Sermon Central
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How Is Your Memory?
Contributed by Dr. Odell Belger on Nov 13, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: Did you know our memory is a gift from God? God has given us many wonderful gifts, but our Memory is one of the great gifts God has given us. Just think about it!!! Wouldn’t it be a terrible to live our entire life on earth and when we die nobody remembers that we ever existed!!!
• This is why we all want to leave behind a good legacy of ourselves so that our family and friends will remember us.
• That is why when we die and people attend our funeral service the minister can remind people of the godly life we lived.
Memory is a wonderful GIFT FROM GOD!!!
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells how that his youngest brother had died and he still is able to remember him and the good times they had together.
He can still remember…
• How he looked!
• How he talked!
• How he was the life of the party!
• How he loved to tell jokes and make people laugh!
• How he had a different walk from most people!
• How they played together as a child!
• How he always attended church after a hard day’s work!
• How he love to give to the Lord’s work.
He said, even though he is not here today on earth I thank God for these precious memories of him because he was such a part of my life and still is through memory!!!
Memory is a wonderful GIFT FROM GOD!!!
We cannot survive in life without our MEMORIES.
Illus: Suppose I stuck my finger in a wall socket and it shocked me! And suppose I did the same thing the next day and it shocked me! If I could not remember I would keep making the same dumb mistake over and over.
Memory is a wonderful gift from God, but, like other good gifts it can be used in a bad way.
For example, Satan tries to turn the blessing of having a good memory into a curse of making our life miserable.
How?
By reminding us of sinful things in the past of the sins we committed.
Illus: When we read about the apostle Paul’s life before he was saved he persecuted the Christians.
I am sure he had some horrible memories of what he participated in as an unbeliever.
He is guilty of doing three things, such as:
1. He was a blasphemer
2. He was a persecutor
3. He inflicted pain on the believers.
These are horrible sins that Paul committed before he was saved.
But Paul was not going to allow Satan to destroy his life of happiness in Christ by remembering his past sins.
Paul said in Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Yes, I am sure Paul deeply regretted the things he did in his past life before he got saved.
The Bible teaches us that Satan is the “accuser of the brethren”.
Illus: If we let the devil he will take our past sins and beat us over the head with our past sins every day of our life wanting to destroy our happiness as a child of God.
He deeply regretted these sins he committed and he repented over them!
But our past sins are like SPILT MILK and there is not anything you can do about the past except put it in the past where it belongs.
HOW DOES GOD DEAL WITH OUR PAST SINS!!!
Illus: Many of us have heard preachers and teachers say, When God saves us he puts our sins in the sea of forgetfulness NEVER TO BE REMEMBERED ANYMORE!
That really sounds good, doesn’t it!
BUT WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THAT IS NOT TRUE!!!
The phrase sea of forgetfulness is not actually in the Scriptures.
The nearest thing to that can be found is in Micah 7:19: “He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”
• God has never promised us that He would FORGET OUR SINS!
• He has promised He would not REMEMBER THEM ANYMORE.
There is a difference between FORGETTING AND REMEMBERING!
So, we cannot say GOD FORGIVES SIN AND FORGETS SIN that is wrong!
Why?
BECAUSE THE SCRIPTURES TEACHES GOD IS OMNISCIENT…. that is He knows everything! There is not ANYTHING HE DOES NOT KNOW!!! And if He did not know our PAST SINS, HE COULD NOT BE AN OMNISCIENT GOD.
HOW DOES GOD DEAL WITH OUR PAST SINS?
Look at Hebrews 10:14-17 for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
• The sacrificial system of the Old Testament, in which sacrifices were continually made for sin OVER AND OVER!!!
