{"id":8252,"date":"2023-11-12T14:40:02","date_gmt":"2023-11-12T18:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=8252"},"modified":"2023-11-12T14:40:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T18:40:02","slug":"praying-for-the-impossible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=8252","title":{"rendered":"PRAYING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE"},"content":{"rendered":"

PRAYING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Acts 12:1-19<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0by Rev. Richard Jones<\/b><\/h2>\n

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INTENSIVE DILEMMA<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 12:1-5 (ESV)<\/strong><\/p>\n

1\u00a0 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2\u00a0 He killed James the brother of John with the sword, 3\u00a0 and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.\u00a0 4\u00a0 And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5\u00a0 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.<\/p>\n

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INCREDIBLE RESCUE<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 12:6-11 (ESV)<\/strong><\/p>\n

6\u00a0 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7\u00a0 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, \u201cGet up quickly.\u201d And the chains fell off his hands. 8\u00a0 And the angel said to him, \u201cDress yourself and put on your sandals.\u201d And he did so. And he said to him, \u201cWrap your cloak around you and follow me.\u201d 9\u00a0 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10\u00a0 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11\u00a0 When Peter came to himself, he said, \u201cNow I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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IMPOSSIBLE ANSWER<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 12:12-17 (ESV)<\/strong><\/p>\n

12\u00a0 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13\u00a0 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14\u00a0 Recognizing Peter\u2019s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15\u00a0 They said to her, \u201cYou are out of your mind.\u201d But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, \u201cIt is his angel!\u201d 16\u00a0 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17\u00a0 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, \u201cTell these things to James and to the brothers.\u201d Then he departed and went to another place.<\/p>\n

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IMMEDIATE PANIC<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 12:18-19 (ESV)<\/strong><\/p>\n

18\u00a0 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19\u00a0 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.<\/p>\n

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INTENTIONAL PRAYER<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 12:5 (ESV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.<\/p>\n

Hebrews 4:16 (ESV)<\/strong>
\n16\u00a0 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (ESV)<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12\u00a0 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13\u00a0 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRAYING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE Acts 12:1-19 \u00a0by Rev. Richard Jones     INTENSIVE DILEMMA Acts 12:1-5 (ESV) 1\u00a0 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2\u00a0 He killed James the brother … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-messages","category-sermons-by-rev-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8252"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8254,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8252\/revisions\/8254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}