Get In The Mix - 10 Year Celebration at Gateway
Written by Ed Allen
Sunday, 07 September 2008 09:00
Sermon Notes
Joshua 4:1-7
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."
1. This was an act that signified unity.
2. This was an act that memorialized God's provision.
- The stones were taken from the middle of the Jordan River where the priests stood with the ark.
- They weren't memorializing crossing the river or Joshua's leadership. They were memorializing that God had provided.
3. This was an act that facilitated remembrance.
- Forgetting what God has done is at the core of most of our detours in life.
- Moses' final instructions to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 8 - remember what God has done.
4. This was an act that signified a beginning, not an end.
- Today, we are celebrating what God has done over the last 10 years and we're just getting started.