“Never Forgotten” | Sunday AM | Pastor David K. Caruthers

Original Broadcast of Sunday Morning 11 AM Worship, 06/14/2026

Speaker: Pastor David K. Caruthers

Message Title: "Never Forgotten" 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

One of the uh deepest cries of humanity for the human heart is a longing to never be forgotten. We do all kinds of things to not be forgotten. And uh but it is something about it. It doesn't really matter where you are in life or how many friends you have. There's there's a little bit of anxiousness at times that you are forgotten or you are left alone or you're uh afraid, you're forgotten by people around you. Sometimes you're forgotten because your situation is difficult, you're in a season of suffering or season of difficulty, or maybe you feel forgotten sometimes because you're praying and you don't feel like your prayers are getting very far, you know, just barely beyond uh you know the lips as you speak them, or they're kind of bouncing back off the ceiling back at you, and God's not hearing you. So, how many of you ever been in that situation? Where you were praying but it didn't feel like it was getting anywhere. Raise your hand. It's confession time. Now, all of you that feel like every time you pray, you know you're bombarding the heights of heaven and doing a battle and winning, all that. We we do get there at times, but then there's other times that it just feels like uh God is not listening, that he hasn't uh heard us, that he's not there. And uh we're not the first ones, we won't be the last ones to feel that way. It's part of humanity, part of us as humans, part of the experience, I think, of uh of results of the garden of where where sin was first separating us from God. And uh so today I want to talk to you for a few minutes what I've entitled Never Forgotten. How many of you remember the story of Joseph? You remember the story of Joseph? Let me let me have some nods or some amens or something out there. You remember the Joseph story? Amen. Now, if you're new and maybe you didn't uh you know you didn't get that, here's the here's the sort of uh clue that you need to know. Because uh here's what happens with preachers in case you don't know. If we don't think you heard us, we just say it again. And so if if we don't hear from you, then we just keep repeating ourselves, you know. So so when I ask if you heard the story, it's important for you to say, yes, we've heard the story. Otherwise, I'm gonna feel compelled to go through the entire story with you this morning and take a part of your lunch for that. But but I think I got enough response to know that uh most of you know at least some portion of the main points of Joseph. Joseph desperately wanted to be remembered because from the very beginning of the circumstances that we here defined in his life, he is betrayed and he is abandoned, and then he is taken to a foreign country. Now that was particularly poignant to him because he had been his father's favorite son. He was used to having favor, he was used to having blessings. He was quite frankly not out taking care of the animals with his older brothers. Instead, he was at home and he had all the all the accoutrements, all the accessories, all the blessings of being at home and and having everything he needed at his at his beck and call. He had that that coat that gave him that favor and that recognition. He had the approval of his father. He had all the things that that you could sort of imagine in his life or in his day or in his moment that he would need. He was blessed by God. He was uh had a destiny given to him by God and through dreams, and and then he on that fateful day that his father Jacob sent him to check on his brothers, and they happened to be further away from uh where they were supposed to be. They were in a place called Dothan, which really means the pits. It was a place where there was pits in the ground, a natural phenomenon there, and and uh and so he came to this place with all intentions of checking on his brothers and reporting back to his father, only to be uh only to be betrayed by his brothers who wanted to kill him. That's how much they did not like him. But in order to not have that hanging over their own heads, they put him in a pit to see what they would do, to determine. They put him in a in a place where he couldn't escape until the Midianites came along, and so it just so happened in their minds that this band of traitors passed by and they sold Joseph to these traitors who took him to Egypt. And in Egypt, God provided, but I'm sure it didn't feel like God was providing. And he ends up being a servant in the house of Potiphar, he rises, and then he gets falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, and bad goes to worse, and now he ends up in prison. And now he's in prison for something he didn't do. So one thing after another that he did not bring upon himself that he did not deserve, that wasn't the natural. Sometimes we can understand when it's the natural consequences of our decisions. It's a lot easier to accept when I make a bad decision or I make a poor decision, whether it's bad in the sense of terrible or just a bad judgment, and then I suffer some consequences from it. Well, you know, that's how life works, and I can come to terms with that. But in his case, and sometimes in our case, it's nothing that we did, nothing that we personally did, nothing that we personally were in the position to see or or or to understand how it's connected. He's in he's in prison. He's been in prison for some period of time, and uh some I uh we we don't get exactly the timeline, and I would like to know a whole lot more about this story, uh, but uh, but the Bible doesn't give us a whole lot about it. And and so he's there in that moment, and the baker and the butler, we would call it, of the of the king of the Pharaoh gets thrown into jail for some offense that they committed. They have dreams, and Joseph interprets the dreams. And so in Genesis chapter 40, verse 14 through 15, the Bible says, Joseph gives these instructions to the butler who is promised in his dream that Joseph has interpreted to be restored to his position. And Joseph says, But think on me when it shall be well with you. When things get better for you, think about me. Remember me, and show kindness, I pray, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house, of this prison, for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. Joseph's heart saying, I don't deserve this. I don't understand why this is happening to me. And saying, Don't forget about me. Don't forget that I'm here languishing. Don't forget. This was his only path that he could see to get out of the dungeon of the prison that he was in. And so he pleaded with this man who he had done a favor for under the hand of God. He'd been faithful. He interpreted a dream. He helped someone when he needed help himself. All the good things you would think, all the good principles that he had learned, he was living by, but he still found himself in this dungeon. And so he made that simple request. The Bible continues with the story of their restoration and execution of the Baker. And then in verse 23, it says this simply, yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. But forgot him. Left him there. Forgot all about what had happened, got busy with his own life, and forgot that he was there. Forgot that he had helped, forgot what kind of person he was, forgot all the, and Joseph's only path, his only way he could see forward, continued to be a closed door. Now we sit here today, and of course, we know the story. We look back in retrospect. We know that God is guiding Joseph's life in a way that Joseph can't understand, can't see, and can't know in this moment that Joseph is guiding his life. He eventually sees that God's plan and purpose was fulfilled, and he sees the fulfillment of it. We read that later in his life when his brothers come, when he's elevated, when he's achieved what God has promised. But right now he's at the bottom rung. He's lower than he started out, much lower than he started out. And he's wondering, Am I forgotten? And people sometimes forget. Friends sometimes forget. Families sometimes forget. And life moves on for them. But God had not forgot Joseph. God had not forgotten him. God did not misplace him somewhere. God didn't think, what happened to Joseph? He's down in a dungeon. I can't see what's going on in his life. Joseph felt that way, but God was directing his steps and his path and his way. And I want to tell you today that God never forgets you. He has never lost place of you. You're never beyond his reach, his touch, his calling, his hand, his help. Although it does seem like it sometimes in our minds and in our lives. So let's go to Isaiah 49, where I would have read, but I'll read now. In Isaiah 49, this explanation, this little few verses, these three verses that sort of describe this. And I don't have time to cover the entire context, but but just kind of where the people of God believed they were. And it says, but Zion. Now Zion refers to those beloved people of God. And specifically, Zion was the sort of the name of those who dwelled in Jerusalem as a group. Because Zion was really the stronghold of Jerusalem. And so this terminology, Zion, begins to be interchanged with Jerusalem and then begins to get interchanged with the people of God entirely, calling them Zion. And not only that, we often read in the scriptures when the word Zion is used, that it is a reference not just of Jerusalem, but also a reference to a prophetic reference to something in the church, that something is going to happen, or this prophecy, or these words are going to apply much further than just a city or a location or even simply the people of Israel. And so it says, but Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. It's that expression of humanity that feels like God has forgotten me, God has left me, God has abandoned me. Where is he at? And where am I in his mind or his plan? And so Zion was expressing that fear and that frustration and that anguish. They felt abandoned, they felt overlooked, they felt invisible. Have you ever felt invisible? Have you ever felt invisible? Where's God? Has he forgotten us? The circumstances indicate to us that God is nowhere to be found. And so where is he? This is their feeling, this is their their heart, this is what they're sensing at the moment, this loss, this where is God, and he's not here and he's not responding. And so Isaiah gives from God two powerful images to explain to the people, to exemplify to them God's connection and God's love to them. And first, it's a mother with a child. Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should not have compassion on the son of her word, of her womb? One of the strongest pictures of human attachment, that attachment that a mother has for their infant. But God won't. It's even greater than that. It's stronger than the strongest of human loves and strongest of the strongest of human attachments. It's greater than that. It's more powerful than that. That's the way that He loves us, and that's the way He will not forget us. Cannot. And then He says, the second one, he says, Behold, I've graven you upon the palms of my hands, your walls are continually before me. Now again, remember, these people weren't thinking of the same way that we are looking back. They were only thinking of their own circumstances. They are only thinking of their own perspective, where they were at the moment, because we can't really see. You can't look back until you get down the road. They're in the moment right now. They're in the moment of saying, God, where are you? And it's the same way for us when we're in those moments when we feel abandoned, when we feel like God's not listening, God's not hearing us, that we've been forgotten, that we've been left alone. In those moments, it feels very overwhelming and anxious to us and frustrating to us that where is God in this moment? Why is it things working out like I expected them to? And if you've never had one of those moments, hang on, you'll get some. It'll probably be more than once. You'll get to those moments. It's the nature of life. It's the nature of living. It's the nature of humanity. And so we have those moments. And so God says, I've graven you in the palms of my hand. For them, that was a sort of personification type reference of God and his permanent remembrance of us in the same way we would think of maybe a ring or something that reminds us or announces to the world that we're married and reminds us of that covenant in the same way that they're graven in the palms of his hands. But they don't know what you and I know. They don't know that Jesus, when Jesus comes to offer himself for their salvation and, of course, for our salvation after us, they don't know what's going to happen yet. And we we know what happens. We know that that it wasn't just talking about figuratively what God was going to do, but it was also talking about literally what was going to happen as Jesus was nailed to the cross and and his palms were nailed there. It was going to be a literal fulfillment that he will never forget you. Now I know what we want when we want to be healed, when we want to be made whole, we want to be made well, especially in our society and our culture, and especially if it's something someone can see, we don't want any scars. We pay doctors to remove scars because we count them as ugly. We count the disfigurement of the scar as something we want to get rid of. We don't want that to be what people see. Jesus was buried in the tomb. He resurrected in a new body. That he's been transformed in the same way that God describes the catching away of the church, that we will be transformed in the same way that the beings in heaven and the people in heaven are worshiping God in a body that's similar but not exactly what they had when they were on earth. Jesus was buried in that tomb. But he didn't get rid of his scars. Because we read when he met the disciples and Thomas wasn't there, and Thomas said, I won't believe it until. And so the next time Jesus showed up and Thomas was there, Jesus said, Okay, here's my hands and here's my side. Put your finger there. Put your finger there. See what it is. See what's there. Jesus did not, when he resurrected in this new body, he did not lose the scars. He still had the scars. Why? Because that's a fulfillment of the prophecy and a sign of the work that he did. It's not ugly, it's beautiful because it represents a salvation hope that you and I have, that he has given us. And so the scars are still there. The scars are still there today. The scars in his hands and in his side. And it's a constant reminder that he doesn't need, but is there to symbolize for us to know that he loves us, that we are graven in the palm of his hands, and when we think that he has left us and that he has forgotten us, he can't forget us because we are constantly there in front of him in the form of the sacrifice that he offered for us to remind us Jesus never forgets you. He never forgets you. And if you're feeling uh lonely, if you're feeling uh left, if you're feeling abandoned, if you're feeling invisible today, I want you to know that he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. And that reminds us that he can't forget about us. Instead, he gave himself for us. And so today, I want to just I want to just share some promises of God with you to remind you that he hasn't left you, that he hasn't abandoned you. I know we sang and we may even sing again in a few minutes that we need a miracle and that we believe, and we do need a miracle, and we do believe, but in moments of our lives, sometimes we feel lost and forgotten and invisible. And where is God at? And so I want to take you, as we have said today, I want to take you to God's word, not my promises, not my thoughts, but what the word of God says. I want you to know that He will never leave you. Hebrews chapter 13, verse number five, let your conversation or your lifestyle be without covetousness. Now, you probably didn't use covetousness today, and probably not even if you taught a Sunday school class. Because that's not a word we use very often. But it's not just a desire for something, it's a consuming desire for something. Something. It's a compelling desire for something. In particular, it's the idea that we are never quite satisfied. Do you know some people that are never quite satisfied? I didn't ask you to point to anybody. I just said, Do you know some people like that? You know, it doesn't matter what they have, they want something else. Doesn't matter what they they see something else. You know, theirs has this name on it, but that other person has that name on it, and that's the bigger name. I want that one. And quite frankly, much of America is that way. We gotta have something else because how else are we gonna fill our garages and our storage buildings and our rental storages somewhere? I gotta have something else. I'm never quite satisfied, I'm never quite there, I've never quite got what I want. So let our conversation be without covetousness, but be content with such things as you have. Now that doesn't mean you never have to have anything else that you do now, but it's the attitude. And how can we have that attitude as Christians? Well, the next phrase tells us how. Because Jesus said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You won't find that comfort in your stuff. Your stuff is not gonna make you feel like that you're remembered. You can be just as lost and empty and invisible with a house full of stuff. That's not gonna do it. But what will do it is knowing that Jesus will never leave me, he'll never forsake me, he'll never abandon me, he will always be there. I can trust him because that's his promise. And I can be content no matter what my circumstances are, I can be content because I know that he will never leave me. So today I want to remind you that he will never leave you. I want to remind you today that God is our refuge and strength, Psalm 46 and 1, and a very present help in trouble. And very present, I don't really know how you get very present in literal English terms. I mean, you're either present or you're not present. Like a very present. It's not really talking about being very present in that sense. It's meaning in what we might say, ever-present, always present. God is always present. In our troubles and our hardships and our difficulties, God is always present. Whenever things seems to be lost, God had not abandoned Joseph. Neither had God abandoned his people. God had not left them, he was still there. He was still unknown to them, directing behind the scenes in a way that they couldn't quite see and couldn't fathom, couldn't understand. But he is present. So God sustains us, God holds us, God helps us, even when we don't know that he's doing that. God gives us unexpected sources of strength and help. If we will reach down and get them, he ensures that we will never be consumed in despair because he is there. We are not alone. Philippians chapter 1 and verse number 6, Paul to the Ephesians being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. When I read that scripture, I think of uh little projects that I have started and not finished. Some I still hope to finish someday. Some I gave up on a long time ago. I won't finish them, never mind. I don't want to do them anymore. Some I hope I'll finish. A few I have finished. But God doesn't leave it unfinished. Well, God help me here and here and then where did he go? He hasn't left it unfinished. He hasn't left it unfinished. He's not abandoning the unfinished project of your life. He's not walking away from the unfinished project of your existence, but he will finish what he has started. He will stay with you, he will walk with you until the very end. Until, until, until. Everybody say until God will be with you until you're with him for eternity. He will be with you in this life. He has not left you. He's not abandoned you. And yes, you may have some hardships and you may have some difficulties and you may have some tragedies and you may have some humanity things that you can't explain. But it Isaiah 61 and 3 says he's going to point to them that are in a Mount Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, garments of praise for spirit, for a spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Out of pain, he can produce joy. What life burns down and is left in ashes, God can grow again what he wants to grow in our lives. That's his promise. It's not my promise, it's not me just trying to preach to encourage you today, but it's me telling you what the Word of God says. That he will grow beauty out of ashes, he will grow strength out of weakness, that he will transform your morning into joy, that he will give you a garment of praise exchanged for a spirit of heaviness. And that's not a one-time event. That's not a one-moment situation or one moment help. Lamentations 3, 22, 23 says it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. It's because of his compassions that his compassion to us sustains us. His love sustains us, and they are new every morning. And what is the exclamation after that realization? What is the exclamation when we realize that every morning, every day, God shows us his compassion, his grace, his love. Every day he helps us. Every day he refreshes us and renews us in his spirit. Every day, it's not a one-time thing, it's not a one-moment thing, it's not a one-experienced thing, but every day he renews us and he restores us and he strengthens us that his hand is with us. As much as we eat food to sustain ourselves or sleep to refresh ourselves, he renews us day in and day out with his mercies and grace. What is the exclamation that's made after that? Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness that you renew me, that you help me, that you strengthen me, that you're with me. Psalms 34 and 18. It says, The Lord is near unto them that are of a broken heart, and saves such as be of a contrite spirit. He rescues those of a contrite spirit. He's nearer to those of a broken heart. God doesn't abandon you. When you're having pain, when you're having anguish, when you're having difficulties, God's not abandoned you. He's not left you alone. He's not walked away. He didn't isolate you. He didn't quarantine you. He didn't make you wear a mask and keep your six feet distance. God doesn't leave you alone, He embraces you. Jesus touched the unclean. He met the lepers on the way, and when they ran to them, he didn't step back. He stepped forward to receive them. Everyone else stepped back in fear of their disease and their sickness, but one touch from the hand of God heals, and Jesus never stepped back. When the children ran to him who had no value to add to him, nothing of favor to give to them, he said, forbid them not to come, for such is the kingdom of heaven. Whatever the circumstances, whatever your situation, I want you to know if you feel abandoned, you feel lost, you feel invisible, you're not to God. He has not forgotten you. If you feel like, oh, but this and oh, but that and these circumstances and my my place in life, I don't want to, I don't want to, I'm embarrassed, I don't want to take that step forward. Look, if you come to Jesus, he will step to you, not away from you. He won't hide his face from you. You can come to Jesus and express your frustrations. You can come to God even and be mad at him. And he won't be offended by that. You can come to God and say, God, why did you let this happen to me? And that won't offend him. Whoever told you that doesn't know what life is and doesn't know God very well. That's the enemy of your soul that would tell you to step away. Instead, come to God with all of what you have, all of what you don't have, all the emotions, all the feelings, all the whatever you're feeling. Just come to God and let him be with you. He has not forgotten you, he has not left you, he has not abandoned you today. Yes, sometimes we feel overlooked and forgotten. Sometimes we feel like Joseph, sometimes we can relate to him a lot more than we would like to. I'm not sure I want to say we can relate to Job since he lost so much more than the rest of us probably have. But sometimes we can really connect to those stories of loss and pain and anguish. We like the story of Joseph because we get the rest of the story, we get a considerable amount of time on the rest of the story. We know that God helped Job, but there was a long journey of anguish and pain and hardship and difficulty. You're not exempt from that just because you're a Christian. We're humans. So we have those experiences, we have those things in our lives. But I want to tell you today that he has not forgotten you. You may be like Zion, convinced that he has, but I'm trying to tell you today that he has not. You may feel like because a prayer was an answer that God hasn't heard, he has heard. He has heard. He has heard. He has his plan and direction for your life, his provident hand that will direct you. Don't stop praying, don't stop crying out to him. He's listening. He said, I will never leave you or forsake you. You're engraved on his hands. You're seen, you're known, you're remembered. And you know what? That doesn't matter where you're coming from today. That doesn't matter whether you are brand new and you don't know anything. That doesn't matter if your life is a train wreck. That doesn't matter if everything looks like it's good in your life, and you've been living for God for how many ever years it is now, and you have great testimonies. Doesn't matter where you are on that spectrum, God receives you today. He has not forgotten you today. Your righteousness, your holiness doesn't make God remember you more. Your history or your your background doesn't make God remember you more. Your heritage of a family serving God as Christians versus your heritage of a family filled with addictions and problems and tragedies and breaking into pieces. That doesn't change how God remembers you and how God opens his arms to you. That's in our minds, that's in our hearts, and that's what the enemy would use to keep us away. But he remembers you. He is here to minister to you. Do you believe that?