God’s People Remember
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Pastor David Crabtree
Watch the full sermon in it’s entirety here:
Joshua 4:4–7
God's people remember. In the South, we say we "recollect." We gather together all the bits and pieces, and we rehearse them over and over again. That's what remembrance is. God's people remember His works, His wonders, His Word, and His provision.
I grew up in Sunday School. Before I was a Christian, I was memorizing Scripture. Every week we had a memory verse because God's people remember. We participate in communion because Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of Me."
There are many things in life that are forgettable. Forgettable meals, forgettable movies, forgettable games, and even forgettable sermons. Then there are things we wish we could forget: words we said, mistakes we made, regrets we carry. Yet one of the most repeated commands in all of Scripture is simply this: Remember.
The word "remember" appears 148 times in the King James Version of the Bible. When including all variations across different passages (such as "remembered", "rememberest", "remembereth", and "remembering"), it appears 214 times.
Remembrance connects us to God's past activity, grounds us in what He is doing now, and fills us with faith for what He will do in the future.
Joshua 4:6-7 says: "When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?' then you shall tell them..."
After Israel crossed the Jordan River, God instructed them to gather twelve stones and build a memorial. These stones would remind future generations that God had miraculously brought His people through.
The first truth I see in these stones is this:
Stones Mark the Journey Home
Life is a journey.
Since Adam's fall, God's singular plan for this world has been redemption—bringing His lost children home. We see it throughout Scripture. Abraham searched for a city whose builder and maker is God. Moses led God's people out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land. Joshua led them across the Jordan.
When we come to Christ, we come out of our Egypt and begin our journey toward our true home.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that we were once alienated from God, foreigners trying to find our way home. But now, "our citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20), and we are "no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people" (Ephesians 2:19).
Augustine wrote, "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."
That resonates deeply with me. We are restless souls until we find our home in Christ. I also remember reading C.S. Lewis as a young believer. One sentence stopped me in my tracks:
"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."
That's exactly right. I was made for another world. This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. The stones remind me that God has brought me a long way, but I am not home yet. There are still rivers to cross, mountains to climb, and battles to fight. Yet like Samuel, I can raise my Ebenezer and say, "Thus far the Lord has helped us."
Stones Mark God-Moments Along the Way
Every stone in Joshua's memorial testified to one thing: God did something here.
Miracles are not mythical. They are historical. They are God's intervention in our broken world. When I look at Israel's story, it is miracle after miracle after miracle. God parted the Red Sea. God provided manna in the wilderness. God drove back their enemies. God parted the Jordan.
The memorials of Scripture never celebrate human achievement. They celebrate divine faithfulness.
The altars in the Bible were rough stones, unpolished and unimpressive. They were not built to glorify kings or honor men. They pointed to the story of God on a mission—God in the midst, God in the mess, and God on the move.
And the same is true today. God is still on mission. God is still in the midst. God is still moving.
If we are not careful, we can spend too much time celebrating ourselves. But there is only One worthy of glory. There is only one Bright and Morning Star, and His name is Jesus. We do not gather to celebrate our achievements. We gather to give glory to the One who brought us across the river.
As Zechariah declared:
"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord. (Zechariah 4:6)
Stones Mark New Beginnings
Every altar in Scripture looked backward and forward at the same time.
Every altar was a place of surrender, consecration, covenant renewal, and fresh beginnings.
That's why I love the word commencement. People think commencement means the finish line. It doesn't. It means the beginning.
The crossing of the Jordan was not the end of Israel's story—it was the start of a new chapter. The same is true for us.
Sometimes our greatest victories can become our greatest prisons if we live in the past. God never intended memorial stones to keep us looking backward forever. He intended them to strengthen us for what comes next.
Paul describes the Christian life as moving forward in Christ's triumphal procession. God is always leading us onward.
The next generation needs more than our memories. They need our faith. They need our example. They need us to make room for them to run the race God has set before them.
Joshua said, "When your children ask..."
The children have to be there to ask.
So let us tell them about the journey home. Let us tell them about the God who leads us. Let us tell them about His miracles, His faithfulness, and His grace.
And then let us encourage them to run after Christ with all their hearts.
God's people remember.
We remember where He brought us from. We remember what He has done. We remember His faithfulness. But we do not remember merely to celebrate the past. We remember so that we can move forward in faith, trusting that the God who brought us this far will continue to lead us until the day He calls us home.
And when future generations ask, "What do these stones mean?" may they hear not only about what God did yesterday, but also see what He is doing today.
I pray, Lord, that unity would cover this house, and that throughout this community the power, the love, the mercy, the grace of God would flow forth from this house. And one day the children will ask, what did that day mean? I pray, Heavenly Father, that it would be the new beginning that opens a new harvest and a revival that will take us to that point when the heavens opened and the King of kings and Lord of Lords calls us home, and we ask it in the strong name of Jesus,
Amen.