Memorial Day, Live @ Red Wing Park

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. As we reflect on, we celebrate our bringing to memory of those who have fallen for us. Again, thank you. We relate it to the thing that you have done for us, Lord Jesus.

How we can take this. You gave it all. You gave the greatest price for us, Lord Jesus. And there was no mountain. There was no valley.

There was nothing that separated you from us because of your great love, Lord. So today, we celebrate that. We use this name as, although this is a national holiday where we remember those who have passed, Lord, we ultimately remember you, God, because of who you are, what you've done. And we can celebrate that today, God, because we are rescued by the price that you paid, by what you did, by giving your life for us, and then rising against the dead. And we celebrate that.

God, there is no mountain. There is no valley. There is nothing that stands in the way of your great love. We have the privilege to come together today and worship you in the open because of freedom, because people have given their lives so that we can have these moments, Lord, where your spirit is present even in the open. And we celebrate that today, God.

Thank you so much, Lord. We give this. It's time to you. We give this word. We lay it down.

This is you speaking, Lord, not me. Spirit, speak to us. Spirit, minister to us. Spirit, do what you do best. Spirit, do what you do best.

Bring life change. Bring life through your word, God. Minister to us, Lord Jesus. In your name. Amen.

Give him a praise. I wonder what I'm going to speak on today. As I was thinking about Memorial Day and what to share with you guys and the shelter in the heat, without being long-winded, I was thinking about those who have given their lives. I never got an opportunity to meet my uncle, who was killed in Vietnam, recon unit, 18 years old. But as my mom tells me the story of the soldier coming up to her door and the expression on her mother's face as she heard that her son had died.

I've had an opportunity to go to D.C. a few times and walk up to the Memorial Wall and seek his name there. And the emotion that that brings, the sacrifice, a mother's sacrificing, family's sacrificing, a man's sacrificing, his life, the sacrifice that people have made. And we, you know, not taking for granted these days, it's beautiful that we get to come together, we get to have a barbecue, we get to enjoy each other, we get to fellowship, we get to play games, we get a holiday, you know, we get to the beach.

I had somebody posted the other day a meme that says, you know, your day on the beach, their day on the beach. And we have Normandy, that's ever storming in. And because of that, we get to celebrate today in freedom. We get to go to the beach. We have all these privileges on Memorial Day weekend.

And freedom has a price. A lot of people have paid a price for freedom. And in John 15, 12, and 13, many of you are familiar with this scripture, but Jesus is talking to his disciples and he makes this statement. He says, my command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's plans.

What a day to take that verse, that scripture, and bring it to reality, right? To think about everyone who has given their lives for such a day. Memorial Day is unique to our nation in that we are probably the only nation in the world that celebrates something like this. But we pause and we think about and reflect with those who gave their lives for our nation. It started back at the end of the Civil War.

Some concerned women decided to decorate the graves of soldiers who had given their lives in one of the most awful conflicts. that our nation has ever seen, a conflict that was, again, brother against brother, just the bloodshed that took place. And they began to go out and honor those soldiers as they laid things on the grave, remembering them. And that day is intended to stir us up to grateful recall of those who have given their lives. And it should be more than a holiday.

It should be something that...it should be, you know, freedom. We think freedom, the celebration. Let us not forget that. Memorial Day is simply something that we...

a day we just set aside. Anything you memorialize, it's about to remember. So we're remembering and recalling in the midst of our lives, in the midst of the sometimes chaos of our lives, right? There's a lot of things going on. We get to stop, we get a holiday, and we get to remember.

And there are some important truths we can take from Memorial Day. Here's a few that I wrote down as I reflected on John 15, 13, and 14. Because of this day, we should remember, number one, freedom has a price. Freedom really does have a price. There is a man, and some of you may have heard him speak, named Cleve McCleary, a Vietnam vet.

He travels, he speaks, he's a believer, evangelist, all of the above. And there's a patch on his left eye where his eye had once been. He has a hook on his arm, where the arm of a strong athlete once was. And he had been through numerous surgeries to reconstruct his face. At 26 years old, Cleve McCleary left his coaching career to enlist in the Marine Corps.

While leading the 19th recon unit through the jungles of Vietnam, Cleve and his 12 men were attacked. And two gave their lives, four others were severely wounded. And McCleary was miraculously lifted to safety by a helicopter. And on his plaque that was presented to him from his men, they made this statement. In this world of give and take, there are all too few who are willing to give what it takes.

And Cleve McCleary was one of those men and many others that we know that we personally were involved with possibly. We've all lost people somewhere down the line for this reason that they gave what it took for freedom. And freedom has always been bought with blood. There's always been something more, a blood sacrifice for freedom. And on this day, we should be reminded of that.

On July 4th, 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, Adam said in an address before the Congress, he said, Live or die, sink or swim, survive or perish, I am committed to this Declaration of Independence. I am committed. And if God wills it, I am ready to die or I am ready to die that this nation may be free. And those who have shed their blood across the world on many different battlefields would cry out those words today. Remember the cost of freedom.

It was precious blood that was shed for our freedom. Number two, we determine the value of the price paid by others for our freedom. We actually determine the value. It's easy for us to remiss or forget the value that we ourselves should place on people. We have a responsibility even.

That's why we have Memorial Day. We step back. We have a responsibility. And no matter what side of the political spectrum you're on, this is a day that we have to stop and throw away all those things about the direction our country is going, whether we believe it's going the right direction or the wrong direction and all the battles that are going on and all, you know, the CNNs and the Fox Newses and everything that's going on around us. We've got to stop and we've got to reflect and we've got to think about what people have given and the value is determined by what we place on those individuals that have given their lives.

There were values attached to these freedoms. When people decided to enlist. When people go into war. When my uncle, instead of being volunteer, he chose, he and a group of friends went out and they chose to enlist and go straight into Vietnam. There was values that they fought for.

Values of freedom. And whenever those values are lost, then that freedom is lost and then it's lawlessness. In the book of Judges 176, in those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And that was the day of the judges. God sent judges in to lead the nation of Israel through those times.

And if we ever get caught in this idea, if we don't place value on what was given for our freedoms, then we become jaded. We lose heart. And we have no direction to place our focus on. Therefore, the values that were fought for are lost. So it's important for us to stop and reflect in the price that was paid.

We decide those values. We decide what value is placed on that person that gave their life. Number three, freedom brings with it responsibility. We have a responsibility. We have a responsibility.

Did you know that? As a citizen of the United States of America, we don't want to forfeit those responsibilities that we have. In fact, I'll let you know that. In fact... I love this.

I was reading this story. On a battlefield in France in 1918, Sergeant Major Robert S. McCormick was instrumental in saving the life of his commanding officer, Major Harry Parkin. Every year, for 25 years, on the anniversary of the event, Mr. Parkin wrote a letter to express his gratitude to the man that saved his life.

And in 1943, in the 25th of those annual letters, he wrote this. He said, I again want to express to you my appreciation for another year of life which I could not have ordinarily have enjoyed, had it not been for you and the price you were willing to pay to save my life. I want you to know how grateful I am. 25 years, on that very anniversary, he brought to remembrance this man who had given his life or sacrificed and saved him. We have a responsibility to be grateful as U.

S. citizens. As Christians, we have a responsibility to be grateful for what all that God has done to us. We could have been born anywhere else in this world, but we were born in a prosperous, free nation. Hallelujah to that.

Amen? You could have been born in a third world country with nothing. So most of the world has nothing, right? And we are born, so we take this day and we realize what we have and how grateful we are for it. And we have a responsibility also to be involved.

We need to be involved with the affairs of our country. We don't want to become jaded. We don't want to become just apathetic about what's going on. We need to be concerned. We need to be praying.

We need to be seeking God. We need to pray for our leaders, no matter who our leaders are. We pray for our country. We're involved spiritually. We're involved as citizens of our country and the affairs of our country.

And we have a responsibility to learn from those who went before us, right? We look at our ancestors, those who have gone before us and set the way, the people that came here and founded this country, learning from them the value that they placed on this thing that we call freedom. So we need to return to those values of our forefathers. And then number four, Jesus epitomizes the ultimate price of freedom. See, you can't get away from this when you think about freedom and you think about the blood that was shed by others and the cost, the high value that was placed on the values, basically us in our country, the price that was paid.

Because the greater the price, right? The greater the price, the greater the sacrifice, the value you place on that very thing, right? He placed great value on us. He saw us, sinful people, so far from him, and he put great value on us. He put himself up on a cross and died Christ in us.

The Father looked at us and says, Son, I'm going to sacrifice you, my most beloved son on the cross. What greater love is there than for one to give their own life for a friend? What greater love is it for one to give everything so that someone can be free? And that's what Jesus did. He freed us from the bondage of sin.

We're no longer controlled by sin. We are liberated by sin. We are set free. Scripture says we are set free. Christ shed his blood to set us free.

And we determine in our lives the value of his death even when we think and we reflect on the cross. Because so many times we can get caught up with our entitled and beautiful, blessed lives and forget. And so on Memorial Day we need to step back and think. I'm going to place, I'm going to think about the value that Christ placed on the cross. That he gave it all so that I can be free today.

We have that responsibility to live for God because he died for us. Isn't that beautiful? That Memorial Day can be that for us as believers, as Christians. Many, many, many people today are celebrating it for many, many different reasons. But we as believers, we most importantly said not only are we celebrating the freedom of our country, but we can celebrate and we can worship and we can praise him because he has made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

And if you're here today, maybe that doesn't make a lot of sense to you. Maybe you see a lot of happy, excited people around here that love Jesus. But you've never made a decision for Jesus. Let that be, let this be, let Memorial Day be that day for you. Let Memorial Day be that day where you cross the line from death to life.

That you learn what freedom and liberation is really all about. Because we can be physically free, but until you're spiritually free, nothing else matters. And God wants that for us. Take that value principle and place it. Look to Jesus.

Because Jesus wanted everything for you. He wants everything for you today. And he has it available for you. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you so much for your goodness, your faithfulness. Oh, we can go the wrong direction, Lord, but you steer us right back. You run after us. Or you run over valleys and hills and there's nothing that separates us. And today, as we set aside a little, you know, life and enjoy each other, enjoy our families, enjoy barbecue, enjoy time in the park, time at the beach, our days off, and as we begin our summer, and as we go through our summer, let us not forgive, Lord.

We don't want to forgive the goodness, the greatness, the decision, the selfless decision that you made on the cross, that you changed, that you brought us out of darkness into darkness. To eternal life. And that we have joy and hope because of that today. And if there is someone here that does not know you, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would stir their hearts to understand and see when you would open your eyes together. And that they would pray this with me.

If that's you're here today with all his eyes closed, if you're here today and you haven't made a decision for Jesus, make that decision today. It's available for you. That's why he did what he did. He put it on the cross. He put it all on the cross.

The blood covers everything. You're not too far from him. That you cannot have a relationship with him. But just pray this with me. It's not anything magical in the prayer.

It's just believing. It's just putting your trust in him and knowing who he is. Father, I believe that you are the son of God. That you died on the cross for my sin. Amen.

I ask you to come into my life and change me from the inside out. Today I make the decision to walk with you in freedom. Because you paid it all. A high price was paid. And I can be free of it.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.