Remember God in the Peaceful Times

Good morning. Happy Sabbath. We've been back a week now, and it was just yesterday. I think my brain finally caught, you know, it's back on this zone. We were six hours ahead, so I would sometimes text Judy. She went to Canada to visit her family while I was out of town, and I would text her, and she would say, it's midnight there. You know that, right?

It was a long day of recording today. But it's good to be back. And it's, Mr. Myers went through, you know, all the programs that we recorded. There was actually one spot that we went to that he didn't mention, which I was grateful for because I was going to talk about that a little bit today. In Belgium, we were in the city of Waterloo, and the Battle of Waterloo happened there in 1815.

This battle was led by Napoleon on the French side, and this was basically the end of Napoleon's, you know, his prominence here. He made a few critical blunders at this battle, and it sort of led to his defeat. He had already been in exile at one point, and he, you know, had a lot of confidence, and, you know, marched to Waterloo expecting full victory.

The problem was, in Waterloo, you know, there was a bit of a hill area where the British were sort of posted, and so the day before it had rained quite a bit. And so Napoleon waited until midday to give the command to attack because he wanted the ground to, you know, not be so soggy when they attacked.

When you're going uphill, you don't want your feet to be slipping. But the problem with that was that while he waited until midday, the British were waiting for reinforcements, and the Prussian army was able to get there in time to assist the British there.

And this is where Napoleon, you know, they put, there was a massive battle here in this field that we got to see, you know, and stand on, and they lost here. Napoleon made some tactical errors in that. He acted indecisively a few times. He was blamed at points for, you know, putting in inadequate commanders. Ultimately, the Battle of Waterloo was the end of Napoleon's military career, and he reportedly, you know, went away from this battle in tears because it was so tragic.

Napoleon was, it's interesting to read about the history of Napoleon because he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, and, you know, he was known for crowning himself. I did some reading into this, and, you know, a lot of people will say, well, you know, he sort of snatched it up, you know, give that to me, you know, now I'm the Emperor.

Some say that maybe that wasn't the case and that the Pope knew that he was going to grab it, you know, and he was in full. He was fully aware of what was going to happen. But the end of this battle here, you know, Napoleon lost, and we prophetically actually recognized this as the end of one of the resurrected kingdoms of the Roman Empire, you know, represented in the book, represented in Daniel 2, the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, where he saw this succession of kingdoms, starting with Babylon, his own kingdom, you know, coming down to the Roman, the Roman King Empire.

And, you know, the Roman Empire represented by ten toes, we see, we recognize that as sort of ten successions of that Roman Empire. And here we have, here we were able to see where Napoleon, where his sort of empire was eventually lost, because he was taken into exile again after he lost, and eventually he died this time in exile.

He was defeated there. The British Duke of Wellington was credited as being a successful commander during that fight. You know, we have our own battles that we face throughout life. Some are very difficult, and they last a very long time. We go through difficult trials, hardships, and, you know, we can kind of recognize those as battles. You know, others are simple. You know, it's something that we go through, something, and it just feels like, you know, just another stepping stone to our next life adventure.

But we do have these times in our lives, but we also have times of peace and quiet, where, you know, we feel that God is giving us a little bit of a quiet time. So there are times in our lives where we recognize where we have, you know, times of testing and trial, but also times where God gives us some rest. You know, it's during those times of testing and trial, though, that we really reach out to God, don't we? It's one of those times, it's those times in our life where we recognize our own weakness, our own shortcomings, and we go to God and we say, God, I need you, I need you to be here for me during these times.

We reach out to God and we ask for His mercy, we ask for His comfort, and we ask for deliverance, don't we?

I talk about the Battle of Waterloo because at the end we watched a, while we were there, we watched one of these stylized films recounting some of the highlights of Napoleon's defeat here. You know, and it was interesting because we watched this film in one of the battles where the British were actually holding this sort of farm with a wall around it, and there was a little chapel in the middle. And, you know, and here I'm watching this film, you know, recounting this battle on the actual grounds in the building that the British were basically firing from against the French. But I bring it up because we watched this film and it was, you know, they do these reenactments or these, the people dress up and reenact the battle, you know, so they filmed it very dramatically and we, it was neat to sort of see everything sort of put together, so all the history I could sort of understand in my own mind. So we watched this film, but at the very end of the film, the film left us with some powerful words. At the very end of the film, after it recounted exactly what happened to Napoleon, how he lost, what happened, it said this. As the music was fading down, it said, there is a duty for those to remember history. There's a duty for those to remember history. We're told from a very young age that we need to remember history, and it's true because we can learn a lot. We can learn a lot from history. And the Bible says that there's nothing new under the sun, so that means that we can learn a lot from what other people have gone through. Knowing history can help us, you know, make the decisions we need for the future. I bring all this up because there are things that we as Christians need to remember throughout our lives. It's easy for me to forget history, even my own personal history. You know, things that happened long ago, you know, oh yeah, I forgot that happened, or I forgot we went through that. You know, I'm sure that you've all experienced that before. It's easy to forget some of the things because we sort of live in an age of very... it's very much here and now. What's happening here and what's happening now is the most important thing. Mr. McNeely always tells the ABC students that, you know, there was a world that existed before you were born. And he gives a long, dramatic pause. And it's true, it's true, you know. He's trying to tell them that there was a lot that can be gained from understanding what happened before you existed. I know it's true, there was a world before, you know, he lived too, as far as I can tell. He's not here to defend himself, so it's okay.

Our culture, though, focuses on what's happening here and what's happening now. You know, we tend to disregard history. We tend to sort of throw off, you know, oh yeah, we know better than them. They weren't as smart as we are now. And we also tend to throw off the consequences of the choices we make that can impact us in the future. And this is the society we live in. We live in a society that focuses on, you know, enjoy the indulgences now. Live life for now. It can be true about our lives as Christians, too, and that's what we have to be careful about.

We can easily forget where we've come, where we've been, and forget some of the lessons that we've actually learned as we have been sort of going along in our lives. I told a story about the history of Waterloo and that line at the end. There was a duty for those to remember history. You know, something about that really struck me. Today, what I'd really like to talk about, though, is that we need to remember God in our lives, always. But especially, specifically what we'll talk about today, when we're experiencing times of peace. You know, because we do have those times where we're deep in trials, and it's hard, and we are, you know, looking to God and seeking deliverance and comfort. But what I'd like to talk about today is that we need to also remember God when things are relatively smooth, when things are peaceful. God has blessed us with prosperity, because it's those times we also need to remember our God. We all need to remember God, and we need to remember God in all experiences of our life. Let's go over to the book of Hosea.

As we begin today...

Hosea is an interesting book, because at this point in Israel's history, they are actually doing pretty well, fiscally. There are some things that happen around them, so economically they're doing pretty well. There are some blessings that they're reaping. But, you know, that's all fine, physically, but we see that there is a lot spiritually that they were lacking at this time. Hosea was the one who had to marry the promiscuous woman, and it was supposed to reflect God's relationship with Israel. So, over to Hosea 13, we'll read verses 4-6. I'd like to read this in the English Standard version. I think it's a little clearer, but you can follow along. Hosea 13, verses 4-6. But I am the Lord your God, from the land of Egypt, you know no God but me, and besides me there is no Savior. It was I who knew you in the wilderness and in the land of drought. But when they had grazed, they became full. They were filled, and their heart was lifted up. Therefore, they forgot me. That's the English Standard version. This is what we see throughout the history of Israel. We see that as soon as prosperity comes, you know, you know what, let's just live our life, you know, sort of the here and now mentality. But it was an absolute need when they were in dire straits that they would finally turn back to God. But then prosperity would come, a little bit of time of peace, and yet again they would turn from God. We live in a nation today that is reaping the blessings of Abraham. You know, even just coming back from Germany. Germany is a very, you know, industrialized country, very modern. They still don't have the blessings that we have here. There are some things that you recognize that just, it's just not the same. And that's because of the blessings of Abraham that we can enjoy today. You know, anyone who goes to a third world country, you know, hearing stories from Mr. Dean coming back from Africa, it's, it's, they don't have the same blessings that we do. Here, in this nation, we generally have peace. When we were at the airport in Germany, there were multiple people we saw walking around with, you know, assault rifles, the, the military. We, we don't have that here. We have the annoyance of TSA. You know, I gotta take my shoes off and then, you know, go through their little scanner. But generally, life is pretty comfortable. You know, I can go to the store, I can, you know, Tim Hortons is now open in Amelia. I'm pretty excited about that. I can go pick up a coffee from there. You know, we have an economy that allows us to buy anything. I can, you know, there's basically nothing with credit. There's nothing withheld from what I really want. Life is pretty comfortable and that's because God's blessed us. God had blessed this nation, not because of us, but because of his promises and his ability to keep those promises.

But here in Hosea, Hosea, God says that as soon as they became full, as soon as they were filled, their heart was lifted up and they just forgot me. They forgot me. Things were going smooth. You know, knowing the end of the story of what happens to Israel, it's hard to read. It's disheartening to read. As we go through the history of the nation of Israel, there's a lot for us to learn. And most of it is what not to do. We can learn from their triumphs, definitely, but also their failures. And considering how they really failed at remembering God, we can learn a lot from them. Because they forgot their God as soon as things got smooth, as soon as things got easy. That's not what we're supposed to do. Before they went into the Promised Land, Moses basically sat them down and gave them a verbal reminder. They gave them a verbal reminder. They had been out in the wilderness for 40 years, and we read in Deuteronomy, if you want to go over to Deuteronomy 8. Moses basically sits them down and says, okay, look, here's some things we need to discuss before you go into the land. Let's go over to Deuteronomy 8. We're going to come back to this chapter a few times today.

But here, Moses is giving them a verbal reminder.

Deuteronomy 8.

Starting in verse 1.

You know, this is the way we're supposed to live our life. Here they were 40 years ago.

And here's the thing. The Bible says, here they were 40 years in the wilderness. And these are not the same people that a whole generation had died off at this point. So he's basically talking to the kids that were raised in the wilderness, born and raised in the wilderness. He said, okay, listen. There were some fantastic things that happened before you were born. And the most important thing is you need to remember God, and you need to remember what He supplies you. We're supposed to rely on God in every aspect of our lives. And you know, it's more than just these essentials, because when you were hungry, God gave you food. It's like nothing. It was easy for Him to just give you food whenever you needed it. You know, Jesus quoted this in the New Testament when He was being tempted by Satan. And, you know, the important part here is we need to remember God like we remember eating. You know, you ever heard the term hangries? You get the hangries when you're hungry? You get angry because you're hungry? You know, we have to desire God like we desire nourishment, you know, physical nourishment, because God provides for us. He provides for us. Recently, I was reading in this book about prayer and trying to, you know, improve my own personal prayer life. And there's a story about this husband and wife coming together after some deep trials that they were going through. And they were talking amongst themselves, and they were talking about their own personal prayer lives. And they said that we have to learn to pray every day, realizing that our life depends on it. I have to pray every single day, going to God with the knowledge that I am not going to survive if I don't.

This is the sort of intensity that we need to remember our God. Whether in good times or bad, but specifically talking today about the good times, we need to remember to go to God and remember Him when things are going good, when things are going smooth and comfortable, because our life depends on it. Our life depends on it. So before they go into the Promised Land, they have this verbal reminder from Moses. You know, you shall remember all of the Lord has led you. All these 40 years, He was there. And they could see it, because they had physical reminders the nation of Israel. They had physical reminders. They could see the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire always there. And then God, throughout the history, He gives them physical reminders, because they were physical people. He had a physical covenant with them. And there were physical things that He would continue to give them reminders to do. Things that we don't do today. You know, untrimmed beards and phylacteries and tassels. Things that we don't do today. But they still didn't remember. Even with these things that He gave them to do to remember, they still didn't remember. We don't do those today for good reason. But God had continually gave them physical reminders and said, don't forget me. Remember that I'm here for you. That I'm your God. I want to be your God and I want you to be my people. Throughout all history in Israel, God continued to give them reminders. Now, as they go into the Promised Land, God gives them another reminder. Let's go into Joshua. Just one book over.

Joshua 3.

Joshua is one of my favorite books, actually. I was reading this sort of fresh generation coming up and taking over the Promised Land. Joshua 3 here. Start again verse 15. Those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of the harvest. That the waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city beside Zerotan. So the waters that went down into the sea and Arabah, the salt sea failed and were cut off, and the people cross over opposite Jericho. Let's go to the next chapter, verse 2. Take for yourselves... The Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them, saying, Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, and place them where the priests' feet stood firm. You shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place where you lodged tonight. Then Joshua called the twelve men from every tribe. Joshua said to them, Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God, and into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you shall take a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask, and the time to come, saying, What do these stones mean to you? So here we have a dramatic event. I love the way that in the book of Joshua it explains here. So this group did not cross the Red Sea. If they did, they were young kids. The generation that saw the splitting of the Red Sea, they died off. So then we have this new generation, and before the conquest of the land, God basically says, I'm going to show you how powerful I am. And he has them cross another land, another waterway. And this one, it says, it rose up on a heap. I mean, if you can imagine what that must have looked like, you know? So they're at a river, and the water's rushing down, and then it just stops, and it just sort of slowly builds up next to you, and you're like, Okay, go ahead and cross under. What a sight! What a sight this was. But it wasn't enough. God says, you know what? So you don't forget. I want you to take rocks out of where you're standing and put them over there, so that later on you remember.

I don't think this ever comes up again in the Bible about these stones.

You know, this powerful miracle, God still said, you know, I'm going to have you do something physical so that you remember, because you're going to need it. So that when the kids ask you, what happened, you could say, I saw it! I saw the water getting bigger and bigger, and we went right under it. You know? It was a fantastic miracle. God still saw that they needed a reminder. You know, take these stones, put them out here so that you remember. You don't forget. Forty years of wandering, a generation had died off. God shows them again another powerful crossing of a waterway, and they still needed this reminder. And God had them set these stones up for future generations, so they wouldn't forget. And why did He do it? Because He loves them. He didn't want them to stray.

He didn't want them to, you know, just, oh, just forget what happened. He wanted them to remember. He wanted them to remember, because He knew that they were about to go into the Promised Land and be blessed.

Don't forget me. Remember this powerful thing I did for you.

Now, we don't do some of these physical things that we read about in the Old Testament anymore. Let's go to John 14.

Sometimes it comes up that, throughout the, I was looking at some of the articles that we have on the web. You know, why don't we wear tassels? And why don't we wear, you know, it's a good question. But the answer is actually pretty simple.

You know, to remember God, John, let's see what I say here.

This is a powerful miracle that the Israelites got to see. But we don't, we're in a different covenant with God. We're in a spiritual. John 14, verse 26.

Let's start in 25.

Of all things that I have said to you, you know, we don't minimize the power that God has given us at baptism. He gave us an absolute power, the Holy Spirit. That Spirit gives us remembrance. It gives us the power. You know, I remember very young experiencing this, you know, being, you know, just baptized and going to one of the camps.

And you know, you never know what kind of question you're going to get at camp. I mean, those Q&As, you have no idea what some of these kids have on their minds. And, you know, I'm just a 22-year-old punk kid. And, you know, just barely learning, you know, getting really into understanding the truth. I remember asked, you know, we always prayed before we'd have, you know, these discussions. And some kid asked me some random off-the-wall question. And boom! God gave it to me. I knew the answer. I knew right where to go in the Bible. Maybe only read it once in my life.

He gives us the power to remember the things that, you know, and we have to study it. I had to read it once to remember it. But that's, we don't do some of these, the physical things anymore that Israel did because of the power that God gives us. And it's different. The promises that God gave to us are, you know, the covenant we're under is different. And Jeremiah 31, you know, God had always intended to sort of add to what he had worked with the nation of Israel.

Jeremiah 31, verse 31, you know, this is, you know, God saying that there is a time coming, says the Lord. Verse 31, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in that day, I took them by the hand, led them out of the land of Egypt. It's, you know, some of these things that are said here are so like graphic.

You know, it's like I took them by the hand. It's like a person, the personal care that God took with this nation. I took them by the hand, led them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says, Lord, I will put my law in their minds and I will write it on their hearts.

This is God's intent here. And this is God, his intent with his church today, with those who have been baptized. You know, he writes it on our hearts. We don't do some of these physical things anymore. But it does take us to yield to that spirit for us to remember him. We have to yield to that spirit. So considering all that God did to help the Israelites remember him, even with all the physical reminders, they still didn't do it.

They still didn't do it. So what's the lesson for us? A couple of things I'd like to discuss today. And the first one is that forgetting God in the good times of our life, the times when we are being blessed, the times when we have peace, it's dangerous for our salvation.

It's dangerous. It's dangerous for our salvation. And it's not because of God. It's because of us. It's because of our weakness. We cannot forget God when we are being blessed, when we have times of peace, when we have times of rest, we cannot forget Him. Let's go to Matthew 13. Those times when we have peace and calm, that is the time to get to know God. That is the time to deepen our relationship with Him. Let's consider this what it says here in Matthew 13. We have the parable of the sower, something very familiar. But let's consider how one of these is impacted. Matthew 13, starting in verse 3. Behold, this is Jesus telling a parable, Behold, a sower went out to sow.

Some he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell in the stony places where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they wither away. Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. Others fell on good ground, yielded crop, and some a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty.

So then Jesus goes on to explain it over, starting in verse 18. He explains what this parable meant. The parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches it away, what was sown in his heart, and he who received seed by the wayside. So that was the one that went with the wayside. But let's consider what it says here in verse 20. He who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word immediately and receives it with joy.

Yet he had no root in himself, but endures only for a little while, for when tribulation and persecution arises, because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now this one is interesting when we consider the topic for today. Forgetting God when we are, during those peaceful times, is dangerous. It's dangerous for our salvation. When we think about what this parable is saying, this person heard the truth, and they received it with joy. They were excited about it.

They were excited. They were telling all their friends. It was life-changing, new information. But then the trials come. And you know, that new information is just not that... It just wasn't there for them. I contend that remembering God when everything is going good, and you are not just learning, but building a relationship with God, would keep this person from falling away. They received it with joy, but it was those shallow roots. There was just not enough depth to what they understood. There wasn't enough depth to their relationship with their Creator.

Remembering God in the good times will protect us from this sort of weakness here. They were excited to hear it. They were joyful about it. We read about the shallowness of the Israelites, and we see their history. We see that cycle of the Judges. I remember going through that in ABC. The cycle of sinning and redemption and forgiveness and blessings and then prosperity and then forgetting God again. It's because God keeps His promises that we here in our nation, why we can go to the gas station and not be fearful.

Why we can go to the mall and not be too fearful. It's relatively peaceful for us. I think about my own life. When things are going pretty smoothly, it's easy. It's easy to forget God. It's when crisis comes and you're in the middle of those trials that we go crawling back to our Creator, humbled, and saying, Please forgive me. Forgive my weakness. Building a strong relationship with our Father and Jesus Christ during the good times, it'll help us cope during those difficult times.

It'll help us. It'll help us give us the strength. You think about any sort of training that anyone goes through. It's always during a peaceful time with their training. When I was a kid, I played baseball. I loved baseball. I remember my dad taking me out to the park and hitting grounders until I felt like my legs were going to fall off. He said, In the heat of the game, that's when you're going to need it. You're going to need all the strength. Training is done so that muscle memory takes over.

Spiritually, that can happen, too. When a trial hits, and if you've built that relationship with God, what's your first reaction going to be? It's going to go to the one being that can help you. That can give you strength and comfort and deliverance.

We live in a world now where people, they don't see God. He's not real. So what do they turn to? They turn to alcohol, drugs, just turn off, just become sort of a shell of a person. When the trials come, and if we remember God, we'll lean on Him. We won't rely on some of these other coping mechanisms that so easily hurt people. I just watched a documentary on YouTube, and the biggest opiate crisis in the nation is here in Ohio. I watched this video. You just go right out 50 here to Chillicothe. It's like the biggest opiate crisis in the nation. This little town, struggling with heroin and painkillers.

It's during those good times of our life that we should be seeking God, remembering Him. So that when it is hard, and it'll come, God told the nation of Israel, I tested you. When you're in the wilderness, I let you go hungry to know where your heart was. When it's peaceful, we go to our God, so that our roots will be deep in Him. Let's go to Colossians 2. This parable of the sower showed that the roots were just not very deep. When you get into the thick of the things, they just couldn't handle it.

Colossians 2. I'm going to read this in the New Living Translation. Verse 6. And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. That's what the New Living says. You know, when you have a relationship with God, not just with the knowledge, not just with what the truth is, but Him as a being, as a person, that's how we remember God in the good times, is that relationship that we have with Him. So that when the trials come, we're ready, and we go to our Father. We go to our Father.

I think that the way the New Living says that, you know, let your roots grow down deep, so that your entire life is built on Him. That makes sense. It makes so much sense. And that's when the times are peaceful. Let's do that.

Remembering God during the good times will help us face the trials of life, and it will help us ward off fear and doubt. Another thing I'd like to talk about today is that forgetting God in the good times is prideful. It's prideful. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 8.

Forgetting God during the good times, it's just prideful of us.

Deuteronomy 8, verse 11, In which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, but brought water for you out of the flinty rock. Verse 16, Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, and your fathers did not know, that He might humble you, that He might test you to do good in the end. Then you say in your heart, My power and mighty of my hand have gained me this wealth.

And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth. Forgetting God when things are going smooth, it's so prideful. It's prideful of us. Here we are, these little squishy humans on this earth, and we pray to the Creator of all of this, and we're like, Oh, look at what I did! It's all pretty good! You know, look at all the things that I have built up. When everything is going smoothly, we forget. We feel self-sufficient and accomplished, you know, puff our chests out.

You know, we take care of it. We can handle the little situations, you know, Look what I've done, look what I've done. Looking back on my life, you know, we always, retrospect is always so clear. You know, there were times in my twenties that I was like, you know, there were times I was fearful, but times I was like, you know, I really got this thing going. Things are going well, you know. And I look back now and I'm like, Man, we were relying on God for more than I recognized at the time.

You know, when Judy and I were first married, and you know, we had so little. We were paying our last bill at one point, and our bank account had 13 cents in it. You know, if something would have broke, we would have been out of it. Forgetting God during the prideful times of life is prideful. Verse 4 over here says, you know, when they were in the wilderness, Your garments did not wear out on you, and your feet didn't swell.

I was in Germany for two weeks, and my feet were swollen every day. Lugging around all that equipment. There were days at the end there, I was like, God, please help me get through this. This is a long day. Proverbs 16, 18 says that pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall. Forgetting God when everything is going good, everything's smooth, it's because of His blessings. It's not because of us.

We can't be prideful about that. Let's go to Daniel 4 to see an excellent example of this. Daniel 4. This is Nebuchadnezzar here. Obviously not an Israelite, but he brushed shoulders with Daniel and saw some of God's majesty. The hubris of this man is astounding. Let's look at Daniel 4, verse 26. And inasmuch as they gave the command to leave the stump and the root, so he's talking about the dream here. Let's just read verse 27.

Therefore, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break off your sins, so this is Daniel telling Nebuchadnezzar, break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities, by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity. And all this...

So, you know, he's got the understanding of this dream. All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar, and at the end of 12 months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. And the king spoke, saying, This is not great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling, for my mighty power, and for the honor of my majesty.

While the word was in his mouth, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, that the kingdom has departed from you, and they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you eat grass like the oxen, seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he chooses.

Here we have Nebuchadnezzar basically getting a message from God through his dreams. And Daniel says, I would suggest you be a righteous person. It'll be better for you. And then he looks around at his kingdom, and I saw the Ishtar Gate. It was pretty impressive. And some of those panels hanging on those walls were pretty impressive. And he's like, look what I did. With pride, it goes before destruction, and the haughty spirit before the fall. And after that, basically he was turned into an animal, a beast eating grass for seven years, right after this.

God works through individuals like Nebuchadnezzar, not an Israelite, didn't have promises with him, but he works with him to bring about his plan. And we see here a man that was giving everything that God says, because I gave it to you. It's part of my plan. It's not because of you. And Nebuchadnezzar was immediately humbled. Immediately. In the 1800s, Abraham Lincoln sent out a proclamation of a prayer for the whole nation. And I'd like to read some parts of that, because what it says there basically talks about a blessed nation, forgetting God. Abraham Lincoln wrote this.

And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of God's redeeming and preserving grace. Too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power to confess our national sins and pray for clemency and forgiveness. That gives me chills. This came from the President of the United States. He recognized the prosperity that the nation had at that time. We need to recognize the danger of pride and remember our God. Deuteronomy 8. Let's go back there one more time. Verse 7 says this, For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains, and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, and a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, and a land of olive oil and honey, and a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, and a land whose stones are iron and out of those hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God, for the good land which he has given you.

How do you remember God and the good times? How do you do it?

Prayers of Thanksgiving. Be thankful. Recently I've been praying to God, and because we get busy and life happens, and I've been saying, God, help me see the little things that you do in my life, how you're involved. I want to see it, and I want to know it, and I want to recognize it. Be thankful. I watched this interview. This is this guy. I think he's an ex-Flip-ball player, and he's always in a good mood. The interview guy said, How do you do it? Why are you always in a good mood? He says, It's because I'm thankful. I'm grateful for what I have. If you live a life where you're thankful, you know it changes your attitude. It changes your attitude towards God. It's not all about me. I'm thankful. I'm thankful I have this. I'm thankful, God, that you blessed me this way.

Remembering God in the good times starts with being thankful.

Remember God's forgiveness.

To remember God during the good times of our life, remember His forgiveness because we're sinners. We all are. We have weakness. We have shortcomings. You know, I had a conversation with one friend one time, and he said, You know what? Even the days that I don't sin, I have to know what I'm capable of.

And that's what I have to ask for forgiveness for. Remember God's forgiveness. Go to Romans 5.

Romans 5, verse 9, Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

For if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Much more than having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

We have to remember that Jesus Christ led a perfect life for us and died.

To remember God during the good times, remember the forgiveness that we have. And that's not on our own power. The third thing, remember what God forgets. Remember what God forgets. Because with that forgiveness, He forgets. Isaiah 43.

Isaiah 43, verse 25, I even I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. This word blot out can mean, when you look it up in the Strongs, it's translated destroy, wipe, blot, wipe away, abolish, utterly. Those times when we are in times of peace, let's remember what God forgets. And I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for my shortcomings, that when I go to Him and I can have confidence that He forgets them. He forgets them. You know, we're in this for the long haul. We're playing the long game. You know, there's a couple ways to look at life that way. We're seeking an end goal, but that doesn't make today unnecessary. It makes today very necessary. It makes today necessary because we're building a relationship with our Creator, who's building a family.

We're being judged for what we do now and today. We're part of a process. There are days that, you know, will fill up, will fill great, will triumph, you know, will overcome. And there will be days where we fall short. All days, though, moving forward. Some days will include testing. You know, in those days we lean on our Creator. And Jesus said, you know, come to Me, those who have heavy burdens. God doesn't forget us when we're going through things that are very difficult. And we don't forget Him then, either. It's during the good times, though, that we need to remember our God. Yes, there is a duty for those to remember history.

But we have a duty to remember our God in those peaceful times of life that He blesses us with. It's so easy for us to forget Him when things are going smooth. We can remember Him by being thankful for what He has done for us. We can remember Him for the forgiveness that He grants us when we repent. And then He forgets our sins.

Remember, we're in this for the long haul. And as long as we take stock of where we're at and how to overcome, then God will always be on the forefront of our minds. This is all critical today because our salvation is at stake. We don't want to be prideful and forget our loving God. We need to remember Him always, but especially during those times when we have quiet, when He's blessed us, and when there's peace.

We need to remember Him.