What do these stones mean to you?

Joshua 4:1-9

As a child I really looked up to my grandparents. They lived far away and we rarely saw them. I'm told that I was always an inquisitive child. I always asked a lot of questions - and worse - I always remembered the answers I was given. I remember asking my grandparents a lot of questions about religion - because they were old, and surely they had been around back when Jesus was alive. Certainly they were around back when the church first started. So, surely they should know the answers to my questions.

Our scripture starts from the idea of inquisitive children and grandchildren. Joshua places the stones so that one day, their grandchildren will ask, "What do these stones mean to you?" "Why are they here?"

And the story that they would tell their grandchildren goes something like this:

They came to the river and they had a pretty good understanding of what would happen next. They had heard the stories that their own grandparents had told them. They rejoiced over the fact that when their ancestors had been trapped against the Red Sea and Moses raised his arms the water parted and the people crossed.

But these stones are at a different river, and they celebrate a different time that the people crossed a river.

If you've heard of the story of Joshua crossing the Jordan river, you probably have a mental picture of some guys crossing a stream. But, this was flood season. The river was much wider than normal, and the river was rushing wildly.

They came to the river and this time everything was different. Moses wasn't present. Joshua was leading and he didn't raise his staff. Joshua sent the priests and the Ark of the Covenant first - into the wild rapids. He didn't tell them to wait for the water to part - he just told them to cross. But after the priests' feet were wet, the water stopped flowing and the Jordan river dried up past where the priests were standing.

So Joshua sets up these stones to remind the people of what God had accomplished.

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I was on the phone with my grandfather a few nights ago and he had some questions for me about our church, "Now Michael, is the church there growing? It should be." I more than gladly gave him an honest answer.

[Bring up faithfulness report slides to show the congregation.]

One year ago we worshiped in the single digits. For months we worshiped without any children. This year we begin worship with very different numbers. The sounds of lots of children echo through our space. Last week we celebrated the fact that God has brought us a long way.

But, these stones also help us to look to the future. Today, we will celebrate where God will take us next.

What does God have in store for this community? Where will God take us?

Because I'm certain that God isn't done with us, yet. I'm sure that God has even bigger plans for us.

I believe that God will use the history we share of planting this church to help us plant other new churches. God is doing just that in Stree. God will do that in other cities as well.

God will use the history we share of starting the Sunday School to help us start similar programs for children in other areas or for other age groups.

God will challenge us to dig deep and to be faithful in our giving so that our church can survive without outside support - and more than that, our church will be able to readily expand ministry to those outside of our community.

God will use our shared history of beginning home groups to help us begin a movement of home groups. We will invite others into our groups and when we get too big to fit in our homes we will divide those groups up and multiply God's blessing.


And when we look at the pile of stones in front of us, and our children ask us why they are there, we can answer honestly - they are here because we chose to be faithful to the vision God had for us. We got our feet wet and God showed up in a powerful way.


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One of my professors tells this story of his first year on the mission field. He was in the Philippines and it was monsoon season. He and his wife had spent almost the whole year in language classes. They struggled with the language, but were really beginning to become comfortable with it. His family was on an island with an active volcano and it began to erupt. They and another family started to drive to the relative safety of another island - but all of the bridges had been washed out by the rains and the rivers. So, as the flood waters were rising, and a volcano was exploding, they put a long plank across the river, and as the waters swept at their feet they placed their children on their shoulders and tight-rope-walked across the wet plank of wood. They watched as their car and their remaining possessions were swept away with the river and they continued to climb to safer ground.

But even after this miracle of their lives and safety, they were still incredibly frustrated. They hadn't seen any fruit from their ministry. They had worked so hard at learning the language - and now they were in a city where the people spoke an entirely different language and they couldn't go back to their village for at least a month. Staying at a guest house in the city, they really didn't have anything to do.

An older man came to the gate of the guest house - and in the language that my professor had learned he said, "You're the man." You're the one from my dream. These are the symbols."

Amid a confusing conversation it came out that the old man was the leader of a tribe high in the mountains on yet another island. He had a dream with the four symbols of the guest house sign and of the young man sitting on the porch. In the dream, the voice of God had told the older man to go and find this man and to listen to him. The old man said, "God told me to come and listen. Whatever you tell me, I and all of my village will repent and follow." My professor brought the man in and told him the good news of Jesus Christ. He accompanied the old man back to the village and together they shared the good news. The whole tribe rejoiced in the good news and became followers of Jesus Christ. They immediately began making plans to go and share the good news with the other tribes on the other mountains. They set aside the wars they had been waging for generations in order to share the good news.



We as a congregation have faced some hard challenges this year. It would be easy for us to ignore the miracle that we have survived this first year in one piece. It would be easy for us to be discouraged. But somewhere in this city is a man or a woman who is waiting to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ from you.

And when their children ask them - "What do these stones mean to you?" They will also have an answer.

Those stones mean everything to us. Those stones are here because God has led the way in our past and God will build for us a future.