I Am Number 12 | Dr. Dharius Daniels | Elevation Church

elevation church every location that we put our hands together and give jesus the best praise we got [Music] hey let's let's pray together i believe preaching should lead from and to prayer father we are grateful the fact that we're able to worship you this week is evidence of your faithfulness your faithfulness is not ordinary it's been great today we're reminded of the testimony of the scriptures that when we were faithless you were faithful that even when we walked away from you you never walked away from us we thank you for that today thank you for your your goodness that's been demonstrated all around us we we pause for this cause of expressing thanksgiving for things that we've taken for granted this week things we've looked over and we declare that no matter what it is it doesn't change who you are we declare your goodness to our souls this we pray your your blessing on this gathering you're the only one that could say something to all of us but say something different to each of us at the same time so locate us through your word find us wherever we are speak to us in a way that lets us know that we are seen by you known by you cared about by you i thank you for this and i pray for the empowering presence of the holy spirit your anointing to equip me to teach your word to your people and knowing you like we know you we already have what we've asked you for so we thank you for these things in the name of the one that saved our life his name is jesus if you love him one more time put your hands together well listen if you're in the room's physical locations you can be seated so glad to be with you today always an honor i feel like i'm y'all cousin now we family and so it's so so good to be here as always i just want to give a major shout out to my friend and my brother um he i got a wednesday uh morning appointment with him every wednesday via youtube uh every wednesday while i'm working out today i listen to sermons i don't listen to a lot of them but i listen to him each week and he just adds such tremendous value to my life as a person um as a leader and also as one of the greatest communicators of god's word around the world we celebrate him today um the incredible leadership he he provides and to his amazing wife holly the the the kids i love the natural family and this this spiritual family this this incredible team you got here and you know i've been trying to do this church thing for a while doing the best i can i've learned though you don't go as far as your dream you go as far as your team so shout out to this incredible team that god has sent to this house and is using to change lives around the world so it's something i want to share today as i was thinking through and praying about what direction to go i was reminded of a concept that really started stern in my heart um several years ago and i did some teachings on it then and but it's re-emerged because i'm in the process now process now i'm writing my next book and it's kind of going to be birthed from this concept and so it's just it's all in me i can't get away from it so uh now you're going to have to suffer for it today because i want to share and unload this i want to read a small part of a scripture found in the gospel of matthew chapter number 14. i want to look at verse 28 and i want to read just a couple of verses there and i want to use that text as a launching pad to leap into our lesson y'all ready for the word today yes matthew chapter 14 verse 28 says this this is peter talking he says lord if it's you tell me to come to you on the water come jesus said then peter got down out of the boat walked on water and came toward jesus then peter got down out of the boat walked on water and came toward jesus then peter got down out of the boat walked on water and came toward jesus then peter got down out of the boat walked on water and came toward jesus then peter got down out of the boat he walked on the water and he came toward jesus i want to use this scripture as a foundation for this lesson in our time together today i want to talk from this subject i am number 12. i am number 12. family there are a number of words that can be used to describe those of us who have accepted jesus as the leader of our life and the forgiver of our sin the number of words the bible uses none of those words imply or suggest normal all throughout scripture we see an array of adjectives that the authors of scripture use to describe and depict the nature and character of god's people and none of those adjectives in any way suggests normal the bible uses words like salt light special chosen royal blessed beloved anointed peculiar chosen head not tail above only not beneath all of these words are used by the authors of scripture to articulate to us who we are [Applause] my question is why if i am that why do you have to tell me that and maybe it's because just because something is a spiritual truth doesn't mean it's my personal experience [Applause] that the question that that that we need to i believe ask and and answer is is really a question that can be answered by this sage named solomon when he says in his collection of thoughts and axioms a book of the bible called proverbs when he says this as a man or woman thinks in their heart so is he which means maybe one of the reasons god reiterates and regularly repeats to us who we are from his perspective is because god knows we will always live in a way that's consistent with the way you see yourself am i making sense here yeah maybe he's trying to do some holy and healthy brain washing [Applause] paul would call it i know that was a little harsh but paul would call it then mind renewal that's better yeah he was mind renewal he wants to retrain the brain because he knows you're going to behave in a way that's consistent with the way you see yourself so so like in numbers 13 when i tell you you can defeat the enemy and occupy canaland you're going to see the giants and look at yourself and see yourself as a grasshopper so you're not going to fight a fixed fight not because of who you are but because of how you see yourself and what if i tell what if i told you that in this season of many of our lives what god's trying to do is not just trying to change our mind about the world or change our mind about external and existential things maybe what god's trying to do is to change your mind about you maybe what god's trying to do is to get you to see yourself the way he sees you so that you can behave in a way that's consistent with the way he sees you and not the way you see yourself [Applause] all throughout scripture we see this and i believe this pattern in scripture is a picture of a principle i've affectionately entitled the principle of exception i think last time we were here we talked about the principle of perspective but but this principle is the principle of exception what's an exception there is an exception is an anomaly it's a deviation it's an abnormality it's a rule breaker you do know your god is a rule breaker you do know last week we celebrated god breaking the ultimate rule because nobody goes in a tomb and stays there three days and then gets up but god who's the god of the exception knows how to break a rule is there anybody watching anybody that can look back over your life and remind yourself that he broke some rules for me that the only reason i'm saying in the membrane is because he broke some rules for me he's a rule breaker you know what grace does breaks rules a theologian sly marker calls it scandalous when he describes grace he uses the word scandalous he said that's just that's just not for right to give me what i don't deserve scandalous it's this principle of exception here's the principal family what happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me what happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me it suggests that previous patterns are not accurate indicators of future possibilities it means that you can't just lump me into some statistical category and then tell me because i fit certain criteria and certain statistics that that's going to dictate my destiny i can't say what happened with everybody else but i do know that i serve the god who breaks rules he's the god of the exception and what happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me i know there may be people who went through what you're going through and who didn't recover but god's the god of the exception i know maybe the likelihood of us overcoming some of the obstacles that we are facing maybe that likelihood is low but just because something is unlikely doesn't mean it's impossible god is the god of the exception what happens with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me it means that you can't look at them and then tell me based on what happened with them what god wants to do with me i shouldn't even be here today i'm from kill michael mississippi population 630 people your pastor's from monk's corner south carolina i don't even know where that is but i know god is able to look at your history and say that has absolutely nothing to do with your destiny see see i want you to catch this exceptionism is not the same as exceptionalism i want to be clear on that this what we're saying from a cr not cultural from a christian perspective this we're not saying we're better than we're saying we're different from this is not a declaration of superiority this is a declaration of distinction [Applause] and what we're saying is our distinction is not always in our experiences our distinction is oftentimes in our outcomes what does that mean it means that we may go through some of the exact same things that other people go through but our distinction is not in that we don't go through our distinction is the way we come out we may go in the same thing but we're not going to come out the same way [Applause] i may go into fiery furnace but i'm going to come out not smelling like smoke i may go in the lion's den but i'm going to come out not being consumed [Applause] we go through what others go through but we don't have to come out the way others come out this is not a denial of norms but rather a belief that we don't have to be limited by them governed by them or imprisoned by them or defined by them there are always exceptions why can't you be one of them if you do research most people that go in lions dens don't come out but with daniel god made an exception if you were to do a focus group you discover women in their 90s don't have babies but with sarah god made an exception if you would do a survey uh regarding whether or not screaming at walls will make walls fall down but when joshua instructed israel to do that with the walls of jericho god made an exception teenagers don't defeat giants who've been trained in military warfare their entire life with a fling slingshot and a rock but with a dude named david god made an exception and watch this watch this dead men don't go in a grave stay there three days and then get up early sunday morning but with jesus god made an exception and the same god that did it for daniel that did it for the hebrew boys that did it for joshua that did it for david that did it for jesus is the same god that's doing it right now i seen you move you moved the mountains and i believe i'll see you do it again he's the god of exceptions i said he's the god of exceptions and there's a word that's often used to describe those that understand and embrace this principle now recently recently been exploring if you're in the room you can please i recently been been exploring this uh this concept because um right now i even i've been recently working on this these messages and i'm working on this this message around grace and one of the things i've been struggling with is like you know i think most christians understand grace conceptually i just think i don't think most christians actually receive it [Music] right i think conceptually they could say yes i get god doesn't judge me that i get god's going to respond to me according to the finished work of jesus and everything that i do is simply in response to that finished work it's not a substitute to that finish work because if it's finished it's finished so i think most christians would agree with that conceptually but if i would say do you struggle with condemnation they probably say yes i do why because you understand but understanding it and embracing it is something different so there's a word that we can use to describe those that not only understand this principle of exception but embrace it and i think our foundational passage here in matthew gives us an amazing example of this adjective this word and the word is water walkers what's that cause that that's that's an exception water walkers those that walk on what other people drown in one writer one writer noted that the bible is inundated with examples of people who do walking god walked in the garden of eden in the cool of day enoch walked with god abraham walked to mount moriah moses walked through the red sea on dry ground joshua walked around the walls of jericho the disciples walked on emmaus road jesus walked the via de la rosa all throughout scripture we see examples of people walking but here in matthew chapter 14 we see something different because in all the other examples i mentioned people are walking on the ground in matthew chapter 14 we see an exception we see two people this is important two people walking on water yeah it's it's it's really interesting the the contextually what happens here i think we picked up in the latter part of the story but contextually this this instance this story transpires right after jesus has matthew records jesus performing a miracle with two fish and five loaves of bread so powerful out verse 22 actually begins with the word immediately saying as soon as jesus is finished performing this miracle he tells his disciples now i want you to get on the boat i want you to go to the other side and i'm going to pull up on you later that's what he says get in this boat you go to the other side i'm i'm pull up on you later the disciples do exactly what he said they get in the boat and the bible says that jesus does this he goes off to a solitary place to pray this is so interesting to me family so he puts them on the boat sends them ahead of him he goes off to a solitary place to pray which means they have a head start the bible says they have a head start of hours they have a head start of hours they're rowing or sailing for hours and then all of a sudden in the middle of the night they see jesus walking they've been rowing but he's walking i want you to catch this they they had to invest some some sweat equity get to get to where they were they probably had to do some straining even if they had to put up a sale they had to strain if they had to roll they had to strain they're straining but jesus is stepping they have a head start but he catches up because while they are exerting energy and effort he's praying and so because he reset himself spiritually he was able to accelerate himself naturally i'm going to say that one more time because he reset himself spiritually he was able to accelerate himself naturally see some places we're trying to get to by straining and rowing and grinding not realizing that to get to some places you can get there quicker if you've got spiritual stamina so so it's okay to take a moment and say i got to pause for the cause and reset myself spiritually because while you are rowing your way there and while you have a head start god knows how to get me there another way right on schedule and i want to encourage somebody right now who's who's standing on the shore and you see people ahead of you they're ahead of you professionally they're ahead of you relationally you waiting to walk the aisle they've already walked the aisle they're ahead of you spiritually i want to let you know that god is the god of exception so this means he's the god of acceleration he'll help you make up for lost time [Applause] this is interesting listen to this family they see this silhouette walking on the water and peter asks lord is it you here's my question if you've been walking with me eating with me learning from me being mentored by me for three years how do you not know what i look like and maybe it's because before we judge peter maybe it's because god doesn't always show up looking like god in a storm [Applause] text says they were dealing with some turbulent sea and wrestling with the storm and jesus shows up and peter's like who is that because god doesn't always look like god in a storm and so we got to be careful because the text says they said it's a ghost they said what we got to be careful because in a storm you will prematurely label something one thing and then when the storm is over you'll look back and say oh that was god i'm telling somebody the thing you're calling pain in this season you're gonna look back in another season and say that was god the thing you're saying is a closed door in this season you're going to look back in another season and say that was god let me help my singles who ready to mingle the thing you're calling a breakup in this season you're going to look back in the next season and say that was god because god didn't always show up looking like god in a storm there are doors that close in my face in certain seasons of my life that cause me pain and feelings of rejection and inadequacy and now i look back at some of those seasons and say that wasn't rejection that was god that was protection he was protecting me in a season where i didn't have the discernment to avoid walking through the wrong door so peter says this he says okay lord if it's really you tell me to come to you on the water and the bible says we read it together jesus said come peter said if it's you tell me to come to you on the water and the bible says jesus said come peter said if it's you tell me to come to you on the water and the bible says that jesus says come sometimes we don't walk on water because come is not enough jesus didn't say come then i'm going to suspend gravity and then you're going to walk on water jesus didn't say come i want you to take 12 steps to the left and 12 steps to the right because some of us are wired like me and we're very detail oriented i don't want to just come i won't know where we're going which route are we taking how long is it going to take for us to get there but sometimes in dealing with god sometimes if we're going to walk on water sometimes if we're going to be the exception we've got to learn how to go on a com [Applause] so you got to learn how to be able to move with the information that i give you at the pace that i give it to you because god will never inform us incompletely but he will inform us incrementally he says i'm gonna give you more information on the way he says i give you the information that you need not the information you prefer and the bible says this peter steps down out of the boat walks on water but matthew tells us he does that to come toward jesus so he's not trying to walk on water simply to walk on water he's not trying to spiritualize his ego and his ambition he's not trying to do something major just to do something major he's not trying to blow up just to blow up he's trying to get to jesus [Applause] but i saw something it's interesting to me the text only says that peter does it but all the disciples were in the boat but only peter had enough whatever and there are number words we can put in there faith naivety i don't know but only peter stepped out are you all ready for this there are 11 others in the boat peter looks at the 11 and said i'm number 12. i'm not built for the boat i'm wired for the water i'm not better than you but i'm different and if you're okay in the boat that's okay but i'm not but i can't make my personal decision based on where the majority is sitting so peter says i see what the 11 are doing but what i'm doing is i'm looking at jesus and i got to make a decision who's going to influence what i do more the one walking on the water [Applause] or the 11th sitting in the boat i'm going to tell you if you're going to be a water walker there are times where you're going to have to make a decision to say i'd rather be like jesus than the 11 sitting in the boat can you imagine the pressure he felt can you imagine the pressure he felt the 11 whispering to themselves he got out of there anyway can you imagine his struggling emotionally but he got out of there anyway because i don't know how big this boat was but matthew says we read this that peter got down out of the boat because that's the only way we're able to exemplify this principle of exception because to get over the ego to get over the insecurity to get over the potential embarrassment you got to go down [Applause] humility because all wrestling with the ego is is wrestling with pride he got down had a boat walked on water and came toward jesus and i believe on today that i'm preaching in a number 12 church preaching for a number 12 pastor preaching to some number 12 people god would not put you under the leadership of a number 12 pastor and call you to be a part of a number 12 church if he intended for you to live a number 11 life you got a number 12 destiny on you you are a rule breaker you are a deviator you are a testament of the miraculous miracle working power of god you're number 12 so that means you got to be okay sometimes being the only one that's not in the boat listen to me i know this is weird math but you can't be number 12 if you're not okay being the only one because sometimes number 12s are the only one in the room only one on the board only one taking that approach only one that says i'm not going to allow my age to defy and dictate what i can and cannot do that god is sovereign if he's sovereign he can do anything for any reason and any season and so culture may try to limit you because of your age or because of your gender or because of your socioeconomic status but god is a god that will blow up the cultural categories and the social norms and perform exceptions you're number 12. and the struggles that number 12 have is they don't want to leave the 11 in the boat but they can't live with themselves if they don't go toward jesus [Music] it's tension because there's the pressure to fit in and stand out at the same time it's not wanting to be weird for weird's sake it's not wanting to be different for different sake it's not wanting to be to be uh um an anomaly just to be an anomaly it's an authentic internal tension that i feel the connection with the eleven and i want to be okay with the boat i want to be okay with the boat i just can't and i believe i'm talking to people god burned my heart with this message i believe that there i'm that god is talking to people through the scriptures affirming and reaffirming this is who you are and sometimes number 12 doesn't mean just doing different things sometimes it means doing the same things different ways because everybody walks that's the same thing but what peter did is he walked on water he did the same thing a different way [Applause] am i making sense so i want to share really quickly three things here that i see in this text that i think are incredibly important for those of us who want to walk out what we see portrayed in this passage here's number one the first thing we got to do is this we got to embrace our uniqueness now notice i didn't say understand your uniqueness i said embrace it because your uniqueness will always feel like awkwardness until you get to a season where god shows you its relevance [Music] i'm gonna say that one more time your uniqueness will feel like awkwardness until god gets you to a season where he shows you its relevance your uniqueness will feel like awkwardness until god gets you to a season where he shows you its relevance so when we look at peter he was impulsive he's always been that way temperamental unpredictable at times borderline volatile but he was what that wiring was redeemed by god and that same uniqueness and that same weirdness was something that god used to cause him to step out of the boat and to walk on water because he had to get to a season where he saw its relevance and there are some things that feel weird about you that are one of the most valuable things about you but god's got to get you to a season where he shows you this is why i wired you this way embrace your uniqueness number two you're gonna have to brace it with it because number two gonna have to walk in the wind see i stopped reading the story with peter he getting out of that boat walking on water that's that that's a that's an amazing place to end but it's not the end of the story the bible says peter gets out of the boat and he walks on water and the text says as long as he keeps his eyes on jesus he's able to walk on the water but the story says he sees the wind and when he sees the wind he takes his eyes off of jesus and begins to sink notice this now the text says he sees the wind listen to me family you can't see wind you can feel wind you can hear wind you can't see wind you can only see what the wind is affecting and when peter starts looking at what the wind is affecting what does that do it takes his focus and when he lost his focus he lost his balance and when he lost his balance he began to sink peter didn't lose vision he lost focus so he was able to walk a little while and begin to sink i want to tell you if you're going to be number 12 if i'm going to be number 12 we got to walk with the wind if we're waiting for the wind to stop blowing that's not going to happen you might be in a season where the wind's not blowing right now but keep living something's going to blow in your direction and if it doesn't blow on you it's gonna blow on something around you it might blow in the home it might blow with this on the spouse might blow with the children might blow in the workplace and the question is can i keep on walking when the wind is blowing because the wind can't destroy you but you're being distracted can cause you to destroy yourself [Music] walking in the wind means i have to do more than have strong faith walking in the wind means i need to have long faith [Music] the question isn't just how strong is my belief is how long can i believe can i keep walking when the wind is blowing and i want to tell somebody who's dealing with some wind right now to keep on walking with tears in your eyes keep on walking with confusion in your mind keep on walking with despondency and discouragement in your heart keep on walking you gotta walk in the wind and pray in the wind and believe in the wind embrace your uniqueness walk in the wind last point number three scream for the savior it's in the text the bible says that as peter took his eyes off jesus he began to sink but he didn't allow the sinking to cause him to go silent listen to me every water walker will sink but you don't have to drown peter sank but he didn't drown because he knew to scream for the savior and the bible says that jesus not only picked him up but he walked him back to safety on the boat what am i saying see watch this water walkers may sink but they don't have to allow their pride to cause them to drown he said you know what i'ma do i'm gonna scream for the savior and all throughout scripture old testament and new testament i see this i seen this and i'm so like i think god's helping me be more balanced but i'm so like analytical that i would i would see like this pattern of these exuberant outbursts in the bible and then i grew up in church i've been in church my whole life 41 years and nine months i would see that i'm like oh that's all right that's cool you know [Music] i didn't quite get it jericho wall they shouted blind bartimaeus mark 10 jesus walking by scream jesus son of david have mercy on me the syrophoenician woman who wanted jesus to intervene with her daughter she was persistent so persistent the disciples said send her away she cries after us nobody coming for them they came for jesus she bothering us the metaphor here is not literal screaming that's not what i'm trying to get across that's what i'm trying to get across here this is so important that his screaming for the savior was a revelation of his reliance on god and not just his own steps i'm just telling you no matter how good a stepper you are you're going to hit a space where you sink that no matter what you do god's not going to let you do it without god and so this these please that you see in scripture where people are raising their voices they are expressions of faith because you don't call on people to help that you don't believe can help and you don't call on people to help that you don't believe will help and he screamed for the savior and this didn't quite make sense to me till i was reading the psalms i'm done i was reading the psalms and it's what the psalmist says he says through the praise of youth you have established a stronghold around my enemies so i say wait a minute praise a stronghold a stronghold in the bible's like a fence i say oh this isn't just spiritual this is mental that when i begin to remind god of who he is i'm not really reminding him because he hadn't forgot my praise reminds me of who god is and when i'm reminded of who god is that produces offense and a stronghold and some negative thoughts that we're getting through can't get through and doubt that was getting through can't get through and hopelessness that was getting through can't get through because my praise doesn't just remind god of who he is it reminds me of who he is and i want someone who's watching someone who's in this room every location every home in your own way will you just take a moment and remind yourself of who your god is [Applause] you're not number 11 you're number 12. [Music] and a message [Music] a message this message i think is more than just the message i think it is the testimony of jesus different anomaly and the destiny of those who are courageous enough listen to me to make a decision to be like the one walking on the water and not the 11 sitting in the boat you don't want to pray for i want to pray for you but you know what i pray for i pray for two things i know i needed these in my journey [Music] i'm sure your pastors needed these in his i don't know of another pastor that preaches as good as him and then writes songs and then leads how you do that that's different in it but i'm gonna tell you two things it takes to do that i want to pray for this for us it takes courage number one because it's one thing to have clarity it's another thing to have the courage to actually step out of that boat and to and to be who you feel like you've been called to be sometimes it's not just courage to do something sometimes it's courage just to be it takes courage and then two it's going to take resilience because the wind's going to blow and you're going to be tempted to get back in the boat because it feels easier in there but every time you're tempted to do that this is my prayer i don't know if a preacher's ever prayed this for you i'm gonna pray that god gets on your nerves i'm gonna pray that he agitates you with a infects you with a holy discontent so that every time you start going back to that boat [Music] there's an internal alarm that goes off on the inside of you that says to you you're not built for this so father i pray right now for people all over the world that are watching this and you're speaking to them affirming to them who they are and who they've been called to be i pray that you would grant us two things i pray for courage i pray for i pray for courage to step out of that boat even if our feet are trembling to walk on water if our legs are shaking i pray for courage to do it anyway i thank you for this and lord i pray for resilience i pray for long faith i pray for faith to finish to walk in the midst of the wind and i just thank you that you're releasing this today that you're adding value to your people in this way [Music] and that you are losing number 12s all over the world to be who they've been called and created to be and may it be said of us as it was said of the early church these are they that have turned the world upside down in jesus name amen

Channel: Elevation Church

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Keywords: elevation church, dharius daniels, i am number 12, elevation church sermons, steven furtick, pastor steven furtick, doctor dharius daniels, dharius daniels sermons, steven furtick sermons, 2021 sermons, preaching, preacher, the principle of exception, exception, different, perspective, courage, faith, humility, rule breaker, water walking, peter, grace, destiny, embrace your uniqueness, walk in the wind, scream for the savior, sermons about identity

Id: nuIlsc5Ffvs

Length: 50min 15sec (3015 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021