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

0:06 place and it just seems to get crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and

0:12 take a break. This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're

0:17 a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living, and Christian

0:24 discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live the life that you were created

0:29 for. Your host is a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world

0:34 record holder, aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist, and founder of John

0:39 Gifta International. Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. Are you

0:55 in a place in your life where you're just furious with all this happening with

0:58 your life? Are you saying, I want to just be a testimony for

1:00 God, I want to be a vessel for his kingdom. I want to

1:03 just do the right thing. I just want to be an honest, good

1:07 person that you know, brings glory to God in and through my life.

1:11 But why is it that it looks like I'm always being in the negative side

1:15 where people tend to think there's something wrong with me, or because of all

1:19 that's happening, it looks like I'm the bad person, or it looks like,

1:23 you know, I made something wrong. People are misunderstanding me, and

1:26 they're just assuming and judging things about me without even giving me a chance.

1:32 And how on earth am I supposed to preach to them? How am I

1:34 supposed to be a witness to them? How am I supposed to be a

1:38 channel of blessing to them? Are you wondering about these things? It's well,

1:42 I want to start off by sharing a passage with you, and I

1:45 want to take this forward. And it is found in Acts twenty eight.

1:48 There's a moment when the Apostle Paul and the rest of the crew on board

1:53 on board of a ship, they get washed into the island of Malta because

1:59 of a storm. And this is what happens. Even before the storm,

2:02 the Apostle Paul had given a divine instruction to them saying, you know what,

2:07 if we go forward, we're going to be in danger. Let's stay

2:10 back, Let's not go, because he knew in the spirit that was not

2:14 the right thing to do, but they did not listen to him. They

2:19 disobeyed divine instruction and that led to not only them getting into trouble, but

2:23 Apostle Paul also got into trouble and then eventually ended up on the island of

2:30 Malta. And where they were in this island of Malta, in this place

2:37 itself. They ended up in this place because they disobeyed what the apostle Paul

2:42 said. But here's the thing I want you to understand. They end up

2:46 here, and Apostle Paul was here, and Paul, if you look at

2:50 word street says, Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and has he put it

2:54 in the fire. A viper driven out of the eat fastened itself by its

3:00 hand. And this is what it says inverse. For when the island saw

3:04 that the snake was hanging from his hand, they said to each other,

3:07 this man must be a murderer, for though he escape the sea, the

3:12 goddess Justice has not allowed him to live. So they just assumed that he's

3:16 a murderer. And now he's being punished because he he was. He was

3:23 trying to escape from the sea also, but here you know, justice has

3:27 prevailed. He's gonna die. This is what they talked about him to each

3:30 other. You may be in a place in your life where you're saying you

3:34 know, just things happen. You know, I don't know why, why

3:37 of all people, why did the snake exactly by apostle Paul. You may

3:40 be in a place you're saying, John, you know, there's so many

3:44 other people out there, But why is it that I'm the one who's getting

3:46 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

3:54 have a negative or wrong opinion about me. That's not who I am.

4:00 Right But but but here you see, partly this is correct because in the

4:05 sense that the opposite Paul was a mur he had murdered Christian's way back before

4:11 he got saved. He was a murderer. So they were partly correct in

4:15 that. But here's the thing. He was not being punished. But some

4:17 people may come and attack you, you know, and some of the things

4:21 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

4:30 back before you got saved or whatever, and they that might hurt you.

4:34 You may feel like, what is going on? These people are not even

4:39 giving me a chance to explain myself. It just life happened. But John,

4:45 I don't know how I can preach to these people. But here's the

4:47 thing I wanted to understand, right verse five. But Paul shook the snake

4:54 off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. It's awesome shook it off,

5:00 right. That's a message in itself for you guys. You know,

5:02 when you go through troubles, just shake it off. But verse six,

5:08 Okay, that's another message. So let's go. Let's not spend more time

5:11 than now. But the people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead.

5:16 But after waiting for a long time and seeing nothing unusual happened to him,

5:20 they changed their minds and said that he was a god. Listen to

5:26 this. That negative thing that happened, it seemed like a setback, but

5:31 it was actually setting him up. These people were thinking that he was a

5:35 murderer, but now they changed their minds to say he's a god. And

5:41 eventually all of these things gave him the opportunity to preach and share the gospel

5:46 to them. He you know, the next couple of verses, you see

5:48 he's preaching to people. So many people are getting healed and blah blah blah,

5:53 all of these things had happening. Why why it all started with a

5:59 negative thing. It started as a set back, but you know what,

6:02 he just set him up for something great today. I want to encourage you,

6:06 guys. This is a message you might have heard a million times,

6:10 but I want to just remind you if you're going through a setback, it

6:13 didn't come to stop you. It came to set you up for something awesome,

6:16 maybe for the next level of your destiny where you will be able to

6:19 shine for God's glory. You know, it seemed like a negative thing,

6:25 but the miracle turned people's minds. You know, when people are right now

6:30 talking negative about you, assuming things about you, judging you, writing you

6:34 off, when they see what the Lord is going to show up and show

6:38 out in and through your life, when they see that God is going to,

6:41 you know, do a miracle in your life where he's going to elevate

6:45 you, promote you, or he's going to show himself up in your life

6:47 in such a way where they thought you're going to die, but you're going

6:50 to live and you know, proclaim His glory, live and talk about this

6:56 wonders I want to tell you something that is that is going to be a

7:00 testimony in itself. Yes, we want a testimony without a test We want

7:08 a triumph without trials. We want, you know, a miracle without actually

7:16 going through a mess right or or or a mistake or a negative thing.

7:25 But but but I want you to understand today that you know what you go

7:29 through, that setback is necessary for God to use as a platform to set

7:34 you up. If the snake hadn't bet in Apostle Paul, of all the

7:39 people, nobody would have noticed Apostle Paul, you'd have just been one among

7:44 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

7:55 your life they look like they're coming against you. They look like they're just,

8:03 you know, something that's going to affect your testimony or witness for God.

8:07 But what if that was actually to grab people's attention to see what God

8:11 is going to do in and threal life. Amen, God bless you.

8:22 You've been listening to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We hope you

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