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Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. (Exodus 13:3 ESV)

God has done some amazing things in the past. This is true of your past, my past, the past years of our families, the past generations of our church, and throughout church and biblical history. We are to remember those past graces.

What happens if we fail to remember? Then the memories of those graces get discarded into the trashcan of yesteryear. They lose their power to move our minds with the power of God. That time when God saved us from a car accident? Forgotten. That time when God caused healing in a time of great physical distress? It no longer moves anyone. When God moved on the hearts of our family members and they surrendered their lives to Jesus? These are no longer spoken of. Forgotten. Ineffective to move this generation.

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. (Deut 8:2 ESV)

It is important for any church to keep the testimonies of God’s continual wonderworking power alive. In Exodus 13, God tells his people who had experienced magnificent delivering miracles to not forget. In Deuteronomy 8, they are commanded to remember how God sustained them in their post-deliverance journey. Every year, on the last Sunday on the calendar, we gather at Sojourn Church for regular worship - but instead of preaching, we pass the microphone around the sanctuary to hear how God has been at work in the lives of different people. It is an important part of remembering what God has done.

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Rev 12:11)

But what about the next generation? The 25th anniversary of 9/11 just passed, and I realized that there are people, 30 years old and younger, who have no memory of that event. They have grown up in a post 9/11 world. That is their reality. They have to be told about what that event felt like and what it meant.

Similarly, we must be diligent to record the works of God in this generation for the benefit of the next generation. They will not be “remembering” those acts of God, in the strictest sense of the word. They will be taught. And in learning, they will know. And in knowing, their hearts may gain courage and faith. And in courage and faith, they may press even further into enemy territory, striving to see lives, families, neighborhoods, and cities turn, repent, and believe.