Prepare For Sunday | July 26th, 2026
Don't just show up on Sunday. Be prepared to meet with God.
Our desire for each worship service is for you to enter into the presence of the living God through Christ by His Spirit with His people.
The goal of this entry is to help prepare you to do that.
Next Stop: Prison | Acts 12:1-17
This Sunday in our Summer Travelogue through Acts — Acts 12:1–17
Nobody plans a vacation that includes jail. But this week, our journey through Acts takes us somewhere no traveler would ever choose. James has just been executed. Peter is in a maximum-security cell, chained between two soldiers, with sixteen more guarding every exit. Herod is in complete control.
Or is he?
Acts 12 asks a question every one of us eventually has to answer: who is really in control — the king with the sword, or the King whose rule no chain can touch? What starts in tragedy turns, by the end of the chapter, into one of the most delightful and surprising stories in all of Acts — one that reminds us how easily God's grace outruns our expectations. Join us as we discover that no prison, no diagnosis, and no circumstance is ever strong enough to hold us beyond His sovereign purposes.
Here is our outline:
1 The Illusion of Control (vv. 1–5)
2 The Ease of Omnipotence (vv. 6–11)
3 The Comedy of Answered Prayer (vv. 12–17)
Call To Worship:
Psalm 121:1–8
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
Scripture Reading
Psalm 2:1–12 ESV
“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
Corporate Confession of Sin
Leader: Brothers and sisters, Psalm 2 reminds us that the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and against His Anointed. We may never wear a crown like Herod, but each of us is tempted to rule the little kingdoms of our own lives. Rather than trusting the Lord who reigns over all things, we grasp for control, resist His providence, and quietly believe that life depends upon our own wisdom and strength. Let us confess our sins together.
Congregation: Almighty and sovereign God, We confess that we have too often lived as though we were kings instead of servants. We have trusted our own plans more than Your providence, our own strength more than Your power, and our own wisdom more than Your Word.
Leader: We confess our anxious striving to control what belongs to You alone. Instead of resting in Your faithful care, we have worried. Instead of praying, we have schemed. Instead of submitting to Your will, we have demanded our own.
Congregation: Forgive us for our pride, our unbelief, and our restless hearts. Teach us to lay down our illusion of control and to trust the reign of Your beloved Son, whose kingdom cannot be shaken.
Grant us humble hearts, steadfast faith, and joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: Hear the good news of the gospel.
The greatest prison is not one built by kings or guarded by soldiers. It is the prison of sin and death from which no one can free themselves. But what no earthly king could accomplish, Christ has done for all who trust in Him.
Hear God’s promise from Colossians 1:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13–14)
Brothers and sisters, in Jesus Christ your chains have been broken. Your guilt has been removed. Your sins have been forgiven. You have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the everlasting kingdom of God’s beloved Son. Therefore, as those who have been forgiven and set free by grace alone, receive this good news with joy:
In Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
