Hallelujah! Hey, yeah.
And then without a doubt, somebody would say,
All right, all right, all right, all right.
Well, just a little talk with Jesus makes it right.
Well, all right, all right, all right, all right.
It's just a little talk with Jesus makes it all right.
Amen. Makes it right, doesn't it?
Well, hallelujah. If you have your Bibles, be turning with me to the book of Lamentations.
Lamentations three, very familiar passage when you get there.
So good to see you in the house of the Lord today. And if you're wondering about the rocking chairs,
today is Grandparents Day. So happy Grandparents Day to all grandparents. Wave at me,
fellow members. Hallelujah. The best day of the year. It's Grandparents Day.
You say, well, when did they start that? 1978. We've just now catching up.
No greater gift you can give a grandparent than a new rocking chair.
Put on the front porch, back porch, wherever you want to put it.
And just sit in it. That's the key to a rocking chair. It's no good unless you're sitting in it.
Amen. So somebody after a while,
grandparents going to have an opportunity to take one of them home with you and sit in it.
Grandparents going to have an opportunity to take one of them home with you and sit in it.
I'm going to prescribe that as a prescription that you actually sit in it for a little while.
Amen. I know you're busy, but not too busy. I mean, do you know how busy you can be in a rocking chair?
You can go back and forth and not leave the porch. That's pretty good, but that just came to me as
well. I mean, you're talking about quick witty. Amen. Lamentations chapter three.
So good to see each of you in the house of the Lord today.
Again, I don't take for granted your presence. There's at least 90 plus other places you could
have been, but yet you've chosen to come here and worship. I don't know of any other place you could
have been and encountered the presence of God and worship more than what we have this morning.
Amen. So thank you again for your worship.
Verse 21 of the third chapter of the book of Lamentations reads, this I recall to my mind.
Therefore have I hope it is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because his
compassion's fail. Not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion,
sayeth my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the
soul that seeks him. And I will not be in the way of the Lord. I will not be in the way of the Lord.
Therefore, I will come to the soul that seeks him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly
wait for the salvation of the Lord. A little simple thought for a little while this morning.
Post it. Just a reminder. Just a reminder. Post it. Just a reminder. I'll pray for you if you pray
quick. As quick as it can be anyway. Lord, we love you. To your goodness and mercy, we're most thankful
and most grateful. Now, Father, I ask that you have your way in our hearts and our minds today.
As we have broken the bread of life, it is that word which gives us strength for today and hope
for the moral. We're quick to praise you for it all. Bless the household of faith and we that have
ears to hear, may we hear what the Spirit said to the church. Amen. Amen. Tell your neighbor, just post it.
I take it many of you have those on the refrigerator or the mirror. You have scriptures
posted, taped, written, recorded around the house so that you are always mindful
of what the word of the Lord says.
This book of lamination is one of weeping. It's one of lamenting.
The prophet Jeremiah is writing
concerning the funeral of a city, Jerusalem, its destruction.
There wasn't a whole lot of positive things that happened in the life of the prophet
Jeremiah. He was called without an option.
Jeremiah one, you see where the Lord tells him, you, I knew you before you were born and you were
called then you're going to tell my word, but he even makes it better for the prophet. He lets him
know that all he's going to be prophesying is judgment. They say you prophesied for nearly 40
years and had not one convert. Jeremiah was treated abruptly, roughly, rudely thrown in pits,
accused of various things, but he would prophesy in a dark time of Israel. But in the middle
of this darkness and this Babylonian invasion that's coming, Jeremiah has some hope from the Lord.
Jeremiah will talk about in the first two chapters about how he's walking through the judgment of God.
And how the affirmations that are coming and afflictions that are coming against him
because of the hand of God and the judgment of God, because God is leading him.
Don't wonder every now and then because of hardships that comes your way. If you're following God,
because sometimes he leads us through hard places. He leads us through difficult situations,
but he leads us through just like he did Jeremiah. It would be Jeremiah who
who would end up down at the Potter's house when the Lord say, go down. I want to show you something
there. And it would be at the Potter's house that the Lord would reveal to him that he wanted to do
to Israel exactly what the Potter was doing to mold and to shape and to fashion. That was the heart
of God for them. And in the middle of this, the Lord begins to speak to a prophet who has seemingly
forgotten the goodness of God all the way up to chapter three. For you and I, sometimes
we know things, but we forget things. Sometimes messages are relayed to us and
we just forget them. They just gone until a particular moment or something occurs in life
and randomly that thought, that memory just pops back up. Anybody besides me happened that way?
And then in the middle of a conversation, whatever that was that pops out into your mind,
you just let it pop out of your mouth and whoever you're talking to saying, what?
And you're like, Oh, I was trying to think of that the other day.
And it just came to me. And it's important though, when it comes to you that you speak it, right?
You don't want to lose it. And that's the way it is for us as children of God and people of faith.
This is how we are concerning the word of God. Sometimes in our life, we may go from week to week
or crisis to crisis, situation to situation. And what we're needing is a shift in our recollection
so that we can recall. And that's what Jeremiah is saying in the book of Genesis. And that's what
Jeremiah is saying in verse 21. I recall there's some recollection. We are not consumed. And I'm
recalling the reason why my memory, if it serves me correctly, we're not being consumed because of
the Lord's mercies. They are new every day and his compassion fails not and great is his faithfulness.
Now see in the middle of the darkest point of Jerusalem's existence, Babylon's coming in by
the waves, the prophet has told them what was happening. He could have said, I told you so,
but he never did that. He never spoke up and told them those things. But in the middle of this,
he began to tell them, I know why we're not being consumed. I know why we're being carried away
because God's word said, this is what's going to happen if we didn't come back. And he also gave
us a promise to go along with his judgment. Can I tell you something? This morning, if the Lord
leads you in a dark place, he'll be the light that gets you out of that dark place. If the hand of
the Lord's got you and you're in a crisis moment, don't fail to recall somewhere, somehow in the
middle of your situation, let your recollection be reminded of the faithfulness of God. And that's
what Jeremiah, the prophet is saying. I recall something has struck me. I've got a memory that's
just come up and here is what's going on. I'm thinking about the Lord's faithfulness and the
Lord's goodness and the Lord's kindness and the Lord's compassion toward us, how much he cares
for us. And that's the reason that we're not being consumed. Hear me today. It's not glory to God if
we are consumed, but God receives glory because of his great faithfulness when he leads us through
every situation. And it is determinant upon the child of God to have a few post-its put around
so that we can be reminded and remember of what God has spoken over our lives. Years have come,
decades have come and gone, and they had forgotten what God had said that the Babylonians would come
and do. They had erased it from the memory, just living life and going on. And now here they are.
The horde is coming in. The armies are overrunning. And now Jeremiah is saying, hey, we're not going
to be consumed because God said we're only going to be here about 70 years. We're only going to be
there. There's hope in the middle of our darkness. There's hope in the middle of the situation.
There's hope in the midst of the hand of judgment, even though God is raining it down. Understand
this. God is correcting us for his glory and our good sake. Jeremiah had a hard word to prophesy,
but he's sharing it. Situations occur in our lives and we need memory shifts and recall shifts
so that we remind ourselves of what the Lord has said. Because I'm here to tell you right now,
the devil will convince you that God is silent in our life. Amen. He'll try to convince you that
God has nothing good to say about you or nothing good to say about your situation, but God has
already said it. Amen. God gives us a word before we get to the situation. My, my, my, my. God gives
us a word of hope and help before we ever get to the situation. And Jeremiah is talking about the
goodness of God and the hope of God. And I'm going to hope in God because he's already spoken a good
word. All we have to do is walk out the promises that are already made. We have to walk out the
word that he's already spoken. Somebody may be right in the middle of the dungeon. Somebody may
be on their way to the potter's house, but the Lord has already spoken a word to you. All we have to
do is be reminded, let our recollection stir in our spirit, the word of the Lord. You know, we're
not the only ones that forget. We're not the only ones that have forgotten. Mary and the other women
who went to the tomb of Jesus, Luke 24 in verses one through eight, when they get there, the Lord's
body is not there. The angel appears and says, he's not here. He is risen. Why seek you the living
among the dead? And then the angel kindly gives them a little stir. Don't we need a little stir
every now and then? Don't we need a little nudge to stir our own memory? And here's what the angel,
the Lord said in verse six, when he appeared, he exhorted them to remember how he has spoken to you
when he was in Galilee. They are there and they are astonished. It's only been three days. And did
you not walk with him, talk with him, eat with him? Did you not hear his word? Did he not tell you in
three days he was going to rise up again? Did he not tell you he was going to come back to life
again? Did he not? And the angel said, you got to remember what he told you. You got to recall what
the Lord said. And verse eight, it says, and they remembered his words. And let me tell you something,
when you remember his words, it changes everything. It changes your outlook. It changes my
attitude when I remember what his word has already said. He had already told them the crisis was
coming, but not let the crisis overcome you and not become overwhelmed by the situations of life
because I will rise again. It's on the third day. My Lord, we need to know and recall some things
that the Lord has already spoken in our lives. Remember these words, the angel said.
Many exhortations from scripture to remember. Joshua 1 13, Joshua said to Israel, he said,
remember the word which Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded you. Remember it. John 15 20,
Jesus said to his disciples, remember the word that I said unto you. We got to be reminded.
We got to be reminded. We have to recall what the Lord has said to us. Paul to Timothy in that
second letter, first chapter six verse, he wrote this. He said, wherefore I put thee in remembrance
that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you. See when crisis comes and we feel like God is
silent, we've forgotten what he has said and we've forgotten what he has given us. He's given us a
wonderful gift, the gift of empowerment, the gift of enablement that'll enable us to overcome,
to rise up and to be the victor that he's already spoken that we would be. And we just failed to
recall. I'm here to stir somebody's memory this morning. Just recall, get your post-it,
find out where you put it. You wrote it down somewhere. You just need a reminder of the
faithfulness of God. You're not consumed because of the Lord's mercy and because his faithfulness
is great over your life. The situation can't do it. The enemy can't do it because God has already
spoken a word over your life. It's already been declared. Peter put it this way.
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of those things,
though you know them and be established in the present truth. Yes, I think it meets profitable,
appropriate, beneficial. As long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you
in remembrance. I know the crisis of life and the situations of life and circumstances of life
can really cause a cloud. It's like sometimes you're walking around like a lioness. Amen. The
clouds over you and it rains wherever you go, right? Sun shining everywhere, but it seems as though
sometimes where we are, it's nothing but rain and the cloud and darkness is all around us.
Well, you need to be reminded today that's not who you are. That's not who you are. That's not who
you created to be. Even though now for a season you may have to live there for a while, there's
coming a sunny day. Amen. There's coming a brighter day, the dawning of a brand new morning.
Don't forget what God has said. You find your reminder, find your post-it and put it in your
heart and let your mind recall. Yeah, I think it profitable for you that I stir up your remembrance
and that's where we're at today. I'm trying to stir up our remembrance because God has already said,
he's already spoken. It's already written. It's already been declared over your and my life
and great is his faithfulness. Amen. No matter what the enemy says sometimes, preacher, do you
have to remind yourself? Oh, on a daily basis, I have to remind myself, oh, I'm not going to
lie. Oh, on a daily basis, I have to remind myself. Laying in that floor yesterday afternoon,
I had to remind myself again, hallelujah, of great is his faithfulness. Great is his faithfulness.
We are not consumed because of his mercy and his blessed grace that's extended to us each and every
day and hallelujah to the lamb and glory to the name above every. I am not consumed. I am the head
and not the tail. Hallelujah. You are the head and you are not the tail. He has his word spoken
over you. You just got to be reminded and I'm stirring up your memory this morning.
Peter further say, beloved, I now write to you
in both which I stir up your pure minds by the way of remembrance that you may be mindful
of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and to the commandment of us,
the apostles of the Lord and savior. There is such immense value on repetition. There's value in
repeating the word of God over your own life. There's worth in declaring what the Lord has
already find your post it and say, I remember when the Lord put this in my heart. I remember when he
burnt this in my spirit. I remember when he gave this to me. Things were good. Times were good.
I didn't need it then, but now I recall why he has given me this word. He's given it to me for today,
for this moment. He prepared the way before I ever got to my crisis. He prepared the way for you and
I'm stirring up your memory. Find that old Bible. Find that book somewhere. Find that post it. You
put it in a drawer. You've hidden it away, but you go find it. You go rediscover and let your
recollection fall into the faithfulness and the goodness and God's grace to your life.
We have to be reminded of the words of the Lord.
Many of these words, much of the scripture becomes repetitions for us.
Much of the scripture becomes repetitions for us. We got to stir up our pure minds
by way of remembrance. We forget too easily. We forget too readily how faithful God is,
right? Because in our humanity, the crisis always seems larger than God's faithfulness.
The circumstance always seems as though it outweighs God's goodness, but it doesn't matter
what it presents itself as. There's no way that it's any better. It cannot even measure
to the goodness of God's grace in our heart and in our life and what God has already thus spoken
on your behalf. We look for a fresh word. We look for a new word and God's thinking,
why don't you just use the one I've already given you? I've given you a word before you got to this
crisis. I knew it was coming and I knew you were going to get there and I knew you were going to
need this and I've already given it to you. If you'll just stir up your memory and recall what I have
said and recall what I have declared, my Lord, God doesn't change his mind concerning you
and he doesn't change his mind concerning me. If he spoke it before I got here, he doesn't have
to say it again. I just have to recall to my memory what he's already said, but that ain't the way we
work in our humanity. We want a fresh word right now. Oh God, you'll say just look through your
post-its and you'll find it. We forget too easily. We're too easily moved, too easily disturbed.
Too easily disturbed. That's the reason the psalmist said lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. His word takes us to our source. That's
the word that he speaks prior to our crisis. It causes one to recall the source
of our help and hope and that source is him. What did James say? One in 16 and 17. He said,
do not err my beloved brethren. Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from
the father of life. Listen to this, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
If he spoke a good word to you in a good season, I'm here to declare to you that he hadn't changed
his mind. He hadn't turned. There's no variable. He's not a variable speed. Speeds up the day and
slows down tomorrow. I'm here to tell you God is consistent because God is faithful and he's already
declared it over your life. What you and I have to become is fully convinced that what he has said
is what he meant for the position in which I'm standing in now and it's still when I stir my
heart and take hope in the word that he's already proclaimed. When I find my Post-It,
they're sticking to my desk. They're all throughout my Bible. I'd hold it up, but
Post-Its, they're all through here. Post-Its on the back of sermons. Post-Its
when I've run out of room and I'm still studying, I'm still going over it and I'm still looking.
I look at it until I get up here to preach it and the Lord stirs me and he gives me something else
and so I have to get me a Post-It and I have to put it down so that I don't forget it so that
when the time comes and when the moment's right and when it requires it, I can find my Post-It
and it reminds me of the source of my help and my hope and it stirs me and it gives me that
reminder that I need to know that God will not and has not forsaken me.
What's on Post-Its?
Stuff like this, Exodus 15-2. The Lord is my strength and song.
He has become my salvation. He is my God and I will prepare. Here's the declaration,
and I will prepare him a habitation. My Father's God and I will exalt him.
Psalms 28 also on this one. The Lord is their strength and he is the saving of his anointed.
Psalm 33 and 20, you can get a lot on a Post-It if you write small and you get a bigger number
in your glasses. My 225s, I'd never be able to translate what's on the back of this.
I wrote this several years ago. That's what Post-Its are for, right? This is several years ago.
Psalm 91 and 2 is on here. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress.
My God and him will I trust. 33 and 2, the Psalm or 20, the psalm said, our soul waiteth for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield. Psalms 99 and 5 is on here. Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at
his footstool, for he is holy. Post-Its remind me of the source of my help. Post-Its remind me
of the grace that is afforded to my life and the source from which it comes.
So every now and then you just gotta Post-It. Jeremiah would further say in chapter 32, 17,
Oh Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out
arm and there is nothing too hard for you. When you start thinking life's too hard and too difficult,
remember who you are and whom you belong to. Amen. And you will realize that nothing is too hard for
him, no matter how difficult it seems to be for you in the moment in which you're living life.
Oh Lord, your outstretched arm, nothing is too hard for you.
Remind ourselves of the source of our help and the source of our strength. 46 and 1, the psalmist said,
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. He would go further to say,
I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
The psalmist say I can run through a troop and leap over the mountains and the sea and the sea
and the sea,
the Almighty you need a reminder from time to time that when the Son of Life is beating down and you feel like you're about to
Have a spiritual heat stroke. There is a shade for you to reside in there is a pavilion for which you can reside in
There's a place that you can go for reprieve and for rest
And he don't wait till you need it to speak it
He's already declared it
He's already prophesied it spoke it over your life
That's the reason Isaiah could declare no weapon that is formed against me shall prosper right and every tongue
That lifts this you know the devil's a big tongue-wagger. You knew that right?
One of my favorite scriptures is he's gonna be shut up one these days
Physically and literally for at least a thousand years
We won't have to listen
We won't have to hear his negativity
His downplaying God's goodness in God's grace
Him trying to get you to abandon the faithfulness of God
The accuser of the brethren
He's gonna be shut up on these days
He's gonna be shut up on these days. I wish you'd shut up today
I get literal with him sometimes
Mom always says not nice to say that but i'm not nice when i'm messing with the devil to start with i'm mad by then
And he just needs to shut up
and go on
I'm resisting with every ounce of whatever's within me
Amen
Some of you need to try that a little bit more just tell him shut up and start resisting a little more
Don't play cake to the devil's games
Don't engage in mental conversations you'll lose
I started saying i'm looking around glad I didn't say it
I look around the room and there's a lot of hundred watt boxes that somebody's put 40 watt bulbs in so
Don't kid yourself that you can out argue the devil
Just resist him and that's 40 watts going to move on
That was pretty good
Don't don't mess with him go find your post-it
Don't engage
In conversation with or against the enemy
Simply invoke the name of authority, which is jesus name
Rebuke him put him under your feet and move on
And move on
Hebrews 12 and 1 declares we are compassed about so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us lay aside every weight and sin which does so easily
Beset us
And let us run the race with patience that's been set before us and then he tells us how we can do that
looking unto jesus
the author
and the finisher
of our faith
You don't need an angel to meet you in the midnight hour and say hey remember what he said
We don't we don't have to have that we've already gotten that it's recorded remember his words and what he said to you
You how faithful he will be and will remain
The lord omnipotent reigns
Find the post-its of life of life struggles
Find
Words that he's spoken over your life already and lean on them
Join the cherubim and recall the reason why you're not consumed already
Because his mercies are new every morning
And he would further go on to say that again that that I recall that his faithfulness is so great
And he let his recollection take him further into the thought of the goodness of god and how good
God had been
And what he promised to do
past the current dilemma
That they're facing
See we get
We get bound in the middle of the circumstance
And we forget that god has already spoken past
He's already spoken past the circumstance he's already given his word beyond the situation in which we face
He's already declared his goodness
Before we ever get there
Before we ever get there and so find that post it where you've no doubt written
um
From hebrews chapter 11
Find that one that you've written down somewhere now faith is a substance of things hoped for
and the evidence of
Things not seen
Find the one where you wrote verse six on
That says for without faith
It's impossible to please him
But to those who believe
He is a rewarder there you go remind yourself
That you still believe
And that he will reward
Your diligent search
for him
Find the one where you've written
I can't get weary and well-doing for in due season. I'll reap if I faint not
Find that post it somewhere. I think we've all got at least one copy of that
We've all got a copy somewhere of romans 8 28 for all things work together for good
right
To those who are called according to his purpose
We've got that one written down
It's on a post it somewhere god has already spoken that to you. He's going to be faithful
I like the one where he says he'll not let anything come on you more than you can bear
But in the midst of it all he's going to make a way of escape for it
He's already declared it
I don't have to remind him of what he said
I got I got to remind pastor of what he said
I got to keep my faith motivated. I I got to keep my post-its handy
There was one stand with me i'm closing with this
If I can find that post it
Here's your post it
Overcoming
Overcoming overcome to get the better
To get the better of
In a struggle or conflict
To get the better end to get the better outcome
And the scripture I wrote down with that one is first john four and four
You are of god
You are of god little children
And have overcome you have gotten the better of the conflict you have already gotten the better end
of the struggle
Because greater is he
That's in you
Now you talking about a day when you need one you find that post it
Post it
Oh, I recall I remember he is greater
Talking about our mental
Acuity
Second corinthians 7 7 encourages to have a fervent mind
That's on this post it
Second corinthians 8 12 a willing mind 8 19 a ready mind
Ephesians 4 to have a renewed mind and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind philippians 4 and 2
a same mind colesia colossians 2 and 8 a fleshly mind to avoid
Colossians 3 12 humbleness of mind
Second thessalonians 2 2 be not soon shaken
In your mind
Second timothy 1 7 we all know we got one of these somewhere
we've not been given the spirit of fear but of love and a power and of a
sound mind
Second corinthians 13 11 be
of one mind
Acts 17 11 receive the word with all
readiness
of mind
Post it
All through here
We just have to recall
We just have to remember we just have to allow ourselves to be reminded
Of how good he is
And how faithful to his word he will be
Father I love you this morning
Lord I thank you for your goodness in your mercy
Speak to hearts and minds in this house today
Well heads are bowed if you're here today sir pastor. I just needed a reminder
Everything's not
Everything's not copacetic in my world
And I really needed this reminder today to reground me
To reestablish my hope
The psalmist said why art thou cast down on my soul and why aren't thou
disquieted
Within me. Why are you so distraught self? He's having a conversation with his self
That's okay to do as long as you're not in the car driving down Paul Huff
People think you that much more crazy
But if you've got that posted and
In your son visor, well flip the visor down and read it
I've seen them everywhere
And father I pray over the household of faith this morning
Time after time
This is my story
This is my soul
Oh praising the risen savior
All the