Faith in the Fire | Pastor Adam Mesa

Envelopes as well, and so you could bring this back

next week or in the coming weeks as well, and

you can drop this off or like I said, simply

you can go to our website or push pay and

then you'll click the tab of One Day Hope. I

have a quick video just to share with you a

little bit about what Convoy of Hope does with this,

and then we'll get ready to jump into the word today.

Let's check out the short video.

Well, praise God.

I know that we can all kind of pray through

and say, Lord, would you want me to partner with

one Day? And however you do partner, we thank you

so much. Additionally, if you'd like to give your regular

tieson offering today, I know most of us we all

know how to do that, whether it be tap the

seat in front of you at one of the campuses,

visit any of the foyers, or just simply go to

our web site. But I'm excited to share with you

really how generous our church has been over the past

year next week, and it's going to be a great

week next week to celebrate all God has done between salvations, baptisms.

I mean, this last weekend across all of our campuses.

We baptized over four hundred people between Rancho, Pomona and

Alameda and that's no short feat at all. So I'm

going to pray for our giving today and we are

going to jump into the Word of God. And so

if you want to prepare yourself wherever you're at, to

pull out your Bible, iPad, journal, anything you take notes with.

We're about to dig into the Word of God. But

I will pray for us this week. And Lord, as

we come before you, Father God, Lord, we thank you

so much for generosity of our people today. Father God,

I thank you Lord that you have placed it on

people's heart not only.

To support their local church, but to support.

The needs of the community through family to family and

now Lord to be able to make an impact to

feed children.

Across the world.

Father God, I pray Lord, as individual may be here

across our campuses that are struggling themselves this season, Father God,

may you be their Jehovah, Jirah and their provider. Father God,

will you allow us as a church to come alongside

of them and help those that are in need. Lord,

to lift up their eyes to see God as a

good God and the God that provides. Lord, we thank

you Lord for the heart of your grace and your mercy.

And as this word's delivered, God, thank you for the

next generation, Lord who let us in worship.

Across all of our campuses. Father, God, a patriot.

Is alive and well, and it is in good hands

because the next generation has a love and a hunger

for You God.

So Lord, may you continually, by the.

Power of your Holy Spirit, fan that flame in Jesus

Mighty name. Amen and Amen. Well, hey, let's jump into

the message. Say, if you have a Bible, would you

turn to Mark chapter ten. That's where we're going to

find ourselves today for a few moments.

You know, we've been in.

This series called Seeds of Revival. What does it mean

that if God would, by the power of his spirit

breathe revile on his people, revive our hearts, revive a person,

revive a community, revive a nation, or revive the world,

what is our responsibility as believers to steward that revival,

that move of God. And I just love an aspect

of revival because last week we were talking about baptism,

and we talked about the baptism of the person's personal heart.

What we also talked about was the baptism of what

it means to be into the body of Christ.

We talked about water.

Baptism and this week and I want to kind of

continue that same thought. I'm not going to use the

word baptism, but actually in theology it is called that

It's called a baptism of suffering, and it's actually something

that Jesus taught us, and it's something that he taught

his disciples, and also the Gospels and the New Testament

walked us through. What happens as a believer when I

go through something that I don't want to personally go through.

Has anyone ever been a season like that, you are

going through something that you did not want to go through?

I know I have.

I know often as Christians, you know what happens is

is when we give our life to Christ. If we

go through any aspect of suffering, our first intuition is

or instinct is God. What did I do wrong? What

did I say wrong? What did I believe that was wrong?

Who did I get mad? Who did I offend? What

is happening? Why am I being punished? But we will

see today with pure clarity that it's very rarely at

times punishment. Many times it's God wanting to pull the

best out of you, and it's God using a circumstance

that maybe he did not create or he did not originate.

Maybe sin brought that into the world. Maybe another person's

greed or selfishness brought that into your life. But God

will show us through the Word today that He can

redeem any suffering that you will ever go through in

your life, and he can use it for your glory,

I mean for his glory. Sorry, is that through his

glory he will use you and I And so that's

what we want to talk about today. And Jesus gives

a very beautiful picture in Mark chapter ten, verse thirty five.

If you have it today, if.

You'd like to stand for the honor of reading God's world,

we will all stand together to honor God with the

Word today. Here's what the Word of God says in

Mark ten thirty five for context, two of Jesus's disciples

and one of the other Gospel's accounts, they have their

mother somewhat involved in this as well, making this request,

and so specifically in Mark just James and John are listed,

but in another Gospel account, their mom is there as well,

kind of making this bid and.

Plea to Jesus.

And basically what their plea is is, Jesus, when you

establish this kingdom on earth, can we get the best

seats on your left and right now? Mind you, and

remember there's twelve disciples. Two disciples walked up to be

the right in the left hand.

Guy.

You can only imagine let's just say you had six children,

five children, or even twelve children.

I know some people have those nowadays too, but.

Let's just say you had twelve children, and two of

your children come up and say, hey, could you ride

us in your will and leave.

The rest of the ten out?

I mean, that'd be some family chaos right off the

bat alone right there. This is basically what James and

John are doing with Jesus right now, Like, hey, rite

us in the family will that in the kingdom we

get the two best seats in the kingdom. And here's

why Jesus says that that might not be possible for

James and John.

And here's why it says this.

James and John, the two sons of Zebede, came up

to Jesus saying to him, teacher, we want.

You to do for us whatever we ask of you.

That's like children to say that I'm about to ask

you a question and I want you to say yes

before we ask you, And they're like, no, no, no, no.

Ask the question first, tell I'll tell you after. That's

what they do. And he said to them, what do

you want me to do for you?

They said to him, grant that we may sit one

on your right and one on your left in your glory.

But Jesus said to him, you don't know what you

are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that

I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with

which I am baptized.

They said to him, we're able.

But mind you, they think this is a war that

Jesus is gonna start in Israel. What they didn't know

is Jesus was gonna go to the cross and he

was gonna suffer for humanity, that he was gonna be

pierced and beaten for our transgressions.

They had no clue of this.

And Jesus says, you guys have no idea what I'm

about to go through. And what also Jesus adds is

he says, and there's no telling that if you received

the same treatment by humanity, that you will make it

to the other side. And so he says. They said

to him, we are able. And Jesus said to him,

the cup that I drink, you will drink, and you

shall be baptized with the baptism in which I am baptized.

But to sit at my right hand or my left

hand is not mine to give, but it is for

those whom it has been prepared. Hearing this, the other

ten began to feel indignant with James and John. The

Greek word that's used here is not that they were

mad at James and John. They were upset that they

beat them to the question. That's what they were mad about.

And calling them to himself, Jesus said to them, you

know that those who are recognized as rulers of the gentiles,

which are the Romans, domineer over them, and their people

in high positions exercise authority over them. But it is

not this way among you. Rather, whoever wants to become

prominent among you shall be servants, and whoever wants to

be first among.

You shall be a slave of all.

For even the son of Man did not come to

be served, but to serve and to give his life

as a ransom for many you may be seated today.

Let's talk about that further.

Here's what Jesus does is Jesus tells the disciples that

one of the things that will happen for a believer

is in this life they will experience or go through

some sort of suffering. And if you live life long enough,

you will experience some sort of suffering. And what Jesus

makes a promise to his disciples is he says, and

when you follow me, there will be an expectation that

if you ever experience some sort of hardship, some sort

of suffering, is that God will use it for his glory.

That when you get through it, God will use.

It as a testament of His goodness and his mercy.

It's like the three Hebrew boys Mishak Shadrack can have

Bendigo and Daniel. It's that God could have rescued them

before they went through the fire. But as they were

in the fire and those outside perceived an Angel of

the Lord in the fire, it gave glory to God

that through their hardship they still trust did God. They

didn't say okay, okay, okay. They were like about to

be thrown into the furnace say.

Okay, we take it back, we take it back. No,

they went in the fire.

They fully expected to be consumed and burned by this

fire and Daniel, but did they know They didn't. It's

amazing how in culture and in society we as a

people we celebrate people who go through adversity and come

out on the other side, like one of the ones

that I know of very well. That to me has

always been something consistent that I've always heard about. Is

that does anyone know and remember about? Maybe you weren't

alive yet, but back in nineteen ninety seven the Michael

Jordan and the Bulls flew game the NBA Finals. Anyone

old enough that you remember the NBA Final game If

you don't know this story, this story is on the

day of the finals between the Utah Jazz the Chicago

Bulls were playing and the star player, Michael Jordan, woke

up with the worst flu.

Of his life, the worst flu of his life.

He was expected to withdraw from the match, and then

it was expected that the Utah Jazz were gonna consume

the Bulls because their star player couldn't make it out,

even to the point if you go look at back

at YouTube clips, he is waiting to go out and

he's leaning on Scottie Pippen just to keep him up

so that he doesn't fall down. That's how much of

a body aches that he has. That's how much in

pain that he was. And it has been said that

he's played through that game one of the best games

of his entire life.

He scored thirty.

Eight points in that game and he won with his

team the championship while having over one hundred and four

temperature of fever and a flu.

We look at that, We're like, Wow, that's incredible. What

a story. I get a ninety nine degree temperature in my.

Head and I call out work, I skip everything, I

don't go to nothing. But someone like that, we look

at that and he literally there was a specific Jordan's

shoe he was wearing and stilled to this day. Nike

every once in a while comes out with the Jordan

Flu Game sneakers and they always just sell off the

rack like crazy, because it was that much of a

moment that when he faced adversity he went through it.

But here's why I say that, It's because we look

at stories like that and we celebrate it. But when

you and I experience our own hardship, our own suffering,

we don't want to go through it. I want to

celebrate someone else's triumph over adversity, but that I don't

want that. I love that God brings revivals to us.

I love that God brings renewals to us. But if

it means that there's gonna be hardship in terms of suffering,

if it means that I'm gonna emotionally go through something,

then I don't know that I want all of that.

I've experienced many times in my life, though I got

saved at a very young age, that becoming a believer

was a lot of times harder when I wasn't a believer,

and it seemed like I had a target on my

back when I started having faith in Jesus that I

didn't have when I didn't have faith in Jesus.

Well, what's that about.

Well, because there's a real enemy, and there's a real Satan,

and there's a real ruler of this age and this

earth that Jesus Christ has overcome and defeated through the

blood of his work on the cross. But what happens

is is Satan does not want you to live your

faith out and he will do whatever he can to

bring you to a place of adversity, adversity to cast

the name of Jesus out of your life, and to

cast the name and the faith of Jesus. And Art

and the New Testament shares this all the time. If

you're taking notes, what happens is what will revival happen?

And through this fire of revival is when you and

I will experience something.

What will happen is this.

Fire will reveal what's really in our heart. It's good

to be for something when things feel like it's all

on the rise. But the moment you feel like you've

hit a wall, the moment you feel like you've hit

a challenge, the moment you feel like you've hit a fire,

what will happen is it will reveal what is truly

in your heart.

It's like people who talk.

A big game about going on roller coasters, and then

the moment the roller coaster comes up to the front,

they say, you know what, I'll meet you guys at

the exit. Might tummy, it's not feeling good. He not

had a hot dog. No, you knew how you felt

prior to standing in this hour line is that now

you got closer, the noises on the roller coaster got louder.

You see the speed of the roller coaster now.

And so now you went from talking to a big

game to now you're backing out. And what happened is

when we experience a fire in our life or some

type of suffering in our life, we will have to

make a decision and on whether will I pursue and

continue to trust God, or will I back out, will

I fold under the pressure, because it will reveal what

is really in us.

I want you to see.

What's in the scriptures in the Book of One Peter,

Chapter one, verse seven.

This is how Peter puts it.

And he's talking to us believers about what it means

to experience trials in our life. He said, these trials

will show that your faith is genuine.

It is being.

Tested as fire tests and purifies. Gold through your faith

is far more precious than mere gold. So when your

faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you

much praise and glory and honor on the day when

Jesus Christ.

Is revealed to the whole world.

What Peter was doing was he was talking to believers

who there was a good amount of them were saying, hey,

if following Jesus means that we still have to go

through trials, we still have to experience suffering, what are

we doing this for?

And Peter is telling the church.

He's saying, look, what will happen is when you experience

trials and when you show the world that your faith

is not wavered, your trust in Jesus is not waiver.

It does not shut you out of your prayer life,

it doesn't shut you out of your devotion to Christ.

He says, what will happen is when you stand before

Jesus in heaven, God will say you made it well done,

good and faithful servant through it all. You stayed trusting

the King. You didn't back out when it got hard.

And he loves this beautiful and he leaves this beautiful

illustration to us that maybe you're aware of it, maybe

you've heard it before. But he uses this idea of

a furnace that purifies gold, you know gold and somewhat

of a raw form, kind of looks like this.

You know, it's got if you have a big piece, it's.

Got you know, rock on the outside and on the

inside there's gold on the inside, and there's other metals

inside gold, Like gold isn't the only thing that exist.

And so what happens is, don't worry.

This isn't real gold, mainly because I don't trust Hobby

in the back that when he's supervising this, I may

not lose a nugget or two.

So this is just fake gold.

But what happens is is as this is discovered, what

a goldsmith will do is they'll take a furnace that

looks like this, and they'll cover it in heat, and

they'll put a blow torch and they'll put a flame

in here. And what they will do is they will

throw this whole rock inside of this and then as

they turn up the temperature, what will happen is all

of the impurities because gold is heavier than the other metals,

and so the gold will sit on the bottom and

the impure things will rise to the top and be revealed.

And so the hotter that the furnace gets, the more separated,

the yucky things come, the non needed things come, the

things that are non important they start to rise to

the top, and the pure gold starts to sit. And

then what happens is the goldsmith will take some type

of spoon, some type of thing, and then he will

sweep the impurity off, and he will turn the heat

up more to get more of the impurities out of it.

And then when it's all said and done, what will

happen is is there will.

Be no more rock and stone. It will just be

pure gold.

Peter uses that illustration to say that in this life

it may feel like at times that the heat is

turned up. It may feel like at times that you

don't know the decision of what to make, or maybe you've.

Gone through the loss of a loved one and you

have questions with God, why why now? Why?

Here?

Why this?

And there are gonna be times of our life that

maybe you will go through a marriage crisis and you'll

say God, why, and it'll feel like you're suffering, and

it'll feel like you're in pain, and it'll feel like

you're in a trial. But if you trust God, if

you lean on God, and it's not always God who's

turning up the heat. Sometimes it's culture, sometimes it's sins,

sometimes it's sayan, But what will happen is is that

if you trust God and you lean not on your

own understanding, and you lean on the things of God.

Your impurities will start to separate, Your doubt will start

to separate, your unforgiveness will start to separate, your anger

will start to separate.

If you don't let that consume you and be part

of who you are.

Peter says, what will happen is is the gold, the

best of God will settle at the bottom, and when

you go to heaven, you will not be presenting yourself

as this ugly kind of coursed rock and stone, but

you will present to God as his finished product, his

perfected person that he's been working on your entire life.

What will happen is is when we allow God to

bring a revival.

What will often happen.

And including it means that heat will start to get

turned up, and conflict will start to happen in our

own life, and we will have to make a decision

on whether we will allow that to consume us or not.

I love it the way that the great church father

Augustine puts it. He says this, trials do not mar

the believer, They only reveal the believer. In other words,

if you don't know what mar is, trials do not

harm the believer. They reveal the believer. There's a famous theologian.

You could see. They made a show about him somewhere

on streaming platforms. I can't remember where, but his name

was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He existed prior to World War Two,

and he was a German theologian, a German pastor, and

he was someone who was fiercely against Hitler's regime. He

was fiercely against the Nazis as a German pastor. And

what happened was is many pastors, many theologians, many Christian

university when Hitler was rising to power, when Hitler was

creating concentration camps, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the only

pastors in all of Germany who would publicly go on

the pulpit and denounce everything that was happening during World

War Two. He denounced anti Semitism, he denounced Nazism, he

denounced everything that was happening. They took his pulpit away

from him, they took his university away from him, and

eventually they took his life by sending him to a

concentration camp himself. But here's the thing, he never folded

under pressure. They tried every time. At first, they took

his pulpit from him, and he didn't stop. He went

into the classroom and he continued to teach, and he

continued to preach. They took the classroom from him, and

then he started to go to the streets and he

started sharing. They took him out of the streets, and

then his publications start to live wide and start to

be reprinted, and today he is one of one of

the ones who are known as the theologian on the

back end after Hitler's regime that helped Germany get back

to where they needed to be because of his writings and.

Who he was as a pastor.

You see, at any point he could have been like God, what, like,

why are we going through this? Why is my voice

being taken away? Why is my university being taken away

from me? Here I am I've lost my family. At

thirty nine years old, he's brought to a concentration camp

and he's killed. He could think to himself, why am

I going through this? But to this day, more revival

and reformation has happened because of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's teachings than

it would if what it would have been if he

was alive. God always has a purpose in pain. God

always has a meaning behind the things that feel like

madness in our life, and he can lose any circumstance

that you find yourself in.

He could use you.

But at what point do we normally quit? At what

point do we normally give up? Because if we're honest,

most of us, if you would have just took.

Our platform away, we might have quit. We might have stopped.

If you took us out of our university, which was

his occupation, he might have quit. He might have stopped,

but he didn't see what happened. When you and I

go through trials, when we go through suffering, it reveals

what's really inside of us. It reveals whether we have

the perseverance. And a lot of times, God, the Lord

wants to stretch us, and he wants to grow us,

and he wants to use you as a testimony for

someone else. Because there's gonna be someone else that you're

gonna meet one day who's going through.

A hotter fire than you did.

But your story, your testimony, the grace God showed you,

the mercy that God show you will be hope for

that person in the darkest time of their life. The

Lord can use you in any season that you found

yourself in. Here's the second point. Not only does fire

reveal what's in us, it does begin to refine what's

in us.

Fire refines, it separates the junk. It takes what out

of us, what does it need to be there?

There are times in my life where I have found

myself in a place of suffering, and I've found on

the other side of it that God has developed an

integrity in me that I didn't have before, a character

that I didn't have before, a a hope in him

that I didn't have before, maybe a habit that I

didn't have before. I went through what I went through.

There are seasons that will go through. What where God's

trying to do is he wants to refine, He wants

to develop something in you and I. He wants to

create new habits in our lives. And what happens is

in Philippians chapter three, verse eight to eleven, it says this.

In Philippians, the apostle Paul says, yes, everything is worthless

when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ.

Jesus my Lord, for his sake.

I've been discarded everything else, counting it all as rubbish garbage,

so that I may gain Christ and become one with him.

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying

the law. Rather, I become righteousness through faith in Christ.

For God's way of making us rite with himself depends

on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the

mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want

to up or with him, sharing in his deaths, so

that one day, or one way or.

Another, I will experience the resurrection from the dead.

Some people would read that and be like, wow, that's

some like that's some dark talk. Yes, my good, but

it's there. It's in the word of God. This is

someone who for the apostle Paul, who's experienced imprisonment, has

experienced beaten, his experience being shipwreck, who's experienced being robbed.

He sits there and he doesn't say, Jesus, if you

really loved.

Me, I wouldn't go through any of this, Or Jesus,

what did I do wrong to go through this? He

says this, If all I'm doing is experiencing a little

bit of what Jesus experienced on this earth, then that

same power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead, that'll

be the same power that resurrects my life. And he says,

and if I can share in the goodness of God,

if I can share in the miracle of God using

me and my suffering, he says, then my faith isn't

going anywhere. His faith doesn't go anywhere when he suffers.

Most of the time, when we think of revival, we

just think of this steady climb till the mountaintop with

no difficulty, no circumstances. It just flows. It just flows,

and it just feels like it's on easy street. But

that's not life, and that's not what faith is. Faith

is trusting God through all areas of our life. The

great pastor Leonard Ravenhills said it like this. Great men

and women of God are not made on stage. They

are made in the secret place of suffering. That's what

makes a person. A lot of times, if you ever

meet someone that's a believer that seems impressive to you,

whether they have a great prayer life, or they have

a great word life, or they have a great life

of wisdom that they have to give you, or they

just feel like they walk in forgiveness or serving more

than anything else. More than likely it would not be

that someone with great prominence and great renown meant toward

them in any way. It's contrary to what we think

a lot of times, what the business world world is,

in other world, in college world. You see a lot

of times in business in college we think, just get

yourself a mentor who has made a lot of money,

who's built a lot of big businesses, and just have

them mentor you, and then maybe you'll find the keys

to the kingdom, and then you'll get yourself off the ground.

But if you ever meet someone that is impressive as

a believer, like their walk with the Lord is close,

nine times out of ten you will see that they

experience some sort of suffering in their life, and they

did not give up their faith. In fact, they allowed

it to refine things in their life. A lot of

times when we can't answer things about life, we will

use it as excuses to reject God or to reject

that God's moving in our life. But it is even

through suffering, it is even through hardship, that God is

a merciful God, and he is refining you into something

beautiful as gold.

And I love how Peter puts it.

He says something as kind of meaningless as gold. God,

what God does in you is far more precious, far

more valuable.

Than what even gold is. That's the goodness of God.

You know. Many years ago, it's about twelve years ago.

Actually, I was at a restaurant watching a Laker game.

So I was there with a friend. We were there

the entire night to watch a Laker game. This was

I think they were maybe in the finals or something

like that, twelve years ago, and so we go to

a restaurant actually down in Dos Lagos in Corona, and

as we're at the restaurant, we had two waitresses that night.

We started talking to those waitresses because we're there the

entire night watching the basketball game, and so it wasn't

really busy restaurant, so we became pretty familiar with both

of the waitresses. One of the waitresses kind of had

a relationship with God and kind of didn't. She asked

us what we did, and we said, hey, we're youth pastors,

we're in youth ministry. And immediately then they both kind

of start asking questions about God and faith and things

like that, and so we're in conversation with them. One

of the girls, she has a relationship with God, but

has kind of wavered.

It's fallen off.

And you know, I have a boyfriend, and you know,

we don't go to He don't really go to church.

So I stopped going to church. My family still goes

to church, and so we started encouraging him. By the

end of the night, she says to herself and to us,

you know what, I I think I'm gonna.

Start going to church again.

I think it's important, not more than that, I think

I should have more of a personal relationship with Jesus.

So me and my friend we celebrated that moment where

the other girl was more of the skeptic, much more

angrier with God, much more frustrated with God. So by

the end of it, she says, I will never trust

God and I'll never have faith in Jesus at all,

doesn't matter what you guys say. And we said why,

She said, well, because my brother has cereabral palsy. He's

in a wheelchair, most of his limbs don't work, he

can't he barely talk, and he is the sweetest boy

in the world. He just wants a normal life. And

she says, and I've decided that I would never trust

the God that would let him be created like that,

for him being so sweet and for him being so

kind that I don't trust God in that circumstance. We said, okay,

So I gave her kind of an apologetic a little

bit of suffering. Why do bad things happen to good people?

And talked about sin and the fall and things like that,

and this isn't God had purposely created him that way,

sin has into the world, etcetera, etcetera.

But here's what I say.

I say, it seems like because you know people who

have experienced suffering and their outcome hasn't been the outcome

that you've desired for them, it has kept you from

a relationship with God. And I said, don't ever let

circumstance drive your opinion or your outlook with God. Because God,

when you start reading God's word, he always has a

greater story to whatever moment we find ourselves in, and

He always has redemption on the other side of heartache.

And so what I say to her is I say this,

I just want to encourage you. And I you know,

sometimes when you want to share with people how fragile

life is, what will happen is is I don't want

to use a very common circumstance. I'll use something very

far off so that they don't think that I was

talking about like them, you know, or putting them in.

So I just told her life is fragile. You know.

There's these hills in Dos Lagos, and you could find

yourself one day.

It happens all the time. You could find.

Yourself traveling in those hills. And something as simple as

a flat tire, something as simple as a mechanic that

didn't screw all the wheels on tight and you make

a turn and it flips off. And I said, something

as simple as moments like that, and there you are,

You're standing before God. It's not the common things we

always think. There are things in life that you will

find yourself standing before God.

And I said, and I'll tell you this. When you stand.

Before God, you can ask him all the questions that

you want. But in this moment, don't let the doubts

and the questions you have keep you from having.

A relationship with Jesus. Don't let it keep you.

For the fact that he has redeemed us, and he

has saved us, and he has brought himself to the

cross to save us. Don't let that moment slip away

from you because of a question you have about something

that you.

Don't have an answer to.

Because if you live this life long enough, we will

all go through something where we do not have an

answer to what it is that we're going through. But

what we just read is if you stay strong long enough,

you will stand before God and his picture that he

has been painting will be as clear as day, and

he will receive the glory for what He's.

Done in our life. And so I tell her that situation.

We visit a month later and the other girl who

was kind of a Christian, a non church going Christian.

We were there for thirty minutes before she talked to us.

She wouldn't even look in our direction. We thought, oh no,

did we offend them when we were here. We thought

we got along, We thought we ended well. Thirty minutes later,

finally I tap her shoulder and I said, hey, it's

good to see you again. She jumps and screams, what

are you guys doing here? Oh, We're sorry, We're not

supposed to be here.

It's a true story.

This isn't normally like me at all at all. Most

people know that I'm furthest from you know, being prophetic

or anything like that. And so we said, I'm sorry.

Were we not supposed to be here? She said no, no, no, no,

it's not that. But we were convinced that you're an angel.

Are you not an angel? I said no, I like

to think so, but no, She said, you're telling me

that you two are not angels sent from heaven. I

said no, we're not angels sent from heaven. She said,

you didn't hear what happened. I said, no, I didn't

hear what happened. She said, two days after we met you,

that girl was driving in a road in those hills.

Her tire blew out and she fell off the cliff

side and rolled her car rolled down with her in it,

and it looked very similar to this. This isn't exactly

how it looked. That's not the exact picture. But she

pulls out her phone and goes to the girl's Instagram

and pulls out a picture of a car that looks

very similar to that, and Eddie even looks more compacted

than that, looks like a smashed up soda can. And

she said her car flew off of the ravine from

the flat tire. And we said oh my goodness, and

she said, and she walked out without a scratch.

Not she wasn't harmed, She wasn't hurt in any way.

She said later on that next day, she gave her

life to Jesus Christ, and she's been going to church

with me ever since. She said, we were convinced that

you were messengers from God, getting her attention to take

God seriously, and I said, as far as we knew,

we weren't.

But in a lot of ways, I guess we were.

As God used my foolishness of taking something and said, actually,

there is something that is happening, and I will use

that for my glory, and I will preserve this young woman.

Her story wasn't yet, her journey wasn't yet, and her

time wasn't yet finished.

But that's what happens.

Is there are a lot of times we have to

pay attention that when you and I are going through

a refining process, when we're going through a season of

suffering and trial, we have to remember that God is

giving you things and trying to talk to you, to

sustain you, to bring you through it. He walks with us,

He comes with us. You're not left out on the

side of the road by yourself. God is often trying

to lead us and not forsake us. That's the goodness

of God. And here's the last thought as I close today,

is that what will happen is that as fire refines

us and fire reveals us.

The last thought is this the fire.

It releases you, It'll catapult you who you become after

a moment of a trial, a moment of suffering. You

will not be the same person again. You will not

have the same wisdom as you did before. You will

not make the same choices as you did before. And

if you can go through the fire, and you can

go through the refining process without your faith being given

away or without walking away from God, what will happen

is you will see that God wants to release you

to people's lives. I love what it said in Acts,

chapter eight, verse thirty eight, when the church was being persecuted,

it says Basaul was going everywhere.

To destroy This is the apostle Paul who eventually got saved.

Basaul was going everywhere to destroy the church.

He went from house to house, dragging out both men

and women to throw them into prison. But the believers

who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus wherever

they went. Philip, for example, went to the city of

Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. You see,

here's what happens what we just read. See if you

and I were stewarding something that God gave us, So

we look at the early Church, and we look what's

happened in the Book of Acts. If all of a

sudden the spirit of God descended on the Early Church

and baptized them all in the Holy Spirit, and has

now compelled them to share the good news of Jesus.

What you and I would typically think to do is,

here's what you do. You just go in one location,

all twelve of you guys as apostles, all one hundred

and twenty of you that were in the prayer room,

and then you just take over one block after one block,

and after one block, and then maybe you'll hit another

country in a couple years.

If we're right, that's how we would do it. You know.

That's like if someone were to start a fast food franchise,

you wouldn't say here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna

start at twelve locations on day one, Like you say, hey,

I'm gonna start at one location and then we're gonna

get our word out. We're gonna get inflant and then

we'll go to another location, another location. But what happened

was Saul who became the apostle. Paul was such a

fervent persecutor of the church. What he did was he

was going out after every disciple of Jesus.

So what they had to do.

Is they had to leave outside of Saul's reach. So

it says they find themselves in Samaria, they find themselves

in Asia, they find themselves in Spain, they find themselves

in modern Turkey. What God did through their suffering is

he released them to go to new regions that.

They never would have went on their own.

They reached more people and new people that they would

have never decided off of their own wisdom, off of

their own planning. What God said with all of the

twelve disciples on Day one is I'm launching twelve locations,

and then those twelve locations are going to be twenty

four locations, and so on and so forth. Because when

they had experienced suffering, their obedience to Jesus allowed them

to multiply the impact of what God wanted to do.

And when you and I allow God to use us

in areas of suffering and trial, what will happen is

God will multiply your faith.

God will multiply.

Your influence in areas that you you never would think

on your own. You would reach people that you never

thought you could ever reach before. You would impact people

that you never thought you could ever impact before. Corey Tenboon,

the Great Revivalists, said it like this, he said, he said,

it's there. There is no pit so deep that God

is not deeper still. There is no pit that you

and I ever would find yourself in that God does

not still go deeper.

There is never a trial.

There is never a suffering that you and I would

ever experience where God would say this, Hey, that's out

of my wheelhouse. Sorry, I know everything about everything except

for that. You've ever been to the doctors before and

all of a sudden they discover something to say, Oh,

that's not my that's not the medicine I practice. We're

gonna have to send you to someone else. Well wins

the appointment for that person. Oh it's in nine months,

But I'm sorry. You go what God isn't that way

you find yourself in a pit deeper you find yourself

going through suffering. Jesus suffered more. You find yourself in

a trial. Jesus went through more trials wherever you and

I find ourself. Literally, the Word of God says that

he sympathizes with you and I for our weakness because

he's been there. He's been there on your hardest day.

Jesus has been there too. That's the goodness of God,

and that's the mercy of God that Jesus said, there

will come a time in my people's faith, in their

life where they will feel like they want to give up.

But Jesus said, I will be the forerunner of suffering.

He's called the suffering servant for a reason, according to

the Book of Isaiah, is because Jesus said, if my

people will ever go through suffering and trials, then.

I will lead the helm at that.

And he will supply you with the peace that you need,

regardless of whatever you would find yourself in.

And so when God brings about revival in.

Our life, there is a time where it will be

fun and it will be exciting because we'll see see

how much God has changed our.

Life, how much God has touched our life.

But what will happen is at some point we will

go through something that we say, I do not have

enough strength for this, And what will happen is the

refining of fire. God will say you don't have the

strength for it, but he does. And Romans eight says,

through Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors in him.

There's nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

Should we trust him.

And so I want to encourage you today that wherever

you find yourself in life, for some God may be

revealing some things in a season of suffering in your life.

God may be refining some things, or He may be

releasing you into.

Other people's life.

But wherever you're at, God is forming something in you

that is stronger than what tried to break you and

what tries to break you. If we just allow God

to walk with us, because you will never suffer for nothing,

and you're never in a fire for no reason, and

God is preparing to release something through you that could

not be birthed in comfort.

That's the thing.

If you and I lived a comfortable faith, a lot

of what we would do, a lot of what we

would say, the impact we would make frankly, it just

probably wouldn't happen. But when you and I experience God

stretching us and God pulling us, and also God walking

through fires with us, that God will create a boldness

in you because you will experience circumstances and you say,

I've been there, I've done that. Here's where I've talked

to the enemy and told him he has no foothold

in my life. Here's how I've trusted God in seasons

of like that. And what will happen is as you

will age, you will be able to speak into a

new generation and say, son, daughter, I've been through something

like that.

Here's how God has sustained me.

You won't say, here's how pills have sustained me, Here's

how alcohol has sustained me, Here's how the Internet has

sustained me. Because that's a lot of answers that exist

today in the world.

A lot of answers say that.

You can purchase what your problems are, that you can

find what you can find answers to your problems out

in the world. But when you and I fully trust

in God, there will be a general that will come under.

Us that will be so addicted to.

Technology that will be so knowledgeable that every answer they

can ever find is on Ai. But what they will

not know is the goodness and mercy unless you and

I tell them.

If we do not talk.

About the goodness of God and the love of God,

even through fires, generation will never know.

God is using you no matter where you're at.

Would you join me today and bowing your head, close

your eyes whevery at today from here Our campus pastors

more than welcome to take it over from here today.

But as we pray today, I just want to say, Lord,

thank you for this word today, Father God.

There are times in church that aren't always the fun

and exciting ones.

Lord.

These are what I call eating our vegetable sermons. Lord,

the sermons that we don't come and we don't get

whop hoorrah. We actually get some deep hopes, some things

we gotta think on, some things that we got to

trust God more on in our life.

Lord.

Got to pray in this moment when we set our

and hope in You God, and I just pray. I

just want to pray for people today. If you're in

here today and you feel like you are going through

some sort of trial, some sort of suffering, some sort

of fire, whether it's in your own life, a family

member's life, whether it's in your finances, your marriage, whatever

it is. If you're going through something like that, if

you're never for watching online, would you raise your hand

in this room today, I'd like to pray for you,

and I'd like to pray for what it is that

you're going through. I don't have to know what it is,

the Spirit of God knows exactly what it is. But

if you keep your hand raised, I want to believe

God over your life today. Lord, we lift up these

trials to you today. God, we lift up this suffering,

We lift up this fire to you.

Father God.

I pray Lord that as your people are going through

things that we don't have answers to our own strength

can't handle.

Lord, we know that you have the strength.

Jesus, You've made it clear that your yoke is easy,

in your burden is light. So Lord, right now we

take what it is that weighs on us, and we

give it to your grace.

God. We give it to your mercy today, Father God.

We know, Lord Lord, that as you've created a good

work into us, you will bring it to completion. So

we pray Lord in Jesus' name, Lord, that every person

that is raising their hands, they will come out.

Of this stronger than ever God.

They will come out of this with a bolder faith,

a bolder hope in You, Father God. I pray Lord,

that you will use them as a testimony of who

you are. God, that you are Jehovah, Jirah, our Provider, Lord,

that you are God, the King of Kings and the

Lord of Lord's God.

You are sitted at the right hand of the Father Jesus.

So Jesus, right now we know by your strength, your mercy,

your grace that we are free, we are healed, we

are delivered, and you are giving us strength today in

Jesus mighty name.

Amen.

And if you're here today as we leave here, and

you've never given your life to Jesus Christ today, then

I want to encourage you. In this moment, we're about

to say a prayer, a prayer of faith.