Verses Used:
- Acts 12:1-23
- Romans 13:1
- John 19:11
- James 4:6
- Matthew 23:12
Takeaways:
Herod’s Power
- Herod had power, he had the ability to kill people and get away with it.
- Sometimes bad people are in power. They get away with doing bad things to good people.
- God is the giver of power and authority.
- Just because we follow Jesus and are about his mission, does not mean that we won’t have opposition.
God’s Power (through prayer)
- We saw the power that Herod had to kill James and imprison Peter, now we will see the power of God to intervene
- Herod showed his power to have James executed and Peter imprisoned, but God showed his power to free Peter from prison.
- God invites us to pray, to converse, to talk with him as a son would with his father, or as you would with your closest friend.
- God includes us in prayer because it’s a relational connection that lets us know him deeper, and we get to see what he is doing.
Pride and Humility
- From James we read, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
- From Matthew we read, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Discussion Questions:
- What keeps you from placing a higher value on prayer, or spending more time with God in prayer?
- How might your daily life be different if you made prayer a bigger priority?
- Can you think of some ways pride causes problems in our lives?
- Why is it harder to live with humility than pride?
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