THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
(Thanks to K. Edward Skidmore, Robert Leroe, and John Shearheart for their contributions)
A. Tomorrow our nation will celebrate Memorial Day.
1. Many people see Memorial Day merely as a three-day WEEKEND.
COMMENT:
Memorial Day is much more than an EXTENDED WEEKEND, BARBEQUES, and the INDIANAPOLIS 500. It is a DAY set aside to remember those whom have given their LIVES for our COUNTRY and the FREEDOMS we ENJOY.
2. Memorial Day was originally a day set aside in REMEMBRANCE of the Civil War Dead, and was
extended to HONOR all the WAR DEAD.
ILLUSTRATION:
Columbus, Mississippi is the city in the South claiming to have started the HOLIDAY while Waterloo, New York is the northern city competing for the same honor. It traces its roots back to 1868 when General John Logan, of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared May 30th as a day of remembrance.
Flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The day was originally called “Decoration Day.” It is sometimes called “Poppy Day” because artificial red poppies, which were made by disabled veterans, are sold. The money is used to benefit servicemen in need. In December of 2000, Congress passed a resolution which asks all Americans “to voluntarily and informally observe a Moment of Remembrance and Respect,” at 3:00 local time.
3. Can anything be more IRONIC than our nation’s MILITARY?
ILLUSTRATION:
Think about it: They love America, so they spend long years in FOREIGN LANDS far from her shores. They revere FREEDOM, yet they sacrifice their OWN so that others may be FREE. They DEFEND their own right to live as INDIVIDUALS, yet SURRENDER their INDIVIDUALITY when they JOINED the ARMED FORCES. Perhaps, most paradoxically of all, they VALUE LIFE, yet so BRAVELY they ready themselves to DIE in the SERVICE of their COUNTRY.
B. Today we REMEMBER the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE of those whom have given their LIVES in BATTLE so that we can LIVE in FREEDOM.
ILLUSTRATION:
On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln stood on the battlefield at Gettysburg to dedicate a portion of that land as a national cemetery. The featured speaker of the day was Edward Everett, acclaimed as possibly the greatest classical orator of his time. A former United States senator, Governor of Massachusetts, and President of Harvard University, he spoke for more than two hours to an audience of over 25,000 people. His was a masterful address, broad in its scope and dramatic in its presentation.
Next was a musical interlude by the Baltimore Glee Club. And then, finally, President Lincoln was formally introduced, and the people settled back down in their chairs and on the grass to listen to him.
Lincoln spoke simply and clearly, and startled the people by the briefness of his remarks. After his opening sentences he said:
“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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot 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.”
COMMENT:
We are ONE NATION today because of the great battle fought at Gettysburg. There are other great BATTLE GROUNDS that we shouldn’t forget: Valley Forge, Pearl Harbor, Flanders Field, Omaha Beach, Iwo Jima, Pork Chop Hill, the Mekong Delta, Desert Storm, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and now the WAR in Afghanistan and Iraq—what scenes of COURAGE and CARNAGE for the PRICE of FREEDOM!
MESSAGE:
I. THE REALITY OF FREEDOM
A. I do not know what it’s like to put your LIFE on the LINE for the FREEDOM of our NATION.
1. I never served in the MILITARY.
ILLUSTRATION:
On August 5, 1971 when the DRAFT LOTTERY NUMBERS were drawn for men born in 1952 to serve in Vietnam, my number was 134. They took men up to #95. And, quite honestly, I was RELIEVED.
I saw what Vietnam did to my older brother. He went to Vietnam a faithful Christian and came back an AGNOSTIC. It has only been within the last 2 years that he has REDEDICATED His life to Christ. He went to Vietnam a CARING, LOVING man and came back COLD and HARD. To this DAY he will not TALK about his EXPERIENCES in Vietnam. Although my BROTHER didn’t DIE PHYSICALLY fighting in Vietnam, he DIED EMOTIONALLY and SPIRITUALLY. They don’t give PURPLE HEARTS for that.
In fact, the THOUSANDS of SOLDIERS who returned from Vietnam didn’t come home to a HEROES WELCOME—there was no TICKERTAPE PARADE. The Vietnam VETS quietly slipped back into SOCIETY with many EMOTIONAL WOUNDS going UNRECOGNIZED and UNTREATED. I PRAY that we Americans will never allow that to HAPPEN again.
COMMENT:
I don’t know how you feel about the WAR in Iraq—whether you think we should be there or not be there. The reality is—we are there! Many SOLDERS have already given their LIVES in this CONFLICT—HUSBANDS and WIVES, FATHERS and MOTHERS, SONS and DAUGHTERS. They put their LIVES on the LINE every single day for this COUNTRY.
My brother, and men and women like him, who GAVE and are GIVING so much of themselves in SERVICE of their COUNTRY deserve our FULL HONOR and RESPECT, whether or not we like the POLITICS behind the MILITARY ACTION taken.
2. As Christians we have MIXED feelings about HONORING those who serve in the MILITARY, because in so doing we feel like we are GLORIFYING WAR where so many people DIE.
a. WAR is never HONORABLE.
b. It should never be GLORIFIED.
ILLUSTRATION:
After the Civil War General William T. Sherman became so DISGUSTED at the rhetoric of GLORY being used to describe the WAR’S CAMPAIGNS that he fired off a verbal barrage in opposition.
In a graduation speech at the Michigan Military Academy in 1879, Sherman said, “War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded, who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell!”
2. The REALITY of FREEDOM is this: WARS have to be fought and LIVES lost in order to SECURE our FREEDOMS. FREEDOM COMES NO OTHER WAY.
ILLUSTRATION:
Listen to these words of a small town mayor named William Roseman…
“We have a job - and it is to remind those who do not remember . . .
That it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the Freedom of the Press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us Freedom of Speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the Freedom to Demonstrate.
It is the soldier, not the preacher, who has given us the Freedom of Religion.
It is the soldier, who serves beneath the Flag, who salutes the Flag, whose coffin is draped by the Flag, who allows the PROTESTER to burn the Flag.
It is the soldier, not the politician, who has given his blood, his body, his life, who has given us these Freedoms.
And it is the soldier who has given us the privilege to sleep safely in our homes and to hold our children warm within our arms.
It is the greatest crime that it is only war that brings peace and it is the greatest sacrifice that men and women were struck in the prime of their lives so that we might enjoy such freedoms.
It is for we the living to prove that we are worthy of their sacrifice through dedication toward this hard fought peace that was purchased by these honored dead.”
II. THE COST OF FREEDOM
A. There is nothing more PRECIOUS than FREEDOM!
1. We must REALIZE, however, that if FREEDOM is to be CARRIED on from GENERATION to GENERATION—if our children and our grandchildren are to enjoy FREEDOM—then we must be willing to PAY the PRICE!
2. It makes us appreciate our FREEDOM more when we REALIZE what it COST!
3. Many men and women have SACRIFICED their LIVES so that we can enjoy the FREEDOMS that we have in America.
a. World War I – 116,000 Americans died.
b. World War II – 500.000 Americans died.
c. Korean War – 37,000 American died.
d. Vietnam War – 58,000 Americans died.
e. Persian Gulf War – 280 American died.
f. War in Iraq – (as of this week, 5/22/07) 3,422 American deaths and counting.
COMMENT:
Over 700,000 men and women have given their lives in the last century alone for our FREEDOM. And I have no idea how many MEN and WOMEN gave their LIVES to SECURE our FREEDOM in the American Revolutionary War against Britain. I have no idea how many DIED to secure the FREEDOM of SLAVES in the CIVIL WAR.
B. It takes special people to be WILLING to SACRIFICE their LIVES for others.
1. John 15:13- “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
a. The sacrificial LOVE that Jesus DESCRIBED is a LOVE known well by VETERANS.
ILLUSTRATION:
William Manchester won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of JFK. He was a sergeant in the Marine Corps in World War II. He suffered a light wound on Okinawa and was evacuated to a field hospital. He learned that his unit was scheduled to make an amphibious assault behind Japanese lines. He went AWOL from the hospital to rejoin his unit and was terribly wounded in the ensuing battle.
Manchester later wrote that he couldn’t explain why he left the honorable safety of the field hospital to place himself again in battle, except that it was LOVE. He couldn’t bear the thought of his buddies in mortal danger without him there to help.
b. That is indeed a GREAT LOVE.
2. Jesus goes on to say, “You are my FRIENDS.”
a. When Jesus told His disciples that “He had come to set them FREE” in John 8:32ff, little did they realize that their FREEDOM would COST Jesus His LIFE.
b. Jesus- “For the Son of Man has come. . .to give His life a RANSOM for many”- Matt. 20:28.
COMMENT:
We were HELD HOSTAGE by Satan—PRISONERS OF WAR, if you will. Our SIN is what put us there. And, yet, Jesus, the only One who is truly INNOCENT, went to the CROSS to set us FREE.
c. It was the SHED BLOOD of Jesus that PAID the RANSOM PRICE for our FREEDOM.
ILLUSTRATION:
While attending MINISTERIAL SCHOOL (SEMINARY) in Lubbock, Texas, I had a CLASS MATE, Lloyd, who shared a STORY about an incident that HAPPENED to him while in Vietnam. I can’t remember all the DETAILS, but this is what I recall.
Lloyd was a HELICOPTER MACHINE GUNNER. While on a MISSION flying over the JUNGLES of Vietnam looking for SNIPERS, the helicopter experienced MECHANICAL problems. The pilot carefully landed the COPTER in a CLEARING. He RADIOED for help, but it was going to be LONG in coming. Fearing that the enemy would locate them before help came, Lloyd and his buddies started making their way through the JUNGLE back to CAMP.
Night fall came, and they still hadn’t reached CAMP. Lloyd said that they could hear shots being FIRED and see MORTAR SHELLS brighten up the dark sky as it was being FIRED at them and other American troops in the area. He and his BEST FRIEND dug a TRENCH to provide some PROTECTION from the SHRAPNEL spraying all around them from the exploding MORTAR SHELLS.
Turning to check out a NOISE that he heard from behind, Lloyd said that his FRIEND shoved him to the GROUND. He was so startled he didn’t know what was happening. Lloyd said he remembered picking himself up off of the ground and “CUSSING” his friend out for SHOVING him.
He then looked toward his friend only to see him lying on the ground with the UPPER PART of his BODY blown to PIECES. . . . There Lloyd stood with his friend’s BLOOD COVERING his BODY.
While telling us this story, Lloyd choked back the TEARS and softly said with a break in his voice. “I just CURSED my BEST FRIEND who DIED saving my LIFE.”
CONCLUSION:
A. We owe a lot of GRATITUDE to the VETERANS whom have GIVEN their LIVES for our FREEDOM.
B. But the GREATEST DEBT we OWE is to Jesus Christ, who SHED His BLOOD to set us FREE from SIN and ETERNAL DEATH.
C. We STAND before God COVERED with the BLOOD of the GREATEST FRIEND we can ever have. Jesus SHOVED US ASIDE and went to the CROSS in our PLACE, so we can LIVE FREE from SIN and DEATH.
