Memorial Day Weekend is more than a special and important holiday—it is a key to restoring the Republic.

            As we have been covering, the crises in virtually every area have grown beyond human remedy. This is not to imply that we must not do all we can to address them, but it is to acknowledge that we need God. The Holy Spirit is “the Helper” not “the Doer,” so He expects us to do our part before He does His part. All of our troubles are the result of man thinking that he can run the world without God, and the answer to all of our troubles is to repent and turn back to God. Throughout Scripture and history, He has demonstrated His faithfulness to do this.

            What does this have to do with Memorial Day?

            We are thankful for good people who are engaged in the great issues of our time, but we also acknowledge that there is no one person who has the combined wisdom and leadership skills required for confronting and overcoming these growing crises. However, even the worst crisis is but a small thing for God to fix, and He will, if we return to Him.

            When our nation turned to God in the past, it was called a “Great Awakening.” We have had two “Great Awakenings” and several smaller ones in our history. After each one, we came out much better and stronger as a nation. It will happen again.

            But what does this have to do with Memorial Day?

            Biblical Israel went through a repeated cycle of backsliding and apostasy that led to bondage, then repentance, revival, and restoration. America and many other nations have been through the same cycle. As the times grew darker, the righteous would begin to cry out to the Lord. The Lord would hear their cries and raise up champions who through great courage and valiant acts would cast off yokes of bondage and restore Israel’s freedom. More importantly, they would turn the nation back to the Lord. Before Israel had kings, these champions were called “judges,” but afterward it would be a righteous king or leader who would arise.

            So what does Memorial Day have to do with this?

            This is what: Almost every time the Lord responded to the repentance of Israel to restore her liberty, He would say that He was doing it for the sake of the fathers, often specifically naming King David as His reason. David had touched the Lord to such a degree that even hundreds of years after his death the Lord was still doing things for Israel on David’s behalf. America and many other nations have had righteous leaders in their history. It is right to memorialize them and hold them up before the Lord as an appeal for our deliverance, so that their great work will not have been in vain.

            Our American Founding Fathers laid their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor on the altar for the hope of freedom for America, including future generations. Many paid the price. This was the most remarkable revolution in history, and still has never been duplicated in one extraordinary way—it was led by the most wealthy, privileged Americans, not the downtrodden.

          Those who signed The Declaration of Independence were a Who’s Who of the most successful in the colonies. Usually such wealth and possessions would be a restraint upon risk. Our Founding Fathers demonstrated possibly more than any before them that neither wealth nor comfort nor security was their god. They would risk it all for a righteous cause. They took one of the greatest risks in history, since the Maccabees, to boldly challenge the most powerful empire and military force in the world at the time, while so few in number and with virtually no real military force of their own.

           Two of those who signed The Declaration of Independence knew that the moment they did they would go from being wealthy to losing everything they had, because the British were camped right next to their estates. They signed anyway. Their estates were seized immediately, and they were branded traitors to the king and hunted down to be hung.

            The whole world viewed the upstart American colonies as having remarkable courage, but not much sense. As they slogged through five years of continuous and devastating defeats, the destruction of their land and property, the capture or loss of so many of their loved ones, with only a couple of relatively minor victories against the British, their courage and resolve astonished the nations. Even so, victory seemed more remote than ever. As the British were finally capturing and holding strategic cities and major states, it seemed that the American cause was now certainly doomed. Then, there happened a most amazing and unexpected turn of events—the Americans won the war!

            America was born with the odds stacked heavily against it. We have never had much rest from facing crises that threatened our continued existence as a nation. This is not likely to change until the kingdom of God comes. Each generation has to produce its own heroes to face new and deadly crises. Each generation has had its heroes who would stand and not retreat. Whether many or few, with the Lord there are enough. There will be enough in our time.

            As the Prophet Isaiah exhorted in his time:

       On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves;

          and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7).      

            If we have been given eyes to see, then we are watchmen called for our own time. We too must remind the Lord of His promises. Do we do this because He has forgotten them? Of course not, but because we are told: “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men” (Psalm 115:16). He requires that we ask before He will intervene. He wants us to remind Him because in this way we must also remind ourselves of the honor that our fathers and mothers are due.

            For this reason, prayer is not our last option, but our first option. We acknowledge that we need Him, and we want Him. Then, as we remind Him of all the great souls who gave so much for the freedom and prosperity we have enjoyed, let us appeal to the Lord that, for their sakes, all that they paid such a price for would not be lost.

            Now it is our turn. Let us make every day Memorial Day by resolving that we will not lose on our watch what so many great souls paid such a price to preserve.

           Here is a link to view my teaching given at the Sunday service on Memorial Day weekend. You may click here to access this teaching.