The Church is sent to trust God

God responds to prayer even when we have difficulty seeing Him at work.

Acts 12:1-17

Start with a Trust fall!

Need one volunteer.

Need everyone else. Lock hands.

Ask:

How does prayer demonstrate trust in God?

What is trust?

How is trust relational?

How is trust directly affected by our relationship with another human being.

- In college I had a terrible RA (Resident Assitant)

- His job was to make sure. A) none of us who lived in his house were breaking the rules of NGU. and B) to hold us accountable to make sure things were clean and respected.

- However, He was by far the one who broke the rules the most and held us accountable for his mess.

- He enjoyed power, but didn’t like when we pushed back at his power.

He was a leader in name only. He liked the power to give orders but lacked the humility to help us get things done.

*That’s not someone you trust*

Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

Recently I built 2 supports off my porch so I could hang a sunshade.

Before I hung the sunshade, I needed to be sure I could trust the posts I hung.

That they could carry the weight of the load I was going to put on them.

That’s trust.

God is trustworthy. He can carry the weight of your life.

Whatever load you have, Jesus can handle it.

Do you trust God to handle the weight you carry?

To relieve your burdens?

Let’s read about how God did that this morning in Acts 12:1-17

Acts 12:1–17 (CSB)

1 About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church, 2 and he executed James, John’s brother, with the sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him. 6 When Herod was about to bring him out for trial, that very night Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. 8 “Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.” 9 So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what the angel did was really happening, but he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 After they passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and suddenly the angel left him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.” 12 As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark, where many had assembled and were praying. 13 He knocked at the door of the outer gate, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. 14 She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the outer gate. 15 “You’re out of your mind!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true, and they said, “It’s his angel.” 16 Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. 17 Motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Tell these things to James and the brothers,” he said, and he left and went to another place.

King Herod here is not the same King Herod when Jesus was born.

This was actually his grandson.

Herod felt threatened by the church… Which is interesting.

Can you think of another time A ruler of a country felt threatened people who loved God?

This ruler also enslaved an entire nation because he felt his power was threatened?

Pharaoh in Egypt enslaving the Israelites.

Well, this time in a similar way, Herod felt threatened by the amount of people following this Jewish guy named Jesus.

So he wanted to make a statement.

As a result, He killed one of their leaders James.

Which the book of James was written by brother’s Jesus.

This wasn’t that James. This was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples James and John the sons of thunder.

When Herod saw that the Jews were happy about James, He arrested Peter too.

Like Pharaoh, Herod felt his power was threatened, so he began to eliminate the threat…

Life is overwhelming.

Can you imagine the burden all the early Christians must have felt?

Jesus had been killed, then raised from the dead.

James is now dead.

Peter is arrested and will probably die soon…

This just got real…

What questions do you think they would be asking themselves?

Is this real? Is this worth trusting?

Is Jesus worth it?

Will I follow Jesus too if I get arrested?

All of these questions point back to the fact that life is overwhelming.

A few weeks ago on a wednesday night we addressed the lie that God will never give you more than you can handle.

This is false completely through and through.

If you weren’t hear for that, just think about this simple fact.

How many of you are controlling your heart beat right now?

How many of you are controlling your breathing?

Your body does these things passively. You don’t actively make your heart beat.

What’s incredible about this is even breathing or blood pumping in our body is a direct result of God handling something you can’t.

I can’t handle my own physical body, much LESS all the emotional struggles of this life.

The point is, at every turn, we need to be dependent on Jesus.

And this is a beautiful thing.

Matthew 11:28-30 “28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.””

So that says that we need to come to Jesus for more things to add to our to do list?

no

We need to come to Him so we can learn to act like a perfect Christian.

no

We need to go to Him… for… rest…

For rest guys…

Life is overwhelming and when we are burdened by life, there is rest at the feet of Christ.

Not by doing anything… but just by being there.

What’s one way we sit at the feet of Jesus?

2. Prayer is trust in action.

I’ve been mentioning this off and on over the last month.

Prayer is not that God would give us what we treasure.

The point of prayer isn’t to tap into the Santa Clause aspect of Jesus.

That God will grant all our requests exactly as we want Him too.

If we think that’s what prayer is, then when we pray for someone to be healed…

When we pray for God to meet a need…

When we pray for our finances

When we pray for that friend that is far from God.

And He doesn’t answer our prayer when WE THINK he should or in the way we think he should… we may get angry with God.

But If the point of prayer isn’t for God to answer us how we think he should then what is it?

Prayer is that God would become what we treasure and then give us what we treasure: more of Him.

Romans 12:1-2 “1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

That transforming of the mind is part of prayer!

Prayer helps us treasure Jesus.

If I treasure Jesus, then when God does answer a prayer request as I’ve asked, our joy is not in the result of prayer, but always in Jesus Himself!

In Acts 12:5, “5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.”

The church was praying for Peter…

They knew Peter would likely die, but their treasure wasn’t in peter’s freedom or imprisonment.

Their treasure was Jesus…

What about me.

I hope that’s why I pray.

I’m certainly challenged by that today.

APPLICATION:

The awesome part of our Scripture reading this morning is that God saved Peter from prison!

This has a great ending.

But, the good ending here isn’t actually Peter’s freedom.

Think about it what we’ve discussed.

Burdens.

Trust

In Acts 12:17 “17 Motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Tell these things to James and the brothers,” he said, and he left and went to another place.”

He told them how God had brought him out of the prison…

Peter remembered what God had done.

He trusted God before prison and after.

God was his treasure and the treasure of the church before prison and after.

You’ve probably heard me say before, We need to recognize God in our present so in the trials of our future we will remember how God worked in the past.

To say this differently.

You are more willing to trust God with your burdens today because you’ve seen how he has handled your burdens in the past.

Here is what I know.

If we never stop and see God working in our life, we won’t ever remember how he has.

If we remember how he has, we will be more aware of him working in our present.

So do you trust God?

Do you trust Him to carry your burdens?

Live this life prayerfully trusting God to carry your burdens.

Even if you feel like its difficult to see God working right now,

remember how He has worked in the past.

Trust Him!

Remember He will give you rest.