Good morning. Would you take out your Bible, please? And turn to the book of Judges. Judges chapter 2. While you're turning there, I think my battery is dead. Josh, would you mind bringing me something here? That's Judges chapter 2, and we'll read verses 7 through 11 here in just a moment. Judges chapter 2, 7 through 11. With September 11th, 9 11 being last Wednesday, I was I was thinking for much of the day about the mantra that people had at that time. Do you remember what people said? They said, never forget. And I haven't. I won't. But I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about people who are younger than me, and I was thinking about my own life in regard to big events that have taken place through the history of this country in particular.

And there are many other earlier events in history that I, I just don't have the same connection to because I don't personally Remember them happening. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you to be just a little bit interactive here at the beginning of the lesson. Some of you I know your ages, others of you I don't.

We're gonna tell on ourselves just a little bit. But I want you to raise your hand and, and answer these questions by raising your hand. Does anyone here remember hearing personally about remembering the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Anybody here? I see, I see two hands. You have to be a certain age in order to be that.

I'm, I'm almost certain that there are a couple more who are, who are looking at our live stream this morning who would remember the bombing of Pearl Harbor. December 7th, 1941 wasn't that long ago. I had a great uncle that was there. He actually survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor. My grandparents remember clearly hearing about it.

But to me, born 44 years later, it's like a story from another world. Okay, let's ask one that's more recent. Raise your hand if you remember Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. That you actually saw that yourself. Okay, got a lot more hands up. You can kind of look around and see who's raising their hand.

That was 1969, that's all I'm gonna say about that, okay? 1969. Alright, raise your hand, who here remembers when Ronald Reagan was shot? When Ronald Reagan was shot. Raise your hand if you remember that. I've still not raised my hand. I just want y'all to know how young I am. I've still not raised my hand.

My parents remember where they were when they heard that President Reagan was shot. They liked President Reagan. You can maybe make the connection there about how much they liked him. But I was teaching a required freshman public Lindale High School in 2007. And I asked that class if they knew who President Reagan was.

And about half the class raised their hands at that time, even knowing who President Ronald Reagan was. Okay. Alright, let's get back to what we started with. Who here remembers 9 11 2001? Who remembers 9 11? I can raise my hand. Got a lot of hands up for that one. Put your hands down. So I'm gonna ask it the opposite way.

Young people, I need you to participate here. Who does not personally remember 9 11 2001? You look around, you see that? It's a lot of hands, isn't it? People who don't personally remember. Wednesday at lunch, I went out with some adults, some young men. One of them is just barely old enough to remember.

That's Preston. He's kind of like the cutoff point when people might remember 9 11. And Andrew Adams was the other, and Andrew doesn't remember. That was before his time. Right? And yet for me, that's something that made such an indelible mark on my life. I mean, I remember clearly where I was, all those sorts of things, and I haven't forgotten.

I won't forget that as long as I live. Let me ask you one more question, though it's not a dated event in the same way. Who remembers the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic? Who remembers the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic? You look around, there are a few who are not raising their hands, mostly little children and babies, right?

And yet, if you think about it, although that was quite an experience for all of us, basically all of us here, there are going to be babies alive right now who will have no memory of those strange times, though their world was impacted in all sorts of different ways. Never forget, we said, of 9 11, But it's easy to forget something that you didn't personally experience, especially as the generations pass and those events become further and further away.

Another generation arises that didn't have the same experience and wasn't shaped by it. In the same way. Now I want us to think then about, about biblical events. Think about the children of Israel. Think about the children of Israel who are in the Promised Land, right? And after a few generations, during the time of the judges, we see these people who are in this land that God has promised, promises that he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a lamb that he's brought them to with a mighty hand.

And yet we can almost imagine the generations passing and remembering events that God has done in the same way that we just have this morning about events in our country. You can imagine people asking the question, who here remembers The darkness over the land of Egypt. Do you remember how dark it was?

We couldn't see anything in the land of Egypt. Who here remembers the pillar of fire that God led us with as we left Egypt? And because a whole generation fell in the wilderness, there would only be a few who remembered what happened. The plagues, or the Red Sea, or the cloud of God on Mount Sinai, when they entered the Promised Land.

More, no doubt, would remember the manna in the wilderness. The water that came from the rock, and the walls of Jericho falling down when they shouted. Can you imagine hearing that as a kid from your parents? We marched around this city, and everybody shouted with a great shout, and the walls fell down flat.

An amazing story! But if you didn't experience it, maybe you would even be like, Did that really happen that way? I don't know if they had conspiracy theories among the children of Israel. But you can imagine them saying, Well, that didn't happen to me. It's great. It's amazing. But it didn't happen to me.

Eventually, there arose a generation that didn't personally remember any of those things that God had done. And bringing them out of Egypt and bringing them into the Promised Land, And even though monuments had literally been made to remind them of what God had done in bringing them out of Egypt and bringing them into the land and crossing over the Jordan River miraculously.

They still, they still forgot those things. And this concept of a new generation arising that does not remember the past is a common theme in the Bible. We see it over and over in this example of the period of the Judges. Most notably at the beginning of that time period. There in Judges chapter 2, begin reading with me in verse 7 if you would.

Judges chapter 2 and verse 7. So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who, listen, had seen all the great works of the Lord, which he had done for Israel. Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was 110 years old, and they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of the mountain Gaash.

Now notice verse 10. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers euphemism for death, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work that He had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. This kind of generational forgetfulness is much more dangerous even than remembering these great political or military occurrences in our history, because it applies to spiritual things.

They forgot the work of the Lord, forgot the things that God had done for them. These great moments in history, And by extension, they forgot the Lord Himself and turned away from Him. A generation arose that did not know God, because they did not remember the things that God had done. Robert Turner who is long past now, discusses this generational apostasy in an article he wrote for a, a publication he put out called Plain Talk.

May I read just a few words from this article? I, I don't have time to read the whole thing, but let me read a few words, if you, if you'd be, bear with me. He says this, Since the church began, There have been many crises. Someone has said that, at least in this country, serious trouble seems to come about each third generation.

Must this be? One generation, fighting its way out of the last problem, studies the Bible independently and reaches conclusions for which most of the members have sound Bible reasons. The second generation accepts the conclusions with their accumulated terminology and holds to them firmly and firmly.

But perhaps doesn't understand the Bible reason for them. They simply inherit the conclusions and often have little appreciation for their importance. The third generation will likely hold to the terminology, but now it represents orthodoxy. And they grasp neither the reasons for nor the applications of these conclusions.

They condone all sorts of changes as long as they are couched in familiar words. And he goes on to describe the conflict and even division that takes place as people are forced to kind of study the Bible for themselves again to realize why it is they believe what they believe. And he goes on to say, To ask the question, really, must this vicious cycle of crises and sometimes apostasy continue?

Are we so destitute of character, so resigned to carnality, that we cannot end this devilish maelstrom? Obvious needs to solve this problem, he suggests, are more thorough Bible knowledge and understanding of basic principles underlining our conclusions. We must not be satisfied with stock answers to Bible questions, but must demand a rewording, making the answer our very own.

And avoiding development of party, quote unquote, terminology. We must ask why, over and over again. And never be satisfied with a Church of Christ, quote unquote, we've always done it that way, quote unquote, answer. But more important than all of these, we must work on the heart. Within a few years after the massive wall of China was built, it was breached by the enemy.

Note, the wall did not fail, but the gatekeepers were bribed. Our preparations for the next crisis will fail unless we learn to control ourselves. Except we learn wholehearted dedication to the Lord. We must taste again and again the bitter fruits of the flesh. Ours is an awesome responsibility. But preparation for future crises cannot wait.

Our children are growing. The years fly by. Already we feel the gentle pressure of conformity and say a prayer. It is soon the next generation. I first heard those words because they were read by my grandfather. This was his book. It's marked up and he's got all these sticky notes in there. Much like his Bible would have looked.

My grandfather was a man that my children never met. And those words were written in 1964, I believe it was. And yet, has anything really changed from now until then? How do we address this reality? That so often there is apostasy that comes from the next generation, or the next generation, or the next generation after that.

We know the phrase, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I recently read a similar phrase, the only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history. That is undeniably true in a social, societal level but it doesn't have to be true on a personal level or even a local church level.

Each of us can learn not to make the same mistakes as those who came before us. Nothing says that I have to personally make those mistakes, commit those sins, and bear the consequences in order to learn better from the mistakes of those before me. It is always better. Hopefully our young people can recite this from memory, because I've said it to them a lot.

It is always better to have not sinned than even to sin and be forgiven. And so if we can learn from the mistakes of the previous generation, if we can learn from the successes of the previous generation, so that we don't make the same mistakes ourselves, we will all be better off for it. This is a lesson that we all need to learn.

But how do we learn from our spiritual history? I want you to turn to a psalm with me, Psalm 78, for just a moment. Psalm 78 is the second longest psalm. And you say, Reagan, you're still on your title slide. Are you going to read the second longest psalm in the Bible to us? No, I'm not. But I do want us to read a few verses from this psalm.

It's a historical psalm. It's a recounting of the history of Israel. It's so many of our psalms, all of our psalms are songs, but so many of them are prayers to God. This is really more akin to a sermon. It's a sermon and song to teach the children of Israel about their own history, about what God has done, usually in goodness and kindness, and what they have done, usually in rebellion against that God.

Derek Kidner calls it a sermon from history. He entitles it, Lest We Forget. And I want to suggest that That, that this psalm and, and other sections of scripture like it that describe the history of what took place are not just a history lesson. They are a blueprint to us today. Yes, you and me sitting in these pews.

On how not to repeat the failures of past generations. Read with me beginning in verse 1 of Psalm 78. Psalm 78 in verse 1. Give ear, O my people, to my law, God says. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, or a proverb, maybe your translation says. Same word as for that book of Proverbs, and the way that book begins.

Here's a proverb, here's wisdom from previous generations. A parable that you need to know and remember. I will utter dark sayings of old, obscure things, things that you had to be there to learn, right? Which we have heard and known. And our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.

For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children. That was the command. You've got to tell these things to the next generation, that the generation to come might know them. The children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children.

So even though they weren't alive when these things took place, the children are taught so well that they go ahead and teach their grandchildren as well. It's beautiful. Verse 7, what are they being taught? That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. And then verse 8, he kind of turns left, negative.

And may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation. A generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God. The children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God, they refused to walk in His law, and forgot His works and His wonders which He had shown them, marvelous things that He did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt in the field of Zohan.

And he goes on to describe the history, some of the very events that we talked about at the beginning of our lesson. And so Psalm 78, it almost seems contradictory at first. Were they supposed to be like their fathers and learn from them? I'm asking, were they supposed to be like their fathers and learn from them, learn the lessons passed down from the previous generations?

I know this seems like a preacher trick question, right? Yes, they were. That's what the text says. But at the same time, were they supposed to not be like their fathers and learn from them? Yes. The answer is yes on both counts. The psalm tells us, the psalm tells them, and by extension, we make application, to take the good from the previous generation and get rid of the bad, after you learn from their mistakes.

And don't focus on the bad so much that you miss the good entirely, I might add. And so here's the blueprint for generational faithfulness as it's described in Psalm 78 and a number of other places in our Bibles. You ready? We want to be faithful. Don't you want to be faithful in your children and your grandchildren to be faithful to the Lord?

Surely that's our desire. That's what we want. That's what we're striving for. So what's the key? What's the secret? It's a generational faithfulness. Well, here's the blueprint as I understand it. The previous generation passes down their wisdom as they understand it. And the next generation then listens to what it is they have to say, listens to that teaching, listens to those experiences that they've been through.

And that next generation then examines those things that they have listened and heard and considered carefully. They, they listen to that and then they, they examine that wisdom that's passed down against the objective standard of God's truth, of God's word. Is this really godly wisdom or is this just the wisdom of man?

And then the next generation has the responsibility to then adopt the truthful wisdom from the wisdom that was passed down as their own. And maybe by implication they have to reject those things that aren't really godly wisdom. This is the blueprint for generational faithfulness. And if we, if we fail at any of these steps, if the previous generation doesn't pass down their wisdom, well how can the next generation be faithful?

If the next generation says, ah those are a bunch of old fogies. I'm not going to listen to them. How can they then gain that wisdom that is coming from God? And if it is not listened to and examined according to the standard of God's Word, well, how can we know that it's really true wisdom from God? And then if we don't make application to actually say, this is what we need to do in our lives, well, the wisdom ultimately has fallen short.

It's just intellectual, not practical, as Preston preached on a few weeks ago. This is what is described in Psalm 78 and other places. And this is what generational faithfulness looks like. There is possibility in the next generation of learning and following that wisdom. That's verses 5 and 6 of Psalm 78.

And there's possibility in the negative that we will be like our fathers in turning our backs against God in the day of battle and refusing to walk in His ways and in His law. And perhaps the pattern, primarily in the, in the Bible is forgetting God's works and forgetting God's word. That's probably the predominant pattern, but loved ones, it doesn't have to be that way.

We can do better. It is possible to learn from the past to never forget to learn from the past, even if we didn't experience. All right. So hopefully that's the concept. That's the idea. So that's what we're trying to do. But how do we do it? How do we do that practically? What does that look like practically?

Well, let's make application then to this concept. I want us to consider these applications. Four ways that we can never forget. If this is what generational faithfulness looks like, if this is how generational faithfulness is achieved, what does that look like practically? Well, consider these four things with me.

I'm going to address both the previous generation who's doing the teaching, and the next generation who's supposed to be listening and examining that teaching. Let's, let's look at both of us. So number one, we can never forget if we pass down Bible wisdom and the wisdom gained by our experiences and applying that wisdom sometimes well, sometimes poorly.

We have to pass those things down to our children. Now that is true, and we have that charge. Fathers specifically have that charge in our literal, physical families. That we're supposed to do that kind of teaching to bring our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. We have that charge.

But I have our children in quotation marks because All of us as Christians, whether we have biological or adopted children or not, whether we have any children in our home or not, we have a responsibility to teach the next generation. Our children are all the children who are here that we have influenced with and relationships with.

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. I think we see this very clearly in Deuteronomy chapter 6. In fact, I would suggest that this is the passage to which Psalm 78 is referring. When the psalmist says that you are supposed to teach your children and this is the law of the Lord. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, after Moses recounts the Ten Commandments and a number of other things from the law the famous passage that commands them to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and put that everywhere where your children are always seeing the Word of the Lord.

Notice what he says in verse 20. Moses says, Deuteronomy 6 in verse 20, When your son asked you in time to come saying, What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord, our God, has commanded you? Notice, we talked about this in the back class, it is not if your son asks you in times to come, what does it say?

When, when your son asks you in times to come, the next generation is going to have questions, and they should, they should have questions. Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household.

Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. We might say, never forget the Exodus. Never forget what God has done. Verse 24, And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that He might preserve us alive as it is this day.

The end. It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as he has commanded us. May we as mothers and fathers, may we as grandparents and aunts and uncles, may we as a local congregation foster an environment where questioning is to be expected.

Where questioning is not taboo. Where asking questions is welcomed and encouraged. Our children should be able to come to us with any question at any time on any topic. Whether that's faith, or personal problems, or temptations. All of those questions are welcomed. And it's not embarrassing or wrong to ask the question.

We're not shaming them saying, oh, how could you ever think such a thing, or no, no, no, we don't talk about that here. Questioning is a sign of thinking and Christianity is fundamentally a thinking man's religion. How can one read the words of Jesus and not come away with a deep respect for the questions and answers given by the master teacher?

Even if that upset the apple cart of orthodoxy among the religious leaders, even if Jesus demanded more of them than just what they had always believed, he was going to ask questions and give answers. And we need to engage in answer seeking with our children, where we open the Bible together, where we talk about it in the car and around the dinner table, where we admit those times where we don't know the answer, but we say, look, we have the answers in God's Word, let's try and find those things together.

And daily Bible reading as we've encouraged this congregation to do for, for many years now, daily Bible reading together, or even if we read separately and then talk about it together, is an awesome opportunity to pass down this wisdom and these experiences to our children. I, I want you to look in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

You know this is a favorite passage of mine, but I'll make a slightly different point than what I normally do in this passage. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Beginning in verse 11,

now all these things happen to them as examples. Who's the them? Well, it's the Israelites that we just read about in Judges and Psalm 78. It's those people from the Old Testament. All of those things happen to them as examples. Examples for whom? And they were written for our admonition. For our admonition, for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Now, that includes the church in Corinth, because the ends of the ages have come upon them, but the ends of the ages is upon us as well. That's in the time of the Messiah, in the time of the church, the time in which we live. And so these things are written for our instruction and our admonition as well, that we read from the Bible, we make the the wisdom of the Bible known to our children and to our grandchildren, and then we ourselves add on our understanding of those things as it applies to really practical matters if you keep reading.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. The point is kind of making in the section. But then he says, verse 13, No temptation is overtaken you, except such as is common to man. The people in the Old Testament, the people in the New Testament, the people today. We face the same kinds of temptations.

But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. We read these things in the Word of God. We make application from the text to our own life and experiences, good and bad. And we simply ask the question of the next generation, Do you have any questions?

Number two. In order to not forget and pass down this wisdom, those of us who are of the next generation must be respectful of the experiences of previous generations and the victories that they won. Turn to Proverbs 23 for just a moment. Proverbs 23, if you would. The book of Proverbs, of course, is just a book about accumulated wisdom.

And much of this wisdom, though it is grounded in a fear of the Lord and grounded in God's Word, is practical in nature. This is how you apply God's wisdom to everyday life. In a sort of vacuum sort of situation. This is if everything worked out the way it's supposed to. This is how you apply God's wisdom.

I want you to see there in Proverbs 23, beginning in verse 22, listen to your father who begot you, which ironically is the person writing this and the person to whom he's written writing, right? So he's saying, listen to me. I'm the father who for begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Buy the truth and do not sell it. Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice. Because you're listening to what it is they have to say.

Not that you have to do everything that they say once you become an adult and you have your own faith and make their own decisions, but you are listening to the wisdom that they have. And you're acknowledging these experiences and acknowledging the victories that they've won in times past. Truth often comes from the previous generation, and that's a big part of why we're supposed to respect them.

They have experienced, they have experienced more than we have. How do you feel, parents, teachers, administrators, anybody in authority, how do you feel when you're talking to someone, your kids maybe, And you're trying to, you're trying to help them. You're trying to give them some wisdom. I think this might be the worst.

And they roll their eyes, roll their eyes. I did that once to my mom and I thought my dad was going to kill me. Like maybe literally kill me. Right. How does that feel when somebody just ignores the wisdom that you're trying to give them? Well, let's put the shoe on the other foot. How would it feel? How do you think someone else feels if we are ignoring their wisdom?

At the very least, we should listen to what they have to say, shouldn't we? Notice how little the topics have changed. These verses, verses 22 through 26, are in a section where there's a lot of practical application being made. And I can't help but chuckle a little bit at seeing these are the topics that the previous generation was worried about with the next generation.

Things like removing God's pattern. Removing God's pattern, whether in worship or personal righteousness, or God's designs for His people, or, as is the primary context here, justice for the poor and oppressed. The next generation is told, do not remove the ancient landmarks, the ancient boundaries. Don't remove the pattern for how God wants us to do things.

But as we go down the list, it sounds a lot like a lot of youth weekends that I've been to, both as a youth and then since then, right? He talks about raising and disciplining children and making sure that you're severe enough in your discipline. They're not gonna die. Be severe enough that it actually makes a difference.

You're the parent. They're the child. Worldliness, materialism, and choosing the right friends. Does that sound familiar? sexual temptations, the dangers of alcohol. And as I look down that list, I have with my own ears heard young people, and by young people I mean people my age oftentimes, scoff somewhat at the older generation when they address some of these very issues.

Are we listening to the wisdom of the previous generation? But even more, when we put it in a religious context, When we think about the relatively recent past and battles in churches and among Christians over things like institutionalism, the social gospel, the purpose of the church, and doctrinal matters like Calvinism, pre millennialism, or how one is saved, there were battles that were fought long before I was born on those things.

And let's not dismiss the battles that were fought nor those who fought them. Just because we, with the benefit of hindsight, might be able to nitpick about some mistakes that were made. And I'm afraid sometimes that's the trap that we fall into. Do you think the previous generation knows that they made mistakes?

Can I hear your head rattle this way or that way? Of, of course. But those mistakes should not discount the things that they did. Right. And the victories that they won in hard fought battles for truth. And, speaking to myself and the next generation, perhaps, number three, don't be so arrogant to think that we cannot make the same or worse mistakes if we don't learn from the history of the previous generation.

Turn to Matthew chapter 23, Matthew chapter 23, if you would. Matthew chapter 23, and start reading in verse 29. Matthew 23,

and verse 29, Jesus is pronouncing woes on the scribes and Pharisees, and one of their things is their disdain for the, they love tradition, but they disdain those in the distant past and their attitude toward God. Listen to what he says, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build tombs of the prophets, and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city.

Then on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Bekaruch, whom you murdered before the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Now, this isn't some false advertising by Jesus here.

We have other places in the Gospels where they literally say that themselves. We would not have done what our fathers did in times past. And Jesus point is, yeah, you're gonna do even worse. You're 000 years. It is these same people who would cry out to Pilate in Matthew 27, 22 through 25, Let him be crucified, and the blood be upon us and on our children.

And I think the point to be made is, we gotta get off our high horse on some of these things. We have to have the humility to say, temptation really hasn't changed. And I'm going to have the humility to learn from the mistakes of previous generations instead of making the same mistakes ourselves.

Because we are subject to the same temptations in a slightly different package. Previous generations of Christians fought battles that we did not have to fight to bring us where we are. And maybe they didn't handle everything perfectly. Shocking, I know. Maybe we don't always either. And maybe their approach seems foreign to us, harsh or combative, perhaps.

But hear me clearly. Those people who have come through these battles of thought and times past, whatever they were, and are still here, have something of great value. A lifetime of experience that has ended in continued faithfulness to the Lord. And that should never be discounted. If we do, we do it at our own peril.

And we might very well repeat history. So what do we do if we have? How can we never forget if we've already forgotten? Well, that's our fourth application. Know that forgiveness is still available from God, even if we do make the same mistakes, and we don't learn from history. What happens if we don't learn the lessons, if we commit the same mistakes?

What then? Well, there is still hope to break the sinful cycle, because God is willing to forgive us, just like He was willing to forgive them. Go back to Psalm 78 one more time. Psalm 78. I want you to notice verse 38. Psalm 78 and verse 38. I read this past week that verse 38 is the halfway mark of the entire book of Psalms if you're counting by verses.

There are 5, 896 verses in the book of Psalms. This verse, Psalm 78 and verse 38, is the dead dog middle of all of those verses. Interesting. Maybe, you know, maybe I'm making too much of that. But I know that it is at the very heart of what Psalm 78 is all about. Read it with me. And He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity.

And did not destroy them. Yes, many a time, he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. Many a time. That could describe the people of Israel in the Old Testament. That could describe Christians in the New Testament. And that could describe Reagan McClinney and his relationship with his God.

Many a time. God turned his anger away and was willing to forgive. There is still hope, and it is found in the long suffering and forgiving nature of God. Yes, that God of the Old Testament that people want to make out to be a petulant child, that God is slow to anger. That God gives chance after chance, and that God sent His Son to die for us.

And what we learn in Acts chapter 2, that those same people that Jesus said, you've not learned from the mistakes of the previous generations, you're going to make worse mistakes than them. And indeed they did, as they shouted, crucify, crucify. Those same people are found in Acts chapter 2. And in Acts chapter 2, after he quotes from David, and David really is history repeating itself, God sends a king to lead them in the right way, and God has sent a king and Jesus to lead us in the right way.

As it says there in verse 34, For David did not ascend to the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? We made the same old mistakes. Amen. Peter told the disciples, that everybody made before us. Peter said to them, Repent. You got to make it right. Repent of what you've done.

And let everyone of you be baptized. In the name of Jesus Christ, for their remission, the forgiveness of those sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and all who are far off, As many of the Lord God will call opportunity for forgiveness is still there and no doubt you've felt as I have felt in times Past Reagan you you aren't learning from your mistakes.

God says

Come back

and we'll try it again And whether that is you've never named the name of christ, you can be washed totally clean of those sins by Jesus blood through the waters of baptism. Or if you're already a Christian and you haven't learned from your mistakes, now is the time to start. God is with you and he is there to forgive.

And your brothers and sisters in Christ, we are here to help you in whatever way that we can. If you'll come, come now while together we stand and while we sing.