Get Rid Of What’s Holding You Back | Steven Furtick

The problem with God's people in this passage  has really not changed very much at all. They have allowed their identity to become  filtered through 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. Somebody right now who has been divorced, somebody  right now who has had an abortion, somebody right now who tried to take their 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. For everybody who has ever been rejected,  let me jump a few centuries to 1 Peter 2:7 where Peter quotes the prophet,  saying, "Now to you who believe, this stone…" We're talking about stones.  Right?

"…this stone [being Christ] is precious. But to those who do not believe,  'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. '" Stop living in the ripple  of their rejection.

They are not your rock. To the point that human ingenuity is  so limited that they tried to throw Jesus away. They rejected the stone  God built the whole thing on.

God is my rock. 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 laid down. Something must happen  at the place where you remain uncircumcised. Something must happen.

Isn't it amazing how almost  everything with God is opposite? A cross brings life. What?

A cross is gruesome. A cross is death.  No, a cross is glorious.

Rocks bring down giants. 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. Some things in your life are going slow because God is building  something that's really, really big. 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, Ballantyne, and Botswana.

That's the ripple. That's how God does it. He  takes something as simple as a stone.

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 has been  put in that temple today. " All of the rich people didn't ripple at all. Jesus  saw that little pebble and said, "That's all she has right there.

" Do you see how  the smallest pebble can serve the biggest purpose? Do you see how the smallest rock, if the right  guy has it, with just enough rotations…? Boom!

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.

Yet we want to look at Joshua 4:20, because this one is a little different. He  said, "Take the 12 stones out of the Jordan. " 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. " You think a  ripple only happens when a stone is thrown in, but this ripple… After all I've been  through, after all I've seen God do, after all of 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 you take out. There are some ripples  that can only happen through removal.

Get it out. All that bitterness…get it out.  All that regret…get it out.

All that bias, all that judgment, all that prejudice,  all that insecurity…get it out. This ripple… The first shall be last and the  last shall be first. They who sow in tears will reap in joy.

This ripple  is in reverse. You keep waiting for God to put something in, but God said,  "I will reveal it when you remove it. " 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.

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 has to go. If it's pride, it has to  go. If it's your thoughts of yourself, it has to go.

If it's your need to be  right, it has to go. Every stone must go. 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.

The reason y'all don't think it's weird is because y'all don't read it.  Judge me all you want. You can't condemn me.

It was 1:30 in the morning. She had preached  from Reflect. She had poured her heart out, and she said, "I've 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 was going to ChatGPT a little bit and send it over.

But she said,  "I'm going to go do it," and she sent it to me. She sent Ezekiel 11:19, and the Lord said,  "Now you know I have the right message for you about removing the rocks. " The prophet  said, "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will  remove from them their heart of stone.

" Now I can fix the ripple because I  found the rock. It has been my hard heart. The nature of the Lord  is that he removes to reveal.

Verse 20 says, 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  you need him; this heart that knows 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 the Lord did this  and that he's bigger than our enemies… That heart, that heart of flesh, that  heart that is justified only by Jesus, made righteous only through him, his blood,  his Word, his covenant, his water… Verse 20: "Then they will follow my decrees…"  Watch the ripple. "When I remove it, then they will follow. " "…and  be careful to keep my laws.

" Stay with me for one more minute. There is one  more story that has nothing to do with Jordan Rivers. It is in John's gospel.

The Lord alerted  it to me as a confirmation and a word for those who are struggling with shame, condemnation,  rejection, and guilt, and it has been ripping through your sanity. It has been ripping  through your relationships. It has been ripping through your professional life.

It has  been ripping through every part of your life. What's going to happen if we don't share this  story right now is you're going to think the point of my message is that you have to  pick up a big, heavy stone and carry it and show God you really mean it this time, but  those are 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 demonstrated  something one day in an unlikely way. John 8:3 says they brought a woman  who was caught in adultery.

I think that has a double meaning. I think  "She was caught" means they saw her doing it. I also think it means she  didn't want to do it.

She was caught. 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. Nobody wanted to know that, did they? No.

They just brought her, charged her,  and made her stand before the group. Verse 4: "…and said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman  was caught in the act of adultery. '" How right they were.

"In the Law Moses  commanded us to stone such women. " I just told you an event is not an  identity. She's not a "such woman.

" Who in the world do you think you are  labeling people according to their worst mistake and lowest moment? I'm about to  show you what Jesus thinks about this and for when you label yourself. "So we have  to stone her.

Right? What do you say? " Isn't that crazy how our text in Joshua had a  question?

"What do these stones mean? " Now you have 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. Verse  6: "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's not  going to trip over what he is. A 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 and 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 of their sins, because  watch this. Watch what happened when he did. Verse 7: "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  a 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 8 says as they circled around her, he  again stooped and wrote on the ground. "At this, those who heard began to go away one at a  time…" This is comical. "…the older ones first…" 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 have ripples. " If we really started listing 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…the Rock. He got down on the ground  and began to write, and they all started leaving. Watch this.

"…until 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, grace that is greater than all my sin.

" My sin sent a ripple,  and his righteousness sent forgiveness. My sin sent a ripple, but his death  sent a different message to my shame. The Bible says it was just Jesus and her. 

He looked around, like he didn't know, 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. " Do you hear me? You don't even have to prove  it to them.

Stop posting to prove it and pray about it. Get down on your knees with Jesus  and let him restore your reputation. You'll walk differently.

While you're trying to fix  the ripple, he's trying to get you to drop the rocks. I love what he gave her as a gift in  verse 11, and I give it to you as I close today. He looked all around, and all  of the rocks were gone but one.

Then he told her, "Now that we got rid  of their rocks, let's get rid of yours.