Refining Fire!

And myann awesome, good afternoon, the beautiful to see such

a full house, amazing people. I'm honored to be with you.

Justin is out of town. I have the honor of

getting to share the Word with you this morning. I

have been something that the Lord has kind of been

tilling my heart, the soil of my heart about is trust.

How many of you it's easy to trust, and you've

never had a hard time trusting. How many of you

have struggled and there have been opportunities where you've had

to really trust, but it's been a battle. We're all

in good company. I want to get to the place

where that's my first response when I see a situation

or a circumstance in front of me and I don't

understand how the outcome could become good, that my first

response is to trust him instead of partnering with anxiety,

instead of partnering with fear, that I lean on and

into the Word and the one who is the Word,

the one who spoke the word, the one who never fails,

the one who never lets us down. As I was

studying about trust and kind of allowing the Lord to

show me some different things about trust, he actually brought

me back to the Refiner's Fire. How many of you

are familiar with the Refiner's fire. How many of you

are either in the Refiner's fire or have been through

the Refiner's Fire. Amen, how many of you are like,

sign me up again, I want to do it again. Yes,

it's not our favorite place to be. It is a

very challenging place to be when you're in the Refiner's Fire.

But how many of you you have gotten out of

the Refiner's Fire and been so grateful that he allowed

you to go through it because of what it produced,

and you would say it was worth it. Yes, as

I was learning about trust and kind of how how

the Lord was showing me how trust has actually woven

into having gone through the Refiner's Fire, and it's also

woven in the lordship. And so I want to I

want to kind of break those apart today and look

at those together with you. If you are part of

the women's group the Well that meets on Wednesdays, you

may have heard this before. I'm going to kind of

go over some of the teaching that I did at

the Well in April. But hang tight because there's a

bonus material at the end that was recently revealed to me.

Then you're really gonna want to stay tuned for it,

So don't leave. You've already seen this show before. Okay,

when we look at at the word in Malachi, first

of all, let's talk about why does the refiner's fire exist,

what is its purpose? What does it do? When we're

in the refiner's fire, we have all this junk what

the Bible calls dross that's surfaced when we're in the

midst of the fire. And so we're going to talk

about some of the reasons that we go through the

refiner's fire. I'm sure there are more than three, but

I feel like the Lord has highlighted three specific reasons

for the refiner's spire. If you'll look with me. In

Malachi chapter three, verse two and three, the word says

for he is like he, meaning God is like a

refiner's spire and fuller's soap. He will sit as a

refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the

sons of Levi and refine them like silver and gold.

And they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.

Notice that when they're bringing offerings of righteousness, it's after

they've gone through the refining those offerings. The righteous offerings

happen because they've gone through a refining process. Proverbs chapter

twenty five, verse four. Take away the dross from the silver,

and the smith has material for a vessel. Proverbs seventeen three.

Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the

Lord tests the heart Psal one thirty nine, Verses twenty

three and twenty four. Search, Oh God, my heart, try

me and know my thoughts, and see if there be

any grievous way in me, and lead me in the

way everlasting. What a bold invictation to the Lord search me,

Oh God. That word search means to penetrate, investigate intimately.

How many of you want to be investigated intimately? Have

you ever looked at yourself in a five times magnifying mirror.

You'd be looking at yourself in the mirror and you think,

I nailed it, looking really good today, my skin is clear,

And then you look in this mirror and you're like, oh,

dear Lord, that's what the word does for us. It's

that five times. If you have never looked, please go

get one and just you'll understand what I'm saying. It's

not pretty, it's just it's not as good as we

think it is. Right? Can we feel that way about

ourselves until we look in the word and we're like, oh,

I'm not doing as good as I thought I was.

And then we invite the Lord search me, oh God,

and know my heart. Penetrate, investigate, intimately, find out, seek

and search and know my heart. Try me, try means

to investigate, to examine and to prove, prove me and

know my thoughts. Have you ever been grateful that not

everybody around you could know your thoughts? What an invitation

to the Lord? Try me, investigate me, prove me, and

know my thoughts. And see, I'm inviting you Lord to

see if there's any grievous way in me, and lead

me in the way everlasting. I wonder if in this

psalm he's not saying, hey, prove me, I have nothing

to hide, or if he's crying out, Father, examine me,

prove me, heal me, purify me, and lead me in

the way everlasting. If it's a desperate cry for righteousness,

for holiness, for purification, what boldness either way? Three reasons that,

in having been through the fire and in looking at scripture,

that I believe the Lord leads us into the refiner's fire.

And sometimes we don't even have a choice. We just

wake up one day and find ourselves in the fire.

But the first reason, number one is for freedom. How

many of you have ever done this. You have people

coming over to your house and you need a quick cleanup,

and maybe you've just been too busy to really tend

to the house, and so you find a closet or

a room and it's like, just that is the designated

room or closet. Just everybody put everything in there. The

guests are guaranteed to not go in there. Maybe it's

a closet upstairs, or a master bathroom or laundry room, something,

you know, something that not everybody would go into, and

you'll hide it all in there, and everything looks beautiful

when they walk in, like you have you're well disciplined,

and your house is always tidy and organized and neat

and never cluttered. And you give them a tour of

your house. Look at this guest bathroom that I have

cleaned for you. Look at how well I keep my

kitchen organized. And then they knock or they start walking.

You see them walk to this one room and you're like,

not in there. Just don't let's not go over there,

because it is if they were to open the door,

they would just probably be buried, and who knows what

that can be like how we keep our heart? Lord,

you can have every area except this one. Just let's

let's just not worry about that one right now. But

look at how well I'm serving. Look I gave you

my tithes. I loved my neighbor, I brought them dinner.

Oh you want to talk about the room of integrity?

Can we not? Or whatever room it may be, because

we have some stuff in there that we aren't ready

to deal with. But the Lord wants to take you

through the process of refining so that you can walk

in freedom. Because when you start reading his word and

you start becoming more like him, you start exercising these things.

James one, verse two through four says, count it all joy,

my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, For

you know that the testing of your faith produces patience.

And let patience have its full effect. That you may

be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. How many of

you are perfect and complete and lacking in nothing. He

didn't say you would just be perfect. He didn't say

you would just be complete, and he didn't just say

you would be lacking nothing. He said perfect and complete

and lacking nothing. That's a huge promise. But if he

said it in his word, he intends for it to

be a way that we live in a way that

we've become, and something that we can actually taste of

and experience. He wouldn't put it in there if it

wasn't real and for us. So the purpose of refining

is that we go through this fire and all this

stuff gets brought up and he's able to purify and

pull it out of us so we can walk in

the freedom that his son died for us to walk

in that testing in that in James, know that the

testing of your faith, it's proving something trustworthy. It's going

through a trial to be proven trustworthy. The word patience,

the testing of your faith produces patience. That word patience.

There are four different scholars who have defined what and

explained what that word patience means. It's actually a military term.

So and going through proving to be trustworthy what we

get on the other side of that. These scholars have

defined it this way. I'll read all for I don't

have the names to be able to give credit to them,

but one of them says patience is defined as an independent, unyielding,

defiant perseverance in the face of aggressive misfortune, and thus

akin to courageousness. Another scholar says, it's not the resignation

of the passive sufferer like we would use in today's

modern word patience, as much as it is the fortitude

of a stout hearted soldier. It's the characteristic of a

man who is answered in his deliberate purpose and his

loyalty to faith and piety that even the greatest trials

and sufferings can't deter him. It's an absolute complete resolve

to not budge in the face of difficulty, not give

in to or be defined by a problem, but instead

to rise with such a fierce determination that we are

unmoved and challenges are difficulty when you're when you have

been tested, and it's developed patience that when the trial comes,

when the diet knows this is there, when the when

the uncertainty comes, you're not moved by the circumstance of

the situation. I'm not my God says that all things

work together for my good until until I see that

it's good. I'm not moving from this stance. That's the

kind of fortitude that's developed in us. Have you ever

seen someone who can stand in the face of difficulty

and not be phased by it. It's because they've been

through the fire. It has cost them something, and now

their patience is developed. Stout hearted. I will not be moved.

Stubborn and hard headed about it. This circumstance doesn't line

up with what my God says in his word. Until

it does. I'm not budging until it does. I'm not

gonna quit praying until it does. I'm not gonna quit believing.

Maybe for yourself, maybe for a loved one. Maybe you've

been praying for a loved one to come into the kingdom,

maybe it's been thirty years. Don't quit. When you've gone

through the fire, your patience can stand because you've developed something.

The second reason that I believe the Lord allows us

to go through trials is so that we can be

his vessel. So we start looking more like him, we

start reflecting him to the people we're around. We're no

longer anxious because we've encountered him and now we can trust.

We're no longer judgmental, because we reflect him and we

offer compassion. It's no longer operate in pride because we

realize that everything that we are, and everything that we

have the potential to become, and everything that we've ever

accomplished is only from him. It all originated from Him

in the first place. And so we can walk in humility.

And then we read the word in Proverbs nineteen and

it says that it is his glory to overlook an offense. See,

I was actually walking through a situation when I came

across that verse, and I had mistitled it and thought

it was unforgiveness, and the Lord was like, no, you're

actually offended because I kept working. Lord, help me to forgive,

help me to forgive. Well, it's actually offense. And then

I read that word. I was like, eh, you mean

it's your glory to overlook an offense, just to let

it go like it never happened. Well, if I'm going

to become like that and be made in his image,

then it's now my glory to overlook an offense. But Lord,

don't I have a right? They were wrong. What they

said was mean, oh you have a right. Yeah, you

could hold on to it if you want. To and

you can let it keep you bound, or you can

let it go and you can walk in freedom. Are

you willing to lay down your right to be offended?

Like he did? See as we walk through the fire

and we start seeing all these things surface, we see

a fence surface, and we see judgment surface, and we

could start becoming like him, because well, you know what, Actually,

I didn't even realize I was being judgmental and still

until I started reading the word where it talks about compassion,

some of these things were not even aware of. May

not even be that we're just defiant and not choosing

to do what he's written in the word not obey.

We just just don't know. And then, like that mirror,

when we look in that five time magnifying mirror, it

becomes so evident. And a lot of times when we

first see these impurities start to surface, we can have

feelings of shame, unworthiness, maybe even guilt. But he's not

exposing it so that we can be ashamed of ourselves.

He's exposing it so that we can deal with it,

that we can recognize it and say, I had no

idea Lord that was there. And in his gentle, loving kindness,

he just removes the dross from our heart. You see,

going through the fire and coming out refined and purified

isn't only for us. It's for the people around us.

It's for our families, it's for our children, it's for

our spouse, it's for our co workers, for the people

that are in your community, because when they start seeing

you being a vessel and Jesus through you, now they

can understand his love. See. I need for you to

go through the fire because there's something in you that

benefits us as a community, us as a whole. See,

you need me to be willing to go through the

fire so we can mature and grow together. So I

don't stay stagnant. We need each other. And when you're

going through the fire, it's often we can be kicking

and screaming. Does somebody see me? Could somebody just help

rescue me? This is awful. I feel like everything is

falling apart. Why is nobody here for me? But if

we will instead lean into the process, as painful and

as uncomfortable as it may be, and not depend on

people to rescue us out of it, But lean into Lord?

What are you showing me? How do I depend on you? Wait?

It's almost maybe even just as difficult to watch somebody

love go through the fire too, because you don't want

them to hurt or be uncomfortable, and you want to

rescue them out of it. If you won't rescue them

out of it, but instead, you'll stand with them and

pray you've got this. I see what you're going through.

I can't wait to see what comes out of this.

The Lord's doing an amazing work in you. I'm right

here with you. I can't rescue you out of it,

but I'll stand right here. I'll link arms with you,

and I won't move. I'll be believing with you. But

you're gonna have to trust God to take you through

this process, because you know what, He's really the only

one who can. And if I rescue you out of it,

you're gonna miss what He has for you. If I

let you rescue me out of it, I'm gonna miss

what He has for me. So Number one, that we

can be free. Number two, so that we can be

a vessel that he uses the process of refinement develops character,

so that we can handle the promise and the good

things that He has for us. Number Three, so that

we can go deeper with him. At the beginning of

this year as a body cross Kingdom, we felt like

the Lord was calling us to go deeper and what

does that look like? And as we've been seeking His

face and going deeper, and even with the Women's Ministry

on Wednesdays, there were certain themes that the Holy Spirit

just kind of put on our heart and laid out,

and we realized that we really can't go deeper until

we've gone through purification and refinement, and that really starts

the whole process of going deeper. And so in the

studies that we're doing at the Well, we actually started

with the first teaching being on the Refiner's Fire, and

then there are several topics to follow over the course

of a six month period. As I was putting this

message together a month or so ago for the Well,

I had this vision of a cave. The opening of

the cave, it's always a bit wider, right, and then

you go in and it can become more narrow. Will

I saw this picture of a cave and the mouth

of the cave was wide, and it was dim, it

was dimly lit, and there was an explore and he

had a backpack on like a you know, one of

the big tall backpacks that you wear and you go

camping and hiking. And he walked into this cave, and

as he continued to explore and to go deeper into

this cave, it got more narrow, and so he could

kind of see him like squishing down and trying to

find because he could see a light in the back

and he was pursuing that light, trying to get to

that light. And as he got closer to the light,

then narrow it got more and more narrow, and he

kept crouching down until he finally had to shed everything

he thought he needed so that he could get even

more deep and get to the light. If we're going

to go deeper, there are maybe things that we think

that we need that we're holding onto. Maybe they're even good.

And the Lord's saying, can you just lay it all

aside and just come deep with me? Can you lay

that offensive side? Can you lay down the unforgiveness, because

I want to take you deeper. I want you to know,

my heart, I am inviting you intimacy. See, he's not

just looking to have intimacy with us. He's inviting us first.

He's initiating the intimacy, but the things of the dross

can't stand in his holiness. So he's saying, let's go

through this purification process because I just can't get enough

of you, and I want to show you more, and

I want to reveal more of my nature and my

character to you, and I want you to see me

and I want you to know me. But those things

won't be able to stand in my presence. When we

get through the refiner's fire, we realize the things that

we were holding on to were just keeping us from him.

He's calling us deeper. He wants us to reflect him

to those around us. You may have heard this story.

I came across a few years ago and there was

a group of ladies that were studying Malachi and the

refining process and through a Bible study. And they kind

of wrapped up the Bible study that day and they

were like, I wonder what the purification of silver, what

the process of that is even like like trying to

find how they can relate to this process and how

it's relevant to them today. And one of the ladies said,

I tell you what, during this week, I'll go find

a silversmith and I'll talk to them and study the

process of refining silver, and I'll get back to you

and let you know what I found out. So she

goes and meets with a silversmith, and she noticed when

he was he said, you know, I'll show you the process.

So he went and he sat down and he grabs

some silver and he put it in the hottest part

of the flame. And it brought to her remembrance just

watching him sit that. Malachi said, he sits as a

refiner of silver. And she said, wow, do you when

you're refining silver? Do you always sit and stay with it?

He said, oh, yeah, yeah, we can't ever take our

eyes off of it. See, there's an aspect of God's

character when you're going through the tough times, when you're

going through the refining, where his eyes are locked on you,

where you feel his presence more near than you've ever

felt him before. And it's the tension, right, it's this

tension of discomfort. But also, man, I've never experienced your

presence this way. God, don't leave. Don't let me walk away,

never wake up another day with not knowing you this way.

We sing about it earlier in the song when I

Lock eyes with you, and it reminds me of going

through the refiner's fire, because there are moments when you're

a lot eyes. You're so desperate for him, Lord, I

don't know if I'm gonna make it out alive if

you don't move, if I don't have your presence to

eat on today, to nourish me, I'm desperate for you.

The refining process causes a desperation in us, and he

doesn't turn his gaze from us, just like in the

purification of silver, the silversmith is sitting there watching the

whole process. And then what she watched next was as

the draws started surfacing, he just gently reached over and

scraped it off, and he let it sit in there

a little bit longer, and there was some more drass,

and he'd gently reach over and scrape it off. And

he did this time and time again. And she said,

how do you know when it's purified? And he said, oh,

that's easy, when I can see my reflection in it.

Isn't that the goal for him to see his reflection

in us, That we become image bearers. We're not easily offended,

we're not full of pride, we walk in humility, we

love others. His word becomes something that we live and do,

not just something that we read. How does trust come

from a refining process? I'm glad that you asked turn

with me to Psalm ninety one, verse two. Psalm ninety one,

verse two says I will say of the Lord, he

is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom

I trust trust. In the Hebrew, this specific word in

the Hebrew is but talk. I'm probably butchering that. Forgive

me if you're fluent in Hebrew and I didn't say

that right. It means to adhere to. It's the modern,

modern day Hebrew. They use it right now for the

word glue, But in ancient times it was used for

the word weld. In fact, it may have actually been

the word that they used for weld. What does welding

require heat and fire? Okay, I need you to catch this.

This is the bonus material if you were at the well.

Catch this. This was just recently revealed to me, and

I just about jumped out of my chair when the

Lord showed me this. See, aren't you glad that the

Lord leaves? He doesn't just make it like here's everything

that he allow. He hides things for us and he

gives us an opportunity to seek it out. Like I

said in the first service, it's like an Easter egg hunt,

and we get to dig in the word and find

the gold. So the word it's used for glue today

in modern Hebrew, but it originally came from an ancient

art of welding, and may even be the ancient word

for welding. What happens when you weld two pieces of

metal together is that you melt the two pieces into

each other and they become one. The metal of one

piece mixes with the metal from the other piece, and

the metal from the other piece mixes with the metal

from the first piece, so that each piece of metal

is joined together with each other's metals. This process is

what the ancients used to describe the idea of trust.

I have heard it said before by a welder that

you can break a piece of pipe or metal anywhere else,

except before you can break where it was welded. Welders

will tell you that before you form a weld, you

must first make sure it is free from any impurities

such as water oil, in order for the weld to hold.

When I read that part about you can break a

piece of metal anywhere first before you can break it

where it's been welded. I text Sean. I was like,

is that true? And you know what he said. It

depends on who the welder is. I mean, does that

make you want to just stand up and jump up

and down with excitement. Let me tell you about the

refining process. Let's start over. We get to go through

the fire because we get to become an enter into

the freedom and all those impurities come out. Then we

get to become an image bearer for him, and then

we get to get deeper and closer to him. But

all in the process, while we were doing all these things,

what we weren't aware of is that we were becoming

one with him, and we were being welded together so

that we can stand in our trust and that we

can have that patience. We were becoming one with his heart.

What he was doing all along, the unseen things that

we didn't even know and couldn't put our finger on.

It depends on who your welder is. You have the

master welder. We don't have to look at the refining,

the refiner's fire, or the refining and purification process with

a dread. It still may not be something that I'm like,

sign me up. In fact, to be honest, last year

was a tough year for me personally because it was

a refining year and it felt like everything was in

chaos and everything was a mess, and I felt completely

unworthy of everything. And then as soon as I got out,

my husband got to go through it. So even in

all of this, to be honest, I was like, Lord,

just some reprieve, just for a minute. I know that

we are always in process, and it won't be the

only time I've ever gotten to experience the refiner's fire.

But I don't. I don't think I dreaded like I

did before. It wasn't even dread before. It was flat

out year. I didn't want anything to do with it

because it was scary. It's only scary with you don't

understand it. See, I really believe that he's taking us

through the refiners fired because he's purifying his church. Because

what's to come in the days of head need people

with a backbone who know who their God is, who

will stand with integrity. The world needs who he has

designed his bride to be. You know, fourteen carret gold

is not a pure form of gold. It's actually mixed

with other metals twenty four Carrot gold is the purest

form of gold. We can't be a reflection of who

he is if we're mixed with the world. He's looking

for a bride that's you're and spotless. So to become pure,

we have to separate from the ways of the world

and integrate with his heart through refining, through a fire,

and become his image and in his likeness and reflect

that to the world. Stand with me, please, I'd like

to invite the prayer teams to come forward. Please. I

don't know where everyone is in life in this room today.

Maybe you're in the middle of the fire. Maybe you've

just come out of it and this has brought some

clarity of what you experienced. He is such a good father.

He's compassionate, he's loving, he's caring, he's kind. We don't

go through the refining process because he's mad at us.

It's because he's drawing us closer to himself. See, his

kingdom isn't complete without you in it. He's not sitting

on the throne with us begging could we please come in? Well,

all right, I'll allow it you too. I'll think about

it now. He's begging. His arms are wide open. He's

out pursuing us. Please come into my kingdom. It's not

complete without you. So he's not taking us through the

refining process because he's mad. I just he's taking it.

He's taking us through it so that we can walk

in freedom. We can become pure vessels, and we can

go deeper with him and know him on a more

intimate level. So I hope that you can experience the

Loving Father in the process of the refining fire. And

I encourage you if you're in the fire, don't do

it alone. Don't look for someone to rescue you, but

find someone who will link arms with you and say,

you know what, I'm gonna stand with you. I'm gonna

pray for you, I'm gonna to clear scripture over you.

I'm gonna check on you, i'm gonna call you, I'm

gonna let you know you're not alone. I'm gonna encourage

you because we need that. I know I needed that.

And if you don't have that, find somebody here that

would love to link arms with you, someone that you

can depend on, someone that you can call up and say,

today's a hard day in the fire and I need

some prayer, some encouragement because we need each other. We

weren't meant to do this alone. When in fact, when

you do it alone and there's an aspect of isolation,

it can even break you and take you down and

take you under. And that's not the point of all

of this. So find someone to be a support system

to you that I want to invite you if you're

in the process of the fire, to come allow some

of these amazing prayer warriors to pray with you. Maybe

you're walking alongside of a family member who's in the

fire and you need wisdom on how to help them,

and you want someone to pray with you. See, we

don't want to take for granted that we have people

here to pray with us on Sunday morning. They're not

up here just to hold a position. They will go

to war for you. See. Trust becomes a weapon of

warfare when the enemy floods your mind, when circumstances are

presented to you and you can't see a way out

of it, but you don't lose your peace because you've

been forged in the fire and your first response is

I trust you. You said that you would work all

things together for my good. According to your riches in glory.

So if it's not good, you're not done. And I'm

not budging, and I'm not going to partner with anxiety,

and I'm not going to partner with fear, and I'm

not gonna partner with doubt. I trust you because I

know you. I know that you are good, because I've

experienced you in the midst of the fire. Then we

can use that and the enemy doesn't win because he

didn't get us to go in a spiral of anxiety.

He didn't get us to agree with and partner with fear.

We avoid all of that because we can stand firm

and trust. So it's important to be forged in this

process and wage your weapon of trust. So find someone

that will go to bat for you. Find someone who

will war alongside of you and encourage you. And if

you have any other needs that you need someone to

agree with you for they would love to stand with

you and to pray for you. But don't leave here

needing prayer and thinking that it wasn't worth it. It's

worth it. He wants to meet with you, he sees you,

he knows where you're at. You don't have to leave

the same don't leave the same. I hope that you

can leave here today excited to know what his word

is saying, excited to know the truth that it doesn't

just fall on your ears, but it transforms your life.

He is in the process. When we trust him, it

is a welding of our heart to his, something that

is not easily broken. So I'm gonna prayer for you.

The altar is open if you'd like to prayer, We

invite you to come. I'm gonna pray. Thank you for listening.

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