The Power of Remembrance

We've all heard, remember the Alamo. But have you ever looked into the history of where this statement originated? This is from History.com, and the article titled, Battle of the Alamo, from January 12th of this year. It was redone this year. The article is from, I think, 2010, but it was redone in, actually, it was 2021.

Here's some early history. Around 1718, Spanish settlers built the Mission San Antonio de Valero, named for St. Anthony of Padua, P-A-D-U-A, on the bank of the San Antonio River. They also established a nearby military garrison of San Antonio de Bexar, which soon became the center of a settlement known as San Ferdino de Bexar, which was later named San Antonio. The Mission San Antonio de Valero housed missionaries in their Native American converts for some 70 years, until 1793, when Spanish authorities secularized the five missions located in San Antonio and distributed their lands among local residents. Beginning in the early 1800s, Spanish military troops were stationed in the abandoned chapel of the former Mission, because it stood in a grove of cottonwood trees. The soldiers called their new fort El Alamo, after the Spanish word for cottonwood, in honor of Alamo de Pareres, P-A-R-R-A-S. I should have talked to some of our Spanish-speaking members beforehand to get all this worked out. Their hometown, and this was their hometown in Mexico, in honor of what they named it for.

Military troops, first Spanish, then rebel, and then later Mexicans, occupied the Alamo during and after Mexico's war for independence from Spain in the early 1820s. In the summer of 1821, Stephen Austin arrived in San Antonio, along with some 300 U.S. families that the Spanish government had allowed to settle in Texas.

The migration of U.S. citizens to Texas increased over the next decades, sparking a revolutionary movement that would erupt in armed conflict by the mid-1830s. In December 1835, in the early stages of Texas' war for independence from Mexico, a group of Texans, volunteers led by George Collinsworth and Benjamin Milam, overwhelmed the Mexican garrison at the Alamo and captured the fort, seizing control of San Antonio. By mid-February 1836, Colonel James Bowie and Lieutenant Colonel William B. Traverse had taken command of the Texan forces in San Antonio. Though Sam Houston, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Texan forces, argued that San Antonio should be abandoned due to insufficient troop numbers, the Alamo's defenders, led by Bowie and Traverse, dug in nonetheless, prepared to defend the fort to the last. These defenders, who despite their later reinforcements, never numbered more than 200, including Davy Crockett, the famous frontierman and former congressman from Tennessee who had arrived in early February.

On February 23, a Mexican force comprised somewhere between 1,800 and 6,000 men, and commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, began a siege on the fort. The Texans held out for 13 days, but on the morning of March 6, Mexican forces broke through a breach in the outer wall of the courtyard and overpowered them.

Santa Ana ordered his men to take no prisoners. Only a small handful of the Texans were spared. One of these was Susanna Dickinson, the wife of Captain Almoron Dickinson, who was killed, and her infant daughter Angelina. Santa Ana sent them to Houston's camp in Gonzales, with a warning that a familiar fate awaited the rest of the Texans if they continued their revolt.

The Mexican forces also suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Alamo, losing between 600 and 1,600 men. From March to May, Mexican forces occupied the Alamo for the Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became a symbol of heroic resistance and a rallying cry in their struggle for independence. On April 21, 1936, Sam Houston and some 800 Texans defeated Santa Ana's Mexican forces of 1,500 men at Santa...oh boy... Jacinto? Where's my Texan? J-A-C-I-N-T-O? Some of you have seen movies on this. It's near the present day Houston, shouting, Remember the Alamo, as they attacked. The victory ensured the success of Texas independence. Santa Ana, who had been taken prisoner, came to terms with Houston to end the war. In May, Mexican troops in San Antonio were ordered to withdraw and demolish the Alamo's fortifications as they went.

In 1845, the United States annexed Texas, and for many years afterwards, the U.S. Army quartered troops and stored supplies at the Alamo. The Alamo remained a symbol of courage, and the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the soldiers revived the Remember the Alamo battle cry while fighting against Mexican forces. So, at the end of these days of Unleavened Bread, 2022, the end of this day will be over. Some of us may order pizza late night after the sunset tonight.

In the next few days, probably starting tomorrow night after the Sabbath and into Sunday, many of us will find our local grocery stores. We'll restock the bread products. We'll get some bagels. I'll get some frozen pizzas. We'll take those trips to the store. We'll get prepared for our future week up ahead, starting Monday with work and school.

After tonight, we won't have to scour the menu items at the restaurant looking for leavening. We won't have to worry about someone bringing into the office donuts or bagels that would tempt us. Or if a certain someone works at Panera Bread. She won't have to worry about if a sandwich she eats has leavening or if she snacks on a crouton.

But what will we have learned from these days of Unleavened Bread? What will we have changed? And for the purpose of this message tying into all three messages we've heard today so far, what will we remember? One of the things we often do leading up to the days of Unleavened Bread is we think back to our calling when God first started working with us. It was that itch that maybe some of you couldn't scratch, like the Sabbath. Why do we keep the Sabbath on Sunday? And God started working with you and opening your mind and then you were convicted that the Sabbath, Saturday, is the day we should be coming together. And so at this time of the year, we think back to our calling. We think back at the struggles we had. We think back at the times we just got sick of ourselves kicking our foot against those hard rocks and the bruises we got and the pain that it developed. And we said, I'm done. I can't do it anymore. And then God said, you can't, but I can. And we gave ourselves to God through our baptism commitment. We had hands laid on us. We received His Holy Spirit. And we began a new life as a new creation. It's fun to, at times, think back to what brought us sitting here in Heartland, Michigan, this very minute. We often think back and we remember. So now that we are here observing the end of the last days of Unleavened Bread, the question I'd like to leave you with is this. What will we remember? As we read through the books of the Old Testament, one of the themes that stands out to me that's obvious to see is that Israel forgot their past. They forgot how God led them out of Egypt and the amazing miracles God did for them along their journeys to the Promised Land. God knew that this would be the case for them, so time after time He told them to remember their past and what He did to free His people. Let's open our Bibles to Exodus 13 and verse 3. Exodus 13 and verse 3.

7 days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's will may be in your mouth, for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.

God wanted them to always be aware from the very beginning that this was something that they must remember. He wanted them to remember that they had a rescuer who took them out of a very bad situation. He wanted them to remember it by telling their children and their grandchildren the stories and the account. But the Israelites complained. They regretted being saved. They wanted to go back and eat the foods that they missed. They wanted to go back. Back to what?

It's just hard to wrap our minds around sometimes this aspect of Israel wanting to go back. How repulsive would it be for you and me to consider going back to our past ways of life? But they wanted to go back. Again, God knew that this would be a problem for them, and we know that God knows each of us better than we know ourselves. And He knew the Israelites in the exact same way as He knows us. He knew that naturally we can forget things. So after 40 years in the wilderness and before entering the Promised Land, Moses was inspired to remind the Israelites to remember specific aspects of their escape from Egypt, their escape from sin. And He told them to remember the things He instructed and taught them. Let's flip forward to Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. And remember, they have now wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. A generation had completely died off. A new life that was born in the wilderness, some young children that have now grown to adulthood, are now about to inherit everything that God had planned from the beginning. That God didn't want them to have to wander for 40 years. He wanted them to just spend some time in the wilderness, get them there, establish them, but because of their revolt, refusal to accept God's way, and because they said, I know a better way to go, He said, you can't have it. Your kids will get it, but you're going to have to wander. And so here's the children that have been wandering. They're now adults. Other children have been born. We'll go into this nation. And Moses, inspired by God, wanted to give them a reminder and a warning of their past. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.

Notice that. To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God remembered, right? God didn't forget the promises that He had made to their forefathers. God remembered. The land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to give you a large and beautiful cities which you did not build. Houses full of all good things which you did not fill, shewn out walls which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, when you have eaten and are full, then beware lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Verse 20. When your son asks you in time to come, saying, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your sons, you shall remember and repeat back to your kids, We were slaves of Pharaoh and Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe against Egypt, Pharaoh and all of his household. Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.

God remembered all that He said He would do. God's not a forgetful God. And so Moses, and the inspiration from God, said, remember these things. Apply them to your life. Tell your kids about them. Make sure they understand their past, their connection to history, and what God has done for our family.

I think it's similar to all of us who've had children and have raised family in the church, as we've taught our kids, as we've taught our adopted kids in the congregation, reminding them of the mistakes sometimes we've made, the things that we've overcome.

Sharing some of those not-so-great moments that we've had in life.

Saying, I want you to do better than I've done myself.

I think that was the intent that God wanted them to remember and share these things with.

As we continue reading in chapter 7 and verse 6, I think we can all personalize these verses for ourselves today, and how God brought us out of our past, out of our sins, and has given us a future and a hope.

Still speaking to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7, He says, I know we have quite a few teenagers up in our balcony section. You guys look like you're being good. I could tell stories of what I was probably doing in some balconies back when I was a teenager.

I will tell one story. I was not in the balcony this time, but there was some hoopla going on. I remember the pastor who was speaking called out that section up there, and I was thankful for that day I was sitting with my mom. So thankful. Because if I was up in the balcony, I probably would have walked home, because I would not have seen what my mom would have had to say. But I'm calling you teenagers out, because listen to this. This is your promises, too. The young adults in the room that are not baptized, these are your promises, too. God gave these to the Israelites and told them that these were their promises, but personalize them yourselves. Realize that this is your future. This is what we talk about every summer at camp. Verse 6 again, For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love on you, nor chose you, because you were more in number than any other people. We're a small group on a Friday afternoon keeping God's commanded holy day, aren't we? We drove past people going to work this morning. We're going to drive past people going home at the end of the day. People might have been at the stores doing different things.

We're just a small group here. Just as he said here that he didn't choose you because you were more in number than the other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to his fathers, because he remembers the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. We can totally personalize these passages for us in our lives today. Therefore know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant and mercy for a thousand generations. So that's where it comes up to us today, doesn't it? Not just one generation did he keep these promises, not for two, or four, or six, thousands of generations with those who love him. And as we heard earlier today, those who keep his commandments. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 1.

And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test you and to know what was in your heart. Whether you would keep his commandments or not. I think in our many years of life on this earth, I think God has done a similar thing in testing us, examining our hearts to understand if we will follow him through the good and also follow him through the challenging times. Whether you, to humble you and to test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. Verse 3. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone.

Sounds like something familiar we might have read a few times this week and last week. But man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Verse 6. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him. And notice next, again, what he says in the next verses, and consider the future that God desires that we receive, and all that is spiritually in store for us.

Speaking to Israel. He's speaking to us. Everybody, take this to heart. Verse 7. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and water, of fountains and springs that flows out of the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will act nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you. This is that spiritual promise of eternity with God, receiving those promises that he has in store for his spiritual children someday.

The promises and the things that we can't even wrap our minds around today. It's fun to sit around. I wonder if I'll be able to fly. I've told you guys this before. I bought a drone. You guys know this. I love to fly it around. It's fun because I feel like I'm kind of, in a way, flying myself. And I'm in control of it. I can't wait to soar through the skies. I hope that's something God will let us do and just enjoy, like the birds of the air. These are those things that we can't even wrap our minds around, that God wants us to keep on our future, just like he wanted Israel to keep it on their mind.

Because without this hope, without this vision, he knew they were going to just wander around some more. They're going to find their old life. They're going to get tripped up again. And so for you and me today, let's remember spiritually what some of those aspects that God has in store for us.

In verse 11, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you today. Why is this concept of remembrance important for day? I hope it's continuing to come more clear as we go through this message. Just a little over a week ago, we observed the Lord's Passover and we started the days of Unleavened Bread.

Prior to the Passover, we went through a period of self-examination as we considered the state of our lives and asked God to gently show us our sins. Then at Passover, we remembered the life and death of our Lord and Savior as we partook of the bread and wine and remembrance of him. And then during these last seven days, again, we remembered that we were to keep leaven out of our homes and not to eat any leaven food.

And as we did this, we remembered that leaven represents sin in our lives. And we remembered we were to take in the Unleavened Bread of Jesus Christ. Remembrance is important to God and therefore it should be important to us as well. So what will we remember coming out of these days?

Will we remember that golden chocolate-covered Boston Cream Donut that we took a bite into and possibly devoured the whole thing this week? Just so you know, I didn't do that. But there was a time that I was busy at work, crazy stuff going on, starving to death it felt like.

So I ran out real quick, crossed the street, fast-fooded place, went through the drive-through, ordered a combo meal, pulled back into the parking lot of where I worked, unwrapped it, and took a big, juicy, bite of that juicy hamburger.

And as soon as those teeth went through and separated out, I remembered we were in Unleavened Bread.

I can still picture that shock of sitting there with a mouthful of hamburger that hasn't even been chewed yet. And now what am I going to do? Spit it out and I eat the fries.

Back to work. Or that series of like three years that I forgot, I got completely confused. I thought the crunchy tacos at Taco Bell were leavened and the soft ones were unleavened. And I went around telling people that until somebody said, are you out of your mind? And I said, what are you talking about? I've been doing this for like two or three years. Will we walk away from these days if we made a mistake thinking on the leaven that maybe we ate this week or found in our homes? Or maybe I know we all have our own stories of accidents that's occurred during these days, things where we weren't, our focus wasn't right, or we found something that we forgot was even in a bag in the back of the closet. We've all had those moments. Is that what we're going to remember from these days as we exit? I hope it's much more than these mistakes that we've made at different times in our lives and that lies in our thoughts. I hope it's more than that. God allowed the Israelites to wander in the wilderness to teach and to test them, to see what they would remember. Would they be like their parents, whose thoughts and focus were in Egypt and a desire to go back? Or would they remember that God brought them out of Egypt and was taking them to a much better place? What about us? Where do we fall in the spectrum of remembering our past, but also looking to the future? What are we going to remember as this last day of Unleavened Bread comes to a close? Will we forget the improvements we made these last weeks leading up to Unleavened Bread? Will we forget the things that God brought to the forefront of our mind during the week this week? I hope He brought some to all of our minds. Will we forget the life that was given so my sins could be forgiven? Will we forget the miracle of our calling and how God brought us to repentance?

Let us not miss a critical point in all of this. Satan, our adversary, he remembers things too. He remembers our past. He remembers what often trips us up as we go through life. He remembers what our temptations are. He remembers our sins and accuses us before God day and night.

We'd be fooling ourselves if we didn't think that he remembered things as well about us. He doesn't want us to be free from our sins, just as he didn't want Israel to be free from Egypt. He only has to get us to forget, right? To forget who we are. No, we're not going to forget because we are children of God. 1 John 3, verse 2. He wants us to forget the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1, 18. He wants us to forget that we were freed from sin. Therefore, if the Son of Man makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8, 36. Satan wants us to forget that God wants us to live a good life.

Jeremiah wrote, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And Satan wants us to forget that God has a future with us in mind. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and they may have it more abundantly.

Satan wants us to forget that we, each, are on this incredible journey with God.

In October 1999, musician Yo-Yo Ma, who's one of the greatest celloists, forgot his, at the time, $2.5 million, 289-year-old cello in the trunk of a taxi as he was being dropped off at a New York hotel.

$2.5 million.

His instrument was one of only 60 cellos made by Master Antonio Stradivari in Venice in 1733. Today, the cello was valued at $3.5 million. The cello traveled around New York City in the trunk of the cab for three hours.

Three hours this cab, it toured around. As soon as he got out, he realized what the mistake he'd made, and he had the receipt, had the taxi cab number on it. He ran into the hotel, being who he was. They sent, what's that called when the police send it, like, an all-out thing searching for somebody? But instead of somebody, it was a cello.

Yeah, like a missing person type of thing. But it was for a cello!

They had police cars going everywhere, trying to find this. For three hours, this cab was just doing his job, but was found safe and sound in time for his evening concert. At the end of his shift, the taxi driver drove back, and they said the police pretty much met him there. Imagine that. You're just doing your job, you get out of your taxi, and police cars come rolling in from different directions. Yo-yo Ma said, I did something really stupid, says Ma said sheepishly after he got the instrument back. I was in such a rush, I was so excited, I'd given a concert at Carnegie Hall last night, I just forgot. Maybe we can laugh, we can roll our eyes, we can shake our head in amazement, that somebody would forget a $2.5 million cello. And we know many other things have been forgotten by people like this over time.

If you had in your possession what is now a $3.5 million cello, what would you do with it? Other than sell it. See, I jumped in front of somebody who said sell it. Other than sell it, what would you do? Because that doesn't count. I think a lot of us would guard it with our lives to some degree. It may not go in the trunk, it'd go in the back seat. We'd put it in the seat belt to make sure that it was going to be okay when we got to our destination. I don't think the teens in the room can even wrap their mind around $3.5 million. Or would you forget it in the trunk of your taxi? Some of these rich promises that we have received from God can maybe become casual to us. They can become too familiar because we've heard them week after week every Sabbath. These holy days, can they ever become common to us? Just going through the motions. Another day of ungoverned bread sermon. Can the Sabbath become common to us? Where something starts to creep into Friday night, moving in past the sunset. I was close to being done. Can we not treat it as a $3.5 million Sabbath day? Can something become so routine because we've heard it year after year, like at camp. When we remind our teens that you're being called by God right now. Not tomorrow, not next year. The promises are here. You're being called now. I think as a teenager, I didn't realize the specialness of that. I might have treated it a little. I'm not going to play games. I did treat it. Not a special. But as Moses was telling the Israelites, the teens in this room, you don't have to make the same mistake maybe some others have at times. Some of them are no longer here with us. We can take it for granted that we have a Savior and that through Him, we can come directly before our God the Father in prayer. Where's our mind at as we pray? To the Father of the universe. Is it on what we've got to accomplish later on in the day? Is it what we have to do at work? I'm guilty. Don't throw rocks. There's no stonings going on today. But when we go before God in prayer, we're coming before His mercy seat. We're coming before the Father God. Can it become familiar? Routine? Can we take it for granted? There's a quote. Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it. Some of the history buffs in the room may know who actually made that statement. The original version of the statement is attributed to George Santayana. I hope I got that right as well. An American philosopher from his work entitled The Life of Reason, the exact quote is, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. As we conclude today, don't forget the lessons we learned this Passover in these days of Unleavened Bread. Don't forget the insight God has given us this year. New insights, new revelations, new twists on an issue we've been struggling with that we actually made some progress with this last week. Don't forget the kingdom of God and all that He desires to give us. But remember where God has brought us from, and remember where God has taken us. Let's close in Ephesians 2 and verse 1.

Ephesians 2, verses 1-10, and then verse 13. Paul shares, And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works, and the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves, in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God. I love that statement. I mean, it's not a sentence with a period. It is a more beautiful thing to read than, But God, who was rich in mercy because of His great love, in which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. And then verse 13, But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Let us go forth from these days in remembrance, and in the power of remembrance, and in the power of God's Spirit continuing to dwell mightily in us and leading us to His kingdom.