Remember the Road, Give Thanks, Keep Growing

Summary

Preached in the season of Thanksgiving, this message calls the church to gratitude for all of God's provision and for answered prayer. Reading Deuteronomy 8:2 and Psalm 23:6, the preacher urges believers to remember the whole road God has led them on, just as He led Israel forty years through the wilderness, parted the sea, gave water from the rock and sent manna, and to recall the many ways God has worked in each life.

He shares personal testimonies: leaving university for the army, where God gave him favor and led a fellow soldier to Christ, and an unexpected repayment of a loan that proved God's faithfulness; and arriving in this country with only four bags and no English, yet seeing God supply every need. But God does not want us stuck in the past. Like the architect who called his next project his favorite, we are meant to keep growing and to know God more.

From there he opens up grace (Ephesians 2:8-9, saved by grace through faith) and mercy (God withholding the judgment we deserve, as with David's honest repentance). We need grace even to forgive and to love our enemies, shown by a mother who forgave the drunk driver who killed her daughter and befriended him. Closing with 1 John 1:7-9, he calls the church to confess sin and trust God's cleansing, and a woman testifies to the healing of a tumor after the church prayed.

Key Points

• Remember the whole journey God has walked you through, as Israel remembered forty years in the wilderness.
• Gratitude looks back on God's faithfulness without getting stuck in the past.
• Keep growing - the best chapter with God is always the next one.
• Grace is God's unearned gift; we are saved by it through faith, not by our works.
• We need God's grace even to forgive and to love those who have wounded us.
• Mercy is God withholding the judgment our sins deserve, as He did for the repentant David.
• Confess your sins honestly, and the blood of Jesus faithfully cleanses you.