Christ's command to his followers before his ascension to heaven was for them to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.

Our Lord did not intend for the good news of his death and resurrection to stay local, but

instead it was to be taken globally.

In this third section of Acts, the adventure continues as the gospel is taken to the ends

of the earth. Let's join Scott Pauley now for today's study.

Someone has said that prayer can do anything God can do. I understand what they mean by that, because through prayer, we access an all-powerful God and we see the

Lord work in ways that man could never work. But I think it's very important we understand that prayer

is not us forcing our will on God. In other words, it's not me doing something I want to do. It's not

me getting God to do something I want him to do. Instead,

rightly viewed, prayer is me getting in step with what God wants to do. Prayer is not me getting

my will done in heaven. It is rather me saying, Lord, we want your will to be done here on earth.

It's dangerous to view prayer through

some humanistic lens where it's all about us. Did you know you can be even narcissistic about

your prayer life? And it can be very self-centered. And we ask amiss to consume it on our own lust.

That's not prayer. No, prayer is me saying to the Lord,

Lord, we want your glory, we want your name to advance, we want your work to move forward and your

will to be done. That's the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray, and it is the way we all must

learn to pray. We're picking up our study today in Acts chapter 16, right where we left

off at a prayer meeting. In verse number 13, the Bible says, and on the Sabbath, we went out of the city

by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake under the women which

resorted thither. So Paul and the missionary team did what

they very often did when they came into a place where they wanted to get the gospel and begin a church.

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