God and Country Sunday

On Sunday July 6 we had worked hard to plan a God and Country Sunday at the church. Details originally included having a guest marine evangelist preach in his dress blues, have special patriotic music, have a color guard presentation of the flags, have a meal after the morning service, and also have an early evening service. Due to how hard the devil fought our church leading up to the event only three of those things became a reality though. The church went through a few personal battles with some members which ended up resulting in some people choosing to leave the church. The guest evangelist canceled. After contacting all the local national guard and reserve units and university ROTC programs no one had the manpower, the willingness, or the equipment to do a color guard presentation. However, the show went on. We still had some patriotic music. We pledged allegiance to our great country's flag in the morning service. We had new patriotic decorations in the church for the summer. We had small flags posted in the ground around our church sign outside along with a flag pole flying the America flag. I preached a message called "Freedom Isn't Free" from Galatians 5:1-- Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. In it I had three points as follows:

I. The Cost of Freedom----------("Christ hath made us free")


II. The Constraint of Freedom----("be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.")


III. The Continuation of Freedom- ("Stand fast therefore in the liberty")

I dealt with these three points on both a patriotic, physical, American level as well as a spiritual level relating to salvation and our new life in Christ after salvation. Praise the Lord for three visitors!!! This was a blessing because leading up to the event I had made up a flyer and Grace and I once again passed out about 500 invitations to the special service. After the morning worship service we went ahead with the cookout as well. We had a pleasant time of hamburgers, hot dogs, deserts, fellowship, and fun. With a belly full of good 'ole American food we returned to the auditorium for an early evening service and then called it a night. I want to thank the Lord for the country we live in, the freedoms we posses to worship God as we choose, and for all the leaders of our country both politically and militarily!