Praying for Impact

Bracing for Impact

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church 

Jan. 9, 2022

Praying for Impact

Prayer for Lydia’s parents and the Berkeys.

Please turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 4. Bracing for Impact is the name of the series we’re in. Impact is defined as the act or force of one thing hitting another, or a powerful influence or effect. The book of Acts is all about impact! In fact the impact of the gospel, and the Spirit, working through the church is so great that even their enemies had to admit they were turning the world upside down! (Acts 17:6)

This morning we’re joining the disciples for a powerful prayer meeting but first we need to know the backstory. In Acts 3 Peter and John are about to enter the temple at the time of prayer when a lame man who has been reduced to begging for a living asks them for a little money. Peter answers, “silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk!” The lame man immediately gets up and enters the temple courts with Peter and John, praising God with every step. Impact!

This leads to a large crowd gathering in amazement and Peter preaches the gospel to them and many (close to two thousand!) put their faith in Jesus. More impact! And that leads to the religious authorities, the same men who had engineered the crucifixion of Jesus, to try everything they can to stop Peter and John from healing and preaching in Jesus’ name. Even more impact!

The religious leaders command Peter and John not to speak about Jesus anymore, but Peter answers they can’t help but speak about Jesus. The high priest and the other experts in Jewish law desperately want to silence the apostles but don’t know how to do it. Let’s pick up the story in verse 21.

²¹ After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. ²² For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

²³ When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ²⁴ And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, ²⁵ who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
²⁶ The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

²⁷ for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, ²⁸ to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. ²⁹ And now, Lord, look upon their threats and…

OK. let’s pause here for a moment: if this was us and someone had threatened our lives, what do you think we would pray for? What would you pray for?

• We’d probably pray for safety and protection. Our lives have been threatened God – keep us safe! Such a prayer makes sense and there’s nothing wrong with it, but that’s not what they prayed for.
• We might pray for God to deal with those threatening us and neutralize their threats. Again, makes sense and nothing wrong with it. But they didn’t pray for that either.

Here’s what they pray for:

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

They ask God to give them more impact! Help us speak your word and do even greater things than you already have done in the name of Jesus God! They don’t pray for safety, they don’t pray for protection, they don’t pray for wisdom in dealing with the danger. They pray for impact. More impact!

Praying for impact is a very specific form of prayer and it’s not the only one but I want to encourage us to add it to our prayer life. We can and should pray for provision (give us this day our daily bread) and we can and should pray for wisdom and direction. We can ask God to work in our character and we can pray prayers of thanksgiving. But let’s learn a lesson from the early disciples and pray for impact! Pray that God uses our lives to impact others with the power of the gospel!

I’ve drawn three thoughts about praying for impact from this passage:

1. Praying for impact helps put life in the right perspective (seeing God as big)

Verse 21 says, After further threats… the last words Peter and John heard as they left the high priest and all his cohorts were threats. And they knew they had the power to carry out those threats. These are the same men who crucified Jesus. We know they took the threats seriously because the threats are the first things they reported to the other disciples when they got back.

But when they pray, they don’t open their prayer with how big the threat is, they open their prayer with how big God is: “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them…” They knew that it is God alone who made all things and who controls all things.

The disciples had a choice to make. The religious leaders hoped that their threats would loom over them and silence their voices and stop their impact. Threats are meant to control: if you don’t do what I want, I am going to do this to you! The further threats were meant to control the disciples into being silent, into being impact-less.

The disciples had a different perspective as they went to prayer. They saw God as bigger and that put

everything else in perspective. Sovereign Lord – tells us they knew God was in control.

A proper perspective on life doesn’t ignore or deny the very real things going on in our lives. We have issues we need to address. Fears we need to wrestle with. Relationships we need to navigate. Goals and dreams we should strive to achieve. Decisions and choices we need to make.

The problem isn’t that there are countless things looming over our lives. The problem comes in when these things get so big in our eyes that we give them control over our lives. When we do that, we let them derail our obedience to, and impact for, Christ.

Prayer doesn’t belittle everything else, it magnifies our view of God. We see that no matter what happens, God is sovereign over our lives. No circumstance has control over our lives. No person has control over our lives. We don’t even have control over our lives. God and God alone has control over our lives. Prayer aligns our hearts and our perspective with that truth. We see God as big, and that’s the right perspective, because that’s the truth!

2. Praying for impact helps prepare us for unexpected impact opportunities

None of what happened in Acts 3 and 4 was planned. None of it was expected. This wasn’t some grand strategy or church program being worked out. Peter and John were just going to the temple to pray. They had no plans to heal anyone, no plans to preach to a massive crowd, no inkling they’d see as many as two thousand people come to faith in Christ that day, and no desire to anger the powers that be.

This was unexpected, this was unplanned, but Peter and John were prepared for the unexpected because prayer was a central part of their lives. This whole situation is surrounded by prayer. They were heading to prayer when it happened, they headed straight to prayer after it happened.

One of the ways that prayer prepares us for unexpected impact opportunities is by giving us eyes to see people as the Lord sees them. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people passed this lame man every day. Every day he was carried to the temple where he had to beg just to stay alive. After a while people stopped noticing him. They saw him but they didn’t really see him.

How many people do we pass in life, seeing them but not really seeing them? The waitress at the restaurant. The greeter at Walmart. The executive at Corning. We pass people like so many passed this lame man – seeing but not really seeing.

Peter saw him. Chapter three says Peter looked straight at him. He saw this man’s deeper need, and because he was in tune with the heart of God, he knew God wanted to minister to him. Other people threw a few bucks at the guy as they passed by but Peter said, I don’t have money but I do have something better: in Jesus’ name walk.

This became an impactful evangelistic event but none of it was planned, none of it could be called an official church program or evangelistic campaign.

There have been a number of evangelistic programs churches have tried over the years. The Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion. When I was a young Christian our church got involved with a program called the I Found It campaign. We would call homes and walk people through a series of questions. I’m not knocking any of this - I understand a lot of people came to Christ through these campaigns. I’m not sure those programs would be as effective today.

I am looking forward to GCC being able to hold events that reach out to our community again. We’re not against church programs, but I suspect the most effective evangelistic program we could do is called “you”. It’s called “me”. Just being real and sharing Jesus where we are. Ask the Lord to give us boldness, ask the Lord to give us eyes to see people the way He sees them, ask the Lord to stretch out His hand in a powerful way, ask the Lord to make a good spiritual impact through our lives, and then as we go about our day be ready for unexpected impact opportunities.

Often impact opportunities will be disguised as interruptions. Prayer helps us be ready for them. As we spend time with the Lord in prayer His heart rubs off on us and we see people through His eyes and love them enough to take a chance and share Jesus with them. Enough to offer to pray with them. Enough to invite them to come to church with us. Or invite them over for dinner. Not because we’re following a program but because we genuinely care about them.

3. Praying for impact is praying for God to impact people with good

grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, ³⁰ while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Their answer to threats is to ask God to do good. There’s no vindictiveness or vengeance in their prayer. They pray, Lord answer these threats with good. Use us to do good. In the name of Jesus.

The other night Janice and I listened to a furniture repair youtuber share very honestly how he had been struggling for years with insomnia. And the way it affected him was that he didn’t feel tired, he felt anxiety. Sleeplessness didn’t take the form of exhaustion, it took the form of fear, fear that whirred around in his head. Going to bed, something that for most of us is a time of unwinding, wound up his fear even more as he feared he wouldn’t be able to sleep. He shared all this very honestly, but he said that most people had no idea all this was going on in his life.

People are carrying around heavy burdens, many of which we can’t see. We have no idea that person is dealing with depression. Or that person is lying awake with dark, shadowy fears looming over them. Or that person acts super confident but is eaten up with insecurity. Or that person has life by the tail…and yet feels so empty inside.

We can’t necessarily see that person is dealing with a health concern. That marriage is on the rocks even though they put up a brave public face. That single mom feels overwhelmed by life. That man has no idea how to express his emotions. His dad didn’t, and now he doesn’t, so it’s all stuffed inside. That young kid is made fun of at school and is too embarrassed to say anything to anyone.

I love this prayer because they’re asking God to impact people’s lives with good and they’re asking that they be a part of that good. The greatest good is that people come to faith in Jesus and receive life, but God wants to do good in other ways too.

In Acts 8 Philip goes to Samaria where he performs signs and wonders. People were healed. The demon possessed were set free. People paid attention to his preaching about Jesus. And the result was there was “great joy in the city.” Lord, use us to bring great joy to our neighbor, our co-worker, our family, our community. Our city.

The Holy Spirit shook the house they were in. Honestly I don’t know why He did that, but I think it was just a visible evidence that God answers prayer. We prayed this morning and God didn’t shake the building. I’m ok with that. But let’s leave here with fresh faith and anticipation that as we pray, God hears and God answers prayer.