The Danger of Forgetfulness | Sunday, January 31, 2021

Hey, Cross Connection Church! Welcome to our Sunday morning live online service. It's great to have you here.

Real quick, if I could ask you to take a minute and text somebody, email somebody, or let them know that we're having church this morning, you can send them over to live.ccchurch.com. That's live.ccchurch.com. There’s no sense in hiding all this goodness for yourself. God bless you guys! Love you, and now I send you off to Anthony.

Heavenly Father, we thank You, God, Lord. We thank You just for this day that we could pour out our praise to You. We thank You, Lord, that You have overcome the grave. You have overcome sin, and we have hope in You—a lasting hope, a true hope. We believe in You. I trust You, God. So, God, would You receive our praise and receive our worship in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

Days may be darkest, but Your light is greater. You light our way, God. You light our way. When evil is rising, You're rising higher. Jesus, You are alive. Death had a stronghold, but Your life was stronger. You rose up from the grave.

You keep hope alive because You are alive, Jesus. There’s hope in the morning because You’re breathing. There’s hope in the breaking and hope for tomorrow. There’s hope in the morning and hope in the evening.

Hey, welcome, and thanks for tuning in to Cross Connection Church. We are stoked that we get to bring you church at home today. I’m Pastor Garrett, and if you’re new or visiting our online broadcast this morning, welcome!

Welcome! We're super glad that you could join us today here at Cross Connection Church. We're all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus Christ.

Part of living life in connection is encouraging you to step into a deeper prayer walk with the Lord. This means praying without ceasing, as the Bible talks about. When we pray, God hears our prayers and answers them all the time. If you have any prayer needs or requests for yourself, your family members, friends, neighbors, or co-workers, we would love to lift them up in prayer this week. Don't be shy; it's not a burden on us. We love praying for you!

Check out prayer.lifeinconnection.com. It should be right here on the screen. Write that down, go to it, and type in your prayer request. As soon as you submit that to us, we have an amazing, dedicated, and faithful prayer team that loves you and is praying for you instantly as those requests come in. Just know that we'd love to be praying with and for you this week.

We are on mission this week, and we want to encourage you to be in prayer for Interfaith Community Services. They are located here in Escondido and serve all kinds of needs in the community. Specifically, they serve dinners on the fourth and fifth Thursdays of the month. If you would like to volunteer to serve at Interfaith Community Services, just go to our events page at lifeinconnection.com/events. You'll see it there, and you can contact Mike and Leslie. They will be happy to get you plugged in and serving at Interfaith Community Services.

Please keep them in mind in your prayers as they serve our community and veterans with dinners and do amazing work.

Before we head over to Pastor Anthony for another song of worship, I want to encourage you about a couple of different ways that you can give here at Cross Connection Church. If you call this church your home, first, you can text the number 84321 on your cell phone. Second, you can go to give.lifeinconnection.com on our website. Third, you can simply come on Sunday night at four o'clock, and we'll have an agape box there. You can also mail in your tithe and offering to our church address: 1675 Seven Oaks Road, Escondido, California.

So let's go ahead and join Anthony again. I just want to remind you that we would love to see you here at four o'clock tonight. We have a special message from Pastor Miles and a devotion from him. Check it out! God bless you guys. Let's worship the Lord.

I see the King of Glory. I think the people say generation selflessly as we pray and seek.

Show me everything I am.

Father, it's our prayer that everything we do is for Your kingdom's cause. As we walk through this earth and then walk into eternity with You, we ask that You would be a part of every moment of our lives. God, we know that our life here is only temporary and is just a shadow of the things that are to come. While we can't wait to be with You in glory someday, I pray that right now, in this life, You would use us for Your glory. Teach us what it means to be the children of God. Grow us, fill us with Your Spirit, and mold us and shape us so that we would look like You more and more each day. We want to learn to be the children of God here on this earth, preparing for the time when we get to live with You forever in glory. We love You, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray all these things. Amen.

We may not want to admit it, or we might like to think otherwise, but we are forgetful people. Several years ago, I shared an article that I had come across about what researchers from the University of Notre Dame had termed an "event boundary." We've all experienced the effects of this event boundary, even though we may not have known that it is an actual psychological identifiable phenomenon.

What is an event boundary? Well, if you have ever entered a room in your home and, as you did, forgot just what it was that you were going into the room to retrieve or to do, then you have experienced an event boundary. Sometimes this happens to us multiple times, much to our great frustration. I have many times experienced walking upstairs in my house to get something in my room, and as soon as I get there, I completely forget what it is that I'm looking for. Then I go back downstairs, and when I get downstairs, I remember, only to go back upstairs to forget again. Psychology professor Gabriel Radvansky said of this phenomenon...

Exiting through a doorway serves as an event boundary in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away. Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized. The challenge is that, as we get older, we seem to have less and less access to the random access memory (RAM) of our brains. Unfortunately, there are no RAM upgrades for our brains. The random access memory gets overloaded with tons of information, and we seem to become increasingly forgetful.

A couple of days ago, I found myself sitting right here in my chair, trying to remember a word. It wasn't even a big word, but it felt like it was right on the tip of my tongue. I'm sure you have had this experience before. I just couldn't recall the word for a couple of minutes, and it was incredibly frustrating. Some of you watching, who may be a little bit older than I am, are probably thinking, "Just wait, Pastor Miles, it gets worse." I know that’s true, and it’s somewhat frightening to think about.

We are forgetful, and just as doorways appear to create this event boundary that seems to reset our brains and clear our memories, there are other things that increase the likelihood that we will forget very important things. This is why it is so essential that we create reminders and build reinforcing mechanisms for our memories.

This is why Moses, in Deuteronomy 6, after giving what we know as the greatest commandment in the law, says these words. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, beginning at verse 6, he writes: "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

The same reinforcing exhortation is given from...

God spoke to Joshua, and Joshua would be the leader of the children of Israel after Moses' death. After the book of Deuteronomy, at the opening of Joshua chapter 1, we read in verse 8: "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it." The words of the law of God should be in your heart and on your mind. You should teach them to your children, and they should be written down where you, your children, and your grandchildren will see them and be reminded of them often. This way, you will think about them and meditate upon them.

Why does God want these things to be written upon our hearts and in our minds, and all around us? So that we will see them continually. Again, back to Joshua chapter 1, in verses 7 and 8, we read these words: "So that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left. This book of the law, in verse 8, shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, so that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it."

Why does God want His people to have these things in their hearts and minds, and all around them? So that they will meditate on it and keep these laws. Again, back to Joshua chapter 1, in verses 7 and 8: "So that you may prosper wherever you go, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

It is very clear that God desires His people— you and me, if we are followers of God— to keep His law in their hearts and minds. He wants us to teach these things to our kids and grandkids and to create reminders of His law all around us. This way, we can keep these things fresh in our hearts and minds, making it more likely for us to walk in all of these things. As a result of keeping His law, we would experience God's presence, His blessing, and have success in our lives. He also wants us to keep these things before our eyes and in our hearts and minds continually.

And now, back to Deuteronomy 6. Look at this in verse 12: "Lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."

Now, you might think to yourself, "That's not possible. There's no way that they would be in danger of forgetting God, the God who brought them out of their 400 years of slavery and bondage in Egypt." Of course, we would think that. We just couldn't possibly forget such an amazing thing. I'm sure that maybe you've had this thought if you've read through the Old Testament before. You think, "If I was among the children of Israel and I had seen the plagues in Egypt, and I had seen the Passover event as it really happened, and then I had crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground, and I had been in the wilderness and seen God provide manna every single morning and water out of rocks, if I had seen those things, I would never ever forget the Lord."

But we know that that's exactly what happened. If you've ever read the Old Testament, then you know that it didn't take long for the people of Israel to begin living as though they had forgotten the Lord. How was that possible? Well, it's possible because of event boundaries—not exactly, but it's possible because we are prone to forget even really big events in life.

Big lessons that come from those big events can be lost pretty quickly. Our memories are what we would call fungible; they can be altered and changed. There is some really amazing research on the reality of the changing or degradation of our memories around big events, like the terrorist attacks of 2001. Big events are sometimes referred to as flashbulb memories. They are the kind of things that we take lots of pictures of, thinking we are going to memorize these moments. They seem indelibly imprinted upon our minds and in our memories, but even those flashbulb memories have a way of degrading over time.

New York University conducted research with almost 3,000 people following the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001. They had these people write down their memories immediately following the attacks.

The attacks on September 11th were so impactful that within days, people wrote down exactly where they were, what they saw, and who they were with. Over the years, these same individuals were brought back multiple times—over a span of ten years—to recount their memories of the events. When they returned, they would share their recollections of 9/11, including where they were and who they were with. However, their memories had changed significantly.

So much so, in fact, that they would read their own handwritten accounts from just days after the events and be shocked by what they had written. Sometimes, they would read their own memories of that day and say, "That's not how it happened," even though they held their own accounts in their hands. It was as if their memories had completely transformed.

Considering the change in their memories, one might wonder how we can even trust our own recollections. In some respects, there is a sense in which we almost can't. This is why God wanted His people to write these things down. He wanted them to think about these events often, to meditate upon these words continually, and to teach them to their children.

When you teach something, people are often amazed at your ability to recall passages of Scripture. Much of that ability comes from teaching these things to others. It's not that I sat down and tried to memorize great chunks of Scripture—though I have in certain areas—but many of the things I remember are simply because I have taught them so many times. When you teach these things to others, they become more imprinted upon your heart.

God says, "I want you to write these things down. I want you to meditate upon them continually. I want you to teach them to your kids and your grandkids." He even wanted them to create annual events and festivals, such as Passover, Pentecost, and Sukkot. These events in Israel's history were all given so that they would remember, "Lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out from the house of bondage."

Here is the amazing thing: difficult or eventful happenings—those flashbulb moments in our lives—seem so significant to us in the moment that we think, "I will never forget this." Yet, when the stress of the moment fades, our memories can change.

The memory begins to fade, as do the huge lessons we learn in the middle of those flashbulb moments. We can be convinced that we will never forget not just the memory, but the lessons that came from it. However, those things begin to fade, especially when better or less difficult days come.

Look at what Moses says to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 10. He tells them, "So it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. When you have eaten and are full."

When you come into the land and you have houses, cities, lands, and farms that you didn't really have to work for, it was just there for you when you took the land. Then, in verse 12, it says, "Beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Important lessons learned in the stress of hard times are often forgotten when better days come.

God says to His people, "Listen, I'm boiling it all down to this really important great commandment: You shall love Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength—with your entire being. If you do this, you'll remember to keep all of the other commandments, such as honoring the Sabbath, honoring your father and mother, not bearing false witness, and not coveting."

If you love Me with your entire being, then you'll keep the other commandments. But here's the problem: When you are no longer under the threat of bondage—the bondage of slavery in Egypt—and when you are no longer forced to trust Me every day for your provision of food and water in the wilderness, you may forget.

When you are in the Promised Land and you have these big, beautiful cities that you didn't have to build, houses full of good things that you didn't have to fill, and wells filled with water—wells that you don't have to look to rocks for, as Moses did when he struck them with his staff to bring forth water—when you have vineyards and orchards and are full of all good food and all good things, beware.

That's when the opportunity to forget the Lord will come. Now, you may think, "No way! That's impossible. We'll never forget the Lord and all that He has done for us." However, after Moses preaches this message in the book of Deuteronomy, he dies at the end of Deuteronomy. His predecessor, Joshua, takes over the leadership of the people right after Deuteronomy, as described in the book of Joshua.

Then, right after Joshua is the book of Judges. In Judges, we read this at the very opening of the book, after Moses's death and after Joshua's leadership and his death. In Judges chapter 2, verse 7, it states, "So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua." These elders were the people who were alive when Moses actually gave this message in Deuteronomy.

The passage continues, "They had seen all the great works of the Lord which He had done for Israel." Now, Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was 110 years old. They buried him within the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, they all died. Another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.

That doesn't even seem possible—that they would immediately forget the Lord. They didn't see His works; they didn't know those things. They were just stories to the generation that came after them. In the New Testament, we read this from Paul the Apostle in First Corinthians chapter 10. He says in verse 11, "Now all of these things happened to them, the children of Israel, and they are examples. They were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come."

Therefore, all of the Old Testament was written instructively for us. Paul continues, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." We are incredibly forgetful. We are so prone to have things just depart from our memories—the events that we've experienced and the lessons that come out of those events. In Judges chapter 2, verse 10, it reiterates that when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them that did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they served other gods, Ba'al. They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them, provoking the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord and served Ba'al and Asherah, two foreign gods of the Philistines and the other people around them in the land.

As soon as those who had seen the events that God did during the wilderness wanderings or knew the miracles of God under Moses and Joshua were gone, there arose a generation that did not know the Lord. They forsook the Lord. One chapter later, in Judges chapter three, we read in verse seven that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Ba'als and Asherahs.

We must be careful not to underestimate our capacity for forgetfulness. This is essentially important. Take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall. There was a time when I was amazed at how good my recall was; my memory is still pretty good. However, there are times when I sit here in this chair for minutes, trying to come up with a single small word. Why? Because we are prone to forget.

In Deuteronomy chapter six, verse twelve, God says through Moses, "Beware lest you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and you shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you, for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth."

I hope and pray that in the midst of all the challenges of the last year that we have gone through, you have learned some important things about God. Perhaps you have also learned important things not just about Him, but about yourself. I hope and pray that you have grown closer to Him and established new patterns and habits of prayer, devotion, and trust in the Lord. I hope that your faith has been stretched and strengthened. I know that even my faith has been stretched and strengthened in the last year.

Listen, better days will come. I know that in some respects we can think, "Oh gosh, this is never going to end," but better days will come. There will be a time when the challenges of 2020 and the trials of 2021 will one day be behind us. The challenge will be that more prosperous and easier days will come, and the danger will be that the lessons, patterns, and habits built during these challenging times can easily be forgotten.

Like me, you might be looking forward to forgetting 2020, and understandably so. However, sometimes it is easier, or at least less difficult, to maintain closeness and a relationship with God during difficult and challenging times than it is to do so in easier and calmer times. When there is no work, we cry out to God for help. We need work. When there is no money, we pray to Him for provision. When there is an illness, we draw near to Him and to others within the body of Christ for help.

But when there is a long list of clients and too much work to finish, that is when we can find ourselves drifting. When our bank account is full or the accounts receivable box is overflowing, there is very little pressure for us to live by faith and prayer. Our great danger is in becoming foul-weather followers of God and fair-weather heathens.

In thinking about this, I can't help but think of a book. For some of you, just seeing this book will trigger some emotions. You know this book very well. We can sometimes, if we're not careful, fall into looking at God like our giving tree, coming to Him only when things are challenging. I think it's just a reality that we all can go through this because we are prone to forget His faithfulness.

When things get better, it becomes easier for us to neglect our relationship with God. However, as the Scriptures say, the Lord our God is a jealous God. He is not jealous of us, but jealous for us—jealous for our affection, our devotion, and our time spent with Him. In the same way that married couples would feel bothered if they saw someone flirting with their spouse, God is jealous for our hearts.

The Lord is calling His people to remember that when they enter the Promised Land, the temptation will be to forget Him because everything will be easier. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 16, it states, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes, which He has commanded you. You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord your God, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken."

The only way we can guard against becoming foul-weather followers and fair-weather heathens is by diligently maintaining closeness to God and His Word. The result of this closeness will be the blessing of His presence, and in the blessing of His presence is the blessing of God. "It may be well with you," is what God says in this passage.

So, how do we maintain such closeness to God and His Word? What is Moses's exhortation to the people? Returning to the Scriptures, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, beginning at verse 20, it says, "When your sons ask you in time to come, saying, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments of which the Lord our God has commanded you?'" There will come a time, Moses tells the people, when you are in the Promised Land, living in cities you did not build, in homes you did not fill, and inheriting lands from the Lord. There will be a time when you are following all of these routines, adhering to the law, and teaching these things to your children.

Kids, you're going through the Passover, Pentecost, and Sukkot. Your kids are going to come to you and say, "What is all this stuff about?" Then you shall say to your son, "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then He, God, brought us out from there that He might bring us in." I love that He brought us out that He might bring us in to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers.

The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that He might preserve us alive as it is this day. Then it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded us.

We must create and maintain memory of God and the essential lessons of His law. In many ways, the Old Testament is the sobering story of God, His people, and their perpetual forgetfulness of God and His law. All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction and admonition. So take heed when you think you stand, lest you fall. Beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of those trials, those challenges, and those burdens.

As I said, my hope and prayer is that during this last year, 2020, coming into 2021, you have been able to draw nearer to the Lord. I hope you have learned more of His faithfulness and His goodness. I hope you've seen God provide—not only financially or in work, but also emotionally and spiritually. All these things He has provided, and I pray that this has been a time where you've drawn closer to the Lord.

Maybe you've created new patterns of devotion, prayer, and time spent with the Lord or community. Do not allow those things to go by the wayside, because there will come a time when things are a little bit easier, when there is not the same challenge, burden, or stress laid upon you. It is in those times that we are prone to forget and to drift. Therefore, it is so important to set up these kinds of routines.

We must create and maintain memory of God and the essential lessons of His law so that we will continue to draw near to Him and walk with Him. So, Father God, I pray that You would...

Cause these things to be deep in our hearts, and that we would not soon forget them. Whatever sort of mechanisms or patterns we need to develop in our lives, may we be more apt to spend the time we need with You, in Your presence, in prayer, and in fellowship with other people. I pray, God, that You would do that work in us.

Sometimes, Lord, it is so much more difficult for us to maintain devotion to You and to maintain closeness of fellowship with others within the body of Christ when everything is just good. When times are good and the weather is good, it's so easy for us to drift. I pray, God, that You'd not allow that to happen. I hope that we will take advantage, Lord, of this challenging time to draw near to You and to grow close in our relationship with You. God, do that work in me; do that work in my brothers and sisters. I pray we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. The Savior knelt, the one who wore our sin and shame, now robed in majesty. The radiance of perfect love now shines for all to see. Your name, Your name is victory

To Christ our King, Your name is victory. All praise will rise to Christ our King. The fear that held us now gives way to Him who is our peace. His final breath upon the cross is life in me.

Your name is victory. Yes, it is! All praise will rise to Christ our King. By Your Spirit, I will rise from the ashes of defeat. The resurrected King is resurrecting me. In Your

Rise from the ashes of defeat. The resurrected King is resurrecting me. In Your name, I come alive to declare Your victory. The tomb where soldiers watched in vain was borrowed for three days; His body there would not remain. Our God has rocked the grave.

Your name is victory. All praise will rise to Christ our King. Oh, Your name, Your name is victory. Yes, by Your Spirit, I will rise from the ashes of defeat.

The Resurrection Kingdom is resurrecting me. In Your name, I come alive to declare Your victory. The resurrected King is resurrecting me.

Father God, we thank You for our time in worship together today, our time in Your Word. We pray that Your Word would be in our hearts and in our minds, that we would meditate upon it day and night so that we would be careful to walk in these things and that we would not soon forget them.

Lord, help us to grow in our relationship with You and with others within the body of Christ. We pray that You would move mightily and shine brightly through Your church. We ask this today in Jesus' name. Amen.

And now may the Lord bless and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. God bless you today. God bless you this week.

Hopefully, if it's not raining, we will see you this evening at four o'clock at the church. If you'd like to come, it will be another opportunity for you to fellowship, worship, and go through the Word together. God bless you. We'll see you tonight and next week.

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