Joshua 4
[ Up ]

 

What Do The Stones Mean?

Joshua 4 

 

Recognition of the Graduates

This morning’s message takes on a totally different format.  We want to take time to recognize and honor our recent high school graduates.  I will present a brief message as well; a message aimed primarily at the graduates, but I hope it will serve as a challenge to us older folks too!

In regard to us older folks … do you remember the days immediately following graduation from High School?  Do you remember the feelings and emotions of the first Monday morning that you would normally be heading off to school?  OR How good it felt to know that you did not have any homework due for the next day?   

High School graduation is a significant milestone.  Think about the day to day routine that has been engrained into their lifestyle for 12 years!  Graduation brings a sudden change in that routine and presents a whole new realm of challenges.  This morning will serve as a time to honor our graduates, as well as for the rest of us to take note of how we can be praying, supporting, and encouraging them in the weeks ahead.  This is an important role for us as their home church.

Presentation:

  • Ask Josh, Brittney, and Dustin to please come forward. 

Interview:

  • Tell us where you graduated from and about any post-graduation plans for this summer and fall.
  • Share with us a memory or lesson learned from High School or Church that will be helpful as you go on to college or for life in general.
  • Share with us a prayer request that everyone here can link with you as you proceed with the next season of your life.                         

 Prayer Time:

  • Invite the elders and anyone else to come forward and pray over these graduates.

 Special Song:

  • Ryan and Heidi to sing

 

Gifts for the Graduates:

  • Presentation of graduation gifts

 

Message

 As parents we hope and trust that we have trained them well.  We also have to rely on God’s sovereignty during their formative years.  Brittney, Dustin, and Josh:  God has allowed specific people to be a part of your life for particular reasons.  Maybe there have been specific teachers, or coaches, or other adults who have made a significant impact on who you are today. Maybe there have been some key friendships that God has brought into your life.  Some of those friendships have been for a short season and others will last a life-time.  God has also allowed specific events to be a part of your development.  Maybe it was a memorable family trip, a school event, a youth conference, or a short term mission’s project. 

The Key to all this:   We need to REMEMBER!!  Remember what God has orchestrated in your life.  Remember the people and why they mean so much to you.  Remember the events and what God was teaching you through them.  Remember what God has taught you about yourself and what He has taught you about Himself.

 There is a good story in the Old Testament that directly relates to this whole aspect of “Remembering”.  Turn with me to Joshua chapter four. 

Read Joshua 4:1-7, 19-24

1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD . When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' 22 tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' 23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea [2] when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God." 

A memorial.  Setting up memorials was a common practice in the Bible times and continues today.  Across America we have all kinds of memorials.  Each memorial represents some significant person(s) or an event. I have heard the charge leveled that our society today is so fast paced that we are not taking enough time to learn from the past, to remember the events that have shaped our culture and therefore have affected our lives.  Tomorrow is Memorial Day.  Sadly, many view it simply as a day off work. 

Let’s think for a minute about the Israelite nation as they approached the Jordan River.  Why was a memorial important?  During the previous 40 years:

  • Millions were freed from slavery in Egypt.
  • The crossing through the parted Red Sea. 
  • The annihilation of the Egyptian army.
  • God’s miracles as they traveled across the desert.
  • The issuance of the 10 commandments.
  • They were on the verge of entering the Promised Land but they “FORGOT” what all God had done for them since leaving Egypt!
  • The result:  Back into the wilderness, 40 years of wandering, and the death of a generation.

Now, after 40 years in the wilderness, they cross the Jordan.  The memorial was to serve as a reminder of the power of God.  The memorial also reminded them to depend on God as they moved forward with their lives.  After all, in the very next chapter we have the infamous battle of Jericho.    

It is at a similar point that our graduates now stand (it’s a good reminder for the rest of us too).  Looking back they must Remember how God has shaped them to become who they are today.  Looking forward they must trust upon the power of God to help them face what lies ahead.  It is worthy to take note that the Israelites didn’t cross the river and set-up a permanent camp on the banks of the Jordan.  They paused, re-grouped, and then moved forward to accomplish what God led them to do.  They were faithful.             The wilderness was the training ground, “the boot camp” and the Promised Land is where the battles were to be fought.  Eighteen years of life at home is the “boot camp” [Dad and Mom make good drill sergeants]; going off to college and jobs is where you put all your training in to use! 

The first time the Israelites approached the Jordan River; the whole class flunked the final exam of Wilderness Training and were not allowed to graduate.  God decided that if 2 ½ years of dependence on God and observing His miracles didn’t put a trust into their hearts then it was time to go back to class.  The bad news was that to retake the class required 40 years.

John Piper has written a book to challenge us (at no matter what age) to be faithful to the finish.  The title is:  “Don’t Waste Your Life”. 

How can we avoid failing Wilderness Training?  OR How can we avoid “wasting our lives”?

Pray and Read              Don’t let your Bible collect dust.                                                                                  

Pray and Study Get in a small group or campus ministry group and study the Bible with others.    

Pray and Think Practice discussing with others “why you believe what you believe”       

Pray and Speak            Share your beliefs with non-believing friends and relatives                                 

The Israelites faced a major military battle upon crossing the Jordan.  For most of us today, the war is being fought along the lines between good and evil in every human heart, between sin and righteousness in every family, between truth and falsehood in every school, between justice and injustice in government, between integrity and corruption in the workplace, between right doctrine and wrong doctrine in every church.  It is not a wasted life to engage in the battles for truth and faith and love on any of these fronts.  The war zones are all around us.  Verbalizing our belief can be a bold step of faith.  Especially when we express our trust in God for whatever the future holds. 

Let me tell you about a young person who boldly trusted in the power of God for whatever his future held.  It is the story of Adoniram Judson.  He was the first “official” missionary sent from a missions agency in the United States.  He was 23 years old, and the year was 1812.   The same day that he declared himself to be considered as a missionary candidate he met Ann Hasseltine.  After a month he declared his intention to marry her, but he knew that the missionary life he was about to embrace would not only be dangerous, but also distant.  He never expected to return to America.  Here is the letter Judson wrote to Ann’s father asking for her partnership in marriage and missions:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.  Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God?  Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

Dads – how would you respond?  Her father let her decide and she said “yes”.  After they had been married only 12 days they departed America for Burma.   They relied on the power of God for their future.  What about us…Will we trust in God’s power and faithfully serve Him OR will we just camp out on the banks of the river?  Will we remember all He has done for us OR will we forget? 

Prayer  /  Closing song.

Closing

Call grads back up front.

Presentation of the stones:

These rocks are just a token reminder (I picture the rocks that were taken from the Jordan River as being huge rocks, bigger than I desired to haul up here).  Don’t forget what God has done for you to this point.    Joshua 4:24 tells us that the memorial of stones is to remind all the peoples of the earth that the hand of the Lord is powerful and that we should always fear the Lord our God.  In this case “fear” – means that we should desire to worship and serve Him just like His Word instructs.

Ask graduates to go form a receiving line at the back.

Encourage congregation to greet them on your way out.  Impart words of wisdom, congratulations, whatever you choose and be sure to enjoy the cake and refreshments. 

May God bless the graduates and each of you as you go from here today.  Amen

Jeff Gordon:  Grace EFC   Viroqua, WI            5/30/2004