The Purpose of Opposition | Roman Trachuk

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Share something today that I feel like is connected to some of our experiences, even at conference. My uncle flew in from Ukraine. He's a pastor there. He oversees 22 churches. And it's really cool what God's doing there and how God's touching so many people in the midst of war. The city I'm from, I was born there, is right on the front line of war between Russia and Ukraine. And so they are actively ministering there. Many people are getting saved, many people are encountering God and they're planning new churches in this season. But he was at conference on Friday night, and he came up to me and he was really moved by God. And he said, I want to tell you something. He said, God is with you. You need to know that God is with you, and you are halfway there. And I understood that what he's talking about is Nehemiah. I'll show you guys in a moment. He said, you are halfway there and there's going to be great opposition. But remember, God is with you. And God's been speaking to me about Nehemiah. And so when I heard him, I understood what he's talking about. You know how God does that. He just knows how to speak our language. [00:01:25] Speaker B: And. [00:01:26] Speaker A: And then Ben Fitzgerald was at the conference and he was talking about what God's doing in our house and what God's inviting us to. And he also started talking about great persecution that is coming against this house, if you guys remember that word, for those of you who are at conference. And. And so I just felt like I to share this today, because I think sometimes we don't know what to do with opposition. We don't know what to do with hardship. We don't know what to do with, like, trials, testing, and maybe even suffering. We don't know where to put that. And so with the help of the Holy Spirit, I believe he's going to speak to us. Would you bow your heads for just a moment? Lord, we just approach the Scriptures with humility. We don't want to just be hearers of the Word. We want to be doers of the Word. Would you give us grace to hear and obey you as you speak to us through the Scriptures, as you speak to us individually? Lord, we want to be transformed. We want your words to cause our hearts to burn. So would you meet us here, Lord, as we open our ears and open our hearts to hear you and to meet with you in Jesus name. Amen. In Acts 14:22, the apostle Paul is saying this phrase. He says, we must through Many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. And this is the apostle Paul who's preaching the gospel, who's planning churches. He's concluding his first, like, missionary trip. And this is after he was stoned and left for dead. And he's saying this to new believers. Like, doesn't sound super encouraging, does it? Like, and he's not backing away from these challenges. He's actually encouraging them and saying, hey, when you're facing this, this is not bad. This is the way to enter the kingdom of God. And I think looking back, I realized that there's so many, like, seasons in life where sometimes we develop this theology that whatever is. Whatever is like, what. What I'm graced for is supposed to be easy. There's like, these phrases that are like, hey, just make sure you stay in your grace lane. [00:03:57] Speaker B: And. [00:03:58] Speaker A: And I agree with that partially. But it assumes this other thought that if something is hard, I don't have a grace for that. Someone else should do the hard stuff. I need to stick to easy stuff, because grace makes hard things easy. [00:04:17] Speaker B: And though that may be partially true, [00:04:21] Speaker A: it's just not all true. Or, you know, and I've said this [00:04:28] Speaker B: before too, where it's like, well, you just need to enjoy [00:04:34] Speaker A: what you're doing. If you don't enjoy it, don't do it. [00:04:41] Speaker B: You know, you have to gauge the [00:04:43] Speaker A: will of God by the level of joy you have. [00:04:45] Speaker B: And although that may be partially true and in many cases true, but it's like, listen, Jesus came, walked in the perfect will of the Father. He was meek and humble, and he suffered much, right? And he didn't avoid the suffering. He didn't avoid the pressure, he didn't avoid the opposition. But it came as he progressed in the will of God because of jealousy, because of envy, because of the devil, because of darkness. And so Jesus suffered while obeying the will of God. I want to remind us, like, Jesus was led by the spirit of God into the wilderness. I don't know how much you enjoy being hungry. I don't know how much you enjoy being weak, like, to the flesh. It's not the most enjoyable experience. And. And I fear that sometimes when we develop the wrong theology of what it means to partner with heaven and. And obey God, we become selective in our obedience. And we think, like, whatever is good for me, whatever I enjoy, whatever is safe, whatever is comfortable, that's the will of God, because that's what I have grace for. That's what I enjoy. But I find something else happening. I find this pattern even through my own life, that God, for some reason, doesn't quickly try to remove me from [00:06:20] Speaker A: that opposition or from those hardships or circumstances. [00:06:25] Speaker B: And I wonder why. And what I want to talk about today is the purpose of opposition. Why does God not only re. Like, not remove that, not come and try to save us from it, but actually chooses to meet us there? Like Psalm 23, he prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Like he. He feeds me there. He doesn't remove the enemies to meet with me. He prepares a table in the presence [00:07:00] Speaker A: of my enemies to meet with me. [00:07:05] Speaker B: And, and. And so this is an interesting thing. Or in. In the book of Daniel, he's being faithful, he's obeying God, and because of that, he's being mocked, he's being attacked. And a lot of it was jealousy. And the Bible doesn't say that God rescued Daniel because of his faithfulness from the lion's den. Daniel says God sent an angel to protect him from the lines in the den. He didn't rescue Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego from. From the fiery furnace. No, he met them there. The fourth man in the fire. So it seems to me that God's okay when we're not okay. Like, he's okay with the opposition and the pressure because he's wanting to form something in that environment. He was wanting to refine and forge something in us and through us. I don't like those moments. [00:08:12] Speaker A: You know, hindsight looking back, right? [00:08:13] Speaker B: You. You look back at different seasons and you're like, man, I would never want [00:08:18] Speaker A: to go through that again. But then you also realize how God used all of it and worked it for your good. And how you. He formed something in you, developed something [00:08:29] Speaker B: in you that can only be produced through crushing. It's like, you know what we're in danger of? [00:08:35] Speaker A: A bunch of chat sermons with no anointing. And they're like, thick with information. [00:08:42] Speaker B: But there is no impartation, there's no anointing, there's no presence of God on it because we have the information, but we never paid a price. We were never crushed by God. We were never forced formed in the fire and these circumstances. And so God wants to develop something. And in Acts 27, you see this picture of the apostle Paul, like, going through all this persecution. And they're like, he's going to trial. And they hit a massive storm in the boat. And you could get confused and say, like, God, maybe this is not the will of God. For me, how many of you guys Been there. Like, we're just like, ah, this is so hard. Like, everything seems like it's going against me. Maybe, like, maybe like this is not my grace. But Paul in the midst of this, like, their lives are in danger. He breaks bread, and it's a picture of communion in Acts 27. And every life was spared. And I think that's what the Lord is wanting to teach us, that sometimes the fight is your food, sometimes the giants is your bread. And I want to go to the Book of Nehemiah, chapter 1, verse 4. And so, you know, Nehemiah is discovering [00:10:11] Speaker A: that the temple is being rebuilt, but the walls of Jerusalem remain unprotected, in ruins. [00:10:19] Speaker B: And at this time, he's serving the king. He lives in a palace. He has a lot of comfort. He has job security, financial security. I mean, he has a good life. And as he hears this, the first thing that happens to him is this in verse 4. [00:10:37] Speaker A: So it was when I heard these words, I sat down and wept, mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. One of the first things that God does when it's connected to our assignment and our calling, our destiny, our work in God is He gives us a burden. He says, I mourned and wept and I fasted. [00:11:09] Speaker B: I don't know if you realize like, [00:11:11] Speaker A: how dangerous that was because he was serving the king and you weren't allowed to, like, not be positive and happy in those rooms. You could actually get killed on the spot for coming in looking depressed. And so he yielded to the burden that he experienced from God and started to feel fast, mourn, and weep. It's not a blueprint that God gave him. It's a burden that God gave him. And as he yielded to that burden, [00:11:46] Speaker B: it's like a weight. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Could it be that part of the [00:11:49] Speaker B: glory that God is releasing and wanting us to experience is not just physical feelings of his presence, but it's actually [00:11:57] Speaker A: the weight, the burden of his call and his heart. [00:12:02] Speaker B: And when we experience that, we yield to that. [00:12:05] Speaker A: And through that fasting, through that prayer, [00:12:09] Speaker B: through that cry, through the gift of tears, through the compassion, God does something in us. He purifies our motives because that is required for us to stand through the storm, through the opposition, through all the attacks you will face as you begin to build. [00:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah, [00:12:34] Speaker B: So many people start trendy things, [00:12:38] Speaker A: and the moment they face storms, like, God changed his mind. It's not comfortable anymore. It's not popular anymore. It's not convenient anymore. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Why? [00:12:47] Speaker A: Because there's. There's no burden. Like, we. [00:12:52] Speaker B: We didn't take time to allow that [00:12:54] Speaker A: to become part of our heart. Like, what's in his heart to become part of part of our heart. His compassion to move us. Like Jesus laid down his life for the will of the Father. Not always convenient. [00:13:09] Speaker B: And then he doesn't launch out to do something. You know what he does? He begins to pray. And if you look at the Scriptures there, he prayed for four months. And I believe that one of the things that comes through this burden that God gives his people as an invitation to partner and build with him is [00:13:32] Speaker A: there's a grace to pray. [00:13:36] Speaker B: There's a grace to pray because when we pray, like, it's kind of like, you know how you have to. [00:13:42] Speaker A: You. [00:13:43] Speaker B: Even when you do, like an airdrop, [00:13:44] Speaker A: you have to wait for the download. [00:13:47] Speaker B: So the timing is important. [00:13:48] Speaker A: If you start an airdrop and walk [00:13:50] Speaker B: away too fast, it won't. It won't fully upload, especially if you [00:13:54] Speaker A: have a lot to drop, you know, [00:13:57] Speaker B: so prayer is like this space where what you're encountering from heaven through prayer is downloaded into your soul, into your heart. [00:14:08] Speaker A: Like, it becomes your pain, it becomes your brokenness. [00:14:11] Speaker B: You. You're actually willing to die for that. [00:14:14] Speaker A: Cause. [00:14:19] Speaker B: Like the apostles all faced danger, opposition, and they didn't back away. They prayed that God would give him boldness to what? To stay on the wall, to keep building, to keep doing what God called them to do. [00:14:33] Speaker A: And so he prayed for four months. [00:14:40] Speaker B: And then what happened as they begin [00:14:43] Speaker A: to build is all of these attacks, like mockery, discouragement, fear, distraction, false accusations, compromise, the temptation to compromise, all begin [00:14:54] Speaker B: to rise up against Nehemiah. [00:15:00] Speaker A: And I think sometimes we're like, man, [00:15:02] Speaker B: I thought this was the will of God. Like, I remember when I. When God spoke to me. I remember when I was praying and God gave me a word, and now I stepped out to do it. And everything is hard. It's like everything is against me. And we begin to question, like, am I grace to do this? Is this God's will for my life? Like, maybe. And, and. And we begin to struggle with the idea of something hard. But what if I tell you, like, it's supposed to be hard? Like, hard is good. It's not bad. It's. It's not always supposed to be easy. And God wants to develop something. God wants to reveal something in that process. And so all of these things begin to happen. And they continued to build. And you know, as they were building in [00:15:58] Speaker A: Nehemiah 4:14, and I looked, arose, and said to the nobles, to the leaders and to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of them. [00:16:07] Speaker B: Remember the Lord. [00:16:10] Speaker A: Like, it didn't say, remember the wall. Remember the work. He says, remember the Lord, great and awesome and fight. And then he reminds them what they're fighting for. Fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, your houses. [00:16:29] Speaker B: And then few verses later, those who [00:16:30] Speaker A: built on the wall, verse 17. And those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction and with the other hand held a weapon. And I think, like, we have to understand this because there's seasons in our life where you're. You're building with one and fighting with the other. [00:16:56] Speaker B: And, and that could feel discouraging because [00:17:01] Speaker A: your situation is screaming at you. [00:17:04] Speaker B: And what Nehemiah is saying, remember the [00:17:07] Speaker A: Lord, great and awesome. Like, don't start to see the problem greater than God. [00:17:14] Speaker B: Remember the Lord. Isn't that communion? Remember the Lord. He's great and awesome. And actually don't back down because it's dangerous. Grab a sword in the other hand and a brick with this hand and continue to stay on the wall. Like, we don't talk about that. We talk about, like, hey, just take a break. Is it hard for you? Oh, just slow down. [00:17:39] Speaker A: Just Sabbath for four months, seven months, 20 months. [00:17:42] Speaker B: Like, just rest. And we build this theology. Like, anything hard yet, just don't do it. Don't put yourself through stress. But, like, where's that in the Bible? And. And some of us, like, glorified Sabbath to such a degree that, like, we. We don't even work. But to really honor Sabbath, you have to work for six days. Some of you got to exit the Sabbath work for six days so you can enter, [00:18:16] Speaker A: Get a job as a [00:18:17] Speaker B: word of the Lord. [00:18:18] Speaker A: For some. [00:18:18] Speaker B: Some of you here, all the ladies are like, yes, my future husband getting a job, but what about the work of the Lord, the holy work of the Lord? Why do we, like, quit halfway? Why do we get off the wall when it gets dangerous? Because we have a wrong theology about this. Because God says, when you go through the fire, not if. When you go through the fire. Remember, the fire won't burn you. The circumstances don't have authority over you. Remember that. Remember the Lord, great and mighty. And so what? False accusation starts, mockery starts, familiar to some of you guys. You start to follow the Lord, and people just start mocking you, falsely accusing you, spreading rumors about you, whatever. And you're like, man, what is going on? I thought I heard from God. No, you're on the Right track. Like, you actually need this. And look at Jesus. He did. He went through that. And then the temptation was to distract [00:19:37] Speaker A: him from the work. And he says in Nehemiah 6, 3, says, I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down. You know, the Bible says that when we take the plow, we have to take it in a way, a mindset, or in a way that I'm not looking back. Like, I'm choosing this and I'm not looking back. That's resilience. That's endurance. That's perseverance, by the way. That's biblical words. That's like catching second wind when you run out of strength. And some of us, we don't even want to get tired. It's like, no, no, no. [00:20:23] Speaker B: There's something there for you when you get tired. There's the helper waiting for you when you get weak, there's a Holy Spirit just on standby waiting for you when you run out of your own strength. And some of us, we don't know God like that. We don't know the fourth man in the fire because we are avoiding the fire. We don't want to go to the fire. They're like, no, no, no. God said, I'm gonna do other things. [00:20:49] Speaker A: It's like, even prophetic words, right? Like, we don't ever tell anybody. Like, bro, you're going to. You're going to be betrayed by everybody. You're going to be falsely accused, you're [00:20:57] Speaker B: going to be charged. [00:20:58] Speaker A: I mean, you're going to go through, like, suffering where you're going to feel like you're going to die. But remember, God's going to be with you. And like, man, I got a prophetic word today. Feels so good, feels so encouraged. [00:21:10] Speaker B: So I feel like. [00:21:12] Speaker A: I mean, trying to be honest here. Like, I feel like we leave some of this out and then when it happens, we don't talk about it because we're like, I don't even know what to do with that. Is God with me? Is he here? Like, and then we get distracted. And we never see what God intended for us to see as a community. Because the whole world is crying out for the revealing of the sons of God. Where are those people? And so we're protecting ourselves. We're protecting ourselves from community. We're protecting ourselves from responsibility. We're protecting ourselves from authority. God forbid someone messes up or disturbs my comfort, my peace, my enjoyment. I'm finally enjoying life. Some people like, hey, ever since I came to this church and I Just like, I started, like, doing the stuff, you know, that the Bible says, like. Like, all hell broke against me. [00:22:18] Speaker B: And I'm like, yeah, that's good. It's like, no. [00:22:24] Speaker A: Like, what's wrong? [00:22:25] Speaker B: Nothing's wrong. Like, God's with you. [00:22:28] Speaker A: Remember him? Look what it says in numbers. This is Joshua. It's like, again, if God gives us a promise, you have to fight with it. But to us, it's like, well, if it's a promise, like, I don't. I don't need it. I don't need to do anything. God's gonna do it. [00:22:48] Speaker B: Yes. [00:22:48] Speaker A: And. And. Yes. And watch what. What he says in the. The book of Numbers 14, 9. He says, only, do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Catch that. He's not saying, you backing down is just. We're just human. He says, no, you backing down is rebellion. Like, that's weighty. Says, do not rebel against the Lord. And then he says, don't be afraid of these circumstances. They are your bread. I'm going to feed you through it. And he says, the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. When they were going through this opposition, Nehemiah responded with prayer in Nehemiah 4, 4. Then he responded with, let's keep building. In 4, 6. He says, so we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height. For the people had a mind to work. Work is not a cuss word in. In the kingdom, by the way, [00:24:41] Speaker B: they. They came halfway. [00:24:43] Speaker A: This is only halfway through facing opposition, mockery, threats. And they. They stayed on the wall because they all had a mind to work. I believe this is the mind of Christ. And then they combined prayer and work together, because it's not separate. In verse nine, we made our prayer to God, and because of them, we set watch against them day and night. And I believe that what God is releasing as a burden because, you know, after conference, and it's normal, like, after conference. I don't know. I don't know how many messages I got. [00:25:32] Speaker B: Oh, I feel like I'm supposed to [00:25:34] Speaker A: start this ministry and we're supposed to go to missions and we're supposed to go all over the world and orphanage and this and that and that. And, like, that's so exciting, right? [00:25:43] Speaker B: Why? Because the presence of God came and we were. [00:25:46] Speaker A: We were with the Lord and we [00:25:47] Speaker B: got to experience glimpses of his heart. [00:25:50] Speaker A: But it's not just, like, inspiration or doing something significant. It's actually allowing the Lord to put [00:25:56] Speaker B: a Burden in you where it's like crushing you. Where there's a, there's tears, there's a gift of tears, there's, there's, there's a [00:26:02] Speaker A: weight there that, that, that just disrupts your environment. [00:26:10] Speaker B: And then it like launches you into a, like, I wonder how many people [00:26:14] Speaker A: that got those visions are going to be there 20 days from now on their face for three hours just praying and asking God. Because out of that prayer of Nehemiah for four months, favor came. The favor of God. And that's the secret sauce that no one knows the recipe to. Like, whatever God does, he does alone, obviously through man. But when that favor came, it's like, that's it. But by the way, with favor came persecution. And I think some of us believe [00:26:53] Speaker B: like, well, if God called me and [00:26:54] Speaker A: if he's given me favor, that means no hardships, no persecution, no with it, with the increase of favor with the movement came great persecution. And the gospels say, rejoice, rejoice when you're going through this. Maybe he's saying like, hey, when you're going through this, be encouraged. You're on the right track, you're sharing in the sufferings of Christ. [00:27:22] Speaker B: Rejoice. [00:27:24] Speaker A: Don't be confused. [00:27:25] Speaker B: Remember the Lord, great and mighty, [00:27:40] Speaker A: Stand to our feet. I'm just going to read this scripture because sometimes scripture says it the best. And James 1:2. Consider it. Would you consider it? All joy, all of it. My brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect work, perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, consider and allow. I feel, I feel such a fear of the Lord even coming into this conference. I, I had one prayer, I said, lord, I didn't pick this. Like my whole life I felt like God made the wrong choice. And I'm just here temporarily [00:29:31] Speaker B: just. [00:29:31] Speaker A: It's like God, I didn't pick this. If you pick this. If you called me here, keep me by your mercy. Cuz this is scary. It always feels like I'm not enough. But if I remember the Lord, like with him, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So I just was praying, lord, keep me me by your mercy. And that the, the temptation is, is especially in success, is to get comfortable. And I actually feel like this conference was an invitation. Like there's a fear of the Lord. I don't know if you guys feel what I feel, but I feel so scared in the best way. Like God, please don't let Me get in the way. Please hide me. Hide me. And I also know that part of the glory that God called us to experience is a. Actually these burdens. There. There. There is burdens that the Lord released as a glory, as like a trust to this house that will turn into a cry, that will turn into a prayer, and that will become a manifestation of God's dreams, of God's desires through his church. There's a quote by Leonard Ravenhill, and it goes like this. The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity. Like, there's an invitation, and there's a timer on that invitation. There's a timer on that opportunity. And that's why the fear of the Lord comes for you to actually surrender deeper, yield deeper, and let the Lord do something in you that you could never do for yourself. And so what I want to do is as we go into worship, I'm going to invite people to just respond to the Lord. If the Lord is releasing a burden and you. You feel that like you feel a burden from God, I want you to respond and I want you to come forward. We're going to pray for the mind of Christ to come for. For the mind of Christ, which is that they were in the same mind. They were in unity. The mind to work. The mind to work like the mind of Christ, to come over those people that are feeling a burden from God and to allow the spirit of God to gift you the gift of tears. Where actually things will be born in the Spirit here, things will be born in the hearts of people, people that will bring transformation to this region and to this generation. So if that's you, as we go into worship, I just want you to respond. I'm going to ask the ministry team, pastoral team, whoever is available to just roam the room and lay hands on people and pray for people. [00:33:16] Speaker B: But let the Lord. Let the Lord. Let the Lord do it. Because I know. I know what it's like. I had an encounter with God at 16. I didn't know how much it's gonna cost me. [00:33:29] Speaker A: I didn't know everything I had to go through with that. Yes. [00:33:34] Speaker B: But I know what it's like to [00:33:35] Speaker A: feel the weight of it. I know what it's like to feel [00:33:39] Speaker B: the fear of the Lord. And it's like, you didn't choose this. You didn't choose you. God chose you. You don't get to decide. God chose you. God appointed you. Now you have a call to go and bear fruit. [00:33:59] Speaker A: Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come and put a cry in our hearts. Fill us with compassion, Lord. [00:34:17] Speaker B: Crush our will, God. Crush our will. We give you permission to disrupt our comfort those areas that we've protected for our own safety, Lord. We give you permission. Places where we've backed off the wall, Lord. Give us the grace and the courage to come back and take our spot. Take our place. Revive our hearts, Lord. [00:34:55] Speaker C: Thank you for joining King Movement Online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.