#102 | Trouble, Hardship, Pressure | Romans 8:35 | The Great 8

Nobody volunteers for pressure.

Nobody prays for heartbreak.

Nobody asks for betrayal, disappointment, anxiety, persecution, or suffering.

But every follower of Jesus will eventually walk through seasons where life feels heavy.

And when pressure comes, our first instinct is usually to ask...

"God, why is this happening?"

Paul gives us a different perspective.

Instead of viewing pressure as proof that God has abandoned us, he shows us that God is often doing some of His greatest work because of it. Romans 8 reminds us that affliction isn't evidence that God has stepped away—it's often the very place where He is shaping us most deeply. 

In this episode, we unpack three powerful truths about pressure:

1. Pressure Reveals — Trials expose what comfort often conceals. When life squeezes you, it reveals where your trust has truly been resting and what God wants to transform.

2. Pressure Produces — God never wastes suffering. He uses every hardship to develop endurance, deepen your character, strengthen your faith, and make you more like Christ.

3. Pressure Passes — Every trial has an expiration date. Pain is temporary, but God's purposes and promises are eternal. What you're experiencing today is not the end of your story.

Ultimately, Jesus experienced the greatest pressure anyone has ever known. In Gethsemane, under the crushing weight of the cross, He endured the judgment we deserved so that our suffering would never be meaningless. Because He conquered death, we can trust that every season of pressure is leading toward future glory.

Final Application:

• What has this season been revealing about your heart?
• Where is God developing endurance instead of simply removing difficulty?
• Will you trust His purpose even when you can't yet see it?
• Don't quit in the pressure. God is producing something greater than you can presently imagine.

Because...

Pressure may be shaping you today.

But glory is waiting for you tomorrow.

Book Derek Griffon to Speak at your next event 

https://www.derekgriffon.com/invite

Transcript

Welcome \\ Daily Rebel Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:01

This podcast is for the ones who know they will rescue, but also know they will resent. Saved by grace, sent to live differently. We're not rebelling against God, we're rebelling against everything that keeps us from. And every day, we don't swing our opinions, we sharpen our lives on the word of God, the sword of the Spirit guiding us, cutting through lives, and leading us one step at a time. We'll talk faith, identity, purpose, leadership, and what it really looks like to follow Jesus in a distracted world. Welcome to the Daily Rebel. Yo, what's going on, Daily Rebels? Here we go. Day two. Romans chapter 8, verse 35. Once again, who can separate us from the love of God? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger assword? So pressure

Why Pressure Reveals What's Inside

SPEAKER_00 0:48

has a way of exposing what's really inside of us. It's easy to trust God when life is good. I once heard a uh in a song that you don't gotta trust God till you learn to trust God. See, when the bills are paid, your family's healthy, when the job is secure, when prayers are being answered the way you hoped, it's easy to trust them. But what happens when lar when life starts squeezing you? Like it starts jacking with you, when the diagnosis happens, again, when when anxiety seems to be rampant, when a family member suddenly is deceased. Like that's where Paul takes us today. He never avoids suffering. He's taking us straight into it. Because pressure doesn't create your faith, it actually reveals it. But also you can learn from it and you can grow from it. So, Paul, yesterday we talk about how he he asked, Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Today he begins listing everything people assume that can: affliction, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Notice Paul isn't imagining worst-case scenarios, he's describing real life. In fact, he's describing much of his own. Paul begins with the word affliction. This

What Does Thlipsis Mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Greek, uh, this is the Greek word that literally means pressure, compression, being squeezed from every side. Imagine a great being crushed into a wine in a wine press. That's the picture. And then Paul says distress. The Greek word here is it describes feeling trapped, hemmed in, like there's no way out, and then persecution, opposition because you belong to Jesus. Paul isn't giving a vocabulary lesson. He's reminding us that following Christ doesn't remove pressure, it gives purpose to your pressure. Pressure may squeeze you, but it can never separate you. The pressure you're experiencing cannot overpower the love you're standing in. So I'm gonna give y'all three points. Number

Point 1: Pressure Reveals

SPEAKER_00 2:26

one, pressure reveals. See, God exposes what we trust. Pressure has a way of exposing what's underneath the surface when life gets hard. What comes out though? Is it fear, anger, bitterness, prayer? Is it dependence, hope? Um, it reveals. I know a lot of times, man, when I get when something happens in life or I get hit or uh with with some type of wave of anxiety or something very inconvenient goes wrong, I have a habit of reacting and responding in an awful way. But here's the deal trials don't create character, man, they reveal it. They the squeezing simply exposes what's already inside. And then on the other side, it can then hopefully transform you into who God's calling you to be. Think about when you squeeze an orange, you don't get apple juice. What you get whatever it was already in the fruit. The same is true spiritually. Pressure doesn't determine who you are, it reveals who you've been becoming. God often uses pressure to expose what comfort allowed us to hide. So, what has this season been revealing about your heart? But God doesn't merely reveal something, he produces something. So that's why

Point 2: Pressure Produces

SPEAKER_00 3:28

number two is pressure produces. Again, uh, God never wastes pain. Pressure isn't

God Never Wastes Your Pain

SPEAKER_00 3:33

pointless. Roman 5, Romans 5 tells us that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces proven character, and character produces hope. James says, and we we had did a whole study on James. If you go back to the earlier episodes of The Daily Rebel, James says that the testing of your faith produces endurance. See, God never wastes your pain. He's actually using it. Every trial, every disappointment, every tear is accomplishing something deeper than you presently can see. We naturally pray God take this away. Sometimes God answers, I'm using it to shape you. It's changing you. Because God's primary goal isn't your comfort, it's to conform you to Christ's likeness. And God is often doing his deepest work when life feels its hardest. So stop asking, how do I get out? And start asking, what is God producing in me? And here's the hope that keeps us going is that pressure doesn't last

Point 3: Pressure Passes

SPEAKER_00 4:19

forever. Number three is pressure passes eventually. Temporary pain cannot stop, eternal purpose. You see, Paul finishes his list of fixed affliction, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, dangerous sword. And notice something. Paul never says these things won't happen. He says they won't have the final word that'll preach because storms eventually end. That's an important distinction. As believers, we don't deny

The Greater Reality of Eternity

SPEAKER_00 4:44

uh reality. We anchor ourselves in the greater reality, which is eternity. Think about Paul's own life. He wasn't writing Romans from a beach. He'd already been beaten, imprisoned, rejected, shipwrecked, mocked, hungry, misunderstood, bitten by vipers. Yet he still writes with confidence. Why? Because Paul had learned something that pain is temporary, it eventually passes. But God's glory is forever. And that's exactly what he told us earlier in Romans chapter 8, verse 18. Remember, for he says, For I consider that the sufferings that is present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed. Notice those words, present time. Suffering has a time stamp, it has an

Pressure Has An Expiration Date

SPEAKER_00 5:21

expiration date. It will not last forever. If pressure has an expiration date, listen, God's promises do not. So listen, y'all. Think about a woman in labor. No one enjoys those contradictions. They're painful, intense, exhausting. But every contract is producing something. No mother quits in the delivery room before uh because of the pressure. Why? Because she knows what's waiting on the other side. And Paul is saying the same thing. Don't quit in the pressure. God is producing something you can't see yet. So listen, y'all. Your anxiety isn't forever, your grief isn't forever, your temptation isn't forever, your suffering isn't forever. Cancer doesn't get the final word, depressing doesn't get the final word, death doesn't get the final word. Jesus does. So listen, some of y'all might be praying, God, get me out. What if instead you pray, God, don't let me miss what you are doing in me? Pressure may squeeze you, pain may stretch

Purpose Is Eternal

SPEAKER_00 6:16

you, suffering may test you, but none of those things get the final word. Because Redeemed Rebels, listen, we need to understand pressure is temporary, purpose is eternal, and nothing, not even your hardest season, can separate you from the love of Christ.

Outro

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help other people be equipped to be redeemed rebels, give us a follow and share it around with your friends. We'll see you next time.