Sunday PM Sunday, September 21, 2025

September 21, 2025; Sunday Evening Worship

Service Outline & Sermon Notes

Service outline and sermon notes automatically generated from video content.

Order of Service

Sermon Title: Forgetting and Remembering — A Call to Recall the Gospel

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-22

I. We Are a Forgetful People

A. The theme of the evening service is forgetfulness and remembrance, moving through Scripture and song from our forgetfulness to the gospel call to remember

B. The historical psalms — Psalm 106 and Psalm 78 — chronicle Israel's repeated forgetfulness of God's mighty works

  1. Psalm 78:10-11: They forgot his works and the wonders he had shown them
  2. Psalm 78:32: In spite of his wonders, they did not believe
  3. This is our spiritual heritage — we are like them

C. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 calls God's people to set continual reminders of his grace and providence before their eyes — in the home, on the hand, between the eyes, on the gates

D. Deuteronomy 8:1-20 warns Israel on the cusp of the Promised Land: prosperity breeds forgetfulness

  1. "Take care lest you forget the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 8:11)
  2. "Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth'" (Deuteronomy 8:17)
  3. "You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18)

E. Illustration: In C. S. Lewis's The Silver Chair, Aslan tells Jill to repeat the signs over and over because she will have every reason to forget — and she does forget; so do we

II. God Is a Remembering God

A. Though we forget, God never forgets — he is faithful to his own word and covenant promises

B. Genesis 9:8-17: God establishes his covenant with Noah and all creation

  1. The rainbow is the sign of the covenant
  2. "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant" (Genesis 9:16)

C. Ezekiel 16:59-63: God speaks to a covenant-breaking people who deserve his wrath

  1. "Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant" (Ezekiel 16:60)
  2. God points forward to the day when he will atone for his people through Christ

D. Hebrews 10:15-17: The God who remembers his covenant declares that he will remember our sins no more

  1. God's faithfulness to himself results in the forgiveness of our sin
  2. Because he remembers his covenant, he no longer remembers our lawless deeds

III. The Gospel Calls Us to Remember

A. 2 Timothy 2:8: Paul's most basic charge — "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel"

  1. Even Timothy, a faithful minister, needed this reminder
  2. As Israel had to remember God's faithfulness in the wilderness, so we must remember what God has done in Christ

B. Ephesians 2:1-10: Remember what you have been saved from, how you have been saved, and what you have been saved unto

  1. Saved from: death in trespasses and sins, following the prince of the power of the air, being by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3)
  2. Saved by: the two greatest words in the gospel — "But God" (Ephesians 2:4); by grace through faith, the gift of God, not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9)
  3. Saved unto: good works which God prepared beforehand (Ephesians 2:10); union with Christ and all the riches that are ours in him

C. Ephesians 2:11-22: Remember that you have been saved into a new community — one people, Jew and Gentile together

  1. "Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12)
  2. The dividing wall of hostility has been broken down in Christ (Ephesians 2:14)
  3. The church is now the dwelling place of God by the Spirit, built on Christ as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20-22)
  4. Do not forget this — remember, remember, remember
Older Romans 8:28 Newer Sep 28, 2025