Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
In your life. Enjoy the message.
Boy, how are you thankful for just a place where you walk in and doesn't matter what you carried in, just a moment in the presence of God, can change your perspective, can lift the burden, can give you a new look outlook on the day. And how about how your church served all those in western North Carolina.
I mean, how amazing.
I know you celebrated it, but I just think that's the way it ought to be.
That that when.
There's hurting, the church ought to show up, that when people are in need, and all across the world you showed.
Up in an amazing way and making a difference.
You know, you gave a couple of cold water, as the New Testament says, in the name of Jesus. And I love what they said in the video that we're gonna give them some coat.
We're gonna give them Jesus too.
We're gonna pray, We're gonna believe with them, We're gonna stand with them.
What an amazing thing. So honored to be back at elevation.
I love your your pastors, and I know everybody does, but I love them on another level. I was thinking before we got on the plane yesterday and made our way down, I was thinking, I've been coming down to Charlotte to set in a room, to set in a life recording, to set in a revival, all these kind of services for I think about eighteen years now and in this place. I know has marked your life, but I want you to know it's so deeply marked my life.
There's been so many turning points, so many moments. I know we could all give our own testimony of how it was a it was a song, it was it was something that carried you in a season. It's something that caused you to make a decision. And that only happens because two people with a vision said yes to God, laid it all on the line. Come on, can we put our hands together and thank God for our pastors. What a gift they are to the body of Christ. Are you ready for the Word of God today? Are
you ready? Let's go once you have a seat. Tell somebody beside you. I'm glad you set by me. I'm glad you set by me. I bring greetings from the great state of Virginia that is showing off right now. It's fall in Virginia. Doesn't get much better. And my wife Tammy, our four kids. It's a lot, y'all, and we're grateful for them most days. And I'm kidding Acts Chapter twelve, verse five. And I was telling chunks earlier. The later I get in my forties, the smaller the
print on my Bible keeps getting. I think someone is switching it out. So I have to wear these now. Acts Chapter twelve, verse five says this. It says, so Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly somebody shall earnestly praying to God for him. So Peter's in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. I want to bring a message entitled how to handle a setback? How to handle the setback? Let's pray together, Father, we have our hearts and minds open.
We pray.
Holy spirits speak to us. We haven't come just to do church. We've come that we might hear from heaven. So we believe your word has the power to change us and transform us, and so do that in these moments. We asked this in Jesus' name. Everybody said Amen. Amen. So I was thinking the other day about middle school. So you're thinking, why would you do that to yourself? But I was thinking about I grew up in East Tennessee, and I went to this middle school called Lyndby Middle School.
And I don't know how it is today.
It's not like this in my kid's school, so I don't know if it is across the board. But in East Tennessee, football was everything. Because the town was so small, we had nothing else to do, so we might as well watch football, all right. And so middle school, while I was on Thursday night and after every Thursday night football game, there was a dance every home game, and uh it was. It was less like a dance and
more like a standoff. It was like, guys on one side of the gym, come onyo with me, girls on the other side of the gym, and you just kind of stood there and stare at each other.
There was always a few.
Brave people that got out in the middle, but that was.
Not your boy here.
But there was this girl I had a crush on, and I was like, this is the moment, this is my moment. I'm gonna go over. I'm going to ask her to dance. And that was even a big step for me because I grew up in.
A very.
Conservative Denomination church and I I was for sure that I'd have to go get repentance for the dance. But it was worth to try, or y'all try like it was worth the experiment. And so walked all the way over the long walk, all the way over to the other side of the gym, and went up made the request. I don't even remember what I said. I think I kind of blacked out, and she graciously declined, thank you.
Thanks.
A lot of counseling later, I'm over it, but I appreciate this sympathy. And so then I make the long walk back right to the other side to trash talking from guys who realized that I got rejected for the dance invitation, and just in my middle school life, that was a major setback. Hello, somebody, major setback in my social climate, in my personal identity, self esteem, you know, all those major setback and how many of you know
that life is full of setbacks. If you've lived any bit of life at all, you know that life is full of setbacks. It's moments where you feel like I'm take making five steps forward and then it feels like sometimes it's eight steps Backwards's I feel like I'm things are going well, and then it's the phone call out of nowhere and you feel like, wow, there's a major setback. It's the relational issue where you felt like, man, we were getting traction and now feels like a major setback in life.
And life can be full.
Of setbacks, and I would propose that the text we just read is a major setback in the New Testament Church. Now, can we go to Sunday school for a minute? Okay, a few of you.
That's great. A confidence is real high right now? All right, So here's.
What's happening in the context of what we just read in Act chapter twelve, verse five, is this is the New Testament Church is growing.
I mean it's gangbusters.
It's day one, three thousand people come to faith in Christ and there's the birth of the New Testament Church. What a great launch day, right, I Mean that was a great campus launch, like three thousand in one day.
Here they all are for getting baptized.
I mean, it's just people are overflow, over overflow.
It's going great.
And then the Bible says they're being added to their number daily. Wow, I mean not just on Sundays, but they're being added to the number every.
Day of the week. People are coming to faith in Christ.
This movement is growing, This thing across Christianity is expanding, and in the middle of that, it's disrupting and upsetting all of the religious social political climate of the day. They are not all about this new movement that has started called Christianity. And so King Herod, who is the current king, decides he's going to start eliminating some of the leaders from the church. Now, this is Herod a grip of the First. Am I going too far into
Sunday school. Okay, heard a grip of the First which is the grandson of Herod, who was alive whenever Jesus was born. Here's all you need to know about the Herods. They all crazy, y'all, all of them. They all crazy. They all want to kill people. They're just all a little off in their mind. This is that Herod, and so he gets James, not James, the brother g James, the brother of John, and he kills him. So a major leader in the church in Jerusalem is now dead.
And the Jews are really happy because it is disrupting everything going on around them. Are off tracking so far, saymen. So Harod goes, okay, that grained me favor. I want to get more favor with the people, and so he goes, I'll go after.
Peter and I'll arrest Peter.
Now he arrested them during a week of celebration for the Jewish people, so he couldn't bring him up to trial, which the trial would just be a sham. And most likely what was happened is Peter was going to have the same fate as James. And so this is where we come into the text. Peter is kept in prison. He's kept there because the celebration hasn't ended. But the church was praying. This isn't a complex message. When you face a setback, prayer is a great place to start.
But I want to go a little little word nerd on you for a moment. I love I really parked on the word, but the conjunction. But now I grew up in East Tennessee. So language wasn't my strongest suit. But I do know this about conjunctions is that they bring together two phrases that are in contrast.
To one another.
Some would say some won't go this far, but some would say in contradiction to one another. Or the second phrase is the exception to the first phrase. So that means what's happening on this side of but is contradicted or contrasted to what's happening on.
This side of but.
And we see this in the text that it says Peter was kept in prison. And there could have been a whole lot of options for the text to say after that. It could have said, it could have used another conjunction, and it said and.
The church is depressed.
It's could have said Peter was kept in prison and the church was beginning to plan the funeral, Peter was kept in prison, and the church was going under and hiding. And sometimes is this not true in our life? That the setback comes in our life and our first response is not always to go to God in prayer. Often it is to go down the rabbit hole of the darkest thing that could turn out. I don't know about you,
but I'm preaching to me today. My mind when I get the phone call, when I get the bad news, in my mind, I end up going down the dark rabbit hole of how everything could go wrong. But the church decided to pray. I want to encourage you today that when the setback comes, you get to choose what is on the other side of the conjunction. That you get to decide what is on the other side of the butt, that you can go, Yeah, I got the
phone call and it's not looking good. But I serve a God that is greater than any circumstance I'm going through that you can get the bad news and go.
This year may not be going the way I want.
It to, but I serve the God of the breakthrough. You get to determine if you want it to be an end or you wanted to.
Be a butt. The church was prayed.
They could have gone a whole lot of directions, but they said, no, we're gonna We're gonna pray. And the Bible says that they were earnestly praying. In other words, they went to they went to battle on this thing, which tells me that they really believed in the power of prayer. They didn't see prayer as the last resort. They saw it as the first option that they ran to God first. I've been in situations where I've thought to myself, WHI I've done everything I know to do.
Now I'm gonna pray. It's not great for a pastor to say, right, but no. They believe there was something powerful about prayer. They believe that whenever they prayed, that Heaven listened. Evidently, they believe that whenever they prayed that God moved on their behalf. That maybe they believe that Old Testament verse that says the ear of God is not death, that he can't hear your prayers, nor is his arm too short that he can't reach down and change your situation.
They believed what all Spurgeon.
Said, that prayer is what touches the slender nerve of omnipotence that begins to move.
In our life.
That God actually responds to prayer, That I want to shake something up on the inside of you that that goes no, no, no no. I may be going through a battle right now, but if I'll call out to God, God is able to work on my behalf.
And they earnestly prayed.
It wasn't It wasn't a nice little prayer. It wasn't acute, like well phrased prayer.
You know what I'm talking.
About, Like, Lord, we just pray that if you might consider please.
No.
I have this picture in my mind that it's like ugly cry pray. Y'all try it. It's the I'm gonna I'm not getting up God until you do.
Something kind of prayer. There was something that rose on the inside of them. I was thinking about this. My wife and our kids. We were years ago when we called the bigs in the littles there. They're seventeen, fifteen, seven and five. Same wife. Just want to claire that for everybody. Don't want y'all thinking anything, posting anything.
Same wife.
We just took a big break. So our school picture this year was senior kindergartener. I will live forever my oldest son could bring my grandson to my youngest son's high school graduation.
Let that sink in yell. Some of you are like, what were you thinking? I wasn't. I like my wife, I wasn't thinking.
Okay, we were at this water park when the bigs were smaller. You called the bigs in the littles whenever the big kids were smaller. We were at this water park, and which is from the devil in general, going to a water park as a family. You don't know what's in that water. I mean, I don't care how much chlorine you put in it. But we were there. Anybody else with me in the House of God, go on, I felt the Holy Ghost on some of y'all.
Are like, yes, I felt that Jesus all right.
We were at this water park and the kids come over, you know, they're just their kids, and they run over and they jump on these chairs. And what they didn't know is that there was another lady with her kids walking towards those chairs. We saw it, and before my wife could get out of her mouth, her kids jump up. They were already heading towards those chairs. The lady makes some smart comment about it. Well, my wife is a
real Christian. Most days. Before I could get her like, come on your talking about for I could be like, let's act like we've been here before, something rose up out of her comments, came out of her.
Are y'all following me? They earnestly prayed.
On the inside of them, came up out of them and begin to come out of their mouth. I'm talking about a Jacob. I'm gonna wrestle with you until you bless me kind of prayer. Did you know that the word that is used there earnestly is only used one other time, and Luke, the author of Acts, used it in the Book of Luke's when it describes Jesus praying in the garden against simony. This was that kind of prayer, this kind of God. I'm not getting up until you touch me.
God.
I'm not letting go until there is a breakthrough.
God. I'm not gonna stop.
Calling on your name until you move on, my behalf. Can I tell you there are some setbacks in our life that they don't need some nice little prayer. They don't need some nice little patty Cake prayer, some little, nice little Paul's prayer.
They need God. I'm getting on my knees, on my face.
And until you touch, until the spirit of God shows up, until you give me a breakthrough, until I feel a release in my spirit.
God, I'm not letting go. And some of you, instead.
Of pressing in, you've got stuck because the setback will either cause you to lean in or shrink away. And for some of us we just accept the lot in life. Well, this just must be how life is going to be. Well, this just must be how it's going to turn out. For me, Well, some of us we believe the life of the enemy. This is what I deserve. And can I tell you that we serve the God that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly and above all that we
can ask, think or imagine. So here's what that means is that if you are if you are only expecting what your imagination can create, you are limiting God by the ability of your intellect. And my God is not limited by my imagination. That's why Paul said more than I can ask, think or.
Imagine.
So they earnestly prayed. I'm hoping some this sparks the spirit of God. Something on the inside of you goes no, no, no, I'm gonna less. I'm gonna I'm gonna let that fire reignite on the inside of me. God I'm calling, I'm I'm gonna lean back in like I've never some of you you've just you're like, well, I've just given up on the prayer. No, no, no, no, It's time to re engage it. It's time to lean back into it and go God, I'm not leaving you alone. I'm gonna keep
knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking. Well, God, what if God does answer after knock ten, the knock eleven, knock eleven, I think somebody preests the message one, don't stop on six because it may be that next knock. It may be that next thing that causes the breakthrough in your life. And you know what's powerful about prayer is that prayer is get you in agreement with God.
It gets you in agreement with God. There's real power in agreement.
Agreement means I'm gonna have the same opinion as whoever I'm coming into agreement with. And I think one of the one of the greatest schemes of the enemy in our life is he gets us in agreement with lies. He gets because we live out of the agreements that we make. And if he can get us agree with him about a situation. And I know we're thinking I
would never agree with the devil. I don't think we wake up and we like make this volitional, intentional decision that I'm I'm gonna come agreement with what the devil is saying about my life.
But enough lies spoken over our life.
We begin to adopt that lie and come in and we begin to align our decisions and our life with that lie. And so a setback comes into our life, and we can begin to believe the negative narrative in our mind that this will never change. And how do you know we come into agreement because we stop fighting for the change. I'll never use God can never use me that way, God can never love me that whatever
you want to fill in the blank with. We begin to come into agreement with those things, and then we begin to live out of that place of agreement instead of agreeing with God. And so no longer, no wonder we don't see breakthrough in life. No wonder we don't see the miracle that we want to see because God is still working that way, and God is still doing those things in the earth.
It's because we've come in agreement with the wrong things. I would like to break.
The agreement of the enemy over your life today and go The lie of the enemy is not not what you should be agreeing with.
It's the truth of God's word.
But you may be thinking, pastor, but what I what I see and what is tangible and what is front of me is not great.
I get that. I'm not saying I'm.
Just saying, don't go with what you see, go with what God said.
That you can go with what you see.
And it's and it's challenging in faith because it's all around you, it's right in front of you.
I walk into that.
Situation every day, or I wake up every morning with that challenge, or I step into that. I feel it, I see it. It's all around me.
I get it. I get it. But there has to be a choice.
In your mind that goes no, no, no, I'm gonna come into agreement with what God has said over me. I'm gonna I'm gonna break any agreement with lies that says this is the end.
I'm let me give an example.
You can get the diagnosis and go this is the end for me, or you could go, no, I'm gonna come in agreement with the word of God that says I will live and I will not die.
Are y'all following me? This is why I think.
I think this is what Paul was getting at in the Phlippians three, whenever he said I'm forgetting what is behind me and I'm pressing on. One translation says, I'm straining towards that which is ahead of me. In other words, I'm breaking away from some things in my past, and I'm pressing towards And he tells us towards the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
So my eyes are fixed on the prize of.
Jesus, and I'm breaking away from some things in my past.
Now think about this.
Paul's in a prison in either Ephesis or Rome when he's writing this, and he has some things to forget, does he not? I mean, do you imagine how many times that he's declaring the word of God or preaching the word of God that the enemy's like, yeah, but you killed these people. Yeah, but you tried to destroy the church in your past life. And Paul goes, no, I'm forgetting what is behind me. I am breaking away
from this narrative in my life. And this may not seem very powerful to you, but I want you to understand this idea of forgetting. So the biblical idea of forgetting. To understand that, you have to understand the biblical idea of remembering. Are you go with me? We're not playing word gymnastics. I'm going somewhere. Okay, you have to understand the Biblical idea of remembered and remembering in the Bible sense, isn't being able to recall facts and figures and being
able to retell a story. That's not remembering, that's been able to recall data. If you're tracking with me, say, man, okay, that's just being able to recall. The Biblical sense of of remembering is this is I dig up something from my history, especially where I see the faithfulness of God, and I bring it into my present in.
Such a way.
One scholar said that it has potency in my current reality, or it begins to change my current reality. In other words, this would be the example. In the Old Testament, they would build ebenezers, they would build stones of remembrance.
Why because they were an oral tradition.
They passed down stories of God orally to their generation after generation, so they could come back to that stone of remembrance and go, oh, let me tell you what God did for our family in this moment. And this would be told in a moment where they needed faith to be built. Are you tracking with me? This is
how it would work for us? Is that we come to some crossroads in our life, or to some setback, or to some painful moment in our life, it would be us going whoa time out before I spiral down the path of anxiety and spiral down the path of depression, and spiral down the path of everything is going in the wrong direction. It's not gonna work out for me. This isn't gonna turn out great. Before that, I'm going to time out and go wait, I've been here before.
The situation looks different, the names are different, and what I'm dealing with is different, but I've been in a similar place before. And when I was there before, I remember that God showed up for me in the middle of this storm. That God came through from me in the middle of this storm. And I am still standing today.
And the same God that did it yesterday is the same God that'll do it today and the same God that'll do it in all of my tomorrows now Here is remembering that when that happens, instead of anxiousness, peace that passes understanding feels your heart and mind. That is it having potency in your current reality. We're believers. We're supposed to be different. There's supposed to be a contrast to our life that when the world goes how can you be walking through hell but you have peace in
the middle of it. How can you be dealing with that tragedy but there is a joy. I'm not saying that it's not pain for you. I'm not saying we are. We're just like avoiding reality. I say, we're looking to a different reality. We're looking to a Kingdom reality. We're looking to a word of God reality. And so I am walking. I may be walking through chaos, but chaos is not in me, although it is all around me, because I am remembering the faithfulness of God.
All right. Put it in opposite, Paul says, I'm forgetting what is behind me.
So any sin of my past, mistakes, of my past issues from my past, things that the enemy is wanting to shame me of, Paul is going in the same way that I remember to have potency in my current reality.
I forget what.
Is behind me, and so I'm no longer held or bound by the issues of my past, or bound by the sin of my past, or bound by the things that people have spoken over me. I'm no longer bound by when they walked out and said you're not worth loving and no one will ever want to be with you. I'm not bound by when they spoke death over my life.
I'm forgetting.
I am breaking agreement with what is behind me, and I'm pressing in to everything that is ahead of me. Come on, put your hands together in the House of God. There's power in agreement. There's power in agreement. Be careful who you agree with. Be careful what word you come in agreement with. Just because they said it doesn't mean you have to agree with it. Just because they spoke it, don't mean you got to listen.
Hello.
Just because they posted it don't mean you need to follow. Some of y'all need some spiritual amnesia. I need some men in black. Google it if you don't know the movie Forgetting what is behind I'm forgetting what. I'm coming out of agreement, and I'm coming into agreement with the word Prayer brings me in. Prayer is aligning my heart. And it may not be the first time you pray. It may be the second time you pray. But as you seek the Lord in prayer, what happens you come
more and more into agreement. Why do you think we want you in e groups? In church and on a volunteer team and get plugged into the community of God.
Here. Why do we want that?
Because sometimes you need some people around you that go, no, no, no, what that's not true. No no, no, no no, You're not gonna this is not the end for you. No no, no, no. You need some people that when you're like I don't even feel like getting out of bed right now, they're like, I will come drag you from your house and I will bring you to campus. I will come by you, I will grab your hand. When you can't pray, I'll
pray for you. Because you need some people. Why because the Bible says in Matthew eighteen, when two or three are gathering, they touch and agree. Why because there's not only power and agreement with God. There's power when I come in agreement with people around me. There's power in your agreement. Now here's where we suck the shout out of the room, because there would be no reason to pray if Paul hadn't have been in prison. It was actually the pain of prison that purposed the church to pray.
So if everything had have been going Rosie in the New Testament Church, I propose the church wouldn't have learned to pray the way they prayed. Now, I'm not saying that God put Peter in because I don't believe it's in the character of God. But I do believe that God has a way of working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. It was the pain that elevated
their prayer to a new level. It was the pain of prison that gave them a muscle that they did not have before in faith. And some of you, you're looking at pain right now in your life, going God, why are you doing this to me? And I would want to reframe the question what is God wanting to do for you? That sometimes we put the wrong frame around it, and when we frame it wrong, we see
it wrong. Recently, my wife and I went on we celebrated twenty years married, and we went on, Yeah, thank you, you should have pulled for her.
She's stuck with me.
We went we went on an anniversary trip and we were going to the We were visiting these museums and we had this guide and uh, the God was taking us through and I'm guys, I'm I would like to be more cultured and I'm pretty simple.
Give me some barbecue in college football and let's call it a day. Like, I'm good to go.
But we went into all these art galleries and I mean it was it was pretty amazing. But the way the the guide was framing it for me like actually made me interested in what I was seeing. And so she's like, these are one of a kind. You'll never see it was Michaelangelo. We're going to see some da Vinci. I was like, all right, I've heard those names. And so we walk in there and I'm walking slowly. I'm like, yeah, look at the use of color. I have no idea.
I don't know what I'm saying. I mean, who says that. I'm like, yeah, look at look at that's that's from Renaissance period right there.
It's amazing.
Take the guide away, Take the framing away. I had to walk through there and been like I've seen that at Target. Come on, somebody, anybody else with me. I'd have been like, I've seen that before. It was a hobby lobby. I don't know who that guy is. Well, what happened? She set it up with a different frame for me. Are you tracking with me? Can I set up the pain of prison in a different frame for you, that just maybe what you're seeing as God, why are
you doing this to me? And that's the language you said, why is this happening to me? Why is this thing coming to me now? No, maybe God is doing something for you.
Maybe there's a.
Muscle of faith that God is wanting to build and he's capitalizing on what seems like a painful situation in your life to grow something deeper on the inside of you so that you can handle a more weight. Could it be that God sees so much potential in your life and see so much for you down the future. Because our God is outside of time, you're tracking with me. He doesn't have it in a beginning, and he doesn't
have an end, so he doesn't live within time. He lives outside of time, and so he is standing outside of time watching the day you were born and the day you die at the same time, and.
He's outside it.
So could it be that he knows right now, in this momentary moment where you are dealing with this pain, he's going, Yeah, but six months from now, I'm about to do something in their life that will blow their mind. But before they get to there, I need to grow something in here. I need to grow some care. Could I propose that that character grows really good in pain. Could I say that faith gets a muscle you never
had when you're walking through something challenging. Could I say that there's something developed on the inside of you that just maybe without it wouldn't be developed, and then you wouldn't be prepared for the blessing God wants to put into your life. It was the pain of prison that brought the church to pray. Could we frame it different? Could you see it different? Oh, God, you're not doing
this to me. There's something you're doing for me in this because God is moving you from victory to victory. The only problem is we don't know how long two is victory two. We want it to be victory to victory. In my experience, sometimes it's victory to.
Victory. Come on, somebody. The text goes on to say this.
Says, the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, which is fascinating to me, bound with two chains and centuries stood guard at the entrance there there were there were actually sixteen guards over him. They must have been really scared of Peter, and it said. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell, and he struck Peter on the side and woke him up. Quick, get up, he said,
and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. And then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and sandals, and Peter did so, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And the angel told him, and Peter followed him out of the prison. But he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. Peter's like, in that moment between awaken a sleep, you know what I'm talking about.
It's that it's that moment like when your preschooler walks in and stands at the side of your bed quietly. That's so true. It I'm preaching right now, and you're like, I rebuke that devil. Then they're like, Dad, I'm like, oh, I'm sorry.
Theoretically heard that happens.
They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city and opened for them by itself, and they went through it, and when they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. He's like, you got to go from here, Peter. This is so interesting to me that the two responses to setbacks or to pressure. Think about this. The church is under pressure, but Peter is too. He's actually the one in chains. The churches is in duress and they
go to praying. Peter's intress and he goes to sleeping. I think they're both great responses to a setback. Yes, there is time to lean in and pray, but there's also time to rest in the sovereignty of God. Have you ever felt that way, that you're stuck between two things? Life is never as simple as we make it. It's never one issue I'm dealing with. It's it's I'm chained
between betrayal and unforgiveness. I'm changing, I'm chained between lack of direction, and I got friendships that are falling apart. It's rarely that we're dealing with one thing and Peter is stuck and he's he's chained in between two different things and in the middle that the Bible says that he's sleeping.
I mean, think about this, like, like put yourself in that situation. I don't think I would be sleeping and there was no Xanax.
There there's no Nike will, there's no come on advill PM. Thank you Jesus, the Christian one. I don't take drugs. I just go to sleep with ADBULPM. There's none of that. But Peter is asleep in the middle of it. I started asking myself how in the world was Peter sleeping in between two guards chained? Knowing what happened to James, he had to know the next morning. This isn't a real trial. I'm probably going to be murdered, but he's sleeping.
Here's what I feel like, the Spirit of God said to me, is that why would I be awake at night worrying about tomorrow when God was already there. Why would I be worrying right now and losing sleep when God is in all of my tomorrows? And if God is already in my tomorrow, then he's already taking care of what I can I just encourage somebody today. Some of you got a conversation tomorrow, you gotta have. Some
of you don't know what you're walking into tomorrow. Can I tell you the God that is all places at all times, is already in all of your tomorrows? That He's already been there, he's already seen the conversation, He's already dealt with the situation. And if he can be trusted in your today, he can be trusted in all of your tomorrows. So why stress? Why worry? Why be overwhelmed in the middle of it? Peter was sleeping in between two soldiers, because I think Peter was like, God's
already there, God's already got me. Can I tell you God's already got you that? If he knows the hairs on your head? Don't you think he's got those things that are worrying you. Don't you think he's in the middle of the setback that you're facing right now? If he can be trusted with your salvation, can he be trusted with your finances? If he can be trusted with your eternity, can't he be trusted with your child? If he can be trusted with the forgiveness of your sin?
Can't he be trusted? But that roommate situation that is wearing you out, worrying you, He's already in your tomorrow. Why should I be up worrying about it? Why it's the band to come out and join me? So he says that he the angel kicks him or strikes him. I don't know what he did. I just picture he's like, get up, Peter, and then he says, he walks past all the guards and he gets out in the street, and then he is able to take off by himself. I want, I want to point this thought out to
you that Peter didn't escape, Peter was delivered. There's a big difference in the two that if Peter had escaped, that would have been Peter's doing. And sometimes when we face a setback, that is our approach. I need to pay my way out of this. I need to network my way out of this. Who can I talk to?
Who can I see? I mean some of us would have been like Peter was kept in prison, and the church was lobbying the local political leaders, and the church was out talking to everybody, and the church was posting about it, and the church was trying and raise awaren for I'm not against.
Any of that.
I'm just saying their approach was to go to God, to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these other things that you're worrying about will be added unto you as well. But if Peter had escaped, then Peter could have end back in the situation he was in. But when God delivers you, then God will cause you to walk right past the people that and change you and prisons you up, and you will be Let me say it this way, whom the
sun sets free is free. Indeed, are you tracking with me? I just want you to when you face a setback, don't seek to escape it.
Seek God deliver me out of this. God.
I want you to do this because if you get the chains off of I don't have to pick the lock and try.
To figure it out myself.
God, if you will get the chains off of me, you will open the door.
If you open the.
Door, I can walk right past the critic, I can walk right past the person that was trying to set me back.
I can walk right.
Past them all because the Angel of the Lord is with me, and I will the scap be delivered, but not escape from it. I'm wanting God to move on my behalf. And so the end of the story is this. He goes back and he talks. He goes and knocks on the door where they're all gathering, and they're all praying, and the servant girl comes to the door. She didn't even open it. She runs back and she's like, I heard Peter's voice out there. And they come back and
they're like, it couldn't be. I just love the humanity God gives us. In the Bible, they're praying, these great people of faith, earnestly praying, Peter's at the door. There's no way God's answered our prayer.
That's what they're saying. Being couraged today.
If you feel like you got a mustard seed of faith, that's enough. He says, I that can't be him. And then they said this, which is telling. They said it must be his ghost. Now in that time, they believe that that your spirit remained for four days after your death. This is why Jesus waited to go to lazarus tomb to make sure they knew he was dead dead. They believed that. So what they were saying is they must have already killed him, and now his spirit has come.
And then they knock on the door. He knocks again. They finally open it, and then they rejoice that God has answered their prayer. Here's what I want to leave you with, the same God, the same God that got Peter out of prison, is the same God that is working in your life today. The Church didn't have some specific system of prayer that got God to listen to them and move on their behalf.
They didn't have the.
Right words that they together in the right sentence. They didn't have some golden ticket. They just had an earnest prayer before God. And God heard their prayers. And I want you to know today that if you will earnestly pray before God, God hears your prayers, and God will move on your behalf because He's a God that loves you and.
Is for you. And the same God I want you to hear this, the.
Same God that part of the red Sea is the same God that is working in your life today. That our God's arm is not too short.
To reach into your situation.
The same God that was cloud by day and fire by night is the same God that is working in your situation today.
And the same God.
That took down Goliath with a little rock is the same God that is working today.
And the same God that said.
Lazarus get up out of that tomb is the same God.
That is working today.
And the same God that caused Jesus to rise up from the grave is the same God that is working today. And so while you're praying, why don't you get praised. That's the same God that did.
It for them, will do it for you too.
You can pray and you can praise, but that's the same God.
It's the same God.
And I don't know what you're facing today, and I don't know what you're dealing with. I don't know what has you overwhelmed.
But I do know this that Peter was kept in.
Prison, but the church prayed, and when the church prayed, all of heaven moved. And that same God will do it for you today. Come on, do you believe the word of God today? Every head bout, every eye closed, at all of our campuses. You know, for some of you, the greatest prayer you could ever pray is the prayer that says, God, I.
Surrender my life to you. It's the greatest prayer.
It's the prayer that says, I'm far from you, my sin is separated me from you. But I want relationship with you. I want to know you personally, not know about you, not check a box. I want to know you personally. The Bible says, if we confess with our mouth at Jesus is Lord. That means I'm done calling the shots God. I'm surrendering to you. And we believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. That's the resurrection. Then we will be saved. We can
have a brand new beginning today. And some of you today you need to come back to God or maybe today you need to begin a brand new relationship with Him. We're going to pray in just a moment together as a church family for those who are taking this step today, and no one prays alone. If you say that's me. I need a fresh start today, I need a new beginning. The Bible says if anybody's in Christ, they're a new creation. God can make you new today. They can be a
day of brand new beginnings. So let's pray this outline. I'll across all of our locations. Are you found, just say, Jesus, I need you. I ask you to forgive me of all my sin. I believe you died for me. I believe God raised you from the dead. Today I'll make you my Lord and savior. Thank you for a brand new beginning in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen, Come on, if you made that decision today, will you just slip your hand up, come on every campus. You're coming back to God today.
Thank you for joining us.
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