Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and
live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message. Good morning, Riverbend.
Welcome to church this morning. So grateful that you're here
with us. This is going to be a new day
here in Gainesville because you see me only on the screen.
Pastor Chris Guthrie thinks that it's no different.
Apparently he that's a fat joke, you know, he thinks I'm large
and in charge up here, but here we are on the screen.
You get a little taste of what it's like in Oakwood today.
I am down in Oakwood at the campus down there and excited to
be a part of of today with with both campuses and getting to see
some people at both places. It's really awesome to see all
God. That's all that God is doing in
the life of Riverbend. Don't take for granted what we
get to be a part of. Don't take for granted that we
are a church with multiple locations serving the city, not
only here in Gainesville but also in Oakwood, and spreading
the good news about Jesus through your hands, through your
efforts. Don't take it for granted the
opportunity that's in front of us and all that God's called us
to. I'm excited about it.
I hope you are as well. It's an honor to be here today
with you teaching about prayer, one of my favorite subjects to
teach on because it always teaches me the Bible when I come
to it always teaches me something new about prayer when
I teach it myself. We find ourselves in Acts
Chapter 12 today, where we're going to study a miraculous
answered prayer. And we're going to focus more
specifically on verse 5 today, where we'll look at the way that
this prayer was answered and we'll look at it from 4
different angles. In Acts Chapter 2, we're going
to see the opposition, the nature, the subject.
And the recipient. So let's go to Acts chapter 12
together, starting in verse one. If you don't have your Bible,
that's OK, it'll be on your screen.
I'm reading from the English Standard version today.
About that time, Herod the King laid violent hands on some who
belonged to the church. Violent hands.
Persecuting the church, Doing
acts of violence against the church.
And he even killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.
And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest
Peter also. This was during the days of
Unleavened bread. And when he had seized Peter, he
put him in prison, delivering him over to 4 squads of soldiers
to guard him. He he put 4 squads of soldiers.
In place to guard Peter. This is how significant this
prisoner was for the King. He was intending after the
Passover to bring Peter out to the people.
So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made
to God by the church. And now when Herod was about to
bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping
between two soldiers. I got this picture where he's.
He's just sleeping right here, and the two soldiers are right
beside and making sure that you don't go anywhere bound with two
chains and centuries before the door were guarding the prison.
And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light
shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and
woke him up saying get up. Quickly.
I love this picture because Peter's there sleeping and the
an Angel comes in and the light shines brightly.
Of course. And that doesn't wake Peter up,
because we know that the Angel had to strike him on the side,
prodding him on the side. Wake up.
Peter was fast asleep. We'll come back to that later.
And the chains fell off of his hands and the Angel said to him,
Dress yourself, put on your sandals.
And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your
cloak around you and follow me. Verse nine he went out and
followed him. He did not know that he was
being what was being done by the Angel was real, but he thought
he was seeing a vision. And when they had passed the 1st
and the 2nd guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the
city. What are we going to do with
this iron gate? But it opened for them on its
own accord, and they went out, went along one street, and
immediately the Angel. Left him when Peter came to
himself, he said. Now I am sure that the Lord has
sent his Angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from
all that the Jewish people were expecting.
And when he realized this, he went to the House of Mary, the
mother of whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered
and praying. And when he knocked at the door
of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.
But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened they saw
him and were amazed, motioning to to them with his hand to be
silent. He described to them how the
Lord had brought him out of the prison, and he said, tell these
things to James and to the brothers.
And then he departed and went to another place.
This is an unbelievable story. There's so many things to focus
on, of course, this morning in this text about this miraculous
escape from prison and how the Angel came to deliver Peter and
and why the Lord delivered Peter in this way.
And how he came to visit the disciples.
And how the the disciples were there with the church and they
were praying so many things about this miracle to focus on
how they came to the iron gate. And the iron gate just opened on
its own accord and. How the chains that were on
Peter's hands just fell off. How?
How the guards had no hope of stopping him.
But the thing that I want to focus on this morning,
ultimately, is the thing that we can apply first and foremost,
the thing that we should be focusing on each and every day
of our lives. And that's prayer.
So first, let's look at the opposition.
Of their prayer, the early church was under fire.
The most powerful man in the land, the king, King Herod, was
coming against them and laying violent hands on them.
He he had just killed one of their leaders, one of their
brothers. He was surely now going to come
for them as well, right? And he had Peter locked up, so
he had great plans for Peter. I'm sure they were like lambs
among wolves, like. Just getting ready to be
slaughtered. So what did they do?
What did they do when they were under fire?
What do you do when you're under fire?
What do you do when you're in these moments where you know
that you're in trouble? What was their protection?
What was their first move? What was their battle plan?
Their their battle plan, their first move.
Their their decisive. Action was to go to the Lord in
prayer. Prayer was their plan.
They didn't look for weapons. They didn't gather around the
table and begin to scheme about how they were going to go about
it. They didn't consider their
strategies. They prayed.
They went to their father. In prayer, instead of talking
about their problems, they asked God to solve them.
Instead of choosing worry, they chose to trust.
They chose to go to their father 1st and petition him.
You see, I I I think the riskiest lie that we believe is
that we can live without prayer. Think this is one of those lies
that the enemy loves? To sow into our minds and our
hearts that we can live without. We'll be OK.
What is God gonna do for you anyway?
Are you sure he's even gonna hear you?
How is you think he's gonna answer you with everything else
he's got going on? And then we tend to just walk
through life thinking that we can live without this
connection, this communion. With God, like living without
prayer is kind of like a fish out of water.
Living without prayer is kind of like a flower without sunshine,
you know? It's confusing too.
It's maybe. Another good example would be
like a tractor. When you look at a tractor and
you see it, you think that the blades are doing all the work.
What's more important, the blades are the engine.
Blades aren't going to move if the engine doesn't move them.
The riskiest lie we believe is that we can live without prayer.
What's the first thing you do when you're under fire?
Where's the 1st place that you turn for help?
Psalm 34 starting in verse 15. This is a beautiful part of
Scripture about prayer, psalmist rights.
The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and the ears.
His ears are toward their cry. He's looking.
He's listening. The face of the Lord is against
those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
When the righteous cry for help. When the righteous cry for help
when they come to me and petition me, when they join
together in the Church, and they ask me to deliver Peter, I hear
the Lord. Hears and delivers them out of
all their troubles. The Lord is near to the broken
hearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
The Lord is near to the broken hearted, saves the crushed in
spirit. He hears the righteous cry for
helping. He He comes in to deliver.
Them out of all their troubles. These are texts.
These are parts of scripture that we must remember.
Look at Psalm 107, starting in verse 4.
The some wondered in the desert waste, finding no way to a city
to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty.
They're so fainted within them. Maybe you feel like this today.
Maybe you've come into riverbend shirts feeling hungry in your
soul. Feeling thirsty?
In your soul in a in a way that you can't satisfy on your own,
and you know it. Maybe you've come here looking
for a place to dwell that's safe.
This is a good scripture for you to read this morning because
they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them
from their distress. Look at verse seven.
We're going to look at verse 7. He led them by a straight way,
till they reached a city to dwell in.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love for his wondrous
works to the children of man, for he satisfies the longing
soul and the hungry soul. He fills with good things.
This is what he did. He he led them.
To a city to dwell in. By a straight way, he he heard
their cry, he delivered them and he led them there.
This is this is the result of coming to him and crying for
help. Where are you going when you're
in need? Where are you going when you
need help? Where's your first place to
turn? It's a beautiful picture, and I
don't want you to think that today God's up there waiting for
you to give him your request. And then he's going to act just
accordingly to what you say, because we know that he answers
according to his will, and we know that when he delivers us,
when he rescues us. Any action that He takes as a
result of our prayer is in accordance with His will.
It's in alignment with His will. But he will act.
He will hear the cries of His children.
When the world was against the early church and they were
afraid, afraid for their lives, they immediately and
persistently prayed. Second thing I want to look at
today is the nature of their prayer.
Acts 12 verse five. So Peter was kept in prison, but
earnest prayer was for him made to God by the Church.
Earnest prayer. The nature of their prayer is
that it was earnest, earnest, fervent, strenuous.
This, this word here, this adverb for fervent.
For Earnest, it's the same word that Luke uses in Luke chapter
22 when he's describing the Lord's Prayer in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when Jesus was crying to God for help and.
And Luke wrote that he was in agony and he was praying very
fervently and and his sweat became like drops of blood
falling down upon the ground. You see this word for fervent
here, the same word that's used in Acts chapter 12 and Luke
chapter 22 is it means to stretch a muscle to its limit.
It's it's a medical term. It quite literally means to
stretch a muscle to its limit. Earnest, fervent, the church
poured out everything they had into their prayers for Peter.
They stretched out according to Luke.
They prayed similarly to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
What a beautiful picture that the early church was agonizing
to be with God, desperate for his presence, longing to
communicate with him. They were convinced that he was
all they need. They were convinced that in Him
was fullness of life, fullness of joy, hope, eternal hope.
And they agonized to be with Him.
They didn't have a great. Organized plan, but they
agonized for supernatural power, Dr. G Campbell Morgan once
warned. There's this great quote, I
thought we had it on the screen, but just follow with me here,
Dr. G Campbell Morgan said. This one of Satan's methods
today. Is to start so many programs in
a church that the members have no time for unhurried communion
with God. Many Christians are so busy that
they can hear only the clink and clatter of church machinery, as
if there's a strategy of the enemy to get us so.
Distracted by all the good things that we do here to where
we are unable to slow down and listen, slow down and commune
with the Father. The early church was desperate,
Ferv, and earnest. They stretched their muscles to
the limit and agony to commune with God.
There's there's a big difference between this posture and a
posture. That's.
Focused on organizing and planning everything to a certain
degree and making sure we get it all right.
There's a big difference between organizing and agonizing, and I
wonder if we've grown to be over organized and under agonized,
Samuel Chadwick said this. The one concern of the devil is
to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless
studies. He fears nothing from prayerless
work or prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil.
He mocks at our wisdom. But he trembles when we pray,
trembles when we pray. There's power and prayer.
There's more power than we can imagine, and I fear that most of
us don't have. We haven't even scratched the
surface of our understanding of our deficit in this area.
The. Early church gave more attention
to praying than planning. It's very important for us to
consider where we give our time and our attention and our
energy. Because where we give our time,
our attention and our energy will reflect what we value the
most. It will reflect where we put our
trust. We can see clearly time and time
again. In the early church they went to
God in prayer 1st and consistently because they
believed that he had all the power.
They believed that he was going to be the one to make the
difference. They believed ultimately that he
had all that they needed and it reflected their dependence on
him. We see how dependent we are by
how much attention we give to praying.
Reminds me of a story about Charles Spurgeon.
The great preacher in England. He led a church called the
Metropolitan Tabernacle for many years in England, and he was
there was a story about him leading visitors who had come
for the first time on a tour of the church.
It was after a service had completed and he was showing
them around and after they had gone through the main building,
he he walked them through a hall and he said, I want to show you
the most important room in the building.
I want you to, I want to show you the most important place.
It's called the heating apparatus.
That's what he called it, the heating apparatus.
He took them in this room and he opened the door and much to
their surprise, they saw 400 people in there praying, crying
out to God. This prayer room became infamous
and Charles Spurgeon's under Charles Spurgeon's leadership.
He believed that that was the reason that they saw so much
growth, because they gave so much attention to their prayer
meetings. The Church, with warmth of
spirit, must have a heating apparatus.
Third thing we're going to look at today is the subject of their
prayer. So Peter was kept in prison
earnest. Prayer was made to God by the
Church for him. For Peter.
The subject of their prayer was Peter.
And we see here the power of specific intercession.
They they they put Peter in the middle of their prayer as the
subject. And they they they focused all
their attention on God and they asked God to intercede for
Peter. Imagine how this all went down,
right. I get inside of these stories
and I think how in reality, how did this all go down as they're
gathering together and they came together and and James had just
been killed and now Peter has been arrested and detained.
And So what are we going to do, you know?
And they're coming in and I imagine that there's some that
are more worried and some that are more scared and some that
are kind of reserved and and thinking about what they're
going to do and and some are just ready to to charge the hill
and and go break him out of prison.
And they got all these different perspectives.
But what do we see them? Do we see them come together?
And it's almost like they just join in one chorus.
They just join in concert to say we need the Lord, we need to
pray, we have a need. We agree on the problem.
We have a need. So hurry, let's go to the Lord.
Hurry, hurry, Come, come on. We have a special matter.
It deserves special attention, surely.
Surely in this moment they were focused on the one prayer.
And surely they weren't praying. And general terms, they were
crying out to God for help about Peter.
I've been in many hospital rooms and when you're in the hospital
room and it seems like all hope is lost, the prayer is focused.
The prayer is specific. The prayer is urgent but but I
think about this and I and I put myself in this scene and and we
we can see from the timeline here that they were continually
praying with the same earnestness with the same
urgency, day in day out. They had shifts that they were
taking. They they believed so much in
this war in prayer. They didn't stop, and he didn't
just do this when a tragedy struck or something devastating
might happen. It was a way of life for them
because they believed in the power of prayer and God heard
their intercession. Why not pray specifically for a
missionary that you know that needs help?
Why not pray specifically and consistently for someone that
you know is in great need? Why not ask God to act in his
sovereign power, in something that requires his special
attention, Something that is going to blow the doctor's
minds? Because it's only from his power
that it could be made possible. When it looked as if the early
church could do nothing, they believed that they could do
everything by prayer. Day and night they gathered
together, taking shifts, Peter as the subject.
They didn't stop until he knocked on the door.
They prayed him out. They prayed him out.
Imagine the joy when he knocked on the door first.
They didn't even believe him. They said it was an Angel.
They prayed him out. What a miracle.
Are you asking God for specific things today?
You have a list. I know many of you do have
talked to many of you. You have a list and and maybe
you're here today and you say I'm.
I'm growing tired of asking God for the same thing and not
seeing anything happen. I'm.
I'm getting ready to quit today. I want to encourage you, don't
quit. Take a page from the early
church's book. He hears the cries of his
children and he answers prayer, sometimes with a yes, sometimes
with a no, sometimes with a wait, sometimes with go.
But he answers prayer. Don't, don't miss this.
Don't just come to God expecting the answer to be yes as if he is
some genie in a bottle to answer your every need according to how
you ask it. Don't, don't, don't miss out
you. You will miss out on so much
fruit if you only pray to God when you think or know the
answer is going to be yes, because He shapes you in prayer,
He molds you in prayer, He changes things in prayer, even
if he's just changing you. He hears you can trust that any
answers, even when the answer is not exactly what you want, or
even when the answer is not yet. And he's teaching you how to
wait and rest upon him. Fourth and last angle that we'll
look at today on our Scripture is the recipient of their
prayer. Earnest prayer was made right
for Peter to God. Recipient of their prayer was
God. They knew who they were praying
to. They knew His power.
They knew his sovereignty. They knew they trusted him
completely. It matters that you know who
you're praying to. You say, well, yeah, of course
we're praying to God. The whole world prays to God.
The whole world, even if they don't believe him, they they
pray to God when they're in need.
No, no, no, no, no. I mean, do you know, Do you know
who you're praying to? Do you really know?
Because to know him is to trust him.
Because he's never failed. To know him is to believe in
him. If you really know him, you'll
believe. Because he is unstoppable.
He is ever worth all of our praise.
He is everlasting in his love, his goodness and his kindness
never end. To know him is to trust him.
Just look at Peter in the jail cell as an example.
Sound asleep. We get the picture of this scene
in the presence of many guards. The scripture, remember, said
that they had four companies of guards.
He's sleeping in between two of them.
He's chained up and he's on a hard floor, hard and filthy
floor. They didn't talk about a pillow
like, I don't know about you, but I got to have a pillow and I
got to have a good pillow. I can have two good pillows.
He didn't have a pillow. Apparently he's laying on a hard
floor. He's chained up.
Sound asleep, Jared. How you know he sound asleep?
Because the Angel came in with the bright light.
Didn't help. It didn't wake him up.
Angel came in. Had to proud him awake.
Wake up. Wake up, Peter.
We got things to do, Peter. Sound asleep.
The kings threatening to take his life didn't matter.
Nothing could disturb his rest. Nothing could disturb his rest.
There is certainly a lesson to be learned here about resting in
God. When you know who you're praying
to and when you know his track record, nothing can disturb your
rest. When you know God, you trust
God, and when you trust Him, you'll find rest in him.
Peter knew God had a perfect track record.
Peter knew who he was praying to.
Peter knew who the church was praying to.
Peter was just resting because he believed that God was
ultimately in control. And later we see this very same
Peter advising us when he wrote 7.
Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you.
This is a very literal example of him doing what he preached
later casting all his anxiety on him.
Because he care. And if he care, the God that I
know, if he cares, I don't have anything to worry about.
There's a direct relationship between trust and God.
And finding rest for your soul direct relationship?
Don't. Miss this.
If you trust God, you. Will find rest for your soul and
so many of you, today you. You need rest.
You need rest for your soul. You feel restless in a way that
you can't fix, and you've been trying all kinds of things to
fix it. I want to urge you today to go
to him in prayer consistently and begin to to learn more about
Him and ask him to show you more of Him so that you can know him
more completely. And when you know him, you will
trust him, and when you trust him you will find rest in him.
There's a story in Second Chronicles 20 in the time of
King Jehosha Fat. And a multitude was coming
against the people. Jehosha Fat the king.
Called a national fast because he was terrified.
He's leading the people against this great army and.
In verse 12 we see Jehosha Fat praying.
What a beautiful prayer. Oh, our God, will you not
execute judgment on them, our enemies?
For we're powerless against this great horde that is coming
against us. Powerless.
We recognize our weakness here, but we recognize your strength
in it. And we do not know what to do.
But our eyes are on you. We do not know what to do, but
our eyes are on you. What do I pray?
I'm terrified.
I don't know what to pray. I don't have words, which your
hostile fat didn't either. And he just simply said God, we
don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
Oh, what a prayer for some of us today to consider what a prayer
to memorize with God. I don't know what to do, but one
thing I do do is I put my eyes on you.
My eyes will remain on you because I believe that you have
what I need and you can preserve, you can uphold, you
can deliver. And meanwhile all of Judah stood
before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and
their children, going to verse 14.
And the spirit of the Lord came upon Jehesi El, the son of
Zechariah, son of Banaya, son of GL, son of Matt, Naya, A Levite
of the sons of Asaf, in the midst of the assembly.
And he said, Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and King Jehasha fat. Thus says the Lord to you, do
not be afraid, do not be dismayed at this great horde,
for the battle is not yours, but gods now is.
This is one of those TV's I could write on, you know,
underline that, but the battle is not yours.
But God, we don't know what to do.
But our eyes are on you and we trust you.
Because the battle is not ours. It's yours.
You will win the battle. If we're going to win, it's
going to be because of you. The Lord continues tomorrow.
Go down against them. Behold.
They will come up by the ascent of Zizz.
What a word, Zizz. I wouldn't name my kid that if I
were you, but you know, I mean it's built in nickname Zizzy.
You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the
wilderness of drool and you will not need to fight in this
battle. So stand firm and hold your
position and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.
You don't need to fight. All you gotta do is stand firm
and hold your position and keep your eyes on him.
If I had more time, I'd preach all on that right there.
Oh, Judah and Jerusalem, do not be afraid.
Do not be dismayed. Tomorrow, go against them.
The Lord will be with you. The battle's not yours, but
God's. The Lord will be with you.
So stand firm and hold your position trusting.
That he's in control, That he's ultimately powerful and you will
be victorious at his hand. God's people have been marked by
prayer for generations. We see it here in Second
Chronicles, We see it in Acts. We see it everywhere in between.
It's no different for us today. My question my.
Challenge for all of us is How's your prayer life?
How's your prayer life? What?
Are you praying for? And how's it going?
I. Found this poem that I thought
was very relevant. It's called Into the Day and I
couldn't find who the author was.
It says unknown but. I want you to listen to this
poem. It's it's short.
It's called Into the day. I got up early one morning and
rushed into the day. I.
Had so much to accomplish, I didn't have time to pray.
Troubles just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task.
Why doesn't God help me? I wondered, and he answered.
You didn't ask. I tried to come into God's
presence. I used all my keys at the Loch.
God gently and lovingly chided. Why, child, you didn't knock.
I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on Gray and
bleak. I called on the Lord for reason
and he said you didn't seek. So I woke up early this morning
and paused before entering the day.
I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray,
Martin Luther once said. Famously that I have so much to
do today that I. Shall spend the first three
hours of it in prayer. So much to do.
The world is closing it around me.
I have so many things to figure out and work through.
So the First things first. I'm going to rise early and
pray. How's your prayer life?
Christ died that you might be reconciled to God by grace
through faith. Christ died that that you might
be reconciled, and that He would be at the right hand of the
Father as your Advocate at the throne of God.
If you're a Christian, this is the confidence that you have in
prayer That Jesus Christ your Advocate, your Savior, who died
and rose again on the third day for the forgiveness of sins, now
is in heaven at the right hand of God advocating on your
behalf. This is your confidence.
If you're in Christ, nothing is stopping you from direct access
to the Father. But if you don't know him today,
can I tell you that you're the only one standing in the way?
If you don't know him today, come to him in repentance and
faith. And begin daily walking with
him. In prayer, you pray with me
church. Father God in heaven, I thank
you for your word. I thank you for meeting with us
here. Thank you that you've given us
access. Because of Jesus by the Holy
Spirit that we can enter with confidence into the throne room
of grace where we may find help in times of need.
God, we are needy and ultimately we.
Know that you have. All that we need, even more than
we need. So God, I pray.
That you give us a hunger for your presence today.
Pray that you help us. To sink deeply into your love,
Help us to know. You more.
And as we know you more, I believe we will trust you more.
We will find rest. For our souls, help us God.
To be a city on a hill that cannot be hidden, would you
light? A fire in us so that we could.
Shine to the world your light it's in.
Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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