Have you ever felt forgotten? I have when i was eight years old i remember feeling as if my grandmother was leaving me so i ran out in the middle of the road and was hit by a car. I remember a time where i had flew into an airport and was suppose to be pick up by a person, but that person never showed up. Have you been there? Have you felt like no one cares about you or your feeling? If you have you are not the only one...believe it or not famous people in the bible have been there too. Today i want to look at three people who felt forgotten for a period of time.
The first one is Daniel. Let me tell you why? In the beginning of the book of Daniel, Daniel was a young boy not much older then some of our own youth group members. He was taken from his home to Babylon where they took his orginal name away and gave him a Babylonian name. Was tossed in a lions den and delivered by the angel, but it had been 65 years now and in Daniel chapter 9 he is now 80 years old and he feels alone and forgetten. None of his Jewish friends or family around. Daniel was praying and basically asking, "God have you forgotten where you put me, do you know what i’m going through?" Then all of a sudden the Angel Gabriel came to Daniel. If you look at the text he doesn’t call him by his Babylonian name but by his Hebrew name. The first reason i know that God has not forgotten you is that he knows your name. No matter how bad it seems God knows your pain and can heal that pain. That leads to the second reason that God has not forgotten us...Look in vs. 23, "As soon as you began to pray...." God not only knows your name but hears our prays. Boy if that is not important for all us that focus on God.
The second person is David, in Psalms 13.
David writes "How long will you forget me forever?" David was asking the same question that Daniel was asking where are you God. He was throwing himself a pity party, but then he realizes that without God giving light to his eyes he would die. So he says look on me and answer me O God. In this Psalm there is never an answer from God, but here is the great thing about David in this Psalm, even if God never replies david says, "but I will trust in your..." Ps. 9:10 says God will never forsake those who seek him. So if you are feeling forgotten by God pleas do your best to seek God and his will.
If you ever ever felt forgotten by God remember that he will always be there for those that seek him.
Last person i would like to mention is, Jesus.
Mt. 27:45-47 says, "From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani" which means, "My God, My God why have you forsaken me." Jesus himself asked the question we do sometimes, where are you God? Do you want to know the true reason why i know God hasn’t forgotten us is because of the cross. With the sin of all man past, present, and future on his Son he could not stand to see the sin of all humanity and he turned his back on his own Son. You know that reason i know God has not forgotten us is because God forgot his own Son so that he would not have to forget you.
If you have ever felt forgotten by man or even by God know this one thing today, God has not forgotten you and never will. Because of God’s love and him remembering us we are commanded to love others and share God’s love and care for us to them.
Conclusion
God continues to ask us even as Christians why do we still for get him? Revelation 2:4 says that the church in Ephesus has forsaken its first love. As a church we are to think about God and remember his love all the time, but a lot of the times we forsake him saying what the people in Jeremiah 2:31-32 said. As Christians it is time we lay down our lifes and stop forsaking him.
Show video clip of Jesus on the Cross with the a song by, Jeff Moody, the "Cross"
