Grandma's Dresser Drawer

[SPEAKER_00]: God, today we stop and thank you for the remarkable courage of our fallen soldiers for the undeniable strength that they displayed and for the incredible resolve to serve our country for the undying beauty of their ultimate sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: the unflinching devotion to our great nation, for all those who valiantly rose to the call and for the legacy they left behind for all of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God we pray for the loved ones of the heroes we lost.

[SPEAKER_00]: for the mothers and fathers, for the brothers and sisters, for the sons and daughters, and for the spouses who bear the void with pride, for all the friends and family with an empty space that you would comfort those who remain, that we would cherish their memory, and that our lives would honor their sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, help us to always remember what they stood for, to never forget their names, and to carry on their legacy of bravery from this day forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Jeff Estes, I'm the group's pastor.

[SPEAKER_01]: I really love that video.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is so meaningful to me when Andrew showed that to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I support this just really fits in with what we want to talk about today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're going to talk about Memorial Day.

[SPEAKER_01]: The importance of remembrance and the spiritual impact when we fail to remember.

[SPEAKER_01]: Regard Kippling, a famous British author who gave us the Jungle Book, pinned the line that became a refrain at military memorials around the world following the death of his only son in World War II.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is a line.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's less we forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: less to we forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's a strange phrase if you look at it closely because it's not.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will not forget or we must not forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's less to we forget, as in forgetting is already underway.

[SPEAKER_01]: As in the only thing standing between memory and silence is a deliberate costly repeated decision to remember.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so with that in mind, I want to tell you about a drawer and it's not just any drawer, it's a very special drawer to me and my family.

[SPEAKER_01]: As children, my brothers, my cousins, and I, we would visit Grandpa and Grandma's house for these wonderful family get together.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm sure you've experienced the same sort of thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in my grandma's bedroom was a dressing table with a drawer that she always kept unlocked.

[SPEAKER_01]: After dinner while the grownups were talking and catching up, we'd slip away to Grandma's room and we'd open the drawer because it contained photos that meant so much to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the photos was with a hard working young man who grew up in a farm in northern Missouri.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a bright, talented teenager whose potential led him to the University of Missouri.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is a college student.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was so deeply affected by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that he in thousands of other young men left school the very next month to enlist in the military.

[SPEAKER_01]: After basic training, he was sent to Florida where he found that operating farm machinery actually transitioned you well into flying a bomber.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know that, but he had a talent there and so they recruited him to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And after flight school, he returned home one last time to see his family before heading to Europe.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's pictured here with his two younger brothers who idolized him.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of my favorite photos shows a young man standing next to his plane.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's standing with his crew.

[SPEAKER_01]: One I'm referring to is on the left hand side.

[SPEAKER_01]: That young man was the pilot.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's standing with his crew.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had been together for 18 months.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they'd flown 59 missions together, which was a lifetime in World War II.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we would always look at the small bombs that were painted on the side of the plane, one for each mission flow.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we would count them every time, seeing if the number had changed, 59, 59.

[SPEAKER_01]: That young man was my uncle Bill.

[SPEAKER_01]: First Lieutenant Charles William Estes of the United States Army Air Corps, the pilot of a Martin B.26 Maradder bomber.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was only 25 years old when his plane, the Bank Knight Betty took a direct hit from German anti-aircraft fire over Belgium.

[SPEAKER_01]: The explosion ripped his plane in two, and it fell 10,000 feet to the earth below.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were no parachutes, there were no survivors.

[SPEAKER_01]: In an instant, all seven men aboard were gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: That day was December 23rd, 1944.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that day has a name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Historians call it Black Saturday, the day the Army Air Corps lost 36 bombers and their crews during high risk daylight bombing missions required for the Battle of the Bulge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, to most of you, this probably seems like ancient history, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's almost 82 years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why does this matter?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why does it remembering?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why not just going through the motions, but really, really remembering.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why does it matter so much?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because failing to remember causes us to lose sight of the sacrifices that were made on our behalf, it affects what we value, how we live, in what future generations honor.

[SPEAKER_01]: And while the importance of remembering is illustrated for us by Memorial Day, it carries an even deeper meaning and scripture.

[SPEAKER_01]: This morning, I want us to see that remembering is foundational to our faith and to our spiritual well-being.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, at the end of his life, the Apostle Peter had something urgent to say about remembrance.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we turn, I encourage you to turn your Bibles.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be in two places if you've got bookmarkers in your Bible, and we're going to be in second Peter, and we're going to be in Deuteronomy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Long way apart, just giving you a heads up.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when we turn to second Peter 1, 12 through 15, we find an older Peter who knows he's going to die very soon.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know that?

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because he says so plainly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to his heart in these final pages.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says this, therefore, I will always remind you about these things, even though you already know them, and are standing firm in the truth that you've been taught, even though you know those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's only right that I keep on reminding you as long as you live.

[SPEAKER_01]: For the Lord Jesus Christ to show that I must soon leave this earthly life.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I will work hard to make sure you remember these things after I'm gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: He continues on in chapter 3.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them, I've tried to stimulate

[SPEAKER_01]: your wholesome thinking and to refresh your memory.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he says this, I want you to remember what the Holy Prophet said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you, but when we look at these passages, there seems to be a lot of refreshing, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of reminding, a lot of remembering.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do we need to be reminded or is this message just for the churches in Asia Minor?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you guys think?

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to notice something here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter is not writing to people who have abandoned their faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, you already know these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're already established in the truth, but still he writes, still he reminds, still he stirs,

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously doing this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why is he doing this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because Peter understood something that we often overlook about ourselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: We forget not because we're bad people, but because we're human.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, everybody under 50 in the room right now is probably thinking, yeah, old people forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, this message is for old people.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we've got an old guy in the pulpit.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's preaching old school.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's probably moments away from telling a dad joke.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But notice, Peter is writing to remind the next generation.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's reminding the next generation of this.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says in verses three and four of Peter one.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I can Peter one.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's pretty impressive.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, what is he given us?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's given us everything we need for living a godly life.

[SPEAKER_01]: We received all of this, it says, by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are promises that enable you to share his divine nature and to escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that seems like something worth remembering, doesn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: I personally need help reflecting God's character to a broken world that's doing everything it can to divide and to corrupt our testimonies.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it says here that God has given us everything we need, His great and precious promises.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so when you think about that, forgetting is not merely careless, forgetting is tragic.

[SPEAKER_01]: When scripture calls us to remember, it's not just asking us to recite facts.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are some men here that we're here on Wednesday at our men's Bible study, and we play Bible trivia.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is not the remembering that we're talking about right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though we had a good time, guys, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: The remembering referred to in scripture means contemplating something so deeply that we develop an active relationship with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when we remember past events are brought into the present, so there are original power is experienced a fresh.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I want you to think for a second.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure that all of you have memories from the past that when you recall them, they take you back to yesterday.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have something pictured in your mind, some past memory that you really appreciate, something that you enjoy reflecting on.

[SPEAKER_01]: For me, I like to recall my first date with Kathy Estes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you where we went, I can tell you what she wore, I can tell you what we ate, I can tell you who we were with, I am right there, reliving every detail on a motion even though it was a few years ago, all right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's unfair because it helps the Kathy Stiles, Estus, who's unforgettable, all right?

[SPEAKER_01]: All right?

[SPEAKER_01]: The Psalmist understood this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what ASAP writes in Psalm 77.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when I recall all that you have done, O Lord, I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're constantly in my thoughts.

[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that how you'd like to have your quiet time described?

[SPEAKER_01]: Say, Lord, when I recall all that you've done, I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are constantly in my thoughts.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're constantly in my thoughts.

[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot stop thinking about your mighty words.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that's what we do on the first Sunday of the month.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we recall all that the Lord has done.

[SPEAKER_01]: We remember his wonderful deeds.

[SPEAKER_01]: We reflect, we declare, we worship.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Peter's concern is that we forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: So how do we hold on to that?

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we avoid forgetting?

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter gives us three tendencies that we need to resist.

[SPEAKER_01]: And these are the three things we're going to see this morning that were to resist the drift of comfort, that were to resist the drift of disconnection and were to resist the drift of unbelief.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, let's begin by discussing that first one, the drift of comfort.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned that we're going to be in due to ronomy and now is the time due to ronomy chapter 8 versus 12 through 14.

[SPEAKER_01]: More than 3,200 years ago, Moses warned Israel, he said this.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in and when you're flocks and your hurts have become very large and you're silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's he saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Rejoice?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's he saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Be careful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be careful, don't become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_01]: So just before Israel enters into the Promised Land, Moses pulls him aside and says this, he says, be careful not because of the armies that you're going to face or the battles that are going to be fought, but because of what can happen when you've eaten and are full, because of the fine homes, because of the growing flocks, beware of prosperity.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that a risk for us today?

[SPEAKER_01]: You guys think, maybe that's a risk for us today?

[SPEAKER_01]: What happens when life is easy?

[SPEAKER_01]: And when everything is going well?

[SPEAKER_01]: In my experience, sometimes we cease to depend upon God.

[SPEAKER_01]: We credit ourselves with our success.

[SPEAKER_01]: We grow expectations that have not met consentous into a tailspin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we become less prayerful and less appreciative.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's when neglect and drift can come.

[SPEAKER_01]: And let me shift your thoughts back to Memorial Day.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is audience participation question.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll take answers from the audience.

[SPEAKER_01]: What happens when you're looking at your calendar and you see Memorial Day's coming up?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think?

[SPEAKER_01]: Shout it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Barbecue.

[SPEAKER_01]: What else?

[SPEAKER_01]: What?

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, what else?

[SPEAKER_01]: Full party.

[SPEAKER_01]: What?

[SPEAKER_01]: Full party, yes, it's time to open the pool.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the unofficial start of summer.

[SPEAKER_01]: No one said this one, but this is a big one.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a great time to buy a mattress, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a great time to buy a mattress.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me ask, is Memorial Day losing its memory?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is it losing its meaning?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do we take the time to honor the sacrifices of others?

[SPEAKER_01]: Memorial Day exists to help us remember the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom that we enjoy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Memorial Day was born of grief following the Civil War when so many men, young men, were killed in battle.

[SPEAKER_01]: When their mothers and their widows came to lay flowers on their graves of those who didn't come home, back then they called it decoration day.

[SPEAKER_01]: And its purpose was singular and sacred.

[SPEAKER_01]: to honor the men and women of the United States armed forces who gave their lives in service to our country.

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't a day for veterans broadly, that's veterans day, that's in November, or was it a time to honor active duty soldiers?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's armed forces day, and that occurred earlier this month.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every year at Arlington and thousands of cemeteries across our country, a bugler placed taps, a flag is folded in gold star family's place, file flowers on graves, not because they have to.

[SPEAKER_01]: But because they refuse to let comfort triumph over the memory of the 1.3 million Americans who have given their life and service, our nation's founding, that's 1.3 million families who had a drawer, like my grandma's, or needed a drawer, like my grandma's, drawers are important because when we take sacrifices for granted, they fade and we forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Peter is writing to a church that is comfortable and established and settled.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what does he say?

[SPEAKER_01]: I will not stop reminding you because comfort is the enemy of memory.

[SPEAKER_01]: And memory is a fragile vessel that won't carry itself through time.

[SPEAKER_01]: So ask yourself this question.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have I become comfortable?

[SPEAKER_01]: The second way that Peter encourages to do is to resist the drift of disconnection.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this brings us really to the heart of what Peter is sharing in this passage.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's riding a letter, then he knows he will never receive a reply.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I work hard to ensure you always to ensure that you always remember these things after I'm gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's riding to build a memory that will outlive him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because Peter knows what every generation has to learn the hard way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Memory doesn't keep itself.

[SPEAKER_01]: It has to be tended.

[SPEAKER_01]: It has to be passed on.

[SPEAKER_01]: The writer of Hebrews understood this.

[SPEAKER_01]: After recounting the great heroes of the faith that we see in chapter 11, he turns and he says this in chapter 12.

[SPEAKER_01]: Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: We do that by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion, who initiates and perfects our faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: This crowd of witnesses is meant to carry us forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is an abstract to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's about that drawer.

[SPEAKER_01]: My grandma never stopped opening it.

[SPEAKER_01]: She let us look.

[SPEAKER_01]: She kept the photographs where a child could find them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Grandma didn't realize that she was teaching biblical principles.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was simply refusing to let her son disappear.

[SPEAKER_01]: And through that drawer, I came to understand a little bit more about an uncle that I never met.

[SPEAKER_01]: I understood the depth of his courage, the weight of his commitment, the cost of his sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when I looked at those photos, I saw a man who tried to fall asleep in a freezing tent and perone France, knowing the next morning he would face an enemy who knew he was coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: I saw a man, when I look at those photos, that a walk at 330 in the morning to learn that he had been assigned the lead position in the formation.

[SPEAKER_01]: His job would be to set the course for everyone else, making him the primary target for every anti-aircraft gun along the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the lead pilot, his job was to fly in a perfectly straight line, no flinching.

[SPEAKER_01]: No weaving, while the 88 millimeter German guns tracked him across the sky, because any movement would cause the formation to drift.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would run the Bombadier's aim and it would jeopardize the mission.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I looked at those photos, I saw a man who likely knew he wasn't coming home.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that because someone kept a drawer,

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter is keeping a drawer.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what this letter is.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's his farewell discourse.

[SPEAKER_01]: His last will and testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: When a man knows that death is just around the corner, he doesn't waste words.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says what matters most.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what Peter chose to say, what he devoted the final pages of his life's correspondence to was this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, do not forget,

[SPEAKER_01]: whole fast to what you've received.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter knew persecution was coming and he knew the false teachers were already at the door.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still what kept him up at night was simpler that they would not forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what happens when we don't keep a drawer?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, forgetting and scripture is never presented as neutral.

[SPEAKER_01]: It always leads somewhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: Judges two tells us that one generation served the Lord because they had seen his works.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the very next generation it says did not know the Lord or the work that he had done.

[SPEAKER_01]: When Israel forgot the Lord, Judges tells us that they pursued other gods.

[SPEAKER_01]: It only takes one generation of silence to lose the memory of sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is the catastrophe that Peter is writing to prevent.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rememberance requires someone who refuses to let it fade.

[SPEAKER_01]: The third thing that Peter encourages here is to resist the drift of unbelief.

[SPEAKER_01]: And chapter three verse four, the scoffers have arrived in their argument is simple and it's devastating.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, what happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again?

[SPEAKER_01]: From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we hear that today, don't we?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, is Jesus really coming again?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, shouldn't he be here by now?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, maybe he came and we missed it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe this is all just a story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter doesn't argue.

[SPEAKER_01]: He reminds.

[SPEAKER_01]: He points them back to what they already know and to what has already been promised.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then he says this in verse 9, chapter 3, verse 9.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord isn't really slow about his promise as some people think.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, he is being patient for your sake.

[SPEAKER_01]: He does not want anyone to be destroyed or to perish.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he wants everyone to repent.

[SPEAKER_01]: His delay is not absence.

[SPEAKER_01]: His delay is mercy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see what Peter's doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, the reason God hasn't wrapped things up yet, isn't that he forgot or that he doesn't care or that the story was a myth?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because he's still making room.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's still calling.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's still waiting for the ones who haven't trusted him as Savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is great news.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's great news for people who are tired, for people who are searching, for people who look at the world and wonder is this, all there is to life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the antidote is remembrance.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when you're facing difficulty in life, when you're at the end of yourself, I just encourage you to look at the prophet Jeremiah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet because of the deep emotional anguish he had over Judas spiritual rebellion and the devastation that awaited them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And while writing from the runes of Jerusalem, he understood this in the most personal way imaginable.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his griefy wrote this, had I stare yet I still dare to hope when I remember this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I still dare to hope the faithful love of the Lord never ends.

[SPEAKER_01]: His mercies never cease.

[SPEAKER_01]: Think of Jeremiah's life.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's in the midst of the ashes and the rubble of everything that he loved, but he chose to remember and that act of remembrance became the hinge on which hope turned.

[SPEAKER_01]: The same is true for us today.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we remember the cross, we're not remembering a symbol.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're remembering the great price that was paid on our behalf.

[SPEAKER_01]: A death that was not an accident, but a death that was a substitution.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bore the full weight of human sin and the full judgment of God upon it so that we would not have to.

[SPEAKER_01]: He flew straight in level when he could have called 10,000 angels.

[SPEAKER_01]: Luke 951 says that Jesus said his face toward Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a full map fulfillment of Isaiah 57 which says he said his face like a Flint.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did not flinch.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did not veer.

[SPEAKER_01]: He held the line for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we remember the empty tomb, we remember that death does not have the last word.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we remember the promise that I am coming again, we remember that the story is not finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: The silence is not abandoning it, and the waiting is not wasted.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Peter wants us to remember.

[SPEAKER_01]: The specific, costly, and irreversible acts of God on our behalf who could not save themselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: Memorial Day at its best does something similar for a nation.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, these people gave what they gave for something real.

[SPEAKER_01]: The freedom that you are living in was bought.

[SPEAKER_01]: The peace that you experience, the ordinary Thursday mornings, the ability to go for a walk outside without fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: It comes at a cost and we dare not forget it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remembrance is how we stay awake to what is true.

[SPEAKER_01]: When everything around us conspires to make us comfortable and forgetful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just say that again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remembrance is how we stay awake to what is true.

[SPEAKER_01]: When everything around us conspires to make us comfortable and forgetful.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, what about you?

[SPEAKER_01]: What about those of us who know Jesus is Savior?

[SPEAKER_01]: The people that Peter was writing to saying, you already know the truth.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've already heard it.

[SPEAKER_01]: What about us?

[SPEAKER_01]: What happens when the cross grows distant?

[SPEAKER_01]: I can speak from personal experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I take my faith for granted, I live a version of the Christian life that keeps all of the vocabulary, grace, redemption, the cross while losing the felt weight of what those words actually mean.

[SPEAKER_01]: It happens to photographs, the way it happens, the way photographs fade when you leave them in the sunlight, slowly, imperceptibly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Until the day you hold one up and realize the faces gone pale, we drift.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the gospel grows distant, a subtle shelf, a subtle shift takes place.

[SPEAKER_01]: The faith that began in gratitude becomes one driven by obligation because somewhere along the line, we started trying to earn it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We show up.

[SPEAKER_01]: We serve.

[SPEAKER_01]: We try harder.

[SPEAKER_01]: When difficult times come, we forget that God has met our needs in the past.

[SPEAKER_01]: We grow and bitter rather than clinging to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: and suffering.

[SPEAKER_01]: Suffering feels like abandon it because we've lost the thread that runs from get so many to the empty tomb, to the promise that Jesus is coming back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shame.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shame goes unaddressed because we forgot and that the cross has already settled it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the antidote is not a new program.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is not trying harder.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the same thing that Peter writes to us in every line of this letter.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, return.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go back to the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look again at what he's done and let it be enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Peter doesn't leave it abstract and so neither should I.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we apply these lessons today?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, my first suggestion is to tell the story to the next generation.

[SPEAKER_01]: That really is the heartbeat of the Bible's approach to memory.

[SPEAKER_01]: In due to ouronomy chapter six, Moses made it the top priority of the family life.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says this in verse 7, repeat them.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's referring to the Lord's command.

[SPEAKER_01]: Repeat them again and again to your children.

[SPEAKER_01]: Talk about them when you're at home, and when you're on the road, kind of has it covered, when you're going to bed, and when you're getting up, parents, grandparents, your stories are not footnotes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your stories are load bearing walls.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you tell your children of what God has done in your life, when you pull out the photographs and you speak the name, you're doing something ancient and sacred.

[SPEAKER_01]: After studying Malachi 316, my good friend Rick and Cindy Cole, who we're here for service, created a scroll of remembrance to capture their family's faith stories for future generations.

[SPEAKER_01]: Each family member was asked to share a personal story about how God had worked in their life.

[SPEAKER_01]: God had walked along them with them during a difficult time, how he had come to them and how they had trusted him in faith, and those stories are put together in that book.

[SPEAKER_01]: to help each person to help future generations know that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let the stories of God's mercy and grace die with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: The second thing I would say is build rhythms of remembrance.

[SPEAKER_01]: God never let memory to chance.

[SPEAKER_01]: What did he do?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you give the Israelites?

[SPEAKER_01]: He gave them the Passover, the Sabbath,

[SPEAKER_01]: The tassels on their garments and the 12 stones that were taken from the Jordan River.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when the children of Israel ask it says in Joshua 4, what do these stones mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: The answer was ready.

[SPEAKER_01]: They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of God's covenant went across.

[SPEAKER_01]: These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were visible, physical, recurring reminders of what God had done.

[SPEAKER_01]: What are your reminders?

[SPEAKER_01]: What are reminders you have in place?

[SPEAKER_01]: Some people, as they spend time in God's Word, reflect upon it, they write their thoughts in a journal, and they can refer back to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: As you pray, some people record their prayer request, along with God's answers and a book,

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, at dinner with your family, some of you go around and you share how God has been working your life for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, the kids to share two things they're great for for.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know they hate it, but it's good practice.

[SPEAKER_01]: As the group's pastor, I would say that another way to have reminders is to get connected with a small group.

[SPEAKER_01]: How's that for a plug?

[SPEAKER_01]: So that you and group members can speak into one another's lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what should we do about Memorial Day?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just keep it simple.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember it's purpose, observe it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember it's great cost.

[SPEAKER_01]: Finally, I would say to you, open the drawer, open the drawer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter knew our propensity to forget and its consequences.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he wrote this last letter, not to people who had already forgotten but those, but for those who were about to, he stirs them up.

[SPEAKER_01]: He points them back to the empty tomb to the promise that Jesus is coming and he says this, after I'm gone, remember these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: My grandparents are gone, my parents, my aunts, and my uncles are all gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: My uncle Bill died before I was born, but I know his name, I know his plane, I knew that he flew straight in level while the guns tracked him and found him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know he was only six mission short of completing his tour and being a part of my life of hugging all of us at Christmas and playing catch at family gatherings, of attending our weddings in our graduations.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that because someone kept the drawer.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we close, there's one more group I need to speak with.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you've been at church for years, and you know the story the way I know my uncles is something that happened in the past to someone else.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know the facts.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can recount the details, but it's not personal.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've never personally received what the cross offers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter says that God is patient.

[SPEAKER_01]: He, and not because He's indifferent, but because He's still making room.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's still waiting.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't want anyone to perish.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants you to turn from the sins that a separate adieu from God, and he wants you to trust in what Christ is already done on your behalf.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus died in your place.

[SPEAKER_01]: He bore the sin and the judgment that were yours.

[SPEAKER_01]: He rose from the dead as proof that the payment had been accepted.

[SPEAKER_01]: And He offers you right now today forgiveness, reconciliation and a life that cannot end.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't earn it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You receive it the way you receive any gift by accepting it from the one who offers it.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you've never done that, if you've heard the story, but you've never made it your own, today is the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: The greatest act of honor for the fallen and for the one who gave his life so that we might live forever is not a flag at a half mast.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a name spoken aloud by someone who refuses to let it be forgotten.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father,

[SPEAKER_01]: We are a forgetful people living in a world that is happy to help us forget.

[SPEAKER_01]: We forget the cost of our freedom, the men and women who flew straight in level as the guns tracked them, who made a decision that mercy demands we remember.

[SPEAKER_01]: We forget even more the cost of our salvation, the one who set his flint towards Jerusalem and wore the weight of our sin on the cross that he chose.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord this morning, we're thankful for Peter's reminder that he kept a drawer for us, and so this morning, Lord, we have opened it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, would you please do what only you can do?

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you write what we've heard today, not only on our minds, but on the walls of our hearts, so that when comfort tempts us to drift, and when ease, whispers that we can afford to forget,

[SPEAKER_01]: And finally, Lord for those who are here today who have never received what the cross accomplished.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who've heard the story, but have not yet made it their own.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, let today be the day the drawer opens for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let your patience, which is really your mercy, reach them now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for all of us, Lord, let us leave here as people who keep drawers, who speak the names, who tell the stories, and pass our faith along to future generations that we will not see.

[SPEAKER_01]: Less we forget, in Jesus' name, Amen.