And so today I want to continue in this third installment. I want us to look at the book of Exodus chapter number seven, beginning at verse number 14. I'm going to read a couple of verses. The scripture will be on the screen for your reading. It says this. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh's heart is unyielding and he refuses to let the people go. go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river

confront him on the bank of the nile and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake

then say to him the lord the god of the hebrews has sent me to say to you let my people go

so that they may worship me in the wilderness.

This is church anniversary and there's a message on my heart that I believe will hopefully

bring some clarity to the seasons some of us are in personally, but also bring some clarity to the assignment that is on our

church, our spiritual family, corporately. So here's the topic of today's teaching. I want to talk

from this subject. I'm being stretched. I said I'm being stretched. Clap your hands if you're receiving the word of God already.

I'm being stretched.

Family, I recently came across a quote that is simple yet very significant,

and I'd like to lift it up for our learning today.

For my note takers, the quote is as follows.

Growth and comfort cannot coexist. I'm going to say it again and see if I can get a better

amen than that. Growth and comfort cannot coexist.

In other words, if I want to experience radical development, I must be willing to undergo radical discomfort.

As a matter of fact, the seasons where we experience the most discomfort are often the

seasons that we're experiencing the most development. God often orchestrates and allows

these seasons of discomfort to initiate something called spiritual stretching.

It is when God exposes the irrelevance of past and present spiritual practices and initiates the process of pulling us from where we were spiritually

to where we need to be spiritually.

And if we don't understand this stretching, we will ultimately end up mislabeling and mismanaging

these seasons, calling them stress, sadness,

...