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Open your Bibles to Joshua 4:1-7
Memorial Day in America…what does it mean?
"Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices." — Harry S. Truman, 33rd U.S. President, 1945
Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday of May.
The Wounded Warrior Project says, “Memorial Day is an American holiday on the last Monday of May. It honors fallen service members of the U.S. military. While most know Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, many don’t know its exact history, importance, or how to properly pay tribute.”
I’d like to take a moment of silence to thank, and honor all who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country, our freedoms, and our families.
This isn’t going to be your typical Memorial Day Service. We are here to honor God above all else and today as your pastor I’m going to point you to Jesus just like I’m supposed to do.
If I asked you, how many times did God part waters? What would you say?
- 1?
- 2?
- 3?
- Did you even know God parted water?
Answer is 4…technically 5.
Through the power of the Lord…
- Moses parted the Red Sea…Exodus 14:21
- Joshua parted the Jordan…Joshua 3:15
- Elijah parted the Jordan…2 Kings 2:8
- Elisha parted the Jordan…2 Kings 2:14
- Technically…God separated the waters from the dry land…Genesis 1:9
When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, 3 and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” 4 Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. 5 And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
What should be our true memorial?
- Remembering what the Lord has done for us!
- Just like the Lord has said here in these verses…these stones were placed as a memorial of God’s providence, love, security, provision, and so many other things.
- Waters were parted
- Walked on dry ground
- Memorial rocks were setup
- Memorial didn’t need to be seen, just remembered
What has God done for me?
- Everything!
- The most important…Sent His Only Son to DIE FOR YOU!
What has God done for me?
- Created you
- Loved you
- Forgiven you
- Sacrificed for you
- If you believe in Jesus and trust Him in your heart He has sanctified you
Who did Jesus die for?
- Jesus died for the Jewish people…wrong!
- Jesus died for Christian people…wrong!
- Jesus died for the elect…wrong!
- If that was the case then what are we doing here today?
- What is the point of you accepting Jesus as your Savior?
- What is the point of you following Jesus if it’s already decided. Go live how you want!
- Romans 8:29 says “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
- The keyword here is “foreknew”. God knows your heart before you do.
- God knows your sinfullness
- God knows if you love Him
- God knows if you believe in Him
- God knows if you’ll listen to Him
- God knows if you’ll trust Him with your life
- God knows if you’ll repent of your sins against Him
- God knows if you’ll accept the grace of forgiveness and mercy being offered to you by Him
- God “foreknew” you before you were even formed in your mother’s womb;
- Jeremiah 1:5 ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
- Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”
- God knows, and has always known if you would willingly be sanctified by the blood of Jesus.
- Thereby; those who have accepted the grace offered to them are sanctified, becoming one of the elect, and are predestined.
- You and I don’t have that information. Only God does. Your name, is written in the Lambs Book of Life if you believe in and trust Jesus Christ as Lord of your life through His birth, death, and resurrection.
- Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
- Romans 8:33 “33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,”
- Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
- Romans 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
- John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
- John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
- 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”
- Romans 6:10 “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- I’m not a Calvinist…God hasn’t chosen who will and won’t go to Heaven and Hell.
- We have a Savior, Christ Jesus that scripture, God’s Holy Word tells us about!
Our memorial is the cross…it’s not an idol though and should never be. Just a memorial.
- The difference between a Christian Cross and Crucifix is this…
- Jesus on the cross…He’s not there anymore.
- The Cristian Cross looks like this…Jesus isn’t there.
- Jesus has RISEN!
- JESUS HAS CONQUERED DEATH!
- JESUS IS ALIVE FOREVERMORE!
- WE WHO BELIEVE ARE ALIVE WITH CHRIST JESUS!
Romans 8:38 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Let us Celebrate the Risen Christ and hold memorial in our hearts everyday!