May 28, 2017

Things to Remember this Memorial Day

Pastor: Jeff Bedwell Scripture: John 15:13

Memorial Day Weekend 2017
Things To Remember on Memorial Day
John 15:13

(To download and print blank sermon notes to complete while you listen, click HERE.)

Memorial Day has lost some of its meaning through the years.

Things To Remember

  1. We remember our Freedom
  • With freedom comes great Opportunity - Be Grateful
  • With freedom comes great Responsibility - Be Wise

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” (1 Peter 2:16–17)

  1. We remember our Soldiers
  • We remember their Service

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

  • We remember their Sacrifice

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

  1. We remember our God

And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,” (Deuteronomy 8:10–14)

  • We exist by His Power

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’” (Acts 17:26–28)

You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:18)

  • We exist for His Glory

And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.” (Ezekiel 39:21)

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Making It Personal:

  • How have you responded to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on your behalf? Are you depending on Him as Savior and surrendered to Him as Lord?
  • How are you using the freedom that you have in Christ?
  • How are you using the freedom and opportunities secured for you through God’s providence and the service and sacrifice of our soldiers?
  • What adjustments do you need to make to more gratefully use the freedoms and opportunities that you have been entrusted with by God?