Remember the Impossible | Joshua 4

It is good to be with you guys if I don't know you, my name is

Brandon de Lodge. I get to service, which just

means every single Sunday I get to open up God's word for you

and share with you what God has done for the sake of the world

and get to carefree throughout the week and pray for you.

It is an honor and a delight to be the pastor of Saint City

Chapel and so grateful you'd gather with us today.

Turn your Bibles to Joshua chapter 4.

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

We're going to be on page 180 of the Bibles in the seats in front

of you. If you don't have one, should be

on the screen as well. But while you're turning there,

let me tell you a quick story because frankly, some stories

are just worth telling. This past week, I was doing a

premarital counseling with somebody and they're asking me

about the story of how Maddie and my my wife and I, we met

each other. And I was telling us, telling

them the story about how we grew up in the same church, we're in

the same young adult ministry. And they asked the questions

like, when did you know Maddie was your wife?

And this story is just worth telling.

So we're at a summer camp and she's already like burying her

face in shape. But this is a good story.

I got permission to share it. We were at a summer camp with

over 300 students at UP in West Michigan in 2016, so over about

10 1/2 years ago now. And that day it was raining all

day. And when you're at summer camp,

well, you kind of need the outdoors.

It's kind of a helpful piece of having summer chemistry for kids

who've been staying up all night eating copious amounts of

airhead extremes and Mountain Dew.

Arnold Palmer's like they have sugared up.

So we had to find a way to get all this energy out for all

these middle schoolers. That's going to be important in

a second because as the rain came, me and the other youth

pastors there, we're trying to think to ourselves, OK, how can

we burn as much energy as possible?

How can we keep this many people as entertained as possible for

as long as possible? And so we came up with a very

simple idea, musical chairs, except we weren't a range chair,

typical circle. We made it like Figure 8 isn't

even really accurately depicting the combinate.

It would just basically put the chairs and face them any

direction we want and make sure there's one chair.

Then students are playing the game, but we let leaders play

the game. Maddie was one of those leaders.

And what happened was is when the music would stop in musical

chairs, something crazy would happen very regularly.

Kid leaders, everyone would be just running a million of it's a

chair spotted on the now. This room was in a basement with

pillars supporting the floor above.

And Maddie, my wife, is the most competitive person I know.

You might see where this story is going.

Maddie does not like to lose. So Maddie, my then girlfriend,

spies the chair that is available.

It's her and this little 30 LB seventh grader.

I don't know how much she weighed, but not much.

And Maddie sprints for the chair, the other girl not seeing

Maddie because the it's right near the pillar and they

converge. And I'm on top of a pool table

narrating this game, me and the other youth pastor and we see my

wife run full speed in this poor precious little 30 pounder.

Did not see it coming. I mean, my wife buried her.

I mean absolute truck stick. I, I don't even know what doing

this to this day. We couldn't even find her after

the game. We don't know if she's OK.

No, I'm sure she's fine, but I remember standing there on the

pool table that day like I love this woman.

I love her so much that she cares so much about winning.

Musical chair is what my favorite part about that story

is. Maddie Trucksticks.

Her doesn't even look back. Just keep going for the chair.

I was like, I love this girl. I want to marry her soon, soon

later, I put a ring on her finger.

We got married nine months later.

You know that's the story, right?

What's funny is in that moment, I knew I didn't want to forget

that story, but it's fascinating how quick a memory can be

forgotten like that. In fact, this picture, I want to

show you my little, like, artifact of this memory.

Maybe, maybe not. Oh, we do.

OK. So whenever I see this picture,

yeah, you're like, Brandon, you look like, like not even the

same person. And Maddie looks just the same.

Aging. That's how it works, apparently

for me. Whenever I see this picture,

though, my mind goes back to that summer camp and with all

that God did and the summer camp that I learned that this woman

was going to be my wife. And it would never cross that

version of Brandon's mind to know that I could forget that.

But every time the picture comes up, that's when I remember the

story. This chapter of God's word we're

going to be in today serves for the people of Israel.

It serves for you and I as a way to remember who God is.

So we would not forget that. We would be able to tell the

story and retell the story so he would not forget who God is and

what he can do. Because this week in Joshua

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, God can do the impossible.

He is capable of it. In fact, we closed our service

praying for God to do impossible things in US and among us this

year. That's what we're begging God

for. But jot this big idea down.

God's people must remember that their impossible rescue was

entirely his work. It was entirely God's work.

It wasn't our might, our strength, our good deeds, our

achievements. No, rather, it was God's work

that saved us and our impossible rescue.

We're on the brink of death, needing him to rescue us,

needing him to save us, needing someone to come and deliver us.

And He did. He did it for the Israelites

then. He's doing it for people now.

And we have to be a people who remember, but if God has done

the impossible in our life, how do we keep from forgetting?

And I want to show you that in God's Word today we're in Joshua

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. I'm going to read for you a few

verses to start Joshua chapter 4 verse one, when you're there,

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

say I'm there. When all the names had finished

passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, Take 12 men

from the people from each tribe, a man command them, saying, Take

12 Stones from here on out of the midst of the Jordan, from

the very place where the priests feet stood firmly, and bring

them over with you, and lay down them down in the place where you

lodge tonight. Then Joshua called the 12 men

from the people of Israel whom he had appointed a man from each

tribe. And Joshua said to them, Pass on

before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the

Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder,

according to the number of tribes of the people of Israel,

that this may be a sign among you.

And when your children ask in time to come, What do these

stones mean to you, then you shall tell them that the waters

of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant

of the Lord, and when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of

the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the

people of Israel a memorial forever.

I want to help you understand what these mean for your life.

These aren't just God's words for the people of Israel.

They're God's words for you. So what does it mean for your

life? Let's do it like this.

The rest can remember the impossible first like this

through spiritual memorials. How are you to remember the

impossible in your life? How are you to remember God's

work in your life? If God's going to answer that

prayer that you prayed last week for impossible things, the

prayer that you're going to begin praying because you're

with us today for him to do the impossible, How are you going to

remember? How are you not going to forget?

Well, first you need to build spiritual memorials in your

life. There's two memorials that

happen here in the text I think are fascinating.

The first, it's a National Memorial.

That's the one that we're, we just read about where there's 12

Stones for 12 men signaling the 12 tribes of Israel that each

son of Joseph, excuse me, each son of the people of Israel,

they each had a stone representing their family, their

line, their tribe. And each man would go and he

would take his stone and he would place it in the middle of

the river. And if you noticed it said upon

his shoulder, think about how big a boulder it has to be for

some of these men. I'm sure they didn't pick small

men. Two laga boulder, a stone on

their shoulder. It's not a Little Rock, it's a

stone the size of this. And each man had to.

He had to grab the stone and put it on his shoulder and walk it

back into the river. About 50 yards back into the

middle of the river, he's lugging a stone, putting in the

work to remember what God did. They just walked a river part A

river stopped flowing. And their ability to remember

God knows is so small that He commands them to build a

memorial. You might think you have a

really great memory. Maybe you're the kind of person

in your friend group who's great at trivia, quick recall on

facts, details. You will forget God's work in

your life if you don't build memorials to Him.

You need to remember the impossible things that God has

done. Your heart will be faster to

forget it than you can even imagine.

You would think the Israelites wouldn't need a memorial to

remember a river stopping, but they did, and so do you.

It's not just a National Memorial, it's a personal

memorial. Jump down with me to verse 9.

Joshua set up 12 Stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place

where the feet of the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant

had stood. And they are there to this day.

So you have the 12 men of Israel setting up a National Memorial

and Joshua's doing something personal for himself.

Not only is the National Memorial going to be think he

wants a personal memorial of what God is doing through his

leadership. So what does Joshua do?

Joshua does this by himself. That means he takes and grabs a

maybe 2 if he's in bulking season and he's walking, placing

them in river. Joshua had to do that at least

six times, maybe 12, all so that he would remember the impossible

thing that God has done. I think of myself doing yard

work back in Midwest, carrying fertilizer and mulch and those

bags on my shoulder in the hot, humid summer of Illinois.

And I say that out loud right now and I recognize I'm in

Arizona. We're hot summer are definitely

more difficult here to bear. My point is, is Joshua made a

moment more than just a moment. He made it a memory for himself

of what God has done. He did not want to forget God's

work, not just through him, but in him.

He took a moment to set up a personal spiritual memorial.

I think there's a difference between generic memorials and

spiritual memorials in our society.

Generic memorials, this is what you'll see at a museum, right?

They recall just history, general events that happened

across. And you just, you learn the

history and they're, they're fascinating.

You can learn all about parts of our country's founding and

growth. Maybe if we go to the Hockey

Hall of Fame in a few years, you'd find out that we won the

gold medal today and, you know, and we get to recall that.

And that's a funny historical event.

But the difference is between the generic memorial and the

spiritual memorial. Is this a spiritual memorial?

Helps you rehearse God's faithfulness?

It's one thing for me to pull up a picture of my wife and

remember a general history of our dating life.

It's another thing altogether for me to look at that picture

and go, wow, God has been faithful to me.

He has given me a woman who loves him above all else, who

loves His Word, who loves our kids, who loves the church.

That's a different way to look at that.

It's a different way to interpret the impossible.

It's how God can speak to you and even just the most ordinary

of moments in your life that you can have a spiritual memento, a

memorial of what God has done. Look down to verse 20 and 22,

these 12 Stones which they took out of the Jordan Joshua set up

at Gilgal, He said to the people of Israel, when your children

ask the fathers, their fathers in times to come, what do these

stones mean, then you shall let your children know.

Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground, just like their

forefathers had left captivity of the Egyptian people and

walked through the Red Sea on dry ground.

This generation of Israelites got to put their feet where no

foot had gone before, in the middle of the Jordan River.

Israel passed over on dry ground.

The detail of that is staggering to me.

God could have left like an inch of water, right?

And they could have passed through.

But our God is so strong, so mighty, that when He does the

impossible, He leaves no detail unchecked.

He wants everyone to know who did it.

And we need to remember the act of God, the work of God in our

life. We have to remember our

impossible. Rescue was entirely His work.

It was not our doing, it was His.

And what a joy it is to experience the glory and wonder

of knowing God and what He can do in our lives that He can do

the impossible and still does. And I think you have spiritual

memories. You have moments in your life

where you've seen God do work, where you've seen him move,

where you've seen him change, where you've seen him do things

in your life that you're like, Oh my gosh, how is this

possible? So I want to ask you this, what

spiritual memorial have you set up to remember God's work in

your life? Do you have any?

A journal, a photo album maybe? My pastor growing up, he had

literal rocks in his office where he would write and

Sharpie, hey, this is what God has done because he wouldn't

want to forget. It's shocking how quick you'd be

to forget what God can do. But having those as a keepsake

where you can come back to again and again to remind you of God's

faithfulness. Oh, what a needed point of

walking with Jesus. We all need it.

So have one for your life, for your family, even this church.

We're going to have some right now.

We're at Moseley Middle School, and I guarantee you one day

we're going to have some level of memorial stone as a part of

our moment here at this school. Maybe it's a T-shirt.

I don't know if it'll be a T-shirt.

I don't know what it's going to be, but I know that one day in

the life of our church, we're going to remember these days.

We're not going to despise the day of small beginnings.

We're going to rejoice in the moment, in the work that God has

done here. We're going to memorialize God's

work among us at Moseley Middle School because He is working and

He is moving. It's a way you can visit and

recall his work and his wonders. A way that you can just simply

say to God, thank you. Just say thank you.

What a great way to worship God this week is to go back in your

photo album and go, man, God was in that.

God was working through that. It's a great way to remember the

impossible is through spiritual memorials.

The second thing I want to talk to you about today is this, that

the rescued remember the impossible by telling

supernatural stories, telling supernatural stories.

Let's go back to verse six and seven.

Joshua was saying to the people, hey, we're going to Passover and

that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in

time to come, what do these stones mean to you?

You got to have an answer. You got to have an answer for

what the memorial is there for. You got to be able to tell your

kids about it, your friends about it.

You've got to be able to tell a supernatural story.

This is how memorials live on in the world.

It can't just be a thing that you keep to yourself.

But by telling supernatural stories, you're helping people

see that it was God's work entirely.

You're helping them see God in the midst of it.

For God's people to remember God's work, they must not keep

it to themselves because God's stories are always meant to be

shared. We have to tell supernatural

stories. Every friend group's got the

storyteller in it, every family's got the storyteller in

it. And those are great people to

have in your circle. By the way, if your friend group

doesn't have one, you should just, you know, go find yourself

a storyteller and maybe that's your interview for the friend

application, like, or what? In my family, the storyteller is

my brother Cole. Cole loves to tell stories.

He's very funny. If he's listening to this at any

point, you're not that funny brother moment.

But what Cole will do is he gets so passionate, so excited, and

when Cole's telling a story I've already pulled in, everybody's

engaged, and he's telling stories of maybe even the most

stupid thing, like how he afforded his lifestyle in

college. It could be literally nothing.

But what I found about great storytellers is that when they

pull you in, the best story ends.

And here's what I mean by that. Our world today, people are

telling stories of all kinds, and our country and our culture,

they're telling narratives of how to live and who you should

live for. And if you are raising Christian

children, if your goal is to have a family, you need to know

this, that the best story will win.

If you are living a lifestyle that doesn't depict the reality

that God is real, that he does the impossible, that takes

faith. And guess what?

That you can see a living God among you.

They will reject the story of God.

Better story we must tell our children.

What do these stones mean to you?

You need to have rhythms in your family of sharing with them.

Hey, here's what God did, here's who he is.

Here's how he moved. You have to be a supernatural

storyteller. And I can already hear some of

you go, but Brandon, I'm not that friend in the friend group.

I'm not the storyteller. I don't like to talk.

I like to listen. Praise God for you.

But here's what you have. You have a book full of stories

to tell. If you don't have a starting

spot now in your life, may I just encourage you?

You have story after story after story after story after story

after story after story after story of who God is.

And you can share that with anyone in your life.

God can use your voice. He is with your lips.

He is with your mouth. As you share, would you step out

in faith and have the courage to tell of the supernatural stories

of what God has done, but then also start living a life of

faith, a life that says, hey, what happened in the past week

that God has done that I want to talk about where's God moving in

my life this week that I can share, that I can brag about him

that I can boast in him about. Are you even interpreting your

life through that grid? Like are you seeing your life as

man? I just, I just want to see God

in the details of that conversation.

I want him in the detail promotion that meeting that lab

partner in class. Am I looking at it and going,

God, what are you doing in this? Because Jesus only saw it, did

what he saw the Father doing. And if you can look at your life

and go God, well, I'm here right here right now by your sovereign

plan. Why do you have me here?

And what story are you trying to write?

I think you will see. You'll see the living God among

you. You'll see stones that mean

something to you. So here's what I want to

encourage you guys to do this week as a result of telling

supernatural stories. I want you to grab something

from coffee this week, maybe from your small, your community

group, maybe from your serve team, maybe from the office.

And I just want you to do something we do in our salt

company regularly. Your you want to hear their

story and listen to them. You want to share, You want to

hear their story, Then you want to tell them your story.

Then you want to tell them God's story, which is the story of the

gospel, especially if they don't know Jesus.

This is such a helpful way to get in the rhythm of sharing and

telling stories what God is doing in your life that you

could tell them the story of your salvation.

You could tell them the story of how you came to know Jesus, the

impossible rescue you experienced by the grace of God.

Tell them that story. Listen to their story.

Listen to their story and see where they or God might help

them overcome addiction, where you might sustain them through

infertility, where you might save their prodigal kid, where

you might carry them through infidelity, where God might heal

them of a life threatening diagnosis.

Would you point them to the reality of the supernatural that

God still does impossible things?

Oh, would you have the faith to believe it?

And would you encourage people by getting around them and

pointing them to the storytelling God, who is writing

story after story after story after story of his work in the

world still impossibly rescuing people?

The Israelites felt their impossible rescue at the Jordan

River that day. They sensed it.

There they were, passing from captivity into the Promised

Land, and they didn't want to forget it.

So they had memorial and they had stories to tell.

And God's story is ultimately his great rescue of us.

And that's the third thing that we get from the text.

We not only see that we're telling supernatural stories or

spiritual memorials. The rescued remember the

impossible. Finally, why?

To sing of God's strength and might.

Why? Why is Joshua 4 in our Bible?

Why is it preserved for us? Why did the Holy Spirit keep us,

keep this text for us to know? What do we lose if we don't have

this chapter in the Bible? Simply, simply this.

We don't learn how to interpret the impossible and the way to

interpret the impossible is this.

It's to sing of God's strength and might.

That's why we remember the impossible.

Look at verse 23 and 24 for the Lord your God dried up the

waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over as the

Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us

until we passed over. Why?

Verse 24 is a so that statement. When you see that in your Bible,

it's saying why, why, why, why, why, why so that all the peoples

of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, it

is strong, and that you may fear the Lord your God forever.

There's two reasons right there in the text why God does

miracles like this. Why does God do the impossible?

2 reasons so that the peoples of earth may know that God's hand

is mighty, and so that the people of God may always fear

him forever. That's why he does miracles,

that's why he does wonders among us, and so that his hand could

be known as strong and mighty to the peoples of earth.

God's hand is mighty, it is strong, it is sure.

His mighty hand saved Israel on this day.

And people of earth need to know that God can still do that.

They need to know who God is. Most people don't know who God

is. They think they do because

they've heard maybe caricatures of a version of who God is, but

they don't actually know who God is.

God is mighty. He is strong.

It is worth repeating a million times over in your brain that I

serve a mighty God. He's a mighty God.

And we're quick to maybe doubt that.

Like if he was so mighty, why wouldn't he eradicate all

injustice in the world? If he was so mighty, why would

he not fix this thing I want him to fix?

If he is as mighty as you say he is, why why why Why does a

mighty God at times not display his might?

I think we just got our answer in the text.

God shows His hand so that people may know that the hand of

the Lord is strong and mighty. So if it wouldn't display his

might, he wouldn't do it. Or if he wants to wait for it.

God's answer to our prayers are either yes, no, or I got

something better in mind. Yes, I will answer that prayer

request for my mic and he's going to and show off just how

mighty is immediately in the moment.

Yes or he's like no, because you're asking for something that

doesn't actually display his or I've got something better in

mind. Meaning you're asking for a

thing. You're begging God for his might

to be on display through your prayers for him to give you the

house, for him to give you the promotion, for you to have that

friend come to know Jesus, for that diagnosis to be reversed.

All those things are good things to pray, but He might be saying

I've got something better in mind for you because I don't

just want to show my mind. He wants you to His name

forever. He wants you of a reverent awe

that He is not and you are not. He's not some cosmic vending

machine that you select what you want and He does it.

He wants you to sing of His strength and His might, and

though you might have seen His might in others, though you

might want His might in your life, I promise you, God's

mighty hand is among you. You just might not have seen it

yet. In fact, I think we've missed so

many of God's mighty moments in our life because we just glazed

past some of the crazy, awesome, strong things He's done.

First and foremost among them, He sent God the Son.

Is my mic out? He's going in and out.

We're good. OK?

It's weird. I'm so sorry, guys.

I'm distracted by that. The first thing that you have to

know is this, that God might has been displayed for you in the

reality that His Son has come to save you from sin.

You are not strong enough to save you from sin.

You are not strong enough or good enough or powerful enough

to look out in the eye and say save me, save.

I can save myself. I can do it.

I can muster up enough strength, I can muster up enough goodness,

I am mighty enough to overcome my sin.

May I just lovingly tell you no, you are not.

You are no match for your sin. It runs way too deep, it runs

way too big, and your debt to God is way too immense for you

ever to repay Him back. You are not mighty enough or

good enough or strong enough to save yourself.

But I have good news today. He who is mightier than you has

come to save you from your sin. The mighty One has come, the

mighty God has come to save you. And that is the most mighty

thing God has ever done is He came for you to die on a bloody

cross for your sin. He went to a tomb where he

rested for three days, and it now sits empty in Israel, and he

sits now on an occupied throne where the grace of God is ruling

and reigning over your life. And you never have to question

ever again if God is mighty. Why?

Because He's mighty enough to overcome your sinfulness and the

sins of the world. He paid for it with His blood.

This is the mighty God we serve. This is the good news of the

gospel. You don't have to be mighty.

You know the mighty One, and you can sing of His strength and His

might every single week, even in a hard week or a good week.

Why? Because that is set.

It is not changing. It is not moving, it is secure.

And if Jesus is mighty and his Spirit lives in you, guess what?

You are mighty as well. That what's true of Jesus is

true of you. That is the mystery of being

united with Christ. You are now mighty and you've

seen God did the most mighty thing in human history so that

you could have the strength to overcome your sin, so you could

have life eternal with Him forevermore.

God the Mighty One did even bigger than the Jordan River for

us. He saved us from our sin, and

you might have overlooked that. He might have missed that memo,

but you can't speed past it. That is the mighty thing God has

done, but it is not the only mighty thing.

It's just supreme. You might have missed simple

things like this that as human beings, every single day, God

sustains the world, the universe, by the word of His

power. Think about that for a second.

He sustains the universe. Most of us can't even sustain a

calendar, OK? And he sustains the universe.

That's how mighty God is. Maybe you've experienced the

wonder inducing moment of an Arizonan sunset.

God is so mighty that he just went, let's, let's have heavens

and earth. Let's have a sun, a moon and

stars. And he just spoke.

That's how mighty God is. He's mighty in the reality that

you have His very words recorded for you in your language.

This started thousands of years ago in a different language, but

yeah, here we are. You know the very words of God,

and He's preserved it through opposition and attack.

Guess what? You can know who God is and you

can worship Him truly in spirit and in truth.

Why? Because you have God's words.

But maybe let's get a little more personal with this, where

you've experienced His might, many of you have experienced

God's might like this, that you helped plant this church, that

one of the mightiest moments of God in your life is actually

stepping out in faith and saying, you know what?

I'm going to leave the church that I know and love people I

care about and have prayed for me and have walked with me.

I'm going to step out in faith and believe that Mighty 1 is

going to sustain me through it. Do you need a memorial stone for

that? Do you need a supernatural story

to tell for what God's done in you as a result?

Out in faith, I think every single one of us have moments

that we just glazed right past, that God's might has been on

display. Was it a trial you're now

thankful for looking back on? Is it a friendship that He

brought into your life that changed the trajectory of your

eternity? Is His might in a big

transition, changing from a state to another state?

I don't know where it is for you.

What I do know is this, that you need to bring to a maximum your

perception of how mighty God is. That whatever your view is

today, let's just make it a little bit bigger.

Because He is bigger. He is mightier than we can even

imagine or think. I remember when I was in college

and I remember the story of my rescue, the mighty moment of God

changing my heart and my eternity.

Grew up in church. Like many of you, I grew up

around the things of the church and the gospel.

I'd heard story after story of God.

In fact, I could probably tell you even at a young age, the

whole story of Scripture. But my heart wasn't changed.

I was still the same person. In fact, I was going after the

things of the world, trying to live on my own strength, my own

might. And I reached the limit of that

when I got cut from the baseball team my senior year.

And I got really ticked off at God because I couldn't blame

myself, of course. So I got mad at him, and I went

to a school in Illinois that valued the things of the world,

wanting to run as hard and as fast as I could after everything

but God. But God, though I wanted nothing

to do with him, though I couldn't see how self reliant

I'd become on my own obedience, my own knowledge.

I thought God would like me and love me and let me into heaven

simply because I was a decent moral person.

But God rescued me from a false self perception.

He rescued me from a self-reliance for salvation.

He delivered me from my sin. He did that.

And every single one of us who is a Christian has a story just

like and now the life you live faith in the Son of God.

You live by faith in the Son of God and he has changed you from

the inside out. You are not the person you used

to be. You are not the person you could

be, but you're not who you were and you have changed.

Praise God for His story of your his rescue in your life.

In fact, God has given us in the New Testament, He's given us a

step to tell the story, to sing God's supernatural strength and

might as a literal memory stone for us.

And it's baptism. I just encourage you if you are

in Christ, if you have been rescued from your sin, I think

Joshua Ford is helping you step forward and encourage and say,

you know what, I stay anymore this back.

I need to obey Jesus Christ. I need to listen to him.

I need to be a disciple of him, which means I'm going to listen

to his teaching. I'm an adoptive for my life.

I'm going to follow what he says in the truth of who he is and

you want to do. I'm going to give him my

unconditional yes, and that yes goes first into the waters of

baptism. And you're saying God.

I might not be a people person. I might not be good at talking

in front of people, but you know what the New Testament does not

know of a Christian who isn't baptized.

If you are a Christ follower, may I just encourage you that I

put courage into you today to do the very thing that God's asking

you to do, which is to step forward and say, I'm going to

sing of God's strength in my life.

I'm going to brag about His might, that He saved me from

addiction. He saved me from my sin.

He saved me from a life and eternity apart from Him.

Would you take that step? This is your encouragement from

your pastor saying please don't. If you hear God's voice today,

do not harden your heart. Step forward in baptism, Easter

baptisms here. But in the meantime, we want to

get to know you. We want to get to know God's

story of his impossible you in your life.

And we want to hear about it because you know what else fills

the church with faith? It's hearing story after story

after story after story, week after week, month after month,

life afterlife, doing people like you and I.

And I think he's going to do it again.

So if you want to get baptized, come follow.

Nervous I'll be hanging around. I'd love to talk to you.

You can follow up with the tent as well.

But I believe our God is still doing impossible things and he's

the one worth bragging about that it's his impossible work.

It's not ours. We didn't do it, He did it.

Let's pray, Lord, this is all for you and for your glory, Your

might or glory to be known. And I ask God that you would you

would heal hearts of despair and brokenness.

Lord, that people who don't have that they would realize God in

crisis in their moment of pain that things I pray for every

person stuck in addiction that they would not lose hope or lose

faith. I pray that like the Israelites,

we would set up stones in our life that call us back to who

you are and what you have done. Who you are is amazing, but what

you've done, God, we never want to forget, so help us to not

forget. And would you do it again and

again and again? Lord, more wonders, more

miracles, so we can show off who you are in Jesus name, Amen.