TITLE: WHAT TO REMEMBER AND WHAT TO FORGET
Introduction:
Imagine that you are going on a business cum leisure trip. During the preparation, you may have a hundred things on your mind. Now you need to prioritize what to bring and what not to bring. For example, you must remember to bring your passport, foreign currency and the business documents for your trip. At the same time, there are excess and unnecessary stuff that you will choose leave them at home.
Life is a journey with the Lord. We need to live with our eyes set on the purpose which God has for us. One of the most important keys to reach this goal is to know what to remember and what to forget.
A) THINGS TO REMEMBER
Point # 1 - Remember Your First Love
Jesus says to the Church in Ephesus that although she has been busy doing things for the Lord but she is lacking in her love that she used to have for her Bridegroom. These are the words of Jesus, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Rev 2:4, 5).
Do you remember how much you love Jesus in the past? You were so excited to wake up in the morning to read God’s Word. There was always a fresh manna from heaven. Do you remember the days when you are always looking forward to the weekend? Because you cannot wait to go to Sunday Service to worship the Lord, and to serve the Lord together with the other believers. Do you remember the days when you are so excited about Jesus to everyone around you? What happened to you that now you stopped sharing the gospel? What happen to your joy in service? When did you lose your joy of serving the Lord and His people? Has your heart grown cold? How many of the Lord’s warriors backslidden and return to the world? Are you at risk of becoming one of the casualties?
Jesus says to the church in Ephesus, remember how far you have fallen, repent and do the things you did at first. The starting place is to “Remember” because only then we can realise that things are not what they are supposed to be. Following the former, come “Repent” and “Return”.
Point #2 - Remember the Father’s Love
The younger son in the parable of the Prodigal Son represents the nature of mankind. People wants to self-rule and be independent from God’s law. When they follow their own desires and go as far as they can from God, their portion will be misery and sorrow. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So, he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” (Lk 15:13-16).
Life without God is a life that has a vacuum because it does not have a purpose for living. As a result, men and women fill themselves with pleasure, fun and enjoyment, riches and fame. These are fleeing and temporal, as we can see it happening around us during this pandemic. This world offers temporal pleasure and wealth but they are nothing more than what we will find at the end of a rainbow.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!” (Lk 15:17). The younger son left home and live like an orphan. When mankind lives without God, we will be like orphans in this world. Orphans have no one to cover, nurture, protect and provide for them. They have to fight and strive for all their lives, because they are orphans.
Remember the goodness and kindness of God the Father. God is a Father at heart. He is just, He is righteous and holy. But ultimately, He is a Father at heart. He did not wait for us to return, Rom 5:8 tells us that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Point #3 - Remember Lot’s Wife
Jesus tells about the wife of a man named Lot. In Genesis19:1-25 records for us the events that happened, Lot moved his entire family to live in the wicked city of Sodom. At a later time, judgement came upon the city as a result of her sins. The Lord sent two angels to rescue Lot and his family from the impending destruction. The angel warned Lot to escape with his family and not turned back. Otherwise, they would also be destroyed. And so, it happened that when the fire came down from the heaven upon the city, Lot’s wife looked back at the city and she was turned into a pillar of salt. She was too entangled with the city and she could not bear to leave it. She longed for the vanity fair, pleasure, the wealth, prom and the glam.
Jesus says, “remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall save it.” (Lk 17:32, 33). Dear brothers and sisters, if we are not careful, our hearts can also become like that of the heart of the wife of Lot. We must heed to the warning of Jesus against become so entangled with the things of this world that we forsake our identity as the citizen of another kingdom, the Kingdom of God.
(Cf. Phil 3:18-21 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”)
B) THINGS TO FORGET
Point #1 Forget Your Failures
“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.” (Isa 43:18)
“… Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isa 1:18)
Every one of us have done something in the past that we regretted. Or the sins in our pasts still cast a long shadow in our lives and somewhat affecting us in ways we cannot understand. Today the Lord says remember not the former things. When we confess our sins and come to the Lord Jesus at the cross of Calvary, he will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness by His Precious Blood. The devil is the accuser of God’s people and he relentlessly bring up our past sins to make us feel condemned. The Good News tells us that Jesus has come to silence the accuser by His Blood, and set us free in order that we can live a new life. 2 Cor 5:17 tells us that we are a new creation in Christ. The past is gone, and God gives us a new beginning to start all over.
Point #2 - Forget Your Successes
“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13, 14)
Just as it is important to forget your past failures, it is equally important to forget your past successes. Your past failure lies to you that you are not able to use by God anymore and bring about a sense of guilt and condemnation. Your past successes tell you that you have already accomplished your peak performance and from the journey forward will be heading south. As a result. It becomes difficult for you to believe that God can do greater things in the future.
For some of us who have journey with the Lord for some time or are advanced in age already. You say, “I am physically not as strong as I used to be. I cannot do so much as I would like to do for the Lord during my younger days.” We may think that exploits we did in the past as the grandest, par excellence, epic and the pinnacle or the equivalent of the golden age. Such thoughts will put a limit on the omnipotence of Almighty God. It is our thinking that limit God and not that God is limited in what He can do.
God is able to use anyone, with whatever gifts and talents they possess regardless of age and circumstances. As long as we avail ourselves to Him, He can use us for His glorious purpose and the expansion of His Eternal Kingdom. Therefore, place your trust God to work in your life in special way. The Lord says in Isa 40:31: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Conclusion:
Life is a journey that each of us must take, and we can only pass through this way once. Let’s learn what are the things we need to remember and the things we need to forget. In this way, we can travel more efficiently. When we finally reach our destination, we can say that we have done what we are here to do, to enjoy what God has given us, to lead a rich and fulfilled life, to bless others along the way and to shine for Christ.
