(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

I want to talk about remembering.

Because I think this is the time of year that we love to remember.

We love to remember family traditions.

We love to remember past celebrations.

We love to remember when times were simpler, right?

And recapture what, around this time, we call that Christmas spirit.

And I think we are so hungry for that spirit that that's why stores start decorating for Christmas in July, it feels like, right?

It's earlier and earlier.

And nowadays, you used to wait.

The day after Thanksgiving was Christmas decorating.

And now it's like Halloween doesn't exist.

And we just go straight into Christmas.

And honestly, like, it ain't for me, right?

I'm a traditional, right after Thanksgiving, we can get decorating.

But there is the magic, right?

This nostalgia to Christmas that we all love and that we crave.

And as our world feels more stressful and angry and broken, that feeling is something we want to grasp onto.

We want that Christmas spirit more and more, right?

We want to remember what that felt like.

And I'll be honest, like, I remember nowadays those Christmases when I was young.

And it just seemed like people were happier, right?

You could say Merry Christmas without worrying about offending somebody.

I don't know how crazy that is.

I know most of us still say that.

But all of those things that we do nowadays, it's to help us remember.

And so probably as you're sitting there, you're remembering those things that help you grasp onto that nostalgia.

I know for me, it's Andy Williams, right?

Andy Williams' Christmas.

Any time, right, that it's the most wonderful time of the year, right?

Man, any time that comes on, it's like flashback to my childhood.

My mom would pop that into a tape deck, right?

If you're 20 years or younger and you don't know what a tape deck is, right, it was this little plastic thing that played music.

And we played Andy Williams, and we would decorate for Christmas.

And it was just so wonderful.

And Andy Williams, to this day, is my go-to for Christmas.

In my own house, maybe you didn't even see this over here, we bring out our Christmas tree, right?

And you can laugh at it.

It's fine.

Like in our house, this is called our Charlie Brown Christmas tree, right?

Where's the Charlie Brown tree?

But the reason I love bringing this out is this is the very first Christmas tree Mackenzie and I had when we got married, right?

I think it cost $20.

And you can see the bark through it, which I actually thought was really cool.

It looked like a real bark of a Christmas tree.

But when we bring this out, I remember, right, those times when we were young and newly married and no kids, and we were poor.

And now we have three kids, and we're still poor.

And but this tree, it means so much to me.

It means so much to me.

And even though we've gotten prettier trees, this still comes out in our house for Christmas.

I'm going to leave it right there.

But again, it's that remembering.

It's helping us grab onto those nostalgic feelings.

And the reason I share all this is because I want us to understand that there is something inside each and every one of us that longs to remember.

We long to remember, to grab hold once again that elusive feeling.

And I'd be willing to bet if you really thought about it, you didn't even know it was there when it was happening.

When I was a kid and decorating Christmas trees with my mom, I didn't think it was anything special.

It's what we did.

But now looking back, that has become so special.

And I didn't recognize it when it was happening.

But when it's not there, I know that I miss it.

And I would argue that some aspect of that comes from our soul's longing for God.

Because what we know about Christmas is that it is very Christ-centered.

A lot of the Christmas carols we sing are about the baby Jesus in a manger.

And it brings us back to know that this was a special time where a real gift was given.

And so that aspect of remembering and longing for that remembrance is something that God has placed in our soul.

In Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, it says this.

It says, God has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the human heart.

Yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

And what this verse tells us is that longing, that pursuit, that remembrance of love and of peace and of wholeness, those feelings are woven into the very fabric of who we are by our creator.

In Ecclesiastes, they call that eternity.

God has put this desire for the special, for the real, for that tangible sense of goodness in our souls.

And it's something that within us that we desire.

And when we recognize it, we immediately know that it's special, that it's something that needs to be sought after and protected.

And this brings me to the next thing that I want to share with you today.

There's this new commercial out that I think sums up this idea of remembrance and the specialness of remembrance more than anything I've seen recently.

And I want to show that to you right now.

It'll be on all the screens.

So take a look at this.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

There's a lot of dust in this tent, right?

Man.

Isn't that amazing?

And as I watched the, honestly, the first time I heard about it, I read about this commercial and I started crying.

And it's incredible.

But if we take this and we put it through a spiritual lens and we see this husband as God and he sits there and he's watching the person he loves most in the world slipping further and further away from him, and there are good days.

And there are good days where his beloved remembers who he is and where she remembers who she is.

But those days are becoming further and further apart.

And all he can do is continue to love, hoping that she comes back.

And the next question that we all face in here today is, who are you?

Are you the wife?

Are you someone here today who has forgotten, forgotten who you are and whose you are?

Are you there?

And are you knowing that you're alive, but not really knowing why or for what purpose?

Or are you the granddaughter, someone who wants nothing more than for those who have forgotten to remember, to remember that longing that is in all our souls, to remember that we belong, that we have value, that there is someone who did everything to remind us how much he loves us?

And today, I want to encourage all of us in here to either be the one who remembers or be the one who helps others remember.

This commercial is so powerful because many of us in this tent have lived this firsthand.

Many of us have walked through this journey of Alzheimer's with friends or family.

And we see the debilitating ugliness of this disease that takes from us the people we love the most.

And it causes them to forget who they are.

And we saw it in this commercial, that miracle of remembering.

You saw it.

And it was so great in that woman's eyes where she remembered.

And her first words were, Bill, I got to get back to him.

To be able to look and see that light go off and you know that they have come back, there is no greater feeling than that.

And I have a feeling that this is what the prodigal son, what happened to the prodigal son, right, as he's feeding these pigs in a trough, it's like a light goes off.

And he realizes, why am I here?

I belong to somebody greater.

And I'm going to go back.

And when he comes back to his father, that hope, that excitement, that gratefulness that we saw in the husband's face is the same look I think that the father probably had.

Where he comes running to his son, who has finally woken up, who has finally remembered who he belongs to, that he is valued and important.

And it's that same look that God has when we remember and we come back to him.

And that's why, church, this is so important for us to talk about.

Because we live in a world, and there might even be people here in this tent today, who have forgotten.

And you've forgotten that you were wanted.

You've forgotten that forgiveness and restoration is within reach.

You have forgotten that you are the beloved of God.

You have forgotten that you matter.

You have forgotten that you have a gift and a talent that can only come from God.

And he wants you to know how much he loves you.

God wants you to remember.

And so today, as we talk about this, what are some things that cause us to forget?

And I think the first one that many of us experience in our life, it's things like hurt.

When we are wounded, especially by those who are supposed to care for us the most, we know that our hearts can become hardened.

And when that happens, there is a tendency to blame God for what happened.

And we lose sight of who God is.

And we lose sight that he loves us.

And we lose sight that he's watching over us.

And instead of dealing with that pain, we bury it deeper and deeper.

And we know, like I said, it hardens our hearts.

We convince ourselves that we will never let that happen again.

I will never let that happen again, that we don't need people, that we don't need God.

But what we know is that hole in our hearts, that, like Ecclesiastes says, that is supposed to be filled with eternity, with God, that hole in our hearts needs to be filled.

And when we've been hurt, we will try anything to fill that emptiness, even if it hurts us.

And we've seen this, maybe in our lives, maybe in the lives of people around us.

We turn to drugs.

We turn to alcohol.

We turn to our money and our careers.

We turn to relationships.

And all of those masks that we try to put on to hide the pain just remind us more and more of the fact that we are lost and that we need to come back.

And so if you are here today and there is a past hurt in your life that is keeping you from trusting in God and seeing what God is doing in your life, it's time to remember.

It's time to come back.

It's time to remember that through your biggest storms, God has been there, even if you didn't see it, even if you didn't recognize it.

And he's waiting for you to come back.

Another thing that causes us to forget sometimes are different trials.

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about perseverance and the importance of perseverance in our faith.

And there aren't many books in the Bible that don't talk about perseverance.

And again, the reason that it's in almost every single book of the Bible is because it's something that we all need to hear.

It's something that we all have gone through.

And the reality is that God knows that when we face trials, we have two choices in front of us.

That first choice is to continue to trust him and grow in our faith.

And the second choice is to just walk away and give up on the work that God wants to do in our lives.

And I'll be honest.

There's been plenty of times in my life where I've walked away, where I have said, God, if this is what it means to follow you, I don't want it.

But I always came back.

I always remembered.

I was always told and always reminded that God loves you.

And church, you need to hear that today.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

God loves you.

And so what are some of those trials that we face?

Well, I think one of the big ones we see in our society today is busyness, right?

This is a huge trial, feeling like there's not enough time.

And when that's the case, the first thing that seems to go out of our lives is our pursuit of God, our time with God.

And the next thing to go, and I think it's a tie, it's either your time with family and friends or the time you have to devote to your own health, right?

And hopefully you see that this isn't a coincidence, right?

That there is a real devil out to get you because the first things to go are things that God tells us throughout scripture are the most important, right?

The 10 Commandments.

In the New Testament, Jesus boils them down to two things.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, right?

And look, when you start to get busy, the first thing that goes is my love for God.

I can't love him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength when I got so many other things to do.

And the second thing that goes is my love of people around me, right?

Your relationship with God and your relationship with others.

And then that time to care for your health, right?

This is why God instituted the Sabbath, right?

This is why God said, hey, if you really want to worship me well, take at least one day and relax.

Take at least one day and don't worry.

Don't worry about what you have to do for me.

Don't worry about what you have to do for other people.

Just take one day and it's for you.

That's how you worship me.

And look, we thrive in a society that our biggest compliment is that, man, it's busy.

I'm busy.

So busy.

And what God says is, no, don't forget to take time to rest, to restore, to recharge, right?

The Israelites were the only people in ancient days that carved out a day off.

The only one.

Everyone else had no idea what it meant to take a day of rest because God told them to.

Church, God's telling you to don't be so busy.

And again, busyness is only one trial.

There's stress.

There's money.

There's relationships.

Basically, any time things don't go the way we want them to go.

And another thing that the Bible mentions as something that causes us to forget is complacency.

In Deuteronomy 6, I want to read this to you.

This is as the Israelites are heading into the promised land.

Here is a warning from God.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land, he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.

Then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

And what this tells us is, hey, be careful when you think you have everything you want.

When you think that you've made it, that you do not forget the Lord.

Man, this was written for America today, right?

I have everything I need.

What do I need God for?

That is something that we hear from so many people.

What do I need God for when I have everything I need?

And when we get to this point, ego and pride start to take over.

And pride itself is the anti-God.

Pride is what keeps us away from God more than anything else and causes us to forget that we are people in need.

I can't and I won't let God into my life when all I'm thinking is I've got this.

I've got this figured out.

And so as we look at these causes, what causes us to forget, what happens when I forget God?

Well, number one, we can be convinced of lies, right?

Or forget the truth.

Last week when Chris was up here, he talked about this, that there's a lot of the times where we don't think that we are good enough.

We don't think that we have enough to offer.

And this is a lie from the enemy.

This is a lie that gets us to believe that God can't use me because I don't have anything for him to be useful.

And again, this lie that as we forget God, we are no longer reminded that, hey, you have something that nobody else in this world has.

You have something that only God can use through you.

So we forget.

We are convinced of these lies.

The second thing, we start to look for love and acceptance in other places.

And I think this is a big thing that we deal with today.

And as I mentioned before, God created us to long for him, for eternity, for something beyond ourselves.

And if we forget that we are God's, or that not we are gods, all right, this isn't that kind of religion, right?

That's apostrophe S. Possessive, we are God's.

If we forget that we are gods, we'll look for that validation in everything else, right?

Whether it's our jobs.

And if you've ever tried that, you know, like, man, that's never going to work, right?

We try and find it maybe in parenting, right?

Yeah, right.

All right?

All right?

Ever had those days where you woke up and be like, man, I'm a great parent, right?

Nope, right?

If you're a kid in here still, like, just know, your parents never have those days.

They never have those days.

But we look for validation in everything else.

We want to be told that we are enough.

We want to be told that we are good enough.

And it's only in God that we find that.

In nothing else do we find that.

And then third, we forget our status, right?

Peter tells us that we are a royal priesthood, a chosen nation.

Elsewhere in the Bible, we are told that we are sons and daughters of the living God.

You were created to be adored by your heavenly father.

And I'll be honest, there's plenty of days where I don't feel royal, right?

I don't feel chosen.

I don't feel beloved.

And again, these are the lies that are told to us as we forget about who God is and who we are in Him.

And so we've talked about what happens when we forget.

We talked about what causes us to forget.

How do we help people remember?

First thing is be available.

In the book of Isaiah, there's this great passage where Isaiah is before the throne of God and angels are flying around.

And he is just in awe that he falls flat to his face.

And he hears this voice.

And it's the voice of God.

And in Isaiah 6, 8, it says this.

The Lord says, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

And Isaiah said, here I am.

Send me.

Send me.

We need to be available.

When we know God has called us, right, in church, we know that God has called us to help people remember, help people to know who they are in God.

In Tuesday, while I was working on this message, I got a phone call that somebody from the church was in the hospital and they needed a pastor to come visit them.

And I'll be honest, I'm a little embarrassed about this.

But at first, I was like, well, when can I squeeze it in so that I can work on this message?

And as I was sitting there, like the Holy Spirit does, thankfully, this feeling of, Richard, you're wrong.

Richard, get off your backside and go to this hospital.

And so I'm like, OK. So I went.

And I get into this hospital room.

And the woman I had come to visit, she was asleep.

And when people are sick, I just want to sleep.

I just want to be left alone.

And so I was just going to sit there.

But there was a nurse in the room.

And she was like, oh, hey.

And she turns and she's like, Miss Marie, you got somebody to visit you.

And I was like, oh, my gosh.

And so obviously, she wakes up.

And she sees me.

And she starts crying.

And she says, Richard, I was hoping you would come.

I almost missed that.

I almost missed that opportunity.

Why?

Because I thought I was too busy.

Whoa, I just talked about that earlier, right?

I was too busy.

Church, we need to be available.

We need to be ready when God calls us to just go.

It doesn't have to be extravagant.

It's just showing up.

It's just letting people know that they matter.

It's just letting them know that you are special enough, just as you are, for me to love you.

The second thing, build relationships.

The granddaughter in this video, she knew all of the stories.

She knew all of the places.

And she took her grandma around the city for a tour.

And as the church, we need to be reminded that we have been called to do life together, right, together as one.

In the Gospel of John, verse 17, Jesus is praying.

And he says, my prayer is not for them alone.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

May they also be in us so that the world may believe you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.

And then, when they are in unity, when they're living life together, the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Us doing life together, us caring about each other, shows the world that God's real, shows the world that there's something different about us, that there's some power beyond all of us that is crying out to this world.

And so, and then the final thing is pray and be ready.

In 1 Peter 3, verse 15, it says, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the hope that you have.

But do this with gentleness and respect.

See, guys, God wants everyone in this world to be saved.

God wants everyone in this world to remember, to know that they belong, to know that they are loved.

And he wants to use all of us to share that message.

In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul tells us that we are Christ's ambassadors.

And he says it's as if God were making his appeal through us, right, as if God himself were speaking through you to remind the people of who he is and who they are.

And so pray for the opportunity to help others remember, because God wants them to remember even more than we do.

Those friends, those neighbors, those co-workers who don't know Christ, pray for them.

Why?

Because God wants them to remember even more than you do.

And so pray and be ready.

And when that opportunity arises, remind them.

Remind them.

And during this season, there are a lot of people out there searching, searching for something meaningful.

They might not know it, but we do.

They're searching for God.

They're searching for that eternity that's within them.

Be the one to help them remember.

Next Sunday night, we're going to be having a candlelight communion service.

Invite someone that needs to remember.

OK, let's pray right now.

But there's a really good chance that that candlelight communion service is going to be in the lobby of that brand new church building.

So if it's not, we'll still do it in here.

We'll still have a great time.

But we are praying and hoping.

Invite somebody that needs to remember.

That next Sunday is, that following Sunday is Christmas Eve, where we talk about that gift that was given so long ago.

Invite someone that needs to remember.

You were here for a purpose.

You were here because God loves you.

You were here because you are the church.

And God is making his appeal through each and every one of us.

Let's pray.

God, we love you and we thank you so much.

God, I thank you, Lord, that powerful commercials in the world can be used to reveal your goodness and your love to your people.

And Father, today we know.

We know that you love us.

And I pray, Lord, every single day that you would remind us more and more of how much you love us, so that we would never forget, so that we would bring others along, so that we would remind them of what you were doing in their lives as well.

And so Father, for those here today who need to remember, who need to be snapped out of their days, Lord God, I pray that they would just accept you, that they would come to realize that they need a Savior, that that eternity that is within them is crying out to you.

And if there's anybody in here who that is the case, may their heart's prayer be this.

Lord, please, thank you for opening my eyes.

Thank you for reminding me that you love me.

Let me come back to you now.

I open my heart to you as my Lord and my Savior.

And Father, I pray that you would fill my life, that you would use me to help other people remember just how great and how loving a God you are.

And for the rest of us, God, as your church, as your people, called to carry your good news out into the world, Father, speak through us.

May our hearts be broken for those who do not remember.

And may we always have a passion, Lord, to remind others of just how much you love them.

This is the season to remember, Lord God.

And we pray these things in your mighty name.

And all God's people said, amen.