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I'll continue to pray this morning. I've got something on my mind, and I just pray that the Lord give me the ability to deliver it in the way that would be fitting. The thought that's on my mind is kind of what I alluded to earlier, and that's remembrance. Um and how important that is. Um, not just for us as we go through our lives to remember all the ways that the Lord has delivered us and what um Christ has done for us on the cross, um, but also how we pass that on to the next generation. Um, how important it is for us to teach our children and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that we would, um there would always be a people. Now I know that the Lord um I believe in the doctrine of preservation where the Lord preserves his word and he preserves his people by his word. Um, but if there's gonna be a church, I pray that there is a church at Snyder, Texas. I pray that my children are in the church. Um I know that the Lord will preserve his people, but we have a responsibility as members of this church, as parents, um, that our families, those that are in our um what I refer to as our sphere of influence, that they are involved in the church and that they remember the things that the Lord has done for them. Um the first time that God has gives us instruction to remember, um, and gives anyone instruction to remember what He's done for them is in the 13th chapter of Exodus. Now, um I like to go over just a brief history just for folks that and for young ones that don't know these stories, that they have at least some knowledge as we go to talk about these things in their hearing, that they kind of have a grasp of things. And so um we know that the people of the children of Israel, the children of Jacob, that that family, that nation, um, had gone into Egypt after a famine and were there for a long time. And after Joseph died, um they were really turning into servants and they were kind of in bondage in Egypt. Um, and Pharaoh had a hold of them. They were multiplying, the Lord was blessing them to multiply and to gain in prominence. And when you're a uh an autocrat, when you're a leader of a nation, a king or a pharaoh, that's something that scares you, right? You have those people that aren't of you, but they're there with you, and they're becoming more and more powerful, and that threatens your authority, that threatens your seat of power. Um, and so as one pharaoh passes and forgets Joseph and all the good things that Joseph did for him, um, they be tighten the noose. They kind of start to treat those Israelites differently. And Israel was comfortable there. That's one thing about our nature, our our sinful nature as humans, as people, is that we become apathetic. You know, we have a certain level of comfort and we don't see a need for change. We don't need to see a need, you know, things are going okay, and we allow ourselves to fall farther and farther away. Um, there's certainly that goes on in our spiritual lives and our family lives, um, that we can lose sight of the things that are important and for and forget or fail to remember the things that are important, fail to remember where we were. You know, not many generations ago, um, I passed where my grandfather grew up in Mills County at Pretty, um, where he grew up with dirt floors, where um he had um maybe a sixth-grade education where he picked cotton starting at the age of six years old, was out in the fields picking cotton and and and doing those things. Hard life, poor life. You know, not my other side of the family, same thing. Not money, don't have not the comforts and the things that I enjoy. And here, two generations later, um, I can't tell you how blessed that I am and how um comfortable that I am in my life, and the things that I don't have to worry about what I'm gonna eat. And you can become apathetic, you can forget how far we've come in just those generations. And in Exodus, we we get that uh instruction. The Lord um you know raised up Moses, and Moses led his people through, God led his people through Moses out of that bondage. He delivered them from Pharaoh and from Egypt. Um, he parted the Red Sea and led them to just the edge of the promised land where they didn't remember. Not not too long before did they see the parting of the sea and see their enemies swallowed up by the sea, and then Moses goes up on the mountain and is gone just a little too long for their comfort, and they turn and they forget the deliverance and who delivered them from bondage. Um Moses comes down, he gives them this law in the thirteenth chapter. He says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. There shall no leavened bread be eaten. So we have the institution of the Passover feast or the feast of unleavened bread, because of the deliverance of God when He took all the firstborn in Egypt, and he gave instruction to Israel that they would take a uh the lamb and they would shed its blood and they would uh mark their doorways with the lamb's blood, and the Spirit of the Lord would pass by and not take their firstborn, but took all the firstborn of Egypt. And he's saying, Remember this day, and he institutes the Passover feast so that the people will remember that day. It goes to show how important it is for us to not just remember in our minds, to think on it, to meditate on it, but to do something so that we will remember, to do something so that we will never forget, and that our children, we involve them in the service. We have our children in our um when in our church service, when we come together in our worship service, our children are there with us so they hear what we hear, we hear what they hear, that they can ask us questions, that we can answer those questions. Um when they when Joshua brought them over the river, he brought 12 stones. Um he said, get these 12 stones for the 12 tribes, and we'll make a monument here. And when your children ask what mean these stones, then he'll say, you know, because we crossed over, we we will remember this. The same thing with the the Passover service. There's an instruction there. When your children ask, what does this mean that you have an opportunity to tell them? I'm sorry. When um we go into our communion service and we want our children to observe it, um, you know, it's something with my boys that they don't sit still very well. Um we had communion the fourth weekend at Land Passes, and you know it'd sure be easy, a lot easier and go smoother for us, say go outside and play. You know, go outside and play, and then well, we can have this service and we don't have to worry about them disrupting us. That would do them a disservice, it would do us a disservice, and that would not be us following the commandment of the Lord, so that they can observe what we're doing. They can see us taking the bread, they can see us taking the wine, they can see us washing feet, and they can ask, what does it mean? And we can have the opportunity to tell them that it's not just for us, it's for generations after us, that they might remember the things and the deliverance that God has given us. If we go to the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, here is instruction again about remembering. In the third verse, it says, Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it. So we first have to hear and understand what we're commanded to do. You know, Moses wrote the um transcribed, or the Lord inspired him to write those books and the law and all this instruction so that they would have it written down. It would be read in their hearing. There would be uh at times that we we just talk about it, it's always on our minds, it's always in our conversation, um, but we have to hear it and then observe to do it. That's what discipleship is. Um, to be a disciple of Christ is to learn what he taught. You know, God inspired men to write the Holy Scriptures. It's the breathed word of God, it is his word, and he inspired men to write it, and he's preserved it for us even to today and put it in our vernacular. Um, guided men to translate it accurately that we would have this instruction and be able to understand it. But would not just to hear it and to read it and to study it, but observe to do it. That's part of that discipleship, not just to believe in Christ, not just to understand that he died for your sins, but to do the things that he inspired, that he has commanded us to do. One of those is to assemble ourselves together, one of those is to be baptized into his church, one of those is um to observe the uh the Last Supper, the communion service, or this new Passover service. He says, Um, we are to observe to do it. That means that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. And though um Israel at that time, as they came out of Egypt and wandered in the wilderness and then crossed um over Jordan and to that promised land, the land of Canaan, that land of their father Abraham, that was promised to him by covenant. Um, this land that's described as flowing with milk and honey. Um we have the spiritual um aspect of that that pointed to his church here on earth, it points to heaven, and it points to our church now. Um we come into this land. Anytime we come into the doors, we assemble ourselves together, we we're crossing over. Um that's what it uh meant to be a Hebrew, is one that crossed over. Um that you're leaving something, you're crossing away, you're passing away, you're leaving the old world, you're leaving the wilderness, and you're crossing over into the promised land. When we come into the church of the living God, we we're leaving something. When we're baptized into the church, we're leaving something, we're crossing over into something new. And so this is that land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thine might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. He's saying, These commandments, these this word of God should be everything to you. Um it says that it should be in your heart. It should be that that which matters, it's our treasure. It is a treasure that can't be described, of great value. It is something that um we cherish and hold dear. And just as anything that is dear to us, we want to pass that down to our children. Uh the blessing that I've had throughout my life of being in God's church and going to association meetings or annual meetings at different churches and having the relationship that I have with my brothers and sisters of Christ in my sister churches and the memories that I share with them, and the times when I felt the swelling of the spirit and just couldn't, you know, the times when it seems like we're just we have left this mortal world and we are somewhere on a different plane when we've um enjoyed the spirit of the Lord in that way. I want my children to have that experience. I want them to know that love of God, that know the love of their brothers and sisters in Christ, know that family and that relationship, and have the word of the Lord in their hearts. Um, the only way that they will be able to do that is if I do my job as a parent. If I have them in church, if I take them to the meetings, if um I um teach them that and I talk about the Lord and I teach them the stories of the book and and I share that love and I display the love that I have for the Lord and show them the Lord, the love that the Lord has for them. Um if I talk about it all the time, um, that's how they know. That's how it passes down. Now, certainly Israel failed at this time and time again. Um But you know, Joshua, Moses um passed away. Joshua was called to lead the people into the promised land and then to lead them in battle and to divide amongst the tribes their their inheritance, um the land among them. And God commanded them to drive everyone out, to destroy the people, those inhabitants. This was not their land. Um, this was a land that was promised to the children of Israel, and he said, You drive them out, don't let them remain. Um, Israel failed to follow that command. The different tribes would go and they would win a battle. Well, they saw opportunity. Instead of driving them out and destroying them all, they said, We'll use them as servants, we'll make them second-class citizens, we'll allow them to stay. Um, and what happened is one basically generation um passes away and they forgot. They did not remember as the Lord commanded. So in the second chapter of Judges, in the tenth verse, it says, And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, which means they um died and left this life here on earth. And there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam. And they forsook the Lord, God, of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. Um, so here's one generation, that generation that came over Jordan had passed away. One generation later, they knew not the Lord. They those these false gods and them allowing that that people that were there before to stay and to and continue worshiping their false gods, that corrupted them. They didn't remember and as instructed by the Lord. And there's through if you go through Judges, there you know that's part of the story of judges. They they fall into this, they fall into and they um they forget the Lord and they anger him, and then they'll have punishment, they'll receive the chastisement of God, and they'll be um punished for that and given over into the hands of their enemy. Um, and then they'll cry out for deliverance to God, and God will raise up a judge, and this repeats itself time and time again. So, what we are um warned of is to not fall victim to the same thing. You know, there's a reason why we have the Lord's preserved this for us even to today, is that we can learn from what has gone on before, that we don't fall victim to the same things. Now, I do believe that we we live in a New Testament age. We live in an age that we've seen the deliverance of Christ. And there's a um the Lord has told us that He will no man will I'm gonna misquote this. Um, you'll teach no more your brother to know me, but all will know me from the least of them to the greatest. Um because when he left it up to parents to teach their kids and for the for us on our own to remember the Lord, we forgot. We did not remember. Um, we failed when it was up to us to teach our brother, to teach our children, um, when it was up to Israel to do that, they failed. They failed not just once, but over and over and over again. They continued to fail. They saw the miracles, they saw these great things, and they continued to fail. Um, they saw the fire come down from heaven and burn up uh the sacrifice on the altar with Elijah. They saw that, they witnessed that, yet they continue to not remember as instructed. Um so what the Lord has done for us and why we are so blessed is that um he has told us that you'll teach no more your brother to know me, but all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest. He will write his law into the fleshly tables of our hearts. Um, we live in a time when we have that wonderful blessing where he's done these things for us. Nevertheless, we are called to remember. Um and as we break now to go into to prepare for the our communion service, uh, we should understand and be prayerful as we prepare, as we um have this short break, um think on that. Think on why are we doing this? Uh why are we doing this? We're doing this so that we can remember. We can remember that our warfare is accomplished, we can remember that Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross for us, that he atoned for our sins, that it is finished, um, that we can remember and we can observe these things, not just remember them in our minds and think about them fondly, um, but we can do something to show God that we remember and we thank on just what he has done for us. If you gain anything from that, give God all the honor and the glory.