Mementos From A Miracle

how many of you came expecting tonight if you came expecting you won't be disappointed if you didn't come expecting you won't be disappointed either either way you won't walk away disappointed but those of you who have come expecting god is with us in this place praise god i want to go to the word of the lord and i appreciate the message that brother williford preached on sunday brother brad there's a there's a fifty dollar word called circumlocution it means to talk around things to almost say what you want to say without really saying it i appreciate the message that brother williford preached in that there was no circumlocution he said what needed to be said we cannot back up on this message the one that says jesus is coming again coming soon we're in the end of the last days and i thank god that we still hold to the truth of the word of god regardless of what society says now i'm going to share with you something that god gave me and um i have preached from these scriptures a long time and it's the scriptures and i i think sister amber talked

about it in prayer meeting yesterday she she talked about you can read something a bazillion times and and then one day you look at it and it just kind of opens up to you it means something other than it's meant before and and so it's to me it's like one of those three-dimensional chess games that that's played on on three different levels you know i can't even play on one level so i don't know what i'm talking about here i've just seen the games all right so to try to keep up with that the scripture is like that there are so many layers to it that just when you think you've got it figured out i'm not a scholar by any means i am a student of the word but i'm not a scholar scholars are skeptics they try to pick things apart i i look for things in the scripture and and so god gave me this and i want to share it with you tonight what god has given to me again a familiar portion of scripture from john the sixth chapter and then also from matthew the 14th chapter and it says

this and jesus took the loaves now you already know don't check out on me yet because you know this story okay you know what this is about the feeding of the five thousands there on a mountain and jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would verse 12 says when they were filled now get this he said to his disciples gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost 13 therefore they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets 12 baskets full of the fragments from the feast that had just taken place of the five barley loaves which remained over and above them that had eaten and then from matthew 14 22 and straightway jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go everybody say go before him one of the few cases that we want to get ahead of jesus he said to them go before me and he constrained them or literally he forcefully commanded them to get into a ship and go before him

unto the other side while he sent the multitudes away everybody familiar with this story right we we know this story i thought i did too but i want to preach to you tonight on this topic mementos from them a miracle mementos from a miracle god bless you and you could be seated in jesus name now i don't know if you're aware of this but souvenirs and and the business of souvenirs is about an 18 billion dollar industry 18 billion dollars why is that it's because when we go places and we do things we like to bring back souvenirs right now me i'm a t-shirt baseball cap kind of person i and and these little enamel pins from from all the places now i don't like to travel i'm just going to be honest with you i don't like to travel i like to go places i just don't like to travel okay anybody who says to you that the joy is in the journey has never sat on a transatlantic flight i can tell you that the joy is not in the journey the joy is getting to where i want to go and being

there so when i'm out there i like to i like to i always uh i want to support our native americans i don't know if you're aware of this but wherever we go i usually hit the hard rock cafe now our native americans the seminole tribe i don't know if you're aware of this a seminole tribe in florida owns the world franchise for hard rock cafes they're the ones who own it folks support your native americans so when you travel so i go to you know got t-shirts from maui and san diego and new york and london and rome and all over the world i and because number one not just because of the name just because the food is consistent you know you go to some countries and and you're not really quite uh aware of what you've got sitting before you sometimes so i like to hit these places and my wife she's a she's a snow globe person so she brings back snow globes i bring back these kind of trinkets for myself but why i can look at these things and i can remember there's something about bringing back these mementos

that are reminders of these places to which we've been and and all the sensory perceptions come back sometimes you can you can conjure up a smell by by pulling out a a memento a souvenir of a place that you've been you can conjure up a taste if my brother-in-law dean is listening limoncello that's all i've got to say and you can taste that uh that that don't don't try if they tell you that it's good folks when you get to italy don't drink the limoncello it's not good they just rave about how great it was it is not good so these mementos conjure up a sensory perception sometimes of places that we've been and things that we have experienced the mental faculty for memory is like a file cabinet in your brain all the memories are stored at least the people who study such things tell me that all of your memories are present with you you may have forgotten them but all of a sudden there will be a trigger and a memory will come flooding back into your mind because you have all the memories of that that you ever of things that

you've ever done and so they're filed in a little file cabinet called your memory it's not linear it's not sequential they're just there and all of a sudden something will trigger a memory in us somebody say amen triggers a memory and so it's important that we remember things the canceled culture has taken a playbook of hell and taken a page out of it and is trying to erase history trying to erase people's memories of what was it is not god's intent for us to not remember there were numerous times in the pages of his word where he recommended that you remember remember these things and so most of the time when israel got into trouble it was because they failed to remember you can get into big trouble by not remembering and so on this hillside this mountainside jesus had before him five thousand men and no telling how many children and women at least that's what they say so 5 000 men were sitting before him and he asked one of the disciples to go get something to feed this mob and they said 200 penny worth of bread wouldn't be enough to feed

all these people we don't have anything he said does anybody here have anything and they found a boy that had a lunch five loaves five barley loaves and two little fishes and the bible says that jesus sat down and he blessed that and he began to break it i'm just going to take a little sidebar here for a minute and tell you that if he can break it he can use it he doesn't use perfect people he doesn't use perfect anything but until he gets you into a position where he can break you he cannot use you so after the meal and i'm not going to stereotype him by any means as being a jew but he was frugal and he sees that there's still some bread out there floating around and he says to his disciples gather up so that none of the fragments be lost and the bible says that when they did that they gathered up 12 baskets full of fragments the significance of this is that each disciple each apostle had his own basket you got to imagine with me the scene of these 12 rugged men some of them seafaring

men some of them tax collectors they were rugged men and jesus said now here's what i want you to do go get in the ship and go to the other side so these 12 rugged he men with their little baskets trek down the mountainside it's important that they do this there was a significance to this brother reverb it i always thought maybe they were going to have a picnic when they got to the other side it wasn't exactly the truth he just said grab your baskets and get yourself to the other side and he said where i will meet you there so these twelve human walk down with their little baskets down the mountainside and they carry their baskets on onto the ship and i'm sure that they all set them in a place that was near to them not knowing what significance that basket of fragments was going to play that night jesus was simply if i may present to you this idea he was simply telling them this is your personal memento your personal testimony of the thing that i have just done and the thing that you have just witnessed you 12

have just witnessed a miracle i've taken five loaves and two fishes and i've fed thousands of people with that so i want you to take that basket of testimony and get on a ship and go to the other side stay with me we might learn something here tonight so they trekked down to the seashore and they got on the ship and the bible says there are several things that must come together here at this point it was night time it got late up into the fourth watch of the night and in this night if you've ever been on the the sea or on a body of water at nighttime it's a scary situation you can't see anything there's no light out there and there's no light from the land these guys were in the middle of this galilean sea going as jesus told them to the other side about two and a half or three miles in the bible says that a howling storm arose began to rock their boat and then they saw a spirit they saw what appeared to be jesus now i'm going to tell you something they just saw him he

did not just see them piece the story together in mark chapter 6 verse 48 and he saw them toiling in roy this is while he's still back on the shore everybody with me he saw them toiling in enrolling for the wind was contrary unto them and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them walking upon the sea and what he would have passed them by here's where i'm going to digress a little bit jesus knew where they were why didn't he stop for them in the middle of their storm they saw him he already had seen them but he had no plans to stop he would have passed them by somebody said for a man he can be lost but as long as he's making good time he's happy jesus was walking and think about this he was making better time on foot walking on the water than they were in a ship rolling and he would have passed them up everybody with me he would have passed them right by and they all the bible says they all began to cry out 12 well you can imagine 12 men with baskets

on a boat in a storm and they saw jesus and they all began to cry out jesus would have passed them up you ever you ever get in one of those situations where you don't want somebody to see you and they're all in the boat yell in jesus jesus if that's you and simon peter simon peter says to jesus he's the only one now if it is you bid me to come where you are why because you're making better time than we are and i don't want to hang with these guys anymore in this storm i want out of this situation and i'd rather be with you because you're gonna get where you're supposed to go everybody with me simon peter was good about bailing out of situations remember in the garden when the soldiers came first thing he wants to do is whack one of them in the head with his sword and get out of there he wants to get out of situations simon peter wanted to control the situ he's much like us we do not like it when god puts us in a storm even though we've gotten his word it's

going to be all right you're going to make it to the other side and with all the witnesses we still want out of the boat and we cry for deliverance jesus help me get me out of this situation out of the ship into the sea when he reached where jesus was what happened between jesus and simon peter matthew 14 31 watch this and immediately jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him oh thou of little faith wait a minute i'm the guy that's walking on the water what about the rest of those kooks in the boat i'm the one that dared to get out of the boat and to come where you are and yet jesus rebuked him and said oh thou of little faith wherefore did thou doubt i'm going to give you a twist to the story right now consider this any of you that have had toddlers or have toddlers if they come walking to you you do and they fall down right before they get to you do you pick them up and swat them on the bottom and say kid don't try that again do you

rebuke them for their attempt at walking jesus rebuked simon peter what was the real issue that jesus was addressing when he said to him it wasn't because he fell i preached this for a long time until i saw that he should have been commended for his faith brother mike he should have been commended for the fact that he got out of the boat and he walked on the water to me that would be great faith but when he got to where jesus was jesus said o ye of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt it wasn't about peter sinking it was about peter leaving the ship it wasn't the fact that he fell down it was the fact that he got out of the ship in the first place let me lay this on you i know some of this is just going to blow your mind but it was never jesus's intent to get in the ship with them he would have passed them by it was never his intent to get on board that ship and neither was it his intent for anybody to get out of the ship he had already told them

get in the ship and meet me on the other side they had everything that they needed in that ship to make it where jesus wanted them to be the real issue was not that peter walked on the water and began to sink it was the fact that he got out of the boat when jesus had clearly stated to them get in the ship stay in the ship and i will meet you on the other side may i tell you that when god puts you in that situation we cry and we scream and we kick and we want out of it but sometimes we need to hear what the voice of the spirit is saying to us and that is you've got everything that you need to make it through this situation already hallelujah hallelujah the real issue is revealed when they get back to the ship and in mark the 6th chapter verse 52 it says this why was jesus chastising them for they consider not the miracle of the loaves for their heart was hardened you know what happened to them they forgot they forgot that just in a wilderness away on a mountain

side away just a couple of hours or a few hours away that jesus had given them a testimony to take with them of saying to them i did this and i can do this if i fed 5 000 with those scraps and those fragments that you're now carrying don't worry about the storm that you find yourself in folks when god does something great and his expectation is that we pick up the fragments and and we pick up a memento because he is preparing you for the next storm the purpose of picking up the fragments was not for a picnic on the other side it was so that they would have a reminder that they had just come from a miracle they had just come from a situation that was impossible and yet he came through and he says to them you can make it i've given you everything you need just get to the other side everybody follow me i'm telling you that that's that jesus that we serve the reason you've had problems and and trials in your life was not to build a shrine it was not to build even an altar there

it was to pick up some fragments and so that you would know the next storm that i face that same jesus that brought me through that can also bring me through this hallelujah the lord in old testament history in israel he's the one i don't know again if we're aware of this but god is the one who gave the name to the ark of testimony it was god who said that is going to be called the ark of the testimony everybody say the ark it was just another ship a chest as it were of and there were three things that god instructed them to put into that ark they were the stones upon which he had written with his own finger they were the manna a pot of manna that that he had fed them with sister sue for 40 years in the wilderness they never went hungry because god gave them this miracle on a daily basis and he says i want you to lay that up in that chest that's called the ark of the what testimony and then the third thing was aaron's rod that butted when there was a dispute about

who was the real leader in israel the lord gave them a sign through aaron's rod and it butted and the bible says it even brought forth almonds so take that and put it into the ark and for 40 years they uh nearly they carried that around with them and every time they would get into a situation all they had to do was look to the ark because that's where the presence of god would come down and would signify to them i gave you manna in the wilderness and i gave you my word in the wilderness i gave you leadership in the wilderness and i can take you through any situation that you face in that wilderness so when they get to a big obstacle going into the promised land the jordan river now before them and the bible says joshua called for the ark bring out the testimonies joshua 3 13 says and it shall come to pass as soon as everybody say as soon as as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the lord the lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters

of jordan that the waters of jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above and they shall stand in upon a heap now it wasn't like the red sea this time we expect god to do the same thing that he did for us back there different situation folks being on a on a ship in the middle of a howling storm is not the same as being on a mountain side and just being hungry facing the red sea was one thing but now facing the jordan river is something totally different and god didn't just part the waters like he did back at the red sea he says bring me some testimonies of the things that i've done in your life and the minute that the priest set foot in those waters 20 miles upstream the water stopped and the priests are standing there probably thinking we're looking pretty foolish standing here in these waters swirling around us holding this hope chest sometimes the situation calls for us just to stand still sometimes your faith will get wet feet while you wait for god to work on the situation but 20 miles away

up there somewhere god's already taken care of your particular situation you've got a witness to that and so he stops the waters and they walk across but they're not done yet god says to joshua tell the men 12 men again get some rocks out of jordan and build what a memorial on the other side because these waters are going to close up you may never pass this situation again you may never come to anything exactly like this again but hidden beneath those waters is an unseen witness and it's going to have a corresponding witness over there on dry ground because you're going to take waters out of that trial and you're going to build a memorial over here so that in the generations to come when your chil the children ask their fathers saying what mean ye by these stones then ye shall answer them that the waters of jordan were cut off before the earth the covenant of the lord when it passed over jordan the waters jordan were cut off and these stones shall be for a memorial i can't see what god did in your life back then i don't know what

god did in your life back then but there is a an everlasting memorial that god put into your life you my friend have a testimony of something that god has done i may not see it you may never pass that way again but god has given you a basket and some fragments to pick up he's given you the directive to pull up some stones and build him a memorial what's in i know there's a credit card company with this slogan what's in your basket gotcha what's in your basket there are remnants i look in the faces of people sitting before me tonight and there are remnants fragments testimonies that god has done something for you oh yeah and now you find yourself right in the big middle of another situation and what god is trying to remind us is i gave you these testimonies so that you can carry them with you through this particular trial um god's provisions your mementos i've listened to your testimonies sister kelly i've listened to you i've heard your testimony i i love to hear about the the way that you prayed you were in that wilderness that barren

wilderness and you prayed and god answered your prayer you know what those children of yours are reminders they're fragments of god's god's miracles in your life so why so that now you're facing a situation where we need a house we need a place to live you've got witnesses before you that god is saying i did it for you on the mountainside i can do it for you in this situation again i look at brother fred and i remember his testimony it was a dark place brother fred it was a it was a dismal and bleak place where god found you but he found you and he brought you out of that but that testimony of yours was preparing you for even a more bleaker time in your life that you would face that only god knew that you would face and and you could go back to that miracle that god had worked for you before and said the same god that did it back then he can do it for me again hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i've heard your testimonies you've you've got too many words and memorials in your life of what god has

done for you for you to ever doubt god and get out of the ship at this point we find ourselves in a bleak situation but i'm telling you that the same god that has sustained you for all the years will sustain you through this storm also david is being pursued like a dog by saul and stories in first samuel chapter 21 he's being pursued by saul saul wants to kill him david loves saul and yet saul wants to kill him and he's being pursued and he has nothing no bread no weapons of any kind and he came to the temple or the tabernacle in first chapter first samuel chapter 21 verse nine and he says to the priest of himelec he said i need a weapon i need something for this trial that i'm going through i need something for this test that i'm in now the priest said i don't really have anything here oh but wait a minute wait a minute the sword of goliath the philistine you remember that david the giant back there in the valley of elah when all you had was a stone and a sling but god gave

you a sword and you took that sword and you wrapped it up and you gave it to the priest for a later you didn't even know you were going to need this sword again behold it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod if thou will take that take it for there is none other save that here listen to david's words david said there is none like that give it to me hallelujah i can almost see david's hands closing around that sword and all the memories come flooding back when i didn't have a whisper of a chance against a giant on the battlefield but god delivered him into my hand there is nothing like the testimony of the power of god to sustain me in a time like that hallelujah hallelujah are you glad for what god's done for you he'll do it again i'm i'm coming to a close really quickly here but in my in the basket of memories there's a shard in there from an alabaster box an alabaster box what is that doing in my mementos from miracles remember that story the woman came to jesus and all she had

was an alabaster box they didn't want her in the room they didn't they despised her being there and jesus this is such a unique story because this is the only person in jesus life or ministry that he ever built a memorial for he didn't build it for the 12 apostles he didn't build one to the syrophoenician woman he didn't build one to the centurion and even though he had commended both of them for heaven great faith i got to reading this story and wondering okay lord how does this fit a shard from an alabaster box being in a basket of fragments of miracles jesus said wherever this gospel is preached this woman is going to be mentioned and this shall be a memorial to her what's the connection here how does an act of worship equate to a miracle oh god how does an act of worship the remnants of an act of worship how does that equate to a fragment of a miracle a memento of a miracle do you know do you know what it took to get me here do you know what it took to bring me to this place so

that i could raise my hands and lift my voice and and and clap my hands and and shout and run and dance in the liberty of the holy ghost do you know what it took to get all of us to this place tonight the greatest miracle god ever performed was when he takes a rank sinner when he takes somebody like i was and like you were what are you saying i'm saying remember look in that basket and see what you say well god hadn't performed any great miracles for me just remember why you can worship the way you can worship the greatest miracle was when he digged you out of that pit that you were in whether it be drugs or alcohol or addictions of any kind whether you were just a good person but still on your way to hell the greatest miracle was when the spirit of almighty god when the spirit of almighty god reached into a human being and said i'm going to put my imprint on your life and i'm going to free you from the burden of sin and the penalty of death let's stand together it took a

miracle to get me to this place brother fred he's not going to let me down having brought me this far if he does nothing else in my life all i got to do is pull out that fragment of an alabaster box and say it is enough i'll praise him through eternity hallelujah he may or may not heal my body that's okay it's in the hands of god he may or may not give me a way out of my situation that's in the hands of god but one thing he's already done that is more than enough to give me reason to praise him for eternity is that he saved a rank sinner ephesians chapter 2 and i close with this but god who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us he made us alive by his spirit my god i feel the holy ghost in this place tonight he he quickened us he made us alive together with christ by grace you are saved and hath raised us up together come on folks he's done so much for me the old

song says i cannot tell it all sometimes i just have to lapse into the language of angels to begin to tell him i thank you i can't thank you enough for the things that you have done he raised us up together made us to sit together in heavenly places in christ jesus now watch this because god has his own trophy case a place where he keeps his memorials my god that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through christ jesus god's got his own display case of the miracles of his grace that's going to shine in the eternal ages to come what is it brother cardin that's you that's you that's you that's me he's going to parade angels by where we are hallelujah and say look at that one that one was a drunk and i got him out of his his drunken state and i saved him that one was a drug addict and i picked him up and look at him now robed in white and crowned with glory god's got a display for the ages of his grace folks

let us not forget god has done things for each of us every one of us has a testimony but he didn't stop there he says i am with you always one miracle wasn't enough i'll be with you always all the way to the end of the world let's lift our hands and our voices and thank god for the privilege that we have in jesus christ thank you lord that we can praise you that we can lift hands that we can lift our voices that we can come to a place and appear before your presence we who were sinners we who were aliens we who were outside the promises of god but now we have become hallelujah we have become the sons of god by the miracle of new birth in christ jesus praise god