 But the message I want to preach this morning is how to understand adversity. So what is adversity? The word to be adverse means to be against. So have you ever had anything or someone or events come against you? And you can't figure out why. And then you begin to examine your heart and you think it might be some sin that God is punishing you for. But that's the first thing we do is we blame ourselves and we look for culpability or guilt. But you know what? The Bible says in Psalm 34, many are the afflictions of the righteous. Wow. I never understood that concept, but there's something that you can only learn when you suffer. Now, if I were to ask you for volunteers for suffering, nobody is going to raise their hand. I certainly wouldn't, right? But you know, suffering will come at some point in your life where something will not go the way you want it to go. And you really need to depend on the Lord. And it's a time of fiery trial. Do you know when John the Baptist was introducing Jesus who was to come? He said that he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. So what is this baptism of fire? Well, baptism in water is when the pastor puts you into the water as symbolically you die to your old life and then it raises you up to a new life. That's water baptism. Now, Jesus baptizes us in the Holy Spirit. And that's a second experience. He baptizes and immerses us into the presence of God and spiritual giftings manifest out of that. But the baptism of fire is really suffering. Where God allows, sometimes God engineers a time where we need to totally depend on him like I am right now to be able to preach. I really struggled my first sermon this morning, but I'm doing a little better now. So let's look at some examples of adversity, difficulties. You say, God, why is life so hard? Or you're struggling. You know, there's a story of a little boy who took a pupa of a caterpillar that wound itself into a cocoon. And then the time came where the cocoon had to dry and a beautiful, beautiful butterfly is going to emerge. But he was struggling. And as the butterfly was struggling, he come out of the pupa, the cocoon, he thought, I'll help it. He took a tiny little razor blade, gently cut the outside so that the butterfly could burst free. But he helped it too much. And when it burst free, it did not develop the strength in its wings so the blood would flow and the butterfly died. So sometimes struggle is necessary for us to survive the next step that God wants to give to you in your life. I heard this from another preacher. So I'll just repeat it because it really ministered to me. In John chapter 16, after Jesus was with his disciples three and a half years, morning, afternoon, evening, and they traveled together, they heard all his messages, saw all his miracles. And then he said, I have to go. And then he said, but there are some things I want to tell you, but you're not ready yet. And I thought to myself, what would Jesus want to tell his disciples that they could not bear at that moment in their life because they hadn't gone through the struggle. They hadn't gone through the rejection. They hadn't gone through the suffering that they need to go through to be bold, to proclaim the book of Acts, no matter what came against them. Hallelujah. And do you know? So I despaired when this illness, my vocal cords, they tighten up and I have to gasp for air. In fact, I told this to the men yesterday that food will trigger it, hot sauce, red sauce, acids, briny pickles. Estimated this chili, I put hot sauce on it and I had three briny pickles and my vocal cords almost completely shut. Rushed to the emergency room, they took me right away and I was ready to die. I said, Jesus, I'm ready to go because I can't breathe. I was like, and they got scared. You know, they're gonna give me oxygen in a moment. And I said, God speak to me. And in my head I hear Ezekiel 37.3. Now I don't know exactly what's in 37.3. I opened up in my phone and it says, son of man, can these dry bones live? Because they're dry. I said, Lord, you know. And then he says, prophesy to those dry bones. Thus says the sovereign Lord, I will give you breath and you shall live. I go, yes, Jesus, hallelujah. Boy, when you need a word, God is there, God is there. If you don't know what's going, ask for a word and you'll discover the lament Psalms. Where David, I mean, he was an emotional, passionate guy who just loves the Lord. Lord, where are you? I need you unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul and not my enemies triumph over me? So if you're in that place, God is nearest to you. He's closest to the broken of heart, to those crushed in your spirit. Opposition, failures and finances. And then you have mental and emotional and spiritual battles. You know, depression is a real thing. There's depression from evil spirits, but there's a depression that comes from being emotionally exhausted. If you ran around the building 10 times, you'd be physically exhausted, you'd have to sit down. But if you have a big, tremendous high like Elijah had where he killed 850 prophets, fire comes down from heaven, wow, he's riding the wave, the tidal wave of God's presence and glory and power. But emotionally, he got so low that he fell into the trap of self pity. Woe is me, I'm the last one left. No one cares, I'm by myself and we give into those emotions that just suck us down. How about you online or in second sanctuary? Do you feel like you don't want to live anymore? Do you feel like things are so bad, you can't go on? No, this is a time where you need to draw power from the power of the Holy Spirit and he will minister you not only to your spirit but to your soul. He'll minister to your physical body. He'll minister to your thought life. Read the Lament Psalms. Read Psalm 119. There's 176 of them and one of them is gonna fit you like it did for me. Physical illness, when will I get over this sickness? You know, I asked that question to the Lord and he said soon. I said, oh, okay, Lord. What is your soon compared to my soon? One time a guy asked the Lord in prayer, he said, Lord, what's a million years to you? And the Lord answered him. Why a million years to me is like a second. He goes, oh, oh, then he started thinking, right? His brain started turning. Well, Lord, what's a million dollars to you? And the Lord immediately answered. A million dollars to me is like one penny. Oh, man. Then he started thinking again, hey, Lord, could I have a penny? And the Lord said, yes, wait a sec. And then there's demonic opposition. And you know, we with my wife, when our children were little and I wrote in the book, we would put the armor of God on. I mean, we would just do it. I put on our head the helmet of salvation on my heart, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth on our waist and sandals of peace on my feet and lift up the shield of faith. Why? To quench all the fiery darts, doubts of the wicked one. Lift it up. What are you gonna let him shoot you for? Lift it up. Say, the Lord is my shield. The Lord is my strong tower. I will run into it and I will be safe. Hallelujah. And in my hand, all the sword of the spirit. Quote the scripture, learn the scripture, memorize the scripture. And God is for you, who could be against you and pray at all times in the spirit. You know, we did this every morning with my kids. Dad, we're late for school. No, put the armor on. And you know, they never went into the world, not one day. My kids never did drugs. They never got into immorality. They married good Christian girls and a good Christian guy. Why? We protected them with the armor of God. Dad, mom, pray the armor of God with your children, over your children, and now over our grandchildren. Do you know that our prayers, and it's not on my message, but I feel really inspired to tell you, because I'm a dad and a grandfather. When Cornelius was praying to a God he did not know, God sent an angel who said, Cornelius, your prayers are a memorial before God. You know what a memorial is? It is a thing that you turn back to that remains and reminds you. You know when Joshua led the people of Israel through the Jordan River to possess the land? He had one father from every tribe pick up one stone and they put 12 stones on the other side of the bank. They said, what is this for? This will be a memorial for your children when they grow older, they will look at this memorial and know that God answered prayer and open a river. So the point of this is that I now am, I am entering the prayers that my father and my mother prayed for me when I was a little boy. And now those prayers are being answered here this morning with you. The prayers you pray for your children to be saved, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, to move in the things of God, they will enter them as they age because your prayers never go up and then forget them. No, they're a memorial before God. Hallelujah. So the question is, why does God allow adversity? Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? That's a good question. And the answer is some of the adversity we cause. If you go around a curve at 100 miles an hour, you're gonna flip the Jeep, okay? You did that. Don't rage against the Lord for my dumb decisions or your dumb decisions, right? God is not punishing you. Sometimes our sins punish us, yes? Our foolish dumb choices. And then we say, okay, some of the best lessons we learned, we learned negatively. Then there are others who are hurt by the poor choices of someone close to them. Like this video we heard, right? He was a child, he was a victim, he was sinned against. But God is just and he will take our past hurts, our past failures, our lemons, and he'll make lemonade. And we have a testimony of the grace of God. Hallelujah. And then there's enemy attack and we know how to deal with that. So another reason why adversity comes, trials are a part of our human life. You know that even Jesus, although he was deity, God, he took human flesh and he experienced human difficulties like getting tired, having to eat, right? Pain, life, rejection, emotionally, opposition from the Pharisees. And Hebrews 5.7 tells us something very interesting about the Son of God. It says, although he, Jesus, was a son, so and, he learned obedience through the things he suffered. Now, his suffering was not just on the cross. He was called a bastard, which is not a curse word initially. It means a child born out of wedlock. So Mary is pregnant before Joseph marries her. He grew up with that stigma. The Pharisees knew the story and they threw it in his face and said, we were not born out of immorality, meaning you were. And he couldn't tell them that's the Holy Spirit. They wouldn't believe that. He lived in a bad neighborhood, Nazareth. He grew up, he worked with his hands till 30 and then he came to his own people and they didn't receive him. And so he felt lonely, he felt rejected. He wept over Jerusalem and one of his 12 disciples that he prayed over and chose betrayed him for money. Jesus knows what it is to suffer even before the cross. So God wants to teach us something that only suffering will teach us. Like when you're always up and high and feeling good and blessed and prosperous, you think it's always gonna be that way. But God wants us to learn what it is to depend on him and become more like Jesus Christ. Now, have you ever asked the question, why Lord? Well, there's two ways to ask why. One way is an honest way, a sincere way. God, why is this happening? What are you saying to me? What do you wanna change in me? What do I have to learn in this difficult time in my life? And God will show you a little bit now but you'll see most of it afterwards. Hebrew 12 says it's for a limited time and afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Have you ever asked for patience? Well, God sends difficulty, so you develop patience. But the other why is really saying I don't like this. Why does this have to happen to me? And it's a complaint and it's a rejection of the lesson that really we need the very most in our life. God bless me in my childhood, my teenage years, my marriage, my ministry. Right up to 67, I never experienced tragedy, loss, or sorrow or deep, other people did, not me. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed with a beautiful wife and children and now grandchildren. But here at the 67th, I'm 69 now. I began to lose my voice. I couldn't sing anymore. It's difficult to breathe. There are times where I have to command my vocal cords open so I don't have to take too many steroids. Steroids are changing my body. My cheeks are like chipmunks now. I hate steroids and without them I couldn't preach to you. And so in this time of suffering, I'm learning things and drawing nearer to the Lord, praying more than I ever prayed before. So what are some of the benefits? Well, adversity or suffering can be the greatest motivation for spiritual growth in your life or it could be the deadliest form of discouragement. And if you're watching online and you're discouraged, God will be with you in your sorrow. God said through Jesus, He said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. He's a prayer away. Get on your knees by your bed. Say, Jesus, I need you, Lord. I need you now more than I ever needed you before. And you will feel the beautiful presence of the Holy Spirit. He will lift your heart up. You'll experience not only the blessings of the Lord. You'll identify with his sorrows and the things that he mourns over. And in our trials, we get to feel the heart of God more. I know. Now, what is the difference between motivation to serve the Lord and discouragement? It's your willingness to understand that God is wanting to teach you something. And when Jesus said there are things I want to tell you, but you're not ready for them, what could have been those things? Well, I think that the word glory means heavy and like a little child can't pick up a heavy suitcase. And so that child is strengthening from the Lord as it grows and matures and muscles develop and then it can pick up a heavy suitcase. And I think that adversity and suffering is preparation for the next step to make us more strong to receive the next part of our ministry. Now, let's go through what adversity accomplishes, all right? Number one, adversity is God's method of purifying our faith. What's the most valuable thing in your life? It's not your money, it's not your ministry. It's your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because without faith, it is impossible to please God. But when we trust the Lord, I'm trusting the Lord to heal me. He has said he's gonna heal me. I'm waiting for his healing. He has a timing and when that timing is perfect, I will be healed. Now, Peter says, rejoice that you had to suffer for a little while. What do we suffer? We suffer grief, we suffer sorrow, but your faith is more valuable to God than gold. That your faith would be genuine and result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus is revealed. Do you think Job knew why he was suffering? Think of this man. Did he do anything wrong? Did he blaspheme God? Did he curse God? No, somebody tempted him to do that. He said, no, should I only receive good things from the Lord? And then he says, when I go through this fire, I shall come out as gold, hallelujah. Do you know how gold is refined? My brother-in-law is now with Jesus. He was a jeweler and you'll see in this picture, he had an oxygen tank and he had a propane tank and those gases through the nozzle, they burned 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. So he took a little black carbon cup and he took scraps of gold, dust gold and he put it all in this cup, it was all separate and then he put the fire to it. And soon the fire heated the metal so much it began to turn to liquid and it turned to this one little round yellow glob, a little glob in the cup. And so I watched, he said, look at the colors and it was yellow until it became red, red hot. And then he put more fire and it turned to white hot. And then after white hot, these little black dots came to the surface and stayed on top. I said, what are those black dots? He said, those are impurities inside the gold. I said, how come you don't see them? He said, they're mixed in the atoms and molecules of the gold but heat brings them up to the surface. And guess what? That's exactly what happened to me when God started turning up the fire in my life. All the garbage, all the junk, all the pride, all the selfishness, all the things that I don't like to see in myself start to rise to the surface. Fire will do that in your life. But that's so the Lord can skim them off your life. That's he can take them from you and fire will change you, my friend. Fire will purify you, my friend. If you just cling to that faith that the Lord is with you in that trial. You know when Shadrach, Michigan and the Bendigo were thrown into the furnace, the Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate form came and he walked with them in the fire. Jesus is the closest to you when you suffer. I never felt the presence of the Holy Spirit so strong is when I can't breathe, I can't pray. And I said, Lord, I need you. And he just comes over you like a cloak, a warm, warm cloak. Number two, adversity is God's way of getting our attention. Do we live in a busy world? Oh, yes we do. Somehow technology, which was supposed to make life easier like washing machines and cars, right, refrigerators and things that do things automatically, right? Somehow technology steals our time and we are so distracted. Is that true? So many things are jostling for our attention. Well, let me tell you about the story of Martha and Mary. It's a misunderstood story. Martha's in the kitchen preparing food. Mary, she goes and sits at Jesus' feet and just staring at him, soaking him in. And Martha, her sister, gets ticked off. She said, Jesus, tell my sister to come into the kitchen. We need to prayer this food. And Jesus, he admonishes Martha gently. He says, Martha, Martha, you are anxious. You are too worried about the things that are not as important. Oh, so food is not important. No, no, no. That's not what Jesus is saying. What was Jesus trying to tell Martha? Now, let me back up and say, everybody has a ministry gift. Would you agree with me? In the kitchen, Martha had the gift of hospitality. Martha had the gift of being a cook. Martha had the gift of feeding. That's her spiritual gift, done in a physical way. Jesus was not chiding her, scolding her for using her gift. No, she got distracted by the activity of her gift and forgot who it's for. We could do that. I could prepare my message and worry about the PowerPoint and worry about the microphone and worry about the presentation and not ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to speak to hearts. So my activity can distract me for the main purpose that God wants me here to tell you about. So even pastors, even singers, we could be worried about the sound, about the lights, about the guitar strings, the drum sound, the boot. We could be so distracted that we forget that it's all for Jesus. Now, what is Jesus saying to Martha? Martha, when you are preparing that food, think of me. I love you, Martha. I appreciate your gift of service. That's your ministry gift. And you know, the next time Jesus came to their house, Martha served, Mary brought the beautiful perfume and Lazarus was testifying about his resurrection. Everybody using their spiritual gift for the Lord. Don't let your activity distract you from who it's for. It's not what you are doing. It's who you are doing it for in Jesus' name. It's for you, Lord. If we sing, we sing for you, Lord. If we preach, we want you to be pleased. If we serve in the kitchen or we're in usher or in the sound booth or in some spiritual activity, serving hungry Jen, it's for Jesus, hallelujah. He deserves our attention. Number three, adversity is our assurance that God loves us. Now, when you become a dad or when you become a mom and your child does something absolutely rebellious. You know, they just, they just have that inside of, no, with that favorite word of a two-year-old, no. A little bit of discipline goes a long way to turn that no into, yes, ma'am, yes, sir. My daughter, she, I'm telling you, she does not raise her voice. My son-in-law does not raise his voice. They say, first-time obedience, if I have to tell you a second time, time out, or a little hot sauce on a soft place in your bum. And you know, how many times mothers or dads would tell the child the first time, and they just ignore you? They tune you out? Come now, it's bath time. I said it's bath time. You say, they're waiting for the fifth time where you're screaming, I said it's bath time. Okay. Yelling at your children is trying to turn the wheel of your car by honking the horn. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. And so that's just a freebie for any parents here. First-time obedience, because that's what God wants from us, yes. He doesn't want to tell us five times because his voice gets weaker and weaker, and we harden our hearts. And then we think that God didn't say anything, but he did say, and we ignored him. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as they did in the wilderness. Say, yes, Lord, I don't want it. I don't like it. I don't understand it, but Lord, I obey for obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is better than the $100 you put in the offering plate. And he teaches us obedience by allowing life to spank us a little bit, allowing our mistakes to say, I'm not gonna do that again, but allowing and giving to us what we want, but when we get what we want, will it be what we want? And then we see that our hearts are empty, but Jesus loves you. And I wanna tell you something. God is not punish you because he hates you. God punishes us. I like the word trains us a little bit better. When you're on a football team, he makes you run. If you're on the basketball team, you have to do sprints back and forth five, 10 times on the basketball court. It's to build your wind, to build your legs and God knows how to do that. Number three, excuse me, four, God's adversity is a call to examine ourselves. And really when you need healing, when you're asking God for an answer, then everything stops. And then you focus on the Lord and you say, okay Lord, what are you trying to say to me? What are you trying to tell me? What do you want to teach me out of this? We start becoming introspective, but be careful. We are not the Holy Spirit. Don't look for sin. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you. Have you ever asked forgiveness for every sin you've ever committed? The answer is no, there's thousands and 10 thousands of those sins. But what does the Holy Spirit do? He picks an area that he wants to work on and he focuses on that thing and he deals with us. And when we obey, we actually learn the lesson and we can move on in our life. Psalm 139 is a great Psalm. At the end, David says, search me, oh God, and know my heart and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way that is everlasting. Number five, adversity is God's way of conquering our pride. God doesn't deflate your pride to embarrass you, but you know what he does? He wants to give you grace. What is grace? Philippians 2, 13 is the perfect definition of grace. God is in you to both to will, that means to desire, and to do, that's the power to do something he's asking you to do, his good pleasure or what he wants you to do. In plain English, here's the definition of grace. The desire and the power to do God's will. Could you repeat that with me? Grace is the desire and the power to do God's will. Well, I can't forgive. No, no, you can, but God will give you the ability to forgive. He'll give you the power to forgive and you will see the release of God's blessing. And then that's the grace of God. But if we're proud, we don't receive the grace of God. I was in Africa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and it was about 5,000 people standing in this big, large church. Pastor said, don't preach an evangelistic message. We always have evangelists come by. Preach a church message. So I asked the Holy Spirit, he said, Preach on forgiveness. And so I began to preach on the power that forgiveness, because forgiveness, when you forgive someone who hurts you, it benefits you more than it benefits them. It's the antibiotic that keeps your heart from getting infected with bitterness. So what do you do? When you get bitter, you have an infection. So what is God's antibiotic? Releasing forgiveness. And then it cleanses the bacteria that wants to invade and give you an infection in your spiritual bulletry. So I'm preaching this message and I like to prepare people for the altar call that I'm gonna make. And at the end of this message, I said, I'm gonna have you pray three prayers. Father, forgive me. Wait a minute, they hurt me. What do I need forgiveness? For your bad reaction to that hurt. For your ugly desire for revenge that you want to torture them, then forgive them. You want them to feel the pain they caused you, right? No, Father, forgive me for that bad. That's the first prayer. Second prayer, Father, forgive them for what they did. No, I don't want to forgive you. Of course not, but grace gives you the desire to obey God and grace will give you the power to do that. And online, someone has hurt you deeply. In second sanctuary, if you're thinking of someone that I'm reminding you of that hurt you very, very, I want you to pray these three prayers as well. And the third prayer is the hardest to pray but the most powerful. Father, in Jesus' name, I forgive and say the person's name. So this one young mother was deeply wounded by her husband, a lover, a friend, got her pregnant. She has a baby, I don't know. She prayed those three prayers in the middle of the message. Then we had a healing time and so she comes up in the healing time. There were miraculous healings, right? And everybody knows her, she could not see well and God opened her eyes. Soon as she prayed the third prayer, hallelujah. Only pride will keep you from humbling yourself and when you humble yourself or God allows you to be humbled, what happens is he gives you a lot of grace and grace is God's desire which becomes your desire and grace is God's power which now becomes your power and you can do what God wants. I'm gonna share this principle again. My daughter when she was 10 was crying. I said, why are you crying? She's the boys have jobs. They bought you a Christmas present. It's Christmas, I'm a little girl. I have no money, I can't buy it and she's crying. I said, Larissa, I'm gonna give you some money. Go buy daddy a little black flashlight, okay? Because they seal all the light bulbs in the buildings in Ukraine and I need a flashlight. So she goes out with my money, buys the flashlight, packs it up, gives it to me Christmas day. I said, a black flashlight. Larissa, just what I wanted. I knew daddy, I knew. Now, my daughter wanted to do my will but she had no power. So I, the father gave my little girl my power to do what I asked her to do and that is what God wants to do for you. When you say, Lord I can't forgive, I can't do this. You are absolutely correct. So why don't you be a little child and say daddy, give me the desire that you have for me. Daddy, give me your power. And in Jesus' name, pray these three prayers and I'm gonna pray with you because that's the direction God is leading me right now. There's some hurt people in this room in 2nd Sanctuary and online, some of you are so hurt that bitterness has consumed your life. It gave you a heart set to your mouth that you are bitter in life and you're carrying poison, you're carrying an infection. And if anybody touches that place where you were hurt, you overreact, you jump and you reject everybody because that one person has infected you with hatred and unforgiveness but today you're gonna be set free. If you just say Jesus, I'm gonna pray those three prayers. I don't feel them, I don't want to but by faith I obey. Let's pray them right now. Repeat and audience, we just stand to your feet and repeat out loud so you can help these people online, 2nd Sanctuary or anybody here. Say, oh God, give me your grace. I humble myself, daddy. Give me the desire, give me your power to release that person and forgive me for my bitterness. Father, forgive them for their disobedience. And father, I forgive and say the name, hallelujah. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Father, you minister to hearts right now, Lord. You minister to those who are broken. You minister to those who are hurting. You minister to those who feel all alone and feel self-pity. Lord, they don't feel that someone loves them. Pour out your love on their hearts, Lord. Pour out your love on them right now, Jesus, by your Holy Spirit, if they obeyed you by faith. Father, surround them with arms of love. Lord, bring comforter. Holy Spirit, your name is the comforter. We love you, Lord. We love you, Lord. And in our fire and in our trial, we need you, Lord. We need the grace of God. We need the power of God. We need the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And those, Lord Jesus, who feel like that you don't love them. Father, speak to them supernaturally through a message, through a verse, through a song, through a dream in the night. Come to them, Lord. And bring comfort to their storm-tossed heart. And now, Lord Jesus, be the peace of the Lord be with their hearts. And Jesus. Thanks for watching to this sermon. If this was a blessing to you, would you let me know in the comments below what stood out to you from this message? 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