Stones of Remembrance

It's easy when you've gone from nothing to something to forget how you got there. Dr. Tony Evans says there's lasting importance in recognizing who it is that lifts and sustains you. Don't forget that God is your source. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. There are times when the path ahead of us may look impassable, but Dr. Evans says we need to remember how God has an established record of helping His children successfully navigate treacherous ways.

Let's join him as he elaborates. Israel had been in the wilderness for 40 years. Forty years for them to learn faith. Forty years for their habits to be corrected. Forty years for them to be humbled.

Forty years for them to be trained. And now it was time to cross over at the end of the 40th year. And what a miracle crossover it was.

I mean, it was something to behold. Because we're told when they crossed over the Jordan, they crossed over the Jordan in flood season. Now if there's any time you don't want to cross the Jordan, it's in flood season. That's the most dangerous time. That's the time when you're most likely to run into a problem or to drown. It was the time when the human capacity would be at its lowest. But I just want you to know God does some of His best work in flood season. When the waters are too high, the problems are too great, the needs are too daunting.

In other words, where it's beyond you. Where God makes it hard in order for you to see there's only one God and you and I, we are not He. And so it was in flood season that God would perform this miracle. It was no different than when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. They got Pharaoh coming on one end. They got the Red Sea on the other end. They're in a catch-22. They're in a conundrum.

They can go neither way and find a solution that unless God shows up and does something supernatural. So by way of application, if you happen today to be in flood season, being overwhelmed by life's realities and life's circumstance, you may not be in as bad a position as it looks because it may be the impeccable season for the Almighty God to demonstrate how exactly almighty He is. So God told them in flood season to tell the priest to take the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments, the Word of God, and to tell the priest to put their foot in the bank of the Jordan.

Why? Because before you can ever see what God does in flood season, He wants to see you walking by faith. He doesn't want to see you talking by faith or feeling by faith. He wants to see you moving by faith. So He says, let the priest put their foot on the bank. I gotta see that.

They're gonna trust me. And so He gets these representatives, the principle of representation. So the representatives, on behalf of the nation, put their foot in the Jordan and a couple of miracles took place. During flood season, God blocked the water from flowing down the Jordan River so that now God walled them off, dammed them up so that the water would stop flowing.

That was one miracle in and of itself. But then the Bible says they crossed over on dry land, not wet land, dry land. It had to be land where they could walk over and their feet not get muddy, where they could roll wheelbarrows of their goods and then not get stuck in the mud, where horses could still trot across, walk across, and run across, and not get stuck in waters that for years and centuries and decades had been wet. But the Bible says God not only dammed the water, He hardened the soil so that when they walked over, they walked over on dry land.

You need to understand who we're dealing with here. And it all happened in flood season. It was in this context of the supernatural intervention of God that God tells Joshua to get a representative, again the principle of representative, where the leaders would represent the twelve tribes of Israel, to go back into the dry Jordan and pick up a boulder, a stone. Now this wasn't a pebble. This was a major stone because he had to carry it.

It says each one on his shoulder. So it was a major rock. And he says what I want you to do with this rock is I want you to build a memorial. I want you to build stones of remembrance. I want you to build something so you'll never forget what was done here and who did it. I want you never to forget that the only way you got to where you are from where you came from is because God brought you in flood season from where you were to where you are.

I don't want you to get the big head. I don't want you to think that it is by your power or your might that you are in this place forty years later. I want you to have a perpetual reminder that the only reason you are where you are today versus where you were forty years ago is because I supernaturally intervened into your situation. Now why does God want to tell Joshua to build a memorial? Because God knows we are subject to forget.

God knows we are prone to forget. And while you may forget a lot of things in life, God is not the one you want to forget. I want to show you a few other scriptures that drive this home.

In Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 9 we are told these words, only give heed to yourself, give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligent so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and that they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. In chapter 6 verse 10, Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and huge cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied, then watch yourself that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. Look at chapter 8 verse 11, Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today. Verse 14, Then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Verse 18, But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them. I surely against you today will testify, and you shall surely perish like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you.

Do you get the message? You better not forget. I like that phrase in chapter 6. You better watch yourself because it's easy to forget. It's easy to think you're your own source. It's easy to think it's all on you, about you, from you to you, through you, and because of you.

It's easy when you've gone from nothing to something to forget how you got there. Don't forget that God is your source. Don't forget that where you are now compared to where you were when you met me is not the same place because I walk with you, even in your rebellion, even in your disobedience, even in your disregard. He says, I fed you in the wilderness.

I clothed you in the wilderness. I preserved you even when you were out of fellowship with me. So he says, in fact, if the truth were told, if we, many of us, would have gotten what we deserved, we wouldn't even be here today. If God didn't protect us in that situation, deliver us out of that situation, we wouldn't even be here today. But because God oversaw us and didn't let what could have happened happen, and he preserved us and walked us through it, he says, don't you forget. And so he tells them, I want you to build the stone of memorial. He says, do not forget the goodness of God, that he alone is your source. And when we align ourselves to God like he wants us to align ourselves to him, he says, you will see me even in flood season. Demonstrate your glory.

So he sends them, he sends them to get the stones. You know, we, we believe in reminders. We have Memorial Day parades. You know, that's a reminder of the people who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom in America. And so they have a, because they don't want you to forget.

There's an Independence Day parade on July 4th, and all kinds of independent celebrations to remind us of the battle from England that led to the founding of the nation. Why? Because they don't want you to forget. When I was in Washington DC, not too long ago, there are memorials. There's the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Martin Luther King Memorial.

Why? So you don't forget. They've got the great statements by these statesmen on the walls so that you can be reminded of what it took for us to be here. What they're trying to say is we don't want you to forget. What God is saying is if men who come and go don't want you to forget them, what do you think about the God who doesn't want you to forget him? Because let me tell you the big difference between folk who don't want to be forgotten and God who says don't forget me.

The folk who don't want to be forgotten, when they're gone, they're gone. You can't go to them for anything else. You can't reach them. You couldn't even reach them when they were alive. You can't reach a man if they've died. So they can do absolutely nothing from their memorial. But the God who brought you from yesterday is alive today and you're gonna need him tomorrow so you better not forget.

See that's the problem with it. The problem with today is everybody wants to remember God for what he can give them, not for who he is. In flood season, when you were between a rock and a hard place at the Red Sea, when you didn't know how you were gonna get out of this one, when you didn't know whether you were gonna make it, when other folk gave up on you and you saw no way out, remember that I showed up and I met you in that place. Do not forget the Lord your God. So gather the stones. Gather the stones and when you gather these stones, there's gonna be a question. And the question is what do these stones mean? A memorial should always provoke a question.

What does this mean? We have trophies in the Fellowship Center. We've got a trophy case, all kind of trophies from different things, different teams, have won from our sports ministries.

Trophies. People don't even stop at the trophy case anymore, you know. You know that if you've been over there, but you don't stop to read it anymore, you know why? Because all of that is representative of the past. Every trophy in there is yesterday's news. And so you know that there, but you don't go read them anymore, you don't go look at them.

Even the people who participate in the championship don't revisit them, because it's yesterday's news. The reason why God doesn't want to forget you is that he's not just yesterday's news. I love his name. He told Moses, I am that I am.

I, personal pronoun, am present tense. He's the right now God. So his trophy cases continue to be filled with current day realities of his presence and purpose in our lives, individually and as a community.

He's never old news. He says, I want you to build a memorial to remember, to cause my people to remember that I am the right now God, based on the past. So he told Israel, circumcise your sons and every generation after that. He said, remember the Passover. And then in the New Testament, Jesus says around communion, remember me. Why?

Because of what I do right now, based on what I have already done. Dr. Evans will come back with more on remembering God's faithfulness when he returns in just a moment. Stay with us. Alaska is a land where ancient glaciers drop house-sized chunks of ice into the sea, where grizzlies fish for spawning salmon, where the lush green canopy of trees is offset by distant snowy mountains, and where the word majestic is hardly enough to describe what you see. Nowhere else in North America is the scenery so spectacular and God's creative wonders so vivid. Come journey here with Tony Evans on an unforgettable urban alternative Alaskan cruise. You'll discover powerful scriptural truths from Dr. Evans and other gifted instructors, experience meaningful times of worship, and enjoy inspirational musical performances from talented musicians.

There's plenty of time for rest and relaxation, luxurious accommodations, and incredible meals, all while surrounded by the breathtaking creation that is Alaska. To find out more about the Urban Alternative Alaskan Cruise, visit tonyevans.org today. That's tonyevans.org.

Before we get back to today's message, I'd like to tell you about your last opportunity to take advantage of our current special resource offer. It includes a copy of Tony's powerful book that goes hand in hand with the talk we've been listening to today. Kingdom Men Rising looks beyond phony stereotypes, helping men understand who they were created to be and how they can rise up to the task and responsibilities God has given them. Along with this empowering book, you'll also get all 12 lessons from his companion teaching series on both CD or digital download. This special Kingdom Men Rising bundle is available as our gift to you when you help support Tony's work here on the air and around the world by making a contribution to the ministry. Get all the details at tonyevans.org today. That's tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information for you after Part 2 of today's lesson.

Here's Tony. Everybody has a phone, and everybody has a smartphone, which means everybody taking pictures of everything all the time. We've got to be the most picture-taking family in the history of picture-taking families. We've got volumes and volumes and volumes and volumes of picture books from over the years. I was looking with my son Anthony through one about a year ago, and he looked at me and he said, Daddy. I said, what? He said, we're going through this book and I just noticed something.

I said, what? He said, every page you're there with me, you've been there all my life. If you turn the pages of your life and look close enough, you'll discover your Heavenly Father has been there all your life.

Even in your unsaved days, you were covered enough for you to be here today. So he says, I want you to build this memorial. He says, when your children ask you, what do these stones mean?

Then you will say, because of the waters of Jordan were cut off, before the covenant of the Lord, it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off, so these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever. We are supposed to have a transferable faith. It's supposed to be transferred from one generation to the next generation. You know why we in the chaos we in today? Because there has been a transfer problem. We have a generation of young people who have not had their faith transferred by their mothers or fathers.

And so there is a massive transfer problem. In verse 24, I love this. He says that all the people on the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty so that you may fear the Lord your God forever. Ooh. Watch this.

Watch this. Israel, I'm going to bless you. Even though in the promised land, you're going to be surrounded by evil.

There's going to be Jericho, there's AI, there's all these evil people, the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, they're still in the promised land. You're surrounded by evil. But in the middle of the evil that surrounds you, I got you.

You got evil all around you, but I got you. But the reason I have you is so that the rest of the world may know. All them fools out there, all the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, I want them to know that I am in your midst because I want them to hear stories about you. I want them to hear the miracles I'm doing in your midst. I want them to hear the transformation of lives, the marriages that are saved, the dignity that is arising up, the spirituality that's taking place. I want to show off so that when they see out there what I'm doing in here, my name will be made great out there because I'm making it great in here. God has given us this promised land on camp wisdom, but it's just not for you and me.

It's so that God can keep doing miracles on camp wisdom so the rest of Oak Cliff and Dallas and America can say, oh, God has shown up at 1800 block of camp wisdom because he keeps showing up there. How are you all able to do that? How are you able to pay for that? How are you able to change that? How are you able to impact that? How do you have the ability to own that?

How do you have the ability to do that? And we can give testimony. It is to the Lord our God who met us in flood season. In your home, you may be surrounded by evil, but God says, if you remember the Lord your God, even in your house, when you say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

I don't care what the rest of the homes are doing around me. He says, I will make your home great because you remember me, even though you're surrounded by all kinds of evil. So don't you be ashamed of God. Don't you be ashamed to name his name. Don't you be ashamed to do good works in his name. Don't you be ashamed to praise him. Don't you be ashamed to glorify him. If you don't want to hear about my God, if you don't want to hear about Jesus, then you can't have a long conversation with me.

My job is to make his name great individually and our job is to do it collectively. And no matter how big we get, how high we get or what God gives us, remember that when you're on the top of a pyramid, you're only up there because something else is holding you up. And if something happens with the folk underneath you holding you up, you come crashing down. So no matter how high we get, it's God who's holding us up. And if God ever walks away from us, we will collapse. You will collapse.

I will collapse because it's all about him. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about the importance of always keeping God's faithfulness at the front of our minds. And with that, he has wrapped up his current series on biblical manhood called Kingdom Men Rising. That means today is the last chance to take advantage of the special double offer I mentioned earlier. All 12 full-length messages in the series bundled along with Tony's powerful book, Kingdom Men Rising. Remember, if you help us continue this broadcast by making a donation to the ministry, we'll say thanks by sending you the special Kingdom Men Rising bundle.

This offer ends today though, so don't put it off. Visit tonyevans.org or reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are standing by around the clock to help you. That's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. When there doesn't seem to be any way out of the circumstances you're facing, Dr. Evans says there's likely a godly purpose for your problems. Learn more tomorrow as he begins a series called Igniting Kingdom Prayer. And in the meantime, be looking for ways to spread kindness to those you encounter throughout your day. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.