Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
I appreciate you for listening in on this podcast. Whether you are a repeat listener or a new one, I want to thank you for sharing your time with us. I want to encourage you to check out or website (GodNAmerica.com) for more information on “Telling His Story in Our History.”
“Saving Private Ryan” has been called the “greatest war movie” ever made. I know it certainly seemed realistic to me when I saw it. It made me appreciate what soldiers went through on D-Day in 1944. The storyline for “Saving Private Ryan” has Captain John Miller and some soldiers survive Omaha Beach and then are pulled away from their duty to search for Private James Ryan. Their mission is to bring him out of harm’s way so that he can go home as the last surviving son of the Ryan family.
The movie is loosely based on a true story of the Niland brothers of Tonawanda, NY. America had established the “Sole Survivor” policy after the five O’Sullivan brothers died on the same Navy ship in WWII. The policy essentially states that if a family lost sons due to war, the remaining son did not have to serve. [Greg Timmons, “Saving Private Ryan: The Real Life D-Day Backstory.” History.com; 7.1.2019]
Some observations from which we will make some applications in honor of our Memorial Day.
1. Their Mission was a Man – Private James Ryan
2. There was a great, sacrificial cost to rescuing Ryan
3. The final words to Ryan from Captain Miller who was Killed In Action saving him: “James, earn this. Earn it.” That is, “Live a life worthy of the efforts and sacrifices of Captain Miller and his men in rescuing him.”
4. The value of a man and of a family
5. Motivation for living – at the end of the movie, Ryan, his wife, and children visit Miller’s grave at Normandy, France many years after the war. Ryan speaks to the grave: “Every day I think of what you said to me on the bridge, and I’ve tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough.” He then turns to his wife and says, “Tell me I am a good man.” She replies, “You are.”
Memorial Day should be a profound holiday to Americans on many levels:
• Personal, especially if we have lost someone in combat
• Family
• National
• Even a spiritual level
We owe so much to the Patriots who have been willing to lay down their lives for us. “Saving Private Ryan” is the story of his fellow soldiers saving a family’s lone survivor. Nothing was held back, not even loss of life, to save him.
There seems to be a blend of guilt and gratitude that motivated Ryan to live a good life and be a “good man.”
It seems to me that this blend of emotions should also be motivational for us. In fact, citizens of the countries that America has freed should feel the same emotions as well. But we Americans have lived freely because of the willing sacrifices of American Patriots all the way back to the American Revolution – our War for Independence. They fought for Liberty – for themselves and their posterity – us.
You may recall the famous speech of Patrick Henry when he spoke to the second Virginia Convention regarding the hostilities with Great Britain and said:
“. . . Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Henry’s speech roused the Convention. It also declares to us the high view that he and other Patriots had of Liberty and the price that they were willing to pay.
This is further echoed in a letter from George Washington to the people of South Carolina (Circa, 1790):
The value of liberty was thus enhanced in our estimation by the difficulty of its attainment, and the worth of characters appreciated by the trial of adversity.
I think that many Americans today do not appreciate the Liberty we have because they did not pay the price for it. It’s easy to toss Liberty away when you didn’t pay for it.
Our Founders reveal their request for a liberated republic and in many of their writings, they declare their dependence on Providence (God) in the process. George Washington bore this out on numerous occasions. Consider his sentiment in a letter to Pastor John Rodgers, June 11, 1783:
“Glorious indeed has been our Contest: glorious, if we consider the Prize for which we have contended, and glorious in its Issue; but in the midst of our Joys, I hope we shall not forget that, to divine Providence is to be ascribed the Glory and the Praise.”
Our God is the God of Liberty and no doubt has walked with people who have truly followed Him and the path of freedom. Consider:
Galatians 5:1 (ESV) – For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Corinthians 3:17 (ESV) – Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
1 Peter 2:16 (ESV) – Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
This is foundational to our Republic. We have been led by God. We have been established on His biblical principles. As a result we are FREE to be servants of God. This is not a “free for all, anything goes” country. We are free to be the people of God.
We owe everything we have to our God and people who have gone before us. So, how do we “earn” what they have given us? Or, do we just blow it off? Do we stand for the biblical values of Liberty that made our nation great? Or, do we stand silently in the face of adversity and watch it erode away?
Past generations rose to the occasion and dealt with the issues of their day. We see it in the WWII Generation as well as the Founding era. God put those generations and their leaders in place to create and save a special Republic in America. Could it be that you are here for “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14)?
Our nation is in darkness and chaos right now. If you have ever wondered about “spiritual warfare,” just open your eyes to the issues we are facing. Marxists are conspiring to remove the America our Founders established based on biblical principle (talk about “conspiracy theories”). Too many Christians are silent. Too many Christians are not “earning” what has been given us. Too many are complicit through their silence to the fall of the Republic choosing to “go along to get along.” The trouble with that is, when the Marxists are in power there is no getting along.
America is one of two nations in the history of the world established on godly principles. Israel, of course, was the other. No wonder so many countries in the world hate both nations! Both have experienced the “hand of God” through His providential care and experienced His discipline in times of disinterest.
Some Christians would disdain any involvement in a temporary earthly nation. After all, one day the earth will be burned up and all nations will end. Yet, what do you do with the gifts of God in the mean time? How insulting is it to disparage a gift from a loved one? America was a gift from God to the world linked to the birth of our Savior.
On July 4, 1837 John Quincy Adams addressed an audience in Newburyport, Massachusetts to celebrate the sixty-first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In that address he connected the birth of the United States to the birth of Jesus. He said:
Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Saviour of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day. Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth. That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Saviour and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before.
There can surely no doubt that the early generations of Americans saw the establishment of our nation under the oversight of God. This nation was perceived as a gift from His mighty Hand. It was given, not only to bless the inhabitants of this continent but the world as well.
Should we not be good stewards of such a gift? We often talk of our responsibilities of stewardship regarding money, property, and family. Why not that of a God-given nation? Are we “earning” this gift? Would we rather just let it slip away and bemoan our loss after it’s gone because it takes effort to keep it? Which do you think God would prefer?
What was the problem with the stewardship of the “One Talent Man” in Matthew 25? As the parable opens in Matthew 25:14 we see Jesus speaking of the responsibility of stewardship and says:
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.
You will remember that the master gives servants measures of money (talents) based on their abilities – 5-2-1 talents. They were supposed to use what they had been given and gain more. However, the “One Talent Man” was AFRAID of the master and hid his responsibility of stewardship. When the master returned and held an accounting, he commended the men who took their responsibilities seriously and rewarded them. The man who ignored his responsibility out of fear was denounced and cast out.
There are many areas of responsibilities that God has placed in our hands. He created family and we are responsible for ours. He created the church and we are responsible for the one we attend. He created government, yet more often than not today, Christians abdicate their responsibility in this, but we are responsible for ours, especially ours.
If we let our Republic go the way of other republics, Communism will take us over. If Communism takes over, Liberty (and Patriots) will die. The freedom of religion will die. We’re already seeing a taste of it when states declare bars essential businesses and churches as non-essential during the “plandemic.”
We are feeling the removal of the freedom of speech in places like social media and the mainstream media, It is also happening in churches when preachers’ sermons are censored or rewritten by church leaders.
We must not throw away our gift from God!
There is also a “spiritual level” to Saving Private Ryan as well as a patriotic one. Whether intended or not (I doubt it was intended in what we discover about Hollywood), there is an application to Jesus and His mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). Captain Miller and his men paid the ultimate price to rescue James Ryan and perpetuate the Ryan name. Jesus, of course, paid the ultimate price of laying down His life for those who are lost in the world. Listen to His words in John 10:17-18 (ESV):
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
His words, especially the final seven sayings on the cross challenge us to “earn” or live up to the life worthy of the Savior’s sacrificial gift. Go back and read those words. Do they stir your heart to live for Him?
Paul wrote this in Philippians 1:27 (ESV):
27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ . . .
That is, live up to it. As Miller said to Ryan, “Earn it.”
In Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) he reminds us that we cannot literally “earn” our salvation but, we can live out the gospel in our lives.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We can live up to God’s standards through Christ. We can live out what God has put in us by grace through faith. As God’s workmanship we reflect the goodness of the LORD in our lives.
Captain Miller’s mission in “Saving Private Ryan” paralleled Jesus’ mission. They both involved:
1. A person – Miller saved Ryan and Jesus saves YOU. Yes, God loved the whole world and gave His Son (John 3:16), but He also loves the individual and gave Jesus for EACH one of us (Galatians 2:20 (ESV) – . . . And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.)
2. There was a great cost – willing loss of life – it’s the “greater love” Jesus spoke of in John 14:15.
3. There is an emphasis on the value of family (Genesis 1-2); Ephesians 3:14-15 (ESV) – 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
4. A motivation for living – Ryan thought of the sacrifice of Miller and his men every day and it motivated him to pursue a better life. Do you think of Jesus and His intentional sacrifice for you? Does it motivate you to be a better person? 2 Corinthians 5:14 (ESV) states, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;”
5. An evaluation – Ryan asks his wife to evaluate his life as he reflected on the scene of years ago when he was rescued from the devastation of war. There is a time to “examine ourselves.” How does God see us? How do others see us? We can “fool some of the people some of the time” but we cannot fool God any of the time. At the judgment scene in Matthew 25, nations will be gathered before King Jesus and their secrets will be revealed, good and bad. Our walk of faith or lack of it will be revealed. Our motivation for faithfully walking with God is wrapped up in who Jesus is and what He has done on our behalf.
Memorial Day is officially about remembering those who died in combat on behalf of our nation. It should be a day of gratitude and a day of patriotic fervor. It is symbolically and spiritually tied to the sacrifice of Jesus for us.
Our military personnel have willingly paid the ultimate price for our liberty and our Republic. Whether in the snows of Valley Forge or the sweltering heat of the South Pacific, there has been a spirit of sacrifice. I believe that is part of the DNA of America. It came with the foundation of the word of God and having “no king but King Jesus.”
Yes, America and Americans are flawed. We are all sinful people in some form or another (Romans 3:23). The end of that sin should be eternal separation from God, but it doesn’t have to be. Romans 6:23 ESV) declares:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It appears that God does not easily give up on us. His grace is present and motivates us to walk with Him and serve Him. It takes our commitment to Him to return to His direction for our lives individually and as a nation. It is not accidental, it is intentional.
You will remember this powerful statement from our second President, John Adams, October 11, 1798, he stated in a letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts:
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
All is based on Jesus – the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. He is the One whose sacrifice stirs our hearts to imitate Him in every arena of our lives, including Liberty.
How will you spend Memorial Day?
• A Day Off?
• A picnic?
• A Family Day?
• A Gratitude Day? (To patriots, but especially to our God)
I want to encourage you to:
• Remember what we have been given.
• Remember our stewardship obligations.
• Spend some time reflecting on our ancestors – both of the nation and in the faith.
• Thank God for the Liberty He has given us in Jesus.
• And then, go out and “earn it” or live up to what we have been given.
Thank you again for listening in today. I hope this podcast has been encouraging to you and your walk as a Christian Patriot.
Until next time, be sure to tell His story in our History and Keep The Light Burning!
