03212021 Unchained Al Robertson

i love that i love that our live streaming online um family is now such a vital part of what we do every sunday what a blessing that which the evil one attempts to push and pull us apart god brings us together amen and that's what's happened during the pandemic we probably never you know we just before just set a camera up and basically just tried to you know someone is not able to be here this sunday and now thousands thousands of people we're able to be a part of what we're doing here at white space road today during our worship time i was not able to sing thank you pine pollen right i mean i've told you before we live in a place not fit for human habitation everything here hurts us right so we're either incredibly dumb or incredibly tough or both uh and yet here we are so i wasn't able to sing but the the worship was fantastic i loved listening to you singing this morning and i just kept being flooded by memories of spending most of 46 years of my 56 here at wfr what a blessing i saw bill and yvonne smith here today welcome home uh yeah give them a round of applause and had a chance to say hello but i know it's been a year last sunday rudy and beth burns uh rudy came up and introduced himself to me because i hadn't seen him in so long and he told me that last sunday they celebrated 63 years of marriage that deserves a round of applause right welcome fellowship center glad you guys are here 63 years together what a blessing and i mean they must have gotten married at birth because beth doesn't look a day over 63 right it's incredible man it's so good to see you guys again that haven't been able to be here uh got those vaccinations going kellett told me this morning he's getting his vaccination today so that's uh that's good that those of you are able to do that and and be here with us is a great blessing um so our scripture reader today come on up colton it's colton tomlinson and i wanted to share with you so i get a a text every week from cynthia johnson who our scripture reader is going to be and so they usually give me a little intel so i can introduce you know some of our youth to the church and so this week she said colton tomlinson he's 13 he's about to turn 14. i love when you're young it's always what you're about to be right when you get our age you're trying to hope that you know hold off as long as possible he goes to claiborne christian and then she said and he liked to make make music that's what it says on my text so i responded i said is he a rapper and she said l-o-l which side that means laugh out loud i think you should ask that on stage so colton are you a rapper okay he's not a rapper i was going to get him to wrap something so instead we'll get him to wrap our verse how about that ii timothy 2 verses 8 through 10. remember jesus christ raised from the dead descended from david this is my gospel for which i am suffering even to the point of being channeled like a criminal but god's word is not chained therefore i endure everything for the sake of elect that they too may obtain the salvation that is jesus christ with eternal glory all right good job bro thank you we hope you go and make make some music did you catch that phrase in the middle i am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal but god's word is not chained i love that and that's really the theme of what we're going to be talking about this morning and we're going to be in acts chapter 12 if you want to follow along in your bible or your phone or whatever it is you find the word of god on these days acts chapter 12 unchained and i could have called it prison break because there is a prison break but i love the idea that you cannot chain the word of god even if you're in chains the word of god is unshamed let's read the story acts chapter 12 verse 1 it was about this time that king herod arrested some who belong to the church intending to persecute them now before we go forward this is the first time we see the name king herod pop up since since jesus was murdered a different herod but all part of the same family and i just want to to remind you of sort of the power structure of what's going on as we've been studying this book of acts you know the romans are occupiers so pontius pilate of course is the governor he's the one that's put there by rome to just basically don't don't have any trouble no uprisings just try to keep basically keep the people under control which is what a lot of politicians do amen i mean they just try to just keep the people under control we don't need uprisings we don't need problems now under that of course we have the israel monarchy which is part of the herod structure you remember herod the great he was the one that tried to kill baby jesus so i don't know why he was so great he sounds like a jerk to me right killed all these children trying to kill jesus so they're all part of his lineage after he died basically the kingdom of israel was split up into four parts and so his sons were tetrarchs or basically they were over certain parts of israel and so this herod which his name is agrippa he's not even really he's a a nephew of one of the original hairs so he's sort of an appointee and the reason why is because he's a really good puppet for rome caligula who was a very infamous emperor of rome he's the one that gave him all of herod's land so he's a puppet so now we know that the jewish leadership who's trying to basically stamp out christianity and they've been trying to do things but they're so afraid that they're going to do the wrong thing that they've just kind of been spinning their wheels finally one of their ranks rise up saul who takes the bull by the horns and he starts persecuting and he even kills one of the young leaders stephen and finally we got some traction we're going to put this movement down but of course what satan intends for his will god expands and they didn't know what they were up against this saul this henchman this terrorist is now converted to the cause what are they going to do now nothing they realize they have no power so i i figure i don't know this because the scripture doesn't tell us this but i figure someone whispered into herod's ear you know maybe it's time for the monarchy to step in and stamp this out i mean he just appears right he's decided he's going to get involved in this christian movement and so that's what he starts doing he's persecuted look at verse two he had james the brother of john one of the sons of thunder put to death with the sword which you know when i was studying this this week it just made me sad to think about that it took me back to the verse in matthew 20 22 you remember when the sons of thunder had their mom come to jesus and say you know i think james should be on one side and john should be on the other when you're going to be ruling israel here on the earth that's what's her thought and their thought and they're just over there waiting to hear what jesus said say you remember what jesus said matthew 20 22 you don't know what you're asking jesus said to them can you drink the cup i'm going to drink we can they said jesus said oh you will indeed and now we're at that moment right james is the first of the original group to be martyred for the cause and you wonder about that why is that i wonder the son of thunder is no more and yet we're still talking about him all these years later verse three when he saw that this met with approval among the jews and after all he is a politician right we got to get check the polls and see how we're doing approval of the jews he proceeded to seize peter also and let's face it everybody in this young movement knows that peter basically is the voice of the movement he's the one that stood up in acts 2 preached that first gospel sermon he and john were the ones that were there in the temple and healed the crippled man and everybody was running around saying this is amazing so herod says you know we're going to go for the cut the head off the snake philosophy i'm emboldened now the political winds are at my back and so he seizes peter this happened during the festival of unleavened bread after arresting him he put him in prison handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each 16 men to guard little old peter making sure he didn't go anywhere right herod intended to bring him out for a public trial after the passover so we got another trial around the passover has this happened before about 10 years earlier kangaroo court remember you think peter was going to get a fair shake i think some good due process was coming his way i don't think so so peter was kept in prison and there's a couple of words that when they appear in the scripture you should always pay attention but the other one is if when you see but and if in the scriptures you are to perk up because that means something's about to happen but the church was earnestly praying to god all this political power all these powerful people decisions being made people put in jail but there's the church praying earnestly to god father your will be done i'm sure they prayed when they heard about james but it was his time right god knows what he's doing but our prayer is effective and powerful and can change circumstances and can remind god that we're here i love what paul said in ephesians 6 you know it's that great description of all this armor that we have all these great things that he's given us and then he closes that section of verse 18 of ephesians 6 with this and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests not just for healing but sometimes that someone can be unchained all occasions with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all of the lord's people watchful thinking people say how do i how do you have an effective prayer life you just talk to god he's everywhere he's always listening it's a conversation that really never ends pray also for me paul said that whenever i speak words may be given to me so that i will fearlessly make known the gospel the mystery of the gospel for which i am an ambassador in chains you know it's ironic paul as a young man spent his life becoming a great pharisee thinking he understand exactly what god wanted him to do then he acted on that in full belief that he was doing the right thing by persecuting this movement of these christians then he spent the last half of his life in chains for the cause you see that's the first thing we learn about today you could be locked up but you can't lock god out of any place you can't lock him out you can't bottle him up you can't explain him away you can't turn to salt water and say you know what that's where we came from as we flopped out on the bank and then became what we are today he is who he is and the prayer of righteous people is powerful and effective james said in james chapter 5. let's look back at the text verse 6. the night before herod was to bring him to trial peter was sleeping between two soldiers so imagine the scenes we know we got 16 guys assigned to him i'm sure some are you know working the other shift but we got two literally on either side they are very afraid of peter and they should be bound with not one chain but two double chained with two guys sitting on either side and century stood guard at the entrance there's a few more outside nobody's going to break him out until they do verse 7 suddenly an angel of the lord appeared oh what are we going to do about that centuries and guards on either side and double chain a light shines in the cell he struck peter on the side and woke him up i love it that peter's just like you know another day he's just sleeping in double chains with guards on both sides waiting to be executed because that was what was going to happen right i mean this trial was not going to be in with him saying okay we decided to let you go i mean he's sleeping on the night before his death and he seems to be sleeping pretty well because the angel has to strike him to wake him up that's the way i want to be when i'm facing doom that i trust god that much i'm just getting me some good z's i love it quick he said get up and the chains fell off his wrist you cannot chain the people of god the angel said then put on your clothes and your sandals peter did so i love it it's like it's like waking up your kids to go to school right you have to give them every instruction because he's a bit startled i'm sure wrap your cloak around you and follow me the angel told him peter's like oh what what in fact we know he says he follows him out of the prison but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening because he thought it was just a vision now in peter's defense he's been getting a lot of visions lately right we had him up on the roof and the things coming down from heaven i'm not sure what am i doing and so i i feel bad for peter in a way because god keeps speaking to him in these videos is this happening is it not happening i feel like it's real i don't know they passed the first and second guards they came to the iron gate leading to the city and in my mind because you know i like like avengers and x-men we talked about this before it's like you know like on the movie when like time stands still and everybody's just like you know it's frozen and you're people are just walking past was it like that because they didn't see what was going on they were there i mean but they didn't see it it's like a movie step is real the gate opens by itself and they went through it when they walked the length of one street suddenly the angel left again we've seen this happen all of the book of acts someone's there then they're gone teleportation dimensional control i mean people are there then they're not there it almost doesn't seem real and yet we know that it is real it's the power of what the almighty can do it's incredible then it said in verse 11 peter came to himself i don't even know what that means but all of a sudden he was like you know what this is real i'm on the street i was in jail just a few minutes ago somehow i'm here now i know peter said without a doubt that the lord has sent his angel and rescued me from herod's clutches and from everything the jewish people were hoping would happen what a moment i mean peter's experienced a lot in these eight or ten years since this whole thing started but this is pretty amazing and in that moment he realized that god had more for him to do he was ready to die for the cause in fact he's known that right didn't jesus tell him someone's going to lead you where you don't want to go you're going to be martyred so he thought you know this is it i'm ready and we say well you know this is this is a life-and-death situation it's all a life-and-death situation we live we die the point is what do we do in the middle are we chained or are we unchained it's all life and death we have a decision we serve the almighty god oh no it's so bad our government just who's the president now it's what is going to happen to us we live and we die and we serve the greatest being there is in the universe who we are that's what we do we make the most of every opportunity all the years all the great people i was just flooded with them this morning thought about myers and we were singing complete i thought about charlie and cindy last week because of something tara told me all these great people i've had the privilege of knowing walking with on the earth another one is doyle jennings those who've been here while you remember dole big boy his dad called him when doyle he had brain cancer and i went and saw him in the hospital and you know the cancer was affecting his emotions and so he'd be laughing one minute and crying the next but he told me something i've never forgotten and i wanted to mention it in this context today he looked at me and said how you know i figured something out we all have a certain number of days what do we do with them and i don't know how many years ago that was but that struck me because here was a man who knew he was nearing the end of his life and yet he had had an impact on me and he's telling me don't waste it son god needs to use you a certain number of days you look at james and why did the son of thunder have to die because he had a certain number of days and he spent them giving glory to god he was part of the inner circle peter james and john and yet peter had a little bit more to do but he would end too and so will all of us look back at verse 12 when this had dawned on him peter he went to the house of mary the mother of john also called mark first time we see about mark but he's going to have a huge impact in the future where many people had gathered and were prayed i wonder what they were praying about maybe they were praying that god would break peter out of jail as crazy as that seems maybe they were just praying that father we trust you that we really would like peter to get out peter knocked at the outer entrance and a servant girl named rhoda came to answer the door when she recognized peter's voice she was so overjoyed that she ran back without opening it if a miracle shows up at your door open the door poor rhoda she gets one mention in the bible and it's for leaving peter outside she goes back to the others peter's at the door now i love the response and this is so us you're out of your mind girl what is wrong with you we're praying about getting him out of jail let's get back to praying no he said he's there i just left him i didn't let him in when she kept insisting they said it must be his angel i love it it can't be him because prayer doesn't work that's the other thing if a miracle shows up your door open the door but also don't make it so hard to be convinced that god answers prayer when it's standing at the door man we just miss it right sometimes so peter keeps on knocking and then they opened the door and they saw him they were astonished and apparently they started yelling and screaming because peter motions with his hand shhh you know get me arrested again calm down people and he described how the lord had brought him out of prison tell james the brother jesus who was kind of the leader of the jerusalem church and the other brothers and sisters about this and then he left and went to another place i'm getting away from these crazy people back in hiding for a while realizing that god had more for him to do you know the story basically ends with what happens in the aftermath look back at verse 18. in the morning there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become a peter yeah you think after herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him he cross-examined the guards personally in order that they'd be executed sixteen men lost their life over this little episode you know what that tells me we need to leave room for god to do what he does when it comes to revenge when it comes to being hurt being wounded god will take care of business you don't have to do that these six that's why you have another mic right there at the handy look at there what satan intends for evil is good right so i'm one of the handheld so there's a cross-examination 16 men are executed you know why because they were on the wrong side you don't want to be on the eve one side you don't want to be on the political wind side you want to be on god's side and what of herod look down at verse 21 on the appointed day herod wearing his royal robes set on his throne and delivered public address to the people so he's just going forward we've killed the 16 guys we still haven't done anything about the movement but you know what i'm still king i'm still running this show so he gives his address and the people shouted this is the voice of a god not a man oh he's so good look at herod in his finery running and running this country and then immediately god says you know what hold my yahweh yeti and watch this immediately because herod did not give praise to god an angel of the lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died and we found out from history the worms were on the inside not pretty you don't want to be on the wrong side you want to be on the side that can take the chains and they fall to the ground they can make the evil one and his enemies not even see you're there that's the power of the almighty god in his redemptive plan cannot be chained by humanity ever unchained that's the power paul wrote in romans 6 verse 8 if we died with christ we believe that we also live with him that's in this life and the one to come that's living unchained now when we read these stories they seem so fantastical that it's almost like they're not real but they are and you begin to think you know could things like this happen in our time and the answer is yes today we have a story an amazing story video testimony that i want to share with you guys can you roll up good morning church family my name is randall i have the privilege and honor of representing you and being the state rep for of our recovery inside jails and prisons my story begins when i was incarcerated back in 2000 august of 2006 and i shared my testimony short testimony with a fellow from juarez mexico his name is ben and we were in a holding facility in oklahoma city oklahoma a federal holding facility and i shared jesus with him he was reading his bible and i was reading my bible also and he was reading the old testament he said god's a mean god and i said yes he's a mean god but he's a god of wrath because he's a jealous god but he's also a god of love mercy and forgiveness and i shared jesus with him and what jesus had done in my life and shared some scripture with him old in new testament scripture and we walked off then the next morning i shared jesus with him again and he said that he hadn't slept any last night could he or ask me how he could make or ask jesus into his life and make him a new man so we got down on our knees in front of a lot of other inmates and his homies of course literally that i know who he was and we got out on our knees and he asked jesus to become his lord and savior and a fellow that i was incarcerated with come up to me after he was over with and asked me what we were doing and i told him and he said man do you know who that fellow was and i says no i don't really care and he said what were y'all doing and i told him and he said man that guy was the leader of one of the most notorious vicious gangs i'm from juarez mexico i said well he's not anymore he's a new man because jesus just made him a new man because he asked him to come into his life and he says his charge is conspiracy to orchestrate and or participate in the murder of two border guards and he has a double life sentence and where he's going he'll never see the light of day again his destination was colorado springs colorado super max underground they stay locked down for 23 hours a day and as i come home from my prison time i kept in touch with him by letters that were provided to me by my probation officer dear mr greer i sure hope you remember me i just wanted you to know that i am well and doing just fine i stay locked down for 23 hours a day but as you know we can have one hour of wreck time so we have bible study i have been honored to tell and lead over 50 guys to our jesus christ and even two of the guys are the guards that guard me one of them even helps me in the bible study can you believe that what an awesome god we have mr greer i thank jesus every day for you sharing with me that morning in oklahoma city about the bible in jesus i pray for you every day i'll continue to try to write you so please try and write me back i hope this finds you well you know that i'm serving two life sentences but because of jesus i've never felt more free in all of my life keep praying keep believing and keep loving like you loved me your friend and brother forever been and he told me that he had started a bible study led 50 men to jesus and then he got online and became a minister and a pastor online from college of trinity bible college and he started a church which with over 500 members he even led three of his guards to jesus this little man was on fire for jesus and he also wrote his appeal to the united states supreme court and one and he was coming home and in that he is now the the person with the most time cut in the over the 150 year history of the federal bureau of prisons and he came home he came home to oris and as always preaching the gospel sharing jesus and he led his family about 25 or 30 people to jesus and started the local church right there in juarez and this church started off small as they always do at first and then it just became 100 200 300 and of course they don't have the fire marshals down there so now it's standing room only but little did he know that somebody was watching him and it was the cartel that he used to work for and they kidnapped him and they tortured him and by a phone call that i had about three three weeks ago from his sister that to my probation officer as they kidnapped him they brought him in front of his church and his sister [Music] and the reason being they thought that he had he had told on them that's why he come home and they asked him to stop preaching the gospel and come back to the gang and sell drugs for the cartel and run drugs for the cartel or he wouldn't do it and he was on his knees telling his brothers and sisters of his church that he loved them and as he looked at his sister the words that he said sent my heart to the to the core he said would you please get a message to mr randall and thank him for sharing jesus with me and as he said that he began to sing jesus loves me this i know and he executed they executed him and as that happened the members of his church and his family continued singing jesus loves me this i know family you never really realize who you share with when you share so never pass up the opportunity to share your hope that you have jesus loves you so do i unchained that's what that means peter james john ben randall sharing the undeniable unshakable truth that we can live forever that just happened a few weeks ago you read these stories they seem fantastical and you think could it happen it is happening two people taking a stand for the almighty a question to you this morning whether you're online whether you're in the fellowship center whether you're here is what's binding you what chains are holding you back acts 12 closed this story with the word of god continue to spread and flourish you can't keep god out sometimes we try to keep him out the evil one gets in there gets to working on us i mentioned about my 46 years here four of them i gave to the evil one started here and then i just left i was chained until i finally came to my senses in a pig pen and said i don't want to be chained anymore i want to serve you for the rest of my life that's why i'm here today verse 25 said barnabas and saul finished their mission they returned to jerusalem and they took john mark with them you see every time someone falls every time someone dies every time someone finishes the mission that they had god's always raising up the next generation the older i get the more i appreciate that that's what god is doing here that's why we need everyone on board for the mission this generation the next generation we've got a lot of work to do folks but we can't do that if we're bound ourselves in chains whether it's sin whether it's some illness whether it's something that you just not have been able to say you know what god i trust you no matter what i will sleep soundly at night and be ready to go when it's time to go that's how we want to be before the almighty if something is holding you back today we want to give you an opportunity to give that to the one who can do something about it the breaker of chains if you have a knee why don't you come while we stand while we sing

Channel: Whites Ferry Road Church

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Length: 36min 32sec (2192 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 23 2021