Pain, sacrifice, sermon on July 3,2005

I had the good fortune and blessing to preach a sermon today, before our national holiday, on National and Individual Pain. Romans 8:21-28 was the context but the point for me and for the listeners was based on how pain can be a real pain, but also beneficial . Nationally, it has produced our freedom, sad to say through necessary wars. We all face physical, emotional and spiritual pain throughout our lives or at least many of us do. From that , we can help others going through the same discomfort and depression. Jesus did it for us. And people have two choices from that sacrifice and fact. Either go into eternity, dispite pain, with joy and freedom from sin and eternal death or go into darkness and eternal pain, dead in our sins and apart from the Light of the Creator-Savior God, Jesus Christ.Most of us have never suffered for our faith in America. But, that time may be coming as hatred for the Judeo=Christian worldview, Jesus Himself, and Christians in general explode across our nation and world. I thank God for God's own pain in freeing us from eternal death if we will only rely on Jesus' actions. I thank God for the pain and sacrifice of all those Americans from our Revolution on who have suffered , died, suffered and sacrificed for me as my wife and I eat our 4th of July BBQ and watch the program from the Washington DC Mall . Perhaps in the near future, we will have to suffer pain as we stand for Christ. We have a great assembly of saints here in America and through out the world to learn from and hopefully copy.