Adversity Brings Growth

Welcome to Insights. This is our last

our last program for 2025. We're getting

ready to enter into 2026 and a new year.

And each new year brings its own special

uh things to overcome and to deal with

and to find victory in. So, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.

We thank you for your word, Lord. We ask

that you help us to understand

how it's through adversity that strength

comes and help us Lord to have a humble

heart and a humble spirit and to keep

ourselves focused on you and the work

that you've set before us. In Jesus name

we pray. Amen. So,

uh, 1 Peter 5:6, it says, "Humble

yourselves therefore under God, under

the mighty hand of God, that he may

exalt you in due time, casting all your

care upon him, for the carth for you. Be

sober, be vigilant, because your

adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion,

walketh about seeking whom he may

devour, whom resists steadfast in the

faith, knowing that the same afflictions

are accomplished in your brethren that

are in the world. But the God of all

grace, who hath called us unto his

eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after

that ye have suffered a while, make you

perfect, establish, strengthen, settle

you. To him be glory and dominion

forever and ever. Amen. Have you noticed

that if you look through history

for

every great revival that takes place uh

prior to that revival something serious

happened

and uh one of the things that I always

look at is how the church

has grown every time

adversity has come against it.

stop and take a look at the book of

Acts. The first seven chapters of Acts

is uh focused on

the birth of the church and the things

that were happening in Jerusalem.

In chapter 1, Jesus before his

ascension, he tells his disciples to

tarry in Jerusalem

for a few days. It's actually 10 days.

And

when the Holy Spirit is poured out and

the church is birthed,

he tells them that they would be

witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,

the uttermost parts of the earth. And

when you're reading through those first

uh seven chapters of Acts, you see this

and and

the unparalleled

growth in the church. Peter's first

sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts

chapter 2, 3,000 people are added to the

church. A few days later, he preaches

again and 5,000 men are added to the

church, not counting the women and

children. So, the church has this

explosion of growth. All of a sudden,

there's 8,000, 10,000, 13,000 people

that are in the church. And the church

is it's struggling. It's having growth

pains. They have all these people. And

to understand those first chapters

of Acts

fully, you have to understand what's

going on. At this point, the church is

100% Jewish.

There are no Gentiles in the church. And

the Jewish people of that time are

divided into two groups. You have

the strict Jews that are following the

law, that are doing all of these things

and and every part of their life is is

directed

by what the law says. And then the other

group of Jews are called henistic Jews.

These are Jewish people that have taken

on Greek customs. They dress like

Greeks. They talk like Greeks. um they

enter into society as a whole as the

Greeks did. And so there's a a schism, a

division in the church all the way back

to the beginning. There's a division in

the church on what is the right way to

live. So you have people um and Paul

addressed this in his writings and and

he told people, you're not of this world

that u you should separate yourself from

the world. You shouldn't follow worldly

ways. And every time there's a great

revival in the church,

and this is for the last 2,000 years,

you can you can follow it through. If

you do a little historical reading and

studying, you'll find out that every

time there's a great revival preceding

that revival

was people who began to embrace the

world and their their

relationship with Christ

uh became religious practices rather

than a life of faith through

relationship with Christ. And we see

that today. Uh

I I don't want to glorify anybody

specifically, but I want you to take a

look at what's happened in this country

since October or September when Charlie

Kirk was shot.

There was a a resurgence of faith in the

country, but it was it was hit and miss.

And then Charter Kirk gets assassinated

in public and there's this all of a

sudden this huge influx of people coming

into the church. And every time

God does something amazing in the world,

it's always preceded by something

catastrophic

or a great neglect for God. You can see

it through the history of Israel in the

Old Testament. uh they would they

starting from David. David was the king

after God's own heart and Israel

flourished under his kingship. And then

the kingdom was passed to Solomon and it

prospered

until Solomon began to

follow after his wives and he started

building groves in the mountains and

he's doing these things and and then the

kingdom gets divided.

And when the kingdoms divided, you can

look at the kings in Israel and the

kings in Judah. And they would have a

king who would steer the nation back to

God. And for one generation,

they would have this great revival in

Israel. But the next king that came into

uh came in to be king would be, as the

Bible would call it, he did wicked or

evil in the sight of the Lord. And then

he would lead Israel astray again. And

this happened repeatedly

until Israel was taken captive by

Assyria.

And then Judah was taken captive by

Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

And then they come back from their

captivities.

And

the Israel became known as Samaria.

And when Judah came back, they

reestablished their covenant with God.

And then they got very dogmatic about

following the law.

And that lasted for about 200 years

until

um

Alexander of Macedonia, Alexander the

Great, conquered the known world

and Greek customs and lifestyles

uh permeated all the places where he had

went. He conquered Israel. He conquered

Egypt. He conquered uh the uh

the Persian Empire. Uh he went all the

way to India. And every place he went,

they took on Greek culture. They began

to dress like the Greeks and they did

all these things. And even so far as

when he conquered Egypt

and he after he died, Egypt was put

under the control of one of his generals

named Tommy. and his descendants are

the tool pharaohs which included

Cleopatra and her brother Tommy III. So

this influx of Greek culture into the

Middle East created some division in the

church from the start

and to uh and the uh the conflict that

was created at the start was the fact

that the Jews had separated between the

Henistic Jews and the traditional uh law

Jews. Jews

and

the traditional Jews who hadn't who

actually hated the Hellenistic Jews

refused to help the widows and orphans

and feed them. And so as you you have

the apostles there in in uh Jerusalem

are trying to manage this growth of

church that's you know somewhere between

10 and 20,000 people and how to handle

and care for all these people. And so

they put into place deacons. And what

deacons were put into place for was to

handle the day-to-day ministry and

ministering to the needs of the people

that they had to take care of. And this

is where you read the story of Ananas

and Safra and they were killed for lying

to the Holy Spirit and they just struck

dead by God. Um, and in this process,

the church is continuing to grow under

this adversity.

And after Stephen is stoned, something

takes place. Now, remember Jesus told

the disciples, he told the apostles to

tarry in Jerusalem until they received

the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And then they were supposed to be his

witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,

and the uttermost part of the earth. And

up until this point of Steven being

stoned, they stayed in Jerusalem. They

hadn't ventured outside of of Judea.

They they had localized the church. And

what happens in Acts chapter 7 is what

Peter's talking about here about this

adversity. The first thing that happens

is in Acts chapter 7 where Steven is

stoned, we're introduced to somebody

who's a Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus.

And Saul was a de about man. Saul was a

Pharisee of Pharisees of the strictest

order of the sect. Um he was a Jew of

Jews and what that means is both of his

parents were Jewish. He didn't have a

Jewish father and a Greek mother. He had

a Jewish father and a Jewish mother. And

he was from Tarsus.

And he approved,

in fact, he was he approved to the point

of Hebrews rejoicing that Steven was

stoned. He even held the blade closed.

And

because of that event that took place,

the stoning of Steven,

a what's the word in Greek is diaspora,

there was a scattering of the church.

They actually moved the the church

leaders moved out of Jerusalem because

of the persecution.

And this is where we go into chapter 8.

were introduced to Philillip

the evangelist, the first person to take

the gospel outside of the Jewish rail.

And Philillip went to Samaria. And on

the way there, he met the Ethiopian unic

who was reading out of the book of

Isaiah. And Philip says, "Can I explain

that to you?" And so he shares what it

means. And the man receives Jesus and

Philip baptizes him. And then Philip is

spirited away to Samaria where he stays

the rest of his life. And if you read

through Acts, you'll even see that Paul

stayed with Philip for a while. But that

dispersion that took place, that

diaspora,

it brought some things about. The first

one was Saul of Tarsus went and got

letters of authority from the Sanhedrin.

that's that's the ruling body of the

Jews to find every Christian that he

could find to put them in chains and

bring them back to Jerusalem to be tried

for heresy and executed.

So when he went to Samaria, when he was

on his way to Damascus,

his mission was to find every Christian

in Damascus that had fled from Jerusalem

to put him into chains and bring them

back to Jerusalem to be tried and

executed.

And that's when he's converted.

And it and in verse in chapter 10, you

see that Peter takes the gospel to the

first group of Gentiles. And then Paul

after his conversion and after his time

in the wilderness and and then he goes

to Antioch and he begins to preach in

Antioch and then he comes back to the

the persecution by the Sanhedrin kind of

calmed down. They were still upset with

the Christians, but at this point they

were no longer trying to kill them all.

And he comes with Barnabas and they take

off on the first of four missionary

journeys where he spends time traveling

with Barnabas. And then he takes two

missionary journeys with Silas and he

his final missionary journey he's

traveling with Luke and and Timothy and

spreading the gospel to the Gentiles.

And uh what happens is and and these

types of things have happened throughout

history. Anytime there was a great

revival that came, there was something

catastrophic happened. First, we had the

same thing World War II. People between

about 1920 and 1941,

they had really drifted away from God.

They were focused on money. They were

focused on on wealth. They were focused

on all of these other things. And then

uh they passed the prohibition laws

where alcohol became illegal in the

United States. And then the depression

hit.

And during the depression, people there

were no jobs. People didn't have a way

to eat and all of these kind of things.

And then World War II hit.

And when World War II hit, people

started turning back to God. But after

World War II, there was a resurgence of

people going back to church and they

were they were seeking a relationship

with God. But just like has happened

throughout history

um with the Jewish people first and then

with Christians, that resurgence would

last for about a generation and then

people would start drifting away. And

with the uh rise of the Catholic Church

and the church becoming the state

religion of Rome in 300 AD under

Constantine, Emperor Constantine, it

became the state religion of Rome. And

now so everywhere there was the Romans

were was the church because it was the

official religion. Now they got they

stopped the uh polytheistic religion of

worshiping all these different gods and

had focused in on being Christian

and when you when you're a student of

history and you go through you see how

things happen and and how corrupt people

come into control.

Um

during the height of its power,

the Roman Catholic Church put kings in

place and removed them by

excommunication.

Uh the church of England broke away from

the Catholic Church. They were

Protestant. They they were semifing the

teachings of Martin Luther. They

separated from the Catholic Church,

created the Church of England. And the

king is the head of the church.

Even today, King Charles of England uh

is the head of the church of England. He

is there. And so we come to the United

States and we have this what they call

this experiment

in a new form of government. And uh you

hear a lot about this. You hear

especially you know liberal people that

have no love or desire to be connected

to God in any way. They are constantly

pushing the separation of church and

state. The church can't make laws that

govern the country which is true but

that's not what church separation of

church and state means. What it means is

the government cannot set a nationwide

religion that is uh administrated by the

government.

people have the right to worship God

freely in the United States without

government interference into their

worship or government direction.

But all of these things we should be

aware of. We should watch because it's

through adversities that have happened

that people

get a spirit of revival. They draw

closer to God. They spend more time

praying. and they're seeking God because

they are in crisis.

And for a generation, that church will

there will just be explosive growth in

the church. And then when things get

good again, people begin to neglect God.

They begin to look away from God and the

things that God has done. And then they

begin to fall away again.

It's an ongoing repeated cycle.

So my challenge I guess to you is this

is

December 31st 2025

and if you made a commitment to Christ

to serve Christ to seek God with all

your heart and to do what Jesus said

which is to love the Lord your God with

all your heart with all your soul and

with all your might

then I don't believe personally in New

Year's resolutions because they're never

kept. What I do believe though is that

you should have goals set. You should

determine for yourself this is what I

intend to accomplish this year. Not

about I'm going to give up this or I'm

going to give up that, but rather my

goal is to increase my relationship with

Christ in 2026.

So, as you're going through

today, think about what you want to

accomplish in your relationship with

Christ. Not what you want to gain, not

what you want to have, not not your

financial successes or job successes or

any of those other things, but focus in

on what where you want your relationship

to be

at the end of 2026.

Because I'll tell you, when adversity

comes and it forces you into the place

of submitting your will to God's will

and God begins to grow and prosper you

uh because of your dedication

into your relationship, don't let that

relationship go cold because through

that adversity, God is creating in you a

more usable vessel for his glory. Um,

it's never uh about

me or about you. It's about Jesus and

his kingdom and what we're following and

watching and seeing happen. Uh, you're

always going to have naysayers. You're

always going to have people who want to

ruin whatever it is that God is doing in

your life. And that's normal. That's how

the enemy attacks. But what you I would

encourage you to do is this. Focus on

Christ. Focus on growing your

relationship with him. Learn more about

him. Learn more about his work. Learn

more about what God's will for your life

is. And I'm not talking about what it

says. It says um

that uh in everything give thanks for

this is the will of God in Christ Jesus

concerning you. That's the will of God

for your life. But God has ministry for

you to complete. That's a calling. And

so you need to find out from God exactly

what that calling is

and then pursue it. At the same time,

also being thankful for all the things

that God has already done. And while

you're going there, you're going to go

through things. You're going to have

trials. You're going to have

tribulations. You're going to have

troubles. But if you focus in on what

Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 5 and

endure it, when you get to the other

side, you're going to have a an amazing

relationship with Christ that you never

thought was possible. So, I want to

encourage you,

if times are tough,

it's only part of the journey. If you

stay focused on God and on what God is

doing in your life, you'll get through

this. And when you get to the other

side, it will be much better. Remember

Romans 8:28. It says, "For all things

work together for good to them that love

the Lord and are the called according to

his purposes." You are all called.

Everyone who is a Christian is called.

We all have ministry to fulfill.

Everybody's ministry is not the same.

And not everyone when you say called to

ministry is an apostle, prophet,

evangelist, pastor, teacher.

But everyone is called to share the

gospel with other people to tell people

about Jesus. Um,

everybody can relate to you. I know a

man that can change your life and his

name is Jesus. And when um people see

Jesus in you, they get hungry. Remember,

you are supposed to be the salt of the

earth and the light of the world. And if

you do those things and you present

Jesus to people, not just by words, but

by the actions of your life, you're

going to reach people that you never

believed you could.

So, I want to encourage you to focus

your yourself on to the one thing that

matters most,

building your relationship with Christ.

Set some goals that you want to reach

for the kingdom for 2026

and work towards those goals. And don't

set New Year's resolutions

because they're not going to last. but

rather focus on growing your

relationship with Christ. And if you do

that, 2026 could be the best year you've

ever had. And so I would encourage you,

get focused,

focus on that relationship with Christ

Jesus. Move towards him.

And remember, the enemy doesn't like it

when you do that. And the enemy is going

to do whatever he can to stop you. But

if you persevere, if you follow through

to the end, when you get to the other

side, you're going to reap uh such a

harvest as you've never seen before

because God is using you to reach other

people, which is the whole point. So

that's my me final message for this

year. We'll be back next week and we're

going to be looking at new things in a

new year. So, I want you to stay focused

on Christ, to live your best life in

Christ, and remember, it's not about the

things, it's about the provider, it's

about the giver, which is Christ. We'll

see you guys next week. Thanks for

joining me this year, and we're looking

forward to a brand new year, 2026.

God bless you