Spiritual Amnesia: Remembering God’s Faithfulness That Fuels Praise
I want to say the saints of All Peoples Church greet you. We were sent out eight years ago from Cities Church, and it’s a joy to serve you this morning. We’re going to be going through all of Psalm 105. There’s 45 verses, and so we’re going to pick it apart in chunks instead of me reading the whole passage at one time.
I want to start off with Psalm 105:1-5, and I want to invite you to have your Bibles out if you have a paper Bible. If not, use your phones. We’re going to go through the text together.
Most of you don’t know me. That’s okay, but I love you, and I’ve been praying that the Lord would give me a heart to see you as my people, even though you’re not my people. That He would give me a heart to feel towards you what He feels towards you, and that I would be faithful to serve you this morning.
I’m grateful for my family to be here. Just want to honor them. They’re sitting there, and I love them, and I love to do life with them. So we’re in Psalm 105:1-5.
And if you have an ESV Bible, or you can click on it in your phones, would you read this out loud with me?
Psalm 105:1-5,
“Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!
5 Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he uttered.”
Psalms like this have been historically hard for me because it’s calling me to do that which I don’t feel like often doing. What do you do when the psalmist calls you to praise God, remember His works, and tell of His wondrous works, and seek His face and His presence continually, and you’re like, “But I don’t feel like it”?
Have you ever been in that situation where you got a worship leader, a very peppy worship leader, he’s like, “Come on, God’s people, let’s praise the Lord.” And you’re like, “I don’t want to.”
And so you’re in a dilemma. What do you do? Do you fake it?
Some of you know how to fake it, like you know the right things to do. E minor plays, you put your hands up because it’s the time. The drums are going. You’ve been conditioned by church. You just know how to go through it, right?
Or you’re just like, “No, I’m authentic. I’m not going to praise if I don’t feel like it.” Right? There’s a spectrum in here. The psalmist is calling us to do something that isn’t normal. It isn’t natural to praise another. It’s not. You aren’t born with a desire to praise others and thank others. We are born with an inward bent, and so what do we do?
Spiritual Amnesia
I want to show you the key to this passage that will free your lips, free your hearts. See, the key to this passage is in verse five. Verses 1-4 give us 10 commands. Sing praises, give thanks, over and over again. And I’m not going to throw law on you, “Hey, guys, have you given thanks this week? Try this week now. If you've only done 5 out of 10, let's go to 6 out of 10, church this week.” Because that won’t last. Now, we can shame you, we can guilt you, we can rile you up to have a week of doing it, but you’ll forget eventually, and I forget. So what’s the key? The key is verse five.
“Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgments He uttered.”
Remember, remember, remember.
It’s repeated a few times throughout the psalm. This is the key that unlocks the rest.
The reason why our praise is sparse, our hearts can be full of grumbling rather than gratitude, is because we’ve forgotten. We have spiritual amnesia.
Do you remember what 2021 was like?
We were just coming out of the throes of COVID, and my family and I, we live five blocks from George Floyd Square. We just had a contentious election.
And on top of that, we had a new church, and one of my good friends was trying to get me removed as a pastor. It was the lowest moment of our life, by far. And my wife and I were brought low. One of my children woke up in the middle of the night regularly with night terrors because there were fires around our home and marches coming around us. Do you remember this time? Something about living here, just this happens a lot, right? You guys are in the news.
And during that time, I got a text from a family that I didn’t really even know, and they said, “Hey, we’d like to give you $1,000 of spending money, fly you to Anna Marie Island, give you a giant Airbnb that we can no longer use, and bless you.” And that trip was the greatest vacation of all time.
My wife and I wept regularly with our Bibles open, worshiping, saying, “God, you see us. You know us. Oh God, you care about us. We’re not forgotten. Even though we feel forgotten, we’re not forgotten.” And I made some declarations during that time. “God, I'll never forget this. You provide for us. You see us. You know us. You don’t forget us.”
And guess what I’ve done?
I forgot about that.
Have any of you guys been like that where God provides in a supernatural way, and it’s so sweet, and you’re like, “God, I’ll never doubt you again!” Anyone? And then we forget, and then we’re anxious again.
He provides for you over and over again, and then we forget. This is kind of a problem with God’s people: we forget what He has done. What the psalmist is going to try to do is ground our praise in memory, to remember, remember.
What do we need to remember? Well, let’s look at the next verse, verse 6,
“O offspring of Abraham, his servant,
children of Jacob, his chosen ones!7 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his sworn promise to Isaac,
10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,”
What do we need to remember? We need to remember the Lord. And what do you need to first remember about the Lord? It’s that although you may have forgotten him this week, He has not forgotten you.
The psalmist calls us to remember, but what do we remember first?
Verse 8:
“He remembers…”
We all forget. We all can be fickle.
The Lord isn’t. The Lord, He is our God, and He remembers you, church. He remembers you even when you have forgotten Him, and even go further than forgotten, forsaken Him.
He remembers you. That is the ground, that is the foundation, that is the security, you can have this morning. It’s not that your memory is like an elephant. I will never forget you, Lord. It’s just like Peter’s grandpa. Peter’s grandpa could forget at times, with dementia, but the Lord did not forget him.
And I hope that encourages you this morning because some of us here are going through circumstances that are so painful. There are unmet longings or unanswered prayers where you feel, “Certainly, God, you have forgotten me. You have forgotten me. I don't believe this here. Yeah, maybe it’s true for so and so, but not for me. You’ve forgotten me.”
And God wants every one of you people this morning to remember He remembers you. He knows every prayer you’ve prayed. He knows every trial you’ve gone through. He knows every unmet longing of your hearts. He knows the anxieties. He knows everything. And you need to know that He remembers you, and He’s near to you this morning.
So what the psalmist is going to do is he’s going to go back into history. David is going to remind us of what God has done through several different acts in Israel’s history.
Something that is important for you to know is that there’s not a single person who was hearing this psalm originally who was at the original events. Why is that significant for you?
Because a lot of times when we read God’s Word, we can feel like it’s distant from us, it’s sterile. “Yeah, God, you did that back then, but what are you doing now?”
See, when David is speaking to his people, and the context is actually in Chronicles. David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and he says these words, you can see it in Chronicles. And it’s a reminder that the stories from the past are our stories.
See, nobody was there alive when we were going to read about Moses. No one was there, and none of you were there either. And we can often be like, “Well, yeah, that was just for them.” But one of the biggest burdens I have for you this morning, church, is for you to walk away saying, “That’s my God.”
Those stories are your stories.
Remember Galatians 3. If you are in Christ, all the promises that you are an heir of Abraham’s line. Yes, you may be Scandinavian, and you may be a Midwesterner here, and you’re not ethnically Jewish, but the same God who walked with Moses and Abraham and rescued His people, that’s your God.
So as we go through these portraits, if you grew up in church, and you know the Father Abraham and all that kind of stuff, the temptation is you're going to be like, "Yeah, I know."
But that is your God.
Oh, church, fight for your heart this morning. Be like, “Wow, He did that? He did that? That’s my God?” That’s what I’m going to try to model for you as we go and exalt over each of these stories. And so what I’m going to do is what David tries to do. He tries to remind a forgotten people what God has done and who He is, and who He is for us.
So the first one we’re going to look at is that God is a fierce protector, if you’re a note-taker, from verses 12-15.
1. God is a fierce protector.
Verse 12,
“When they were few in number,
of little account, and sojourners in it,
13 wandering from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them;
he rebuked kings on their account,
15 saying, ‘Touch not my anointed ones,
do my prophets no harm!’”
Okay. So we see a lot of things in this passage, and I don’t want to oversimplify, but God is a fierce protector over his people. Think about God’s people at this time. They are small. They’re vulnerable. They’re a remnant. They’re barely a blip, and they’re traveling through foreign territory. They don’t have an army, really. They’re cooked. They have no hope of making it as a nation, as a people, and yet God jealously fights for his people. He fiercely protects his people.
Think about Abraham and Jacob, or Abraham and Isaac, with Abimelech and Pharaoh. God is able to stop the abuse of Sarah. It doesn’t matter how powerful the person is, God is greater still. He fiercely protects his people, and some of you need to be reminded of that. We’re exiles, church. Don’t forget, this world is not our home. If you feel like you’re an exile, you’re a remnant, you’re a sojourner … good!
You’re remembering one of your identities. And so when we’re here and we have these protesters outside and the world who doesn’t love Christ and obey him pushes against us, this is a reminder this is not our home, and yet we have a fierce protector over us.
Any of you parents here, you guys are fierce protectors of your children, right? You know that any desire you have to protect your kids is just a shadow of how God feels towards his kids?
You care about protection because God cares about protection. Being made in the image of God, you are just reflecting what he’s like. And so if you think that you care about your kids, infinitely more your Heavenly Father cares about you, church. He’s a fierce protector. Oh, church, put your hope in him afresh, that you are protected by him!
One of my children recently said to me,
“Dad, do we need to live here? It's hard to live here. It doesn't feel safe.”
And that's heartbreaking to hear that from your child. But you know the safest place is to be in God's will, no matter what happens.
You can move out into the boonies, in the most safe, conservative area with the most amount of cops, and die if you’re out of the will of the Lord.
And you could be right in the firestorm of everything, and you are untouchable until the Lord says, “It's time to go home, son.”
Do you believe the Lord is a fierce protector over you? Or are you anxiously trying to control and protect your life in a perfect way where you actually don’t need him? Remember the Lord, he’s a fierce protector.
Now, how does he protect?
The next portrait we want to see of God is that he’s sovereign over all things, even hard and evil things.
2. God is sovereign over all things.
Let’s look at verses 16-25:
“When he summoned afamine on the land
and broke all supply of bread,
17 he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 His feet were hurt with fetters;
his neck was put in a collar of iron;
19 until what he had said came to pass,
the word of the Lord tested him.
20 The king sent and released him;
the ruler of the peoples set him free;
21 he made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to bind his princes at his pleasure
and to teach his elders wisdom.”
Let’s stop right there. We’ll continue in a moment.
This is an amazing reversal. Think about it. This is the superpower of the world, and you’ve got a guy (Joseph) who gets betrayed by his brothers, and God sends him ahead of time through great evil and trial so that he could bring salvation to the rest of the world when a famine is coming. This is amazing.
He goes and he starts as a slave, goes to prison after a little psych-out where it looked like he was going to be good, and then over years of languishing in a prison, when you think he probably said, “God, have you forgotten me? I’m in a prison. I didn’t do anything wrong. Yeah, I was annoying to my brothers and a little arrogant, but I don't deserve prison. Oh, Lord, have you forgotten me?”
And the Lord elevates him in due season to be at the right hand of Pharaoh so he could bring salvation to his people when the famine hits.
And there’s a lot to learn there, because remember: what his brothers did to him was evil, was wrong, and that’s why when Joseph meets his brothers, what does he say? He says,
“What you meant for evil, God meant for good.”
And I want to remind you of that. There’s a lot of evil done towards us and evil we do, and God is working it for good.
And oftentimes, I think when we hear stories like this, we think super American individualistic. What I mean by that is like, yeah, yeah, this situation is bad, and somehow he’s going to work it good for my life. Yes and amen, but so much more than that. God is never doing one thing.
Your suffering isn’t meaningless. He’s actually working in that great evil against you to bring about good, not just for you, but beyond you.
He’s writing a greater story, a grander story, for all kinds of people, not just you. So your suffering isn't meaningless. Joseph probably thought this was meaningless, but God had purposes to save the entire world through this.
This is amazing. What a reversal.
But then let’s keep reading, because then it gets crazy…
Verse 24,
“And the Lord made his people very fruitful
and made them stronger than their foes.
25 He turned their hearts to hate his people,
to deal craftily with his servants.”
Okay, let's talk about this just for a moment. I’m not going to, in a few moments, try to explain how God’s sovereignty over all things harmonizes with human free choices, but let me say a few things and then for the rest you can email me at jonathan@citieschurch.com. He’s on vacation, you could flood him with really hard questions. Don’t do that.
So oftentimes in scripture, we have two different lenses when we see things that happen. So we have on the ground. On the ground, Egypt is nervous and scared and anxious about this people group that is growing among them. “Maybe they’ll turn against us.” Those are all normal human thoughts that they thought until Pharaoh was like, “Okay, let’s subject these people, because they could turn against us, and that’s not going to be good.” So Pharaoh wanted to subject Israel, God’s people, the Hebrews.
But then sometimes in scripture, like Psalm 105, you kind of zoom out 30,000 feet and you get God’s divine perspective. He was working in that without violating Pharaoh’s desires or the Egyptians. They wanted to subject them in an evil way, and yet God is somehow sovereign over that. That’s a mystery that many have spilled much ink over. But both are true in scripture. And so in Psalm 105, we are looking at the larger view. Whenever you confuse those views, that’s where a lot of times problems come.
But I want you to notice that even in doing that, God is setting up something greater. Because if he didn’t set that up, his people wouldn’t be able to plunder the Egyptians and leave with great triumph and bring judgment on a very wicked world. And let me make this point now.
I said that God is sovereign over all things, even evil things. And you know who has a problem with evil things?
Not just you. God does. Any sense of justice you have is just a mere echo of God’s divine wrath and righteous anger towards wickedness and injustice. And so make no mistake. Yes, God is sovereign in all things … but the next section, God is a righteous judge. Let’s look at verses 26-36.
3. God is a righteous judge.
Verses 26:
“He sent Moses, his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them
and miracles in the land of Ham.”
Let’s stop there. I’m not going to read the rest of that section because it’s a little longer, but why don’t you just look at it briefly. What is he doing here? He’s turning waters into blood. He’s throwing frogs at them … like crazy. Flies, gnats, hail, lightning, and it all culminates in the striking down, in verse 36, of the firstborn.
Egypt was a wicked nation. They were a wicked nation, and they oppressed peoples greatly. They subjugated God’s people for 400 years. God is not okay with that.
And Egypt put a lot of hope and trust in their different gods.
They had gods for this, gods for that, and what Yahweh is doing, God is systematically going down the line and showing that, “I reign over that. I reign over frogs. I reign over water. I reign over every single thing.” He puts them in their place because God will have no other gods. He will not share his throne with another.
And so let this give you hope when you feel like there’s injustice done. Who is making it right? Know that the Lord is a righteous judge.
Yes, the timing may not be what you would choose, but if you saw his perspective, you would understand his timing. The Lord is a righteous judge.
Church, you don’t need to be the judge. You don’t need to retaliate. You don’t need to have vengeance. The moment you take it in your hands, you are forgetting that the Lord is a righteous judge.
Someone needs to remember that. Someone has wronged you greatly, and you feel the burden of taking it into your own hands, or you feel the burden that you can’t forgive them because if you forgive them, they’re going to get away with it. Don’t forget the Lord is a righteous judge.
But he doesn’t just judge Egypt. He’s seen 400 years of unmet prayers and longings from his people. 400 years, generations without wages and without provision. So the next portrait we see is that God is a lavish provider.
4. God is a lavish provider.
Not just a provider, a lavish provider. Look at verse 37.
“Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold,
and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed,
for dread of them had fallen upon it.39 He spread a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light by night.
40 They asked, and he brought quail,
and gave them bread from heaven in abundance.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it flowed through the desert like a river.
42 For he remembered his holy promise,
and Abraham, his servant.”
Church, have you let this become a fairy tale for you? Have any of you guys been in the desert or in a desolate place?
And can you imagine if we were hiking together and all thirsty, and I’m like, “Hey, guys, watch this.” And I just hit a rock and water came out. That would be insane. That'd be the craziest thing you ever saw in your life. And yet we see that and we’re like, “Yeah. That’s cool. That happened. I saw it in Prince of Egypt. It's a good movie.” Right?
That’s your God! He did that!
They were starving and God gave them manna. Just appears on the ground, they got to collect. They wanted protein, because they didn’t want to be vegans, and God sends them quail.
That’s crazy, church. That’s our God. He provided for them. That’s your God. He covered them at night. He led them through the day. That’s your God.
Why do I keep saying that’s your God?
Because sometimes we forget that that same God who did that is the same God who knows you intimately and walks with you right now. Those stories are your stories, church.
That’s your story. That's your God. That'‘s your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, whatever grandfather. They went through that. That’s your family lineage. That’s your heritage. And so some of you, your bank account is low. You’re in massive debt up to your eyeballs. You’re struggling with so many anxieties and pressures, and you’re worrying, and you’re wondering. God is a lavish provider. Oh, Church, put your hope in Him. Put your trust in Him.
If He could provide then, He can infinitely provide more for you now. Amen? Amen.
Now, God needs to provide a lot of things. We have things that we need, and He cares about them. But there’s something that we need most, and let’s look at this last portrait, the singing Savior.
5. God is a singing Savior.
Look at verse 43,
“So he brought his people out with joy,
his chosen ones with singing.”
Now, what we see in Exodus is that when the peoples were delivered from Egypt, Miriam led God’s people with a tambourine and a song she wrote, and people were singing, right? But the Hebrew right here is ambiguous about who’s actually singing.
And when I hear this language, it reminds me of another passage. Would you turn with me to Zephaniah 3:17? If you're not familiar with your Bible yet, it’s in the end of the Old Testament. It’s one of the sweetest passages, and I want you to hear the parallel language that you hear here.
One thing I want to remind you is that anything that we do on this side of eternity that’s from the will of God, it’s just a shadow and echo of God’s heart and what’s going on in heaven. When you see someone come to faith and you rejoice, what’s going on in heaven? There’s a party. It’s an echo.
So as Israel is rejoicing, what they don’t know is that there is another one rejoicing, too. Read with me if you have your Bibles right now, Zephaniah 3:17,
“The Lord your God is in your midst. A mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exult over you with loud singing.”
Write that on a note card, tape it on your mirror, and brush your teeth every morning. And stare at that. The Lord sings over you like an embarrassing father who delights in his children.
The Lord doesn’t just save begrudgingly. He delights to save. It brings him great joy. Yes, God is a righteous judge, but he does not delight in the death of the wicked. But God delights to save. He sings. He’s a singing Savior. So the greatest need that we have is met in Christ, that Christ saved us. Christ Jesus died for us, and He delights to save His people. Remember that.
He delights to save you. It wasn’t a duty. It wasn’t begrudging. It was His joy, and He sings over you. For some of you, the reason why you don’t praise is because you’ve forgotten that He delights over you, and so this whole Christian thing is just so regimented and so just religious and going through traditions. The Lord sings over you, church.
Now, I want you to notice something. The next verse. The next verse is another thing that He provides for us richly, and it’s also connected to verse 11.
“And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the fruit of the people’s toil."
So the Lord provides for His people not just a temporary residence, but in Christ, if you are in Christ, church, you get to inherit the entire world. And the ultimate rest that we have is that we get Jesus. Oh, if you’re weary, if you feel displaced, if you’re longing and you feel like this earth is not your home, something’s wrong, nothing’s satisfied, your ultimate destination is Jesus forever on this redeemed world.
And Israel gets it in parts, but not in its full. But for us who are in Christ, one day we’ll inherit everything, and the greatest inheritance is that we get Jesus. It’s the greatest need we have. So if you feel like, man, this world is just not enough, it’s not cutting it, it’s because you were made for another. You were made for the land that has Christ at the center.
Now, if God’s people are saved, set apart, rescued, what should be the result of that? Let’s look at verse 45,
“that they might keep his statutes
and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord!”
This is so important. If you haven’t been listening, please hear me right now. This order is super important. What comes first, obeying or saving?
What comes first, obeying or saving? I'm not trying to trick you.
Saving. No, it's obeying. Just kidding. No, it’s saving. Saving is first!
He brought them out of Egypt. He brought his people out of slavery so that they may obey. That order is the difference between Christianity and not.
You are not saved because you obey, but because you are saved, you will obey. This is important here.
Another sign of our spiritual amnesia is that you don't obey because you forgot what the Lord has done, and some of you, you don't obey because you're not saved yet. So I just want to say this to you. I don't know you. I only know a few of you.
If your life is not one where you're progressively becoming more like Jesus and obeying him more and more in all the stuff of life, then you should have insecurity if you are actually his. And if that's you, come, pray with someone today. Wrestle with it.
Examine your heart. Do I actually know the Savior? Because you can’t know the Savior and the Savior not change you. You can’t. It’s impossible. There is no category in scripture, except the category that we have in the West, that you can know Christ and stay the same. Will it be perfect? No. Will you stumble? Yes. Will you still sin? Yes. But over time, will it be true? Yes.
Not fully, but truly, over time, Christ will transform you. So if you are not obeying Jesus in every area of your life, oh church, remember the Lord who saved you. Remember the Lord who loves you and sings over you.
Don’t forget the order. You’re saved and set apart to obey. And what does God want to do when we obey? What is he trying to do?
Because when we obey, Jesus is taking us by the hand and showing us how to truly live the life he wants us to live, truly be human, truly live the life of abundance he's called us to live.
And when we do that, we reflect his heart and his character to the nations, to our neighbors, to our coworkers. God is calling you to show what he’s like in your obedience. He has purpose behind him setting you apart to be his.
Tell of His Wondrous Works
So we’ve gone through the whole psalm, and I want to end with a few points …
Look at your life. Is your life characterized by one of praise and gratitude and seeking his presence and his face continually?
Ask your friends, ask your spouse, ask your kids, ask people who know you. Does that sound like me? Or am I slow to speak of the things of the Lord?
This is something that can be cultivated over time. So I want to challenge you, Cities Church, to practice this habit. Practice it for those who have families, fathers and mothers.
Practice telling of his wondrous works to each other. It's not something that can always be natural, but you can grow in it.
My wife has us set aside a jar every November to write down things that God has done this last year, and then we read it out loud the week of Thanksgiving and praise the Lord. That’s a little simple habit you can try to bring into your life.
For those of you who are in community groups, and I hope all of you are in community groups, don't turn this building into just a service where you come and you're like, "Feed me, ah," and you just get your goods and then you go and you leave to do something you want to do.
Cities Church is a family to belong to, and Sunday services are absolutely essential, but they're not sufficient for full formation to follow Jesus and become like him. So fight to be in a community group if you're not. And if you're in a community group, regularly have times where you can take time to say, “What has God done? Let's tell of his wondrous works.”
And you know how sweet it is to be part of a community who does this? Because check this out.
There will be seasons where your heart is cold and someone else is buzzing because God has done great works. And they share, and you hear, and your heart gets warmed, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, the Lord!" You know what that's like?
And guess what? Maybe a season or two later, you guys switch spots. This happens a lot of times in marriages.
And this person who used to be burning hot have gone through some fiery trials, and they're struggling, they're languishing. And then you're like, "Brother, do you remember?" "Sister, do you remember what he did for you?" You can remind people of his wondrous works and how he worked in their life, and how he worked in your life.
How sweet would it be to be part of a church family where you could do that for each other?
Older saints in here, go out of your way to share: "Hey, son, come here. Let me tell you something about what the Lord has done.”
Younger saints, talk to older saints. Tell me stories of God's faithfulness. Stir up my faith. Build my faith.
I want to exhort you that today, over lunch, share of something the Lord has done in his wondrous works. Stir each other’s faith.
And if you're like, “I can't remember anything”, pray.
We planted a church this last year, and they're going through this discipleship curriculum. One of the first things that they do is they do an inventory of three moments where God really showed up in your life, to write it down, so that you can share it with others.
And the whole group was like, "I don't know." But then when they actually sat down and were quiet, they're like, "Oh my goodness, God has done great works."
We forget, don't we? Church, you have a treasure trove of stories of God's faithfulness for you, but we forget. So write them down. Rehearse them, share it with your kids. Tell it with your neighbors. Tell it with your coworkers. May the Lord open up our mouths and share.
And so church, it's been good to be with you, and I want to remind you, the Lord has not forgotten you.
You may have forgotten him, and I forget him too, but the Lord has not forgotten you. And that is the great confidence you have.
Remember, you have been saved. That leads to obeying. You don't obey to get saved.
Remember that the Lord is a fierce protector over you, and that even in the hardest moments of your life, he is sovereign even over that thing.
God is a righteous judge and he will redeem and make all things new, and he will right every wrong.
And that God is a lavish provider. He can redeem the years the locusts have stolen in your life, no matter how painful or how impossible. He is the God who can give you water out of a rock.
That is your God, church. That's your God. Don't you sleep on that. That's your God. And he's the God who saves you with joy and gladly sings over you.
And if you don't know this savior, oh, would you talk to someone this morning? Would you not leave if you don't know the sweetness of this savior who delights to save? The righteous judge who judged himself so that you could stand free. Would you come? I'd love to pray with you, and I know there's a number of people here who would love to talk with you.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for who you are. And Lord, we confess many of us have forgotten you have been far kinder and better to us than we remember. Sometimes our hearts can be filled with grumbling and amnesia where we forget.
And so God, we recenter our hearts, and we look back at your faithfulness, not just to God's people from all generations, but our own lives.
I pray for a special gifting over Cities Church that we would grow to be able to tell of his wondrous works. That you would loose our tongues to be able to share. So many in this room have great stories of your grace and your kindness, but they forget it or they're timid, and would you loose their tongues so that this whole church will be full of praise and thanksgiving and gratitude.
Oh, God, may we seek your face continually, seek your strength continually. Oh, God, we need you.
And Father, if there's anything that I said that was in error, either in manner or in content, would you please correct me and let no one here remember. But God, all that is actually from above, that is from your Word, let it deeply shape us. Let the Word do its work in our hearts.
And God, as we transition to the Lord’s Supper, help us be freshly reminded that this table is a reminder that you are the Savior, and you delight in us. And you save us, not because we obey, but that it leads to obedience.
Let everyone be freshly reminded of the sweetness of the gospel of grace. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.