LET US REMEMBER
SERMON STARTER
Two things that happen as you grow older: 1) You get forgetful, and. . .2) I forget the second thing! Our memories occasionally need stirring because we are forgetful. We forget national history, state history and sometimes even our own personal history. Those who forget the past and it's lessons are doomed to repeat it.
In the early days of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a dilapidated log home had to be abandoned because a new lake was going to flood the area. A new home had already been built on the hillside above the new shoreline for the poor Appalachian family. But they refused to move into the new home.
When the bulldozers arrived to level the shack, the family brought out the squirrel guns. They said they weren’t moving. Then someone from the TVA called in a social worker to talk with the family and find out what the problem was.
“We ain’t going nowhere,” the family said to the social worker. “And nobody can make us.”
The social worker was patient and asked,
“Help me understand why you won’t move?”
“See that fire over there?” the man of the house asked, pointing to the fireplace.
“My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago. He never let it go out. He had no matches and it was a long way to the neighbors. Then my Pa tended the fire, and since he died, I’ve tended it. None of us ever let it die, and I ain’t a-gonna to move away and let Grandpa’s fire go out!”
The social worker thought for a moment and then suggested that maybe they could scoop up the live coals from the fireplace and carry them to the new house. In this way, Grandpa’s fire need never go out. The family talked about the idea and then agreed to move from their shack to the new house on the hillside. But they weren’t going to budge until they could take with them the fire of their ancestors.
That family had a sense of history. They were very deliberate about remembering their ancestors.
God calls us as a church to remember too. Our text today from the book of Hebrews speaks to this,
“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily tangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us”
Memorial Day is a day unlike any other. Since 1868 we have come together in our communities, towns and villages, to place flowers and flags on the graves of those who have given their last full measure of devotion to our country. We have come here to remember and honor those who have done their duty, as God allowed them to see that duty.
Pastor Phil <><<
Memorial Day weekend - May 26, 2013
Pastor Phil Roland - Sheepfold Ministries
LET US REMEMBER
Deuteronomy 11:18-20 - Hebrews 12:1-2
MEMORIAL - Any physical object that jolts the memory, and thus serves as a reminder of the past. Memorial Day is a day of remembering those who have laid down their lives for our freedom. Pastor Phil Roland
MEMORIAL DAY - A day of remembrance of those living and dead, who have sacrificed and denied themselves that we might enjoy the fruits of peace and freedom.
Hebrews 11:1
"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,"
"Remember" appears 917 Times in the 66 Books of the Bible
Let Us Remember:
I. MEMORIAL DAY IS OUR ANNUAL DAY OF MEMORY
A. Words - We remember Service men and women with Words
1. Eloquent Speeches honoring Heroism and Courage
2. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in November of 1863
3. Orator Edward Everett Hunt gave a 2-Hour Oratory before Lincoln
4. Lincoln's Eulogy of the Fallen Dead was just 10 sentences
5. Only Lincoln's short oratory is remembered
B. Rituals - We use Sacred Acts that symbolize Devotion and Love
1. We visit Graves with Flowers and Flags
2. We hold Ceremonies and Services
3. We meet with Family and Friends
C. Tomorrow we remember the Sacrifices of those who Serve(d)
1. More than One Million men/women have served and died
2. Seven Great Wars since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776
a. Revolutionary War
b. Civil War
c. World War I
d. World War II
e. Viet Nam
f. Persian Gulf - Iraq's invasion of Kuwait
g. The current Persian Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
D. The Voluntary Sacrifice of Service People putting themselves in
"Harm's Way" is Inspiring
1. Our Fallen Heroes gave the Ultimate Sacrifice - John 15:13
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
LET US REMEMBER, cont. p.2
Let Us Remember:
II. WHAT OUR HONORED SERVICE DEAD DIED FOR
A. Outlined in the Declaration of Independence in 1776
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--"
1. Basic Human Rights: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
2. Justice and the Rule of Law
a. Mosaic Law is foundational in US history
b. Pre-Dates Islam and Sharia Law more than 2M Years
3. Right to worship as you choose
a. American pastor Saeed Abedini in Iran Jail 8 years
b. His crime? Loving and Serving Jesus
c. Your Christian testimony can get you killed in Islam
B. Three Types of Freedom in our Country
1. National Freedom
a. Independence of a Political State
b. Feedom from occupation or other foreign control.
2. Individual Freedom
a. Freedom to Do and Say what you will
b. Freedom of Speech, Assembly, Religion
c. Freedom to Choose Where you live
d. Feedom to Choose what Job you do or don’t do
e. Freedom to make money and spend it as you please
3. Political Freedom
a. The right of citizens of a political state to participate in government (through voting or acting as a representative)
b. The Right to have a Fair Trial
c. Presumed Innocent until proven guilty
Let Us Remember:
III. THE BIBLE'S MANY MEMORIALS - Deuteronomy 11:18-20
18 "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,"
A. The Bible Itself - The Word of God - Psalm 119: 105
"Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path."
1. His Word is a Living Memorial - Hebrews 4:12
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit,
and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart."
LET US REMEMBER, cont. p.3
2. God's Word Memorial is Life to us - 2 Timothy 3:16-17
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly
equipped for every good work."
B. A Name - God’s Divine Name - Ex. 3:13-15
"Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel
and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they
say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"
14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall
say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' " 15 Moreover God
said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My
memorial to all generations.'"
C. The Sabbath Memorial Day of Rest, - Ex. 20:8-10
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall
labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of
the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son,
nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant,
nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates."
D. The Memorial of Christian Baptism - Romans 6:4
"Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of life."
E. The Memorial of the Lord's Table - 1 Cor. 11:24-25
"And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My
body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup
is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in
remembrance of Me."
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
The most beautiful eulogy ever written or given, honoring the dead, both North and South in the most important battle of the Civil War
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
*There were an estimated 46M to 51M casualties in both the North and the South in that battle.
Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863
END WITH:
A SOLDIER'S PLEDGE, Pres. Ronald Reagan
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BUGLER: "T A P S"
LET US REMEMBER, TEXT:
Deuteronomy 11:18-20 (NKJV)
18 "Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
 
  
Nehemiah 4:13-14 (NKJV)
13 Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings; and I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
14 And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses."
(Neh 4:14) And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible…
A. Remember Him With Our Time.
B. Remember Him With Our Talent.
C. Remember Him With Our Treasure.
D. Remember Him In Our Thoughts.
E. Remember Him In Our Tasks.
Let’s not forget these things that are so important.
Remember His Dying Love. “Father, forgive them.”
Remember His Comforting Call. “Come unto me.”
Remember His Charge. “Go ye into all the world and preach.”
Remember His Commandments. “If ye love me keep my commandments.”
Judges 2:10 (NKJV)
10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.
(Judg 2:10) And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
Hebrews 11:32-40 (NKJV)
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35 Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented--
38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-- |
