Memorial Day 2020

Sermon Memorial Day 2020

- Tomorrow we celebrate Memorial Day. It is a day that we look back at all that have

fallen in past wars.

- It’s seems our war with Iraq has become as distant as our civil war. As we are

currently fighting such a war as this virus today.

- So many have died on the frontlines, & yet it still doesn’t take away from what

this day stands for.

- Many are alive, many are free, because of the people who are willing to risk, &

even lay down, their lives for others.

- Now think of our faith.

Q- How many lives have been lost for the sake of the gospel?

- Today, I want to give yo an example.

- John The revelator was captured in Ephesus, & was to be martyred for his faith.

Q- Do you know how he was to be martyred?

- He was thrown into a boiling basin of oil!

- He survived being boiled!!!

- He later was sentenced to the island of Patmos. Probably to work as a slave

in the mines.

Q- Why do you think he was miraculously spared?

- God had a vision for His beloved disciple.

- In Revelation 1:18-19 sums up God’s Word for John.

Revelation 1:18-19

18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

- The message that John was given, was one that confirmed the Joy of our salvation,

but it also confirmed the terrible truth that judgement must come upon mankind.

- John was the vessel God used to awaken us to this great truth.

- Think of the lives that are changed by the people who are willing to set

themselves aside for another.

Q- Do you think John ever thought he would be thrown into a basin of boiling oil, much

less survive it?

- I know that sounds contrary to us now, but this was common in John’s time.

- Think of what is happening today.

- A Church was burned to the ground, because they violated the stay at home

order.

- I disagree with violating the order, for the sake of keeping everyone safe.

Q- Here’s the question though. Because 40 of these people assembled for

church study, & Easter, you burn their church down?

- The arsonist also graffitied on the parking lot, “bet you stay home now

you hypokrites”

Q- If There’s something going against our faith, could we stand up against it?

Q- Can we be that type of person, like John was?

- Before we pray, let’s think of the fallen soldiers.

Q- How many of them do you think were the die hard Mavericks?

Q- Now, How many of them took a bullet, or blast, because they saw it was going to

hurt someone else?

- We may see ourselves as the shy, sheepish, people, but in the day God has

called to use us. Well, He will use us.

Prayer

- A soldier enlists, many times, because he sees the greater good he can do.

- Listen as Jesus calls out the roll, & the requirements to serve.

John 15:13-17

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Q- Did you catch the last verse, Love one another?

- This is what drove the Apostles to die for others, Listen.

- John was boiled!

- Paul, James, & John the Baptist were beheaded!

- Matthew was killed by a sword wound!

- James, Jesus’ brother, (not an apostle) was thrown from the southeast pinnacle of

the temple. That’s over a hundred feet! He survived & was beaten to death with

clubs!

- James The Son of Zebedee, put to death by king Agrippa I.

- Jude was martyred in Armenia.

- Bartholomew (Nathanael) was flayed to death with a whip.

- Peter was crucified upside down.

- Andrew was crucified on an X shaped Cross