The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'Establishing a Pattern of Remembrance,' focuses on Esther 9:18-32, discussing the origins and significance of the Jewish festival of Purim. The sermon outlines how the Jews established the celebration of Purim as a custom to commemorate their deliverance from Haman's wicked decree, which was countered by Mordecai's decree. The festival involves feasting, sending presents, and giving gifts to the poor, ensuring that everyone, regardless of wealth, can participate in the celebration. These practices align with Old Testament feasts that emphasize rejoicing before the Lord and including the less fortunate. Dohm highlights God's sovereignty in orchestrating events, such as the casting of lots, which ultimately led to the Jews' victory and suggests that God's people should maintain a calendar that continually brings His deliverances to remembrance. The sermon calls for Christians to prioritize the Lord's Day as a time for holy rest and celebration, warning against finding joy in unworthy sources and urging inclusion of the poor in festivities as a reflection of God's heart.

Our sermon text this morning is Esther 9 from 18 to 32. Please follow along. But the Jews who were at Shushan assembled together on the 13th day as well as on the 14th, And on the 15th of the month, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore, the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the 14th day of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting as a holiday and for sending presents to one another. And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews near and far who were in all the provinces of King Ashur to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday, that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor.

So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, because Haman, the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them and had cast Pur, that is the Lot, to consume them and destroy them. But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because all the words of this letter, which they had seen concerning this matter, and what had happened to them, the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.

Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abahal, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Asherah with words of peace and truth to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their descendants concerning matters of their fasting and lamenting. So the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim and it was written in the book. Very quickly winding down in the book of Esther. That always makes me sad when we're coming to the end of a book.

We're always learning things that help us. And it just seems sort of wrong to be moving on, but in a couple of weeks we will be moving on to the Gospel of John. The title of the sermon this morning is establishing a pattern of remembrance. This is really something that's so well established in the Word of God that God would have His people remembering His mighty acts in defense of His people, on behalf of His people. He doesn't want us forgetting these things.

So we find this over and over in the Scriptures from the beginning of the Old Testament through the end of the New Testament. God wants us to keep a calendar that has us remembering His great acts on our behalf. That's what we have in this text. In last week's text, the beginning of chapter 9, the day appointed by the two decrees had arrived. You had the first decree by the wicked Haman.

It was a wicked decree and it was essentially to have the Jewish people, the Lord's people, wiped off of the face of the earth. The whole empire was authorized by that first decree to kill all the Jews, men, women, and children, and then plunder their possessions. This was to take effect on one single day, the 12th month, the month of Adar, on the 13th day. It was a law of the Medes and the Persians which meant when the king decided that this was a bad idea because his queen was a Jew and Mordecai who had saved his life was a Jew and he became aware that this was a wicked decree and wanted to change it. He couldn't change it because the law of the Persians and the Medes are irrevocable laws.

Not even the king can revoke them once he has issued them. So the best he can do is to issue a counter decree which makes the decree that he wants to change unable to be implemented in the way that it was originally intended. So this was the second decree, Mordecai's decree. It would take effect on exactly the same day, the 12th month, the month of Adar on the 13th day. So you have these two decrees, one by the wicked Haman, one by Mordecai, offsetting counter decrees, where the Jews, If anyone attacked the Jews according to the first decree, the second decree authorized them to kill the men who were attacking them and their women and children, and to plunder their goods as well.

Of course, the clues in the text from last week would have us thinking, I believe, that the Jews only killed the men who attacked them. There's no evidence in the text that they killed any of the women or the children. The text explicitly says that they did not touch any plunder. They were not in it for the money. They were in it to defend their own lives only.

And we saw that in last week's text. It is just as Jesus says in Matthew 16 verse 18 that Jesus Christ is building His church. He's redeeming a people, building a holy temple, and the gates of hell will not prevail against His people. So not only can hell not crash down our gates as the people of God, but exactly the opposite. The gates of hell cannot withstand us.

The application for us is that We as the people of God should go cheerfully about what Jesus came to do, which is to destroy the works of the devil. And He's not going to be able to withstand that. We have that on the authority of Jesus Christ. So as we go to this day's text, let's ask the Lord for help. God, when we think of Your many great deliverances of Your people, it fills our hearts with gratitude and with joy.

Do that today, Lord. Use our text today to just fill us up with happiness that you are strong on behalf of your people. God, let all of these great deliverances be top of mind, but none more than Jesus Christ and His work on the cross to take away, to cleanse away the sins of your people. To deliver us from the works of the devil in our lives and make us free and clean before you. Let all these things be thought of by your people, by us, every day.

Thank you for the text. I pray that you would use it richly in our lives. Pray in Jesus' name, amen. I'm not going to break the text into different subsections and go through them little by little. Much of the text is very self-explanatory.

What I'd like to do is begin by just giving an overview of the text. I'm going to talk about seven features, pull seven features out of the text. We'll give an overview and then I would like to make some observations and applications from the text. So first an overview of the text. Here are seven features that we find in our text.

Number one, there were different days of rest in different places. So your handout, if you're taking notes on the handout, actually has a blank there. If you're filling in the blanks, it's rest. There were different days of rest in different places. In the capital of Shushan, the fighting was actually across two days.

The two decrees, Haman's decree and Mordecai's decree, were both for the 13th day of the 12th month. The Jews were attacked and then they attacked those who attacked them and at the end of the day when the king asked Esther, is there anything else that I can do to right the wrongs that have been done here, She asked that within the capital, within Shushan, an additional day to render justice to those who had attacked them be given. There be an extension within what was probably the ground zero of opposition against the Jews. The Jews have an additional day to render justice to those who had attacked them. So the king extends that ability for a second day in Shushan, but only in Shushan.

So in Shushan, the capital, there's fighting on the 13th. Then there's that extension just for Shushan. There's fighting on the 14th. And then the Jews rest. And there's feasting and gladness on the 15th.

Everywhere else in the empire. So remember, this is a great Empire, 127 provinces from Ethiopia to India, 3000 miles across, everywhere else in the Empire, the fighting was only on the 13th day and then the next day was the commemoration of God's goodness in resting and in feasting. So in Shushan, the resting and feasting happens on the 15th, but everywhere else in the empire there has been one last day fighting and so they commemorate that day on the 14th. This is the first feature of the text. There are different days of rest in different places.

When Mordecai and Esther codify this, actually write down what this should be going forward through the generations, they collect both the days up. The day of feasting in the whole empire outside of Shushan was on the 14th, fine, let's feast on that day. The day of feasting within the capital was on the 15th, fine, let's feast on that day. Let's feast on both days. The deliverance was so great that the feast should be great as well.

Number two, these days of rest were celebrated as holidays which included the sending of presents. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blank, the blank is presents. These Days of rest were celebrated as holidays which included the sending of presents. This would be part of the feasting and gladness that was going on. It would be the giving of presents.

It's not an individualistic celebration at all, but others are included in your celebration of the holiday. Look at verse 19. Verse 19, it says, Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting as a holiday and for sending presents to one another. This is repeated but also expanded at the end of verse 23. Look at the end of verse 23, of sending presents to one another, that was said in verse 19, but then it's expanded, and gifts to the poor.

Part of the giving that is happening here makes sure that the poor are fully included in the feasting and in the celebration. In other words, if you don't have the resources to participate, you are given the resources to participate. Nobody is going to be left out of the party of this great deliverance. And So resources are made available to everyone. If you didn't have the resources, the resources would be given to you because God wants everyone taking part in this.

This is completely consistent with the Old Testament feasts. I would like for you to lay your eyes on that. So please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 16. Turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 16. We're going to read a section here where we see that what's before us in our text in Esther is just like the Old Testament feast that had already been established in the Law of God.

Deuteronomy chapter 16 gives us an overview of the three great feasts of the Mosaic Covenant. In other words, God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. And in the law, part of the law, were these three great feasts. The Passover feast, which is in the beginning of 16. And then the feast of weeks, where you have seven weeks, and then there's a feast at the end of that, and then finally, the feast of Tabernacles.

So the Jewish calendar has three big feasts, three week-long feasts as part of it. And so I'd like to read Deuteronomy 16 verses 9 through 15 and you'll recognize the consistency with what we're seeing in the book of Esther. Deuteronomy 16, beginning of verse 9. Follow along. You shall count seven weeks for yourself.

Begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a free will offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you." Here's the critical part beginning in verse 11. Part beginning in verse 11. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. And you shall remember that you are a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes." Now I am in verse 13.

You shall observe the feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice." This gives us part of what God says about two of the three feasts. I didn't read more of the chapter, but what you can see is a repetition of a couple of things. One is the point is rejoicing.

Why the feast? Rejoicing before the Lord. It's not a rejoicing separate from God and what He has done. It's actually a rejoicing before the Lord, a rejoicing in the Lord, making sure that we take time to be happy in God and to feast together because of the goodness of God. Another thing that we see repeated in what I just read is, make sure that the stranger and the widow and the fatherless are able to fully partake in the feast.

It was said twice in what I just read. The stranger might have nothing, you make sure they feast. The widow might have nothing, you make sure she is included in your feasting. The fatherless might not have the resources to partake, you give the fatherless resources. You make sure that everyone is included in this and no one is excluded because of their lack of resources.

These were to be remembrances of the great deliverances of God and to include everyone. Listen to Nehemiah 8 verse 10. You don't have to turn there because we are in actually half of a verse. By the time you get there I will have read it. But in Nehemiah 8 verse 10, Ezra has just been called forth to read the law.

They tell Ezra, bring the book. The people want the law of God to be read to them, and he reads the law of God to them. And then there's going to be a time of feasting afterwards. And here's what we read in Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 10, then He said to them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy to the Lord." So in Deuteronomy it's made clear through repetition, make sure that the stranger and the widow and the fatherless have the resources. If they don't have the resources, you give them the resources.

Then we come chronologically to the book of Esther. And this feast, you send gifts to the poor to make sure that they can fully enter into the celebrating, the goodness of the deliverance that has happened. And then chronologically, maybe 60 years later, we're coming to Nehemiah and Ezra, after reading the law, says, go feast, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. This is the pattern. When the Lord's people are to feast and remember there to make sure that everyone is able to enter into the feasting and the remembrance.

Number three, Mordecai wrote quote unquote these things and sent it throughout the empire. This is the first letter in our text. Mordecai writing quote unquote these things and sending them by letter into all the provinces so that everyone has the account of what's being celebrated. This is what is said in verse 20. That's where you find that.

Few would have known what we know. In other words, we have access to the whole thing. If you were living in the empire at that time, you would have had the Haman's decree, the first decree, you would have had Mordecai's decree, the second decree, you would have had a lot of fighting and gladness that it was over the next day, but you wouldn't have known much else. You wouldn't have known about Mordecai's great deliverance when Haman came wanting him to be hanged and yet God turned that around so he was actually honored instead of hung. You would not have known about the justice that was meted out to Haman and maybe not known to the justice meted out to his ten sons.

We know a lot. Mordecai made sure that the Jews throughout the empire knew all that had happened for their deliverance. Not just the first decree, second decree in fighting. There was much more to know as we've seen throughout the book. Mordecai writes and sends these letters, these first letters throughout the empire to make sure that everyone knows what we know so that they can rejoice accordingly.

Number four, The feast of Purim was accepted by the Jews as a custom. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's custom. The Feast of Purim, which is established in our text, was accepted by the Jews as a custom, as opposed to the feasts that we just saw in Deuteronomy 6, which were explicitly commanded by God. There is nothing in the text, our text today, that indicates that the feast of Purim was explicitly commanded by God, where God said, you make sure you do this. This was received by the Jews as a custom.

Look at verse 23. So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun as Mordecai had written to them. So there's fighting, and then there's rejoicing the next day. The next day after the fighting is over, whether you were in the capital or without, the day after the fighting was a day of rejoicing. This had begun, and Mordecai is advocating that they continue it, That it not fall out of remembrance.

To make sure that it doesn't fall out of remembrance. That the people year after year observe this. And the people are willing to accept it as a custom. Now look at verse 27. Verse 27, the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves.

It was not imposed by an edict from God. They imposed it upon themselves. They received it as a custom. And their descendants and all who would join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time." So it is codified, it is written down how you celebrate this feast, but they imposed it on themselves and their descendants. Now, just a thought about how we handle narrative texts.

The narratives are the inspired histories of the people of God. There is narrative that tells you what happens, and we have that here. And then there are places where there is what's known as approved narrative, Meaning that God explicitly puts his stamp of approval on what's happening in the narrative. If you treat all narrative as approved narrative, you end up with polygamy and all sorts of things I don't think we should be engaging in today. So be careful how you handle narrative.

Just because the Bible recounts that it was part of the history of God, doesn't mean that God was sanctioning, or approving, or even pleased with everything that you find in the history of the Lord's people. You want to make sure, if you think we should be doing it, you want to make sure it's approved narrative. That there are explicit things in the text that let you know that God was pleased with that and wants more of it. In this case, you don't have any marks of that. I'm not saying that God wasn't pleased with it.

I think that he probably was. But there's no explicit stamp of approval in the text where we would say, now when something great happens among us, God accomplishes something great among us, that we should institute something new and impose it on future generations. What we have in the book of Esther is an extraordinary deliverance at the hand of God and an extraordinary event that brings a feast and they impose it on their future generations. I don't think this is a new normal for us where we should be creating new things and imposing it on subsequent generations. That was number four.

The feast of Purim was accepted by the Jews as a custom. Number five. King Ahasuerus was given a very generous amount of credit. When you read at least a summary of what would have been in the letter to the Jews, It is technically accurate and it will serve as a summary, but really it's very generous towards the king. Look at Verse 25.

This is part of what would have been included in what Mordecai is relating in this first letter, I presume. Verse 25, But when Esther came before the king, he, the king commanded by letter, that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his son should be hanged on the gallows. What's missing there? What's missing there? The name of Esther is not said once in that summary account.

The name of Mordecai is not said once. It said, the king realized that this was wicked? Well, yes, sort of. The king gave a decree to turn this on its head. Yes, sort of.

The king gave his signet ring to Mordecai, which allowed Mordecai to act with the authority of the king. So it's not inaccurate to say that the King did this because he gave the authority for it, but it's certainly not the whole story. King Ahasuerus was given a very generous amount of credit here in our text. What it does do is it establishes the king as a defender of the Lord's people, doesn't it? I don't know to what extent Mordecai had this in mind by positioning what had happened in this way.

But it puts the king on the hook as a defender of the Lord's people. Now every year there's going to be a celebration within his kingdom of the wisdom of him giving the decree that overthrew this. He in a sense accepts an obligation to continue in a trajectory of goodness to the Jews. I don't know if that's what Mordecai had in mind, but I can see that being an implication of the way in which this letter was positioned. It establishes the king as a great defender of the Jews.

Did he deserve that title? Sort of. He was almost the annihilator of the Jews also in the same sense. So they left that part out in the summary. Number six.

The intention was universal. You're filling in blanks. It's universal. The intention was universal. Look at verse 28.

That these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants." All Jews everywhere throughout all time. The intent of Mordecai in the first letter and then Esther and Mordecai in the second letter is that this would be universal, not only in their own generation but until the end of time that Jews would be celebrating this. And Jews do celebrate the feast of Purim today. It has had that effect. The intention was universal.

Not just the Jews in the capital city, but Jews in every province and city within the empire, not only in their lifetime, but throughout every generation, that these great things, this great deliverance, would never be forgotten by the people of God. We don't know how appropriately this was focused on God. Again, like the whole rest of the book of Esther, the name of God is not invoked not even one time. So we don't know the extent to which when the people were coming together according to what was written and recorded and given to us in the book of Esther, we don't know the extent to which they were actually rejoicing before the Lord as we saw in Deuteronomy 16. All we know is they should be.

All they know is that it's right to and It should be woven into it so that it could never be separated. The acknowledgement of God being the source of deliverance ought to have been the heart in every celebration of Purim. And it is in the modern Jewish celebration. It is an attributing to God of this great deliverance. Number six, the intention was universal.

Number seven, There was a second letter where Esther joined her voice to Mordecai's to confirm these things. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, just confirm. There was a second letter, our text gives us The first letter from Mordecai where he's relating these things, bringing all the people up to speed on all the things that have happened, not just the two decrees that they would have known about. But there was a second letter later in our text where Esther joined her voice, figuratively speaking, it's not a voicemail, joined her voice to Mordecai's to confirm these things. They write these letters together, but Esther now is the emphasis, her voice is the emphasis in the second letter.

She is the queen, she's confirming these things. And we learn a couple of things about this letter. One, it was authoritative. Verse 29 says, with full authority. This is an authoritative letter coming from the Second in command to the king, Mordecai, he has the king's signet ring, he acts on the authority of the king and the queen herself, Esther, with full authority.

Verse 29. But it's also gracious. Look at verse 30. With words of peace and truth. So although it is an authoritative letter, the Queen has the ability to speak to the people and the second in command, the man who is wearing the King's ring with the authority to act on his behalf, are speaking authoritatively to the Jews and yet also graciously.

These are with words of peace and truth. This is not a high-handed, lording it over letter to the people. These are gracious words, exhorting the Lord's people and commanding, authoritatively telling the Lord's people that there should be an ongoing remembrance of the great deliverance that they've just experienced. By the way, we have no time markers in our text. We know that Haman's decree was given in the first month.

We know that Mordecai's decree was given in the third month. We know that the fighting, the day that the decree was established was in the twelfth month. We have no idea when these two letters were sent and how long between. Probably because it doesn't matter. A few observations and applications from the text.

I have four mixture of observations and applications. Number one, God is the master of the lot. If you're taking notes and filling in blanks, it's master. God is the master of the lot. Remember how all this started?

It started with hatred in the heart of Haman, not only towards Mordecai who wouldn't bow to him, but for all the people of God. He was an Agagite, he was an Amelikite, and these two people had ancient hatreds. And this was just a continuation of them. Haman wants to make sure he gets it right so he consults the gods. He casts the lot in order to see what is the right day to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth.

The historians back this up and say, yes, the first month when Haman was casting the lot is the month of the year for the pagans. They believed that the gods would get together and decide what would happen among humanity during the year. So it was sort of the planning month of the gods. So when you were inquiring of the gods, you would cast the lot in the first month. This is exactly what we find Haman doing in the book of Esther.

God laughs. God laughs. God is on high. He laughs at the casting of the lots to consult with the gods on when this... And so He has the Lot fall way out in time.

And it's the undoing of the whole thing. Haman is casting lots with malice in his heart in the first month. And where does the Lot come up? The 12th month, the 13th day. It could almost not even possibly be any further away in time.

It's the undoing of the whole thing. It gives the Jewish people time for all these events to happen that needed to happen for the second decree, letting them gather together and defend themselves and then to prepare for it. They actually had over eight months to get ready for the day when the people would be able to attack them. It was undoing the whole thing. God was the master of that lot.

This is what we see in Proverbs 16 verse 33. The lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. There is no such thing as chance. Brothers and sisters, there is no such thing as chance. Even the rolling of the dice is not chance.

It is in the hands of the Lord. He is the master of it. He controls it. He is working everything according to the counsel of his own will, no one can ever frustrate him. The more faithful we are, the more the enemies of God will pick up tools to oppose us.

Isn't that true? The more faithful we are, the more trouble we are to the devil, and the more the devil mobilizes his forces to oppose us. The more faithful we are, the more the enemies of God will pick up tools to oppose us. What should our disposition towards that be? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

We laugh. We laugh. Cast the lot. Cast the lot. The Lord is the master of the lot and of every other tool that would be raised up against us.

When you are in the way of duty, never think that you are at the mercy of anyone who is opposing you. When you are in the way of duty, when your heart is a heart of obedience towards God, don't worry about any instrument that is picked up against you. It won't prosper. God is the master of the law. Every instrument that they pick up against you can be turned around on them by Almighty God.

When you are in the way of duty, never think you are at the mercy of anyone who is opposing you. We are all at the mercy of God, period. Amen. That is God's friends, that is God's enemies, that is everyone. It might feel like we are at the mercy of those who oppose us, but the King is on his throne.

He's not sitting back watching. He is ruling and reigning, controlling even the roll of the dice in every instrument that is grasped and picked up against us. Be fearless, brothers and sisters. Don't be careless. I'm not saying that none of this matters.

We shouldn't even be aware of any of these things, we're free to be careless. No, that's not what's being taught, that's not what I'm trying to say. But be fearless. Don't be afraid of the lot. Don't be afraid of any instrument that might be raised up by our opponents against us.

Know that the King is on his throne and he is ruling over the smallest details in the world for our good and his glory. Number one was God is the master of the lot. Number two, Nothing is more appropriate than that God's people would celebrate His deliverances. If you're filling in blanks, it's deliverances. Nothing is more appropriate than we would celebrate the great deliverances of God.

And there are many in Scripture, but there is none that is greater than Jesus Christ going to the cross to deliver us from the power of sin, not one. So that should be at the head of the class. Jesus on the cross delivering us from the power and The penalty of sin should be at the head of the class. It should be on the top of our minds every day. Look now at the Jewish calendar.

So God gives feasts in the law on Mount Sinai, the Mosaic covenant. And now this one is added. It's the only one that's not commanded by God. It's received as a custom and yet it's still on the Jewish calendar today. And it renders a calendar that is like this.

In the twelfth month you have Purim, The feast of Purim, remembering God's great deliverance that is recorded in the book of Esther, and then in the first month you have Passover, which is a remembrance of God rescuing them from Egypt. So the Jewish calendar begins with a remembrance of God's great deliverance. The Jewish calendar ends with a remembrance of God's great deliverance. Their calendar begins and ends that way. One of the great themes of Deuteronomy, we studied Deuteronomy a number of years back, one of the things we encountered over and over and over and over again was this great theme, and it had two sides of the coin.

One was, be careful to remember. How many times do we see that phrase in Deuteronomy? Be careful to remember. Be careful to remember. The other side of that coin is do not forget.

It's really the same thing coming at it from different ways. Be careful to remember, be careful to remember. Do not forget, do not forget. God wants His people to be mindful of Him reaching down to help us. Why?

Because it's not the last time we're going to be in trouble. It's not the last time we're going to face difficulty. And having top of mind that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and Over again, God has inserted Himself into human history to be there, be the stronghold of His people, gives us confidence that Our troubles are nothing. God will do what? He will do what He has always done.

He will show up to help His people. He will deliver His people. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. So the context is Deuteronomy chapter 5, the 10 commandments. The beginning of Deuteronomy chapter 6 is the Shema here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength And you should teach these things diligently to your children pass the law of God the ways of God Diligently to the next generation to pass to the next generation and so on.

And then we see this. I'm going to be reading Deuteronomy 6-12 and then I'll skip to 20 and I'll tell you when I'm doing it. Deuteronomy 6, 10-12, follow along. So it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things which you did not fill, hewn out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, when you have eaten and are full." So he's talking about the prosperity that he is bringing them into. Prosperity not that they generated but that he gave them on a silver platter.

He's saying, when I've given you prosperity on a silver platter. Verse 12, then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Now skipping to verse 20, I'll read through 25. When your son asks 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? 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 us 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. 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. Then 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. Within the law we do have do's and don'ts.

There are things that God wants us to restrain us from. Don't do that. There are things that God wants us to make sure that we do. And there is a calendar of remembrances built into the law of God. And God is telling us why He did that here.

He's telling us it's to make our sons and daughters in future generations ask us, what does all this mean? We're given a calendar by God that the next generation would seek from us what all this is about and would solicit from us the testimony of God's faithfulness. So that we would be careful to remember, so that we would not forget all the good that God has done to His people. That's what the ordinances are about. Not the do's and the don'ts, but the things that God has given us to observe.

The feasts, the weeks given over to feasting before the Lord. And the sacrifices these are to make the next generation solicit from us our testimonies of God's faithfulness to us through the decades. Here's an exhortation to you on this point. Observe a calendar which proactively brings these things to remembrance. We should have a calendar that has us giving our testimony of God's faithfulness to us.

God is giving this to his people. We should have this. A calendar that proactively has us remembering the goodness of God to us. And it starts with the Lord's Day. God has given us one day and every week for this purpose.

I think there should be other things as well. I think this should be part of our family cultures, where maybe the dome family has A certain celebration of remembrance for what God has done for the domes through the years. There would be many things to celebrate. We would give our children an opportunity to solicit from us the testimonies of how faithful God has been to the domes across the decades. I think we should have that.

But all this is secondary to what God has explicitly given us. What is that? One day in seven. What's it called? The Lord's Day.

Who is the Lord? Jesus. It's the day to celebrate and remember and feast at the remembrance of what Jesus Christ has done. We are only just scratching the surface of the good that there is to be had in the Lord's Day. I can tell you, as the head of a household, the domes are just starting to scratch the surface of all the good that we can squeeze out of this day.

I'm not saying, go squeeze the life out of this day, Just make it no fun for anybody. No, I'm saying actually there's so much more life in the day to be mined out of it, but we have to proactively do it. We're not going to drift into highly profitable Lord's days. It has us remember. You know, you know, in your observance of the Lord's day drifting leads you completely away from profitability on the Lord's day So we should be looking for ways that we can squeeze more good out of this day more satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ out of His day.

We're the Lord's people. Should we work? Yes, amen. We should be the hardest working and the hardest resting people. We've been given a day for holy rest.

We should be the hardest working and the hardest resting. Holy rest every week. If we don't have a place, an expansive place for joyful feasting, we are disconnected from the heart of God. If you read from Genesis to Revelation, if you don't get that, you've not paid attention to large sweeps of Scripture. Yes, the Bible would have us working and advancing the borders of the kingdom, working tirelessly for that, but the Bible would have us giving an expansive place to rejoicing and feasting before the Lord.

At a minimum one day in seven. This is a feast day. Number three. We should make sure to include the poor in such celebrations. So if you're filling in blanks, it's poor.

We should make sure to include the poor in such celebrations. So if you're filling in blanks, it's poor. We should make sure to include the poor in such celebrations. Of all the applications I find myself and our family personally, most disconnected from this one. We almost don't even have a frame of reference for this one.

But here's what Matthew Henry says. Matthew Henry says, Thanksgiving and almsgiving should go together. Meaning, when you have things to be thankful for, it should make us generous. Almsgiving is the generous giving for benevolence. Thanksgiving and almsgiving should go together.

That when we are rejoicing and blessing God, the heart of the poor may rejoice with us and they may bless us I Do think we are taught that in this text listen to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 14 Jesus in Luke chapter 14 has just observed a party and how people are jockeying for position for the best seats, the seats of honor at the party. And He actually instructs, like start at the bottom, let the host call you up and you'll receive honor. When he says, no, no, come up here, be near me. It's so much better than the host saying, actually that seat was reserved for someone else, you need to move down lower. This is right after Jesus saying that.

He says this, Luke 14 verses 12-14, Then Jesus also said to him who invited him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just." This is striking to me. We see it in Deuteronomy. We see it in Esther. We see it in Nehemiah.

We see Jesus talking about this Same thing. It's not exactly what we have seen in our text, but it certainly has a very close relationship. I think our patterns betray that we don't hardly even know where to begin because We don't even have these relationships. But if you'll think, even over the last couple of months, hey, we're starting to have more of these relationships than we've ever had. Praise God for that.

May God multiply them. May God give us a frame of reference for this. We should be befriending the poor, especially poor Christians, and making a place at our tables for them. Proactively. We should be developing a network of relationships with people who don't have very much resources in order to bring them to our table and share our resources with them.

We learned that from our text. Are you doing that? Do you have any level of activity going in this category. As for me and the domes, we don't have any proactive activity going to develop a network of people who don't have very many resources so We can bring them to our table and share our resources with them. That's wrong according to our text.

According to what Jesus says in Luke 14. I want to put this on our radar. I want to put this on your radar. It's not right that we can't even think of the people that we would do that with. It means we've not sought them out.

I believe the scripture would have us seeking that out. Number four, finally. The Lord is the source of his people's gladness. On this one, if you're filling in blanks, there are two blanks. Source, gladness.

The Lord is the source of His people's gladness. Sometimes more directly, sometimes less directly, but always. The good things in our lives come down to us from heaven. They come from God. The truly good things in our lives, the things that we ought to be rejoicing for, come down to us from heaven.

God gave them to us. Listen to Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 43. This is at the dedication of the wall. You remember they come back to rebuild the wall, they find a mess. And they find enemies not wanting them to prepare the wall, so they have to work really fast.

And they have to work with a sword in one hand and rebuilding with the other, because their enemies are just waiting to pounce if they're not vigilant. But God gives them miraculous progress and they close the breaches in the wall. And then they celebrate. And We read this in Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 43. Also that day they offered great sacrifice and rejoiced for God had made them rejoice with great joy.

The women and the children also rejoiced so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off. The people outside of Jerusalem can hear the clamor from all the rejoicing. The men are rejoicing, the women are rejoicing, the children are rejoicing, everyone is rejoicing together. But the most profound thing that is said in this verse is for God had made them rejoice with great joy. Their rejoicing had a source.

God was the source of the joy. He made them rejoice. He gave it to them as a gift. Here's my challenge to you in closing. Identify an unworthy source of gladness.

A go-to source of gladness, but it's unworthy. It's not really rooted in God at all. You couldn't go to God and thank God for it because it really has no relationship to God at all. You're taking comfort in something where you should divert that and you should divert it to something that is closely associated to God and His blessings. Identify an unworthy source of gladness and wage war against it.

Snip it off. Find one. You can't find one? An unworthy source of gladness? Something that you go to for gladness, but it really has no association to God at all.

It's something that you could have very well been glad to before you were born again. Been glad in? Before you were born again. And it's a carryover. You never stop being glad in it but it has no association with God at all.

You really might even be a little ashamed of being glad in it. It's a source of gladness for you. Find something, well just one of those things in your life, this is my challenge. Snip it off. And divert, divert all that energy to something that will bring you gladness that has a one to one connection with God and His goodness to us.

Let's pray. Father, when we go to count our blessings, We think of how faithful You've been to us over the course of a long period of time. There's a lot to count. Father, thank You. I pray the warnings of Deuteronomy that we would be careful to remember that we would not forget.

Your many kindnesses to us, These warnings wouldn't be lost on us. God, I pray that our calendars would be full of things that have us proactively remembering your faithfulness and kindness to us beginning with this one day in seven every week, that the weeks and months ahead would have us squeezing more good, more joy, more feasting before the Lord in our homes, our lives, than we have ever experienced before. God, these things that are unworthy of being a source of joy in our life, Help us to snip them off one after the other to find more joy in you and less joy in the things of the world that we need to be weaned off of so desperately. Wean us off of the world. God, set our affections more fully upon you.

Pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.