When Pigs Fly Week 3: Miracles of Protection with Craig Groeschel

[Music] [Music] well I hope you came ready today to hear for God's Word because I'm ready to share with you welcome to all of our churches our open network churches we got some people that are a little bit excited here to deck them really really really excited you're excited to be in church we're in a message series on miracles if you weren't here with us in previous weeks the first week we talked about the miracle that Jesus has over the power of darkness last week we talked about miracles of healing and we prayed together as a church asking for God to intervene and do miracles in what's so encouraging is God is building my faith as I'm hearing from different ones of you how God is answering your prayers today I want to talk about a type of miracle that quite honestly and what's happened in our nation this week which I didn't know obviously ahead of time what would happen I think that this miracle is very appropriate and you kind of have to sit back and wonder I wonder if God had any sort of plan for us to talk about this after what's happened in this last week curious all of our churches have any of you honestly ever prayed any type of prayer that kind of goes like this God if you just get me through this just save me right now I'll serve you forever anybody ever pray a prayer like that it could be a test you didn't study for God get me through this test right it could be get me out of a ticket got it I'll never speed again it could be your balland down over the porcelain God just making your offering years ago like years ago when you drink too much God I'll never drink again God give me a home say but never drink again then you get home and you realize the next day it was a miracle and you don't know where your car is maybe it only happened to me God God God if you just save me from this I'll serve you forever I want to talk today about the miraculous power that God has to protect to save to deliver in fact Psalm 37 verse 39 tells us this about God's power the Lord rescues the godly yes their fortress in times of trouble the Lord rescues the godly our God has the power to save to deliver to rescue for example some would say that God actually rescued me at a certain point in my life I'll tell you the story and you can determine for yourself the day was April 19th the year was 1995 normally on that day I would have been sitting at my desk overlooking a window that was probably the closest in proximity to the Murrah Building possibly of any other building in the area on that particular day I wasn't at my desk where I should have been but instead I was at a makeup class in Enid Oklahoma in seminary and wasn't at my desk at 9:02 when the big explosion that shook our nation and even the world went off many people know that there was massive destruction to the moral building and others a lot of people don't know that many of the buildings around it were completely destroyed the church at which I served was one of them First United Methodist Church the bomb actually lifted the building somehow up and when it landed it didn't land back on the foundation the right way and it totaled the building that we weren't able to meet there for quite some period of time my window which faced the moral building the window didn't just implode but the window casings in every part littlest part of the building came into my office the seat where my chair was which would have been facing the window was knocked over with glass in it and glass was all the way in the other side of the wall many people would say well we thank God he protected you from that we thank God he protected you from that we thank God he protected you from that which sounds really good and feels right until you realize that there were a hundred and sixty-eight people that died 19 of those were children so honestly I find it very difficult to say God protected me and God did not protect someone else because I'm here to tell you that God loves those hundred and sixty-eight as much as he loves anybody else that walked away or wasn't where they could have been that day and were somehow not harmed as others were then here we are this week and you know that there are people who are connected to the ten innocent victims eight students two teachers that went to school on any other day not expecting anything and you know that those who are connected to the ten just like those who are connected to the 168 would find it so difficult to understand how could God protect someone without protecting someone else I want to talk about the tension today of a God who can save who does protect but sometimes things don't go the way that we think they should this is a difficult subject to cover but I believe one that can not only provide some answers possibly comfort but at the very same time can build your faith and a God who does miracles I want to give you two big thoughts and I hope as we go through the message that each thought will make a little bit more sense as we progress through the message and it will do something internally to your faith as you hear God's Word the first thought would be this I hope we're gonna all embrace and even better understand at the end of our time together that long before you faced a problem God already has a plan long before you face something unexpected something difficult even something tragic our God already has a plan I'll show you some scriptural examples long before the rain flooded the earth God already planned for Noah his family and the right animals to be on the boat before Jonah was ever thrown overboard God already had a plan for a fist to come and to rescue him and take him safely to shore long before the Israelites were ever cornered by the Egyptians shoulders on one side a mountain on the other and a sea on the other God had planned to part the Red Sea that they could escape on dry ground what does this mean to us today there may be someone here who I'd find comfort and long before you discovered the bad news about your health or long before you lost the job or long before that girl broke your heart God already had a plan what do we know about God God is a God who can miraculously rescue save and protect he can Commission angels from heaven to guard his people at a word of his command he can shut the mouths of hungry lions and he can calm a raging storm long before you ever face a problem we need to embrace the truth that can minister to us even when we don't understand that long before you face a problem our God already has a plan let's unpack it a little bit today and talk about the miracle of protection I'm going to show you some interesting stories fascinating to me about the Apostle Paul the first one we're gonna look at is in Acts chapter 16 let me give you the context of what was going on here there was a girl that was a slave that was predicting the future she was possessed with a demon and was predicting what was to come and she was making her owners a lot of cash by doing this and evidently this girl was kind of a nuisance to Paul and Silas and they tolerated her for a little while eventually the Bible basically says they got sick and tired of her doing her deal they turned around and they cast the demon out of her and suddenly the men that were making a profit off of this poor young girl lost their cash cow they got really upset and so they stay told lies about Paul and Silas and essentially started a riot that was baseless totally untrue and Paul and Silas found themselves victims of the lies and this write scripture says this act 1622 the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten everybody say stripped and beaten they're ordered to be stripped and beaten with rods after they had been severely flawed they were thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully what do we see Paul and Silas they're out serving Jesus they're faithfully doing what God has called them to do they are unfairly accused they are wrongly stripped of their clothing flogged and beaten with wooden rods severely beaten if I'm Paul and I want to talk about Paul because he's gonna be our main character at some point I might be thinking God that's not fair not only was it not fair he was a Roman citizen and he was exempt from that type of punishment because it was illegal to punish a Roman citizen in that way not only was he wrongly accused he didn't do anything wrong but he was unfairly beaten when he was exempt from this I'm hoping that most of you haven't been stripped and beaten physically as tragically some of you have been stripped of hope you once had faith and believed that you could trust God in any way but then something happened in your hope was stripped away others of you maybe you weren't beaten with a club but you're beaten with words a discouragement maybe from other people maybe from what you tell yourself maybe you're just beaten down where you once were vibrant and full of faith you feel like you've been stripped of what you once held dear and you've been beaten down unfairly think about Paul he's doing what God called him to do he has publicly painfully tortured beaten he shouldn't even be so as a Roman soldier what would he do if he's like everybody today a lot of people today would say god that's not fair I don't know where you are you said it protected me you didn't what did God not do in that case God did not provide a mirror a protection did he he could have he could have said a ten-foot angel that buzzed up and said don't you mess with him or you'll get me and all of my brother's God could have done that God didn't do that so what did the Apostle Paul do when God let him down when God didn't protect him I'll tell you exactly what Paul did Paul did what happens all the time today Paul quit life group he stopped praying he didn't go to church and he stopped listening to Caleb radio and only listen to secular music from that point on because he was going to show God that's what he did because God could have protected him but God didn't is this getting too real let me show you what Paul did about midnight the text says Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God after God did not miraculously protect them when he could have they are singing and worshiping and giving God praise and lifting up their hands and lifting up their hearts and lifting up their voices and they are giving their good God praise and all the other prisoners were listening on you can only imagine what they're thinking these guys are crazy what's going on here I've never seen anything like this and suddenly what I love about our God is he is the God of suddenly even when you don't see a way out even when you think you are locked up even when you have no hope even when you've been beaten down and strip suddenly our God can show up and a few moments ago God didn't protect him but now God does a miracle suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken and all once the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose what is a miracle we learned in week number one a miracle is very simply when the God of heaven intervenes on earth God earlier didn't do a miracle and now God does a miracle the ground shakes the doors come open the chains fall off what's so interesting to me is that Paul didn't wait to worship until after the miracle but Paul worshipped God before the miracle in fact I love what the writer to the Hebrews says that sometimes we offer God what he calls a sacrifice of praise in other words there are some times we praise God when we feel it and when we sense him and sometimes when we don't feel it and we don't sense him we still choose to offer him a sacrifice of praise we're worshiping for what he has not yet even done we're not worshiping for him for what he has done but it's more of who he is it's a sacrifice of praise we may not feel anything yet but we continue to worship Him when do we worship our God we worship Him when we feel him and we worship Him when we don't we worship Him when we see his hand and we worship Him when we don't see his hand sometimes we just offer him a sacrifice of praise that's what some of you did today I hope that you may not have felt much you may feel a bit deflated but you praise him anyway you praise him not because of what you see him doing or not doing but you praise him for who he is I can't tell you how much this means to my family right now because God very very clearly so to a me with our daughter Mandy for two long years she's been hurting massive physical pain and I don't want to go into it because I know many people hurt just as much and even way way more and yet as a parent we're praying and we're praying we're praying and God showed Amy clearly stop praying and just start praising just start thanking me ahead of time thank me before you see anything thank thank me before you see the answer just uh just offer a sacrifice of praise before there was the miracle Paul and Silas were praising God someone here may need a day just take a little time and thank him ahead of time not because you see what he's done but because of who he is they're in the middle of prison it's midnight they're praising God God shows up there's an earthquake the jailer wakes up sees the doors were open and he's like I'm gonna lose my job these guys are out of here I'm gonna I'm gonna lose my job they're gonna kill me because I failed so I might as well kill myself he draws this sword he's about to kill himself and Paul says no no no we're here we haven't left the jail was like oh my gosh this God you're saying if you obviously is real tell me what do I need to do to be friends with him it's my version of what he said and not only did Paul introduce the jailer to Christ but also the jailers entire family came to know the Grace and the goodness and the salvation available through Christ I want you to feel and since what I just showed you not only was Paul saved so was the jailer and the entire family of the jailer what did we see before Paul went to prison God already had a plan before he ever went to prison God already had a plan what's obvious is that God did not do a miracle of protection when they were being beaten but God did at the right time do a miracle of protection when they were in prison that's the obvious way that God protected Paul there are so many other ways that are not obvious to the natural eye but I'm convinced God protects us of all the time you're running late to a meeting and you get stuck by a train in your car oh this isn't fair and you have no idea that God may be protecting you from something on the other side of that train he's protecting you and you don't even know he's protecting you you wanted that job you wanted that job you you were qualified for it and you didn't get the job and you can't believe it and six months later everyone who got the job was laid off and now they're out of work and you recognize God may have been protecting me in ways I didn't understand there's probably somebody here at some point you may want to give God some praise that he didn't answer one of your prayers that you wanted to happen you prayed so hard and wanted it to happen but if what you wanted it happened then what God did wouldn't have happened and you realize what God did is so much better than what you wanted for some of you it has a name it is a guy you dated and you're gonna thank God he didn't let you marry that guy that you wanted to marry years ago because he had said something so much better and so much different sometimes you just offer God a sacrifice of praise as we get to know the goodness of God his character his nature when he breaks off the chains and throws open the doors and when he could send an angel of deliverance and he doesn't when we get to know his goodness his faithfulness we start to recognize that long before we face a problem God already has a plan and over time as we spiritually mature and as we grow in our faith and as we become more like Christ eventually we learn that sometimes God's eternal purposes don't align with our temporary plans let me say that again and let it sink in sometimes we start to learn that God's eternal purposes don't align with our temporary plans think about this God delivered Paul from prison until God didn't this wasn't the only time Paul was arrested and put in prison in fact scholars estimate that he spent about five and a half to six years in prison God broke him out when the time was right God didn't break him out when God had another eternal purpose in fact after his death he goes this fifth missionary journey Paul was in prison and tried by Nero and Paul was found guilty of being faithful to Jesus and so Paul was not crucified for his faith because a Roman was not allowed to be put to death by crucifixion but instead Paul was beheaded and at that moment when God could have sent an angel God didn't send an angel just like with ten of the other twelve disciples who followed Jesus Judas turned away John survived being dipped in boiling oil and died after being exiled to the Isle of Patmos and all the others who faithfully followed Jesus God protected them until he didn't I don't know how to say it in any other way but before you face a problem God always has a plan and sometimes we wake up and realize that his eternal purposes which are higher than our thoughts and beyond our ability for our human minds living in this temporary world to fully comprehend sometime his eternal purpose they're very very different than what we would want in the moment and that's when we learned to truly truly truly trust him for his goodness then one day you're gonna wake up and and recognize he's still good in the middle of the storms one day the baby that you pray for doesn't make it the drunk driver who is guilty kills the teenager who is innocent and a hundred and sixty-eight people who God loved just as much as all the others who were not harmed their lives are taken on that day and the eight students and the two teachers don't make it out when everyone else did does it hurt yes do we grieve deeply for our earthly loss yes does it feel in the moment often devastating the answer is yes it does we're not gonna pretend it doesn't but do we continue to trust our God the answer is yes we do yes we do yes we do yes we do yes we do and not only do we trust him but we worship Him we worship Him we honor him we worship Him when we see him do everything we want him to do and we worship Him when he doesn't do what we know we could do we think he should do but he's God because we're not just worshiping him for what we see in this life we were worshipping Him for who he is for his character so how does this play out if we serve a God that can protect how do we live as followers of Christ let me tell you how we live we pray for God's divine protection I hope every single one of you do I hope you pray everyday if you're married I hope you pray for the protection for your spouse and for your marriage I hope you pray for your friends I hope you pray for protection for your people in your life Group I hope you pray for your your pastors I hope you pray for protection for your children how do you pray put angels around them God protect them because God can do that pray for protection from the wrong influences that they wouldn't be tripped up by the lies of the devil pray that God would protect their minds that God would surround you know what you can pray you bring if they do start to stray if they do go the wrong way that they would get caught early if they get caught I'm convinced there were about a million people praying that I would get caught when I strayed because every single time I couldn't do something wrong for five minutes I was they were either praying or I suck at doing things wrong maybe both but any time I mean the first time that I had alcohol fifteen and a half years old a 16 year old driver and we get in a wreck with open containers in our car and we're caught and it wasn't even beer it was a wine cooler it was a chick drink not a man drink and we got busted with chick alcohol the first time my mom's here she probably didn't know that I'll tell you the details later it's been years I think she just found that out I got caught cheating on a test when I was supposed to be valedictorian she did know that one I got arrested shoplifting every time I do something wrong pray that if they stray God would God God would help them get caught early pray I don't know there's a mom over there clapping like crazy yeah catch him catch him God catch him I can't catch him God Sikkim Jesus I can't count the number of times what I know God protected me and here's what I hope you're gonna see so much of what is good in me today is a result of something God did not protect me from my dad was a pro baseball player so I was gonna be a pro baseball player until God didn't protect me and a batting cage or getting my hand crushed which led me to play another sport which led me to get a scholarship in a different sport that took me to a different school which is where I ended up getting caught shoplifting and I was about to lose my scholarship which took me low enough to call on Jesus who completely saved me and changed me which directed me into ministry and the United Methodist Church the tradition that I still honor today and God did not protect me from being rejected for ordination and God did not protect me from being declined to start a church which redirected me to start this one if this church has ever done something for anybody you might want to thank God for what he didn't protect me from because what he didn't protect me from often shapes who I've become let me tell you what in those times there were many times I didn't understand didn't want it to happen why didn't you God where were you before you faced a problem remember God already has a plan sometimes the plan includes pain I don't know about you but I would rather hurt in the will of God than live in comfort outside of it I would rather be in the middle of learning to trust God when things don't go my way than being away from his will let me tell you what Paul never said in prison those times when God didn't protect him and didn't send the angel to break him out he never said this isn't fair he never said forgets you God never said I'm not never going back to that stupid church as long as I live I tried religion and it didn't work this is what he did say from prison he said we rejoice in suffering he said even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering I will rejoice all the more he said these things not from prison but he said them he said I delight in hardships in persecutions in difficulties because whenever I'm weak then God makes me strong he asked the question who shall separate us from the love of God shall trouble or hardship or famine or nakedness or danger or peril or sword no in all these things he said we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us he said we serve a God who is working in all things he's working in all things to bring about good to those who love Him who are called according to his purpose he's working in the break ups and the break downs he's working in the losses he's working in the winds he's working in things that you wanted to happen he's working in the things that you never ever wanted to happen that's our God that's why we can praise Him we praise Him before the miracle because we know that he is always good he is always good he is always good he is always good I hope you'll understand that God never ever ever promised to always protect us remember you will die it will be game over you'll be pushing Daisies your body it'll be over one day he won't protect you always you will die he never promised that he'll always physically protect everyone but he did promise that he would never ever leave us he will always be with us he is always faithful he is always good and so if you're one that does walk away from tragedy you praise Him and if you're one that loses someone in tragedy you praise Him praise Him because long before you have a problem he already had a plan and even if his eternal purposes are different than what we wanted in the moment we will one day dwell with him in glory there will be no more tears no more pain and we'll see his glory and his perfection revealed because through and through our God is good long before you face a problem understand our good God already has a plan father we thank you for your presence today and God as our pastors have all prayed for those who are grieving in Texas we we pray God with them somehow Holy Spirit would you minister comfort and grace to these grieving families God to those that are here today that are facing hardship for for my special friends of Manson family God for all those others those who can't conceive those who've lost a child those who are facing a problem of mountain the circumstance Lord would you just move on us day today give us the faith to worship you even before you show what you're capable of because you already showed us a couple thousand years ago just how much you care and just how far you're willing to go to show us your love through your son all of our church this today those who may be facing something difficult and maybe you even had questions around the subject and you want the faith to keep praise in the faith to keep worshiping would you lift up your hands right now just lift them up high all over the place father I pray for every person with a lifted hand god I pray that the daily we take time to offer a sacrifice to praise God we worship you and when we see it we worship you when we don't we worship it when we understand it it all makes sense God we worship you when it doesn't make sense to us god I pray for those especially hurting today that somehow somehow by your presence and through your word you administer comfort and healing build our faith God that you can unleash angels to protect us and God that when you don't you are still good and your eternal purposes will be done your will we pray God will be done on earth as it is in heaven help us to glorify you no matter what as you keep praying today all of our churches there those of you you need a miracle of protection you need saving what are you saving from you need saving from yourself from your sin from the darkness and your soul this is kind of what happened to me back when I was in college I grew up going to and I thought I was okay because I went to church but I didn't know forgiveness I didn't know freedom in Christ and because of my sinfulness I went down down down down down some of you right now you recognize you've done so many things wrong where do you stand with God let me tell you without Christ we are separated from God the good news is God showed us how much he loved us he sent his one and only Son Jesus who was completely without sim perfect in a holy way every way Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins he shed his blood on the cross he died in our place and three days later God raised him from the dead why so that you could be saved from your sins forgiven and made new to all of our churches there are those of you you recognize that you're dead in your sins you need us help you need us grace you need us forgiveness you can't work your way to God all you can do is turn away from your sins and turn to Him when you call on the name of Jesus he hears your prayer he forgives your sins he'll make you completely brand-new and all of our churches there are those of you you are not here by accident it was ordained by God today it's the day of your salvation I need his grace I need his mercy I turn to him I give my life to Jesus that's your prayer lift your hands high right now all over the place lift them up and say yes that's my prayer right back here and over here as well praise God for you others says you who say yes right back here others crawl out onto that big smile smile what others call on his name search online you click right below me and as we have people to all of our different churches coming to faith in Christ join your hearts and pray with those around you pray Heavenly Father I trust you to save me to forgive me to be my Lord Holy Spirit fill me so I can serve Jesus follow him show his love my life doesn't belong to me I give it to you thank you for a new life now you have mine in Jesus name I pray life search would you worship there were subjects celebrate those born in the God's family [Applause] thank you so much for joining us for this week's message we're so honored and excited to be a part of all that God is doing in in through your life we recognize that becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ is a journey and there's some next steps involved in that process so we have a great resource for you to use to help you do just that you can go to Life Church slash net this is a great way for you to grow in your relationship with Jesus another great way for you to stay connected to your church all throughout the week is through the Life Church app you can go to wherever you download your apps go to the App Store and download it from there and stay connected with us all throughout the week because we know and we do all of this because we truly believe that whoever finds God finds life you

Channel: Life.Church

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Keywords: Craig, Groeschel, lifechurch

Id: mcbr8VIfZ4M

Length: 36min 58sec (2218 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2018