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.
