Lucas Gomes - No Struggle, No Strength

Church by the Glades, who's excited to be at church this morning? For those of you who don't know me, my name is Lucas. I am one of the pastors on staff here at Church by the Glades. Now, usually, yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you. Listen, I love this church. Usually, I'm not speaking. I'm the worship pastor here, so I help with all things music. If you don't like the music, don't email me. I've been on staff for a long time, but I've been a part of this church for a really long time. I grew up going to our student ministry. It's called the Wave Student Ministry on Wednesday nights. Man, I'm just very grateful to be a part of this church, sincerely. I've heard, you know, almost 20 years worth of sermons every weekend in the same seats you're in. And before this building, it was in the original worship center. And so much of who I am as a person, the way I see the world, the way I think, the way I operate, the way I conduct myself has to do with being a part of a church, consistently showing up every week, listening to what Pastor David has to say. I'm grateful for our leaders, man. I'm grateful for this church. This is a great place to be, truly. So like I said, I went to the Wave Student Ministry. I was in middle school, and my brother got invited to go to the Wave. And I remember he went without me one time, and I was like, where did you go? Like, where were you? He said, I was at the Wave. And I said, if you're going to the Wave, I want to go to the Wave. My older brother was like my best friend.

He's my hero. To this day, we're best friends. But whatever my older brother did, I wanted to do. Whatever my older brother did, I had to do, okay? I was always following in his footsteps. So he went to the Wave, and then I went to the Wave. I remember he started skateboarding. And I told him, I want to buy a skateboard. I want to skateboard, too. He joined the wrestling team. And I was like, what time do we meet? You know, whatever he did, I was copying him all my life. And my senior year in high school, my brother came to me, and he said, Lucas, I'm thinking about becoming a pastor. And I was like, do you think we would be good at that? Like, do we have the skill set for that? I'm open to that, but what does this look like for us? He was like, what do you mean we? Like, have an original thought. So a big reason I'm a pastor is because my brother became a pastor. I followed in his footsteps. He's a pastor now in Oregon. He's preaching at his church this week. And I love my brother. We're best friends to this day. We talk all the time. Yeah, no, listen, I thank God he didn't start selling crack, because whatever he did, I was right there, okay? So my brother and I are very close, very close. We did everything together growing up.

And one way we bonded a lot as kids was watching movies. I love watching a good movie. I think it's because our dad was very into movies. He loved all things cinematography. So we'd watch movies together. And my favorite type of movie to watch with my brother, we really got into space movies. Anybody seen Interstellar here? Interstellar? Any fans? Okay, I remember growing up watching all the Men in Black movies, Love Men in Black, Alien vs. Predator. I like outer space movies, okay? I like sci-fi. I'm into that stuff. My wife can't stand it, so I don't have anyone to watch with anymore. My brother has to come down and hang out with me. Space movies. Space is fascinating. It's a little disturbing to think about outer space. It's kind of scary. It's kind of alarming. It gives me a weird feeling thinking about being in outer space, how expansive it is. But during one of my obsessive episodes with space, I was watching documentaries about space, and I watched an interview with an astronaut who spent about four months on the International Space Station. He was one of the first people to spend an extended period of time in space. And when he came back to Earth,

scientists, other astronauts, doctors, they're examining these people who come back to Earth, and they began to notice a pattern with the people who spent an extended period of time in space when they came back. These astronauts who were in their mid-30s would come back, and they would examine them, and they noticed they had the bone density of a 70-year-old man. And they realized, okay, something's off here. They would weigh them and realize they lost a significant amount of weight. Their muscle was basically wasting away while they were in outer space. And so as they were basically researching this and trying to find out why, they realized they would spend months in a zero-gravity environment. Wherever they wanted to go, they would just float. It took no effort to get where they wanted to go. They discovered something very simple. If you experience no struggle, you develop no strength. Everybody say, no struggle. No strength. Come on, say it louder. Say, no struggle. No strength. Now, listen, they basically came up with a solution to this, and there's very specific technology and ways that they exercise while in space. They spend hours every day. It can't be light. It can't be easy. It has to be heavy resistance for them to maintain their bone density, their muscle mass. They discovered no struggle, no strength. It's true physically. It's true spiritually. It's true emotionally. It's true psychologically. It's true in your relationships. It's true with your goals. If you experience no struggle, you develop no strength.

Without an obstacle in your way, you cannot develop the strength that it takes to be the person God has called you to be. I want you to imagine a life with no struggle. Imagine a zero gravity environment for your life. Whatever you want, effortlessly, it just comes to you. The thing you've been dreaming about. The business you've been working on. the relationship that you want, the family that you want, the house, the car, whatever your dreams are, imagine it came to you with no effort whatsoever. Might sound like a great life. Some of us have prayed for a life like that. I want you to know a life like that would be miserable for a few reasons, but one is you would be weak. Without any obstacle to overcome, you would not develop the characteristics that you need. Now listen to me. Every positive characteristic that you want, whatever it is, it cannot be developed without some kind of conflict before. So when you've prayed that prayer, and I prayed that prayer, God, take this struggle away. I don't wanna deal with this thing anymore. This is too much for me. This is too stressful. Lord, take this struggle away. I don't wanna struggle with this anymore. And then also prayed, God, make me a man of character. Help me to fulfill my destiny. Those two prayers are incompatible.

Listen to me. You cannot pray for an easy life and strong character. You cannot pray to be a compassionate person or a courageous person. Why? Those attributes are only developed. They're only useful when you experience opposition. There's no need for courage unless you experience fear. How can you be compassionate when someone else is dealing with something if you've never had pain of your own? No struggle, no strength. No struggle, no strength. The Bible has a lot to say about struggle, about difficulty, about trials. James chapter one, verses two through four says this. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Romans chapter five says this. We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance and endurance develops strength of character and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. The Bible is saying this. Your difficulty, your trial, your pain,

it has the potential to produce something. Pain will always produce something, but here's the key. What it produces will depend upon your response. Pain will always produce something, but what it produces truly is up to you. I heard a story about twin brothers. Twin brothers grew up in the same house, went to the same school, had the same family, had all the same inputs in life, and these twin brothers had a father who neglected them. These twin brothers had a father who abused alcohol and he could never overcome his addiction. It plagued him all his life, and these two boys who grew up in that house were deeply affected by what happened to them. When they became adults, one of these two brothers in his early 20s, he started drinking and he couldn't stop. He became an alcoholic and he drank and he drank and he drank, he could not break the habit. He never settled down, he never had a good family, and when he was asked, why do you drink the way that you do? He said, with a father like mine, what else could you expect from me? His brother never touched a drop of alcohol. His brother got married, was a father, was a husband, was a committed family man, and when somebody asked him, hey, why did you decide never to drink?

He said, with a father like mine, what else could you expect from me? Isn't it interesting two people can have the same experience and such completely different perspectives on it? Isn't it fascinating two people can have the exact same experience, walk out of the experience, and tell you a totally different story about what happened? Isn't it interesting? If I take a candle and I put it in the sun, what will happen to it? It will melt. If I take clay and I put it in the sun, what will happen to it? It will harden. Same experience is a totally different result on two different things. What's the difference? What they're made of. You are not a candle. You are not clay. You're a human being made in God's image. God has given you and I the unique ability to choose our response. You cannot control what happens to you, but your response is your responsibility. You get to choose what the pain produces in your life. You can't choose what happens to you, but your response is your responsibility. Your life's gonna be greatly determined

by the story that you tell yourself about your pain. You know, I preached a sermon a few weeks ago. It's probably a little over a month ago now. And the first time I preached it, I preached it at First Baptist Fort Lauderdale. It didn't feel right. I preached it and I said, something was off. It didn't hit right. It was missing something. And I realized I preached that sermon without sharing an example of pain that I've experienced. Now maybe you're in this room and you're thinking, what does this kid know about pain? Listen, I'm a little disappointed to say I'm a little more qualified to preach this sermon than I would like to be. Everybody here carries different burdens. And I'm sure I could talk to people in this room who have had significantly more pain than I have. Let me just acknowledge that right away. But the pain that I experienced was when my father was diagnosed with cancer. My father's diagnosis was a shock to my family. He was a healthy guy, took care of himself. He played tennis every day. My father was a consistent person in our family. He was a leader for our family. And when my father was diagnosed with cancer, his death was very difficult for me. But the four-year battle with cancer

in the last six to 12 months of his life is truly what scarred me. It was incredibly painful. And I remember after my father died, I realized I have a choice to make about what this means for me. So let me tell you the story that I decided to tell myself about losing my father when I did. Everyone relied on my father. He was fair, he was honest, very honest, sometimes to a fault. He was a great listener. And when something happened in the family, people went to him and he listened. People went to him and my father was a man of character, a man of integrity. We all relied on him. I realized the day my father died, it was time for people to start relying on me. When I lost my father, I was very tempted to be bitter. When I spend time with my own kids, I think I wish I could talk to my dad about how he handled fatherhood. I wish I could talk to my dad about what he would do in this situation. And you know what I realized? The bitterness that I was tempted to feel because I didn't have my dad here to talk to me, I don't need to ask my dad what he would do because he showed me what he would do.

Your kids won't do what you say, your kids will do what you do. If you talk the talk, that's great. And if you chirp in your kids ear all day long about what they should do, that's fine, but your kids are going to end up doing what you do. We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are. The reason I became who I am today is because I had an excellent father. And the bitterness I was tempted to feel, I realized, is never something he would have signed off for me on my life. He never would have been okay with that. And so I realized the moment he passed away, it was time for me to step up and take responsibility. That's the story that I told myself when I lost my father. And the temptation to be bitter will always come when you face pain. But isn't it interesting? I told you earlier, those good characteristics can only be developed through struggle, right? Oftentimes the most compassionate people, the most loving people you meet are the people who have suffered the most. But also, on the flip side, sometimes the most bitter people you meet, the most hurt. What's the difference between the person who gets bitter and the person who gets better? It's what they choose to do with their pain.

Now, when I tell you the story that you tell yourself about your pain has an impact, I'm not talking about rewriting the facts, making something up. Let's make it something that it wasn't. No, no, no, no. We can confront what happened, but we get to choose the perspective through which we see it. Listen, from your perspective, maybe you see no way it could be used for good. From your perspective, maybe all you see is a disaster. God sees everything through a lens of redemption. No matter what's going on in your life, it can be redeemed and it can be used for good if you surrender it to God. In fact, God will take your pain and he can turn it into something great. I wanna actually read you a few things I wrote down. These are things that God can turn your pain into if you surrender it to him. God turns pain into compassion. People who have suffered themselves are the ones who care the most when others are hurting. God turns pain into humility. Struggle reminds us we are not in control. When everything's good, you can rely on yourself, but when you're struggling, you realize I have to rely on God. God turns pain into wisdom. Difficult experiences will teach you lessons

that success never could. God turns pain into gratitude. Hard seasons can deepen the appreciation that we have for everyday blessings. God turns pain into purpose. Many people discover their calling through the very struggle that they never would have chosen. God turns pain into your testimony. Your story becomes evidence that God can redeem difficult circumstances. Listen, I don't know what pain you're dealing with today. I don't know what you lost, but here's my challenge to you. Don't focus on what you lost. Focus on what remains. There may be some things that you don't have anymore. Listen, I'm sincerely sorry. I'll never stand up here and try to minimize it or explain to you why it happened or what God was up to when he did it, but there are some things that still remain that need your attention. There are some things that still remain that need your appreciation. There are some things that still remain that need your gratitude, that need your focus. Don't focus. what you lost, focus on what remains. Everybody say no struggle. No struggle.

No strength. The Bible's full of examples of people who have suffered tremendously, but the ultimate example is always Christ, and our Savior suffered. The Bible says he was a man of sorrows. He was lonely, he was misunderstood, he was rejected. Ultimately, he was crucified, and before Christ went to the cross, he knew he was gonna suffer. And the Bible's very clear. Jesus was not excited about suffering. He wasn't minimizing it, he wasn't ignoring it. He was in deep distress about the pain he was gonna face. And before Christ went to the cross, he prayed this prayer in Luke chapter 22. I want you to read this with me. It's on the screen right now, and I want you to read the highlighted words. Luke 22, 42. Before he goes to the cross, he's afraid, he does not want to do it. He says this. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. He prayed the prayer we've all prayed. God, if there's some other way, please. Lord, I don't want to carry this burden. I don't want to deal with this pain. I don't want to face this obstacle.

I've prayed that prayer before. Normally, when I pray that prayer, I said, God, please take this away. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. It takes a lot of spiritual maturity to add one more sentence to that prayer. God, take this away, yet not my will, but yours be done. It's a bold prayer. That's not an easy prayer, especially when you're dealing with pain. But ultimately, Jesus had the maturity to understand God's plan is better than my plan. God can bring something great through something disastrous. Listen, we got a resurrection, but only after a crucifixion. It's easy to celebrate all the good things that can happen without acknowledging all the painful things that had to happen first. The greatest joy came as a result of what? The greatest suffering. The brightest moment in history came as a result of the darkest moment in history. There's a correlation between the amount of suffering and the amount of joy on the other side. He knew he had to suffer. He didn't want to suffer. He said, God, not my will, but yours be done. In South America, in Brazil, there's a very famous rainforest.

It's called the Amazon Rainforest. First of all, do I have any Brazilians in the house today? Any Brazilians in the house? Come on, important game tomorrow, guys. Important game tomorrow. We need to beat Japan. I need us to lock in, okay? I know it's a surprise, okay? I know it's a surprise, but I'm 100% Brazilian, like 100%. I know, nobody believes it, but when my parents told me, even I was like, are you sure? That doesn't sound right. 100% Brazilian. The Amazon Rainforest, man, it's massive. And researching this, I didn't realize just how big the Amazon Rainforest is. It's about the size of the United States. East Coast to West Coast, it's huge. And throughout the Amazon Rainforest, there are these channels of water that almost act like a highway system through the rainforest. And it's how people travel through with boats. A few years ago, a story was published about a man named Antonio Sena. He's a Brazilian pilot, and he was flying over the Amazon Rainforest. An experienced pilot who was flying a small plane

by himself, and his plane experienced a mechanical failure. And his plane crashed. He lost control. He crashed in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest by himself. And it was basically a death sentence at that point. He survived. He had some minor injuries. And he was wandering through the Amazon Rainforest for over a month. He walked 18 miles looking for someone, looking for anyone. And he describes his experience in the Amazon Rainforest. He said that on the first day his plane crashed, it began to rain. And it rained, and it rained, and it rained, and it poured. The next day he woke up, and it was raining again. And the third day he woke up, and it was raining again. And he prayed, God, please, I just wanna see my family again. I wanna live. I wanna build some type of shelter. I wanna be able to see where I'm going. God, can you please stop the rain? I need it to rain less, so I can see if I can find a way out of here, make a plan, but it's just swamp. And he sees there's nobody around. He's panicking. He wakes up the next day, and it rains.

And he says, okay, God, if it's gonna rain, can it just rain less? Like, it's been raining a lot. He woke up the next day, and it rained even more. And days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into a month. And it was 36 days he wandered through the Amazon Rainforest, and it rained almost every single day while he was there. He described how he was beginning to doubt God. He said he was thinking that maybe he should give up on God. Maybe God's not real. Maybe nobody's listening. He was picturing his wife and his child moving on without him. And he says, when he was giving up hope, he was in the Amazon Rainforest, wandering as he was, and he saw something. white in the distance. And he caught his eye because he had not seen anything that color. He's like, what is this? And so he's moving towards it and he realizes it's a tarp. And he suddenly, he's hopeful. He's like, man, somebody put this here. Like, this is man-made. This is not naturally occurring. There must be someone around here. And he's wandering and he's yelling for help. And sure enough, at one point he yells for somebody. He's like, is anybody there? Somebody help!

And somebody responds, hello! And he thinks he's delusional. And he turns around and there's someone far away holding a bucket. And he begins moving towards them. And he says, I need help. I need food. I need water. And they said, what are you doing here? He explained, my plane crashed. I've been wandering for over a month. I've been looking for someone. Please, please, please help me. And they give him food. They give him water. And he begins talking with them. And they said, man, we've never seen anyone out here. Like, we can't believe you survived all this time, but we've never been this far in the Amazon rainforest where we would never come here. And he said, what do you mean? Like, why are you here? What are you doing? And they're harvesting Brazil nuts and specific types of seeds and things that grow deep in the jungle. And he says, yeah, we never come here. He said, so why are you here? And he said, well, the rain. Yeah, the tide was so high.

And really often, some of these channels dry up around this time of year, but for the last month, it just wouldn't stop raining. And our boats went further and further. So we kept going and going because we wanted to harvest these Brazil nuts. We went deeper and deeper and deeper into the Amazon rainforest because the rain just wouldn't stop. And he said, when the realization hit him, it hit him like a ton of bricks, that the very thing he was praying against, God used to save him. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. The very thing he was praying against, God used to bring about his salvation. So my question for you today is this. What are you praying against? What have you been asking God to take away? What have you been asking God to stop? What have you been praying against? Because God can use what you have been praying against as a means for your salvation. Sometimes the very thing we are praying against,

God is going to use. Sometimes the very thing we are asking God to change, God is using to change us. What are you praying against? Because what the enemy means for evil, God can use for good. That thing that makes no sense to you, you are seeing from your perspective. But from God's perspective, who sees everything through a lens of redemption, he sees how he can use it. So what I'm asking you to do today is stop trying to make sense of everything that happened to you. Stop trying to make sense of what you're going through right now. Because it could be that that thing you're praying against is what God is going to use to draw you closer to him than you ever have been before. The very thing he was praying against is what God used to save him. Listen, it's a miracle that I've preached this long without bringing this up. Normally it's the first thing out of my mouth when I go on stage, but I have a wife and four kids, okay? That's a very little note. I love my, yeah, look how beautiful my wife is. Yeah, she's very attractive. Also, my kids are very cute, you know? They look like AI generated.

Like if you typed in, make me four cute kids, that's what it would look like. Gosh, so I had three kids under three years old. Wouldn't recommend it. And then we took a nice long break of like a year and had another one. So every time my son was six months old, she was pregnant again. And then again, I was pregnant again. And then again, and then a little break, and then again. So I haven't slept in six years. Man, I love, love, love my kids. And every parent in here knows, having a kid like breaks your brain. Nothing like turns your life upside down like having a kid. And there are a lot of great milestones in life. You know, graduating college or getting married. Those are a big deal. But nothing is like having a child. You know, you bring a child into this world, it's just mind boggling. And I'll never forget when my wife gave birth to our first son, she was nine months pregnant and I was very, very, very stressed out. I was like, okay, like this is happening, you know? So we had like our bag, like our go bag ready, you know? Because the moment it happens, like it's going down. We're getting in the car and I'm gonna floor it all the way to the hospital. I was very nervous.

And for like a few weeks, every time she sneezed, I was like, get in the car. But she's like, that's not, she's like, no, that's not labor. Like, what are you talking about? Sure enough, she started getting contractions and I was, I was, I was really nervous. And she's like, oh, you know, Braxton Hicks, like there's, there's fake ones, right? You guys know what I'm talking about? Very weird, but I'm like, okay, like, what are you? Who's Braxton Hicks? It's like your body preparing. So I was very nervous. I was always like, you know, this is gonna happen because I don't handle that kind of stuff well. But it's happening and she's timing her contractions and they're closer together. And she's like, okay, I think this is for real. So I was like, okay, get in the car and we're driving. And the contractions are getting a bit worse. And I can see on her face that she's in some pain. My wife's like very tough, you know. My wife is, she's German. I feel like she could beat me up. And so I know she has a high pain tolerance. And she's telling me, no, no, it's fine. And she's talking to me and then she'll be like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, that hurt. That didn't feel good.

I'm like, oh, okay. And we're getting to the hospital and then suddenly she's not talking to me anymore. And she's like, she can't talk during the contractions. I'm like, okay, this is getting really, this is bad. And I can see on her face the pain she's experiencing. I can see she's in pain. We get inside, the nurses, the doctors, they see her. And I'm like, okay, she's in a lot of pain. Like, and they're like, yeah, you know, that's normal. They're very calm and I'm not calm at all. I'm like, you guys should be more worried about this. They're like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, relax. You know, it's like they see this every day or something, right? They told me we're gonna be here for a while. Like we might, this party just might be getting started. And I was like, wow, I thought it was like almost over. Listen, my wife's pain continued to get worse. And the worse the pain got, the more nervous I was and the more scared I was. And the more calm the nurses all seemed. They understood the pain is not a sign that something is wrong. The pain is a sign that something is coming. The pain was not a sign that something was wrong. It was a sign that something was right. We're actually on track. And the worse the pain got,

the closer we were to something great. Somebody here is experiencing pain. You've been dealing with pain, emotional pain, pain from your past, pain from your childhood, pain from something going on in your life right now. Listen to me, that pain is not random pain. That pain is labor pain. If you surrender your pain to Christ, he can make something great from your pain. The worse the pain got, the closer we were. And when the pain was the worst, when the pain was the least tolerable, when I thought, oh man, my wife, she can't take much more pain. My wife could not look over me and say, you know what, this hurts really bad. I quit. That's not how that works. That's not an option. In fact, when her pain was the worst, the nurse just said, hey, I know your pain is bad. They didn't say your pain is bad, it's time to quit. They said your pain is bad, it's time to push. And the more she pushed through the pain, the closer we were. And finally, after pushing through the pain for long enough, something incredible showed up in this world. My first son showed up in this world. She loved it so much, she did it three more times. Listen to me.

Your pain is producing something in you. Your pain is not random pain. Your pain is labor pain. Your pain is bringing something great. Your pain is not the pain that's gonna make you stop and make you quit. You need to push through your pain. Don't you dare quit on your pain. God is working on you. He is using you. He is making something happen in you. He's developing something in you. No struggle, no strength. I want you to fulfill your destiny. I want you to be who God has called you to be. You can't quit. Don't you dare quit on your pain. Push through your pain. Just stay on your feet. If not already on your feet, stand with me because we're about done. Somebody is here and you're dealing with pain. You're dealing with emotional pain or physical pain or psychological pain. God can do something with your pain if you surrender it to him. He can turn your pain into your testimony or your purpose or compassion. God is gonna use you in a mighty way. The worse the pain gets,

the closer you are to fulfilling your destiny. You cannot be who God has called you to be unless you confront this pain and surrender it to him. Stop trying to fix it in your own strength. Stop trying to do things your own way. It's time you surrender everything to Christ. It's time you stop holding onto that one part of your life. It's time you say, you know what, God, I'm all in. I don't wanna deal with this anymore on my own. I wanna surrender it to you because you can do something better with it than I can. If you're here today and you're struggling in some way, God brought you here today to hear this sermon. Don't quit on your pain. Push through your pain. He's developing something in you. I wanna give you an opportunity right now to surrender your pain to him. If you're hurting right now, if you're broken right now, if you're dealing with a loss, I don't know what you lost, God wants to work on you. God wants to develop you into the person that you need to be to fulfill your God-given destiny. So if you're hurting in some way, would you just put a hand in the air so I can pray specifically for you? Lord, these hands up all over this room. We just wanna say, God,

we surrender. We are done trying to do this on our own. God, we trust and believe that you can develop. us through this. Lord would you help us to realize it could be the very thing we were praying against is what you're going to use. Lord I pray in Jesus name that healing would take place in someone's heart right now. God I pray that somebody would walk out of these doors feeling a little bit lighter than when they walked in. I pray that somebody would walk out of these doors and say you know what it's time for me to make a change. It's time for me to fully let this go. It's time for me to surrender my life to Christ and Lord I pray that you give them the strength and the courage to go one day at a time. Just one day at a time Lord. Today we're gonna make it today Lord because you are for us you are not against us you are with us God. You have a plan for us and a purpose for us. God you have not forgotten about these people. You have not forgotten about this person who has their hand up right now Lord. There's a new dream for them to dream. There's something for them to do as long as there is breath in their lungs. If you are under the sound of my voice God has called you to do something great. Lord I pray that you would use them that you would help us Lord to surrender to you. We love you Lord. We thank you for what you're gonna do. In Jesus name we pray in every voice said.