Give God Glory

In the first part of chapter 12, we've gone through a series looking at how our daily life, our daily interaction with our trials and our circumstances, coupled with prayer, gives us an opportunity to see three characteristics of God's nature. In the first 17 verses, we see Peter and prison and prayer. We see Peter, who's representative of our lives as Christians, as believers. His prison, we've come to see as our times of trial and our times of frustration and the things that happen to us.

Maybe it is incarceration in some cases. But coupled with prayer in those circumstances, it gives us an opportunity to see three characteristics of God's nature. Number one, as we've seen, is that God is sovereign. God is sovereign. He is sovereign and in control. At the beginning of this chapter, Herod thought he was the one that was in control. He thought about it so much that it ate him up.

He wasn't in control. God was in control. And God's in control of our every instant of our lives. He wants us to know that and he wants us to rest in that. Secondly, we've seen in our study in the first 17 verses that God actively intervenes in our life. He's not only in absolute control and absolute sovereign control. He actively intervenes and many times it's through angelic intervention.

And just a reminder, his answers to prayer is that little cliche that becomes trite to us as Christians. We often say God answers yes, no, or wait. Well, too often as Christians, we feel like God's answer to prayer is yes only and we just disregard no or wait. If God's saying no or wait, we get disgusted and we complain that God doesn't answer prayer and God doesn't hear.

And why pray anyhow? It's not going to do any good. And it's because we've lost sight of no and wait.

Paul will later tell us that in everything we are to give thanks. And that idea is continually in every situation, not just the good times, but the perceived bad times. Because if God is sovereign and he actively intervenes and he answers prayer, then really there are no bad times for a Christian. And so we can, in those difficult times, give him thanks.

There were four squads of four soldiers each that were guarding Peter. If you're reading King James, that's what a quaternion is, four quaternions of soldiers. He could have just had the four guards executed. He may have had the whole quaternion, the 16 soldiers executed. He was so ruthless, so notoriously ruthless, that that's a good possibility. But lashing out and ruthlessly killing these guards, denying the truth and placing blame somewhere else.

Now, maybe that's never happened to you. Maybe you've never had a time where the plans that you've had seem to go awry. They go a different direction than what you had anticipated. And rather than stopping and acknowledging that God's still in control in the midst of this and thank him for being in control and give him glory because he's going to use you in the midst of that, you get frustrated and you're upset because you're not on time.

This part isn't working right the way that it's supposed to work. And so rather than stopping and realizing that you're frustrated and placing the blame on yourself for being frustrated and not acknowledging God, you lash out at people around you, at your spouse or your kids, usually because they're the closest if you're working at home. You've probably never done that before. But this is for in the event that you sometime down the road do that, you can remember that you heard about it here somewhere, that I've heard him talk about that somewhere.

But that's no different than what Herod did. He failed to acknowledge God, failed to give him glory, failed to thank him and instead placed the blame for his anxiousness on somebody else and ruthlessly destroyed their lives. Then Herod runs to Caesarea. Now, it doesn't say that in there. It doesn't say he ran to Caesarea, but immediately in the text he executes these guards

and then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there for a while. Now, why did he do that? Well, the text doesn't say, but he'd just been frustrated and done this and he's under stress and pressure, and I think he probably just got away to get some R&R. He took some time away just to get away from it all. He was wondering what was going on and he was frustrated and he ran away.

And then we see that some envoys from Tyre and Sidon come. Now, there are two cities, coastal cities north of Caesarea, and they were very metropolitan. They were being seaport cities. There's a lot of trade, a lot of tourism coming in. They were metropolitan in the sense of their modernness. They had all the culture and all from Greece and Rome, all the mainland Europe culture was there in Tyre and Sidon.

They were very moving, progressive cities, but they were not agricultural. They were not an agrarian community. And so they needed the supplies that came from Israel, from the southern sections of Judea that Herod was over. And although they really didn't like each other, they kind of got an in with one of Herod's attendants and persuaded him to have Herod come and meet with them.

Herod comes in these regal robes. The idea is that they were glistening silver and he just, you know, the sun hit him and he looked like a brilliant shot of light and to flatter him, to humor him so they could get what they wanted. They said when he spoke that it didn't sound like a man speaking, that it sounded like a god. And Herod had just had all these frustrating times of losing Peter and killing guards and he's frustrated and somebody tells him he looks nice, sounds good.

And he ate that up and got eaten up as a result. He bit into that and filled himself with flattery that he was a god and didn't give God the glory. And it says that it destroyed him. He received the worship that was rightfully due God

What ways has He demonstrated His sovereignty to you just this week? In what ways has God shown you that He has actively intervened in your life this week? Someone called you hadn't heard from for a long time and it just was a blessing to your life. Something came in the mail and you weren't expecting it and it just really richly blessed you. Some event happened that crossed your path and it was totally unexpected

and yet turned out to be a blessing. Something happened in the midst of a turmoil this week and you didn't know how that turmoil was going to be settled and all of a sudden it seemed like things just fell into place just out of nowhere and something you've been praying, something you've been talking to the Lord with this week, you've been praying and asking Him for strength for something or asking Him to bless in a certain area or asking Him to bring healing in a certain area, asking Him to give you understanding in a certain area and it came. Just think back on the week in those areas where God did that and let me ask the question is how did you respond this week? How's the general attitude of your response to God been this week

in the light of those areas of His sovereign intervention and answering prayer? Have you been responding as He's done this thankfully? That's the second question. How has He demonstrated these things is the first question and secondly how have you responded to how He's demonstrated this? Have you responded thankfully, rejoicing in everything, giving thanks?

Rejoice evermore is another one that kills you in that section that Paul talks about. Rejoice means rejoice all the time. Rejoice all the time in everything, give thanks and then He sticks in for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Has that been your response this week as you've seen God actively intervening in your life? If not then very possibly as you sit here this morning something's eating you.

You're just uneasy. You're on edge. The walls of depression are closing in. You feel disturbed and anxious and you're being eaten alive because you fail to thank the Lord and fail to give Him glory. Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian and scholars look to his writings a lot because he was so meticulous in recording the events of Jewish history especially at the time of Christ.

Josephus writes that King Herod died from an intestinal disorder. Whether or not an autopsy was performed and in the autopsy it was noticed that the intestines were filled with worms or what, we don't know. Autopsies were done at that particular time. The medical awareness of the ancients, of our ancestors was highly developed, very good, amazing. You know as well as I do that embalming 4,000 to 6,000 years ago

was a lot more developed than we have it even today. And so they did autopsy bodies and it was possible that they found that Herod was eaten alive by worms and so why are you spending all this time on that? We'll get there in a minute. Luke is writing the book of Acts and Luke is a doctor. He's a physician. And so he doesn't just mince words and especially when it comes to situations like this

he'll be specific concerning cause and he says that Herod was eaten up by worms. He was eaten by worms and he died. So that's good enough for me. The Holy Spirit had him pen that. He was eaten up by worms. The reason that's important is because if we don't learn and I mentioned this first service. When you become a Christian you don't just pray a prayer and that's it.

Olly olly oxen free. That's all done. And now I go skirting through life waiting for the Lord to come back. You do that you find yourself drifting away from the Lord. And we'll talk about that some. But you've now entered a new relationship. A new family relationship. And just as you are born into this one naturally you're born into that one spiritually and you grow in both of them.

You grow naturally through food and exercise and learning the disciplines of the society and all so that you don't violate laws and stuff. And this is what you do in the natural so in the spiritual. So as Christians when we're born into the family of God when we're born again we go through a process. Paul calls it a walk. We walk with the Lord. We grow in our understanding of the Lord

and how he's to be worshipped and how we approach him and how he wants to be praised and how he calls us to obedience to his word. We learn those things. We learn about the family of God and the importance of one another and the need for one another and the opportunity now and the call to serve one another. We learn those things. Those are things that are learned.

It just doesn't come to you immediately. So in that process of learning, listen, if we fail to learn to give God thanks and to give him glory continually. Continually. Again, not just sporadically but continually. Acknowledging his sovereignty.

How did he get out of there? If he got out of there, if he's magic, if he's magic, well then what can he do? What kind of spells can he cast? What can he do to me? I don't know where he is. I killed all these people and I'm upset and frustrated and they don't like it and my army's upset and they're kind of agitated and the people in Tyre and Sidon are agitated

and he's nervous. He's worried. He's anxious. There's some anxiousness about him. Obviously reacting selfishly, placing blame on other people

to cease from that labor. But how many of us work for six days or work for the seven? But then you take that one day off. What do you do? You work yourself silly around the house doing these other things so that by the time your day of rest is over, you're exhausted to go back to work. We don't know how to rest. We don't know how. That's because we don't know

how to rest in the Lord because the Sabbath day was given not only to rest the body but to realize afresh and anew that God is sovereign. He's my creator. He's going to bring me through. He actively intervenes. He answers prayer. And they could go back into the next week then refreshed because they had refreshed the inner man. They had rested and refreshed in their spiritual life.

Many of you are going to be taking vacations this summer and I know how that is. You're going to work yourself sick to get ready to go because you've got to get your job all put together before you leave and you're going to work yourself silly to get all that stuff done before you go and you're going to work to get your house ready and you're going to work to pack and then you're going to go for a week or two away and drive and drive and drive and drive and drive and drive and drive and run here and run there and run here and run there and you're going to drive and drive and drive and drive to get back and you're going to throw everything out of the car and into the house and the next day you're going to go back to work

and you're going to be worse off than you were when you left on vacation. R and R is good. Rest is good. If during that time we'll take some time apart with the Lord. Even if it's just a few minutes I'm not saying go spend a weekend away praying but that's not bad every now and then. Just go spend a weekend with the Lord. But take some time away from the stressful situation

just to spend time with the Lord and again acknowledge His sovereignty. Acknowledge His intervention. You don't even have to take a vacation. You're at work and you're frustrated and you go to the bathroom and go ahead and lock yourself in a stall and say God I'm frustrated. I can't stand it. Yet in the midst of this Lord I acknowledge Your sovereignty. You're over this situation.

You're going to bring me through it. I acknowledge that You're intervening. You've given me a particular opportunity. And then thank You. Thank You Lord. And I give You the glory. Use me now I pray. Paul says some interesting things and I say Paul. The Bible says, Paul writing it in the Bible in Philippians chapter 4. Paul says if we do that when the anxious worm is eating

if we not let it keep us anxious but in everything by prayer and supplication he says let your request be made known to God. And the people and the peace of God which passes our understanding will come upon. And usually that's all we remember in the verse. I want the peace of God that passes understanding. And that will come if we do that. If we take time to do that.

It's the refreshing that comes. The last half of that verse says the peace of God that passes understanding will guard your heart which is your emotions and your mind which are your thoughts. See why do we get anxious? Why do we get nervous about something? Because we we just chew and chew and chew on it. He said this. Why did he say that? He did this. She did this.

Why did they say that? Why did they do this? Why couldn't they do this? Why did they have to? And over and over and over you chew on it and you think about it the emotions come up you get frustrated and tense and mad. And you don't have to do that. We don't have to do that. When Paul says to bring your thoughts captive unto Christ this is exactly what he's talking about.

This is exactly the way to do that. God I confess my anxiousness. I acknowledge you are you're over this. It doesn't make a difference what he said

right now. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your sovereignty. And we give you the glory in this because you're going to bring us through it. We want your name to be glorified as a result. So do that Lord we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now you may sense a peace. You may sense a release. Guard that. The Lord's given that to you to guard your heart and mind

right now. And as you leave here and that thought comes in uh-uh I gave it to you Lord. You're in control. I refuse to dwell on that. I refuse to allow that place. I refuse to allow that place. I refuse to hash that again and again. It does nothing but frustrate me and I take it out on those around me. I refuse to do that. Take this worm of anxiety and replace it now

with your love and your mercy Lord in Jesus' name. The second worm that will eat us up is the worm of perversion. The worm of perversion. Hold your finger here in Acts chapter 12 or mark it and go with me to the right to the next book, next to Acts which is the book of Romans. And go to chapter 1. Many of you know where we're going here. But I don't know if you've thought about it

in this way. Romans chapter 1. We'll begin looking together at verse 18. Romans chapter 1. Listen as I begin reading and then catch up as you get there. Romans 1.18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Now notice first of all it's already being revealed. The Great Tribulation

isn't going to do anything more than just reveal God's wrath more fully. But His wrath is already being revealed. It's already being poured out. Against the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world

God's invisible qualities His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. So we can see all around us everything that evidences God's end. We need to acknowledge Him for that. Verse 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God they knew that He'd done this. They knew that He'd worked these things. They neither what? They neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. The two things we're talking about this morning. They neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. And although they claimed

that they failed to glorify God and give Him thanks. Listen, as a nation and a society, we've done that. Over the past 30 years, we've done that. We passed continual laws to separate God out of our society, out of our schools, out of our places of business, out of public offices, government offices. Get God out. We've turned our back on God. As a society, we failed to glorify Him,

to seek His leadership. And we have fashioned for ourselves idols. We have become an idolatrous nation. America is no longer a Christian nation. It's not a Christian society. It's an idolatrous nation. It's a pagan nation. We've fashioned for ourselves idols. We've turned away from the Creator. And you say, well, wait a minute. We're sitting here in church worshiping God.

Yeah, but what effect are we having on society around us? Where's the light and the salt in us? We've become a tolerant church against things that God will not tolerate, against things that He is now pouring out His wrath

especially the stars and especially today the rock stars. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but music is a medium by which things are communicated. Music is a narcotic and it's a stimulant. It can soothe. It can stimulate. Satan was Lucifer. And we find in Ezekiel that God created him with every beautiful instrument, that he was fashioned with timbrels and all

as a part of his frame, as a part of his makeup. So not only was he the guardian of God's glory, he was very probably the worship leader in heaven. I don't know if you've thought about this or not, but have you ever thought that maybe when Satan came to Adam and Eve that there's music in the background? You know how you watch a movie or a TV show or whatever and music enhances the moment?

If it's a mysterious scene and there's a killer lurking behind the closet door, doon, doon, doon, you know Jaws, doon, doon, doon, doon. You didn't have to see the shark. Doon, doon, doon, doon, doon, doon, doon, doon, doon. You knew, man. You started getting tense. Lucifer slithered out to Eve. Da, da, da, da, da. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. I think so.

I think very probably. When Jesus was tempted by Satan, I can, you know, I can just hear what the music that was probably playing to incite the emotions, to raise that to new heights, the temptation is there. And we've taken that with our music today and made idols out of the people

lines to the song include, quote, pumping those slugs, put them in a body bag, pulling the trigger to blow out your brain, end quote. Now listen, you listen to stuff long enough and it's going to influence you. It's going to influence attitude. It's going to influence desires. It's going to influence aggressive nature. It does. It just does that. Why do you think

at places like Waco they set up loudspeakers around 24 hours a day and they're blurring all of this stuff into the people in the compound? They know it drives them nuts and get them out

to see a parade, to see something happen. He just came to hopefully get a glimpse of the President's limousine as it passed by and he was asked, well do you like President Clinton? And he said, quote, I not only like President Clinton, I worship President Clinton. And he said, well are there any other Americans that you idolize that way? And he said, yeah, I worship George Washington

and I worship Michael Jordan. I want to be like Mike. Everybody sing the song on TV now. I want to be like Mike. And granted, there are a few, a very few

to go see people that are living godless lifestyles. And they lift them up and they listen to their music and they are influenced greatly by that lifestyle. As a society, we have degenerated to the point where we've exchanged the glory of the creator for the creation. No longer do we acknowledge God, but we lift up the spotted owl and we lift up the, you can't kill a, or move a dead turtle in Florida because it's a certain kind of turtle.

But you can kill babies by the score. And we're worshiping the creation rather than the creator. And several of you are going to go on vacation this year and you're going to go some place like the Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore or somewhere and some guide or some poster or some pamphlet is going to tell you that this thing is millions of years old and was formed over the process of millions of years when the Bible says God did it. He spoke and it was day two or day four or whatever.

In a day, He created it.

I don't know how many of you are on the internet, but there are certain internet providers, internet protectors, that will provide an internet protector for you or your business or your family so that your employees or your family can't go to certain websites because certain of them are filled with pornography and all of that. And so they lock out those websites. You can't get to them at all. It just won't let you go to those.

And as parents, you can put them on your computer so your kids can't go there at all. And bosses put them on their computers so employees can't go there at all. Well, this week, again, there was another deal in the paper about a certain web blocker company that produces these filtering software. And they said, quote, the American Family Association is now blocked.

American Family, the American Family Association's website for American Family Radio, Don Wilderman and all, they've now been blocked by this one producer of filtering software, this provider, to keep the kids away from the things on the internet here at this particular website that they shouldn't be around. Quote, the filtering agent states that the AFA, the American Family Association, refuses to accept homosexuality as normal and is, therefore, intolerant and characterized by, quote, hate-speak. End quote. Get used to that term.

That one's gonna be really handed out in the near future. Hate-speak. Not only are you homophobic if you speak out against a homosexual lifestyle, but you are filling the air with hate-speak. And it's gonna get me in jail and all those who really take a stand for Christ, for His Word against these areas of sin because we're no longer taught because we're no longer tolerant.

We're no longer playing the game. We're intolerant. We're a threat to society. You're filling the waves with hate-speak and we're gonna shut you down and we're gonna do that. You watch. It's gonna happen. We're there. It's not gonna happen someday. It's happening now. And you better know which side you're on and what stand you're gonna take and what the cost is.

You better count it now because we're there and we have given ourselves over to the worm of perversion. Ironically, through this web filter particular company, called GLAAD. GLAAD is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. You can get to that website. You just can't get to the American Family Association. Again, you say you're a Christian and this kind of thing

can't happen to you. Well, let me ask you something. Are you recognizing in your own life an increasing tolerance of personal sin? I mean, have you recognized in your own life over the past six months that you're doing something and it's personal sin or a personal habit that you know is sin or thoughts that you're letting fill your mind or things you're watching that you know it's a sin and yet you don't realize it's a sin and yet you're continuing to let yourself do it and you're excusing it.

Normally, you'd be shocked to find yourself doing these things or saying these things or considering these things. Have you wondered why you're feeling this way? Have you checked your attitude? Third worm, finally, is a worm of negativity. Worm of negativity. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God concerning Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, concerning you.

When we fail to give God thanks, when we fail to give Him the glory, when we fail to give Him thanks in every situation, just stop and give Him thanks. It causes us to become vulnerable to complaining and to a negative spirit because we just start picking out the little things that are wrong and start complaining about them. And we can become grumpy and grouchy and we can become cynical. And you realize that we can even minister for the Lord cynically?

Here I am. Here to minister for Jesus. Praise God. Hallelujah. Here to fulfill my task. And you say,

and the grumpiness and the grouchiness and the cynicism. That's the struggle. And you know it's a struggle. That's what we wrestle against. That's why we have to put on the helmet of salvation. The breastplate of truth. Gird ourselves around with the belt of, the breastplate of righteousness. The belt of truth. The feet shod with the shoes of the preparation

of the gospel. The shield of faith and the sword of the spirit. And Paul says, after you've done all that, stand. Stand, therefore. It is a struggle. It is a battle. But we've got to do it. Or you're going to be eaten alive by the worm of negativity and God's going to be intervening and demonstrating his sovereignty and you're going to see his glory and you're going to see

answers to prayer. And like Herod, you're going to overlook it and complain and be eaten alive. John Corson has an excellent illustration of this. He says, in 1895, when cotton was the undisputed king of the south, every cotton plantation in Coffey County, Alabama was wiped out by the boll weevil. The economic fallout was so great that the cotton plantations

were wiped out by the boll weevil. The economic fallout was disastrous, causing the Christians in the little town of Enterprise to meet together and pray this prayer. We thank you, Lord, that you have blessed us for so many years with cotton. Now it's gone, but we know you work all things together for good, so we trust you. Following their prayer meeting, the town of Enterprise

decided to change crops from cotton to peanuts. Now, although peanuts at that time were virtually unknown, there was a man of exceptional intelligence,

glorified God. John goes on to say, if you go to Enterprise today, you will see a monument in the town square with a boll weevil on top and this inscription underneath, quote, In profound appreciation for the boll weevil and what he has done as the herald of prosperity, this monument is erected by the grateful citizens of Coffey County, Alabama. All things work together for good, Romans 8, 28, end quote. You're being eaten up by the worm of negativity.