Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I want to basically just share some verses with you starting in Exodus chapter 13.
[00:00:05] We'll just kind of walk through some verses very quickly starting in Exodus 13. Before I do that, I want to.
[00:00:17] Well, let's, let's look at the verses first, and then I'll, I'll read something I want to read to you.
[00:00:24] Exodus, it's 13.
[00:00:28] All of the verses we'll read tonight will be from the Old Testament.
[00:00:33] And this is a feature. It's also in the New Testament, but it's something in the Old Testament that is, of course, very common in the Old Testament.
[00:00:44] It's a command the Lord gives his people, and it's an important command related to, of course, we're looking forward to a new year.
[00:00:53] As I think about the upcoming year, I'm hopeful for people in our church that.
[00:01:03] I'm just shooting straight with you. I'm just being honest. I'd really like to see on, in our church, I'd really like to see people making a commitment to the Lord to be even more involved in the church, especially on Sunday night and on Wednesday nights, to just make that commitment that I'm going to do everything in my power to be there. It's not about appearances. It's not about that at all.
[00:01:33] It's about being with God's people and making it a priority. And it's about seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord in private is essential, but seeking the Lord corporately, together is also essential.
[00:01:49] The Lord does things sometimes over time, sometimes it changes. And what the Lord's doing in our midst, they come slowly, little by little, little by little. And generally speaking, if you look over, this is a night to look back. Right? That's what I hope we can do, is we can look back at what the Lord has done. But when you look at that, sometimes the things that the Lord does in your heart, in our hearts, he does very slowly, methodically, but permanently. In other words, it's not big changes. This is what you look for, big sensational changes and miraculous events and things like that. But really, your experience, no doubt your christian life, has been one of slow, steady change for good, but permanent change. Things that happen rapidly, oftentimes they vaporize. I've seen that as well. After I got saved, some of you were here, and there was quite a revival, and it might kind of like a flash in the pan, right? But a lot of what happened there fizzled.
[00:02:57] Not all of it, thankfully, but some of it fizzled.
[00:03:02] Almost as soon as it flashed up, it was gone.
[00:03:09] That's just the way things happen though. But what we hope to see is that slow, steady growth that's permanent. Right? That's what I hope that you've, you've experienced in the past year. Sometimes it's so slow that you need longer than a year to realize this happened. You need maybe five years to look back and say, man, lord's really done some things in my life.
[00:03:30] So as trying to pray for you guys, trying to pray for the church, I'd really like to see just that renewed commitment to serve God together. To be all in with both feet, the full heart, the whole heart in the church. Privately, but also publicly. You see what I'm saying? And there's another thing I want to point out as we get closer. But that's kind of what's in my heart.
[00:04:03] There's a lot of things in life that are there to compete know. And if we don't make it an intentional decision. No, look, I am going and you just resolve like Daniel, like his three friends, I am going to serve God. I'm going to live for God and I'm going to make God my priority. No matter what.
[00:04:30] That's what it takes. Because if there's not that kind of deliberation and purposefulness there's going to be reasons. There's going to be reasons to slip. There's going to be reasons. And even then. Even then we make that kind of deliberation and that deliberative commitment in that way. Even then we'll fail. Even then we'll mess up and things will get in the way and that kind of thing and things will happen and all that. And I don't want anybody to get the impression I trust you understand.
[00:05:02] Especially with Brother Stuart being the pastor. I think was that about six years?
[00:05:08] Know we don't have this thing. Know we're checking boxes to make sure you're there in your place and if you don't we're going to know. Well, Miss Karen, I might judge her but we're not judging.
[00:05:19] Not. We're not like looking down on people because they have issues that come up and that kind of thing. But man, we need to get plugged in in these days as things get worse and worse and worse and they are. There's no question about that. Evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse. Deceiving be deceived these days are getting uglier therefore.
[00:05:43] And so much the more. Right Hebrews ten and so much the more as you see the day approach. So I just want to encourage you in that I know, there's people listening. Can't be here.
[00:05:55] It's just about having a heart for the Lord. That's all it is. Ben, why do you come to church? Do you come to be seen? Right? No. I mean, we like Ben. We like to see Ben. I like to see Ben. Ben's almost always a blessing. I mean, he always has a good attitude and a thing. That's the kind of thing we want, and all of us, myself included, is to have a heart. I'm just coming for know. I'm coming to church for. I want to encourage each one. But ultimately, it's about the Lord. So that's my prayer. Is that not just the pad numbers or anything like that, but it would be a mark of our heart for the Lord.
[00:06:33] All right, Exodus 13. Let's pray. And then we'll just walk through some of these verses. Lord, bless our time as we look in your word, please. I pray that this truth is a small truth, but it would be helpful to your people as we try to look back and remember what you have done and not forget. Because, Lord, you know, we forget.
[00:06:52] I pray that you would help us in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:06:57] Exodus 13, verse number three. The Bible says, and Moses said unto the people, remember this day in which he came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out from this place, there shall no leaven bread be eaten. The whole purpose of the feast of unleavened bread, you know, the whole purpose, was to enable and assist the children of Israel to remember what God had done bringing them out of Egypt. Now, if you look in typology, the deliverance, the Exodus, when the children of Israel, they didn't listen. I know. How many of you know Jordan Peterson? Kind of give me a nod. You familiar with Jordan Peterson? Yeah. Jordan Peterson has a lot of interesting and good things to say. But Jordan Peterson has been talking about the Exodus in Genesis, and he's been going through some of these books. He's not a believer, but he looks at the Book of Exodus as a story of liberty and freedom being delivered from bondage. And there's some of that. But really it's about God.
[00:08:07] Is the Exodus about the Lord, or is it not about the Lord? It's about the Lord.
[00:08:12] It's not some deliverance from slavery like Disney tries to present know. And they're the king of Egypt movie they had. I've never seen it, but I understand that's what it's about. It's about the Lord delivering the people of Israel. It's about this picture of salvation. Children of Israel were even. It wasn't long that they had been out of Egypt. They already wanted to go back. Right.
[00:08:38] Any story in the scripture that's about man is going to be ultimately disappointing. You just got to keep reading a few more chapters and it gets pretty disappointing pretty quick. But if you remember this about the Lord and the Lord, by the gospel, the blood of the lamb has likewise delivered us.
[00:08:57] That is something to be remembered.
[00:09:00] You and I are what we are because of the grace of God in our lives. As most obviously seen in the cross.
[00:09:11] The cross is why we're here. That's what this is talking about to us.
[00:09:17] He says, remember this day. Remember what God has done for you.
[00:09:24] Don't forget it. You know, that cross should be. And I pray in my own prayers, in private, Lord, I pray that the cross, I pray that your sacrifice and your blood shed for me would be the focal point of my life, that everything would flow into and out of that fact, that truth, that it would color everything.
[00:09:49] It's hard when we were missionaries, that we had some hard times.
[00:09:54] But I remember key, that's our word tonight. I remember there were specific times when we were in Cambodia and things were hard, or even when things weren't hard, and I was reflecting on what we were doing there and asking myself, is this worth it?
[00:10:13] Is this worth it?
[00:10:17] But the only question that mattered was this.
[00:10:22] Is not what Christ did for me worth what?
[00:10:30] You know, you think about coming to church and being faithful.
[00:10:34] Being faithful. People say faithful to God's house. I don't usually use terms like that. Because you are God's house. This is not God's house. You are God's house. We're thankful for this building, but. Well, except the steeple. We're not thankful for all of that. We're not thankful yet.
[00:10:52] You are God's house.
[00:10:55] But in light of the cross, is being faithful to the meeting of the church, is that a high demand?
[00:11:06] Is that a difficult thing? It's not going to be. A missionary is not really reading your Bible, staying in the word, praying as much as we fail.
[00:11:21] God's not asking a lot of us.
[00:11:24] It's really just an answer to the cross. Everything we do is an answer. Remember, the Lord tells them, I've given you a feast. I've given you a holiday, a festival. There are certain things I've prescribed. They get all that leaven out of their house. Couldn't even have it in the house, right, because he's trying to get them to remember what he had done for them.
[00:11:48] Remember what the Lord has done. If you look at deuteronomy seven, Deuteronomy, chapter 17, it deuteronomy means second law, because this deuteronomy is Moses rehearsing, repeating what God had said in exodus to the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. And Moses gives kind of a commentary of the law. They're about to go into the promised land. So this is at the end of the.
[00:12:28] About to go. They're. They're on the eastern side, to your perspective, this side of the Jordan river. They're getting ready to go in. Moses is about to die, and he's preparing them. Here's what he says, speaking of the nations that are in Canaan with whom they will fight. He says this. Thou shalt not be afraid of them, but thou shalt. Well, remember what the Lord thy God did unto Pharaoh, unto all Egypt. That's not the cross. You know what that is? That's God intervening on their behalf.
[00:13:05] You see that?
[00:13:07] God says, remember what I did, not what you did. What I did. You don't need to remember Israel's history. You need to remember my history, what I have done for you.
[00:13:18] But you notice he says, the reason you don't need to be afraid of these nations and what is ahead of you is because of what I've done in the past.
[00:13:29] You see that? So remembering is not just about having a warm, fuzzy feeling about what the Lord has done, but it informs our faith into the future. For 2024.
[00:13:42] Look at chapter eight, verse two.
[00:13:48] And thou shalt remember again the same context. Just next, a few verses over. Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep it his commandments or no. Let me ask you a question. Over this past year, as you think about maybe a time of giving a testimony, you look at what God has done in your life. Some of the things the Lord had to do was. Had to slap you down. Right?
[00:14:19] I felt that right. He had to humble us. He had to teach us some difficult lessons about ourselves.
[00:14:26] That's what he did with them. You know what he told them? You know, that wilderness. I'll just ask you, generally speaking, were the wilderness wanderings a high point in the history of Israel? No way.
[00:14:39] They were in the wilderness for 40 years because of just a major point of failure. Right? When they sent the spies and they discouraged the people ten were bad and two were good. Right? That's why they were there for so long. Otherwise they would have been there in a few weeks into the land of Canaan. But they disobeyed. So the whole wilderness of wandering started bad. And it was just going from place to place, complaint to complaint. The whole book of numbers is just unpleasant. Generally.
[00:15:06] God says of that time, remember, you know, the struggles you've had. Remember those.
[00:15:14] How the Lord had to correct you and fix you. Remember.
[00:15:19] Remember how you were. But remember how the Lord was patient and how he taught you. Nevertheless. Remember, don't forget. We want to forget our failures. And of course, in a sense, you do forget. You can't dwell on those things. But the lessons learned should not be forgotten. Look at chapter nine, verse seven even more. On this point, the Lord seems to put his thumb on it a little bit stronger. Chapter nine, verse seven says, remember and forget not how thou provokest the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord.
[00:16:09] God is telling them to remember their rebellion.
[00:16:15] I didn't say that. That's what it says, right? He tells the children of Israel to remember their rebellion.
[00:16:21] You know, every one of you, at some point in your life, myself included, can think of a time. This is not something you would testify about, but can think of a time. Well, I guess you could in certain circumstances. There's probably a time in your life that you can look back and say, man, that was an ugly time in my life as a believer.
[00:16:42] Not a high mark where I was not in fellowship with God. And even as you recount that, you feel a sense of guilt and shame. Even though God has forgiven you, you've moved on, you've grown.
[00:16:54] But in a way, it's good to remember that, because remembering that period, remembering that failure, reminds you of who you are and how susceptible you and I are to doing it again if we do not stay close to the Lord.
[00:17:13] So the Lord says, remember your failure. Remember your rebellion.
[00:17:17] And look at 15, chapter 15 and verse 15.
[00:17:27] And thou shalt remember that thou wast the bondman in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God redeemed thee. Therefore, I command thee. This thing today. The Lord says here, remember what you were before you came to know God.
[00:17:41] Some of you got saved when you were very young. So that's a good thing. That's a good thing. You don't have a lot of things to remember in that way. But some of you got saved when you were a little bit older. And you have a past and a history, and you can call to those things to remembrance and remember how you were before and how God worked in your heart. The Lord says, I want you to remember that. Don't forget it. Don't forget where you were when the Lord came redeeming you. That's a good thing to remember. Chapter 24. Look at, that's verse nine.
[00:18:37] Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam, by the way. After that, you were come forth out of Egypt.
[00:18:44] Now, do you remember what happened to Miriam?
[00:18:49] Miriam murmured against God and against Moses. And God struck her with leprosy for a week. Right?
[00:18:57] And they had to stop. And it was just a nasty time. It's just a nasty time in the whole congregation.
[00:19:08] You look at a problem that comes up. Now, I'm thankful. We haven't had any major issues in the past year that I know of in the church. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Would God that that were the case all the time, right?
[00:19:22] But the Lord says here, remember what's happening among ourselves.
[00:19:33] And then we look at psalm 63. If you turn there, psalm 63. And verse 16 says this, when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night, watches those in Sunday school, the adult Sunday school, know. When we say meditate, what are we talking about? Come on now. This is a trivia question.
[00:20:14] Meditation is not the clearing of the mind, but the what's that occupying the mind? Thinking on purpose.
[00:20:26] He says he remembers the Lord upon his bed because verse seven, thou hast been my help. Therefore, in the shadow of the wings will I rejoice. Do you see this principle?
[00:20:36] Remembering what the Lord had done, who the Lord has been to you in the past, affects what you do now and what you do in the future. That's why you don't need to forget.
[00:20:47] Look at chapter 77 of psalm 77.
[00:20:51] Verse eleven says this. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings. You'll have a chance to talk of the Lord's doings in just a minute.
[00:21:20] But you know what? If we're going to remember, you know what that requires, just like we see here? It requires that the Lord has been doing something. Has the Lord been doing something in your life the past year? Definite, clear, unambiguous things that you can point to if you have a hard time remembering. If I have a hard time remembering what the Lord has been doing in my life in 2023. The reason is because I'm not paying attention, distracted with everything, not paying attention to what the Lord is doing in you.
[00:21:57] We should remember his works, meditate, talk about it.
[00:22:05] Now while we're here. Look at psalm 78, verse 42. And then we'll look at one more and we'll be done.
[00:22:13] But what happens if you don't remember? You forget.
[00:22:17] You don't put your mind to it.
[00:22:22] Psalm 78, verse 42.
[00:22:27] They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy, how he had wrought his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan.
[00:22:43] He describes all the things. Remember we just got done reading how God says, remember what I did in Egypt, how I delivered you in psalm 78. We're informed that they didn't remember. They forgot. They didn't do what he said. Then go to judges. Lastly, finally, judges, chapter eight.
[00:23:18] And it says, and the children of Israel, verse 34, I'm sorry, judges 834. And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side. Here's what happens if we don't remember, either because we're distracted or because we're not paying attention. If we don't remember God's doings in our lives, if we don't think upon that, we'll start to feel like and get the impression that he hasn't been doing anything in our lives. And that's just not true. If you're a child of God, I think even if you're not saved, I think the Lord's doing stuff in your life.
[00:23:55] You just aren't in tune with what the Lord is doing.
[00:24:02] But especially as a child of God, the Lord is working in every one of our lives, whether we know it or not. The question is, are we willing and are we able to open our eyes to see what he's doing?
[00:24:14] That's why I want you to kind of think about it over the afternoon and think about what the Lord has done. So I wrote this 2023 year in review, and I kind of made a.
[00:24:28] Hopefully I can remember this. There's my lesson, right?
[00:24:33] This is something I would like to do every year. If I can't, if I can remember to, to write a year in review and based, basically, I went through and tried to think about the major events that happen in our church. Now, I know there are many things that happen in each one of our personal lives that, of course, aren't on here. Not that it's not important. It's just these are things specific to our church and what has happened within our church. And hopefully, I didn't forget anything. If I did, forgive me, it's not intentional.
[00:25:03] So I wrote these things down and just think about these things, because we might have forgotten some of these things. Some of these things are still going to be things that are bringing up Vi and Melvin Scott to our mind, because of Vi's forward thinking, you know, desire to be a blessing to the church by the money that she gave to the church, gave to God, really, for the good of the church. And a lot of these things go back to her and what the Lord did through her.
[00:25:38] On January 13, we had these gutters. All the gutters. You remember how long those gutters sagged, especially over here. Sag and water was pouring over. We had the gutters replaced on January 24, right around January 24, that playground down there was installed. Man, as I read this, Lord, would you please bring families in among us that will use that thing, wear that thing out, right? Little kids going down there to play after the service. Before the service. Lord, would you do that? That's why I'd like to see, not for the numbers, but those kids represent families who hopefully will growing, doing the will of God.
[00:26:26] January 31, we had new lights because in preparation for the Valentine banquet, we had new lights installed in the fellowship hall and brightened up the fellowship hall and made that a much more pleasant place. And on the 11 February, we had the Valentine banquet. You remember that?
[00:26:45] And then, of course, at the end of February, the 26th, is when Brother Stewart announced that he would be resigning from the church. And, of course, that came as a shock to many.
[00:26:57] And then shortly after that, at the end of April, the 30 April is when the church held a vote for the new pastor.
[00:27:06] And then on May 7 was the day that that actually happened, that transition. May the 7th.
[00:27:13] And then for the Aguilar family, June 10 is when Mary Neal, they call Nay Aguilar. She became Mary Neal. So that's when Mary got met. Mary got married June 29. Right around then was when the air conditioner for the downstairs was installed and for the Sunday schoolrooms. That's made a big difference and is running great. I'm thankful for that. Very thankful.
[00:27:41] Then July 10 through the 14th, anybody know?
[00:27:46] See how hard it is to remember, right? It is so hard. Yeah, exactly. It's vbs. Vbs. And what was the theme?
[00:27:56] And who was the main speaker? Come on.
[00:28:02] Scotty and Darlene Rackley. Scotty Rackley was the main speaker. Very good. Very good. But you see how easy it is for. That was a big deal, right? It was a major event in the year, and yet it's so easy for it to slip out of our mind.
[00:28:17] And then August eigth was the carpet. And haven't you guys been thankful for the new carpet? I mean, it's. It's still holding up really well, and I'm thankful for that.
[00:28:32] If there's a smell in the carpet, we just need to keep letting it air out, and hopefully that'll dissipate.
[00:28:39] And then August 22, around about August 22 is when the new lights went in the auditorium and the old UFOs were taken out. They zoomed away. I called them the UFOs.
[00:28:50] That's what I called them, because they kind of looked like upside down ufos.
[00:28:55] So that's really helped.
[00:28:57] And then we get to September 2. Anybody know what September 2 is?
[00:29:05] What's that? 50th anniversary. Right? Which fell on a Saturday. And then we had the third through the 6. September was our anniversary revival. And the preacher was.
[00:29:20] Yes. Guy Roberts. Guy Roberts.
[00:29:24] And as we go into the fourth quarter, brother Ari and a few of the other men cut down that Bradford pear, that illegal tree that was out in the front. It was a nice looking tree. But anyway, we cut that down. And then November 5, what happened? November 5, you remember Robert Nathaniel was born November 5, not too long ago. Then in December, we get into the final month of the year. On the 3 December, Lauren and Chong York joined our church.
[00:30:02] And then lastly on the 15 December, Miss Evelyn so was born.
[00:30:10] These are just the main. Just the high points, the events.
[00:30:15] We had records and stuff. But that doesn't mean that's all that happened.
[00:30:20] What's that? Fall fellowship. See, I forget things. And there's other things. No doubt other things we had. And think about beside these things, think about how many thousands of tracks we passed out at track rack. We filled it up. Get gone. We filled it up. We got a box, ordered a box of tracks, and they're all. Almost all gone. Somebody got all those tracks, right? Or hopefully they're not stuffed in somebody's glove box.
[00:30:50] You know, think about all the people we gave tracks to in downtown Greenville. Fall for Greenville.
[00:30:57] How many prayers did we pray for those that have been sick?
[00:31:04] That was many. Many.
[00:31:06] How many prayers were prayed for those that are without Christ?
[00:31:11] Right. It's a bunch.
[00:31:14] How many chapters of the Bible did we read corporately? Right. If you count. Put it all together.
[00:31:21] If we do the Bible in one year, that's 189 chapters times, however many people did it. That's a lot of chapters.
[00:31:31] So even the little things, the little things matter like that.
[00:31:37] But as I looked through this, again, just being transparent with you, I noticed a lot of activities and events that dealt with the building. Right. For obvious reasons. There's things that need. And if we went back into 22 2022, we got the parking lot and the van.
[00:32:01] One thing I didn't even put on here, I forgot another thing, which is the upstairs air conditioner for the Prophets chamber is now working. So Lord willing, we'll have a functional prophets chamber for the mission conference in April.
[00:32:13] See how quickly I forget?
[00:32:18] But one thing, there was a lot of things about the building, of course, the change in the pastor. That was of course a big deal in the church. But one thing I noticed that as I was looking and thinking about this, I was thinking about, Lord, I'd love to see more spiritual things here. We put a lot of time and effort into the building because it needed some attention. Right.
[00:32:45] But wouldn't it be good in this coming year if by this time next year we looked at this list and it was so and so got baptized, so and so got saved, maybe some new kids were born, and Lord willing, that's going to happen. We know there's some in the wait, but I would love to see more spiritual things, things that are of eternal value on this list next year. Wouldn't you like to see that where the Lord's working in people's hearts, people that we've been praying for actually come to Christ and people maybe that new people coming into the church and joining the church. That's been my prayer again, not about numbers, but about seeing the work of God, seeing the church of God, which is a living organism, move and grow under the Lord's care.
[00:33:42] When I saw that, that's why I thought, Lord, we need more of that. Not that this is bad. It's not bad, and a lot of it's needed.
[00:33:52] But the church's work is primarily a spiritual work.
[00:33:56] Spiritual work.
