Restless Ones - Pueblo Incense House of Prayer
A production of the Pueblo Incense House of Prayer. Our mission is to help normal believers sustain a life of worship and prayer by exploring what the scriptures say about the urgency of the hour we live in as well as how to grow in intimacy with God.
Restless Ones - Pueblo Incense House of Prayer
Conversation: The Early Church's Rhythm of Prayer
In this follow-up conversation, Zac and Brennan dive deeper into the teaching on the early church’s rhythm of prayer. Together we reflect on how the stories in Acts connect to our lives today—what it means to live with prayer at the center, how united prayer strengthens communities, and why the early church’s example still speaks so powerfully to us.
We share takeaways, wrestle with practical questions, and talk about how a lifestyle of prayer can move from being an idea we admire to a reality we live. If you want to hear the heart behind the teaching and join in on a dialogue about what God is saying to us through it, this conversation will draw you in.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:All righty, well, welcome to the Restless Ones podcast. Probably not used to this format where we're talking directly to you, but we're starting something new. Trying this out where we're going to give a teaching like we do on Friday nights, and then we're going to discuss it. We got both of us got the notes in our hands here. We're going to kind of just go over what you taught Zach on Friday night, which title is The Early Church's Rhythm of Prayer. I love what we're talking about today. It's very foundational to who we are, what we do as a house of prayer, talking through early church, the upper room acts to all that good stuff. So, I want to kick us off here. In the first paragraph, I have underlined it right here. He said, the disciples chose active, expectant pursuit over passive waiting. And I feel like that's a huge point for the prayer movement in general, and for really anyone who prays, because we see God promises the disciples, like, I will send you the Holy Spirit. It's like, sweet. That promise is in the bank. We've got it. But then what they choose to do, you point out here, is they don't choose to just, all right, let's just go about our merry lives, live life as usual, whatever life as usual would look like for them at that point, but they choose instead, like, hey, we've got this promise. Let's pray it in. Let's get together. Let's pray. Let's worship. Let's be together. And let's not just passively sit back and wait, but instead let's reach for God and reach for the promise that he's given us. And I think that's so key because as intercessors, that's what we do, right? We take the promises that God's given in his word and we go, hey, let's not just passively wait. Like, let's go after it. Let's reach for it in the place of prayer. And I think, that's a mindset we have to have as a praying community is we're not just ones who read the promises of the Bible or read, like get prophetic words or whatever it may be and say, great, we'll wait for God to do that. Our whole purpose is we see the promise and we say, yeah, let's agree with it. Let's go after that together.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. I think, um, There's such a... There can be such an easy, like... I don't know what to call it, a cultural pattern within Christianity where we know the Bible verses and we're like, okay, God's going to do stuff. And we're just like these participants in what he's doing. Like it just had life sort of happens to us. And so many of the things in the scriptures that we see that God has called us to, even like here in our prayer room, when we're praying a line verses over our hearts, like truths about our identity or the way we're called to walk we're like well God will form that in me somehow and there's this there's this degree of partnership that sort of feels like a bit of a gray area like not defined like even with what he says to the apostles he's like hang out in the city until you get power from on high like he doesn't actively say go to the upper room and pray and have a fiery prayer meeting but they hang out in the city and they wait and they gather together expectantly in prayer and like we're going to we're going to pull on that promise. We know the promise is coming. So we're going to pull on it instead of wait for just stuff to happen to us. And so I think that within that, there's some Liberty for us. When we get those prophetic words that you're talking about, when we have even a prayer request that we know is like bought and paid for in the scriptures already, like we can go after those things with zeal and with active, like longing until we see the promise because we know it's supposed to come. And so, um, When I think about them having just seen their best friend die, resurrect, and then ascend, they see it all, which is crazy to think about. And now he's like, okay, stay in the city because you're about to get clothed with power. So in their minds, they're automatically thinking the power that we've just seen, like resurrection power, like dead things now coming to life. And so I can't imagine... that like anticipation, those 10 days in the upper room, what it was like, like what were the prayers like? What were the bold statements that are being made to one another and that were provoking to one another? And I want to be in that prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like honestly.
SPEAKER_00:For real. I feel like we forget so often that the disciples were human.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like it's just kind of words we read, but if you really sit down and think about it and think through like all that they're feeling, I mean, the insane emotions they've just gone through of we think Jesus is the Messiah. He dies. What did we just do? Our life is a waste. Like what on earth? He gets raised from the dead. Holy cow. Like he's God. This is insane. 40 days he's teaching them. And then he gets raised up into heaven before their eyes. Like that's crazy, like whiplash to go through. And I love that prayer is where they go. Prayer is the place that they turn to. Prayer together. worship together. I think that was one of the main themes as well as the togetherness of it, of how they chose to not just go their separate ways. Like they could have done that too. He just said, wait in Jerusalem, they could have all gone their own ways. But something I feel like from the teaching of Jesus throughout their lives told them when you're in this sort of situation, their instinct is we should be together and we should be praying, worshiping God. And I think that's so beautiful. I think that's a key element insight we can see into like how Jesus taught them, the way he discipled them, what he taught them to do. If their first instinct was let's pray.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And you, I think you touched on that as well when you were mentioning like acts four, um, again, uh, yeah. Share a little bit of that story and like their instinct as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So Peter and John and they are going to the temple together. Like there's the togetherness to pray again. And on the way there, they run into this lame beggar, it says. Guy who can't walk. He's begging for some money. And they're like, hey, we don't have money. But in the name of Jesus, like stand up and walk. So he gets healed. And so the religious leaders come up to him, come up to them. And they're like, what just happened? They're like, you're preaching Jesus. And long story short, they get forcefully apprehended, put in prison. and overnight and then they're let go and they're like well we can't really do anything with him because this guy just got healed so what do we do so they let him go and then they go back to their friends immediately and they don't have the strategy meeting like okay if we're gonna preach jesus and operate in the power that we just got baptized with like they're they don't try to game plan what to do they simply have a prayer meeting and they open the bible like and and they pray Psalm 2 together. They pray a biblical prayer together, and then God shows up. Like, they all lift their voices. God shakes the place where they're gathered, and they get filled again with the Spirit, and they've got even more confidence to do what just got them in trouble. And so there's something significant about that gathering together, and it's a part of the rhythm that brings, I think, God's power, that expectancy. And look, it's just such a practical note. Like, you just don't know, like, the emotions. Like, what were Peter and John feeling? What were the other apostles feeling in that moment? Were they all filled with zeal? Were some scared? You don't really know where they were at, but what we know for sure is together as they prayed, God showed up. And when that happens, everybody is ready to go. Like in those prayer meetings when it feels like God is in the room, we're all ready to go. And if I was dull and bored five minutes ago, then the person who just prayed on the mic, usually John, It's usually stirring me like, oh my gosh, I need to pray like that. So I just wonder, like, you know, we don't get those little details in the pages of scripture, but I think that there's probably some reality to it. Um, or even back to the, like before Pentecost and before the spirit fell and they were filled with power, like, were they all excited and filled with zeal to go preach right away? I don't know. Like, were they, were they eager to go do that? And maybe it was really hard for them to wait. Those little details, I just feel like we don't know. But what I do know is the expectation and the partnership and agreement and the place of prayer together had to be stirring one another and had to be feeling each other.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I agree. I know even for myself so many times being in a prayer meeting, like when I hear someone else reach for God, when it's like God comes in the room because of their prayer, their chorus, their song, whatever it may be, like when I see that and experience that, like I know it fills me with so much faith. It stirs me with boldness or like the ability to reach for God better, like whatever it may be. in the moment but I think that's such a key part of why we do it together is because like you see here like I feel like what you're saying is probably true like some of them they're probably a bunch of different spectrum of emotions and what they were feeling and thinking in these moments before Pentecost and after Peter and John are arrested and I feel like the fact that they all come together it allows them to feed off of the faith of those in the room that do have faith or do have boldness and so I think when God shows up like it doesn't necessarily give the details of that right obviously there were some physical signs of tongues of fire of you know the wind and then the second story of the house shaking but I wonder if it was like one person just got on fire and is like calling heaven down and then the house shakes and everyone goes whoa wait like this is God and it stirs the faith in the room like I wonder if that was the Because I've seen that happen so many times in prayer meetings is it just takes one person that's really hungry and it sparks the rest of the room to really hunger after it. So I don't know. I'm curious. I wonder if that's how that works in those prayer meetings too.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that there's an interesting cultural difference. Within our culture, it's so normal to have your own individual Christianity. You have your own prayer life. You do your own thing. And most people have this mindset, like I feel like within our culture, that once you develop that, then you can step into the like corporate life. Like you figure out, okay, now I've got my personal prayer life down. And just like, in all honesty, that's like not how it worked for me at all. Like I had no prayer life before I got into this thing. I got encountered by God. It was a sort of Acts 2 moment for me or an Acts 4 moment for me. That was very personal. But immediately after that, like the same night, started a prayer meeting in a garage. I told the story a bunch of times, the house of prayer. And that's where my prayer life began. It began with other people who were stirred and hungry and who had also met God. And so I think that a little bit of what was happening in that culture too is like all those dudes knew was life together with Jesus. Like his discipleship pattern was we're going to do everything in life together. So it only made sense. sense for them to do it in togetherness and I just couldn't imagine the like dynamic of how how often they were feeding off of one another's faith and expectancy and It's a fun thought because I think that we have a unique place here at the House of Prayer where we have people who show up to prayer meetings. So they're hungry for God. They want to encounter Him. They want to see Him move. And so how much of life can we do together that is provoking on the days where we're bored or we're dull or we're tired, which is like every other morning for me. I'm so tired. It's those moments. when somebody comes up with, we're praying, who knows what, we're praying Psalm 1 for a line or we're praying for kingdom connections and that there's that spark of faith that does provoke me and pull me out of my tiredness, pulls me out of my boredom, whatever it is, and says, yep, I'm going to latch onto that.
SPEAKER_00:That's true. And I think for me as well, like I started praying first alone, going back to that point, but I think I learned to pray Corporately. I feel like I've heard the phrase, you know, prayer is more caught than taught. It's really hard to teach someone how to pray. It's not really something you can lay down and explain. So here's how to say all these words and it works. It's like a conversation. You can't really explain it very well. But if you see other people do it and you get into the rhythm of it and the flow of it, then you start understanding it. Because when I was 17, started praying, in a closet that I had. And it was crazy boring. For the first month, it was horrifyingly boring. But I started getting a little bit better with it, learned to put music on in the background, all the little things. And I encountered Jesus in that place in a really real way. Like, don't get me wrong, personal prayer life, I feel like is foundational to what we do. But I agree. I feel like a corporate setting can teach you how to build that personal prayer life. Because I... I still struggled with it. I didn't quite understand it, but I was in a community that was praying corporately. And so as they kept praying, I kept going to prayer meetings and went to more prayer meetings. And I learned as they prayed how to pray. It gives you language when you hear other people pray. And I feel like that's often a struggle within prayers. What do I say? But if you get around a bunch of other people, they're all going to say it a hundred different ways. And it gives you language. It gives you the ability to know what to say. So I appreciate that about the place of prayer.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think it's just another quick point on that. People tend to know me as the prayer guy, and they probably know you just the same way, because we're committed to prayer meetings, and it's what we do. And I've had a number of pastors from just all over the place that will come to me in humility and be like, hey, man, I don't know how to pray. And I'm like, all right, well, let's do it. And I'm always in that place. of, man, you really can't teach someone to pray. Like even when the disciples asked Jesus, what did he do? He prayed. That's true. He lays out a prayer. He prayed. So like he didn't give them the formula and maybe I like to make it a formula. I think when I teach the Lord's prayer, there's some things you can learn from it, but he clearly didn't do that. He prayed. He's like, when you pray, do this. So I think just getting to that place where you're doing it with other is really where the growth comes from and the comfort and
SPEAKER_00:yeah so I would say if anyone's trying to build a prayer life get around a community that prays 100% get into a prayer meeting
SPEAKER_01:yeah
SPEAKER_00:it'll build it like nothing else
SPEAKER_01:so good it's like going to the gym
SPEAKER_00:there you go
SPEAKER_01:like go where all the other people are working out
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_01:and you'll work out
SPEAKER_00:true true keeps you accountable too that's what I love I want to go to this under what is this prayer Let me turn there real quick. because you've got it there, but I'm used to my Bible. Acts 2.42, it says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. And That's seen by so many people as like the core of the early church. This is what they did. This is what they were committed to. So it's teaching, it's fellowship, breaking of bread, eating meals together, and prayer. And I think that's key, that prayer is one of the core elements. But I also want to touch on verse 46, where it says, every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple and broke bread from house to house. And it's that everyday part. Because I feel like most of us would say we're devoted to prayer. I feel like pretty much everyone will say that. We all agree it's important. We need to do it. But then this talks about they did it every day, right? They're meeting together in the temple every day. They're breaking bread, eating together every day, right? And it doesn't necessarily say in the everyday that it was for prayer, but at the very next chapter, Peter and John were going up to the temple for the time of prayer. Yeah. So it's pretty likely that that's what was going on in the temple. So yeah, let's talk about that, the everyday aspect of it, the importance of prayer to the early church in those days.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think first it's important for everybody to remember the temple. Like when Jesus went and flipped the tables in the temple, he called it his house of prayer, quoting Isaiah 56. And so it's just important to know that when Jesus said, hey, there's a lot that goes on at the temple like it was definitely a place of community and a place of like i mean it was the center of social life you know kind of like a the downtown area of pueblo or whatever yeah but jesus put some clear definition to what its main functionality was supposed to be so it's just an important thing to to note there because sometimes people will read this and not associate that with prayer so i think it's worth mentioning that always yeah but yeah the day to day, this is what they were doing day by day with one mind. Not only was it happening day by day, but they were doing it with a spirit of unity
SPEAKER_00:in
SPEAKER_01:the temple, which is just a crazy big deal. I don't know if I can count the amount of times I've been in a prayer meeting and not here, never here, the house of prayer, where it's like, oh, I don't know if I agree with that theology. Or I don't know if I can agree with that prayer. There's a lot of not one-mindedness, but when you think about the thing Yeah. and the breakthrough of that. And I think that in our culture, it's a really hard thing to preach because everybody has a busy life with all of these important things to do and they are important and we should do all of them, but we should also figure out a way to make prayer and if possible with others, a daily rhythm. Because I just wonder, like if we did that, would we also experience how essential that is to our walk in to our life. Like in all I know, really, I mean, I could point to verses like Acts 2, 42 through 47, but I can, in my own life, like I've known for the past 15 years now, going to at least two prayer meetings a week. And outside of that, really not knowing how to function. Like, what do I do in life? Like, I get my conversation with God and others about my conduct and my holiness and how I'm living set apart and my consecration. I get all of that from the praying communities I'm involved with. And I get the privilege to do it every single day. It's part of my job. It's part of both of my jobs. Actually, I work worked multiple jobs, and it's part of both of them. And I feel that privilege. But I think that if we were to do that, and that was normal within the church, normal within believers' lives, would we also discover the significance of prayer? And would we say, oh, we can't live without doing this?
SPEAKER_00:I feel like that's a key point is understanding the significance of it and a value for it. Because I read... you know, acts to 42 to 47, I see the things they devoted themselves to. And I see that they did that every single day. And when I really start thinking about that practically of, you know, even beyond prayer of like, okay, am I going to pray together with other people every day? And I'm going to have a meal that I share with other people every day. We're going to discuss the apostles teaching, right? Like the word of God. And we're going to fellowship together. And I'm like, that's a lot to do every day. Sure. That's a, as a lifestyle, that's, That takes a solid chunk of your day. And my response is, well, I don't have time for that. I don't have time to do that. I'm doing so many other things. But I think the issue is never time, right? Because you know how many hours they had in a day back then? 24. That's right. We still have 24. They had just as many hours as we do, right? And yet they were able to do this. And so it's never an issue of time. It's an issue of value do we value it enough to actually give the time for it right like you're saying we value so many other things and we do them every single day if we valued this that much we would do it right I think kind of a silly analogy but if you're crossing the street and you get run over by a car you break your leg right yeah dangerous if you break your leg when you're crossing the street you were scheduled to go to work that day are you going to go to work or are you going to go to the hospital You're going to go to the hospital, right? Because you value your leg and that recovery of your leg more than you value work and even money. And even if that's going to cause some issues at work, you still value it more. And so nothing is required. All of it's just based on value. And so I think as the Western church, we have to start to shift our mindset to value these things the way that the early church did, because this was essential to them. They did it every day because they knew they needed it. They wanted it so bad. And so for them, it was kind of like a broken leg. You have to do this. We'll work later. We'll do these things later. First, we're going to go have a prayer meeting and we're going to go get some food together. I love that. Like that's so different than what we're used to, but it seems to be the pattern of the early church. And I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I was thinking of this quote. I heard it so long ago and I try to quote it as often as I can because it's my favorite one. It's whatever you value most is what you give your time to whatever you give your time to is what consumes you and what consumes you conforms you what conforms you determines your future so whatever we're building a value for is reflected in our time and that's ultimately shaping our destiny and so though we like many of us that do things at work or do other daily things like we've got to ask ourselves, what do we want to be formed, shaped, and molded by? Like, where are we giving that time to? And for so many people, it's really just a matter of waking up a little bit earlier. Or it's like, maybe I will skip a meal to go to this prayer meeting. Or maybe I will, like, it really comes down to such a practical thing. And that's why we value, like, at our prayer room, one hour prayer meetings. Like, I think everyone who comes around here and gets involved, we all recognize one hour is not quite enough. Like we want more, but we keep it one hour because one hour is sustainable. I can do an hour of prayer with other people every day. I can do that. That's not hard for me to do.
SPEAKER_00:It's true. And it sounds like a lot on the front end. I'll be honest, like an hour a day is like, wow, that's a lot. But once you get into the rhythm of it, it's really not. Like, don't turn your phone on for that hour and you'll save about an hour worth of your time, right? Especially Maybe get delivered in the process. Hey, yes. Deliverance podcast one-on-one starting right now. No, but I think it's true. I feel like if we value it, there's so many things in our life we could easily cut out, right? If you have a night a week that you spend watching movies, cut that out and do a prayer meeting right like find time we have the time it's the value for it i think it's part of the podcast why we're doing this right now is to help people get a value for prayer like hey this really matters we've seen it in our own lives we want to see it more and we want to help others get the value for it as well um i think of a verse here on like page three you've got like this list uh which is super cool of key things that happen in the book of acts and And then how prayer was tied into it, like almost every single time. And one specifically I want to highlight is here in Acts 6, it talks about the apostles and there is a bit of a crisis because the church is growing a ton and they don't have the capacity to do all of the administrative tasks that are growing, right? There's only 12 of them and there's thousands of people at this point. And so they're like, hey, let's grab seven Amen. Amen. they choose here in Acts 6, verse 4, right? They give some of the administrative tasks to the others, and it says, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The two essential elements that they said we will not be giving these up was prayer and the ministry of the word. That blows my mind. And the fact that prayer comes first too. They said prayer first of we're not just going to delegate prayer to the prayer team. Let them do prayer and make sure we get the blessing and we'll do the teaching part. They said, no, like prayer is so core to everything we're doing that we're going to keep prayer and ministry of the word as essential to our leadership. That blows my mind.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's a crazy big deal. Like for church leaders, for people who are serving in ministry, like that should speak volumes to all of us. Like the things that we need to get freed up from other administrative tasks for should probably be prayer and the ministry of the word.
SPEAKER_00:It's real.
SPEAKER_01:And they go so hand in hand. Like that's why I think it's beautiful. I was just having a conversation with um someone who's relatively new to our prayer room and asking her like what have you so enjoyed about the house of prayer why do you keep coming back she was talking about how she loves being in god's presence she finds herself just praying throughout the day more and she's like and i'm like quoting scripture more like i'm remembering it more like it's getting written on my heart more yeah and how like the apostles they like had it seems like they had it figured out anyway, where they understood the significance of praying and writing the words of God on our heart go hand in hand so that when we function in preaching the word to others, declaring what God has said, it's not something we've got to spend 40 hours a week trying to develop a sermon. It's this overflow of connection with the word of God that's happening in conversation all the time. You don't have to devote all of that time to trying to craft the right sermon or it's no I've got intimacy and his word is fresh and I just want to speak the freshness of it and so I think that There's wisdom in that in saying, okay, there's a lot to be done. Lots of people have been saved. Like sometimes it's 3,000 in one day, which is crazy. So we've got to figure out some of the administration and they're like, it's worth us having space to pray and it's worth us teaching the word.
SPEAKER_00:It's real. And I've seen that in my own life as well. I haven't done a ton of teaching, but when I have, there's been messages that that I've crafted that like I've spent time in it. I've figured out, you know, the best stories and way to say it and all of that stuff. And I've given it and it's, you know, it's good. It's a good message. Some people are touched. And then there's other messages where, you know, for whatever reason, there was one, I was on like a conference trip where I had to give three different teachings each for about an hour long. And it's all within like three days. I really didn't have much time to prepare. And so I'm walking up on stage. very little prepared time but I chose topics that were things I prayed about a lot things that I'd been in conversation with the Lord about a whole lot and so when I got on the stage I wasn't speaking from this place of I've read all the commentaries and I've searched it out and I've done the exegesis don't get me wrong it's good to do but yeah do that don't go heresy but coming from the place of I've done that work but also I've prayed through this and I've connected with it emotionally. I've connected with the heart of God behind that passage. Then when you speak, it's so different. Like I saw people responding to those messages more than any other messages I've ever given. Even though I had probably less time to prepare them, I spoke from a place of, I've encountered this. Like I've met God in these topics and let me tell you what I saw when I met him. And I think that's such a different place to come from. And I know not all of us have teaching platforms. It's kind of rare to have a microphone in front of your face. It's intimidating too, not gonna lie. But we all have conversations, right? We talk with other people and how beautiful it is when I'm talking with someone and I know they've talked this through with God, right? You can tell when they've been in that place of prayer and what they're saying isn't just a random thought No, I've talked this through with God. Like this is coming from a deep place of knowing God, talking to him. I love the quote. I don't know who it's by, early church father, I believe. And he says, he who prays is a theologian. And I love that because it's, how do you know God if you never talk to him? You can read his word, but if you don't actually engage with him, you don't know him. And I love conversation when it's with people. who know God. They for real know him from that place of prayer and that's the place they speak from. And I think that's something we should strive for as believers is that we're speaking from that place of not just I heard this on a random podcast, you know, but I've prayed it through. This is something that matters to me. I've encountered God in this way. I think that's a huge thing as believers.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Well, it's the same thing. It's Jesus talking to the Pharisees saying you're willing to search the scriptures even and see that you would find eternal life but you're not willing to come to me like we do that so often with the Bible we'll like look at it and we'll try to find everything there and really it's meant to just point us to Jesus who is the living word like that it was given to us as a gift to lead us in the conversation about Jesus or with Jesus about Jesus and what he wants Come
SPEAKER_00:on. Do we want to go here to Roman numeral three? Sure. All right. Roman numeral three says, continual worship and prayer as a global strategy. So this is a fun one. We're in Acts 15 here. And context here is Paul and I think it's still Barnabas at this point. Yeah. Paul and Barnabas are out preaching the gospel, going all over the Middle East doing it. But then some men came from Judea and began to teach that Gentiles had to be circumcised to get saved. And so Paul and Barnabas, they, you know, engage them in debate, things get heated and they go, all right, we need to figure this out. How does this work? And so they go back to Jerusalem and they call a church council, right? I believe this is like the first one, the first like church council. And so they get together and they go, all right, how does this work? Do Gentiles have to be circumcised to get saved? And then they also throw in there a little bit later, do they have to follow the law as well? Like, how does this work? How do we deal with the Gentiles coming into the kingdom? Because up to this point, Christianity really has been Jewish, right? That's how it started, how it formed was it was known as a sect within Judaism. And only later, even beyond this point, does it become a separate religion, so to speak. And so, at this point, it's still a sect within Judaism. And so, they're asking, how on earth do Gentiles get into this? But it's in that context that James, says this. He says, I saw God give them a gift of tongues. I saw them get saved for real. And so, God's about this. He's about bringing the Gentiles in. And James is agreeing with that going, yeah, that's right. We did see that. Simon Peter saw that and the prophets agree with this. They say in Amos, after these things, I will return and rebuild David's fallen tabernacle. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again so the rest of humanity may see it. And I find that fascinating. It's strange to me in the context. I think the second part, the second verse, verse 17, makes so much sense, right? Amos says the rest of humanity is going to seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name. That makes sense in the context, right? They're talking about the Gentiles. They're talking about how do they get into this. And he's going, no, it's biblical. God wants the Gentiles. Yeah. But it's the first part that's a little bit odd. And I feel like the tension there's not brought up a lot, even within the house of prayer, prayer and worship movement. He says, after these things, I'll return and rebuild David's fallen tabernacle. I'll rebuild its ruins and set it up again so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles. So there's something about this prophecy that one day David's tabernacle is going to be rebuilt and it's tied into directly into humanity seeking the Lord, Gentiles getting saved. And that blows my mind.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It's kind of crazy. And it's kind of confusing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like, I think that what's profound is how James recognizes the ultimate fulfillment of Jesus's plan. And he says, I think it's crucial for us to understand the context of Amos 9, 11. Yeah. Like, it is the context. Jesus is going to come back one day and his plan is to rebuild David's fallen tabernacle. That's what he's going to do. He didn't say he's going to rebuild Solomon's temple. He says he's going to rebuild David's tabernacle. So I think that what we talk about around here all the time, David's tabernacle essentially was characterized by night and day. We can say often. We don't know exactly how often. A lot of people love to say 24-7. I don't think the Bible explicitly ever says it's 24-7 anywhere. It's close, but not quite. Yeah. We know it was happening quite often where there was musical praise around the very presence of God. Singers, musicians. I mean, there's thousands of singers and musicians involved in this process. So it was a pretty big deal. It was happening a lot. And so for Jesus to say that when he comes back, he's going to restore that is significant. And I think that sometimes we have... we don't quite see prophecy unfolding the way that Jesus intends it to unfold. And we always think, okay, it's just going to be like the on-off switch when really there's these like multi-level and multi-layers of prophetic fulfillment that happen all throughout scripture. And we'll probably talk about all of those things the more we dive into end times and all of that stuff. But I think this is one of those that what Jesus promises to do in fullness then, I think that what they were experiencing in this moment within Acts 15 was, oh, this is already beginning to happen. This is a layer of fulfillment that's already taking place. Gentiles are getting saved, and we're teaching them our four heart standards, or our four whatever we want to call them. Maybe not heart standards. Maybe that's not what we should say, but the four core pillars of Christianity, which is apostolic teaching, fellowship, breaking the That's the model that we're going to teach people in. And so they're literally doing... a different expression of David's tabernacle in their day. Like it was being fulfilled in their day. And so they're like, well, of course this makes sense. Like this was his plan from the beginning that everybody would come into this.
SPEAKER_00:That's interesting. I'm just making connection right now in my mind of, I wonder how similar to acts to the tabernacle looked. Cause you think about it, right? They believe it was the tabernacle, right? That they had the people rotating on the two week schedule. Yeah. Yeah. So people would, they had thousands of singers and musicians that were a part of this and they would come in on this rotation where you would work for most of the year, do your job, but then for two weeks out of the year, you would come and you would be a part of the service. Some were there full-time to lead the whole thing, but most people, that's what they did with the thousands of people. And so I wonder like during those two weeks, you're not really doing anything else. So you're living together, you're eating food, You're breaking bread together. You're praying together. You're probably reading the word. They were reading the word, right? They're singing the word of God for the most part. And so I'm like, that probably looked a whole lot like Acts 2. If we think about it. And so I wonder if that's a lot of what they're tying in here is James is going, hey, we're doing stuff that's very similar to the tabernacle of David right now. If you look at it as a community, we're praying so much. We're worshiping together. We're praying together. We're doing the apostles' teaching, and we're living life together, right? And so I wonder if that's the connection in his mind, because that's never what's made sense. It's like, where did he get Tabernacle of David? But I wonder if what they were doing looked like it already, if the community of the church looked like the Tabernacle of David. And so in his mind, it's like, well, this makes total sense. We look like the Tabernacle of David, and God promised that Gentiles will be called to him through the Tabernacle of David that Jesus is going to set up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's interesting. I've never thought it through that way, but it makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:Pretty cool connection. Because I feel like in our minds as 21st century Westerners, we read that Acts 2, four pillars, and we almost immediately start going to like a formula.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I wonder if that just wasn't normal. Like that was just life. It wasn't a formula. They weren't like, these are the four pillars. pillars we're building on, but this is like, that's just what we do.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Because that's what priests did when they were serving in the tabernacle. Like it's just what we do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I would imagine that it was very much what Jesus just lived as well. I feel like they were so used to this lifestyle because I mean, they, they upended their lives through everything behind and said, we're going to follow Jesus. And so their schedules are completely open. And so I would imagine Jesus trained them in this is our lifestyle. We eat together. We fellowship. We talk about God's word together. We pray together. And so if they're building that lifestyle, I would imagine Jesus probably knew exactly what he was doing and knew I'm crafting the church to look a certain way. And this is exactly how it needs to look. And so I'm just going to live this sort of lifestyle with the leaders of the church. And so, yeah, I wonder, I want to go back now to the Old Testament and dig in and get a little bit more. Okay. What were the key elements of this? Did this look like the early church? Because, you know, we have a mindset of what church probably looked like at that point. But I feel like a lot of that's just made up by our Western ideas, right? The way we do small groups and stuff, we assume it was just a bunch of small groups the way we do it. But I wonder if it was a little bit more like the Tabernacle of David, that they literally looked like it. And so it was a logical connection that Tabernacle of David equals Jesus. Gentiles will come in. So of course they're coming in because we look like the tabernacle of David.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. With also the understanding that they don't have to go to Jerusalem anymore to do that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like it was the intention within the heart of God that this would spread everywhere.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And so I feel like in their minds, maybe, maybe they're thinking this is the fulfillment of that because it's spreading out know. Maybe they understood the present and also the what was to come at that point. I don't know. They probably did. But I mean, what a cool moment to realize, okay, I think we're living in prophetic fulfillment right now. This is an expression of that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, it makes so much sense too, because in the Old Testament, like David's tabernacle, the whole point was that the ark was there, right? And the ark, In the Old Testament, you know, God had Moses craft the ark and the ark was where his presence dwelt, the mercy seat that was up on top of the ark. And so God's presence lived above this box, right? And it's kind of weird, but that's the way God set it up. And so David takes this ark and he puts it in a tent and they're singing and they're worshiping around the ark, God's presence, right? That's kind of the whole heart behind the tabernacle of David, the focus of it. And so... like you said, they know they no longer have to be in Jerusalem because they know that presence now lives inside of them, right? And Paul and the apostles, they expound on that later in the rest of the New Testament of we're all living stones being built together for the dwelling of God's presence. And so, they understand that concept of we don't have to have an ark anymore. And so, I wonder if that was kind of their mindset of, oh, hey, we have David's tabernacle everywhere we go because we've got God's presence in us. When we gather together, we're two three are gathered in my name. They heard Jesus say that. There I am in the midst of them. And so they probably are going, hey, we can all get together and have David's tabernacle right here, right now, whenever we get together. That's so cool. I love that.
SPEAKER_01:It's a pretty big deal. The expectancy for them to live that, to be seeing it, the urgency to take that message to the ends of the earth so that Jesus would return and have it in its fulfillment. They really felt like like they were living like in the time that Jesus returned. It was about to return.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I want to throw one random thought I had during your message about that. So you were talking about way back at the start, we talked about this, of they heard Holy Spirit's promise. He's going to come. And they went and prayed for 10 days. And then the Spirit was poured out, right? They didn't just sit back and go, oh, cool. Holy Spirit's coming. We'll let that happen when it happens. God was waiting for them to reach for it and go, no, we want the Holy Spirit. send us the promise and as you were saying that when you were teaching on Friday night I just thought isn't it interesting that they had took 10 days they prayed earnestly and they got the spirit right they got the promise of the spirit we have the promise Jesus will return is God just waiting for us to pray with that kind of expectancy right does is that what he wants is that what he's asking for is I want a people that are going to pray for the return of Jesus with that kind of an expectancy and a faith? Because we have it. It's promised. But most of us just sit back and go, well, he'll return when he returns. We'll let that happen. But is he asking us to know, come together, join together, pray, do life together, and ask for the promise that Jesus would return? Because it's in the Bible. I don't know. I just, I wonder. I wonder if he's just waiting for that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, I think that type of person who's living, which it should be all of us, and we're not all there always. I'm not Yeah, they're always, I need to pray more like that. But that type of person lives differently. Like that type of person feels an urgency in prayer. They feel the urgency in preaching the gospel wherever they go. They feel an urgency in discipleship. Like they live a lifestyle that is radically different than just going through the day and letting life happen to them. And so that's such a good point. And that's what got me into this whole prayer thing was the fact that Jesus is going to come back, and I have a part to play in, like, calling him home.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Come on. It's the Maranatha cry.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, sir. Oh, we could talk about that forever.
SPEAKER_00:Probably not today, but we will get there. We will get there. Well, I think we'll probably land the plane here. Cool. I feel like... As I've been studying over, looking over these notes and stuff, I think, you know, so much of what we're saying is we're pointing to the early church as a model for how we should live life now. We're highlighting prayer. And I feel like, you know, one thing we haven't talked about a lot in the podcast, but you touched on in the teaching, is the result of when they lived that lifestyle, right? There's crazy things that happened, right? Or is it 3000? 3000 getting saved in one day, right? It talks about the awe of God was on their entire community. People were being saved, added numbers are being added to them day by day. They were doing science and wonders, miracles. That guy is healed, right? That we talked about earlier by Peter and John. And so there's just insane signs and wonders. The Gentiles are starting to come in. Paul and Barnabas go out and they're pulling in Gentiles from all across the Middle East, the known world at that time. And so we see the results of it and that's often what we think of when we think of the book of Acts is the power the signs the wonders the miracles and that's what we want that's what we pray for that's what we ask for and I think as I'm looking over what we're talking about today I think to see that happen again if it's a model for us if it is this is how you get there I think it may require more than just a lot of prayer meetings but it's not going to require less right it for sure requires prayer because it was such an integral part of what they did that I don't think we can say that we can get there without prayer yeah and so even if we don't understand all the dynamics of how do we do breaking bread house to house every day don't really know we can start there we can start with the place of prayer of let's return let's pray if you can't find others pray alone if you can find others pray together find a group of people I think all of us can do that that are going to pray together and I think that return to that apostles way if you will the way of Jesus because I think he's the one that taught them to live that way I think that's where we'll start to get back to that place of thousands getting saved signs and wonders and miracles and the kingdom advancing like it's supposed to
SPEAKER_01:yeah so good um Yeah, when we read these verses from the book of Acts, it's hard to read them and say, oh, cool, that must have been awesome. Like, it's hard to read them and be like... maybe we should do this. Like, it doesn't matter the context. Am I at a house of prayer? Am I at the only church in a small town of 2,000 people? It doesn't matter where we're at. I think we read this and we have to say, I think this is where we start, at least. Like, let's do these things. And I think even to point out some things within the prayer movement that maybe Yeah. But we also know for sure there's a lot more that we've got to be involved with. Right. that message again clear and people are preaching that and figuring out how do we do it? How do we sustainably do this without sacrificing one component for the other?
SPEAKER_00:Amen. All right. All right. that's listening right now, Jesus. Would you show them your kindness and your love? Because we can't come to the place of prayer and we won't love it unless we know that you delight in us, you enjoy us, we know your character. So God, I ask that you would grow their knowledge of you. Would you reveal yourself, God? Show yourself for who you are in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:God bless y'all.