PODCAST
Remembrances
October 4, 2026 | Brandon CooperBrandon discusses how we are a forgetful people, and that forgetfulness can quietly erode our faith over time. In Joshua 4 and 5, God commands Israel to stack twelve stones from the Jordan River as a permanent monument to His faithfulness, designed to spark questions and keep the story of His power alive for future generations. The real threat to our spiritual lives is not always dramatic moral failure but the slow, gradual cooling that comes from forgetting what God has done. Just as Israel rehearsed God’s faithfulness through the Passover meal and the stones at the Jordan, we rehearse His faithfulness through baptism, communion, and the intentional daily practice of looking up at who God is, looking back at what He has done, and looking ahead with trust in who He will always be.
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TRANSCRIPT_______________________________________________+
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Well, good morning, church. You can go ahead and open your bibles to Joshua chapter four, Joshua, chapter four. As we continue in our series, we’ll be starting in verse 1, Joshua 4:1. As you were turning there. We are often forgetful as people.
Some of us are more forgetful than others. I would count myself in that category, just constantly forgetting the most basic things. Just to give you an example, I think I put it together that I have now left my credit card in four different restaurants this year, thankfully all local. So I’ve been able to go back and get them one Time I did leave it at a restaurant in an airport that was not o’, Hare, but I caught it before I flew away. So that was great news.
But that, I mean, like, the writing’s on the wall here. I know how this story ends. I’m one of those, and I’m sure some of you are too. Who forgets why I came into a room, almost every room that I enter. True story.
It’s not on my notes, but I had written the sermon, already written this illustration, and then the next day walked into Kyle’s office, as I often do, and stood there for a while and said, like, you’re not gonna believe this. This is my opening illustration. And I have no idea why I’m here right now though. So, like, that’s how it goes. Now, some of these are funny, of course.
We forget things. Ha ha ha, didn’t remember to get milk on the way home, whatever, something like that. Sometimes they get a little more serious, you know, where you’re like, I forgot to pick up the prescription when I’ve got strep or something like that. And you’re like, okay, this is going to be a little bit worse for me. And then they start to get really serious where it’s not just I forgot to pick up the prescription, but I forgot to take the life saving medication that I’m on that I’m really not supposed to miss.
It’s important to remember. It’s important to remember a lot in life, and yet it’s so easy to forget. And that’s especially true spiritually. The good news is God knows that we are a forgetful people. And so he provides the remedy because he provides memory aids for us.
He doesn’t want us to forget. He didn’t want Israel to forget what had just happened to them. Not for the first time either, as we’ll see. And so our passage this morning, a lot of it is just answering the question, how will Israel remember to remember? And there we got three scenes that will show us how the Lord is going to help them here and then show how he will help us as well.
So our first scene, a mnemonic device. Let me read chapter 4114 for us. A little longer chunk of text here. When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, choose 12 men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight. So Joshua called together the 12 men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, go over before the Ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan.
Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, what do these stones mean? Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.
So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua. They carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the 12 stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant had stood. And they are there to this day now.
The priests who carried the Ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the Lord had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed the Ark of the Lord and the priests came to the other side. While the people watched, the men of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh crossed over, ready for battle in front of the Israelites as Moses had directed them. About 40,000, armed for battle, crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war. That day, the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel.
And they stood in awe of him all the days of his life, just as they had stood in awe of Moses. And pause there. All right, so I said this to you last week, right? It was like Gandalf saying, morning, the fifth day, everybody’s ready, right? And then you’re all going to forget.
That was the 12 guys, right? Now, at long last, we know what those 12 guys were there for that Joshua had appointed. To do what? Well, now we know what they were appointed to do. One from each tribe.
These 12 guys, they’re representing the whole nation of Israel. They are supposed to grab a stone from the center of the riverbed as a monument. Set up as a monument. Now, these are big stones, big enough that they needed to carry them on their shoulders. But more important than that, they are smooth stone.
These are stones that have been made smooth by the relentless battering of the river’s waters. At least they had been battered by the river’s waters until the Lord made those waters stand up in a heap, as we saw last week. Well, now, these stones, taken out of the center of the river, they are stood up in a heap in this monument. And as a result, they would stand out to passersby. They’d look and they’d go, why is there a pile of rocks here?
But especially, why is there a pile of smooth rocks here? Like, how did these get here? I can remember as a middle schooler when my family took a road trip out west, that at one point when we were driving through Kansas or something like that, I looked out the window and there was an ostrich running next to me.
And I was a very bright middle schooler, and I was like, I don’t think ostriches live around here, you know, So I had to ask about that. Like, why are there ostriches here? Because I saw a bunch of them. It turns out right. There was a farm, of course, was the answer to that question.
But in my head, I’m thinking, these don’t belong here. How did they get here? That’s what God wants these stones to do, to stoke a holy curiosity in the people who pass them by. Especially for those who still have curiosity, which would be kids. Kids are the ones who go, what’s that doing there?
We, if I could paraphrase G.K. chesterton, we sin and grow old and lose that sense of wonder, that sense of curiosity. We begin to think we know answers instead of asking questions to find answers. And so this pile of rocks is meant to be. You can see it there in verse six, a sign to the children. It’s the same word that’s used of the Passover meal was meant to be a sign.
If you know anything about the Passover, you know that was for kids also. Big part of the Passover, even today, is the kids asking the questions, why are we having bitter herbs? Why are we dipping the parsley and salt water? Like, what is going on here? And so that’s what’s meant to happen here.
When kids ask, what do these stones mean? The parents would have a great story to tell. And that is the hope. Now, parents, there is a world of application here in this chunk of text. Our primary responsibility as parents is to ensure that our kids know as much about God as they possibly can.
When they leave our care, we cannot make them believe that work belongs to God alone, but we can certainly make sure they know what we believe and why we believe it. Who is this God? Why do we serve Him? What does His Word say? How should we follow Him?
That’s what we teach our kids. Are you teaching your kids that? Are you opening the Word daily with them? I mean, this book is a finer monument than river stones, I can promise you that. Are you opening it together as a family?
Do you talk about God? About your relationship with Jesus Christ? All the time? Like, this is everyday talk, not just Sundays. Maybe on our way home from church.
What do you do with opportunities that are there in front of you, like Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Advent, Christmas? Do they see you following Jesus? Do they see you praying? Do they see you studying His Word? Memorizing it?
Do they see you confessing sin? Especially when you confess sin to them and the ways you’ve sinned against them? Do they see you serving, sacrificing, sharing the gospel with those who need to hear it? And if the answer to any of those questions, by the way, is no, talk to Kyle. He’s a family ministries pastor.
Like, he lives to equip parents to do those things. Well, we got all sorts of workshops and stuff coming up this year. Just ask him about that. This is not just for kids, though, this pile of stones. Not just for kids, though.
All of us forget, as we’ve seen and as you probably experience in your own life. And so God gives these stones to Israel as a mnemonic device. You know what a mnemonic device is? You had them way back in spelling class, which for some of us is a long time ago. Double the C, double the S, and you’ll always get success.
Okay, Mnemonic device helps you remember. These stones are there to help us remember. And so the fact that God gives us this mnemonic like, reminds us of the threat that forgetting poses to our face. We take an analogy from marriage. You know, most of us think, oh, I know what the threat to marriage is.
It’s adultery. Marriage is not the. Adultery is not the threat to marriage. Adultery is the effect of the threat to your marriage. The real threat to our marriage is just that cooling forgetting that happens over time.
At one point, I was madly in love with this woman. I thought about her all the time. There was nothing I would not have done for her. Well, right now, the game. So I can’t do anything for her like that kind of cooling forgetting.
That’s the danger, and we know that’s true of us spiritually. Isn’t this what Jesus says to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2? I hold this against you, you have forsaken the love you had. At first, you’ve forgotten what it was like when I first saved you. That’s the danger.
And so if that’s the threat, then the remedy is proactive remembering. And proactive is key in that phrase. In Hebrew thought, remembering is not just like, oh, it’s there. It’s a living reflection. It is, as one commentator put it, a remembering with concern.
There’s a reason I’m trying to remind myself about this. You know what it looks like. One of my favorite quotes from church history comes from George Mueller, and he says, you know, the first business of every day is for me to get my. My soul happy in the Lord. That is an active remembering, because that’s what will get your heart happy in the Lord, is when you’re going, I remember who I am apart from Christ, and I remember who I am in Christ, what He has done for me, what it cost him to save me.
So we preach the gospel to ourselves to remember that, who he is, what he’s done. Now, if you remember all that, you’re actively remembering all that, you are quite likely to obey when he commands you. And that’s exactly what the nation does. You see that starting in verse nine. And really the rest of this chunk, you know, the priests are there where they’re supposed to be, in the middle of the Jordan river till the whole nation crosses over.
It’s not just those who cross over, but those two and a half tribes that are staying on the east side of the Jordan. We met them earlier. They cross over armed for battle. That’s their obedience. They are there.
They cross over before the Lord. It even says, like he’s a witness to their obedience, which is also worth remembering. We live our lives Coram Deo is the phrase before the Lord. That is what they have done. Now, we don’t always keep his word.
They do here, but we don’t always. But God always keeps his word. You can actually see that there in verse 14, because God keeps His promise to Joshua. When we came across last week. Chapter three, verse seven, when God says, I’m going to exalt you in the eyes of the nation.
And here he is exalted like this is God’s man chosen for this task. And now Israel knows, and we’ll hopefully follow him as God’s representative. So there’s the mnemonic device that God has given this monument that is meant to catch attention and peak curiosity. Curiosity, which is good news for Israel. Is it good for anyone else, though?
Let’s See as we go on. Scene 2 the Missional God verses 15 to 24. The rest of chapter 4. Let me read it for us. Then the Lord said to Joshua, command the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant law to come up out of the Jordan.
So Joshua commanded the priests come up out of the Jordan. The priests came up out of the river carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. No sooner had they set their feet on the dry ground than the waters of the Jordan returned to their place place and ran at flood stage as before. On the 10th day of the first month, the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the 12 stones they had taken out of the Jordan.
He said to the Israelites, in the future, when your descendants ask their parents, what do these stones mean, tell them Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. The Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God. The crossing is complete.
The priests, remember, are carrying the ark, or the covenant of the Lord, which we talked a lot about last week. They were the first to go in and they are the last to come out. Now remember the ark. This is God’s throne, and this is the visible symbol of his presence. And so there it is.
The Lord goes before us, the Lord is there with us, and then the Lord comes behind us. When the priests come out of the river, the river returns to flood stage and we are told the exact date on which this happens. The first day of the tenth month. Month. Sorry, tenth day of the first month.
I just have numbers in my notes now. That would be important for us. We’re going up. Sounds cool, I guess. Hey, we’re in October.
Whatever. But this month is an important month. It’s an important date in Israel’s history. It shows up once before. Here’s Exodus 12, 2 and 3, where God says, this month is to be for you.
The first month. The first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that I the 10th day of this first month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. You catch the significance of what just happened. We are 40 years to the day after Israel selected the Passover lamb.
The day after preparation for that first Passover, which was this mighty sign of God’s power and goodness before it happened. And so it preps us for what’s coming, especially in the next chapter, which we’ll get to in a moment. So that’s the date on which this is happening. And Joshua sets up the 12 stones there at Gilgal like he’s supposed to. He repeats the purpose, everything we looked at in that last section, although he expands it as well.
Like, what do these stones mean when you get asked that? Tell them the next generation, especially God, dried up the Jordan river even when was that flood stage? And we crossed on dry ground. Okay, but why? Like, what was the purpose of that even?
And so now we’re starting to see that we have not just mnemonic, but a missional mnemonic, because we serve a missional God. And he wants everyone everywhere to know that he is God. And so we see that in verse 24 in particular, like this missional climax, by the way. I hope everybody at this point is now tracking with us why we got a pile of stones on our graphic, but also where our title comes from. Like, that all might know.
It’s right there in verse 24. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know the hand of the Lord is powerful. So God did this wonder, this amazing thing, performed this miracle so that all peoples would know who he is and so that his people would fear him in light of who he is. Now. To fear God is to give him proper reverence, like respect, awe before him.
Every time I think of this, I think of the ocean. I love the ocean. I’m a water guy. I am happiest when I’m next to water or on the water. If it’s salty water, even better.
I love the ocean. I delight in the ocean. I would like to be by the ocean. I’m also terrified of the ocean. Like, when we go swimming in the ocean, I get nervous.
I get nervous for my kids especially. These are big waves. They’re rocks. The unfathomable depth of it all. Like, that’s the tension we have with the Lord as well.
I love the Lord. I delight in the Lord. I want to be with the Lord. But just like I know the ocean could kill me and those I love, I know that God could wipe me out. And not only that, I know that God should wipe me out in light of my sin.
And so there’s that reverence like that. That’s the fear that we’re talking about when we talk about The Lord Israel has seen both. Like, they just saw his power. This is a God who can just make a river stop. That’s scary.
And at the same time, he is a God who makes the river stop so his people can cross into the land that he has given them. There’s the delight, there’s the love. So we’ve seen his power and his love. We’ve seen his strength and his goodness.
If we understand that, we will live differently before Him. That’s the hope here. But we’re not the only ones who have seen this. Israel is not the only people who saw what the Lord did. We met Rahab two weeks ago, and she’s going, hey, we heard.
Like, we know what the Lord has been doing for you. We’ll keep reading. We’re going to see it again in a moment. Like, Canaan knows the Lord at this point. Egypt knows the Lord at this point.
They know God, even if they don’t fear Him. They’re scared of him, but they don’t fear him with that biblical fear, that reverent awe and love. But there is an implicit invitation in it. And that’s the. The idea almost like God is saying, even to the watching world, reckon with what you’ve seen.
Like, there’s unmistakable proof of God’s power. You can’t ignore it. So Canaan, wrestle with it. Like, ask some questions about this. Who is this God?
Of course, the invitation is still out there today for all of us. For you, if you’re skeptical, even now, in this morning, look at the stones. What do they tell you? Look at one stone in particular. In fact, the one that he rolled away so that we could see that the tomb is empty because Jesus has come out of the grave.
God sent Jesus to die in our place, to take the punishment for our sins, the punishment we deserve on Himself.
And then he raised Jesus Christ as a vindication of his message and the proof of his saving power. He raised him as the supreme sign of who he is and what he’s done. Wrestle with it. Wrestle with that sign. What does it mean?
In church, we have the privilege of getting to answer those questions when people ask us, why are those stones in a pile and why are they smooth? Why do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?
Talk to me about this hope that you have. Like, give me the reason for the hope within you in the midst of this or that or the other thing. Because we love God and want to see him magnified in and through us. We witness to and proclaim the mighty Deeds of our God. Our desire is that all might know what we have seen.
Then we get seen. Three. The memorial ceremony. Really? Memorial ceremony.
So let me read chapter five, verses one to 12. Now, when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted in fear, and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again. So Joshua made flint knives, knives, and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeah. Now, this is why he did so.
All those who came out of Egypt, all the men of military age, died in the wilderness on the way after leaving Egypt. All the people that came out had been circumcised. But all the people born in the wilderness during the journey from Egypt had not. The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness 40 years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died. Since they had not obeyed the Lord.
The Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land. He had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us a land flowing with milk and honey. So he raised up their sons in their place. And these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.
And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Says place has been called Gilgal to this day. In the evening of the 14th day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover. The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land.
Unleavened bread and roasted grain. The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land. There was no longer any manna for the Israelites. But that year they ate the produce of Canaan. Verse one is an important introductory note.
Here, here. Remember Rahab, right? She said, everybody’s already melting in fear before you. Okay? So they were already melting with fear because Israel was coming.
And then God stopped the Jordan River. So they’re melting even more at this point, which means there’s no way they’re going to attack Israel. Like they are quaking in their boots. They are not advancing on Israel. And that matters because Israel’s got to go through a circumcision ceremony still, which will leave them highly vulnerable.
This actually would have been a great time to attack them. If you’ve read Genesis, Genesis 34 in particular, you know that this is how Dinah’s brothers got their revenge on the men of Shechem. After they raped her, they were like, okay, yeah, sure, we can be friends, we can get married, all that kind of stuff. You just need to be circumcised first. And they killed them all after they were circumcised because they were.
Were weak. They were bruised and bleeding still at that point. That’s where Israel is in this moment. And yet the Lord, because he has caused fear, panic to go before Israel, protects them in their vulnerable state. Why do they need to be circumcised, though?
It’s actually kind of a remarkable moment. And yet we understand why it’s given to us pretty implicitly. But there in the text, verses 4, 5, and 6 in particular, the generation that came out of Egypt, like the adult generation, they had been circumcised. But then the generation that grew up in the wilderness, they had not been circumcised. And we can probably guess why, because in verse six, it talks about the fact that that adult generation didn’t get to go in the promised land because they didn’t obey the Lord.
Well, here was another area where they didn’t obey the Lord. They didn’t circumcise their sons as they were were supposed to, which is really significant. This might seem like a small thing to us, but when you disobey in these ways, God says, you’re not really my people. Like here’s Genesis 17:14, when God institutes the covenant with Abraham. And the sign of the covenant, circumcision, it says this.
Any uncircumcised male who has not been circumcised in the flesh will be cut off. Off from his people. He has broken my covenant. So here you have an entire generation of God’s covenant people who are cut off from God and not a part of his covenant. Not because their disobedience either.
Because of disobedience of their parents. I mean, so this adult generation, this parent generation, effectively cut their children off from God, which is exactly what our disobedience can do to our kids. Kids, something we probably want to take pretty seriously. And yet God is merciful. And that’s what we see here.
That’s our only hope, Our only hope for our kids. Anyway, it’s an interesting little paradox almost, because the circumcised generation dies in the wilderness because they didn’t obey. And yet it’s the uncircumcised generation that God raises up by grace to take their place. And who will obey in their stead? God keeps his promises even when we disobey.
And so the failure of the parents didn’t doom their kids. And how many of us are clinging to that hope every day? But there is a lesson for us in that, because it means that you can have all the marks of Christian faith and yet be cut off, off by your disobedience. I mean, again, think of that adult generation. They’ve got the sign of circumcision.
They’re eating manna. They crossed through the Red Sea. I mean, they, like, met God at Sinai and yet they were cut off.
Same is true for us. Like, you can be in the flock but not know the shepherd. You can live in the king’s country, but reject his sovereignty. Simply coming to church, going through the motions of Christianity is not enough. We must listen to his voice.
Of course, part of that means teaching the next generation to listen to his voice as well. We are not in the covenant community by an accident of birth or by our surface participation in the rights of the religion we profess.
We are saved by grace through faith expressed in works manifest in concrete. Obedience. Obedience is key. It’s been a key theme in Joshua already. Just worth noting that they are circumcised in this moment so that they can take the Passover, because no one who’s uncircumcised can take the Passover.
So God’s getting ready, getting them ready for the Passover meal. There’s a lesson there too, because obedience, then is part of how we remember. It’s proof that we remembered. Yes, but it’s also strengthening our memory. That’s what’s happening here.
And make no mistake, both circumcision and the Passover are both, both memorial ceremonies. These are acts of intentional remembering. In circumcision, we remember the covenant God made with Abraham, with all its glorious promises, the blessing that would come to all nations as a result.
And of course, the Passover. We remember the covenant at Sinai under Moses, Moses, with all its attendant mighty acts of deliverance.
These memorials are vital to the Christian life. How vital? Just consider with me for a moment. I think this is quite clear. In Scripture, God’s standard operating procedure is an frequent miracles.
Yes, God does a lot of miracles. He does miracles still today, absolutely. But Miracles tend to get bunched up even in scripture. A lot of miracles under Moses, a lot of miracles under Elijah and Elisha, certainly under Jesus and then the early church. But they’re not non stop like it seems like it when you read this book, of course, but you got like 1500 years recorded here.
I mentioned this last week, like, yeah, he does a miracle, he stops the Jordan river and then they ford every other river after that. So God’s standard operating procedure isn’t frequent miracles. Instead his ordinary way of working is frequent witnesses to and teaching about those miracles. They crossed the Jordan river one time. The stones were there in perpetuity or the Passover.
There was only one time where the angel of death actually passed over the nation of Israel in preparation for them to leave Egypt. And yet every year they ate the Passover meal together. So that’s his ordinary way of working, witnesses to and teaching about those miracles. Most obviously of course for us today, to his mighty acts of salvation in Christ’s death and resurrection. Which is why we remember it.
What are you doing here right now? Why do you come every week? A lot of different reasons, but I think the chief reason we come together is to remember you’re not learning anything. I mean, sure, a little background information depending on what passage we’re in, but mostly all I’m doing is telling you stuff you already know. And what’s interesting is when I talk about what Jesus has done for us, which I do every week, unless it’s Kyle, Reeves, Shane, somebody like that who’s telling us what Jesus has done for us.
When I get to that part in the sermon, you know what you all start doing?
Do you know what’s happening in that moment? You remember a, what you already knew. Like that’s what I’m talking about. So what memorial ceremonies he’s given us a lot. Of course the Sunday gathering is one of them.
But the two that come to mind and that are related to the two we see here are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the new covenant replacement for circumcision because it marks our entrance into the covenant community, an individual’s entrance into the covenant community, which in the old covenant happened by birth because it was a racial, an ethnic, a national community. In the new Covenant it is by faith. And so when someone puts their faith in Christ, we baptize them the memorial ceremony. And then there’s the Lord’s Supper, which is Passover, like literally was the Passover meal that Jesus co opted to kind of say, you know what Passover was pointing to this right here, guys.
This is my. This is my body and that’s the Lord’s Supper, why we take communion. So what do we get? We get witnesses then, to God’s final decisive act to save his people in the Lord’s Supper and then that salvation experienced in the life of the individual in baptism.
Peter calls us living stones, doesn’t he? Which means baptism is just pulling a stone out of the water going, do you see what God has done? It’s what we’ll celebrate today here in just a few moments. It is interesting, though, all this prep for the Passover, and then it’s like. And then they had the Passover meal period.
So instead of that meal focusing on that meal, focused on that dinner, we actually focus on all the dinners thereafter. Because the next little bit is saying, there’s no more manna. Because now they’re going to eat from the fruit of that land. God kept his promise. That’s what he said was going to happen.
So they’re going to eat the fruit of the land after they’d experienced God’s miraculous provision in the desert for a generation. Good reminder that God always provides. He just does so in different ways. And just because it’s the ordinary way doesn’t mean it’s any less gracious or bountiful. His provision, Dr. John Witherspoon, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, president of the College of New Jersey, which I think is Princeton memory serves, proved this.
At one point, a man came rushing up to him, someone from his church, and said, why, Dr. Witherspoon, you must join me in giving thanks to God for his extraordinary providence in saving my life. For as I was driving from Rock Hill, the horse ran away and the buggy was smashed to pieces on the rocks. But I escaped unharmed. And Dr. Witherspoon understood this lesson here in this moment, and he said, why? I can tell you a far more remarkable providence than that.
I have driven over that road hundreds of times. My horse has never run away, my buggy was never smashed and I was never hurt. It’s the same providence. We seem to want the spectacular always. And the Lord’s going like, I’m providing for you in the ordinary way.
It is still my provision. A good lesson for us. But what should we do then with all of this? How can we keep from forgetting? Your big idea this morning is simple.
Remember to remember. Remember to remember. Don’t forget.
I think we’ve got three questions to ask of our big why must we remember what must we remember and how must we remember? So why must we remember? To remember. We’ve gotten this already. We remember to remember for our sake and theirs.
We talk here about the fact that we are made to magnify and sent to serve. Both of those happen by our remembrance, like we are made, like Christ in our remembering. It’s what we’re learning in journey group right now. If you’re in journey group, the key to our transformation is the gospel. And so what do we do?
Even the Gospel waltz that some of us are learning right now, we’re trying to repent, believe, obey, and the tricky step is believe. But that’s the one that holds them all together. That’s the one that makes the rest of it possible. What are we doing when we believe? We are remembering and rehearsing gospel truths.
That’s how we are changed. But remember also that he did all this so that all might know. And so we are then sent by the gospel to proclaim this truth. We are all living stones plucked from the water, pointing to his glory. That’s why we remember.
What must we remember? And here’s where it gets fun. We remember to remember that God doesn’t remember.
Now, I should clarify before I’m accused of blasphemy. Because God is omniscient. What in the world could he possibly forget? Well, the glorious good news of the gospel is that he does forget. Isaiah 43:25, God says, I, even I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more.
I actually love that it says, he doesn’t remember, which is different from forgetting. Forgetting is passive. And when I walked into Kyle’s office, I wasn’t like, okay, you had a question about baptism. Just make sure that’s out of here. Make sure that’s gone, okay?
Like, no, it just happens to me. Happens to all of us. Forgetting is passive, but not remembering, that’s active. That takes work, doesn’t it? I mean, picture when you see.
Maybe it would be even here in this room, when you see that person coming towards you, that hurt you badly. If you’re looking at them going, they repented and I forgave. So I’m not going to remember that. I’m going to come at them like. Like, that wasn’t even there.
That never happened. That’s over. That’s covered over. Or take a different example, like having your conviction expunged. You did something wrong, and at a certain point, whatever, legal jujitsu, it’s gone.
And so you could walk into the courthouse and go, hey, tell me what this person did. And the clerk will say, there’s no record of that person. That’s what God does for us. He expunges our record legally and restores us relationally. I mean, how active is his not remembering?
Here’s a different prophet. Micah 7:19. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea, that terrifying ocean that we talked about earlier. Jerry Bridges, in his book Transforming Grace, tells a story. He was a naval officer, and there was a small boat and accident at one point, and some equipment was lost in the depths of the sea.
And so they spent all day dredging the bottom, trying to find the equipment. In vain, it was lost forever. That’s what God does to our sins. By the blood of Christ, our record has been expunged, our relationship has been restored, and our sin has been hurled overboard into the depths of the sea. Remember that and see what it does for your soul.
Remember to remember that he chooses not to remember. And then how must we remember? Three very brief steps that will help us fix our thoughts and hearts in three different directions in rapid succession so that we remember first of all, we remember by looking at up. We look up so that we remember who God is, our gracious and compassionate God. Slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Our God, strong and loving. Our God who is good and able. We remember. We look up to remember who he is so that we can interpret our circumstances, whatever we’re going through, in light of that unchanging truth. Because we don’t look up first.
We’re going to interpret God in light of our circumstances. And that is a dangerous place to be. But he’s unchanging. We have the proof of who he is. So we start there, because this is the foundation we look up next, we look back.
We look back, remember God’s goodness and faithfulness in your life, the record of his love to you. One of the first songs I sang as a Christian after my freshman year of high school with an old spiritual, said this. He’s never failed me. He’s never failed me yet. And that’s what we’re remembering when we look back.
He’s never failed me. He’s never failed me yet. So you want to, like, turn the pages of your life, like, flip through the spiritual scrapbook of your life. Where do you see Him? What has he done for you?
And even Better honestly, turn the pages of this book. Right. Forget your scrapbook. That one’s good, too. But look at what he’s done for us.
At the Red Sea, at the Jordan River. David standing before Goliath, Daniel in the lion’s den. And of course, the hill of Calvary and the empty tomb nearby. We look back, look up, look back. And then finally, we look ahead.
We look ahead. Now that you’ve remembered, you can look ahead with resolute trust. He is who he always is. He’ll do what he’s always done. And that trust manifests.
And exactly what we see here, prayerful dependence and faithful obedience. What the wilderness generation forgot and then didn’t offer. God. What a word for us, though, right here, in this season of our church’s life, when we look ahead to the church plant, we gotta remember to look up and look back first. Remember God’s faithfulness so that we’ll venture out in faith, in obedient faith, so that all people might know who he is.
Or at least all the people in Lombard. I mean, we just sang what we need to do at the end of the last song. More to come, you know. All my hope, all my trust, all of my future is in the God who’s never failed us. Why would he start now?
He won’t. Don’t forget. Remember to remember. Let’s pray.
Lord, even now we remember the record of your faithfulness, of which we sang earlier this morning. It is great. Your mercy is new every morning. Which means for as many days as we have been alive, we have seen, or at least could have seen, your goodness, your love, your mercy, your compassion, your grace, your power, your wisdom. Help us to remember that now.
Help us to remember what you’ve done for us as individuals and as a congregation. And help us then to remember all of that as we step out in faith. We don’t want to forget who you are. God. God.
It’s too important. So by your spirit, stir up those memories in us in our every waking moment. And let us be the sort of community that encourages one another with frequent reminders of your goodness and glory. We pray this, Lord, for your name’s sake, that it might be proclaimed among all peoples that they too would come to know, know who you are, what you’ve done in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Amen.