Isn’t It Supposed to Be Easy?

Don’t Deny Discipline

We live in a culture that treats discomfort like danger…. Safeguard and run from it.

When something is hard our natural response is… it MUST BE WRONG

-prayer feels dry- i must be doing something wrong….

-parenting gets difficult…. I must be failing

-relationships get hard…. Something must be wrong

-Following Jesus gets tough…. I thought GRACE would make it easier…..

But what if difficulty isn’t the absence of God, rather proof that HE IS WORKING

We’ve confused comfort with calling, convenience with blessing, and easy with right

GROWTH HAS NEVER BEEN EASY!!!!

A Coach disciplines a rising athlete

A teacher corrects a student

A parent trains a child….. and a farmer prunes vines….

**ANYTHING VALUABLE MUST BE DEVELOPED**

This danger is this:

A perspective of easy causes us to reject the very discipline that would grow us

Creates a life where we want PURPOSE without PRUNING, INFLUENCE without INTEGRITY…. IMPACT without FORMATION.

God’s goal isn’t to make life easier… its to make us MORE LIKE CHRIST

Hebrews 12:1–3

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

If we are going to grow into who God called us to be…. IT ISN’T GOING TO BE EASY

1.) Discipline is proof of LOVE, not rejection

Maybe one of the largest side effect of the question “isn’t it supposed to be easy”, is that the father of lies… our enemy whispers in our ear that difficulty means rejection.,.. it means God’s absence…

Hebrews 12:6

“6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.’”

The constant desire for easy, for comfort moves us towards believing that correction means condemnation… this is a fundamental misunderstanding that has a profound effect on every area of our lives.

God’s discipline is not punishment it is development

**Punishment pushes away

**discipline pulls closer

-conviction is discipline

-accountability is discipline

-pruning is discipline

John 15:2

“2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

Pruning feels painful because God cuts what cannot go where HE is taking us

We often pray - God why are you doing this, why are you removing this….

The answer is often…. You won’t need it where you are going

Stop asking: Isn’t it supposed to be easy

Start asking: God what are you doing in me through this

2.) Discipline Produces Strength

Discipline produces strength that easy never could….

Comfort and Easy produce apathy in our lives…. Where discipline produces strength

Hebrews 12:11

“11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Discipline hurts now but helps later…. Easy NEVER develops DEPTH…

We admire people of strength… physical, emotional, spiritual… but then we avoid the process that creates it.

No one accidentally becomes:

-spiritually mature

-emotionally mature

-faithful in fear

strength is built through resistance!

Where there is no resistance….there is no growth.

the reason so many believers stay spiritually weak is because they avoid every uncomfortable thing.

-obedience

-repentance

-sacrifice

-serving

**Avoiding discomfort also avoids development!

James 1:2–4

“2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

God is not wasting pressure… he is forging you for your purpose…

**Easy preserves comfort

**Discipline produces capacity

-What discomfort have you been resisting that God may actually be using?

3.) You Cannot Disciple Others while rejecting Discipline Yourself

We are called to be disciples who make disciples… “Go and make disciples”…. We love the great commission, but we not realize in order to walk in our mission we must first walk through development.

2 Timothy 2:2

“entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

We want the platform to influence, but we don’t want the process to earn the influence. We are infatuated with “INFLUENCERS”… but don’t want to submit to God’s process to grow influence…

He disciples us so we can disciple others…. It’s always been generational… its always been bigger…

**immature people reproduce immaturity**

Whatever we refuse to confront in ourselves…. Will eventually impact others

**We can talk about changing the world… we can say go change the world… we can watch others change the world… but we ourselves will never change the world, until we allow God to change us.

Jesus loved his disciples deeply, but corrected them constantly…. Then called us DISCIPLES who make disciples

**Love that doesn’t disciple isn’t Biblical**

Your development may lead to someone else’s breakthrough… stay steady, stay encouraged, walk the process

4.) Don’t RUN from Discipline… WALK through it

**KEYS HERE :) **

We move fast to get through and to get away… we move slow when we want something done right….

You want to see me move fast… watch me get near a snake… I’m trying to get away….

Don’t RUN away from discipline…. Walk through it

Hebrews 12:1

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”

An endurance pace looks a lot different than a sprint… its slower… so if your growth seems slower than you’d like… maybe its your perspective that is wrong not the pace…

Endurance is staying faithful WHEN its difficult

Obeying WHEN its costly

Trusting WHEN its unclear

Galatians 6:9

“9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

If it doesn’t seem easy… its because it was never meant to be easy….. SO DON’T GIVE UP…. Your harvest is coming. Your development is happening…

Salvation:

Fact is this… Jesus embraced the most difficult thing ever… BECAUSE the depth of HIS LOVE…. And our response to that puts us on a life long development journey…. Towards HIM>…. But it starts by saying yes to HIM

CHARGE:

Don’t avoid the difficult….

-where have you resisted the difficult…. POSSIBLE TITHING CHALLENGE… POSSIBLE…