The Importance of Remembering

Remember, January 25, 2015, Cornerstone Community Church, Kouts, IN.

Our memories are not perfect. We sometimes have selective memories, no memory, or we remember the wrong things. Worse as we get older! Example, my 91 year old Mom has a short term memory of just a few minutes!

Remembering in the Scriptures

A search on “Remember” will yield over 230 instances in the OT and NT, another 25 for “remembrance”, and over 60 for “forget”. It was a passage on “forget” that the Lord drove home to me about this. It’s an important concept to God.

Lamentations 3:19-23 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

We’re going to go through a sampling of scripture (not all 300+!) on this topic since the Lord has a lot to say about it.

Genesis 9:16 when the rainbow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

Exodus 2:23-24 during those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

God Has Perfect Memory

God’s memory is perfect. He remembers his covenants and promises
He never loses sight of us, our situation, and our needs. God has perfect recall.

Ps. 25:6-7 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!
David, in Psalm 25, asks God to have a selective memory! Remembering some things, forgetting others.

Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.The good news for us? God actually does this! He will not remember our sins because Jesus paid our debt and blotted out, or erased, our sins!
Examples: tearing a page out of a book, erasing an entry on the white board.

Deuteronomy 5:15-16 you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Numbers 15:40-41 so you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord your God.”

He commands us to remember what he has done, and what he wants us to do.
In school, how do we learn and remember the class material? Textbooks, an accumulation of research and knowledge about the subject. How do we remember the material the professor or teacher presents? Taking notes in a class.

Bible as a Journal

The Bible is a journal, a written record, compiled by the Holy Spirit as he moved the writers to write it. It’s documentation of all that he wants to know and remember.

If God thought it important to document for us, and he still speaks to us today in a variety of ways, then we should also journal and document what he has done in our lives so that we can look back and remember.

Example: my journaling started in the early 1980s. It included God’s activity in my life, commentary on the Word, what he has taught me, prayers, family milestones, etc. Kathy has also done this for longer than me. We did it as a family for a time when our kids were in the house. What a blessing to look back and remember what God has done.

Numbers 11:4-6 now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Remembering the Wrong Things

Sometimes we remember the wrong things, especially the old life. We have a tendency to look back and miss the old pleasures before we began to follow Christ.
BUT THEY WERE SLAVES! Just as we were in bondage to sin before Christ redeemed us.
They tired of the Manna, just as sometimes our Christian “duties” may seem like drudgery.

The ladies are currently studying the book of Judges.
Cycle of Judges – Rest, Rebellion, Repression, Remembrance, Repentance, Rescue, Rest.
We also have this tendency today.
As Hebrews warns against, we can “drift away” gradually and almost without noticing and find ourselves in need of renewal and repentance.
The reason? we don’t remember…

2 Peter 1:3-9 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

We Forget

We forget the promise in Isaiah, that he “blots out our transgressions, and doesn’t remember our sins”!
The enemy likes to resurrect our past, to bring us back into slavery again.
Continuing to remember that great blessing will keep us growing in Him.

Rev 2:2-5 ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Consequences of Memory Lapses

What we think about and remember is so important. We can be doing all the right things, doing good works, enduring, but lose our first love! Our love, passion, zeal for the LORD and for others.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

It is so critical to REMEMBER, the things the LORD did in our lives, the forgiveness he gave to us, the blotting out of our sins, and the things we did because we loved him, and in loving him, loved others.

My Memories

The old, wild life, my “leeks and onions” that was at times fun. However, I WAS A SLAVE! And at times, very lonely and unfulfilled.

I remember: the night on my bed, when in tears, I traded my old life in for a new one in Jesus.
The excitement, the gratitude, the sense of adventure as I consumed the Scriptures, experienced fellowship with other believers, times of testing and sharing with my old friends.
I remember when Kathy and I met, and didn’t actually “date” but spent time seeking the Lord together through music, worship, and study of the word.
I remember the anointed music of the mid-seventies, the Jesus movement, the Charismatic Renewal, the pure joy of knowing Jesus! The sweet fellowship of the saints, the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But life happens, and the excitement and passion for Jesus seems to ebb and flow.
Just as the church over the centuries experiences dry times and periods of revival, so do our own lives.
That’s why REMEMBERING is so important!

One Thing

Luke 10:38-42 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

The Ephesians were “Marthas”, serving and doing. And we can all fall into the trap of routinely doing our Christian things in a dry, legalistic manner.
Ezekiel had a vision about the Spirit of God leaving the temple, but the sacrifices and rituals continued on, devoid of the Spirit and life.
In 1st Corinthians 13 Paul refers to having faith and prophecy to move mountains, offering his body as a sacrifice, but without love, IT IS NOTHING!
Jesus, in Matthew 7, listens to those who did all kinds of good things and miracles in His name, but he declares: “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness”.

But when Martha complained about Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet while Martha did all the work, Jesus’ response was,
““… one thing is necessary…”, one thing is needed!

What Does “One Thing” Look Like?

We can do all kinds of good works, believe the right things, but miss sitting at His feet, living in HIS LOVE!
Deut. 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might!
Lev. 19:18 Love your neighbor as yourself

What does the “one thing needed” look like?
David, called a “man after God’s heart”, put it like this:
Psalm 27:4 English Standard Version (ESV)
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4 Living Bible (TLB)
The one thing I want from God, the thing I seek most of all, is the privilege of meditating in his Temple, living in his presence every day of my life, delighting in his incomparable perfections and glory.
When we have the “ONE THING”, everything else falls into place. Seek first His kingdom…

Would you join me today in rekindling the passion of our first love? Of going for the “one thing”?
It takes effort, (“make every effort to enter His rest” Hebrews 4), but when we begin to reach out and draw near to him, he draws near to us (James 4)
He ALWAYS responds when we cry out to him.