Suffering & Maturity (9/29/2024)

Just like those people that say sammich.

So our volunteer of the week, this week

is,

Daniel. Daniel is part of our ministry team.

He just was usher right here.

He's all around great guy. Likes cool walks

in the moonlight.

Somebody that you want to get to know.

Do you like walks in the moonlight, Daniel?

You don't walk on the moon?

Okay. He doesn't hear real well. So

so,

some some

pretty amazing stuff still happening,

in in Israel and Lebanon.

Israel this week took out Nasrallah.

He is the he is the head of

all Hezbollah.

Tier leadership of Hezbollah has

now been eliminated. Guys, eve the Lebanese people

are coming out in the streets by the

1,000

with signs and cheers and all kinds of

things saying,

thank you Israel for getting rid of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.

They have been persecuting

the,

the Lebanese people just like Hamas was harassing

all the people in Gaza and all that

kind of stuff.

Terrorist or terrorist, it doesn't matter where they

live, what they do,

they're terrorists. And and this was

this was, pretty amazing. In the process, also,

he's the IRGC.

The

the revolutionary guard, IRGC is Iran's elite soldiers.

Their guy that was over

the RGC over Lebanon,

was also eliminated with the same,

bunker busting bomb.

And, but our but Iran keeps saying they

don't they have nothing to do with this.

They're not connected at all. With the, terrorist

and was killed by the same bomb.

So continue to pray for the Jewish people.

This really is a fight for their existence.

You know, when you hear people

goofy, stupid college students

that are marching around shouting

from the river to the sea,

Most of them don't even know what that

means. They don't know what river. They don't

know what sea. But what that statement means

is

every Jewish person will be slaughtered,

killed and eradicated from the face of the

earth. That's what it means.

Responsibility

to pray for the people of Israel. But

second, we have a humanitarian responsibility. These are

our people somebody's not allowed to just say

you don't get to exist anymore. It doesn't

even make sense. And so,

it's not

It it doesn't even make sense. And so,

our our youth this morning is at retreat

up in the mountains. This is their fall

retreat. They just every year it's very very

powerful, very impactful

for teenagers. And I was I was asked

by

a church. It was the church that I

pastored before I came here. I was asked

by the church to come speak at, a

retreat that they

were holding.

And,

so

that was last night I I went to

speak at the retreat. It's in the exact

same places where our youth group is having

their retreat.

So I ignored them. I acted like I

didn't know them

the whole time.

Like, one time, Josh started walking over to

me, and his turn around and walked away

real quick.

I don't play that game.

Same way I used to tell my kids

when they were growing up, don't ever call

me dad in public.

It was a good retreat though. My wife

is in Utah.

So I'll let you know this is is,

the news. And I'm sure she'll

explain this a little bit more detail, but

she is in Utah.

So she's she's a district Christian ministries director.

She co,

does this with with another guy named Sean

at our district office. Our district is Colorado

and Utah. This is for the Assemblies of

God.

And, she so she does all ministries for

churches for the 2 states. And so,

she's also

been the women's director for our district for

years years years. She was our girls ministries

director for years years.

She is telling the

Utah women

today

that she is resigning from this position. She's

been doing it for 21 years.

And,

she's resigning from this

position,

and,

she's gonna tell the Colorado women in 2

weeks during,

that retreat.

But, this is something she's been praying about

for a long time. She started talking to

me about about 6 minutes ago. What do

you think about this? That kind of thing.

And, it's

just where she is,

in life with this. She feels like God

is telling her to not do that anymore.

And then she's going to be spending more

time at the church, and she's going to

be helping me politically more.

And by that, I mean making me do

this. And

so so I just thought I'd let you

know that we also have transition here.

At the church,

Richard,

our admin, he is going to be taking

a ministry

I don't want to necessarily

say where it is because I don't think

it's official yet. I don't really know that,

but I don't want to be the one

to announce this to that church also. So,

ministry

position. We know he's called in the ministry.

We wish we had a ministry position here

for him. He has definitely called the ministry.

He's got God's hand on him, very strongly

with this.

And so he's leaving the admin position.

Beth Gray is going to take the admin

position here at the church. She's the one

who works in the

the coffee shop in case you don't know

who she is. So,

give her a couple of weeks. Be nice

to her for a couple of weeks, and

after that, I don't care. But

but be nice to her for at least

a couple of weeks because she's going to

be getting to know this. Richard's been training

her the last couple of weeks. And, and

this is actually a fairly big job,

being the admin for the church. And so

praying for her, help her out, whatever the

case is, I don't know what that means.

But, but and then we'll let you know

when it's official. Is Richard in the

room?

I was going to say, is it official

yet? But we'll just assume that it's not

and I won't say anything. So

But we're excited for him. We definitely don't

want him to leave here. And I did

tell the person that is that is going

to be hiring him that,

the first moment that we can steal him

back, we will do that.

So

just because we like to keep good solidarity

relationships with other churches. So,

so I want I want to talk about,

something this morning. I hit on this every

now and then, kind of, but I want

to I want to really focus in on

this. This is something that

that I think

I think the church actually has the opposite

view than what we're supposed to on this.

Not not in a negative way. I don't

think we're walking in rebellion against God or

whatever with this. But I think that this

has been so much a part of church

thinking and church teaching in different ways, different

levels, different intensities,

that that we have

a wrong view of of what it means

to go through difficult things,

to go through different times of,

trials, tribulations,

different levels of suffering, those kind of things.

Years ago, a long time ago, in the

mid,

the mid 19 nineties, I was a youth

pastor of a church in Texas. And this

it was a great church. The pastor was

my pastor from then on. He just passed

away a couple years ago in his nineties.

He was my pastor

and

and just an amazing man of God. Spent

many hours every day in prayer.

Really taught very strongly on faith that God

wants us to,

to trust and believe in him and that

God can do anything, and God wants to

do this stuff, and we have to have

faith.

And, and we saw a lot of people

healed in that church. A lot of miracles

happen on a regular basis, just constantly happening

there. And I know it was because of

the teaching,

in coordination with the prayer.

The teaching alone doesn't get you there. You

gotta have the prayer. You gotta really seek

God. You gotta really go after God. But

what also happened there was

the the church

kept leaning toward and this was

because of people

that would come in and kind of pull

it this way. Because because the pastor really

had such a strong

faith teaching, they pulled it more to a

to a prosperity gospel kind of mentality,

right?

Hyper faith mentality

that

that God wants you to be blessed at

all times, that God wants you to be

wealthy,

that Jesus died on the cross so that

you can have stuff.

I don't know if that's exactly the way

it would have been said, but but but

I I kind of got caught up in

this at the time as a young man,

early mid twenties.

And and it and it kind of makes

sense when you really understand the faith side

of things.

It's easy to start making that about you.

Start making it about what you get,

how you gain. And and when when you

know that God is doing stuff

and you see that faith really is the

key,

one of, if not the most,

key ingredient in that,

is really trusting the Lord, expecting God to

do things, praying for this stuff. It's easy

then to say, well, maybe God does want

me to be a millionaire. Maybe the reason

Jesus died on the cross is so I

can drive a new Cadillac. I mean, that

it it it,

it

it feeds into human nature pretty easily.

And then over the next couple years after

that, I really began to analyze this and

go into scripture and realize, yes, God is

a miracle worker and he does bless us.

That is consistently through scripture.

But the idea that somehow, which is attached

to this, that somehow if bad things happen

to you, it's because God's you're not really

walking God.

That if that if bad things happen to

you that your faith is not strong enough.

Because that's that's very unhealthy thinking.

I've mentioned this

before. I'll just I won't tell the whole

story, just say this part.

But when when Linda and I lost our

3rd child,

we had a prosperity preacher person

probably the reason we lost a child is

because we didn't have enough faith in God.

Now, we were young and I kind of

knew that wasn't true,

what did I do wrong?

And he also said, well, it's obviously a

sin in your life,

which I yeah, I guess,

but not actively.

I wasn't actively pursuing sin. I'm sure This

mentality

that somehow

when you become a Christian, everything is going

to work out perfectly.

You're going to be blessed. Everything is going

to be blessed.

Guys, I cannot I cannot tell you all

the times that God has blessed me over

the years.

I'm a very blessed individual. Right now, I

have to think This

may not If you don't have grandchildren or

Stan, I got 2 grandkids that just shout

out, God loves me a lot. Right? We're

having a third one in

I'm a blessed individual, but I also know

that the understanding that we have to have

as Christians is you are gonna go through

difficult things.

You're going to.

God is gonna take you into difficult things.

It's necessary that you go through these things.

Because without this,

you don't usually mature the way you're supposed

to.

Human beings, we're bad about this. We don't

mature the way we're supposed to when things

are going well.

We can. In fact, I've actually worked at

this over at least the last 15 years,

really praying, okay, God. If there is a

way that I can grow and mature without

going through difficult things, I would like to

know what it is.

And you can. It's it's getting in scripture

and going after God, regardless whether something is

happening in your life. You can mature.

But but most of the

the the bigger changes in the things that

we do in our life come from external

forces pushing against us in a way that

are uncomfortable

through suffering,

tribulation, those kind of things.

But we have kind of an

an innate thought

process in Christianity, in Western Christianity. It doesn't

exist in other places

around the world. But

in Western Christianity, we have this idea

that if bad things are happening,

it's it's probably

satan.

Could have been avoided. And so what we

do is we become risk adverse within Christianity

without even trying to,

we just kind of sidestep

all of the things or we avoid

the more difficult things in life,

in in in, community,

in public,

at work, in marriage, in family.

We avoid the more difficult things. Why? Because

human nature automatically likes it when we are

when the easiest path.

We prefer the easiest path.

The problem with that

is that's not how we're supposed to be

approaching our spiritual walk.

Life on this earth is boot camp for

what God has planned for us. It's not

the it's not the real service. That's

eternity,

Right? That's if you go back to the

garden, that's that's what God had planned, and

we messed that all up. And so now

we're in this time frame and and you,

me, we have about 70 to 80 years

according to Psalms on this earth.

And that's training, it's maturation, it's development.

It's, it's God seeing what you're made of

and if you can make it through, and

he's also giving you things that you need,

not just on this earth. That's actually small

in comparison to the big picture. He's actually

developing you for stuff in eternity.

And and I I went to boot camp

in the navy.

And, and it was amazing to me to

watch.

So the the thing that the military tries

to do is they try to physically break

you down so that they can do a

couple basic things. Really, the one big thing

is they want you to be one force.

They want you to be one group, not

individuals.

K?

And so they physically try to break you

down. They mentally try to go at you

so that so that which makes sense because

if you can be broke down in boot

camp, it's better than waiting till you get

to to to to a war when somebody's

shooting at you and that's when you fall

apart.

So they do all this kind of stuff,

but my dad had prepared me prepared me

ahead.

He'd been in the army,

and

he'd been telling me little things all my

life. But then I signed up for the

navy, and about 6 months later, I I

left the day after I graduated high school.

And, and he had been telling me, this

is what's going to happen. They're going to

do this. They're going to say this. Don't

volunteer. Don't don't stand out. Just be the

guy in the middle. Just, you know, all

these things. And and it was almost like

frantic from him. Don't do this. Yeah. And

so by the time I actually got to

boot camp,

it was easy.

I don't like to say that because people

think that that sounds a little arrogant, but

I was expecting

way worse.

I was doing push ups every day. I

was doing a 150, 200 push ups every

day. I'm running. I'm in shape. I'm doing

all the stuff. I get to boot camp

and I'm like, this is not that big

of a deal.

And

my parents had played mind games with me

all my life. I was prepared for that

too.

Right? Can I get an amen? So

Yeah. You know, you know my daddy's here.

So,

but but here's the thing that that I

found over the years

situation, suffering trials, tribulations, all that

stuff, if we won't try to avoid them

and we'll meet them head on, it's amazing

what God does through that. Don't try to

run from what God is trying to do

with you. Don't try to

to run from what he's calling you to,

or are pushing you toward, or developing you

for. Don't run from it. Don't don't try

to avoid it.

I know this is not this is very

simple what I'm gonna say today, but it

is not easy. And I get that.

But I believe it's necessary.

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4

verse 8,

Paul says, we are pressed on every side

by troubles.

We're not crushed.

We're perplexed.

We're not driven to despair. See how he's

balancing these off.

We are hunted down, but never abandoned by

God.

We get knocked down, but we are not

destroyed.

Through

suffering,

our bodies continue to share in the death

of Jesus.

So that the life of Jesus may also

be seen in our bodies. Through suffering,

people see Jesus.

When we go to the difficult times and

we make it through,

we come out strong.

They get to see Jesus through that.

And you do too. You'll you'll see that

as we unpack this. Verse 11. Yes. We

live under constant danger of death because we

serve Jesus so that the life of Jesus

will be evident in our dying bodies. So

we live in the face of death, but

this has resulted

in eternal life for you. Now this is

but the reason that I'm that I'm,

speaking about this, if you if you go

back over the last handful of weeks, you

see how these are kinda tied together. But

but but the reason that I'm addressing this

this morning is I believe that that

we have very, very difficult roads ahead of

us.

Very challenging roads ahead of us as a

country. I I keep saying this and

I know everybody hears this a little differently,

but I'd there's no way that they're gonna

let Trump in the White House.

They're not.

They can't.

He will burn

that place down

and needs to be, by the way.

They're not gonna let him in the White

House. But

still gonna be the peaceful transition of power.

That is not going to happen. K. I

don't know exactly how this is on gonna

unfold. I don't think we're gonna have a

legitimate election first. I

don't think we're gonna have election unless legitimate.

But if that happens and Trump does get

the election, between that election inauguration,

they're not letting him in the White House.

BLM has already given their plans.

They're gonna they're gonna burn our country down

in the process. And we say, oh, that'll

never happen. Where were you 4 years ago?

They've done this all over our country.

Antifa is gonna do this. And there's and

this is very coordinated.

It's very paid for.

Okay. I I don't know if you were

paying attention 4 years ago, but there would

be pallets of bricks

magically appear in communities

that were gonna be ransacked by BLM.

Later,

found out that George Soros was paying for

that. Now, why am I saying all of

this? Guys, even so so there's no way

that it works. So so Kamala gets elected.

Say, well,

I'm sure that was a fair election. Let's

just move on. Because day 1, she's already

said she's taken everybody's guns by

executive action. So so no matter which way

this turns out, this is not gonna go

good.

I think that we have some very difficult

days ahead of us and I think the

church has some extremely difficult days ahead. And

because part of the thing is we're gonna

have to decide. There's

2 churches right now in America.

I've been in China. I've seen this. There's

the underground church in China and there's what's

called the 3 self church in China, which

is the politically accepted, the governmentally accepted church

in China.

We are already developing a form of that

in America.

Right?

So the church has some very difficult days

ahead. And this is why I'm speaking about

this this morning as we better be ready

to suffer.

We better be ready to to understand

trouble,

tribulation.

We better be ready to meet this head

on because the way the church looks at

this right now is to try to avoid

it and everything is just good.

We make everything nice and polite. We've got

a lot of whipped cream and sprinkles

for people that are not winners

all over the country.

That's how we look at church right now.

We're not really getting into the issues in

the subjects.

It's it's amazing to me how we do

this.

And and I'm constantly so you guys know

I'm going all over the state talking to

pastors

and and our church leaders and things about

we've got to step up.

One of the main things that I constantly

hear in fact, we've had it here many

times

where where and some of you here work

for the groups that do

this, where we'll do some kind of, petition

to get,

constitutional change about abortion on the on the

ballot.

So there's at least at least 4 groups

in here right now that I know.

So we'll try to do that. And you'll

say, okay, can we do the petitions? Yes.

We will definitely put those on the table

and let people sign and we'll do whatever.

And then

come back to me.

There are people in the room that have

done this. Well, they come back to me

and say, well, when I went to these

10 churches this week, none of them will

let us do this because they say, we're

not going to get involved in politics.

Because murdering babies is not politics.

It's murdering babies.

It's not politics.

The church better wake up about this.

God is not okay with this and just

because the church tries to stay silent, they're

actually being complicit and God is not okay

with that.

The idea that we've got to push forward

and the church has got to step up,

we're not doing it,

but we've got to.

That starts with you and I realizing

it's going to cause some

difficulty in our life.

Paul says here that they're in constant danger

of death. We're not in constant danger of

death. I do believe that's on the horizon,

but we're not in constant danger of death

in America.

I go to places around the world that

are.

I'm constantly our pastor in India, I'm constantly

having that conversation.

Well, in this area, the riots are erupted

and 12 people were killed. How close is

that to you? Is it coming to your

area?

The area that our church is in there

in India

has been fairly safe from this stuff.

But all over India, India is not known

as a violent religious country

until the last 10 years.

And now it is.

This this is coming to America but we're

not in danger of death.

We're in danger of somebody saying something bad

about us on Facebook.

Oh, the horror.

First thing here, suffering is part of being

a Christian.

Matthew chapter 5 verse 10. This is the

Matthew 5:10

beatitudes, and this is the last part of

the beatitudes.

Says, God blesses those who are persecuted for

doing

right.

Persecuted for doing right

and standing up for unborn babies is right.

We've got to do this stuff. Are we

gonna be persecuted for it? Yes.

We're gonna be persecuted.

The last 2 years, I brought a pro

life 2 pro life bills in in each

session. I'm gonna bring another one this this

next year in the next session.

And they they deride me. They make fun

of me. The news will do reports about

me. Someone will just yell at me and

attack me.

I don't care.

I don't care. These are babies.

These are babies.

If if they wanna go to blows over

this, I'll I'll physically fight for the babies.

These are babies.

I'm gonna do what's right. Am I gonna

be persecuted? Yeah. But I don't even think

what happens to me is really being persecuted.

So so some crazy liberal

is

is deriding me.

I had one of them just kept kept

getting in my face. This was at the

committee because they don't let it get out

of committee. Kept getting in my face. You're

telling me that you think abortion is evil.

Yes. Yes.

I said, explain to me a people that

murders their own children not being evil.

And he could he was yelling at me.

You're saying this is evil.

Yes. I don't know how else to say

it. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

This is evil.

But so what if that guy doesn't like

it or doesn't like me? I don't care.

These are babies. I don't think that's being

persecuted.

And I and I appreciate I really do

appreciate when you guys come to me and

say, hey, thanks for standing up. Thanks for

doing this. You know, you know, fighting the

fight. I I I appreciate when you say

that, but I really don't think this is

I don't think I'm being persecuted.

So some goofball calls me names.

Whatever.

I can get that at Starbucks. Just go

in and tell them my name. They're not

going to get it

right. They're going to call me Scooter or

something like that.

I don't take it personal.

Sometimes I do.

So God blesses those who are persecuted for

doing right.

For the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Guys, the kingdom of heaven is ours when

we stand up for Jesus,

when we stand up for what's right. God

blesses you when people mock you, and persecute

you, and lie about you.

I constantly have

TV reporters, newspaper reporters

that they will do a thing. I didn't

even know when channel 9 did the one

a few weeks ago about me. I didn't

even know they had done it. Some of

you sent it to me. Hey, dude. You

know you're on the news? And then they

quote me.

I'm like, I don't know who this person

is.

I never did an interview with them.

How are they quoting me?

Linda always makes a she thinks it's hilarious.

Oh, did you say that? No, I didn't

say that. They're lying about me. I don't

know. They said, you said it. TV doesn't

lie. Like, I think you're lying.

They didn't ask me.

But they do it all the time. They

don't care. They'll put things in print. Just

lie. Just blatantly lie. And people say, really?

Just completely make stuff up? Yes.

Completely make stuff up.

And somehow and I know this is more

of an older generation thing. But somehow we

struggle believing that the news will actually just

blatantly lie, knowingly, blatantly make something up and

lie.

Let me help you.

They do.

All the time.

All

the time.

Okay. But look what he says.

People mock you, persecute you, lie about you,

say all sorts of evil things against you

because I'm following Jesus. They don't they don't

care about me. I'm not important in in

the process. I I have I have been

pastoring in Colorado

since 1996.

At least since the year 2000,

all of my sermons in my last church

and all the sermons here have all been

recorded and are online.

They can find anything they want to believe

about me.

25 years,

24 years, 25 years, you think I haven't

said things that they can use against me?

Why don't they go find that

instead of just make something up? Reason, they're

lazy.

If your coworker says something about you? Well,

it hurts. It doesn't have to. You can

just not care.

Yeah. But it it hurts.

They said this on Facebook.

You cannot care.

You can I used to tell my kids

this? We we need to have this conversation

more as adults. But I used to tell

my kids they would come home from school,

especially the daughter, you know, girls are.

So come home from school, they said this

about me. They sent this about me. They

sent and they they sent them a poopy

head.

I'm like, are you a poopy head?

No.

Maybe you should get different friends.

That and they just can't fathom that. But

they said on Facebook they put on Twitter.

You know what they said about me?

No. Because I don't go on Twitter.

You don't have to either.

You don't have to go on Facebook.

Why do you why do you have to

do that stuff?

You know why I go on Facebook? See

my grandkids and look at jeeps.

Have parts. But that's what I do. I

don't care I don't care what everything is

going on on Facebook. You don't either have

to. You don't

have to watch the news.

And some of you are addicted to Fox

News and some of this other stuff. Guys,

Fox News is just as bad as all

the rest of them.

They lie.

They are not in the in the benefit

of the people. You know, one of the

biggest things that Fox News will not talk

about, will not address

is anything to do with child trafficking and

pedophilia.

Do you know why?

Because they're involved in it too.

At the very highest level, do you This

is a guy that went on there was

explaining this online the other day that they

gave him a list of rules. We will

not talk about

these issues. Pedophilia,

child trafficking.

If it comes up, we'll shut you off.

That's that's pretty commonly known in the in

the people that get interviewed there.

Why why do you have to watch it?

You don't have to.

Well, how am I gonna know the news?

There's a lot better ways to find what's

actually going on in the world than than

CNN or Fox News or whatever.

Guys, we we're letting this stuff control us

and then what it happens is it beats

us down, and then we start listening to

all the stuff and we internalize it. Look

what he says again.

That that they can say all these evil

things against you because you're my followers.

Be careful because when people persecute

you because you're a jerk, that's different. But

when they persecute you because you are following

Jesus,

he's got your back.

Completely, he's got your back.

He's gonna take care of you. Verse 12,

Be happy about it. Be glad.

The very first article that I had done

about me here in Colorado Springs right after

I started running 2 years ago, I went

and did a thing down at a fire

station down south

and there was a reporter there. And this

reporter follows me all I thought I thought

he lived here in Springs, but he doesn't.

I just found out, like, last week he

lives in Castle Rock, I think is what

it said, or something like that. But he

goes to every event I do. Every single

event that I do, he goes to reports

on it and he says mean things about

me. The very first time he did that,

I it was actually in paper print, and

it was also online. I I took the

online version, I printed it out, and I

put it on my wall.

I'm big time now.

Some transgender guy hates me.

I'm big time.

So

be happy about it. Be very glad

for a great award awaits you in heaven.

And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in

the same way is we're going to go

through difficult things if you stand up for

the lord. And it's becoming more and more

that way. Right? When when I was a

kid, standing up for the Lord didn't get

you yelled at and screamed and all that

kind of stuff. Nowadays, it will.

You'll get attacked for being a Christian. I

get that all the time in the capital.

I literally get attacked by people. Not physically,

but verbally because I'm a Christian.

Whatever.

Who cares?

I serve Jesus. That's the one I care

about.

I don't I don't care what so and

so thinks. I care what Jesus thinks.

Well, that's the way we gotta think. That's

the way we gotta be. The second thing,

suffering builds our faith and resolve.

Romans chapter 5 verse 3. We can rejoice

Romans 5:3

too when we run into problems and trials.

It doesn't mean get excited and and pumped

up about it, but taking joy in this,

actually rejoicing when we know that, we're doing

what Jesus said. I hear this all the

time.

The reason they're picking on you, and and

this really is,

more of a spiritual side, not people. But

the reason you're being picked on is because

you're actually doing something.

That's pretty important in the process. The reason

that that all of a sudden, Satan cares

about you is because you're doing something to

cause him problems.

The the reason that

that that bad people,

evil people all of a sudden care about

you

is because you're doing something to upset their

apple cart.

They're being uncomfortable around you.

Now again, not because you're being a jerk,

but because the Holy Spirit is making them

uncomfortable. The Holy Spirit in you is making

them uncomfortable.

Says, we rejoice when we run into problems

and trials, for we know that they help

us develop endurance, and endurance is staying for

the long haul.

I'm I'm I'm in this for the duration.

Now look what happens here. He says, and

endurance, staying in for the long haul, develop

strength of character.

When you

when you stick in there,

you begin to learn that you can do

this.

And when you learn you can do this,

that builds your character.

All of a sudden, you come out on

the other end of something

realizing that you can handle more than you

thought you could,

That you can do better in this situation

than you thought you could. And so your

character is being strengthened by what? Just sticking

in there.

This this is one of the things, guys,

that even

works for marriage.

When when your marriage is not exciting or

is whatever you thought it was gonna be,

stick in there. Why? Because you're a person

of your word.

You're a person of integrity.

And so you stick in there and guess

what happens? The longer you stick in there,

and there's good times and bad. I'm not

saying it's like the horrible thing all the

time.

But the longer you stick in there, the

more that builds character that says, I can

do this.

I can actually talk to that person. We

might can work something out here. We might

can figure out how to be married.

It builds character.

Why? Because you're just stuck in there.

You didn't quit.

You didn't give up. This is this is

the the like the biggest thing that I

pushed to my kids for when they're in

their childhood

was we don't quit.

Doesn't matter what it is, you don't quit.

Like if you start if you if you

want to play,

baseball, and you start the season, you don't

get to quit halfway through because a coach

doesn't play you.

You made a commitment and you're gonna stick

in there.

Because why? You're a person of your word.

You're not

a quitter.

I used to say this all the time

to our kids. I can tell you this.

Bottoms don't quit.

That was our mantra.

Just sticking in there

is half the battle.

And when you know you're gonna go through

difficult stuff and then he says,

don't you think there's a bigger picture involved?

That he's got a bigger plan

and that he's he is going to to

rescue

us. I mean, we may die before he

comes back. That's not what I'm saying. But

He's with us on this earth that builds

our character and that gives us this confidence,

this hope of our salvation that it's gonna

it's gonna work out.

Right?

This hope will not lead to disappointment for

we know how dearly God loves us because

he has given us the Holy Spirit

to fill our hearts with his love. And

it also says in in Romans chapter 8

Romans 8 · chapter mention

that he's given us that the Holy Spirit,

speaks directly to us, bears witness with our

spirit that we belong to God.

That's that's a pretty good,

confidence builder for us.

Holy Spirit will make sure you know you

belong to God.

Right? First Peter chapter 4

1 Peter 4:12

verse 12.

Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery

trials you are going through

as if something strange was happening to you.

This this one gets me a little bit

because I see this a lot.

And not just within Christianity, but I see

it in general.

After after the presidential debate,

and, everybody was saying, could you believe she

said this?

Yes.

Where were you?

Where have you been the last 4 years?

And I've been saying this about the pandemic

mentality. There is another pandemic coming.

We're not gonna close down this time any

more than we closed down last time because

we're not buying this stuff.

But there's another pandemic. They opened a office

of pandemics

in Washington.

Why? I don't know.

I can't come up with a reason. Well,

here's one. They've got more coming.

This is the thing with this is when

people say, I didn't see that coming. I

didn't see that coming.

Open your eyes.

And this is what he's saying about our

Christian walk, that if if if you're surprised

when things come to you, if you're surprised

by these trials, if you're surprised that they're

coming, you're not paying attention.

You're not looking. The whole Bible is stories

about this. The entire Bible is times when

people were were presented with the challenge,

and either they they stepped up or they

didn't. Bible is is full of is this

stuff. Guys, to think somehow we're gonna escape

all this.

Why do we think that in in Western

Christianity? Why do we think that we're that

our lives are not gonna have to go

through the same things as they did in

the Old Testament and the New Testament?

It doesn't really make sense.

We're going to go through this stuff.

We're gonna go through the difficulties.

Okay.

He says, instead, be very glad for these

trials make you partners with Christ

in his suffering.

So that you will have the wonderful joy

of seeing his glory

when it is revealed to all the world.

And you get to see his glory when

it's revealed to you in the middle of

the situation.

There's there's nothing

as powerful and amazing as when you see

God supernaturally work something out in your life.

Supernaturally

work something out.

Is

is Nick here?

Yeah. I I was gonna have this conversation

privately with Nick, but I think we'll have

it right now.

So I was,

I was driving to this retreat yesterday.

And, my my jeep started overheating. I couldn't

figure out why and whatever. And I have

a leak, small leak. So

so my jeep is overheating, and I realized,

I mean, it goes all the way red

line, it beeps, the jeep shuts off.

Well, I had I had smelled antifreeze earlier,

so when I had stopped to get gas

about 10 minutes before that, I bought some

antifreeze

because I thought, something's not right, and I'm

a mechanic. So

I stopped, got some antifreeze.

So I'm sitting there about 15, 20 minutes

trying to figure out how to get the

jeep to cool down. Jeeps run very, very

hot. You can literally fry eggs on jeep

motors. They show this all the time.

So so I'm thinking, I gotta do this.

So I I gotta get to the retreat.

So

this is this is literally at 11:45.

And I pray, God, I need to open

this radiator. Please help it not blow up

on me

and melt my skin.

Please, Lord, I need I need you to

do this right now.

So I do get the water in there.

Everything works out just fine. It doesn't blow

up on me. I mean, you know what

I'm saying, spew.

So I get it all and I and

I head to the retreat. When I get

there, I look at my phone. Nick had

text me at 11:45.

Said, pastor, I'm just thinking about you and

praying about you right now. Do you need

anything?

I was like, I love that Nick guy.

And I so I told him later, I

just text back. I said, no, I'll tell

you the story. So I'm telling you right

now, Nick. That's what happened.

Guys, you you don't know.

You don't know what's happening.

You don't know the the moment, but it's

amazing when God works something out for you,

you can tell that's what he was doing.

Right? Nick's never text me that before. This

is not a daily text he sends me.

But I think God told him, hey, pray

for pastor. He's about to do something stupid.

Right? It's it's amazing when we see God

carry us through a situation. And he does

it didn't seem like a big deal or

whatever, but but my my father-in-law

had his skin melted by the exact same

thing.

And it it always bothers me a little

bit.

3rd thing here, suffering is temporary.

Now, this is the part where we have

to throw this in here because,

when we're in the middle of the difficulties,

sometimes it's hard to keep our head above

water.

One of the things that helps you

is that this truly is temporary.

It it's it's only going to be for

a little while.

And even if that is a long time

on this earth,

in this physical body,

it still is temporary in the big picture.

And if and if our eyes really are

on Jesus,

then

that's what we're supposed to be living toward.

Whatever

I I have to go through, 1st Peter

chapter 5 verse 10, in his kindness, God

called you to share in his eternal glory

by means of Jesus Christ.

You see how he's explaining

the the eternal part first?

You're gonna get to spend eternity with the

Lord.

And then he says,

so after you have suffered a little while,

you're gonna spend eternity with Jesus. But after

you get through what you're going through right

now,

he will restore,

support,

and strengthen

you,

and he will place you on a firm

foundation.

This

this stuff that we go through,

let it build you and grow you. Let

it develop you,

not not tear you down.

You're the one who decides that.

You you hear me say that statement about

a lot of things. You're the one that

decides that.

You're the one that decides whether this is

gonna build you up or tear you down.

You know, the the the statement, if it

if it doesn't kill you, it makes you

stronger. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I I think that's true. Now, I did

see a very important meme this week that

I think

some words of wisdom.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except

bears, they will kill you.

I was like,

Guys, this stuff, it strengthens us. It it

builds us. Let it do that rather than

letting it tear you down and pull you

away. We've all been there where it starts

to pull us away from the Lord. Don't

let it do that.

It doesn't have to. Just because you're upset

at God about something, which can be very

legitimate sometimes, it doesn't mean he's done something

wrong. It's just because we're limited humans.

And if you're upset at God, okay, talk

to God about it. But don't let it

pull you away from God.

If you're if you're feel like you've been

wronged by God, you're hurt by God, okay,

talk to God about it. But don't let

it pull you away from God. When you're

going through the difficult stuff, let it strengthen

you

not tear you down.

Let it build you up.

The 4th thing, the Lord walks us through

this suffering.

Isaiah 43 verse 2.

Isaiah 43:2

When you go through deep waters, it doesn't

say you will not go through deep waters.

It says, when

you go through deep waters, I will be

with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty,

you will not drown. You know why he

specifically says you will not drown? Because you

feel like you're drowning.

But God, I am drowning.

No. I got you.

Yeah. I know it feels like that, but

I've got you. I know this seems like

it's gonna just completely destroy everything in your

existence, but I got you.

When you walk through the fire of oppression,

you will not be burned up. The flames

will not consume you.

You know, the the one of the coolest

things we sang the song. One of the

coolest things about the story of Shadrach, Meshach

and Abednego

is if they didn't end up in the

fire, they would have never seen Jesus face

to face.

That's powerful.

We wanna see Jesus when everything is going

perfect and great.

And and he does show up,

but oftentimes, it's when things are the most

difficult.

Yeah. For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy one of Israel, your savior.

Philippians chapter 3 verse 10, this is where

Philippians 3:10

I wanna end it on. And, and I

think this is to me, this is the,

this is the direction. This is my heart

With this and I'm and I'm pushing this

because I want it to be I want

us all to say,

yeah.

That's my heart too.

Because I wanna know Christ.

That's the that's the starting point for everything.

I wanna know Christ.

Yeah. What about I just wanna know Jesus.

What about this? I wanna know Jesus.

I wanna know Christ and experience the mighty

power that raised him from the dead. He

tells us that the Holy Spirit that rose

him from the dead will actually quicken us

physically, will actually strengthen us physically, which

also includes mental and emotional,

spiritual

the holy spirit will strengthen us.

And the holy spirit is the same one

that rose Jesus from the dead. So he's

good at this.

He knows what he's doing,

and he's gonna strengthen us.

And then he says, I wanna suffer with

him.

What better statement

can there be? I wanna suffer with Jesus.

You're not chasing after suffering. That's not the

same thing.

I want my life to be miserable. That's

not what he's saying.

But if you are following Jesus and you're

following the footsteps that he that he has

laid out for you, it is going to

involve suffering.

He says, I wanna suffer with him, sharing

in his death, so that one way or

another I will experience a resurrection from the

dead.

I wanna follow Jesus

into everything.

Romans 12, I'm gonna crawl up on that

altar. I'm gonna voluntarily

crawl up on the altar and sacrifice my

life to Jesus.

One of the things that irritates me is

when I

when I hear people use a couple statements

together.

And they'll say, well, salvation is, you know,

it's a free gift of salvation. That's a

true statement.

You can't do anything to buy salvation, earn

salvation, or whatever. You don't deserve salvation. And

so when Jesus, by his grace and his

mercy, because of his love,

gives you the opportunity to be forgiven and

saved, it truly is this amazing free gift.

But then we usually tie in the next

part that says, and it doesn't demand anything

from you.

Or it will cost you nothing.

That is the opposite of truth.

Salvation

costs you everything

because it costs you your life.

It's no longer your life.

He's made you a new person

in Christ Jesus

in

him.

It's not your life anymore. It's his.

And he expects

everything

about us.

But see, we've designed a Christianity that says,

I can give him a little bit here

and there. Go to church every now and

then. I think it'd be good.

Yeah. Except there was 10 virgins.

5 of them

did not pursue

their groom.

5 of them did.

Those 5 ended up with the groom.

If you're not pursuing the groom

with everything a bride should pursue the groom

with, you're not going with Jesus.

He's not gonna make you be his bride.

Think about that.

So let me finish it with this question

or 2.

I ask my I ask my boys this

question on a regular basis. They

so about a month ago, we did that

100 mile bike ride.

And,

specifically, my oldest son down in Texas, but

Isaac here too, he's like, I said, you

should ride with us some year. He's like,

never?

And,

my old older son my oldest son, he

he does it different. He he's like, dad,

that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

Why would you get on a bicycle and

ride for a 100 miles?

And so I asked them and I wanna

ask you the same question.

Isn't there something

in your life

that you voluntarily

challenge yourself with something that you

push yourself?

Isn't there something?

This is the whole reason I I did

the education that I do. You guys know

some of you here don't even know I

have a doctorate because I don't talk about

it. I'm not talking about it right now,

but I I don't talk about it. Why?

Because I didn't get it for the letters

after my name.

Now it irritates my wife sometimes when I

get introduced at different places. She says, they

need to call you doctor.

We earned this doctor. I'm like, weeee sounds

a little

guys, you know, I did it because I

wanted to be challenged. And and doing those

kind of things

challenges you in ways that you will not

ever challenge yourself.

You're not gonna make yourself read those things

or do that or write that stuff. And

and I and I I look for things

in my life, not all the time,

but I look for things in my life

to challenge myself.

The reason I I do mountain biking is

because I

I I don't wanna be that fat old

grandpa that can't ever play with their grandkids.

I want my grandkids to realize grandpa is

gonna beat you at everything.

Right?

Grandpas unite. So

but but here's the thing with me guys,

is there anything in your life right now

that you're saying, I'm gonna challenge myself

because I need to do this. Or here's

the bigger thing, God has called you to

do something

and you're avoiding it.

That's not okay.

Stop doing that.

Meet that challenge head on and go at

it.

I will

not avoid

suffering.

I will not avoid

the situations that the Lord puts in my

life because it's just easier.

I'm gonna go I'm gonna go after it.

I'm gonna go after it.

I want you to stand with me.

I had this conversation with somebody recently

about

being the spiritual leader. And they were talking

about being the spiritual leader in their home,

as a guy and was talking about being

the spiritual leader. Okay. Well, let me broaden

that statement out a little bit.

See, it dawned on me because I I

don't guess I'd ever really process this this

way.

But it dawned on me,

my goal is I'm gonna be the spiritual

leader

everywhere I put my foot.

Everywhere I step, I'm gonna be a spiritual

leader. Doesn't matter it doesn't mean people are

following me or respect me or like me

or even care, but I know who I

am and I will not compromise.

I am going to lead spiritually

everywhere I go. I'm not gonna be somebody

different

in in workplace

or at home or this has always been

a big deal for me.

I'm gonna be the same.

I'm gonna I'm gonna lead

spiritually

in a community,

at a restaurant,

in the capital,

because why? I'm not gonna avoid the difficult

stuff.

As we can make that decision right now,

We can make that decision. I want you

to pray with me. Lord, we submit

our minds, our hearts to you.

Lord, we submit our lives, our physical bodies,

our existence, our workplace, who we are. We

we submit that to you right now.

And, Lord, I I pray

for me. I pray for everyone in this

room, Lord,

that that we we know we're going to

be presented with difficulties.

Lord, help us to not shy away from

them.

Help us to not try to take the

easiest path just because it's an option.

Lord, help us to to

to truly just step up

and be who you've called us to be.

God, I believe all through this room that

there are people that you have you have

specifically said things to them.

You've you've led them a direction. You've called

them to a to a direction in their

life. Lord, help them to step up and

do that.

Lord, help them to fight with everything in

them. Help them to fight

just backing off,

assuming they can't.

Holy spirit put within their mind and their

spirit right now that they belong to the

king,

and they can do it.

They can do it.

Lord, help us not

to to shy away from the challenges,

but to step into them.

And then, lord, we get to see you

do stuff that we never thought possible.

So, lord, I pray

for me.

Lord, I

I I say to you, I will not

avoid

difficulties.

I will not avoid

persecution.

I will not

avoid

trials,

tribulations.

Lord, I believe that you can grow me

through the suffering,

even if I don't like it.

And, Lord, I've seen you do it.

God, I pray that for every one of

us.

Just just tell him in your own words,

tell him the same thing. Lord, I will

I will do what you've called me to

do. I will step up. I will not

run away from this.

I will not take the easiest

path.

And I pray this

ultimately so that you get glory.

I don't even think it's really about us

long term.

It's about you.

In Jesus name,

amen.

I wanna leave you with this.

This is like the homework, I guess.

Because you understand,

you you're gonna be tested this week in

this.

Right?

You know you know how Satan works.

You say, god, I'm gonna do this, and

Satan's gonna be, I don't think you are.

But but

greater is he that's in you

than anything

in the world that Satan can throw at

you.

So when you're presented with the moment,

step up.

Let it happen this week, because it probably

will.

Step up.

Before noon tomorrow, God's gonna give you the

chance

to let somebody know Jesus loves them. Do

the best you can. Take the opportunity.

Step up,

and, you can change their life, and it

will change your life.

So do the best you can. Tell somebody

about Jesus, and God will honor that. It's

a guarantee. So shake somebody's hand. Tell them

how glad you are that they are here

and, that we are finally in fall,

And,

and we will see you Wednesday night. Have

a great rest of your afternoon.