The Importance Of Remembering

Well good morning.

Welcome to Christ Community Church.

You guys go ahead and stand with us.

Y'all gonna have to sing aloud.

There's not many people in here right now.

If you're back in the back, come on in.

We're gonna go ahead and get started.

Alright, sing along.

Sing the undress love of Jesus.

Sing his mercy and his grace.

And the mansion's right and left.

He'll prepare for us.

What a day of just now we wish we'll walk the pilgrim halfway, clouds will over spread the sky.

Not a shadow, not a sky.

Still is glowing.

Here we will hold to the curly gates will open.

What a day of just an hour.

Will we dust will stay and doubt the fit?

What a stay dust.

What a day of rejoicing that will be.

This morning for our call to worship, I will be reading snippets of a thought on lesser gods by Sherry Bran Ray.

If you have not seen this book, this is I'm doing a little bit of advertising.

This is a book written by Sherry Ray, our First Lady, if you will.

And there is a section in here on Lent.

And it has been a blessing to me to read this during this season of Lent.

So if you haven't seen it or if you have not gotten the book, send me out to church and I'll tell you how to get it.

But in the meantime, we're going to do snippets on the thoughts of lesser God.

In his poem, Kingfishes Catch Rhyme.

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same.

What I do is for me.

That we keep indoors will always find its way outdoors about what we do.

Our actions is because myself is speaker.

What I do is for me.

The poet declares in bold, clear, straightforward words.

Not what I say or what I claim to do or what I convince myself I do, or what I wish I did, or what I should do, or what I tell those around me I do, but what I actually do.

Part of the great deception is that we think we can hide our innards.

We live and breathe under the false impression that we dwell among the extraordinary.

Those who can camouflage their insides with the outside trappings of fashion and fancy.

The hot sun uncovers, and the underlined world sees what I do is for me.

For this I came.

Consider the lily with her large flared white trumpet.

I step into my garden and she shouts who she is by what she does.

She blooms for this, she came.

Consider the bee.

What he does is him dancing all the live-long day from bloom to bloom, gathering his nectar for the good of the hiding queen, doing his work.

For this he came.

Consider the ant, who is neither commander nor overseer, nor ruler nor king.

Yet he stores his provisions in summer and gathers food at harvest.

For this he came.

What is on the inside blooms out, dances out.

Why only are what we are on the inside?

We fill our minds with the less acrimonious gods of criticism and anger and demands and resentment.

Then wonder why we feel so alone.

We fill our minds with hate and then cancel God for the lack of love in this world.

Oh humankind, how irrational is our reason.

Oh Bud, O Aunt O B, how much wiser are you than we?

Perhaps the most tempting of all the lesser gods is rationalization.

We worship daily at the altar of excuse making and chant and adoration.

This unholy catechism.

I am unique and thus above logical natural consequences of existence.

Thank God for resurrection.

Thank God for restoration for this Christ came.

Let us pray.

Everlasting God, you have given us Jesus Christ our Savior as a model of humility.

He fulfilled your will by becoming man and giving his life on the cross.

Father, make us worthy to share in his resurrection.

Thank you for the promise of Easter, and thank you that you sent your son to die in our stead.

Thank you that he came not to condemn the world, but through him that the world might be saved.

For this he came.

Amen.

All my days.

You have led me through the fire, the darkest night.

You are close like no other.

I've known you as a father.

I've known you as a fear.

I have lived in the goodness of God.

In all my life you have been faithful.

In all my life you have been so with every breath that I ever made.

It's all my life we have been still.

Sing it one more time.

All my life you have been faithful.

With every breath that I am able, I will sing the goodness of God.

So glorify thy name.

You can be seated.

Christopher, thank y'all.

Thank you, one and all.

God bless you.

If you're a student, you're dismissed.

Welcome to Christ Community Church.

I greet you in the name of my precious and lovely and glorious Savior.

I'm happy you're here today.

My bride's uh flying to Japan this morning.

And um anyway, I'll just leave it at that.

So I'm not gonna sit in a stinking chair this morning since she's uh she's not with me.

Uh I'm gonna stand up.

I do better when I stand up.

So anyway, um, real quickly, um get this right.

April the 8th, that's Saturday.

I guess it's the day before Easter, we're gonna have a uh uh a gathering out at Shelby Farms like we did last year.

And uh it'll be from 9 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon, and we'll have things for the kids and games and uh lunch.

We're gonna have uh Derek's gonna make barbecue wherever Derek is, and uh we'll have lots of good stuff to eat, and it'll just be a fun time.

The kids are gonna have an Easter egg hunt.

Uh I would love for you to come.

It was it was wonderful in spite of the rain last year.

Uh it was wonderful.

And I hope you'll come and enjoy just a time for us to gather and enjoy one another.

And um, you'll need, please, just so that we'll have enough food.

Uh uh, you got an email.

Open it up, and in the email it tells you how to go online and register uh so that we'll know you're coming.

If you didn't get an email about it, that means we don't have your email address.

And so if you will write your email address clearly on a piece of paper and hand it to me, I'll remedy that, okay?

Uh Brenda, thank you for the call to worship.

Um we live in a world where everybody has their public face, and then very often they have a different face in private.

And um I was just while you were talking, I was thinking about the Lord Jesus and how those twelve men they were with Jesus 24-7 for three years.

No one knew anybody any better after three years than those men knew Jesus.

And at the end of those three years of knowing him from the top of his precious head to the bottom of his precious feet, knowing every detail of his life for three years, they were willing to die for him.

And did die for everybody but one.

You see these people that are all famous, and then they, you know, they've got all these people around them.

They're they're they're hipers and uh press people and assistants and committees and all that.

And then, you know, you later on you find out uh everything wasn't exactly the way it appeared.

But that's not true about the Lord Jesus.

Good morning.

Um I'm glad you're here today.

Trying to think if there's something else I'm supposed to say to y'all.

I guess not.

This is the third Sunday of Lent.

And I hope that this is a time historically, for 2,000 years, the church has set aside the weeks before Easter, leading up to Easter, for us to really focus on the Lord Jesus and what he did and our relationship with him.

And uh, you know, in a very real sense, Lent is just a time of remembering.

It's a time where we reflect on and remember who Jesus is, what he did for us, his love, his life, his death, his resurrection, uh, his sacrifice, um, where we remember this person who was both man, but also God.

And we remember uh who he is and what he did for us.

Um I've been and hopefully you have too, we've been reading through the Bible, and uh we uh have been reading how you know back in Exodus Moses led the people of God out of Egypt and uh they cross the Red Sea.

Somebody was who was I talking to today about the cross in the Red Sea?

Oh uh Derek, I guess it was.

And uh anyway, uh how God opened up the Red Sea so that the people Of God could cross, and he led them to, after several months, he led them to Mount Sinai.

They stayed there about a year.

And he gave Moses went up on the mountain seven times and uh gave them the Ten Commandments, gave them the organizational structure for the priesthood, gave them the design pattern for the tabernacle and all the laws related to the Ten Commandments.

And uh and then they left and I'm sort of condensing this, but for 38 years, Moses led them through that wilderness desert because of their it should have taken about a month to get to the Jordan River, but that, as so often is the case with all of us, what God wants to do quickly, we're not able to allow it or to receive it quickly.

And so anyway, they finally, after 38 years, uh get to the Jordan River in front of the promised land, and Moses goes up on this mountain and dies, and God buries him.

And the mantle of leadership for the people of God passes from Moses to Joshua.

And uh God prepared, and really, and that's where the book of Deuteronomy was written, just so y'all know that that the fifth book that Moses wrote, he wrote that on the bank of the Jordan River right before he died, and right before Joshua led the people of God across the Jordan River into the promised land.

Little little homework for those of you that are Bible, uh serious Bible students.

You might think that the way God opened up the Red Sea so that the people could pass through, and the way God opened up the Jordan River so that the people of God could pass through, you might think he did it the same way twice.

That's not true.

He opened it up, and the people of God went through both times, but he he opened it up differently, two different times.

And so if you want to go back and maybe you can discover the differences in how he opened up the Red Sea versus how he opened up the Jordan River.

I find that interesting.

Um, anyway, right before Joshua leads the people of God across the Jordan River, he says something to Joshua.

He says, I'm gonna open up the Jordan River.

I want you to tell the priest to pick up the Ark of the Covenant and start walking out into the Jordan River.

Uh, and as they do, I will open up the Jordan River, and I want them to walk out into the middle of the Jordan River and stand there.

And um, while they're standing there, I want all the people of God, by now it's several million people for sure, and all their cattle and possessions and other laptop, and they um they start going through the Jordan River, and he says, While they're passing by the ark, I want you to select twelve men, one from each tribe, and I want you to tell them to go into the middle of the Jordan River, right where the priest is standing, and pick up the biggest rock they can, each, put it on their shoulder, and go to the other side.

And when everybody gets on the other side of the Jordan River, tell the priest to come over to the bank, and when they do, the Jordan River will start flowing again.

And then when you spend the night, when you get to the first town that you come to and spend the night, which will be uh Gilgal, um, I want you to build a little monument, if you will, with those twelve stones.

And uh this is this is what uh God's, or this is what the Bible says in Joshua chapter 4.

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

At Gilgal, Joshua piled up the 12 stones from the Jordan River that those 12 men had brought out, and he said to the people, In the future your children will ask.

When your children are around Gilgal, they'll see this monument, these 12 stones, and they're gonna say, Mom, dad, uh, uncle, or whoever, um, what's that about?

And here's what I want you to tell them.

Uh this is where Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry land.

For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan River till we all were across, just like at the Red Sea.

God did this so that all the nations would know that the Lord is all powerful, and so that you, the people of God, would fear the Lord your God.

I read that oh a few weeks ago, and I I I haven't been able to get away from it.

Just this idea of these memorial stones.

And I think that at least one of the points, important points or takeaways from God telling the his people to create this little memorial of stones, um, was that God was saying to them, it's important that you regularly remember what God has done for you.

It's important that we pause periodically and reflect on God's help, his deliverance, his protection, his provision, his blessings, his gifts, his rescue.

It's important that you put in your mind regularly memories, moments in your journey with God where you think about what God has done for you in the past.

And I think what he's talking about there is that there, when do you need to do that?

When do I need to do that?

Well, all the time.

But I think it's especially important that we remember God's help, his faithfulness, his provision, his protection, his deliverance, his healing.

When we are going through times that are hard.

When my world falls apart, my life goes south on me.

It gets dark, it gets painful, I feel like I'm under attack.

It's during those times when I am shaken to my core, and if that's not happened to you yet, it will.

It will.

And when we go through these dark, difficult earth shaking, bottom falling out moments or seasons, do we have in our lives this reservoir, if you will, of memories of times where God showed himself strong on our behalf.

If you're reading through the Bible with me, hope, maybe for the first time, and I know that a number of you are, very first time you've ever read through the Bible, one of the things that you will discover as you read through the Bible is how many times God tells his people, I want you to remember.

It's a big deal to God.

He tells us over and over and over again in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, I want you to remember.

Remembering things is important.

So that's the whole, not the whole, but that's one of the reasons that God established the Passover.

Remember what I did for you.

And all the feasts, there's seven feasts, there's three biggins, and then there's five that are they added two, and then they added two more.

But there's one of the reasons that God established these feasts that you're reading about right now, if you're reading through the Pentateuch with me.

God established these feasts so that the people would remember.

Um, the priest clothing, when the people of God would watch the priest walk into the tabernacle to offer these sacrifices, and every part of the priestly garment was designed to strike memories in the people of God.

My favorite part is on the priest's shoulders, and then again on his chest, where his heart is, are written the names of the people of God.

And the people of God would see that.

They would see that this priest, they would remember that when the priest goes into the presence of God, if God's looking down, he sees their names.

If God's in front, if the ark's in front were representing the presence of God, he sees their names.

They're supposed to remember this.

The jars of manna, Aaron's staff.

Um, all of these were supposed to be memories of God's faithfulness, God's love, God's holiness, God's commitment to them.

Um, the Sabbath days, every seven days.

God was creating something for the people of God to remember.

Every seven years, every seven, every set of seven years, every fifty years, if you will, God was, he established all of these systems for many reasons, but one of the key reasons is so that the people of God would remember.

Let me just give you some examples.

Deuteronomy 5.

God says, remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand and an upheld arm.

Deuteronomy 8, remember how Yahweh led you 40 years in the desert to teach you humility and to reveal to you what's in your heart.

Deuteronomy 9, remember and don't forget how you continually provoked Yahweh to wrath as you wandered in the wilderness.

I love this one.

Ecclesiastes chapter 12.

Ecclesiastes 12 · chapter mention

Remember your creator when you were young before you experience days of trouble, emptiness, pain, old age, and death.

Do you see?

Do you say that's a that's a great idea?

It just hit me.

Do you see God saying, fill your mind with these memories when you're young, so that when you go through these seasons of difficulty, the memories are there and you can draw on them.

Uh John chapter 14 might be the most uh, well, it's a very, very significant.

John 14 · chapter mention

I'm not going to say the most significant.

It's one of the most significant chapters in the New Testament, in the Gospels, and in the Gospel of John in particular.

What is Jesus saying in John chapter 14?

John 14 · chapter mention

He, if you just summarize it, he's saying to his disciples, remember my words, my sacrifice, my resurrection, my love, my power, and the fact that I am going to return.

And I want you to remember these things when you feel like I am distant or when your lives get hard.

The Bible would declare repeatedly that remembering is vital.

It's important.

And the reason remembering is important is because God knows how often we forget.

We forget that Christ is always nearby, even when he feels distant.

We forget that the Holy Spirit is continually available to give us comfort when we feel fearful or hurt or alone.

We forget that our Father will give us wisdom and direction when we are facing important decisions or uncertainty.

We forget that everything that occurs in our lives, everything that occurs in our lives, good and bad, we forget that everything that occurs in our lives has meaning and purpose, and that God is, He promises to use it for our good.

We forget that there is not a weapon that will ever be formed by any enemy in my life.

Whether it's my ex, my boss, my neighbor, there is no weapon that will ever be formed by any of my enemies that will ever ultimately prosper.

No one can stop the good plans that God has for me and for you.

We forget who started our spiritual journey, and we forget who's gonna finish it.

I didn't start my spiritual journey.

You didn't start your journey.

If you know and love and follow Jesus Christ, that was not your idea.

You didn't start that journey, and the good news is you won't finish it.

There's somebody else that started it, and he promises to finish it.

We forget God's past faithfulness to provide for us.

He promises to provide for every true and good and real and important need in our lives.

We forget that God not just loves us out of duty, he loves us out of delight.

I'm supposed to love my wife out of duty.

But you know what?

I don't just love her out of duty.

I delight, even when she abandons me for too long, horrible, treacherous, agonizing, mean-spirited weeks, even when she does that, I delight in her.

And God delights in us, whether we're naughty or nice, whether we win or lose.

So therefore, there's no need when I go through hard times or bad times or hard-headed times or rebellious times, or I stump my toe or fall off the way.

I don't need to hide.

I don't need to run.

I don't need to lay down and quit.

Because God delights in me and he delights in you, and his love and his salvation and his blessings.

They're not the result of my marching and obeying and serving and doing.

His blessings and his love and his grace and his salvation are the result of a decision that he made before time began to love you.

I'll choose to love you.

You are chosen by me, not because you bring some great bunch of good things to the table, but just because I decided to love you.

We forget these things, and we need to be reminded.

Quickly, let me give you some examples.

What kind of thing should I remember, Larry?

What does the Bible tell me to remember?

Let me give you.

There's a zillion.

And if you'll read through the Bible with me, you'll decide, not a zillion, but there's hundreds.

Let me say it that way.

That's the truth.

Let me give you just real quickly some examples.

In Exodus 20, the Bible says that we are to remember the Sabbath.

God says that there's something special and important about setting aside a day a week to reflect, to remember, to pause, to rest, and to worship God.

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul tells us that we should remember the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

We should remember what he did for us on the cross.

We do that, according to Paul, when we gather together and celebrate the Lord's Supper.

That's why we celebrate the Lord's Supper.

It's not just some ritual or some mystical good luck charm.

It's something that God established so that we would regularly remember, we would regularly reflect on what God did so that I could be a part of his family.

In Acts 20 and in Galatians 2, the Bible says that we are to remember the poor.

That during our busy, busy, busy week of building and conquering and accumulating and protecting and hoarding, we ought to remember those.

They didn't get as good a hand dealt to them.

The race didn't start with the same finish line.

They were dealt a difficult hand and given a difficult life.

And were not given the opportunities and the blessings that we were, that I was at least.

And that in the midst of all of my doing and enjoying, which is doing and enjoying is good.

But in the midst of all that, remember those that are less fortunate.

Revelation 2.

Ooh.

Jesus says that we should remember those times in our past.

When we got up in the morning and he was our first thought, and we went to bed and he was our last thought.

And our passion and our obedience and our sacrifice and our worship drove our lives.

We should remember when we first came to know him and we loved him and would have done anything for him.

And the very word sacrifice wasn't even on our what sacrifice?

What sacrifice are you talking about?

Whatever I would do for him, I'd do it a million times over.

We're supposed to remember those times when we were we felt that way and were committed to him that way.

Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 2 says that we should regularly remember that we came into this world broken.

We didn't come out little pure lumps of clay to be molded.

We didn't come out of our mother's womb, little blank pieces of paper.

We came out broken.

We came out alienated from God.

We came out in rebellion against God.

We came out as literally, Paul says, the enemies of God, shaking our fist in our own little ways, just like Adam and Eve did, saying, You're not gonna be the boss of me.

I'm going to do it my way.

We need to remember that.

And that in spite of that, God still chose us and still delights in us and is still committed to us and has a plan, a glorious plan for each of our lives.

Exodus 34 in 1 Chronicles 16 says that we're supposed to remember the we're supposed to remember Yahweh's faithful covenant love for us.

That He made a promise to Abraham and to all those after Abraham who will put their faith in the God of Abraham just like Abraham did.

I choose you.

And not only do I choose you, and not only am I committed to blessing you, and not only am I committed to using you to be a blessing to the nations, I'm making the same covenant to your descendants to a thousand generations.

Not my children or my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren.

Sure, they're in.

They're in.

But to a thousand generations, I make this commitment to you and to all those that follow you.

And the last one that I put down, like I said, there's many, many, many in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Is it 12?

No.

Forgive me.

Hebrews 13.

The Bible says that we ought to remember our mentors and our friends.

We live in a world where people bless us, sacrifice for us, stand by us when nobody else will.

Love us, serve us.

Not too.

Not long thereafter, and not for very many, not much reason.

We will drop them and forget them and move on to bigger and better things.

And Paul says in Hebrews 13, we should remember those people that have invested in our lives, shown us the way, taught us how to live a better life, a superior life, a successful life, how to walk with God.

We ought to remember those people that have chosen to be our friends.

Come Hades or Highwater, when we are enjoyable and when we're not.

When it's beneficial and easy and when it's costly.

When it's costly.

We ought to remember these people that have made given us opportunities.

Think of the people in our lives that have given us opportunities literally that change the direction and the level of our lives.

Do we remember these people and do we communicate to these people?

Thank you.

Every Friday, and I do it, I'm not saying this to I'm not saying this for any other reason than I want you to see that this is a big deal.

This is what, well, I'd do the Lord's will if I knew what the Lord's will is.

I'm telling you what the Lord's will is.

This isn't confusing.

This isn't, Lord, show open mouth so I can see this.

No, no, no.

We see.

We see.

There's no problem here.

But every Friday morning I get up and I drive all the way out to Hooterville to visit this couple.

I don't really like going outside the 240 loop.

I don't even know why you'd ever want to go outside the 240 loop.

I have everything I got that I need right here in this little loop.

But I drive all the way out, way out, and I visit this couple.

Because the lady of the couple, she invested in the wife in the life of my wife in a way that literally has changed the direction, the course of my family.

I'm indebted to her.

I owe her because of what she did for my wife.

And then that spilled over into my daughter.

And then that spilled over into my family.

And ultimately, there are many of you in this room that I now cherish because that lady 30 years ago decided to make an investment in the life of my wife.

I'm honored bound to try to be a blessing to her.

Do we remember those people?

And obviously that includes our parents and grandparents and others, but that's sort of a gimme.

I'm talking about other people that have invested in our lives and shown us the way in staying faithful to us, even when it was painful or costly or difficult.

You read your Bible and you will walk away knowing that it is vital.

Remembering is a vital part of a successful walk with God.

That's why the psalmist says in Psalm 103, forget not the benefits of the Lord.

Remember.

He just turned it around, but remember, remember all of the benefits of God.

In Psalm 77, the psalmist says, I will remember all that Yahweh has done for me.

Many of you that have been a part of our church for a while, you know that my favorite Psalm is Psalm 37.

And in Psalm 37, one of the little mantras that David or that God reveals to David, he says, David, David wrote Psalm 37 during one of the darkest times in his life.

And one of the things that God told David to do to get through this storm that David was in, God said, David, I want you to delight yourself in me.

I want you to delight yourself in me.

And that's the exact, that word delight, it's the exact same Hebrew word as David used in Psalm 34, where he says, Taste and see that the Lord is good.

And that little word taste and that word delight, it comes from the idea that you would.

I took my wife to Napa Cafe Friday night before she abandoned me.

And I'm telling you, we had this meal.

It was, it was, you know, it's one of those things where you ate a bite and you chewed it for a little while and you didn't want to swallow it.

You didn't want it to end.

It was so good.

And so you would just, that's exactly what David is saying there.

Mull over, chew on all of the good things that God has done for us.

Like memory stones, God has provided things to help us remember.

The Lord's Supper.

The Bible.

I want to say the word fragile, but it's not fragile, but it's like a vapor.

But what I'm referring to is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

He will remind us when I want to focus on the bad.

If I'll just be quiet before I start ranting and raving and throwing stones and yelling and screaming and cussing and criticizing and denouncing, if I'll just be quiet, he'll remind me of the blessings of the Lord.

He'll remind the Holy Spirit doesn't focus on what's bad.

See, that's the choice.

That's the choice that I've got.

Am I going to focus on what the Holy Spirit's focused on?

Or am I going to focus?

The devil, that's his full-time job, is bringing up bad stuff.

He loves to focus on the bad.

We'll take our city.

I live in Memphis, Tennessee.

I believe this is where God wants me to live.

I've lived in some better places.

I mean some great places.

But this is where I believe God wants me to live.

And has Memphis got problems?

Yes, it does.

But Memphis has also got lots and lots of blessings.

And the Holy Spirit's going to try to encourage me to focus on certain things, and the devil's going to try to encourage me to focus on others.

And I get to decide who I listen to.

Now I'm not one of these things that's a little bad angel and the good angel.

I don't mean all that kind of stuff.

But the Holy Spirit is trying to encourage me, according to Scripture, to reflect on the blessings and the presence and the personality of God.

That's who He's reminding me to think about and to focus on.

God's provided my spiritual community.

I need people that will help me remember the good.

The goodness of God, as those precious, precious, precious people reminded us a little while ago.

But also I need y'all and you need others to remind.

We need to be reminded.

And that's what a spiritual community is for, is to remind ourselves, to remind one another that God is good and he's going to be faithful to us even when we can't at this moment see it or feel it or hear it.

Psalm 66 says this.

Come here, all you who fear God, let me tell you what he has done for me.

I cried out to him with my mouth, and his praise was on my tongue.

I um I want to ask you to do something for me before we celebrate the Lord's Supper.

For some of you, this is gonna, for about two-thirds of y'all, this is gonna be hard.

It's gonna be hard because for about a third of you, you're gonna go, oh, oh, oh, I can't, I can't say anything out loud.

I don't speak out loud in a group.

For another third of you, it's gonna be that you can't shut up out loud when you're in a group.

I can't get you to turn the nozzle off.

Okay?

That's so bad.

It's hard.

And then there's about a third of you, great.

I'm I'm appealing to you.

If it's uncomfortable, try.

You don't have to, but try.

Maybe good for your soul.

To declare the benefits of the Lord.

For some of you, try hard to be extra brief.

Okay?

Okay.

I'd love for you to just, just where you are.

But speak where I can hear you.

Because if I can hear you, the folks around you can hear you, right?

But I'd love for you to just, in five words or less.

Five words or less.

What is uh a memory?

A reflection, a benefit, a delight, a taste of God's goodness in your life.

What's something that you can just declare to the people of God?

I remember, I remember one of God's blessings.

There are people that are in this room today, I'm telling you, there are people in this room today who aren't sure that God is committed to blessing them.

When they look around, they don't see the blessings of God.

And they need to be reminded that God loves them and that God is committed to blessing them.

So quickly, just five words or less.

Your children.

That is a blessing of God in your life.

Someone else, quickly, come on.

Healer and provider.

Yes.

Your family.

Ma'am?

Your pets.

I get the blessing of watching my daughter's dog.

I did not want any pet, and danged if I wasn't over there this morning.

Anyway, yes.

I'll include my cats.

Okay, pets.

Pets.

Thank you.

Someone else?

What's a benefit of the Lord that you don't want to forget or you don't want us to forget?

Quickly.

Wait, wait, hold on, ma'am.

Thank you.

You're sweet.

And you're a blessing and a benefit in my life, Stace.

You have been since you were a little girl.

30 or 40 years ago.

Well, thank you.

We've already done one.

Remember that?

Shh.

Shh, shh.

Remember that?

Shh.

Here we go.

Yes, ma'am.

Bringing us to a psycho country.

Say one more time.

Bringing us to a psycho country.

It's so easy for us to throw stones at our broken country.

And it is broken.

But it's so good for us to be reminded.

That people where else are people fleeing to?

She said one of God's benefits in our life is bringing Vanessa and Johan to a safer country.

See how we need to hear these things.

We need to hear these things.

Yes, sir.

His pursuit.

As Dr.

Spurgeon said, God is the hound of heaven.

He chases us to the ends of the earth.

Somebody else, yes, ma'am.

Along these lines, finding my way to Memphis?

Yes.

Little Rock stinks.

I'm so happy that you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I'm I'm teasing.

I'm just I'm happy that God brought you to Memphis too.

Someone else, real quickly, come on.

Yes?

Wait, yes, ma'am.

Yes.

The children's ministry here.

I'm thankful too.

Yes, ma'am?

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes.

Me too.

Me too.

Someone else real quickly.

Nancy's grandson was born with some challenges, and God we asked God to step in and he did.

Someone else real quickly.

Yes, Colin.

I remember too.

I remember too.

I remember too.

Yes.

The people that God has placed in your life.

Yes, ma'am.

That's a blessing.

Yes.

Say it one more time.

Other than my Bible.

I won't put coffee before my Bible, but it's just barely behind it.

So Yes, ma'am.

Yes.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir, Mike.

That's not only a benefit for you, it's a benefit for all of us.

Yes, sir, Alan.

I'm in the same group.

Of course he is.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Derek.

Amen.

Me too, Mom.

Me too.

Okay.

It is good to hear other people declare the goodness of God.

It reminds me that God is showing that goodness to me too.

It's good for me to declare it so that others can benefit from it as well.

Okay.

We're going to take the Lord's Supper.

Um, let's see here.

Peggy, you and Ashley come up and help me, please.

And um, Barbara, you and Sandra come up and help me, please.

If y'all will go right over yonder, please.

One of you take that bowl and one of you take that tray.

And then you, the other two, do these.

Two of y'all, Peggy, go over there for me.

Thank you.

And y'all come up a little closer, if you will, just yeah.

I don't want people to get tuckered out trying to find you.

Okay.

Okay.

Paul tells us that when we gather together as a family, as a spiritual community, we are to take bread and wine, and we're to eat and drink and remember all that God has done for us, specifically what He did for us when His Son died on the cross.

If that is something you have benefited from, I didn't ask you if you've had a good week or a bad week, read your Bible or not, prayed or not, stumped your toe or not, but if you have claimed.

The benefit of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to be your own.

Then I invite you to come and to eat and to drink.

I have bread here and open little cups of wine, but I've also got sealed ones if if that's more to your liking or comfort level.

And uh so just before you come, just take a moment.

Remember.

Remember.

And then you come and give thanks.

You saw me at my very worst.

When I expected disappointment, love was all I heard.

My sin was deep, your grace was deeper, and my shame was right, your arms were wider, my guilt was great.

Your love was greater still.

My shame was wide your arms were wider, my guilt was great, but your love was greater still.

Thank you.

Um, real quickly.

And then you're gonna have to be obedient, okay?

Real quickly.

Um, let's see.

Brenda.

No, you can't be.

I'm gonna use I'm gonna Sandra, you are Kathy Kelso.

And uh I'm gonna get the ladies right behind you to put their hands on you and pray for you, but not as Sandra today, but as Kathy Kelso.

She's got some, she's got some, she's got some.

Uh I want y'all to pray for Kathy Kelso and her family, okay?

Um August, would you and Brandon run up there and stand behind Bethany?

She's having a little baby, and I want you to pray for her.

And uh Timothy, Timothy, I want you and Esther to stand behind Tiffany, and I want you to pray for her and her little baby, okay?

Just that God will bless them and just that everything will go great.

Um yeah, you're Patrice today, okay?

That's why.

And I'm gonna get y'all just to stand right behind her and just put her niece and her niece's children are moving into a new home and starting a new life, and we just want that to be great and to go well and to have God's blessings on it, okay?

Um Greg, I'm gonna get you and Jennifer and Jerry.

Would y'all pray for Larry and his family?

I just want uh y'all to pray for his family, that God will bless them and help them and flourish them, okay?

Um Johan, I'm gonna get you and Vanessa and I guess you pray.

Um I want y'all to pray for Nancy, just for her health and her healing, okay?

Um let's see, here we go.

Okay.

Uh Susan, would you and Patty and Tommy come stand behind Rita?

I want y'all, and would you just stand?

You can stand there or sit there.

Have you understood?

I want y'all to just to pray for Rita's niece.

She's got some very significant health challenges, and we just need God to heal this little one, okay?

Um and then Megan.

Is Megan here?

All right, Anna, you're Megan right now.

And uh Judy, I'm gonna get you and Brennan Leslie to come over here and just pray for Megan, right?

She's Megan and her family.

Her family's just got some health issues and some challenges.

And uh you tell her we prayed for, okay?

All right, all right.

Let's take just a moment, as I've told you many times, don't pray for these people, like they're just people.

Pray for them like it was your daughter, or your mom, or your sister, or your fri your your mate.

Pray, pray for them and ask God to do something great, something that's a God-sized ministry.

Pray that God will do something that only He can do in these people's lives.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that we can be here today.

We thank you that we have blessings and benefits that we can give thanks for.

From the moment we met you to this morning, there has been a trail of blessings, a continual trail of benefits that you have poured out upon us.

And that doesn't even begin to touch what you have in store for us.

We rejoice, we bless you, we praise you for being good to us.

Help us not to forget, help us to remember that you are a God that delights to work on our behalf and to bless us and protect us and smile upon us and be gracious to us and show us your favor.

For those in this room that maybe are struggling to remember, who really are doubting that that's true for them, would you do something in their lives even today that would be so real and powerful and undeniable that they would have to declare, I am blessed of the Lord.

Would you please do that in their lives today?

And for these that we're praying for, Lord help them, have mercy on Lord.

Show yourself strong on their behalf, we ask.

We pray all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You're dismissed.