VALLEYS: Valley of Opposition | Pastor Steve Morris | 8-24-25

But today, though, we get to continue in this valleys, the

sermon series. And man, has God not been

present in this series? I've just sensed him moving in

great ways in my life. I didn't realize how many

valleys I I, I am currently in. Sometimes you can be in the

valleys of life and not realize you're there.

Come on, you just kind of cruising along and then all of a

sudden you're like, I guess I do have stress in my life.

Somebody came up to me and said, Steve, you really got to learn

to manage your stress. And I'm like, I don't have any

stress. And I started looking what?

I'm like, oh, my gosh, I've got stress.

I just didn't realize that what I was doing was stressful.

Anybody been there? Come on.

New moms, parents. Yeah.

Why are you arguing more? Because you're not getting any

sleep and you're frustrated all the time.

And you have stress to the Max and there's not enough coffee to

get you through the day. Come on.

Somebody say Amen. If that's you.

One thing for sure, if you're not in the Valley today, stand

by. You will be in one, you will be

in a valley, you will have challenges, you will have

struggles. It's part of our growth

mechanism. See, God doesn't bring the

valleys, the trying moments, the challenges to punish us.

He allows them to come so that we can grow and so that we can

be different and we can overcome issues.

He does not punish us this way, but He'll leverage it.

He'll allow us to see. So far this month, we've looked

at the valley of crisis. We'll have crisis in our life

and things that are just so much more than we could handle will

come into your life. Some of you say God won't give

you more than you can handle. You ever heard that before?

I'm like, Oh my gosh, my God's given me way more than I can

handle sometimes. Why?

So he can come in and he can save me and he can rescue me.

What about the valley of dry bones?

You've gone through dry seasons like Lord, where are you?

I, I've heard you before. I'm struggling to hear you

today. I'm stuck.

What about weeping? Last week we learned it's OK to

cry. Some of y'all still crying,

right? You got you got you just taking

stock and Kleenex and it's OK because you got emotions and

it's all part of life. Well, today we're going to talk

about opposition the the valley of opposition.

I'm going to tell you right now from the onset, if somebody's

not coming against you because of your faith, I would challenge

you that you're not expressing it very well because we ought to

have some opposition. For some reason, many people

believe that, hey, once I become a Christian, I'm going to ride

the gravy train. This when life gets easy, right?

Oh man, the outsiders looking in think that Christians have it

easy. I don't know about you, but

there's no easy gravy train for me when it comes to walking with

Christ. There's opposition.

Whenever you stand for something, an opposing force is

going to make itself known. There's no such thing as a

trouble free life. But good news, what's common to

1 is common to all the Bible says.

So we all face the same struggles.

We all have the same opposition. In a sense, I get it right.

Like OK, we're walking with the Lord, so live ought to be easy,

but it doesn't work that way. We're walking with the Lord.

So it means that when we go through opposition, when we go

through pressure times that He's with us, He's going to walk with

us, He won't leave us nor forsaken.

He's in the business of being with you.

He's in the business of walking with you.

Here's the truth, as a Christ follower, you will face

opposition, but fear not. Fear not, the Lord is with you.

Fear not. Don't be embarrassed, don't be

ashamed, don't be afraid to say, man, I'm in a valley season and

they're coming against me at work, man, I'm in a valley

season and my neighbors, man, they're, they're pressing on me.

God will equip you if you'll stand firm in your faith, if

you'll stand for Christ as we strive to what?

Be more like Jesus. Man, I didn't know what this was

going to do when Stacey and I renewed our our vision for this

year, but we got these stickers and I put this on the inside of

the windshield of my truck. Be more like Jesus.

And I can't tell you when I read this and I see this sticker on

the inside of my windshield, how many times I've struggled to be

like Jesus and how many opposing forces are coming against me.

Hello, I-45 traffic. Why they got to close it down

like that to paint a stripe, I don't know, right.

Like just, I mean, Kramer did it, you know, with, with his car

and a roller. If you're old enough to know,

you know, if you don't, well, you just missed the greatest

show of all time. Hey, look, that's, that's

sticker. There's a few.

I, I decided to buy some for my family and I say, well, we ought

to buy more. So I bought like 50 of them and

they're in the, they're in the coffee shop.

If you want to buy one for 5 bucks, put it on your

windshield, put it someplace to remind you church overcome

opposition. You've got to be more like

Jesus. Just be more like him.

And when you're more like him, just try to be more like him.

It's just this perpetual thing. Look, John tells us in chapter

15, verse 20, remember what I told you, A servant is not

greater than his master. If they persecuted me, look at

this, they will also persecute you.

You will be persecuted. When you stand for your faith,

there will be resistance that comes along with you.

Look, it's resistance. It's the opposition that makes

you spiritually strong. It's what allows you to, to have

some strength to be able to, to walk.

And I'm going to risk, I'm going to risk out this morning.

You know, if you're a guest in the house, we don't, don't be,

don't be afraid. We don't, we don't normally do

this right. But there's a guest.

There's that. He just happens to be a friend

of mine. And I'm.

I'm going to put him on his. Patrick, will you come up here

with me, brother? Will you just come stand up

here? Y'all give it up for Patrick,

man. Just a just a great dude, man.

He's a friend. He's a brother.

He's strong. I'm not.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying? OK, look, this guy, you can tell

he goes to the gym, right? You can tell I don't go to the

gym. It's all yoga.

It's yoga. It's not hot yoga.

This is not hot yoga. This dude, this dude may be hot,

but it ain't yoga, right? So what?

It is what it is. You can tell Patrick has had

more opposition and his muscles than I have, right?

He goes to the gym, he works out, he has resistance training

and it makes him physically strong, right?

Me, not so much, not so much. But spiritually, we can get

strong together. You can't see it, right?

And so Patrick and I as brothers sharpening one another, we

become stronger. You just, you can see it on his

body. You can't see it on my body,

right? Y'all give it up for Patrick.

I know it's super uncomfortable. Great dude.

Great dude that challenges me. He looks intimidating, but he's

like a big teddy bear. He really is, right, Rachel?

Yeah. He really.

He really is just awesome guy. See, look, some of you, you're

spiritually strong, like Patrick is physically strong.

And some of you are spiritually weak, like I am physically weak,

right, right. Like I would like, I'd like,

hey, Patrick, man, I want to get stronger.

Can I go to the gym with you? And then I'm like, that's a

stupid idea, right? Some of you need to hang around

with some spiritually stronger friends so that you can become

spiritually stronger through the opposition that God is going to

put in front of you. And it's the resistance that's

going to allow your soul and your spirit to become strong.

See, life in Christ is not free from resistance.

It wouldn't be good for you spiritually if it were true that

Christianity was the gravy train.

It was the easy. See, sitting in these chairs

does not make you a follower of Christ.

It makes you a church, a tender it.

It makes you somebody that says, yes, I go to church.

But friends, going to church isn't going to do anything for

you. Sadly not.

I often say rows are not as good as circles.

Please come, don't hear, don't misunderstand me.

Come be a part. Let's celebrate what God is

doing so we can go out and we can serve God on mission.

But we're about to smart start small groups.

I'm telling you, if you don't sit in a circle with some

friends and get spiritually strong and talk about the

opposition and really take these messages are a topical study or

it's not hot yoga, but the ladies work out on the porch

right on Mondays, Monday morning and Monday nights workout

groups. I understand there's a men's

workout group coming to look. So you can get your soul strong.

You can get your body strong. Like whatever it is, right?

Mind, body, soul. We ought to be facing some

resistance, some opposition, so that we can become stronger.

Here's the good news. We're not being killed today

because we're following Jesus. The resistance isn't going to

kill you. The opposition's not going to

lay you down because God has already won the battle.

There's places in the world today where you will be killed

for doing what we get to do. There's places in the world

today, well, they'll just cut your head off if you're

professing Jesus Christ. We have the freedom to share our

faith in the United States of America, and most people will be

satisfied with sitting in a chair at a church and say I'm

good. There's no opposition.

I mean, if the hardest thing you have to do is stay awake through

a sermon so that you can walk a Christian life that you're not,

you're not doing much. Friends.

See, look, here's some opposition's Americans face.

I want you to see this workplace opposition, like the pressure to

confirm the policies. Yeah, you got to follow the

policies of your of your workplace.

But come on, some policies are a little bit off.

Social opposition let me get are ridiculed online institutional

opposition. Look at what's going on in

academia, ecologists and the government.

What about legal opposition? Remember all the cake maker that

wouldn't make a cake for certain types of people, right?

Like there's you have to stand up against the opposition.

Political opposition, controversy about praying in

schools, 10 commandments on the wall.

Some of us are like, yeah, Hallelujah.

Others are like, burn the school down, right?

Because what side are we on? You know, if you're like, if we

can't do this, what? Cultural opposition, Mockery of

Christianity. Remember the 24 Olympics and the

image of the Last Supper? But do you all see the

opposition that's coming against Christianity?

It ought to make us stronger, not cause us to run.

But I'm grateful that opposition's not the end game.

The opposition should become an opportunity.

And today I want to quickly go through three things that should

help you #1 will you expect it? Don't be surprised by it.

Like expect opposition, expect the resistance, expect somebody

to come against you. Like weeping last week.

Can we normalize it? Can we just normalize when you

come in and go, man, they're they're coming against me today.

Like the the amendment right that we have to evangelize and

share our faith ought to encourage you to go to your

workplace and be able to talk about Jesus, use his name.

You can say God, it seems to be OK.

I've been there, right? And then all of a sudden you say

Jesus and like, people start sucking air like a Hoover vacuum

cleaner, right? They're so worried they're

struggling. Like because Jesus still offends

2000 years later, it's still real because he's a person and

he's alive and he's coming back and we all inside know he's

there. Will you stand for him?

I don't know about you, but sometimes unexpected things can

still shock me. Like you see the news And why

are we shocked? We're like, what's going on?

It ought not shock us. We ought to be expecting it.

Yeah, of course this is going to happen before Christ return.

These are things are going to happen.

Listen close. The Lord has already won your

battle. Are you willing to stand up and

fight it? Because you're going to be the

one that has to stand up against the opposition.

You're going to have to be the one parent that's going to stand

up against the teacher that's telling your child that he can't

or she can't open her Bible in school.

Oh, no, they can. And you ought to support them.

You ought to stand up. American Center for Law and

Justice and Jay Sekulow and all these attorneys, they're ready

to go fight for you. If you're willing to take a

stand, Exodus 1414 says the Lord will fight for you.

You only need be still. It's the hardest thing to do is

to have face with opposition. And the Lord says, I got this

piece still close your mouth. Just wait here.

Here's a question for you. How are you being still in the

face of the valley of opposition?

What is the Lord asking you to do?

Are you quick to turn? Are you quick to wait so you

listen for the Spirit of God and do you move when he says to

move, some of you jump right out of the Kleiner and you get to

work. Oh no, he didn't right And off

you go. Some of you were like, let's do

it. Come on.

When you put the Dukes like, hey, time out.

Think first, let's let the Lord, yes, resistance came.

Opposition is at the front door, but hold tight.

Let's think about this. Let's strategize.

Stop being surprised when others come against you.

Stop being shocked. Matter of fact, it ought to if

you're living a life that it reflects Jesus Christ and the

and the values of of this book. Trust me, it's not hard to stand

out. It's not hard, it's not hard.

Just just try, practice, put the put a little Christian sticker,

a refuge church sticker on the back of your car and then start

driving around and watch how many times you're challenged.

Start driving like Christ would drive, right?

You know, I'm like, yeah, that's tough.

Sure, He was in a hurry to get somewhere.

I can't tell you how many times somebody told me I couldn't do

something. I'll never forget the first time

I put a Bible on my desk, and I'm going to tell you something.

There's a difference in having a Bible on your desk and having an

open Bible on your desk. You can't do that here.

All the conversations. Why?

Why can't I do that here? You can't talk about Jesus,

can't talk about church, separation of church and state.

You can't talk about Jesus here. Who says where?

Why? You know what you need to do.

You need to check your religion at the door.

Do you? Do you succumb to that?

Do you go? You know what?

You're right. It's just easier.

It's easier to be quiet. It's easier just to follow

along. It's easier not to talk about

that here. It's politically charged, so

we're not. Who said that politics and

religion ought not be talked together?

They should be. The founders of our nation used

the religion to build the documents.

Because it works. Can't you see Satan trying to

separate the two? And he's going to bring

opposition, and we've got to be able to say no.

Doesn't work that way #2 it's a word of warning.

You got to examine the source. What's the source of the

opposition? You better know this word enough

to understand what it feels like to walk with the Spirit of God

and receive the opposition, because you got to know where

it's coming from. You got to know the source.

If your boss is coming down on you for poor performance,

probably not the time to say get behind me, Satan, right?

You probably ought to get to work.

You probably ought to figure out what's happening here, right?

That's the. So you got to understand the

source and where it's coming from.

Not all opposition comes from the same place.

Some can be spiritual from the enemy.

Some can be external people. I, I what's the opposition

within our church? Opposing forces.

Don't think for a second that Satan won't work in here too.

I tell you right now, this is his favorite place to work.

Satan will send people in here to create opposition.

Oh, it's his favorite place. Don't think for a minute you're

going to come into a church and you're going to find people

group any of our churches across the whole planet where it's 100%

harmony. We're going to have opposing

forces. We're going to have to overcome

struggles and trials. You're going to meet in small

groups here soon. And in those small groups,

you're going to get to know people a lot more than sitting

in these rows. And you're going to go, oh, that

person's not who I thought they were.

Some of you going to sit in my small group in my house, in my

living room, and you're going to be like, I didn't think he was

like this. Come on.

If you've been in my group, you understand what I'm talking

about. Why?

Because you know what I say from the very beginning.

First thing I say, you come into my house, you sit in my small

group. I say, I hate to say this, but I

need to say this. I'm going to offend you.

I'm going to it's going to be one of two things.

It's going to be the scriptures are the lesson that we're using

and we're going to process this and I'm going to share it.

And really it's the word that's offending you.

But you can point at me because it's easy, because I'm a person

and one saying it other times it's the filter between here and

here doesn't work. And I'll say things that this

thing hadn't fact checked yet. And I'm like, why did I say

that? What did I do?

Opposition. What are we going to do?

How do we handle it? How do we address it?

See Nehemiah, he faced ridicule and mockery from his enemies

while he was rebuilding a wall that the Lord said rebuild it.

The wall came down. Nehemiah started building it

back up and all of a sudden he said, OK, Lord, I'm going to do

what you've called me to do. And then opposition comes.

Let's look in chapter 4, verse one, when Sam Balat, he heard

that they were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was

greatly incensed. He was he was ready to ridicule.

He ridiculed the Jews, saying what are those feeble Jews

doing? Will they restore their wall?

Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day?

Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of

rubble? Come on, have you seen people

mock you and your faith? Who do they think they are?

Oh goody 2 shoes. Look at the Bible, thumper.

Oh, he made a mistake. I didn't think Christians made

mistakes, right? You see it all over the place.

I can't believe you voted for that guy.

He's a felon or something, right?

I mean, come on, it's all over the place.

The mockery and ridicule, it's all coming out.

This is Tobiah the Ammonite. He was at his side.

He says, what are they building? Even a fox climbing up on it

would break down their walls of stone.

Can you see the scene? And here's the Christian

following the Lord listening to all this chunk.

Look, people often usher. In my position at the hand of

Satan, what are you going to do? I cannot tell you how often

people come after pastors. I can't tell you how many people

come after me. I was standing up here this

morning. A sweet lady came up and she

says, pastor, I can't tell you how much I enjoy your sermons.

And I was like, wait, what? I said most people come up and

tell me what I've done wrong. Most people come up and say it's

too dark in here, It's too loud in here.

I can't believe we use haze. Why do we have so many lights?

Why do we do and then fill it in.

I was like, oh, you refreshed me today.

You've encouraged me today. You fire darts.

Some people will leave churches. Maybe you've maybe you're here

because you've left another. I pray this.

Don't fire darts back into where you used to be.

Don't fire darts back. Don't, don't, don't be talking

bad about pastors. Come on, people all over the

place talking bad about pastors. We don't even know these people.

Some of them are prominent and they're all over the the TV or

all over your YouTube or all over your streaming devices and

everybody coming against certain people.

Oh, don't listen to them. I promise you, these pastors,

these leaders, these people that God has called out and set

aside, They do not wake up in the morning and say, how can I

lead all these people astray? They're trying to do the best

that they can with what God has given them.

But look, because the pastors face opposition, so will you.

I have learned that my struggles become your struggles.

I, I, I don't know how why there's a spiritual piece to

this, but often when I'm struggling with or my family

struggles with, I'll start hearing your families are

struggling with the same thing. And I, it just blows my mind how

this spiritually works. I go to the Lord in prayer.

I seek affirmation from my mentors and then I move how the

Lord has called me to, and I want you to do the same.

I want you to have coaches and mentors, and when opposition

comes to you, I want you to be able to reach up to your

mentors. I want you to pray to the Lord,

say God, am I doing what you want me to do?

Am I going in the direction you've called me to correct

anything like burn a fire of the things that are not supposed to

be? And I want to become more like

you. Be more like Jesus, he says.

And when he says go, just keep going.

Just keep going. Just keep going.

What is it? Just keep swimming.

That Nemo. Yeah.

Dory. Dory.

Yeah. Thank you, Allie, for keeping me

straight. Just keep swimming.

Come on. I got the fish shirt on and

everything today. And then move.

Move forward. Don't listen to them, don't

listen to what they're saying. The book of Proverbs is not

short on wisdom here. Look at 1522.

Plans fell for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they

succeed. Who you talking to?

When opposition comes, who is it?

You're listening to Proverbs 12/15.

The way of fool seems right to them.

But the wise listen to advice. Hello Hallelujah, praise the

Lord. You can see it when you start

looking. What about this one?

Listen to advice and accept discipline.

Can y'all do that? And at the end you'll be counted

among the wise. Will you listen for correction?

Maybe the intent was good, but the action wasn't.

So many times I'm like, I didn't turn out.

I thought it was going to turn out.

I didn't come out the way I thought it was going to.

Do you listen or do you or do you move forward, advance the

field of faith friends like take a stand, process the opposition,

understand where it's coming from because the source of it's

going to change your behavior. But you got to understand where

it comes from. Lord, is this from you?

Lord, what from this do you want me to hear and change?

Because I'm in this valley of opposition and I want this

resistance to make me stronger #3 You got to have perseverance.

You got to endure with perseverance.

You got to go through it. Friends, I wish I could take

your problem and just remove it, and then you could keep moving

forward. But the problem that you're

facing is there to make you stronger.

It's there to help you. It's there to give you some

experience. I believe one of the best gifts

the Lord gives us is the ability to press on, to persevere.

Could you imagine, like the fainting goats, if every time

opposition came, we just right, we just fell over with no hope?

Right? What?

No, let's not do it. Let's not do it.

You can get me off track. The opposition lasts longer than

you wish. You got to go through it.

We don't know when it's going to end.

We don't know when it's going to start.

We don't know the valley seasons.

We don't know the mountaintop experiences.

Come on. You don't know what your life's

going to look like. You don't know when success is

coming or failures coming. You don't know any of this.

But Hallelujah. Because if you did, you'd mess

it all up. You'd have a mountaintop

experience coming. You're like, man, on September

14th, we're going to be high in the sky.

We're going to be in a mountaintop.

I'd drive us right into the valley trying to get to the

mountaintop. I'd mess it all up because I'm a

human and I'll fail. But I but the Lord wants more

for us. The valley, it can feel endless

on, you know, the tunnel, right? And the light at the end, some

of y'all like probably a train, you know how it works, right?

You're like, it's just, it's probably coming right at me.

It might be, it might suck it in, get on the wall, let it go

by. You know what I'm saying?

I'm like, like, it might be, it might be another problem coming.

God bless the armed family who's just going through some issues

fighting cancer and car accidents and things that's

going on. And some of you have stories

that I'm like, oh, Lord, release the pressure on this family.

Release the opposition, But often times he says, I'm not

going to release the opposition. I'm going to make them stronger.

I'm going to make you stronger. The resistance training is for

you, not against you. How much sure are you?

How much sure are you in your faith?

Where are you in this season? Like be real.

Think about it like when's the last time you persevered?

Something for the Lord. When's the last time you were

like, I don't think I can do this.

I'm not so sure this is where I'm supposed to be.

Like, when's the last time the Lord called you to do something

hard and you said, all right, here we go.

I'm all in. I don't know how it's going to

turn out. I'm all here.

I'm here for some of y'all. It's signing up to serve in the

in the our kids program. Like I don't know why I'm here,

but the Lord just said sign up. And man, this is a lot harder

than I thought. Some of y'all got messed up

kids, right? Or maybe they dropped them off

from another church. Probably what they did.

Your kids are all right. It's just when they all get

together in one spot, you know, come on.

If you serve over there, if you're a teacher, you know what

I'm talking about, right? I could say that my mom was a

teacher and I understand some of the stories, right?

Like how much sure are you in your faith?

How far can you persevere? The hardship?

How long can you keep pressing the weight because you're going

to get stronger? Romans 5, three through 5 is one

of my favorite scriptures. Not only so, but we also glory

in our sufferings. What?

Because we know that suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance, character, and character hope.

And hope does not put us to shame.

Like friends. You've got to go through the

through the, through the challenge, persevere so your

character can be made more like Christ, so that you can have

hope for the future. You can get through this because

you went through that. You can get through things

because God is in you. I often remember what my dad

taught me. My dad taught me.

He said, Son, if you can learn from your mistakes, you're doing

great, he says. But you, if you can learn from

someone else's mistakes, you're doing even better.

Like, are you paying attention? Are you growing and learning

from other people? I told my dad when he was in

Hospice care and he was, he was dying days before he was dying.

I was leaving for officer candidate school. 8 days later

he died. I looked at him over his bed and

I said, I said if the Lord calls you home, don't wait for me.

And the other thing, the second thing I said to him, as I said,

I'm not going to contract cancer to find the Jesus that you

found. I learned from him.

I am where I am today partly because of my dying Father.

The perseverance built my character and my character that

became Christ like gives me hope and here's what I here's what I

pray for is that my hope instills some hope for you to be

able to persevere and press that I can do anything today if the

Lord is with me, you can do anything.

James 112 says blessed is the one who perseveres under trial

because having stood the test, that person look will receive

the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love

him. There's a crown for you.

It's being manufactured in heaven.

It's going to be your crown. It's going to many stones in it.

The Bible says, imagine with me the day that the Lord places

this crown on your head, and he says to you, well done, my good

and faithful servant, like I long to hear that.

Look, not all my days are easy. Not all your days are easy.

You overcome some junk, but if you give it to the Lord and you

allow the resistance to train your spirit, oh oh, you'll

become so strong. You'll be able to handle it and

walk through the disagreements, the struggles, the trials, each

opposition you overcome. It's an opportunity for you to

grow. Will you welcome it?

Can you change your viewfinder this month?

It seems to be all about just changing the way you look at

things. We can't change any of these

valleys, y'all. We just have to go.

I'm going to look at it different.

I'm I'm going to the spiritual gym one day.

I'll go the physical one. I pay for the membership.

That's a start, right? I got a Planet Fitness body, you

know, looks like a planet. Yeah, I can see y'all.

I can agree. Let me tell you, my soul is made

right with Christ. Why?

Because I faced the opposition. I've stood firm for Christ.

We started something that many people said we couldn't do.

We launched the church without 300 people that came from

Ascending Church. We helicoptered into Conroe from

Seabrook and said, yeah, this looks like a good place.

We bought a home in River Plantation.

We started with a couple handfuls of people in my living

room and man, that sun would come right to the window and

blind people and they get hot in there.

But Stacey made casserole dishes come on, breakfast enchiladas.

They were good. And people came Opposition,

opposition, opposition. But along the way, I can look

back and I can say it's only by His grace, His provision that we

had success. And friends, it's just getting

started. So what are you facing, Lord,

today I ask that whatever this church body is facing, whatever

individuals and families are hearing in this message today,

whenever they're listening to it, God, that she would allow

the opposition to make them stronger, to build spiritual

muscles that are able to strengthen them for tomorrow.

It's the perseverance that will build their character to become

more like Jesus that gives them hope for a bright future.

And God, I asked today that she would move.

And great and mighty ways. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.