Let's open to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. The title of my message is A
Model Prayer for Desperate Times. A Model Prayer for Desperate
Times. I also want to say, I'm not being
irreverent. I've told y'all multiple times,
some children had asked me one time, I said, Daddy, how come
you don't wear a tie and jacket on Thursdays? We go to church
on Thursdays, midweek. But you do on Sunday. Thursdays
must be less important. That's the fourth time I've said
it. I ain't joking. I hope God teaches these things.
But I'm covered head to toe in poison oak. I got it in my eye.
And I'm just, I ain't going to shake nobody's hand after. I
ain't allergic to nothing. But poison ivy, I'd be having
shots already, but this is, I'm waiting to see how bad this gets.
And I thought, you know, I ought to go to the doctor, but it's
a necessity. I go to the Lord's house. If
I didn't have no food at the house, you can bet $5 I'd be
down at Albertson's. Why? I have to. Well, you're,
you're itching all over and you got medicine in your eyeball.
And why are you at the Lord's house? I have to be. I can't
live without it. I need to be. I want to set the
table a little bit as to what's taking place here with Peter
and John, their response, their attitude, and that'll help you
see the end more clearly. But we remember that Peter and
John here in Acts 4, they healed that lame man. I was out in front
of the temple there, and he walked right, and he spoke right, and
he hugged them, and for the first time ever, he went in the house
of God, instead of sitting outside feeling sorry for himself, begging
all day, letting other people take care of him. It's a picture
of salvation that's in Christ alone, by God alone. That's what
this was showing, and they told it plainly. And the Pharisees,
and the Sadducees, and all the religious folks that went to
church all day, every day, they weren't one bit happy about it.
They were mad, and so they threw them in jail. And they didn't
know what they was going to do with them. They didn't have any
charges they could trump them up on just yet. And so they conferred
amongst themselves. That's the word used. They gathered
together and said, well, we can't talk to them outright because
they're just going to tell us what God says. So let's get in the back
room. Let's develop a plan. I saw this
happen years ago against my brother Don. The fellows had a plan concocted
to root him out. And then they knew that wasn't
a good plan, but they stuck to it. And then finally he said
something else. They said, that's what, somebody heard it. They
said, that's what we'll get him on. And a bunch of people ganged
up on him. Nothing's changed. They conferred
among themselves and they demanded that they did not preach and
they did not teach. in the name of Jesus anymore. You can play church all you want.
You can say God did some things. Don't you talk about Jesus Christ. We don't want to hear it. We
read then Peter and John's well-known response in verse 19, Acts 4,
19. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than unto God, Judge ye. We don't have to think about
it. Something I need to ponder for 30 seconds and take a pause.
I already know the answer. I'm going to do what God says.
You want to think about those things? You judge it. You go
home and ponder on those things. We got people to preach to. Verse
20. For we cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard. And I thought, how plain. I hope
people can get this one. Josiah, somebody told us there's
no fish up in Loveland Reservoir because it was drained in 2022.
And they filled it back up and said there ain't no fish in there.
If somebody told you there's no fish in there, would you believe
that? No. Why? You've seen a fish come
out of there. We caught a fish from there.
You can say there ain't no fish in there. You can say that until
you're blue in the face. I've seen it. I've known. They said we've seen this and
we know it and we ain't going to say nothing but what we've
seen and what we've heard, what God taught us. This is elementary,
but it takes the power of God to believe it, to get it. And then Pharisees just getting
madder. Why won't you listen to me? That's what they're saying,
you know. But they were eventually let go of their oppressors who
were telling them what to say and what they couldn't say. 30
years ago, a man was preaching on this friend of mine, and he
brought up three quick points. And I thought, you know, I thought
a lot about this this week. Here's the things that Peter
and John did not do. We're about to see what they
did do, but we can't miss what they didn't do. Here's three
things they did not do when they were commanded to do this by
those Pharisees and Sadducees. They did not change their message.
They said, you can preach all you want, take Christ out of
it. And they said, no. Our message ain't changed, and
it offends natural man. At one point or all points or
something, it's offensive. All flesh is grass. You are the
enemy of the holy God you've offended, and you're at war with
him, and there's none good. No, not one. Nobody, born of
Adam, outside of Christ, there's none. Christ is the holy God
that came down in human flesh, and he is righteousness. It's
him. He is sanctification. He is wisdom. He is redemption. He is salvation. Salvation is a person. And this
eternal Godhead came in a body and you killed him. I bet he
pointed a finger when they said that. You killed him. Real big
tall fella with a loud voice pointed at me one day and told
me I killed him. I said, that's right. That's right. And they
said, you slew him. But God, God in His perfect reign,
this was His will all to take place. And what you meant for
evil, He meant for good, just like with Joseph way back in
Genesis. And this one, this was the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, but it happened in front of your eyes. And this
sacrifice has been received. He's been resurrected. The payment,
the work's done, and the receipt's been printed. All the payments
are squared away. He's risen, and that's exactly
what the Sadducees could not stand for. They hated this resurrection
business. I said, don't take this so hard
against it. All that believe on him, everyone that believes
on Christ, that's he's the foundation, he's the means of it, he's everything.
It's his faith that he gives us, the faith of Christ, to believe
on Christ. You believe on him and you have to have him because
he's already got you. He's going to raise you up to
be with him in glory. And you're going to glorify Christ
for it forevermore. And joyful bliss at that wedding
supper, and you're just going to be made like him and see him
as he is. And all this bad stuff, everybody's
fighting tooth and tongue over is going to be put away forever.
You've been made just like him because he's holy and perfect.
They didn't change their message. Not one lick. Those men were
still mad and they did not change their methods. They didn't change
how they did this. They could have said, well, you
know, maybe I was a little harsh in saying that to those Sadducees.
Maybe we could have rounded the edges just a little bit, been
a little more approachable. Maybe I should gain some clout with
them by playing along and letting them kind of have a little bit
of their way. And then as time goes on, maybe I can slip the
gospel in gradually, a little bit at a time. They probably told him, said,
you know, Peter, John, you're just being too dogmatic and you're
taking too firm a stance. You'd attract more flies with
honey than you will with vinegar, won't you? No, we ain't changing. Give it as it's been given to
you. That's it. This is important times. That's
what in Hebrews 13, we read, obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves to Peter and John. That's the
apostles for them, Pharisees and Sadducees. That's the man,
two men God sent for them to hear the gospel. And Hebrews
13, 17 says, obey them, submit yourselves for they watch for
your souls. as they that must give an account,
and that they may do it with joy and not with grief." There'll
come a day when somebody will stand in front of the judgment
and say, Lord, you never told me. And they'll say, bring my servant
over here. Did you tell him? That's a little bit different
perspective and consequences, isn't it? Every mother's son's
an expert on preaching. They ain't the one getting up
preaching. Ain't got that on their head. As one that must
give an account for their souls, that they may do it with joy,
not with grief, for that's unprofitable for you. Ain't no good for you
to be disobedient to them and not hear what they have to say,
however they have to say it. That five million that Jonah
preached to you, you reckon they stood before judgment and the
Lord said, there's nothing, well done, come on in. There's my
children, come, I got a bill ready for you. It was happy,
wasn't it? That's why Peter preached there
in chapter two, he said, and with many other words did he
testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward
generation, from this wicked generation. Save yourselves.
Stop doing what you're doing. This is important. Repent ye
therefore, he says in chapter three, and be converted that
your sin may be blotted out. He's calling them sinners. You
need your sins blotted out. When the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send
Jesus Christ. which before was preached unto
you." He said, repent. Maybe some of them told us, you
know, Peter, James or Peter and John, maybe you could do a prerecorded
short message or something that's sweet and kind and have that
out. And you can just hand out some tracks if and when someone's
willing to take one of those printed tracks, take one. Or
maybe you can just do a conference call and you could, you know,
if people feel like tuning in, they could tune in. And if they
don't want to, they don't have to. The scriptures say, by the foolishness
of preaching. I was thinking about that all
week. I got to say it, and I don't want to go over on time. I'm
trying hard to get out of here. I'm sorry. Get you out of here. If I'm listening
to a message, and I thought, I was listening to a message
of Henry's, and he had something real sharp to say to the people,
and I thought, well, that's for them. That ain't for me. I ain't
there. He couldn't be talking about
me. I looked at the date on it. I was sitting there. It was to
me. So I was a teenager. But it's easy if you're on Zoom
or on the internet machine or something like that to say, well,
that ain't really talking about me. When you got a man face-to-face
and they look you in the eye, I'd close my eyes and say, everybody
in this room, I'm talking to you, because this message is for me
and it's for us. You can't get away from that.
You can't hit mute button on that, can you? Preaching's in
person. Tom Harding told me from a young
man, we're in the people business. Look people in the eye. Tell
them the truth. Y'all may use it. They didn't change their
message, they didn't change their method, and they didn't change
their mentors. They didn't go heed the counsel of men and say,
well, you know, we really made them fellas mad. Let's get together
and let's brainstorm and let's see what would come up to where
we don't do that no more. We don't make them mad. That did
not happen. It didn't. They weren't to be
man pleasers. That's plain in the scriptures.
And they didn't go to psychology. They didn't go to Dale Carnegie
and figure out how to win friends and influence people. They solely
stood on the word of the Lord, obeying God. I thought of Paul. He was ordained of God. Well,
I was ordained by so-and-so. Yeah, well, Paul's ordained to
God. And he was taught of God. It says in Galatians 1, when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me, that I might preach
him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not. That's the same
word used. That's what them Pharisees and
Sadducees did, didn't they? They conferred. I said, let's
have a conference. Let's get some big wigs in here.
Somebody that knows some stuff, got some experience. No, Paul
said immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood. Neither
went out of Jerusalem to them that which are apostles before
me. I didn't go to them other 11. Where'd he go? Went to Asia for three years.
Christ had him out there in the middle of nowhere. That's where
Paul used to preach in Asia. And he taught him. That was his
training ground. And then after three years, he went back. He
stayed 15 days with Peter. And they said, yes, our brother.
That's our fellow labor. Peter and John, here's what they
did. Verse 20, Acts 4, verse 20. We cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard. So when they had further threatened
them, They let them go finding nothing how they might punish
them. That's what they were looking for, punishment. Not chasing,
not helping, not encouragement, not admonishment, punishment.
That's the attitude. How they might punish them because
of the people. They couldn't do it because of the people.
For all men gloried, glorified God for that which was done.
Everybody believes what they're just preaching. Can you believe
that? All these people at 5,000 that
heard, they said, Lord did this, the Lord healed this man. This
is great, I need to be healed. He came to heal sinners at this
great position. I'm sick. I'm a sinner. This
is good. And then Pharisees got surrounded
up because we can't talk to these people. They're happy. Lord, teach us this. We ain't
persecuted like this early church was, but hold your breath. It
may happen in our lifetimes. We may see it in the next couple
of years. I don't know. It may be my great grandchildren. It
may be tomorrow. We need to learn these things. They're gonna get
warned here in a second. Verse 22, for the man was about
40 years old on whom this miracle of healing was showed. He's my
age. He'd been lame his whole life and nobody in the whole
town questioned it. They knew something happened.
You used to tell me earlier, somebody knows that you're different,
right? You didn't do nothing fancy,
but DNA can tell. So could these. Verse 23, and
being let go, here's what they did. They went to their own company. and reported all that the chief
priests and elders. had said unto them, this company. What's that? This is that same
one. They didn't go back to 8,000
people that had just been converted. They went back to that same one
that was mentioned in chapter one, verse 15. It says the names
of them were about 120. This really got a hold of me. Thomas, maybe you'll get it.
That's four 30-man platoons is a company size element. That's
in the military. They went back to their company.
They went back to their outfit. their people. What is that? That's
their assembly. That's who they work with. That's
their church family. That's the house of God. That's
Christ's body in that local area. They run to trouble, they run
straight to their brethren. I'm physically sick or mentally
sick or heart sick. I can't go to services. I ain't
gonna get nothing. No, that's when you need to go.
Need to go all the time, but that's when you really need to
go. And they told them about the trials that the Lord had
sent them. They said, these bad things happened. And there was
these elders, oh, what a pain. And these priests, they're putting
themselves between man and God is what they're doing. These
priests and these elders, and here's what they did to us. They
put us in jail and they got in a circle around us and they conferred
and they demanded that we stop saying what we're saying and
saying how we're saying it and using the means that we're saying
and the methods that we're saying it. They told us to stop it.
And we said, no. And I don't really know what
happened, but the Lord did something and they let us go. Peter's going to be
in prison soon. The shackles are going to fall
off, walls are going to fall down. We'll get to it. Paul did the
same thing. They warned him. They said, these
men, watch out for these priests and these elders. These religious
folks, you look out for them. 119 of you that's listening to
us. They sought divisions, what they're seeking. They can't fight
God because he ain't standing right in front of them. So they're
going to fight you and they're going to fight us. Watch out for them. Watch
out for them. That's mean, Peter. That's the
same thing Paul did. In Romans 16, he warned those
brethren in Rome. He said, And he didn't stop there.
He didn't say, well, that one's bad. There's a rattlesnake. And then, okay, we're going,
you want a ham sandwich? No, mark them and avoid them. Don't,
don't engage with them. Don't write about them on the
internet. Don't, I didn't have internet back then, but you know
what I'm saying, this does. Don't blog posts about them. Just leave
it alone. Just avoid it. Go rant, go around.
Give them a wide berth. Don't, don't ag them on and don't
support them and don't encourage them and just don't poke them
with sticks. Just leave them alone. Mark them and avoid them. For
they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ. but their
own belly. Well, how are they going to do
that? Well, obviously they'll have horns coming out of their head and they'll
have these... No! It says, and by good works and fair speeches
deceive the hearts of the simple. Lord said he came to save the
simple. That's me. I ain't the sharpest knife in
the drawer. I'm dumb and I need him. He needs to be my wisdom
and I'm sick and he's a great position and I'm a sinner and
he comes to save sinners. That's his name. And the Lord said, they're
going to have fair speeches and they're going to have good words.
And it's going to say exactly sometimes what the Lord said
in his word. It's going to sound exactly the same, but they're
out for their own bellies. What were the brethren in this
local assembly, this 120 member church they got there? What are
they going to do? Peter and John just came back
and said, hey, here's what just happened. We got a hornet's nest riled
up. This is the first big persecution of the church after Christ descended.
And they're like, here's the situation, I'm just gonna tell
you the truth, this is what happened. What are they gonna do, they're
gonna sharpen sticks? I said, I got a good idea, let's make
protest signs, or we'll sign a bunch of ballots and things
and send it to the governor, to Caesar, and we'll get these
things, we'll get somebody to change that office. No, they
prayed. We got big problems in the church,
and we're all gonna get attacked. Good, take it to the Lord. Take
it to the Lord. We get a lesson here in Acts
4 on prayer here in this text. The Lord will give us a model
prayer. This is a lesson on how to pray,
and it's good. Here's my points. We're going
to see three divisions in this. There's the praise, the petition,
and the product, or the proof, the outcome. Here's the praise,
verse 24. And when they had heard that,
they heard what all happened with these chief priests and
these elders. They lifted up their voice to God with one accord. That didn't mean they was all
praying at the same time. They had one heart. Somebody led them
in prayer, but they had one heart. And somebody was praying and
they said, amen, that's right. They had one accord and they said,
Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and earth and the
sea and all that's in them. That sounds good, don't it? What's
that? Well, that's how we pray. Oh Lord our God and we now... That's just... Do you hear somebody
pray like that? I want to throw up. It gives
me goosebumps all over my body. You're talking to Almighty God.
You know what they're saying here? They're saying our God
is God. This is how they're starting
to pray. Let's learn from it. Our Lord and our God, you've
made heaven. By your good pleasure, by your
will, by your work of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you've
stocked it full with your seed as you saw fit. Salvation's of
the Lord. You've made heaven. It's yours. You own it. Everything
in it. And you've made earth. This ball that we live on, all
the food we have, all the air we breathe, the clouds that bring
a rain to us, and the sun that warms us, all the providence
that we see in our daily lives, it's all according to your majestic
will and your power. Salvation's of you, providence
and creation's of you, and the sea and all that's in them, what's
that? God. You are powerful in salvation
and providence and creation and all the countless things under
the waves of your judgment and justice that we ain't even got
a clue what's taking place. The things we ain't even gonna
see. Right now my Krebs cycles and your Krebs cycles and your
cells are rubbing right now, making ATP. Electrons are circling
nucleuses and all kinds of atoms throughout the universe. Lord,
all the things we can't see underneath the waters, you're doing that
too. You're a sovereign God on your holy throne. That's how
they start a prayer. That's a good way to start, ain't
it? In totality, you are on your
throne, ruling and reigning, and you're doing all things well.
It's for your glory and our good. And everything that's happening,
You said would. We see that now. You were the
teacher, Lord, and we got the lesson. Look here. Brother Bob
read this for the scripture reading. Psalm 2, verse 25, Acts 4, 25. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine
vain things? The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. What did it say in Psalm 2? It
said, the kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take
counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed.
And they said, that ain't just somebody that's gonna come up.
This is the Messiah. That's the one we know of. He's
God. He's come to this earth just
as you said He was Lord. You said it in your word and
you made it come to pass and we know it. You've taught us
that. He taught us that. You wasn't
lying. You wasn't hoping that's what would happen. You said it
was going to happen, and it's going to happen. We believe God.
And so let us break our band of Southerners and cast away
their cords from us. They're in Psalm 2. They say,
we ain't having this man Christ reign over us. Jesus reigned
over us. And this Peter and John, we're going to wrap them up too.
Shut them up. Throw them in jail. Make them
stop. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. You stop saying that, and don't
you say it the way you said it. God laughs at that. I wouldn't
say that if he didn't say it, but he said it. Makes me laugh, too. We know that this same Jesus
is both Lord and Christ. Everything you say is exactly
how it will come to pass, Lord, we know that. Verse 27, Acts
4, 27. For of a truth against the holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together.
Everybody in this world forsook him. He tread the winepress alone,
Lord, just like you said he would. Us too, we hid our faces. We're
guilty. Whole world's guilty before him.
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. This is exactly as it pleased
you, Father. You're sovereign in creation
and providence and salvation and everything. In your word,
you make it come to pass. You are a holy, sovereign God
that rules everything, and we know it. We're the wicked ones,
and you can somehow, our brains can't even understand it, make
that good. We can mean something evil, you
can mean it for good. That's who we're talking to. That's
part one of the prayer. That's the first step. Is that
something we need to learn? Is that something I need to learn? You know, the apostles, they
had to be taught how to pray. You know that? You think one
of the apostles showed up, right? John shows up. I'm like, well,
John, you're praying for us. You can just do that. And I had
to learn, buddy. Just like contentment. Paul said,
I had to learn how to be content. They had to learn how to pray.
In Luke 11, it said, it came to pass that Christ was praying
in a certain place. And when he had ceased praying,
they waited till he was done. One of his disciples said to
him, Lord, teach us to pray. We heard you praying. I want
to pray like you. There's some men I, from my early
age of my life, I heard praying growing up, and I said, I want
to pray like that. I want to say, I want to say it like that.
Not just repeat the words, something like that. I want to communicate
to the holy God of Israel, of all the universe, in the manner,
with the understanding that that man just prayed. That's what
I want to do. And they said, Lord, teach us
to pray, as John also taught his disciples. John the Baptist
had some fellas he was training up, and he said, boys, here's
how you pray. This is why we have this text, so we can learn
how to pray. Somebody's got to teach us. We think we know a
way, but it ain't a good way. It ain't God's way. We have to
be taught. And he said, all right, I'll teach you how to pray. And
the Godhead manifest in a body taught them disciples. He said,
here's how you pray. You ready? He said, when you
pray, he said, here's the manner. Here's a structure for you. Our
Father, which art in heaven, praise. All right, start out
honoring him. Our Father which art in heaven,
you do anything I want right now. No, hallowed be thy name. Holy is your name. Let's stop
there. No, thy kingdom come. Thy will
be done. On heaven, same as on earth.
Just as you've ordained everything up there, on this earth right
here, Lord, me, me and mine. Thee and thine, you rule me and
mine. Good way to start. And then they, he says, here's
the petition. That's the praise. God taught that. And he said,
here's the petition. Give us day by day, our daily bread and
forgive us our sins. But we also forgive everyone
that's indebted to us and lead us not in temptation, but deliver
us from evil. Lord, you're holy. You're right. You're in control. Ain't nothing getting by you.
You're on your throne. We love you. You love us. That's why we love you. I need some stuff. I'm gonna
need some bread, I need my sins forgiven. But the bulk of that's
praise, isn't it? I'll give you an illustration.
You got an audience with a king, King Charles over there, and
say somebody, your neighbor stole your cow. I don't know, pick
something, there's a grievance. And somehow you end up with an
audience with the king. And then the head jester or whatever
says, hey, all right, tick tock, your appointment time's here,
Matt. Go through that door, the king's on the other side of it.
You bust that door open and say, hey, King, I want my cow back. How many times have I prayed
that way? Storming into the throne of grace, demanding things. We
got to be taught, don't we? What's a good, what would you
do? I know now it's a mockery and there's no respect for principalities
or powers that God set in place in this nation. Somebody needs
to tell people about that, too. The Lord did it. That ain't my
president, that's God's president he put down there in Washington,
D.C. We ought to respect it. But if you're going to go into
the king, what would you say? You'd say, king, I know you're awful busy. You're
a busy man. You're a powerful man. You're
an important man. And it's a great privilege of mine. You even hear
me. And you're the only one that
can help. You have power. You do. And you know what I know?
I know you care for me. And I care for you. And you know,
by the end of it, maybe you looked around a little bit, and you
saw some papers laying around, and you thought, you know, there's
some wars being stomped out over here I didn't even know about.
And there's some trade embargoes that's taking place, so we don't
have to pay a lot for groceries. And this king's ruling and reigning
and doing everything for me. And he's mighty, and he's good.
And he goes, yeah, you're right. Well, do you have a question?
Why are you here? All of a sudden, that cow ain't too important,
is it? I said, well, you know, I see the benefit, all the good
that's going on. Maybe I can just go home and hire a bull
and have a couple more cows. We'll be all right. You ever
prayed? Good way to start praising. Lord,
you're holy, you're right, you're on your throne, you do all things
well, you've loved me, I don't, I can't see that, but buddy,
I sure love you, and everything you do is good, and it's for
your son's glory, everything. Yes, Kevin? Well, nothing, don't
worry about it. Don't that, immediately when
you start that, doesn't it, for the believer, that's immediate
calming, that's immediate solution, isn't it? You're on your throne,
you're holy. You're not some evil dictator. That'd be scary.
This is good. You've revealed your son to us.
I don't need nothing. It'd be nice. I need my sins
forgiven. Turns out the Lord knows what he's talking about,
don't he? If he'd teach us that. What was the petition of this
company? It's 120. Acts 4, verse 29. And now, Lord, they praised him.
Now, Lord, Behold their threatenings." They didn't tell him what it
was. I said, Lord, you've seen this. You behold it. You behold
it. You know our frame. You know
we can't handle this enemy. We're no match for him. There's
nothing but, you know what this 120 people was made up of? The
wisest and the greatest and the cleanest. No, it was nothing
but mafiosos, tax collectors, crooked government officials,
commercial fishermen, and hookers. Prostitutes. It's a motley crew. Henry preached a message years
ago called The King and His Motley Crew. It's a ragtag bunch. And it's, Lord, we ain't no match
for these people. You behold them. Behold their threatenings. And that ain't just to us. We're
yours. We're your property. We're bought with a price. But
Lord, this is against you. We know that, it wasn't against,
it happened to come to play against Peter and John, but they weren't
mad at just Peter and John, that's just a fisherman, that's beneath
them. They were mad at God who sent them. Oh, now the rubber's
hitting the road, but guess what? We need a reality check before
we go to eternity, don't we? Is that mean and harsh now? Peter
and John was doing the most gracious, they said, I ain't got money,
but I'm gonna give you everything I have, here's the truth. And
it's urgent. Today's the day of salvation.
I think we'll ease into this. Let's get your feet wet slowly,
because you may not have tomorrow. I'll tell you plainly. It's the
most loving thing to do. The most loving thing to do is
God tell plainly to you. Convict you of sin. Convict you
that Christ is righteous. It's not easy into his righteousness.
Flatten you out prostrate before him, isn't it? We wrestle not with flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rules
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places." Lord, you have to look on that. Did they ask?
They said, Lord, give us the ability to call down lightning
and kill every one of them. John had already learned that
lesson, hadn't he? This son of thunder. They came there and
they wouldn't receive Christ. And James and John, them brothers,
Lord, can we call down fire from heaven? You want us to do that?
You tell us to. We'll do it. We'll burn this place up. They
don't bow to you. We'll kill one of them right now. And I get it.
I get it. Some people said I seemed angry. I am. People attacking the Lord
and are leading the Lord's sheep astray. People want to watch,
but then when that man starts watching, they don't like it.
Look out! Snake! Right? It's a warning. John learned
that lesson. He said, we'll send fire down
right now and burn every one of them up. And Christ told him,
he said, you don't know what spirit you're of. That's the
wrong spirit. You want to end it. That's natural,
man. That's flesh. He said, for the
Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. You
pray for them, just like this group here is praying. How'd
they know to do that? Well, Peter and John's prayer.
I trained them up a little bit. I had a few weeks with them.
They've heard Peter and John pray. Verse 29, here's what that
one accord prayed for. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness They may speak
thy word. They praise the Lord, and now
they got a chance to petition. Here's what we're gonna ask for,
Lord. You know everything's going on. You give your servants all
boldness to speak whatever you say. God give these men that preach
the courage, the plain, remember what boldness was? Courage what
we say, right? And that's so. Take some courage.
Take some guts to do it. especially when they ain't nothing
but opposition. You got 10,000 people against you, and they're
all saying what you're doing is wrong. They're looking right
back in the face and say, what you're doing is wrong, God's
right. Give them some courage, Lord, and give them plainness
and simplicity. Don't muddy it up with fancy
words, $10 words. Tell it to them simply. to declare
what you say as a dying man to dying men and with them, whether
they like it, that's the easy part. But y'all was amen and
I see it in your eyes, it light up when you hear these things.
That's good, it's fun. It's a good time, we rejoice
on it. And when they don't like it, whoever that may be. Tell
the truth, message don't change, does it? Today's the day of salvation.
And I thought for us, this is for that congregation, for that
time right there, right? But we learned from it. That's
for us, too. But in our day, right now, how does that fit
in shoe leather? How does that work on a Tuesday morning for
me? What if one heart, each one of us, all of us together, if
it was just laid on all of us to earnestly pray, Father, give
your preachers boldness, courage, plainness, simplicity in the
face of all adversity and enemies, to tell them plainly that all
mankind's rebels against God and to bow before the Holy One
in Israel. All flesh is grass, behold your God. What might the
Lord do? Do we have a concern for our
gospel work in this area? Not for us, so we ain't gotta
go somewhere else, we ain't gotta move, but for our children and
our grandchildren and our neighbor's grandchildren. Do we want a gospel
work every 50 years? We're gonna have to ask him.
He'll have to send the Holy Ghost to be in us to ask him. God doesn't,
he's not wavered by, he don't change with our prayers, he gives
us the heart to pray and that changes us. Prayer submission,
and this is an exercise that builds our muscles. We ain't
bending his arm. It's a gift, and he teaches us
how to do it. Isn't that kind? I thank him
for the ability to thank him, and I thank him for him teaching
us. How and to do what by? Look here
at verse 30. By stretching forth thine hand
to heal. Let your servant speak plainly,
Lord, tell them what your word is, and you stretch forth your
hand and heal them. All those Pharisees, that's what
I said before, both presidents. Andre served the last one, I
served this one. He worked for the last one, I
worked for this one, in person, personal. What if Lord saved
both of them? Everybody seems in this nation
to be split down the middle with two choices. They like one or
the other. What if God saved both of them?
Then we'd have a hard time if we won a vote for both of them,
wouldn't we? What if the Lord saved all them Pharisees and
Sadducees? By stretching forth thine hand to heal, who gets
the glory? And that signs and wonders may be done by the name
of the holy child Jesus. He gets the glory. What's the
outcome? What's the product? We see the praise, we see the
petition. That's a good thing to pray for.
Lord, your holy petition, your will be done. He said, if you
ask for my will be done, it's gonna be done. That's a sure
thing. If we ask for that. But we would have the heart to
desire that. Not my will, but thy will. What's the outcome? Verse 31, and when they had prayed,
the place was shaken. An earthquake, where they were
assembled together. Lord said, you said I'm a holy
one. That's right, I am. He gave him a little proof to
know. I was tickled to death, Paul Mayhem was here and preached
that one time we had an earthquake. He didn't know it. I think his hearing
aids turned off or something. I've seen storms kick up. I've
seen them preaching up a storm. I've seen the lights go out.
I've seen lightning strike, wind blowing. I ain't never seen an
earthquake. He preached an earthquake, didn't
he? The Lord shook that place and said, that's good. It's good. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost, that's his doing, and they spake the word of God
with boldness. Remember what that was? Plainness.
Not all muddied up, and not some intellectual decrees, and some
old confession of faith that's in old English that nobody speaks
nowadays, nobody talks like that. They just spoke plainly and said,
God did it. For us, for me, for you. It's amazing, isn't it? Goes right back to praise. That's
going to be a cycle. Reduce, reuse, recycle arrows. Praise him, ask him for something,
and thank him, and you'll see some proof of it, and it just
keeps going. I thank him again. They didn't speak gibberish.
Plain talk, clearly understood, wasn't it? But that place was
shaken where they assembled together. Would to God he would shake me
to the core. Would to God he'd shake you to
the core, and would to God he would shake his whole county
to the core. Fill us with the Holy Ghost.
Use us, Lord. Let us tell of Christ with courage,
with plainness, and with simplicity. Would that be good? Verse 32. And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any
of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own,
but they had all things in common. It wasn't communal living. They
didn't sell everything out and buy one big house, but there's
a family. And if you're in need and I got
plenty, the Lord gave it to me, it ain't mine. Here, you take
it. Mom made a whole basket full
of biscuits. You can have a couple of biscuits. It's fine. And if
she runs out, maybe your mom made a bunch of biscuits and
we can eat some of those. It's fine. We got that stimulus check
years ago. And I thought, well, that's great.
I didn't ask for it. Ain't nothing. Lord sent this. Well, we can
just give this to the church. This is great. We got an increase. Didn't even know it was coming.
Thank you, Lord. Y'all need something? Here, I'll
buy dinner. It's fine. We're just raining
things out. This is for the gospel sake.
Verse 33. And with great power, gave the apostles witness. They asked for it and God gave
them great power to preach in power. They were witnessing,
they were preaching. Gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Grace was
on all of them. So grace to you and peace. That
sounds good for a radio show. God's gracious to us. And every
one of them knew it, and they was all happy about it. They
wasn't sitting there pouting the whole time and frowning and
all that. Their frowns were turning upside down. They said, this
is fabulous. Look what the Lord did. He let us watch. This is
the message they will preach throughout this book's acts.
Resurrection of the Lord. One, that he was resurrected.
That sacrifice has been accepted. And two, those that he died for,
they're going to. Well, you tell somebody that,
they won't have no fear in this world, they won't get underneath
our rule and our reign. Yeah, well, so be it. Somebody said, oh, what if you
die? That's the best thing that happened to me. The best day
of a believer's life is when they leave this world. That's
when you really start living. I think I said that last week,
but that's what, I was in Iraq, and they said, you'll get in
trouble. I said, what are they gonna do, send me to war? Send me back home. Threaten me
for a good time. You're doing me a favor. An accepted sacrifice
and the need of a sacrifice. That's what really is rub. And
to love him for it. Lord, teach us to pray. All right. Father, thank you for this word
you've given us. You're gracious and kind. to
an unworthy people, Lord. Those that were rebels and in
your grace and your love for your elect and you've put us
in him. Your love for Christ and us in
him and all the wonderful things you've done for us, Lord, and
you've sustained everything for the furtherance of your gospel
and you've allowed us that privilege. You've charged us with this to
be your servants, Lord, and to tell people. of the finished
work of Christ. What an honor. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Give us our daily
Christ, our living bread, and forgive us for what we are. Amen.