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November 16, 2025 · 47 min · Patria Sermons
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Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
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0:00 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 10:11 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 this short video.1:37 Well, praise God. I know that we can all kind of pray through and say, Lord, would you want me to partner with 1 day? And however you do partner, we thank you so much. Additionally, if you'd like to1:49 give your regular tithes and 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 1 of the campuses, visit any of the foyers, or just simply go to our website. But2:01 I'm excited to share with you really how generous our church has been over the past next week, and it's gonna be a great week next week to celebrate all God has done between salvations, baptisms. I mean,2:13 this last weekend across all of our campuses, we baptized over 400 people between Rancho, Pomona, and Alameda. And that's that's no short feat2:25 at all. So I'm gonna pray for our giving today, and we are going to jump into the word of God. And so if you wanna prepare yourself wherever you're at to pull out your Bible, iPad, note journal, anything you take notes2:36 with, we're about to dig into the word of God, but I will pray for us this weekend. 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,2:47 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 across2:57 the world, Father God. I pray, Lord, as individuals may be here across our campuses that are struggling themselves this season, Father God. May you be their Jehovah Jireh and their provider, Father God. Will you allow us3:08 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.3:20 And as this word's delivered, God, thank you for the next generation, Lord, who led 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 generation3:31 has a love and a hunger for you, God. So, may you continually, by the power of your Holy Spirit, fan that flame in Jesus' mighty name. Amen and amen. Well, hey,3:43 let's jump into the message today. If you have a bible, would you turn to Mark chapter 10? That's where we're gonna find ourselves today for a few moments. You know, we've been in this series called seeds of revival.3:55 What does it mean that if God would, by the power of his spirit, breathe revival on his people, revive our hearts, revive a person, revive a community, revive a nation, or revive the world, what is our4:07 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 the4:19 baptism of the person's personal heart. What we also talked about was baptism of what it means to be into the body of Christ. We talked about water baptism. And this weekend, I wanna kinda continue that4:31 same thought. I'm not gonna 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 his4:42 disciples, and also the gospels in 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?4:54 Has anyone ever been in a season like that? You are going through something that you did not wanna go through? I know I have. I know often as Christians, you know, what happens is is when we give our5:06 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? Who5:18 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's5:30 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 another5:41 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 could use it for your5:53 glory. I mean, for his glory. Sorry. Is that through his glory, he will use you and I. And so that's what we wanna talk about today. And Jesus gives a very beautiful picture in Mark6:05 chapter 10 verse 35. If you have it today, if you'd like to stand for the honor of reading God's word, we will all stand together to honor God with the word today. Here's what the word of God6:17 says in Mark 10 35. For context, 2 of Jesus' disciples, and in in 1 of the other gospels accounts, they have their mother somewhat involved in this as well, making this request. And6:29 so, specifically in Mark, just James and John are listed, but in another gospel account, their their mom is there as well, kinda making this bid and plea to Jesus. And, basically, what6:41 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 12 disciples. 26:52 disciples walked up to be the right and the left hand guy. You can only imagine, let's just say, you had 6 children, 5 children, or even 12 children. I know some people have those nowadays too, but let's just say you7:04 had 12 children and 2 of your children come up and say, hey, could you write us in your will and leave the rest of the 10 out? I mean, that'd be some family chaos right off the bat, alone right there. This is basically7:14 what James and John are doing with Jesus right now. Like, hey, write us in the family will that in the kingdom, we get the 2 best seats in the kingdom. And here's why Jesus says that that might7:26 not be possible for James and John, and here's why. It says this, James and John, the 2 sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus saying to him, teacher, we want you to do for us7:38 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, like, no. No. No. No. Ask the question first. I'll tell I'll tell you after.7:50 That's that's what they do. And and he said to them, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him, grant that we may sit 1 on your right and 1 on your left in your8:01 glory. But Jesus said to them, 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 am8:12 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 was Jesus was gonna go to the cross, and he was gonna suffer8:24 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 about8:36 to go through. And what also Jesus adds is he says, and there's no telling that if you receive the same treatment by humanity that you will make it to the other side.8:49 And so, says, they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said to them, 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 my9:01 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 10 began to feel indignant with James and John. The Greek word that's used here is not that they9:13 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 are9:24 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 prominent9:36 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 and9:48 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 Jesus10:00 tells the disciples that 1 of the things that will happen for a believer is in this life, they will experience or go through some sort of suffering.10:12 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, when you follow me, there will10:24 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 it10:36 as a testament of his goodness and his mercy. It's like the 3 Hebrew boys, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, and Daniel. It's that God could have rescued them before they went through the fire.10:48 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 trusted11:00 God. They didn't say, okay. Okay. Okay. They weren't like about to be thrown into the furnace and say, okay. We take it back. We take it back. No. They went in the fire. They fully expected to be consumed11:12 and burned by this fire in Daniel. But did they? No. They didn't. It's amazing how in culture and in society, we as a people, we celebrate people who go through adversity11:24 and come out on the other side. Like, 1 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 about11:36 maybe you weren't alive yet, but back in 19 97, the Michael Jordan and the Bulls flu game, the NBA finals. Anyone old enough that you remember the NBA final game, if you11:48 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 the11:59 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 because12:11 their star player couldn't make it out. Even to the point, if you go look at back at YouTube clips, he's waiting to go out, and he's leaning on Scottie Pippen just to keep him up so that he doesn't fall down.12:23 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 1 of the best games of his entire life. He scored 3812:35 points in that game, and he won with his team the championship while having over 104 temperature of fever and a flu. We look at that, we're12:47 like, wow. That's that's incredible. What a story. I get a 99 degree temperature in my head, and I call out work. I I skip12:58 everything. I don't I don't go to nothing. But someone like that, we look at that, and he literally there was a specific Jordan shoe he was wearing, and still to this day, Nike, every once in a while,13:10 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.13:22 But here's why I say that, is 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 wanna go through it.13:33 I wanna celebrate someone else's triumph over adversity, but that I don't want that. I I I love that God brings revivals to us. I love that God13:45 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 I don't know that I want all of that.13:56 I've experienced many times in my life, even though I got saved at a very young age, that becoming a believer was a lot of times harder than I when I wasn't a believer. And14:08 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 real14:20 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 is14:32 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 Jesus14:44 out of your life. And to cast the name and the faith of Jesus in all the 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 of14:56 revival is when you and I will experience something, what will happen is fire will reveal what's really in our heart. It it it's good to be for something when15:08 things feel like it's all on the rise. But 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 reveal15:19 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.15:32 Yeah. My tummy is not feeling good. You know, I had a hot dog. Do you have a no. You knew how you felt prior to standing in this hour line. It's that now you got closer, the noises on the roller coaster15:44 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 will happen is when we experience a fire in our15:56 life or some type of suffering in our life, we will have to make a decision on whether, will I pursue and continue to trust God, or will I back out? Will I fold under the16:07 pressure? Because it will reveal what is really in us. I want you to see what's in the scriptures in in in the book of first Peter chapter 1 verse 7. This is how Peter puts it. And he's talking to16:19 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 being16:31 tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Through your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many16:43 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 to16:54 believers who there was a good amount of them who 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 is17:05 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 wavered, It does not shut you out of your17:17 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 it17:28 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 us17:40 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 in somewhat of a raw form kind of looks like this. You know?17:52 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 that18:04 exists. And so what happens is, don't worry, this isn't real gold, mainly because I don't trust Javi in the back that when he's supervising this, I may not lose a nugget or 2. So, this is just fake gold. But what18:16 happens is is as this is as this is discovered, what 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 blowtorch, and they'll put18:28 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,18:40 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,18:52 the more separated the yucky things come, the non needed things come, the the things that are non important, they start to rise to the top, and the pure gold starts to sit. And then, what19:04 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, when19:15 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 this19:27 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 1, and you have19:39 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'll19:51 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 God20:03 who's turning up the heat, Sometimes it's culture. Sometimes it's sin. Sometimes it's Satan. But what will happen is, is that if you trust God and you lean not on your own understanding, and you lean on the20:15 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 let20:26 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 yourself20:38 as this ugly, kind of, coarse rock and stone, but you will present to yourself to God as his finished product. His perfected person20:50 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 include is it means that heat will start to get turned up,21:03 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. He21:15 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. They21:27 reveal the believer. There's a famous theologian. You can see they made a show about him somewhere on streaming platforms. I can't remember where, but his name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He21:39 existed prior to World War 2, 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 a21:51 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, Dietrich22:02 Bonhoeffer was 1 of the only pastors in all of Germany who would publicly go on the pulpit and denounce everything that was happening during World War 2. He denounced anti Semitism. He22:14 denounced Nazism. He 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 him22:26 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 to22:37 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 and22:47 start to be reprinted. And today, he is 1 of 1 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 his22:59 writings and who he was as a pastor. Amen. You see, at any point, he could have been like, God, what like, why why are we going through this? Why is my voice university being taken away from me?23:11 Here I am. I've lost my family. At 39 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 has23:22 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 a23:34 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 point23:46 do we normally give up? Because if we're honest, most of us, if you would've just took our platform away, we might've quit. We might've stopped. If you took us out of our university, which was his occupation, he might've23:56 quit, he might have stopped, but but he didn't. See, what happens 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 a24:08 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 1 day who's going through a24:18 hotter fire than you did, but your story, your testimony, the grace God showed you, the mercy that God showed you will be hope for that person in the darkest time of their life. The Lord can24:30 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. Fire24:42 refines. It separates the junk. It takes what out of us, what doesn't need to be there. There are times in my life where I have found myself in a place of suffering, and I found on the24:53 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 a habit that I didn't have before I went25:05 through what I went through. There are seasons that we'll go through where what God's trying to do is he wants to refine. He wants to develop something in you and I. He he wants to create new habits in our lives.25:18 And what happens is in Philippians chapter 3 verse 8 to 11, it says this in Philippians. The apostle Paul says, yes, everything is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing25:30 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 1 with25:41 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 right with himself depends on25:53 faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that 1 day or 1 way or another, I will26:05 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 it's there. It's in26:17 the word of God. This is someone who, for the apostle Paul, who's experienced imprisonment, has experienced beaten, has experienced being shipwrecked, who's experienced being robbed. He sits there and he26:29 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 what26:41 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 I26:53 can share in the miracle of God using me in 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 of27:04 revival, we just think of this steady climb to the mountaintop with no difficulty, no no circumstances. It just just flows. It just flows, and it just feels like it's on easy street. But that's not life, and27:16 that's not what faith is. Faith is trust in God through all areas of our life. The great pastor living Leonard Ravenhill said it like this, great men and women of God are not made on stage. They27:28 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 a27:39 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, it27:51 would not be that someone with great prominence and great renown mentored them in any way. It's contrary to what we think a lot of times what the business world is, and other world, and college world. You see, a lot of28:02 times in business and 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, and28:13 then 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, 9 times out of 10, you will see that they experienced28:24 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 we28:36 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,28:48 and he is refining you into something beautiful as gold. And, I love how Peter puts it. He says, something is kinda meaningless as gold. God what God does in you is far more28:59 precious, far more valuable than what even gold is. Amen. That's the goodness of God. You know, many years ago, it's about 12 years ago, actually, I was at a restaurant29:11 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 12 years ago. And so, we go to a29:22 restaurant actually down in Dos Lagos in Corona. And as we're at the restaurant, we had 2 waitresses that night. We started talking to those waitresses that because we were there the entire night watching the basketball29:34 game, and so it wasn't really busy restaurant. So we became pretty familiar with both of the waitresses. 1 of the waitresses kinda had a relationship with God and kinda didn't. She29:46 asked us what we did and we said, hey, we're youth pastors. We we're in youth ministry. And immediately then, they both kinda start asking questions about God and faith and things like that. And so, we're in conversation29:58 with them. 1 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 he doesn't really go to church, so I stopped going30:10 to church. My family still goes to church, and so we started encouraging. And by by the end of the night, she says to herself and to us, you know what? I think I'm gonna start going to church again. I I think it's30:22 important. Not more than that, I think I should have more of a personal relationship with Jesus. So, me and my friend, we we celebrated that moment. Well, the other girl was more of the skeptic, much more angrier with30:32 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,30:44 why? She said, well, because my brother has cerebral palsy. He's in a wheelchair. Most of his limbs don't work. He can't he can barely talk, and he is the sweetest boy in the world. He just wants30:55 a normal life. And she says, and I've decided that I would never trust a God that would let him be created like that, for him being so sweet, and for him being so kind that I don't trust31:07 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 in the31:19 fall, and things like that, and this isn't God had purposely created him that way, sin has entered the world, etcetera etcetera. But here's what I say. I say, it seems like because you know people who have31:31 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 your31:43 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 redemption31:55 on the other side of heartache. And so, what I say to her is I say this, I just wanna encourage you. And I and I and I, you know, sometimes when you want to share with people how fragile32:07 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 in32:19 it. So, I just told her life is fragile. You know, there's these hills in Dos Lagos, and you could find yourself 1 day it happens all the time. You could find yourself traveling in those hills in something as32:30 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 like32:42 that, and there you are. You're standing before God. It's not the common things we always think. It's there are things in life that you will find yourself standing before God. And I said, and I'll tell you this, when you32:52 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 a33:04 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 that33:15 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 an33:27 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.33:39 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 a Christian, a non33:51 churchgoing Christian, we were there for 30 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 we34:03 ended well. 30 minutes later, finally, I tap her shoulder, and I say, hey. It's good to see you again. She jumps and screams. What are you guys doing here? So, oh, we're we're sorry we're not34:14 supposed to be here. It's a true story. And 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 not34:25 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.34:38 She said, you're telling me that you 2 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 what34:50 happened. She said, 2 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 rolled35:02 her car rolled down with her in it, and it looked very similar to this. This isn't 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 pulls35:14 out a picture of a car that looks very similar to that, and it even looks more compacted than that. Looks like a smashed up soda can. And she said, her car flew off of the ravine35:25 from the flat tire. And we said, oh my goodness. And she said, and she walked out without a scratch. Now, she wasn't harmed. She wasn't hurt in any way. She said35:37 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 convinced35:49 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, we I guess we weren't. Because God used my36:00 foolishness of taking something and said, actually, there is something that is happening, and I 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 her36:12 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,36:22 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. He you're not36:34 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. Here's the last thought as I close today is that what will happen is that36:46 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 of36:58 a trial, a moment of suffering, you will not be the same person again. You you not have the same wisdom as you did before. You will not make the same choices as you did before. And if you37:09 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.37:21 I love what it said in Acts chapter 8 verse 38 when the church was being persecuted. It says, but Saul was going everywhere to destroy. This is the apostle Paul who eventually got saved. But Saul was going everywhere to37:33 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.37:45 Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. You see, here's what here's what happens, what we just read. See,37:57 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 baptized38:08 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 1 location, all38:20 12 of you guys as apostles, all 120 of you that were in the prayer room, and then you just take over 1 block after 1 block and after 1 block, and then maybe you'll hit another country in a38:32 couple years. If 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 12 locations on day 1.38:43 No. You say, hey, I'm gonna start at 1 location, and then we're gonna get our word out, we're gonna get input, and then we'll go to 1 another location, another location. But, what happened was, Saul, who became the38:53 apostle Paul, was such a fervent persecutor of the church, what he did was he was going after every disciple of Jesus. So, what they had to do is they had to leave outside of Saul's39:05 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 is39:17 he released them to go to new regions that they never would have went on their own. They would have They reached more people and new people that they would have never decided off of their own wisdom, off of their own39:28 planning. What God said with all of the 12 disciples on day 1 is I'm launching 12 locations, and then those 12 locations are gonna be 24 locations, and so on and so forth.39:40 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 of39:52 suffering and trial, what will happen is God will multiply your faith. God will multiply your influence in areas that you never would think on your own. You would reach people that you never40:04 thought you could ever reach before. You would impact people that you never thought you could ever impact before. Corey Tenboom, the great revivalist, said it like this. He said he said, theShow more
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