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Our society has days of remembrance commemorating important events, extraordinary sacrifices, admirable achievement.. but we often still forget..
Humans are Forgetful
God commands us to remember. It is essential that we don’t forget.
If we forget we lose a lot more than just a memory.
- We lose the lessons learned from history
- We lose our own story and identity
- We lose the proof that important accomplishments come from ordinary people
The Enemy Steals
We humans are forgetful, but there is also an enemy that is out to steal our victory. Jesus says He is like a bird that steals the seed of the word of God from those who have heard it. The enemy wants to sow fear instead of faith.
We have to fight to remember. Will you take up arms in the good fight of faith?
Don’t Forget to Remember from Redemption Church on Vimeo.
Don’t forget to Remember
Sermon notes by Chris Fluitt
Redemption Church Plano Tx
Welcome
Our society has some important days that we try to remember. Raise your hand if you know what we are trying to remember on these days..
The 3rd Monday of January (Martin Luther King day – marking the birthday of the great civil rights leader)
The 1st Thursday of May (National day of prayer)
The 2nd Sunday of May (Mother’s Day)
The last Monday of May (Memorial day. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates all men and women, who have died in military service for the United States.)
June 6th (D-Day – on this day in 1944 American soldiers and other allied forces landed on the shore of Normandy, France. This was a costly and key victory in World War II)
The 3rd Sunday in June (Father’s Day)
September 11th (Patriot day, observed as the National Day of Service and Remembrance, occurs on September 11 of each year in memory of the 2,977 people killed in the 2001 September 11 attacks.)
The 4th Thursday in November (Thanksgiving – A national holiday of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.)
December 7th (Pearl Harbor day – a day where we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in 1941)
December 25th (Christmas Day)
How did we do?
I didn’t even mention talk like a Pirate day, Star Wars day, Ground Hog’s day, Boxing day…
We have these days of remembrance commemorating important events, extraordinary sacrifices, admirable achievement.. but we often still forget..
Humans are forgetful
We have these life altering moments in the history of a nation… Like September 11th, 2001.. and we know in that moment that life has changed. We can’t imagine ever forgetting how we felt in that moment. We will know where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news.
Humans are forgetful but there are somethings you can’t forget… But do you understand that that is exactly how people felt when they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor? In 8 days it will be December 7th and very few people will remember that important day..
The day that Pearl Harbor happened, people could not imagine forgetting.. these years later it is forgotten.
The very reason we have days of remembrance is because Humans are forgetful
We have to work to remember. We have to constantly remind ourselves else we forget. And if we forget we lose a lot more than just a memory.
- We lose the lessons learned from history
- We lose our own story and identity
- We lose the proof that important accomplishments come from ordinary people
The spiritual things that come from a life in God must be remembered. God commands that we remember.
God had promised to lead Israel from slavery in Egypt into the land God had promised Abraham. In Joshua 4 came the moment they would need to always remember. It would be the moment that they would cross the river Jordan and enter into the promise land.
Joshua 4:1 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,(KJV)
Joshua 4:2 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,(KJV)
Joshua 4:3 And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.(KJV)
Joshua 4:4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:(KJV)
Joshua 4:5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:(KJV)
Joshua 4:6 That this may be a sign among you, [that] when your children ask [their fathers] in time to come, saying, What [mean] ye by these stones?(KJV)
Joshua 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.(KJV)
Joshua 4:22 tell them, `Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.'(NIV)
Joshua 4:23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.(NIV)
We need to remember
God spoke to Joshua. It wasn’t enough for them to walk into the miracle. It wasn’t enough for them to crossover from the wilderness into the Promised Land. It was not enough for them to experience God in the moment.
God instructed them to build a memorial to remember what God had done FOREVER.
God told them to take time.. not to move forward with other assignments..
God told them to use great effort..
God told every tribe to be involved.. Everyone involved in the moment needs to work to remember..
God told them THE MEMORIAL wasn’t just for them but for generations that came before them (those that crossed the Red Sea) and for generations that would come behind them (their children & US!)
God wanted them to remember! God wants us to remember!
Israel needed to remember. Israel would face struggles and enemies in the future! They needed to remember that the God who parted the Red Sea and brought them out of, was the same God who parted the Jordan and brought wandering nomads into a place of prominence and, and would be the same God to make a way out of their future battles.
If Israel would face their current problems with an understanding that comes from REMEMBERING what God had already done, they would be brave & victorious. But did Israel remember? They often forgot..
David shows us how remembering God’s victories leads to bigger victories, in bigger arenas, against bigger enemies.
1 Samuel 17:32 David said to (KING) Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”(NIV)
1 Samuel 17:33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”(NIV)
1 Samuel 17:34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,(NIV)
1 Samuel 17:35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.(NIV)
1 Samuel 17:36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.(NIV)
1 Samuel 17:37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”(NIV)
You need to be like David! The little shepherd boy, David, stood in front of the Philistine giant Goliath. He stood in front of his biggest challenge. He stood before the King of Israel who said “you can’t do this.” David reached back and said the God who was with me against the bear.. the God who was with me against a lion, is about to deliver that giant into my hands!
In the middle of your hardship you play video footage in your mind of your oncoming defeat. You can play scenes of people laughing at you and folks saying “I told you so…” Or can REMEMBER what the Lord has done for you!
Will you have Fear or Faith?
Psalm 103:2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits–(NIV)
- If your praise is stagnate, maybe you have forgotten.
- If your faith is lacking courage & boldness, maybe you have forgotten.
- If you are freaking out and full of fear, maybe you have forgotten.
Why have we forgotten?
The enemy steals
Jesus tells us in John 10:10 about the enemy. The enemy comes to Kill, STEAL, & destroy.
Jesus tells a parable in Mathew 13 of an enemy that comes to steal the seed Word of God from the person who hears it.
Matthew 13:4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and ate them up.(AMP)
Other seed was scorched by the sun. Other seed was chocked up by weeds the cares of life.
There are forces out there that want to steal the Word of God right out of your heart.
Forgetting victories is a defeat
The enemy can’t stop God from doing miracles in your life. But as soon as God speaks to you.. as soon as God does a supernatural thing in you.. as soon as you have received the Word of God… the Enemy seeks to steal it from you or make you doubt it.
I was ministering to a young teenager who was trying to come to faith. He was asking how I could know God was real. I asked “Have you ever felt God’s presence?” He said “no” like he had never even contemplated that he could encounter God. I told him the next time he is in worship to ask God to let him feel his presence.
The next time we spoke he had this huge grin on his face. He said “Chris, God is real. I felt His presence.” This was one of those moments like Israel crossing over the Jordan.. but the enemy was present.
Troubles in life came and suddenly this kid is nowhere to be found. I hunt him down and we talk. He said “Chris I just don’t know that God is real..” I asked him “Do you remember that time you worshipped and felt God’s presence?”
He looked at me confused and said “I don’t know what you are talking about..”
Forgetting victories is a defeat
You would be wrong to be mad at the teenager. I am mad at the enemy that swoops in to steal your victory.
Already the enemy is moving in to steal the Word that you are hearing now. He is already at work to remove you from the experience you had in worship. The clarity, direction, and calling God has given you, the enemy is already trying to uproot it.
Don’t forget! Humans are good at forgetting. REMEMBER!
Fight to remember
Jude 1:3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.(NIV)
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.(NIV)
1 Timothy 6:13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you(NIV)
1 Timothy 6:14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,(NIV)
This enemy that is stealing from you. Here is how you beat the enemy.
Revelation 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony
Are you remembering?
Are you holding on to your faith?
Are you building a memorial?
Are you overcoming?