Acts 12:6-19

So thankful for what a wonderful time God has given for us to be in his presence to worship his holy name. So grateful for all of you for God’s care, protection, and wonderful ways in which he is leading all of us as families in spite of many difficulties going on in many families in our church. We’re so grateful for God for his faithfulness and continued favor in all of our lives.

As we continue with our series Church on the Rise, today I’ll be focusing in from Acts 12:6-19. Acts 12:6-19. We ended last week by leaving Peter in prison and guess what he’s been in prison all this week. And so it’s good that we are here today because we need to do the rest of what needs to be done starting in verse 6. So when you were gone he was in prison. And so we come to verse 6 and we read, the night before Herod was bringing to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

Very interesting to see how detailed God’s word is and I love the details that God’s word provides for us and the things that it chooses to omit by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Seven nights have gone by. We have come to the eighth night of the festival of the unleavened bread. The first one being the Passover meal and then seven nights of eating the unleavened bread. On the very night, which means the day before, the day after is going to be judgment day. It’s going to be trial day. Just as happened in the life of James maybe just a few days or a few weeks ago. The Bible doesn’t tell us but we know what happened with James. The church has been earnestly praying for Peter as we left it in verse 5. Maybe there was round the clock prayer meetings going on in the church for the last whole week but Peter is still in prison.

His situation in the prison is probably one of utter desperation. We don’t know what kind of food or water if any would be given to the servant of God but we know that 16 soldiers had been appointed to God over him because of what happened early on in the book of Acts. But not only that as I mentioned to you last week there was extra security that was given in the life of Peter. Usually it’s only one soldier who is tied to one of the wrists but as we were studying God’s word he was between two soldiers bound with not one chain but two chains and not only that if he were to ever escape these two soldiers the Bible says guards were in front of the door they were watching over in the prison. So this is a very very uncomfortable situation. Surrounded by two people who will not allow much movement probably on a very rugged floor he is there but remarkably Luke tells us in verse 6 what he is doing in the night before he is about to be executed. I don’t think any one of us could do what he was doing. What is he doing? He is sleeping between the two guards.

Remarkable isn’t it? No anxiety, no worry about what is going to happen the next day. The uncomfortable circumstances are not able to take his sleep away. Maybe why we have to go back a little bit into the gospel accounts as to why he was sleeping so soundly. There are two things that are working in his favor. One the testimony of his life has been one of God rescuing him from a prison just like this. But not only that I think most importantly he remembers the parting words of his Lord to him on that shore of the sea many many years ago almost 11 years ago. Look at John 21:18. Very truly I tell you he told Peter when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old so here is our Lord telling him one day you are going to become an old man. And now Peter in his middle ages is not afraid of death because of the Lord told him that one day you will become an old man. And that day will come but that day is not yet and not only that you will stretch out your hands on that day. Someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. This is not talking about going to the bathroom. This is talking about being led away to be killed and that’s what’s going to happen to Peter one day. The Lord is telling him one day you will become an old man and he will stretch out your hand but you will not be in control of what you could do. Someone else will dress you and they will take you to a place where you do not want to go because that is going to be the place where you are going to be crucified later on upside down. Specifically that doesn’t say but the Lord was foretelling his martyrdom. But also the Lord was telling him this will not happen immediately. This will only happen when you are much advanced in age. So now as Peter is in the prison even though the next day is judgment day. Even though the next day he is supposed to face the same fate as James as who died just a few days or weeks ago. The Bible says he is sound asleep. Why? Because Peter is reminded in his soul or the words of his Lord that he will one day become an old man. So he is sleeping in the middle of the soldiers.

But not only that Isaiah 26:3 tells us this. You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Because his trust is in the Lord whether in life or death. Whether the day before execution or the day before vacation. You are able to sleep the same way because your trust is in the Lord and your mind is being kept calm and steadfast because of a Lord who does that for us. His mind is in perfect peace.

There are three times in God’s word it mentions Peter sleeping. One was amazingly on the mound of transfiguration. I often read that account and it says how in the world were you sleeping with all that was happening around you? But you know what the Bible says about Peter, James and John immediately before they had this big proclamation. Let’s build a tent. The Bible says they were overcome by sleep on that mountain and the Lord has Elijah and Moses appear with them and they’re having this conversation. What are the disciples doing? They are sleeping until they’re woken up and they realize what’s going on and they’re like oh my goodness what did we miss? You missed a lot of things but I’m glad they saw what they saw. But that sleep was not the sleep in perfect peace. That was a sleep because he was really tired. There was another sleep that happened in the life of Peter as well. That was in the garden of Gethsemane. Implicitly after the Lord told them stay awake with me a little bit longer only a little longer and pray. And he told them many times what was about to happen to him but they were so hard on their hearts they could not hear understand what was happening. And what happened to disciples? They fell asleep in the middle of the night in the garden of Gethsemane. That was also not a sleep of perfect peace. The sleep of perfect peace is one in which in spite of what is going on in your life, the circumstance of your life, your trust in the Lord is so strong and the Holy Spirit has brought such peace and security in your heart that you are able to sleep even in a day when you’re about to be executed. That is the peace that God is able to give to us. That’s what the Bible calls the peace that passeth all understanding. Because it doesn’t make any sense. He should be pacing back and forth but he is sleeping and he’s between two guards.

And look what happened. Verse 7. Behold. Anytimes it says in God’s word to behold it means you stop and pay attention to what is about to happen. An angel of the Lord suddenly stood near Peter. In fact it’s so beautiful in God’s word in the book of Acts. We see how there’s a big there’s a beautiful picture here of angels and the Holy Spirit working in tandem hand in hand in the New Testament church. A lot of the outward deliverances that would happen in the life of the New Testament church would be the work of the angels. Whereas a lot of internal work was being done by the Holy Spirit. An angel of the Lord suddenly stood near Peter and a light shone in the cell. This cell is not like a modern day cell. There’s probably no light at all anywhere to be found other than a lantern probably in the hallways. Pitch darkness and suddenly the angel of the Lord stood near there and there’s light that is shining in the cell. And he struck Peter’s side not to hurt him to wake him up. And he woke him up by saying get up quickly and his chains fell off of his hands. Remarkably the soldiers who were sleeping by him didn’t seem to realize the fact that the the person you are tied to no longer has the chains on the other end. The chains fell off his hands.

Look at verse 8. And the angel said to him put on your belt and strap on your sandals. And he did so and he said to him wrap your clock around you and follow me. And I want you to pay attention to all the detail that is given here by the angel to Peter. First she says to him I want you to put on your belt. Which means the idea here is that when he went to sleep at night he has taken his belt off. Some people say that the undergarment they would wear at that time was very long and when one would go to sleep they would loosen it for comfort while you’re sleeping. And now the angel knowing this very well says put on your belt. Tighten everything up. You have to walk. You had to strap on your sandals which he probably would have taken away. And not only that he says him wrap your clock around you and follow me. Probably very very cold or chilly at night. He wants him to be comfortable as he walks around it. But what I want to pay attention to verse 8 is this. Every step of the way what he is doing is guided by the angel of the Lord. Peter is not putting on a sandal by himself. The angel tells him to do that. Put on the belt. The angel tells him to do that. Put on a clock. These are normal things that we all do. But every step of the way the angel of the Lord is guiding him every step of the way.

Look at verse 9. Went out continued to follow and yet he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real. But he thought he was seeing a vision. In spite of all of this happening Peter has no idea that this is really happening. He thinks he is seeing a vision. And he’s almost sleepwalking not realizing it’s really happening.

Verse 10. When they had passed the first and the second guard. I love the detail in God’s word. It shows all the people who are guarding him. He walked by the first guard. We don’t know what happened to the first guard. They were sleeping or the angel made sure that the guards had no idea that Peter was walking right out. Maybe four soldiers standing right there. First guard. Second guard. They came to an iron gate. Again a good detail in God’s word. Not a wooden gate. An iron gate. A strong gate that cannot be easily be opened. Some man has written and I think it’s so beautiful that even before Walmart invented the automatic doors. The automatic doors were invented by the Lord in Acts 12. What happened when they got to the iron gate? The Bible says it leads into the city. It opened for them by itself. Wow! My God was so advanced in technology even long before we were. Even the iron gates opened by itself. They went out along one street and immediately angel departed from him. Angel told him dress up. Follow after me. It’s almost guiding him. First guard done. Second guard gone. Come to the iron gate. The iron gate opens by itself. Went to a street. Now he knows Peter knows how to get by from here. And immediately the Bible says the angel departed from him.

More than what we read about here about the rescue of God by sending his angel and bringing out Peter. This picture of what we see here in the book of Acts chapter 12 is a beautiful picture of what happens in the life of every believer. See we were also asleep. In fact the Bible says we were dead in our sins. When you are dead you have no idea what is going on. You don’t even know that you need a savior. You have no idea understanding of how lost you were. We were dead in our sins. We were sleeping. But by the grace of God, by the great providence of God, by the great mercy of God, the light of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ shines into the darkness of our soul. And at that very moment you know what happens. The chains that were holding us falls off. Hallelujah. And then the Holy Spirit tells us what to do. Get up. Hallelujah. Put on this. Get rid of this. Put this on. And they go by the first guard, the second guard, every door, every pathway that is being led by the Lord until you get to the point where you don’t need help anymore. The Holy Spirit walks by you until you reach your heavenly home. This is a beautiful picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ does for us who were desperate and so much in bondage and in the prison of our own life.

Charles Wesley would write about this. He would say we were fast bound in sin and nature’s night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke up. The dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. He said we were all fast bound in sin and nature’s night. Unable to save ourselves. But thine eye diffused the quickening ray. And in that dungeon that I was in, it is the light of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the soul of me that made my chains to fall off. And he says then I rose forth and my chains fell off. I rose up and I followed Thee. The modern day rendition. Amazing grace the chorus says like this. My chains are gone. I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood His mercy reigns. Unending love. Amazing grace. How many of you are glad today sitting here knowing that what you are today is not your doing. When you were in the dungeon of your sin. Asleep in your darkness. In the bondage of your sin. Isn’t it the grace of God that shone into the deepest crevices of your heart. Made you to be alive again. When the Lord said alive come to life again. Life began in you as we sang today. You rose forth. Your chains fell off. And you followed after Thee. Don’t ever forget where you came from and what you are today by the grace of God. You were dead. You could not do anything apart from the grace of God. That’s what God did.

Verse 11. When Peter came to himself he said now I know for sure. He woke up. The Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod. Not only from the hand of Herod. All the Jewish people who were watching and waiting for the next day. They could not wait to end their worship of eight days. So they can go and kill Peter the next day. They were counting the days. And Peter says now I know what God has done.

Verse 12. When he realized this he went to a familiar house. The house of Mary. The Bible says who that Mary is. The mother of John. John who was also called Mark. John Mark as he’s known in God’s word. We’ll see him later on. He’ll become a very important figure in the book of Acts. John Mark who would write the gospel of Mark. John Mark who was a very young man at this time. His mom Mary had a house of her own. Which means that she was a woman of good means. That probably was a wealthy family. In fact many people think that even the last supper of the Lord was held in the house of John Mark. And we see a young man following after Jesus as he goes to Gethsemane in the gospel of Mark. Many people think that’s John Mark following at a distance to see what would happen to the Lord and his disciples in the gospel of Mark. Whatever the case might be. Peter was very close to this family. In fact many theologians and scholars make the argument that the gospel of Mark was written by John Mark based on the eyewitness account of Peter. So we see how close this family is to each other. He goes to this familiar house where many were gathered together and they were praying as we had seen in verse 5. We don’t know if this is the only gathering of prayer. Maybe the church was meeting in different places. But in this house they were all gathered together. Because the hour was running out. The time was running out. Next day is trial day. Judgment day. In the middle of the night probably three four in the morning. What are they doing? They are praying.

Then he did something. When he knocked at the door of the gate. In those days especially in well-to-do homes the gate was big. Big enough where you can open it wide enough for even chariots to go into the courtyard of the house. But in the gate you see sometimes this in India as well. There is a door that is in the gate. You know what the purpose of the door is? Rather than opening the whole gate you can open the door of the gate to let human beings in and out. That’s exactly where he knocked. He comes and he knocks at the door of the gate a slave woman. Sometimes this a woman who was a servant girl. Her name is given in God’s word. Named Rhoda came to answer. Well known in the church. That’s why her name is given in the account of Luke. She comes to answer. Somebody is knocking in the middle of the night. Probably the pastor or who was leading the meeting or who was there probably motioned to her to go and check on it. Usually this is not good. Whenever you hear a knock on the door at three o’clock in the morning or the phone rings at three o’clock in the morning it’s usually not good news. Nobody calls you at three o’clock in the morning to tell you that they got a job. Right? So usually especially as pastors when our phone rings after 11 12 that makes us nervous because usually it is not good news when the phone rings late at night. But here there’s a knock on the door and this woman goes to answer.

Verse 14. When she recognized Peter’s voice. So she came and said who is there without opening. Remember these Christians are also afraid of Herod because he is persecuting them. So we have no idea who has come in the middle of the night to knock on the door of the gate. So she does not open the door. She asked who is there. Recognized Peter’s voice. She does something. Because of her joy she did not open the gate. Have you ever done something where you got so overjoyed that you run away and you forget the reason for your joy? That’s exactly what happened to Rhoda here. You know and you’re like wait a minute where’s my baby and then you run back to get the baby. And that kind of thing here is happening where Rhoda is running back to the house. But ran in and she announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.

They said to her you are out of your mind. I love this verse because it makes all of these people that are praying there human beings just like me. When are they praying? Middle of the night. They are forsaken sleep and having all night prayer. Yet when they hear the answer to their prayer the immediate response is no you are out of your mind. How many times has God answered your prayer and your immediate response was that can’t be true. When your child calls and tells you I got into this school and that school no you didn’t. You’re messing with me but you’ve been praying for it for the last two three years. Dad mom I’m getting married. No you’re not. My point here is that a lot of times we pray. But we pray because we’re supposed to pray. But we don’t always expect God to move mountains as an answer to our prayer. Their prayer is not a perfect prayer. Their prayer there’s a lot of faith in these people praying. But they are not perfect people. But isn’t it wonderful to know that even when our faith is not perfect. Even when our requests to the Lord are not done in the right posture or in the right way. Our God is gracious to not overlook the weaknesses of our life and still answer prayers according to his great mercy and grace towards us. If you have been the recipients of God’s blessings as an answer to God’s prayer. It is not because you prayed perfectly that God answered your prayer. It is not because you are perfect in nature that God answered your prayer. It is not because there’s nothing wrong in your life that God gave you the deliverance and the healing that he did. Don’t mistake the goodness of God for perfection in your life or the way you prayed. And the opposite is true as well. You can have the most earnest prayer. You can have the most faithful prayer. You can have the most holy life and still not get the response from God that you’re looking for. Here we see the opposite of that happening in our lives as well. But she kept on insisting that it was so. The word there is basically that argument back and forth. She’s like Peter is there. No you’re crazy. Peter is there. No I know I heard him. It is him. No it’s somebody else. They even went further. They said it is his angel. Now that’s even worse than what they said in the beginning. Out of your mind I can understand. These are all seasoned believers. They are saying it is his angel. Where did this come from? Well the Talmud taught them years ago that every man has a guardian angel like many people believe today. Could be true. I don’t know. And they also taught that the guardian angel looks like the person. So when they say it is the angel they’re basically saying that’s probably his angel sounding like him. Or maybe a messenger. That could also be the meaning here. Sent by Peter. It is not Peter itself. There’s also another really bad one where it says the Jewish tradition was that when after somebody passed away they believed that the ghost of the person stayed around for a couple more days. I don’t think that’s what they were saying when they said it is his angel. These are believers of the Lord after all. But whatever the case might be the response to this is so bad because they were praying yet they are unwilling to believe it.

And look at verse 16. They forgot him the main person. Peter continued knocking. I want you to picture this. They’re arguing inside and he is standing out there. You know the the gate to the house of John Mark was more difficult to open than the gate of Herod. The other one just opened up. The gate of John Mark’s house. Peter cannot get anyone to open that. Well he is the one they’ve been praying for all night. And he kept on knocking. He’s like guys what’s going on? Come and get me. He’s probably yelling out there. He can’t yell too much because he doesn’t want attention either. When they had opened the door they saw him and were amazed. And they had a lot of questions I’m sure as we all could.

But verse 17. But motioning them to say nothing to be silent. He described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. It’s probably great commotion there when they saw Peter. But you don’t want to wake up the neighbors. Again it’s a dangerous situation. And he says to them don’t keep quiet. And he said report these things you have seen to James and the brother. Wait a minute. We thought James died. Not the same James. It’s not James coming back. This is James who is the head of the church in Jerusalem. Who we will see later on is the one who is in charge of Jerusalem council. But most importantly he is the brother of our own Lord. Who only became a believer and a disciple after seeing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a skeptic. Unable to believe that he was, that his brother, half-brother or brother born to his mother Mary was truly God himself. But the resurrection changed his mind and he would become a leader of the New Testament church. Not only that he is the one who wrote the epistle of James that we find in God’s Word. You know what his nickname was? James the just. Because he was a right man. And you know there was another nickname for him. They say that he had camel knees. Man with the camel knees. How do you get it? How do you get camel knees? Because they said that he spent so much time on his knees praying unto the Lord. He was known as a man with camel knees. That was the person who was leading the church in Jerusalem. A man who spent hours and hours on his knees crying out to the Lord. He said go and report to James and the brothers what happened. Then he left and went to another place. The Bible does not say where Peter went off to. In fact the only other time in God’s Word, in historical account, in the book of Acts that you find Peter is at the Jerusalem council in Acts chapter 15. Probably he went to Corinth because Paul mentions him in his writing in Corinth as some people who claim that they belong to Peter. Maybe he went to Corinth. But that’s all we know. We know that he traveled with his wife. But he went on to another place where Bible does not tell us what’s happened. What is happening here and we’ll see in the fall in the coming months is Peter kind of fading into the background as Paul would come on and take on the helm of the New Testament church.

Verse 18 and 19. Tragically when the day came there was no small disturbance among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter. You can imagine 16 soldiers when Herod had searched for him and had not found him. He examined the guards and ordered that they be led away for execution. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and was spending time there. Tragically as they would often do, all the soldiers responsible for guarding Peter that night was also killed on that day. A very cruel human being. He did not want to believe in the supernatural. He had to somehow think that his soldiers allowed Peter to escape and that’s why he killed every single one of them.

Let me leave you with three points and one illustration. It is this. First one. God’s timing and work is precisely planned that he alone is glorified in and through our lives. God often waits till the 11th hour to heal you. God often waits till all hope is lost. God often waits till the 8th day of the Passover festival. Why does he do that? Because only when all hope is lost and all trust in man has gone, when God works, God alone gets the glory. Even in the prison, God is the one who did everything. Peter cannot stand and say, oh I did that. No, there is no I in the rescue of Peter through and through. It was the God of heaven who sent his angel and rescued him. Even in our life, God does things in such a way that he and he alone is glorified in the things that he brings to us. Oftentimes delay in prayers happen not because God wants you to suffer, because God wants you to learn. God wants to increase your trust and your faith and God wants you to come to a point where all hope is lost, but only he alone can do it and he does it so beautifully to bring glory to his name.

Secondly, God answers our prayers even when our faith is weak and fragile. A lot of people say words like we just need to have enough faith. You know the Bible doesn’t say that. I remember the man who was asking Jesus to heal his son. He said you can do it and then he cried out help my unbelief. No, it is not in our perfection that we see the greatest works of the Lord. Even when we are weak, we see that he is a God who delights to do great things in our favor. It is not the perfection of my faith, the perfection of my prayer that causes heaven to open, that even when I come to him with imperfect faith and all kinds of weakness, I see the mighty hand of God move on my behalf.

Thirdly, we are all recipients of a divine rescue and freedom from bondage that is much greater than the deliverance of Peter. Angelo mentioned that today in the introduction to our worship set. Being delivered from prison, a human prison is a great thing but being delivered from the prison of the enemy Satan is a much much greater relief. Freed from the bondage of the clutches of death to eternal life is the greatest rescue that has ever happened. To be freed from the clutches of sin is the greatest rescue that has ever happened. The greatest work of God is done in the soul of man as he rescues him from eternal damnation into eternal life with him. That is the greatest rescue and we are all recipients of that. Being set free from a human prison is wonderful but much greater is being set free from the prison of an eternity without God forever. That’s what Christ did for us on the cross.

If you think that stories like God showing up opening prison cells only happen in the book of Acts, you are grossly mistaken. You have heard me preach about Sadhu Sundar Singh before. The Sikh young boy who burned the Bible, who was captured by the Lord Jesus Christ by a similar light that would shine in the loneliness of his Rome. Hours, maybe an hour before he was to commit suicide and make him to be a preacher of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadhu had a great passion for the lost. On one of his trips, he took him to a very dangerous place, Tibet which is still a dangerous place for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tibet was a place where no or any few Christians were there but Sadhu would go there to preach and he knew fully well that the dangers that he faced. He went to a town by the name of Rasur. He was arrested and brought before the head Lama on the charge of entering the country and preaching the gospel of Christ. He was found guilty and amidst a crowd of evil persons, he was led away to the place of execution. They had two favorite forms of capital punishment that they had. One was to put a wet skin of a yak around the body of the person and then to throw the body into the scorching sun. You know what happens to the skin of an animal as the heat of the sun beats down on it. It shrinks and the person suffers a grueling, one of the most cruelest way to die on the face of the earth. They had another way as well. That was to throw them into a well, almost a bottomless pit filled with bodies and decaying materials of prisoners who have been thrown into the same well, a place of darkness. Then only to have the top covered and sealed and locked away. They chose the second form of punishment to Sadhu Sundar Singh and threw him in the well. The fall was so great that he broke his arm as he landed on the bottom of the pit. He said, I landed on top of decaying corpse surrounded by bones and darkness. The stench was so powerful that I thought I would die in that instant. No food, no water, no darkness. Three days went by. Sadhu cried out to the Lord, Lord rescue me, help me. Is this the way my life is going to end? It’s the third night and all hope was lost.

Suddenly he heard a commotion on top of the well. The lid was being taken back. Suddenly he heard a voice up there that said, I’m lowering a rope, put your foot in the loop of the rope and I will pull you up. He said, I’m thankful for even the loop in the rope because the person knew that I could not hold my hand onto the rope because my hand was broken. He put his foot inside the loop of the rope, pulled out. When he got up, stood up. Suddenly he felt the pain in his arm was completely gone. The fresh air brought new life to him. He turned around to thank the person, pulled him up. He was nowhere to be found. Went back into the city to preach the next day. They caught him again. They brought him back in front of the Lama and they asked him, no one has ever escaped from that well. How do you escape? He told them exactly as Peter did as to what God did by sending his angel and by pulling him out. The Lama said, no, that can’t be true. Somebody stole the key and opened the well and rescued you. Where is the key? And he searched for the key. The key was right there on his belt. Now unable to have any arguments against the miraculous work of God, all they could do was expel Sadhu Sundar Singh from Tibet and ask him never to come back to preach again. And the man would go on and would have years more of continued ministry in the presence of God.

My point here is this, the God of Peter is still alive. The God of Peter is still able to rescue. The God of Peter is still able to do miraculous things in the lives of his servants. Why? He is always watching over them and they are their ministry. Their life is not done until God says they are done. Peter is supposed to become an old man and die for the Lord. There is still another 20 years of ministry left in the life of Peter because of that. Herod’s prison cell, the iron gates that lead up to the city, the first guard, the second guard, the soldiers bound to him, nothing on this earth could stop the plans and work of God because my God is an almighty God. My God is a great God. My God is a glorious God. There is nothing that is impossible for my God. There is no prison cell that is too great for him. And even in your life, he is still the great deliverer who can set you free and bring you to the place and place that God wants you to be. Trust in him, lean on him. He is worthy to be praised.

Heavenly Father, oh we thank you oh God for your word that reminds us that you have rescued us oh from great bondages in our life. That even when our prayer is weak, you are there working on our behalf. Help us to trust you even more knowing that you are so in control of every moment of our lives. Thank you Lord. Thank you for what you’ve done. First in the name of the Lord Jesus that we pray. Amen.