Jarring Our Memories

JARRING OUR MEMORIES

PSALM 137:1-4

Jarring our memories Baker/Cup bearer dreams and Joseph

"Yet the cup bearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him" 40:23

Pharoah's dream jars cup bearer's memory

FORGETFULNESS LED TO THANKLESSNESS

Perhaps something has jarred your memory

Thanksgiving sale card.... turkeys piled up at

Ukrops

HOPE it will jar your memory

took cup bearer 2 years

been one year for you... (since last Thanksgiving) They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.... I have three.

1. Thankful for little.

Old man... plain clothes... plain meal... plain home... bible... praying. This man is the picture of a truly thankful person.

They are thankful for what they have.... little or much... new or old big or small

They realize that all they have is a gift from the Lord

do not credit self

And he does not forget... even in the midst of simplicity. He feel a great indebtedness

That feeling is necessary for Thanksgiving

Some of you here today are there.

I sat in the home of a member this week who lives in a house in a style that most of us would consider ourselves to be living in poverty. But she did not, in fact, because she loves her simple life and would rather to sit in her own simple home and eat a simple meal of left-over or whatever than to go out to a restaurant.

People like that get on their knees and thank God for his bountiful blessings. For them, EVERYDAY IS THANKSGIVING

Ps 103:2 (KJ.V.) says, "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all of His

benefits." The N.A.S. actually translates it, ".. forget none of His benefits"

like the KN better here because I don't believe that ANYBODY!!! NO BODY!! remembers all of God's blessings. We don't even recognize them all.

"Wreckless car ran out of gas before it came my way... Angels watching over me." Amy Grant

God has more problems with us remembering NONE of His benefits. I like the Pendleton translation... "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and don't forget all of God's benefits, at least remember and give thanks for a few.

And that brings me to the second picture… I don't have this one but have seen it.

2. Thankful for Nothing.

This is the picture of oxen at a com crib... or a feeding trough, if you will. They are devouring the fodder, as the farmer tosses it into the crib... pulling it out in big clumps, biting off some, and letting rest fall on ground where it is trampled underfoot. They are biting at each other out of greed and pushing each other away in a mad attempt to get it all. The more the fight and pull the more is dropped and trampled. Beneath the picture is an inscription.. "Who without prayer sits down to eat,

And without thanks then leaves the table tramples the gift of God with feet and is like the oxen in the stable

Do you think that oxen ever stop for one moment to consider how thankful they should be to the farmer or God?

Do they ever stop to consider all the farmer has done for them in planting, fertilizing, cutting, raking, bailing, and hauling the fodder?

Of course not.... they just tear into it with no thought and eat to satisfy a physical urge. Then, without a word of thanks, they turn away and leave, trampling some of the fodder as they leave.

They return to the pasture to lay in the shade, or chew their cud, or graze some desert. They live with no thought... just satisfying desires and instincts.

And that is OK for cattle or dumb animals but what of God's children....

ESPECIALLY those of us who are called by His name... Christians????

Can we be so crass, so animalistic, so thoughtless?

WE ARE thankless…

If we flip on the switch and light turns on and we are

If we turn on faucet and get clean water

If we drive a car to a good job

If we throw another log on or bump the thermostat

If we take medicine.... or take no medicine

If we lay down in warm bed... safe house

IF WE DO THESE THINGS AND DONT SAY THANK YOU we are like… no, WE ARE WORSE THAN.... oxen at the crib.

The ox doesn't thank because he is dumb animal, incapable of THINKING

What is YOUR/MY excuse????

This brings us to the last picture... The picture on your bulletin.

3. Thanks is Impossible

God's people, with long sad faces sitting by the Tigris river. They are Jews captured by the Babylonians and exported off to a foreign land to live as slaves.

Beside them, hanging in the tree are their harps... the instruments used to praise God. But they are not praising, not playing, not singing.