WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 So if you're a visitor with us this evening or if you've been away for a while, 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:09.000 we've recently, St. Columba's begun a new series in our evening services. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000 We're looking through the book of Joshua together. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.000 So if you have a Bible and you want to follow along, you might find it helpful to have it open 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.000 at Joshua chapter 3 and chapter 4. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:21.000 We're taking on two chapters this evening. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:28.000 So I hope you're awake and alert and we'll dig into Joshua together. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.000 So we're looking together through the book of Joshua at the God who makes and keeps his promises. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:42.000 A few weeks ago we began in chapter 1, looking at God's great promise of a new home for his people. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:47.000 Last time, a few weeks ago, Derek looked at Rahab in chapter 2, 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:53.000 where we see the incredible way that God's grace and mercy extend to the outsider. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:02.000 And this evening we're moving into chapters 3 and 4, which we read earlier about God's people crossing over the River Jordan. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:09.000 Now we said at the beginning of the series a few weeks ago that this first and foremost is a book about God. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.000 It's a book about God's promises. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:15.000 God is very much the main character in Joshua. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:21.000 Joshua is not just dry history and boring, irrelevant details about the past. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:27.000 Every page, every word tells us more about who God is as our living God and Savior, 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:36.000 the one who has made human beings and has sought to receive and redeem and to establish a relationship with a people. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:42.000 And in any relationship, one of the most damaging things is the problem of forgetfulness. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:48.000 I'm sure many of you can relate to having forgotten a birthday or an anniversary of someone close to you. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:55.000 Maybe you've been on the other end of that, or maybe you can relate to having had plans you've made with a friend forgotten about. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:59.000 Being forgotten can be incredibly damaging and hurtful. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:04.000 But as human beings, in many ways we are forgetful people. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:11.000 And if that's true in our human relationships with one another, how much more true is that in our relationship with God? 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:16.000 So as we look together this evening at this part of Joshua, there are just two key things I want to emphasize. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:25.000 Two points this evening that we can learn about God's character that helps us tackle spiritual forgetfulness in our lives as Christians. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:32.000 So the first thing I want us to think about this evening is that God wants you to know who he is. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.000 And this is a key idea throughout the Bible. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:39.000 God acts, God does stuff in order that people will know who he is. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:46.000 Our God, the God of the Bible, is a relational God who makes himself known. He reveals himself. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:54.000 And in the passages that we're looking at in Joshua 3 and 4, we see the word no pop up time and time again in order that you may know. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:00.000 The section we're looking at is kind of sandwiched or bookmarked with this idea of knowing. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:06.000 It begins first in chapter 3 and verse 10 where it says, in order that Israel might know. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:13.000 And it ends at the end of chapter 4 in verse 24 in order that all peoples might know. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:19.000 So before we dig into the text itself, I think it's helpful for us to think briefly about what the Bible means by knowledge. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:21.000 What does it mean to know? 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:33.000 Well, the Hebrew word that's used for knowing the verb, it conveys far more than merely cognitive, intellectual understanding or awareness of something. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:38.000 J.I. Packer, an Anglican theologian, has written a book called Knowing God. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:44.000 And if I had a top five book list, I think that every Christian should read, Knowing God would definitely be in that. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:52.000 Knowing God is a wonderful book. But he makes the point that there's a huge difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 And that's particularly true, I think, in the way the word's used in the Old Testament. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:06.000 You see, to know someone or to know something in the Old Testament usually involved a sense of the knower being involved, either by an action or a relationship or a response. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:13.000 There's an Old Testament scholar called Dale Raph Davis, and he's written a number of really helpful commentaries on the Old Testament. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:16.000 And on the book in Joshua, he says this, 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:30.000 To know the Lord means to trust in his promises. To know the Lord is to recognize who he is and what he has done. To know the Lord is to give him the praise and the glory as the one true living God. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:37.000 So what he's saying is that biblical knowing involves much more than just intellectual awareness or head knowledge. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 And there's echoes for us there, I think, in the book of Exodus. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:49.000 One of the key themes in the book of Exodus is that the people would know the Lord as the one true living God, and that their lives would reflect that knowledge. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:56.000 And so as we come to Joshua 3 and 4, there are two key things I think God wants his people to know here about himself. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:04.000 The first thing we see in chapter 3 and verse 9, God wants you to know that he is with you. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:10.000 Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:22.000 Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and all the otherites. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:29.000 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:38.000 In other words, God wants people to know that he is a present God. He is a God who is near, a God who is with his people. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:53.000 I think many people today in our world have a picture of God who if he exists is in some way floating around somewhere distant and far away, detached and uninvolved in our world and in our lives. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:06:01.000 But this is the point of the ark of the covenant. It pops up right the way through the Old Testament and it's repeatedly referred to in the passage you and read for us. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:10.000 The ark of the covenant is a clear picture of God's presence. It points us to God's closeness to his people. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:16.000 You see, when the people were in the camp in the wilderness, the ark was placed at the heart of the tabernacle. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:23.000 And at the center of the tabernacle was what was called the Holy of Holies. And it was there that you found the ark of the covenant. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.000 It's a picture of where God dwells in the midst of his people. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:39.000 And we see that from the very beginning of Joshua. We thought about this a few weeks ago, that God wants people to know that he is near, he is present, he is with us. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:49.000 He promises Joshua in chapter one, just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:07:02.000 And now as the people are about to cross the river Jordan into the land and as they're about to face all of these battles and struggles, God wants to remind his people first and foremost that he is with them. 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:09.000 God is acting on his people's behalf in their midst. He is close and nearby. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:16.000 And so there's a sense in which these are words spoken to God's people in a particular time for a particular reason in redemptive history. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:21.000 But at the same time, God speaks these words through the gospel to us. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:25.000 Through the gospel, God is near to us in Jesus Christ. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:33.000 It's the ultimate climax of this principle, the Emmanuel, Jesus, the one who dwells in us through his spirit. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:41.000 And what that means is that for us today, there's not a single battle or struggle or difficulty that we face without that God next to us. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:49.000 There's not a single trial or burden we have to shoulder without God's close presence and his loving, tender care. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:53.000 So God wants people to know that he is a present God. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:08:01.000 Secondly, God wants you to know his power. And we see this when we flip to the end of chapter 4 and verse 23. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:10.000 It says there, for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:21.000 So that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:35.000 I think people also have a picture of a God who, if he exists, is kind of impotent, a God who is somehow ineffective, irrelevant, has no significance on the world in which we live. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:44.000 And I think even as Christians sometimes we have a tendency to dumb God down. We sometimes put limits on what we think God can do. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:53.000 But the God of the Bible wants you to know that he is a powerful God. God is a powerful God. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:59.000 And this really, I think, is what this story drives home to us, the crossing of the river Jordan. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:05.000 The people of God have come to the edge of the land. They're almost there. They're almost into the home that's been promised to them. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:11.000 But they come to this last obstacle, this river Jordan that we're told is in full flood. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:21.000 And it's maybe hard for us to picture what the other sides have to do. When I was younger I used to feel like an absolute champion if I stuck my belly boots on my water foot trousers and crossed the stream that was near our house. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:28.000 But this is a monstrous torrent. This is physically impossible without God. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:37.000 A bit of context, the Jordan Valley itself is between 3 and 14 miles wide as it runs from north to south, from Galilee, I think, to the Dead Sea. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:44.000 And there's a flood plain in that valley which runs a mile wide. And covering that plain is dense undergrowth. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:49.000 And apparently the average drop in the level of that river is 40 feet in every mile. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.000 So this river would be an absolute beast. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:10:03.000 Delorav Davis says this means that the river Israel faced was no placid stream, but a raging torrent, probably a mile wide, covering a mass of tangled bush and jungle growth. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:11.000 In other words, this river that Israel have to cross is insane. It's the worst possible time they could have crossed it. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:19.000 So from a human perspective they're facing an impossible task. And this underlines for us, I think, the point that God is leading his people. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:22.000 We're told that they crossed on dry ground. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:33.000 See, from the opening of the Bible in Genesis chapter 1, right the way through, there's an emphasis on God as the absolute maker, creator, sustainer of all things. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:36.000 He is sovereign over this physical universe. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Psalm 24 verse 1 sums this up really well. It says, 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:49.000 It says, 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:55.000 So the point is God's power over creation and the world in which we live shows human beings who he is. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:01.000 And Paul picks up on this in the New Testament in the book of Acts in 17 when he's in Athens. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:04.000 It says there in verse 22, I think. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.000 Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:11.000 He says, 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:18.000 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:23.000 What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:33.000 That the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:40.000 Since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything else. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:45.000 And the really incredible thing about the gospel is that we can know this God. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.000 We can know the God who made the amazing world in which we live. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:12:01.000 We can have intimate knowledge and a personal relationship with such a powerful and holy and righteous God while we are so sinful and flawed and tiny and insignificant people. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:04.000 God wants people to know who he is. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:08.000 He wants us to know that he is present and that he is powerful. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:16.000 And the really amazing thing is that if you're a Christian here this evening, is that powerful God knows you. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.000 He knows you this evening. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.000 That is an incredible truth of the gospel. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:30.000 The Lord of heaven and earth, the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything knows you and loves you as an individual. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:37.000 And we experience his presence and his power and his nearness through faith in Jesus Christ. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:43.000 The second main point this evening is that God not only wants us to know, he wants us to remember. 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.000 God wants people to remember what he has done. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:49.000 And this is really what chapter four is all about. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:51.000 The people have crossed over the Jordan. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:54.000 They've experienced God's amazing power over nature. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.000 And the first thing they're told to do is to put up twelve stones. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.000 It seems like a bit of a bizarre situation. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.000 So what does it mean? What's the point here? 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:05.000 Let's look at chapter four from verse four. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:10.000 Joshua calls twelve men from the people of Israel whom he had appointed a man from each tribe. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:11.000 And he says to them, 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:15.000 Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:22.000 And take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.000 This will be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:28.000 what do these stones mean to you? 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.000 Then you shall tell them the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:35.000 When it passed over the Jordan, the waters were cut off. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:41.000 So these stones shall be to the people of Israel and memorial forevermore. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:45.000 And this is another key biblical theme. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.000 God's people need to remember what God has done. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:52.000 Because God knows that we are forgetful. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:57.000 God knows that his people are incredibly forgetful. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:01.000 One of the main problems we see the people of Israel come across throughout the Old Testament 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:06.000 is not really threats from external sources from aggressive foreign nations. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:10.000 The main problem they have is their own spiritual forgetfulness. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:13.000 It's their own spiritual amnesia. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:17.000 They forget the goodness of God in his salvation. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:20.000 And when we read the Bible and particularly when we read the Old Testament, 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.000 sometimes we want to say, what are you guys doing? 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:25.000 How can you be so slow? 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.000 How can you be so forgetful? 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:35.000 They turn to idols and the gods of other nations just after God has saved them and redeemed them and done so much for them. 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:40.000 But the reality is that that same pitfall is true for us as Christians. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:46.000 I think one of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is this kind of spiritual amnesia. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:48.000 It's when we forget who we are. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.000 We lose sight of who God is and what God has done. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:57.000 We forget that we are children of God saved by grace. 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:00.000 We forget how loved we are by our Father. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.000 We wander or we stray. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:06.000 We beat ourselves up over our spiritual performance. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:09.000 We tell ourselves that we're failures. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:14.000 We maybe think that God could never love a person like me. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:19.000 But remembering who we are as a Christian can be one of our greatest challenges. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:23.000 St. Clafergusson, theologian and writer said this. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:26.000 I think we used this quote before this summer, but he's so brilliant. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.000 I think it's worth repeating. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:35.000 He says, failure to deal with the presence of sin in our lives can often be traced back to spiritual amnesia. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.000 Forgetting our new, true, real identity. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:45.000 He says, as a believer, I am someone who's been delivered from the dominion of sin and darkness 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:50.000 and who therefore is free and motivated to fight against the remnants of sin in my heart. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:56.000 You must know, rest in, remember, think through and act on your new identity. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.000 You are in Christ. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:04.000 In other words, first and foremost as Christians, we need to remember every day. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:13.000 We need to remind ourselves every day that our salvation is first and foremost not due to our own power or our own strength. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:20.000 Just like God's people here in Joshua, we need to remember that God is a God who acts for his people. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:26.000 And I think this really is the point of the stones, the twelve stones that Joshua's told to put up after crossing the river. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:36.000 Because God knows for his people there's that temptation to forget, to trust in ourselves or worse, to trust in other gods and idols, 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:41.000 both in their own day as God's people and in our own day today as Christians. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:47.000 So these stones are to serve not just as a simple memorial to mark what's happened here, 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:54.000 it's to be a constant reminder of who the people are and how God has acted on their behalf. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:00.000 The Hebrew concept of remembering involves far more than simply bringing to mind. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.000 It involves a deep reflection. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:10.000 It prompts us to action and it asks us to engage our affections as well as our minds. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.000 So we have to remember what God has done. 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:18.000 And this language really points us back to Exodus again to the Passover in chapter 12, 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:28.000 where the Passover is to be an everlasting sign, an everlasting reminder of God's amazing salvation in bringing his people out of slavery. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:35.000 God said through Moses, if we look at Deuteronomy, looking forward to a day where Israel is living a comfortable life, 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:41.000 it says there, take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commands and his rules and his statutes, 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:47.000 which I command you today, lest when you have eaten and are full and you've built good houses and live in them, 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:52.000 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:58.000 and all that you have is multiplied, that your heart be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God, 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:03.000 who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:08.000 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:13.000 and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:17.000 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:21.000 that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:28.000 Beware lest you say then in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:33.000 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:39.000 that he may confirm his covenant, that he swore to your fathers as it is to this day. 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:45.000 So we always need to look back. We need to remember the God who has given us so much. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.000 And that's even more true the passage is saying when life is going well, 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:54.000 when we're feeling prosperous, when we're not feeling like we're struggling or we're burdened or we're wandering. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:59.000 We always have to remember. Because here's the thing, sin blinds us. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:03.000 Sin makes us forget. 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:07.000 Sin distorts our view of God and our view of ourselves. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:12.000 So we forget how good a God he is. We forget who we are in Jesus Christ 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:17.000 and we turn inward and we are exposed to all the sins of our hearts. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.000 It's not that we consciously decide one day to slip further away from God. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:26.000 It's not that we decide to forget the God we love and the God who's blessed us. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.000 But sin makes us lose sight of that. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:35.000 There was a point last winter where I was driving up the A9 and I hadn't refilled my windscreen wash. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.000 So by the time I got to Brewer I could not see a thing. My window was absolutely filthy. 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:45.000 So I stopped at Brewer and I filled it up and I stuck the stuff on the window and the muck was wiped away. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.000 And what a contrast. What a contrast. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.000 All of a sudden I could see clearly. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:55.000 And I realized that you can push any illustration slightly too far. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:00.000 But I think in a sense remembering who God is, repenting of our sin, 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.000 looking at who we are in Christ is a wonderful kind of spiritual windscreen wash. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:12.000 It refreshes our view. It shows us clearly who God is and how good God is 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.000 and how gracious and loving a Savior Jesus Christ is. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:20.000 The Apostle Paul passed on lots of advice to a young church leader called Timothy. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:26.000 And in 2 Timothy 2 verse 8, Paul gave perhaps one of his most important pieces of advice. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:30.000 He says, remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.000 A simple sentence, remember Jesus Christ. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:38.000 I think when we as Christians are wracked with guilt and shame over our sin, 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:42.000 when we're battling with the same weaknesses and the same temptations, 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:49.000 or when we're just struggling with the stress and the busyness and the exhaustion of life, 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:52.000 we have to remember Jesus. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.000 We have to remember what he has done for us on the cross to secure our forgiveness, 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:02.000 to save us from our sin, to give us this hope of a new life. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:06.000 This morning we were celebrating the Lord's Supper together as a church family, 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:09.000 and it's wonderful having the Lord's Supper together. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:13.000 But a really essential component of that is remembering. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:20.000 God has given us means. He has given us the ability to spend time together remembering what he has done. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:28.000 It helps us to reflect on what Christ has accomplished for us at such great a cost. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:33.000 And then there are implications here for us, not only in our own Christian walk, 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:38.000 in remembering, in reflecting, but also in our witness to others as believers. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:43.000 Because we see in this passage the point of the stones is to show that God's people experience his power 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:50.000 and his love not only for their own sake, but so that others would see, others would witness. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.000 When you're asked in the future it says, you shall tell them this is what God has done 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.000 in order that all may know the hand of the Lord is mighty. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.000 And that means one of our goals as Christians, as God's people today, 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:08.000 is for our lives and our experience to reflect what God has done 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:14.000 so that we too witness and testify to God's power, to God's presence, 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:20.000 with all of our flaws and our imperfections and our inadequacies. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:27.000 So our testimony is never to be, look how great we are, look how wonderful I am as a Christian, 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:33.000 but look how great my God is, look how amazing my Savior is. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:38.000 This is a great reminder for us in the Christian life that we don't need to be the hero. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:46.000 We never need to be the hero, but we do need to point others to the great God who saves and redeems and restores. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:52.000 The Book of Joshua for us is a continual reminder that salvation is fundamentally about God 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:56.000 and about what God has done for you. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:01.000 And so in our witness we want to demonstrate that to our neighbors and our friends and our family 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:05.000 and our loved ones and the people that surround us. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:11.000 So as we close this evening, the Book of Joshua teaches us that knowing who God is 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:18.000 and remembering what God has done are both key aspects of life as God's people, as Christians today. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:22.000 But here's the really amazing, incredible thing. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:28.000 No matter how much you might struggle at times to remember God, or how much you might wander away, 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:31.000 God always remembers you. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.000 In Jesus Christ, God always remembers you. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:40.000 Even when you feel so far away, there's never a second when you're not on his mind. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:46.000 May God help us to be a people who show others around us that we are a people who know God, 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:52.000 who remember God, who love him and live for him with every fiber of our beings in all that we do this week. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:55.000 Let's pray. 00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:00.000 Lord God, our loving Father, we thank you and praise you as your people, 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:06.000 that you're a God who we can know, a God that we can come to and speak to, 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.000 a God who knows us better than we know ourselves. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.000 And Lord God, we pray that we would grow in our knowledge of you. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:19.000 We will be a people who love you and live for you in all that we do. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:22.000 Father, help us to remember Jesus this week. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:25.000 Help us, Lord God, tomorrow when we go to work. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:30.000 Help us when we're struggling with patience with our family, with our children. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.000 Help us, Lord God, to remember Jesus Christ. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:42.000 Help us, Lord God, in our grief and our pain and our trials and our difficulties to remember Jesus Christ. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:46.000 We pray, Lord God, you would give us the strength and the ability to do so, 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:52.000 and that in all we would glorify you in all that we say and all we do in Jesus' name. Amen.