Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Only a Prayer Meeting?

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer and the Gideons

Please pray with me. Lord, we thank You that we can gather together as Your church. We thank You for the invitation to Your table. We thank You that You’ve invited us into Your family, that You’ve invited us to be Your children, and that invitation is open to all. We pray, Lord, if there’s anyone here today that is maybe not in Your family, they may not have assurance that they know You. We ask that today they might leave assured of Your great love for them, that they might leave today as a member of Your family. We ask this in Jesus’ name. All God’s people said? Amen.

Good to see you this morning. Good to see you. I think I need to put my hearing aid in. Good to see you this morning. Good to see you. Oh, okay. Somebody’s out there. Before we open the Scripture, we’re going to have Bob James come. Bob is with the Gideons, actually Gideons International. You’ve heard of them, I assume? Anybody heard of Gideons? It’s an amazing organization. They’ve given out over two billion Scriptures around the world. They are in 195 countries. They have been in existence for 115 years, and they have over 270,000 volunteers. And they’re sharing the Word, as you know, if everybody knows the Gideon Bible in the hotel, right? But many other venues, many other ways that they’re getting the Word of God out. And through the Word of God, guess what’s happening? Souls are getting saved. Souls are getting saved. So Bob’s going to come up and share with us briefly about the Gideons’ ministry. [audio unclear]

The most important decision is our spiritual decision, and we have two choices. We the Gideons are trying to get God’s Word in the people’s hands to get them to see what God can do in their lives and get them in the church so they can be exposed to the gospel, and through the minister and the Holy Spirit bring them into God’s kingdom.

Recently, a couple weeks ago, my wife and I—thank you, Judy, for being here—was in the Baltic countries. We visited, let’s say, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden. And I’d just like to share with you, one of the tour guides in Sweden told me that 22% of the people in Norway believe in God. 18% of the people in Sweden believe in God. And in Denmark, 28% believe in God. But in those countries, only 3% of the people attend church. So we the Gideons are trying to get God’s Word into their hands and other countries so that they get to know God. There was a woman in Russia that was terminally ill and she was afraid of dying. A young lady in the Gideons brought a Bible to her and gave it to her and asked her to read the book of John. She read the book of John and she found a peace in God that she was no longer terrified about dying. And so when her family came to visit her, she said, “I am ready because I want to be in the arms of Jesus.” Amen.

You know, God gives us some promising news in John 14:2. “In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” And in Romans 6:23, the Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Just who are the Gideons? We are a body of believers dedicated to making the Word of God available to everyone, and together with the local church reaching the souls for Christ. The Gideons International was founded in 1899 and it serves as an extended missionary arm of the church. It is the oldest association of Christian businessmen and professional men in the United States of America. There are Gideons in over 200 countries and in 95 languages. Like the pastor said, two billion Bibles and New Testaments have been placed by the Gideons, and the work continues. Over 40,000 Scriptures were distributed in the St. Louis area last year. And why do we do this? God commanded us to in Matthew 28:19 and 20: “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world.” And Isaiah 55:11 assures us that our ministry is not in vain. “So shall my word go forth out of my mouth, and it shall not return to me void. But it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper whereto I send it.” And we should remember this as we go out and evangelize in the world and try to reach other people.

So what do we do? What do the Gideons do? Saturday morning at 7 o’clock we meet at Lake St. Louis Baptist Church and we read the Scripture and we get on our knees and we pray. We pray for those people who are sick. We pray for the people that are not in church. We pray for the pastors of the churches in our area, that their word might go out and reach people. We distribute the Scriptures. We place Scriptures in hotels. And I’d like for one of the deacons to come forward and help me out here. I have some Bibles here that we distributed. This Bible we distribute in hotels, and I’m going to give these to different people, and I want you to give them to people that are unchurched and do not have God. This is the one we distribute in the hotels. This one here, we distribute in nursing homes and in hospitals to patients. I got a lot more. Go. Go. Give them to somebody. Okay. This one here we give to the military—can you catch? Good job. These here we give to the first responders, the firemen and the people at the [audio unclear]. This one here the ladies give out, they put them in dental offices and different clinics. The white ones we give to the nurses in the hospital and the doctors and the medical staff. Can you catch? Oh! Okay, we’ll do that. Anybody in the room here? Okay, the orange one here we give to high school students. And this year we carry with us at all times, and if we meet somebody that is unchurched we give it to them. And what I do, I carry one with me when I go out to eat and I put a tip in John 3:16. Now I tell the waitress, when you get home, read John 3:16. If she don’t, she don’t get her tip.

Okay, we also have a card program that we place in churches. [audio unclear] somebody has passed away and we can make a donation in memory of them. We the Gideons try to be spiritually strong. Psalm 25:4 and 5 says, “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior.” [audio unclear] “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen.” In Romans 8:28, one of my favorites, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”

You know, there are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who are watching things happen, and those who wonder what just happened. What are you? We try to make things happen. A Gideon entered the school in the Philippines and was greeted by one of the teachers. And he asked her if he could give a copy of God’s Word to the students and the teachers. “Yes,” the teacher immediately exclaimed. She reached into a large school bag she carried with her and pulled out a worn and ragged Gideon Scripture that she received in 1985. What a trophy this was in our Father’s sight. The New Testament touched many hands and souls. It was the only copy of God’s Word in the entire school. So how can you help us, Gideons? One thing you can do is pray for us. We encourage you for our prayers so that we may reach people. Another thing you can do, you can make a donation to the Gideons either by sending a check to them or giving them cash. We encourage that. I want to thank you for allowing me to come this morning. I thank the pastor for allowing me, and I’d just like to share a word of prayer with you. Heavenly Father, we just glorify Your name and we thank You for this wonderful morning. We thank You for this beautiful church and Your Word that is brought forth here. I thank You for the pastors and the leadership and the church and the deacons and the work they do. We just praise You, God, and I ask You will touch each person here with Your love and Your mercy. And I pray for those that are ill, that You may give them Your love and comfort and healing, in Your will. And we just ask this in the glorious name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless.

The Word, the Spirit, and Prayer

[audio unclear] but having the Gideons come here is one of my favorite treats, because it’s because of the Gideons that I’m saved. Many years ago, my brother was walking on a local college campus and there were some men standing there, probably looked like Bob—short hair, suits—not the kind of guy he would hang out with, and they were passing out New Testaments. The ones they were giving out then to the college students were orange. I still have that New Testament. They handed the New Testament to my brother. He went to class. When he got home later that day, he opened up the Gideon New Testament and began to browse through it. He opened it up to this verse, of all the verses: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” [audio unclear] just from the Word of God going out, amen? And because he got saved, he began to pray for me and witness to me, and he got his whole church to pray for me. [audio unclear]

I don’t have just one text today. In 1 Peter 1, he talks about us being redeemed, in verse 18: “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believed in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.” Amen? Born again through the Word of God.

So the thing that happens to someone when they become a Christian, in the Bible, is referred to as a birth. The Word is the seed that is planted. Now I’m not much of a gardener, my wife will tell you. My wife’s really good at stuff like plants and all that, makes the yard look nice and all that. I’m not very good at any of that. But if I understand the way things work, if you plant a seed, it’s not going to grow if there’s no rain. Am I correct? Any of you guys farmers, gardeners, anybody help me out? Tyler’s. If you don’t have rain, you don’t have growth, right? So the Word of God is like a seed. Well, what’s going to make it grow? Prayer. Prayer. Because when we pray, what are we praying for? We’re really praying for the rain of the Holy Spirit. The rain of the Holy Spirit. Because just as the Word says we’re born by the Word, in John 3, Jesus says a man’s born again, but He refers not to the Word in that passage, but what, to the Holy Spirit. He says the Spirit blows where it wills. Well, are we born by the Word? Born by the Spirit? Well, we’re born by both. It is the Word and the Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit of God that takes the Word and makes it effectual so that someone understands the Word, they’re illuminated, then they’re regenerated, they’re born again.

Now I don’t know about your experience. Maybe you came to Christ when you were very young. I came to Christ when I was 20 years old and had been living in a lot of sin before that, and I was, as the gospel was being presented to me, as I was hearing the Word and even as I was reading the Word, I wasn’t understanding it. Why? Because I didn’t have the faculty to understand it, right? The natural man receives not the things of God. I needed the Holy Spirit to illuminate my mind so that I could understand the Scripture. That’s why Jesus says you can’t see, you can’t see the kingdom of God if you’re not born again. You can’t see it if you’re not born of God’s Spirit. So I couldn’t see it because I wasn’t born again. And if anyone here has come to Christ as maybe a teenager, as an adult, you know the difference between not being born again and being born again. I mean, you know experientially, you know what it’s like to go from darkness to light. I mean, it was amazing to me how before I was saved, the Scripture—I had no interest in the Bible. After I was born again, I just loved to read the Bible. Amen? Love it. But before I was born again, I hated Christians. After I was born again, I loved God’s people. Before I was born again, I loved sin. After I was born again, I hated sin. It was a radical transformation. That was a product of the Word being planted, but then watered or rained upon by the Spirit of God. The Word without the Spirit does not bear fruit. It doesn’t happen. This is a basic principle, really a basic principle of the kingdom, but often I think we forget it. That the Word of God must be used as an instrument of the Holy Spirit for it to be effectual, to be life-changing, both for the non-believer to enter the kingdom, but even for the believer to grow. You can be a believer and read your Bible and not grow. You can hear sermons and not grow. We see it all the time. Why? Because if the Holy Spirit is not illuminating that Word, and the Word’s not convicting you by the ministry of the Spirit of God, if the Word’s not being used to transform you by the Spirit of God, you can hear the Word, hear the Word, hear the Word, and not grow. So we need the Holy Spirit, amen?

A People of Prayer

I could walk you through the Bible and show you the importance that prayer has in the kingdom, in God’s economy, if you will. We don’t have time to look at the many Scriptures. It would literally take weeks and months to go through what we see in the Word regarding prayer. But I just want to mention a couple highlights. When you look at the Bible as a whole, what you see is you see all the great saints were people of prayer. They all prayed. Some of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible were uttered by Moses. Glorious prayers, prayers for God’s people. So you see prayer as an integral part of his life. Think of David, maybe the ultimate man of prayer, right? David was a man of prayer. We have his prayers in two places in the Bible. We have his prayers in historical books like Samuel or Kings or wherever, but we have David’s prayers in a special book of the Bible called the Psalms. God wrote a whole book of prayers. Think about that for a moment. Think about what that says. He didn’t give a book on church administration. He didn’t give us a whole book on tithing. He gave us a whole book on prayer and worship, though. Well that tells me it’s important, right? It’s important to God.

Of course, Jesus taught us to pray. We have what’s called the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospels. We have not only the Lord’s Prayer, where He taught us how to pray, as we read through the Gospels, we see Jesus Himself was a man of prayer. Now, if Jesus, the Son of God, needed to take time to pray, what about you and me? Right? You think Jesus could just wing it? “Hey, I’m deity, this is easy, I can walk on water. No problem.” Jesus steals away at night. In some cases, it says Jesus went up to pray, and then the next thing you read is, in the morning, meaning He prayed all night. He prayed all night. Remember in Gethsemane where Jesus went in the garden to pray? And then He goes and He prays a distance off from His disciples, and then He comes back and what are they doing? Sleeping. He’s praying, they’re sleeping. Could be a metaphor for the modern church. Jesus in heaven interceding, His church sleeping. He comes back and He reproves them and He said, “Could you not pray with Me at least an hour? Just an hour, that’s all. Just an hour.” For Jesus, an hour of prayer was no big deal, because Jesus exemplified prayer.

And when we turn to the book of Acts, what do we see? We see the same thing. We see that prayer is prominent in the book of Acts. Just look at a couple Scriptures in Acts. Go to the first chapter. Acts opens with a reiteration of the Great Commission. As you all know, which we have read recently, verse 8 of chapter 1: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” They were to go and preach the Word of God, but they needed the Spirit of God, or the Word would not be effectual. So Jesus is taken up, He ascends into heaven. It says in verse 12, “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in” playing cards and washers. No, doesn’t say that. By the way, Sean and I were six and one yesterday in washers. Give it up. Give it up. No, no. What were they doing? They were praying. They prayed. Right. And we know that there is, they cast lots for an apostle. Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descends on the church on the day of Pentecost, and there’s a great ingathering. And then at the end of chapter 2, it says in verse 42, that they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in what? Prayers. And then in verse 46 and 47, they’re continually in the temple. What are they doing? They’re praising God. Prayer and worship. Prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer.

Go to Acts 4. This is after they were persecuted, the church was openly persecuted. The first time, it says in verse 23, “And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: ’Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.’ And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and” what happened after they were filled with the Holy Spirit? “they spoke the Word of God with boldness.” And we see this all throughout Scripture, that there’s a link between the Word and the Spirit and prayer. They all go together. They all go together.

Only a Prayer Meeting

In the late 1800s, there was a great preacher in England named Charles Spurgeon. You’ve never heard the name? You haven’t been here very long, because he’s one of my favorite texts. He may be the most-read preacher. I mean, this is amazing. Well, Spurgeon, you’ve heard his story, but he was a very successful soul winner, and “soul winner” was the word that was used back then, not evangelist as much as soul winner. His preaching ministry reached many through the pulpit, but also through the written word, because his sermons would be published for a penny if he could get a sermon in print. He’d get with his publisher on Monday morning and edit his sermons and get them out to the public, and his sermons ended up traveling around the world in print. And he would get, people would write him letters and say, “I was in a boat traveling to South America and I read your sermon and I got saved.” You know, just how God used his preaching to reach souls. Now of course he used his preaching to build up the church internally, but he used them in a great way to reach the non-Christian, to bring them into the church.

Well, during his day he saw what he considered an alarming trend happening. And the alarming trend was that churches were no longer having prayer meetings. The churches weren’t gathering to pray. They would gather for other activities during the week, but they weren’t gathering to pray. And he gave an address at one of his prayer meetings that he held at his church, which they had every week, not once a month, like us, we slackers. At his weekly prayer meeting, he said this. He said, “What a company we have here tonight. It fills my heart with gladness and my eyes with tears of joy to see so many hundreds of persons gathered together, which is sometimes wickedly described as only a prayer meeting. It is good for us to draw nigh unto God in prayer, and especially good to make up a great congregation for such a purpose. We have attended little prayer meetings of four or five, and we have been glad to be there, for we had the promise of our Lord’s presence.” Amen. “But our minds are grieved to see so little attention given to united prayer by many of our churches.” [audio unclear] “How could we expect a blessing if we were too idle to ask for it? How could we look for a Pentecost if we never met with one accord in one place? Brethren, we shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.” Amen?

And then he gives an encouragement regarding how they ought to pray, and I just want to quote a little bit more. I know it’s long. He basically says the question, okay, we’re all here to pray. [audio unclear] “this time offer some special far-reaching petition. It is suggested to me that we pray for a true and genuine revival of religion throughout the world.” A true and genuine revival. Why? “Because it is to be desired beyond measure that the Lord would send a real and lasting revival of spiritual life. We need a work of the Holy Ghost of a supernatural kind, putting power into the preaching of the Word, inspiring all believers with heavenly energy, and solemnly affecting the hearts of the careless so that they may turn to God and live.” In other words, that people would be saved. “We would not be drunk with the wine of carnal excitement, but we would be filled with the Spirit. We would not leap upon the altar and shout and cry, ’O Baal, hear us,’ but we would behold the fire descending from heaven, in answer to the effectual, fervent prayers of righteous men. Can we not entreat the Lord our God to make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the people in this day of declension and vanity?” If his day, a hundred years ago or more, was a day of declension and vanity, how much more so is ours? Amen?

The Need of the Hour

The need of the hour is certainly for the preaching of the Word. The need of the hour is for God’s people, every one of them, to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to their friends and their neighbors and their coworkers. Every one of them. Because we are an army of God together. An army of God together. But the Word must be anointed by God’s Spirit. We need the Spirit of God to first give God’s people boldness, amen? Because in America, most Christians are silent. They are silent. They will not speak for Jesus. They will not deny Him, but they will not profess Him. They are silent. And it’s because of the fear of man, and that fear can and should be overcome by the Holy Spirit, amen? And if you’re not sharing Jesus Christ because of the fear of man: number one, you need to repent before God, because the fear of man is a snare, it is a sin. And after repenting, ask God for the Holy Spirit, as they did in Acts 4, to fill you and to give you boldness. And based upon the Word of God, I can promise you, if you will open your mouth, He will fill you and give you boldness. Don’t wait until you have a feeling of boldness. You open your mouth and He will give you boldness. Because opening your mouth is where you are expressing your faith. And God gives His gifts when you need them. We don’t need to sit at home and feel bold. We don’t need to sit at church and feel bold. We need to feel bold when we’re confronting those who may be rejecting Christ. We need to feel bold in the mission field, amen? If you pray in faith, God will hear that prayer, but you have to step out in faith, which regarding evangelism means you have to open your mouth.

So we have to preach the Word, and when we do that in the power of the Spirit, then God’s Spirit moves and God actually saves people. Listen, people read the book of Acts all the time and they say, “Wow, how come this doesn’t happen today?” Well, because we don’t believe. There’s no mystery about this, okay? If every Christian in America made a goal to lead people to Jesus Christ, do you realize what would happen in America? If every Christian in America prayed for the power and the filling of the Holy Ghost to be a bold witness for Jesus and then began to walk that out in a daily way, do you realize what would happen in America? It would not be the status quo. But the status quo is people go to church week after week, month after month, year after year, and never share Jesus Christ with anyone. That’s the status quo in America. Not all places. The church is growing in Africa, South America, Asia. There’s revivals all around the world, but not in America. Because American Christians have chosen the path of silence. The gospel of Jesus Christ is as powerful today as it was on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit of God is the same person today as on the day of Pentecost. There is no different gospel. There’s no different Jesus, there’s no different way. There’s no different Holy Spirit. It’s the same Jesus, the same gospel, the same Spirit, but the church is not the same because we’re not stepping out in faith. We’re not believing. James says you have not because you ask not. If this church and the American church would fulfill the Great Commission, we must be people who pray, and people who pray in faith.

We need to pray for the church itself, which is in a slumber, and then we need to pray for the lost. We need to pray for the lost. All of us here know people that do not know Jesus. And the most convicting thing I can probably say to you is, how much did you pray for them this week to come to Jesus? The reality is we’re not praying people as we ought to be. We’re not praying in general, but in addition to that, we’re not praying for the unsaved that we know. And so what happens when God’s people don’t pray? People don’t get saved. There’s no mystery here. And this is not complicated, okay? We have talked to you, the leadership of this church, for weeks and months about the Great Commission in different ways and different angles, and the importance of sharing the gospel. It’s time for us to put some feet to our faith. It’s time for us to do and not to just talk about it. Amen. I mean all of us, all of us. There’s a reason we’re having a Friend Day on July 9th, because it’s time for us to do. It’s time for each of us to talk to our neighbors, talk to our coworkers, maybe a family member that lives in town, and say, “Hey, would you consider coming to church with me? We’re having a special day. It’s called Friend Day. Would you be my friend?”

Let me tell you something, friend. If you want to share Jesus Christ with people, there’s no lack of opportunity. No lack. Now, one of the challenges for me is I work with Christians. So I don’t get to go to the mission field every morning like you guys do. You are more blessed than me in that way, because you actually get to be around unsaved people. I know what you’re thinking. “If you knew the people that I was working with. Their dirty mouth and their dirty jokes and their this and the other.” Brother, it’s the darkness that needs the light. You’re the light there. You are the light there. Light it up. Light it up. Shake it up. You’re bored at work? Shake it up. But if you pray, pray for lost people, if you just begin to pray, “Lord, I really do want to take it, I want opportunities, I want to take advantage of opportunities.” I prayed last week, I just said that I would have more opportunities. So I had a crew at my house this week installing new windows. The second morning they were there, they were working outside, and I came to the door in the morning. I’m like, if you saw me in the morning before I had my Diet Coke, you would think I was from The Walking Dead or something. So I’m like, I come to the door, you know, he knocked on the door, yeah, you know, the sun blares and I’m not really totally awake. I didn’t have my caffeine yet, you know. And he says to me, “I’m not sure I understand the gospel.” I woke up real quick. A total stranger walks up to me and says, “I’m not sure I understand the gospel.” And when he did that, I did wake up really quick, because I remembered that a few days before I was saying, “Lord, I want more opportunities.” I was like, the Lord said, “There it is.”

And so we had a wonderful conversation about the gospel, and I got to give him the gospel. And the fact of the matter is, in his case, I believe he was already a Christian. But he was confused. He was confused about the gospel. And if you remember a sermon I gave not too long ago, surveys showed that many Christians are really confused about basic doctrines. And so I got to talk to him about the new birth and about the kingdom of God and about forgiveness and about eternal life and all this wonderful stuff, because he was confused. But as we talked, I realized that he truly did understand the gospel. And my sense was he was already saved. So I didn’t ask him to pray with me, because I think he was saved. But if that isn’t an answer to prayer—the point is, God was saying, ask, right? Ask and you shall receive. Some of you have people in your lives that need the gospel, and the Lord’s already told you. They may be on your mind right now. The Lord’s already impressed them on you. A coworker, somebody at the gym, a neighbor. They’re already on your heart. The Lord’s already been talking to you about them. We need to pray for them, amen.

When I got saved, one of the most shocking things to realize was that there had been a whole church praying for me for a year, probably weekly. Because part of their Bible study, they had a church-wide Bible study. And at the Bible study, they always prayed for the unsaved. Maybe we should start praying for the unsaved as a body, amen. Maybe we’d see more people come to Jesus. And maybe if you would pray for your neighbors or pray for your coworkers in faith, then maybe you’d begin to see them come to Jesus. I think we would. I believe we would. And that’s part of the commission. Yes, we need to go, and yes, we need to share. Part of going and sharing is we must pray, because the seed of the Word needs the rain of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Upper Room, and an Invitation

Let’s stand together. In light of prayer, I’m not going to open the mic. I was hoping to do that. But because of time, I’m not going to do that this morning. We intentionally moved the prayer meeting, which we call here the Upper Room, to this Wednesday because of the camp. Some of the kids going to camp—I call them kids, some of them are really young adults—some of the people going to camp may not know Jesus. I would suspect that some of them definitely do not know Jesus, and so we’re gathering to pray, to pray for souls. We also want to gather to pray for your friends, your coworkers, and your family members. We want to pray as we begin to reach out to people in a concrete way. We are going to all invite someone to church on July 9th, amen? Everyone here will do that. We want to see a response because the Holy Spirit is drawing men and women to Jesus Christ. So we must be in prayer.

Spurgeon, I got to read one more thing, I’m sorry, just stay standing. I got to read one more thing in this version. I forgot. I should just print these sermons and send them to you in the email or something. Listen, you ready? Now, this is a man who probably led hundreds of thousands of people to Christ through his ministry. “I have often noticed that when God blesses my ministry to an unusual extent, that the people in general,” meaning in his church, “the people in general are in a praying mood. It is a grand thing to preach in an atmosphere full of the dew of the Spirit.” I can testify to that. I know what it is to preach without it, alas. You may preach and you may hope God will bless your message, but it’s no use. “I often feel when I go out to preach that there’s no credit due to me, for everything is in my favor. The people are praying, expecting, they’re praying for a blessing,” and he says, “and they get it.” They’re praying. They’re praying people.

I got to read one more thing. I know it’s long. This is so funny. So Spurgeon tells this long story, which I can’t read all of. He goes to, he’s asked to go to a church to preach. He goes to preach, he talks about how unfriendly people were when he got there. He says he preached, he says, there were some brethren and sisters from other churches who were there who heard he was coming so they came. They seemed pleased and profited, but the people who belonged to the place did not get a blessing. They had not expected one. So of course they did not receive it. When the service was over, I went into the vestry and there stood the two deacons, on one side of the mantelpiece, and I said to them—you’ve got to picture this, Spurgeon and these two deacons in a pastor’s outer office, fireplace, mantel. I said to them, “Are you deacons?” “Yes,” they answered. “The church does not prosper, does it?” I asked. “No,” they replied. And Spurgeon says, “I should think not, with such deacons.” He said, “Did I know anything against them?” they asked. “No,” I said, “but I did not know anything in their favor either.” He said, one of the deacons got so mad, he left the church, but he said the other one repented and the church began to pray. And guess what happened? The church began to grow. Every deacon ought to be at the prayer meeting, every elder, every ministry leader, and really every member, because it’s really that important. We don’t pray? I can preach. You might get a blessing here and there. We don’t pray? We can hand out the Gospels of John, and God in His mercy will save some people, but not to the degree that we would see if we were praying people. So let’s not think of the Upper Room as only a prayer meeting.

We have been invited today to God’s table, which is pretty awesome, isn’t it? But once again, we’re being invited to the throne room of the great King. So let’s enter in. Father, we thank You that You have condescended to use us. Lord, the more I think about prayer, the less I understand it. Why do You need us to pray? It doesn’t make any sense to me. But we know we see it in Your Word. We know You’ve commanded us to do it. And so, God, we want to be an obedient people. An obedient people. I pray, dear Lord, that we would be an obedient people. Whether we feel like praying, whether we feel like witnessing, that we would just be an obedient people, and we would begin to do what we know is right and trust You for the power and the boldness and the results. And God, I believe that if we will just bow the knee, that we will see You do marvelous things in our midst. And I ask it not for our sake, I ask it for the glory of Jesus Christ, for the glory of Your Son, that He would get the glory of what He suffered. And we ask it all in His glorious name. Amen.