We are a family striving to be relevant, connected people, radically changed by the love of Jesus, impacting our neighbors, near and far with transforming truth and dynamic compassion.

We are the people of God because of a relationship with a Person.

It’s a Decision with regard to a Person.

23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.

Acts 4:23-24

You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.’

Acts 4:25-26

“Be Strong and Courageous”

-God

Don’t let the great effort of your life be directed toward the secondary areas of your life.

Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.

Acts 4:27

They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

Acts 4:28-29

Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

Acts 4:30-31

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

Acts 6:1

So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

Acts 6:2

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:3

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also.

Acts 12:1-2

On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

Acts 12:21-23

But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

Acts 12:24

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

Acts 12:5

The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

Acts 12: 6-7

Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and 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; he thought he was seeing a vision.

Acts 12:8-9

They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

Acts 12:10

Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

Acts 4:11

When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.

Acts 12:12

Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

Acts 12:13-14

“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

Acts 12:15

But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

Acts 12:16

Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison.

Acts 12:17a

“Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

Acts 12:17b

The Persistent Prayers of the Church

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Luke 18:1

We should always pray and never give up.

“And what did she beg of you, my God, with all those tears, if not that you would prevent me from leaving? But you did not do as she asked you. Instead, in the depth of your wisdom, you granted the wish that was closest to her heart.

For she saw that you had granted her far more than she used to ask in her tearful prayers. You brought me to yourself, so that I no longer placed any hope in this world, but stood firm upon the rule of faith. And you turned her sadness into

rejoicing, into joy far fuller than her dearest wish, far sweeter and more chaste than any she had hoped to find.”

We should always pray and never give up.

Benediction

May the wonder of God’s love and the miracle of His redemption sweep you off your feet and ignite your faith once again. May you pick up the cause of faith and march forward knowing God has your back, He’s gone before you and He is threading you from an ancient to a current story. Awaken to joy today! Embrace faith today! Pray like you have a God in heaven who hears you and moves when you pray . . . because you do! So God enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. Amen

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