The Power of a Testimony

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That leads me in.

Today the message is entitled The Power of a Testimony in Joshua 4.

And we see that Israel, last week we saw that they crossed over the Jordan.

And it's really interesting.

They get past and they see this major miracle of waters heaped up behind them and them walking over dry land.

And then chapter 4 happens.

And so they're trying to get to the promised land.

They're trying to get into Jericho and in past those walls, but there's chapter 4 in between.

And so, very interesting what we'll see here.

Read with me chapter 4, verse 1 through 6.

And it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them, saying, Take for yourselves twelve 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.

Then Joshua called the twelve 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 take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you.

Father, bless your word.

Lord, I pray that your presence would be felt.

And Lord, help us today to understand what it means in our life to have a memorial, to have a testimony.

And Lord, help us with that.

Help us to honor you with it.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

First point this morning is this remember so that you don't forget and forsake.

And so this group of people was told to grab a stone and put up a memorial.

Why?

So that they would remember and not forget.

I used to go to the middle school when we lived in Indiana, and I would uh go do lunches with teenagers.

Every week, every Thursday, I went to the middle school, three hours, had lunch with every junior high student in town, and I loved it.

Well, there was another lady who was retired, and she had previously worked for the school.

She was getting up in age, and uh she would be there, and she, you guessed it, always had butterscotches.

Were those originals that she would hand kids, so she was the candy lady.

When she stopped coming, I took her role, okay?

And so, anyhow, but I would see this lady from time to time, and um, she was having a talk over here off to the side with the principal, and I was I was kind of overhearing what was being said, and she said to the principal, why did you guys let me go?

What happened that you guys felt like you had to let me go?

And uh just you know, being the good Christian I am, I kept listening.

And uh she said, Well, you just you just kind of started to forget to show up.

And she looked her straight in her face and she said, Well, I don't remember forgetting anything.

I thought, I don't remember forgetting.

I like this here.

Well, this is what God has told us here.

It's a memorial so that we don't forget.

I want you to turn quickly to Deuteronomy chapter 6 for some context.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

This isn't the first time that we see God telling them to erect a memorial.

It's not the first time God's telling them to remember something.

Look at Deuteronomy chapter 6.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

And most of the time when you study through the scriptures, the scripture about teaching children the statues and ways of the Lord, and it tells them to put it on your doorpost, put it uh at the front of your door, put it at your frontlets, put it on your arms, put it everywhere before them, and teach them to walk diligently in it when you sit down, when you rise up, when you go to bed, wherever you go, you're teaching.

And the last thing it says before we read verse 12, at the doorposts and the gates, and here's what he says in verse 12 then beware lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.

You shall fear the Lord your God and serve him, and shall take oaths in his names.

You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you, for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you.

And so what we see here is God takes our acknowledgement seriously.

He said, put it on the doors, on the post.

This is a serious matter.

And then it said, interesting, this line has stuck with me for probably 15 years.

It says, Our God is a jealous God.

There's a song by David Crowder Band.

Um, they didn't write, I think John Michael McMillan wrote it, but popularized by David Crowder Band, and a line that has seared into my heart is he is jealous for me.

Church, he is jealous for you, for that relationship with you, your acknowledgement matters.

And so he says, build a stone so that you don't forget.

He knows, church, our human proclivity is to dismiss things that aren't near us.

Dismiss things.

You've heard probably the quotation, out of sight, out of mind.

And so God says, make a memorial so that when you look back at that place, you don't ever forget the work that I've done.

There's stones, letter A, that make us rewind.

Here's what you see in verse 1.

Joshua spake.

Here's an important part.

Uh I mean, the Lord spake, and Joshua stopped.

It says, the Lord spake, and then we'll see that Joshua follows his command.

He hit the pause button in life.

I bet if you ask the landris, when God speaks in your life now, what do you do?

Do you keep going with things as normal?

Or do you sort of pause, you listen, you stop?

It says the Lord spake in verse 4 shows that Joshua listened.

It says, Then Joshua called the 12 men.

The Lord spake?

Joshua commanded.

Listen, I think this is one of those things, it's it's it's subtle, but it's one of the things that might sum up why Joshua is one of the greatest characters in all of the Bible.

When God spoke, he listened.

When God speaks, do you?

A lot of times we have a lot of things to come back to what God says.

Well, I'm not good enough.

I'm not enough.

That ain't for me.

Was that really your voice, God?

And we have a conversation, a dialogue.

When God spoke, Joshua listened.

And so he told him to go back and get 12 stones.

A stone.

It's a testimony, it's a marker of God's presence at a moment in our history.

How many of you?

We've got a picture I want you to see in just a second.

You guys get that ready.

The videotape.

How many of you grew up 1977 to 97?

Anybody like that?

Alright, we've got a picture of video tapes.

This is a proven thing.

Y'all seen videotapes before?

Okay.

Videotapes are no longer a thing.

But children in here, this was.

Okay?

If you liked, I remember this, if you liked a part of a movie, you had to press stop, and then on certain TVs, if you press stop, the video would go off.

You would have to hit rewind, guessing, hoping.

Okay?

You went and hit rewind, and then you would hit stop again, press play, and then you would watch again, right?

That moment.

I know this about kids today.

They have no idea what it is to anticipate things.

They have no anticipation, right?

We had commercials on TV, right?

And today my kids are like, what is this?

Turn this off.

Why do we have to sit through this?

And so we would rewind and rewind.

And if you liked a part, you might rewind it ten times with your friends, and you'd go through that process and you couldn't wait.

See, God's vision was every time Israel looked back across that Jordan.

Every time it was a rewind, every time it was a testimony of God's goodness.

There was an old sticker on the blockbuster video.

It's be kind, please rewind.

Right?

Y'all remember that?

Why is that so important?

Because I know that there is an enemy that wants to get in here and he wants to discourage you in your life.

And so when you feel that coming or when you feel that discouragement whispering in your ear, I want you to rewind.

When you're tempted to give up on something, I want you to rewind.

When someone comments to you something that has you feeling sideways, I want you to rewind.

When you're in a place that feels heavy, we need to rewind it.

We need to look back like Israel did.

I'm telling you, if you're here, I'm sure of it that God's done a work in your life.

And so we're so tempted in the day to day to get down and discouraged and defeated.

And what I'm telling you, God wants a stone in your life.

We're going to talk about what that means practically in a few moments.

But for Israel, it meant look back at that heap, that pile of twelve stones, and you can look back and say, there was a day and there was a time that a heap of water rose up and moved backwards, and we moved across dry land.

I might feel discouraged now, but I know a God who can put water in a heap.

And so that's my stone.

Stones to rewind, stones that cause a response.

His letter B a response.

Often throughout Scripture, places like these were interchangeable with places as altars.

A stone could represent all through scripture a place of an altar.

An altar was a place where there was an encounter with God.

A commemoration was built out of many times stone, a commemoration of I met God in this place.

Places were given names with stones built.

Ebenezer is a place of stone.

There was places where they met with God and they made an altar in front of me.

It's a place of response.

I hope, church, that you use it.

Now this isn't magical.

It's not something to be worshipped as in a physical presence, but I hope that when you see an altar, that you love it.

I hope it creates a mental picture for you.

I thought about this.

I grew up with altars.

I've been in church for a long time and I grew up, and they always had what they had call an altar call at the end of service.

And I could tell you 10 songs, altar call songs from growing up, just as I am.

All of these songs, and people would move forward and have moments with God.

And so I believe in it.

We went to a teen camp, a winter retreat one year, and this man, 45, he's pressing on 50 years.

He's still a youth pastor.

50 years.

It's incredible.

His name is Doug Krause.

And Pastor Doug Krause, out of all his luggage and trailers full of stuff for this winter retreat, he pulls out this great big long green wooden bench.

I'm like, what in the world?

Is he he's pulling it into the service area?

And then before the service, he begins to explain to people that camp after camp, year after year, he had these benches that kids would go to as an altar.

And he wasn't gonna run one camp.

He pulled that thing, we went with him from that camp in Ohio.

We went with him to Hawks, Michigan.

He pulled the benches to Hawks, Michigan.

He wanted a place where teens could respond.

Altars started being created to respond to God in Genesis.

Over and over, an altar was made with an offering, a sacrifice between people and God.

In Exodus 40, 26, he put the golden altar in the tent of meeting.

And so it was important that when they met with God, there was an altar.

In Solomon's temple there, they built an altar.

Uh that evening, and I'm looking around the room, I'm praying before the service, and I'm like, something just, I gotta change something.

And there was just enough chairs in the room for the kids.

And I went out in the hall.

I didn't ask nobody.

Don't tell.

I stole.

For the work of the Lord, I stole four benches.

And I pulled them into the room just believing that if these benches were here, kids would go and use them.

I needed there to be an altar.

Here's what I know, church.

There are people here who have decided, or whatever happens, that they're not going to respond in this way.

And I've got to be honest, I don't get it.

From Scripture, listen, Matthew chapter 10, verse 32 says, Everyone who confesses me before man, the same will I confess before my Father, which is heaven.

Matthew 10:32

I know you can say, Well, that means I'm talking about my salvation.

But stay with me.

Okay?

He says, Everyone, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

I want you to look at a verse for a moment.

It is assumed in Matthew chapter 5 as a part of worship that people come to an altar.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

This is what it says, Matthew 5, 23 and 24.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, this is a moment, something between you and God.

It's nothing else.

You're not doing something for somebody else in that moment.

You're coming to bring something unto God.

If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go your way.

First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

And so it talks about getting things right.

Don't come and worship God if you're wrong with man.

Okay, it tells us, go get things right.

And then, but it doesn't, it doesn't say then it's done.

It says, then come back and offer your gift before the Lord.

And so it's talking about this.

Romans 12.1, Paul preached it this way.

So if I had to lay my stock down on a preacher's version of why I appeal in this way, Paul says in Romans 12.1, I beseech you, I appeal to you, brethens, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

You are the altar that's lifted up unto God.

You present, and he says, I beseech you, I beg you, I appeal to you that you would have a response before God.

If we're not imploring people to have a response to God, what in the world are we doing here?

You can get motivated by so much else.

You can get good words so much, so many other places.

And I look at this altar and the many camps and places I've been in, when I get near them, I can't help but feel something inside of me.

I feel that, and I hope that this is like holy ground for us where lives are changed, people are saved, and so it's a place of a memorial.

And it listen, it doesn't have to be an altar call.

You can you can come during the week, you can come anytime and worship your God.

And listen to me, it is not about this stage.

Okay.

I'm not making this a worship thing.

What I'm saying is a place that you before God can look back at and build your stones.

Second thing this morning is this.

We remember for the family and the future.

Look down at chapter 4, verse 6 and 7.

Well, I hope for all of the Landers' life that those two babies remember these memorials.

Why is this so important?

Look at verse 6 and 7.

That this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, What do these stones mean to you?

Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan.

The waters of the Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial to the children of Israel forever.

They were stones to educate their children, letter A.

A physical reminder of a place of spiritual chains in our life.

Listen to me, church, parents, your kids got to hear about the God things in your life.

Okay, little things, big things.

You've got to be sharing the God things that are happening in your life.

They need to hear about it, be about it.

And so this is what the scripture's saying.

A physical reminder this monument was of spiritual change.

Growing up in the church I went to, we had something called a revival called the Mason Dixon Gospel Jubilee.

And they had a big sign that would go out out front.

And I knew when the Mason Dixon Gospel Jubilee came to town that things were about to get different in my church.

Okay?

And I don't know what happened to people, but I watched as adults would respond to preaching, and I watched people shouting and people crying and people tearing up often.

And I don't know if you've lived through a time like this, but weird.

Handkerchiefs became the thing, right?

Whole old hanky, so they would pull them out of their pocket.

When a preacher got going saying something that they liked, they'd go, woo, and they'd shake their hanky, and I'm like, what is happening?

I didn't even get a hanky at the door.

I guess you got to get your own.

But I mean, he'd say something, woo.

Sometimes a guy would stand up, and I'm like, what in the world, Dad?

I need a handkerchief.

And it became, I think there were three sides.

There was a competition in church.

There was the amen's over here, the praise the Lord's over here, and glory to God, we're always right here.

And they would go at it, they were fighting all service long, and I'm like, I'm on glory to God tonight.

And I wanted to shout it, let me tell you.

I don't know why I wanted to shout it, but I was in it and I was experiencing it.

And I'm like, people crying, people laughing, people screaming.

This is something else.

But I tell you what, when that Mason Dixon Gospel Jubilee sign up, it was like a memorial for me.

I knew that some people were gonna be meeting with God in some kind of way.

I didn't totally understand.

I'm pretty sure sometimes I liked, and the music was always better, I'm telling you.

Put up the Mason Dixon Gospel Jubilee sign.

It was better than normal, the week to week, you know, dun dun dun on the organ hymns.

Now we had some stuff I'd never heard before.

You know, that Southern gospel music.

I didn't even know if this was godly or not.

Like, I never heard music like this.

They seem the preachers clapping.

I guess it's okay.

Well, then my dad took me to a place called Camp Glory.

Camp Glory was a place in Pennsylvania, and we went from a Thursday to a Sunday.

I'm like 10, guys, 10, 11 years old.

And we go there, and there's five sessions a day.

I'm 10, y'all.

Five church sessions a day.

Y'all heard me talk about camp, tent, tent camping last week.

We had to go and take a tent, put it together.

We slept in a tent, and I'm there with my dad, and I'm telling you, I've seen things at Camp Glory I've never seen in all my life.

I saw a man got up on the pulpit and was sitting on it.

I don't know what he was saying or doing it.

I'm like, what is happening?

A man fake galloped around the whole place like he had a horse.

This was him preaching.

And I'm like, look, I people there, they cried, they laughed, they met with God, they came to altars and there was tears in these men's faces.

And I'm telling you, it impacted me to see what was going on.

I'll never forget there was a three-year-old there.

David Brady got up, and bus ministry was huge.

A lot of these guys were bus ministry people, and they were involved in it.

And they, I'm telling you, every night it was glory to God, praise the Lord.

Amen.

You know, others, there were four or five teams in this.

And David Brady got up, a little three-year-old guy, and he sang his bus song.

I'm telling you, it lit the roof on fire.

He said, honk, honk, beep, beep, all aboard the bus where we go to Sunday school to learn about Jesus.

He's our friend, he's our savior, he takes good care of us.

Won't you jump aboard the bus with us?

And I'm telling you, that place lit up.

They were screaming.

I'm like, there was men over there, honk.

I'm like, let me tell you what happened in my life.

I saw all those things, and I don't know that I totally got it.

I'm sure that I was tired and restless as a young king, kid.

But I was made to see something, and I don't know how much I loved it then, but it mattered for the future me.

It burned a stone in my heart seeing my dad and people believe in God.

In such a way it burned something in my memory of men praying and men shouting and men weeping for their God and them going to altars.

I didn't totally get it, but I'm telling you what this word says.

It says it will never, ever, ever return void.

And it got in me, and it's never got out.

I'm telling you, I didn't totally get it.

But I I can say this: I'm so thankful today that my God and my daddy at that point in his life cared enough to make me see it.

That place in my memory was a stone.

Church, what do your children know is important to you?

That was important for that season, and I'm so glad it was.

What do your kids see you celebrating?

What do they see you jumping up and down, getting fanatical about?

What's the stones that you're building in their memory?

What is your time?

What's your day planner look like to your kids?

What's your talents?

How are you using what God's given you to build into that?

What about your money, your treasure?

When they look back at what's been important in your life, they know, by the way, they know.

You are shouting and screaming, and we're all kind of fanatical in some way or another with things.

And so your kids know they are watching.

Proverbs 22, 16.

It says, train up a child in the way he should go when he is old.

He will not depart from it.

And that word training is about intentionality.

What are you being intentional about?

Because I'm gonna tell you, it's easy to just elevate our music through life, to schedule the plans, the day to day.

Let's get up, let's go to bed.

And the intentionality of being a mom or dad who wants to invest these spiritual stones can fall behind us.

Training, that's important, that word, because training takes great discipline.

If you've ever trained for something, we're not talking about, oh, this is easy.

This is for the, you know, this is simple.

What I'm saying is it's not the easy route.

But I need you to hear this today.

Someone, someone or something is going to train your children.

Someone or something is.

Listen, church.

This week, Satan and his band of demons went off their normal course.

Usually Satan is pretty deceptive.

This week, I don't know how much of you watch.

I don't, I don't watch.

I've I've taken some note and studied a little bit around it.

I won't, I will not invite demons and Satan into my view.

But the Grammys this week on Primetime Television.

Now hear me, I don't expect lost people to act saved.

I'm not under that delusion.

I don't expect Hollywood to be evangelizing.

But Primetime Television, which is family television, hosts an event where a guy who claims to be non-binary, which means he's not anything.

He's not male or female or doesn't recognize whatever that is, it's wrong.

It's evil, personified.

Okay.

And he's getting up to push the envelope, dressed like Satan, and does an award ceremony song as Satan with sacrifice, the whole deal in front of prime time.

Your 10-year-old is supposed to be good for them to be able to watch this.

It's like it's not even hidden, it's not even deceit, it's in our face.

Satan and his demons.

Oh, they're gonna educate.

And here's what CBS had to say about it in a tweet.

We are ready to worship.

Y'all hearing me?

A major company sharing that they're gonna worship Satan?

That's uh that's not it.

At 21, there's a big thing about Nike suing a rapper named Little Nas X that's gonna put out shoes, 666 pairs to be exact.

He's selling with one human drop of blood in every soul called the Satan shoes.

It's blatant, church.

It's right in our front door, it's not even hidden.

Satan and the demons of hell are on attack, and it's right in our face.

The world is trying to teach our children.

And if we don't educate them, they will be educated.

And your stand, you think it doesn't matter?

Listen, again, I don't expect Hollywood or anyone else to be very godly, but I hope you are.

If we're not, it's over, church.

It's a great delusion to think for one more second that we can withhold burning the boats in our life.

That we can not be all in.

For the next generation, it's a great delusion because the war is not gonna wait.

They're coming over the mountain, they're not even trying to deceive.

Either we're gonna be all in or it's gonna be a lot of casualty.

We must educate our young.

Look at what happens in verse 20 through 23.

And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal.

Then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What are these stones?

Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel, cross over this Jordan on dry land.

For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we crossed.

And so these stones, let her be, are stones that encourage consistency.

Consistency, a memorial is a remembering place.

Proverbs said, training.

Practice makes perfect.

This was God's plan for consistency that we always have a place to go back and see.

Memorials, church, are vital.

So, Pastor, how do I make that practical?

What do I do for my life?

Let me tell you just a couple of things that can help.

I don't know all the ways, but I know some ways.

You need to have a journal.

Talk to your kids, your wife about prayer.

And you need to go back.

Me and Heather have a journal of, and I don't always do a good job, but we have God moments, and we just write them in.

Big God moments, all kinds of things.

Could be health things, could be just a prayer need answer.

And then I have a church one, prayer, prayers, and then prayers answered.

So, how do you know that God has worked when the Satan's coming at your door?

So you need a journal or a notebook.

That's one means.

Um when you look back, maybe some photos.

Um I was thinking about that today, and just excited about the way that God works.

I asked Adam, please make sure that you have some photos of Ashley and Joel and this memory of God working in their testimony.

I have another celebration I thought about, and I haven't really pointed this out, but uh I just think it's maybe time.

How many of you would stand today and would in recognition that you have joined the church at Chelsea Westover in 2022 or 23?

Would you stand up now if that's you?

Amen.

I get so excited.

He's taking a picture for a memorial.

Thank you guys.

You didn't know that was a small commercial break from the message, but I get asked all the time, what is God doing in your church?

That's a memorial.

This is what God is doing right now, and I'm like, I'm so excited about his work.

And you know why I'm excited about that?

Because sometimes I'm tempted not to be that excited.

And sometimes it's Monday morning and somebody tells me, Oh, this happened.

And I'm tempted to be like, disappointed that bad happens, right?

We're human and it's like everything, right?

I got this idea that everything's gonna be perfect and wonderful.

And I'm tired, and I'm and I'm tempted to be discouraged, and I need to be reminded of the photos, of the notebook, of the journal.

Maybe you need to look back at receipts and save receipts and say, this was something that I did, and this is with me and God, or look back, and these are just practical ideas so that you can see stones of God's faithfulness.

When I look at it, it helps me press forward.

The Bible says I press toward the mark of the high calling of the prize in Christ Jesus.

When times are tough and I'm hard-pressed, stones help me celebrate.

When I'm tempted, stones help me.

You remember what God told the Israelites as they were going through that Jordan, He wanted them to be focused.

So He sent the Ark of the Covenant, His presence before them.

And he said, Don't turn left, don't turn right, you just stay focused.

I'm gonna be about a mile ahead of you, you stay focused on me.

And now, interestingly, he says, if you ever decide you're gonna turn back for any reason, I want you to look back and I want you to see about a mile behind you.

I'm staying ahead of you, but a mile behind you, there's a memorial.

That was my presence back there.

There's my presence right here.

Don't you get discouraged.

You keep moving, fixed forward.

Stones that encourage consistency.

Last thing is this this morning.

Remember so that you're fearful and faithful.

I need you to go back and look at verse 24.

He gives them in verse 24 a call.

Why is all this important?

That all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord that is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.

He says, I want you to look back and that the whole world, because of my work in you, would know.

When anyone comes, it wasn't like Israel was the only one that was gonna see this, right?

When anybody sees this monument of the Landris life, a monument in your life, they're gonna say, What is that?

What does that mean?

And so that the whole world would see God and that they would fear him.

Back in Deuteronomy 6, 24 and 25, it says, we are to fear the Lord for our good.

These stones are a place for renewal of commitment.

It's interesting.

The Bible listed two ordinances that we abide by in the church here: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

And in these two ordinances, we see are a place of renewal and commitment.

The Lord's Supper is a memorial, it's a testimony, it's a symbol of his physical death that he had on the cross.

And he says, This my body is broken for you.

You do this in remembrance of me.

When you take part in the Lord's Supper, you're taking part of something that will make you reflect on all that God's done for you.

And then he says, You take this cup in the same manner, and as we drink that cup, we remember the blood that was shed for us.

It's so important for us to have those moments of renewal and remembrance.

And here's what I know, church, we're busy.

Some of you sitting here like, how, Pastor, I don't have even an hour to reflect.

How am I gonna reflect, Pastor?

I don't have that.

And what I'm telling you, if your life is that busy, you're too busy.

Something has to be cut.

I do know this about people.

We all do what we love.

So it has to be a time for you to have renewal.

The Bible says there in 1 Corinthians, let a man examine himself.

Have you examined yourself lately?

I'm not talking about a doctor.

You and the Lord, have you examined here to have a checkup?

Our stones.

Is it time for a renewal?

David said this, Psalms 51, 10, create in me a clean heart, oh God, renew a right spirit within me.

And so I know this is something that God wants for us.

Letter B is this, stones that reject old defeats.

Remember again, Israel, 40 years.

40 years in defeat.

I gotta take them back over here because this is the defeat side.

It has nothing to do with where you're seated.

Okay.

Ten men said, no, we can't go in.

Two men said yes, we can, Joshua and Caleb.

And 10 men over here, because of that defeatist attitude, I can't, we can't, the giants are too big, the obstacles are too much, I can't.

Forty years they wandered in the wilderness.

That now, that now as they cross the Jordan is an old defeat.

And so I hope that Israel, as they walked across the Jordan, would reject and say, that part of my life, that is done.

That part of my daddy's life, they're done, gone.

This is new ground.

God doesn't want you to stay in the past, church.

Stones over the Jordan were a picture of a new testimony.

They had not even taken the land yet.

That's what I love about this.

I started that way.

They hadn't gone in and taken the land, the promised land, the whole thing that they were waiting on yet.

They had got past the Jordan.

They were still not out of the woods, and God said, Hold up.

I need you to stop right there.

Because every victory is worth a celebration.

And he says, Before you go on to the next thing, I need to know that you understand this thing.

I brought you out of that.

And so he says, Stop right there.

I don't want you to forget.

He says, I want you to make a memorial.

Well, I'll close with this.

I was thinking through this.

When Heather and I, um, when God called us to come to the church at Chelsea Westover, um, I gotta be honest, I knew very little about Alabama.

Um, all I really knew was that we had prayed, and God brought a peace to our hearts.

I didn't even totally, you know, you know how you pray about something you question it.

You're like, is this really peace, God?

Is this because the plan moving forward at that point didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Okay?

And so we're gonna follow God, and we got here, and the first week we're gonna have a youth group, and the church at that time was about 130, 140 people, and they had 12 students.

So I'm coming as a youth pastor from a youth ministry that had 50 students to this church that now has 12 students, is what I was told.

And God just put in my heart, have the first service in the old sanctuary.

They had a room for teens.

I said, Can we have it in the sanctuary, just like church?

And I just, I just feel my heart, let's make a big deal of it.

Let's just make it seem like it's supposed to be big.

We weren't pushing on Facebook, we weren't, all that wasn't really.

We just, this was, you know, we were here, and then the next week that was happening.

So we're gonna have this first service, and out of them 12 students, 44 showed up.

I look, I don't know all the ins and outs of why or what God was doing.

44 out of 12 showed up, and that first teen service, 11 students gave their heart and life to Jesus Christ.

And I'm like, hold on, hold on.

That was exciting, and I'm like, okay, God, Alabama's alright.

The next week, 58 out of 12 students show up, and 23 were saved in one service, and I'm like, holy cow! God, this is amazing! And students were coming, and and within six weeks' time, God opened up doors.

It's all God.

Like, I'm I'm just here, all right, and and um, we're willing, we don't even know.

But God opened up doors for two football teams for a high school assembly for two FCA meetings.

I spoke to 2,500 students in six weeks.

Over 150 gave their life to Christ and all these things, and I'm like, God, I am supposed to be in Alabama.

I don't know what's going on, but I know that.

And all that happened in time, and I got a hold of the Alabama Baptist.

Okay, the Alabama Baptist is a media publication newspaper, and I said, I don't know what God's doing, but I don't want to forget it.

So I called the Alabama Baptist.

They came, they did a whole thing, it was awesome.

They did a whole thing on our church, but they took pictures on a Wednesday night of our youth group that was growing, and I've got the article still in my office and whatever.

Get discouraged.

Sometimes I'll pull open that thing and go, God, I know.

I don't know what else all of this is, but I know you were there.

I was there and I saw it, and I pull out some old note from a student who wanted to encourage me, and I'll go, God, you were there, you were in that.

I know, because I was with them and I saw it.

And I pull out an old photo.

I got one of Callie and Wyatt.

We're walking tracks down the street on a mission trip, and I go, I was there, and I saw it, and I saw God move, and I saw God work.

I was blown away, church, at what God was doing.

I didn't know what he was doing, but I was blown away that he would do all that.

And I wanted to remember all that was sort of happening.

And if you know Pastor Danny, Pastor Danny is like a ball of, you know, he celebrates everything, but there's always like he's a visionary, and I'm just not built the same way.

I have vision, but he's like, man, this is, and I'm explaining to him, I'm like, Pastor, that's like 34 in two weeks.

This has never happened to me before.

Has anything like and Pastor Danny, he's jumping around and he's celebrating, and he goes, he says this.

He says, You guys, you haven't even seen anything yet.

He said that a lot.

Well, David, who I was living with, Christy's late husband, David stopped him only as David could.

God's honest truth.

Only David had this power.

He said, You hadn't seen anything left.

And David in his way, he said, now, wait a minute.

He said, We need to take time right here, right now, and celebrate this thing.

Let's celebrate that.

He said, I he said, I don't want to miss what God is doing, thinking about what he's not doing.

Let's celebrate this moment right here.

And I thought, ooh, that's good.

You see, when Israel looked back to the place of their wilderness and Satan whispered in their ears, you guys can't do nothing.

You're losers.

They could look back and see 12 stones, and they'd be given a vision of water rising in a heat and backing up at the footstep of the priest.

They could say, No, Satan, we reject old defeats.

I'm sure Satan is trying to keep you from doing something from the Lord today, and he's telling you, you tried that, and it's not gonna work.

You're not good enough.

You're gonna sound crazy if you say this to your wife.

You're gonna sound out of your mind if you tell your husband this idea.

You say, you know what?

That whatever I've tried or whatever's in the past is behind me.

I'm sorry, but that bus has passed, and I've got a memorial of all that God's done.

I remember back when Heather said yes with me to youth ministry in Indiana.

That's a memorial.

And I go back to that time and I go, God was in that, and I got 10 years to see God work and move.

And when Satan tries to come at me, and then I think about this church now, and I look at these buildings, and I'm in here, we're in here last night with the CYC, and hundreds are coming through.

And I'm going, this is a memorial.

This property is a memorial.

All that God's done right here is stones before us.

Church, if you didn't miss it, all of his life, little Eli is a walking memorial for God, our Savior.

Ashley and Joel, I mean it.

You guys, it's a memorial what he's done.

You know what I can say to the enemy?

God did it.

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