1 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:13,200 Let us pray together. 2 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:18,280 Father, would you open our eyes and our ears, our minds and 3 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:24,160 our hearts, that what we hear from your word may speak to us and 4 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:28,320 may propel us to action through Jesus Christ. 5 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:29,000 We pray. 6 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:30,200 Amen. 7 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:36,200 Well, as I said earlier, I've never preached in Psalm 78, and I 8 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:41,800 see that as a real bad thing, probably in my ministry, because 9 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:47,360 this is a great psalm with a lot to teach us, but it has 72 verses. 10 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,760 So I thought if I was to read them all, you'd lose the will to 11 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:51,000 live. 12 00:00:51,530 --> 00:00:56,050 And I thought if I was to preach through the whole psalm, we'd 13 00:00:56,050 --> 00:00:58,570 probably be here till 4:00 this afternoon. 14 00:00:58,890 --> 00:01:00,010 Well, I might be. 15 00:01:00,010 --> 00:01:01,450 You might have gone home by then. 16 00:01:02,090 --> 00:01:05,650 But what I want to do is to try to be faithful to the whole psalm, 17 00:01:05,650 --> 00:01:08,970 but pick out some verses relevant to this. 18 00:01:08,970 --> 00:01:12,650 Talk about remembering the goodness of God as we go along. 19 00:01:12,650 --> 00:01:15,730 So if you have your Bible there, you may want to open it and 20 00:01:15,730 --> 00:01:18,170 follow the psalm with me. 21 00:01:18,670 --> 00:01:24,030 If you wanted to sum up the psalm in six words, I think it would 22 00:01:24,030 --> 00:01:29,150 be God's people keep forgetting his goodness. 23 00:01:30,990 --> 00:01:35,630 And if you want to put it into three words, Christians forget God. 24 00:01:37,070 --> 00:01:40,030 God's people keep forgetting his goodness. 25 00:01:40,030 --> 00:01:44,830 It seems that we have a tendency towards a kind of amnesia, 26 00:01:44,830 --> 00:01:46,190 if you want to put it that way. 27 00:01:46,900 --> 00:01:51,060 And if you see the Scriptures as portraying human behavior as it 28 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:56,420 actually is, then we have an inexplicable, persistent ability 29 00:01:56,500 --> 00:02:01,780 to experience the goodness of God and then act later on as if we'd 30 00:02:01,780 --> 00:02:03,860 never found that happening to us. 31 00:02:04,500 --> 00:02:07,220 So this morning I'm going to look at the idea from this psalm 32 00:02:07,220 --> 00:02:12,290 that memory matters, even though we keep forgetting, and to 33 00:02:12,290 --> 00:02:15,290 think of what God has done in response to it. 34 00:02:15,530 --> 00:02:16,770 And here's the first thing. 35 00:02:16,770 --> 00:02:19,370 Remembering is a command. 36 00:02:20,810 --> 00:02:24,370 I thought it would be quite helpful to try and understand what 37 00:02:24,370 --> 00:02:29,210 we think when we talk through biblical remembering and kind of 38 00:02:29,210 --> 00:02:31,130 unpack it, what it really means. 39 00:02:31,290 --> 00:02:36,290 Now, there are many inherent dangers with AI, but I have to tell 40 00:02:36,290 --> 00:02:37,930 you this, I find it a great tool. 41 00:02:37,930 --> 00:02:42,550 I sat in the study and I thought, lord, how do I use an illustration 42 00:02:42,550 --> 00:02:46,910 of looking at the difference between biblical remembrance and 43 00:02:46,910 --> 00:02:47,830 reminiscence? 44 00:02:48,310 --> 00:02:53,310 And so I typed into my Google AI assistant and I got what I thought 45 00:02:53,310 --> 00:02:55,350 was quite a wonderful answer. 46 00:02:55,910 --> 00:02:59,710 Let me quote some of that and then another bit will come up on 47 00:02:59,710 --> 00:03:00,070 screen. 48 00:03:00,070 --> 00:03:06,310 The biblical command to remember means to act on past events. 49 00:03:06,790 --> 00:03:11,770 While reminiscing is just quiet, emotional thought about the 50 00:03:11,770 --> 00:03:12,090 past. 51 00:03:12,410 --> 00:03:14,810 That's what my AI assistant said. 52 00:03:14,810 --> 00:03:19,690 And then I read this in Google and I hope It'll come up on screen. 53 00:03:20,570 --> 00:03:26,170 Active obedience versus passive reflection, Covenant loyalty 54 00:03:26,170 --> 00:03:32,090 versus personal nostalgia and transforming the present versus escaping 55 00:03:32,490 --> 00:03:34,050 into yesterday. 56 00:03:34,050 --> 00:03:38,820 And I thought, wow, that is a really helpful way to understand 57 00:03:39,700 --> 00:03:43,700 the difference between biblical remembering and reminiscing. 58 00:03:43,700 --> 00:03:47,540 Active obedience versus passive reflection. 59 00:03:48,020 --> 00:03:53,300 We have the Ten Commandments, and I've often said that the commandments 60 00:03:53,300 --> 00:03:57,260 of God are like a fire guard that we put round our fires when 61 00:03:57,260 --> 00:03:58,300 our children are younger. 62 00:03:58,300 --> 00:04:01,220 We don't want them going in when the fire is blazing. 63 00:04:01,300 --> 00:04:04,260 And we put fire guards around the fire. 64 00:04:05,170 --> 00:04:08,970 And to me, the commands of God are like a fire guard that God has 65 00:04:08,970 --> 00:04:11,330 given us so we don't get burnt. 66 00:04:11,970 --> 00:04:15,010 And it's to protect us, not to limit our freedom. 67 00:04:15,490 --> 00:04:19,690 And so when we begin to think of active obedience to the commands 68 00:04:19,690 --> 00:04:22,810 of God, then we're obeying the commandments. 69 00:04:22,810 --> 00:04:27,210 We're living in the light of the commandments as opposed to passively 70 00:04:27,210 --> 00:04:27,810 reflecting. 71 00:04:27,810 --> 00:04:32,050 Well, they're good things to have covenant loyalty versus personal 72 00:04:32,370 --> 00:04:33,250 nostalgia. 73 00:04:33,870 --> 00:04:37,230 And the Bible is full of covenants and of course the greatest 74 00:04:37,230 --> 00:04:39,070 covenant, the covenant of salvation. 75 00:04:39,230 --> 00:04:43,950 And when God enters into a covenant, he has his part to play 76 00:04:43,950 --> 00:04:45,710 and we have our part to play. 77 00:04:46,190 --> 00:04:49,070 And so we need to remember what God has promised. 78 00:04:49,309 --> 00:04:51,750 We need to remember what we have promised. 79 00:04:51,750 --> 00:04:54,950 And that is more important than personal nostalgia. 80 00:04:54,950 --> 00:04:56,350 Wasn't God good to us? 81 00:04:56,510 --> 00:04:58,110 Hasn't he done great things? 82 00:04:58,910 --> 00:05:03,870 And transforming the present versus escaping is into yesterday. 83 00:05:04,590 --> 00:05:10,030 God wants us to make a difference in our homes, in our communities, 84 00:05:10,430 --> 00:05:11,950 in the world in which we live. 85 00:05:11,950 --> 00:05:16,350 He wants us to be a people of transformation who are transforming 86 00:05:16,350 --> 00:05:21,310 society and the world, rather than escaping into the nostalgia 87 00:05:21,310 --> 00:05:24,670 of yesterday, which brings nothing but stagnation. 88 00:05:25,230 --> 00:05:26,910 Ah, remember the good old days. 89 00:05:27,390 --> 00:05:30,630 And you remember the good old days and moan about them and moan 90 00:05:30,630 --> 00:05:33,070 about today, but you don't actually do anything. 91 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:40,200 So biblical remembrance leads us to active obedience and transformation. 92 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:44,400 The Bible isn't talking about a nostalgia that talks of the good 93 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:45,720 old days, whatever they were. 94 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,560 It's about understanding what obedience to the Lord means. 95 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,800 It's about understanding that through Christ Jesus, God has entered 96 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:56,040 into a covenant of salvation with us. 97 00:05:56,040 --> 00:06:01,070 And that requires a daily obedience and the daily transformation 98 00:06:01,070 --> 00:06:04,230 of our lives by the working of the Holy Spirit within us. 99 00:06:04,790 --> 00:06:08,870 And his job, the job of the Holy Spirit, is to fashion us into 100 00:06:08,870 --> 00:06:10,470 the likeness of Jesus. 101 00:06:10,790 --> 00:06:12,310 That's an amazing thing. 102 00:06:13,430 --> 00:06:17,910 So at the beginning of this psalm, let's read verses 2 to 4, 103 00:06:17,990 --> 00:06:19,212 Psalm 78. 104 00:06:19,368 --> 00:06:20,070 2. 105 00:06:20,870 --> 00:06:23,510 I will open my mouth in parables. 106 00:06:23,830 --> 00:06:28,100 I will utter hidden things, things from of old, what we have 107 00:06:28,100 --> 00:06:30,740 heard and known what our fathers have told us. 108 00:06:31,060 --> 00:06:33,140 We will not hide them from their children. 109 00:06:33,540 --> 00:06:37,740 We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds 110 00:06:37,740 --> 00:06:40,980 of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done. 111 00:06:42,340 --> 00:06:47,020 The Psalm's author, Asaph, doesn't use the Psalm to say it would 112 00:06:47,020 --> 00:06:48,820 be good if we remembered. 113 00:06:49,460 --> 00:06:52,460 He doesn't say it would be nice if we remembered. 114 00:06:52,460 --> 00:06:57,310 A great hobby for the sentimentalists to engage in remembering 115 00:06:57,310 --> 00:07:00,430 is, if you want to put it this way, a job. 116 00:07:01,230 --> 00:07:06,270 It's a command, it's a responsibility placed upon would 117 00:07:06,270 --> 00:07:07,790 be followers of Jesus. 118 00:07:08,350 --> 00:07:13,150 And we can so easily drift into forgetting that we need to recognize 119 00:07:13,150 --> 00:07:16,430 the need for intentionality when it comes to remembering. 120 00:07:17,310 --> 00:07:20,870 You see, what I was trying to say to the children, probably quite 121 00:07:20,870 --> 00:07:25,350 inadequately, is that a house without pictures is a house without 122 00:07:25,350 --> 00:07:25,990 memories. 123 00:07:26,470 --> 00:07:28,710 Maybe your walls at home are completely blank. 124 00:07:28,710 --> 00:07:29,510 I hope they're not. 125 00:07:29,510 --> 00:07:33,430 But a house without pictures is a house without memories. 126 00:07:34,390 --> 00:07:38,390 And in our spiritual lives, we need to have those things that help 127 00:07:38,390 --> 00:07:43,270 us to remember the goodness of God, picture hooks, if you like, 128 00:07:43,270 --> 00:07:47,800 on which we can hang the memories of what God has done that 129 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,760 help us to be able to tell out our soul the wonderful things that 130 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:52,640 God has done. 131 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:57,920 It means telling the story of God's goodness aloud to any who will 132 00:07:57,920 --> 00:07:58,480 listen. 133 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:05,320 If no one listens to the story of our lives or knows the story of 134 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:07,600 our lives, it can disappear. 135 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,600 Now, I don't know about you, but I find that quite a challenge. 136 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,560 Many of us are quite reticent when it comes to sharing our faith 137 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:17,120 with others. 138 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:22,600 But how often it is that we should tell aloud the goodness of 139 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:26,480 God and the things that God has done for us and not to be ashamed 140 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,679 to tell our family, our neighbors and our friends what God 141 00:08:29,679 --> 00:08:30,240 has done. 142 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:35,520 If the story of our lives is not spoken aloud, it can disappear. 143 00:08:36,560 --> 00:08:37,440 And here's the thing. 144 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:41,530 Now, of course, there are many translations of the Bible, but my 145 00:08:41,530 --> 00:08:46,090 understanding is that the word remember and its derivatives appear 146 00:08:46,330 --> 00:08:48,650 around 200 times in the Bible. 147 00:08:49,610 --> 00:08:50,730 So it must be important. 148 00:08:51,770 --> 00:08:55,530 And the reason for it is often described in terms of one generation 149 00:08:55,530 --> 00:08:59,810 telling the next the goodness of God, who will then tell the next 150 00:08:59,810 --> 00:09:02,170 generation the goodness of God? 151 00:09:02,570 --> 00:09:06,330 I was speaking to a man who was involved in a mission this summer 152 00:09:06,810 --> 00:09:07,890 that went very well. 153 00:09:07,890 --> 00:09:10,650 They had quite a lot of people attending, quite a lot of children 154 00:09:11,230 --> 00:09:12,590 and young people attending. 155 00:09:13,390 --> 00:09:19,070 But he was actually shocked at what he said with the biblical ignorance 156 00:09:19,070 --> 00:09:19,870 of the children. 157 00:09:21,070 --> 00:09:25,710 Some of them, many of them, in fact the majority, he said, had not 158 00:09:25,710 --> 00:09:30,830 heard of who Daniel was or who Joseph was, or who Deborah was. 159 00:09:31,630 --> 00:09:35,790 They did not know about the heroes of the Old Testament, the 160 00:09:35,790 --> 00:09:39,920 stories of God that didn't even know about Jonah being swallowed 161 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:40,680 by the whale. 162 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:45,880 And I think it highlights for me one of the issues of today that 163 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:50,400 I think is that we have a huge biblical illiteracy, that too many 164 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:53,319 of us have lost a sense of what I call a family altar. 165 00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:56,360 When I was younger, that's what I called it. 166 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,240 And we had family time. 167 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:02,710 And it was time when we spoke together of Jesus and of his Word 168 00:10:02,860 --> 00:10:03,180 Word. 169 00:10:03,820 --> 00:10:05,740 And we tried to do that with our children. 170 00:10:05,740 --> 00:10:10,020 I'll say a bit more about that in a minute, but let's read Psalm 171 00:10:10,020 --> 00:10:14,140 78, 5, and the second part of that verse to 7. 172 00:10:14,780 --> 00:10:19,660 He that is God commanded our forefathers to teach their children 173 00:10:20,700 --> 00:10:22,940 so that the next generation would know them. 174 00:10:22,940 --> 00:10:24,140 That's God's laws. 175 00:10:24,540 --> 00:10:26,540 Even the children yet to be born. 176 00:10:27,100 --> 00:10:29,940 And they in turn would tell their children. 177 00:10:30,420 --> 00:10:34,820 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget 178 00:10:34,820 --> 00:10:38,180 his deeds, but would keep his commands. 179 00:10:38,500 --> 00:10:41,540 And there's a kind of parallel passage, if you want to take a note 180 00:10:41,540 --> 00:10:46,300 of it, then look it up later in Deuteronomy 6, 4:9. 181 00:10:46,300 --> 00:10:48,820 Deuteronomy 6, 4: 9. 182 00:10:49,620 --> 00:10:50,820 Let me ask you a question. 183 00:10:51,940 --> 00:10:56,300 Where do you think the primary responsibility for teaching the Christian 184 00:10:56,300 --> 00:10:57,140 faith lies? 185 00:10:58,190 --> 00:10:59,230 Sunday school teachers? 186 00:10:59,790 --> 00:11:01,870 With other youth leaders in the church? 187 00:11:01,870 --> 00:11:04,750 With what's taught in religious studies at school? 188 00:11:05,790 --> 00:11:07,950 No, no and no. 189 00:11:08,990 --> 00:11:12,910 For no matter how good your leaders in church may be or in school, 190 00:11:13,549 --> 00:11:17,870 and not as much as taught in school today as it was in my generation, 191 00:11:18,030 --> 00:11:22,870 of the goodness of God and the commands of God, the reality is the 192 00:11:22,870 --> 00:11:25,730 primary responsibility lies with parents. 193 00:11:26,370 --> 00:11:29,290 And if parents don't have faith, there may be grandparents 194 00:11:29,290 --> 00:11:35,770 or uncles or aunts who have a responsibility to help the young 195 00:11:35,770 --> 00:11:39,450 generation learn about the goodness of God and the grace of 196 00:11:39,450 --> 00:11:45,290 God and the mercy of God, and to tell the next generation, and 197 00:11:45,290 --> 00:11:50,530 I wonder whether we need to build or rebuild family altars, maybe 198 00:11:51,020 --> 00:11:54,620 you could think about some way of learning to read the Bible together. 199 00:11:55,660 --> 00:11:58,300 Maybe you could make sure those of you who have children or 200 00:11:58,300 --> 00:12:02,740 grandchildren that you provide stories of the characters of the 201 00:12:02,740 --> 00:12:06,220 Bible and help them to understand them in the context of 202 00:12:06,220 --> 00:12:06,780 Scripture. 203 00:12:07,420 --> 00:12:10,420 Maybe you could find something that works for you. 204 00:12:10,420 --> 00:12:13,260 But don't just pray for your family, pray with them. 205 00:12:14,700 --> 00:12:17,580 We used to have a very chaotic mealtime. 206 00:12:17,740 --> 00:12:19,100 And this is going back. 207 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:21,720 As I said earlier, it was a bit of a dinosaur with PowerPoint 208 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:23,000 many years ago. 209 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:28,320 The phone would always go at dinner time, and my wife and I with 210 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:29,800 our four children would be around the table. 211 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:33,760 And I would leave and answer the phone and come back and, you 212 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:37,160 know, dinner sometimes was cold and sometimes in the oven. 213 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:38,600 People had moved on. 214 00:12:38,920 --> 00:12:41,520 Then we discovered an answerphone. 215 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:45,040 Do you remember those old answerphones, like a rectangular 216 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:48,780 box you got and plugged into your phone and it took the messages 217 00:12:48,860 --> 00:12:49,420 for you. 218 00:12:50,060 --> 00:12:54,420 And we took time around the dinner table to turn off tv, to turn 219 00:12:54,420 --> 00:12:59,020 off radio, and we just began asking questions to the children. 220 00:12:59,260 --> 00:13:00,380 What about your day? 221 00:13:01,100 --> 00:13:02,660 Anything bad happened? 222 00:13:02,660 --> 00:13:05,020 Anything happened that made you glad? 223 00:13:05,340 --> 00:13:06,940 Anything that made you sad? 224 00:13:07,580 --> 00:13:11,780 And we would talk about them, and then we would pray, and we would 225 00:13:11,780 --> 00:13:14,060 pray for the children in the next day. 226 00:13:14,940 --> 00:13:18,460 When our children were young, we used to read with them every night, 227 00:13:18,460 --> 00:13:22,580 try to encourage them to read the Scriptures, children's Bible, 228 00:13:22,580 --> 00:13:24,620 and to, you know, when they're very, very young. 229 00:13:24,620 --> 00:13:26,860 Things with more pictures than words, perhaps. 230 00:13:27,580 --> 00:13:31,020 But we taught our children the things of God. 231 00:13:32,540 --> 00:13:36,620 And telling the story of the goodness of God isn't about nostalgia. 232 00:13:36,700 --> 00:13:41,140 It's providing the soil in which faith may grow from generation 233 00:13:41,140 --> 00:13:42,060 to generation. 234 00:13:43,190 --> 00:13:44,710 Remembering is a command. 235 00:13:45,350 --> 00:13:46,390 But why is it important? 236 00:13:47,110 --> 00:13:50,150 Well, because secondly, we quickly forget. 237 00:13:51,110 --> 00:13:55,110 Now, we're not going to take time reading the next 55 verses of 238 00:13:55,110 --> 00:13:56,150 Psalm 78. 239 00:13:56,390 --> 00:13:59,710 But it would be lovely if you determined to make time today, or 240 00:13:59,710 --> 00:14:01,590 whenever you can, to read through it all. 241 00:14:01,830 --> 00:14:06,870 Because here's where the psalm begins to make for very uncomfortable 242 00:14:06,870 --> 00:14:07,430 reading. 243 00:14:07,990 --> 00:14:13,270 You read the story, and story after story, you find that the people 244 00:14:13,350 --> 00:14:16,750 of God kept forgetting the goodness of God. 245 00:14:16,750 --> 00:14:21,190 It may seem incredible to us, but it's so, so very sad. 246 00:14:21,990 --> 00:14:26,630 God parts the Red Sea, and the people forget. 247 00:14:27,830 --> 00:14:31,230 God gives them a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire by night 248 00:14:31,230 --> 00:14:32,150 to guide them. 249 00:14:32,790 --> 00:14:34,870 And later on, the people forget. 250 00:14:36,020 --> 00:14:40,900 God provides water from a rock in the desert, and the people forget. 251 00:14:41,460 --> 00:14:46,020 God rains down bread of manna, the food of angels, every morning 252 00:14:46,020 --> 00:14:46,980 without fail. 253 00:14:47,700 --> 00:14:49,220 And the people forget. 254 00:14:49,460 --> 00:14:54,820 God provides quails for them to eat meat, and the people forget. 255 00:14:55,140 --> 00:14:56,020 What a pattern. 256 00:14:56,980 --> 00:15:00,820 Again and again, God provided miraculously for his people. 257 00:15:00,980 --> 00:15:01,940 And here's the thing. 258 00:15:02,020 --> 00:15:08,770 Perhaps no nation or generation had more tangible signs 259 00:15:08,770 --> 00:15:13,570 of God's presence than the people of Israel in the Old Testament. 260 00:15:14,610 --> 00:15:19,050 You see, you can know all the facts and all the details, but lose 261 00:15:19,050 --> 00:15:22,530 sight of their meaning when manna gets boring. 262 00:15:23,010 --> 00:15:27,410 When it ceases to be a miracle because it's provided every day without 263 00:15:27,490 --> 00:15:32,900 fail, you can be tempted to wander away from God, wander away 264 00:15:32,900 --> 00:15:36,100 from the miraculous part of it all. 265 00:15:36,580 --> 00:15:40,820 And when you lose sight of the giver and you take your eyes off 266 00:15:40,820 --> 00:15:47,779 the gift and you Recognize that you need to remember God more 267 00:15:47,779 --> 00:15:48,380 and more. 268 00:15:48,380 --> 00:15:51,860 You see, you can let me make that a little bit more clear. 269 00:15:52,260 --> 00:15:56,580 We can take our eyes of the giver and concentrate on the gift. 270 00:15:56,660 --> 00:15:57,300 Too much. 271 00:15:58,810 --> 00:16:02,130 I guess most of us here this morning are not skeptics wondering 272 00:16:02,130 --> 00:16:06,490 if God exists, but we may be forgetters who need reminding. 273 00:16:07,130 --> 00:16:12,650 Look at Psalm 78 and there's a selection of verses here, 11, 32 274 00:16:12,890 --> 00:16:14,730 and 41, which I'm going to read. 275 00:16:14,810 --> 00:16:16,570 Hopefully they come up on screen. 276 00:16:16,650 --> 00:16:17,930 Psalm 78, 11. 277 00:16:18,010 --> 00:16:22,810 First of all, they forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown 278 00:16:22,810 --> 00:16:23,050 them. 279 00:16:23,780 --> 00:16:25,140 You can hardly believe that. 280 00:16:25,940 --> 00:16:30,620 You know, the wonders of God parting the Red Sea, providing Mannathey 281 00:16:30,620 --> 00:16:34,140 forgot what God had done, the wonders he had shown them. 282 00:16:34,140 --> 00:16:35,460 And then verse 32. 283 00:16:35,700 --> 00:16:38,420 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning. 284 00:16:38,740 --> 00:16:41,460 In spite of his wonders, they did not believe. 285 00:16:42,420 --> 00:16:46,180 And verse 41, again and again they put God to the test. 286 00:16:46,420 --> 00:16:49,380 They vexed the Holy One of Israel. 287 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:54,520 An interesting statement I want to pick up on in verse 41. 288 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:58,120 They vexed the Holy One of Israel. 289 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:02,760 Asaph says the sins of the people tested God. 290 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:03,560 How? 291 00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:09,680 Because you need to understand that there is this idea of God's 292 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:13,160 wrath and holiness that needs to be assuaged. 293 00:17:14,840 --> 00:17:18,920 And on the other side of that wrath and holiness is God's love 294 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:19,960 and mercy. 295 00:17:20,850 --> 00:17:25,690 And so it's as if a holy God is full of wrath and holiness and 296 00:17:25,690 --> 00:17:27,410 justice and righteousness. 297 00:17:27,730 --> 00:17:31,770 And if he were only to apply all of that to us, none of us would 298 00:17:31,770 --> 00:17:33,490 stand and none of us would be alive. 299 00:17:33,490 --> 00:17:38,530 And so it's wrapped up in love and mercy and grace that tests the 300 00:17:38,530 --> 00:17:38,930 Lord. 301 00:17:39,890 --> 00:17:43,330 And Asaph says it vexed the Lord. 302 00:17:44,610 --> 00:17:48,880 Interestingly, the King James version of the Bible that doesn't 303 00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:51,960 use the word vexed but talks about limiting. 304 00:17:53,400 --> 00:18:00,240 And I think it's an indicator that when we begin to take our eyes 305 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:04,280 of God and we begin to take our eyes of the goodness of God, 306 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:09,240 then we begin to put lines around what God might do. 307 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:12,360 And I'll come back to that in a moment. 308 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:16,870 I have not a very big family. 309 00:18:16,870 --> 00:18:21,070 I'm a father of four in law to two. 310 00:18:21,230 --> 00:18:23,350 I am a grandfather of four. 311 00:18:23,350 --> 00:18:27,350 I have siblings in a wider family circle, not a huge family 312 00:18:27,350 --> 00:18:27,950 circle. 313 00:18:28,190 --> 00:18:29,590 I love my family circle. 314 00:18:29,590 --> 00:18:31,070 I'm very grateful for them. 315 00:18:31,390 --> 00:18:33,110 They're a blessing and a privilege. 316 00:18:33,110 --> 00:18:37,790 But if I'm honest, I see some in the family rejecting God. 317 00:18:38,510 --> 00:18:41,550 I see some making shipwreck of their lives. 318 00:18:41,630 --> 00:18:45,360 And it grieves me, vexes me greatly. 319 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:51,960 So I understand, dare I say it to a Very minuscule degree, very 320 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:52,800 miniscule. 321 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:57,040 What it must be like for our heavenly Father to see his people 322 00:18:57,360 --> 00:18:57,840 sin. 323 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:02,000 How does God feel when we deliberately disobey Him? 324 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,880 How does he feel when we ignore the Scriptures? 325 00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:08,560 How does he feel if we live lives that deny the power and grace 326 00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:13,630 of the Gospel in it vexes him, just as a parent is vexed by the 327 00:19:13,630 --> 00:19:16,750 child's persistent rebellion and distrust. 328 00:19:17,470 --> 00:19:21,390 So let me come back to the King James version that says limited 329 00:19:21,390 --> 00:19:22,750 instead of vexing. 330 00:19:23,950 --> 00:19:28,110 You see, even when we've seen God parting the sea and providing 331 00:19:28,670 --> 00:19:34,830 manna, we still doubt that God can meet our next need, don't we? 332 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:37,800 I think we need to be honest about this. 333 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:40,760 We have experienced the goodness of God. 334 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:43,800 The children of Israel experienced the goodness of God. 335 00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:47,600 And we know as we look back into the past that God has turned 336 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:51,640 up for us in the past faithfully and regularly. 337 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:57,880 And yet somehow we doubt if he can meet us for the next problem 338 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:00,600 and difficulty that's coming our way. 339 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,460 We forget the goodness of God. 340 00:20:04,580 --> 00:20:08,420 And what I was saying a moment ago about the King James saying that 341 00:20:08,420 --> 00:20:12,740 instead of vexed to use the word limited, here's the thing. 342 00:20:13,780 --> 00:20:18,740 When Jesus was seeking to minister in his hometown of Nazareth, 343 00:20:19,620 --> 00:20:24,340 there's a wonderfully interesting and very sad statement 344 00:20:24,980 --> 00:20:28,820 that was made by Mark in his gospel, Mark 6:5. 345 00:20:29,740 --> 00:20:34,300 He could not do any miracles there except lay his hand on a few 346 00:20:34,300 --> 00:20:35,980 sick people and heal them. 347 00:20:36,540 --> 00:20:39,340 And he was amazed at their lack of faith. 348 00:20:40,700 --> 00:20:43,100 Prophet is without honor in his own country. 349 00:20:44,540 --> 00:20:46,220 But they limited him. 350 00:20:47,020 --> 00:20:52,300 They limited the work that he was able to do because they rejected 351 00:20:52,300 --> 00:20:52,860 Jesus. 352 00:20:55,030 --> 00:20:59,510 One of the hymns that we might have sung today is the old hymn, 353 00:20:59,590 --> 00:21:03,110 Count your many blessings, name them one by one. 354 00:21:03,510 --> 00:21:06,630 I want to challenge you this morning and encourage you. 355 00:21:07,510 --> 00:21:13,350 If you haven't done so for a while, go home and sit down and count 356 00:21:13,510 --> 00:21:15,590 the blessings of God in your life. 357 00:21:15,750 --> 00:21:18,910 Write them down and the hymn. 358 00:21:18,910 --> 00:21:22,890 It might sound like a cliche, but when you begin writing down all 359 00:21:22,890 --> 00:21:27,290 the things that God has done for you, it will genuinely surprise 360 00:21:27,290 --> 00:21:28,730 you what God has done. 361 00:21:29,690 --> 00:21:35,490 And you see, in writing down and in thinking through and in understanding 362 00:21:35,490 --> 00:21:38,290 all the things that God has done for you, counting your many 363 00:21:38,290 --> 00:21:43,130 blessings, you end up remembering and not forgetting. 364 00:21:44,330 --> 00:21:45,930 So remembering is a command. 365 00:21:46,740 --> 00:21:48,780 Because secondly, we quickly forget that. 366 00:21:48,780 --> 00:21:53,380 Thirdly, this morning God's faithfulness outlasts our forgetting. 367 00:21:54,340 --> 00:21:58,380 Now, I understand that a common theme that your minister has 368 00:21:58,380 --> 00:22:01,300 been exploring with you in the Psalms is the concept of waiting. 369 00:22:02,180 --> 00:22:05,140 Perhaps we see that concept in verse 65. 370 00:22:05,780 --> 00:22:10,420 Then the Lord awoke as from a Sleep as a man wakes from the stupor 371 00:22:10,500 --> 00:22:11,220 of wine. 372 00:22:11,860 --> 00:22:16,590 Then a very descriptive way to talk about God as being asleep. 373 00:22:16,590 --> 00:22:20,870 Remember Jesus was asleep in the boat that on the lake was going 374 00:22:20,870 --> 00:22:23,190 through the storm and the water was coming in. 375 00:22:23,190 --> 00:22:27,350 The disciples were worried the boat was going to sink, and Jesus 376 00:22:27,350 --> 00:22:28,510 was sound asleep. 377 00:22:28,510 --> 00:22:31,710 And then he woke from the sleep and he speaks to the storm, 378 00:22:32,430 --> 00:22:35,150 and he calms the storm and he calms the waves. 379 00:22:36,110 --> 00:22:37,870 And the disciples were amazed. 380 00:22:37,870 --> 00:22:41,360 But sometimes we think God is asleep. 381 00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:44,800 Sometimes we think God has forgotten about us. 382 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:47,840 Sometimes we feel that God is absent. 383 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:52,960 And sometimes we get very frustrated with our prayers. 384 00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:58,880 I have been praying for some people in my family for decades, 385 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,360 and we have yet to see God's answers to prayer. 386 00:23:05,210 --> 00:23:08,490 And sometimes when it comes to praying, we say, lord, I want you 387 00:23:08,490 --> 00:23:09,650 to answer my prayer. 388 00:23:09,650 --> 00:23:11,530 But yesterday would be really great. 389 00:23:13,370 --> 00:23:17,810 God encourages us to persistence and to obedience and 390 00:23:17,810 --> 00:23:21,370 to trust and to faith and to keep on going on. 391 00:23:22,570 --> 00:23:29,090 But sometimes it may seem that the Lord is absent, and then he comes 392 00:23:29,090 --> 00:23:31,370 and does something rather wonderful. 393 00:23:32,500 --> 00:23:35,780 And sometimes you then need to understand that it is God who needs 394 00:23:35,780 --> 00:23:40,100 to be far more patient with us than we have to be patient with Him. 395 00:23:41,140 --> 00:23:46,260 And in spite of forgetting the goodness of God, here's some wonderful 396 00:23:46,260 --> 00:23:48,019 things from Psalm 78. 397 00:23:48,020 --> 00:23:49,860 I'm going to read verse 38. 398 00:23:49,860 --> 00:23:51,540 First of all, if you have your Bible open. 399 00:23:51,780 --> 00:23:54,260 And then 70 to 72. 400 00:23:55,220 --> 00:23:57,540 So verse 38 of Psalm 78. 401 00:23:58,380 --> 00:24:00,140 Yet he was merciful. 402 00:24:00,700 --> 00:24:04,460 He forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. 403 00:24:04,940 --> 00:24:10,460 Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his 404 00:24:10,460 --> 00:24:11,500 full wrath. 405 00:24:12,300 --> 00:24:13,740 Goodness, isn't that amazing? 406 00:24:14,620 --> 00:24:20,300 Can you picture a God who is so vexed by our sin that his holiness 407 00:24:20,380 --> 00:24:27,850 wants to destroy that which is on unholy and on anything of his? 408 00:24:29,690 --> 00:24:34,610 And it says that God restrained his anger and did not 409 00:24:34,610 --> 00:24:36,250 stir up his full wrath. 410 00:24:36,810 --> 00:24:42,090 And then verses 70 to 72, he chose David his servant and took 411 00:24:42,090 --> 00:24:43,530 him from the sheep pens. 412 00:24:43,850 --> 00:24:46,530 From tending the sheep, he brought him to be the shepherd of 413 00:24:46,530 --> 00:24:49,370 his people, Jacob of Israel, his inheritance. 414 00:24:50,020 --> 00:24:54,420 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart, with skillful 415 00:24:54,420 --> 00:24:56,180 hands he led them. 416 00:24:57,140 --> 00:24:58,900 God is the forgiver of sin. 417 00:25:00,020 --> 00:25:01,860 God is the giver of hope. 418 00:25:02,740 --> 00:25:08,020 He is the ultimate paragon of patience with us, even when we vex 419 00:25:08,020 --> 00:25:10,820 him, even when we limit him. 420 00:25:11,460 --> 00:25:14,980 And he has provided care and protection for us. 421 00:25:15,370 --> 00:25:20,450 For Asaph and the psalmist's contemporaries, David was the shepherd 422 00:25:20,450 --> 00:25:22,530 God had provided for us. 423 00:25:22,530 --> 00:25:27,050 It's even better because God sent Jesus, the good shepherd, to 424 00:25:27,050 --> 00:25:30,370 be our shepherd, our protector, our guide. 425 00:25:30,370 --> 00:25:32,010 Through this life to the next. 426 00:25:33,450 --> 00:25:38,690 But there's something rather remarkable and possibly even slightly 427 00:25:38,690 --> 00:25:43,050 bizarre, because on the one hand, while God says to us, remember 428 00:25:43,050 --> 00:25:47,210 my goodness, remember my commandments, remember to live out 429 00:25:47,450 --> 00:25:51,650 my commandments and to be transformative in how you live and 430 00:25:51,650 --> 00:25:56,610 to actively live for me to tell out loud my story, to tell out 431 00:25:56,610 --> 00:26:01,890 loud the goodness of God, in spite of all that emphasis from God, 432 00:26:01,890 --> 00:26:03,850 to remember, to remember, to remember. 433 00:26:04,730 --> 00:26:07,130 He chooses not to remember. 434 00:26:08,170 --> 00:26:09,290 Isn't that bizarre? 435 00:26:09,930 --> 00:26:12,330 But also rather wonderful. 436 00:26:13,500 --> 00:26:19,260 And not in the psalm, but one of my favorite verses, Jeremiah 31:4. 437 00:26:19,660 --> 00:26:24,300 This is what God says, for I will forgive their wickedness and 438 00:26:24,300 --> 00:26:27,180 will remember their sins no more. 439 00:26:28,459 --> 00:26:32,140 I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins 440 00:26:32,140 --> 00:26:32,700 no more. 441 00:26:32,700 --> 00:26:37,380 I choose, says God, when you confess your sins, when you turn 442 00:26:37,380 --> 00:26:41,910 to me, I choose to no longer remember your sins. 443 00:26:42,550 --> 00:26:47,150 Those things God says that vex me, that stir up my wrath, that stir 444 00:26:47,150 --> 00:26:51,190 up my anger, that make me feel I have to restrain myself. 445 00:26:51,430 --> 00:26:55,750 I choose, says God, to remember your sins no more. 446 00:26:57,590 --> 00:27:03,790 David, one of the great men of God in the Bible, was also somebody 447 00:27:03,790 --> 00:27:05,030 who sinned greatly. 448 00:27:06,660 --> 00:27:10,100 And yet he was able to write, blot out my transgressions. 449 00:27:10,980 --> 00:27:14,020 Now I don't think any of us are old enough to remember school, 450 00:27:14,020 --> 00:27:18,340 when it was a slate that you put chalk on and then wiped it clean, 451 00:27:18,820 --> 00:27:20,300 or blackboards like that. 452 00:27:20,300 --> 00:27:24,580 But of course, in David's time, people wrote on wax tablets. 453 00:27:25,220 --> 00:27:28,300 And when the tablet was full and they wanted to write something 454 00:27:28,300 --> 00:27:30,740 more, they just smoothed over the wax tablet. 455 00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,040 Every trace of the writing on it was gone. 456 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,400 And a new page, as it were, was able to begun. 457 00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:41,400 That's what God chooses to do for us. 458 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,640 I choose to remember your sin no more. 459 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:48,840 What a wonderful God to remember. 460 00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:56,000 So this morning, as we finish, let's remember that remembering God's 461 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:57,400 goodness is a command. 462 00:27:58,490 --> 00:28:00,010 It's a command of scripture. 463 00:28:00,650 --> 00:28:04,050 I don't know what's written on your communion table, but in the 464 00:28:04,050 --> 00:28:09,610 church I served for 32 years, we had printed in the communion table 465 00:28:09,850 --> 00:28:14,410 etched into the wood, do this in remembrance of me. 466 00:28:16,010 --> 00:28:17,050 And I love that. 467 00:28:17,770 --> 00:28:22,010 And the table and the baptismal font stand as reminders 468 00:28:22,010 --> 00:28:25,210 to us every Sunday when we come to worship the Lord's table 469 00:28:25,290 --> 00:28:25,450 and. 470 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,480 And the baptismal font, the sacraments that God has given us, 471 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:32,800 to remember him and to remember his covenant of salvation, 472 00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:34,480 and to not forget. 473 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,880 So remembering God's goodness is a command. 474 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:42,640 Secondly, let's be honest, we forget faster and more than we admit. 475 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:48,800 But thirdly, we rejoice that God's patience outlasts our forgetting 476 00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:53,200 and he chooses to remember our sins no more. 477 00:28:54,540 --> 00:28:55,700 Let's join together in prayer. 478 00:28:55,700 --> 00:28:59,740 Let's pray, Father. 479 00:28:59,740 --> 00:29:05,820 It's maybe been hard to get ahold of this very long psalm, but 480 00:29:05,980 --> 00:29:11,260 we thank you that as you have challenged us to be people who remember 481 00:29:12,460 --> 00:29:17,140 your commandments, who remember the stories of scripture 482 00:29:17,140 --> 00:29:21,940 and all that you have done for us, and help us to be people who 483 00:29:22,180 --> 00:29:26,820 intentionally take steps to remember all that you have done, 484 00:29:28,100 --> 00:29:31,700 it may be that you challenge some of us this morning, Lord, to 485 00:29:32,180 --> 00:29:35,140 restore or begin family altars. 486 00:29:36,420 --> 00:29:41,500 Help us to examine how we might do that practically with the 487 00:29:41,500 --> 00:29:44,260 kind of families that we have in every family different. 488 00:29:45,790 --> 00:29:49,150 Maybe some of us need to ask, Lord, how do we help our children 489 00:29:49,790 --> 00:29:53,950 and our families remember the stories of scripture? 490 00:29:54,910 --> 00:29:59,510 For some of us, it may be to take out things like scripture, union 491 00:29:59,510 --> 00:30:04,110 notes, or some other form of helping us to read the Bible regularly 492 00:30:04,510 --> 00:30:06,030 so that we do not forget. 493 00:30:08,030 --> 00:30:13,070 Lord, help us to remember, but help us above all to remember that 494 00:30:13,070 --> 00:30:16,430 you're infinitely more patient with us than we are with you. 495 00:30:17,470 --> 00:30:22,030 And we thank you for that wonderful promise that when we trust 496 00:30:22,030 --> 00:30:26,870 you, when we commit our lives to you, you choose to remember our 497 00:30:26,870 --> 00:30:28,110 sins no more. 498 00:30:29,550 --> 00:30:33,390 So we thank you that you're in that business of choosing not to 499 00:30:33,390 --> 00:30:38,440 remember, but help us to remember the goodness of God and 500 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,680 these things we pray in and through the name of Jesus. 501 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:42,960 Amen.