Teaching:
Boys and Girls, whenever you start getting older like me you begin to forget things. You know, there’s times whenever I start doing something important and I go off to get something from my office, but by the time I get there I’ve forgotten what it was I was meant to get. Can any of you tell me what you call the condition when you forget things that you normally would remember? (And the answer isn’t Old Age)
It’s called Amnesia.
All of us suffer at times from Amnesia. Some of us will get to school and we look in our bags and we realise we’ve forgotten the PE kit so a message goes back home, and mum or dad rush back to school with it.
And the reason why today is really really important, is that we can so easily forget what an amazing summer it has been for us as a Church. We’ve just heard amazing stories of what God has been doing in many people in our church family. And so it’s really important to mark a day like this, and to remember just how good God has been to us. If we don’t mark days like today, we then forget just how good he has been to us.
And you know in the bible, the Israelites were very bad at remembering things. In fact they forgot all the time just what God had done for them – saving them from slavery, bringing them across the Red sea and giving them food in the wilderness. And so because they had forgotten all this, they began to moan and complain at God.
It’s really important that we find ways of remembering God’s faithfulness.
Today’s been an incredible day. We’ve heard some amazing stories of how God has been working through our people during the Summer. And we’ve also been listening to the story of Joshua, where God once again caused the Jordan River to stop flowing so the Israelites could cross on dry ground into the Promised Land. God then instructed them, through Joshua, to gather twelve stones from the Jordan to set up as a memorial. One man from each tribe was selected to take a stone from the riverbed. Joshua set them up as a sign, as a remembrance, of what God accomplished for his people on that day.
Isn’t God so patient with us. He knows that we forget things. Maybe this week you will forget to bring something into school. Very soon with other things, we might forget the amazing summer we’ve had. But God knows us so well, and so he tells us to have reminders, a bit like these stones that I have asked each of these guys to bring forward. He commands us to do certain things to remind us of his goodness. So today I want you to think about 4 words beginning with T. And they are : THINK, THANK, TELL, and TRANSCRIBE
Firstly, David in the Psalms thinks about all the things that God has done. He says in Psalm 77 that he will think of all the things that God has accomplished. I wonder for just a minute, think about all the things that God has done for you over the Summer. [PAUSE] Imagine if you were to take a stone for everything that comes into your mind that God has done for you and build a mound in his name, I’m guessing it might be quite a lot of stones. Today we have thought about what God has done just over this summer in a group of young people. If we were to multiply that by every young person in Northern Ireland that has gone on teams this summer, that is amazing declaration of God’s goodness. So remember to THINK.
Secondly, THANKS. How often do we say thank you to God for what he has done. When I was watching that video, I was so thankful for all the ways in which people have served. As we all remember what God has done for us in the past, let’s acknowledge that by saying thank you to him. Every day, maybe at meal times, stop and give thanks to God for even the food that’s prepared for us.
So we should think, and we should thank.
Thirdly, today has been an important opportunity to hear what God has done in many in our church. It’s an opportunity for them to TELL their stories of God’s faithfulness to them. If all we did in June was to send everybody off for the Summer and not have a morning like this, then it isn’t giving God any of the glory, nor does it give an opportunity for all of us who weren’t on teams to be encouraged by it. We’ve all got to tell the stories of God’s goodness, and actually by telling others my hope is that next year many other people will consider how they can serve God. When we have Good News to tell it’s very hard to keep it in, so I would encourage you to tell others about what God has been doing in your life recently. Share your stories.
So think, thank, tell, and then finally, TRANSCRIBE. When I came home from the Exodus Team to Spain, I took a day to write down all my experiences. It’s in this little book. The reason I did this was because I know that I would soon forget all that God has done in me. I’d love it if everyone of us would buy a little book where you can write your thoughts down, write down your worries, write down any prayers, and then record in your book when things happen and how they are an answer from God. And when you are feeling low read you can read through your book and see how God has been faithful. In school we have workbooks. If we didn’t have these, we wouldn’t remember all of the content of what we are learning. If your teacher sees that as important, how much more important is it to write down what God has been doing in your life and how good he has been to you.
Today has been a day where we have thought about how God has worked in the lives of those who have offered themselves in service. Today is a day where we have thanked God for his faithfulness in developing and directing them. Today is a day where they have had the opportunity to tell the stories of what God has done through them and through others. And today has been a day where we have set aside time and recorded or transcribed the importance of this for our church.
The stones that sit here this morning are a testament of the faithfulness of God. It shouldn’t been forgotten. And as we go into this new term, for some of you that will have meant a new school, it may mean a whole bigger chapter like going to University.
Today should encourage us, that if God has been faithful to his people up until now, then he sure is going to be faithful into the next term. In our bible reading when the priests laid down their stones, Joshua reminded the people not just of what God had done for them, but also to remind them that God’s hand is there for whatever the next chapter holds. As people would walk past the stones, they knew that God was faithful, that he is faithful, and he ever will be faithful.
So as we finish, and as a church we move into a new term, and a new season full of many new opportunities, as each of us in our own lives maybe move into a new phase or chapter, lets be thankful that we can trust God because he has been and will continue to be so faithful.
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