Elevation with Steven Furtick - Reverse The Ripple

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

An event is not your identity. In “Reverse The Ripple,” Pastor Steven Furtick helps us go back to the source of what we’re going through so we can begin to write a new story for our lives. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ Scripture References:Joshua 4, verses 15-24Joshua 5, verse 1Numbers 13, verses 31-331 Peter 2, verse 7Ezekiel 11, verses 19-20John 8, verses 3-11 If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr  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 faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. We honor your presence, God. It's never an interruption to our plans to give you praise. Anytime we can make an altar. and worship you, our sacrifice. It brings us joy. Lord, I thank you for a palpable sense of faith and expectation rooted in the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ today. Feel it in my bones. I sense it in my brothers and sisters who have gathered, and I speak it over everyone who may not be able to feel it right now, that you are able to do immeasurably more. For every I can't,

We have a great I am, and today we celebrate that all things are possible through you. Now, God, we're not going to stop worshiping. We might stop singing, but this service is just getting started. I thank you that there is a powerful plowing word that has been planted in my spirit for this occasion. And I pray that today you would help me to deliver it just how you would say it. Through my mouth, through my vocal cords, but your words, your thoughts, your heart. In Jesus' name. Amen. Hug 17 people, would you?

Come a big hug. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Don't take your seat yet. After you gave out all the hugs, you can stand, clap your hands, and give God glory. And you through another day, another week, feels kind of fired up today. It's like we're getting a little pre-elevation nights anointed, Chris. Y'all's clothes are ridiculous today.

We're getting ready to head out to the West Coast, and we're going to tell some liberals out there about Jesus. I'm just kidding. We love the West Coast. Well, if you live in any of these cities, there are still some tickets available, not many. You want to act fast. We start on September the 24th, and we'll be out through October 3rd, and the following cities. go to elevation nights.com, Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, BC, Sacramento, California, Los Angeles, and Anaheim, Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City. Are you shouting for Boise? That's never happened. Indeed, the Lord can do anything. That's crazy. I said L.A. No shout. Seattle, no shout. I said Boise.

Okay. That's what it's going to be like when we get to Boise. And remind me to drink a Celsius before we get to Boise because they're fired up. And Salt Lake City, did I say that already? In Denver, Colorado, Elevationnights.com. And if you want to come to one, go and get a ticket and get a plane ticket and come on out. One day when the Lord really blesses me, I'm going to load y'all all up on a plane like Oprah did one time and take you with us. Until then, you'll just have to pray for us. And I also want to celebrate because it's not a small thing that over a thousand people were baptized in our church last week.

Incredible, man. If you knew the starting point of this ministry, you would know how much that means to me. That's amazing. That's amazing. And I think one of the reasons that the worship is so powerful today, I think the ladies left some residual anointing from the flag. One of our worship leaders said leading room in a leading, excuse me, leading worship in a room full of women is a cheat code. They're just much more expressive and that's crazy to me. But it's absolutely amazing.

Holly, God used you in a great way. Thank you for the Word. Thank you for your vision, for your leadership. All the moments that will continue to unfold because of the moment that you made possible through your faith. We celebrate you. And today, I'm going to do my best to get in the slipstream of what God spoke and preach a word to you today. I pray that you would lean in to receive it. Last week when I left you, I left you in the muddy puddles of the Jordan River.

Let's go back there for a moment from Joshua chapter 4. I'll be sharing with you today from Joshua 4, verses 15 through Joshua 5 and only one verse from Joshua 5, verse 1. Just take a moment to remember how much this meant to me when God showed it to me so I can preach it to you from that same place. The only reason I bring my notes up here, somebody said, why do you take all those notes up there? We don't see you look at them. And it's true, I get into it and I forget to look at the notes, but at least seeing it reminds me how excited I was writing it, and then I can come at it and remember when I was scribbling this, I was picturing us, sharing in the word together.

So what an honor to share God's word with you today. I'm so thankful for the opportunity. wherever you are, even if you're online today, the word is no less effective. So get ready to receive it. And made this word reach you right where you are. Joshua chapter 4, verse 15. Say, I'm ready. Then the Lord said to Joshua.

Watch my hands. Then the Lord said to Joshua. So picture this scripture visually as well as verbally. Then the Lord said to Joshua, verse 16, command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant law to come up out of the Jordan. So Joshua commanded the priests come up out of the Jordan. And the priests came up out of the river carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and ran at flood stage as before. On the 10th day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan.

The Lord said to Joshua, Joshua said to the priests, and then the people went up. So watch, I'm doing like this. Boom, boom, boom. The people went up from the Jordan. and camped at Gilgall on the eastern border of Jericho. On the eastern border of Jericho. What do you know about Jericho? Walls do fall.

Somebody say it. Walls do fall. But before the walls of Jericho can fall and before the Battle of Jericho can be won because this will be the first fight for the children of God to occupy the promised land, before their first fight, Joshua is setting the frame.

Verse 20. And Joshua set up at Gilgall the 12 stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites in the future, when your descendants ask their parents, we've gone from. The Lord said to Joshua, to Joshua said to the priest, to the priest did it for the people. For the people are doing something that will not even accomplish a purpose that may be seen in their own lives, but in a generation that is yet to come. In the future, when your descendants ask their parents, what do these stones mean? Tell them Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord, your God, dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over.

the Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this. That's the best thing I've read in a long time. Tell somebody he did this. So we were testifying last week. We were talking about rescue your testimony. Rescue your testimony from the clutches of depression. rescue your testimony from the clutches of despair, rescue your testimony from the regrets of your past, and testify to your neighbors say, he did this.

He did this. I'm standing here because he did this. Come on, let's have a testimony service real quick. How many know God did? Yes. Let's practice. Let's see if you rescued your testimony last week. I'm going to ask you a question and you say what you think.

Who opened your prison? and doors. God did? Then say it. Say God did. Who dried up your ocean floors? Think about that thing. Who saved you and set you free?

Who gave you victory? Right. Who gave you another day? Who made you another way? Who gave you the breath of praise? Who gave you a brand new name? Somebody shout. God.

Now, he did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God. The final verse I'm going to read and then I'll tell you what we're going to talk about today, but we're already talking because God is speaking. Now, when all the Canaanite, Amarite kings west of the Jordan and the The kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over. Their hearts melted in fear.

It's no longer just the people of God who know who God is. It's the enemies too. I see this. And they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. Today God wants to do something very special in your life. He wants to reverse the ripple. That's the word of the Lord. And Father, as we declare it today, we walk in it, we stand in it, we decree it, and we believe it.

Most of all, we thank you for it, because only you could do it. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. Reverse the ripple. You will know what that means in about 32 minutes. I do my job. because the Lord has some things that he wants to turn around in your life.

Yeah, man. Rescue our testimony, and God is going to reverse the ripple. I wish we could teach this on the lake. It would be a good illustration, right? How many of you like the lake? How many you got a boat? You could take me out on the lake. I'm going to hitch up.

How many of you have a boat? So, if we went out on the lake, I could demonstrate the ripple effect, right? You know what it is. It's when one thing happens and another thing happens and another thing happens and we use it metaphorically, but it would be good if we could be at the lake because we could get a rock and then we could drop the rock and we could watch the ripple. And then I could teach the lesson, I could say, and just like this rock hit the water. And we wouldn't even have to get in the water because I know it's getting kind of cold.

We could just do it from the shore. Right there in your boat, we could drop the rock, watch the ripple. And we could talk about how things in our life happen that cause a ripple, and sometimes it's not even until you're living in the ripple that you realize the rock was dropped. If we were at the lake, and maybe you could have me a bottle of Diet Coke, don't text me about Aspartame, I don't care. I've made peace with Aspartame. We would talk about the ripple effects of decisions that you and I have both made, words that we've spoken. Man, I could probably teach a whole leadership class just from a rock and a ripple. Many times as a leader,

I never saw myself as being that important, and I don't think I am important, I think God is important, but I think he uses people in important ways. And I think that when you speak for God, your words way more. Because many times I said things to people in passing as a leader and for God I said them, and they kept those things with them for three years. Good and bad. Good and bad. One lady I met one time, I'm not going to take a long time with this setup, but I want

us to get at the lake. Drop the rock, we see the ripple. A lady one time told me she kept a voicemail that I sent her when her husband died, He kept it for four years. Never met her. One time before you get too impressed with me, because I don't just ride around leaving voice memos praying for people all the time. My kids have told me things I said that I said because they were true, but the way I said it

is stuck with them in a way, that they weren't ready to hear it like that. With all three of my kids and with my wife, I can go back to times where I saw that. spoke something, not realizing the weight of the rock that I dropped and the ripple that it caused for the person that I spoke to. So now I've got to walk into situations and scenarios and take responsibility for my ripple. That's a whole word. Take responsibility for your ripple. The things you just say passing, oh, well, I'm just speaking my mind. Well, why don't you just speak your mind inside? Do a little internal monologue and scream in your people. And scream in your pillow, but make sure that you respect your calling enough to take responsibility for your ripple.

When the Lord said to Joshua, and Joshua said to the priest, and the priest led the people, and the people demonstrated God's faithfulness in a way that even impressed their enemies, we are watching the ripple effect of a revelation from God. The very fact that we are sitting here today preaching about an individual, incident that happened, an event that occurred this long ago proves my point, the power of a ripple. The ripple effect of your thoughts leading to your actions, leading to your habits, leading to your character, becoming concrete so that what you call destiny later was actually

a decision when the rock was dropped. And yet wouldn't it be nice if life were as simple spiritually as it is physically? if we were at the lake doing this lesson, we could look at the rock and we could predict within a few inches, how big the ripple would be. If we had a few minutes, we could drop a little rock, a big rock, a medium rock, and we could start saying, you know, this one's going to ripple. I'm just saying the bigger the rock was, the bigger the ripple would be physically. Spiritually, it's a little different.

You never can tell looking at the rock. How big the ripple is going to be. Not in the kingdom of God. So that Jesus walks around saying things like, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move a mountain. What kind of mustard seed moves a mountain? A supernatural one? One that has been watered by the Word of God.

One that has been cultivated by a heart of faith. What kind of lunch has the power to provide for the physical hunger of 5,000. You would think such a little lunch could maybe only feed a little boy. But when God gets it, the ripple becomes something that you would have never realized. Oh, I feel like preaching. Because a rock in the hands of a shepherd should not bring down a nine-foot giant. But you can't tell the size of the ripple from the size of this rock if it's in God's hands. So we came to remind the devil today that my rock might be little, but a little rock can make a big ripple if God gets a hold of it. Let's switch this thing around.

Let's stop looking at the size of our resource, the size of our strength, the size of our knowledge, the scope of our understanding to determine what God can do. Let's stop letting the waves of unbelief block us from the reality of the ocean of God's provision. Yeah. Yeah, let's reverse the ripple. And what I mean by that when I say reverse the ripple, well, I mean a few things. Let me break it down a little bit. The first thing that I mean by reverse the ripple is that instead of starting with what you see, start with what God has said. Life-changing. Life-changing, right there. Just if you would start with what God said. And many times, we like the Nation of Israel in Joshua, Chapter 4, come to places in our own lives where we need God to do something, and I apologize if I'm not preaching to you right now, that if he doesn't do it, so this is not like, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I. I apologize if I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I

I need God to help me wake up on time. You said an alarm clock for that. But this is something different. One of the things that I respect about the Bible is that it will repeat something over and over again because we learn through repetition. If you look at this Joshua chapter 4, there are several times that God tells Joshua take these stones out of the water, kind of like they're building an altar. Holly preached on, reflect about the altar.

Go on her YouTube and watch that message and wear your steel-toed boots because she was stepping on our toes. But she did it so sweetly. She did it in ballet flats. It was unbelievable. And the Lord is telling Joshua, like, before you get to your first fight, I want you to approach it from a place of thinking about your future. Now, this is marvelous.

Frame the fight that you're facing from a place of future faith. And that is often very hard, right, because we're just in the moment. And knowing in the moment, remember, it's like that rock and that ripple. Knowing in the moment what the ripple is going to be, it's not always predictable in the spirit, is it? Is it? You came to church because she was cute and asked you to come. messed around and got too close to the boat.

And Jesus hooked you and pulled you in, and now you're one of us. Boy, God is tricky with that ripple. God is tricky with that ripple. You didn't even know. I was just going to go so. I just going to get her to shut up. And now I'm bringing people. I don't know what happened.

Tell your neighbor, it's the ripple, it's the ripple, it's the ripple. It's the ripple. It's the ripple. God will drop something. God will just put you somewhere. God will drop you somewhere. You will think that you're there because. it's a new job. And then you meet Gene. And Gene is going through chemotherapy. And you went

through chemotherapy. So now you minister to Gene out of what you went through so that you can comfort him with the comfort by which you have been comforted. This is the ripple, the ripple, the ripple, the ripple. The ripple. And by the way, what if we did that more often? What if we started asking, God, what do you want to do not just for me, but through me? God, who can I touch? You touched me? Who can I help? You healed me? Who can I be a blessing to? You blessed me.

When are you going to hand somebody a $50 bill one time and set a waiting on one? When will you be the ripple? Now, this is not my message, so pace yourself. I'm just setting up this idea of reverse the ripple. Reverse the ripple. And I have learned in my life that if I do not consider, please listen to me. If I do not consider causes, I will spend my life chasing consequences. Consider the cause, or you will spend the rest of your life managing consequences.

Consider the cause. Or you can spend the rest of your life looking for tips on TikTok for how to be more peaceful. But after you have done everything TikTok told you to do, I mean, you can do everything TikTok told you to do. I mean, you can do everything. You can take your Walk barefoot on the grass Walk backwards barefoot on the grass Sipping a protein smoothie with collagen's in the smoothie

You can do all of that you can do red light blue light black light blue light Strobe light you can do all the lights on your face You can do all of it you can meditate you can pontificate You can blowbiate you can hyperventilate because you're are not getting peace until you consider the source. You get all the tips you want, but until you get the truth, you will not come through this Jordan. Here's what I'm trying to say.

You can't fix the ripple till you find the rock. I'm going to preach like this in Boise, too. Tell them get ready. You can't fix the ripple till you find the rock. And I think a lot of religion is ripple management. Behavior modification. Empty tradition. God, I promise I'll never do it again until 3.30, and it's 325 right now.

That's ripple management. That's white knuckling, not worship. Ripple management cannot bring you to a place of restoration. It can only bring you to a place of relief. Temporarily. So what are the areas in your life right now where you are trying to fix ripples, but you don't even know what rock was dropped that caused it to begin with? This is like quoting Bible verses on top of trauma that you won't deal with.

This is like switching friend groups every time they see what's really secret hidden in you and call it out and confront it. It's going to get quieter and quiet. It's going to be a reverse ripple today. Usually we start small and get big. We're going the other way today. We're reversing the ripple today. Until we get down to what is the thing that was dropped that caused you to do it.

What was dropped that caused me to do it? Why did I lose my temper? Because they're annoying. Really? Because the people at work were annoying, but you didn't go off on them because you knew you couldn't get away with it. You went off on them at home, not because they're annoying, but because you're not because you know they'll forgive you. And the real rock that made you do it was the fact that you don't take responsibility for it. And until we get real about this stuff, we will spend our entire lives

riding the waves of our ripples going, I'm so anxious. I'm so anxious. I'm so anxious. Well, cut your thumb off. Jesus said it'd be better to lose your whole hand than go to hell. So I'd rather fix it where the rock dropped than live the rest of my life frustrated by the Ripples of it. You say this is just an Old Testament story. Are you absolutely crazy out of your mind, ridiculous? Do you not understand that this is the entire threat of the New Testament? It is law versus grace.

It is us never really understanding. And I hope to come back to this in a moment if this sermon comes full circle. But speaking of full circle, there is a place called Gilgall in Joshua, chapter 4. If you've never heard of it, you can be forgiven, but the word Gilgau actually means circle. And isn't it interesting in a passage that demonstrates the power of the Lord spoke to Joshua? Joshua spoke to the priest, the priest spoke to the people. The people did what God told them, and it was a demonstration to the nations that didn't even know God. Isn't it interesting that circle after circle, after circle, after concentric circles, and let us not forget about the circle of the generation that isn't even old enough to ask the question.

yet that is being affected by their faith or lack thereof. Which brings us back to the Red Sea, which was the central motif of Israel's identity. Now, Rougamon says that it is the, I think his exact wording is the primal narrative, but I just, I like to simplify things. So core story, is that better? Primal narrative. I sound like you got to pay to hear about something like that and you didn't pay anything to get in here today.

So core story. when God brought them through the Red Sea was their core story. In fact, even when Joshua says, go get some rocks, tell your neighbor, get some rocks to tell your kids what God did. Why would he think like this? Surely you have more important things to do, namely, when they get to Gilgall, they got to cut off everybody's foreskin because none of these people have been circumcised yet. And I'm not going to illustrate how this whole text is circular, but this all has to happen at Gilgall. But before you get to Gilgall, listen to me good, before you get to Gilgall, before you go to Jericho, before you even get to the place of cutting away that's going to happen before you go in, get some rocks to tell your kids what God did. I like that.

Get some rocks to tell your kids what God did. You're going to tell them what God did, not what you did. Because all you did was walk. Y'all, we take too much credit sometimes. I see everybody of hustle and grind on Instagram, but I saw you also, I saw you hustle and grind, but I also saw you hide and grumble and groan and grieve. I saw all of that too. And the real testimony of it, from my life, is what God did.

When they showed that video, I want to thank our creative team for the video they showed earlier in the service of the ripple effect of this ministry. Thank you. That was excellent. That was well done. It wasn't bragging on us, but it was showing the people that all the way from Ballanty to Boise to Botswana. Any time the sermon didn't go on good today, I'd just say Boise.

All the way. But I'm going to show you something. This is going to blow your mind. I got teary on the front row. I said, keep it together. Save your emotion for when you get up there. Do not leak this thing out on the front row. And I'm like, but God, this is touching me right now.

And he said, stuff it down. And share it with them. So here's what it is because you said, and I said, Boise. And there was somebody on the video that said that they were from Botswana, and we're here at Ballanty. But it took me back. It took me back to just yesterday a story that I was telling my son on the second row, because

he asked me something about the early days of this church. And he asked me something about the phase when we were just moving here, and we only had our core team. And he asked me something about the way it is now and the way it was then, and going out to minister to people all over the world, and the reach and the ripple of the ministry. He didn't say ripple, but that's what we were talking about. And I was sitting there talking to him, and I said, I'm sorry I've got to compose myself for a minute because this conversation takes me back to how before I would come out to our team and tell them,

we're going to reach the world, we're going to touch the world, God's going to use us, God's going to do something. It's going to be amazing. It takes me back to how before I would go and boldly speak to them, I would sneak into the bathroom and I would lock myself in the stall and I would fight back my own reflex to walk out because how can I walk out and tell them this

when I'm wondering, did I mislead all of them? Can we really do this? Because I stood at a Jordan and I thought God spoke but sometimes you think it and don't feel it when it comes time to do it. But I locked that stone and I said, God, if it's going to happen, it's going to have to be you. And when I tell my kids one day from Valentine, what you did all the way to Boise, what you did all the way to box swatter, when I tell my children, what a faithful God you've been, truer words have never been spoken.

And my stones will tell my story. And my stones will tell my story. And my stones will tell my story. And my sleepless nights will give way to a new day. And my stones will tell my story. And we'll shout at Valentine. And we'll shout in Boise. And we'll shout in Botswana.

And we'll shout until you get the breakthrough. Yeah. We're going to turn this thing around right now. You keep talking how big these Amalekites are, how big these Canaanites are. We need to reverse this ripple. It doesn't start with the size of the Canaanites. It starts with the size of the God that you serve. Oh, oh, preachy, preachy, preachy, preachy, preachy, preachy, preachy, preachy.

I got a big God. I got a good God. I keep telling God how big it is. I want to tell it how big if you saw my God, you'll understand my shout. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

High five your neighbors. Say reverse it. Reverse it. Reverse it. Reverse it. Yeah. Because when you rehearse it, you reverse it. Y'all missed it.

You were high fiving. I said, when you rehearse it, you reverse it. When you tell them how. you locked yourself in the bathroom stall, you remember that there is no space too tight, no mountain too high, no need too great, no ravine too dry, for God to show up and do what God does. He did it at the Red Sea. He did it at the Jordan. He's doing it in you right now.

It will be by faith. Who did God set me on fire for today that you need to reverse the rip of it. Because every time you think about the court case, you go into panic attacks. Think about the judge and give it over to him, and you're going to be all right, baby boy. Every time you think about it, it sends a ripple. It sends you into fear. It sends you into self-loathing. It sends you into hiding.

It sends you back to drugs. It sends you back to sex you shouldn't be having with people who are the ripple of a decision that you made that you never would have made had you been in your right place and the right mind. We've got to find the rock or we can't fix the ripple and see why I think Joshua was so intentional. Everybody say intentional in this moment and why God is so intentional with you and why he is revealing things even now for you. It's because for 40 years the story was told. Watch this. We went through the Red Sea. We clap when we talk about that. They cried. Because after they got through the Red Sea, they stopped.

I'd like to show you why. Well, sit down. Let me show you why. When Numbers chapter 13 gets to verse 31, it's kind of a battle of opinions. Kind of like you got going on in the world right now. Everybody's shouting about everything, making a bunch of noise. A whole lot of ripple, not a lot of revelation. And when Caleb stood up, he was like, shut up, we can do it.

Because they're about to go into the Promised Lamb. That's the saddest thing to me when Holly was preaching. They built the altar and God gave them the Ten Commandments. And then they went in the wilderness 40 years. Why? Ripple. Watch. Number 13, go to 31.

But the men who had gone up with Caleb, only ones who said we can do it as Joshua and Caleb, the ten others said this. We can't attack those people. That's why I had y'all singing, I can't do it, but the great I am can earlier. That's why we wrote that, so you can acknowledge it. We can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are. Now, stay there.

Back. Right there. Stronger than we are. Now watch what happens. They spread among the Israelites a bad ripple. A bad report. Bad reports have ripples. A bad report about the land they had explored, about what God wanted to give them, about the size of the giants.

And they said the land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of A-Nak come from the Nephilim. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes. In our own eyes. And we look the same to them. in the world would you start with your eyes if you're receiving God's promise? I told you at the beginning of my sermon, it's what you see and what God says.

God said you can have it and you see that you can't. Which one is your rock? What are you building on? Verse 31 again, please. They are stronger than we are. That's true. The disease is stronger than your body right now. That is true.

The shame is real because the event really happened. That's true. The guilt is real because you really would have done it differently. That's true. All of that is true. But it's not your starting place. And this is a principle that I want you to receive from the Word of the Lord today. If you start with your strength, you end in defeat. If you start with your strength, if you start with your smarts, if you start with your anything, you end in defeat. because you run out. Reverse the ripple. Start with God. Tell your neighbor, I'm a name dropper. Now, I don't mean that how you think. Tell them, I don't mean it how you think I mean it. Tell him, but I know the great I am. So whatever I'm not, he is. I don't start with who I am. I drop the name of the great I am. That's good right there. That's good like syrup right there. Because when you put the name of your God, the promise of your God on the thing that you're facing, it reverses, not necessarily the situation, but it taps you into his strength. I can do all things through.

I got to teach you all the Bible now. Come on. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So I am not starting with my strength. Stop waking up in the morning and discerning what you can do today based on how strong you feel when you wake up. You've got to reverse that. No, no.

The first thing I'm not doing when I wake up in the morning is consulting my stress level. My stress level will keep me under all these sheets. But at some point, I've got to throw off the covers. I've got to stand up on my feet. I've got to declare that what God called me to do today will be done today. And what he called me to do tomorrow can wait till tomorrow. And what he never called me to do, somebody else can do, because I am not responsible for their ripple. So you cannot fix the ripple until you find the rock.

And the problem with God's people in this passage has really not changed very much at all, has it. They have allowed their identity to become filtered through an event, an event. We stayed in the wilderness because of an event. We did not have our confidence because we came from Egypt where we were slaves. But slavery was the event, not the identity. Help me, Holy Spirit. Somebody right now who's been divorced. Somebody right now who's had an abortion.

Somebody right now who tried to take your own life. somebody right now who has never been able to hold down a job, somebody right now who has never been able to be good with money. Those are events. They are not identities. Identities come from within. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is your rock. And for everybody who has ever been rejected, let me jump a few centuries to 1st Peter 2.7, where Peter quotes the prophets saying, But to you who believe this stone, we're talking about stones, right? This stone being Christ, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, watch this, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Stop living in the ripple of their rejection.

They are not your rock. I said, they're not your rock. They're not your rock. They're not your rock. They're not sure off. To the point that human ingenuity is so limited that they tried to throw Jesus away. They rejected the stone that God built the whole thing on. God is my.

But first, something must happen at this place where your feet are right now. Something must happen at the place where you've stalled out. Something must happen at the place where you lay down. Something must happen at the place where you remain uncircumcised. Something must happen here. And in it amazing how almost everything with God is opposite? A cross brings life. What?

A cross is gruesome, across his death. No, a cross is glorious. Rocks bring down giants. And I'm going to tell you one more thing just to throw it in, because I feel like it's for somebody and I don't know who it's for. I don't want to miss it. How fast the ripple happens doesn't always tell you how far it's going to go. things in your life are going slow because God is building something that's really, really big.

Put that in for free. This ripple may start slow, but it may spread wide. You don't know. Somebody packed that little boy's lunch that he fed to the crowd that day. You might be a mom packing a lunch that we're going to be talking about in Boise and Valentine and Botswana. That's the ripple. That's the ripple.

That's the ripple. That's the ripple. That's the ripple. That's how God does it. He takes something as simple as a stone. And I love him because sometimes the smallest pebbles have the greatest purpose. There was a widow in church one day. She put two mites, two coins in the offering. Jesus said, that's the biggest ripple that's been put in that temple today. All the rich people, they didn't ripple at all. Jesus saw that little pebble. He said, that's all she has right there. You see how the smallest pebble can serve the biggest purpose. You see how the smallest rock, if the right guys got it, just enough rotations. Boom, and we are preaching about him every Sunday.

There's not a Sunday that goes by that I don't tell you David killed Goliath. Little pebble, big purpose. And yet, we want to look at Joshua 420, because this one is a little different, where he said, Take the 12 stones out. Everybody say out of the Jordan. Because normally a ripple happens when you throw a stone in, but this ripple is in reverse. You're going to tell your children what I did. And you think a ripple only happens when a stone is thrown in.

this ripple. Somebody shout this ripple. Come on, after all I've been through, after all I've seen God do, after all the reasons I shouldn't be here. This ripple is not going to happen because of a stone you threw in. It's going to happen because of a stone that you take out. Now shout, now shout. Because there are some stones. Yeah, yeah. There's some ripples. There are some ripples that can only happen through removal. Touch three people say get it out, get it out, get it out, get it out, get it out, get it out, get it out, get it out, get it out. All that security. Get it. Twelve high five say this ripple is in reverse. You keep waiting for God the will reveal it. Oh, that was good to me. I'll try it again. I'll try it again. God removes to reveal. God wants to show you. through this story. God wants to show you through this moment. God wants to show you through what you call a burden. God wants to show you through what you can't carry. God wants to show you

through what you can't do. God is even using your enemies to cause you to depend on him. So this ripple is in reverse. Don't wait for something else to come. Take that thing out that is keeping you from believing what he spoke. If it's an addiction, it's got to go. If it's pride, it's got to go. If it's your thoughts of yourself, it's got to go. If it's your need to be right, it's got to go. Every stone must go. And this woman, this woman of God, confirmed my message.

She preached on altars. She talked about rocks. I was already getting ready to preach. She talked about rocks. And then she went home and sent a verse to our Bible club. We've been going through the book of Ezekiel. I wanted to say stuck in the weird part of the book of Ezekiel, but that sounds sacrilegious. But the reason y'all don't think it's weird is because y'all don't read it.

So, anyway, judge me all you want. You can't condemn me. But she said it was 1.30 in the morning. She had preached from Reflect. She had poured her heart out. And she said, I got to go do my key verse because we swap around and do the key verse. I said, I'll do it for you today, babe. I can do this for you.

I'm going to chat GPT a little bit and sitting over. But she said, I'm going to go do it. And she said, she said, I'm going to do it, and I'm going to go do it. And she sent it to me. And she sent Ezekiel 1119. And the Lord said, now you know that I got the right message for you about removing the rocks. Because the prophet said, I will give them an undivided hour. Watch this, Holly, 1.30 in the morning.

And I put a new spirit into my will remove from them. They're hard of. Now I can fix the ripple because I found a rock. It's been my hard heart. And the nature of the Lord is that he removes to reveal. Because verse 20 says, and then when he does that, when he gives you this Jesus heart, this heart that is sensitive to the ways of grace, this heart that knows that you need him, this heart that knows that he did it, not you, this heart that remembers that you are in the

bathroom stall long before you are in Boise, the heart that remembers that the Lord did this, and that he's bigger than our enemies. That heart of flesh, that is justified only by Jesus, made righteous, only through Him, His blood, His Word, His covenant, His water. Verse 20, please. Then they will follow my decrees. Watch the ripple. When I remove it, then they will follow and be careful to keep my laws.

Now stay with me for one more minute. There is one more story that has nothing to do with Jordan Rivers, but it is in John's Gospel. And the Lord alerted it to me as a confirmation and a word for those who are struggling with shame, condemnation, and rejection and guilt. And it has been ripping through your sanity. It's been ripping through your relationships. It has been ripping through your professional life. It has been ripping through every part of your life.

And what's going to happen if we don't share this story right now is that you're going to think that the point of my message is that you've got to pick up a big heavy stone and carry it and show God that you really mean it this time. But that's religion ripples. We're dealing with rocks today. When Jesus walked the earth, he did something very, very interesting because he was the rock. He was the rock. And he demonstrated something one day in an unlikely way to win John chapter 8, verse 3,

please, on the screens. Says they brought a woman who was caught in adultery. I think that has a double meaning. I think that she was caught means that they saw her doing it. I also think that means that she didn't want to do it. She was caught. Follow me? I think when we get caught, usually we were caught.

It's not that we wanted to do it. I wonder what rocks were dropped in her life to cause this ripple. But nobody wanted to know that, did that? No, they just brought her, charged her, made her stand before the group, verse four, and said to Jesus, teacher, this woman was caught. in the act of adultery, how right they were. And in the law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. To stone such women. I just told you an event is not an identity. She's not such woman. She's not a such woman. Who in the world do you think you are labeling people according to

their worst mistake in lowest moment? I'm about to show you what Jesus thinks about this, and for when you label yourself. So we got a stoner. right? What do you say? Isn't that crazy how our text in Joshua had a question? What do these stones mean? And now you've got a group of people, probably men, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were men, and they want to stone the woman because they put her identity through the grid of the event. So here's where we are. Here's where you are. You've been there. You might be there right now. What do you say? What do these stones mean? What do you see? Let's see how the rock responds to their rocks. They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him, a trap.

They're trying to trip him up, but he's the rock. He ain't go trip over what he is. Stumbling block or a cornerstone. It all depends on how you see him in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down. Zoom out so they can see online what I'm doing. Not that I'm Jesus. I'm just trying to make the text come alive.

started to write on the ground with his finger. Maybe he's writing her a new story. Maybe he's writing a new chapter. Maybe he's writing something that she's going to do. Maybe he's writing down all their sins. Because watch this. Watch what happened when he did when he stooped, verse number seven. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said, let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw the stone at her. Watch what God does when they go to throw their rocks. Watch what he does the next time guilt tries to tell you that you can never recover. Watch what God does the next time you try to go back to your past and imprison yourself over something everybody else has forgiven but you. Verse number eight says as they circled

around her. As they circled around her, he again stooped and wrote on the ground. Next verse, at this those who heard begin to go away one at a time. This is comical. The older ones first. Because if he was writing their sins in the dirt, the ones who had lived the longest had the most ripples. So they took off running, because I got ripples. If we really started listening what you've been through, you wouldn't be commenting on anybody else's Instagram, would you? I'm talking about the rock, not their rocks, D-Rock.

He got down in the ground, and he got down in the ground. began to write and they all started leaving. Watch this. Until, say it with me, only Jesus was left. Say it again. Only Jesus was left. One more time for repetition. Only Jesus was left because only Jesus was right. Until the only one right was the only one left. The only one who had the right to throw a stone. He didn't throw it. He took it. You tell me about your sin. Let me tell you about His grace. Grace, grace. God's grace. Grace that can pardon and cleanse within. Everybody shout grace greater than all of my sin. So my sin sent a ripple and his righteousness sent forgiveness. So my sin sent a ripple. So my sin sent a ripple. So my sin sent a ripple.

ripple, but his death sent a different message to my shame. The Bible says that it was just Jesus and her. He looked around like he didn't know, verse 10, and asked her a question, woman, where are they? Oh, they didn't throw their rocks? That's because I am your rock. You let me defend you. You let me vindicate you.

You let me justify you. You hear me? You don't even have to prove it to them. Stop posting to prove it and pray about it and get down on your knees with Jesus and let him restore your reputation. You walk different. Because while you're trying to fix the ripple, he's trying to get you to drop the rocks. Yeah.

And I love what he gave her as a gift in verse 11, and I give it to you as I close today. this message is heavy in my heart. There must be somebody with a heavy heart of stone today that the Lord wants to break. And he looked all around and all the rocks were gone, but one. All the rocks were gone. And then he told her, now that we got rid of, their rocks, let's get rid of yours. Neither. I don't even know who was for it. I don't even know who was They may not even be in the room. But he said, you can go now and leave your life of sin. You keep trying to fix the sin.

That's the ripple. But when he removes the stone, that hard place away. In fact, right now I want us to stand to our feet and just lift our hands to the Lord. Just do it. Quit being so stubborn about surrendering to God. I'm not letting that heart of stone tell you what to do and when to do it, because there are some things that can happen in a moment in the presence of God that can ripple back to your home. Do you know that?

If you just get this word from God and feel an emotion, great. If I can give you one hour to escape the hell that you have to go through, I'll show up and do it. But what if we could send a ripple? What if in this moment you drop some rocks today? I know that we keep waiting for something else to come, another blessing, another opportunity, But the Lord gave me a different message today. He said, we're reversing the ripple.

We are not starting with what is coming in. We are starting with what is coming out. So I call you out today. Say out. Out of fear, out of bondage, out of shame, out of it, out of it, out of it. Come out, come out, come out, come out, come out, come out. Come out. Come out, heart of stone.

Come out. Until the only one left is the only one, right? Listen to me, what God says about you is right. Everything else is wrong. What you call yourself is wrong. What you thought your life was supposed to be is wrong. Who you thought was supposed to still be in your life right now was wrong. He's right.

And this rock. I just hear saying God in my spirit, Chris, Can you sing it that high? Oh, God, my God, I need you. Oh, God, my God, I need you now. Now. Oh, my God, my God, I need you. I reckon this is why I heard it.

This line right here. It's a call on him. Yeah, that's the line. So hang on right there. Stay right there. We're going to go back into the bridge in a minute. Or we're going to hit verse 24 one more time. You tell them what God did.

You tell them what the central event of your life was not a failure. It was a cross. Your core story, your primal narrative, your rock is a stone that was rolled away. And now this is the reverse ripple. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief corner of the wall. You can build your life on him. He removes to reveal. He reveals to restore.

And the word restore must literally mean restore, a new story. When the stone goes, the new story comes. I'll give you this and I'll get out of your way. That he said, what I did at the Red Sea, you weren't ready for yet. You've stayed stuck in that regret for so long. And it has rippled. The bad report rippled through 40 years of wilderness living. But now I want you to take a stone with you because you are going into a season where

I am rolling away your regrets. I am rolling away your reproach. Hallelujah. I am cutting away your flesh. Who opened your prison doors? God did. Who dried up your ocean floors? did who raised you up from the dead God did who justified redeemed you called you created you and

breath the very breath of life into you so if he did it then you heard your children then you hear your children now you are the same boy you answer breath Don't hold it back. Let it flow, let it flow. Let it flow. No flow. Unlocked right now. New flow.

You are providing you. This is a holy moment now. Come on, let's take it up higher. Let's take it up higher. 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

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