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Life Tabernacle Church Podcast
Biblical preaching and passionate teaching from Life Tabernacle Church in Vinton, Virginia.
Pastor Dallas Herndon and guest ministers teach verse-by-verse through Scripture, exploring the teachings of Jesus Christ and applying them to everyday Christian life.
Topics include:
• Prayer
• Discipleship
• Faith and doubt
• Spiritual formation
• Biblical theology
• Living the Gospel
New sermons recorded live each week from Life Tabernacle Church.
See, one of the stated purposes of this particular memorial was so that the people of Israel could teach their children about the great things God had done so that the work of God would not be forgotten amongst generations. See, the faith of the next generation will be shaped by our ability to remind them of who God is.
Speaker 2:Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community.
Speaker 2:Be sure to follow and share with a friend. We hope you enjoy today's message.
Speaker 1:We are so thankful for him. But this morning, we are I'm gonna be speaking to you on the thought of stones of remembrance. And so if you have your word, go ahead and turn to Joshua chapter four. And I wanna give you guys as you're turning to Joshua chapter four, you're turning on Joshua chapter four, a little bit of back story here. So we have the Israelites who have been wandering around the wilderness for forty years.
Speaker 1:Moses has died, and they are getting ready to enter into the promised land under Joshua's leadership. This is the promised land, the place that they had been waiting for for their inheritance, the place that they left Egypt for. But it had been forty years, and a generation has died off. And they have come and gone and there's a new generation that enters the scene. But before they can get to the promised land, they have to cross the Jordan River.
Speaker 1:And something I find very interesting in this story is that what do the Israelites have to do when they're leaving Egypt? They cross the Red Sea. Right? And one of the last hurdles that they will get through before they get to the promised land is another body of water called the Jordan River. And so Joshua not only has himself, but he has all the these Israelites with him, and he also has something called the ark of the covenant.
Speaker 1:And this ark of the covenant is the tangible slash portable presence of god that they have with them and so you can imagine it's probably a very stressful thing that he has to do. I mean, there is a lot. It's not just like he's maneuvering 50 people. There is a lot of people that he has to maneuver through this body of water And then he has the ark of the covenant that has very specific instructions on how to move this thing. And if you mishandle it, you might die.
Speaker 1:So that's that's kind of where he is, but they get to the Jordan River and sure enough, god does it for them again and he allows them to cross this body of water. But the Israelites received very specific instructions about god, what god wants them to do after this miracle happens and that is where we are gonna be focusing on today. So, Joshua chapter four verses one through 10. We're gonna go ahead and read that together. There's quite a bit of verses here but it's the word of the lord.
Speaker 1:Amen. So when all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the lord said to Joshua, take 12 men from the people from each tribe, amen, and commanded them saying, take 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priest feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight. And then Joshua called the 12 men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, pass on before the ark of the Lord your God, into the midst of the Jordan, and take of each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel. That this may be a sign among you.
Speaker 1:When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be peep shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. Verse eight.
Speaker 1:And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up 12 stones out of the midst of the Jordan. According to the number of tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid down there. And Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan. In the place where they where the feet of the priest bearing the ark of the covenant had stood and they are there to this day.
Speaker 1:For the priest bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded your sweet spirit that has been so evident this morning in worship And Lord, we ask that over these next few moments that you would be with us as we dive into the word. We thank you that your word is alive and it is active. And Father, I ask that you would breathe on this word that it would not just be Milan, but it would be you speaking through me. Lord, that you would open up our our heart, our eyes, our ears to receive what you have for us today. I speak over every person today, father, that we will leave here encouraged, that our faith would leave here encouraged, lord, and we would be prompted, father, to go out and change the world in which we live in.
Speaker 1:Lord, we thank you for what you are doing in this church. We thank you for the pastors and we continue to speak blessings in life over them. In Jesus name, we pray, amen. So, in life, we understand that the things that matter most to a person are most likely, hopefully, going to be their first priority. See, if I had a list of priorities in my life, my husband and my children, they're always going to fall first in line because most important things are first priority and in this story, god has an interesting first priority.
Speaker 1:He has the Israelites set up what we call stones of remembrance. Before they can get into the promised land, he wants them to stop and set up a memorial. And I'm sure that there is probably a lot of things going on at this point. Thousands of people are trying to process the miracle of what just happened. God dries up the Jordan River, and they need to make sure that the ark of the covenant is good.
Speaker 1:They need to check on little Timmy who very well may have gotten stuck in the mud. They have to get everyone over. And they're thinking about the promised land and maybe all that they are about to face. And if I was one of them picking up some stones, probably would be the last on my list. But God wants them to make this a priority before they go any further.
Speaker 1:And he wants them to set up stones of remembrance before they enter the promised land. Because he has a different priority than maybe we do. Because how you start off in the promised land matters and god is saying, hold on. I just did a miracle and you are going to want to remember this. See, god placed his first priority on these stones because he knows the power and the benefit of remembering.
Speaker 1:See, god commands us. He instructs us, and he encourages us to remember the works of god in our life. We are called to remember his works. Remembering is woven all throughout scripture. One of my favorite verses is found in Psalms one zero three two and it says, bless the lord, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits.
Speaker 1:We find remembering throughout scripture and it starts right in the beginning where Jacob builds a monument to commemorate and remember what god did in Bethel. The Psalms are saturated and remembering, remembering the works of god, meditating on what he does, what he has done, remember who he is. See, there is a great blessing in remembering and there is a great pain in forgetting. See, these stones of remembrance might be an old covenant practice, but they are a new covenant principle. You are called to build stone, build in your life memorials of what god has done.
Speaker 1:And I can be a pretty nostalgic person. I often find myself looking at old pictures, thinking about past moments in my life, and even in preparing this message, I found myself pinpointing different stones of remembrance, reflecting on the mountains and the valleys of my journey, collecting stones and writing them down so I don't forget the good things that have happened. See, some good things might be very easy for me to remember like the day I got married or maybe the day the birth of my boys, moments of healing, moments of provision in my life but there are also moments of God's faithfulness that are very easy for me to forget. See, the danger in forgetting what God has done, the breakthroughs, the miracles, the experiences we have with him is we can lose sight of what God can do. If we haven't built in remembrance, it's easy for us to show up to the riverbank, the mountain, the problem that we're facing, and forget that he has already brought us through this and this causes us to try to make things happen on our own or we might fall into fear, worry, and anxiety and we might begin to say, how am I ever going to get through this?
Speaker 1:How am I ever going to cross this river? And that is exactly why god tells us to remember these moments because when we forget, to become a better person. Look at what I made happen. Look at what I built. I've done all this work.
Speaker 1:I've worked really hard to get where I am. And we look back and say, I did that. Yep. Maybe you did some work, but it was ultimately God who changed you. It was ultimately God who saved you, who made it all come together.
Speaker 1:See, voids of stones of remembrance, they don't allow us to accurately attribute to God what he has done in our life. The only reason that you can say these things is because you have god's breath in your lungs and you were standing here today because of god and god alone. See, when we forget what's happened, we lose sight of what we can do and we limit him. We take credit for things when we should be giving god all of the glory and then, we can stop believing. We stop believing for more.
Speaker 1:We stop trusting and we stop looking forward with great anticipation. God's amazing and he knows that we can do this and so he gives us the instruction in the word to remember. He knows us and he knows that we are prone to forgetting. And if we're not intentional to remember, we simply forget. We must place these stones of remembrance in our life and record the moments that God is with you.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy six twelve says, then take care, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And you can read this and think, how could you forget a god like that? How do you forget the god that brought you out of slavery, who rescued you from pharaoh, who parted the Red Sea? And he still has to tell you, hey, don't forget what I did. And we probably think if I had a miracle like that, I would never forget forget it, but in our flesh, in our human nature, it is very possible.
Speaker 1:So we have a group of people who for forty years, they kept forgetting. They kept forgetting about his goodness and what he had done. They failed to build remembrance in. And we have a generation who for forty years, they live in the pain of forgetting. They got worried.
Speaker 1:They got anxious. They got hangry. They got bitter and angry, and they wanted to even go back to their lives in Egypt. See, when you forget what he's done and failed to remember, you begin to feel the pain of forgetting. When you lose sight of what he's done, you lose sight of what he can do.
Speaker 1:We are called to remember. And even though we think that we surely will not forget, he knows us and that's why he constantly is telling us in scripture to remember. And we have to weave stones of remembrance throughout our life and this isn't just something that happens but this is a very active thing we have to do. So, what does this look like? It's very practical and it's very simple and first, it's just simply talking about it.
Speaker 1:Let your conversations be filled with what the lord has done in your life and I even encourage you this although it might make you feel a little bit uncomfortable or it's awkward. Ask somebody, what is god doing in your life now? What has he done in your life? And you will probably find, like I said, that it is very, it's a very uncomfortable thing for people to answer. It should be simple but that is not always the case.
Speaker 1:See, we get so used to this reality of our life just thinking that things come into play all by themselves but I ask you the question, who woke you up this morning? Apple might have had its alarm go off but it was your body that responded to the noise. Who made your body and caused it to function? The lord god almighty, who breathed the very breath of life into your lungs, who causes the sun to rise and causes it to set. See, these things happen every day and it can be so easy for us to forget who sets it all in motion.
Speaker 1:When someone asks you what the lord is doing in your life, you have an answer. You have breath in your lungs. Your body might have some metal parts and might have some aches and pains but guess what? It's still working, right? You might be able to hear your car coming down the road a mile away but it got you from point a to point b.
Speaker 1:Your money might be a little funny sometimes, but he is still providing and proving himself as Jehovah Jireh. And I can stand up here today and go on and on, but we have to we have to have these stones of remembrance weaved into our conversation about what he has done in our life. We have to get excited and don't discount or discredit and think that there is no point in sharing what the Lord has done Because it ignites the faith of others, and it builds remembrance in you. Revelation nineteen ten says, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. See, your story becomes a prophetic word that unlocks the faith of someone else to see a miracle too.
Speaker 1:To give your testimony because the stones of remembrance will prophesy to what the lord can do. Testimonies are stones of remembrance and I'm sure that everyone here remembers the the day of a good old fashioned testimony service. Anybody else? I grew up in church so I know a little something about a Sunday night testimony time and I'm just saying this, we all know we can be a little weird, right? Like, let's just be honest.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, we're a little interesting when we share things about our life and I will never forget when we were youth pastors in Houston. When we first got married, our pastor would have us, my husband and I and our young adults leader, take turns of who got to be in charge of testimony time and I sometimes get the giggles that come upon me and I have a hard time once I start laughing, I can't stop and I say that with all the love in the world Because sometimes I would have to take up prayer requests and testimonies and I'll never forget one girl asked for a prayer for her pet turtle. I'm not saying God is not with your pet turtle. But sometimes, you know, maybe we just gotta let the turtle move on to something better and greater than the little thing it's in. But I'll never forget there was a, man named brother John Daniels, and brother John Daniels, he would always get up and he would say, pastor Ricky, he said, I'm gonna sing my testimony.
Speaker 1:And you really never knew what brother John Daniels was gonna sing about. He had very interesting songs. And so he would get up there and he would sing his testimony, and I remember thinking, oh gosh, here comes brother John Daniels again. He's singing his testimony. But I look back and I think about, you know what, brother John Daniels was just so thankful for what the Lord had done in his life that he made up a song about it and they were they were great.
Speaker 1:So talk about it. Let your conversations be filled with stones of remembrance. And secondly, write it down. See, maybe that looks like making a simple list of every time God has come through in your life. Whether this is on a pen or paper or if you're younger, maybe it's in your notes app, in your phone, maybe it's in the margins of your Bible but this is going to cause you to really pay attention to the details and when you start paying attention to when god is moving, this will allow you to honor and steward well what god is doing.
Speaker 1:Journaling, we tell our students all the time to journal. My journal is my unpaid therapist, okay? Don't take your problems to Facebook. Don't be passive aggressive on social media. Maybe you just need to write it down in a journal.
Speaker 1:Pray about it. Talk to God about it. See, journaling is a very practical way to have a stone of remembrance in your life where we can go back and we even have a date to when god maybe answered that prayer. I have a prayer journal journal that I like to keep and I have dates and things written in there and there are some that I can go back and I can circle like, god, he answered this. There's other ones or maybe part of that prayer has been answered and there's a lot of prayers that he is still working out but that is my stone, my very visible, intangible stone of remembrance that I can go back to.
Speaker 1:Stones build us up. Stones are meant to be building blocks, and that is exactly what stones of remembrance do to your faith. They build it up. See those lists or journal pages can become fuel for your faith when you need a reminder of what God has done or what you're believing for him to do. Talk about it and write it down.
Speaker 1:See God commands us to remember, but when we remember, we position ourselves for him to do it again. He wants us to remember his works because he wants to repeat his works. And not only does he want us to repeat his works, but he will repeat his works. See, it's the jogging of your memory that might bring you back to an experience. I have certain certain perfumes that I wear, but one in particular is a Coco Chanel perfume, and I bought it on my honeymoon.
Speaker 1:So, anytime I spritz that up, I don't just wear that perfume to Walmart, right? Like, that's a special date night perfume for me or maybe if I'm going to someone's wedding, it's very special and so when I smell that perfume, it brings me back to my wedding day. It brings me back to my honeymoon, all the warm tropical places that I got to visit that I wish I can be at right now. But smells, they can jog your memory. Maybe a certain perfume or cologne reminds you of a person.
Speaker 1:It reminds you of a grandparent or a loved one. Smells can take you back to a good or a bad experience or even songs. Songs can bring you back, and I can think about the very song that was playing when I got my heart broken and I would replay that song over and over and over again as I'm balling over some boy that wasn't even worth my attention but that song brings me back to that moment. I think about the song, The More I Seek You, if you know it, it's a worship song, but that was the very song that was playing when I decided as a middle school student to really dive all in for Jesus. So every time the more I seek you is played, guess what?
Speaker 1:Milan is a big ball of mush. I am balling my eyes out because I think about that experience and what the Lord had done in my life. See, when you jog your memory and remember what God has done in your life, you are put back in a place of faith for him to do it again and move in your life. It reminds us of who he is and what he can do and not only what he can do but what he wants to do and not only what he wants to do but what he will do. Hebrews thirteen eight says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Speaker 1:See, Jesus doesn't change and he is not limited in power and I wonder how many Israelites had showed up and remembered the Red Sea. See, there was a generation who had forgotten what the Lord had done. And how many times do we see that in the Old Testament? Judges two ten says, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the lord or the work he had done for Israel. See, it is important that we, it is important that we do not forget what god has done because this is an anchor and a memorial in our life.
Speaker 1:Verse five and says, go across to the ark of the lord your god in the middle of the Jordan. See, god commands them to get rocks from the middle of the Jordan and these details are so important because god wants them right in the middle. And he doesn't say go across the Jordan where it's safe, get out of the water and pick up your stones, or wait for everyone to get across the Jordan. Don't wait for grandma and grandpa to get across. But he says, while you are crossing, pick up these stones.
Speaker 1:And let me tell you this today that in the midst of the struggle, you better start picking up pieces of evidence that God is with you. Because you're going to need that when you get to the other side. See in the midst of your pain, in the midst of your struggle, you can bend down and say, God is with me. I might have woken up depressed, but today I feel a little bit better. That's another stone I'm picking up.
Speaker 1:Or maybe God, this relationship is making a little progress. They're still restoring, but I'm gonna pick up that rock. It's another rock that I'm going to pick up to remember the evidence of God's goodness. So you don't wait till you're on the other side of your breakthrough to start remembering. Record it now.
Speaker 1:Show God, say I'm remembering what you have done. See God not only told people to gather stones, but he would also tell them to build altars. So what do you do at an altar? You pray, you worship, you communicate with the Lord. Pick up the stones in the middle of your struggle.
Speaker 1:In the middle, start building stones to remember who God is in your life and what he has done. Do you know what else I love about this story? Is in verse nine it says, then Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan. Joshua also set up a pile of memorial stones in the very bit of bed of the River Jordan so that when it was lowered in a season of drought, those stones could be seen and would testify at the time that God completely dried up the Jordan. See not only do the Israelites have a memorial to see whenever they want, that represents God's faithfulness, but in the middle of a drought season, there were rocks that were set up that would remind them what God did.
Speaker 1:Especially in the time of drought, we need to remember the great things that the Lord has done. The new Bible commentary says that remembering the past plays a vital role in the identity of a nation. And sociologists say that for a society that wants to endure, so a society that wants to last, they need to become a community of memory and therefore hope, because memory creates hope. Some of you might not be hopeful because you aren't recalling. You're waiting for God to do something new, and you aren't meditating on on what he has already done.
Speaker 1:You're waiting for God to move, but you're not even giving him credit for all of the things that he's already done in your life. So do you know what to do while you're waiting? While you're in the middle of the Jordan, start remembering all he has done, all the ways he's met you and all the ways that he's been with you because memory creates hope. Did you know what happens when we don't rightly remember something? Have you ever been around someone that has had the exact same experience and your your story's over here and their story's over here, they're like, we were there at the exact same time.
Speaker 1:How is your version of the story completely different than my version? Because remembering incorrectly skews your perspective. So when you don't remember the Lord rightly, your perspective of him is skewed. It's limited. It's clouded, and it is not accurate.
Speaker 1:We need to remember rightly. Writing it down and talking about it, there's such practical ways to remember rightly. Psalm seventy seven eleven, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. Your salvation story still matters.
Speaker 1:No matter if it was five months ago or fifty years ago, it still matters. Your testimony still matters. The Red Sea still matters. This might be an old miracle, but it creates new faith for people all the time. Don't tire the story of God because it still matters.
Speaker 1:See, let us not ever get tired of the story or lose our wonder of his wonder working power. Remembering is not only beneficial for us, but we are also called to help other people remember. Joshua four six, so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, what do these stones mean to you? You should tell them the water of the Jordan was cut off in front of the Lord's covenant.
Speaker 1:See, one of the stated purposes of this particular memorial was so that the people of Israel could teach their children about the great things God had done. So that the work of God would not be forgotten amongst generations. See, the faith of the next generation will be shaped by our ability to remind them of who God is. We often fail in our trust in God because we forget the great things that he has done. And could it be that maybe the faith of our children could be weak because we have never told them about how great god is in his real working power in our lives.
Speaker 1:See, we have to take telling the next generation seriously. It is our our responsibility as moms, as dads, as grandma, as grandpas, aunt and uncle to tell all generations about the goodness of god. And if we are seeing the next generation be godless and faithfulness and walking away from the church, maybe the generation before them has failed in telling them all that god has done and about who he is. We must build stones of remembrance so they can look at it and see and say, what does that mean? What has the Lord done for you?
Speaker 1:And let it be readily available in us because we have been meditating on the goodness of God. Whether it's in his word or meditating about what he's done in our lives so we can tell others. If we need to be reminded, others around us need to be reminded too. Church, we need to remind each other of the goodness of god. See, we cannot fulfill or teach the next generation without these stones and we might have a good memory but I'm sorry to tell you, you probably don't.
Speaker 1:I am 32 years old. I'm still young at heart. I'm getting up there. The 30s are the new 20s, right, Fiona? We're thriving but I can tell you, my memory is awful.
Speaker 1:I have conversations in my mind that I think I tell my husband and then I'm like, oh, no, I told you this and he said, no, you didn't and I realized, oh, Milan told herself in her mind, I'm not crazy but I just forgot to actually tell him or just, you know, the like life is busy. There is so much going on around us. Our memories are not as sharp as we like to think they are. And that is why god tells us to remember, to tell the next generation, to set up these stones, to build a memorial, to build an altar, to remember, remember, remember. See, together, we need to be talking about god moments in our life.
Speaker 1:Don't disqualify your testimony. Small testimony, medium testimony, big testimony. It all needs to be shared. It is all worthy to be celebrated And start accrediting to God all that he has done, big or small. Because it creates expectation in our life and it creates hope.
Speaker 1:Be ready with your stones of remembrance. See, these stones were meant to be a memorial to the people of Israel about what god had done and what about what he was going to do and we need to be ready with a memorial to the people of the world to show them who god is and what he can do And so in closing this morning, the worship team wants to come up. First Samuel chapter seven verse 12 says this, afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it upright between Misfath and Shen. He named it Ebenezer explaining the Lord has helped us up to this point. See Ebenezer is a memorial stone that was set up by Samuel, meaning in the Hebrew that this was a stone of hell.
Speaker 1:And this stone was used to commemorate God's deliverance of Israel from the Philistines declaring thus far the Lord has helped us. A physical reminder for the Israelites of God's assistance and his deliverance. Samuel erected a thankful memory of victory that gave God that gave glory to God and encouragement to the Israelites. See, remembering all that God has done should always bring him glory and encourage yourself and those around you. This Ebenezer stone is a tangible reminder of God's faithfulness, making a significant point where God intervened.
Speaker 1:See moments that we can look back on when God helped us during times of difficulty or uncertainty, a kind of buoy to hold onto when the waters of life get stormy. See Ebenezer also symbolizes remembering and giving thanks for God's past blessings in our life. Ebenezer's are stones of remembrance in our life where god simply met us. Another portion of scripture where god calls us to remember. And I can't imagine this morning how many stones of remembrance are sitting before me.
Speaker 1:The miracles, the salvations, the provision, maybe the revivals. They are all stones of remembrance not just to be carried but to be built upon. See stones are meant to be building blocks. They help build foundations. They are meant to help build us up.
Speaker 1:And this morning, I ask you, what are your stones of remembrance? And I have a couple Ebenezer stones. I have probably a lot of Ebenezer stones. But these are very significant moments in my life and I as I prepared for this, I begin to think about Ebenezer moments in my life where the lord simply met me. The first one, let's see if I could find it.
Speaker 1:They're in here somewhere. The first Ebenezer stone would be my eighteenth birthday and you're like, Milan, why why is that so significant to you? Because at 15, I did not want to live to even see my eighteenth birthday because I was so deep in the pit of anger and depression and hurt that when my eighteenth birthday came around, I was like, wow god, I made it. And then again, when I would face a different type of depression, postpartum depression after the birth of my second son. When my mind and my hormones were going crazy, when I did not want to actually keep on living and fighting.
Speaker 1:And it was at a ladies conference about two and a half, three years after I had my second where the Lord would simply just reach down and touch me and he would heal my mind and he would heal my hormones. Another stone of remembrance in my life is restoring my parents' marriage. Time after time where the lord's faithfulness and his grace would meet them. Another Ebenezer stone would be my sister. Now, like I said, I'm from California but I live in Michigan now.
Speaker 1:So, I don't always get to be home but I remember one particular time about six years ago, I think actually. I was home for a friend's wedding and it would be that very same night that I would get a call that my sister was hit by a drunk driver. And honestly, the fact that she is still alive today is a miracle in itself. So, another Ebenezer where the lord would meet my family, where he would heal my sister and save her. Another Ebenezer stone would be I don't know if you guys ever heard of Hurricane Harvey.
Speaker 1:Hurricane Harvey hit the city of Houston and the surrounding areas in 2017, I believe. No, twenty fifth, twenty one day get married, 2016. 2016, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston and my husband and I live there. It was actually kind of traumatic. We can laugh laugh about it now but we our home got flooded.
Speaker 1:We lost a vehicle. We actually were trying to leave our neighborhood and my husband's car got stuck. The water would go all the way to the dashboard. We had to be rescued by high rise vehicles, stay in a shelter. It was a whole thing.
Speaker 1:But that was another moment that the lord met us was at Hurricane Harvey. And then I'll never forget there was a time in our ministry very young. Our our first second year in ministry. Where something would happen to us and really we're leaders kind of did us wrong. So, we went to this church called harvest time and harvest time would very be the very place of healing that my husband and I would need to honestly continue on in ministry And I remember at harvest time one night, I was the only one working, and honestly, I wasn't making a ton of money.
Speaker 1:We had a parsonage to live in, and we had a particular bill that was due, and it was a very unique number. The bill was for, like, a $103.17, something really different like that. And I'll never forget at Sunday night service, there would be a person that would come up to my husband and give him a Pentecostal handshake. And the exact number that he gave us was a $103.17. He said, I have this change in my pocket.
Speaker 1:I wanna give you a $100 bill, but I have this change in my pocket and I'm gonna give it to you. I know it's a weird number. It would be the very exact number that we needed for the bill the next day. Another moment of Ebenezer where the Lord stepped in and he met us. I think about another Ebenezer stone is Impact Michigan where I get to serve and see hundreds of students every year Touched and met by the lord.
Speaker 1:A generation that is hungry for the things of him. Students that would come to camp thinking that they were a boy but would leave knowing that their identity, that they were meant to be a woman, that the lord created them. Students that would come bound and addicted and would leave camp free, impact Michigan, another Ebenezer stone. And as I'm closing up, my boys, that there would be a lot of prayers and questions wondering, god, would you ever give us children? And then came Asher and then by a wonderful surprise, then came Luca and it would be about five years later that we would be in the middle of me having to heal with postpartum depression but also beginning to pray god in your timing.
Speaker 1:Is there going to be another Coleman baby? And then by his grace and his mercy, when I really felt like it was never going to happen, he would answer that prayer again again and he gave us Ezra. Another stone of remembrance. And the last one this morning isn't a stone of remembrance that I lived through, but it was one that my husband and my sister-in-law would live through is the healing of their mom, Laurie, from cancer where the Lord would heal her and use her story and honestly her prayers to pray for others and believe for healing. See, there are many more stones of remembrance that I could stand up here today and talk to you about.
Speaker 1:Ones that I'm even believing for God to still continue to answer. But this morning, encourage you to build stones of remembrance in your life, to build stones of remembrance in a place of memory for the next generation because your children and your grandchildren need to see, hear the stories about the moments that the Lord met you. Where were you at when he called you by name? Where were you at when he healed your body? What did it look like when maybe there was a financial need to be met and he stepped in and he met that very need when he was Jehovah Jireh?
Speaker 1:Where were you at when you felt like all hope was lost? You were in a valley in a pit of despair and the Lord so gracious and merciful swept down and he picked you up. When you felt like you were dead spiritually and he breathed life on you again, where were you at? Because this morning I need to hear your stones of remembrance. The younger generations need to hear your stones of remembrance, and I guarantee you that those sitting to your left and your right today, they need to hear about your stones of remembrance.
Speaker 1:See this morning if you need help remembering, get around someone that can help build your faith, To help you remember what God has already done. And to have confidence that he will do it again. Write about it. Talk about it. Let your conversation be filled with the sweet words of the bible.
Speaker 1:Let your conversation be filled about what the Lord has done in your life. And if you're even talking about what you want him to do, get around that person that that's not gonna say, oh I know it's hard. It's rough. Don't worry. But no, get around that person that's gonna say, hey, this is what God has done for me, and I know he can do it for you too.
Speaker 1:Let your faith seep out of you and encourage those around you. And so over these next few moments, this is what I would like us to do is to just simply worship. To worship the Lord because can I tell you, you have breath in your lungs today? You are breathing. You are alive.
Speaker 1:You are well. You made it here today. We live in a country of religious freedom that some of us might take so lightly. We just forget about these simple things. But with your breath, with your ability, worship the Lord.
Speaker 1:Thank him for what he's done. However, that looks like if you have a prayer language, begin to pray in your prayer language, thanking him for what he's done, lifting your hands, worshiping him. If maybe you have a need that you are believing to come to pass, I encourage you to come up, to get around people, to pray, and worship, and so they're going to lead us into another song and this is my challenge for you this morning. As we stand that we would just simply worship the