I really do enjoy a story. I don't know if it's a true story. I think like many old stories, there's some truth and there's some legend to it. An old Chinese emperor commissioned several people to make tapestries out of silk and different garments for both himself and his family. And he hired several adults and one little boy who is well known for his skill in weaving. The king provided the silk and the patterns and the very strict instructions, if you get stuck, come and see me. And either I or one of my helpers will give you what you need to succeed. Well, the boy is making steady progress while all the adults seem to be struggling and complaining and just frustrated day after day. One day they gathered around the little boy and they said, little guy, how is it that you are not frustrated and upset with these difficult patterns and yet you just seem to be whistling along and being able to succeed? And he said, well, I've gone to the king for the help and you haven't. Why not? And they said, well, he's very busy and we don't want to disturb him. The little boy replied, yes, he's always busy when I go to see him, but he always makes time for me. And he said, I just took him at his word and he was always happy to help me. And as we look in this passage, we will see in verse five that the people of God are petitioning God for their brother and their leader, really their pastor, Peter. Remember, they just lost James. This great pillar of the faith. And now Peter is the next day set to be executed as well. And they are petitioning God. And as a good reminder to us, the Lord has called upon us to pray and to hear Him, to talk to Him that He would hear from us. And we just take him at his word. And we boldly approach the throne of grace. We are looking at an angelic rescue this morning. And every so often, God does something in the Bible that just shocks us, like swallowing up a man with a whale and spitting him back out to go and preach the gospel to a bunch of Gentiles. Or calling down fire from heaven to burn up an altar to prove that he is the one true God. or sending his son to earth to save wretched sinners like ourselves. Every soul that is saved is a miracle, every last one. And what a joy to hear that evangelist Bill Akin in the hospital bed, where he can barely speak, is still leading men to Jesus. You don't want to trivialize someone's suffering, but could it possibly be that God put Bill in that bed for that very purpose and that very soul? And we need to remind ourselves that persecution has a purpose. And it's not just to make your life miserable. It is to glorify the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And so in Acts 12, we see God rescue Peter. He's going to use both supernatural and very ordinary means. Obviously, an angel is a supernatural means. Prayer is very ordinary. But that does not mean that it is not powerful. And we need to get that in our minds. First of all, look at the appeal that is being made to God in verse 5. Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer. was offered to God for him by the church. Here we see faith in the people of God. We saw last week, Herod has put to death James, the brother of John, with the sword. And he got a good response out of the Jews, and he thought, hey, let's keep going. And so he arrests Peter as well. This would have no doubt struck fear into the heart of the church. And so they gather together in a house, many of them, and they pray fervently for Peter. The words constant prayer in the Greek speak of an urgent, intense, unceasing prayer. The same Greek word is used only one other time in all the Bible. And it is used of Jesus to pray when he prays in the garden of Gethsemane, when he sweats drops of blood. This word is unique, therefore, to Luke. And he explains that Jesus makes urgent, constant, intense prayer to God before he goes to the cross to be our substitute under the wrath of God. And here the church is making intense, urgent, constant prayer for their brother, Peter, that God would spare his life. This type of prayer is unceasing and intense and it is urgent as we face difficulties before us. For Jesus, he faced that great trial where he paid the price of our sin. For the church in Acts 12, they faced losing two of the big three in a matter of days. And so they prayed. And for us, whatever the situation is that we look at, and maybe for us today, this has just been a great week. Got a couple extra days off. Got to enjoy time with family. Got to enjoy fireworks. Who knows all the fun things you're able to do, and for others, maybe this is just the absolute hardest time of your life. And so we urge you to pray, and to pray unceasingly, and you pray not that God would just change your circumstances, although it's not wrong to pray that. You pray that God would change your attitude and your heart, and you accept His will in the hardship and the difficulties that He has you in. Matthew Henry says, times of public distress and danger should be praying times with the church. We must pray always, but especially during tribulation and persecution. Our prayers should be urgent and constant as we expect God to do great things. How many times did Jesus tell his disciples, you do not have because you don't ask. I wonder how many times he would have to say that to us as we sit around and we just say, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish. And we have not asked the one who grants all things. We have not gone to our father who was good and benevolent to his children. That doesn't mean he's going to grant us the things that we ask for, but it does mean he will bring a correction to our thinking. It will not just be a woe is me. It will be, see what I'm doing. Wait on me. Trust me. And so we also are to intervene on the behalf of those who cannot pray. And we think of those who cannot pray. One of the things that you have to remember is men who have had strokes like Gary and Ralph. Their mind does not work properly and it is hard for them to pray. It's hard for them just to form thoughts. And so we go to the throne of grace for them. We pray for them. We lift them up. See, we don't know what God is going to do. But we know that what he does is going to be good and right. And so we trust him with that. In fact, we are therefore told to pray without ceasing for Thessalonians 5.17. And Paul says that he wants the church to pray for him and always pray for each other. Being watchful in your prayer and with being perseverant in your prayer as you make supplication for all the saints. Are we persevering in prayer? Are we careful in how we pray? Are we watching over our attitudes and our hearts while we pray? Are we being selfish in our requests? Are we even praying? And so we have to ask ourselves these questions and it is important for us to see this very first point, the church is praying. And that's the normal means in which God uses to work. And it is that appeal that gets an answer in verses six through 10. You see in verse six, when Herod was about to bring Peter out, that night, Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him and the light shone in the prison and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up saying, arise quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. And then the angel said to him, gird yourself and tie on your sandals. And so he did. And the angel said to him, put on your garment and follow me. And so he went out and followed him and did not know that what was being done by the angel was real. But he thought he saw a vision. When he was past the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city which opened to them of its own accord. And they went out and went down one street And immediately the angel departed from him. So that God does give an amazing answer in verses 6-10. And the events take place with lightning speed. As you read through this in the Greek, it's all in the Aorist tense, it's all in the historic understanding here. This is real, this really happened, but it moves quickly. Herod's made his proclamation that Peter shall die the next day. Isn't it amazing that God waits until the last moment to save his servant? And the church is praying. And God is in no hurry. It's a good reminder for us as we are in our difficult circumstances. God is not in a hurry with you. He will let the trials and the difficulties and the physical pain do its work. He will let the fire do its work before he moves to rescue. Now I think it's interesting that Peter is just sound asleep. And this is because Peter has matured. Praise God for that. Because Peter is, he is a erratic, emotional, arrogant young man when you see him in the Gospels. And he grows up very quickly in the book of Acts. And now he is this wise, patient, even quiet, mature brother. He knows something that Herod doesn't know. Jesus met with Peter and he told Peter how he would die. Peter's not yet an old man. And Jesus said, when you're old, you will die. Second, Peter knows, Jesus told him, that you will stretch forth your arms, you will be crucified. And Herod doesn't have the ability to crucify Peter. So Peter just slumps on down next to his royal guard. makes a pillow out of a rock, and sleeps soundly through the night. And he's sleeping the sleep of a teenager. Because he is sleeping so soundly, the angel has to strike him to wake him. If you have had teenagers or have one now, you know the sleep of what I speak. Because the word strike means to strike with a jarring strike. But this shows us something. It shows us the trust that Peter has. And in our anxiety-riddled society, who can't sleep, Sleep medication is one of the most commonly prescribed medications out there, and perhaps many of you are on this for whatever reason. And if it's because you are anxious, the remedy at its heart is trusting God with your life, and your future, and your plans, and your calendar, and your children, and your spouse, and your health. Yes, you do what is right and what is good, but in the end, You follow in the footsteps of your master, and you trust him. Peter did that remarkably well, and I'm going to allow John MacArthur, in 15 simple words, to give us an encouragement here. Believers who learn, like Peter, to trust God's promises and past performances, sleep soundly. Let us remind ourselves of that. In our anxiety-riddled world, the theology of sleep is helpful. because we trust the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And he is incredibly good and kind. The angel tells Peter to arise quickly, get up and get moving. Now, as he says this, Peter's chains just miraculously fall off. And it just, in the Greek, it's exactly what it says. The chains by themselves fall off. This is not the first time, by the way, Peter is experiencing something like this, although he wasn't asleep the first time it happened. In Acts 5.19, all 12 of the apostles are in prison, under guard by the Sanhedrin, and an angel shows up, unlocks the gate and says, hey, go back out and start preaching, and they do. And so this is not something that's out of the ordinary for Peter. Peter though is still sleepy, and the angel tells him to gird yourself. He wants Peter to leave, but not in his undergarments. So he gets dressed. Look at the practicality there. God is a God of detail. Put on your clothes, put on your shoes, put on your coat, and follow me. Now Peter is still groggy, half asleep. He thinks he's seeing a vision. And that is the same idea as Acts chapter 10, verses 3 and 17, where Cornelius sees the angel speaking to him to go and get Peter, and Peter sees the sheep coming out of heaven to see, and the animals are there, and they're unclean animals, and God says, kill and eat, and Peter has that vision. He realizes it's about people and not animals. So he just, okay, off we go. He thinks he's seeing the vision. He doesn't know it's real. And they come to this point where he leads Peter out. Now, here's what's interesting. There's no comment about the soldiers. They're not sleeping, according to Luke, but they don't see what's happening. And the angel just leads him out in front of the first guard, closes the door and right out in front of the second guard. And they're just there. We don't know what's going on. And they come to this massive iron gate that separates the prison from the city. And the Greek says it literally self-opened. It's like when our kids go to Walmart, they like to pretend they have like this ability to move the doors with their hands. And they're like, oh yes, look how powerful I am. Well, here is the gate that is literally opening because God's power has acted on it. Angel leads Peter down a couple of roads, gets him to safety, and he's gone. And it's like, at that moment, Peter comes to himself and realizes, oh, this is real. Here's Peter, woken up from his deep sleep, rubbing his eyes, a fugitive, standing in the middle of the street in the middle of the night, and he is have to find a place to go. See, God doesn't always answer our prayers in fantastical ways like that. But he is good and he is kind to his people. And we can trust him to do these kind of things under the radar. And something just as simple as this, not allowing the church to lose another pillar in a matter of a few short days, is kindness by God. He delivers Peter from the clutches of Herod. He shows his kindness and his grace in simple ways. I think part of our problem as a Western church is we're so spoiled, we don't look for the grace and the kindness anymore, we look for the excess and the abundance. And we oftentimes lose the kindness and the grace in the midst of the abundance. And sometimes, beloved, abundance is a curse. And so we have to keep these things in perspective. You wake up every morning, and I don't know how hard your situation is. I don't know the loved ones you've lost. I don't know the difficulties you walk. There's kindness of God in every step you take. If you are a child of God, there's kindness and grace lavished on us. And so we have to keep that perspective. God is lavishing kindness and grace on both Peter and the church as a whole. And he is moving to judge Herod and the guards who will align with him. So we've seen the people's appeal and God's answer. And now we see Peter's awareness of God's deliverance in verses 11 through 15. When Peter had come to himself, he said, now I know for certain the Lord has sent his angel and he has delivered me from the hand of Herod and all the expectation of the Jewish people. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. And when she had recognized Peter's voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood outside the gate. But they said to her, you're beside yourself. Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, it's just his angel. So Peter's fully aware, but the church is not. Peter has come to himself, and to come to yourself is to come to a proper realization about your circumstances. It's the exact same phrase that Luke uses in Luke 15 about the prodigal son. When he came to recognize the truth of his circumstances, both of where he is and what he left with his good father, he goes home. But Peter says in his heart, now I know for certain that God has sent his angel. It's not a dream or a vision. And I think the best translation of this is the New American Standard, which states, I truly know. I'm dealing with reality. I see what is before me and I can process this. And so he says, hey, the Lord has really delivered me from Herod and what the anticipation of the Jews for me is. Oh, won't they be so disappointed? And off he goes to Mary's house. Now, I think because Peter is a man who is saturated with the word of God, I think Psalm 34 would have been something he would have reflected upon when he went back and thought about this experience later. Psalm 34 7. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them. The author of Hebrews gives us the purpose of angels in verse 14 of chapter 1. Angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation. It's the purpose of angels in the New Testament. They minister to us who are Christians. Towards the end of his life, Peter says in 2 Peter 2, 9, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. I think that Peter may have well been thinking about Acts 12, 5 through 24. I think he may have well been thinking upon this experience. God's timing is not always convenient. But it is always perfect. Always. Sometimes God will put his people into very hard circumstances to deliver them out of it later. Some of us have gone through those valleys and some of us are in those hard valleys right now. And sometimes that deliverance is not physical, is it? Sometimes the deliverance is, your suffering is done. You get to be with Jesus. But the deliverance always happens for his children. See, we look at passages like this and we struggle because Peter gets out of prison in a matter of a week. And we've been in our struggle for years. Months, weeks. And he was delivered whole. He wasn't wheeled out in a wheelchair. He didn't have to have oxygen tanks. He didn't need dialysis. He didn't have arthritis. And we look at this and we say, that's just so hard. But I will proclaim to you that God still uses wheelchairs. He uses oxygen tanks. He will use dialysis. He will use arthritis, He will use blindness and deafness to do His good work in your life. We must trust Him. We're not guaranteed good health when we're young. And we're not guaranteed long life. We're not guaranteed the next breath. It's a gift of God's grace. But I promise you this, God uses all of these tools in his repertoire for his children to make us more like his son. So remind yourself of that. Sometimes God will put us in hard circumstances to deliver us out of them to make us more content, to make us more like Jesus, to make us more godly, And sometimes it's to give us a better perspective. Because I promise you, I can go into a hospital room after someone's had surgery, and I understand how to do that better now after mine. I understand that. Sometimes God puts us in these hard circumstances just to deliver us. Peter quickly goes to Mary's house, the mother of John Mark. And John Mark is actually quite a popular person in the New Testament. He's the author of the Gospel of John. He is a short-lived missionary partner with Paul in Barnabas. He's mentioned several times in the epistle by Paul and by Peter. And he is described as a helpful brother in the Lord. Now Mary had to have been a woman of some means because she had a house that was large enough to house the whole church. She's likely a widow because her husband is not mentioned, but John is, her son. She also had a servant girl named Rhoda. And so she had some means. And so this house, by the way, this is the same house that many people think is the upper room house with the Last Supper. They think it's the exact same house that the church was meeting at when they chose Matthias as the next apostle to take over for Judas. And it's possible that it was the same house that they were in when Pentecost took place. This is not a location that Peter would be unknown to. It was a place he knew how to get to and was important to him. Here's Peter, he's knocking on the door. We don't know what time it was, but it was late. And the most important thing for Peter to not do is to wake the neighbors. Because the proclamation has gone out that Peter is in jail awaiting execution. To make a ruckus and to wake up the neighbors and there's Peter out of jail running would certainly put him in a tough spot. So he's knocking on the door, and a servant girl named Rhoda seems to go, who's at the door? Who on earth could be knocking at this hour? And she hears Peter's voice, and she just runs the opposite direction. I mean, the door's that way, Rhoda. She goes to get the people in the church, and she tells the people, Peter is outside. Now, here's something interesting to consider. The last time Peter has had an interaction with a servant girl was in John 18, 17. And it's when he was denying his Lord. And now here is the Lord proclaiming his wonderful work through Peter to a servant girl. The Lord works in really wonderful ways. Rhoda recognizes his voice. She goes to tell the church and her gladness, her overwhelming joy. She forgets about opening the door. And she tells the church that Peter is outside, and they respond, you're a crazy girl. They say you're beside yourself. You are practicing irrational thought and reasoning. That's not true because we know Peter's in Herod's prison. Now, for just a few moments, the church has weakness of faith here. Because they've been praying all night, Lord, deliver Peter. He doesn't just deliver Peter, he delivers him right to their doorstep. And they go, uh-uh, that can't be possible. Sometimes the Lord puts things in the Bible to remind us this is a journey, and he is so gracious and kind because we act just like the church far too often. So they say, after Rhoda insists, well, it's his angel. That's a strange thing to say, because I've never seen my phone ring and go, oh, that's just their angel calling. What does that mean? Well, there was a Jewish belief that you could have a guardian angel who could take your form. Jesus gives a nod to guardian angels But he doesn't give the nod to them taking your form. But he does say in Matthew 18.10 that we are to take heed not to despise one of these little ones. He's speaking specifically of children. Well, why? Because I say to you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. So there seems to be some credence for guardian angels, at least for children. But in all honesty, the point here is the church's faith is waning and weak in this little moment. So we've seen the appeal of prayer, the answer that God gives, and the awareness of Peter's deliverance. But now we see the amazement that the church has in verses 16 and 17. Now, Peter continued knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, go tell these things to James and to the brethren. And he departed and went to another place. So Peter just needs a church to know what's going on. And so while they are arguing with Rhoda about whether or not Peter could possibly be there, somebody hears the door. And they go and they open it, and lo and behold, there is Peter, just standing out there in the open, a fugitive, waiting for his friends to pull him inside to give him cover. They're more amazed at this than I think we can really grasp, because you and I have all had experiences where it's just not possible to explain with our words how awesome God has been in these moments. You've ever been on a missions trip where you've worked with people and you've seen people come to Jesus in crazy ways. And you come back, you report what you've seen, and it's really hard to explain. And that's what's happening here. The church is amazed, and it's really hard to put into words how incredibly amazed they were. Now, they're ready to make a jubilation sound, but Peter tells them they need to be quiet. He just makes a hand motion. Apparently, and this is not the only time in the Bible that it's used, there was a universal hand signal that was used among the Jews to keep people quiet. We would do something like this, or finger to the lips, or something like that, or cut it out. They had their own hand signal. We don't know what it was necessarily, but there was a hand signal. Paul in Acts 13, he goes to stand up in the synagogue and he motions with his hand before he preaches. And then he preaches this powerful sermon. Causes quite a stir as Paul liked to do. But Peter gives the church this amazing story of how God answered their prayers. Sent an angel, opened the door, walked us right out of the prison. At this point, I think the guards still think Peter's sitting right next to him. Because in the next section, you're gonna see they're just, what happened to him? Where'd he go? And then he says, go and tell these things to James and the brethren. Now he is talking about the half-brother of Jesus. Obviously James, who we call James the Greater, the apostle, was executed shortly before this. And so this is James, the half-brother of Jesus. He is the pastor of the Jerusalem church. And he is someone who is very important in the New Testament, and he does not get a lot of ink. But we're gonna look at James here in the next coming chapters, in chapter 15 especially, because thanks be to God for James. for his role in the Jerusalem Council. But also, he says, go and tell the rest of the apostles. Now, I want to show you just quickly here that James is mentioned in Mark 6.3 as a half-brother of Jesus. It is James who declares the Gentiles do not need to be circumcised to be saved in Acts 15, because that would be adding work to salvation. It was James, not Paul, who first stated adding works of salvation is heresy, and so therefore you have to use Acts 15 to properly interpret James 2, which says faith without works is dead. You can't divorce James 2 from Acts 15, otherwise you'll make a hash of salvation. Paul went to meet James on several occasions, Because he encouraged him greatly, Acts 21, 18, Galatians 1, 19, and Galatians 2, 9. And James saw Jesus after he was raised from the dead. So Jesus appears to the women. He appears to Peter. And then he appears to James. And then a couple on the road walking to Emmaus, and then the rest of the 12. And then 500 people all at once. And I think it is at that meeting where he sees his brother resurrected that James comes to recognize, you really are the Messiah, and James is saved. But what this shows us is that Christians, we need one another. You cannot live the Christian life in isolation. And I find this to be particularly convincing in the aspect of church membership, or at least regular church attendance. We need each other. Let's not push each other out. And I also will tell you that regular church attendance is necessary. There is a special power in a gathering like this that does not take place behind your laptop screen. That does not take place behind your iPhone or iPad. You can watch church all you want, but you're not going to church, and you're not experiencing church. And so we need each other. Right now, Gary and Kathy need you. Debbie and Ralph need you desperately. Bill and Lily need you. And we, though we're healthy, we need each other to encourage each other, strengthen each other, pray for each other, love each other. We can't do this on our own. God did not design the Christian life to be lived in isolation. And so We need each other. And by the way, we don't want to leave the church behind and try and find our friends in the world. For whatever reason, and I can't explain it, we have churches who are trying to be worldly. I'll never get it. Because the world doesn't like us. The world doesn't want us. The world thinks we're the problem and we want to go and say, no, no, no, we're really the good guys. Why don't you come in and join us? We'll make church like you. Listen, we are to be separate and different for the very purpose of showing the world they're missing the truth. And so we have to grab onto each other. I can't do this without you. And you can't do this without me. We can't do this without each other. We need each other. And the world doesn't grasp this kind of unity. And so the more the world is gonna act like the world, The more the church needs to be the church. You want a simple answer for what's going on in our world? Preach the gospel. Link arms with your brother or your sister. Walk forward in faithfulness. Believe the gospel. Believe the promises in the Bible. And lean into the promises of God. So we end now with the anger of Herod. And he is horribly embarrassed. Verses 18 and 19. As soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. And then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. looked at the Greek, I have tried to understand, I've read commentaries, what were the guards doing that Peter was able to get up and walk out of prison? Right under their nose! There is no evidence in anything here that they were sleeping. They just come to themselves and recognize, he's gone! What'd you do with him? Nothing. What'd you do with him? Nothing. Where'd you take him? We didn't take him anywhere. What'd you do with him? And they tear that prison upside down because they know if he's gone, really gone, they're dead men. And that's exactly what Herod does to them. Now, some people look at this and they say, well, that's not fair. It was God who delivered Peter away from them. You're exactly right. because these men got exactly what they deserved. You say, how can you say that? That seems mean. Because these men were leading themselves up together with an evil king. They had plans, and Herod was just another cog in the wheel. It was their political play for power to get what they wanted. And they were, more importantly, standing in the way of God to proclaim the truth of the gospel to the lost. And here are these men all too happy to put a man to death who was doing what was right. And so they receive judgment from God. We will look next week at the judgment that Herod receives, which is far worse. Sometimes God brings justice on earth to those who rebel on him and against him, and we see it. What's our response when we witness that? Do we rejoice and dance on their grave? No, we don't do that. We weep for their souls because they are in hell. We rejoice that God has done with them what is right. And so there is a bit of a dichotomy here. We don't want anyone to be in hell. But we also leave their soul to God. He is the ultimate judge. And so when we see wicked men receive their righteous judgment from God, we recognize it is God who gives them their wicked reward, and we leave it be. We also use it as a warning to our children and our grandchildren that God is not mocked. that which you sow you will also reap." You want to reap wickedness and you want to join arms with this wicked, godless culture? You're free to do so. But you're not free to reap righteous reward. No, you are free then to reap the reward which is due to you, which is judgment. And so we have to use these examples to our children to teach them this is how our God operates. So God shows mercy to the church and to Peter by delivering him from Herod. God triumphed over the evil ruler of the wicked world system, the devil, and his agent, Herod, using the prayer of the saints and an angelic deliverer. Two simple points of application as we close. Dear Christian, we are not given a full arsenal of thousands of weapons in this world. We're given three. One, the word of God, obviously, yes. Two, we have the fellowship of the saints. And three, we have intercessory prayer. Now, you might say, well, that doesn't seem to be like a lot of weapons. It's not. But they are mighty. And they are sufficient. And they are useful. And so we need to look at how God has been kind to our friends as of late. And yes, we know that none of them are out of the woods, so to speak. We have bombarded you with prayer chain calls and texts. And I will tell you, we will continue to do so because our brothers and sisters need urgent, unceasing, intense prayer made on their behalf. It's a very simple way that we can call upon the Lord and look at how he operates when his children pray. There's no guarantee. I mean, the Lord may decide that our men who are in dire straits, He's going to send them to heaven to fully heal them and restore them. But maybe He'll be kind to us and give them back to us. It is His will and His way that we pray for. And finally, I don't know all that you are struggling with today. I don't know the good anniversaries or the hard anniversaries that come around this time of year. I don't know if you walk with a limp, a cane, a walker, or if you can't walk at all. I don't know if it's easy for you to breathe or hard for you to breathe. I don't know if it's easy for you to move or hard for you to move. But I want to remind you of something. Every one of your ailments and illnesses is a reminder to you from God that this is not your home. And let's not be too comfortable here on earth. God doesn't give us lazy boys so that we can sit back and just catch in all the easy shows and relax. God has called us to work. And he expects us to have some calluses on our hands for righteousness. And sometimes we look and we say, well, I can't do anything anymore. One of the complaints I get from some men when they get sick, I can't do anything. I can't cut my grass. I can't load the wood burner anymore. My wife has to do everything. And a simple, kind question I ask them, can you love your wife from a wheelchair? Can you lead her with kindness with a cane? Then you're a biblical man. And let's change the way we think, men. Ladies, I know sometimes when the kids leave the house, well, who am I anymore? Love your husband. Love those grandbabies. And get involved in your church. And tell as many people as you can about Jesus. And be a biblical woman. Use the hardship and the pain Redeem it. The time is short. God hears your prayers. Maybe he will pull you out of these hardships to deliver you, to give his name greatness, and people would hear and be saved. What better way to have your life as an anthem for Christ? Let's pray. Fathers, we close this morning. May we be men and women of prayer. May we be faithful. May we be urgent in the way which we carry out our business, for we know our time is short. And so just as you did with Peter, you delivered him out of difficulty where it seemed at the 11th hour, maybe you will do the same with some of us. And as you did with James, you delivered him to yourself, and maybe you'll do the same with some of us. Regardless of your choice, may we be faithful and true, unflinching, unceasing in prayer, and continue to work hard for the glory of Christ. Make us more like our Lord and Savior. Deepen our faith. Strengthen our conviction. Motivate us. Let us link arms with one another and move forward. holding on to the promise that you are building a church. And the gates of hell, no matter how powerful they seem today, will not prevail against it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.