Service: June 2022 Thanksgiving Service
Date: June 5, 2022
There are three possible ways that God can relate to a person, He can decide to forget the fellow, He can decide to ignore the fellow and He can decide to remember the fellow.
Forget means as far as that fellow is concerned his case is closed, his fate is sealed, there is no hope for that fellow. So, I’m praying with all the strength that I have, that God will not forget you.
We have examples in the Bible to illustrate this, I’ll just take two, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament.
You know the story of the young man called Ephraim. He was the second born of Joseph, when the Father of Joseph, Israel was old. Joseph brought his two sons – Manasseh, the first born and Ephraim, the second born. He brought them to their grandfather for blessing and he placed the first born where the right hand of the grandfather will lie, Ephraim the second born was placed where the left hand of the father will lie. The father couldn’t see very well because of old age.
The Holy Spirit directed the hand of the grandfather Israel and he crossed his hand and placed his right hand on the head of the second born, the left hand on the head of the first born. Joseph said: No! No! Baba, you’re making a mistake. The one here is the firstborn, the other one is the second born. The father said I know; both of them will be great, but the younger will be greater than the elder within a short period of time. That younger fellow who got the right hand on his head had prospered 10 times more than the elder brother, according to Deuteronomy 33:17.
Prosperity came, Ephraim was wealthy and so whenever God needed the children of Israel to go to war, to defend the things of God, Ephraim let’s go to war, Ephraim will say with whom am I going to leave my wealth. Who will look after my sheep and my goat? No, the rest of you can go.
Gradually, he began to worship idols, then we came to the book of Hosea 4:17, God said as far as Ephraim is concerned forget him, Ephraim has joined himself to Idols, leave him alone, forget him. Then in Hosea 5:9, God said Ephraim shall be desolate, that means there won’t be trace that this fellow had been there. As far as Ephraim is concerned, forget him and it wasn’t long before there was nothing left about Ephraim.
If you read the book of Revelation, you will find out that when God was mentioning the tribes of Israel, Ephraim wasn’t there. I pray for you one more time, may God never forget you.
In the New Testament, there was another fellow called Judas Iscariot. Matthew 26:20-25. Jesus Christ said to the disciple publicly, He said the son of man is going as it is written about Him, it is written and I am going, I will be crucified. He said but woe to the man by whom the son of man is betrayed and the twelve looked at themselves, that is a serious statement.
So, everyone began to ask, is it me? How can it be me? Finally, Judas Iscariot said is it me? Jesus Christ said yes sir, you have said it.
Now, you expect that after Judas heard that one, he will quickly repent and say my secret is out, alright I back out, but he didn’t. Instead, he just went ahead. Then came John 13:21-30, at the last supper, Jesus repeated what He said before a long time ago, one of you will betray me, then he turned to Judas Iscariot and said that which you want to do, do it quickly, when your case is settled your fate is sealed. You know the rest of the story. The Bible said he got up and went out and the next thing we heard was that he hung himself. His case was sealed. When God forgets somebody, there is no hope at all.
