Amen. You can turn to Genesis 8 verse 1. God remembered Noah is our text this morning and there are seasons when The Lord by his providence gives a text as we work through that. I trust ministers to each one of us. As Paul said in Philippians 1 verse 7, I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And here we see Christ's affection, God's affection for his people in verse 1 of Genesis 8. We'll look at this, but we'll see it in its context. If you turn there, one verse. Verse one of Genesis 8 says the following, but God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. Let's pray once more and ask the Lord to help us. Father, I ask that you'd help me to set this text before my heart, before the hearts of all your people here today. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would do His work among us for our good. Lord, that we would see more of your love, your grace, your mercy, your commitments, your trustworthiness to your people. And we pray, Father, that this text would sustain each of us in our respective areas of life. Lord, we don't know what's before us as your people, but we trust that you are the God who remembers us and who is committed to us and will sustain us for years to come by your grace and for your glory. We pray now Lord that you would speak through the spirit by your word and we ask this in Christ's name, amen. Now, this text, it's interesting. Genesis 8, verse 1, you could consider this text in this way. If you think of going to Tim Hortons and you order a box of donuts and you may tell the man at the cash register, you can sort that box however you like. I'm not particular about what kind of donuts I eat, you could say, so just give me a whole assortment of different kinds of donuts and maybe you go to A party and you open up that box, and if I see a box of donuts, the one I want, and you'll see how this gets to our text, is the one that has the white powder on it. Why? Because once you bite into the surface of that white powder donut, you get to the real substance. The white donut has the jelly in it, and once you dig into that, you actually taste the goodness. Now, when I was thinking of that illustration, last night we had College and Careers, and Andrew and Naomi brought some Cobb's donuts and scones, or scones, whatever you call it. And Andrew mentioned too, there was a raspberry or strawberry one that caught my taste buds as well. this text, Genesis 8 verse 1, you could consider verse 1 as the jelly in the middle of the donut, and everything that we've been looking at prior to Genesis 8 verse 1 is almost like the surface level leading up to this verse, and then everything after, after Genesis 8 verse 1, from verse 2 to the end of the chapter, is almost like the other end of the donut that you've plunged into the middle, and then you're getting your way through the rest of the donut. That's how this text is set forth before us by God's design. Now, theologians call that a chiasm. If you think of a triangle and there's a text at the top, and everything before that verse is leading up to the pinnacle, or the focal point of the text, and then everything else is after, well that's what God's doing here. The focal point, the purpose, God's message for his people, is that I remember my people. that I am a God who remembers my people and I'm a God who's committed to my people. Even when it does not look like I'm committed to my people, I am thoroughly and perfectly committed to my people. That is the main point of this text. And with that said, we can actually now get into the surface and taste the goodness of the Lord and see his beauty and see his commitment to you and I if we're in Christ. And there's some goodness for us to be sustained for the week to come. Now, God sets this before us in the immediate context. Moses is writing to the people of Israel, and if you look throughout their life, and we see our own hearts, we're a people that often do not remember things. We remember that God was faithful, He was committed, He remembered us in the past, but then we often forget that He remembers me in the present and that He'll remember me in the future. And here we have a text then for absolutely every single person here in this room. Maybe you feel completely forgotten by God and forgotten by His people. God says, I remember you. Others may not remember you. Others may have no clue what you're going through. God does, maybe that's you. Maybe you say, things are going well and I feel remembered by God, praise God, but there may be seasons in your life where you need to go back to this text and say, God, You remember me even when I don't see, and I don't understand, and I don't feel that felt presence or remembrance. Whatever situation you are in today, there is a truth here for you and I. Now what I want us to do, before we dive into the jelly part, the good, the point of this text, I want us to start leading up into it. And if you look at Genesis 7, We looked at the first 16 verses two weeks ago. We're going to consider the outer surface leading up to chapter 8 verse 1. That's from chapter 7 verse 17 to 24. And you could call this Noah's experience. What is Noah? What is he experiencing as he entered into this ark? We often think that this must have just been sunshine and roses and all these things for Noah. This was a trial for Noah as he entered this ark. And there may have been many more trials that he wasn't familiar of that he will endure through this ark. He wasn't a superhuman man, but he was a man like you and I. He was simply a man. He was a fallen man. He knew the consequences of sin like you and I. We've seen that in chapter 6. He saw the wickedness of man increasing in his day. He saw the wickedness of sin in his own heart. He lived and led a God's redeeming grace. And we saw last week that God shut him in the ark, divinely protecting him in the ark. And when he went into the ark, he was armored with God's divine promises. Let me just remind us of that. You don't have to turn there, but Genesis 5.29 would have been a promise that anchored his soul as he entered this ark, that God's going to send relief. He would have remembered that. He would have preached that to his soul, that I'm shut in this ark, but God, even though it's going to be a mysterious way, and I'm not going to understand how he's going to go about it, he's going to bring relief from this sin-cursed world. He would have had that promise. If you look at Genesis 6, verse 17 to 19, he would have had this promise of God's covenants. God says, this is my pledge, my allegiance to you. Verse 18 of Genesis 6, God says, after saying everything on the earth will die outside of the ark, verse 18, God says, I will establish my covenant with you. This is gracious, undeserved. God says, I'm going to be committed to you. And he says, you shall come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. So he would have had that promise as well. And if you look at this phrase repeated again and again, Noah's life was one of trusting God, trusting and resting in the promises, and then obeying, living out. And you can see that in verse 22 of chapter 6. His life, Noah did this. He did all that God had commanded him. And then chapter 7 verse 5, we've seen that again. Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. And then finally verse 9 of chapter 7, Noah did as God had commanded him. So Noah enters this ark. His experience is one of trusting the promises of God, of obeying the promises of God. But now what's happening in the ark? I want us to think of that. There are promises he's given, but now there's pressures, you could say. There are pressures that will squeeze this man, impress this man. And what is happening here? Well, if you think of Noah leading up to the ark situation, if you were going on a boat, it's fine if the boat's docked, or if the boat's on shore. And you remember the promises of God. If you have some anchor, but when it feels like you're not anchored to something, and you're not on the shore, spiritually speaking, or you're not docked up and tied up to the dock, Well, it's terrifying sometimes to be out on the storm and feel the storms of life. And now Noah's going to have some storms. He's going to have physical storms, but he's going to have spiritual storms as well, knowing the heart of man. So let's consider what Noah's going to endure, the pressures. Let me set before you the length of this trial. It wasn't just You know, last week we were sick, and there was a snowstorm, and you start to go stir crazy if you're shut up in a home for a week. And I'm an introvert, and I'm like, I wanna go see people. And you know, it was a blessing last night with, I think we had 14 young adults or something like that in our house, and it was, you know, my heart was longing for that. Why? Because we're meant to be with people. But Noah here, if you take the whole time that he was shut up in this ark, it was for 370 days. So more than a year, and he had his wife and his sons and his sons' wives and the animals, but they were shut up together for over a year. And it wasn't a glamorous experience. If you look in verse 17 to verse 20, it began with a torrential cosmic global flood, 40 days and 40 nights. Our text in verse 17, Genesis 7, it says, that the flood continued. 40 days on the earth. So when he was shut off, the first 40 days was a global, catastrophic, calismic flood. Trapped up, shut up in this boat. It continued, the waters increased, verse 17, and bore up the ark as it rose high above the earth. And the waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth and the ark floated on the face of the waters and the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them 15 cubits. And you not only see the length of this trial, but you also see the severe circumstances of this. We read through this, but look what it says in the text, verse 21. All flesh died that moved on the earth, birds and livestock, beasts and all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth. And it says all mankind, everything, on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life, died. And God blotted out, verse 23, every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, they were blotted out from the earth. So you have the length of Noah's trial, but here, knowing the heart of man, you read through this, but it says that everyone who had the breath of life died. There would have been men that Noah and his family knew that were outside of that ark, and they died. that he knew that they not only died in the flood under God's floodwaters of judgment, but they would have thought that these men and women did not repent of their sin. And not only did they die a physical death, but now they're in an eternal state of death in hell under God's judgment. And so they're trapped up for over a year in this ship, And they're processing this grief and this sorrow for man's rebellion and God's judgment. And they would have had just further off relatives. They would have had friends. They would have maybe had employees that died. And they have faces to them. And they have names to them. And so there's this grief. There's this global graveyard around them as they're shut up together in in this ark, and they're processing things. And not only that, but we saw last year as well, there was the terror of, or last, two weeks ago, verse 11 of chapter 7, how the global catastrophic flood came about, the fountains of the great deep burst forth. That verb burst forth is a violent rupture. So they're in the ark, they're shut up, they're knowing that their friends and others that they knew are going to die and go to hell. And then they're in that boat, shut up, and the graveyard is around them, and the ground is erupting. I mean, catastrophically, globally, we can't even comprehend that. That the earth's surface, globally, is splitting apart. And imagine the ark just shaking and the sounds of heaven roaring and thundering. And here's Noah and his family cut off from the world in this ark, processing all that has happened, seeing the storms around them, and they have screaming animals around them. Ear-piercing sounds of animals screaming and the stink over a year of the manure and all these things. Did God forget them? Did the storms of heaven, as the gates of heaven opened up and poured down, and as the deep of the recesses of the earth splitting open, did that cause God to forget them? No, look at the jelly, look at the middle. Verse one of Genesis eight, but God, all of this, right before, verse 24 of chapter seven says, the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. But God, he didn't forget Noah. He didn't forget Noah and his family. He didn't even forget the animals in the ark. God remembered them. So he remembered them in the severe physical, trials that they're enduring, he would have remembered them in ways that only God knew of. Did he forget his people? No. In Noah's experience, it says that God remembered his people. So we see the length of the time in the ark as a legitimate trial. We also see the severity of his circumstances as a legitimate trial. But then I want us to think for a moment, lastly, on the great enemy in the boat. You say, well what enemy? This enemy, the enemy of a fallen man, the enemy of indwelling sin. If you think throughout the Bible, and you go to the disciples, well what happened? They're in a boat-like experience as well. We looked at that a couple weeks ago. And there's storms. The physical storms around them threaten their life as it were, and they cry out. And they say, Lord, do you not care that I perish? And think of this for a moment. They had Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, with them in the boat, and these disciples, men like you and I, fallen men, men like Noah, they had Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, in that boat, in that storm, and they still felt like they were going to perish. You can imagine this in light of our text. Are you going to forget us, Lord? Lord, why are you sleeping in the stern of the boat? Do you not care that we perish? Do you not care about our trial? Do you not care about the storms that threaten to break this boat up? Do you not remember who we are? And what did Jesus Christ do? He said, peace be still, and there was a great calm. But we know that the sinful fallen heart, the heart that forgot that God remembers his people, it was in the disciples' boat even when the Lord himself was in that boat with them physically. And we know our own life, our own experiences are much like the disciples. Whatever experience we have in our life, you may feel forgotten, you may feel left alone, you may feel shut out. not cared for? And what happens, one temptation or two temptations, in our own Christian experience when we feel the frailty of our fallen condition, What's the temptation? There's two that came to my mind. Number one is that you begin to wrongly interpret God's providences in your life. Imagine these disciples, they're wrongly interpreting God's providential dealings. They see the storm around them, they see the circumstances, but They forget who's with them. They forget who cares for them. They're wrongly interpreting everything that's going on around them. And we don't know in the full sense of what Noah, there's mystery there of what went through his mind. But God knew that he needed this promise that God indeed does remember him. So one temptation in our own circumstances is that we may begin to wrongly interpret God's providences. You can imagine Something that could have hypothetically happened in the ark as the heavens were opened and this graveyard around them was present. You can imagine the enemy coming and saying, you know, if God really cared for you, would he put you in an ark for 370 days? I mean, if he really cared for you, would he have you in that horrific stink? In that ear-piercing environment of the animals all in there? Would he really care for you? Are you sure he didn't forget you? Well, that's a lie from the enemy that he likes to pierce into our ears. Or, I know Brother Deb preached in Job. If you read through Job's circumstances, Job chapter 1 and chapter 2, you see this man lost everything But it's interesting, Job, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls his friends these lousy comforters. Now, why does he do that? Well, if you read through, if we're doing the McShane plan, you would have read Eliaphaz. And Eliaphaz is interpreting, he's trying to providentially interpret Job's suffering. And that's always dangerous. Because he says, hey Job, you lost everything in your life. You must have sinned against God. You must have had to repent of something that you didn't repent of, and now you're suffering and lost everything because you didn't repent. And Job says, no, that's lousy counsel. That's God actually speaking through the pen written down in the book of Job. Because we see in the early chapters, God says, no, Job was a blameless man, none like him. Yet he suffered greatly. So what do we do? There's this, you could say, a paradox in the Christian life. The danger is to try and interpret God's providences, our experience, trying to interpret why we're going through different calamities or trials, why we're feeling a certain way. And if we want to try and interpret those things, there's much danger there. William Cooper, if there's one hymn that summarizes the whole flood, I think it's this. Cooper says again in his wonderful hymn, to judge not the Lord by feeble sense. Feeble sense would say, Noah, you must be forgotten. You must be totally lost and away from the presence of God. That's what feeble sense would say. Feeble sense would say in your trials, Does God remember you? Does He care for you? Is He with you? Cooper says, if you go that route, you're going to be in a turmoil. Your soul is going to have a dark night of the soul. Judge not the Lord. Don't judge His providences by feeble sense. but trust him for his grace. You see what he says, this is a surgeon of the souls. I don't judge my circumstances as an evidence of my standing before God in the realm of God's providential dealings in my life. Why, Cooper says, because God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain. So Noah's experience, what can we take away from this climactic climb? Judge not the Lord by your feeble sense. Trust him for his grace, whatever circumstance you find yourselves in. Why? Because we have grace here to trust in. God remembers Noah. He remembers his people. God's his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. And he may not make it plain till glory, but we know one day he will. So that is Noah's experience building up Now what is the grace that we ought to trust in? That's in our last point. Noah's experience, but now God's remembrance. Here's where we'll settle and unflush it briefly. If you look in verse 1 of Genesis 8, it says, God remembered. main claim of the sermons, God remembers his people. God is a God who remembers his people. Now, this isn't saying God, you know, he forgot about his people here, and now they've popped into his mind, and he's remembered them, and he's forgotten about them at some point, but now, you know, 150 days later, they pop back into his mind, and now he remembers them. That's not what remembering means here. The Hebrew word, zakar, It means to act according to God's covenant promises that he gives to his people. So you could translate God remembered as God is trustworthy to his promises and to his people. You could translate it, God is faithful to his people. So in this storm, God's saying, I haven't changed in who I am. I am who I am, and I'm a God who is faithful, a God who's committed, a God who is trustworthy to his people. And he's saying, no, remember that promise? Genesis 6 verse 18, I will establish my covenant with you and you shall come into the ark, you your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. He's saying I haven't forgotten about that promise. I'm committed to that promise. I'm fully trustworthy. I'm this promise-making God. I make promises by grace alone, undeserved promises to my people. I not only make them, but I fulfill them. And we'll see later on next week, God shows his faithfulness. He shows that he remembers his people by verse one to verse five of chapter eight, receding the waters. So even in this storm, God's saying, I remember you. I'm going to recede the waters of the flood as I promised, because I'm faithful. I don't waver on my promises. I'm going to be faithful, chapter 8, verse 15 to 16. I'm going to call you out of the ark. Remember how I said you will be spared? I'm gonna call you out one day. 370 days later, maybe not on your agenda, but I'm gonna call you out. The waters will be gone. I'm gonna call you out. I'm gonna give you a covenant sign so that you remember my promises. Genesis 9, verse 12 and 13, and we still see God's promise keeping covenant faithfulness that he gave to Noah in our day. Whenever there's a rainbow in the sky, God says, I'm gonna show you my pledge of allegiance that when you see that rainbow, That's a reminder of my faithfulness. That never again will I flood the earth as I did in the days of Noah. God's showing us here that he's a God in the midst of the storm who's preserving Noah. Committed to Noah. fulfilling his promises to Noah. And this God, as he worked throughout the Bible, he makes promises. He comes later to Abraham. He goes to Moses. He comes to David. Climaxing in the new covenant with our Lord Jesus Christ. And the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews 13, says our God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if you say, does God remember me? And does he remember Noah? The Bible says he's the same God yesterday, today, and forever. So if I forget, and maybe I remember that you remember me in the past and was faithful to his covenant in the past, but do I remember that in the present? Hebrews 13 says, yes, the same God who was faithful in the past is the faithful one in the present and will be faithful in the future. And if you look as an example of this, flip over to Genesis 19, verse 29, we see this word remember. It's always used in terms of God's covenant, commitment, his faithfulness to his people that he's redeemed by grace. If you look at Abraham as an example, this word God remembered, Noah, is found in Genesis 19 verse 29 after God poured out judgment on Sodom. So you have another judgment storm. And Brother Jerry, a couple weeks ago, we were talking about this. And even after the flood, you see the heart and sinfulness of man again. That God's judgment is poured out again on the city of Sodom. That the human heart is still not changed here. But look what it says, verse 29 of Genesis 19. After God destroyed Sodom, it says, so it was, verse 29 of Genesis 19. when God destroyed the cities of the valley, this horrific judgment, God remembered. He was faithful to Abraham. So He was faithful to Noah when He made covenant. He was faithful to Abraham when He made covenants. And then if you look at Rachel, if you look in Genesis 30 verse 22, He didn't have to do this. We see her receiving this gracious remembrance from our Lord, but Genesis 30 verse 22, we see God's dealings again with Rachel. Verse 22 to 24 of Genesis 30, it says, then God, here's the verb, remembered Rachel. He remembered her afflictions of barrenness. He was faithful to her. He remembered Rachel and God listened to her and opened up her womb. And she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. He's remembered my cry. He was faithful to me. This is the Lord of heaven and earth who's utterly trustworthy. In verse 24, she called his name Joseph saying, my Lord, add to me another son. Is he only the God who remembers his people in the book of Genesis? No. One last text. Exodus 2, if you look at the people of Israel, after Joseph in Genesis 50 is shown to us, the people of Israel are brought under another form of suffering. Tyranny under Pharaoh, slavery. Does God remember his people when they cry out under slavery and in affliction? You find that verb again. Exodus 2, verse 23 to 25. Look at this truth. Here's the faithful God. He doesn't change. He's always the God of remembrance for his people. Verse 23 of Exodus 2, it says that during those days, the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel, look at this, they groaned. This is hard. They groaned because of their slavery and they cried out for help. And look what it says. Don't miss this. This cry of theirs, this groaning for rescue from slavery came up to God. Not that it didn't before it came up to Him. He heard is what the text is saying. He remembers his people. You see the verb here, verse 24, God heard their groaning. Here's the verb, and God, he remembered his covenants with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob. Therefore, God saw the people of Israel and God knew. So you see, God's the same yesterday and today and forever. He remembered Noah, he remembered Abraham, he remembered his people under the tyranny of Pharaoh. The truth is, if you're in Jesus Christ, if you're in the one that these men like Noah and Abraham and the people of Israel here that believed and trusted in the Savior to come, you look through the book of Hebrews 11 and these men and women, they live by faith in the promise Christ to come. Well, that's the same Christ that saved us. We're looking back and remembering His finished work while they're looking forward and anticipating His work to come. But it's the same Christ who unites us to the God of heaven and earth who remembers His people. Now you say, well, how does He remember His people? Let me just set this before you. It's not our effort that earns God's remembrance. It's not that, you know, you just gotta clean up your week a little more, and do that McShane plan like you mean it, and don't miss a day, and then he'll remember you. That's not it. Let me give you two texts. Hebrews 8, verse 12, you don't have to turn there, but it's a quotation of Jeremiah 31. The promise of the new covenant in Jesus Christ, and God says, this is my promise through my son, And here's the word remember. Hebrews 8 verse 12, quoting Jeremiah 31, God says, I will remember their sins no more. So the God who remembers us in Christ can only do that and be faithful to us because of the Christ that's forgiven us of all our sin. That through the death of the Son on the cross, Jesus Christ remembered every single sin that you and I would ever commit. On the cross as he stretched out his hands He remembered your past sin. He remembered or looked forward to the present sin that we still have within us, the future sins that we would commit. And what did He do? He took all of our sins in remembrance, perfect knowledge of every thought, word, and deed that we've done in violation of His holy law. And on the cross, bringing that remembrance, that knowledge of our sin, our Savior stood in our stead and bore that upon his account so that his blood, his cup was the wrath that was due our account. And through that cup that he drunk in your stead, he can say, I remember your sins no more because of my son, Because this oath of my faithfulness to you, Jesus says this is the new covenant in my blood. Micah 7.19, another text talking about the new covenant. It says, God, you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Now in that day, if you drop something off the boat and it went to the depths of the sea, there's no way of bringing that back up. And God's saying, that's what I did for your sins. That is paid for. That I'm never gonna bring back that old sin that my son paid for on the cross. I'm never gonna bring it back up and shake it in your face and say that you're condemned. but it's been paid for. I remember your sins no more because the death of my son paid for your sins and there's no cup of wrath to condemn you if you're in my son. And God will remember you because he remembers your sins no more through his son. You see, everything of our Christian assurance Regardless of our experience, it's rooted in God. Whatever we go through, if we are to endure as Christians, the assurance of our faith, the foundation that we stand upon is our Lord and His crosswork, His finished work. that he will remember you because of the death of his son. That is the ultimate pledge of his allegiance to you. You could go to Romans 8.32, if he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not graciously give us all things? Or you could go to Psalm 23, in light of my good shepherd, John 10 verse 11, who laid down his life for the sheep, for me. Now, I skipped a verse on purpose. David, prior to that, says, So David had enemies all around him, seeking his life. Yet there was this rich feast that God gave David in the presence of his circumstances, that he remembered him, that his rod and his staff, they comfort him, that in the midst of turmoil, God gives a rich feast to feed and sustain his people. So with Noah's experience and with God's remembrance, what do we do with that as we conclude one implication for us who are in Christ? This leads to a certain posture. Not to us judging God's providences in our life by feeble sense, but trusting him for his grace. And let me give you a real illustration here. In November 2022, a good friend of mine, his daughter died suddenly. And six months before that, our son died as well. And Jacob Ryom, the pastor of my friend's family, he preached on Genesis 8 verse 1. That was the text. that he preached to this family after the death of their daughter and their congregation. And this is so helpful that I'll quote Jacob Raom, because this is the posture that Genesis 8 verse 1 produces in God's people. Maybe not yet, but maybe it will be a posture God works in us in years to come. But nonetheless, Jacob Raom said, we need to know this. that God remembers you always. He's faithful to you always. And then this is what stuck with me. He says, God cares for you even when you do not see it. Noah may have not seen the hand of God. He may have felt like he was being carried by the waves, not the hand of God. Jacob says, know this, this is the posture that you live under. God cares for you even when you don't see it. And then he said, God is carrying you, so he cares for you even when you don't see it, and he's carrying you, upholding you, even when you don't feel it. That's the paradox of the Christian life. There will be seasons when you don't feel his care, and you don't feel him upholding you. But nonetheless, as one man said, Martin Lloyd-Jones, the posture that we live under is a posture of preaching to our souls. We talk to ourselves. We preach biblical truth to our own life. And so Jacob Raom said we ought to have this text always in our pocket. Whatever you go through, go back to Genesis 8 verse 1. It's true in Jesus Christ. He's carrying you when you don't feel it. He cares for you when you don't see it. Charles Spurgeon puts it this way. I love Spurgeon. If you go back to Genesis 8 verse 1, Spurgeon is a brilliant man here. He says, and I'll read Genesis 8 verse 1 and then I'll read Spurgeon. It says, God remembered Noah. But Spurgeon says, don't forget this. He also remembered all the beasts and livestock that were with him in the ark. And Spurgeon put it this way. He says, doesn't God remember also the cattle? You say, what are you talking about? Let's get to God remembering Noah. Spurgeon says, doesn't God remember also the cattle and all the animals in the ark? And then he says, he basically does what Jesus does in Matthew 6. If God knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, are you not more value than they? Spurgeon says, if God remembers the cattle, he didn't forget about those little cattle on the ark. If God remembers the cattle, Will he not remember you? Will he not remember you who are made in God's image? Would he not remember you who have been purchased by the blood of his son? Sometimes you have to go that way as well. Lord, I don't feel you carrying me. I don't feel you caring for me. But if you care for the birds, and if you cared for the cattle, you will by definition care for me. I'm made in your image. I'm purchased by the blood of your son. And therefore we're sustained. We press on. Why? The Christian experience, it's not based on being tossed to and fro in the circumstances around us, but the Christian life that endures is a life anchored in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says it this way, Galatians 2 verse 20 is a life text for all of us. The life I now live as a redeemed sinner. I live by faith, not by sight yet, but I live by faith in the Son of God, Let's pray. You're remembered. Let's pray to the God who remembers us. Father, we thank you that you are a God who remembers your people. Lord, know all of our sin, Lord, that mounted up to a cup of eternal wrath, but we thank you, Lord, through the death of your Son, that you remember our sins no more, and we have this great assurance that your love and faithfulness will follow us. All the days of our life, Lord, as John Newton says, through many dangers and toils and snares we have already come, but grace has kept us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home. Lord, we pray that your grace would sustain each of us. Lord, you know our hearts, you remember each of us, even the hidden groanings of our Christian life. We pray, Lord, that you would bring that great assurance of your remembrance to us all by grace, and that this would fuel us to seek your glory's extension and magnification in this world that you've placed us in. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.