What's Rankin been thinking about lately?

Last Sunday (January 10, 2010), we had our annual “State of the Community” service where we looked back to celebrate all that happened in 2009 and looked ahead for what is on the horizon for 2010.  It was a great service, filled with several personal stories of changed lives, much laughter and much thanksgiving.  I opened the service with the following message, and would encourage you to watch the video, as it captures some of the highlights of the past year.

The Discipline of Remembrance

There’s a story in the Bible told in the Book of Joshua. After the people of Israel had crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land, Joshua instructed some of them to take up stones – large rocks – and carry them over into the Promised Land.

And Joshua gives the reason: so that when your children ask in times to come, “What do these stones mean?” all the people would remember how they got to where they are, how God had brought them across the Jordan.

So these stones shall be, Joshua says, stones of remembrance. That’s what this service is today: A Time to Remember.

Remember is a key word in the Bible. When the Bible uses the word remember, it’s quite different from our English equivalent. It’s a much stronger word than what you do in a grocery store when you recall, “Oh yeah, I needed that.” It has more the sense of a deliberate calling to mind, rehearsing, reenacting. It’s not passive. It’s ACTIVE – a discipline, The Discipline of Remembrance.

That TODAY, when they might doubt it, God’s people would remember the goodness and faithfulness of God in times past. So they placed the stones – to cultivate humility and hope, gratefulness and worship.

“Looking back” would enable the people of Israel to look ahead, in faith, to what God will do. Looking back – not as obsession with the past, not to be stuck in the past, but a present orientation, to guide them as they faced the uncertain future.

This morning I want to apply this Discipline of Remembrance to us, as a community. We remember, look back and celebrate and give thanks, in order to look ahead in hope.

Looking back over 2009 – at Pacific Crossroads we have so much to celebrate. A lot of outward success:

Click here to see the video

Much has happened this year.

Not to mention, my friend Chris Weldon stood on this stage and prayed for the life of our unborn child, whose life was very threatened. And I think of that today – when I look at Jack, now two months old.

Today we Remember: WHO has done this; WHO gets the credit—the LORD and his Name alone.

We need to publicly confess that all that we’ve seen this year, any outward success, is from God and for God. That God is at work at Pacific Crossroads – without a doubt, so be encouraged; but remember that it is God who is at work in and through us.

Remembering is vital, especially when you consider that there is a pervasive tendency for us to forget. For us to think that our past success had something to do with us: our wisdom, our gifts, our decisions, our appeal. I know that is a temptation because it is mine.

What forgetfulness will beget in my life, our community, and our staff is pride, prayerlessness, a lack of gratitude, a preoccupation with numbers, and anxiety, and we’ll worry more about being successful than being faithful. And that will cause us to look ahead, not in faith, but in fear.

So this morning, we look back – not to dwell on the past, but in the present, to look ahead to the future in faith to what God will do.

We confess together: God, this is from You and for You, for Your Name in Los Angeles. And we re-commit to serve You and Your Kingdom, not our own. As the writer of 1 Chronicles says:

Give thanks to the LORD
Call upon His Name
Make known His deeds among the peoples
Tell of all His wondrous Works
Glory in His Holy Name
Seek the LORD, continually and
Remember the Wondrous works that he has done