Practical Living

Dale O'Shields: Thank you for joining us for today's Practical Living broadcast. I pray that through this message that you will learn how to apply God's word and truths to any situation in your life. Stay with us as we discover God's truths that will transform us.

For today, we continue our series together entitled Life Quakes. I want to talk to you this morning about coming back from setbacks in your life.

There are moments in all of our lives we might call sort of shake-up moments. Sometimes life by reason of the things that we go through in life, the regular transitions of life, they can shake us up just by walking through the life events that transpire. Sometimes there are things that happen to us that we didn't anticipate or expect, and they can become very shaking to us as well. These are what we were referring to as life-quake moments, things that shake your life down to the very core.

And we should not be surprised when these things happen. Jesus talked about this in Matthew chapter 7, where he described two men that were building houses. One man built his house on sand, and another man built his house on the rock.

And the scripture says that the storms of life, the rains, the storms, the wind came to both of these men, but only one of them survived. One house survived, and that was the house built on the rock. And Jesus gives us an understanding that we need to build our lives on God's word and obedience to God's word if we're going to stand the shakings that come our way.

And today I'm going to talk about a particular kind of life quake. I want to talk to you about setbacks in your life.

And what does it mean when a setback happens and how do we process setbacks well? I'll define setbacks for you in just a moment. The story that we're looking at today is an Old Testament story. It's a story actually of the Israelites as they came eventually, came out of Egyptian slavery. They crossed over the Red Sea, they go to Mount Sinai and received God's law, the Ten Commandments.

And God is taking them on a journey to the Promised Land. God wanted to bring them into the place called Canaan, their promised possession, going all the way back to the promise he gave to Abraham, patriarch Abraham.

And as they arrive, as Moses leads them to the promised land, and they're waiting to go in, Moses sends in 12 spies. And ten of the spies come back and they're very negative, "Oh, there're too many giants there. There's no way we can capture the land." Two of the spies come back with a good report, Joshua and Caleb, "Say yes, we can. God will be with us."

But, nevertheless, the majority of people in Israel listened to the ten negative spies. And God brought judgment on them. He said, "Because you have not believed in me, you're going to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years."

And so for 40 long years, the Israelites wandered around in the wilderness. 40 years, four decades. Until Moses will eventually pass away.

And when he dies, he gives responsibility to Joshua, and God calls Joshua to lead the people of God into the land of promise. Finally, after four decades, they're going to go in and they're going to capture Canaan.

And part of capturing Canaan involved warfare. It involved them fighting some battles. They were going to have to drive out some enemies there, some idolatrous nations. In fact, the Bible says there were seven idolatrous nations that needed to be driven out from the land of Canaan.

And so there's going to be a battle involved, and the first battle will transpire at a place called Jericho.

And most of us understand something about Jericho. You've heard the story of Joshua and Jericho before. As they go to this first city to fight their first battle, God says, "You don't need to fight it. I'm going to fight it for you." "All I want you to do as the people of God is to march around the walls of the city of Jericho one time every day for six days."

"And then on the seventh day, I want you to march around seven times, and the priests will be blowing their trumpets, then they'll give a loud blast on the trumpet." "And when they do this, I want all the people to raise a great shout." And God says, "I'm going to cause the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down." And indeed, that's exactly what transpired.

And so the Israelites went in and they captured Jericho by the miraculous hand of Almighty God. He worked on their behalf.

But God gave the Israelites a very clear command when they went into Jericho. He said, "I'm going to do this for you, the walls are going to come down, but this is the one thing I want you to remember." And I'll read this for you in Joshua chapter 6 verses 18 and 19. Look at the commandment he gave them as they're about to capture Jericho.

"Do not take." Notice this. "Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction." Let me stop there for a moment. If you're circling in your Bible, you might circle that word destruction if that's how your translation reads. That word destruction is a word that means something has been dedicated to God.

Something that's been dedicated for God's purpose. "Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction." You'll see this in a moment as the text explains it to you.

"Or you yourselves, don't take anything that's been designed for God, because or you yourselves will be destroyed, and you will bring trouble, notice this, you will bring trouble on the camp of Israel." "Everything made from silver, gold, bronze or iron is sacred to the Lord and must be brought into his treasury."

So God says, "When you get into the land, make sure if you get into Jericho, don't take anything of value. Nothing of value. Nothing of silver, gold, anything that has any kind of value, all of that belongs to God. It's to go into the treasury of the Lord."

Now, this made sense because Jericho was the first city they're going to take, and firstfruits always belong to God.

That's why God asks us to tithe. That's the first 10% of what God blesses us with, that we return that back to God. That doesn't come from the bottom, that comes from the top. It's the first thing that you do. It's called firstfruits.

And that's a whole teaching I could give you today on the firstfruits of the Bible and why this is so very important to us. But Jericho was the first city. And so God says, "Everything in that city belongs to me. Don't take it for yourself." And so they go into this land and into this city called Jericho, and God gives us gives them this incredible victory. It's an amazing victory that happened.

And so they're pumped up. They're excited. Look at what God did. This is incredible. This is amazing. Look at this miracle that has happened. This is going to be easy. We'll take the land of Canaan very easily.

And they move on to their second city where there's going to be their second engagement, their second battle. And the second city was a city called Ai. It's spelled A. I. And that's not to be confused with artificial intelligence, okay? It's properly pronounced Ai, like your eye, Ai, Ai.

And so they go to the second city of Ai, and what are they expecting? They're expecting, "This is going to be easy. It's a piece of cake. Man, look at what happened in Jericho. This is going to be fantastic. We'll go in and we'll take the land." In fact, this is exactly what they said.

Joshua 7, notice the description they give about going in to battle at Ai. Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the town of Ai, east of Bethel, near Beth Aven.

"When they returned, they told Joshua, look at, look at the confidence they have. 'There's no need for all of us to go up there. It won't take more than two or 3,000 men to attack Ai. Since there are so few of them, don't make all our people struggle to go up there.'" And so they're kind of minimizing what this battle is going to be.

Verse 4, "So approximately 3,000 warriors were sent, but they were, notice this, what happened to them?" "They were soundly defeated." "The men of Ai chased the Israelites from the town gate as far as the quarries, and they killed about 36 who were retreating down the slope. The Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events."

What turn of events? Well, they thought victory was going to happen, but instead of having victory, they had this horrible defeat. And the Bible says that their courage melted away. So again, they're expecting one thing and they experience something else. What they experience is a setback.

They're moving forward, but now they've been set back by something they did not anticipate happening. I'm going to talk to us about three lessons that you need to understand in your life to properly process and handle the setbacks, the life quakes called setbacks.

Number one, lesson number one is to understand that setbacks to your system, they are very shocking, very emotionally and spiritually shocking.

Let me define this term setback as I'm using it today, so that we're all on the same page. What is a setback? A setback is actually a moment in your life when you've been pushing forward, but suddenly you're pushed backward, just about the time you were starting to make some kind of progress.

You're moving forward, but something happens that causes you to retreat or that deals you a defeat. It's an unwanted interruption in your life, or we might say a disruption in your life that causes you to lose progress, to lose momentum, and maybe even lose hope for your future. It's a reversal, we might say.

It slows you down. It temporarily stops your progress toward a goal. And setbacks happen in all kind of different areas. Sometimes people have spiritual setbacks. They're going along with God, and then something happens and they're set back in their relationship with him.

Or it can be a relational setback. You see it in marriages all the time. It seems as though things are going well, then something happens and the relationship begins to be stressed. There's a setback.

It happens in friendships. It happens in our lives mentally and emotionally. It happens physically at times. You will battle something physically that you did not anticipate. Your health seems to be good, and suddenly there's a setback. You have a health issue that arises.

It happens in the financial realm. You're doing well financially, but now something occurs and you have a setback, or it can happen professionally or in your career. Some setback in life where you're making progress and then you're not making progress. In fact, in essence, you're going in reverse. In that sense, shockwaves to your system.

This is exactly what happened to Joshua and the people of God at Ai. Coming off of a great victory at Jericho, they had confidence, they had momentum, they had faith. They expected everything to be easy going forward, but it didn't happen that way.

And anytime we experience a setback in life, there are emotions that go along with it. You can't be set back without feeling something.

Sometimes you feel frustrated because of the setback. You feel angry perhaps, maybe angry at yourself or angry at someone that you feel like caused the setback. Sometimes we even get angry at God. We have this resentment inside of us.

There are many times we're in this consternation mode, questioning, why did this happen to me? Have you ever asked that question in your life? Why me, God? Why did this happen to me? And we start doubting God and doubting the promises of God. And we suffer with a dimension of grief and worry, and fear, and hopelessness, and resignation.

But the reality is that setbacks come to all of us, and we all feel pain when they do. And when you feel that pain, let me tell you what's okay to do. It's okay to take your pain to God.

In fact, it's vital that we do so. It's very important that we learn to talk to God about the feelings we have in our life. And God can handle your feelings. Your spouse may not be able to, but God can, okay? Your friend may not be able to handle your feelings, but God can. That whatever you're feeling and going through in life, God can handle whatever you're feeling.

And to come to God honestly and to approach him, yes, reverently, but to present your feelings to him and pour out your heart to God. If you don't believe that's appropriate, you haven't read the book of Psalms, because the book of Psalms is filled all through the pages of the book of Psalms, 150 psalms, that you find many, many times, David said, "Why do you despair, oh my soul?" And things of this nature, describing the pain that he was going through emotionally as he's facing the crisis points of his own life.

And I will tell you, it's okay to feel the pain. It's okay to go through the intensity of emotions, but I will also tell you this, it is not okay to become a permanent resident of your pain. It's okay to feel your pain, but it's not okay to become a permanent resident of your pain.

You'll never recover from your setbacks if you build your house on Self-pity Street.

And that's what happens to a lot of people. They go through pain and they begin to express it to God, and express it to themselves, and oftentimes express it to others. And before long, they're building their house there, and they're living, they've put up their residence, and the name of their street is called Self-pity Street.

And they live at 1334 Self-pity Street.

There they are, living in this misery of thinking, "This is terrible for me. I'll never get out of this. I'll never come back from this." See, setbacks do shock us, but they don't have to kill you.

Anybody ever been shocked by an electric outlet before? Come on, anybody in the room been shocked by electric? Are you still alive? I guess you are, you're here, right? Okay. It didn't kill you, did it? It shocked you, but it didn't kill you. And setbacks are very similar. They shock us, but they don't have to destroy us. They're not fun, but they don't have to be fatal. So, first of all, setbacks are shocking. That's just a reality.

Lesson number two is that setbacks are actually symptoms and signals for us.

This is how we need to understand them, that when you go through a setback, it's giving us a it's a symptom of something, and it's giving us a signal about something, or we might say it this way, it's giving us a message about something.

Joshua recognized this when Israel experienced this setback at Ai. He realized, "Something's wrong here. There's some message in this." And so after the defeat, Joshua goes to God, and he doesn't just complain. He does do a little bit of that, asking God why this happened and so forth. But he also goes to get some insight, some answers, some understanding so he can make some sense out of this setback.

"What's the message for me in this? What's this a symptom of? How do I need to process this in my life?" And for Israel, Joshua 7 verse 6 says, "Joshua and the elders of Israel tore their clothing in dismay, threw dust on their heads and bowed facedown to the ground before the Ark of the Lord until evening." So they go before God, and they cast themselves before God saying, "We need some answers from you. We need to understand what's behind all of this."

Now, to see God's answer to Joshua, we need to have just a step aside for a moment and understand what really happened. Because what's going on here? What really transpired that created the setback? Well, Joshua 7 verse 1 gives us the answer to this. It tells us what was going on and what Joshua was about to receive as a revelation from God. Look at the description of what it occurred.

"But Israel violated the instructions about the things set apart for the Lord." "A man named Achan had stolen some of the dedicated things, so the Lord was very angry with the Israelites." So what had caused the defeat at Ai? What had caused the defeat at Ai? God said, "Don't take anything from here." Do you remember that part of the story? Do you?

"Don't take any of these things. It's all God's. It all belongs to me. Take nothing of this for yourselves." But one man, one man, only one man, his name was Achan. He said, "You know what, I think I'll take something."

The Bible says he saw a beautiful Babylonian garment. And he found some gold bars and some silver bars, and he said, "Nobody will ever know about this." And he got them and he took them to his tent and he hid them under his tent. Only he knew about them, except God knew about it.

And so he violated the very thing that God told Israel not to do. He made this mistake in his life, and he's hiding from this. He's hiding all these things from others and from Joshua, but not from God.

Verse 10 shows us now God revealing to Joshua what's going on. "But the Lord said to Joshua, 'Get up. Why are you lying on your face like this? Why are you down here laying on your face before me like this? Israel has sinned and broken my covenant. They have stolen.'" Notice, "they."

Well, why is the "they" there? Because if one did it, it affected everybody. Never think that your sin is an individual thing. Sin always has impact upon other people, right? You do something wrong, you think, "Well, it's just me." No, it's not. It affects other people.

So, Israel has sinned. It's used in the plural there. Israel has sinned and broken my covenant. "They," although it was only one man, now the whole nation is suffering. "They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them, but they've lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings."

That is why. He's not going to give us the reason. "This is why," here's the reason, "This is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction. Get up! Command the people to purify themselves in preparation for tomorrow, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: 'Hidden among you, oh Israel, are things set apart for the Lord. You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you.'" So Israel's setback had a reason.

And the reason for it was one man's disobedience, one man's hidden sin.

And setbacks in our lives to be knocked back from something. We're making forward progress, but then we have a setback. And when these setbacks occur, they happen for a variety of reasons. They're not just things that occur. They have reasons behind it.

And I'm going to give you five reasons a setback may happen in your life. This may not be an exhaustive list, but I think it's a valuable list for us to review. Five reasons that you will experience a setback often in your life.

Number one, setbacks are sometimes just a normal part of life. You didn't do anything wrong. You just were living your life. And life can be hard at times, and life can be difficult, and life can deal you blows at times. And it was not that you did anything wrong. It's just you were living life in a broken world. And this is exactly what happened. Something set you back because of just being a person living in a normal life and in the world around you.

And Jesus prophesied or spoke or promised us this in John chapter 16 verse 33. "I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth." Anybody on earth today? I think we're all here, aren't we? We're not going to have any residents of Mars here today, right? We're all here on earth, right?

Here on earth, that's us. Okay? What does the next statement say? "You will have many trials and sorrows." That's probably not a promise you have on your refrigerator. But it's something that Jesus said, "You will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart, because I have overcome the world."

That is Jesus saying, "In this world, you're going to experience some things that are difficult at times, and sometimes it's just a normal part of life."

The second reason that we experience setbacks is because of sin, that can be the result of our own personal sin against God. We disobeyed God in some manner. He told us to live life one way and we're living it another way. We're violating his word and his will.

Isaiah 59 verse 2 says, "It is your sins. Your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins." Here's the reason. "Because of your sins, he's turned away from you and will not listen anymore." That's why it's so vital that when God deals with you about some area of disobedience in your life, that you come to him with repentance, and you ask God to not only forgive you, but to help you to turn your life in a fresh and new direction. Why? Because your sins don't move you toward God, your sins move you away from God. That's why sin is such a terrible thing. It breaks our relationship with God.

The third reason why we experience setbacks is that sometimes they're just the result of what I would call a lack of wisdom and a lack of understanding, or another way to say it, we have setbacks because we're foolish at times. Some of the things that have happened in your life that have set you back had nothing to do just with the natural world or even with sin. It had to do with the fact that you were dumb. You did some dumb things. Anybody done any dumb things before? Okay? And now you are, you're set back.

It often happens in finances. You get yourself in a mess because you didn't make good decisions. Okay? And so now here I am, I'm set back in this realm of life. It can happen in your career, it can happen to you spiritually, in any realm of life that you just didn't handle life the right way, not necessarily sinful, but just lacking in wisdom.

Proverbs 19 verse 3 says, "People ruin their lives by their own what? Foolishness. And then are angry at the Lord." How many folks are like that? They mess their own lives up, then they want to blame God for it. And then setbacks can also be the result of our own immaturity.

Again, we haven't necessarily sinned. It may not necessarily even be foolish, but we're just immature. We haven't grown up. We haven't learned how to handle life the right way.

The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 5:12 says, "You have been believers so long now that you ought to be. You ought to be teaching others. You ought to be more mature than you are. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word. You're making basic mistakes here. You're missing the fundamentals. You're not mature enough to handle life the right way. You're like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food."

And in all of our setbacks, I would say this, and this is one of the reasons God uses these in our life, is that setbacks are one of God's ways to actually get our attention. Psalm 119 verse 71 says, "My suffering," the writer of Psalms says, David says, "My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees."

Now, if you're a follower of God, a follower of Jesus Christ, and when you experience a setback in your life, there are reasons for it, and the ultimate reason for it is to allow you to grow through it. There's always the growth opportunity through every setback.

James the Apostle writes in James 1 verses 2 through 4, very familiar words to some of us. Perhaps it'll be new to you today, but I want you to hear these words of the Lord. "Dear brothers and sisters, that's us, when troubles of any kind come your way." Would that include a setback? Would it? You guys are alive this morning, just want to check out, okay?

"When troubles of any kind come your way, does that include a setback?" It does, doesn't it? Right? Any kind. Okay? "When troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy." Why would it be an opportunity for great joy? "For you know that when your faith is test there's just going to put some faith to to a test here."

As you're going through this setback, you're going to be tested with your faith. "For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." So God uses even the setbacks of our life to grow us. Any time we're facing any kind of trouble, it becomes an opportunity for our growth.

Setbacks can actually move you closer to God and teach you valuable lessons. They are signs, they're symptoms, and they're signals, they're messages to us that we need to listen to.

My third and final point, and this third point is the most important point that I will give you today. And I'm going to say this before I give you this point. As soon as I read this point for you, it would be an appropriate good time to have you to either declare a good amen or a good Hallelujah, because we're about to turn the corner right now to some very good news. And here's the third point. Are you ready? Are you ready? Okay, here's the third point.

"Setbacks are opportunities for supernatural comebacks." Okay. Setbacks. I love that statement. Even though I wrote it, I love it, okay? Setbacks, what are they? Opportunities for what? Not just comebacks. Thank you. Who said that? Okay? You did. All right, supernatural. Okay. Setbacks are opportunities not just for comebacks, but for supernatural comebacks.

See, your setback does not have to be fatal, and it doesn't have to be final. It doesn't have to be fatal, doesn't have to be final. This is vital to grasp.

In fact, some of the greatest stories in this book called the Bible, and some of the greatest stories actually in human history are comeback stories. Amazing stories. Okay? Of people who come back. And this was the this was true in the case of Joshua, Israel, in their setback at Ai. It's going to be an amazing story of a supernatural comeback.

And so when Joshua finally deals with the cause of the setback, that's Achan, we'll read about this in a moment. This setback was actually transformed into a miraculous comeback. What had been a defeat becomes an incredible victory.

Joshua 7 verses 24 and 25. "Then Joshua and all the Israelites took Achan, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons, daughters, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, tent, and everything he had, and they brought them to the valley of Achor. Then Joshua said to Achan, 'Why have you brought trouble on us? The Lord will now bring trouble on you.' And all the Israelites stoned Achan and his family and burned their bodies."

Aren't you glad people don't do that to you when you mess up? Okay? Aren't you glad Jesus took the punishment for you that you and I deserve right there? Okay? This is what Jesus did for us, okay? This is where you understand the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The fact that Christ came to pay the price for our sins.

And now Achan's having to pay the price for his own sin here. And the wages of sin is death, the Bible says. So this is why he's suffering again. This helps us to understand the sacrifice of Christ for us on our behalf. And then notice what happens in chapter 8.

"Then, after all this has transpired, the problem's been dealt with. Then, the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land. You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.'"

Verse 18, "Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'Point the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you.'" Joshua did as he was commanded. And if you read further in the book of Joshua chapter 8, you'll see this incredible victory that happens.

And what started out as a defeat and a setback turned into a miraculous supernatural comeback. Not only did they defeat Ai, but they also captured the plunder of Ai. They walked away being filled with great blessing because God turned everything around for them.

And what I would say to you today, what I would say to you today, and I hope you'll hear this message as far more than a teaching. I'm not here today to teach you something. I'm not here to preach to you. I'm here to impart something to you today.

As an undershepherd of God's flock, called to speak to you today from the heart of the Shepherd, God Almighty, Jesus Christ, your good shepherd to you today to understand that you should never give up when you've experienced a setback. Never give up. Okay?

I'll say it again. Never, ever give up when you've experienced a setback in your life, because with God, setbacks are setups for supernatural comebacks. That's what they are. Okay? That's what they are.

And it's vital to to get this in your spirit. It's all through the Bible.

In fact, the greatest comeback of all. What is the greatest comeback of all? I'll tell you the greatest comeback of all. It was the fact that Jesus came from death to life. That's the greatest comeback. Let me tell you that story again, lest you forget it.

Here was Jesus who spent three, three and a half years with his disciples, and they were all anticipating, "Certainly Jesus is going to bring the kingdom. It's just going to get better from here." "Oh my goodness, we can't wait to see what Jesus is going to do." And then suddenly they start hearing Jesus talk about having to die and go to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world. They couldn't figure this stuff out.

And then they watched as Jesus was hung on a cross and crucified, and he breathes his last breath and says, "It is finished." The disciples were totally, totally discouraged, disheartened.

Here was their savior, the one that they'd spent three and a half years with. They'd given up everything. Peter, Andrew, James, and John had given up everything. The other disciples have given up everything to follow him. And now they're looking at him and he's on a cross.

And they take him off the cross, and they lay him in a tomb and wrap him in garments, and they put him away as though he will never come back again. In their minds, do you know what they thought that was? It was a terrible setback. What a setback. We put all our hope here and believe that this was going to be our future. Now look, here's our savior. He's in that tomb over there.

But what they didn't count on was the fact that although Jesus had died on the cross and taken the penalty for the sins of the world, there was no sin in him so death could not hold him. Okay?

And so on Easter Sunday, the glory of God appeared in that tomb, and Christ rose from the grave and came out victoriously. So much so that when the when the women came back to try to find him to anoint his body with spices, he wasn't there. The angel says, "Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He's not here. He is risen."

Why? Because God took what looked like in human to humanity, what looked like a terrible setback. And God says, "Watch me. I can take a terrible, what seems like a terrible setback, and I can transform it into a supernatural comeback." "I I am not dead. I am alive," Jesus declares.

Revelation. Revelation. Last book of the Bible, we don't see in the last book of the Bible a dead savior. We see a living Lord, a living Lord who's coming back again. Revelation chapter 1 verse 18. Jesus' words to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, "I am the living one, not the dead one. I am the living one. I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades," the death and hell.

Jesus said, "I was alive. Yes, it seemed like a setback, but I'm not I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever, and now I hold the keys of death and hell."

And that means this for each one of us with this we're going to conclude today. Whatever your setback is, whatever it is, it's not the death of you. Are you hearing this this morning? Whatever your setback is, it's not the death of you.

Even natural death is not the death of you as a follower of Jesus. Are you hearing me? Even natural death is not the death of you as a follower of Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

So when I breathe my last breath here, I'm not done with. And when you breathe your last breath here, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you're not done with. You breathe your last breath here, it's your first breath in the presence of Almighty God for all eternity.

That's why the Apostle Paul writes these words in First Corinthians chapter 15. "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, oh death, is your victory? Where, oh death, is your sting?" It doesn't exist anymore for the believer. Why? Because what seems like a setback with God is always a supernatural comeback.

So what are you facing in your life today? Have you been set back by something? Is there a setback in your life spiritually or emotionally or mentally or financially or relationally or even professionally? What is the setback in your life? What is it? Can you believe God today that he can take your setback and he can supernaturally transform it into an incredible comeback? Would you bow your heads with me? I'm going to conclude in just a little bit different way today and Frederick, stay with me if you will.

I felt deeply impressed this weekend to pray especially for us today. And I'm going to conclude in a way that's a little bit different than I normally do. I'll come to my regular conclusion in just a moment.

But there are people in this room right now that you're living in the midst of a setback right now. And you can at different aspects, it might even be physical, it can be something in your life. But there's some setback in your life right now. And you know, that's where I'm at. I was going forward and something has knocked me back, and you're feeling the pain of that.

And I want to pray this morning that your setback will be will begin to be transformed into a supernatural comeback. If that's you this morning, then only if it's you, I'm not asking for some wholesale response. I want you to respond as the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. So this is just about you and God right now.

No one's looking around, it's a private moment, you need not be ashamed of anything at all.

But if you say, "I need God to help me because I'm going through a setback. I need to believe for a supernatural comeback." Would you lift your hand right now and just keep it up right where you are? Because I'm going to pray for you today, pray that God's grace would be upon your life. Come on, lift it up. There are others today that you need to respond.

Don't be ashamed of it. This is your moment. This is a moment to meet with God. They're right now you just begin to talk to God about that setback in your life. "Lord, in the name of Jesus, you see the hands that are lifted this morning and you more importantly know the hearts behind the hands."

"Now Lord, there are people in this room today and people in our Frederick campus today that are reaching out to you, people online that are reaching out to you right now." "And Lord, they're in pain." "They're devastated by a setback that has occurred." "They've been trying to figure it out and understand what happened and things were going so good, but why is this happening to me now?" All kinds of questions and fears and resignation, hopelessness in hearts, God, pain in people's lives today.

"Thank you that we can bring all of that pain to you, Lord, that you're able to absorb all of that, receive that from us. But Lord, we know that you don't want us to live in that pain. You want us to have faith today to believe you for a for a turnaround moment in our lives for a supernatural comeback." "And I pray that you would impart to each one of these who are reaching out to you even in this moment. I pray that you would cause them to recognize that you are more than enough to cause things to turn around for them." "And I pray that we can mark today, this day as a beginning point for comeback in lives by the power of your Holy Spirit."

"Lord, there may be a miracle today, there may be a miracle tomorrow, there may be a miracle this week, or it might happen a month from now or a year from now. We don't care what the timing is. We're just believing you today, God. Today we're staking our claim, Lord, that we will not die in a setback. We will come back to life again. Lord, we thank you that the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in your believers." "So we pray for those supernatural comebacks that only you can bring. And our trust and our confidence today is in you." "We thank you for it in Christ's name."

I would like to close today by giving you an opportunity to ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. Would you pray with me right now? Right where you are, just simply bow your head with me, and I'm going to give you a prayer to pray. And you can simply speak this prayer out, whisper this prayer out, and from the sincerity of your heart, call upon God, and I promise you that he will hear and answer you. So let's pray together. Start by simply whispering the name Jesus. Let there come from your heart just the declaration of his name. Say, "Jesus."

"I know that I am a sinner. That I have fallen short with you. I'm sorry for all of my sins."

"Jesus, I believe in you." "I believe that you are God's son. I believe that you are the savior of the world." "I believe that you died on the cross for my sins." "And I believe that you rose from the grave, that you are alive today."

"Now pray these words." Say, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart." "Come into my life." "Forgive me of my sins." "Give me a new start in you." "I commit my life to you in Jesus' name. Amen."

Now, if you prayed that prayer with me, I want to encourage you with a promise from God's word that says that when we call upon God's name, we call upon the son of God, there is salvation that comes to our lives. He changes us from the inside out, and you become a new creation. All things pass away, all things become new. And that's exactly what has happened to you today.

Your next step really is to make sure that you get into a good Bible-believing church. You begin to study God's word, get God's word in you, and to make sure that you get a copy of the Bible if you don't have one and begin to read it. Spend some time every day in prayer.

And I would encourage you also to check out the resources on our website that will help you to get going in your relationship with Jesus. You can find them at church-redeemer.org. Get those into your hands. Get started in your new life with Jesus Christ. Thanks again for joining us today. May God bless you and we look forward to seeing you next time.