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WHEN THE LORD REIGNS
January 19, 2026 · 53 min
In Acts 12, we witness a dramatic showdown between earthly authority and divine power.
Series Unstoppable January 19, 2026 · 53 min · Unstoppable
In Acts 12, we witness a dramatic showdown between earthly authority and divine power. ...more Show the full description Show less In Acts 12, we witness a dramatic showdown between earthly authority and divine power.
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139K followers
Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
139K followers
In this video 0:00 Opening Welcome and Pretenders Who Abuse Authority17:05 God's People Pray Without Panic30:31 Prayer Stretches Your Faith42:04 Impostors Fall and God's Word Advances
Opening Welcome and Pretenders Who Abuse Authority 0:00 Good morning. Would you help me welcome all of our brave campuses that are worshiping with us today? So good to have all of you. Thank you for, thank you for being a praying church. Thanks for participating in our 210:11 days of prayer and fasting. I know 1 of the things we've been praying for was our student retreat this weekend. There's a few hundred of them up there in the mountains, and, I was able to preach Friday night. Pastor John0:21 preached on Saturday morning. Dakota preached last night, Luke's preaching this morning. God's doing an incredible thing up there. We've had kids come to Christ. We've had kids take their next steps of faith. So thank0:31 you. Thank you. Thank you for praying, for that. We're just trusting the Lord to continue to build our students. Amen? So with that, as far as kids go today, we are partnering today with Protect Kids Colorado,0:43 for 3 initiatives to get on the ballot for this fall. You'll see them up on the screen. But really, what that is is to protect kids from sex trafficking. That's number 1. Number 2 is to protect them from sex changes, and0:55 number 3 is to keep men out of women's sports. So in the gym here in Inglewood, and in, Westminster, they'll direct you to the place. Immediately out here in the gym, we'll have people. Our1:06 people are wearing brave badges and protect kids Colorado badges. If there are people that meet you in the parking lot with their petitions, they're just not with us, just so you know. We've vetted everybody here, and we
1:17 had a great experience this morning. There's a ton of people there, so it goes really fast. If you would help do this, this is what helps us do is to get this on the ballot so we can vote for this. And basically, this is
1:26 a nonpartisan vote. This is protecting our kids in Colorado. Amen? So I'd encourage all of you to sign that today. I know I'll be signing those as well. And then finally, as far as our kid go kids go, we started a
1:38 school a few years ago called Brave Academy. Enrollment is starting soon. And on January 20 seventh, which is a Tuesday, Tuesday morning at 9 30, we're having an open house that morning. I'm gonna be
1:50 there speaking. A number of of course, all of our teachers and administrators will be there. If you're looking for a school, come check it out. If you have friends and family that are looking for a school, have them come
2:00 check it out. Enrollment continues to increase. God's doing some incredible things. And then for those of you that are here, and we've had this in the past, that would love to donate, for future scholarships, you can go
2:09 to brave academy dot org backslash scholarships and or just call the school and, donate so that we can get more kids in the school that couldn't afford to come to Brave Academy. Okay? And if you can't do
2:21 any of those things, just pray. Pray for our kids. They're growing in Christ, and God's doing an incredible thing. So with that, let's continue our worship this morning and get ready to hear God's living and active word
2:30 among us. Will you pray with me? Our father in heaven, we give you glory. We give you honor. We give you praise for who you are. And, Lord, we invite you here in this moment to do what only you can do, and that is speak
2:42 directly to our hearts through your word. Lord, we love your word because we believe that every time we read it, every time it's faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who are speaking. And so our prayer
2:52 this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And And so now for all who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will by faith
3:02 put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen. Amen. 1 of the games I loved to play as a kid was called King of the Hill. Did you ever play that
3:14 game as a kid? I grew up in the plains of central Illinois, and there are no hills in Illinois. It's about as flat as this, platform is up here. And so oftentimes what we would do is wait till the winter, until the snow
3:25 came, and then it would pile up, and then we'd have a hill. And we'd play king of the hill. And if you haven't played, the rules are really simple. There's only 1 king, and it's the 1 who's standing on top of the hill.
3:33 And the goal is that it would be you standing on top of the hill. So you do whatever you can do to get to the top of the hill. That's the goal. The way we played, everything was fair. It didn't matter how you got
3:45 there as long as you got there. Right? And if you couldn't get there because you're in second grade and there was a sixth grader or an eighth grader there, then you could team up. 1 person could take 1 leg, 1 person
3:54 could take another, and somebody could come storm them. I mean, it was teamwork, effort, but the whole goal was once you got somebody down, only 1 person could be on top. And then you know what their role was? As soon as
4:06 they got on top, their goal was to keep everybody else down so that they could keep their position as king of the hill. I'm afraid in our culture, there's a lot of kings of the
4:17 hill. I think we spend our lives trying to fight our way to the top only to get to the place that we think we need to be only to keep everybody else down so it appears like we're there. Right? There's different thrones
4:29 that we build. We build our throne upon the life of sports, or we build the throne of our life on money, or we build this throne of our life on relationships, or we build the throne of our life on influence, or we can
4:40 build our throne on the life of Christ. And if you build your throne on the life of Christ, everything begins to change.
4:53 Care. And today, we're gonna take a look at a story in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 12, where we're gonna talk about what it looks like when the Lord reigns. We're gonna talk about what it's like if your the throne
5:04 of your life has Jesus in the center. We're gonna talk about how you can live and what you can expect if Jesus Christ is really ruling and reigning in your heart. So I invite you to open up your bible to Acts
5:16 chapter 12. And as you're turning there, we're in part of this story. This is 1 of my favorite chapters in the entire book of Acts. We're we're about 2 years after Peter's vision in Acts chapter 10 where he saw the sheet
5:27 drop down and he went and shared with Cornelius. We're kind of fast forwarding a couple years. We we just saw that Christians were called Christians for the first time in Antioch. That's the last time that we had
5:37 gathered, and now you're gonna hear about what's going on around that time. So this is about 12 to 14 years ish after Jesus Christ rose from the dead. That's where this story is taking place. So So hear the word of the
5:48 Lord. I'll set it up. It says, now about that time, Herod the king laid hands on some who belong to the church in order to mistreat them. And he had James, the brother of John, put to death with a
5:59 sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now, it was during the days of unleavened bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison,
6:11 delivering him to 4 squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. And this is how our story starts off. And you're already beginning to see
6:23 what happens when the Lord reigns. And I wanna tell you something whether you realize it or not, the Lord is reigning. Jesus Christ is King. There is nobody but Him. He went to heaven. He sat down at the right
6:35 hand of the throne of God. He's ruling and reigning the universe, and you will see it with your own 2 eyes when he returns to this planet and sets up his kingdom. That is a fact. And when the Lord reigns, here's
6:47 4 things that you are going to see and experience when Jesus Christ is reigning in your life. And the first is this, when the Lord reigns, pretenders abuse
6:58 authority. When the Lord reigns, if the Lord is reigning in your life, you will see pretenders who think they're kings that will abuse authority. Notice this, it says in chapter 12, it was
7:10 about that time that Herod the king laid hands on some who belong to the church in order to do what? In order to mistreat them. This is King Herod Agrippa the first and what he wanted to do is he wanted to stop the
7:21 church because the church was upsetting the political situation of the day because the church was saying Caesar's not Lord, Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus is our authority, not Caesar. We'll obey
7:33 Caesar to the extent that it doesn't cause us to go against obeying Jesus. But if push comes to shove, we're gonna obey Jesus and we're not gonna obey Caesar. Generation, at any time,
7:45 we always obey Jesus. He is the Lord of our life and we obey him no matter what. Right? And this is what's going on. So Herod, King Herod, a group of the first, starts laying
7:56 hands on Christians to do what? To mistreat them. And what he does is he has James, the brother of John. Peter, James, and John were kind of in the inner circle of Jesus. He has James put to death with a sword.
8:08 Presumably, he had his head chopped off. We don't know. He was killed with the sword. Pleased the Jews, when the Jews were like, yes, finally, somebody's gonna let us restore our Jewish religion.
8:20 Enough of this Jesus Messiah talk. Enough of these Christians. We're done with them. When King Herod saw that the Jews were pleased with him, when he saw in his political kingdom that this
8:32 could bring peace, what did he decide to do? Well, if you thought that was good, let me get Peter. He's the head of everything. And I'll bring him in, and I'll bring him before you because I want you to know
8:44 I have more authority than James. I have more authority than Peter because I hold all authority. That's what he was saying. Our culture. They
8:56 they creep up in every sector of life. They certainly creep up in politics. They they creep into the business world, they creep into families. Friends, they even creep into the pulpits, Where people think
9:07 that because of the authority that's been given to them by God, that they have authority over people rather than using their authority to bless people. And this is what King Herod was all about. He was all about himself.
9:19 And so he has Peter arrested and it said, now it was during the days of the unleavened bread. This is a big deal. The the the feast of the unleavened bread was to commemorate during that week the exodus. It was to
9:31 commemorate the fact that the God that we serve is the greatest deliverer in the world. That when things look awful, when things look like there's no hope, our God is the God that delivers. That's who he is. That's
9:42 the season that they were celebrating at this time. So, Harrod brought Peter in and he's not waiting to execute him so that he gets a fair trial. He's waiting because he knows that the Jews appreciate
9:54 this festival. So he's gonna wait till the end of the festival until he can bring Peter back out to the people. Because why? All he cares about is his leadership and the people are at peace with his leadership. That's
10:05 all he cares about. Because when you fight to become king of the hill and you're on the as king of the hill, then you gotta keep everybody else down so you can maintain your position. And that's how King Herod was living
10:15 and he's going to learn very fast that it's not going to last that long for him. And notice this, when he took Peter, notice how he took him. It says in verse 4, when they had seized him, he put him in prison, okay,
10:27 Delivering him to 4 squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him before the people. So he not only brings him into prison, he puts him in maximum security lockdown. He has
10:39 4 squads of soldiers. So he's gonna have a guard on each side of him. They're gonna be chained to him. He's also gonna have 2 prisoners at the door. And then you're gonna have 4 squads that are gonna come and they're
10:49 gonna, you know, every 6 hours or every certain amount of time, they're gonna come and change spots. So we got fresh soldiers guarding Peter. Now you wonder why would King Agrippa the first wanna do that? Well, because
11:00 he's probably heard the story that Peter was in prison before and he didn't last that long in prison. Because there was a jailbreak and they got out and everybody's preaching. And so certainly somebody's told him the
11:11 story, you think you're more powerful than Peter, but the last time people locked him up, it didn't go so well. And you can almost feel Herod say, not under my watch, not under my rule. When I make a decision,
11:23 it always goes my way. If I say he's not getting out, he's not getting out. Do you know why? Because I hold all authority. Friends, Jesus Christ says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given
11:35 to me. Nobody holds all authority except Jesus. Jesus Christ always has the last word for everything that he wants to say and do. Did you know that's a great truth this morning. But pretenders will
11:46 always try to abuse it. Herod, what does he do? Here's the difference between good leadership and bad leadership. Herod kills James so that he can please people. What does Jesus do?
11:59 Jesus said, I'll lay down my life so that you can live. Huge difference. Right? You see it with David and you see it with Saul. Saul abuses his authority to protect his throne. David is always waiting
12:10 on the Lord, waiting on the Lord's timing, waiting on what God wants. And we see it everywhere. And you say, well, that's just biblical. Don't you see it in society? Don't you see it with people that never had any
12:21 authority in their life and they finally get authority, and they not only want you to know they have authority, they want you to know that you know that they have authority? I mean, just think for a second like DMV or
12:32 TSA. Now, majority of those people are good at what they do and they're helpful because they help you get your driver's license and they they're helpful because they make sure that you can get through the
12:44 lines without, you know, having any weapons or things on you. They protect you. They're doing their job. Maybe it's just the lines that I happen to get in sometimes. But inevitably, there's somebody who has authority
12:54 that you can tell has never had it. And they're not only exercising their authority. And the things they're asking you to do, I'm willing to do, but they're asking you in a way so that you know that they know that you
13:05 know that they know that they have authority. I mean, I remember in 20 20, I was flying on a plane. I was with my wife, and, everybody was wearing their mask. I didn't like to wear a mask, and I I, but I had 1 on and
13:17 I pulled it down to take a drink. And this lady came over and just started screaming at me. Maggie, are you gonna be a problem? I'm like, what did I do? I took a drink. You know, and I could just tell everything was
13:29 being amped up. And Kim was next to me telling me to calm down and it was good. And you know, so that's what I'm talking about. You see it. You know what I'm talking about? That's what happens when you don't have Christ
13:39 on the inside of your life and you want other people to know how powerful you are. Because here's the truth, if you have Christ on the inside of your life, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You
13:49 already have the greatest power in you. You don't need to use your power to do anything but build other people up. And you see this with insecure people, Insecure people in leadership, you see it with teachers,
14:01 you see it with business owners, you see it with professional athletes, you see it with pastors, you see it in every single sector of life. Are in Christ, so
14:13 they gotta let you know about the type of authority they're in. God hates it when leaders feed on people instead of feeding people.
14:34 It doesn't mean that the tortoise is wrong. It's just every bit of authority that you have is God given. So if your parents, you have authority over your kids, not to abuse them, but to build them up in the way of
14:45 Christ. And it doesn't mean, well, I'm a child, but you don't have any authority over me. Only Jesus does. Well, Jesus gave your parents, so they do have authority over you until you move out of your house. Authority to
14:56 use and steward the way the Lord wants us to do it to build up God's people and we'll give an account for how well we stewarded that authority when we get to heaven. But here's what you'll know. When the Lord reigns in
15:06 your life, you will see and experience pretenders who abuse authority. But don't worry, they don't have all authority. Jesus. They're authorities, temporary. It's not permanent. Do you know what
15:18 I'm saying? Jesus said when he was being arrested in John 19. Saying?
15:31 Like, the only reason that you have authority to bind my hands and take me to the, My dad gave you that authority. If I didn't want you to do that, I could dispatch legions of angels right now that would come and protect
15:42 me. I'm I'm giving myself into your hands. The only authority you have is because I'm the 1 that's giving you authority to have authority over me. In our culture. Proverbs
15:54 20 nine:two says, when the righteous increase, the people when you see righteousness in people, you're like, oh, that's great. They're doing the right thing. But when a wicked man rules, people groan.
16:19 Decisions that align to glorify Christ. We want decisions that align, that build up people and don't destroy them. And we'll always see pretenders like that. But listen to them. When leaders treat people When leaders
16:31 treat people as resources instead of responsibilities, God always intervenes. He always intervenes. That leadership is temporary. And that's what we're going to see with King Herod as
16:42 well.
17:02 Reigns, God's people pray without panic. God's people always pray without panic. Because notice what happens in verse 5. So Peter was kept in prison. We just established that, but notice this. But prayer for
God's People Pray Without Panic
17:13 him was being made fervently by the church to God. It wasn't just individuals praying, it was who? The church. The church gathered to do what?
17:25 Pray. I am so grateful to pastor a praying church. Every good thing that's ever happened at Brave has been a result of God's people pray ye. And when things
17:37 go wrong or you see things in society that aren't going the right way, the best thing to do is what? Pray. Pray. It's a great gift. So what is the church's knee jerk reaction?
17:49 James the Apostle's executed. Peter's arrested and gonna be executed. What's the church's knee jerk reaction? We gotta pray. Let's pray. They're they're they're not having a strategy session. They're not looking to storm
18:00 the prison. They're not writing their congressman or senator. They're gonna pray first. And that's what they do. They get down and pray. And notice the result. On the very night when
18:12 Herod was about to bring him forward. So the church is praying and Luke wants us to know that on the very night that Herod was gonna bring him forward, on the very night that he was gonna be exiting the prison to come
18:23 before the people to have the the vote down that he was gonna be executed, notice what happens. When Herod was about to bring him forward, I love this part. Look at these next 3 words, Peter was
18:35 sleeping. Now if you're hours away from being executed and you know you're gonna be executed and you're in a prison and you're chained to 2 men and it doesn't smell good and there's 2 guys by the door and there's no way
18:47 for you to get out and there's nothing you can do, doubt. You know, Peter's doing? I mean, you would think like, hey Pete,
18:59 you're going to be in heaven in about 6 hours. You might just want to stay alive and enjoy the last 6 hours that you got. No, he's totally relapsed. Place.
19:11 Right? He had peace. He had total peace now. I think the reason Peter had this peace is because he watched his master and savior Jesus model that for him while he was alive.
19:24 The Sea of Galilee, which they were on all the time. And this furious storm rose up in the night. And it was taking over the boat. I don't know if you've ever been in the water and been on a boat or been around waves.
19:36 It's kind of scary because we do good on the water as humans, but we don't do so good under the water for very long as humans. And they're terrified. And in Mark chapter 4, it says this, it says in
19:47 verse 38, Jesus himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. So during the storm, the disciples are panicking and Jesus is snoozing. And they woke him and said, teacher, do you not
19:59 care that we are perishing? Don't you care? We're all gonna die. Like how can you be sleeping at a time like this? And he got up and he rebuked to see, hush, be still. And the
20:11 wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And he said to them, why are you afraid? How is it that you have no face?
20:26 Exactly when the storm was gonna come because I'm the 1 controlling the storm and I know exactly how to put it down. I'm sleeping because nothing's too hard for me. Why are you panicking and why don't you believe in me?
20:37 And we say, I believe God. I totally believe he can do all things. I believe he can. I just I don't believe he can handle this thing in my life. I believe he can do all the big things, but just not the little thing that
20:48 I'm praying about. Friends, Jesus can do everything. He cares about every single thing in your life. Amen? And that's what he wants you to see, is how important prayer is. That's why in the book of Philippians, it tells
21:00 us in chapter 4. It says, be anxious for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. Worry about nothing. Here's the only time you can worry. But in everything by prayer and position, present your request to God and the peace of
21:11 God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. So here's when you can worry, when you're praying. When you're praying. Even first Peter 5 7 says, casting all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you. That word
21:23 casting is like taking a blanket or a load that you have and like throwing it on an animal, letting them carry the load. So you can be anxious as long as you're taking your anxiety and say, God, okay, you take that. You
21:35 you you carry that. You know, I'm concerned about my daughter. I'm concerned about my son. You know, I'm concerned about my marriage. I'm concerned about, you know, my future. I'm concerned about what I don't Just throw
21:43 that on him and let him carry that. You don't keep owning You don't keep when God's people they pray without panic. Now I want you to notice this in the
21:55 book of when they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were Church was praying to who.
22:03 They prayed to God. There's nobody else to pray to. Did you know that? You don't pray to dead loved ones. They're not listening to you. You don't pray to former saints. They're not listening to you. You don't pray
22:15 to Mary. She's not listening to you. You pray to God. There's 1 mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. You pray through Jesus to the father. That's it. And that's how the church was praying. And for those of
22:27 you who say, I really don't know how to pray. I really don't know how to pray. I hear these people pray. I can never pray out loud like that. Quit trying to pray like other people. Quit trying to pray religious prayers
22:36 and just pray your heart. Sometimes, here's a great prayer. Help. Can you say that? I mean, when you're authentic with Jesus, then he can meet you where you're at.
22:48 Sometimes we try to get all flowerly rather than just telling him this is what's up. Because he already knows what's up, but he likes it when you tell him that you're aware of what's going on. Amen? So pray.
23:13 Was sleeping. Now notice how he's sleeping. Between 2 soldiers, bound with 2 chains, not just 1 chain but 2. So probably hands and feet or against the wall, and guards in front of the
23:25 door were watching over the prison. So, so check this out. And behold, verse 7, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shown
23:37 in the cell. Now, I don't know what kind of sleeper you are, whether you're a deep sleeper, a light sleeper. I know me if somebody just turned on the light, right, we're talking an angel that was just
23:48 dispatched from the throne of glory shows up in the prison cell in all the reflected glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the the the whole prison would have been beaming with light. And there's a lot
24:00 of it. And he struck Peter's side, presumably because Peter wasn't awake. And he woke him up quick. And when he said that, his chains fell off his hands.
24:12 And the angel said to him, gird yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out, and
24:24 he went out and continued to follow, and this is beautiful. And he did not know what was being done by the angel was real, but he thought he was seeing a vision. Right? He'd seen a
24:36 vision before. He'd broken out of prison before. This is not a big new thing for Peter. He knew the Lord and yet as this stuff's happening, Peter's sound asleep, an angel comes into the cell, nudges him,
24:47 says, Peter, gird yourself up. When he does, the chains fall off his hands. He says, get your garment too. Wrap it around you. Get your sandals on. We're going for a walk. And he begins to walk him out of the prison.
24:59 And the whole time that this is going on, Peter's thinking, I must be having a pretty vivid dream. Or I must be in a trance. Like, this is I know it's happening, but it can't really be happening. That's
25:11 what he was thinking. And for a sense, when they had passed the first first and second, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city. So now that they've gotten out of the prison bars and all those things, they
25:22 come to the iron gate. This is the gate that nobody could trespass through. This is the gate nobody can come through. I mean, this is 4 to 5. And, it's it's which opened for them by itself.
25:35 Now, check this out. So you have King Herod Agrippa saying, no way anybody escapes my leadership. And God says, I'll open the door myself. I can do whatever I wanna do. I'm a deliverer. I can get
25:46 anybody out of anything at any time because that's what I do. I have a perfect resume of doing that. Amen? And when Pete and and so the door opened and they went
25:58 out and went along 1 street and immediately the angel departed from him. I mean, incredible story. Now watch this. When Peter came to himself, he said, now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth
26:10 his angel and rescued me from the band, from the hand of Herod and from all the Jewish people, all that the Jewish people were expecting. When did he know? Once it was over. I mean, think about this
26:22 for just a second. I mean, here's Peter, about hours away from execution. He's chained up in his hands and his feet. He's got prisoners on the side of him. You can imagine how it smelled in a
26:34 prison, where they didn't have running water and toilets like they do today. I mean, you can imagine how gross and disgusting this was. You can imagine what those 4 soldiers were like. You can imagine what it was like to
26:44 be in this prison knowing your execution was near. And here he is sound asleep. An angel of the Lord appears in the room, but has to nudge him to wake him because he doesn't awake
26:56 from the glory of the angel. Then the angel says, gird yourself up. Like, get up. Put your sandals on. Now, put your cloak on. Okay. Now, walk with me. Now, the
27:07 gate's gonna open. Now, we're gonna walk all the way through the prison. Now, the iron gates gonna open. Now, I'm gonna walk you down the street. Now, I'm gonna disappear. And now, Peter's like, I think this was
27:19 real. And I'm thinking, that's like many of us. We see God do something, and then he has to do something again, and do something again, and do something again, and do something again, and do something again, and all of a
27:29 sudden, like, I think God's in my life now. That's what was going on with Peter. Like, I mean, you would think, like, I mean, we read this story. I I read this story, I'm like, I think if I were in prison and that
27:40 happened to me, I would know it was God right away. Peter's like, I didn't know until I saw it was done. Right? And when God's people pray, they pray without panic. We see it in our culture all the time. You see when,
27:51 you know, a fire started in a building and everybody's panicking and running yet firemen show up and what do they do? Because of their training, they enter right in and they do what's necessary to put the fire out. Or
28:01 you see it in a waiting room at the hospital when next door in the operating room. There's some pretty significant surgery that's taking place, and there's a lot of emotion and panic there. But the waiting room turns
28:12 into a prayer room, and people are praying for the doctors and for God's hand to move and for healing power and for all those things. Right? Friends, we live in a culture that is very, very anxious. We live in an anxious
28:23 culture. When I grew up, I didn't know what the word trigger meant. I I can't even picture me telling my parents, you triggered me. I mean, I just can't I I can't picture that. But, you know, we we
28:35 live in a culture where people like to say that. I mean, I've had people tell me that, hey, Pastor, what you said today triggered me. I'm like, okay. I don't know what that means, but I'm sorry. I mean, we we live in a
28:45 society where we expect everybody to understand our emotions, and who we are and what we do and make us feel really good about how we're feeling at all times. I mean, God's not like that. And so what what God says is,
28:56 when I'm reigning in your life, just keep praying without panic. Keep praying without panic. God is you know, people like to make this statement. God will never give you more than you can bear. It's a false statement.
29:07 It's nowhere in the Bible. God always gives you more than you can bear. He always does. Why? Because it forces you to pray. It forces you to seek his face. If you can handle everything and you didn't need Jesus, you
29:18 would be like, Jesus, thanks for saving me. But I got it from Got it from your circumstances so that we need him. And so we depend upon him. So when those situations come up, it's God's invitation to you, come seek me.
29:31 Control. And we see 2 different things in the story. I mean, we see Peter being delivered and we see James being killed. Both of them were apostles. Now, I believe the truth. God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for
29:41 your life. God loves Stephen and had a wonderful plan for his life. He got to preach once and get killed. God loved James. James was executed here. Peter survived and was delivered. Like, how's
29:53 that fair? Well, nothing's fair in this world and nothing's fair from our perspective, but God is always glorious and sovereign and loving in everything that he does. And he doesn't make mistakes because the death of
30:04 James authenticated the message of Christ. Political party. It's a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It authenticated the message and strengthened the church. And then Peter
30:15 gets released and his deliverance manifested God's power. Every way God is saying, I'm in control and I'm in charge. And that's who I am. And that's what and that's who I am. And that's what God wants. And so what we see
30:26 here is when the Lord is reigning, pretenders will abuse authority but God's people will pray without panic. But let me give you a second part of that. And that is this, when the Lord reigns, prayer stretches your faith.Show more
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