Steven Furtick - Rescue Your Testimony
How many came for a word from God today? God's got you. Remain standing for one moment. I'm going to be sharing today from Romans 5:1-9, and then I'm going to go to one other Scripture as well. Fair warning. I overstudied this week. Better than the alternative, right? "Y'all, it was really busy. I'm just going to see what the Lord says". I actually am nervous to try to get this all out today, but I'll have you home by Sunday Night Football.
Romans, chapter 5, verse 1: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly".
Verse 7 goes very theological. "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him"! One more Scripture from Joshua, chapter 4, and we're going to get to work. Joshua 4:9: "And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day".
The Lord said we were on a rescue mission today in this service, so I'm going to use as a title what the Lord wants to do today. God said we're going to Rescue Your Testimony. You know I like to give little subtitles sometimes, little weird subtitles. Tell your neighbor, "The proof is in the puddles". We're on a rescue mission today. My favorite word that I read you in Romans, chapter 5, was the very first one: therefore. One of the most beautiful things Holly does for me on a regular basis is to help me remember what my true values are when I'm in a vulnerable place personally. She does this in the most tactful way. She says things to me that sound so sweet, but beneath that layer of sweetness, she's actually challenging me.
"Come on. Step it up". She said something the other day which sounds like a compliment until I put it in context. She said, "Wow! You really do think of everything". It sounds nice. Right? It sounds like she's giving me extra credit for being a good planner. The context of the statement… She was definitely saying it out of kindness, but it wasn't a compliment. We were talking about going to do something. I have a gift (I don't know if you have this gift too) for hypothetical… I actually would say I am the high priest of the hypothetical scenario, which plays out in many different ways.
On this particular day, I was saying, "If we go here to see this person…" We were going to make a trip. I said, "Well, if we go, he might have to work. I haven't even checked into his work schedule yet. We might get sick, because he was hanging out with this other person who was sick the other day, and I heard they might have COVID. I don't even know what that is anymore, but I heard they might have had it. What if we're going and what if we…"? She looks at me and goes, "Wow! You really do think of everything". I said, "Well, it could be kind of stressful". She said, "Yeah, but you can make anything stressful".
It didn't offend me at all. I needed to hear it, because she knows that, actually, what I want to experience is on the other side of something I may not want to do. She knew if I'm always getting hung up on the hypothetical, there's a sense in which I would always stay home. If I was left to my own devices, I would become a complete hermit. I would be a hermit because when I leave the house, this involves other humans at this point. There was a song by Paramore a few years ago where she said, "This is why I don't leave the house". I look at Holly sometimes when we get in traffic or when I can't find a bathroom or something kind of crazy is happening, and I go, "This is why I don't leave the house".
She, on the other hand… I'm very hypothetical. I made up a word to describe her spiritual gift. I made this word up. You won't find it in the dictionary. I am hypothetical. Holly is "hopethetical". It's not a real word, just a word to use for our purposes in studying today. She is hopethetical. So, while I'm stuck in the hypothetical of "What if my phone dies? It's only at 72 percent. You never know what kind of situation you're going to run into. Give me a charger," while I'm in the situation… Then it spins out of control even past that.
Like, the phone dies, and we're out in the middle of nowhere, and since we're out in the middle of nowhere, one of our kids needs us, and because they couldn't get us, it scars them deeply and traumatizes them, which is why they end up on methamphetamines and why we end up having to go to rehab to visit them. Hypothetical. Holly is hopethetical, and she's teaching me the art of hopethetical living. She tends to go more like this. Where I'm focused on everything we have to go through to get there, she'll say something like, "Yeah, but it could be fun". I'm like, "What does fun have to do with the fact that we might get there and I can't find a bathroom"?
Have you noticed I mentioned that twice? That's something I'm thinking about more now at 44. But hypothetically, let's say I get there. She's hopethetical. She's like, "You're a man. You could, you know…" She's like, "We'll figure it out. It'll be all right". I'm thankful for her "hopetheticalness". How many have a hopethetical person in your life for when you tend to get too hypothetical? You need one. You can't have Holly. She's taken. She's mine. Everybody says you need a hype man.
Well, you need a hope man, somebody who can remind you that yes, you might go through some things to get there; yes, it may be inconvenient; yes, they may laugh at you; yes, you may put it out and nobody sees it; yes, you may do it and nobody thanks you; yes, you may expend the energy and it will all be worthless, but it might also be kind of cool. If you don't have a hope man, you'll never leave the house. Take it from a hypothetical… I mean, even going through the scenarios in my mind leaves me with what I call a hypothetical hangover. Not involving alcohol but involving all of the scenarios that I run in my mind. (They're coming to fix my mic right now. Hypothetically. I hope.
See, we're thinking about this differently. She's like, "They're coming. This is going to be great. The tech team is awesome". I'm like, "If they don't get out here right now, this whole sermon is going to be ruined".) Now, hypothetically speaking, when things happen that you didn't plan on happening, how do you handle it? Hypothetically. Paul has a strategy for that. In Romans 5:3 he says, "We glory in our sufferings". If you back up one verse before that, he says, "We boast in the hope of the glory of God". If you needed an object lesson in boasting in the hope of something, think of your favorite college football fan who cheers for a team that "This year is going to be the year we win it all".
First of all, who is we? Paul said, "We boast in the hope of the glory of God". So, I am already celebrating something that someone else is accomplishing. Secondly, boasting in the hope is very different than boasting in the reality. The Bible says, "Who hopes in what he has already seen, what he already possesses"? Since Holly is hopethetical and since Paul in this passage is teaching us something about hopethetical Christianity, I want to break down for the next few minutes how to deal with situations in your life where you are right there in the middle of, I guess I could call this, a flood moment and you need faith to move forward in it. I'm going to use three points for this outline today.
I want you to write these down and take notes on this sermon so that the next time the Devil tries to make you hysterical you can get hopethetical. I'm going to teach you a lesson on how to be hopethetical. There are really three parts to this. First, we want to talk about anticipation. Secondly, we want to talk about justification. Thirdly, I want to talk about demonstration. Anticipation, the anticipation Paul mentions in Romans, chapter 5. He talks about the hope of the glory of God. This thing about anticipation works both ways.
I realized a long time ago that what the Devil is actually attacking when he comes to me with worry is my ability to anticipate what God might do and that every time I worry, it's a perversion of worship. Worship and worry operate from the same energy. They both attach to something I can't see to deal with something I'm going through. Worship attaches to a God I can't see. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen". Worry attaches to something that hasn't even happened yet and gives more power to the problem than it does the promise of God who said he would be with you through every problem.
So, now we're beginning to see that the Devil is after your anticipation. If he cannot get you to fear the worst possible scenario, he will hurt you so many times when you get your hopes up that you learn to manage your sense of disappointment by bringing down your level of expectation. This is the truth about a lot of us. Really, the reason we go through life with a kind of bad attitude, with a pessimistic attitude, not leaving the house, is because we left the house one time and it didn't work out very well. So now every time God calls us out to do something… It could be anything. God could call you to do anything…speak a kind word.
Last time you spoke a kind word they thought you were weak, and then they took advantage of you. So now I'm not going to speak any kind words to anybody anymore, because you know how it is. You say nice things to people, and they don't do anything back. See, what the Enemy is doing there is he is trying to inform your anticipation of the future based on the thing that happened to you in the past that was poorly processed. The way we anticipate our lives is a process. Even sometimes when I'm talking to Holly about something that could happen bad or something that did happen bad or what might happen bad or how it's going to backfire, I'll tell myself as an excuse, "I'm just processing".
Really, while I say that I'm processing, I am, but not all processing is productive. It's not always productive for you to just process, because if you just process, but there is no God in your processing, you will end up with a godless thought because you started with a godless process. That's why I think it's important that when you process things in your mind for a little while you come outside of your head every once in a while and verbalize it in prayer to God. The verbal process of praying out loud will actually help you with the internal struggle of a hyperactive mind.
So, for everybody who struggles with an overactive imagination, you can think more than one thing at a time. You can't speak more than one thing at a time. There comes a time where you have to start speaking things of faith to fight against the spaghetti noodles of fear. Satan will spaghetti your emotional state and get you so tangled up in the things you've been through, so tangled up in the things you're suffering. I found it interesting that Paul said, "We boast in the hope of the glory of God".
I thought boasting was bad until I read Romans 5:2. Paul said there is a type of boasting that is totally appropriate for the child of God. This boasting, however, does not come from an anticipation that things will always look the way you wanted them to look. This type of boasting does not come, for example, from your anticipation that you will never suffer. Jesus did not die to save us from suffering. He suffered and died to save us from sin. So, when we suffer we're not surprised. He suffered to save us.
Now, he did not save us from suffering; he saved us by his suffering, and in his suffering we have hope. I have hope, not because I think I'll never go through anything, but I'm one of these hopethetical Christians. I don't have hope based on the fact that I will never go through it. So, this is not a naïve sense in which I go through life knowing it will always be okay. This is not a hope based on how I know it's going to go. I'm leaving the house, I'm leaving my complacency, I'm leaving my shell, I'm leaving this relationship, I'm leaving this thought pattern, not based on the hope that it's going to be so easy when I leave but that he will be with me as I go. I have a hope. So, do you process with God what you go through or are you processing without God?
If you are, you do not have what the Bible says here in verse 1. "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God…" He didn't say, "I don't have fears about my future". He said, "We have peace with God". He didn't say, "I don't have regrets about my past". He said, "We have peace with God". He didn't say, "I don't have conflict in my home". He said, "I have peace with God".
I'm going to go a little deeper. He didn't say, "I don't have temptations that are dragging me back to the Egypt I thought I left". He said, "We have peace with God". He didn't say, "I don't have bills that I don't know how I'm going to pay". He said, "I have peace with God". He didn't say, "I don't have pain in my body". He said, "I have peace with God". He didn't say, "I don't have issues I'm going to counseling for". He said, "I have peace with God". He didn't say, "I don't have anger that I don't even always know where it's coming from". He said, "I have peace with God".
So, my peace with God is not in the absence of the problem. My peace with God is not in the absence of the anxiety. My peace with God is not in the absence of my shaking hands. My peace with God is not in the absence of enemies who don't like me. My peace with God comes from somebody who won a game I didn't even play in. What I think is good for us to remember when we have something we have hoped for and it didn't happen for us is that before we can move forward in pure faith, God often has to heal our hope.
The first step of healing your hope is changing what you boast in. The book of Romans was not written as a pep talk to tell you, "Do better. Get out there. Go get 'em. You've got this". Nobody is slapping anybody on the bottom in Romans except Paul saying that what you used to boast in was your relationship to the law. Remember? They kept the law. They did that through circumcision, which was an external sign of their faith, and they were trying to go back to that. But Paul says in this passage that what you used to boast in is insufficient to hold your hope in this season of your life.
One reason you can praise God after you've been through something… After you've been through something, but you found that God was still with you after you went through it, now you have something to boast about that you didn't have before. I saw somebody in this room… You've been like, "Why am I going through everything I'm going through? Why does this all keep happening to me? Why has this been so hard the last three months? Why did I think I was so far along and then I just snapped right back to the previous place that I was? It seems like nothing has moved forward". Instead of you seeing yourself as going through something, I want you to see yourself as getting something from.
Going through something and getting something from, two completely different paradigms. The focus on what I'm going through is me, hypothetical. The focus on what I'm going to have to go through… Isn't it crazy that the Devil can beat you with something that may never even happen? Ask the prophet Elijah, who ran from Jezebel and wasted days he could have spent in revival running from somebody who already proved she didn't have the power to kill him. You know, when you're going through something or when you might have to go through something, your focus becomes only the pain it will cost you, so now your story revolves around your suffering.
How could Paul say in Romans 5:3 that we glory in our suffering? We glory in our suffering? Maybe he doesn't mean that we like it. Maybe he doesn't mean that we ask for more of it. Maybe he means that while we're going through it, we get something from it. Recently, I was telling a friend a story. You know how we all have these pity-party stories that we tell? I was sharing it under the pretense like it was a testimony of something God brought me through, but in the middle of telling the story, it was as if the Holy Spirit said to me… I'm going to do a whole sermon one day… I don't exactly know how I'm going to do it yet, but it's going to be called "When You Say 'God Said,'" because a lot of times when I'm preaching I'll say, "God said [this]" and "God said [that]".
A sweet middle school kid came up to me one time and asked, "When you say 'God said,' what does that mean? Did you hear an out-loud voice? Did you read a Bible verse? What do you mean when you say God said"? So I'm going to do a sermon on that one day. In this particular case, it was an impression. I was in the middle of telling the story, and midsentence, I stopped telling the story, because it was as if the Holy Spirit said to me, "I'm sick of this side of the story". "You're telling him like it's something you went through, but you're talking like you're still in it. If you really believe what you're saying you believe, this is something that I brought you through. So why are you not through with it"?
Now, I'm not saying this always works. Please don't take me out of context. I hate the thought that we can just cut short trauma by putting on a happy face. That is not my point. This was not a situation where there was unresolved trauma. This was a case where there was unreleased bitterness. The Lord showed me as I was speaking… I'm telling you, it was almost like my mouth got zipped by the Holy Spirit. The Lord said, "I'm sick of this side of it, because all you keep talking about is the story from the standpoint of how hurtful it was to you. But you know good and well that what I did through that was something I absolutely had to do, and you know good and well that if it hadn't hurt you like that, you wouldn't be here today.
So stop telling that story from that side. Start saying things like, 'Yeah, it hurt, but God healed me from it. Yeah, it was hard, but I got stronger from it. Yeah, it was weighty, but I built some spiritual muscles, and I got a miracle from it.'" There are two sides to this story. There's what you went through and there's what you got from what you went through. While you're still worried about what you might go through, you need to pick up something that's sitting right in front of you. I feel like preaching. I'm glad my mic went out. I needed a big boy mic today. I'm glad the mic went out.
Some of y'all need to say, "I'm glad about stuff that goes wrong. I'm glad that went wrong. That was a redirection, because I would have stayed in this wilderness if the manna didn't go away. I would have stayed in that place if they didn't push me out. I would have stayed stuck in something I'm so much greater than". I went through it. That's what the Bible says. He didn't say, "We have hope because of what might happen. We have hope because of what could happen. We have hope because of what probably will happen". No. The apostle Paul said something so much greater than that. He said, "Therefore…" I'm about to blow your mind. For everything you're going through, for everything you might go through, for every hypothetical in your life, let's get hopethetical for a moment.
He said, "…since we have been…" He said we have been. In English, have been means past tense. That's behind me. That's why it's my testimony, because I passed. It was a test, but I passed it. It happened, but I'm here! It happened, but hallelujah! It happened, but I have this hope! I have this hope because I have been justified. Some of you are waiting for other people to celebrate how far you've come, but I've got news, baby. They don't live on the inside of you. Jesus does. The Holy Spirit does. The righteousness of God has been imputed to you by faith. That's my second point of the sermon: justification. This is for all of your "just-if-I'ds". "I'd be farther along just if I'd…" You know, all those regrets. "I wouldn't be in this mess just if I'd…"
Along comes Jesus talking about, "You keep going back in your past, but not far enough. You keep going back in your past, but you're not going back there far enough. Before you even called on me, before you even looked to me…" Give me Romans 5:8. This is the verse you wanted to shout about a minute ago. The Bible says that we were not good people. We were not godly people. We were not righteous people. We did not earn this spot. We did not make the team. We did not make the cut. We did not live up to it, but God… So, when we go back to the past, you need to learn a phrase. Say, "I was, but God".
Just to show you really clearly what the Bible says… I don't care what I say. I don't care what you say. I don't care what your grandmother says. I'm sorry. I'm sure she's beautiful. I'll give her a hug if we ever meet and all of that stuff. I'll respect her, and I'll call her whatever you tell me to call her, but I don't care what you were taught about this. The Bible says I have access. Access is an interesting thing. It kind of suggests that something can be there and you have it, but you can't get to it because of what's blocking it. That's why he died, and that's why I have hope. He gave me access by faith into this grace in which I now stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
The more you understand this that you have, the more you will have of this. The way you access this peace… "I need more peace". Nuh-uh. You need more awareness. You need more hopethetical Christianity. You need more (I don't know if you're going to like this) character, which is an interesting word. I was studying that word because I thought… Well, this is how it works. This is how God matures our lives, and this is how God brings forth his fruit in our lives. He gives us hope through the suffering that produces perseverance, and the perseverance (the not quitting) produces character, and then character, hope.
So, in order to get to the hope you have to go through some hell. The word character in Greek is actually a word Paul made up. It's not a word that's anywhere else in the New Testament except when Paul uses it. And it doesn't just mean character in the sense of "Well, that's just who I am". See, that's why some of you have the wrong testimony right now. You keep testifying about "That's just who I am. That's just the way I am. That's just the way it is". All of that might be true, but this character God is producing in you is a certain type of character from a certain word that Paul made up to describe what happens when you go through something and get something from what you go through that you couldn't get any other way. The word actually means proven worth. It started not with the amazing things that happened but with the pain you experienced.
So, the pain you experienced produced the proof of the worth of your faith. What good is a hope that can't be disappointed? What good is a faith that can't be shaken and not broken? "What good is it for me to just hope that things turn out well, and then when they don't, stay home? What good is it for me to listen to Pastor Steven preach for an hour and then go home and resist the very things God brings into my life that will produce the word he preached about? What good is it for me to keep just going through things and never stopping…"? God said today we are going to rescue your testimony, because you have stopped talking about what God is going to do. You have stopped talking about how it can be different. You have been disappointed. You have been hurt. You have been hemorrhaging from what you went through, but God wants to heal that place and rescue your testimony. To rescue it.
That's what Holly does for me. She rescues me from my hypothetical situations. I'll say, "Well, if we go, something bad might happen," and she says, "But if you don't go, you might look back for the rest of your life and wonder what would have happened if you did". Paul says it is the suffering… It is the pain that proves the character. The proof starts with suffering. That's what leads to the hope, because you know, "I can go back to that, and I can remember that God did that for me". Every once in a while, I screenshot something on my phone just to remind me in my low moments that at the lowest moments God is doing the most.
A few years ago, I preached a sermon to where I left and thought, "Well, that didn't go very well". I don't always blame myself. Sometimes y'all are just lazy listeners. But I like to take responsibility. Like, "Well, come on. I could have done that better and clearer". I'll beat myself up every which way. That same week, one of my friends sent me a text of their notes from the sermon. They said, "Just wanted you to be encouraged". Well, I needed to be so I was thankful for the text. They took six pages of notes on that sermon that I thought sucked. So, I'm looking at them, like, "This is great. Okay. Thank you, Lord. Maybe it wasn't that bad. They wrote six pages of notes".
But then I looked at it again, and I saw why they sent it to me, because I thought, "That's kind of weird. Why did you send me your notes? I preached it. Don't you think I know what I said"? Next to the notes was this little puddle of tears that they were showing me. When the text came through next after the photo, it said, "I cried so hard through your message I left a puddle of tears next to my notes. Before I dried it up, I wanted to show you". Isn't that something? While I'm sitting there thinking, "Well, that wasn't any good," I get a picture, a proof in the puddle of tears they cried, because I understand that sometimes suffering is the starting place for something amazing.
Sometimes the absence of your emotional validation when you are doing the thing God has called you to do… Maybe not preaching a sermon; maybe just being a good man. Maybe not preaching a sermon; maybe just keeping your purity as a teenager. Maybe not preaching a sermon; maybe just showing up to the next thing you know you can do. The proof… I didn't feel it when I preached it. I didn't see it when I preached it. I didn't know it when I preached it. But to get that text, that puddle of tears to say, "That sermon you preached that you felt nothing, that word you spoke that you felt nothing, that prayer you prayed that you saw nothing, here's something. Here's something days later that you didn't even see. You weren't even there for it, but it's proof".
This is the proof I'm after. Not the proof of what you feel when you do it. Not the proof of what you see when you do it. Not the proof of what you know right now. Not the proof of what you think you need to be validated. Not the proof of what you think would make it successful. It is the proof in that puddle of tears that you cried while you suffered, but I bet you got up after you cried and did something. I bet you got up after your heart was broken and kept going, so now you have a testimony. Let's stop talking about all it cost you, and let's start talking about how God has called you. Proven character. Say it out loud. "I have hope, and I can prove it".
So, Holly said to me, "You really do think of everything". I'm like, "Well, so does God". She didn't really accept that as an analogy, but I told her how God has taken into account… You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. So, now I want to talk about, finally, the demonstration, the proof that you have hope. The proof you have hope is not that you don't suffer or will never suffer. The proof you have hope is not that you don't go through. Let me break that down a little bit more. It is not that you won't ever feel that way again. It is not that you will never be let down again. It is not that you will never experience a betrayal again. It is not that you will never wrestle with this again. It is not that it will completely leave your life. That is not what Christ died to save us from.
The good thing is if you feel weak in this moment, that's the very point he saved you at, and he's still saving. So you have proof, demonstration. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". I read you a Scripture from the Old Testament earlier, and you may have wondered if I forgot about it, but I didn't. I want to give you a picture of how God demonstrates his power in your weakness. The children of Israel are headed out of the land they've known as the place of their captivity for over 400 years. They've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 of those years because of the regrets of their past. I have to be thinking at this point something is going through their heads.
"Just if I'd believed God and gone through the Promised Land… Just if we'd gone through and faced the giants in our faith and believed the minority report of Caleb and Joshua… Just if we had not brought a complaint to Moses in the place of where our faith should have been…" But now God is bringing a new generation led by Joshua into the Promised Land. The Bible says on the way to where they're going… You're going somewhere. I don't know if you feel stuck where you are, you're going to die where you are, and it's going to be like it is, but you are transitioning out of this. Before they transition out of the land they've been in, the wilderness they've wandered in, the "what ifs" they've wasted away in… Before they transition out of this, God gives a very strange instruction to Joshua. He says, "Before you completely cross…"
By the way, I think you should commemorate every crossing in your life, every crossing over. Just start celebrating stuff when you cross over. That could be as simple as, "Thank you, God, for a new day. I laid down to sleep and woke up again, and somebody didn't, so thank you for it, Lord. Thank you for another week. Thank you for bringing me to the Lord's house another day. Thank you for a new season. Thank you, God, for a new opportunity. Thank you for my next breath. Thank you for my next opportunity". As they are crossing over, God calls Joshua. "I want you to commemorate and demonstrate what I did".
Here's why. Joshua 4:5: "And Joshua said to them, 'Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God…'" That represents God's presence. "…into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel…" How many tribes were there? Twelve. How many stones? Twelve. One for every tribe. One for every trial. You ought to get something out of everything you go through that makes you stronger in God. "I'm not going to cry like that and not get stronger from it. I'm not going to suffer like that and not get stronger from it". So, make sure you take something from this. But then verse 6 says very importantly why you're doing this.
"…that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?'…" How do you want to answer that question for your kids one day? "This is important because…" He said, "I want you to rescue your testimony. I want you to stop right now and redefine everything you've been through. Instead of remembering this as the river that was so hard to cross, I want you to take something out of it that you can commemorate how great God was to bring you through it". So when your children ask, "What was it like to deal with that"? when your children ask, "Tell me about that time," when your children ask, "Did you ever deal with loneliness, and how did you handle it?" when your children ask, "Did you ever wonder if you were good enough?" when your children ask, "Did you ever feel depressed"?
I want you to have some proof to point through to let them know, "God does miracles, and I have a testimony". "When your children ask, 'What do these stones mean to you?'…" It's personal to me. I can't speak for you. I can't prophesy for you. I can't praise for you. You can't praise for me. There are some things I went through that showed me who God was to me. Verse 7 says, "…then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord". "Lord, do you want us to tell them how hard the wilderness was for 40 years for something we didn't do"? "No. I just want you to tell them, 'When I got to that Jordan, there was a demonstration. We didn't know how it was going to happen.'"
Watch this. My faith is not in a how; my faith is in a who. So tell them, "The Lord…" Now say, "But God…" Now ask your neighbor, "Was it hard"? Tell them, "It was, but God…" Ask them, "Were you a mess"? Tell them, "I was, but God…" Ask them, "Were you tempted to quit"? Tell them, "I was, but God…" Were you a little nervous about how it was going to turn out back there in 2024? Were you sitting in church one Sunday morning in September? Were you thinking about a football game and lunch, but God had a word for you? Tell them, "I was, but God…" "See, when that man grabbed that microphone and started preaching about the flow of the Jordan being cut off, it reminded me of Calvary. It reminded me of Jesus. It reminded me of the cross. It reminded me of my crossing over. It reminded me of death to life. It reminded me of the blood. It reminded me of broken chains. It reminded me I was…"
I'm going to show you something I never saw before. He said, "I want you to take the stones from what you went through and tell your children what God did, but I want you to take the stones to be a memorial forever". "And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua". Just if I'd do what God told me to do… I don't have to justify it any other way than God spoke it. Verse 9: "And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests stood…"
Wait a minute. I thought he brought them out of the Jordan and put them in the camp where they stayed when they got through. He did, but there was a second set of stones Joshua set up not where they were going… God said, "I want you to set up something right here. Not when you get through but right here". God told Joshua, "I want you to make a pile of stones in the middle of the Jordan so that when your children ask, 'What was it like when you were crossing the Jordan?' you'll have something to point to that you went through so they can understand how powerful God is". So, now you understand what I'm saying. Right? The stones were in the middle of the Jordan.
Now, if the Jordan is at high tide, then the stones can't be seen. If the Jordan is overflowing, the stones can't be seen. The only way they're going to see the stones is if the tide is low. The only way they're going to see the stones is in a dry season. I'm preaching to somebody who has been in a dry season. I have news for you. God dries up Jordan Rivers and you have some stones. You have some stones at the bottom of what you've been through. High-five your neighbor and say, "I've got stones". "Don't think I'm a wimp. Don't think I'm weak. Don't think I'm without power. Don't think I'm without help. Don't think I don't have a testimony. I'm going to tell this thing from the other side. I'm going to tell the truth from a higher plane".
So, I came to rescue your testimony, because it isn't a testimony until it has been tested. Before you get baptized today, I want you to look forward to the low-tide times when the Jordan River gets lower so you can see where you stood when you thought you would die. Get that stone out of there, that thing you suffered, and get that hope out of there, because the proof is in the puddle. Some things you won't see if it's not a dry season. That is my hope…stones in dry seasons, strength in weak places. For, you see, at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for us. If he justified me (justification), and if he did that for me (demonstration), then guess what I got back? Anticipation.
So now we have to do something about this. The proof is in the puddles. God didn't save you because you were on such a high place. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners…" He got down in the dirt of my situation. That's how I know he's not going to leave me now. He started this thing in the mud. He started this thing in the puddle, and the proof is in the puddles. So, don't be so freaked out with the hypothetical situations of what's going to dry up. If it dries up, the stones will still be there. You will still have a testimony. Now take it back. Take back your testimony.
Today wouldn't be too soon. I need 100 of y'all who weren't planning on getting baptized today. Get baptized today. Take back your testimony. Declare to the Devil, "I won't die in this dry season. God brought me to church today to repent, to turn from my sin by his blood. If I'm justified by his blood, shall he not much more save me from his wrath"? So, I really don't even want to talk about Joshua; I want to talk about Jesus. Jesus who said, "I thirst" is present and stretching in dry places today. And you thought I was going to preach this message about hope in a shallow way? No. I'm talking about a God who is so deeply committed to you.
Now you're wondering, "But what if it does happen? Well, God will be with me". As hopethetical Holly would say, "Even if it does, we'll be all right". The last season of your life was designed to show you that. Are you getting that lesson out of it or did you just run through it and say, "Oh, I'm just going to live this way"? Do you remember how the philosopher said, "I think; therefore I am"? Let's put a twist on that. He was trying to see, "What can I be certain of"? and he realized, "Even the fact that I can doubt means I'm thinking, and even the fact that I'm doubting proves I exist". "I think; therefore I am". Don't you understand that's the way it works in your life? You think about all of the things that are going to go wrong; therefore, you are a nervous ball of stress.
"I think; therefore I am". So let's do this. Say, "I have; therefore I hope". I'm coming to a Jordan right now, and here's what I'm coming with. Romans 5:1: "Therefore…" What are the stones there for? That's the question. What is the suffering there for? What are you there for? Why did God keep you alive this long? I see you every week when I preach. You never miss. You probably wouldn't even know I saw you. I watch you so much I'm a stalker. You ought to get a restraining order on me. It blesses me, and you would never know that. But the proof is in the puddle. It's the times you don't see, the times you don't feel. Coming up to a Jordan River. It looks like it's overflowing, but God brought that thing down to a puddle for you.
You saw no way to be right with him. You saw no way to put it back together. You saw no way, but the proof is in the puddle, what he already dried up. What are you standing in front of today? When your children ask you, I want you to have a testimony. When they ask, "Did you ever doubt it"? tell them, "Yeah. And there are some things I doubt that are in front of me now, and I want to be honest with you. The truth is I can't do it, but the Great I Am can". That's what I'm pointing at. That's all the proof we need. "I can't do it, but the Great I Am…" How about this? "You can dry this Jordan if I will just step in. I can't do it, but the Great I Am…"
Come on. Lift your hands, saints of God. Get up on your feet and worship him where you are. It may be in your home. It may be in your sickbed. It may be in the middle of a panic attack, but just say, "I can't do it. That's my testimony. The Great I Am can. And I know he can because I know he did. I've been here before. I've been through dry seasons. I've been through identity crises. I've been through nervous nights. I've been through dark waters. He can split an ocean. Ask me how. I don't know, but I know who". Sing it again! "I can't do it". That's the truth. But while we were yet sinners… This is my testimony. The Great I Am!