Turning Point Acts 10:1-8

Thank you so much for joining us. As we take a look at the book of Acts, we take things nice and slowly. As we look and see what God is doing in the big picture of expanding the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. My name is David Humphrey, and I'm the pastoral care admissions pastor here at United City Church in Umber, Texas. We're excited to be your church family while you're incarcerated, but we're gonna be even more excited when you get out and you can come and be a part of our church in person. We love you very much. Please grab your Bible and a journal, perhaps a pen, and be ready to take some notes and let's learn together through the book of Acts. - Right, good. So glad those of you that are gonna be online will be joining us when you get to see this. Super excited to be in the room. Hello, all of you in the room, just say hello. (audience gasps) Yeah, there's a lot of people back behind this camera. You just don't see them. I promise they're out there and they love you and we do too. We are in Acts, chapter 10 tonight. We're turning a page, but it's actually a little bit bigger page term than you might think.

The Word of God, as we've been given, is a very ordered. It's not haphazard. It's not just a stream of consciousness. We're just gonna randomly throw this story and that story has its very ordered. And the book of Acts, we already told you, and I prayed that verse, Acts 1, 8, is the outline for the whole book of Acts. Well, we're turning a page here in chapter 10 that's very, very important because God is about to expand the vision of this people to something that has always been in his heart. And that's to the reaching of the Gentiles. Some of you guys know a little bit about this story. It is a, wow, what a fantastic story. Last week, you may remember some of you were here and if not, maybe you got to read it on your own. Then we watched God use Peter as his instrument for miracles, including what was the first time it had ever happened that happened last week. And then based, yeah, an apostle was used to see God raise someone from the dead. Wow, Peter was a trailblazer and he did it pretty much the way Jesus had taught him 'cause he saw Jesus do it and then he started doing it. So it's great. We're in Acts chapter 10. God's going to expand Peter's vision. And guys, we have to read the whole chapter.

And you know, we're not going to get to this whole chapter. That'll be probably a month in the making, but we are going to read the whole chapter because it just doesn't make sense without the entirety of the story. This is a really neat kind of multi-layered story. So we're just going to jump right in in verse one of chapter 10. At Caesarea, there was a man in Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian court. He was a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and sighted him Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial for God." Now sent men to Japa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon a tander, whose house is by the sea. When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him and having related everything to them, he sent them to Japa. The next day, as they were on their journey

and approaching the city, Peter went up on the house top about the sixth hour to pray and he became hungry and wanted something to eat. But while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened at something like a great sheet descending being let down by its four corners up on the earth. And it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to it, "Rives Peter kill and eat." But Peter said by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean and the voice came to him again a second time. What God has made clean do not call common. This happened three times and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might be, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate. They called out to ask whether Simon, hold on, I missed it, they called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. And while Peter was pondering the vision, the spirit said to him, "Behold, three men are looking for you."

Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation. For I have sent them. And Peter went down to the men and said, "I am the one you were looking for." What is the reason for your coming? And they said Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you day he rose and went away with them and some of the brothers from Japa accompanied him, and on the following day they entered Caesarea and Cornelius was expecting them, and had called together his relatives and his close friends. When Peter entered Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet in Washington, but Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up! I too am a man." As he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered, and as he said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or even visit any one of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person come unclean." When I was sent forth, I came without objection, and I asked him why you sent for me. And Cornelius said, "Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house, at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Japa and ask for Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon of Tener by the sea, so I sit for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have commanded by the Lord." So Peter opened his mouth and said, "Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation who fears him. Anyone who fears him, and does what is right, and it's acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all, you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed. How God annoyed to Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and of power, he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all

that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem, and they blew him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judged. Of the living and the dead, to him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who were at the word, and the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God and Peter declared, "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, then they asked him to remain for some days. What a story. It's like a story and a story and it just all just piles up together. And guys, this is an amazing series of events that we're just going to keep walking through. One of the things that's so important is this is a huge turning point in the history of the church, certainly in the book of Acts because the entire book of Acts, this is the first time the gospel goes out to a Gentile in its family directly. And we can see the results. The gospel is the power to save anyone, right? The gospel was never for Jews or for Gentiles, it's for all people. So God is a master logistics coordinator in all of this, and he's got everything coordinated in such a way that it becomes really clear that he wants all people to be saved too. So this seems easy for us to understand as this was a bridge way too far for most Jews to cross. They just could not comprehend. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that because even though the disciples were given the great commission to make disciples of all nations, we know Jerusalem, Judeus, Sumerian, all of that, almost all of the believers still have these roots, right? These roots in Judaism, and Judaism was not open to Gentiles. They were not, they just thought they're unclean, they're dirty. We can't do that. In fact, Old Testament law left a lot of them believing that the Gentiles were the unclean enemies of God. So we don't need to mess with them, we're trying to be a pure holy people. But God's like, okay, anyone who has faith is going to be able to be a part of the pure holy people, right? We've talked about in here

before that those, the holy nation is not made up of people who are just born with certain kind of blood running through their veins. No, the nation that is the true Israel are those whose hearts have been, have been circumcised, right? It's not about what happens in our flesh. It's about what happens in our hearts. So that means people from every tribe and nation. Why do you think we have English for everyone ministry? Because every tribe and nation, Why are we going to Poland because people from there all sorts of nations in Europe are going to be there guys? It's just so so so important So I love this that it begins of course with these these parallel visions happening You got a vision coming to Cornelius who is a seeker. We'll call him We'll talk a little bit more about that and at the same time Literally, they don't they're each independently unaware of what has happened Let's see God's working it out over here and God's working it out over here And then God's going to make their paths cross Did you know that right now? God is working in somebody's heart That he's working in your heart and he's working in their heart and he's going to get your paths across You don't know it yet Peter did not Know the end of the story He's just trying to be obedient. So we want to learn from that. So let's look again. Let's let's do it We always do one verse at a time. We read a bunch of them tonight, but let's start back in verse one And get a little understanding of where we are and who this Cornelius man is So we do get quite a bit of information about it He first of all is in Caesarea Now we've been to Caesarea before in the book of Acts Acts 9. We were in Caesarea So it had been very long. It was a very important city. Who do you think it was named after? Yeah, cesare pretty easy to see that, right? Caesarea Maybe should have been Caesarea. Oh, no, maybe that's how they say it sounds like a pizzeria done it. Anyway, it's an important city Prefect lived there was a guy named Cornelius and Let's just shout out the things that we know about him even just from this this very first two verses

Here was a centurion a centurion, okay Yeah, he feared god. Yes now and is as household. It was with the Italian cohort I don't know all that much about that, but that obviously was a specific one So basically a centurion is like what you would think Century is how many? 100 so a centurion was over 100 men Generally a cohort, okay had 600 men in it But he had a his part and there'd be some others that would work with the others So he was official in charge of these men Um, but that's not the only thing that we learn about of course. We see That he was a devout man So Devout man doesn't mean he is a believer in Jesus Sometimes all of us probably have known sorry, but well, you know, they're they're they're a they're really good You know really just people Or those are people that believe in god And god that's great. We need to believe in god that is that that's a foundational level But guess what? We're don't get into heaven because we believe in god It is through the blood of his son jesus christ Okay, so he was a devout man But devout and religious and and all of those things is not that's not what we need That can be a building block. And so that's what was happening here We would say he lived in respect and all of god. And you also noticed He led his family with him with all his household. Okay, so this is like a good guy Like he's a he's a strong family man He loves god And we're going to see I mean he was he was devoted to god Probably the script the the text doesn't say this explicitly But just because of what we know about centurians He was probably a little bit older gentlemen. He's probably not going to be a 25 year old

So he's probably going to be what we would maybe say middle at age or above Because he's he's risen in rank to that position And so, uh, you know, he's obviously someone that that people respect Um, it also tells us that he gave alms Generously we talked about alms Last week if you were here who gave alms that we were kind of discussing last time Anybody remember Starts with a t Yes, Tabitha She was well known for being a generous believer. Okay, and so alms are just gifts to the port Okay, so that's just something where they were they were doing and that was something that was very looked at He was most likely in his position A wealthier person. Okay, so he's a person who's respected. He's got some wealth. He's very generous Um, of course, a person like this is generally going to be a little bit more liked in society because Like he's not messing with anybody. He's just helping others So then you got this very interesting thing. He prayed continually to god Okay, we're going to see him Going in his his prayer space And god interacting with him, but it says he was a pray continually kind of guy Is that we're always thinking about the Lord and we have some special time. The Greek, if you look at the Greek word that we use here for prayed continually, it's really elicits this idea of a prayer warriors. You know what a prayer warrior is, right? I bet we got some prayer warriors in the renin. I know we've got a few, probably, might have a lot. What does it mean when we talk about a prayer warrior? - I want to praise it. - There you go, somebody who prays continuously,

somebody that you want to call when something's happening, okay? Because you know, they're not just gonna say, "Yeah, I'll pray for you and just move on about it." No, they're gonna take you. Like you want to be on their list. You all know some people that you want to be on their list? Yeah, I've got some people and I'm thankful to be on some lists. I'm telling you, you can add me to your list. Any prayer warriors out there? I'm more than glad to sit on your list, okay? Because listen, we need each other in prayer and Cornelius was a prayer warrior, okay? And I just encourage you, that's not like some special thing. Anybody in the room can be a prayer warrior, okay? You could be a 20-year-old prayer warrior. You could be a 90-year-old prayer warrior. You just got to go to battle for people and lift up the Lord. So let's take a look at what happened when he was prayed. Again, we're in verse three about the ninth hour of the day, by the way. Somebody knows what time that is, but it's not nine. 3 p.m., very good. He saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him Cornelius. Well, let's just stop right there. All that sounds sweet and religious.

But guys, it was terrifying. You saw that? He stared at him in terror. That's meant to show you the kind of awe that he had of this being that suddenly showed up. Now, I bet some of you have a space, like I've got a space in our house. We have a study where I do a lot of study and I do a lot of, that's where I do a lot of praying. It's not the only place I pray. So we all need to pray other places. But I'm just gonna tell you right now, if I was praying in my study in the morning at 5.36th spot, whatever time it was, and an angel walked in. He held up high. - And said, "David, I think I might be scared too. Anybody else think you might be scared?" Sometimes we just read this and we're like, oh, you know, it's the Bible. Guys, this really happened. This is real, real guy. And so Cornelius had probably not ever had that happen before. So, you know, when you look throughout the Bible whenever angels show up, what usually happens? Air, yeah, people are afraid, right? And it's not because the angel is a little baby floating on a cloud with their rear ends stuck up in the tear, okay? That's not what angels look like.

There is some origin. It's somebody look at why they thought that that would be cute to do. Because that's so unbiblical. That's just cute. But that is not what a biblical angel looks like, okay? Biblical angels are generally portrayed as masculine. And like, I mean, we're talking warrior. Like big foreboding. So a warrior has walked in, okay? And now the warrior has pulled in the scene. He's over there praying at 3 p.m. Now, let's, I want to think about this. He prayed all the time. He also prayed at a specific time. He could be, we don't know for sure, that he had multiple times during the day. That he stopped and prayed on a regular basis. I'm going to tell you, we do need to pray all the time. But guys, we also need to pray at very specific times. Somebody said, well, yeah, you know, I just always kind of pray as I go, well, that's good. Well, you need to do that. But guys, sometimes you need to pray with zero distractions. Cause these phones can be the biggest distractions, can they? This can be a tool to know who to pray for. And it can also get you off on, you know, this tangent and that tangent. Guys, there's just so many things that can happen. So we want to be praying and he was,

he had some sort of spiritual discipline. Whatever else he was doing, he stopped and prayed. Here's what's important. If we will set aside time to meet with God, sometimes it's just going to be the same old thing. But you know what, sometimes it's not. And none of us knows when it's going to be a real special message might come, okay? Every day the Bible we open it, it's a special message. But we all know sometimes there's just a message that hits a little bit harder than others. Cause it's just, just so right on time. So he had spiritual discipline, praying at three o'clock. Just kind of a point of interest. That happens to be the same time as the other. It's a small little detail Nonetheless Cornelius wasn't at the temple. He was seeking God and God came to him and look what it says He saw clearly in a vision So if you look at the text Was he asleep? It doesn't say but it doesn't really sound like you know I mean a lot of times people do have visions at night, right and usually those are happening when they're you know at night And it'll tell us that so this obviously we're just gonna take it for what it says here. He is wide awake middle of the day praying and Suddenly this angel walks in and says he saw clearly and The angel comes in and just says Cornelius. I bet you could have knocked him over with it with a pin drop Right, I mean just like wow Always always that kind of scary and then it's as he stared at it in terror

And said I don't you want to know how he said like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is it Lord? Are you not like how did he speak how did he respond? It's just the normal that normal appearance. I don't know if you can remember some other times I bet some of you can't what are some other times specifically you can think of when an angel is shown up or angels and it just Not people scared to death Very smooth now. Yeah The now subart of Jesus. Absolutely. Yeah, okay. What about the resident? What about after the resurrection the ladies show up at the tomb? I think it's Matthews Matthews telling of it. I might be I can't remember which one one of the tellings have two angels There and of course just scared him to death and but you might remember other times when I scared people Peter got to me and Paul wrapped up in school. Paul definitely got knocked off his horns. Absolutely. He didn't So guys, it's just it's the same word is used like with those women in Jesus tomb It's like terror frightened the ladies even at the tomb. They even like bowed down and of course They're just like what is going on? But this is for kind of interesting because Cornelius he says Cornelius and then he just like well, what is Lord and Look at the answer. I Have a feeling this was this was quite a relief The answer your prayers and your owns have ascended as a memorial But for God I'm sure he's I don't shoe. I'm not in troubles Right because you know you think of the angel shows up. You're like, oh, no, what about it? Right, it's got like mama walked in to like other than trouble, but this is an interesting turn that's used here a Lot about this. I wanted to stop and sort of unpack a little bit because it basically says two different things have ascended You know what ascended is it's like Jesus ascended so your prayers have ascended and Your alms have ascended and how have they ascended no more than as a memorial before God Well, there's no other time in the New Testament that this phrase is used for prayer specifically Only use of this term in the New Testament because it's basically this memorial is Is an Old Testament idea?

Like the memorial authoring was one of the offerings, right? And you know the other offerings They would write it. You could see literally the smoke and the fire would ascend And that was just meant to be symbolic of this is this is an offering That is going to God. We're communicating with someone who is in in the heavens So that was what the symbolism is But I want us to look at a couple of passages that are related to this because I think this is really beautiful about our prayers somebody if you would look up song 141 first two and Then I'd love for somebody else to read revelation chapter eight Versus three and four. You're making notes. It's Psalm 141 verse two and Revelation chapter eight versus three and four. So we'll start with somebody reading Psalm 141 two. All right, Dave May my prayer be set before you like the insets my uplifted hands like the igni are moving Do you hear that name up? That's the Psalmist saying make my prayer Be counted as incense. How does incense go does incense go down? No It goes up. What else what else about incense? Why do people use incense? It smells nice Right, it's pleasant It makes the room a nice place to be in and so he is saying let my prayer be counted as sense before you. And what else is he is he lifting besides his prayers? that doesn't mean that. But that's why lifting hands is a very normal response, right? It's like it's like I'm reaching for God and I'm insulting God. So I grew up, I might have told this story before, but I didn't grow up with any lifting hands. I thought that was really weird. And I can remember in high school I went to a concert. It was a Christian concert and I sat behind up in the castle of something to shake before. I don't know. But all I knew was I like every five words, he would put his hands up and I was like, why does he do it? It just felt so strange to me. Now, you know, I'm a amraiser now, right? Because I've just learned that doesn't make anybody more spiritual than the other. Because it's just a biblical thing. It's just a biblical expression. And as you lift hands, it's not like, hey, look at me. It's you're lifting your hands like a prayer to God, right? You're just connecting. So think about it that way, okay? It's not about

making shows. It's about I'm just exalting the God of the universe. It's like my prayers arise like incense. My prayers are going up. Somebody read Revelation a three through four. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden sensor. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers about the saints on a golden altar before the drown. And the snoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of angel. What a beautiful image. Now, if you know Revelation, you know, the revelation is very symbolic. It's full of imagery. We won't get into all of that. But I want you to see this is the same imagery that we saw in the Psalms. It's the same kind of imagery that, you know, all of those Old Testament sacrifices and all those things. Remember, we see how that the imagery plays all the way through the Scripture. So you can see all of those offerings where we don't, you know, we don't slaughter a cow and, you know, bring it to church. Aren't you glad you want to do all that? I'm not being just such a pain. What a messy environment this would be. If we were always, you know, killing stuff or whatever, I mean, but that was there. That's the way they worshiped. But it was, it was connecting with God and giving the sacrifice. But now, this is a, is a picture of, of course, the golden sensor and he was given incense to offer with the prayers of the saints. And remember, we talked about this. We are the saints people. This is not the prayers of Mary Mary. Yeah, Mary's a saint for sure she is because she believed in Jesus Christ, her son for as the sacrifice for her sins. Guys, Mary was a sinner. I am a sinner. You were a sinner. All the saints used to be sinners. Okay. So I'm not talking about this is not the prayers of, of, of just what the, maybe our Catholic friends would talk about this particular list. Guys, anybody that's fought with the blood of the lamb is a saint. So this is the prayers of all the saints on the altar before the throne. And look, the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints is rising before God. Isn't that just the most beautiful imagery? Guys, I just think that's so, so powerful. So prayer is an image here. And the reason we got there is because in Acts chapter 10, that's what the angel declares, your prayers and your alms have risen as a memorial before God. So many things to say about that, guys, but listen, prayer is always a sacrifice. It's always a sacrifice. Because you know what? I could be occupying my mind and my thoughts with just about anything. And sometimes I'm just wasting away my time, right? Sometimes I'm scrolling social media, or I might be watching something on the TV. And I'm not saying that it's wrong, either one of those things. But if I'm going to pray, I'm going to have to sacrifice

something that I might, you know, I mean, I might otherwise be doing. So prayer is always a sacrifice, and it is always an offering. And it is all just rising to God. It is always, I love this idea of this lifting up of our hands. But God's prayer is a pleasing aroma to God. Like He loves to hear us pray. Okay. Now many of us are parents in the room. Do you love to hear your kids just talk to you? Most of the time, right? You do. I'll not all the time. Okay. Sometimes I say, because what kind of stuff, right? But God's we love to communicate with our kids. Like I just love it. I love to get a text from one He loves when we pray to him and and the thing that I want you to notice is I'm not sure that Cornelius understood at all this time, but guys his prayers and His gifts to the poor they have been noted Okay, maybe nobody else knows God knows I was thinking of today as I was was kind of finishing this up. You know heaven never misses your sacrifice It's all God's fully aware. I'm sure many of you make sacrifices for the kingdom that no one will ever know about but but heaven knows I Don't think Cornelius was was you know keeping a track of you know telling everybody. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna be up there Three and then I mean though But that but the angel is saying hey heaven has been listening Heaven has been noticing and I think God would say that to you tonight. Heaven is listening Heaven notices your sacrifices heavens taking notes of all of it. Look now. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 6 Can't pass this verse over with without going to Matthew chapter 6 This is right smack dab in the middle of Jesus's famous terminal of the all the mountain And Jesus said some stuff very specifically about these prayers like Cornelius was lifting up with somebody reverses to through six those Matthew chapter 6 verses 2 through 6 Therefore when you do a charitable deed do not battle a trumpet before you as addicted groups do in the synagogues And in the streets that they may have glory or men Assuredly I'd say to you they'd have their reward So when you do a charitable deed do not let your left hand know what you're right in this doing That your chair will be maybe in secret and your father

Who? Who see this secret will themselves reward you oftentimes and when you pray you shall not Be like the hypocrites Well, they love to pray standing on the synagogues and on the corners of the streets so they may be seen by men Assuredly I say to you they Have their reward But you when you pray go to your realm and when you have shut the door pray to your father who is in the secret Place and your father who says a secret will will reward you open It doesn't that fit together interestingly with this passage tonight I love the sentence that Jesus States the same thing twice at the end of each of those little Little cribbeings your father who sees in secret will reward you And he says it again your father who sees in secret like it He's like what he's saying is it's a secret to everybody else, but it's actually not a speaker Oh God sees you He hears you and Cornelius is literally I mean the angel has come to tell him that very thing you've been praying in secret, but but we've been listening and God has taken note because basically God has seen that Cornelius has an openness to him and So the father had seen in secret He had noticed that Cornelius wanted to know him and serve him from a pure heart so He set this whole thing up guys skin good get really really good. Of course, you know They already know the punchline, you know what's happening, but let's look at verse 5 Now send men to Japa and they start to get real clear here bring one Simon who's called Peter He's logic with the Simon the tanner whose house is by the sea when the angel is stuck to him and departed he called to of his servant Senate about soldier from among those who attended him and Having related everything to them. He sent them to Japa. Now Let me just ask you a question before all this happened. Did Cornelius know Peter's

No, he didn't did Peter of Cornelius No, okay did Cornelius need Peter Then he did he needed clarity right. He needed the gospel He had a heart that was devout and he loved God But he didn't understand that God had sent his son to be the sacrifice. So Cornelius needed Peter, but Did Peter need Cornelius? Yes, because he goes into avenues. That's right. Yeah I mean like this is this is a turning point guys in like Christian history right here Because Peter needed Cornelius to see There are Gentiles who have a faith in God and They need to have faith in Jesus. Well, it probably no doubt - Yeah. - Peter would have already. - No problem. - No way. - What are you doing talking to this guy? I'm not going to his house. That's what Peter would have said before. He had the Holy Spirit, right? But it's so interesting. So of course, Peter is right where we left him last week. Remember, he went to Simon the Tanner and that's a house by the sea. And that's where he went. That's where he's found him left him last week. He's in Japa, staying with his buddy Simon the Tanner. You wonder what they called each other. Hey, Simon, hey, Simon. Hey, Simon, hey, Simon. You know, he had just, again, just remember, this is one big story.

Peter had just been used by God to raise Tabitha from the dead. And then I love it. I mean, God, it's so specific. Simon the Tanner, the house by the sea, which what a lovely place that must have been. And the angel takes off and Simon's like, okay, well, here's what we got to do. We got to send them on this journey. Well, that's about 31 miles. Okay, so that's probably about a day's worth of travel by probably horse or something like that. So the two servants and who went with the two servants? You did that. A devout soldier. Well, don't you want to know what that's all about? We don't really get the full story on that. But a devout soldier might have been, this is where we just have to, not really sure, could have been, that could be related to, okay, totally devoted as a soldier, but is more likely someone who also has an open heart, right? Someone who Cornelius recognizes, maybe would have some openness to whatever's going on. 'Cause all that Cornelius knows at this point is, God has been listening to my prayers and he's noticed that I've been giving alms, okay, check. God has a message for me, but it's in the mouth of a person who's 31 mouth down the road, who's got the same name as me, but a different guy.

So, no, no, not the same name. Sorry, that's the two-year assignment. So there's two guys named Simon, but one of them's got a message. We better get the one called Peter, not the one that's the Tanner, but he's gonna be at his house, is over there by the beach. That's pretty much what he knows, guys. He doesn't know what the message is gonna be. He doesn't say, we're gonna bring you the message of salvation. He's just like, send for that guy. He's gonna come give you a message. And boy, does he ever? So, so that's where he is. So the angel takes off. Simon is not wrestling with doubts about what do we need to do next. He's like, I'm sending him. Okay, you guys go, you two and you go. Get to Japa, they don't know what they're eating for. I mean, can you imagine what they're thinking? I mean, they know the who and they know the where, but they don't really have any idea what is about to happen. We've got about a day's journey now. And in the meantime, this is where it really starts to get cool right. Here's where we're having overlapping stories.

'Cause don't you want to see like a movie about this? Right, I'm, I hope when they're done with the chosen, they're gonna do ads from that surely, right? That they can just, I know they've been some of those done, but gosh, these stories are just so amazing. Don't you want to see it in a cinematic form, right? 'Cause you've got, you know, it's one thing's happening over here and one thing's happening over here. And but they have no idea what's happening and then they're gonna interact. And so, you know, here they were. God has coordinated all the logistics. In the meantime, God is preparing Peter and he's having his own vision. He's getting a whole lot more specifics than what Cornelius is getting because Peter would have never done it any other way. So it says, let's just, we'll just read person nine and then we'll end tonight with some conversation around the tables. The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the house to talk about the sixth hour to pray. Now, Peter, I don't think went up on that rooftop with any specific agenda in mind other than, well, it's probably his normal prayer time, right? Okay, what's the sixth hour?

Then, okay, again, almost certainly, that was part of his spiritual discipline. Well, I'm gonna get prayed this time of the day. He'll spend a little time with the Lord. I've noticed something about God. I wonder if you've ever noticed that God tends to sort of share important details with us on the need to know, God would understand about God. I've never known God to just tell me all of the things that are coming. I would, it would blow my mind anyway and I wouldn't, who knows what we would do. But he gives you what you need to know in the given season. And that's what's happening here. It reminds me of Psalm one night. Yeah, I wanna look at this one last verse. You know it, some of you just have a number up. Psalm 119 105, it says your word is a lamp to my feet and what, a light to my path. And that light is more like kind of, that's going to show, oh, there's the whole path. So Peter didn't know what was coming. Cornelius didn't know what was coming, but God had all worked out. The master logistics coordinator has got it, got it situated. And so these guys are about to come together. But neither one of them were expecting it. They were just following using their spiritual discipline. Yes, Carol. Both pray. They were seeking God, right? What does God say? Draw near to God and I will draw near to you. They had set aside time, guys. I think we got some application points this week. Number one, we need to expect big things when we are praying to God. And we don't need to expect that God's going to tell us everything about what our day is going to be because he's not. Sometimes he might give you a little insight.

We're not going to go around the room, but I guarantee you there's something in this room. And God has just sort of tapped on your shoulder and said, hey, you need to go here or you don't need to go here. You need to go talk to that guy across the lobby. That happens to me a lot. It's like, God will just, it's like, ding, ding, ding, ding, like, hey, over here, this one and I'm like, got it. As we need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and ask God for the rich. I'll never forget Ken. It's one of my good buddies over here, Ken Bridges. And we did a lot of evangelism at the World Cup. Well, Ken would always ask for his assignments before he left, before he left the house. He'd be praying. God, okay. God, well, who are my assignments? Just just show me who my assignments are going to be. Now, did he have their faces before he left? No. But he went into fanfasts just with an expectation. God's already prepared the way. And so if you don't learn anything else from these stories, guys, God is already working out there in people's lives. In unbelieving people's lives, we just got to be willing to show up and be available and be ready to speak to them. So, that's what I want us to do. Yes, Dave. What you just said is something that I read as a young Christian at Proverbs three, five, six. Yes. Not on your own. That's right. Acknowledge him and he'll direct. He'll direct your past. That's exactly where that is. So, we don't know where it is. If we know where we're going, we're usually not following him a lot of times because I'm telling you, we make our own plans real fast. And God just kind of laughs at our plans. And he's like, well, there's a little different plan in mind. So, what I want you to do is I want you to turn at your tables. And if you're alone at tables, get with some others, I want us to just take a few minutes. I'm going to say a prayer for those that are online that are watching us. I want us to pray and kind of wrap it up. But then I want you to have this conversation because I've been noticing that the conversations around the table are just getting really good about these things. Okay. So, I'm going to say a prayer that I'll give you a couple of questions to discuss. Father, once again, we thank you so much that when we pray, our prayers come up before you as infants, as an memorial, as sacrifice. We love to hear us pray. And you note, you noted, you know, here is. Thank you, Father. Make us sensitive to those whom you want us to bring your message to. In Jesus name, amen. Okay. So, two questions. Number one, I just want this is this is not we're not trying to tell secrets, but just talk with one other. When is your when is the time and what what and when is the time of the day that you pray?

Are you more of a morning prayer? Are you through the day prayer? Are you on the tree? I play a lot on my commute from from a test of seeding right over here. That's just I have found I'm I'm really engaged during that time. Okay. But do you pray with a journal? Do you just just talk a little bit about your own prayer life? Okay. With one another and did if anybody has a story, yours is probably not going to be quite like Cornelius is at Peter's, but where you just saw God direct you to someone or you could see God interacting in your story in maybe a little bit of a similar way and just spent some time talking with your friends there about that for a few minutes and then when you're done, you are dismissed. All right. Thanks for being here. Thanks again for joining us verse by verse through the book of Acts. I hope that you have learned a lot. these things to your life this week. Share it with a friend. Great thing for you to just have some discussion with the other people around you, share the things that God is doing in your life. Again, remember the Bible is a book about God, far more than it is a book about us. So let's learn about him, let's grow to love him more and more. Here at United City, this is not the only thing that we have on the Pando app. We would love for you to follow some of our other content. Watch some of our worship services, along with the music and the messages. As well as podcasts, we've got a lot of great content and we would love for you to follow that. And also, if you would like to be in touch with us here at United City, the best way to do that is by writing us a letter. You can address that to prison ministry at United City Church,

1 9 9 0 1, Townsend Boulevard, Umble, Texas, 7 7 3 3 8. We'll read that, we'll pray for you and somebody will write you back. God bless you and we'll see you in the Word. [BLANK_AUDIO]