“God Never Forgets”
Judges 2:11-16
INTRO: As we go through life we meet many people along the way and we learn many, many things don’t we? I would say in the time that we are in school as children is the time we meet most of the people and we learn most of the things we know. Now one might argue that we meet more people in our everyday life as we go about living and working. And that may very well be true. That as we go about working and living our everyday lives, we learn more than we ever did at school.
I guess the reason I mention school is because on one of my short breaks during the week, really late at night I got online and went to Classmates.com. I registered my name for the school I went to and for the year I graduated and looked at all the people on there that I went to school with. As I was looking through the names I could recall some things about people. I could see their faces and know how they did in school. Remember if they played sports, or where in FFA or sang in the choir and so on and so on. But there were some names on there that I didn’t even know. I thought, I went to school with these people, how did I go to school with these people and not even know them. I must have known them at one time or another, but I sure couldn’t remember them then. You see our memory fails us at times doesn’t it? We forget the things we learned and some people we knew and how to do some things that we used to.
There are those things that we once could do and now we can’t. Now I don’t mean those things we can’t do anymore because we are old and just can’t do them. I mean those things we just can’t remember how to do. But you know, there are some things that we just don’t forget how to do aren’t there. We don’t forget how to ride a bike, or to swim, or dribble a basketball and throw a baseball you know what kind of things I mean, those physical things that once you learn them they stick with you for life. Those are the kinds of things we can’t do anymore because of age.
But I’m talking about the things like we learned at school, like how to do Algebra and Geometry. We forget what the capital of Germany is, and what the state tree for Washington is. You know the kinds of things I’m talking about, those things that we learn at school that years later we can’t recall.
What about when you’re on the computer and you want to find a file that you just know you saved, but for the life of you, you can’t find it anywhere. Or not remembering those short cuts for copying and pasting or some other short cuts that you once did.
How about when you want to make a certain kind of dish. You know the one I’m talking about, it’s the one that was great last time you made it and there is no way, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t remember how much of this and that you put in it. And then your eating it and it just doesn’t taste the same and all the time at the dinner table your searching your brain trying to remember just how it was.
I don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to do something and couldn’t remember how to do it. It’s frustrating isn’t it? Just this last week, I think it was on Tuesday. My wife and I went to Kirksville to do some shopping. Now you’ll get an idea of just how much I go shopping for groceries from this little story.
ILLUS: My wife wanted to go to Aldi’s so she could get a ham there among some other things. The ham they sell there is really good. Anyway we get to the store and go in and I say, “How much are we getting, do we need a cart”. I always ask that because I hate shopping and want to get out of there as soon as possible. She says, “Yeah I guess we better have one.” So she sends me back out to get cart. I go out to get the cart, grab the cart handle and it doesn’t come free from the other carts, so I pull and little harder, you know how carts get stuck together sometimes and I thought that was the case here. But it’s about this time when I notice that all the carts are chained together. I’m thinking, why in the world are these carts chained together, how are you supposed to shop without a cart, and then I notice the sign that says something along the lines of, for security purposes please put a quarter in the little box on the cart handle. I’m now thinking no way am I putting a quarter in the cart just so I can shop at this store. So I go back into the store where my wife is and say, “Do you know that they want a quarter so we can have a cart to shop in their store.” She says, “Yeah they’ve always done that” I say, “no way have they always done that, it wasn’t that way in Sedalia.” Now I’m not very happy about the idea of having to put the quarter in the cart and am talking loud enough that a guy down the aisle hears me. He comes back toward us and says, “Yeah they have always done it that way,” I’m still saying that there’s no way I should have to put a quarter in a cart to shop at this store.
Well, I finally give in and then I didn’t have a quarter in my pocket and my wife didn’t have quarter in her pocket either. So I have to go all the way back out to the car and find one in there. So I put my quarter in the cart and we go about our shopping. Now I’m thinking that they just made a quarter off me just for shopping in their store and I’m going on about that to my wife, and then she informs me that, “That’s not the way it is, you get the quarter back when you take the cart back.” “The whole point of putting the quarter in is so you will take it back, and then get your quarter back.” So now I’m finally relieved, I knew I was going to get my quarter back.
So then we get to the check out lane and we’re checking out and you know how they take your food from the little conveyer belt and scan it and then put it in the cart at the end of the lane. When you get done you get the other cart at the end of the lane with the food in it. Right then I’m thinking, alright now I have my cart and the cart with the food in it so I can get two quarters back. Then the check out lady grabs for my cart, I didn’t want to give it to her. My wife says, “they need that cart for the next person,” I’m saying, “let the next person use their own cart this ones mine.” I was determined to get that extra quarter. Well I gave in on that too and we went out to the car with our food. I get to the car open the trunk and just then I realize they didn’t put the food in bags. At first I was like, this is crazy, first I have to put a quarter in the cart and now I don’t even get a bag for my food. But I did remember pretty quickly that you had to provide your own bags. But just before I can get the trunk of the car closed a lady comes up to me and ask if she could have my cart. I’m thinking, lady you better have a quarter for this cart or I’m not giving it to you and right then she reached out her hand with a quarter in it. I took it got in the car and thanked God that I was done with shopping.
We went on about that for quite a little while. Now I have shopped before and I have went to Aldi’s before, but I sure don’t remember ever putting a quarter in a cart so I could shop there. We forget things don’t we.
You know we are not the first or only generation that forgot things. People have been forgetting things for centuries. There is only One that never forgets anything and that One is God. God is there for us, day in and day out. He provides for us each and every day. He remembers we are here, He knows us more than we know ourselves. He knows how many hairs we have on our heads and with me He’s gotten subtraction down to a tee. He remembers what we were like when we were born. He remembers what we were like as we were growing up and all the things we did. He remembers what you did last year, last month, last week, and yesterday.
Not only all of that but He knows what we will do tomorrow and the next day and the next day and so on and so on. And He will always remember to take care of us, to guide us and help us everyday of our lives.
Now we are only human and we do tend to forget things, but (Prop.) God does not forget us and we should not forget Him!
Like I said people have been forgetting for centuries. And Israel falls right into that category of people that forget. They forgot God and what He had done for them. Now look with me, if you will at Judges the 2nd chapter, starting with the 11th verse. (read it)
I. We are forgetful people
Israel was a forgetful people weren’t that? The Scripture we just read is just one case where it says, “Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals.” You see God had taken care of them; He had supplies all there needs. Israel was once a nation of slaves living in a land that was not their own. They were in a place where they were unhappy and were crying out to God to deliver them. Then God sent Moses and they were delivered out of the hand of Egypt. But what did they do as soon as they left Egypt? They started complaining that they were better off in Egypt than in the wilderness. You see they forgot that they cried out to God for deliverance and when He delivered them they could do nothing but complain and thus they spent 40 years in the wilderness because of their forgetfulness.
Now here in Judges they are in the same boat. They are being forgetful of what God has done for them and they are serving other gods. Let’s take a quick look through Judges at some other Scripture that shows just how forgetful they were. Judges 3:7 says, “And the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth.” & vs. 12 “Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.” Judges 4:1 says, “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, after Ehud died.” 6:1 says, “Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hands of Midian seven years.” 10:6 says, “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth…” and finally 13:1 says, “Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, so that the LORD gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.”
Oh how forgetful can they be. Again and again they forgot God. They went back over and over again to the other god’s. Then when things got really bad, that’s when they remembered the God of their deliverance. You see God would turn them over to evil in order to bring them back to Him and when, as verse 15 of our text says, “they were severely distressed” God would deliver them again through the judges He sent. As verse 16 says, “Then the LORD raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them.”
ILLUS: That’s they way we are today isn’t it. Think about your life. How is it? Remember those times when everything was going good and maybe you thought there was nothing you couldn’t do. Those are the times when we tend to forget God isn’t it. When things are going good we have a tendency to let our relationship with God slide a little bit. When we’ve got enough money in our pockets and enough food on the table, all the bills are paid, maybe your even able to get a few extra things and your feeling really good about yourself. And you end up slipping further and further from God.
Then something happens in your life. Someone in your family gets sick; you don’t have a really good year with your crops or your job. Maybe you’re not able to make the payments you need to make and your on the verge of loosing some things. Or maybe someone in your family just can’t seem to get over the sickness they have and you or the doctors just don’t know what to do. That’s when you turn to God again isn’t it. You see when we slip to far from God, He will cause things to happen that bring us back to Him. We may have forgotten about Him, but He never forgets about us.
You see we are no different than the Israelites were. They served other god’s and we do to sometimes. Our god’s aren’t called Baal or Ashtaroth, but they are there just the same. And God calls us back to Him. We tend to forget God at times, but He never forgets us.
II. God remembers everything
God remembers everything doesn’t He? Now matter how far away we go from God, He always remembers us. What an assurance that is for us. But it’s that assurance at times that I think makes us wonder from God when there are good times. We have that assurance that God is always there, don’t we. We know that Heb. 13:5 says, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” Now we might not know right off hand that is says that right at that spot, but we know that the Bible promises us that God will never forget us.
He remembers everything doesn’t He? That’s a scary thought for a lot of us. We think back in our lives and we remember all the things that we have done. We know that some of them weren’t so good. Some of those things we would rather not remember and sometimes we wonder how we ever made it to the point we are at today. And we know that God remembers all those things too and He even remembers all those that we can’t remember.
What a scary thing it is to think that God can remember, everything in our life. What a God we have, what a wonderful God we have that He will never forget us.
III. He will remember and we will recall at the Judgment
As I said before, God remembers everything. Amos 8:7 says, “The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds.” I tremble just to think about that. One day there will be a time when I have to stand before my Maker and make and account of all the things I have done. Can you imagine that? From the earliest time we can remember in our lives, to the very last breath we take, we will have to remember and make an account of for before God. And even for the things we can’t remember, because God will be able to recall them for us. Rev. 20:11 & 12 say, “And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”
What a humbling thing it is to think that my life is written down in a book and that God is the writer of that book. I’ve done quite a bit of thinking about this and I did a lot of thinking about this before I decided that I wanted to go into the ministry. You see now that I’m a minister I will be held at a higher standard and will incur a stricter judgment. James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.” That not only goes for me, but that goes for the rest of us who are Elders, Deacons, and teachers. You see we have a responsibility to God to keep ourselves at a high standard. People look at us and at the way we live our lives and we need to keep ourselves above reproach. Especially, I believe that of the Minister and the Elders. They will incur a stricter judgment because they are responsible for the spiritual well being of the congregation.
So maybe you see why I tremble. Not only do I want to help the spiritual well being of those in the congregation, but also I want to seek out those that don’t know Christ and help them in their spiritual walk as well. Because Jesus commands that of us as Christians. God remembers what you and I do. Every one of us will be held accountable and some, Ministers, Elders, Deacons and teachers will be held accountable for those that are in our care.
From the state of some churches today, I can see that some Ministers, Elders and so on are going be doing a lot of explaining when they are before the judgment seat of God. I sure don’t want to have to that.
CONCLUSION: What a wonderful God we have! Now that we’ve come to the point that we’re absolutely terrified of the memory of God we can say what a wonderful God we have.
God knew us before He ever created us. He knew that we would make mistakes; He knew that we would forget Him at times. He knows how much He hates sin and He knew how much He would love us. What a wonderful God we have! That He gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross for us. You see God gave us His Son before He ever created us. He knew there would be a trial some day, He knew that He would have to be the judge, and He knew that He would have to condemn all those who sin to hell, because He hates sin. So before He ever created He gave Jesus to all those who would accept Him. Jesus’ blood covers those sins and when we come before God on His judgment seat, Jesus stands beside us and covers our sins from the sight of God. God stacked the deck, He made it impossible for Satan to win, but only if we choose Jesus will we win. What a wonderful God we have! That He remembered us even before He created. Jn 13:15 says, “…whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.” Choose Jesus and you will receive eternal life!
