-Who were some of your heroes growing up?
-Was it a family member like your mom or dad, uncle or aunt, grandma or grandpa
-Was it a sports figure? Someone who played football, basketball, baseball, maybe a NASCAR driver?
-Maybe you really looked up to a musician – a rapper, a country music star or a rocker
-Who was the person/people that you looked up to when you were growing up? {PAUSE}
-I was a big sports nut growing up. I loved watching football and basketball games and track meets
-I was a hurdler so I marveled at the ability of Edwin Moses
-He won gold medals in the 400 m hurdles in the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the 1984 LA Olympics. Between 1977 and 1987, he won 122 consecutive races and set world records 4 times. No one else has been so dominant in a sport for such a long period of time.
-However, what people don’t know about Edwin Moses is that he went to college not on an athletic scholarship but an academic one. He majored in physics and industrial engineering and worked for General Dynamics full-time for three years while he trained for international competition.
-His impact on amateur sports has lived on even past his days of competition. He set up a program to allow amateur athletes to receive government or commercial stipends without impacting their amateur status and helped to institute drug testing for all world class amateur athletes.
-Edwin Moses was a true hero. Someone to truly look up. {PAUSE}
-Heroes generally have a number of characteristics that make them truly remarkable and people that others want to look up to.
-Generally, we see people that are strong, smart, brave, or wise as heroes. In the military, we especially honor people who have been self-sacrificing or have made a lasting, positive impact on people
-Basically, people that demonstrate the Air Force core values of Integrity First, Service before Self and Excellence in all we do
-Edwin Moses was an example of a hero but so was ___________. Not only was he among elite company. He was part of only 1% of Americans who served in the military. Not only was he part of a very tight munitions squadron with a very important mission but was part of an even tighter ammo flight.
-But when you read his obituary printed in the bulletin, you clearly see a young man who was on the fast track. You see a guy who knew the munitions world inside and out.
-What you don’t see in the black and white was the impact that his had on the people around him.
-Last week when the news of his death was announced to the squadron, I had the opportunity to see the impact that he had on the people that he worked with. In talking to people about the kind of NCO that James was, it was clear that he knew his job, held himself and others to high standards and really cared about the people he worked with.
-He knew that work wasn’t the end all, be all of life.
-So God helped him find his wife. They built a great life together, bringing life to three great boys. Like all parents, he fought the battle of maintaining a good reputation at work, investing time into one’s wife and children, and having friends and hobbies.
-He was truly someone for young munitions troops to look up
-He had it all. A wonderful wife, three great boys and good relationships with the people with whom he worked {PAUSE}
-But we all reach a point in our lives when we realize that we need a hero much bigger than ourselves. When we’re very young, we see our parents as heroes. Later, as teens we might really look up to celebrities. Eventually, we get to a point that we find our parents to be fallible. We find fault with celebrities. In the end, we discover that everyone will disappoint us. We need to find someone who will never disappoint. {PAUSE}
-In Greek mythology, Hercules is one of the greatest heroes. One of the upsides to having kids is watching a lot of cool kids’ movies.
-In the Walt Disney movie, Hercules, the baby Hercules is a discovered by Hades the ruler of the underworld, to be the only one to be able to foil his plan to take over Mt. Olympus, the home of the gods.
-He sends two of his henchmen to kill Hercules. They steal baby Hercules, feed him some poison but one drop is left so it doesn’t kill him, he’s left as a mortal human but with god-like strength.
-He is found by human parents and raised as their own. As a young man, his strength is causing all sorts of problems in his hometown. After one particularly bad day, he runs off to the temple of Zeus where his real father, Zeus meets him. Zeus tells him that if he is to be a god again, he must prove himself to be a true hero.
-He goes into strict training. One day he finally gets to start proving his heroism. He saved a young woman named Meg.
-Hercules goes on to defeat numerous enemies and save countless people. In the process, he falls in love with Meg.
-In all those feats, he was never able to attain to true heroism. His selflessness had not yet been stretched to its limits.
-Hades finally unleashes his plan to take Mt. Olympus, unleashing the power of the Titans.
-Hercules, of course, saves the day but in the melee Meg dies.
-Hercules goes to the underworld to make a deal with Hades. He told Hades that he could get his revenge against Zeus by holding Hercules as his prisoner but he had to let Meg go.
-It was that act of selflessness that made Hercules a true hero. Gods can’t stay in the underworld so both Hercules and Meg were set free.
-Meg asked him why he did it. Hercules said, “People always do crazy things when they’re in love.”
-It’s the same way with God. God does blessedly crazy things because He’s in love with you.
-They rediscovered their hero. They were trying to get back involved in church. They discovered they needed a hero much bigger than themselves.
-That’s so important I’m going to say it again. If you don’t get anything else out of this message, at least get this. God does blessedly crazy things because He’s in love with you.
-God sent His son, Jesus, willingly to earth.
-He, like Hercules, was raised by human parents, Mary and Joseph.
-He took on the forces of evil and triumphed by dying.
-He went to hell, not to make a deal with the devil but to proclaim his victory over him once and for all.
-By His resurrection, He proved to the world that He was indeed the one and only true Son of God.
-Do you know anyone else who’s been dead three days and has come back to life again?
-He has changed the course of history forever.
-Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we are all coming back to life again. These old bodies that get sick, hurt, feel pain, cry and eventually die will be raised to life again. However, the new ones will be like these but new and improved. They will never die. They can’t feel pain. It will again be like God intended it. Perfect.
-By His death and resurrection, not just He goes free or one other person with Him. The whole world was set free from sin, death and the devil.
-Just like a million dollar trust fund account that you don’t know about, it doesn’t do you any good unless you do something with it.
-It doesn’t do you any good unless you believe it, unless you apprehend it.
-That’s your responsibility. If God has touched your heart today, do something with it. Talk to one of the chaplains here today. One of the best ways your can honor James is to recognize like he did, your need for a hero bigger than yourself. You need a superhero. Jesus.
