Selective Memory

Well, glory, Lord bless you. You may move to your seats. We greet you in the precious name of Jesus. And again, we say welcome to all who are in this service tonight. Thank you, Pastor Anthony. And I echo your words. We welcome every firsttime attender. We're so glad to have you with us. Those joining us on the multimedia platforms, thank you for joining us in service and I hope you can join us very soon in a service. I invite everyone to Resurrection Sunday. Expecting a great time in the Lord next Sunday. Thank you, Pastor Anthony, for powerful word this morning, for ministering mightily to us. Thank you uh for setting the tone and uh uh reminding us in uh what uh the u denominational world refers to as Palm Sunday that we celebrate uh the Savior that we have that uh we have the opportunity to bear all of those uh challenges and we will be victorious because we are following what he has called us to do. I'm also so thankful for First Apostolic Church. Uh I like to just sometimes look around one more time and see the many mighty warriors of the faith that God has blessed us with. The workers, the multiple generations of apostolic believers. And I I with godly pride, not with uh evil pride, but I'm so proud of what God has afforded us the privilege of being a part of here in this assembly. And thank you for being here on this Sunday evening. I want to call your attention to the book of Numbers, the 11th chapter. The book of Numbers, the 11th chapter. I want to read a few verses there. Numbers, the 11th chapter. Beginning with verse number one, we read this. And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. I could stop right there. We could preach about that, but let me keep moving. And the Lord heard it. Do you know when you gripe, the Lord hears it, just as when you praise, he hears it. And his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. The people cried unto Moses, and Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched, and he called the name of the place to bear because the fire of the Lord burnt among them. Notice verse four. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, "Who shall give us flesh to eat?" Notice verse five. We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, the melons, the leaks, the onions, the garlic, but our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all besides this mana before our eyes. And the mana was as corander seed and the color thereof was the color of bedellium. For a few moments drawing from verse five, we remember I would give this title for our message tonight. Selective memory. Selective memory. Let's pray. Savior, I'm grateful to be in your house. Lord, once again, I stand so unworthy but thankful for the privilege of speaking your word to this wonderful congregation of people. Now, Savior, I pray that your word would minister to every ear that would hear. Lord, let us receive your word. Let it go deep into our hearts and let us act on what you impress us to do. Let us be in your will and we give you thanks. We honor you and praise you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Selective memory. The passage of scripture that I read in your hearing tells of a dispensation time when God's people were enjoying the freedom from Egypt's bondage. And in addition, they were being fed by supernatural provision. It's a wonderful feeling to be forgiven of something. and they had been forgiven and they had been freed and they were now away from Egypt. But after just a little while, the new had worn off and God's provision had suddenly become in our vernacular old hat. It had begun become the everyday, the mundane. And they had begun complaining about miraculous provision that God was feeding them with in the wilderness. Can you imagine? Scripture tells us that God was kindled in anger to the point of destruction of many. The griping crowd of a mixed multitude as well as the children of Israel had selective memory. They remembered free fish. They I mean that was better than Long John Silvers. It was free. You know, they remembered the fruits and the vegetables. And apparently they were romanticizing the Mediterranean cuisine that they had once tasted in Egypt. They had selectively forgotten what had gone along with that diet. They had forgotten taskmasters whips, heavy burdens, their children being murdered, slavery, being beaten, abused, and degraded. Their memory was selective. Exodus 1:1 bears this out. For here's what had been decreed by Pharaoh for God's people. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities Pitham and Ramas. And the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were greed because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter and hard bondage in mortar and in brick and all manner of service in the field. All their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, every son, this is verse 22 of Exodus 1. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, "Every son that is born, ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive." Can you imagine in the name of a Mediterranean meal of fresh fish, fruits, cucumbers, leaks, and onions? Their memory had selectively forgotten how much despair they were in. Generations of bondage and slavery. Divine deliverance had been de dismissed from their memory in the name of satisfying a minor temporary craving during the journey of their new found trip freedom to the promised land. Notice part of their problem was they had allowed a mixed multitude, some that were not truly Israelites to come among them. And to begin, the Bible says they fell a lusting. You better be careful the company you keep when you're in distress. You see, I would tell us all we are on a journey. We haven't reached our ultimate goal. But if some of us aren't careful, we'll forget where we really came from. We'll forget what God really delivered us from. I've heard people proclaim, "I can't forget." I submit we sometimes choose to remember and we choose to forget. We sometimes have selective memory or amnesia. Few years back, Sister Jamie and I journeyed up into Ohio and we were going through North Dayton and we decided to find her old house and we searched around and the landscape had changed some, but we eventually found where she lived, where I used to drive from Knoxville to Dayton, Ohio to go see her. And we begin to reminisce about our home place and her home church and uh dating at camp meeting and our first date. And it was wonderful memories and it joged our memory and uh I I was getting a little bit worried because she was speaking fondly of where she had come from. But then all of a sudden, Sister Jamie, and I quote, said, "I still don't like it up here. I said, "Thank you, Lord. Sorry, Ohio. She wasn't born in Ohio, but she got down here just as quick as she I mean, she was born in Ohio, but she got to Tennessee as quick as she could is what I'm trying to say." You see, I'm challenging us tonight to really remember what God has delivered us from in this walk, in this journey that we're on our way to heaven in. There are going to be seasons that are not as rejoicing and victorious and as joyous as the immediate deliverance from sin. But I'm here to tell you, you may go through a wilderness season sometimes. Don't forget where you came from. Don't take a longing look back at sin. Don't have selective memory and have an appetite for the things that were there in bondage. You better remember what God really delivered you from. Don't forget you've been delivered. Don't forget you've been forgiven. Don't have the tipation during a difficult season in your life to have revisionist history about sin. Never selectively forget the horrible state and sin and bondage that you came from. I've heard some after a few years of serving the Lord and enjoying his blessings make statements like, "Well, if I hadn't started serving the Lord, I would have been this great athlete or I would have been this this great successful this that." No, you wouldn't. You would have been a sinner bound for hell. You cannot proclaim what you would have been. You didn't give up anything better than serving God. Don't let the devil tempt you with selective memory and find yourself with a longing look for free fish and cucumbers. That's not what I'm looking for. I want to be thankful once again and be reminded of the goodness of Jesus. He's provided miraculously for me. Can Can you imagine being in the wilderness? Look, I'm hungry. And every morning all you got to do is walk outside and there's food. I mean that's better than room service. I mean there was food. It was miraculous angel food if you will. But they had become so accustomed to the new found freedom that God had delivered them into. They were griffing and complaining when God was feeding them every day. Let me tell you, there's some of you under the sound of my voice. I remember when you were going through those single years and you were praying, laying in the altar, "Oh God, give me a good mate. Give me a good husband. Give me a good wife." When you hit a little rough patch, you better not forget what God has blessed you with. When you get a little bit tired, when you get a little bit fatigued in life, don't you start romanticizing about sin. Oh, I if I just wasn't serving the Lord, I'd have more time on the weekends. You might have more time. It could be 20 years. You might get time for the way you were living before you start romanticizing and forgetting the way things really were. The children of Israel had forgotten the whips. They had forgotten the bondage being caused to work for a Pharaoh that had them in slavery. Don't forget, you've been forgiven. Second Peter 1:4 states this, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, the nature of Christ." This is promises that's promised to us, having escaped the corruption that is in this world through the lust. Think of what God has delivered you from. And notice the attributes that we are given when we're delivered from sin. And besides this, besides escaping the corruption, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice verse nine. But he that lackth these things is blind, and cannot see a far off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sin. Now all of those beautiful exceeding precious promises. Have you thought about the antonyms or the opposites having faith? The opposite is being faithless. Do you remember when your life was full of doubt and skepticism about everything? Virtuous. The term virtue when described is of high moral character and ethics. So to be virtuous would be little or no moral character or ethics. You remember when you were so dishonest because of the life you were living in sin without knowledge. That means you're ignorant and unaware intent without or out of control. This is where a lot of addiction comes from. an inmperant lifestyle. It mentioned add patience. You know, impatient people are always bucking the line and having controversy. Impatience is a very egocentric characteristic. It's always about self. What I've got to do is more important than anybody else. I got to I don't want to have to preach my message about special people again. godly or godless. Romans said because they did not retain God in their knowledge, God turned them over to a reprobate mind. It mentioned kindness. So the antonym would be unkind people. People who are unkind need God. That's what we came from. That's where we are. But he that lackth these things and cannot see a far off. You can't see where you've been brought from and where you're headed hath forgotten that he purged us from this old [Music] sin. For you see, here's the covenant the New Testament reminds us of in in Hebrews 10:16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, sayeth the Lord. I will put my laws into their heart and in their minds and will write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. If God has forgotten your sin, you need to forget it, too, and quit looking back and trying to relive it and find some revisionist history that things would have been so different. You were lost. You were headed for damnation and destruction. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. We as seasoned experienced followers of Christ can find ourselves in those difficult seasons not being thankful or remembering where God has brought us from and not being thankful for what he's brought us to. When the mana starts getting old, when the things you so diligently once prayed for now become old hat to you, and you take them for granted, you can find yourself complaining about the very things that you once asked God to provide for you. Let me ask you, ask yourself this question. How long's it been since I've gone to an altar and prayed a prayer of thanks without asking God for something? Now, he tells us to ask, and we do ask, but there's times we need to have seasons in our life that we're not asking for one thing, but we're saying, "God, I just want to thank you. I just want to commune with you. I I want to thank you for my spouse. I want to thank you for my kids. I want to thank you for my job. I I want to thank you for waking me up this morning. I want to I want to thank you for being in my right mind. I want to thank you for my provisions. For you see, we are eyewitnesses to the majesty of God. Someone else doesn't have to tell me about what God has done. I have personal testimonies in my own life. And everybody in this house, if you were truthful, you have a testimony of what God has done for you. Second Peter 1:12 says this, "Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth." Don't live in the past, live in the right now. Did you know I've heard Bishop Mcool testify to one of the things that really helped start growth of First Apostolic Church when this was a young fledgling church 50 plus years ago. I heard him in a seminar one time. Somebody said, uh, what are some strategies that that you had for growth? And aside from doctrine and soul winning, is there anything else? He said, one of the big strategies that we had, he said, in our church for the longest of time, we had a great big wooden board up there that had last last week's attendance, last week's offering, and our record attendance, and our record offering. And he said that stood every time you looked at it as a memorial if you didn't have a larger crowd. It was like, well, we're not doing as much as we did in that record day. He said, we took that sign down and we started growing and we quit worrying about the numbers and we let God take care of that. We started ministering to everybody that came through the door. Oh, sure. I know we're aware of of of a full house and all those kind of things. But I'm here to tell you, let God take care of the past. Don't be intimidated by what happened in the past. Camp meeting was good last year, but it's going to be better this year. Sunday service was great today. Next Sunday's going to be better. Live in the truth right now. God's got things for you right now. Don't let your past, good or bad, intimidate you. He said, "And be established in the present truth." Yay, I think it meat as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in you you in remembrance. Peter was saying, "I'm going to keep reminding you of some things." Sometimes it seemed like we preach the same thing over and over and over. You know why? Because we do. Why? Because I need to be reminded. I need to be reminded of all the benefits of all the blessings, knowing that surely I must put off this tabernacle. Peter was saying, I'm not going to live forever. The tabernacle he was talking about was his flesh. He said, I'm not going to be here forever, even as our Lord Christ hath showed me. He said, I I'm not going to be around much longer, so I'm going to remind you. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses to his majesty. I've got news for you. Something you've witnessed for yourself. A healing, a delivering, a provision. Nobody can make you deny that when you experience it for yourself. Brother Mcool, I don't know that I've ever seen a miracle. Do this. Go. You've experienced the miracle of the breath of life that Christ has provided for us. Every time you wake up in the morning, you ought to be thanking him for another day that he's provided for you. Oh, it may not be the greatest. Some of us are walking around here in the springtime fighting with all the pollen and the crud. I'm just being real with you. And if we aren't careful, we'll find ourselves just like the mixed multitude and just like those Israelites who had been influenced. We'll gripe about everything. Get out of the mlly grubs and quit griping. Start thanking God for the little things cuz he wants to do the little things and the big things. He'll provide for you. He'll look after you. He He has miraculous provisions for you if you'll obey his word. He'll have financial blessings for you. He'll have healings for you. It's a daytoday walk. I'm an eyewitness to his majesty. That's his sovereign power, his authority, his greatness, his splendor. And so now that I've built my message on remembering some things, I'll also tell you there are some things you need to forget. Philippians 3:13 says, "Brethren, I count not myself to have every apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." There's some junk you need to forget. There's some reputations. There's some sins that the enemy wants to keep you reminded of that you need to remind him of your his future when he tries to remind you of his past, of your past. Forget the junk that someone did to you and go ahead and forgive them. Press forward. And then I want to give you a vehicle for remembering. In Joshua the 4th chapter verse number one, we read this. And it came to pass when all the people were clean past over Jordan. A miracle had taken place. The Jordan River was parting. God's people had passed over. The Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you 12 men out of the people, out of every tribe of man, and command you them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests feet stood firm, 12 stones, that ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge judge this night. God's delivering part parted the Jordan. They walked across the Jordan. He said, "As you go, these 12 men were the leaders of the different tribes, the 12 tribes of Israel." He said, "Tell everyone, pick up a rock and carry it out from the midst where the priest's feet stood firm. Then Joshua called the 12 men who had prepared for the children of Israel out of every tribe. And Joshua said unto them, "Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of Jordan. Take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder." Now, if it was big enough to put on your shoulder, this was more than gravel. I mean, this apparently was a pretty hefty rock. He said, "Buddy, pick up a rock according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in times to come, saying, "What mean ye these stones?" Then ye shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, when it passed over Jordan, and the waters of Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel forever. He said, I want you to erect a monument, a reminder of the miraculous that I've done for you. He said, "Because your kids and your grandkids aren't going to see it." Now, we're not into idol statues or erecting monuments to men. In fact, I remember Bishop telling many times the story of the miraculous concrete that showed up to build the steps in the church on 123 West Columbia. Later on in history, the that building had gone through multiple hands and we were here and and uh someone happened to hear that they were doing some remodeling and they were tearing those steps out and uh they came to Bishop said, "Hey, I've got a pickup truck. We'll get a uh a Bobcat or whatever we need and we'll pick those steps up and we're going to bring them over to the church." Bishop said, "Huh?" He said, "I don't want that to become a monument." He said, ' Because God's going to keep doing stuff for us. We can tell the story. We can we can tell it, but I don't want those old steps sitting around in the yard that everybody thinks that that's what God or where God stopped doing miracles for us. Let me tell you, there's some stuff that God has required of the church, a lifestyle of holiness that generations to come when your children, your grandchildren ask, why do we do this? Why do we live this lifestyle? Why why do we go to church on Sunday? Why do we go to Bible study? Why do we go to camp meetings? Why do we go to conferences? That's a reminder of memorial forever. They may not be here right now. Listen to me. Your faithfulness of the house of God right now is building a a monument and a memorial for another generation should God carry for them to come. Don't ever fail to lift up a standard. Don't ever fail to build those things. Listen, be the leaders of your families. There's a lot of men in this house. I want you to erect a monument of faithfulness and of service. There's a lot of leaders in these houses that need to tell your family. I want to tell you what God did here, but he's going to do it for us again. I want you to experience it. [Applause] Look, my grandbabies weren't there when I got the Holy Ghost, but I can tell them about it because the Holy Ghost is still working in me. My my grandbabies haven't experienced some of the things that I have, but I want there to be a holiness church, a godly church, a church that's ministering to the community in an I want to build some monuments to remind us of where we've come from and his miraculous deliverance. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. You see, holiness, modesty of behavior and appearance are reminders of who we are and where we came from. The reason some choose not to dress modestly or be holy is they don't want to be reminded of who they're supposed to be. There are things that God wants remembered. God wants good worship and his wonderful works remembered. The psalmist said this in Psalms 119, excuse me, 111. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great. Sought out all sought out all them that have pleasure in them. His work is honorable and glorious. His righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. We need to remember what he's done. The Lord is gracious. He's full of compassion. So, what do you choose to remember tonight? Praise team, musicians, get ready. Lamentations the 3r chapter verse 18 says, "And I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord." He's going through a bad season. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Man, he's having a pity party. Putting his elbow at a joint, trying to pat himself on the back. My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humble in me. But here's what he said. This I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. Let me tell you, if you're in this house and you're breathing God's air, you've got hope tonight. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassionth faileth not. If you're going through a bad season, don't give up. Don't look back. Remember, the Lord's mercies are the only reasons we're not consumed. He has compassion, and his compassion never fails. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore, will I hope in him. Oh, hallelujah. It's not just what I remember. It's if I'm remembering truthfully to myself in what I recall, God's mercy, God's compassion, God's faithfulness. That's what I choose to remember. Stand with me. Ephesians 5 beginning with verse one says this. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering, and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savor, fornication, all uncleanness, or covetousness. Let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. Let me tell you, there's some stuff we don't even need to talk about. There's stuff that does not need to be in our conversation. Let me remind you again. The devil can't read your mind. Only God knows our thoughts and intents, but the devil can hear what you say and he's listening. If he can find you confessing to his temptations, all the more he will want to tempt you to look back and be condemned by your past or to have a selective memory that romanticizes sin. So when you go through a season of distress, when you go through a wilderness season and it seems like you're a bit hungry, the provisions may not be there like you once enjoyed, you've grown a little bit used to and tired of his provisions. I would challenge you to start speaking some things that the devil does not want to hear. Need to start saying, "Jesus, I want to thank you again. I want to thank you for providing for me. I want to thank you for all you've done for me. God, I'm going to go back and recall those things that you've done for me in the past because I know when you did it once, you're going to do it again. I'm not going to confess uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, justesting, but rather he said, giving thing thanks. There's some things that would be easily forgotten if we stop talking about them. And there might be some here tonight who are needing to remember some things and others who are needing for to forget. The songwriter extraordinaire Dy Rambo pinned these words. She said, "The things that I love and hold dear to my heart are just borrowed. They're not mine at all. Jesus only let me use them to brighten my life. So remind me, remind me, dear Lord. Roll back the curtains of memory now and then. Show me where you brought me from and where I could have been. Remember, I'm human and humans forget. So remind me. Remind me, dear Lord. She went on to write, nothing good have I done to deserve your own son. I'm not worthy of the scars in his hands. Yet he chose the road to Calvary to die in mystead. Why he loved me, I can't understand. Remember why you're here tonight. I don't know what you may be going through, but I came to encourage someone tonight. Remember what God has done for you. Don't have selective memory and look back for some kind of greatness of sin. Say, "God, I want to thank you. You're going to get me through this situation. You're going to get me through this trial." I ask everybody in the house to step out for a season of thanks. Would you come around this altar for a season of thanks, saying, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you for what you've done. Thank you for what you're going to do. Thank you for all your many blessings." Come thanking him. He inhabits your praise and he wants to provide your need. Hallelujah. You are good. Hallelujah. Sing it unto the Lord. You are good. Lord, you're so good. In your mercy, you're the merciful God. Hey. Yeah. You are good. You are good. You are good. Forever. Wo. You are good. So good. You are good. You are good. Your mercy is forever. Would you thank him for his mercy? God, you've been so good to me. God, I'm not asking for one thing this night, but I just want to thank you. I want to spend a little time with you, God. I want to talk to you. Bless your name. Bless your name. Bless your name, Jesus. Mercy is forever. Forever. Wo. Your kindness is forever. Your goodness is forever. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Forever. Oh, your goodness is forever. Your goodness is forever. Your mercy forever and ever. Forever. Yeah, you are good. You are good. You are good. And your mercy is Hallelujah. You are good. Thank him once again for your family. You are good. Thank him right now for what he's doing. You are good and your mercy is forever. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I would close this service tonight by asking you if you've got family members in this house, go to them, love on them just a little bit. say, "I love you. I'm thankful for you." But you don't know. We've been in distress. You know, I believe Jesus said something about we ought to forgive 70* 7 daily. My Lord have mercy. It's going to be midnight soon. You better hurry and start forgiving. You got a lot of forgiving to do. If you've had some kind of disagreement, find somebody and say, "I'm sorry. Let's put this behind us. Let's go on and serve the Lord together. First Apostolic Church, you're the best. I love you. You're dismissed in Jesus' name. Be here Wednesday night for Wednesday night worship and the word.