How to be a Witness amidst the Setbacks? | John Giftah | Inspirational Christian Sermon

0:01 Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world is a crazy place and it just seems to get crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and take a break. This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living, and Christian discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live the life that you were created for. Your host is a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world record holder, aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist, and founder of John Gifta International.

0:44 Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. Are you in a place in your life where you're just furious with all this happening with your life? Are you saying, I want to just be a testimony for God, I want to be a vessel for his kingdom. I want to just do the right thing. I just want to be an honest, good person that you know, brings glory to God in and through my life. But why is it that it looks like I'm always being in the negative side where people tend to think there's something wrong with me, or because of all that's happening, it looks like I'm the bad person, or it looks like, you know, I made something wrong.

1:24 People are misunderstanding me, and they're just assuming and judging things about me without even giving me a chance. And how on earth am I supposed to preach to them? How am I supposed to be a witness to them? How am I supposed to be a channel of blessing to them? Are you wondering about these things? It's well, I want to start off by sharing a passage with you, and I want to take this forward. And it is found in Acts twenty eight. There's a moment when the Apostle Paul and the rest of the crew on board on board of a ship, they get washed into the island of Malta because of a storm.

1:59 And this is what happens. Even before the storm, the Apostle Paul had given a divine instruction to them saying, you know what, if we go forward, we're going to be in danger. Let's stay back, Let's not go, because he knew in the spirit that was not the right thing to do, but they did not listen to him. They disobeyed divine instruction and that led to not only them getting into trouble, but Apostle Paul also got into trouble and then eventually ended up on the island of Malta. And where they were in this island of Malta, in this place itself.

2:38 They ended up in this place because they disobeyed what the apostle Paul said. But here's the thing I want you to understand. They end up here, and Apostle Paul was here, and Paul, if you look at word street says, Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and has he put it in the fire. A viper driven out of the eat fastened itself by its hand. And this is what it says inverse. For when the island saw that the snake was hanging from his hand, they said to each other, this man must be a murderer, for though he escape the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.

3:15 So they just assumed that he's a murderer. And now he's being punished because he he was. He was trying to escape from the sea also, but here you know, justice has prevailed. He's gonna die. This is what they talked about him to each other. You may be in a place in your life where you're saying you know, just things happen. You know, I don't know why, why of all people, why did the snake exactly by apostle Paul. You may be in a place you're saying, John, you know, there's so many other people out there, But why is it that I'm the one who's getting into trouble and people are talking about me like I'm the one who's bad.

3:51 I'm the one who's you know, who deserves it, and you know they have a negative or wrong opinion about me. That's not who I am. Right But but but here you see, partly this is correct because in the sense that the opposite Paul was a mur he had murdered Christian's way back before he got saved. He was a murderer. So they were partly correct in that. But here's the thing. He was not being punished. But some people may come and attack you, you know, and some of the things they say may be hurtful to you because what they say maybe partly true.

4:27 Maybe there were certain things that were negative about you, characteristics about your way back before you got saved or whatever, and they that might hurt you. You may feel like, what is going on? These people are not even giving me a chance to explain myself. It just life happened. But John, I don't know how I can preach to these people. But here's the thing I wanted to understand, right verse five. But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. It's awesome shook it off, right.

5:00 That's a message in itself for you guys. You know, when you go through troubles, just shake it off. But verse six, Okay, that's another message. So let's go. Let's not spend more time than now. But the people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead. But after waiting for a long time and seeing nothing unusual happened to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. Listen to this. That negative thing that happened, it seemed like a setback, but it was actually setting him up.

5:33 These people were thinking that he was a murderer, but now they changed their minds to say he's a god. And eventually all of these things gave him the opportunity to preach and share the gospel to them. He you know, the next couple of verses, you see he's preaching to people. So many people are getting healed and blah blah blah, all of these things had happening. Why why it all started with a negative thing. It started as a set back, but you know what, he just set him up for something great today.

6:05 I want to encourage you, guys. This is a message you might have heard a million times, but I want to just remind you if you're going through a setback, it didn't come to stop you. It came to set you up for something awesome, maybe for the next level of your destiny where you will be able to shine for God's glory. You know, it seemed like a negative thing, but the miracle turned people's minds. You know, when people are right now talking negative about you, assuming things about you, judging you, writing you off, when they see what the Lord is going to show up and show out in and through your life, when they see that God is going to, you know, do a miracle in your life where he's going to elevate you, promote you, or he's going to show himself up in your life in such a way where they thought you're going to die, but you're going to live and you know, proclaim His glory, live and talk about this wonders I want to tell you something that is that is going to be a testimony in itself.

7:02 Yes, we want a testimony without a test We want a triumph without trials. We want, you know, a miracle without actually going through a mess right or or or a mistake or a negative thing. But but but I want you to understand today that you know what you go through, that setback is necessary for God to use as a platform to set you up. If the snake hadn't bet in Apostle Paul, of all the people, nobody would have noticed Apostle Paul, you'd have just been one among the folk over there. But even that setback was just to get their attention.

7:51 Maybe, can you look at it in that way that the setbacks in your life they look like they're coming against you. They look like they're just, you know, something that's going to affect your testimony or witness for God. But what if that was actually to grab people's attention to see what God is going to do in and threal life. Amen, God bless you.

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