Don't Stop Thinking About Him
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Remembering is important.
We have memorial services to commemorate many important events in our nation, or family, etc. The Bible places a lot of emphasis on remembering (not so we can live in the past but so we can trace the faithful hand of God)
Morning by morning I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God's hand in mine
Season by season I watch Him, amazed
In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.
I can't remember a trial or a pain
He did not recycle to bring me gain
I can't remember one single regret
In serving God only, and trusting His hand
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me.
This is my anthem, this is my song
The theme of the stories I've heard for so long
God has been faithful, He will be again
His loving compassion, it knows no end
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful, He's always been faithful
He's always been faithful to me.
A few weeks ago, I preached a message from the end of chapter 6 called “Don’t you forget about me.” It was about how forgetfulness will rob you of fellowship with God. Chapter 8 repeats this theme. In chapter 8 there are 6 references to remembering.
2 Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.
5 Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.
11 “Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His command—the ordinances and statutes—I am giving you today.
14 be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
18 but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant He swore to your fathers, as it is today.
19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will perish.
To put it plainly. Israel was to remember their past, because it reminded them of God’s faithfulness. They could count on Him.
Israel was to remember God’s commands, because walking in the Lord’s ways were the pathway to blessing. Even today, under the new Covenant where we are not trying trying to do, but trusting what God has already done, there are blessings that come through obedience, and their is discipline that comes from rebellion.
He has preserved you in the past…
He has preserved you in the past…
3 He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
4 Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these 40 years.
5 Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.
14 be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
15 He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty land where there was no water. He brought water out of the flint-like rock for you.
16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
Even when he humbles and tests you.
Even when he humbles and tests you.
2 Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.
He wants to bless you in the future...
He wants to bless you in the future...
6 So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in His ways and fearing Him.
7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams of water, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills;
8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;
9 a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.
10 When you eat and are full, you will praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.
11 “Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His command—the ordinances and statutes—I am giving you today.
12 When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in,
13 and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases,
Notice in verse 10 and 12… when you eat and are full. This is the sign of blessing they have entered in the land of promise.
Now let me be clear again. These promises of land, and water, and no shortage of food, these were all specific promises to Israel as they entered the Promised Land, but there is a principle here. That God is a blessing kind of God. We shouldn’t seek Him for the blessing. We should seek Him, and the blessings come.
As we look back on God’s faithfulness it fortifies, and encourages us that He will continue to bless, and take care of us.
The most beautiful evidence of this is the ugly cross where Jesus died for my sin and your sin.
If you wonder if God loves you look at the cross.
If you wonder if God will save you from your sin, look to the cross.
If you wonder if God will accept you, look at his forsaken son on the cross.
If you wonder if God wants you in heaven with him, look to the cross and be saved.
Even when he humbles you and tests you.
Even when he humbles you and tests you.
16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.
There is a temptation on our part to get upset when God allows tests to come into our lives.
We sometimes point to the devil as the author of every obstacle in our lives.
The devil put a train sitting still in my path and made me late. Well how do you know the Lord did put the train there to save your life from something down the road.
We sometimes forget that we MAY have done something to get ourselves in the mess we are in. They wandered in the desert due to disobedience.
We fail to realize that the trial is where God humbles us… its where he prepares us.
Several years ago, not long after Riddles Bend called me to be your pastor, Bobby McCartney said something to me that has stuck. He said, “don’t ever forget where you’ve come from and what God has brought you through”
Every trial and every blessings is for my good and for His glory.
What are you going through? Are you in a season of trial? Or are you in a season of blessing? I’ve got good news and bad news. Neither will last.
But God’s faithfulness and mercy and grace are forever. Don’t Forget. Don’t Stop Thinking About Him! Remember!