Untitled Sermon

REMEMBRANCE DAY

INTRODUCTION:

We as humans do many things to remember the past or to do things to remind us to do something.

ILLUSTRATION: One of the things that I do is this band that I wear. It started out as a rubber band around my wrist. The purpose was to remind me to pray each night for two special family members that they would see the light and come back to the Lord. I would do things during the day which I thought was like praying. I would flick the band and play with the band. This felt that I was continually praying for them during the day. Now I just have to look at the band and my thought go to them. Its something small but it helps me to remember to pray for them.

I have heard of all sorts of things to help people to remember. People have tied string around their fingers. We use rhymes, convert words to pictures, use acronyms, use memory spots and the list goes on.

It appears as humans we are really flawed in remembering. Some more than others.

For me its that conversation to pick up the milk, to put that agenda item on the board meeting, to ringing a person back after trying a few times.

It seems we are easily distracted and forget things.

When significant events happen we try and do things to remember that significant event like birthdays, wedding anniversaries that I am always forgetting. Don’t worry if you done all these and more because it is apart of who we are. The best thing we can do is to forgive that person that has forgotten that major event. But its always nice making them squirm a little.

BODY: Bible Memory Event 1

God knew this very thing and from the beginning he gives us a special day each week to remember him.

Turn with me in your bibles to and verse 1

Genesis 2 NLT

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ ” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all the hosts. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Than God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God created and made.”

Here we see write at creation God gives us this day to rest and remember what God had done at creation for us. Later throughout the bible we discover that we are asked to Remember this day and worship on it.

When we look at the ten commandments, the fourth commandment is the only one out of the ten that we are told to remember. WHY???..Because God knew we would forget down the track and He wanted us to remember so at the start of the fourth commandment he says REMEMBER.

We are not good at this remembering.

Throughout the bible we also see symbols of remembering significant events.

Turn with me in your bibles to Joshua chapter 4 and reading from verse 1 through to 7; John 4:1-7

“4 When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of

Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. 5 And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel,6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

So here we see that God uses stones as a memorial event to remind the Israelites of what God had done.

MEMORIALS WE DO TODAY

Today we do similar things. Today is remembrance day. So what is remembrance day all about?

REMEMBRANCE DAY:

Remembrance Day is also known as Armistice day. Each year on the the 11th month, of the 11th day at the 11th hour we are asked to stop and pause for 2 minutes to remember. Remember what? To remember all people who have died in wars. This is not a day to glorify war but to remember the sadness of war.This is not just about world war 1 but to remember all who have fallen in war. This includes world war 2, the Falklands war, the gulf war, and conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Across our nation and others we take time out to remember. Remember the futility of war. The wearing of poppies has become commonplace and services are held. This all began from 1918 when the armistice was signed to end the world war 1 occurring on these times. Each year this has been observed since.

WHY DO WE NEED THESE KINDS OF THINGS?

They help us to remember what significant event occurred or to remind us like remembrance day that war is bloody and so not needed. We remember the loss we suffered and the wanting to never return there.

This is why I believe that when people stand up and speak from their heart telling us how God has bought them to this place of worshiping HIM, that we are so taken by this. As humans we love to remember how we found Jesus. We love personal testimonies of how God has moved in our lives. So I thought it was fitting on this day of remembering is for a couple of us to share there story of why they are here? As they recall from their memories of what God has done we are blessed.

I believe this is so powerful when we do this. It encourages us. I want you to remember when God first found you and put the seed in your heart as Esther today shares her story with us;

Thank you Esther.

ESTHERS PERSONAL TESTIMONY

IAN’S PERSONAL TESTIMONY