If I see Randy's truck start moving, I'll let you know. How about that? I was turned this morning to the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter number four. Joshua chapter number four, we're just gonna look at the first seven verses this morning, a very, very familiar event, a very familiar story, but I wanna pull something out of it and maybe try to help us this morning. And Joshua chapter number four, verses one through seven, if you found your place and if you're able, please stand as we reverence the reading of the word of God and look at Joshua chapter number four. verses one through seven. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take ye twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command ye them, saying, Take ye hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest's feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place where ye shall lodge this night. Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had prepared of the children of Israel out of every tribe of man. And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan. Take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. that this may be a sign among you that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over Jordan. The waters of Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever." Lord, I thank you for the day. Lord, I thank you for your blessings. Lord, we need you this morning. Lord, we need you to move. We need you to help us. We need you to speak to us. Lord, I pray that you protect us this morning. Lord, I know it's stormy outside, but Lord, I know there's people inside that have storms in their soul, in their spirit. And Lord, they need you to step out on the bow of that boat this morning and say, peace be still. So Lord, I pray this morning that you would speak that to somebody spiritually, and that you would calm the storms in their life. So Lord, just meet with us now. Lord, we need you. Lord, most of all, would you get all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory out of everything that's said and done this morning, and we'll praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. We've, as I said, a very familiar passage here in Joshua chapter number four, but Since 1971, the last day of May has been recognized as Memorial Day, the last Monday of May. Prior to that, prior to 1971, it was just May the 30th. But in order to, I guess, be on a Monday to honor those, we do it on the last Monday of May. And now Memorial Day, is set aside when we honor those military members that have served our country and have gave in the ultimate sacrifice. Those that have died, they shed their blood, so as we Americans we can enjoy the freedoms that we have today. and i'm afraid sometimes we don't uh... we don't really recognize we uh... the these people that are out burning their flags and they're out uh... spitting on this one and spitting on that one in and in yet that's what uh... the freedoms that our soldiers died for and uh... the freedom of speech the freedom of religion all of those things memorial day in and as we enjoy the freedoms we have today we need to realize that Up to date, they say about 41 million members have served our armed forces. There are some here today that have served, and to those, I say thank you. Thank you for serving. Thank you for giving of yourself. Of those 41 million that have served, it's been said that about 1.2 million have died. Now they say about 650,000 of those were in the Civil War, but still, 1.2 million have died. They've given the ultimate sacrifice, and the resting place of these brave service members are marked by a memorial. A headstone. A headstone. And as I got to thinking about that, of course tomorrow is Memorial Day, and as we have thoughts about those types of things, I got to thinking about another memorial here in the bible uh... i think about uh... memorial here that that that we need to have we need to have memorials in our life we we need to have a uh... markers in our life i think about that song that we've seen from time to time it says lately i've been looking back along this winding road to the old familiar markers of the mercies I have known. Markers in our lives. We need markers in our lives. We need memorials. We need those. Those help us. During times of trials, during times of tribulations, we can look back on those markers and we can say, hey, the Lord did it then and if He did it then, I know He can do it again now. Memorials. And we see that memorial here in Joshua chapter number 4, a memorial that marks God's grace in our lives. This memorial here marked the grace of God in these children of Israel's life and we ought to have memorials in our lives. So I want to look this morning at the title, Marking God's Grace. marking god's grace in our lives in our lives uh... we need markers uh... psalms chapter one oh five verse number five says this it says remember his marvelous works that he had done remember his marvelous works that he had done sometimes i uh... and i'm as i'm i'm guilty as anybody We go through life and we seem to pay attention and our eyes are drawn to our problems, our trials, our tribulations, and our difficulties. But when we go past the goodness and the marvelous works of God, we just overlook them and they're like water off of a duck's back. Hey, the Lord protected us this morning. Me and my wife were out on the front porch and there was trees that were almost bent over, almost touching the ground. Big trees, not just saplings. I mean big trees. It was dark. We need markers in our lives to know that, hey, God can do it and He can do it again. In our passage here, we see where God wanted a memorial placed. He told them, He said, when you go across Jordan, I want you to pick out a man of every tribe in there to go get a stone. And it wasn't going to be a little pebble. It was going to be a stone. He said, I want you to put it on your shoulder. no doubt that put on the shoulder left a mark right there. Like I said, I remember packing that stone and when you get across the Jordan there, I want you to erect that twelve stones and it'll be a marker to let you know what the Lord can do. Markers. Marking God's grace in our lives. When we look at that topic, I've got four simple things to look at this morning on marking God's grace. As we look here, I see a pivotal moment. A pivotal moment, but I also see a powerful miracle. But then I see a purposeful memorial that will be a perpetual memory about God's goodness, of God's grace. First of all, we see a pivotal moment. here in Joshua chapter number three and four is the account of this story and looking back on what's gone on here, for forty years the children of Israel have wandered in the wilderness. Forty years they've wandered and theologians, commentators, people smarter than me said that if you were to basically track those steps that going from Egypt to the promised land should have taken about ten or eleven days. Took them 40 years. Because of their unbelief, because of their disobedience, because of their murmuring, because of their testing, took 40 years. 40 years to go an 11 day journey. And they've gotten here to where they're getting ready to go into the promised land. Canaan land. What they've looked for, longed for, for 40 years. But there was a problem. The river was flooded, probably like those ditches out there. It was flooded. This time of year, they say that the river Jordan was swelled and it was flooded. It was overtopping its banks. Now the Jordan River wasn't the cleanest river to start with. So on top of all that, you've got the brushes, the brambles, the dips, the hollers, the uneven ground. Yet on the other side, they can see the promised land. How are we going to get there? Forty years we've been looking for it, and now it's here and we can't get it. Not only that, but the current, no doubt, as it's flooded, it's swelled, it's over its banks, that the current is a brisk current. They try to even walk through that. The current's going to carry them on down. We can see it, but we can't get there. It's an impossibility. An impossible task with man. The old saying goes, you can't get to Canaan without crossing Jordan. And it's true in our lives. Many times, our biggest victories happen just after our biggest trials, our biggest tribulations, our greatest fears. They say, no crown without a cross. No pain, no gain, is what they say. This was a pivotal moment. They're right here on the banks of Jordan. They can see it, but getting there is an impossibility. A pivotal moment. But we see a powerful miracle here. A powerful miracle. We see, first of all, divine presence. divine presence. Verse number 10 of chapter number 3 says this, it says, and Joshua said, hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you. He said, Joshua said, hey when we get, you're gonna know that the Lord is with you after you see what he's about to do. The same is true in our lives. There's things that he brings us through that is an impossibility with man It's impossible, yet he brings us through. Here it's an impossible situation with man, but this powerful miracle will prove that God is among them. They had a big need here, but they had an even bigger God. And I don't know what your need is here this morning, you may think it's the biggest thing and that nobody can... and it may be an impossibility with man and that's where it needs to get before the Lord steps in but but but there's nothing too big for Him there's nothing too hard for God Jeremiah said is there anything too hard for God? there's nothing too hard for Him We know He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. We know that, or we've been taught that, but do we believe it? These Israelites here were getting ready to find out. Oh, they had heard, and they'd followed the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and they've packed the Ark of the Covenant. They've done that, and the Lord's with me, but is He with me? They're getting ready to find out. These impossible situations sometimes are God sent just to prove to you that He is. Just to prove to you that He's right there with you. Had it not been for this impossible situation, there might have been many that might not have even believed that God was with them. But it was an impossible situation. With man, there's no way. They couldn't have built a bridge. They didn't have rafts. They couldn't have gotten to the other side. But God, a powerful miracle here. Without troubles and without trials, we may not truly believe that the Lord is with us. We may not truly believe that the Lord loves us. Sometimes that's why they're God sent. A divine presence. But also we see the powerful miracle. We see a divine presence, but we see a definite plan. A definite plan here at verse number 13 of chapter 3. It says, "...and it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above, and they shall stand upon and heap." There was a definite plan here. The Lord told Joshua, He said, Joshua, you have the priest to bear up that ark, the ark of the covenant. And those priests, whenever they let their feet, their soles of their feet rest in Jordan. Now I know we've heard from time to time people say that as they were going into the Jordan, the waters just ch-ch-ch. It started parting, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says when the priest, when the soles of the feet, the priest's feet were resting on the bottom of the Jordan that the waters parted. Up on a heap on one side and on the other part it just went on down. When their feet rested when their feet rested, the waters would part a wall on one side and flow down the other, and the water would stay until the priests moved." I'm afraid the problem today is that there's a lot of preachers and priests that have moved. You see, if they would have moved, water would have come down and people would have drowned. And I'm afraid that people that have stood over the years and they've stood in one place and now all of a sudden, for whatever reason, whether it's crept into their family or something happened, now all of a sudden they can't stand where they used to stand and they've moved. And that's not right. They've moved and because of that there's people that are going to be hurt. There's people that are going to drown. They've moved. May the Lord help us to stand firm where we need to stand until the last one gets across! Because that's our only hope, is for the priests and preachers to stand until the last one gets across. This was a pivotal moment. This was a powerful miracle. But then we see a purposeful memorial. And we see this in our text, chapter 4, verses 5. And Joshua said unto them, the twelve men, one from each tribe, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, a memorial, Joshua told the people that we're gonna mark the spot. We're gonna put a marker here because the grace of God, the goodness of God that has followed us thus far, that it's gonna follow and lead us to the other side and we're gonna mark that for generations to come. A purposeful memorial. Put twelve stones here for a memorial so we don't forget the wonderful, the wondrous works of the Lord. so we don't forget where he brought us from we ought to do the same there's a song that I don't even know who sings it now I can't remember but the theme I think the title of it is remember your chains you know sometimes we forget where we come from now you may not be where you want to be but you're a whole lot better off than where you should be those that were once bound in sin the Lord has loosed those bands and allowed you to take steps down the road of light and you may not be through the straight gate but those chains, those bands have been loosened and we ought not to ever forget where we used to be the goodness of the Lord, how He loosened those bands and how He enabled you to take a step toward Him He's good this morning He's good Don't focus on the bad, the trials, the tribulations, the aches and the pains. Focus on, Lord, I'm able to breathe this morning. Lord, I was able to put one foot in front of the other. Lord, I woke up this morning. Lord, I'm able to come out to your house this morning. I'm able to read the scriptures this morning. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness, for your marvelous works. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. So we don't, the memorials are so we don't forget where he brought us from and for all the good things he's done for us. I got to thinking a little bit about memories. And I looked it up, and I don't know how the scientists can figure this stuff out, but this is what the Google says. It says, over your lifetime, over your lifetime, scientists say, those are the smart guys, the scientists say, that the human brain will hold one quadrillion pieces of information. I didn't even know that was a number. One quadrillion pieces of information appear in this brain. One quadrillion. Now obviously if yours is like mine, most of that information ain't no good. But there are some that is good information that you need to retain and that you need to remember and that things that are important. Scientists also say that you remember 10% of what you hear, you remember 20% of what you read, but you remember 80% of what you see. The Lord told Joshua, I want you to set up a memorial. I want you to mark The goodness of God. I want you to put up a memorial that can be seen so that we can remember what the Lord has done here. May the Lord help us to do a better job of marking the grace of God in our lives by writing it, by taking a picture, I'm horrible at it, but my wife does these Facebook memories to where every now and then she'll send me at work, she'll send me a picture and she'll say, look what went on seven years ago today, and it'll be a picture of one of the kids when they're real small. Or here lately she's been saying, this is what was happening two years ago. We were at the hospital with Elena and the doctors didn't know what was going on and we didn't either. We were just along for the ride. But you say, well what's that do? It lets you know about the goodness of God. It lets you know that, hey, two years ago, we didn't know what was going on. Seven years ago, you know how it is with little kids. You don't know if they're going to make it or not. They're so wild. And seven years ago, this was a picture of Trey when he was so cute and innocent. And look at him now. But the Lord's been good for seven years. Mark that. I got a picture. This will get me some brownie points, I think. Let me look. Yeah, yeah, I think it's right here. Yeah, so I've got this in my Bible. See, I told you it was gonna get me brownie points. This is, you probably don't know who this guy is, because he's, he don't look like that no more, but this is my wife. You know what this is? This is a memorial. This is marking the goodness of God in my life. and pictures, rings. You know what that is? That's a memorial about the goodness of God in my life. Pictures, whatever it takes. May we do a better job of marking the goodness of God in our lives. I know we've got issues. I know we've got problems. I know, according to Revelation, I don't see America in that, and I know that as a nation we're going down. But in our homes and in our personal relationships, we can still identify the goodness of God in our lives. He's good. His goodness has led me all the way. Even before March 1st, 1977, when I was born. Don't do the math, because I'm old. Before then, the Lord told Jeremiah, He said, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before March 1st, 1977, before then, His goodness was following me. And I'm here today to tell you the goodness of God is following you. We ought to mark the grace of God in our lives, ever how you need to do it. Some people, I don't have the patience, but some people, they keep a journal. And they can go back and they can say, whoa, I'd forgot about it, but the Lord did this here on this certain, certain day. I don't remember it, but when I read some of those things that my wife talks about, my daughter, I don't remember some of those. I was there. I guess it's one of those one quadrillion pieces of information. I don't remember some of those things. But when I read them, I say, yeah, I remember that. I remember how bad it was during that time and we didn't know what was going to happen but God brought us through and if He can bring us through that and He did, then He can bring us through what we're going through today. And the same is true with you. I remember going to the hospital and visiting Billy and JC when Deanna was in the NICU. They didn't know what was going to happen. Much less that she would be like she is today, a vibrant, cat-loving girl. You say, well, the Lord brought her through. And if he was able to do that, and he did, May we not forget it and then when we go through something say, hey, the Lord did that and He's been good to me. He brought me a wife when I was 30-something years old and didn't think I was ever going to get married. If He can do that, what makes me think that He can't take care of it the rest of the way home? Sure He can. I know He can. Do we have aches and pains? Do we wish that the Lord would just do some marvelous, miraculous... Yeah, but He is working. He is working. And I don't understand all about that. I don't understand why He don't blow through and just save a hundred people at the same time. I don't understand that. But His ways are not my ways. He's got a plan for it all. And I'm here to tell you, we ought to mark the God's goodness. We ought to mark the goodness of God. We see that they did that. Many people keep hospital wristbands. My grandmother used to do it. And I used to think, why in the world? Every time she went to the hospital, she would clip that thing off and she would put it in her nightstand. Now, this might not have been why she'd done it, but I got to thinking about it, and I thought, those things show you the goodness of God. You open that thing up, and with her, there's about a hundred of them in there. She went to the doctor all the time, but she would say a bunch of them. Look how many times the Lord's been good to me. He's been good to all of us. He's been so good where an accident might have happened, where a tractor might have flipped over, where my wife was driving, where it could have been an accident at any time, yet the Lord was good and He saw fit to not to take you out. That ought to let you know that He's not finished with you yet. or when Jenny was driving down the road, it ought to let you know that we was driving, I was taking Alan back to the airport, and we got close to Nashville, and of course, traffic's always backed up when you get that close, and of course, you know, Alan, his calm demeanor, he said, well, I guess somebody had a bump. And I said, what, brother? And he said, I guess somebody had a bump. I said, you talking about a wreck? Yeah, we call it a bump. I said, oh yeah, somebody probably had a bump up there. But I'm just glad that we had a bump and the Lord didn't choose to take you out. He left you and he salvaged your life. And that ought to let you know that he's not finished with you yet. You say, what's he gonna do? I don't know, but he ain't finished with you yet. God can. The memorials in our lives help us to take our eyes off of the I-cants and put them on the he-can. These stones. I got to think about a stone of protection. Or a stone of providence. A stone of provision. A stone of power. A stone of preservation. How He's been good all these years, a stone of promise. How He's made you a promise and He fulfilled that promise. Stones, memorial, marking God's grace. This was a pivotal moment. It was a powerful miracle. But it was a purposeful memorial. But fourthly, we also see that there was a perpetual memory here. You say, well, what's that mean? Well, in verse number six, it says this, that this may be a sign among you that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what mean you by these stones? Then you shall answer them, a memory. Now in the Hebrew, this phrase, what mean you by these stones? It actually means, what do these stones mean to you? When your children, when your family, whenever your neighbors come up to you and say, hey, what about that picture you've got in your Bible? What about that thing? What about that? What's that mean to you? And then you can say, well, I'm glad you asked. Because that was a time when I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know how I was ever gonna make it through. I was in a dark, dark days, bleak days right there. I didn't know how I was gonna make it, but the Lord brought me through and that right there is a memorial about God's goodness and God's grace. You see, the memorial, long after we're gone, long after you and I are gone, Those memories are gonna remain. Long after I'm gone, I got to thinking about memorials. I got to thinking, you know what, sometimes you miss hearing about the stories. You miss hearing about the things. My grandma and grandpa, we used to sit around the house and we used to just, they used to tell me about stories about the olden days. And I used to like to hear them. I heard them probably 50 times, but every time, I acted like it was the first time I'd heard it. And I like to hear it. Memories. Long after you're gone, what you've imparted to the next generation will still remain. And maybe a portion of that, they'll pass on to their generation. You see, I got to thinking about this. This memorial here, The generation that had crossed the Red Sea, they died in the wilderness because of their disobedience. So this little group right here, they might not have known how mighty the Lord was and that He was able to do exceedingly abundantly all they asked of Him. They might not have known that because that one generation died. And so Joshua said, There's going to be a generation after you pass off the scene and they need to know that God can. So he said, what we're going to do is, boys, he said, when the water is up on a heap, he said, I want you to go before the ark and I want one of you men from each tribe to pick up a stone and you take it to the other side and you're going to erect a memorial. And in days to come, in the future, when your kids come and say, hey, mom and daddy, what's these stones right here? What do they mean to you? You can tell them to say, well, children, I was on the other side of Jordan, and that water was swelled. I mean, it was flooded. It was dirty. It was swift. There was no way we could get across that. In ourselves, it was a total inability but where there was no way God made a way and I'm here to tell you children that them stones right there actually come off the bottom floor of that river right there and I'm here to tell you if you ever come up a situation to where you think in yourself that there's no way children I'm here to tell you that those stones right there is a memorial that when there's no way God can make a way a perpetual memory And those memorials in our lives, they ought to be shining lights and beacons that say, hey, he can. When you don't think there's a way, when there is no way, God can make a way. A memorial in your life. Testimonies and witnesses are important. Revelation 12 verse number 11 says this, it says, And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. Witnesses and testimonies are important. In 1 Peter 2.5, 1 Peter 2.5 it says this, Peter here writing to the people, he says, Ye also, talking to the people, those scattered, he says, Ye also as lively stones. He called them lively stones. You're a walking memorial of what the Lord can do. When I see Elena walking, she's a living memorial of what the Lord can do. When Deanna comes up and asks me if I got any more cats at home, she's a living memorial of what the Lord can do. When I see you that have been in the hospital and they didn't think you were gonna make it, whenever I shake Tim's hand going out this afternoon, I'll say that's a living memorial right there of what the Lord can do. The Lord has done something for every one of you and Peter says you're lively stone. You're a walking billboard of what the Lord can do. He can. He can. May we get our eyes off of our difficulties and our problems. Yeah, we're sinners. Yeah, we're wicked to the core. Yeah, we in ourselves, we can't do anything, but He can do everything. Don't ever doubt what the Lord can do. Why do we need memorials? I got to thinking about some reasons on why we need memorials. Why do we need to mark God's grace? First of all, I thought about it because we're frail. We're forgetful. Like I said, I'll forget what I had for breakfast this morning. We're frail. We're forgetful. And the Lord does something to us. Over a hundred times in the Bible, we're urged to remember. Remember. Remember Lot's wife. Remember the marvelous works of the Lord. Remember. Remember. Why? Because we forget. We're frail. We need markers. We're frail. Why do we need markers? Because we're frail. But also, because we have family. Because in the days to come, when your children have the same problems that you might've had, when somebody says, oh, I've got difficulties, you can say, hey, let me tell you about a time when the Lord brought me through this. Let me put my arm around you and say, it'll be okay, because I've been there. And he brought me through and he'll bring you through as well. We have family, we're frail. But also, verse number 24 of our text says that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord. Because of fellow mankind, both good and bad, all the people of the earth might know what the Lord can do. We're frail. We have family. We have the fellow mankind. But also fear, verse number 24, that all the people of the earth shall know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that ye might fear the Lord your God. Now this isn't a fear of an evil dictator. This is a reverential awe. This is honor. This is respect. for a sovereign, the sovereign, almighty ruler of the universe by whom all things consist. You stand in awe of him because of what he can do and what he's done and how good he's been in your life. We need memorials because we're frail, because of family, because of fellow mankind, because of fear, but lastly, because of the future. As I said, long when we're off the scene, they're gonna forget about what kind of clothes we wore, what kind of car we drove, what kind of job we had, but they'll remember a little bit about us because of the things we passed on to the next generation. The future, your legacy. we need to build memorials because there will be, if the Lord tarries, there will be a next generation that comes along and they need to know that God is able they need to realize that he's able so on this Memorial Day tomorrow last Monday of May on this Memorial Day may we pause and reflect and remember not only those that have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom but might we also remember the grace of god in our lives the goodness of god in our lives the mercy of god in our lives the forbearance of god in our lives and i believe if we do that it'll help us i believe it'll help us in and as the song says count your many blessings it'll surprise you what the lord is doing have germany blessing see what god when upon life's billows you work in this call when you are discouraged thinking all is lol counter many blessings every doubt will fly and you will be singing as the days go by that's not the birth i was one But it will surprise you what the Lord has done. He's been good to us. He's been good to us twice this morning because it's clear outside. He's protected us. He's given us truth. He's given us life. He's given us family and friends. He's given us jobs. He's given us breath. He's given us a heart. It'll surprise you what the Lord has done, marking God's grace. Lord, I thank you for the day. Lord, I thank you for your blessings. And Lord, I know a lot. We're out this morning because of sickness and because of the storm.