Well, hear the word from this awesome, majestic God who loves you, Joshua 4, verses 1 through 9. It came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying, take for yourselves 12 men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them saying, take for yourselves 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priest's feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodged tonight.' Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe, And Joshua said to them, cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on a shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan were cut off and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did so just as Joshua commanded and took up 12 stones from the midst of the Jordan as the Lord had spoken to Joshua according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. Then Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word, and I pray that as I give exposition, that you would enable me to be faithful in applying it, and each one of us living it out. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, John Huffman points out that this chapter is a marvelous corrective to two extremes that tend to be present in every generation. He labels the first extreme the ultra-conservatives who long for the good old days and who tend to camp around these memorials rather than learning from them and moving on, and there's a difference. Their main goal is to conserve the values of the past, and so they tend to criticize whoever is pushing too hard for change and improvement. And God's counsel to this first extreme is found in Ecclesiastes 7, verse 10. God tells them, do not say, why were the old days better than these? For it is not wise to ask such questions. Huffman labels the other extreme, the ultra-radicals. These people are impatient with the past. They have a hard time finding contentment in the present, and they are so caught up with their picture of what the ideal should look like that in their pursuit of the ideal, they destroy relationships, and they alienate people, and they destroy the social structures as well. And ironically, even though the ultra-radicals tend to despise the ultra-conservatives, they have something very much in common. Their main contribution is that they criticize everything that people are doing today and trying to solve the problems. No effort is good enough. And I've been dialoguing with some of these on Facebook. And there are many different issues, but I'll just use one. and that's related to the church, they are so understandably frustrated with the institutional church that they refuse to be a part of any ecclesiastical structures. And as one of my friends said last week on Facebook, and he'll no doubt see this, we'll have a nice conversation about it, But he said, my preferred definition of a church is three homeschooling families in the living room. Disillusioned with the visible church, the only place that they are visible is on the social networks, and actually they tend to even alienate those in their ideal social networks because of their critical attitudes. Now the interesting thing about both of these extremes is that these are great people who have a lot to contribute to the kingdom. They do. They're usually very gifted people. I value them. But I think that they would be much more effective if they could learn some of the principles we're going to look at over the next two weeks, maybe three weeks. I don't know how long it's going to take going through this chapter. Huffman says about these two extremes, quote, The problem with the ultra conservative and the ultra radical is that both are escaping from the present into a fantasy world. And I think it's a very accurate insight. They're going to bristle at that and say, there's no way that we're in a fantasy world. This is the truth. This is something we are standing for. But he says, both are escaping from the present into a fantasy world. And he explains what he means by that. The present isn't perfect, but neither was the past, nor will the future be on this earth. I'm convinced that both the ultra-conservative and the ultra-radical are hungrily searching for meaning, a meaning that tends to elude them. This fourth chapter of Joshua, however, grapples with the fact that a basic component of life is a hope for the future that is based on the memories of the past, which will help bring meaning to the present. Memories are important. They are the soil of our present experiences into which our roots sink deeply and from which we receive nourishment. We are instructed by our memories as to the most creative way to live in the present, and they help equip us with a positive hope for the future. I actually wish he had said a lot more on the chapter, but he didn't. But I thought it was a very helpful way to introduce some of the themes that this chapter is going to be wrestling with. Now, I'm only going to deal with the first nine verses today, and I've come up with 10 introductory lessons from these verses. In verse 1, it says, And it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, So in verse 1, God had spoken with them, given them a leader, and had given them a miracle. They had been able to get through an impossible situation. So when times got tough for Israel in the future, which they would, They could come back to this home base at Gilgal, look at those stones, and be encouraged. God is a God who miraculously has provided for us, and it can give them a stimulus to go forward and conquer the land. They're not going to camp around the memorial, right? They're not going to stay there forever, but they're going to use this as an impetus to move forward. Now, let me draw out a couple of other things from that verse. It says, when all the people had completely crossed over. For memorials to work, they have to really be about a finished work. It was God's intention not—well, maybe I should word it this way—if it was God's intention to reproduce this miracle every time Israel needed a miracle, then there would be no point for a memorial. God was not going to keep parting the river every time they wanted to cross over this river. And so actually the memorials are a rebuke to at least some forms of Americanism. Sadly, many Americans aren't interested unless it happens to them right now. They aren't interested in what God has done in an ancestor's life unless they can replicate that in their lives today. But God wants us to remember and honor His mighty deeds from the past, even if those mighty deeds cannot be replicated in our day. That's the hang-up some people have. And all you need to do is look at your own conversion, and you realize, okay, I'm not going to get converted over and over again. And yet it's a marvelous thing that we can remember, and we can be thankful for. Well, the same is true of most memorialized events. They can't be repeated, and yet they still are valuable. The second thing I want to point out from verse one is that just like Israel, if you were a believer, you already have some work of God that He has accomplished, He has completed in your life, just like they had. And you might say, well, I just became a believer. Well, you can at least remember and be thankful for your conversion experience, which is a marvelous work of grace. And so what you can do is remember that, turn it into a testimony, memorialize your conversion. And if you don't know how to do that, ask Michael or Bill or any of the people that were part of that first training, what do we call it, a training seminar? Workshop, there you go, on how to make a testimony. It's a kind of memorial. And they'll give you some easy ways to do that. But if you grew up never knowing a time when you did not trust God for your salvation, then just remember the fact that God's grace has been kind to you from the earliest times and from generation to generation. I mean, that's a fabulous testimony. In my case, I am very thankful that God has been faithful generation after generation of Christians going back to at least the 13th century, and possibly we may have some gaps in there, possibly as far back as to A.D. 1066. Third, this was not the first miracle that needed to be remembered by the Israelites. Later on during this episode in this chapter, he's going to be having them remember their battles with the Amalekites and God's provision of the manna and the Passover and the Red Sea. And in the same way, we can remember the hundreds of things that God has done in our lives ever since we became Christians. Now, sadly, If you're like the average Christian, evangelical Christian today, you've forgotten most of the cool things that God has done in your life. And it's guaranteed, He has done a lot of cool things in your life. I counted 375 times that the Bible calls us to remember and to not forget. That's because we are so prone to forgetting what God has done for us. Now, the flip side of the coin is God is at work in our lives. He has done a lot of things that are worth remembering. But that brings us to the second main lesson. Because of our forgetfulness, it is often helpful to have other people help us to remember. And I'll give you some ideas of how we can do this later on. But in this case, it was some leaders. It was representatives from the 12 tribes. In verse 2, we can see that national leaders were used to help the nation as a whole remember. It says, take for yourselves 12 men from the people, one man from every tribe. It takes time and effort to make good memorials, and having someone designated to help establish that memorial can be a good thing. We've had national leaders from the past who have set aside days as memorials, days like July 4 and Memorial Day and D-Day. Patriot Day, which is actually today, I just discovered. Wow, there's a memorial that we don't think about. And Constitution Day, September 16, Columbus Day, October 10, and a whole bunch of other days, some of which we probably should forget. But various states have established days to commemorate the Robert E. Lee, various Confederate heroes and the Confederate cause as a whole. And I think it's a cause that is worth thinking about because it reminds us not only of the sins of the nation, but it also reminds us of that there are dangers to centralization of government and there is an importance of interposition. I did find it humorous that they don't seem to know the birth date of Jefferson Davis. Mississippi memorializes it on May 30, Florida on June 3, Alabama on June 6. They're all over the board on that. But anyway, we shouldn't look down on federal memorials if they are memorializing a good thing. And I would say even if they aren't, they're memorializing a bad cause or a bad person, we can use that as a reminder to pray for change and pray that our nation would be brought to repentance. But it's not just national leaders who have set up memorials. The church itself has had leaders in the past who have set aside certain days to remember the wonderful works of redemption and even post-biblical history. The Westminster Confession speaks of these as Thanksgiving days. Now, the Puritans who wrote the Confession, they weren't too keen on Christmas or Resurrection Day or some of the other church calendars days. mainly because of the abuse that sometimes went along with them, but I justify them in terms of their Thanksgiving days. We are thanking the Lord for his redemptive history, and I don't even let the Roman Catholics claim St. Patrick's Day. St. Patrick was a Protestant in his theology long before there were Protestants, long before there was a Reformation, and I think he's a person worth emulating in many ways. There are also national physical reminders of the past, both good and bad, such as Mount Rushmore, Pearl Harbor, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Memorial, a whole bunch of other famous memorials that are out there. And I think that these can be tools of learning for our kids. when we go past them, teaching our kids about the good, the bad, and the ugly about our nation. And if you want a very ugly memorial that shows how we tend to divinize our leaders and idolatrize our leaders, just go to the Lincoln Memorial. When our kids went there, it became a great lesson on idolatry and statism, and so you can learn even from those. We sponsored the Providential History Festival for many years, and I have very fond memories of children and adults memorializing the fantastic, wonderful works that God has done in past history. Leaders have already gone before us with memorials via Christian movies and books, Family mementos can be a way of not forgetting God's mighty works from the past. So you can conscript or utilize, maybe conscript is the wrong word, you can utilize leaders from the past and say, yes, we're gonna benefit from the memorials that they have set up. For example, I'm reading through an autobiography right now, about halfway through, autobiography by, Peter Hammond. And I am finding that so encouraging to serve the Lord as a great motivation. So take advantage of what other leaders have memorialized. But that leads to the third lesson. Memorials aren't a waste of time. Now, when I was younger, I tended to really get frustrated with memorials. I thought they were an utter waste of time. But over my lifetime, I've grown to realize, no, we need to appreciate these. Verse 3 begins with the words, And commanded them, saying, Now if God commanded this memorial of stones through the prophet Joshua, then they cannot be a waste of time. do it. Now some people are so pragmatic that they can't appreciate the need to stop and think about the past for a while. Now they're too busy getting on with the present, but God wants us to take time off and think about the past, even to think about our immediate past. That's why we have a prayer of thanksgiving every Sunday, right? Psalm 107 is a long psalm that basically is telling us God has done so many things in our lives that it is hideous that we forget about those things and forget to thank him. He has given us food and we are not thankful. He has given us beautiful crops without drought. And well, we've had a little bit of drought this year, but still we are able to water, right? and we are not thankful. We've had near escapes from death, Psalm 107 says, and we forget about it. We are not thankful. And so if you've had a near escape from death, maybe a car almost got into a car accident, and halfway down the block, your knees are shaking, and you're thanking the Lord, well, don't just thank him then. From time to time, remember, Lord, you have been so awesome, and let it stir up your gratitude. Actually, Gil was sharing with me yesterday some of the ways in which God had miraculously spared him near-death experiences. And so these can be times of thanksgiving. So it's not a waste of time to engage in memorializing the past, whether it's reading a book, going to a memorial, visiting a tombstone of a great-great-grandparent and telling your children some of the stories that went behind it. You're not worshiping there, you're just using it as a memory trigger. I believe that God made mankind to need memorials. And I base that on the fact that God set up a memorial for Adam and Eve even before they fell, when they still had good memories. Every week they were memorializing God's creation week, okay? Okay, fourth lesson is an encouraging one. Memorials don't have to be costly in order to be effective. And I praise God for this point. This is fantastic for those of you who don't have a lot of money. This is just a pile of stones, right? The only cost that went into this was the effort that went into moving the stones and the time they had to carve out of their schedules. Of course, people say, yeah, but that's the hardest thing to contribute is time and effort. I don't have a lot of time. And it's true. It's sometimes inconvenient to think up creative ways of remembering the past. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to give you some cheap, maybe I should call it inexpensive, ways of bringing memorials into your family. First, you can link key stories of God's working in your life with family photo albums. Most people have photo albums. Maybe we're getting so used to phones that we don't have photo albums anymore, but I think photo albums are a great, great way of remembering God's working in the past. My dad, every time he would show us through some of the pictures, and he tended to prefer slides, He always had a story of what God had wrought in him and through him in that. And my mom has done the same as she walks through different pictures. If you want to get a lot of stories out of my mom, get a photo album, you know, that she can go through and she'll give you a lot of stories from that photo album. So here's the point. When I grew up in this home, seeing these pictures, Those things of God were burned into my memory through the photos. Do not exclude God from your photo albums. Use them to memorialize. It's a very inexpensive way of doing so. Here's another idea. If you're one of those people that likes to talk about history and different things that went on as you're driving your kids through a town, you might want to incorporate some of God's working in your own life. Like when you drive past your old home, tell your kids every time a different story of how God was glorified and the ministry you did in that home. Or as another example, when you're driving past Creighton University, you could tell the kids, you know what kids, Creighton University is approximately the spot where the original Mr. Creighton set up a telegraph pole that connected Omaha with the West Coast in communication. Actually, it connected the East Coast with the West Coast. Now, you might just think, that's just a piece of secular history. But you know what? God used that piece of so-called secular history providentially to spread the gospel as Christians took advantage of that technology. So anyway, you can do that. You can go through Omaha and find different places that recall some of the painful history of Omaha, which has actually had a very, very painful, bad history. When we went through, we realized why Omaha used to be called Sin City. People who would come into Omaha would realize this was a cowboy town with prostitutes and alcohol and gambling and crime and seances and mistreatment of Indians. There's all kinds of horrible things. In fact, it's made There were a couple hundred of us pastors got together several years ago to break a curse that the Omaha Indian tribe pronounced against this city because of the broken treaty that we had engaged in and the other mistreatment that we had perpetrated against them and to ask God to remove some other legal ground. So sometimes buildings and places can be a training ground for our children. Another simple idea is to have mementos in your home that remind you of a spiritual commitment that you have made, or maybe a victory, or a Christian milestone of the past. Some people have items on their walls that remind them of something from their great grandmother. I have an antique clock that does the same thing with Kathy's parents. Actually, this tie that I'm wearing here was worn by Kathy's grandpa, Olson. And I deliberately put it on today. I said, we're going to use this as a memorializing today. I can't actually wear this or look at it. Usually I just have it hanging up on the wall, but I can't look at it without thinking of some of the history from our past of God's faithfulness or Christian heritage. My grandpa Remington did a detailed analysis of our family's history on my mom's side, and it goes back almost 1,000 years. And I'm so glad that my mom took the time to type up his hard-to-read handwriting. And so we've got it in a very easily readable format. And by the way, I hope to eventually turn some of the history of my parents and other ancestors into children's illustrated books that our grandkids and our great-grandkids will be able to read. So there's many different ways you can stir up your minds to thankfulness and encourage your faith through inexpensive memorials. Fifth lesson is found in the rest of verse three. We can use memorials to instill virtues in our children. And in my mind, this is one of the best benefits of memorials. Verse three says, and command them saying, take for yourselves 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priest's feet stood firm. You should carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight. Now what were the virtues being instilled with this memorial? I believe it was faith, courage, and stamina. Later generations, you know, could be told, hey kids, These stones that you see here, they came out of the middle of that river. See how they're all smoothed over by the water erosion? These are clearly river rocks. And what happened is there were four priests. The moment that they stepped into the river, those rivers parted and they stood in the middle of that river while that water was rising up higher and higher until it became a menacing wall, 120 feet high. ready to topple on top of them, but God was holding it back. They stood firm and they were carrying that heavy ark all day long. Even if it gave them aching backs and they were sore, they persevered in it. In other words, you can instill in them from the past, we need to have a faith and a courage and a stamina like those priests had. I've benefited in a similar way from many memorials. I've been challenged by reading about many Southern war heroes as well as Northern war heroes. And there were some on both sides that were godly men, different presuppositions, but they really were godly men that have made me want to be more like them. There are some movies that act as memorials to me that moved me to tears and make me want to be a better Christian, to be more faithful. When I watched the film Braveheart on Clearplay, you want to watch it on Clearplay. And then later on, out of curiosity, I read some of the history of William Wallace. I realized that movie really did play fast and loose with the history. But the real history behind it and the movie itself is a very vivid and emotional reminder of how important it is to stand firm on principle and how ungodly it is when politicians, you know are just compromising and Are not I think it makes us outraged by the way, this is one of the reasons why tyrants hate memorials that point to those kinds of biblical principles and why it is that they try to always rewrite history. This is something always seems to happen when tyrants take over. That's what the government schools have done in the history books. Even when my wife was a kid, the history books were already revisionist history that was propaganda, not real history. And thankfully, her dad recognized that and countered it and even complained about it. But remembering the past is critically important for restoring liberty. This is one of the reasons why the woke community and the critical race community in America has been defacing statues, getting rid of monuments to courageous men and women of the past. Now, they claim that they're trying to erase the memory of slavery. You look, and I've looked at the litany of all of the things they've defaced, most of those had nothing to do with slavery. They've been defacing anti-slavery union soldiers and famous immigrants, heroic immigrants, and a memorial to firefighters who died in the September 11 Islamic terrorist attack. I remember back in 2020 when they were doing this, there was a four-month period where there was 180 statues that they either defaced or tried to pressure the government, or they toppled or something like that. Now, why would they do that? Well, I believe it's because these memorials are memorials of men and women whose writings and actions stand against the Marxist principles of the critical race theory movement, and they completely undermine what has been taught for generations in government schools. Here's the point. Memorials need to be defended. They need to be defended. We can't take a who cares attitude when a statue of Robert E. Lee or George Washington is toppled and say nothing about it. We need to think of the real reasons for the modern movement to erase history. History is a bulwark for true liberty, and blacks like Walter Williams and Virgil Walker and Daryl Harris, I think have been doing a superb job of fighting against this nonsense and saying, no, this is not good for standing against racism at all. It's actually perpetrating further division, further divide. Most people are fearful of standing up. They don't want to get blackballed. But in failing to stand up and speak against these kinds of travesties, they're failing to learn from those very memorials the things that they are teaching. Those memorials call us to courage and principle, standing for law, a willingness to lay down our lives for liberty. Now, were those men and women perfect? Obviously not. And that's what the ultra-radicals point out. Look at these and that and the other sins in their lives. No, they weren't perfect. But here's the thing, there never will be perfect people to memorialize, but we can focus on what is honorable in them. Now, the sixth lesson is that there can be a corporate dimension to memorials that helps to establish a sense of unity and cohesiveness within the whole body of Christ. They help to counteract ultra-tribalism. Denominationalism can easily make us forget that the church of Jesus Christ is very, very broad. Let's read verses four through five. Then Joshua called the 12 men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe, and Joshua said to them, cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. So we see 12 tribes being represented as one body in this memorial, and they were finding their unity by passing before the ark, which represents the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom and His cause. And by the way, His cause is, I think, so beautifully illustrated in Numbers 10, verse 35, which says that every single time that that ark would move, which would include this time, every single time it would move, they were supposed to say, rise up, oh Lord, let your enemies be scattered and let those who hate you flee before you. And so by crossing before that arc of the covenant of the Lord, they were committing themselves to battling for the Lord, but they were also acknowledging, hey, it's the Lord alone who can ultimately give the victory on these things. So they were united around God and His cause, not just around a tribal leader or some denomination. Every time that we memorialize the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in this communion meal and what He has done for us, we are affirming a unity of the bride of Christ. There is one body, right? A sense of history can help us to have a sense of unity, even when there are tribal differences, and even where there are denominational differences that we value. Let me give you another memorial that does the same thing. Coming soon is November 6. That's IDOP day, I-D-O-P. It's the International Day of Prayer for the Worldwide Church, where we intensively pray for the whole Church of Jesus Christ, and especially for the persecuted church around the world, okay? God does not want us feeling completely cut off from Christians of the past or Christians who are around the world, and memorials can help with that. And that International Day of Prayer is one such memorial. Okay, the seventh lesson is that these stones were intended to function as both a sign and a memorial. Those are two different words with different meanings. Hebrew word for sign, ot, is something visible that can point to something invisible, or it can point to a person, or it can point to some other thing. Now, the Hebrew word is used for many things. It's used for miracles because those miracles pointed to the Lord's presence, or the authenticity of the Word of God, or to some prophet, or to some other thing. Blood on the doorposts in Egypt was called a sign because it pointed to the blood of Jesus that was shed, and that He would be their Passover. And so the angel who came and was killing the firstborn, he had to pass over those houses. Why? Because of the blood of Christ. Circumcision was a sign. Rainbow was called a sign. The same word, a sign of God's covenant faithfulness to his creation. So the point of the usage of these terms is just like road signs give you direction, They give you guidance. These stones were to point people to two spiritual lessons that we're going to look at under a later point in a bit. But let's read verses 6-7. that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come saying, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan. The waters of the Jordan were cut off and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. Notice that he didn't say, what do these stones mean to God? But what do they mean to you? Okay, they were to be personal. They were intended to be personal. Do you have any road signs that can point your children to real-life situations in your history of what God has done for you? It doesn't have to be official, actually. some years ago our granddaughter Kaylee was noticing on the food line that there might not be enough food because we had a large unexpected influx of guests who had come through and she talked to grandma, grandma this doesn't look like it's going to be enough food for all of these people and so Kathy used that as a as an opportunity to take Kaylee and say, well, let's just pray to the Lord that the Lord would multiply this food. And he did. And then she took Kaylee through the line, noticing all of the leftover food, lots of leftover food. And they spent some time thanking the Lord. So from that time on, this table could be a constant reminder, a memorial, so to speak, to Cayley, that our God is a God who loves to supply when we are in need. That's not official, but it can be a reminder. And this doesn't just have to be for our own benefit. The last verse of the chapter says that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. So we want God's grace and power that's been expressed in our lives to be visible to everyone out there. That's what memorials help to accomplish. And we'll look at the meaning of this in verses eight through nine, but right here, I just want to point out, we need signs. We need road posts and markers in our lives that point to God's personal working with us. And I'll give a few examples in a bit of how to do that. Second thing that these stones are called is a memorial. And in the Hebrew, it's just something that jogs your memory. It keeps you from forgetting. So it's a memory jogger. Memorials are a great way of keeping alive important values, memories, traditions, and mandates. You know, July 4. It's a great remembrance, a trigger, but it's also a rebuke to our nation for having robbed our nation from its biblical foundations. The next lesson shows that a memorial connects the past with the future. Verse 7 ends, And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. So it's transporting history into the future from generation to generation. I know I need I need things to jog my memory. We have recordings of my parents that we can go back to and listen to. Some people, once a year, I've talked to a number of people actually, once a year, they just make it a tradition to read through some of their old journals. I ran across an old journal I had before we were married, and I was just like, wow, I've forgotten some of these things. This is awesome, some of the things that God has done in my life. Other people have collectibles, and each collectible item has a story behind it that they can share with other people. So when the grandkids ask, Grandma, what is that funny-looking, odd-stitched thing doing on your wall?" And she can tell a story of what that stitched picture reminds her of. But the most important aspect of that sentence in verse 7 is we pass on the faith to future generations, and we need to pass on an accurate history of God's dealings with His people. Now, obviously, if we've not experienced God's wonders, His miracles, other things of His power like we looked at last week, we won't have much to pass on, will we? The next lesson could be seen in the first part of verse 8. And the children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua. And actually there's a lot you could say, I'm not going to. on that verse, but it's not enough just not in agreement. Yeah, theoretically, we do need to have memorials. No, we need to try to have them. We need to try to implement the sermon. We need to make notes to ourselves of ways that we can make our national memorials and religious memorials and personal memorials more effective. So schedule a time to set up memorials, visit memorials, or turn already existing items in your home into something that will be memory jogging memorials. Now this particular memorial was geographically divided into two parts, communicated two aspects of God's grace, and this is the last point. First part was set up a fair ways away from the river, and the second part was smack dab in the middle of the river covered with water, never to be visible again. They first took water-smoothed stones out of the middle of the river, and they carried them up the hill to Gilgal, where they camped. Verse 8 says, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and lay them down there. So this was a permanent testimony that their life in the new land was not supposed to be by their own power, but by the power of Almighty God. Okay, it symbolized resurrection life, it symbolized supernatural life. Second part is in verse nine. Then Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day. So they took stones from the east side of the river and they put them in the middle of the river, where once the water came back, these stones would be completely covered over. So why would Joshua go to all the trouble of taking stones putting them in the middle of the river where nobody could ever see them, and yet there's somehow to be a memorial. Well, I believe it was because the second set of 12 stones symbolized the old life that was now buried forever, which they would leave behind them forever, no longer see. Now, they would remember it, remember it rightly, but they would not be bound by it. They had burned their bridges behind them. They were now committed to conquest in the future. In Joshua 5, verse 9, it says, So in a very real sense, they died to their old life and were risen to a new life in Canaan. The stones representing their old life, they were buried, they were hidden. The stones that were taken to Gilgal were stones that no one but God could have resurrected. There was no man alive who was strong enough to be able to dive down into the water and pull these stones up. You just couldn't do it unless God had parted these waters. And so they represent the new life in Christ, which he achieved by his power alone. It was all of grace. Now, a couple of months ago, Aaron Fox gave a wonderful talk on memorials at the Thursday morning prayer breakfast, which, by the way, more of you men ought to come to. It really is a cool time of hearing from each person. They take turns sharing what the Lord's laid on their hearts, and then we pray, and then we fellowship together over food, or donuts, or whatever it might be. I don't know if he still has that talk, but you ought to ask him for it. I thought it was a really great talk. But if this morning's message can at least encourage you to start using memorials, I will have achieved my purpose. So brothers and sisters, don't forget God's faithfulness in the past. Allow memorials to stir up your faith to trust God in the future. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you have established many memorials in your word. You called us to establish our own memory joggers so that we do not forget the awesome things you've done in our lives. And I pray that you would help us to not be a forgetful people. Help us to maximize the use of memorials, whether those are days that we set aside for a special purpose or that we celebrate because they're national or church or memorials. or Father, whether it's private things that help our families to remember your goodness from generation to generation. May we be a people who finds your good favor because we never forget the wonderful things you have done for the children of God. And so bless us, your people, with an increasing and a better memory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.