God Honors Fervent Prayer

“God's message continued to spread and reach people.”   Acts 12:24 (NCV)

Failure in reaching our friends with the Gospel is the failure to pray for the Lord to grant us the ability and burden to reach souls for Christ.  Our life must be about lost souls.  There is power in fervent prayer!

Read: Acts 12:1-17;  (18-23)

I. v12  The Place Of Prayer

*  the people are the the church, not a building with a steeple

            Acts 2:46 ,47  the people are the “church”

*  they prayed where they were assembled together

II. v5  The Purpose Of Their Prayer

*  there was a crisis- a time of desperation in the face of persecution

*  a great need for God to show His strength

*  we need to pray on a more consistent basis using every

      opportunity to pray for God to do miraculous things here at MCCC

*  notice: they relied upon prayer to the Lord- not others to help

            Hebrews 7:24 ,25 He ever liveth to make intercession for us

            Psalms 121:1-4  the Lord is our keeper and helper

*  the prayer of the “church” brought about an astounding result

*  if we expect God to work for us here- we also must pray fervently

III. v5.  The Persistence Of Their Prayer

            1 Thessalonians 5:17   pray without ceasing- without omission

* we should pray a lot more than we are used to normally praying

IV. v6-10  The Power Of Prayer Realized

*  try to visualize what had happened!

*  Peter was attended to by an angel-  his chains fell off-  Peter was

      set free from the chains which had shackled him-

*  the iron gate opened by itself-   God can open doors!

*  it was harder for Peter to get into the house than to get out of prison!

Read: vs 18-23

*  v.24  But The Word Of God Grew And Was Multiplied