Offertory scripture:
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Isaiah 43:19-20
Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.
The beast of the field will honor Me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I give waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My people, My chosen.
God wants to refresh you.
Sermon message:
Thesis: Remembering.
This weekend is memorial day weekend.
As Christians we fight a battle. We are in the army of God. We fight against evil powers and principalities.
We remember and respect those who have fought and died for our country, for spreading the gospel as missionaries, and we pray for all those in God’s army.
The Abrahamic covenant required something to remember.
The Passover covenant also had something to remember: the blood of the lamb to be spattered on the doorposts as a sign of God’s protection and sparing the Israelites.
Jesus and the new covenant. Take communion to remember Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.
God started this all. He wants us to remember.
2 Peter 1:13
Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,
Remembering is important.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Joshua 1:8-9
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Recounting when Israel failed to take the land at first opportunity due to the ten spies' bad report. So many years later, when Moses is gone and Joshua is leading the next generation of the Israelites, God reminds him to remember the Lord and His commandments.
Caleb, Joshua’s counterpart, asked for a very specific land.
Joshua 14:12
Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.”
They had giants on those mountains.
Point #1: He remembered God’s promise.
Joshua 14:7
I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.
Numbers 14:23-24
they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.
Caleb wasn’t a grumbler. He had faith. And he remembered.
Point #2: He remembered his commitment to God.
Joshua 14:8-9
Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’
Caleb kept his promises to God. Caleb kept his first love.
Revelation 2:4
Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
Don’t lose your first love.
Point #3: He remembered God’s faithfulness.
Joshua 14:10-11
And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.
Remember those who died in military service. Remember those who died in service to the Lord. And remember you’re a child of God. Speak faith. Recite God’s promises and stay focused on them. Stay committed to God and to the commitments that you made to him.