Acts 3:15 “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.” This episode talks about how God can do the impossible. He can redeem any situation. He can use all things for good. I know things may look bad for many of you right not, But God. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
But God
Acts 3:15 “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.”
The message I want to give you today came from a sermon I heard from Paster Steven Furtick at Elevation Church. He has a podcast and a YouTube channel. I will put a link to this sermon in the show notes so if you get a chance you can listen to it. He had such a great message and I am only going to touch on a very small part of it. I hope you take the time to listen to his whole message. His sermon was called “What Comes After.” Pastor Furtick was talking about what comes after a big event in your life. He said one of the best verses for us to pass along to any new Christian is Acts 3:15. Then he read the verse from above like this, “You killed the author of life, but God…” And then he repeated “But God.” I knew in that very moment I wanted you all to hear that message.
Some of you are going through a lot right now. You are facing things you don’t want to face and things no one should have to face. Some of you have loved ones that are very sick, some of you are very sick, and some of your children are very sick. Some of you are dealing with the loss of a loved one and some of you are in the middle of a mess with your spouse or your family. Some of you are looking at your situation and thinking it looks pretty bleak. You might be thinking there is no way out of the mess you find yourself in. You might be wondering how your loved one will get better when the odds are not in their favor. You might be wondering if you and your spouse will ever be happy again. You might be wondering when your chronic pain will stop or when you will be healed of this illness you have been carrying for a long time. When I think of all those situations I think of those two words Pastor Furtick said from this verse, “But God.”
The whole verse says, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.” If we were to look at Jesus’ experience while it was happening, without the benefit of knowing, “What comes after,” we wouldn’t look at it in the same way. The day Jesus died, no one was calling that day Good Friday. We named it that after we found out what came after. It didn’t feel like a good day to anyone present at that crucifixion. No one was celebrating that terrible event at the time and yet so much good has come from it. We needed Jesus to go through that awful experience so God could redeem us. The person speaking in this verse is talking to the people responsible for Jesus’ death. He is telling them that although they tried to stop Jesus from spreading the good news, God brought Him back. You tried to do evil, But God. You tried to silence the Good News, But God. Where do you need to remember But God in your life today?
Are you thinking, my child is too sick, the doctors are saying she is not going to make it, we need to say goodbye? Please remember, But God. But God can fix anything. He doesn’t have to follow the laws of medicine. He can do whatever He wants whenever He wants. Are you wondering how your mom is going to come back from this illness? Are you wondering how she is going to beat the odds? Remember, But God. God has healed lepers, God has brought people back from dead, He can surely cure that cancer, or heal that lack of appetite. He can give her the strength she needs to be whole again. Are you thinking your marriage is never going to be the same. You and your spouse have been through too much, you have grown too far apart? Maybe that is true, maybe this situation is too big for you and your spouse, But God. But nothing is too big for God. Yes, it’s too big for you guys on your own but with God you can do all things. Our God is the God of the impossible. He has done so many amazing things in my life and I know He had done some amazing things in your life too. I know things look bad, But God.
The other things to remember, besides the fact God can do the impossible is that He can also take something bad and use it for Good. What happened to Jesus was really bad, and yet God used it for good. As hard as it is to imagine while your are in the middle of an awful time, it is important to remember that God can redeem any situation. As I talked about the other day, this doesn’t mean the situation suddenly becomes good. It is not a good thing you have to go through whatever terrible thing you are struggling with right now. It still sucks and you will probably never look back on it and say you are happy you went through it. However, God can use that situation for good. Maybe you are going through this terrible situation to learn something, or to gain perseverance and resilience? Maybe you needed to learn a lesson and this was the only way you would learn it? Sometimes, no matter how many times someone tells us something, we don’t listen until something bad enough happens that we are forced to listen. Sometimes we are in the terrible situation because of our own actions and that’s ok. We all make mistakes. If we were on our own I wouldn’t be saying that’s ok, But God. But God can redeem us, and all of our mistakes. He can take our brokenness and make us whole again. God is that Good!
I know life is difficult for so many right now. What if we all looked at our lives and asked ourselves where we need to remember, But God? What if we all remembered that none of us know what happens after. Only God has that information and He doesn’t seem to be sharing it. What if we all took some time to think about all the ways God could use this for our good, for His good? I know it doesn’t make sense now. I know it’s confusing, frustrating, sad, overwhelming, and all the other things too. I know you just want to scream and cry at the same time. Go ahead, God can take it. He can take all we have for Him. He is strong. It is totally normal to feel all those things you are feeling. Let yourself feel them. As you feel them, just remember, But God. Just remember He is the Way Maker, The Miracle Worker, the God of the Impossible. I know your situation may look bad, it may look hopeless, but God! God can turn it all around. God is amazing and He wants to heal you, heal your loved one, save your marriage. He wants to do all those things for us, will we let Him? We will keep hope alive and continue to ask Him for the healing we want? We will keep reminding ourselves nothing is too big for God? We will see the brighter days ahead!
Dear heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you so much. We are struggling Lord, and we aren’t sure why. Our loved ones are hurting and we aren’t sure why or what we can do about it. Lord, we ask you to come down individually and personally into each and every one of our situations today and we ask you to perform miracles. We know you want to and we know you are more than capable. Lord, please show up for us in big ways today. Help us to keep hope alive and continue to remember you can redeem any situation. You can redeem any mistakes we have made. Lord, help us to know deep in our hearts that you can do all things and that you really want to heal us, our spouse, our loved one, and our relationships. Lord, you are so incredible and we are so grateful for all you do. We ask all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I wanted to let everyone know I have decided to post the audio from these podcasts on YouTube as I know many people who do not listen to podcasts and yet like to watch things on YouTube. If you know anyone who might enjoy listening to this on YouTube please let them know they can search for Walk Boldly With Jesus and my channel will come up. Another reason some people might prefer YouTube is because there is a playlist that just has the Witness Wednesday’s on it. So if they just want to listen to those, they can be found on a separate playlist. If you are enjoying this podcast can you please share it with at least one new person. Also, if you could leave a review, that would also help other people find this podcast better. Thank you! I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!