Thank you, Ross, for this privilege. So, we’ll get straight into it. Last Sunday, we wrapped up our series in psalms, and what a wonderful journey it has been.

Week after week, each psalm reminded us to trust God in difficult times. Today, we start our three-week series in the importance of, and this morning, I have the privilege to talk about the importance of being a praying church, something that is very dear to my own heart. Again, Ross, thank you for trusting me to do this.

There are countless stories in the Bible that speak to the importance of a praying church, and I think specifically about the story about Jesus, when he went into the temple, and they were buying and selling in the temple. This made Jesus very angry, and he threw over the tables. This is one of the few places in the Bible we see Jesus’ anger.

He threw them over because they were selling in the temple, and they were actually robbing and cheating the people that they were doing this to, and then Jesus gave a specific response to the people. He told them specifically what the temple was to be used for, and we see what he said in Matthew, but it is also a quote that was taken from the book of Isaiah. What Jesus said is, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

Isaiah 56:7. We may have ideas about what the church should be used for, but Jesus makes it very clear that his house should be called a house of prayer. Last week, Iunisi talked very briefly about Jesus being left behind in the temple when he was 12 years old, when his parents finally found him and his mother said, why did you treat us like that? Jesus said, didn’t you know I had to be in my father’s house. You can understand his fury then when he saw his father’s house, when he saw his house being used for something it wasn’t intended for.

It was being used for something quite different, what he intended it to be used for. My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. Three of my favourite prayer warriors in the Bible are Nehemiah, Simeon, and Anna.

Most of you will be very familiar with these three people. Nehemiah’s prayer life as depicted in the Bible is a profound example of devotion, humility, and a complete reliance on God. In Nehemiah 1:4-11, he mourns, he fasts, he prays before God confessing the sins of Israel and asking for God’s favour in his mission to rebuild Jerusalem.

In Luke 2:22-32, Simeon is described as a righteous and devout man who prayed for the coming of the Messiah, the consolation of Israel. When he took baby Jesus in his arms, he said he could now die in peace because his eyes had seen God’s salvation, which was prepared in the sight of all nations. Luke 2:36-38, tells us Anna was a prophetess.

The Bible tells us she was old, 84 years of age in fact, and she had been a widow for a very long time. She never left the temple, but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. She prayed for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Three very ordinary people, but three extraordinary events in history. The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, when throughout the building process, Nehemiah faced significant opposition and many times the task would have seemed impossible. The coming of the Messiah, one of the most significant events in Christian history, the birth of Jesus Christ, the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem, God’s salvation, which was for all nations.

My house shall be the house of prayer for all nations. Today I want to share with you that while individual prayers like these are crucial, there is a unique power when the church prays together. In the book of Acts, we see the early church gathering regularly for the purposes of prayer.

Acts 2:40-47, at times they gathered daily. As they prayed faithfully, God came among them and worked mighty miracles in the response to their faithfulness. Verse 41 says, those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day, about 3,000 in all.

And verse 42, all the believers, note, all the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship and sharing in meals, including the Lord’s Supper as we will do today, and to prayer. Prayer was a foundational and a core value of the early church. Prayer must be a foundational and a core value for today’s church.

Prayer must be foundational and a core value for our church here at FBC. The early church did not begin with preaching. Acts tells us it began with prayer.

Before Peter preached at Pentecost, 120 people, maybe just a bit more than what we are here this morning, 120 people prayed in unity for 10 days in the upper room. In Acts 1:12-14, we read, “then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olive, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. And when they entered, they went to the upper room where they were staying.  All these in one accord were devoting themselves to prayer.” In the Gospel of Matthew 18:20, we read, “for where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them”, underscoring the significance of collective prayer. I have four principles I want to share with you today on the importance of being a praying church.

The first one is unity. When we come together as God’s people to pray, it creates a sense of unity among us as believers. You all know that because we do pray, and you know that we here at FBC do have a strong unity among our church.

Alignment. It creates alignment in seeking God’s guidance and God’s wisdom. Community.

Praying together creates a deep sense of community and a shared connection with God. And the fourth principle for the importance of being a praying church is that it amplifies the impact of individual prayers. We see these, we see the evidence of four of these principles in our main text this morning in a very familiar story again in the Gospel of Matthew.

Read Acts 12:1-17.  

We come to our first principle of why it is important for us to be a praying church, and that is unity. When we come together as God’s people to pray, it creates a sense of unity among us believers. Verses one to four in today’s scripture, the political environment was volatile.

Christians were being persecuted. The church had just seen James beheaded. Their leader now, Peter, was in prison, and they knew what was about to happen.

Peter would be beheaded, and there is nothing they could do that is humanly possible to stop that. Leading up to this, they had seen Jesus crucified. They had witnessed the resurrection and the ascension.

They had experienced Pentecost, and they had received the Holy Spirit. They had seen Jesus pray on many occasions. They had seen him heal the sick, raise the dead, and perform many other miracles.

Through all of this, they had witnessed the power of prayer, and when they faced this difficulty, they did what they knew to do, and that was to pray. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. They didn’t know what God was going to do, but they realized by now, they had realized the importance of prayer.

Prayer has the power to unite us as a church. When we pray together, we stand in the gap for one another, especially during difficult times like this. Praying together helps us to understand each other’s struggles, and it leads us to know how to support each other in our spiritual journeys as well.

Our second principle, alignment. When we pray together, it creates alignment in seeking God’s guidance and God’s wisdom. The church didn’t know what God would do, but they had seen the power of what prayer could do.

They prayed specifically for Peter to be delivered, and Peter is delivered. When we pray in unity, we align ourselves with what it is God’s will is for our church. Praying together helps us to keep God first.

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says, you are Peter, which means rock, and upon you, upon this rock, I will build my church, signifying Peter’s foundational role in establishing and guiding the Christian community. Peter needed to be alive to fulfil God’s will. His church needed Peter to lead them through these really difficult times.

Their prayers were aligned with God’s will, and Peter was delivered. Psalm 119, verse 2, that we read earlier on, blessed are those who keep the statues and seek him with all their heart. God wants us to pray specific prayers.

God wants us to seek him with all our heart, and when we do this together, we start to pray for common themes. We start to pray with the common purpose, which aligns then with God’s purpose. As I said earlier, individual prayers are crucial, and we have seen what they have done in history.

There is unique power when the church prays together. We come to our third principle now, which is community. When we have unity, we have alignment, then it creates a deep sense of community and a shared connection with God.

Now we have unity, we have alignment, and we have community. There is something when we pray together and we know the struggles that we have been praying for, and then we see answers to these prayers. It unites us as a community, wouldn’t you agree? How we celebrate when we pray and we hear someone’s prayers being answered, it brings us closer.

Who are you praying for? Who is praying for you? What are you praying for? When we are going through a dry season spiritually, it can become extremely hard to pray alone. Being in a room where others are praying can encourage and uplift our spirit. It allows again, as I said, those who can pray to stand right alongside those who can’t.

I have had people come to prayer meetings and say, I won’t be able to pray tonight, but I just need to be here to hear others pray. So, if you are struggling, my encouragement to you is hang in there, reach out to someone that can pray with you, because in the most difficult times when we can’t pray is when we need to pray, and I’m sure there’ll be someone that will do this journey with you. It makes us, praying together makes us aware of others’ needs.

We need to know others’ needs to be able to pray for them, and being aware of these needs can then lead us to do something practical to help, and so the sense of community becomes stronger. Church prayer doesn’t just change things, prayer changes us, and I can testify to that. We come to our, sorry, we stay with community.

When it comes to prayer, there is a group that meets in our church. There is a group that comes together every Monday. We’ll go through the dates shortly, but before we get to that, if you were here last Sunday you would have seen eight of these people that pray regularly as a group, read a psalm each to wrap up our series in trusting God in difficult times.

There’s usually four to six of us that come together in the room next door there, Monday evenings. There’s about 10 to 15, that come together on Tuesday mornings here in the chapel. There’s about five or eight of us that come together every Sunday at nine o’clock before the service starts to pray in the room next door again, and as Pastor Ross mentioned last Sunday, these people come together to pray for you. They pray for all matters concerning our church and anything and everything that the Holy Spirit leads us to pray. So, with a lot of love and grace, I invite each of you today, if you aren’t already, and if you can, join one of the prayer groups.

I’d also encourage you though to keep praying in your homes. Prayer is not an option. Prayer is not a talent.  Prayer is not even a skill. Prayer is an instruction from God. As a church, we also pray in our small groups.  Our admin team prays every time they open their meetings. Our youth pray together. Our children pray in children’s church.  Each Sunday here, we open our service with a prayer. We pray during our service, as Rose did today. We are invited to pray between songs.  We are invited to come forward for prayer at the end of our service on Sundays, and we also have a prayer chain ministry. So be really encouraged, church. We are doing a lot of praying.

Keep doing that. Most of you might not be aware, but the Korean church that meet here, our Korean brothers and sisters, they pray every morning except for Mondays on these premises. Through all of these prayers, and through your individual prayers being prayed in your homes, God is already doing mighty things in our church.

We witnessed three baptisms last Sunday. Right now, we have Iunisi, Eleanor, and Gaylene that are in different parts of the world doing God’s work. We have had answered prayers for healing, for jobs, for homes, for families.  Our youth and children ministry is doing great. Our Monday community lunch has been going on forever. We have strong unity, but imagine, imagine how much more God wants to do for us that can be unlocked with prayer.

There is power when God’s people pray together. Who are you praying with? Who is praying with you? We come now to our fourth principle, amplification. Praying together amplifies the impact of individual prayers.

So, like I said, individual prayers are very crucial, but imagine when all God’s people come together to pray over the same thing. It amplifies the power of that prayer. Let’s come back to our scripture for today, and as the church is praying, notice what is happening in the prison.

The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Peter was sleeping. Who sleeps when you are about to be beheaded? How many times have we laid in bed anxious with our thoughts, worries, fears going round and round and round in our minds, unable to sleep? But Peter, he is sleeping, possibly in a very deep sleep, because verse 6 still says, the angel struck Peter on the side and woke him up.

This is the power of prayer. As they were praying, despite his circumstances, Peter is asleep in the prison with a deep sense of God’s peace. The church continues to pray earnestly in the upper room, and God’s divine power is now at work in the prison.

To summarise verses 7 and 10, the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. He walks past two guards, through the iron gates that open by themselves, and walks the length of one street. All this is happening here in prison, while the church is praying to get the message.

The prayer is happening; God is doing His work. They are praying specifically for Peter to be delivered, and the prayers are amplified. The result, Peter is delivered.

As I said earlier, while individual prayer is crucial, and please continue praying, there is a unique power when the church prays together. Our individual prayers are amplified when we pray together, and miracles happen. Verse 11, then Peter came to himself and said, Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches, and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.

Remember this is the same Peter that doubted Jesus, when Jesus called him to come and walk on the water. In Matthew 14:30 “But when he saw the wind he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, and caught him.  You of little faith, He said, why did you doubt?”

There is absolutely no doubt in Peter’s mind this time. He knows He has been delivered from Herod’s clutches. He has been delivered from death, because the Lord sent His angel, because His church had been praying.

Peter comes to the house where the church is praying, to share his testimony with everyone that had been praying for him, to tell them how he got out of prison. And then in verse 17 he says, Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this. Imagine if every one of us When we have had been prayed for and God has answered that prayer, come back to church and share our testimonies of God’s faithfulness.  Imagine how this would strengthen our faith.  How this would encourage others and what it would do for our unity and our community.  We are very blessed here Church. We are very blessed at FBC that we get the opportunity to share our testimonies.  We have had special services to do that and my encouragement to everyone today is to take this opportunity when it is presented to you. Share your testimonies of answered prayers with each other in your conversations when you fellowship with one another.  God gives us our testimony to be able to bless others with it as well. 

When we witness answers to prayers we have prayed together, something powerful happens.  I have Ross and Karyn’s permission to share their testimony with you.  On Sunday 9th of June last year on the away to church Pastor Ross and Karyn were involved in a near fatal car accident.  The difference between near fatal and fatal was a matter of a tenth of a second.  To this day we thank God for his protection on you both that morning.  Was it luck? Was it coincidence? I believe it was neither, but it was a mighty act of God’s protection manifested by the prayers of his people.  Many of you pray for pastor Ross and Karyn consistently, Rose prayed this morning. We pray for them in our regular meetings on Monday nights.  We pray for them on Tuesday mornings and we pray most Sundays before the service starts for God’s hand on both of your life. We pray for them in our small groups. We pray for them as an eldership and most of you consistently pray for Pastor Ross and Karyn in your homes in your personal prayer time.  You see powerful things happen when God’s people pray together.  When they come together to pray for the same thing, prayers of ordinary people, you and me prayed in unity, aligned with God’s guidance and wisdom, amplified to move God to do extraordinary things.  

Church, this isn’t just Ross and Karyn’s testimony. This is our testimony. This is how great our God is. There is power when God’s people come together to pray. This is why it is so important for us to be a praying church. When the church comes together in prayer, it creates a sense of unity, alignment with God’s wisdom and God’s guidance, a deep sense of community and it amplifies the impact of individual prayers. The church then truly becomes a house of prayer. This is what Jesus’ heart is for our church, that we will be a house of prayer.  A shift happens. Praying gets to the point where it becomes so integral to our Christian journey that when we gather together, prayer is what naturally takes place. We see people that have a need that maybe need to be lifted, and automatically God’s Spirit is speaking to us and says go pray for that person. Or maybe, just maybe you might be the one that needs to be prayed for and you come here to this house trusting that someone will pray for you, that someone will take time to pray with you.  What burden are you carrying today? What is troubling you Are you anxious or worried about something is? The unforgiveness in your heart or just like we sang before What peace are you forfeiting? What pain are you trying to bear by yourself? The good news is you don’t have to fight whatever it is you are trying to fight on your own. Give it to God. Let someone pray for you. Let someone pray with you today.

Is it a prayer of praise and thanksgiving that’s on your heart? Share your testimony to encourage another person.  Prayer unites us.  Prayer aligns us with God’s will. Prayer helps us create a strong community, and our individual prayers are amplified when we pray together.  As I end today, I really have it on my heart to acknowledge each one of you that spend time intentionally praying for God to move.  And so, my encouragement is keep praying.  Keep praying in your homes.  Let’s keep praying together.  I would love to see more people come together to pray as God’s spirit leads you but remember that prayer isn’t a talent. It isn’t a skill. It is an instruction from God.  Our journey in Psalms has taught us to trust God in difficult times and as such we pray.