Sunday Service - 2026-10-04

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

We're looking at Acts chapter 12 this morning, and you might say, wait a minute,

Acts chapter 12. I thought we just did 13 the last two weeks. John taught on the balance of

Acts chapter 13 and Jamie from verses 1 to 12. Usually, we go from one chapter to the next,

but if you recall, three weeks ago, I had chapter 12 all wrapped up and ready.

I hit the print button, and when I went in to make coffee, all of a sudden,

the kitchen counter started going like that way repeatedly, and that's when I realized

something ain't right. I laid down for a while. That was probably like six something laying down

for like an hour and a half just waiting to see, and I'm thinking, I don't think this is

every time I sat up. Finally, I said, we have to pull an audible. We got to do something else.

Reached out, the first person I called, Danny Jackson, reached out to him.

Danny hears the situation, and almost before I could finish, would you consider his absolutely.

I mean, that's just so awesome. If you know Danny, he goes where he's called to go,

and nothing's about him. That's what I love about him. He's so humble, and he said yes,

and I just think he did an amazing job. Danny just filling in first Samuel chapter 3.

He just really brought the word. We're so blessed with amazing teachers here,

and there's more to come, and it's just awesome to see how the Lord uses the body of Christ

and sees all kinds of seasons. He did an amazing job, so we're kind of doing a rewind,

because the other two guys already prepared for their message, and we're going to do a rewind,

a flashback. We're kind of used to that. Aren't we in all of our shows suddenly like,

wait a minute, when's this from? He looks younger. What's going on here?

And this is what we're used to in shows and so forth. It jumps around. We're going to jump back,

and in real time, it's about two years before what Jamie and what John covered the last two

weeks. It's about two years prior, and this chapter that we look at, it's pretty profound,

because it's the last time we're going to read events in Peter's life.

There's only one more time he's mentioned in Acts, and that's in chapter 15, when it mentions him

weighing in on how the Gentiles have come to Christ, because really, he was the first one

to preach to the Gentiles at Cornelius's house, and so he shared, we have to realize this is a

different thing that God is doing for the Gentiles, and so don't trouble them with circumcision and

these kinds of things. So we're going to read about Peter, but it's only in that one brief

moment, but really, it's shifting to Paul and Barnabas and Paul and many others, and that's

how we're going to read the rest of the book of Acts, and so this is a significant chapter

where we really read a lot of verses about Peter and what he was going through.

And so today's message is praying to a sovereign God, praying to a sovereign God. What do we

mean by sovereign? The actual Greek word, really, dunas, means powerful, all-powerful,

all-knowing. I mean, he's over everything. He has all authority. I love the song that

Devon was leading us in about God's authority and all power. He has the preeminence over everything.

Wouldn't you say that? Does anything happen under his nose that he doesn't already know is going

to happen and has happened? He sees it all, right? And so sometimes when you think about

why then pray to a God who can do everything and anything he wants, isn't God going to do

whatever he wants to do? That's a trick question in a sense. Does God do everything and anything

he wants to do? Well, does God want all men to know and love him?

Does he force that to happen? Does he cause that to happen?

Does God want all people to love one another?

We see that happening, right? Does God want marriages to stay together?

Is that happening about 50% of the time, whatever the statistics are these days?

Families, you get the idea. Does God want pain and suffering in this world?

So does God do everything he wants to do? What his will would be to do? You know,

there's a sovereign will of God, right? And there's a permissive will of God. He permits things.

And why is that? Well, someday we'll fully understand when we get there.

But really, I believe that some of God's will is set aside for man to assist in him fulfilling.

Wouldn't you agree? I mean, God's will in a sense depends on man's obedience to fulfill his will.

And I don't think that's blasphemous at all. I think it's true. And we're going to,

there's so many examples of this actually in scriptures that we can read again and again

and again, how God uses even, especially in the Old Testament, the patriarchs, you know,

God only moves if that person responds to what his will is to do. Remember Abraham,

when God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham because of his nephew,

Lot, and his family is down there and is like, well, will you destroy the city if there are

50 righteous people? No, I won't if there's 50. How about 45? How about 40? How about 30? How about

20? How about 10? You know, I mean, wow, you know, God, his patience doesn't run out, right? He just

kept on saying, no, I won't destroy the city if there are that many left. And so there were less

than that. And he did. But he allows man to intervene and be part of his will. How about

when Moses and Joshua at the top of Mount Sinai, and as he was receiving the 10 commandments, right,

the people of Israel were down crafting a golden calf to worship and sacrifice to. And God knew it

was happening. He told Moses and he says, you know what, I think I've had it with these people.

This is God speaking. Okay, I'm paraphrasing too, by the way. Why don't I make a new people

out of you? Now, you could say, was God just testing Moses? I think so. But then Moses just says,

no, no, God, don't do this. What would the Egyptians say? See, he led them out to the desert

to destroy them. And here, Moses is pouring it out to like intervene for God's people.

Because God wants us to be involved with what his will is. He invites us in. How about Elijah?

You know, unless he prayed to bring back now, God told him to. But it wasn't until Elijah prayed

that the rain came back. How about Hezekiah? Remember Hezekiah? He was a great king for God.

And he came down with an illness. And Isaiah went to him and prophet Isaiah. And he said,

all right, get your house in order, because you're going to die. This disease is going to take you out.

And Hezekiah just turned to the wall and just cried on his bed. Lord, Lord,

you know how always did your will please spare me this and that.

Before Isaiah was even left the courtyard of the palace, he was told, go back. I changed my mind.

And he went back. Okay. And he said, actually, God has given you 15 more years. Hezekiah

gives God's will a just. Doesn't it just? This is touching. Okay. He allows his permissive will

to be partnered with mankind. He wants us to be part of his will. There are some things he's just

going to do. There's going to be the end of the ages. There will be judgment, you know, for all

those who never received it. There's going to be just a sovereign will that he's just going to do.

When it's over, it's over. But in the meantime, a lot of God's will that is fulfilled depends on

man participating in his will. Right. I know. Does this sound touchy to you? Okay. And, you know,

later, if you want to ask me after the service, I had a problem with that. You know, look,

we all can learn, you know, and clue to me, you know, but I just see this play out in scriptures.

Jonah, go to Nineveh. Well, if Nineveh's that way, I'm going that way. Okay. You know, no. Right.

And so what did he do? Finally, Jonah repented and he went back. And it was because of Jonah's

message that thousands of people got saved. Right. Because they surrender to the Lord. Right.

It's just the way God does it. He chooses to use us. I love the fact that Jesus compares

God the Father. Now, listen to this with an unjust judge. Do you remember that probably says, you know,

it was an unjust judge and there was a widow who was being taken advantage of and and manipulated.

They didn't get into the details. And the widow said, you know what? I got to go to the judge

and get and get justice. So she goes to the unjust judge who didn't fear God or man. And

the widow just said, please, you got to help me. You got to help me. And he's like, he's like,

just, you know, go away. And finally he says, if I don't help this lady, she's never going to let up.

And then Jesus said, in the same way, your father in heaven and so much more does your

father respond to you. Now, does that mean he sees you as a nagging widow? No,

but he wants us to ask, seek and knock. Right. So when we pray to a sovereign God,

you might say, what does it matter? Isn't he going to do whatever he's going to do?

In a lot of cases, no, he depends on us to participate in fulfilling his permissive will.

Right. So today we're going to read Acts chapter 12. And in this, we're going to see four

things happen that are pretty significant. One, James, the son of Zebedee, the son of thunder,

one of the 12 original apostles and one of the three of the inner circle,

the guy who was up on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus when he was illuminated,

the guy who was with Jesus when he raised Jairus's daughter back to life, the synagogue leader,

and the one who was in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying to his father

for possible relief from what he was going to undergo through crucifixion.

He was one of those three, well, he is going to be martyred, killed, execute, probably beheaded.

I mean, can you imagine what the rippling effects that would have had through the early church,

like James, like the G. Now, Stephen was stoned at death, but he was kind of like

an auxiliary actor in the whole thing. Right. Yeah. He wasn't one of the primary

James. And then next, Peter is arrested. Finally, the Lord is going to strike Herod with a disease,

a worm, a parasitic disease that's going to take his life. And you're saying all these

crazy things happening, and yet God is sovereign under all of it. But there's one line, one verse

we're going to come to that really sets Peter's rescue apart from everything else that's going on.

And that's the early church was praying specifically for Peter, praying for Peter.

Can you imagine that? Like, James just was beheaded. Now, Peter is arrested and he's

waiting to be beheaded. And you're thinking, wow, it didn't work out well for James. Like,

this looks pretty, I'm pretty pessimistic about what's about to happen. And yet they pressed in

and prayed anyway to the sovereign God. So let's dive in. And we're going to read these verses.

We're going to read through the whole chapter. We say what? But we're going to, it's reads like

a wonderful story. So I think that's the best way to do it, to capture it all together. So

you're ready? So Father God, anoint this word. May it penetrate us and just completely

bring revelation and illumination to our thoughts and minds and help us apply it to our own lives.

In Jesus' name, amen. Chapter 12. Now, about that time Herod the King stretched out his hand to

harass some of the church. And then he killed James, the brother of John with the sword.

And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also.

And now it was during the days of unleavened bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him

in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring

him before the people after Passover. Verse five. Peter was there, kept in prison,

but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. See, this is the,

that's the centerpiece of this chapter. And then Herod was about to bring him out. That night,

Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers and the guards before the door

were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the

prison. And he struck Peter on the side and raised him up saying, arise quickly. And his chains fell

off his hands. And then the angel said to him, gird yourself and tie on your sandals. And so he

did. And he said to him, put on your garment and follow me. And so he went out and followed him

and did not know what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. And then

they were past the first and second guard posts. And they came to the iron gate that leads to the

city, which opened to them of its own accord. And they went out and went down the street and

immediately the angel departed from him. And when Peter had come to himself, he said, now I know

for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod.

Verse 12. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John,

whose surname was Mark, where they were, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter

knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. And when she recognized

Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter

stood before the gate. But they said to her, you are beside yourself, meaning you're out of your

mind. Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, it is his angel. So they already

concluded what probably happened, right? And verse 16. Now Peter continued knocking,

and when they opened the door, they saw him and they were astonished,

but motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had

brought him out of the prison. And he said, go tell these things to James and to the brethren.

And he departed and went to another place. And then as soon as it was day, there was no

small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. But when Herod searched for him

and did not find him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death.

And he went, meaning Herod, down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. Verse 20.

Now Herod had been angry with the people of Tyre and Sedan, but they came to him with one

accord and having made Blastus, the King's personal aid, their friend, they asked for peace

because their country was supplied with food by the King's country. And so on a set day,

Herod arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them.

And the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man. And then immediately,

an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms

and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied. So here we see again, four things happening.

And it could almost seem like chaotic, doesn't it? Like, is God aware of like all these things?

Like, James, how could he permit James to be executed and martyred? Okay, we can ask God that

someday, but we believe that all things work for the good of those who are called, who love God,

who are called according to his purpose. We know that God has the best will in mind, right?

So yes, he permitted that to happen. But yes, he chose to rescue Peter.

They make the Lord made a special point that they were praying for Peter. So he wants us to know

that in the midst of this mayhem, of James being martyred, of the Roman soldiers, you know,

being executed for something that God actually arranged, the rescue of Peter, right? That's

kind of weird. Someday we got to reconcile that with God. Wow, Lord, you know, but he's under

control of all of it. And then of course, Herod. Josephus the scribe explained that whole situation

with Herod. He said, Herod arrived early in the morning with the glistening sun. He arrived in

like a sequin garb. It was all like silver. He was covered with silver, like glittery things,

right? And he arrived and the way the sun struck it, they said, look at how marvelous

and amazing Herod. He looked Godly, you know, as he was speaking. And they were just so overwhelmed

by him. And they just started praising him. And that's when the angel struck him. And Josephus

said it took him about five days to finally die from this parasite that the Lord struck him with.

But so you know what struck me in this chapter, the word struck.

Okay. And I'll just tell you why your version might say smote, he smoted him. It's a very,

I don't know, nightly thing. I will smite you, right? But it's two places, right? In this chapter

one, an angel smited or struck Peter to wake him up. And then the other angel smited or struck

Herod to bring disease upon his body. Now, I don't know, I don't want to make too much of this,

but it's interesting because it's the same Greek word, potosimus. Can you put that up, JT, that

picture? The angel struck Peter for good. He struck Herod for bad, for Herod's bad. Okay,

not for God's bad, but for Herod. But it's interesting, you know, as I was just pondering

that for a minute, I just thought like sometimes we can think God is smiting us for something bad,

and actually he's doing it for our good. He's correcting our course, or he's giving us a wake

up call. Rise up, man, what you're doing here, you're wasting time here. It's time to move on

and do something different, right? And sometimes we might say, you know, we're getting smited by

something and say, well, God's going to do whatever he's going to do anyway. Oh, well. And we just let

it go. You know, so many people in the Bible did that. They just said, well, God, he's in control

if that's the way he wants to do it. You know, Judas, you know, gave up on himself. Would God

have forgiven Judas? Of course, even though he was the son of perdition, yeah, he was destined

for, but you know what? He's all foreknowing, right? But so a lot, you know, God smites

all of us at times, not in the same way, but in a wake up call, like, hey, stay,

stay alert, stay with me here. You know, it's kind of like, I was even thinking of example, like

you ever drive down the road and suddenly someone's in your way and you have just a slam

on the brakes, you know? And I don't know what it is, but if there's someone next to you,

your arm just flies over to stop them. You ever notice that? You parents definitely notice it.

But Jill, I'm always just smacking her. I say, look, there's a car in front of us, honey.

Yeah, no. But like, it's because there's something that just like stops. You want to just stop the

person, you know, even though they're seatbelted to, whatever it is. But it's like, but imagine

if she and I were coming into the church, okay, and we're walking in the front door and rocky or

someone at the door opens up the door to let us in. And I go like that to Jill. Hey,

my arm's feeling pretty good. You see that shoulder movement there? But anyway,

so I stop her and I walk in in front of her. She'd be like, what's that? You know, like,

it's not the same thing, right? Because one is in protection and the other is in selfish pride,

arrogance, whatever you want to say it is, you know, there's a difference. Like God, it might even

seem like the same thing to each of us. Like, you know, what's the difference? Well,

what God is doing, you know, so I just wanted to point that out because as we're praying to a

sovereign God, we want to be aware, well, I can understand now why this is happening. I have time

to get into details, but I just experienced that business. This really is not working out well.

I need to stop doing it and start doing something different, you know, because God's showing me

that I'm wasting my time. He's giving me a wake up call. He's smiting me in a sense,

you know, like, come on, let's move on from here. And so anyway, as we're reading through this,

we see that God is always sovereign in the midst of all of it. And the thing that separated,

the good thing that happened in this chapter, God wanted us to realize prayer was connected to it.

Now, you see, was no one praying for James? We can assume they were. But for now,

we're focusing on what the word did tell us this morning. And that is they were praying for Peter

and he was released. Did you ever hear of the heavenly man? Some of you might have read that

book. His name is Brother Yun. He was in the early church. He was in the early underground

church in China. And he writes a story about he was, he was tortured, beaten. He was, you know,

held in prison. And he actually was released miraculously, like a miracle by an angel out of

prison. And there are many testimonies about Brother Yun, how this happened. You know,

he was never the same after that. Can you imagine that? You were miraculously rescued

supernaturally from prison. You know, so things happen that are miraculous when it seems

impossible. How about fly Dubai? Flight 1073. Is that like insane? You know, I'm talking about that,

that flight that was leaving Dubai and going to Tel Aviv. Okay. And the pilot is flying the plane.

Okay. And his co-pilot says, do you mind if I go and pray? He's like, okay. So as he's steering

the plane, the guy who goes behind him, the Muslim, begins to pray, I guess it was that time of day.

And as he's praying, the pilot, all of a sudden he just feels a whack on the back of his head.

He's like, what is that? Another one. Here the guy went in and got the axe of the cabin

and started whacking, like chopping the pilot's head with a, with a, with a, with a hatchet.

That's the last report I had. I thought he was stabbed in the stomach. Maybe he was that too.

But anyway, so he had the wherewithal somehow to go and open up the cabin door. Okay. And did you

hear this story? Just give me a little nod. If you did, you probably heard about it in the news

and all of a sudden all these people start charging. But in the meantime, the co-pilot

who was fired from Dubai, no, no, he was fired from some other airline because he was weird.

Okay. And fundamental, you know, uh, Islamist, right? He, he started steering it down to crash

the plane into the ground and it dropped. I forget how many thousands of feet so fast.

And it was like just, they said the G force it's miraculous. Anybody could even like think

people are hitting the ceilings. Somehow people charge the cabin. Okay. After the pilot opened

up the cabin door and they went and they wrestled down this co-pilot. Okay. Who was evil. And they

held them down. And a guy who saw in a TV show, somebody pulled the stick back up,

just said, I think I should try this and re steered the, the plane, the jet and saved,

I forget almost 200 people in that, in that airline. Like that, no, that come,

well, that didn't happen. That's, that's like a James Bond movie. No way. It happened. It's

a miracle. It's a modern day miracle. God is doing miracles all the time. But you know,

what was happening during that people were praying. I heard interviews with a bunch of

people, you know, they, they pray to Yahweh. Okay. They don't pray in the name of Jesus yet.

Maybe they will after an incident like this, but they're praying to Yahweh, please save us.

And he did. And that's miraculous, right? This seems impossible that that could happen.

Yet God is doing those things all the time for us as well. So praying is so important.

I want to say just before we get into communion, if you have that slide JT that says, why pray?

Something about why prayer. If you have that, how about before that? There we go. If God is sovereign,

why pray? Like if we just discussed, is he going to do everything he wants to do?

Maybe under conditions, right? It depends. It depends. Is man going to be part of that

will? He will do a lot of great things in your life if you allow him to do them, right?

But if we don't, he can't, he won't. You won't force himself, right? But in the midst of all

these things happening, we see that God was always sovereign. So let's talk just a few

things quickly about why pray to God. Well, first of all, for relationship.

Thank you, JT. Why pray? Because relationship. I was on a great long walk, a five mile walk this

morning, just praying through things. I go through my whole family and pray for them.

And many of you popped into my head. I was praying for you. And it's awesome. Just praying to the

Lord and just walking along and going through things, even with this sermon. And it's awesome

to just walk and pray with God. You can just pray any way you want to, to the Lord. I always

pray for relationship's sake. You know, you know what happens to a marriage where the spouses don't

talk much? It's not a healthy marriage. Or when families don't communicate, it's not healthy,

right? Things fall apart. Your relationship with God depends on you talking to him. You

vetting to him, just like David, you know, David's Psalms are loaded with discontentment

towards God. And yet he still prayed and said, Lord, why don't you ever listen to me? You ever

noticed that? Lord, you never hear me. You never listen to me. By the end of the Psalm is you

always hear me. You always listen to me. Something happens through prayer that as we're even praying,

we're like, this sounds pretty stupid. I sound like a fool right now saying these things to God.

And we repent. It's by the end of it, we're repenting to God for saying those foolish things

that we started our Psalm with, right? Because it's communication. It's relationship. You know,

I love how Paul tells the Romans when you don't even know what to pray, let the Holy Spirit pray

through you. I believe in praying in tongues. I do whenever I don't know what to pray for,

I just start praying in tongues. And I love it, you know, but praying in tongues is not a prerequisite

or a requirement or necessary for a believer to be saved because we all have gifts. We're all

supposed to be prophesying, you know, speaking the word of God into situations that are happening

around us, you know? So, but it's just the idea is being in communication with God. And that is

prayer. He's sovereign, but he wants you to have fellowship with him. How about the next thing?

Why pray to a sovereign God? Well, the next thing is to bring ourselves in line with him so that we

think like he thinks. You know, he says, my ways are not your way, says the Lord. And yet we're

told in the New Testament that we have the mind of Christ, right? Like we can come into understanding

of God's thoughts. And we can come into understanding of his will, you know,

by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to discern the good, then you will be able to prove

the good, acceptable and perfect will of God, right? As you pray, he transforms you into his

thinking. Suddenly you're in the same wavelength. Now you say, oh, this is the way it has to go.

Look, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he's praying, look, if there's any way to spare

me of this cup, but not my will, yours be done three times. He's like, isn't there any way, Father?

Like thinking about this to the point of bleeding droplets of blood saying there has to be another

way, but he's knowing that there really isn't. You are the Son of God. You need to die for the

sins of the world. You need to rise again to defeat death, as Jill said earlier, and you need

to ascend to heaven and you need to release the Holy Spirit upon and in all of your saints. It has

to be done this way. And by the end of it, your will be done. Come on, it's time they're coming.

Let's go. You know, I mean, Paul found that himself. He prayed three times and we have that.

If you have that next slide, as he prayed in 2 Corinthians 12.9, Paul talks about how he prayed

three times. Lord, release this infirmity, you know, this thorn in my side from Satan.

Many speculations and conjectures about what it is, but whatever it was, it was a problem he

was having. Sickness, opposition, all kinds of things. And he's like, can't you just take this

away? We know he started losing his sight as time went on, probably through the beatings and

the stonings and everything else. He's like, can't you take this away? By the third time, he's like,

no, actually, it's through my weakness. I become strong in you. You are strong in this broken

vessel, right? He just, he understood, like, this is why I need, this is why I need to be

in this condition to bring forth your perfect will, whatever the situation was, you know?

And what's the last reason why we pray to God is the last reason is because it makes a difference.

When we pray, we accomplish things. I love James 5 16, confess your trespasses to one another and

pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man

or woman avails much. Prayer matters. Our prayers are powerful weapons. You know, our weapons are

not carnal and flesh and blood, but they're mighty and tearing down strongholds, defeating arguments

that are false and lying. You know, praying, there's been so many times that prayer in my life

has been just such an amazing outcome. Like, wow, prayer. I remember one time,

a couple of times, people in our fellowship, I mean, the Lord has led them other places,

other states in a couple situations, but they couldn't have a baby, okay? And so, one guy,

I remember, you know, we met for lunch and he said, you know, my wife and I, we can't have

a child. And like, well, let's pray. You know, so we prayed, you know, and so he reached out to me,

maybe like, almost two months later. Guess what? You know, I forget her name, actually, but

so-and-so is pregnant. I'm like, oh, that's great. Now I forgot, you know, because, you know,

you're always praying for people and stuff. And I didn't remember. So I'm like, that's great.

Congratulations. No, don't you remember? I'm like, no, what? He goes, well, he said,

you know, my prayers, any prayer that is filled with belief has power. But he said, you prayed

for me. I'm like, wait a minute. Oh, yeah, I remember we prayed. Wow. Okay. Yeah, that's great.

Wow. Okay. Well, how many weeks is she? And he told me. So I'm like, I look back on my phone

just before that, days before that is when we met at the diner for lunch.

And, you know, I'm thinking, wow. And that has, you know, God moves in power and might. I can't

understand why sometimes he chooses to say no or maybe, but you know what? We know that we have

what we need. I love what the apostle John, the brother of James, who we just read was martyred,

he still had faith for all kinds of prayers. And he said, first, John five, 14 to 15.

He says, now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will,

he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have

the petitions that we have asked of him. Long wind, long way to say, if you ask, you can know

what that you will receive, what you need. Now, Mike doesn't always look exactly like we asked for

right. Doesn't always turn out the way we thought it should, but it turns out the right way. It turns

out God's way because he is sovereign. Amen. So we know why we should pray, but you know,

as far as how to pray, if you can put that slide up JT, you know, first we need to pray specifically.

You know, I really believe pray to praise for specific things. Because if you just pray it,

you know, with random vagueness, how is there any way to confirm that your prayers are being answered?

If you don't pray with purpose and with details, Lord, I pray. Now he might change them over time,

but Lord, I'm going to pray specifically that this happens. I want to pray for this situation.

Please resolve it. This relationship, Lord, come on, bring a solution. We have to pray specifically.

We have to pray expectantly. We have to expect things to happen. If you're praying and thinking,

it probably won't happen. Now, it is interesting that in Peter, they're expecting his angel to

be showing up, not him. You know, maybe they didn't have, it just goes to show you can have,

you shouldn't have doubt, but he can override some of your doubt. Right? Remember,

the one guy said to Jesus, I believe would help my unbelief. We could pray that way. Look, Lord,

I can't imagine this happening. I'm just saying, but Lord, please, I'm begging you override

my unbelief right now, because I want to believe that you will do this. Expect it to happen.

Expect it, you know, and he answers it. Amen. And then finally, pray faithfully. Just

make prayer and every morning thing laid out. I'm telling you, I think praying should be like

purposeful and with intention. And, you know, I highly recommend laying on your face,

just laying down on the floor, prostate, prostrate. I do that every time.

Leave your prostrate alone. You can pray with your prostrate too, but

but pray prostrate, prostate, you know,

and you can pray with your appendix too, whatever you got to do, but just pray. Okay.

Lay down and pray, right? Humble yourself, you know, because the Lord said humble yourself

beneath the mighty hand of the Lord and he will lift you up. You know, just be humble. Lay down

like a doormat. Lord, I'm just laying down. I'm humbling myself. I am the lowest thing,

and yet you think so highly of me, but Lord God, I just want your power to move through me,

Lord God. I just want you to just do whatever you want. I'm your putty. I'm putty in your hands,

Lord God. Just whatever you want. Pray that way. Pray pacing. You know, we see evidence of this,

by the way, in scriptures all over the place. Lay kneeling with your head down to the floor.

You know, there's so many postures. Pray kneeling. I love that picture of Solomon praying

before the temple. He started praying, standing up by the end of it. He's praying down on his

knees, just like this, like totally overwhelmed by the glory of God, because he was just praying,

and the holy fire came down upon the temple. Just pray any way that the Lord leads you to pray

with power and might, and pray specifically. Pray expectantly and pray faithfully. Amen.

So as the worship team comes up, we're going to have communion together.

I just want to mention that thing about praying in tongues. You know, it's interesting because,

you know, I knew a couple of people at my old church that did it. But no one really talks too

much about it. It's kind of an uncomfortable thing, you know, because of the bad connotations

that some people have about it, and their experiences in churches maybe that said you

can't be saved if you're not praying in tongues, and things like that. And, you know, I don't

believe that's biblical at all, you know, and you guys can bring it up if you want.

But I remember hearing a pastor on TV talking about praying in tongues, and he really

taught the word really clearly, and he said just start doing it. Just talk to God,

and just let the Lord God, and just babble. You know, just Lord, and just open up my mouth to just

pray, and just allow the Lord to work through your prayers, and don't even have an agenda.

So about 20 years ago, I went into my closet, okay, and unbeknownst to anybody in my family,

because I felt very embarrassed. And I went in, and I just kneeled down, I just started murmuring,

and I'm not going to do it here, because that will cause another, you know, issue.

But just praying, and just Lord, I just don't even know, but I'm just going to trust what I'm

doing right now, you're going to occupy. And I just started praying in tongues, and you know what,

I started like seeing a slideshow of like, and I'm like, I guess that's what I'm praying about

right now, okay. And I just start praying, and all of a sudden another slideshow, and another

time I'm like, all right, this is going a little too fast here, you know, and just one thing after

another, another slide, and I'm like, Lord, I, you know, like, I don't even know how to do this,

like, this is too much, Lord, I can't be effectively praying about this, I must have been

slacking off, because if there's this much stuff that I have to catch up on,

then Lord, I'm not, I'm not praying enough. And more and more, I'm just praying in tongues,

Lord, just you know what you want to pray for. And then when I see it, I'm like, yeah,

I've even thought of that person in years, that person, I should call them.

Yeah, that's another thing. Oh, and there's another one. And just, and he's just,

he's filling your mind with what you need to be praying for, because he wants to occupy your

prayers. He wants to feed, he wants to feed the fuel, he wants to fuel your prayers with what he

wants to do, not only through you, but for you to participate in. And so if you don't pray in

this, I've known many people that kind of were in the same circle as me, more of a

kind of conservative background, you know, and maybe, maybe didn't honor that gift,

but it was kind of silly or whatever. And just go by yourself and say, Lord, you know,

if you want me to just humble myself and be a fool for you,

I'm ready to do it, because Lord, I don't want my will, I want yours to be done.

And he will do it. He will just start speaking through you. And it's so awesome to say, Lord,

wow, I've been missing out on this gift. I've been missing out, you know, we can all pray,

I love praying, but a lot of times it's our mind doing the praying. And we're assuming God's in

agreement with whatever we're saying. Like, Lord, do this. And by the way, did you get that?

Break that down. And Lord, I want you to, you know, we're giving him the list of what we want

him to do instead of him giving us the list and not even what we should do, just what we should

be in prayer for. Amen. Amen. So let's have some communion.

Yeah, Lord, as we celebrate together, we thank you for this very moment of time,

this little slither, you know, the last couple of minutes we have together in this room, Lord.

And we believe, Lord, the God that you want to reside in us. As we eat this bread, Lord God,

we believe that this represents your body of Christ that was nailed to the cross,

that became sin on the cross for us. And as we eat this, we remember that we are no longer

sinners. We are saints. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's eat.

And Father God, as we drink this cup, we thank you, Lord,

that is by the shedding of your blood that our sins are washed away.

And Lord, we are now new creations with all the iniquity and cleansed us of all of our sins.

We thank you in Jesus' name. Let's drink.

After the service, please, if you want some prayer, come on up. Love some prayer counselors up here.

And also, just make sure you stick around and enjoy the saints and the time together, you know,

because after today, we go back into our routine and our world, and this could be the most

fortifying time of the week right now is where you get rejuvenated by the saints

and build up by the prophet of the gifts of the Spirit. Amen.

Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word.

Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.

Be blessed and have a great day!