Be thankful that we have a supernatural faith.

Steve Brown:
Be thankful that we have a supernatural faith. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
God’s grace changes everything, how we love, work, live, lead, marry, parent, evangelize, purchase and worship. This is Key Life with practical Bible teaching to get you home with radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Jeremy, who’s the producer of this program and I were talking about the program. This is Thanksgiving, by the way, and Happy Thanksgiving. And I thought the, what I say at the beginning of the program is called a teaser. And I said, be thankful that we have a supernatural faith and Jeremy and me too, quite impressed that I would work in Thanksgiving with the text that we’re studying on the supernatural. And Jeremy, never satisfied said, you know, if you could have put cranberries and a turkey in that, it would be a lot better. But it is Thanksgiving and I’m so thankful. You know what I did a couple of nights ago? You remember, you remember in white Christmas, when Bing Crosby was singing to Rosemary Clooney.

Count your blessings instead of sheep and you’ll fall asleep, counting your blessings.

I decided to do that. I couldn’t sleep. I, no it wasn’t guilt. Okay. If it were guilt, I’d never sleep. And the bed was comfortable. I wasn’t worried about anything. I just couldn’t sleep. And so, I decided I was going to make a list of things for which I was thankful. And after each item, I would say, and God, I want to thank you for that. And because the Scripture is clear that we’re to thank him for and in all things, I even thanked him for the bad stuff, okra and liver and you know, and I would remember people that I loved who are now in heaven. I was thankful for them. I was thankful for you guys, for the people who so faithfully support and pray for this ministry. And it was, in fact, the list got up to about 140 something. And, I was still wide awake and that’s when I got worried. I thought, you know, if this goes on, I’m going to be up all night. And I said, Lord, do you know what time it is? So, by the time I got to 152, I fell asleep because Jesus likes me a lot. But what a great practice, what a great practice, not just on Thanksgiving, but to live a life of gratitude. You know, there are a lot of bad things in the world, and I know that. We live in a fallen world and we’re not home yet, but sometimes we get so focused on those politically and socially and personally that we forget to stop and think about God’s goodness. And to he is good all the time. So, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a great time with your family. I hope the meal is as great as you think it’s going to be, or was as good as you hoped it was. And, but you know, make this a practice, this sit down and not in a real spiritual way, but in an authentic way, say Lord, you know there are a lot of things that I sometimes forget and I’d like to thank you. And then make a list and it will be endless and you will be surprised. Well, back to the text, we’re looking at Philip and we’re looking at the eighth chapter verses 4 through 25 about Philip’s supernatural ministry. Now let me give you, and I’ve already kind of said this, but let me say it again, two preliminary observations. And the first is, we live in a supernatural world, a supernatural universe and the man or woman who doesn’t see that, might as well be a turnip. You remember that song Peggy Lee sang, is this all there is? No Peggy, that’s not all there is. There’s so much more. If you had stood on the cross or the hill where the cross was, when Jesus was crucified and God had removed your blindness and you could see more than the soldiers and the mockers and the cross and the blood and the death. If you could have seen what was going on behind it, you would have been blown away. There was an incredible, supernatural, monumental battle going on. And it was so big that you wouldn’t be able to absorb it. We live in a supernatural world. You know, there was a time when I didn’t believe that. I really didn’t. I was in a graduate school of theology in Boston, we were all wacko liberals, you know, we believed in social ethics and God helps those who help themselves kind of thing. And that was fine. And it was working for me until our daughter Jennifer was born and she was really sick. And so, I looked for some charismatics to pray for. Now, if you really are sick, do you want a Calvinist or charismatic to pray for you? You know, if I’m looking for theology, I’m going to go to a Calvinist, but if I’m looking for, if my daughter’s sick, I’m going to go to a charismatic, they prayed for her and she got well. So much so that the doctor said the next morning, this is miraculous. They were going to take her to children’s hospital in Boston and God intervened in a clearly, present, exciting, definable, understandable, supernatural way. Now that, dear friend will mess with a mind of a liberal and it messed with my mind. And that was the beginning of seeing stuff for the rest of my life, that is the story behind the story, the world behind the world, the reality behind the facade. We do live in a supernatural world. In fact, if you could see it all the time, it would blow you away. Things are going on that you don’t have the foggiest idea about. Realities that you don’t understand supernatural things that are absolutely amazing. I don’t have a brief for Carl Jung, the psychologist and writer who’s dead and affected a lot of people and not always in a positive way, but one thing he got was what I just taught you. That we live in a supernatural world and there are good and there’s bad in that supernatural world. And Christians need to understand it. I see it. I see it. I, oh, I, I think of a thousand stories that are a part of my experience, where I’ve seen God intervene in a supernatural, unexplainable way. And once you get that, you start looking for it and you start trusting in it. And you start realizing that all of the negative, all of the dark, all of the political and social and Christian stuff, that seems to be horrible. That behind it, something is going on and it’s deep and it’s amazing. And, Acts 8 is an illustration of that. We have got a magician, we have got signs and wonders, we have got a curse and we have got repentance. And all of that is because God is doing something behind the scenes. Now, let me give you a second preliminary observation and we’ll be through for today. Out of these two worlds, the so-called natural world and the supernatural world, the latter is far more real. It’s the world of time and eternity. It’s a world where God is acting and moving in ways we don’t understand. Zona Gale tells the story. And I got this from George Buttrick one of my old time heroes who wrote a book years ago called Sermons Preached in a University Church. That was at Harvard about two tadpoles, one stuck his nose above the roadside pool, and returned to his friends saying there’s a wonderful world around our pool. It is vast and terrible and beautiful. And it undoubtedly controls our little pool. The other tadpoles said, are you crazy? Are you out of your mind? Why don’t you live in the real world? That’s kind of a metaphor of where most of us live. They’re two worlds. There really are. This one’s real. I mean, cancer’s real. Sin is real. Pain is real. Doubts are real. It’s a real word. But behind that is another world, that is far more real and deep and profound than this world. And God would remind us over and over again, so we don’t get discouraged, that he’s there, that he’s God, and that he is a supernatural God acting in supernatural ways for his covenant people. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. Another fantastic week of hanging out here in the book of Acts. And Hey, thank you for spending time with us again. Maybe we don’t say it enough, but we truly are thankful that you so faithfully listen to Key Life and visit Keylife.org and give. Well, yeah, today is the day Thanksgiving. For some folks today, giving thanks will be easy because, things are going pretty good. But for others it will be harder because life has been harder. How do we give thanks in those circumstances? Well, Steve has actually addressed that challenge in a message called The Principle of Praise. If what I just said grabbed you, then you are the one we’d like to send the CD to today. Would you do this, please call 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. And ask for the CD called The Principle of Praise. You can also e-mail your request to [email protected]. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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