Dharius Daniels - I Almost Forgot

I want to talk about this subject and our time together as a family. I almost forgot to ask you to clap your hands in anticipation of what God is going to speak to us today. For those of you who don’t know, I was raised in a small town called Kilmicro, Mississippi, with a population of less than 500. There was one full-time police officer and one part-time officer named Dooney, who covered the night shift at the police station but drove my school bus during the day. We had one town doctor, and everyone knew where he lived, so if you went to the clinic and he wasn’t there, you would just pull up at his house. My high school graduating class consisted of 33 people. In the context of that little country town, we had these colloquialisms like «the creek don’t rise» and «the tide don’t fall.» There were several, but one of them stuck with me more than the others, and maybe you’re familiar with this one, even if you didn’t grow up in Kilmicro, Mississippi: «You don’t miss your water until your well runs dry.» Clap your hands if you know that one! It was a simple yet profound saying because it suggests that sometimes it takes someone’s absence for you to realize that they were an asset. I will say that one more time: it suggests that sometimes it takes someone’s absence for someone else to have the revelation that they were an asset. The person didn’t become an asset when they were absent; they were always an asset. However, sometimes it took their absence for someone else to develop an appreciation for how much of an asset they truly were. Many of you can testify to the truth of what I’m teaching because when you look back over your life, maybe there were some people in it who didn’t have the vision to see your value. Then, when you were no longer in their space—no longer in their relational orbit, no longer a part of their life—suddenly you get these random, sporadic, and haphazard messages like, «What are you doing?» And I don’t even have time to talk about the difference between men and women in the way they do this, because when women break up, they break up; but when men break up, they take breaks and might text you back three years later as if you just talked three days ago. «What you doing?» «Drinking my water, minding my business, getting better, getting stronger spiritually, tending to my soul, securing the bag, and moving on.» Sometimes it takes absence for us to recognize that something is an asset, and just as that is true in our relationships with people, it is also true in our relationship with God. God is always an asset; He always has value. However, the real issue regarding our relationship with Him is not whether or not He has value, but whether we have the vision to see His value in the season we’re in. This is so interesting in the context of worship because it suggests to you and me that if you and I are going to do a faithful job engaging in the spiritual discipline of PDA (public displays of affection), as well as private displays of affection—which the Bible calls worship—it means that if we’re going to be good worshipers, we must develop a good memory. You received the random text because they remembered. Let me go to this side; I feel you haven’t talked to them over here—who’s talking to the preacher? Yeah, you got the random email and the random call because they remembered. Something in their present caused them to recall what they had in the past, and then they took the effort and extended energy to try to reacquire an asset that is probably no longer attainable. You should have known what you had when you had me! Their memory gave them a revelation of your worth because you cannot worship beyond your revelation. It matters not how worthy God is; what matters when it comes to worship is your revelation of that worth. God helps us in this area throughout Scripture. He has been intentional about encouraging you and me to engage in the discipline—I mean the spiritual discipline—of Selah, pausing for the cause of reflection and remembering. Did you hear what I just said? Yes, throughout Scripture He illustrates His intentions. In the Old Testament, for example, He set feasts on the calendar for the Israelites so that once a year they would observe different feasts simply for the purpose of remembering what He did. One of the feasts in the Old Testament was called the Feast of Passover. He said, «Once a year, I want you all to come together and remember how back in Moses’s days, plagues were coming through Egypt. Death was sweeping through the neighborhood, and I gave Moses instructions to tell the heads of households to take the blood from a lamb and put it on the doorpost. When I see the blood, I will pass over that house.» He said, «Once a year, I want you to pause and remember the stuff that could have hit your life but passed over; the stuff that could have hit your family but passed over. Wait a minute, the stuff that should have hit you but passed over.» Every time you come into the house of God and people look at you strangely because of your exuberance…