Articles
We, a Memorial People--Transcript
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I's a lookout along this wonderful audience.
I'm very much appreciative of the fact that God has blessed us with this occasion.
Those of you that are visiting with us, we would just hope that you would come back and be with us again, even this afternoon at 5 o'clock. Would love for you to come and be back with us during that time.
I would like to see if we would turn to the Book of John, the Gospel of John, chapter 15.
And when I notice, in particular two verses of that chapter, and that is verses 12, as well as verse 13., to see and value understanding of what it is that Jesus has done.
I would say that there's been times we have read through this, and we have read through the first section of this chapter to talk about Jesus saying I, I am the vine, you're the branches .
But then you get into the depth of all that he was saying related to that in verse 12, verse 13, where he says, this is my commandment that you love another, as I have loved you.
Greater love is no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends.
And I would say that a lot of us realize, especially based upon what Jordan was leading us in just a moment ago, and the songs that Cla was leading us in directing our thoughts toward the level of God.
We see the v of that verse 13 specifically, that laying down your life for someone is probably the greatest sacrifice that anybody could ever make.
And to put it in the context of what Jesus is saying, this sacrifice has its greatest significance in not just giving his life, but giving everything about him.
Especially when you read Flippians chapter 2 of him coming down of heaven and coming down to the earth, and then laying his life on the cross, allowing his life to be bled, dying, on the cross for our sake, going through the pain and the agony, and the anguish of all that.
So that sacrifice means a great deal when you see it in context of verse 13, the shedding of its blood for us, for all of us.
And there's so many different passages that we could look at and read and rather lengthy at that, to talk about this great sacrifice and how valuable it is to keep in the Marine that wonderful love shown by Jesus.
On to read something to you, though, that even emphasizes even more the value of a memory.
We, the people of the United States , in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense , promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
Do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.
That is the beginning of the preamble, as we know of the United States Constitution.
But there's one interesting thing about that statement.
There have been, since this statement first came into being in for us to see and preserved for us, if you go to Washington, D.C., you'll see in a museum where you can go see them and read all of it.
Or you can download it on your computer and see all the particular things that the Constitution says.
But what's been very interesting to me is how many millions of many women have laid there in their life for that statement, defending the rights of this country and the citizens of this country and sacrificing themselves.
Tomorrow, those of you well know, that there has been a holiday set up for memory of these individuals who have given themselves sacrificing themselves shedding their blood for the sake of this Constitution, for themselves and for the liberties of the citizens of this country, of which they defended.
It started back in eight, I should say, this is an interesting way to say this, the year 1,868.
May 30th of that day was the first decoration day that would remember those individuals who were the war dead, who gave their life, shed their blood, sacrifice themselves for the wellbeing of all of us, all the people that existed at that that time, but those that would exist in the future.
And I want to take, I want to use three words that really, I believe, might best represent and help us understand not only the sacrifice of those individuals for the sake of the United States of America and its Constitution, but also the parallel of that to the memory of our dear Savior and King Jesus the Christ.
The words I want to use this morning are the word fight, the word freedom, and the word future.
So let's talk about the first one, the word fight.
Wherever there is a battle, wherever there's a conflict, wherever there's a war, there's a struggle.
There's a fight going on.
If you look in the book of James chapter 4, verse 1, to verse 2, it gives you a very clear understanding of where this battle first existed, and usually that comes within us, within us.
He even uses the word, whence come the wars and whence come the fightings?
Do they not come hence from your own lust within you?
If you ever wanted to know why so many battles and wars and conflicts and struggles exist, that verse gives you the first indication that it came as a result of somebody not liking what somebody did to them.
Somebody was hurt.
Somebody was offended.
Somebody did something that caused them to lust within them, maybe some kind of revenge retaliation, even in words, but even in actions, that would call them to war, called them the contests.
In some cases, the opposing force or the opposition may not have known they were the opposition.
They may not have known at all that there was a battle that had to take place with them and some of the person or themselves some other group, or whatever it may be.
Think about it from the standpoint of when you look in scripture.
Paul himself struggled with things.
In Romans chapter 7, that begins at about verse 14 to the end of the chapter.
He just talked about all these personal struggles.
I wanted to do this, but this is what was going on within me.
It's a daily struggle.
And it was not some outside force coming in by what somebody said necessarily, what somebody did.
It was just these personal struggles of what he knew was good, versus what he knew was evil.
But then then you go through scripture and it begins to expand that struggle and battle by saying, okay, let's understand something in the book of Ees in chapter 6, verse 10 and verse 12, that he says, every one of us that are Christians that stand for the faith must understand that we are against an enemy.
We are battling against an enemy.
And you got to put on the shield.
You got to hold the sword.
You got to put on the breastplate.
You got to put all those pieces on to be able to do the fighting.
Then then it expands it more to say, okay, they may be world rulers of darkness that the fees in chapter 6 talks about, but then he talks about something in the book of Glacians chapter 5. That gives you the characteristics of this battle.
It's flesh versus spirit.
Then he begins to talk about it in verse 16 of the book of Election chapter 5.
It's this fight between the battle of the flesh and the spirit in your mind that either produces the words of the flesh or that he mentions, verse 22 and 23.
The works, excuse me, the fruits of the spirit.
So there's an outcome to this.
There's an outcome.
Wars and battles are experienced all the time between between the flesh and the Spirit.
If you think about all the many battles that are going on today, the wars that are taking place against creation, morality, and even reality.
Dying?
You know, we fight, dying.
We fight cancer, we fight diabetes, we fight heart blood pressure, we fight disease.
We're trying to fight to stay alive.
The battle, the conflict, even over the idea of injustice, there's these constant battles taking place, these constant things that are going on.
And a lot of it has to do with the selfishness that people want to hold on to and fight with and stand with their pride and stand against you and anybody that opposes it.
But here's something I think you might want to think about, that whenever there is a war, whenever there's a conflict, whenever there's a struggle, whenever there's a battle, someone or something's going to die .
Whenever there's a battle that takes place, we see evidence of it.
A building has been bombed.
There's a hole in a wall in your bedroom.
There's a mirror that's been broken.
There are relationships that are separated.
There are people that are isolated.
Every battle, every war, every struggle, every conflict, somebody, or something's that die, a relationship may die , or a matter of ignorance stops.
Because of the battle.
We're trying to make people understand and know that's all through scripture.
God tried to battle ignorance by getting people the information that they needed to know who he was and what his mission and what his purpose was in them coming to the world.
Immorality.
We're trying to make that end.
We're trying to do everything we can to make certain things cease and stop .
We like to see self-ishness die.
We want to try to stop that.
So every battle, every war, every conflict, every struggle, is to make something cease, put it to death.
It's either some cause that is false or it is a person.
It is amazing to me that we don't realize that often.
We just get in the middle of the conflict and have no idea what the consequences may be.
We're getting into a battle, we have no idea what the consequences may be.
And there are some times of which you already are introduced to it.
There was a case in the book of John chapter 17, where Jesus was, as he was finishing up, his last bit of prayer and exhortation and speaking to his apostles.
Since to them, you're going to have to deal with a battle or a war or a conflict or struggle with the world.
He's trying to get them prepared for the fact that the world's going to hate them and everything that they might do.
Here's an interesting thing, that sometimes there are people that are in the middle of fighting, a cause, a thing, a purpose, and in some cases, they're wondering, is it worth the fight?
In the book of Psalm chapter 1, do they keep going, we might think.
Psalm chapter 18, this is a very wonderful chapter about God's ability to provide for us all that we need, giving us victory.
And his ability through what you've seen the first three or four verses.
But I want you to notice what is stayed in verse 31.
Who is God, say, Jehovah, who is a rock besides our God?
The God that girds me was strength that makes my way perfect and makes my feet like hinds feet, sets me on high places , teaches my hands to war in verse 34, that my arms do bend a bow of brass. Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand is holding me up.
And thy gentleness has made me great.
The reason sometimes people want to quit fighting is they feel that they're all by themselves, and they' there's no one fighting this but them.
But in this case, when you're thinking thinking about the idea of righteousness, there's always going to be God with us, Psalm chapter 18, declares it very clearly that you're going to be given the ability with the strength of his right hand, to you , his arm, to provide the ability to endure the fighting, to keep going.
Is it worth the fight?
In the book of verse Timothy, at the end of the first book, chapter 6, verse 11, says, oh, man of God, flee the things. Flee the things that are evil, and follow after righteousness, God in this faith, love, patience, and meekness.
And there are sometimes times when you think about all the many evil evils and injustices and corruption and mmorality in the word, and you think, well, what's the use in fighting this?
He says, fight the good fight of the faith, and lay hold on the life eternal wherein thou wast called, and is confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.
It is worth every bit of the fight. However long the fight may take, if we don't have any idea, there's no time frame that says, okay, it's only going to last for a few days.
It's going to only last for just a few months.
By the end of the year, it'll be over.
And I know we've had so many promises made by so many different people that this war will end this time, this place, this circumstance will cease.
It'll stop.
In the second book of Timothy, chapter 2.
Here is the thing that Paul was telling Timothy about fighting.
He says, in verse 2, the things that you heard from me among many witnesses is the same commit of faithful man who shall be able to teach others also.
And then he talks about the soldier in verse 3 and says, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ .
No soldier of service entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier.
Wow, that's an interesting thing.
That sounds a whole lot like the phrase simplify.
Semplified Delis, that that Latin phrase. That soldiers know. Military men and women know very well.
Part of the US Armed Forces Code of Conduct says this, I am an American, fighting in the forces which guard our country and our way of life..
I am prepared to get my life in the defense.
I will never surrender of my own free will .
I will never forget that I am an American fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions and dedicated to the principles which made my country free.
I will trust in my God and in the the United States of America.
Those individuals that are military, men and women, they keep fighting.
They endure the battle, the conflict, the war, the struggle for the cause that they know is worthy to fight for.
And in Scripture, when you look at the book of 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6, what was it that Paul was saying about enduring this fight, of which he mentioned even of Timothy in the first place book of Timothy?
By the end of the book of 2 Time chapter 4, verse 6, he says, I have what fought a good fight?
I have finished the course, I have kept the the faith.
Henceforth, there is later for me a crown of righteousness.
N a memorial, non- place of stone, not a place of bronze, not a place of wood. Or gold.
I have laid up for me a crown of righteousness.
I'm going to be it's going to be given to me as a result of this fight that I endure.
And that's exactly what James said in James chapter 1, verse 12.
He says, Blessed is the man that endures temptation.
For then, therefore, he will be given the crown of life.
Memorial Day is when people are going to go to a grave or a memorial, and they're going to decorate it with flowers. With some means of remembrance of what was done.
And here we are every day as God's children to fight for a cause that is not just worthy of the fight.
But it's where it takes all of us if we endure.
But then we get to this second word, this word freedom.
One of the great common missions or objectives of a fight is for freedom.
Freedom that has never been head before, or in some cases, it's a matter of enduring freedom.
I don't know if you remember the enduring freedom.
It was that initiative that was set in place to do everything possible to get rid of Al-Qaeda and unwarodot, to do what they could to bring them down as a result of what they did in September 11, 2001, when there was a plane that went through buildings and one that even came down in Pennsylvania.
And they were fighting.
We are going to fight and do freedom.
We want to keep something stable.
We want to keep it just where it's supposed to be.
And when soldiers and airmen and shipmen, all these individuals wear this uniform for the cause of liberty , for the freedom of our land, they do it so this liberty can endure so that it will keep going.
They want to make sure this thing keeps going.
They fight continually.
And this honor to remember them is their gratitude for the sacrifice that they made.
And we know that, though we may sit down and eat our grilled hamburger or our barbecued ribs, that honor to those individuals is because the sacrifice and remembrance that's our means of gratitude to them for what they did.
It has been said at the grave is where gratitude and honor are remembered.
All of you that are in this audience, this morning, how many times has it been that you've gone to the grave of a family member that has passed?
And at some point in time in your recollection, you had a sense of gratitude, and you may have even verbally vocalized it right there at that gray site.
You shown honor by bringing flowers.
And that honor that you show to them is a means of gratitude.
And then when you walk away, do you ever remember it anymore?
Let's listen to something.
Let's listen to Revelation chapter 1.
And Revelation 1, there is a place established as a means of a memorial of which freedom was received as a result of a fight that brought about the shedding of blood.
In verse 5, it says on Revelation 1, from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, unto him that loves us and loos us from our sins by his blood.
The remembrance, the recall of what Jesus' death brought is freedom.
Freedom.
But it came at a cost.
It came at a price.
It came at his blood, His sacrifice.
And it as our remembrance of him today, and that place where that took action, effort on his part to go through what God asked of him to do, and dying at that cross, there's your memorial.
It's at the cross. Where we find ourselves showing the gratitude.
It is a test of our gratitude for us to remember what it is that Jesus has done continually, not just a one time thing, always.
And until many times we go to the cross, do we remember, do we express gratitude for that?
That sacrifice made, the blood that we shed?
For in that sacrifice, in that memorial is just giving us a very clear understanding that there was something to be free from.
It's a removal, it's a removal, it's a redemption, and it's restoration of your life.
And then the process of what was done at the death at the death of the cross of Jesus at the cross was to bring about a removal of a freedom from something , abundance to sin.
It is a means of redeeming.
It's bringing life back to you.
It's a matter of restoration.
It's bringing you back to the relationship that you need with God.
Listen to these words.
In the book book of John, the gospel, John chapter 8, you will notice a statement that is made.
This is Jesus talking to his disciples, or Jesus talking to the audience that is there, the Jews primarily.
And the Jews that are there believed him.
He said, if you believe me, you abide in my word, then you're truly my disciples.
If you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
They answer, we are Abraham seed in and never been in bondes to any man.
How do you say to us, you shall be free?
Jesus says, vely, I say unto you, everyone that commits sin is the bond service of sin.
Now, what do we do now?
What's we're in bondage?
We need release.
We need freedom.
And he says in verse 35 , The bond servant abides not in the house forever.
The sun abides forever.
If therefore, the sun shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
The freedom comes at the cross where Jesus is.
There's your memorial of all that God has done in him, for us, for our sake, to be free.
And it makes perfect sense that John 10 verse 11 would say, the shepherd lays then his life for his friends.
But here's something I want you to think about before we go to the last point, and that's this.
The freedom.
In the book of Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12.
In that, it's opposite of what we would want to remember.
He says, there's sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
God does not set up a memorial and says, okay, this is your shame, memory.
This is your sin memory.
This is your guilt memory.
This thing that I made for you out of wood, out of bronze, out of gold, is for you to come to and remember your shame, remember your guilt, remember your sin , all your transgression.
I want you to really have it vividly in your mind every single day you live.
No,, God says, their sins and their iniquities, will I remember no more.
And he doesn't say, put a cross around your neck and wear it every day so that you remember this.
He doesn't say, get across, tattooed on your arm, tattooed on your ankle.
He doesn't say, make sure you got a wall hanging up Jesus hanging on the cross.
He doesn't say, get some kind of tablecloth that's got Jesus on the cross and lay it on the table .
He doesn't say, put all those images out there to say, okay, here's what I want you to do.
I want you to do this.
So you remember your sin.
You remember your freedom from sin.
We know, we don't have to see the cross.
We understand.
We live by faith through the Spirit to know that the cross is the memorial where freedom existed.
Through him dying on the cross in his resurrection on the third day, we know this is going to be freedom.
We don't have to wear something to show it.
Yes.
Because God says, your sins and iniquities, will I remember no more, I don't want you to remember them either.
But here's what we come to the last point is the future.
Every memorial has become to be in many instances, a signpost for the future.
We established this for the realization of what took place.
The unprecedented freedom, both civil and religiously, that we have are just enormous enormous.
There's, many years ago in the name of George Santiana, who made a statement as a Spanish American philosopher, said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Winston Churchill said, after that, almost identical words by saying, those who forget the past are destined to repeat it.
We, God's people.
We, God's people, are a memorial people.
For what reason?
Why did God put up all these memorials?
In the case in the book of Ex chapter 12, it's a memorial of you knowing of the righteousness of God for his people to deliver them.
Even the statement that was made in Book of chapter 5, ver verse 15, when he was saying, remember this sabb day and keep it holy?
You may not know this, but maybe you need to remember that that was for them to see the freedom that they had and experience from being released from Egyptian bondage.
And then he says,Remember this Abad day and keep it holy.
Remember that.
And we have found ourselves understanding clearly as we've done this morning, in the book of 1 Cantians 11, verse 24 to verse 26, that the memory of Jesus dying on the cross was a fight against sin and Satan, so that we would be free.
And he says, you proclaim his death until he comes for the future.
It's for the future benefit.
That way, we won't forget what it is that Jesus did for us.
From the book of Deuteronomy chapter 4 and chapter 6, all the way through to the book of Hebrews chapter 2, we are given this phrase, let we forget forget, or drift away.
He gives you this information.
He gives you these instructions, follow these commands, lest you forget for the people of Israel, lest you forget that what God did by delivering you from the Egyptian bondage.
And for us today, why is it that we observe the Lord's Supper?
Lest you forget?
What's the meaning of all the signs?
What's the meaning of all these things?
Hebrews chapter 2?
Lest you forget.
And if we find ourselves forgetting, then we really put at risk our assurance of our destiny.
That's Hebrews chapter 6, verse 4, verse 8.
We put it risk.
The promise of our eternal redemption with God in heaven.
There is Let's do this.
Let's go to 1 Timy chapter 1.
Because the first time in chapter 1, there is something going on here verse 1 12 to verse 17.
I' love to get into this in death, but I'm just going to briefly mention this to you.
Here's a man.
Let me just say this.
The idea of the future poses a great difficulty and a challenge for a lot of people because they hold on to the past. And their mistakes.
They're shamed, their guilt, their pain, and everything that goes with it.
I don't believe God says, you need to hold on to that.
Pull it out every day, look at it, just as a reminder of what you forsook stop stopped and ceased doing.
There are a lot of people that say, I wish all this would go away.
I just wish this would stop.
I wish this would cease.
But a hindrance of the future has a lot to do with the memories of the past.
And here, first came in chapter 1 1, I want you to notice what's been being said by Paul as relates to the present and the past and the future.
I thank Him enabling me, even Jesus Christ, our Lord, the economy faithful, appointing me to this service.
Present, present.
Though I was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, how I obtain mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord abounding exceeding with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
That's all the past.
Faithful is saying your words of acceptation that Jesus Christ came to the word of the safe centers of whom I'm chief.
That's the past.
For this cause, I obtain mercy that in me as chief, Jesus Christ show forth all his long suffering for an example to them that should therefore believe on him and to eternal life.
That's the future.
We sometimes have this idea that maybe what we need is some kind of memory erasing prescription.
Like go to somewhere that can do some kind of mental therapy for your brain and start wiping out all the past.
Take some kind of prescription medicine.
Some kind of way to get rid of all the past.
If we can do that, maybe if we got some kind of delivering process, like a demon delivering method, that we might get rid of the past, and maybe that makes better for the future.
Sometimes, when it comes down to memory, it's it's like it's a denial thing of where they look at it and they say, there's kind of, give myself 24 hours and tomorrow I'll forget it.
Like it never happened..
It's almost like that event never took place.
And we want everybody else to feel this very same way, that my memory, denial, that's the way God wants us.
It's denying that ever took place, so that way we will do what we need to do.
It's very similar to what Paul said about what's behind Inphippians chapter 3, verse 13, forgetting all the things that are about behind and look forward to the things are before.
He says, and we sometimes think about the past, we say, I wish I could do that.
That's what I need to do.
Things will be so much better for the future.
Flippians chapter 3, versese 13 is parallel with what you see here in 1 10 to chapter 1 that Paul is talking about in verse 12.
He does not deny the past.
He does not find himself okay okay, erasing the past.
It's very vivid.
It is very real. But it's a matter of him going through what we might know as memory transformation.
Now, everything is different, based on three crucial things.
Number one, it's the deep repentance of the past, and you see it in the words of verse 13, verse 14.
He talks about the severity of all that he did.
It's not comparing what I did to everybody else.
I did it ignorantly and unbelieved.
He talked about the severity of this.
But it's this deep repentance of the past that enables him to go to the future .
But it's all because of what verse 14 says, the great grace of God, the long suffering of God.
He waited for this to happen to me.
I amm the chief of sinners.
And no, he would say, you can't compare to what I've done, but he's not trying to compare what you've done or haven't done to what He's doing.
He's just giving you and I the understanding that it's all about Jesus .
He shows us Jesus.
He declares us to us Jesus.
He tells us all about Jesus, shows us everything about what Jesus does.
He mentioned that in just about every verse of this text to the point that he wants to be the example that shows everybody for the future.
You can be saved just like me. Just like me.
Though you may think your shame is so deep, your guilt is so bad, your hurt is so offensive, and you want to fight everybody else.
Don't fight that.
Let me be the one who shed his blood and allowed you the point of being free.
So that the future, you will be used, you will be responsible, you will be accountable, and you will be grateful for the opportunity to be a child of God.
That's the future.
That's the future.
If we hold on to the past and don't give ourselves memory transformation, we will either deny or we will find ourselves coming to the point of trying to figure out some way way to erase it.
That is if it never happened.
But he sees it, and knowing what Jesus did for him, realizes, I'm going to be what he wants me to be.
Deep repentance brings a back confession, and Jesus is the Christ.
The grace of God in his abundance, realizes that he's the only one that can remove the past. And it is the example of God saving you that you take to somebody else and say, this is what God did for me, he can do the same thing for you.
Do what's right, while together, we sing this song.
