Acts Chapter 4 Verses 19 – 20

• There is a time, a boundary, a limit, a point when if the laws of the land should be at variance with the law of God, I must obey God rather than man. God’s Word is supreme over my life.  We are blessed to be able to meet this morning in peace and study the Bible together…I can live openly and overtly for Jesus today in the country we live in and for that I’m thankful…may be gone tomorrow or in the near future and I see that as a real possibility and so today, I am grateful to God…but if those things are deemed unlawful, what am I to do?  Well, I guess I’m called to prison ministry!  HA!  If that happens, send me some C4 if you know what I’m sayin’!  I’m busting out!  HA! 
• Look, that certainly scares me…I don’t say that with levity of heart at all. Perhaps with some humor…but I don’t particularly look good in stripes and frankly I’m too pretty and small for the slammer, HA!!  Be a bunch of Christians in there anyway I guess, right?  HA!  Taking a bunch of cellfies…get it!  HA!   Hey, by the way, why did the picture go to prison anyway?  Because it was framed!  Terrible I know…and here’s one that’s worse!  What do prisoners eat for dessert?  Jaily-beans!! YES!!! 
• Back to the Bible study…for real though, what else can I do but speak the things which I have seen and heard? To deny Jesus to me would be to deny gravity.  To deny oxygen.  To deny truth.  I’m terrified to face that nightmare but I gotta tell you, I could never deny April, I could never deny my kids…I’d lay my life down for her and them…and so how could I ever deny the Lord who has shown Himself so very strong in my life…taken the tragic story of a life that I brought to Him and made something out of it…shown Himself so very good in the countless lives of others I have had the honor to know and minister to and with?  I couldn’t…but God gives more grace.
• Doesn’t He just calm you? Takes you right out of the moment and into the outside of the storm?  You ever just dealing with your mind at home?  Go outside. Take a walk.  Things aren’t so big when you gaze into the vastness of the sky, feel the warmth of that spinning wheel burning 93 million miles away and yet it is feeding those trees that are casting their shade on you as you stroll by…go out, take a walk…God does that to soothe your weary soul and strengthen you, just like He is doing for Peter and John right here…

Acts Chapter 4 Verses 21 – 22

• Notice this…these religious men deny the truth of God yet they bow to the will and opinion of man...that is the weakness of sin…do you do that? Remember, you too are man…And notice this, the people all glorified God, not Peter…not John and that is proof positive that the Holy Spirit has the lead.  Whenever a man or a woman or a result becomes the object of glorification then the enemy is at work.  They didn’t glorify the miracle, they didn’t glorify the lame man…they didn’t pronounce Peter a “saint” because through him was performed a miracle…they glorified God!

Acts Chapter 4 Verse 23

• I like that, “They went to their own…” Know this, with whom you hang out with, that is to whom you belong.  Who is your company?  Some folks have chosen poorly.  Think of a company like Apple or GE or Ford.  If that company was filled with folks that were experts at building airplanes, Ford would fold fast.  If you want to build cars, fill your company with automotive experts.  If you want your life to be about God’s business…your company better reflect that as well.

Acts Chapter 4 Verses 24 - 31

• (Acknowledge that He is God. His power…what He has done…) I love their worship!!  They acknowledge God’s glory!  His goodness and His   “You are the Maker!”  They recognize His sovereignty…that He never fails and He is ultimately never in a position where He turns to Michael and says, “Man, I’ve lost control…”  But, even in that statement, please know and understand that you and I have responsibility in this life as well!  I love what Wiersbe said once while speaking at a Calvary Chapel Pastor’s Conference…
• He said if I am too Calvinistic then I rob men of responsibility…and if I am too Armenian then I rob God of His sovereignty…I wish to rob no one and so I stand firmly upon middle ground!
• And I love the request of the early church! Give us relentless courage to speak Your Word!  And listen, “By stretching out Your hand to heal!!”  That is completely tied to the previous statement!  The previous statement is the way to that!  The Word of God is the way to healing for a man!  When it is given and it is received…it heals!
• Then, the healed life is full of, flushed with…signs and wonders! Seeing and hearing!!  Even now a sign…a wonder…right here in this scene, as they pray, they seek the healing of their enemies, not their destruction!!  Y’all get so mad at folks that cross you, even passive aggressively…that’s not what the Spirit desires or does!  These followers of Christ pray for their enemies and their desire is bless their enemies…that they’d be healed!!

Acts Chapter 4 Verses 32 – 37

• Unity is sure evidence of the work of God’s Spirit. Unity regards people entirely over things!!  A giving spirit is also…notice the emphasis of the teaching in the early church…the resurrection of Jesus!  And truly it should remain that way today.  The prosperity gospel continues without a resurrected Jesus.  The self-help gospel continues…the religiosity of man’s church continues…the make yourself right group continues…the legalistic continues…the cultish gospel continues…but the Gospel of lame men standing, the Gospel of grace through faith…hinges upon the resurrection!!
• If today you are right with God, it is because of Jesus. If today you are not right with God, it is because of you…why?  Because Right is right here!…I was faced with that same question 12 years ago and for the first time in my life I forced myself to take an honest look at Jesus and an honest look at myself…and when I did that, I had to do something…
• Midori Koto has a great quote (I have no idea who that is but the quote is critical)…a principle that I have encoded into my heart of hearts…, “Honor isn’t about making the right choices. It’s about dealing with the consequences.”  I was faced with the fact that I could not deal with my own sin…I searched my mind for options, a way, a path by which I could bring myself to God and in the light of the fact that God is perfect and His commandments to me I had broken them…I found no way and somehow knew I was lost…I was at a loss.
• I had a dream this week that I had died and I was in some sort of line in a grand like hotel lobby…and folks were being scanned by Peter…like an airport security scanner…and a man was in front of me…very confident and smiling…talking about how he had lived a good life, helped all kinds of people, fed the poor, loved his wife, raised his kids…and he stepped forward to be scanned…Peter looked at his tablet (I know, it was a dream) and he said, “You cannot go forward.”
• The man was stunned…, “But why? I did the best I could to live a good life and to do what was right…”  Peter showed him the tablet…the scan showed that this man had sinned in his life…and then he was gone.  I was next.  I was nervous.  I mean genuinely concerned…why?  I have tons of sin…I am sin walking…I know I’m saved by Jesus alone but man every day I still feel unworthy…I sat in the scanner…held my breath, closed my eyes, grit my teeth…the screen of the tablet chirped and went green…Peter looked at me with a smile, nodded and said, “Go on…”  I was, in that moment, so very thankful…Funny, in that same moment I looked and saw Trifon walking into the lobby and he was STOKED to be there!  HA!!
• You see, Jesus doesn’t just make you a good person or a wise man or a wise woman…He doesn’t just fill your heart with truth and joy and vision and purpose, although He does all of those things…but most importantly He answers the command of God’s own heart and the commandments of God’s own perfection in that men “must be saved.”. He takes away the sins of us…a job we cannot do…there is no honor in hiding from what we’ve done…the honor is in dealing with it…and Jesus alone makes us honorable in heaven.