July 12 2009
R E M E M B E R W H O S E Y O U A R E
Joshua 4
Why do people forget things? The brain has the ability to store and retrieve. We call it our memory. Each of our brains this morning is crammed with massive amounts of memories we have stored over our lifetime. The question is, “Why can’t we remember things when we need to?”
It was May 20, 1998 … now that date means nothing to you, but to my wife and me it does, as it was our wedding anniversary … 20th to be exact, and I FORGOT IT! The day went by and the evening came and Valerie asked if I remembered what today was. That’s not a good question to be asked by your wife! My mind began to file through, birthdays, no that’s February, and then the mind retrieved what it or I had forgotten … our 20th wedding anniversary! I plead my case before the judge, jury and executioner … but to no avail, I was guilty. I had forgotten our wedding anniversary. I left the house in a hurry, not because I was kicked out, but to go to 24/7 Wal-Mart to purchase a card and all the roses and anything else I thought would make up for my lapse of memory. How could I forget my anniversary?! I asked myself that about a hundred times going to and coming from Wal-Mart smacking myself in the head, hoping to wake up this brain of mine!
To be honest with you, I ask my wife this week, “Honey, do you remember which anniversary of ours I forgot.” In rocket like speed of remembrance Val said, “The 20th.” My reply was, “Are you sure?” I was hoping for some insignificant number like 13 … you know unlucky number could ease the pain of being unlucky to forget? I did not question my wife’s memory … just said something profound like “Oh, ok.”
It all sounds sort of humorous now … but I remember seeing the hurt look on my wife’s face because of my not remembering. It wasn’t just the date May 20, 1978, but it was that I had forgotten to remember the day when we made our vows together for a lifetime, pledging our love to one another. To forget can cause a lot of pain and hurt. FYI … I haven’t forgotten since then.
Have YOU ever forgotten something that is a little more significant than your car keys, reading glasses, or the remote control?
Maybe you forgot …
- Someone’s name at a strategic time that embarrassed you.
- Your best friend’s birthday that lowered your status from best to “good”
- A dinner date that never developed that relationship you were hoping for.
- An important meeting that made you look like a slacker in the company
- A job interview that didn’t land you the big job.
We’ve all forgotten something that has affected our lives in some way and we’ve probably learned … What we fail to remember can have great consequences.
Have you stopped to think about how God who is “all knowing – remembering” relates to “forgetful” people such as ourselves who can’t remember who we are, much less where we put the car keys? He gives us visual aids.
God knew that Joshua & Co. like us would have trouble remembering what was important (relationship with God) so He gives them a pile of rocks as a reminder. I love the profound simplicity of God dealing with His people as it’s not always in the miraculous, but sometimes in a pile of rocks.
Joshua 4: 2-3, 6, 7b, 20-24
Now the people had just witnessed the greatest display of God’s power in their life … the Jordan River being stopped and heaped up and the people crossing over on dry ground into the Promise Land. It’s not your everyday occurrence in “River Crossing 101.” WHO could forget that?
The rocks would be …
- SIGN … “this is to be a sign among you” … to cause the people to remember the event of crossing the Jordan River.
What God does is to be remembered now and later … as a testimony of faith and belief.
Remember to Tell … “What do these stones mean to you?”
The question has nationalistic merit, but all the more PERSONAL merit, as you would tell your children and grandchildren of the mighty deeds of YOUR God.
It is similar to the question Jesus asks … “But who do you say that I am?” We know what the masses say, but what do YOU think I am?
We need to “internalize” who God IS and what He has done and is doing in our lives today.
- MEMORIAL … these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial … as a reminder of THEIR God who DELIVERED them and who is always FAITHFUL toward them.
Yes remember the EVENT … but remember GOD who performed the event.
- “the LORD your God” … dried up the waters of the Jordan
- “the LORD your God” … dried up the waters of the Red Sea
- “the LORD your God” … fear Him forever
There is a “personalization” here … God wants us to center on Him as our God. Here’s the point …
“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE.”
The rocks were to be both a sign and a memorial for remembering the “Whose Who”.
For Joshua & Co … remembering WHOSE they were would make all the difference in discovering WHO they were to conquer the land that lay before them. To FORGET would have great consequences!
Never forget WHOSE you are!
1 Corinthians 6:19b-20 (ESV) You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (2 Cor 10:7 … if anyone is confident that HE IS CHRIST’S)
God in Christ has … called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE.”
If you try and discover WHO you are before discovering WHOSE you are … you’ll mess up your life. (countless testimonies of before & after coming to Christ)
If you make life decisions based on WHO you want to be (popular, rich, status) rather than WHOSE you are … you’ll make decisions that can destroy you.
God wanted Joshua & Co … as well as you and me … to remember the WHAT He had done as well as the WHY He had done. Why?
To not remember the great work of God YESTERDAY diminishes the greater work of God TODAY.
Now think about this ….
“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE.”
… sets you free!
- Powerful to keep YOU close to God
- Powerful to keep YOU far from sin
In moments of …
- Temptation (sin) … remember whose you are!
- Trial (suffering) … remember whose you are!
- Testing (faith) … remember whose you are!
For Joshua & Co it would make all the difference in living in the land … and for you and me it will make all the difference living in this life.
We need to start making life decisions based on the true knowledge of “whose we are.”
- Impacts the present as well as the future.
- Impacts the person as well as the people.
How are you and me to remember? Carrying around a pile of rocks?
- Start THINKING more about God than yourself.
- Start PRAYING more about what God wants than want you want.
- Start READING more of God’s Word looking for His work in your life.
- Start PRAISING more the work of God (inhabits the praise, ps 22:3)
“REMEMBERING WHOSE YOU ARE, REMINDS YOU WHO YOU ARE” is my life testimony.
so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”
Amen!
