The Word Of God Lives On | Tyrone P. Jones | Book of Acts | Full Service

(upbeat music) - Well good morning church for the city. It's so good to be back in the House of the Lord this morning. My name is Will. If you're new here, it's your first time. We'd like to get to know you. You can check in with us. You can use your phone and tap the disc on the chair in front of you or check in with the guest connect table out in the office or in the lobby there. If you're watching online, you can check in the digital connect card there. The verse I want to share with you this morning comes from Ephesians chapter two, verse 10. And it says, "We are God's masterpiece. "He has created us anew in Christ Jesus "so that we can do the good things he'd planned for us "long ago. "Each one of us was individually designed "and handcrafted by God for his purpose. "So our identity should be rooted in being God's "handiwork and not what the world says about us. "So don't let yourself get caught up and wrapped up "and what the world's trying to tell you, "tell you that you should be. "And remember that when we ask Jesus into our heart, "this broken world no longer has a say in who we are. "Our disabilities that you might have, "they no longer define you. "Maybe you have a sickness or a disease.

"That diagnosis no longer defines you. "Your addictions and your past sins no longer define you. "Only God gets to define you. "You are his masterpiece. "He created you for a plan and a purpose "and he doesn't make mistakes." Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for being a God that loves us. Thank you that you created us for a purpose. Lord, help each one of us be able to see what that purpose is and live it out for you Lord. Lord, I just pray that you open the hearts and the minds of everyone here and watching online that we might hear whatever word you have for us this morning and apply it to our lives in a way that glorifies you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's worship. (upbeat music) ♪ There is love in the world to you ♪ ♪ There is love in the world to you ♪ ♪ It was lonely in the dark ♪ ♪ But you were working, it was painful ♪ ♪ It was hard ♪ ♪ But you were working, all things for my good ♪ ♪ Couldn't fill you at the time ♪ ♪ But you were working full of questions ♪ ♪ Wondering why ♪ ♪ But you were working, all things for my good ♪ ♪ Come on, sing it out church ♪ ♪ When I look back over my life and I think ♪

♪ How good you will fit in my soul ♪ ♪ Sees greatest, greatest your faithfulness ♪ ♪ When I get your love on my mind I get grateful ♪ ♪ All over again in my soul ♪ ♪ Sees greatest, greatest your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ With a valley through the storm ♪ ♪ You are working, I will worship all the more ♪ ♪ All the more, you are working ♪ ♪ All things for my good ♪ ♪ When I look back over my life and I think ♪ ♪ How good you will fit in my soul ♪ ♪ Sees greatest, greatest your faithfulness ♪ ♪ When I get your love on my mind I get grateful ♪ ♪ All over again in my soul ♪ ♪ Sees greatest, greatest your faithfulness ♪ ♪ In my soul, Sees greatest, greatest your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh, great are you alone ♪ ♪ Oh, you're never fast, oh you're so early ♪ ♪ Come on, take us out ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ Don't know it, don't know how ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ Come on, sing it out ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ Don't know it, don't know how ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ Yeah, you'll turn it round ♪

♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ Don't know it, don't know how ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ Don't know it, don't know how ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ And I look like ♪ ♪ Roll from my life and I think ♪ ♪ How good you are getting my sorrowsings ♪ ♪ Great is, great is your faithfulness ♪ ♪ When I get your love on my mind ♪ ♪ I get grateful all over again ♪ ♪ And my sorrowsings, great is ♪ ♪ Great is your faithfulness ♪ ♪ My sorrowsings, great is, great is ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ Yeah, you'll turn it round ♪ ♪ Don't know it, don't know how ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ You'll turn it round ♪ ♪ Don't know it, don't know how ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ You always do it somehow ♪ ♪ We give you questions ♪ ♪ You deserve all the glory ♪ ♪ Yeah, this is your life ♪

♪ You deserve all the glory ♪ ♪ Yeah! ♪ Well, let's continue to worship this morning. ♪ ♪ When did I start to forget ♪ ♪ All of the grand things you did ♪ ♪ When did I throw a break with you ♪ ♪ In possible ♪ ♪ How did I start to forget ♪ ♪ You were sufficient for me ♪ ♪ Why do I turn myself out ♪ ♪ So you knew gold ♪ ♪ Why do I turn myself out ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ You've seen it ♪ ♪ You are more than able ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do ♪ ♪ It's easy for you, Lord ♪ ♪ Now I see all that I have ♪ ♪ Oh, I've got my confidence back ♪ ♪ I put my trust in the world ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪

♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪

♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ Anything is possible ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ Anything is possible ♪ ♪ Anything is possible ♪ ♪ Anything is possible ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪

♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪

♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ You are an evil ♪ ♪ Don't us say it's an angel ♪ ♪ They bow me for your throne ♪ ♪ And all the elders they cast ♪ ♪ They're crowned before the Lamb of God and sin ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from you are all peace ♪ ♪ And to you are all peace ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ (dramatic music) ♪ All that sits in angels ♪ ♪ They bow before your throne ♪ ♪ And all the elders they cast ♪ ♪ They're crowned before the man of God and sea ♪ ♪ You are the glory of the Lord ♪ ♪ You are the glory of the Lord ♪ ♪ Fall from you are all things ♪ ♪ To you are all things ♪ ♪ You are the glory of the Lord ♪ ♪ You are the glory of the Lord ♪ ♪ You are the glory of the Lord ♪ ♪ Fall from you are all things ♪ ♪ To you are all things ♪ ♪ You deserve the glory ♪ - Church, every Sunday we get the privilege

and we get the opportunity to watch somebody go public with their faith through the active water baptism. And what that is and what they're doing is they're doing it in an active obedience because they're declaring Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior of their life. So it's worthy to be, they're worthy to be praised, they're worthy to be celebrated because we're joining with them as brothers and sisters in Christ. So let's go ahead and let's pay attention to the screen as somebody does that. - My name is Raymond. I grew up moving from city to city, spending time in and out of church. I remember being baptized at a young age, yet I continued to stray, chasing my own selfish desires and pleasures. I was a lukewarm Christian. I joined the Marines at 17, and during my time there, I experienced some traumatic events. For years after, I continued living in darkness. In the summer of 2025, my cousins and I attended a men's retreat in California. All three of us were going through different hardships at the time. During this trip, I had an encounter with God. The local pastor there told me I needed to join

a local church to grow in fellowship instead of only attending online. The honesty that weakened and the Lord's presence helped me release everything I was holding onto. In that moment, I surrendered my life to Jesus. When I returned home from the retreat, I began looking for a church. When I first came to church for the city, it felt like Pastor Tyrone's message was directed for me. Even through my doubts, I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me the following week through another message. In February, I signed up for the men's breakfast and I joined Absalom's life group that same day. Since giving my life to Jesus, I have found community. I have learned to depend on the Lord rather than my own understanding. I want to live out my full potential in Christ and walk in the calling He has placed on my life. Today, I'm going public with my faith. - Raymond, Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith today, I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And according to scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (upbeat music) ♪ Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise ♪ ♪ Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise ♪

♪ Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise ♪ ♪ Day and night, night and day ♪ ♪ Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise ♪ ♪ Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise ♪ ♪ Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise ♪ ♪ Day and night, night and day ♪ ♪ You're a hero, you're a hero ♪ ♪ You're a hero, you're a hero ♪ ♪ Father from you are all things ♪ ♪ And to you are all things ♪ Yes, you are You are the end of your own You are the end of your own For from you are all things To you are all things You deserve the glory You're the end of your own Church, right now, let's take a moment Let's greet our neighbor We'd like to call a minute to mingle, say good morning Meet somebody you haven't met And then we'll get ready for the message Let's greet our neighbor We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle

We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle We'd like to call a minute to mingle Well, good morning, good morning to you Welcome to Church for the City where we'll teach the Word of God You'll encounter the presence of the Lord And we will spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ How many are excited to be in God's house Just glad to be here, yeah It's a great, great place to be The last Sunday of every month Except July and December actually We do what's called open house If you have been coming to the church for any length of time And want to know what your next step is Or want to know some more things about the church Open house is for you We believe that everybody has a place in the house of God And that's how you come to that place to serve Is going a tending open house You meet the pastors, you meet the elders You hear more about our vision and what God has done over the years And the various ministry leaders will introduce themselves And tell you about their ministries And from there you'll have an opportunity to determine Where you best fit in CTC And so I thank you for attending But honestly, I tell you What's even more important to us is serving Serving not because we as the church

Need you to serve, which we do But we don't do it out of need But serving is what we do as Christians Right, throughout the scripture you know we're called servants Amen, I mean, I know I haven't got to the message But, and so one of the ways to express that Is serving in the house of God I tell you, it's the numerous people that serve on the regular basis That really do make the difference I come up here and preach every week Or someone's going to preach every week But it's those that are serving the house that actually Touch the lives of those people on a personal basis That helps people to get from point A to point B And it's really part of our mission in the body of Christ So serving is the thing to do If you're part of CTC, it's fine to place to serve And so open house will be next Sunday Third service, there's a lunch provided And also childcare And so you can sign up for open house Either through the tap disc that's there in front of you And also at the connect table And I believe I'm sure you can do it on the website also So thank you so much for being part of CTC And wanting to help us continue to touch lives Also you'll see on the screen the manners and ways of generosity And of course, again generosity is That's part of what we do I shared with the men

The Lord provides for us And so he takes care of us Our responsibility is to steward what God has given us And part of that stewardship is given to the house of God of God for the work of the kingdom of the kingdom of God. to be obedient in your tithing and in your giving for the for the continuance of the work and expansion of the kingdom of God. All the ways upon the the ways to give are there up on the screen and and I just search if you haven't began giving to the house of God I'm just going to ask you to just check the scriptures and pray and see how the Lord how the Lord guides you. The one thing I know about the Holy Spirit, He will always guide you into truth. Holy Spirit always guide you into truth. Holy Spirit always guide you into truth. Holy Spirit always guides you into truth. Holy Spirit always guides you into the truth. Holy Spirit will never lead you to do something that's not of God and I assure you if you pray and seek God about that area of your life. Not only will he guide you in the truth but the Lord really will help you as you trust him in all things. Now one of the things with your giving is the various things that we're able to do that really have some fruitful benefit. We just had the men's conference over the weekend and it was a wonderful, wonderful gathering and experience. I think every man that was there I know that it was fruitful for you. The teaching was good, the fellowship was tremendous, men got to know other men that they didn't know before and there was stuff that men like to do for contests, weight lifting and shooting archery and pulling trucks and all of that kind of stuff. It really was a blast. I'm so grateful for the leadership of the team, the men's team and all the things that they were able to do that afforded such a great opportunity.

So thank you for doing so, your generosity allows us to host those kinds of events. It was the first time in 33 years as a church actually that we've ever had a men's conference. So it was historic on the one hand and started out with a great, great launch. So if you're in the room and you were here for the men's conference, thank you for showing up. Thank you for participating and enjoying it. All right. I'm going to go into the word, we're going to pray for a couple of churches and a couple of things. I'm going to go ahead and ask you to stand. We'll pray first and then we'll read the scriptures and our scripture reading today will come out of Acts chapter 12. Father, I want to thank you for this opportunity to be in your house, to be gathered with your people. It's always a wonderful time and a great occasion because of the people that are here that we truly and dearly love and we're so thankful for those that commit themselves to CTC. I love what the young man shared in his testimony then. He was encouraged to plant himself in the local church and found CTC to be a home for him. I'm thankful for everyone in this house that have done just that. Father, my prayer is that the remainder of our time together as the word is spoken, that it does minister and speak to all that are gathered and all that are listening. In this message, Lord, of course, won't be able to touch upon all things of life. But what I have a great reliance in is a Holy Spirit, that even with what I will say, that the Holy Spirit will speak to the people that are listening, those that are watching, some that will even listen later. So Lord, I pray that there's a nugget of truth, there's a scripture, there's a revelation that will inspire every one of us to be more and more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We want to become more and more like your son. Lord, I pray for all the gatherings throughout our county, churches that are gathering throughout

this county that we live in, this city that we love. I pray for Pastor Ty and his team at Arruka Church, Pastor Odom and his team at Journey. Lord, that they would be very faithful in their work and their part of the venue, that you will help them and there will be great fruit that also comes from the ministry that they're doing. Lord, I do pray as I don't know how many different ones that I saw in the news, certainly the most recent one was the school shootings in Oregon, but Lord, I've seen several shootings around the country this week. Those are people's lives, maybe we don't know them personally, but there's people's lives that was affected by evil. They didn't wake up in the morning thinking that this is what they would be dealing with brother, a mother or father, and Lord, they need the ministry that comes from you and you alone, maybe through chaplains, through fellow believers, prayerfully, many of them are in local churches where they have pastors who will minister and help them through this. They need comfort. I pray for justice for the evil that's been done. I pray for the leaders of cities, counties, state, nation, Lord, that more and more decisions will be done. That's according to the good welfare of the communities that people live in and that justice will be served for the evil that has been done. I pray, Lord, for our military personnel near and far, for our first responders. And for those Lord in public office that are making decisions, that are aligned with morality, aligned with good, Jeremiah 29 tells us that we should seek the welfare of the place that we live. And so Father, I pray that decisions will be made that are right and that are good. And that you indeed will be glorified. In Christ's name we pray, may the people of God say, "Man." We're going to be looking at Acts chapter 12 if you have your Bible. This is where we're going. It's more than 2,000 years ago when this scene took place, when Herod arrested Peter.

Since then, governments have still been trying to stop the preach word or to do something to keep the word of God from being relevant. We could look at rulings that was in Finland and Northern Ireland and Canada and England where they're flirting with language of trying to say that the Bible or preaching of the Bible is hate speech. And in some countries, as you know, whether it be North Korea, India, I could talk about Iran, churches are being stomped out or pastors arrested, persecution, persecution taking place for that. And so that just seems to be the lot, even to this day, Christians are being persecuted for their faith. The story we're going to read though talks about Herod, you know, Herod had the sword, Herod had the prison, and Herod had the authority to do what we did, but we're going to read about a church that was praying and a God who intervened. And even though Herod tried to do what he did, the word of God is still alive, amen? Still being preached today, Acts chapter 12 verses 1 through 5. About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He 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. Some of your translations may say during the days of the Passover. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earned his prayer for him was made to God by the church. Can you say, "Man, for the word," amen, you may be seeding. Now the, the Herod that's mentioned here in chapter 12 is, is part of a family. It's called the Herodian dynasty, where many of the leaders that Rome appointed to oversee the Jewish region that they were, that they had conquered and was overseeing. They appointed people from this particular family. And we've read about them. You hear the stories of them, Herod, the great, who was probably the first one, I think.

And the lineage that was appointed, he was the one that tried to kill Jesus. And when he didn't find Jesus, he was the one that ordered that every child two years and below in the region was to be killed because he could not find Jesus and hoping to kill Jesus in the sweep of all of that. And then Antipas, which was also in the family, was his brother, I believe. about Herod or Grippa the second, we'll read about that in I think in Acts chapter 14 or so, but here we have Herod, a Grippa the first and he was the one that put the death James. Now the James that was killed because again reading the Gospels you know there was three Jameses that was prominent. This is not James the brother of Jesus, he came to the Lord of course after Jesus's resurrection and did become a leader of the church but it wasn't him nor was it James the son of Alphys. This is James the brother of John that was killed called the son of Zebedee and they're marked throughout the Gospels. James and John Jesus called them from fishing. James and John are the ones that Jesus called the sons of thunder and you might recall what prompted that. They were leaving a particular city, a particular region and the people didn't, they didn't receive Jesus. Actually they kind of acted a little bit negative toward Jesus and you might remember James and John went up to Jesus and says you know why can't we just call down fire and just blow up the place. And so when they did that Jesus called them the sons of thunder. James was around when Jairus's daughter was healed, he witnessed a transfiguration when Jesus revealed himself and was one of the three pater James and John that was asked to pray for Jesus while he retreated in Gethsemane before his arrest. Now what's ironic I guess would be the right word for this is that in Mark chapter 10 James and John actually came up to Jesus and asked Jesus that when he goes into his kingdom can one of them sit on the right hand and the other sit on the left. Just think of the audacity. I mean the other fellas are listening right and which the scriptures talk about and they go up there and say hey Jesus when all this is all said and done can one sit on the right hand. Now I don't say this at all negative but I think his mother their mother had something to do with it. If you read the scriptures it kind of implies that mama was involved in that Jesus said to them though you can if you're able to receive the cup of suffering that I'm going to endure. Can you suffer for that place that you're asking and sure enough James is what they said they could James is the first one of the original twelve apostles that's its recorded in the scripture

was martyr. Whenever you read this you have to really think about this from one perspective right they were all married these apostles was all married and you probably got a wonder especially if you're the wife of James. James gets killed but Peter gets released. You got one wife who's rejoicing that her husband was released you got the other wife grieve and the loss how hard would it have been for her to celebrate her friends husband being released and and not her that's that's not my message at all but I just thought I make you think about it but it does cause you to to ask why rescued Peter and not James and there's there's there's no answer to that in the text and there won't be. It just what it does show though is the divine faithfulness of God should never be measured simply by what a believer goes through. It should never be measured by that. Is God more faithful to Peter than he is to James? Is he less faithful to James because James was killed and Peter was released? I can tell you the character of God is faithfully the same. You never measure God's faithfulness by what you endure or what he helps you through. Am I talking to the right church on that? There is this thing and I'll probably deal more with this. There is this fact that is always in the forefront that every one of us should remember. Every time we think about the goodness of God. And or honestly, the times when we don't think God is good. That remember that we are living in a fallen world. Death, disease, sickness. This stuff occurs because of our sin, our rebellion. It's not, God did not create that. Our sin brought it into. And there's times when God just allows the natural course of death, disease and sickness to occur. It doesn't mean that God is less faithful. God is always faithful. And hear me church, God is always good. So you can't measure God's faithfulness and God's goodness by things that happen in this world based on our sinfulness.

Now, even on that matter, on that matter with James and Peter, I can assure you, even though Peter was delivered and James was killed, I can assure you James ain't complaining. He's in the presence of God. I actually think it's a good trade off. Me being killed and be out of this evil corrupt world to be in the presence of God, I'll take that deal any day. I'll take that, y'all a little slow. Maybe the presence of God just ain't exciting you this morning, but I'll tell you, it does me a whole lot of good. And if it don't excite you, I got bad news for you because if you're a believer, you're gonna be in this presence. So I think it's good to get excited about the presence of God right now, knowing that that's where you're headed. It's a wonderful story. This ain't even on my notes. I don't even know if I should say this story, but I probably should. There was this fellow named Smith Wigglesworth and he was known as a healer and has great stories of healing that was recorded. But his wife died in his arms. Man, I may throw myself off so bad, but let me just finish this. His wife, Lord, just between me and you for right now, we'll catch up with them in a minute.

But his wife died in his arms and he kept praying for her to come back, while he's holding it. Eventually, she lifts up, lifts up, and says, why don't you leave me alone and went back to her, to be him to hear. All right, let me just get back to the message. (congregation laughing) So what we see here in this matter is the intervention of God. The intervention of God, look at verse six through eight. The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Other stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell and then angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, quick, get up. And the chains fell off his wrist. Then the angel told him, get dressed and put on your sandals and he did. Now put on your coat and follow me, the angel ordered. Now, I do think there's a couple of things that alarm. You know, when Jesus, they only put two guards in front of Jesus. And Jesus obviously got out of the tomb. I think it's quite funny that they figured they learned their lesson. So this time they put four sets of guards

as if that was gonna solve the problem. Like, we let Jesus get away, but we ain't letting this one get away. But that didn't fix it, of course, because of God's intervention. But also, it's to be noted that Peter was asleep. He was asleep. The dude was told, in the morning, you're gonna be killed. And he's sleeping. He's not walking the floor. He's not stressing. Of course he didn't have a phone so he couldn't call home, but he's asleep. I think it says something about Peter's trusting God. I think it says something about, and there's actually a Psalm, Psalm 48 says, "In peace I will lay down and sleep for you alone, Lord, "is the one that keeps me safe." that hey, if this is it, I'm fine. Why should I lose sleep? Just because they gonna kill me. Why should I lose sleep? It says something about that piece, and surely I'm sure he wanted to be released. He had no idea. I can assure you that Peter, when Peter went to sleep, he didn't say to himself, "I'm just gonna sleep 'cause the Lord gonna send an angel." No, no, no. I think Peter just had a sheer confidence,

whatever God does is all right. And I wanna say this to you, that the word piece, the shalom of God means just that, that no matter what is taking place in your life, you have such a trust and confidence with God that your mind, your will, your emotions, and your soul is at peace with God. That shalom, that everything about you is at peace because your confidence is in him. The church is praying, and then here comes an angel. An angel shows up, which we, the word is angela, which means messengers of God. They're prominent throughout the scripture seven times, just in this chapter alone. It is particular to note that in verse number 15, which we're gonna get to, they thought it was Peter's angel that showed up there at the home, and Revelation one through three says, "There's angels assigned to the representatives "or the pastors of the church." And then Jesus seemed to give a indication in Matthew 18 that angels of heaven have their eyes up on the child when Jesus said the little ones. He said, "There's an angel in heaven "that has their eyes upon them." The Jewish people really believed that every one of us have a guardian angel assigned. I don't know if there's enough evidence in scripture to prove that, but let's say that there is. Let's say that every one of us here has a guardian angel.

This is what I still know. You don't pray to that angel. You don't call out to your angel. Angels minister to us, but they're not our servants. Angels are servants of God that he sends to minister to us. And we see it through our scripture where the Lord sent angels to do some intervention, some miraculous stuff. In Daniel chapter six, this is the story, the case of Daniel who was the prophet of God. They were in Babylon, I believe, maybe Persia. Well, that would have been the same region. But where there was an edict made, remember the other religious leaders, Daniel had got elevated. And he was, I think, now like number three in charge of the kingdom. And he was a foreigner. And the other leaders were jealous of that. But there's one thing that they noticed about Daniel is that three times a day, he would go to his room and he would pray. And so they wanted to get Daniel out of the favor with the king. So they went to the king and said, King shouldn't everybody bow down to you and you alone? Of course, the king and his ego and arrogance said yes. And they said, well, then they should not bow down to any other God or person, the king says, of course. So they made an edict saying no one can bow down to anyone else. And he signed it instead of anybody did that,

that they would be thrown in the den of lions. What the king didn't know is they were using that to set Daniel up. He had a good relationship with Daniel. Now you can read the text, I can assure you, they didn't follow anybody else around. Only person they followed was Daniel because they knew what Daniel was going to do. And Daniel knew the edict. Even when Daniel knew the edict, Daniel goes home and guess what Daniel does? He opens up the window, bowels down and pray for everybody to see him pray. He did what every Christian ought to do. I'm not saying you opened your window, but anytime somebody tells you not to pray, that ought to be the very thing you do. You don't let anybody tell you you can't pray. I don't know what judges are in here today, but that's a good reason to have some good old civil disobedience. So they see Daniel, and of course, right away they go tell the king, oh King Daniel is praying to his God. That hurt the king because he liked Daniel, but he had to follow through with his edict. He couldn't, he couldn't change it. Puts Daniel in the den of lions. But the next morning, this will be on the screen, verse number 19, at the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den.

When he reached the den, he cried out an anguish to Daniel. Daniel, servant of the living God, the king said, has your God whom you continually serve been able to rescue you from the lions? Let me just pause here for a minute. Daniel's faith was such a witness to the king that the king acknowledged that Daniel's God was the right God. His faith, I love it. Then Daniel spoke with the king, may the king live forever. My God has sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and there was no harm to me. We see it throughout scripture that God sends angels. And I believe in today, I believe a lot of you have been saved from things because the Lord sent an angel to protect you or watch over you or fix some things. You don't always see him, you might. It's not that people never see an angel. But don't fool yourself. Don't think they look like these little things you got up on your counters. You know, all white and bright and wings and all of that kind of stuff. But I do believe the Lord still absolutely sends angels to minister to his people because they are servants of him. Amen? Now, it took a bit for Peter to realize what was happening. 9-3-11, I don't think it's on the screen. So Peter left the cell following the angel.

But all the time, he thought it was a vision. He didn't realize it was actually happening. They passed the first and second guard post and came to the iron gate leading to the city. And this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street. And then the angel suddenly left him. Peter finally came to his senses. It's really true, he said. The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me. It took him a bit to realize this is real. He thought, again, as the scripture says, he was in a vision. But when the angel left, he recognized. Oh my goodness, the Lord has sent an angel. That was an angel that was guiding me all along. And he goes to John Mark's home. If some of you, the men that were here yesterday, you know a little bit more about John Mark. He goes to John Mark's home where we see this prayer meeting going on. So there was this expectation of prayer. Listen to verse 12 through 16. When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. He knocked at the door in the gate and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed that instead of opening the door,

she ran back inside and told everyone, Peter is standing at the door. They said, you're out of your mind. They said when she insisted, they decided it must be his angel. Meanwhile, Peter has continued knocking when they finally opened the door and saw him. They were amazed. This is one of the most comical things in scripture to me. They're praying for Peter to be released. And then when Peter is released and is knocking at the door, Rhoda says, I heard a sermon, it was titled, "Rhoda Ain't Wrong." Rhoda says, Peter's out there knocking. That's ridiculous. How can that be? As if the prayer had no expectation at all. It didn't mean anything, it just a complete exercise. They said it was Peter's angel. It takes more faith for it to be Peter's angel than Peter himself. So here's the deal. The believers had enough faith to gather and pray for Peter, but not enough expectation to believe that Peter was released. It says something to us that sometimes our faith is strong enough to take us to our knees. But our expectation is too small to recognize what God does when he doesn't. Too small to recognize what God does when he doesn't. This is what I know. If you need a miracle, something then went chaotic somewhere.

And here's what I know, if you need a miracle, believe God for it. Just believe God for it. If you're going to ask Him to do it, believe God. Have a trust in God. Have a confidence in God. There is a power in prayer that prevails. The Lord will work His will. First John 5, 14, and 15 says, this is a confidence we have before Him. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. I hear so many people say that, you know, they pray, I don't believe God here. Don't listen, you're His child. I'll talk more about this next week. You're His son. You're His daughter. The Lord always hears you. What I think we're saying most of the time is what I'm praying for is not happening. But trust me, God hears you, God hears every one of His people. There is a verse in the Bible that says, God doesn't hear people of iniquity, but there is no scripture that indicates at all that God doesn't hear the cries and the sound of His people. Matter of fact, there's hundreds that says the opposite. Here's what the scripture goes on to say, and if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we ask of Him. Here's our obedience. Our obedience is to pray. Our obedience is to pray and give things to God and let God align that up with His will and purposes. Let Him do that. If it's prayer and you get upset because God didn't do what you want, you're not praying, you're demanding.

I'm going to drink on that one. You're demanding. But I'm going to believe that when you pray, what you really want from God is what God believes is best. Am I talking to the right church? What God believes is best, there's two realities in this. Prayer is commanded for us even when our faith is imperfect, but God is not limited to our imperfect faith for Him to still do what is right, what is good and what is according to His will. Herod thought that he was done, per se, with the Christians because what he did was, when they couldn't find Peter, what Peter did when he went there, he told them that he was going to leave the region, he knew that they would be looking for him. Herod couldn't find him. He has all the guards killed, things that he's made a statement, and then he goes to his throne in Caesarea. He thought he was done with the Christians, but what he's going to find out is that God wasn't done with Him. God wasn't done with Him. Look at chapter 12, verse 20 and 23, to be on the screen. Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, that's in the region that he's in of Caesarea. So he goes to his throne there, he's upset with the people. So they sent a delegation to make peace with him because their cities were dependent upon Herod's country for food. The delegates won the support of blastis, Herod's personal assistant, and an appointment with Herod was granted. When the day arrived, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them. The people gave him a great ovation shouting, "It's the voice of a God, not of a man." And instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness because he accepted

the people's worship, and steadying, giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died. So Herod goes, he's upset with the folks, and the folks who know if Herod's upset with us, then we're in trouble because we need him for food, etc., everything was coming through him. So they want an audience with Herod, they get the audience, and Herod dresses himself up in these royal garments to identify how great he is that the people need to come to me. He gives this speech upon his throne. The people are shouting, "He's a God, it's the voice of a God." And because Herod accepted that praise and that glory, an angel of the Lord comes and strikes him, and worms end up eating his body. And this is the lesson that God wants all of us to learn. We never take God's glory. When we say that all glory, honor, and praise belong to him, I truly hope you mean that. you put in yourself in jeopardy. Everything about us is because of God. And yes, we can thank God for accomplishments, we can thank God for the things that He's blessed us with and done, but I pray that hopefully at the end of the day, or at the beginning of the day, you know that all glory belongs to Him. It's not my brains, my smarts, and what I've done. It's Him that's done it. And we put ourselves in jeopardy, and I'm talking about even believers, Herod here was struck unto death. But we see some consequences even in the life of those who are close to God. The scripture says that Moses would talk to God face to face, they were close.

But you might remember in Numbers chapter 20, that once again, the children of Israel was complaining about not having something. The Lord was providing for them on their entire journey out of Egypt, going toward the promised land. Listen, these folks, God was so providing, do you know that their shoes never wore out in 40 years? 40 years, husbands, what would that do for your budget? (congregation laughing) For 40 years, their shoes, I saw you, I saw you. For 40 years, the Lord was providing for them, and yet they complained about things. So the Lord told Moses again, just go up, gather the people together, speak to the rock. And once again, they'll see that I am providing because water will come out of the rock. When you speak to the rock, what Moses was so agitated with the people and so upset, he called the people together. And then he makes this statement to them. He makes a statement and he hits the rock twice, and sure enough, the water comes out. But God immediately says to him, "Because you didn't believe in me to uphold me "as holy in the eyes of people, "therefore you shall not go into the land of promise." It was a consequence, why? And sometimes we put the emphasis on the fact that Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock. Yeah, that was a problem because God did tell him

to speak to the rock. But it's what he said that was a bigger problem because after he hit the rock, or before he hit the rock, he said, "Must we fetch you water?" He didn't say, "Watch God give you water." Y'all follow me, right? Must we fetch you rebels water and out of the rock comes a water. You can't mess around with God's glory. You can't do it. We are to be thankful and give praise to God for all things because all glory belongs to the Lord. It belongs to him. (congregation applauding) Now, Herod dies. But verse number 24 is really the crux of the message. Meanwhile, while Herod is being struck down, while Herod is actually trying to imprison the believers and kill the believers, meanwhile, the Word of God continued to be spread and there were many new believers. That's the point I want you to get out of this, the government, the authorities and the enemies of the cross. They'll do what they do to try to stop the Word of God being preached and to bring a restriction to Christianity. But God in his Word can never be stopped. Everything that God intends to be done will be done. Listen to Isaiah 55, 10 and 11, "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

"and do not return there but water the earth, "making it bring forth and sprout, "giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. "It shall not return to me empty." Hear this, "But it shall accomplish that which I pursue "and shall succeed in the thing for which I send it." God's Word will always accomplish what he intends. God's Word cannot be stopped, Herod had it all. He had it all, he had the courts, he had the jails, he had the laws, he had the sword. But here's a stunning reversal that we see about God. The disciples still want out. No sword, no vote and no resources. Why? Because you cannot stop the Word of God from going forth. You can not stop it. Persecution can't do it. Shipwrecks, riots, circumstances, it can't do it. The king is dead, but the Word of God is still alive. The Word of God is still alive. While I was in Nashville this week, it was a remarkable story of a young lady in one of our meetings that was from Germany. She's part of a church called Amen Berlin. Church is only five years old. And it's about 1,000 young people reportedly, hardly none of them above the age of 30, just a real move of God in Berlin. And it's reported there's probably over 30,

I'm sorry, 300 empty church buildings in the Berlin area and outskirts of Berlin. Churches that's just shut down because just the way things have gone in Europe, unfortunately, toward the faith. Well, because of the size, they have to meet in different smaller groups in different locations around the city. But for their five year anniversary, they wanted to do one service where they can bring all of their congregation together. They went around to empty church building after empty church building, asking the people who owned the buildings or the government who had the building, if they would let them do the service. Finally, there was one, Zion's church, I think is I'm not doing my German property, of course, but that allowed them to go into that building where they were able to have their anniversary service. What struck me about it, what was so remarkable about this building, this is the church that was a pastor led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And if anybody knows the history of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he was martyred for his faith. He resisted the Nazi regime in Germany in 1930s and eventually was killed because he stood for Christ and led a bunch of people to resist.

It struck me that even though they tried to silence the man in the 1930s and the church ended up going in a direction that it went, here's a group of people that go in there, almost a hundred years later, still declaring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot stop the gospel. Second Timothy 29 says this and because I preach this good news, I'm suffering and have been chained like a criminal, but the word of God cannot be chained. Herod had all the authority, so he thought, but God was a true authority. He had the soldiers, but God had the angels. He had the prisons, but God had the church that was praying. He had the sword, but God had his word. He killed James, he tried to imprison Peter, tried to threaten the church, but the one thing Herod could not do was stop the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, the enemy will be foolish enough and do that over and over again. This ain't the first time he's tried to stop the gospel and stop the move of Christ. As you well know, he did that even, actually 30 years before this, 40 years before this, because this same devil set people up to believe that Jesus was an imposter. Set people up to believe that Jesus was false, that Jesus wasn't who he was.

Sure enough they put Jesus on trial. Sure enough he was convicted of something that he didn't do. Sure enough he was arrested, sure enough he was crucified, killed, put in a tomb for three days and three nights. They put a stone over it and guards over it to stop what Christ was doing. But you know the rest of the story? After three days, that same Jesus they tried to stop came right up out of that tomb, came right up out of that grave, declared the disciples, declared the many that he was alive. And every one of us are here today because some government official tried to stop the work of the church and the preaching of the gospel. But every one of you who are here are witnesses, you cannot stop the word of God. Governments come, kings come, presidents come, prime ministers come, rulers come, they come and they go. But the one thing that's still moving is the word of God. The word of God is still alive. Thank God you cannot change the gospel. Care it is dead, but Jesus is alive. And the word of God is still advancing. I love these, this is the last two stanzas of mighty fortress is our God and you can stand. By the way, here's the last two stanzas. And though this world with devils field should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has wheeled his truth to triumph through us. The Prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him.

His rage we can endure for low his doom is sure. One little word shall fail him. That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gifts are ours through him who is with us sighteth. Let goods and kindred grow, We're in an everlasting kingdom. We're in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We got a word that cannot be stopped. We got a gospel that will continue to be preached and lives will continue to be transformed no matter what governments do. The word of God is a lie. Every headbound, every hour closed prayer team, you can come father. I want to thank you now for this opportunity to preach the gospel. I thank you Lord God for just reading the stories in the scripture that highlights the miracles, the extent that you will go through to prove over and over again that this gospel will continue to be preached, that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is unstoppable, that the move of God will continue. We see it here in this story with Peter. Here it is there, but the word of God is a lie. Lord, let us be people that be excited, that are rejoicing, and so thankful that we're part of an unshakeable kingdom, a kingdom that cannot be stopped, a church that's on the move and the word of God that's a lie. And may we be people that give you all glory, all honor and praise as we go forth and do your work. In Christ's name we pray, may the people of God say amen. God bless you, have a great day. Night and day, let in sense arise. Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise. Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise. Day and night, night and day. Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise. Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise. Day and night, night and day, let in sense arise. Day and night, night and day, you were worthy of it all. You were worthy of it all, for from you are all things,

to you are all things, you deserve the glory. You were worthy of it all, you were worthy of it all, for from you are all things, to you are all things, you deserve the glory. We're so glad that you guys joined us this morning. We hope you have a blessed week and we'll see you next Sunday.