Psalms Of Summer | The Power of Remembrance

Well, we are so glad that you're worshiping with us.

Can we give it up for all of our volunteers that help make Sunday happen?

Come on.

So thankful.

Listen, we live in Houston, Texas.

Any of y'all survived the heat this week?

Well, we almost had a crisis this morning.

The AC was out, but thanks to great volunteers around here, they know just about how to do everything.

And so your worship was going to be on another level this morning if it wasn't for them.

We're so thankful for the people that God uses to build his kingdom.

And uh, if you ever want to be a part of serving in the life of the church, listen, we're not a needs-based church.

It's not a we need this, we need that, we got this job, we got that job.

Our heart is this.

We're just here to serve the kingdom of God in any way that we can.

If you want to be a part of that, our next steps is the way that you can be a part of that.

As we go back to school, kids, where yeah, we're going back to school.

Parents, you're like, you going back to school, everybody.

And uh, as we go back to school, a lot of our friends here at the Art Church will come, and we want to make sure we have a good environment ready to receive uh the people that are coming in the life of our church, and you can be a part of that by serving.

I'm I'm really excited about our message.

I've loved this series on the Psalms.

It's done something different in me, and I've just been so thankful for it.

We we've been talking a lot about the power.

The power to worship, the the power of his presence.

We and this morning I've titled the message The Power of Remembrance.

The power of remembrance.

How many of y'all have a good memory?

Yep.

All those are women's hands, aren't they?

Yeah.

You can remember just about every time we messed up.

Or maybe for you, maybe you have a good memory in other things.

Sometimes I remember in college, I remember Courtney and I weren't married at the time, but we were dating.

I would remember walking to class, and uh, I had studied for the test the day before and what felt like all night and gone to IHOP and studied and ate pancakes, and and and I'll be walking with her and she'll say, Oh, we have that test today, don't we?

And I would say, What do you mean?

She'd say, Oh, yeah, we gotta, I gotta study for that test.

I said, We're on the way to class.

And she'd give me my back, and she'd pull her notes out of her backpack and she'd walk to class.

And by the time she got to class, she'd have everything in that paper in her memory, and she would still do better than me on the test, somebody.

How many are not thankful for people like that in the memory in the uh I want to I want a memory like that.

As I talk about remembrance this morning, I'm not talking about remembering facts or details.

I'm not talking about remembering the things that people did wrong to us, although sometimes those are the easiest things to remember.

This morning, what I want to talk about is remembering what God has done.

Because here's what I believe that when we master this, when we dive into this, when we remember the things that God has done in our life, here's what it does: it gives us the power to press through even some of the darkest moments of our life.

My grandmother uh many years ago had Alzheimer's, and and uh she, how many of you know Alzheimer's is a cruel disease?

And uh to watch someone that you love lose their memory right in front of you, and uh, they're there, everything physically, they're there, but there's just something different.

And I remember we would go visit her, but how many know in the hard moments of life you have to have lighthearted?

Like you, you just have to you have to find the joy in every circumstance.

And and so we go spend time with my grandmother in the nursing home, and it was an Alzheimer's unit in the nursing home.

And so we have all I got stories for days for you, okay?

But one of my favorites is a sweet lady who we became friends with there as we began to visit my grandmother, and her name was Barbara.

And it seemed like every time I walked in the nursing home, Barbara was walking down the aisle of the nursing home crying out loud, wailing.

You know, just wailing.

And I'd go up to her and I'd say, Barbara, what's wrong?

And she'd say, I'm dead.

She'd say, Somebody got me, you know.

And just as light-hearted as you can in that moment, you just know, Barbara, you're not dead.

It's okay.

You're actually alive.

How many know if you lose your memory, you might live like you're dead when you're really alive?

As I was thinking about this message, I felt like that was the burden of what the Lord gave me.

That if we lose remembrance, if we if we lose our memory on the things that God has done, then we as believers will live like we're dead when really God has already declared on the inside you're alive.

But how many of you know, for as much as her memory slipped, there were things that she would remember.

She couldn't remember names and the details of stories, but my wife and I would take our Bible when we would go and visit her, and we would sit before her and we would read a scripture, and how many of you know there'd be times she says, Oh, I already know that one?

There'd be times where you could just tell, you can't convince me otherwise.

There are times when the spirit on the inside of her was connecting with the same spirit that was on the inside of me, that though her mind had failed her, she had not forgotten what God had done for her.

As I think about that, there was a lady in the unit, and there was a piano in the lobby.

She couldn't tell you her own name, but she could sit at the piano and play every hymn in the hymn book.

Why?

Because life can be hard.

You can lose a lot in life, but there is one thing a hard life can't take away from you, and that is your memory of what God has done for you.

As we read the Psalm this morning, Psalm 77, I think that is a great picture of what happens in Psalm 77.

A picture of a hard life that remembers what God has done.

And finds his peace not in his circumstances changing.

Finds his joy not in a solution to the problem, but rather in his remembrance that if God was there for me then, he'll be there for me now.

That if God was once good and he was, then he will still be good today.

And Psalm 77, it's a psalm of remembrance.

If you've ever been in a pit before, you'll like this one.

If you've ever had a hard, challenging moment where you felt like, God, I just want to tell it to you like it is, then you're gonna like this psalm.

Psalm 77 is a cry from the heart of being honest with God.

God, this is how I really feel.

How many of y'all know we have a God who's big enough to handle how we really feel?

And in Psalm 77, we get God's word to us, but what I want you to know is it was first man's word to God, as man declared in Psalm 77, God, this is where I'm at.

What are you gonna do with me?

And in Psalm 77, if you're ready, say I'm ready, I cry aloud to God.

Aloud to God, and he will hear me.

He says, In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord.

That's a great thing to do when you're in trouble.

And in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying.

My soul refuses to be comforted.

Mamas, have you ever had a baby that refused to be comforted?

And you're like, Yeah, it always happens in church, you know.

So I just, you know, all the men were like, here, just I don't, I don't know.

Like, yeah, you you you deal with it.

And a mom has every trick up her sleeve to encourage that baby and nurture that baby and take care of that baby.

But how many of y'all know there are some spirits that just don't want to be comforted?

And this is what the psalmist is saying.

He said, This is my life.

My soul refuses to be comforted.

When I I remember God, he says, I moan.

It's not a good moan, it's not a praise moan, it's a moan of even thinking about God.

I think, well, this ain't gonna work for me.

When I meditate, my spirit faints.

You hold my eyelids open, I am so troubled that I cannot even speak.

I consider the days of old, the years long ago.

I said, Let me remember my song in the night, let me meditate in my heart.

Then he says, Then my spirit made a diligent search.

This is searching the depths of his inner man, and he begins to ask some very real questions of the Lord.

Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable to me?

Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

Like, has he run out of it?

Is is there no more for me?

Are his promises at an end for all time?

Has he given all of his promises away to everyone else, but not to me?

Has God forgotten to be gracious to me?

Has he in anger shut up in compassion?

Have you ever been in this pit?

Have you ever been in this place where your questions before the Lord were, Lord, did you forget about me?

Lord, have you remembered me?

The crying, my tears in the night?

Where are you in this moment?

The psalmist is giving it real to the Lord.

But verse 10 says, Then I said, I will appeal to this.

This is a change of tone in the whole passage.

Everything begins to shift.

He says, I'll appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the most high.

No matter what I feel, no matter what I think, no matter what I go through, I'm going to appeal to this, the year of the right hand of the Most High.

I will remember the deeds of the Lord.

Verse 11.

Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.

Your way, O God, is holy.

What God is great like our God.

You are the God who works wonders.

You have made known your might among the peoples.

And you, with your arm, you redeemed your people.

He's recalling things that he has known God to do for his people.

Verse 16 When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid.

Indeed, the deep trembled.

Has anybody ever been on the water before when everything turned into a storm?

I'll never forget.

I was on the lake last summer and in a 70-mile-hour wind came across the lake as I turned around the corner.

We had four little kids under the age of five on some jet skis going around the corner.

I remember looking at that storm, and as a grown bald man, I was afraid.

Usually when the storms come and the waves come, we are afraid.

And here's what he says: he says, But when the waters saw you, God, they were the ones that were afraid.

Indeed, even the deep trembled.

The clouds poured out water, the skies gave forth thunder, your arrows flashed on every side, the crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind, and your lightnings lighted up the world.

The earth trembled and shook.

Your way was through the sea, and your path through the waters, yet your footprints were unseen.

You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

What is he doing?

He's being real with God.

God, this is where I'm at.

But his tone shifts and his tone changes.

He gets to a place, he says, I know what I'm going through and I know what it looks like, but today I'm choosing something better.

Today I'm trading the pit that I'm in for the promise of what I know to be true about God.

And he says, I appeal to the God most high.

I want to give you some things today that I think can help you in the middle of whatever problem you face in your life.

That if you will exercise this, a spirit of remembrance, if you will exercise a spirit of remembrance in your life, here's what it will do: it will give you the power to do what he just talked about.

Maybe you don't go over the water, and maybe you don't go under it, and maybe you don't go around it, but the Lord will get you through it.

First one I want to give you this morning is this when you remember the Lord, here's what it does: it lifts your spirit.

When you remember the Lord, it lifts your spirit.

If you're going through a hard time, oftentimes you would maybe describe it as feeling like there are clouds overhead.

And often when there it's a cloudy, rainy day, it's hard to see the sun.

And your hope on the inside is if I could just get a little bit of light up in here, it would change everything.

Listen, how many of y'all know the light always overcomes the darkness?

Sometimes we live in a world and you may feel like things around you are getting dark, but here's what I want to remind you the truth of his word, and that is that his light always wins.

And there are moments and seasons in our life where we know that to be true, but we're wrestling with its reality in our lone life.

Remembering what God has done helps you lift your head in a different direction.

It's the idea he pours out of heaviness, that what he is experiencing is heavy.

The challenge is when you feel like things are heavy in your life, the challenge is to not let the heaviness dictate your theology.

What do you believe about God?

Oftentimes the trap of the pit is this: we will begin to believe the lies of the pit.

We'll begin to believe things in the lie.

And the problem is, if we allow our negative experiences in life to shape what we believe about God, it's only gonna make that pit deeper.

And so, in the midst of your challenges and situations and circumstances, instead of forming a new idea about God, maybe it's time to remember what we already know about God.

And this is what he does when he says, I will remember.

What does he remember?

He remembers in verse 11 that God is good.

What does he remember in verse 11?

He says, What God is like our God?

There is no God great like our God.

What is he doing?

He's appealing to his theology that says, I believe that God is good.

And I may not be seeing everything I want to see, and I may not be feeling everything that I want to feel, but I know this that my God is who he says that he is, and he can do the things that he says he can do.

This is the turning point of the entire psalm.

I want you to know something.

The guy who's writing at the beginning of Psalm 77 is the same guy who's writing at the end.

What happened?

Nothing happened on the outside, everything happened on the inside.

What happened was he got a dose of remembrance.

But my God came through for us before.

I believe he's gonna come through for me now.

His remembrance was the key to unlocking his way out of the pit.

His remembrance was the key to unlocking what God might do.

So he uses the word.

I appeal to the years of the right hand of the throne of the Father.

If you met me in the parking lot today and maybe I was hungry and I was ready for me some Texas Roadhouse rolls, manna provision from heaven, so I was on a hurry.

And you thought I was trying to talk to you, Pastor, and you just blew right on by.

And you left and you walked out and you said, Well, that pastor is just the rudest pastor in the world.

He doesn't even like people.

And you did that based off of one experience.

What the psalmist is saying right here is he's saying, No, no, no, no, hold on.

What I feel like I'm experiencing is contrary to what I've known about God for years.

He says, I'm appealing to the years.

God has a track record, and I'm not gonna let my experience dictate it.

Because here's what happens: we begin to form theology in the midst of negative experiences.

It's kind of a trap to be in.

For example, maybe you had a prayer that you prayed for years.

Lord, I pray that you would put this relationship back together.

If you'll do this for me, I'll do anything for you.

And maybe you prayed that prayer year after year after year, and it didn't happen.

Theology, what would happen in that kind of a situation is we could have a negative experience and we could say, Well, because my prayer wasn't answered, then it means God doesn't answer prayers.

Maybe for you, you've had a hard time in life and you've had some hard things.

And so what can happen is a lie can set in that opposes the truth of God's word.

And the lie that sets in is, well, God may care for everybody else, but he doesn't care for me.

The lies in the pit are dangerous, and so we cannot form our theology out of it.

We have to get to a place where we say, God, I'm going to stand on your word.

What the psalmist does is he anchors, he anchors himself in the truth of who God is.

He remembers who God is.

Listen, I grew up going to the lake, and uh the lake, the creek, the pond.

It didn't matter.

If it's water, it's water.

It's like Houston this week, somebody.

It's like, if you're not in the water, then you ain't living because it's too hot outside.

Right?

Find me some water.

And so we'd we'd go all the time, and I remember my dad teaching me how to set an anchor.

If you didn't know this, you can't just plop the anchor off the boat and hope it works.

Because what will happen is, uh, like the lake that I grew up in, it was not a bathtub like Lake Conroe.

Uh it was 200 feet deep.

You could see your toes in the water, 10 feet underwater.

It's holy water up there, you know?

And uh, it was 200 feet deep.

If you throw your anchor off the edge of the boat and hope you caught something, well, guess what?

Your rope's probably not long enough.

So if you don't set the anchor in the right way, you will drift to places you don't want to go.

And even when we found the perfect cove, the sun is shining just right, there's there's shade from the Ozark Mountains coming over the side.

How many of you know there's still a right way to set the anchor?

And we'd throw the anchor out, and my dad would back the boat up, and what is what is it doing?

It's setting it in the mud, it's setting it in the rocks, it's setting it or hooking it on a tree.

Why?

So that we don't drift.

Well, listen, how many of you know in our life, the psalmist right here in Psalm 77, is doing the same thing.

The psalmist is making a decision.

I know what I feel, and it doesn't feel good.

The guy could have picked a lighter anchor, somebody.

It's like, I'm gonna be strong after preaching today.

It's like, we all have a decision to make in our life about where we're gonna cast our anchor.

And the psalmist he starts by saying, God, have you forsaken me?

I feel like you're not here.

He has a choice in the moment.

He can take that anchor and he can throw it right out here in the middle of his feelings and hope for the best.

And what he'll find in life is as the water gets going, the storms come and the waves come, and here's what can happen to an anchor that's not set in the right place.

As the waves come, it just picks that anchor right up off the ground.

And every wave that comes up, it comes up with it.

And what happens is it drifts to all kinds of places.

The challenge in our life, oftentimes in the middle of the pit, is the temptation to throw the anchor of our life into how we feel is everything.

How do I know that?

I know that because here's what I believe, by the way, I've seen counselor numerous times in my life.

I believe in counseling, I think it's a good thing for you.

But here's what I want you to know we live in a world in a day and age that has become all about feelings.

More people are receiving more help than ever before.

But I want to tell you something.

Aside from the help and the grace and the power of Jesus Christ, talking about our feelings isn't solving the problem.

The truth of God's word will.

And what happens is, even in the name of mental health, what can happen is we can try and throw our anchor into our feelings, but our feelings were never designed to be the control booth of our life.

We call, okay, well, well, I'm an intellectual type.

In the midst of my challenge, in the midst of my pain, I just have big questions for God.

God, why did this happen like this?

God, what's going on?

And our our mind can become the place, and the challenge is if we throw our anchor into our thoughts, how many of you know you may be the smartest person in the room, but there's still one smarter?

You can have some of the best thoughts in the world, but how many of you know all the thoughts that even this preacher right here thinks are not God thoughts, trust me.

And so if we throw our anchor into our thoughts, what can happen is they fall short.

They don't answer all of life's really hard questions.

I mean, how many of y'all know most of the pits in our life are caused by things that I really don't think this side of heaven we're gonna have answers to in our mind?

And the challenge is if we throw our anchor into that place, we drift to places we don't want to go.

We can throw our anchor into our problems.

Anybody ever tried that before?

You know what happens here, right?

One problem makes more problems.

And we put the anchor in here, I don't know about you, but sometimes it feels like they come in threes, don't they?

It's like, uh I don't know about you, but I've talked about my problems a lot in life, and sometimes what I find is if I'm going through a problem, I'll get in the car and I'm mad at somebody or something, and I'll pick up the phone and I'll call this person and tell them all about it, and then when I'm done, I'll pick up somebody else and I'll call them and tell them all about it.

Can I tell you I've never felt better doing that?

Why?

Because that anchor can't reach the bottom.

That anchor's not gonna hold.

And the Bible nowhere says you should vent about your life.

It doesn't say vent thee, you, and ye shall be blessed if, you know.

So what do you do?

Here's what the psalmist did.

The psalmist made a decision.

This is how I feel today, but that's not where my anchor is gonna stay.

These are the thoughts I'm thinking about what I went through last year, but this is not where my anchor is gonna stay.

I'm a work in progress, and I I'm I'm dealing with some problems, and I have some addictions and some things that are going along, but I'm not putting my anchor in this place.

And here's what he does He says, I appeal to the years of the Most High.

I'm taking my anchor and I'm putting it out in deeper waters, I'm putting it in my faith.

And you put your anchor in your faith, and here's what you're doing you're appealing.

God, I remember what you did for them when I read it in the Bible, and I believe you can do it for me.

God, I remember that you've always brought your people through.

I'm gonna trust that this pit isn't too big for you, too.

And what are you doing?

Listen, throwing your anchor in your faith is not ignoring your feelings.

Throwing your anchor in your faith is not ignoring the thoughts that you have.

It's making the choice that I'm not going to put my anchor in how I feel or what I think or the problems I face.

I'm gonna appeal to something better, to someone greater.

And that's exactly what he does when he says in Psalm 77, I appeal to the ears of the Most High, the right hand of the Most High.

What's the right hand?

The right hand is a place of authority and power and strength.

What he's saying is, I'm not gonna put my anchor in a place where I have all control.

I'm gonna put my anchor in a place where you have all control.

I'm gonna appeal to you.

So when you start remembering what God has done for you, it helps lift your head because your anchor is in the right place.

I love this old phrase.

A lot of things, it's anonymous writer.

I changed it a little bit because it was anonymous.

I figured anonymous won't care.

A lot of things sail into the harbor of your mind, but only faith should be allowed to anchor.

A lot of things sail into the harbor of your mind, but only faith should be the thing that is allowed to anchor.

But your faith can stand.

It will lift your spirit.

Number two, when you remember what God has done, it reminds you of what is true.

When you remember what God has done, it helps remind you what is true.

Did you know that in storms it's really hard to tell which way is up and which way is down?

In storms, it's really hard to tell which way is right and which way is left.

In fact, I love, you know, even the Apostle Paul, he said they ended up on in Acts chapter 26, 27, somewhere in there, he says that he ended up on a ship that was destined for destruction.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

And it says, we went without food and we went without sunshine for many days.

If you've ever been on an ocean and in the swells of the ocean, and all of a sudden you get far enough out, you don't know where you're going.

And the challenge of a storm or a pit can get you to a place where you know no longer know what to believe.

Your compass gets thrown off.

And so the temptation or the challenge is to go places you wouldn't normally go.

When I bought a house several years ago, I I went in and I remember at closing, I sat down before the lady and she put like 50,000 pages in front of you.

Remember that?

And you're like, um I sign this?

Or like and you just look at the lady and you say, Is it okay if I sign this?

Like, I'm I'm trusting you, right?

Like, and so I asked her this question.

I said, Has anybody ever read it?

Did y'all anybody read it?

Don't lie in church.

Because she said in her 20 years of doing multiple closings a day, she's only had one person ever read it start to finish.

So I figured I could just join the rest of the heathens and sign it, you know?

But as I'm reading, I get to the spot and I stop.

It says Acts of God.

And I'm a preacher, so I get excited.

I thought we're about to have church right up in here.

Come on.

God's gonna bless us with a house.

Let's go, you know?

Acts of God.

That's what I know God to do.

God is a blessing-giving God.

But when I read it, how many of y'all know I was much displeased with what I read?

In the event that God destroys your house in a storm, we are not responsible.

Well, thank you for that.

Now I really want to sign, you know.

What do they say?

We live in a world that assigns blame to anything and everything they possibly can.

And so what they're saying is this in the event that you go through a storm, let's just call it what it is, they say it's God's fault.

And the temptation or the trap, like in Psalm 77, he gets his place, God, why have you forsaken me?

Listen, he can God can handle your questions, but there's something about the psalmist's tone.

He's not accusing God, he's not blaming God, he's just simply asking, God, why do I feel like you're not here?

God, why do I feel like your promises have met their end?

Why do I feel like you'll show up for someone else, but not for me?

And here's what the psalmist does, I think, is a secret weapon that we have to hold on to.

In the moments of your pit, don't blame God for what you're not seeing.

Believe God for what you know Him to be.

And it reminds you of what is true.

God, here's what I know.

I know that I may feel alone today and like nobody cares for me, but I choose to be reminded of your truth today that says that you crawled up on the cross of Calvary and the nails that went in your hands, they weren't just for everyone else, they were also for me.

That you get to the places of your life in the pit or in the middle of the problem, and you wonder if God is gonna come through for you.

That you've poured out everything you have in the truth of God's word.

When you remember what it is that He's spoken in His Word, the truth of His Word is this that his blood was poured out for you.

And as you begin to remind yourself of these things, what are you doing?

You're putting truth in the place the enemy wants to allow lies to grow.

The enemy wants to sow a seed of lies.

And those seed of lies, if you will believe them as if they're true, then it will change your life.

It's to the person who maybe at a young age, maybe somebody wasn't there for you when they said they would be.

And so you began to believe the lie.

Well, nobody's ever gonna be there for me.

And you begin to speak it over your life, and you think it's no big deal to say it over your life, but what what are you doing?

You're you're you're breeding something that you don't want to breed.

You're putting your anchor in a place where it's simply not true.

And what you have to remind yourself is Psalm 139 says, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

The Lord knows the number of hairs on my head, and if he knows that, then guess what?

He cares about me.

I'm gonna pull that anchor up today.

I'm not gonna leave it there.

I'm gonna go back to what he says, and I'm gonna throw it out into the deep of his word.

Maybe there's a lie in your life that you've been believing, and the Lord says, I want to replace it with some truth.

That's why he says the where there's truth, there's freedom.

Truth brings freedom.

And so, in your remembrance of what God has done, here's what it's gonna do it's gonna remind you of which way is up.

That's why I love the story of John Newton and amazing grace.

At seven years old, as a young child, his mother would tell him about Jesus and teach him the scriptures.

And at seven years old, his mother passed away.

And how many of you know if you ever go through a hard situation like that, it reorientates your whole world and your whole perspective.

And if we're not anchored in the right places, we'll find ourselves drifting.

He ended up uh with his father, who was a captain of a ship called the Greyhound, and it was it was a slave trading ship, and they would they would transport slaves, and and he grew up on this ship.

And and here's what they said about John They said that he was the worst of the worst.

Now, I don't know about you, but if a sailor was saying, I'm the worst of the worst, then how many?

They said, Of all the people, John was the last one to know God.

His lifestyle, the things that he did, the things that he said, the way that he acted, not that guy.

But one day that ship was in the middle of a storm, and it says that John called out, Lord, have mercy on us.

The guy who did not remember what God had done in the moment of his need did the most powerful thing he could ever do.

Because here's why.

Listen, in the middle of your storm, it doesn't matter how bad you've been, how far you've gone, how far you've drifted, there is no time in which you cannot call upon the Lord, and he won't answer in this way.

And the worst of the worst in humanity made a decision in the middle of my storm, I'm going to appeal to what is true.

Lord, have mercy on us.

And he pinned this little song that we like to sing called Amazing Grace.

What does he do in Amazing Grace?

He says, I once was lost, but now I'm found.

What is he doing?

He's saying, I remember where I was when I met Jesus.

I remember the pit that I was in.

I remember the things happening to me, I remember the things going around me.

That's where I was, but that's not where I am.

Remembering what God can do in your life changes everything.

And then he leads him to worship.

When you remember what God has done, do you know what it stirs in you?

The spirit of heaviness leaves for a garment of praise.

He says, Amazing grace, how sweet this sounds.

What's he doing?

He's worshiping.

Because I remember what God has done, I have a spirit of worship that is birthed on the inside of me.

And then where does it lead?

The end of the song, what is it?

One of the verses it says, And grace will lead me home.

In other words, it's not just about what was, and it's not just about what is, it's about where we're going.

And so, what does it do?

Remembering the truth of what God has done for you, it builds your faith for the future.

Uh Zoe, I want you to sing this song for us in just a beautiful way.

I want I know you know the lyrics, but listen to this.

But now I'm found was blind, but now I see grace that tied my heart to fear and grace my fear how precious did that grace appear I flee through many dangers, toils, and sniff I have for a be safe thus far, and grace will be home.

How many of y'all are thankful you have something to remember?

Here's what it does.

Remembering is not just about having a good memory.

You don't get to sit this one out because you're like, ah, I was terrible at tests growing up.

I don't remember stuff.

No, no, no, no.

When God has done something for you, it changes everything about how you walk in your future.

Remembering what God has done, here's what it does: it builds your faith for what God can do in the days ahead.

Revelation says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb what Jesus did for us and the word of our testimony.

What does our testimony do?

It helps us get out of the pit again.

What does our testimony do?

It reminds us that if God was there for us then he can be here for us now.

Everyone who has a sense of worry or doubt in their mind about what the days ahead look like.

Listen, I'm not afraid.

I was joking with some people in the lobby about being doomsdayers.

I'm not a doomsdayer.

Why?

Because I always know this truth that the light is always going to outshine the darkness and it wins in the end.

I don't have to worry about tomorrow.

Why?

Because I remember what he's already done.

I want to tell you this testimony in the life of our church.

I remember when we set out on January 1st of 2023 to plant the church.

We had about eight months until we launched the first service, and I remember thinking all the things that had to be done.

And I remember writing out a budget because just like you in your home and you have a budget and bills to pay, the church does too.

And I remember as we were starting thinking about needing to raise$500,000 after I tallied it up to renovate and remodel and move in and start and do all these things.

We brought staff to come be on and help lead the way.

And I remember looking at that number and thinking, oh Lord.

It wasn't like, oh Lord, you're good.

It was like, oh Lord.

And in that moment, in my prayer time, the Lord took me back to a moment.

He said, Clayton, do you remember when you were in ministry in the inner city of Dallas raising money and going to school full time?

You and your wife both had seminary bills to pay for.

He said, I want to remind you something.

Do you remember that you came out of seminary debt-free because I helped pay for it?

I said, Yes, Lord, I remember.

He said, Do you remember that day you got on the plane?

One day I got on the plane and there was a lady and her husband there on the plane.

Listen, you think your teenager's crazy?

They had 13 teenagers living in their house because they were group home parents and they had one week off a year to go on vacation.

How many of y'all know they deserve to be blessed on that vacation?

Somebody had given me$500 for the ministry we were a part of, and saying, Hey, I know you're in seminary, do all this.

Hey, you and your wife, we just want to bless you.

And they put it in my pocket before I got on the plane, and I sat down on that plane seat, and the Lord said, And that$500 is for them, not for you.

And I said, Oh no, Lord, I think you got it wrong.

And the Lord prompted my heart to give it to him, and I did, and I did it with real, you know, there you go, you know.

Have a great time.

Two weeks later, we go to the mailbox and there was a check for$500 in our mailbox.

Why was it exactly to the dollar?

I'll tell you why.

It's not by chance, it's not by luck.

It's because the Lord wanted me to learn a lesson when I was young, and that lesson was, Clayton, I will always take care of the ministry of what I want to do through you.

And underneath that check was a different check for$5,000.

And here's what the Lord was teaching me in that moment.

I don't just want to take care of you today, I want to take care of you in the future too.

Now, some of y'all can go home and check your mailbox.

Go ahead if you want to, but that's not the point of this message.

The point of this message was what?

And when I was sitting here wondering, how in the world are we ever gonna start something like this in Magnolia?

The Lord said, Do you remember that$500?

It's just like that$500.

He said, If I could do it for you then, I can do it for you now.

What is it doing?

That testimony, that remembrance is building my faith that God will always take care of his people.

Your remembrance, it stirs something in your faith.

I I've been thinking this week about my wife when she was nine years old as a kid.

She said this week that she remembers sitting at the window of her house and looking out and watching her neighbors go to church.

And uh she remembers going and hanging out at their house afterwards, and she remembers them teaching her the Bible lessons they were learning at church.

She remembers that.

She remembers God meeting her as a kid, and this would come in play in her life when a couple years later, at nine years old, her dad took his life, and and that little girl, my wife, she she went through things that a nine-year-old shouldn't have to go through.

And she had a choice to make in that moment.

I have an anchor in my life, and I can take that anchor and I can put it in my feelings.

And guess what?

How many of you at nine years old she had permission to have any feeling you'd want to have?

The tragedy and heartache.

She could take that anchor and put it in her problems or in her thoughts, but praise God, she made the decision somewhere along the way that her anchor was best suited in another place.

And she put it in her faith.

And this morning, I'm thinking this is meaningful for me, maybe not for you, but it's for me.

This morning she's preaching at a church in Austin, Texas, they planted eight months ago, and his wife is having a baby, and they said, We need somebody preach, we're gonna go have it.

Y'all go have your baby, and she's there preaching.

Why?

Because the anchor got put in a place that would stand no matter what the troubles and the problems may be.

And listen, that's not just true for me, and that's not just true for her, it's true for you.

And so this morning, in your remembrance, here's what you're doing you're building your faith for listen to me and look right here for all the things, listen, God wants to do in you and through you.

God has a plan for your life, and he's gonna do something.

Let's get that anchor in the right place.

Let's pray.

Father, we come into your house this morning, and we