2. Prayer

3. Matthew 21:13
‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘“My house will be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it “a den of robbers.”’

4. Acts 2:42-47

5. Acts 2:42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

6. “God had formed a core of people who wanted to pray, who believed that nothing was too big for him to handle… no matter how wild the city became in the late 70s – as cocaine arrived on top of heroin, and then crack cocaine on top of that – God could still change people and deliver them from evil… as long as people kept calling out for his blessing and help, he had fully committed himself to respond”.
Jim Cymbala
(Pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle
and author of “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”)

7. “They didn’t petition the government
“They didn’t petition the government. They didn’t wring their hands about how unfair this was. They didn’t complain about losing their freedom of speech, although they could have made a solid case that the Roman Empire, with its panoply of other gods, shouldn’t mind their speaking about the god named Jesus. The apostles could have done any number of things to sway public opinion. But to their minds this was not a political problem – it was spiritual. They quickly joined a meeting of believers and began to pray. They immediately turned to their primitive power source.”
Jim Cymbala
(Pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle
and author of “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire”)

8. Acts 4:23-26

9. Acts 4:23-26
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. ‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.”

10. Acts 4:27-30

11. Acts 4:27-30
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’

12. Acts 2:22-24
22 ‘Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

13. Acts 4:31-35

14. Acts 4:31
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

15. Acts 4:32
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

16. Acts 4:33
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all

17. Acts 4:34-35
34 that there was no needy person among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

18. Romans 12:2
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.
(The Message)

19.
Jim Cymbala (When God’s People Pray)

20. Prayer