The Forgotten Discipline
Deuteronomy 11:1-9
1. Remember the signs that God has performed
Performed to Israel
Performed to you
2. Remember the enemies God has defeated
The Egyptian army
The devil and sin
3. Remember God’s help in dry times
The 40 years in the desert
Eddie Rickenbacker illustration
4. Remember the consequences of sin
Dathan and Abiram
Babel, we can do everything except control results
Sin destroys
Why do so many Bethany students plaster their walls with pictures from the past? Why does the yearbook staff work so hard taking snapshots all semester? Why do moms keep scrapbooks? Why do girls keep everything? Why do people buy souvenirs? Why do we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays? Why do we practice communion?
The best answer to all of these questions is that people love and need to remember. We place great value on the past. The past has made us who we are today.
Some of us might have a grandparent who suffers from Alzheimer’s or a similar illness. The effects can be devastating. Other times memory lapses can be quite convenient. I used to forget to do my chores (although that didn’t feel as convenient when my father got home). In other ways, remembering and memory issues can be quite funny.
One couple was sitting in a worship service when the wife suddenly remarked, “Oh no! I forgot to turn off the iron before we left home!” The husband replied, “Don’t worry. It won’t burn long. I forgot to turn off the faucet in the bathtub.
Comedian Steven Wright insightfully points out, “Whenever I remember the past, it just brings back so many memories."
Well, we can joke about our inability to remember, but all too often, unfortunately, we neglect to remember the One who gave us life and everything he’s done for us. I suggest to you tonight that the art of remembering what Christ has done for us is, to many, the forgotten discipline.
Remembering is a consistent theme throughout the Scriptures:
The Israelites celebrated various festivals throughout their calendar year. These festivals were put in place in order that the people would remember all that God had done for them. The Passover commemorates the Feast of unleavened bread, the Feast of tabernacles and the Feast of Purim. And other Jewish festivals served as reminders of what God had done, or what he promised to do. Elsewhere in the Old Testament we are told to remember the Sabbath day, remember our creator and more.
In the New Testament Jesus tells us to take communion in remembrance of Him. Peter reminds us to remember the words of the Prophets and Apostles. In Revelation chapter two the church of Ephesus had left their first love. What are they told to do? They are told to REMEMBER from where they have fallen.
So throughout the Scriptures we find this emphasis on remembering. Why? Why does God feel remembering is so important? The answer is that we need to remember because we are prone to forget! We are more often than not negligent people, too often ungrateful. IF we don’t take the time to remember, we are prone to go our merry way, overwhelmed with the pressures and responsibilities of life, and we . . . forget! We forget to give God the praise that he deserves. We are predictably more like the nine lepers who forgot than the one that remembered to return and thank Jesus for healing. We need to take time to remember what God has done for us. I want to focus on four items in particular that we need to remember.
Turn with me if you will to Deuteronomy chapter 11:1-8. Perhaps more than any other book in Scripture, Deuteronomy stresses the importance of remembrance. We are to remember the deliverance’s the Lord has provided (Deut. 5:15). The way He has led (Deut. 8:2) The blessings He has bestowed (Deut. 32:7-12) and the victory’s he has won in Deuteronomy 11. Let me read that out loud for you:
Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them. It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done. Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
This passage begins and ends with a command to keep the requirements of God. Verse 1 says Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always and verse 8 says Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today. That sounds really straightforward and even simple, but it’s right there that we often go wrong. We stop loving the Lord with all that we have. We become lukewarm. We stop spending time in His word. We stop praying. We stop loving our neighbor. We lose our passion. We get so frustrated with our Christian walk. We stop resisting temptation. We sin. What can we do to change for good? I believe one of the best ways is to consistently take time to remember four key issues.
This passage focuses on what the Israelites must remember to tell their children. They have to realize that they have been given the privilege of seeing God in his majesty, power and love. But it’s more than just making sure their kids don’t forget; the idea is that none of them forget. The children need to remember these things, the parents need to remember these things and you and I need to remember these things.
The first item to remember is seen in verse 3. We need to remember the signs God has performed. To the Israelites this meant the plagues that God sent on Egypt. He proved to be far more powerful than any magic they could muster. Plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death struck Egypt. That’s the same God we serve today. We need to remember the wonderful and powerful signs he has performed. We need to remember his creation. He created the heavens and the earth. He painted the stars in the sky. He made man and breathed life into him. We need to remember how he kept his hand on his people, on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes of Israel. We need to remember the wonders he performed through the prophets. How he defeated baal without a fight. We need to remember how he took the most insignificant of Jesse’s sons and made him King over Israel. We need to remember the miracles Jesus performed the signs at Pentecost, the miracles that take place today in our world. We need to remember signs he’s given in our lives. For me it was an assurance that he was leading me into ministry. Before I came to Bethany, doubts took over my mind as to whether God was really leading me into the ministry. I started to think I had created it all in my own head. I asked God for a sign of assurance. The very next week in Church my Pastor came up to me, put his hands on my shoulders and asked if I had been called into the ministry. Maybe God has performed a miracle in your life. Maybe he’s given you undeniable signs. We need to remember and thank God for these events in our lives where God made Himself so real to us. We need to remember the signs he’s performed. Now God has never audibly spoken to me. If something that looked like tongues of fire landed on my head, I’m probably run away and take a cold shower. But most of us can look back and see God’s miraculous work in our life. Maybe it would seem insignificant to others, but it was exactly what you needed. Maybe you were given money for school when you were in a desperate situation. Maybe God confirmed his calling on your life in a special way. We need to take time and reflect on the wonders that God has done in our life.
Secondly, the Israelites were to remember what God did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots. How he brought them to their demise. Some of the Israelites could still remember their awesome deliverance through the waters. As they journeyed across the dry land with the enemy in pursuit. Once they crossed over the waters went back into place and the enemy was destroyed. We’ve never had Pharaoh of Egypt as our enemy, but we’ve been delivered in our lives as well. We’ve been delivered out of situations where we felt helpless. We’ve been delivered from enemies in our lives. We are all here tonight safe and secure. But most of all we’ve been delivered from slavery, not the slavery of Pharaoh, but the slavery of sin and Satan. We’ve been delivered from death to life, from darkness to light. We need to remember this. We need to remember the day or night we accepted the free gift of God. If we were saved when we were young we need to remember when we were fully awakened to what we were saved from and the cost of our salvation. We need to remember Jesus being crucified. The price he paid for us. Let’s take a moment right now and remember the cost Jesus paid to save us. In his book the Case for Christ, Lee Strobel describes the horrific event…..
We need to remember the cross. We need to remember our deliverance from the clutches of the devil. We need to remember when we were first saved. One of the things I learned in my marriage-counseling seminar was that healthy strong couples took time to remember when they first fell in love. They reminisced. They made the effort. They didn’t forget how their love was at first. They took time to remember staying up for hours talking to eachother, their first date, and their first kiss. Sometimes, in our relationship with Christ we have seemingly fallen out of love. We need to remember the height from which we’ve fallen. We need to repent and return to the way things were. We need to remember our deliverance.
The third thing the Israelites were to remember was what God had done for them in the desert. What should have been a quick trip to the promise land turned into 40 years of wandering because the people were disobedient. Yet God had provided for them. He stayed with them and provided food for them. He waited patiently. We too sometimes are not responding to God’s call on our life. We wander around when he’s telling us to go. We settle when he’s telling us to move. But God continues to love us, continues to wait for us.
It was gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket.
Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour that would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean... For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie's own words, “Pilot William Cherry read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off." Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness.
We need to remember how God has provided for us in the desert. In the wilderness, the desolate land, he provided all that we needed. When we were hungry and dry, he has been faithful. We need to remember what he’s done for us in the desert.
Fourthly, they were to remember what God did to Dathan and Abiram. Who? Dathan and Abiram. Israel was to remember these two names and their story. Let’s refresh our minds as to who these guys were. In Numbers 16 we read how these two men became grumblers. They rebelled against the God given authority of Moses. They refused to do what Moses said. They ridiculed his leadership. The Israelites were to remember the price these men paid. We read in Numbers 16:31 that as soon as Moses finished saying that they would be judged,
The ground opened under them and split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering incense.
These two men refused to live under the authority God had given Moses. They would have rather gone back to Egypt then wait for God’s promises. They had lost their perspective. They were focusing on problems and not on God’s plan. They rebelled against God. Israel was to remember the judgment that fell on these two men and their families. This would remind them of the necessity to live holy lives, pleasing to God. It would remind them of the brutal consequences of sin. They needed to remember. We too need to remember the consequences of sin. We need to remember God’s demand for holiness. We need to remember that the wages of sin is death, that there is a real hell where real people spend eternity. We need to remember that even when we repent of our sins, the consequences linger. Sin hurts. Sin destroys. I remember I used to tell myself, well, if God is going to forgive me when I repent, I might as well do whatever I want. How naïve to think that we can sin and then repent and not suffer the consequences. God has given us the free will to do as we wish, but we don’t have the power to control the consequences. Remember the tower of Babel? The people were in unity but with a sinful purpose. God looked upon them and do you remember what he said? He said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Did you hear what God said, “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” God has given us free will; we can do whatever we want. We can control our own actions, BUT we can’t control the consequences. The people at the tower of Babel sinned and they suffered the consequences of confusion and being scattered all over the earth. And in our own lives we see this principle. There is a price to sinful living. Drug use destroys our bodies, sexual sin carries with it diseases, jealousy destroys friendships, a single act of sin can destroy your future. I know a pastor who made the mistake of advancing on a woman in his office. He was rejected and would have been forgiven had he simply asked. Instead, he never mentioned it to anyone. Never apologized. Eventually, this issue began to gnaw away at his ministry. Soon enough the truth came out from the woman. But he didn’t even admit it then! He refused to confess. He became a cancer in the church. Soon the church turned into two factions. Half believing the pastor hadn’t done anything wrong, half believing the woman was telling the truth. Board meetings turned into screaming matches, nasty letters were written back and forth. Eventually, the pastor admitted (only to the board) his lies. He resigned his pastorate. For the next two years the church went without a pastor, still at war. All of this because the man had allowed sin to slip into his ministry. He allowed pride to stop him from confessing his error. The consequences of his sins are still present in the church. We need to remember God’s demand for holiness. We need to remember the consequences we have paid for our previous sins. Sin is serious. We need to remember that. Sin brings devastation, desolation and destruction. It probably won’t bring a physical earthquake, but it will open up the depths of hell and drag whatever it can down. We need to remember the seriousness of sin.
I urge you to, if you have not already, add the discipline of remembering to your daily routine. Remember the signs God has performed in your life. Remember how he has delivered you from enemies, sin and death. Remember how God was with you in the desert times of your life. Remember God’s demand for holiness and the consequences of sin. Remember these things when you pray. This message has been on my heart for a few months and it had really affected my prayer life. I usually start off my times of prayer, now, by first remembering how great God has been to me in my life. I take the time to remember the cross, my conversion and important points in my Christian walked. Remembering has helped my prayer life and my closeness to God. So I encourage you to remember the past in your times of prayer.
The Israelites entered the promised land remembering the these things and their success in the land was based, at least in part, on how well the remembered all that God had done for them. Our success as a Christian may be greatly enhanced if we make the extra effort to remember all that God has done for us. His majesty, mighty hand, and outstretched hand in our lives.
In the movie Patch Adams, Robin William’s played a doctor who was a student of people. He aimed to make an impact on people’s life. While conducting an experiment with his friend he simply said hello to them, but instead of JUST saying hello, he did it hanging upside down in a tree. He pointed out to his friend that they’ll forget most every one of the people who casually say hello to them, but they won’t forget Patch b/c he did something unusual and went out of his way to make an impact. The work of the cross is an unusual work. It is God in the flesh coming down and hanging on a tree. Asking for your attention. Asking you not to forget him! Asking you to remember.
1. Remember the signs that God has performed
Performed to Israel
Performed to you
2. Remember the enemies God has defeated
The Egyptian army
The devil and sin
3. Remember God’s help in dry times
The 40 years in the desert
Eddie Rickenbacker illustration
4. Remember the consequences of sin
Dathan and Abiram
Babel, we can do everything except control results
Sin destroys
Why do so many Bethany students plaster their walls with pictures from the past? Why does the yearbook staff work so hard taking snapshots all semester? Why do moms keep scrapbooks? Why do girls keep everything? Why do people buy souvenirs? Why do we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays? Why do we practice communion?
The best answer to all of these questions is that people love and need to remember. We place great value on the past. The past has made us who we are today.
Some of us might have a grandparent who suffers from Alzheimer’s or a similar illness. The effects can be devastating. Other times memory lapses can be quite convenient. I used to forget to do my chores (although that didn’t feel as convenient when my father got home). In other ways, remembering and memory issues can be quite funny.
One couple was sitting in a worship service when the wife suddenly remarked, “Oh no! I forgot to turn off the iron before we left home!” The husband replied, “Don’t worry. It won’t burn long. I forgot to turn off the faucet in the bathtub.
Comedian Steven Wright insightfully points out, “Whenever I remember the past, it just brings back so many memories."
Well, we can joke about our inability to remember, but all too often, unfortunately, we neglect to remember the One who gave us life and everything he’s done for us. I suggest to you tonight that the art of remembering what Christ has done for us is, to many, the forgotten discipline.
Remembering is a consistent theme throughout the Scriptures:
The Israelites celebrated various festivals throughout their calendar year. These festivals were put in place in order that the people would remember all that God had done for them. The Passover commemorates the Feast of unleavened bread, the Feast of tabernacles and the Feast of Purim. And other Jewish festivals served as reminders of what God had done, or what he promised to do. Elsewhere in the Old Testament we are told to remember the Sabbath day, remember our creator and more.
In the New Testament Jesus tells us to take communion in remembrance of Him. Peter reminds us to remember the words of the Prophets and Apostles. In Revelation chapter two the church of Ephesus had left their first love. What are they told to do? They are told to REMEMBER from where they have fallen.
So throughout the Scriptures we find this emphasis on remembering. Why? Why does God feel remembering is so important? The answer is that we need to remember because we are prone to forget! We are more often than not negligent people, too often ungrateful. IF we don’t take the time to remember, we are prone to go our merry way, overwhelmed with the pressures and responsibilities of life, and we . . . forget! We forget to give God the praise that he deserves. We are predictably more like the nine lepers who forgot than the one that remembered to return and thank Jesus for healing. We need to take time to remember what God has done for us. I want to focus on four items in particular that we need to remember.
Turn with me if you will to Deuteronomy chapter 11:1-8. Perhaps more than any other book in Scripture, Deuteronomy stresses the importance of remembrance. We are to remember the deliverance’s the Lord has provided (Deut. 5:15). The way He has led (Deut. 8:2) The blessings He has bestowed (Deut. 32:7-12) and the victory’s he has won in Deuteronomy 11. Let me read that out loud for you:
Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the LORD brought lasting ruin on them. It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the LORD has done. Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
This passage begins and ends with a command to keep the requirements of God. Verse 1 says Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always and verse 8 says Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today. That sounds really straightforward and even simple, but it’s right there that we often go wrong. We stop loving the Lord with all that we have. We become lukewarm. We stop spending time in His word. We stop praying. We stop loving our neighbor. We lose our passion. We get so frustrated with our Christian walk. We stop resisting temptation. We sin. What can we do to change for good? I believe one of the best ways is to consistently take time to remember four key issues.
This passage focuses on what the Israelites must remember to tell their children. They have to realize that they have been given the privilege of seeing God in his majesty, power and love. But it’s more than just making sure their kids don’t forget; the idea is that none of them forget. The children need to remember these things, the parents need to remember these things and you and I need to remember these things.
The first item to remember is seen in verse 3. We need to remember the signs God has performed. To the Israelites this meant the plagues that God sent on Egypt. He proved to be far more powerful than any magic they could muster. Plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death struck Egypt. That’s the same God we serve today. We need to remember the wonderful and powerful signs he has performed. We need to remember his creation. He created the heavens and the earth. He painted the stars in the sky. He made man and breathed life into him. We need to remember how he kept his hand on his people, on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes of Israel. We need to remember the wonders he performed through the prophets. How he defeated baal without a fight. We need to remember how he took the most insignificant of Jesse’s sons and made him King over Israel. We need to remember the miracles Jesus performed the signs at Pentecost, the miracles that take place today in our world. We need to remember signs he’s given in our lives. For me it was an assurance that he was leading me into ministry. Before I came to Bethany, doubts took over my mind as to whether God was really leading me into the ministry. I started to think I had created it all in my own head. I asked God for a sign of assurance. The very next week in Church my Pastor came up to me, put his hands on my shoulders and asked if I had been called into the ministry. Maybe God has performed a miracle in your life. Maybe he’s given you undeniable signs. We need to remember and thank God for these events in our lives where God made Himself so real to us. We need to remember the signs he’s performed. Now God has never audibly spoken to me. If something that looked like tongues of fire landed on my head, I’m probably run away and take a cold shower. But most of us can look back and see God’s miraculous work in our life. Maybe it would seem insignificant to others, but it was exactly what you needed. Maybe you were given money for school when you were in a desperate situation. Maybe God confirmed his calling on your life in a special way. We need to take time and reflect on the wonders that God has done in our life.
Secondly, the Israelites were to remember what God did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots. How he brought them to their demise. Some of the Israelites could still remember their awesome deliverance through the waters. As they journeyed across the dry land with the enemy in pursuit. Once they crossed over the waters went back into place and the enemy was destroyed. We’ve never had Pharaoh of Egypt as our enemy, but we’ve been delivered in our lives as well. We’ve been delivered out of situations where we felt helpless. We’ve been delivered from enemies in our lives. We are all here tonight safe and secure. But most of all we’ve been delivered from slavery, not the slavery of Pharaoh, but the slavery of sin and Satan. We’ve been delivered from death to life, from darkness to light. We need to remember this. We need to remember the day or night we accepted the free gift of God. If we were saved when we were young we need to remember when we were fully awakened to what we were saved from and the cost of our salvation. We need to remember Jesus being crucified. The price he paid for us. Let’s take a moment right now and remember the cost Jesus paid to save us. In his book the Case for Christ, Lee Strobel describes the horrific event…..
We need to remember the cross. We need to remember our deliverance from the clutches of the devil. We need to remember when we were first saved. One of the things I learned in my marriage-counseling seminar was that healthy strong couples took time to remember when they first fell in love. They reminisced. They made the effort. They didn’t forget how their love was at first. They took time to remember staying up for hours talking to eachother, their first date, and their first kiss. Sometimes, in our relationship with Christ we have seemingly fallen out of love. We need to remember the height from which we’ve fallen. We need to repent and return to the way things were. We need to remember our deliverance.
The third thing the Israelites were to remember was what God had done for them in the desert. What should have been a quick trip to the promise land turned into 40 years of wandering because the people were disobedient. Yet God had provided for them. He stayed with them and provided food for them. He waited patiently. We too sometimes are not responding to God’s call on our life. We wander around when he’s telling us to go. We settle when he’s telling us to move. But God continues to love us, continues to wait for us.
It was gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket.
Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour that would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean... For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie's own words, “Pilot William Cherry read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off." Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness.
We need to remember how God has provided for us in the desert. In the wilderness, the desolate land, he provided all that we needed. When we were hungry and dry, he has been faithful. We need to remember what he’s done for us in the desert.
Fourthly, they were to remember what God did to Dathan and Abiram. Who? Dathan and Abiram. Israel was to remember these two names and their story. Let’s refresh our minds as to who these guys were. In Numbers 16 we read how these two men became grumblers. They rebelled against the God given authority of Moses. They refused to do what Moses said. They ridiculed his leadership. The Israelites were to remember the price these men paid. We read in Numbers 16:31 that as soon as Moses finished saying that they would be judged,
The ground opened under them and split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the 250 men who were offering incense.
These two men refused to live under the authority God had given Moses. They would have rather gone back to Egypt then wait for God’s promises. They had lost their perspective. They were focusing on problems and not on God’s plan. They rebelled against God. Israel was to remember the judgment that fell on these two men and their families. This would remind them of the necessity to live holy lives, pleasing to God. It would remind them of the brutal consequences of sin. They needed to remember. We too need to remember the consequences of sin. We need to remember God’s demand for holiness. We need to remember that the wages of sin is death, that there is a real hell where real people spend eternity. We need to remember that even when we repent of our sins, the consequences linger. Sin hurts. Sin destroys. I remember I used to tell myself, well, if God is going to forgive me when I repent, I might as well do whatever I want. How naïve to think that we can sin and then repent and not suffer the consequences. God has given us the free will to do as we wish, but we don’t have the power to control the consequences. Remember the tower of Babel? The people were in unity but with a sinful purpose. God looked upon them and do you remember what he said? He said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Did you hear what God said, “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” God has given us free will; we can do whatever we want. We can control our own actions, BUT we can’t control the consequences. The people at the tower of Babel sinned and they suffered the consequences of confusion and being scattered all over the earth. And in our own lives we see this principle. There is a price to sinful living. Drug use destroys our bodies, sexual sin carries with it diseases, jealousy destroys friendships, a single act of sin can destroy your future. I know a pastor who made the mistake of advancing on a woman in his office. He was rejected and would have been forgiven had he simply asked. Instead, he never mentioned it to anyone. Never apologized. Eventually, this issue began to gnaw away at his ministry. Soon enough the truth came out from the woman. But he didn’t even admit it then! He refused to confess. He became a cancer in the church. Soon the church turned into two factions. Half believing the pastor hadn’t done anything wrong, half believing the woman was telling the truth. Board meetings turned into screaming matches, nasty letters were written back and forth. Eventually, the pastor admitted (only to the board) his lies. He resigned his pastorate. For the next two years the church went without a pastor, still at war. All of this because the man had allowed sin to slip into his ministry. He allowed pride to stop him from confessing his error. The consequences of his sins are still present in the church. We need to remember God’s demand for holiness. We need to remember the consequences we have paid for our previous sins. Sin is serious. We need to remember that. Sin brings devastation, desolation and destruction. It probably won’t bring a physical earthquake, but it will open up the depths of hell and drag whatever it can down. We need to remember the seriousness of sin.
I urge you to, if you have not already, add the discipline of remembering to your daily routine. Remember the signs God has performed in your life. Remember how he has delivered you from enemies, sin and death. Remember how God was with you in the desert times of your life. Remember God’s demand for holiness and the consequences of sin. Remember these things when you pray. This message has been on my heart for a few months and it had really affected my prayer life. I usually start off my times of prayer, now, by first remembering how great God has been to me in my life. I take the time to remember the cross, my conversion and important points in my Christian walked. Remembering has helped my prayer life and my closeness to God. So I encourage you to remember the past in your times of prayer.
The Israelites entered the promised land remembering the these things and their success in the land was based, at least in part, on how well the remembered all that God had done for them. Our success as a Christian may be greatly enhanced if we make the extra effort to remember all that God has done for us. His majesty, mighty hand, and outstretched hand in our lives.
In the movie Patch Adams, Robin William’s played a doctor who was a student of people. He aimed to make an impact on people’s life. While conducting an experiment with his friend he simply said hello to them, but instead of JUST saying hello, he did it hanging upside down in a tree. He pointed out to his friend that they’ll forget most every one of the people who casually say hello to them, but they won’t forget Patch b/c he did something unusual and went out of his way to make an impact. The work of the cross is an unusual work. It is God in the flesh coming down and hanging on a tree. Asking for your attention. Asking you not to forget him! Asking you to remember.
posted by matthew at 9:54 AM
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