Must It Be All Memories

Must It Be All Memories?

Psalms 33:12

A Message for Memorial Day

Psalm 33:12 (KJV)
¹²Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Memorial Day. It is a simple phrase that brings an avalanche of emotion from each of us. Each of us has our own set of memories, and today we remember those who risked their lives, and indeed in many cases gave their lives in order for us to have the freedom which we so enjoy. We remember the men and women who put on a uniform to serve our country. We remember those who have fought the good fight. We remember those who came home victorious, and grieve for those who never returned home at all.

Today we must remember. We need to remember the blood that was shed to make this country great. We need to remember the men and women serving yet today in hostile environments, laying their lives on the line to serve their country. May God bless our troops home and abroad on this day of remembrance.

Today we must remember. We need to remember the times past; a time when God Himself was the god of our land; a time when morality was more than outdated nostalgia. We need to remember a time when our values were good, and our neighborhoods safe. We need to remember a time when families were together, and children were respectful. We need to remember a time when sin was sin, and the church did not tolerate a sinful lifestyle.

Yet the question we must ask our selves this morning is must it all be memories? Is it a foregone conclusion that all we have left are bittersweet memories? If this is the case, then all the fine men and women who have helped to shape our country through blood sweat and tears have fought a losing battle. We must bring those memories back, and turn them into today's reality.

In the 1830's Alexis de Tocqueville toured America. When his

tour had been completed, he made this observation: "I have toured America, and I have seen most of what you offer. I've seen the richness of the fields and the wealth of your mines. I've seen your industrial might, the beauties of the rivers, the streams, the lakes, and the grandeur of the mountains. I've noticed the abundance of the forests and the marvelous climate with which you are blessed. In none of these things did I see the cause for the greatness of America. It wasn't until I went into your churches that I saw the reason for America's greatness. America is great because America is good; and as long as America is good, America will be great. If it ever ceases to be good, it will cease to be great."

Our text says that the nation whose God is the Lord will be blessed? Does this fit our nation today?

Many would say that ours is a godless nation. There are many factors to point towards that conclusion. Our morals are in a sharp decline. A few years ago it was said that the Ten Commandments should become the Ten Suggestions, well today I would say that they aren't even held up to that low of a standard. The lowering of the bar for morality has accelerated at an alarming rate. The very principles of honesty and integrity that set us apart as a civilized society have been cast aside without a backward glance.

There was this young priest who was going to confessional for the first time. He went with another priest, his senior. After a day of hearing confessions he was approached by the older pastor who said, "You know, I think that when a person finishes with a confession, you should say something on the order of’ ‘I agree it is terrible what you have done, and I would encourage you to stay away from that kind of behavior from now on,’ instead of saying, ‘WOW!’"

We like this priest seem to be sitting back and saying with eyes wide open "WOW!" When instead we should be saying that the Word of God prohibits certain behavior.

In our nation today there is little regard for personal property Even our own property is considered replaceable. We no longer respect the rights of those around us, then wonder aloud when our rights are trampled upon.

Personal purity is considered an outdated expectation. Most see it as unrealistic for us to expect personal holiness from ourselves and those around us. After all, we are all sinners, why should we even attempt to do better?

Human life isn't worth a dime anymore. People lose their lives over something as trivial as a parking spot. There is a disregard for the laws of both man and God. Integrity means nothing, honesty belongs to a bygone era.

The thought of a godless nation should chill us to our bones. Without God we would be like a ship without a sail, or sheep without a shepherd. Abraham Lincoln said "At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? If it ever reaches us, it must spring up among us. It can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be it author and finisher; as a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide."

Over 50 years later another great man, Theodore Roosevelt, was hear to say these words: "The things that destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."

Remember if you will, the symptoms that predated the collapse of the once mighty Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon states, in his classic study of the Roman Empire, that there are five primary causes for the dissolution of that great society.

The rapid increase in divorce and the undermining of the sanctity of the home.
The spiraling rise of taxes and extravagant spending.
The mounting craze for pleasure and the brutalization of sports.
The building of gigantic armaments and the failure to realize that the real enemy lay within the gates of the empire, in the moral decay of its people.
The decay of religion and the fading of faith into a mere form, leaving the people without a guide.

We would on the face of things seem to be a nation without a god, but instead perhaps we are not godless at all. Perhaps our problem is idolatry. Perhaps we have too many gods to be bothered with the one true god.

We worship at the altars of success, money, pleasure, sex, fame, and power. We attempt to be all that we can be while neglecting who we could be in the Lord. We place such a premium upon worldly definitions of success that we have allowed our family's to take a mortal blow.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta once was asked, "How do you measure the success of your work?" She looked puzzled for a moment and then replied, "I don’t remember that the Lord ever spoke of success. He spoke only of faithfulness in love. This is the only success that really counts."

When you and I place our trust in something or someone else other than God, we limit God. We have reduced, or shrunk our idea of who God is. You see, it is in our nature for us to make a god of our own choosing. We want God, but we want Him on our own terms and not His. So in order to meet our own limited expectations, we reduce God by restricting His nature. We shrink Him in our minds into something that we can understand, something that can grasp. When we make idols, it is an attempt to reduce God into something that we can hold on to, something tangible that we can relate too. God by his very nature is beyond our understanding, and comprehension, yet we try to pretend we have him all figured out.

When you and I bow down before an idol, we shrink our concept of where God is. Psalm 139:7-10 says:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Does this sound like a God that can be reduced to a piece of molten metal or a chunk of carved wood? I say to you NO! We cannot shrink God down to trinket that we can place in our pocket or leave on a shelf and genuflect as we walk by. Our God is so vast, so omnipresent, that we cannot contain Him. When we worship idols, we reject God, and God will surely punish us for that rejection. Israel's history is littered with the stories of their rejection of God Let me ask you how is it that this morning in churches across our land there are homosexuals in the pulpits? Why does abortion continue to thrive? Why? Because we have rejected God. We have stripped God of his uniqueness, and of his Holiness, and we have reduced Him to some sort of benevolent leader to help us out when we find ourselves in trouble. We have bought wholesale into the lie of humanism that God is too loving to punish us for our sins. And a lie is exactly what it is, and that lie will ultimately bring judgement down upon us. Yes us! Not just those 'heathen out there' as we like to think of them, but indeed even those of us lining the gilded pews in sanctimonious, Pharisaical, self-righteous, holier than thou bliss. We shall surely be judged. Judged because of our own flirtation with the ways of the world and our own rejection of God's sovereign will.

With all of the things that occupy our lives today is it any wonder that we don't have time for God? Yet our text this morning tells us where the blessings come into play. We must be a nation whose God is the Lord.

When this text was written there were many nations worshipping many gods. Some even had hundreds. So God declared that He was a jealous God, and that we were to have no other gods except for Him. So how do we make that turn? How do we turn our memories into reality?

We must become a nation whose God is the Lord.

Many are unaware that the Declaration of Independence did not come into being until a day of fasting and prayer had been observed. Appointed by the Continental Congress, it was kept by all the colonies on May 17, 1776. At that time in our history, God and the Bible were given more reverence and recognition than they are today. When the nation was finally born, our forefathers rang the Liberty Bell with great enthusiasm, and a legend says that it cracked as they zealously proclaimed their freedom. Years later the White Chapel Foundry of London offered to recast the huge carillon, but their proposal was of course refused. Apparently the symbolic value of the damaged bell, which recalls the religious and patriotic fervor of those early days, is something that America still wishes to preserve. This in itself is good; but in view of our nation's moral decline, the crack may also suggest a break in our basic ideals and a serious defect in our spiritual attitudes. We can remedy the situation and avert the judgment of the Lord only by repentance, prayer, and a return to the faith of our fathers. In this sense, there is no time for delay in "mending the bell."

Let us begin mending the bell by honoring His laws. Let us as God's children make the Ten Commandments a priority in our lives. We must also honor the name of God. We must stop taking his name in vain. When we take the name of God in vain we trivialize his majesty.

We must begin to honor the Lord's Day, and respect His house. And above all we must respect GOD.

If we will do this, then our nation will begin to once again feel the blessings from God. If we turn our eyes upon Jesus we will have less turmoil and unrest within. Our crime rates will decrease, our neighborhoods will be safer, we will find we have more compassion for one another.

We have no idea how much God is willing to bless us if we will turn our nation back to God. If we will make God our Lord.

This nation was built by the power of hope. No painter ever set brush to canvas, no writer ever set pen to paper, no builder ever set brick on brick, no enterpriser ever built an enterprise without having hope that he or she could do what they were dreaming of doing. We have not begun to fathom the power of hope in creating better lives for ourselves and our children.

Lewis Smedes, "Keep Hope Alive," Preaching Today, Tape No. 139.

We can strengthen that hope with a strong foundation of Faith, and see great things begin to happen. Don't let the hope die out, lets turn our memories of old into present day realities. Let us look into the past and be faithful to the memories of those who have passed before us, but at the same time, learn from the lessons they are teaching us.

Abraham Lincoln was the first President to use the phrase, "This nation under God." It inspired President Eisenhower, in 1954, to add the words "one nation under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.

"The Untold Story of Christianity & The Civil War," Christian History, no. 33.

If we want to see change, we must become again "one nation under God" Will you help make it a reality this Memorial Day?