Church Requel
When The Church Prays
What happens when the church prays together? When does the church pray together? There are many different kinds of prayer. Today we talk about corporate prayer - the powerful kind of praying when the church gathers together in agreement and prays as one. Open your Bible to Acts 4:23-31 and prepare yourself for a fresh wave of boldness.
Locations & Times
Church Requel
2 Marion Ave, Mansfield, OH 44903, USA
Sunday 11:00 AM
Why "Requel?"
Here at Church Requel we want to celebrate the good news of Jesus in a way that makes sense and relates to every day people. From the songs we sing (contemporary) to the clothes we wear (casual) to the language we use (understandable) we want to be “requel” in our approach. We want to retell the story that has been around for more than 2,000 years in a new, fresh way with a message each week that is straight from the Bible. We invite you to join us as we sing, pray, celebrate and learn from the Word of God.
Church Requel T-Shirts
The T-shirts are here! Make sure to pick yours up this morning if you ordered one. We’ve had a few ask if they could still order one... so we will take one more order for those who didn’t get their order in or who want another one. We’ll send the order in after this Sunday morning.
Canoeing and Lunch - Next Saturday!
The cost is $20 per person (as long as we have a group of 12 or more,) and children 10 and under are free. We are going to meet at 10am at Mohican Adventures for the canoe trip which is 7 miles long and takes about 2 hours. We will pay for the group promptly at 10am - if you arrive late you will need to pay the full price ($28). Also Wendy and Stanley need a ride from the church to Mohican. Are you able to give them a lift? When we are finished canoeing we can all grab some lunch together at a restaurant in that area.
August 3rd Cleaning Party
If you are available, consider coming to the church on the first Friday morning of August to help Mary Kay and Tamara clean up the children’s area downstairs. We’d love to start the school year off with everything straightened and organized downstairs. Many hands make the work go faster and funner!
Food Pantry
We continue to need non-perishable foods. When you come to church Sunday mornings bring some food to share with others, who may be sitting in the pew next to you. The Food Pantry is downstairs and will be open for 15 minutes after each Sunday service. You are welcome to receive food if you have a need. We are looking for volunteers to work in the food pantry 15 minutes each Sunday. Please see Sheri if you are able to help.
Donate To Church Requel
Use the link below to make a one time donation to Church Requel using your debit or credit card. We want to make sure you know that we provide this as a convenience for those who use the debit or credit card responsibly in their financial lives. It is not our intent for you to go into or add to credit card debt to give to CR. We appreciate your ongoing financial support of our ministry!
https://churchrequel.ccbchurch.com/trx_submit.php?type=public_gift
When The Church Prays - Acts 4:23-31 NIV
#1 - The church prays together in _______________ to God’s provision.
“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.” Acts 4:23-24a NIV
We are quick to pray for God to provide. We are not always so quick to pray our thank-you’s when God has provided. Quick to get on the prayer chain. Quick to call the pastor / spiritual person. But what about when God provides? Also notice they raised their voices together. This is corporate prayer. Prayer together. We do a small version of this in our worship service. But this is a whole higher different level of corporate prayer. It wasn’t that they got together to pray. They were already together - living life together, sharing their goods and property, helping one another - so praying together was normal, natural.
#2 - The church prays together to _______________ all that God has done.
“‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘You made the heavens 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.’” Acts 4:24b-25a NIV
One thank you leads to many more. The observation that God is at work in our lives NOW reminds us that God has always been at work. Reminds us that God is the Creator. That EVERY thing we have and use and love and benefit from has come from the loving Creator Sovereign Lord God. We are ALSO reminded that God not only DOES but God also SPEAKS. He is not mute. We do not have to wonder. God speaks through His Holy Spirit. But how? Almost always through Scripture. Do you see it? Through our father David is another way of quoting the Bible. (Psalm 2:1-2). So part of prayer is listening to God speak back to us and that will almost always be by hearing Holy Spirit speak through His Word.
#3 - The church prays together to ________________ God’s sovereign will.
“Herod and Pontius Pilate … did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” Acts 4:27-28 NIV
Here we greatly struggle. We must distinguish between God’s will as SOVEREIGN and God’s will as MORAL. We interchange them applying both to “God’s will” when they are two different things. Seen in these 2:
1. God does all things according to his will. (Sovereign)
“Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.” Psalm 115:3
2. Some things happen that are not God’s will. (Moral)
“Whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:17
The Bible makes a distinction between God’s will understood as His purpose that is never frustrated in any event and God’s will understood as His moral command to act in a certain way. In this verse we see a clear distinction. God’s moral will is “Do not murder.” Yet he willed the murder of His own Son! One of the high and holy truths about God that we embrace in submitting to Biblical truth is that God does not sin in willing that sin be. This is crucial because God’s plan for our salvation through the cross hangs upon this distinction. God’s ways and will are pure and good. He has His holy purposes in ordaining all that happens.
#4 - The church prays together to ___________________ the preacher’s boldness.
“Now Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” Acts 4:29 NIV
How often to you pray for your preacher? He is under Satan’s attack continuously. That shows itself in pressures of all kinds - sometimes outside of the church and sometimes inside the church. Anything that our spiritual enemy can do to derail the power and boldness of your preacher’s sermon and words, he will do. It is easy for your servant to become discouraged. To wonder why he suffers through this. It is easy to want to go back to just doing a normal job that doesn’t involve knowing everyone in such a deep, emotional, personal way. It is easy to to want to go back to where church becomes a refuge from the challenges of work rather than church being the source of the challenges. IOW without your continuous prayers it is easy to lose the boldness of preaching. Is your prayer constant in support of preaching boldness?
#5 - The church prays together to ________________ God’s wonders for God’s glory.
“Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Acts 4:30 NIV
When we make requests of God (and He invites us to ask Him always), our usual requests are for ourselves or our loved ones - usually at times of great need or illness. But how often do we pray simply for God to heal and perform signs and wonders not because of our need but because of our desires for God to be glorified? We can discipline ourselves to do this on our own in our own private prayers, but it is much easier to do this as a group. And doing this together helps us to do this too on our own. As Christ-followers we continuously are living out the change from living for ourselves (selfish - for our glory) to living for Christ (selfless, God-seeking, God-oriented, God-focused, God glorifying.)
#6 - The church prays together to _________________ God’s Holy Spirit boldness.
“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 boldly.” Acts 4:31
Earlier (#4) we talked about praying for the preacher that he be re-energized for boldness. The truth is that it’s not just the preacher who needs this. Right? We all do! Here is what happens when we pray together in the way we described in these first 5 - the result is that we all - as a group - together - receive boldness from God through His Holy Spirit. We speak boldly upon His behalf. We are encouraged. We are emboldened.
Notice that this was NOT something they prayed for. Not something they asked about. It WAS the result of corporate prayer for God’s will and God’s glory that the Holy Spirit literally shook the place with His power. When is the last time you were shaken with God’s affirmation and power in your life? It can happen in our private prayers. It almost always happens in our corporate prayers when we pray like this.
Is this something you want? Is this something you are willing to sacrifice for? Will you - this week - look for opportunities to pray together with other Christ followers when you are together? It will be different and difficult at first. But the more you do it, the more natural it will become. If you are timid and weak in your faith, this may be just what you need.
#1 - The church prays together in _______________ to God’s provision.
“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.” Acts 4:23-24a NIV
We are quick to pray for God to provide. We are not always so quick to pray our thank-you’s when God has provided. Quick to get on the prayer chain. Quick to call the pastor / spiritual person. But what about when God provides? Also notice they raised their voices together. This is corporate prayer. Prayer together. We do a small version of this in our worship service. But this is a whole higher different level of corporate prayer. It wasn’t that they got together to pray. They were already together - living life together, sharing their goods and property, helping one another - so praying together was normal, natural.
#2 - The church prays together to _______________ all that God has done.
“‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘You made the heavens 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.’” Acts 4:24b-25a NIV
One thank you leads to many more. The observation that God is at work in our lives NOW reminds us that God has always been at work. Reminds us that God is the Creator. That EVERY thing we have and use and love and benefit from has come from the loving Creator Sovereign Lord God. We are ALSO reminded that God not only DOES but God also SPEAKS. He is not mute. We do not have to wonder. God speaks through His Holy Spirit. But how? Almost always through Scripture. Do you see it? Through our father David is another way of quoting the Bible. (Psalm 2:1-2). So part of prayer is listening to God speak back to us and that will almost always be by hearing Holy Spirit speak through His Word.
#3 - The church prays together to ________________ God’s sovereign will.
“Herod and Pontius Pilate … did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” Acts 4:27-28 NIV
Here we greatly struggle. We must distinguish between God’s will as SOVEREIGN and God’s will as MORAL. We interchange them applying both to “God’s will” when they are two different things. Seen in these 2:
1. God does all things according to his will. (Sovereign)
“Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases.” Psalm 115:3
2. Some things happen that are not God’s will. (Moral)
“Whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:17
The Bible makes a distinction between God’s will understood as His purpose that is never frustrated in any event and God’s will understood as His moral command to act in a certain way. In this verse we see a clear distinction. God’s moral will is “Do not murder.” Yet he willed the murder of His own Son! One of the high and holy truths about God that we embrace in submitting to Biblical truth is that God does not sin in willing that sin be. This is crucial because God’s plan for our salvation through the cross hangs upon this distinction. God’s ways and will are pure and good. He has His holy purposes in ordaining all that happens.
#4 - The church prays together to ___________________ the preacher’s boldness.
“Now Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” Acts 4:29 NIV
How often to you pray for your preacher? He is under Satan’s attack continuously. That shows itself in pressures of all kinds - sometimes outside of the church and sometimes inside the church. Anything that our spiritual enemy can do to derail the power and boldness of your preacher’s sermon and words, he will do. It is easy for your servant to become discouraged. To wonder why he suffers through this. It is easy to want to go back to just doing a normal job that doesn’t involve knowing everyone in such a deep, emotional, personal way. It is easy to to want to go back to where church becomes a refuge from the challenges of work rather than church being the source of the challenges. IOW without your continuous prayers it is easy to lose the boldness of preaching. Is your prayer constant in support of preaching boldness?
#5 - The church prays together to ________________ God’s wonders for God’s glory.
“Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Acts 4:30 NIV
When we make requests of God (and He invites us to ask Him always), our usual requests are for ourselves or our loved ones - usually at times of great need or illness. But how often do we pray simply for God to heal and perform signs and wonders not because of our need but because of our desires for God to be glorified? We can discipline ourselves to do this on our own in our own private prayers, but it is much easier to do this as a group. And doing this together helps us to do this too on our own. As Christ-followers we continuously are living out the change from living for ourselves (selfish - for our glory) to living for Christ (selfless, God-seeking, God-oriented, God-focused, God glorifying.)
#6 - The church prays together to _________________ God’s Holy Spirit boldness.
“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 boldly.” Acts 4:31
Earlier (#4) we talked about praying for the preacher that he be re-energized for boldness. The truth is that it’s not just the preacher who needs this. Right? We all do! Here is what happens when we pray together in the way we described in these first 5 - the result is that we all - as a group - together - receive boldness from God through His Holy Spirit. We speak boldly upon His behalf. We are encouraged. We are emboldened.
Notice that this was NOT something they prayed for. Not something they asked about. It WAS the result of corporate prayer for God’s will and God’s glory that the Holy Spirit literally shook the place with His power. When is the last time you were shaken with God’s affirmation and power in your life? It can happen in our private prayers. It almost always happens in our corporate prayers when we pray like this.
Is this something you want? Is this something you are willing to sacrifice for? Will you - this week - look for opportunities to pray together with other Christ followers when you are together? It will be different and difficult at first. But the more you do it, the more natural it will become. If you are timid and weak in your faith, this may be just what you need.
Church Requel's Website
Here is your online link to everything Church Requel on the Internet. Here you will find all of our sermons, in video and audio. Each week our pastor writes in his online blog and publishes an audio podcast. You'll find all of our pictures, our Facebook page and our Twitter feed. You can even connect with other Church Requel folks in our online community!
http://www.ChurchRequel.org/