Cornerstone Church June 11 / 12, 2011
“Memorial Stones: The Places You’ve Been
and the Places You’ll Go!”
Joshua 3 & 4
INTRODUCTION:
Congratulations – Graduates! Well Done!
Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.
You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
We are going to talk about transitions (not my eyeglasses)!
Crossover is the name of our Youth Group
Crossing over = become a follower of Christ
Crossing over new chapters / ventures
AS YOU CROSSOVER:
* Take the lessons your parents taught you from God’s Word with you.
* Take the truths you learned at Cornerstone from God’s Word with you!
* Take Jesus with you!
There is no greater or better advice I can give you!
Wherever you go and whatever you do if you know the LORD Jesus Christ as your Savior you are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven first and foremost!
Our source of wisdom is the Word of God!
Our location is the Book of Joshua 3 & 4 (Personal Bible – pages 150-151)
It is a Lesson is for our Graduates
It is also a Lesson for us all
Today is all we have
Yesterday and the mistakes or failures we may have experienced do not define our future. They are in the past.
It isn’t how we start the race that’s important.
It’s how you finish!
Future – God’s mercies are new every morning
THE PLACES YOU’VE BEEN
Joshua 3:1-4 NIV
Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over. After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
CONTEXT:
Children of Israel are getting ready to Cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land
Joshua following God’s will and guidance is preparing the people to crossover!
GREAT ANTICIPATION
Some days you have to wait a long, long time for something anticipated to arrive:
* Birth of Child / Grandchild
* Graduation
* Return of a spouse from Deployment
* Important Anniversary Trip
* Retirement
* Entering the Promised Land
Then, BAM, the long awaited day arrives!
40 years of wandering in the Wilderness
Nearly 500 Years have passed since God’s Promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:18-21)
This is the Manna Generation!
The generation that was sustained totally by God in the Wilderness for 40 years!
Their parents and grandparents died in the wilderness because of:
* Unbelief (lack of faith)
* Sin (grumbling against God)
God delivered them and brought them out of Egypt.
The people, however, feared going forth with God’s help to rid the Promised Land of the people living there and failed to move forward to take the Promised Land.
Joshua and Caleb trusted God to help them conquer the land
People Grumbled
Num. 14:2-4 NIV All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
So God led them into the wilderness to wander for 40 years.
Last week Janet and were driving home from our Nephew’s Wedding via I-70
We spent one day in Death Valley!
* That was enough for me (it was only 48 – 88 degrees)!
* Imagine forty years!
I imagine by this time the Children of Israel were becoming set in their ways. They would praise the LORD, move from place to place, gather and eat Manna, and start the week all over again.
GOD’S AMAZING GRACE TO HIS PEOPLE (time to enter the land)
The wilderness does not define your future
Neither do difficult or confusing circumstances or past mistakes
GREAT APPREHENSION
What about the giants in the land?
How are we going to cross the Jordan River at Flood Stage (3/4 to 1 mile wide)?
They are camped out for 3 days listening to the rushing waters of the river!
What’s next?
You might be apprehensive of the future as well:
* Just Finished 8th Grade – going to High School
* Just Finished High School – going to work or college
* Moving from the Children’s Ministry to Youth Group
* Just Finished College – going to work, grad school, getting married
* Starting a new chapter in your life
* Moving to a new location
* Going through a storm in your life
IMPORTANT STEP - CLEANSING:
God’s Holiness
Joshua 3:5 NIV Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”
Joshua 3:3b-4 NIV “…When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, who are Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about a thousand yards between you and the ark; do not go near it.”
It is Important to stay right with God
Psa. 24:3-4 NIV Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
1 John 1:9 NIV If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Have you ever had a seat with an obstructed view at a baseball game? Or here at Church?
You got stuck behind a pillar or post?
Sin can cause us to have an obstructed view of God!
God’s Empowerment
Zech. 4:6 NIV So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
The people were excited
The wait to enter the Promised Land was almost over.
But with God there are no “QUICK FIXES.”
Until they were purified they were not going to crossover!
CROSSING THE JORDAN
Joshua 3:9-17 NIV
Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
God was upstream!
God was leading and guiding!
God’s Sovereign Power is on display!
God was asking them to trust Him completely!
Imagine the faith and trust it took for the priests to step into the water?
I stopped along our trip to take a picture of the raging Sevier River in Southwest Utah! I slowly approached it and watched it carefully before going near it.
Faith is always apart of God’s plan!
Heb. 11:6 Message It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.
The priests and the people had no other option but to trust God’s plan by faith and move forward! Crossing the Jordan was the same as crossing the Red Sea!
Not crossing the Jordan because of being focused on circumstances would have been disobedience to God (sin).
That was the point of the Wilderness!
The people had to wander for 40 years because of the lack of faith!
But God revealed His power by feeding the multitudes in the desert!
This was His way of getting them to trust in Him Alone!
MEMORIAL STONES – WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT?
MEMORIAL STONES ESTABLISHED - Joshua 4:1-7 NIV
When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
Memorial Stones help us remember God’s Sovereignty and God’s Providence
Memorial Stone – Providence Rhode Island – Roger Williams
Fleeing from the Massachusetts Bay Colony because of his preaching Roger Williams flees trusting God’s providence to keep him safe. Help comes from the Narragansett Indians. Roger Williams in June 1636 with the four companions, who had joined him, founded the first settlement in Rhode Island, to which, in remembrance of “God's merciful providence to him in his distress”, he gave the name Providence.
Types of Memorial Stones
Biblical Foundation lay in your heart by your parents and church
* Sunday School Teachers / Children’s Ministry Director
* AWANA Leaders
* Youth Director and Youth Leader
* Pastor Jim Messages
Conversion to Christ
Graduation
Your Marriage
God taking you through a storm
“The stones were to tell the other nations round about that this God is different. He really exists; He is a living God, a God of real power who is immanent in the world.”
Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Joshua in the Flow of Biblical History, pg. 87
quoted by Dr. James M. Boice, Commentary on Joshua, pg. 40
MEMORIAL STONES TRANSFORM LIVES
A rebellious college student, raised in a Christian home, volunteered one summer to help build an addition on a small medical clinic in the Middle East that two Christian women had established. The young man drank when he could and smoked. He could not believe their faith to build this clinic with no visible means of support. They did not even have a newsletter.
“One Friday, Eleanor asked that we pray for the Lord to provide funds to pay a medicine bill from a Swedish company. I recall the gist of her plea:
Lord, You know that we don’t have the $1,355.00, but this is your hospital. Your name is on the line, not ours. If this bill doesn’t get paid, it is your name that gets discredited. If it pleases You, Lord, and it be Your will, provide for this need. Amen.
I tried hard not to be cynical, but I couldn’t believe that the money could come in if no one on the ‘outside’ knew about the need. If they would just let their needs be known, maybe someone would care enough to help. I had grown to love these women, and I didn’t want them hurt. But I completely missed the point; they already told Someone.
The next Monday an envelope arrived containing a hand written note, which read: ‘I have heard about the wonderful work you are doing there, and you have been in my thoughts. I had some extra money and wanted to send it to you. Enclosed is a check. Use it any way you see fit.’
The check was for $1,355.00.”
Franklin Graham
Anchor Man by Dr. Steve Farrar pgs. 190-191
This young man grew up in the church.
He heard the gospel delivered clearer and lived out sincerely before him.
God used this Memorial Stone to transform the heart of Franklin Graham (Billy’s son)
Steve Farrar gave this personal testimony to his daughter one night telling her of the days when he left the Pastorate to start a full-time ministry to meet the needs of Christian Men.
He had a $25,000.00 Printing bill (he was praying)
A couple wanting to support his ministry gave him $10,000.00 after dinner
But he still needed $15,000.00 and he wanted God to do it creatively
In the morning the same couple gave another $15,000.00 sensing that God wanted them to give more.
Anchor Man by Dr. Steve Farrar, pg. 195
MEMORIAL STONES EXPLAINED - Joshua 4:19-24 NIV
On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”
You can imagine a father or mother telling this story to their Children!
You should have been there! On the day we entered the Promised Land we had to cross the raging Jordan River.
We trusted God!
God dried up the waters and we crossed over on dry land! Oh, what a day!
We need stories to tell as a church as well!
Remember when we prayed and believed God and shared our faith with others and God worked and 25, 50 or 100 people were set free!
The alternative in failing to build up the faith of the next generation by telling the stories or God amazing power and glory is tragic!
Judg. 2:10-13 NIV After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
Joshua 1:6-9 NIV
We need to look back to the first chapter of the Book of Joshua
“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
God promised to be with Joshua wherever he went!
He told him to take comfort and encouragement from that promise!
Jesus wants to be with you wherever you go as well!
Keep Jesus at the Center of your Heart and Life
Let Him Lead and Let Him Guide (His Will not your Will)
James 4:13-15 NIV Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
I heard this firsthand at our Nephew Daniel’s Wedding
The Bride’s father was a recently retired Major General (2 Star) in the Air Force. I’m not telling you that to impress you.
Quite frankly seeing him, his best friend who was of higher rank and all the recent Graduates from the Air Force Academy in their uniforms unnerved me a bit.
I know I tried to polish up my shoes right before the wedding.
As the stories were shared during the rehearsal dinner and reception the Bride’s father began to see more clearly God’s will and plan unfolding. His assignment to Wright-Patterson AFB never made sense. It was one of those out of left field appointments.
I understand it a little better after readying his Bio Sheet. His previous assignment was Deputy Chief of Staff for Air, Space and Information Operations, Plans and Requirements, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C.
I’m from Ohio – I understand!
God brought he and his family to Ohio as part of God’s will and plan for his daughter to meet and marry our Nephew!
This wasn’t part of the conversation: I’m sure he and his wife prayed numerous requests for God to help each of their children find a godly spouse and mate. God heard and answered their prayers!
There is another lesson from all of this to be told.
After the wedding ceremony when all was quite the Major General thanked me and told me he had been thinking about what he was going to say during the toast later that night. He said he had the same thought on his heart that I shared during the ceremony and that he was going to use it to reinforce what I was trying to say.
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Eccl. 4:12 NIV
His advice to his daughter, son-in-law, and all who were present was that Jesus is that third cord that must be woven into the fabric of your life. Put Christ first at the center of your life!
His unwavering commitment to Christ is what impressed me (like the Centurion)!
THE PLACES YOU’VE BEEN - do not define where you are going today!
Learn from your past mistakes and failures. But do not dwell on them.
If you’ve sinned, confess it to God. God says that he places them behind his back or hurls them to the depths of the sea and remembers them no more!
If you need Christ as your Savior give your life and heart to HIM!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO – are uncharted waters!
Not ever chapter in the rest of your life will be easy. Hardship and trials come to us all!
As you take each future step whether:
* Going from 8th Grade into High School
* Leaving Children’s Ministry to enter the Youth Ministry
* Leaving Youth Ministry for the Refresh Ministry
* Going to look for a job (after high school or college)
* Going from High School to College
* Getting Married
* Starting a family
* Moving
* Starting a new career
Stay connected to Christ!
The journey you are on if you know Christ as your Savior is an unending eternal story that starts here on earth and continues with God for eternity in Heaven.
CONCLUSION
Joshua 4:23-24
The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”
God’s Testimony to others for His Glory
God wants to work in your life and through your life
to bring Himself Glory!
[Graduate], YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
So... be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
But Take Jesus With You!
