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Acts Series Part 16: The Importance of Prayer · Growing Together in the Gospel

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Growing Together in the Gospel.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: There are times when we pray and things still seem to go in the wrong direction.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: We bring someone we love to God, but their situation gets worse.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: We ask for help, but the answer we long for does not come.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: And we find ourselves wondering how any of this fits into the story God is writing.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: That is where we find the church in Acts chapter 12.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: James has been put to death by the authorities.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Peter is in prison.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Herod appears to hold all the power.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: But the church keeps praying.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: They can't know how this will end.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: They are still living with the loss of James, yet they bring Peter to God.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: And through their story, we see that prayer is not a transaction through which we control God.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: It is a posture through which we entrust ourselves to him.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a posture of trust, a posture of restful dependence, a posture of faithfulness, a posture of openness to God's answer, and a posture of confidence in God's larger story.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: At the beginning of the chapter, Herod seems untouchable.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: By the end, his power is gone, and the word of God continues to spread.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: The suffering has been real.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: James's death is a genuine loss.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yet God's purposes are still moving forward.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Our hope rests in Jesus, who prayed, Not my will, but yours be done.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he went faithfully to the cross.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: On Friday, it looked as though everything had been lost.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: But the tomb could not hold him.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus rose, and suffering and death will never have the final word.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let's listen to Dean.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to be thinking a bit about a knock-knock today in Acts chapter 12.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you remember, we've been going through the book of Acts, the series.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 11 was where we finished.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: In the last few chapters, we've seen the church spreading, the gospel expanding.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen different people come to faith.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen the eunuch showing us that there is no barrier that God wouldn't cross to reach people.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen people like Paul, who's been brought to faith, an enemy, showing nobody there is nowhere that the gospel wouldn't go, that everyone has been drawn in and it's been expanding and it's been wonderful, and it's been celebrating all these different people, the diversity of God's work in different parts of the world with different people showing that he will reach anyone anywhere with his good news.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of chapter 11, we ended with it with a little line that we're going to come back to in a moment, but we lead into Acts chapter 12, which changes the focus slightly.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's no longer the gospel expanding, there is pushback.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see that the heart of the church here today in the form of prayer.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer can tell you a lot about a person, it can tell you a lot about a church.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we're going to see here, perhaps, one of the first prayer meetings that gather, but more than that, we're going to see that prayer is perhaps more than we often think it is.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer, we often say, is the work.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is the thing we do.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the work of the church.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's what we do as we lift things up to God.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: But we're going to see more than that today.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to see prayer is a posture.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is a mindset that we can have.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a thing, an approach that we can adopt.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope today might help you with your prayer.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Might help you with the way that you think about prayer, because whenever we mention prayer, the first feeling often is guilt.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do it enough.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't do it well enough.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know what I'm doing.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or just frustration.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I do it, but I don't know if it does anything.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it changes anything.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it actually works.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or there's there can be arrogance, the other side.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's not as common.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Normally people feel bad about prayer than feeling good about prayer, but there can be that side of it that I'm actually really good at prayer and I'm wonderful.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And God listens to me because I'm a bit better than everyone else, and He takes notice of what I'm saying.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, not as common, but it is there.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to see the heart of prayer in a different way.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the verse, the chapter starts in this way: it says, it was about this time.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pause there.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: About what time?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, about the time of Acts chapter 11 at the end, where it says that there was a famine.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: We ended this during some prophets came down, and they a man named Agabus stood up and through the Spirit predicted a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world, and this happened during the reign of Claudius.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So there's the famine in the land.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: People aren't getting fed.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: People are starving and struggling.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: There aren't the resources they had today.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: This was this was a dire situation.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: The church is stirred to be generous and to support this work, but it's in this moment.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so Acts chapter 12 picks up and says, it's at this time that not the things don't get better, they actually get worse.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: He says, About this time, King Herod arrested some who belong to the church, intending to persecute them.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a famine of those situations where things just seem to get worse and worse.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's a famine in the land.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then this King Herod, a different Herod to the other Herod, there's lots of Herods, but it's a different Herod.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: He is stirred up, he persecutes the church and gets James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just notice that for a moment.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: James, the brother of John, this is one of the original twelve.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: There have been martyrs in the church.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen Stephen lose his life, but this is the first time one of the original twelve has been killed for his faith.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: James, the brother of John, John who writes the Gospel of John, John who ran and saw the tomb, his brother is put to death.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Beheaded, that's what it means to be put to death with a sword.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's lost his life.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is a sad time.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is a tragic time.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is a desperate time for the church.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the question I have as I read that is, do you think they prayed for James?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think the church lifted him up and said, God, would you would you save our brother?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you preserve this witness to you and all that you did?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: This one who was part of the chosen twelve.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's so young.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you save him?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Would you deliver him?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you imagine those sort of prayers were offered?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then their prayer evidently doesn't seem to be answered.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Which makes what happens next all the more astounding.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because the verse goes on and says, When he saw this, met with approval among the Jews, so Herod seized the Jews approve it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: He proceeded to seize Peter also.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: This happened during the festival with unleavened bread.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers who can do the maths.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: So James has just lost his life.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now Peter, the one who's been appointed, the one who's been leading them, James is God, and he's a big figure.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter's even greater, and now he's been arrested and put on trial.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: The time of Passover, you imagine going through their head, we've just lost James, and now this looks an awful lot like our Saviour.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Our Savior who was put on trial before Passover, who was put on at the same time of year, they're already remembering all that happened and it's happening before their eyes.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And they prayed for James.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And God didn't seem to answer their prayer.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's all the more astounding that the next line says, So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Peter is in prison, but the church prayed.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: The door was locked, but the church prayed.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Herod had made his plans, but the church prayed.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Famine was spreading across the land, and God had already not answered their previous chair, seemingly so, but the church prayed.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are they praying because it guarantees Peter will be released?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it didn't with James.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: They can't believe that because James has just been killed.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: The same church had prayed for him, and one apostle has died, so they have no guarantee that the next one will be rescued, but earnestly they seek God.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: First thing this chapter does is it stops us reducing prayer to a transaction.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so often that's where we start with prayer.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a bad place to start, but there does need to be progression as we think about prayer.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: We often consider prayer, I ask, God gives.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I believe enough, God will deliver.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: If I find the correct words, God will produce the result.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that, like I say, is whether as a baby level is you're starting in prayer, that's it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like a father and child, you're asking and receiving.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus teaches that.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually we start to make prayer into a lever you pull to make God do what we want.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And prayer is not that.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a way of asking God for things, but prayer is not a technique for a controlling and uncontrollable world.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is actually a pagan idea that says that if you offer the right sacrifice, if you perform the right ritual, if you say the right words and worship in the right way, then God will send the rain, God will give success, God will bless.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the opposite of what prayer is.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I say today.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that some of this will help us to rethink how we pray.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps reconsider some of the disappointments we've taken from prayer and see that prayer is as much about words and conversation and talking, it is also about posture.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a mindset, it is an approach to God that says, I'm going to give you something as much as I want something from you.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is first of all a posture of trust.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: The church is earnestly praying to God for him.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: This has the sense of something being stretched out, it's persistent, it's intense, it's wholehearted.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a passing mention before everyone goes home.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: They keep praying, and the reason they pray, the reason they pray is not because Peter has been arrested, not because they're in a dire situation.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: The reason they pray is that God is good.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: We often pray because of something that's happened, and this teaches us that prayer is because of who God is, not because of what's going on.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because God is good.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because God is safety.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because God is a refuge in times of trouble.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: We pray not because of what's going on, that might be part of the prayer, but we pray first and foremost because of who God has revealed Himself to be.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: He is the Father who welcomes his children.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: He is goodness, he is life, he is love.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us know that feeling.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: We know that we've prayed for something.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: You pray for healing and they weren't healed, you pray for a relationship and it still broke down.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: You prayed for a child or a situation and the answer you long for didn't come.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so then we're tempted.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then what's the point in praying?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: What's the point?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because it did it didn't work.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that it betrays our understanding of prayer.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is something that works, something that does something.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas prayer is, I'm believing in God, I'm putting my trust in him, I am entrusting myself to him because he is where life is found.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where else can I go?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: You alone have the words of eternal life.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is a mature faith.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not pretending that James didn't die, not pushing the grief aside, not manufacturing certainty or claiming to understand what God is doing, but bringing it to God and keep knocking.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't pray, the church doesn't pray because it knows what God will do, it prays because it knows who God is.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that will be your encouragement to start praying again.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you know what God will do, not because you know what the outcome is, but because you are confident of who God is.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is not confidence that God will do what I want, it is confidence that God will remain who He is.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: See, we have a very strong habit of taking our circumstance and through that interpreting what God is like.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And God tried to address that by sending his son Jesus, who once and for all is the image of God.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is who God is.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: He is love who would give its life for you.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: He is grace who will go beyond any barrier to reach you.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: He is goodness and life, even though death may come, he is the resurrection, he is the way, he is the truth, he is the one who overcomes, and even though James may lay in the ground, one day he will rise again because of who God is.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And for that reason, we can keep coming.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: The circumstances will say, Well, Herod, Herod is Herod, Herod is powerful.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Herod is powerful, Peter is trapped, James is dead, the church is vulnerable, but their prayer is saying, God is still good, God is still present, God is still sovereign.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And Herod, as much as he likes to think it's true, doesn't have the final word.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And prayer is first and foremost that expression of dependence on God.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we cannot escape from prison.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot overrule Herod.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot see what you are doing, but you are God and we are not, and so we entrust ourselves to you.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Faith is not always loud, sometimes it's simply returning to God with the thing that broke your heart last time.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are still good.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are still faithful.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Even though I don't understand, even though it looks like Good Friday again, we remember that you are the God of Easter Sunday.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter, at this moment, it looks like Good Friday again.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's in prison, it's Passover, he's about to be brought out on trial.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's exactly what happened to Jesus.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: But you are the God who raised him on the third day.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so we come to you again.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: We earnestly seek you, not because we know what will happen, but we know who you are.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: You are the God of death and resurrection.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: You are the God of Good Friday in the cross, but you are the God of the empty tomb, a new life.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so we earnestly seek you.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what they're doing.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: But it says the night before Herod was to bring Peter to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and light shone in the cell.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: He struck Peter on the side and woke him up.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Quick, get up, he said.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the chains fell off Peter's wrist.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is the night before Peter goes on trial, potentially the night before Peter is going to be executed.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Knowing that his brother in the faith, James, has already lost his life, Peter faces a similar ending.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And what does he do?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: He sleeps.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's there asleep, and an angel fills the room and light blazes through the cell.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And what does Peter do?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Five more minutes, please.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because the angel has to strike him to wake him up.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's all this light, and he doesn't wake up.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, right, okay, come on, get up and wakes him up.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, for some reason, he has learned this that prayer is one, it's a trusting God, but prayer is also a restful dependence.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: You could ask, how's your prayer life?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I could also ask, how do you sleep?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because the two might be connected.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying if you struggle with sleep that you're not praying properly.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible's far more gracious and kind than that.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter has learned something.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something he knew all his life.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: You could be transported back a few years to a moment where they're crossing over a sea.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's in a boat, and the storm comes up, and the winds are blowing and the waves are crashing over.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter and the disciples, they run down to the boat because there's a man called Jesus on this boat.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they find him, and what is he doing on the boat?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's asleep.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter and the disciples they cry out, God, don't you care?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: How can you be sleeping at a time?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Look what's going on.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: How can you be asleep?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And years later, we find Peter in the midst of a storm, facing potentially the end of his life.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And over those years, something has happened where he is now the one able to sleep in the midst of a storm.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: The one who is able finally to rest, even though absolute chaos is swirling around him.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is not so much what we say, although it is very much that, it is also that heart that says, I've given it to him, and that is where I will leave it.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so I will go to sleep.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've entrusted myself to him so fully that I am able to rest in this.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean by prayer as a posture.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can say the words, God, I give you, I entrust you myself, but then go off and at 2 a.m.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: in the morning be planning everything and orchestrating everything because God obviously is sleeping on the job, so you've got to make sure that everything's in place and working out just so.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: But being able to hand it to God and then step away and rest because you know who you've entrusted it to.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know whose hands you've put it into.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: There is a kind of peace someone once said, from not knowing what will happen tomorrow, but from knowing who holds tomorrow.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we see here in Peter.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's something to be learnt, something to grow in.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't beat yourself up if you're not there.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Peter wasn't.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: But in time, as you pray, as you grow in prayer, there should be an understanding that when I give it to God, I leave it with God.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: When I hand it to him, I don't ask for it back the next second.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer does not control the outcome, it is the work of releasing the outcome to God.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what we mean because people talk about that.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is work.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is hard and it's important and it's hard.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, prayer is work, but it's not work to make God do something.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I find the hardest bit of prayer is giving it to God and leaving it with him.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: The work is saying, God, this is yours, and I'm not gonna touch it again.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: God, I'm entrusting them to you, and I'm leaving you to lead it and to take it.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's the hardest bit of prayer.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to say, God, do this, and then run off and try and do it myself.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: To leave it with him and say, This is yours, and I'm entrusting it to you, and I'm gonna go get some sleep.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because you are good and you are faithful.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna try and solve the problems.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 121 says that the one who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because God doesn't sleep, we can sleep.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're not the one holding your life together.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're not the one holding the church together, you're not the one holding your family together, you're not the one holding your whole future together.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: God is awake, God is present, God is at work, even though you can't see it, and Peter doesn't see it, and even when the angel wakes him up, we're gonna see he doesn't fully get it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: But suddenly, in the darkness of that prison, light shines and an angel appears.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter is able to rest.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: He has to be woken up.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a restful dependence.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: But then we see something else.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: The angel says to him, Quick, get up, he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's as he gets up.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: As he gets up, the chains fell off because he's there in chains, and I can't get up.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm bound.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: But as he gets up, the chains fall off.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then the angel says to him, Put on your clothes and sandals.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what does Peter do?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: He puts on his clothes and his sandals.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then the angel says, Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: The angel told him, So what does Peter do?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: He wraps his cloak around him and follows him.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Follow, he goes out of the prison and he has no idea that the angel's really happening.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: He thought he was seeing a vision, he's not sure, he's still half asleep, he hasn't fully woken up at this point.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: But we see here that that prayer, as much as it's a rest independence of God, once you've handed it to God, it's then a posture of what's the next step?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Not praying ten years down the line, and the out that we always think of the outcome, the final step, but it's just saying, God, I've I've entrusted this to you.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now would you show me what's next?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Would you show me the next thing I need to do?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, get up.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll get up.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right, now put on your cloak.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll put on my cloak.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right, now follow me, and he follows him.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And every single step is laid out one step at a time.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a posture of faithfulness to the next thing.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so while we often ask God things in prayer, one of the things you can do to liven and to make your prayer a connection with God is to say, God, what's the next thing for me?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: God, here's what I want you to do.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to work in this way, I want you to minister to this person, I want you to act in this situation, but I want to ask you first, what do you want me to do next?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: What are you asking of me?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because I can ask all sorts of things of you, then walk away, but but I want to be listening to you.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer, although it's restful, it isn't passive, it places the outcome in God's hand, but then makes us available for the next act of obedience.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: The angel doesn't give him the whole plan.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we're gonna do.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna open up, I'm gonna get rid of the guards, we're gonna walk out the prison, the doors are gonna open, and then we're gonna go down the road, and then I'll leave you.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: He just gives him the next step and the next step and the next step.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we want God often to show us the whole route, how he's gonna answer our prayers, but what he gives us is the next step.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Enough light to take another step and another.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so that thing that maybe you've been praying about, or maybe even given up praying about, perhaps revisit it and say, Okay, God, here's what I want, but would you show me the next step?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Would you show me the next thing that I want to do, and then I want to be obedient to it to do it.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are things only God can do, only God can remove the chains, only God can open the doors that couldn't be opened.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when God opens the door, we then need to walk through it.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a promise, as I say, that every closed door will miraculously open.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: But it makes us attentive to see what is open.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: What is God doing?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where is he at work?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know the whole way, but I know the next faithful thing to do.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so Peter he does this, and then the angel leads him, and there's a bit where he says, I now know that God has done this, that God has sent his angel and he's rescued me from Herod's clutches.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: They walk down the road, the angel leaves him.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so Peter is left there.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: God has done this thing and worked.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter goes and finds this prayer meeting that's been going on, and he knocks at the entrance.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Knock knock.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Who's there?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Peter.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, who?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, the one you've been praying for.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's literally how the conversation goes.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let me read it.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: The angel says, Put on your clothes.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we're back here again.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: It says, with this, it dawned on him.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: He went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love this because it's so human, so overjoyed, she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, Peter is at the door.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: She's so it's such a kafuffle.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great word, isn't it?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: She runs back.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's Peter! Runs back, tells the people Peter's at the door.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're out of your mind, they told her.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't believe it.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: When she kept insisting that it was so, they said it must be his angel.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a posture of trusting yourself to God.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Posture of resting that you've given it to God.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's a posture of trusting God for the next faithful step.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's also a posture of openness to God's answer.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: These people find it more believable that Peter has died and that his angel, his guardian angel, would have been visiting them than it is to believe that God has answered the prayer that they're praying.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if they had in mind a particular way God was going to answer.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: If he's going to work, he's going to change Herod's heart, and Herod's going to make an announcement and release Peter, and that's all going to happen tomorrow.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's what they thought.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: They cannot fathom that something else that God would have worked in another way.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when Peter turns up, they simply don't believe it.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're out of your mind.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: It must be something else.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so Peter keeps on knocking, he's still there.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, I'm here.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when they opened the door, they saw him, they were astonished.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Peter motions with his hand for them to be quite calm down, be quiet, and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this, he said, and he left to another place.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is an openness to what God wants to do.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: We sometimes imagine that powerful prayer is prayer that's free from doubt.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm gonna pray, then I have to believe with all my heart.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, these guys had plenty of doubt.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: So much doubt that when the prayer is being answered in their midst, they don't believe that it's happening, and yet God still answers the prayer.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because prayer is not conversations with God that are free from any doubt.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is honest conversation with God and an openness that He can do far more than we ask or imagine.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that should encourage us.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because the strength of your prayer doesn't lie in the strength of the people praying.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on the strength of the God who answers prayer.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't lie with you and you getting the right words and the right formula.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on the God who delights to answer us.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: There are no spiritual heroes who have worked themselves into complete certainty.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know people sometimes talk like that.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: All there has ever been are ordinary Christians holding on to a God who is altogether beyond all we could imagine.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you might find stronger faith and someone else will struggle, and another day it will be you who are struggling and someone else with a stronger faith.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: But you keep knocking.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: You keep knocking, and then you remain open.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because God will open the door.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Their prayer is not telling, it may have looked like God, them telling God what the answer must look like, but here we see that prayer involves an openness.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: That God is at work, that God is ministering, God is opening, God is stirring, God is challenging, God is moving his people.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the answer comes in a different package.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: We pray for God to grow the church and he sends us difficult people to love.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's not what I wanted.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted all the nice people to come, you know, the easy ones to get it.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, he sends the difficult because the package doesn't come as we expect.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: We pray for opportunities to share the gospel, and then someone asks that awkward question at an inconvenient time.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: We pray for patience, and God gives us situations where we have to practice that patience.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: We pray for guidance, and God gives us that one little step to do.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: The answer may already be knocking.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: The thing God is asking you to do may already be in your midst.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: God may already be answering it, but don't be so blinkered and blinded that you can't see what God has given you to do.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer, prayer is an awareness that God can answer in any way, and he delights to do that.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And lastly, prayer is a confidence in a bigger story.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: The chapter ends, and Herod, Herod comes and finds Peter isn't there, and he blames the gods.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Then he comes out and he's sharing a message, and we know this from history: that he leaves Judea, he goes to Caesarea, and he dresses himself in royal robes, he sits on his throne, he's delivering at a public address.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because Herod has in mind that he is a God, and the people recognize this.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: They say, This is the voice of a god and not of man.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Herod accepts their worship, he wants all the glory, but immediately it says he is struck down.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Pain in his stomach, apparently, according to history, it lasted a few days, and then he finally gave in and died.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it says, But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Herod persecuted the church and he attacked the church.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: He took the life of James, he tried to take the life of Peter.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: And in that little moment, all chaos seems to be breaking out.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: But as you draw back to a bigger picture, you see that prayer is always part of a bigger story.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bigger story bigger than today, bigger than this week, bigger even than perhaps your lifespan.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And some of your prayers are part of a story that won't finish in your time here on earth, but will continue beyond that.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: There is a bigger story.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: People come and go, rulers rise and fall, churches experience both miracles and funerals.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the gospel keeps going.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is still proclaimed.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: All those who intend to crush the church find their end, and God's church stands again and again and again.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: The authorities lock Peter in a cage, but God's word continues to spread.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: James is killed, and that's genuine loss, not something to be dismissed, but James's loss was not a loss to Christ.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: The mission he gave his life for continues.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: You see, prayer may not change the chapter we are living through, but it puts that chapter within the big story of God.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's all our prayers are doing.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: God, this chapter, to put it bluntly, it sucks.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: This chapter is not the one I want to be in.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is not where I want to be, but I recognize I'm part of a bigger story.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: A story from eternity past to eternity future.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: A story that ends not with Herod on the throne, but with Jesus Christ on the throne.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: A story that ends not with a grave, but with a resurrection, new life.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: A story that ends not with weeping and sorrow and bitterness, but with every tear being wiped, every hurt being healed, all things being renewed and made as they should be.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: That is the end of the story.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when I pray, I want this story, this chapter to be better, but I'm trusting that actually this chapter is only part of something bigger.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I already know the end.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: I already know how it finishes.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I do keep praying.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I do keep pressing in.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I two keep coming to you because you are the resurrection and the life.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: You are the one who brings, you are the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: You are the one who will restore all things and make all things right.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And as ugly and as painful as this chapter may be, I know that your grace and your goodness somehow, in a way I can't even begin to understand, but I know that it will be made right.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: That you in your power and love can reach in, and even this will be part of a story that glorifies you.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Be part of something that you will make right, that you will fix, that you through your death and resurrection can transform into something new.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it will look through like faithfulness and success.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it will look through like faithfulness through suffering.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I will avoid the valley, and sometimes you'll carry me through the valley.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: We see both in Acts chapter 12.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: But prayer, as I said, is not a transaction that we can control God, it is a posture where we entrust ourselves to Him.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: So today I don't know what your prayer looks like.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you pray.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've got your list and things you pray for, that's wonderful.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you find it easy to press into God.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been hurt enough times, you've asked enough things and it hasn't gone the way you thought it was that actually you've started to doubt or question.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: You've just given up that quiet quit.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just don't do it anymore because it's too painful to keep asking and seemingly get a no.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Today I just want you to, with God's help, just to reframe your prayer.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer is not something where you are demanding God to do something, He's not the genie of the lamp, he is your father.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as your father, he isn't looking for you just to keep asking him to do things for you.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's looking just to give you yourself.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Give yourself to him.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a posture of I entrust myself to you.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I give myself to you.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: You alone.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have the final word, God.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: You have the power and the glory.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus our Savior, he doesn't tell us to do this without showing us how to do it.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Even in a garden where everything has gone wrong, I kneel and I pray, Lord, your will be done.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: For you are good.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: You are God.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: You write the end of the story, and your ending is far better than anything I could come up with.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we pray.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't pray because every prayer guarantees Peter will leave prison.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because God is good.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because Herod does not have the final word.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because the tomb is empty.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because Jesus is alive.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: We pray that although James lost his life here on earth, he woke up and the first face he saw was the Savior who loves him, welcoming him home.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: We pray because whatever our present circumstance may say, God's character has not changed.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: We pray.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: We pray our hopes, we pray our heart, we pray in confidence, we pray with questions, but in all our prayers, we pray with us.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: God, I give you me.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: I entrust myself to you.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: For our God is faithful.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is alive, and the end of Acts chapter 12 is this God's purposes cannot be stopped.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: As we gather around this table, this is what we remember.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: This table happens the night before Jesus was betrayed.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Just as Peter is the night before he's about to face death, this happens the night before Jesus is about to face death.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus gives us this meal as a reminder.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: My body will be broken.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: My love, life, my blood will be spilt.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as you look at that happening, you will think it is the end of the world.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: You'll think God has lost control, that he can't possibly be on the throne, that the enemy has won, that darkness has swept over the earth, and all is desperate and dire and sorrow from now on.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: But remember, remember that I gave my life for a purpose.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: I gave my life to be the end of sorrow.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: I gave my life to be the end of darkness.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: I gave my life to be the end of all that corrupts this world.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: And because of this, there is light.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: There is life, there is hope.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your job is not to make it happen, I have done it.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Your job is not to finish the story, I have finished it.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you keep trusting yourself to me because this speaks to that.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Death may come for a day, sorrow may come for the night.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: But joy, resurrection, life comes in the morning.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so we press on.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: We give ourselves.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: We don't let the last thing the enemy did to us become the next thing we anticipate from God.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: But he takes what the enemy does and turns it around.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: He takes the enemy's worst and turns it into forgiveness and life and salvation for all.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: He did it then.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: He still does it today.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so in a moment, we're going to gather round the table.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to remember all that was done.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to entrust ourselves to God afresh.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just pray, shall we, before we do that.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we bring you the situations that we cannot control.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: We bring you the questions we cannot answer.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: We bring you the prayers that we've stopped praying because of the disappointment or the heartache.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we bring you our hearts, those places where fear has made us afraid to hope.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we ask today that as we see this story, we see your disciples, we don't see perfect people.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: We see people who have grown, people who have been changed, people whose eyes have been opened to see more of you.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they are different because of it.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And as your disciples prayed so long ago, Lord, we pray, Lord, would you teach us again to pray?
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us to trust your goodness, even though the world is not good.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us that in this world we will have trouble, but you are the one who has overcome the world.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us that we pray not because of what is happening, but because of who you are.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: We have a refuge, we have a stronghold, we have a hope, we have a helper, we have a healer, we have a savior, we have a teacher, we have a shepherd.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: We come to you because of who you are.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us to trust you.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Teach us to trust you without pretending that suffering is easy.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to release the outcome into your hands and to take the next faithful step you place before us.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you keep us open to answers that don't look as we expected?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, that all that we experience, our limited time here on earth is but a few pages in a chapter of a story that has already been written, that's ending is already certain.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Jesus, that you have defeated sin and death, that nothing can separate us from your love, that your word cannot be stopped.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: So would you, as you did this early church, would you make us a people that pray earnestly, that rest in you, that follow faithfully, and keep hope alive, that whatever may come, it is not the end.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: For you, Lord, have the final word.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Lead us now, Lord, as we gather round this table, as you welcome us again into your presence, as we are reminded of all that you did to make sure we have a living hope.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Guide us, Holy Spirit, we pray.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us on Growing Together in the Gospel.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's teaching today and encourage you to feed back to us any questions or reflections that you might have.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can do this by clicking on the feedback link, which you'll find in the podcast description.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: Alternatively, if you live locally, please feel free to give us a call or drop by.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: We'd love to meet you.