Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20260104 - 2026 GREATER Remembrance - Joshua 4:1-9 & 1 Samuel 7

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#20260104 - 2026 GREATER Remembrance - Joshua 4:1-9 & 1 Samuel 7 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Amen.
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Open your Bibles to two places, would you?
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Joshua chapter 4 and First Samuel Chapter 7 Joshua chapter
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4, First Samuel Chapter 7. Today is the day.
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Now we will complete this series that I've entitled greater.
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It's the word that the Lord has given me for us, for our church
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for the new year greater and we've looked at various aspects
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of greater. That's a little
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counterintuitive. We started with little by
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little, then we moved on to faith, then abiding.
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Last week was Sacrifice, and today our title of our study is
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Greater Remembrance. God wants you to remember His
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faithfulness. Or let me say it a different
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way, God does not want you to forget His faithfulness.
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No matter what you're facing today.
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I'm sure you have seen this in your own life, where even the
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smallest of things can cloud and block our vision of God's
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faithfulness. Now, of course, we get it.
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Where big things do that, where we're just heavy stuff, they,
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they distract us, take us off track.
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But little things can do that too.
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Here, here we are. You know, when I take my glasses
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off, I can't see you very well, but I can see the room is
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filled. Hundreds of people here.
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But I have these hands here and they're not very big.
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If I took these small hands and I cover my eyes, I can't see
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anything. Nothing.
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Everything. My whole vision is blocked just
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by. I mean, I could do that if I
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wanted to, If I wanted to hurt myself, I could do that with my
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fingers and I can breathe. And now here I am, I can't see
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anything. And life can be like that, where
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the circumstances of life, both large and small, have a tendency
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to block our vision of God's faithfulness.
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And it is God's will that you not forget his faithfulness.
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It is God's desire that you remember all that he has done.
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Or Even so, let's put it this way, God's past faithfulness
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demands our present trust. I mean, when we like.
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I want you to answer out loud here.
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Can you think of a moment yes or no?
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Can you think of a moment in your life and any time that God
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has been faithful. OK, you guys over here, I want
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to hear you. You guys did good.
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So I didn't even ask the question.
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How do you know what I said? Can you guys think the whole
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Church of a time of God's faithfulness?
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How about many times? Have you a tendency to forget
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from time to time? I know we do.
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We have a tendency to forget the things we're supposed to
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remember and remember the things that we want to forget.
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That's just life. And so God wants you today as
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you head into a new year. I know it's just a calendar.
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I know it's just a date and a number, but it's very
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significant as you head into a new year that you remember the
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faithfulness of God, that you not forget.
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You know, even the Bible has a verse in in it for us people
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like me where the Bible says even when we are faithless, he
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remains faithful. It's in first John.
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We'll be there short soon enough in our study in first John on on
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our midweek Bible study, where I'm sure we'll spend a whole
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night just focused on the significance of God's
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faithfulness, even with the backdrop of our unfaithfulness.
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When when you look back on your past, there's a tendency to
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remember your failures and your mistakes and your regrets.
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It's just normal human condition.
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But God, he's saying to us today, when you think back, I
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don't want you to remember your failures.
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I want you to remember my faithfulness.
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I want you to focus and be very laser focused on faithfulness.
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At least two times in the Old Testament, God instructs the
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children of Israel to do something practical with just
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ordinary stones to help their memory.
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The first one I asked you to open in Joshua chapter 4.
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Would you turn there with me? Joshua chapter 4?
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It's a momentous occasion in the life of the nation of Israel.
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They have just passed through the Jordan River miraculously on
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dry ground. They're about to take on all
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that God has given them, the things that their grandparents
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and their parents were telling them, that God is going to give
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us the land He's promised us. They're just about ready to take
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it. And God miraculously gives them
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this time across the Jordan. You see, they didn't get to
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enjoy or see or experience the Red Sea.
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They they didn't live that out. Their parents lived that out or
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their grandparents lived that out, but they didn't live it
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out. And so here they are coming to
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their own miraculous time. And notice what happens in verse
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1 of chapter 4. It says, and it came to pass
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when all the people had completely crossed over the
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Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying, take for
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yourselves 12. Men from the people, one man
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from every tribe, and command them saying, take for
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yourselves. 12. I want you to say this word with
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me, 12 Stones. I want you to.
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This is very important, ordinary rocks.
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Just take 12 Stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan,
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from the place where the priest feet stood firm, and you shall
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carry them over, over with you and leave them in the lodging
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place where you lodge tonight. Joshua called the 12 men whom he
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had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every
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tribe. And Joshua said, crossover
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before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the
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Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder
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according to the number of the tribes of the children of
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Israel. So we didn't have 12 men from
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the 12 tribes get us stones. But Pastor Everett went down to
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Home Depot and got 25 bags, put them up on his shoulders, took
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him to his car and set this up for us today as a memorial stone
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for you before you leave. This is what they were given
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instruction. I want you to take some stones
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from the Jordan and and I want you to set them up a very
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ordinary stone, nothing special about it.
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I want you to get some rocks each one of the tribes because
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you represent the nation. I want you to get a specific, I
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want you to get a rock and I want you to set it up.
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And it says in verse 6, this is the reason that this may be a
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sign among you when your children ask in time to come
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saying, why did what do these stones mean to you?
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And you'll answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut
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off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it
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crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut
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off. And these stones shall be a
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memorial to the children of Israel forever for the sake of
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these rocks. It was when the kids asked, now
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I'm going around greeting and one of the kids, what was this
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question before even the Bible study, What did he say?
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What are those rocks for? They generate, they generate
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questions. They generate this, this desire
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to know what is it for? What is this Dad?
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I don't remember the Jordan. I don't remember the Red Sea.
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I've heard the stories, but I didn't live through it.
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And you get the opportunity to continue to tell your kids like
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some of you, I think you can't take them here because we only
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have enough for the people here. But go to Home Depot and buy a
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bag like ever it did. You can do this and you can set
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up something for you. Some of you need to do this.
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My kids are too old, so it's not going to work for my kids, but
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yours it will like not telling your kids what you're doing.
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Leave a pile of rocks, like a really significant pile of rocks
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in the middle of the living room in front of the TV or by the
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video games and just leave them. Don't don't say anything.
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Just do it and wait. I mean, I hope they don't just
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kick them over or throw them at you like they you're going to
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hear some in the house. Hey, mom, what are these rocks
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doing here? And it gives you an opportunity
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like you, you have to change your way of thinking to engage
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with your kids. You know, the world doesn't get
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our kids. They don't own our kids.
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You know that, right? The world does not own your
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kids. God owns your kids, and he's
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given you opportunity to raise them.
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And so we're not just going to abdicate our kids to video games
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and to whatever the novels are. With a stack of rocks, you can
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get your kids attention. You can start talking about the
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things of the Lord. One of the decisions that Marie
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and I made with our kids is that we chose purposely at different
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stages of their lives to give them the age appropriate
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description of our lives before Christ.
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Because we got saved in our 20s, we had a lot of a lot of
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testimony that goes with that, mostly mine, but really for both
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of us. And we just wanted our kids to
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know what God did in their lives.
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What God, The kind of family I think of my, you know, we had
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our oldest son as teenage parents, but then on my middle
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son and my daughter, they come along.
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They would have never existed had God not saved us because
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Marie and I wouldn't be together.
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That would have never happened. And over and over and over
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again. While we haven't used rocks in
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that way, I do want to encourage you a word from the Lord.
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Engage your kids. Talk to them about what God has
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done. Give them your story.
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Why? Because you're prepping them for
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their story. Like my kids didn't grow up in
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the same home that I did. My home is very different.
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It's a very different home. Same with my wife, very
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different upbringing. So they don't have the kind of
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experiences that we did growing up.
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I basically came home to an empty house.
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That's how I grew up. They have a name for that and
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some of you probably were too. They called us latch key kids
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and I had a key to the house. Even if I didn't have a key to
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the house, I could always climb in the window.
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I knew how to get in and I basically was home alone from
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the 5th grade all the way through high school.
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And it just wasn't good for me. It just wasn't good.
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It didn't end well for me because you factor in a lot of
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all those temptations and such and absent parents, it was just
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didn't work out for me at all. But God knew what He was doing,
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and my kids needed to hear that story because we're going to be
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there for them, even if we both work, even if we're going to
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make different choices with our kids so that we can help them
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along the way and do a little bit better or maybe a lot better
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than our parents did. I'm sure that's a lot of the
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testimony here. You just want to do a little bit
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better. You just want to make a little
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bit of changes. And so these rocks for the
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children of Israel were for the kids, but they were for the
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grandkids. They were for everyone.
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Why the rocks? Why the rocks?
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Well, let me tell you, God did a great work at the Jordan.
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We didn't get here by ourselves. And from the Jordan we go back
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to Moses, and from Moses we go all the way back to Genesis.
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And the whole word of God becomes a testimony of what?
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God's faithfulness, God's faithfulness.
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Turn with me now to first Samuel Chapter 7.
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First Samuel Chapter 7, different time in the life of
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the children of Israel. This is through the life of
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young Samuel. You know, young Samuel, Young
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Samuel was the boy that was the miracle child.
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Hannah couldn't have a child, but God gave her a son and she
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dedicated that son. She told God, if you give me a
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son, I'll give them back to you. And so for Hannah's baby
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dedication, she brought Samuel to the church and left him
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there. We don't do that here.
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I'll hold your kid for a minute or two and then you're taking
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them. But this was a special, you
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know, Samuel was a miracle kid, absolute miracle kid.
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And now we have him as an adult through all his experiences, he
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grew up under the leadership of Eli.
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Eli was a rotten priest and so was his kids.
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So you read the testimony, they were rotten.
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They were they did not represent the Lord.
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And under rotten leadership, the nation of Israel became
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idolatrous. Now I'm only developing a
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portion of this text. I've already talked to First
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Samuel and Joshua. Those studies verse by verse are
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all up on the on the web or on the app that you I go probably
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in depth. I didn't look, but I'm sure I go
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more in depth on some of these things.
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But I just want to give you the backdrop of Samuel coming on the
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scene here under the week, beggarly, idolatrous, lack of
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commitment, leadership of Eli and his sons.
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The people became idolatrous. Their hearts veered from the
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Lord. They were rebels.
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They were not worshippers of God.
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But God placed Samuel there not only to see the bad, but to lead
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people in the good. And that's what we pick up now
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in Chapter 7 and verse one. They the nation just got the Ark
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of the Covenant back. It was stolen by the arch enemy
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of the Israelites, the Philistines.
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They had just got it back and notice in verse one it says, let
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me get there with you. It says, Then the men of Kirjath
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Jerium came and took the ark of the Lord, and brought it into
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the House of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eliezer
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his son to keep the ark of the Lord.
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So it was that the ark remained in Kirjat Jirium a long time.
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It was there 20 years, and all the House of Israel lamented
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after the Lord. Then Samuel spoke to all the
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House of Israel, saying, If you return to the Lord with all your
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hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the asterisks
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from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve
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Him only, and He will deliver you from the hand of the
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Philistines. So the children of Israel put
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away the Baals and the asteroths, and serve the Lord
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only. And Samuel said, Gather all
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Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.
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So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water and poured it
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out before the Lord. And they fasted that day and
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said, There we have sinned against the Lord.
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And Samuel judge the children of Israel at Mizpah.
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Samuel takes the leadership here new direction and he calls the
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people to repent and say you really want to come back to the
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Lord, then come back, but come back the right way.
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Again, I see a whole Bible study in this that I can.
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I'll probably develop later. If you want to come back to the
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Lord, you got to do it the right way.
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That's probably going to be the title.
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That's the key. So let me just say it for you
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today, if you've starting a new year and you're like, man, I
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need to come back to the Lord. I want to come back to the Lord.
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I've strayed too far. I I've wasted too many years.
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Great. Let me tell you this, You have
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to do it the right way. You go.
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Well, wait a minute, pastor, what's the right way?
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Well, let's look at a little bit of what Samuel said.
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First of all, notice he says if you want to return to the Lord
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with if you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put
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away the foreign gods. You got to put away the foreign
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gods. I, I know that we, we identify
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idolatry as little statues and such, and certainly they were
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using little statues, but that's not the point.
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The statue is not the point. It's your heart's the point.
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It's where's your heart and who's your worship?
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Who are you worshipping? Because notice what he says
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next. Not only do you need to put the
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false worship aside, but but you also, you need to prepare your
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hearts. The reason why you wandered away
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and the reason why you got into that and the reason why you're
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fornicating and the reason why you're lying.
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And the we all of that is because it's a heart issue.
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It's not a church issue. It's not a pastor issue.
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It's not a Bible study issue. It's not a doctrine issue.
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Those are all secondary to your heart relationship with God.
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It's your heart you left, as Paul would tell the church in
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Ephesus, your first love. You got to get your heart right
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with the Lord. And heart in the Bible, both the
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Old and the New Testament, often refers to the totality of who
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you are, but it also speaks of emotions.
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You got to get your emotions in check.
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You know, temptations, they become very attractive when you
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start to like them and want them.
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It's an emotional. Ask anybody that's an
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advertisement, they'll tell you they want to prick the emotions.
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Because when they got the emotions, guess what?
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They got a you. And when they got you, guess
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what else they have? Your money.
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More money, more money, more money, more emotions.
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Pay attention. If you watch commercials you see
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that it's nonsense, has nothing to do with the product, they
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just want to prick your emotions.
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I was watching an ad recently, it was in a news article I was
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reading and they said Chevy did it again and they had been
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making these 10 minute little advertisements for different
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trucks that they have. I'm not into Chevy or into
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trucks, but I am into good storytelling and so I watched
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the video. It made me cry.
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It was so nostalgic. Like they got me.
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I'm not buying a Chevy. I don't know what your view is,
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but like it got me. Whoever put this together, super
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talented in communicating this nostalgia surrounding a truck.
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For goodness sake, it was a truck.
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Did I say what it was a truck? It's a heart issue when you walk
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away from the Lord, it's a heart issue.
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You got to prepare your hearts, get rid of idolatry, prepare
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your hearts and then notice the next thing, gather together and
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pray. They asked Samuel to pray, but
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really the instructions for all of us to pray.
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You want to come back to the Lord.
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You need to amp up your relational time with the Lord
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through prayer. Not only that, notice what
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happens. They Samuel, as they gathered,
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they drew water in verse 6 and poured it out as a drink
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offering before the Lord. They're they're making it.
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They're making they're doing something that they would
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remember. This is our this is our drink
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offering to you God. We are back.
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And then notice they did in verse 6.
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They fasted, they started to sacrifice, they gave themselves
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to the Lord and then they move forward.
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So good, so powerful, what God wants to do, you know, because
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change changes, any change is really worthless without putting
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God first. So yeah, I mean, I'm all pro.
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I'm all for, you know, New Year's resolutions and new
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decisions and new commitment. I'm all for all that.
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But I'm telling you, change without a putting God first
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ain't going to get you anywhere. I mean, you can make some
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changes, but you won't be able to keep up with it because you
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don't have the power to navigate in this Antichrist world to keep
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those commitments. It's better to what we learned.
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The New Year's going to be filled with what greater
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abiding. Just stay put, protect your
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heart, be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and
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supplication with Thanksgiving. Make those requests may be known
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to God and then what is the promise, the peace of God that
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surpasses all understanding. We'll do what guard your hearts
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and your minds in Christ Jesus. Notice in verse 7 now great day
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of revival, amazing things are happening.
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Verse 7. Now when the Philistines heard
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that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the
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Lords or the leaders of the Philistines went up against
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Israel. And when the children of Israel
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heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
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This is interesting. Philistines are the arch enemies
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of Israel, just like the Ites, Canaanites, parasites, Amorites,
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all the Ites enemies. But the Philistines were the
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arch enemy, and you see them over and over and over again.
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They lived on the coastline and they fiercely protected their
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land and did not do well with all of their competing tribes,
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especially Israel. When they hear that Israel has
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turned their backs, turned their backs back, turned their lives
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back toward God, they're upset. What difference does it make to
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them? What do they care?
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They have a group of Israelites that have really nothing.
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They're growing, but not significant.
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They're wandering and, you know, trying to like.
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What difference does it make to them?
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I'll tell you because the Philistines here become a
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picture and a type of the enemy himself, the devil.
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And the devil hates it when you're happy, and he hates it
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when you're committed, and he hates it when you make
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sacrificial steps toward God. He every time you make progress,
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the enemy is there to give you pushback.
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Have you noticed that like you make you take 3 steps forward,
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He is ready to push you 4 steps back.
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And this is what happens. Great things are happening in
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the Philistines like, Oh no, we're not having that.
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And they do the right thing because they're in the right
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place spiritually with the Lord. They do the right thing.
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Notice verse 8. So the children of Israel said
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to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us,
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that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.
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They do not take things in their own hands.
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They don't muster an army, they don't get every, They don't
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rally the people. They say, would you pray?
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We need God's wisdom. And it reminded me that it's
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always a mistake when you choose to take things into your own
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hands. You are so powerless compared to
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God's power. You, you don't know everything.
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You don't have all the resources that God has.
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It's always best to let God be your defender.
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And that's what they do here. Notice what happens as they're
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asking for prayer. It says verse 9 Samuel.
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Samuel took a suckling lamb and he offered it as a whole burnt
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offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord
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of Israel and the Lord, what does your Bible say?
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Answered him and notice what he did as Samuel was offering up
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the burnt offering the Philistines junior to battle
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against Israel. But the Lord don't you need to
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circle that phrase. Whatever you're facing right
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now, whatever's coming your way, whatever 2026 has, you don't
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want to be able to answer, but I have and I've done.
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You want to be able to answer. But the Lord look what he does.
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He thunders with a loud Thunder. Can you make it Thunder with a
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loud Thunder? A No, you don't have that power,
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but God does not only that it says He did this for the
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Philistines. So it was localized that that
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day and he so confused them that they were overcome before Israel
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and the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the
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Philistines and drove them back as far as Beth Carr.
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Victory because they turn to the Lord.
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Victory because they put their idols aside, check their heart,
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begin to pray, fast, come together, offer themselves.
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And when trouble comes, which it does every time you turn back to
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the Lord, they turn right back to the Lord.
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Hey, pray for us. We don't know what to do.
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We're not going to do it like before.
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We're not going to respond like before.
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And in this time, notice it says Samuel takes the suckling lamb.
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So he offers a sacrifice, a whole burnt offering.
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He cries out to the Lord and God answers and he gives them the
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victory. And in verse 11, they were able
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to chase them out and pursued them all the way back to the
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area of Beth Carr. Sam, Samuel shows us today that
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God wants to give you the victory and what you're facing
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in the new year, no matter what comes your way.
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The nation was ready because they were repentant.
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So they were humble. They were humble before God, and
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they go to Samuel and ask for help.
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Humility is always attracting. You know, God is attracted to
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humility. He resists the proud, the Bible
23:47
says, but he gives grace to the humble.
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He's attracted to humility, to dependence, to surrender.
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We saw in our last Bible study that in this new year, what God
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is going to be looking for is greater sacrifice.
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Greater sacrifice because you, you see this, it's you you have,
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but you have Samuel taking an offering, a suckling lamb and
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offering it as a burnt offering. You know, getting a lamb and
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offering it to the Lord is a lot easier than offering yourself.
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It's a lot easier. Last night I make the comment,
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I'm sure you can buy a lamb around here.
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And some guy that has my number, he already looked it up and gave
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me the link of where I could get the lamb.
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So I knew you could get a lamb around here somewhere and we can
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just go and buy. We can Venmo, we can Apple Pay,
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whatever. We can swipe our card, get
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ourselves a lamp and sacrifice it in some way.
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That would be much easier than saying no, I want your life.
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That's what God asked for Romans chapter 12, that you and I would
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offer ourselves a living sacrifice.
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But here we have both. We don't need to offer lambs
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today, by the way, because Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God that's
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taken away the sins of the world.
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It's by His blood, His death and resurrection, that your sins and
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mine can be forgiven. He's the lamb.
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We don't need any more lambs. But God does ask and does
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require you that you would offer yourself and all that you are,
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your talents, your treasures, your job, your kids, your money,
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your possessions, your thoughts, your ideas, your creativity.
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It all belongs to the Lord. And maybe this is the year that
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you expand that part of you. Maybe this is the year where you
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recognize that the victory comes when you go to the Lord, when
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you turn to Him. And in this event of victory,
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notice what Samuel does, which comes to the sum of our Bible
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study today in verse 12. It says that Samuel took a
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stone. It was probably much bigger than
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this, but it says that Samuel took a stone and he set it up.
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And notice what happens. He sets the stone and he says a
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first of all, he calls its name Ebenezer.
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I bet all these all these years you thought Ebenezer's last name
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was Scrooge, didn't you? It's actually a Bible name.
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The word Ebenezer means stone of help or stone of assistance, and
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he calls the stone Ebenezer. And he says thus far the Lord
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has helped us. He wants everyone to know with
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this stone how important the faithfulness of God is.
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He doesn't want them to forget. He wasn't instructed to do this.
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It was something that came from his heart, something that he
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wanted to help the children of Israel.
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Maybe he's thinking back to Joshua, he's that's a great idea
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and he brings this stone. He says, look, this is the
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Lord's victory. It's not our victory.
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This is what the Lord has done. And by the way, not only did God
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give us the victory, but thus far, all the way to today, thus
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far, God has been our help. Thus far the enemy pursues, but
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the victory belongs to the Lord. Notice in verse 13 it says the
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Philistines were subdued and they didn't come anymore into
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the territory. They didn't come into Israel
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anymore. The hand of the Lord was against
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the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
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Thus far the Lord has helped us, and the cities which the
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Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel
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from Ekron to Gath, and Israel recovered its territory from the
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hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between
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Israel and the Amorites. Look at the benefits thus far.
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The Lord has helped us, and there's more and there's more
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and there's more. They don't have to deal with the
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Philistines as long as Samuel's in charge.
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They didn't have to deal with that enemy.
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They had a lot of enemies, but they didn't have to deal with
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them. Not only that, they had land
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restored to them. This is very, this is very
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special language for a lot of us because there's another promise
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that I've held on to my entire Christian life.
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It's in Joel, and it basically says that God promises the
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nation of Israel to restore to them the years that the locust
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has eaten. I can't tell you how much that
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truth carried me through so many dark and difficult days, days
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when I didn't even think I was a real Christian, when I didn't
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even know if I was going to make it.
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Like those early days were so challenging for me because I was
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so messed up in my mind and in my life and so many consequences
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of sin. But somebody gave me this verse
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that God does the work of restoration.
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He does the work of restoring and reconciling.
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And I held on to it, so much so that it became a goal in my
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life. I got saved in my early 20s.
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So I did the math and I was looking for the day I actually
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had it down because I got saved on a Wednesday night.
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So it was a 7:00 service. So I probably got saved around
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730 something. And then we got to change the
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time for Denver. And then we got to have one
29:03
second to it because at that time that would mark the time
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that I had served God longer, one second longer then I had
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served this world. And I counted all my baby years
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because I was rotten in the room as well.
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So all those years, not only the years I knew what I was doing,
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but all the rotten, all of them. I just like all my years till I
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got saved. And then tragedy struck our
29:25
family and the date hit during that time and I didn't even
29:28
celebrate, didn't even know it. I forgot about it until I picked
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it up again. And I'm like, oh, it wasn't that
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important after all. And the Lord was going it's
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something I want to share something with you, Ed.
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The date isn't as important as me.
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I've been doing this work of restoration all along.
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You don't need to market by a date or a second or a time
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because I've been restoring all along.
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I'm working in your. It was such a beautiful
29:52
revelation. When you hold on to these
29:54
promises, I look at what happening in the children of
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Israel. They turn to the Lord and what
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did he do restored. What did he do protect?
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What did he do help. What did he do?
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Give them strong leadership. So beautiful and so wonderful.
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And how did they remember this going forward?
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Was a stone a stone today? In a few moments, I'm going to
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invite you to come and pick up a stone because I want you to mark
30:22
today. And you may have done this
30:24
before and that's OK because I also brought some of these
30:27
stones that I have from my office at home.
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This actually is the stone and I write on them with sharpies.
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This is the stone. I taught this Bible study right
30:36
after the pandemic. That's when the Lord gave it to
30:38
me. And right at white into the new
30:40
year after the pandemic, I, I wrote it down.
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I remember that was such a hard year that was so challenging on
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so many different fronts. But thus far, the Lord has
30:49
helped us and we got through it and we made it.
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You see, when you think back, you want them to remember the
30:54
worst. And that's how the world is.
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They get all political and remember the worst and remember
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the worst and remember the worst.
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That's not God. God wants you to Remember Me.
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I was with you. You made it through.
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Oh, but oh Lord, it was so bad. Stop remembering the bad.
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Remember my faithfulness. And that's what this rock is.
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I remember the bad, but I remember God's faithfulness far
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more than I have other ones because we do this a lot.
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We'll take you to the Elah Valley in the area where the
31:25
battle between David and Goliath was.
31:27
And and no rocks everywhere. So I always tell the group, pick
31:30
up at least a couple rocks. One you're going to throw and
31:33
just make sure you throw away from people.
31:35
There's a little Bible study. You're going to throw your own
31:37
Goliath because everybody's got an issue.
31:39
So this one is from 2017. I wrote it down.
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I also have a giant that I keep taking back to the Elah Valley.
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I have now for 13 years. So that's written on here.
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I won't share that, but I have it here.
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Elah Valley, It's to remind me of God.
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He's a, he's able to take super small stones and deal with big
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giants in my life. And we all have big giants.
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So I got these stones. This one's special.
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I didn't write anything on it because I remember it.
32:05
In 2021, I took this Bible study around the country and was
32:08
sharing at other churches. And this is a stone I picked up
32:11
because in one of the churches, they forgot to buy the rocks.
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I called ahead and I said, can you buy some rocks?
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They probably didn't understand what I was doing.
32:19
So you can buy some rocks, put them on the stage, and they
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didn't do it. And so I found out that morning.
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I'm like, bro, this is like a whole message.
32:25
I need these rocks. Like so.
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So while all the stores are closed and I'm like, well, do
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you have rocks around the church?
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And he says, yeah. And I said, well, we'll find
32:32
rocks around the church and the church doesn't have any
32:35
foundation anymore, but we got the rocks.
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And that's what this one is cooperating with.
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Those guys, they were young guys that went out and did something
32:45
for me and they were able to find enough rocks around the
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property that everybody in the church was able to take them.
32:51
So that's kind of special for everyone with those rocks.
32:53
And so I just have these memories of episodes in my life
32:57
and these are not, these aren't all of them.
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They're set up in my office at home where I'm reminded of a
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singular truth. Even though they all have a
33:05
story behind them, I'm reminded of a singular truth.
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Thus far, the Lord has helped me.
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And if God has been faithful in the past, then He will remain
33:16
faithful today. And for some, we just need a
33:19
visual reminder. It's too bad that we need a
33:23
visual reminder, but fine, doesn't matter.
33:25
Don't beat yourself up over it. I think of when we put pictures
33:28
up on our walls, you know that we don't put 1000 pictures up on
33:31
a wall. And if you do, I'm sorry for
33:33
mentioning you, but we don't put 1000 pictures.
33:36
You know, in my office, I used to have a wall dedicated to
33:39
maybe 40 pictures or so of different memories that I had,
33:42
really significant ones, very important ones.
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And when they redid the office and redid the walls, I was told
33:48
I can only put a few. And so I looked before I came
33:52
in. I have 8 pictures on my wall.
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They're right across from my off from my desk because I look over
33:57
and those were specifically personally picked by me.
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Those are the ones I want to see.
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Those are the ones I want to be remembered.
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Of course, my kids are up there. My oldest son is there on a
34:07
special trip and, and there's a picture of my kids are up there
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and my grandson is up there and my grandfather is also up there.
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And they just serve as reminders.
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I have a bunch of pictures on my phone that I could look at
34:20
anytime, But the ones I want to remember, those are the ones I
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put on the wall. Isn't that true for you?
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Those are the ones you want to remember.
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And now some of you are thinking, man, I think I should
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go home and change some of those pictures.
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Yeah, you should. You should.
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You should swap them out. Fresh new memories of what's
34:35
important to you. That's what God's saying to you
34:37
today with rocks. Not with pictures, but we're
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rocks because he wants the memory to be internal.
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He wants you to take this memory stone and immediately go back to
34:47
a place like those rocks. When I'm mentioning them, many
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of them are attached to a, a visual memory.
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I used to have a very good photographic memory.
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It's partial of what it used to be, but a lot of my memories are
34:59
tied to visuals. Like I can see it sometimes when
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I'm teaching, you might see me look up or like I'm thinking and
35:05
I'm recalling a picture. It's, it's helping me to
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understand that moment and this is what God has for you.
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This may be something you add to the new year, greater
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remembrance. Oh, by the way, for the children
35:17
of Israel, there were two sets of rocks.
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One was in the middle of the Jordan, which I found
35:23
fascinating. They put a stack of rocks in the
35:25
middle of the Jordan. And I believe, and I add to it,
35:28
the Bible doesn't say specifically that if anybody
35:31
ever wanted to go back across the Jordan, away from the
35:34
promised Land, ever wanted to wander away ever, I'm done with
35:38
the promised land. I don't want this anymore.
35:39
It's too much fighting too hard. This is not what was promised.
35:42
I'm going to go back. They would have to go back to
35:45
through the Jordan River over the rocks.
35:48
They would have to pass through those rocks some way.
35:50
So really to go backwards, the children of Israel would have to
35:53
go past the faithfulness of God. It couldn't go be easy for them.
35:59
They could swim, they could take a boat wherever they but they
36:02
would have to go past the faithfulness of God.
36:05
And some of you, you need to build a wall.
36:07
You know, you again, the rocks with your kids is one thing.
36:10
Maybe you need to go down to don't Home Depot and just get a
36:13
bag of rocks and set something up in your backyard, something
36:16
significant. Because you just have this, you
36:18
have this way about you that you wander a lot.
36:21
And you need to be reminded all that if I wander again, I'm
36:25
going past the faithfulness of God.
36:26
Why would I do that? He's been so good to me.
36:29
And you might remember how hard it was and how difficult.
36:31
And God has been so faithful to me, like you might need to build
36:35
a wall that would be so difficult for you to climb over
36:40
because the days are short and we don't need any more wandering
36:44
around in our lives. We need to be laser focused in
36:47
these last days. When you acknowledge the work of
36:51
God, it should always lead you to worship God.
36:55
And we have these Ebenezer stones.
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Ebenezer stones. These are not some cartoon
37:03
character that was developed by a novel, as great as that story
37:07
is. These stones, Ebenezer,
37:10
represents the faithfulness of God.
37:13
And each one of you said multiple times today that you
37:18
can think of God's faithfulness in your life, how He's come
37:21
through. And today I want to remind you
37:24
that God's past faithfulness requires your present trust
37:28
right now, today. And I want you to leave with a
37:34
stone. And so as the worship team comes
37:37
back up, you also need to come up.
37:40
And this is a little different. We don't normally do this.
37:43
It's fine. It's, you know, I, we're going
37:47
to all get up and come up and get a rock.
37:50
And so just do that right now as the team comes up, just come up.
37:54
You can pick a big one. There's some small ones.
37:56
I picked a flat one because I want to write something on it.
38:00
But there's one for everyone. If you need more than one Lowe's
38:03
or Home Depot and just go ahead and go back to your seat.
38:08
I know it's going to be a little uncomfortable, but as you're
38:10
crossing someone, say hello to them.
38:11
Meet your church. This is your family.
38:14
These are all the new peeps of the new 945 service.
38:17
Here we are worshipping the Lord, getting free rocks.
38:22
If you come back next week, we have free bricks, cement, but do
38:34
it's OK, take your time. You can worship while you're
38:36
walking. The worship team will take it
38:39
from here and I'll have a few words to share in just a moment.
38:42
So come on up and let's sing to the Lord.
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OK, everybody that's standing and you guys that are heading
38:48
back, I want you to lift up your stones because we get to to lift
38:52
the stone, this Ebenezer stone up.
38:54
And we could say, look what God has done, how faithful he has
38:58
been. But we're going to read what the
39:00
Scripture says together. I'm going to read it first and
39:02
then we'll read it together. But we want to left our Ebenezer
39:06
song. We want to set it in a place to
39:07
remind us. Thus far the Lord has helped us.
39:11
You ready? Thus far, the Lord has helped
39:15
us. Say it again.
39:17
Thus far, the Lord has helped us.
39:19
He hasn't brought you this far just to drop you, just to say
39:23
it's all on you. OK, I got you, you know.
39:25
Hey Ed, I got you into your 50s on your own now.
39:28
No, no, what God has begun and started, He is faithful to
39:32
complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
39:35
And so be reminded of this faithfulness this year.
39:38
Let the Holy Spirit use this time in this Bible study to drop
39:42
into your heart, faith and string and be ready just like we
39:47
have the kids here. When your kids ask, be ready
39:49
with an answer of God's faithfulness and how good He is.
39:53
Amen. I pray that you've been.
39:55
Encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
39:58
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer, call us at 87730 grace
40:05
that's 877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
40:11
integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
40:15
online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
40:23
this week.