Amnesia - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from LifeHouse Church.

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Listen, turn to the person beside you, tell him you're pretty warm this morning.

Go ahead and just tell him you're pretty warm.

I'm going to tell you why, I'm going to tell you why.

Our furnace was acting up this morning and we came in here with 63 degrees.

I just checked it, it went up 7 degrees since you've been in the room.

Come on, yeah, this is a hot crowd right here.

Listen, it's good to have you at LifeHouse if you don't know who I am, I am Pastor Kipp.

This is Baptism Sunday.

We love this time of year, actually each time of the year when we do baptism, we love getting

together and celebrating what Jesus has done in lives and we're just here.

Thank you for coming out, I know there's lots of family that came in this morning for those

who are being baptized and we just appreciate having you here this morning.

We just want you to enjoy as we go into God's word and then we'll baptize at the end of

the message.

I'm going to ask if you'd bow your heads right now, I just want to pray over God's word,

over the reading of his word and that you might receive it.

Father, we come to you today, God, we thank you for your word, God, that is truth and

in his life and Lord, we just ask you, Lord, minister to our ears and our hearts and God,

we would open up and hear what you have to say.

Lord, we thank you for the word that guides us and directs us in truth and Lord, we will

not fail to give you praise and glory for all that you're doing today.

In Jesus name, everybody said together, amen, amen.

Well, listen, it's good to have you.

I want to read a little something, this is something I came across this week and it says

this Adam Zeeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioral neurology wrote this about

amnesia and memory loss and the relationship actually to epilepsy.

Zeeman mentioned two patients, Peter and Marcus, who described their amnesia in very similar

terms.

One said, my memory of the past is a blank space.

I feel lost and hopeless like I'm trying to explore a void.

Both described how disconcerting it is to look at photos.

Even though they recognize themselves, they have no recollection of the moment.

One said it's kind of like reading a biography of a stranger.

He's conscious of recent memories slipping away from him like ships sailing out to the

sea in the fog, never to be seen again.

Two things stand out in Zeeman's essay.

First, without memory, it's hard to cling to an identity and second, it's difficult

to have hope when we don't know our past.

Zeeman explained the inability to remember the past greatly impedes someone's ability

to even imagine a future.

Amnesia, memory loss, forgetting, right, can greatly increase someone's ability to have

hope for the future and to stay steadfast in their identity and who they are.

And I would agree, I totally would agree.

I want you to turn to someone this morning one more time, it's the last time I'm going

to do it.

Turn to somebody right beside you and say, do you remember me?

Do you remember me?

Come on, say, do you remember me?

All right?

This is important.

You might need to ride home today.

All right?

Listen, I've been around those who have suffered from memory loss.

I don't know if you've ever experienced that.

And it's unsettling.

It shakes people to the core.

When I was 16 years old, we used to do play a little bit of backyard football in our neighborhood.

When I say neighborhood, I live down in the country.

It was one road, literally, that connected into another road way out the line.

But a bunch of us guys, we'd get together sometimes and we'd just play some backyard

football.

And one particular game that we set up, we came to, it was not like all the normal times

that we got together and just threw the football around.

This particular time, one of the guys in the group invited a group from a different place.

And we were all around 16, 15 years old.

The group that came, I don't know what he was thinking.

They were like 20-year-old men.

All right?

And we're like, we're going to die in this game.

And we almost did.

We came out of that game with one broken nose, one blown out knee, one kid cut his leg open.

The tack would have been to the woods, actually, literally, and cut his leg open.

He had to go get 20-plus stitches.

And my buddy Steve had a concussion.

And he got just about knocked clean out.

And the game ended.

And I remember him getting up.

And he had no idea where he was.

He had complete memory loss, complete amnesia of the day.

He didn't know where he was.

He didn't know who we were.

And he didn't know how to get home.

We lived on a one-lane road.

He had a 50-50 shot, right?

He didn't know how to go home.

And he didn't know how to get there.

Of course, we hauled people off to the hospital.

But he had amnesia for the day.

He couldn't remember a thing.

And I remember him standing there so stunned, so unsure, so undecided, not knowing what

to do because he couldn't remember.

He couldn't think of it.

And this is why Jesus gives us constant reminders in Scripture.

All through God's Word, he gives us things so we don't forget.

So we know where we belong, who we belong to, and what we're supposed to be doing, right?

One of those things he gives us is communion.

When we take communion, we take of the bread and the fruit of the vine, then he said, do

this in remembrance of me, right?

Make sure you remember the cross.

Make sure you remember where salvation came to you.

He told parables.

He told stories all the time.

So it would stick in your memory.

So you know how it works in the kingdom of God.

That's what's in the parables.

If you look at the parables, you'll find out how it works in the kingdom, right?

He gives you the Word of God that's there for a reminder.

He gives us the Holy Spirit.

God comes to dwell within us.

When we come to salvation in God, he comes and literally lives within us.

And how many know the Holy Spirit can remind you of some things, amen?

Yeah, he helps me all the time, right?

And baptism reminds us who we belong to.

When we make a public declaration of who we belong to, that's what baptism is all about.

We belong to Christ.

And in Matthew 25, Jesus once again gives us a reminder of what we're supposed to be

doing.

So if you've got your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible with you, that's perfectly fine.

We're going to put it up on the screens and you can read along.

Matthew 25 verse 31 says this, when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy

Matthew 25:31

angels with him, then he will sit on his throne of glory and all the nations will be gathered

before him and he will separate one from the other or one from another as a shepherd divides

his sheep from the goats.

And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left hand.

Then the King will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit

the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Now I want you to listen to this next part.

For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in.

I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you

or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothed you?

Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?

And the King will answer and say to them, well, surely I say to you and as much as you

did it to the one of the least of these, my brother, you did it to me.

Then he also will say to those on the left hand, depart from me.

You cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry.

You gave me no food.

I was thirsty.

You gave me no drink.

I was a stranger.

You did not take me in naked.

You did not clothe me sick and in prison.

And you did not visit me.

And they will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or stranger

or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

Then he will answer them saying, as surely I say to you and as much as you did not do

it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

What was Jesus reminding of us?

What was he trying to show us?

What was he bringing back to our memory?

What was he trying to break us out of our amnesia about?

We're supposed to help others in need.

As Christians, one of the things that we should be engaged in on a regular basis is big part

of God's mission, right?

It's not the only thing in his mission, but it is a big part of his mission is that we

are to go and help others in need.

And Jesus said it in Matthew 28 as well, when he was getting ready to leave this earth and

go back to the father and send the Holy Spirit.

He said, you go into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone, teaching every nation,

right?

Teaching them everything that I taught you.

And you go and you go to them and you serve.

How are we supposed to be doing this?

We do this by caring for someone else.

Look to the person to your right.

Look to the person to your left right now.

That's the people you're supposed to be caring for.

Out beyond these walls, those are the people that you're supposed to be caring for.

The gospel message is really about helping to heal others, to help others in their time

in need, right?

Help others to get healthy in Jesus' way.

It really is.

And if we're not doing that, if we're missing that, we've got amnesia.

We forgot what we're supposed to be doing.

Who we're supposed to be doing it for, right?

Maybe even who we belong to.

We're here to help others heal, to get healthy.

And if we're not, church, we're missing it, right?

As a church, as a body of believers, even as a Christian individually, Jesus spoke these

words to clear up my amnesia.

That we might, you know, that we might go forward and do what He said.

And He spelled it out in no uncertain terms.

He didn't leave any room for like, He didn't leave any, you know, well, I wonder what Jesus

was really saying here.

He didn't leave any wiggle room in all this.

He said, for I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink.

Stranger, you took me in.

I was naked and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me.

Notice the general theme here, right?

How I know it doesn't have anything to do with me.

It has to do with someone else.

I should engage myself in the work of somebody else's benefit.

Moving them towards healing, moving them towards health in Jesus, moving them to meet some

basic need, it could be spiritually, it could be mentally, it could be socially, it could

be relationally, it could be physically, it could even be financially.

That's what Jesus said.

And He said, go do it, wherever you're at, whatever sphere of life you're walking in.

I just got the opportunity the other day to talk with a couple of folks who run a business.

And their business, if you thought of their business, and I'm not going to reveal it because

I didn't get their permission to and I didn't ask, but they run their business and if you

thought of their business, you'd never think, well, man, that really relates to Christianity.

What they're doing and the way they're making a living and how they're gaining income for

their family, you wouldn't in a million years think that's related to ministry in some way.

But they'll tell you, if you talk to them, you'll tell, oh man, they're like, we do this

to make a living and this provides for my family.

But they're kind of like, this is just the front, man.

This is just so we get to talk with people.

This is just so we get to point people to Jesus.

We get the opportunity to help people out.

And that's literally how they see it.

They see it as an income stream, yes.

But they see everything that they do is a way to help other people and to minister to

them.

And they'll sit and tell you stories of how that all works out.

I love to listen to them.

I love to talk about it.

How many of you remember Duck Dynasty?

Come on, where are the hillbillies in the house?

Yeah, all right, come on, Duck Dynasty.

Between 2012, 2017, right?

Phil, Willie, right?

Uncle Si.

Come on, give me some tea, right?

Chase, Jade, right?

And even now his daughter Sadie, she speaks all over the place.

I don't know if you know this or not, but Willie authored a book, right?

Called God Speller.

And if you want to read a book, he's all about telling people about Jesus.

He totally uses his platform from Duck Dynasty so he gets to tell people about Jesus.

Hundreds and hundreds of people.

He's led to the Lord.

Jesus was reminding us that we're supposed to be helping others.

Get healthy, get whole, get full in Jesus.

Amen?

Amen.

We got something here at LifeHouse, we call it the health wheel.

And if you know what that is, just set 20 minutes aside and I'll be glad to explain it

to you.

I'd love to talk with you about it.

But in the middle of the health wheel, and you can think about a bicycle wheel, right?

We talk about this in LifeGroup leaders particular, but if you think of a bicycle wheel, right?

In the middle of the bicycle wheel is a hub.

And in the middle of our hub, in our drawing that we have, is spiritual health.

That's Jesus, right?

If you want to get healthy, the hub, the center of that is you got to get with God.

You got to get in relationship with God.

You got to know God.

But then there are spokes that go out, right?

Probably maybe a motorcycle wheel.

Come on, Ken's sitting back there right now.

He's going to relate now.

All right?

There's motorcycle wheel, right?

Because there's six spokes that go out from that.

And you got to understand, God's all about you being mentally, socially, relationally,

physically healthy, financially healthy, emotionally, all of it.

This is what we're supposed to be engaged in.

And this is what we're supposed to be doing.

And I want to do this because I want people to come to Christ.

How many know if I help you, it's temporary help, right?

If you call me up and you say, Pastor, I need your help with something.

You got to move something.

You need help lifting something.

And I'll call for other people that got stronger backs than me.

But we'll show up at your house.

How many know that's a temporary help, right?

But it can be in the temporary help that I get the opportunity to tell you about somebody

who can change your life forever.

And his name is Jesus Christ, right?

I can give you a little food, a little water.

I can feed you for a day or an hour.

But I can take you to the one who will, you'll never run out of bread.

You'll never thirst again in your soul.

You'll never thirst again.

It's absolutely beautiful what Jesus says in these instructions because if we all engage

in this, do you know that nobody goes uncared for?

In the house and out of the house.

Nobody goes uncared for.

Hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, right?

How many know?

Yeah, come on.

Naked.

Cover that up, right?

Caring for the sick, going to the prisoner.

Understand and as we think about this, understand that hunger, thirst, nakedness, homelessness,

illness, imprisonment, it can take on different forms.

It can be literal, right?

It really can be literal.

That's a big part of it.

How many know hunger is a very real thing?

It's true.

There are 735 million people that face chronic hunger in the world.

9.2% of the population.

That's almost one out of 10 people in the world.

They're hungry.

They're suffering from hunger.

Thirst is a thing.

Two billion people don't have safe drinking water on the face of the earth.

I know of ministries.

They go drill wells.

They go into a community.

They don't ask anything in the community.

They pay for it themselves.

They go in and drill wells and get fresh water.

And while they get them fresh water, they tell them about the king of kings and the

lord of lords.

In the USA, 582,500 people are homeless today.

That's hard to believe in the United States.

150 million worldwide have no place to call home.

Sick and body, ill, countless.

Countless people around us dealing with issues in their body and physical needs.

Imprisoned, this blew my mind.

1.2 million people in the United States are currently in jail or in prison somewhere.

It's staggering.

There's literal need.

You don't have to run around.

There's a literal need.

But how do I know that it goes beyond the literal need?

Somebody can be imprisoned in their heart.

They can be imprisoned in their minds.

They can be imprisoned in their soul.

They can lie dying of hunger in their spirits and souls.

I know some people that sometimes you can go visit them, right?

You go visit the stranger and they're so lonely, they're dying inside.

They're dying.

They're starving for authentic family.

They're looking for a place of real community.

They're looking for somebody who cares.

Just cares, right?

No support system.

Those who are sin sick and the enemy has trashed their lives, messed them up and they don't

even know that there's a God who wants them to be whole, right?

There's hidden, there's unseen arena of all these things.

There's the physical side and there's a hidden side of all of it.

And I don't know if you've ever been in prison before, but I have.

Just a visit.

Okay?

I've been in prison.

Back when I worked a secular job, I worked for a company and I did service type work

and I used to go into some of the state prisons.

And I don't know if you've ever gone into a state prison or a jail, but it's a weird

thing.

You walk in and you have to go into a certain area and those bars close behind you and they

latch and you know there's no way out.

It's a weird feeling.

And it's an odd thing to know that there is no way out of this place.

I can't get out of here if I tried.

It's just impossible.

You can't get out beyond those bars.

And you realize that the only way you're stepping out of that imprisonment is somebody on the

outside hitting a button and that door coming open.

Somebody on the outside with the key, somebody on the outside that can unlatch it and let

you out.

It is an eerie feeling.

But I can't tell you how many people are walking around you day in and day out and they are

in prison in their hearts.

They are locked up and they need somebody on the outside who cares.

Somebody who's going to walk up.

Right?

And we cannot have amnesia in this church.

I cannot have amnesia as a Christian.

The Word of God, how many know the Word of God re-centers you?

Do you know what it is to get re-centered?

How many of you ever get off Kilter?

Anybody know what that is?

Come on, I'm using some Western PA here.

All right?

You get off Kilter.

Right?

If you take off in a plane from New York and you're heading to LA and if you get off just

a couple degrees in your flight plan, you're not going to land where you're supposed to

land.

You're not even going to be close.

You can get off Kilter.

The Word of God bumps you back on course.

It will bump you.

It will center you.

Right?

And it helps you understand what we're in for.

The fight is in front of us to care.

It really is.

Ephesians 6-12 says this, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principality,

against powers, against rules of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness

in heavenly places.

Our fight is not with people.

Our fight is with the enemy.

Our fight is with evil.

Our fight is with Satan.

And our job is to care and get them to Christ.

It's bringing light into the darkness.

Right?

It's being able to walk up.

Listen, such were us.

Right?

How many know we were all in prison?

The Word of God, we were all bound up by sin.

Every one of us.

The Word of God says that and declares it.

But we've been set free by the Master.

He's unlocked the door.

And it's our job to help others.

I've got to get them to Christ.

But they're going to remain shackled, bound, sick, lost, homeless, hungry, naked, in prison.

Can't get amnesia.

We got to move forward.

Amen, church?

Amen.

Man, shortest message you're ever going to hear me preach.

I'm going to ask you to stand this morning.

I could go for a while yet, but I'm not going to.

We got some things to do.

I'm going to ask you to stand.

I want you just to bow your heads.

And the worship team's coming, and they're going to begin to get ready.

And if you would, just in a reverent moment, just close your eyes.

Just so you can focus.

Just so you can think.

And you don't get distracted with what's beside you today.

But ask yourself, right?

This re-centered me this week.

I hope it re-centered you.

If you're following Jesus as Lord and Savior, don't forget about what this part of the mission

is all about.

God said, you know, the Word of God literally says one day when we stand before Jesus, He's

going to have sheep on the right and goats on the left.

And He's going to tell those who are on the right to come into my kingdom and those on

the left to depart.

That's what the Word of God says.

And then He went on to describe what they should be engaged in while they're here.

Right?

We're saved by grace.

It's a gift.

But God said to engage in this.

Engage in this activity.

So are you engaged in this?

Father, we come to you, Lord, in the matchless name of Jesus Christ.

And Lord, I thank you.

God, we have the opportunity to read your Word, God, to be in the house, and Lord, to

hear and to worship you and God, to feel your presence.

But this morning, Lord, we come and God, I just ask you to re-center us.

God, as a church, as individuals in this body, help us to remember, Lord, that it is your

call for us to go and care about our neighbor.

God, it's to go and love our neighbors, ourselves.

Jesus, you told us that.

And Lord, it's got to be real.

It's got to be tangible.

It's got to be not just a concept or a precept or something in our head and our minds, but

something we physically go do.

Something that we engage in.

And Lord, I pray that you just continue to give us opportunity.

We hear so many stories so often.

Lord, God, one more time.

God, give us opportunity in this.

And Lord, God, help us not to be so centered in our own hearts and minds, Lord, that we

don't hear you.

God, guide us and direct us in this.

And Lord, if there's one in the house this morning, Lord, that does not know you as Lord

and Savior, maybe they came in this morning.

They didn't even realize they could know the God of the universe.

The creator of all things.

They never, no one ever told them that you sent your son Jesus to pay the price, to pay

the ransom for the sin that separated us from God in the first place.

And that He gives us as a free gift and all we have to do is believe on His Son.

All we got to do is engage in this.

And the God of heaven will come into relationship and we will hear from Him.

We will know Him.

And one day we will walk into His kingdom.

We'll be part of His kingdom for all of eternity.

If you don't know that, no one ever told you that.

You can know today.

And it's up to you.

This is between you and God.

But you can make a decision.

You can acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior.

You can acknowledge Him as creator and you can realize that He paid the price to bring

you back into relationship.

He loved you that much that He sent His own Son to die.

To pay the price for sin so that He could come back into relationship with you.

And so you could know Him.

If that's you in the house, I want you just to pray a simple prayer.

Lord, I realize that I'm separated from You.

I realize that I'm lost.

I realize that I don't know You.

I realize that I've not been in relationship with You but I want to be in relationship.

I want to know You.

I want to hear You.

I want to experience You.

I recognize that Jesus paid the price.

Your Son paid the price so I could have that right and privilege.

And Lord, I just ask You into my life today.

I commit to follow You.

I commit to learn about You and to come into that relationship with You.

And Lord, we just give You praise and glory in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to this message from Life House Church.

We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.

If you have been personally affected by our ministry and you would like to partner with

us as we love God, love people every day, visit our website at www.lifehousecog.com.