This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 529: Remember! with Sean Finnegan

This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode.

Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to Restitutio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today. 

In Deuteronomy, Moses famously taught the Jewish people the Shema, the heart. Of Judaism, he told them to repeat those words day in and day out when they sit, when they walk, when they lie down and when they rise. In fact, God built many mechanisms to remember him into the scriptures.

But what about us?

Christians, how can we build routines to likewise remember God throughout our day, week, month, and year? I shared this message at a weekend event called Revive last year. You may not recognize some of the references, but most of it should make. Events also during the sermon I played two videos I took of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. That's a famous location where you can find many Jewish people praying. I've uploaded these videos to the Restitutio YouTube channel and also posted them on restitutio.org on the page for this episode. So you can watch them if you're curious. Here now is Episode 529 remember. I want to tell you a story about somebody named Rabbi Akiva Benio safe. I'd like to begin with that. He was around 40 years old when he found himself in a cave. He lived about a century after Christ and he was in this cave. And he saw water. Dripping from the top of The Cave and he looked down to. Where the water? Was dripping and he and he saw a little. Stone and he saw the water drip, drip, drip and at the place on the stone where the water was dripping, it was. Carved out, it had carved out a. Hollow place in the stone and Akiva looked at that and said. Huh. That's something. What's softer than water, then? A drip of water? Just a little drop. Boom one and then another. And another. Such a saw. And what's harder than a stone? And yet, because of persistence, this dripping of water carved out.

A hole.

Out of something so hard in stone. And he said. If that's the case, then I can learn Torah and he was a Jewish man and he wanted to study Torah, but he thought he was too old and he thought his old heart was too hard. And he said, well, I have learned that if I'm persistent, I can learn Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible and. And he ended up getting married. There's a whole scandalous story, slash legend about that. We're not going to get into it, but it's a love story. And he he was a man of no status, poverty stricken and his brides father said this guy's a loser. Honey, don't marry him. And she did anyhow. And she supported him to go off to school, and he went away to school and he became a great rabbi. And we read about him in the Talmud, where it says the Gemara relates when they took Rabbi Akiva out to be executed, it was time for the recitation of Shema. See what had happened is a war had broken out in the Roman emperor named Hadrian had outlawed teaching Torah, and Rabbi Akiva continued anyhow. And so the Talma continues, it says, and they were raking his flesh with iron Combs. And he was reciting Shema, thereby accepting upon himself the yoke of heaven his students said to him, our teacher. Even now, as you suffer, you recite Shema. He said to them all my days I have been troubled by the verse with all your soul meaning. Even if God takes your soul, I said to myself, when will the opportunity be afforded me to fulfill this verse? Now that it has been afforded me, shall I not? Fulfill it. He prolonged his uttering of the word 1 until his soul left his body and he uttered his final word 1. This is a powerful story of a man who was not willing to bend in the face of torture and death. It's hard to get at exactly what happens here. There are multiple versions of it. I think this is probably the most likely to be to be, but there are other versions of it where he actually smiles and his torturers say to him. Why are you smiling? Are you a sorcerer? And he says no. I've just been trying. To fulfill the shaman my whole life and. And you finally gave me. The chance to do it.

OK.

So I don't know if that is more of an apocryphal account, but what what he's talking about is this part in the Bible and due to irony. And you can go there in your own Bible if you like, because we are gonna flip back to this repeatedly. It's due to rhyme. Chapter 6. I'm just going to read it to you in Hebrew, and then we'll we'll look at it in English. Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh echad. Shafta at Yahweh Elija, Bohol, lava. And that translated is hero Israel, Yahweh, our God, Yahweh, is one you shall love, Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. This statement Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses four and five. This is what they call the shamat, the Jewish people, to this day, even in the ancient times, but to this. Day they call. It the Shema, it's the core of Judaism and this part. Here where it says. One this is the part where Rabbi Akiva died. So he's saying it over and over. Shmaya, Swail, yahenni yahad. And I'm not achad. He died. And he says it over and over. We read in the JPS commentary the Shamas fundamental significance in Judaism is reflected in the many roles it plays in the special way it is treated. The rules for its recitation are the very first subject dealt with in the Talmud, which we just read. Part of that its first verse must be recited with full concentration on its meaning. Do you hear that? It says listen up here. Listen up. Oh, Israel. Yahweh, our God, Yahweh is one you have to. Have full concentration on the meaning. This goes on to say to prevent distraction, one must cover one's eyes when reciting it. And there are restrictions as to whom one may greet while reciting it. So somebody comes in the room and you're saying Shama. You're not allowed to say hi to that person until you finish saying Shama. Isn't that something? A child must be taught the Shema and Deuteronomy 33 four immediately upon. Learning to speak. The first paragraph is recited in bed upon retiring and on one's deathbed. Following the reported precedent of Rabbi Akiva, it has been recited before martyrdom from ancient times through the present. All of this is due to the fact that the Shama serves as the quintessential expression of the most fundamental belief and commitment of Judaism. You see that the Shema is the. I love this. This this end of this sentence. The schema is the quintessential expression of the most fundamental belief and commitment of Judaism. That's quite a statement. But the schema is not just. The core of Judaism. Let's go. To look at. Mark Chapter 12. We're going to be back in Deuteronomy 6 in just. A minute, but I want. To show you what Jesus said about the Shema, just so you don't think that I'm trying to convert you to Judaism because I'm not actually trying to do that. But you got to start somewhere. You got to start somewhere, and many times the best place to start is the Old Testament so that you understand what's going on when you get to the New Testament. It says in Mark 1228 and one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another and seeing that he answered them well, asked him which commandment is the most important of all. This is a key moment in the. Ministry of Jesus it's. Recorded in the Gospels, Escribe comes up. To Jesus, and this is the question. Isn't this the? Question. I mean, I guess there are a few big questions, but this is. Definitely one of the biggest questions, Jesus. What's the most important commandment? Of all tradition says, there are 6. 113. In the Jewish law, I don't know how they got that number. I'm glad I. Didn't have to count them. But boy, isn't it great that somebody asked Jesus, what's the most important? And Jesus doesn't hesitate to answer. He says, just like any Jewish person in his own time, or who lived after him, the same thing they would all say shamari Israel. Yahweh eloheinu yahad. That's what they all say. Verse 29. Jesus answered. The most important is here O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is 1 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The 2nd is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is 1 and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the hearts and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to loved ones neighbor as oneself is much more than.

All the whole burnt.

Offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him. You're not far from the Kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask him anymore questions. You've got two really central truths here. Yahweh our God, is one you could break that into two truths. I guess Yahweh our God Yahweh is 1, but Yahweh is our God and he is one that's one. And then the second one love him with everything. This is the heart, and let's go back to Deuteronomy. And think about this a little bit more because what I just endeavored to show you is that this is actually relevant to you. If you name the name of Christ, if you say you're a follower of Christ, if you're. Gonna call yourself.

A Christian. Then you cannot ignore.

What Jesus said is the. Most important commandment you're just not allowed. To you could call yourself a Buddhist. And ignore what Jesus said is the greatest commandment. You can call yourself a Muslim and ignore what Jesus says is the greatest commandment, but you can't call yourself a Christian and ignore what Jesus said is the greatest commandment. So once again, let me draw your attention to Deuteronomy. God had a real problem. He had this new people. He had brought them out of Egypt. There's a real question, and God has I'll even show you an anxiety about the people and what's going to happen to them. And he has a solution. And the the. Issue is how do we get these? People to remember.

How do we get them to?

Remember, God had done the 10 plagues he had done all these big things, and he had brought them to a mountain and he spoke to them audibly and said I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the.

Land of the.

Egyptians and and you shall have no other. Gods before me, that's what he. Said that's like his. Hello, I'm Sean. Nice to meet you. That's God's introduction, and so he gives them. He gives the people the. The mom. And he says I want. You to repeat, repeat repeat this. I want you to remember this. It's so important for you to remember this here. Oh, Israel, Yahweh. Our God, Yahweh is one you shall love, Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might meditate, I encourage you. Meditate on these words. They're more profound than you might think. When you first read them. When you first read them, you might think well. It's easy. But the more you meditate upon them, the more you end up like Rabbi Akiva and asking yourself the question, well, how can I love God with all my soul? How can I love God with all my strength? How can I love God with all my heart?

The next verse.

As we continue, because the Shama is verses 4:00 and 5:00, but it it it's it's in a a larger section and sometimes. The whole section all the way up to verse 9 is referred to as the Shema, but verse six says, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. These words, which I command you today, shall. Be on your heart. Is not just to be something that is out here. You know, like this sign. This sign says respect every person greet everyone, communicate words of respect. That's what this sign says. That's out here.

That's not on my heart. I didn't even know those rules until I.

Just read them cause I just happened to. Look over there, right? It's not.

On my heart.

At all. It's just some external thing that.

Timothy Hill, 7 manners. Somebody came up with that. They're like this is this would. Be a good thing to. Put over here. It's not in my heart. If it's on your heart. Is internal to you. It says then in verse seven you shall teach them diligently to your children. And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house. When you walk, by the way. And when you lie down and when you rise up. I haven't gotten some key insights on this verse. Verse 7, just recently in my Hebrew class, my teacher taught me something really big about this word. Here it says Vashan antam. In Hebrew, it's from the word Shannon, and it means literally it means sharp. Nobody translates it that way. Nobody but it means sharpen what they translate it as, and if you showed this to a Hebrew speaking person, what they would say is that word means repeat. Because when you sharpen something, you repeat an action over and over and over again. And so it's translated. This one word is translated. You shall teach them diligently. That's OK, it's OK.

But what it really means?

Is repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

So that you remember. For whatever reason, the way God designed us.

We need to be reminded.

Has anyone ever read through the Bible? The whole thing? Some of you? Probably.

Read through the.

Bible, right. And then ten years past. And you're like.

I don't remember.

What's in Malachi anymore? Or I don't remember the big deal. About Nahum what was Nahum about? We need to remember we need to. And how do you?

Remember you repeat, you repeat, you repeat.

So this is an important word and. Then it goes on. You teach them diligently to your children, and then it's when you sit in your house. When you walk, by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. We didn't really leave much out there, did we? OK this.

Is a.

Call to obsession. God wants you to be obsessed with these words. He wants you to repeat them to your children. Don't have children, that's.

OK. Talk of them when you walk. On the road.

When you sit. In your house, when you lie down, when you rise. Mutter them.

Mutter them to yourself.

You're the 1st.

Person that needs to be reminded before you remind if if those of you who have children remind your children. Too, but you're. The first person that needs to be reminded of this. The Shama was God's brilliant idea to ensure his people passed on their beliefs to the next generation. Especially considering how difficult it was living in a a time and a place when there were so many other gods in competition. Well, guess what? We live in a different time than they do, but there's so many other. Desires competing for your heart. Let's look at the next verse here, verse eight. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as front lengths between your eyes. I'm not going to get into the Hebrew here, but just for brother staying in the back toe to float. That's a word. Nobody even knows like my Hebrew teachers. Just like, yeah, we we have no idea what that means. It's translated front. Let's hear. It's like, what's a frontlet? I heard of an outlet, you know? But. So sometimes like you.

You you read.

Words. You're like. You know what? I kind of know what that means, but I don't, really. And then you you you get around like a real expert and they're like. Yeah, none of us know either. And you're. Like, oh, OK yeah. I always kind of wonder what that was, but. I have a little video for you that I'd like to show you that I took when I was in Israel a few years back of Jewish people praying, and I think it'll show you how they interpret this verse and what they do. Is they literally put to fill in, which are these leather black boxes. Containing scripture on their foreheads, they literally put the Shema on their head and their arm, and they wrap it around with a leather strap. And this is one of the most sacred, probably the most sacred place on the entire planet for the Jewish people. This is the. Closest you can get to the holy place. We're actually in a cave by the Western Wall, also called the whaling wall, and you're seeing the Jewish people studying Torah just like Rabbi Akiva, even to this day. This is 2018. When I took this video and they're praying and when they pray, they wear a prayer shawl and they wear these boxes on their forehead and on their arm. And they dove and. And they just rock back and forth and they say their prayers. Here's one more. Show you a little clearer of the box and the straps on the arm to be worn as a sign. And that's the Western Wall right there. This physical act ensured the people would remember. The title of my teaching this morning is remember. This is something that's really important for us. Let's look at the next verse there. Verse nine. It says you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on. Your gates. This is the idea. Of a mezuza A mezuza is a little capsule. A little container. That has the Shama in it. It has scripture in it, specifically the Shama, and it's hung by Jewish people on the frame. Of the door. And this was something that God had commanded them to do. Think of how God designed this whole system. This whole shamas system so that they would remember.

Look, if every time. You enter your.

House you kiss and you touch the mezuza. You're gonna remember that there's something in there. Oh, yeah. Shama Shama is OK. If every morning when you wake up, you say the Shema before your feet hit the ground. You're not going to forget if every night just before you fall asleep, you say the Shema, you're not going to forget. Right. If every time you pray, you literally put.

Scripture on your body.

Maybe you'll remember. Maybe that's how thick we are.

And it's not like God.

Put together a really complicated creed for his people like here are, you know, all these complicated philosophical maxims that you must memorize and repeat as a syllogism? No. Yahwehs are God not, but uh. Not asherah. Not all these. Other Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is 1, love him with everything.

Say it again. Yahweh is our God, Yahweh.

Is 1. Love him with all your heart, with all your soul. With all your strength. Say it again, Yahweh. Is our God and just repeat it and repeat it and repeat it, you know, and that teaching that Jacob did and Psalm one the the word that it says. I meditate on your Torah day and night. That word for meditate is actually the Hebrew word, Matt. You just mutter it to yourself. You just repeat it. Repeat it. Repeat it. Repeat it. And that wasn't the only thing that God had done to remind. His people what to do. He also did other things, which we'll get to in a minute, but I I want to share with you a story about Rabbi Eliezar Silver, who went back to Europe, went back to the area where the Nazis had been in 1945 and wanted to. Find the Jewish children that had been saved. By other families or by orphanages, and So what he would do is he would go to villages and he would recite the Shema. This is in the 20th century, literally thousands of years after these words. Were given in Deuteronomy. This rabbi goes and he gets all the children together and. He says Shema Yisrael Galway eloheinu. He says Adonai. They just want to say. The divine name, but Adonai eloheinu Adonai. Echad you know? He and he just says it. Bahaha at Adonai Haha and he goes right through the Shama and he looks at the faces of the children and the ones who are crying. They're the ones that remember. Their mothers putting them to bed at night and saying those words. And he brings him home. 20 centuries after Christ. And Christ is 10 centuries after David and David is a bunch of centuries after Moses.

What? What kind of tradition is?

This that generation after generation, they're muttering these words. They're saying them, they're repeating them, repeating, they're repeating. To me, as a Christian, I'm impressed by that. I'm impressed by that resolve by that Godly stubbornness. Not to forget who their God is. And to love him. I'm impressed by that. I forget what I had. I don't even. What did we even eat for breakfast? I don't remember. What do we have for lunch yesterday? Like I forget things all the.

Time I don't know about you.

So we need to remember as well it says in numbers 15 verse 37 the Lord said to Moses speak to the. People of Israel. Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner, and it shall be a tassel for you to. Look at and what? Remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them? Not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to ***** after.

Love that part at the end.

It's like just in case you were getting a little. Sleepy. You just slipped that in, right? At the end there. He literally had him wear these goofy tassels, right? These are these are these are sort of like a a this is a style thing, right. So maybe you think they're cool. God bless you, but like none of the. Other nations are wearing tassels, just the Israelite people. God says. Alright, look. I want you to have tassels I want. You to have long stuff hanging off your clothes so that.

You remember.

I mean, he couldn't do anything. More, there was a time when when Joshua entered the land that God had instructed him and said, you know what I want you to build a monument I want. You to put. Some stones I want you to plaster it and I want you. To inscribe physically into there, write it plain so everyone can read. The commandments.

There are all these.

Physical reminders in Judaism not to forget the core, the quintessential, most fundamental. Facts of the faith. God used other ways to do it too, like the Passover meal. Think about that. Every year in the Jewish law, they they keep the Passover for seven days, the feast of unleavened bread, and the Passover meal is called the Seder. And at the Seder they remember what?

Right.

How God saved them out of Egypt. They remember the exodus. You know why they didn't forget the exodus? Because they actively remember it every year during that. Holy Day or holiday? And then you also have the. Feast of booths Sukkot. And that's where they have these little temporary structures to remember the fact that after they left, they lived in these temporary structures for 40 years in the wilderness. That's. That's how you don't forget. You do these things or even the weekly Sabbath. It says in Deuteronomy. 5:15 that the weekly Sabbath taking a day off work every Saturday was so. That they would remember. That they were slaves in Egypt. You know what slaves can't do?

Take a day off.

The Sabbath is a is a memory too. It's like why? Why can't we work on Saturday? Because we were slaves in Egypt. Hey, I just remembered, you know, like it's to remember. Remember. Remember these things were all built in and the people had to remember generation by generation. So I asked myself well. What drives and I mentioned God had an anxiety. And probably half of you were. Like, I don't really think so. Master Sean, see what you think. Look. At this look. At this with me Denomy, chapter 6. Verse 10 this is. This is the next verse after the. The writing on the. Door post. OK, so it's right in the same context. And this is what God says. And when the Lord your God also, you could say yahwehs, and the Hebrews says Yahweh, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land. That he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give you with great and good cities that you did not. Build and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full. Then take care, lest you forget Yahweh. Take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the House of slavery, there's a concern, a legitimate concern, that God has that his people is going to forget him, and what he's done. I tell you, man, when I when I think it is so easy to do this, when I think about ancient Israel, you read the book of numbers in particular. You think man off boy, what a bunch of knuckleheads.

Tempting him over and.

Over. Oh, where we're gonna get water.

You know he. He flies in quail, right? He's got the mana. All these different things and it's so easy to get on our high horses as the goyem, as the Gentiles and say ohh, if I were there I would have. I would have remembered. Look at your own life. How? Often, do you forget? How often do you forget about God? You're going about your day and you're like, oh, I haven't had a single thought about God today.

We're we're the same, OK? People are people. We're great and we're terrible and we need to remember.

And so if you. Don't build something into your life to remember. Guess what? You're going to forget. It says once again in verse 12. Then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the House of slavery. It is the Lord or Yahweh your God. You shall fear him. You shall serve, and by his name you shall swear. Verse 14 you shall not go after other gods. The gods of the peoples who are around you, for Yahweh your God. In your midst is a jealous God lest, and this is the best part. The anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. You're always not. Like a a boyfriend or a girlfriend. This is sort of like let's have an open relationship. You're always not polyamorous. He's a jealous God. You you don't have to. You don't have to love him. You don't have to worship him. You don't have to believe in him. He set the whole system up so that you would have the freedom to deny him and live as an atheist. Or live as someone of a different faith that's all available to you. But if you are going to be in a relationship with. Then he sets the boundaries. He sets the terms and he wants absolute fidelity. Most marriages are like that too, right? It's not that weird of a thing. I'm jealous for my wife as I should be as she should be for me right? Yahweh is jealous for his people. If he sees you over there worshipping some other God.

He's tempted to wipe you off.

The face of the earth. That's what he said, right he.

Said like, if you go after other guys, I'm just gonna wipe you off. The face it's like. God has an eraser and it's just like goodbye. See you, bud. And he's actually, it's not like an empty thread, he's.

Like he, he's actually.

Capable of racing people.

We have.

Scriptural accounts where Aza.

Was erased.

What about those boys that got? Swallowed by the earth. Or Aaron's sons who use strange fire during their ordination. So it's it's not that.

It's not that.

This is like a a rhetorical move like. Ohh I'm gonna do this.

Really big thing and I'm just saying that to get. Your attention like no it.

It actually is a possibility.

You notice that right before that, he said. Verse 13 it is Yahweh, your God you shall fear. Yeah, you should hear him. Not because he's evil, not because he's capricious. Or has a temper tantrum or. Something like. No, you should fear him because.

He's just that great.

He's just that powerful. He's just that holy. He's just that awesome. That we should be. Respectful of him in fear of. Him, it says also and. I just want to show you a couple other places. Dude around me 420. Three, take care. Lest you forget the Covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, do your Army 811 take care? Lest you forget the Lord your God, by not keeping his commandments. Now look, I recognize, and this is what I believe that we are no longer under the Jewish law today. I believe that a new covenant has come that you don't need to keep the Sabbath thing. I recognize that. But you do have freedom in Christ to do any of the law that you want to do. So if you want to buy some to fill in and put it on your forehead and on your arm, they're about two.

100 bucks for.

A cheap set. And you want to use them in prayer and you want to pray like a Jew, you think? That's gonna help you go for it. It's not gonna hurt you. If you want to put Scripture in a little capsule and put it on your door frame.

Do it. Why not?

You can do that if you want. You have freedom in Christ. You could do it or not do it. It's OK. Read Romans 14 about that. If you want to scriptural basis. So I'm not trying to. Put you under the law. But what I am trying to say to. You is somehow. I don't care how. You do it somehow. You've got to build into your life away to remember. Somehow you gotta build into your life a.

Way to remember.

Otherwise you forget. We live in an age that is secular and antagonistic to our faith. Many of us work in job places where we're surrounded by people that are antagonistic to the Bible, to believing and living in a way that is described in the Bible. We have friends, we have neighbors. That think we're weird.

Right.

That think that we're doing it wrong and that we should just lighten. Up and just. Go with the flow.

So there's pressure on.

All of us, to some degree, to forget. Or to diminish the importance of it, that's the pressure that we're all living with in this age that we live in. So you gotta do something to remember. Let me show you another scripture. This is Psalm 42. Sorry, Garrett, I don't have this one memorized, brother. I'm going to have to read it off the slide. He gave us a hard time for having slides. I'm giving him a. Hard time for memorizing all.

Of your scripture? That's ridiculous.

You want to know how to. Remember, you talked to Pastor Garrett over in. The back there, he remembers. Psalm 42. It says my tears have been my food day and night. That's not a good time. Right, if your tears. Are your food it's it's a sad place to be. Right. Well, they say to me all the day long. Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the House of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down? Oh my soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Herman from Mount Mizar. This psalmist is in a place. Far away from home. This person is in another area, another part of the world. This person is not able to go to temple, is not able to be part of the sacrifices. This is written a long time ago when the temple and the sacrifices was the way that everyone was worshipping God at that time. And and this person synchronizes to themselves. Oh, man, all these people around me, where is your God? You know, they're taunting, and he's saying to himself. I remember going in the throng. That reminds me, was you say leading them in procession. That reminds me of Fawn. Where's fawn? She's around here. She. There she is. She was leading us in procession last night. You see her dancing in the front at that.

One point and I'd.

Love that it. Was great. You know the music team. Is leading us and. Worshiping God, offering a sacrifice of praise to God. So some of you are going to places where you don't have a lot.

Of Christian community.

Some of you maybe only have online community or you have community, but it's with people that don't share your beliefs or you go home and. You say to yourself. Man, that was a great weekend. And then after a month, you've forgotten all about it. Does anybody remember revive from last year? It was a long time ago, right? Three. 165 days is a long time. But look, I think it's good. For you to remember these. Worship experiences that you had. Like we had last. Night and you know, maybe that's not your thing. Maybe it's something else for you. A conversation, a prayer time. Maybe it's an insight that God just dropped on you when you were reading Scripture. Whatever it is for you, you got to remember these things. I was in Pan's Workshop yesterday. She challenged us to remember last year. And I remember, I remember I I was going through my calendar because I can't remember anything. I can't remember a darn thing. And I was like. Wow, look at this. And then this happened. This happened, you know, we were down in Tennessee. I went to. Downtown Nashville, with a pit. And then I came to see you guys. And you said those beautiful words to those. Boys, you remember. That and you played the song and everybody cried. That was beautiful wedding. I was honored of God to be there.

At that wedding.

Rose and Alex is kind of hiding behind Luca in the back there, you know, they had this wedding and their families came together. And you know these these things have happened in the last year. And you know what? As I looked over the things that I was involved with last year, you know what I concluded. And it really touched my heart. God worked with me last year.

That worked with me. Last year.

I mean, this is the Almighty creator.

He can work with all the different people in.

The world there are billions of us.

Right. He worked with me. He can work with you.

And when I remembered.

What happened? I was like, wow.

Like cause every day I pray God.

Help me to serve you today. Every day I pray that if you're anything like me, like when you're in the day-to-day trenches.

You just can't see it.

Only when you look back and you remember. Do you say wow? Huh. I met that that old guy. I didn't really know who he was, and we had lunch, and then he he gave me Garrett's phone number. And now, here's Karen and Danny Bova. Wow. Like it's like God was doing something there. I didn't see it at the time. I. Was just like well. Seems like a sweet guy, so let's. Have lunch, you know, like I don't. Know I didn't know who he. Was right so.

Like that, that but that in the midst of.

It you don't, you don't see. How guys do it when you look back and you remember that's when you see at least at least that's how I see some of you are maybe a little easier to to see it in the moment. I want to give you some suggestions, some practical suggestions while I'm winding down here, one of the greatest things you can do to remember and refresh your memory of what God is like and what he wants and what he's done is to read your Bible. If you can build into your life a daily habit of reading your Bible. I would say that that is just so good. For you to remember for you, maybe that's waking up and doing it in the morning. Maybe you have a lunch break. That's a great time. For you to. Sit in the car or do it at work.

Or maybe it's for?

You it's it's when you get home from work or or in your bed right before you fall asleep, read Scripture. You can listen to it. Pastor Jerry talked about how he spends time with God in the car. Jen mentioned that too, and she's not driving a car anymore. So. She's gonna have to figure.

You have to figure it.

Out right. Like you're gonna have to build. You have to be intentional and build into your.

Life. Some routine use. Your stupid Google Calendar reminder, whatever like figure out some way to remember.

To do the thing and to pray and to spend time with the people of God. I hang across from my rearview mirror in my. Car. It's so cliche. It's so cliche.

I don't care. I have like.

If I don't have something there.

I just. You know, it's just too easy.

To forget during the course of my day when I get in my car, the stupid thing dangles and jiggles around.

Like I look across.

Jesus died for me, just like Josh was saying in the song Jesus died for me. I need to remember that I need.

To remember that today.

That Jesus died for me. And look, the cross is empty. Where did he go? He's resurrected. He did. He's resurrected, cross tells me. Both the. Crucifixion and the resurrection. That's worth remembering on. A daily basis. I have artwork in my house. Some of it my wife likes and some of it she just tolerates. But we have artwork in our house. I've got manuscripts hanging on the walls. I've got, we've got the Shaman 2 places in our hallway on the way to the kitchen. You can't not hit the Shema to go to the kitchen. From the front door. If you miss it on this wall. Boom, it's right there. Because I'm stubborn, I'm thick, I'm forgetful. I need to be reminded. So we have calligraphy, we have pictures, we have manuscripts, we have all kinds of stuff all around the house so that we remember I have Christian T-shirts and we have Christian T-shirts. So what if they're cheesy? They help you remember. They're they're not all cheesy. They're there are some good ones now too. But you know, like, whatever, like you need to remember. I have a shirt that says follow Christ on it. I look down. Follow.

Christ. Ohh yeah. Yeah. I I gotta follow Christ.

Yeah, yeah, that's good. Christian music. Put together that playlist, get it in the car. Get it while you're in the gym, build it into your life so that you that you have those reminders. What about memorizing scripture? Muttering it to yourself over and over again.

Cause that's how.

You learn scripture. You don't learn scripture by reading it once and then saying to yourself. Download complete.

That's not how it works.

You just have to say it and say it and say it and say it, and then the next day say it again. Because if you if you miss.

Even like a day. Or two.

Your brain starts to. Delete what you memorized. It's insane. So.

Like we have to repeat, repeat, repeat. Sharpen your mind.

What about the weekly?

Worship experience on Sunday. That's how you remember. That's how you repeat may week Bible Fellowship classes, podcasts. You need to figure out what it is for you. I'm not gonna tell you exactly what to do. We're all different. You figure out what it is for you. Maybe you need to get a tattoo. Maybe you need to hang it on the ceiling so that when you wake up and open your eyes, it's there. I don't know.

But you got to do something to remember.

Or else you forget.

So I want to conclude with one last verse. It's in Deuteronomy 431. And this is some good news. This is some good news for us, for.

The Lord your God.

Is a merciful God.

When you have the power to wipe people out.

You want to pair that with mercy, OK?

This is good. This is very good, he.

Will not leave.

You or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. You know who doesn't forget. God doesn't forget. Ohh man that gives me so much comfort to know that he will remember if I am a knucklehead and I forget that I can just go to him and he can remember. He's not gonna. He doesn't have the same tendencies. That we have to be like. Ohh, who's that again? You ever meet somebody that it's a year later? Like what was? Their name? Then you do like the name tag. Look and and if it's a lady, she's like what? Do you look what?

Are you? What are you looking at?

Right.

It's so awkward.

Well, we forget we literally forget somebody.

'S name within a year? That's it's gone. Got your name? Sorry. Thank God he remembers. Thank God he doesn't forget. We can really trust in that, can't we? Now just before. Closing down with prayer, I did want to mention one, one other thing and I I should have mentioned this to Pastor Victor when he gave the announcements, but we have another event in the summer time. And it's called family camp and this is a time where we can gather together as believers for an entire week on a lake and your teachings. And there's lots of free time, lots of time to explore. So I encourage you to consider family camp this summer because, look. One revive to another, revive. That's a long time. And look, if you already have stuff on your calendar, you're already doing stuff to remember and to be encouraged by the people of God then then that's great. But if not, may ioffer to you in June, late June of this year, we're going to be at family camp in Silver Bay, Lake George, NY Let's pray. Father in heaven, we ask that you would help us to remember. Remember that you are the God of God, the Lord of Lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not show partiality or take a bribe. Who executes justice for the fatherless and the widow. The one who was who is who is to come the great and the mighty and the awesome God. Father, we don't want to live on our own by our own wits. We want to live in the strength of your spirit. We want to be led by you so that we can do the work that you have called. Us to do. And so many times when we do that work, we can't even see. What it does? But we know that you have a superior perspective and that if we're faithful to you, that you. We'll get done the work that needs to be done. I pray and ask for your blessing on all of us today as we conclude our weekend together and I ask that you would. Help us to be grounded. That we would be like a tree. And a strong wind that stands. Sure, we may bend, but we stand because we're grounded in your love. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Christ. Amen. 

That brings his message to a conclusion. What do you think? Come on over to restitutio.org. It's like the word restitution with non.org and find episode 529. Remember, and leave your feedback there. Also in the show notes for this episode, I have links to events if you are interested in coming to an event. We do have dates for events coming up in this new year posted on lim.org. For those of you interested in particular, I encourage you to check out family camp whether you are married or have kids or not. We have lots of singles come to family camp. It's not that you have to have a family to come. The idea is that we are. The family of. Odd and it's it's just a week away from the chaos of life. It's the first week of July, I believe, and we are still in negotiations with the venue to get a contract signed, but that will be done in the near future. So go ahead and save the date for the I think it's the week of July 4th, we'll. Up there at Lake George, one of the most pristine lakes, not just in New York State, but in the entire United States. Very clean lake, very beautiful mountains all around it. The Adirondack mountains. We've got Bible teachings in the morning and at night, and lots of free time in the afternoon to explore and play and develop friendships with others. So if that sounds good to you, save the date. I'll give you an update once registration for that is open, which may be a little while, since that's not for seven months from now, but some people need to figure out their year in advance, especially with work. And I understand that. In the meanwhile I did want to mention that my book is finally out. It's called Kingdom journey and I'm just so excited to announce that it is available on Amazon or Walmart or Barnes and Noble. Whatever website you use to get books should have it by now. And this is really the culmination of 10 years of work, not just research, but also the writing process, the publishing process. It's called Kingdom Journey, and it's about how God plans to renew our world and make everything wrong with it, right. Now, what distinguishes this Kingdom of God book from other ones that are already on the market is that it doesn't just explain what the Kingdom of God is from the Bible. It doesn't just challenge the whole heaven escape the world's concept. In addition, the book also describes how we lost how Christianity lost that beautiful Kingdom message, that idea that Jesus taught, that the meek shall inherit the earth, or that God's will would be done when the Kingdom arrives. Your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth. As it is in heaven, these teachings that Jesus had that in the Kingdom of God and the resurrection we will sit at table with Abraham and the others who will. Eat, presumably actual food, and it would be a physical, embodied existence on this planet. This whole idea House lost. When the world happened and I've done the research on that and to my knowledge is groundbreaking research, I don't know of anyone else that's put it together in the way that I have. If I had, I don't think I would have written the book because it was a lot of work tracing this stuff down, not that it's completely unheard of. There are plenty of sources I used to investigate the case. Puts it together into a cohesive story, so that's the second part of the book is looking at how in the world do we lose the Kingdom? And then the third part. This is really encouraging is how did Christianity regain and recover this Kingdom message? So I talked about the Anabaptists 500 years ago. A lot of them had rediscovered the Kingdom of God. Basically, as soon as the Bible got into the language of the people, people started discovering the Kingdom of God again. And then in the 1800s, especially in the United States. There were a. Lot of different Adventist moves. And these movements came to be because people discovered upon reading the Bible, that Jesus is coming back. And it was like, what do you mean he's coming back. That's really weird. I thought we were just going to heaven. Thought we're going to him. Why would he come here? And that really spurred on a huge shift in thinking in this country. And then last but not least, the German scholars, the German critical scholars led by Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer. In the late 1800s, early 1900s started to really figure this out, and as a result, scholarship to this day most New Testament scholars will tell you they'll be happy to tell you that the Kingdom of God idea is not referring to the church. It's not referring to heaven, it's referring to a renewed. World when the Messiah reigns and this is a beautiful message, it's a beautiful message that should really affect our lives. And so the book is chronicling the biblical case. Of what it is, the historical case of how we lost it and the historical case of how we found it. And then it concludes with the challenge and the challenge is to become a Kingdom ambassador. So I think this book will have something for you even if you have believed in the Kingdom of God for your whole life or for a number of years, I think there's still plenty to learn here. But also this book, I pray, will serve an evangelistic purpose as well, cause I don't believe the Kingdom is just sort of a vague hope about like. I hope this really happens to be really great, no? I think the Kingdom is actually part of our message. In fact, the foundation or primary part of the gospel message itself is about the Kingdom of God. At least if we're going to take our cue. From Jesus and. It's like, well, who else? We're going to take. It from he. Certainly identified the Kingdom as the gospel that he preached, and I think if we're going to be faithful to him. He said this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So I don't believe the end is going to come despite all the knuckleheads writing books until this message gets out there. So will you help me do? That if you'd like to get the book, if you are so inclined, send it to somebody who needs to hear it. There are so many Christians in the world today who have never heard. The message that Jesus spent all of his time preaching doesn't that just blow your? Mind all they hear. About is going to heaven. This sort of vague medieval folk religion about you know hell with pitchforks and this ridiculous torture idea, or heaven as a never ending floating on a cloud. Come on, that's ridiculous. It's not in the. People. The Kingdom is what it's all about. So yeah, I wrote a book about it. I'm really excited about it. I'll probably do a future episode just on the book in more detail, but I just wanted to mention it to you here at the end of this episode and encourage you, if you'd like to support restitutio if you'd like to support my work, it would really mean a lot. If you would pick up the book and even more importantly, that you would share about it on social media if you do order the book when it comes in the mail, take a picture, put it on social, it would really help because that's the only way that this book can eventually have reach is if. That it's if it goes beyond people that I directly know to reach others that you know, and then others that they know and. So on and. So forth. So so appreciate your help. Many of you have already liked and shared my Facebook post about this. You know, I know a lot of people are on, are not on Facebook or on other things. So many things is hard to even keep track of. So please help me out if you can. Well, that brings this episode to a close. If you'd like to support us, you can do that at restitutio.org. We'll catch you next week and remember, the truth has nothing to fear.