Sermon Extras

SERMON NOTES

Rooted and Renegade: Acts 4:23-37 “Building Boldness in Believers” Part2

REVIEW: PODCAST QUESTIONS! This is the second part to a two part look at Acts Chapter 4:

• The church has been born by the power of the Holy Spirit. 
• The church is performing miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit. 
• Peter and John get put in prison and threatened for preaching Jesus. 
• The Holy Spirit provides boldness to proclaim the gospel in the face of persecution. 

APP> I feel like we need to clarify something, we haven’t really defined boldness yet, what type of boldness did they have? 

What type of boldness did they have? 

• A carless boldness?
• A brutal boldness? 
• An arrogant boldness? 

Boldness is acting, by the power of the Holy Spirit, on a deep conviction in the face of danger.SO HOW DO WE GET IT?!!

*ILL> If you had heard me preach for any period of time you have heard me reference my fav preacher, Charles Hades Spurgeon. He is sort of a hero of mine. He preached during the 19th century at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, at that time to about 10,000 people regularly, you would have to get a registered ticket to get into a service. A story is told that a group of seminary students wanted to hear him preach, so they got there early for the ending service to find Spurgeon walking into the building, Spurgeon was gracious and spent time with the young students (he had a heart for young preachers) and gave them a tour. He then asked them if they wanted to see the boiler room, which today is like saying, “want to see the utility closet?” They went dow into the basement, Spurgeon opened a door and the student saw 100+ people crammed into a room on their knees praying before the service. Spurgeon turned to the students and said, “This is the source of power for this church.” Spurgeon famously said these words about the priority of prayer in the life of the church….”The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there, one of die first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer!” ~ C.H. Spurgeon
CONTEXT> That is exactly what we see in today’s passage of scripture! We see the “Boiler Room” of the early church! I did a word study this week and the word “pray/prayer/praying/prayed is used 31x in the book of acts! That’s the most BY far of any book in the entire NT, Luke is second with 27x Today we see the “secret” how how they did what they did! How where they so Bold? 

Big Idea > The power for boldness is given through prayer. 

APP> So really quickly I want to look at how they prayed and what was the result of those prayers? 

1. Pray immediately. 

• “v23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.” It’s literally the first thing that they do! They didn’t post on facebook, instagram or anything else. 

APP> Prayer is our first response not our last resort. 

2) Pray corporately.

• v24 “ And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said…” This is great.. we get questions about this as a church, why do we do it.. well because we see it in the bible. 
• A quick run through of Corporate prayer… Genesis 4:26 “26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.”….. Revelation 19:1 “After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God..” …. Remember the Lords Prayer: “OUR Father….. THE ENTIRE BOOK OF PSALMS, Romans 15:5-6 “5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3) Pray Theologically. 

• v24 “24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,

4) Pray Biblically.

• 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

*ILL> Our kids learning to talk, “Use your words….” 

5) Pray Radically. 

• 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

APP> What if we stopped asking God to, “take it from us” and started asking God to, “take us through it” 

Now look at the result… Verses 32-37… I mean… who wouldn’t want to go to that church? That’s revival! 

APP> Prayer precedes revival. “When God has something to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede that great work, the prayers of his people.”- Jonathan Edwards 

• Introduce “A Week of Bold Prayer” (main graphic)
• Show the entire week calendar (PIC)
• Show sample
• EveryDay, 3x a Day, One Hour, 

“The pulse of a church isn’t measured on a Sunday morning. The pulse of a church is the prayer meeting.” Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” Ephesians 3:20