Audio Files

Resistance Results in Growth

(Audio)

 RESISTANCE RESULTS IN GROWTH

So the idea is that when these things come against us, they aren't necessarily a physical threat. They might be all right. But the point is God's saying,

    I am your heavenly Father and I'm powerful enough to handle it, and I love you.

SPEAKER PUSHES ON ARM OF SEATED AUDIENCE MEMBER

And this difficulty that's coming, this pushing on you see, Riggs is pushing back. He's, he's got, he's strong. Dude, I'm pushing really hard. And he is not even moving, but he's engaging in his core. And that's not comfortable for, that's not comfortable. It's building his core. When someone's pushing against you and they're pushing and pushing, it's making you stronger.  

Okay? Riggs is getting stronger right now. The rest of you are just sitting there not getting any stronger at all. You're just sitting there.

AUDIENCE: maybe.

Well, because no one's pushing. I, I meant physically.

AUDIENCE: I know

Right. You're physically not getting strong 'cause there's no resistance. The resistance, get this now.

    The resistance is necessary in our life for us to grow. And it's that exact resistance that we keep fighting against.

When the difficulty comes at us in the world, we fight. We go, life is not supposed to be this way. It's supposed to be easier. No, it's not (1 Pet 4:12)

AUDIENCE AS SPEAKER PUSHES HARDER: No. Life ain't easy.

It's not supposed to be easy. Sin entered into the world. All the horrible things entered the world. (Rom 8:20)

    Life is not going to be easy. Expect it. Expect to have a hard life.

Expect it to be hard.  

And then when it's easy, say, "Hey, thank you Lord for that chill time." And when we get the chill time, we stop. And we thank God for the easy time.

AUDIENCE Yeah.

We thank him for the restful time. But understand that the growth is really happening during, during the workout. The growth is happening when you are the least comfortable.  

But get this now. All of you, you've learned now, okay, what to do. If you don't apply it when the difficulties come, God is going to continue to slam you and slam you and slam you with difficulties because he wants you to get strong (Heb 12:10) and he wants you to learn to go vertical. (Col 3:1-2) He doesn't want you living in this world this way. We're in the world, but we're not of the world. (John 17:16)

    He wants you to have a changed perspective where you're looking up to him and trusting him.  

And he said, you need to learn to trust me be cause I'm the only trustworthy one. (Rom 8:31) And

    if he sees us continue to trust in that which is not trustworthy, he's got to discipline us

and train us to come back to where the strength is, to where what, what is solid. It'd just be like if, if, if you knew that a couple of these chairs were ready to break, right? He'd, he'd say, I don't want you to get on something that's going to break. I want you to learn to get on a good foundation. I want you to learn to test things. So I'm just trying to get through, that when difficulty comes, where does the scripture come from? "In this world, you will have much trouble."  

That's not me talking, that's the Bible.

    "But take heart, I've overcome the world."

John 16:33

So the Bible is very clear that the world's going to be full of trouble.

    "Endure hardship as discipline."

Alright. For what? What? What Son isn't disciplined by his father. (Heb 12:7-11) To train him. How much more than the Bible says, will God discipline those He loves? Okay. And discipline's not punishment. The coaches don't punish their players out in the field. They discipline them. And God is disciplining us. If you've done something wrong and you're suffering the consequences of it, guess what?  

There's two things. Yes. It it, it can be like punishment, okay. So to speak. But it's consequences that you brought on yourself. But God uses even those.  

These are excerpts from messages given to those in a recovery program. 

Most of the subject matter in these clips applies to all Christians.