The Sycamore Message

The Sycamore Church
Interns RisingSpeakers:Grace, Sky, Branson, Brayden, Alonna, Oliver, CarterJuly 19, 2026Grace Sherwin:  Luke 22:54-62 John 21:15-19 Romans 5:8 Romans 8:28 Sky Dean: Mark 4:35-41 Psalm 89:9 Psalm 107:29 Branson Barnett: Mark 5:25-34  Hebrews 11:6 James 2:17Brayden Barnett:  Proverbs 18:21  Mark 10:46-52 Alonna Snyder:  Mark 5:25-34• Matthew 17:20 Oliver Burton:  Romans 5:3-5 Carter Bell:  John 5:1-8  Luke 12:35-38  Proverbs 19:23

The Great PhysicianYou do not want to miss service next Sunday! It’s our first Young Communicators service. Story of Larry Miller led the Jordan shoe brand department at Nike. In 1965, when he was 16, he shot another young man in a gang rivalry.  Thrity-four years later, he landed as the president of the Jordan brand at Nike. But he was always afraid his past would catch up with him. He suffered with migraines and nightmares of getting arrested again… He finally told his daughter and Nike.  As soon as he told them, the headaches and nightmares stopped.   Luke 5:17-26Matthew 9:32-33As long as we are alive, we consist of body and spirit. Spiritual experiences can impact people so deeply that they transform them physically.  And I’ve seen physical trauma change the spirit of a person so deeply that they become bound and imprisoned by invisible bars. I’ve seen the spirit of infirmity convince people they will never be well. The Jewish people saw their sin and sickness as synonymous. Let me clear, not all sickness is because we sinned, but I have seen sin cause sickness. It’s been said we are not our sin, but I would push back on that because I’ve seen people become their sin.  I have seen it reduce them to a shell of who they used to be. We can see their view of sin and sickness in John 9 where Jesus heals a blind man.  The disciples asked who sinned, this man or his parents. It was prophesied that when the Messiah came, he would take away the sins of the world.   This means he was going to make right the wrongs that sin incurred on the world. Sin was the reason for the breakdown of men and families, or health, our nations, even the land we walk on.  Sin made the world sick.  Luke, who was a physician, implied that Jesus was the great physician. He records Jesus’ words  in Luke 5:31: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” We see that Jesus connects the need for a physician to helping those who are sinners.  Psalm 103:3: “ He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.”Sickness is  spiritual. Jesus once healed a man that was demon-possessed and mute. Matthew 9:32 says Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. Jesus was addressing the spiritual to get to the physical.  We have been conditioned to address the symptoms of people but not the cause.   Jesus heals the paralyzed man in Luke 5 to show he has the power to forgive sins.  Christ’s healing in our lives isn’t just to give us comfort or convenience but wholeness.Jesus is able to bring this wholeness to our lives because he took the prescription meant for us. The unbelievers said in Matthew 27:42: “ He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him!”They thought his condition was because of his own sin. They didn’t realize it was our disease and sin that put him on the cross.   Isaiah 53:4Our sin affected his body. But the wounds of his body are now the prescription for our sin. How do I get this healing? Like sin, we have to admit we are sick.  Healing and repentance are connected through confession. The admittance of sickness and sin. Jesus asked those who wanted healing what they wanted.  The admittance that you are sick is the beginning of faith. James 5:16 tells us to confess, pray, and there will be healed. Joanne’s story of freedom that brought healing.2 Chron. 7:14: Seek His face and pray. He will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.

Summer of Sabbath: Rest and RestorationRev. Tim BarberJune 28, 2026==========We have often confused rest with comfort. Over the years, our idea of convenience has changed. We remember a time when life was not as easy as it is today — telephones attached to walls, window fans instead of air conditioning, feather mattresses, and drive-in theaters where you battled the heat and mosquitoes. Today, we enjoy reclining seats, climate-controlled buildings, and vehicles designed for comfort.The problem is that we have connected rest with having perfect conditions. We think rest comes when everything is quiet, peaceful, and nothing interrupts us. Our definition of rest has become, “Leave me alone. Don’t bother me. Let me rest.”But the rest God designed is much deeper than comfort.The Sabbath was created by God as a gift. It was designed for rest, trust, and restoration. But religious leaders added man-made restrictions and turned something God intended as a blessing into a burden. The story of manna reminds us that Sabbath was about trusting God’s provision. God provided enough on the sixth day so His people could rest on the seventh day.When we look at creation, we see God’s divine order. Adam was created on the sixth day, and his first full day was a day of rest in the presence of God. Before Adam ever worked, he rested. Before he fulfilled his assignment, he spent time with his Creator.We often get the order wrong. We think we must work hard so we can finally rest. But God’s design is that we rest so we can be restored and prepared for what He has called us to do.Rest does not mean inactivity. Even when we sleep, our bodies are still working. Healing and restoration are taking place. In the same way, even when we do not understand what God is doing, we can trust that He is still working. God never sleeps or slumbers. While we rest, He continues to move, restore, and provide.True rest requires trust. Anxiety and worry rob us of restoration. Rest is not escaping responsibility or doing nothing. Rest is a posture of faith that says, “I may not understand what is happening, but I trust the One who does.”Jesus demonstrated this kind of rest when He was in the boat with His disciples during the storm. While the disciples were afraid and fighting for control, Jesus was asleep. He could rest because He trusted the Father. The problem was not just the storm around them; it was the lack of faith within them.Rest is more than relaxation. Relaxation brings temporary comfort, but restoration comes from God. You can find a peaceful place, sit under a tree, or enjoy quiet surroundings, but if your soul is not resting in God, you will not experience true restoration.Jesus showed the true purpose of the Sabbath when He restored people. He healed the woman who had been bent over for years and restored the man with the withered hand. The Sabbath was never meant to restrict people; it was meant to restore them.The question we must ask ourselves is: What have we adjusted to instead of allowing God to restore?What pain have we learned to live with? What burdens have we accepted? What struggles have we made normal?Jesus still gives the invitation:“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”God desires to restore your soul, heal your heart, and lift your burdens.You may have arrived today tired, stressed, and carrying battles, but God wants you to leave restored, renewed, and refreshed.Receive the rest and restoration that God has for you today.

Redeeming the Rest. Genesis 3:8-10My wife and I… but mostly my wife, like to take walks in the evening. Sometimes I’m tired and just want to stay home. It doesn’t feel like rest until we’ve returned home. But every time I go on a walk with Kamala, I get something back that would have been misused by just sitting on the couch. We used to have fun reading, running, and drawing.  We had fun at what we were good at until someone said you ought to do that to make money. All it takes for fun to become work is to make it mandatory.Children interrupt our work with requests to play in an attempt to connect. Relationship researchers John and Julie Gottman call these “bids for connection.”Play isn’t just fun; it strengthens relationships. The first playmate a child has is their parent, that also happens to be their provider.  Play is equated with rest, and rest is done with those they love.   Dads set the pace of rest. When dads don’t rest, the family feels like they can’t rest. When Dad is busy, the family feels busy. When you chill, they chill.  Children are trying to interrupt the labor of our lives to bring things back to a time when there was rest, play, and enjoyment. What we used to do for fun feels forced and awkward, like a suit with puppet strings. We used to have fun with God before it became mandatory.  Acts 15 all the fun in the church became “unfun” very quickly when some hyper-religious people came and told the new believers, “If you really want to be a follower of Jesus, you have to be circumcised.” Talk about taking the fun out of living for Jesus. Somewhere in time, that which God created for enjoyment became drudgery with rules.  The rules meant there would be expectations.  The expectations meant there would be disappointment.  The disappointment would drive distance between us and the one that loves us.  In Genesis 3, God is desperately attempting to connect with Adam and Eve.  God walked in the garden during the cool of the day. The “cool of the day” means the “Ruah or breath of God”.  It was the time of day Adam and Eve spent in the presence of God.  When they sinned, they didn’t feel they could rest with God anymore; instead, they hid. What once used to be fun immediately felt like disappointment and guilt. Guilt and shame force us out of the arms of the very one that can restore us. People hide from God in hopes to restore themselves before they return to Him.  They hid from God because they were naked. God asked them, "WHO TOLD you you were NAKED?” Pastor Clifton Lejeune told me, “when you see a relationship status say complicated, it means a 3rd party got involved.” "Who" told you you were naked? Somebody got involved in your relationship with God. God asks, where and who. But Adam answers back with what and why.  A good indicator of a bad relationship is the breakdown of communication.God knew where Adam and Eve were geographically.  He wanted to know where they were in relationally …. Like the game Marco Polo. I know you are here, but where are you in relation to me? Sin isn’t just a bad act. It’s what we do against a relationship.  It separates us from our peace, our spouse, our children, and most importantly, our God.  Proverbs 18:1 Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;he breaks out against all sound judgment. (ESV)The Bible is a record of God’s attempts to reconnect a relationship that was lost.Our original purpose was to rest with God.God has been trying to redeem the time that used to be fun. He’s trying to exchange what was taken and used to separate us from Him to now connect us.  Lets get back to fun!Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.We can’t borrow time or steal time or get time back. To redeem is to exchange. Redeeming is to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well-doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own.Redeeming is changing possession by purchasing  what once belonged to you and using it for its original purpose. “Our Sabbath is not away from God but with God.” -Chad Ducote.  Don’t run from Him, run to Him. Sabbath is what restores our soul. We should rest with what loves us back!!! Zephaniah 3:17 For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”Our God loves to play.  He is a God that is rejoicing and singing over us. Rest and play doesn’t always have to have a point. This rest that Jesus came to redeem asks nothing of us.  Jesus has come to redeem (exchange possession) the time that once separated us from Him to now be close to Him.  It’s for redeeming and restoring what was misused.  Let’s go back to what we used to do before Christianity became a chore.  Let’s return to the fun we used to have with God. Sing unto the Lord a new song.  Let’s do something

Rest in the waiting. We are in our sermon series, Summer of Sabbath. We want to learn how to rest.Sometimes we’re told to wait, but we’re readyto go. Our ambition is greater than our ability. Oh, I know what I want to do; I just haven’t realized I don’t know how to yet.Coming out of milestone experiences, we tend to be geared for the next one. We have a plan but no execution. When we’re forced to Sabbath (rest), we receive instruction and nourishment for what’s ahead.1 Kings 19: 3-8 Elijah has just come out of this high-octane experience on Mt. Carmel. He has a showdown with 400 false prophets and proves that Yahweh is the one true God. Elijah is intoxicated with victory until he realizes there are consequences for his anointing. Queen Jezebel is angry with him for killing her false prophets and swears to kill him by the next day.The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:8 that our faith journey goes from glory to glory, but life tends to bring us from glory to boring; from mountain top to valley bottom.The angel tells Elijah to rest at the brook and eat because he needed strength for the journey ahead. While Elijah is TOLD TO WAIT, he is receiving instruction and nourishment from God.Waiting is a discipline of restraint. You feel like going on, but you can’t. You have the energy to move but not the health. When I have to be still and wait on the next move, I tend to ask God what He’s doing. All of a sudden, I’m talking to God and asking for his next move. If it weren’t for having to be still, I’d forget to talk to God. This forced rest of waiting agitates me to prayer.Waiting is being still between the coming and going. Rest is not just the finishing of something but the intermission between two work weeks or the victories you had last week to the new battles coming this week. But instead of resting, we toil and strive using energy that is going to be needed for the journey ahead.Why does it matter? Because we make mistakes when we hurry from one thing to the next. We end up relying on a plan executed by the power of God last time to replicate it without God the next time.Waiting is boring. My son said his kids aren’t going to know what boring is. But boring is a gift from God. The older I get, boring looks better and better. Boredom is a gift created by disciplined rhythms. It’s the rest between your last and your next. Don’t underestimate the predictable, mundane moments in your life. Boredom stops our hurry and forces us to see what’s sitting still around us. Waiting on God requires stillness. He’s not trying to figure out what to do next; He’s waiting on us to be ready.Consider the lilies. Matthew 6:28 “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;”Jesus said check out how they grow. How do they grow? “After flowering, lilies die back inautumn and enter a dormant phase. During this time, the bulbs store energy for the next growing season.”They don’t do anything to add to God’s stature, yet they declare his handiwork. They don’t work, but they produce. They don’t strive to be beautiful; they just are. My favorite line from James Thurber’s, Secret Life of Walter Mitty, “the most beautiful things don’t ask for attention.” Beautiful things arrest and force us to stop and notice. God wants us to be still and know he’s God.Dan Allender says he was looking at Mt. Cook in New Zealand when a man interrupted his moment with, “Isn’t she incredible?” He was perturbed by the man and his comment because it didn’t need affirmation; it was obvious. It was a still and waiting moment that required no commentary.Acts 1:8: How long do I wait? Until you receive power! Wait to make that decision until you’ve received power.

June 7, 2026
Eric Burton
www.thesycamore.net
 
If you could spend 24 hours pursuing your deepest joy, what would you do?
We begin our sermon series today. We’re calling it Summer of Sabbath.  Rest is as biblical as creation itself. We believe rest is important because it’s what God did and it’s a commandment to us.  As we look at rest over the next few weeks, we want it to resonate with us for the summer. 
Today, Sabbath is Holy.
Sabbath is a Hebrew word that has multiple meanings: from cause to cease, put an end to, exterminate, destroy, to remove, and cause to fail.
I thought it was important for us to look at rest because the majority of Americans will take a vacation between now and August. Also, because we’re busy and we think it’s impressive. We’re tired but keep pushing. We’re working more hours but getting less done.  We miss out on what we worked so hard to create: our family, home, yard, toys.  And to top it all off, we are disobeying and dishonoring God. Yes, believe it or not, we dishonor God when we don’t rest.
 
Rest is first mentioned in the beginning:
Genesis 2:2-3 
For six days God created the heavens and the earth, light, order, species, vegetation, atmosphere, seasons, mountains, valleys, and humankind. Then God ceased from His work, reflected on His work, said it was good, then declared it holy.
 
God rested from His work.  There is no work more important than God’s work, and if He rested from His, we should rest from ours. 
 
A  precedent and parable are told in order for us to pattern our lives after.  Parables were often earthly stories conveying a heavenly meaning.  God was telling how He worked then rested.  This rest, we will come to see, was created by God for us. It represents much more than taking a break or self-care. It shouts something about Him. And because this represents more than taking a break, I have wondered if God was working six days to get to the one day of rest. What if He was doing ALL THIS to get to that? He was working to show us what He was really trying to do. 
 
Sabbath is holy.
One of the most holy encounters I’ve had was Memorial weekend 2011.
 
We are commanded to observe it in order to keep it holy or separated. Holy is when something is set apart. It’s a time and day that looks the same but treated differently.  It’s been set apart by God, but we have to set it apart. 
Holy translates the ordinary into something else while remaining what it is.
God wasn’t telling them to observe Sabbath just for their well-being but because He accomplished for His people from the beginning of creation.
 
Exodus 3:2-5
Moses turned aside from his ordinary work and was captured by a burning bush that remained unburned. The ordinary was transformed into something else while remaining what it was.  The ground he was standing on was holy ground.  He entered into a space that pulled him from his normal routine and encountered beauty and power and peculiar.  It was from this moment that Moses was told why he was spared as a baby.  All of that was leading to this. 
Sabbath is turning away from the ordinary to behold the holy! 
 
The Sabbath reveals that we are holy.
 
Exodus 20:8-11 The first time the law is given, Sabbath seems to be for everyone.  It’s commanded because it’s needed.
The Sabbath is a sign of the covenant God made with His people,
Exodus 31:13-14.
A covenant that signifies you are different and separated from every other nation.
 
This time Sabbath takes on a meaning more closely to put an end to, exterminate, destroy. God put an end to the Egyptians by exterminating them in the Red Sea.  Sabbath was a deliverance from slavery to rest.  Every time you observe it, you are declaring God set you free. 
 
Every time we Sabbath or rest, we are declaring that God’s set me free from bondage. Sabbath is a sign that we are different and set apart. 
We turn away from our ordinary work and are captivated by the beauty of holy. 
 
Sabbath is about today.
Matthew 6:34
Cease from your labors today that are really a worry about tomorrow because guess what? Tomorrow has its one set of things to worry about.  Today we turn aside and do things differently than the other days. 
We baptized some folks today and it was effective because they ceased from their ordinary work and allowed Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to bring them new life.
 
We’re in a holy place where we can lay our cares and troubles down.  Coming to church is not Sabbath, unless you observe it as different than everything else in your life. It becomes Sabbath when we see the ordinary elevated to the special. It becomes Sabbath when it pulls us aside from our ordinary work to behold God’s handiwork.  When we’re not doing it out of duty but because of wonder! It becomes Sabbath when we realize it represents our deliverance.

May 31st, 2026

 
A Church of Converts
Pastor Eric Burton
May 24th 2026
A Church of Converts. Acts 9:1-21
Meanwhile, the church is growing. Philip just converted an Ethiopian, and meanwhile, Saul is persecuting the church.
Consider the context of Saul. He’s an upcoming star in the religious ranks. He’s an expert on Hebrew law, having been taught by Gamaliel, one of the top lawyers in Israel. He is both a Jewish and Roman citizen, giving him access to two worlds in conflict with each other. He is passionate about defending the law of Moses and Temple worship, and now he is on an ambitious campaign to destroy the Way, this Christian movement. He believes Jesus is a charlatan leading people away from God.
There are lots of people going on their ambitious way, believing they are doing good. Saul meets the Lord on the road to Damascus on his way to persecute Christians.
How many of us have been on our way when the Lord prevented us? I’m thankful Jesus is a Preventer. So many of us are on “our” way, but need to start doing it His way.
Jesus tells Saul, “You are kicking against the pricks” (Acts 26:14). Pricks, or goads, are pointed objects used to direct cattle in a specific direction. Jesus tells Saul, “Fighting against Me, you are only going to hurt yourself.”
Saul was confronted with a question. Jesus asks Saul, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Saul thought he was doing the right thing and didn’t know he was actually persecuting the body of Christ. Our ambition and the approval of others are not validation that we’re doing the right thing.
When Saul is confronted with this question, he is convicted and converted. I believe for there to be conversion, we need to be convicted of our ways. Saul was converted when he met Jesus and saw Him for who He was.
You will be converted when you see Jesus for who He is. Jesus is not just a prophet. He’s not just a historical figure. He’s not a 21st-century construct of how to live a good life. He is the Son of the living God.
When you get a revelation of Jesus, you see Him as Lord. “No man can call Jesus Lord except the Spirit reveal it to him” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
A real conversion is a change of thinking and actions. Conversion will change your previous religious beliefs.
Peter was a fisherman. But after he met Jesus and was converted, Jesus told him, “You used to fish for fish, but now you are going to fish for men.”
Conversion is a transfer of what you used to do for yourself to what you now do for Jesus. What you did for the world, you now do for the kingdom of God. Conversion gives you a whole new prerogative.
Your conversion needs an Ananias. Acts 9:10
There was a man named Ananias that helped Saul confirm his encounter with Jesus. You have revelation but no ability. You have all the spirituality but no practicality. Ananias showed up to help Saul have clarity. His obedience worked in tandem with Saul’s conversion.
We need an Ananias in our conversion that helps confirm what has happened in our lives was not a worldly occurrence, but a real spiritual one. Some of you are called to lay hands on someone so their eyes are opened.
Converted for purpose. Acts 9:15: “Go, for Saul is My chosen instrument to take My message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.”
Lastly, people won’t believe it. Acts 9:21: “Isn’t this the same Saul that persecuted the church?” After Saul was converted, he started telling people about Jesus. That’s the natural progression of conversion.
Jesus told Peter, “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:32). Convert means to turn back.
There are some conversions that need to take place on this Pentecost Sunday. Some have turned away from truth but need to turn back. We need some road-to-Damascus conversions. You think you are doing right, but you need the Holy Ghost to ask you, “Why are you persecuting Me?” You think you’re doing right, but you need a confrontation with God. Stop seeing Jesus as an alternative to get you out of trouble and begin seeing Him as the only Way.

May 17th, 2026
Dr. Landon Galloway
The Sycamore Church
Acts 12 comes at a turning point in the story of the early church. Up to this point, the gospel has been spreading rapidly. Opposition has been present, but mostly religious, mostly local, mostly manageable.But for the first time, the persecution is political. The throne itself moves against the church.
Acts 12:1–5a (NIV) – It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison…
It is the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The week Jerusalem remembers her oldest deliverance. The week the city tastes again the bread of affliction. The week families gather around lamb and bitter herbs and tell their children, “It was a night like this. The Lord brought us out with a mighty hand.”
But this Passover is different. James, son of Zebedee, brother of John, one of the three Jesus took up the mountain, has just been put to death by the sword. Herod Agrippa I, grandson of the Herod who tried to murder Jesus as an infant, has taken up his grandfather’s old project.And he has discovered that killing apostles is good politics.
So he reaches for Peter next. Four squads of four soldiers each. Sixteen men, rotating through the four watches of the night. Two chains on Peter’s wrists. A guard at his right side, another at his left, sentries at the door. This is Rome at full strength against one fisherman from Galilee.
And then Luke writes one of the shortest, heaviest sentences in his second volume: “So Peter was kept in prison.” Sit in that sentence for a moment. Because that sentence is where most of us live. The job is still gone. The diagnosis is still the diagnosis. The marriage is still cold. The prodigal is still prodigal. The funeral has already happened. The prayers have already been prayed. And the door is still closed.
It is easy to read this story and imagine our enemy looks like Herod. But our real enemy is rarely a man on a throne. Scripture is clear: our battle is not against flesh and blood. Our real enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. The pressures of this present existence that grind us down. The habits in us that resist transformation. The lies of the accuser that wear at us over time. We pray, we fast, we fight… and some days it feels like the enemy is winning. Some days it feels like we are the ones in chains.
But fortunately Acts 12:5 does not end with Peter in chains.  It begins bleakly. “So Peter was kept in prison…” Chains. Guards. Locked doors. No visible hope.
But then Luke adds one phrase that changes the entire chapter. “…but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” That single phrase divides Acts 12 in two.•Acts 12:1–5a is despair.•Acts 12:5b–end is breakthrough.
And the link between them is fervent prayer. The Greek word for earnestly is ektenōs. It means stretched out. Like a muscle pulled to its limit. Like a rope at the moment before it would snap, and doesn’t. Luke uses the same word for Jesus in Gethsemane. The church is not praying politely. The church is praying in the posture of a Savior who sweat blood. And remember… this is the prayer that comes after James has already died.
They prayed for James. And James still died. They could have stopped. They could have grown cynical. They could have decided prayer was not worth the risk of raised hopes and dashed expectations. But they didn’t. They prayed for Peter anyway. They prayed again after disappointment. They prayed again without guarantees. They prayed again when outcomes felt unpredictable. That is not cheap faith. That is the most expensive kind of faith there is.
This is what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 14:15a-“So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding…”In other words: I am not limiting prayer to one expression. If there is a possible way to pray, I will pray that way.
I will pray prayers I understand.And I will pray when words fail.I will pray with my mind engaged.And I will pray when my spirit has to carry what my mind cannot.I will pray quiet prayers.I will pray loud prayers.I will pray scheduled prayers.I will pray spontaneous prayers.I will pray on my knees.I will pray in my car.I will pray when faith feels strong.And I will pray when my faith is almost gone.
Earnest prayer is not about technique. Earnest prayer is about tenacity. It says, “I am not stopping just because I am discouraged.” It says, “I am not quitting just because I am tired.” It says, “I will keep showing up before God in whatever way I can.” And some of us are living in situations today that will be changed tomorrow because of prayers we prayed yesterday.
Now look at how God answers.Acts 12:6-8- 6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains,and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told himThe night before Herod plans to drag Peter out for execution, Peter is asleep. Not pacing. Not weeping. Not bargaining with God. Asleep—so deeply that the angel has to strike him to wake him. Jesus slept in a storm. Peter slept in a cell.
When you trust God, you can sleep through the things designed to terrify you. That is what the Spirit does in a person over time. He does not always lift the storm. Sometimes He simply teaches you how to lay down in it. The whole scene takes place during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Passover points back to what God did in Egypt. Four hundred years of brick quotas and broken backs. Four centuries of crying out to a God who seemed not to be answering. Deuteronomy calls Egypt the iron furnace, the hottest fire a man knew how to build.And one night, God said, "Take a lamb. Mark the door. Wait." Put your cloak and sandals on and be ready. Blood on the doorposts. The angel slipping past every marked house. Pharaoh's grip broken before the dawn. And the sea splitting open of its own accord. Israel walked out on dry ground. And then God did it again at Calvary.The Lamb was not in the house. The Lamb was on the cross. The blood was not on a doorpost. The blood was on a tree.Paul says it plainly: "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us." That is why on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah talk with Jesus about what He is about to do in Jerusalem, Luke uses one word for the conversation: exodos.Egypt was a rehearsal. Calvary was the performance. And in the very hour the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the temple, Jesus said three words: "It is finished" and the iron gate of sin opened of its own accord. We walked out on dry ground. He did it in Peter's cell. And then, a decade later, God did it again.Festival of Unleavened Bread.  Dead of night. The angel strikes Peterm same verb the Septuagint uses when the Lord struck Egypt. Cloak on. Sandals on. Belt on. Exodus 12, line by line.And the iron gate of the Roman prison opened of its own accord. Peter walked out on dry ground. And He is still doing it today.
The God of Egypt is the God of Calvary is the God of Peter's cell is the God of this room. Same God. He does not need a sea to do it.  He does not need an iron gate to do it. He can do it in a hospital room.  He can do it in a cold marriage.  He can do it in an addiction you have been losing to for fifteen years. He can do it in a soul that has been writing its own eulogy.Because the God who heard a slave's cry in Egypt, and answered a Son's cry on Calvary, and walked past Roman guards in Peter's prison still strikes chains off in the night.  Still opens iron gates of His own accord. He has been doing this for four thousand years. Peter arrives at the house where the church is gathered, praying for him.Acts 12:12–15 – When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”This is one of the most humorous scenes in all of Scripture. Peter interrupts a prayer meeting where they are praying for him.And when the answered prayer shows up, they leave the door closed because it is too good to be true.Rhoda- A young woman with no standing in the room. And she is the first witness of the answered prayer.
This is vintage Luke, the kingdom never enters where you expect it. Women at the empty tomb. A centurion outside the city. A slave girl at a door.Sometimes God answers the prayer, but we hesitate to open the door. We have been disappointed before. We have learned to manage expectations. We have trained ourselves not to hope too much. We pray for reconciliation, then pull back when the conversation opens. We ask God for provision, then hesitate when opportunity knocks. We pray for freedom, then struggle to believe it is actually possible. They were faithful enough to pray. But not confident enough to expect the answer. And God answers anyway.Breakthrough does not require perfect faith. It requires faithful prayer. Look at where Acts 12 began. Herod on the throne. James dead. Peter imprisoned. The church in hiding.Now look at where Acts 12 ends.Acts 12:21-24- 21 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.22 They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.”23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. 24 But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.Herod accepts the worship of a crowd that calls him a god.
And an angel of the Lord strikes him down. Same angel. Same verb. In Exodus, the angel struck Pharaoh’s house, and Israel went free. In Acts 12, the angel strikes Herod, and the church goes free. And then Luke writes the line that sums it all up: “But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.”Peter free. Herod gone. The word of God multiplying. And it all hinges on that statement: “and the church earnestly prayed.”​What have you stopped praying for? Some of you have been praying a long time, and the door is still closed.
I am not going to insult you by promising the angel is on his way today. I do not know that. Luke does not promise that. James did not get that. But here is what I do know.The same Lord who heard the cry of His people in Egypt hears your cry today. The same God who turned the iron-gate hinges in Jerusalem can turn whatever has been locked against you. The same Spirit who taught the early church to keep praying when their faith was thin is alive in this room.The call of Acts 12 is not, “Pray harder and you will get what you want. The call of Acts 12 is, “Do not stop praying just because you have already been disappointed.”