A Sermon to Remember

How far back can you remember? What's your earliest memory? You know, I remember a number of things from my childhood. Both good things and some of the bad things. I try to think back in my own mind to think about what is the earliest thing that I can remember. And I think perhaps it's this memory of being really small, lying in my bed after dark, probably aged two or three. We were living at the peak of Kansas at the time, and my room was dark. I hadn't yet fallen asleep. I had a lot of toys my mom put next to my bed so I wouldn't bother her while I was trying to go to sleep. I remember my dad peeked his head in the doorway, and he put a 50-cent piece in this Winnie the Pooh bank that I had on my dresser. Now, why do I remember that? I don't know. I don't know. It wasn't really life-changing or anything like that. I'm sure we all have all these little bits and pieces of these memories that we've made over the years. These are things that we don't necessarily try to remember, but for some reason we do. And I'm also just assured that there are important things that have happened to each of us in the past, important things we really should remember, but the memory of them has just slipped away. Memory has a great deal to do with the process of learning.

When we were small children, we learned words. And when we committed those words to our memory, later we would hear that word again, and we would recall the meaning that was associated with that word. Sometimes we might learn more about that word, and we'd file that away with that additional meaning, and then we could make use of that knowledge later. So we built up this vocabulary of things we understood. Sometimes we use our memory not just to remember something that had happened or what things mean, but we can use our memories to help us to understand complex algorithms.

When we learned to work math problems, we've all learned a little bit of math at some point in our lives, we would memorize certain procedures that we could follow that would help us to find a solution. We didn't memorize the result of every possible multiplication or addition problem. That would be a lot of wasted space, wouldn't it? But we did learn some basic ones. We probably memorized 2 plus 2 is 4, 3 times 4 is 12. Some of those basic building blocks we probably did commit to memory, along with some series of steps that we could use to combine that to help us to solve more complex problems that we'd never seen before.

So memory, being able to remember things that we've seen and heard, that's a vital part of our human growth. When God designed mankind, He designed us to have this ability to remember, to use our memory to do amazing things. Now, it makes no difference to God whether we can remember our various childhood memories or not, but there are some things that God does expect us to remember.

In addition to all of those things that we need to remember to help us to grow and mature as human beings, God also wants our memories to be something that we use to His glory. Today, I'm going to give you a sermon to remember. Well, that's what I've titled the sermon. I've titled it A Sermon to Remember. You might forget the sermon, but the sermon is A Sermon to Remember, because I want to point out three things that God wants us to remember.

The first thing that God expects us to remember, it's a pretty easy one, it's God Himself. He wants us to remember Him. We need to remember the Lord our God. You might think, well, that's easy. But let's turn to Judges 3. Sometimes it might be a little bit more complicated than it sounds. Start in Judges 3, verse 7. If you read the Old Testament, you can remember that God was continually disappointed with the nation of Israel, because He says they were always forgetting Him.

Seems kind of odd, doesn't it? But here in Judges 3, verse 7, we can see an example of what the Israelites would often do. Judges 3, verse 7, it says, So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. It says, They forgot the LORD their God, and served the bales and the asherahs. Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. And He sold them into the hand of Kushan Rishrathaim, king of Mesopotamia. So over time, we read time and time again that the Israelites would always forget God.

And this would cause them to go off into idolatry, or they'd take up some kind of other sinful behavior that would dominate their lives. We see this time and time again throughout the Old Testament. I'll just read to you some additional passages. You need to turn to them right now.

But just listen. Think about how often it was that Israel forgot God. In Judges 8, verse 34, it says, Jeremiah 3, 21, we can read, We can read, They perverted their way. They've forgotten the LORD their God.

In 1 Samuel 12, verse 9, it says, And when they forgot the LORD their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisara. Forgetting God was always something that caused Israel to lose their way. Right? It was one of those first steps. As Jeremiah stated, they perverted their way.

There are perverse ways it would bring them weeping. It would bring them national distress, calamity, not good things. Do we realize that if we also forget to remember God, that we're also going to lose our way? If we forget God, it will only lead us to more weeping and distress. The most important thing we can remember is God. If there's nothing else that you can remember in your head, remember there is God.

Let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 18. We'll see that Israel was commanded to remember God. It was something that he told them they must do. I think that command applies to us, too. Moses was addressing the children of Israel in this passage.

Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 18. Here we read, The most important thing that we can use our memories for is for remembering God. As Moses told the people, we must remember the Lord your God. And if we, by any means, forget the Lord your God, we shall surely perish. So that's life and death, right? We're talking about life and death.

It is very important. Let's look at Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, we'll see that the author of Ecclesiastes urges us to remember the Lord our God. So that we don't become like the children of Israel who did not remember him. So this is Ecclesiastes chapter 12, and we'll begin in verse 1. This passage may be familiar. It says, Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth.

Before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them. And then the author goes on to describe all the things that happen when you get older, using very figurative language. And he continues the admonition that we remember our Creator, repeating it in verse 6. Remember your Creator. It's something we're commanded to do. Here in Ecclesiastes, the writer is reminding us how important it is to seek God.

To remember Him while we're still young, in our early life. It's never too late to turn to God. It's never too late. But we can't turn to Him if we've forgotten Him. You could only turn to God if you could still remember Him. As it was the case with ancient Israel, it's often when things go well for us, when life is going great. That's when we're most likely to forget God. Because, hey, everything's fine. I don't need to remember God.

That's when we're most likely to forget. Because we're not hurting. At times we're not hurting. We're feeling good. We're not crying out for help. We can forget how much we really need God, and how He's given us that benefit of the health that we have. What's one of the primary ways that we can remember God? It's by praying to Him. By praying to Him. Not just when you're in trouble, but as an everyday practice.

If we learn to come before Him, if we can address Him, not just with lip service or with vain repetition, and if we can learn to study the Bible and to read what it is that He has to teach us, then the use of those disciplines will go a long way towards helping us to remember Him in the way He wants to be remembered.

So that's the first thing to remember. The second thing that God expects us to remember is His law. It's His law. Let's turn to Deuteronomy 8, verse 6. And let's see God's instruction about remembering His law. Here at the time that the Israelite people were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses was telling them what it was that God expected of them. Deuteronomy 8, verse 6 says, Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

Now one of the primary things God expected from His people is that they would keep His commandments and walk in His ways. He had outlined His law to them while they were there in the wilderness. It was a set of rules that were for their own good. If they obeyed them, they would allow them to live long in the land that He was going to provide for them. Verse 7, continuing, verse 7 says, For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of 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 lack nothing.

What a great place he's describing! A land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper, when you have eaten and are full. So there's all this good stuff. We're going to be full. So wonderful. What happens after we're full? It says, Then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He's given you.

If you've received an amazing gift from someone, right, someone they come up and they give you something like, Wow! That is like the most amazing gift. What should you do? What should be your response if you've gotten an amazing gift? Well, if you're a grateful person, you're going to thank the person that gave you the gift. Thank you. This is a wonderful gift. I love it. You've really done something wonderful here. If you don't thank someone for giving you a good gift, then you're ungrateful. And the giver isn't really going to give you a lot of good things in the future.

Right? If they feel like they weren't appreciated for giving you a good gift, why would they give you another one? God was going to give the children of Israel this amazing gift. They were going to have their own homeland. It was going to be a place with plentiful water, plentiful crops, a place full of minerals, abundance. He was giving them a land where they weren't going to lack anything. And what does he ask for in return? He wants them to remember Him, to bless Him and thank Him for that gift.

Because continuing in verse 11, if you're still there, verse 11 says, Beware, right? This is a warning. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God. Beware! That's a pretty strong warning. How could they forget God? Here He had led them through the wilderness. He delivered them from Egypt. How could they forget Him? It says, 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. If you don't keep God's laws, you're going to quickly forget Him. Verse 12 says, Lest, lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up, and you forget.

You forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you into wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you, that He might test you to do you good in the end. Then you say in your heart, you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. Right? Is that the right response? When God has explained all the things that He did to give you that power and that wealth. When we stop keeping God's commandments, we forget about Him. You forget about Him. And when you forget Him, you forget the many blessings He's given you. So God expects us to remember His law, which will in turn help us to fulfill that first thing He wants us to remember, which is to remember Him. So in many ways, remembering God and remembering His law are intertwined. They're kind of weaved together very tightly. God wanted to help the Israelites to remember His law. You know it's going to be hard. Life is challenging. Let's turn to Numbers 15. And I'd like to look at verses 37 through 40, Numbers 15. Because in these verses, God was giving instructions to the children of Israel through Moses. Here we read in Numbers 15, verse 37.

Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel. Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. Why did God say this? Why is He instructing the Israelites to put tassels on the corner of their garments?

Verse 39, And you shall have the tassel that you may look upon it, and they remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy for your God. So God created this visible reminder that He gave to ancient Israel in order to help them to remember His law. The whole point of that was to help them remember His law. So an Israelite might look at the tassel that was on their clothes, they might see somebody else's tassel, and they would think, Ah, yes! Now I remember! I'm an Israelite! God gave us commandments. I remember this now. I need to remember God's commandments, and not just remember them, but I need to do them. That's what was supposed to happen. It's a lot like, I don't know how many of you remember the WWJD bracelets that were kind of popular, what is that now, 25 years? I don't know, I said it's a long time. They were popular in the 1990s, and a personal motto for adherence to Christianity. The idea is the initial stood for what would Jesus do? And people would wear these bracelets. They would, well maybe it might be a WWJD bracelet, or you could get shoestrings, or necklaces, or pins, lapel pins, bumper stickers, key chains, Bible covers, golf keys, whatever it is that they could mark it. They would have this little reminder on it. And those items, they're kind of meant for the same purpose that the Israelites were given this command about tassels, right? The idea is this bracelet would remind people that there is a certain behavior, there are certain commands that were given to us by God, and well if Jesus obeyed them, so should we. It's a simple idea, it's this little reminder that people came up with. I mean it's something we should ask ourselves. If you're in a situation, it's fine. You can ask yourself, what would Jesus do if he were confronted with this? And then we should remember and do the same things Jesus would have done as a perfect follower of our Father. But let's turn to Deuteronomy 5, verse 29. Deuteronomy 5 and verse 29, and see that God knew, God knew while he was putting all of these instructions together for Israel, He knew in advance the real reason why Israel was going to be unfaithful. He knew the tassels weren't going to help, telling them to obey Him. It really wasn't going to help, because they were going to be unfaithful. They were going to forget His commandments. Deuteronomy 5 and verse 29. You read this kind of lament here that you read. It says, Oh, that they had such a heart in them. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me, and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever. The problem here, the problem the Israelites had, forgetting God's commandments, and not keeping them, it didn't come down to the fact that they didn't put enough tassels on their garments. They could have put these tassels everywhere. It wouldn't have solved the problem. They forgot His law because the problem was with their heart.

The heart that was in them, it didn't want to do that. Their human heart did not want to fear God. Their heart did not want to keep His commandments. The reminders just fell on deaf ears because their heart didn't want to do it. Let's turn to Jeremiah 31. Because we're in a different situation today, thankfully.

Let's read what God said about how His people remember His law under the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Scripture, we read quite a bit in the church. Jeremiah 31, verse 31. Let's read an idea of this remembering.

The New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers. And the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke. Though I was a husband to them, says the Lord, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days.

Says the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. So this New Covenant that God is describing here, it's one that is in many respects different from the old one that's described in the book of Deuteronomy. As a part of this New Covenant, God says that His law will be put into our minds. It's going to be written on our hearts. Because He has done this, we should no longer need these physical reminders that help us to remember God and His law. Because God's law should not be something that's external, that we have to remember this thing that's over there.

It should be written inside of us. It should be internalized through God's Spirit, written on our hearts.

Let's move on now to the third category of things that God expects us to remember.

And those are His works, the deeds that He's done.

God has done so many things. We've got a whole book here of things and deeds that God has done. And that's clear over and over in the Old Testament. Another tool that helps us to remember God and helps us to remember the law is if we can remember the things He's done, the works that He has done.

If we look at Psalm 77 and verse 11, read some verses here in Psalm 77, a psalm of Asaph.

So we'll look here in verse 11.

This particular psalm says here, I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old.

I will also meditate on all your work and talk of your deeds. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God is our God. Who is so great a God is our God. You are the God who does wonders. You've declared your strength among the peoples. You have with your arm redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.

So in this psalm, Asaph says that he will remember the works of the Lord. He will remember those events, those actions that God has performed. He tells God that he will remember your wonders of old. God has done some amazing things. And we need to bring those to our memory from time to time. We need to think about the great things God has done. Not only does Asaph remember what God has done, but in verse 12, he says that, In addition to meditating on them, what does he do? He says he'll also talk of your deeds. He'll talk of your deeds. You are the God who does wonders. We talked a little bit about that in the Bible study this morning. You know, being able to talk about what God has done in our lives. It's not just remembering, but talking. Asaph was going to make a point not just to remember those events to himself. What's fine? Okay, I remember God did these things, but he was going to share them. He was going to tell other people about these wonders that God has done. If we turn to Psalm 111 now.

This is a great psalm on this topic. This entire psalm discusses God's works, the works of God.

I'm going to start here in verse 1.

Psalm 111 says, Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart and the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation the works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them. His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever.

He has made His wonderful works to be remembered.

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Verse 6. He has declared to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of His hands are verity and justice. All His precepts are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. Yes, God has done some amazing things. Verse 2 says, the works of the Lord are great. Verse 3 says, they're honorable, they're glorious. Verse 6 says, they're powerful. Verse 7 says that they're verity and justice. We need to remember those things that God has done. Look especially at verse 4 where it says, He made His wonderful works to be remembered. He wants us to remember those works. So one reason for all of those amazing things God has done throughout history is so that we will remember them. God wants us to remember the things that He's done.

God wanted to make it simple for the Israelites, too, to remember what He had done for them. Not only did He give them the Bible, that's a great account of a written testimony that was to be kept by the children of Israel, but He also introduced some physical memorials I wanted to look at this afternoon. He instructed the Israelites to keep some physical objects as reminders of the works that He'd done and His miraculous intervention in Israel's history. So let's look at some of these physical memorials so you can see what I'm talking about so we can see the types of things that God thought it was important for His people to remember. If we look at Exodus 16.

In Exodus 16, this is where we have one of the amazing miracles that God performed for the children of Israel was to give them a source of fresh food six days a week for 40 years that they were in the wilderness. In Exodus 16, verse 2, we read this. This is when the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and the children of Israel said to them, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full.

For you brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. And we see in verse 31, that the house of Israel called its name Manah.

And it was like white coriander seed and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. I really would like to taste manna sometime. I'm sure all of you have read that and kind of, wafers made with honey? That sounds kind of delightful. But I'm sure 40 years of it, though, probably gets a little bit old. Even if it was a constant miracle. God provided that manna every day. Every day for the Israelites until they got to the Promised Land.

Of course, not on the Sabbath. But we won't turn there today, but in Joshua 5 verse 12 it says, Then the manna ceased, on the day after they'd eaten the produce of the land. And the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. Now think about that for a minute. I don't know if you've thought about the day the manna ceased. It's just kind of passed over a little bit here. That was as much of a miracle as the manna appearing in the first place.

If you imagine something that happened six days a week for 40 years. Maybe there's something that's happened six days a week since 1986. You're thinking, wow, every day, six days a week. That's just the way it is. It's been since 1986. How many of us in this room were even alive then? Some of the younger ones, I know we were, but some of the younger ones weren't. And they're like, well, it's just the manna. It's every day. It's right here. And then it stops forever.

I mean, that really interrupts things. That's a supernatural sign in itself. Well, why did it stop? Shouldn't it just be here? But here we are in Exodus 16. Let's continue reading in verse 32. And see, there was a physical memorial that God wanted to establish. Speaking of the manna, then Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. He says, Fill an omer with it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations. As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid up before the testimony to be kept. God knew the Israelites that would be born in the land of Canaan. They were never going to see. They were never going to taste. They were never going to experience manna, that everyone else had experienced and lived before that.

Was this just a legend that was passed on by their elders? Or was it something that actually happened? God wanted to remind all the future generations of Israel that he was the one who miraculously fed the nation of Israel during those years. And just writing about it in the Bible, that wasn't enough. You know, oh, you could read, oh, it says in the scroll that they ate this bread that came down and it was like, dude, that wasn't enough. God actually commanded the priest to keep a pot of that stuff, whatever it was, what's it?

As a physical testimony for generation to generation, they would show his miraculous deliverance of the nations. Like, have you ever seen anything like this? This was a physical memorial of his intervention. So the manna was kept in the tabernacle. And something else to think about is, if you remember the manna that the Israelites would collect on Sunday through Thursday, if they left any until the next morning, what happened?

It bred worms and stank. You really didn't want to keep an omer of that just sitting around, right? But you can assume that the manna that was kept in the tabernacle also showed another miracle. This was going to be different manna because it was not going to breed worms and stink. Right? God would not have manna that stank and had worms in it in his tabernacle. So that also showed another miracle. God was going to preserve it there as this perfect example of this miracle that he performed. Let's turn now to number 17. Because there's another physical reminder that God told the Israelites to keep before him in the tabernacle.

At the end of chapter 16, the whole congregation of Israel was complaining again against Moses and Aaron after Korah's rebellion. And God had become very angry because the nation was speaking against Aaron and against Moses. Number 17 in verse 1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and get from them a rod from each father's house. All their leaders according to their father's houses, twelve rods, write each man's name on his rod. And you shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi.

For there shall be one rod for the head of each father's house. Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the testimony where I meet with you. And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom. Thus I will rid myself of the complaints of the children of Israel which they make against you. So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod of peace for each leader according to their father's houses. Twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among those rods, right?

No different than the others. Just once said Aaron on it. And Moses placed those rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. Verse 8 says, Now it came to pass, on the next day Moses went into that tabernacle of witness, and behold, look, the rod of Aaron of the house of Levi, it had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms, and yielded ripe almonds. Wow! That's a lot happened there. Moses brought out all these rods from before the Lord to all the children of Israel, and they all looked at him and said, that one's good for it.

And each man took his rod. So if you were one of the Israelites, you might have thought, well, maybe there was some funny business that happened in there. Maybe Moses switched Aaron's rod with this other one that had some buds on it. Or, since he privately had access to all of them before he brought them back out. Maybe someone could have found a rod with buds on it that could have been presented, but consider how it describes Aaron's rod that's given.

And notice there were three things going on with it. Three things, all on this same stick. It had sprouted, it had put forth buds, had produced blossoms, and yielded ripe almonds. I'm not a horticulturalist, but when a branch grows, it doesn't normally have all these three stages of growth at the same time. At least, I don't think so. There were buds, blossoms, and ripe fruit. How long has it taken almond to ripen? I don't know. But it's probably not the same day that it's sprouting. So to have all of that somewhere on this same rod was kind of a miracle.

God miraculously had it in that state where it had the whole life cycle of the almond there on that stick. And that was not something that could normally be found, and the people became aware that God had worked a miracle. There's no way this could have happened the way that was. And so what did God say should be done with this miraculous rod? Well, verse 10, the Lord said to Moses, bring Aaron's rod back.

Bring it back before the testimony to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from me lest they die. And thus did Moses, just as the Lord had commanded him. So he did. So God wanted to remind future generations, future generations of Israel, that he had chosen Moses and Aaron to be his representatives at that time, that he was not aligned with the rebels that were there in the Israelite camp. God wanted the priests to keep this special rod from generation to generation as a physical testimony that he had designated and ordained the priesthood of Aaron and his descendants as the ones who were going to lead the nation.

That was another physical memorial of his intervention. God intervened in their history there, and they had this physical thing to look at that could remind them of it. Maybe you have a special collection. Do you have some things that maybe you've collected over the years? Maybe some mementos, some keepsakes that you've stored up somewhere, maybe in your house. Some people have a special box where they might have some special memories that they've kept over the years. I know some parents who might have kept their child's first tooth, or maybe a lock of hair of a loved one.

Maybe they keep certain drawings that a child has drawn, because you can't keep every drawing that your kids draw. There's not enough space for that. Or maybe they've kept some souvenirs, maybe kept some special jewelry that remind you of someone special or special time in your life. It can be a healthy thing to store an object that can help you to remember, to bring back some memories of your life and what you've gone through.

I think of these two items that God commanded to be stored in the tabernacle before the testimony. They're kind of like some keepsakes that God had chosen. Some things that he chose that he purposely wanted to be kept there by his people, so that they could retain this special memory of how God had cared for them and how God had led them through all of those years.

Let's turn to Joshua 4. While we're talking about the importance of physical memorials, there's another one that came to mind that is a memorial to God's miraculous intervention. Now Joshua 3, that was where Joshua had warned the people to sanctify themselves because God was going to do wonders among them.

They knew something big was going to happen, and God held back the waters of the Jordan River. So the waters of the Jordan, they were held back as a heap so that the people of Israel were able to cross the Jordan River on dry ground. Joshua 4.1 says, And it came to pass when all of the people had completely crossed over the Jordan.

So they'd all walked on dry ground where this river had been flowing. The Lord spoke to Joshua, saying, Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe, and command them. Saying, take for yourself twelve stones from here, I'm assuming these were probably pretty big stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priests' feet stood firm.

You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you want to lodge tonight. So they had this special task to get these twelve large stones from the middle of the Jordan River and take them to where they were camping. God had these representatives from each tribe do this while the river was still dry. Verse 4, Then Joshua called those twelve men who he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe, and Joshua said to them, Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder.

So this wasn't going to be like a little rock you could carry. It was going to be something that was going to take a little bit of heft, effort to carry, that this may be a sign among you. And when your children ask in time to come saying, What do these stones mean to you? You can just picture a kid's... What's with the rocks? You know, something happened here. This is not a natural rock formation. What happened? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. They were always going to see those stones. This physical memorial was set up in a way that they stood out. It was going to cause people to ask questions. It wouldn't just be, you know, 12 stones blended into the landscape to look natural. No, it was supposed to look unnatural.

It was supposed to ask questions because new generations would come along and they'd say, What? Why is this? And it would be a perfect opportunity then to teach. An opportunity to explain to them in reverse how God had stopped the river that was right there. See this river? It stopped! It was dry! The whole nation, we all crossed over here. It was an amazing miracle. God realized the importance of a physical memorial like that to help us to remember his miraculous intervention.

George Santayana, in his book, The Life of Reason, said, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Well, that's pretty much the story of ancient Israel, isn't it? Right? They didn't remember their past. God tried to give them all these reminders. He tried to make it where they would remember what he had done. But they didn't remember their past despite that. And they suffered greatly for it as a nation.

Let's turn to Psalm 78. We'll see that despite these memorials and some other ones that I won't even mention, that God instructed the Israelites to keep to help them to remember him, to remember his law, to remember his miraculous works, the people of Israel still could not remember.

Psalm 78 talks about the importance of passing the knowledge of God from generation to generation. Let's break into Psalm 78. It says that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they might arise and declare them to their children. So, children teaching children that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set his heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God. They refused to walk in his law and forgot his works and his wonders that he had shown them.

So, despite God's instruction to pass on his way, to teach that next generation the stories, to make it real to them, verse 11 says, they didn't remember. They forgot his works and his wonders. So, it's important for us. It's important for us to always remember God's works and to remember his wonders. We need to remember especially the works and interventions that he's made in each of our personal lives. We have a responsibility to pass that knowledge of what's happened to us, to our next generation, just as importantly.

If you want to read the rest of Psalm 78 sometime, it speaks eloquently about how forgetful Israel was, how unthankful they were for all that God had done. Not all of the memorials that God gave to Israel were physical. They weren't all rocks or a stick or something like that. He also gave them time-based memorials. Not for my marriage. We've been married almost 31 years. I have both a physical memorial and a time-based memorial. They're like, what is that? Physically, my wife and I both wear rings.

We've got a physical memorial. Yes, oh yes, I'm married. They remind us that we made a covenant with one another. But we also celebrate an anniversary every year. That's a time-based memorial. Oh, it's that time of year when we got married. Let's celebrate that time of year. So we set aside a special time for each year where we can reflect on our time together, reflect on our relationship that we've had. Having special time markers throughout our life is another important way.

It helps us to remember things that are important to us. Think about the weekly Sabbath. We're all here, right? This is a time-based memorial. By celebrating this day, do we remember something? I hope we do. It reminds us of our creation. When did the Sabbath get created? Well, creation. Yeah. It reminds us we have a creator. God gave the command in Exodus 20, verse 8.

He said, remember the Sabbath day. Keep it holy. What word did He use to start out this command? He says, remember the Sabbath day. Most people take their own existence, and even the existence of this planet, for granted. It just happened. We just happened to be born. This planet just happened to be here. It's a great place to live.

I don't mind, right? But by celebrating the Sabbath, it reminds us constantly of the amazing work that our God put forth to design us, to create us the way that He did, and to create this world that we get to enjoy. The Sabbath is also a memorial of something yet to come.

Right? Because it's a shadow. It's a shadow of that Sabbath rest that awaits all of us in God's kingdom. So, it helps us remember a lot of important things. We turn to Exodus 12, verse 14. We'll look briefly at another time-based memorial. In this passage, God was giving an important time-based memorial to the people of Israel.

In verse 14, He's speaking about the Passover, and He says, So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generation. Right? From this time forward, throughout your generation, you're going to pass this memorial on to your children, to your grandchildren.

You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. So here we have Passover, like all the feasts that God gives to us. They're time-based memorials, and we observe them every year.

Every year. By observing and proclaiming these holy convocations at these appointed times each year, it keeps God's plan fresh in our minds. Right? Nothing like keeping the Passover to remind you of what Jesus Christ did in His sacrifice. It keeps that alive in your mind at least once a year. It reminds us of what God has done in the past.

It reminds us what He's going to do in the future. Right? As we celebrate these days, we think about the Millennium. We think about what's to come. We think about Christ's return. It strengthens our relationship with Him. Continuing in verse 24, still in Exodus chapter 12, It says, And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. It will come to pass when you come to the land the Lord will give you, just as He promised that you shall keep this service.

And it shall be when your children say to you, What do you mean by this service? Why are we doing this, Dad? That you shall say, It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of Israel and Egypt when He struck Egyptians and delivered our households. So memorials are powerful because they can help a new generation understand the events of the past. What we see happening here by these children's questions about the Passover, it's the same way they would question those stones that we talked about that were gathered from the Jordan.

You do something that's unusual, and people are going to ask, Why do you do that? The Passover is one of God's great memorials, and He built upon it under the New Covenant.

In the New Covenant, He added additional imagery that He gave us for the Passover. We can turn to 1 Corinthians 11. We can review these briefly in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23. The New Covenant Passover is not just a time-based memorial, but it's also given some additional physical elements. And those physical reminders that He added to the Passover, they actually reserved for us as reminders of Jesus Christ Himself. And that's amazing. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, Paul wrote, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and we had given things, He broke it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this. Right? There's a command there. Do this in remembrance of Me. Do this in remembrance of Me. So why do we eat bread as a part of the Passover? Jesus Christ says it's for remembrance. So we can remember. It's a reminder. It's something that we do that reminds us of Him. It reminds us of how His body was broken just like that bread. It was broken for us. That's a very important thing that we need to remember. So it was so important that God created this special reminder that we would have every year. Verse 25, in the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. So why do we drink the cup each year? It's another remembrance of Jesus Christ. It reminds us of that new covenant that we have with Him. Those symbols, they help us to proclaim the Lord's death until He comes, which is also reminding us He's going to come. He will come again. It's a reminder of that, too, until He comes. We can see from these examples that remembering things is very important to God. He wants us to remember. And throughout the Bible, He has given various memorials and instructions to remember Him, to remember His law, and to remember His works and intervention. Now, as I mentioned earlier, we should no longer need physical reminders to help us to remember God's law, because God's law is not supposed to be something that is still external to us, having been written on our hearts. And I told you we look at how God does that. So let's turn to John 14, verse 26, because how does God help us remember? It's a good question. In John 14 and verse 26, we'll see how God helps us to remember.

Where Jesus Christ says, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things, and look what else it's going to do, and bring to your remembrance all the things that I said to you. So it's the Holy Spirit. It's that Holy Spirit that God has given us as the agent to help us remember. That's how God can write His law on our hearts in a way that we can remember, because it's spiritual, it's not physical. God has given us His Holy Spirit to keep those things at the forefront of our minds. The Holy Spirit can keep those things in our thoughts for us. God's way should become a part of who we are, not something that's external. Well, I try to keep those laws. No, this is what guides my life, what's written on my heart. Not something external that we need to be reminded of by the use of tassels. Oh, this tassel reminds me, there is a law that God has made. No, it's a part of who you are. You shouldn't need those types of reminders. There's nothing wrong to have a walk with Jesus do wristband, but it's not going to help you remember any more than God's Spirit will. God has given us something better so that we don't need those types of physical reminders. Another thing that can help us to remember things is through meditation. And that just means taking some time to think deeply. So many times, life is so hectic, we don't necessarily think deeply about a lot of things. If we take the time to review and remember what we've learned and experienced in this life, it will help us learn even more from the past as we go forward. Do we ever just sit and think, what have I learned in the last month? What have I learned in the last year? Or do you just keep moving and moving? Take some time to reflect. I have a lot of memories from my childhood, but guess which memories are the strongest? What memories, when I think back, when I was a kid, what memories are the strongest memories that I have? They're the memories for which I have some sort of reminder. I think many of you will notice that, too. Maybe there's an old photo in a photo album that I looked through from time to time. Oh, yeah, there's the picture of me and my sister doing this or doing that. I find that the things that I had pictures of, those are the things that my mind still has pictures of, because I have some reminder there. Maybe I can look at a photo and it jogs my memory. I can see, you know, oh, yeah, those were those toys that I was playing with. Oh, I loved those toys when I was seven. Those were so much fun. You know, I can see the layout of my room. I can see maybe the colors or maybe we can see the black and white of what things were like back then.

And seeing those things reinforces those moments a lot longer than they would otherwise. Right? If you didn't take a picture, you're like, I can't remember. It's kind of like this. You look at a picture. Oh, yes, I remember now. It was exactly like that. And having a photograph physically, it helps me to remember those moments longer than I would have otherwise. Maybe I have some souvenirs from a trip that my family took.

You know, I remember having this pencil sharpener. It was about this long. It was this golden alligator. It wasn't an idol. It was just a pencil sharpener. We got it from Sunken Gardens at the Feast in St. Petersburg when I was a kid. And it reminds me of that time in my life. It was never a good pencil sharpener, anyway. But I kept it for a while. I remember that part of that trip. I remember being in that gift shop saying, hey, this is what I want. You know, I kind of remember that part of being young. So in the same way, we need to take time to meditate on our memories of God's involvement and intervention in our lives.

You know, we also need to think about, what has God done for me? If you can't think of anything, maybe you need to think a little bit harder. Maybe you need to work on something else, right? How has He intervened in your life? You know, most people I've talked with in the church, they can recall times when God was very real to them. There was this moment where I felt like God was right there and He was helping, and He did this and He accomplished that.

And that's amazing when He intervenes in your life. Sometimes it's a real minor way. Sometimes it's some amazingly miraculous ways that people are like, wow! How often do you bring to mind those times in your life? When's the last time you've thought about those, just kind of as you're reflecting? Do you ever think about those memorials of God's hand in your life and consider them? Because we don't want to be like the children of Israel and forget the things that God has done for us.

If those memories are becoming more distant, you're like, well, I don't remember all the story, but I know God did some pretty cool stuff. Maybe you should write a few notes. Take some notes while you still remember some of those things about what God has done for you. Maybe in a journal or a notebook you can write down some lessons, some things you've learned that you don't want to forget.

Maybe even pass them down to your kids. Tell your grandkids the things that God has done for you or write them in a book that you can pass on to them. In doing so, you can reinforce those memories that God is real to you. Because not only does God expect us to remember Him, but you know what's cool? And best of all, He remembers us. That's kind of fascinating to think about. All the people on earth, right? There's one God. I hope you can remember one God.

But how many people on earth are there that God can remember us? Now, we're not going to turn to the short verse, but in Psalm 112, verse 6, when it's talking about how blessed the man is who fears the Lord, it says this about the righteous man. It says, surely He will never be shaken. The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. Now, everlasting remembrance means that God is going to remember the righteous forever. We're going to be part of His family. Our human memories may not be so great sometimes.

You know, we forget stuff. Maybe we need constant reminders. You know, my phone beeps all the time telling me what I need to work on at work, because I don't remember. But God has a much better memory than we do. Let's turn to Hebrews 8, verse 10.

Because as amazing as God's memory is, you might find this unusual, that there are also some things that He chooses to forget. Right? That you'd almost have to choose to forget, because otherwise God would just remember everything. Hebrews 8, verse 10. All right, here we have this quote. It should sound familiar since we just read Jeremiah. Hebrews 8, verse 10 says, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.

And then what does it say? It says, And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, No, the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. And then what does it say? It says, And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. So when God describes the new covenant here, He mentions that He will be merciful.

He's no longer going to remember our lawless deeds. It's not that He can't remember them. He can remember our lawless deeds, but He chooses not to remember our lawless deeds because He loves us. We're not going to turn to Isaiah 43, verse 25 today, but it has a similar thought. Isaiah 43, 25 says, I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. What a great promise that is! How wonderful it is that God remembers us.

And He doesn't remember His people with their sins and their faults. He's forgotten those, if we've repented. The Apostle Paul wrote that there are some things that we should forget also. Right? So maybe we shouldn't remember everything. But there are some things that we, as Christians, should forget.

Right near the church in Philippi, he wrote, One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. That's Philippians 3, 13, and 14. So what things behind us are we supposed to forget? There's some stuff behind us we should remember, but what should we forget? Doesn't God want us to have good memories? Doesn't He want us to forget not to forget things? Well, we should forget the same things God chooses to forget. Right? If God forgets it, why should I remember it? Once you've repented, once you've asked God to forgive you of your sins, you have to leave those former sins in the past.

Leave them in the past. Forget them. Don't keep bringing them up. Don't keep bringing them up again. Don't keep worrying about them again. If God can forget those, so can you. Sure, there are a lot of memories, but don't dwell on those memories. You're still going to remember there were some bad things, but don't dwell on it.

We use those memories because we are going to move forward. We are going to move towards the goal. We are going to put our eyes on the prize. So let's conclude the sermon by reading from Malachi 3, verse 16. God does not just remember the heroes of the Bible. He remembers a lot more than those who appear in Hebrews 11.

If we look at Malachi 3, verse 16, we can see, yes, God remembers his covenant. He remembers what he did with Noah. He remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He remembers those covenants. But you know what? He also remembers the covenant he made with each of you.

Didn't those of you who were baptized make a covenant with Jesus Christ and with God? God remembers the vows and the commitments that you made to him and baptism. We need to remember that covenant, too. What did I promise God that I would do when I was baptized?

Malachi 3, verse 16. It says, Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts. Those people? Those people, they shall be mine. I'm writing about them. I'm remembering them. God remembers you. So, yes, it's important for us to remember God. It's important to remember His law.

It's important to remember His wonderful works. And we should take time to meditate on Him. We should remember. We should speak to one another about what we remember. We should not be afraid to tell each other how real God is to us and what He's done in our families and with us individually. Because when we do, as it says when we talk to one another, God will remember us. And He will put us into His book of remembrance so that we can always be His.