Toure Roberts - It's Hard to Be You

This phrase arose in my spirit, and that phrase was, «It’s hard to be you.» I said, «It’s hard to be you,» and there was something in that moment that gave me the strength to watch this become the person that breaks through and doesn’t break down. Are you hearing what I’m saying? I love this church. What I came to tell you is that it’s hard to be you; in other words, hard is actually normal for you. I’ve got to say this: the you that you are becoming requires hard, because the lesser you will stay put, and easy—can I just take my time? I’m just going to take my time before I’m out of here. In other words, in order to be you, it must be hard because the real you is beyond the perceived you. The real you is more than the perceived you. I’ll give you an example: God tells Jeremiah, one of my favorite passages, in Jeremiah chapter 1. Read verses 4 all the way through Revelation; Jeremiah 1—read the whole thing. You’ll find it. God says to Jeremiah, «Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and I ordained you to be a prophet to the nations.» Jeremiah responds, «Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no.» Jeremiah says, «First of all, behold, I am a child, and I cannot speak.» Now, he is arguing against the very identity that the one who created him assigned to him, which means that you have two identities: your present perceived identity and your actual identity. You get to your actual identity by navigating hard disciplines. Oh God, I’m trying! I’m trying! No, no, no—it changed my life. Bring my notes and stuff up here, just in case I want to reference them. It changed my life; it’s hard to be you. In other words, it’s going to cost to be you, Jesus, and there’s no way around it, because watch this: Romans 8—we’ve talked about it before—God says that all of creation is eagerly waiting for the revealing of the children of God. In other words, the Earth, the world, the universe won’t get what it needs until you become you. Are you hearing what I’m saying? You are a big deal! You are a big deal! But the reality of it is we will live in less if we don’t normalize hard. So, what happens is when things get hard, we believe that it is above us. It’s not above you; it’s because of you. In that moment, I’m at the gym, and that voice came and said, «Yeah, I know it’s hard, but it’s hard to be you.» And when I embraced—oh, oh God, I can’t wait to minister—when I embraced hard, I became a different person. Athletes know what I’m talking about. You get to this moment where it’s almost like you black out. Because if you allow your mind to convince you that this hard is bigger than you, you’ll quit. But if you lean into it, and you begin to suspend your thinking and allow your real capabilities to stand up in that moment, you will go further than you ever thought you could go. And this is what makes the trainer important, because the trainer is studying potential. A good trainer doesn’t let you tell them what you want to do; a good trainer studies you, studies your movement, studies your posture, takes notes on where you were last week and stretches you. They study your body; they do all sorts of tests and measurements, because what they’re trying to gauge is your potential. It’s not about who you think you are; it’s who they know you can be. And they push you by putting you in circumstances and situations that are beyond the you that you think you are, so that the you that you truly are can emerge. Now, why am I talking about this? Somebody came for the first time, and I say hi! First time, how you doing? God bless you, love you. And the person that brought you here is saying, «He is usually much more positive than this; I don’t know, you came on the wrong day.» No, no, there’s a reason why. I mean, what motivational speaker has a message called «It’s Hard Being You»? I ain’t a motivational speaker. The reason why, family, this message is important is because we’re moving into an era of endurance—an era of endurance. And watch this: do you know how endurance is produced? She sighed deeply for all of us. Endurance, watch this—you’re not born with endurance. Hey, watch this: endurance is not a spiritual gift! I can’t lay my hands on you and give you endurance! «Spirit of endurance, fall upon him!» I receive it! Oh, thank you, Jesus! It doesn’t work like that; that’s not what the Bible says. You know what gets you to endurance? Trials! I promise you, he’s much more positive! I’m telling you, I promise! No trials. Romans 5—study it when you get a chance. «Trials—many trials produce endurance.» And one of the things that I love about endurance is that it brings you to a place where low-level things don’t matter. There’s something very purifying about endurance; you go through enough stuff, and things all of a sudden do not matter. Everybody’s freaking out about it, and you’re just walking through it, because that’s who you’re called to be. There’s this passage of Scripture; study it when you get a chance. It’s Proverbs 24:10, and it says, «If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.» So right now, in this era…