Unstuck | Remember Whose You Are

One such moment happened for me in September 2006 when I officially began my preparation for ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary, which required me to move there for full time study. All of us in my family felt excited, nervous, sad, and solemn…

You know that feeling when you want to say a million things and nothing all at once? That’s how we felt.

On the day of my move, I woke up at 5am. I didn’t sleep much. I looked over my road map, when we still used those, ate some breakfast, and then I awoke my mom to leave.

She walked me to the front step of our house. I turned to her and told her I loved her. She told me that she loved me, and then we embraced for a long while. Then, as I turned to leave, she stopped me and said, “Ryan, listen, I want you to know that I love you, I want you to know that I believe in you, and whatever happens, I want you to know that God will be with you.”

In a word, my mom reminded me of who I am and whose I am.

(Pause)

No other moment in history did these identity-infusing words mean more than the moment when Israel, the very people of God, entered into their promised land.

In Joshua chapter 5, there they stood for the first time on the west side of the Jordan River, on the promised side of their land.

Now, 470 years prior to this moment, God entered into a promise relationship with a man named Abraham, as recorded in Genesis chapter 12. God blessed Abraham and made a promise to him that his ancestors would become a great nation, and through that nation on this promised land, God promised to bless the world.

Now for the first time in history, 470 years later, about two million people, historians estimate, stood with their feet firmly planted on their rightful land.

But make no mistake: though they were the people of the promise, Israel’s identity was a disgraced slave identity.

During those 470 years in between the calling of Abraham and this moment, Israel lived in slavery for 400 of those years and then wandered in the wilderness for another 40 years because of their disobedience.

But now here they stood on their threshold eager to receive God’s blessing... for the sake of the world.

Poised and ready to receive their land.

The people in the land feared Israel because they saw the waters of the Jordan part and an entire nation walk through on dry ground.

[[[That’s called the ultimate intimidation factor… can you imagine seeing the waters split and then watching an army of people come to take back what rightfully belongs to them from you? Ugh, here you go...]]]

In fact, Joshua wrote of the Kings in the land: their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

This was Israel’s moment. 470 years in the making. Do you feel the anticipation and the energy? Take the land. “Ain't No Stoppin Us Now! We're on the move!”

That is, until, the Lord stopped them, right on the threshold of their promised land and made the most unusual request that none of them ever expected.

“At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise this second generation of Israelites.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

At the precise moment for battle, God halted the fighting men, and here’s why:

4 Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died in the wilderness. 5 Those who left Egypt had all been circumcised, but none of those born after the Exodus, during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised. 6 The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So Joshua circumcised their sons—those who had grown up to take their fathers’ places—for they had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land. 8 After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were healed.

Important to note here, here’s how Israel disobeyed: The book of Numbers chapter 13 recorded when Moses sent the 12 spies, among them included Caleb and Joshua, to scout the Promised Land and bring back a report about the land and its inhabitants.

Each of the spies, except for Caleb and Joshua, stated in their reports that the people in the land were too big, strong, and fierce to conquer, even though the Israelites had something that they didn’t: they had God on their side. As a result of their report, God punished their disobedience by making them wander 1 year for each day they spied on the land, which amounted to 40 years.

Not one single person from that generation, except for Caleb and Joshua, entered into the land. And though God still provided food by day and protection at night for the nation, they did not receive their promise, and thus they did not celebrate the Passover feast nor practice circumcision until after they entered into the land.

9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

Which means, ‘to roll.’

Friends, do not miss the significance of what God did in this moment: 470 years of generational memory, “I’m a slave and nothing more,” rolled away [[snap finger]] in a single act of obedient faith.

On their threshold of promise, the very doorstep of their rightful land, at their most opportune moment to attack, God held them back in order to say, “***Remember whose you are.” Remember who you belong to. Remember who I am, the God who restores and sets free the slave heart and intends to bless the world through you.

Circumcision reminded every man who his body, mind, soul, and spirit belonged to.

Now, understand the flipside to this: in order to follow through with this command, a man had to know in his mind and trust in his heart who he belonged to. Every man who obeyed God’s command that day believed with his entire body, mind, heart, and soul who he beloned to, or why else would he follow through with such a painful act.

Listen, these men became unstuck from their own self-preservation that day in order to live most fully into their faith, calling, and receive their promised inheritance.

Which begs the question for all of us:

Are you fully devoted to your Savior?

Are you stuck in self-preservation? Selfish ambition?

For all of those men who completed this act, the Word of God tells us that the Lord rolled away the shame and disappointment of their 470 year slave identity and restored them to righteousness!

How extraordinary! God saw their obedient faith and richly rewarded them with eternity.

Do you feel stuck today? Perhaps in old memories? Listening to shame voices from your past, or replaying moments of failure? Are you stuck in old ways, old identities?

Friends, Israel’s story is our story.

Our Heavenly Father has given us his son, Jesus, to roll away our shame, restore our wrongs back to right, and lift the burden of our guilt.

In fact, a stone was once rolled away, displaying an empty tomb and the power of our Savior who removed the guilt of our sin and the shame of our pasts. Jesus offered his life for you and gave you His Spirit as the guarantee of your salvation.

***Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

The high price of the cross. You don’t belong to yourself. You can’t buy yourself back from the debt of sin that you owe God, but God in his grace, God in his mercy, God in his generosity, bought you back and made you his own and his heir to the promise of eternity as his royal son or daughter in the kingdom.

Friends, this is good news.

Also good news, we don’t practice circumcision as a faith marker anymore. Amen!? Rather, as the Apostle Paul wrote:

True circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. Romans 2:29

Now, that same mark of the covenant back then is produced by the Holy Spirit on the heart for all of those who place their trust in Christ.

When you first believed, you received the Holy Spirit who marked your heart to indicate that this heart forever belongs to the true King, your Heavenly Father.

No shame. No scorecard. Only grace, only mercy, only forgiveness; just come to Jesus for salvation, and receive his Holy Spirit as your guarantee.

The Holy Spirit’s work cuts out our old stuck sinful ways and transplants them with God’s goodness and righteousness. In Christ, our hearts and minds continually become renewed!

Now, the way to show this inward mark outwardly is through baptism.

At the end of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus calls for all ***to believe and be baptized. Baptism symbolizes your surrender to Jesus.

In the water, as you are submerged, you are symbolizing the death of your old self. Then, as you rise out of the water, you are rising, as Christ did, to new life with him forever.

Today, after this message, we will be hosting baptisms for anyone who wants to show the mark produced on your heart, so consider it, as you live into Jesus’ promise.

Circumcision back then was an identity marker that claimed whose you are. [beat chest]]

Baptism now is an identity marker that claims whose you are. No one can take that mark away from you.

As a church, with the launch of Miami Beach campus on the horizon, we are standing on a threshold of a new season ready to begin, and now more than ever, we need to remember whose we are!

This means change once more to how we do things, which raises a whole host of questions and excitement within me, as I am sure this also does for you, but here’s why we must walk through this threshold together, because:

People are dying.

Lives are in the balance.

Families are on the brink.

Eternity is at stake.

And the time of judgment will come for all of us who have ever borrowed the breath of God.

I am always reminded of these sobering truths. We know these people. They are our neighbors, our friends, our family members, and our colleagues.

That’s what this scarlet cord means. We need to help these people find and follow the one who saves. We need to make room. We need to stay nimble, and as God grants us more, we need to constantly stay reminded to whose we are!

We don’t need all of our questions answered and our fears abated in order to step through our threshold into our future, together. We just need to get unstuck from church as usual and for ourselves and from our own selfish ambition.

We need to remember whose we are! We need to remember the mark on our hearts!

As your Campus Pastor, I need you to know that I fully support our multi-site model as our means to see this vision come true in Miami and beyond.

I am convinced that in a digital age, a good God gave us a good model to share Jesus’ good news further and faster and deeper and wider into our community than any one of us could have ever imagined a generation ago.

So, let’s keep learning and living fully together, making the best informed decisions possible, moving forward with bold faith, and trusting for God to fill the gaps.

And perhaps, I hope to God just perhaps, somehow in the midst of all of us showing up and bringing someone with us on this great journey, Jesus might help us get unstuck and freed into a new future. God wants that for you. Your Pastors want that for you. In fact, this is your Heavenly Father’s modus operandi. Our God is a freedom God!

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8

A free gift!

Do you want to become unstuck and live free?

Let me hear you say, YES!!! Christ in you, the hope of glory! If you want to get unstuck, then follow my example of how I literally got unstuck from this:

[[[Show pic of stuck elevator]]]

Can you believe that? Right in the midst of my preparation for this message in a series called UNSTUCK, I found myself absolutely STUCK, totally and helplessly STUCK inside of an elevator!

First time, and I hope my last time!

All of a sudden the elevator stuttered, stopped suddenly, and then bounced for a while.

I thought to myself, “That felt a bit strange.” I stood in front of the doors for about 20 seconds, waiting for them to open, which feels like an eternity inside of an elevator… but they didn’t open. And then I realized, “I am stuck.”

What a bizarre moment? This scene tore through my mind!

[[[Play Tower of Terror scene]]]

15 minutes into my Stuckville, a security guard opened the doors and poked his head through this tiny opening

[[[Show opening]]]

And told me to expect firefighters soon. He introduced himself as Tommy, and then sat down next to me to keep me company until they arrived. A while later, one of the big firefighters leaned down and asked me to grab onto a giant pole so that he could try to yank me out through that little hole.

I don’t know about you but when a firefighter tells me do something, I just try do it and not ask too many questions, even though I thought to myself ‘this might hurt.’ I agreed and said ‘let’s do it.’

Until Tommy stood up and said, “You ain’t dragging him through that hole. The elevator could shift and cause irreversible circumstances.”

Then, he looked at me with a smile and literally said (I wrote this down), “I want to keep you safe. I’m not going to try anything that might cause irreversible circumstances. I’ve lived long enough to have endured some irreversible circumstances.”

And haven’t we all… ?

After the firefighters left, Tommy called the elevator company, and then did something that I didn’t expect, he stayed by my side right at that little opening for the next hour and a half, sitting in the Miami sun and heat, in order to ensure that my safety remained the top priority.

This reminded me of what Paul wrote, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2

This is the law of love, which demands sacrifice.

Tommy bore my burden that day, and he showed me Christ’s love without even realizing it.

Initially, I didn’t know how to receive it. I felt grateful. I felt awkward. I felt weak.

Yet, as Tommy proved himself faithful to me, I came to trust him and his decisions for my safety. In fact, after the elevator company arrived, Tommy told me, I am only letting you off of this elevator when you can walk out of it, so don’t move until you hear me tell you that it is safe to move.

Well, you better believe that I listened for Tommy’s voice and didn’t step off that elevator until he told me to. The elevator guys climbed on top of the elevator, overrode the system, safely brought my elevator level with the floor, and even then, I waited for Tommy to let me know when it was safe to leave.

[[[Show pic of Tommy and me]]]

As strange as this might sound, Tommy loved me well that day, a total stranger… but a neighbor. He showed me neighborly love. I thank God for that. After I got unstuck, that whole experience felt like a non-issue because Tommy stayed by my side, bore my burden, and loved me through that entire ordeal!

[[[Let me introduce you to Tommy now… ]]]

During those couple of hours, I thought about how being stuck in that elevator resembles how all of us feel stuck in our lives from time to time.

I thought about how initially I resisted help, and don’t we all? Even stuck in an elevator, I resisted help from someone who wanted to offer it. How prideful, and how human?

I thought about how discontented and vulnerable I felt. I had no control. I felt scared and anxious. I even felt kind of embarrassed, even though I didn’t do anything to cause this situation. It just happened, but I still wondered how people might think differently about me. That’s a glimpse into my own shadow side.

I saw some people take pictures on their phones of me trapped on the elevator, while others snickered at me as they walked by. I felt angry about that. I felt exposed. I felt sad that I missed my family’s day.

I felt all sorts of emotions during my couple of hours stuck in there.

This whole experience confronted my identity, and once again, I needed to be reminded of whose I was and who owns my heart… who marked this heart: the Spirit or me?

Being stuck always makes us confront our identity, just as it did for Israel, just as it does for all of us.

Friends, for those of you living in the stuck zone:

Let someone meet you in your elevator, in your stuck place.

Humble yourself at least enough to receive it.

Identify your emotions.

Feel them all the way through to completion.

Paul tells us:

Take captive your thoughts, and make it obedient to Christ! 2 Corinthians 10:5

Listen to the trustworthy voices. A lot of people offered to help me that day, including a bunch of teenagers who started pushing random buttons, which made me feel a bit anxious... but only Tommy considered my safety above anything else. Be careful to which voices you listen to.

Share your burden

Choose to walk through your threshold into freedom.

Now, others of you here… you need to rise up, embrace your freedom, and find someone who needs to get unstuck, even if they resist it, so:

Don’t push. Demonstrate love toward that person through your ministry of presence. Sometimes the best messages don’t require your words. They simply require that you sit by a little opening - possibly in the hot sun - and join them in their burden.

Earn the right to be heard.

Seek to understand how they got stuck.

Ask great questions.

Listen well for their answers

Prove yourself trustworthy

Help them get unstuck, while keeping them safe

Guard their dignity

Keep it real

Tommy told me some great stories. He didn’t make my situation all about being stuck. Rather, he lifted my spirits and made me laugh. Don’t underestimate the power of listening and laughing.

Jesus promised real and true life here and now for anyone who feels stuck and worn down from wandering and slaving to you name it: worry, doubt, substance abuse, pornography, fear, greed, shame, pain... Pick your elevator. We’ve all been stuck, but the real question is,

Do you want to become unstuck? Jesus asked it like this: “Do you want to get well?” John 5:6

Because if you want to get well, then turn from living like the god of your own life and find the arms of Jesus ready to bring you into new life!

Is there anyone who you could help find freedom? This is the meaning of the scarlet cord. It is a way for us to be a Tommy for someone else and help get them to safety.

Church, let’s get unstuck together and then be the kind of church in our city, for our city, who feels holy discontentment for people who feel stuck in their lives.

Friends, we’re on the threshold, and the Lord has spoken and said, “Remember whose you are.” as we walk into our future, together! We were made to live free and help others find their freedom in Christ.

Simply come to him.

Receive his Spirit and the mark of his promise.

Show your faith by stepping into the waters of baptism today… in just a few moments.

And then lead the way for others to find their safe home under the scarlet cord.

Heavenly Father…

Baptism Call

Invite One: Show your mark, step into the waters today, and follow the way of Jesus. Everything is ready. We have clothes and a towel for you. (Cover logistics) Though you may feel awkward walking to the front, we feel so glad and will be cheering for you every step of the way!

Invite Two: Jesus said, “believe and be baptized.” If you have placed your trust in Jesus for the promise of your salvation, then show your mark, and let’s help others find their freedom in Christ! Let today be your day.

Invite Three: Some of you

1. Their hearts melted in fear and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. Joshua 5:2

2. “At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise this second generation of Israelites.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

Joshua 5:2-3

3. Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died in the wilderness. Those who left Egypt had all been circumcised, but none of those born after the Exodus, during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised. The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey. So Joshua circumcised their sons—those who had grown up to take their fathers’ places—for they had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land. After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were healed.

4. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day. Joshua 5:4-9

5. Are you fully devoted to your Savior?

6. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

7. True circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. Romans 2:29

8. People are dying.

Lives are in the balance.

Families are on the brink.

Eternity is at stake.

And the time of judgment will come for all of us who have ever borrowed the breath of God.

9. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8

10. Do you want to become unstuck and live free?

11. [[[Show pic of stuck elevator]]]

12. [[[Play Tower of Terror scene]]]

13. [[[Show small elevator opening]]]

14. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

15. [[[Show pic of Tommy and me]]]

16. Let someone meet you in your elevator, in your stuck place.

Humble yourself enough to receive it.

Identify your emotions.

Feel them all the way through to completion.

17. Take captive your thoughts, and make them obedient to Christ! 2 Corinthians 10:5

18. Listen to trustworthy voices.

Share your burden

Choose to walk through your threshold and into freedom.

19. Don’t push.

Earn the right to be heard.

Seek to understand.

Ask great questions.

Listen well

Prove yourself trustworthy

Help them get unstuck, while keeping them safe

Guard their dignity

Keep it real

20. Do you want to become unstuck? Jesus asked it like this: “Do you want to get well?” John 5:6