Okay, so as I was trying to remember earlier, we had started a new series and it's called "Sow What?" Ha ha ha. And it's doing the whole cycle of growth. Okay? So last week we talked about being planted in Christ, and then this week we are talking about being rooted in prayer. A church that prays.
So I'm going to start with our scripture this morning, which again is from Acts. This time we're back in chapter 1, verses just 12 to 14. Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.
So Who here, if you were gardening, who would prefer to go to a garden centre and buy a plant that's already half grown so you don't have to start from seed and wait the seemingly endless time it takes to grow something from a seed?
Okay. So I used to really enjoy growing tomatoes. From seeds. And I couldn't grow mint to save my life, even though apparently it's supposed to be a weed that'll take off. Nope, couldn't grow it at all.
But tomatoes from seed, those are my jam. Well, chutney.
So the whole process of putting the seeds in the soil, watering it, and then waiting for something to start sprouting up, at first it feels like Nothing is happening. There's no movement, there's no visible change, there's just dirt. Right? And sometimes it would feel like my efforts were leading to nothing. But that was not actually true.
Because the most important part, most important part of the growth was happening in a place I couldn't see. Before anything breaks through the surface, roots are forming. Quietly, slowly, almost invisibly, they begin to reach down, spread out, anchoring the plant and drawing in what it needs to survive. And if those roots don't grow deep and strong, it doesn't matter how quickly something appears above the surface, it's not gonna last. And in many ways, that's exactly how life in the church works.
We often look for what is visible: momentum, activity, growth, a kind of growth that we can measure. But before any of that can happen, something deeper has to take place. There has to be a rooting, a grounding, and a dependence on something that is beyond ourselves. And that's where prayer comes in. As we continue on in our series, "So What?" today we're going to look at what it means to be rooted in prayer.
Because before the church ever moves outward, before anything visible begins to take shape, we find the disciples doing something that at first glance doesn't look very impressive at all. They're waiting, they're gathered, and they're praying. But what's happening in that moment is far from small because this is where the roots begin to grow. The disciples come together and pray. Doesn't sound like much, does it?
I mean, it kind of feels obvious. Of course when we gather we pray. But maybe we've reached a point where we do it simply because it's what we've always done. It's expected. It's routine.
It's habit. And a rhythm of prayer is not a bad thing. Quite the opposite, in fact. But it becomes a problem when it turns into something that we do without thinking, without engaging, and without expectation. When we forget that prayer is not just part of our spiritual practises, it's how we are drawn into the presence of God.
It's how we are connected to that resurrection power that we talked about last week. In other words, prayer is a doorway, not a destination. In prayer we come as children, drawn near through Christ who stands for us as our advocate and our high priest. We don't come hoping to be heard, we come already welcomed. There's no barrier between us and God even though it can sometimes feel like our prayers hit a ceiling, but they don't.
In Christ, through prayer, we are brought right into the presence of God. And what we're doing in prayer is more than bringing our own concerns. We're stepping into what God is already doing. We begin to pray in line with his purposes, his kingdom, his work through the gospel, and where he is leading all things. Prayer then is learning to think God's thoughts after him, letting our hearts and minds be shaped by his.
And those are prayers that are not only heard but taken up into what God is already bringing about. In his kindness and mercy, God has not left us guessing when it comes to prayer. He has shown us both how to pray and how to live as people of prayer. And again and again in Scripture, it comes down to two simple but profound realities: We are called to pray constantly and to pray in the Spirit. So first, the constantly.
This is something Paul returns to often. He tells the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. He encourages the church in Rome to be constant in prayer. To the Colossians, he says, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, staying alert and thankful as they do." In other words, prayer is not meant to be an occasional thing or to be reactive. It's not something that we turn to only in moments of crisis or need.
It is meant to be a steady rhythm, a way of living with our hearts continually turned towards God. And that's how we keep our lives anchored in him. That's how we set our minds on things above. It's how we remain aware of his presence and dependent on his strength in the middle of ordinary life. And Paul even points to someone like Epaphras, who's someone who is described as always wrestling in prayer for others, as a model of persistence in prayer to demonstrate that prayer matters and that it's worth continuing in even when it feels like it's unseen or that it's difficult.
Because the reality is the Christian life is full of need, in case you hadn't noticed that yet. There are temptations, there's pressures, there's uncertainties, and in the middle of it all, we are invited to keep coming back to God constantly. But we are not left to do that on our own. We are also called to pray in the Spirit. And that can sound kinda confusing, but at its heart, it's actually deeply encouraging.
Paul reminds us in Romans that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. And prayer is often where we feel that weakness most clearly. There are moments when we don't know what to say, when we're unsure what to ask for, when we can't even find the words. And in those moments, we are not alone.
I debated whether to tell you this storey or not. It's a little— you might find it too much information, I don't know.
There was a time I was still in school, but I had been asked to pulpit supply for a friend of mine who had just had a baby. Well, his wife had just had their second child. Two days before that, my husband had told me that he wanted a divorce. So the day that I was to pulpit supply, I was walking my dog before leaving for the church, and I just started bawling, and I couldn't stop crying. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't cry, I couldn't speak, I couldn't say anything.
So as I'm walking my dog, I'm thinking my prayers, and I'm like, God, I know that you can hear us even when we can't speak, but I'm having to speak for a whole group of people in about an hour and a half, and I can't even formulate a sentence right now, and I don't know what to do. And I cried all the way to the church. And I drove into the parking lot. There was literally this sunlight shining right down over this little church. And the crying stopped.
And I walked into the church. And there was this gentleman who I did not know that opened up his arms. He was this big bear of a man. And he's like, welcome, I'm so happy to see you. And he scooped me into this big hug.
And I'm like, I don't think he thinks I'm, like, I think he thinks I'm somebody else, but I'll take it. And as many of you know, I'm not a hugger, but that day, that's the last thing I really remember about that service. It was all God, and it was all based on the fact that I had prayed so desperately, and he carried me through that. And so, That was a huge example for me that God does listen and he can listen when we can't even formulate the words. So, sorry if that was too much sharing, but it really felt like it was impactful to this.
The Spirit himself intercedes for us, praying on our behalf according to the will of God, which means this: even when our prayers feel incomplete or uncertain, God is still still at work in them. The Spirit is shaping them, aligning them, carrying them into the heart of God's purposes. To pray in the Spirit, then, is not about finding the right technique. It's not about finding the right words or finding the right place to pray or needing to do something in particular or not do something in particular. It's about being led by the Spirit.
It's about allowing our prayers to be shaped by God's Word, by his will, and what he has already revealed. It is prayer that is surrendered, attentive, and aligned with what God is doing. And I know I said it isn't about finding the right technique or saying the right thing, and that's true, but I would like to offer one suggestion: that praying in the Spirit is particularly difficult to do when you do all the talking. In order to be led by the Spirit, in order to allow our prayers to be shaped by God's word and will, we need to hear from him. And just like it is impossible to know what someone else is thinking when we don't stop talking long enough to give them a chance to speak, we will struggle to know God's thoughts for us if we don't stop talking.
And it can be uncomfortable to sit in silence. We're not really used to that. It can leave us feeling exposed, sometimes restless, but that can be the point, because that discomfort can make us feel vulnerable, and in that vulnerability, something begins to shift. We become more aware of our need, more honest about where we are, and that's where humility begins, and humility is what opens us up to God in prayer. The beauty in all of this is that it's not reserved for a few.
It's the gift that is given to all who belong to God, to all who have been brought into his family. So we pray constantly because we depend on him, and in the Spirit because he is already at work within us. And in that we find both the invitation and the assurance. We are not praying alone.
Prayer is also not an escape from reality. It's not about avoiding responsibility or withdrawing from the world that God has placed us in. Prayer is relationship, is dependence on God lived out. It is the place where we acknowledge we cannot do this on our own, that we need God, not just for what he gives, but for who he is. And because of that, prayer is not something that we move past as we grow.
It's something that we grow deeper into because the more we come to know God, we understand that prayer is not the warm-up. It is not the prelude. Prayer is where God meets us, shapes us, and moves, and everything else flows from that. So let's dive into our passage from Acts chapter 1 and see how it shows us how, as the church, we need to be rooted in prayer. Verse 12: Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city.
Before anything else happens, even before the prayers, before the coming of the Spirit, before the visible growth of the church, there is a simple act of obedience. They return. Jesus had told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait, and that is exactly what they do. They don't rush ahead, they don't try to improve on the plan, They don't attempt to manufacture momentum or take control over what comes next. They just obey.
They place themselves exactly where Jesus told them to be, and they stay there. Because prayer does not begin with activity, it begins with trust. It begins with a willingness to listen and to respond to what God has already said. Their obedience positions them for what God is about to do. And it's worth noticing where they return.
They go back to Jerusalem, the place where they had already been walking with Jesus, the place where their faith had been formed, the place where their lives had already begun to take root. In a sense, they return to where they have been planted. They don't scatter, they don't relocate in search of something easier, they remain. And there's something important in that for us. Because in a world that constantly tells us to move on, to chase what's next, to look for better conditions, to think that the grass is always greener somewhere else, the life of faith often calls us to stay rooted, to remain where God has placed us, trusting that he is at work even when we cannot yet see it.
And this can be true even in the church. Church shopping is common. Where we move on when something no longer meets our preferences, when it feels difficult, or when something else seems more appealing. But being rooted means something different. It means staying when it would have been easier to leave.
It means committing when things are imperfect. It means trusting that God is at work, not just in what excites us, but in what forms us. Now, that doesn't mean that there is never a time to be transplanted. Sometimes God does lead us into something new for the sake of our growth, but even then it's not about preference, it's about discernment. Because the question isn't simply, "Where do I feel most comfortable?" It's, "Where is God calling me to be planted right now?" And that's what we see in the disciples.
They place themselves exactly where Jesus told them to be, and they remain. Like roots settling deep down into the soil, drawing in what they need to live and grow, they position themselves in obedience. And that becomes the starting place for everything that follows. Because a praying church is first a listening church, and a listening church is an obedient church. Before we ask God to act, we respond to what he has already said.
So let's move on to verses 13 and 14. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James, and Andrew, but Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, Simon, Judas, they all joined together constantly in prayer along with the women and Mary, mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. So we read that when they arrive, they don't scatter, they don't improvise, they go to the upper room, a space set apart from the noise and the distraction of the city. Now in those days, upper rooms were above the crowded streets, removed from interruption.
It was a place that created space. And that's where, that's what their obedience looks like here. Not activity, but positioning. Not striving, but making room. The upper room wasn't just private, it was a place designed for gathering.
And these spaces were often used for shared meals, for teaching and prayer. And look who's there. The apostles, the women, Mary, mother of Jesus, his brothers, This is not just a tiny little inner circle. It's a diverse, unified community. Even Jesus's earthly family, who were once unsure, is now fully part of his spiritual family.
And the phrase that this translation writes as "all join together," which in the original Greek is an adverb that refers to mutual consent or agreement. It means with one mind or one purpose. So before the Spirit moves in power, the people of God are first brought together in unity. Because what we see here is more than just proximity, it's a people that are being formed. They all joined together.
Prayer for them was not private or occasional, it was shared, it was something that they stepped into together again and again. This wasn't just an event that they attended, it was a rhythm that they lived. And as they gathered, something deeper was happening beneath the surface.
You know what I mean by redwood trees, right? They're some of the tallest and strongest trees in the world. And you would expect them to have really deep roots, right? Those trees are huge. But they don't.
Their roots are actually shallow, spreading outward rather than downward. So how do they stand? Their roots intertwine. They grow outward until they connect with the roots of the trees around them, forming a hidden network beneath the surface. And in that connexion, not depth alone, it's that connexion instead that gives them the strength to withstand storms.
They don't stand alone. They stand together. And that's the picture that we see in Acts. As they pray together, and wait together, and depend on God together, their lives begin to intertwine. What's happening isn't just visible in the room, it's taking root beneath the surface.
And that's where their strength comes from. Not from standing alone, but by being rooted together. And this is how God has always worked, not just shaping individuals, but by forming people. Through Christ, he is drawing them into a shared life where they belong to him and to one another, and prayer is at the centre of that. Because when we pray together, we are not just speaking to God in the same space, we are being aligned around the same hope, the same need, the same dependence.
Prayer levels us. It reminds us that we are all recipients of grace, all are in need, and all are waiting on God. And in that shared posture, unity begins to grow quietly, steadily, beneath the surface. And this challenges how we often think about community today, because what we see here is something deeper, a commitment to be present, to be known, and to walk together in dependence on God. Because as we see from the early church, prayer doesn't just connect us to God, it binds us to one another.
And when a church is rooted in that kind of shared prayer, unity is not something that we have to force. It just grows. Like roots beneath the soil, over time it becomes visible in the way that we love and serve and remain committed to one another.
And one more thing that I'd like us to note is that it says that they were constantly in prayer. So they didn't just gather, sit around waiting to find out what was next. They were constantly in prayer. Again, something is kind of lost in the translation because the word that Luke uses speaks of persistence, continuing with intensity, holding on even when nothing seems to be happening yet. And this becomes a pattern throughout Acts.
Before the Spirit is poured out, they pray. Before boldness comes, they pray. Before the church moves forward, they pray. The Upper Room becomes more than a location, it becomes a posture of a people who know that they cannot move forward without God. So really think about what— about that word "constantly." This wasn't just a quick prayer before moving on to something more productive.
It wasn't a one-time moment followed by action. It was sustained, ongoing, persistent. They devoted themselves to prayer. And what makes that even more significant is the moment that they were in. Jesus had just ascended, the mission had been given, the promise of the Spirit had been spoken but not yet fulfilled, and they were living in the in-between.
And in that space of uncertainty, they didn't try to rush ahead. They didn't try to organise a strategy or manufacture momentum. They didn't attempt to produce what only God could provide. They prayed because they knew where their help came from. Prayer for them was not a last resort.
It was their first response. It wasn't what they turned to when everything else failed. It was where they began. Their persistence in prayer reveals something deeper than discipline. It reveals dependence.
They understood that whatever came next, would not come from their effort. It would not come from their planning or their ability to hold things together. It would come from God.
And so they waited on him. And this is the pattern we see throughout scripture. God's people are not simply called to act but to depend, to seek him, to wait on him. Even Jesus withdrew to pray. And when he taught his disciples, he didn't just prepare them for ministry, he taught them how to pray.
Because everything they would do would flow from that dependence on the Father. And that is exactly what we see taking root here, because before anything visible happens in Acts 2, before the crowds gather, before the sermon is preached, before thousands respond, the real work is already happening. It's happening in the upper room, in prayer. And this is where the church is being grounded. It's where the hearts are being aligned, and it's where dependence is being formed.
And it's easy to overlook this moment because it doesn't look dramatic. There's no movement yet, there's no outward growth, nothing measurable, but it's where everything begins. Because a healthy church does not draw its strength from what it can produce. It draws its strength from God. And prayer is where that dependence is lived out.
It's where we acknowledge that we cannot do this on our own, that we do not have what it takes to bring life, to change hearts, to sustain what God is building, but he does. And so we come to him not occasionally, not as a backup plan, but constantly. And as a church, that is exactly where we are right now. We are in a season of listening, and this is why we will be having a 3-part journey of prayerful discernment where we will be seeking God together for our next steps at fulfilling our mission and vision. It will be for everyone in the congregation, and it will take place over 3 months.
There will be 2 prayer retreats and a prayer walk, and the more of us that gather to pray together, to have our hearts aligned, to have— hear from God as one, the more sure we will be in our next steps forward as a church in fulfilling the mission that he's called us to. So the whole point of that is to be seeking God together for our next steps, not rushing ahead, not forcing direction, but slowing down to listen, to ask where he is leading, and then to follow in obedience. Because before anything grows above the surface, roots must go down, and prayer is with those— where those roots take hold and where God begins to show us the way forward.
