Pre-Verse:

Deuteronomy 4:9 (NLT) — But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren.

Intro

• Introduce. Child of the 80s.
• Perfect music, perfect movies
• BTTF, Indy, Rambo, Rocky, GB, ET, JHughes
• Top Gun. KINDA excited for sequel.

Cruise Control

• Wow! Up with Edge/later Mission
• Only movie over a $1B so far in 2022.
• JW (1.6/1.3), Min (1.1), Buzz (1/1)
• Marvel!? Satchmo? D+? Spider! (< 2b)

Cultural Context

• Why succeed vs fail? First….
• Cultural moment; Cancel, erase past
• Streets, Buildings, monuments
• We even see it in film & television!

[[[ The Last Jedi – Kill the Past ]]]

[[[ Rings of Power – The Past is Dead ]]]

Kill the Past?

• Hans Christian Heg (NOR / WI / RGov)
• Two views (leave in place, museum)
• Acknowledge, not erase. Erasure bad
• 2 problems: Un-INformed and Un-REformed

Prayer

Uninformed

• The past is a progression
• “Standing on the shoulders of giants”
• The Fool, the Smart Man, the Wise Man
• Or this famous quote:

George Santayana; Professor of Philosophy, Harvard — Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

The Unvarnished Truth

• Triumph, defeat, victory, failure, atrocity, transcendence
• Everything is from past; good & bad
• Top Gun/Spider 😀 | Buzz/JW 🙁

History Matters

• we know history matters
  1. b/c history is HIS story
  1. b/c it reveals His design
  1. b/c it reveals our purpose

His Story

Genesis 1:1 (NLT) — In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Colossians 1:16 (NLT) — for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

His Design

Acts 17:24–28 (NLT) — He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Our Purpose

Psalm 78:3–8 (NLT) — stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them—even the children not yet born—and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. Then they will not be like their ancestors—stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.

Applied Day-To-Day

• Perspective: warning, direction, challenges
• Perseverance: A great cloud of witnesses
• Promise: God plan is not THIS life
• Pride: puffed-up; hubris; enlightned

UNREFORMED

• People try to sideline Maverick
• Reckon w/ past (Rooster, Penny)
• Same with Spider-Man: No Way Home
• We grow, learn, change. Not allowed anymore

Old Macdonald

• [[[ Macdonald statue in Montreal ]]]
• Confed of Canada, C2C2C, National Rail
• Drunk, bribe, residential school
• Erased for worst thing | Cancel Culture

The Reformation

• Culture requires purity, no grace
• This makes fear, not freedom
• U R NOT defined by the worst thing
• God grace for the humble & penitant

1 John 1:9 (NLT) — But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Colossians 2:13–14 — You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

Psalm 103:7–12 — He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

[[[ Lion King – Run From It or Learn From It ]]]

Close

• Like TG or Spider-Man eval past
• Not cynically like Jurassic
• Not re-write like Lightyear
• Look at the Bible

Joshua 4:1–7 (NLT) — When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe. Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.’”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”

Look to the Son

• Christian? Good work in you!
• Non-Christian? Wants good work!
• Both: His ways higher
• Both: Jesus @ Cross vs human depravity

Deuteronomy 4:9 (NLT) — But watch out! Be careful never to forget what you yourself have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren.