Remember Me… | Sunday, August 21, 2022

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The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. The Savior knelt to wash our feet; now at His feet, we bow. The One who

The fear that held us now gives way to Him who is our peace. This final breath upon the cross is now of life in me.

Your name, your name is victory. Yes, it is! All praise will rise to Christ our King. Your name, your name is victory; our praise will rise to grace.

By Your Spirit, I will rise from the ashes of defeat. The resurrected King is resurrecting me. In Your name, I come alive to declare Your victory. The resurrected King is resurrecting.

By Your Spirit, I will rise from the ashes of defeat. The resurrected King is resurrecting me. In Your name, I come alive to declare Your victory

Your victory, all the resurrected King, is resurrecting me. What our God is doing!

We have spent this summer going through the Book of Nehemiah together here at Cross Connection Church. The Book of Nehemiah is a book of remembrance. At the start of the book, the people of Israel were in a difficult predicament. They found themselves in exile in a land far from their homeland, and they were in this predicament because they had forgotten the Lord. They had forgotten God, His statutes, and His ordinances.

Now, they didn't forget them in the sense of not knowing who God was or what God's statutes and laws were. They knew the words of the law. In fact, there were probably many people at the time of Nehemiah among the Jewish people who could have recounted large portions of the law from memory. They had even, prior to their exile, kept the feasts of Israel: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, and so forth. They probably sang the Psalms on the Sabbath day or throughout their weeks. They remembered Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and all the patriarchs.

However, their lives were not lived in accordance with what they knew to be true from God's Word. We all know that we can very easily find ourselves in a similar situation. We can know what is right, we can know what we ought to do, and then not do it at all. The children of Israel had forgotten God, even though they had been reminded continuously in the law to remember the Lord.

Prior to coming into the Book of Nehemiah, we have been in the Book of Deuteronomy.

In the book of Deuteronomy, as Moses prepared the children of Israel to enter the Promised Land, he repeatedly reminds them to remember the Lord and not to forget. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 9, he says, "Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Teach these things to your children and to your grandchildren."

Again, in the same chapter, he emphasizes this in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 23, where he states, "Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden."

Just a couple of chapters later, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 12, he warns, "Beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Then, in Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 11, he cautions, "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today. Lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."

I could go on and on in the book of Deuteronomy and in other places in the Old Testament where God reminds the children of Israel not to forget the Lord or all the good things He had done, or the commandments He had given to them. The message is quite clear. I think that God reiterates this over and over again because He knows that we are, as the old song that Christians have sung for a long time says, "prone to wander, prone to leave the God that we love."

He repeatedly reminds His people not to forget, and He does this because we are given to forgetfulness. Israel forgot. The psalmist in Psalm 106 recounts this very thing. We read there in Psalm 106, verse 7, "Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your words; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies; they rebelled by the sea."

The Red Sea, nevertheless, God saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up. So, He led them through the depths as through the wilderness. He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and He redeemed them from the hand of their enemy. The waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praise.

However, they soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel. It goes on down in verse 20: thus, they changed the glory into the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt. The great prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, commenting on Psalm 106, verse 13, says that they seemed in a hurry to get the Lord's mercies out of their memory. That is sometimes sadly the case, not just for the children of Israel but for us. We are very little different in our capacity to forget how quickly we forget.

Then we wander in the very same way that Israel did. This is far too often not even a slow process; it's not something that happens over years or decades. It can happen very quickly. All you have to do is go back and read the book of Exodus, specifically Exodus chapter 32, in which you will see that it took a little less than two months for the children of Israel, after they had received the commandments of God recorded in Exodus chapter 20, to begin dancing around a golden idol. Israel forgot God, and we can find ourselves being rather forgetful of the Lord as well.

But the psalmist, in that very same psalm about the children of Israel forgetting the Lord in Psalm 106, writes in verse 4 of that passage: "Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people; O visit me with Your salvation." I'm reminded of that totally cheesy song from the 90s that says, "I will remember you; will you remember me?" It's definitely a cheesy song, but the sad reality is that though we may profess with our mouths our sincere love and devotion to God, we very often find that we live forgetful lives.

Thankfully, though, God is not so forgetful. Again, back to Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 31, it says, "For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them."

In the Psalms, specifically Psalm 105, it states that He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded for a thousand generations. I am so grateful that our God is not forgetful, though we, His people, often are quite forgetful. We are prone to wander and prone to leave the God that we love.

The book of Nehemiah, as I said, is a book of remembrance. The entire time that Israel was exiled in Babylon, for nearly a century, they remembered Jerusalem. They remembered their homeland, which is to say that they longingly remembered the blessings and the benefits of being the people of God, even while they had lived forgetful lives about Him and His statutes.

While they were in bondage as exiles in Babylon, they began to remember the Lord. They had been totally given over to idolatry, but then they came to Babylon and saw the abundance of idolatry among the Babylonians. In the midst of that, as they longingly remembered Jerusalem, their homeland, they began to remember the Lord.

They remembered, no doubt, the word that God had spoken to them by Moses. Again, in Deuteronomy, nearly a thousand years before they went into exile in Babylon, Moses had given them the law and told them exactly what would happen if they turned away from God and His statutes. They would end up in exile, not specifically in Babylon, but exiled from the land.

In that very passage in Deuteronomy chapter 4, as Moses was preparing them for this, we read these words: "But from there, when you are exiled out of the land, you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all of your heart and with all of your soul. When you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice, for the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not forsake you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them."

Israel remembered, as they were in exile in Babylon, longingly recalling the land they had come from—the land flowing with milk and honey, the promised land given to them under the covenant. They remembered the Lord, returned to God, and forsook their idols. As He promised through Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 4, He rescued them from their bondage and brought them back to the land of Jerusalem. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the stories of their return and the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. It is a record of remembrance of Jerusalem and Israel's restoration. This is how we understand how these events happened in history.

This is a beautiful story, and truly, I think it is a story of God's grace. If you study the ancient Near East and the history of the time period in which these stories take place, you will come across many names of nations and peoples. You find people mentioned in the Bible, but they also appear in secular histories. The Hittites, the Hivites, the Amorites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Gurgashites, and the Canaanites—there are many different "ites."

Pretty much all of those people are lost to history. Their lands were conquered, and their cities were destroyed by empires like the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Medes. As a result, they, as a people, are no more. None of those peoples, after being conquered and relocated to other places and empires, remained as a distinct group and returned to their homelands to rebuild—save one. The children of Israel returned and rebuilt.

Why is that? I suggest there are many different things that could be said in answer to that question. At the very least, it is because the Lord your God is a merciful God. As Moses foretold in Deuteronomy chapter 4, He will not forsake you nor destroy you. He will not forget the covenant that He established with your fathers and that He swore to them.

When the temple in Jerusalem was first constructed at the time of King Solomon, it was built and consecrated with great significance.

The wise King Solomon prayed and offered to God this prayer, which is recorded in First Kings, chapter 8. There we read the words from Solomon at the establishing of the temple:

"When the children of Israel sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far away or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they are carried away captive, and they repent and make supplication to you in the land of those who took them captive, saying, 'We have sinned and done wrong and have committed wickedness,' and when they return to you with all of their heart," Solomon is recounting the words of Moses from Deuteronomy 4.

"When they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and they pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the temple which I have built for your name, then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against you, and grant them compassion before those who took them captive, that they may have compassion on them as well. For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace."

"That your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they call out to you."

So there, Solomon, as he establishes the temple in Jerusalem—the first temple—praised God. He acknowledged that while this temple is in Jerusalem and these people are in Jerusalem, eventually they would be led away captive. He prayed that when they are led away captive, if they call out to God and cry out to Him, would He hear from heaven and bring them back?

Exactly as Moses had said in Deuteronomy 4, and exactly as Solomon had said there in First Kings 8, that is exactly what happened. From Babylon, as the children of Israel had been exiled there, they cried out to the Lord. They repented of their sin, prayed, and returned to the Lord with all of their hearts. God, who remembers His covenant and mercies, heard from heaven. Just as He promised in Second Chronicles, "If my people..."

Who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their iniquity, and I will heal their land. Our God remembers His covenant and mercy. That is one of those things you might want to write down today: Our God remembers His covenant and mercy. It's so important for us to remember that even to those who have forgotten Him and who have been failures, God remembers.

This truth about God is something that I think we really love because we want to be remembered. We want to be remembered. I mean, isn't that true? There is something in us that desires to be remembered. Virtually everyone in our culture, especially those in the up-and-coming generation, wants to be recognized and remembered.

There was a poll taken in 2019 that found that 75 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 17 say that they want to become a YouTube or social media influencer when they grow up. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a firefighter, an astronaut, a fighter pilot, and then, when I was in junior high school, I wanted to be a pyrotechnician—the guy who did all the explosions for movies and set off fireworks, all that sort of stuff. It was kind of in that order: firefighter, astronaut, fighter pilot, pyrotechnician. So, I went from wanting to put out fires to wanting to blow things up. But you know how boys can be.

That was what I wanted to be when I was a kid. But now, today, being a YouTuber tops being a nurse, doctor, lawyer, teacher, athlete, or rock star. Even people want to be YouTubers. And why is that? Well, a big part of the reason is because we want to be known. We want to be noticed and remembered. People all around us in our culture are clawing for notoriety, to be known.

The crazy thing is that in 150 years, virtually no one will remember me. No one will probably remember you in 150 years, which is really hard to imagine. I don't even really know who my great-grandparents were. I remember one of my great-grandparents, but I don't know who the rest of them were. Very likely, 150 years from now, we will not be remembered.

Remembered even by our close descendants two generations from now, the reason is because we are forgetful. Now, why do I bring all of this up? What does this have to do with the Book of Nehemiah?

Well, we just spent 13 weeks studying through this 2,500-year-old book about a guy named Nehemiah and all the things that he did. It was written by him and it was written about him. We know that it was written by him because nearly 150 times Nehemiah uses the words "I" or "me" in this passage, referring to the things that he did over the 12-plus years that he was the governor there in Jerusalem. He says, "I" back in chapter one, "I was in Shushan. I was the cupbearer to the king. I asked my brothers about the things that were going on in Jerusalem. I prayed to God about the things that they told me. I spoke up to the king. I surveyed the ruins of Jerusalem. I put together a plan to rebuild the wall. I put together the plan to defend the people who were building the wall as the enemies came against them."

This is like the ancient equivalent of a daily vlog or Instagram stories. What we have here in the Book of Nehemiah is him chronicling all the different things that he did. The amazing thing is that here we are, 2,500 years later, remembering Nehemiah and all of his exploits. That is some pretty amazing staying power. Nehemiah's story went viral, and you could say it's got a lot of likes and a lot of views. If Nehemiah was looking for notoriety, then, man, huge score! He definitely got it. There are a lot of people who know the name of Nehemiah and know the story about him because he recorded this book about all the things that he did.

So, in thinking about that, I kind of wonder: Is this book, where Nehemiah chronicles 13 chapters of his exploits and all the things that he did, more than 150 times using "I" or "me," just a narcissistic roll of all of Nehemiah's amazing things that he did so that countless millions of people after his death would know how awesome he was? I think that you could be forgiven for wondering.

I wonder if that is the case. Was this just his narcissistic ploy? Though some might feel uncomfortable even considering such a question, it is indeed a crazy one. Was this just a narcissistic play on the part of Nehemiah to try to be remembered? I think that Nehemiah chapter 13 answers this peculiar question.

There is a lot that could be said about Nehemiah 13. It's a big chapter, and I could spend time going through every single verse, but I'm not going to do that today. Instead, as we close out our study in the book of Nehemiah, I want to zero in on three verses and really just five words that are repeated three times in Nehemiah chapter 13.

Nehemiah 13 is the concluding list of the reforms that Nehemiah ushered into Jerusalem during his time as governor. He cleansed the temple and brought order to the disordered practices of the temple. He reformed the way that people in his day observed the Sabbath, which had been a problem before they were exiled to Babylon. He altered the way that the people lived so that they would be more observant of God's law, including the Sabbath.

Nehemiah shook things up culturally. He made the people speak with one language: the language of Judah, the language of Hebrew. He challenged the people to no longer marry outside of their Jewish lineage. He cleansed all of the places and the people of Jerusalem from the pagan practices they had previously engaged in. All of these actions addressed the sins that had caused the children of Israel to go into exile in Babylon in the first place.

Nehemiah said, "We've been there, we've done that, and we've reaped the consequences of our idolatry, immorality, and irreverence. We're done with that. We're going to cleanse our ways and focus our hearts back upon the Lord." The city is secure, the temple is built, and we need to worship the Lord rightly.

Why does Nehemiah record all of these things? What is the purpose of him documenting his reforms and all the events in the previous 12 chapters of this book?

Well, again, three verses, five words that are repeated in this passage. We see first in Nehemiah chapter 13, verse 14: "Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for its services." Then again in Nehemiah 13, verse 22: "Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and also spare me according to the greatness of Your mercies." Finally, the very last words of the book are found in Nehemiah chapter 13, verse 31: "Remember me, O God, for good."

Those are the last words of this thirteen-chapter book: "Remember me, O God, for good." So, did Nehemiah record his ancient exploits because of some narcissistic bent in his character, wanting people to know who he was? No. Nehemiah chapter 13 reveals that he recorded this not so that you would remember his name, not so that I would remember his name, but so that God would remember him. "Remember me, O God, for good."

Nehemiah's final thoughts, his final hope, were not that you would know his name. It was not that you or I would know the great things that he did in and for Jerusalem, but that God would remember him for his faith and his faithfulness. As I said previously, God remembers His covenant and mercy, and also, God remembers and does not forget His people.

Genesis 8, verse 1 says, "God remembered Noah." Genesis 19, verse 29 says, "God remembered Abraham." When the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt and they cried out to the Lord, this was before He delivered them in the book of Exodus. It says that God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It makes me wonder: What makes a person memorable to God? What makes an individual one of God's unforgettable people? Well, I've already kind of alluded to the answer to that question. You become one of God's unforgettable people first by your faith and then second by your faithfulness.

Your faithfulness is already there. There may be some of you watching this who have an issue with me even saying that. Some of you might think, "Just leave it at your faith." However, you become one who is memorable to God by your faith.

You may be thinking you don't need to say "faithfulness." You don't need to add faithfulness to the equation, and I understand that tension. I sense it as well, but I just can't get over passages like James chapter 2, verse 20, where we are told that faith without works is dead. In James chapter 2, verse 26, it says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

I understand the tension in saying we become memorable to God by our faith and our faithfulness. I recognize that some people have a hard time with that faithfulness side because they want to say it's faith alone. I totally understand that. I'm not discounting it. Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. I'm not minimizing the importance of many people's favorite passage of Scripture in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9: "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Some people have a hard time with me throwing faithfulness into the mix because that seems like a work of man. However, I don't want to miss the reality that faithfulness is important. The story of the children of Israel being exiled to Babylon is a good example of that.

I don't want to overlook Paul's words in Romans about Abraham being justified by faith apart from the works of the law. That is true; he was right before God according to his faith. Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. But I also don't want to ignore Jesus's commandment and his commendation of faithful servants in the Gospels, as well as his caution to lazy servants. In Matthew 25, it says, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord."

It is very clear in the Scriptures that we are saved wholly by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is a gift of God. I also think it is true that God remembers those who trust in and follow Him faithfully in a world that is hyper.

Focused on celebrity notoriety and fame, many are clawing at being known and wanting to be recognized. I want to encourage you today, as we close up the Book of Nehemiah, to gain a proper perspective. You may never be known by man, and honestly, it matters very little if you are. Your name may never be written in lights, but it is far better to have your name written in God's book in heaven.

Jesus said of the woman who worshipped Him, anointing Him with costly oil in Matthew chapter 26, "Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her." To the thief on the cross next to Jesus as He was crucified, we read that he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me." These are the very same words that Nehemiah says at the end of his book: "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." Jesus replied to the thief, "Surely, I say to you today, you will be with Me in paradise."

In the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi, we read these great words in chapter 3, verse 16: "Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before God for those who fear the Lord and meditate on His name." That’s a really interesting thing to think about as you interact with other people. As you connect with others within the body of Christ, you fellowship with them and talk about how good God is and the good things that God has done. God keeps a book of remembrance about those who speak of Him and meditate upon His name.

In the Book of Hebrews, it says in chapter 6, verse 10, "For God is not unjust to forget your work and your labor of love which you have shown toward His name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister." Sometimes we may feel like we have been forgotten by God. Israel certainly felt that way at times, as if God had forgotten them. In fact, I’m reminded back in 2001, right after 9/11 happened, when three other guys and I from the church went to New York City to minister there with the Red Cross.

The Graham Evangelistic Association is involved in various outreach activities. One of the things we did was pray for people on the street. I remember one day we were in midtown Manhattan, getting close to Times Square. We had Bibles available for people and were handing out flyers that said, "If you need prayer, you can call this toll-free number for prayer."

A lady came by, grabbed one of the flyers, and walked a few steps away. She then returned to us with tears in her eyes. She was a Jewish woman, and she talked with us, saying that the message about calling for prayer really hit her hard. She expressed, "God has forgotten us." I have never forgotten that interaction. Here was this Jewish woman saying that God had forgotten her, and it made me realize that people sometimes think that way.

The children of Israel did, too. The prophet Isaiah knew that there would be people who would feel forgotten by God, and he recorded these words: "Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you." Think about that. If you are a mother, could you imagine forgetting your nursing child? You would say that would never happen.

God says that a mother might forget her child, but He will not forget you. He has inscribed you on the palms of His hands. The Scriptures make it very clear: God remembers His covenant and His mercy. He remembers His people and those who trust in Him and follow Him faithfully. Just as there is a record on earth of those who followed God by faith, as seen in Hebrews 11, there is also a book of remembrance in heaven for those who continue to do the same today.

As we come to the conclusion of the book of Nehemiah, I want to encourage and challenge you to be an individual who is memorable to God through your faith and faithfulness to Him. Ultimately, it is only His opinion that matters in the end. It won't matter how many things have been written about you on earth or how many things have been said about you on earth.

It will really only matter what the Lord knows about you because of your faith and your faithfulness. It's a great book; I love the book of Nehemiah. It's been fun going through it this summer.

It is interesting to see all these things that he recorded—hundreds and hundreds of words, more than 150 times—where he says, "I did this." At the end of the book, he says, "Lord, I've written this only so that you'd remember." That was his hope at the end of this. He didn't write this for the Jewish people; he didn't write this for us so that we would remember who he was and what he did. He recorded all these things saying, "Lord, this is what I did." In spite of all the bad things he may have done in his life, he says, "Lord, please forget all of that and remember what I did for Your name."

So, God, I pray that You'd help us to become the kind of people that are memorable before You because we have trusted in You and because we follow You by faith. Lord, would You enable us, quicken us by Your Holy Spirit to do that this week? To follow You faithfully, trusting in You. Every single one of us is going to encounter obstacles this next week—challenges as we go through our life. I pray, God, that You would lead and direct us, that we would hear a voice behind us saying, "This is the way; walk in it." We would trust You, following You, for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The tomb where soldiers watched in vain was borrowed for three days. His body there would not remain. Our God has robbed

And by Your Spirit, I will rise from the ashes of defeat. The resurrected Kingdom is resurrecting me. In Your name, I come alive to declare Your victory. The resurrected King is resurrecting me.

Thanks for joining us for our online service today. As we close, we would love to invite you to our on-campus service here at Cross Connection Church at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. every Sunday. Also, if you'd like more information about Cross Connection Church, make sure you check out lifeinconnection.com.

Good morning, Cross Connection! It's Pastor Garrett here. I've got a couple of announcements for us today. After the second service at 12:30, we are going to be down at Fella Ceda Park for our church picnic. We would love for you to join us. If you want to bring a side, please do; we would love to have you bring a dish. We will be providing all the barbecue items, water, and, of course, games.

We're going to have a fantastic time down there. There is lots of shade underneath the oak trees and park benches, so come prepared. It's going to be a warm one, but we're looking forward to hanging out with you, playing some games, eating some good food, and, of course, spending time together. I hope to see you there at 12:30, right after the second service.

If you have ever wondered how to study the Bible, you might open it up and read, only to find that you don’t understand everything you’re reading. Well, you would be in good company because that’s all of us. That’s why we’re here.

Miles is actually going to be teaching a class on how to study the Bible, starting September 20th. It will be a Tuesday night class, and you can sign up at events.lifeinconnection.com. We would love for you to sign up there; all the information is available on the website. Learn how to study your Bible here at Cross Connection Church.