Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
A MEMORIAL THAT REALLY MATTERS
This weekend we will honor those who have given their lives in defense of the freedoms that we all enjoy. When we look upon their sacrifice and their willingness to give their all so that our nation, and the world, could experience the ability to be free, we are so very thankful for each one who served in any of our armed forces. Only yesterday I went down to the National D Day Museum in New Orleans to see the films and relics that remind us of the great struggle that purchased our freedom. We owe such a great debt to those who died so that you and I can be here this morning. The sacrifices of these soldiers, and of those who are still fighting today, should never be forgotten.
From the battlefields of Bunker Hill, Yorktown and many others of the American Revolution;
From the battlefield down in Chalmette, LA, and the Battle of New Orleans from the War of 1812 with Britain;
From the Halls of Montezuma representing the Mexican War:
From the fields of Gettysburg, Shiloh and countless others of the Civil War;
From that little place down in Cuba, called San Juan Hill of the Spanish American War;
From the trenches of Verdun and Belleau Wood of WWI;
From the beaches of Normandy, the city of Bastogne , the fields of Europe, and the jungles of the islands of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and so many more of WWII;
From the battlefields at Inchon and the Frozen Chozen Reservoir of Korea
From the Base Camp of An Khe and Hamburger Hill, to the Mekong Delta of Vietnam;
From the smaller battles of Granada, Panama and numerous military insurgencies;
From the sand dunes of Kuwait and Iraq of Desert Storm;
From Kosovo, Somalia, Iran, Saudia Arabia,
From the mountains of Afghanistan,
Americans have paid, and will continue to pay, the price for your freedom and safety.
It is only fitting that we should take time to remember the fallen heroes of our democracy. Take time to bow your head and thank God for those who loved America enough to give their lives and their fortunes in her defense.
Fighting for our nation is a great and necessary thing but I want to draw your attention to an instance in the Word of God where there was another memorial. This memorial wasn’t for fighting in battle even though it was involving a soldier. Perhaps I should say that it wasn’t for fighting in an earthly battle, but it was definitely for fighting Spiritual Warfare. I want you to see what God honors most and what can do that will rise as a memorial before God.
It is great to be remembered of men and given a place of honor for the things we have done for humanity, but it is far more important to be remembered by God for what we have done for Him!
Acts 10:1-6, "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, what is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do."
When we consider that Cornelius was a commander in the Legions of Rome that occupied Israel, the story of his faith and sacrifice is even more wonderful.
The scripture gives Cornelius a glowing report on the character of his nature and the condition of his heart before God. He was a devout man who reverenced God and who had his whole house following his example of faithfulness.
What does the word “devout” bring to mind? When I think of a devout man or woman, I think of someone who is absolutely faithful, full of integrity and totally dedicated to God in every facet of life. How many of us, who call ourselves Christians, are really devout?
Let me tell you what Cornelius did to be called devout. He was satisfied with just being an ordinary godly man; he desired to know God in a deeper fashion and to bring his whole family closer to the Lord.
In the past several weeks the Lord has been teaching each of us the importance of fasting and prayer. Cornelius had heard this same call from God also. He had become dissatisfied with the condition of his soul and his heart. He was not satisfied with the small amount of knowledge that he had about God or the things of God. Cornelius wanted more of God, not just for his own benefit, but also for the benefit of his whole family. He spent a lot of time in fasting and prayer, seeking the face of God and asking God to bring him into a deeper walk with the Lord.
Oh, that we would get hungry enough in the spirit that we would be willing to make ourselves hungry in the flesh in order to hear from God. I believe that the reason most people don’t hear from God is that they don’t want to hear from Him bad enough! Do we really want to know God’s will? Do we really want to hear from Him? How bad do we want those things? Do we desire to feel the presence of God, to hear the voice of the Lord, or see His glory made manifest in our lives? If we do, then lets get devout enough to spend time in prayer and fasting until we see and feel God move! God wants to bless His people but He sometimes waits to see if we really want His blessings!
Cornelius’ religion didn’t just stop with himself and God but it spilled over into his relationship with everyone around him. He taught his family the ways of God and I believe that he did all that he could to teach the Roman soldiers under his command how to live morally and to respect the things of God. Cornelius had integrity and that means that he was the same all the time, whether at home on his knees before God or standing in front of his troops giving commands. His heart was right before God and that made his relationships with his men better too.
Cornelius spent a lot of time in prayer and fasting. Every time he knelt down to pray, those prayers would rise to the Throne Room of Heaven where God was recording them. Every time he did without a meal and fasted and prayed, God recorded it under Cornelius’ name in the Book of Life. Every time Cornelius taught his troops or his family about God that too was recorded by God. God was keeping a record of everything that Cornelius did to reach out to Him.
How many of you believe that God is still keeping records right now of your life? What has He written about you in the past week? Did he write down how much you fasted and prayed? Did He write down how many times you witnessed to someone, how many times you read your Bible, how many times you meditated upon His Word, or did He just record, “another day without seeking after me”? Every day your pages are filling up with the notes that God takes on your life! Every day God adds to your story; either He writes down those things that remind of Him of your faithfulness or He writes down those things that will be used to condemn you at the Judgment! Whatever we do, God’s recording never stops.
Why did Cornelius spend so much time in prayer and fasting? He did so because He feared God! He knew that God was real. He knew that the most important thing in life was to please God. Cornelius knew that whatever good things were his, were given to Him by God.
I believe that the reason most Christians don’t fast and pray much anymore is that they have lost their fear of God. We have preached the love of God so much that it has sugar coated God until people have forgotten that God is also our judge and that, one day soon, we will stand before Him to be sentenced to either eternal life or eternal death.
We go about our daily lives without even thinking about God much less considering that He is watching every move we make and recording it all! We don’t teach our kids that God is an awesome God that must be the center of life. We teach them to read “Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone” or to watch “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” or “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” and then we wonder why they don’t grow up to be as “devout” as we are. Turn off the TV, get rid of the occult books and music, and turn on something that gives God glory and you might see a difference in the attitudes of your family.
What kind of memorial is that going to be for your kids? Will they remember the times of family prayer or the family fights? Will they remember going to Sunday School or church and learning the Word of God, or will they remember Sunday’s on the river. What kind of a memorial are you building for your life and the lives of your family?
Cornelius was also a man that was generous in his giving. He was giving of his time, his money and his abilities to better his family and to further the Kingdom of God in the heart of everyone he met. God watched and recorded every time he dropped a Roman coin into the temple treasury. God recorded every time Cornelius stopped to lend a helping hand to one of his men in his army. God recorded every time that Cornelius gave sacrificially of his own life to supply the need of those around him.
What do we want to rise up before God as a memorial for our lives? What do you want your epitaph to read? Here lies a selfish, egotistical loner who cared nothing for man or God! Wouldn’t it be better if God wrote your epitaph and He said that you were a “good and faithful servant”? You are writing your own epitaph right now. What people and, more importantly, what God will remember about your life, is being written right as I speak. What is your memorial going to say?
Cornelius’ search for the truth was soon answered. All of the prayer, fasting, alms and teaching that he had done had risen before God and become a memorial to his faithfulness to God. God honored the life of Cornelius by sending an answer that Cornelius would never forget.
God sent his messenger, an Angel of the Lord, to the house of Cornelius to deliver a personal message from God. Cornelius was afraid at the sight of the angel, but which of you wouldn’t be afraid? Cornelius offerings to God were accepted! All the hours, days, weeks, months or maybe even years of fasting and praying were paying off now. God had heard the cry of Cornelius and God was going to give him the desires of his heart.
I know that God hears the prayers of His children. I know that god answers prayer. Sometimes though, the prayers that we pray are not always answered quickly and quite often they are not answered in the way that we hoped for, but God always answers in His own time.
Because of Cornelius’ faithfulness and sincerity, God sent Peter to his house to preach the gospel and to teach him about the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Cornelius had already been accepted by God and was saved. No doubt he had learned the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus and had learned and accepted Jesus Christ. Now it was time for God to bring the presence of the Holy Spirit into Cornelius’ life like it had never been before.
Peter had been prepared for his encounter with Cornelius. God had given Peter a vision of a sheet held by the four corners that come down out of Heaven and told Peter to rise and eat. Peter was hungry to see people won to the Lord but He wasn’t convinced yet that Gentiles could be saved, so God had to give him this vision three times to let Peter know that God is no respecter of persons and that God desires all men to be saved, both Gentile and Jew.
When the messengers came to get Peter to bring him to Cornelius, Peter was ready to accept what God was about to do. He preached the message of the cross. He told of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and of the great commission to preach the gospel to whole world.
Acts 10:44-48, "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord."
Cornelius had built a memorial of prayer, fasting, alms-giving and service to the Lord and because of that memorial his whole family was saved, filled with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and then baptized in water according to the ordinance of the Word of God.
What a great memorial to have given to you and I! What greater memorial can we have than to have our whole family be saved and to spend eternity with them in Heaven!
That’s the greatest memorial I could ever hope for! That’s the memorial I desire more than anything else!
God, help us to live our lives as a memorial to you so that our children, our grandchildren, and generations to follow will be blessed as a memorial to our lives!
In conclusion let me say that our lives will be a memorial; whether it is a memorial to righteousness or a memorial to sin is being determined right now. The memorial you leave behind will haunt you or bless you for all eternity and the destiny of your family and many of the people you influence will be a part of that memorial too.
This Memorial Day, don’t forget to make your life a memorial to God. Then watch as the Lord makes a memorial for you!
