"I don't know what tomorrow holds, and I can't change what yesterday did, but somehow I was sleeping. " God told me about one of my kids a couple of years ago. I was so worried.
He said, "I've got them. Stay out of it. " That was hard for me to hear, but I already did all I could do.
If I could do something else, I'd do something else. God said, "I've got them. Stay out of it.
" When he said that to me, and I slept on it, I woke up to find he's really, really good at doing stuff while I sleep. Santa Claus has nothing on God. You ought to see what he can bring while you're sleeping.
He said, "I was sleeping. " I like to imagine it… Not for dramatic purposes. Not because I'm trying to be some great storyteller.
I just like to imagine he's standing at the door. He has been there banging on the door. "It's me.
It's me. Don't you believe God can do it? " "No, we're really confused.
" "I'm confused too. Here we are. This is what a miracle feels like.
" "I was sleeping, and right about when I hit my REM cycle…" Verse 7: "Suddenly…" So, first, Peter said, "I was sleeping. God let me sleep. He gave me peace.
He supernaturally brought me to bed with the revelation that he was with me. " "Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up.
" So, Peter said, "Let me tell you what happened. I was sleeping. Then I was struck.
" Y'all are kind of slow today. Let me come down there and show you what a miracle feels like. We all have our ideas.
Right? Okay. You're reading this, and you're thinking, "Okay.
Here comes the angel. This is great for Peter. " Peter is our guy.
An angel shows up in verse 7. We're all worried in verse 6. "He's probably going to die like James died.
There's no hope for Peter. Oh, this is horrible. " Suddenly… Great Bible word.
Suddenly an angel showed up. Here comes the light, and here comes the angel. All of a sudden… I like to picture the angel protecting me and covering me with his wings, but apparently, this angel had wings he used for whacking.
Sometimes a miracle feels like a slap. Has life done one of these to you lately? What kind of angel is this, running around striking people?
The same one who put him to sleep, because God knows when it's time for you to get up. Sometimes you praise him because you were sleeping, but you have to learn to praise him when he strikes you too. Not all discomfort is a curse.
What kind of angel has this been in your life lately? (I'm not going to hit women. I have to draw the line somewhere.
) Wouldn't they clip me on YouTube if I ran around hitting…? They're probably going to clip it anyway and put it on there. That's all right.
I've been clipped before. I've been struck before. Sometimes God used a critic.
Sometimes God used something that felt like this. Touch your neighbor and say, "That's your wake-up call. " See, there's a sleepy-time angel God will send, and then there's a wake-up angel God will send.
Some of the things that have been happening in your life lately… That's not the Enemy; that's an angel. Some of it is an angel. I used to think, raising teenagers, "O God, they're possessed by the Devil.
" Nope. I read a book by Peterson who wrote The Message Bible. He's in heaven now.
He said adolescence is a gift to the middle-aged man to keep us from stagnating. When we are forced to confront what we never grew through in our children, it keeps us from lying down and dying in the state we're in. I realized my teenagers weren't the Devil; they were my angel, saying, "Wake up, mate.
" I think this would be very good for us to learn the next time something happens and we don't like how it feels. The next time something happens, because we were all so comforted that "The angel put me to sleep. " But Peter says, "I was sleeping when I needed to sleep, and I was struck when I needed to get up.
" The same God who puts me to sleep… Just do it for me. High-five three people and say, "Get up right now. " This is your angel saying… That person who gets on your nerves when they walk into the office on Monday… I want you to see them with wings.
"Here comes my angel trying to keep me fresh. " How else would you love your enemies if you didn't have any? "All they're doing is giving me an opportunity to be obedient.
Here it comes. " Jump your neighbor a little bit. Say, "This is what a miracle feels like.
" "I thought it was God punishing me. No. He's not punishing me; he's pushing me because he has something…" This is what it feels like.
Sleeping. "I was sleeping, and I was struck. " But that's my second favorite point.
Here comes my favorite point. "I was sleeping, and I was struck, and I was struck by something that was meant to help me, not to kill me. I was struck by something that was meant to move me forward.
I was struck by something that was sent to notify me that God is active in this situation. So, thank you, Lord, for the wing that covered me and let me sleep under the heat of my trial, but thank you for the same wing that smacked me and got me up out of that pit and told me, 'You're better than this. '" "So, I was sleeping.
I can't stay long. I've got to go. I can't stay here at this door forever.
I've got to go, but I need you to know how the Lord brought me out. I was sleeping, and just when I got comfortable ('Oh, thank you, Lord. You're letting me get a good night's sleep before I die'), I was struck, because God was like, 'I'm not done with you yet.
'" Some of you laid down to die, but you're going to another place, another dimension. You haven't even matured yet. You haven't even done your best work yet.
You haven't even made your greatest contribution or deposit yet. The Bible says Peter was sleeping and Peter was struck. "I was sleeping.
I was struck. " "Then the angel said to him, 'Put on your clothes and sandals. '" So I guess Peter would say, "I was stripped," but I'm not going to preach that one.
"I had to get out of my pajamas, because what I was dressed for wasn't appropriate for what God was bringing me into. I was wearing my prison PJs, so I had to get dressed. " "'Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,' the angel told him.
" He did not give him a GPS coordinate. He gave him an instruction. He gave him a path.
My favorite thing about Peter in this passage… He slowed down to share how the Lord brought him out. If you go back through the things in your life that God has brought you out of, you can learn a lot for where he's bringing you through right now. Peter said, "Before I go to the next place…" "Before I go to the next week, before I go through another birthday, before I go into another season of my life, before I go into another school year…" Whatever the case may be.
"Before I go into another eGroup and leave because they were weird…" They are the thirteenth weird group you've been in. They're the weird ones every time? Let's evaluate this for a minute.
"Follow me," the angel told him. Peter said, "I followed him. " "He followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening.
" He didn't know what God was doing until he was all the way out. "I was sleeping. I was struck.
I got up. The chains fell off. Then I started following the angel, but honestly, I didn't know what was going on.
So, I was sleeping, I was struck, and then I was stumbling. To be honest with you, I'm only here at the door right now because I stumbled to something I didn't know was even there. I mean, I was still so sleepy… You have to understand the angel woke me up quickly, hit me hard, knocked the breath out of me.
I wasn't expecting that to be the wake-up call. I was just settled in. I was just starting to dream.
It was a good dream, and he woke me up and said, 'Get dressed. We've got to go. ' And before I could even ask where, we were out, and it was dark.
I followed him, but I didn't know where I was going. I was stumbling. " I told my oldest son recently, "Anything you've ever seen me do well as a dad, I did it by accident, because I was stumbling to figure out how to be your dad.
" Every double-dipped chocolate-covered pretzel bag you ever saw me walk past and not eat one, I wanted one. Oh, I wanted one. Anything I brought into subjection in my life, I stumbled to surrender it.
I stumbled to this stage this morning. I didn't get up on the stage today thinking, "I'm God's gift to the world to share a message. " I stumbled up the steps today, saying, "God, if somebody needs to be brought out, if somebody needs a miracle… If you can use anything, Lord, you can use me, so I will make my way to the stage.
" If it's stumbling, I'm coming. If it's stumbling, I'm stepping. If it's stumbling, I'm going higher.
"I was stumbling. I followed the angel. I didn't even know it was real.
" This is what a miracle feels like. You're doing the good stuff, and you don't know it. You are sowing in tears so you can reap in joy.
You are stumbling. Can we point out the fact that the miracle happened and the light broke through? But the light came through and Peter had to walk.
God said it's going to be his light and your legs. But sometimes, after leg day, you'll be walking past some pretzels covered in chocolate and really want them and really wobble. Peter said, "I stumbled, but I went straight.
" Verse 11 says finally, when the angel left… That would be the scary part. The angel left, and Peter came to himself. He realized everything that had just happened had really happened.
"God brought me out. I don't need to have survivor's guilt. God brought me out.
I don't have to live in constant rehearsal of how they victimized me. God brought me out. I'm going to heal from this now and move into a new season of healing others, because God brought me out.
