Untitled Sermon (2)

Notes and Ideas

Forgetting

Synopsis

AOC is at a crucial point in its life as a church as culture at large is in the midst of a major generational transition. However fast the generational change is happening in America, it's happening at an even faster rate in Austin. Within 5 years, 60% of the population in Austin and it's surrounding area will be 43 years old and younger (millennial and down). That's a 5% increase from where it is presently in 2020. The generational make up of AOC is 70% Gen X and older and only 30% millennial and younger.

The process of accidentally or deliberately failing to remember people, events or ideas. Scripture rebukes those who forget the past work of God in history or in their lives or who neglect their present responsibilities towards God in order to please themselves.

This is a time when AOC needs to be intentional on passing on the baton of faith to the next generation. As it stands, 12% of millennials and younger are considered to be active followers of Jesus and only 4% of Gen Z have a biblical worldview. But all is not lost b/c this generation is looking for community's that are gathered around purpose. They are looking to be poured into and mentored. They aren't antagonistic towards God, just indifferent. They do not see the value of church because they see church as out of touch with reality, confusing, and too old-fashioned.

The next generation are the ones who have young families, the ones in our schools, and the ones who are learning how to talk and walk.

Causes of forgetting

Forgetting can be deliberate

Judges 2:10 and Hebrews 12

The church is in the exchange zone…What happens now matters…

(ESV) — 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,

Doesn't matter how fast you are running or how great you were in your race…if you can't make the exchange it falls flat…

Forgetting can be caused by idolatry

What race are we running?

Let us lay aside the weight and sin…

(ESV) — 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?

Both generations need to get running…

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Both need to be empowered…

Both need to be developed…

(ESV) — 15 “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

Both need to be obsessed with Jesus…

(ESV) — 7 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

(ESV) — 15 But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway,

Obsessed with the lost…the emerging generations are lost…we lose them…we lose a season…

(ESV) — 13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.

We will not be a Judges 2:10 generation. Not on our watch.

Forgetting can be caused by pride

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We see hundreds of guides raised up who will lead hundreds on a process of meeting, knowing and following Jesus. This process will focus on Jesus and our 6 essential marks of one who follows Jesus. We see hundreds of guides raised up who embody authentic humble leadership who understand that multiplication is essential in reaching the next generation of influencers. We will never be content until we see a growing passion and love for Jesus rising up in the next generation that flips upside down the city of Austin, TX.

(ESV) — 4 But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. 5 It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; 6 but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.

We envision in 5 years we see 1600 people on the discipleship pathway growing in our 6 marks of following Jesus. We see 75% of AOC in small groups. In 5 years we see 55% of our demographic make up being millennial and younger. We envision a new wave of missional communities that intentionally choose to be on the frontlines of gospel saturation in their neighborhoods. We see a shift from adding people to our rolls to multiplying disciples and leaders in order to launch new campuses and church plants to reach the next generation and be a force of good in our city and world.

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We see dads loving their wives and children as Jesus loves the church.

We see marriages and families restored and strengthened.

(ESV) — 16 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

(ESV) — 4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

We see a new wave of authentic humble leaders that embody the Gospel in their circles of influence.

We see a church that is known for their uncommon unity and love for one another.

Forgetting can be caused by drinking

We see a church that is daring to be radical in their love for their neighbors.

We see a church that loves to live with their hands open because they know that radical generosity reflects Jesus to a lost and dying world.

(ESV) — 4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, 5 lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

We see neighborhoods, apartment complexes, social gatherings and schools turned upside down by the unexplainable kindness of our members.

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This can only happen as we choose to live intentionally for Jesus in every area of life.

(ESV) — 20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

(ESV) — 45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Forgetting can be caused by affliction

(ESV) — 4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread.

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(ESV) — 28 It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, 30 but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, 31 and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe.

(ESV) — 17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

Forgetting people

(ESV) — 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

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(ESV) — 13 “He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me. 14 My relatives have failed me, my close friends have forgotten me. 15 The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger; I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

(ESV) — 11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. 12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.

Forgetting God

(ESV) — 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

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(ESV) — 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

(ESV) — 9 But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. 10 And they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’

Forgetting God’s acts in the past

(ESV) — 11 They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. 12 In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. 14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. 15 He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. 16 He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. 17 Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. 18 They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. 19 They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness? 20 He struck the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread or provide meat for his people?”

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(ESV) — 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side,

(ESV) — 16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

(ESV) — 7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. 8 Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. 9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert. 10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. 12 Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. 13 But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel.

Consequences of forgetting God

Forgetting God brings suffering on the individual

(ESV) — 22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

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(ESV) — 9 But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them.

(ESV) — 10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger, 11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain.

Forgetting God brings suffering on others

David’s forgetting of God in his adultery with Bathsheba led to her husband Uriah suffering death through David’s manipulation of events.

(ESV) — 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

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(ESV) — 13 But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. 14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.

(ESV) — 21 A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the Lord their God.

Forgetting God brings destruction on the nation

(ESV) — 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

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(ESV) — 11 But you who forsake the Lord, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny, 12 I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in.”

(ESV) — 14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds.

Warnings not to forget God

(ESV) — 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

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(ESV) — 9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—

(ESV) — 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,

(ESV) — 35 The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods,

People may sometimes feel that God has forgotten them

(ESV) — 1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

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(ESV) — 9 I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

(ESV) — 23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! 24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

(ESV) — 14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”

(ESV) — 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

(ESV) — 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

God promises never to forget his people

(ESV) — 21 Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

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(ESV) — 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

(ESV) — 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

Things God urges believers to forget

(ESV) — 18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

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(ESV) — 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.