Remember

Peter 1:es 12-15. 2 Peter 1 12-15. We've been doing a series since last May called marriages made in heaven but lived on earth. And just talking about different marriages and what we can learn from those marriages, both good and bad. And I hope it's been a challenging series for you and a helpful series for those of you married couples and those you are not uh the singles to help you think think forward and prepare for that. And for the uh those are beyond that position. I hope that you've learned also the application to our relationship with the Lord and each other as well. Now today I want to what I'm going to do in this today is I want to talk about remembering just to kind of you know what I what I find is when I preach a series like this is goes on so long that people forget what I started with.

And so what I'm going to do not next Sunday but the next two Sundays after that is I'm going to kind of review through the some of the highlights from the messages that we learned so that we can really hold on to those because one of the things we want to remember to do we want to do is remember what we hear in 1 Peter chapter 1 and beginning with verse number 12. It says wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in the present truth. Yay. As I think it mean as long as I am in this tabernacle, this body to sit of to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off my this my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.

And moreover, I will endeavor that may you may be after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance. For we've not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we're eyewitnesses of his majesty. Now, I'm going to tell you right away, I want to do the first part of this verse, these verses, but not the second part. The first part says, I'm to put you in remembrance, but then you get down to verse number 14, it says, knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle. And uh in verse 15, moreover, I will endeavor that you may go after my deceased.

I am not planning to be deceased anytime soon. U despite my surgery last week where I got my artery cut, I'm doing fine. Uh I'm not going to do the deceased part of it. All right? But I am going to do the reminding part of it because we all need to remember. Uh, I don't know about you, but I have a terrible memory. Uh, I I have been forgetting things for 69 years, and it's the only thing I've gotten better as I grow older. I'm getting better at forgetting. And, uh, some of you will understand this. Uh, you'll get to a certain point in life where you will walk into a room and when you get that room, you'll stop and you'll look around thinking, why am I here?

Why did I come in this room? What did I come to do? What did I come to get? and and that happens more and more often as you get older. And I've been doing that since I was younger. So, I'm real good at forgetting. And I find that a lot of people forget what we preached about. Uh some of you, if I came to you right now and asked you, "Well, what was my sermon last week? Would you remember that? What was the sermon three weeks ago? What was the one uh two months ago?" A lot of times we can forget it. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse number nine, it says, "Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest thy they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life, but teach them thy sons and thy son's sons."

We need to remember not to forget. Think about it. We need to remember not to forget. God says, "Listen, pay attention. Pay attention to what you hear. Faith come by hearing and hear by the word of God. Pay attention to what you learn to what you see. These are things I want you to hold on to and not forget. And so I would encourage you when you hear a message on Sunday. Uh don't just let it leave it here at church, take it home with you, meditate upon it, go back and review it a little bit. The notes are always available, by the way, at ohana.urch/live. And and just take take the time to remember what it is that you're learning from the Lord.

In Isaiah 43 and:7 it says, "Even everyone is called by my name. For I have created him for my glory. I have formed and yay, I have made him." God made us for his glory. And and that's why we're here. You know, you ever ask the question, why am I here? And and and God says, "The reason you're here is for my glory." We were not only created for God's glory, but we're also saved for God's glory. In Ephesians chapter 1, put a marker in second Peter and turn over there. Ephesians chapter 1 and look at verse number six. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse number six. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 1 and verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace where he made us accepted in the beloved.

Skip down to verse 12. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ in whom you also trusted. After that you heard the word of truth. with the gospel of your salvation. And also after that, you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance of redemption of the person possession unto the praise of his glory. God created you for his glory. God saved you for his glory. That's why we're here. We're here for the glory of God. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse number 31, it says, "Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever do, do all to the glory of God."

I want to cause call call some men up here help me with illustrations. So, brother Peter, would you come up here and Kenny, why don't you come up and Alex, you come over here, too. All right. I I want Alex and Kenny to stand over in this side if you would right here. And then, Brother Peter and I are going to stand over in this side over here. Brother Peter, right over here if you would. And the Bible tells us in Proverbs 28:2, "He that is of a proud heart stirth up strife, but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat." Listen, who's trusting the Lord more up here? These skinny guys obviously need to work on trusting the Lord more.

You know, uh, brother Peter and I, man, we we we got that down really good. Uh, whether we eat or drink, and we're doing that part there. All right, we're trusting the Lord. But these guys, look at them. They're not trusting the Lord at all. Now, Alex has looked like he's put on a little bit of weight since he got married, but uh, still still got to learn how to trust the Lord. All right, you guys go ahead and sit down. You know, it's not talking about this. This is the glory of God. This is actually not to the glory of God. God says take care of our temple. I want to say about brother Peter too.

I asked some of the men in the church to hold me accountable and my uh health and exercise and weight and uh and Peter's one of them and he has been so amazing. He walks every day and he keeps us accountable with that and has done a great job with that and that's bringing glory to the Lord as well. But you know what God says whatever you do in life it ought to be to his glory because he's the one that deserves that glory. And we've been talking about marriages over these last number of months now. And in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 32, the chapter 5 talks about the husband and wife relationship.

And then you get down to verse 32 and it says this. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the church. Did you know that your marriage is not just to make the two of you happy and to create a family, but your marriage, God said, I brought you together to be a picture of Christ in the church, to give glory to God. And that's why this series has been so important because we need to make sure that our marriages are bringing glory to God. God has called us for his glory. And we also we need to remember to get wisdom. Turn to Proverbs chapter 4 if you would. The book of Proverbs chapter 4 and look at verses number five through 7.

Proverbs chapter 4 and verses 5-7. The Bible says, "Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not." So you got to remember this. You got to get the wisdom, but you got to not forget it. Neither declare um decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake me not and she shall preserve thee. Love her and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore get wisdom and with thy getting get understanding. Exalt her and she shall uh pro promote thee and she shall bring thee to honor when thou disbrace her. By the way, that was one of our illustrations. Remember the triangle uh of learning? You got base knowledge and then wisdom and then instruction then understanding and and and God wants us to get wisdom.

And I hope over this series you've gained wisdom in your relationship. You know I know a lot of people have read a lot of books on marriage but they forget what they read. You know and and and you got to do more than just read or hear it. You got to hold on to that. How much wisdom do you remember? How much wisdom do you remember? In 2 Peter 3:es 1 and 2, he says, "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your your minds by way of remembrance that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of the uh of us the apostles and the Lord and Savior."

Paul said, ' Listen, my job as a pastor, my job as a preacher is not only to preach and teach the word of God, but to try to stir up your remembrance, to try to help you remember what you already know and apply those things in your life. You know, uh over the this series, we've done it for uh five months, and I preached 15 different sermons. Do you remember any of them? Anybody here remember what the sermon was was on last week? Anybody remember? What? The car illustration. The car illustration. I remember his illustration when I ran out of gas. All right. But anybody remember what it was about?

What's that? I heard somebody. That was on fraud. Very good. So last week was about defrauding one another. And then if you go back seven weeks, seven weeks I I preached on somebody that you would not think would be a good example for us in marriage. Anybody remember who that was? not Solomon, but the David David. And we called him the the husband, King David. And remember the illustration we used there was a compass and and using that compass to guide us and how we need to have a compass that guides our relationship with each other and with the Lord. And then before that, uh 10 weeks ago, I preached on Hosea.

Remember Hosea? He was the one that married a prostitute. And God and when she went prostituting, God said, "Go get her and bring her back. Go get her and bring her back." canal. We have to be willing to forgive even the worst things that happened and be willing to do our best to make sure it works. And then the very first message, anybody remember the very first message? I should go back and do this series again. I would I had to prepare a message. I could preach it all again. You guys wouldn't even know what I was doing. Uh the very first message I titled it fairy tale marriages and I use fairy tales as illustration.

They're like Cinderella, you know, in in second Peter chapter 1. We we started there where have not followed cunningly devised fables. We made known unto the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we're eyewitnesses of his majesty. You know, we want marriages that will uh that will live happily ever after. But you know what? Those marriages are in a land far far away. They just don't seem to be where we're living at. And and we want a fairy tale marriage. And God says that you can't have shortcuts here. There's no fairy tale stories here. You got to work at it. You got to make it happen.

Uh if you want to be happy, you know the word happy comes from the same word happen. And our happiness is based upon what happens to us. And but if we want joy, we got to make that happen. We've got to choose joy rather than just happiness. And um and so we got to learn that that remember these things. And that's the one thing I want I I I I'm thankful for the way you pay attention. This church is a great church for listening. I I I know that God's used it in your hearts. I've heard people make comments. But what I don't want to do is end this series and leave it here. I want you to remember these things.

I want you to go back and maybe even review these things. And again, you can download all the messages. Uh you you let me know and I'll get those for you. I don't know if they're all in Ohana Live right now. Inner, if you can take care of that for me. Uh he'll put them all up on there. But uh you can download the message. You can go back and watch them on YouTube again. You can do as a a devotion between you and your spouse. But don't forget these things. Remember not to forget. See, I I I did my best to really get these things across. In 1 Timothy 4:6, Paul says, "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished of the words of the faith and good doctrine where until thou has attained."

I I promise you that I spend time every week trying to put the message together such a way that it keeps your interest. I I try to use personal stories so you know that, you know, I struggle with the same things you struggle with. I I I try to tell funny jokes and you guys never laugh at. Um I I I try to use interesting object lessons like a a plant or a compass or things like that. Uh I and illustrations. I try to tell funny jokes and nobody laughs at them. Um you know, in my average sermon, I used about 30 to 40 verses. A and that means just on Sunday morning a year, you're going to hear over 2,000 verses in the Bible.

And the Bible says in Romans 10:17, "Faith come by hearing and hear by the word of God." So the word of God ought to be making a difference in your life. The word of God ought to be making a difference in your marriage. In second Peter, it talks about, look at verses 19- 21. Second Peter again, 19 chapter 1:es 19- 21. We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where until you do well that you take heed as unto a Sorry, I turned two pages at once here. as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn the day star arise in your hearts. Knowing this verse that no prophecy of scriptures any private interpretation.

For the prophecy came not in old time but but by the will of men by holy men of God as we were moved by the Holy Ghost. You know Peter is saying you know Peter tells us he was there at the mount of transfiguration. He heard the voice of God from heaven speak. He saw the glory of God come down at at that mountaintop. And and he said, "Listen, I heard the voice of God speak." But we've got a more sure word of prophecy. We've got something better than just a voice from heaven. We've got the word of God. And it's the word of God that's going to change our life. But it's not going to happen if we don't remember not to forget.

If you don't remember what you hear, if you don't go back and review it and meditate upon it and talk about it and apply it in your life, then it's not going to make any difference. And we need to put it in practice. See, ultimately I can I can do all the sermon preaching. I can come up with all the illustrations. I can tell all the stories and and and and try my best to keep your interest, but ultimately it's up to you. Look at James chapter 1 right before first Peter there. James chapter 1 and verses 23-2. James chapter 1 and verse number 23. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man, beholding his natural face in a glass.

For he behold himself and straightway go and goeth his way and straightway forgetth what manner of man he was. But who so look at the perfect law of liberty and continue therein, he being not forgetful here, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. See, I can preach it all, but some point you got to go beyond just seeing, okay, that was good. And getting up close and really looking at your personal life. How is this applying to me? How is this applying to my marriage? How is it going to apply to my relationship with God and with others as well? You know, the two different words he uses here, he talks about that um you behold the word of God in verse number 23 and then then in verse number 25, who so look at the perfect law of liberty.

It's the difference between looking in the mirror and seeing you need to shave and then getting up close and shaving. It's the difference of looking in the mirror and say, "I got to put my makeup on." but never getting up there and putting on the makeup. You see, you got to get up close. You got to get up personal. You got to get up where it applies in your life. Uh the preacher can only do so much and then it's up to you. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? In Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 14, it says, "But strong me belonging to them who are full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised discern both good and evil."

You see, you got to use it. You got to put it in practice. You come on Sunday and you hear this and you say, "Okay, now we're going to work at doing that this week." You cannot just leave it here. You got to remember not to forget. Our theme verse for Ohana Baptist Church is Acts 17:11. That these were more noble than those in Thessalonica. And that they received the word with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily where those things are. So, and folks, if if you're not doing that, we're not fulfilling it. Are are you noble? Do you come to church and hear the message and walk out and leave it here?

That's not noble. What's noble is to take it home with you, to to meditate upon it, to think about it, to talk about it, to share it, and to put it in application in your life. And that's the challenge that we have. And I I I don't want to come to the end of this series and leave it here. So remember not to forget, but you also need to remember what you forget. And you say, "What are you, pastor? How can you remember what you forget? Sometimes I'll I I I'll forget something. I don't even know I forgot it. You know, in Jeremiah chapter 23, chapter 2 and verse 32, it says, "Can a man can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire?

Yet my people have forgotten me days without number." You know what we do? We forget God. We get God. In the series on marriage, they're talking about, you know, the relationship we have with each other. I I know in my relationship, I can go days forgetting, hey, I need to I need to love my wife. I I need to honor my wife. I I need to treat her right. We forget to do those things. And And we need to remember what you forget. And and and and sometimes we forget because you got what you wanted. You ever had that happen? Your kids will do this to you. Dad, dad, if you'll just let me go to this this activity, I'll do my chores when I get home.

And they get home. What do they do? Forget to do their choice because they got to go to the activity. Now that I got what I wanted, I forget to do what I promised. And and we do that so often with the Lord. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 8. The Old Testament. Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and look at verses 10-14. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and:es 10-14. It says, 'When thou hast eaten and art full, when thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Man, Lord, you're such a great God, because I'm full. Okay, beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God is not keeping thy command his commandments and his judgments his tature which I command this day.

Lest when thou has eaten and are full, and hast built upon godly houses and dwelt therein. And then uh and when the the herd thy herds thy flocks multiplied and the silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thy house is multiplied. When thine heart be lifted up and thou forget thy God, the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of the bondage. You know when everything is going good, it's easy to forget God. When everything's going bad, it's like God, we need you. But when everything's going good, well, I don't need God. And that's time we need God the most.

We got to remember what we forget. And so often we forget because we have what we want. You know, when I was in pain, I remember my doctor's appointment. I had a doctor's appointment and I remembered it. In fact, I I went the day before I was supposed to go because I remembered it so well. I went Wednesday instead of Thursday. You know, I'm I've missed I can't tell how many dentist appointments I missed. I can't tell how many doctor's appointments I missed because I was not in pain. And if I'm not in pain, I can feed forget a doctor's appointment. But when I'm in pain, I'm saying, "Hey, is that doctor's appointment today?

When is that doctor's appointment? I I want to remember it." And that's not the way it should be. We should remember God even when we're not hurting. So often we forget God because we've got our salvation. We forget that people other people are dying, going to hell, but I'm saved. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and:es 14- 15 says, "The love of Christ constrainth us because we thus judge. If one died for all, then we're all dead." and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again. I see a lot of Christians. I'm saved and they forget but there's a lot of people out there who haven't heard the gospel.

I'm saved but they don't tell other people about Jesus. They forget that God saved him and now he wants us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We forget so easily. We can for we forget because I got my prayer answered and I forgot my promise. God, if you'll just do this, I promise you, boy, I've seen that happen over and over again. I I've seen it happen in marriages. I've seen husbands promise to wife, listen, this will never happen again. I'm going to change. I'm not going to do that again. And then what happens after everything settles down, she's no longer threatened to leave him, she he goes right back into it again.

And this cycle just happens over and over and over again because we forget the promises. In Ecclesiastes chapter 5 and verse number four, it says, "When thou vowest to vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he had no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed." And when you made a vow, when you got married, you made a vow before God. And you need to be faithful to that vow. And when you make promises to your spouse, you need to be faithful to that promise and not forget. And we forget so easily. Yeah. Yeah. I I'll change. I'll change. And then we go right back into the old patterns again.

We forget that we got God's forgiveness. So we forget to forget. You say, "What do you mean?" We forget that God has forgiven us and we forget to forgive others and forget what they've done to us. Remember the Lord's prayer in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive others. I can't forgive you for what you did. Wait a minute. You forgot. God's forgiven you for what you did. If God can forgive and forget what you did, why can't you forgive and forget what they did? Well, they don't deserve it. But God commended his love towards us who are yet sinners. Christ died for us.

You don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. Yeah, but they never asked forgiveness. God forgave me long before I ever asked him to forgive me. Well, they won't accept it. God forgave a lot of people haven't accepted him. Folks, we got to forget. We forget that we're forgiven. And because we're forgiven, we can forget what others have done to us. In Colossians chapter 3 and verse 19, it says, "Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them." And I I see so many couples that their problem is they won't forget what happened in the past. and a husband or wife is bitter against their spouse because they're not willing to forget and to forgive some hurt from 5, 10, 15, even 20 years ago.

I'm thankful that God is a forgiving God and a forgiving God. So, what do you want to remember? Well, you want to remember your salvation. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verses 1-4. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 beginning with verse number one. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which you have received, and there wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered on you first of all, that which also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to scripture, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to scripture.

Listen folks, do you remember salvation? Do you remember believing in Jesus death, burial, and resurrection? Believing that he died for you to save you from your sins, to give you eternal life, that he died to to to forgive you and to give you heaven. Did you did you realize that he died in your place? Do you remember when you believed in him? In Romans chap 10:es 9 and 10 it says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised from the dead thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believed unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:13 says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen. Do you remember when you believed in Jesus Christ? Do you remember when you called on Lord save me a sinner? Those of you that are married here today, I want to ask you a question. Do you remember when you got married? Raise your hand. Now, if you're not, raise your hand. We've got some counseling that we need to be doing right now. Okay. Now, if I were to go around the room and point at somebody said, "Tell me the date you got married." I'd probably get some of you into trouble. So, I'm not going to do that to you.

You may not always remember the date, but you will never forget standing beside that person you're in love with and saying, "I do." And the same thing is true of salvation. Now if we went around the room and asked you to describe your wedding ceremonies be a lot of different descriptions. Some of them were just before justice of peace. Some were big elaborate ceremonies with all the trimmings and some were you know were Christian type weddings and other ones were not and all the rest of it. You'd have a different way of describing it but all of them would come down to one thing. I said yes and I received that person into my life and that's exactly what salvation is.

There's no magic prayer. There's no magic words, but it's believing. Believing that he died, was buried, and rose again. Believing he died to take away your sins and give you eternal life. Believing that he loved you and he gave himself for you. And it's just saying, "Yes, I want you." In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number two, it says, "Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." There's some things that there's there's just a now. There's a day you graduated. There's a day you joined the military. There's a day you got married. There's a day you had a baby. And there's a day you got saved.

There's a time and a place. When was that for you? If you're not sure, make sure. Get it right. Go to Psalms chapter 32. Psalms chapter 32. Something else you need to forget. You need to forget your sins after you confess them. Somebody once said this. I don't know who said this quote first, but somebody once said this. Every married man should forget his mistakes. There's no point in two people remembering the same thing. Folks, what I'm thankful for is I don't have to remember my sins. When I ask God to forgive him, he forgets them and so can I. In Psalms chapter 32 and beginning with verse number one, it says, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and whose spirit there's no guile. It means he doesn't put it on your debt. It's not on your bill. You don't owe it anymore. When I kept silence, my bones wax old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night the hand was heavy upon me. My moistures turned on drought of summer. Sila, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and thou shalt forgive the iniquity of my sin. Sila, that word sila means to stop and think about this. That I can confess my sins to God.

God wants me to remember him long enough so I can remember to say, "God, forgive me this for my sin. Forgive me for what I did." And when I do that, then God says, "Okay, now I've forgotten it." And so should you. I'm so thankful. 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And by the way, married couples, can I say something? If God can forget what I did, could you not as a spouse also forget? I find one of the biggest struggles we have in our marriage is that we're holding on to things in the past. Now, if there's something in the past, you need to deal with it.

You need to bring it up and say, "This bothers me and and we never dealt with it and get it dealt with. But once the forgiveness is asked for, as hard as it is, then then you be need to take it off of their debt. You know, when you go in to charge something on your credit card, they're not looking at how much money you have right now. You know what they're looking at? How much have you charged and all these old debts as well? And in many of our arguments, you ever had an argument where you were arguing over something when you got done and made up, you said, "Why did we even fight over that?" Because you weren't fighting over that.

you are fighting over this whole list of debts that you've been holding on to and never forgiven. And you've got to you got to forgive and and you got to resolve those things. In some cases, it means, hey, we need to come back together and and pay this. We need to work this out. In other cases, it's saying, you know what, it's just not worth holding on to that debt anymore. I'm just going to forgive you and wipe it wipe it clean. But either way, you've got to let go of that. If God can forgive, then it's about time we as husbands and wives started forgiving as well. So my last main point is this.

Remember what you remember. Remember what you remember. The word remember has the word member in there. The Bible teaches in and we're not going to turn 1 Corinthians chapter 6. says that he that is joined to a harlot, he says that's wrong as for a Christian because you you become a member who's a member of Christ cannot be a member of a harlot. You can't have those two things together. And here's my point in marriage. You're a member of a marriage. The two of you come together as members, one of another to cleave to one another. And you need to remember that. Remember that the way you behave and the way you act and the things you do.

I'm married now. And when you're married, your life changes. You can't do what you used to do. And you you got to remember I've got a spouse. And I'm going to tell you from personal experience, if you forget that, you're in trouble. I remember one time my wife and I were traveling across the United States and we stopped at a gas station to get gas and she went inside to use the restroom and and get a couple things and and I got the gas in the car and I jumped in the car and I took off. This is before cell phones, folks. I was about 30 minutes down the road before I realized my wife was not in the car cuz she had been sleeping in the back seat.

She I didn't know she had gotten out even. And I'd had to turn around, go all the way back. So, it's an hour she's at that gas station. And I pulled into that gas station and she looked at me and said, "Did you forget something? You got to remember you're married. You are a member of an exclusive relationship that cannot be shared with anybody else and they can only get from you. You got to remember we talked about this marriage is a picture of our relationship with the church and Christ. You got to remember you're part of the body of Christ. You and I are members of this body. Turn over to Romans chap 12.

Romans chapter 12 and look at verses 3-5. Romans chapter 12 and verse 35. Paul says, "For I say through grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think soberly, according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we are many members in one body, and all members have not the same office. So we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another. We have a membership relationship with each other as the body of Christ." And I hope through this series, you've not only seen truths about your marriage, but you've also seen truths about the church and the commitment that we need to have to the body of Christ, to the members of the local church, that we're one body in Christ.

We are literally members of the living God. Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:15, "But if I tar long, that thou might know how thou ought to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth." Bible tells us in Hebrews 10:25, "Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as a manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much of the more as you see the day approaching. I do not understand people that are members of a church that don't show up. You're members. You're part of this body. This is the house of God, the living God. Now, I know you can worship God on your own, but I'll tell you what, it's not the same worshiping God in my house that it is worshiping God together with other Christians.

And I know you can watch the sermon online and and and that's good, but I did that when we were traveling and I'll tell you what, it's nowhere near as good. It's something about being a member of a body of Christ and the commitment that comes with that. Revelation 2:es 4 and 5 in closing. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place. Remember remember not to forget. Don't forget you were created for God's glory. You were saved for God's glory. Don't forget to get wisdom in all thy getting understanding. Don't forget. Remember to remember this bound prayer.