Sermon Tone Analysis

*Change Your World*

*Change Your World…through Prayer*

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*1.

Pray through your problems*

23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

Acts 4:23-24

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*P* ray* *

*U* ntil

*S *omething

*H *appens

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*2.

Pray to God above*

24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.

25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.'  

27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.

28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Acts 4:24-28

 

Lift up your voice to the God who is:

 

1.

Lord of everything

2. Creator

3. In control

 

*3.

Pray for courage to do God’s will*

29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

31 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 4:29-31

 

Phillips Brooks: /“Do not pray for easy lives.

Pray to be stronger men and women.

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.

Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”/

/“Pray for great things, expect great things, work for great things, but above all—pray.”/

-R.A. Torrey

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Intro

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Welcome…

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Today I am going to begin a New Series…*/Change your world/*

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If you could change your world, what would you do?

We are called to play a part in changing our world…

 

It happened 2000 years ago…it can happen today

 

In the book of Acts we find a handful of men and women who changed their world.

They spread the message and love of Christ to their know world.

Because of them we our lives have been changed as the result of the good news!!

As we consider how they changed their world we can see how to change ours!!

 

One of the obvious ways they changed their world was through prayer.

You can Change Your World…through prayer!!!

 

How is your prayer life?

PPT Cartoons…

·    Praying Mantis Has no desire

 

·    Praying Mantis Has no time

 

What about you?

We humans are pretty good at using God like He is a spare tire or an EMT (emergency medical technician), or some kind of magic genie.

And we’ve all done this with God.

I heard the story about a man who had regularly prayed for many years began to wonder if God heard his prayers at all.

During one of his routine times of prayer, he started this doubting pattern once again.

He stopped praying and thought for a moment.

/“Enough of this,”/ he said.

He then lifted his eyes toward heaven and yelled, /“Hey up there, can you hear me?” /

 

There was no response.

He continued, /“Hey, God, if you can really hear me, tell me what you want me to do with my life.”/

A voice from above thundered a reply, /“I WANT YOU TO HELP THE NEEDY AND GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR THE CAUSE OF PEACE!”/

 

Faced with more of a challenge than the man really wanted, he answered, /“Actually, God, I was just checking to see if you were there.”

/

 

The voice from above now answered with disappointment: /“THAT’S ALRIGHT; I WAS ONLY CHECKING TO SEE IF YOU WERE THERE.”/

Are we here?

Are we the kind of praying people that we should be?

Is God asking, /“Are you there?

If so, why don’t I hear from you more often and not just when you need something?”/

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*F*rom the beginning of the Bible to its conclusion, we see absolute evidence that God answers prayer.

Things that we think are impossible, God does when people pray.

Prayer has won victories over fire and air and earth and water.

Prayer opened the Red Sea.

Prayer brought water from the rock and bread from heaven.

Prayer made the sun stand still.

Prayer brought fire from the sky on Elijah’s sacrifice.

Prayer overthrew armies and healed the sick.

Prayer raised the dead.

Prayer has paved the way for the conversion of millions of people.

When we pray, we align ourselves with the purposes of God and tap into the power of the Almighty.

Because we pray, God works through us in ways that He wouldn’t otherwise.

God has made certain things dependent upon prayer, things that will never be done unless we pray.

Could God do whatever He chooses without our prayer?

Of course.

But God has determined that He will use the prayers of His people to accomplish His purposes on this earth.

When we do not pray, we limit what God might do in our lives.

Some may not like the sound of this, but if it were not true, what could James mean when he writes,

 

/“You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2, niv)?

/

 

 

 

Why would Paul ask some friends to /“pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored…pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men” \\ (2 Thessalonians 3:1–2, niv),/ if he did not believe their prayers had the power to change his circumstances?

Both James and Paul believed that God might well withhold His hand of blessing from them if they neglected to pray.

Since they wanted all the blessing available to them, they not only prayed themselves, they recruited others to pray for them.

They never wanted to limit what God might be pleased to do in and through them by failing to pray.

If we want all the blessing God has available to give us, we, too, must pray.

But /how/ are we to pray?

We find out in Acts chapter 4.

 

The background for this passage is the religious leaders had arrested Peter and John after they had healed a crippled man.

Peter tells the religious leaders it was through Jesus’ power.

The religious leaders threaten Peter and John and command them to quit preaching about Jesus….and

let them go.

It is here we find a snapshot of the early church….

It is a turning point…they could’ve stopped sharing Jesus…because of threats….or

continue sharing Christ.

What would they do??? \\

With that as a background we come to Acts 4:23…and it is here we find from  their example how to change our world through prayer…