7/7/2019 The Symbols of Freedom

Taken from the 33rd psalm.

verses 10 through 22

the Lord brings the Council of the nation's to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the people's the counsel of the Lord stands forever the thoughts of his heart to all generations happy is the nation whose God is the Lord the people who he has chosen as his Heritage the Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all humankind from where he sits enthroned. He watches all the inhabitants of the earth. He who Fashions the hearts of them all and observes. All their deeds a king is not saved by his great Army a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory and by its great might it cannot save truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him on those who hope in his steadfast love to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive and Phantom. Our soul waits for the Lord he is our help and shield our heart is glad in him because we trust in His holy name let your steadfast love of the Lord be upon us even as we hope in you the word of God for the people of God.

Are summer of the lady continues this morning? And actually it's not laity this morning. We have we have the real deal. We have the man a man who's got the qualifications to be up here and not just tug by the Holy Spirit Lake Carroll and Cheryl and Rhino and Dustin and Ron and the rest of us some of us others. Are we are blessed this morning to have the Reverend Colonel Jim Whittaker with us built you up last week on the colonel side of it because I always get a kick out of the history teacher and just the lover of History gets a real kick out of saying or being able to tell people I know a real Colonel that and I don't think a lot of people get to do that right or and I've enjoyed that getting to have people in my life that have served with great distinction and a rank that shows their commitment and love of their country. So we are truly blessed this morning to have gym with us, and he's going to lead us and song and Messi, And if you're okay with that like to pray you up, is that okay, please bear with me Father God. We're so blessed to have Jim latest this morning and to be our pastoral care person for this month. Got a such a special person in our lives and in our church family are we just ask that you bless his music and and message today not only here, but later in the day to is is Eagle twins perform to lift them up as well. God be with him and strengthen. We also lift up Pastor Rob and his family and their continued summer of of growing up together so God. Thank you for Jim and Rob just out of buses message in Jesus name.

Morning. My goodness said, thank you.

Before before we sing the song and then get into the message some of you may not know that most of you do that. I grew up in the Grace United Methodist Church when it was in the building in the parking lot there and I have my mom started bringing me to that church in my first year of life. So that's 70 years ago, and it was at the altar rail in that church during a lay witness mission that I felt this strong call to go to the Altar and I gave my life to Jesus in that moment. I don't remember the date, but I sure remember that that time when we were ready to move into this building and we started selling some of the furniture in pieces and they will church I bought that altar Rail and then donated it here and some of its in the prayer Chapel down there. If you haven't seen that that's a really really special place. I want to tell you something that happened to me last Sunday. I don't Watson it was after service and I was reading the people as they they went out of the church and wishing them a good week and a little boy about the seven years old but came along and I usually bump knuckles with the kids that go through and so I start to do that and he raised up a $5 bill and I said tell me what's it. What's at 4 and he says why I want you to have it and I said isn't that the $5? Do you normally put in the collection plate? Because I knew his family. I know he did some chores and he got an allowance and on the last Sunday of each month, he would put $5 in the collection plate. They were teaching him about giving and I I said, isn't that what you usually put in the collection plate? He said, yes, sir. And I said well, why are you giving it to me? He said because I think you need it. And I I said, why do you think I need it? And he said well last night at supper. My daddy said you're the poorest preacher we've ever had.

Not not that that couldn't have happened at our church, but it didn't but I just love that story. It is such a thrill to be here today and to see so many families and that people in Friendly faces that I've known for years and then some new ones that I don't know. So well today we're celebrating God and Country and run is going to play this song called. I thank God for my country.

I thank God for my country and I pray for her May Hurley his guide.

God has blessed my father made her I thank God for

May I heard God has black made her? So just you and me song.

Thank you, Rhonda.

Diane thank you for the kids messy, though. So so cool to see all the kids in the flags and singing those songs. Oh say, can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at our twilight's last gleaming. Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts. We watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there Jose. Does that Star-Spangled Banner yet? Wave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. On a hill far away stood an Old Rugged Cross the emblem of suffering and shame and I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of Lost Sinner's was slain. So I'll cherish The Old Rugged Cross till my trophies At Last I lay down I will cling to The Old Rugged Cross and exchange it someday for a crown join me in prayer, please father is during this message time. We pray that the message given is the one that you want folks to hear. That's only pray that we open our hearts and Minds to the hearing of the message and we do pray that you give the speaker the words that the words are the message that you want us to share today as we have gathered in this beautiful and very holy place. I'm in we live in a world where symbols are very important. I was thinking of symbols that I remember in my lifetime and I go back to my teenage years, which was a long time ago, but you remember those of you who Roughly as old as I am. Do you remember when they put hood ornaments on cars on the right the front of the hood there was a hood ornament for 3 or 4 in tall automobile manufacturer had a different style and it was just a piece of metal back. Then they made things out of metal, you know, and but it was it was there on the front of the car and you can tell what kind of car it was simply by looking at that hood ornament now, it was just a symbol and yet it told you a lot about the company in about that automobile and what that symbol good for but even today we've got all kinds of symbols that we deal with if you're driving down the interstate for example, and you see the golden arches, you know that there's a McDonald's close by and if you like McDonalds that might convince you to pull off the interstate and and grab your favorite McDonalds meal if you don't like McDonald's that might influence you to drive past that exit and go to the next one and visit the the next restaurant that you like, but it's The symbol that was probably plastic but it tells you a lot about what is behind that symbol. We have other symbols. For example of a circle with a line through it that tells us don't do whatever the picture is behind there and they're all kinds of pictures that people don't want you to do and if it's got that Circle in the red line, it tells you what to do and what not to do. Doesn't it? We have a great symbol that's on the outside of a virtually every United Methodist Church and that's the cross and Flame and it tells you that that building is a United Methodist Church and hopefully that gives you a good feeling it tells you what the church is about. It tells you what it stands for. Hopefully it tells you that this is a friendly place where I feel warm and welcome. It's a place where Jesus Christ will be preached that symbol says a lot. That's what symbols are just symbols except that they stand for all of that that is behind the symbol. We're going to talk about to Great symbols. Today but both stand for Freedom one is the flag. In War of 1812 in August of 1814 the British invaded Washington DC they burned the capital and they burned the White House. Now. This was just a few years a course after our own Revolutionary War and yet we were declaring war this was the first declared war by the new United States of America and declared against those people who had formerly been the rulers of our own land. We declared war against the British Empire. And as I said, they invaded Washington and then they sent seizure in September of 1814 against Fort McHenry, which is outside Baltimore and they had a naval bombardment of that fort. All through that day and night September 13th and 14th of 1814. They laid fire on Fort McHenry. The flagpole was hit and damage. Do you saw a picture a little bit ago of the flag that flew over Fort McHenry you saw that it was tattered and torn I cannot verify this and in the history books, but I think they told us this when we had a chance to visit Fort McHenry that at times that flagpoles in danger of falling over the British who are out in the bay and firing those cannons and and shots into Fort McHenry wanted to see that flag replaced with the white flag of surrender, but the flag sustained damage the poles the same damage, but every time the flagpoles in danger of falling over soldiers would come and prop it up and some of those were killed and they would fall at the foot of that flagpole as they fell others would come and take their place and so on the morning of September 14th, I asked the flag was revealed to be flying as the sunlight of begin to shine over that place. There was literally a pile of soldiers who had given their lives. Yes in the defense of Fort McHenry and in the defense of the United States of America, but also to preserve that flag and keep it flying over that for Francis Scott Key a new person a friend who had been captured during those battles and one of the things the British did was they use some of their ships as prison ships and the Francis Scott Key's friend was on one of those prison ships and he found out which one it was. He got permission to go to that ship and start to negotiate for the release of his friend, but he he would had to stay on the ship and he watched this entire battle and he waited through the night to see if the flag would still be flying when morning came and sure enough. He looked out from a distance of a few miles and he saw Tattered and torn and battered flag still flying above the fort that inspired him to write the words of a poem that he called the defense of Fort McHenry. It was later put the music and in the early 1900s was adopted as the national anthem of the United States of America. If you think about it, it was only about 36 years prior to that that our founding fathers who are supported. I always mention this I don't get in trouble with Rhonda that we had founding mothers as well and they supported the founding fathers two came together. They wrote a document declaring their freedom and independence from the the Empire of Great Britain. They were tired of being told what to do without representation. They were tired of the Tyranny and so they declared themselves to be free and independent states. They gave birth to the United States of America and in that declaration, they Talked about what it meant to be free in the second paragraph of familiar passage. I know to you it says we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are we can say all people are created equal that they are endowed by who their God their creator with certain unalienable rights unalienable meaning they cannot be taken away by government. They cannot be taken away. They are granted by almighty God that among these unalienable rights are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

They then set about to win a war that they had no business fighting and no business winning. They took on one of the great powers on the earth at the time the British Military and yep. They won. There are several stories about how God intervened and helped General Washington and some of the others to win battles. They should not have one but they persevered and they formed a nation and then they began building a nation built on those principles of Freedom that they wrote Into the Declaration of Independence.

Few years later, they came up with a constitution 1787. They finish the Constitution and it wasn't structured on this idea. That power doesn't belonging in Washington DC. The power should stay in the hands of the people they built into that the very principles of Freedom up on which the nation had been found it. They so so cherish the idea of individual Freedom that they added the Amendments at the end which they called The Bill of Rights and you know those rights as well as I do the right to free speech and expression the right to protest the right to assemble the freedom of the press and the freedom to worship in the way that you choose without interference from the federal government all of those freedoms that we still hold dear. We're given to us by that group. Unfortunately throughout our history, we've had to defend that freedom from time to time. Haven't we the great world of the wars of World War 1 World War II the Korean War the Vietnam War the various iterations of the war in the desert Wars prior to World War Spanish-American War and the War of 1812 as I mentioned and of course we had our own internal fight in the Civil War my point in out of that is that it is taking the expense of a lot of blood and a lot of Sacrifice by men and women who love freedom and love this nation enough to put on the uniform of the United States armed services and to go where they've been sent to go to do what they have been told to do in defense of that flag and defense of our nation and in defense of Freedom, we can look at that flag and we can talk about all the things that stands for you knowing the colors and all of that but we look at the 50 stars that are on that flag. Each of them separate equal and independent and yet bound together on the Bluefield that we call the union you see the 13 stripes that represent the first 13 colonies some of them white indicating Purity some of them red indicating the difficulty of the struggle and the blood that was shed, but together representing all that our nation stands for all that our nation is built upon and the fact that it is a nation under God. There are people who will tell you that. This was never a Christian Nation and isn't today I want to tell you that if you hear somebody say that they are defying history. I told you about the Declaration of Independence how and that second paragraph they are. They talked about the unalienable rights given to us by our creator near the end of the Declaration of Independence. It says this and for the support of this declaration Men with firm Reliance on Divine Providence another word firm Reliance on almighty God we mutually pledge to each other Our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor. These were Men Who Built a Christian Nation based on Christian principles based on the judeo-christian work ethic and ethic of moral social standing and they built it for us.

This is still a Christian Nation. We just don't talk about it enough. but it still is

there's another great symbol that represents freedom and that is the cross if we were looking out this room. I thought we would find a lots of crosses the they're all over the place in a church. I suspect some of you maybe are wearing cross jewelry. Some of you may have a pendant of that across you may have a charm bracelet. Some of you may have a Bible bookmarks in the shape of a cross. I remember years ago Jerry when you and I were the male section of the choir and the old church and Arlene Crockett would sit in the front row and she had this beautiful cross bookmark. I still remember that that Arlene had but my point is we have all of these crosses and and they're beautiful. They're they're highly polished and shine and they are beautiful pieces of jewelry that sometimes when we look at it that way we forget what it really was in the beginning. We read the words of The Old Rugged Cross and that's really what it was on calvary's Hill when Jesus went to the Cross rough-hewn Timbers something like that one that we were put together and in the people were executed on that cross execution on death on the cross was a hideously torturous painful way to die. It was saved for the very worst of enemies of the state in Jesus time. That would have been ROM. But they executed people on the cross for two reasons one to get rid of what they determined to be the criminal and the second was as a deterrent to others people would see somebody hanging on the cross and see how to horrible. It was in that message was supposed to be you keep your nose clean or else the same things going to happen to you. So how in the world has it changed from that horrible instrument of execution to these beautiful crosses that we see around our room today and I suspect some of you have them in your homes as well. Well, then the answer is Jesus. When Jesus went to the cross it was an acknowledgement that we humans have free will the fill the will to choose and sometimes we choose to be resentful the simple as that and send has this capacity to draw a sent. It has the capacity to rule rule our lives and I started to say ruin but that's pretty good word to Sam has the ability to ruin everything there is about us it can draw Us in like a the ascent listen to this the tractor beam on a Klingon battle cruiser. That's for you Star Trek fans, and it can make you a slave to to whatever that sin is. Now. Those aren't my words. Listen to what Jesus said. About the slavery to sin. This is in John chapter 8 verses 3436 very truly. I tell you Jesus said everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now A Slave has no permanent place in the family, but but a son belongs to it forever. So if the sun this is a capital s o n meaning Jesus sees sets you free, you will be free indeed. We are free from the bondage of sin because of the Cross and so we have these two great symbols. You notice in the scripture that said read so powerfully for us a few minutes ago. God says For Those whom the son has set free or free indeed actually what the quote I wanted to a tribute to the passage that was read says blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord if we want this nation to recover to get strong and be strong again to be the symbol of goodness throughout the Then our Allegiance needs to go to Jesus Christ. And so we have these two symbols the flag in the cross both came out very dear price has the shed blood of American Soldier Sailors Airmen and Marines has preserve the flag and kept it flying over our nation for these 243 years of our existence. The cross came at the sacrifice of blood of the only perfect life that has ever been left Jesus the Christ and we are those who keep both of those things going. I love the way I've heard Seth say it so many times. We are Christ followers and these two symbols go before us we we treasure both we should celebrate both. Let me close by saying or asking this question is one symbol greater than the other sure it is. Yeah the cross because the flag as powerful as it is as historically important as it is the flag stands. For the Earthly and no matter how long it takes for Jesus to come again. It will be temporary the cross stands for that which is spiritual and eternal they both stand for a long long time. Amen.