Oasis Church | Acts: A Prayer Worth Praying | Dave Zetterberg | Sunday Service 06/02/2024

[Music] [Applause] good morning church how you [Music] doing isn't God good isn't God good God is amen amen it's okay to talk back in church it is okay hey well my name is Antonio McLemore uh and it's an honor to be here it's an honor to see you um you know there's a few things that a few announcements that we have today it is snack Sunday by excited for snacks I brought my own I'm not sharing um hey but we're we're huge on connections maybe you've heard you know if you've been here once or twice you hear us talk about family well there is family cannot happen without relationship and without connection and so maybe when you walked in and maybe you saw something sitting staring at you behind the seat there's a connection card and uh we just would ask that you would fill that out and you can put that in our on the back wall as you leave or that blue connection card there's also a QR code on there that you can fill out your information uh online uh but as you prepare your hearts uh for our offering uh there there are three ways that you could give uh today you can give online uh you can give through mail and then we have a [Music] giving and um I was as I was thinking about scripture um and thinking about giving the Bible says uh in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 uh or chapter 9 verses 6 and 7 Paul Compares tithing or giving with sewing and harvesting and I don't know about you but like tithing and giving is is a extension of My Worship it really is an extension of my worship and it and it gives me an opportunity for me to sew into the kingdom did you know um that there are certain seeds that only grow in the perfect environment like did you know that uh bananas don't grow natural in Washington did you know that I know right is interesting some of you guys like for real like did you know that did you know that pineapples aren't the like Washington State the Pacific Northwest is not the most conducive environment for growing ban growing bananas or pineapples washing Washington State apples that's what what we're known for and and the reason why I'm sharing all of this is that just like those seeds they have to be placed in the proper environment so that they can grow no matter how hard I I try to grow a banana tree it's just not going to work in the Pacific Northwest but the same thing is true about your seed and sewing into the proper environment that sometimes we don't see the things of God materializing in our life because we're investing them and placing them in the wrong environment so now here's the encouragement can I tell you that this is this is good soil this is good soil so I want to encourage you that as you're thinking about what you're going to be generous with can I encourage you that what you sew in this soil will not only multiply but it will multiply H 100 folds so I'm going to pray as we go back into worship dear heavenly father I I pray for the people that are here today I pray God that people would have a living breathing experience with the god of the universe what good is it for people to experience your children but not to experience those that sent us what good is it for us to hear words that are singing about your majesty and about about you being Jehovah Gyra if we don't experience and encounter it ourself so God I'm praying that you would give us eyes to see ears to hear and hands to receive what it is that you have for for us no matter what it is that we walked in this place I pray God that people would know that not only do you love the world but you care about their world in Jesus mighty name we pray let everybody say amen and amen amen and amen let's continue to worship this [Music] morning Christ is our Rock [Music] Christ is my fir Foundation The Rock on which I stand but everything around me shaking I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus cuz he's never let me down faithful for Generation so why would he fail now he [Music] won I still got joy in chaos sing this with me I've got peace that makes no sense so I won't be going under I'm not held by My Own Strength I build my life on Jesus he's never let me down he's faithful in every season so I would he fail now he won't he won't he won't F he won't he won't [Music] he [Music] won't he won't fa Christ is my firm foundation The Rock on which I stand everything around me sh I've never been more GL and I put my faith in Jesus he's never let me down fful through generations so why would he fail now he [Music] won't he w he won't fail he won't [Music] fail in Matthew the Bible says that the rains came down and the streams rose up and the wind beat against that house but the house did not fall because it was built upon the rock rain came wind through my house was buil on you I'm safe with you make it sing [Music] this Bo but my house was built on you I'm sick with you I'm going to make it R when my house was built on you I safe with you I'm going to make it through I'm I'm going to make it through I'm standing strong on you yeah I'm going to make it through my house is built on you Christ is my bir Foundation The Rock on which I stand when everything around me sh I've never been more glad I put my Fai in Jesus he's never let me down he's faithful through [Music] generations so why would he heon he [Music] won he won he won't fa he [Music] he won't he [Music] won he he he won't [Music] fail he want thank you Jesus Jesus our rock thank you [Music] Jesus just worship worship worship the king he is worthy of our praise worship the way lift him up Jesus sing this with me you you are here you are here moving in our MST I worship you I worship you you are here working in this place I worship you I worship you you are here moving in our midst I worship you I worship you you are he working in this place I worship you I worship you sing way maker you are way maker Miracle Worker promise keeper light in the darkness my God that is you s that again you [Music] are you are here you are here every heart I worship you I worship you you are here in every heart I worship you I worship you turn you are here turning eyes I worship you I worship you every heart you are here every heart I worship you I worship you you are our way making Miracle working promise keeping in the darkness my God that is who you are say it again you are way maker mirle working promise keeping light in the darkness my God that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are The Miracle Worker promise keeper sing this with me even [Music] when Never sing it again I see I don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop work even when I don't see it you're working even when I don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop working even when I don't see it you're working even when I don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop way Mak heing the working promise keeping light in the darkness my God that is who you are you are way maker Miracle Worker promise keeper light in the darkness my God that is who you are way maker my way Miracle Worker promise Keeper in the darkness my God that is who you are you are way maker work promise keep in the darkness my God that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are every voice that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you [Music] are way just declare declare who he is over your situation declare who he is over your problem the miracle that you are needing miracle that is too big to do by yourself lift it up to him raise it up my God that is who you are you're the way maker you're the promis keeper you're the light in our Darkness worker in the dark God that is you are to Jesus thank you Jesus maker Miracle Worker promise keeper light in the Darkness my God that is who you are even when even when even when I don't see it you're work even when I don't feel it you're never stop never stoping you never stop you never stoping even when I don't see it you're working even when I don't feel it you're working you never stop you never stop working you never stop sing it again stop working even when I don't see it you're work even when I don't feel it you're work you never stop you never stop working you never stop stop way maker Miracle Worker promise keep light in the darkness my God that is who you you are way maker you are way maker Miracle Worker promise keeper light in the darkness my God that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is who you are that is you my God that is who you are Jesus [Music] Jesus declare even we might not even we don't feel it Lord declare your name Jesus over our situation over our problems Lord over our [Music] Darkness yes Jesus thank you for penetrating our Darkness Jesus Lord we invite you into our situation we invite you into the miracle that we need we lay it at your feet no longer am I striving for my Mir Miracle because it is you alone that has the power to do so we lay it at your feet Lord the mountain that we need moved you are our way maker Lord strengthen Us in what we need to do in these times Lord give us peace in what we need in these times Lord in our situation we praise you this morning we praise you Jesus thank you for who you are to each of us and who you are to this church and we praise you in your name alone we say Amen in Jesus name amen amen amen thank you church for worshiping with us why don't you turn to someone say hey say you're glad that they're here this morning amen well good morning church oh one more time please good morning church yeah that's what I'm talking about hey guys it is an honor for me this morning to be able to call somebody up who's very near and dear to my own heart who's very near and dear to many of you in this house because today we have a a very special guest speaker and that's our very own Pastor Dave zert Dave come on up hereo yeah David all right excellent perfect we got this going on Dave has boldly blessed this place with 33 years of his life 33 years and it is just awesome that's that'll do it this is perfect perfect buddy thank you we got you all right want to make sure we got that one right anyways you guys one more time for pastor Day pastor day we love you we were worried this wasn't going to be tall enough for me and uh it it's going to work so I was given uh responsibility to dismiss some people today um but I I work in in um a school uh Lighthouse Christian school out in Gig Harbor with a little over 500 kindergarten to eighth graders and so I was thinking today maybe I would dismiss the adults and I would just I would just hang with the kids but then I was thinking about the workers there's no way the workers want to have a bunch of adults come into their space so students can leave and adults you get to stay it is a a pleasure to be back here with you and what is really cool for me is to look around and see a lot of faces I don't recognize you don't have a clue who I am um and I spent half my life here and you don't know who I am and that is the best thing in the world as a pastor who invested life in a church to have it growing um I still peek in on you so I've been seeing the baptisms the baby dedications uh all those things uh nothing made me more excited than to see all of this happening um I've had a couple opportunities now to have coffee with Pastor EJ and I firmly believe you guys made an excellent choice for your pastor um he is a person of Integrity uh who has just incredible passion for the Lord and uh I just know that together you guys are going to do uh some great things here in this um community so um I don't know what your morning rituals are like but this morning I got up and went downstairs I got the coffee started was putting around in the the kitchen putting some stuff away and finally got to my recliner sat down and um I'm not sure what you're like when you look at your phone but I cannot handle the little red notification dots okay right my phone has to be clean all day long I cannot handle those little dots cuz it makes me feel like I'm not on top of things so I sat down and I'm I'm looking I'm I'm cleaning out my uh mailbox and then I see I got a text this morning I mean who's even awake to text me and Todd sent me a text the text said front door I thought oh whoever he was supposed to be writing to is not getting the information so I went to the next category uh was my uh security camera and I had a bunch of notifications this morning I was like how can it be that busy already well 442 Amazon came by made a delivery at uh 5:24 I don't know what she was doing but my wife is out on the front porch she's wandering around I have no idea what she's doing she's just out there and then sure enough there's Todd sneaking up to my front door with um Starbucks coffee and breakfast sandwich so I figured it out I put two and two together Todd's at my front door I should go to my front door and sure enough it was still hot so I got to start my morning with a nice breakfast sandwich and I did not share it ate it all drank all the coffee so I am wired ready to go um so I have been given this the privilege to participate uh with Pastor EJ's study of the book of Acts and I'm going to continue with where left off this is kind of a risky move to invite anybody to ever be a part of your Series so I you kudos for that I think Ben you're up next week and I did was watching last week I'm just going to say this it appeared that the Applause for you was bigger than the Applause for me I have been forgotten Moses is dead all right okay so uh just out of curiosity how many of you ever worry ever face circumstances that like I don't know how in the world I'm going to go through this um we all know that stuff happens right the unexpected takes place things catch us just off guard it's just it it's pretty much inevitable and how we address that is says a lot about where we are uh as a person our personality um some people just you know like it something's happening they're just going to climb back up on the horse and they're going to face it and they're going to go other people want to shrink away from it they they um aren't sure what to do so they don't want to face it others it tends to affect them emotionally they may get depressed discouraged we all face circumstances differently and depending on the level of the circumstances how difficult the circumstance may be is going to say a lot about how we are going to wrestle with it as a Christian um most of us are probably aware of the fact that the first thing we should do is thank you pray how many of you will it say honestly that the very first thing you do always when facing difficult circumstances is pray I would love to put my hand up I've been saved all my life and um if you're like me you probably try to figure out a way of dealing with whatever you're dealing and I would love to say that all of my Solutions are perfect and creative um they are not um and oftentimes I find myself in more trouble than I originally was in simply because I didn't do what scripture tells me over and over and over to do is to go to the Lord in prayer Amen to bring it to him so Pastor EJ has been taking you through the book of Acts and a lot has happened already okay if you've been following along a lot has happened you just had Jesus dying on the cross and the resurrection this is still this is still front page news I mean we're only two months later so this is this is still very very fresh you have in chapter one where he gives the the instructions on what they should do and he sends to Heaven chapter two you have Pentecost the Holy Spirit coming down in a brand new way to engage with the life of of Believers unlike anything that they' ever experienced in the past the Holy Spirit now dwells within each and every one of those come to Faith so you have 120 who gathered in that room and it is a lifechanging event for them but they take it out to the streets and they start letting other people know what is happening to them and Peter preaches the the first sermon recorded in the book of Acts and 3,000 people get saved I'm still waiting for that moment sometime soon after that Peter and John go to the temple to pray there's a man there they don't have what he wants but they have something better they pray for his healing and he gets up and begins to walk around and as chapter four opens up with Peter and John having been arrested they spend the night in jail and then they have to stand kind of on a mini trial before the religious leaders and in essence they are given a cease and desist order these are the same people who orchestrated the execution of Jesus it's the very same people they Peter uh and John know what these people are capable of they threaten them but then you have this incredible Faith filled response you talked about it last week in Acts 4: 19 and 20 do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him we cannot Ste telling about everything we have SE seen and heard they are telling this to a group of people who were responsible for the brutal crucifixion of their lord and savior and they stand up to him how can we not how can we not not tell this good news and they boldly proclaim the fact that they are going to continue to do what God has called them to do where we are going to pick up today going back to the um the their fellow Believers and we're not sure who all is there or how many are all there but um as I'm reading the story I got to tell you I'm thinking this this may have been the toughest part of this experience not the not the prison not the threat that they experience but having to go back to a group of brand new Young Christians and tell them hey our life has been threatened and any of us who continue to talk about Jesus are risking bodily harm and imprisonment you imagine going back to a brand new group of Christians they're just starting to follow Christ we're for most of these people we're probably weeks into their experience with Christ and Peter and John at to go and say hey this is what we've been told I I if we continue to preach the gospel if we continue to share our faith and talk about the resurrected Jesus they have threatened us with bodily harm they have threatened to actually take our lives this is the message that this new group of followers of Christ have to come face to face with and so in today's passage um it gives us a glimpse of how these early Christians um engaged with their faith and what they did in response to this test and and the question for me as I was studying this and I want to put it out to you uh that we kind of need to wrestle with is is how did they respond respond in this time of Crisis and then I got to turn it on myself and say how do I respond to this type of Crisis so I'm going to read you the T if you got your Bibles I want you to turn to Acts chapter 4 if you've got a phone and you have the Bible app you can also go to Acts chapter 4 I'm reading out of the New Living Translation NLT I'm going to read the passage it's just eight verses so you know exactly where we're going and then we're going to kind of dissect this a a little bit this is acts chap 4 starting with verse 23 as soon as they were freed Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them that the leading priests and Elders had said when they heard the report all the Believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God oh Sovereign Lord creator of Heaven and Earth the sea and everything in them you spoke Long Ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David your servant saying why were the Nations so angry why did they waste their time with feudal plans the kings of the earth prepared for battle the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his messiah in fact this has happened here in this very City for Herod Antipas Pontius Pilate the governor um the Gentiles and the people of Israel were all United against Jesus your holy servant whom you and anointed but everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will and now oh Lord hear their threats and give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word stretch out your hand with healing power May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus as after this prayer the meeting place Shook and they were filled with the Holy Spirit then they preached the word of God with boldness okay so that's where we're going this morning so let's let's start off with with verse 23 the very beginning we're going to break this down a bit as soon as they were freed Peter and John returned to the other believers and told what the leading priests and Elders had said so you have two of the early church leaders Peter and John who have been arrested they've had this this many trial they have been threatened and it's not really a shock I mean this is the very thing that Jesus was accused of they are also carrying this on and now they are talking about the resurrected Jesus so theyve got even more ammo that the religious leaders are not fans of and here in verse 23 Peter and John as soon as they're released they go back to their family you talked about that this morning he went back to their family and shared said hey this is this is what this is what's going on so just a this is a bonus point it's not even in my notes you have a family and when stuff is going on where do you think you should go yeah your family right okay you guys still have the the the prayer thing right because I still get emails from time to time with prayer requests that thing should be blowing up folks amen I mean the stuff you're dealing with let your family know so that they can engage with you on whatever it is that you're going through that's what we're here for we're to support and encourage that's exactly what Peter and John did they went back to their family and said hey this is what's going on and as I said earlier I think that was a hard thing for them to say recognizing that these are the majority of these people are are probably pretty new in the faith what is it going to do to them how are they going to respond to this situation you know like the early church we also face frustrations we do it on a on an individual basis the things that we're struggling with but even even as a church the things that you're you're having to deal with to make a difference in the world today it's getting harder and harder we are definitely in a post Christian Society we are beyond the time when biblical principles and biblical ideas kind of were the guideline of life we are we are way past that so we're we're operating in a very different world uh a world where being a Christian and standing up for what a Christian stands up for is considered hatred it's considered archaic so we are facing something very similar to what the early church was facing being able to present our words and our society thinks that we are backwards and we have an opportunity to choose whether we're going to allow these frustrations just cause us to throw up our hands and give up lose hope should we abandon what we believe should we just simply Hide Away tuck to our little selves or maybe we force our will upon others maybe we go Kicking and Screaming until someone listens or We complain to anyone who will hear well I I I think before we go to those extremes we might pay attention to what the early church did the very first thing they did is they prayed they prayed Priority One for them was to pray to talk to God are we praying prayers that are worth praying uh when I first was trying to come up with you know how I want is that clock ticking me down 8 minut I don't that ain't happening that ain't happening okay I just noticed that how dare that clock tell me how much time I got I guess so yes so when I was trying to and when you're when you're working on a message coming up with a title is is important because it really does help you focus your attention because when you're preaching you cannot cover everything that needs to be covered okay you just can't there's just too I mean I'm covering eight eight verses and you could literally spend weeks just covering so you have to kind of focus and so I was I was trying to think how do I title this and one of the first things I thought of was uh praying prayers that are worth answering I'm like no that's too harsh but I said I said it anyways are we praying prayers that are actually worth answering this church as they hear this news that there is a threat upon them first thing they do is go to prayer and I love how they start their prayer verse 24 when they heard the report all the Believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God oh Sovereign Lord creator of Heaven and Earth the sea and everything in them uh the first thing it's really important for us to consider when we pray is you need to remember who you are praying too you need to remember now do you think God needed to be reminded that he was Sovereign God so who was that primarily for okay they needed to remember that they are praying to The Sovereign God over all creation over all creation Sovereign uh the Greek word that is translated here is despotis um which we ended up getting the word Des spot and that's a word we use for someone who is in Authority who is cruel in their Authority okay it's a they are a despot as a leader they are cruel in their ultimate Authority but that's not that's not the reference for the ancient Greeks for them it simply meant someone who was in Ultimate Authority so it could it could have meant that the head of the house was the ultimate Authority it could mean that the princes and kings that they were the ultimate Authority in their Kingdom their their region or even using it in the sense of their their mythical gods and if you done any research or study into the the mythical gods of the Greeks they all had certain unique powers they all had certain Realms that they reigned over and so it could be used in that to just recognize that in this in this Arena they were the ultimate Authority now think of how this these early Christians used it Sovereign God ruler over all creation this is not a household God this is not a tribal God this is not some mythical this is God who is Sovereign who has ultimate authority over all of creation all of creation it was important for them to remember who they were talking to to remember that the god that they were invoking at this moment is the god who is Sovereign God who is in control so Dr Luke includes this for our benefit to recognize that the god that they were praying to had no rival had no rival it's easy for us to think that our circumstances are in control it's easy for us to think that there are certain people in in control certain leaders in control but as a child of God there is one who is in control no matter what our circumstances no matter who we might be dealing with there is one and only one who is in Ultimate control they go on to invoke the same idea verse 25 you spoke Long Ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David your servant saying why were the Nations so angry why did they waste their time with feudal plans the King Kings of the earth prepared for battle the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah they are looking back on words from a Psalm that David wrote in Psalm two we don't know exactly what was happening in David's life that caused him to write these words at the time but the words that depend and they reference it that this was led by the holy spirit this ended up being a prophetic Psalm speaking of how the authorities were going to rise up against the Messiah and that's exactly what happened they continue to talk about that verse 27 in fact this has happened here in this very City for Herod Antipas pus pilot the governor the Gentiles and the people of Israel were all United against Jesus your holy servant whom you anointed but everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will despite Jesus's apparent defeat before Herod and pilate the two most powerful people in the region God still ruled this conspiracy against Jesus merely formed part of what God had already decided was going to happen verse 28 but everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will as I was reading that I was just like do I have that kind of confidence in God when I pray when circumstances are ugly and I'm struggling with it do I actually have confidence that God already knows what's going on God already has a plan and he's just waiting for me to follow it do I have that kind of confidence in the sovereignty and power of the god that I serve this is one of those places where the sovereignty God and Free Will of Man Collide you know were Herod and pilate actually operating in Free Will if God had already predetermined that this was going to happen um and I'm going to leave that to Pastor EJ to explain to you it's a great thing about this position I don't have to deal with these things so I'm GNA just skirt right past it and I just encourage you all today write him an email he's I know he's on vacation but that's not that doesn't matter write him an email just say hey can you explain to me the sovereignty of God and Free Will of man because it seems to collide here in verses 27 and 28 of Acts can you I would just love it if you'd all just just inundate his please please please explain this to me uh so I'm just I'm just going to go right over it pretend that's that's not even there um but in reflecting on on Psalm two here they they left out Psalm uh verse four which I I love verse four here's what verse four says but the one who rules in heaven laughs the Lord scoffs at them these people who think they are making plans who are think they are in control God's just up in heaven chuckling you don't have any real control you're not really controlling these circumstances and we got to take that both ways okay first of all we need to recognize that those who think they're in Authority those who think they're controlling they really don't have any any real power um but for myself as well you know how much control do I actually have I think I have it Lord just sitting there yeah just pay attention to what I want you to do life will be so much better not that it won't won't go without hiccups is it will in fact the next couple of weeks as you continue in action you're going to see how God answered this prayer and it wasn't pretty okay there was discipline in the church that took place you have the first martyr of the faith this is how God's answering this prayer it's not going exactly the way they had hoped it would go but they are recognizing the sovereignty of God and I want to challenge you today to recognize the sovereignty of God in your life whatever you're facing as a church body in whatever you're dealing with recognize the sovereignty of God he has good plans for his people he just wants us to seek him and find those plans let him guide us in the way that we need to go let's keep reading verse 29 and now oh Lord hear their threats and give us your servants great boldness in preaching your word stretch out your hand with healing power May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus so if you want to pray prayers worth praying or worth being answered remember who you're praying to and secondly seriously consider what you're asking for seriously consider what you are asking for I don't know if you caught this and this is probably the most significant part of this prayer they did not ask for protection for relief for replacement of leadership they didn't ask that their life be made easier that their problems go away not one word about that what they prayed for is boldness to continue to preach the word of God boldness and I I was studying that this week I again taking bringing this home it's like okay how often when I pray do I merely pray for my life to get easier make these problems go away fix him fix her deal with their stuff instead of saying Lord boy I don't know what is going on here but I just want to live for you if you want to grow me through this okay let's grow if I need to boldly Proclaim some truth let me do it let me live without fear as a follower of Christ but too often we simply pray that our life is easier wow wow I know you know some of you are probably praying some really Earnest prayers you you have loved ones who are ill maybe you yourself are struggling I'm I'm not discounting that okay I'm not I'm not saying don't don't pray prayers about whatever it is that you might be uh dealing with in fact in Philippians 4:6 Paul said this don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell God what you need and thank him for all he's done I just want to challenge you with what the early church did when they were confronted they did not not pray for ease of Life they did not pray for a more comfortable time they did not pray that things go their way they merely prayed that God would grant them the boldness yeah wow to speak his word and then it go it goes further stretch out your hand with healing power May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus they were praying that God do stuff they can't do okay Peter and John when they prayed for that girl this isn't of us this is Jesus that guy got up and walked and people knew this is a guy who's been crippled all his life God did the miraculous Peter and John didn't do it they just exercise their faith and trusting that God would do it so they're asking for for God to do what they themselves cannot do they're asking God to step in in miraculous ways and it's all about pointing people to Jesus again this is not miraculous so my life is better this is the miraculous so people see Jesus and I just you know I think about some of the things that we go through it it's not like stuff happens a vacuum and nobody is aware of it and how we respond in difficult times what our mouth starts starts doing in difficult times is seen and experienced by those who are around us so we got to ask ourselves am I being the person of faith God wants me to be in this moment right here right now am I trusting God to work through me in this situation and to do what I can't do myself myself to point people to Jesus I don't ever want to be in that place where I'm pointing people away from Jesus because of the way I'm acting the way I'm talking they're wanting God to step in in ways beyond their ability simply to point people to Jesus it's all about Jesus I want to stop praying prayers that are a quick fix for me I want to stop praying prayers that simply make my life easier I want to be praying prayers that guide me to growth open my life to be used by God in unique and different ways you got to love how this portion of the story ends verse 31 after this prayer so this is in response Dr Luke as he's recorded this is what happened in response to this kind of prayer after this prayer the meeting place Shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit then they preached the word of God with boldness then they preached the word of God with boldness exactly what they had prayed for exactly what they had prayed for the meeting place shook I don't know the last time you were praying and you experienced God in such a powerful way that it impacted your environment I've known some moments like that in prayer there God moments that God shows up and I think I I think part of the issue for us is because of what we are asking for we don't really need the Holy Spirit we we just want it easier we just want things you don't need the holy spirit for that easy comes easy but if you want to see boldness if you want to see the power of God you're going to need a fresh wind of his holy spirit in your life and that's what they experience there there is some debate whether or not for some of these individuals this is the first time the Holy Spirit came because the fact that the room Shook and it's very similar to Acts chapter 2 and the Holy Spirit first came I I don't believe this is a another occurrence of that I believe this was just a fresh fing it's what the Holy Spirit wanted to do for these believers who were praying for praying for the boldness to point people to Jesus and asking God to show up in miraculous ways far beyond anything that they could do themselves When you pray those kinds of prayers you need the Holy Spirit filling you aesh and a new giving you the ability to do what God desires you to do and what you willingly ask to do I don't know if you've ever noticed but I leak okay I get filled and somehow it leaks out of me any of you any of you leaked we need fresh fillings and how do you do that you do that by having real Encounters in prayer amen it it's not just going to happen it's when we diligently earnestly seek the face of God asking him to give us the ability to do the things that he desires us to do the the Holy Spirit showed up if we want the Holy Spirit to be giving us a fresh filling of his grace we need to be praying for things that we actually need the holy spirit for those are the prayers that are worth answering as we need the spirit of God working in us to enable us to do what needs to be done so when we pray Sovereign God we need to remember who it is we're praying to he is Lord over everything your circumstances people in your life they do not ultimately control anything you're praying to a sovereign God who is able to do some really extraordinary things you add courageous requests to that you have Holy Spirit experiences you get a fresh tou T of his Spirit to enable you to do what you cannot do in your own strength imagine these new baby Christians having the boldness to pray these kind of prayers asking for the ability to be out in their world making a difference for jesus' sake pointing