Steven Furtick - Bouncing Back From Rock-Bottom
This is an excerpt from “Learning Hope The Hard Way”
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 it is intended to serve, for the potential it has within its composite structure. Now look. Same ball, different surface. It didn't work. In order for this to do what it's meant to do, the surface it bounces on has to be hard. 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.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, you have the ability within you to bounce back. Maybe that's why they laid Jesus in a borrowed grave: because God had to show the world that you can put me down at rock bottom, but you can't keep me from bouncing back. Does anybody have a bounce-back in your spirit this Christmas? Touch three people and say, "I can bounce back". I have a hope that bounces back. I can bounce back from rock bottom. As a matter of fact, the harder the bottom, the higher the bounce. God let me be cut down for a little while, but I see a shoot coming from the stump. It had to be hard.
Mary had to wonder. The Bible says she pondered these things in her heart. What was happening inside of her wasn't obvious to the people around her, because it had to be hard, and it had to be hidden. When God really likes something, he hides it. We get sent a lot of delicious Christmas treats this time of year. Praise the Lord. When I like it okay, I put it out for the kids. When I really like it, I have some places around the house that I can put stuff where Graham can't find it, where the Devil can't find it. I have some secret compartments for certain carbohydrates Holly doesn't even know that I have. I'm not stashing anything illegal, baby, but sometimes peanut butter... Some stuff is too good for me to just leave out. Don't you find it the least bit intriguing?
I just love the Bible. Here's Isaiah, 700 years out from the birth of Christ. We have what Isaiah was hoping for. I wonder. Do we take it for granted because we have it? Paul said it's harder to hope the more you have. When you have it, you lose your ability to hope, because you start to hope in what you have and forget how to hope when you don't have it. Hope for reconciliation when it's not going well, hope for provision when you're down to nothing. God is up to something, and Isaiah said you can see it in the roots. The roots are the part of the tree you can't see, but that's where the action is. As long as that tree stays rooted, it has the promise of new beginnings.
Isaiah said, "God is doing a hidden work in your life". Shh, he's up to something. Christmas came in a whisper. Jesus spent the first couple of years of his life hiding from Herod, because when God brings a promise into the earth it alerts the Enemy. Maybe you've been in a season of hiding. Maybe God is trying to show you the nature of true hope. Not the kind that floats, but the kind that gets down deep enough in your heart where people can't get it. Some of you keep giving your hope away easily. You haven't learned how to hide it. You're not rooted yet. You have hope when good things happen, but how is your hope when God seems silent? How is your hope when there's no fruit on the tree? How is your hope? It's in those seasons.
Elijah said, "It depends. Do you mean the teacher who taught me the most or the teacher I had the most fun with"? Some of God's greatest work in my life was when I couldn't feel him. That's where he built my faith: when I couldn't feel him. He had to hide my faith beneath my feelings. That's where hope lies: beneath the surface. That's where hope lies: when you get a bad report from the doctor, but somehow, someway you still have hope. Not just hope when you're healthy, not just hope when it's a clean bill, not just hope when there is a bonus; hope when you don't know how you're going to make it through. My hope doesn't have to know how; I know who. I don't know how, but I know who. I don't know when, but I know who. I don't even know what, but I know who. I have a hope! It's an anchor for my soul.
What does an anchor do? It goes all the way down to the bottom. From a stump, a shoot is coming forth. Think about it. The stump of Jesse. That was David's father. That represented the kingdom of Israel. When that kingdom was cut down, God chose Isaiah's word to say, "There's a shoot coming forth from the stump". God said this Christmas some of you have been going through things, and you thought God was gone. He's not gone. He is preparing you for growth, and he is rooting your hope in a deeper place. I used to think disappointment was the enemy of hope. I don't think so anymore. I think disappointment is the doorway to deeper hope. You have to learn it the hard way. You have to put your hope in a person and find out that people can't hold your hope. They're not meant to.
You have to put your hope in your bank balance to realize your bank account can't hold your hope. God help you if you're looking to a governmental agency to hold your hope right now. Maybe God even allows nations, sometimes, to get down to a stump so a shoot can come forth. The Lord said there would be somebody here today who has allowed their hope to be in things and people and success and status and "one day when" and "if I ever". He brought you here, and there's a shoot coming forth from the stump. This little Christmas message is just the thing. You came just for Grandma, you came just to check it off, but God had something different, something deeper, something lasting in mind. God wants to give you hope, but, my brother, my sister, you have to take hold of it.
Hope is here, but it is not yours until you take hold of it. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," and from its roots a branch will bring forth fruit. You cannot have the fruit of fulfillment without the branch of Jesus Christ. That's why he was born. He is the Branch. You don't have to leave this place disconnected from God. You don't have to leave this place disconnected from hope. You don't have to leave this place down to nothing. A shoot is coming forth from the stump, and hope is being born as the Word of God goes forth. This is your day. "Today is born to you in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord". He is the Branch. This is the hope. Now is the time. This is the hope, he is the Branch, and now is the time. This day.