Have We Forgotten?

And if you would take your Bibles, turn if you would to Deuteronomy chapter six. We'll be there in just a few minutes. Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six. Have you forgotten?

I'm afraid we live in a world that has forgotten. Particularly has forgotten who? Has forgotten the Lord. You haven't forgotten the Lord at least not entirely because you're here today. You didn't come here for the great feast of food.

We we do have food from time to time but not today. You you didn't come here for the incredible entertainment. Why are you here? You came here to worship who? To worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, you haven't forgotten him. Praise the Lord but there are times that I think we do forget a bit and sadly, we live in a nation where God is very often forgotten today. Not only God but those who have sacrificed for him and those who have sacrificed for us. It is Memorial Day weekend. We celebrate Memorial Day tomorrow.

What is Memorial Day about? It's about remembering those who have sacrificed for us particularly, in service to our country, that we might remain, free to worship the Lord as we please, to do as he has commanded without fear of retribution from our government. There are sadly few that have that same freedom to the extent that we do in this world. So praise the Lord. And let's not forget those who have sacrificed that we might and are sacrificing now that we might enjoy this.

It is upon this premise of God ordained freedom, religious and otherwise, that this nation was founded and has been blessed by the hand of almighty God. Look if you would at these two verses. This morning, Proverbs 3three 12, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance. Psalm one forty four fifteen, Happy is that people that is in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the what? Whose God is the Lord.

Why do we enjoy the the freedoms? Prosperity? Why do we enjoy the Why the advancements in our country that we do to the extent that we do? We must not forget to praise and thank who? God.

And thank the Lord. To thank the Lord for the opportunities. To thank the Lord also for those who sacrificed in the past that we might have this opportunity today. To thank the Lord for those who gave of themselves that we might remain free, to thank the Lord for those who gave of themselves that we might hear the gospel and be saved. We must remember and we do remember them today.

And it is because of our God, most of all, that we enjoy the things we still do. I believe many of those freedoms which our forefathers died for and with which we have been greatly blessed, we have taken for granted. Would you agree? I think we have. We often take many things for granted.

We take, for some of us in particular, the home that we were blessed to grow up in and our parents for granted. We take the opportunity we have together here in this church and for those who have sacrificed in the past that this ministry might remain and grow. We take that that for granted. We take for granted our very salvation. We forget to thank the Lord daily for the grace of God that has afforded us the opportunity through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ his son.

That we might know him. That we might be saved from our sins and have been given the incredible gift of everlasting life in Jesus Christ. We take for granted the freedoms that we enjoy in this country also. Why is it that we take these things for granted and why is it that some of these things in particular are under attack today? Why are these things happening?

Because we have forgotten. Or that is we choose not to remember. It's not like oops, I forgot. It's more like I didn't choose to what? I did not choose to remember.

Did not choose to honor what God and others have done that we might live for live free both in our land and in our heart. We must choose to remember. We choose to remember today and we must not forget. Deuteronomy chapter six verses four through 12. Deuteronomy chapter six verses four through 12.

God foresaw this weakness in Israel in the Old Testament as well. He he foresaw this weakness of his people to forget. Him, to forget what he had done. And so he warned them ahead of time not to forget. Look Deuteronomy chapter six verse four.

Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. Thou shalt take these things to heart. And thou shalt teach them then diligently unto thy children.

Thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up. Sad to say most of the conversation that often goes on even in Christian homes today is about everything under the sun but who? But God and his word. The sacrifices he has made and others have made for us. Instead, we talk about celebrities and sporting events.

Now, on the sporting events side, I I do get into some sporting events and I enjoy talking about them. But how sad it is when that is the main topic of conversation in our homes and not the Lord. Moses goes on. He says in verse eight, thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand. They shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. In other words, keep them before your what? Before your eyes. Keep them on your mind. Write them on on on your house and write them in different places so that when you come in each day, you see them.

When you go out each day, you see them and we are reminded. That's what a memorial is. It is a reminder. It is not to be worshiped. It is to help us remember what God has done for us.

We talk about the cross of Jesus Christ. There is a cross behind me in the baptistry. It is not there to be worshiped but it is there as a what? A reminder of what Jesus Christ did for us because the fact is, if we are not reminded, then sadly, we will often take what God has given us for grant continuing on in verse 10. The reason God said that you shall talk about these things, these commandments in the Lord and put them before your eyes.

Verse 10, it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not and houses full of full of all good things which thou fillest not and wells dig which thou digest not and vineyard of and olive trees which thou plantest not. When thou shalt have eaten and be full, then what? Beware. Lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. God said, don't forget.

Tell it to your children. Put it before their eyes. Make it a part of your daily interaction and conversation. Lest you as a nation and as a people forget who God is and what God did for you. Now, those people to whom he was talking, this second generation now, after the wilderness wilderness wilderness wanderings that were going into the promised land.

They could not help but remember at the present time. But they needed to keep remembering. And they needed to tell others because God knew, once they got comfortable, then likely they would take their comfort for granted and forget the God who made it all possible. Does that sound like The United States Of America? Does that sound like even us as Christians?

We are comfortable in many ways and it is easy to forget when you're comfortable. God gave them memorials to remind them that they might not forget. He he gave them the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. They were to observe every year to keep before them. God's deliverance of them from slavery in Egypt.

God gave them the feast of tabernacles that they were to keep every week that they might remember God's provision for them in the wilderness. He gave them the ark of the covenant and the tablets on which the 10 commandments were written and kept therein. Not to be worshiped but as a what? A reminder. A reminder of who is Lord.

And what their God expects of them and how they are to approach and worship him. When they got to the promised land, this second generation, and they got to the banks of the Jordan River, what did God do so they could go across? He dried up the waters. He opened the Jordan River. He dried up the waters so they could walk across the Jordan River during flood time.

You know what God told him to do? He said, I want you to take 12 stones in the middle of that river and I want you to build a monument, just a pile of stones in the middle of the river as a reminder that you were here. And then he said, I want you to take 12 stones out of the river and over here on dry land, I want you to build another memorial, just a pile of 12 stones, 12 tribes of Israel, to remind you about the 12 stones that are where? In the middle of the river. So that you'll remember that it is God who brought you here.

It is God who has given you this land, a memorial. Turn if you would to Joshua chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. Verses 24 through 27. Just before Joshua retired from his position as leader of Israel and before his death.

Joshua gathered the people together at Shechem. Once again, that's where they went when they went into the land. And he spoke to them and now he's speaking to them once again as he is about to pass off the scene to remind them of all that God had done for them and to challenge them to remember and to commit themselves unto God. And if you'll look in verse 24, it says, and the people said unto Joshua, the Lord our God will we serve and his voice we will obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God and took a great stone and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord, the tabernacle. And Joshua said unto all the people, behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us. For it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us, it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God. What did Joshua do? He asked the people for a commitment and when they committed themselves unto the Lord, he said, here's a memorial to that.

This rock has seen metaphorically all that we have done and what you've committed here this day and it'll stay here under this oak as a reminder of the commitment that you have made as a people unto your God and a reminder of all that he has done for you. We need reminders, do we not? Memorials are a good thing as long as they are not to be worshipped, as long as they are seen as something to remind us. And yet, despite even these memorials that God erected, physical memorials, memorials of holidays that they were to keep. Yet in Judges chapter two verse 10, what does it tell us?

And also that generation were gathered under their fathers and there arose a generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. After all of that that God warned them, of all of that that God did to try to help them remember, they still what? They still forgot. They did not teach them diligently unto their children and to their children's children as they should. And their children's children forgot.

They forgot about the Lord. They forgot what he had done for them. And that sets the stage for a terrible cycle in the book of Judges where the Israelites would go after other gods and idols and incorporate them into their worship. And God would bring oppressors into their land to oppress and punish them that they might see the wickedness of their way and they would repent and turn back to God. God would deliver them, would send a judge, deliverer them.

But then after that judge passed off the scene, guess what? Here we go all over again. They forgot. We as a people, particularly as a nation, have forgotten too, as the next generation of Israel did in the book of Judges. We have forgotten God as a people.

His person, who he is. He is not just some impersonal force. He is the creator God. He is your creator. He is your God.

He is your judge. And if you will, he is also your savior. We have forgotten who he is for he is Jesus Christ who came and died and bled and rose again from the dead that we might have life in him. We have forgotten what he did for us. Very few Christians read their bible like they should and many religious people never pick it up.

And they do not know the works of what God has done in the past for us nor recognize the works that he does today in our behalf. We have forgotten his word and his laws. We've ignored them. We have set them aside. At home, I should have brought it this morning, I have what's called a New England Primer.

Okay? Or primer, depending on how you pronounce it. It's this little school book. It's about that thick. You know how they taught first graders to learn the alphabet in the New England primer.

They taught them the alphabet by using verses from the what? Bible. They taught them to read by having them read passages from the Bible. The history that they taught them largely came from the bible. It is full of scripture that was once taught in public schools across our land.

I'm sad today we have kicked God's word out and God with it. Out of our schools, out of our public discourse, more and more we do not want to hear about God. Why is that? Why would we choose to forget? Why would we choose to put God on a shelf?

I think it's because we do not want to be accountable to him. We want to do as we please and not as he pleases. And even as Christians, we sort of act that same way at times. We have forgotten his person, his works, his word. In respect to Memorial Day, in some cases, we have forgotten those who served and died for us so that we could live in a free land.

We forget to say thank you when we pass them on the street. We forget about their sacrifice and the sacrifice they are making this very moment. So, we can sit here comfortably, freely worshiping our God. We forgotten those who served and died that we might know the gospel. The truest freedom that there is is only found in who?

Jesus. In Jesus Christ. Somebody sacrificed that I might know him and because of them, I am here securing Christ today and many of you can say the same. The writers of the Declaration of Independence Against All Odds signed their names pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to this endeavor of freedom. These men and others like George Washington and Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin risked their lives till they came to this nation and the freedoms which it represents.

It is this courage and bravery and willingness to sacrifice for one's people their freedom and for one's God that has kept us free and prosperous. Yes, something can be said for the work ethic of many in our country. Something can be said for the faithfulness of our people in many respects. Something can be said for the ingenuity of the American mind. But most of all what can be said is what God has done for us and the opportunity we have been given for those who have sacrificed and risked themselves for us.

These men were preceded and followed by hundreds of thousands who served and are serving and hundreds of thousands who have died and are dying today so that you and I might remain free. They embody this verse, greater love hath no man than this that a man, what? Down his life for his friends. It is very likely that somebody this week will lay down their life very literally for you and for me so that we can be free. We may not we may never know about it.

It may make the news. It might not. But they will die so that we might live free. Don't forget to remember them and the sacrifice they make for you. We remember and honor them today, but they are only or should only be half the story as we alluded to earlier.

But not only have men sacrificed and died that we may remain free, but just as many, if not more, have sacrificed and died that you and I might be saved. Freed from the power and eternal punishment of what? Of sin in hell. Let's not forget them either. Romans twelve eleven describes them in this way.

It says, and they overcame him. That is they overcame Satan and his plans. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb through the sacrifice of Christ, by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death. How did they overcome the wicked one? They overcame our adversary and his plan to enslave humanity and his wickedness by their faith in the shed blood of who?

Jesus Christ. See, he is the ultimate one who gave down his life, Who gave his life not just for his friends but those who were his what? His enemies. For he came and he died for us when we were his enemies that he might make us his what? His friends.

They overcame him by the blood of the lamb. The only way to overcome Satan is through Jesus Christ. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life.

No man comes to the father but by him, by Jesus. Praise the Lord. If you're here today and you haven't come to God through faith in Christ, then you haven't come to God. You may have tried some other way. Getting your name on a church directory does not assure you of a place in heaven.

Getting dunked in a baptismal of water does not assure you of a place in heaven. Praying your prayers daily does not assure you of a place in heaven. The only one who can assure you, praise God of a place in heaven is Jesus Christ. And the thing is, he did it all for you. He did it all for me.

All I must do is receive his gift of eternal life. All you must do is to receive his gift by faith but you must humble yourself. You must see your need and you must put your faith in Jesus Christ alone. Have you done that? I hope you have.

If you have, you have a home in heaven. Don't take it for granted. And if you haven't, behold today is the day of salvation. They overcame the enemy by their faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by being willing to sacrifice whatever necessary to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to others. Somebody told somebody who told somebody who told somebody who told me who are telling you.

Jesus Christ died for you and rose again. It is because of their sacrifice that I'm saved. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God but how shall they hear without a what? Without a preacher. Now, that isn't a term referencing somebody necessarily in the position of pastor.

It means a proclaimer unless somebody tells you, tells you. Somebody told somebody who told you. Praise God that they did and some of them may have sacrificed their very lives to do so. Look if you would up here at Hebrews twelve:one and two. Hebrews twelve:one and two.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about or surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the rate race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Says, wherefore seeing we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. What are the great cloud of witnesses mentioned? Who are those witnesses that we are surrounded by? I think in this context those witnesses are those same people described in this verse.

Those who overcame Satan and his plans for amenity. By their faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ who loved not their lives unto the death. Those are the witnesses who have gone before us, who did their part, who are now seated in the heavenlies with Jesus Christ. They went before us. They, like our savior, endured whatever persecution that we might know Jesus Christ.

They are witnesses who are now watching maybe us. We are blessed with a brief summary and memorial of their faith in the preceding chapter in Hebrews 11. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Abel, Ruth, Rahab, many people of faith who trusted God, who trusted God and set out by faith to follow him, who lived what they believed in the face of those who mocked them for it and who were unafraid to tell others of the grace of God that had been afforded them. Not only are we surrounded by these but millions since the day of this writing who have given themselves to spread the gospel of Christ and to live out the Lord's will in their individual lives. You shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

We could speak and if we had time, the 12 apostles, each one church history tells us of how they died. We could speak of great missionaries of the past and the present, David Livingston, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Mary Slessor, Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor, Jim Elliott, Nate Saint, Eric Little, some of whom gave their lives that others might hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some have died by the millions for refusing to recant their faith in Christ down through the centuries. Some are still dying today. In common communist and Islamic countries where the worship of God is forbidden, and those who choose to put their faith in Christ and share it with others, put their lives at risk.

Some who may die this very day for the sake of Jesus. Others have done their part in telling their neighbors, their friends, their relatives, their coworkers of the love of Jesus Christ despite the ridicule and persecution heaped upon them for being supposedly prejudiced or intolerant by telling them simply that there is only one way to heaven through Jesus Christ. Let's take a moment to remember some of these and what they gave that we might live eternally. Back to Hebrews twelve one and two. Close with this.

Let's read it once more. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God, the throne of God. Now, what did I emphasize in that passage? Us, us, we, our, That passage isn't about looking back, that passage is about looking what?

Forward. About looking forward, not just back, but looking forward. Not just remembering what happened in the past, but taking what happened in the past, applying it to the present that we might plan for the what? For the future and commit ourselves to the same cause as they. It's now my turn.

It's now your turn. It's our turn to put our faith where it belongs in the God of heaven and in Jesus Christ our savior. It is our turn to take his word, to read it, to study it, to learn it, to apply it, to heed it. It is our turn to share it with others in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is our turn to take risks.

It is our turn to step out in faith. It is our turn and our time to set aside the weights of sin and pleasure and whatever distractions, love of self may hinder us in the race that is set before us. It is your turn. It is my turn to live for Christ, to take a stand for Christ, to tell others of Christ, to overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony and by loving not our lives unto the death. By putting Jesus first, by putting others first, whatever that may bring.

Would you be willing to say to the Lord this morning by the grace of God to the best of my ability and by your strength I will do my part. I will not be excluded. I will choose to remember. I will choose to be thankful. I will choose to join those who have gone before So that those who come after may experience the freedom, may experience the joy, may know the savior that I know and that he might be praised.

Maybe this morning you realize that you've not been doing your part. What does the Bible say? If we confess our what? Sins, he is faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. As we sing a hymn of invitation, just bow your head and confess your sin to him.

You don't have to confess it to me. Confess it to him. He'll hear your prayer. He'll forgive your sin. He will give you strength.

And victory. Over your flesh and help you to do that which is right and honoring to him and maybe this morning, you don't know exactly what freedom I'm talking about in Christ Jesus. Maybe you do not know the Lord Jesus as your savior. You don't have to walk out of here without knowing him. You don't have to walk out of here this morning without being secure in him, without having received the gift of eternal life through him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever that's you believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That can be you today. If you would come as we give this hymn of invitation, we would love to show you. How you can be saved. We would love to introduce you to Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for this day, for your word. Pray Lord that you would open our eyes and help us to see where we have forgotten and Lord the things we have taken for granted and the selfishness Lord of our hearts and our choices and Lord that we might confess those sins before you that we might commit ourselves this day and every day to the service of our king And to the proclamation of the gospel. And Lord, I pray if there be one here today that's never trusted Jesus Christ as savior or who is unsure that they wouldn't leave this place unsure. One more day, one more hour, one more minute.

That they might come this morning. As you invite them to do so. As we sing in Jesus name. Amen.