Navigating Hardships, Pressures, and Agitations by Brother Curtis Hansen

         This morning our scripture will come from the book of Matthew chapter 4. The message this morning is somewhat a continuation from last Sunday's message. Trouble will push you into the hands of the savior. All of us will feel with hardships, pressures, and agitations in our life from time to time. Agitations are the quickest route to change your mood and outlook.

        If you don't learn to allow God to do things in your life, you will have very slow and small spiritual growth. You can't rebuke every agitation. You can't fix other people. You can work on yourself. We are going to read starting in verse 3 of Matthew 4.

        3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

        4 But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

        5 The the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple.

        6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

        7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

        The devil will quote scripture to you like he did to Jesus in verse 6. Man has quoted scripture to promote slavery, particular hierarchies, and false doctrines like the prosperity gospel. Contrary to popular opinion, the apostle Paul was not a woman hater. He viewed them as partners in spreading the gospel. He even addressed women in his letters which was surprising in the context of time and place.

        There will be pressures where you work that are more felt then seen. It is important for you to develop your discernment. Not every scripture quoted to you is for your benefit nor is it from God or even the devil. There are voices from Jesus who speak to you. Some of those voices are planted in the word and other voices are not.

        The main point I want to focus on is that struggle is strengthening. God will bully you sometime. You could go back and read the stories of Abraham, Moses, Lot, King David. In our time we call our environment toxic and our leaders hard. Hard leaders and unfair treatment will condition and strengthen you.

        David had King Saul as a reminder what could happen to him. Saul had been blessed by Samuel but he would turn and be rejected by God. Look at Joseph and his family. Paul would write in his letter of Philippians you will know God best in your suffering. You are discerning words spoken into your life. You need to match and line it up with scripture. Look to see if those words are qualified by the Bible. There are parts of your character which you need to remove for your spiritual well-being.

        Whatever it is you go through, know that it too shall pass. It will be okay. If you are able to go through hardships, pressures, and agitations, you need to allow.

        There's power in allowing. Allowing means you aren't the victim of circumstance. You take ownership of that circumstance. When you allow, you have one of two choices. One is you can manipulate the situation to bring you benefit. The other is you can try to motivate yourself for the situation.

        God is trying to get you in heaven and not for you to try and recreate heaven here on earth. There are lessons in the end. These struggles we all face are interpersonal. Motivate is I know where I am, what can I learn from it?

        Sin produces ignorance and idolatry. Sin doesn't just affect your behavior. The way your mind works is changed when you're in sin. It promotes idolatry where you elevate things in your life to a God position. Sin doesn't allow you to think right. It affects who you serve. We see things God made and instead of worshipping the creator as we were made for, we worship the creation. Some times you give too much authority to the creation. Allow your creator to work in you.