Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240630 - Help From Heaven: God’s Holy Angel - Acts 12:1-12

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#20240630 - Help From Heaven: God’s Holy Angel - Acts 12:1-12 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Pastor Ed has been taking us through the book of Acts
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together, and we're a bit beyond this right now.
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We've already been through Acts Chapter 12, but we're going to
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take a little bit of a different kind of a look at this section,
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Acts Chapter 12 and the title of the message today.
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And again, Pastor Ed is not here, so I apologize to those of
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you that came for him, but I have the privilege of stepping
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in today and I'm honoured to be here.
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The title of the message today is help from Heaven, God's holy
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Angels. So we're going to take a little
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bit of a look today at angels. The Bible does tell us that all
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around us is an unseen world. And again, we live in the
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natural. So that's kind of how we base
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our reality on the things we can touch and taste and see and
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smell. The five senses, That's how we
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live. We can't see the spiritual
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realm. It's invisible.
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And so many people think because the spiritual realm is
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invisible, things like angels or spiritual warfare is just
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fictional. And so you see a lot of artwork
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when we think of angels, maybe right away the vision that comes
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into your head as the angels that sit on these puffy clouds
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and they've got their harp and they just look bored out of
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their minds playing the harp. But the Bible tells us again, we
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would say, well, this is the real world, what I can see and
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touch and feel. The Bible would say that the
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spiritual world all around us, we could say is the real, real
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world, that it is just as real as what you can, you can sense
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and touch right now. And the effects of this unseen
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spiritual realm are seen and felt around us in our everyday
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living. So my hope then, as we look at
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Acts 12 and, and a little bit of a study on angels is that we can
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pull back the curtain today on the spiritual realm.
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And, and know that no matter what it is this morning that you
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have brought into this place, that you would know that you are
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not alone. That God says he is for you,
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that God loves you, that God has that plan even in the midst of
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the difficulties of your life. And that we have this help from
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heaven available to us. And so it is true that we can
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cultivate. And I think God's going to want
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to do that in some of our hearts this morning, a sense of the
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spiritual realm that is all around us because we see it so
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much in Scripture. So we're in Acts 12.
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Let's pray before we begin. God, we thank you so much for
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this morning and for what you've done in this place already and
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for what you're doing. And we believe, God, you've got
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a word for us. And so I pray, Holy Spirit, that
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you would take your word and apply it to our hearts at
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church. I just want to take a moment, if
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you would, and just pray for those around us this morning
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that the Lord would open up our hearts to the Word and that the
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Lord would open up His Word to our hearts.
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So if you would just quietly in your heart, the person on your
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left, the person on your right, just pray that God would speak
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to them today. And if you don't mind, would you
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pray for me? And would you pray that God
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would use me, that the Holy Spirit would take His Word and
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apply it as well to your heart this morning?
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And so, Father, we are trusting you.
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We're so thankful for a church that we can come to and where we
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can open your word, we can go line upon line, precept upon
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precept, verse by verse. God, you are so faithful in so
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many ways, God, to speak to us. God, you have been nothing but
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good to us. There may be a lot in our lives
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right now that is not good, but we have a God that is always
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good. And so we're trusting you as our
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good God to speak to us this morning in Jesus name, Amen.
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Amen. All right, Acts chapter 12,
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starting here in verse one. About that time Herod the king
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stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.
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Verse two tells us then he killed James the brother of
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John, with the sword, and because he saw that it pleased
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the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also.
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Now, it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread, the church at
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this up to this point had been relatively successful.
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Things had been going great. It was exploding.
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People were getting saved. God was adding to the church
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thousands upon thousands of people.
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It was spreading. But things began right around
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this time to get very, very difficult as it starts here in
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verse one. Now about this time, it says
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most scholars believe this was around 44 AD.
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This would have then been eleven years after the crucifixion of
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Jesus, so not long. Herod the King here is Agrippa
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the first. He's the nephew to Herod Antipas
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that we remember reading of towards the end of Jesus's life
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during his trial. He is the grandson of Herod the
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Great, and if that sounds familiar, Herod the Great we
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read of in the Christmas story was around at the time of
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Jesus's birth. And Herod Agrippa here chose to
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live and set up his throne not in Rome at which would be more
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common, or not in Caesarea. He chose to live and set up his
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throne in Jerusalem among the Jewish people.
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He himself was not a Jew, but he followed along many of their
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customs and their dietary laws. And now he's hearing all the
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complaints from the Jews who were no fans of Christians, and
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he's hearing about this Nazarene sect and this man named Jesus.
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And so it says that what he does here in order to please the
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Jewish constituents that he was among, he took James the
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apostle, the disciple, the one who wrote the book of James.
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He takes him and it says he decapitates him.
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A church history tells us that taking his head with a sword and
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now this man that God used so greatly is just off the scene,
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just gone in a moment. And so Herod saw that that
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pleased the Jews. He was a typical politician.
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He saw that that was something that they that made them happy.
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So he decides here to also take another great man, an apostle
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and a disciple, Peter. And he throws him into prison.
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And he intends to also put Peter to death, but it was going to
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have to happen after the seven day Passover feast.
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These were two of the church's main leaders of the early
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church, Peter and James. And of course there was John as
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well, who was another one. So in the midst of this oncoming
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suffering and the death of many, many Christians and persecution
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and the days of this early church, Peter, James and John
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were still there among them. Now James is gone and if we
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remember those three, Peter, James and John, they were the
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ones that were there when Jesus raised Jairus daughter from the
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dead. The other nine weren't there.
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Peter, James, and John were the three that Jesus invited up to
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the Mount of Transfiguration. If you remember that the other
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nine disciples weren't there. Peter, James and John were there
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at the Garden of Gethsemane the night that Jesus was betrayed.
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If you remember, Jesus said, stay here and pray.
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And then Jesus went to pray and he comes back and they're
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sleeping. So he wakes him up and says,
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hey, guys, please pray for me. He goes back, they fall asleep
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again. But it was those three that were
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there. The other nine disciples weren't
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there. So these three were certainly,
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and all the disciples were godly men, but these three were
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considered the inner circle of the inner circle of Jesus.
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They were the closest of the 12 disciples to Jesus.
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They were great assets to the early church, no doubt.
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And here in chapter 12, it seemed that Herod now has all
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the cards. The church was growing.
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The church was exploding. The Jesus had said the gates of
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hell won't prevail against the church to go to Jerusalem,
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Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.
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And now it seems that P that Herod here is able to just take
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one of these key men and just he off with his head.
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And now this man is gone. He's off the scene.
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It seems here that he has all the power just to be able to
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snatch a disciple. And now he takes Peter as well.
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And he takes Peter and throws him into prison intending also
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to take Peter. So up again until this point,
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the church had this great success.
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No doubt this, this church that we're going to read of we're
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we're wondering what in the world's going on here.
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Things were going so well. Now all of a sudden, it seems
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that we took a sharp turn to the right.
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And I'm sure that they asked the question that many of us would
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have asked. And still many of us to this day
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do ask in our own lives, the question, why?
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Why Lord, should we even be praying for Peter?
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Because we prayed for James. And look at what happened to
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James. James was killed.
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Lord, is prayer even effective? We thought it was, but
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apparently it seems that maybe it isn't.
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Lord, we sought you and you told us that you would protect us.
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And yet here's James and he's dead.
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So it tells us here in verse four when he Herod had arrested
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him Peter, he put him in prison. It says here he delivered him to
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four squadrons of soldiers to keep him notice intending to
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bring him before the people after the seven day Passover.
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Peter was therefore kept in prison and I love this verse.
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But constant prayer was offered to God to him by the OR for him
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by the church. So this was the the kind of the
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center of this whole chapter. Here is the church and they're
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praying. And because Peter was here in
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prison for seven days, the church is praying for day after
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day after day for these seven days, praying.
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God, would you release Peter? God?
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Would you protect Peter? God, we don't understand what
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you're doing. But they continued.
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It says here to pray, constant prayer.
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It says that Peter was placed to four squadrons or four squads of
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soldiers. This would be a squad as four
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groups of four soldiers each. So this is 16 soldiers to
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protect this one man, Peter. And the way that it would work
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is you would take the prisoner Peter.
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In this case you would have one soldier chained to each wrist,
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one on the right, one on the left, one on each side.
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Outside the prison door, there would be two more soldiers, and
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they would be standing there with their swords drawn,
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guarding. And every three hours then these
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sixteen soldiers that would change shifts.
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And the reason was to keep the guards from falling asleep.
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And so each team in a 24 hour day would serve 2-3 hour shifts.
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And Peter, by the way, is being so tightly watched and so
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guarded here because he and James were already in prison at
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one point back in Acts chapter 5.
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And there it tells us that an Angel appears there and tells
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Peter and James, you guys are released, go back into the
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streets and preach the gospel again.
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And so they do. And the morning after the
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Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, they show up at prison and
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they're looking for Peter and James.
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They're not in prison, that the soldiers are just there unsure
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of what's going on. So Herod no doubt heard about
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that. And Herod said, not under my
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watch. That's not going to happen
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again. I'm going to put 4 squads of
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soldiers so that there's no way that Peter can escape this time.
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So he's adding this extra guard and the church again, meanwhile,
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is praying and it says constantly or praying without
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ceasing in the same way Paul would encourage us to continue
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to pray without ceasing. We're not going to get to the
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rest of the story, but we do know that the church is in a
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home and that's where they're gathering to pray.
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And it tells us here in verse six when Herod was about to
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bring him out that night, again, this is the night before he was
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going to have Peter executed the night before Peter was there for
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seven days, which is just a reminder to us.
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The Lord often waits for the last minute in our lives too,
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doesn't He? Sometimes we pray.
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We want God to move and we want him to move now.
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But I will say this to you, God rarely shows up early when we
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pray. Sometimes he does.
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But I can't tell you God will never show up late.
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God is always right on time. It may not be your timing, but
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His timing is perfect. And so we see that here, just as
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Herod was about ready to bring him out that night, Peter verse
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six was sleeping. He was bound with two chains
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between two soldiers, and the guards before the door were
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keeping the prison. Now behold verse seven, an Angel
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of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in prison.
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It reminds me of when the angels came to the shepherds, and it
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says there that the glory of the Lord shone around them.
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I can only imagine what that must have looked like, this
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light piercing through this dark prison cell late at night.
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And it says here that this Angel struck Peter on the side and
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raised him up. He woke him out of his sleep
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saying arise quickly. And so his chains fell off his
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hands. Verse 8.
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Then the Angel said to him, gird yourself and tie on your
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sandals. And so he did.
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And he said to him, put on your garment and follow me.
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Just this amazing scene here. It's filled here with great
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detail because God wants us to see.
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I believe that He is intimately involved in all of the details,
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not just of Peter's life here, but of your life as well, every
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detail of your life. He cares about those things.
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So here's Peter in prison, chained to these soldiers.
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Peter's sleeping. All the Christians now are at a
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house not far away praying for Peter.
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He's chained between these two guards who keep being changed
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out every three hours, and he's sleeping probably for one of two
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reasons. It could be that maybe the Lord
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revealed to him that this wasn't his time to go.
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We do know that Peter goes on to minister for another 30 years,
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so the church didn't know that. Peter probably didn't know how
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much time he had left, but perhaps that's why he was more
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peaceful and able to sleep. But more likely Peter was
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sleeping because if you study the life of Peter, he just seems
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to sleep everywhere. He's one of those guys that's
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just always sleeping. He slept on the amount of
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transfiguration. As we mentioned, he slept in the
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Garden of Gethsemane. This guy just seems to fall
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asleep wherever he is. And here's Peter and he is out
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in the middle of the night here. And so this Angel of the Lord
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appears next to him. It says the glory of the Lord.
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This light shines in the prison. Peter just still snoring on the
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way just out. So this Angel comes and strikes
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him on the side to raise him up to wake him up.
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Now I don't know how you guys are waking up in the morning.
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I have a son, I've got three sons.
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But back in the day, one of those sons in particular was
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impossible to wake up. He we would get his alarm set
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and then it would be one of those alarms where it would go
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off and then 5 minutes later it would go even louder.
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And so we would hear his alarm go and it was so annoying
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because he wasn't waking up. We kept hearing it.
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So we'd have to go down there and we'd have to do the same
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thing, like wake him up, physically wake him up and shake
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him up and he'd kind of be half awake and he'd sort of crawl out
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of bed 10 minutes later would be wondering where he is.
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He's back in bed sleeping again. He was just one of these guys.
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And so I think Peter in many ways is a lot like that as well.
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And the Angel here says to him, arise quickly.
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That's not my kind of morning. I'm not the kind of guy that
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likes to arise quickly in the morning.
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I like to take my time. I want to slowly get out of bed,
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get my cup of coffee, open my Bible.
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I think I know where my son maybe got that from, right?
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Probably from me. But but Peter here, this is
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urgent. Arise quickly and then it says
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immediately these chains fall off of his hands.
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That's just incredible to me. Peter here's half awake.
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We're going to see. The Angel says to him, get
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dressed. Then the Angel says to him, put
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your shoes on. Then the Angel says to him, put
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your coat on. What's so funny to me about this
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is this. Angel's literally dressing half
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awake, Peter, in this scene right here.
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If you have any little kids, you know exactly what this is like,
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right? You're trying to get them ready
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for school. Make sure that you put your
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jacket on. It's a cold day.
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Make sure you got your socks on. Do you have clean underwear on?
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No, you can't go outside without your pants on, right?
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And I think this is the same picture here, this Angel
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dressing Peter. And it says here in verse 9.
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So he went out and followed him, Peter following the Angel here.
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And he didn't know that what was done by the Angel was real, but
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thought he was seeing a vision. So here's Peter, he's just out
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in prison and whatever's happening is like, this is a
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really cool dream. I like this.
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This is cool. And so verse 10, when they were
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past the 1st and the 2nd guard posts, they came to the iron
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gate that leads to the city. I love this, which opened to
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them of its own accord. So here's Peter following the
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Angel. Peter's like this is such a cool
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dream. I am loving this.
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They get to this iron gate and then you can just picture this
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gate opens and they just walk right through the gates.
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And then it says they went out and they went down one St.
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And I can imagine at this point Peter's like, man, it's kind of
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chilly out here. Glad I got my garment on, my
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jacket on. And then it says immediately the
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Angel departed from him, Angel is gone.
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So verse 11, when Peter had come to himself, when Peter finally
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kind of woke up at this point, I don't know how long this took.
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Did it take him a minute? Did it take him 5 minutes?
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Did he finally wake up and look around going where'd the Angel
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go? Where is he?
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But it says when he finally came to himself, he said, now I know
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for certain that the Lord has sent his Angel and has delivered
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me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the
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Jewish people who of course were looking for Peter to be killed.
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So Peter says this Angel that showed up delivered me literally
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there in the Greek, this Angel plucked me from the hand of
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Herod. So if we take notes, James was
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plucked from the earth, Peter was plucked from the hand of
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Herod, but it was the same church that was praying for both
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of them. And we want to take note that
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this Angel who summoned Peter out of prison was there because
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prayer summoned the Angel to the prison.
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And there's a take away here from this chapter if you want to
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take notes. And if you're taking notes,
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prayer still summons help from heaven in our lives today.
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There is so much power in our prayer.
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We're talking about the prodigal prayer tonight.
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There's so much power when we pray.
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You see, God invites us to pray because God wants to move in our
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lives. And so God would say, ask, and
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it will be given to you. Seek and you will find.
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Knock and the door will be open to you.
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God is saying that when you come to me and when you pray, I want
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to move in your life. But I'm inviting you to join me
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and partner with me. And I'm going to move my hand in
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your life through your prayer. An old preacher once said, with
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much prayer is much power, with little prayer is little power,
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and with no prayer is no power. And so how much prayer is in our
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lives will often be the direct result of the kind of help that
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we receive from the Lord. Now, God is gracious, and I'm so
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thankful that God does move. And God, God does work when I
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don't pray. But I can only imagine what God
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might do as I've become more of a man of prayer, as you become
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more of a woman of prayer. And, and that might be in your
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own life or it might be in the lives of the people that you
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love around you. Who knows?
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Some of you might be sitting here in church today because you
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had parents that were praying for you or for some of you,
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maybe you didn't, but you had a grandmother that's praying for
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you. I've been hearing so many
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stories of people saying it was my grandma.
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She's the one that was faithfully praying for me, and
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here I am today because of her. So there's so much power in
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prayer. Prayer summons help from heaven
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in our lives. Here's the prayer of the church.
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And the prayer of the church results in this Angel showing up
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to Peter in prison and Peter's released on this night.
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So angels, I want to take a just a closer look for a few minutes
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here on angels, who they are, what they do.
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If you're a note taker here. And I would encourage you to
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take some notes because I'm going to give you many different
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scriptures that you can write down for yourself and you can go
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back later and read them because you don't want to trust anything
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that I am saying. You want to go back to the word
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to make sure that what I'm giving you is God's Word.
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That's what you put your faith and trust in.
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So I just want to give you some scriptures so that you can take
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note of these things. And you might be thinking, well,
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why are you talking about angels?
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That feels kind of random to me. Well, for two reasons.
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Number one, I had the privilege of serving with Grace FM on our
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call in radio show that we've got Monday through Friday here
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called Calvary Live. And it's myself, Pastor Ed,
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Pastor Jeff Figgs from Calvary Greeley, a number of other
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pastors involved in that. And we get a lot of people to
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call in with Bible questions and prayer requests.
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And often times, and it seems lately we've been getting a lot
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of questions on angels. I don't know why, maybe maybe
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there's a trend out there or something.
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But as I was praying, I just thought, man, that would, that
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would be really good just to be reminded of what scripture says
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about these angels. But more importantly than that,
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I, I just want God to help us realize that his help from
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heaven. It isn't just like out there or
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up there somehow we pray it down.
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The reality is that his help is a part of our lives.
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And as I mentioned, there's an unseen spiritual realm that's
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not out or up. It is around.
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It's among us, the spiritual realm.
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And so there's many examples in the Bible of angels.
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I wanted to, I thought this would be a good scripture to
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kind of give us a behind the scenes into the spiritual realm.
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But when we open the Bible, we discover that 34 out of the 66
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books in the Bible speak about angelic beings.
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So that would be 17 books in the Old Testament speak of angels.
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Seventeen books in the New Testament speak of angels.
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So much so then in the Old Testament there's 103 references
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to angels and in the New Testament there's 165 references
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to angels. And this is certainly no small
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subject in Scripture. If you were to read the
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Scripture, you would see, man, angels actually are a big deal
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as you're reading through Genesis to Revelation now, an
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Angel, a definition of an Angel, the Greek word, by the way, for
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Angel is the word angolos. And that simply just means
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messenger. And that's what we see so often.
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Angels are they're messengers from God, but but the the
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definition of an Angel would be this a non corporal spirit
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being, a non corporal spirit being.
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In other words, it is a being without a corpus, without a
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corpse, without a body, but it is a very real spirit.
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It's a special class of being. Just as God is a spirit, these
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angels are also without a body, but they too are spirits.
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Now, a verse you can write down and perhaps read later today,
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Hebrews chapter one, verses 4 through 7, Hebrews 1/4 through
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seven tells us there that angels are called ministering spirits.
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And I love this. They are sent to minister to
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those of us in this place this morning that are born again,
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those of us that have been purchased by the blood of Jesus
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Christ, Sons and daughters of God.
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Angels come to minister to you because they don't have a body.
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They're not subject to a body like you and I would be.
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So there's no like teenage angels and no old man angels.
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They don't wake up in the morning with bad backs.
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They don't get wrinkles, they don't decay, they don't grow
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old. They are invisible because
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they're spirit beings most of the time, but on some occasions
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they are made visible and that's to suit God's purposes and they
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can assume human form. We see that in Scripture.
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One thing about angels, it's important to note they were all
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created at one point in time. It's not like they're continuing
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God's continuing to create angels or that there's this
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Angel factory where angels are getting pumped out at nothing
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like that. They were all created at once.
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There's not mommy angels and daddy angels having baby angels.
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So I'm sorry to burst your bubble, all you Cupid fans, but
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angels were all created at one point.
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And angels be because of the fact that they are spirits.
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They are not male or female as we study them.
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The original language actually tells us that these angels are
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sexless, again, because they don't have a body, because
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they're spirits. But when they do appear in
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scripture, we do always see them in male form.
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So they're always seen as as in that form with a male body.
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We know this about angels. They are great in number.
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When Jesus was born, it tells us there's an amazing picture that
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there was a heavenly host over Bethlehem that was singing
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praise to God because Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, came to
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the earth. And I can just imagine what that
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would be, a multitude of the angels over Bethlehem praising
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God. Some people ask how many angels
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are there? Does the Bible even tell us how
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many angels there are? Well, not exactly, but a couple
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places give us an idea. Matthew, if you want to write
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this down, 2653, Jesus is there in Gethsemane.
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This is the night before he's betrayed.
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And Jesus says there, if he wanted to, and he didn't, but if
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he wanted to, he could have called 12 legions of angels.
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If Jesus wanted to, he could have snapped his finger with a
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word of his authority. Angels could have come down from
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heaven to the earth. They could have wiped out
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everyone that was coming against Jesus, those that were coming to
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betray him, and they could have taken him right up into heaven
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in that very moment. He was aware of that.
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And I'm so thankful that that didn't happen because that means
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that Jesus came what he did, what he came to do, which was to
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go to the cross, to face the cross.
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It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross so
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that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, for
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you. Now a legion, when he says I
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could call 12 legions if I wanted to.
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A legion was made-up of between 4000 to 6000 men, specifically
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Roman soldiers. So Jesus could have easily, if
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he wanted to, called 60,000 to 80,000 angels in that moment.
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So that gives us a little bit of an idea that there's a lot.
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When we get to the Book of Revelation, John is there
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getting the revelation of Jesus. He's in the throne room, he's
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seeing what's taking place, and it says there he uses this word
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that he saw a myriad or actually literally myriads of angels
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there. A myriad can be one of two
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things. It's either a reference to an
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innumerable amount of angels, more than the eye can see.
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So if you just picture a sea of countless angels, that could be
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myriads there. But more literally, for you math
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guys and girls here, a myriad is 10,000 * 10,000 plus thousands
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of thousands. So when a mathematician figured
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that out, myriads, in this case John could have potentially been
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seeing over 100 million angels that were recorded in that one
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scene alone. Incredible.
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So how many angels are there? I don't know, but there's a lot
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that I do know. There's a lot of angels, and we
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do know this. There are two angels that are
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named for us. We know their names.
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Many of us have actually named some of our kids after the names
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of these angels. One of them is Michael.
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Michael is the Archangel. There are not archangels,
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plural. There's one Archangel, and the
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reason we know that it is always singular in the original
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language and always has the definite article there.
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The Archangel, there's only one, and as you study angels in the
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Bible, he is said to be the head over all of the angels.
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He also has specific duty. We see this in the book of
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Daniel over the nation of Israel.
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And so who knows what role he might be playing right now with
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the conflict with Israel and Gaza.
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Who knows what role? But we do know he will be taking
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a role in the end times as that is unfolding.
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And Israel's certainly a big part of that.
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In fact, when the church, you and I are raptured, he is
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involved in that ministry. It tells us in First
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Thessalonians 416, the Lord descends with a shout, the voice
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of the Archangel and the trump of God.
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So as God decides to come for His people and take us home,
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Michael's somehow involved in that, and his voice is somehow
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speaking in the midst of that. And then of course we see
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Michael again, the Archangel mentioned in Jude chapter one
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verse 6. There's another Angel that is
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named for us as well, Ed Taylor. No, I'm just kidding.
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The second Angel is Gabriel. You guys may know a Gabe in your
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life as well. This Angel, Gabriel's not an
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Archangel like Michael was, but he does seem to be high and
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angelic hierarchy, whatever that is.
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It's hard to be dogmatic about angelic hierarchy or demonic
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hierarchy. There's some indication in
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Scripture potentially of that being a part of the different
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classes. But we do know about Gabriel.
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He is a messenger, so he's one who makes announcements.
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We see him speaking with Daniel in the book of Daniel.
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Then, as mentioned, he spoke to Mary before the birth of Jesus
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and said that the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you, Mary,
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and you're going to give birth to a son and his name is going
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to be Jesus, God with us because he is going to save his people
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from their sin. Amazing.
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So he was at least in charge of birth announcements.
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We see then there are two classes of angels.
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Now, these angels, we kind of picture angels maybe as a big
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dude with two wings behind them. But these two classes, the
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cherubim and the seraphim, they potentially are different even
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than the kind of Angel that Michael and Gabriel would be.
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And so cherubim, CHERUBIM seem to be again, these angelic
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beings. But unlike the other angels, the
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cherubim, Scripture tells us, have four faces and four wings.
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We don't typically see this picture too much in in art
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museums of angels. It tells us the cherubim have
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the face of a man, the face of an ox, the face of a lion, and
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the face of an eagle. And, and it says of the cherubim
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that they are found around the throne of God and they are found
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under the throne of God. So they have a role in
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protecting and guarding God's throne and God's glory and His
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Majesty. It was a cherub that was placed
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in the Garden of Eden. If you remember Adam and Eve,
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because of sin they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and it
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says there that there was a cherub with a flaming sword that
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stood there so that no one would go back into the garden to the
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Tree of life. So that was a cherub.
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We see cherub on the veil of the temple as we look at that.
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If you remember the picture of the Ark of the Covenant with the
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two angels that are bowing down over the mercy seat, those were
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both cherub again protecting this mercy seat.
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Lucifer, Satan the Devil, our great enemy, He was at one point
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a guardian cherub, and so he is still to this day a fallen
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cherub. But we know he fell, Scripture
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tells us, and he took a third of the angels with him.
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That's a whole nother study to look at that side of things, the
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fallen angels. So there are cherubim, but there
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are also this class of angels called seraphim, SERAPHIM, and
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these seem to differ from the cherubim.
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The seraphim literally means burning ones, burning ones, and
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we see them in Isaiah chapter 6. Many of us are familiar there
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with that passage where the seraphim are involved there.
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And so the the cherubim, as I mentioned, are around the throne
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and under the throne. The Seraphim are over the throne
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of God and they seem to be directly involved in praise in
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some way. A beautiful picture of them over
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the throne of God and somehow involved in the leading of
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worship or the praise of God and the glory coming from his
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throne. And it says of the Seraphim,
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they have 6 wings. With two of their wings they
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cover their face, with two of their wings they cover their
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feet, and with two of their wings it says they fly.
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So we see examples all throughout the Old Testament and
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into the New Testament of angels.
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I just want to give a couple of examples.
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In the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 28, Jacob is there.
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Jacob falls asleep and he has a dream and in his dream he sees a
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ladder and the ladder is going from the earth, from heaven to
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the earth, and then from the earth back up to heaven.
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Some people might say instead the ladder, it might be a
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stairway and with again it's top in heaven, it's bottom on earth.
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He sees the angels ascending and descending from heaven to earth,
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and then from earth back to heaven again.
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And as he studied that picture where the reason Jacob's having
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that dream is because he's learning in that scene that God
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was closer than he ever thought God was in his life, and that
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there was real access and real interaction between heaven and
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earth. Such a beautiful picture.
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I love that because it's true for us today as well.
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In First Kings 19, there's another man, Elijah, and Elijah
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there God uses in some incredible ways.
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And in chapter 19, the First Kings, he uses him to accomplish
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this incredible victory there over the prophets of Baal.
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But then he hears that Queen Jezebel is after him and wants
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to kill him. So it says he runs, he flees out
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into the wilderness. And it says he falls underneath
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this juniper tree. And when he falls there, he just
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wants to die. His tank is on empty and he's
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got nothing left and he's just done.
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And so it says there he falls asleep.
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And then when he wakes up, there is an Angel sitting next to him.
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How cool is that? And it says that the Angel is
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there preparing food for him. Some people have said this is
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the first Angel food cake that we see right there.
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And so he eats it. And then he falls back asleep
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and he wakes up again. And there's the Angel still
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preparing food and feeding him and strengthening him.
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And he falls back asleep. And this continues.
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It says this Angel strengthens him for 40 days and 40 nights.
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Just imagine that. And then right after Elijah,
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another man is on the scene, Elijah, and it says there that
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he is at the city Dothan, and he is sleeping.
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And that night in the middle of the night, the Syrian Army,
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their enemies come and they surround the city of Dothan.
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So Elijah's servant wakes up and he wakes up Elijah and says our
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enemies have surrounded us here. And so Elisha prays to God.
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God, would you open my servants eyes to see what's happening in
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this spiritual unseen realm? And so the Lord does that and
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Elisha's servant sees the angels of God, it says, and the
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Chariots of fire around the city and they outnumbered the Syrian
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city. So he got just a brief glimpse
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of what is happening there behind the veil in the spiritual
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realm. Daniel, in Daniel chapter 10, it
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says there he falls on his face, he's overwhelmed.
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And it tells us there an Angel touches him and strengthens him
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and stands him back up on his feet again.
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So in the Old Testament, we see angels are ministering spirits.
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Then as we move into the New Testament, we watch angels in
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the life of Jesus. They were there at the very
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beginning, even before Jesus was born.
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It says that angels spoke to Zechariah and Elizabeth, telling
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them about the birth of John the Baptist, who was the forerunner
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of Jesus. Then Joseph Jesus, earthly
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father, and angels spoke to him as well.
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Of course the Angel Gabriel came and spoke to Mary and announced
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the birth of her Son Jesus. The angels come then to the
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shepherds, and they say to the shepherds, glory to God in the
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highest and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men.
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Then when Jesus was 30 years old, he was baptized.
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He heads out into the wilderness.
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It tells us there that he was tempted by the devil, by Satan
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there for 40 days. And when Satan leaves, it says
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the angels came and they ministered to Jesus and they fed
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him and they strengthened him a little bit like Elijah there.
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And then we see later Jesus in Gethsemane.
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He's at the Mount of Olives. He is about ready to face his
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accusers and face the cross. And it says there that he's
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praying. And Jesus is agonizing, so much
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so that it says that he is sweating these great drops of
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blood. And as he's there right before
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he was about ready to be handed over, it says an Angel came to
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Jesus and ministered to him in that moment and strengthened
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him. See, even Jesus needed to be
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strengthened in that moment by an Angel, by an Angel.
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So, so much of what we see in the Scripture of these angels is
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a beautiful picture of this ministry of heaven.
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When we're fatigued, when we're discouraged, they, they often
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have a role. Now, when Jesus went to the
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cross, that's the one time we don't see angels involved in his
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life. Because when Jesus endured the
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cross, he had to endure it alone.
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There is no help from heaven there in that moment, it says
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even the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus.
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Jesus had to endure that alone. For us, for you, for me.
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Wonderfully, the story of the resurrection 3 days later also
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gives us again a picture of angels showing back up in the
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scene. And people are showing up at
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this tomb that is now empty, and the angels are there and they're
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saying he's not here. He's risen from the dead.
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And then later when Jesus ascends to heaven, he takes his
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disciples up to the mountain and it says that he's literally
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lifted up off of the ground. And he goes up into the sky,
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into the clouds, and the disciples are standing there
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looking, and an Angel appears there and says, you men of God,
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why are you standing around? In the same way he left, he will
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return. And Speaking of his return,
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Second Thessalonians chapter one, verses 7 and eight tell us
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that when Jesus returns, He will be revealed from heaven with his
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mighty angels in flaming fire. I love that angels involved in
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the life of Jesus, and there's many places.
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Of course, we just looked at Acts chapter 12 and throughout
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the book of Acts that we see of angels as well.
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Acts 28 P. Paul is there on the boat, and
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the boat is in the midst of this crazy storm.
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It's about ready to be shipwrecked on the rocks, but it
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says right before that happens, an Angel came to Paul and
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ministered to him and encouraged him for what was ahead for him.
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So I think about you and about me, and how many times have you
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and I been somewhere and unknown to us?
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Whatever Angel guards us, how may might they have strengthened
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us at some moment in our lives that perhaps we didn't even
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know? You know, when they do minister
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to us, they are not serving us, they're serving Jesus.
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But Jesus then sends them to strengthen us wonderfully
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because Jesus loves us. I wonder how many times have the
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angels perhaps allowed us to go another mile when we thought we
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couldn't even take another step? How many times did they protect
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us perhaps? And I hear a lot of these
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stories, people that have been in car accidents, and you'll
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hear them say, man, I should have died in that car accident.
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Somehow I survived. There must have been an Angel
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watching over me. Well, that's true.
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How many times, perhaps has that happened or near misses?
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Right Times. There were almost accidents.
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How many times had angels strengthened you like they did
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Jesus or Elijah when you were weary or when you were
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discouraged? How many times perhaps did
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someone plan to do you harm? Maybe in the BC before Christ
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days, but it never came to fruition because angelic
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intervention was around you on behalf of Jesus himself.
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Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher from over 100
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years ago, says this of the angels.
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They had received Commission from their Lord and our Lord to
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watch carefully over the interests of the faithful.
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These angels watch carefully over you, over our interests.
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Psalm 91, verse 11 says this. God will command His angels
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concerning you to guard you in all of your ways, even at our
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death. David Jeremiah writes a great
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book on angels and he's speaking there of the story Jesus tells
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in Luke chapter 16. And David Jeremiah says this, No
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Christian is abandoned at the moment of death.
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The angels are the ushers and our passage to heaven is under
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their escorts. Just imagine, you know, out of
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every person in this room, at some point we're all going to
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pass from this world into eternity.
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So we're going to breathe our last breath, we're going to
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close our eyes, we're going to open our eyes in eternity.
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We're going to see Jesus face to face.
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What a day that's going to be. We're going to hear from him
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those words we've been longing for a well done, good and
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faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your
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beloved and imagine what role the angels are going to take in
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ushering us to that place in those days.
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And it's important for us to know that we don't glorify
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angels. We don't worship angels.
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There is people out there are people out there that do that.
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Even in the early church, Paul had to write to the church at
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Colossia. He says in Colossians 218, some
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of the people there were falling into worshipping angels.
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But he says that ought not to be.
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That's not the way this goes. They are simply here to point us
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the ministry to us, pointing us back to Jesus.
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John even twice in the Book of Revelation, he's overwhelmed in
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the presence of God in heaven in front of an Angel.
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He falls before the Angel to worship him.
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And the Angel had to say, get up, get up, don't worship me.
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You worship the one that's on the throne.
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And it's it's possible. You know, there's a lot out
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there in YouTube and TikTok and all these places where there are
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books written and people talking about angels.
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There's all sorts of stuff stories, people love to
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emphasize these things. The reality is they're just
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ministering spirits, but we glorify the one that they are
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ministering to Jesus Christ. That's where our attention and
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our heart and our focus is. And, and as we see, angels
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certainly though, are no small subject in Scripture.
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And this is very important because of all the stuff out
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there on angels and people want to say things like when you die,
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you become an Angel and my guardian angels watching over
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me. You know, the Scripture doesn't
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know anything of of that of us becoming angels.
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You just have to be careful not to project beyond what we're
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given in Scripture when it comes to angels.
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What we have written is what we know and nothing beyond that.
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There's a lot of conjecture. There's a lot of thoughts.
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A lot of times people ask questions we just don't have
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answers to. We don't want to go beyond this.
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But what we do have, God does want us to know.
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God did record those things for us.
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The Bible even says this. You may have met an Angel at one
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point. Maybe you didn't even know it.
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Hebrews says this in Hebrews 312.
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I love this. Be careful how you minister and
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how you show hospitality to different people.
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The writer there would say even strangers for some have
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ministered to angels unaware without even recognizing it.
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How beautiful that perhaps someone that you have at one
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point in your life run into, or maybe somebody you will run into
45:27
could in fact be an Angel. Just a remarkable thought.
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There could be one among us even now.
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There could be one here this weekend.
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I think of this often, that as the redeemed, the church, the
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gathering, as we gather week in, week out, we are here to worship
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the Lord, to sit underneath the teaching of His Word.
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We know a couple things. We know that the Lord says that
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when we worship He comes and He inhabits the praises of His
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people, that He is here in our midst.
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And so at the angels of one of their roles is to be around the
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throne of God and under the throne of God and over the
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throne of God and directing praise.
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If God is in our midst, then certainly there is angelics
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beings attending everywhere because that's what they do.
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They attend to the Lord. It also says where two or three
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are gathered, he is already there in our midst.
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So think of what it must be like in the spiritual realm as we
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gather to worship. I was sitting and listening to
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you guys just beautifully, the voices, holy, holy, holy singing
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that song of heaven. And as we look in Revelation,
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there's there's places where the angels worship God, then there's
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places where the blood bought redeemed worship God.
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And who knows that even as we're worshipping now, are they
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perhaps part of that behind the scenes also lifting their hands,
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also glorifying God himself? Psalm 91 verse 11 says this.
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He gives his angels charge over us.
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They have that role. Psalm 34, verse seven, we read
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that today in our Psalm reading together.
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It says the Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear
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him and this Angel or the angels deliver him.
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I'm from Philadelphia, as I mentioned, and my pastor would
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tell this story of back when he had just gotten saved.
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It was 1979. The Jesus movement was happening
47:20
at that time. So there were just amazing
47:22
things. The Holy Spirit was being poured
47:23
out. The gifts of the Spirit were,
47:25
were very present. There were miracles that were
47:27
happening. And he tells of this prayer
47:30
meeting that this group of hippies had on Sunday nights
47:34
where they would get together and they would pray week in,
47:37
week out. And it was wonderful.
47:39
And he says at one point, there was this young guy that shows up
47:43
and he was blind in one eye. He was 18 years old.
47:46
And he shows up and it says that one of his eyes, I think it was
47:49
his left eye, would go back and forth really, really fast like
47:52
this. The one eye is looking at you
47:53
and one eye is doing this. And he was like, it was so hard
47:56
to look at this and not get distracted.
47:58
But here's this guy. And then he says he would come
48:00
for a number of Sunday nights and continue to show up.
48:03
And one Sunday, as they were praying, it says that he asked
48:06
for prayer for healing. And so they prayed for him.
48:11
And as they were praying, he recounts that his eye that was
48:15
moving back and forth really fast started to slow down and
48:19
then it finally stopped. And he says in that moment, this
48:23
young 18 year old guy received sight in that eye and they were
48:28
looking at each other like what just happened, like God, God is
48:33
in our midst. And they continued to have an
48:36
extended prayer and worship time that night.
48:39
And it was wonderful. And so as people laughed and
48:41
they were closing up and locking the doors, they went outside and
48:44
there was a young 20 year old guy, another guy sitting on a
48:47
chair out in front of this building.
48:49
And this guy was weeping and he was crying.
48:51
And they went up to him and asked him, well, what's wrong?
48:53
What's going on? And he says, while I was with
48:55
you tonight praying, and as you prayed for the man that was
48:58
blind with the eye problem, he says, I looked up and I saw an
49:02
Angel standing over top of all of you swinging a sword back and
49:06
forth. Pastor Chuck Smith also says
49:11
that there was a time when he was teaching and a woman came to
49:13
him and told him that while he was teaching, she saw for a
49:16
moment an Angel standing next to him with a sword drawn.
49:21
Again, our church in Philly, on a number of occasions, people
49:24
would come up and say that they have seen angels perhaps either
49:28
standing next to the pastor or even on top of or over the
49:32
Church of the building with the sword drawn.
49:35
And I'm sure Pastor Ed would say, and any of the guys in the
49:38
pulpit here, if you ever see something like that, just come
49:41
up and let us know. That would be, I think we'd be
49:42
blessed by that. We're not going to think you're
49:44
crazy. And even if you are crazy, tell
49:46
us anyway. It's OK.
49:47
We'd love to. We'd love to hear that.
49:49
Just so wonderful. 11. I think it would do our hearts
49:52
good. One thing that happened back in
49:55
2007 that I think is probably one of my Angel stories
49:59
personally. We were on a trip to San
50:01
Salvador, El Salvador, and had a great trip.
50:04
There's about 20 of us. We were ministering their
50:06
wonderful trip. God was working in great power.
50:09
Just one of those trips where you're like, man, God is just so
50:11
good. And so at the end of this, we
50:13
wanted to have a baptism for a couple of the people there.
50:16
So we went to the beach and as we walked out to the beach, it
50:18
was a pretty long walk. It was a Long Beach and there
50:21
was nobody around. And as we're walking out, we're
50:24
thinking, well, it must be because it's the sun was about
50:26
ready to set the end of the day. So we get out to the beach and
50:30
we had this glorious baptism. It was just amazing.
50:33
And it was one of those moments where we're worshipping, we're
50:34
praising and just the presence of the Lord was there.
50:37
It was so good. And so afterwards we come back
50:41
onto the shore, there's a few people swimming and after a
50:44
couple minutes, we start hearing the shouting help, help.
50:47
And we're looking around and we realized that three of our guys,
50:51
and these were three guys from our team that were big dudes,
50:55
these were these were carpenters and not small guys.
50:59
All three of these guys were together and they got caught in
51:02
a riptide and they were pulled so far out we could barely see
51:06
them. We actually had to look to see
51:07
who it was. And as they recount later on,
51:10
what happened is they were pulled out by this riptide and
51:13
the riptide was pulling them under.
51:15
And it said that it took all that they could to, to, to stay
51:18
afloat, to keep their head above water, that they knew it was
51:22
just a matter of moments before they were going under.
51:25
So much so that one of those 3 three guys, his name is Ed, that
51:29
that he began to ingest some of the water and inhale some of
51:32
that water. And so they're there and they're
51:36
literally at the brink of drowning.
51:38
Then out of nowhere, we're because we're there and we don't
51:40
know what to do at this point. No one is around.
51:42
It's a Long Beach. It's a far away behind us to get
51:44
back. It's it's long.
51:46
There's no one around. Out of nowhere, we see this this
51:49
guy, kind of a short guy and he's wearing something that kind
51:52
of looked like a lifeguard, some kind of an outfit, something
51:55
like that. And so he runs out to the water.
51:58
And it happened so fast. It seemed like just within a
52:01
blink, he gets all three of the guys, this little guy grab hold
52:05
on to these three big guys, pulls them back out.
52:07
And it was like we blinked and they're all back now on the
52:09
shore. And as I remember the story
52:12
going, he goes out there and he's instructing them, grab a
52:14
hold of me here, grab me here. Two of the guys spoke Spanish,
52:17
One of them spoke English, but they were all hearing them.
52:20
The Spanish guys were hearing him speak Spanish.
52:21
The English guy was hearing him speak English and as he brings
52:24
them back, one of the guys the guy was telling you about, his
52:27
name was Ed. He was purple and blue at this
52:29
point. So we lay him down on the sand
52:31
and we begin to pray of course, and, and he's beginning to cough
52:34
up water trying to catch breath. We were super concerned for him.
52:37
He didn't start to get his color back for about 1/2 hour after
52:39
that actually. And so as we're praying for him,
52:41
we look up to see where the sky was.
52:43
And he was gone, nowhere to be found within just a matter of
52:46
minutes, completely gone. We went up to the hill.
52:50
Later on afterwards, we took this guy Ed.
52:52
We laid him down on the table there.
52:54
He was beginning to get his color back and breathing.
52:56
We asked the guys up there. There was a little bar that was
52:59
up there. Hey, did you see what was going
53:00
on? And they said, yeah, we noticed
53:02
there was some kind of commotion.
53:03
And we said, well, did you see another guy?
53:05
Was there a lifeguard? Was there someone around?
53:07
He said, they said there was no one else down there but you
53:09
guys. We were watching because we were
53:10
thinking these Americans are where they're not supposed to
53:13
be. We missed the signs that said
53:14
don't go into the water because of the riptides.
53:16
We're just these Americans. We don't know what we're doing.
53:19
But what's amazing about that story is that all three of those
53:22
guys to this day are serving Jesus Christ with their lives.
53:26
And I believe, yeah, with all my heart, based on what I see in
53:31
Scripture, I believe that God sent an Angel to stand guard
53:35
over these three men because he wasn't done with them yet.
53:39
And I wish that they were here to tell that story.
53:42
My wife who was here in the first service was part of that
53:44
remarkable, remarkable God does two books I want to recommend to
53:48
you because we just scratched the surface of this.
53:50
But if you're interested in this topic and want to read more,
53:53
Billy Graham wrote a book and you won't forget the title of
53:57
the book. It's called Angels, so very easy
53:59
to remember. He tells amazing stories in this
54:01
book of of angels stepping in with missionaries and with other
54:07
groups of people and believers. It's just story upon story that
54:10
are remarkable. I speaks of angels with swords
54:13
drawn, as we mentioned throughout church history as
54:16
well. Those kind of appearances when
54:18
God for his purposes allows people to see those things.
54:21
As I mentioned, Doctor David Jeremiah also wrote a book
54:24
called Angels and both of those books are amazing.
54:28
And so they'll take you even deeper than what we've done this
54:31
morning. But going back here as we close
54:34
to Acts chapter 12 back to our passage, it was because of the
54:39
prayers of the church that God sent this Angel to Peter and and
54:45
this Angel freed Peter from this prison.
54:47
So this Angel goes to God goes to the very ones that are
54:52
praying and God decided to send this Angel to Peter.
54:55
And the rest of this chapter is the classic chapter in the New
54:59
Testament of the question, as we mentioned at the beginning that
55:02
we all ask why? Why?
55:06
Maybe you're here and that's your question today.
55:08
There's something in your life that has caused you to ask God.
55:11
Why? Now notice this, the prayer of
55:13
faith. As strong as your faith might
55:16
be, it doesn't mean that God will always answer the way that
55:19
you want Him to answer. Because notice the church was
55:23
praying. Peter was saved, but James was
55:27
not saved. And it was the same church with
55:30
the same faith praying for both of them.
55:33
Because there are times in our lives where God, where God
55:35
doesn't answer the way that we think he will.
55:39
And so we're left going, why God?
55:42
I don't understand. This doesn't make sense to me.
55:45
Now, sometimes God will graciously answer that question,
55:49
but there are often times God will graciously not answer that
55:53
question because it's for God to know the answer to the why.
55:59
And I think the reason sometimes God doesn't answer that
56:01
question. And if you're here and that's
56:03
the question that's on your heart, it's because there are
56:06
times that the next step that we're supposed to take, it's not
56:09
relative to our comprehension. It's not relative to the answer
56:13
to our question why, what we can see or what we can feel, but
56:16
it's it's relative to our faith despite what we see or despite
56:21
what we feel. It's not relative to the
56:23
explanation that God gives us, but it's relative to the fact
56:28
that we trust Him, that we know that despite the fact that what
56:32
is in our lives is not good, that our God is still good and
56:36
we're willing to take the next step of faith without the
56:39
answer. See when the church here was
56:42
walking through some of its most difficult days.
56:45
Persecution on the scene now unlike ever before.
56:48
James is dead. Peter is in prison.
56:51
It appears very likely that he would be next on the chopping
56:53
block. They didn't know the rest of
56:55
chapter 12. They were just faithful to pray.
56:58
They didn't know an Angel was going to show up.
57:00
They just continued by faith to pray.
57:02
And though we may never get an answer, we may never get a
57:06
because from Jesus. Why James and why not Peter?
57:11
The early church here was learning a very important
57:13
lesson. They were learning that the
57:15
throne that mattered was not in Rome.
57:18
The throne that mattered was not the throne in Jerusalem.
57:21
It wasn't the throne in Herod's house.
57:23
The throne that mattered was the throne that was in heaven, and
57:27
heaven hears when we pray, and it's heaven's throne that's in
57:31
charge. Because Herod at the beginning
57:33
looked like he had all the cards.
57:35
He took James out. But at the end of this chapter,
57:38
Herod is struck down by an Angel and is eaten by worms.
57:42
There it tells us because there is another throne that is in
57:46
charge. And as the worship team now
57:49
comes back out when we close and worship today, I want to
57:52
encourage you with something that on your most difficult of
57:56
days that God is still 100% in charge of your life.
58:02
He still has his hands on the steering wheel of your life.
58:06
See the difficulty for us with those unanswered questions is
58:09
never on heaven's side. It's always on our side.
58:13
And there are days when your circumstances are going to be so
58:16
painful that they're not going to seem consistent with the love
58:20
of God, when your lives are going to be so difficult that
58:24
it's not going to be consistent with his grace.
58:28
But I believe it's in those moments that God has a question
58:32
as he, as he asks you to trust him, I believe he would say, do
58:37
you believe that my son's death on the cross was the greatest
58:41
expression of my love for you? Even greater than the answer to
58:45
the question that you're looking for?
58:49
I think he would ask, is the cross a greater act of love than
58:55
me bringing back a loved one or than me healing a body or than
59:00
me giving someone a job or bringing a spouse back that is
59:03
left? Is my cross a greater expression
59:07
of my love in those moments? See, we see here in Acts chapter
59:11
12. And this could be our take away
59:15
from this study today, that when it all falls through, God comes
59:19
through. When it all falls through, God
59:23
comes through. As we mentioned earlier, He's
59:26
rarely early when he comes through, but he's certainly
59:29
never late. He is always on time.
59:31
And no matter what it is that you are walking through, and if
59:35
it feels as if things are falling apart in your life, God
59:38
will come through. Because we serve a God that is
59:41
both all powerful and is able, but we serve a God that is good
59:48
and he's willing because he loves you.
59:53
And God will give help from heaven.
59:57
And perhaps it may come from the assistance of one of these
1:00:01
angels ministering to you. But again, the angels are only
1:00:05
as good as the one who sends them.
1:00:08
And it's him that loves you. And the reality is, you may not
1:00:12
get the answer to your question why, but one day you're going to
1:00:16
see Jesus face to face after all this time of coming into
1:00:20
worship. By faith, believing in Jesus,
1:00:23
lifting up the name of Jesus, praying, living our lives for
1:00:27
Jesus. One day we are going to finally
1:00:29
see him and we're going to know even as we're known.
1:00:32
And I believe it's in that moment that all of our wives are
1:00:36
going to turn to worship. And it's going to be in his
1:00:39
presence that those wives, those questions, those doubts, they
1:00:43
melt away. And we stand in the glory of
1:00:46
Jesus himself, and he meets every one of our needs, so much
1:00:50
so that it says, in that moment, every tear will be wiped away.
1:00:54
There'll be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more loss, no more
1:00:59
death, no more divorce, no more cancer.
1:01:05
And that's what we have to look forward to.
1:01:09
So do you trust today in the midst of your wives, that the
1:01:12
cross is the greatest expression of His love for you?
1:01:17
And if you're here and you don't know Jesus, then that's the
1:01:19
question for you, maybe more of a statement.
1:01:23
The cross is the greatest expression of his love for you,
1:01:26
even while you're a Sinner. No matter what you brought into
1:01:28
this place, it doesn't matter. No matter how far from God you
1:01:31
may feel this morning, no matter what kind of sin you've
1:01:35
committed, it can all be forgiven in a moment.
1:01:38
This morning when you put your faith and your trust in Jesus,
1:01:41
when you acknowledge, yeah, I'm a broken person.
1:01:44
I've done a lot of things. I'm very, very good at breaking
1:01:47
relationships, breaking people's trust.
1:01:50
God is very good at fixing the things that we broke, starting
1:01:54
with our broken, sin soaked souls.
1:01:57
And God is able to come and to forgive us in a moment.
1:01:59
If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved and
1:02:03
you will be forgiven. While we were still sinners,
1:02:06
Christ died for us. And He promises you forgiveness
1:02:10
once and for all, your past, your present, and your future.
1:02:15
And if you're here, it's just as simple as that act of faith.
1:02:19
Jesus is offering you in this moment, a gift to believe on
1:02:23
Him, and all you have to do is receive it.
1:02:26
It doesn't matter how much you attend church, or how good you
1:02:31
think you are or how bad you think you are.
1:02:33
He loves you and He loves every one of us in this place.
1:02:38
So we would love to pray with you.
1:02:39
If that's you, come up and talk to us because today is the day
1:02:42
of salvation. You don't want to leave this
1:02:43
place and not have a relationship with God, but
1:02:47
you're guaranteed that if you put your faith and trust in Him,
1:02:50
you will leave Him and your entire life and your eternity
1:02:53
will be changed. And that's what every single
1:02:55
person that knows the Lord in this room wants for you.
1:02:58
So for the rest of us, let's stand.
1:03:01
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
1:03:04
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
1:03:07
For prayer, call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
1:03:17
To listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
1:03:20
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
1:03:25
or download our free Calvary Church app.
1:03:28
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.