Remember | Mark Estes

Now come on, stand to your feet and give

God glory in this place.

Come on, stand to your feet. Give him

glory. It's all about him. Amen. Come

on, give him a shout of praise.

Hallelujah.

Man,

you know he wasn't lying. If you missed

the men's retreat, golly, you missed

out. Oh, it was such a powerful time be

in the presence of the Lord with all of

these men, different generations and and

and and backgrounds and all that good

stuff. I know that that's a weekend that

I will remember forever. Uh and I'm

looking forward already to next year's.

So, be there.

Um want to take a few moments this

morning and just share with you as I'm

getting all of these notes up.

I want to share with you this morning

from something that God's just been kind

of really birthing in me. And and

sometimes God does things. Have anybody

ever experienced like God's doing

something, you don't really know it yet

and then like when it comes to your

knower, you're like, "Oh, that's why I

was Yeah. Anybody? I'm not alone. Okay,

cool." And so, you know, it's been a

it's been a journey and life is a

journey and and it's such an amazing

thing. But I want to share with you this

morning if we'll just start uh let's

look at the book of Psalm. Uh we're

going to look at Psalm 77. Uh we're

going to build from this place this

morning. Verse 11 and 13.

This scripture reads like this. It says,

"I will remember the deeds of the Lord.

Yes, I will remember your wonders of

old. I will ponder all of your works. I

will meditate on your mighty deeds.

It goes on to say, "Your way, oh God, is

holy.

What God is great like our God?"

>> Amen.

>> The title of our talk this morning is

going to be really simple. Remember.

Remember. Look at your neighbor and tell

them, "Remember."

Father, I just thank you for this

opportunity we have, God, to open your

word.

>> To hear from you. And I pray, God, that

our ears would be keen, Father God, and

sensitive to your voice. For your word

is clear, that my sheep know my voice

and a strangers they will not follow.

Speak to us, good shepherd, this

morning. Open our hearts, God, that God,

you would be able to plant inside of our

hearts the seed that will transform us.

God,

open our mind, Father God, to be able to

comprehend and understand

so that we may not let the word just sit

and sour, God, but that we would not

just be hearers, but doers of your word.

We thank you for your love, your mercy,

and your grace. Use me, Holy Spirit.

Amen.

So, just recently, I had an opportunity

to do something that I've been wanting

to do for quite some time. Uh, in May,

um, 16th, uh, Pastor Mark, Apostle Mark,

or as he said, I'm his son, so I make

some papa. Papa and I, uh, we went to

Washington DC. And in Washington DC, I

got to do something that I got to just

like kick off the bucket list kind of

type thing. Anybody got one of those

that you want to do? For me, it was uh

the Museum of the Bible. I know maybe a

little nerdy for some folks, but for me,

it was the Museum of the Bible, and I

always wanted to go there. And the truth

is, I always wanted to go there with him

specifically. Uh back in the day, and I

still believe it to be true, but we we

used to say it out of our mouth a whole

lot more. We'd say, "Yeah, if anybody

had a Bible question, we'd say, "Go ask

Pastor Mark. He's the walking Bible."

Amen. And so going to the Museum of the

Bible with the walking Bible, I was

like, man, I can't I'm glad to get

something out of this. I know it. And it

was very special to me. And so, um, I

remember walking through there and

seeing all of the history that takes

place in the museum, all of the things

that were preserved, seeing Dead Sea

Scrolls. Thought that was really cool.

Um, you know, I I I I was like looking

at them. I had my hand on the glass

where they were at. you know, it wasn't

nothing crazy. They just were all ripped

up and pieced together like a puzzle,

but it was it's beautiful history that

has been put together for us to see. Um,

one of the things that really touched me

was as we begin to go through the

American history of the Bible and seeing

how the Bible has come in and

transformed

American culture

through the Great Awakening and so on

and so on. I could be here for days

telling you about it. We got to a place

where they begin to talk about the

translation of the Bible specifically

into English. And there was a man by the

name of William Tindle who was a martyr

who was burned at the stake for

translating the Bible into English. He's

not the only one. He's not the first

one, but he's one of the first ones who

did.

And I begin to think about that as I was

looking at the monument. They had a

statue that was supposed to resemble

him. But at his feet were a bunch of

books that were burnt.

Because the history behind it is every

time somebody would get a hold of one of

the translations because the church at

the time at large did not want it to be

translated in English because it was

controlled at the time and they would

teach and nobody would be able to read

on their own. It was actually in a

different language. And so his heart

was, I want to translate this so that

the farmer in the field, so that the the

guy who's at the shoe shop, the cobbler,

they can receive from the Lord just as

much as when they're in in the sanctuary

on a Sunday.

And anytime one of those Bibles were

found, it was burnt.

And this, you know, it's it's amazing to

think about the story because he went

all over hiding and running and

continuing to find private places to

print, to translate. And ultimately when

he was caught, he was arrested. He was

strangled. And then he was burnt at the

stake. And the last words out of his

mouth were this. God opened the eyes of

the king.

And it wasn't long after that that

another king that was related to the one

he was praying specifically about

published the first English Bible for

us.

90%

of the work that went into that

translation came from William Tindle

and it was preserved. And I begin to

think about that not knowing that

history. But even now, I just think as I

when we go through history and we begin

to remember all of the things that were

done, all of the all of the moments that

led up to us being able to have one of

these where you and I can understand

today, where you and I can read in the

privacy of our own house, where we can

go into our prayer closet

and we can receive from the Lord the

passion,

the desire,

the willingness to suffer

to go through that that man did. And

then we next day we were at the National

Mall. And at the National Mall, we were

rededicating our nation

to the Lord. I think there should be a

couple more amens than that.

And it was a powerful time. Many

stories, many testimonies, many songs.

There's a specific moment about an hour

or so before the event was slotted to be

finished

that Lou Engle and Dutch Sheets came up

and they led the nation in a prayer of

repentance and thousands and thousands

of people were on their face and their

needs in the lawn in the grass and the

gravel and the dirt right beside

portagons everywhere. everybody. We even

saw people there who literally had on

sackcloth

and he led a prayer of repentance over

the nation. And I want to tell you, you

know, the joke that day between Pastor

Mark was the sun was so hot that God

provided the fire and we wore the burn.

So, we were the sacrifice. It was hot.

But I'm going to tell you, in that

moment, there was a wind that blew

through that place and cooled off

everything in that moment. It was

supernatural.

And the presence of the Lord began to

fill that entire area as people were

calling out to God, repenting for the

sin of our nation and saying, "Lord, we

need you. Lord, we need you." And then

the speaker of the house, Mike Johnson,

got up right after and he began to go

through historical moments in American

history and every single moment where

God showed up. And had he had not, we

would not be here today. And he began to

give God thanks. and he began to

remember every monumental moment that

allowed us to be where we are today and

to give praise and honor and glory to

God. And then he began to commit the

next 250 years. You know, when the

speaker of the house says, "Lord, fill

families with the power of the Holy

Spirit." I said, "Man, this dude sound

like he been to North Palm once or

twice."

the verbiage, the language. I'm not

talking about a a a spirit of politics

and all of that craziness. I'm not

talking about that. I'm talking about

this man crying out because he knows the

power of the Holy Spirit. And he knows

that our nation needs him now more than

ever.

>> And every memory was like a memorial

brought up before the Lord.

And that's all been happening. And I'm

like, man, this is just so crazy. And

I'm constantly thinking about all of

these things. And then two Saturdays,

two two weeks agoish on a Friday night

actually, there was a man here by the

name Paul Balash, or as you know, the

Levites, we know him as Uncle Paulie,

you know, he told us we could call him

Uncle Paulie with that little Jersey

accent, you know, and I was like, man,

it's awesome. And so he's just such a

king of a man and just such a pastor.

And as he began to figure out the flow

of the service and what it would look

like, he began to talk about the stories

that he would tell between each song.

And he was trying to figure out exactly

how it would go. But then he said, "You

know what, guys? What we'll do? We're

just going to remember

because remembering is an act of

worship."

And that thing hit me real hard. And

it's been the thing that's just been

ringing in me. And God's just been

taking me back all throughout. And I've

been studying just seeing the importance

of remembering. Do you realize that God

has established festivals and feasts and

songs and all kinds of things all

throughout scripture also that we will

remember what he has done.

He ordains it. Scripture doesn't just

encourage us to remember because it's a

good idea. Scripture in places actually

commands us to remember.

In the book of Deuteronomy 31, Moses is

instructed by God to write and teach a

song to the children of Israel.

The scripture says that the Lord says to

him, "Now therefore, write this song and

teach it to the people of Israel. Put it

in their mouths that this song may be a

witness for me against them, the people

of Israel." And this is what is

happening is that he knew that as I'm

getting ready and he goes on to say,

"I'm getting ready to launch them.

They're going into the promised land,

the land that I promised their

forefathers flowing with milk and honey.

There's going to be a moment where

they're going to have their fill.

They're going to become fat and sassy

living in the promise and everything's

going to be good and they're going to

forget me.

They're going to come to a place

where they'll be so focused on enjoying

what's going on that they will even turn

to other gods and begin to worship them.

And he says that this song is something

that would bear witness. And you can

actually read this song for yourself

recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 32. It's

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

often called the song of Moses. And the

purpose of the song wasn't just so that

they would remember where that they came

from. It was also to serve as a lasting

witness. The scripture says that it

would live unforgotten in the mouths of

their offspring.

It served as a reminder to them that God

is faithful. He always has been and he

always will be. It served as something

that they could recount the fact that

God chose them, protected them, and he

blessed them.

It served as a warning against even

turning away from him and even more so

as a call to bring them back into the

faithfulness of the covenant, his love

for us.

God knew that future generations would

come to a place where they might just

forget all of his works. He knew. And so

he predestined something as simple as a

song to be birthed and passed down

orally from generation to generation.

That's the power of a song.

And I think about just recently this

morning we just sang a song that North

Palm Worship wrote called Never Ever

Forget. It was the first song we sang

this morning. I'll cling to every word

that you say

cuz I know that you're faithful. You're

faithful. How can how could I not

believe that you'll complete what you

say?

Another song that's actually on the

album is called Don't Forget the Lord.

And that song is doing amazing right

now. It's doing numbers that I don't

even think we thought it would actually

do. God has been surprising us with just

how that song is growing in an audience.

And it makes me wonder why.

Because the truth is just like the

children of Israel, if we're not

careful, we are prone to forget.

We will.

So in that case,

how do we do this?

How do we move in a way that we don't

forget the Lord? Well, first thing I

want to tell you is you need to remember

God's goodness in your life personally.

David writes in Psalm 103, "Bless the

Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within

me. Bless his holy name." He goes on to

say, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and

forget not."

>> If you forget not, that means you don't

forget, which means that you

>> remember.

So remember all of his benefits who

forgives your iniquities.

>> Come on.

>> HE FORGIVES YOU OF all sin and

unrighteousness.

He heals all of your diseases.

>> He redeems your life from the pit.

>> He crowns you with steadfast love and

mercy. He satisfies you with good so

that your youth is renewed like the

eagles.

>> We have to remember what God has done in

our life. We have to remember his

goodness in our life. Not just on

thanksgiving, not just an every now and

then thing. It should be an institute in

your life that when you sit with God

that you begin to recall the hell that

he pulled you out from.

It should be a part OF YOUR EVERYDAY

LIFE. IT SHOULD BE A PART OF your prayer

time that you come back to the place of

remembering I shouldn't be here.

>> You say, "Man, that sounds simple. Then

why don't we do it?

It sounds elementary." Oh, yeah. If it's

elementary, remove it and let's see how

well it goes.

It should be like breath to us to

remember all that God has done in our

life. I remember the first time I ever

heard the song Goodness of God.

And I remember telling Deborah and some

of the Levites this one time, every time

I hear that part that says, "All my life

you have been faithful.

All my life you have been so so good.

>> With every breath that I am able,

I will sing of the goodness of God.

I think about this thought would come to

my mind. I think about times I'm going

to be real honest with you. I think

about times where I was doing things

that I'm ashamed to even talk about that

I did on this on this stage.

things that I was doing that I should

not even be here. Things that I was

doing, the drugs and all of the

craziness that was going on in my life

that some of the people that I was with,

they can't even tell you anything

because they're not here today. But

somehow God in his goodness decided I

will preserve you because I have a plan.

I have a purpose for you.

I think about the moment when I was

looking down the barrel of a gun and I

had a it jammed into my ribs and I was

ready to go CUZ YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'RE out

there you're full of arrogance and

pride. You're not like oh no sir what

would you like? I'll give you anything.

That's not what it was. I'm like oh you

want something from me? You going to

have to kill me. How stupid.

>> BUT GOD LOOKS AFTER THE FOOL.

>> He took care of me. I was foolish. And

he says, "Son, I'm going to preserve

you."

Those moments, I think about all of the

times that I've been here. And in his

goodness, he corrected me. He sharpened

me. He formed me. He said, "There's no

character, but I'm going to give you

character." He said, "Son, there's a

gift that I put inside of you, and I'm

going to call it out of you, and I'm

going to use people to do that." For

some of you, the next level in your life

is actually who you're connected to

>> in this room.

>> It's the lives that you are connected

to. The next place that you are to go.

>> And in his goodness, he connected me to

a house. When the world saw a thug, my

pastor saw a son.

>> He saw a son. And that's the testimony

of many people in this room.

That's the goodness of God of of many

people. That's their story in this room.

>> WE CANNOT forget the goodness of God.

>> We must remember the sacrifice of Jesus.

We're commanded by Jesus to do this in

remembrance of me.

>> At the last supper, he broke the bread

and he shared the cup and said, "This do

in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19.

Luke 22:19

Paul is even teaching the church in

Corinth this very thing. And he repeats

these instructions and he is describing

communion saying this do in remembrance

of me. 1 Corinthians 11:24.

1 Corinthians 11:24

We're commanded.

And why? Because God ordained communion

in that relationship so that we would

remember his sacrifice, his covenant,

and his love.

You know, Pastor Mark stood here just

last week preached one of the greatest

message I've ever heard. And if you

missed it, you need to go get on the

app, get on YouTube, and you need to

find it. It's called the answer to

everything.

And it's the cross,

>> the sacrifice of the cross.

He says, "This is my body." DO YOU KNOW

WHAT HAPPENED to his body?

>> Do you know WHAT THEY DID TO YOUR

SAVIOR?

ARE YOU AWARE OF IT? DO YOU REMEMBER THE

PAIN AND THE AGONY? YES, HE WAS 100%

GOD, but he was not. HE STRIPPED

HIMSELF. HE DIDN'T just go through it

and say, "I can do this cuz I don't feel

any pain." He bled HOW YOU BLEED. HE

FELT HOW YOU FELT.

The pain he felt himself.

He went through it all. And the entire

time the goal was, I see a bride

for the joy that is set before me.

That's you and I. The blood that poured

out of his body that is the covenant and

it is the remission of all of our sin.

It is the debt that we couldn't pay and

the BLOOD WASHES IT AWAY and pays it in

full. I don't know about you, but I just

can't get over it. It's not normal to

me.

I can't get used to it.

>> And we get going. We get in the dos and

the dos of coming to church and and and

and we we have a lifestyle that we're

living. We're doing all kinds of things.

And if we're not careful, even in the

mix of all of that, we can still forget

to remember.

The proof of that is right here in

Revelation. the church in Ephesus.

The words of him who holds the seven

stars in his hand and walks among the

seven golden lampstands. He says, "I

know your works, your toil, your patient

endurance, and how you cannot bear with

those who are evil,

but have tested those who call

themselves apostles and are not." And

you've even, this is what he's saying.

You've even had the discernment TO FIND

OUT THAT THEY ARE FALSE.

I know that you're enduring patiently

and bearing up for my name's sake. You

going through some stuff for my name is

what he's saying.

And you've not even grown weary in doing

so.

Yet I have this one thing against you

that you have abandoned the love you had

at first.

And then the command, remember,

remember,

remember therefore from where you have

fallen. Repent and do the works you did

at first. And he says, if not, I will

come and I will remove your lampstand

from its place unless you repent.

>> Amen. I remember years ago watching one

thing as Francis Chan was standing on

the stage and he told a story as he was

preparing and he was going back through

notes. often times uh uh preachers will

have cataloges of messages and he was

going back through and he was saying God

is there anything here and he was

searching looking back in his journal

and he found some of his early work some

of the early things that he had written

down and he said this he said after

reading that I came to a moment where I

had to ask myself this question do I did

I love God more then or now

see he went back to the very beginning

of his ministry

I was trying to explain this concept to

my children last night and it was kind

of comical and I had to do it with our

dog Bean.

She's a little bitty golden doodle,

weighs about 15 pounds.

And I said, "Do y'all remember the day

we first got Bean?" And he said, "Yeah."

I said, "Remember what we did? We went

to the store." And he said, "Yep. We

bought a collar for her. We made sure

she had her food." Oh, Dad, do you

remember I picked out the bowls? I said,

'Yeah, I do. Oh, do you remember? I'm

the one who picked out the pink tag cuz

I knew she was a girl. Yeah, I remember

that.

Oh, Dad, do you remember when she came?

Do you remember? And I said, do you

remember when you cried?

Do you remember when you were you were

so undignified? You just laid in the

floor with her and she was just loving

on you. And while normaly people would

look at that and be like, some people be

like, I don't know about that. I don't

get down with dogs like that. But kids

were just in the floor

and every day they'd wake up and they

say, "Does she need to go out? Does she

need food in her bowl? Might I put some

water in there, father?" every day

in the beginning,

>> the first love,

the works you did at first. And the

church needs to know that the word of

God is telling us, if you want to get

back to that place, all you have to do

is remember.

Remember,

let me tell you what remembering will do

for you. It'll give you your joy back.

>> Come on. Shameless plug. I'm going to

tell you right now, if you ain't got the

album, it's on every DSP possible.

Digital streaming platform. For those

that don't know what DSP is, that's

okay.

I got my joy back. And I don't know

about you, but it helped me because I

don't forget the Lord like the songs

say.

I'll never ever forget like the song

says and this Wednesday we're recording

something that's called remind me.

Listen, I'm telling you it's a it's like

a line of something that's flowing

through time with us right now that God

is calling his church back to a place of

remember. Remember remember.

Remembering will give you your joy back.

Remembering will take you from being a

victim into being somebody who is

endowed with gratitude. you'll be

victorious. Because see, when you

remember, a lot of times people look

back and they go to that place and they

think, "Man, all of this is happening to

me." Can I tell you something? In the

kingdom, nothing is happening to you. It

is always happening for you.

>> I need you to understand this. It's not

happening to you. It's happening for

you. Because your God makes all things

work together for the good of those that

love him and are called according to his

purpose.

It'll transform your traumas into the

trampoline that bounces you right into

resiliency.

Remembering will no longer be a thing

that you look back at and you're so

scarred by it that you're afraid to look

back. Can I tell you, I can look back at

those moments. I'm gonna be real and

honest with you. I can look back at

those moments. I can look back at times

as a child where I dealt with child

molestation. And I can tell you with a

clean conscience right before you today,

I can tell you there ain't no shame in

me about it. I can talk about it out

loud because God gave me A RESILIENCY

THAT WHEN I DO, IT SETS ANOTHER FREE.

remembering is also the gas that you

need to put in your tank today to face

the mountain that's in front of you.

>> Often times your ability to keep going

is coming from a moment of pausing and

remembering the last time I was looking

at a mountain and I felt the same way,

but I saw my God. I saw my God reach in.

I saw my GOD ENDOWED ME WITH POWER. I

SAW MY GOD DO SOMETHING WITH ME THAT I

DIDN'T KNOW I COULD DO. BUT HE SAID,

"YOU GO. I SEND YOU GO."

>> SO, it's not just a trip down memory

lane.

It's not just some little sweet thing we

like to talk about and just we get the

little feelings and for the moment, oh,

I just that was so nice. I remember that

time. It's not just that.

It's strength. It's resolve.

And if we're not careful,

we will minimize something that God has

commanded from Genesis to Revelation

to be something that we rarely ever do.

We get so busy doing the do. We get so

busy serving our ministry instead of

serving our God.

>> When in fact, your service to God is

what empowers you to be effective in

ministry. Just in case you were just

throw that out there,

stand with me this morning.

Maybe you're here

and you say, "Hey, man, I hear you.

I get it. This remember thing, it's not

a real hard concept to understand. It's

not rocket science." You're right.

But maybe you say to yourself, you know,

when I remember, when I look back over

my life, I see a lot of things that I

don't want to necessarily look back at.

I don't want to remember everything that

I've done or whatever the case may be. I

don't want to remember everything that

I've been through. Can I invite you to a

place this morning? I want to invite you

into the hands of a father

who is not surprised nor is he appalled.

But he is inviting you in and he's

saying, "I'm going to take your memories

and your mess and I'm going to turn them

into a message and a ministry.

I'm going to build something inside of

you that your mind can't even conceive.

>> You've never seen it because it's never

been done. It's handcrafted.