Remember Freedom
Exodus 12:14-14
INTRO: We celebrate Memorial Day Decoration Day.
1. Begin with 2 versions of how Memorial Day came to be
a. The first story In April 1863, in Columbus, Mississippi after decorating the graves of her two sons who served during the Civil War as Confederate soldiers, an elderly woman also decorated two mounds at the corner of the cemetery. An observer asked, “What are you doing? Those are the graves of two Union soldiers.” Her reply was, “I know. I also know that somewhere in the North, a mother or a young wife mourns for them as we do for ours.” [This lady and a few others] set in motion what became known as Memorial Day.
b. The other version of the story says:
The custom of placing flowers on the graves of the war began on May 5, 1866 in Waterloo, New York, and Waterloo has been recognized by Congress as the official birthplace of Memorial Day. In 1868, General John A. Logan, then president of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that May 30 would be a day to “decorate with flowers the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” After World War I the day was set aside to honor all of the American wars, and the custom was extended to pay homage to deceased relatives and friends, both military and civilian.
2. Memorial Day we are to remember lost loved ones, & lost
service men & women who died in the numerous wars of our country
3. I want us to reflect upon the reason why many of our
people paid the ultimate price with their lives
a. They died because they were fighting for our freedom.
4. Remember Freedom
I. A Special Day Exodus 12:14a, 13:3a
A. Moses told all of the people of Israel that “this day shall
be to you a memorial,” & “you shall keep it,” & “remember this day”
1. What day was Moses referring to that the Israelites were
supposed to remember?
a. Passover: Remember that miraculous night!!
1. The night of the Passover was when the Israelites were
commanded to kill a lamb and spread its blood on the two door
posts and lintel of their homes (Exodus 12:3, 7),
2. That night the Lord sent a plague throughout the land of Egypt,
& whomever had their doors marked by the blood of the lamb,
death passed over them – thus the name Passover (Ex 12:13)
b. Symbolically, this represented our salvation from
spiritual death by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
1. The Egyptians did not have their door posts marked, so the
firstborn of the Egyptians were struck dead (Exodus 12:12).
2. The next morning, the Pharaoh was so tired of striving with the
Lord that he allowed the Israelites to depart from Egypt Ex 12:31
2. The Passover represented their freedom from slavery,
a. This is what Moses commanded the people to
remember – the day of their freedom.
B. I want us to take a few moments to reflect upon our
country’s freedom.
1. The official day of our freedom was on July 4, 1776
a. Signing of the Declaration of Independence sending it
to England to be read by King George III.
1. Even though the 13 colonies declared freedom as an
independent country, the people were not yet free.
2. There was war to be fought & many lives to be paid as the cost
for freedom.
b. Many wars fought since & lives paid kept us Free
2. Reflect upon the estimated casualties that have come from
our country’s fight for freedom over the past 2 centuries:
a. Americans have sacrificed their lives Check for accuracy
1. Revolutionary War 33,000 War of 1812 ,000 died;
2. Mexican War 13,000 perished; Civil War ,000 died;
3. Spanish-American War ,000 died; in World War I ,000
U.S. soldiers died
4. World War II ,000 died; Korean War ,000
5. Vietnam War ,000; Gulf War ;
6. The current Afghanistan & Iraq war 823 deaths as of today
*7. Did not count countless hostile actions & skirmishes such as
the hostage rescue attempt in 1979, Lebanon, Panama
b. A total estimated 2,904,300 U.S. service men & women
have died over the past 2 centuries fighting for our
country’s freedom
c. This is the reason that they died – for “our” freedom.
II. Freedom is worth the price
A. Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
1. It is true than many of these men & women died out of a
sense of duty to their country,
a. But obviously they also died out of their love for their
family & friends
**Toby Keith’s American Soldier
And I will always do my duty no matter what the price
I’ve counted up the cost, I know the sacrifice
Oh, and I don’t want to die for you
but if dyin’s asked of me
I’ll bare that cross with honor
’cause freedom don’t come free
I’m an American soldier, an American
beside my brothers and my sisters I will proudly take a stand
when liberty’s in jeopardy I will always do what’s right
I’m out here on the front line
Sleep in peace tonight
American soldier, I’m an American soldier
b. Let us never forget their sacrifice of love & the great
price that they paid for our freedom.
2. Remembering is important,
a. Reminds us we aren’t here on our own without help &
sacrifice
b. It keeps us Humble & Grateful
**Paul Harvey Story It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker the WWI hero fighter ACE During WWII was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour, which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest sharks . . . ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, “Cherry,” that was the B- 17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, “read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off.”
Now this is still Captain Rickenbacker talking . . . “Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food . . . if I could catch it.” And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice.
You know that Captain Eddie made it. And now you also know that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset, on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast, you could see an old man walking . . . white-haired, bushy-eye-browed, slightly bent. His bucket was filled with shrimp to feed the gulls, to remember that one, which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle.
3. Just as Eddie Rickenbacker never forgot the providential
gull that gave its life
a. We should never forget those of our country who gave
up their lives.
b. Because that sea gull gave up its life, Eddie got a
2nd chance at life,
4. And because many brave men & women have died in
the armed services fighting for our country’s freedom,
a. We too have a chance at life – a life of freedom.
5. Both freedom & life never come without a price.
a. The blood of many fine soldiers paid for the freedom
that we have today,
a. Just as the blood of the tiny lamb of the Passover paid
for the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelites.
b. A price has to be paid for freedom & life,
c. That price is the death of another.
1. Someone, or something, has to die in order that we might live.
6. Our country’s soldiers died that we might have a life of
freedom,
B. Jesus died that we might have life eternal.
1. In the story of the Passover, the blood of a lamb was
marked on the doorposts
a. Thus the Death angel passed over the households that
were marked, thus granting them life.
2. Just as that lamb’s blood had to be seen
3. The blood of Christ must be seen over our sins
Col 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins:
Heb 9:13-14 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
1Pe 1:18-19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
4. Our soldiers died for our country’s freedom,
a. Jesus died for our spiritual freedom Jn 8:36, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed,”
Jn 10:10, “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
CONCLUSION
1. Today & tomorrow Memorial Day, remember our people
the price they have & are paying for our freedom
a. It is truly insulting to never contemplate their sacrifice
b. To take for granted the price paid for our freedom is to
one day loose our Freedom
2. Lets remember each day the price Jesus paid for our
Eternity
a. It is profane to allow Jesus to die and never accept His
gift offered, to not realize His sacrifice was for you
b. But Worse to not accept with gratitude the Freedom
offered is to loose it & spend eternity in hell
