Take your Bibles and join me in turning to Joshua chapter number four this morning. Joshua chapter number four. Thank you, ensemble, for the music. Samuel, if you would, if you'll take that chair that's there and just move it to the front, just get it out of the way there, if you would. I see that chair. I'm always envious of Curtis when he plays with the instrumental ensemble because he gets to sit down while everybody else gets to stand. I'm assuming it's just because the instrument that he plays and not because he's frail and feeble and unable to stand. So there's my jab at Curtis today in the chapel service. I really could not work up in my heart today to preach a message on love. Looks like some of you don't need much more encouragement in that area. I returned yesterday and was looking through the seating list. for the Valentine's banquet and was blown away. I was just like, this is new. I didn't know that. This is new. This is new. This is new. And so anyway, I'm looking forward to the banquet tomorrow night and the concert. Brother Ream has ensured that we'll have some people that'll be a great blessing to us. And there may be some of you here and your attitude is about a banquet and a concert. You're like, that's just bleh. Well, you know, truth is some of you boys need a little culture. You know, your mother cleaned behind your ears before you came to college and tried to clean you up and now you've come and you need some more culture. I hope some of you guys, when you sit or when you come to the table tomorrow and your significant other is all dressed up, I hope you let her sit down first rather than just plopping down and playing with bread and forks for 10 minutes. Some of you need to learn culture. Let the young lady walk through the door into the gymnasium first before you go through there because all you can do is think about food. It'll be good for you to learn some culture, to learn which fork to use. Some of you just use a fork would be a great improvement. But those things are great. And then to enjoy the concert, it'll be good for you. Some great times when I was in college when we'd have our concerts and I learned some culture. And so I hope that you'll learn that. We'll have a great time tomorrow evening. Again, I want to thank those of you who prayed for our trip. Yesterday I went home about three o'clock. And my wife calls me on my phone at seven o'clock. I had taken a nap that turned into a deep slumber. And she said, you better wake up if you want to sleep tonight. And so I actually slept most of the way through the night this last night. But, you know, through there, through my time there in India, I did learn Bible college students are the same everywhere you go. On the last, on the Monday this week when I was there, the president of the college gave all the kids the day off after chapel because they had worked so hard the previous week. And they reacted the same way you would have. It was just like a wave of I thought I was in America. Bible college students are the same everywhere. You know, sometimes we here in the South, we cuss the fact that there's a church on every corner and it certainly has its disadvantages. But I want to tell you, there's something worse than having a church on every corner and that's having a Hindu temple on every corner. I was absolutely amazed within a one block radius of the college and the church how many Hindu temples there were. They were so commonplace in the area that I was in. It made Baptist churches in the south look like few and far between. And it's a great reminder of the need of the work that's done there and that's needed there in the presentation of the gospel. And then one day, my daughter and I had the opportunity to go to a mountain town called Ooty and a place where C.T. Studd, a missionary, ministered for a few years in his travels as a missionary. And it took us three hours to drive up the mountain. Three hours. And it was really exciting, though. It was a lot different than driving the U.S. interstate system, where you can drive three hours and see absolutely nothing. We passed through village after village. We saw monkeys. Karis even fed a monkey an ice cream cone. She probably shouldn't have, but she did. Takes after her mother. But you know, it took us three hours by car to go there. And Brother Ashley, I thought about this. I wonder how long it took C.T. Studd to get there by foot. or even if it was by cart of some type. And I was really humbled to think that there was a man who loved the souls of men enough to go up that mountain path hours, maybe even days. Some of the kids that are in the Bible college that I was at, it's going to take them 10 days to get home where they live in India. When they go home for summer break, it's not a one-day flight, it's a 10-day trip. But I was humbled to think C.T. Studd traveled in primitive means up a difficult path to reach a group of people with the gospel and yet we are unwilling to cross the street. And I left greatly challenged. I really did. And the Lord, I think he used us to be a blessing. But I know that the Lord greatly blessed my heart and helped educate me a little bit during my time there. And again, I want to tell you, if you've never been on a mission field, if you've never been on a missions trip, I'm not going to say you're not right with God. OK, that's not true. But you're missing it. That is true. Now some of you young men ought to go with Brother Luke in Nebraska. You're like, that's Nebraska. What's there to see in Nebraska? A need, a need that you've never seen before, and a need that will challenge you. And so I want to encourage you, if you've not slated yourself for a missions trip, you ought to do it. And I hope to do that again this next year as well. All right, Joshua chapter 4. I want to take some time to really go through the entire chapter today, but for the sake of time, I'm not going to read the entire chapter. But this is the story where Joshua is leading the nation of Israel across the Jordan River. And so, if you'd permit me, I want to read the first half of the chapter and then I want to skip to the latter half and then make the message this morning. Joshua chapter 4 and verse number 1. And it came to pass when all the people were clean passed over Jordan that the Lord spake unto Joshua saying, I want to stop there for just a moment. One of the reasons I love the King James Version is because I can understand it. Now I know some people think you can't. But in my Southern heritage, when He said that they were clean passed over Jordan, I totally understand that. Growing up as a kid, they would say, he knocked that ball clean out of the park. It means like totally. And so when I read that, I'm like, Josh, you're speaking my language here, alright? Verse number two, it says, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe of man, and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place the priest's foot 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 out of the children of Israel, out of every tribe of man. And Joshua said unto them, Pass over the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to 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 these stones? Then ye shall answer them, that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. And when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel forever." Now, I'd like to jump later into verse number 17. Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan. And it came to pass, when the priests that bear up the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned to their place, and flowed over all the banks, as they did before. And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, the east port of Jericho. And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in times to come, saying, What mean ye these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that ye might fear the Lord your God forever." This morning I want to preach to you a message that I have entitled, The Story of the Stones. You'll notice there's twice in the passage that we've read that Joshua said one day the question is going to be asked, what mean ye these stones? In other words, what is the significance of this pile of rocks? Now this is not a custom that is very prevalent in our day. When is it that you walk by today and see a pile of rocks? probably the most significant, or I should say maybe the most memorable pile of rocks I've ever seen. was when I was preaching out in Las Vegas, Nevada. Brother Comfort and I were in a meeting together out there. I was preaching in the Christian school. He was preaching in the church and the pastor. And his wife decided to take us sort of off the grid one day. We just went out into the middle of nowhere to see some of the beauty outside of Las Vegas. And my oldest son Andrew, who's now a law enforcement officer, was with me. Andrew at the time was probably 15 years old. And so during the course of our travels, the pastor and his wife, they pulled the car over on the side of the road and they said, hey, why don't you two climb up that little bluff there? Why don't you climb up that little... it was more than a hill, but it wasn't a mountain. And they said, why don't you climb all the way up to there and we'll take a picture of the two of you on top of that. And we thought, that'll be a great thing. And so Andrew and I took off running and obviously I started slowing down. He kept running ahead. Finally I noticed that he had stopped and his eyes were fixed on something and I ran up there and I said, what is this? He said, I don't know. And it was a pile of rocks. And I'm telling you, we were in the middle of nowhere. And so his curiosity got the best of him and he kicked over the pile of rocks and in it he found a Ziploc bag. And there was a Ziploc bag, and there was an index card that was paper clipped to the Ziploc bag, and inside of the Ziploc bag looked like a medicine bottle. And so we took it, we looked at it, it had a number, it had a phone number, and it had a Danish coin. It was a kroner. And the Danish coin had a hole in it. That's the way that they're minted there. And it was just really odd. And I said, why don't we just take that back to the car? And so we did. And so we took it back to the car, we showed the pastor our discovery, and we opened the medicine bottle and smelled something that, thanks to my public school high school years, I recognized the smell. And I said, this is not good. And the pastor said, let's... He said, I have a law enforcer. He said, I have a police officer that's in my church. He said, why don't we bring this back? And he said, we can give it to him tonight and we can let him take care of it. And on the way back, the pastor was telling us that in that part of Nevada that drug deals sometimes went down where people would go out into the middle of the desert. and take their stash and either put it under a pile of rocks or bury it and they would do their deals that way so they were never found. And so I thought to myself, boy, we just made somebody really mad. And as we're driving down the road, I thought to myself, if a law enforcement officer pulled this car over, and asked what we were doing with what we had, and we told him the story that we would tell him, he'd probably shake his head and say, yes, and I'm George Bush, you're coming with me to jail. And so we got to the church that night. I remember my son Andrew, we took that item to the police officer. He looked at everything. He looked at the index card, he looked at the coin, and he took the medicine bottle. He smelled what was in the medicine bottle. He said, this is definitely illegal. He dumped it out in the parking lot and he smeared it into the ground. He said, I'll keep this index card. And my son Andrew said, well, can I have the coin? And he said, sure, kid, and flipped it to him. And probably to this day, my son still has that coin. But you know, that's probably the most memorable pile of rocks I've ever seen, and it was not for a notorious thing. And I know that you and I don't have the habit of making a physical pile of rocks, but listen to me, young people. In every believer's life, there ought to be memorials. There ought to be piles of rocks in your life where God touched your soul in a special way, and you'll never forget it. And you know what would be a shame? It'd be a shame for some of you to leave this college in four years and have a degree but have no memories that'll last you a lifetime. It'd be a shame for you to graduate from this place and to have good grades and satisfy the requirements of your parents and yet God never touch your soul in a substantive way. And this morning, I want you to see the story of the stones. I don't want you to see the literal, physical stones, but I want you to see the miracle behind it. And I want you to understand that the same miracle-making God in the day of Joshua can work miracles in your lives. And listen, it's not good to forget God's work in your life. What mean these stones? The nation of Israel would be able to say, well, let me tell you the story about what God did. And so to help us see the story of the stone, there are three things that I want to show you this morning. Number one, I want you to see the memory behind the stones. There's a specific significant act that takes place that causes this moment to be unforgettable. You know, it's amazing in our lives how we have episodes that are unforgettable. I was 12 years old when the space shuttle blew up in 1986, Challenger. You want to talk about watching this live as a child in Mrs. Slogic's class in elementary school and all of a sudden seeing the shuttle disappear and seeing one rocket booster go this way and this way and the broadcasters are absolutely speechless. I remember in 9-11. When that took place, whenever the Twin Towers were destroyed, I was over at what was Horn Supermarket, which is now where our future library is probably going to be. I was in there grabbing something to drink as I was inspecting dormitories. And right there on that old analog television set, you saw what was happening. And when I came back, I was one of the first ones to tell people what was going on because we were in chapel. You know, there's some moments that you just never forget. They'll never be erased from your mind. Why? They're very memorable. And while those things are significant, those things are worthwhile to be memorable. Listen to me. When God changes your life, when God works in your heart in an intimate way, that ought to never escape your memory. And whenever the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan River, when God dried it up, there were several reasons why this specific thing was memorable to them. Number one, it was miraculous. What was taking place could not be done or manipulated by man, especially in a moment of time. You might argue and say, well, man could build a dam. Just give them a couple of days. Listen to me. There's not a man at a moment's notice who could dry up the Jordan River. It was a miraculous event. And therefore, it was unforgettable. And a day when you live ho-hum, and sometimes you become used to the spiritual, and you become used to the Bible, let me remind you, I wish I could shake you and I could wake you up. There's no greater miracle that ever happened to you than the day that Jesus Christ saved your soul. And one of the reasons we don't tell others is because it's become old hat and because we've become so used to it. But I'm going to tell you, that was a miraculous event. You know, there's some of you who are still in school this morning. You know why? Because God did a miracle for you financially or God did a miracle in your family. And yet we forget. There's no pile of rocks in our minds. We go from day to day to day, griping and complaining. Why? Because the miracles of God don't mean very much to us anymore. But God dried up the Jordan River. It was a miracle. Well, not only was it miraculous, but the memory behind the stones, it was very memorable. Again, I've already told you events that take place in mankind's history. But, you know, are there events that you can recall in your mind that were memorable of what God did? You know, I remember in my Bible college times, I really didn't have it together in a lot of areas. And I had a lot of growing to do. But, you know, there were certain memories that I had in college. Some of them involved pranks that were pulled. that I will not share with you because I don't want you to duplicate them. But you know what? There are some memories that I'll never forget as well when God moved in a very intimate way. I still remember one night outside the old house. There were 28 of us that lived in an old house that had two bathrooms, two showers. 28 of us. And I still remember one night being outside and it was a little bit chilly and I just wanted to get alone. I remember sitting under a tree that night and I was praying to God. And you know, I've never forgotten that night because it was one of the first nights in my Christian life that I could ever remember such an intimacy with God. I felt like God was just as close as you are to your neighbor. I'll never forget it. You know, there was another time that I went out to the back side of the campus and the fellows, we just went out one day. There was like four or five of us. We went out. We had a spontaneous prayer meeting. It was not announced. It wasn't something that we had out there saying, hey, we're going to have it. We just said, you know, let's just go. We went out and prayed. And I'm going to tell you what probably ended up being an hour or two seemed like five minutes as we talked. I've never forgotten that. I remember a time I was sitting in my dormitory room. I was a freshman and I was not right with God. And I still remember sitting there in my bedroom. I had four other roommates. There were five of us in that room. And I still remember it was just me and as I sat in that bed, God gripped my heart so tightly and I knew that I wasn't right with God. I was reading Psalm 51 and I remember that was a pile of rocks that I'll never forget because I'm going to tell you, had I not dealt with sin there, I don't know where I'd be today. Let me ask you a question. In this specific school year alone, have you had any spiritual memories whatsoever? I'm not here to judge your spirituality and say, well, if you don't have one a week, you're not right with God. But I'll tell you that what if you can go through an entire year and not have one spiritual memory, I'm going to tell you something's wrong. This pile of stones, it was miraculous, this pile of stones talked about the memorable and this pile of stones talked about the meaningful. You know, it's usually we don't remember something unless it's meaningful to us. Several years ago, I had something that really humbled me and it showed me the importance of showing gratitude. When I traveled with the ensemble, Don Scovel, Dr. Scovel taught us, you always say your thank you and you say thank you and you leave a note. And that was something that I wasn't accustomed to. And by the way, I showed Brother Bunn a letter yesterday from one of our donors. There's a man who gives money regularly to the scholarship fund. And he just expressed his gratitude as he received these anonymous thank you notes because when he gives, he doesn't want the left hand to know what the right hand is doing. And he said, I just want you to know how much that helps my heart. And he said, it just reminds me to be grateful. And there are some of you young people, listen, when you get scholarship money, if you don't say thank you, it'll probably be the last time you'll get it. And you say, well, that's not fair. Well, you need to learn to say thank you. But I remember one day I was staying in a home in Fayetteville, North Carolina. There was a man that I stayed with that night. He was taking care of his wife who was in poor health. And I mean, he really just went out of his way to have me and another person in his home that night. He didn't have to do it. It wasn't convenient for him. And so I remember staying with him and I remember writing the note. I remember I was really touched by his care for his wife and I told him that. And I left him a note and went on my way. And about, you know what, 20 years later I get a note in the mail. And this man's daughter writes me and says, you know, my dad passed away. You probably don't remember him. You stayed in his house years ago when you were with an ambassador group and mom was in poor health. And she said, I'm sending you the letter that my dad kept all of those years. And he said, I thought you just want to know it was a great blessing to him. Now, I don't tell you that story because I get letters like that all the time. The Lord knows there's probably times where I didn't express gratitude when I should have. But you know why that man kept it? He kept it because it meant something to him. Let me ask you, has there been a time this semester where God's done something in your heart and it meant the world to you? Or maybe in fairness, I should say the school year. Some of you new ones, you're like, I've been here for three weeks. I'm just trying to soak it in. I'll give you a break. When's the last time God's done something miraculous, memorable and meaningful in your heart? That pile of stones was symbolic of an act that God did. And we human beings, we have the tendency to forget what God has done. But not only do I want you to see the memory behind the stones, but I want you to see the location of the stones. This is very important. These stones were placed in a place called Gilgal. And here at Gilgal, Israel is about to experience some things that are very significant. And they would have never experienced these things had they not stepped out in faith and obeyed God and made a choice to remember these things. Let me tell you the significance of this location, Gilgal. Number one, it was a place of beginning. This is their first encampment. This is their first encampment after Jordan. This is like, it's like new car smell. You're like, I've never smelt that before. You know, the truth is I have new car smell to me is when you buy a used car that's new to you. That's new car smell. You know, maybe it's sort of like the first time you walk into your dorm, you know, back in August. It's the last time some of you men ever smell fresh air again until May. But you know, you walk into a place and it's new. Have you ever had that significance where you go in and you're like, man, this is great. There's an excitement. This is ours. You know, the first place my wife and I lived, we lived in a mobile home that we paid $50 a week in rent. And it had good air conditioning in the winter and great heat in the summer. It was so nasty before we moved in that my wife-to-be had to exert great amounts of energy to remove the bugs, the rodents, and everything else. But you know what? When we got in there after August the 5th, 1995, it was ours. It was new to us. And there was great excitement. I want you to imagine with me here Israel is. They've crossed the Red Sea and they've never owned a piece of land in their lives, so to speak. And now all of a sudden it's like, hey, this is home. It was an exciting time. Something they would never forget. Not only was it a place of beginning, but the Bible tells us in Joshua chapter 5 that it was a place of sanctification. Because in Joshua chapter 5, now they're going to perform circumcision, and now these men are going to be separated unto the Lord. This is a place where it's going to be, listen, you're crossing over Jordan, you're crossing into this place of blessing, but it's a place of total surrender and total sanctification. You know what God's trying to do right now? He's trying to sanctify you. set you apart. And you know, sometimes and I'm not trying to be crude, but it's just the actual Bible example of circumcision. Listen to me. You know, sometimes that sanctifying process can be very painful. I hope that during your time here, you feel what it's like when God rips something from your heart. You say, boy, you sound fatalistic. No, I'm telling you that because I've learned from my own experience when God takes something out of your heart and He rips it away, what He replaces it with is far better. It's a place of sanctification. Have you had to deal with anything this semester or this school year where God's had to rip something out of your heart? It may be friendships, it may be desires, it may be ambitions. Let me tell you, put a pile of stones there because it carries great significance. It's a place of beginning. It's a place of total sanctification. But it's also a place of worship. You find in chapter 5 that the Bible says that they observed the Passover. I know some of you, you take Old Testament historical books, you take Pentateuch and you're overwhelmed by all the reading. But let me tell you something. The Passover, that's a big deal. I mean, it was signifying the event of, hey, here's how God delivers us out of Egypt. You know what they did here was a place of worship. It's a place of beginning. It's a place of total sanctification. And now it's a place where they meet with God. Why was this event worthy of a pile of stones? Because God was at work. He had given them something. He had separated them. And now they are worshiping Him. You know, worship is one of the most misunderstood words in Christianity today. And I doubt that even in Bible college we have a good grasp on it. Because sometimes we come to chapel to sleep instead of worship. Sometimes we get up early to study instead of worship. And if we can go through life and we can study and pass tests and not learn how to worship, we have failed. Worship is submission to God. And here was a point where they submitted themselves to the Lord as they worshiped in Passover. But then it was also a place of reassurance. At the end of Joshua chapter 5, Joshua has an encounter with the Lord of hosts. Chapter 5 verse 13, And it came to pass, that when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? Now, I want you to understand why Joshua asked that question before you write him off as some faithless oaf. Do you remember where he's at? He's in a new land. Some of you, when you came to the South, you came to a new land. You came to the promised lands, what you did. Joshua is in a new land. He sees a phenomenon that he's never seen before. And the first question out of his mouth, are you for us or are you against us? I get it. I understand why he would have said that. And in verse 14, the Lord of hosts said, Nay, but as the captain of the Lord of hosts, I am now come. Joshua fell down on his face and did worship and said unto him, What sayeth my Lord and to his servant? And the captain of the Lord host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Do you see how suddenly Joshua was moved from fear to worship? You want to talk about emotional confusion, it's right here. One moment it's like, whose side are you on? And the Lord says, I've come. And he says, when it's the Lord, he falls to his face. You know, there's been a lot of things that I've wanted to forget in life. If I could go back in my childhood and teenage years and take an eraser, boy, I'd love to selectively go through and make some changes. But just like there are some things that I would like to forget, I want you to know there's some things that I never want to forget. And that's when God touches your soul. The memory behind the stones, the location of the stones. The last thing I want you to see is I want you to see the purpose of the stones. What mean ye these stones? One day you're going to have kids and you're going to learn that your kids are going to ask questions. What is that? And an even better question is why? Why? You say, is why a bad question? No, it's not. But when it's asked a hundred times in one minute, it is a bad question. I don't mind the question why when it's said in sincerity, but I don't like the question why when they're acting like a lawyer trying to find their way around the path so they can do their own thing. I don't like that. Why? But when those kids say, Dad, what's that pile of stones about? You could basically sum it up to two different things. And it's found at the end of chapter 4. It says that all the people of the earth might know, not Joshua or not the people of Israel, but that all the people of the world might know the hand of the Lord, that it's mighty. Every time you fail to put a pile of rocks where God has done a great work, you rob the world of an opportunity to see what God has done. Yes, life is busy in Bible college, but when you're too busy to stop and remember what God has done, you're too busy. There are some of you that perhaps from day to day you live discouraged. And if that's you today, I just want to challenge you. Have you been putting up a pile of rocks every time God does a work or do you overlook the blessings? Sometimes the best thing we do is just quit sulking and just go look at a pile of rocks. Because those rocks, they are symbolic of God's miraculous working. But not only that, at the end of the verse, it says that ye might fear the Lord your God forever. Let me tell you, those stones are there for two reasons. Number one, for God's glory. Number two, for their good, that they'd live in the fear of God. You know, when your heart's filled with gratitude towards somebody, it sure is hard to run from them. When your heart's filled with gratitude, it'll cause you to run towards them. Now, young people, I want to ask you a question this morning. I want you to survey the last year of your life. I want to say to you, are there any piles of rocks that are there? And if there's a lack thereof, it's not God's fault. It's not that God is lacking in miracles, it's that you're lacking in faith and obedience. Without faith and obedience, these rocks would have never been piled. I hope that you'll go through life never forgetting those milestones of what God did in your life. You know, there's a place on this campus that carries little significance for most of you, but it carries great significance for me. And many of you have walked by it hundreds of times and not thought twice about it. If you ever make your journey from the breezeway and you go to the gymnasium, you'll notice that there's a large rock that's sitting right there in the courtyard area. Some of you think that it's there just purely for decor. Others of you think it's there to obscure dating couples so that you can't see them. But I'm going to tell you that rock was placed there on purpose. Because it's a reminder to me of a miracle that only God could do. When I became the president and ambassador in 2009, one of my burdens was, Lord, would you please help us to pay off the college's indebtedness? When we moved from Shelby to Lattimore, that was a $1.8 million move. And the school incurred about $1.8 million of indebtedness. These dorms that were built across the street, these dorms that were built right up the road, the alumni commons, all of that was paid for as we went. We did not incur further indebtedness, but we still had that remaining debt. By the time I became president, we were at about a million dollars of indebtedness. There'd be many times in that faculty staff prayer meeting on Wednesday, we would pray, faculty men, and we would pray, Lord, would you help us to pay this off? And I will never forget one time I was down in Florida, a couple of years after being the president, we were in a church service on a Thursday night. And the following week, there was a lady from Florida that called us and she said, you know, she said, I was in the service that night. And she said, I was greatly impressed with those young people. She didn't say anything about me, but she did say about the ensemble. And she said, I just was really encouraged by that. And she said, I wanted to send the college a gift. At this time, this lady was in her late 80s. And she did. She sent the college a gift and there'd be on occasion. That was the only time that she ever came in contact with our college students. I met her one time when I was traveling down in Florida. I stopped at the assisted living place where she lived. I knew her name and I knew her age and a little bit of her basic testimony. And that was about it. And she told me, she said in a conversation one day, she said, I want you to know, she said, when I die, I'm going to remember the college in my will. And I sort of let that go in one ear and out the other. I said to myself, well, you know, I appreciate that. And, you know, and lo and behold, we learned just maybe a year or two later that she had passed away. And after a year, we heard absolutely nothing. And listen, I wasn't disappointed. Brother Comfort taught me something years ago that I've never forgotten. He said, be thankful for everything and expect nothing. He said, if you'll expect nothing and be thankful for everything, you'll never be disappointed. About a year later, I was preaching at a camp in Colorado that had very spotty cell phone service and I was standing literally on a rock. And my phone rang and it was the business manager and he called me and I said, I can't believe this phone call came through because I am in Payson, Arizona and this place has no cell phone service unless you climb a tree or a mountain to get to there. And he said, are you sitting down? And I said, no, but I can be. He said, well, I've just been notified this lady who passed away in Florida, she did leave the college in her will. And he said, the bottom line is, is she left the college over a half a million dollars. I said, wow. And so I came home that day and I knew immediately what we needed to do to it. There are a lot of other things that we needed to do here on campus. But for years we've been praying about paying off the indebtedness. Nobody likes to pay off debt. Brother Randolph and I were talking about projects that nobody likes to pay for. One of them is paying off debt. Who wants to give to pay off debt? And so we called the bank. The bank said, you owe nine hundred and thirty three thousand dollars. We said, OK, well, half a million dollars to go on that knock it down to four thirty three. Then that's great. And no sooner than we did that, the thought hit my mind and said, well, why don't you just pay the rest of it off? And I said to myself, that's really good, especially when you don't have anything. And you know, it wasn't long after that that I was called by a businessman. He called me and he said, listen, he said, I hear that the college received a gift and they're interested in paying off their indebtedness. He said, is that true? And I said, yeah, that is true. He said, well, how much do you owe? I said, we owe four hundred and thirty three thousand after paying off this, paying this half a million dollars. He said, well, let me talk to some of my folks, my friends. He said, I'll get back with you. He called me back and this was in September of that year. It was in July and now we're in September. And he said, listen, he said, if you can raise $183,000 by the end of the year, which was like three months, he said, the group of people that I'm with, we're prepared to pay the last $250,000 of your note. You can be debt free by the end of the year. And you know there was a part of me that was like this is awesome. And there was a part of me that said $183,000. And I had to stop and say we just got a half a million a few months ago. And I'll never forget it was December 29th. We were down in this classroom building. I pulled all the faculty staff aside because it was the warmest building on campus I think in December. That morning we'd received a $20,000 check from somebody in Raleigh, North Carolina, that I've never seen to this day. And that was the last of that money. And by December 29th, God had brought in $933,000. And we entered the next year debt free. And so I told somebody, find the biggest rock you can and put it in the most obvious place you can. So every time I see it, I'll be reminded of what God did. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, Ebenezer. Some hymnals took that out, shame on them. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, You know, it's not that the rock is special, but I'm going to tell you what God did was special. I'll never forget it. And there are some of you, you need to quit dragging your feet. You need to quit dragging your chins. And you need to start marveling at what God has done and trust him to help you in the future. That's the story. Of the stone.