PLAYS OF MY LIFE

PLAYS OF MY LIFE

MEMORIAL WEEKEND SUNDAY

May 26, 2019

CONNECT I have always loved sports. If I wasn’t playing something, I was watching something. Our next-door neighbor came into the house one day and said every time she saw me, I was watching sports on TV. Then ESPN came on the air. Wow, 24-hour sports, a couch potato's dream come true! One of the things I enjoy the most is “Plays of the Week”! These are ten of the greatest plays from all the sports of the past week. They also have the “Worst Plays of the Week”. They are mostly hilarious.

TENSION All of us have a “Plays of My Life” list. I’m not talking about sports, but the events that have shaped our life. Some of the events are good memories; others are painful. Either way, they are memorialized in our hearts and minds.

ILLUSTRATION Roll-o-dex...

SOLUTION On Memorial Weekend Sunday, I always like to address some aspect of what a memorial means.  Today we want to examine what your “Plays of My Life” look like. What are the memorials you remember and how do they impact you?

TEXT  1 Corinthians 5:8 (NKJV) Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  PRAYER

INSTRUCTION As you read the Bible, you come across the word 'memorial' many times. God said His name is a memorial.  The onyx stones on the shoulders and breastplate of the high priest are said to be memorials of the tribes of Israel when he goes into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle.  Joshua took stones from the middle of the Jordan River as a memorial of their passage across the river on dry land.  The burning of the sacrifices on the altar are a memorial to God.  Jesus said the woman who washed His feet and anointed His head with a costly ointment will be remembered as a memorial wherever the Gospel is preached.  The prayers of Cornelius in Acts 10 came up as a memorial to God and God sent Peter to tell Him the Good News of Jesus.

The Lord's Supper is a memorial.   W. A. Criswell, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, once wrote that the Lord’s Supper is, first of all, a memorial to the atoning death of our Savior. He said, “There is many kinds of memorials on the earth. If you have ever been to Washington, D. C., you have seen there the tall, monolithic marble monument to the Father of our country—the Washington Monument. In Egypt, you can see many towering obelisks. Sometimes a monument will take the form of a mausoleum. In India, you will see the most beautiful mausoleum in the world—the Taj Mahal—built by Shah Jahan in memory of a beloved wife.

“But our Lord did not create a monument out of marble to bring to us the memory of our Savior’s suffering in our behalf. In fact, this memorial is not in the form of any kind of structure. He did it in a primeval, fundamental, and basic way—by eating and drinking—and this simple memorial is to be repeated again and again and again. The broken bread recalls for us His torn body, and the crimson of the cup reminds us of the blood poured out upon the earth for the remission of sins.”

Israel’s history is filled with strategic events.  Some of these are celebrated annually in a series of memorials. They called them feasts or festivals. They mark landmarks and turning points in their journey as the people of God.  God wanted Israel to mar these events and remember them so that the moves of God in their lives would not be forgotten! 

There are seven of these feasts or festivals or memorials on the Hebrew calendar: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles.  Leviticus 23 gives an overview of the festivals.  Three are known as major feasts where all the males of Israel were required to pilgrimage to Jerusalem to memorialize and celebrate.  Let's look at those in more detail.

The first one is Passover.  If you have seen the movie "The Commandments" or the animated "Prince of Egypt", you know the story of Passover.  The children of Israel were in captivity on Egypt.  God sent Moses to command Pharaoh to let the people go.  Pharaoh refused, so God sent ten plagues to soften his heart.  The last plague was the death of every 'first born', whether person and animal, in each house.  God told Moses to have the Hebrews to kill a lamb and take its blood and apply it to the doorpost and lintel of their houses.  When the 'death angel' came, he would 'pass over' the houses where he saw the blood of the Lamb.  I could preach for an hour right here!  but I won't.  Passover is the memorial of this event.  Jesus was crucified during Passover.  He became the Lamb slain for all eternity.  Death passes over us when we are covered by his blood by salvation.  When we accept His gift of salvation we are passed out of death into life.

The second major feast is Pentecost.  It came fifty days after Passover, hence Pentecost, from the Greek word 'pente', fifty.  It is a celebration of the harvest, often called the Feast of Harvest or Weeks.  Many others were invited to this feast, not just Jews.  They include servants, sons and daughters, Levites, the fatherless, the widow, and the stranger.  It was at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon every tongue, tribe, kindred, and nation.  The harvest that was the reward of the Lamb had begun!

The third is the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.  It refers to the wandering of Israel in the Wilderness and dwelling in portable shelters or booths.  It is a memorial to the provision of God in times of wandering and struggle.  The coming of Jesus to the earth speaks of His dwelling among us in the form of a man.  In fact, John uses the word 'tabernacle' to describe Jesus coming in the flesh.  It is also a celebration of the final harvest or ingathering.  This symbolizes the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to dwell upon the earth again as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Our text commands us as Christians to 'keep the feasts".   What does this mean?  We are not required to eat roasted lamb and unleavened bread at Easter.  We are not required to gather fifty days after Easter and celebrate His goodness.  We are not required to live in tents and lean-tos for a week every year to commemorate our wilderness journeys.  What God wants us to do is to celebrate the acts of God in our lives!

What has God done for you?  What's your story?  What things do you want to celebrate or memorialize that mark God's workings in your life?  Let 's use what we have already talked about to guide our personal feasts.

1.  What is your Passover story?  When and how did Jesus come and deliver you from the death sentence that your sin condemns you to?  Do you celebrate it?  Do you share it with others?  Do your kids know your story?  Do you have stories of God's deliverance from the power of sin and addiction?  Can you talk about God's continuing cleansing power in your life? 

1 John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2.  What is your Pentecost story?  Where has God's power been evident in your life?  What miracles or blessings do you celebrate?  Where has the Holy Spirit impacted you and your family?  Do you have stories of sharing the Gospel and seeing others changed? 

Acts 1:8 (NKJV) But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

3.  What is your Tabernacle story?  Do you have stories of God walking with you in tough times?  Has He been faithful even when you have not been faithful?  Do you have stories where if God didn't come through, you were toast?   

2 Corinthians 9:8 (NKJV) And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

Brothers and sisters, all the children of Israel experienced Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.  They are not just for the special ones, but for everyone!  You can have a Passover story, a Pentecost story, and a Tabernacle story.  If you do not have anything to celebrate, start today with your own personal Passover.  Jesus' blood is ready and available to cleanse you from all sin, right now, today! 

2 Corinthians 6:2 (NKJV) For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

If you are already a Jesus follower, today have your own personal Pentecost.  You can be filled with the Holy Spirit!

Acts 2:4 (NKJV) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 If you have a need this morning, God can give you your own personal Tabernacle story.  He will meet you at your point of need; He wants to meet you at the point of your need.

Philippians 4:19 (NKJV) And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

INVITATION Communion