Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. out just a little bit different
today. I'm just going to do this in obedience
to what God was kind of prompting me down there
during worship. I'm going to have you stand right
now. If you would, just stand up. We're going
to get to the message in a little bit. But as
we were worshiping this morning and God was moving,
I hope you felt His presence like I did. God
gave me a scripture out of Revelation chapter
3, verse 20. It said, Behold, I stand at the
door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come into him and dine
with him and he with me. And I'm here to tell
you, somebody in the house, maybe a lot of somebody's
in this house, God's knocking right now. He's
knocking. And if you open the door, He's going
to meet with you. This is a faith moment. Sometimes
you need your faith built up. Sometimes you need
to know that God came here to meet with you.
This isn't just another Sunday on the books,
just another thing we're going to go ahead and
do, right? As Christians, He wants to meet with
you. And He stopped me. cold down there and said,
I'm knocking and you know who you are right now.
You know God's knocking on your heart. He's knocking
on the door. He wants to meet with you. I don't
know what it's all about, but he wants to meet
with you. So here's what we're going to do. We're
just going to take a moment, and I want you just
to bow your heads, and I want you to slide together
with somebody that's beside you. Do this with
somebody you're comfortable with, but I want
you to pray because that might be the person
right now that God wants to meet with. He's knocking.
He's tapping on the door, and he says, if you
open the door, I will come in and dine with you.
That means he'll come in, right, and you'll commune
together. We're going to take communion later.
It means he comes in and meets you. And some
of you need to meet with him this morning. I
don't know who you are, who it is this morning,
but you need to know he stopped all this for
you. So I want you to just slide together, lay
a hand on somebody's shoulder. If you're comfortable,
just slide up beside somebody. I want you to
get ready to pray because we're going to have...
We're going to believe right now. We're going
to take a step of faith and say you're going
to meet with God. Father, we come to you right
now in the name of your son, Jesus. And Lord,
you want to meet with somebody this morning.
Lord, right now you're knocking it. Maybe it's
for the very first time. Maybe there's somebody
in the house that has never opened the door to
you or they have just peeked in the door from
time to time. They slipped into church this morning.
And Lord, you want to meet with them. Lord, in
this moment, they're going to sense your presence.
Right now they feel a tugging and they feel a
drawl in their spirit. And it's something they've
never felt before. And Lord, I pray, God, right
now, just begin to meet with them. They're going
to walk out of this house knowing that they met
with the Lord and creator of the universe. And
Jesus, I ask right now by the power of your Holy
Spirit that you would just bump that door open.
As they open, turn the knob, God, come in and
meet them. God, as they sit and listen to the
message, meet with them. Lord, as they go home
today and they do whatever they're going to do
through this weekend, meet with them. God, that
they might know and, Lord, just sense your presence.
And, Lord, you're going to walk them through
the next place, the next space. And if you're
in the house this morning and you don't know
them, and this is the first time, the Word of
God just tells us that all you have to do is
believe that he is Lord and that you want to
meet with him. Jesus paid a price. He died on
a cross so we could be washed clean of sin and
so that we could approach him. so that we could
knock on the door and He can knock on the door
of your heart and you can open it and you can
meet with the Savior today. If that's you, just
ask Him into your life. Say, Lord, I want to
meet with you. In Jesus' name. If you've walked
with Him for a hundred years, say, Lord, I want
to meet with you just fresh one more time. I
need you to breathe on me one more time, Lord.
In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Can everybody
say it together? Amen, amen. You babysitted?
If that was you this morning, hear me when I
tell you, when God interrupts, when he stops
things, you need to understand he wants to meet
with you. He wants to get with you on something.
I want to pray with you a little later. I thought
about bringing you up at that point in time.
We're going to pray a little later on. There's
a prayer team that will pray with you. As a matter
of fact, even while the service is going on,
you can slip out and find a prayer team member.
If you feel like you need to pray right now,
they'll pray with you. They'll take you out in
the back. Not out back. That sounds really bad.
They will take you out there where it's very
nice, and they'll pray with you. I made it sound
like they were going to take you out and beat
you. Listen, how many know God's good? Amen.
He's good. He's good. Yeah, come on. Give him
a hand. He's worthy. Amen. Well, we were going
to play the theme music, and I pulled an audible
there. We Are Family. I started a message series
last week called We Are Family. How many know
that song? I'm not going to sing it, but you
can hum it if you want to. But we started that
message series last week and really started to
begin to talk about the importance of family
and what family means. And we realized a few
things last week. Last week, we realized that...
Family is a powerful thing. And I'm going to
start off with our physical family, our family,
right? The family that's around you. A lot of
families are going to get together on this holiday
weekend. It's a powerful thing. And family can
make us or break us. right? It can lift us up
or it can tear us down, one of the two. It can
help us fly or it can load you down with baggage.
It can be a good thing and it could be a bad
thing, or your family could be something right
in the middle or in between, somewhere on that
scale, right? But in the kingdom of God, our
spiritual family is set up for something different.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord are meant to
raise us up. Now, I know that doesn't always
happen, but it should. Right? They're meant to
raise us up. In the kingdom of God, everything
is opposite of the kingdom of this world. Everything
in this kingdom moves from life to death. In
the kingdom of God, it moves from death to life.
Everything comes to life. And here's the thing
in the kingdom of God. It's populated with family.
It really is. Brothers and sisters in the Lord.
In the kingdom of God, we're not just mere citizens
of heaven. We are sons and daughters. of God.
If you're saved in the house, you're a son or
a daughter of the Most High, all right? Turn
to somebody, tell them, you look a little bit
like his son. You look a little bit like his
daughter, all right? Come on. I hope you've been
reminding yourself of one of these truths or
all these truths throughout this week. But there's
really another possible, powerful aspect of family
life in the kingdom of God, and it's this. It's
testimony. Say testimony. Testimony. We're going
to testify this morning. Hopefully you'll do
some of this at the end, maybe just to the person
beside you. But testimony is a powerful aspect
in the family of God. And we don't talk about
testimony in the family of God enough. We don't
discuss it enough. We don't put enough weight
on it. And everybody in this house, anybody that
knows Jesus, anybody that's listening online
and Jesus is your Lord and your Savior, you have
a testimony. You have a story to tell. And some
of us have some of the same elements in our story
because some of it is the same, right? It's the
same Jesus who saved us. It's the same Father
and Lord and Creator who watches over us. It's
the same Holy Spirit who drew you in, maybe even
spoke to you this morning and lives with and
resides within us when we come to faith. It's
the same confession that we make in our faith
to Jesus. It really is the same forgiveness factor.
that every one of us has experienced, that forgiveness
of sins, that washing and the cleansing. It's
the new covenant of Scripture, our new covenant
with God. That's all the same. It's the same
power of God that's at work in you as in work
in me. But beyond that, the testimony gets wildly
different. Beyond that, the details of your story
look completely different than mine. And all
the crazy twists and turns of how you got to
God. And once you got to God, all the crazy twists
and turns from that point to now. All the stories
and the testimonies of how God brought you from
that place where you were lost and without him,
and now he's got you in a place where you're
just waiting to see what God's gonna do next
in your life. It is our testimony, it's the story
of God's power at work in us. It's the testimony,
amen? Oh man, you don't believe it yet. It is,
it's true, all right? If Jesus has changed your
life, if you're saved, if you're born again,
you've experienced something along the way. First
salvation. Some of you in this house have experienced
healing and deliverance. Raise your hand if you've
been healed of something and delivered something.
Take a look around. Raise it up. Come on. If
God has delivered you out of something, if he
has healed you from something, you need to testify
about that, right? And some of you, how you speak,
how you live, what you step through in your life,
you need to speak about this. You need to testify.
How many of you have lived a different life now
than, wildly different than what you lived a
year ago, five years ago, ten years ago? I see
some of you going, oh, yeah, right? You're not,
right? Some of you, God's given a different perspective.
Some of you've got a new lease on life and eternity.
You got a testimony. You have a testimony. And
your testimony is your written, right, or spoken
statement of God's work in your life. Our testimony
is kind of a sworn affidavit of what God has
done in me and has done it on a large level.
And testimony is powerful. In a court of law,
it is the testimony of witnesses that helps to
establish or to confirm a truth. If you go to
a courtroom, they'll call witnesses to the stand.
If you've watched, how many of you watch TV?
You've seen it on TV, right? Some of you may
have actually been in a courtroom, but they'll
call a witness up and they're trying to prove
a particular truth, something that's true. And
they'll call the witness to the stand and they'll
begin to ask them questions. And the idea is
that that witness begins to testify. and to confirm
what is to be known as the truth of what took
place. They'll ask him what happened, how it
happened, when it happened, what was your experience
and what took place and they're testifying to
confirm. Deuteronomy 19, 15 really talks about
it in the law of Moses in the Old Testament.
It says this, one witness shall not rise against
a man concerning another iniquity or any sin
that he commits, but by the mouth of two, Or
three witnesses. Give me a two or three. Two
or three witnesses, the matter shall be established.
Right? It is the testimony that begins to confirm
the truth of the matter. It is a testimony that
is the confirmation of God's truth. His truth
never changes. It's always there. But your testimony
is a confirmation to somebody else that God's
truth is still in existence and is still working
out today in somebody's life, right? He works
in our testimony to confirm to somebody else
what God is doing and that he is still on the
throne and he's alive and well. It's true. It's
in your testimony. So understand, it's not your
testimony that confirms the truth. The truth
is the truth. God's word never changes, right?
But your testimony confirms. It's a confirmation,
and it's powerful. Our testimony, if you want
to, you can look at it. It's like a living illustration.
You're a living illustration to somebody that
God is at work. in this world. You probably never
saw yourself like that. Maybe you never looked
in the mirror and thought, you know, I'm a living
illustration of God's power at work in this world.
But you are. You're a word picture for somebody.
When somebody sees your life and what God's walking
out in your life, and you're testifying, you're
telling them what God's doing in your life, and
they're seeing what you're talking about is matching
with what you're saying, and all those things
are kind of culminating into one thing, they're
like, wow, right? Look at that. There's a picture
of what God's doing. He's still working. He's
still moving. He's still working with people.
And you're the people. He's doing it. It's a
testimony. It is a living illustration. It's
the story of Jesus and you that somebody else
needs to hear. Now, some of you, I can tell by
looking in your eye, you're like, I don't know
if they need to hear that. They need to hear
that. The person beside you needs to hear it.
I remember when I was young. I remember when
I was growing up, we heard testimonies all the
time. We were in a small church, and testimony
was a regular part of the gathering. How many
of you ever, if you've been in church a long,
long time like I have, did anybody ever experience
a popcorn testimony service? Raise your hand
if you have. Good, all four of us. Okay, four
or five of us, right? Popcorn testimony. And
it was literally like popcorn. You know, when
you throw popcorn in it, what's it do? It pops,
right? So they would say, popcorn testimony.
And what happened is anybody can stand up and
give a testimony, which is wild, by the way,
okay? Because you never knew what somebody was
going to say. But, you know, you could pop up
in this small church and just give your testimony.
And it was encouraging. You know, if you come
to a revive night, we have those once a quarter
where we have worship. Our new tradition is we've
been doing a little while now, but at the end
of it, we just all come up front. We hand the
mic around and everybody gives a testimony to
what God's done. It is so encouraging. I hear
what somebody's doing, what God's doing in somebody
else's life. They hear what he's doing in my
life and it changes things. Testimony is powerful.
It's powerful. There's one, and only, there's
many, but one stuck out in my mind. I was trying
to go back, and I thought, which one am I going
to share with the church when I come in and preach
this morning? What testimony? And I remember
several years ago, this was quite a while ago,
probably 2008 -ish, 2009. How many of you remember
Phil Stacy? Anybody remember the name Phil Stacy?
All right, this is going well. All right, one.
Okay, let me give you a little, let me refresh.
Phil Stacey was on season six of American Idol.
And that was in 2007. And he went up through
the ranks. He made it for a while. And then he
got voted off the island, so to speak. All right,
and he was out. But he signed a record deal.
But the unique thing about Phil is that Phil
was a Christian. And he does Christian music.
And he did a local concert up in Hershey, PA
area. And he was doing it for a church plant
that was going on up there. And we got the opportunity,
Dixie and I got the opportunity to go meet him
and talk with him. Normally they come in, you
know, they do their thing. We got to spend, I
don't know. a couple of hours with this guy.
And we got into conversation with him and it
was amazing. And during that evening, he started
to begin to tell us his testimony. One of the
things, and he grew up just like I did. He grew
up in church, just like Dixie did. He was in
church all the time. His mom took him to church
on Sunday morning, Sunday night. He was there
all the time. But as he got a little older and
he got into his teenage years, he began to drift
from God. And he got a job and he started not
going to church, not showing up. And he talked
about one rainy night, he came home and he said
the home where they lived, they came and it was
a garage there. And he said, I wanted to pull
into the garage and it was raining out. And he
said, our garage didn't have an automatic garage
door opener. So you had to stop, get out of the
vehicle, open the garage door, pull your car
in and close the garage door. I know the work,
it's amazing, right? He had to do those things.
But he said he went to get out, went to lift
the garage door. And a man came up behind him
and stopped him and threatened him and grabbed
ahold of him and put him up against the door.
He was there to steal his car. And what Phil
didn't know was that had somebody had escaped
from prison, a state or two away, had been on
a rampage going from place to place, stealing
cars. And every place that he stole a car, he
shot and killed the person that had the car.
He was the next person. And he said, as he had
me up against the door, he said, he began to
look above me and something strange happened.
He said, the man that had a hold of me got scared.
And he said, I don't know what took place. Well,
what Phil didn't know is mama was at church.
This was a Sunday night and mom was praying.
And mom felt in her spirit that something was
wrong with her son. And it was a small church.
And mom stood up in the middle of the church
service and said, we need to stop. We got to
pray for Phil right now. She stopped the entire
service. The church began to pray and call out
Phil's name. At the same time, this was all taking
place. And Phil was convinced to this day that
what that man saw was a guardian angel standing
above him and is scared to live in daylight.
And he hopped in Phil's car, took off and left.
And he was the only one in that string of people
that this man stole cars from that was not shot
and killed. Obviously, it's serving the Lord.
It is our testimony that is powerful. It is what
God is doing in our lives. That is powerful.
And someone around you needs to hear what God
has done and what he is doing in your life. It
is powerful. Our testimony should be heard in
this house and it should be heard out of this
house. Amen. People need to hear it. You need
to hear this among your brothers and sisters
that are sitting here. You need to tell about,
you need to, you need, you know, anytime you
get the opportunity, tell somebody what God's
doing in your life. Sometimes, so many times,
and I do the same thing. We come in here, we
chit chat. What's up? What's going on? What's
the weather? How's it going? Blah, blah, blah,
right? And we're not talking about Jesus and
what he's done. We need to start sharing with
one another. One of the things it does is it
begins to build your faith. When you hear about
what God's doing in someone else's life, you're
thinking, man, if he did it for them, he can
do it for me, right? If God did it for them,
they're not anybody special. Maybe you don't
think that, but they're thinking, yeah, anybody
special, right? If he's doing it for them, he'll
do it for me. And you begin to take it. We need
to hear this. We need to understand. Listen,
we've got to talk. We've got to tell one another
the story. of Jesus. And I wanted to share one
of those with you this morning. We got one of
our very own Life Housers. We got two this morning.
And I want you to turn your attention to the
screen because I want you to hear a testimony
this morning. This is Cindy Brand. And I got
down on my knees. I helped lay the board and
got it done in time for a church service call.
And we were able to set up the routine for the
next day. and it's just still knocking. And I
am today. I canceled all my other commitments.
I canceled the surgery of commitment because
I felt like there's no need. What are they going
to do? And it was all God. And it was all through
prayer and allowing someone else to pray for
me and not do it on my own. And sometimes we
need that and we have to accept that. So when
Pastor Kip says on a Sunday morning, if anyone's
in need of prayer, please seek out the prayer
team, seek out me, any of the pastors. Please
do it because sometimes prayers from someone
else can be more rewarding for you and more healing
for you than you yourself. God bless and have
a great day. How many of you faith just raised
there a little bit? Come on, give him glory.
He did it. I didn't do it. He did, right? It's
the testimony. We need to tell the story of what
God's done. It'll raise your faith. It gives
glory to God. The word of God tells us in everything
that we do, we should give glory to God. It's
a form of praise and worship. When you speak
out of gratitude, when you tell somebody what
God's done in your life, it is a form of praise.
It is a form of worship. It's showing your gratitude
for what God has done in your life. And every
opportunity we get, we should brag on. Amen?
Brag on what God's done. Brag on the Holy Spirit.
Look at the person sitting beside you right now.
Take a look at them. Just stare at them for a
moment. That's all I want you to do. Okay? But
every time you testify, right, every time you
brag on them for just a moment, brag on Jesus,
you have the opportunity of raising their faith.
All of a sudden, they start to hear what God
is doing. It's hard to argue when somebody, you
can argue theology all day long, but it's really
tough to argue when somebody says, you know what?
I've been healed. I had a knee and I was going
for surgery and they checked it out and it's
all okay. I don't understand it. I don't get
it. Just, I don't know. We just prayed and God
moved. How many of you know that raises your
faith? For somebody that doesn't know God, they're
like. I don't know. I got to wrestle with this.
I got to fight with this. We got to practice
testimony in the house. You should practice it
in your life group. You should practice it in
a worship service. You should practice it when
LH3 is taking place. How many know, right? When
you get your three people together, right? Three
people, three minutes with the creator of the
universe for three years. I just changed it up.
It used to be three months. All right. You should
have been doing it for three months by now. When
we hit the three -year mark, I'm going to change
it to 30 years. But you get together with those
three. Anytime we're together, we should be testifying
and bragging on Jesus. And we got to practice
it in the house. And we practice it in the house
because what you practice inside the house, guess
what you'll do outside the house. If we practice
testifying in the house, we'll practice testifying
outside the house. Whatever you do and whatever
you practice in your home, sooner or later that
will spill out into outside of your house. If
you're acting Jesus -like in the house, and I
may know that's where it should begin, is in
the house. If you're acting Jesus -like in the
house, good chance you're going to act Jesus
-like outside the house. If you're not acting
like Jesus inside the house, sooner or later
that's going to show up on the outside, right?
You're going down the road, somebody cuts you
off. What's going to happen? Are you blessing
them in the name of Jesus, or are you blessing
them? in the name of Jesus or some other name,
right? Come on, it's true. We have to practice.
We testify because what we're doing in the house
spills out. We give testimony, we practice, and
we testify in the house and outside because it's
powerful. It's powerful. Your testimony is powerful.
Whether you've been saved a week, a day, whether
you've grown up in church. So many times I hear
people talking about, you know, well, my testimony
is not powerful. I got saved when I'm five. I've
just been following Jesus ever since. That's
amazing. That's incredible. Do you know how much
junk you missed in all your life, right, that
everybody else is dealing with? It's amazing.
You've got to testify about what he's doing.
And I want to share a scripture out of Revelation
that just shows you how powerful this is. And
it says this in Revelation 12, 10. Then I heard
a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the
power of his Christ have come for the accuser
of the brethren. How many know who the accuser
of the brethren is? The devil. All right, say
the devil. We're not giving them any glory, just
wanted you to say. All right, for the accuser
of the brethren who accused them before our God
day and night has been cast down. So the Satan's
been cast down. And they, when it says they in
there, they're talking about the saints of God
here. This is the children of God. This is the
sons and daughters of God. For they overcame
him, the devil, by the blood of the lamb and
the word of their testimony. I don't know if
you know it or not, but the way you overcome
the enemy, the way you overcome Satan is by the
blood of the lamb, by Jesus Christ and him alone.
And it's you testifying about what that blood
has done in your life, right? We overcome Satan
by the blood of the lamb and the word is the
testimony. So many times we try to overcome Satan
with so many other things, right? We're gonna
wheel our way through. We're gonna muscle our
way through. I'm just gonna be me, pound our
chest. I'm gonna make it happen because I'm a
Christian. By the blood. of the Lamb and the
word of your testimony. By the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of your testimony, right? You
don't even have a testimony without the blood
of Jesus Christ. The power is in the blood and
the testimony is a confirmation of what's already
true. And it is what overcomes Satan. It unlocks
the power of God to be released in your life
and to be released in the people around you.
And it seems too simple. It seems too easy. It
seems like it should be something different than
that, right? We gotta work for it a little bit
more. We gotta, I don't know, there's gotta be
some other formula. But the word of God says
it is the blood of the lamb and the word of your
testimony that begins to overcome the enemy.
And it happens. It takes place when we began
to speak about who God is and what he's doing.
It crushes the enemy. It steps on the neck of
the enemy. And virtually nothing can come against
it. One drop of the blood of Jesus Christ stops
any and all evil in life. Do you understand that?
the power in that. And when you verbalize that,
when you speak that confirming testimony, you
are stopping evil. You want to raise a standard
up against the enemy, you begin to testify about
what God has done in your life, what he can do,
what he will do, what he said he's going to do
in his word. It's in your testimony. It's what
you speak. It is what you're saying. And can
I just ride this train just a little bit longer
and then we'll be closing this up. Why do you
think Satan works so hard to keep the word of
God and Jesus being spoke out of the public sector?
Why do you think the enemy does not want you
to testify about what God's done in your life?
Why do you think he wants you to keep and not
speak of the word of God? because there is power
to overtake him and he knows it. Every time he
shuts down the word of God, every time he shuts
down a testimony of God's confirming work in
your life, every time he does that, it gives
him the ability to begin to overtake. But as
soon as we start speaking the word of God, just
like Jesus did in the desert, as soon as you
begin to invoke and verbalize the word of God,
when you begin to speak about what God's done
and how that applies to your life, enemy has
to flee. Hell begins to shake. Demons begin to
tremble. They don't know what to do with themselves.
And this is the power of God at work in you.
And it sounds so simple, but it is so utterly
powerful. You start speaking Jesus. You start
telling Jesus. You start talking about all the
details that God's worked out in your life. How
many of you have got a testimony and you look
back on the other side of the testimony and you
think, how in the world did God work all that
out? It's crazy. You couldn't make this up, right?
It's true. I've got one more testimony for you.
I've got how God does that, and then we're going
to close up. Good morning, LifeHouse. Just wanted
to share a quick testimony about God's perfect
plan, His perfect timing, and how He provides
for us even in the most dire of circumstances.
As many of you know, on April 28th, I lost my
dad and stepmom in a car accident. April 28th
also happened to be the day that our house was
going on the market for sale. So very quickly,
we were faced with how are we going to handle
everything that's about to happen? We reached
out to our realtor, discussed it, decided that
we would leave the house on the market and just
manage things as best we could over the next
couple weeks, knowing that God was going to be
there with us and to help us out. So over the
next couple weeks, along with planning services
and things like that, we also had 15 showings,
none of which had really led to a serious offer
or anything like that. So we were on May 15th
on a Thursday. We were supposed to have a softball
game that night. Thursday was a great day. However,
the weather the last couple days had the field
too wet. So we go into Thursday the 15th planning
to be at a softball game, and that wasn't the
plan, the softball game. I also looked at my
phone that afternoon and realized that I had
a showing request that was then canceled. So
I had a showing, then the showing was canceled.
So I get home Thursday night, and I am walking
my dog out around our house, and I pop around
the front side of our house, and there's somebody
standing in our yard. I'm not sure who was more
surprised, myself or this gentleman, but we talk,
and it turns out that his family was the family
that was supposed to see the house that night.
and they were going to be in the area. It didn't
happen to work out for their realtor, but they
just wanted to drive by, see the house, and get
some information off of our sign, which is why
he was in New York. So I invited them in and
figured since they were here, it would be a time
for them to see the house since they had driven
down already. So they went in, they looked at
the house, and when we got down to the garage,
our garage is packed. So not only was it busy
with the move, but we needed a place to put my
dad and stepmom's Harley -Davidson trike. So
we made room in our already tight garage, moved
that in, and through the discussions with this
family, let them know that we'd had something
that popped up a couple weeks ago, that my dad
and stepmom had passed away. And they were very
empathetic about that, gave their condolences.
Just a super, super nice family. Well, through
the discussion about the accident a little bit,
we find out that... this gentleman and his family,
he is a corporal with the Pennsylvania State
Police. And in fact, he is the supervisor of
the Criminal Investigations Unit, which is the
unit that is going to be investigating the accident.
And of all the things that had happened over
that week, one of the challenges that I had was
connecting with this department and connecting
with this trooper that was in head of the investigation.
So as God's perfect plan and his perfect timing
would be, we did not pull the house off the market.
We left it on. We did not have a softball game
that day. I was not in the house when they got
there because they weren't intending to come
in. They were just stopping by to see the outside
of the house. So there are simply no coincidences.
God has a plan. Even when things look bad, look
distraught for us, God has a plan that is perfect
and has perfect timing in it all. And he brought
us all together at that moment. And he is there
for all of us, even in the midst of our messy
lives at times. God is there. We pray to him.
We let him know what we need. And God is there
to provide for us. Thank you. Do you know what
we call it? Yeah, come on, give him glory. It's
true. Do you know what we call those here? We
call those divine connections and divine appointments
that God sets up. And that he orchestrates. And
we should tell the testimony. Charlie and Laura
are sitting in the back. Raise your hand back
there. And they'll tell you, by the way, that
gentleman did buy the house. And they're getting
ready to close on that. And Charlie's actually
had testimony of multiple things. And how many
places have you been? Every time he tells his
testimony, he gets invited somewhere else to
speak. And to tell testimony. Not of this, but
of other things that God's worked out in his
life. It is testimony where we speak. In the
middle of the chaos. In the middle of grief.
In the middle. of frustration, in the middle
of life, in the busyness of life, when we can't
figure a thing out, he's working it all out.
And when we get on the other side, we need to
give the testimony. Amen. Worship team, if you'd
come. It is the blood of Christ in our testimony
that begins to change things. And as they come,
I want to give you one last thought today. And
it's this, our children need to hear testimony.
Our children need to hear testimony. Our children
need to hear our testimony of what God's done
in our lives. And our children need to hear or
have their own testimony. If you go into the
book of Joshua, he was a leader. He was the second
leader of Israel as they came out of slavery.
And Joshua, after Israel had wandered for 40
years in the wilderness because of disobedience
to God, Joshua's getting ready to take them into
a place called the promised land that God had
promised them. And it's across a river. It's
across the other side of the Jordan River. And
as he's preparing to take them over to the Jordan,
across the Jordan to get to the promised land,
really to the place right across from where Jericho
was, they had to get across this river. with
probably a million plus people, all their animals,
all their supplies. And here's the thing about
that river. There was no bridge to get them across
that river. There were not enough boats and vessels
that could get them across the river. So God
spoke to Joshua and told Joshua, I want you to
take the priest, get the priest, and I want you
to get the Ark of the Covenant. Now the Ark of
the Covenant was in the temple and the Ark of
the Covenant represented the presence of God
because God's presence rested on it. And they
took the poles. They would carry that with long
poles. And the priests would carry it on their
shoulder. They weren't allowed to touch the ark.
They would carry the ark. And he told them to
go down. And the priests were supposed to come
up to the edge of the river and stick their toe
in the river. And when they stuck their toes
in the river, just at the riverbanks, and you're
probably going to go to a river this weekend,
right? As they go to the riverbank, what happened
was, as soon as they touched the water, the water
began to heap up this direction, and the water
that was in front of them began to flow away.
And as they probably stood there stunned, the
water heaped up this direction, the water here
on this side went down that way, and now they
had a muddy mess in front of them. And while
they're standing there, God dries up the riverbed
for them to cross. How many know that's a story
to tell? Come on, that's a testimony, right?
And Joshua, he knows that this is a story that
they need to tell. But he also knows that sometimes
it gets lost. Even if you experience something
incredible, even if you experience a miracle
of God, it gets lost later on. So listen to what
he says to do in Joshua 4 .1. He says, take for
yourselves 12 stones from here out of the midst
of the Jordan. From the place where the priest's
feet stood firm, you shall carry them over with
you and leave them in the lodging place where
you lodge tonight. And Joshua called the 12 men
whom he had appointed from the children of Israel,
one man from every tribe. And Joshua said to
them, cross over before the ark of the Lord,
your God, into the midst of the Jordan. And each
one of you take a stone on his shoulder, according
to the number of the tribes of children of Israel.
be a sign among you when your children ask in
time to come saying, what do these stones mean
to you? Right? Then you shall answer them that
the waters of the Jordan were cut off before
the ark of the covenant of the Lord and it crossed
over by the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan
were cut off. These stones shall be a memorial
to the children of Israel forever. Do you know
what a memorial is for? Testimony. Testimony.
He says, stack up the rocks. I want you to take
rocks from the Jordan that you're crossing over,
and I want you to stack them up wherever you're
at, and I want you to build a memorial. And every
time your kids walk by and say, what are those
stones all stacked up for? You're going to tell
them, this is where God met us. This is where
God performed the miracle. We're going to testify
about what God's done, right? This is Memorial
Day. This is Memorial Day weekend. All across
this nation, there are going to be parents, there
are going to be people pointing to memorials
and saying, let me tell you who sacrificed. Let
me tell you about the service member who died
so that you could have freedom. It is a testimony.
And Joshua wanted them to remember, our children
need to hear testimony. We need to set up memorials
for our children to see so that they can look
and say, what does that mean? And we can say,
that's when God met us. That's when God moved.
That's when God did something. Amen? It's true.
Communion. Jesus said, do this in remembrance
of me. This is a memorial. I want you to testify
what the blood of Christ has done in your life.
When my body was broken, testify what he's done.
So today we're going to testify. We're going
to take communion. And then I want you just to,
as you're getting ready to, and we're going to
come down these center aisles, you're going to
get the communion elements. There's one, there's.
multiple ones in the back. There's ones up here
where you can get the communion elements. And
as you get ready to do about, you know, to walk
up and take those elements and go back to your
seat so we can take communion together, I want
you to begin to think about where God met you.
When's the last time he met you? If you were
gonna testify to one of your kids, if you were
gonna point back, maybe you don't have any children,
but a child in this church, and you can say,
point back to a place in your life and say, oh
man, this is where God met me. This is what God
did. This is when God healed my knee, right?
This is when God worked out all the circumstances
to sell my house in the middle of a bunch of
chaos. What's your testimony? So I'm asking you
to stand this morning. Worship team's gonna begin
to play. You can make your way right out of the
middle. Come up the center. If you're listening
online, just go find these elements in your house.
Find the juice and the bread. We want you to
take communion with us today. If you're listening
somewhere and maybe some of our family's not
here, maybe you just joined us online. But as
you come, I want you to think about, if I had
to point back, what would I tell them? Was it
a year ago? Was it 10 years ago? Was it 20 years
ago? Was it last week? Are you going to testify?
this message from Lifehouse Church. We pray that
you were impacted powerfully by this message.
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