Jesus, I'll Never Forget - Pastor Brad DeLong

This service is themed with praise and will continue to be themed with praise. We're thankful for the presence and the goodness of God that's in this room. And we're thankful for every guest who's joined us to worship the Lord and to glorify him. Our mission as a church, I just asked the kids in the back what the mission is. Why do we exist? And they shout it out in unison to connect with God and others. Those are more than just words that we rehearse. It's what we're doing right now. It's what we're going to do through our praise and through the word of God.

I'm going to ask you to keep your praise, your shout nearby, people of God. We're going to turn to Psalm 103. I'm going to ask you don't pick up your Bible and put down your praise. This isn't where praise stops and where listening is. Now, I want you to listen. All right? But you'll hear from this psalm that praise and the word go together. They're hand in hand because the psalmist says, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless his name." Oh, it's hard to get those words across your lips without a praise coming along with it.

just for good measure. HE SAYS, "BLESS THE LORD, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits." What benefits? Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. He continues, "The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy.

You I hear some amens from some people who've experienced this. He will not always strive with us. He doesn't keep his anger forever. He's not dealt with this according to our sins. He hasn't punished us according to our iniquities. For as high or as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. And the psalmist in light of all this determines that I will remember. I will not forget the benefits and the blessings and the good things of God.

I cannot forget his blessings. I shared with a couple elders what I was going to be speaking about couple saints as well. And I heard them say sever just at separate times they said the same thing. How could we forget? How could we forget what God has done? I won't forget his kindness. I won't forget his forgiveness, his mercy, HIS GOODNESS. I WILL BLESS THE LORD at all times, ESPECIALLY WHEN I CALL TO MIND the things that he's done for me. Oh, that praise that's welling up in you right now, I need you to keep it close by.

With your help and the guiding of the word of the Lord today, I'm going to praise the Lord and I'm going to preach from this memorable title and hopefully some of you will recognize it. It's simply Jesus, I'll never forget. Jesus, I'll never forget. I wonder if you just call to mind one thing the Lord has done for you and get in a posture of praise. Why don't you JUST GET ON THE EDGE of your seat and ready to praise? Would you call to mind that thing and begin to worship the Lord?

Oh, that every day and every time I've called on you, you've come, Lord. You've been there with me. So, I praise you and I glorify you and I worship you, oh God. And I will never forget what you've done for me. I'll never forget. Oh, thank you, Lord. I'm going to let you be seated for a couple minutes, but please stay in a posture of readiness. We're going to call to mind the things that the Lord has done, and we're going to worship him throughout this service this morning. Truth is, we're living in a time of forgetfulness.

Humanity has had forgetfulness as a part of its plight from our earliest moments and interactions with the Lord. And you can trace this throughout the scriptures. In fact, if you look at the law given in Deuteronomy, the Lord himself, he warns the people against what could be called maybe an unintentional or even in some cases an intentional act of forgetfulness. He says, "When you've eaten and you're full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he's given to you." He says, "Beware." Strong word. "Beware that you don't forget THE LORD YOUR GOD by keeping his commandments or by not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command you today." He says, "Lest when you've eaten and you're full and you've built beautiful houses and you dwell in them, and when your hearts and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, AND AND ALL THAT YOU HAVE ARE MULTIPLIED." It sounds I know that there's uh some some dispute here, but it sounds like modern day America in this text that you're enjoying all the benefits of the Lord and all the benefits of the land when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your GOD WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND of Egypt from the house of bondage.

And we see that's exactly what happened. And this becomes a cyclical pattern in Israel's history throughout their history. And it didn't stop with them. It didn't stop with those people of God. But instead, there is still an epidemic of forgetfulness that's been accelerated in our day and time. Neurologists and scientists have noted this and and just memory loss in general. This is research uh out of last year. It said that self-reported cognitive issues, memory loss, concentration problems, brain fog are rising sharply. And it's not just for those uh maybe who would consider themselves senior.

It's happening in those who are 18 to 40 as well over the last decade. And they pointed out some of the causes there, the obvious ones. Chronic stress, digital overload, post-pandemic mental health issues. So unintentional forgiven or forgetfulness is on the rise in and of itself. AND THERE'S A GENERAL LAPSE in memory that's affecting modern culture at large. A case in point, and some of you may not have known this. I didn't know it till I looked it up, but just last week alone, South Africa experienced a major water crisis.

Cuba faced its own humanitarian crisis. A literal cyclone hit Madagascar and killed almost 60 people. And likely, if some of us read that, we probably forgot it already. That doesn't mean that we're horrible persons. It doesn't mean that we're insensitive. But we JUST HAVE THIS ONSLAUGHT OF information and forgetfulness is happening regularly. Last year, eight different nations faced significant crises, including the death of over 230,000 people due to war along and with the uh war alone rather. And then we turned the calendar and many of us again, not because we're horrible, not because we didn't want to remember, but many of us forgot all the horrible things that happened in 2025 when 2026 arrived.

This isn't because people are wanting to be numb, but many attribute this forgetfulness to the the onslaught of information we face, the the digital overload, the overwhelming access we have to news and and current events, ongoing internal crises that we face. With all of this, it seems obvious. The danger of forgetfulness stressed in the scriptures is as real as it will ever get, especially when it comes to remembering the good things of God and all that he's done for us in the midst of those crises. Since the bad press seems to dominate, we often remember it more than the good, which means that we're often quick to forget the positive happenings even more so.

Let me just put it to you this way that there is a phenomenon in humanity that can easily forget or we can move on quickly from the blessings and the benefits that both the Lord and others bestow upon us. As you can imagine from my own track record and own experience, I found an example and analogy in three little ones that run around our house regularly. On more than one occasion, often immediately after a birthday or or Christmas season or a time when they've been given multiple gifts, they have this phenomenon that happens where they completely forget that gift.

and the giftgiver, especially when they want another gift or something new or something fun at the store. I notice it's like the Pavlov's dog syndrome that when we get to the toy aisle near the toy to toy store, they forget all the toys that they had just gotten a week or a month earlier and we get to the candy aisle and they they have no memory of the candy that they have had at home and other places. Memory evaporates. The gift they receive is null and void. And I can fault them all day for that.

But I do the exact same thing when it comes to the Lord and his gifts and benefits in my life. Probably more often than those precious kids do after their birthdays. Now, I'll just say I might offer a quick and cursory thank you. It might even be sincere. I thank you, Jesus. I tell them I I I express appreciation. I might even share and record what he's done. And I might even praise him maybe at least half a dozen times at best. But so often I forget that the very breath emanating from my lungs is a gift every day and every morning.

And and then I go and I pitch a fit when something new comes or I I don't immediately receive that answer that I want. Is that real enough? I have innumerable benefits, but I forget them as soon as an inconvenience arises. And because of it, I realize all the more this morning there's a there's a reason that Psalm 103 exists in the first place. There's a reason that the song I referenced in this title today exists. Children aren't the only ones who forget. They're not they don't they're not the only ones that forget the vast benefits they've been given.

In fact, it was in 1954 that Sam Cook and Roy Crane wrote and composed this song, Jesus, I'll Never Forget. Likely for the very reason we're referencing today. They they felt the need in the 50s to help others recall the goodness and the gifts of the Lord. And then this song was re-recorded a couple years ago by a gospel choir to keep alive the sentiment that Psalm 103 conveys. Many of you know it. Jesus, I'll never forget what you've done for me. Jesus, I'll never forget how you set me free.

You'd sing it. Jesus, I'll never forget how you brought me out. Jesus, I'll never forget. No, never. No, never. I sang that last line earlier this week and I felt such a conviction. That's an easy and wonderful song to sing. A lot harder to live. It's hard. It's hard to remember sometimes when there are things we're hoping to forget. When we're inundated with things that we want to forget and they surface in every place from social media to the doctor's office to to last month's email threads, it can be difficult for the sunlight to break through and for the benefits to start to outweigh the beriements in any given moment.

This may be why the psalmist had to speak to his own soul and stir it awake. He hasn't talked to anybody else. He says, "Bless the Lord." Oh my soul, bless the Lord, oh and all that is within me. And just in case his soul didn't hear it, he says it again and and then another time for good measure. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. He uses an imperative. He uses an emphatic command to arrest his soul, his heart to cause it to awake. You need to remember. And he he likely does this from a place that like some of ours today is inundated with things that he would rather forget and not remember.

Some theorize that the psalmist is coming out of a dark place, maybe even a time of sickness and gloom. And this psalm is mostly attributed to David who more than once had to just stop and encourage himself in the Lord. One writer says that he believed that the psalmist is rousing himself and shaking off SOME APATHY AND SHAKING off some grief and saying, "You know what? I've got a reason to bless God." And I know how it looks right now, but I still got a reason to lift my voice. I still got a reason to lift my hands.

I still got a reason to bless the Lord and TO BLESS HIS NAME. OH, I've got a reason to praise him. If I'm reading it right, David is coming through and out of a season of potential sickness and gloom and darkness. And one of the ways that he puts a punctuation mark on it is is by stirring his own soul to worship and to praise the Lord and to bless the Lord. And just in case, his praise in and of itself isn't enough to help him climb out of the cave.

He starts to make a list of all the benefits of the Lord, the ones that the Lord had graciously given to him. He he calls to mind the Lord's benefits. David intentionally reviews the excellence of the Lord, the exploits of the Lord, and his response is is telling. You see a pattern in his life. Psalm 68, he has a similar pattern. He says this, "Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits. The God of our salvation." Again, presumably the same psalmist David, he has a pattern of encouraging himself in times of difficulty, in times of struggle, in times of uncertainty.

He would shake himself and and cause himself to remember and praise the good God that he served as well as recall all the wondrous things and all the works that God had already done on his behalf. David unlocked a powerful response of praise in his life. Even in the worst of moments, even after his newborn son passed away, he knew that even then it's tough to be overcome by the bereiements of life when you are focused on and you're thankful for the blessings and the benefits of the Lord. It's tough to be overcome by the bereiements of life and them to to overshadow you and overwhelm you.

When you get your eyes back on Jesus and you remember and you recall to mind the things that he HAS DONE. AH, I'VE GOT TO DO IS JUST STIR MY SOUL RIGHT NOW. AND I KNOW THAT MIGHT BE A TASK, BUT I OUGHT TO BLESS THE LORD. Here's what he does in the face of it all. I'm going to read it to you again. Here's David's response in the wake of this tragedy that he's facing. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that's within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, OH MY SOUL, AND FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS.

Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction. Uh who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your YOUTH IS RENEWED LIKE the eagles. He says, "The Lord executes justice, righteousness for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious. Some of you, as I read this psalm, need to remember moments when the Lord was merciful to you. And the Lord was gracious.

YOU DON'T LET ME STOP YOU FROM LIFTING UP A PRAISE AND BLESSING THE LORD. HE ABOUNDS IN MERCY. HE WON'T ALWAYS STRIVE WITH US. He won't keep his anger forever. HE DIDN'T DEAL WITH ME ACCORDING TO MY SINS. He didn't punish me according according to my iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy to those WHO FEAR HIM. AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pies HIS CHILDREN, THE LORD PIES THOSE WHO FEAR HIM.

HE KNOWS OUR FRAME. HE KNOWS that we're dust. As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over and it's gone. And in its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. on those who fear him and his righteousness to his children's children to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his commandments to do them. The Lord has established his throne in heaven. His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord you his angels who excel in strength who do his word, heeding the voice of his word.

Bless the Lord all you his hosts, you ministers of his who do his pleasure. Bless the Lord all his works and all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul. I wonder IF YOU JUST PAUSE right now and lift up a praise. MAYBE YOU'VE BEEN FEELING IT WELLING UP IN YOU. This is your moment to let that PRAISE GO. DUST IT OFF RIGHT NOW. SHAKE YOURSELF A little bit and say, "God's been good to me. He's been faithful to me. HE'S NEVER LEFT ME. HE'S NEVER FORSAKEN ME. OH, so I will bless THE LORD AND I WILL PRAISE HIM AND I WILL MAGNIFY HIM.

OH, I bless you, Jesus. I bless you, Jesus. I thought this morning as we were singing that last song, there are very few sounds on planet Earth that are more precious and beautiful than the praises of the people of God. If you're here today and you're hearing the sounds of praises, you're blessed and you ought to join them. I imagine David coming out of that valley of the shadow of death, similar to Miriam coming out of that Red Sea and leading the procession, glorifying God. He shakes the ashes off of him.

He He brushes the debris off. He squares your shoulders like he did when those Amalachites captured his family and he encouraged himself in the Lord and and is a resolute manner. He he awakens his soul with praise. He did something similar in 2 Samuel and this is the pattern we're going to follow for the remainder of this service. 2 Samuel chapter 6 says, "And so it was when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces that David said, stop." And he sacrificed animals, oxmen, fatted sheep. And then David danced before the Lord with all his might.

He was wearing the linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord was shouting in the sound of a trumpet. David when worshiping and celebrating was not held to a quick pause. He was not held to a 30 second. It took a while to sacrifice an animal. Any butchers in the house? No. Right. Hunters, more than your 30 second praise like I do so I can make a mad dash through the service schedule and home for lunch. That procession took all day. All day.

I can imagine those carrying the ark thought, man, could he at least go seven steps? Could at least let us go 10. You know, Simon says Simon says take six steps. No, six steps. and we're going to park and we're going to praise and we're going to sacrifice and then we're going to go another six steps and we're going to pray. I know we're not carrying an ark into Jerusalem. I know there's not animals here for sacrifice. Thank God. But early this week, I just felt like we're going to assume this posture.

Here's my plan for the remainder of this service. I'm going to read through the benefits of the Lord, just a few listed in the first couple verses of Psalm 103, and we're going to pause and we're going to thank God as long as we need to. God's plan may be that we don't make it past the first one. And that's all right. If you were here two weeks ago or last week, you may know this that neither I or the Lord are all that interested in status quo today. We're here to connect with God.

We're here to worship the Lord. We're here to do what he JUST SAID TO DO IN THAT MESSAGE IN TONGUES. SO, like David, we're going to walk through a list of benefits. And like David, we're going to pause long enough to shake ourselves free OF SOME DESPAIR AND DOUBT AND discouragement to awaken our souls and to remember the good things of God and his benefits. Before I read Psalm 103 again, I want to read Psalm 77 to help somebody. Psalmist says, "I call to remembrance my song in the night." Someone's there right now facing a night, a dark season.

I meditate within my heart. My spirit makes a diligent search. I believe that there may be someone here today that you're scanning your recent memory and you're scanning even the last several months and you're searching for something to get excited about. You may have to go back a couple months. I believe you'd go back to this morning when you woke up and the Lord was there and he carried you to this place. He says, "Will the Lord cast us off forever? Will we be favorable no more? Will his mercy have ceased forever?

Has his promise failed FOREVER MORE? HAS GOD FORGOTTEN TO BE GRACIOUS? HAS HAS HE IN ANGER SHUT UP HIS tender mercies? And I said, "This is my anguish. I acknowledge my anguish, but I will remember the years of the right hand OF THE MOST HIGH. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I'll meditate on your work. I'll talk of your deeds. Your way, oh God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God. You're the God who does wonders." And the first one that we're going to discuss is there in verse three.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Forget not his benefits. Who forgives all your iniquities. Who forgives all your We could park right here with David and worship the Lord all day. WHO FORGIVES ALL YOUR INIQUITIES. Every last one of them. the ones you didn't even know about, he forgave. I wonder if you're thankful that the Lord's forgiven you. Would you just give him a praise right now? Not because I asked. Oh, would you give God praises? You've forgiven me, oh Lord. Thank you for every sin of mine. You washed away for the great debt that I owed.

And you forgave it. And you canled it, oh God. First John 1, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In the same Psalm of 103 says, he hasn't dealt with us according to our sins. He's mercy, merciful, and gracious. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy. As far as the east is from the west, he's removed them from me. I don't even have to look at him anymore. this morning as I read that I imagine David I don't know why he was worshiping the Lord near that mercy seat but like us he had some things that were forgiven and the says he danced with all his might and the word there is just a whirling a spinning again I don't know why he was spinning out there but I can guess some others were looking at him wondering what are you doing What are you doing that ephod?

Why you spitting? Why you so excited, David? OH, WHY YOU SACRIFICING ALL THOSE ANIMALS? WHY YOU STOPPING EVERY SIX STEPS? WHY YOU DOING ALL OF IT? OH, THERE'S SOME OF YOU THAT can testify as to why. He's forgiven me. HE'S WASHED ALL MY SINS AWAY. OH, IT'S BEFORE the Lord. So, I'm going to dance and I'm going TO BE UNDIGNIFIED AND I'M GOING TO WORSHIP AND I'M GOING TO MAGNIFY. OH, he's worthy. HE'S DON'T DON'T STOP ON MY ACCOUNT. You give God praise. Hallelujah. I praise you. I worship you. Hallelujah.

For every sin you washed away. For every sin. If you've yet to experience this and you're wondering why I'm spinning until the room's spinning. I can tell you today, you can repent of your sins this morning. You can turn away from sin and darkness and you can turn towards the father and he'll have mercy on you. You can say, "Lord, I'm sorry." Will you forgive me? And he'll forgive you as you confess those sins. YOU CAN BE WASHED IN THE NAME OF Jesus and have every sin cleansed from your life.

YOU CAN BE FILLED WITH THE gift of the Holy Ghost with the biblical evidence of speaking with other tongues. You can know why. You know why we're excited today? Maybe it's been 30 years since that happened. But my sins are gone. They've been removed from me. We can thank the Lord today who forgives all of our iniquities. And I as I hurry on, bless the Lord on my You can stay standing. You don't have to sit. It's all right. If you want to, you can. Who heals all your diseases? How many know God is a healer?

I looked at that word diseases, want to know what the psalmist was saying. It does have to do with physical ailments. And one of the one of the consensus I saw was had to do with deadly diseases. The worst of the worst. Ones brought on by judgment, yes, but also ones by life itself. Either way, the psalmist declares how God heals them all. He can heal of the worst of the worst. He has healed of the worst of the worst. We just heard about Kenneth Arnold this week. Had a major surgery in his body.

and they get done with the surgery and they look at his cancer scannings and they realize that it's it's at stage three, but it really just needs to be at stage one. It's it's entirely treatable. I don't want to just gloss over these things. The Lord's doing a miracle. He's doing a work. Sister Gretchen, what was that? Wednesday or Tuesday? Wednesday. Debilitating pain in her body. And those in the deaf community gathered around and laid hands on her. And in that instant, in that moment, that pain evaporated from her life and from her body who heals all your diseases.

You don't if at any point you need to stand up and worship, come to whatever you got to do, which is just we're turn this into a worship service. my friend, pastor in Canton, Missouri, Phil Arnell. He had some severe uh uh sicknesses in his body for decades. And he uh in November he passes out from a seizure, wakes up to an EMT in his house, a severe seizure. They take him into the ICU and he's got a immune deficiency. They said, "If you'd have gotten a cold, you'd have been gone." His whole system was worn down.

He gets out of that hospital. We had prayed for him one of those Sunday mornings. He goes back, he said, 'I'm feeling great. I don't know what's going on. He had Crohn's disease for decades and uh some very severe symptoms from that. He goes back to the doctor and the doctor is just sitting there shaking his head. He said, "I'm looking at 10 years of blood work, 10 years of scans, 10 years of reports. My best guess, the doctor says, is that when you had that seizure, it reset your entire body.

It reset your blood work. It reset your brain abnormalities. That seizure cured you of Crohn's disease. That seizure WIPED IT ALL. HE WENT TO THREE MORE specialists and they're looking at it and they said, "Yep, that's the best answer we got." What the other doctor said, "Our God can use a seizure to wipe out decades of sickness. He can do it. Our God is a healer. Our God heals all your diseases. OUR GOD IS ABLE. OUR GOD IS ABLE. IF YOU'VE EVER BEEN HEALED, YOU OUGHT TO PRAISE THE LORD. HALLELUJAH.

HALLELUJAH. You're able. AND WE PRAISE YOU. WE'RE NOT JUST GOING TO MOVE ON, LORD. WE'RE GOING TO worship you. We're going to thank you. Hallelujah. Oh, I got a text message. Sister Sue doctor's report in the doctor's hand. Sister Elaine Castro, they all they can put in that doctor's report is she's experienced a notable miracle. Her colon came back to life. Her colon came back to life. We had it in my family. I mentioned we've celebrated already those doctors telling Michelle and Brian that at [name redacted] there's a very good chance he was going to live his entire life with a severe brain abnormality.

That he wouldn't have a normal childhood. That they'd be robbed of peace at every corner. They come back with no abnormalities. They overturn it. These are just the recent ones. I was thinking of Sister Sharon Bentrip. She had a recent uh accident with her hand burn on her hand and that was a miracle in and of itself. But I thought about a couple years ago you were battling cancer. Sister Sharon, I was sitting over here in my chair and the Lord prompted me in the middle of a worship service to go and to pray with you, but I didn't make it to you because you were already coming down that aisle to praise.

So my prayer just turned into praise and I remember lifting your hand in the air and others CAME BUT JUST BEFORE THE LORD TOUCHED you and healed you of that cancer. OUR GOD'S BEEN DOING IT FOR a long, long time. Oh, he's worthy of that praise. He's worthy. All right, let me share one more. Let me share one more just in case someone's faith still struggling, battling. We've celebrated this. We're going to continue to celebrate I don't want to gloss over what the Lord is doing. I got that text on New Year's, Nathan.

Bethy's water's broken. We're heading to the hospital. 23 weeks. Would you put that chart on the screen? Sister Audrey, you get the chance. Our doctors there are wonderful. This is the odds right there. If you can't read it, she had a 40% chance of making it. She had a 10% chance of coming through clean. Those were the odds. We were at the house. We had family over. We didn't know what else to do. Nathan's on speaker. Said, "Everybody, come on. Let's pray." And we prayed and others prayed. And every morning and every night at the Dong House, you hear baby [name redacted]'s name being brought before the Lord.

And every morning and night in your houses, we're hearing prayers and and Lizzie and Jojo and me are praying. Nathan sent me that chart. We knew what the odds were. We had no other recourse but the call on the name of the Lord. They told Nathan there's a 20% chance you're going to make it to week 25. That's the week that they consider viability. Before that time, they don't have to legally treat. That time came and went. We thank the Lord for it, but it didn't come without complications and great difficulty.

We heard that Bethy's fluid levels that needed to maintain a certain mark to keep [name redacted] healthy and safe. And I remember leaving the hospital on that Tuesday, Nathan and Bethany. And I was doing math in my head. I best I could do wasn't Dr. math, but I I thought and realized, okay, with this this level and and the gradual loss each day, maybe about 13 days is what she's got. 13 days at best. That's if no significant event happened. Well, a significant event happened two days later. Nathan texts me. It's late in the night and he says, "Hey, they're thinking they're going to have to take baby [name redacted] week 25 to the day, I'm pretty sure.

But something happened. Something happened. I get the text again. Hey, we're good. What? I asked Nathan. So, they're going to come do scans. They're going to figure out where the fluids are for her viability. And come back and above where they were when I was there a week earlier. And I said, "Ask the doctors, is this normal?" It's not normal. It's not. One doctor, and mind you, these are some of the best in the world, and I'm so thankful for them. We thank God, and we ought to pray over those doctors.

That doctor said, "It looks to me like the fluids replenished at some point." He said, "And that is remarkable. Those doctors don't just throw around words." All right. He talked to Bethany. He said, "I DIDN'T EXPECT YOU TO make it to the point that you did." And then he looked at little [name redacted] and he said, "Little [name redacted], you pleasantly surprised us all. I need you just to excuse me for a moment. I know I'm getting undignified. I get it. It's before the Lord. My microphone's bent up, but that's all right.

My He's worthy, church. Our God is worthy. I'm sorry. All right. WHY DON'T YOU JUST STEP OUT OF WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW AND BEGIN TO PRAISE THE LORD? AND DON'T BE SURPRISED IF HE HEALS YOU. AND DON'T BE SURPRISED IF HE TOUCHES YOU RIGHT NOW. OH, GOD, I praise you. You might be waiting on the praise to die down and you're wondering what's next. This is what's next. Why don't you just let that praise go? Just treat this like it's the last time THAT YOU'LL PRAISE THE LORD. THANK him for his excellent greatness.

your praise. Praise and continue on. I need to talk to some spec specific people in the room though. That next line, who redeems our life from destruction, literally from the pit. Redeems us from the pit. I read that this week and I felt the Lord just prompt me that there's someone in this room that's been living in a pit and you've been there long enough and it's time for you to come out of that pit and out of that prison. You ought to break free of it. And just like Paul and Silas, your praise may be the thing that pulls you out of that pit.

So, here's what I'm gonna ask us to do in a moment. There's going to be some people in a moment that are going to lift their hands and they're going to start to worship God. And I believe that the Holy Ghost is going to come and REMOVE A FOG. AND HE'S GOING TO COME AND DELIVER. And he's GOING TO PULL THEM AND MAYBE their whole family out of a pit. I'm going to ask the rest of you just to set the atmosphere and praise and worship. If the Lord has ever redeemed you, if God has EVER PULLED YOU OUT, WHY DON'T you start to praise him right now?

And if you're in a pit right now, I believe the Lord's DETERMINED TO PULL YOU OUT OF THERE. You don't have to live there. You don't have to stay there. You can be free of that pit. I wonder if you just start to lift your voices right now. There's freedom in this place. Oh, there's no pit. THERE'S NO PRISON THAT GOD CAN'T PULL YOU OUT OF. Oh Lord, I pray it right now in the name of Jesus. And we worship you for it. Oh, you just start to praise God for delivering someone out of a pit.

Praise him in expectation. Jesus. Hallelujah. Someone is still battling. I need you to hear me. He does have the keys to your pit. He does. We're told in the word Ephesians 4 as well. And he went down and he took the jail house captive. He led captivity captive. And after that point, any person that would pass or any person that would go on to get their reward, they wouldn't go down, they'd go up. You see the direction in scripture. Our God has Satan's pit in his hands. Even the the pit that we all kind of shudder to think about, the Lord has the keys to that one as well.

He can unlock it. I'm going to I'm going to share this story. My friend is in a is in a predominantly Muslim country. If he if it's known that he's there teaching, he'll he's likely to get arrested. They're having dreams and a lady comes to him. She said, "I had a dream. Some of you heard this story." She said, "I was in a cage. It was an ornate cage, almost like a bird cage. And and my dream, I looked over to what I perceived was Muhammad. And I said, "Please let me out of this cage.

Let me free of this cage." cage. And Muhammad in her dream looks back to her and says, "I don't have the keys for that cage. He does." And points over and she recognizes in her dream someone that's standing there whose name is Jesus. And Jesus can unlock that cage and pull her out of the He has the keys to your pit. He can pull you out. It does not matter how long you've been there. But at right time, at just the right time, God can pull you out. I wonder if you'd lift your hands right now and would you just start to pray for brothers and sisters who are who are in a pit right now.

Oh Jesus, you're able to deliver them. Lord, you're able to redeem. You're able to pull them out. Oh God, there is no prison. There is no place that you cannot deliver from. There's no place in their mind. There's no place in their heart, Lord. There's no place that the enemy has them captive. There's no place, oh God, not a prescri prescribed place, Lord. H not one in their heart, oh God, that you cannot pull them out of. We trust in you, Jesus. We trust in you, Lord. The last benefit and then we'll praise the Lord again.

If you put verses four and five up there, Sister Audrey, thank you for all your help jumping around. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. My best uh guess that that word loving kindness, the original, is just that they had to take multiple words and put them together to really try to stress what kind of love that is. A loyal love, tender mercy. If it's been a while since you've felt the touch of the Lord in a close and intimate and tender way, he wants that for you today.

And because of those two, loving kindness and tender mercies, we read of the last who satisfies your mouth with good things. So your youth is renewed like the eagles. What is it with this eagle? Psalm or Isaiah 40 talks about those who wait on the Lord mount up with wings like eagles. That bird was looked at as one having bountiful, rigorous strength, almost unending strength. I read that it so encouraged me that the Lord has given you a strength. If you've received the gift of the Holy Ghost, even if you have it, the Lord can endow you with strength like he did all throughout the scriptures.

If you have received the gift of the Holy Ghost, you got it. You have a strength that can face anything, not your own. You have a God-given strength that can overcome anything. And if you're tapped of it today and you're tired, he can renew it in a moment. Here's what I felt early this week. There's someone in this room who needs a soul restoring moment. the Lord. Same psalmist presumably who wrote Psalm 103, wrote Psalm 23. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. If you've been looking for restoration for your soul somewhere else, you're not you're not going to find it.

He does. He restores. I don't know how it looks like every time. I'll tell you how it looks like for me. I have these moments and I need plenty of them where I just sit with the Lord and I don't say much, but I thank him and I worship him and I feel the glory of the Lord come over me and I I don't even know what's going on in me. It's like he's reaching way down in in places that are deeper than I don't even I don't even know that they're there and he's working.

He's restoring. He's knitting back together. His word will do the same. I'm going to ask just for a vulnerable moment. Many of you have already had it. If you'd like the Lord to do some work, some soul restoration, this isn't admitting, this just means you're tapped of your strength, you're tired, and you need the Lord to restore your soul. Would you lift your hand right now? Yeah. Yeah. It's always so sobering to me when I And yeah, you could say, "Yeah, the room that size, sure, but the Lord knows. He knows.

He knows that you need it. And I don't know how all this is going to look, but I wonder if you need that. If you just step out of where you are, come flood the front of this place and you don't have to shout. You don't have to. But I wonder if you just come in a moment and lift your hands and start to praise the Lord and thank the Lord. You don't have to say much, but I'm believing that the glory of the Lord is going to come on you and begin to work in your heart and in your life.

And this is just where we're going to end today, church. So, if you got other places to be and other places to go, I'm going to I'm going to open this place for you to stay as long as you need to for you to feel the Lord restore you. Don't let this be a a momentary pause where we move on. But I wonder if you, like David, would pause and plant your feet and begin to thank the Lord and begin to worship the Lord. God knows you're here today. God sees you right now.

He knows the condition of your soul. Oh, I wonder if you just park here until you feel the glory of the Lord come over you. And if there's some brothers and sisters who come alongside you and they'll praise and they'll worship and they'll pray with you until that moment. Oh Jesus. church. The Lord's moving right now. I believe we're going to experience just another wave of his presence. And I I recognize what time it is. It's any no wonder that they have to knock us out before they do surgery on us sometimes because we have to sit still long enough for the Lord to do a work.

That's my problem.