Prioritize the Prayer Meeting - Acts 4

The book of Acts, chapter 4, verses 18-31. And what you have before you in this text today is a window open to the New Testament prayer meeting. This is very, very special. This is the one place in the Bible where we see believers gathered for a prayer meeting. And imagine it. Imagine who's there. Peter is there. John is there. The women are there. The men are there. The children are there. They're all gathered in one accord. Let's read this amazing passage, starting at verse 18. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. So they were telling Peter and John to be silent. Don't mention Jesus. Verse 19, but Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Amen. Amen. Verse 21, so when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people. For all men glorified God and that which was done. For the man was above 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was showed. Verse 23, so are you all picturing this scenario? Peter and John have seen a man healed. And then the councils tell them, be quiet. Don't speak about Jesus. And then Peter and John tell them, we are going to continue speaking about Jesus. And then the council threatens them and says, don't you dare speak about Jesus. And then they let them go. And look at what happens in verse 23. Peter and John go to the prayer meeting. Verse 23, and being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together. For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I need your strength to preach this sermon. Lord Jesus, we need your Holy Spirit to hear from heaven. Lord, I ask that you hide me behind the shadow of your cross. And I ask, Lord, that you prick the ears and the hearts and the consciences of everyone in this room. And I ask a simple prayer, Lord. I ask that we would come to be known as a church that values and prioritizes the prayer meeting. Lord, please, I ask for those who have never come to a prayer meeting, that from today's sermon they may be forever changed. And they would start to come once a month or twice a month. Lord, I ask that your word would pierce like arrows to our souls. Your word, not my word, Lord. We need to hear Jesus Christ preach today. So Lord, please speak through me. Lord, please speak to our hearts. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to convict souls. Come, Lord. Come, Lord Jesus. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. We've been studying for the last two months. And as I say that, I just want to pause and say hallelujah. We've been together for two months. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Our churches have come together. It's been so wonderful. The Lord is moving among us. Praise his name. Praise his name. Two months and eight sermons have been on the lifeblood of the church. And I originally called it eight things that we must focus on. But today we're adding a ninth. And this is the final sermon. And after this, we're going to head into studying our Lord's incarnation. But I must add this sermon. This is so vital. And it's this. Prioritize the prayer meeting. This is the capstone lecture right here, OK? This is the Mount Everest of this series. This is the one we all really need to hear. Prioritize the prayer meeting. And today, I want to bring us to a place of maturity. I want to talk about some mature things today. And I want to encourage everybody to step up onto higher ground. We've talked about our attitude. We ought to be thankful. We've talked about magnifying Christ in this church. We've talked about our approach to church life and how we ought to love each other in fellowship. And today, I want to step us up another level here. And I want everybody in this church to love the prayer meeting, to prioritize the prayer meeting, to make it to a prayer meeting. So that's where we're heading today. A man named Leonard Ravenhill said probably the most convicting thing I've ever heard. Ravenhill was a preacher in England. And then he moved. The Lord told him to move to Texas and to preach in the United States because he wanted to pray for a revival in the United States. Leonard Ravenhill, he said this, no man is greater than his prayer life. Let that sink in. No man, no woman is greater than their prayer life. And I want to say to you today, no church is greater than its prayer life. What do I mean by that? The prayer life is the center of this church. The prayer meeting is the engine on which this church is going to run or not run. Ravenhill also said this, we cannot run a Mack truck church on a VW engine. You see what he's saying? If our church is a big Mack truck and we want it to run well for the Lord, we can't run it on a little Volkswagen bug engine, can we? We need the engine of this church, the prayer meeting of this church, to be a priority for everyone, for everyone. And I know that not all of us can attend the prayer meeting every single week. I get that. We all have needs. We all have things at home, things in the workplace. But I start just by asking you that question. Do you prioritize the prayer meeting? Do you care about it? And if not, I want to challenge you today, start coming. Come to one per month, if possible. If you can't make it there, pray while we're praying. Pray for five minutes at home while we're praying. Amen. You all see where we're headed here today? I'm going to give us 12 quick points, 12 reasons to prioritize the prayer meeting. Let me emphasize that this is not a 12-point sermon where each one is going to take 20 minutes, OK? These 12 will come at you in about two-minute segments, OK? I'm praying to convict you of our church's need for the prayer meeting. 12 reasons to prioritize the prayer meetings. Follow me. Follow the word of God here. First, biblically, the prayer meeting is as important as Sunday worship. Now, right there, you all might say, what? Sam, you're a fanatic. What are you? That's crazy. But here's my point. Biblically, the prayer meeting is as important as Sunday worship. Does anybody know how many times in the book of Acts is do the disciples meet on the first day of the week on a Sunday? Can anybody tell me? Brother? Amen. One time in Acts chapter 20, verse 7, they meet on the first day of the week. And it's a glorious meeting. They're actually meeting in the evening. Do you all remember that? And Paul preaches too long. And what happens? A young man gets tired and he falls out of a window. And it's an amazing Sunday service. But that's one time in the book of Acts. Now, let me ask you, how many times in the book of Acts do they hold a prayer meeting? 14 times. 14 times. So do you all get that proportion? Once on a Sunday, 14 times in the prayer meeting. Do you have your proportions right? And I wondered, why have we reversed that in church history, where we can only prioritize the Sunday meeting and not the prayer meeting? I think it's very simple. The world, the flesh, and the devil hate the prayer meeting. The devil would love to see us just cancel the prayer meeting every week. Oh, it's just a few people. It's not going to do much. Cancel it. The world would love to see us not praying. Our flesh, can I get an amen on this? Our flesh doesn't want to pray. Our flesh, me, in my flesh, I want to stay home and eat potato chips and go to sleep. But we need to prioritize the prayer meeting. My prayer for this church is that everyone would come to see Sunday and the prayer meeting as equally important. You might want to write that down, that everyone in this church would come to see the Sunday gathering and the prayer meeting as equally important. I'm not saying everyone can attend all the time. But I am saying, do you value it that much in your heart? Write down that proportion in the Book of Acts, 14 to 1. Second point, the prayer meeting is the strongest testimony you can offer to the world, to your family, and to your friends. Let me say that one more time. The prayer meeting is the strongest testimony you can offer to the world, to your family, and to your friends that Jesus Christ is real. Look at our text before us right here. Let me just remind you of what happened. In verse 18, the councils told them, don't talk about Jesus. In verses 19 and 20, look at it. They said, we cannot be silent. We are going to talk about Jesus. In verse 21, the council again says, no, you don't. But we don't have any reason to keep you in jail right now, so we're going to let you go home. These guys could have been terrified. What do they do then in verse 23? It says, and being let go, they went to their own company, and they started to pray. How many times as Christians when we get in trouble do we go somewhere other than the Church of God? How many times when we feel bad do we go to something other than the prayer meeting? You feel bad. Something's pressing in upon you. You have a hard day at work. Where do you go? Oh, the disciples went to the prayer meeting. Isn't that incredible? I want to encourage you, go to the prayer meeting. That's where we unburden ourselves before the Lord. Philip Henry, who's the father of Matthew Henry, he said this. Matthew Henry is the man who wrote the greatest Bible commentary ever. You all have the Matthew Henry Bible commentary? It's on your phones now, so there's no excuse. It is the best, most beautiful devotional Bible commentary out there. Philip Henry was his father. Listen to what he said. He said, it is far more important to leave a treasury of prayer behind than a treasury of gold and silver. Do you want to leave that treasury to your children? I pray that we all leave that treasury, that our children would look at us and say, my grandpa went to the prayer meeting. My grandma prayed for me. That's what we need to offer the future generations. That man I told you about, Leonard Ravenhill, he said that he was saved not by learning about the sinfulness of his heart, but by looking at his dad. And he said, my dad was weird. My dad had an inspired zeal. My dad went to half nights of prayer on Fridays. My dad would preach outside of the bar to these drunkards. And at age 11, Leonard Ravenhill said, I want to follow Jesus. Age 11. Isn't that beautiful? The strongest testimony we can offer the world, our family, and our friends is pray. Value prayer. Go to the prayer meeting. Third point, these are going to fly by, OK? So everybody following? Third point, the prayer meeting is where you find your spiritual family. Look at verse 23. And being let go, they went to their company. Literally in the Greek, that is they went to their own. They went to their own. That means their family, people whom they love, people whom they belong to. And you know what I notice in verse 23? They knew where to find these people. Do you all know where to find us if you need prayer? Wednesday, 6.30 PM, that room. We need that in our church. So someone struggling, and they can say, well, I can at least make it to Wednesday, and I'll get there at 6.30. And I'm going to be with my own, my people, the people I can pray with. When we pray together, we become spiritual family. I went to all of these conferences with Paul Washer up in Toronto. And I admired him. I would even say I started to idolize him, because I thought he's such a great preacher. And I was going to conference after conference, and it was like he became some idol in my life. And then finally, he and I sat down, and he prayed. And then I was like, he's my brother. He's just my brother. He's a genuine guy. We're together. He's one of my own. You see that? If there's someone in this church you don't really know too well, try bowing in prayer with them, and they will become your own. They will become your companions. The power of prayer. Fourth reason to go to the prayer meeting. It is where you can unburden yourself. Look at verse 23. Being let go, they went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. With a true friend, with someone you truly trust, you can be honest, can't you? When you meet with a true friend, you say, you know, I had a really hard week. If you come to a true burning Holy Ghost prayer session, you can come in, and you can unburden yourself. And I pray that our prayer sessions look that way. That people can come in and report all. Tell people how things have been. And right here in verse 21, by the way, is the only biblical example of a prayer request. Has anyone ever been to a prayer meeting where someone gives a prayer request, and it goes on for five or 10 minutes, and it's just going on and on and on? We want to take a model from verse 23 right here. What do they do? They reported all. It was brief. It was thorough. But people knew how to pray for them after that. My point there is the prayer meeting is where you can unburden yourself. Brothers and sisters, if we have prayer meetings that start to feel too professional, then people aren't going to want to come and unburden themselves, are they? We have to keep it loose. We have to remember where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. You can unburden yourself before God in the prayer meeting. Number five, the prayer meeting is where we listen to one another. Look at verse 24. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God. Just circle that phrase, when they heard that. I challenge you all who come to the prayer meetings, do you listen to others? Have you ever heard a prayer request, and someone's talking about something very meaningful? My aunt passed away. And you say, my heart is cold. I don't care about that person's aunt. We want to grow, and we want to exercise. We want to, what do you call it, flex our muscle of sympathy in the prayer meeting. You want to go to the prayer meeting, and you want to say, I hear you, brother. I hear you. I'm with you. I care about your concerns. I will pray for you. You want to exercise that muscle of sympathy in the prayer meeting. Amen? Let's go on. Some more points here. They're going to fly like popcorn, so catch them, OK? The prayer meeting is where we learn to pray loud. Verse six, sorry, sixth point. The prayer meeting is where we learn to pray loud. Look at verse 24. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God. They lifted up their voice to God. I will tell you that nothing has inspired my zeal in the Christian life like hearing a brother or sister just go after it in prayer. Have you guys ever heard that? For me, there was a woman named Marva in Toronto. And we would go to the prayer meetings, and she would just run after God. She was just going after him, saying, Lord, you come down now. We need you now. And she was lifting up her voice to God. And when I'd get back from a vacation to see my parents in Maine, I'd always get back to Toronto, and Marva would say, Sam, could you feel our prayers? I thought that was wonderful. She was thinking her prayers are so loud that we can hear them. I can feel them over in Maine. Lifting up your voice to God is not only about volume, though, isn't it? It's also about, do you believe you're being heard? Do you have assurance of faith? Do you know that you're speaking to God through the blood of his son? Do you know that you're addressing God through his mercy and his mercy alone? And then we lift up our voices. I really want to emphasize that, though. When you come to the prayer sessions, get inspired by other people's zeal. I see people in this room right here. I've been inspired by you. I've heard you pray, and it's made me want to seek after Jesus more. We need that, brothers and sisters. You need that so much. You can read every Christian biography. You can watch every Christian documentary. But eventually, what you need is you need to hear someone zealous seated right beside you who's saying, I can call down God on this prayer meeting right now. I lift up my voice to God. Amen? Seventh point, the prayer meeting is where we develop unity. Look at verse 24. And when they had heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. The prayer meeting is where we develop unity. As you read through the Book of Acts, you'll find that the whole church gathers for prayer. Men, women, children. Let me ask you, should it only be the prayer warriors that go to the prayer meeting? No. Sometimes I even wonder if we should just get rid of that phrase, prayer warriors. We should all be prayer warriors. All of us are called to go to the prayer meeting. Bring the babies. Bring the children. We need everyone. Amen? Amen? And that's where we seek unity. Listen to this. I wrote this. Someone mentioned this to me. This is really powerful to think about. In our Sunday service, we get unity of doctrine, right? We come together and we agree on what we believe. In our Thursday night, as we do good works, we get unity of action because we work together. But in the prayer meeting, we get unity of conviction. We unify around, I heard my sister pray that way. I'm with you, sister. I agree. I heard someone pray that God's justice matters in Portland, Maine. I agree. You see, that's where we get unity of conviction. I heard someone pray that we have to reach the poor. I agree. That's where we get unity of conviction. You all see that? Eight. The prayer meeting is where we put God first. Look at verse 24. Look at how they start this prayer. Everybody look at this. Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is. Did they start praying by asking for stuff for themselves? Did they say, Lord, I need a new microwave? No, they said, Lord, you are God. You're the creator. You own this world. I start with you, Lord. I meditate on your attributes, Lord. I think about your character, Lord. And do you know that they don't even start talking about themselves until verse 29. So look, they start in verse 24. And I can't do math. What is that? 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Six verses later, they start asking for things. Isn't that amazing? Put God first in the prayer session. I was a professor in Toronto for a little bit of time. And I would hold prayer meetings at our university, Tyndale University in Toronto. And one day, all of the students could see that I was just forlorn. I don't know. I don't remember what my problem was. But I'm Sam, so I've got a lot of problems. And they could see it on my face. And these students, I still remember. It makes me cry. They started singing that song. Lord, I'd offer my heart. I'd give you my soul. You know that song? Anyway, it was beautiful. And it really helped me. And then, Joon-Koo Lee, who is my favorite prayer warrior from Tyndale University, Joon-Koo Lee started praying. He was a young man from Korea. And he said, Jesus, Professor Caldwell is thinking about himself. Help him think about you. And I was like, what? And I just, well, my flesh died. You guys should write down the prayer of Joon-Koo Lee. Professor Caldwell is thinking all about himself. Help him to think about you. That's a good prayer right there. Look how they start here. Go after God. Go after God for at least six verses before you start asking anything about yourself. And that's what we ought to do in the prayer session. Maybe we should just praise him for 20 minutes, for 30 minutes, before we even ask him for anything. We want to fill this house with praise. Amen? Nine. The prayer meeting is where we apply Scripture to life. The prayer meeting is where we apply Scripture to life. Look at what they then do. Look at verse 25. Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? Can anybody tell me what psalm was Peter quoting there? A little louder. Amen. Psalm 2. Imagine that. Peter got out his Bible. He took out Psalm 2. And he started reading from it. Verse 26, the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. Look at 27. For of a truth. What does Peter do right there? He takes Bible and he applies it to life. He says, here's the Bible. And of a truth, this is happening right before our eyes. That's what we need to do in the prayer meeting. You open your Bible. And it says, rejoice in the Lord always. And we say, Lord, we want this right here today. We want to rejoice in the Lord always right here today. Amen. Do you all see how that works? A man named John Hyde was called Praying Hyde of India. He was a man of prayer. I could tell you a lot of things about him. But let me just tell you this. He prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed. And he would pray for one soul's conversion every day. And then he started to see that. Then he'd pray for two souls every day. Then he'd start to see that. So he'd up his prayer. Three souls per day, and he'd pray more. But John Hyde, when he prayed, a lot of people made this criticism of him. They said, he doesn't pray his own prayers. He just puts the Bible in front of him, and he says what it says. Isn't that amazing? He would open up his Bible, and he would kneel on the floor, and he would say, the Lord is my shepherd. And he would just read that as a prayer to God. And John Hyde saw God bring revival to the Punjab region of India, what's all of Pakistan today. Imagine that, just by opening up the scriptures and applying them to life. That's point nine. The prayer meeting is where we apply scripture to life. Point 10, the prayer meeting is where we learn how to ask God. Oh, look at this. Look at verse 29. This is when they start to ask. Everybody still with me for three more points here? Stick with me. Verse 29 is where they start to ask. Look at this. And now, Lord, behold. They're going to ask three things here, but what I want you all to notice is that they make simple, bold petitions. The disciples in the early church learned to pray simple and bold. What do they say? Verse 29, and now, Lord, behold their threatenings. Can everybody here pray like that? Lord, look at the state of Portland, Maine. That's it. That's the prayer. Lord, behold our church. Look on us. Lord, look at my family. Look at what we need. That's it. Isn't that powerful? And then what do they ask? And grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. How bold are we now, church? Could we be more bold? How boldly are we bringing the Gospel to Portland, Maine right now, church? Could we be more bold? This is a great petition. Grant us boldness, Lord. And then look here. Look at verse 30. By stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus. Here's the last petition that they give. And I want to encourage everybody in this church to pray like this. We pray that the Lord would grant healing and signs and wonders in our church. This is a request that a lot of churches have gotten rid of. There's a doctrine called cessationism, which dictates that God no longer performs miracles. He no longer heals physically. He no longer does, in effect, verse 30, that signs and wonders may be done in the name of Jesus. But cessationism is not supported by the Bible. The Bible tells us that these things are still going on today. We still ought to pray as the apostles pray. Amen? Write down these verses. Mark 16, verse 17. It says, these signs shall follow them that believe. If we believe, we want to see signs and wonders and miracles following us. Mark 16, verse 20. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Is there anybody here that's bold enough to pray that? We don't just want the word preached here. We want the word confirmed with signs following. Do you know that there have been physical healings in this church in the last two months? Do you know that God is still working in this way? Do you know that we ought to pray for all of the spiritual gifts to still be alive in this church? Words of wisdom, prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, prayer, all of that. Why? Because we have an unbelieving world right outside of those doors. And they need to see us upholding good doctrine and that doctrine being confirmed with signs following. Amen? 11th point, come to the prayer meeting because the prayer meeting is where unexpected things happen. We're wrapping up here, so follow me, everybody. The prayer meeting is where unexpected things happen. Look at verse 31. And when they had prayed, the place was, anybody tell me? Shaken, where they were assembled together. The place was shaken. I don't know what that would feel like. Please don't say that the place can only be shaken in the book of Acts and throughout the rest of church history, the place won't be shaken. We want the place to be shaken here. That could mean that God shakes us in conviction and he makes people come alive to serve him more. It could mean that he actually shakes the house. You know that that happened in the Congolese revival, 1953. The revival started to hit this part of the Congo. And the places where they were praying actually started to shake. We have eyewitness accounts of that. We have to expect the unexpected. Andrew Murray, anybody heard of Andrew Murray? He was a wonderful, wonderful devotional writer who lived in South Africa. And around 1860, he saw a revival come to South Africa. This is how it went down. Listen to this briefly. They were in a prayer meeting. Nothing much was happening. There was a slave woman who was seated in the back of the church. She never would have been allowed to pray in the prayer meeting. She became bold that day and asked, could I say one thing? The deacon had racism in his heart. And he said, I don't want to let her speak. And then the deacon said, but better thoughts overcame me. Where did that come from? God came to him and gave him better thoughts. And the deacon said, OK, tell us, sister, what do you have to say? This woman spoke. And they report that holy chaos broke out in that church in South Africa. People were flooding with conviction. People were hitting the floor. People were desiring more of God. People were crying out to him. And listen to this, everybody. Andrew Murray came into that room. And he said, stop, stop. I am your pastor. Stop. Listen to me. I am your minister. And he did not like what he was seeing. And he tried to stop the revival. Can you imagine that? Eventually, he got so frustrated because no one was listening to him, so he left the building. And one of his friends said, you know, Brother Murray, this sort of thing has happened in the Book of Acts. This sort of thing has happened before in the Church of God. Maybe you ought to embrace it. Maybe it is of God. And from there on, Andrew Murray started to embrace the revival. And Andrew Murray became one of the greatest revivalists ever. Do you all hear that? The prayer meeting is where we ought to expect unexpected things. We ought to hope for the Lord to break through in ways that we have not expected. Finally, the prayer meeting is where we get filled. Look at verse 31 one more time. When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And they spake the word of God with boldness. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Do you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Come to the prayer meeting. Do you know that there are two ways that God can fill us? He can fill us by direct impartation, where he just comes down and he fills you with his spirit. Or he can fill us by the laying on of hands, where we pray for each other and we say, Lord, fill them, please. Have you ever been to a Wednesday night prayer meeting and you leave and you say, I feel a lift in my soul. My burdens are lighter. I feel boldness. I feel strength to go on. That's what we want to cultivate on Wednesdays. Amen? That people would leave there saying, oh, I have more of God in my life right now. Let me end with two brief testimonies from the Asbury Revival, which happened just this year. And you know, when the Asbury Revival broke out, it was one of the greatest moments of my life because we just had a little baby boy. We just had Shiloh, and I was just full of joy. And then we hear that God is still willing to revive America, and he comes in Asbury, and he gives us hope. And it was just one of the greatest months of my life. It was so incredible, so incredible, the Asbury Revival. And I also wanted to travel there and get in the car, but Kiara was much smarter than me and said, we're staying at home, you fool, because we had a new baby. It was midway across the country. Listen to what happened to believers. The Asbury Revival started in a prayer meeting, and then the student said, you know, let's just stay. I'm going to skip my next class. Let's stay in the presence of God. Listen to what happened. A student named Mia Lush, she's 18 years old. You don't need to wait till you get older to seek God. Seek God right now. She's 18 years old, and she said this. The first couple of days, I just felt so much joy. When I'm singing, I just can't help but like my jaw hurts. My mouth hurts. I'm smiling ear to ear and just being filled with so much joy. And I never really liked praying out loud in front of people, but I just felt so bold in that praying for people and allowing God to use me just to speak through me to people for what they need to hear. Do any of you feel that? I don't like praying out loud. I don't want other people to hear my prayers. Come to the prayer meeting. Try it. Get filled with the Holy Ghost. We need it. We need to hear your prayers. Isn't that amazing? She said her jaw hurts because she was so happy just singing in joy to the Lord. One more from an anonymous man who is 19. I used to have really big shame about prayer. I never used to want to pray near people, pray out loud. I had a big shame about how I sounded when I prayed. I had to sound like this perfect pastor with these poetic words. Here at Asbury, Jesus just broke that shame of how I felt, and now Jesus says that I'm his beloved and that my purpose in this life is just to love him and praise him. Isn't that beautiful? Oh, I so desire that that happens in our prayer meetings, that we get free from our shame, that we come to have boldness before the face of the Lord. Amen? Here's my final plea to you all. Please prioritize the prayer meeting. If you've never come before, please come once at least. Please start coming once a month. Could that be a New Year's resolution for anyone here? Once a month, we'll take it. Twice a month, we'll take that too. Three times, four times, you're welcome. Come all the time. Please, church, let's be known as a church that prioritizes the prayer meeting. Amen? I praise you, Lord. I praise you for the book of Acts, Lord Jesus. I praise you, Lord, that you are still working in the ways you worked in the book of Acts. Lord, help no one here to ever say that the book of Acts is merely a transitional book. No, Lord, the book of Acts is the book about the church and about how your Holy Spirit is still working in the church, Lord. And we want to be like that. Lord, we want to see these things happen in our generation, please, Lord. So we pray right now, Lord, come. Come, Lord Jesus. Invade this place. Invade our hearts. Invade our fellowship, Lord. Invade our prayer meetings, Lord. Invade this place in the next month of December, Lord. Give us such an awareness of your presence, Lord. Help us to pray for our loved ones. Help us to call down heaven in our families, Lord. We bless your holy name. Amen.