Built Through It Series - Pastor Tommy Torres

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We hope this powerful word from City Center Church transforms your mind and grows your relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Thank you for joining us, and let's get into the word of today.

I mean, last week uh Pastor JD preached a powerful word called tag you're it.

Took us way back to our childhood.

Um and I love the picture because everybody in this room knows that game.

Somebody tags you and suddenly you're it and you have to go and tag somebody else.

And and then I love that he he shifted it, he twisted the game and brought in the great commission because in the kingdom of heaven, here's the shift that once you're it, you're always it.

Doesn't matter who you tag, you're always it.

You now you both, and and multiple people carry the responsibility and the privilege of telling somebody else, and then going and telling somebody else, and telling somebody else until the story of Jesus keeps moving from one life to another.

And staying in that frame, the same uh frame of thought today.

I I I want to preach on another game.

Maybe it's a little more for the delinquents.

Who knows?

Ding dong ditch.

Raise your hand if you play ding dong ditch.

Those of you who are not raising your hands, you're a liar, or you were the one that was being ding-dong-ditched.

I'm not gonna preach on that today.

But but that game actually reminded me of something.

Um, those of you from the 90s, and maybe before that, that's when I was growing up.

I before rain cameras, by the way, before that uh that camera caught you walking up, and all of a sudden your face is on Facebook, the neighborhood group, within 30 seconds.

Um, but we would walk up to a house and we'd knock the door and we'd ring the doorbell and we'd run.

And usually I was the first one.

Because believe it or not, I was fast.

I was fast.

I was the first one of my friends, and and I'd go and I'd I'd knock on the door, and I like a gazelle, I would run off.

I do it in a slow motion because I can't do it fast anymore.

But I'd run off, and I after I knocked, and I would hide behind the bushes and I'd look as they opened the door, and I'm just trying not to laugh out loud as they looked around.

What was going on who was here?

And then we were those those like delinquent friends that we just wouldn't go on to the next neighbor, we'd stay on that same neighbor.

And the next friend would come and he'd knock and he'd run out, and and by like the third or fourth friend, the neighbor's now getting upset.

And then everybody has that one friend, right?

That's that's like a little slower, a little, a little chubby, a little more clumsy.

Like now I think I'm that friend in many people's groups, but everybody has has that friend that would the last one that would go and knock, and then he would trip over a pot, and he would, and the door would open, and he's caught like a deer in headlights, and and he's just looking like we're all laughing, and he didn't know what to say.

He didn't know what to say.

And I was just thinking about that because when JED said tag, you're it last week, and he he he he commissioned us to go out and and tag someone else and go tag someone else, it raises a really practical question.

What do I say?

What do I say?

Because some of you here, it's your turn, go and share the gospel, and immediately you think that you need a theology degree to do that.

You're afraid that somebody might ask you a question that you can't answer.

You think that you need to have all of scripture memorized this last Wednesday?

Uh in Grow class, we had a student who started reading a scripture, and she said, Pastor Tommy, I don't remember the scripture, but I'm gonna read the first four words and then you finish it, okay?

And then she read the first four words and she's like, finish it.

And it goes, crickets, because I had no idea what that scripture was.

But everybody expects you to know all the scripture, and let me I now use that to let you know that no, you don't need to know all of scripture to go and share the gospel.

Some of you think that that you have to answer questions like why do good things or bad things happen to good people?

You that you have to have like revelation completely figured out to be able to share the gospel about Jesus.

But but sometimes one of the simplest ways to tell somebody his story is to tell them what his story has done in your story, all right.

So that's the focus for this month.

Today we begin a brand new series called Built Through It.

And throughout this series, we're gonna ask you to do something very practical.

We want you to begin thinking about your story.

Everybody has a story.

What has God brought you out of?

What has he brought you through?

Where did he meet you?

What happened when he met you?

What changed when Jesus entered your life?

Maybe you'll write it down and send it to us.

Maybe you'll record a video.

As a matter of fact, I'm gonna give you an action step right now before we even get into the sermon.

Throughout this series, every week in September, we're gonna be collecting stories.

We want to know your story.

So you have two ways to do that.

You can number one, you can email your story, just get on your computer, type out your story.

Just doesn't have to be perfect.

You can email that to my story at citycenterchurch.com.

Mystory at citycenterchurch.com.

Or the second option is after service today.

And many of you saw the video station that's set up out there.

Go to that video station and record a two to three minute uh video sharing one of your stories.

We all have something to share, and if you don't have anything today, then think about it and do it next week.

That video station will be there all throughout the month of September.

Some of you have stories you've never told anybody because you didn't think they mattered.

But but we want to challenge that thinking over these next few weeks because your story does matter.

Your story isn't the gospel message, but your story can become evidence of the gospel in someone's life.

Yes, your story isn't bigger than Jesus.

I want to make that clear, but your story can point somebody toward Jesus.

One of our core values is that we are sent.

We're sent, sent to what?

To tell people about what he's done in our lives.

And that brings me to our text today.

We're gonna look at a story in Joshua 3, and mainly chapter 4.

I sent that text out yesterday.

I hope many of you read that because it's a lot of scripture.

Um so I'm gonna paraphrase Joshua 3 and then we'll we'll go into chapter 4.

In Joshua 3, the Lord tells Joshua, talk to the priests that take the ark of the covenant and lead the people across the Jordan River, because he says, Today, Joshua, you're gonna become a leader.

And and just as I was with Moses, I'm gonna be with you.

That's what the Lord tells Joshua.

And then the Lord tells Joshua, give the command to the to the priests who who carry the ark of the covenant.

He says, When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, he says, take a few steps into the river and then just stop there and wait.

And then the Lord says, What's gonna happen next?

He says, The priests are gonna carry the ark of the Lord, and as soon as their feet touch the water in the Jordan River, the river is gonna part in two, and it's gonna be like a wall of water, and you're gonna be able to cross that river.

And then it happened just like the Lord said it would.

And all the people of Israel crossed over the river near the town of Jericho.

And we'll pick up at verse 17 of chapter 3.

And it says, Meanwhile, this is after they crossed, the priests who were carrying the ark of the Lord's covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by.

They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

Then we'll jump to Joshua chapter 4.

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

I'll start at verse 1.

When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe.

Tell them, take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan, carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.

So they did that.

They did that.

Then Joshua tells them, We'll jump to verse 6.

He says, We will use these stones to build a memorial.

In the future, your children will ask you, What do these stones mean?

Then you can tell them they remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord's covenant went across.

These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.

And then let's get to Joshua 4, verse 18.

Joshua 4:18

And then it says, As soon as a priest carrying the Ark of the Lord's covenant came up out of the riverbed, after the entire nation had crossed, they were the last ones, and their feet were on high ground.

The water of the Jordan returned and overflowed its banks as before.

The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.

Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho.

It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River.

Then Joshua said to the Israelites, In the future your children will ask, What do these stones mean?

Then you can tell them.

This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.

For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over.

He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord's hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.

It's a powerful word.

And in verse 14, he says, That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader.

The Lord was building Joshua through this particular story.

He was being built through it.

And maybe you're already asking, built through what, Tommy?

Built through your story.

Your story is your history.

And though your history doesn't define you, it doesn't define who you are, your history does give you your story.

So today I want to preach from this working thought, built through history, built through history.

Father, I thank you for your word.

I ask you to speak your word through this imperfect vessel to imperfect hearts and imperfect minds.

That your perfect word will carry across according to your perfect will.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

If we're going to understand Joshua's chapter 3 and 4, we really have to understand that Joshua's story didn't begin with Joshua.

In fact, what's happening at the Jordan River is actually part of something that God started generations before Joshua was ever even born.

God has spoken to a man named Abraham, and he promised that he would make a people from him and give them a land.

Abraham never saw the fulfillment of everything that God promised, but he obeyed anyway.

His son Isaac inherited that promise.

And then Jacob inherited that promise.

Generations came and went, and eventually Abraham's descendants found themselves enslaved in Egypt and then enter Moses.

God raises up a man named Moses.

Moses stood before Pharaoh.

Moses watched God send plagues.

Moses led Israel out of Egypt.

And then when they reached the Red Sea, we all know that famous story with Pharaoh's army closing in behind them.

God did the impossible.

Moses stretched out his staff and the waters opened, and the entire nation walked through the Red Sea on dry ground.

But even Moses' story wasn't the whole story.

Moses would lead them through the wilderness, but Moses wouldn't be the one to lead them into the promised land.

Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses.

And then we go into the book of Joshua.

And that begins with the Lord saying these words to Joshua.

He says, Moses, my servant, is dead.

And Joshua, who was Moses' assistant, must have thought, so what now?

What do we do now?

I'm just the assistant.

The man who stood before Pharaoh is now gone.

He's dead.

The man who stretched out his staff over the Red Sea is gone.

The man who went up to Mount Sinai and came down glowing because he was in the presence of God.

The man who came down with with with the written tablets that God had written himself came down from the mountain.

The man who had led them for 40 years is now gone.

But then God let Joshua know that the promise isn't gone.

He tells Joshua, therefore, the time has come now for you to lead these people across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them.

The Lord tells him, I promise you what I promised Moses.

Wherever you set your foot, you will be on the land I have given you.

And he said this, and I said this prophetically over all of you today.

God says, I will not fail you, I will not abandon you.

Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you, no matter where you go.

And I need somebody to hear that because we have a tendency to confuse the person that God is using with the God who was using the person.

We have a tendency to put our focus on the man with the microphone.

And let me tell you, like I said before, the man with the microphone will never bring a revival.

The revival will always come through the person using the man with the microphone.

Focus needs to be on God because people change, leaders change, generations change, seasons do end, chapters end.

But God's story doesn't end because somebody else's chapter ended.

Joshua isn't starting a new story.

He's stepping into a story that God was already writing, and he's still writing to this day.

Some of what Joshua is walking into began with Abraham's obedience generations earlier.

Moses carried the story for his generation.

Now Joshua is carrying it into the next generation.

Some of what you're walking in today began with somebody else's obedience yesterday.

Somebody prayed before you knew how to pray.

Somebody gave so that you can worship in the room that you're sitting in today.

Somebody share Jesus, hear me, with your grandparents.

And that wasn't Pastor Kirk, by the way.

I know many of you think Pastor Kirk is 238 years old, but he doesn't look a day over 50.

Can we honor Pastor Kirk today?

I know I just said that that don't focus on the man, but man, if anybody reflects Jesus, it's this man right here.

Can we honor our pastor?

Somebody stayed faithful long enough for the story to reach you.

And now tag, you're it.

But Joshua chapter 3, by then Israel has arrived at another body of water.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

Only this time it isn't the Red Sea, it's the Jordan River that's in front of them.

And Joshua 3 specifically tells us that the Jordan was at flood stage.

That means that it wasn't just a little stream that they could easily step over.

The river, the Bible says, was overflowing its banks.

So Joshua tells the people that the Ark of the Covenant is going ahead of them.

He says, Keep your eyes on the ark because you've never been this way before.

So follow the ark.

And it's going on ahead of them.

The ark was the visible sign of God's covenant presence among his people.

So the priests carrying the ark stepped toward the river, and the moment their feet touched the water, God stops the flow of the river, and the river stood up like a wall.

The people began crossing on dry ground while the priests carrying the ark remained standing in the middle until the entire nation has passed by.

Every detail here matters.

It's important.

In the book of Numbers, I think it's chapter 25 or chapter 26.

It actually gives us a record.

And it says that there were 601,730 Israelite men aged 20 and older who were able to serve in the army.

Those men were there that day.

That's just the men, not even counting women, children, elderly, all the animals and cattle, etc.

So you can picture the scene, possibly over a million people.

The river split in two, the priests standing in the middle carrying the presence of God until the entire nation has made it across.

Man, it's hard for us in CCE at least to get a hundred people out of the lobby after service.

Like we have to turn off the lights off and on, off and on.

Let's go, let's keep moving, let's keep moving.

Imagine almost a million people.

And you have to sit there and wait until they all pass by.

I wonder how easy it would have been to take your eyes off of the ark that the priests were carrying as you pass by and started looking towards the other side and realizing that you were about, men remember this is after the 40 years that they wandered, and they're about to enter the land that God promised.

How easy it is to take your eyes off God, to look towards the future.

I wonder how easy it would have been to become more fascinated with what God had done to the river than with the God who was still standing there in the middle of it.

I can imagine people looking in awe at the walls of water and the dry ground that they were walking on for a moment, and for that moment taking their eyes off of their savior.

Because sometimes we do the same thing.

We pray for God to move the water, and when he does, we get so consumed with the miracle that we forgot who was the one who did the miracle and who was the one who moved it.

We celebrate the door that God opened, we celebrate the healing, we celebrate provision that he provides, we celebrate breakthrough, and we should celebrate those things, but never become more impressed with the dry ground in front of you than you are with the presence in the person that made that ground dry possible.

You see that the miracle that I'm seeing in Joshua isn't only that God made a way, it's also that while everybody else was moving through the way that God had made, God's presence stayed there to keep the way open while everyone else walked by.

That the God who goes before you is the God who stands with you in the middle, and he's the God who walks out once you're on the other side.

Amen.

So now everybody has crossed.

This is where Joshua chapter 4 comes in.

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

The obstacle is behind them, the Jordan River.

That had been waiting generations to reach.

And after everything God has just done, his next instruction seems almost strange.

He tells Joshua to take 12 men, one from every tribe, and he sends them back into the river they just came through.

Remember back in chapter 3, God had already told Joshua to select these 12 men, but he hadn't yet explained what they were going to do.

God wasn't only thinking about getting Israel through the river to the other side.

He was already thinking about how they would tell the story after they went through it.

That's important because sometimes we're so desperate to get through something that all we think about is getting to the other side.

We just recently finished a series called Built for This, and we talked about how we were built for the season we're in right now.

Don't try to rush past it.

God is doing something through that season.

But so so many people pray, God, just get me through this season, get me through this loss, this hurt, this pain, get me through this battle, get get my family through this, get me through this transition.

And I understand that prayer, but God may actually be doing more than simply bringing you through it, He's actually building you through it, He's building a testimony out of what He's doing right now while you're in it.

So the people have crossed, and God says, in essence, now I want those 12 to go back.

Like back.

Why would God send you back into something He just brought you out of?

But notice, He doesn't send them back to stay there, He doesn't send them back to relive the fear that they went through.

He doesn't send them back to build their home in that riverbed, he sends them back to get something, to collect something, and bring something back with them.

Joshua tells him in verse 3 take 12 stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan.

I love how specific God is about the location.

Because he could have told them to grab the 12 stones or 12 rocks from the shoreline.

He had already crossed.

That would have been a lot easier, right?

He could have told them to pick up some stones once they arrive to their location, but God says, I want the stones from the middle.

There's something important about the middle.

There's something about being in the middle.

Is there anyone in the middle right now going through something?

You might be able to remember the stories he's done in your life before, but right now you're in the middle of something totally different and new.

The middle is a place that nobody likes to talk about while they're in it.

The middle is where you've left what was behind you, but you still haven't reached what God promised you.

The middle is where the prayer hasn't been answered yet.

The middle is where you're believing, but you're also fighting fear.

The middle is where you know what God said, but you still can't see how the story is going to end.

And God said, right there in that place where you are, that's where I want that stone from.

That's where I want it from.

And there's another detail that makes this even more powerful.

He doesn't just say go to the middle of the river and grab it.

He literally says, take the stones from the place where the priests are standing.

And what are the priests carrying?

They're carrying the Ark of the Covenant, the representation of the presence of God among the people.

He wanted them to take the stones from the place where God Himself was standing while they were going through it.

Because there are moments when when I wasn't strong.

There are moments when I didn't know what to do.

There are moments where where my faith was was shaken.

There were moments when I cried.

There were moments when when in my life, and I know I'm not alone, when you question, when when you struggle, when I wondered, how am I ever going to make it to the other side?

Oh, but when I look back now, I can see something I couldn't always see while I was standing in the middle.

I can see now that God was there, that He is standing there, that He is there with you in the middle.

And maybe that's the first thing some of us need to understand about our story.

That your story isn't valuable because you came out on the other side.

Your story is valuable because God was there even before you got to the other side.

Don't carry the bondage out of the river.

Don't carry the shame that you had while you were crossing.

Don't carry the identity that was attached to what happened to you in the past.

But maybe there is something that God wants you to pick up with you and take with you before you move on.

Carry the evidence that he was there.

Here's what I love about this story: the stones weren't only for the 12 people that were carrying them.

There were 12 people assigned, but it wasn't only for them.

And the stones weren't even only for the people in the 12 tribes of Israel that crossed that day.

Joshua tells him in verse 6, we will use these stones to build a memorial.

In the future, your children will ask you, What do these stones mean?

And I love that God is already thinking, thinking about people who weren't even old enough to understand what was happening that day.

He's thinking about the people who didn't see the river stop.

He people who didn't see the priests standing in the middle carrying the ark.

He he they weren't there when the miracle happened, but but God still wanted them to know the story.

That's what your story does.

A testimony gives somebody who wasn't there access to the faithfulness of the God who was there.

People may not have known you before Jesus changed you.

They may not know what your marriage went through before God began restoring it.

They may not know how close you came to giving up.

There are people around you that don't know what you were addicted to, they don't know what you were afraid of, they don't know how broken your heart was or how many nights you prayed when nobody else knew what you were struggling with.

They see you standing on the other side of the river in victory, but they don't always know what happened in the middle.

And God says, when they ask, show them the stones, tell them what happened.

That means the stones weren't just a souvenir.

It wasn't supposed to simply sit them there while everybody just walked past it without understanding what they meant.

The whole point of the memorial was that eventually somebody would notice them and ask a question: why are those stones there?

What do they mean?

And suddenly a question becomes an opportunity to tell the story of God's faithfulness.

I wonder how many of us are carrying stones that somebody around us has never heard explained.

They've seen the change in you, but they don't know where that change came from.

They're seeing the peace, but but they don't know what God brought you through to produce it.

They they watch you worship, but they don't understand why that song makes you cry.

They see the person you are today, but they don't have any idea what Jesus rescued you from or how he restored you.

Sometimes we keep waiting for the perfect opportunity to share the gospel when perhaps God has already placed something visible in your life that is that is causing somebody to wonder why are you different?

How did you make it through?

Why didn't that destroy you?

How did you learn to forgive?

Why do you still believe?

These aren't interruptions, those are questions about the stone.

And when they ask about the stone, don't make the stone the hero.

I think sometimes we tell our testimonies and accidentally make ourselves the hero.

We talk about how strong we became, how much we endured, how we refused to quit, how much faith we have.

And there's nothing wrong with recognizing growth, but the most powerful testimony isn't look how strong I was in the river.

The most powerful testimony is let me tell you who stood with me while I was going through the river.

Verse 7.

Verse 7, it says, They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the ark of the Lord's covenant went across.

In other words, son, the stone isn't about me.

Let me tell you about what God did that day.

And by the end of this chapter, Joshua tells him in verse 24 in more detail.

He says, 424, for the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he keeps it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we all crossed over.

He did this so all nations of the earth might know that the Lord's hand is powerful.

Did you catch that?

The story started with Israel, but it was never supposed to end with Israel.

God brought them through something that eventually other people would know something about him.

That changes the way we think about our testimony, or it should.

Your story is personal, but that doesn't mean that it always needs to be private.

God may have done something deeply personal in your life that he intends to use publicly to reveal something about himself to somebody else.

So you need to be careful because testimony can easily turn into autobiography.

We can spend 20 minutes telling people everything we survived, and only five seconds mentioning Jesus at the end.

But those stones were never meant to make Israel famous.

The stones were supposed to make God known.

So when somebody asks you what your stone means, your answer doesn't have to be impressive.

Just tell them the truth.

This is where I was, this is what I went through, and this is what God did.

I I love what happens.

I love what happens next because it shows something important.

After they had all crossed, after the 12 men had gone back and taken the stones with them from the presence of where God was, the priest began to move through the dry riverbed to the other side.

And then verse 18 says, As soon as the priests carrying the ark of the Lord's covenant came up out of the riverbed and their feet were on high ground, the water of the Jordan returned and overflowed its banks as before.

Did you see what God did?

The river went back to being a roaring river again.

That's what gives the story power.

When people generations later would ask about the stones, they were seeing the impossibility of getting those stones out from that roaring river.

God allowed the obstacle to become visible again, but he gave them something that testified that the obstacle had already been defeated once.

And I think somebody needs to hear that because sometimes we assume that a testimony means God erases every trace of what happened in your life.

We think that if God really brought me through it, then I shouldn't still remember it.

I shouldn't still feel things about it, there shouldn't still be a scar.

That there shouldn't still be a place that hurts when I think about it.

There shouldn't still be moments when I look back and realize how close I came to being overwhelmed.

But the river could still look dangerous, it just doesn't own your story anymore.

They were standing on the other side, and now every time they saw the river, they also had a stone to remind them.

The river might be shouting, This was impossible.

But the stone is evidence that God brought us through that.

That's why I don't think God wants us to be ashamed of every scar.

He really wants you to be every chapter of our life to be thinking about it constantly, every place in our history that reminds us of something difficult.

Don't don't sit there, don't glorify the pain.

Don't build our identity, don't build your identity around the river.

But sometimes the very thing that reminds you how impossible it looked becomes the backdrop to clarify, to bring the clarity of God's faithfulness in your life.

So now what?

Tommy, they crossed the river, they went back for the stones, they built the memori memorial.

We've seen the story, so so I think we're done, right?

We said 11:15 was not the time anymore.

Now it was closer to 12.

But but everything has happened in the story.

And and and we're not done, psych.

Almost, almost, ladies and gentlemen, we're beginning our descent.

Ushers, please prepare the cabin for landing.

And then it usually takes another 30 minutes to to land the plane.

So just so you're aware, right?

What because what what comes next?

After I read the whole story, I'm like, this is it.

This is the story, this is the message.

I'm like, this this can't be it, Lord.

It excites me what comes next.

And when I noticed it, I couldn't help but clap loudly in my office because just when I thought the story was over, I read and I reread because I thought that the Holy Spirit was trying to build something else, trying to tell me something that I wasn't catching.

And then I saw it in verse 19.

It says, The people crossed the Jordan look on the 10th day of the first month.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, and I'll always say it.

The Bible does not waste words.

If it's there, it's there for a reason.

Cross the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.

That's not just random trivia.

I I did some research and look at Exodus 12 3.

Exodus 12 3 says, speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

That was the tenth day of the first month.

The tenth day of the first month was the day that Israel was instructed by the Lord to choose the Passover lamb before God delivered them from Egypt.

There's a deliberate connection here.

Almost 40 years later, on that same calendar day, Israel is crossing in the final barrier into the land that God had promised them.

Then four days later in Joshua chapter 5, read it when you get home, they celebrate Passover in that new land.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

And when I saw that, I started thinking about how far back this story actually goes.

Because even before Moses ever told Israel to choose a Passover lamb in Exodus 12, 13, there was Abraham walking up a mountain with his son Isaac.

Isaac looks around and asks his father a question We have we have the fire, we have the wood, but but father, where is the lamb?

And Abraham answers, God himself will provide the lamb.

That day, God provided a substitute.

Isaac lived because something else was offered in his place.

Moses' generation had a story about a lamb, blood on the doorposts, deliverance from Egypt, and the Red Sea that parted and they crossed.

Joshua's generation is now standing in the fulfillment of a promise that began before either of them.

Can you see the story getting bigger?

Can you see that that that the story isn't just about the stones that Joshua had the 12 men go back to get?

Abraham had a story, Isaac had a story, Moses had a story, Joshua had a story, you have a story, but none of those stories were ever really the whole story.

Because eventually Joshua, eventually, John, John the Baptist, John the Baptist would stand, hear me, beside that same Jordan River.

John the Baptist would see Jesus coming toward him and identify him and say, That's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And later, Paul would say, Christ is our Passover Lamb.

This isn't just a collection of random Bible stories about different people who did amazing things for God.

This there's a thread running through all of this.

Abraham couldn't see everything Moses would see, Moses couldn't see everything Joshua would see, Joshua couldn't see everything that John would see, but every generation was carrying something forward that ultimately pointed to the story of Jesus.

Their history was literally moving his story forward.

The history, your history is not about you, your history should always point to his story.

Oh, did you hear that?

Built through here.

I'm being built through my history, yes, but my history should point to his story.

Your story should point to the lamb.

Your story should point to the blood.

Your story should point to the God who provides.

Your story should point to the God who delivers.

Your story should point to the God who opens rivers and ultimately Jesus who saves.

John wrote in Revelation 12:1 that they have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, that's his story, and the word of their testimony, that's your story.

Revelation 12:1

Go back to verse 19.

There's an important detail there at the end that I felt the Holy Spirit wanted to speak to everyone today.

It says, after it says that on the 10th day of the first month, it says, Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho.

Do you notice where they are now?

They're camped right outside of Jericho.

Y'all know Jericho, right?

Remember Jericho?

The walls of Jericho.

The Jericho March.

Remember that?

They built a memorial.

Don't miss this.

They built the memorial before Jericho ever falls.

They haven't conquered the land yet.

They've crossed one river, but there are still battles ahead.

That means God tells them to preserve a testimony before the whole story is finished.

That's a specific word for some of you here today that are thinking, I'll tell my story when everything works out.

I'll testify when my marriage is completely restored.

I'll testify when my children give their lives to Jesus.

I'll testify when I'm finally healed.

I'll testify when I know how this chapter is gonna end.

Joshua says, You can testify about what God has already done while there are still Jericho's in front of you.

You see, you you can stand outside Jericho, you can look back at the Jordan, you can look at the wall that's in front of you, but don't but don't forget to look back at the Jordan, point to your stone, and say, I don't know how God is gonna deal with that wall yet.

But what I do know is that what he did for me in that river, and if he had the power to do it to me in that river, he has the power that I know that he can do it again to the wall that's standing in front of me now.

If he did it before, I know that he's gonna do it again.

Your stone is evidence of what he's already done.

Maybe you need to look at your stone again to remember, to see the place where God has been faithful in your life.

And listen, if you're not a believer, he's still been after your heart.

He's still been faithful in seasons.

You may not even realize that he was there.

Remember.

Remember where I carried you, remember where I restored you, remember when I provided for you the last time.

He wants you to remember when when he healed you the first time.

The stones are evidence and a memorial to what he's already done.

I skipped over something earlier.

God told Joshua to choose 12 men representing each of the 12 tribes to carry 12 stones.

Every tribe was represented.

Nobody could stand on the other side of the Jordan and say that memorial has nothing to do with us.

The testimony of what God had done belonged to the whole people, and thousands of years later, Peter writes to the church and says something incredible.

He says that now we are the living stones being built into a spiritual house.

You see what God is doing in Joshua.

They carried stones that would tell the story of what God had done.

But Peter says, Now you are the stones, you are the living stones.

The life, your life is part of what God is building.

And just a few verses later, Peter says that we are his people so that we can just declare the praises of the one who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

That means that you don't get to disqualify your story because it doesn't sound as good or powerful as somebody else's story.

You don't get to say my story isn't dramatic enough.

I I've heard people say, I don't have a testimony, Tommy.

I don't have a testimony.

You see, I grew up in church.

I I always attended Sunday school.

I gave my life to Jesus as a child.

I got baptized.

I never drank, I never smoked, I never did drugs, I never had sex out of wedlock, I've never been in prison.

So I don't have a testimony.

That doesn't mean you're perfect, but wow, what a powerful testimony that is.

So don't disqualify yourself because you haven't been through some stuff.

You've been faithful, you've endured.

That's a testimony in and of itself.

In Joshua, every tribe had a stone.

In the church, every believer is a living stone.

I said it at the beginning throughout the series.

There is an ask.

Share your story.

Share your story.

And there are two ways that we have set up for you to do that easily.

Write your story and send it to us.

I showed you how.

Or record your story at the video station outside.

We want to hear it.

People need to hear your story.

No one leaving yet.

Respectfully, this is a divine moment, it's a it's it's a it's a holy moment, reverent moment.

If you're able and willing, would you please stand?

Don't leave unless you absolutely need to leave.

Before we leave, I I want you to reflect on one question.

Because maybe in order to take that that next step in sharing your story, you need to take some time to actually remember your story.

So, right now, as we prepare the environment and go back into worship, the question that I want you to ask yourself is this what is my stone?

What is my stone?

What has God brought me through?

Where did He meet me in the middle?

What has He done that I haven't told others about?

And I know that many of you have many stories.

Ask the Holy Spirit which one is the one that you want me to share.

There's people that the Lord will, the Holy Spirit will put in your life.

It could be a waiter at a restaurant, it could be a waitress, it could be a flight attendant, it could be your neighbor.

But I know that for some of you, the Lord, the Holy Spirit has been tugging on your heart.

I should talk to this person.

How do you start sharing your story?

Just ask them, how are you doing?

Can I pray for you?

And then the door, the Holy Spirit will open up the door.

But some of you need to remember what that story is.

Maybe today the Holy Spirit is reminding you that your story isn't finished yet.

You might be in the middle, and there's still Jericho's in front of you, there's still prayers you're waiting on.

There, there's still walls you need God to bring down, but but there's also a river behind you.

Don't forget that.

He's done it before, he can do it again.

And if you can look back and say, God was faithful there, then you already have a story that you can share.

This moment in the service, right here, is where you get the opportunity to respond to what the Holy Spirit has spoken to you today.

So the altar is open, and if today's word has spoken to you in any way, I'm inviting you to respond to what the Holy Spirit might be doing in your life by making your way to this altar.

I like to sit in the moment.

I tell small group leaders, learn to sit in silence because the Holy Spirit's working on hearts.

All it takes is one.

Someone's waiting for that one to move forward.

Praise God.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm gonna sit in this moment for a second.

Let the Holy Spirit work on your heart.

Keep coming forward.

Thank you for joining us today.

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