The Church at Prayer, Part 1

Introduction to Corporate Prayer and its Definition

0:02 Now as we begin our seventh semester, or unit number seven in our pastoral theology course, you who are new with us perhaps will find it helpful to just glance at the abstract which lays out the eight units, or eight semesters, of pastoral theology. And I would urge you, if you are coming new to this course, to familiarize yourself with the overall content and outline of the course, so that when we say, well, that has been or shall be covered, God willing, in such and such a unit, you'll know that that's not an idle promise. And the point at which we find ourselves is on the second page of the abstract, PT 6 and 7, in which we are dealing with the work of oversight, government, and shepherding by the man of God in the pastoral office. And having covered a basic biblical description of the task in its essence, in governing disposition, we began to address the biblical categories of the task and are presently, under section one, those tasks which pertain to the corporate life of the people of God. And we have covered the many aspects of directives for ordering the corporate worship of God, and now in PT 7, our seventh unit, or seventh semester in sequence of pastoral theology, we take up, first of all,

1:29 directives for leading corporate meetings for prayer. And you will notice in your notes for today's lecture, by way of introduction, I have two concerns to address. First of all, definition. And I marvel that I could have caught through this aspect of our study five times and never given a definition of what I mean in the lecture by the term corporate prayer.

1:55 Now, by the use of the phrase, corporate meetings for prayer, I'm referring not to the corporate meetings of the church where prayer may, in part, be the activity of God's people, nor am I referring to circumstances in which several, or perhaps a group of brethren who happen to belong to a given assembly, may gather to pray, but I'm referring to those gatherings of the people of God as a body in which the express or dominant, the dominant purpose of their gathering is to pray. In other words, I'm referring exclusively in these concerns that we address today to the kind of gathering which is mirrored in a passage such as Acts 12, verse 12b. Acts 12 and verse 12b. You remember the situation? Persecution has been let loose upon the people of God.

2:56 James has been beheaded. Peter is imprisoned. And we read this, And when, that is he, Peter, having been released, had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. Now, they may have been doing something else, but it's evident from the text, as Luke describes it, that their gathering on that occasion was for this explicit purpose of praying.

3:27 That, of course, is indicated, even earlier in the passage, where we read that prayer was made by the church for him. So, by way of definition, in the terminology, corporate meetings for prayer, we're referring to those gatherings of the church which have as their explicit focus concern to engage in prayer. Now, justification. We're not talking here about the doctrine of justification, by faith, but I want to give a word justifying the whole matter of taking up such a subject and submitting it to critical analysis and to structured thought.

Justification for Studying Corporate Prayer

4:13 And I give as my justification this. As surely as God honoring public worship does not just happen, but is the result of biblical thinking, careful planning, and prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit so it is with God honoring meetings for corporate prayer. They won't just happen. Now, granted, there will be exceptional times when the Spirit of God may sovereignly fall upon a group of people and God may, in a very real sense, directly take over the prayer meeting.

4:51 And it's evident to everyone there's only one leader of the prayer meeting. But that's not the ordinary framework within which you will be called upon to be a leader of the prayer meeting. to be a leader of the prayer meeting. to be a leader of the prayer meeting.

4:59 to be a leader of the prayer meeting. to be a leader of God's people when they gather to pray. And therefore we must think through this subject right down to its biblical foundations and then act wisely in the grace and power of the Spirit to give clear, assertive guidance to our people with respect to their seasons of corporate prayer. And so my justification for doing this is that as in every other area of power, we approach it with the presupposition of 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

5:37 That the man of God is made complete and furnished completely to every good work by means of God-breathed Scripture. And therefore we must never set the ministry of the Holy Ghost in terms of Him being the dynamic and life of a prayer meeting against that activity of the Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In which He has revealed the mind of God in Holy Scripture. And ours is to give ourselves to critical analysis, to synthesize, and wisely to apply the data of Scripture to the issue of the church gathering to pray.

The Central Place of Corporate Prayer in the New Testament: Lord's Teaching

6:18 Now as we open up the subject today, we hope to do so under four headings. And these are given in your notes under the large letters A, B, C, and D. And we begin, with a broad overview of the central place of corporate prayer in the life of the New Testament church. Now in approaching the subject from an exclusive use of the New Testament, I'm in no way inferring that the Old Testament is not rich in materials relative to the duty and to the patterns of corporate prayer in the visible community of God's people.

6:59 Again, 2 Timothy 3, 16, immediately cuts the nerve of any notion that the Old Testament should not be used for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness with regard to the subject of corporate prayer. Both by historic example, prophetic pronouncement, and correctives, and by the peculiarly rich teaching in the book of Psalms, there is much Old Testament material on the subject of corporate prayer. When teaching and preaching on the subject, you will want to avail yourselves of those materials. However, for our course, time does not permit us to examine those Old Testament materials, but limit ourselves only to some of the New Testament data regarding the subject of corporate prayer. Now in an attempt to collate the biblical materials under this first heading, I have three divisions of the material, an overview of the central place of corporate prayer in the New Testament, first of all as seen in the teaching of our Lord, the life and experience of the Apostolic Church, and the directives of the Apostolic Letters. Now first of all, in the teaching of our Lord. Our Lord gave much recorded teaching concerning prayer in general.

8:20 However, our concern is to focus on that aspect which clearly treats corporate prayer in particular. Now, I trust that all of you men are fully aware that in the Gospel records we have only two explicit references to the Ekklesia, and they are found in the Gospel of Matthew. And Matthew 16 and Matthew 18 are nothing short of a veritable goldmine of fundamental ecclesiology. And you'll remember from your acquaintance with the Matthew 16 passage that there are these four dominant principles embedded in that section of the Bible, where Peter makes his great confession and our Lord says, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He teaches that Christ himself is the ultimate architect and builder of his church. I will build my church. Secondly, that Christ in his person and office as Messiah is the one true foundation of his church.

9:28 Thirdly, that Christ by his power will make his church triumphant. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And Christ by his authority commits the keys to the church with a special place to Peter in the exercise of those keys. You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

9:50 The gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I give unto you the keys of the kingdom. This is a principle embedded in the passage. Then when we come to the Matthew 18 passage, and here we'll want to actually look at the text, beginning in verse 15, we see that the church in the exercise of its authority, the authority of Christ himself, is the highest judicatory ordained by Jesus Christ. In the process of discipline, once the church has heard the issue, and the church has acted, there is no appeal to a higher court.

10:30 And our Lord says, that insofar as the church acts according to his word and under the tutelage of his spirit, the action of the church on earth is ratified in heaven, and there is no appeal system instituted by the Lord Jesus. But then secondly, the church in agreeing in corporate prayer is given an awesome position of influence. The passage begins with the church purging itself of the false disciple, or the temporarily, tragically lapsed disciple. But it ends with this tremendous emphasis of verses 19 and 20.

11:14 Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven for, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Here in this passage, the church in agreeing in corporate prayer is given an awesome position of influence. And thirdly, we learn from this passage, the church in its corporate identity and function is given the pledge of the special presence of Christ. And as Professor Murray has underscored in his marvelous sermon on Christ in the presence of his gathered people, he envisions a situation where his people have been so reduced that the duly constituted assembly is just two or three, but it's Christ's presence that is pledged to his people. Now what is significant in all of this is that our Lord envisions his church, now bring the light and the overtones of Matthew 16 to bear on the Matthew 18 passage. Our Lord envisions his church invested with the keys of the kingdom, graced with the promise and the reality of his spiritual presence, carrying out its indefectible mission. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,

12:43 only in the context of a constant symphony of corporate prayer. All that he says of the church in her triumphs, in her awesome stewardship of the keys, he envisions that church as a church in which its members are agreeing together as touching the things that they ask. The church that Jesus builds, the church to which he commits the keys, in which he dwells, is not one that is invincible in the power of human ingenuity, human talent and human resources. Rather it is one invincible in the power of God given to it in answer to its corporate prayers. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching what they ask, it shall be done of my Father who is in heaven. So in the teaching of our Lord, though the teaching given in Matthew 16 and 18 is seminal and not exhaustive, this issue of the church as a gathering of those who are agreeing in prayer, that emphasis is a central line of revealed truth from the lips of our Lord Jesus. And if that is so, then we should expect that as the church begins to emerge

The Central Place of Corporate Prayer in the New Testament: Apostolic Church

14:10 in the account given of that emergence in the book of Acts, that these who are implementing and carrying out into the life of the new covenant community the perspectives of their Lord, that corporate prayers should have the place we are led to believe it will have in that prophetic utterance of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 18. And we are not at all disappointed. And these are some of the specimen texts that I have listed for you. In Acts chapter 1 we are told that when the Lord Jesus has reiterated the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit, being assembled together with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, which said He, you have heard from Him, for John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. It doesn't say that He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem but to engage in an extensive season of corporate prayer. He simply told them, don't depart from Jerusalem. Ties in with the latter verses of Luke chapter 24.

15:21 You are to tarry, you are to wait. Not the old Pentecostal use of the passage, to have a tarrying meeting, but the word simply means you are to wait at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. And you look in vain for any direct command to spend that time waiting in corporate prayer. But they had come to learn from their Lord that the promises that God makes to His people are to be validated in the experience of His people as they make those very promises the platform on which they plead with God to give them what He has promised.

15:57 So that without any record of any explicit direction from the Lord Jesus, that the non-departure from Jerusalem and the waiting, the tarrying is to be marked by prayer. Yet we read in verse 12 of Acts 1, Then returned they unto Jerusalem for the mount called Olivet, which is near to Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey off. And when they were come in, they went up into the upper chamber where they were abiding, both Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip, et cetera. Verse 14, These all, now see the overtones of Matthew 18, with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brethren. Now from the latter part of Luke 24, we know that some of their time was spent in the temple praising and blessing God. They weren't there just fasting and praying 24 hours a day. We must let Scripture be consistent with itself, but according to Luke's account here, and obviously having written the Gospel of Luke in the book of Acts, he would not be contradicting himself.

17:10 Though there were periods of time spent in joyous abandonment of worship at the temple, the bulk of their time when they came back to the place where they were gathering was time given in one accord prayer unto God. And then in Acts 1.24, as they are praying and they become aware that there is a Scripture that awaits fulfillment and demands action with respect to that fulfillment, what do they do? You remember the account of how they glean from the Scriptures that there should be the recognition of a replacement for Judas who has gone to his place, and what do they do?

17:52 Well, after deliberating in the light of the Scripture and in the light of the revealed standard for the requirements for an apostle, verse 24, and they prayed and said, and it was in the crucible of their corporate prayers that they are guided in the decision that is made. Likewise, in Acts 2.42, no sooner do we have the description of this tremendous outpouring of the Spirit of God in this in-gathering on the day of Pentecost, but Luke, looking back, thirty years after the fact, can say of those who were incorporated into the church, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And while there is some debate about what precisely the prayers were, did they continue to keep the stated seasons of prayer, in the Jewish framework of things, and now Christianize that framework? We can't be certain, but one thing is clear. As surely as they continued steadfastly cleaving to apostolic instruction, to fellowship, whether that refers primarily to their interaction one with another or the more technical sense of fellowship, sharing of goods and possessions, in the breaking of bread, the technical term for the remembrance of the Lord's Supper,

19:22 this much is clear. Corporate prayer was not a blister on their life. It was part of the nerve centers of the life of the apostolic church there at Jerusalem. And then when we come to Acts chapter 4, after that first major crisis of opposition, we read that when these men are threatened, they being let go, verse 23, came to their own company.

19:53 And there the translators find the difficulty. You have ibyous. They came to their own. And that's the standard word to speak of personal possession all the way through the New Testament.

20:05 You look up in your Englishman's Greek concordance and you'll find dozens of uses of it. They came to their own. Well, was it their own, that is the company of the apostles, or was it their own, a larger segment of the people, of God? We can't be certain from the words used, from the context, but this much is clear.

20:26 That these two didn't go off and have their own devotions and pray about the matter, nor did the two of them just go off as having a peculiar bond of this first open persecution and have a prayer meeting with just the two of them. There was some expression of the unique power of corporate prayer. And they come to their own. And then this amazing description and they, when they heard it, a report of what happened, verse 24, lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, and it always fascinates me, how in the world did this group, whether it was 12 or whether it was a larger company of the people of God, how did they lift up their voice?

21:11 Not voice says. They lifted up their voice. They lifted up their voice. Not voice says.

21:20 Voice, singular. How does a group have a singular voice? When there is this symphony of heart agreement and one after another becomes the mouthpiece of that assembly. It is their voice.

21:36 It is the voice of the company gathered in one accord who are agreeing on earth as touching what they ask. And you know how God responded to this. The Lord in essence said, I'm so pleased with what you're doing, I'll shake the place in affirmation of who I am and in my mighty power I'm the God who shakes and I can shake any institution or group of men that oppose you. They receive a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit and they speak the word of God with boldness.

22:09 Corporate prayer. They knew was their grand weapon as they faced their first clear, open opposition. And then the incident we've already referred to in Acts chapter 12. When key leaders are targeted for extinction, extermination.

22:30 James has been killed. Peter is seized. They're waiting to put him to death. And what does the church do?

22:37 Verse 5. Peter therefore was kept in prison but groups of people made petitions to Herod. No. Prayer was made earnestly of the church unto God for him.

22:54 And it's evident that whatever this may imply as individual believers privately and in family times interceding the subsequent context indicates that there were dimensions of unmistakable corporate commitment to plead with God on behalf of Peter. So in the light of this sampling of the picture of the life and experience of the apostolic church, the words of Bannerman on page 354. This is Douglas Bannerman in his classic work on the church. He writes, The inner life of the church after the ascension of her Lord went on as it had begun in an atmosphere of prayer and praise. From the opening scene of the hundred and twenty in the upper chamber all with one accord continuing steadfastly in prayer to the closing scene in this section of the history where we see many gathered together in the house of Mary praying the voice of united prayer rises continually in the apostolic church. It is the unfailing resource in every difficulty and emergency in the church's affairs in the choice of an apostle Acts 1 in the training of young converts Acts 2 in the appointment of the seven Acts 6 in the consolidation of the church

24:22 among the Samaritans for the success of the apostles' ministry in Jerusalem when Peter and John are forbidden by the Sanhedrin to speak in the name of Jesus when Peter is lying in Herod's prison to be put to death on the morrow. Only a few fragments of these prayers are recorded but they are enough to give us some idea of their general character. They are simple, fervent utterances breathing the Old Testament spirit of reverence and faith combining direct petition with adoration and thanksgiving. That's page 354 of Douglas Bannerman.

The Central Place of Corporate Prayer in the New Testament: Apostolic Letters

25:00 A broad range from corporate prayer focused on a general promise you're to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father corporate prayer fastens upon the promise a general promise to a fixed pattern of seasons of prayer Acts 2 they continued steadfastly in the prayers to occasional corporate prayer meetings precipitated by a crisis Acts 4 Acts 12 to an integral part of the common life of the church corporate prayer was an essential element of the apostolic church as it emerges under the guidance of inspired apostles and with this unusual measure of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But then the central place of corporate prayer is seen not only in the teaching of our Lord the life and experience of the apostolic church but thirdly in the directive of the apostolic letters. Now some of us were converted many years before the truth dawned upon us that the Bible was not a bunch of God breathed material given to us so we could have our private devotions. We grew up in settings where the whole concept of the centrality of the church as the steward of the covenant documents

26:28 as the receptor of the letters and instruction I mean it just didn't enter our sphere of reference. And then one day in various ways through various means it dawned upon us Romans was not a letter that God inspired to be written by the Apostle Paul so that I might have a heartwarming document for my private devotions. Now that certainly is one of its purposes but it was a letter to a real church in a real place with real concerns and real involvement with the church in the first century carrying out the mandate of our Lord. And when we begin to understand that and realize that almost every injunction with respect to prayer comes in a letter to a church or to churches comes in the second person plural. Then unless context presses us otherwise we dare not look at those passages taken out of the context of the church obeying the passages as church. And that revolutionized my whole thinking about the matter of corporate prayer when I began to go back through and read the epistles in that light. Now we have just a specimen of the text listed here Romans 12 and verse 12.

27:48 And what are we told in this particular passage? In a setting remember where the corporate life of the people of God is very much in the apostle's mind. Verse 10 In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another in honor preferring one another. You don't do that in isolation.

28:07 You do that in living interaction with the other members of the body. Rejoicing in hope patient in tribulation continuing steadfastly in prayer look at verse 13 communicating to the necessities of the saints given to hospitality. Paul is very much conscious that he is writing to an entity called the people of God at Rome. And when he says continuing steadfastly in prayer while we be fools to say that does not bind the conscience of the individual believer to be steadfast in his own private devotional exercises of prayer we dare not strip it of its dominant exegetical contextual emphasis which is the church in which people are sensitive to one another communicate one to another as church they continue steadfastly in their prayers. Likewise when we come to Ephesians chapter 6 in the well-known words where the apostle having laid out the armor that the people of God have in Christ and with which they are continually by faith to have themselves accoutred for battle standing over all of this and that with which we as it were engage aggressively in spiritual warfare with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and on my behalf that utterance

29:37 may be given me what is he doing? He's given directions primarily for the corporate prayers of the people of God when they pray for the people of God when they pray for the people of God when they pray for the people of God when they pray for the apostle these are the concerns that are to fill their hearts and by means of all kinds of prayers to plead that these petitions be granted on behalf of the servant of God ministering the word of God and we go right through with all of these other passages I'll not weary you with them but I would urge you to reflect upon them in the light of this because as I've noted at the last text this is a person plural and because they are almost without exception and I've quoted not from epistles sent to individuals and it's interesting when Paul writes to an individual called Timothy and he's given directions for what should dominate the corporate life of God's people what does he say is at the head of the list? I exhort therefore first of all let prayers supplication intercession giving of thanks be made for all men talking about individual closet prayers for he says these things I write hoping to come and do shortly but that men may know how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God which is the church of the living God pillar and ground of the truth

31:07 so though he's writing to an individual he's writing to one who has unique responsibility in shaping the contours of the life and ministry of the churches at Ephesus and he says at the top of the list is corporate prayer for these concerns that I lay before you and so I say brethren it's a straining of the natural sense and setting of these texts to see them in any other predominant light predominant light than that of directives for the corporate prayer of the church in summary if prayer corporate prayer holds such a central place in the corporate life of the church as designed and directed by its head the Lord Jesus then it is by those appointed to carry out his will in establishing the life of his church on earth the apostles both their example in Acts their instruction in the epistles then surely the work of oversight must be concerned with implementing these directives and imbibing the spirit of this emphasis now as I've already alluded if God pours out of his spirit in sovereign and copious power he always comes as the spirit of grace and supplication and individuals and groups of people can do nothing other than pray and may God

32:36 grant us to live to see such things in our own experience but should we not see them our duty is nonetheless clear and should we see them our duty will be more clear than ever so we must continue to discern the power of God and what God has for us in our discipline in our practice with God in our church you'd never need the principles more than if God should visit in that way. So no matter how you cut it, if we live out our days in the more ordinary,

Introduction to Principles Regulating Corporate Prayer

33:34 stalactite, stalactite, stalagmite, work of the Spirit of God, or whether we witness an unusual, cataclysmic intrusion of God, brethren, we need to be furnished unto every good work. We need by Scripture and good judgment to be prepared to guide the church in its corporate seasons of prayer. Well, now we come to large letter B, the major principles conditioning and regulating corporate prayer. The major principles conditioning and regulating corporate prayer.

34:08 Now, in introducing this section of our study, I'm assuming that serious, prayerful preparation will precede your coming on any occasion to lead the people of God at prayer. And here, I quote, I quote from both Hoppin and Thomas Murphy from the articles that you have now before you, and you will have these remarks plus others to refer to. On page 348,

34:37 and this is from Hoppin, but in regard to the meeting itself, so much depends upon the pastor for its right conduct that he, above others, should be prepared in his own mind and heart and should not approach it with a cold, preoccupied mind, for an unspiritual leader kills the life of the prayer meeting. There is an intellectual preparation which he should make in his selection of the passage of Scripture, the hymns, the theme of prayer and contemplation, and the general direction to be given to the meeting which lend it interest, aim, and depth. You do well to put those three little words as pegs. The way I've sought to plan, the prayer meeting, will it be conducive to interest, aim, and depth. Three simple little words, but they contain a wealth of helpful perspectives. And then, from Murphy, on page 302, in his section dealing with the pastor and his responsibility with respect to prayer meetings, he makes these very perceptive comments. The piety and usefulness of the church, are most intimately connected with its prayer meetings.

35:58 Whether as cause or effect, it is found that the degree of the one is always in proportion to the interest manifested in the other. Piety, usefulness. Those are the two commodities. Whether as cause or effect, it is found that the degree of the one, that is, piety or usefulness, is always in proportion to the interest of the other.

36:24 piety or usefulness. is always in proportion to the interest of the other. If there is great usefulness, prayer will be the nexus. Piety will lead to usefulness.

36:34 It will therefore be seen at once that this is a subject which claims the most careful attention of the pastor. It is one which he must not only study, but carry out into practice from the first to the last day of his ministry. Everything demands of him that it should be made most prominent in the church. Thought and practice.

37:00 And yet I think the average pastor whose church gathers for regular seasons of prayer would admit that he gives the least amount of thought to the prayer meeting.

37:12 Wise Thomas Murphy is saying, no, it must be prominent in thought and practice. The interests of the church are so vitally connected with its prayer meetings that the question of how they can be conducted so as to be made the most profitable is one which the pastor should carefully examine. Very much of the life and attractiveness and advantage of such meetings depends upon the mode in which they are conducted. They may be made so slow and cold and dull as to be positively repulsive.

37:44 And some of us have attended such prayer meetings. Or they may be made so full of joyous animation as to prove the happy hours of the week. This is happy hours before they had happy hours in the local bars. Great stress should be laid on this point and it should receive earnest attention.

38:02 It is deemed of so much importance that we should go into considerable detail concerning it. You see, you read the old masters on pastoral theology and they always had their chapters on your pulpit prayers and on leading prayer meetings. The modern gurus, for the most part, they pass over it. I've had to dig into the old wells to get the material to validate what increasingly I see in my body.

Principle 1: Predominant Focus on Kingdom Concerns

38:27 Well, then, with that introduction, what are the major principles conditioning and regulating corporate prayer? Well, I've listed the first one. And the first is that the vital concerns of the kingdom of God should be the predominant focus of corporate prayer. The vital concerns of the kingdom of God should be the predominating focus of corporate prayer.

38:54 I didn't say the exclusive substance. Of corporate prayer, but the predominant focus. The initial promise of Matthew 18 is in the context of the exercise of church discipline. The keys of the kingdom being used with respect to the peace and purity of the church militant.

39:18 Then, as we trace out the examples left us of corporate prayer in the book of Acts and the exhortations in the epistles, the same perception and perspective predominates and comes to its heightened expression in a passage such as 1 Timothy 2, 1-4. I will that prayer, supplication, intercessions, giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and rulers and those in authority. To what end? That the gospel may progress in any given generation.

39:49 It's the great concerns of the kingdom that Timothy is to impose upon the practice of the prayer meeting at Ephesus. And he's to impose them by apostolic authority. And he's not to allow the people to dictate the focus of the prayers any more than he's to allow them to dictate the focus of the preaching. When Titus reads these things command and teach with all authority let no man despise thee.

40:20 When Timothy is told these things instruct he's not at liberty to find a consensus among the people well what let me tell you what we feel we need and you bend to our whims. Well as surely as no man of God will do that with regard to the substance and direction of his preaching. Yes he seeks to keep an ear to the ground as it were to know what needs are there but at the end of the day it is the word of God that shapes and molds the emphases of his preaching. So it is with the corporate gatherings for prayer.

40:53 We must never forget that remaining corruption is so powerful that it will turn the most sacred privileges into sacrilege. James 4 in verse 3 he says you have not why? Because you ask not you ask and receive not why? Because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust.

41:16 Prayer becomes a means of a gimme game with God. That's what James says and he says such prayers will not be heard. The great complaint of the prophet in Isaiah 58 all the institutions of God that were certainly in place even to fasting and keeping their feast days but they had all been turned inward and were a means of seeking to fulfill their own selfish ambitions and the prophet had to say no no stop this nonsense let your soul be drawn out to the needy and to the hungry then shall your light rise out of the darkness and your obscurity will be like the noon day. As an overseer you must not allow prayer meetings to deject into sessions of corporate whining to God for a multiplicity of petty concerns and the remaining sin in your people will take it there if you let them and some of us have seen prayer meetings that were there as I mentioned Wednesday night but you don't get that in place once for all and then you sit back and say we got that no no just as surely as you don't do that in your own sanctification but the flesh is continually warring against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two contrary to one to the other and the other and the other so that we may not do the things that we would as the church is light and salt a caring sharing community in pursuit of holiness and the advancement

Principle 2: Specificity Based on Church Circumstances

42:45 of Christ's kingdom this ought to be manifested in its prayers as it is a community of those who are denying self taking up the cross daily and following after Christ so that ought to be reflected in her prayers and therefore we should never be embarrassed that the ethos of our prayer meetings reflects the contours of the prayer that our Lord taught his disciples to pray after this manner pray ye when you pray say our Father who art in the heavens hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done in earth as it is in heaven yes our bread and our sins have their proper place but the overarching predominant concern is to be the advancement of the kingdom of Christ but then the second principle letter and I mean number two the peculiar circumstances of each church should regulate the specifics of corporate prayer we're moving now from the generic the vital concerns of the kingdom of God predominant to the peculiar circumstances of each church that will regulate the specifics of corporate prayer there are some things in which the church should regulate the specifics of corporate prayer there are some things in which the prayers of all the churches will share the broad concerns of the kingdom will be identical but in the application to particulars no two churches

44:14 ought to have prayer meetings that are mirror images of one another and I've tried to be pastorally specific here letter A the ordinary or standing concerns of the individual church when the church gathers to pray it ought to pray concerning the blessing of God upon its other gatherings its stated services its regular ministries of outreach and evangelism its missionary commitments its special ministries if a church has an extensive tape ministry if it has men on its staff men in the eldership and men in the life of the church who have other doors of opportunity those are stewardships of the entire church that ought to find expression in the corporate prayers the spiritual growth and health of the church should be regulated by the spiritual growth and health of the assembly the unconverted those under unusual affliction sister churches with whom we have peculiarly intimate ties the ordinary or standing concerns of the church certainly ought to be part of the specifics of our corporate prayer but then we learn from scripture that the extraordinary or the crisis concerns the crisis that may come in leadership a crisis in political matters first timothy two a crisis in the health of some of its members a crisis that may touch an internal doctrinal

45:44 deviation a major moral crisis in the life of the church a crisis with respect to the physical properties economic concerns in the life of the church some of the most blessed seasons of prayer we've known in the history of the church with matters of brick and mortar back when we had no building no land we had a prayer meeting every Saturday morning this present Saturday morning prayer meeting that we'll gather at tomorrow is the extension and perpetuation of what started many many years ago about twenty years ago and we were still in the cracker box and we had no prospect of land no prospect of a building He cried to God. And we had a week where I preached all week. It was a week of prayer. And I'll never forget, preaching out of 2 Chronicles 20, opening up the principles there.

46:46 We know not what to do, but our eyes are upon you. And meanwhile, while we're crying to God, we continue to keep kingdom concerns central in our regular Wednesday prayer meeting and giving away money to other people to help build their buildings like a drunken sailor. People saying, you're crazy. You've got no building fund.

47:03 I said, no. The Bible says, withhold not good from them to whom it is due. When it is in the power of thy hand to do it, say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and tomorrow I will give you when you have it by you. We've got it by us, but we've got no land to buy.

47:15 We've got no building to erect. When it's time for us to buy land, buy a building, God will not be our debtor. And we gave away tens of thousands of dollars to others, and we didn't have a dime in a building fund. And we were told we were crazy.

47:27 Now I'd like to take some of those people by the hand and say, explain all of this.

47:32 Explain it. Not a dime owed on it. Two. Two years from the time Phase II was built, not a penny owed to a soul on the face of the earth.

47:42 Where'd it come from? Praying. Yeah, but what practical thing you do. We'd have a contractor's bill coming due, $54,000, no money for it.

47:51 We'd call an extra prayer meeting. We didn't go tapping anybody's purse strings. And we didn't call in the expert fundraisers. We had them banging on our door, wanting to come.

48:01 We prayed, and we asked God. And God gathered His people. And they prayed. And now you're sitting in the fruit of their prayers.

48:10 That was a crisis.

48:13 That's why I said, Wednesday night, I've toyed with the idea, if we could only have good moral grounds to do it. Liquidate all your properties every 25 years. And the people in the business start meeting in the school again, and then have to have their prayer meetings, and be willing to hock themselves and everything but their wives and kids. Just put feet to their own prayers.

48:33 There's something that goes into your spiritual bloodstream that is very, very healthy.

48:39 But that's what I said. That's what I said. That's what I said. That's what I said.

48:40 That's what I mean by extraordinary or crisis concerns. And as the work grows, more and more careful planning must go into the structure of the seasons of prayer to ensure comprehensiveness and sensitivity to these various things. And that's why it would be wrong for anyone who leaves this place to structure the prayer meeting where you go exactly the way it's structured here. Or for us to think that we've got a certain structure and we must adhere to it until the Lord comes.

49:08 The Reformed Church is the Reformed Church. And therefore, it's these biblical principles that must constantly be brought forward and we must analyze and assess and prayerfully and carefully consider whether or not we are giving the most adequate expression to those principles. Well, we've covered the peculiar circumstances and I listed them all out this way hoping that when you actually get in the situation where you have to do it and you're wondering, what should I include? This will be your little checklist and you may even want to use it to fill in the particular circumstances and the particulars of the situation in which God has put you.

Principle 3: God-Ordained Structures of Leadership

49:44 But then thirdly, the God-ordained structures of leadership should be evident in corporate prayer. Let me state it this way. If ever, if ever, a church in its corporate life is to show its identity as the new covenant community in joyful submission to Jesus Christ, its Lord and Savior, it's when that community is engaged in direct address to its God. If ever you're going to show hearty embracing of the revealed will of God, it's when you're coming into the immediate presence of God to seek the blessing of God.

50:26 And therefore, the structures established by God are not negated by the intensity of the spirituality of the exercise of prayer, but the obligation to respect them is heightened. And therefore, as I've gotten specific, the male-female relationship, it is not in the context of generic consideration of those roles that Paul says in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 8, I will then that tus andrus, andrus, that the men pray in every place, that the males in the assembly take the lead in prayer, having established the assembly of God, the assembly of God, the assembly of God, the assembly of God, the assembly of God, the centrality of corporate prayer, the dominant concerns of the kingdom and the advancement of the kingdom in the earth in the opening verses when he comes to particular pastoral directives, he says, I will therefore, in the light of these things, that surely when the church prays, it reflects its hearty submission to God-ordained structures of leadership in the male-female relationship, and then secondly, in the old-men-young-men relationship. 1 Peter 5.5 All of you be clothed with humility. You younger be subject to the elder.

51:50 And we must seek to cultivate a climate in which our older men realize they have a stewardship of setting an example of how to be the mouthpiece of God in public prayer unto optimum edification. They should reflect the years of soaking their minds in their Bibles, of experience in public prayer meetings. Of pastoral input helping to refine and shape and perfect their ability to lead the people of God unto edification. And we ought not to have a situation where zealous young Turks take over a prayer meeting and older, mature men are prayed down and don't get an opportunity to open their mouths and to lead in prayer. And then likewise, with regard to the mature and the immature relationship, Romans 12.3 and 4, I say to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think so as to think soberly, according as God has dealt to each man a measure of faith. And here's where pastoral input is needed.

52:57 You may have an immature, zealous young man who want to take over the prayer meeting and pray two or three times and pray five minutes of a lick. Well, you've got to lovingly say, we appreciate your zeal, my brother. However, you are a neophyte and your prayers are still half full of yourself. And the Holy Ghost has got a lot of refining yet to do in you.

53:19 I advise you to keep your prayer to two minutes and pray just once in the prayer meeting and help him to come to a more sober assessment of where he is in his overall maturity. And then the measure of gift relationship. 1 Corinthians 12.4-7 The principles in this passage are critical when it comes to our public prayer meetings, our corporate prayer meetings.

53:41 Diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. Diversities of ministrations, the same Lord. Diversities of workings, but the same God who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit with all.

53:58 We'd be hard-pressed to say there is a distinctive gift identified in the New Testament as the gift of edifying public prayer. But just as you'd be hard-pressed to prove that exegetically, you'd be hard-pressed to, negate what you know viscerally and existentially that some men can pray better than others.

54:19 And when some men open their mouths to pray, you're on the edge of your seat knowing your heart's going to be drawn out. There's going to be Scripture. There's going to be wrestling with God. Well, that brother has been given a measure of, if not gift, combination of graces to be a greater instrument of corporate edification in his public prayers.

54:42 And we've got to recognize that and those God-ordained structures should be evident in corporate prayers. You mean you're actually saying you might take a brother aside and say, look, the first two minutes of your prayers are really edifying, but then you just kind of go back over the same track and rework the same path and the last three minutes, brother, I'd advise you to stop after two minutes and you'll still have the hearts of the people. Sure. Sure you should do that.

55:09 And when you get a dear brother who fills in every blank thought in his head, with dear Lord, you may have to go to him. As I've gone to people and said, now, brother, I've counted the times in the last two prayer meetings when you've prayed and you've used the term dear Father. Do you know you used it 17 times a week ago and 13 times tonight? You say, you're so unspiritual as to sit there counting?

55:31 Yeah, because my motive is not to nitpick, but to help this brother be an instrument of greater edification in his public prayers.

55:41 You see, and may I say this reverently, and if the, if the Holy Ghost were to come down in an unusual outpouring of his presence, what would happen to that brother? He'd still be proliferating in his excessive use of the name of God. He'd even be doing it more because now he's under a more heightened afflatus. So, hands-on, loving, pastoral input in this can't be avoided if you're committed to optimum edification in the public gatherings of the people of God for prayer.

56:12 Someone prays with unusual unction on a given night? Seek out that brother. I've done this many times over the years. Brother, were you conscious of particular help when you prayed tonight?

56:22 Well, Pastor, I really was. Well, I was conscious of it too. Do you see any connection between what happened tonight and the fact of that? Well, to be honest with you, I do.

56:32 This is what I've begun to do in my devotions. I, on a Wednesday especially, I've asked the Lord to give me something from my own devotions that can be turned into arguments or a platform of praise in the prayer meeting tonight. And I'm trying to lock in more of what I get in my Bible alone with God with what comes out of my mouth. And then you say, God, that's evident.

56:52 Let me encourage you to keep on doing that, brother. You encourage that, brother. The person who's not generally known, you don't recognize his voice and you sense that he stumblingly took the grand leap and you knew he was scared to death and nervous and feel he blew it. You go after prayer and put your arm on his shoulder and you say, Brother, it was so good to hear your voice.

57:14 Let me encourage you to give it another try. You don't correct that poor brother the first time. You bury him. But you come along and you encourage him.

57:24 You reflect the disposition that we heard of in the previous hour. Speaking that appropriate word to the one that is weary.

57:33 So the God-ordained structures must be respected in our corporate prayers and this whole matter of the gift issue is one that we must be sensitive to and in our pastoral ways seek to implement those concerns.