God, this is my father's world. You know, sometimes it seems like there's a bit of chaos taking place, and there is, and man thinks they're in charge, but they're not, and Jesus Christ can make it all right. Someday he's coming soon. All right, we'll just dismiss the kids, go with Mrs. Shore to the creche. And Benson's helping her there. I think he's a little too old to go to class, so must be helping. Joshua chapter four. and your Bible is Joshua chapter 4. And as we've just done in our church, we enjoy singing old hymns. You know, the old hymns aren't inspired, but you know, I think they're the best hymns. They have been around, gone through the test of time and have just stuck with us and we thank God for those hymns. Sometimes as we sing them, we may not always know what we're singing. There might be something we have to stop and think about and consider. One hymn like that is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. It's written by Robert Robinson way back in 1758. And it says this, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing to my heart to sing thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it. Mount of God's unchanging love. Then it says, here I raise my Ebenezer. And you get to that verse and you're like, okay, question mark. And hither by thy help I'm come. There's a clue in the text there. And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger interposed. His precious blood. So we're seeing along, we're getting most of it. We get to, here I raise my Ebenezer. You know, you gotta stop and rewind and think, what does that mean? If we're to ask our Sunday school children about that, they might think it's like Lazarus, you know, being raised from the dead or something like that, somebody else in the Bible. You might think of, you know, the Scrooge character, Ebenezer Scrooge, you know, Dickens, or something like that. But this Ebenezer is actually not a person. It is a stone, and it's a Bible story, and it's found in 1 Samuel 7, verse 7. It's not our text this morning, but it has to do with our text, as you'll see. And so it says, when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mishpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, and when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistine. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and disconfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smoked them until they came unto Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone, here it is Ebenezer, and set it between Mizpah and Shenn and called the name of it Ebenezer. saying hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, they came to war into the coast of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. So Samuel says, God has worked for us, he's done something great, he sets up a stone, calls it Ebenezer, it's not an idol, it's not a graven image, it's just a stone to remind the people that, you know, up until this point, God has worked, it's like a milestone. A milestone is something significant that you've gotten past, something that you've achieved, that you've done, and you want to mark that and remember what has happened there. You know, in the last 18 months, our church has gone through a very difficult time. You know, we haven't moped through it or sorrowed through it, but it's been difficult with COVID. It's impacted everybody, but it has definitely impacted our church. And as I prayed about earlier, we went to immediately recording services and that was us for a little while. And then we found out about zoom. Then we did a combination and then we got back to some meetings and then we got out of meetings again because the second lockdown and then we went all zoom and, and I mean, it was just a interesting time, but you know, today we're hitting a milestone. Returning to regular church services that, though we are online, these are all live. We're back to our normal schedule. We don't have the switch going on anymore on Sundays, and that's great, and that's a significant thing for us. We've got a great facility that God's provided that we rejoice in and praise God for, that we could be in this place worshiping God. You know, there's a potential for significant spiritual growth and miracle growth, just physical growth for us as a church, in this place as we wait on God for that permanent location that we're praying about. We're trusting a God to give. So I'm gonna say today, praise God for this milestone, but also in our Christian life and experience, there's gonna be times that we hit those milestones. I mean, we're just looking at it and say, you know, God has done something significant. God has worked in a significant way and we wanna mark those times. in a tangible way. And it's good to have something tangible. It's good to have a place or a thing or, you know, sometimes we obviously in our day, we got all the technology, we got all the pictures and even the, you know, Facebook giving us memories from and things like that. But it's good to have something that reminds us of what God has done. I wanna ask you today, have you put up any Ebeneezers in your home? Anything that has marked that milestone, those signs of victory that we're talking about that you can look at and say, you know what? God has done something significant. You'll see in our text today that Joshua and the children of Israel hit a very significant point in their existence. And God, very specifically, has them set up these signs of victory so that they can remember everything that God said. I want to help us do that today as a church, that we think about that. So let's pray as the Spirit of God to help us become the Word of God. Father, I thank you for the grace that you give. Father, you have been faithful. Look back at the past year and a half, it's not something that we choose to go through as a nation, as a people, as families, as a church. But Father, COVID-19 happened. And yet you're faithful, you've given us wisdom. It's been a little bit of the wilderness wanderings for us as a church and not kind of knowing exactly how it's gonna work out. But Father, as we get to this day today, I wanna encourage us, let's put up a sign of victory today, but also in our lives, where as we look at our lives and we see what you've done, that we have those things that remind us. And Father, just like this story, that would be things that we look back on and say, wow, you know what? God did something very significant. And Father, we can't listen without the enablement of the Holy Spirit. And Father, we praise you for the children in the crash, their opportunity to hear the word of God on a level that they can understand. And Father, I pray for Mrs. Shor, as she guides them that you speak to each heart of each child. Father, would you grow our children's ministry? We pray that we could be very, effective in reaching our kids with the gospel. And Father, seeing them grow in their walk with God. But Father, in this time, in this place, we need ears to hear. Father, would you do that? Would you open up our ears to hear? Would you give us hearts that would really embrace the truth? Father, I can't speak without your enablement, so I ask that the Spirit of God would guide me as I speak. Lord, I pray that the message of your word would be brought out with the authority of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as the ability that God give it. So that's our desire today, and so I pray for that and commit this service to you for your blessing now. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, Joshua chapter four, again, is where we're at, and it's the children of Israel, and they're gonna put up a sign of victory. There's a little bit different. It was one stone there, Ebenezer, for Samuel. It's 12 stones that are gonna be here, so there are many stones in this, these victory stones. that are put up. And again, I just wanna say to us as a church, God wants us or wants you to set up a sign of victory. It's not a bad thing. Again, it's not idolatry. We're not gonna have a stone that is something that we bow down to or that we worship or anything like that, but it's just something to testify to us about what God has done. These victory stones in our text, they were God's idea. It says in verse one, it came to pass when all the people were cleaned, passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Joshua chapter 4, you look at it there in your Bible, it's a pretty big chapter, but this whole chapter It's all about this. It's all about these victory stones. It's all about that God came to Joshua, came to the children of Israel and said, this is something that I desire you to do. Again, you ask the question, why? Why did they set it up? Well, it was so that man would never forget. The memorial again was God's idea. You know, we forget pretty easy, don't we? Those of us that are older, we understand that we better write things down. A wife, if she's sending her husband to get some things from the grocery store, she's very wise to put it in written information, knowing that occasionally, as men, we might forget what we were sent out to do. A student that's in class is sitting down, and it's a good thing to take notes and to remember and say, hey, I'm going to jot this down so that I can remember and that I don't forget you know the secretary here at this place and we've got Wi-Fi here and there's a code for it and and I've got to get into the building and we've got to disarm the building if nobody else is here just turn off the alarm you know and and then we'll be leave we got to reset the alarm she told me that information but I was glad that she also I emailed it to me so that I've written information that I can look at and say, okay, yeah, that's right. That's what I need to do. You know, I encourage you as God works in your life, I'll often do this. If somebody gets saved, I'll say, write that date in your Bible. It's good to have that. You know, some of us got saved and we don't have that. That's all right. We don't know exactly what the date was back when we got saved. But it's a great thing for somebody that's gotten saved to write that down and say, you know what? That's when God began to change my life. That's when I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. where God works in our hearts and maybe another way, the Spirit of God, you know, calling us into certain ministry, leading us to a specific thing, directing us in a certain way. It's good to make a note of that so we can look back at that and say, you know what? God, God did that. You know, are you putting any reminders into your life? You know, these victory stones again, it was God's idea. God said, this is a great thing. Put up something as a memorial that will remind you of what I've done. But then the victory stones as well are for every family. And so number two, it says, take you 12 men out of the people, out of every tribe. Man, you remember Jacob, Abraham's the father of Israel, but it was his grandson, Jacob, that had the 12 tribes. And really the 12 tribes are also not just the 12 sons, but included in Joseph is, you don't have the tribe of Joseph, you've got Ephraim and Manasseh, those two tribes represent Joseph. But I mean, those stones were one from each family group. And each part, Each family group had played a part. As they traveled, each one had different responsibilities in the wilderness wanderings. And that's where we're at in the story of Israel is that they're almost finished. They're getting ready in our story to finish their wilderness wanderings. It's gonna be over. And each one had an important part that they played in that congregation. As we look at that as a church, again, everyone should realize today that you've got an important part in what God is doing at Free Baptist Church. As I look out at the people that make up our church, every single one has an important part to play. You know, as a church, if we're gonna set up a sign of victory, and I pray that someday soon that might be a permanent church building that testifies to the goodness of God, everybody that has been a part of this has a part in that. And it's right that God says, you know, take one of every tribe because they represent the group the people, it's important for us to do this, set up these memorials as individuals as well as corporately. And then the victory stones are not optional. It says in verse 3, it says, and command ye them, saying, take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest's feet stood firm. 12 stones and shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where ye shall Lodge this night. Okay. God said this is not suggestive. All right, this is commanded This is not just an idea that, you know, take it or leave it. This is something that, Joshua, I tell you, tell those people this is God's will that you do this. I was witnessing to a man this week in West Linton, just a village about 15 minutes from here. It's actually close enough. It'd be very easy for people from there to come to this location. But as I was witnessing to him, just speaking to him about God and man's need to respect God and honor God, I spoke to him about the Ten Commandments, and two in particular. I said, you know, there's two commandments there about God primarily here, and that is do not profanely use God's name, right? Why? Because I said to him, I said, what's your name? And I said, if I just use your name flippantly or when I'm upset, I mean, it's showing great disrespect to you, great dishonor to you. And so God says that as human beings, our heart is so callous that if we begin to use God's name flippantly, then it affects our heart and it shows our heart towards God. God's name is holy. God's name is being used with wisdom. So we understand that that has to do with respecting God. But the other one I mentioned to him is that there's one day a week set aside by God that is a day of worship. I understand in the Old Testament, it was the Saturday. It was this Sabbath day. Remember the Sabbath God says in chapter 20 of Exodus in verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Why? Because if you go out and play football on the Sabbath, and you go out and play football on the Sabbath, and you go out and do your hobbies on the Sabbath, and you go to work on the Sabbath, and pretty soon you're never being engaged with the word of God. Pretty soon you're very distant from God in that relationship with God that should be there between man and creator is broken. Why? Because you cease to meet with God, and cease to honor God. And so that memorial, that observation of that command is something that God gave, why? So that we don't forget God. Additionally, as a church, I think it was last Sunday, we observed the Lord's table, first Sunday of every month in our evening service, we do that. But as we do that, we do that because God's commanded it. Why did God command it? By the way, in my Bible this morning, I was reading, they came together on the first day of the week and they broke bread. And as a church, it's not commanded in the word of God that we do this every Lord's day. The Bible says, as often as you eat this bread, drink this cup. So there's a little bit of leeway in that. But it was something that they frequently observed, why? so that we don't forget today what Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary as he shed his blood, as his body was broken. It's a memorial. It's kind of like these victory stones that we're talking about. God commanded it so that as we observe it even today as we're here in the house of God, why is this good? Because it is coming together again to think about God. As we come to the Lord's table, it's coming again together to think about the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, these things, as we speak about them, they're not optional. The Bible says about John, the disciple John, Revelation 1 verse 10, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. and heard me a great voice as a trumpet." You know, John was worshiping God on the Lord's day. The Lord's day was the day that they got together to worship God. And you know, the Bible says about the Lord's day, it says, as we read in Sunday school, Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of summons. You know, in our day, it's kind of like this, nobody's gonna come Sunday night, nobody's gonna come midweek, so what are we gonna do? We'll cancel the Sunday night service, we'll cancel the Wednesday night service. Pretty soon, I don't know what it's gonna be. Hey, we'll meet every other week. Hey, we'll meet once a month. I mean, how far do you go trying to appease people? And yet the Bible says, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of summons. But then it says, but so much the more, as you see the day approaching. I guess if we were gonna be a biblical church, we'd have to stop and say, you know what? We need to get together a little bit more. We need to have some evangelists. It means we do desire to do that. Lord willing, we'll get back to that. We haven't been able to the last two years because of COVID, but there's no excuse soon for us to be able to have a week of meetings, but hey, so much the more as you see the day approaching. And so God has given us these ideas, these things, these signs of victories that he's commanded. It's God's idea for every family and it's commanded. He wants us to do it. And then secondly, God is looking for men and women to set up signs of victory, okay? So God is desiring certain people to be the people that be the ones that get those signs of victory up. And so we see in our text here that these men were chosen men and women. It says in verse four, then Joshua called the 12 men whom he had prepared of the children of Israel out of every tribe a man. Okay, I don't know all the qualifications that he looked at, he had prepared them, but I suggest that maybe he prepared them like this, you know, something like that, or these guys had to be strong guys. They're gonna pick up a stone out of the center of that river, and they're gonna put that on their shoulder, and they're gonna carry that to the place that was the place that it needed to go to. You know, when I was in uni, I was a sophomore, I think, and I was put on a barrel crew, and I got there, and they said, wow, we are so short on the men that we need to do this. And actually, the boys really were just kind of grown-up teenagers. And they said, there's only five of us, but we've got a warehouse full of barrels. And the weight limit was 75 pounds. But I'm just here to say, I know some of those girls didn't weigh their barrels. They were storage barrels for the students. And we had to get them out and back to the rooms before the students got there. And so they chose us. And you know why? Not because we're strong men, because we've only been available, but it would have been wise for that job to look at that and say, you know what? We need somebody that can take a hold of that stuff, pick it up, because you had to put it up on your shoulder, stack it three high in a lorry, and get it to where it needs to go. We need some strong guys to do that. Joshua, again, had thousands of men to choose from. I don't think he looked at somebody that was weak. I know that. He didn't look at somebody that's infirm. He looked at guys that had physical strength that could take that stone, put it on their shoulder, and take it where it needed to go. You know, today, God isn't looking for physically strong people at Free Baptist Church. But God is absolutely looking for spiritually strong people, people that are spiritually fit, as the Bible says in Hebrews 5.14, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. You know, we wanna be somebody that, by the grace of God, and we need to set these signs of victory, we need to be able to put these evidences up for the world to see, for our family to see, for our community to see, but for them to be set up, it's gonna take spiritually fit people. It's gonna be taking chosen people that can do the job that God desires them to do. You know, is he preparing you today to be somebody that participates in that? Somebody that is prepared by God to set up a sign of victory, chosen men and women. Then they were willing men and women. It says in verse five, it says, and Joshua said unto them, pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan. And take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. Okay, these guys weren't volunteers, they're chosen. But I'll say this about them, they were willing. You don't see any, you know, battle going on there is just a willingness to say, you know, the charge has been given, they'll accept it, they'll take it. And I'll say about our barrel crew, we weren't chosen in a sense, we were just kind of what they had. But we were willing, and we worked hard. And I visited, I've shared this before, but I visited the loading dock where we would load those up and the man that's there at the distribution center, Mr. Benson, I visited him like 15 years later. And as I talked with him, he pointed up on the wall and there's a picture of our barrel crew, our five guys. And he says, you know what? When I get a barrel crew in here, I point at that. I said, if they did it, you can do it too. Why? Because we were willing, right? We got in there. It was a lot of work running. I mean, we were running with those hand trucks down the hall. Mr. Vincent had a cherry picker. He'd lift it up to the level that we were on, put it in the window. And I mean, we were running them down the hall, getting them to where they needed to go because we were willing. You know, today, as you look at your life, are you ready to run for God? You might not be the strongest, but maybe just say, hey, I wanna be stronger as a Christian, but I'm willing today, I wanna be somebody that if you say, God says do this, set up the sign of victory, I wanna be somebody that gets involved there and gets it done. God help us, God help us to be willing. And then faithful men and women, it says in verse six and seven, 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, that 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. Okay, they're gonna put that up, they need faithful men to get that up, they need to get the job done, because that was gonna be a sign to future generations. I'm sure you're aware that yesterday was 9-11. 20 years ago, and I said to my family, I said, not often that you remember 20 years ago where you were, but it's very easy for us, and I'm sure it's very easy for those that were old enough to remember where you were on 9-11. My wife and I were in New York City. I was an assistant pastor at a church there, and she was a Christian school teacher. I should have been closer to Manhattan on that day, but she had a dentist appointment. I wasn't able to go to the pastor's fellowship that was taking place, so I was there at the school. It was good that I was there, because when 9-11 happened, we had to obviously take care of things with the kids and figure out where everyone needed to go. And a man named Dave Carnes stopped by the church. And I put a link on Facebook, you can check it out, but Dave Carnes is a hero that went down to 9-11 on that day, stopped by, prayed with the pastor, and then he went down into that area, walked out into the mess and the carnage of Ground Zero, located two Port Authority policemen. and help rescue them from the rubble of ground zero. It's a really neat story of God's grace. But these men are heroes. And all those men that instead of fleeing, they got there with the rescue equipment, they went up the stairs. Everybody else is coming down the stairs. Those people deserve to be honored. And they're faithful men that said, hey, never forget. Remember that was the statement, never forget. They built a memorial and they put it there so that people could remember the lives that were lost as well as the heroic actions of the rescuers that went into that place to save others. Today, what are we seeking to do? We're seeking to see faithful men that will put up a memorial to our faithful Lord. Our Savior that died for the sins of the world, our Savior that sacrificed his life so that others could live, our Savior that has done so many great and awesome things and is able to do so many great and awesome things in man's life, but we need faithful men that'll put up the memorial that people will look at and say, hey, God did that. It takes faithful men to be able to do that. Without faithful men, we wouldn't have the memorial that we have there at Ground Zero. Without faithful men, in our churches and faithful women in our churches, we're not gonna have the memorials that people need to say, hey, there is a God. And then obedient men and women, as God looks for somebody, he's looking for obedient men and women. It says in verse seven, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded and took up 12 stones out of the midst of Jordan as the Lord spake unto Joshua according to the number of the tribes and the children of Israel and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged and laid them down there. And Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of Jordan, the place where the feet of the priests which bear the ark of the covenant stood and they are there unto this day. It happened. I mean, they got out there in the middle of that river, the Jordan River, the waters parted. They walk out there, they pick up the men, pick up the stones, put them up on their shoulders. They go to Gilgal. You'll notice in the story as well, Joshua takes up 12 stones. He puts them out in the middle of the river where when the water comes back, they'll still, when that tide, when that flood goes down, they'll still be visible as a reminder of what God had done. They were obedient, they did it, they got the job done. You know, I wonder how many times Joshua went down there to see that. He says here in our text, it's towards the end of his life, obviously, and he just says to them, hey, you know what, they are there unto this day. I've said it before, but other generations other than our own have put up memorials. They're out there, we can look back and we can look at buildings, we can look at schools and universities and the seminaries and places of Christian education or Christian camps and we can see what others have done for God and for God's glory. We can pick up a book as our family's reading Mueller's biography and you can read about the great things that took place down there in England as God used George Mueller to raise up those orphan homes for some 2,500 orphans that were provided by God by faith. Just trusting God, believing that God was able. I mean, we look at those stories and we look at those testimonies and we say, hey, those guys got it done. They were obedient to God. And again, in our generation, we just need to look up to God and say, okay, God, you know what? We may not be the strongest, but God, we're willing. And God will be faithful. And God will be obedient. and God will seek to build something that people look at and they see what God has done. Why? Because that's what we're doing. God wants the sign of victory to commemorate his blessing. God desires these signs so that what he has done is seen, that what he has done is evident. And there were wonderful things in this story that were to be remembered by future generations. I said recently, I've been reading a big book. If you looked at it, it's a very thick folio about Charlotte Street Chapel. And Charlotte Street and Edinburgh's Baptist Church is some 200 and I think about 20 some years old. It's a church that has a rich history of what it's accomplished for God and for God's glory. But you know, after about 100 years into that ministry, which seems like an incredibly long time, but they began to forget what God had done. There was a man named Andrew Urquhart, the church secretary, And the story says that he had an offer from a company to buy the church for a warehouse. And he said this, and they were down to like 30 people. He said, I, for one, am not going to believe that the light which has burned for so long in this place is going to be put out. That the people who so long labored for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause are to retire from the work in despair. That the door of this dear old chapel, hallowed by many blessed and holy memories, is to be closed and the building itself turned into a music hall or a grocery store. No brethren, I don't believe it. And in your hearts, neither do you. I believe the crisis is of God and that he will bring us through it. And he looked back and he saw the stones and he goes, God has been for us. God has been working. He looked at the very building itself and says a testimony to what God has done. And he looked at that and he said, I don't believe that God has done this. You know, again, that's what we need. We need something that anchors our mind to the fact that, you know what, God is doing something, God has done something. So in our text here, what blessings could these stones remind them of? Well, it would remind them of God's blessing upon a step of faith. It says in verse 10, It says, for the priests which bear the ark stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished, that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people according to all that Moses commanded Joshua, and the people hasted and passed over. Now, if you remember the story, and maybe you do, maybe you don't, but this story's interesting because it really was a step of faith. Turn in your Bibles back to Joshua chapter three, and we'll look at a little bit of the story. It was a very interesting step of faith. It says in verse 12, now therefore take you 12 men, these are our men, out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe of man. And it shall come to pass, notice what it says, 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. And it came to pass when the people were removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, that as they that bear the ark were coming to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water. for Jordan overflow with all its banks, all the time of harvest, it was flood time. that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Zeratan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off. And the people passed over right against Jericho. The priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan." Okay, that's amazing. And it's different than the crossing the Red Sea. The Red Sea was much bigger. The Red Sea parted before they ever started, remember? But in this story, you've got the priest having to step out, and the Bible says as soon as the foot, the sole of the foot of the priest touched the water, then the waters part. You know, that's a step of faith, isn't it? It takes faith to just get to that point. I mean, I don't know, you're just gonna get wet, but the priest is thinking, right, we're gonna walk across a flooded river, okay, here we go, and he steps out, and the water's part, and it's dry. It's amazing, but it took a step of faith. You know, today, again, we think about what God is doing. Stones of Memorial are good to put up when we have seen God work in answer to a step of faith. It might be a step of faith like salvation. Making that decision to trust Christ. And you gotta think, what's my family gonna think about this? You gotta think, I gotta repent of my sin. I gotta turn my back on my sin. I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I can make the change and say to God, God, I'm gonna trust you that this is a step of faith, all this baggage that's in my life, I'm gonna trust you. But you know what? Take that step of faith. Put up a stone of victory. It's a step of faith for a lot of people to be baptized. In Scotland, people are christened. So if family find out you're gonna be baptized after you've already been christened, there might be problems there. You're gonna be baptized by immersion in front of people and different things that make it difficult for people to identify with Christ and step it out and say, no, I'm definitely on the side of Christ. I've definitely received Jesus Christ as my savior. It's a step of faith. It could be joining a church. Obviously, Free Baptist Church is our church. We'd love to have everybody that attends our church become a saved and baptized member of our church, but that's a step of faith. It's commitment. Our day doesn't like commitment. Our day doesn't like responsibility. There's a fact that I joined that, so there's accountability that's there. Yeah, that's God's will for somebody that's saved and somebody that's baptized, that'd be part of a local church. That's a step of faith. It could be surrender. You know, if you're gonna surrender your life, you've gotta be willing to say to God, okay, God, hands off my life, whatever God you desire to do with my life, God, you do that. That's a step of faith. And certainly, if God works in the hearts of our young people or adults about full-time ministry or maybe even ministry in church and say, all right, I'm gonna get involved in a Sunday school, I'm gonna get involved in whatever, that's a step of faith. And it's good to have that memorial and say, God, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do this for your glory. They did this, they set up a stone to remember God's blessing upon that step of faith. His blessing of bringing them into the promised land. It says in verse 11, it came to pass when all the people were clean passed over. Okay, we read the story, we think, well, they just crossed the river, but they crossed the river out of the wilderness into the promised land, and the wilderness was in the past for the last 40 years. They had wandered in a desert area and been fed, the Bible says, with manna and, you know, all these things that was constantly in front of them. When are we ever gonna get there? Kids, you know, as kids would maybe do, asking, are we there yet? And finally, they've crossed over into that place. You know, I say to our church this morning that someday, the days of wandering, W-O-N-D-E-R-I-N-G, and wandering, W-A-N-D-E-R-I-N-G, you know, the idea of not knowing and still being transient, someday, by God's grace, it'll be over. Someday, God's gonna bring us into that place where maybe this is the final home of free Baptist church, and again, we're gonna set up something that testifies that God's done But again, for us spiritually, there's gonna be many times where God brings you through and delivers you. It's good to have that memory that God has done it. And so bringing you, as it were, into the promised land, a place of blessing. And then God's blessing. upon a joint effort of the congregation. And so we look at the story here in verse 11, and we've got the spiritual leadership leading the way. It says that the ark of the Lord passed over and the priest in the presence of the people. Then we got the military and the congregation says in verse 12, The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh passed over arm before the children of Israel as Moses spake unto them. About 40,000 prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle to the plains of Jericho. Then you got the physical leader of the children of Israel, Joshua. It says in verse 14, it says, on that day, the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel. And they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life. You know, everyone's gonna have a story on this day. Can you imagine? Again, wanna rewind the Bible a little bit, get involved in that story and see exactly what took place. But I'll say this, rather than being somebody that looks at the memorial in the future and sees what God did, I think I could say I'd rather be somebody that went through it and got to come out and pass through that river and see exactly what God had done. Now, the downside is you gotta go through the wilderness to get there, but the experience surely is greater than the memorial. And for our church, I reminded us of this this morning, church planting as a church is still establishing itself. Praise God, we've hit some milestones this past year as we chartered the church. We got excited about that. God's provided the money for us to purchase a property. But it's a little bit like Israel in the wilderness. It's a little bit like that uncertainty and the transient time and the kind of tough time. But this group is gonna be the group that can look back and say to future generations, I was there when God did that. It's not just what my parents told me about those stones and what took place, but I was there and I saw what God did. Praise God for those joint efforts that a congregation makes that you can look back at and say, you know what, this is what God did. And then His blessing of miracles given by His great grace. It says in verse 15, it says the Lord spake unto Joshua saying, command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony that they come up out of Jordan. Joshua therefore commanded the priest saying, come ye up out of Jordan. And it came to pass from the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant, the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan and the souls of the priest's feet were lifted up onto the dry land that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place and flowed over all his banks as they did before." You know, as they stood looking at the Jordan River in flood stage, you know what it was? It was impossible. The promised land's right on the other side. They just, I mean, they can see it. God says it's for them, but there is no physical way to get past it. Millions of people are gonna pass through the Jordan River in her story, but not a single one of them had the ability to pass through the Jordan River. Nobody can say, I did that. I stopped the water for everybody until everybody was passed and then they got past it. And I'll say this for us as a church and as an individual and as a family, we don't like to be on the other side of impossible from blessing. We don't like to have that which we look at and say, I have no idea. I have no idea how we're gonna get past it. But you know, when the memorial's put up, it's gonna say, only by God's grace, right? It's God did this, God did this. And see, as a church, I'll just put it again with our prayer that God would provide a permanent location for our church, Jeremiah 33, free call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not. This is the beginning of the answer to that prayer, specifically with regard to our church location, that God's given us such a great temporary location that we had no clue about. But the impossible barrier that we look at and say, God, land is so expensive. Building a building, the cost of building is up astronomically here with COVID and Brexit, but God is God. And it might be in your personal life, you look at something, you say, there's no way. I know blessings on the other side. I know if I could just get over there, you know, hope deferred, making the heart sick. But when the desire cometh, it's a tree of life. How does it come? It comes by the grace of God. It comes by God enabling that to be done, which can only be done by his grace. You know, my office, if you come into my office at my home, on the wall, there's a plaque and it says, with God, all things are possible. All things. And so you might look at it and say, pastor, there's no way. Okay, fine. I mean, that's impossible. But with God, all things are possible. And we need to say, God, get us to the other side. You know, just keep praying about it and say, God, do it. And when you do it, I'm going to set up a stone of victory. I'm going to set up something that testifies to the fact that God has done it. because it's about setting up something that shows his blessing about his miracles and his great grace. And so God help us to do that. And then lastly here this morning, God wants his people to revisit the sign of victory. God wants his people to revisit the sign of victory. You know, in my mind today, I can revisit where I surrendered to ministry, the Wilds Christian Camp, North Carolina. I can revisit where God called me to preach, Bob Jones University, after a preacher boy's class, a church planter from the West, and God called me to church planting. I can revisit where God called me into missions, where I surrendered my life to missions in Michigan, down in the basement of the church property. And it's only missions because God called me to church planting in Scotland. I do say, God never called me to missions, but it's missions when you leave your home nation, raise support, and go to another country. but I can revisit those places. And it's good for us today, and I just wanna encourage you in your heart just to go back a little bit and kind of revisit where it all began, because if you read in verse 19, it's good for us to revisit where we enter into victory. The Bible says in verse 19, the people came up out of Jordan on the 10th day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal in the east border of Jericho. And it was in this place, that place where they first came into the promised land, they set up those stones. So when they went back to that place, it'd be like, hey, that's where it all began, all the good things that God's done in this land, it all started right there. Last year, I was able to go back to the church where I got saved. And I wish I could have gone inside, I couldn't go inside, but to stand outside that little wood church building in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, Rock Lake Baptist Church, It's good to go back and just say, I remember that day as a little child going down and getting saved. What about you today? So you think back, think back about what God's done. Think back about God's goodness and salvation or his mercy in your life. It's good to revisit those things and then revisit the place of victory and instruct your children. It says in verse 20, those 12 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 time to come, saying, What mean 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 from before us until we were gone over. And so these future generations will say, hey, mom and dad, what's that about? And mom and dad say, hey, let me tell you, this is what God did in our generation, and let me tell you about your grandparents' generation, what God did back then too, because God is the same, and this God is your God, and God can dry up rivers, for you as well. I'm a happy tour guide. When I was in New York City, I enjoyed taking people in on the subways there to tour Manhattan. Here in Edinburgh, it's been a while now because of COVID, but I enjoy taking people in and especially showing them the Christian history and saying to them, this is what God has done in this place in the past. It's marvelous what God has done, and for our kids to ask us and say, hey, what's God done in the past? Why? Because our generation, I'll just say it, our generation is not seeing the greatness of what God can do as God has exhibited it in the past. Right now, we just gotta revisit those stones. We wanna put up stones for this generation, but right now, we just gotta revisit stones and say, hey, this is what God has done. And then lastly, revisit the place of victory and walk in the fear of God. It says in verse 24, 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. As you go back to that, you ought to be reminded of the awesomeness of God. I think if I was a child back in the day, I'd look at that, you know, God parted that? I don't want to mess with God. God's a great God. We gotta defile God's things, we gotta sanctify God's things, we gotta sanctify God's day, because that's a great God. And today, with the God, that's the way the Spirit of God would work in our hearts, and we just think, man, we can't neglect these stones, because if we do, our families will not walk in the fear of God as they are. And so this morning, it's good for us to set up these stones. And it might be physical, it might be a marker. In our home, if you come into my home and you come around into my living room, you'll see a wee plaque on the wall. And when God did the miracle of allowing us to purchase that property, I decided, we were reading through George Miller's biography, I think back then as well, and there was a quote in that that said this, everything you see here is a testimony of what God has done for you. So said George Miller to an orphan girl who marveled at the grand orphan home God had provided. And for my kids' sake, for my sake, I've got the plaque there for people that visit our home. God did it. I mean, it was, I can tell you the story of the miracles that God did for us to be able to get that property. When we get a church property, I've said to the church, I will praise thee forever because thou hast done it. It's gonna go on a plaque. It's gonna be inside there. But today it's not just plaques, is it? It's places, it's memories, it's us thinking about it and saying, hey, This is what God did here. I wanna remember this. I wanna do something to anchor this down in my life. You know, do you have those signs of victory in your life? You might just be starting out and putting those up. It might be somebody getting saved today, accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, taking that step of faith and writing it down and say, hey, this is the day that I accepted Christ as my savior. It might be somebody saying, I need to be baptized. I've accepted Christ my Savior, but I've been too shy, whatever, I haven't taken that step, but I wanna come out publicly and say, I've accepted Christ my Savior, I want the church to know it. Might be somebody that wants to be a church member, somebody that wants to get involved in ministry, somebody that wants to do something for God, set up a stone, a memorial, and say, God, by your grace, I'm just gonna put up a stone of victory right here. This is how you work in my life. I want to remember it. I want it to be known. I want other generations to look back and say, hey, that's what God did in their life and by God's grace in our church, as well as in our community. May God bless his word to our hearts. Let's pray as the spirit of God to work in our invitation time. Father, we're thankful for all the things that you've done. And Father, I pray. that our generation can see the greatness of God. I feel badly, Lord, that we haven't set up the stones that we need to set up for the future generations. But we can, and Father, I believe we are as a church. Father, I believe we are in what we're seeing you do in our assembly. Father, I believe that we can be in our families as we get saved, as we get baptized, as we get involved and join the church and get active serving God. I believe that's exactly what we're doing. We're setting up something that's an identifying point that somebody can look at and say, tell me about your God, because I see your God at work in your life. And Father, I just prayed this morning. It might be somebody thinking, you know what? I should get saved today. Lord, your word says today is the day of salvation. Father, we pray that they'd be born again. Maybe somebody thinking they need to be baptized, or need to join the church, or need to be faithful to church, or need to get involved in the church, or tithe, or something, setting up memorials somehow, doing something tangible that is a testimony to what God is doing in their life. Father, I pray for that. And so, Father, would you bless the invitation we sing, maybe not just sing, maybe not just stand up and sing a song and think, well, I'm glad the message is over, it's time to go. I just pray, spirit of God, give us grace to examine our heart before God and say, what can I do to set up a stone of remembrance for God's glory? God, help us to do that. Would you bless now as we sing the hymn of invitation? It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.