Elevation with Steven Furtick - It's Mine To Manage

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

It’s God’s miracle, but it’s ours to manage.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. I want to share with you from a scripture that really demonstrates something that I think is difficult to do in our lives, but it will be so helpful to us. We're in a season called Game Changer. It's our year-in series. We're taking a moment to pause, reflect, and respond to God's goodness in our lives. And so from the scriptural foundation today, I want to help you see something that I think will help you to carry forward with you into the next season of your life, momentum for what God has already done is something

significant, and what he wants to do is even greater. And I believe that. I believe that with all of my heart for myself. and my family and for you and your family and for our church. And so with that spirit of faith today, let's go to the Word of God. Joshua chapter 4 verses 1 through 9. And as I read this story to you over the next few moments, I want you pay attention to the details of it, okay?

Because on the surface, this story is really very simple. The people of Israel are crossing into the promised land. They haven't fought any battles yet, but it's already theirs. because God has promised to give it to them. So they're coming to realize what God has already revealed. And he showed it to them for many generations, but now they're coming into that moment where they're having to actually believe

that what God spoke in their lives and what God spoke that they haven't seen come to pass yet is about to happen. And so I think this is an appropriate scripture for where we are as a church and maybe for where you are as well. And I pray that God will help me deliver it today. Are you excited?

I'll be honest. It's not very convincing, but I am. I'm excited enough for all of us, so we'll do it anyway. Joshua chapter 4, verse 1. When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, choose 12 men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priest are standing,

and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight. So Joshua called the 2nd, Twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, go up before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, what do these stones mean? Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was coming.

cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off, these stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. So, Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the camp where they put. them down. Joshua set up the 12 stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot

where the priest who had carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day. Would you look at the person next to you and give them my sermon title, tell them, it's mine to manage. Look at your other neighbor. I know they were your second choice, but they're important to the Lord as well and tell them it's mine to manage. It's mine to manage. How many of you You have children? How many of you have children who have a phone or an electronic device with a data plan? It's a big debate around my house.

When will our children be old enough to be entrusted with data? Real first world problems, I get it. But parenting is challenging. It's a great privilege, but I find it to be challenging, and I find it to be exhilarating, and I find it to be exhausting. And one woman wrote me on YouTube and said, I think you had kids too soon. You're always complaining about them. And I prayed for her in tongues.

But the more of a privilege you see something to be, the more of a responsibility you feel toward it. So complaining isn't always a sign that you don't care. You're not grateful. You need to have an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude is not an attitude. Gratitude is an action. And then the action of being grateful leads to a feeling of gratitude.

But God would not command you to be grateful if you. gratitude was a feeling because you can't command a feeling. It doesn't work that way. God instead instructs you to praise him. One psalma said it this way. He said, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice And be glad in it Oh, this is the day This is the day That the Lord has made

Hey, this is the day This is the day That the Lord has made Now who made it? Who made it? Now, I will rejoice I will rejoice And be glad it So God made it, but I get to manage it.

Touch somebody to say, it's mine to manage. And what I do with this day is up to me. So when I gave my oldest kid his phone, I said, I wrapped it. It was his birthday, and I wrapped it. And I said, this phone has data. And this phone is yours not really. For your birthday, I am giving you my phone to use. Which means that this phone, the content.

thereof and the communications that shall be initiated thereby are under my jurisdiction. One good parent clapped when I said that. And I dare you to put a passcode on that phone that I don't know. I dare you to put a passcode on that phone. You change your passcode and I will change your destiny. But it was a principle in the modern age of stewardship that is really the same principle you know that God has been trying to teach us all along, that it's his to give and it's ours to manage. And the moment you begin to understand that about your life, your money, y'all don't like this sermon already?

This is the motivational part. It takes some of the pressure off to realize that it's his to give, it's mine to manage. Say it out loud. It's his to give. It's his to give. Mind to manage. So I didn't make the day, but I will rejoice in it. So he gave me the day, and now it's mine to manage. That's a really powerful distinction to know that there are certain things that God has given you under your jurisdiction. One of those things is your joy.

I will rejoice and be glad in it. And so this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it, regardless of it. if the traffic is congested. I don't manage the traffic, but I am... I like it this way. My joy is my job. No matter what happens when I get to my job,

no one can steal my joy because my joy is not under anyone else's jurisdiction. See what I'm saying? It's mine to manage. And one time I made the mistake of saying that somebody stole my joy. And the Spirit of the Lord really corrected me on that. Like, they stole your joy? Your joy is not their job. And if they stole it, you should have done a better job locking the door so they couldn't get to it.

You need a better security system. If someone else can steal your joy, then you've got your joy hiding out there in the open where anybody can see it and snatch it. And so this principle emerges in the book of Joshua. Can I tell you a little bit about this historic incident? I'm so thankful for the gift of your attention today. I find it a great privilege that you would lean in to the Word of God and allow these words to be spoken. I think it's amazing.

I want to make it worth your while. I want to tell you a little bit about this passage of Scripture. It's really amazing what God is doing for his people here because the nation of Israel is under new management. under new management. And this promise that God began making generations ago is now about to come to pass. This land that they are going to possess is going to become theirs, but it's really gods, but it's theirs. It's theirs to possess, but it's gods to give.

So it's gods and it's theirs. And Joshua is the person God is using to bring it to pass. Now, Moses was the leader that brought the people out of it. Egypt where they spent several centuries enslaved to the systems of that nation. And now they're no longer just wandering around in the wilderness like they did under Moses for over 40 years, but they're coming into their own land. They're coming into their own spacious place. They're coming into their own homes.

And they're coming into their own community that God has been in the process of forming. But it's going to require a different mindset. Because up until this point in their life, they have existed on the miracles that God provided. Like God gave them mana when they were in the wilderness because they didn't have quail like they had in Egypt that their masters would give them to feed them. But now they're coming into their own. And the manna that used to fall from the sky, it was miraculous how it came down. They would just walk out their front door. And there would be Amazon Prime on the doorstep.

The drone would drop it off and they would have enough for the day. But the thing that's about to happen to them in just a moment is that they're going to cross over into this land where the manna is going to stop coming and they are going to have to learn to manage in a different way. So they're going to have to mature in their mindset. And I guess one way that you could say it is they're having to learn how to manage their miracle. And this is something you don't hear taught enough in settings like these because we often tell you to expect a miracle and to believe for a miracle and to receive for a miracle. But how many know that you are responsible to manage your miracles? I'll prove it to you from the text because you're acting kind of suspicious and I don't blame you. It sounds weird.

Because a miracle is something that God does. It's something that God gives. But the cooperation between heaven and humanity has always been this. It's God's to give, but it's mine to manage. It's my father's to give, but it's mine to manage. And so God is bringing his people through the Jordan River. How many of you have something God has brought you through this year? Did God bring you through it?

I'm going to give you 12 seconds to praise him for something that he brought you through. We all have a Jordan that we came through. And the interesting thing about the Jordan River is it's mentioned a lot in Scripture, but not because it's a big body of water. It's only like 15 yards wide at its widest points. And it's not the deepest body of water. That's not what makes it significant. What it symbolizes gives its biblical significance in that the people of God

saw the Jordan River as representing transitions and new beginnings. You see it a lot in the prophetic record, like Elijah got Elijah's mantle in the Old Testament, and he crossed the Jordan River. It's not a big river, but it's symbolic, it's significant, not because of its size, not because of its scope physically, and not because of its geographical implications, but because of what God did there. Now they're standing at this place. this body of water and God does something amazing. He does it in a very particular way. He tells the priests to stand in the middle of the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant.

That's where they kept the Ten Commandments. It represented the presence of God. And when the priest put their foot in the water, the water stopped flowing to provide passageway for the people to cross through. cross through. God did not carry his people across the Jordan. He enabled his people to cross over. This is how a lot of us live our lives, waiting for God to carry us over something when he is waiting for us to cross. You see me, deaf leopard? It's true. My kids, one time when they were real little, we were at a public restroom and they were washing their hands and they had their hands out like this and nothing was happening. Because I realized they were used to the faucet being automatic and it wasn't an automatic faucet.

And I watched and I stood back to see how long they would stand there with their hands under the faucet waiting for something to happen without turning the faucet on. And finally, in compassion, I told my oldest child, I said, this is not an automatic faucet. I know that you're used to the water. just coming on like this. See, when you've had manna falling out of the sky for so many years, you're used to just something falling down out of the, just because you put your hand there, but it's going to require an action. It's going to require, so the water didn't stop flowing until the people start walking. And when they start walking, the water stopped flowing.

And the people passed through and the priest stood in the middle of the Jordan, which must have taken faith for them to stand in the middle of the Jordan, not knowing if it was going to continue to pile up in a heap or if it was going to flood over them, but the leaders had the faith to stand in the middle of the Jordan. Isn't that significant that it said it was in the middle of the Jordan? Isn't that the hardest thing in life to do is to manage the middle? Because I understand that God has made me promises and that he knows the end from the beginning, but I don't. I don't know the end. the beginning, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you

and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Well, I'm glad that God knows the plans he have for me, but I don't know the plans he has for me. And so the challenge isn't believing that he knows how this is going to end. My challenge is standing in the middle and believing that what he spoke is indeed secure. It's different when you're in the middle. It's a lot different. It was weird a few weeks ago.

They had a baptism testimony on the screens, and I love the baptism stories. Do you love those stories that they tell? If it was your child, you might love it. You know what I'm saying? If it was somebody that you knew and loved. I try to always picture if that was my brother, or if that was my sister. And when I hear somebody share a testimony, I always listen for the details. And one thing that I noticed that they normally share in their story, they'll share a sermon

where God spoke to them. And a few weeks ago, the young lady sharing the sermon that she shared, shared a sermon that I remember preaching and thinking that it was the worst sermon that I ever preached. Because it's different when you're doing it. Now, it was a year later, and she was talking about that sermon, and in her story, she referenced that sermon as a turning point in her relationship with God. And here's what I remember. I remember how I felt while I was doing it. And I realized that even though I felt nothing while I was preaching it, she was sitting somewhere in that room, maybe not even

in the room where I was preaching it. And she was having a completely different experience hearing it than I was preaching it. But it's different when you're in the middle of it. Huh? It's different when you're raising your kids believing that they're receiving the values that you're trying to impart to them. Because when you are teaching your kids' responsibility, they do not thank you and recognize you for being a voice of wisdom and an encouraging force of good in their lives.

It's different when you're in the middle of it. And see, the reason that we can sometimes look at the biblical miracles and experience them and celebrate them is because we know how they end, but it's different when you're in the middle of it. It's different when you're in the middle of it, when you're having to stand in the middle of something and say, no, God, I know that you're faithful and I know that you're good, but I don't feel that you're faithful and I don't feel that you're good right now. That's called a sacrifice of praise. That's where you have to dig somewhere deeper than your feelings or your knowledge or your certainty or your circumstance or your bank account. God, show me how to manage the middle.

I have a hard time with that. I don't have a hard time. being excited about the beginning. And I don't have a hard time celebrating the end, but this middle. Teach me how to manage the middle. Ooh, ooh, one of my best friends pastors a big church, and they had three years where they didn't grow. In fact, they went backward. I said, what was the problem in those three years when you didn't grow?

He said, middle management. We got so large, the organization got so big. that there was a layer of people in the middle who started to block the values that were a part of the organization in the early days. And it was middle management. It wasn't the people that were executing the job. It wasn't the vision had changed. It was what happened in the middle that almost cost us the momentum of what God was doing. I wonder, is that how it happens in our lives?

I wonder if sometimes the reason that joy stops flowing, the reason that faith stops growing, the reason that sometimes we lose our sense of perspective about who God is, is not the end, it's not the beginning. It's middle management. We don't know how to manage the middle. We don't know how to deal with Monday. So we shout good on Sunday. But I need a sermon, I need an MMA sermon. I need some Monday morning application. I need something to help me manage this middle because I'm not fighting the devil on Sunday morning. I'm fighting him on Tuesday at 337. So the key to this, Joshua says, take 12 stones, 12 stones, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, 12 months, 12 stones, 12 tribes, 12 disciples. Everybody say 12?

Take 12, pile them up. And in the future, when your children ask you, what's up with these stones? Or like my kids ask me, what's up with these cassette tapes? I still got some. When your children ask you, tell them what the Lord did. Tell them. Tell them. Tell them.

Show them the stones. and tell them, we didn't know if we were going to make it through. But God did something only he could do, and we made it. Somebody shot, I made it. Tell the person next to you, you have no idea what I've been through. Look at them right in the eye and say, and God brought me over. And look at them one more time and say, how about you? Ask them, have you been through anything?

Imagine this. Imagine this. They come through the Jordan. Let's play the story out for a moment. They come through the Jordan. God brings them through. They set up the stones. God does a great miracle.

They go on to fight battles. But they set up the stones to remember what God did in that moment. It's very beautiful. And then they go forward into the land. And they fight many battles, and God gives them many victories. But every once in a while, maybe they come back with their kids and they show them the stones. because they left the stones in Gilgau, and then they moved on to conquer Canaan. And you know how it is when somebody is reflecting on something and they get nostalgic.

Maybe the parents start telling the children. We didn't know if we were going to make it. Joshua was our new leader, and we had never been this way before. And he told us that if the priest would stand in the middle, the waters would stand at attention until the people passed through. So we hurried through as fast as we could. We ran through. The Bible says in Joshua 4, verse 21, they hurried through. They didn't have a whole lot of faith, just enough to get through it.

They weren't dancing through the middle. They were running through the middle. Let me tell you something. When you got the devil chasing you, sometimes all you can do is get through it. You don't look flashy. You're not shooting. You're not flossing. You're not doing nothing but running for your life.

So they got through it. But they said, God got us through it. It was amazing. Amazing because we didn't know. It was amazing. And the ark was there and it represented the presence of God. Oh, I wish you could have been there, son. It was just so amazing.

And we didn't know if we were going to be able to do it. But we did. God did it. It wasn't us. God did it. Okay. And they say that. And then so maybe a few years go by. Maybe they go back to the place again and they look at the stones, but maybe the stones are, they're still there.

They haven't gone anywhere, but the story starts to get lost a little bit. And maybe a few years later, they're telling their children, they're like, oh, yeah, it's pretty cool. I mean, we got through it. I mean, God did it, but we were the ones who had to walk because, you know, like God didn't carry us through. But we got through it. And then a few more years passed and maybe they're telling their kids again, making another trip and they're telling them, yeah, those stones, they're cool. Joshua made us get them out the middle of the Jordan. It was weird.

We were ready to move on, but Joshua. Let me tell you how I know that the story stopped being told. Because when you get to the end of Joshua's life, you read in Judges chapter 2, verse 10. Just this verse, just this verse I want to show you. And I want you to think about the space between when Joshua, led the people through the Jordan, and when the next generation arose. He says that after that whole generation, Joshua's generation, had been gathered to their ancestors. Another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

Joshua's generation set up the stones. The next generation didn't even know the story. What happened? Somewhere along the way between Joshua chapter 4 and Judges chapter 2, they stopped telling the story. Something changed about the story. Somewhere in that space, and God, if I'm just preaching this for one person, help me to do it now because they have been telling themselves the wrong story. And now their faith is feeling feeble, and now their worship has been weakened. They are in a cycle of dependence on false gods because they stopped telling the story.

The story of salvation is this. I was lost and dead in my sin. I had no hope in myself. I could not save myself. I could not help myself. I could not lift myself. I would not have made it if he had not reached down and with a mighty hand, he could not and an outstretched arm, he died for me.

He came into my life. He intersected me at the point of my sin. And while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Why are you screaming? Because I've got a story that didn't start with me. It started with the mercy of God. And the enemy doesn't want you to tell this story. See, he wants you to lose your testimony.

They kept the stones. The stones are still there to this. stay, but they stop telling the story. You know, you can have all of the monuments of religion, but lose your relationship with God. You can have all the stones in the world. You can come to church. You can still live a life that's between the lines. But if the truth, we're told today, some of us have Stop telling the story. We've lost our testimony. You have a testimony. There are things that God has done for you that only he could do, and nobody else can tell it for you, and nobody else can tell it like you. It can happen. It can happen in your own heart. It can happen in a generation. It can happen within a lifetime. It can happen within three years. You can actually have God do something amazing for you and have the stones. to prove it. Some of you are sitting next to the woman that you ask God to give you. But now you want out of your marriage. The problem is in your marriage, it's your management. I'll go back

here because I'm scared to say this stuff. We need to manage our miracles. God has been good to us. God has been more than enough. He is a provider. He is Jehovah Jira. He did bring you through. He did bless you. He did make a way. He is more than enough. He is El Shaddai. He is a great king. He is a good father. Does somebody say, manage your miracle?

It's God's to give, but it's yours to manage. I told Elijah, if you crack the screen, I'm not replacing it. It's yours to manage. If you crack the screen or if you... Here's what happens to me. Let me tell you something. Sit down. Let's talk.

I sometimes, I stopped telling myself the testimony because to me, sometimes it seems small. You know, something happened between when they crossed the Jordan. I don't know exactly what it is. I think there's evidence to support this hypothesis. They fought a lot of battles between Joshua before and judges too. And I wonder if the battles became big. in their minds than the blessings. And I wonder if they started telling themselves the stories that centered around their struggles

rather than God's sovereign hand that saw them through the struggles. I wonder if they got in survival mode to the point that they stopped telling the story. And I wonder if when they saw God do all these other things. I wonder if they just didn't go back to the stones. They were placed on the bank of the Jordan, back where they started. And sometimes when you don't go back where you started and remember what God did where you started, you lose perspective when you get where you're going. Oh, man, I feel so guilty preaching this point.

It's so easy for me to get caught up and consumed in my own convenience, my own drama, my own insecurities, my own dysfunction. And a lot of times, I'll be honest with you, I don't share what God is doing in my life because it doesn't seem big. Because I can compare it to something else, and it seems small. It seems small like these stones. You know, at one point in your life, you're really grateful for it, but then at some point it can lose its significance. I was asking somebody the other day if I could hear their testimony. And it's a church word, right?

Testimony. People don't really talk like that except in courts and church. You know what I mean? Like it's just a real churchy thing to say. And they were like, well, when I was 12, and they were 53. I was like, not that testimony. You can't fight today's devils if you don't have today's testimony. There needs to be a current work that God is doing in your life. Yes, he saved me and I want to talk about that.

But what is he doing in my life today? generation that knew not the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. This is your testimony. You know, testimony, it doesn't have to be a big rock. You can fight the devil with a little rock. Ask David. You can fight a big giant with a little rock if you know how to throw it. I said you can fight depression with a little rock if you know how to throw it.

You can fight discouragement with a little tiny testimony. have a big testimony. I've pretty much all my life. I've been serving the Lord. I never was on drugs and women and running around. I pretty much grew up in. Come on, man. You don't have to have a meth lab in your garage to have a testimony. You don't have to be fresh off death row to have a testimony. You don't have to have 14 children by 14 women to have a testimony. A testimony, it can be the smallest thing. Like a few weeks ago, I was getting ready to come out and preach. And I want to tell you this, because Joshua said, tell them, tell them what God did for

you. Tell them. Tell them about it. Preach it, teach it. You overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. There is power in your personal testimony. So a few weeks ago, I was getting ready to preach. I didn't feel like preaching.

I love the Lord, I believe His Word, and I believe he's coming again. I just didn't feel like preaching on that Saturday night. The weather was nasty, I didn't feel like preaching. So I was having a little pity party. I hate to tell you this. But I was being so childish. But then I had this moment, I was like, FaceTime one of your friends and get them to pray for you because the service was about to start.

So the staff was out doing staff stuff, so they couldn't come pray for me. So I was going to face down one of my friends who didn't have a Saturday night service, and he didn't answer. Apparently, Judith Smith had better things to do than pray for his friend. Pray that the Carolina Panthers will wreak havoc upon the Seattle Seahawks today to punish him for not being there in my time of FaceTime need. You don't want to FaceTime Ferdic? I hope you go down today, royally.

Then I call Craig Groshell. That's my pastor. That's my guy. And he didn't answer. And he always answers. He didn't answer. And I was running out of time because I needed to get out there and preach. So I said this little pitiful prayer. You know, not the kind I pray in front of people. I was like, oh, Lord, since nobody wants to pray for me, I'm always praying for everybody else.

I'll go out. Preach, I pray for myself. And I start praying, you know, this real mumbly, grum. grumpy, grumpy prayer, a little bad attitude prayer, a little like kids going to make up the bed, fine, that kind of prayer. Have you ever had that level of faith where it's like, fine, faith, fine God, I'll pray for myself. So I start praying, Father in the name of Jesus.

Out loud I say that. When I said Father in the name of Jesus, the moment I got it out in my mouth, Father in name of Jesus, my phone rang. My phone hardly ever rings. My phone, I mostly communicate by text. I don't do a lot talking on the phone. And my phone rings, and it hardly ever rings. It never rings at that time of day.

And it said, no caller ID. But I'm not making this up. I said, I should answer this. I said, hello? This deep voice comes on the phone. What are you doing? The voice of none other, it could only be Bishop T.D. Jakes. That's like my favorite preacher since I'm like this big.

Since I started wanting to be a preacher, this was my favorite preacher. Here he is calling me. What are you doing? And I was like, hey, Mr. Jake's. I was just going out to preach from Saturday night service. He said, oh, well, since this is a bad time, let me just pray for you before you go out there and preach real quick. in the name of Jesus, by knowing him with your spirit and filling with your wisdom, giving words to say from heaven.

I'm telling you, I'm not waiting until something. To me, I need to fight the devil sometimes with a phone call. There are little things that God has done for me. Moments where I called his name and there was nobody there to answer. And then all of a sudden something from heaven with no caller ID. And God reached out and God dried my tears and God strengthened me and God upheld me with a mighty hand in an outstretched arm. You need to tell these stories. You need to tell these stories. Stop telling yourself the story that nobody cares about you and that you're alone and that it doesn't matter. Another generation who didn't know what the Lord had done for Israel because they stopped telling the story.

And when you stop preaching the gospel to yourself and reminding yourself that the Son of God accepted and chose you and brought you out of Egypt and brought you out of sin and brought you through the Red Sea and brought you through the Jordan and brought down the Jericho walls and brought you out of bondage and brought you out of fear. Please hear me. When you stop telling that story, you lose your strength. The children of Israel went through 15 cycles of disobedience to God. And not only did they go through 15 cycles of disobedience to God through 15 different judges, but they went through 420 years of dependence on gods that could not save them because they stopped. What story have you been telling yourself? What story have you been telling your children? What story? You know what I was thinking? What story is our church telling in this day because, you know,

God has done amazing things for us? But sometimes it really rips my heart out when I see a campus pastor giving an invitation in our church. And people get up and start leaving so they can beat traffic out the parking lot while somebody's soul is on the line. That really hurts my heart because when we started the church, we weren't starting the church to have a Christian entertainment center where we could give people a little anecdote and a little song and a little goose bump and they could get to lunch. Is that the story we're telling? That we gather together when it's convenient and we consume spiritual food, but we never contribute. This is why I think it's important that we have traditions like our year-end offering because God is inviting a new generation to tell the story. And it's so vital in this moment that you realize that the gospel is God's story,

but it's ours to manage. We are stewards of the story that God is telling in the world today. What a privilege it is. Come on, can we praise him for the privilege? Do you know the hymn? This is my story. This is my song. Praising my stay for the day long.

This is my story. This is my song. Stand to your feet. I want to pray with you now. Just give me a path. You're in the middle of a story right now that God is telling through your life. You're in the middle of it. The priests stood in the middle.

The stones came from the middle. Everything good that God does in our life comes from our ability to recognize it in the middle. And sometimes what happens, I know you feel like you've come to the end. You feel like, um, is it? for you, you feel like you get to the end of something, you get to the end of your own strength, you get to the end, and sometimes the season shifts in your life, and something is always ending as something else's beginning. The Jordan is both. It's their exodus from the wilderness, and it's their entrance into Canaan. It's happening all at the same time, right? And so,

you think you're at the end of something. Your ability to manage that emotion in the middle of it determines what happens next in your life. Remember this. Moses died on Mount Nebo looking at the promised land. Joshua led the people into the land that God had promised Moses. The difference wasn't what God had promised. God promised Moses and Joshua the same result. The difference wasn't the promise. The difference was how they managed the miracle. in the middle of it. God gave Moses a miracle. He parted the Red Sea, but Moses stayed stuck in what other people said. Moses managed according to his fear, not his faith. God gave Joshua the same promise, and Joshua said even in spite of our fear, even in spite of our failures,

even in spite of the fact that there are more out there than there are in here, we're going forward in the name of the Lord with his presence as our banner. And we are standing in the middle, and we will stand in the middle until everything that God has spoken comes to pass. I wonder is there anybody who's willing to get in the middle of it and take your stand and declare, I will see the goodness of the Lord in my generation, in my life. That's what I want to pray for you about. And if you lift your hands right now, I'll do it. Because the Lord is in this moment.

The Lord is very present, even in your pain. And I believe that God is even present in some of the mistakes that you've made. Lord, right now, would you visit the heart of each of your sons and daughters with a reminder? Maybe like those 12 rocks that the people piled up, give us a rock of remembrance today that we can build on the firm foundation of your faithfulness. The victory is yours to give. But it's mine. God remind me of the responsibility that you have given me and teach me to lean on your grace as I do.

Give me the faith to stay standing in the middle with the waters all around me and to worship you in this moment. With our heads bowed and our eyes close and wonder, is there somebody here today who needs to receive the grace of God for the salvation? of your soul, the forgiveness of your sin. I wonder is there someone here today who needs to begin a relationship with God, or maybe you want to reconnect in that relationship with God. You've been feeling for a long time like you're far from him, but it's not true. He's near. And if you call on his name, he is in this moment, and he longs to come and live inside of you.

He longs to allow you to follow you to follow. Him even when you don't know what's next. It's very simple what the Bible says about salvation. It is by grace that you are saved through faith. It's the gift of God. It's not of works so that no one can boast. That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, God raised him from the dead, you will be saved as the promise of God.

require good works, you can't stack enough stones to climb your way to heaven. It doesn't work like that. God's not watching your behavior to see whether or not he'll relate to you. He's already done through the person of his son Jesus, all that needs to be done for you to have a right relationship with him. Right now in this moment, I want to pray with you at every location. We're going to pray out loud as a church family for the benefit of those who are coming to God or coming back to God, but we'll all pray out loud together. Repeat after me. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And today, I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe He died to forgive my sin and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. This is my life. new beginning. On the count of three, if you just prayed that prayer, shoot your hand up. I want to celebrate with you. One, two, three. Come on, as a testimony, shoot your hand up. That's a lot of hands. That's a lot of hands. Let's praise God for it. Come on, let's praise God for it. I said, let's praise God for it. Today is the day of salvation.

Let's praise God for it. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button. Take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.