Leave a Heritage 5-19-96 PM

5-19-96 PM

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Joshua chapter 4 tonight. Joshua chapter 4. Pick up your Bibles, and by the way, you see the video screen down. We'll use that in just a moment. Joshua chapter 4. Look if you would, brethren, and uh, y'all ready for church? All right, verse 1. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean, passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take ye twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command ye them, saying, Take ye hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest's feet stood firm, twelve stones. Ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place where ye shall lodge this night. So they're going down into the Jordan, and God's gonna hold the waters back, and the ark is gonna stand right in the midst of the Jordan, and the people are gonna pass by. And on their way out, twelve men are gonna pick up these stones, one each, and put them on their shoulder, and where they lodged that night, they're gonna erect an altar out of those stones. Verse 4. Then Joshua called the twelve men where he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man, and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of Jordan, and take you up, every man of you, a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a what? A sign among you, that when your children asked their fathers in time to come, saying, Would you ask the question with me these next six words, ready, begin. What mean ye by these stones? Would you say that again? What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over Jordan. The waters of Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up the twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them and to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. Verse 9. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bear the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there unto this day. So what we read here is really, two stone altars were set up. One, they took the rocks out of the midst of the Jordan, carried them up on their shoulders, went up on the other side, and the place where they lodged, they set those stones up. But Joshua also in the midst of Jordan set up twelve stones where the feet of the priest were that bare the ark. Now I want you to understand something here tonight, and once in a while there's a baby that's going to get a look at me, and we're gonna we're gonna have a conflict in just a minute because here's the problem. The baby looks at me and the baby cries. Amen? My babies have all done that. So if the baby gets a good look at me and cries loud, best thing to do is not let the baby see me anymore, amen? I tell my wife that, and a couple years later she brings the baby back and say, This is still your child, amen. Joshua chapter 4. What mean ye by these stones? You know what they said? What's the purpose of these stones? What is the significance of these stones? What, if you would, is the uh is the meaning behind setting these stones up? And what do these stones reflect? And the answer was that God paved the way, he cut off the waters of Jordan so we could cross over into the promised land, and God was magnified that day. The purpose of those stones setting up there that we put in our lodging place that night was to remind us that God had worked for us and to tell our children that God had done something special for us. And please look up here, and I believe to expect the same. Look, if you would, a little bit farther, and notice verse uh 20, or let's start in verse 18. And it came to pass when the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priest's feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned into their place and flowed over all the banks as they did before. And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal. Look where they encamped at. In the east border of what? Jericho. I tell you what, that's one city you wouldn't want to have lived in. And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal, right on the east border there of Jericho. He spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, would you say the next question with me? Ready? Begin. What mean ye these stones? What mean these stones? See, now the children are asking their dads, uh, hey, what do these stones signify? What's their purpose? What do they mean? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came up over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the what? Red Sea, which he dried up from before who? You know what those fathers were saying? Just like God did for our parents, God did for us, and these stones are to remind you, children, of what God did for us and what he can do for you. Until we were gone over. Verse 24. That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord. That it is what? Say it, mighty, that you might fear the Lord God forever. So the idea here was, we want you to set these stones up. And when those children say, What mean you by these stones? Or what mean these stones? What's the significance? We want to tell them, and you're supposed to tell them, just like God dried up the Red Sea for your parents, God dried up the River Jordan for us, and God can work for you. Brethren, may I say and may I ask you this question? What stones have you set up for your children? What what what what what remembrances are you giving them? You say, Well, you know, I don't have any children. Well, what remembrance are you setting up for yourself? What altar are you setting up? What set of rocks can you go back to and say, Man, I remember that. Boy, I remember what God did for me there. Man, wasn't that great? You say, I don't need that. Oh, yes, you do. Just about the time you start to get complacent, just about the time you start losing your momentum and your drive. Just about the time you start thinking about more in the world than the spiritual things. Just about the time we start to get to the place where we're not walking with God as close as we once did. That's when we need to go back and visit the altar and say, wait a minute, God worked for me then, God was working for me then, God did this for me then, and God can still do it for me now. There comes a point in time, brethren, when we need to revisit our own altars. You see, I don't know how to do this other than just I'll mention some things that's gone on in my life, but it's it's no way, shape, or form a lifting up of me. You see, I can still remember about three and a half months on a little sale boat in what God did. There's a little altar that I have down in Tahiti. Literally. I'll never forget it. Are you gonna visit it? Hope not. I don't need to go back to Tahiti. Oh, I'd love to go to Tahiti. Well then go. I don't want to go there. I've been there. It's not my calling. But there's a little altar down there. Uh it's it's about uh 32 feet from where the boat was. And when I took that other step, I spit. And said 33. It's been a while since I did that. You say, I don't understand. The boat was 32 foot long. And after you've been out there for a little while, it was nice to walk 33 feet in one direction. That doesn't mean anything to you, but it meant a whole lot to me. I still remember a date, October 5th. I'll never forget that day or one, it's my daughter's birthday, but October 5th was the day a few years back I ended a 40-day fast. You see, I got some altars that I can revisit. I'm not trying to say that in a in a in a boastful way, but do you have any? You know, it's nice to revisit the time and the place where you led somebody to Christ. It's nice to go back every once in a while in your mind's eye and visit that altar. I'll never forget one in particular, a lady who was Jewish. And boy, she sat at the table and asked me questions, and I thought, Lord, how can you ever break through this one? And she kept asking questions, and you could just see her heart begin to melt. Because we got the answers out of the Old Testament. Boy, I remember that night. Well, I'm asking you tonight, are you got any place where you could go back and someone asked you, what mean ye by these stones? What's the purpose of this day? Why why are these stones set up here? And you could say, Oh, these stones right here, let me tell you what God did. We need some of those. And by the way, may I say this? You may have some of six years ago or five years ago or four years ago. But may I say this to you? I hope it's not three or two or maybe over a year ago, because we constantly need to be setting up more stone altars as we go along the way. Because what happened five years ago may be too long. We need some maybe three years ago and two years ago, and one year ago, and six months ago. Are you listening to me? Because sometimes our Christianity can grow into complacency. If you don't, it's time to get some. Chapter 3, real quick. Look at chapter 3 of Joshua. Hey, Dad, what's the meaning of these stones? Look at verse 5. Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do what? Wonders among you. He could go back to those stones and say, hey, God did a wonderful thing. Just like he, we heard how he cut off the Red Sea, you know, I my parents talked about it, and but I, you know, uh, you know, maybe he remembered it, maybe he didn't. He'd been out there 40 years and everything, wandering around in the wilderness, but but just like they dried up the Red Sea, God did that for us, and God did a wonder. And may I say to you, son or daughter, God is powerful. Look what God did. Uh, Joshua chapter 3, look at verse 10. And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites, the HIVites and the Perizzites, and the Gergeshites and Amorites and the Jebusites. You see, that stone altar represented the altar, if you would, the power of God of what he did, and it gave those people confidence to move forward. And please look up here, there are times when our confidence starts to grow weak and weary, and our faith gets drained out. We've got to go back and return to that stone altar along the way. And there ought to be a series of altars back there. We can go, God, you did this for me, and you did this for me, and you did this for the church, and you did this for a family, and you did this from a ministry, and you did this and you did this and you did this, and God, I know you can still do it. It builds our confidence again in what God is able to do, and it and it lifts him up in our eyes, and we don't run from the battle. And there's too many Christians running from the battle. We need all the workers we can get. You say, why? Because God has a work to do, and God is looking for men and women to show themselves strong for him. And yeah, there's going to be battles, and yeah, there's going to be conflicts, but we need to stay in the saddle and stay on course and stay walking our post. What do these stones mean? Well, Dad, tell us about these stones. Oh, God did wonders. God did a miracle. Look at chapter 3, something else, verse 7. The Lord said to Joshua, this day will I begin to do what? Magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. Hey, don't you understand, children, what God did that day. We heard about Moses. We knew all about Moses. Moses was a legend. Moses did so many great and mighty works, God used him, but that day God showed us that God was going to use Joshua just like used Moses, and we could follow him. Look at chapter 4. Chapter 4. And notice, if you would, verse 14. And on that day the Lord magnified who? Joshua. In the sight of all Israel, and they feared him, that they feared, as they feared Moses all the days of his life. What God was doing, what mean you by the stones, children? That was the day that God showed us that God was going to work through Joshua and we could trust Joshua as our forefathers trusted Moses. You see, children, these stones here, they they represent more than just a pile of rocks. In fact, I'm sure children pass by them and people pass by them all the time. They don't know what they mean, but they mean something to me. Look, if you would at chapter 2. Children, these stones, when they're asked, uh, let me tell you something about these stones. You see where we're standing, children. I I wonder as I look at this thing, I wonder this, and you're in chapter two? I wonder if any of the children with their dads ever went back. I wonder if a family ever went back after the land was more and more conquered. I wonder if they ever went back to where that stone altar was piled up. I wonder if any of the children ever said, uh, hey, Dad, what's this pile of rocks over here? Oh, that's the twelve rocks that came out of the Jordan. One per tribe. Come out of the midst of the Jordan. You see, uh, you see where they're stacked? Are right over there east of Jericho. You see, God put them there for a reason. Look if you would in Joshua chapter 2, and notice if you would, verse 9. Verse 9. The spies are talking to Rahab the harlot. She's inside of Jericho, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror has fallen from us upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. Verse 10, for we have what? Say it. Come on, everybody, we have what? We heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Sion and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. Verse 11, and as soon as we had heard these things, our heart did what? Melt. You know what was doing? Uh you know what these rocks are significant? Hey, God was going before us and starting to melt the hearts of the enemy, and when we got there, they were like jellyfish. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, this is a harlot speaking. He is God. In heaven above and in earth beneath. Hey, you know what? Word traveled. It got out. Look at chapter 2 and look at verse 24. These spies come back and they tell Joshua, and they said unto Joshua, To thee, the Lord hath delivered into the hands of our hands into the land, all the land. For even all the inhabits of the country do what? Say it, faint because of us. Hey, what mean you by these stones? Well, you've got to understand, uh, God chose the place where they were going to cross. They didn't just say, Well, let's see, uh, let's see the ark. How about we go here, or how about we go there? No, God chose the place where they were going to cross, and he chose it specifically. Look at verse 16 of chapter 3. Stay with me. Chapter 3, verse 16, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Zaratan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off. And look at this. And the people passed over right against where? Jericho. Their first area of operation, their first battle zone, their first fields of fire, the city Jericho, and God had them pass right over next to Jericho. I wonder why. Fear is a wonderful thing when it's in the eyes and the ears of the enemy. Hey, don't you know in the Korean War, the Chinese, the North Chinese, they used to shout and blow trumpets before they would make their big charges. And believe me, if you're on the wrong side of that thing and they started blowing these trumpets, the men say it used to make our hairs stand on in and the blood curling screams, and they we knew they were coming by hordes and just see, but they'd keep coming. And our biggest fear was that we'd run out of ammunition and they would keep coming. Because oftentimes they sent men in the front and sent another wave and sent another wave and send another wave. And the first eight to ten waves didn't even have swords or didn't even have any types of weapons, and they were just gonna die. And what they were trying to do is make the make our soldiers run out of ammunition. And then this big wave would come through and overrun the position. And they said, when we heard those bonsai charges, the blood-curdling screams, it just our hearts sometimes just used to really get fearful. That's warfare. These people in Jericho, they were already scared stiff. And God had them pass right next over to Jericho. And please look up here, and that's where that altar was put. The east side of Jericho. Right outside of that wall. Well, how do you know they were, how do you know they were scared? Well, look at chapter uh six. Better? Look at chapter five. Chapter five, verse one. And it came to pass when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, verse one of chapter five, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel until we were passed over. Their heart what? Melted. There's no courage. Neither was their spirit in them anymore. Because of what? The children of Israel. Look at chapter 6 and verse 1. Now Jericho was what? Straightly shut up. What does that mean? They had the gates closed. Nobody was going out, and nobody was coming in. Because of the children of Israel, none went out and none came in. You see, children, this stone altar here that you're looking at is just not a pile of rocks to me. It means something. This pile of rocks came up out of Jordan. By the way, this pile of rocks, uh, hey, let's walk over here real quick, children. Uh, come with me real quick. You see the river Jordan there? And if you see it right, uh, some days uh when the water's down, you can still see that little pile of rock sticking up out there. That's the rocks that we set up. That's where the feet, the feet of the priests stayed, and that's where the ark was, and right there is where we came across. Children, come over here with me. Hey, let me show you another pile of rocks. We didn't make this one. God made his own altar over here. Come here, let me show you something. You see that big pile out there and over there and back that way? See that pile of rocks? Well, that one we set up and that one we set up, but that one over there, God set that one up. That was his pile. Children, that used to be the wall of Jericho. And it's just a pile of rocks laying out there flat right now. Let me tell you what happened with that. God told us to do something unusual, and we just did what he told us to do. I mean, we come in and we marched around the city, and the priests would blow the trumpets, but we weren't to say a word. We did that once and went back to the camp the first day. And the second day we did the same, and the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth. On that seventh day, you know what God had us to do? We watched around that thing seven times. Trumpets were blowing and everything. And when our leader Joshua said shout, we what? We shouted. Somebody says, I don't believe in shouting. Well, one day you will, amen. Not everybody has to shout, not everybody has to do that, but some people weep. But on those days, God said shout. And when they shouted, and when we shouted, son and daughter, you ought to watch it. Those walls just fell flat. They just, they just was they just crumbled. And when we saw that, it it made us so excited to see God working again. And we charged Jericho, and their hearts were already melted. It was a massacre. There was no strength left in them. God did all that, and that was our first conquest. You see, our forefathers' children, uh, they were slaves back in Egypt, and they weren't men of war. And we didn't learn it from them because they didn't know how to fight. And we watched them die in the wilderness, and then God brought us. Please look up here. God brought us, and we we uh we fought the king of Sihon, uh the king of the Amorites, and we God showed us how to become soldiers, and we got blooded that day. And then we fought Og, the king of Basha, and he was also one of the kings down there in those Amorites. And man, you ought to see what God did them. He started preparing us and and training us, and and when we came in. You know, we were 40,000 strong. We had a 100,000 man army that was prepared for war. It wasn't like our forefathers coming out of Egypt with this non-courage attitude and with this mentality that they were not going to be able to do anything out there. When we come into the promised land, we were ready to do something for God, children.

unknown 22:18

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Hey, uh, children. Remember uh I showed you over there in the river where those pile of rocks are, and that pile of rocks outside of Jordan, that big pile of rocks. Hey, come on, I want to show you another pile. Uh we're gonna have to do a little climbing, though. It's up on top of the mountain. Let's go up on uh Mount Ebel. Let me show you another pile of rocks, children. Look if you would with me, brethren, and look at Joshua 8 and Deuteronomy chapter 27. Joshua 8 and Deuteronomy chapter 27. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 27. Are you with me tonight? Deuteronomy chapter 27. You say, what are you talking about tonight, preacher? Deuteronomy 27, Joshua 8. I'm talking about leaving a heritage. You say, what's a heritage? A history of remembrances. I'm talking about our church ought to have a heritage. I'm talking about our families ought to have a heritage. I'm talking about our individual people and our men in here and our women ought to have a heritage. Our church ought to have a heritage and of remembrances where we can walk through the past and see God working to encourage us for the future. America ought to have some heritage where you can see God working and how He took care of this. I remember Samaba, a bag of groceries. That's a rock pile for me and for my wife. What do you mean, a bag of groceries? We've been out of food for a long time except for rice. We've been eating rice a long time. Rice with gravy and rice with gravy and rice without gravy. I remember a missionary showed up, didn't know us very well. And just the mere mention of it, my wife remembers. He got on our little raft that came out to the boat and he had bags of groceries. He said, Here, God told me to bring these to you, and we just want to encourage you. That's nothing to anybody else, but it's a rock pile to me. We ought to have a heritage in our, we ought to have a heritage as an individual person. See, I can go back and I'm not going to go back, but I can go back and remember how God did this for me and God did that for me, and God took of that there. Just, you know, I remember going up that thing where I talked to you about when I went up before the colonel. That was a rock pile for me. We need a heritage. But in order to have a heritage, something has to happen. If nothing happens, there's no heritage. If God doesn't allow us to do something by faith and we see God's hand, it's not a heritage. Are you listening to me? I'm not talking about I manipulated this around and then I cheated and deceived and lied about this, and then this happens. See how good I am? I'm talking about God did something here that was miraculous. Deuteronomy 27, children, let me show you just one more rock pile. Deuteronomy 27, look at verse 1. And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. It shall be on the day when you shall pass over Jordan, the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set up great stones and plaster them with plaster. And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey, as the Lord God of the fathers have promised thee. Therefore, it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, Mount Ebel. And thou shalt plaster with plaster, and thou shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God. An altar of what? Say it. Not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones. And thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God, and thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. Look at it. And thou shalt write upon the stones. All the words of this law say it very plainly. Children, let me show you over here. Let's go up Mount Ebel. Look at Joshua 8. Children, uh, you remember the stone altar back over there beside Jericho, and that that stone altar, I show you that little ripple, that little rock sticking up out in the midst of Jordan, and you saw the stones fell down at Jericho. Let's go up here. You see, here's what happened. We uh we conquered Jericho and we were rejoicing. And children, it was a wonderful day. We we saw the hand of the Lord, and Joshua sent out some men to spy out a place named Ai. And uh the report came back and didn't seem to be many men over there, and God had just given us a great victory, and so Joshua told just a few to go up. When they went up, they were defeated. Boy, I tell you what, uh, we were distraught that night. And the next day, God showed us what was wrong. Somebody had disobeyed God in the camp. His name, the family of Achan. And children, what happened? Uh God said that we weren't supposed to touch of the accursed thing, and he did. And so, children, uh, that day we we had to banish Achan and we we stoned him. And God's blessing came back upon us, and and God showed us how to go up to Ai. And when we got to Ai and we we did it just the way God showed us with the ambushes and everything. God wrought a victory that day, and we got to Ai, and we went up to the Mount Ebo, and this is the altar we built in verse 30. Then Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebo. Verse 31. And Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man hath lifted up any iron. And they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. Hey, children, and he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel, and all Israel, and their elders and officers, and the judges stood on this side of the ark, and on that side, before the priest, the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well as the strangers, he that was born among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebos, Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel, children. That's what we did, and afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. Hey, children, there was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not, before all the congregation of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them. Children, that's what this altar is right here. See it? You know, children, to a lot of people, what I just showed you are just four piles of rocks. Little altar down there, twelve stones outside of Jericho, and the one you can't hardly know that's there in the midst of the Jordan, that big pile of rubble out there. Now this altar and a lot of people, just some rocks piled up. The children to me. And now to you, they're part of your heritage. You see, children in our days, God used us. In our days, God's hand was mighty. Are you listening to me teenagers? Are you listening to me fourth and fifth and sixth graders? Are you listening to me young Christian, fifty years old or forty years old? You see, children, we've seen the hand of God. We've seen his mighty doings. And we want you to see them too. And we want you to experience them. And the only way you're gonna experience them, children, we're gonna revisit these rocks, and we're gonna revisit those piles, and we're gonna see that pile, and we're gonna see that odor, and we're gonna talk about it once in a while, and we're gonna show it to you once in a while, because we want you to have some expectations in your life, not to be a complacent, nothing of the saving Christian, not expecting anything from God, not walking out of the defense, not the going so with me, not stepping to the community, not stepping to what servers is like the motion going about. We want you to have a life with life, a full life, and a bundle life, and we're gonna keep telling you about it. But we gotta have something to tell them about. And it can't be well, thirty years ago. I remember I remember somebody walked down the aisle. Yeah, I think it was about 30 years ago. I I I think we I we baptized somebody. Maybe it's maybe it's 31 years ago. I don't remember, but but we did.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

We did. We did. And we love the Lord. We just haven't seen work in a while.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Not here. Not in this church. Oh, grandfather, what do you do now? Oh, highlight of the year is our business meeting. Oh, it gets it gets on. Big argument. Last year, we're gonna put new carpet in the church. You ought to hear the argument over the color. Not here! Biggest discussion on we'll have is how many buses to buy next year. Somebody asked me at this camp meeting, doesn't it bother you? You don't have a building? I said, well, no, not really. Well, when are you gonna get one? I said, I don't know. We got ones not being used on Sunday. So we use it. Well, do you think God will, yeah, probably He will. But I said to him, but that hasn't stopped us. Let me do something tonight. Yesterday I called Phil Burks in the afternoon, and I said, Phil, uh, would you do something very quickly for me? Would you uh would you go back into your video tapes and just pull out some different things, uh almost like a video collage. And would you just pull out some different cuts, maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute at the most, on different things and throw them into a video and I want to show it tomorrow night. He didn't know the message, he didn't know why. And I haven't seen the video yet. Start turning off these lights, guys, and I'm gonna ask you guys right here up in the balcony, just make your way along the auditorium over here, but don't go out, it's not time to get a drink, it's still preaching. I think you'll be able to see this, turn off those lights. You say, Why are you doing this?

unknown 35:07

Remembrance.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Yeah, we're gonna remember. You say, Well, I've not been here long, so I don't know any about this. I know, but you're gonna know that we've got a heritage. And by the way, I don't know how far this goes back. Uh some of it will probably be a while back, and some of it will probably be recent. But listen to me. And don't go out, wait, I'm still speaking to you as those things are going down, they're all getting lit up and everything. Listen to me. You see, sir, brethren, I thought in my mind's eye, and I thought, hey, do you remember uh and set up this altar when over at the Amherst property? I remember days over there, big days where we had over 1,200 people. I mean, there were kids under this awning, and there were kids over there, and there were kids over there. I I remember, I remember looking in the auditorium one of the times when Brother Jim McGahee was here preaching years ago, and the whole auditorium was filled with men that we had brought in off the bases. I mean, the whole thing, there wasn't room for any of our members. The whole thing was just men. And he was preaching, there wasn't room anymore. I remember uh going into that and finally looking at that thing and saying, man, we gotta do something. What can we do? And we started renting the La Mesa Community Center. You remember? And the first night I remember, man, what a what a hassle to get in over there and get all the nursery set up and all that kind of stuff. And on that big day, if you remember, we had the community service uh over there at the La Mesa Community Center, and we have Spanish services, and at that same time we had the country fair all in one day, and we did that for maybe once or twice. We said we can't do that anymore. It's it's too many. We don't have the vehicles, we don't have the support uh uh uh that we need to do it because it got too big, and then we decided, well, we'll split the big bus days off the country fair off and have that at a separate time, and then we'll have our our big day for our adults uh about a month or a month and a half later, and we started doing that, and then and then it got to the place where, if you remember correctly, we had to go to Rolando, or we had to go off Orlando school, and we went down to the uh Crawford High School, and then it got hey, you say, what's all that? Remembrances! Stop the bottom! Stop the bumper, stand up! Come on, children! Let's let's look at this little mother here, and let's remember this back here, and let's remember this all over the hit, whatever becomes wind up some, and we want to do a minimum! It's not a window given the mother church, and you know, the mother churches have a minimum It's not the bottom of the parking lot. And this is the smaller missus! I'm gonna know what that goes on here, but I'm chilling the women!

SPEAKER_00 37:49

I'm seeing the people sweating, and single people live, and see the people hugging and tumbling!

SPEAKER_02 37:58

We need to give them something positive to remember. Go ahead. You know, God's got a plan for us this year in our bus ministries, and work quickly, guys, to get that fixed, please. The bus ministry this year, we decided back in December. We decided that for this year in the bus ministries, we wouldn't have a big day in the fall. And we decided that before Laidlaw told us of the problems there and all the rest of the things that had happened. And we decided, if you would, that this year we would not have it in the fall, and we'd move the big bus days around to the spring. I can see God's hand in that whole thing. So this fall there won't be a bus station. You might say, hey man, what are we changing? We're going away from it. Oh, no, no. We're regrouping, we're building up the base a little bit. And and Chris has wanted to change the bus days from the fall to the spring for a number of years, but we knew we'd have to do it one of two ways. Either we'd have back-to-back programs which would just burn people out, especially the way we do it, amen. I'm talking about bus days. You remember 3,000 kids on that one day? You remember you remember leading up to it? And there's their teenagers in here, and there's some that are going to graduate this year. And I was so happy at the bus meeting the other day, they recognized, if you would, some of those teenagers who've been working those bus routes, and those teenagers can go back and visit a stone altar and say, I remember the day we had 3,000 on those buses. But we knew if we went that way and we had a situation where we went in the fall and then we went in the spring, that it just probably wouldn't work, so we felt like the best thing to do was to go a whole year cycle and then come back and so in the spring of 1997 is when we'll have our next bus days. But we will have another bus days, Lord willing. You say, will it be as big? I don't know. Were you planning for it? Yeah. We're asking the Lord of the harvest to send labors into the harvest right now. Why? To build this, to help us to get ready for the future. 2 Samuel chapter 7, look at verse number 10. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more. You say, I don't get it. Well, if you've been in our church for a while, you'd understand what that scripture was to me, and I wrote down the date. It was kind of late at night, and I was just reading. And that kind of stuck out at me, and God said in my heart, one of these days, Lighthouse Baptist Church over a place of their own. And they'll move no more. I remember praying that night, but I want the Lord to plant us. I don't want to plant us ourselves. Because when he plants us, we'll be in the right place. I'm already expectant that this won't be obviously the place where he will plant us. Somebody says, Do you think they'll ever sell? We wouldn't want to buy it. If we ever get to the place where we lose it, you say, you know, I'm asked sometimes, uh, Pastor, it seems like a big church. I say, well, I guess it's got a little bit bigger, but to me, we're still very personable. We still do things in a very homey and sometimes homely way. That doesn't bother me at all. I'm not going to lose any sleep over this. I'm just going to say the will of the Lord be done. Must have been God's will, amen? 2 Samuel said, though, that and uh that he'll give us a place and we'll move no more. Now listen to me. I'm not convinced, though, that we won't have to move one more time before we plant somewhere. I think we'll probably uh be looking, and maybe if God willing, we'll find a bigger auditorium somewhere. Maybe we'll just lease that for a while. And go ahead and let the Lord build us a little bit more. Statement. But I'm not looking to build just a big bunch of people. I'm looking to build people. Our methodology of building a church is this: we build people. God builds a church. Our emphasis is still building people, building families and teenagers, and marriages and adults, building people, and more come. And God adds. Our soul winning, that's that's the right method. Restoring people. Caring about people, they know we care about them, and because that they know that we care, they care about what we know. That's all it is. So we may have to go somewhere else and lease a building before we get planted. Maybe we we go a couple places, I don't know. But may I say this to you? I don't get too attached to buildings. You know what I mean? Oh, oh, I just, oh, it's a nice building. It's just a building. You say, why are you doing this?

unknown 43:14

Remember it.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Yeah, we're gonna remember. You see that big pile of rubble over here? You see that over there? That's what God did when he rocked down that wall. And sure, let's walk over here to Mount Ebo and let's go up there and let's look at the altar where we wrote the word of God. And it was declared very plainly. And I asked you dolls this question. You got some stone altars in your life that your children know about? If you don't, it's time to get some. And as a church and a ministry, may I say this to you.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

We're not finished.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

If you're looking for a better roses than a a Christianity that just kinda is complacent. We want you to stay. But you're probably gonna have to change it. We've got another generation that needs to see God's hand and God's word. That's all Sam tonight. What mean ye? By these stones. Hey Daddy, what do these stones mean? Dad Daddy, what what what happened over here?

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Daddy, uh you ever win anybody to Christ? Hey, hey, mommy. Did you ever lead a anybody to Christ?

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Are we going to church today? Daddy, uh do we give any money to missions? Daddy, why is the offering plate pass by and I never see you put anything in it?

SPEAKER_01 46:03

Daddy, I d I don't know if it's fair for you to yell at me when I fall asleep in church.