Illus: For example, it was broadcast on national radio that a young man was walking down the street during the wintertime wearing a brand name leather jacket.
Another young man saw him wearing the jacket and he came up behind him and hit him in the head with an iron pipe and killed him and took his jacket.
This young man considered a name brand jacket worth more than the life of this young man.
It is refreshing to come across people who recognize the value of a human life.
Illus: For example, Ron was a fifteen-year-old teenager, a tenth-grade student at Granger High School. It was game day, and he was the only sophomore suiting up with the varsity team. Excitedly, he invited his mother to attend. It was her very first football game, and she promised to be there with several of her friends. The game finally ended,
and she was waiting outside the locker room to drive Ron home.
• Ron said, "What did you think of the game, Mom?
• Did you see the three touchdown passes our team made?
• And how about our tough defense?
• Did you see the fumble on the kickoff return that we recovered?" he asked.
• His mother replied, "Ron, you were magnificent during the whole game. I was so proud of you:
• I was proud of the pride you took in the way you looked. You pulled up your knee socks eleven times during the game.
• And I could tell you were perspiring in all those bulky pads because you got eight cups of water and splashed water on your face twice.
• I really like how you went out of you way to pat number nineteen, number five and number ninety on the back every time they came off the field."
• "Mom, how do you know all that? And how can you say I was magnificent? I didn’t even play in the game."
• His mother smiled and hugged him. "Ron, I don’t know anything about football. I didn’t come here to watch the game. I came here to watch you!"
Listen, this mother knew what was important! SHE KNEW THE VALUE OF PEOPLE!
However, we live in an age where little value is placed on PEOPLE, and much value is placed on THINGS.
Illus: A favorite actress of many in Hollywood is the Italian actress, Sophia Loren. During one of the shootings of a movie, she was upset because someone stole some of her valuable jewelry.
She went to the Italian film director Vittorio De Sica, about the theft of the jewelry. He gave her some very good advice, he said, “Listen to me, Sophia. I am much older than you and if there is one great truth I have learned about life, it is this: NEVER CRY OVER ANYTHING THAT CAN’T CRY OVER YOU!” Good advice!
One of the lessons we have to learn in this life is that PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THINGS!
On this Memorial Day weekend, I want us to consider three things to help us learn this valuable lesson.
We need to:
I. LOOK BACK
Some tell us we should never look back, that we should always look ahead. Those who say this do not know what they are talking about.
• If we did not LOOK BACK, we could not learn from the mistakes we, and others have made.
• If we did not LOOK BACK, we could not show our gratitude to those who have made such an impact on our life.
Memorial Day is all about LOOKING BACK!
Look at the history of Memorial Day.
• Memorial Day was first observed on May 30, 1868.
• Memorial Day originally was known as “Decoration Day” because it was time set aside to honor the nation’s Civil War dead by decorating their graves.
• After WWI, observances also began to honor those who had died in all of America’s wars.
• And in 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday.
Illus: We have been told that:
• On an average day, about 750 people will visit the USS Arizona in Hawaii, and on Memorial Day weekend, about 4,600 people will visit that memorial.
• On an average day, some 3,000 people will visit the Vietnam War Memorial, and on Memorial Day weekend, about 7,600 people will visit it.
This nation has set this day aside to LOOK BACK and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives for this blessed country.
We can all be thankful that this nation does not want to forget those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so we could have this great nation in which to live.
Today, on this Memorial Day weekend, while some are partying and picnicking and having a wonderful time, we want to LOOK BACK and remember all the men and women who have made this possible.
The men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice should not be forgotten and they do not want to be forgotten.
Illus: I like what someone has well said, “Say goodbye to me, but not to the thought of me.”
Today we need to LOOK BACK!
But also, we need to-
II. LOOK OUT
Today we hear a great deal about alchemizes. This is a terrible disease.
Illus: My wife mother had it and before she died, she did not know her children. There was some indication she would react when her husband walked into the room. We do not know if she could remember it was her husband, or she just knew him somewhat!
This is a terrible disease when you cannot acknowledge the special people in your life.
Illus:” Dr. Odell Belger little grandson was given some chores to do. When his parents got home, he had not done them. His mother got on to him and he told his mother, “Mom, I am sorry, but I have a good forgetter!”
Many of us have a good forgetter, don’t we?
• What is your memory like?
• Do you forget things very easily?
Apparently, we never actually forget, it is all stored in OUR BRAIN CELLS. We just have a difficult retrieving it sometime.
How do you remember things?
Illus: My wife usually writes things down in her diary, but she has a hard time remembering where she put her diary.
In Scripture the people of God are urged constantly to remember.
God assists them in their remembrance by giving them physical signs to aid them.
• So, you have the sign of the rainbow to remind Noah and his descendants of God’s covenant never again to destroy all life with a flood.
• You have the sign of circumcision to remind the people of Israel of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
• You have the Passover to remind them of the great deliverance from Egypt, and we could go on.
Illus: When Jack Nicklaus was the undisputed world number 1 in golf he was asked how he kept at the top. His answer was startling. At the end of every golf season, he went back to his first coach who taught him the basics of the game all over again. Every season he went back and learnt the basic building blocks of a good golf swing. There wasn’t anything new to learn, just to be reminded again of the basics.
This disease called alletimzer makes us think of so many today who cannot REMEMBER those special people who have touched their life.
As we LOOK BACK at those who made an impact on our life, we must not forget to LOOK OUT for those who are making an impact on our life.
Those who know what life really is know that life is not about THINGS, ANIMALS, and HOBBIES, but about PEOPLE.
Many of us know people who have more regard for an animal than they do a human. They are a lot nicer to ANIMALS than they are to HUMANS. They place great value on ANIMALS, but very little value on HUMANS.
I am not preaching against loving animals; they certainly should have value among us.
Again, I am not preaching against loving animals, but I am preaching against loving animals more than PEOPLE!
Those who have really discovered what life is all about have learned to LOOK OUT into the world and discover the beauty we find in people.
If we LOOK OUT among us, we can find good in everyone.
Look at 1 Cor. 13. We call this the love chapter. We read that love . . .
• Is patient
• Is kind
• Is forgiving
• Is willing to serve others
The problem is that our values are all mixed up!
Illus: I heard a story one time about a prankster who broke into a large expensive department store and switched all the price tags. Cheap items were priced at thousands of dollars while expensive items were priced at only one or two dollars.
This is exactly what the Devil has done to confuse people on planet earth. HE HAS SWITCHED THE PRICE TAGS ON US!
Illus: One preacher suggested,
• "Many people will spend thirty thousand dollars on a new car to help them get where they are going in style, but they won’t spend $300 a year to reach the lost for Christ.
• Or some might spend several thousand dollars to straighten out their child’s teeth, but they won’t spend $100 dollars to send their child to Christian camp to help straighten out their life.
• Or we may give our child $10 to go to the show and then we give them $1 to go to Sunday School."
Phil. 2:4 says, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."
We need to remember to LOOK BACK and LOOK OUT.
But also, we need to-
III. LOOK UP
Eccl. 12:1 says, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”
We should remember our Creator when we’re young, so we’ll remember Him when we’re old. And if we didn’t do it then, we may not do it later on!
On this Memorial Day weekend, we need to LOOK UP and remember the Lord.
In the Old Testament, the Lord instituted the “Passover” so the people would not forget what He had done for them. Each year they would attend the Passover and REMEMBER WHAT THE LORD HAD DONE FOR THEM!
Each Hebrew family was responsible for selecting a lamb for sacrifice. It was to be a male, without spot or blemish. This, of course, typified Christ the sinless Lamb of God who would one day shed His blood, not only for one household but for the whole world.
The Passover lamb had to be slain. The blood of the lamb had to be applied to the doorposts of the home. The meat of the lamb had to be eaten.
You see, God was beginning a Memorial Day in the Passover that would illustrate the coming of Jesus.
• Jesus shed His blood for the whole world
• That blood must be applied to our sins individually
• Jesus must be received personally for us to be saved from sin and death
• Only the ones with the blood applied escaped the judgment
One last thought. The blood of the Passover lamb was not put on the threshold of the door to the home. It was not to be trampled on.
Don’t trample on the blood by rejecting Jesus.
In the New Testament, the Lord instituted the “Lord’s Supper” so people would not forget what He had done for them. And He said, “… this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”
While we are here on this Memorial Day to honor the men and women who gave their lives so we might be able to enjoy our life in this great country, we also want to honor the Lord Jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can have eternal life.
We need to look up and honor the Lord. WHY? Because if anybody deserves to be remembered, He does!
As Americans, it is good for us to have a holiday that reminds us that the freedoms we enjoy as Americans are freedoms that were earned at a great cost.
On Memorial Day, we remember all those people in the past that wore uniforms representing our country, people who fought against those who were trying to steal our freedom away. And that freedom, that quality of life, didn’t just happen out of the blue. It’s something that was earned for you by other people. We have Memorial Day to remember and honor those people.
But as we consider the price that was paid for our PHYSICAL FREEDOM, we must not forget the price that was paid for our SPIRITUAL FREEDOM.
The people of Israel were admonished to remember and honor the Lord on the Sabbath day, which is Saturday. They were told that if they didn’t go doing their own thing, then He would remember them and bless them! Hmmm, very interesting! I wonder, I just wonder if that thought could somehow be applied to the people of God and the Lord’s Day!
Any way you cut it and any way you look at it, IT ALWAYS PAYS TO LOOK UP.
Conclusion:
Illus: A man by the name of Milt Rood worked for many years as a car salesman in Spokane, WA. He was also very active with the Union Gospel Mission, working with juvenile delinquents. Week by week, he’d patiently teach them from the Word of God and pray with them.
One day Milt Rood went into the hospital for exploratory surgery. The doctors found he was full of cancer. They sewed him up and sent him home. HE DIED THE NEXT WEEK.
After the funeral, a friend said, "IT’S INTERESTING THAT AT THE FUNERAL NO ONE EVER ASKED HOW MANY CARS HE SOLD!”
We need to take time on this Memorial Weekend and …
One day, how many cars and homes you have will not count. The only thing that will matter is how you went through life LOOKING!
I. LOOK BACK
II. LOOK OUT
III. LOOK UP
As we remember these men and women who died for our freedom, also we need to remember their families that has nothing but a picture on the fireplace mantel. They also have paid a great price for our freedom.
