This morning, we’re continuing our journey through prayer.  Prayer is simply communicating with God.

I think too often we take prayer for granted and have too low of expectations of how God responds to us when we pray.  Prayer is incredibly powerful because when we pray, what we pray literally comes before God.  He hears our every prayer.

We’ve already seen how prayer changes ourselves and can even change the very plans of God.  We’ve seen how the heavenly realm can be set into action when we pray including angels, demons, and even God, Himself. 

Last week, we saw how God shook the place where the early church was praying and filled them all with the Holy Spirit again.  He got pretty excited when the church prayed for boldness to share His word and for Him to heal and perform signs and wonders in the name of Jesus!

This morning, we’re turning to an account where we see the interaction between Heaven and Earth as we pray.  We’ll see the incredible opportunity before us to cooperate with God and be a part of what He’s doing through prayer.

Acts 10

1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.

Cornelius was not an average person.  He was not just a Roman soldier, but a centurion.  This means that he oversaw 100 soldiers.  He must have been a man of solid character and proven himself to be skilled on the battlefield and with administrative gifts in order to rise into leadership and especially at this location. 

Caesarea was the capital city of Rome in Judea and was perhaps the world’s largest sea ports and artificial harbor at the time.  The procurator would have also resided here, whom was Pontius Pilate at this time.  It’s believed that the Italian Regiment served as the procurator’s body guard recruited from Roman-born individuals in Italy.

Cornelius would have been well known and respected and a public figure within this large city.

2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

Cornelius and his family were Gentiles, which means that they were not Jewish.  Romans generally practiced idol worship and believed in many gods and goddesses, who had household gods and even embraced the emperor as a god.  Cornelius, however, did not.  We don’t know the details, but he learned about God and he and his family chose to devote themselves to Him alone.

Have you ever encountered nonbelievers who live more like believers than church going believers? 

There are many who live here in our region who generally believe in God and even pray and are very generous.  They even generally live morally upright lifestyles.  Yet they are not saved; they’ve never fully given their lives to Jesus and received His salvation.  They are so, so close!

This is what Cornelius was like.  He believed in God and prayed to God and lived generously.  However, he was not saved.  He was so, so close to salvation!  However, God was about to do something about this!

3 One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”

4 Cornelius stared at him in fear.

Remember who Cornelius was; a battle-hardened, Roman centurion.  We can only imagine the things that he saw and the things that he did to obtain this position.  However, when he saw an angel of God, he was afraid.

 “What is it, Lord?” he asked.

The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”  (11:14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.)

Although Cornelius wasn’t saved, that doesn’t mean that God didn’t hear his prayers and notice the sacrificial way in which he was living to honor Him.  God was aware and those offerin