Powerful Life

Dr. Michael Youssef with a challenge to embrace the powerful life and experience victory and freedom. If you have never experienced victory over sin, you are in one of two conditions. You either have never experienced the power of salvation, the liberating power of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, or you have experienced the liberating salvation of Jesus Christ, but you're living in disobedience. The good news is today you can be set free. Welcome to Leading the Way, featuring the Bible teaching of pastor and author, Dr. Michael Youssef. Do you feel like hope has evaporated from life?

Maybe your marriage is crumbling or health challenges require you to have care by family and friends. Well, in the book of Acts chapter three, Peter and John met a man living in complete hopelessness. And today you'll watch him experience complete victory. Oh, yes, you can experience that victory too.

Here now, Dr. Michael Youssef with Leading the Way audio. Turn with me please in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter three. I believe this chapter clearly spells out the biblical understanding, the true and accurate biblical understanding of miracles. The true and biblical understanding of signs and wonders.

This is a magnificent chapter. Acts chapter three tells us unequivocally that God's supernatural intervention is not for showbears. Acts chapter three tells us without a shadow of doubt that God's supernatural interventions and dealings in the lives of His children are only for serving God's ultimate purpose, namely the salvation of the souls of the lost people. This was the first miracle that was performed by the apostles since the day of Pentecost. But it was the second message, the second sermon that was preached by Peter, namely the first one was the sermon during the day of Pentecost.

What is this first miracle? Well, remember, of course, Peter and John have been business partners. It's not unusual for them to be together. Peter and John have had close friendship. Peter and John together with James made the inner circle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter and John were entrusted by the Lord Jesus to go and make preparation for the Passover meal. Peter and John were alone of all that well followed Jesus into the house of Caiaphas the high priest after Jesus was arrested. Peter and John were the first disciples to visit the empty tomb.

So this is a close friendship. And here we see them in the book of Acts, partners in ministry, together ministering to the needs of others, ministering the Word of God. This was about three o'clock in the afternoon. You see, the Jews prayed three times a day. They prayed in the morning, they prayed at noon, and then they prayed in evening.

The evening time was the highest peak in terms of the crowd near the temple. As they were walking, what happened? They were confronted with human hopelessness. And you notice, of course, Dr. Luke as a physician is obviously very interested in this man's physical condition, congenital condition. He's interested in that, and therefore he tells us some details. Look at, for example, at chapter 2, Dr. Luke tells us that this man was born crippled. He was born that way. In Acts 4 22, he tells us that he was in his condition for 40 years. This man was severely crippled, so much so that he was totally and utterly and completely dependent on others to carry him from one place to another. They will pick him up in the morning and they will put him somewhere, and then when he needs somebody to take him somewhere else, he has to motion to them.

They have to pick him up and they have to carry him, and then they have to bring him back and carry him and put him back for 40 years. And all that this man was hoping for were just barely the physical necessities. What this man was only hoping for, begging for, was whatever he can get in order to exist, that's all he wanted.

Please listen carefully, because this is the condition of every one of us. Every one of us were born crippled with the disease of sin, every one of us. We're all born with eternal hopelessness written all over our foreheads. Whether you are born in a mansion or you're born in a hut, whether you're born rich or poor, whether you're born black or white, we're all born crippled with the disease of sin.

We're born heading for destruction. Throughout our lives, Jesus used somebody in your life, I don't know who and I don't care, I want to know who, but God used somebody in your life that pulled you off your crippling condition of sin. Jesus used somebody who stretched his or her hand to lift you out of your begging, spiritually speaking, condition of sin. Jesus sent somebody to you to stretch out his hand or her hand to rescue you from the gutter of hopelessness and the gutter of the pain of guilt. Jesus sent somebody and stretched out his or her hand and delivered you from the destiny of eternal destruction.

Amen belongs here. Peter said to the man, silver and gold I have none. But at the name of Jesus Christ, what does it mean when you do something in the name of Jesus Christ? What does it mean? When you do something in the name of Jesus Christ means that you are acting consistently with his will. When you do something in the name of Jesus Christ, it means that you are doing something that he himself would do. When you do something in the name of Jesus Christ, it is doing something on his authority.

Doing something in the name of Jesus Christ is doing something with his delegated power to you. And so Peter commands the beggar to get up. And did he get up? Look at healing's response, healing's evidence, the man's joy and excitement knew no bounds. He wasn't merely walking, that wasn't enough for him. He was jumping. He nearly killed himself running down those steps.

He was leaping like a kid with a new toy that he waited for for over a year. The shackles have been broken. The crippling is no more. The chains that held him to the ground were torn asunder.

Please hear me right on this one. If you have never experienced victory over sin, if you have never experienced victory over addiction, if you have never experienced victory over your love of money and things, if you have never had victory over your false guilt, you are in one of two conditions. You are either have never experienced the power of salvation, the liberating power of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life, or you have experienced the liberating salvation of Jesus Christ, but you're living in disobedience. The good news is today you can be set free no matter where you are, no matter what condition you're in. Today you can be set free. Let me tell you something. Whatever you are, whatever your condition may be, that's the good news of the gospel.

Today you can be set free. Listen, don't trust in your silver and gold. You say, what's wrong with silver and gold? Nothing wrong with them, but when they become the object of your comfort and the object of your security, there's everything wrong with them. Don't trust in your intellectual ability. Nothing wrong with being intellectual, but when your intellect become the source of your pride, you're in terrible danger. Don't trust in your family connections.

Nothing wrong with family connections. I thank God for my family, but they will not bring you the grace of God that you desperately need today. Let's simply allow the power of the Holy Spirit to come into your life, to set you free.

Would you do that right now? Bow your heads in prayer. I haven't finished the sermon yet, but I feel the Spirit of God is going to set some people free. At this moment, at this moment, I'm led of the Spirit of God. Bow your heads in prayer, please. And if you're a person that you've been enslaved, whatever it is, you've been addicted to whatever it is, God set me free today. Will you do that? It's between you and heaven.

Everybody else's business is your business. You get to the Internet and you're addicted to pornography. God set me free today. You face a problem and the first thing you do is you go to that bottle and say, God set me free today. I believe the power of God the Holy Spirit will set you free if you ask Him sincerely and if you ask Him today.

Will you do that? God bless you. May God honor you because God said He'll honor those who honor Him. Father God, in the name of Jesus, as I do this in obedience to you, I pray that your Holy Spirit will set your people free. Father God, I pray in the name of Jesus that your Holy Spirit will come into these precious people who love you, who trust you because they believe that you can when they can't and that you'll lose them and set them free. Our Lord, I receive that on their behalf and they receive that from you in Jesus' name.

Amen. First there was the miracle, then there was the message. I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm going to tell you, but this is biblical to the core. The miracle is always a servant to the message. The miracle is always subservient to the message. The miracle is always inferior to the message.

What do I mean by this? Because the miracle is temporary, but the message is permanent. Because the miracle is finite, but the message is eternal. Because the miracle is for a season, but the message is forever. Therefore, the miracle has to be subservient to the message. When Jesus Christ walked into the tomb of Lazarus who has been dead for four days and he cried out in a loud voice saying, Lazarus, come out!

Lazarus got up and walked. And the Bible said people believed. Lazarus died again, but those who were saved were eternally saved.

Amen. This man, Peter walks into the, near the beautiful gate, near the temple and he tells him, silver and gold have I none, but that the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk, and the man gets up and walked. The Bible said many believed. That man died again, but those who believed were eternally saved. And so Peter begins his message by identifying the besetting of sin. You see, for just the miracle taking place, and that was the end of it, everybody said, isn't that nice?

Isn't that great? Those men must have some power. And few people might go around and say, hey, tell us about this power. As we know later, some sorcerers were trying to buy the power of the Holy Spirit.

They actually thought they could purchase it. But the message is superior to the miracle. And that is why Peter goes on to preach the message. And the message that Peter preached, and those who were saved as a result of that message will live forever, and you and I are going to see them in heaven. That's why he begins by the besetting of sin.

Let me tell you something. All preaching, all teaching, all ministry, all witnessing, I don't care where it is, where it's done, in a church, outside of the church, if it does not begin with sin and repentance of sin, it will not have salvation with it. Somebody told me years ago, and this is what I tell everybody, he said. I tell them all you need to do to be saved is just take Jesus into your life. I said, this is like telling somebody with a shotgun wound, all you need to do is to put a big Band-Aid on it.

The bullet's still inside. When I read the Bible from cover to cover, I find particularly all of the preaching, all of the teaching, all of the witnessing, all of the ministry that is done by the apostles. They had to begin by identifying sin. It had to begin by confessing sin. It had to begin by repenting of that sin. And then salvation takes place. Look at verses 13, 14, and 15 of the book of Acts chapter 3. Peter identified their sin. What was it?

Here's what he said. He said, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God whom you claim to worship, the God who brought your forefathers out of the slavery of Egypt, that very God who promised you long ago through Moses that he will raise a prophet like unto myself, referring to Jesus. This God who told Abraham even before that, that through you and your seed, the whole family of the earth shall be blessed, referring to Jesus. The God who gave all these promises about Jesus in the Old Testament, the God who promised through Isaiah there's going to be a suffering servant who's going to come and die for your sin. The same God sent you his Messiah, sent you his son. But what have you done? You crucified him. You rejected him. You delivered him up to Pontius Pilate. You disowned your only hope for salvation.

You disavowed the only one whom got on it. Have you ever read this passage and you kind of scratch your head and say, isn't that ironic? Listen to who's talking. This is Peter. This was in John who was quietly there, you know, followed the Lord all the way to the cross.

This was in one of the quiet ones. This is Peter talking. What an irony. This is the very man who disowned and disavowed any knowledge of Jesus.

You say, what is this? Is he a hypocrite? No, he's not. Beloved, this is the very core of the Christian faith. This is the very heart of the gospel. You say, how can he condemn people for the same sin that he had committed? When I invite you to come to Christ, when your dear family member, friend, pray for you and invite you to come to Christ, we don't do this out of superiority.

No, please understand that. We don't do that because we feel any better, no. It's because we have experienced firsthand the besetting of sin. But also because we know firsthand the benefits of repentance. Look at verses 17, 18, and 19 in the book of Acts, the benefits of repentance. Here Peter said, he said, you acted in ignorance.

What is Peter saying? He is making a well-known Jewish distinction, Old Testament distinction, between the sin of omission and the sin of commission. Whether our sins are committed through omission or commission, the consequences are the same. Ignorance is no excuse.

Ignorance is no defense. But when repentance takes place, God in His mercy, God in His grace is willing to wipe the past sins clean. Not only that, Peter said, but the fear of judgment will also be wiped away. Not only that, he also said that the much needed refreshment to your soul, that sense of peace, that sense of contentment, that sense of resting is going to take place. These are the benefits of repentance and salvation. You know the word wiped out here, verse 19, is a picture of an ink that was written on a papyrus and got wiped out with a wet sponge.

You say, how can that happen? You see, the ink back then in the ancient days, not like our ink, it did not have the acid content that ours have, therefore the ink did not bite into the papyrus. So you can simply get a wet sponge and you wipe that page of papyrus and it literally would be as clean as new.

You would not know there was anything written on it. And that's what Peter is saying here. When you repent of your sins, when I repent of my sins, God did not merely cross our sins from that list. He, with the sponge of His blood, wiped it all clean. It was wiped beyond the possibility of recall. It was disappeared with no chance of it being found.

It had vanished without trace. Peter is saying just like Jesus when he saw his master hanging on that cross, looking down as his body dripping with blood. He looked down at those who hammered the nails in his hand and feet. And then he looked up to heaven and he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. Peter is saying, even the horrible sin of rejecting the Son of God and executing the Messiah will be wiped out when you repent.

What a great God. Let me talk for a moment to those of you who are having a hard time accepting the forgiveness of God. Let me take a minute and talk to those of you who have a hard time forgiving themselves.

Paul said, even our conscious condemn us, but God is greater than our conscience. Let me talk to you just for a second for two. If God is willing to forgive those who nailed His Son to a cross, will He not be willing to forgive you?

Ask yourself that question. You say, Michael, you don't understand. You don't understand, oh beloved. I do understand.

I really do. I understand what God said. Whatever the magnitude of your sin, God's grace is greater than your sin. All of us have faced the besetting of sin. Many of us have known the benefits of repentance.

But also many of us know the blessings of surrender. Peter closes his sermon in Acts chapter 3 verses 25 and 26, the last two verses in that chapter, with a hopeful note. Remember this whole episode began on the note of hopelessness.

It began on the note of helplessness, of human hopelessness. And now it concludes with the hope of the blessings of God. Peter is saying to them, he's saying you can experience the fulfillment of the promise of God to Abraham, that in Jesus Christ the nations of the world will be blessed. Here's the good news. All the riches of the blessings of salvation, all of the riches of the blessing of the covenant promises are available to you today.

They are yours for the asking. Just as they were available to Peter's heroes in Acts chapter 3. Regardless of what you have done, regardless of the loss of image that you may have, regardless of the guilt that you may be carrying, God will bless you when you repent and surrender. Repentance is not just feeling sorry for what you've done or because you got caught or whatever.

That's what the world gives us from the media standpoint. Repentance is deciding to change course. Repentance is the crying to God with a desire to change, asking for his power to change you. That's what repentance is all about. And God will visit you with heavenly refreshment because that's what he promised when you turn to him. A challenge to experience the hope and blessing of repentance from Dr. Michael Youssef.

This is Leading the Way. And if you'd like to talk with someone walking you through some of your spiritual questions, please reach out today at ltw.org slash Jesus. And if you could use some guidance on viewing the issues and challenges of current culture through the lens of the Bible, we want to invite you to listen to a powerful podcast by none other than Dr. Youssef's youngest son, Jonathan. It's called Candid Conversations with Jonathan Youssef. Jonathan, who has served in ministry in Australia and the United States for many years, was charged by Dr. Youssef to engage with the issues of today and to encourage people to view those issues through the eyes of Jesus Christ. Thus, the podcast was developed, Candid Conversations with Jonathan Youssef. Jonathan tackles issues like marriage, sexuality, suicide, education, and so many topics that are being distorted by media and secular world views. So the next time you're looking for a podcast, search for Candid Conversations with Jonathan Youssef.

I know you'll enjoy it. Oh, you can also listen online. Check out the direct links when you visit ltw.org. And a ministry representative can also provide you with direction when you call us at 866-626-4356.

One more time, 866-626-4356 and ltw.org. Next time on Leading the Way... There is nothing more aggravating to a bully than when you take your stand. By and large, bullies are cowards.

They really are. And when you stand your ground, they will show their true color. When you are standing behind your command and chief, you will make your enemy not only blink but flee. That was just a preview of what Dr. Youssef will be teaching next time on Leading the Way. I hope you'll make plans to join him. This message is brought to you by Leading the Way Audio with Dr. Michael Youssef. Passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world for more than 30 years. Learn more at ltw.org.