07 June 2026 - Martin McCrory - Persecution and Prayer

A praying church is not a dying church. Is there hope for a dying church? That church needs to pray. The first measure of grace, Lord John Martin Lord Jones says that the that prayer is the hard work of Christianity. Everything else is lightweight. Counseling is lightweight. Visiting is lightweight. Sermons are lightweight. Being together, fellowshipping is lightweight. The hard work of Christianity is prayer, but we know from our acts that they devoted themselves to prayer. Is this right? And so we find that they have continued to do that. We find that in the face of persecution, they come together and pray. [00:40:25] (53 seconds)  #PrayingChurchAlive

The answer to prayer have you thought about this? The answer to prayer is knocking at the door. Peter's the answer to prayer. He's like, knock knock. Here I am. Sometimes we're in those places where we haven't opened the door, and god's saying the answer to your prayer is knocking at the door. You just need to open the door, and there are measures that we can employ. Why did Peter live, and why did James die? This was a praying community, and surely they also prayed with as much fervor for James the apostle as they did for Peter the apostle. James died. Peter didn't. [00:29:26] (36 seconds)  #AnswerToPrayerKnocks

This is why I don't get into too many persuasive arguments with people. I just say there is a general revelation from god that is sufficient for you to recognize that there is a god and that only the fool has said in his heart, there is no god. Because the scripture says, god's made it plain to them because he has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen ever since the creation of the world in all the things that he has made. You have to walk around blind as a bat to not see that there is a god. [00:16:07] (46 seconds)  #GodRevealedInCreation

The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, our Westminster Shorter Catechism is, what is the chief end of man? The answer to that question is man's chief end is to glorify god and to enjoy him forever, not to take the glory to himself. Some of you may not be familiar with the weight of the catechisms and how the church was trained and how it was raised and how it was ordered and all of these things. Sometimes in our charismatic world, we've lost the the rails, and we don't get drawn back into the central truth. But the chief end of man is to glorify god. [00:22:37] (43 seconds)  #GlorifyAndEnjoyGod

You become like the object of your worship. If you worship celebrity, you'll start to pattern your life after their fashion. Okay. We become like the objects that we worship. What is it that you give your most attention to? I sometimes feel like social media empties the mind because it's so passive. It's like it doesn't require thinking. You it just indoctrinates and informs, and it doesn't challenge or anything. And then it becomes contentious. Do you see that? And then it becomes angry, and then people rival one another. And at one time, they were friends. I'm unfriending you now. [00:20:14] (46 seconds)  #BewareCelebrityWorship

And yet the the believing community, what did they do? They went right back to fervent prayer. That's what they did. What happens when your prayers don't get answered the way you thought they should be? You can go silent in prayer. You're looking at him. I had hoped in my journey with Christ that in the course of my life, in walking in the obedience that I knew and the light that I knew, that I would walk into ever increasing prominence perhaps, ever increasing blessing, ever increasing whatever it was that was there, but I didn't expect it to decrease. [00:30:02] (43 seconds)  #PersevereWhenPrayersSeemSilent

There's something that goes together with us. There are two measures of grace in the one. You might not see it in the passage, but it's very important. It said they were gathered together and they prayed. It didn't say they prayed together. It said they were gathered together and they prayed. The measures of grace that we need to see the word of god spread and the gospel increase is that we need to be gathered together. And then when we are gathered together in that cure immunal strength, we then pray together by gathering together. It's good that you pray on your own, but the prayer that Jesus modeled said, our father, not my father. And give us, as in us, this day our daily bread. [00:43:15] (56 seconds)  #UnitedPrayerBuildsChurch

and so that we can learn and so that we can look at this life and we can say, woah. I don't want that. Right? Sometimes it's good to get an instruction from a bad example. Is that right? And the the the Solomon says he walks past the the home of a man, and he says it's all shoddy and run down. He gets a lesson from it, and he receives instruction from a bad example. Herod is a bad example. The allegorical caution should be heeded. The need for prominence, for popularity, for praise will ultimately remove us from god and take the glory from god and put it on us. [00:21:53] (43 seconds)  #PrideRobbsGodsGlory