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

If it keeps you from believing what God has spoken over you, it’s gotta go. God isn’t here to condemn you for the things that are holding you back, He’s here to set you free from them. This is an excerpt from “Reverse The Ripple.” To watch the full message from ‪@elevationchurch‬, click here:    • Reverse The Ripple | Pastor Steven Fu…   Chapters: 0:00 – That Is Not Your Identity 2:08 – Why It Feels Slow Right Now 4:20 – Get It Out! 6:28 – When God Will Reveal It 8:43 – Healing A Hardened Heart 10:36 – John 8 13:22 – Watch What God Does 15:44 – Let Him Restore You Scripture References: 1 Peter 2, verse 7 Joshua 4, verse 20 Ezekiel 11, verses 19-20 John 8, verses 3-11 #faith #peace #hope #stevenfurtick #elevationchurch

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.”