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Prayer.... Lord, use your Word this morning to encourage me or to challenge me, AMEN.
“I have to tell you what happened...”
Acts 12:1-17
There’s a knock at the door. But it’s too late for visitors, but then again this is the holiday season. Before you can say anything, one of the kids runs to open it… you yell out find out who it is first because you know there have been problems with some of you Christian friends in town recently… even during the passover.
Yes, your friend Peter has been arrested for his preaching, but that’s not the worst of it, the King had your friend, John’s brother James killed. He was in jail waiting trial and the King just killed him. He couldn’t wait to see if he was guilty or not… he just murdered him. John, his brother has had us all taking extra precautions since then.
So gathered with some family Mary, that is Mark’s mother, hear this knocking. It’s late, who could it be? Should we answer it? While the adults talk it over, one of the kids, comes in all excited, It’s Peter; I can hear his voice. Well you know that’s not possible, he’s in jail. Better odds to be his ghost. But she runs to open it anyway. You can’t tell kids anything.
Well wouldn’t you know it.... it was peter....Hey Peter… It’s so good to see you… We were so worried… We've been praying all night for you.
Peter comes in and begins to tell us an amazing story.
You see he was arrested for preaching in town. But he wasn’t just arrested, he was chained to two guards… he was guarded all day by 4 squads of 4 soldiers. All day, There was one inside his cell and another one outside the cell door; but that’s not all. Herod had him chained to one on his right and another one on his left.
All I could do is pray.
I fell asleep praying in fact. Then just a few minutes ago, in the midst of a bright light, I was hit in the ribs. I woke up thinking the beatings were starting again, but when I opened my eyes, I saw an angel of the Lord. The angel told me… quick get up. And in that moment the chains fell off my wrists. I got up and got dressed and followed the angel just as he told me.
Now I didn’t think this was really happening to me… I thought it was a dream, because we walked right by the guards all the way to the town gate. And when we got there the gate just opened as if by some unseen force… As we walked out, the angel sssshhhwwweeewwww. He was gone.
At that moment, I realized this was real. The Lord had saved me from death. I had to come tell you because I knew you were praying for me. Tell Jesus’s brother James and the other disciples for me. I need to get out of here before the king finds me here and it causes you more trouble.
And with that he was gone.
This story is about Peter, sure, but really it’s about God.
It’s a story about God working in someone’s life. It’s God’s story and Peter got to experience it.
Think of that. The God of creation, who took dust and breathed into it and created a man. Who put the stars in place.
Another of the fantastic stories of God is one of a man named Peter. And Peter lived to tell it, and in telling his story, he was actually telling God’s story.
That’s what this choice is all about.
The Sharing Choice: I choose to yield myself to God to be used to bring the Good News to others, by both my example and by my words.
The Sharing Choice: I choose to yield myself to God to be used to bring the Good News to others, by both my example and by my words.
It’s based on the Beattitude from Matt 5:9
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Peacemakers… we talked about it earlier in terms of making amends with people we had wronged.
But it’s also helping people make peace with God as we invite them into God’s story.
When we think of telling people God’s story, we have a word for it, Apologetics. It means putting up a defense… defending God’s story. But the best defense of God’s story is the part I have lived.
That’s what Evangelism is.... now I know many of us don’t like that E word.
That should make it easier for many of us, who think we don’t know enough about God to have a spiritual conversation with people, but you do.... you know what you have experienced.
Have you been healed?
Have you been able to forgive?
Have you made amends?
Have you been changed?
Tell that story. Tell God’s story in you.
One reason we tell God’s story, our story is because it actually helps people who need hope.
Paul said it this way in 2 cor 1:4
2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.
But I haven’t gone through what they are going through… how can my story I help others?
Two ways, first, you can share how God got your attention. That’s what it was like for Paul, remember he was struck blind… he was a pharisee among pharisee’s out to kill the church, who was now a preacher for the church. Obviously something happened to him that hasn’t happened to any one else, so what can he share? How God got his attention.
I can share how God got my attention
I can share how God got my attention
30 Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.
God loves us, the worst thing for us is to be separated from Him. Life’s hurts, habits, and hangups, can be the very things that get our attention and bring us to repentance. Paul knew that
9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.
But let’s face it, our stories are different.
I think of people who have lived a pretty good life. I wasn’t an alcoholic, I didn’t have an affair, I haven’t done anything really bad…you don’t have a dramatic salvation story like Peter, a dramatic transformation like Paul, and you don’t have a prodigal story.
You do have a story. If you are a Christian you have been changed. No one is born a Christian, we all at some point have to decide at some point that love for our LORD…that’s God’s story in your life…
Your story may be different, but you can share how God got you attention… that’s what we can all understand.
Maybe it was yorur feelings.
God got my attention through my: Feelings
God got my attention through my: Feelings
11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.
I know especially guys don’t like to talk about feelings, but they are universal… we all have them.
Everyone can relate to being accepted, or loved.
God got my attention through my: Faults
God got my attention through my: Faults
5 for each one should carry their own load.
Second our faults. We all know what it’s like to be insufficient. To not be able to live up to expectations. God calls us to be holy and we all know what it’s like to not be. We all have faults.... they are different, but they are the same. Talk about yours… it’s part of your story and part of God’s story.
God got my attention through my: Failures
God got my attention through my: Failures
15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
We all have failures, no matter how tall you are, you have fallen short. Maybe we didn’t commit a felony, but when it comes to God’s standard, we all need a savior.
We all know what it’s like to fall short.
God got my attention through my: Frustrations
God got my attention through my: Frustrations
Feelings, faults, failures… they are universal, so are frustrations. I have studied frustrations for all my life.... and I’ve been human for over 50 years now. You know what I’ve discovered? In all the things that frustrate you, the common denominator is YOU. You are the problem…
18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
That’s what God wants you to see, some of you God uses frustrations to get your attention to make you want a better way than anger… than feeling out of control.
God got my attention through my: Fears
God got my attention through my: Fears
Maybe for you it was your fear that God spoke to you in. I know that was part of my story… fear of letting my son down… not being the father God needed me to be. maybe it’s still fears tha tyou struggle with that keep you turning to Jesus day after day… maybe that’s your struggle. Paul did...
20 I do admit that I have fears that when I come you’ll disappoint me and I’ll disappoint you, and in frustration with each other everything will fall to pieces—quarrels, jealousy, flaring tempers, taking sides, angry words, vicious rumors, swelled heads, and general bedlam.
Everyone is afraid of something… even the tough guys even the champions of faith.
everyone has a story of what brought them to God and what keeps them humble before him… knowing they need a savior.
Years ago i heard the story of Joni Earekson
Diving into the bay.... striking a piling, Joni was paralyzed from the shoulders down and has spent 52 years fighting to live.
"I would rather be in this wheel chair with Jesus, than walking without Him." Joni Eareckson Tada
Her story, God’s story through her, may be a good description of what you have to share with others...
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If you are the prodigal son, you learn that God still loves you…but what about if you are the older brother in the story?
That’s where many of us church folks feel they fit. They haven’t been that bad.... you’ve never walked away from God. In fact, when you think of the prodigal, you are glad they found redemption in Jesus, it’s just not that you really needed Jesus do to die… lthat’s where you realize how wrong you are.
The elder brother in the story leaves without having learned the lesson, but you didn’t. You get it. You realize that while you haven’t committed some big awful sin, you still need Jesus.
And the closer you get to Jesus the clearer your mistakes are.
What you learned.
I can share what I learned in the process
I can share what I learned in the process
What you learned.
We can’t help but learn when God gets our attention.
Paul wrote a lot about what he learned and he wanted us… the church… to learn from his story.
That’s what Paul experienced for sure:
He was arrested, he was beaten, he experienced all sorts of circumstances
8 Brothers and sisters, we don’t want you to be ignorant about the suffering we experienced in the province of Asia. It was so extreme that it was beyond our ability to endure. We even wondered if we could go on living. 9 In fact, we still feel as if we’re under a death sentence. But we suffered so that we would stop trusting ourselves and learn to trust God, who brings the dead back to life. 10 He has rescued us from a terrible death, and he will rescue us in the future. We are confident that he will continue to rescue us,
I can share what I learned in the process: to depend on God’s love
I can share what I learned in the process: to depend on God’s love
He has and he will
I can share what I learned in the process: To follow God’s word
I can share what I learned in the process: To follow God’s word
He has and he will
12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace.
I can share what I learned in the process: I need other people
I can share what I learned in the process: I need other people
LET US… LET US.... WE...
I can share how God can bring good out of bad
I can share how God can bring good out of bad
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
I can share how Jesus gives me hope to change
I can share how Jesus gives me hope to change
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
The Sharing Choice: I choose to yield myself to God to be used to bring the Good News to others, by both my example and by my words.
The Sharing Choice: I choose to yield myself to God to be used to bring the Good News to others, by both my example and by my words.
Senior Speeches
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THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
Father Almighty (almighty God ),
Creator of heaven and earth.
God of Abraham and Sarah,
God of Miriam and Moses,
God of Joshua and Deborah,
God of Ruth and David,
God of the priests and the prophets,
God of Mary and Joseph,
God of the apostles and the martyrs,
God of our mothers and our fathers,
God of our children to all generations.
And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven,
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection
you gave birth to your Church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.
On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread,
gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
When the supper was over he took the cup,
gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.
Renew our communion with all your saints,
especially those whom we name before you—
Name(s) —(in our hearts ).
Silence may be kept for the remembrance of names.
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
strengthen us to run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith.
By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,
all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever.
Amen.