We are Family - Week 2 - Pastor Kipp Penrod

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

Revelation 3:20

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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