Sunday Livestream // Acts 2:41-47 | Devoted to Prayer

And though these young pastors did not want to see this boiler room, Spurgeon led them to the basement anyway. And what they found when they arrived was not just a heat system, they found over a 100 people in prayer. Spurgeon looked at these young men with a smile on his face and said, this is my boiler room. [00:36:29] (21 seconds)  #BoilerRoomPrayer

``See, whenever Spurgeon was asked what the secret to was his for his ministry was, he never pointed to his great preaching. He would say, my people, for me. You see, Spurgeon, though known for his great preaching, led a church that was known for their devotion to prayer. That is my hope for our church as well. May it be said of us that we are devoted to prayer. [00:36:51] (27 seconds)  #DevotedToPrayer

But we gotta stop allowing all the distractions in this world to keep us from being engaged in the habits that God has given us. And one of the habits that we need to stop ignoring is the habit of prayer. And I think we could all admit that we cannot make it in our own strength. We cannot live Christ like lives in a Christ less world in our own doing. We know we cannot stand firm against temptation and persecution in our own power. We know we cannot grow in godliness by our own means. [00:51:15] (33 seconds)  #NotByOurOwnStrength

I mean, if you know anything about praying even if you know a little bit about praying, you know this. We when we pray, it's not that we are praying to get more from God. In praying, we get more of God. Right? Prayer is a privilege. We get to spend time with the creator of the universe. So so you hear me go, why? Why would they do this? And you're like, well, that makes sense. Well, that's not my question is why was prayer important? I wanted to know why were these Christians immediately devoting themselves to prayer. [00:52:39] (27 seconds)  #PrayerForMoreOfGod

What did the 12 apostles do? They summoned the full number of the disciples and said, you know, it's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. [01:02:18] (21 seconds)  #PrayAndPreach

I do plan to teach you from God's word how to pray, but don't wait for that sermon to start praying. I mean, prayer really is a conversation with God. As we begin this journey as a church, I'm asking you, we are asking you to commit to a time of daily prayer with God. A time when you put all of the distractions away, you step into that quiet space and just spend some time having a conversation with your creator. [01:14:25] (29 seconds)  #DailyPrayerHabit

I mean, Jesus, when he taught how to pray said this, when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, pray to your father who's in secret. Your father who sees in secret will reward you. So commit some time to pray. It doesn't have to be a big time commitment. I'm not asking you right now to spend all night praying. Just take a few minutes each day and devote yourselves to praying. [01:14:53] (31 seconds)  #PrayInSecret

God, as we said at the beginning of this, as your word teaches, it is you who grows us. We are asking that you grow us in this way. You help us to see once again the importance of this habit, the blessing of this grace you have given us to be able to talk to you. May it be said of us, we're devoted to prayer. [01:17:19] (37 seconds)  #GrowThroughPrayer