When Memory Dies - Tim Timberlake

In this prophetic message from Acts chapter 7, we explore Stephen’s powerful warning to Israel—and to us today—about the danger of spiritual amnesia. When a people forget the deliverer, comfort replaces conviction, idols replace obedience, and bondage quietly returns. This sermon calls the Church to remember God’s faithfulness, refuse to settle in “Egypt,” and remain anchored in Jesus as pressure increases and promises draw near.

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Tim Timberlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church podcast. I hope this message encouraged you, strengthened your faith, and gave you something you can carry into your week. If you'd like to stay connected, I encourage you to join us live every Sunday at 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. on YouTube. We would love to have you there. And if you're ever in the Jacksonville, Florida area, come see us in person. We have a seat saved for you. Thanks again for being with us. We're so grateful for you. And see you next time. Acts chapter 7. Before we get into the reading of the Word of God, if this is your first Sunday here, would you wave at me so we can acknowledge you? How are you doing? It's good to see you. How are you doing? It's good to see all of you to our family that's in overflow. To our family that's watching online, some of you in very cold climates. Stay warm. Stay inside. And we'll continue to bring the Word of God to you. And we're grateful that we get an opportunity to lean into the presence of God together. What an honor and a privilege it is to be used by God. Amen. God can use anything and He chooses to use us. What an honor and a privilege it is to be used by God. So first, before we get into the Word, I want to say I'm proud of you for being faithful. I'm proud of you for being consistent. And some of you, you started coming to church this year, and you haven't missed a service. I'm proud of you. Stay the course. Okay? Stay the course. Stay consistent. Stay faithful. Don't buy into the consumerism of church. Okay? Don't be in a hurry. Don't be in a rush. It's very important.

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Okay?

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Because you can be grabbing your bags during offering time and miss the word of God for your life.

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Okay?

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So we can set aside an hour and 30 minutes on Sunday for God. We set aside two hours to go to the movie theater. We don't grab our kids and our stuff halfway through and leave. We want to see what the end is. Amen. And I'm encouraging you today because I know there are going to be some people that are tempted to leave. To stay the course. Stay all the way through. Nothing is more important than you and your time with God. Brunch can wait. Are you listening to me? The Jags are not playing today. So you're not rushing to a football game. So when you feel the urge and you feel tempted to leave early, ask yourself the question: why am I in such a rush? Okay? It's important. Because today's message is important. This may be the most prophetic text we have covered thus far in the Acts of the Apostles. And I don't want you to miss what God has to say to you. I said to you. By rushing and thinking about what you got to do next instead of being where your feet are right here, right now. Acts chapter 7. We're going to begin in verse number 16. Scripture says, and from there they were removed to Shechem and laid in a tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Amor in Shechem. But as the time of the promise was approaching, which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose another king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And from there they were removed from Shechem and laid in the tomb, which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Amor in Shechem. But as the time of the promise was approaching, which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose another king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. For a moment, I want to utilize this text for where God desires for us to go today. And we're going to subject and title this subject with the title When Memory Dies. When memory dies, let's pray. We're here again seeking you, longing for your presence, desperate for a move. Today we ask that anything that has been competing with you in our lives would be removed. We ask that you would get glory. We ask that you would heal those who need to be healed, deliver those that need to be delivered, and set us free from the bondage that has held us captive for far too long. We thank you that you are here with us. And so we ask that you would have your way in this place. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen and amen. To rewind a little bit so that we can understand where we are. When I journey through the Acts of the Apostles, Stephan is being held on trial, being accused of blaspheming God, blaspheming Moses, blaspheming the temple. And he understands that the end result of this trial could mean that he would die. He doesn't defend himself, he doesn't try to deflect, he doesn't blame other people. What he does is he takes the Sanhedrin counsel through the word of God, starting with Genesis, utilizing the life of Abraham. And so he talks about what God told Abraham in an effort to get the Sanhedrin Council to think about the God they say they serve. He then moves from Abraham to the life of Joseph. He highlights some of the things that are noteworthy about Joseph's life. He was sold, taken by his brothers, thrown into a pit, bought out of the pit, he became a slave. He was taken from slavery, placed in a prison cell. He utilized his God-given gift, to give dreams meaning. He was bought out of the prison cell, placed in the palace, and he was promoted in the palace, and he became one of the highest-ranking officials in Egypt. As a result, he was over all of the grain, all of the agriculture, all of the livestock, and all of the food. His father Jacob and his brothers encountered famine. They came to Egypt. They were provided for. See how they dig up these artifacts and how they can tell the history of a person based upon the bones that are left behind. You ever see this and you wonder how in the world can they tell all those things to what was left behind? It's simple because the bones carry DNA. And in your life, there are some bones that are being revealed that still carry the DNA of God's faithfulness. There's some bones in your life that still carry the DNA of the victory that God gave you, even if you don't feel like He gave it to you. There's some family members whose bones you have discovered through prayer and through prophecy and through declaration that you're standing in because of their faithfulness. And so bones still speak. And if they had left their bones in Egypt, then their bones would have given the wrong declaration of the faithfulness of God. So their bones had to go back to the promised land that God gave them so that generations coming behind them would understand that even when my family could not see, they still obeyed. People grow comfortable, leadership resists, and the deliverer is rejected. I'll say it again. God sends deliverers, people grow comfortable, leadership resists, and the deliverer is rejected. What he's implying to the Sanhedrin Council is you did this with Moses, and now you're doing it again with Jesus. He's allowing them to understand that God's promises don't counsel pressure. Sometimes pressure is proof that the promise you are believing for is actually close. And so often we get put in the pressure cooker of life and we think God has forsaken us and God has abandoned us and God has turned his back on us when in fact God is closer to you in pressure than you think he is. And sometimes you think God is only with you on the mountaintop, and God is like, no, dah, baby, I'm also with you in the valley. If you can acknowledge that I'm good regardless of what's happening around you, and something happens. Hear me, when our memory dies. That's what Stefan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council. When your memory dies, you begin to prioritize things God never intended for you to prioritize. When our memories die, we we erect idols and little gods to take the place of the true and living Savior. When our memory dies, we operate more in comfort and convenience than we do more in conviction because our relationship with Jesus turns into what He can do for us instead of what we've been created for. What we must understand is that God is not confined to sacred spaces and places. Because you carry the presence of God. And so God won't just move there, God desires to move in you. But God won't move in you when your life is so cluttered with you that he doesn't have room to move. It's okay. Trust me, it will get much worse before Sunday's over. The closer God gets to fulfilling his promise, the louder fear screams from threatened power. The reason your life may seem so loud right now is because you're actually growing. You're maturing. You're becoming more like Christ. And the enemy hates that. He does not hate you coming to church, he hates you applying the things you learn in church. He does not hate that you actually are lifting your hands in worship. He hates that you actually get a revelation of what worship actually is. And so what the enemy desires to do is to keep you so distracted with your current reality that you don't see what God said. And if you don't see what God said, then you're so bothered by what you see that you forget to apply the word of God to change what you see and be transferred and renewed from the inside out. Stephan is reminding the Sanhedrin Council, you're blinded by what you see. You're blinded by your current reality. And the God you say that you believe in, you're actually putting on trial because you can't even see how he's at work through me. He's not giving a history lesson in this text. He's putting Israel on trial. He's reminding them that a people who forget the deliverer will eventually become enslaved to other things. I want us to look at point number one. Point number one. Faith refuses to die where it doesn't belong. Verse number 16. They took their bones back to the promised land. The patriarchs chose burial as prophecy. The prophecy is very simple according to the text. They died in Egypt, but they refused to be claimed by it. And some of us are so focused on being claimed by the world that we would prefer to die and stay here than to continue to move towards a future and a destiny in eternity with Jesus. We're so focused on worldly clout and worldly influence and worldly possessions that we've missed the moment to make the earth our footstool to get to where God is calling us to be. And if this text teaches us nothing but this truth right here, I pray you see and become hyper-aware that this is not your home. And your bones should not stay in Egypt. You may die in Egypt, but you're not going to stay in Egypt. You may find a temporary dwelling place here, but this is not where you're going to make your eternal home. You have to continue to move towards the things God has called you to move towards because this is not the finality of your life. But what happens when memory dies? We make little gods out of these things. We make minor things major and major things minor. When memory dies, we think Jesus is an option. When memory dies, we base what we do off of how we feel. When memory dies, we're not dedicated to our relationship with Jesus Christ for what he desires for us and from us. We're dedicated to him for what we can get from him. When your faith is angered in Jesus Christ, and you get a glimpse of his heart, and you look beyond what you want from his hand, you will understand that faith refuses to die where it does not belong. Faith doesn't just survive captivity, it refuses to call it home. Some people die settled in Egypt. I refuse to die and stay in the place God never called me to stay. You can call me whatever you want to call me. Call me a radical. Egypt fed their bodies, but promised to own their bones. Some of us are so focused on provision that we've forgotten the promise of God. We're settling in a place that God never intended for us to settle in. Scripture says in verse number 16, their bones were taken back home. And Stefan is talking about Jacob and the patriarchs and everyone that was family to Joseph, and they were buried back in the promised land. He highlights this because he's not talking about geography, he's talking about the promise. And if we focus on where we are that God never called us to be, and we take our eyes off the promise, we will settle in a place that is comfortable and convenient because we don't feel like journeying any further. Scripture teaches us that even in death, God's people were saying, Egypt is not my home. This place is not your home. But if memory dies, it becomes your home. If memory dies, then your faith will be anchored in what the news says, and what politics tells you, and what everybody else is telling you, and you'll be so focused on what they're showing you, which is the percentage of what is actually happening, that you take your eyes off of what God said. And you'll lose hope because your memory has died. And you'll forget that the word of God tells you everything that you sing right now, it is prophetic in nature, and it will get worse, but there is hope in one. And that one, his name is Jesus. But if you don't know him, you will be hopeless and you'll lose faith, and you'll think that God is abandoned and forsaking you when in fact God is saying that what you see, you should be emboldened to know that the light of the world is shining more radiantly in darkness than it ever could if you had not known who and what he is capable of doing in seasons that we see right now. And so be of good cheer. He is not forsaken you, he has not forgotten you, he is not taken by surprise, by the riots and by the marches, and by everything that you see unfolding right now in our country. He has a plan that he is working, and you are a part of the planet, and if you design it to be, and how do you desire to be a part of the planet? By giving in the word and knowing what the word of God says, and knowing the days that you live in, and knowing that this time we have it is short and it is running down, but you would think that you are called here to stay here if you don't know what the word of God teaches you. When memory dies, we do everything that our flesh desires, and we don't feed our spirit, man. And when our flesh gets tested, and when our flesh gets tempted, and when we encounter pain and chaos and trials and tribulations, we think, oh my gosh, God has forsaken us. No, he's been preparing you, he's been training you, he's been teaching you, he's been asking you to get in your word, he's been asking you to pray, he's been asking you to praise, he's been asking you to worship because he understands without those things and without him. You will be lost and you will search for answers and you will never find them absent from him. One of the greatest things to learn about this life is faith doesn't always see fulfillment in this life. But when your faith is anchored in Jesus Christ, it refuses to settle in exile. I refuse to die and stay in a place God never called me to stay. I refuse to make my bed in a place God never intended for me to make my bed. And God did not intend for you to make your bed here on earth. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if it were not so, I would not tell you. And we think the place that God has sent his son Jesus to go prepare is here. When memory dies, we get comfortable here. And God never wants you to be so comfortable here that you forget his promises and the plans that he has for your life. When memory dies, we use Jesus as a tool for happiness. For success, for peace, for comfort. When in fact Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. You don't have an option to surrender to the King. We preach blessings more than we preach repentance and breakthrough more than we preach obedience and favor more than we preach holiness. And we think that God is going to put his hand on our mess and bless us in sin. We think that because we have forgotten how holy of a God we serve. We got the nerve to be upset with God because he won't bless us and we're still living in sin. Because he doesn't answer our prayers when we want him to, because we still do the things that he told us not to do, and we haven't heard his voice, and we think that he's wrong when in fact we are wrong because we've forgotten his royalty and his majesty and his holiness and his purity and his righteousness. We we become so arrogant and prideful as his children. We decide how long we stay in his presence when he's longing to spend time with you. Stefan is warning us, he's prophesying to us, he's encouraging us. Don't lose sight because you can see. This echoes what Joseph demanded in Genesis chapter 50. If you would study that in your personal time, you would understand what he says. God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from this place. Because he understood that bones became testimony. What are bones a testimony of? That this flesh may fade. This blood may stop pumping through my veins. But you can't deny that I was here because my bones still preach. Bones became a testimony of faith in a future of deliverance. When I read this, I was reminded that bones represent unfulfilled promises that the people of God still believed God could provide. The patriarchs never saw freedom from Egypt, but their bones preach, we may die here, but God will not leave us here. And I pray you walk away from today, understanding that you may die in the things that you're currently in right now, but God will not leave you here. Some promises live longer than the people who first believed them. And the reason you are here is because you're standing on the shoulders of prayers. And people prayed for you. Because they refuse to leave their bones in Egypt. What do these bones teach us today? These bones teach us that Egypt could hold their bodies. Egypt could not hold their destinies. Flesh decays, status fades, comfort disappears, but bones remain. In Scripture, bones often symbolize the core of who someone is. In Ezekiel chapter 37, in a land of dry bones, bones represented the faithfulness of God to connect what was once dead and breathe new life into what could not survive on its own. And so Stefan is showing the Sanhedrin Council, even when generations pass, the covenant still stands if you can see it. When everything else fades, God's promise still has structure. Point number two. When the promise gets close, pressure gets loud. Verse 17 says, the promise drew near. Look at what happened. Growth didn't bring relief, it attracted resistance. And anytime you grow in your life, anytime you're changing, anytime you're maturing, it brings resistance. Anytime you desire to do things the right way, the enemy always brings temptation to get you distracted to do what he desires for you to do. You cannot fall prey to the tricks of the enemy anymore. You know what his plan is. His plan is to kill, steal, and destroy. And here we are still being entertained by the carrot he's dangling in front of us, knowing what his plan is for our lives. Don't get distracted by pressure. Pressure is proof that you are getting close to the promise God has given you. God's promise was advancing silently, but fear was getting organized and running rampant. Pressure is often proof that the promise is maturing right before your very eyes. So oppression is not the absence of God, it's often the evidence of his proximity. How do I know this? Because hell never panics until heaven starts moving. And so when people around you start acting different and start acting funny, you have to understand that heaven must be moving in your direction because hell never panics until God starts moving. When you think that your relationships are gonna be firm and they start getting rocky and shaking, it must mean that God is doing something significant in your life. Because hell doesn't start panicking until God starts moving. When things seem like they're falling apart that you thought would be stable, it must mean God is actually doing something significant in your life because hell does not panic until God starts moving. Why is this important for us to understand? Because what God grows, fear tries to control. The promise provoked Pharaoh. What does that mean for us? As you grow and as you mature, it will provoke the enemy in your life to try to get you off focus from what God is actually doing. Pressure means you're actually on time. It says in verse 17, the promise gets closer and pressure starts increasing. As God's promises approaches, conditions get worse, not better. Look at me for a second. As the promise of God gets closer, pressure starts increasing. Do you think that God has forgotten about his people? He's drawing closer to his people. How do we know this? Because pressure is popping up all around us. Where is it happening? It's not just happening overseas, it's happening right here. America is turning on itself. Listen to me. This is not a game. We're asking ourselves, what countries are we going to war with? We are going to war with our own selves. And we're sitting here, we're playing church. The enemy is running rampant around us. Do you know why? Because our memory has died of the faithfulness of God. And we have moved away from what the Word of God says, and we have adopted a theology that suits our agenda instead of what the Bible actually says. And we lose our minds when pressure and pain arises because we're so arrogant and prideful that we think we can escape it. And when we don't escape it, we think that God has abandoned and forsaken us. If Jesus could not escape pain and pressure, who are we to think that we are better than Him? Read your word. It teaches us something so profound. It says, Israel multiplies in Egypt, just like God promised Abraham. So they didn't resist, they didn't boycott, they didn't rebel, they just grew. And some of us are so busy boycotting that we have refused to multiply what it is that we believe in to the generation coming behind us. We're so busy marching that we've stopped testifying. We've forgotten what Jesus has delivered us from. And Stefan is telling the Sanhedrin Council, the savor you say you believe in, you have crucified, and you're doing it again and again and again and again and again. And Jesus says throughout Scripture, O faithless generation, how long will you be with me? Point number three as we move through the text. Fruitfulness is dangerous to any power that survives on fear. Verse 17 says they increased and multiplied. Israel didn't push back, they didn't campaign, they simply multiplied. They grew. And if you're going to be a threat to the enemy, you have to continue to grow. You have to continue to multiply. You have to continue to stay in your word so that you can know what the word of God says. You don't have to be loud to be threatening. You just have to be growing and maturing. Because what God blesses quietly, it terrifies systems loudly. That's what multiplication and fruitfulness did in the text. It exposed the insecurity of leadership. You can always tell who's insecure in your life by how they respond and react to you, growing and being transformed by the Word of God. And so what the enemy tries to do when growth cannot be stopped, he tries to suppress it. Okay? The enemy does not fear rebellion, the enemy fears reproduction. That's why it's so important that you bear witness with the word of God and you share what you have learned so that other people can come into the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ. One of the saddest realities of the Christian walk and the Christian faith is to see other people who say they believe stay silent in the face of injustice. And when memory dies, we lean more into comfort than we do godly conviction. And we put into power our flesh, our desires, our will, and a way, because we've forgotten what God has done for us. In verse number 18, it says something so powerful that I want us to pay close attention to, specifically in the season that we had. A new king with no memory was put into power. This isn't ignorance, this is intentional amnesia. The person who once saved Egypt has now been forgotten. The person who once provided for Egypt has now been forgotten. The person who once was so pivotal in bringing a generation closer to God has now been forgotten. And what Stefan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council is the savior you say you believe in, you are intentionally forgetting because he did not come the way you envision him coming. And this is what happens. Deliverers are celebrated in one generation and then erased in the next when our memories fade. Point number four. Look at me. If you forget what Jesus has done, you put in place in your life a new Pharaoh. While other religions are equipping, empowering, growing. We're sitting here playing church. You don't hear people debating in other religions if they're going to their mosque today. You don't hear other people in other radical religions saying, Who's teaching today? I'll decide if I go to mosques over who's teaching today. You don't hear them begging to pray. They pray five times a day. They are dedicated and disciplined to the God they say they believe in. They're not sitting here arguing over when people ask them to give, to push their agenda, because they believe in one false God and one false God only. They don't follow the false God of money, they support the false God they say they believe in so that their kingdom can be advanced in the earth. And we're sitting here playing games because we've forgotten who Jesus actually is. And when you forget who Jesus actually is, you open up the door for Egypt to come into your own home. We're sitting here playing games, and they're sitting on cable television telling you what their agenda is. We intend to bring what we believe to America, and it will be the dominant religion of America. And if you don't believe what we believe, we will kidnap you and hold you hostage until you believe. And we're sitting here playing hopscotch with Jesus. We want to be entertained because we've forgotten. We pick and choose what we do and how we do it based upon how it makes us feel instead of feeding our spirit man and being resourced with weapons of spiritual mass destruction to push back on the veil of the enemy, and we don't do it because we we enjoy our flesh so much. And we open the door for Egypt and we invite Pharaoh into our home, and we say it's not that bad. We need to be accepting to Lord. And Jesus hung out with sinners. That's what we say. And that is a lie. Jesus didn't hang out with sinners, sinners hung out with Jesus. Because even the sinner that comes in the proximity of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords knows what the truth looks like. And we're so blinded by what we want that we can't see them because we make excuses for our flesh and our sin. If you forget the deliverer, you create a new oppressor. Joseph saved Egypt, but gratitude expired when power shifted. And when leaders forget God's deliverer, they repeat the sins they were delivered from. And every generation, hear me, that forgets Joseph eventually creates a Pharaoh. When gratitude dies, when thankfulness dies, when the spirit of joy dies, fear takes the throne. And you're led and driven by fear. When you're led and driven by fear, you forget God's faithfulness. You forget the work that He's done. And forgetting God's work always proceeds to resisting God's move. And that's why we're so moved by our flesh and moved by what we want, and moved by lust, and moved by possessions, and moved by pleasure, because we don't actually know who Jesus is. And so when we hear messages like this that don't tickle our fancy, we get offended because we don't like what we hear. And I'm telling you, every time you're moved by your flesh, you erect anything. The Pharaoh in your life, and you make a God out of something and someone that can never replace the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So what you refuse to honor will eventually oppress you. Stephan is teaching the San Heatheran Council. You say you believe in God, but you crucified him. You say you believe in God, but you've buried him. And you continue to try to bury his message. When God's faithfulness is forgotten, bondage is born. And every time a culture forgets Jesus, a new king rises to rule it in ideology and systems and putting in place false gods. And here we are choosing and picking how we serve and worship God based upon how God makes us feel entertaining Egypt. Your children are talking to Pharaoh. Your children are being fed the grain of Egypt on a daily basis because you're so distracted by what you want, and you trying to get the bag, and you trying to hustle to make a better life for them, that you failed to provide a spiritual life for them and remind them that they don't belong here. They too are just vigilant visitors and pilgrims traveling through an unknown land. And God has a plan for them that surpasses what dispressed designers. And if they get what they won't, they won't get what they need. When memory dies, our children raise themselves. There are no lazy kids, only lazy parents who refuse to put a generation back to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. God is already preparing a Moses. And when oppression gets louder, deliverance gets closer. I'll say it again: when oppression gets louder, deliverance gets closer. The chains you see are proof a deliverer is on the way. And if you feel restricted, and if you feel boxed in, and if you feel like there's so much chaos and commotion going on around you, it's because the King of Kings is drawing near and time is getting closer and closer for the King of Kings return. Stop playing around, stop messing around. Run back to the feet of Jesus and watch how he restores and redeems and renews. He did not come for you to play around, he came so that you could have life and life more abundantly. Dark seasons are not denial. Dark seasons, you know what they are? Dark seasons are delivery rooms for the deliverer. And society and culture is getting darker and darker and darker, but you have to remember greater is He that is on the inside of you than He that is in the world. One thing you can never say about me, you can say a lot. He screams, he hollers, he's passionate, but you can never say I did not tell you the truth. I don't like his communication stuff. You don't gotta like it to receive the truth. I don't care if you don't like me. I'm doing what God called me to do, and that is warn you that time is drawing near, and the king of kings is gonna crack that side, and the trumpets are going to sound, and he's coming back from abroad without spot or blemish. Do not forget the deliverer. Because the moment you forget, you open the door for Pharaoh. Bondage may be history repeating itself, but deliverance is God revealing himself, and forgetting God's works, it always precedes fighting God's ways. And the moment a people forget is the moment we lose sight of what Jesus has done. I urge you, I beg you, I encourage you, I push you, I plead with you, don't play around. Time is running out, and God is setting the pieces in place for the return of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Stop chasing a bag over you, prioritizing your relationship with Jesus Christ. Look at what Pharaoh did. He didn't just forget a man, he forgot the miracle that saved the nation. What did Joseph represent in this text? Joseph represented God's wisdom, he represented God's provision, he represented God's mercy, and it says they empowered a man and they forgot what Joseph did. Don't forget the faithfulness of God over your life. You won't find it in politics. You won't find it in your nation, you won't find it in this world, you won't find it on earth. You will only find it in the hope of Jesus Christ. I don't care who is in power. Listen, at some point they will be demoted and power will be stripped, but the king of kings never loses power. He prevails over every system put in place by men. And when memory fades of that, hostility follows, riots break out, protests unfold, government turns against itself, and the people fight each other because we have forgotten our way. We no longer have to travel to Egypt because we've invited Egypt into our own homes. We look at other countries and we turn our nose up at them, and we think we're better than them, and you don't even realize what is creeping on your own doorstep right now in 2026. Living in a culture that enjoys the fruit of Christianity, which is human dignity, justice, charity, freedom, while rejecting the God who produces it. In a society that forgets the hand of God will eventually raise their fist against God. When spiritual memory and spiritual legacy and when spiritual heritage dies, fear becomes the leadership's language. Many people that forget what God has delivered them from will eventually lead themselves back into bondage because they don't know which voice to follow. And Stefan, he's begging the Sanhedrin Council. Don't lose sight of what Jesus has done. And he is prophesying to you today. Don't lose sight of what Jesus has done for you. Don't lose sight that he has saved you. Don't lose sight, that he has redeemed you. Don't lose sight, that he has healed you. Don't lose sight, that he has restored you. Don't lose sight, that he has revived you. Don't lose sight that he has given you the greatest gift and the Holy Spirit that he could ever give. Don't lose sight. Do not forget his faithfulness. When memory dies, you welcome Pharaoh into your own home and you entertain every tactic and plan that the enemy has, and you do it under the guise of acceptance and love when God never called you to accept Pharaoh. Here we are holding Pharaoh by the hand. Every generation that erases God's deliverers invites new bondage. And as Joseph broke famine, the Pharaoh they put in place created slavery. Deliverance forgotten always produces oppression reborn. As culture tries to erase Christ, replaces him with ideology, your truth, your flesh, your will, your way. But as society and culture tries to replace Jesus, Jesus always raises up a remnant to protect his message, to advance the kingdom of God, to take back territory from the kingdom of darkness and draw it into his marvelous light. May we be a people dedicated to our deliverer, not dedicated to Pharaoh. May we study the word of God to show ourselves approved? May we stop complaining and murmuring over things that are temporal and things that do not matter. Do you know how dedicated other religions are to their book? Do you know how dedicated a Muslim is to the Quran? They learn it from cover to cover. Word by word, they they remember it. And here we are, not in the word of God. And when you ask most Christians to quote you their favorite verse, they can't even tell you what it is. Because we're so consumed with what Jesus can do for us that we have no conviction as to what we are supposed to be doing with and for Him. Pharaoh is at your table, and you're eating leeks and onions, and you're pushing back the manner that God has provided for you because you become familiar with it. When memory dies, the children of God get complacent. We wander in the wilderness far longer than we should. God sent his deliverer in Jesus to give you direction and clarity. So stop fighting him because he's not doing what you don't want him to do. You want to surrender and submit to his plan, to his purpose? Because you've lived too much like Egypt. Lift him high. Cleanse me from my unrighteousness. I acknowledge and I admit that I am nothing without you. That I have made other things more important than my relationship with you. Today I ask that you would purge me of that. Cleanse me of that. Redeem me of that. In Jesus' name I pray. I confess with my mouth that you are my king. I believe in my heart. You are my Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. And amen. Amen.