Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: How's everybody doing? God bless you. It's good to see you here today. This is a weekend that we remember those who've served in our military and really many sacrifices gave to lives for our freedoms. I suspect just like when my father as a 17-year-old enlisted, and by the time he went into the service, he was actually 18, but he actually registered when he was 17. I don't think my father had any illusions of grandeur when he signed up to be in the Navy and be in the North Atlantic and have all the wolf pack torpedoes hunting him down or his ship down. I don't think the other people that enlisted during those times really were doing it so that their personal names could be remembered. They did it because they were committed to something larger. It was freedom in many cases, survival for others. But at the end of the day, they weren't doing it for notoriety. They weren't doing it for accolades. As a matter of fact, most of them probably would remember that other than, in a general sense, what they sacrificed personally would be forgotten by almost everybody that would be aware of them, with the exception of maybe one or two family members.
The topic that I'd like to really share on today is the good that you do today may very well be forgotten tomorrow, but do good anyways. Do good anyways. We never know whether the good we do will be noticed by others, and even if the good we do is noticed, it may not be remembered for very long. There is a scripture that has often brought a kind of an awareness to me. It's talking about the transition from when Joseph, who became the number two man in the kingdom of Egypt. You probably recall the story. His brothers were jealous. He had these dreams that his family would be bowing down to him. They got mad, and they got jealous, and they were going to kill him. They actually pretended to his father, Jacob, that he was dead. They took his coat of many colors and put animal blood on there and brought it back to the father and said wild animals must have gotten Joseph. Of course, they sold him into slavery.
He goes down into Egypt and he becomes a servant to Potiphar. And then Potiphar's wife makes a move to him, and he leaves, and she gets upset that this slave wouldn't respond to her advances. She accuses him of all sorts of sexual improprieties, and he ends up being thrown in prison. Here is a guy that suffered a lot of injustice, wouldn't you say? Jealousy of his brothers falsely accused. He's sitting in an Egyptian dungeon, and he begins to serve the people in prison. He begins to do good to them. And to make a long story short, the Pharaoh has a dream. He can't figure it out. All of the advisors to the court or to the Pharaoh can't give him any answers to his troubling dreams.
There was a guy that had been in prison who was let out and was now serving in Pharaoh's court, and he said, "Oh wait, there is a guy in prison that could probably help you." They get Joseph and he interprets the dream, and it's a dream about a famine that's going to come. This insight that Joseph had allowed Egypt to prepare for this incredible famine. They set food aside, and seven years later, when this famine hit countries from all over were coming to, to Egypt. Egypt was able to operate from a position of power. It was all because of Joseph. The Pharaoh elevated Joseph to basically the number two man in the whole kingdom.
Joseph dies and Nation of Israel is growing. They are living in a place called Goshen. It's kind of a suburb, shall we say, of Egypt. Well, we'll call it that. The scripture says, "And there rose a Pharaoh, who knew not Joseph." All the things that Joseph had done, they had forgotten. And they saw this opportunity Egypt did to enslave a whole group of people. You know what? It's really hard to fail at business when you have free labor. How many know that? That was a big thing in the south in America: if we stop slavery, what's it going to do to our economy? What a terrible perspective to have. We will let a certain segment of humanity suffer just so we can prosper economically. We are still suffering the sins of that in our country today. But I digress.
There rose this Pharaoh that knew not Joseph, and they basically enslaved Israel. Of course, when we do things that are good, we will remember them. As a matter of fact, how many of you have ever said to yourself, "after all I've done--" After all I've done for you? What are we really saying? You have forgotten all of the things that I've done. Of course, we remember the good we do, and God will remember, but everyone else is likely to forget. But that shouldn't stop us from doing good.
I want us to look for a brief moment this morning at the story of Moses. This story of Moses is an amazing example of the good that he did one day, and it was virtually forgotten the next. The unique thing about Moses is he continued to do good anyways. With dramatic help from God, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and out of slavery, and the Lord demonstrated his great power by causing a series of plagues to come on Egypt. We'll remember them. The plagues were blood in the Nile. They went to the Nile to wash your clothes, and it was full of blood, frogs, gnats flies, plagues on the livestock boils hail that actually burned when it hit the ground, locus darkness, and then of course, the [inaudible 57:54] was the curse or plague on the firstborn. While these plagues devastated Egypt, the Lord protected the Israelites from these plagues, especially from the last plague if they put the blood over the doorpost. That was where the whole concept of the Passover started: in this deliverance of Israel from slavery.
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, God went ahead of them. I think you remember the story. During the daytime, there was a pillar of cloud that led them at nighttime, it's hard to see clouds. God had a pillar of fire. And when he wanted to move, they were supposed to this fire or follow the cloud. They weren't supposed to just follow in the datetime. They were supposed to follow at night too, and it gave them a clear way to follow even in the darkest of times. We see this story. We will read it today. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but from Exodus chapter 7 through Exodus chapter 13; we have this incredible story of what God did in this deliverance.
It's hard to imagine a more dramatic demonstration of God's power, a more dramatic demonstration of his love for the Israelites than the series of miracles that took place for their deliverance. The scripture says that there was no greater prophet in the history of Israel than Moses. We read that in Deuteronomy chapter 34.
Jacque: There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
Pastor Brian: Get this. This is obviously not the New Testament. This is the Old Testament. And God met Moses face to face. He saw God face to face.
Jacque: The Lord sent him to perform all the miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt against Pharoah and all his servants and his entire land. With mighty power, Moses performed terrifying acts in the sight of all Israel.
Pastor Brian: We see this description of Moses and the scripture actually says this. Now we know that the Lord enabled this to happen, but it says, with mighty power, Moses performed these terrifying acts. It's interesting that Moses was the one that God was saying, I'm going to have you be empowered to do these things. All you have to do is do what I tell you to do. The Israelites, just a day or two after some of these incredible things that had happened, had difficulty remembering what Moses had done for them. As they camped by the Red Sea, there were all these miracles that led the Israelites to the Red Sea. But now they have this waterway in front of them. They are camping there, and all of a sudden, they see Ferrell's army coming up the backside and moving towards them. The scriptures say that they were terrified. We read this in Exodus 14.
Jacque: As Pharaoh approached the people of Israel looked up in panic when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them, they cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn't we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, leave us alone. Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness.
Pastor Brian: I don't think they were being really honest. I don't think they were being really honest about this.
Jacque: Well, they weren't remembering clearly.
Pastor Brian: Their memory was really sketchy. They didn't have it good back in Egypt. They didn't, and they got into a panic. How many of you know that nothing good comes out of panic and fear? Nothing good ever comes out of panic. Nothing good ever comes out of fear.
Jacque: It doesn't help.
Pastor Brian: It doesn't help. I like that. That's a good one. It doesn't help. We remember the story. The Lord told Moses to raise his staff and then to stretch out his hand over the sea, the Red Sea, to divide the water so that the Israelites could cross over on dry ground. We see this in Exodus 14:31.
Jacque: When the people of Israel saw the mighty power that the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians. They were filled with awe before him. They put their faith in the Lord and in his servant, Moses.
Pastor Brian: They put their faith in the Lord and in his servant, Moses. They had all these miracles take place to bring them to a place of deliverance. They get to the Red Sea and now they are complaining because they are full of fear. Then God does this credible miracle by separating the waters they walked through on dryland. And by the way, this didn't happen actually quite like the Cecil B Demille's movie, the 10 Commandments. This whole process took over 24 hours. It was a long process. To keep Pharoah army from attacking the, the Israelites, God put up a firewall between the Egyptians and the Israelites, and then the water separated. But then you have to walk on dry land. So there was this wind that blew all night long to dry out the land. The Israelites started to walk through this area and they started looking; look at the fish right over here, you know?
They walked through. And then of course we know the story, how after they got through, the firewall came down, the Egyptians followed, and the waves came in upon them, and they were never ever a threat to Israel again after that. They began to sing incredible songs. Wouldn't you sing a song to the Lord after something like this? We used to sing this song, "I will sing them to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and rider thrown into the sea." Have you ever sung that song before? We see this in Exodus 15:1 and 2.
Jacque: Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has hurled both horse and rider into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has given me victory. This is my God. And I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.
Pastor Brian: They are very committed. They've just seen probably one of the most incredible miracles that we would ever want to witness. If you had your chance to pick one miracle out of the all the scriptures to witness, many of us would pick this one to witness, wouldn't we? This water parting right down the middle and walking through.
Jacque: The fire behind.
Pastor Brian: The fire behind the whole-- I mean, wouldn't you like to have been just kind of on a mountain someplace witnessing all this?
Jacque: And then the water closing on their enemies.
Pastor Brian: An incredible miracle, and rightly so, they began to worship and sing praises to the to God. Now, the Egyptians are dead. They are on the other side of the river. But you know what is on the other side of the river? The desert. The desert is on the other side of the river. And finding water and food in the deserts was not easy. After looking for water for a whole three days,
Jacque: They are only three days away from the miracle.
Pastor Brian: They are three days away from this parting of the Red Sea. The people begin to grumble against Moses. They had already forgotten, three days later, what had just transpired. The Lord, through Moses miraculously turns a really bad area of water in an area called Mara into sweet water. God told him to throw this piece of wood into this pond or this area, and the water became drinkable, and they all survived. They then left Mara on their way to Mount Sinai and they no longer remembered what Moses had done at Mara, and they began to again complain. Exodus chapter 16, verse 3.
Jacque: If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt, they moaned. There, we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted, but now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.
Pastor Brian: I can tell you one thing, my friends; there is not a slave that's ever been a slave that sat around a pot full of meat with all the bread they wanted to eat. Would you agree with that? They were hallucinating about their past. They had forgotten the miracles that had happened. They quit remembering all the good that Moses did. They quit remembering all the good that God had done. They forgot. They forgot. We see this journey to Mount Sinai was a little bit longer. It was about a three-month journey. During this time, it's hard to find water in the desert, hard to find good food to eat. And the Lord said, no problem. I have a little gift from heaven. It's called manna. He sends this manna from heaven. I've heard all sorts of descriptions of what it was like. Interestingly enough, they couldn't hoard it. They could only take enough for one day. What do you think God was trying to teach them? Give us this day our daily bread.
Jacque: Trust.
Pastor Brian: Yeah. Trust. Notice Jesus didn't pray, "Give us his day, our yearly bread or our decades bread."
Jacque: Or our weekly bread.
Pastor Brian: Or even weekly or monthly. Give us his day, our daily bread. Walking with Jesus is a daily trust. God is trying to bring Israel who has been now steeped in idolatry into a place of trusting him. He's doing it through all of these provisions. And so the Lord reigns down manna, but they are still complaining. Well, isn't there any meat to eat? God would pour manor down from heaven in the mornings and then have a whole bunch of quail come in and just die right there. They didn't have to shoot them; they didn't have to trap them. All they had to do was pluck them and go out and eat. They had manna in the morning and quail in the evenings. Here is their response because sometimes they were lacking a little water: Exodus 17:3 and 4.
Jacque: But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses, why did you bring us out of Egypt?
Pastor Brian: That's their fallback position. Why did you do this right?
Jacque: Are you trying to kill us, our children, our livestock with thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me.
Pastor Brian: Let me tell you something; if I was Moses, this is what I would've said: What should I do with these people for I'm ready to stone them? But Moses keeps doing what? Good. He keeps doing good in spite of the fact that they keep forgetting. God says to Moses, just strike the rock, Moses with your staff. He strikes this big rock, and out of this rock comes water.
Jacque: Another miracle.
Pastor Brian: A miracle. Because you know what? You just can't get water out of rocks unless it's the rock, right? That's how we get water. Moses truck walk, the rock and water came gushing out. Now, it was a few months later. Everyone is well fed. Everyone has plenty to drink. Moses is now on Mount Sinai. God says, come up to Mount Sinai, I have to give you the instructions and the law. Moses is up on the mountain for a whole 40 days. 40 days. This is what happened: Exodus 32 verse 1.
Jacque: When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron, come on, they said. Make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this fellow Moses who brought us here from the land of Egypt.
Pastor Brian: Here he is face to face, getting all this instruction from God, and the people that he's done miracle after miracle, after miracle after miracle four have forgotten. And they basically said, we don't know what happened to this fellow Moses, but obviously he's gone. It has been like three weeks. Let's make us some gods. Aaron, dare I call him knucklehead, Aaron, he bowed to the pressure of the people. And this is what he did in verse 4 of chapter 32 of Exodus.
Jacque: Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down and molded it into the shape of a calf.
Pastor Brian: By the way, the gold came from all the people. And where did they get the gold from? Because slaves don't have gold Egyptians. The Egyptians said, get out of here. Take my gold. Get out of here. What God did was he empowered the Israelites to have wealth after they had been in all this slavery to leave. And they took that wealth that they had, and they gave it to Aaron to melt it down to form-- I said to Jacque the other night, "All their vision was for a calf." At least it could have had a bowl or something. But a calf? This is going to be our God?
Aaron took and melted this goal down that God had given to the Israelites from the Egyptians to help establish them with wealth. Because wealth is power in a good way. It can be used for evil, but it can be used for good. God wants to bless us with wealth. He just doesn't want wealth to be our God. He wants him to be our God. God gave them this wealth. They squandered it, gave it to Aaron, he melted it down, and made this calf of all things. The Israelites said what?
Jacque: When the people saw it, they exclaimed, oh, Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I can't believe they said that.
Pastor Brian: Can you believe that? They were wearing a gold bracelet just moments before. Now, that bracelet was now in the shape of a calf and they are looking at this calf and they said, "This is what brought us out of Egypt." We talk about forgetting and then giving credit to somebody else. You ever help somebody and then somebody else gets the credit for it. And what did Moses and God keep doing anyways? They kept still doing good. All of the good that Moses and the Lord had done was forgotten, and yet they kept doing good anyways.
The same thing happened to Jesus. He taught and he healed the sick, fed the hungry, and performed miracles. Crowds of people followed him everywhere he went. Who can forget the adoring followers he had on Palm Sunday? Hosanna, blessed as he comes in the name of the Lord. And one week later, the shouts of Crucify him were louder than the shouts of Hosanna, just one week. All the good that he had done to all those people, thousands of people-- He fed 5,000 men. We don't know how many had wives. We don't know how many had children, but I think it's safe to say there could have been at least 15,000 people there that day that he fed on two different occasions with five loaves and two fish, but they were nowhere to be found. They had all forgotten. They forgot. But the miracles he had performed and the good that he had done, they were soon forgotten.
You might even be a part of a miracle. You might do something very good for somebody, maybe your community, and it could be forgotten in a heartbeat. The Israelites forgot the good that God and Moses had done, but God continued to be good anyways. One of the things that I'm beginning to see more and more clearly is that one of the ways of Jesus is to do good even if people forget the good that you've done. Do good anyways. The crowds forgot the good that Jesus did, but Jesus did good anyways. If the people can easily forget the good that Jesus has done, the good that God has done, do you think they are going to forget the good that you will do?
If they forget the good that Jesus has done, do you think they will forget the good that you will do? They will. They will. So don't be surprised when that happens. Don't be discouraged when that happens, because if we have the right perspective, we will understand that people will easily forget. But their forgetfulness should never, ever change who we are and how we live. It should never change who we are and how we live. Who we are and how we live are far more important than who remembers what we did. Who we are and how we live is far, far, far more important than anybody ever remembering what we did. It's good to remember. It's good to remember. It's good to be thankful. It's good to be thankful. It's always good to remember.
I love the story of King David. 20 years after Saul and Jonathan have been killed in battle, and he says to one of his court attendees, "Is there anyone in Saul's household?" Now, remember, Saul tried to kill him. He said, "Is there anyone in Saul's household that I can do good to for Jonathan's sake?" He remembered; he remembered his relationship with Jonathan. He wanted to bless the family of the man who tried to kill him. That's doing good, isn't it? That's doing good. Who we are and how we live are far more important than who remembers what we did. The simple fact is that it does not matter if the good that we do is known or the good that we do is remembered by others. What matters is that we are followers of Jesus.
Jacque: That's how we should do everything: unto him, for him. Because he'll never forget. He'll never forget.
Pastor Brian: Love this story about Dr. Eggerichs’ teaching and love and respect.
Jacque: Oh yes. I've said this before. It was a marriage seminar and he was teaching about what to do if your mate is just not responsive at all and is not kind in any way to you. And he said just keep being kind. Just keep being good and just get a picture in your mind of Jesus right behind them saying, "Do it for me. Do it for me."
Pastor Brian: Like this. Do it for me. Do it for me. Be nice to her for my sake. That's the image that we need to see. When everybody forgets the good we do, Jesus is there saying, "Do it for me."
Jacque: And I want to say to the women, be kind to him for Jesus' sake.
Pastor Brian: What matters is that we do good. I'm not talking about working our way into salvation. We are going to read a verse here in a moment in Ephesians that tells us why we are to do this. But we don't do it for our own glory. We don't do it for prestige. We don't do it to get notoriety. People who serve God and people who follow Jesus just do good. They will know we are Christians by our love. Love is good.
Jacque: We are the hands and the feet and the heart of Jesus on this earth.
Pastor Brian: That's right. Ephesians chapter two, we'll finish with this, verse 10. I want to read this in a couple of different translations here today. The first is in The Passion Translation. No, let's do it in the New Living Translation first.
Jacque: For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us a new in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
Pastor Brian: God has plans for you. We have this on the cornerstone of our church. I know the plans I have for you. Plans for good, not for evil. Plans to bless, not to curse. The TPT, The Passion Translation, actually, paints a little bit broader picture of this verse here.
Jacque: We have become his poetry, a recreated people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the anointed one. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it.
Pastor Brian: God has a destiny for us. It's like all of these blessings: that's the destiny. And he says to us today, choose you this day whom you are going to serve. Are you going to serve me by doing this? There are all these other alternatives over here too that are made available to us through the deceiver. They cry out really loudly, don't they? They cry out really loudly. And then there is this kind of quiet voice that says, "Do it for me. Yeah, do it for me over here." When we do good, we fulfill God's purpose for our lives.
God has a purpose for every single one of us, and that purpose is very broad. It includes all of these good things that he's made available for us to do that he predetermined. What was predetermined is not which ones we would do, but all the options that we could do. When we do good, we fulfill God's purpose for our lives. When we transgress the laws of goodness, it's hard on us. That's why the scripture says the way of the transgressor is hard, isn't it? The way of the transgressor is hard. It's also hard on those that we are transgressing against as well. But God wants us to bring something beautiful into existence into our world through our own freedom of choice.
There is an old term, it's actually a 19th century term called the incipiency of the will. Have you ever heard that expression? A handful of you. The incipiency of the will. What that means is the ability to originate one's actions apart from any outside or inside influence. We can have evil reside in our hearts. We can be in an evil place, but we have the ability to originate an action apart from the circumstances we are in or even the thoughts that we have in our heads. We can say no to evil thoughts and say yes to good thoughts because God is always at work speaking to us, leading us into these opportunities that God has made available to us to walk into our destiny. The destiny is the goodness that God has made available for all of us to live in.
I would just say this, we all need to make up our mind right now. We need to make up our mind right now. It's just like Joshua said, "You go ahead and choose, but as for me in my house, we are going to serve the Lord." We all need to make up our minds. You, who are you who are watching by livestream, have to make up your mind. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. I will guarantee you that. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow, but do good anyways. Do good anyways because that's how we become followers of Jesus. That's how we emulate him. That's how we start to walk in the ways of Jesus. Jesus didn't let the people who forgot the good he did prevent him from continually doing good. Even on the cross, probably the most incredible words ever spoken: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
I kind of picture that, and I'm going to give you kind of a human description here. That's a little dangerous when it comes to describing God. But that's all we have: our human ability. But we all know the scripture says, for God so love the world. For God so love the world that he sent his only begotten son who we know to be Jesus. It was God's idea to send Jesus into the world to bring redemption. And then Jesus comes, and the humanity does all these horrific things against him.
We know through the movie, The Passion of the Christ, just how horrific that suffering was. Here now Jesus is on the cross and kind of in my mind, I picture God saying, "I am going to get those people. They crossed the line with this." And Jesus is saying, "Father, forgive them. Just forgive them for they know not what they do." I don't know if you think I'm making God less when I use that description, but it makes the feeling of what was transpiring there on the cross very real and applicable to us today. That in the midst of all the forgetfulness of the people that you do good for Jesus is saying, "Just do it one more time for me. Just do it for me."
We will be this treasure, his poetry to walk into a destiny of all of these opportunities to do good anyways even though more than likely it will soon be forgotten.
Jacque: Oh, I love the line in that last verse: for we are joined to Jesus, the anointed one. We don't have the ability within ourselves to always do good, but we just can call on Him, everyone, everything. Lord, fill me, help me. And the anointed one works through us, gives us what we need.
Pastor Brian: I title this message the Forgotten Clan. And the fact of the matter is, if you do good, you are going to be part of that clan that what you do will be forgotten. But do good anyways. Do good Anyways. Pastor Robert.
Pastor Robert: Oh, you guys can clap because that was great message, pastors. That was great. Yep. That was great. Sermon ideas, teachings, all that going on. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Pastor Jacque. It was funny, right before you guys started ministering and before Pastor started talking about Joseph, I reached over to my wife. I said, "Look at Jacque's coat. That reminds me of Joseph's coat." And so we were laughing when you started talking about Joseph. Praise God.
Well, I'm up here to pray. The prayer I'm going to lead in is, is going to help us to be able to continue to do good anyway, even when we are forgotten. But I just want to paint this picture to kind of set up the prayer, especially in mind of-- remembrance is important to God. Tomorrow, we celebrate Memorial Day. Memorial is about remembering. It reminded me of a series of sermons I did based on the book of Joshua, when Joshua was leading the people across the Jordan. God had told him to have the priest picked up these stones and to place these stones where they crossed the Jordan.
The Lord had given me-- I was inspired by a teaching on Joshua I heard. I did this series, titled Where are Our Memorial Stones. Because when they placed the stones where they crossed the Jordan, God instructed Joshua to tell them, when people ask, when your children's children ask why you placed these stones here, you would tell them-- And notice he said you will tell your children's children, you will tell them this is a reminder of the goodness of God, what God had done in bringing the people into the promised land. Remembrance is good, Memorial is good for the Lord.
Now let's bring that back to us in this sermon so we can, we can pray. And I like what Jacque said later, we don't always know how to forgive and move on. But we don't have to. We can call upon the Lord to help us. In our human weakness and frailty, people do us wrong. We need help. We need help. In order for us to continue to do good, we need help. God has given us the ability of memorial, of remembrance.
I want to lead us in a prayer this morning. I want you to repeat after me. Lord, help me. Place memorial stones of your goodness in my heart so that even when people forget he goodness that I have done, I will always remember the goodness that you have done for me, and me remembering your goodness toward me is more important than my goodness done towards others. So I pray that I will always have memorial in my heart so that I will con continue to do good no matter what the circumstance is. Because when I do good, I bring glory to you. Help me in my unbelief. Help me bring to remembrance all the goodness that you have done so that I may please you. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Brian: Thank you, Pastor Robert. Well, in the spirit of remembering, Dave and Lou will be serving communion over here after the service to all of you who would like to have communion and we can remember together the sacrifice of the Lord. It's good to also remember that our freedoms, aren't given to us without sacrifice. The freedoms that we celebrate today in our nation have been provided for you and I because of the sacrifice of many, many, many people who've gone before us. We don't always agree with the decisions of our nation and our leaders, but that shouldn't matter in regard to whether or not we pray for the leaders of our country. The book of Romans, chapter 13 tells us to pray for all of our leaders. And that's more than the President.
We have a city council that needs our prayers. There is much deliberation. I was talking to a city engineer just this past week and he said, "Brian, it's going to get crazy around here this summer." There is so much going on, so many decisions to make. They need wisdom. They need wisdom. Our governor needs wisdom. Our local senators and representatives need wisdom. And you know, God can even cause the spirit of Cyrus to be stirred up, to send forth a proclamation so that people in slavery in another country can come home. That's what he did. Let's not be so focused on who is in the White House and be more focused on praying for the leaders of our land so that God will use them in a way that will bring glory to him. Let's applaud that.
We remember the sacrifices that people have made for our freedom, but also tomorrow, remember the sacrifice Jesus made so that we could be truly, truly free. There are people today who don't live in a nation that actually have very many individual freedoms, but they are free as a bird because Jesus has met them. And that's the best freedom that any of us could ever have. Let's pray together.
Now may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. And may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you continue to do good even when people forget. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
God bless you. Have a wonderful day, vacation tomorrow. Get some good barbecuing in and all the other stuff that we do here in America to celebrate Memorial Day. Make sure you give thanks to the people who've given us our freedom. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 5-28-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.