GOD DELIVERS HIS PEOPLE THROUGH PRAYER

so good morning church good evening church let's stand up and worship together come on put your hands together 
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 there's no one like you not like you and into the darkness you shine 
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 out of the ashes we rise there's no one like you 
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 none like you come on 
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 into the darkness you shine and out of the ashes we rise 
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 god is 
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 if our ground is for us who can be against us come on do you believe that 
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 then we're gonna sing that out together 
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 he could ever stop us 
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 nothing can stand against we're gonna bless the lord tonight let's worship him together 
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 my soul i worship come on sing it with me 
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 come oh 
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 i worship 
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 victory 
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 do you know the oh may be formed 
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 knows 
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 oh 
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 victory 
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 do you believe tonight that he can take what the enemy knit for evil and turn it around for good if you believe that sing it with me 
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 oh 
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 victory 
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 foreign 
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 me 
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 he's taking it 
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 give the lord some praise in the house tonight global vision we are so very thankful that you're here with us tonight no worries my husband's here he's going to be preaching tonight i'm just kind of stepping in for him a little bit he's been preaching all around the united states of america for months and months and months on end and his poor voice has just about had it and so pray for your pastor amen because uh we're tired and his voice hurts so there's that but listen we're so glad that you came today if you know that we have victory in the lord jesus christ tonight can you give god some praise in the house tonight amen listen everywhere we go i tell people all the time you know the war has been raging around us for so long and sometimes it can feel like we're losing but what i know about our father is that what he buys he pays for right what he orders he pays for and he has paid for this war in full and we know that even when things don't look good that god still is he's still on the throne he's still sovereign he's still in control of all things and if the one thing that this whole process has taught me is exactly what we just saying what the enemy means for evil god turns it for good because you see the enemy always overplays his hand every single time and you know what he thought the church had been so sleepy for so long he was like oh it's my time but he didn't realize that there was a remnant of righteous people that was ready to stand up and roar bold as lions amen because we belong to the lion of the tribe of judah and we cannot be shaken amen and that's a beautiful truth for all of us to hold on to tonight so as always we're going to go into a time of prayer tonight our people online you can drop your prayer request in the comment section there are people all over the world that will be faithful to pray for you you would be shocked how many people watch us from different countries i'm like oh man every week nicole's like people are watching from africa and this place and that place i'm like oh my goodness do they even understand what he's saying because he's just a country hillbilly that talks really fast but they tune in and they listen and so you drop your prayer request in the comment section i'm going to have both of my daughters tonight because i'm not down there they're going to come up we're going to do just like we do every wednesday night if you need prayer our prayer team will be over here to the side if you came here with a burden in your heart tonight and you leave without letting one of your brothers or sisters bear that burden with you and so fulfill the law of christ well quite frankly that's nobody's fault but your own amen because we have some powerful prayer warriors over here that will pray for you and believe god for you if you would like to pray we get hundreds i don't even know how many there is there it's a lot we get hundreds of requests every single week to pray so go ahead and start making your way forward and grab some prayer cards and we'll go into our time of prayer tonight 
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 also tonight as we do we're up here and we're praying i did want to just let the church know that today pastor and i got a text message from brother bill he had to go i believe he's at st thomas he said his doctor called him today and his bilirubin count was extremely high and so that was the message that we got today so we want to make sure that we're keeping pastor bill in our prayers not just today but every day listen pastor bill has been so faithful to minister the gospel for years and years and years and years and so as his home church as a body of believers we need to make sure that we're holding him up in prayer that we're lifting up his family in prayer in the in the weeks to come the months to come lord willing we'll have a lot more time with brother bill and so right now he just needs a healing touch from the lord his family needs you know some prayers to encourage them right now and as the body of christ we're called to walk alongside each other in the good times and the not so good times and so let's be faithful as we pray tonight to pray for our very own pastor bill he's been our care pastor here for a very long time and we love him and his family father tonight we come to you in the name that is above every name and lord we just thank you lord i always like to come into your throne room and give thanks to you because there's so many things that we could complain about lord but the one truth that remains true no matter what is that we always have something to be thankful for your word says that every good and perfect gift is from above and so lord we know that everything good that we have in our lives is because of you it's not because of who we are lord we're a messed up people sometimes i'm so thankful for the process of sanctification i'm so thankful that the just man falls seven times and gets right back up lord and god that is only by your grace and your goodness lord tonight as we go into listening to being taught your word god would we just come with open hearts and an open mind to be taught by the spirit tonight father i've been so convicted lately about reading all the books and all the commentaries that god it's almost like a i shot away from that still small voice within me and the most beautiful thing that you're teaching me right now is to be taught by the spirit within me and so tonight don't let us come here to hear from man lord let us come into your house to hear from you would the spirit move within us tonight god lord would you just shake us to the core of who we are and reveal to us who you are because god i'm learning that no matter how much i think i know i really cannot comprehend the glory of my father there are always so many deeper levels of you that we can learn god so lord never let us get in a place that we are no longer teachable by the spirit lord may we always be humble servants that realize that we don't get our glorified bodies here on earth we can't even wrap our minds around who you truly are we have your word and we have the spirit to teach us and guide us and lord we thank you for that god i'm so thankful that i don't have to have all the answers all the time but i know that i serve a father in heaven that knows all sees all hears all lord your word says that you are the creator of all things for you all things were created and by you all things were created and so lord if we have any question whatsoever the word says if any man lacks wisdom let him ask of god and so lord tonight we come to you to be taught by your word and your spirit would you just pour it out upon us tonight lord that when we leave here we would be different god that we would give our lives as a living sacrifice before you father that everything we do everywhere we go and every word that we speak would be glorifying to you lord lord may we always always lift your name on how and bring you honor in glory and praise because lord we know that you are worthy of it all and so lord we just thank you 
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 we thank you that we have a local church that we can come to and we can pray and we can seek your face together and lord we can just praise our way right to our breakthrough because one thing that i know for sure is when i'm having a terrible week the one thing that i always look forward to is coming into your house around like-minded believers fellowshipping one with another edifying the body of christ lifting each other up speaking life over us god so often everywhere that we go it just seems like death everybody speaks death but god you speak life and we can come here and we can get recharged you can rekindle that fire within us lord and so god tonight we're just asking you to do that for us to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves no doubt it's only wednesday but it's already been a long week i know it has been for me and probably many other people watching online right now and many other people under the tent right now and so lord would you fill us to overflowing with who you are fill us to overflowing with your love and your presence and father we're going to thank you because we know that you are faithful great is thy faithfulness o lord in jesus name amen 
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 one of my favorite things about wednesday is the extra time we take to pray and to worship it's the birthing place of the movement of the father he is such a great god and the purpose of worshiping him together is to make ourselves smaller and to make him greater to bring him honor to give him glory and not because the song is good not because the lyrics move us because they're poetic but because of who he is because of the greatness of the king of kings the lord of lords the alpha and the omega and he chooses to meet with us so i want to encourage everybody in the room tonight let's stand to our feet let's close our eyes let's lift our hands in worship because he is worthy to be praised 
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 we worship you in this place surrendered again freely i lay down my everything this is my honor the gift that i 
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 all my heart and soul to glorify i offer nothing less than all my life is for jesus christ oh i just wanna bless 
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 with my mind and my body 
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 if you are the fire then set me up 
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 oh 
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 for jesus christ 
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 are you prepared to give him all of your worship are you prepared to be a living sacrifice father we commit ourselves to you again father we worship you 
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 i'll give you all 
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 i offer nothing less than all my life for jesus christ let's sing that again 
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 and i will 
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 i offer 
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 a living sacrifice is something that's purified and made holy and holiness comes from obedience holiness comes from obedience so if we want to be a living sacrifice then we need to be an obedient people we offer you nothing less god than our obedience than our love our unwavering trust and i will 
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 i offer nothing less than all my life for jesus 
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 to worship you 
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 and everything 
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 oh 
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 you 
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 let his spirit fill you up tonight 
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 to worship you 
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 all my heart and soul 
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 for jesus christ 
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 all my heart and soul to glorify i offer nothing less than all my life for jesus christ come on one more time 
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 and i will be 
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 all my heart and soul to glorify i offer nothing less than all my life for 
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 jesus christ 
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 hallelujah hallelujah shout amen to the lord amen 
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 you may be seated unless you're a student from 6th grade to the 12th grade you can be dismissed with jesse and his dear wife down to the youth building while they find their place there i want you to find your place in the book of acts and the 12th chapter tonight for our bible study time together acts and chapter number 12. and as my darling wife said my voice is a little bit raw just just simply because i've been going so so so much and and i know i know i know i'm supposed to be getting rest and eating right and all of that and i'm trying but i've been in 10 states in less than two weeks and still have a few more to go uh by the time we get to monday and so i'm just tonight i'm gonna i'm gonna talk teach preach is that okay you know the bible says that when we are weak he is strong and so sometimes we don't always have to have the overly charismatic flamboyant personality we just need the word of god and so tonight i have a text that i want to share with you that is heavily on my heart for a number of reasons one of which the holy spirit wants me to teach it and two of which we'll find out here in just a moment because it fits so uh wonderfully and glaringly beautifully with what the lord's been doing in the life of our church and in the life of the church the body of christ literally all over the world and so we'll talk about that in just a moment and so it just been a lot of going a lot of states a lot of rallies a lot of services a lot of counseling and praying for people and and so just because of that it's been a just a lack of sleep and so it just it just wears on my voice after a while so thank you so much band for preparing our hearts and miss monica and others and thank you sound guys for having me on it sounds good up here amen can y'all hear me all right is that all right and uh so i'm gonna give you the word of god and be as as powerful as i'm i'm able to personality wise but i don't believe that's important because the word of god does its own work amen the word of god does its own work and so we're going to pray and we're going to jump right in because i want to start my message tonight in in perhaps a little bit of a different way and i trust it'll be exciting to you lord i thank you so very much for the privilege you've once again afforded me to hold this microphone in this tent behind this pulpit and preach thus say of the lord and father i pray that regardless of how weak or soft more than normal my voice is that tonight the gospel would radiate from this microphone then father the light of the lord jesus christ would shine brightly from this platform tonight both in-house and online and well we certainly welcome our online visitors and we love them and we thank the lord jesus for them and well would you just feel them right now to overflowing with the power of the holy spirit the wisdom and unction of god even as they listen through a screen and through an audio device lord whatever it is i pray that you had bless them tonight and in this room father i pray that you would gather glory unto yourself and we're going to thank you for all that you're about to say and do in jesus name and all of god's people said in acts chapter number 12 i'll give you most of the narrative as we read through it here in just a moment you have a man by the name of the apostle peter that had been faithfully and fervently preaching the gospel and because of that he went to jail while he was in jail something very interesting happened the body of christ the local church in the context of the jerusalem era began to pray for him and while they were praying for him the holy ghost released him from prison in a supernatural mind-blowing miraculous way and by the way god can still work that way to this very day would you please say amen and it was so unusual that the people that were praying for him were shocked when he showed up at the prayer meeting in which they were praying for him and he showed up knocked at the door and they didn't even believe that he was there it was such a miraculous answer to prayer many of you know that on monday morning our dear friend pastor artur went back to canada and we had no idea what he was going to face and what he was going to be involved in and and we knew that he was going to be facing six when he was here he was going to be facing four years they added two additional years get this for baptizing his daughter on her 12th birthday it was an unsanctioned non-government if you will uh issued service and so now they put on two more years and give them a six-year sentence he had no idea whether they'd have to face any of that or not and so many of you saw the news that my wife and i got almost five minutes after it took place my phone began to buzz off the hook as cindy chaffee and the lady that has been working with him and working with me on the trump bus tour for a long long time many months now a dear friend of mine she called and she said uh as soon as he stepped off the private jet which i remind you somebody from montana flew him there to keep him under the radar but his name still had to be on the manifest and because of that the authorities were immediately waiting on him when he arrived had their cars hidden in a certain place they were parked in a certain place so as not to allow the media and his many family members and church members that were there that were waiting on him they did not let him see them at all and he got off not knowing what was going to happen and they immediately nabbed him as the cowards they were many of you saw that the pilot himself captured a quick video and within moments within moments some of the biggest social media personalities on the planet including eric trump began to tweet out an instagram out and telegram out and facebook out and within just a couple of hours millions and millions and millions of people had seen this injustice right before their very eyes and so i i have to tell you that my wife and i were getting ready for the conference in which i was going to be speaking at a dinner that night to a bunch of pastors and it was almost like it took the wind completely out of my sails i mean we stood in our hotel even when i tried to call my friends and explain even when i brought it up that night towards the end of my message i i stood there and cried like a little child because my heart was broken for this man of god but it was also not just broken for this man of god i was emboldened by this man of god even more so than i am to be a mighty lion and willing to put everything on the line for the sake of the gospel of jesus christ and so a very familiar situation from artur to what happened with the apostle peter because here's what i found out today i was coming back from the airport evan flew out to go visit some of his friends who are online members in the vermont area and i was driving home and i looked down and it said arturo polowski is calling you an artur called me and he was just in such good spirits and he said the people stood outside the incarceration place and he said they were blowing shofars to the victory of god they were shouting and they were praying he said it was unbelievable they stole his laptop his cell phone they took all of his still to this day doesn't even know where all of his stuff is unless it's coming in the last few hours or whatever they took all of his belongings but at about almost 11 o'clock their time which would be about midnight our time there what it would be like our d.a their d.a said we're going to let you go he thought they'd make them quarantine or nothing now he's got to go october the 13th for a court date but they let him out and completely let him go got to go home to his friends got to go home to his family got to go home to his church 
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 and he told me on the phone today he said he said we actually have a bunch of people waiting on me at church i'm going to preach to my people for the first time in a very very long time amen 
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 but i think we got him on the phone tonight because he told me to call him so he could say hi to global vision tonight i hope we're about to find out if not he'll call me back pastor artur yes how are you global vision welcome pastor arthur polowski 
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 start crying oh we love you pastor we love you and uh tonight i'm actually preaching on the prayer meeting that the the church had when peter got released from prison so this was perfect timing to be able to talk to you just tell our folks how you're doing how your wife and the church is doing and just give us a quick update i know your time is valuable but our folks would love to hear from you for a moment well i'm doing good we are doing we're doing great my family is strong kids are fine i mean that was the hardest thing when i came back i didn't see my wife or my children for so long and i was eager of course to hug my wife and kiss my kids and they didn't allow me to do that i was arrested straight coming out from the plane and i was a little bit worried how long they're going to keep me but god was merciful and that was that's what i was praying for i said god if i have to go to prison at least give me some time with my wife and my children and i'm telling you a miracle happened a protest came to jail and they were camping and they were blowing shofars the power of prayer the power of of shafar and i could hear that shofar in prison in jail cell and i was wondering i'm wondering if this is my brother or not and he brought an army outside people are camping and immediately after i've heard the shofar a police officer comes in to sell and says well you got a you got a lawyer that wants to talk to you there is a bail hearing for you so i went i talked to my lawyer and behold the crown prosecutor said well i want to have a bail hearing for arthur polowski and a few minutes later i was set free without conditions 
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 so i'm still facing i'm still facing two criminal charges one is for officiating a church service and another one was a criminal charge for not wearing a muzzle so i'm not worried i know that my god holds my life in the palm of his hand i know that what he did for peter he can do it for me well i'm free they wanted me to prison but the whole world started to shout and eric trump and you and others those amazing lions of america those amazing eagles rose and put such a pressure on canadian government that they had to let me go so having brothers and sisters like you i mean we shall move mountains together 
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 amen 
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 i was telling them uh october the 13th is that when your hearing is going to be brother yes so october 13th is my two previous contempt of court inciting people to come to church officiating a church service and participating in illegal gathering church service so i have been found guilty of those two and the judge is going to say either i'm going to prison or i'll have house arrest or monetary punishment i do not know he has four years at his disposal so if he wants to he can sentence me to four years and two years for my brother david october 13th is also a first court appearance for this new charges the criminal ones that they placed on me two days before uh so we will see we will see what god is going to do what i know that what enemy meant for evil already god is using for his glory hallelujah well we want you to know every single day between now and then our church is going to be lifting you up and we're going to be praying for you if you need anything at all you let us know and uh i don't care what kind of fines they give you we'll pull together whatever resources we can get we'll make sure that we help you and your church and your family during this time and uh it's probably not possible but if i if i could be there for you on october the 14th i would clear my schedule and we would be there but brother we love you and uh you are uh you're a hero to our church and we love you very much and we thank god for you and uh i know you're busy so i appreciate you answering the phone global vision let the man of god know how much you love him one more time would you thank you thank you very much thank you my brother send your love to your church and your wife we love you we'll be praying for you god bless you god bless you bye-bye come on huh come on that's beautiful isn't it wow and uh and i think they have service here in just a little while and i think they were going to have double services today so many people showed up i pray his church grows so exponentially it's unbelievable well let's get to the text at hand that fits that phone call just beautifully acts chapter 12 verse 1. now about that time herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church yeah sound familiar and he killed james the brother of john with the sword and because he saw it please the jews he proceeded further to take peter also now notice because it pleased the jews you see that's what politicians do they do things to make themselves look good in the eyes of the people they don't do things for a virtuous reason or a lawful reason or a constitutional and certainly not a biblical reason they do it because they're political puppets under a lot of pressure and they're being strung along by money and influence and so he did it more so because he knew the people would like him and these were the days of unleavened bread verse 4. and when he had apprehended him talking about peter he put him in prison and i got to remind you he put him in prison not because he was a tax evader not because he was a murderer but because he was a gospel preacher that was it he was holding services right just like we heard that was it there was no warrant for why he went to jail but he did and he delivered him to four quanturians of soldiers to keep him so like you know various groups of four is what the what the number what the word means and so there's a number of soldiers that are guarding him intending after easter to bring him forth to the people so he's gonna let him lay low get through the feast get through uh easter time get through passover and then bring him before the people as kind of a jury of peers if you will verse 5. peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto god for him now i love that because you see god still delivers his children through the power of corporate prayer there's no doubt about that he still delivers from the bondage of demonism he still delivers from the bondage of addiction and problems in your home and problems in your life and in this context he literally moved governmental mountains to get this man out of prison and didn't even use a jury he didn't use bail money he literally used angels to deliver this man of god to his intended destination simply because the church prayed you cannot tell me that prayer does not work i know on wednesday nights we spend more time praying than we would on another service maybe ought to pray that much every single service but i'm telling you the body of christ in america does not understand the value the power the authority and the biblical nature and command with which we are called to pray corporately there's power in that you see we lose interest you know i i could say for example maybe our church would be a little bit different but the average church of which we are not say amen the average church if you say dr so-and-so is going to come and preach you can fill a building to overflowing but if you say you're going to have a wednesday night prayer meeting and do nothing but pray for two hours there will not be enough people there to keep a warm and you know it to be true because everybody likes the pizzazz and we all like miracle signs and wonders but the thing that comes before the holy spirit power pizazz miracle signs and wonders is the fact that we corporately get together and we fast and we pray that's what the bible says we are to pray the bible says when they came together and they prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled and they weren't assembled just to watch a movie they weren't assembled just to fellowship and have a potluck you know they were assembled to pray and the prayer moved the hand of god and so prayer is valuable prayer is important prayer is like a unicorn horn in the average church in america it's something that you hear about but you'll never see it because people just don't pray anymore you know let me just say this while i'm here my wife and i when we went to new york for the first time and i had been there a number of times in preaching but it was the first time that she went there and we went to the brooklyn tabernacle into a restaurant called juniors and it called juniors she loves juniors juniors and at church were like on course spiritually together i mean there was something about that cheesecake amen but i'm telling you when we went to the brooklyn tabernacle it changed the way that we did wednesday night prayer meeting i mean because immediately when we came back we started printing up the cards that we now give out and we started praying for people and they did it a little bit different than us because in the context and flow of who we are we wanted to make it us not them and we started having people pray and that even came later when we had men and ladies that were willing to pray with and pray for and pray over people and the more we acknowledge and got into the gifts of the spirit we got into that more and we'll continue to get into that more but here's why i tell you that i've never been in a prayer meeting that had more power than that one on a tuesday night it literally sounded like what you would think the throne room of god would be represented like we're talking about 3 000 people not on a sunday but a tuesday night 3 000 people downtown brooklyn i'm telling you that is a very sketchy place if you've ever been there and downtown brooklyn 3 000 people tuesday night and the people of god were just absolutely enraptured into god's presence it was an unbelievable experience it still changed me to this very day in which i share the story when i think about it the hair on the back of my neck stands up it was an unbelievable experience let me tell you something did you know in the midst of all of that if you're not careful you can get so used to the power of god you can get so used to what god's doing here on the weekends with all these people being lined up and you can get so used to the gobs and gobs of generous money that we were able to give away that if you're not careful you can get so used to it that you get to a place where you're no longer doing it in the spirit but you're doing it in the flesh because it just so happens to be the thing that you're doing because here's what disappointed me and i hate this this church was the greatest praying church in america and just now started to softly reopen that pastor is somebody that i have admired for years hands down outside of the bible probably my favorite author wrote some books that have changed my life i would go to the tree or i would ride my bike or i would run and i would almost every day religiously listen to his most recent sermon and i've got to be honest i've had a hard time even reading behind him or listening to him lately because at one time here was a man that was a mighty giant of the faith that believed that the body of christ was moved with prayer that prayer was the very engine of the locomotive that drove the power of the holy spirit through anything and then like everybody else they just rolled up shop and i just want to say without being too critical on a wednesday night as we move to the next verse that is so unnew testament-like the new testament knows nothing about a church that doesn't pray it certainly knows nothing about a church that doesn't gather publicly it knows nothing about that and so we see that the church of god came and they began to pray verse six and when herod would have brought him forth the same night peter was sleeping between two soldiers so understand there was like a garrison this guy was definitely going nowhere in the natural but you better know god doesn't operate in the natural prayer moves the hand of god so that he operates on our behalf in the supernatural and he was sleeping between two soldiers that's a predicament to begin bound with two chains now think about that you got guards at the door you're sleeping between two soldiers and you've got two chains on you and the keepers before the door kept the prison so there's no natural way you are getting out and behold the angel of the lord came upon him and a light shined in the prison by the way this is simultaneously happening while the people are on their knees in a house praying as a church gathering and he smote peter on the side and raised him up saying arise up quickly and his chains fell off from his hands that's amazing right he's snoozing how he was even sleeping i don't know that's a miracle chains all over them soldiers all around him inside and outside the door and at another gate and the bible says that god dispatched some angels and god's still in the business of dispatching angels for his children i'm telling you there's still an army of angels that protect us every time we gather in this tent every time we drive on this parking lot there's an army of angels people keep saying all the time how in the world have they not gotten to y'all yet because god's dispatching angels that's why god's dispatching angels to protect his people i'm telling you i'm trying to be spooky i'm just telling you in a supernatural way there's something about this campus that has the power of god all over it they should have stopped us long ago they should have stalled us long ago they should have burned us down long ago but to god be the glory he's dispatched the warrior angels to protect his child you believe that shout amen the night in his church yes he's done that he's protecting his people there's not a sunday or a wednesday that goes by people don't say man i drove up in the parking lot and i knew something was different people say all the time they're watching us right now they say all the time man we love to watch you guys it's so exhilarating but when we drove on the gravel whoa i got lit up when i came under the tent one of our prayer warriors came in we're not even talking about to come to our church that watches us she walked in a couple weeks ago she said man there's something baked in this place and look i'm not trying to be weird and hollywood and spooky but i told julian the other day when we did a video i said even when this tent is empty of people it is filled with god's presence i'm telling you god dispatches his angels and the bible says that his chains fell off from his hands verse 8 and the angels said unto him gird thyself bind on thy sandals he's like put your belt on get your shoes on son we got a trip to take and so he did most of us would have been like is this real pinch me is this real need some coffee are you sure i need to talk to my lawyer no just get up strap your belt don't get your shoes on and follow the angel praise god and he said unto him cast thy garment about thee and follow me and he went out and followed him and he was not that it was true which was done by the angel but he thought that he saw a vision so he's like man this is just some some willy-nilly distractions in my eyes my my glasses aren't working right or maybe this is a another vision that i'm having because i remind you two chapters earlier he had the vision of the sheep that came down had that vision several times thrice the king james says three times so he was used to having visions open visions and an open vision means you're not having a sleeping dream you're having an awake vision from god you see something that you would not normally see you discern something that you would not normally discern and by the way just in case you think that's not true i can promise you a dollar to a donut it doesn't happen a whole lot but when we were meeting down there in the circus tent i had an open vision of what this tent was gonna look like up on this hill and everybody said you are crazy and three weeks later we were in it to god be the glory amen i mean i saw it clear as i'm looking at you right now i saw the vision i saw what god was doing and so he thought man this is just a vision there's no way this can be real but it was verse 30 or skipping verse 30 verse 10 i got to hit myself and when they were past the first and the second ward one guard shack two guard shack they came into the iron gate that leadeth under the city okay there's three guard shacks which open to them of his own accord they walk right up to it like a twilight zone movie the fog set in just right right and the bible says that it opened open sesame just open right straight up upon them right there in the street but then watch this and they went out and passed on through one street and fourth with the angel departed from him the angel departed from him and so the gate opens up peter's walking out and the angel is leading him almost hand in hand down the road towards the house where the people are praying my question is how did he know which house it was there were 25 000 christians just in jerusalem about this time historically and it was the spirit of god that led him to the right spot because as we say often the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord but the stops of a good man are ordered by the lord he knows when to step you he knows when to stop you sometimes you need to run and sometimes you need to be still and wait on god and so the bible says that the gate opens he walks out and the angel leaves in verse 11. and when peter was come to himself he said now i know of a surety that the lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of herod and from all the expectation of the people of the jews by the way we just heard that on a phone call firsthand live in living color god delivered him from the expectation of those crooked wicked politicians up there in canada delivered him from their expectation they didn't even know what to do and i thought it was so moving i didn't hear that earlier today when he said tonight he could actually hear the sound of the shofar in his jail cell that's powerful that's powerful and so the bible says that the expectation of the people of the jews was cut off verse 12. and when he had considered the thing he came to the house of mary the mother of john whose surname was mark where many say many not two of not five of many of them were gathered together and what were they doing they were praying and by the way we can read this in about two minutes flat but the narrative would denote to us that it took a while for the angel to convince him to get up and do all of that and then get him to that part of town these people had been praying all night long it wasn't no five-minute prayer gathering phooey on all this now will lay me down to sleep i pray the lord my soul to keep lord just bless this food save all the lost people bless all the missionaries and yada yada yada shadow we pray so generically i wonder if god knows what we're talking about half the time call unto me and i will answer thee and show the great great great and mighty things which thou knowest not 333 jeremiah 333 hey that's god's phone number 333 right there put that in your phone text that when you need it i promise you you will never get a busy signal i promise you they will never say make sure you listen to the remainder of this voice recording because our menu options have changed they're liars it's never changed and then you wait around you hit two and then you gotta hit seven then you hit four and then all of a sudden you hit the wrong one and got all the way back to zero it's so discombobulating you don't have to worry about that in heaven you've got a direct connection to god direct connection to god many were gathered there and they've been praying for a long long time verse 13. and as peter get this knocked at the door of the gate a damsel came to harken named rhoda what a name sister rhoda huh so he's knocking on the gate she gets up off her knees from the prayer meeting and she goes to the gate to see who in the world is knocking on the gate watch this verse 14. this is mind-blowing and when she knew peter's voice because i mean after a while you get used to people's voice right i mean peter was like their pastor peter was the leader even jesus said my sheep hear my voice and i know them and they follow me i mean after a while you get used to somebody's voice it's amazing to me a lot of times we'll have little babies in the church and babies easily recognize me because they've been listening to me scream on a microphone for nine months in their mother's womb right they recognize the voice there's just something about the voice john the baptist was a voice and so she recognized her preacher's voice okay more than likely if i was standing on your front porch and i wasn't you know tired voiced from traveling if i talked you would say oh that that's that's pastor locke okay you would recognize my voice right you would recognize the speed of my voice if nothing else and when she knew peter's voice she opened not the gate for gladness now what kind of gladness is that she's so happy she's shell-shocked and doesn't even open up the door but she ran in and told how peter stood before the gate he's like you people are not going to believe this the guy we're praying for is out there knocking on the door right now i didn't answer it but he's out there knocking on the door right now in the name of god you're not going to believe this right i mean she is so shocked by what is supernaturally transpiring she doesn't even open the gate so watch this in verse number 15 and they said unto her thou art mad if anybody tell you that you are crazy you have lost your mind you are absolutely mad they said you're mad you're nuts woman but she constantly affirmed that it was even so she's like oh no call me mad if you will i mean she got the whole zigzag going on she's like i'm gonna tell y'all right now he is at the gate y'all can keep on praying but the answer is right here at the gate and she kept on i mean she adamantly affirmed he is at the door of the house constantly she wasn't going to give up and then they said oh it is his angel you ever notice how we like to spiritualize things well maybe that's not what god meant it's just his angel no it was peter that had been delivered by god's angel to the people because god answers prayer he supernaturally answers prayer and they said well you know it's just it's his angel you know it's not really him it's just somebody that looks like him sounds like him dresses like him acts like him it just happened to show up at the same time that we're praying for him sometimes i wonder how christians can be so wise and so stupid at the same time what a healthy balance we carry in life sometimes right they're praying for it and denying the reality of it happening and by the way let's not be guilty of that we've been praying for revival for a long time so let's not look a gift horse in the mouth and not think that it's happening all around us because i'm telling you revival is in our midst there is no doubt about that fact it is in our midst it is here verse 16. but peter continued knocking he's still just out there knocking knocking knocking knocking remember the whole song you keep on knocking but you can't come in well that's what's going on he's keeping on knocking but he can't get in so he just keeps on knocking keeps on knocking keeps on knocking and when they had opened the door and saw him they were out loud next word astonished blown away amazed stupefied dumbfounded whatever word and adjective you want to give it these people could not even describe the raw emotion i want you to ask yourself a question not out loud you don't need a microphone just ask yourself this question what is the one thing not 10 not 12 not two one what is the one thing right now in your life in your home in your marriage whatever one thing that you are so adamantly consistently praying for it is so without the realm of reason that it has to be supernatural what is the one thing you are praying for that if god sent the answer tonight it would astound you think about that do you not believe that god can still do it i mean you go home and you gnaw on that for a little bit i ain't talking about well you know i need a little bit of gas in my tank tomorrow you ain't got to pray about that ask me i'll put gas in your tank there's some things you ain't got to pray about it's like people say well i'm going to pray with them i'll go to church on sunday you ain't got to pray about what god told you to do get to church on sunday okay there's some things you ain't got to pray about but for some of you you're going to have to go home and and whittle it down i'm not talking about just small little willy-nilly things and it's not that god doesn't handle little casual willing or anything what's the thing that if god really answered it it would blow your mind tonight now you go home and you write that down maybe you don't have to write it down some of you i can see the look on your face you're like oh pick me pick me i can tell you right now huh i'll tell you god can still do it but do you still believe for it because if you can believe it and be willing to receive it i promise you god can send your answer knocking on the door before you get up tomorrow morning i'm telling you i believe that with all of my heart i've watched god answer too many prayers i've just watched god answer too many prayers you see how amazing the bible is i mean what a story i ain't had to jump off the platform once i ain't had to spin around i enjoy doing that right i ain't had to scream i've barely lifted my voice i've not called out the masons nothing and the bible is just as powerful in this bible study tonight as it ever is why because god is a supernatural god it's the living word of god it's abundant it's like a mighty niagara falls it just comes over us like a flood and washes us clean did not our hearts burn within us when he spake the word of god to us by the way luke chapter 24 says those two disciples on the road to emmaus and finally when they figured out jesus they're like ah now we know why we had holy heartburn that was jesus talking the word you see when the word gets in us it does something to us and so my my real challenge to you tonight is you go home if you haven't figured out yet and figure out what is the one thing that would astound you tonight tomorrow next week or next month if god really answered it the one thing maybe it's a provision maybe it's a situation with your spouse maybe it's a prodigal maybe it's cancer maybe it's a disconnected relationship with somebody in your family that you wish you could mend that relationship maybe it's somebody that you you've spent years and months trying to reconnect trying to find maybe this person somewhere in the world and social media and facebook's not even helped you and it would blow your mind if god would just let them walk up to you one day i'm telling you god specializes in that kind of stuff he specializes in it and so i i read that and it just comes to me shockingly on the spot they were astounded and amazed when they saw him and i wonder tonight if your answer came knocking would it be so astonishing that you would know wow only god not my boss not my pastor not not some politician not my bank account only god only gone so you think about your area of astonishment but let's keep reading verse 17 but he beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace we kind of put his hand up like hey quiet down declared unto them how that the lord had brought him out of the prison and he said go show these things unto james and the two brethren and he departed and he went into another place now as soon as it was day it's about to get juicy now there was no small stir among the soldiers that's the king james fancy way of saying there was a big stir when it says no small stir it means it was a stirring of the pot they were buzzing around they were nervous and anxious what was become of peter where's this guy at verse 19 and when herod had sought for him and found him not he examined the keepers and commanded that they should be put to death why because these guys fell asleep on the job and he went down from judea to caesarea and their abode as far as we're going to read the night now think about this even the king was blown away and he was so enraged so ticked off so upside down head over heels mad about the whole thing he killed the soldiers he said bring these guys in they fell asleep on a job run them through gored them through with the sword killed them jokers but here's a man in the most constricting moment of his life soldiers beside him chains on him soldiers outside one door outside a secondary door and a main gate and then an alleyway in a road to get to where he was supposed to going supposed to be going to which he didn't even know where he was actually going until god let him because when there is no way god opens the thing and makes a way so think about everything that had to happen at the exact same moment that the church was praying you know i believe in standing up you know that i'm probably the most rah-rah bish kumbha get everybody courageous and go out and fight fight fight pastor you know that's just the way i am that's my nature i'm a fighter by nature i don't lay down i don't have a cowardly bone in my body but i'm saying something if i teach you to stand up to men but i never lead us to kneel before god i have failed you as a shepherd because we will never stand well until we first kneel and we can't be a church that prays we have to be a praying church you can't just have a family that prays you have to have a praying family listen i don't want just a a marriage that every night again prays i want a prayerful marriage so that i know even when i'm out of town my wife's praying for me and vice versa i want it to be a connection there's something intimate between the life of god's people when they pray you've seen the billboards the books the coffee mugs the shirts the bumper stickers couples that pray together stay together very true but churches that pray together stay together prayer brings unity communion brings unity fasting brings unity there's something about corporate prayer that releases and dispatches the power of god and i wonder tonight what are you praying for i've watched god do things collectively corporately in our church that blow my mind how many years have they told us ah you'll just stay in that little wedding chapel you'll never grow you can't get that land you can't get that land you can't get that land we got all of it why because we're amazing no because i'm astounded at the work of god in the midst of the biggest downturn in american history in the church both financially and people-wise we raised 1.5 million dollars for three plots of land in two weeks nobody does that in the natural listen there are churches all over this town thank god for them i'm glad they got buildings and they got buildings that are bigger and better than ours and they got disneyland on ice for their kids and all that kind of stuff but they got mortgages out the yin yang on one and two million dollar buildings that they'll never pay off and we on all of it you know why because we said god your word says that the borrower is servant to the lender and i don't want this church being in subjection to the bank i want this church being in subjection to the kingdom of god and to the lordship and the deity and the sovereignty of the king of kings and the lord of lords so we need 1.5 million dollars and we prayed and god said right all the while we were still giving gobs of it away and god still blesses so people say all the time well i just don't know how y'all have that kind of faith listen when you've seen god work as many times as we've seen god you cannot have not that kind of faith amen god's never failed me god's never failed this church and he never will listen statistically we shouldn't even exist we've survived everything pastorally that you're never supposed to survive in the church world we've survived all of it like five times and god just keeps blessing because we keep praying and we keep meeting corporately and we keep pushing back and we keep as one of my great friends used to say carpet bombing the throne room of heaven that means you get on your face on the carpet before god and you bombard the throne room of heaven and we come in boldly declaring lord we need you father we need you father we need you let me just say this and we'll be done years ago been quite a few years ago because destiny here my youngest she has about this big when it happened i used to lay down with her at night and she had this song this famous song was that girl that uh she came uh fight song remember that fight song this is my fight you know yeah i can't sing when i feel good i sure can't sing when i'm not feeling good but we used to sit down and listen that fight song i remember one night we were sleeping and i was just kind of laying there with her and she wanted me to kind of dream off into the land with her and i'm telling you it was storming lived in a little shack of a place down the road here it was storming i mean torrential downpour a lot of times that's cool when you live like in a trailer at night time because i mean it just soothes you to sleep but if you're a kid it's pretty frightening right i mean it sounded like noah's ark was like parking on top of the thing so i'll never forget we were laying there it was dark as a dungeon and she she she kept doing like this feeling my face was kind of getting on my nerves she's just a little video thing she's feeling my face i said honey i call her b b b what are you doing huh i'm just making sure you're looking this way go to bed i'm looking your way you see 
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 it was all around us and the only confirmation she needed was that her father was looking at her so i don't know who needs to hear it tonight i didn't think about till i started sitting there and i just said something that jogged my memory hadn't told that story in years but somebody in this tent some of you online didn't know something i don't care what the storm looks like i don't care what astonishing thing you need god to do in your life no matter how loud no matter how scary no matter how fearful no matter how anxious and bitter and problematic and dark it gets god gives us this promise as our father hey close your eyes i'm looking your way i got my face on you kid close your eyes this too shall pass and i'm telling you tonight for some of you god wants the chains to fall to the ground and how many of you believe that he doesn't want to just hear but god wants to answer prayer would you say amen tonight in the house 
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 father thank you for the word of god thank you for bible study tonight thank you that when i'm weak you're strong thank you lord that the word still gives us the demonstration of the power of the presence and the spirit of god lord i love to preach i don't care if i'm standing or sitting i don't care if it's loud or if it's soft because it's the gospel that's the power of god not my personality so father tonight you've shown us in this place that there's a host of people in this room that just needs something from the lord may they go home tonight and think what is the one thing lord even the apostle paul said this one thing i do not these 15 things i dabble in not these 50 things i wish for he said this one thing i do lord help us to come up tonight with one thing that we would be so supernaturally overwhelmed and astonished and amazed if you answered it help us to write it down and then believe you for it believe you for it and no matter what we see no matter what comes against us we remember the words of the lord jesus to jerius be not afraid only believe be not afraid only believe tonight before we pillow our heads may we get on our face before the god of the universe that knows all things more than we could ever imagine pour out our hearts and begin to come up with the one thing that one door the one opportunity the one relationship the one thing that we need god to give us that when it comes knocking it'll blow our minds and we'll be able to stand up and say only god so tonight we say to god be the glory great things you have done because great you are in jesus name and all the church said amen and amen i love you guys get around fellowship and uh pray for me the next couple of days i've got 10 meetings uh tomorrow night i'll be in terre haute indiana get this this is beautiful at an amish revival the amish invited me to come to a room there they called stephanie they were so excited so tomorrow night they have a big tent set up and then on friday i'll be in somerset kentucky and then the event that i was going to be doing on saturday got canceled and thank god because i just need to slow down and then i'm going to be with you on sunday we'll have another documentary film crew that's going to be here so pray that all goes well but uh it's all good it's par for the course for us amen i love you guys i'll see you soon