Remembering the Past for Freedom in the Future
Memorial Day 2011
Family Sunday
Opening video – Memorial Day – Beamer Films
Slide
It is Memorial day weekend, a time when we remember those who have fought to protect our country.
I would like to recognize those here who have served our country in the military this morning.
Veterans Stand
I believe it is important that we honor people and events from the past to help us remember those events.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to forget things?
A little American History
For the kids –
Slides
Who is the Current president? (Barak Obama)
Who was the first president? (George Washington)
By a show of hands, how may can tell me
Who was the President after Jimmy Carter (Reagan)
Who was the President before Jimmy Carter? (Ford)
What years did we fight the first Iraq war under the first president Bush? 1990 to 1991 What was the main cause of that war? – Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Just over 20 years ago and we really have to think about the reason we went to war with another nation.
It does not take long to forget.
This is why it is so important that take time to remember and why it is important that we establish days like this to be a memorial to events and people from the past.
That is what we do on Memorial Day. We remember. And while Memorial Day is an American holiday, and not particularly a Christian holiday, the act of remembering is an important one throughout the Bible because God knows we are a forgetful people.
I want you to turn to Joshua 3:9-4:7
Slide
We are going to read the account of Israel preparing to go into the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness, and what God has them do to help them remember this event and what God has done.
Joshua 3:9-4:7
9 Joshua said to the Israelites, "Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12 Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13 And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord-the Lord of all the earth — set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap."
14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.
4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ’What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."
Pray
After finally bringing Israel to the brink of entering the Promised Land, he has them set up a memorial to the occasion to help the people of Israel remember this event and to help them keep focused on what God had done to bring them to this place.
Why does he do that? Because he knows they are forgetful.
Forty years earlier, it did not take long for the previous generation to forget what God had done in bringing them out of Egypt and having them cross the Red Sea on dry ground and swallow up the Egyptian army.
They saw these unbelievable miracles and yet they quickly forgot and wanted to go back to Egypt. Because they forgot God and did not remember and continue to follow, the nation suffered.
So, now God has them establish something to help them remember.
We need things to help us remember.
Time to Reflect and Remember
This is why Memorial Day is such a great occasion for us to reflect and remember. If we are going to have freedom in the Future, it is important that we remember our past.
Slide
We are going to do things a bit different today.
Today, we are going to take some time to look back and remember some of the history of our nation and the work God has done in this country so we might be able to see His how His hand has been upon our nation and that we might not only remember how He has worked, but that we might continue to follow Him as a people of God so that our nation will continue to be blessed.
Now, it is important to realize that America is not God’s chosen people like Israel, nor is it a Christian nation. But it is also important to realize that this nation was founded on Christian principles and for most of its history has adhered to those principals.
Living in this day and age, it is easy to forget that the founding of this country was not so that people could have freedom from religion, but so that people where free to pursue their Christian faith freely.
This morning we are going to have a bit of a history lesson.
We are going to look at some events from America’s past so that we can better remember some of the basis for the founding of this great land and understand that we live in a land that is worth fighting for and dying for.
How many of you know the name William Bradford?
Slide
William Bradford was one of the men who came over on the Mayflower. He became the second Governor of this colony of people and was one of the authors of what came to be known as the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the Plymouth colony and what John Adams called a foundation of our constitution.
Let me read part of this compact to you that was composed in 1620.
Slide
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic;
The main purposes in coming here was the glory of God and to advance the Christian faith. Not the faith of the Church of England or Catholicism or any other denomination, but the Christian faith in general. Men and families came here not to be free from religion, but to freely pursue their Christian faith.
Some 150 years later, when the colonies were seceding from England, there was a continued recognition of the Lord and His Sovereignty over men and this land.
Listen to some of these words from the Declaration of Independence.
Slide
…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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
…We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States
…And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
We see that from the time the first inhabitants came over here on the Mayflower to the actual formal founding of our nation, there has been a focus and reliance on the true God of the universe for protection and guidance and purpose.
Founding Documents to our Money – God is focus
From our founding documents, to our money which states, In God we Trust, the God of the Bible has been a central focus of this nation’s history. While America is not a Christian nation, in the sense that you have to be a Christian to live here nor should it be, it is a nation that was founded upon Biblical principles and with a focus on a holy God.
I believe that is largely why America has prospered like no other nation on the earth since the time of Christ. And I believe it is imperative that we remember some of the foundational principles of this nation if we are to continue to be a nation that prospers and maintains liberty – which can be defined as freedom with responsibility.
As our country has gotten away from these foundational principles, it is not liberty that is being maintained, but more of a license, a freedom without responsibility, and that cannot last very long indeed.
If we continue to fail to remember how this nation was founded and keep our focus upon the God who has blessed this nation and seek to live in ways that will honor Him and follow Him, we will find that our liberty, will continue to erode and the freedoms that we have come to cherish will continue to evaporate.
The freedoms of America cannot be maintained apart from a people and laws that follow the principles set down by the God of the universe.
Now, you may think that is my opinion, and it is. But it is not only mine.
Many great men from our history would agree.
John Adams, our second President, stated it well in an address to the military on October 11, 1798.
Slide
He said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams, 10/11/1798 as quoted in America’s God and Country, p. 10-11.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French philosopher who came to America to see what made America so great in the 1830’s, is credited with saying
Slide
I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.
America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
As quoted in Amercia’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, p. 205
It is important that Christians remember our foundation and continue to live to the glory of God and set that example of godly living to those who live in this great nation and help others come to Christ, because it is only in relationship with the living God, the only God, that we are going to seek to be good.
If we as Christians, forget our foundations, forget the God whose hand has been upon this nation, then,
the freedoms we have in this country,
the opportunities we have as individuals,
the life we have experienced ourselves in this country,
will not be available to our children.
I believe the blessings that God has poured out on our nation because our nation has lived and existed with principles He established in His word, have made this a nation worth fighting for and dying for.
So on Memorial Day, let’s remember those who have fought and died for the freedoms we have in this country, but let us also remember that the freedoms we have in this country are not possible apart from Christ’s work in the lives of many of our founders and defenders of this nation.
Transition to Communion
Without Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross and His work to reconcile men with God, there would be no liberty as we know it, because there would be no goodness, because it is only because of Christ’s sacrifice that we can have the Holy Spirit of God indwells us, so that we can live godly lives.
So on this memorial day weekend, we not only remember the men and women who have died and fought for our nation, and the foundation that this great nation is built upon, we also remember in another memorial, the work that Jesus has done in making salvation and righteous living possible through His sacrifice upon this cross.
Communion is another memorial to help us to remember His work that reconciled us to the Father. It is something we are to do regularly so that we never forget and always remember the sacrifice that has been made so that we would be free from the bondage of sin.
Paul tells us in
Slide
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
This morning we are going to take part in this memorial that the Lord has instituted. This communion is for those who have trusted in Christ as Savior.
Slide
Perhaps you are here this morning and have not trusted in Christ yet. It would be like being in America without being a citizen of this country.
And while the cost of becoming part of the family of God was extremely high, the full cost was paid by Christ upon the cross and is now free to all who will receive Him.
If you have not received Him, you can do so, by Confessing with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead. (Romans 10:9)
The Bible tells us that when we do that, we are saved, we become part of the family of God, citizens of the heavenly kingdom.
So if you have never done that, I am going to give you an opportunity to confess your heart belief to the Lord so that you might experience the true freedom that only Christ can give.
Pray along with me, if you need Christ and have never received Him as Savior.
Pray.
If you have just received Christ, I say welcome to the family and citizenship into the heavenly kingdom.
The worship team is going to begin leading us in the song, Nothing but the blood as the ushers pass the communion trays. If you have received Christ as Savior, you are welcome to partake. If you have not, then feel free to pass the tray as it is passed to you.
There are 2 cups in each holder. The bottom one has the bread. Just take them and hold them and we will all partake together.
Worship team plays.
Pause
Pray.
Take communion.
Finish song.
