Remembering Forward

Why does looking back at the good old days leave me feeling like the best is already behind me?

Nostalgia can quietly convince a person that the high point has passed and everything now is a step down. The psalmist keeps dragging the congregation back to God's deeds so they will expect more of them, not less. The friend with grown children does not want to go back; he wants to see who they become.

…which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.

Psalms 78:3–4

“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:18–19

Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13–14

I am carrying a lot of uncertainty right now. How do I know God is still in this with me?

Hannah stood in the temple with grief so thick she could not make a sound, and the text says God remembered her. The disciples in a swamped boat woke a sleeping Jesus and accused him of not caring. The sermon holds both of them up as proof that God is not absent from the middle of the storm.

As she continued praying before Yahweh, Eli saw her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.

1 Samuel 1:12–13

A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?” He awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was a great calm.

Mark 4:37–39

How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?

Psalms 13:1–2

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38–39

What does it even look like to take the next faithful step when I cannot see where it leads?

The sermon's founders kept asking one question at every turning point: what is the next most faithful step? The breakdancer does not know the song in advance; he listens to the beat and moves in the moment. Isaiah spoke to exiles standing in rubble who could not picture a future, and God told them a way was already being cut.

Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The animals of the field, the jackals and the ostriches, shall honor me, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.

Isaiah 43:19–21

Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

James 2:17

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Hebrews 11:8–10

Who are the people whose faithfulness got me here, and how do I honor them?

The pastor says you are sitting where you are because of prayers someone prayed before you were born. Inner Bay Covenant spent over fifty years building something and then gave it away so a younger church could keep growing. The woman at the tomb came carrying grief and found the stone already moved.

I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.

Psalms 37:25

…having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, in you also.

2 Timothy 1:5

Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1–2

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body.

Luke 24:1–3