Pick Your Hard | Becoming a Conqueror Trained Through Suffering - Romans: Book of Revolution

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

So no one is assigned a SEALs training.

They're all volunteers.

The average dropout rate in SEAL training is 85%.

Once accepted, volunteers undergo physical and psychological training at the Navy Amphibious Base in Coronado, California.

SEAL training includes 24 weeks of basic underwater demolition SEAL BUDS.

One former SEAL described the BUDS regimen as controlled chaos.

Week four trainees endure Hell Week, which starts at midnight and is accompanied with machine gun fire and grenade explosions, with little or no sleep per night, and fatigue so extreme that many soldiers experience hallucinations, life-altering injuries, and life-threatening situations.

The philosophy behind BUDS is found on a plaque at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado.

Quote, the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

You see, Navy SEALs are being formed to go into any situation in warfare and know what to do.

So they have to go through extreme training, more extreme than probably much of what they would ever experience in real warfare, because they're being formed.

They're being developed to be warriors.

God has you on a training program on this earth that is not dissimilar.

Everybody here is going to go through suffering.

Everybody here is going to go through deep, deep pain at different times in your life.

And God's forming you to be more than a conqueror.

Because you can't learn to be more than a conqueror without having something to conquer.

And for those who run away or blame and can't press in, guess what?

There'll be another test.

There'll be another exam.

So we all go through difficult times.

Why not go through it with God?

Why not go through it with the power of the Holy Spirit?

Because you're going to suffer.

So you can suffer with the Holy Spirit as your advocate, or you can suffer alone.

You can suffer blaming God, or you can suffer knowing that all things work together for good and that God's working out his plan.

You can suffer with this anxiety that it's all your parents' fault, or it's all the stuff in your past, and you're just messed up and your shame you'll carry forever.

Or you can realize you're a wounded warrior, you've got pain, and there's some things you probably do need to work on.

But in the process of that, God is actually sanctifying you.

He's actually making you a better person through hardship.

So in Romans 8, in the second part of Romans 8, we're talking about suffering.

Last week we talked about freedom in the Spirit.

And the setup was that everything that we're encountering in the next part of Romans 8 is about how to take the freedom of the Holy Spirit into a suffering world, a difficult world.

And I want you to just jump ahead with me to the very last part of Romans 8, and then we're going to go back and we're going to pick it up where we left off last week.

Because I think that this last part is a culmination of the theme of what Paul's trying to communicate to us.

Look at verse 36, as it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long.

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

That's pretty negative, right?

Yet in all these things, in all these things, and this is all the chapter before.

It's what he's been saying, all these things that you suffer through, we are more than conquerors.

Through him who loved us.

So I'm calling this the conquering spirit.

I've got it up here.

Pick your heart, becoming a conqueror, trained through suffering.

This is how you get trained.

Every lesson, every major lesson in my life has happened through suffering, not through victory.

Man, I love victory.

I think it's wonderful.

I think we should revel in it.

But the reality is the things that really deeply build your heart and spirit is through suffering.

It's through difficulties.

So Paul is saying here that you can be more than a conqueror.

The context, though, is the battle of failure, losing, hardship, and difficulty.

Just the way it is.

And so I want to look at eight reasons.

I see eight reasons for suffering here.

I want to give you a theology of suffering.

Not a real popular message, probably these days, because at least the guys I see on the titles of the sermons on the podcasts that are on your phone are all about victory and overcoming.

And I dig that, and there's victory through overcoming.

Absolutely.

That's kind of in a way what we're talking about here.

But the reality is we need a theology of understanding that failure is also part of life, that shame is also part of life, that brokenness is also part of life, and God is using it.

God is purposeful in your suffering.

There's a purpose to it that I pray at the end of our time together today, you'll walk away going, I can look at suffering in a different way.

So look at verse 16.

Let's start there, right around the place where we dropped off last week.

Verse 16 says, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

So here's my first point.

Suffering draws you closer to the Holy Spirit.

Suffering, suffering in your human spirit draws you closer to God's Spirit, heart to heart, spirit to spirit.

Because you can't draw closer to the Spirit unless you open your spirit to the Spirit.

And some of you, and I think all of us at one time, some of us today, you have a closed spirit.

You've been hurt so many times.

There have been men in your life, there have been women in your life, maybe it's an authority figure in your life, and they broke your heart.

And you said, Nobody's gonna hurt me again.

I'm never gonna allow anybody in there again.

I'm telling you, you're missing out on life.

And I would challenge you to at least start here with opening up your spirit to God.

You may not open it up to people yet.

That takes time, and guess what?

You'll still get hurt.

But I believe the pain of the hurt of having relationships is less than the pain of not having close relationships.

So it's spirit to spirit.

So when we go through suffering, God wants to press you into his spirit in your life.

Number two, look at number two.

So verse 17.

And if children, then we are heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.

If indeed we suffer with him, that we also may be glorified together.

Number two, pain and hardship prepares you for victory.

It makes you an heir of the kingdom.

You are an heir of the kingdom.

You are learning to overcome, you're learning to battle, and you're not a servant of the Lord, you are an heir with the Lord.

You are adopted into his family.

That's what the verses just before that that we read last week said.

You're adopted into the family, you're an heir.

And so Peter, very interesting, Peter at Pentecost preaches a very interesting aspect to his sermon.

He says this, therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, God poured out this which you now see and hear.

For David did not ascend into heaven, but he says to himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, and this is a key, this is key, till I make your enemies your footstool, till I make your enemies your footstool.

That's the most quoted verse from the Old Testament in the New Testament.

Jesus quoted it twice.

Peter quotes this quote two other times.

The picture here is, and probably the best example biblically is when Joshua went into the land, he put his foot on the neck of the kings that he had defeated, and he whacked off their head.

That's the picture.

You look at any commentary, that's the picture of sin.

He's saying, listen, this is crazy, but God uses the church, the ecclesia.

He uses us to push back the enemies of God.

And what I mean by that is in the fourth dimension, there's demonic principalities and powers, and through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, he is in the process now of owning, taking over the globe.

He has the nations.

And he uses us to be a part of bringing the kingdom of God wherever we go.

Because the enemy is defeated.

Say that.

The enemy is defeated.

And so he's saying here, this is actually, it's interesting, it's in the present tense, it's in the air tense, it's a continuous tense.

He says, till I make your enemies your, your footstool.

And if you read that in Acts 2, your, the first your is capital for God, for Jesus, your footstool.

God is taking enemies of the Lord, and he is using, when we preach the gospel, when we heal the sick, when we cast out demons, when we love people, when we forgive people, when we're kingdom people, we're pressing our spiritual foot on the neck of demons of unforgiveness, of demons of bitterness, of demons of death.

That's why truth's gonna win.

Truth wins, church.

Don't forget that.

You may look around and you're going, they're woke over here and they're woke over there, and you got all these things, and you should know a little bit about it.

You don't need to know everything about it because it'll just it'll depress you.

But you need to know a little bit about it, but then realize wait, God always wins through truth.

So, guys, be truth seekers, be truth speakers, be truth lovers, be a part of truth.

That's why in John 4, Jesus says, the true worshipers worship me in what?

Spirit and truth.

And that's what I'm gonna speak on at the worship conference on Friday afternoon.

Worshiping the Lord, true worshipers worship in spirit and in truth.

So, first of all, he says it's drawing us closer to the Lord's suffering is.

Secondly, he's saying to us that he's teaching us to be heirs of the kingdom.

Verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

So, in other words, God is allowing us to be under the futility of this world, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

So, in other words, church, you're groaning.

You're it's hard sometimes.

It's like, I can't take it.

I can't believe I can't take anymore.

That's all part of this life.

And I'm praise God that I've never been in labor.

Hey, guess what?

I am a man.

I will always be a man.

I don't have babies.

Okay.

But my wife does, and she had a few.

So she knows the groaning.

All you women that have children, you know the groaning, the pain of the lead up to the beauty of the hope that you have of a birth.

But it's super hard.

Life's like that.

You're laboring, but there's this inward hope that there's a purpose for this.

There's something beautiful that's gonna come at the end.

I don't know how many times I've said, I wish I had a photographic memory.

I wish I was more thankful.

I wish, and Liz can fill in the blank, you know.

I wish these things because you're groaning.

It's not complete here.

You're not gonna get it all right here.

So so this life is hard.

It's it's saying dumb things, it's brushing your teeth with shoe polish.

I mean, it's doing those things in your life that you wish you could change, and so you work hard to try to change them.

I think that's great.

Be the best you that you can be.

But it'll never be complete because we're groaning, we're we're suffering in this life.

Verse 23.

Not only that, so that that's not hard enough, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our body.

For we were saved in this hope.

But hope that is seen is not hope.

For why does one still hope for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

So, number three, he's making us hungry, you guys, for the full revelation.

He's made God uses the pain and the groaning of this life to make us long for the full revelation of God.

It gives us hope for the full revelation of God.

They say if you took all of your DNA of every cell in your body, it would fit into an ice cube.

But if you took all the strands of DNA into end, it would go from the earth to the sun and back 300 times.

So imagine, and they also say, by the way, you use about 25% of your brain.

So imagine the full revelation.

Imagine you have, you are lit up with the power of the Spirit, there's no sin in the way, there's no ignorance in the way, there's no demons in the way, and you were lit up with the full capacity of what you originally created for.

The original model that you were created to be, and you know from scripture, to live 900,000 years, you know, and that was after death.

So before that, we were immortal, we weren't gonna die.

But imagine that's all lit up.

It will be.

It will be.

And so and so what we're when we're groaning with stuff, it's a reminder that what you long for is actually who you were, who you will be, but you won't be here.

But I think what he's saying is that it gives you hope.

Everybody needs hope.

We all need hope.

So the full revelation.

So when I sit there and I go, man, I I've shot way too many weapons, I've listened to way too much contemporary Christian rock and roll music, and I can't hear good.

I'm gonna hear good someday.

I am, right?

Some of you say, I just wish I was smarter, I wish I could remember names better.

I wish I could remember my wife's birthday.

Well, I gone to meddling there, but no.

Um truth be told, I forgot my wife's birthday this year.

Not good, folks, not good, man.

We're talking about Doghouse City, and I'm the mayor.

Let me just tell you, man, not good.

Um, but it makes us hungry for full the full revelation.

Likewise, the spirit also, verse 26, helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray as we ought.

But the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

So, number four, suffering causes us to grow in prayer.

It causes us to grow in prayer.

You guys, prayer does not appeal to the flesh.

Worry does.

That's where you're gonna go.

Every time you're in a tough situation, you're gonna go to worry.

That's your flesh.

Start renewing your mind as quickly as you can.

I'm gonna go to prayer.

I'm gonna go spirit to spirit.

I'm gonna dive into prayer.

God, I don't know what to do here, but I'm asking you for wisdom.

I'm asking you for revelation.

Get in a habit of an immediate response in times of suffering going to prayer, crying out to God, because listen to this, it's really encouraging.

Look what verse 27 and 28 say.

So 27 says, now, he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints.

Listen to this, really important.

Underline it, circle it, according to the will of God.

So, in other words, number five, you discover God's will.

In suffering, if you'll go to prayer instead of worry, or you'll worry, and this is another way to say it, you worry yourself to prayer.

That's okay too, as long as you get there.

But it's when we pray, crying out to God, that we start to discover God's will.

Listen, it's important, you can't discover it any other way.

So if you're not a woman of prayer, if you're not a man of prayer, if you're not a young person of prayer, you're gonna miss God's will every time.

You just are.

Now you may lean back on your experience and know that, you know, this suffering will pass, which is awesome.

That's fantastic.

But when you get into the vice grip of real pain and suffering, and you start to pray, you start to cry out to God in that, God's gonna deposit his spirit into you with wisdom.

He's gonna quicken your spirit.

Your spirit's gonna get quick, and you know what to do.

And it's crazy.

For me, it's like middle of the night stuff.

I wake up, it's 3 a.m.

or it's 2 a.m.

or whatever, and I know what to do about a situation.

But I also prayed, you know, a long time the day before, or the day before, the day before.

You know, you pray and you're not getting anything, you pray, you don't get anything, you pray, you don't get anything, and then wham, man, it's like you get a download from God.

And I almost feel like it's a, and I've shared this before, it's kind of like a saucer to me, like that's being filled up, you know, and your prayers are filling it up, and then it's tilting, and then it's like then by continuing to pray, it pours.

He pours his grace and wisdom into you.

So sometimes we give up too quick.

We give up because we get tired, we get frustrated, right?

But he's saying, Look, I want to reveal to you my will even as you go through suffering.

And we know that all things work together for good.

To those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

Number six, you learn the sovereignty and goodness of God through going through pain.

You learn the sovereignty and the goodness of God through going through hard times, difficult times.

God's working it out.

God is good, God is moving.

So I woke up this morning, no, excuse me, yeah, when was it?

So I went to bed at 10, so I think it was at 1 a.m., somewhere around there.

I woke up with the phrase Puritan hope.

Puritan, I knew what that was, because Back when I was in college, I read a book by a guy named Ian Murray, which the book was published in 1971, but it was called Puritan Hope, and it was about the hope of the Puritans.

And basically, I'll give you a nutshell what that meant.

It means that the Puritan hope was that the reform theology of the reformers and the revivalists of the 15th, the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries, was a belief that God's kingdom was going to take over the globe.

And it was the Puritans who came here in the 1600s to America to build a new Jerusalem, to build a new Israel.

They really believed that the kingdom of God was going to advance over the whole globe.

Men and women, that's what I believe.

I believe that God is advancing his kingdom in the midst of all the stuff that's going on.

He wins.

He's going to win.

He's going, there may be times of hardship.

There may be times of difficulty.

We may not see it in our lifetime.

I don't know.

But eventually he wins.

He takes over the globe.

The nations are like a drop in the bucket, and Psalm 2 says that he's got the nations.

And so we're a part of the nation.

That's why this, that's why it matters.

Who you vote for from air.

Because the word in Acts chapter 2 of the foot of the Lord, who's on the right hand of the Father in heaven, that's happening through us.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

In other words, the ecclesia are the called-out ones.

We're the government agency.

We're the embassy of the kingdom.

That's why we did a debate here.

I wanted both candidates to know.

The church matters in this county.

Christians matter in this county.

We are strong, we're victorious, we're vibrant.

If you're going to mess around with our city and our county, we're going to come knocking at your door.

So, so I mean that.

I mean, I just think that's the way you're supposed to live.

So we believe in the sovereignty and the goodness of God.

All things are working together for good.

For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called.

Whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified.

You guys, God's conforming you to the image of his will.

Suffering conforms us to the image of God's will.

To the image of God's Son.

To the image of God's destiny for your life.

And some of us here have gone through death experiences.

Some of us have gone through horrendous difficulties.

It can be the loss of a child.

It can be the loss of a marriage.

It can be the loss of your health.

In some mysterious way, God is using that to cause you to be more dependent on him.

Less of you and more of him.

He wants to increase as you decrease.

So you can blame God, or you can bless God.

And if you bless God, you open up the conformity to the image of his son.

If you blame God, you're in demonic territory.

Now let me just say, everybody blames God at some point.

But don't stay there.

Men and women, don't stay there.

May it be brief.

Because you don't, we don't understand everything.

If you came to me and told me about your situation and said, why did God do this?

My answer is probably gonna be God didn't do it.

The enemy did it, but God allowed it.

And what are we gonna do to grow through it?

Because you can't.

And it's gonna make you a stronger person.

You are a spiritual Navy SEAL.

Okay, lastly, number eight suffering makes you more than a conqueror.

It forges into you a conquering spirit.

What shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us?

How shall he not with him also freely give you all things?

Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

Who is the one who condemns?

It is God who died.

And furthermore, he's risen.

Who even is at the right hand of God?

He makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress, depression, shame, loss of a child, loss of a marriage, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

For your sake, and I'm gonna just insert here, we feel like we're getting killed all day long.

We're counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet in all these things, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's a good word, folks.

That's God's word.

He loves you.

He's for you, He's building you, He's developing you, He's making you a man of God, He's making you a woman of God, He's forming you through suffering.

You cripple a man and you have a Sir Walter Raleigh.

You lock him in a prison cell and you have John Buddy.

You bury him in the snows of Valley Forge and you have a George Washington.

You raise him in abject poverty and you have Abraham Lincoln.

You deafen a genius composer and you have a Ludwig von Beethoven.

You have him or her born black in a society filled with racial prejudice, and you have a Booker T.

Washington, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King Jr.

Call him a slow learner, and deprive him of any parental affection, and you have a Winston Churchill.

Men and women, God forges us through difficulties.

Stand strong.

Have some brothers and sisters around you that love you.

Keep coming, keep growing.

And you'll be shocked a year from now how far along you are in your walk with him.

Thank you for listening to the Foreign for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.