Those People | Acts 12

Wow, that's crazy, y'. All. Well, man, I asked Boyd. I actually texted him. I said, man, dude, just tell me, what are you most excited about?

Church of the Valley. And his text back was, hey, I love how people are getting serious about reaching people and a desire to grow as disciples. It's a way to go, you guys, because that's God. I mean, our God loves to reach people. And I've been shocked lately.

I'm just hearing so many amazing stories where there's people who should never know God, who do, because he reaches people. So, man, if you're here and you're checking out church, you're checking out Jesus Christ. I just want to tell you, man, he loves you. He so loves you. And all of you who already love him and are part of him, man, today, don't forget this, because I know.

I just know. You know, having to go to church every week as a pastor, it can be, as one guy on my staff called it, the spanking machine. Just happens week after week after week. Do not forget the living God is in this place. Amen.

Okay? And his word is alive, and it's active to equip us. So those of you guys, as Boy said, who are hungry to grow as a disciple, today's your chance to do it. All right, so here we go. Acts 12.

About that time, Herod the king. So Herod's a king, which means he has ultimate authority. So not. Well, that's not totally true, because actually the emperor had ultimate authority, but Herod was good friends with the emperor at this time, Claudius. And so he was given authority to make decisions to do literally whatever he wanted to do.

Now, it was crazy. Susie and I went to Italy a few years ago, and so I wanted to read. I love historical fiction. So I actually picked up a book called I, Claudius. And it was a story of the historical fiction of the emperors during that time.

And I gotta be honest with you, man, there were, I think, at least like three, maybe four times where I had to put the book down because I was so nauseous. Literally nauseous at how during that time period, there was zero value of human life. And the stuff that those emperors could do and the stuff that the king could do and the decisions they could make. It was horrific. And it's horrific right here because Herod laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.

He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword because he had absolute authority. He could do whatever he wanted to do. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. And this was during the days of unleavened bread, which is the days of the Passover. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending that after the Passover he'd bring them out to the people.

So the church, in this period of time, they are living in a time when they are completely at the mercy of others. They are feeling completely out of control because they are, they don't have control. Herod has control. And you guys, sometimes in life, every single one of us in this room, we're going to experience times when we're out of control, when you are at the mercy of others. I'm going to experience that today at 2 o' clock when I watch the lions play, I'm going to be at the mercy of the lions.

And it's probably going to be really frustrating to watch them because I sit at the screen and I tell them what they should do and they don't listen to me. And I have zero control. So I get super frustrated. The weather can be super frustrating. My daughter, a year and a half ago got married and she and her fiance decided to get married outside.

So I just decided. Man, from day one we were praying, my wife and I, all of us were praying. God, I literally prayed almost every day. Just give us a beautiful sunny day. A week out from the wedding.

Weather reports all sun. And then the next day partly cloudy and the next day cloudy and the next day possibility of rain. It got worse every single day to the morning of the wedding. I'm watching the radar and there's this storm potentially coming, you guys, an hour before the wedding, we had everything set up. My daughter's driving in one of the worst storms.

In fact, it was at his parents house. They said, we haven't ever seen a storm like this before. Hail, wind, rain. Hail came down in May to the point where the whole yard was white with snow, with hail. It was insane.

And we all sat in there. My poor daughter had to. She was driving to the wedding at that time, sitting in her car and I'm calling her and I'm going, babe, how you doing? She goes, this is just mean.

Right before the ceremony, it stopped. And as they started walking down, the sun came out. The reception outside, it started raining again. And then the sun came while the rain was going on. And over the whole valley was a double rainbow.

And I said, babe, clouds, wind, rain, hail, double rainbows. Welcome to marriage. Welcome to marriage. No control. Three years ago, had my checkup with my doctor and there was some stuff that came back in my blood that wasn't good.

So I had to go to a specialist. I go to the specialist and he reports back and says, here's the situation. And so I said, well, here's what you have. And I go, okay, it's of kind. Is there any way I can change that?

It's like diet, exercise. Everything's with diet and exercise, right? He goes, no. He goes, you could change your parents. Well, I can't change my parents.

So now I have a health condition that I have zero control over. And I tell you, when that happens, and some of you have experienced that, either you or someone you love, now there's fear because you're out of control and there's nothing you can do. Sometimes decisions that other people make, they're in control of their own decisions. Parenting. Good luck everybody.

My kids are 24, 22 and 20. I was with a fellow pastor this week and he goes, my 15 year old son is going to be the end of me. And then he literally says, he goes, I just so wish I could control. And you can't, you can't. And so people are going to make decisions.

Your boss is going to make decisions. Dear, dear one, in my life right now, struggling so much with the boss who's making decisions. Governments make decisions and we have no control. They get to decide. And then we live there.

All around the world right now, people can't do what you and I are doing because violent hands and martyrdom are taking place. So when I read this passage, what I wanted to, because I don't think many of you are worried about getting beheaded. I'm not worried about getting beheaded. I'm actually not worried about being thrown in prison. But I do know this.

How can we take this scripture and say, how does this apply to me? You cannot live on this planet without entering circumstances where you're not in control, where you're at the mercy of other people or you're at the mercy of situations. What are you going to do and how are you going to respond? Okay, so there's two responses that I see in this chapter. The first one is in verse 6 says, now when Herod was about to bring Peter out on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison.

So it's the night before Herod's gonna bring him out. And what's he gonna bring him out to do? He's gonna behead him. He's gonna execute him. And what's Peter doing?

Sleeping like a baby. Isn't that amazing? Come on, man. Here's one possible response. When everything is out of your control and you could lose your life the very next day.

So I was thinking that. Is that because Jesus told him that this was going to happen, right? He kind of let him know, okay, dude, your life is going to end in a hard way. Is it because he was at peace being with Jesus? See, because you and I can ever.

You can't be separated from him. Once you're born of the Spirit and Jesus is in you, you're one in spirit with him. So was Peter just. Was he so aware of Jesus presence that even though he knew he was going to die, it's like, I'm good. So he's just asleep.

Was he so full of the Spirit that peace was guarding his heart and mind in Christ Jesus? I'm not gonna belabor this point. Cause it's not the main point of the message. But we can't miss this. And this is a very popular passage.

But let me just remind you, if you are in a situation right now, whether it's your health or people making decisions that are tough, or your own life that feels out of control, Philippians 4 says, then rejoice in the Lord.

I am out of control completely. Then rejoice in the Lord. How often? Always. Again, I say, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident to all. Why? Because the Lord is near. He just is. Don't be anxious about.

Say it. Anything.

Okay? But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. Which I think if Peter is sleeping like a baby when he's about to get beheaded, that's transcending understanding.

It will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. That is one possible response. Once you received Christ and you walk in the Spirit and you're abiding in him. He's there. He's there.

And you can sleep and be at peace. But we're gonna camp on the second response here, okay? Cause while Peter's sleeping, the church is praying, okay? Acts 12:5. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

So you have this word. So. So you got the situation. And then you've got. But.

So whatever you're going through, there's also a big but. Thanks, babe, for laughing.

I'm telling you, man, one of the most important words in all of Scripture is. But God wants you to know that something can happen here. Now, I'm totally honest with you. I'm super intrigued by this verse because I would maybe expect it to say, so Peter was kept in prison, but God had plans for Peter. Or.

But God was on the move. But God. But that's not what the scripture says. What's it say instead? But earnest prayer for him was made by the church.

So if we're going to take scripture as the word of God, then we've got to take this seriously. That somehow the thing that changed the circumstance that brought the contrast, which is what the word but means, was the church was praying. And so I was thinking that. Does that mean that if the church hadn't prayed that Peter would have been executed?

That'll be a fun Bible study question. I have no idea. Does it mean that God would have fulfilled his plans with somebody else? Because nobody's gonna stop God's plans. Okay?

You can't. I don't know, man. When I read that, that's just fascinating. But if all scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training, then God wanted to make sure that you and I would understand this morning that the difference in this story, the shift of consequences, was because the church was praying.

That's crazy, man. And I'm going to be honest. I for one, am personally just challenged by this. I really am. I.

This is just honest confession, I don't think. I don't know if I'm a prayer warrior. I pray, but I'll be honest. I so trust God just to do it that sometimes I don't pray for him to do it because I'm like, he's God, man. He's just going to make it happen.

And then I just walk with him. But, man, you can't go into Scripture and say, that's not how it should be done. Look at what Paul says. Because Paul believed prayer actually mattered. In Philippians 1:19, he says, I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

So he goes, now I know this. The Spirit of Christ is going to help me, but it's also through your prayers. And then in 2nd Corinthians 1:10, 11, Paul says, God has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us how, as you help us by your prayers. Wow.

So apparently our prayers make a difference when I was in seminary in California, so I'm from Michigan originally, and I was all the way out in California doing my master's, and I was out running. And all of a sudden, man, I had this extreme burden for a very, very important person in my life, like rare heaviness, to the point where I immediately just started praying big time for them. And as soon as I got home, I'm like, I gotta find out what's going on, because I am so heavy right now. And I called and didn't get an answer. I called and didn't get an answer.

Called, called, and didn't get an answer for a whole week. I never heard from this person. Finally, a week later, I caught ahold of them, and I said, man, I go, are you okay? Because a week ago, I had this extreme heaviness, man. I just started praying for you.

And they said, when? What time of the day did that happen? And I remember I was running at a certain time in the afternoon, and I told him at that moment, they were attempting suicide.

Again. This is really weird to me. Why couldn't God just go, I'll protect him. Why did God's spirit have to move me to pray? And I did.

Now I'm. When I get there, that'll be fun to watch that movie. God, what happened during that time? Like, what was going on, what warfare in the spiritual realms was happening? But all I know is this, man.

God said pray. So apparently our prayers matter, and we ought to believe that. Now, today, what I want to look at is, is how do we. Because the church was praying earnestly. Okay, so how do we pray earnestly when things are out of our control?

And again, man, just praying for you guys this week, because I do, man. I love Boyd and Brittany. I love you guys. I love Justin. I do, man, I love the church.

It's. My wife and I, we stepped down from our position in March, and all we're doing is giving ourselves to past pastors and their wives. How can we help you guys just soar? Let me encourage you. Right now, some of you are in a situation, and you're out of control.

And either you're frustrated or you're angry or you're fearful or you're doubting. And if that's not you, my guess is you probably know somebody who is in a situation like that. And if it's still not you, just keep breathing, because the day's coming when you're going to be out of control. All right, so how do we pray earnestly In James, chapter 5, verse 13, it says this. Is anyone among you in trouble?

Let him pray. The next verse says, is anyone among you sick? Again, out of control? Pray. And then in verse 16, it says, for the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

So are you a righteous person?

And what does that mean? Get your act together. That's what it means. Is that what it means? Okay, a person.

One of my favorite definitions of righteous. Cause I'll be honest with you, that word always felt a little pious. Like I'm righteous, you know, makes you. It's not what it is at all. You know what righteous is?

It's when things are as they ought to be. I love that definition. So if you're a righteous person, then you simply are as you ought to be. So In Romans chapter 3:20, it says, Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. Okay, so you are not righteous by cleaning yourself up and trying to make yourself a better person.

Oh, God, I hope you answered my prayers. I went to church. I joined a serving team. I gave. I actually gave financially.

Is that how you become righteous? No, not by the works of the law. Romans 3:22. The righteousness is given through faith in Christ Jesus to all who believe. Romans 4, 3 and 5.

What does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. Okay, so the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective. How many of you want your prayers to.

To be powerful and effective? Okay. How cool would that be? That'd be awesome. Well, apparently, a righteous person is simply someone who lives by faith and trusts God.

You live by faith. And whenever Abraham believed God and God credited him righteous, you believe me. So if you have faith in him and you trust him when you pray, God's like, bring it. Bring it. I'll listen to that prayer.

Okay, so I'm going to show you one tiny little prayer in the Bible. We're going to unpack it. It's in Matthew, chapter 8, verse 2. And it simply says this. A man with leprosy came, and he knelt before Jesus and he said, lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

That's his prayer. Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. So here we go. How can you and I pray with power and make it effective? Number one, we have to pray with faith that God can.

If you're willing, you what can make Me clean. This guy believed that. Oh, and what prayer does God answer? It's the one who prays, who believes. And so this guy got on his knees before God, before Jesus, and said, I believe.

I trust you can make me clean. So the first thing, you guys. When you're in a situation that is uncontrollable, you can't do it. There's. I mean, Peter's.

I mean, James head is getting cut off. Peter's in prison. The government's in control. What do you gotta believe that God can. Okay, so here's what I wanna do with this section.

All right? I'm gonna say God can do. And then I want all of you to say anything robustly, okay? So that when you walk out of here, you're gonna go, I believe that God can do anything. Oh, that was good.

That was better than I thought. Here we go. Acts 12:7. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared. So apparently, God can do anything.

I had a dear couple when I first. I was 25 when we started our church in Detroit. They paid me $12,000, but they gave me a place to live with Ivan and Ruth French. And they became like second parents to me. Years later, I was down in Phoenix visiting them.

And Ivan at this time was an elderly gentleman, and he was walking his dog in Phoenix. You guys been down in Phoenix and you've seen those big, huge. I don't even know what they're called. Like, whir of the water canals kind of right where the water rushes. Well, at this time, the water was actually high and was rushing down, and he was walking with his dog, and his dog slipped and fell in.

And so instinctively, Ivan wanted to save his dog. So he jumped in. And he's an elderly man, and there was no. He had. There was no way he was done.

All of a sudden, a dude comes on the side and reaches down and grabs Ivan and grabs the dog and pulls them out and rescued them. And Ivan said he got up out of the water and he turned around and no one was there. And no one was there. Suddenly, an angel appeared. God can do anything, all right?

And a light shone on the cell and he struck Peter on the side and he woke him up quick. Get up, he said. And the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Because God can do anything now, you know, when we sing. In fact, you know, I was at the Thing for Hope with Greg Laurie, right?

And Chris Tomlin, by the way, I've never seen him live. Wow, I love that dude. What a great worship leader. But we sang the Song. My chains are gone, I've been set free.

How many of you have ever sung that song? Okay. Oh, my gosh, you guys. Yes. Physical change just fell off.

But come on, man, whatever you're bound to, whatever addiction, whatever behavioral issue that you can't seem to get over, your chains can be gone. The chains around those that you love can be gone. Because God can do anything. And I'm telling you, man, we have to believe that when we pray. And again, man, I've.

So as I'm working with pastors right now, I'm meeting with a lot of guys. And one of the things. The first thing I'm doing is, man, I just go, will you just tell me your story? I love stories. Would you just tell me your story?

I'm telling you, man, there are pastors in this valley who should have never been pastors. Unbelievable. The families they came out of. One guy. Prostitution, drugs, alcohol, for generations.

He's at a party as high as a kite. And at that party, God saved him. I want to tell you, man, God can do. We gotta believe that. So then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and sandals.

And Peter did. So wrap your cloak around you. Follow me, the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening. I love that he thought he was seeing a vision.

And then they passed. The first and second guards. Passed them. Were they just sleeping? See, I don't think so.

Because when I studied and you found out, how did they do? They changed the guards every three hours. So. So these guys refreshed, and they're right next to him somehow, man. And you guys have heard the stories, right, of people bringing Bibles into countries and stuff?

And they open up their suitcases and the Bibles are right there, and they don't see them. Why? Because God can do. Yes. And then it came to the iron gate leading to the city, and it opened by itself, because God can do anything.

And then they went through it. And when they walked the length of one street, suddenly, like with my friend Ivan, the angel left him. And when Peter came to himself, he said, now I know that without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and he rescued me from Herod's clutches.

Peter. How much control did Peter have over what Herod was going to do with him? How much? Zero.

He had no control. But you guys, God has complete control. Amen. So what do you believe, man? What do you believe when you're looking at your situation and you Go.

There is no possible way. There's no natural way. Goes on. Acts 12, 15 through 16. This is when he shows up, right?

There's so much humor in the story, too, right? He shows up, and Rhoda's like. She just leaves him at the gate. And he says. And she tells everybody, peter's at the gate.

And I love what they say in verse 15. They said to her, you're out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so. And so they kept saying, it's as in it hits his angel. But Peter continued knocking.

And when they opened, they saw him, and they were amazed. So here's a. Here's a question. What do you think they were praying for?

What were they praying for? For God to move. And do what? Rescue Peter. That's what they were praying for.

And then when it happened, they're like, no, it didn't. No way, Rhoda. You're out of your mind. And when they actually saw their mace. And so the very thing that they were praying for was out of their mind, Beyond their ability to comprehend that it could actually happen.

So even though they were asking for it, they couldn't believe it when it actually happened. That's awesome, isn't it?

Out of the realm. What they prayed for was something that was out of the realm of human understanding because it was out of the realm of natural possibility.

Do you have anything that's beyond your ability to believe that it actually could happen? Do you have anything that's outside of the realm of natural possibility?

Then pray, baby. Pray to the God who can do anything. So what would some of those things be again? Let me tell you, after meeting these pastors and hearing their stories, I'm sure every one of some of you in this room have. There's people, you know, and it's like, they're not going to be saved.

There's no way. Come on, man. Can God save your friend and your family member and your son and your daughter? Yes.

Pray earnestly. Keep praying. There's physical healings. So my daughter Mariah, when she was in high school, went through some really, really intense spiritual stuff. We had two very dark years with my daughter.

And during that time, she's a vocalist, she's a singer, actor, dancer, and she developed these nodes on her vocal cords, and due to that, they just were. They were severely painful. So for five years, my daughter has been trying to lead worship because God rescued her. Right there, man. Whoo.

I'm telling you, I have my own story of God redeeming somebody from the pit. And so my daughter now is a worship leader. She's singing, but every time she sings, it just. It hurts her vocal cords. And so she went in and they tried to figure out, we've been praying for five years.

A month ago, the women were having a retreat at K2. They were. Went away. It was all about the Holy Spirit. And near the end of the retreat, the gal who was leading just said, hey, so we're just going to end this thing, and we're just going to trust the Holy Spirit can do whatever he wants to do, because that's what he does.

And there was a gal there who feels like she's beginning to get the gift of healing. And she felt like she was supposed to pray for my daughter. They lay hands on her throat, and Mariah said as soon as they started praying like fire, she felt fire go right down her throat and then out of her body. And she was like, oh, my God. She couldn't feel anything.

So they're all rejoicing and everything. A week later, she goes to the emt. The guy pulls up her nodes with all the vocal cord, the nodes on them, and he now does a new test, and they're completely gone. You guys. Completely gone.

Yeah. Come on. Because God can do five years. You didn't just go, bam, you pray earnestly. Rescue from captivity, life change, freedom, addictions, behavioral patterns.

Come on. We need when we pray to be people of faith, because that's what it is. I just believe you, God. I believe in you. I believe you can do anything that will be credited to you as righteousness.

And the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. All right, so here's the second thing then. This is really important, because now we have to pray this. We need to pray with faith in God's will. We need to pray with faith in God's will.

What did the guy say to Jesus on his knees? If you are willing, you can make me clean. So. So in Ephesians 5:17, it says, well, then understand what the Lord's will is. Okay, well, that's the first thing that has to happen.

Prayer. Prayer is not to get my will be done. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. My kingdom come, My will be done. Please, no, Lord, I want your kingdom to come, and I want your will to be done.

So first, John, So when I'm praying, these are the three things I check for my own spirit, okay? Because I want to make sure when I'm praying with faith that I'm going to Be praying for God's will. So in First John 5, 14, 15 says, this is a confidence. This is a confidence we can have. So there's our faith again when we approach God, 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 what we've asked of Him. Jesus said it in John 16. Very truly, I tell you, the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. Okay? So in his name is in accordance with the essence of who he is.

It's really the same thing. So we're praying to the Father to be in union with his will, and then we're praying in the name of Jesus. I just remember when I was a kid, right? Like, don't you just feel like you're supposed to throw that on as a tag at the end? That's what we do, right, Lord, Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

In Jesus name, Amen. I remember one time at the dinner table, my mom didn't say it and I'm like, oh, it's not gonna work. She didn't say in Jesus name. No. What it means is that I'm praying in sync with the essence of Jesus.

Okay, and then Ephesians 6:18, Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. So all three, there we have Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Pray in union with God's will, the Father. Pray in the name of Jesus and pray in the Spirit. So my prayers have to make sure that I actually want to God's will, not mine.

And that's faith, man. That's faith. Because there are going to be some things happen in this life that we are never going to understand.

Acts 12:2. Herod killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

So did God love Peter more than James?

What about all the people that were praying for James? Well, maybe nobody was praying for him. Wow. Come on. He's the head of the church in Jerusalem.

I think people were probably praying for him.

Hmm.

I think of Peter when he was walking with Jesus and Jesus is telling him what the end of his life is going to be like. This is one of my favorite things. And then Peter sees John over there and he goes, what about him? And Peter said, what's it Jesus said to Peter? What's it to you?

You follow me?

So Peter gets eventually, 20 years later, martyred, they think crucified upside down is kind of the history of the church. And John got to live there or not ever? Well, he's probably there Forever. But he got to live. So does God love John?

He doesn't love. Whew, man.

God, how come you didn't answer my prayer, man?

So you care about them. You don't care about me.

So we pray, believing that he can. But God's sovereignty is what we got to trust in, because I got to have faith in his will. Lord, if you are willing, you can. So my. When I was 20, my first job, right out of college, 22 years old.

I take this youth ministry position in Ohio. I'm there 10 days, my first job out of college, and my brother calls me and tells me that my mom just went in and she has cancer, and she's got two months to two years to live. Now, with all my story, my mom was the one person that I knew loved me.

And I remember, man, I went to my apartment and I screamed and I said, you can't take my mom.

What did Philippians 4 say?

Don't be anxious, but in everything present your request. That was kind of my request.

And the Lord is near. And I remember I screamed at him, and he was right there. And I remember that it was an old Methodist church. And I went down into this basement, and there was a closet because I wanted to make sure nobody bothered me. And I got on my knees just like this guy did before Jesus.

And I said, lord, there's two things I know. I believe with all my heart that you love my mom. I know you love my mom. And the second thing I do. I believe in a second that you could heal her.

So that just makes so much sense to me. Right? You love her. You can do something about it. Do it.

And then the Holy Spirit met me and he helped me believe one more thing about God. You love her and you can. But you are the only one who knows for all of eternity if it would be better for my mom to go now or to last until she's 90.

And I have no idea. I have no idea. And by the grace of God, in that moment, You can have my mom.

You can have my mom.

And I really do want your will to be done. Because I know for eternity, that's all I'm going to really want. And you're the only one who knows. I don't know. God knew.

Why was it better for James to go? I don't know. Why was it better for Peter to be rescued? I don't know. So when you're out of control and you're praying and it doesn't happen the way you want it to, we gotta Pray with faith for his will.

There's one other guy who prayed, lord, if you're willing. It's in Luke 22. Jesus said it, father, if you're willing, take this cup from me.

Yet not my will, but yours be done.

And an angel from heaven appeared. Strengthen him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, just like the church. And his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. And his Father crucified him.

And salvation came to the world.

All of his disciples, his mind, everybody's like, what?

Why? They didn't know. Come on, ma'. Am. God can do anything.

So we pray and we believe that. And then we pray with faith in his will. Lord, if you are willing, you can do anything. So as the band comes up, what do we do? You guys?

How can I encourage you? What are you gonna do when things are out of your control? Well, the first one. The first thing the guy did with Jesus is he got on his knees before him. He just bowed down.

He got on his knees. So. And I think the reason he did that is because he just. I'm down here, and I'm gonna stick you up here, Jesus. So he worshiped.

He was worshiping him. And I know for me, man, I've been through so many hard things, and I've learned there's five things that I have to say when I get on my knees that help me to pray. Number one is, God, you are love. And you can't do anything but love me. And I wrestle with that until I believe it.

Cause I know it. You guys know that Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. Do you believe it?

God, you are love. You can only love me. Number two. God, you're good. You can't do.

You can't be bad. He cannot do a bad thing. He's good.

You love me. People's heads are falling off and people are in prison, and I'm sick and my loved one's addicted my kids off and who knows where.

And you love us. And you're good. And you're righteous. You're righteous. God can't do a wrong thing, y'.

All. He can't. He's perfect in all his ways. We love to worship. You're a good, good father.

You're perfect in all your ways. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. He's the only one who knows.

And then he is almighty. And nobody can stop him. Herod couldn't stop him. And if God wants to do it, and it'll be best for eternity. He'll do it.

And he's gracious, and he helps us when we need him. So you get on your knees and you go, oh, God, I worship you for your love and your goodness and your righteousness and your power and your grace, because that's who you are.

And then you say, God, I believe you can. I believe you can. I believe you are who you are.

And what I want, by faith is your will to be done, and I'll trust you. And that's how we pray as a righteous person. And it's powerful and it's effective. All right? So let's stand together.

And I know some of you today might need this type of prayer, because you guys, when you. If you're not there and you're full of doubt and you're full of fear or anger and you're questioning God, then the coolest thing is he goes, then come to my throne of grace and ask for some help. And the Holy Spirit will actually help you pray. That's what he does. He helps you pray.

But, man, I know there's people back here in the back of the room ready to pray for you. Susie and I are down here. We will pray for you if you need that strength today. Okay? And let's worship as we do, let's just worship the one who's alive and well, always working to accomplish his good purpose.

All right? Let's worship.