05.24.2020 SER Remembering
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 13:22
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Do you ever have trouble remembering things?
• Important things like picking up your daughter from school?
• Emotionally important things like a wedding anniversary.
• Financially important things like paying the bills?
• Or simple things, like "Why you came into the room?"
Forgetting is normal. Forgetting things may not be "right," but it is normal. We tend to forget things that are "out of sight", which makes it easier for them to be "out of our minds," "forgotten."
Maybe you've noticed how something in your face can bring an idea to your memory? You're watching TV, when all of a sudden, a commercial breaks in. It's an ad for "ice cream." It is your favorite ice cream. You had no thought of eating until the commercial brought it to your eyesight. Many a late-night dash to the convenience store happened because of a Tv commercial.
God's Word commands and warns us to keep sin out of our sight at all costs.
“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
Those are strong words about the danger of sin's presence in our lives. The safest action to take is to avoid sin, keep sin out of sight. Because out of sight is out of mind.
Some things in life are best forgotten, especially when their remembrance does harm like the tragedies that touch us directly or happen around us.
I've got a few snapshots in the memory-book of my mind. Tragedies from 50 plus years ago. I can still see them. Now, they don't come often, only when I choose to remember or some event or circumstance brings them to life.
Remembering can do real harm, when, for example, our remembering causes sleepless nights and needless worry over what could or should have been, but we cannot change.
Some wounds remembered in life, like a car accident we were involved in, remain fresh years later so that we can relive tragic events over and over again in our minds and hearts.
Some things remembered cause us to relive our fears, keeping us from taking steps forward, for fear we'll repeat the same words or acts and have the outcomes again that brought us where we are today.
Peter once came to Jesus asking,
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
It is the classic question about forgiveness. It is the question we ask when our patience is running out. When we're tired of the excuses, and we don't see signs of change – change of heart, change of habit. Here's how Jesus answered:
Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
These additional words of Jesus are added in Luke:
Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
That's not easy. Do you struggle to forgive the sins of others? The guy at work that is forever dropping the ball, and you are forced to pick it up.
To err is human, to forgive is divine. Alexander Pope.
The best things forgotten in life are the sins of others.
While Jesus never said that, it is what He lived. Do you remember the day the religious leaders brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to the temple courts where Jesus was teaching? They brought there, not because they were concerned about the woman's sin. They did it to trap Jesus. Jesus makes one response to the religious leaders and one to the woman. Here is his response to the religious leaders.
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
After His comment, the religious leaders departed and, according to John, the only ones left are the woman and Jesus. Jesus asks the woman two questions:
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Her answer tells us so much about Jesus.
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Let's call this the surprise of grace, mercy and love.
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
His answer tells us so much about God, our Father. God is not looking for ways to accuse us. He finds no joy in point out the wrongs and flaws of sinners like us. No, when our God speaks His Words of command and promises they are given for our blessing. More importantly, God is anxious to forgive us our sins so that we can move past, the past, and live in the present, and walk a better path forward.
If we follow the example of Christ, then, we discover that The best things forgotten in life are the sins of others and the best things remember in life are the memories of people. The life and love, the joy and the sorrows we have shared with others. We can't afford to forget the acts of kindness we receive from others. For they are the things that make this life worth living.
Video: Memorial Day (Speak while the video is playing)
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, which was initially known as Decoration Day, a day to remember and honor those who lost their lives fighting in the Civil War. As our nation became engaged in other conflicts, Memorial Day ultimately encompasses all American military personnel who died in all our wars.
(Wait till the video finishes to advance to the next slide)
Have you ever stopped to think about how many military lives have been lost in all our nation's wars?
667,940
It only a number, but that number represents people: family members - husbands, fathers, brothers, and sisters - friends and neighbors. Imagine how many pages that would be if we wrote down each name? (I checked out to see how many it would be. If you wrote 53 names to a page, you would end up 12,603 pages of names.)
Too many for us to take for granted!
They were real people, just like you and me. Yet, one thing separates them from us all. They paid the ultimate price of freedom for us. We cannot afford to forget the price, the courage, the sacrifices that so many have made for us!
📷Did you know? Each year on Memorial Day, a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 pm local time.
Maybe it makes sense for each of us to stop on Monday at 3 pm and spend 5 minutes in silence to remember their sacrifice, to pray, offering our thanks to God for the blessings their sacrifice has secured.
But the real reason we are here in God's house today is because of what Christ has done for us.
When we don't show up every week, it is all too easy for us to forget what is God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Keep in mind that one of God's attributes is a flawless memory, except, now that Christ has suffered, died and rose God chooses not to remember our sins any more!
The Word of the Lord to Jeremiah, truly reveals the heart of our God:
And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Amazing God wants to forget our sins for Christ's sake.
bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Therefore, Paul admonishes us: for Christ's sake, forgive one another.
After all you, you've been forgiven your sins only because Jesus suffered, died and rose for you. Now He calls us who believe to follow in His steps and find true blessings forgiving each as we are forgiven.
I invite you to stand with me, to remember what we believe about our God, confessing our faith in the words of The Apostles’ Creed.