God doesn't always take the easy way.

Because we think that when God says he's going to

do something in our lives, it's gonna be easy.

But it's not. It has to be hard.

A quick look at the history of the Bible shows

you that God likes to do things the hard way.

It is his preferred method of carrying out his purpose.

So don't think you're weird if your life has been hard,

and don't assume that you're doing something wrong, because God

will often allow life to cut you down to the stock.

Oh yeah, he did it to Moses.

Moses was called to lead the children of Israel out

of Egypt. I'm wonna take you through the whole Bible,

but I do want to go to Exodus because there's

this interesting Christmas verse that says, out of Egypt I've

called my son because Jesus had to go with his

parents to Egypt when he was very little, because Herod

wanted to kill him. Because God doesn't birth his son

into the world into ideal circumstances, but into a very

chaotic environment where Roman oppression was so common to the

people that they feared for their very life under the

madman named Herod. We think we have bad presidential candidates.

I mean, this guy was killing babies in Bethlehem when

he heard Jesus was born, because it represented a threat

to the throne. And so Isaiah's prophesying to a people

who are under a Syrian oppression, and Jesus comes into

the world under Roman oppression. Because God likes to come

into hard situations, He's not scared of that, and so

when he picks Moses, he says, go to Pharaoh, the

most powerful man in the world, and tell him to

let my people go.

And when you tell him to let my people go,

he's going to say no.

Now, why would God tell me to do something and

in the next breath inform me that it won't work.

Because it had to be hard.

If it was easy for Moses, if he just walked

up into Pharaoh's court and said, let my people go

and Pharaoh said all right, Moses would dab.

On Pharaoh walk out and think he was convincing. But

Pharaoh had to say.

No so that God could And this is God's own wording.

I didn't make this up.

He said, I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that I

can gain glory. In other words, if it wasn't hard,

you would think.

It was you. If it wasn't hard, you would trust.

In yourself, and yourself is not an adequate support system.

For the glory of God. So I've got to allow.

Some things into your life that are impossible.

For you so that.

You can know what Mary knew, that nothing shall be

impossible with God.

It had to be hard.

By the time the Israelites came out of Egypt, they

come up to the Red Sea and God instead of

taking them around the body of water, WA's what God does?

God is kind of crazy. God says, I'm not gonna

take you around it. That would be the normal way,

that would be the human way. Let's do it the

hard way. I'm not gonna take you around it. I'm

gonna take you through it. Stretch out to your staff,

and the waters will part.

And about the time.

You get through, look back over your souler and the

Egyptians that were ruling over you.

You will see them no more. I'm about to drown

with cheasing you down. But i gotta take you the

hard way, the hard way. God likes to do it

the hard way.

I don't have time to tell you about David and

his slingshot. God could have used an armed soldier to

kill Goliath. But how would they have known that he

was the Lord if God didn't do it through something

so silly as one rock. God likes to do things

the hard way, Gideon, So if you have thirty two

thousand men, he's not gonna let you fight with thirty

two thousand men. He's gonna get you down to three hundred.

Maybe that's why you've been cut down to a stump.

Maybe you were relying on the fruit too much. But

this is a season where God wants to prove your

root system and show you real hope, and sometimes you.

Got to learn it the hard way. He couldn't come into.

The world floating on the crowd cloud looking like some superhero.

He couldn't.

He couldn't have come like that with an s on

his chest.

For savior of the world.

Had to come in weakness so that you would know

that in your weakness he is strong.

And I don't know it's because.

I spend so much time speaking to young people that

I think in such simplistic terms, or maybe I'm just

a simple man.

But I started thinking about.

And I texted Jess and I said, give me a

bouncy ball. I want to use it in the sermon.

I didn't tell her I want to use it in

the sermon. I said, give me a bounce seball. I

didn't tell her why I wanted it. Maybe she thought

I was losing my mind, or I hadn't bought Christmas

for Holly yet. That'd be bad, wouldn't it. But I

was thinking that it has the ability to bounce back.

That's exactly what it was designed to do. That's exactly

what it's meant for. That's why it's called a bouncy ball.

They named it appropriately for the function that it is

intended to serve, for the potential that it has within

its composite structure.

But in order.

See if I did the same thing, give me your chair, Rick,

I know he doesn't mind giving me his chair. Rick

could do anything for me, wouldn't you, Rick, anything anything

to help me preach the gospel? Now, Look, same ball,

different surface didn't work because in order for this to

do what it's meant to do, the surface that it

bounces on.

Has to be.

She's on it. Some of y'all are remedial. It has

to be. It has to be. And maybe that's why

in this season of your life, things have been hard.

Maybe God isn't punishing you.

Maybe he's preparing you.

Maybe you've been cut down for a comeback. See as

a believer, y'all better help me. Preacher, I'll have you

here until maybe nine. As a believer in Jesus Christ,

you have the ability within you to bounce back. Maybe

that's why they lay Jesus in a borrowed grave, because

God had to show the world that you can put

me down in rock bottom, but you can't keep me

from bouncing back.

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