You have your Bibles, why don't you go ahead and grab them and turn to Judges chapter three. We are continuing in our series in the book of Judges that we've called Wisdom for Troubled Times. And of course, we've called it that because, well, Judges is pretty dark, isn't it? In fact, our chapter this morning is a pretty gruesome story. And as we go along in Judges, what we'll see is it gets darker and darker and darker as the people of Israel get further and further away from the Lord. And we've kind of seen that sort of the devolving of culture in our times too, haven't we? And we've called it wisdom for troubled times because the questions facing Israel about whether or not they're gonna walk with the Lord, whether or not they're gonna serve him really gets down to who has the right to rule. Those are the same questions that are facing all of us as well. And so we just thought what better book to look at And as we examined the book last week, what we saw is that the key to covenant faithfulness is a disciplined, relational remembrance of who God is and what He has done. that we have to on purpose remember who God is and what he's done in our lives. And as we saw last week, there was this compare and contrast between one generation who knew the Lord and how we'd saved them from the hand of Pharaoh, how we'd guided them in the desert, how he'd brought them into the promised land and had seen the mighty works of God and seen his goodness and faithfulness and mercy to them. And because they'd seen and experienced that, they in general obeyed. And they were contrasted with the generation that came after them, where it says they didn't know the Lord, or hadn't seen His mighty works. And so the result of that was, was that they didn't follow after the Lord. And it says they did evil in the sight of the Lord. There's a direct correlation between those two things. And so from that, we learn that A, we need to continually rehearse for ourselves what the Lord has done in our lives. We need to have in our bones a deep knowledge that He loves us, He's redeemed us, and that He's called us His own. Because if we don't tell ourselves that story over, if we're not gospeling ourselves over and over and over again, we're gonna be prone to forgetfulness and not remembering His mighty works, and so we'll do evil in His sight. And we saw as well that as we need to be telling that story of His faithfulness to us, to our children and our grandchildren. Then it might look like this, that you gather your kids and go, kids, when mom and I were first married, we didn't know how it was gonna work. There were difficult times, but he was faithful to us, and now here we are. Or maybe your family's going through a tough season right now, and now's the moment. Kids, we can trust God. We know because he's delivered us again and again and again. Remember? Remember, kids? And then in general, if you do that, the next generation will walk with the Lord. Now, of course there are exceptions, right? We've all seen parents who are just awesome parents and have done exactly the stuff we're talking about and their kids just aren't, they're not walking with the Lord. We've also seen like those train wreck parents, right? Who don't do any of it. And their kids, and because God's merciful, their kids are doing great. And so there's no formulas here. But in general, if we pass on and tell the story again and again and again, we find it gets passed on to the next generation and they walk in faith. And then we saw as well that sin, that there's this cycle of sin that happens, right, where the people of Israel, they walk in with the Lord, the judge dies, they go back to their old ways, They get judged by another country, usually to enslave them as we'll see. They cry out to God. God raises up a deliverer. They repent and then it starts all over again. And one of the things we saw as we were looking at it is that all sin is relational sin. It describes it as whoring after other gods. There's just an unfaithfulness to it. And how we talked about how, like, if you cheat on your spouse, she's not going to say, well, you violated a contract. You broke a rule, because that's not really the point, is it? That's a transgression against a relationship. And when we sin, the point is not that a rule has been broken, but that we have violated a relationship with a God who loves you and made you and wants you to be whole. And so all sin is relational sin. And we saw that if we're in that cycle that we're allowed to do over, that if we cry out to him, there's mercy to be found. And then we saw finally that God in judging his prized people, Israel, it's never punitive, but always redemptive and restorative. And so it is with us. If his hand is heavy on you, it could be because he wants to make you aware of your need. The point of his having the neighboring countries enslave them is that they wouldn't know that they're in need and need him and cry out to him. And if we'll just do that, we'll be delivered. All of which brings us to our text this morning, picking it up in chapter three, verse seven. Let's read it together. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord, their God, and served the Baals and the Aseroth. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the land of Cushan and Rishathasim, king of Mesopotamia, and the people of Israel served Cushan Rasphahim eight years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them, Othaniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushan Rishahim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, and his hand prevailed over Cushan Rasahim. So the land had rest 40 years. Then Othaniel, the son of Kenaz, died. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord strengthened Elgon, the king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Amorites and the Alchemites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of Palms. And the people of Israel served Elgon, the king of Moab, 18 years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Elgon, the king of Moab. And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes, and he presented the tribute to Elgon, king of Moab. Now Elgon was a very fat man, and when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he commanded silence, and all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him, and he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly, and the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly, and dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. And when the servants came and they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, surely he's relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber. And they waited until they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took their key and opened them, and there lay their Lord dead on the floor. Yehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Syria. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. And he said to them, follow after me, for the Lord has given you your enemies, the Moabites, into your hands. So they went down after him and seized the forts of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men. Not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for 80 years. After him, Shagmar, the son of Enneth, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oak scythe, and he also saved Israel. May God bless the reading of his word. So, I don't know, you guys probably know this about me, but I imagine many of you share this in common with me. I really like stories, and the kinds of stories that really appeal to me are underdog stories. Like one of my favorite movies is Hoosiers, right? Anyone seen it? It's a story of this little Indiana basketball team, and they somehow, against all odds, went out and get to the state tournament, and they're playing this really big school with really big players. And there's that scene where Gene Hackman drops the tape measure from the rim. And he's like, it's 10 feet, just like where we are. And against all odds, they win. Or if you're a football guy, a movie like Rudy, right? And there's that scene with Charles Dutton where he says, you're five foot nothing and you're 100 and nothing. And you hung in there with the greatest football team in the land in this really moving moment. I think all of us like those stories. We like those stories because there's something in us that understands that many of us are too small for the things that face us. And so these stories about people overcoming are moving to us for that reason, right? That's why people flock to those kinds of stories. And here this morning, we have that kind of story because it's not about the might of the judge, but the might of the God that he serves. And so our big idea this morning is simply this. Though we are prone to forgetting God, though we're prone to forgetting Him and the work He has done, He never forgets us. He never forgets us. And He is mighty to save. So let's dig in. The sin of forgetting, picking it up in verse seven. And the people of the Lord did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord, their God, and served the Baals and the Aseroth. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushon, Rethahim, king of Macedonia, and the people of Israel served Cushon for eight years. In these verses, we read that the people of Israel have forgotten the Lord. Now, of course, that doesn't mean like a literal forgetting, right? It doesn't mean that they, well, they just forgot the information, or they're just forgetful and they forgot. It goes deeper than that. It has to do with priority, the things that they prefer. Maybe some of you as parents have this experience occasionally, but I'll ask my daughter, hey, pick up your shoes, they're here in the living room. And then I go do whatever I'm gonna do, and I come back a half hour later, and there she is playing Legos next to the shoes. And I go, Katie, your shoes. And she said, well, I forgot. And I'm like, you forgot, they're right there. It's not that she forgot, right? She'd just rather play Legos, or just rather watch TV, or just rather really do anything other than put her shoes away. And sometimes we're like that, it's not that we forget. We just prefer, the people of Israel, they just came to a little bit at a time, prefer Baal. Prefer the fertility God Asaph. It became a matter of preference over time. It's not that they forgot God, like by an information wise, their hearts just, their hearts forgot, they'd just rather play Lagos. And so it gets down to what our preferences are a little bit at a time. And we've, and it's worth noting too, that like there's this really, there's this spiritual idea of remembrance, right? In the Bible, like when we do communion together, right? What does it say? We do this in what? Remembrance of me, right? What we're doing when we do that is we're rehearsing together who the Lord is and what He has done so that we won't forget the sweetness and delight of savoring and serving Jesus, right? That's why we come to the table. It's not because it does anything magical per se, but what it does is a rehearsal of what He's done, a remembrance of who He is and what He has done. And so if we'll remember that, if we'll remember that we're able to walk in his ways, lest we begin to prefer idols because we forget the delight in knowing and trusting and following after God. I wanna read you a passage from 2 Peter real quick that I think bears some, gives us some help. picking it up in chapter one, verse five. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. And by now you're reading this and going, that list is really long. How in the world am I gonna do that? Well, do I do better and try harder? No, that's not the prescription given here. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you're thinking, well, who can do that? And then he says this in verse nine. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. You see, we buy into this idea that somehow Who the accuser says you are is who you really are. And we forget that our sins are forgiven. And that we actually have a choice. We can say yes to Jesus because we've been empowered by his spirit. And we forget that our sins are forgiven and so we just continue to walk in those sins. We forget the sweet freedom that we've been given in Jesus. And that's why we prefer the other stuff, because we forget. Now, it usually happens over time like we've talked about before. Little by little, we begin to trust in our spouse to complete us instead of Jesus. Or a promotion at work that if we could just have that thing, that would solve everything. And of course, here's what happens when we make something ultimate other than Jesus, right? One, we're left disappointed because anything that we make ultimate doesn't work, it disappoints us. So we resent our spouse because they're not ultimate. or we resent our boss because it doesn't work. Now that's part of it. But the other thing that begins to happen is if you want something ultimate, if something is ultimate to you, what happens if someone gets in your way from having it? That promotion goes from you want it to I have to have it to I'll do anything to get it. And so we do what's evil in the sight of the Lord because we've made something ultimate that shouldn't be ultimate. And before we know it, we're a mess. Because we've forgotten what's ultimate. We've forgotten that the fulfillment and peace that can come can only come through Jesus who died and rose again for you. We don't guard against the world, the sin, and the devil by doing better and trying harder. We don't guard against sin, the world, and the devil by doing better and trying harder. It's not just pull yourselves up by your bootstraps and do better next time. It's that we rest in and trust in the wrath absorbing work of Jesus on the cross. And then we can walk in his ways because we've tasted and seen that he's good. And so we walk with him. the mercy of God, picking it up in verse nine. But when the people of Israel cried out, but when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them, Othaniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. The spirit of the Lord was upon him and he judged Israel. So the people of Gehad are enslaved by their enemies for eight years, but in the midst of this time of judgment, the people of God cry out to him in their distress. And here's the thing I want you to notice about it, because you can read right past it if you're not careful. You'll notice it doesn't say, and they put away their idols and began to worship the Lord only, and then the Lord rescued them. You'll notice that? It's not that they cleaned up their act, got everything together, and then the Lord intervened. When does he raise up a deliverer? When they're hopeless and lost and have nothing to offer him. And isn't that just like God? And while we were yet sinners, Christ what? Died for us, right? It's not when you're awesome and clean and ready to go that he goes, okay, now I'll save you. No, it's while you're a mess and messed up and still mired in your filth that he sends a Redeemer to save you. It's not while you're near, but while you're far off, while you're an enemy of his, that he sends a Redeemer to rescue you. And that's why there's hope even in the midst of the darkness of our times. It's not like if America would just turn it around, then God would bless us. Is that how he works? The biblical evidence seems to suggest no. But if we would but cry out to him, it's not when we're far off but when, it's not when we're near but when we're far off. And the fact is, is that we need cleaning. We need to be made clean and there's not a person in here who can be made clean without mercy because there's parts of you that you just can't deal with on your own. My junior year in high school on Saturdays, I'd go play mud football with some friends. And we would be just covered in mud. Like head, like all over. And then some people would come to pick us up and usually we'd be going to get in the car and they'd be going like, hey, wait a minute. Let's not, let's get cleaned up first. And so someone would pull out a hose. Right, and we get hosed off, and of course there were parts around my back or wherever that I can't reach, right? So what needs to happen? Somebody other than me has got to take the hose and hose it off. There's just parts of me that I just can't clean. I can maybe do an okay job and make it presentable, but it can't be really clean, not clean enough to sit on my friend's mom's leather, right? No, somebody outside of me has to do that. There are parts of you that you can't clean. In fact, you can only do a cursory job at best on your own. You can look okay and fool some of the people some of the time. But if you want to be clean, clean for real, only God in heaven through his son Jesus can do that. Only he and his mercy to you as you cry out to him can get you clean. Some of us are here this morning and we're waiting till we're clean to cry out for mercy. We're waiting until we're clean to cry out for mercy and I'm here to tell you that that, my friends, is madness. It's madness and foolish and it's a lie of the devil. The time to cry for mercy and to get clean is now. There's this beautiful scene in the book of Matthew, chapter eight, right? And it says, when Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him, just like always, right? And the man with leprosy cried out to him and said, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. And Jesus looks on compassionate with the man and he says, I'm willing. I'm willing, he says. And he reaches out his hand and touches the man and he says, be clean. Do you want to be clean? Do you want to be clean? The truth is, is that your Jesus is willing to make you clean. And one of the things I love about that scene in Matthew is that he touches him. He could have healed him with a word, right? But this man has leprosy and probably hasn't been touched in a long time. And so he reaches out his hand and gets into the mess and the dirt and the mire and makes him clean. If you're a mess and you're dirty and you need to be clean, Jesus will meet you right where you are. And he's willing, he'll make you clean. He's not afraid of getting any of that on him. He's not put off. If we would but cry out to him, we would find that there is mercy and grace to be found. Because he's willing. He's willing to make us clean. If you're far off and afraid, He's willing and will deliver you. Only Jesus brings lasting peace. Picking it up there in the second half of 10. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushon Restahim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, and his hand prevailed over Cushon Restahim. So the land had rest for 40 years. Then Othaniel, the son of Canaaz, died. In these verses, we see that Othaniel delivers the people and there's peace, there's rest for 40 years. And any decent savior, even if it's a false one, will bring peace, at least for a short time. In this case, the land has rest for 40 years. Now this idea of rest isn't just of the absence of conflict. It's this idea of shalom, peace, that comes from being in step with God and in harmony with him and in his ways. And so there's this rest for 40 years. But it doesn't last. It doesn't last. After 40 years, it ends. And why does it end? Verse 11 tells us, so they had rest for 40 years, and then Othaniel, the son of Kenneth, died. See, the only thing that can bring lasting peace is Jesus, because he's the only savior that still lives. All our functional saviors, whether that's a spouse, a job, child, a president, a government, anything, all of them are perishable. All of them have an expiration date. All of them at some point are gonna rot. See, the only thing that can bring lasting peace, the shalom that your soul craves, is Jesus. And so if you've trusted in Him as your Savior and as your Lord and in His wrath-absorbing work for you on the cross and His resurrection to new life, then you can have that kind of peace, only it's not gonna just last 40 years. 40 is a significant number to me these days, I don't know. but it'll last more because He's alive and is at this moment interceding for you with the right hand of the Father. So there's a peace that can last, a shalom that can be yours. And you might be here this morning and you might say, well, Matt, I've placed my trust and faith in Jesus as Savior and as Lord, but I don't know a thing about this shalom you're talking about. I know conflict and pain and brokenness and strife. I'm an expert on that stuff. I know all about it. I walk around in it all day, every day. But the shalom stuff you're talking about, this peace, this rest that goes deeper than just the absence of conflict, even in the midst of conflict, I don't know a thing about that. Could it be? that maybe there was a time when you knelt and prayed, but what you're trusting in is not really Jesus, but the version of Him you made up, right? Like you're all good with Him being Savior and saving you, but this business about Him being Lord is just hard to take. This idea that He gets to rule, our feet kick against the goats of that, don't they? And we tend to resist Him being Lord. Savior is comfortable. Lord's uncomfortable. And so we don't have peace. Or maybe for some of us, we trust, but kind of halfway, kind of like the judges, right? Early on with Judah, who asked his brother Simeon to go with him. We trust, but not all the way. We'll dip our feet in the pool of faith and trust and belief, but we don't want to dive in. We don't want to dive in because it's just easier to put our trust and stuff we can see and taste and touch. And so we don't have the peace we crave. We have some of it but maybe not the whole thing. And so our trust is half-hearted and then our obedience is half-hearted like we talked about. And so we don't have the peace. We're not experiencing the shalom rest that we can have because we're only trusting halfway. Or maybe for some of us just over time there's been a subtle forgetting. We've forgotten of all that we've been delivered of. And so we need to have a time of remembrance. Wherever you are on that spectrum, and I imagine some of us are in a combination of that describes us. Maybe now is the time when we finally find a peace that lasts. Because we're all in with the risen Lord Jesus. Because he's alive. is the only one who can give you lasting peace because he lives even now and is interceding for you. That we would be all in for that, that we would trust him with everything. Paul calls it a peace that surpasses all understanding, or as my daughter likes to say, a peace that doesn't make sense. that we would have that kind of peace, a shalom that lasts because we place our faith and trust in the only one who can bring it in a lasting way, Jesus. All other saviors die. In fact, the book of Judges, what it's pointing to over and over again is that he raises up a deliverer, and what happens to the deliverer? He dies, and then what happens? They go back. See, the reason we have a chance against any of it is because he's alive. The reason sin and death can be beaten, the reason you can walk in newness of life is because He's alive and will help you walk in that if we would but trust Him and then peace will come. Conflict will still be present and there'll still be trouble and pain and brokenness and all the rest of it, but there'll be peace because we serve the Prince of Peace and He's alive and He's doing work. And then, finally... God uses unlikely people to show his power to save. In this section, we see the gruesome narrative of how God uses Ehud to deliver his people from the people of Moab. And there's this little detail in verse 15 that just really stood out to you. Now, in between services, Gwen said to me, there's a lot of really weird details. And okay, fair enough. But we're just gonna focus on one, because you know, you. But turning it to verse 15. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up from them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. Now, that's a weird detail, right? He's left-handed, why is he making a thing of that? Well, I think there's a couple of reasons. When you read other scriptures, right-handedness is always very positive. Jesus is interceding for you where? Right hand of the Father, right? There are pleasures forevermore, where? At his right hand. And so the people reading this would have understood, would have associated right-handedness with ability and power and competence. But who's gonna be their deliverer is left-handed. And so he seems like an unlikely choice for that reason. But you add to that, it literally says, unable to use his right hand. And so some scholars believe that his right hand wasn't available for use either because he was handicapped or it was disfigured or there was some kind of problem with his right hand. And so his left hand is what he's got. And this is the one handed man is the guy who's gonna take on the bad guys. And a culture that is way harsher than we are to anyone who's different or broken in any kind of way. And this is who God chooses to deliver his people. This is who God chooses to deliver his people. Well, that's sort of his pattern, isn't it? I mean, David, right? Wasn't, would have been nobody's first pick. We were reading Samuel, but the Lord looks not at the outside, but looks at the what? The heart, right? Or Moses, you know, he's, you're going to be the guy who's going to go talk to Pharaoh and what? He doesn't have gifting or skill for that. or Peter's gonna be the spokesman for the church, seriously? How's that gonna work? And yet, and what's interesting about this story is that it's his left-handedness that makes him uniquely qualified to handle it, right? It's his left-handedness that in some ways qualifies him to run him through. We won't read it, I'll spare you having to read it a second time, but you get the point, right? The thing that from the outside would make him look like he's not qualified is the thing that qualifies him. The thing that makes him the right person for the job. What is it that the Lord has built into you, maybe even something you're ashamed of, that makes you uniquely qualified to do his work right where you are? The thing about you that he, a way that he made you and designed you that makes you qualified to be his person in that moment with that person, with those people. What is it about you that he's gonna use for his glory? Many of you know I was born with a cerebral palsy, and I won't go into all the details of what that means, but the long and the short of it is, is that damage to my brain, and none of you were surprised to have brain damage, I'm sure, but damage to my brain that makes the message from getting things from my brain to my body not work like other people. And so that meant, you know, I walked with the limp for a long time. There were speech problems. There were all kinds of issues when I was growing up and not to mention, you know, junior high and high school, especially junior high, not the funnest time in my life. And I can tell you some of those stories later, but here's the truth. I think the Lord gifted me with cerebral palsy because it forced me to depend on him. When you're 16 and can't tie your shoes, There's no pretending that you don't need anything. That 16 year old boy bravado was not really a choice for me because there was no faking it. Dude can't tie his shoes. He's gonna convince anybody he's got his act together. And so it was his gift to me. I had to depend on him to like, you know, survive. And so it just forced that. And I think that's why I can do this. Because I know if I try and do this in my own strength, I'm going to fail miserably. Because apart from His Spirit working in me and my dependence on Him and His revelation to me in this book, I've got nothing to say. And so, what from one standpoint is a, not that there haven't been times that I've wished it away and wished, God, why did you make me this way? Especially when I was young. This moment when I was young, when I was complaining to my mom about like, just the pain and difficulty of my sister can do all kinds of things I can't do, and I'm four years older, and she says, son, you're gonna have so much character, and I shot back, I've got enough character. But all that time, All of that time he was building into me something that he was going to make useful and beautiful. That though I walk with a limp, I walk with him. Though I walk with a limp, I walk with him. And I'd rather walk with a limp with him than be a limp free and be apart from him. What is it in you that he has built into you that he's going to use for his glory. What did he build into you? Because he hears the truth. He who's a left-handed man sent to save a left-handed people. They're broken and bent and messed up on all kinds of ways. And it's this person who he sends to save and redeem. And then he goes on, and this is the weird part, as if to illustrate the point, he talks, we mentioned Shagmar, the son of Anath who killed 600 of the Philistines with an ox goad, and he also saved Israel. And the he there, it's hard to tell if they're talking about Shagmar or God. And it's as if he's saying, I'm not gonna give you any details about this person because that person isn't the point. The point is, is I can use anyone and anything because I am mighty to save. I can redeem my people. I can redeem you and your circumstances. I can restore your relationships. I can do all of it because I'm mighty to save. And the issue is not your smallness. Not your smallness. Some of you might be here thinking this morning, well, I'm small. You want me to go to East Porterville? What do I know about that? And he might be saying, but I'm big. You're small, but I'm big. And I put something in you that's not really about you at all, but is about me. And I'm mighty to save. I can use you. You want me to speak your name at work where I know the people hate you? Yeah. Maybe for you, whatever your reason for being ashamed and afraid is what he gave you to make you depend on him. So that we might walk with him and give him glory. All of which brings us back to our big idea. Though we are prone to forgetting God, I think oftentimes because we're too busy looking at ourselves and our own limitations. Though we are prone to forgetting God, He never forgets us. He always knows your name. Always loves you, always knows you, always is about redeeming and restoring you. And He is mighty to save. He is mighty to save no matter who you are and what you've done. No matter what your story is, all of it can be used for His glory. The truth is, is we are prone to wander, prone to forgetting, prone to walking away, but our God never is. He always remembers his promises and is always faithful even when we are faithless. If you've forgotten over time, might now be a time of remembrance for you. Might you remember that your sins are forgiven and you've been restored and redeemed and that's who you are. And so you can walk in that identity, because you've tasted and seen that He's good, that you might walk with Him. And might we also just rest in His mercy? Know that if we cry out to Him, He will deliver you. And in fact, He's sent the only one who can give shalom and the lasting peace that we long for because He's the only one who's still alive and risen at this moment. And no matter what your limits are, no matter what your limitations are, they don't put off God because He's limitless. He's not put off by your smallness. In fact, your smallness is a gift to you that you might revel in his bigness. Your smallness is a gift to you that you might revel in his bigness. He's not put off by your limits or your smallness. He's not worried about your speech impediment or your lack of fashion sense. He's not concerned about your eloquence or your intelligence or your beauty. because he's going to do the work. He's not put off. And so you can step out in faith and trust that he's going to use you because it could be that you were uniquely qualified for what he wants you to do because he doesn't do anything by accident. He made you left-handed so that you might walk and serve amongst the left-handed people. Because again, the issue is not how small we are, but how big he is and he's mighty to save. Let's pray. Oh, Lord Jesus, we confess our smallness. Would you enable us to receive our smallness and our limitlessness and our limitedness and our powerlessness as a gift from you? That we might depend on you and your strength. And Lord, some of us have forgotten your mighty works and that you are mighty to save. Would you make today be a day that we walk in remembrance? That we remember that you bore the wrath that we deserve, that our sins are forgiven, that we might walk in newness of life. And God, would you help us to rest in your mercy? that we wouldn't feel the need to clean ourselves up before we come to you, because Lord, we know that's madness. We know that only you can make us clean and that indeed you're willing and that we can be clean. And Lord, we know that you are a God who uses unlikely people. Would you condescend to use the likes of us here in this valley as we grow and as we go and we walk in dependence of the truth? Lord God, we love you in Jesus name. Amen