Don't You Remember?
February 11, 2024
Welcome to the Beamsville Church of Christ online ministry. This week's message is titled "Don't You Remember?" Thank you to Earl, Glynnis, Dianne, and Amy for being involved. The scripture reading is Mark 8, 14 to 18.
Welcome, Announcements, Prayer
Well, we wish to welcome each of you here this morning. If you're visiting, we want you to feel welcome. And we have a few announcements to begin with. Celebrations in terms of birthdays. Pam, and of course, her condition continues to be not the best. And so we pray for her. And Church Directory Update. Dianne is doing that. And so if you have an update in your contact information, email address, etc., you could talk to her and she'll have that incorporated into the new directory. Milk bags. Barbara is collecting them to make sleeping mats. Hopefully with some cushioning. [laughter] Games night. We're going to have a games night. This has been, some people have been talking about this for quite some time, but opportunity to play some games and bring some friends and maybe introduce them to those of us who worship here. That's going to be on Friday, February 22nd. Or sorry. From the Treasurers: donation receipts are now available. And there will be an annual general meeting on February 25th, 11:30 after worship service. Again, we wish to welcome each of you here. And we'll go to God in prayer as we begin our service.
Our Father, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your provision for each of us in sending Jesus into this world. We pray that you will help us this morning as we come to worship you. We recognize you as the God of all creation. We thank you for your love and goodness. We pray, Father, that you'll be with those in our congregation who are experiencing difficulties at this time, whether it be Pam and her physical condition or others who are suffering mentally, perhaps because of job issues or just the stresses of everyday living. We pray that you will comfort them and help us to be your hands and feet as we minister to them. Father, we pray that you'll be with us as we worship together. And we pray that we'll find encouragement during this hour so that we can go forth this week and serve as your people. In Jesus' name, amen.
Communion
Good morning. We worry in this life, don't we? We kind of know we're not supposed to, but we do. I was prodded by the Spirit to consider part of today's reading that really spoke to me in Mark 8, verse 18. Jesus said, "Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember?" As I considered worrying, I thought about Jesus' teaching. In Luke 12, verses 6 and 7, he said, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs on your head are numbered. Don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows."
And in Matthew 6, verses 25 to 34, Jesus says, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow? They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was dressed like one of these." If that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them." But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Our questions aren't so much what we will eat or what we will wear. They are often bigger questions, much bigger questions. How will I get along? How will I manage? What am I going to do? After the death of a beloved, after a surgery that wasn't successful, after a life-altering health event, after a child has revealed that they are going to be a single parent, or is gay, or trans, after I decide to give my life to Christ, after I die. How do I seek first His kingdom and His righteousness? Matthew 22, verses 37 to 39, Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." And 1 Corinthians 13, 13, says, "And now these three remain faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love."
So we remember, Jesus paid more than two pennies for us, each one of us individually, me, like me. I'm worth to God and to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit more than anything, more than anything. I'm worth to God the very life of His Son. So we remember, the Lord will figure out the answers to our questions and our prayers. How will I get along? How will I manage? What am I going to do? Because we're worth it to Him. And how do we respond? We respond by remembering and believing. We believe Him, and we respond by loving others. We won't do that perfectly. God already knows that. Our striving to believe and to love is a credit that He gives us because we try.
What does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness in Romans 4 and 3. Just believing is credit. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. "Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them." In Romans 4, 6, and 8. Paul reminds us about Abraham's faith. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, and fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness. The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, but for us who believe in him, who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this great which we now stand. And that's Romans 4, verses 20 to Romans 5, 2a.
How will I get along? How will I manage? What am I going to do? Remember. Remember, believe, and love. And as we take our communion, let's consider the price that was paid for us. Let's consider how worth it we are to God, not because of anything we've done, but because we choose by faith to remember and to believe.
Dearest Lord God, God, it's amazing that you would consider us. God, in so many ways, we're way more impure than a sparrow. And yet, you love us so incredibly. God, as we take our communion together, God, please help us to believe, help us to remember, help us to trust you that you have got this covered. God, we pray that the bread and the wine that we take will not only remind us of who you are, but lift our hearts up to you and just fill us with a deep trust for the amazing sacrifice that you gave for us so that we can be free. We love you. We thank you. We pray your help with all the difficult questions. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Reading
Mark 8:14-18
I's a short reading and then it seems like a long walk. [Laughter] Anyway, as you know, it's Mark 8, 14 to 18. The yeast of the Pharisees and Herod.
The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. "Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod." They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread." Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see? And ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember?"
(Music)
Sermon
Don't You Remember?
Good morning. The kids took a lot longer handing out the cards than I thought they would. So that was a little bit more chaotic than I anticipated. This morning we are going to be in Mark 8 and I invite you to have a Bible in front of you for that. I'm using one of the pew Bibles. That is page 976.
The reading from this morning is a bit of a cliffhanger. And it's one of the harsher rebukes that Jesus lays on his disciples. We hear harsher things when he's talking to Pharisees at times where he says, "You're a brood of vipers," or something like that. But to the disciples, they don't often catch his ire. And in this, we can't tell from the tone, "Is he mad or is he just really disappointed?" Those of us who are parents know there's a mad and disappointed. There's a fine line between them. We can't tell if he's mad or just disappointed, but we can tell he's not thrilled. They have not wooed him with their spiritual prowess. We are going to zoom out for context. 
So I picked deliberately the harsh part for our reading, but zooming out for context, we're going to look at all of Mark 8. Mark 8 is a series of stories that sometimes we read as vignettes. We read this like this happened, and it's just a nice little package, and we have a colouring sheet for our kids in Sunday school, and we close the book and we move on. But Mark chapter 8, verse 1 through 21 happens in the space of probably one or two days. This is a very quick succession of events, and when we read it at that quick succession of events, not as this happened over years and years, but over Tuesday through Friday of a week, it's a different read. It's a very different read. 
So starting in Mark 8, Mark chapter 8, verse 1. This is called the feeding of the 4,000. It's a familiar story, and I'm not going to reread the whole story. We watched a video of the feeding of the 5,000, which happens two chapters earlier, and then we have the slightly less famous feeding of the 4,000 that happens here. Jesus is with his disciples. They're in the wilderness. He is preaching to a group of people. 4,000 men plus women and children are following him, and they have no food. He says, "We have no food. What are we going to do?" The disciples say, "What are we going to do?" He says, "How much bread do we have?" They say, "Seven loaves." He prays over it. He breaks it. He passes it out. Then the disciples gather up leftovers. So we have this event happen, and if we were a Sunday school class, we would just stop there. In fact, if we were a Sunday school class, we would probably not read it at all. We would read the feeding of the 5,000, because it's 20 percent more impressive than the feeding of the 4,000. And it has a little boy with a lunch to be our little hero, so that's the one we tend to do in Sunday school, and the feeding of the 4,000 gets a little bit forgotten. But the disciples also a little bit forgot the feeding of the 4,000. So we have this event, and where we go from here is...
Jesus gets into a boat with his disciples, so picking up in verse 11. "The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, "Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth. No sign will be given to it." Then he left them and got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. Looking at this with 2024 eyes, "No sign will be given?" Really? There were miracles. There was raising of the dead. There was calming of storms. No sign is being given to this generation. What the Pharisees were asking for here was a sign like Elijah had of fire coming down from the sky. They were asking for a celestial sign that Jesus was who he said he was. He has this moment with them. He's frustrated with the Pharisees. This is not a new thing for Jesus and the Pharisees. They're kind of at odds all the way through. He gets back into his boat and leaves. We've had this feeding of 4,000, got on a boat, got frustrated with Pharisees, got back on the boat. It's back on the boat where we have the vignette that we had as part of our reading.
Picking up in verse 14, "The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf. They had with them on the boat. Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They discussed this with one another and said, "It's because we have no bread." This is classic, "The disciples not getting it." This is a classic, "We don't understand what's going on" moment. I have brought some object lessons. Just a second.
If you asked me 10 years ago, "What is yeast?" I would have said, "This is yeast." This is probably a familiar look of yeast for you. Are we all familiar with this type of yeast? It's kind of a dehydrated, grainy thing. You put it into bread. This is manufactured. This is something that is manufactured and purified and made in a factory and it is like this. This is not what yeast would have been like when he was talking. The yeast of the time, people made bread much like we make sourdough today. Is anybody a sourdough maker? I'm getting one nod. This is my sourdough starter and I've opened it and now it's leaving cruft all over up here. How sourdough starter is made? You start by putting flour and water into an open container in your kitchen and you just kind of leave it there. Each day you pour some out and you feed it flour and water. You pour some out the next day. Feed it flour and water. Pour it out. Feed it. Pour it out. Feed it. Until you have a fermented batch. You can smell mine later. I don't know if Glynnis can smell mine from where she's sitting. It has a smell to it. How does it get that? What happens is the yeast that is just in the air in your kitchen, yes you have yeast in the air in your kitchen, finds it and colonizes it and starts to eat there and starts to live there and starts to reproduce there. That yeast, this yeast in here is the same as this yeast in here. It's just this is naturally coming from the air in your kitchen and this is hyper refined so you don't have to wait as long. When you are baking with this yeast, you feed it every day and in this time they would have been baking bread every day. So you feed it and what you pour off of it, you pour into a batch, mix more flour in with it. You let it rise. You bake it. That is your bread for the day.
So when Jesus is saying beware the yeast of the Pharisees, I want you to think about what are you feeding every day? What in your life are you feeding every day? What lives in the heart of your home? If something is living in the heart of your home and picking up things from the air around you, what is it picking up? What words is it picking up? What attitudes is it picking up? What feelings is it picking up from the air? And what are you feeding? This is the type of yeast that Jesus was talking about. The type that you are feeding in your home, that you invite, that you are interacting with every single day. This is the yeast. Not this. This is the yeast. And he is saying beware the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. What would that be? That would be a lot of pride. That would be a lot of power hunger. That would be a lot of greed. That would be a lot of maybe negative attitude or questioning or skepticism. He is saying beware of those things. Beware of feeding those attitudes. Beware of having those open in your homes. I'm going to close this off so I don't accidentally tip it over.
Picking up in verse 17. Mark. Seven loaves for the four thousand. How many baskets full of pieces did I pick up? They answered seven. And he said to them, do you still not understand? In 2020, our school studied Mark as a school. We followed 2020. We had no idea if we were going to be in person or online or hybrid or who would be there or who would not or how often we would have teachers who needed to quarantine for 14 days. So to simplify our Bible program, we as a school studied Mark and we studied it all at the same pace so that we could come into each other's classrooms if needed and cover that. As part of preparing for that, the staff did this section as a small study in our staff meetings in August. And one of the most powerful things that came out of this for me and has been a linchpin of my faith was somebody after we read this section, they said, when Jesus said, do you not remember? What he talked about was, do you not remember how much was left over? He didn't say, do you not remember I fed 5,000 people? Do you not remember I fed 4,000 people? But he said, do you not remember how much was left over? It wasn't about meeting basic needs. It was about that abundance of leftover. It was about how much was left over. Do you not remember that there was more than was needed? I didn't just meet the basic need. I went beyond the basic need. 
This became kind of a mantra for us as a staff. Through that fall, we had budgeted for 98 students and in that last week, we got 10 more applications. And each time an application came in, we said, do you not remember how much was left over? How many students were left over? As a church, Adam and I have had this as our mantra, we keep budgeting for deficits and we keep getting surpluses. Do you not remember how much was left over? I'm a teacher, not a preacher, so I'm going to give you homework. But I'm a good teacher, so I'm going to give you time in class. The students gave you a card and on the card, on one side, it is I remember. And I want you to take time to think about your own life and remember sometimes that there has been more, more than. More than. That your blessings from God have exceeded your expectations and write those down for yourself. So I'm going to give you a couple minutes to do that.
[Music]
I have a friend who calls what you are doing on the I Remember side as building your portfolio of faith. When you are encountering God, when you are encountering things and blessings in your life and you remember those blessings, you remember that God is faithful and that building of faithfulness builds your confidence in Him and builds your trust in Him so that you can wait in those future times when it doesn't seem like God is there. Because sometimes it's a really long game. I witnessed a conversation in this room a number of years ago between two mothers. One who's, and they were talking about praying for their children. And one of the mothers said, "I have been praying for this for 60 years. For 60 years, I have prayed for this and it has finally come to pass." And the other mother said, "Well, that gives me hope because I've only been praying for my son for 30 years. And if all I have to do is pray for 30 more years, I can do that. We need to hear those stories. We need to tell those stories because that is how long this game is."
When I was overhearing that, I think I was eavesdropping, I was probably a 32 year old woman. I had not prayed for anything for 30 years, much less 60 years. But to hear that that is the length of time that God's faithfulness takes, sometimes we need to take a deep look at our I Remember side to have confidence that we are going to move forward in God's promises. 
So the back side of your card is, "So I wait." What are you waiting on God for right now? And take a minute and think about that and put it on your page. What are you waiting on God? 
[Music]
I'm going to lead you through a guided prayer process of your card. So we're going to start on the I Remember side. God, I remember. Now flipping your card, "So I trust you while I wait for." Amen.
[Music]
Closing
Well, when Glynnis came up and did her talk around the table, she mentioned a verse in Mark chapter 8. So I turned there. You read a little bit. I continued on. I didn't know what the sermon was going to be about. It wasn't on the sheet that I received before the service. But I thought when she read that, I read the context and yes, I saw the video. So I figured there might be a connection. But I thought I'm going to mention something from Mark chapter 8 when I conclude and then lo and behold the sermon. So I guess there was a connection. 
But what struck me when I read this was the fact that yes, the miracle was right there. They experienced it. They were part of it. They witnessed it. And yet they didn't get it. And maybe in our daily lives, the miracles are all around us. Do you have eyes to see, ears to hear? We all do. And so as we go this week from here, are we watching? Are we listening for God's miracles? Do you internalize? You also mentioned, Glynnis, the Spirit spoke to you about what may be to say. Is there internal radar, the Spirit of God? Do we rely on these sensory experiences, these spiritual experiences, as we interact with others?
See, I used to tell my students, I see God when I drive over a bridge. Think about the engineering that took place to create that. The intellect, the God-given gifts of abilities and science, mathematics. When I go to a symphony or a Broadway play, I see talent, unbelievable. When I'm in nature, I see the beauty around me. When I travel, so the reality is, the message is clear. It's all around us. It's amongst us, the people we interact with, our families. God's stimuli is bombarding us at all times as a reminder of who He is, how good He is, and what He wants for us in our lives. So we thank you for the messages, Amy, Glynnis, and we pray that you will go with God this week. Let's pray.
Our Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your interest in each person here. We thank you for the gift you have given each person here in the sending of your Son. We pray that you will help us this week to live for you and to be watchful and mindful of your presence as we go from this place. In Jesus' name, amen.
Contact & Copyright
Thanks for watching or listening. The Beamsville Church of Christ meets at 4900 John Street, Beamsville, Ontario. Scripture quotations marked NIV, taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved worldwide. You can learn more about the congregation on our Facebook page or at beamsvillechurchofchrist.ca