Message topic: Do not forget but remember.
Scripture text: Deuteronomy 6: 10-17
How often after attending a Church service do you find your self saying, I learned something new today?
The main reason for people going to church should be to join with other like- minded believers, to give praise and thanks to God, to seek His continued forgiveness and spiritual strength to grow in the knowledge of his words of grace, to seek His continued forgiveness, and spiritual growth in the knowledge of his words.
In this way we can learn words with similar meaning even though they have no similar sounds: two such words are Remember, and do not Forget. I will not be able to mentioned them all in this message, but will let you know that there are 144 verses about remember in the bible, and that they are found in 43 books of the bible.
I do believe that if I should ask if any you know where in the Bible we can find the word remember, you would quote (Exodus 20:8) which says remember the Sabbath.
The first place in the Bible where we find the word remember is in (Genesis 9: 15-16:) we hear these words from God to Noah, I will remember my covenant, which (is)between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh: and the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
One of the most interesting Bible stories, is the story of Joseph: his brothers did not like him: on a visit to his brothers in the field who were shepherds: he was thrown in a dry pit while they think of what form of death they should use to get rid of him: then he was taken from the pit and sold to foreign traders, who then sold him as a slave in Egypt, and later became governer.
His refusal to cohabit with master’s wife, she lied about him to his boss, who through him in prison; there he met the chief butler of the King of Egypt, who was worried about a dream which he did not understand; but Joseph who was also an interpreter of dreams, told him the dream means that he will be restored to his job.
In a few days he was recalled back to his old job, and promised Joseph that he will mentioned him to the king: in Genesis 40:3 we find these words; yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph nor spoke to the King about him, until one day the King had a dream that he could not understand: than the chief butler remember his promise to Joseph to told the King of the interpreter of dreams. (Genesis 41:9)
We know that another famous man mentioned in the bible was Moses: Moses was an Egyptian who was exiled for killing another Egyptian who was doing harm to a Hebrew slave. After forty years of abandonment, God called and sent him back to Egypt to fulfilled a promise which He had made to His friend Abraham.
When the slaves were finally released, Moses had the responsibility to teach these people the ways of the true and living God: in (Exodus 13:3) we hear Moses giving instruction to the people in these words: remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this (place) there shall no leavened bread be eaten.
I think you will agree with me that the most popular remember verse in the bible is Exodus (20: 8) which says Rember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy: do you think that the word remember is important to God? why of the ten commandments He is telling all mankind to remember this day? There is a word that is upper- set to the word remember, that word is forget, do not forget.
What would I be saying to you if I should say, do not forget, I would be saying remember: do not forget: and remember is considered to have the same meaning.
Listen to what God is saying to the children of Israel as soon as they were settled in the land which were promised to their fore father Abraham as recorded in Deuteronomy six starting at verse ten through sixteen.
It shall be, when the Lord your God shall have brought thee into the land which He swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou build not. Houses full of all good things, which thou fullest not, and wells dogged, which though did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which though thou planted not; when though shall have eaten and be full: then beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, Though shall fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, and shall swear by his name.
You shall not go after other god’s, of the gods of the people which are round about you, for the Lord your God is a jealous God, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
Can you think of any reason why God is so mindful of mankind? He is always saying to mankind, do not forget, but remember: listen to what he is saying to us in (Leviticus 26:45) but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.
Remember and forget not how thou provokes the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until you came unto this place; you have been rebellious against the Lord: yet I love you. God first showed His love for mankind when He made man in his own Image and likeness.
When man first became a sinner and tried to hide himself from God, God came looking for him and cried out Adam, where art thou; all because of God’s love for mankind.
Why should He love me so? Love sent my Savior to die in my stead, why should He love me so? Meekly to Calvary’s cross He was led, why should He love me so? Nails pierced His hands and His feet for my sins, O how He agonized there in my place, why should He love me so? Why should my savior to calvary go? Why should he love me so?
God, thou art love; if I forget, yet God remembers! If these hands of mine cease from their clinging, yet the hands divine hold me so firmly that I cannot fail; and if sometimes I am too tired to call for Him to help me, then He reads the prayer unspoken in my heart, and lifts my care. Why does He love mankind so much?