Don't Forget to Remember (Joel Giesbrecht)

Well, good morning again. Today we'll be reading out of

the book of Judges, specifically chapter 2, so feel free to turn

there already. We recently started a new sermon

series through the book of Judges.

Pastor Jake started the series with an overview of the book and

he talked about this idea of connection and how because of

Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, that connection between

God and man became broken and through rebellion against God.

And ever since then there has been a disconnection.

A disconnection that people in every span of life up to and

including us, are trying to reconnect.

That we as humans, we feel this disconnection and we know that

we're not whole. And so we try to find

connection, but often we try to find it in the wrong things.

Pastor Jake mentioned this idea that nature hates a vacuum and

how we try to fill the emptiness with anything that brings us

comfort. And last week in Judges chapter

one, we saw a glimpse of that. Judges wasn't or isn't written

chronologically, which means that some of the events in

chapter 1 don't necessarily happen before the events that we

will read today in chapter 2. But the main patterns of this

book become seen. There's this consistent cycle

through the book of Judges. Israel sins and rebels against

God. They become enslaved and

oppressed. They cry out to God, and God

raises up someone to deliver them.

And then there is peace until they sin again.

And although the sin is quite drastic in nature, it's a pretty

common cycle for us too. And that's important to remember

when reading a book like Judges. Even though it's a history book,

and even though it happened a long time ago, human nature has

not changed that much. Judges recounts the events of

the Israelites in the time way before Christ, but their

attitudes, intentions and actions can be very similar to

ours today. And so the book shows the real

flaws and imperfections of human leaders and the ever increasing

need for a true savior. So we'll begin reading in Judges

Judges 2:6–15

chapter 2, verses 6 through 15. When Judges when Joshua

dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his

inheritance to take possession of the land.

And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all

the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen

all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the

age of 110 years, and they buried him within the boundaries

of of his inheritance. And Timothy Harris in the Hill

Country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gayash.

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers,

and there arose another generation after them who did

not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of

the Lord, and they served the Baal's, and they abandoned the

Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the

land of Egypt. They went after other gods from

among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed

down to them. And they provoked the Lord to

anger. They abandoned the Lord and

served the Baal's in the Ashtaroth.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he

gave them over to plunderers who plundered them and he sold them

into the land of their surrounding enemies so that they

could no longer withstand their enemies.

Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against

them, as the Lord had warned and as the Lord had sworn to them,

and they were in terrible distress.

Before we continue, let's go to let's go in prayer.

Lord, we, we thank you for this word to us.

As we look into the book of Judges, I pray that you give us

eyes to see how the events that unfold due to the attitudes of

these people are relevant to us today.

Lord, we know that nothing written in the Bible is there by

accident, but it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for

correction, for training and righteousness.

And Lord, I pray that we will be open to hearing from you and to

obey you fully. It's in Jesus name that we ask,

Amen. If I were to ask you what chore

do you hate doing the most, what would your answer be?

As adults, we don't really do chores.

It's more just life at this point.

But maybe a better question to ask is what chores do your kids

hate to do? Well, I'm a step ahead of you

because I asked them. Well, at least I asked the ones

that were at Junior Youth on Wednesday.

So I asked them what chore do you hate to do the most?

And here's a list of chores that some of them listed as the worst

chores to do. Stacking firewood and bringing

it inside, making the bed, cleaning up toys, cleaning up my

sister's mess, taking out the trash, mopping, vacuuming.

And the number one answer from all the youth, over half of them

answered this was some form of doing the dishes.

I won't say who said what, but if you have kids in junior

youth, I'm sure you can probably guess which ones were your came

from your kids. And if not, I'm pretty sure

those answers would be similar as well.

But having to do chores or really any kind of tedious labor

is rarely fun in the moment. It's normally a have to and not

AI get to. For me personally, I love being

clean and organized, but I don't necessarily like doing the work

or the time that it takes to do the work to get there.

I like the end product, but I don't necessarily like the work

required to accomplish it. And speaking on this subject,

I've heard someone say don't forget to remember.

And what he meant by that was don't.

Don't forget to remember the feeling when you climb into a

nice made bed after a long day. Don't forget the feeling of

coming home after a long day out and your home is nice and tidy

because you cleaned it before you left.

Don't forget to remember how good it feels to have saved

money because you followed a budget.

Essentially, don't forget to remember the past experiences

and feelings when you do something in the present.

In the book of Judges, we'll see the Israelites had this problem.

They continually forgot the God who saved them and had brought

them this far. And they turned and they bowed

down to other gods. And this morning we sang about

the goodness of God. And it's so fitting for this

passage today. The Israelites had been witness

to the goodness of God, and yet they forgot about him.

We too are witnesses to the goodness of God, whether we

recognize that or not. Granted, it's sometimes

difficult and it's hard for us to see, but we must remember

that our circumstances don't change God's character, and so

because God is good, we should remember His works and obey Him.

The Bible tells us that God is faithful, but there are times in

our lives where it seems hard to reconcile that.

But looking through this portion of Judges, we will be reminded

that we should remember God though we don't see him.

We should remember God though we are stubborn, and we should

remember God though we go through testing.

Like I mentioned, the whole book of Judges is a steady and

incremental decrease in morality and obedience to God.

In a sense, it makes for a good sermon series because each week

we could say you think that was bad, come back next week.

But there's a noticeable decline in the quality of Judges or the

OR the leaders of Israel. So when we read things like they

there came another generation after them that did not know the

Lord or the works that he had done for them.

It makes a lot more sense how something like that could have

happened. You might think, how could the

next generation not know the Lord or the work he had done for

them? But just looking at the process

of events and the book of Judges shows one example of how that's

possible. It's small steps away from God,

to the point where when you try to look back, you don't even

know where you are or how you got there.

You're so far off from the actual aim, and in this case, so

far away from God's commands that you don't know them

anymore. You need something or someone to

point you back to what it is you're supposed to be following.

And in this case, that was the role that the judges were

supposed to play. They were the deliverers that

God used to save the Israelites. And I say that intentionally

because it wasn't the judges that did it.

They were deeply flawed and sinful people, but it shows the

strength and sovereignty of God that He can use the free will

and free choices of men to still accomplish His plans.

God was not condoning or endorsing the lifestyle and

actions of the judges, but He used them because there was an

absence of good leaders, because of deep rooted sin.

There was a leadership void and it was filled with less than

ideal leaders. And along with the Israelites,

they forgot about God being the one in control and took matters

into their own hands. They forgot God because they

could not see Him. And so the lesson that we should

take from that is remember God. Though we don't see him, we can

see from the example of the Israelites that forgetting God

leaves you blind, Not in a literal, literal sense of having

no vision, but in that you no longer see the goodness of God.

In verse 6, we read that the people went to take possession

of their inherited land already. That's a promise kept by God,

that He would give them that land.

It says that the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua,

who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for

Israel. These people had witnessed the

walk through the Jordan River. They watch Jericho fall and as

we just mentioned, they inherited this land that was

promised to them. So these people knew God.

But as we go on to read after Joshua dies, there comes a

people that didn't know God. And this is really a set up for

the greater book of Judges. The second-half of verse 10 as

we read it says there arose another generation after them

who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for

Israel. What happened to the nation of

Israel that they would forget the God that led them to this

point? They were blind to their own

situation. We aren't told exactly why or

what the reason was for forgetting, but we can.

We can safely assume that people stop telling stories.

They stop sharing the goodness of God with those around them,

and more importantly, they stop sharing it to the generation

that had not seen the events leading up to this point.

In other words, they stop discipling one another and

properly raising the next generation.

Maybe they assume the next generation would just catch on

or figure it out by themselves. But what we can see from that is

that faith is not by osmosis. Osmosis is this term described

used to describe when water moves from an area where there's

more water to an area where there's less water.

If you think of a plant in the ground, the water in the soil

moves through the thin walls of the plant cells into the plant

to strengthen the plant, and that process is called osmosis.

But faith is not like that. Would you be better off to be

surrounded by people that are all in the faith?

100%. But will you absorb their faith

by simply being around them? No.

An obvious example of this is raising children.

You can be raised in a quote UN quote Christian home, but just

because your parents are Christian doesn't mean that

it'll be automatically transferred to you.

Someone has to tell you about the faith to lead and guide you

in the way to go. And that's where it seems like

the Israelites failed. They did not properly lead and

guide the next generation and it resulted in a nation that was

blind to the goodness of God. We also see that forgetting God

leaves you alone, and verses 11 to 14 it tells of how the people

did evil in the sight of the Lord.

They forgot the Lord. It says they abandoned the Lord,

the very same God that their fathers had served and the same

God that led them out of slavery in Egypt.

So they forgot or they abandoned the Lord and they were left to

their own devices. In verse 12, it says that they

went after other gods. They bowed down to the gods of

those around them instead of remembering the Lord they were.

They weren't simply not worshiping God, but they started

worshiping other gods, which points out that when we are left

alone without the Spirit's guidance, we will not worship

God and instead we will worship something else.

It has been said that there is no such thing as worshiping as

not worshiping, rather everybody worships.

The only choice we get is what the Israelites chose to not

worship the one true God and instead they worship the gods of

the people around them. In our lives we might not

worship the Bales and the Ashtaroth, but if we forget God,

we will turn to the worship the gods of those around us as well.

Money, success, power, those are idols that are very much alive

right now. But as the Israelites also found

out, forgetting God leaves you in distress.

Verse 15 says that the hand of the Lord was against them for

harm, as the Lord had warned, as the Lord had sworn to them, and

they were in terrible distress. The Israelites have been given

over to the surrounding enemies, and now they're feeling the

hurt. The Lord had warned them, but

they still disobeyed. And God has a righteous anger

because of their actions, and He lets them feel the consequences

of their actions. He lets them experience life

without Him, just as they had been living.

It all began with the Israelites forgetting God.

The previous generation did a poor job of passing down their

knowledge and faith, and the current generation did a poor

job of seeking after Him. They became content with living

with the people. They became content with serving

their gods. Slowly or little by little, they

took steps away from the one true God, and they forgot

entirely who He was or what He had done for them.

They needed someone to guide them back.

Some years ago I went ice fishing out of Kingsville and by

the time we were ready to head back it had gotten dark and very

foggy out. So much so that you couldn't see

the shore. And it's pretty common for that

to happen. You go so far out and you don't

notice the disappearing shoreline because you're not

worried about it. You're worried about having fun

and catching fish. But when it's time to pack up

and go home and it's nice and cold and your hands are frozen

beyond use, then the knowing where the shoreline is becomes

pretty important. On the way back I was carrying

buckets and was walking with all my gear and exhausted from the

long walk, but because of the heavy fog, I had no idea how

much farther we had to walk. But after a bit more walking, I

finally saw that green light of the lighthouse shining through

the fog and I was very glad to see it.

I now knew the direction, what direction to go, and I knew that

we were getting close. The light was a guide for us and

it LED us to where we needed to go, which in my case was to the

car with the heaters on full blast.

But connecting that back to the book of Judges, the leaders were

supposed to be the guides to lead the people where they were

supposed to go. They should have told the next

generation about God and help them remember God's goodness.

But instead of going in the direction of the light, they

disregarded it and they went their own way and because and

because of that, they got so far away that they could no longer

see it. The next generation did not know

God because they had not been led to know Him.

And that should be a reminder for us as well.

For one thing, it should remind us to lead our children and

those in our circles of influence to follow the true

God, to help remind them of the goodness of God.

And we won't do a good job of that unless we know the true

God. And so it's important that we're

consistently in God's Word, learning and being taught by the

Spirit, to then go and teach others to not let our faith die

with us, but to share it for all to hear.

As Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount, let your light shine

before others so that they may see your good works and give

glory to your Father who is in heaven.

And two, we need to know God to be able to recognize when

someone teaches something contrary to him.

If you hear me say something up here, you shouldn't necessarily

take my word for it. Not that I want to lie or

mislead anyone, but Joel's word is not the final authority on

theology. God's word is the final

authority, and so that must be our guiding light as Christians.

When we know God's word, we will recognize things that are

contrary to it. We will remember the true

character of God, and by doing so, we will be able to stay

clear of misguided leaders. So not only should we remember

God when we don't see him, but we should also remember God,

though we are stubborn. Let's continue reading Judges

Judges 2:16–23

chapter 2, verses 16 to 23. Then the Lord raised up judges

who saved them out of the hands of those who plundered them.

Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they hoard after

other gods and bowed down to them.

They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had

walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and

did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up

judges for them, the Lord was with the Judge, and He saved

them from the hand of their enemies.

All the days of the Judge for the Lord was moved to pity by

their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed

them. But whenever the judge died,

they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers,

going after other gods serving them and bowing down to them.

They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn

ways. And so the anger of the Lord was

kindled against Israel. And he said, because this people

have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers

and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before

them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died in

order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to

walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not.

So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly,

and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

This passage in chapter 2, again, it's not in chronological

order, but instead it's an explanation and summary of the

book of Judges. From this portion portion of the

passage, we can see that God is good in His compassion and in

His anger. When the Israelites forgot,

forgot God and served other gods of the people around them, they

rejected God. They forgot His goodness, and

they abandoned him. But God did not abandon them.

He did. He let them feel what it was

like to live without His protection.

But we see God's character displayed and that He didn't

want to leave them there. He shows His compassion for the

rebellious people. And in the last part of verse

18, it says that the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning.

So he raises up judges for the people.

These judges, they're not courtroom judges as we might be

accustomed to, but instead these judges were warriors and tribal

leaders and commanders of armies.

They were deliverers for the people.

They were also supposed to serve as a religious role, as

preachers of God's Word and a legal role of settling disputes

in the time of peace. Yet, as we will come to see in

the next few weeks, all these judges were still flawed human

beings. None of them did it perfectly,

or in some cases, even good. But it points to a couple of

things. One is that God can use anyone

he chooses to accomplish His will.

In verse 18, it says the Lord was with the judge that he

raised up. That doesn't mean that God

condoned everything the judges did, but rather that it was God

who saved the Israelites from their oppressors and not by the

strength of the judge alone. And two, it foreshadows or

points to the need for a true savior, a role that only Jesus

could fill. The Israelites certainly didn't

deserve the goodness of God after their actions, but still,

God is compassionate and He raises up deliverers for them.

Just like the Israelites. We don't deserve the grace of

God either, but God sent a deliverer through His Son Jesus.

We are a stubborn people too, and we want to pursue our own

ways, and we rebel against God as well.

But God was good to the Israelites when they didn't

deserve it. God and God is good to us too.

He's patient with us, He convicts us through His Spirit,

and He desires for all to have a relationship with Him.

First Timothy 24 says that God desires all people to be saved

and come to a knowledge of the truth.

But we also see in this passage the anger of God.

It's not a sinful anger, but rather it's a righteous anger.

God is good in His compassion, but He is also good in His

anger. In verse 19, it says that after

the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than they

were before. They didn't drop any of their

stubborn ways. They acted right when there was

a judge watching over them, but as soon as the leader was no

longer there, they rebelled. They didn't keep their focus on

what was true. They chose to forget the peace

that they had with the judge and purposely neglected and

abandoned God. It wasn't an accident.

It was a deliberate turning away from God.

Because of their actions, God let's the warring nations that

live among them stay and it says that it was to test Israel by

them. The nation of Israel had

rejected God and as had been warned to them, they would now

face the consequences. Joshua before his death he warns

the people and Joshua 2420 it says if you forsake the Lord and

serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do harm and do you harm

and consume you after having done you good.

This wasn't a random act by God or an impulsive act of anger.

This was a fulfillment of a promise.

The Israelites had the chance to serve him, but they rejected it.

Even the Canaanites, who the Israelites were supposed to

fight against, they were not all doomed to destruction.

We can read the stories of Rahab, who helped the Israelites

spies in Jericho, and the Gibeonites, who, although they

misled the Israelites, would come to recognize the Lord's

authority over the gods of Canaan.

But As for the Israelites, whenever the next judge would

die, they would choose to look away from God and forget Him.

It's similar to the event of Peter walking on water.

In the New Testament and Matthew 14, we read of Peter and the

disciples. They were in a boat when Jesus

appears to them in the water, Peter being the more impulsive

one in the group. He says, Lord, if it is you,

command me to come to you on the water.

But it says, when he saw the wind, he was afraid and

beginning to sink. He cried out, Lord save me.

Peter did well to look to Jesus, but when he turned aside and he

looked to the things around him, he became compromised.

He took his focus off Jesus and he forgot that it was Jesus who

was allowing him to walk on water.

And it was only through faith in him that he wasn't sinking.

Like Peter, and like the Israelites, we do well to keep

our focus on Christ. We may act right in front of our

families, in front of those that we know from church, but what do

we do when they're not around? Do we go back to our stubborn

ways into the gods of this age? The Israelites did not learn

this lesson the first time, and because of their continual

rejecting of God, they find themselves in trouble many

times. It is a reminder to us to not

let our stubborn nature lead us to where we don't want to be, to

keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and to remember God though we

are stubborn. Lastly, we should also remember

God. Though we go through testing.

God uses tests to teach His people, to turn His people to

Him and to deliver His people. Let's pick up in Judges 3 verses

one through 2 it says Now these are the nations that the Lord

left to test Israel by them. That is all in Israel who had

not experienced all the wars in Canaan.

It was only an order that the generations of the people of

Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known

it before. As we read in chapter 2, God was

going to test Israel through these other nations.

And we read in chapter 3, verse 2 that it was so that the

generations of Israel might know war and to teach war to those

who had not known it before. And this lays out the

explanation for these remaining nations.

God uses tests to teach His people.

This was another kindness shown by God to the people.

They had forgotten about Him. Remember, we read about the

generation that did not know Him.

God was therefore going to help prepare this generation as they

needed. By teaching them war.

They would come to a better understanding of who God was and

in turn come to know Him as a true deliverer.

They would need to rely on God if they were to win these wars,

and this testing would also become fruitful in years to

come. If they were to stay in this

land, it would not come without its battles.

Centuries later in the time of Jeremiah, Jeremiah is lamenting

to God about why the wicked prosper and why the faithful

suffer. And God responds to Jeremiah

with a couple questions. Says if you have raced with men

on foot and they have wearied you, how will you compete with

horses? And if in a safe land you are so

trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

Another way of saying this is how will you learn to run if you

don't learn to walk? God uses tests to teach His

people because He is a good father.

He prepares His children for what they need to know.

God also uses tests to turn His people toward Him.

Verse 4 reads that they were for testing.

They were for the testing of Israel to know whether Israel

would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded

their fathers by the hand of Moses.

God had laid out a plan and He made a covenant with His people

through Moses and was reiterated by Joshua, but the people have

forgotten the covenant and they chose to rebel against God and

go after the idols. This testing that would come

through the nations that's mentioned that are mentioned in

verse 3 was to determine if Israel would turn back to God.

God wasn't forcing them to turn back, but He was drawing them to

Himself. God could have easily removed

all the nations that surrounded Israel by Himself.

He didn't need the partnership of the people, but simply

removing the other enemy nations wasn't the point.

God wanted the Israelites to do the work, not because he

couldn't, but because doing the work was what would turn Israel

as a nation back to God. You could say that it's the same

reason the trainer at the gym doesn't lift the weights for

you. Yes, the goal is to get the

weight off the ground, but if they did it for you, you

wouldn't learn anything. You wouldn't grow.

And God ultimately uses tests to deliver his people in steps.

The first judge of Israel off. Neil reading chapter 3 verses 7

to 9. And the people of Israel did

what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

They forgot the Lord their God and serve the Baal's and

Ashroth. Therefore the anger of the Lord

was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the land of

Cushion Rasha Theam, king of Mesopotamia.

And the people of Israel served cushion Rasha Theam 8 years.

But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord

raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them

off. Neil, the son of Ken as Caleb's

younger brother. The people are of Israel are

back to serving idols and of those living around them.

And it says they forgot God. They get enslaved by the hands

of a foreign king, and for eight years they must serve him.

But then God, being rich in his goodness, raises up a deliverer,

Othneil, who would become the first judge of Israel.

And we can find in Joshua 15 and Judges one that Othneil was the

nephew of Caleb, and in fact he had already proven himself as a

warrior prior to fighting the king of Mesopotamia.

Othneil had been tested and proved himself as a worthy

warrior. Then in verse 10 it says the

Spirit of the Lord was upon him and he judged Israel.

He went out to war and the Lord gave cushion Rashteum, king of

Mesopotamia into his hand, and his hand prevailed over cushion

Rashteum. The Spirit of God was with

Othneil. Othneil had been tested and he

was a warrior, but it was ultimately God who secured the

victory for Israel. God was faithful in his testing

and in His deliverance of Israel.

Finally, verse 11 reads, So the land had rest for 40 years and

they lived happily ever after? Not really.

Then Othneil son of Canaz died. Those last few words they

foreshadow that things will not stay at rest for the nation of

Israel. And although we can see that

Othneil was an almost ideal deliverer, the people will again

go back to doing evil. It wasn't a lack of deliverers.

It wasn't. It was a lack of faithfulness to

God, a lack of remembering who God was and what he had done for

them. This is one of the many cycles

of sin, desperation, deliverance, and peace that will

come, that we will come to see. But during all those times, we

will see that God is good. Even through the testing that

comes to Israel, God remains good.

His loving character does not change, and it doesn't change in

our day either. Hebrews 13/8 says that Jesus

Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

When we go through testing, we can remember that God is still

in control. God is not a cruel lawgiver.

When a teacher gives their students a test in school, are

they being cruel to their students?

No, contrary to what the student might think, the test isn't to

harm them, but to make sure the student knows what they ought to

know. And I don't want to.

I don't want to drive on the bridge that's been designed by

an engineer that's never been tested.

I don't want to have surgery performed on me by a Doctor

Who's never been tested. We want those around us to be

tested and to know what they're doing.

God uses a similar. God uses tests in a similar way

and manner. He wants us to know Him.

I want to clarify that not every bad thing that happens in our

life is a test from God. The world is a sinful place and

we don't always know why certain things happen.

It would be irresponsible and dangerous to tell people that

you're being tested by God every time something happens in their

life. But when we go through life and

we face hardships, it is good to ponder, is God preparing me for

something? It's important to remember God

though. We go through testing because it

helps us align ourselves to Him. God is all powerful.

He could fix our life, our finances, our church, but He

doesn't, at least not on this side of eternity, and not in the

way that we might want. But remembering the character of

God while we go through those difficult experiences helps us

to understand and know Him more. And when we know Him more, we

will love Him more and we will want to obey Him more.

And that is the point. The work of defeating sin has

already been accomplished by Jesus on the cross.

God claimed victory over sin and death, and if we are followers

of Him, we are heirs to that Kingdom.

When we go through testing, then we can remember that God has

already won. In September of 2001, as you

probably all know, there was an attack on the Twin Towers in New

York. For those of you old enough to

remember it, I'm sure you'll recall where you were on that

day. And for many of you too,

including myself, you may have been either very young or not

born yet when this attack happened, but it was an event

that changed the world forever. I was just a young boy, so I

don't have any first hand experiences of the event, but

from what I have read and heard, it was a very stressful, intense

time in America and the whole world.

I found a research study conducted by Barna Research that

was done shortly after these attacks.

According to their research, there was a nationwide increase

of church attendance by as much as 25%.

Immediately after, 911 people were flocking into the churches

in droves. One large church in New York

City, pastored by Tim Keller, saw their average attendance go

from 2800 to 5400, and apparently it stayed full and

continued to grow. But unlike that particular

church, in the vast majority of cases there was a brief surge in

attendance followed by a sharp and sudden decline shortly

after. According to the study, the

average attendance of most churches went back down to pre

attack levels in just a few weeks.

There was no lasting impact for many people that decided to

visit church after those attacks.

They did not stay at church or continue in any faith walk.

In fact, the only pattern that continued was the slow and slip

steady decline of those who deemed themselves religious.

It shows a trait of human nature that when we that people want to

seek comfort in times of crisis, people want to have community

and people to go through those hard times with.

But then after the crisis or after the trauma, people will

quickly go back to their old habits and their old way of

life. And I say people, but I could be

saying we because isn't that true for ourselves too?

From the time of the Israelites to the time of the attacks and

to the present day, there's been so much change in the world, but

human nature really hasn't changed that much.

The Israelites did not cry out to God until they were harshly

oppressed because of their sin, and God raised up for delivers

delivers for them. But after a brief time of rest,

they soon forgot about God and the things that he had done.

I think, like the Israelites, we too are are guilty of forgetting

the goodness of God. When we look at the example of

the brief rise in church attendance after a national

tragedy, we must ask why, or maybe more importantly, what

should be done differently? The people that briefly went to

church after the tragedy, they wanted to have some comfort, and

you can't blame them for that. And it's great to think that

people think of the church when they're in times of need, but

going to the church is not. Going to church is not simply a

means to an end. Many of these new churchgoers

assume that they would go into a building and find comfort just

from being there. And perhaps they did find some,

but it quickly wore off. When things didn't continue to

feel or to go as they imagined it would, they left and they

went on to the next thing. Going to church can feel good

for a little while, but eventually that feeling will

wear off. And now you're left with the

choice. Will I continue going?

Is this worth it? At that point, it's a good idea

to remember the goodness of God, to remember His promises,

Promises like He will be with His people, that there is rest

for the weary, that He will supply our needs.

That He will give wisdom to those that ask.

That he will give peace and strength.

That he works all things together for the good of those

who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

And most importantly, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful

just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. And that whoever believes in

Jesus will have eternal life. Don't forget those promises.

There's an old hymn called Standing on the Promises.

Part of that song reads like this.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail.

When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail by the living

word of God, I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every

moment to the spirits call, resting in my Savior as my All

in all. Standing on the promises of God.

That hymn is a great reminder to us to not forget the promises of

God, but to stand on them, to hold fast to them, to remember

them. Maybe you're not a Christian and

you don't know those promises. All those promises that I just

listed, those are for you as well.

God wants you to draw near to Him and experience those.

They're not limited to a select few, but available for all who

put their trust in Him. And if you've never experienced

what that's like to trust in God, go to someone who is a

Christian who you trust and ask why are you a Christian and ask

them to tell you about the God that they serve.

And to everyone here that does follow Christ, Are you ready to

answer that question? Do you remember the goodness of

God that you can share what He has done to those that need to

know? And the Bible says for the Son

of man came to seek and save the lost.

God sent his only Son to die for our sins and to forever set us

free from the bondage of death, to give us life abundantly.

That is the goodness of God. That is something worth

remembering. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, you

are a good Father. You have granted to us all

things that pertain to life and godliness.

You've given us your Son that through him we have life

everlasting and forgiveness of sin.

You've given us your Spirit to convict us of our sin and draw

us closer to You. And you desire for all people to

be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

Lord, I pray that we will remember those promises, that

you help us and remind us that You are always with us, that we

won't forget about you and we don't see you or when we are

stubborn or when we go through times of testing, but that we

hold fast to your promises. Lord, help us remember.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.