"Persecution, Prison, and Prayer" | January 30, 2022

welcome to worship [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] well good morning and welcome to worship at first baptist dallas today it's so good to see you we also welcome our guests joining us as well as i campus viewers across the world today church let's stand together it's generational worship sunday all voices generations worshiping together [Music] drink of the water [Music] find what you're looking for for god's so loved for god [Music] together [Music] sing it up [Music] is [Music] the world that he gave [Music] us forever [Music] [Music] praise him praise him [Music] god praise god [Applause] [Music] praise him [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] all your failures come lay them down at the foot of the cross jesus the world oh praise the lord this morning [Music] we love you lord we bless your name this morning you're our father everlasting [Music] our father everlasting thee all creating one [Music] through your holy spirit conceiving christ the son jesus [Applause] i believe in god our father i believe in christ our god [Music] in is name of jesus yes we believe thank [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Music] i [Music] of jesus [Music] i believe [Music] that jesus christ [Music] me [Music] i am [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes we believe in the name [Music] that matchless name of jesus i believe in life eternal i believe in the virgin birth i believe in the saints communion and in your holy church i believe in the resurrection when jesus comes again for i believe in the name of jesus [Music] when jesus comes again [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] let's lift high this morning that name of jesus amen you may be seated well it is so good to worship together church and church isn't it good to see multiple generations up here worshiping this morning here at first baptist dallas we welcome each and every one of you to worship this morning and we welcome our guests we welcome those joining us in the room as well as on our eye campus and guests we have a very special gift for you today it is our pastor's brand new leather-bound pathway to victory daily devotional bold biblical and refreshingly practical messages for your day and guest as you came in this morning you received a worship guide you'll find and close this welcome card please take the time to fill this out and keep the card with you at the end of the service take it with you outside these main worship center doors right there to our welcome center our staff is waiting there for you we can't wait to meet you and you'll exchange your completed card for your gift today and we'll answer any questions you have about our church now if you can't make it to the welcome center you'll see some orange boxes on your way out you can slip the card in one of those and we'll mail you a copy of the gift and guest joining us on icampus just follow that link provided on your screen to access your gift as well again welcome each and every one of you to worship this morning so many events are coming up in the life of our church lots of exciting things going on here in 2022 so let's all take a look together at the screen good morning we are excited to share with you a few upcoming events if you are a guest with us this morning we would like to invite you to join us for our next dinner with the pastor at maggiano's on thursday february 3rd you will enjoy a first-class meal great conversation and hear a word from dr jeffress registration is required all of our members are encouraged to attend reach sunday on sunday february 6th or 13th we will be encouraged motivated and equipped by the good news of the gospel as well as hear powerful testimonies and enjoy some great food sunday february 13th dr jeffress begins his new series 18 minutes with jesus straight talk from the savior about the things that matter most don't miss this powerful study about seeking wisdom on the things that matter most through jesus's most famous teaching the sermon on the mount ladies we are excited to host our heartstrong faith conference on february 25th and 26th invite your friends to join us for a weekend of fellowship and hear from an incredible lineup of speakers including julia jeffress sadler nika spaulding rebecca carroll liz rodriguez laura story and sheila walsh for more information on everything happening at our church visit first alice.org events today's scripture reading is from isaiah 45 and we'll read verses 6 through 9 of that chapter reading from the new american standard bible those will be the words you'll find on the screens here in the worship center and for our campus as well you'll have those across your screen so that we can all read god's word together and we invite you to stand to honor the reading of his word as we read isaiah 45 beginning with verse 6 ending with verse 9 that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides me i am the lord and there is no other the one forming light and creating darkness causing well-being and creating calamity i am the lord who does all these things drip down o heavens from above and let the clouds pour down righteousness let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit and righteousness spring up with it i the lord have created it woe to the one who quarrels with his maker an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth will the clay say to the potter what are you doing or the thing you are making say he has no hands and may god richly bless the reading of his word you may be seated at this time we look forward to hearing from our student worship ensemble led by david hutchison [Music] when peace [Music] my lord [Music] is [Music] no more praise the lord praise the lord o my soul [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] even is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] incredible what a blessing let's hear it again for our student worship ensemble under the direction of david hutchinson wonderful you may be seated and let's turn our attention to the screen the bible is filled with countless stories of victory and celebration through the praise and worship of almighty god music and worship is a major part of the dna of first baptist dallas god is doing an incredible work in and through our music and worship ministry and i want to personally invite you to be part of what god is doing from two-year-olds through senior adults whether you sing play an instrument or simply want to serve as a volunteer in one of our age-graded choirs we have a place for you i'm often asked the question what is the requirement to join the choir at first dallas i'm not sure if i have the voice to do it my answer is always this if you love to sing and love to worship the lord you are welcome here i'm standing in the choir rehearsal room lots of seats in here our vision is to fill every seat every time we gather for worship and we need you to fulfill our mission to transform the world with god's word one life at a time our ministry is made up of people from all ages and walks of life a beautiful picture of the body of christ we join together for the sole purpose of giving glory and honor to our lord and savior jesus christ psalm 34 3 o magnify the lord with me and let us exalt his name together come and join us christ is calling you to serve will you answer the call [Music] and aren't we grateful for our incomparable music and worship ministry this choir and orchestra that leads us in worship every week and we're grateful for you for our church for our church family you know paul says you are the body of christ and each one individual members of it peter says it this way he says you are living stones being built up into a spiritual house that is how the church is supposed to work each one of us with a part each one of us with a role and we want you to find your place of service in this local church one of those areas in which you can serve is our music and worship ministry you know under the leadership of dr tyler brinson he teaches our choir and orchestra that everyone that participates is a worship leader they are here to lead us in worship of our lord each and every week and they want to invite you to be a part of leading us in worship if that's something that you may be called to do but our music and worship ministry goes far beyond just our choir and orchestra in this room we have an opportunity for for participants of all ages as you heard our wiggle worship is for children two years old through kindergarten we have our kids worship our first through sixth grade and then our student worship which is seventh through twelfth grade and you got to hear some of them today so maybe that's a place where you would like to find your place of service maybe the music and worship ministry is not for you there is a place for you so whether it's here or somewhere else we'd invite you to take that card the volunteer card in your worship guide go out to the concourse today and talk with someone about where you might find your place of active service in this body of christ here at first baptist dallas now as we continue our time of worship through giving this morning i'll invite you as you're able to kneel all over the worship center as we go to the lord in prayer together heavenly father we praise you this morning we rejoice as we come before you and worship your holy name you are our strength and our shield you are our hope you are the joy of our salvation lord and so as we come before you we recognize your holiness we recognize lord that we are sinful and unrighteous and we fall so short of that perfect standard in jesus christ but in recognition of our sin we thank you that while we were dead in our sins and our trespasses you loved us so much that you sent your son jesus christ to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins to be raised again so that we could be redeemed so that we could be reconciled to you and so lord it's in that spirit of thankfulness and gratefulness that we give to you our tithes and our offerings as a spiritual act of worship that we commit to you our lives as we seek out a place of service in your church and we ask that you would continue to bless this church that we would be a beacon of light that we would be a herald of your kingdom throughout the world and we pray this in the saving name of jesus christ amen [Music] let the church be the church [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] this old ship has been through battle space storms and tempests and rocks on the shore though the harm may be battered deep inside it's safe and dry it will carry is [Music] god has always had a people many a foolish conqueror has made the mistake of thinking that because he had forced the church of jesus christ out of sight he'd stealed its voice and snuffed out his life but god has always had a people the powerful current of a rushing river is not diminished because it's forced to flow underground no the purest water is the stream that bursts crystal clear into the sunlight after it's forced its way through solid rock there have been charlatans who like simon the magician sought to barter on the open market that power which cannot be bought or sold but god has always had a people men who would not be bought women who were beyond purchase god has always had a people there have been times of affluence and prosperity when the church's message has been nearly diluted into oblivion by those who sought to make it socially attractive neatly organized and financially profitable but god has always had a people yes it's been gold-plated draped in purple encrusted in jewels it's been misrepresented ridiculed mocked and scorned but god has always had a people these followers of jesus christ have been according to the whim of times elevated as sacred leaders or martyrs heretics yet through it all their marches on that powerful army of the me god's chosen people who cannot be fought flattered murdered or still all through the ages they march god's church alive and well [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh listen child of god it's a lie discouraged pastor it's his church and it's still alive lonely missionaries sown that seed with confidence the church is still alive busy mother keep trusting in jesus the church is alive and you're not alone out there serving the lord young student you just keep looking to jesus the church is alive and faithful father there's rest in the lord god's church is still high family of god lift your hand lift your hands and praise the lord the church god's church is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] thank you so much first dallas choir and orchestra the church is alive and well and what a great reminder for the days in which we live thank you so much great song we want to welcome those of you who've just joined us in our day one worship service as well as the hundreds of thousands of you who are watching on our eye campus and the millions watching on pathway to victory now some of you wonder pastor are you exaggerating when you say that last week we had 500 000 watch online see our service that doesn't count the millions of people watching on pathway to victory wednesday i was speaking in orlando at a global summit of church leaders from nepal south america africa and i can't tell you the number who said thank you for the ministry of first baptist church dallas and pathway to victory so we welcome those church leaders right now who need encouragement around the world thank you for tuning in as well that's right that's worth applauding for [Applause] heinrich himmler and reinhard hedrick were two of adolf hitler's top henchmen they were anti-christians in a rabid way in fact they had as their goal in life to create a brand new church that would be a mixture of belief in the pagan germanic gods as well as the political philosophy of the third reich they thought possibly they could replace jesus christ with adolf hitler interestingly hitler himself thought the idea was kind of nuts until he started to realize the value of a church that would support his goals and values for germany but why go to the trouble of creating a whole new religion why not instead infiltrate the german church and change the german church from within another one of his associates alfred rosenberg developed a 30-point plan for corrupting the german church it included removing all of the bibles in german churches and replacing them with copies of mein kampf hitler's book taking down all of the crosses and replacing them with swastikas interestingly a few churches resisted but not that many they could not withstand the power of government a government that was rapidly anti-christian you may think well we don't ever have to worry about that in america we have a first amendment that protects the freedom of religion don't be so sure the germans thought it could never happen in their country as well today in our study of the book of acts acts chapter 12 we're going to look at the first instance of state sponsored persecution against the church up to this point it's been the jewish religious leaders who have persecuted believers but now we're going to look at the first time government weighed in against the church and yet today's passage is not so much about the inevitability of persecution but it's about the power of prayer if you have your bibles i want you to turn to acts chapter 12 as we look at a story of persecution prison and prayer acts chapter 12. now the story begins in verse 1. now about that time what time is he talking about well the time of what happened in chapter 11 peter and cornelius the church at jerusalem accepting gentile salvation the founding of the church at antioch it was about that time we're talking now a.d 44 which would be about 10 years after the birth of the church on the day of pentecost the church is 10 years old now about that time herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them and he had james the brother of john put to death with a sword now we read that name herod we've heard that name before but there are a lot of herod's in the bible which herod is this remember there was originally herod the great he was the original herod he was in power at the time of the birth of jesus he's the one who ordered all of the hebrew males two years of age and under executed to try to extinguish the king of the jews he had heard had been born that was herod the great this was his grandson herod agrippa the first it was that herod who laid hands upon some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them why did he want to mistreat christians remember the romans weren't religious people they didn't care which god or how many gods you worshipped that wasn't a concern of theirs at all but any governor any king who was appointed by rome to govern occupied territory like israel they had two assignments from rome number one keep the peace number two keep the taxes rolling in that was their job and so one way these uh kings and governors appointed by rome kept the peace was to endear themselves to the people they were ruling over to make friends with them do things they like that's how you kept people at peace herod the great remember what he did when he ruled over israel he enlarged the temple he took the temple that had been rebuilt the second temple after the babylonian exile and he helped them rebuild it to a tremendous place of splendor and the jews loved him for it and now when his grandson is in power he learned the secret of keeping people happy do what they want you to do and so he knew the jews of his day in 44 a.d they were concerned about this new heresy called christianity that was spreading like wildfire and so he wanted to do something to show his concern about their concern and what does he do well he decides to take one of their leaders a leader named james the brother of john he was one of the apostles and put him to death with a sword he thought maybe this would show the jews that he cared about their concerns so he takes james who was one of the key leaders in the church of jerusalem and has him executed now this was a test case in other words herod was seeing how the people responded to his putting james to death to see if it indeed raised his poll numbers among the jews by the way government is always doing that government is always pushing the envelope pressing the boundaries of how much they can get away with without being stopped right now there are rogue elements within this ungodly administration we're living under there are rogue elements that are testing the waters to see if they can be successful in shutting down christian ministries and christian churches they've had a couple of test cases already to see if people will go along with government interference in proclaiming the christian message i'm not speaking from conjecture i'm speaking from experience there are test cases going on right now to see if government can extend its authority over churches and that's why we have an absolute duty to push back any time government opposes the first amendment of the constitution and any time it opposes the truth of god's word well that's what was going on right here herod was seen how the people responded to the death of james and guess what verse 3 when herod saw that it pleased the jews he proceeded to arrest peter also in other words if one dead apostle is good two dead apostles are great so we'll go after the big fish himself so to speak peter and let's put him to death now that we've had no pushback from that and so he arrested peter with the intention of putting him to death but it was during the days of unleavened bread remember this was a seven day feast that began with passover and so herod said we probably shouldn't execute him right now because of these holy days we don't want to show disrespect for the jews so we will hold him in prison until the feast is over and we can put him to death look at verse 5. so peter was kept in the prison probably antonio fortress where barabbas had been where jesus had been tried by pontius pilate so peter was kept in the prison but this is a big but in the bible but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to god remember james 5 16 james not the james who was executed james the half brother of jesus who became the leader in the church of jerusalem he wrote the effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much he was a firsthand witness to the miracle we're about to look at in just a moment he was thinking about this the effective prayers of the church being offered for peter the church was offering fervent prayers to god dr james montgomery boyce the late pastor and commenting on this passage noticed three things about the church's prayer that i would like to expand on in defining what a really effective prayer is first of all notice that the church prayed to god verse 5 says prayers were offered by the church to god that's the foundational requirement for an effective prayer it has to be offered to god you say well that's kind of a no-brainer who else would you offer a prayer to to satan i mean who else is there to pray to where there are several different people you can pray to you can pray to yourself did you know that next week we're going to look at a story jesus told about a man who went up to the temple to pray he offered an eloquent prayer but jesus says he prayed to himself other people pray for other people they pray to try to impress people by their spirituality or their theological knowledge my parents are in heaven but they used to tell the story it was a funny story about a group prayer meeting they went to one time and all these people were acting so pious and sanctimonious and one person stood up to pray and he tried to impress the crowd using every theological term that he knew in his prayer he prayed around the world for all the missionaries in every country he could think of and then he came to the point he was ready for his big conclusion and he said in the most dramatic voice and lord when this life is over and we cross the but he couldn't remember the word he was looking for he was looking for the word jordan the jordan river but he couldn't think of it so he reversed and tried it again he said and lord when the day this life is over and we cross the equator well that brought the house down people burst into laughter and ended the prayer meeting right there this church had no equatorial prayers at all they were praying actually to god and that's the foundation for powerful praying reuben tori in his book the power of prayer describes a moment of realization that transformed his prayer life he said the day came when i realized what real prayer meant realized that prayer was having an audience with god actually coming into the presence of god and asking and getting things from him the realization of that fact transformed my prayer life before that prayer had been a mere duty and sometimes a very irksome duty but from that time on prayer has been not merely a duty but a privilege one of the most highly esteemed privileges of life before that the thought i had was how much time must i spend in prayer the thought that now possesses me is how much time may i spend in prayer without neglecting the other privileges and duties of life the first church understood that they prayed to god secondly the church prayed earnestly this word translated fervently they prayed fervently literally refers to the stretching of a muscle to its limit in other words these prayers were none of these now i lay me down to sleep prayers we say with folded hands no they were begging god to intervene they pleaded with god to free peter now in jesus most famous discourse on prayer that we're going to look at in a few weeks when we are looking at the sermon on the mount jesus made it very clear in matthew 6 that god is not impressed or moved by the repetition of our prayers how many times we pray something he's not moved by the length of our prayers but what he is moved by is the sincerity and the earnestness of our prayer is this something we really care about remember in luke 18 verse 1 says and jesus told them a story to show how they ought to pray at all times and not lose heart and he told that story about a widow who was being mistreated by the sadducees and she came to a ungodly judge and asked for protection and the judge said why should i answer this woman i don't care anything about her and i don't care about god but she kept pleading with him day after day after day and finally he gave in he said even though i don't respect god or care about this woman i'm going to give in lest she wear me out by her constant pleading now jesus wasn't saying god is somebody we need to wear down it's a parable of contrast jesus said if this unrighteous judge can be moved by the constant pleading of somebody he doesn't even care about how much more will your heavenly father do for his own children who cry to them day and night you know if your child or grandchild in passing ask you for something you may or may not pay any attention to it but when they come to you and keep asking and begging you for the same thing over and over and over again you know that's something that's really important to them and unless it's something that's going to hurt them you're going to do everything you can to meet that request that's what's going on here the church prayed they prayed throughout the night god knew this was something important to the church at jerusalem and thirdly not only did they pray earnestly but they prayed specifically what were they praying for it says they prayed for peter but they were praying something specific for peter they weren't praying that god would bless peter you know i've said before so many of our prayers suffer from a severe case of blessitis we're like bless this bless bless and bless my wife bless my husband bless my church bless my pastor bless the nation bless bless bless what does that mean and how in the world do we know if god has answered that prayer or not that wasn't the church here they played prayed specifically that god would free peter why don't we pray with that kind of specificity have a sneaking suspicion is we don't pray specifically because we don't want to be disappointed we're not sure god is going to answer our prayer we're not even really sure god can answer our prayer and so we don't ask him to do anything specifically that's too hard it's the same reason we don't ask a 95 year old grandfather to move a heavy box we don't ask him because we don't want to embarrass him we don't want to put him in a situation that he can't handle and so we reserve what we ask of god we keep it general but james said in james 4 2 you have not because you asked not they prayed earnestly specifically to god and what was the result look at verse 6 on the very night when herod was about to bring him forward it was about time to execute him peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and guards in front of the door who were watching over the prison we found out in verse 4 that herod actually assigned four squads to guard peter a squad was four soldiers they had a six hour shift two would uh stand at the cell door the other two were chained to the prisoner why such a heavy group to guard this one man well remember peter had a nasty habit of getting out of prison we saw that in acts chapter 5. so herod wanted to make sure he wasn't embarrassed so he had him guarded but while they watched what did peter do he slept isn't that amazing the night before his execution he slept as we'll see in a moment he slept soundly it reminds me of isaiah 26 3 thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee that was peter but god had a different plan look at verse 7 and behold an angel of the lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell and he struck peter's side and woke him up saying get up quickly and his chains fell off his hands the angel had to poke peter in the side had to slap him he was sleeping so soundly verse 8 and the angel said to him gird yourself and put on your sandals and peter did so and the angel said to him wrap your cloak around you and follow me literally in the greek let's scram that's what he said it's time to go and he went out and continued to follow and he did not know that what he was being done by the angel was real but peter thought he was seeing a vision have you ever had that experience before i had it just this week you're in the middle of some elaborate unbelievable dream and in the middle of the dream you say to my yourself this can't be real i must be dreaming but i'm going to go ahead and enjoy the rest of the dream and see how it turns out have you ever had that happen before that's exactly what peter thought he has this moment of realization he says to himself this can't be happening this must be a vision but he goes ahead and does what the angel says anyway and so what does the angel do he leads him by two sleeping guards leads him to the iron gate that opens into the city the gate opens without any human effort like in one of those horror movies you know how the gates just open up and peter walks through with the angel and the angel leaves him and verse 11 says that suddenly peter came to himself he realized that this was real so what does he do it's in the middle of the night he's all alone he knows the soldiers are going to be after him well the logical thing is he goes to where the church is a part of the church anyway they're meeting in the house of mary for an all-night prayer meeting for peter now this introduces one of the most humorous passages in all of the bible look at this verse 13. peter goes to the home of mary knowing many in the church were there praying for him when he knocked at the door of the gate verse 12 or verse 13 a servant girl named rhoda came to answer and when she recognized peter's voice because of her joy she didn't open the door but ran in and announced that peter was standing in front of the gate when she heard peter saying let me in she got so excited she forgot to open the door she runs in and tells the group who's having their prayer meeting maybe there's an equatorial prayer in there i don't know but she interrupts it and says our prayers are answered peter is outside the bible says they couldn't believe it and they said to her in verse 15 you are out of your mind but she kept insisting that it was so so they kept saying it must be his angel now we don't know exactly what they meant by that it must be his angel maybe they thought it was peter's guardian angel coming to give a progress report on peter maybe they thought it was his ghost there was a jewish superstition that when you died your spirit hovered around for a few days afterwards we don't know but they certainly knew it wasn't peter and you can see the human in verse 16. luke says while the church kept arguing about what this must be peter kept on knocking you know it's easy to condemn the church but isn't that true of all of us many times we pray for things we can't believe it when the answer comes i think about that church i told you about in the courageous series that church it was distraught about a bar that was being built across the street and they tried everything they could to stop it with no success so they decided to have an all-night prayer meeting and in the middle of their prayer meeting a thunderstorm erupted out of nowhere and a lightning bolt struck the bar and completely destroyed it the bar owner was furious and he sued the church for a million dollars for destroying his bar the church hired some attorneys they said the church isn't responsible at all for this this is an act of god so they were arguing in court and the judge said you know i don't know how this trial is going to turn out but one thing i know for sure is the bar owner believes in the power of prayer and the church does not that was this church this church in jerusalem they prayed but they weren't fully convinced of the power of prayer now here's the good news for all of us you know what we don't have to have 100 faith that what we are praying for can actually happen did you know that it only takes a tiny bit of faith jesus said if you have faith as tiny as a mustard seed and it's placed in the right object god you can move mountains you can take a little bit of faith and if it's in god god can still do miraculous things and so verse 17 says they finally let peter in he told them all that had happened commanded them to tell james the leader of the church and others about god's power and verse 17 closes by saying peter left and went to another place we don't know where he went but this marks a shifting of focus in the book of acts from peter to the apostle paul we're going to see when we get to chapter 13. we only see peter one other time after this in chapter 15 at the council on jerusalem he plays a minor role in that but now we're shifting the focus god is shifting the focus away from the apostle peter to the apostle paul now there's an interesting postscript to this story it's found in verses 18 through 24. how did herod respond to this freeing of peter look at this and when day came there was no small disturbance what an understatement among the soldiers as to what could have become a peter and when herod had searched for him and had not found him he examined the guards and ordered that they be led away to execution then herod went down from judea to caesarea caesarea by the sea and was spending some time there herod was enraged this showed he couldn't even keep his own prisoners locked up it was a slam to his power and to his authority and so he decides to take some time off he goes down to caesarea by the sea to the palace there while he's there he negotiates a trade agreement with tyre and sidon he knows he needs to get his respect back from the people so he does what a lot of politicians do they decide i'll give a magnificent speech and that will instill confidence from the people in me and that's exactly what happened here look at this in verse 21 and on an appointed day herod having put on his royal apparel took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them he sat on the rostrum at the theater at caesarea many of us have been there many times that theater is still there the acoustics are unbelievable i've preached a message in there before it is a magnificent site that's where herod was he delivered an address to them and the people kept crying out this is the voice of a god and not of a man why would they say that what was going on the jewish historian josephus gives us some detail about what happened remember this is secular history recording what was going on at caesarea josephus writes quote herod put on a garment made holy of silver and came into the theater early in the morning at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it shone out after a surprising manner and it was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him and presently his flatterers cried out one from one place and one from another kind of an antiphonal back and forth that herod was a god and they added be thou merciful to us for although we of hitherto reverence thee only as a man yet shall we now own thee as superior to mortal nature they thought of him as a god and how did the gripper respond to that was he like peter when cornelius bowed down before him and said get up i'm just a man like you are no not agrippa he stood there and he let it soak in josephus says upon this the king did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery luke says in verse 23 immediately an angel of the lord struck herod meaning that he was the object of divine wrath then josephus adds a severe pain arose in herod's belly and began in a most violent manner agrippa didn't die immediately he lingered for five long days dying in a.d 44 at the age of 54 and luke adds this final word in verse 23 when he did not give god the glory he was eaten by worms and died allow me to quickly point out two important truths that emerge from this passage number one write it down no person can prevail against the purpose of god no person can prevail against the purpose of god luke records begins this chapter by saying that herod sought to destroy the church he started mistreating the church that's how luke 12 begin our acts 12 begins acts 12 ends with herod being eaten alive by worms he became nothing but worm food this mighty king who thought he was going to take down the church but look at verse 24 while herod was dying from the worms the word of god continued to grow and to be multiplied no person is going to prevail against the power of god the most foolish decision anybody can make is the decision to go to war with god you're not going to win and that's when with these when these groups like the freedom from religion foundation or the americans united for separation of church at state or this ungodly administration we're living under when they threaten our church and say we're gonna silence you we are going to shut you down i laugh i'm not afraid of them anyway whatsoever i looked up this week a kind of ant maybe you've heard of it it's called the pissant have you ever heard of the pissant before it's a real ant the piss ant you look it up read about it you know what these ungodly groups they are nothing but piss ants in the sight of almighty god that's all they are do they think they are going to win and prevail against the church the church is triumphant no person is a match for the power and the purpose of god and by the way that's true of you and me as well when we are christians and think we can disobey god or ignore god or make ourselves the god of our lives we're making a very foolish decision isaiah 45 9 says woe to those who quarrel who fight against their maker this passage reminds us that no person can prevail against the purpose of god and secondly no circumstance can prevail against the power of prayer no circumstance can prevail against the power of prayer even those prison bars that held peter captive were no match for the prayers of god's people now let's be clear we have to say this there's no blanket promise in the bible that god will answer every one of our requests first john 5 14 says now this is the confidence we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us all of our requests have a protection around them it's called the will of god the will of god is not a barrier to keep good things from coming into our life but to keep harmful things from coming into our life sometimes god says no for our benefit but listen to me just because god says no sometimes doesn't mean he says no every time and just because he says no every sometimes doesn't mean we shouldn't ask james said you have not because why you ask not the prerequisite for being blessed by god is asking for god's miraculous intervention in our life many years ago i was in a very small group of pastors and in that group was the late dr adrian rogers the pastor of the bellevue church in memphis tennessee and i'll never forget adrian told us a funny story but it was a story with a purpose he said that when he was in bible college in florida he was preaching one sunday in a church that had invited him they didn't have enough money to pay him an honorarium so they gave him two burlap bags filled with oranges so he got back to his apartment and he dragged those burlap bags of oranges up the stairs to a second floor apartment and put them in the closet a couple of days later he was sitting there studying and he looked out the window and he saw a neighbor boy from next door standing on the fence and reaching over to an orange tree in adrian's backyard and when he thought nobody was looking he grabbed one of those oranges and put it in his overalls and adrienne said what that boy didn't realize was that was a sour orange tree the oranges sour oranges look like real oranges you think they're real oranges until you bite into them adrian said he chuckled as he thought about that boy taking his purloined orange back home and biting into it and having the surprise of his life adrian said you know had that boy simply come up the stairs knocked on my door and said mister could i have one of your oranges from your orange tree i would have said you don't want one of those but let me show you what i do have and i would have opened up my closet and given him all the oranges he could have possibly handled he had not because he asked not ladies and gentlemen satan cannot keep god from answering your prayer but he can't keep you from asking i think if they're going to be any regrets in heaven it's going to be when we see all of the blessings god had stored up for us with our names on them that could have been ours if only we had had the faith to ask let's bow together in a word of prayer i'm speaking to some of you here some of you watching online you're a christian you may be in an impossible situation right now but let me ask you a haunting question what are you so concerned about in your life right now that you would be willing to spend more than five minutes praying for do you believe in the power of prayer is there something you would say god i want this so much i need this so much but i'm going to pray 10 minutes a day over this next week to show you this is something that's important to me you have not because you ask not maybe if you're a christian today you realize you've been neglecting one of the most important things you can be doing and that's talking to your heavenly father for those of you who aren't christians yet let me tell you one prayer that god promises to always answer he never says no to this prayer it's the prayer lord forgive me of my sins the bible says whoever calls upon the name of the lord shall be saved if you are willing to repent of your sin and place your faith and trust in jesus as your savior god will answer that prayer every time by giving you the forgiveness you need the forgiveness that you want it's no accident you've tuned into this broadcast today if you would like to trust in christ as your savior i want to invite you wherever you are to pray this prayer in your heart knowing that god is listening to you right now would you pray this with me dear god thank you for loving me i know i have failed you in many ways and i'm truly sorry for the sins in my life but i believe what i've heard today that you loved me so much you sent your son jesus to die on the cross for me to take the punishment i deserve to take for my sins and right now i'm trusting in what jesus did for me not in my good works but in what jesus did for me to save me from my sins thank you for forgiving me and help me to live the rest of my life for you in jesus name amen if you're watching online right now and you prayed that prayer with me go to the top of your screen click on the link right now that says i prayed the prayer to trust in christ the moment you do that i'll be notified of your decision i have some free material i want to send you this week about what it means to live your life now as a christian again don't wait a moment longer go to the top of the screen and click on that link for those of you in day one or here in our worship center i'd like to invite you to take out the card that is in your bulletin right now and there's a place it's the third box for you to indicate if you prayed that prayer to trust in christ we'll send you the same material we're sending our online friends maybe you're a guest today check that first box maybe you'd like more information about the church i've been told in this service we have a number who want to join our church you can check the fourth box that's all you have to do and once you have finished this completed card you can drop it off at the welcome center and receive our new 538-page pathway to victory devotional or if you want to drop it off in one of the bins on the way out we will process your card and get the book to you now everyone who registers as a guest today if you check that first box or if you say you'd like to join the church today you'll receive an invitation tomorrow to our dinner with the pastor that's this thursday night seven o'clock maggiano's it's a complimentary dinner we always have a lot of fun i'll be there to answer your questions about first baptist dallas so hope you'll plan to join us thursday night 7 p.m for dinner with the pastor thank you so much for being here today don't forget tonight discipleship university at 5 30 we'll look forward to seeing you then it's been a great day to be in church enjoy the afternoon we'll see you back tonight let's stand together as tyler comes to lead us in our final song thank you pastor a great morning of worship together let's go out now singing his praise this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this is [Music] [Applause] [Music] have a blessed day church well thank you so much for joining us for worship today on the first dallas eye campus it's our honor and privilege to worship chat and pray with you throughout the service if you are local to dfw let me encourage you to come on down we'd love to have you visit us in person we'd love to greet you and show you a great spot in the worship center for you to sit it would be our honor to worship with you in person in the heart of downtown dallas right here at first baptist dallas also if you are new here to the icampus or have been watching for a while and want to get plugged in let me encourage you to sign up for a free gift we'd love to provide that to you directly in your inbox and then sign you up for pastors daily devotional it's straight from the pen of dr jeffress and you will be encouraged with that great resource each and every day simply visit the link that's provided on your screen and lastly stay connected with us each and every day with our facebook global group there we encourage one another through scripture and graphics but also pray for one another so head on over to facebook and join our icampus global facebook group thank you again for joining us today for worship we look forward to seeing you next week on the first dallas i campus hi i'm robert jeffress pastor of first baptist church in dallas we are so excited to have you join us on the i campus today for a time of inspiring worship and biblical teaching you are part of a vast online community gathered from all over the world we consider you a part of our first baptist church family and we hope you feel a part of what god is doing in and through first baptist dallas no matter where you are we hope and pray that this is a time you will grow in your relationship with god and others as we worship our savior together welcome to worship [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well good morning and welcome to worship at first baptist dallas today it's great to see you welcome to our guest and i campus viewers joining across the world today church let's stand together it's generational worship sunday all ages and generations worshiping our lords again come on come on drink of the water come and thirst no more [Music] come to the table he will satisfy god [Music] [Music] oh [Music] bring all your failures [Music] jesus is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] blessings praise him [Music] praise god praise god [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] jesus amen praise his name this morning lord we bless you we love you we worship you today our father our father everlasting the all-creating one god almighty through your holy spirit conceiving christ the son jesus i believe in god our father i believe in christ the son i believe in the holy spirit our god is [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] [Music] i believe in the holy spirit [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] i believe [Music] that jesus christ [Applause] [Music] hey [Music] again [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh believe in the name that matchless name of [Music] i jesus in the virgin birth i believe in the saints communion and in your holy church i believe in the resurrection when jesus comes again for i believe in the name of jesus [Music] i believe in the resurrection when foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] let's praise the lord this morning that mighty name of jesus and could we give our kids worship arts and our student worship choirs a big round of applause this morning for leading us in worship incredible job each and every one of you and church you may be seated it's so good to see each of you for worship this morning here at first baptist dallas and we also welcome our guests joining us in the room today as well as on our eye campus guest we have a very special gift for you today it's our pastor's brand new leather bound pathway to victory daily devotional bold biblical refreshingly practical messages for your day and guest as you came in this morning you received a worship guide you'll find and close this guest card please take the time to fill this out and keep the card with you at the end of the service take it outside these main worship center doors right there you're going to find our welcome center our staff is waiting there for you we look forward to meeting you and you can exchange your completed card for your gift today and we'll answer any questions you might have about our church now if you can't make it to the welcome center we have some orange boxes on your way out you can just slip the card in one of those boxes and we will mail you a copy of your gift and if you're joining us on icampus guess just follow that link provided on your screen to access your gift as well again great to see all of you for worship this morning here at first baptist dallas and there's so many exciting events that's taking place and we want to tell you all about it so let's take a look together at the screen good morning we are excited to share with you a few upcoming events if you are a guest with us this morning we would like to invite you to join us for our next dinner with the pastor at maggiano's on thursday february 3rd you will enjoy a first-class meal great conversation and hear a word from dr jeffress registration is required all of our members are encouraged to attend reach sunday on sunday february 6th or 13th we will be encouraged motivated and equipped by the good news of the gospel as well as hear powerful testimonies and enjoy some great food sunday february 13th dr jeffress begins his new series 18 minutes with jesus straight talk from the savior about the things that matter most don't miss this powerful study about seeking wisdom on the things that matter most through jesus's most famous teaching the sermon on the mount ladies we are excited to host our heartstrong faith conference on february 25th and 26th invite your friends to join us for a weekend of fellowship and hear from an incredible lineup of speakers including julia jeffress sadler nika spaulding rebecca carroll liz rodriguez laura story and sheila walsh for more information on everything happening at our church visit first alice.org events [Music] i don't know am i the only one that teared up watching all these kids sing i believe i believe i believe wasn't that phenomenal wow what they're learning here is so powerful so good let's read god's word together isaiah 45 verses 6 through 9 will be our passage today reading from the new american standard bible and those will be the words on the screen in the worship center and you'll see them across eye campus as well on your screens so that we can all read god's word together we invite you to stand on to the reading of his word as we read together isaiah chapter 45 beginning with verse 6 and ending with verse 9 that men may know from the rising to the setting of the son that there is no one besides me i am the lord and there is no other the one forming light and creating darkness causing well-being and creating calamity i am the lord who does all these drip down o heavens from above and let the clouds pour down righteousness let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit and righteousness spring up with it i the lord have created it woe to the one who quarrels with his maker an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth will the clay say to the potter what are you doing are the things you are making say he has no hands may god richly bless the reading of his word now you may be seated at this time as as we enjoy the student worship ensemble led by david hutching [Music] when peace [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] and i bearing no more praise the lord praise the lord my soul [Music] shall be [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] incredible our student worship ensemble under the direction of david hutchinson let's give them a great round of applause for leading us this morning what a blessing well you may be seated and let's turn our attention to the screen the bible is filled with countless stories of victory and celebration through the praise and worship of almighty god music and worship is a major part of the dna of first baptist dallas god is doing an incredible work in and through our music and worship ministry and i want to personally invite you to be part of what god is doing from two-year-olds through senior adults whether you sing play an instrument or simply want to serve as a volunteer in one of our age-graded choirs we have a place for you i'm often asked the question what is the requirement to join the choir at first dallas i'm not sure if i have the voice to do it my answer is always this if you love to sing and love to worship the lord you are welcome here i'm standing in the choir rehearsal room lots of seats in here our vision is to fill every seat every time we gather for worship and we need you to fulfill our mission to transform the world with god's word one life at a time our ministry is made up of people from all ages and walks of life a beautiful picture of the body of christ we join together for the sole purpose of giving glory and honor to our lord and savior jesus christ psalm 34 3 o magnify the lord with me and let us exalt his name together come and join us christ is calling you to serve will you answer the call [Music] are we grateful for our incomparable music and worship ministry that leads us in worship each and every week you know that's one ministry in which you can serve here at first baptist dallas we believe that every member of our church in fact every member of the body of christ is called to active service in his church for the building up of the body and that's what paul says you are the body of christ and individually members of it peter says it this way he says you are living stones building being built up together into a spiritual house to the glory of the lord and so we want that for you it is good for your spiritual growth and your relationship with the lord to be serving in his body now the music and worship ministry is one place you can serve we're led each and every week by our choir and orchestra and under the leadership of dr tyler brinson he teaches them they're not just here to perform they are each worship leaders leading us in worship of our lord and savior jesus christ but we don't just have music ministry for adults we have music ministry for all participants of all ages as you heard we have wiggle worship for children who are two years old through kindergarten we have and it's called wiggle worship because they're always wiggling all the time we have our kids worship arts program for first grade through sixth grade and we have our student worship for seventh grade through twelfth grade so we hope that that if you are interested or you feel led to participate in those ministries that you will find out more about how you can get involved and really any ministry you have in your worship guide today a volunteer card and so we want you to take that card and if you're interested in finding your place of service we have people on the concourse today who want to talk to you about where you might get involved where you might connect and how you might serve the lord here as part of first baptist dallas so i'd encourage you to do that today now as we continue our time of worship through giving you'll have the opportunity to leave your ties and offerings is the boxes as you exit this morning you can give online at firstdallas.org forward slash give online but right now during this time of commitment i'll invite you as you're able to kneel all over the worship center as we go to the lord in prayer together gracious heavenly father we come before you as children called into your family adopted through the blood of jesus christ and we thank you for the joy of our salvation lord you are our hope and our shield you are our strength our rock and our redeemer we find all of our joy and our hope our life and our purpose in you and so as we praise you this morning lord we recognize your holiness in your righteousness and as we come before you we confess our sinfulness we acknowledge lord that we have fallen so short of that perfect standard but it causes us to cry out in gratefulness and thankfulness for the salvation that you've provided to us through your son jesus christ while we were dead in our sins and our trespasses your word tells us that he came and he paid that price he took the punishment for our sins he was raised again so that we could be redeemed and reconciled to you and so it is in that spirit of thankfulness and gratefulness it is in that spirit of worship that we give to you our tithes and our offerings this morning that we commit to you our lives and we seek to serve you and we pray this in the saving name of jesus christ amen [Music] let the church be the church let the people rejoice [Music] we've made our choice is [Music] [Music] this old ship has been through battle's peaceful [Music] [Music] [Music] to the god has always had a people many a foolish conqueror has made the mistake of thinking that because he had forced the church of jesus christ out of sight and it's still its voice and snuffed out its life but god has always had a people the powerful current of a rushing river is not diminished because it's forced to flow underground no the purest water is that stream that bursts crystal clear into the sunlight after it's forced its way through solid rock there have been charlatans like simon the magician who sought to barter on the open market that power which cannot be bought or sold but god has always had a people men who could not be bought women who were beyond purchase god has always had a people there have been times of affluence and prosperity when the church's message has been nearly diluted into oblivion by those who sought to make it socially attractive neatly organized and financially profitable but god has always had a people yes it's been gold-plated draped in purple encrusted with jewels it's been misrepresented ridiculed mocked and scorned but god has always had a people these followers of jesus christ have been according to the whim of the times elevated as sacred leaders and martyred as heretics get through all their marches on that powerful army of the meek god's chosen people who cannot be bought flattered herded or still all through the ages and parts [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh listen child of god it's alive discouraged pastor it's his church and it's alive phony visionary sold that seed with confidence the church is still alive old saint you are not forsaken the church is still alive busy mother keep thrusting in jesus the church is alive if you're not alone out there serving the lord young student just keep looking to jesus the church of the blind and faithful fathers there's rest in the lord god's church is still above so family of god lift your hands lift your hands and praise the lord the church god's churches [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you so much great choir and orchestra for a song so appropriate for the times in which we live we want to welcome the multitudes of you hundreds of thousands watching on our first dallas high campus and literally the millions of you who are watching us on pathway to victory all around the world this week i was in orlando wednesday addressing the global church leadership conference church leaders from nepal africa south america all there and i can't tell you the number of them who stopped me to express their appreciation for first baptist dallas and the way we minister to them week after week ron harris was just showing me a message from a pastor in nepal who just wanted to be sure he had the time right to tune in this morning he's watching along with hundreds of thousands of others so no we're praying for you wherever you are and glad to have you with us today i want to recognize a special friend who's attending our service today she is a former member of the united states house of representatives she's now the dean of the law school at regent university and a great christian michelle bachmann would you stand up for a moment and we want to say hello to you and welcome to first baptist dallas thank you michelle she's going to be here tonight at discipleship university with gary bennett thank you so much for being here heinrich himmler and reinhard hedrick were two of adolf hitler's top lieutenants they were also rabid anti-christians and they had as a goal to start a new religion in germany one that would be a mixture of the worship of pagan germanic gods mixed in with the third reich philosophy and they thought that if they could create this new religion that they could replace jesus christ with adolf hitler in the hearts of germans even hitler himself thought that was ludicrous but then he began to see the value of using the church's power to advance his cause he thought to himself why should i go to the trouble of creating a brand new religion why not just corrupt the church that is already present and so he had another lieutenant alfred rosenberg who created a 30-point plan for corrupting the german church that plan included replacing every bible and every church in germany with copies of hitler's book mind conf it included taking down all of the crosses in churches and replacing them with swastikas a few churches resisted but amazingly few resisted you say well that's an interesting story pastor but thank god that could never happen in our country don't be so sure many germans thought it could never happen in their country either persecution has always been a part of church history it's inevitable we've seen persecution from the earliest days of the church in the book of acts but today when we come to acts 12 we're going to look at the first instance of state government-sponsored persecution up to this point in time all of the persecution was instigated by the jewish religious leaders but today we're going to look at what happens when the roman government gets involved and yet today's story is not so much about the inevitability of persecution as it is about the tremendous power of prayer if you have your bibles turn to acts chapter 12 as we look at a story about persecution prison and prayer acts chapter 12. luke begins in verse 1 with these words now about that time about what time well he's saying about the same time as the events i just told you about in chapters 10 and 11 the conversion of the first gentile cornelius the reaction of the jerusalem church the founding of the first gentile church at antioch we're at about 44 a.d we're about 10 years now after the day of pentecost the birth of the church it was about that time that herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them and he had james the brother of john put to death with a sword now when we read herod we have to ask ourselves which herod there are a lot of herod's running around in the bible the original herod was herod the great he was in power at the time of the birth of jesus remember he's the one who ordered the killing of all of the hebrew males two years of age and under when he heard the news that the king of the jews had been born he wanted to exterminate any rivals to his power that was herod the great all the other herod's in the bible were descendants of herod the great and the herod we're reading about here in 1844 is his grandson herod agrippa the first and what did he do he decided to start mistreating the church and he decided to kill the apostle james who would be the first apostle put to death why did he add this on animosity toward christians i mean usually the romans didn't care who you worshipped as long as you were loyal to caesar you could worship one god or many gods why did he do this you have to understand that all of these kings and governors in the roman empire were there by the authority of rome they appointed rulers to do the business of rome and they had basically two assignments in occupied territory number one keep the peace and number two keep the taxes rolling in that was the mark of success and so these rulers knew the best thing they could do would be to ingratiate themselves with the occupied people they were ruling over herod the great had done that many years earlier when he expanded the jewish temple beyond what it was during the time it was constructed after the babylonian exile was over remember the jews came back they built a little temple it wasn't that great but herod said let's give you a really great temple and that's why it's called herod's temple well his grandson herod agrippa learned from that he said how can i ingratiate myself to these jewish leaders what is it they're concerned about well their concern was about the spread of this heresy called christianity and they wanted it stamped out herod himself didn't care but he said in order to earn their approval what if i take one of the leaders of that new church and put him to death this was going to be a test case to see if it got his poll numbers up he would try out persecution against christians and see how that fared for him by the way government is always testing things government is always pushing against the boundaries to see how far it can go how much power it can usurp without a rebellion among the people right now we're seeing instances in which this ungodly government this ungodly administration there are some rogue elements within this current administration that are testing the bounds on religious liberty they're threatening christian groups they're threatening churches they're trying to silence them or alter what they say in the pulpit it's a test case to see if they can get away with it without any serious repercussion i'm not speaking hypothetically i know what i'm talking about and that is why we at first baptist dallas are always going to push back against an ungodly government that seeks to overthrow our first amendment rights now that's exactly what was going on 2 000 years ago they were testing the limits let's put james to death and see what happens well verse 3 tells us what the reaction was and when herod saw that it pleased the jews he proceeded to arrest peter also if one dead apostle is good two dead apostles are even better so he decided to go after the big fish so to speak peter the leader of the church he arrested him with the intention of putting him to death but there was just one problem verse 3 says it was during the days of unleavened bread that was the seven day feast of the jews that began on passover it was a holy time so herod said i can't have a public execution right now it would show disrespect to the jews so we'll put him in prison and hold him until the feast is over he was probably held in antonio's fortress where barabbas was where jesus was tried by uh pontius pilate look at verse five so peter was kept in the prison but the prayer for him was being made fervently by the church while peter was in prison ready to be executed the church prayed fervently you know in james 5 16 james writes the effective prayers of a righteous person accomplishes much the james who wrote that wasn't the james who had been martyred it was james the half-brother of jesus who became a christian and a leader in the church at jerusalem as we'll see in a moment he's one who was of almost an eyewitness to the miraculous answer to prayer we're about to see so when james says the effective prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much i think he has in mind what he saw firsthand with this church in jerusalem that prayed fervently what is it that made their prayer so powerful the late james montgomery boyce notes three characteristics of the church's prayer that caused god to answer in such a powerful way first of all the church prayed to god that's what verse 5 says they prayed fervently to god then you say well that's kind of a no-brainer who else would they pray to satan well there are other people you can pray to besides god next week we're going to look at a story jesus told about a man who prayed a very eloquent prayer but jesus said he was praying to himself sometimes people are praying to themselves sometimes people pray for the benefit of other people to try to impress them with their piety with their spirituality my parents used to tell us the story by the time they went to a home prayer meeting and people were trying to out pray one another and finally a man stood up and he decided to win the competition and so he prayed the longest prayer you can imagine he used every theological word he could think of to invoke he prayed around the world for the missionaries and he was coming in for a landing for his big finish in his prayer and he said and lord when the day has come that this life is over and we pass over the and he couldn't think of the word he was trying to say jordan but he couldn't think of it so he went backwards rewinded and started again and lord when the day comes that this life is over and we cross over the equator well everybody burst into laughter that ended the prayer meeting right there you can pray to other people besides god but this church they didn't offer any equatorial prayers it says they prayed to god that's the foundation for powerful praying r.a torrey in his book the power of prayer describes a moment of realization that absolutely transformed his prayer life he said the day came when i realized what real prayer meant i realized that prayer was having an audience with god actually coming into the presence of god and asking and getting things from him the realization of that fact transformed my prayer life before that prayer had been nothing more than a mere duty and sometimes an irksome duty but from that time on prayer has not merely been a duty but a privilege one of the highest privileges of life before that realization my thought had been how much time must i spend in prayer the thought that now possesses me is how much time may i spend in prayer without neglecting my other responsibilities don't forget when you pray you're praying to god the early church understood that secondly they understood the importance of earnestness and praying they prayed earnestly the new american standard says they prayed fervently that greek word means muscle that is stretched to the very limit this was no little prayer with folded hands now i lay me down to sleep kind of prayer this church was praying earnestly fervently what do we mean by that in the discourse that we're going to look at in a couple of weeks the sermon on the mount jesus gave his greatest teaching on prayer and remember in matthew 6 he said god isn't impressed by the number of words we use in our prayer he's not impressed by the repetition of our prayer but he is impressed he takes notice of the earnestness the seriousness with which we pray do you remember that story in luke 18 luke 18 1 says and jesus told them a parable to show how they ought to pray at all times and not lose heart and he told the story about the widow who was being mistreated and she went to an ungodly judge and asked for some relief and the judge said why should i do anything you asked me for you don't have any standing with me i don't fear you you and i don't care about god but she kept on persisting and finally one day he said i'm going to give you what you want not because i care about you or respect god but you are wearing me out and he gave in and then jesus made this point if an unrighteous judge is willing to do that for a widow he doesn't even know how much more where your will your heavenly father do to for those of him his children whom cry for him day and night will he linger long over them jesus wasn't saying god is like the unrighteous judge that you need to wear down it's a contrast how much more will a heavenly father who loves his children do for them when they plead with him day and night if you're a parent and a grandparent you understand that if your child asks you for something in passing you may or may not pay attention to it or even remember it but when they come to you pleading morning noon and night for the same thing over and over and over again it's not that they've worn you down it's you realize this is something important to your child it's something they really care about and unless it's something that's going to hurt them in some way you want to do everything you can to answer their request that's what's going on here this was something that was so important to the christians in jerusalem that they had an all-night prayer meeting about it by the way what concern do you have in your life right now that you are so concerned you're willing to spend more than five minutes praying about god takes notice of prayers that are earnest and thirdly the church prayed specifically that's why it was an effective powerful plan they prayed for peter and what did they pray for peter it wasn't one of these general lord bless peter bless peter bless peter i've said before i think one reason so many of our prayers are infective or ineffective is they've been infected with a severe case of blessitis you know blessitis it's the disease that's all you can say lord bless the church bless the pastor bless my husband bless my wife bless my children bless bless bless bless blessed how do you know if god ever answers a prayer like that why is it we lack specificity in our prayers i think one reason is we don't want to be disappointed if we pray specifically and god doesn't answer then we get disappointed and i think another reason is we're really not sure god can pull off our request the reason we don't ask god for big things is the same reason we don't ask a 95 year old grandpa to move a heavy box we don't want to embarrass him we don't want to ask him to do something he's really incapable of doing but the prerequisite to big blessings in our life is to pray big things pray with specificity that's exactly what this church did and how did god react to their prayer look at verse six peter is freed i love this on the very night when herod was about to bring him forward this was the night before his execution peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison verse four told us that herod had ordered four squads of soldiers to watch over peter a squad was four soldiers they would be on duty for six hours each and in this four this group of four two would stand at the cell door the other two would watch over the prisoner by the way why did it take so many soldiers to take care of peter and keep him in prison well remember from chapter five peter had this irksome habit of escaping from prison and herod wanted to make sure this didn't happen again so they guarded him and all of that time while the guards were watching what was peter doing don't you find that amazing the night before his execution he is sound asleep we'll see how soundly in just a moment how could he do that how could he sleep remember the promise of isaiah 26 verse 3 thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee that was the secret to peter's piece look at verse 7 here he is sleeping away behold an angel of the lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell and he struck peter's side and woke him up saying get up quickly and his chains fell off of his hands the angel had to shake peter had to poke him in the side had to strike him he was sleeping so soundly verse eight and the angel said to him gird yourself and put on your sandals in the original greek let's scram let's get out of here wrap your cloak around you and follow me and so he went out and continued to follow the angel and peter did not know that what was being done by the angel was real but he thought he was seeing a vision have you ever had that happen i had it happen just this week i had this elaborate dream i mean it was technicolor i mean it was the most unbelievable dream you can imagine and about halfway through the dream i say to myself this can't be happening this is a dream i'm in have you ever had that happen to you you didn't know whether it was really a dream or not i said this must be a dream but i'm going to go ahead and see what happens at the end so i'm going to keep on sleeping and keep on going through this well that was peter he really didn't know if what was happening was real but he followed the angel and the angel let him out of the jail and they passed two guards that were sleeping and then they came to the city gate that opened into the city and like in one of those horror movies the gate luke said opened without any human effort at all and suddenly verse 11 says peter found himself in the streets of jerusalem in the middle of the night and he was all alone and he realized it was all real so what does he do well he knows the romans are going to be after him so he does the logical thing he goes to where his friends are the christians are many of them are gathered in the house of mary for a prayer meeting and that leads to verse 13 and this is probably to me the funniest passage in all of the bible is the church's reaction to what happens to peter verse 13. and when he knocked at the door of of the gate a servant girl named rhoda came to answer and when she recognized peter's voice let me in let me in when she recognized the voice because of her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that peter was standing in front of the gate this little girl rhoda was so excited when she heard peter's voice she forgot to open the door and she goes back into the prayer meeting all excited and you know there they are with closed eyes you know having their prayer time right there and she starts saying you won't believe it verse 15. it's peter god has answered our prayer he's at the door knocking right now they couldn't believe it verse 15 says they said to her you are out of your mind but she kept insisting that it was so and they kept saying it must be peter's angel now we don't know exactly what they meant by peter's angel it may have been a reference to the guardian angel it may be a reference to a jewish superstition that when you die your spirit hovers around for a few days afterwards but whatever they were meaning they knew it couldn't be peter because after all he was in prison right verse 16. again a funny verse the bible says while the church kept arguing people peter kept knocking at the door trying to break into his own prayer meeting you know it's interesting that this church even though they had the faith to ask god they didn't fully believe that god could answer their prayer before we're too hard on them isn't that true for us sometimes we pray and we pray and we pray and if the answer comes we're shocked we can't believe it that god has actually answered our prayer i'm reminded of that story i told you in the courageous series about the church that was distraught about a bar that was being built across the street and they did everything they could with the city to stop it they couldn't stop the construction and so they had an all-night prayer meeting to ask god to intervene in the middle of the all-night prayer meeting a thunderstorm out of nowhere erupted a lightning bolt came and destroyed the bar went up in flames the bar owner was absolutely furious and sued the church for a million dollars blaming them for the loss of his bar the church members hired an attorney who said the church can't bear liability for that that's an act of god in the middle of the trial the judge said i don't know how this is going to turn out but one thing is clear the bar owner believes in the power of prayer and the church does not we're a lot like that i don't know how much those early christians were fully convinced of the power of prayer but they were convinced enough to pray and here's the good news it doesn't take a whole lot of faith to move the hand of god did you know that it's not the quantity of our faith it's the object of our faith that matters what is our faith in jesus said you can have a itsy bitsy teeny weeny amount of faith the size of a mustard seed but if it's faith in god it can move mountains and that's how this church prayed they prayed and god answered their prayer finally verse 17 peter was allowed into his prayer meeting and he explained what had happened and then verse 17 closes by saying peter left and went to another place we don't know where he went this chapter marks the end of the focus on the apostle peter he had been the primary character for these first 12 chapters of acts but when we pick up the sermon again later series again later in the year starting with chapter 13 the spotlight shifts to the apostle paul and his missionary journeys around the world we'll only see peter one more time just in a passing way in chapter 15 at the council of jerusalem but now the focus is on the apostle paul there's an interesting post script to this entire story that's worth noting it begins in verse 18 herod's reaction to the freeing of peter now when day came there was no small disturbance among the soldiers what an understatement as to what could have become of peter and when herod had searched for him and had not found him he examined the guards and ordered that they'd be led away to execution then he went down to jude from judea to caesarea that's caesarea by the sea and was spending some time there herod was enraged because this diminished his authority in the sight of the people he couldn't even hold one measly disciple hostage he was inflamed and not only that he was having trade problems luke says with tyre and sidon and so he decided to go down to caesarea and relax a little bit and then he thought to himself like so many politicians the way out of this mess the way to rescue myself from sinking poll numbers is to give a big speech i'm going to give a big speech and that will regain my position with the people so verse 21 says on an appointed day herod having put on his royal apparel took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to the people this is in the theater at caesarea by the sea many of us have been there many many times is an amazing amphitheater the acoustics are unbelievable there and that's where herod was when he addressed the people and as he spoke the people kept crying out saying the voice of a god and not a man by the way did you know this event is confirmed in secular history josephus the historian tells us exactly what was going on here listen to what josephus wrote he said herod put on a garment made holy of silver and came into the theater early in the morning at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it shone out after a surprising manner and it was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him and presently his flatterers cried out one from one place and one from another an antiphonal response one side saying one thing one answering them the other they said he was a god and they added be thou merciful to us for although we of hitherto reverence thee only as a man yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature and how did herod respond to this claim he was a god did he respond like peter did remember when cornelius bowed in front of cornelius and peter said get up i'm not a god i'm just a man like you no that wasn't herod agrippa he stood there in the sun and he soaked in the praise he let the people continue saying he was a god and verse 23 says at that moment immediately an angel of the lord struck him meaning he had become the object of divine wrath and then joseph adds this detail and a severe pain arose in herod's belly and began in a most violent manner herod gripa didn't die immediately he lingered on for five long days dying in a.d 44 at the age of 54. and luke explains what happened when he did not give god the glory he was eaten by worms and he died let me mention two timeless truths from this passage that apply to each one of us i hope you'll never forget these truth number one no person can prevail against the purpose of god no person can prevail against the purpose of god luke begins this chapter chapter 12 with herod killing christian leaders and threatening to destroy the church the chapter ends with herod becoming nothing but worm food he was completely destroyed and yet in verse 24 after noting how herod died luke says but the word of the lord continued to grow and to be multiplied the most foolish decision a person can ever make is to go to war with god you will never never win and that's why when these atheist organizations like the freedom from religion foundation or americans united for separation of church and state or this godless administration we're living under when they try to silence the church and intimidate us i absolutely laugh they are nothing they're like the big bad wolf threatening to huff and puff and bro blow the house down they're not going to blow this church down do you know the term have you ever heard the term pissant i had to look it up this week did you know that is an actual kind of ant i read this week about piss ants they are small irksome little creatures they have a foul smell to them that i don't need to describe anymore they are irksome they are bothersome but in the end they have no power to destroy anything i thought of that this week these liberal organizations this administration that threatened the church of jesus christ they are nothing but pissants in the sight of almighty god and they will not prevail against the purpose of god [Applause] you cannot prevail against the purpose of god and by the way that doesn't apply just to non-christians no christian can prevail against the power of god and the purpose of god any christian who continually disobeys god rebels against god continues to make himself or herself the god of their own life you're not going to win that battle isaiah 45 verse 9 says woe to him who quarrels who makes war against his maker no person can prevail against the power of god secondly no circumstance can prevail against the power of prayer these prison bars were no match for the prayers of god's people now let's be clear there's nowhere in scripture that says god will answer every prayer there's a boundary around our request it's found in first john 5 14 and this is the confidence we have in him if we ask anything what according to his will he hears us now listen to me that's not a cop-out the will of god is a boundary around our request not to keep good things from coming into our life but to keep bad things from coming into our life it's our protection and sometimes god says no because he knows what's best but hear me just because god sometimes says no to our request doesn't mean he always says no and that's why real faith in prayer means boldly asking for what is in our heart and quietly trusting in god's wisdom and answering that request but the fact that god sometimes says no should not keep us from asking asking big things in fact the prerequisite for experiencing big answers is to engage in big asks james said in james 4 2 you have not because you ask not years ago i was in a very small group we were meeting with the late dr adrian rogers the pastor of the bellevue church in memphis for so many years and adrian was telling us a funny story but it was a story with a purpose he said when he was in bible college in florida he preached one sunday in a church they couldn't afford to give him an honorarium so they gave him these two big burlap bags filled with oranges so he gets back to his apartment he lugs them up the stairs into a second floor apartment puts him in the closet a couple of days later he's sitting there at the desk studying and he looks out the window and he notices a boy from next door standing on the fence reaching over to an orange tree in adrian's backyard and when the boy looks both ways sees nobody is looking he grabs one of those oranges and puts it in his overalls and uh adrian said what that boy didn't know was my orange tree was a sour orange tree in florida a sour orange looks like a real orange you think it's a real orange until you bite into it adrian said he chuckled as he thought about that boy getting home taking out the purloined orange and biting into it and getting the surprise of a lifetime adrian said you know if that boy had simply walked up the stairs knocked on my door and said mister could i have an orange from your orange tree i would have said oh you don't want one of those that's a sour orange but come in here in my closet i've got all the oranges you could have ever imagined for he said the boy had not because he asked not ladies and gentlemen satan cannot keep god from answering your prayers but he can't keep you from offering those prayers you have not because you asked not i think if there are going to be any regrets in heaven it's going to be this when we see all of the blessings god had planned for us he had our name on those blessings they were ours for the asking if only we had had enough faith to ask no circumstance can prevail against the awesome power of prayer let's bow together in a word of prayer i'm speaking to some of you right now you're already christians what need do you have in your life that you've been afraid to ask god for again what circumstance are you facing right now that you'd be willing to devote more than five minutes a day to pray for is there something you'd be willing to pray for 10 minutes a day until god answers one way or another i hope today you've been motivated to pray to come into the presence of your heavenly father who wants to do good things in your life extraordinary things if only you have the faith to ask i also know there are many of you watching online perhaps some in our worship center today you're not yet a christian there's one prayer god promises to answer every time and that's the prayer of salvation lord be merciful to me the sinner whoever calls upon the name of the lord the bible says shall be saved god doesn't answer that prayer for some people he answers it for anyone who is willing to ask and maybe you've come into the realization that you need god's forgiveness in your life you can't forgive yourself it's something you receive as a gift based on what jesus christ did for you on the cross would you like to receive that gift of forgiveness god freely offers you if so i want to invite you wherever you are to pray this prayer in your heart knowing that god's listening to you right now would you pray this with me dear god thank you for loving me i know that i have failed you in so many ways and i'm truly sorry for the sins in my life but i believe what i've heard today that you love me so much you sent your son jesus to die on the cross for me to take the punishment that i deserve for my sins and right now i'm trusting in what jesus did for me not in my good works but in what jesus did for me to save me from my sins thank you for forgiving me and help me to live the rest of my life for you in jesus name amen for those of you watching online today if you prayed that prayer i want you to go to the top of your screen click on that link that says i prayed the prayer to trust in christ the moment you do that i'll be notified of your decision i have some free material to send you this week about what it means to live as a christian don't wait another moment go to the top of the link and click on that and let us know of your decision today for those of you who are here in our worship center i want to encourage you to take out the card that is in your bulletin and if you prayed that prayer with me if you would check that third box i prayed the prayer with dr jeffress we'll send you the same material this week we're sending our online friends maybe you're a guest today check that box maybe you'd like more information about the church you can let us know that as well many in the first service joined our church by checking that fourth box if you join the church today if you register as a guest you will receive an invitation for this thursday night dinner with the pastor at maggiano's at north park it's a complimentary dinner we have a fun time i'll be there to answer your questions and let you know a little bit more about our church when you have finished this card take it to the welcome center and exchange it for our new 538-page pathway to victory devotional or you can simply drop this off in one of the receptacles on the way out we'll process the card and get the book to you thank you so much for doing that don't forget this evening discipleship university i mentioned michelle bachman is speaking in gary bennett's class but we have a number of offerings tonight and hope you'll make sunday evenings a part of your regular schedule hope you have a great week we'll look forward to seeing you next sunday let's stand together now as tyler comes to lead us in our final song thank you pastor what a great morning of worship we've had together let's go out singing his praise today this is my story this [Music] this is my story this is [Applause] [Music] [Music] have a blessed day church well thank you so much for joining us for worship today on the first dallas eye campus it's our honor and privilege to worship chat and pray with you throughout the service if you are local to dfw let me encourage you to come on down we'd love to have you visit us in person we'd love to greet you and show you a great spot in the worship center for you to sit it would be our honor to worship with you in person in the heart of downtown dallas right here at first baptist dallas also if you are new here to the icampus or have been watching for a while and want to get plugged in let me encourage you to sign up for a free gift we'd love to provide that to you directly in your inbox and then sign you up for pastors daily devotional it's straight from the pen of dr jeffress and you will be encouraged with that great resource each and every day simply visit the link that's provided on your screen and lastly stay connected with us each and every day with our facebook global group there we encourage one another through scripture and graphics but also pray for one another so head on over to facebook and join our icampus global facebook group thank you again for joining us today for worship we look forward to seeing you next week on the first dallas eye campus you

Channel: First Baptist Dallas

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Length: 180min 50sec (10850 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 30 2022