Memorial Day 2024

Memorial Day 2024

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13. We will be there in just a couple of minutes. Romans chapter 13.

We live in a world with evil men. It is bad enough on the personal level, but it is devastating when evil men like Adolf Hitler, Tojo, or Vladimir Putin assume power and bring other evil men a policies onto the world stage.

Throughout history this evil was allowed to follow its course until there was capitulation. But that changed when the United States became a world power. It is in our history that we have said no to evil, that Americans have been willing to lay down our lives for the oppressed.

We set aside this weekend to honor the supreme sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.

Some may ask, “Gene, are we having a nationalistic observance today? I came to hear the gospel. I came to hear the Bible.

Well, let’s look at what the Bible says about such observances. Look there with me please at Romans chapter 13.

- Read Romans 13:1-7

Prayer

Verse 7 of our passage says, “Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor.”

Pay honor to those you owe honor. So, today we would like to take some time to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. First, to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of your nation.

I. Honoring Those Who Have Given Their Lives in Defense of Our Country

The practice of honoring a nation’s war dead goes back thousands of years. The Greeks, the Romans, and other ancient civilizations all did it.

The origins of Memorial Day in our country go back to the Civil War era. Toward the end of the war, Union prisoners were taken to POW camps in Charleston, South Carolina. These were brutal places, resulting in mass deaths. and the victims were buried in mass graves. A month after the war, former slaves, veterans of the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment and citizens of Charleston opened the mass graves and reburied the POWs properly.

General John Logan, leader of a Northern Civil War veterans group, k now as the Grand Army of the Republic, was inspired by this act and established Decoration Day. Eventually, the name was changed to Memorial Day and was made an official holiday in 1971.

We take time this weekend to remember the fallen soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines, and coast guardsmen from all US wars and conflicts. As of today, approximately 2,717, 991 men and women have died to protect our great nation. That does not include those who have come home scarred and have later lost their lives due to what happened on the battlefield.

It’s easy to get lost in the statistics but there are 2,717,991 stories and countless families and friends who experienced the loss of these patriots.

There is an oath sworn by every man and woman as they enter military service. They swear to defend our country against all enemies, foreign or domestic. To their dying breath, there is no expiration date. The people we honor here today gave full devotion to that oath.

- Prayer for military.

II. Honoring Those Who Have Given Their Lives in Defense of our Homes.

We honor those who have given their lives in defense of our country. We would also like to honor those who have given their lives in defense of our homes.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And He looked at all He created and He saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply.

The man was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have had a male child with the Lord’s help.” She also gave birth to his brother Abel.

One day, Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

In the course of 2 generations, you had your first crime and your first murder and it was a brother who killed his brother.

The population of mankind continued to increase and so did crime and evil. It continued its downward spiral until in Genesis 6,