Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 9:30.
[00:00:07] Good morning. If I have not had the opportunity to meet you, my name is Michael Fueling, I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. I would love the opportunity to shake your hand and say hello to you. Joshua, chapter four. If you have a Bible, open up there.
[00:00:20] I want to start by talking about two parts of your life that have formed you and I probably way more than we realize.
[00:00:28] And these two things are called rhythms and remembrances.
[00:00:33] So as a kid there are just like things that you do as a family on an annual basis. So every year we celebrate Easter, every year we celebrate Christmas. Every year we celebrate birthdays. And in the Fueling home at the least like these are big deals. And so like if my kid wakes up and they're like I don't want to go to church on Easter, we're like, sorry, it's a really big deal in our home. Or if they're like I, I don't wanna celebrate my birthday, then I'll look at them and say fine. Then we're gonna celebrate the woman who gave you birth and I'm gonna give all of your presents to her or to the sibling that you like the least. Take your pick. No, we're celebrating you because we do these things in our home. These are non negotiable rhythms. And then there are weekly rhythms and in our home we give weekly worship our highest priority. My children do not get to wake up unless they are sick out of respect to everyone else. They, they don't get to wake up and say I don't feel like going to church today. They don't also get to wake up and say I don't feel like we're going to school. So if I wouldn't do it with school, I'm not doing with church even a higher priority. In the Fueling home there are daily rhythms that God commands believers to have where we spend time meditating and studying his word and we spend time in prayer.
[00:01:47] Rhythms and remembrances tether us to what is most important.
[00:01:53] So when you're young, especially the daily and the weekly habits rhythms, they can get really boring. Like I remember being in church and I remember thinking to myself, how can anybody pray? As long as my pastor can pray? Like the longest prayers I've ever heard in my life. And I actually went back and asked my parents like how long do they pray? They were five to seven minute written out pastoral prayers every single Sunday. And I was like, as an 8 year old I want to die a slow painful death, right?
[00:02:22] And now as you grow up, I realize, because I can now. Like, when I think about you as your pastor and you were to give me eight minutes to pray, I got a lot more than that in me because I have my pulse a little bit on what's happening in so many of our lives. And as I got older, I started to appreciate the heart that those pastors had, to go before the Lord and say, God, would you do for this church what I cannot do? What only you, by your power do, can do.
[00:02:49] And so when you get older, like, things start to change.
[00:02:53] These annual or weekly or daily rhythms, they start to become, like, really important to you. And you realize that, like, there's a pole inside of me stronger than I ever imagined, away from what these rhythms tether me to. Like, the pull towards self is so strong that if you give it an inch, it'll take a foot. And if you give it a foot, you won't even realize it. It'll take a mile.
[00:03:18] And as you get older, you realize, like, I'm not capable on my own, in my own power to stay tethered to the most important things in this world.
[00:03:28] I need to actually step back and I need to create daily, weekly, annual rhythms that tether me to these things. Because I. I don't know about you. I am so selfish.
[00:03:40] Here's an illustration of what this might look like as an analogy. Couples who are connected deeply. I don't know if you're aware of this, but, like, that does not happen on accident. If you find a couple who like each other, love each other, and enjoy each other, that happened on purpose because the pole in every marriage is away from each other. The pull because of our selfishness and the world is to disconnection. Over the last 15 years, you add social media to that, and that poll has gotten 10 times stronger than it ever was before. But the couples who choose these faithful rhythms, they stay connected.
[00:04:23] They have figured out if we don't rhythm these things, if we don't schedule time together, if we don't choose to say we go to church, if we don't actually prioritize, the. The pole is away from each other or the family that attends church who regularly schedules worship. Here's what they understand. It doesn't matter what I feel like that morning. What matters is that my God has saved me, and I have the privilege and honor to worship him and to sing praise to him and bring him glory. And if my kids don't want to be there one day, they're going to thank me for that, because My kids emotions don't run the house. Amen. Amen.
[00:04:57] As you get older, you begin to understand the why.
[00:05:00] The why is because I'm selfish and I forget.
[00:05:04] The why is because God commanded it. Because he knows me better than I do. And so in the Old Testament, God creates these rhythms and these remembrances. The New Testament is also clear about rhythms. By the way, here are the New Testament rhythms. We're commanded to weekly worship and weekly ministry.
[00:05:20] And we are commanded on daily rhythms of meditation in God's word and prayer.
[00:05:26] Then there are remembrances.
[00:05:27] Remembrances, it's very simple. They're objects that force our brains to think about the things that matters.
[00:05:33] Our country is great at this. The American flag is everywhere. It's a thing that when you look at it, you can get numb to it if you see it too much. But it's supposed to draw your heart to something sacred. We have national mana and state memorials.
[00:05:49] The village of Bartlett has whole memorials as well. And so all throughout our country are so many memorials. These things that when you see them, they remind you of the things that are the most important. Scripture actually has a whole bunch of different things that we're supposed to do as God's people. Articles of clothing in the Old Testament. Pictures, monuments. Something they call Ebenezers.
[00:06:11] Remembrances.
[00:06:12] They ground us and they solidify our identity. Who am I like? Here's a couple examples of remembrances. You go to someone's home and you see their family verse on the wall and you're reminded of the big meta theme of what binds this family together. Or you see your wedding picture. And every time you see that picture, you are reminded of the covenant that built this home.
[00:06:38] Or the screensaver on your phone. Some of you call it a wallpaper. You look at this and it reminds me of what I live for. It's interesting. When I get up and preach, this is just a little thing that I do. Like my screensaver is my.
[00:06:52] When they were little. And then each of my kids will grab this and then they will change it to their face. And so I never quite know what face is gonna show up on a Sunday morning. But I think to myself, like, I wanna preach in a way that would bring honor and glory to God and help my kids take their next steps every step of the way. It's a motivation, It's a reminder for me.
[00:07:14] There's that memento maybe in your office that maybe somebody that passed away or somebody that really meant a lot to you. It reminds you of them and that relationship and impacted Your life.
[00:07:25] God commands rhythms and remembrances to tether us to what is most important.
[00:07:31] Because if we aren't tethered to these things, to something outside of us, we will just live for ourselves.
[00:07:38] This is our default setting. Now we get to Joshua, chapter four, and there are 1 to 2 million people who are about to cross the Jordan River. And the Lord has come through and the Lord has shown his power, that everyone has seen it. This is jaw dropping. It is beautiful. And the priests are standing in the middle of the river holding the Ark of the covenant. Not the boat, but the box. And the Ark of the covenant was where God's presence was centralized. And they are standing there, Pastor Ryan said last week, for probably six hours or more, as all of these people pass over the dried up Jordan river and go into the promised land, God has finally taken everyone over.
[00:08:17] And just when you think, like, Joshua is gonna be like, all right, pries, now it's time for you to get out of the river and to come onto dry land. God's like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I've got one more job for you to do. Priests, you stay right there. And we get to Joshua, chapter 4, verse 1 says, when all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, take 12 men from the people, from each tribe, a man, and command them, saying, take 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priest's feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight. So all the people are over, the priests are waiting for Joshua's command. And the Lord says, wait up, 12 men, one from every tribe. And I want you to go in. And what the rest of the text shows us is that the stones are supposed to be big enough that they can kind of carry on your shoulders. So these aren't like little river stones. These are little larger stones that these 12 men would go and they would carry it with them, put it on their shoulder, and then they would take it to the place where they were going to lodge. And if you kind of like want a visual of what the Jordan river would look like when its banks are full at this time of year, it's about the size of a football field. And so they probably had to go in about 50 yards. We're not talking huge, but I don't know about you, but, like, I'd be scared to go back in. And so they went back in and they did it. The what of this text, it's super straightforward. In fact, if you read through Joshua chapter four, it actually tells the same story over and over again. One from, from God telling it, a second from Joshua doing it, and then again for funsies. And so the what is clear. They did it. God said what to do. We just told you what happened. But the why is really, really meaningful. Verse 21 gives us the why.
[00:10:03] He said to the people of Israel, when your children ask their fathers in times to come, what do these stones mean?
[00:10:15] Then you shall let your children know.
[00:10:18] Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.
[00:10:22] For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over as the Lord commanded, as the Lord your God did to the Red sea, which was 40 years prior, which he dried up for us until we passed over. God is a genius. And what he does here is he connects a rhythm and a remembrance through a monument. And so this large stack of smooth riverbed stones would be in this city near Jericho, near the Jordan river. And kids would pass by it and they would grow up and they probably wouldn't think much about it. And then if you ever like notice something one day and you're like, has that thing always been there? Right? And you're like, how did I miss that for all these years, right? And, and then one day your brain sees it and this would be probably one of those moments where maybe the Holy Spirit just brings to mind one of these kids and the kid stops and says dad, what? Like what do these stones actually mean?
[00:11:21] And the dad in this moment, or the mom or the grandma or the grandpa or the guardian or whatever, the person that they ask this question to has the awesome privilege to tell them the true stories of God's greatness and, and power and might. Now I'd like to say something a little bit challenging.
[00:11:40] All of us are going to die. That's not the challenging part. You know that. If you haven't figured figured it out. Sorry to break the news, but you are going to die.
[00:11:48] But most of us will not be remembered past great grandpa or great grandma.
[00:11:54] The vast majority of you cannot tell me the names of your great great grandmas and your great great grandpas. Probably more than half of you couldn't tell me the name of all of your great grandmas and great grandp.
[00:12:05] And I kind of came to this conclusion pretty a while ago, maybe 10 years ago that there's this part of me, I don't know if you have it too, but I would love to build a great name for myself where my great great Great grandchildren tell stories of my valor and awesomeness, and my name goes in the history books.
[00:12:20] It's just not gonna happen. I think most of us have this desire to do something great for the Lord that lives past us.
[00:12:27] One of the things that I've realized, though, is that my name is gonna be forgotten. That is just the nature of it. My name doesn't even matter.
[00:12:34] Far more valuable than the greatness of my name or my legacy or my reputation is the name of Jesus Christ.
[00:12:43] And so, like, all I want is for my kids, my grandkids. And this is what you want, too. And some of you just wrestling through this. Like, the reason I'm emotional is because I'm thinking about some of you right now, and I'm just, like, thinking about the stories in your life and the burden and the prayer you have for your kids. And, like, you pray for your kids, and you get to a point, I don't know what happens or where it is, where you're just like, who cares about my name? Like, there's no greater joy than knowing that my children love the Lord and that they're walking with him. And so, like, I know when I'm saying this, like, throughout this message, like, I get. I am, like, in a room with moms and dads, and some of you. Your kids are here. You dragged them, and they don't want to be here, right? And, like, man, I'm glad you're here, but this is our burden. This is, like, what gets us. And so, like, but you get to this point where you're like, who cares about Michael Fueling? I want. I want to give my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren the absolute greatest chance of having an eternity with God and knowing their Creator. And you know what is far more compelling to that end than telling stories of greatness and valor, by the way, which are only gonna happen if, like, major persecution happens, right? But you're like, I don't want that either. You know what's far more valuable than that is telling stories of the greatness of our God and the ways that God has moved and telling them the stories of how God moved in scripture and in my mom's life and in my dad's life and in my life and my wife's life and showing them that our God is not a figment of someone's imagination. He is the one true good God. Those are the stories that give my kids and your kids and grandkids the greatest chance of knowing their great, awesome God. Look at verse 23. Here's what it says, the Lord your God dried up the waters. Do you know how easy it would have been for Joshua to take credit? And I love this. Joshua just understands whatever's going on here, it's not him. Joshua is but a man.
[00:14:33] And then he says, the Lord your God, what he did to the Red Sea. And then he says, he dried up for us. And so we passed over. And I just so appreciate that the command that God gives to Joshua to give to the people is, Joshua, you don't take credit for this. This was not you. You were the leader I used. But without me, none of this happens. Joshua, you give all credit and honor and glory to God for all the good things that happen.
[00:14:57] And what I appreciate about this monument that these people are gonna build, it's not big, like 12 river stones that you can stack on your shoulders. This is not gonna be a huge monument. And this is something. I just really appreciate that. That monuments don't need to be big and audacious and flashy. They need to be distinct and intentional.
[00:15:16] Look at verse 24. Dad, why did God do this?
[00:15:21] So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty now, Joshua, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.
[00:15:35] Two unforgettable truths. God wants every generation to be told two truths. Christian parents we build our houses on.
[00:15:42] Number one. There is nothing our God cannot do. And this is not a cliche that we sing in a song. This is a fundamental truth that we ground our lives in.
[00:15:53] Son, God will allow you to be in or call you to impossible situations, places you never wanted to be.
[00:16:02] I'm not talking about sinful situations that you put yourself in. I'm not talking about those hard places that are the result of your own sin and negligence. I'm talking about situations where God has divinely placed you places where you will have no power to change anything. And your only solution will be to call on God. And when you are there, you need to remember, son, there is nothing our God cannot do. Let me tell you a story.
[00:16:26] Unforgettable truth number two.
[00:16:28] No one gets your fear but God.
[00:16:33] Son, when you're there, when you're in these impossible situations, when you're in over your head, when you're powerless, you will fear something.
[00:16:42] And in our home, we fear God, and we fear God alone.
[00:16:47] Let me tell you another true story.
[00:16:50] American Christians, we get stuck in this concept of fear. And I can't actually go on without you understanding this. And so we're like, why do you want me to be petrified of God. I don't. I would love for you to know God as your Father.
[00:17:03] In the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, the word fear is a very interesting word, and here's what it means. Fear in Hebrew is a word that can range from deep respect to deep terror.
[00:17:14] So those who are right with God should experience a heart of respect and admiration that leads to obedience. That is what it means to fear God.
[00:17:24] But those who are not right with God should experience terror and dread at the discipline and the judgment of God.
[00:17:31] Same God, same power, same word fear. But very different experiences.
[00:17:37] And so the children of Israel and their children, the children after them, and your children and my children, our grandchildren, what they need to hear are the true stories of what God has done in His Word and what God has done in your life. And what they need to hear over and over again is there is nothing our God cannot do. And fear him and fear him alone, because those are the foundations by which we are building this home. We fear God and we fear no one else. We proclaim the name of Jesus, and no other name gets credit for all of the things happening good in this home. Now I want you to look at verse nine.
[00:18:14] Joshua does something actually really meaningful. It's very beautiful. Gives you an insight into his character. Verse 9 says this, that Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan. This is the river.
[00:18:25] And here's what you'll find. God never told Joshua to do this. God. God told the other Joshua. Get 12 other men, one from each of the tribes of Israel. Get the stones, take them out of the river. Go to the place you're going to lodge for the night. But here's Joshua while they're doing that, Joshua goes and he builds his own altar. But he does it in the middle of the river in the place. This is where he built it, where the feet of the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant had stood. And there they are to this day. And by the way, that does not mean, like, right now in 2026, what that means is when the book of Joshua was written, these stones were actually still there in the middle of the water.
[00:19:05] If I'm the priest, and I've been holding up this Ark of the Covenant for six hours, and I'm like, oh, there's 12 men who are gonna come in and get some stones and take them out. Okay, that's a couple minutes. And. But it's gonna take Joshua. I'm just being, like, conservative here, maybe 25 to 40 minutes to find 12 stones, stack them up. Probably has a time of just devotion and prayer before the Lord and committing himself back to the Lord. I mean, the Lord just did a profound miracle and established his leadership in the nation of Israel. Like, this is a deeply personal moment for Joshua. And all of the people are watching, and all of the people are seeing that this is a man who leads by example.
[00:19:40] And before there is public worship, there's private, personal worship. And here's the picture. You get that Joshua loves the Lord, honors the Lord, and in the private places of his life, gives him the glory and honor due. And I'm just reminded, like, as a leader, I need to make sure that my personal life, that I am giving honor and glory and worship to my God. And I just think about Joshua, like, coming back to. To this river because they're about to leave the river. When the ark leaves, the waters come back over. And we don't know. Like, it would appear that this monument is never gonna be seen again by anyone.
[00:20:15] I do imagine that there's, like, a lower tide, and Joshua comes, and one of his grandkids says, grandpa, like, what's that little sack of stones sticking up out of the water? And he's like, let me tell you the true story, what God did here. Like, what a beautiful opportunity. And so I just think about, like, in my life, I. I'm kind of convicted of it. This is a tender message for me, still trying to figure out why. But, like, I think about, like, my kids and my grandkids. I'm like, where are these little places that I can bring them? And I can just say, can I just tell you the true story of what God did in my life? And I think about this room. Oh, my goodness. This room has so many. So many beautiful memories of what God has done. Like, I get very excited about some of these stories. Some of you, your life was transformed into in this room 40 or 50 or 30 or 20 years ago. Like, what a beautiful place. And there are all of these situations and places that I'm like, I want to be able to create the place where my kids can be. Like, tell me about that.
[00:21:10] But first, you know what that requires remembering.
[00:21:14] I don't know, but y'. All. I forget about everything. My wife will tell you I am. My brain. It just. Stuff happens. It's gone. You know anyone else? Just me. Okay, good. All the men are like, I'm not admitting it in front of her. Okay, fine.
[00:21:26] I imagine Joshua bringing his kids and his grandkids, and I imagine other kids at low tide. Like, what's that thing picking out? Let me tell you what Joshua. What God did through Joshua keyword what God did. And God uses men and women to do different things. But the key point here is what God did.
[00:21:43] I want to share with you three. So what's. As we bring this to a close, the first. So what, it's just a simple heart check.
[00:21:51] That which you memorialize might just reveal what you fear the most. And everyone is memorializing something. And before I kind of give some illustrations of this, I just want to say it's a perfectly good and normal thing to memorialize and to remember good gifts and people and things that you love that the Lord has given you. That being said, my big question is this.
[00:22:14] What do you and I memorialize the most?
[00:22:18] So here's some everyday memorials. Again, look at your phone, the wallpaper, as some call it, the screensaver. Look at that.
[00:22:25] That's a mini memorial tethering you to something really important. Like, what does it say if you're younger?
[00:22:32] Look at the walls of your bedroom.
[00:22:35] What are you posting? Every single poster you put up is a memorial. Again, put up your favorite musicians and whatnot. But, like, what are you memorializing the most?
[00:22:44] Look at your tattoos.
[00:22:46] Some of you are like, I never thought about them, but now I'm going to actually memorialize God and his Word through my tattoos. Awesome, right? But, like, these things all tell stories. Look at your social media posts. Every one of them are just little mini memorials to something that you find very important.
[00:23:02] That which you memorialize might just reveal what you fear the most. And I'm just gonna leave that there and you and the Holy Spirit can work out that one between yourselves. But so at number two, the God stories that inspire monuments don't happen on accident.
[00:23:19] You know, those people, they always have a God story.
[00:23:23] And they're not like talking about coincidences. Like, oh yeah, like, it was blue outside. I saw the color blue. No, not that stuff. Like the people who are like, like, man, God did this thing and like, I prayed for it and then it happened. And like, you just, you're just like, what?
[00:23:36] Why doesn't God do that for me? And these people are just always got them. And I'm like, there's a handful of people. And I'm just like, you have so many God stories and when I hear you talk about them, you're not making these up, right? These aren't coincidences. Like, you prayed and things happened. And like, honestly, I think some of us really need to hear this next section. So I Just ask you to, like, clue in it. I want to tell you their secret sauce. But first let me say this. Lives of multiple God stories don't happen on accident. They happen on purpose. And so people with multiple God stories, here's their secret sauce. I've seen a lot of them, and I kind of just boiled it down to, like, if I could give you, like, five things that I watch consistently with these people. And I think if you put any of these into motion, you might just watch God's stories start to grow in your life. Number one, they pray a lot, and they document their prayers.
[00:24:26] Again, I don't remember what I did yesterday. I don't remember what happened this morning. Okay? Like, I'm right here. I'm a like. But, like, here's what I do know. The people who write down their prayers and the people who go back over them and they look for answered prayers, they are gonna be way more likely to have God's stories. But here's the deal. I think we throw up a ton of prayers every day, and that's great, but I don't think we remember most of what we pray. But these people have a way of documenting their prayers before the Lord. And by the way, this has been a part of Christian history, but we pray, we document, and then we revisit to see how God answered prayers. This has been part of our Christian tradition. But, like, by and large, we don't write anymore. So here's a little, like, pro tip for you, okay? Go into your AI and say, listen, created a note for me and put apple prayers in there, whatever it is, and answers, and remind me every morning to go write them in and see if God answered any prayers. There you go. Do that. There we go. Number two, they are unusually and obnoxiously faithful to their rhythms. They, despite their emotions, like, these people are just like, no, this is what I do.
[00:25:27] And I find there's just this discipline in people who have God stories that just accumulate because they do the boring thing over and over and over again. And it's not like God shows up every time they pray. But if you document, like, one prayer a day for 365 days, and you get 15 or 20 answers to prayers, guess what? That's 15 or 20 answers to prayers and God moments that everyone else doesn't have because nobody remembers what they pray. And so these people are just obnoxious about it. They're just like, no, I'm gonna be disciplined. And here's the deal. God's stories, by and large, the Regular ones, the stuff that God's doing all the time. These are for the people who discipline themselves. And it might feel obnoxious, but they are storing up stories for themselves to remember God's faithfulness. Number three, they risk and do hard things on a weekly or daily basis.
[00:26:16] Some of you, if I were to ask you, like, what's the hardest thing you've done recently? It's not that hard. But there is something about people who have an accumulation of God's stories that they are willing to do things that other people aren't. They're willing to have hard conversations that others aren't. They're willing to walk into rooms that others aren't.
[00:26:34] And here's what I found. If you are spending time with the Lord on a daily basis and, and you are listening and you are writing down your prayers and you are open to what the Holy Spirit wants. I've said this earlier. The Holy Spirit is active. And the Holy Spirit has things he wants you and I to do. The Holy Spirit has like, an agenda. He wants to see transformation.
[00:26:56] And I think the Holy Spirit speaks a lot more to us than we realize. But we quench it. We call it indigestion. And we're like, ah, that's too hard. That couldn't be him. But I think if we start to pay attention to the voice of the Holy Spirit, I think he is probably prompting us to, on a daily basis, to do far more risky and difficult things than we imagine. We have just become pros at quenching the voice of the Holy Spirit. Number four, they do the really hard work of killing secret sin. I mean, nothing will make God feel more distant from you than secret sin. And this is why I will just say this. I think the majority of American Christians do not have regular God encounters because we have secret, personal, private lives. And we live with the spirit of shame and we quench the Spirit on such a daily basis.
[00:27:40] And I would just tell you that if you were to get rid of your secret sinful life and do whatever it took to eradicate the stuff that no one but you and God know about, or you and one other person, you might find the floodgates open up. And I could not wish for anything more. For every one of us to wake up with no secrets, that would be a beautiful thing. Number five, like food, the word of God is a daily and essential part of their life. Like, if you ever wonder why you don't have energy right physically, it might be because your diet stinks. If you ever wonder why you don't have any spiritual energy or momentum. It might be because your spiritual diet stinks. And here's what we find. When you trust in Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit and you are given the gift of the Word of God. And these two things are, like, synergistic. They just love each other. And if you want to get the most out of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God loves to speak when we open up the Word of God. The Spirit of God. Just like. Yes. Conviction, encouragement. Now, I want to be clear. The vast majority of the time I read the Bible, I don't have these, like, crazy experiences and neither will you. It is in the faithful, over and again, obnoxious discipline of doing things where God begins to move and the Holy Spirit begins to really train and teach you. I will tell you God's stories are for the obnoxiously disciplined. And if you want to see God move more, just start by writing out your prayers. If you want to see God move more, pray boldly. Listen to what he asks you to do. Start taking risks. Kill your secret sin. You just take these one at a time. And with every one of these you integrate into your life. I believe you will see God move more and more than you could imagine. So at number three, ensure the next generation knows what the Lord.
[00:29:21] Because now you're all going to pray and document them, right? And you're all going to remember you're going to kill secret sin. You're going to ask God boldly for things. You're going to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Fellowship.
[00:29:31] Lackluster. We'll take it. Most of you, Some of you, a quarter of you. Okay, good.
[00:29:35] You're going to start to watch God move.
[00:29:37] When God moves, small or big, we remember, we document, we publish.
[00:29:45] We remember, we document, we publish. We remember, we document, we publish.
[00:29:50] I want to talk about just very simply, four kinds of moves of God. I want you to have these categories because I think the last one is the one that the majority of us need to walk away with.
[00:30:01] The first one are what we call just generational legacy moments. These are once in a generation, maybe once in 50 to 100 years in a nation or the world. You think about in America, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the first Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, where God moves in these huge ways. And you step back and you're like, there is something happening here that is way bigger than us.
[00:30:22] These are rare. And probably if you live an average life, you're gonna see one of these happen. In your lifetime. The second, more personal, it's church legacy moments. And so what you find is, this is my just personal observation of this. About every 10 years, a church is going to have something big that they're going to need to do. They're going to have some obstacle, they have to overcome a big challenge. Sometimes it's like you have to build a new building, you have to add a new space, you have to add a new something or you hire a new pastor. These big moments that kind of change the direction of the, of the church. And a lot of these are going to be reactions to really good things that God is doing. And so these are these big kind of moments where we celebrate what God has done in some really, really big ways amongst our church.
[00:31:09] Number three, you have family legacy moments. And here's kind of the deal. If you're really faithful to walk with the Lord, you're going to have an accrual of smaller, you know, just God moments in your life. But for the most part, most people are probably going to have two to four huge God intervention moments in their life. For a lot of people, actually, the first one is going to be the story of their conversion.
[00:31:32] But you're gonna have these significant moments where you were hopeless, where God just came through, where you didn't see a way out, and God just did something profound and amazing. And when you start to find these two to three to four stories, we remember these things, we document these things, we publish these things. These are the stories that we kind of tell over and over again. And then your spouse or your kids go, yeah, dad, I've already heard that. Right?
[00:31:58] These are big deals. These are big moments.
[00:32:02] And I think most people, again, you're gonna get two, three or four in your entire life, Remember them. And when you tell the story, it'll be really easy for you and I to make ourselves the hero. But who is the hero of every story? It's gonna be God.
[00:32:15] Finally, we have these everyday God moments. This is just the daily, the weekly, the rhythm of life for people who walk with the Lord, who pray fervently, who document these prayers, who are listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
[00:32:26] These are the ways. These are the everyday expectations. You can't always control the two to four big moments. You can't always control what happens in your nation or your church. The one thing that you can control a little bit is your personal discipline. To pray, to document, to ask the Holy Spirit to pay attention to what he's doing and to publish the way God Answers prayers. It doesn't need to be online, but it can, even if it is just with your kids and your grandkids and the people around you. I want to take every opportunity that I can to make much of the name of Jesus Christ, because what I want is my kids to know this. There is nothing that our God cannot do, and there is no one we fear but Jesus Christ in this household. And these stories reinforce these truths.
[00:33:09] I want to just kind of pull back for a moment as we. As we finish here.
[00:33:13] God commands his people to have rhythms and remembrances.
[00:33:18] And let's just be very realistic about our children.
[00:33:22] Our kids are probably not going to ask a ton of questions, at least when they're younger. There are some curious kids. Most don't.
[00:33:30] You can't control when your kid says, mom, dad, why did you do that thing? What does this mean?
[00:33:40] But you can be ready when they do ask.
[00:33:44] You can also not wait until they ask.
[00:33:47] You can say, I want to tell you the story of what happened. I want to tell you the story of what God did.
[00:33:51] But when they do ask, here's what I want to be ready to do. I want to be ready to give glory and honor and praise to the power and to the might of Jesus Christ.
[00:34:02] I want my kids to know this with such clarity. And if my kids tell stories of me to their kids or their grandkids, after that, it'll be for. But I want it to be stories about how God came through the big moments of God in my life.
[00:34:17] Psalm 78 gives a very unique kind of insight into this. And I think this is funny because how many of you really like telling the good stories of your life, but raise your hand if you have some bad stories?
[00:34:30] And here's. Yeah, some of you are like, I'm not raising my hand, but we know.
[00:34:34] I want you to listen to this because this is. This is, I think, a delightful passage from Psalm 78.
[00:34:40] Says the things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us.
[00:34:45] We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
[00:34:58] He established verse five, a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children. By the way, if you don't have God stories, first and foremost, pull out the God stories in the Bible and tell them the glorious deeds of our God. But verse 7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. And that they should not be like their fathers. I. Some of you, you got a grandpa that you're like, let me tell you about Grandpa so and so. He was not a good man. And those stories need to be told also, that they should not be like their fathers. A stubborn and rebellious generation. A generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. And sometimes we have to tell the ugly truth about the men and women who went before us, who rebelled against God and lived in the consequences of their behavior. Why? So that our children might fear the Lord. Amen.
[00:36:01] As we close, you might look at your children and your grandchildren and you might want to be like God. What do I have to do to get him saved? Here's the deal.
[00:36:11] You could be the perfect parent, and your children can walk away from the Lord.
[00:36:15] You can be the worst parent, and all your kids can believe in Jesus Christ. It's just kind of funny how this all works out.
[00:36:22] But here, statistically, again, statistically, if you want to give your kids the best shot at coming to faith in Christ, then here's the best single decision you can make.
[00:36:37] Give your life to Christ.
[00:36:40] If you have never trusted in him, and you're looking at your kids and your grandkids and you are actually concerned for them, you can't control them. You cannot control what they do. But if you want to statistically give them the best fighting chance, give your life to Christ. And I say this often, if you're a dude and you're older, dudes don't like giving their life to Christ because when they do, they're admitting that they were wrong from every day leading up to that point. We don't like to be wrong. There is nothing more powerful than a man giving his life to Jesus. And the older he gets, the power of that decision can reverberate for generations.
[00:37:18] Never underestimate. Don't be so prideful. If you're like 40 or 50 or 80, you're like, well, then it means I've been wrong. Yes, you were wrong. And that wrongness would have led you to hell if you didn't trust in Christ.
[00:37:28] And your kids and your grandkids need to hear the truth. I was wrong. I was wrong about Jesus. I was wrong about his death on the cross. I was wrong about the resurrection. I was wrong about his deity. I am giving my life to Christ. And if you want to give them a fighting chance, give your life to Jesus. Amenville Church Amen. Let's pray. Father, I want to personally, just as a pastor, I want to just thank you for Joshua's example.
[00:37:53] I thank you that God, we're just reminded it's not just about leading and pointing people. It is a. It is about worshiping you first.
[00:38:01] And so as moms and dads, we all are like little Joshua's in our homes. We are leaders of these homes and we get to set an example and tell the stories of your goodness. And I just thank you God, that you are. Are so good and you are so faithful and you are working.
[00:38:16] But Lord, we also just confess we are busy and we don't write down a lot of the prayers we have. We forget what we say.
[00:38:23] God, I have a hunch you have answered far more prayers than we ever are even aware of. So thank you for your faithfulness, for your goodness, for your kindness. And God, I pray that we would be a generation who remembers who documents, who publishes who, your great deeds, your small deeds of faithfulness in our lives, open our eyes to see them. And God, I pray you would even give us a clear next step about how we can actually remember.
[00:38:47] Not just so that we don't forget, but so that we can publish your goodness in the big and small ways. And Lord, may we give you all honor and glory and worship and credit. And we do all of this only in the name of Jesus. Amenville Church Amen.
