A Memorial With Purpose

Welcome and announcements

Call to worship (Ps 105:1-5)

Prayer

Song (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross)

Song (What a Friend We Have in Jesus)

Responsive Reading

Memorial Ceremony

This morning, we will continue a long tradition in this church of remembering and honoring church members and friends of the church who have passed on during the previous year.

I know that today we have with us some family members visiting of those we will honor. In a moment, I will begin reading the names of those we are remembering. When you hear your loved one’s name read, please have a representative of the family come forward to light a candle in his or her memory. You may then be seated, and we will read the next name.

If there is no family member or friend of the deceased to come forward, Deacon Michael Harris will light the candle in that person’s honor.

NAMES/CANDLES

Beverly Smeltzer

Aug. 16, 1933-July 17, 2021

Rev. Allen Lancaster

Sept. 20, 1939-Aug. 13, 2021

Mary Duke

Oct. 8, 1932-Oct 12, 2021

Pat Kirtz

June 28, 1956-Oct. 25, 2021

Ivan San Andres

April 24, 1996-Jan. 25, 2022

Jeanette Dunn

Sept. 28, 1922-March 20, 2022

Ruby Hunter

July 3, 1930-March 30, 2022

Prayer (Memorial and offering)

Offering

Thanksgiving

Release children to children’s church

Eddie Rickenbacker was a U.S. fighter pilot during World War I, known as the “ace of aces” because he shot down 26 enemy aircraft, more than any other pilot in that war. And he did so during only a six-month period of 1918 that included a three-and-a-half-month hospitalization.

A highly decorated veteran with a name that was legendary in America during the first half of the 20th century, he was pressed into the service of his country again during World War II, advising the British and American air forces on bombing strategies.

In October of 1942, Rickenbacker and a crew of eight were sent up in a B-17 bomber on a mission to deliver an important secret message from President Roosevelt to Gen. Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea.

An equipment failure caused the crew to fly far off course, and, running low on fuel, they ditched the airplane in the middle of the South Pacific. The crew was able to get into life rafts, and they began to drift, thousands of miles from land.

By the third day of drifting, they had run out of emergency rations, and by the eighth day, things seemed hopeless as they prayed for deliverance.

Rickenbacker had pulled his hat down to ward off the glare from the sun, and he soon dozed off.

Here are Rickenbacker’s own words about what happened next: “Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don't know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it.”

Somehow, that’s just what he did. The men slaughtered the gull and ate what they could of it. The rest became bait for fishing. In the end, after 24 days adrift, seven of the eight men were rescued alive.

And from the time he returned home to Florida, until his death in 1973, every Friday evening, Rickebacker would take a bucket of shrimp to a nearby pier. There, he would be surrounded by seagulls, and he would feed them until his bucket was empty as a memorial to the one that had been sacrificed for him and his crew. [http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/m/memorial.htm]

It seems especially appropriate to share this story on this Sunday when we take time to remember loved ones we have lost and when we will remember — through partaking in the Lord’s Supper — the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made of Himself so that we who follow Him in faith might have eternal life.

The communion observance — as we will discuss a bit later in this service — is, indeed, in part, a memorial. But it is far from the only memorial we see in Scripture.

The Passover feast, which our Lord was celebrating with His disciples when He commanded us to remember Him in this way, was itself a memorial to the divine deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt.

The breastplates worn by the priests of Israel were a memorial to the 12 tribes of Israel, whom God had set aside as a people of His own. Twelve stones were set up at the Jordan River when Israel had crossed into the promised land as a reminder of how God had delivered His people.

The great Patriarchs of Israel had set up altars as memorials when God had provided water in the wilderness. And God provided His own memorial — a rainbow — after He had delivered Noah and his family from the Great Flood that had wiped out life across the globe.

Today, we are going to take a break from our study of the Church to see if we can gain a little bit better understanding of the concept of memorials in the Bible. I hope that by the time we are finished, we will all recognize that there’s more to memorials — at least biblically speaking — than memories.

Turn with me, if you would, to Genesis, chapter 8. While you’re turning there, let me remind you of what I’m sure is a familiar story.

After Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden by eating from the one tree whose fruit God had forbidden them from eating, they were banished from the Garden.

They went forth into the land and began to do at least a part of what God had commanded them to do: They were fruitful and multiplied. They had children.

But it wasn’t long before the curse of death that resulted from their sin became apparent in their own family, as their son Cain killed his brother, Abel.

And from there, things just got worse across the land. Sin was rampant, and evil was everywhere.

In fact, Moses paints a stark and terrible picture of the world at this time in chapter 6, verses 5 and 6.

Genesis 6:5–6 NASB95

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

Look at all the qualifiers Moses uses there to describe the evil upon earth at this time. EVERY intent of the thoughts of man’s heart was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY. Things were so bad that God was sorry — He was grieved in His heart — that He had created mankind.

And so, God decided to destroy what He had created. He would send a flood to wipe out all of mankind and all of the plants and animals on earth. But He would save Noah and his family and two of every animal that walked or flew over the earth.

Of course, you all know the story. God shut up Noah and his family and two of every animal in the ark that Noah had built according to God’s instructions.

And then the rains came. And it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and the whole earth was covered in water. But Noah and his wife and their two daughters and sons-in-law were safe in the ark with all the animals. And

Genesis 7:24 (NASB95)

The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

But then, look what happens in verse 1 of chapter 8.

Genesis 8:1 (NASB95)

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

Now, this is the first place where the Hebrew word that’s translated as “remembered” appears in Scripture.

The first appearance of a word in the Bible is often important, because we can discover much about how to interpret that word elsewhere by its usage the first time it appears.

It’s also significant that, much as in English, the Hebrew word for “remember” comes from the same root as the words for “memory” and “memorial.” All of those words are connected, both in Hebrew and in English.

Now, don’t let it slip past you that we’re talking about an all-knowing God here, the all-powerful God who spoke the very universe into existence and who formed man out of the dust of the ground and then blew into Him the breath of life.

So it’s pretty unlikely that Moses means God had forgotten about Noah and his family floating on the waters above the earth and then suddenly slapped his forehead and said, “Oh my gosh! NOAH!”

What seems to be going on here, instead, is that God turned His attention back to Noah and the travelers aboard the ark. And notice what happens. God doesn’t simply “remember” that they are floating around out there and then go on about His business.

When He “remembers” Noah, when He turns His attention back to the ark, God then takes action. He causes a wind to pass over the earth and begin to dry up the water.

Genesis 8:2–3 NASB95

Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased.

God remembers Noah, and He sends the wind, and He closes up the floodgates of the sky and stops the rain. God’s remembrance of Noah causes Him to take action on Noah’s behalf.

And then we see, later in this chapter, that God makes a covenant with Noah that He will never again destroy the earth by flood. And God seals this covenant with the memorial sign of a rainbow.

Look at verse 12.

Genesis 9:12–16 NASB95

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

Once again, God doesn’t need a reminder of the covenant that He has made with Noah. In fact, the rainbow is to remind NOAH and his descendants of God’s promise.

And what is the action that they should take when they remember? They should respond to God in faith that He is a keeper of promises.

Memorials in the Bible are there to remind the people of God’s faithfulness, to help them to remember that He is good and that He loves us, and to help them respond in faith to Him.

We see this idea in the Psalms that we have read this morning, as well.

In the 77th Psalm, the one from our responsive reading this morning, Asaph the psalmist cries out to God concerning troubles faced by the nation of Israel.

They were suffering at the hands of enemies, and Asaph was so troubled about the state of affairs that he couldn’t sleep.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced similar sleepless nights full of worry and distress at some time in our lives. I’m sure we’ve all had times when our spirits grew faint because it just seemed as if things would never get better.

Asaph gives us a great example in the 77th Psalm of how to confront those worries.

Psalm 77:11–15 (NASB95)

I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.

I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.

Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?

You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples.

You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

The lesson Asaph teaches is that we should "live in the present in the light of God’s past actions.” [Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale Reference Library (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 879.]

Israel could strengthen its faith for the difficulties it was experiencing by remembering how God had delivered the nation in the past.

Likewise, we, too, can find the faith to face our present circumstances by remembering how God has blessed us in the past.

We can remember that God is good, that God is faithful, that God loves us, and that God desires to give us abundant life, even in the face of loss, even in the face of trials, even in the face of death itself.

This idea of remembering as a call to action reaches its peak in the Bible at the Last Supper. There, Jesus shared His last Passover meal with His disciples, and He instituted the Lord’s Supper as a memorial for the church that would be formed after He had ascended to heaven in His resurrected body.

“This do in remembrance of Me,” He told them.

As He shared the bread and the wine that night in the upper room of a home in Jerusalem, Jesus knew that, within hours, He would be arrested and tried on false charges.

He knew He would be crucified and die on a cross the following day. But He also knew the significance of the events that would transpire in Jerusalem on that Friday afternoon, and the significance of the empty tomb the following Sunday morning.

You see, Jesus GAVE Himself as a sacrifice for mankind.

Ever since that first sin by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, mankind has had a problem it could not solve.

The problem is sin.

We are all sinners. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

Romans 3:23 (NASB95)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Each one of us has been made in the image of God. In other words, we were made to reflect His character.

But from Adam and Eve, right down to you and me, each one of us has failed to reflect the character of the God in whose image we were made.

Each one of us, in great ways and small ways, has sinned against God. Each one of us has rebelled against the sovereign Lord in our sins.

And the punishment for such rebellion is death. Paul puts it this way:

Romans 6:23 NASB95

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wages of sin is death. That’s the appropriate punishment for rebellion against a king.

But look at the second part of that verse! The free gift of God is eternal LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The holy and just sovereign king of the universe chose to answer our rebellion against Him with grace!

And He demonstrated that grace in the most extravagant manner possible. He sent His unique and eternal Son, Jesus Christ, to live among us as a man, to live the sinless life that we could not live.

And then, He allowed Jesus to give His own life at the cross, taking upon Himself the sins of mankind and their just punishment, so that we who follow Him in faith might have eternal life in Him.

That means life the way it was always meant to be, in fellowship with God Himself through the Holy Spirit and by the Son.

Because He was without sin, Jesus could pay the price that we could never pay for our sins. We could not save ourselves, so God saved us by suffering, in the Person of His Son, the just punishment that we deserve.

Jesus conquered our sins at the cross. And then, at the empty tomb, the resurrected Christ conquered death itself. In His resurrection, he proved that He could keep His promise of eternal life in the resurrection for all who would follow Him in faith.

As He sat with His disciples, sharing the bread and the wine on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus knew all that would take place in the coming days. And He knew the significance of it all. And he knew how easy it is for us to forget even the most significant things.

And so, He told them, “This do in remembrance of Me.”

But just as in the Old Testament, remembering the wonderful and gracious work of our Lord at the cross should be more than something we do here in church every month.

Remembering should lead us to some action. It should remind us of God’s faithfulness, of His goodness, of His love. And it should cause us to commit ourselves to be more and more like Jesus in His obedience, in His submission to God’s plan, and in His love.

Of course, you can’t remember something that hasn’t happened to you. And so, as we prepare to partake in the elements of the Lord’s Supper, I want to say a quick word to any who are here today who have never placed their faith in Jesus.

If that describes you — if you have never confessed that you are a sinner and repented from your sins, if you have never turned to Jesus in faith that He alone can save you from the just penalty for your sins, if you have never placed your faith in Him as the only one who can reconcile you to God — then this communion observance is not for you.

You have far more pressing matters to attend to this day. You are still dead in your trespasses. You have a free gift to accept from the Savior who came to give you life.

If this describes you, I pray that you will come and see me at the end of today’s service. And as we who have followed Jesus in faith take part in this Lord’s Supper memorial, I hope you will spend this time in prayer that the Lord would reveal Himself to you.

Let’s pray.

Jesus commanded that we observe the Lord’s Supper as an act of obedience to Him, as a way of proclaiming that we who follow Him in faith belong to Him, and as a way of remembering what He did for us.

The Lord’s Supper reminds us that our hope for salvation rests entirely on the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf at the cross. It reminds us that our life is in Him.

And the fact that we share bread from one loaf reminds us that we are, together, the body of Christ. It reminds us that we are called to unity of faith, unity of purpose, and unity of love.

And it reminds us that just as He gave up the glory that He had in heaven to come and live a sinless life as a man and give Himself as a substitute for us at the cross, we who have followed Him in faith are called to give up any claims we might think we have to our own lives and follow Him.

If you are a baptized believer who is walking in obedience to Christ, I would like to invite you to join us today as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

Now, this sacred meal dates all the way back to when Jesus shared it with His disciples at the Last Supper on the night before He was crucified.

The conditions during the Last Supper were different than the conditions we have here today, but the significance was the same as it is today.

While the deacons are distributing the bread, I’m going to ask XXXXX to play When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. After that, we will pray and then eat the bread.

SONG/BREAD

Jesus told His disciples that the bread represented His body, which would be broken for our transgressions.

Let us pray.

Matthew 26:26 NASB95

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

As Jesus suffered and died on that cross, his blood poured out with His life. This was always God’s plan to reconcile mankind to Himself.

While the deacons are distributing the juice, I’m going to ask XXXXX to play What a Friend We Have in Jesus. After that, we will pray and then eat the bread.

SONG/JUICE

“In [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”

Let us pray.

Matthew 26:27–28 NASB95

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Take and drink.

“Now, as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

Maranatha! Lord, come!

Here at Liberty Spring, we have a tradition following our commemoration of the Lord’s Supper.

Please gather around in a circle, and let us sing together “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.”