This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day three together of week two of our look through the book of Joshua.
We're going to be looking at chapter four today of this book. Yesterday we
looked at the step of faith they took for the Jordan River to be crossed.

The waters were held up by God and because of that they crossed over the Jordan
River on dry ground. Today we look at a way to finish that step of faith. There
is a way to finish our steps of faith that we often forget.

There's a way to finish when God has done something wonderful in your family and
your church and your life that we often forget. This way of finishing out these
steps of faith, it is vital to keeping faith growing, both for your own faith
and also for the faith of others. So as we look at it today, it's an
encouragement for me, for you, to be those kind of people that finish our steps
of faith so that our steps of faith can keep us growing.

Listen to what they did in chapter four verses one to nine. "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 priest stood, and to
carry them over with you and to put them down at the place where you're going to
stay tonight. ' So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from
the Israelites, one from each tribe, and he 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 did 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. So the Israelites did as
Joshua commanded them.

They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number
of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua, and they carried
them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the
twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the
priest who carried the ark of the covenant had stood, and they're there to this
day. You and I are to remember what God has done.

When we take a step of faith in God works, they literally took literal stones
and set them up as a memorial. We need some way in our lives to keep reminding
ourselves that God has worked. Twelve stones, as we read several times through
these verses, so that each tribe would have a part, so that everybody would
remember.

They all had a part in remembering. And twelve stones, did you notice, from the
middle, said that several times, so that God's work could be easily recognized.
Not twelve stones from the edge of the river, where anybody could get them, but
twelve stones from the middle of the river, where you could only get them if the
waters had been held up.

I suppose you could get them another way, but it sure would have been difficult.
They showed the miracle. So how about you?

How can you memorialize? How can you remember the works of God in your life?
There are other ways than setting up twelve stones.

Let me just give you some ideas. It could be through a testimony, telling
someone else the story of what God has done. It could be one person.

It could be your whole church. It could be writing out that testimony and
sending it to some people. It could be writing a journal of what God has done in
your life, that someday somebody will get and be able to read the life lessons
of how God has worked through the circumstances.

Could be writing in the back of your Bible just a list of times and places that
God has worked. It could be giving a special offering. Sometimes people will
give an offering in recognition of what God has done.

It could be having a family celebration. When your family gets baptized and
you're there that day and you celebrate, but you also have a celebration
afterwards to remember what happened. What I'm saying is this.

When God does something great, you take the time to remember it. You take the
time to recognize it. This is all through this chapter.

When you go down to verse 19, this is all repeated. Listen to what happens in
verse 19. 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 that they'd taken out of the
Jordan. And 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, so that
you might always fear the Lord your God. " Now you might remember something as I
just read these verses.

You remember that as the people of Israel wandered through the wilderness, all
that first generation died out in that wilderness, except for two men, Joshua
and Caleb. Even Moses died before they came into the promised land. So there
were two men that crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground and now cross over the
Jordan River on dry ground.

And Joshua was reminding them, "Just like it happened at the Red Sea, it's
happened here today. And I want you to remember it. " And at the end of these
verses that we just read, he tells them why.

What does it accomplish when I remember what God has done? When in some way,
writing a journal, giving a testimony, there's some way I remember it. What does
it accomplish?

Did you see it? "So that all the people of the earth might know that the hand of
the Lord is powerful, and so that you might always fear the Lord your God. "
Number one, that all might know that the Lord's hand is mighty.

Number two, that you might fear the Lord. That's what it accomplishes. That's
how your faith keeps growing.

Number one, that all might know that the hand of God is mighty. The world longs
to hear of a God who is not just talked about inside of churches, but He's
working in everyday human lives. He's working in the everyday drudgery of our
lives, and then every once in a while there's these miracle moments in our
lives.

And when it happens, you memorialize it somehow. You let it be known somehow. So
that the world can see that God is a powerful God.

He is at work in your life. Don't keep it secret. Don't keep it private.

Your stories of what God has done in your life are the greatest stories in this
world. They're better than any TV show. They're greater than any movie, because
these are the stories that are going to last into eternity.

We're the real blockbusters in this world. So that all might know that God's
hand is mighty. And then a second reason.

What does it accomplish? When I take the time to somehow set it down, what God
has done, somehow keep it remembered. You might even buy something that you put
in your house, somewhere on a mantle.

That's a remembrance of when God did something. The second reason is that you
might fear the Lord. When you recognize in others' presence what God has done,
it enhances, it strengthens your own reverence for God, your own reverence for
God's presence.

It's easy, all too easy, for you and I to take God for granted, and even to take
his power for granted. We look at the world around us and somehow the world
seems so powerful. All the machines, all the energy, all that's happening in
this world with the politics of men.

But it's nothing, it's nothing compared to the mighty hand of God. And when I
somehow put into my life places where I can remember the mighty things that God
has done, it keeps me from thinking that somehow this world is more powerful. It
keeps reminding me that it's God who I reverence.

This idea of fearing the Lord every God, it's not being afraid of God like you'd
be afraid of a horror movie. It's reverencing God. It's having this awe-filled
respect for God's power, and knowing that his power is greater than anything in
this world.

And there's something about remembering that keeps you in that place of
reverencing. So the question as we come to the end of these last few days is,
what are you going to do? What are you going to do about that Jordan that you're
facing?

Are you going to just stand at the edge, or are you going to put your foot into
the water? Are you going to be satisfied with the situation, or are you going to
be ready for the wonderful that God wants to do? Decide right now, maybe you've
been thinking about this for a few days as we've been talking about it, right
now to dip your foot into that water to trust.

Whatever that means for you, it could be about a relationship, it could be about
a business, could be about schooling, a decision you need to make, it could be
about a move you need to make, it could be about a ministry, a dream, whatever
it means in your life, decide right now to step in. Decide right now, maybe your
decision is to stand still in the middle, to keep obeying God in that place that
he has put you, even though it's tough, even though you might be afraid right
now. Or maybe your decision right now is to decide to remember what God has
done, and to write it down somewhere to thank him so that your faith keeps
growing.

Let's pray together. Our Father, help us to decide based on your work. We make
decisions every day based on what we want or someone else wants.

Help us to decide based on your will, how you're working, what you're doing.
Help us to decide to follow you today. Lord, we can't make decisions for 10
years from now or one year or even one week from now.

We can make the decision we need to make today. What do you want us to do today,
Lord? Show us.

And as you show us, help us to live the life of faith instead of the life of
doubt. Help us to live a life that's motivated by knowing that you love us
rather than by being afraid. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.