This weekend, Tower View Baptist Church will celebrate 60 years of God’s faithfulness. We will welcome old members to join us with new members as we thank the Lord for his provision in a service together and a special lunch.
As I (Darin) have considered this weekend, it is a great reminder that many congregations do not make a big deal about church anniversaries, others ignore them outright. A church anniversary observance is often dismissed as another annual day, steeped in church tradition, and not Christian mission.
I beg to differ.
Sadly, statisticians report that some 4,000 churches in America close each year. Every week, multiple congregations – for one reason or another – meet for the last time.
As seeing another birthday is not to be assumed or taken for granted, so it is with church anniversaries. Every year a church lives is another expression of the goodness, power, and faithfulness of God.
Over the years, many began to write Tower View’s obituary. Yet, the Lord has sustained Tower View through the ups and downs of culture, church life, and living in this world. Praise God that TVBC is no longer identified by its past challenges. The Lord has given this old church a new reputation in the same city!
The Lord deserves the highest praise, full credit, and total praise for all that he has done. We dare not take credit for anything. To God alone be all the glory.
God’s people need such signs to remind them of God’s mighty acts of salvation, and though today we cannot look on the memorial stones Joshua set up to remember God’s faithfulness (Joshua 3-4), God has given us two signs to bring His salvation to mind. When we celebrate baptism and the Lord’s Supper, we are to remember God’s great acts of salvation in Christ and to proclaim to our children and to others what He has done.
Matthew Henry has said, “God’s mercies to our ancestors were mercies to us; and we should take all occasions to revive the remembrance of the great things God did for our fathers in the days of old.”
So, today, I just did a personal survey of the Word about what *else* we are called to remember in the Scripture. This is not exhaustive, but, as we reflect on and remember the Lord’s work amongst us, may it encourage you to “keep on keepin’ on” by his grace and Spirit until kingdom come or he calls us home.
27 Truths to God Calls us to Remember
1. To be reconciled to our brothers and sisters in Christ (Matthew 5:23-24).
2. To recall the work of the Lord in his provision (Exo. 13:3; Matthew 16:9).
3. The very prophecies of our Lord, especially in relation to the Gospel (Matthew 27:63).
4. There will be a remembrance of those in hell about how they lived and rejected Christ (Luke 16:25).
5. Always consider the first importance of the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4).
6. To “remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32) – that is, to realize that holding on to the old life apart from God’s promises OR assuming we are spiritually okay because we have family (in her case – Abraham and Lot) that faithfully follows God.
7. We can expect the same treatment (persecution) Jesus experienced as he live out his Father’s will on earth (John 15:20).
8. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
9. The biblical traditions that have been extended to us in Christ (1 Cor. 11:2).
10. We were once alienated from Christ and dead in our sin (Eph. 2:11-12).
11. Those in prison for the Gospel (Col. 4:18; Heb. 13:3).
12. Each other in our prayers and the joy of fellowship that comes from being with other Christians (2 Tim. 1:3-4; Philemon 4).
13. That Jesus Christ is risen from the dead (2 Tim. 2:8).
14. Leaders who speak and teach the Word of God (Heb. 13:7).
15. The hard times that come from those who oppose the God, his people, and his word—as told us time again and again by the prophets, apostles, and the Lord himself (2 Peter 3:2-3; Jude 17).
16. How far we have fallen (Rev. 2:5)!
17. The Lord’s body and blood given for us in the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:17-30).
18. What we have been taught in the Lord (Rev. 3:3)!
19. The difficulty of the walking with endurance in our Christian life (Heb. 10:32).
20. The Lord’s day and keep it holy (Exo. 20:8).
21. How God continually leads us faithfully for his glory and our good (Deut. 8:2).
22. How easy it is to forget the Lord (Judges 8:34; 1 Chron. 16:12)!
23. God can deal with our enemies (Neh. 6:14).
24. The blessing of worshipping with other believers (Psalm 42:4).
25. The joy the comes from knowing the Lord and pondering who he is (Psalm 63:6).
26. How short this life really is (Psalm 89:47)!
27. The wondrous works he has done (Psalm 105:5).
