Two apostles. Two prison cells. Two prayers for a miracle. James got the sword. Peter walked out free in the middle of the night, chains on the ground, past sixteen soldiers, without anyone waking up. Same God. Same church praying. Completely different outcomes. In this message from Acts: To the Ends of the Earth, Lead Pastor Jon Stoe goes straight at one of the hardest questions in the Christian life: why does God do miracles for some people and not for others?

Jon doesn't flinch from the tension. He walks through Acts 11 and 12, where the early church loses Stephen and James to execution while Peter gets a jailbreak by angel, and he refuses to offer a formula, because Scripture doesn't offer one. There's no passcode. No bargain. No measure of faith that forces God's hand. What he finds instead is something more honest and ultimately more comforting: miracles are at God's discretion to accomplish God's purposes, and the people who saw the most miracles in history still faced unpredictability, loss, and unanswered prayers. Their faith held anyway, because it was anchored to what God had already done, not to what they hoped he might do next. If you're sitting in a season where you need God to do what only God can do, this one is for you.

Litchfield Church of the Nazarene is a welcoming, bilingual community of faith in Litchfield, MN, whose mission is to produce fruitful disciples of Jesus Christ. We gather every Sunday at 10:45 AM. New messages drop on the podcast each week. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. Learn more at litchfieldnaz.com.