Second Chances

THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES - Week 2

Acts 12:5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

●    His current _________ did not reflect his future __________.

●    Your faith is not just ________ ______.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

“The Kingdom of God is not going to be advanced by our churches becoming filled with men, but by men in our churches becoming filled with God.” - Duncan Campbell

●    What you are ______ with is an indication of what you’ve been __________ on.

Acts 12:6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

“Your theology is what you are when the talking stops and the action starts.” - Colin Morris

Acts 12:7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

“The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but prayer fetched the angel.” - Thomas Watson

“Intercessory prayer is spiritual defiance of what is in the way of what God has promised. Intercession visualizes an alternative future to the one apparently fated by the momentum of current forces. Prayer infuses the air of a time yet to be into the suffocating atmosphere of the present. History belongs to the intercessors who believe the future into being. Even a small number of people firmly committed to the new inevitability on which they have fixed their imaginations can decisively affect the shape the future takes. These shapers of the future are the intercessors who call out the future the longed-for new present.” - Walter Wink

Acts 12:12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.

Acts 12:13-16 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!” 15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” 16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

Colossians 2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Acts 12:17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES - Week 1

“I went home more certain than ever that my mother was right: people are ENDLESSLY COMPLICATED and INTERESTING.” - Daniel Kahneman

Luke 22:31-34 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” 33 But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” - Mike Tyson

Hungry / Angry / Lonely / Tired / Successful

“Forgiveness is setting the prisoner free only to find out the prisoner was me.” - Corrie Ten Boom

Luke 22:59 And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.”

Luke 22:60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

● It’s much easier to _________ like a Christian than it is to __________ like one.

Luke 22:61-62 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.

“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

John 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Are you owning your _________ or are your regrets owning ________?

John 21:4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

SIN - GRACE = __________

SIN + GRACE = ___________

“Our worst days are never so bad that we are beyond the reach of God’s grace and our best days are never so good that we are beyond the need for God’s grace.” - Josh Bridges