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[ Music ] ♪ You believe you shall be saved ♪ ♪ In God's hands ♪ ♪ You'll be one and all ♪

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♪ 'Tis eternal life ♪ ♪ In God's hands ♪ ♪ You'll be one and all ♪ ♪ 'Tis never lasting life ♪

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♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ This eternal life, God's gift ♪

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♪ We live on and on ♪ ♪ There's nothing like ♪ ♪ God's will ♪ ♪ Will depend ♪

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♪ And on ♪ - Hear this word lifted up from our scripture lesson. The high priest rose up and all who were with him,

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that is the party of the Sadducees, being filled with jealousy, laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

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But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

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The subject of the message, escape from prison. Escape from prison. Being in jail is an experience that most of us seek to avoid. A jail is by design intended to deprive

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an individual of freedom. The prisoner is confined to the narrow limits of a cell surrounded by iron bars. The prisoner is intentionally made uncomfortable. The experience is made unpleasant so that those who go there will seek to avoid coming back. I remember some time ago when I was visiting in the jail, an inmate said to me that he had been

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in a number of jails in Dallas, Waco, and San Antonio, and other places and he said that some of the places that he had been they served three meals and in Waco where he was at that time they only served two and he said now Reverend you all got to get on the ball and see to it that something is done about this.

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He was not concerned about why he was there so much as he was the comforts that would be given him while there. The apostles here are arrested and put in jail for the second time. After the first incarceration, the apostles are warned to speak no more in the name of

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Jesus. But this warning is ignored. Instead of toning down their teaching, their preaching, they continue with increased vigor and determination.

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Many mighty works are performed. The number of believers continues to increase. come from all directions to be healed. So the early church is growing at a rapid rate through the teaching, the preaching, and the healing which is taking place

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through the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And because such a large number of people come, the apostles are put in jail again. Most of us are able to identify immediately with the jail where it's located in our communities. We've had a great deal of talk and concern about our jail here in Austin and the amount

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of money that has been spent in order to comply with the standards that have been set forth in the federal court. But there is another kind of jail that we need to consider as we seek to unravel the meaning of this text for our lives.

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Many of us who may never get behind prison bars, whether in the county or city jail, find ourselves in a kind of prison. We often get in jail to some bad habit.

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We had recently what is called a smoke out in an attempt for-- there are those who are caught in this whole business of chain smoking even though they know that it's detrimental to their lives, they find themselves in jail to the habit.

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One man was asked when, after reading a great deal of the material about smoking and cancer, he was asked, what are you going to do about it? He said, well, I'm going to stop reading. He was in jail to the habit.

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Others find themselves in jail to drugs. caught in a cycle. And they discover that it is a habit which they cannot financially afford.

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And so they rob, cheat, and even kill in order to finance that habit because they are in jail, caught in a cycle. And some find themselves in a poverty cycle in jail

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and find it difficult, if not impossible, to get out. Remember one person who was borrowing money from what we call loan sharks where they charge you sometimes 100%, 50%, 100%, even more.

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You borrow $50, and you pay back $100. And before you can pay that back, you borrow some more, and on and on and on. And many people have gotten in jail to that sort of thing

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and have found themselves so bogged down in debt that they will never get out. And they have very little to show for it, even though they're working on good jobs

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and getting good salaries, because they're in jail. In jail. This happens also in family life. We get caught in a cycle where a young lady

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who grows up from a family where the mother is there with several children. She's never been married. And she had the children when she was in her early teens.

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She started having them. And a young lady comes up in that family. And while she's in her teens, she has children under the same conditions.

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And they find themselves-- and it goes on from generation to generation in jail. There are so many ways that we get in jail. And so often we live in mental prisons.

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Sometimes we're in jail as far as our thoughts are concerned. The horizon of our thinking is so limited. And you hear people who are always talking about, I can't see this and I can't see that.

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It's because they're in jail. Their thoughts are narrow and limited to the own little circle in which they live and move.

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They are in jail. So many ways we find ourselves in this life in jail. So you see, stone walls do not a prison make, iron bars a cage. We can be in padded cells.

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Some people who live on one side of the town never go across the tracks. They're in jail. Their concern is not any farther than just the little exclusive neighborhood in which they live and they go from there to work and back.

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are in jail. We get in jail by the thoughts we entertain, by the habits in which we engage. Because as the old saying goes, you sow a thought and you reap a habit, you sow a habit and you reap a deed, sow a deed, and you reap a habit, and you sow a habit, and you reap a character,

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and you sow a character, and you reap a destiny. Here they are in jail. But as we notice this particular story, they are in jail because of action

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which is taken by the high priests And the Sadducees, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, the high priest is the authority who has the power to make decisions

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as far as the temple precincts may be concerned and what the apostles had done had occurred within the sacred precincts of the temple and they did not like it.

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They were jealous. That's what one interpretation says. One, the King James says it because of their indignation. Another says because of their jealousy.

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So the apostles are arrested and placed in the common prison because of the jealousy of the high priest and the Sadducees. Jealousy.

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Jealousy is kind of hostility, kind of resentment that one entertains because someone else has something that you don't want them to have, or they're achieving some success

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that you don't want them to achieve, and you consider that person or those persons as a rival, rivals. So you're jealous.

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They were jealous. They were jealous because the church was increasing in numbers. They were jealous because the people were coming to hear

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what the apostles had to say, and there was more excitement, more concerned about what was taking place out there on Solomon's porch than what was occurring on the inside of the temple.

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So they were jealous. And jealousy is a terrible thing. You see a person that has a suit on like yours, and you wonder, where did he get that suit?

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Well, the same place maybe you got yours. Where did she get that dress? Why did she have to wear that dress? Today I'm wearing my dress and it's just like mine.

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Jealousy. Resentment. And they arrested them and many times we can get arrested in the course of our duties, our daily routine,

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by some exercise of jealousy. They are arrested because of jealousy. And they are put in the common prison, common prison. They are in bondage there.

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They've been doing what they were sent to do. And this is what we need to understand as we look at that here are the apostles, And the apostles are sent from God.

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That's what the word means. It means those who are sent, these persons are sent by God to preach and to teach and to declare God's good news among the people.

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And they are doing what God commands. And they are arrested, placed in jail because of jealousy. In the common prison, common prison. There are bars there.

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They're isolated from the Christian community. Here they are in jail. Their freedom of locomotion is limited now. They just have a cell that they can move around in.

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They're in prison. And as they are there, they are not engaging in any cursing about why they are there. They recognize that they have done what is commanded of them and they have accepted this experience.

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They have accepted it. And that's what it really means to live the Christian life, is to be able to accept whatever life brings. Those that were in authority had power over them and they used the power that they had

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over the apostles to persecute the apostles, to treat them wrongfully. placed them in jail, but the apostles accepted in the spirit of God. For after all, their leader had said to them, "When men persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely, rejoice and be exceedingly glad."

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Here they are in jail. The doors are locked. Every avenue of escape is shut and it is nighttime. Usually we think of the darkness as being associated with depression and sure this is

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enough. They have been maltreated and this is enough to cause them to become discouraged and to some members of the family to come bail them out and then say well I'm through with all that. This ought not have happened to me. I'm serving the Lord. But

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they didn't do that. Here they are in jail in the midst of the darkness and in the night the angel of the Lord came. The messenger of the eternal enters the jail. That's good news. We're all going to get in jail some sort of way. There are so many ways we can get in jail. Whenever one goes to the hospital and we have to stay there,

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whether it's in the hospital or at home, and we find ourselves jailed, sort of chained to the bed, so to speak, because we can't get out, can't do the things we'd like to do. It's sort of in prison. We all get there some way or another, sooner or later. Some experience, but in the midst of it all, here is the angel of the Lord who comes

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into the room in the darkness, and in that darkness there is also the good news that the doors are open and they can come out of jail. It's an escape. You You see, God has always provided an escape. People can do a lot of things to us physically.

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They can put us in cuffs, they can do this and that, but somehow if you have the spirit of God in your life, you are still free. You see, if I have freedom in my love and in my soul am free, angels above alone that so above enjoy such liberty.

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We can escape, and so the door is open. You can go free. It's not what the circumstances are that we may live in. We may be poor.

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We may live in a hut. We may not have the ability to move as far as our bodies are concerned. We may be handicapped this way or that way and have this or that kind of prison, but it's the spirit that really sets us free.

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For you can have good health as far as the body is concerned, but if you live in a mental prison and in a spiritual prison, you're still in jail. So they escape and the word is go, stand, speak in the temple and declare all the words of the new life.

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They did that. Whenever you get, whenever God sets us free, he sets us free to serve. He sets us free to share. He really sets us free to celebrate his goodness year in and year out, day by day.

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celebrate his goodness and they said now look didn't we tell you as they brought them before the court the second time didn't we tell you not to do that? And the word from Peter is that we would rather obey God than man because we are are his witnesses. We are witnesses of his spirit. That's what confounded them. That's

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what confounds the world today when we are able to declare by our lives that we are witnesses of the spirit of God, that the spirit of love, that the spirit of goodness, that the spirit of goodwill dwells in us and radiates through our lives. You see God leads us in strange and wonderful ways for those who have the spirit of God

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obey God wherever he leads through the prison experiences. Now you may be led into prison but he opens the door where you can get out. You're set free. You may be led into the wilderness and wander there for some 40 years, but he's leading

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us on the way to Canaan. As the song says, "And shady green pastures so rich and so sweet, where the waters cool flow, bathe the weary one's feet." Still get some refreshment.

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And those sorrows befall us and Satan oppose. grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes. God provides escape no matter where you are. Moses is in Pharaoh's court, but Moses is provided a means of escape. Daniel is placed in the lion's den, but he's provided a means of escape. God

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always provides a means of escape. He leads us, sometimes yes, through the waters but that's a means of escape. Sometimes through the flood, yes, but that's a means of escape. Some through great sorrow but God gives us a song even in our prison experiences. He sets us free. He opens the door that we may celebrate His goodness.

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That's amazing. That's amazing. Amazing it is how God's grace is visited upon all of his people, whatever may be our experiences, do not listen. He's there.

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The angel of the Lord visits us. And as we come now to the hymn of invitation, "Amazing Grace," I'll sing the song. (piano music) (piano music)

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(piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music)

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(piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music)

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(piano music) [MUSIC PLAYING] (piano music) [ Music ]

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♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ ♪ How great thy name ♪

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♪ Thy laws, God's laws ♪ ♪ God's law, God's law ♪ ♪ God's word, Lord God, I see ♪ ♪ God's grace, let not my heart do fear ♪

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♪ I told my heart to fear ♪ ♪ And raised my fears to fear ♪ ♪ All praise shall be ♪ ♪ That praise shall be ♪

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♪ Thee, O God, most dear ♪ ♪ Our first feast ♪ ♪ Bring me ♪ ♪ In their ♪

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♪ Deep crowns ♪ ♪ Of yeast ♪ ♪ I shall be as the sun ♪ ♪ With no rest days ♪

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♪ To sing God's praise ♪ ♪ God's grace can make me first to be loved ♪ - Oh gracious God, our Father, we thank you that in the midst of prison experiences

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that may be encountered in this life, that an avenue of escape is provided through your spirit, that because of the spirit of God, man is able to walk through prison doors

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to transcend those things that have been designed to defeat us. Grant us this spirit that it may ever be with us as we go forth into the challenges of this week.

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The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you

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and give you peace. Now and forevermore, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]