So...why are you here? Most of you know that is one of my favorite questions to ask. I believe it helps us to remember the reasons why we are supposed to be here even if sometimes that may not be the case. But have you ever asked yourself that question before; not as a deep theological introspection but maybe you have gone into a room from another room in your house and then forgot why you went in there? And you asked yourself, "Why am I in here?"
I read an article in Psychology Today (because I have that kind of time evidently) that said that situation is more common than you might expect and that there is a reason for it that you might not have ever thought of. Dr. Ira E. Hyman says, "I have some good news for you. It isn't you and it isn't evidence of age-related declines. It's the doorway. Walking through doorways empties your mind. Doorways really cause forgetting."
He goes on to describe how that happens; something about how our minds construct models of our environments and when we walk into a new room the mind drops the old model and makes a new one and many times the reason we went into that room is dropped as well. I'll just take his word for it and since this happens to me fairly often, I'm glad to know there is a reason for it.
And maybe that is one reason why the Bible tells us to remember things so many times. God knows that we are going to read it or hear it in our homes or in our church and then leave and we will forget what we are supposed to remember. The 10 Commandments tell us to, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." In Deuteronomy 7 it says to remember what the Lord did. Even God is said to remember things. In Genesis 9, God says that when He sees the rainbow in the clouds that He will remember His covenant.
Now, my favorite verse in the whole Bible says to "forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past." (Isaiah 43:18) It means that we are to forget the bad things in our lives and to concentrate on the good things that God is going to do. In fact, I would suggest that we forget everything that we have done in the past whether good or bad and concentrate on what God has done and is going to do even if it may be painful because everything God does is good. Do you believe that?
That's what the Bible says so I hope you do. 3 times just in the book of Psalms it says that. Psalm 25, 73 and 86: Good and upright is the Lord, truly God is good and for you Lord, are good. Plus there are many more places where it reminds us that God is good and that is what we are supposed to remember.
That is what David is telling us to do in our passage this morning in Psalm 105. Remember the good things God has done and the ways that He has protected and provided in the face of evil and when the entire world seems against you. When you remember those times, you can't help but be grateful. Let's read that passage again from Psalm 105:1-5 but our focus will be on just verse 5.
Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. 3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. 4 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. 5 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
I read a funny story the other day written by a guy who said that when he was a kid his parents would take the kids to the same vacation spot every summer somewhere up in the mountains by a lake. And every year they would get a few miles out of town and his mother would cry out, "Oh, dear, I think I left the iron on."
So they would turn around and go back and it never failed, the iron would be off and unplugged. So one year they were on their way and sure enough, the mom says it. "Oh dear, I think I left the iron on." He said his dad didn't say a word. He just pulled over, popped the trunk and handed his mom the iron.
David, the author of this psalm, would appreciate that because the word he uses for "remember" here means to show that you remember; to do something that proves you remember just like the father did in the story. And David tells us to remember 3 things; remember the wonders He has done and His miracles and His judgments.
So many people are thankful to God only when God does something for which they have asked or if He does something new. And it's easy to be thankful to God when He provides a new car or a house and while we would never come right out and say it, we sometimes live our lives as if to say, "Yea, but what have you done for me lately?" When God is as merciful as He has been to us sometimes we need to be reminded of His mercy because we can take it for granted.
So, let's look and be reminded of the first thing on David's list, God's wonders. He says to remember the wonders He has done. This word means a special display of divine power but does not necessarily include His miracles. We'll talk about them next. That's another word that David uses. The difference in wonders and miracles is that wonders are works of divine power that bring trouble to the enemy.
The plagues that came on Egypt when they held the children of Israel as prisoners and slaves would be considered wonders. There were 10 plagues that came on Egypt including the plague of water to blood, lice, frogs, boils and hail. And you remember the story. Finally Pharaoh had enough of these displays of divine power and let the people go.
See, it helps to think like the author was thinking. David was thinking of these kinds of wonders when he was worshiping and giving thanks. David was remembering how God had protected and provided in His own sovereign way which included allowing Israel to go through horrible times. And I hear you saying, "How can God be considered to be protecting and providing while Israel is in bondage in Egypt? How can it be called protection and provision when His special people are being treated horribly as slaves in a foreign country?"
Well, that's a good question. And I make no claim to fully understand God's ways or to have a grasp on His sovereignty but I can tell you that God allowed them to go through everything they went through as part of the process of making them to be the nation He wanted them to be. And in His perfect timing, God performed those wonders of plagues and the enemies of Israel were effectively defeated.
Today we worship in this beautiful place and we have peace and joy as a church and we worship in spirit and in truth and we have fun and we focus on Jesus and His power and grace and on all that He has done for us. And it is obvious to anyone who will look that God has called us to this place where we can do all those things. But it hasn't always been that way.
There was a time when this church was in Runaway Bay that those things might not have been said about us like they are today. I know from experience that telling someone in the community that you were from First Baptist might upset them instead of attract them. There were seasons of selfishness, pride, gossip and strife in our church and those seasons were keeping us from being who we were supposed to be.
The sin of complacency and lack of faith could very well have kept us from coming here and being who we are supposed to be and so God did some wonders amongst us and took away people, things and situations that were not in His good and perfect will and sometimes it hurt.
But when you look back and realize that those things were our enemies; those things were sin and God didn't want that for our church and so He removed it in sometimes wondrous ways. And now we can look back and see how God was working when we couldn't see it then but now we are grateful to God as we remember those things.
And maybe you can see it in your own life how God sometimes takes things away and you don't understand why at first but in hind sight you can see that God didn't want that in your life and so He did something wondrous to remove it. And as we sit here this morning we know that our enemy is not another country like it was for David. Our enemy is not against flesh and blood but against sin and Satan himself.
So we are to remember God's wonders even though it may sting for a while. And we are also to remember God's miracles. And that sounds easy! We love to think about God's miracles. That's fun to do. But I want to warn you that Satan, our enemy, doesn't want you to remember those miracles. He wants you to think about almost anything but those and so he will keep putting things in front of you to distract you from it.
The Bible is full of miracles that we should remember and one of the very biggest, most amazing miracles happened to the Israelites after Pharaoh let them go. You know the story. They left Egypt and, by the way, it says they plundered Egypt as they left, and the whole nation crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and the whole army of Egypt was drowned as they tried to cross. Man, I wish I could have seen that!
There was no explaining that away as a natural phenomenon. Everybody saw that it was a miracle of God and it says in Exodus 14 that after that all the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him. And do you know how long that lasted? About 10 minutes. And then I think one guy looked at another and said, "Hey, I'm kinda hungry, are you? I sure miss that fruit we used to get in Egypt . That was good stuff. And I'm tired of walking in this heat. This sun is going to ruin my complexion."
It says they complained because they were thirsty and God provided water from a rock. They complained about being hungry so they got manna. They wanted meat and God sent quail. And when they had basically nothing else to complain about...they started worshiping some golden calf they built.
Instead of saying, "Hey, I don't know where our next meal is going to come from but I have seen with my own eyes that God did a miracle to get us out of slavery and He has provided everything we have needed since and so I know that He will continue to provide everything we need and for that we are so thankful!" Can you imagine what God could have done with a group of people who remembered?
That was, in fact, exactly why God allowed them to wander around for 40 years. I heard somebody say the other day that from point A to point B, that trip should have taken them just a few weeks but because they did not remember God's miracles in their lives, it took them 40 years. And Satan laughed for all 40 of those years.
See, God wants to be remembered. He told Moses in Exodus 3 to "tell the people that I AM sent you. That is my name that I am to be remembered from generation to generation." And He deserves to be remembered for the miracles He has done from the Old Testament all the way through our lives here today. And when we start to complain about what we have and don't have you can be sure that Satan has distracted us from remembering.
And because we want to be a group of people who, instead of complaining like the Israelites who had to wander aimlessly, we want God to use us and work in us and through us. Can you imagine what God could do with a group of people who remembered?
Can you imagine how we can effect Lake Bridgeport and all of Wise County and the world when we just say, "I don't know how He is going to do it but I remember how God has provided for us in everything we have ever done and so I know He will continue to protect and to provide everything we need and that's why we are grateful. We remember His miracles and we are grateful."
We remember God's wonders. We remember God's miracles. And we also remember God's judgments. You can skip just one verse and see in verse 7 that David says, "His judgments are in all the earth." So, why should we remember and be grateful for God's judgments?
Speaking of remembering, I remember years ago when I lived in River Oaks, one of my dogs got out of the yard and got picked up by the dog catcher. I found him at the pound and he was fine but I went to get him out and they said I had to pay some crazy huge fine. I don't remember how much it was but I had to pay so I did but I took it to court.
The little town of River Oaks doesn't have much of a court system but I did what I had to do and the judge finally called my name and asked how I plead. I tried to tell him that my dog had never gotten out before and the neighbor kid had gone in and left the gate open and I tried to assure him that it would never happen again.
I promise this is the truth. The judge didn't even let me finish. And he said, "Well, since the only good dog is a dead dog, I find you guilty and order you to pay another fine." Can you believe that? It's true. I wanted to tell him on my way out that my dog said that the only good judge is a dead judge but I bit my lip and got out of there.
The problem is that our judges today have too much ability to interpret the law however they want to and that may change depending on what mood they are in. We have laws in place to protect us but there is no strict standard that covers every situation. And so, life is not fair sometimes even in our judicial system. How many times have you said that before? "Life's not fair."
Maybe you have even told that to God before. "God, that's not fair!" But the good thing is that God is a just judge. And how He judges does not change according to His mood or what the weather is doing. Malachi 3:6 says, "I the LORD do not change." Psalm 119:89 declares "God's Word will never change, His nature will never change!"
And so how many times have you watched the news and heard of a child like Alanna Gallagher in Saginaw has been brutally murdered or that man In Ohio, Ariel Castro, who was convicted of holding those women for all those years; you have seen horrible stuff like that and even when the person is caught you think, "That's still no justice". And you're right. 1000 years in jail doesn't make up for what has been done.
But do you know what the root of all of that suffering is? Do you know the real problem that is causing this world to fall apart at the seams? It is the scheme of the devil. That is his plan and his greatest desire. He spends every second of every day planning and scheming on how he can make you and me fall into sin so that in the end he can kill us dead and he will not rest until that happens. Remember, our battle is not against flesh and blood.
But there is good news. The good news is that there will be justice one day. The good news is that Satan's days are numbered and one day as it says in Revelation 20:9-10, "But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."
And that's a good thing to know that we have a just God and we are grateful for that but I'll tell you the truth. When it comes to God and me, I don't want justice. I want mercy. I don't want what I deserve. Because I know what I deserve and it has nothing to do with living a full life here on earth as it says in John 10:10. And it has even less to do with being seated in the heavenlies next to Jesus as it says in Ephesians 2:6.
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death and that is what I deserve. But not only do I not get what I do deserve but I get what I don't deserve and that is, because of what Jesus has done for me, eternal life and fellowship with God Himself.
This world is an awful place sometimes but we know that this life is only a wisp of smoke and then we are gone. But as believers and followers of Jesus we are grateful for Who God is and for His wonders, His miracles and even His judgments because we remember.
After invitation: The word David used for "remember" means to show that you remember or to prove it. We do that in one way by keeping the Runaway Bay pebbles in the jar. What do you need to do in your own life to prove that you remember what God has done for you?
