Thank you. church, and when my nearest to my
age friends were in children's church, we would
always sing This is the Day almost every single
Sunday. And we had this really cool thing we
did where we would sit down and we'd stand up
and then we'd sit down and we'd stand up. And
then we'd sit down and we'd stand up. So what
we're going to do, we're going to break the room
in kind of half. So Ricky, Ricky, you are the
middle of the room. Today, if you want to say.
You are on that side. And you are going to be,
so this side, the right side of the room, you're
going to be the lead part. That's what it's called.
And you're going to follow Alicia and Nikki and
Tim. And then this side over here, we're the
echo. And you're going to follow Amalia and me
and Joshua. So, on the stage, people, not playing
an instrument, get your squad. Alright, so...
Thank you. We got this. That would be fantastic.
So, first, I haven't been here since our Chilli
Dog Sauce Competition, so I would like to say,
once again, congratulations to our winner. In
first place, Miss June Brister. you donate, your
name will be entered into this bucket, and then
on the 21st after service, you will draw a name
for this book from this bucket, and then the
lucky winner will be putting a pot in Deacon
Tony's face. is the God's Kids Corn Maze Outing.
See Miss Jenny for details. And then on the 21st,
is that correct? The 21st, that is the Gate Crasher
Corn Maze Outing. See Miss Sherry for more details.
All right, so I have one more thing for you this
morning. Something kind of new, something kind
of crazy, but that is me. So this is our new
verse for the month of Joshua 5 .12. So with
that being said, on the board, in the hallway,
in a pink sequins pencil bag, there are verse
cards such as the one Pastor Dan is holding up.
So what your challenge is is to grab a verse
card, memorize the verse, send a verse to a team
leader or Pastor Dan or Mr. Tony, and then they'll
sign the card, you'll write your name on the
card, and then you will give that card back to
me or my mom because I have to work every day.
And then we will enter those products into a
drawing at the end of the month and there will
be a prize. What will that prize be? I don't
know. What more do you need than memorizing God's
word? That's right. That was a prize for yourself,
but we'll have a little something something for
you. So, without further ado, do we have any
prayer requests? Melissa? I have a report on
the 16th for full legal custody of Dalton. Absolutely.
I work with two pregnant ladies. One of them
has been pregnant only for a couple months now.
The other one is ready to pop at any moment.
And then you also keep my manager in prayer.
He lost his dad on Thursday. So he's going to,
for him and his family, the Connelly family.
And all I have right now, so, again, Miss Nikki,
we open this up. Oh, I can't speak. Open us up
in prayer, please. Thank you, Jesus. Father God,
we just thank you for bringing us together on
this glorious, even though it is cloudy, Lord,
it's still the day that you made it, Lord. We
just thank you for bringing us together. Lord,
we ask that. out, Lord, you know what they need,
Lord, so we just pray that your will be done,
Lord, whatever it may be. Lord, we just ask that
you continue to bless us as we go about our day
today and as we go about this week, Lord. And
we pray that, Lord, we just ask you to help our
pastor today as we bring forth that word. We
just thank you and we just bless your name in
Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, ladies and gentlemen,
if you are willing and able, I don't want to
step on toes, will you join us in singing Strong
Tower? Shelter. They call it a sacrament. In
England, they call it a ritual. But really, to
us, it is a command. It's something that God
gave us to do. And the reason he gave us to do
it is so we would not forget the great sacrifice
of Jesus. The bread that we eat represents the
body of Jesus. The blood that we drink represents
the blood of Jesus. And these things were broken
and poured out for us to pay for sin so that
we might have salvation. So we might have heaven
one day and his presence with us here now and
on the earth. At the same time, realize that
it is in contrast. It is in stark contrast to
the way the rest of the world works. I want to
read a couple of verses to you from my spot here.
A couple of verses to you from the book of Proverbs.
Thank you very much. So in the book of Proverbs,
it's talking about wisdom, it's talking about
the teachings of God, talking about the word
of God and telling us we should live by them
and so on. And then it says this about, quote
unquote, the others. And so Proverbs divides
the world into sort of two groups, if you will.
And it says this, it says, for they cannot sleep
unless they do evil. So they have a plan every
day. They're working to pursue what they want,
and they don't mind hurting people along the
way. It doesn't mean hurting people physically,
but it can be psychologically, emotionally. It
can be pursuing money. It can be whatever. And
it says, and they are robbed of sleep unless
they make someone else stumble. And in verse
17 it says, for they eat the bread of wickedness,
and they drink the wine of violence. And so the
rest of the world. The non -God people. I'm not
naming them. I'm not saying that I know who they
are. But the people who are not in love with
God, the people who do not follow God, they have
their bread and their wine as well. That's what
Proverbs just said. And the wine and the bread
that they eat of has both a description and an
effect in those verses that I just read. They
eat the bread of wickedness. And they drink the
wine of violence. And so the description is wickedness
and violence. So they are sustained. They feel
healthy. They feel strong when they eat the bread
of wickedness. So they go after what the world
wants. They go after the things that their eyes
see that they like, that they desire, that they
want to pursue, that they taste, that feels good
to them, that their body feels energized by,
etc. And those things are things that do not
honor God. And they want them, and so they go
after them. And then they drink the wine of violence.
Violence is not what you think it is here. It's
not the punching somebody in the face if they
want to punch somebody in the face. That is a
kind of violence. But this kind of violence,
what it's talking about, is emotive energy, doing
things out of your feelings. And so you get somebody
makes you mad, and you punch them. We call that
violence. Right? That's not good. Somebody makes
you afraid, you may run, right? Because that's
out of the energy that you're feeling of your
fear or your anger, you act. So this is saying
they act largely out of their emotions. So that
also is not good. I can't tell you the number
of times someone has said to me that they don't
feel. I don't feel like he likes me, or my feelings
are hurt because she said something I didn't
like, or I feel angry at them, right? And then
their actions come out of those feelings, and
that is not what it means to be a follower of
God. Our actions do not arise out of our feelings.
That would be drinking the wine of violence based
on what this verse says. Our actions arise out
of what we know to be true. I was dealing with
a rheologist a day before yesterday, in fact,
and she said, I feel like this. And she said,
I think it was candy, actually. I'm pretty sure
it was over candy. Now, I'm not picking on the
candy thing because, you know, candy is cool,
right? But the point is, she said, I feel like
I should be allowed to have a piece of candy.
And I said, it doesn't matter what you feel.
What really matters is what's true. And I said,
what's true? What's the rule? She said, well,
I can't have candy until I achieve it. Sort of
shortened it until later, but it's until after
dinner or lunch. So we have a dessert, one dessert
a day after dinner or lunch. And so she knew
she couldn't, but she wanted it and she felt
it. And then when she realized that she was just
feeling it, but it wasn't really right, she dismissed
it and she didn't get any more trouble. And she's
four. Why is it that 40, 50, 60 -year -olds can't
realize that sometimes you feel something, but
that's not the truth, right? Have you ever been
talking to somebody and they say something and
then you go, oh, I think they did that to hurt
me. Right? I think they did that just to hurt
me. That was spiteful. And that's what you feel.
But you don't really know it's true, even if
it seems like it was true. You don't really know
that. You go to the person and talk to them and
they say, yeah, you know, I meant to hurt you
or I'm angry at you or they cuss you out or something.
Well, now you know. Right? A lot of times people
are out of their feelings. Okay? So, that's the
bread of those who do not know God. Then, Jesus
gave us this. This is actually from the writings
of Paul, talking about what Jesus did on the
night before his arrest. Paul says, I received
from the Lord that which I also delivered to
you. that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which
he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had
given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my
body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance
of me. Notice that herein there is a description
and also an action plan, if you will, or the
outcome. There is the bread, which represents
his body, and the outcome or the action plan
is thanks. So we recognize that Jesus paid with
his body to pay for our sins, so we thank him.
How is that different from the action plan that
was in Proverbs? They eat of the bread, they
drink of the wine. The bread is evil or wickedness,
and the wine is violence or acting out of your
emotions. And they can't sleep. They can't rest
unless they have had that to eat or drink. So
we rest and sleep. And know that we are okay
and give thanks because of the bread that we
eat, which is the body of Jesus Christ or symbolic
of the body of Jesus Christ, knowing that Jesus
paid for us. So if you go to bed tonight and
you lay your head down on the pillow and you
don't know that Jesus died for you, then you
might want to give some thought to that. On the
other hand, there will be those who lay their
head down tonight and they can't rest. They don't
know Jesus, but they've worked throughout the
day to live by their emotions, to do what they
felt was right, to do what they wanted, to go
after their desires, and so they can rest. But
if you know God, you need to know Jesus. Jesus
said, this is my body, which was broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way,
he took the cup. Also, after supper, saying,
this cup is the new covenant in my blood. And
we kind of tend to leave that out, but that's
the phrase that Jesus used. And a covenant is
a promise. It's a deal. Your part, my part. That's
a covenant. And he was making a covenant with
us. The new covenant is my blood. Do this as
often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And
he was reminding us that his blood was poured
out for his sin, but he was also reminding us
that that seals the deal. Your sins are washed
away. Your need to respond out of your emotions,
that's washed away. That's dealt with now. Your
need to eat of wickedness, to feel like you're
getting ahead in the world, that you're getting
what you want, that's dealt with now. Okay? And
he said, that's the new covenant. Sins are washed
away by the breaking of Jesus' body and by the
pouring out of his blood, and that's paid for
what we did wrong. Now, if you're here today
and you're about to take the Lord's Supper, and
all of us are, at least all of us that want to
and are willing to do so, There's a couple things
out of that that I need you to see. Number one
thing is, this is about Jesus. Which means, if
you don't believe in Jesus, if you have nothing
to do with Jesus, there's kind of two things.
One, you could just not take that. You don't
have to take the bread. You don't have to take
the juice. If you're searching, trying to figure
out, is Jesus real? You don't have to take it.
You can take it or not, really. And it's just
bread, it's just juice, if you do want to take
it. So if you're here today and you don't know
Jesus, and you know you don't know Jesus, but
you don't want to stand out like you don't know
Jesus, then feel free to take a little piece
of bread and a little drink of juice, and it's
not going to bother anybody. On the other hand,
if you're here and you know you don't know Jesus,
then I'm asking you, what's keeping you back?
The free gift of salvation offered by God. God
is offering you a free gift. Will you accept
Jesus? That's it. And if you're old enough to
understand that question and to say, I want to
live for God, then you're old enough to accept
Jesus. And you say, okay, I believe. I'm willing.
I'll let God lead me. Whether you're 6 or 7 and
can understand or 40 or 50 and can understand.
If you can understand, you say, I'll accept Jesus.
I will let Jesus lead me. I will live for Jesus
the best I can from now on. And you do that right
now. There's not going to be a song of invitation.
There's not going to be an opportunity for you
to walk forward and say, I'm living for Jesus,
which would be a great thing to do. I highly
recommend you do that. If you're a kid, and right
now as I'm talking, you're accepting Jesus, and
you say, I believe in Jesus for the first time,
then when you go to class, you tell your Sunday
school teacher that you accepted Jesus today,
and you're going to let Jesus lead you from now
on and let them talk you through it. But you
don't have to wait until then. If you're accepting
right now, then you take the Lord's Supper. Remember
that it's his body and his blood. If you're an
adult in the room today, or youth, and you're
in here during the sermon today, then we get
time for the invitation. That's your opportunity
to publicly proclaim and say, I am accepting
Jesus. But you could be doing it right now. You
don't have to wait until the sermon. Right now,
in your mind, in your heart, say, I am truly
accepting Jesus. I'm willing to live for God
from now on. The best I know how. The best God
teaches me how. Right? The second thing, I said
they were true. The second thing is, if you do
know Jesus, this needs to be, this moment in
time is really the only moment that you have.
You don't have tomorrow. You don't have an hour
from now. You don't have 10 days from now. Those
don't belong to you. They belong to God. You
don't have an hour ago or 10 years ago, even
though that's your history and only you were
there and only you know everything that happened
other than God and you've probably forgotten
a lot more than he has. You only have right now.
And in this moment, we are going to take the
bread, which represents the crushed body of Jesus,
and we are going to take the wine, which represents
the poured out blood of Jesus. This is huge.
It's bigger than the sermon that will come in
15, 20 minutes from now, because this moment
you have. So ask yourself right now, have you
been living for God? Have you been making your
decisions in line with the way God would want
you to? And there's no fixing it because you
only have this moment. You can't go back and
fix yesterday. But what you can do is turn to
God right now and say, I want to take this, the
Lord's Supper, as my bread and my wine, the body
of my Savior, the blood of my Lord. It's a very
serious matter for those of you who believe to
remember that the ultimate sacrifice was paid.
Not by a man, although he was a man. but by God,
because he was also God. We're going to pray
together briefly at this time, then I'll ask
the Deacon Yoke fellows to come, and we'll proceed
with the Lord's Supper. Let's pray. Father in
heaven, if there be amongst us those who came
in the room today not knowing you in earnest,
not desiring to live for you for real, but they've
been thinking as I've been speaking about whether
they want to live for you, whether they want
to know you personally, whether they want to
invite you in as a friend. And I ask you, Lord,
to do that in them right now. To show them that
you love them, that you want to be a part of
their life, and that you want them to be a part
of everything that you're doing. If there is
someone who came in the room today already believing,
and they've not been living for you the way that
they should, Lord, give them right now the strength.
I know that evil spirits are probably wandering
their mind and saying things and distracting
and tempting. And diligence and faithfulness
is hard when you haven't been doing that. And
Lord, just help them come back to you right now
in this moment and just let it all be about you.
If we can only get 60 seconds right, God, then
let us get this 60 seconds right as we honor
you remembering what you did. And Lord, if there's
somebody in the room today who came in here and
not a Christian, maybe they've been lying about
it. Maybe they didn't know anything about it.
And they don't feel entirely comfortable right
now turning their life over you because that's
a big decision. The Lord, as the Lord's Supper
comes around, as the bread comes around, the
juice comes around, just speak to their hearts.
Comfort them. Let them know they can take it
or not take it. As long as they commit themselves
to continue to ask, are you God? Are you there?
Am I supposed to be following you? And you'll
be okay. Lord, help us. We draw closer to you
today through this. Some would say ritual. Some
would say sacrament. But we know it's a command.
It's an ordinance. It's a rule that we must remember.
We must remember what we've done and live accordingly.
Please help us do that. In Jesus' name, amen.
The Deacon Yofels will come forward, and then
I'll ask Ms. June and Ms. Sherry, would you prepare
the table? I think Brother Ron may have gotten
a call. Is that true? He's on call this weekend.
Okay. So as the bread comes around, I'll ask
you to take it, but don't eat it until we all
eat it together. And at this time, I'll ask Brother
Tony, would you ask a blessing upon the bread?
And then we'll distribute it. We thank you for
this time to bring us together. As our pastor
explained, we remember your sacrifice for us.
That you gave him your body. You gave him your
blood. You gave your life for us. Lord, we remember
as we do this. Help us, Lord, to also remember
who we are. that we're not only partakers of
this, because we believe what you did, but we're
your children, we're your followers, we're your
disciples. Because not only did you give your
body and die for us, but you also rose again
to give us hope, you defeated Satan, and we can
do the same through your power, through your
strength. for claiming your name, for being your
children. We thank you for that. So Lord, just
be with us as we remember and as we take this.
I do it. On that evening, and then as Paul preached
it all throughout the Middle East, and then in
churches all over the world, in churches, dozens,
maybe hundreds of them, this morning, this bread,
Jesus spoke up. He said, this is my body, which
is broken for you. Take and eat. Ask Brother
Tim to ask a blessing upon the Jews. Father,
thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you so much.
You deserve so little. It's hard to imagine.
It's not difficult understanding the price you
actually paid for it. Jesus comes around, just
take one, hold it, we'll all drink it together.
As we prepare to take the juice, I want you to
think for a moment about those who actually stood
at the foot of the cross. As Jesus was bleeding
out multiple wounds in his body, as the Roman
soldier thrust his spear in and blood flowed,
to those who were there who believed in Jesus,
when they heard the words, this is my blood which
is poured out to you, over and over again as
they continued to worship God, as they lived
out the rest of their lives, It really meant
something. They saw the blood of Jesus flow.
And I know you and I are not there. You and I
were not there when he died. At the same time,
you have an imagination. And you have seen people
suffer. And you know what a great price can look
like. So as we remember the words of Jesus, this
is my blood that I pour out for you. And not
just us. But the kingdom, Christians all over
the world, as we remember that, I want you to
use your imagination today. I want you to think
about the great Christ that was made to wash
away the sins and provide the bread and the juice
of the righteous. And Jesus said, this is my
blood which was poured out for you. Take and
drink. And it is a joyous occasion to be in the
Lord, to know that God has paid the ultimate
price, the price that we could not pay for ourselves,
that the bills are paid, and one day the mansion
shall be truly ours. And so I ask you today,
if you're pleased with the sacrifice of Jesus,
would you say with me, I love you, Lord. One,
two, three. I love you, Lord. Go collect your
plastic cups. We have just a little more worship.
I would ask you today to worship the Lord. In
that worship, we will also give our tithes and
offerings, which is an act of worship. I would
ask you today to honor God with all that you
are for the remainder of your time when we are
gathered together and we praise you. Lord, bless
these praises, these offerings, and these tithes
in Jesus' name. Some of you might not know, but
you soon will know, we are working through the
book of Joshua. All of the sermons back to the
beginning of the book of Joshua up through this
point are online. If you want to listen to them
online, you can do that, except for the one I
preached last week, which will hopefully get
there this week. So we'll be all caught up. If
you want to go back and listen to them, you can.
If you want to remember things, you can. But
I'm going to give you a quick few highlights
to remember where we're at. We began with the
idea, the notion, the book of Joshua, that it
is about the story of the man Joshua. and his
life as it speaks of God and the Israelites coming
into the promised land and God unfolding his
promise and carrying out his promise to bring
them into the land. Bless you. Joshua was a man
who was actually born Hosea, son of Nun, and
was renamed by Moses, Joshua, and we learned,
and I've mentioned a few times along the way,
and I think it's hugely important, that the name
Joshua brought through the Greek would then be
Jesus. Obviously this is not Jesus, but the name
means God saves or Yahweh saves or God saved
me as expressed by a command. And so Joshua is
leading the Israelites as an example for us,
if you will. And now we come to a select moment
in time where the Israelites, we've read this
text, actually I read it last week, but I mentioned
to you that we would be in it this coming week.
have crossed, are crossing the Jordan River into
the Promised Land. A couple of details. The tribes
from the eastern side of the Jordan have led
them across in battle array, in case they might
be attacked while crossing, perhaps, or at least
ready. All the men who've made a commitment,
they're keeping their lands on the east side
of the Jordan. Their women and children are left
at home, but they are leading the Israelites
across the river. And Joshua is leading them
and telling them exactly how this will be accomplished.
And God has said to Joshua that in this day,
as he brings the Israelites across the river,
that he would exalt Joshua so that people would
know that God is with him the way God was with
Moses. And we talked about last week how God
is a witness for us, that God speaks about us
as much as we speak about God. And we hope that
God says positive things about us. That's kind
of the goal, and that is his desire, is to say
positive things about us, but that is not always
the case, I'm afraid. Then Joshua, on the other
hand, does not tell the people, on this day you
will see that God will exalt me and lift me up
and make me greater. He doesn't do that. He rather
says, on this day God will begin to keep his
promise that he made for you, and he exalts God.
And so as God lifts us up, we are to be lifting
God up, and that's what Jesus did. Jesus even
said, my father now exalts me that I may exalt
him, and of course I paraphrase that. So we come
to that moment in time where he is bringing them
across the river. And so we've talked about when
we were on the river on their side, I preach
a sermon, basically it says life on the side
of the river. And as they were on the side of
the river waiting to come across in the promised
land, they were there by faith. The tribes from
the east side of the Jordan gathered there, keeping
their promise to Moses, which was really keeping
their promise to God, because God had said Joshua
would be their commander. the commander of all
of Israel. And Joshua said, now you've got to
keep your promise. You've got to come. So they
were there believing in faith that God was going
to do what God said he was going to do. And they
didn't want to be dismissed by God. The people
of the other tribes were there believing in faith
that God could do something. Mind you, they were
on the side of an over swollen river. And there
was no bridge. There was no ford. There was no
way across. They were believing that God was
going to make a way for them to go into the promised
land. And then they would face, they knew they
would face giants of men. wealthy and strong
with great weaponry and skill and tactics. And
they knew that Jericho would have to be defeated
and Jericho was a huge city and it was in command
essentially of all the land with a huge wall.
And they knew that all that would have to happen.
And so as they gathered on the side of the river
before they ever crossed the river, they were
responding in faith. We talked about how life
on that side of the river, preparing for God
to do something, prepares us. for when God actually
does it. Remember, it was God who made the promises,
and God was going to do it. It was not them.
Even though he would require them to go into
battle, he's the one who said that he would win
the victories. And we know historically that
is what happens, that one Israelite soldier is
as good as 20 on the other side of the line.
So now we come to that moment in time where they're
actually crossing the river, and I was struggling
with what... as I was preparing this lesson,
the truth is I had all the text typed out, I
basically had the points, and I was trying to
see what was the one thing that God wanted us
to see, and I'm suggesting to you now that it
is a bookend. There is life on the other side
of the river, that was a life of faith, it was
a life of looking forward to how God was going
to bring them across the river into the promised
land and keep his promises, but now they have
crossed the river into the promised land, and
so they now live in a place where What seemed
to them to be, at that time, the greatest barrier
has already been dealt with by God. And that's
like that for us. If you've accepted Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior, you have to realize
that your sin, the things that you were doing
that was wrong, that your sinful nature that
led you to have the tendency of doing things
that were wrong, your tendency to act out of
your emotions, your tendency to desire what your
flesh desired, to go after things that you saw,
the things that you desired, had passion for.
That all of that was dealt with in your salvation.
And now you are free. However, you still have
to live, right? You still have to deal with those
things. We all still have the same things of
temptation. There is no temptation except that
which is common to man. And we have the lust
of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride
of life, which lead us to things that we ought
to know better than to consume them or take them
as part of our being. But we have to make that
actual decision. Now, you're free to make the
right decision, but... We sometimes make the
wrong decisions. So we are living in the same
place essentially now. And I said some of us
were living in that place. We're looking at a
river or a thing that God wants to take us across,
a thing that God wants to take us through. Some
of us were living on the side of the river over
there. And now I want to say to you that if you
have response to the Lord's salvation, you also
see that this side of the river for them should
speak heartily to us as well because we have
crossed salvation. Now, if you have not crossed
salvation, you're sitting on that side of the
river. Again, let me encourage you, the only
thing that's stopping you is your faith, you
have to believe that God has provided this for
you, and then by grace, he does all the work,
he provides the salvation, he washes away the
sin, all of that, if you just are willing, if
you just accept it, if you're willing to do that,
believe and accept, and then commit yourself
to follow him for the rest of your days, okay?
So, then you're across the river, so I hope,
this is going to be largely for those who are
across that river, and if you're not there, I'm
sorry, but I would ask you to kind of, Suck it
in and take it in so that when you do cross the
river, you're ready. Okay? So this is about what
it's like now, having come across the river,
but looking at and facing what to them will be,
in their minds anyway, the greatest challenges
they will ever face. When they were on the other
side of the river, it looked like the river was
the greatest challenge. There's no way across
that river. You can't swim across it. We're going
to have to wait until everything dies down, you
know, after the floods are gone, whatever. And
then even then, probably now, we're going to
have to march 100 miles or whatever. or at least
20, because I think the nearest forward was 20
miles away downstream, whatever. But anyway,
the point is, they were there, now they're here.
They were on the other side of the river, now
they're on this side of the river. But don't
think that just because the river was parted,
just as it is for you and I, don't think just
because we were saved, that everything that now
comes is just going to be, oh, it's just going
to be a piece of cake. Everything is going to
be easy. Everything's going to be simple. There's
never going to be major opposition. No, they
are faced with a land to conquer. Armies larger
than they are in size, not in number of people,
but in size. And that means huge potential losses.
That means their entire society could lose a
half of every adult male, even though half of
all the adult males could die in this battle
and take the promised land. That's what they're
faced with. They know what Jericho looks like.
They do not have the technology. to take down
or break into Jericho. They can siege it, but
even that will be extremely difficult. They know
what they're faced with, but they've just crossed
the river. And this is where we live our lives.
Having come over, now what? Grab your Bibles
if you would. Now we tend to hoot, holler, say
amen, say yes, something, give me a breath at
least, as we turn to Joshua chapter 4. Thank
you very much. So that is a subtle reminder to
put everything else out of your head, if you
will, and just let the word of the Lord speak
to you. Joshua chapter 4, beginning in verse
1. Now when all the nation had finished crossing
the Jordan, that sets the day, that's where we
are. The Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Take for
yourselves twelve men from the people, one man
from each tribe, and command them, saying, Take
up for yourselves twelve stones from here out
of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where
the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry
them over with you, and lay them down in a lodging
place where you will lodge tonight. So Joshua
called the twelve men whom he had appointed from
the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe,
and Joshua said to them, Cross again to the ark
of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan,
and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder,
according to the number of the tribes of the
sons of Israel. Let this be a sign among you,
so that when your children ask later, saying,
What do these stones mean to you? And I put the
emphasis on the to you there, but it's not there
in the original language. Realize there's no
emphasis in Hebrew. There's not even any vowels
or any punctuation. So what the emphasis would
have been in this case is varied. It could be,
I'm going to read it a couple different ways.
What do these stones mean to you? What do these
stones mean to you? What do these stones mean?
To you. See it? Okay. Then you shall say to them,
because the waters of the Jordan were cut off
before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when
it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan
were cut off, so these stones shall become a
memorial to the sons of Israel forever. Notice
that it seems like God was saying, because the
water was cut off, the stones will become a memorial
to Israel forever. At first glance, that's what
it looks like. But let me read it again. Because
the waters of the Jordan were cut off before
the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, when it
crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan
were cut off. Notice, for us, that's in quotations
marks. That's what they would say to their kids.
You follow? So when they say that to their kids,
then he says, so these stones shall become a
memorial to the sons of Israel forever. So it's
not that the stones will become a memorial because
God did the great work. But the stones will become
a memorial because they said to the kids, the
waters of the Jordan were cut off because of
what they said. The stones will become a great
memorial for Israel forever. Thus the sons of
Israel did as Joshua commanded, took up 12 stones
from the middle of the Jordan. Just as the Lord
spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the
tribes of the sons of Israel, they carried them
over with them to the lodging place and put them
down there. Then Joshua set up 12 stones in the
middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet
of the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant
were standing, and they are there to this day,
meaning under the River Jordan. For the priests
who carried the Ark were standing in the middle
of the Jordan until everything was completed
that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to
the people according to all that Moses had commanded
Joshua, and the people hurried and crossed. And
when all the people had finished crossing the
Ark of the Lord and the priests crossed before
the people, the son of Reuben, And the sons of
Gad and the half -tribe of Manasseh crossed over
in battle array before the sons of Israel, just
as Moses had spoken to them. About 40 ,000, equipped
for war, crossed for battle before the Lord to
the desert plains of Jericho. On that day the
Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel,
so that they revered him, that means they held
him as holy or a representative of God, just
as they had revered Moses all the days of his
life. Now the Lord said to Joshua, Command the
priests who carry the Ark of the Testimony that
they come up from the Jordan. So Joshua commanded
the priests saying, come up from the Jordan.
It came about when the priests who carry the
Ark of the Covenant of the Lord had come up from
the middle of the Jordan and the soles of the
priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground
that the waters of the Jordan returned to their
place and went over all its banks as before.
Now let me be clear about one thing here. It
says when their soles of their feet When they
first entered way back when, if you remember
from last week, if you don't, I'm going to tell
you anyway in a minute, so don't be too worried
about it. When they first touched the overflowing
water of the Jordan, which presumably means with
their toe, right? So as they walked up to the
overflowing waters, not the Jordan River inside
its banks, but the overflowing waters, the flood.
They touched the water with their toe, and it
was in that instant that the waters parted. A
huge swath, and they crossed over how? On dry
land. Right? This says that when they reached
a spot and stepped their soul onto dry land,
but wait a minute, they crossed over on dry land,
right? So they've been walking on dry land, toe
and heel on dry land. See the symbols? Toe and
heel on dry land. Toe and heel. When I got up
this morning, Ariana was complaining that her
bedroom was cold. she said where is that cool
air coming from and i noticed that we have a
heater in her room because that room doesn't
get as much furnace heat so just in case and
the heater had been turned down and so i reached
over to the heater and i put my toe because i
don't want to you know this morning i don't bend
over too early in the morning you know i'm saying
so i reached out and i put my toe on the button
and turn the heater up we reach with our toe
Try to reach the button with your heel. You can,
it's possible, but you have to completely turn
your facing and set your body up just so, and
then you can reach with your heel. We reach with
our toe. Now, when you are taken aback, someone
surprises you, you rock back on your heels. It's
called being back on your heels. You're caught,
surprised, you're firm. Because why? Because
you are firm on your heels. Your weight over
top of your heels suspended over top your leg
your ankle holds it nicely and you stand firm
Now if you walk around on your tiptoes for a
while That's not nearly as stable If you really
walk in your tiptoes you better be in the ballet
or a ballerina or you're not gonna be able to
do it for any length of time at all most people
can't do it at all the way ballerinas can do
it and they wear special shoes even to help them
do it and the better they get the weaker the
shoe that's the rule and for ballerinas by the
way They need the shoe less and less. They still
wear it, but they need it less and less when
they get really good. And so we can't technically
do that. So you reach with your toe, you're firm
with your heel. Now the heel comes up onto dry
land, which basically to us, you need to understand,
it means that they left the Jordan. They also
left the area that the Jordan would overflow,
which is significant because when the water comes
rushing back in, which it does, when the water
comes rushing back in, it's probably going to
flood an even larger area than it had previously
flooded. You follow? Briefly, at least, it's
going to come and flood that whole area, the
Jordan body, the main part of the river, the
flooded area of the river, and I submit to you
even further at first, because of the resistance
of what lies before it, it's going to run down
the channel, it's going to run down the flood
zone, and the flood zone is temporarily going
to be even larger, and they step not where the
river ends, not where the flood ends, but now
where the flood of the flood ends. Their sole
of their foot. Not their toe, not reaching, but
the sole of their foot. Okay. I'm going to go
a little further with the rest of the chapter.
We'll start at 18 again. It came about when the
priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of
the Lord had come up from the middle of the Jordan,
and the sole of the priests' feet were lifted
up to the dry ground, that the waters of the
Jordan returned to their place and went over
all its banks as before. Now the people came
up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first
month. and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge
of Jericho, which was that huge looming city
that they knew was before them. They could not
take the land unless they take Jericho. So they
see now clearly the opposition. Having crossed
the river, they see clearly the opposition. Those
12 stones which they had taken from the Jordan,
Joshua set up at Gilgal. He said to the sons
of Israel, when your children ask their fathers
in times to come, saying, what are these stones?
Then you shall inform your children, saying,
Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For
the Lord your God dried up the waters of the
Jordan before you until you had crossed, just
as the Lord your God had done to the Red Sea,
which he dried up before us until we had crossed.
Notice the difference? Slightly different pronoun
usage there. That all the peoples of the earth
may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty,
so you may fear the Lord your God forever. There's
a couple things I want you to see here before
we get into a few distinct points. In the Hebrew,
in the language, in what we're talking about
here, there's sort of a give and take going on.
There's the audience and the reason why. Notice
that all the earth would see the glory of the
Lord. That's really the audience for God's glory.
That's who they would proclaim what God had done
to. So all the people... of the earth may know
that God's hand is mighty. God can do. There
are those who do not believe that God needs to
forgive sins. There are those that believe that
they're basically okay. They've done more good
than they've done bad. That's what they think.
And they think that that should be a standard.
If God is righteous and just, that should be
a standard by which God will let people in if
they've done more good than bad. However, if
you went to elementary school, you know that
you may have done all of your homework, but when
you pulled the chair out from underneath the
child in front of you or pulled that girl's ponytails
or stuck your finger in that boy's eye because
he didn't like your dad's favorite football team,
none of the homework that you had done kept you
from the punishment for what you had done. So
no amount of good surmounts the amount of evil
that we do even if we've only done one evil.
There still must be punishment for that one evil.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God. Therefore, the wages of sin is death. That's
part of the Romans wrote, essentially. The people
of the world may not recognize that they need
to be forgiven. That's one problem. But if the
people of the world recognize they need to be
forgiven, and I submit to you that many do, then
there is a question as to whom they, or does
God have the ability and the power to forgive
them? So should they go to God for that forgiveness?
And the message that is delivered to all the
world is that God's hand is mighty. He is even
able to forgive sin. And the next group of people
that's an audience in here is the next generation,
the next generation of Israelites. The message
to them was not that God's hand is mighty, for
they just saw him break open the river Jordan.
The message was that God has done mighty things
and that those mighty things should not go unnoticed.
Now that's a different kind of a message. It's
not, can God do mighty things? Well, we know
God can do mighty things. I saw the river part,
right? Or we know that God has... created all
of this. So people who believe in God look at
the tree and they say, God created that tree.
I mean, he didn't literally necessarily create
that particular tree, but he created trees, right?
He created the stars and we give God the glory
for what God has done. And by that, you should
know that God can do mighty things. But because
of the temptations of the world, the cares and
distractions of the world, the things that are
going on, the opposition that lies before us
and lied before them, Even up to the heyday of
the kingdom under David and Solomon where they
get as close as they ever get to actually setting
the boundaries where God said they would be,
but they still don't because of continuing acts
of unfaithfulness. They never quite get there,
always facing the opposition. In the face of
that opposition, temptation, and distraction,
God is trying to say, look, my mighty works must
not go unnoticed. And then there are a couple
of things that are assumed in the text here.
The first one is that the next generation will
see the signs and care enough to ask. There are
people in the world who do not care enough to
ask, why do you go to church every Sunday? What
does the Bible say about Jesus? Et cetera. There
are people in the world who just don't, they're
ignorant. They maybe have heard it. I heard it
when I was 12. And I heard it again when I was
maybe 14. And both times I was able to walk away
from those encounters without significantly having
changed. I believed in God. I believed that we
would answer to God one day. But I didn't really
know anything about Jesus, even though two people
had told me, plain as day, you need to accept
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That he needs
to be Lord of your life and you do what he tells
you to do. And he needs to be the one who paid
for your sins. Even though that had been explained
to me twice over, right? Aaron, are you following
this? Alright. We got this. Christian, are you
following this? Are we okay? Alright. So... The
something assumed here is that the current generation
will be bold enough or willing to answer honestly
and live accordingly. And I submit to you that
when they live accordingly, somebody might say,
hey, why? Somebody who wouldn't have otherwise
done so might be led to do so. So we've got people
in the generation who need to know, and we've
got people in the generation who need to explain
or proclaim the great acts of God. And when the
two come together, guess what happens? Salvation.
But the problem is that there are those who will
not ask, and you can encourage them to ask. You
can bring up the name of Jesus. You can even
turn the conversation to Jesus. You can talk
about spiritual matters and get them thinking
about Jesus and then explain what they need to
do to be saved. And that's called evangelism,
bringing the good news of Jesus. Or you can be
a witness. Every opportunity that comes up, you
mention Jesus, you talk about God's things, you
talk about what God has done for you. We have
people in this room that God has literally saved
their physical life more than once. And they
know it. They can nail down the circumstances.
This is when I was almost dead and now I'm alive.
This is when I could do nothing and now I can
do all these things. The people in the room who
have that circumstance in their life, and they
should be telling literally everyone who will
listen about that. Because that is an example.
And that's being a witness. And we are called
to be witnesses. Not everybody is called to be
an evangelist. In other words, to break through
and get somebody thinking about it. Not everybody
is called to be that. Only certain people kind
of are good at that. That God gives it as a gift
and gives them as a gift to the church. But everybody
is called to be a witness. Okay? And so those
are things that are kind of assumed in this text.
And we're going to do a little object lesson
here for a second. And then we'll go into the
points. All right? So I need somebody with not
too big hands to be my object lesson person.
Aaron, you come up here. Come on. So these are
manacles. These manacles were given to me by
my wife before service today. I was kidding.
Actually, I went and had to get them out of the
van for me, so that's really kind of... So you're
manacled. The rules are you cannot use your hands
at all until they are free. Okay? Understand
the rules of the game? You cannot use your hands
at all until they are free. So I'm going to...
Take this one off. Okay, so notice he had two
manacles on, and I took one off, and without
saying anything, I didn't say anything at all.
I didn't say, as soon as one is free, take the
other one off, whatever. As soon as I took one
off, he naturally assumed the next action was
to remove the second one. Right? Okay, you can
have a seat. Thank you very much. There we go.
Okay. So now take that little bit of insight
with you to the text. All right. The first one,
first point that is glaringly obvious in the
text is that you must not, I must not, we must
not miss the mighty things that God has done.
This is problematic because I mentioned in my
sermon last week as I think it was the second
or third point that God can remove barriers from
us. that we don't even know exist. That his power
to remove things out of your way is so substantial
that he will remove things out of your way and
you won't even notice that they are gone. I'm
guessing, I'm just guessing because I know the
heart of God, that all of us have had our physical
lives saved multiple times by miraculous intervention.
And only a few of us know of the miraculous intervention
that saved our lives. So if we've all had that
and only three or four of us know of it, then
only the three or four of us are supposed to
know and proclaim that that's true? That's a
problem, isn't it? God is doing so much that
we don't know. I used to work in a restaurant
years ago. We had a customer complaint line.
And we would occasionally have a customer call
and complain. Praise God, there but for the grace
of God go I. We had very few complaints on the
complaint line. We'd get one or two in two or
three months. And so we were blessed. Not because
I was a good manager. God was just taking care
of it. Whatever. I don't know why. But a lot
of restaurants would get a lot of complaints
on the complaint line. And every quarter we would
go to the... quarter meeting for the managers,
and we would talk about the complaints on the
complaint line. And the tagline was this. If
there's one person that complained, can somebody
finish it? There's 10 or we used to say 12 that
didn't, right? So whatever that number is, depending
on your industry, if there's one person that
complained about your pizza wasn't warm when
they got it, there's 10 or 12 that didn't complain,
but their pizza was, and they were not satisfied.
They were discontented, but they just didn't
complain. And then the natural extension of that
is that there's, of those, a bunch of them won't
come back, right? And we're burning customers,
and that's a phrase we used to use. So if you've
got one customer that complained that your driver
was rude, you can safely assume that in the same
week that he worked 40 hours, he was rude to
that one customer, he was rude to another 10
customers, and they just didn't complain. So
what we did was, what naturally follows... We
honed in on the complaints. We made the complaints
a very big and important thing. If I had a driver
who was complained about for rudeness, I would
pull that driver aside and I would work very
hard with them to make sure that they were not
seeming rude, sounding rude, or being rude. Because
I could only assume that there were many things
that that driver had done that were rude other
than just the one person who picked up the phone
and called. Now, if you're the driver and you
know you were only rude that one time, that's
unfair, right? But that's not really all that
often the case is what's true. Because we are
who we are. You say, well, I just had one bad
day ever and I was rude to the customer. And
he just said something. But then if you really
be honest with yourself, you go, well, I had
a bad day about a week ago too. And I had a bad
day about a month ago too. And I had a bad day
about three months ago. And before you know it,
you realize that in the last year you've been
rude a dozen times. And one person just got around
to calling. Okay? And so, if God is doing mighty
things, and we know of the mighty things, if
God has done one mighty thing that you know of,
then you can reasonably expect that God has done
a dozen that you don't know of. So, what do you
do? What's the solution? Drill down on the mighty
thing that God has done. Know it in its completeness.
Examine it. Celebrate it. Live it. For those
of you in the room whose God has physically saved
your life, the life that you now have was a gift
from God. What are you going to do with it? Don't
miss the mighty things that God has done because
the one that you see represents many that you
don't. Don't miss the mighty things that God
has done because the one that you see and proclaim
may be sufficient for many people. I can't tell
you the number of times that I have heard a preacher
stand up and their whole sermon is essentially
their testimony. And they've preached a very
good sermon. They know their testimony better
than anybody, how they were saved, how God brought
them across the river of salvation. In fact,
we did a... Years ago, we did a Bible study material
called The Net, and that's what it was. Basically,
you were just talking to a point at which you
could share the story in which God does the mightiest
thing that he ever did in your life, and you
know it the best. And it's something that you
know in such detail that you can share it with
great realism, with great even passion, and when
they hear it, they then know everything they
need to know to be saved. And then of course
I've heard preachers get up and preach sermons
that were very good based on a certain text,
and it was clear that they had not themselves
dealt with the problem. Teach a sermon on adultery,
for example, or a sermon on drugs, and they just
have no idea what it's really like to be in that
circumstance. But they take a scripture, a certain
scripture, and they twist it a certain way, and
they make it apply to that certain situation.
Now which sermon do you think I was more blessed
by? Which sermon do you think called me to change
my life, to recognize the mighty things that
God has done? The testimony. Your testimony.
The sermon that the church preaches is way more
powerful, way more imbued with God's being than
the sermon that the pastor preaches. We do this
because this is something that God has called
us to do. You sit there and listen to me because
this is what God has organized us to do. And
by the way, when you do that, you're really not
supposed to be listening to me. You're also not
supposed to be tuning me out. But taking cues
from what I am saying, you're really supposed
to be listening to God. That's what this is all
about. And God can add this morning to your story
another mighty work. And when he does, don't
miss it. And when he does, proclaim it to everyone
who will listen. This is the problem to a degree
that I have with people who go out and throughout
the week they don't talk about what happened
during the sermon time with their friends and
their family members and so on. If God called
you to be here and to hear from his word and
your soul was changed, that is a mighty work
of God that ought be proclaimed. It is one of
a dozen. I get that. We save double money back
on a coupon and tell everybody. God transforms
us on Sunday morning and we tell nobody. Don't
miss the mighty works, the mighty things that
God has done. God has erected all around us monuments
to His greatness. This building, these chairs,
these are the physical monuments to His greatness.
These Bibles, which we have, and people will
argue that there are mistakes, but there are
none. People will argue that there are differences
between this and the original text, and the fact
is, there aren't any. In 1948, when they discovered
the Dead Sea Scrolls, which had been lost for
whatever hundreds of years, is that? probably
1900 years, and they took the pieces of those
scrolls and compared them to the present day
Bibles that we have, mind you, in the language
that they were written, guess how many differences
there were? None substantive. The only differences
that they could find were tiny, minor differences
in the way a letter was made, or the way spacing
was done, or things like that. They couldn't
find a single substantive difference that changed
the message. After the same text had been buried
for 1900 years, and they could take up to the...
to the King James Bible and the Hebrew Bible
that made up the Old Testament, that made up
the King James Bible, and it was the same. It's
not been changed. This is a monument to God's
power, and we ought to proclaim. We talk about
the Bible. This is a monument that he has erected
to himself. All creation testifies in the tsunami.
In the hurricane, in the earthquake, testifying
how creation groans for when Jesus will renew
everything. In the gentle breeze that cools you
on a hot day. In the good taste of healthy food.
In the waking up in the morning rested. All creation
testifies. Your body testifies to God's order
in His creation and His power in creation. The
stars themselves testify to His multivariate
personality and they are basically just all the
same. to the naked eye until you look closely
look for his artistic nature and his creation
and the differences and the variances realize
that some of the things you're looking at are
stars aren't even stars they're planets in our
very own solar system and if you pull out a telescope
and look you could see their rough surfaces or
the gas clouds rolling in their atmosphere our
god is amazing and he has erected monuments all
around us to proclaim the nature of His mighty
work. Amongst us then, there are times that men
have decided to stay the course, and God has
completely transformed their lives, providing
everything that they need. There are times that
men have decided not to stay the course, and
we can actually tell the stories. We hate these
stories. They're sad stories, but of how they
have paid dearly for not being faithful to God.
Sadly, there are people in this room who will
pay dearly for not having stayed the course with
God. Some of us are paying dearly today for not
having stayed the course with God. Repent and
turn back to the Lord is the message that that
proclaims. There are instances in which we have
elected ourselves to not stay the course, and
the memory of the cost that we paid back then
is an erected testimony and a powerful work to
the Lord. And we're free now! Saved now! turned
completely to the Lord now, cleansed now, forgiven
now, and still paying a little bit of the price.
And that is a monument to the Lord. James said
it this way. He said, therefore, James 1, verse
21, therefore, putting aside all filthiness and
all that remains of wickedness, in humility,
receive the word, let me say there, the word
of God, implanted. which is able to save souls.
It's the same word that saved your soul that
you now receive when God proclaims His mighty
works. When you read in the Bible, when you read
the word Lagos, it's talking about the word of
God. It's talking about the creating power of
God. It's the power of God to do things. It's
the power of God to change us. It's the power
of God to move us to the next place that He's
trying to take us. It was the word of God, essentially,
that split the river. The Word of God. What is
the Ark of the Covenant called, by the way? In
that text that we read last week, it was called
the Ark of the Testimony. Why? Because the power
of God to create is expressed so often in His
Word. And we ought to receive that indwelt. So
when you're blessed, and you run quickly on to
the next blessing, you're missing it. When you're
blessed and you quickly turn that blessing over
to do something new, something different, when
that check comes in the mail and you already
know what it's going to be spent on, you're missing
something. The second thing I want you to see
in here is that we ought not to fail to proclaim
when the monuments get the attention of the next
generation. And by the way, that doesn't just
mean your children or your children's children,
grandchildren, whatever. The next generation
of believers as well. So it's your friend who
doesn't know Christ who recognizes that something
is different about you. Or your friend who doesn't
know Christ who wonders why they're in a bad
spot. I had a young man call me on the phone
and say, we think our child is possessed of an
evil spirit and explains circumstances that were
pretty dark. And I said, you know, I can only
tell you that that actually may be true. From
what you're describing, it may be true. And he
said, we want you to come and pray over our child.
And this was a professing believer, but they
weren't following the Lord, but it was a professing
believer. By their own profession, they admitted
they were not following the Lord. And I said,
well, I could do that, but the truth is, as the
child's father and as a believer in the Lord,
this is something that you can do and should
do yourself. And if I come and I do that, and
chase away the evil spirits, and then I leave,
and you don't have the power to protect your
children, because you're not living for the Lord,
you don't have the power of faith, you don't
have God in you, then there's nothing to keep
the evil spirit from coming back and affecting
the child again. And actually what scripture
says is this is only going to get worse each
time. Now at the end of that conversation, that
man repented, turned back to the Lord, went and
prayed over his own child, the evil spirit went
away, and for a while he remembered the powerful
thing that God had done. He erected a monument,
but I can only say he probably erected it out
of a paper mache because about six months later,
he was back in the same place that he had been
before he made that call. What I'm saying to
you is that I proclaim to him, we cannot fail
to proclaim when the monuments that God has erected,
the things that God wants us to see, get the
attention of those who need to hear, whoever
they are. Your children are your responsibility.
Your wife, your husband, that's your responsibility.
That's a God -given command that you are required
to lead them closer to God. If you are not doing
that, you will answer to God probably in a more
extreme way than any other thing that you can
imagine that you've been commanded to do that
you're not doing. Because that's your solemn
responsibility before the Lord. It is who you
are, part of your being. And you're not being
who you're supposed to be. And anytime we don't
do that, we pay a very dear price. That being
said, There are others who need to hear. And
when anybody shows some signs, whoever it might
be, you have to be ready to proclaim the monuments.
You have to be ready to proclaim what God has
done. If they will open their eyes and take notice,
you must be prepared to give an answer. I took
a class at Liberty University in the theological
seminary there. It was a week -long intensive.
And we were there about eight hours a day except
on Friday. And if I could say it was on revivals.
And you know churches have revivals. They get
people together and they'll have like five days
of music and they pray and they sing and they
invite people and stuff. They call it a revival.
We're having revival this week. And, you know,
sometimes it grows the church and positive things
come out of it. God has done miracles involved
in those things and so on. But this class that
I took, he summed up revivals. This is how revivals
happen. If you want to have a revival in the
spirit, this is how it happens. If you want people
to be revived, this is how it happens. He said,
when God's people do exactly what it is that
God's people are supposed to do, and they continue
to do that, then God does something, whether
it be scary or positive or whatever. You get
an earthquake. You remember 9 -11? After 9 -11,
the attendance in churches that Sunday and the
following month was up by like 40 % nationwide,
which also meant across religions. So some people
were going where there was no message of hope.
And a lot of pastors missed the opportunity to
proclaim because they already had a plan on what
they were going to talk about. And they didn't
talk about 9 -11. They didn't talk about what
God was doing. They didn't talk about the nature
of a nation that desperately needed the Lord.
They talked about whatever it was they... And
some of them probably preached the gospel plain
and simple. They may have shared their testimony.
And I'm not saying lots of people didn't get
saved. But what I am saying is there was an opportunity.
And if God's people had been found doing what
God's people were supposed to be doing the world
over, then we wouldn't have gone back to a month
later the original attendance numbers. Out of
that 40 % increase, we'd have netted 4 % or 10
% or 15 % growth. And it's just not that. It's
all the time. And let's dumb it down to one particular
circumstance where one guy in your life, one
gal in your life, says, hey, I've been wondering
about, thinking about whatever. And the truth
is, you believe in Jesus. You believe he saved
you. You believe that he brought you across the
river of salvation. But you're so busy looking
at the big things that are coming, the struggles
that you still have, the bills you have to pay,
the problems you have with so -and -so who won't
do what you think they should do, and so on.
Those problems, this person walks up to you and
says, you know, I've really been giving some
thought to... Something that cues in on faith.
God, faith, the problems I'm having, evil spirits,
demons, angels, Bible, what the Bible says, John
3, anything they say, it's a clue that they want
to talk about that. And you're busy, busy, busy.
And they don't get what they need. And who do
you think is going to get the blame for that?
If God has erected the monuments and brought
your attention to them sufficiently that you
know that you have crossed the river, But now
your eyes are on Jericho, or whatever Jericho
is for you, instead of on living out what God
has already done in your life, who do you think
is going to get the blame for that? The God who
did all the powerful works? The God who is completely
capable of forgiving sins and does all the mighty
works in us? The God who brought you to where
you are? The God who erected the monument so
that you can remember? Gave you the command to
remember and proclaim? That God? Or is it going
to be the God who brought them to the moment
of decision? Brought them to one of the people
who proclaims to be his children? So that they
could talk for a while? No, it's not going to
be God's fault. I submit to you, it's not going
to be their fault. Because they did what they
were supposed to do. They recognized the monument
and began to ask the questions. It's going to
be your fault. Because as they gave you enough
time to bring it up, you didn't. The problem
based on this text then is, that's what happens
with the Israelites over the coming years. That's
what happened the first time. Remember, God parted
for us the Red Sea, parted for you the Jordan
River. You're supposed to remember. Proclaim
to your children the monument is supposed to
get them asking and then you're supposed to proclaim.
And I submit to you that the principle is they
should be erecting additional monuments. Right?
They'll be in the room in a minute. Don't fail
to proclaim when the monuments get the attention
of the next generation. Peter said it this way.
Peter chapter 1 verse 13. Therefore, prepare
your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit.
Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought
to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not
the hope that you'll overcome the next problem
or that God will act mighty again. We're all
begging God to do something mighty in our situation.
And it'll be great if he does, and he does often
answer prayers. And if you ask in faith and believe
that you have what you ask for, according to
what Jesus said, you ask it in his name, you'll
have it. We're so busy asking for the next thing
that we're forgetting the previous thing. Jesus
said the resources are in the harvest. You know
why churches are poor? Because churches aren't
winning people to Jesus. The resources are in
the harvest, and the harvest is winning people
to Jesus. 1 Peter 3 .15 says this. Let me get
13 one more time. Therefore, prepare your minds
for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope
completely on the grace to be brought to you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3
.15, just a little further down, says, but sanctify
Christ as Lord in your hearts. That means set
him apart, recognize he is holy, right? So like,
recognize the monument that God has constructed,
recognize the great work that God has done. Sanctify
Christ as Lord in your heart, always being ready
to make a defense to everyone who asks you to
give an account for the hope that is in you,
yet with gentleness and reverence. And then that
leads us to the third point in the text. Don't
you ever, I added that you ever in there just
now, but don't you live as if you never crossed
the river. Don't you do it. Don't you get out
of bed not one day. Don't you eat one meal or
take one nap. Don't you take one sip of one cup
of one drink ever as if you had not crossed the
river. And that's more packed with meaning than
you realize. Which makes sense because God has
done mighty things and the monument has been
erected and we noticed and we asked and someone
told us and now we've accepted Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior and now we too have crossed the
river of salvation, using that metaphor, and
we ought not to live as if we have not. Hebrews
6 says this, Therefore, leaving the elementary
teaching about the Christ, let us press on to
maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance
from dead works and faith toward God, of instruction
about washing and laying on of hands and the
resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
In other words, the basic teachings of Christianity
should be settled, he says. And this we will
do if God permits. Leave behind the elementary
teaching. For in the case of those who have once
been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy
Spirit. Now, if you crossed the river of salvation
and received all that, if you have tasted the
word of God and the powers of the age to come,
and then have fallen away, it is impossible to
renew them again to repentance, since they again
crucified to themselves the Son of God and put
him to open shame. For ground that drinks the
rain, which often falls on it, and brings forth
vegetation useful to those for whose sake it
is also tilled, receive a blessing from God.
The ground that does its work receives a blessing
from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles,
it's worthless and close to being cursed and
it ends up being burned. But beloved, we are
convinced of better things concerning you and
things that accompany salvation, though we are
speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so
as to forget your work and the love which you
have shown toward his name in having ministered
and in still ministering to the saints. And we
desire that each one of you show the same diligence,
work hard, Train yourself, that's diligence,
so as to realize the full assurance of hope until
the end, so that you will not be sluggish, stop
being lazy, or I would say distracted, so you
will not be sluggish, but imitators of those
who through faith and patience inherit the promises,
the monuments that God has erected in people,
be imitators of that. For when God made the promise
to Abraham, since he could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself. saying, I surely will bless
you and I will surely multiply you. And so, having
patiently waited, he, that's Abraham, obtained
the promise. For men swear by one greater than
themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation
is an end of every dispute. So when you're arguing
with people, back in the day anyway, if you made
an oath, I swear it's true, on God or on my mother
who died, who was a holy woman or whatever, then
they would accept that. In the same way, God
desiring even more to show to the heirs of the
promise, that's us, the unchangeableness of his
purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by
two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible
for God to lie, God will take you through. That's
what he promised. We who have taken refuge would
have strong encouragement to take hold of the
hope set before us. This hope we have is an anchor
of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast,
and one which enters within the veil. Where Jesus
has entered as a forerunner for us, the veil
was the holy of holies that we were previously
not allowed to go. That's the place that ripped
open when Jesus died. When Jesus has entered
as a forerunner for us, having become a high
priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Philippians 4 says it more simply. It says this,
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever
is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good
repute, if there is any excellence and if anything
worthy of praise, Dwell on these things. That's
your focus. The things you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me. Practice these things
and the God of peace will be with you. But there
is a special way of falling away that the Bible
describes. The first way, a special way the Bible
describes is under trial when things get difficulty.
The parable of the four soils says that there
were those who were sown amongst thorns and the
cares and troubles of this world choked them
out. James says it this way. Blessed is a man
who perseveres under trial, for once he has been
approved, he will receive the crown of life,
which the Lord has promised to those who love
him. Hear me now. Do you claim the name of Jesus?
Christian, do you claim the name of Jesus? According
to that right there, what I just read, I'll read
it again for you because I look like you were
distracted for a second. Blessed is a man who
perseveres under trial, for once he has been
approved, in other words, tested, once he has
been tested, he will receive the crown of life
which the Lord has promised to those who love
him. When will you receive your crown of life?
After you've been tested. There is a very special
way of falling away. It's looking at the trials
and difficulties that we face or having cares
for what the world cares about. I'm worried about
money. I'm worried about fine things. I'm worried
about what's on TV or what's on the news or what's
happening. I'm very concerned about all of these
other things that the world's happening. And
our hope is not on Jesus. And so we are distracted.
It's a trial. And we say, well, you know, it's
only, it's only, he was going through a lot.
No, God says he was going through a lot, he should
have stood the test of time, and I would have
given him the crown of life. I think you're playing,
some of us are playing games with God. We say,
oh, it's been so difficult for me lately, so
I'm not going to do what God wanted me to do.
Or I was really, I know he came up and he said
to me, you know, I've been thinking a lot about
the Bible and I missed that opportunity to talk
to him about that. But the truth is, I was going
through a really rough time. I was down because
this bad thing happened to me. Or I was rushing
to get the groceries home so the ice cream didn't
melt. Or, you know what, let the stinking ice
cream melt. It's a soul. Let the bills go unpaid.
It's a soul. Let the appointments go unkept.
It's a soul. Stop. Making excuses for why you
are not proclaiming the greatness of God and
what He has done and actually proclaim the greatness
of God and what He has done to everyone. Trim
your mouth so you're not talking about the junk
that the world is talking about. So you're not
talking like the world. You don't sound like
an unsaved person. Get yourself under control
and live for Jesus the way you said you would.
And when you do, This is the great blessing.
People will take notice and they'll go, hey,
what's that all about? And you'll be able to
say, I am a monument. I have been erected in
the Lord God. I have crossed over the river.
This is the great thing that God has done in
me. And yes, I'm a work in progress. And yes,
I'm bound to make mistakes. Don't hang your hopes
on me. Hang them on Jesus who died on the cross
for your sins. And then, don't forget to include
in the gospel this truth. Jericho is coming.
There's still trouble and difficulty on the horizon.
I get that. When you lead that 20 -year -old
person to Christ, realize they have to live another
60 or 100 years for Jesus. And make sure that
you explain to them that Revelation 3, the same
chapter that people like to say, behold, I stand
at your heart's door and knock, and Jesus is
talking about coming in and suffering with me,
which was really written to the church, but it
was written to everybody in the church. That
same chapter says, for the one who perseveres,
for the one who continues to the end, I will
let him sit on my throne with me as my father
let me sit on his throne with him. That's Jesus
talking. But it's very easy to assume that you
are the only person under trial. And if I must
burst your bubble now in this moment, let me
tell you. that you are under no trial that is
any greater than anyone else's trial. You say,
but I'm struggling psychologically because of
this horrible event that I experienced, or no
one else in this room knows that I don't have
the money to pay for what I need to buy. Yeah,
they may not know that you are in the place that
you are in, but they know that they are in the
place that they are in. And what place is that,
by the way? I hope it's the place that you saw
God bring you across the river, and you're looking
at the opposition. But that's not your hope.
Your hope is not that God will take out the opposition.
Your hope is not that you will be able to use
the blessings of God so you can use prayer like
a sudden weapon that you can all of a sudden
go, oh God help me, I need to pass this test.
Oh God help me, I need to get through this situation.
Oh God help me, I need the words to say. God
has already taught you to go to Him every moment
of every day with prayer. And I'm not meaning
to step on anybody's toes when I say this. I
know there's some prayers in the house. I'm going
to say that that way. There's some prayer warriors
in the house. You ought to be a prayer warrior
every moment of every day. And you can be transforming
the world every moment of every day. Instead
of going, oh, here's a monument. Suddenly I have
to resurrect something. I have to go, all of
a sudden, here's a moment. Because of trials,
we justify ourselves not doing what we're supposed
to be doing. But the Bible says, Just the opposite.
There is another way that we mustn't miss to
go astray that's in these texts, and that is
looking down on those yet to come or who are
in the midst of struggles that we do not understand.
You don't know people's struggles. You don't
know out of their struggles how they're going
to behave. You don't know what temptation they're
going to yield to. You don't know what distraction
or difficulty is going to drive them crazy, and
the next thing you know, they're not acting like
Jesus, they're acting like Satan. And so we don't
judge people based on their actions. Instead,
we do what we were supposed to be doing all along.
We point to the monuments. Think about how awesome
God is. Even though we're going through this
horrible struggle now, Think about the amazing
thing that God can do out of this. We talk about
how if we survive this, God will be able to erect
another monument in that we survived that horrible
time. People go up and say, I feel for you, or
I'm sympathetic, or I know what you're going
through. You don't. Even if you, let's say that
the challenge was the loss of a job. And you
say, well, I've lost a job three times and I
know exactly what it felt like. No, you don't.
Because you never were in that person's skin.
Ever. You don't know that that job triggers things
that happened when they were eight or that their
dad did or their mom did or the accident they
were in. You don't know what they feel like.
You just don't know from inside. And so you cannot.
look down on those who are in their struggles.
You cannot look down. We talk about people who
don't come to church or don't worship God, and
we shake our heads and go, oh, that's just crazy.
God is so awesome, and I love worshiping God.
Or that don't serve. Now, I'm not saying you
should make excuses for a person to live in wickedness,
but what I am saying is to realize that they
are simply, until they are saved, they are simply
a product of their experiences. They're not free.
No one ever cursed a slave for doing what his
master told him to do, even if the action was
wrong. Because the slave could be killed, or
his family could be killed, or his children could
be beaten in front of him if he didn't do what
it was. If the head slave didn't beat the other
slaves when the master told him to, then the
head slave's family would be beaten. They're
just doing what they're mastered by. Pray that
they be set free. Be prepared to proclaim the
monuments that God has set up? Yes. But don't
let yourself come into a place where you are
looking down on someone else for what they are
doing. Because that is not focusing on holiness.
That is not whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there
is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,
dwelling on those things. While you're looking
at somebody else's nastiness, you're not dwelling
on those things. You can watch your TV and you
see a sex scene and you say, oh, they shouldn't
put that stuff on TV. Well, you're watching it.
And you're dwelling on how they shouldn't put
that stuff on TV. They shouldn't talk like that.
But then when you get upset, you talk like that.
Paul wrote it this way in 1 Corinthians. He says,
For who regards you as superior? What do you
have that you did not receive? And if you did
receive it, if God brought you across the river,
why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
He said, Joshua, I'm going to exalt you today
amongst the people and everybody's going to revere
you. And Joshua didn't go to the people and say,
I am Joshua. I am mighty. Hear me roar. as God
parts the river. No, he said, God is going to
do today what God told you he was going to do
today. He spoke of the monument that God had
erected. Quoting the word, in fact. They don't
need you to tell them how awesome you are or
how saved you are. They don't need you to tell
them about your spiritual gifts. If your salvation
story goes something like this. I was in a horrible
place. I did all these wrong things. Then one
day I realized that I was unsaved and I needed
Jesus. And then I prayed to Jesus and said, Jesus,
come in and save me. And then Jesus saved me,
after which I knew I was right. And I've been
telling everybody ever since, you're not proclaiming
the monument of God. You're proclaiming your
own greatness. You received everything you have.
Everything. And if you received everything you
have, then you ought to be giving glory to the
one who received it. But what do we do instead?
As soon as we get one hand out, as soon as we
start to feel a little bit of freedom, our first
instinct is to free ourselves the rest of the
way. And now you're responsible for the rest
of your salvation. What do you know about your
Bible? How does that work out? That's what happens.
Because you couldn't earn it. You couldn't get
the first hand free. And now that one hand is
free, no more can you get the second hand free.
What makes you think you can do it? You say,
well, I can do it. I can do all things. But that
is the verse. The verse is, I can do all things
through Christ which strengthens me. Because
he did it. I can do all things. And by the way,
that is written in the context of prayer and
suffering. I can live in suffering because He
makes me able. I can go without because He makes
me able. I can lift up to Him in prayer the things
I know I cannot handle myself because He makes
me able. That's the context of that verse. So
you get out of bed in the morning and say, I
can do whatever I want. Because I mean, Jesus,
you're stripping the verse of its meanings. That's
not the word of God. It's at best the word of
the world. Just real quick, the points and then
the conclusion. The points were this. One, don't
miss the mighty things that God has done. And
I would put the emphasis there on that God has
done. Two, Don't fail to proclaim when the monuments
get the attention of the next generation. We
need to tell anybody who will listen about the
monuments that God has erected in our lives,
in our world. Three, don't live as if you never
crossed the river. Don't spit on the memory of
the amazing thing that Jesus did. That would
be you going back into wickedness. And by the
way, if you do that, according to Hebrews, there's
no further. Payment. And don't look down on those
who are yet to come. And don't make excuses for
yourselves to give into trial. The trials that
are coming. Our vision is not on the next challenge.
And that's a problem for us. Whether you're a
type D personality, so you plan on dominating
the problem, or you're a type I personality,
so you... Plan on figuring out a way to get through.
Or we could go on with that list. The bottom
line is our focus is not on the problem. It's
not supposed to be on the problem. It's supposed
to be on the Lord. Okay, by way of conclusion.
If you're not careful, you just might miss the
awesome things that God wants to do now. Right
now in this moment. I'm going to tell you a joke.
I don't do a lot of jokes, but I'm going to tell
you a joke. This is a joke, so I'm going to get
down to everybody to laugh. Just telling you
in advance. I'm going to do a lot of jokes. So
there was a shepherd who loved the Lord, and
he had a Bible that he always studied when he
was out in the fields. And one day, he forgot
the Bible in the field, came back to where it
was, and it wasn't there. It was his favorite
Bible that he had always used. So he was sad,
but, you know, he could get another Bible. It's
not the end of the world. It must be. God wanted
to give it to somebody who needed it, whatever,
you know, all the excuses that he could make
to give God the glory because he loved the Lord.
Then one day, about two weeks later, a sheep
came walking up to him with the Bible in his
mouth and handed the Bible back to him. And he
said, as he accepted the Bible, he said, whoa,
it's a miracle. And the sheep said, not really,
your name's written in the front. The point is
this. We're not the shepherds who lost his Bible.
We're the sheep. Doing amazing things. Because
we don't know any better. Because it's who we
are. Because it's time to go forward. Stop worrying
about Jericho and nine foot tall guys with great
big spears. Stop it. That's not who we are. We
crossed the river that was split by God on dry
land. Reaching, we reached. Now, settling, we
settle. And when God gives us the next victory,
we will do it again. We will believe in faith
that God is going to do something amazing. We
will reach out for it and grab it and say, maybe
God's going to do this. I'm going to go for it.
And you go for it and God will do something amazing.
And then you now have another monument to God
to proclaim everywhere you go. And Ariana has
brought me around to it. Just lately, Ariana
has decided she likes to hear family stories
more than she likes to be read to, which is a
little bit of a problem because I'm trying to
get her to be able to read, so I want her to
look at the words and stuff, so we'll work on
it. But that being said, so now what we do is
we tell family stories, and we read. We do both.
It started on our camp trip. We lay in bed at
night, all of us in the tent, telling stories
that turns into a person telling a family story.
So she got really fired up. So now she wants
to hear the stories of the family. So then I'm
thinking, and I'm telling her the stories, right?
And most of the stories that I'm telling are,
I mean, they're very simple, not really a big
deal, you know, like how we got our first TV,
how we got our first car, how our car got in
an accident, you know, things like that. But
then I started telling her stories of how God
did this and how God did that. And I started
telling her the stories of how God did these
things, and I began to realize two things. And
I'll close with this. Number one, I began to
realize that the stories are many. There's so
many stories that, like, I realized I have not
told them. They're almost too many. I'll never
run out of a supply because God has done so many
things, amazing things in my life, in the life
of church members, in the life of people I know,
in our family, protecting us. Just amazing, amazing,
amazing things, and so many of them. And so I'm
telling her these stories, and so then she's
like. Tell me another family story. And our family
stories are about God. And she's laying in bed
at night. And I've told her all her stories.
And I've read her her books. And she's drowsy.
And she lays there half asleep. And she says,
Daddy. And I say, yeah. And she says, I love
God. But at the same time. I realized that there
are so many stories that we can tell them forever.
And by the way, a good story about God and what
he's done never gets old. This is actually an
old story. Thousands of years old. It's been
told in the church hundreds of millions of times.
A good story about God never gets old. But that
being said, I didn't realize that. I realized
I needed to repent. Because the whole first section
of the story is a mini story that I told at work.
How God reversed TV. how I got my first job,
where I used to work, all these things. He never
mentioned that. What's there to be telling the
next generation? It's about how God has done
this, how God is mighty, how God can save you
and work in your life just as He did for me.
No, I'm not special. I'm not the only one that
God can do mighty works in their life. I know
it's been true for all of us. By the way, if
you right now are sitting here and you look back,
and you can't think of a mighty work that God
has ever done in your life, then right now, with
your very next breath, you need to turn your
life over to the Lord so that you can be saved,
so that you can be transformed, so that you can
see those mighty works because they're there.
And for some reason, you can't see them. And
then, which was my experience, after I got saved,
I was able to look back at my young life and
say, God did that too? Oh, wow, that's neat.
That never would have happened. I could see miracles.
that happened before I got saved, but I couldn't
see them after I got saved. What about you? What
stories are you telling? What monuments are you
proclaiming? Are you looking for that next generation
so that when they ask the question, you're ready?
Are you in that next generation? Don't make any
excuses. It's not about my trials have drug me
away from God, things got too hard or too good.
That's all. It just means that... You didn't
love God the way you were supposed to. And don't
judge anybody who's made those mistakes. Because
I've made them. You've made them. We've all made
them. We all were without sin. And while we were
without sin, Christ died for us. Or while we
were in sin. We all had sin. And while we were
in sin, Christ died for us. And so we've all
had it. And if you're here today and you've received
salvation, then I'm going to... Say that God
is now telling you to tell people what has happened
to you. Your friends, your family members, the
professionals that you deal with, the people
that you only get 90 seconds out of their day,
but they're bound, required to listen to what
you say because they're paid to do it. And you
tell them. I guarantee you. Oh, by the way, if
you go out to eat tonight, and your server comes
to your table and you tell them about Jesus and
they act rude, there's a 1 -800 number for that.
Right? If you tell them about Jesus and they
act rude, you call the 1 -800 number and say,
my server acted rude to me. But just realize,
if you tell them about Jesus, they may believe.
Let me pray for us. Father in heaven, help us.
We are so blessed to have come across the river.
I would have been... Probably one of those fools
that was tiptoeing on dry land. I was for 25
years of my life. Turning down the offer of salvation
over and over again. Well, here we are. We're
in that moment. That one moment that he promised
us. Should we let this or that, we succeed in
this way or that. For those of us that are saved,
we know that our successes and victories are
attributed to you. For those of us that aren't,
right now, I ask the Lord to work in our hearts.
That we might genuinely accept you and let you
be a leader. Let you be in charge. Just and bright
and just, we want to be in charge of everything
in the world. I'm asking you. just to do what
you promised you'd do and bring us home. I'm
asking you, Lord, to let us, as you have called
us, to take our eyes off the many and varied
concerns that the world would have us be focused
on and to put them on the hope that you have
given us. That we would exhale. And with it would
go all the worry. And all the sorrow. All the
willingness to give to that patient. And then
we're going to breathe in that. With that breath
would come. Your word. Your spirit. Eternal hope.
the river. And though large things lean before
us, we realize that our Jericho, the armies that
we must face, they are nothing. They are small,
huge compared to the might of our God. And they
will allow us to live. That's the praise team
to come forward at this time. We'll have a closing
hymn. This is the last song of our service, and
we'll conclude our services today. But if you're
here today, and you've either accepted Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior for the first time
ever in earnest, or you came in as a follower
of Jesus, and you've recommitted your life to
the Lord today, then I would ask you to respond
to the invitation as you come forward and tell
us what's on your heart, what's in your mind,
what God has said to you, and that you need to
come back and say to us. And then if you're here
and you need to be baptized, you're here in the
home church, you're here and you know what ministry
God is pointing you towards and you're supposed
to be doing it and you're not doing it, whatever
it might be, you need to repent of a specific
sin, this is your opportunity to respond. So
would you stand with us as we sing this song
and then this be your prayer to God either way.
If you're making the decision, then you come
now. Come and share with me and we'll share with
you. Let me know by raising your hand wherever
you are that you need to say something in a minute.
Okay, anybody? All right, so we have Melissa
and Aaron who have come today. So I'll let you
guys turn around and face them so they can see
you. Okay, so Melissa, I'll let you go first.
Tell them what you told me. Amen. Thank you,
God, for that. Every one of those claps is for
the Lord. And I already told her she's welcome.
And I'm telling you now, from my heart to you,
I forgive you. The Lord forgives you. And if
the people forgive you, say amen. Amen. It's
unanimous. Unanimously. All right. Welcome. Welcome.
So we'll begin to pursue the membership thing.
But praise God and thank you. All right. Aaron,
will you share with us what you shared with me?
Amen. We prayed together and he prayed a prayer
of commitment with me. Really, it's about letting
God explain to us. This is not you taking the
second shackle off. Sometimes we do that. We
make that mistake. Jesus, okay, I'm sorry, I'll
take it off now. I'll quit that. And I think
a lot of times when we repent, we think we're
putting something away. And the truth is, you're
renewing your focus on God. And that's what we
prayed about. And so I'm very proud of him. And
I forgive you, son. And your mother forgives
you. And the people forgive you. And the people
forgive you, say amen. Amen. And we know that
God forgave you already, right, before ever this
began. Okay, is there someone else who has a
word on your heart? Brother Tony, would you close
us in prayer and then we'll go out and we will
proclaim to any who will listen the monuments
that God has erected in this world. Weak and
bullheaded. And we need your strength and your
courage to face our Jericho, the many things
that we're going to face in life. And we're thankful
for these that came to Melissa and Aaron. And
Lord, just ask you to be with them. Strengthen
them. Give them courage. Know that they can do
all things for you as you give them strength.
As you give us each and every one of us. And
that we are your children. You'll never leave
us forsaken, even though we may do that. Lord,
you're always faithful. And just ask you Lord
to be with us the rest of this day, whatever
we're doing, wherever we go. Go ye therefore
and be the church. Thank you. God be with you.
Hopefully. Thank you. Thanks. It was a little
crunchy at first. Thank you. Hey, I was told
it was underneath the piano. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. I got you all. Thank you. Oh,
yeah. Was he a bad man when he was little? Was
he a bad man when he was little? You know him?
I don't know names. You do know me. I do know
you, but I don't know your name. He said it.
Oh, I want to make sure. Okay. Oh, okay. Okay.
Okay. Okay. Can you go find out how much one?
I think I killed him off. We thought we killed
him off. And then we ripped the carpet up. And
then dad's like, well, maybe we should pull molding
off the wall. And then we ripped. Dad ripped
the molding off the wall. I don't know what happened.
There's a chunk that broke off inside there.
Well, I had a bottle of heavy duty stuff from
Menards. I used that. It's some powder you're
supposed to use. Yeah. I tried to spray it, tried
to rub it on the wall. You need a tissue. I tried
to see your chest. Thank you. Keys are, one,
the bed. Every bed needs to be packed. Two, any
walls. Traps on the door. Nothing. Anything that
comes out of that room. It smells very strong
of pine. Yeah, it smells like pine trees. Really
strong. Spray chemicals. And the other matter
is heat. Just I'm talking Small very small I
mean, it wasn't in the whole house. But you should
not keep it down So if you get the point where
I've never seen design that's so minimal that
you never see design of it. She's like, no, it's
got to be golf. And I'm like, no, it's me. You
never see it. You never see one. You never see
any signs whatsoever. And that's gone enough.
Exactly. I'm not sharing my house. She's like,
that's great. She's taking a flashlight every
night before she goes to bed. I don't want to
be here. I don't. I put up with it. Your bed
is not touching anything. Well, you know, we
read after that. They can't climb the walls,
but they can. I haven't trained that one for
years. Just put a bug in your ear. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But I'm like,
that's why you didn't get in my bed. Because
that means it was really close to my bed. Thank
you. That matches there when you want it. Thank
you. I can't control my height, mother. Thank
you. Thank you.