Sermon Central
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Prayer -- Going Beyond Rub A Dub Dub Thanks For The Grub Series
Contributed by Dan Borchert on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Surely prayer has to be more then the trite prayers that we pray before a meal doesnt it?
B. Application
12. But these verse teach us some very valuable lessons on how we should pray
13. From verse 24-28 there is nothing requested
14. They took the time, to thank God
a) For sending Jesus
b) For keeping Peter and John Safe
15. They took the time to Thank God:
a) `For the creation of the Heaven Earth, and see, and everything in them
b) For speaking through the Holy Spirit to David
16. Some valuable lessons here:
C. Illustration
17. When my dad want me to do something he will jokingly start off by saying something to the effect “Dan, my beloved son, ohh great wise one, such a loving supportive son you are could you”
18. What is he trying to do? He is trying to butter me up
19. He is sucking up to me in order that I do something for Him
20. Do we do the same to God?
21. I would have to say that we can be guilty of that
22. We neglect our job of praying, and then we try the buttering up approach with God
23. That is not prayer, that is a joke!
24. This prayer recorded here is not a “buttering up” act
25. This is the disciples heart driven praise
26. We need that same praise
27. However, this need to come from the heart, to come with out “trying to butter up”
28. Homework assignment #2:
a) This one is a lot harder then number #1.
b) I want you to offer God one prayer a day were you just thank God for who He is and What he does without asking for anything
c) Think about it. Dear Lord, thank you for this food, and bless it to our bodies. You asked God to bless it, just thank God for who He is and What He does
III. (29-30) How To Get Ready
A. Explanation
1. After they had spent that time praising God, thanking him for all that He had done
2. They then move on to the asking God Part
3. Notice what they ask for
4. They ask for God to give them boldness
5. Not so they can beat up on the Sanhedrin, make fun of them, put them in their place, scold them
6. They ask for boldness so that they can tell others about Jesus
7. Now notice something and you might think I am playing with semantics but there is a very important thing to notice here
8. They did not ask that there hand would heal and perform miraculous sign and wonders
9. They ask that God would heal and perform these acts
10. Yeah yeah of course it we heal in Jesus name
11. Too many of us today are more interested in “what we can do for Jesus”
12. There concern was reaching people for Christ. It was not about what they could do
13. It was about what God could do for others
14. Don’t ever forget that
B. Application
15. How do we apply this to our lives 2000 years later?
16. 2 very important principles
17. The first one:
a) They were not concerned with “retaliating”
b) With getting even
c) They were concern with telling people about Jesus
d) We face persecution, as we said last week, that is going to happen when we speak about Jesus
e) When we face that persecution we want to try and “eliminate” that persecution
f) We focus on the persecution, and that is exactly what the Devil wants us to do
g) We then loose focus of why the persecution happened in the first place
