What do these stones mean to you?

Bibles today joshua chapter 4 we're going to read verses 1

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

through 9 and the bible says it this

way said when all the nation had finished

passing over the jordan so they've passed over the lord said to joshua take

12 men from the people from each tribe of man's so one man from each tribe of

of the of the tribes of israel and command them saying take 12 stones from here

out of the midst of the jordan,

So it's still parted at this point. It's still open.

Take 12 stones out of here. It says, out of the midst of the Jordan,

from the very place where the priest's feet stood firmly, and bring them over

with you, and lay them down in the place where you lodged tonight.

Then Joshua called 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 in the

midst of the Jordan And take each of you a stone upon his shoulder According

to the number of the tribe of the

people of Israel That this may be a sign among you Notice this I was so.

He messaged me today and said he had a dental I wasn't glad that his tooth was

hurting But I was glad when he said we were going to be in here together Because

this is something that I want students to hear This is something that I want

the rest of us to hear, like not students where,

can I call this just a little older generation in here, all right?

I want all of us to hear this.

He said this, that it may be a sign among you.

When your children ask in a 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.

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.

And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up the 12 stones

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

just as the Lord told Joshua and they carried them over with them to the place

where they lodged and laid them down.

They did exactly what Joshua told them to do.

That's what the Bible says. laid them down and Joshua set up 12 stones in the

midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the of the priest bearing

the Ark of the Covenant has stood and they are there to this day.

The Bible says that there's something important about making a memorial,

about making sure that the next generation has evidence that they can ask questions.

You know, it's something I know for a lot of us, we got memories of what God

did when we were growing up, what God did in the midst of the church.

But wouldn't it be a shame if there was no evidence of that kind of life that

our kids could ask questions? What does that mean to you?

What in the world was that all about? That's what I want to talk about tonight.

I want to preach on this subject.

What do those stones mean to you? That question that Joshua,

God told they were going to ask for the generations to come.

What do those stones mean to you? So let's pray tonight.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you. We thank you for your Holy

Spirit. We thank you, Jesus, that your presence is in the room.

We felt you during the praise and worship. We felt your presence here with us.

God I still believe that if there's people that need to be healed in this place

tonight There's healing in this place in the name of jesus There's healing here right now father.

I just pray lord that for those that may not even be here I just feel the anointing

right now for those that don't are not even here with us god I just I pray for leah right now.

She's at home sick, but we pray for her right now in the name of jesus I pray

for ethan that's home right now sick.

I pray for him in the name of jesus Lord, I pray for

daniel that they're still looking for answers i pray that

you would you would be the healer you sent forth your word and your word healed

them lord i thank you for your healing anointing and father for those of us

sitting here right now i just pray that you would speak to our spirits holy

spirit speak to me can you make that personal right now say holy spirit speak

to me come on say it out loud say holy spirit speak to me,

make it personal yeah speak to us in this place and we thank you in jesus name and everyone said.

Amen. Amen. Talking about this subject tonight, what do those stones mean to you?

I started thinking about this, and really kind of my whole theme for tonight

is this, is that the stones of remembrance remind us where God has brought us from,

strengthen our faith in the present, and serve as a testimony for future generations.

So it's not just about the past.

It does remind us, those stones that we're talking about, reminds us of where

God has brought us from, but also strengthens our faith in God for the present,

but also serves as a testimony for future generations.

I've been thinking about this for several weeks now, and I guess when you've

been in church for a while, you appreciate those people that have come before you.

I grew up in church, and so I've been in this, Pastor Rob said he's been in

this church for, what's he say, three quarters of the church's history,

something like that, or two thirds of the church's history.

Well, I'm 47 years old, so I've been in this church for almost half of the church's history.

All right. So over half. Oh my goodness. Where did all those years go?

Over of our 91, 90, how many years are we now?

92 years of church history. I've been here for over half of it.

But when I was growing up in the church, there were people that I looked.

Kind of got cues from them. You know what I'm talking about?

I always kind of knew those people that lived right in my church.

Now, my grand, my great grandmother, my great grandmother's name was Goldie.

In the old days, she would walk to church and she had her, she kept her hair

up in a little bun on the back of her head, a little gray headed,

little, little church granny.

And whenever she would get happy is what we called it back then,

she would get happy and she'd go, whoop, and she'd make this little noise when she got happy.

But I knew there was something real about her relationship with God,

because I would be at her house, and we would be over there.

I remember one time, her son was, one of her children was an alcoholic,

and there was kind of a ruckus that kind of stirred up in the house,

and you just got to know, right?

Anybody got one of those families that sometimes there was something that stirred

up, and there might be some, you know, somebody might be throwing hands at her,

and so hopefully that's not happening.

So it was happening then and there was a ruckus and and one

of her children was a drug addict and and one of the family members

was criticizing him and she stopped everything and

she says he's got a soul too and she began to pray for him and she began to

talk about how god could change a soul and i remembered that as a little boy

i remembered the fact that she had such faith in god that even a drug addicted

child that seemed like everybody else was wanting to throw out she had confidence

that God could change his life.

I started thinking about other people. I would go as a young boy,

as a young teenager, and I would go and plant corn and plant beans with Pastor

Sturge on, and we'd be driving in that little blue truck. He had it nicknamed,

Rackety Boom, all right?

It was rusted out. You know, how many of you have ever ridden in a rusted out pickup truck, right?

Like, have you rusted out? Really? You have? I didn't know this generation has

ridden in rusted out pickup trucks.

Like, are we talking so rusted you could throw a cat through it?

Is that what we're talking about?

All right. You don't know what I'm talking about right there.

Just trust me. That's real rusted right there. But that truck was so rusted

you could throw a cat through it.

I never tried it. It's just the saying that we used to say.

No evidence to that. I know PETA was like ready to write me up right there.

People were getting ready to cancel me on social media. Never attempted, just a saying.

But we would be riding in that truck and he would be singing just beyond the river.

And we would be just there breaking or planting beans or digging out weeds or

whatever we was doing in the garden. And he would be talking to the Lord.

He would be praying about service.

I would hear him call the names of people who were sick and be praying for God to heal them.

And as a teenager, I knew there was something about calling on the name of the

Lord, that it wasn't just something

we did in church, but it was something that we invested our life in.

It was in him that we live, move, and have our being.

So I've been thinking about this over the past several weeks,

but I started thinking this thought that so many of those people that I looked up to.

To. They're in heaven now. I'm going to see them again one day.

We didn't lose them. We know exactly where they are. They're in heaven.

We're going to see them again one day. How many people had grandparents.

The great grandparents that serve the Lord and they're in heaven right now? We know where they are.

We're going to see them again one day. But I started thinking this, they left that legacy.

They had some evidence of the life that they lived that made me ask the question,

what does that mean to them?

And I saw the evidence of their faith in their life every day.

And with every one of those, that generation that goes to heaven,

I looked at Pastor Rob the other day.

I said, who's going to take the place of that one in the kingdom of being such a faithful witness?

And so I came with a challenge tonight. I came with a challenge to not only

the older generation, but the younger generation.

Number one, to the older generation, I challenge you to provide evidence to

the younger generation, to the faith that we say we believe.

And to the younger generation, I challenge you, look for evidence in the life

of those that say they believe in God and say they preach Christ and say they believe in healing.

Look for evidence of that in their lives.

Now we look at this, that this is a memorial that we're talking about in the scripture today.

And memorials, they don't just serve as past examples.

They serve for future lessons for those that come behind us.

We often take for granted all of those past lessons.

We take for granted the battles that were fought. We take for granted the prayers that were prayed.

We take for granted the buildings that were built and the lives that were lived

and the sacrifices that were made for the faith that we enjoy.

See, what I realize is this right here. We're in this building tonight.

We got a whole lot of nice stuff, and we're at work.

A lot of us, and I'm putting myself in this category, we did very little to

make sure we got here, but there was a lot of people that came before us that

make sure that we had the opportunity to be where we are tonight.

A lot of faithful people came before us to make sure we have the opportunity to be where we are.

In a world that moves so fast, where traditions are discarded.

Where history is tossed to the side, I at least want to ask the question that

Joshua was told to lay a memorial for so the children of Israel would ask,

what do those stones mean to you?

What does the legacy of Christianity mean to you?

What do the prayers of some of those mothers and grandmothers and fathers and

grandfathers that you've had in your life?

And listen, I say this right now. I know of some of you, you didn't have parents

that were praying for you. You didn't have grandparents that were praying for you.

And you might say, yeah, you know, you know, Pastor Scott, I can't relate to that.

Hey, I'm sitting up here with you right now as a guy that my father's in jail right now.

So I won't say that I had, I grew up in church, but it's not like I knew my

father was praying prayers for me.

But I will say this, somebody was praying a prayer.

They may not have been calling my name specifically, but they were praying a

prayer for a generation.

So if you're here tonight and you say, well, my grandmother didn't pray those

prayers and my grandfather didn't pray those prayers, I'm telling you somebody

was praying a prayer for a generation that you're a part of right now so that

you would ask this question,

what do these stones mean?

In biblical history, we're talking about one of the greatest moments in the history of Israel.

It's after 430 years of slavery in Egypt, they have been set free, the people of Israel.

God has set them free of Egyptian bondage. There's been an amazing defeat at the Red Sea.

God parted the Red Sea. They walked across on dry ground.

God had defeated all of the Egyptians that were pursuing them.

The armies of Pharaoh, they were no match for God.

But amazingly, there was something that happened that when they came to the

promised land where God told them they would come to.

In the Old Testament, God said, I'm going to bring you out from Egypt,

and I'm going to take you to a land that I've promised you.

When they got to the promised land, they sent out 12 spies.

Ten of them came back and said, we can't do it.

Two of them came back and said, we're well able to do it.

Well, unfortunately, the majority won, and the Bible tells us that because of

their unbelief, they had to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years,

40 years. wandering around in the wilderness.

I want to say this right now. Lack of faith will cost you something.

I know we live in a culture that we think that we can figure everything out

with our intellect, but a lack of faith will cost you something.

It cost the Israelites 40 years wandering around in the wilderness.

So now here we are. The Bible says that that unbelieving generation all died out.

And now there's a new generation under the leadership of Joshua.

Now they have come to the Jordan River, much like it was when Moses came to

the Red Sea. Joshua is standing in front of the Jordan River.

Now, I looked at this, and Joshua, I broke it down as I was thinking about it this week.

Joshua had a group of people that had weathered the desert.

They had. That 40 years in the wilderness, they had weathered the desert.

Joshua had a group of people that that walk of faith had toughened them.

It had caused some grit to rise up in them. Joshua had a group of people that

that difficulty had built discipline in their lives.

See, sometimes we don't realize that difficulty can build discipline in our lives.

I started thinking about that discipline, you know, this week.

Krista told me last week, she said, Scott, it's good for your health.

If after you take your shower and you stand under ice cold water for three minutes,

I thought, well, I don't know.

So I read about that. You know, of course, I did the thing. I Googled it.

All right. And so, of course, it's going to tell me what I want to hear when I Google that.

And I read it's good for cardiovascular. And I read it was good for stress and

anxiety. It was good for all these. And so, you know what I did?

She told me it's on Sunday, didn't you? Listen, I didn't drink in high school.

So, I'm not that impressionable.

Don't think that I just go for anything. But I read this. And so,

the next day, Monday morning, I'm taking my shower.

And before I even had time to think about it, I just hit that lever and went

straight to cold. And it isn't. It was something else.

I mean, you thought my great-grandmother went, whoop, whoop.

That's what I did in that shower on Monday morning.

But you know what I did? I said, I lasted for 35 seconds. I said, man, that's rough.

So yesterday morning, I bumped that clock up to 45 seconds. I thought,

well, I'm just going to bump up in increments of 10 seconds.

I got out there this morning, got in the shower.

We had to get up a little earlier than you. I was about five o'clock in the

shower, and I thought, no, no, you know, I'm not bumping up to 50 seconds this morning.

I bumped up to two minutes this morning, so there I was, but you know,

and it was easier this morning than it was on Monday morning.

Diana, you got to tell me the real benefits of that later on,

because I know you probably know something about that. She's.

But it was easier this morning than it was Monday morning.

See, the reality is difficulty can build discipline.

There's something about going through. See, I say that because never despise

your time of tribulation.

I say that because never despise your time of loneliness.

I say that because some of you, some of you younger ones, you said, you know what?

I knew the Lord and I gave my heart to the Lord. and now some of my friends

ostracize me and they don't treat me the way they used to treat me and I feel alone.

Never despise that time of isolation.

Some of you sitting out here, your family started treating you differently when

you started serving the Lord.

Never despise that time that God takes you out into a wilderness season because

God is building toughness. God is building tenacity.

God is building discipline because the biggest problem that we have in the church

today is lily-livered, weak-spined Christians that don't want to stand for anything

because there's no toughness that's been formed in them.

I want to say this right now. If you want somebody to be in prayer with you,

then don't find one of them TikTok believers that just got their faith on what

they watched every 10-second video. You find somebody that's been through something.

You find somebody that they had to pray and live a life even when their addicted

father was trying to dissuade them and tell them that they're nobody.

You find somebody that had to pray through an illness in their life.

There's something about suffering through something that builds character in your life.

Yeah, yeah. See, some of us, we need to develop some grit in the church.

I mean, I can remember this. I played football in high school,

and I don't hit people anymore. I want to say that right now.

I'm going to put a disclaimer out there right now. Now, listen,

I've got 27 years of sanctification right here.

Nobody wants to fight me, I'll tell you that right now. 27 years of it.

No, anyway, but I remember when I played football, the first play of every game.

You know what I tried to do?

I know this is what it is. It's not legal anymore, but I would take my forearm,

and I made sure that I could get that guy right in the chin that was across

from me, and I tried to knock that guy's teeth out.

You know why? Because I wanted to set the tone for what the rest of the night was going to be like.

See, our problem is in the church, we don't want, oh, somebody talked about

me. I'm not going to share the gospel anymore.

Oh, you know, I'm discouraged. I'm not going to pray anymore.

You know what you need to do? You need to say, devil, you're a liar.

In the midst of all this, I'm going to pray anyway.

Devil, you're a liar. In the midst of all of this, I'm going to witness to my family anyway.

Devil, you're a liar. I'm going to read the Word of God anyway.

We need some grit and determination in the church once again.

Amen. I believe that. So we look at it. Here we are now.

Joshua is at the Jordan River. He's much like the situation that Moses was in.

And the Bible tells us that God tells Joshua, take some stones from the middle of the Jordan.

He said the stones are coming from the place where the priest's feet stood. Amen.

In other words, there are going to be some holy men that have walked in the

places that you're remembering. Amen.

I want to say that right now. I know some people, they want to remember their

grandmother's meatloaf.

And listen, Kelly made some meatloaf on Sunday, praise God.

But you know, I hope that my grandchildren

are not talking about their great-grandmother Kelly's meatloaf.

I hope they're talking about her relationship with God. I hope they're talking

about the family that she brought up and the fear of the Lord.

Because what Joshua, what God was telling Joshua was.

It's not just about where you're coming from, but it's about holy men and the

walk that they're walking.

The Bible's showing us there's a walk that has to be walked.

There's something that we have to look to from holiness. He says,

and leave these stones in the lodging place.

Oh man, I could preach there. I won't have time.

But what he was saying was, you're going to have to live with the memory of

what has come before you and the holy example you have seen.

Set it in your household. Set it where you live.

Make sure when you wake up, first thing is I got pictures in different places.

I got my picture of my mother in my house, and my mother was a praying woman.

And when I look at that picture, I don't think about tragedy.

I think about that woman that got me down beside of her on the couch and taught

me how to pray. Because the Bible says, what are you going to think about these stones?

We're going to remember the legacy that we have as the family of God.

See, Israel was standing on the edge of their promised land,

about to step into their inheritance.

But the crossing of the Jordan wasn't just another event. It was a divine moment

of transition. That's what it was.

It was a divine moment. It was a shift from the wilderness mentality that the

people had been walking in into the land of promise that God was giving them.

That's what we've been talking about. An invitation to come and see is an invitation to transformation.

You are not who you used to be. You are not who you used to be.

Some of you guys have been coming to this church for a year or less than two years.

You are not who you used to be. No matter what anybody says about you.

Some of you, you might have been invited by a friend and given your heart to

the Lord in the last couple weeks. If you did that, you're not who you used

to be. No matter what anybody brings up, the stories they may tell,

you've been transformed in Christ Jesus.

It was a transformational period in the life of the children of Israel.

See, and that's the same.

It wasn't just true back then. It was, it's the same thing today.

What we have to realize is the cost of our faith.

That's the prayers that were prayed, that it was paid for in prayers.

It sacrifices the blood of the martyrs years ago must not be taken lightly.

What we have tonight must not be taken lightly.

The word of God that we read, that we stand upon. This is, this is not a place

of entertainment. I want to say that right now.

This is not a place of entertainment. We don't come in here and turn these lights

on so you can come to a concert.

No, no, this is a place. This wasn't a show they were putting on when they were

singing, when they were talking about the blessing that's going on to your family

and your children. This is not a concert.

This is Bethel. That's what the Old Testament calls it. That's the house of God.

In the Old Testament, Bethel, they saw angels ascending and descending before

the throne of God. That's what this place is tonight.

It's a place where heaven touches earth and earth touches heaven and every good

thing that we need is right here in the house of God.

I want to say this right now. If you're struggling, everything you need is right

here. If you're in need of healing, everything you need is right here.

If you're anxious, all the peace that you need is right here.

If you've been in and out and in and out and struggling to hold on,

everything that you need is right here in the house of the Lord.

If we don't remember that, then we're doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

We're going to be like the children in the wilderness that got it wrong and

had to spend another 40 years, but consider that. He said, set them up.

It's a lot like a father that would pass down, you know, some of these fathers

pass down watches. They pass down heirlooms from generation to generation.

I remember when Sister Bessie passed away, Ashley got a box with some of her

handkerchiefs and things like that, and it's still there at her house as an

heirloom, as a remembrance of who she was and what she stood for.

There's something special about that, something that we don't need to forget about.

See, there is something called a doctrine of remembrance. It is a real doctrine in the scripture.

Throughout the scripture, God emphasizes the importance of remembrance.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 12 says, then take care lest you forget the

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

He said, you better not forget. That's what he's saying.

You know, how many people have you ever seen that they see somebody and they're

acting like they're better than everybody else.

And they say they said that they've forgotten where they. Oh,

yeah, you've seen them, too, huh?

You said it, too, right? They've forgotten where they came from in the church.

If we're not careful, we forget where we come from because we get so much.

We got screens and we got lights and we got sound systems.

We got technology. We got all these different avenues. We've got billboards

and mail outs and everything else.

And the reality is none of that is worth anything without the word of God and

prayer and faith and seeking the face of God.

On Easter Sunday, there's going to be more people that attend church across

America statistically than any other day of the year. That's going to happen.

There's going to be more people in this place than any other day of the year.

And the reality is if we, if we rely on our postcards, then lives won't be changed.

And if we rely on billboards, lives won't be changed.

And if we rely on music and lights, our lives will not be changed.

But if we pray and seek that, see, somebody needs to be praying right now between now and Easter.

Some of these students need to be praying right now.

I know you say, well, we're just students. No, no.

When I was that age, when I was that student age, we were having all night prayers

and we were praying for the lost.

And even before I was born again, my wife at 14 years old began to pray for

those two Addison boys that were lost and in sin because the Bible says the

fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man or woman availeth much in the kingdom of God.

Everybody in this building needs to be praying between now and Easter that when

people walk in here, listen, this is not the love boat, baby.

This is not a country club with a cross on top.

This right here is the old ship of Zion. It's a life-saving vessel.

We're going out into dangerous water, and we're pulling out souls that are in

danger, and we need to be praying for those souls.

Psalm chapter 103, bless the Lord, oh my soul

Psalms 103 · chapter mention

and i put this in there because it was one of pastor sturgill's favorite

scripture bless the lord oh my soul and

forget not all of his benefits he quoted it all the time luke chapter 22 and

Luke 22 · chapter mention

verse 19 says do this jesus talking about the communion supper that we do this

in remembrance of me see what we're doing is we're trying to set a memorial

for the generations to come See,

the early church faced persecution.

The Roman Empire persecuted the church. They tried to tear down the foundation

that had been built by the apostles, and many of the early believers were martyred,

yet their sacrifice, even in death, it was a memorial of their faith.

Even when you struggle, when you press through that struggle,

it's a memorial of your faith.

Even when you pray, and listen, people may persecute you.

Praying in the midst of that is a memorial of your faith. all of these things are a memorial unto God.

Now, there's three stones here, three keys that I want you to remember.

Three keys I want you to remember. You can write these down if you've got it.

If not, you can take pictures.

If not, I'll post them on social media for you later, okay? So I'll make this real easy for you.

Number one is the stone of God's deliverance.

Israel crossing the Jordan River with Joshua, it was a miraculous act of deliverance.

And here's the reality of that.

It symbolized their transitioning from being a wandering people in the wilderness

to stepping in. I said to stepping into God's promise.

See, that's what God does for us. If God had not delivered them,

then they would remain in the wilderness.

They would remain in bondage. They would remain in confusion.

But because God miraculously delivered them, they were able to step into a new way of life.

Just like God parted the Red Sea for Moses, he parted the Jordan River for them.

And the Bible says the priest stood firmly on dry ground until.

Everybody had passed by. See, here's what it was.

Those 12 stones served as a testimony that God delivers his people even when

there's impossible circumstances.

I want to say this to everybody in this room. You may think that living godly

in Christ Jesus in this age is an impossible circumstance,

but I want to tell you that the same God that parted the Red Sea and the same

God that parted that Jordan River.

It's the same God that can part the circumstances in your life.

The same God that empowered them to walk across on dry ground is the same God

that can empower you, can give you strength,

can give you courage to live godly, even in front of your friends,

in front of your family, whoever it is.

It's the same God that can empower you.

Psalm chapter 34 says it this way. When the righteous cry for help.

Psalms 34 · chapter mention

The Lord heals and delivers them out of all their troubles.

I want everybody to look at that scripture right now because sometimes we feel

like we don't have any hope and yet the Bible promises.

How many people believes the Bible? How many people believes it's the word of God?

If you believe it's the word of God, then God is telling us right now that if

we are in trouble, all we have to do is call out for help and the Lord will hear us.

And not only does he hear us, see, because there was times,

I'm going to be honest with you, there was times that my boys would be fighting

and wrestling around and messing around or, you know, it was always Carter that

was taking the game away from Lucas and not letting Lucas play.

And, you know, all of those big brother things. And there was times they would

yell and I'd be like, it's almost halftime, right?

And I wouldn't answer. But you know what? That's not God.

Because God is a better father than any of us. And the Bible says that when

you cry and he hears, then he answers.

And he's not going to let you just sit there without answering you.

The Bible tells us that if us as fathers, that none of us, if our sons would

ask us for bread and we'd give them a stone, or they'd ask for a fish and we'd give them a serpent.

And the Bible says if us being evil know how to be good to our children,

then how much more will God give the Holy Spirit every good and perfect thing

to His children that ask?

It was miracle-working deliverance that God is showing us that He will provide for all of us.

2 Corinthians says it this way, He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us.

And on Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.

He will deliver us. So number one, we believe that there's a stone of God's deliverance.

But I also believe that on that pile of stones, there was a stone of spiritual leadership.

There was. Because the Bible says that the priest had to stand firm in the Jordan,

holding the ark while the people crossed by.

And their obedience led the people, enabled the people to come across safely.

Without strong spiritual leadership, people wouldn't know, have known how to

proceed. That's what we're seeing right there.

See, I say that right now because the role of spiritual leaders is critical

and holding back the tide of sin and in guiding others into their calling.

I believe that right now.

And so when I listen, stand up, stand up, Vip and Alyssa. When I talked about

them just a few minutes ago, and so we got great leaders in this church,

brother J.R., sister Bonita, stand up over there.

We got great spiritual leaders in this church right now. And those are two that

I can point to because they lead to our larger programs.

We got other program leaders in here. Randy and Catherine stand up right back there.

We got program leaders that they stand in the gap for people and show them a

way that can minister to people.

Worship teams stand up right now, and musicians stand up right now.

We got people that are standing in the gap for people and showing people what

it's like to live godly and Christ Jesus.

And listen, I could get a lot of other groups to stand up in here,

but what I'm trying to show you is without strong leadership that enables other

people to see that that's the way that we serve,

and that's the way that we worship, and that's the way that we pray,

and that's the way that we help.

And if you've ever been out here on a Sunday morning in a diaper giveaway.

And Catherine can't even tell you where to go because she's crying because there's

such concern for the souls that are involved, of you, you guys have seen that,

such concern, but you know what that is?

That's spiritual leadership that shows us there's a way to do this thing,

and we're not here for entertainment, and we're not here just to kill time.

We're here because we believe there's a heaven and there's a hell.

We believe there's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, and that spiritual leadership

not only shows us the way to go, but it enables us to walk in righteousness.

You can be seated in the house the Lord.

Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 7 says, remember your leaders, those who spoke

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

to you the word, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their

faith. In other words, what you see them doing.

And sometimes you see Vip up here. I saw Tony up here tonight and he was running

and he was praising the Lord.

And, and you know what? He's not up here for spiritual calisthenics.

There's something that happens when you, I, I, we've said it before. You're

Yes, you can get emotional without worshiping the Lord.

But when you get into the presence of God and you begin to worship the Lord,

it's hard not to get emotional. Amen.

When I think about he that saved my soul, it's hard not to get emotional.

When I think about I should have been in hell.

I was on that hellbound train when he saved my life on April 17, 1997.

It's hard for me not to get emotional thinking about that.

It's hard for me when I start thinking about my mother so many years ago was

sitting on that piano in our little living room over there on Kentucky Avenue

in Green's Trailer Park, singing the God on the valley.

The God on the mountain is still God in the valley. She was setting up stones

showing me what she believed.

It's hard for me not to get emotional when I think of it.

And listen, maybe you didn't have that mother, but what I will say to everybody,

if you don't have a mother praying for you and a father praying for you,

You've got a youth pastor praying for you and a pastor praying for you and a

youth pastor's wife praying for you and a church full of people that are praying for you.

There is no excuse for you to say, I don't have any help in this.

No, God has laid up a stone so that you can live this life successfully. Amen.

Amen. I believe that. First Thessalonians, we ask you, brother,

respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish

you. I could get right into that, but I don't have time.

The third stone, I believe this, is the stone for future generations.

That's a stone of memorial. They were for the children of Israel.

It was to spark curiosity for the next generation.

Spark curiosity for the next generation.

Oh man, you know what? There's some church, I've been there.

I've been to churches that were on fire when I grew up, that had revival when I grew up.

And I go back there now and there's nothing to spark curiosity.

There's nothing, it's not.

Pastor Sergio, you say it's drier than last year's bird's nest, amen.

There's nothing going on. There's nobody praying. There's nobody excited about what God's doing.

There's no outreach. they wouldn't give a dollar to

see the world saved there's nothing going on and

i gotta ask myself what is there to spark the

curiosity of the next generation but

what i found is if there's a if there's a group of individuals that believe

in what god's doing that worship the true and living god and listen when i hadn't

experienced it for myself yet when i was 17 years old but i was in the midst

of a people that believed it.

I didn't know if I believed it, but I knew they believed it.

I didn't know if I really wanted to live it, but I knew they were living it.

I didn't know if it was really happening in my life, but I knew it was happening in their life.

And it caused me to look at them with curiosity and say, I wonder what it's like.

I wonder if there's anything to this great God and

when my life was in shambles and when I

needed something in my life the most I didn't

think about what I saw on TV I didn't think about what that rap that rap music

I was you know I know Snoop Dogg's been around for a long time I didn't think

about what Snoop Dogg was saying on those CDs that I was listening to hey listen

that Joker man he's which he's pickled so I mean you know.

Okay, there's a lot. Anyway, I won't get into that. But listen,

I didn't go back to what he was saying on that stuff.

Well, you know what I went back to? I went back to that church.

And when I was sitting in that church, I knew there was life-giving power in those saints.

I knew those prayers they were praying were real.

I knew that those changed. And I said, God, there may not be life-giving power

in what I've watched on the television and what I've heard on the radio,

but I know there's life-giving power in the house of God.

And church, we've got to create an environment once again that when people walk

in the room, they may not believe it, but they know we believe it.

And they may not be serving him, but they can feel that there's something different about this place.

There's something different about here than when they walk in the restaurant.

There's something different about here than when they walk in the department store.

This is the house of the living God.

Yes, yes. because the reality is if we fail to teach them, then the world will

teach them something else.

And that's why we've lost generations because the world has said you need to

build your intellect enough.

I'm going to say this right now. You will not get smart enough.

I know you ain't listening to no country preacher, all right?

I got a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, an EDS, and two doctorate degrees.

But my help is not in my degrees.

My help is in the Lord. and it doesn't come in intellect. It comes in a true

salvation that is only brought by the blood of Jesus Christ.

See, here's the problem. Here's the problem. I got scripture,

but I just got to keep on preaching right here. Here's the problem.

1960s, we took prayer out of school. And so I looked this up and every site I went to,

they said there's no evidence that it was causality that taking prayer out of

schools caused a decline in biblical literacy.

Oh, really? There might not be evidence of causality, right?

But see, what they're trying to do is they're trying to pull the wool over people's

eyes and say, well, it had nothing to do with taking prayer out of schools.

I told you, I've done research. I wrote that dissertation. I know they don't have to be causality.

They can be correlation. So I've done correlation studies.

But see, the correlation is since they took prayer out of schools in 1960,

we've seen a 75% decline in biblical literacy since 1960.

You know why? Because kids didn't hear the word of God anymore.

They didn't pray the word of God anymore.

They didn't trust in the scripture anymore. And you say, well,

there's no evidence that there's causal.

Well, I would argue with that, but I would say, well, it's definitely a correlation

because there's something that happened when we took prayer out of schools that

caused us to have a 75% decline in biblical literacy.

But you know what? I'm not leaving it. Listen, I work in the education system.

There's a lot of us in the education system. I'm not leaving it up to the school

system. My hope is not in the school system.

My hope is in God raising up a church and churches throughout this region that

says if the government says that we can't work, we're going to worship anyway.

And if every educated mind says, every talking head says don't read the Word

of God, we're going to believe the Word of God anyway.

The Bible says let the Word of God be true and every man a liar.

That's why we got to build up some spiritual discipline and believe in the word of God.

Amen. Listen, I'm not mad. I'm passionate. Actually, you know what I am?

I've been mad at the devil all week.

I am. I'm a little bit, I got righteous indignation right now.

I've been mad at that devil all week because he's trying to rob us of a generation of believers.

That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to rob the church.

That's why I've talked to pastors just this week.

I've talked to pastors that says we don't even have enough people to even hardly have a service.

And it's so discouraging. No, no. You know what? That's not the testimony around here.

We're going to keep on building this thing. We're going to believe God because

if we believe God, you know what?

I believe if he's lifted up, he said this about his crucifixion,

but if he's lifted up, he said he would draw men, all men unto him.

As long as we're lifting up the cross of Jesus Christ, he's going to draw men and him drawing men.

There's going to be life changed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

I want to end it right here. I'm going to end it right here.

This year, hope you'll come help me. Sorry about that.

Hope's going to play something that really sets the tone here.

I'm just joking. I love putting that pressure on her.

No pressure, Hope, okay? Okay. Because if it's not right, I'm just going to

tell you. No, I'm just joking. I'm just joking.

Hope's like, I'm going back to my seat. It's too much pressure.

Hope's like, Scott's building up that spiritual discipline in me.

I'm messing with you, Hope.

So this year, no, a while back, it wasn't this year, a while back,

Carter and Breezy got engaged, all right?

And they're getting married in July, so that's pretty exciting, yeah.

And so Carter, you know, he's my oldest, and Carter's a lot like me in ways.

He's still got some faults in him that I couldn't work out over the years, but it's...

Lucas is all like his mom. it's like it's like lucas like it's like lucas ashley

produced lucas on her own he just kind of fell off of her and it was another

fault swung around but carter he's got some addison in him,

and listen i'm so proud of him and i'm proud of them

and so you know when when he

told us that he was going to marry breezy we

were so happy because she serves the lord she

prays she loves god she works in the church we were so happy and so he was talking

about going and looking for a ring and doing all of that and so so me and ashley

talked and we said at first we said hey,

why don't you you you give her the ring that that that i gave your mother,

and because it's special he's like well how about i just use the diamond.

And so he he used the diamond he used the stone and he went and he got it set

in a different setting with some neat diamonds around it and it's beautiful

it's more beautiful than,

but we wanted him to have that stone because we wanted that to be something

that's handed down from generation to generation and when people see it I hope

they don't just see a diamond.

But I hope they see there was a lifestyle from Carter's mom and dad that caused

me to want to buy that for her.

We served God and trusted God and loved each other and were faithful to each other.

And I hope that they're going to be able to pass that down after they live a

life faithful to the Lord and faithful to each other.

And I hope they're going to be able to pass that down to one of their children.

And I hope that stone has a story that goes along with it of faithfulness to

each other and faithfulness to God. That was our heart.

You know, that's the way it needs to be in the kingdom. Our lives.

That when people look at us, they just don't see that guy, that old guy with the microphone.

They see a life of faithfulness.

Somebody loved God and loved people.

I can remember walking in the church as a kid and there were certain people

that would give us candy and certain people that would give us gum.

But you know more than the candy and gum, what I remember? I remember their faithfulness.

There was something about their lifestyle that caused me to look at some people like this.

Music.

These women are in heaven but i look at them you know what i see i see stones monuments.

Pillars examples that inspire me every day,

some of them may not be here anymore but god let me be somebody like them that

inspires somebody else the same way that they inspired me so to this generation.

I'm going to ask you who's going to be that next stone who's going to be that

next pillar who's going to be

that next inspiration that inspires the next generation who's god calling,

to say before you do anything else you put your relationship with God before

me so the next generation will be inspired.

Who's God calling? I believe God's calling all of us to do that.

And to those that are younger I challenge you,

you don't get your cues from what you're seeing on TV you don't get your cues

from what you're seeing on social media,

you find a man or woman of God that you can respect and you can emulate that you can say,

when I'm down and I need help I'm going to trust God the way that they trust God,

see otherwise you're always going to be in and out but you can be stable I'm

speaking to somebody you don't have to be wishy-washy you can be stable you can be stable.

So i hope that the next generation is able to look at us the way that,

that that generation after joshua looked and said what do those stones mean to you,

church what does this church mean to you what does some of those pictures out

there mean to you what does some of these believers in here mean to you you

know what it means to me that there's a God that he is still saving.

He is still healing. He is still delivering.

He's the Lord that changes not. And as faithful as he's always been,

he's still that faithful now.

He is. Let's all stand all over this building.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Hey, listen, I'm just going to do this this way because this is

the way that I feel feel like doing this okay um i

i want i wonder i want us to do this um if

we'll call out some of that that

if you're above can we just do this i mean let's just do this if you're above

the age of 25 can we all just kind of gather in this area right here we just

come up we're just going to stand right here we're going to pray together if

you're above the age of 25 i said 25 is the age because i know alissa this is hard ain't it.

If you are 25 or under, I want you to come up here. I want you to come up here.

We're going to pray together. We're going to pray together. 25 and under,

I want you to come up here.

Right? Yeah.

Yeah.

I should have done it as 30. Because, you know, 30 is that hard age.

30 is that age where you're not in your 20s anymore. That's the worst.

I turned 30 and didn't talk to anybody for two weeks. It was just kind of.

So I still got some trauma there, so I don't say 30. I don't even say that.

But you know what? You guys are that generation. You still that young?

Gosh, you guys are babies.

How do you get so successful at that age? You know what? You need to be a stone

over here standing. Good job.

You guys need to be finding people that you can look to and say, I want to emulate that.

You need to find somebody somewhere that's a person of faith and say,

I want to be like that one day. I want to emulate that.

I want to have that kind of, it's okay to want natural success.

So find somebody of faith that's had natural success, but also loves God.

Find somebody, you know, find somebody that you can say, I want to serve the

Lord, but also do great things in the world today.

Because God's raising up, God's raising up some Josephs. He is.

That they're going to be deliverers. They're going to be great.

There's going to be some greatness among you. He's raising up some daniels that's

going to have a spirit of wisdom like nobody else in the kingdom But at the

same time you're going to serve god.

There's nothing wrong with that All right be inspired tonight.

Some of you some of you We need to start living life And we need to start living intentional.

There's that word that pastor rob used in bible study We need to start living

intentionally knowing that somebody is watching me.

Somebody is watching me. So here's what I want us to do.

I want us to pray, us, this group to pray, God, let me live a life,

an intentional life that can be a monument to somebody, a memorial to somebody that's watching me.

And I want you to begin to pray, God, give me vision for the future.

Give me someone to look at as a person of faith and say, I could be like that. I could do that.

God could use me that way all right let's pray

that together right now father in the name of jesus we come

before you we just thank you for your goodness father

right now we just pray lord for all of those 25 and older god

we pray that you would cause us to get

a hunger to get a burden god that that we

would want to live a life that's a monument that's a memorial

to somebody that they can look at us and know that that

that god is faithful that they can look at us and know that

there can be a spirit of wisdom that's greater than anybody

in the kingdom there's a look at us and know that there's

success out there that god can use us to have great

success but also filled with your spirit

and doing great works in the kingdom of god god we

pray for everyone 25 and under right now believing jesus

that there's a somebody out there there's a.

Daniel out there there's a joseph out there there's

a joshua out there somewhere that can show

them that there's men and women of God that are extremely successful

but at the same time they're devoted and they're sold out

and they trust God and they believe in the miracle working

power of the Holy Spirit and so Father

right now we pray that you would do a work in our church together God

let the young and the it's not a competition God it's a family it's not a competition

it's a family and God we pray for everybody in this building right now that

you would raise us up as the family of God that the old support the young and

the young support the old and that we love one another in the family of God.

God, our prayer is right now, send more.

Let our lives individually, the young and the old, be a testimony to somebody else.

We are the light of the world. We're a city that's set upon the hill that cannot be hidden.

Let our lives be a testimony to somebody else to come and see.

To come and see. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Guys my challenge to live

that life to look for that example and for everybody in this place to be that

light of the world invite somebody to come and see invite somebody to come and

see what jesus is doing amen we got uh we got about a month until until easter

and so uh i'm looking forward,

god's called us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every

living creature that's what he's called us to do my youngest son

just got back from greece uh i asked

him over there i said won't you post some pictures on your social media account he

said well dad we had to remove everything from our

social media account we can't post pictures because it is against the law to

proselyte here and we could be arrested and convicted for spreading the gospel

i was like what yes you know that's some real apostle paul kind of stuff right

there you know thank god God, be the light of the world.

Be the light of the world, a city that's set upon the hill that cannot be hid.

We love you guys. We want you to see you back here on Sunday morning.

Everybody have a great night tonight and have a safe time trip home.

God bless you guys. We love you.