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RESCUE ME
Acts 12:1-12
I. Desperate situations.
A. Executions and imprisonment.
1) King Herod was seeking local
political support, and hitting
Christians was a popular
move.
2) Peter had good reason to be
pessimistic.
B. Everyone here will face times of
desperation.
1) Problems we will face:
a) If no one has died in your
immediate family, they will.
b) Your financial security
could change overnight.
c) Your health may
deteriorate.
2) How will you handle it?
a) Some will be defeated, and
curse God.
b) Others will discover that
the Lord is a living God, and
He still delivers His
people from trouble.
II. Praying for deliverance.
A. The church prayed fervently. 12:5
1) Same word used of Jesus in Gethsemane. Luke 22:44
2) Assume they also prayed
"thy will be done."
In today’s society it is much easier to wear out our
mouths complaining
Than it is to wear out our
knees praying.
B. Prayer comes easiest in desperate
situations.
1) On June 6, 1944, a German soldier woke up,
peered outside
his
pillbox and saw the entire Allied fleet before him.
The invasion of Europe was unfolding before him.
What did he do? The same as you - he prayed!
"Not a church-prayer, but a
real one!"
2) It is normal for prayer to be
more intense when our needs
are
intense.
C. Salvation is not just for heaven.
1) Idea originally dealt with
here-and-now situations.
2) Psalms especially focus on current needs.
a) Lord, they've surrounded
me! Help me!
III. Should we expect
miracles?
A. Peter was not expecting anything.
1) He was sound asleep, and had
to be kicked awake. 12:7
a) What does an angel's voice
sound like?
b) "Get up!!!!"
2) Even leaving the prison, he
thought he was dreaming. 12:9
B. The church was not really
expecting anything.
1) They prayed for his deliverance,
and then wouldn't believe it.
a) Humor as Rhoda screams for
joy and runs back in.
b) Peter has to bang
away. 12:16
2) God can do more than we
expect, even when we have faith.
a) Believing this should take away
our anxiety.
b) God wants to deliver us
from evil.
C. Miracles still happen today.
A striking modern parallel is
found in the experiences of
Sundar
Singh.
Sundar
lived in northern India
in the 1920's.
As a young man he was a devout
Hindu and persecuted Christians
in his
village.
One day he was praying in his room
and a great light appeared.
He looked into the light and
saw the form of Jesus Christ.
A voice spoke to Sundar in Hindustani:
"How long will you persecute
me?
I have come to save you; you
were praying to know the right way."
Though totally unaware of the
story of Paul's conversion,
at
that point Sundar became a believer in Jesus.
He was so committed he became a
missionary to the villages
of Tibet.
One spiritual leader there became
so upset with him he had him
thrown
into a dry well.
The lid was securely locked and he
was left there to die.
The bones and rotting flesh of
many others lay around him.
On the third night, when he had
been crying to God in prayer,
Sundar
heard someone unlocking the lid of the well.
The lid was removed, and a voice
spoke, telling him to take
hold
of the rope that was being lowered.
Sundar
did so, and was glad to find a loop at the bottom of the
rope in which he could place
his foot, for his right arm had
been
injured before he was thrown down.
He was then drawn up, and when he
looked around to thank his
rescuer,
he could find no trace of him.
The fresh air revived him, and his
injured arm felt whole again.
When morning came, Sundar returned to the city where he had
been
arrested, and he began preaching again.
News was brought to the spiritual
leader that the man who had
been thrown into the
execution-well for preaching had been
set
free and was preaching again.
Sundar
Singh was brought before the leader and questioned, and
he
told the story of his release.
The leader declared that someone
must have gotten the key and
let him out, but when they
searched for the key, it was
found
attached to the leader's own belt!
A more recent example comes from
my family.
January 2001 I received a phone
Call from my mom’s doctor in
Florida telling me that my mom was in
intensive care and was not expected
to make
through the night. When I received the call, I was some 1300 Miles
away in Connecticut and had
no way to get to her fast. I remembered that we
serve an
omnipotent God. One who is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all
that we
ask or think, and at that moment I fell on my knees and prayed.
"Father in the Name of
Jesus, touch her where she is. Heal her body Lord, from the crown
of her
head to the soles of her feet renew her. Anoint the doctor’s
who are working with
her
and show them what needs to be done."
I didn't expect all of it to go
away, but he just wanted to
Give it to God so that I would
be able to bear it for her.
At that moment I felt a peace come
over my body and I knew that God had not only heard but
answered
my prayer. I drove the 19 hours from Connecticut to Florida
And when I got there I knew she
was going to be ok. She remained on life support for 7 or
8 days and then she regained
consciousness and slowly she began to get better. She had to
go into residential therapy for
several weeks as she became paralyzed from the waist down
but
today April 26, 2002,
my mom has fully recovered.
Now more than ever, I
realized God does answer prayer.
IV. Ultimate deliverance.
A. Not every prayer is answered
dramatically.
1) Note that chapter 12 begins
with the martyrdom of James.
2) Yet in Bible's perspective,
even James had a victory.
B. Death and disease are no defeat
for Christians.
1) Jesus has conquered them, if
not in this life, then in the
next.
2) We can be physically fit, but
on our way to doom:
"Do not be afraid of those
who kill the body but cannot kill
the
soul.
Rather, be afraid of the One who
can destroy both soul and
body
in hell."
Matthew 10:28
C. Are you humble enough to seek
God's help?
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