Live Free with Josh Howerton - Faith Before Miracles // Acts 14:8-20

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

Does faith always lead to miracles? In today’s episode, Pastor Breaux walks through the story of Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, where faith led to the miraculous healing of a man who had never walked. While faith doesn’t always produce a miracle, it always precedes one. Paul reminds us to trust in the greater miracle—the new life Jesus offers. However, the miraculous moment led to challenges, as Paul and Barnabas were mistaken for gods and faced persecution. Even so, they pressed on, preaching the good news and walking by faith.   ➡️ For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, thanks for joining us on the Daily Drive as we kick off our week together. My name is Bro, and I'm so grateful that you would spend a few minutes just diving into God's word today. And I really pray that this simple podcast would be helpful to you in your pursuit of God.

Hey, we're walking through the book of Acts, and today we're in chapter 14. Paul and Barnabas are going from region to region, town to town, and preach to good news about the love of God through Jesus Christ. And people are responding and finding hope. However, not everybody's happy about it. The same kind of guys who killed Jesus, the same kind of guys that Paul used to be, they start stirring up trouble and breathing threats wherever they go. But it doesn't stop them.

They just move on following the lead of the Holy Spirit. And they come to a town called Leistra. And Paul is preaching, and he notices a guy who the text says, had never walked before. He'd been born that way. And it says that the guy was sitting there, listening intently. And Paul could see that this guy. God was full of expectant faith.

Paul stops right in the middle of preaching and looks him straight in the eye and says, loud enough for everybody to hear, stand up and walk. And the guy does. He jumps to his feet and experiences something he had never felt in his life.

By the way, faith doesn't always produce a miracle, but it always precedes one. And many of us have experienced the thrill of a new life through the miraculous touch of Jesus. Some have experienced some kind of physical healing. Some may have experienced emotional wounds being healed, shame getting erased, and forgiveness replacing bitterness in the deepest places of our soul and strongholds getting broken and addictions

conquered, all through the same power that made this guy get up and walk. Faith doesn't always produce a miracle, but it always precedes one. So just live your life with a grateful and expectant heart, a heart that trust the heart of God. Whether we receive a miracle here, we live by faith knowing that the greater miracle has already been done for those who will believe. You know, I love the story of Johnny Erickson Tata, where she was in a diving accident when she was 16 years old, now she's close to 70, and she's been a quadriplegic for all those years, and living with such a great faith, with such a great attitude, and a heartful of gratitude. She wrote a book called Heaven, My Real Home.

And I can remember a little poem that she wrote in that book called Johnny's Waltz. And it goes like this. Though I spend my mortal lifetime in this chair, I refuse to waste at living in despair. And though others may receive gifts of healing, I believe he has given me a gift beyond compare. For heaven is nearer to me. And at times it is all I can see.

Sweet music I hear coming down to my ear, and I know that it's playing for me. For I am Christ's own bride, and I will stand by his side. And he will say, shall we dance? And our endless romance will be worth all the tears that I've cried. That's the greater miracle, gang. Well, this particular miracle with Paul and this guy that hadn't walked before,

it makes the crowd go crazy. And the people there who were following the pagan gods of Greek and Roman culture start yelling, oh, these men are gods in human form. And since Paul was the main speaker, they claimed that he was Hermes, and Barnabas must be Zeus. I mean, what a rush your ego, right? I mean, many politicians, celebrities, athletes would bask in that kind of adoration, as well as many soccer moms and factory workers and pastors. We all occasionally fall for the lie that we are so much better than we actually are.

We say, finally, someone recognizes my greatness. Well, Paul and Barnabas, they don't flex. They don't pose. They don't say, wants some more of that? That was nothing. Watch this. They don't sign autographs. They don't promote their latest book or podcasts.

They don't let any of it go to their hands. head. In fact, it says that they tore their clothes, revealing their humanity, and their total belief in the only true God. And as these people are about to offer sacrifices to the two of them as gods, they go running among the crowd. It says this in verse 15, friends, why are you doing this? We're merely human beings, just like you. We have come to bring you the good news that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. There's only one God. He has made himself not. He has made himself known from the beginning of time. In the past, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways.

But he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts. It's him. It's him. It's certainly not us. It's not Zeus. It's not Hermes. It's not Poseidon. It's not Apollo. It's not Aphrodite. All these are just made-up gods. There is only one God. Like this man who is now miraculously walking around, have faith in that God. Turn away from all these phony gods and turn toward him and him alone. Then it says in verse 18, but even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain to people from sacrificing to them. Then it says in the middle of all this praise, adoration, and commotion, the Jewish leaders that Paul and Barnabas got away from in the last city, they show up and

they incite the crowds. And just like we read back in chapter six about how Saul, now Paul, applauded the stoning of Stephen, a good man who was murdered in the streets for preaching about Jesus. Now Paul is stoned by the people, and they drag him out of the town thinking he's dead. Verse 20, but as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town the next day he left with Barnabas for Derby. Seems like God miraculously heals Paul because he was far from done with him. And don't miss the fact that he got up and went to the next town Derby. And then they go right back to the towns that threatened them before, and they continued to share the good news.

And many people, who were far from God, they give their lives to Jesus the true and living God. Like the God that Paul healed, he and Barnabas continued to walk by faith, just trusting in the heart and the plan of God. I love what Paul would later write to a bunch of new followers of Jesus living in the city called Corinth. He says this in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4,

verses 8 through 10. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. What do you say? We walk with that kind of resilience and faith today. Hey, as we look to wrap up our year together, I want you to stay tuned for a quick announcement at the end of this week on our Friday episode, and I'll see you back here tomorrow. I hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information

about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.com slash daily drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out?