The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, a younger preacher, about the work of the ministry. He wrote that a good preacher reminds Christians of what they already know, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained” (1 Tim. 4:6). Much of the work of teaching and preaching is not introducing ideas that are new—that people don’t already know. Often preaching involves reminding people of what they have already been taught so that they continue to make application in their own lives. We can make mistakes in life because we neglect to keep the right priorities. We need to be challenged to continue to pursue the task of living out the principles of God’s word. Certainly, each time we come to the Bible, we have a fresh perspective that causes us to see something in a familiar text we hadn’t before seen that makes us think. However, preaching should not only make people think more deeply, but also should move people to act with reminders to live out what they already know about the Christian life.

In his second epistle, the apostle Peter gave his readers the challenge to add to their faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Pet. 1:5-7). Christians are to give diligence to abounding in these characteristics instead of blindly forgetting that they have been cleansed of their former sins (2 Peter 1:8-10). While Peter was still alive, he was committed to reminding them of these things: “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance” (2 Pet. 1:12-13). Peter wanted to always remember these things, even after his death (2 Pet. 1:15). This was the reason he gave for writing his letters, stating, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour” (2 Pet. 3:1-2).

What is said from the pulpit might well be a portion of the Scriptures with which you are already familiar. But all of us need to be reminded. All of us must ask ourselves if we are living it out and in what ways we can improve.

Clearly, a baby in the womb is a human being (Psalm 139:14-15; Jeremiah 1:5; Hosea 9:11-12). God acknowledges many times in His word that a child in the womb is just as much a person as one outside the womb (Luke 1:41, 44; 2:12, 16). He hates the shedding of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:17). Government functions to stop evildoers (Romans 13:1-4). When more powerful individuals murder the helpless, government’s role is to put a stop to it and enact justice (Genesis 9:6; 1 Peter 2:14).

However, establishing that abortion takes the life of a human being is not enough to stop some from promoting it. We are at a point in our culture where some can brazenly admit that a child in the womb is a human being, and still assert they have a right to terminate that life. Each one of us is here today because we survived in the womb and were nourished to the point where we could care for ourselves. This is self-evident, regardless of one’s religious beliefs. What do fairness and decency demand? A civilization cannot view human life as disposable and continue to flourish. 

God is the ontological basis for morals that uphold the sanctity of life. That foundation has been eroded for generations in the minds of a tremendously vocal portion of our nation. When one believes in God as Creator, then fair treatment of others made in His image logically follows, as Job asked, “Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?” (Job 31:15).

A nation is in trouble when it becomes bent on fulfilling lusts to the disregard of harming others. Romans 1:18-32 describes such a moral decline where instead of glorifying God, people unthankfully pursue their own evil desires while viewing themselves as wise and enlightened. A nation of people can become, “filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Romans 1:29-31). Wouldn’t this be a fitting description of some today? Herod was willing to slaughter babies when they posed a perceived threat to his agenda (Matthew 2:16-18), but he did not prevent Christ from reigning (1 Timothy 6:15; 1 Corinthians 15:25). Abortion does not fix any of the ills of a nation, it only adds bloodshed (Hosea 4:1-2). God destroyed nations in Canaan because sexual promiscuity and perversion became endemic to these peoples (Leviticus 18). Bloodshed and sexual promiscuity cause nations to fall.

We have a choice today. We can choose to enjoy the sexual relationship only within the committed covenant of marriage where children are given the stability of a mother and father (Genesis 2:24). If some other path than that has been taken, we can choose not to extinguish the life and potential of a baby conceived out of wedlock, but instead give the child a chance to overcome whatever obstacles are before them. We can choose to come to Jesus for forgiveness for whatever we have done, for He died for the worst sinner (1 Timothy 1:15).

God raised up Cyrus, king of Persia, to fulfill the promises and prophecies He had made concerning the return of the Jews from captivity. Through Jeremiah, God had said that the land of Judah would be desolated because of her sins; her people would be led away to serve Babylon for seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11-12). God also said that after the seventy years of captivity, He would bring His people back (Jeremiah 29:10). The book of Ezra begins with these words:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:1-3.)

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah give the account of this return from captivity and the building efforts in Jerusalem. The construction of the temple, the house of God (Ezra 3:1-6:22), was integral to restoring Old Testament worship.

In the New Testament, God’s temple is no longer a physical edifice, but rather His people. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, saying, “ye are God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). The apostle went on to describe how his work was to lay the foundation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). God’s laborers would build on that foundation by converting people to Christ; some people would be more resilient building materials than others by the way in which they endured fiery trials (1 Corinthians 3:12-15; cf. Ephesians 6:13; 1 Peter 4:12).

As God’s people in Ezra’s time were to go and build God’s house, Christians today are to build up the church. God regards His people, His temple, as precious. Paul went on to write, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

We sing a song with the kids which says, “We’re building up the temple of the Lord.” As God’s building, God’s edifice, we are to edify one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 4:12, 16, 29; 1 Thessalonians 5:11). Instead of tearing down and defiling God’s temple, let’s build each other up and pursue holiness. O, Brother, won’t you help us? O, Sister, won’t you help us?

Beginning in Joshua 23, the Bible records Joshua’s speech to Israel before his death. His final message is a charge to faithfulness as Israel renewed their commitment to their covenant with God. This final message includes his famous last words—perhaps the most memorable words in all the book of Joshua—found in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Israel had a choice. They could follow idolatrous tradition of pursuing the gods of their ancestors. They could soak up the culture around them and follow the ways of the Amorites in the land of Canaan. Or they could follow the one true God: Jehovah (Yahweh). Joshua highlighted the crossroads at which Israel found themselves. He impressed upon Israel their need to make a commitment. Serving the Lord will only come from a convicted exercise of their will.

Joshua made his choice clear that his household would serve Yahweh. He was going to practice the command of Deuteronomy 6:4-7. He would love God in his own life with all his heart. In loving God, he would diligently teach God’s commands to his children throughout each day. Christian fathers today have the command to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord instead of provoking them to wrath (Ephesians 6:4). To do this takes time and involvement. One cannot be an absentee father and please God. We need men like Cornelius, devout men who fear God with all their house (Acts 10:2). We are thankful for those fathers who strive with all their might to do just that.

After Joshua’s death, the Bible makes this sad note, “Another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord” (Judges 2:10). Israel went from obediently taking the land God had given them in the days of Joshua (Joshua 21:43-45) to failing to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan (Judges 1:21, 28, 32). The book of Judges shows how Israel had grown to be more and more like their neighbors because they did not drive them out from the land (cf. Psalm 106:34-43). Just as Joshua warned, these neighbors would be a continual temptation causing repeated spiritual problems for Israel, “Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you” (Joshua 23:13). The next generation was in a snare spiritually because they listened to the world around them rather than the faithful who had gone before them (Judges 2:3). While Joshua was committed to making sure his household served the Lord, the next generation did not maintain that commitment. They soaked up the values of the Amorites that surrounded them. Whom will you and your household serve?

Various worship songs with different melodies use for lyrics portions of Psalm 42:1-4, which reads:

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me,
“Where is your God?”
When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go with the multitude;
I went with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

These words express longing for God when He seems to be absent. The psalmist remembers past days when the whole community would go up to Jerusalem with joyful praise to celebrate one of the festivals Israel was commanded to keep (cf. Leviticus 23). The joy of former days stands in stark contrast to his present depression where the psalmist seems to be living on a diet of his own tears, harassed by his enemies. Instead of being in the temple in Jerusalem, the author of this psalm is far to the north of Israel in the heights of Hermon (Psalm 42:6). This great physical distance communicates the great spiritual distance he feels separates him from God.

In this low state, he speaks to his own soul, telling himself to hope in God (Psalm 42:5, 11). When you are low, remember to hope in God. God no longer dwells in a temple in Jerusalem, but in Christians, His church (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:19-22). When you long for God like a deer longs for water, remember the promises of Jesus, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38), and, “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). Jesus shed His blood to cleanse the sins that separate us from God. This brings a better hope than the psalmist knew under the law; by this better hope we can draw near to God (Hebrews 7:19). The most important thing for you to do today spiritually is to commune with God, to draw near to Him who gave His own Son to have fellowship with you (James 4:8).