Memorial Day – The Incredible Value of Life and the Way to Everlasting Life– Purity 743

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of sunset over the St. Sebastian River in St. Sebastian, Florida comes to us from a friend who shared this pic back on April 29th with the comment, "Fire in the sky." Well, it's Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and even though I have to work today, I am still happy for the long weekend. And in light of the significance of the holiday that we are celebrating, I am by no means complaining. I recently saw a cartoon on social media that I am sharing on the blog today that depicts a person filling their gas tank and looking over a cemetery with tombstones emblazoned with epitaphs such as Normandy, Okinawa, Pearl Harbor, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and many others, with the character stating, "I'm not going to complain about the high cost of anything this weekend," reminding us all that there have been many who paid the ultimate cost of their lives in the service of our country. In light of the cost others have paid for the service to our country, the inflation that we have been experiencing seems like a burden we can bear. The lives paid in service to our country puts our immediate concerns in perspective when we consider the fleeting nature but immense value of our human lives. Remembering the loss of life that this holiday celebrates helps us to see the big picture. Our lives are more important than money, and the Lord considered us all worth the cost of the life of his beloved Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we remember the men and women who died in the service of our country, we can have mixed feelings of gratitude, sadness, and even fear. We can be grateful because their lives were sacrificed for the greater good of our country and in the name of freedom that they fought to win or maintain. We can be sad because the lives were ended prematurely and the gift of the individuals who died to to our communities and families were also cut short. And we may fear for the departed because even though the dead will be given honor this weekend in our country, their lives may have been lived in vain if their souls were not reconciled to God. This fear can only be quenched with the certainty that God knows all, is merciful, and never gets anything wrong. Service to a country in and of itself won't be honored by God. Noble deeds done for an evil cause are still evil. Evil deeds done in the name of a noble cause still need to be forgiven. Our work— our, our good works— our works, good as noble as they may be, is not what saves us. While servicemen and women can be said to have died for our freedom, and we should be thankful for their service, only faith in Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross will give us ultimate freedom from sin and death. Faith in Christ alone will reconcile us to God and save us from His wrath. Christ frees us from the, from the just penalty of our sin and gives us everlasting life. So as much as we honor the departed this weekend, we should always be aware of the big picture and share the good news of Jesus to sh— uh, of Jesus to share God's love and the freedom that will endure for all eternity. Um, no matter what country we hail from, we will all answer the Lord and we answer to the Lord and we must be right with him. One way we can know the Lord's character and plans for our lives is through His Word. This morning's my Bible study covered Psalm 103, and I'm sharing it to reveal more of that big picture that looks beyond the nations of this world and focuses on the One who created us in His image and wishes to redeem our lives through the gift of His Son. Psalm 103 says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all our iniquities, who heals all our diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your our youth is renewed like the eagle's. The LORD executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 7 As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes; 8 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 9 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, 10 to such as keep his covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. So this weekend, remember and honor the sacrifices of those who died for our country, but never lose sight of the big picture and seek to bless the Lord, O my soul, by walking and talking with God every day to stay close to him and to know his peace, and by sharing the good news of the sacrifice of Jesus that can set us all free. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verses are John 3:16-17, and they say: For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world but to save the world through him. Today's Bible verse is the good news of Jesus Christ and reminds us of God's mercy. The purpose of Christ's first coming was to pay for our sins on the cross. Although he was holy, Christ didn't come to judge us, but he did implore people to repent and to sin no more and to believe in him. Faith in Christ gives us freedom from sin and death. We receive eternal life and a new power to turn from our sins in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in us. In Christ, we are forgiven and we become new creations as we are adopted into God's royal family when we put our faith in Jesus. The contemplation of death and judgment fill us with fear, but God made a way for us to be saved, and we need only seek it and agree with it by confessing Jesus as our Lord and Savior to receive it. I was lost, but now I am found, and I pray that we who have been— who have placed our faith in Jesus rejoice over our salvation and endeavor to share the love of God by encouraging others to put their faith in Christ. As always, I invite all to go to m.t. forchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, and, uh, today we begin sharing from chapter 9, uh, which is The Majesty of Christ in Missions and Mercy: A Plea to This Generation. And, uh, you know, basically Piper shares about, uh, well, a couple different things. So go check it out, uh, the unforgettable night, the detour from God and how God caught Adoniram Judson for Burma. So yeah, he shares some stories about the mission field and how, you know, we can share— how others have shared the love of God by going, going into the mission field to serve the kingdom and to make, make his kingdom known by people sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I for one have been in the mission field on a few different, you know, vacation mission trips, and, uh, I recommend it highly. If you can take a vacation mission trip, you should, because it's really stepping out of faith, um, you know, surrendering your life to the purposes of God for a short time. You know, we can't always be, you know, clergy or pastors or whatever, but You know, in the mission field we can serve just by doing, you know, well, it depends on what the mission is, you know, building a church or distributing things to the poor or just, you know, delivering a message, a testimony about what God's done in our lives and the truth of the gospel, you know, are all things we could do in the mission field and that mission field could be right here in the US. You know, your work, your workplace could be your mission field. Your local community, your families can be your mission field for those who don't know Christ. You know, where do— you know, why would we— why do we have to share our faith? Well, because it's of immense value and it can save people's lives. We're gonna honor people who have died for our country. We we should, we should give honor to God who died for everyone, um, and who cannot just maintain the freedom of a country but who can give you freedom that lasts forever. And, and, and of that Psalm, which is obviously pre-Christ, you know, in that Psalm 103 today that we shared, many of the verses said, you know, for those who fear God, you know, we have to have a respect for him and a relationship with him. We're not in a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, those promises of forgiveness don't apply to us. So we need to let people know that it really matters what you believe. Christ didn't come and implore people to believe in me, um, because it didn't matter. He came to earth for a purpose, and the purpose was to save people, set them free. So we we should share that good news and, uh, and, and rejoice over continually. Otherwise, we can just, you know, make a profession of faith, forget about it, and go about our business. But, um, the Lord calls us to follow him, so we should follow and share that good news. His, you know, his last— the Great Commission is to go and make disciples of all the earth and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we should sort of do that as Christians. If we're going to enjoy the benefits of being in the kingdom, we should, we should share it. We should share, share the benefits and share the good news. So we'll do that. Well, it's Saturday. Um, the one thing about this weekend is there usually are memorial services to remember the, the dearly departed, and, uh there's usually parties to celebrate life. It doesn't necessarily always have to be a somber affair, but we shouldn't forget the reason that some people, you know, have lost loved ones to these wars, and it's deeply, you know, it's a deeply personal loss that they're remembering this weekend. And so we shouldn't be blasé about our celebrations. And be sensitive to those around us. And if we see someone in need or someone who seems to be sad, we can minister to them by being present and, you know, and talking to them and serving them and caring for them. Because maybe they didn't lose a loved one to the service, but they may have lost someone in their family. As my family, I suffered the loss of my wife's uncle this week, so that's still happening. And for my mother-in-law, that's the loss of her brother. You know, these are the hard things in life, is that the families we build will slowly, you know, decrease in size as we age. And, you know, when we know the truth of life and death and and how it, how it relates to the kingdom of the Lord, we can have hope, um, that death is just a transition into God's kingdom. But we have to make sure that our family members have entrance into the kingdom, and that only comes through faith in Christ. So it's important to share that truth in love and encourage people to, to make that decision for Christ. We can't save them, but we can certainly tell them how they can be saved, um, and the Lord can work in their hearts and minds to, to bring them into his kingdom. So that's what we do, and we encourage it not just for our salvation for the afterlife, but for the great power that comes through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to change our lives, to have us repent of our sin and turn from the worldly ways, to find the peace that we were so desperately looking to We're looking for fine fulfillment and satisfaction through all the things of the world, and if you do it long enough, you realize none of that stuff satisfies— riches, relationships, activities, or whatever. They all sort of— they can certainly occupy our time, but they sort of miss meaning and purpose, although we could I, like I said, they could certainly occupy our time, but ultimate, you know, what happens after this life is a big question. That's a big picture question that we need to take care of. And, and when we get the answer to that one, uh, it sort of influences how we live our lives on earth. You know, when we realize there's a kingdom that we're going towards, we should, you know, um, learn about it and try to live according to the way God tells us to live. And to see why he tells us to live that way. Well, it turns out we walk in the Spirit, we experience the fruit of the Spirit, which are all very good list, as you can see in Galatians 5:22-23. Love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, patience, and self-control, uh, are great things to have. How do you have them? Well, you walk in the Spirit. And that's why we do the blog, uh, that's why we do the podcast, to encourage people in that walk. And we do that on the podcast by sharing our classes we taught in 2021 for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. And we share our Bible study discussions that we do once a week. All of these, uh, things we share to encourage people, um, to walk in their faith, and they're all based on the word of God. Those teachings were also based on the work of Dr. Neil Anderson, who found the truths through his counseling and watched people get set free when people came to the Lord and, um, you know, repented and renounced the lies they had believed and agreed with the truth of God's word. So that's the victory of our faith— freedom and everything, freedom at life and death and everywhere in between. So that's what we preach, because that's what we know. And, you know, it's not just what we know, it's what we learned from the word of God. You know, everything we speak is based on our experiences, but it's also based on our seeking to be reconciled to God through following his word and will for our lives. So we encourage you to do that. We encourage you to enjoy today. We pray for the to go before us today. Um, although it's a day off for many, it's not a day off for me, so I wouldn't mind His sovereign control to, to shape my day, to, to make it, uh, to make it a good one. But if we focus on the Lord, no day is too bad. Um, He can always give us peace and strength when we need it. So that's what we're going to pray for today. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you for this We thank you for the men and women who sacrifice their lives for the greater good of their country and who, who selfishly endured hardships and paid the ultimate cost for our country. Lord, we don't, we don't take their sacrifice lightly, and we thank you for their example and your example of that sacrificial giving. That put others above themselves. Um, and, uh, Lord, we of course thank you for Jesus Christ, who put himself, uh, who gave himself for all of us, uh, that we could all come into your kingdom. Lord, Lord, we pray for you to go before us today. We pray for all the people listening today. We pray for them to be blessed by you, Lord, with healing, revelations, insights, and whatever other blessings you have for them, Lord. We pray for them to be committed to the path that you lie before them and to remember you and to follow you all the days of their lives. Lord, we pray for your anointing on us today to open our eyes, to show us the beauty of the world, and to show us what you want us to see today. And we pray for you to, you know, go before us, uh, and guide us in our, in our path today. And whatever good works you want us to walk into us walk into. Let us see them and let us walk into them to represent you here on the earth. Lord, we thank you so much for all you've done, and we love you. We praise your holy name, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.