his creator for help. We saw that the first prayer meeting was Genesis 4.26. We're in those beginning stages of civilization. It says, man begin to cry out to the Lord. We also saw, secondly, that God delights to answer petitions by multiple signatures. And we saw this in Matthew 18, 19, and 20, tucked away in that passage about church discipline, that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst, Jesus says, and that he is happy to answer their prayers. And then finally, we spend some time in 1 Timothy 2, and I tried to point out in that passage that 1 Timothy 2 requires that a corporate prayer meeting be something that the church does on a normal basis. So tonight what I'd like to do in continuing our thoughts in this direction is give one further answer to the question, at least tonight, to the question, why are church prayer meetings important? And here's my simple answer tonight. They're important because God does life-changing, kingdom-strengthening, and kingdom-expanding feats in response to the corporate prayers of the saints. Now, we could go anywhere in Scripture to unpack that, but I just thought I'd like to take a few samplings just from the book of Acts. Just from the book of Acts of how the Lord did amazing feats that strengthened the kingdom, that gave boldness to the people of God, all in response to prayer. So let me just consider, I think there's about six of them, a few instances in the book of Acts where the Lord responded to the prayers of His people with amazing things. Number one, the Spirit is poured out upon the church on the day of Pentecost, and 3,000 souls are saved in response to prayer. So, the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost came after the disciples and some women had devoted themselves to prayer. We see that in Acts 1, verses 12-14. Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, came and spent 40 days with the apostles. He was teaching them about the Kingdom of God. And then He ascended. And after He ascended, the angel appeared to them and said, what are you looking at? And the same way that He went up, so He will also come back. But then after that, it says the apostles joined themselves to prayer together with some women. And as a result of that, what do we see in Acts chapter 2? The day of Pentecost. The Lord pours out the Spirit on the church. Three thousand souls are saved. And this all in response to prayer. Now, it's interesting that The promise of the Spirit was a promise. Jesus said that He was going to pour out the Spirit, but did that keep them from praying for the Spirit? Not at all. And I think that this is one of the beautiful things that we see in Scripture about prayer, is that prayer is not just, hey, God hasn't said anything about it, so ask Him for it, or God is so benevolent and so gracious that He even does that. But what God also does is He promises us things that He's going to do, that He's going to be for us, but then He exhorts us to pray that those promises come about. If you ever want to know if you're a hyper-Calvinist, you can know if you say something like, well, God promised that He's going to do that, so I'm not going to pray for it. But the biblical Christian will pray for the things that God has promised, not knowing when He will do it, but praying that He will do it in their time. So a second event that we see in response to prayer is the church is granted boldness to continue preaching the gospel in the midst of satanic persecution in response to prayer. So we see in Acts chapter 4 Peter and John heal a cripple and the Jewish leaders brought them in for questioning and tried to stop them through fear, through intimidation. The authorities release them finally and they go straight back to the church and the church prays together. Chapter four, verse 23 and 24. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, et cetera, et cetera. What happened after they prayed? Look at verse 31. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. So what did God do here? The authorities were trying to intimidate them. The authorities were trying to tell them, you don't bring that gospel around here. We rule the roost around here. We are the teachers of the law. We are the scribes. We are the Pharisees. We have an agreement with Rome, and you can't bring that gospel around here. And what are we going to threaten you with? Death. Yes, we have the power to do that. The inner workings and bureaucratic workings of the relationship between Rome and the Jews is such that if we wanted, we could have you killed. And by the way, if you want a case in point, look at your Lord. We had Him crucified. They could have them killed. Now what is that going to instill in you if you are a human being? It's going to instill fear. And so what do they do? They take their fear to the Lord, and He grants them boldness to continue preaching the gospel. So that's the second thing. A third thing, very quickly, is in Acts chapter 12. Peter's freed from prison in response to prayer. So remember, James was beheaded, Peter goes to prison, and Peter's sentenced to death. Like, he's on skid row. He's on death row. Soon his life is going to be taken, but people pray for eight straight days in different places right up to the hour that he was to be executed. And what does the Lord do? Verse 7, the Lord sends an angel and this angel frees Peter. Peter is freed from prison and where does he go? He goes straight to the prayer meeting and joins the saints in prayer. Despite their own surprisement that he's there. But then fourthly, I want you to notice this. Acts chapter 13, I will ask you to turn there. I love Acts chapter 13. I once heard a sermon on Acts chapter 13 and it was called, The Antioch Moment. And what do we see here in Acts chapter 13? The church is praying in Antioch. They are fasting. They are in prayer. And as they are worshiping, as they are fasting, as they are praying, what happens? The Holy Spirit reveals to them that He wants Paul and Barnabas set apart. Let me read in your hearing verses 1-3. Chapter 13, verses 1-3. Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Now, the renowned Greek scholar A.T. Robertson notes that the Greek here, in verse 3, speaks of many upturned faces turned to God in heaven. And Joel Beeky adds, the portrait painted here is one of numerous, unitedly upturned faces appealing to God in heaven. And by the way, can I just say it was in the context of a worship service. Wouldn't it be amazing if the Lord, through our worshiping as a people, whether it's morning or evening, whether it's through a confession of sin, whether it's through a reading of scripture, whether it's through the sermon or a doxology or a benediction or everything together, out of that, the Lord moves all of our hearts or moves an individual heart to say, hey, I want to be sent to Mozambique. Send me to Mozambique." And the church gathers around them, not only with encouragement, but with resources, financial resources, and says, yes. And everybody steps back and realizes it seems as if the Lord is doing something here. You see, the Lord works through prayer. Wouldn't it be amazing if out of the school of prayer a missionary was raised up? But I think our reflux is to think that our church is just too small. There isn't a big enough pool of people here to have a dedicated man or woman to leave everything and preach the gospel to some tribe in Mozambique, but I think that that's part of our problem. It's not just getting people here to pray that is the challenge, although that is important. It's about constantly conditioning ourselves to be bold enough to ask, listen, big things of a big God. We need to ask big things of a big God. And I think here of Ephesians 3.20 where Paul says this, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us. This verse reminds us that the possibilities for what the Lord might do through us really are endless. I've lost count of the times that I didn't even pray for something to happen, even though I may have wanted it to happen, and it happened. Why? Because God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we think. Furthermore, sometimes we're reserved in our prayers and the Lord does far more abundantly than we even ask. For years, a dear saint in our church back in California, actually before I met Christina, she was a dear saint, dearly beloved by the congregation, but her husband was a pot-smoking, lazy, irresponsible man who didn't know the Lord, didn't want anything to do with the Lord. He'd sit down in the garage and smoke marijuana while his wife was inside trying to put dinner on the table for their family. And yet she was faithful to the church. She went morning and evening. She prayed. She asked others to pray. She asked all the prayer warriors to come together. And for 25 years, she prayed for the salvation of this man's soul. Just that he would be saved. Just bear him. Lord, just get him on this side of the line of the kingdom. Just get him in there. You know what the Lord did? After 25 years, the Lord saved that man. But the Lord didn't stop there. You know what he did? He put it in the heart of this man to become a deacon in the church. And this man, to this day, is one of the most faithful servants, most faithful deacons in that church. And I believe it's in response to the prayer of his wife, who believed that God could do big things. Do we believe that God can do big things? And notice that God's abundant work is according to the power at work within us. What is that power? It is the power and authority that a child of God possesses in the name of Christ to ask whatever her heart desires provided it be the will of God. That's power, that's authority at work in us. It is a claiming of the promises. It is a latching on to the means of grace. Peter Masters says this, he says, gracious blessing for all his ministries and all our work in his church and kingdom. It is a corporate recognition that without Christ we can do nothing, and that with him we have large expectations. Praying together helps us turn our eyes heavenward to the God of the harvest who has promised great things. It focuses our minds on large-scale blessings. So notice that in this Antioch moment, the Lord raised up workers for the harvest as a result of prayer. But now I want you to notice next that the first church in Europe was born in a response to a woman's prayer meeting. This is the prayer meeting of which Lydia was involved in Acts 16, verses 13-15. And I'll read that in your hearing. Acts 16, 13-15, Luke says, And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate, the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer. And we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. I want you to notice Lydia's heart was open to the gospel message. And then later, this is a prayer meeting. And then later, Paul and Silas in the same chapter held a midnight prayer meeting in jail. And as the disciples prayed and sang praises unto God, other prisoners were listening. God responded to those prayers by sending an earthquake that set Paul and Silas free. The jailer and his family were converted and once again we saw God's attendant blessing on Prayer meaning. So do you see a theme here? The theme, the consistent theme is that the Lord reserves the right to, in response to prayers, cause great blessings to break upon the heads of his people. You know, one of the greatest things God is pleased to do in response to prayer is to foster unity among his saints. And I always say this, and I'll never stop saying it, never take unity for granted. Learn to appreciate it while it is there. Don't underestimate its privileges and its blessings. Johnston says this, he says, at prayer meetings, unity has its birthplace. Here it is cradled, here it is trained, here it becomes a threefold cord. Here is the center of the unity of the church, for here is the soil, the genial soil beside the waters, where unity strikes deeply its roots, and from which it draws its life power to bind together in attractive brotherhood. And then Peter Master says this in his book, The Power of the Prayer Meetings. He says, and we become a group of people longing for the blessing of others and for the prosperity of the cause. In the prayer gathering, we are refined and honed as a united body of people. It cements union and promotes respect. We hear each other pray. We subordinate ourselves to each other. We appreciate each other. We feel, as the old saying goes, one another's spirits, and we are warmed and deepened in oneness and regard. to adopt a well-worn phrase, the church that prays together stays together. Why is it that the church that prays together stays together? Because I've never had the wretched sin of coveting and jealousy shaken from my heart more than when I am in a prayer meeting, when I am lifting up a prayer for the very people of whom I am jealous, for the very people of whose possessions I may be coveting." When I am in that prayer meeting and I'm doing that, The Lord is faithful to shake those wicked proclivities of jealousy and covetousness and division out of my heart and put in their place a warm and affectionate love for my brethren. That's one of the things that prayer meetings do. God does life-changing, kingdom-strengthening and kingdom-expanding feats in response to prayer. Well, John Newton said, you know who John Newton was, that former slave trader transformed by the grace of God. He once said this. One of the greatest comforts I have in my life is that at any given time, I can believe that someone somewhere in this world is lifting up my worthless name and whispering it into the ears of the Lord Sabaoth. What a beautiful thing. We believe that God does amazing things through prayer. Maybe you've come tonight and you're downcast. Do you believe that the Lord, through the prayers of the saints, can lift up your countenance? Do you believe that the Lord can give you a semblance of peace, a semblance of respite, a semblance of joy, where there is a desert of joy, where no joy exists? You know, it would be sufficient if the only one who ever prayed for us on a regular basis were Jesus Christ our Lord. Who, by the way, does daily pray for us and intercede for us. But such is the privilege of the Christian that she has in addition to the prayers of her Lord, the prayers of the saints. So let's enter in tonight into a season of prayer, taking these things into consideration. That the Lord does big things through the prayers of His saints. and let's be bold enough and audacious enough to ask big things of Him. Alright, so I have a few prayer requests tonight and then I want to open it up to y'all.