Gateway Church's Podcast
America's Godly Heritage
It is good to be back with you. This of course is Memorial Day weekend tomorrow is officially the holiday and as you look across the scriptures there are some good parallels for what we do this weekend. If you look for example back in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was bringing the people out of captivity, bringing them back to rebuild who they had been in God, rebuild their country, rebuild their nation if you will. And one of the things they did in rebuilding was they went and set aside what was called a Hall of Heroes. That was so they would remember all of those who had paid such a price for them to be able to return and be where they were and be the nation they were. You also find that as Joshua was leading his people in the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness one of the things that Moses had them do was start keeping what they called a book of remembrance. Because he pointed out it is so easy to forget some of the things that have happened over these 40 years, some of the battles we've won against Aug. Invasion. You need to keep that written down in a book of remembrance and go back and see that regularly to remember who we are as a people. And that's really what I want to do this morning. As we do celebrate or do honor Memorial Day, I don't think we celebrate Memorial Day, we honor Memorial Day, it is a time when we look to those who literally have given their lives. Those who in times of war gave their lives so that we can enjoy what we enjoy today. You'll find that across America's history we've had a dozen major wars and over the 231 years of the nation we've had literally 43 million Americans who have put on the uniform to go face bullets, be willing to die for the rest of us so that we can enjoy what we enjoy. As a matter of fact you saw all those who rose just a moment ago, we still have today alive 18 million who have fought for America in times of war, not just more in the uniform, but they've gone out and faced the bullets in times of war. It's a very costly profession. We have about 3 percent that once they put on the uniform do not return. We have literally 1.2 million who have given their lives in defense of this nation that we call home and that we cherish and there's so many blessings we often take for granted and we need to remember the blessings we do take for granted. Somebody paid a price so that we could still have those blessings. Now as you look across war, as you look across America times of war these are emotional things and difficult things for a lot of people and as we look to the scriptures to give us guidance it's not surprising that as we've had a dozen major wars in America there's often been sermons that dealt with the issue of war. Here for example is a sermon from a very costly war in America's history. The Mexican War casually rate was extremely high and in that war this sermon 1847 looked at the relations of Christianity to war. Now today there's a lot of people who say there is no relationship between Christianity and war. Those two things are oxymoronic. God is not for war. God is anti-war. You certainly see a lot of anti-war protests where that that is the case. If you look at the signs that are there you see this one that says God is love. Another one that says read the Bible. As if if you know that God is love and if you read the Bible you will clearly see that God is anti-war. Well you know if you read the Bible you have to come to an opposite conclusion. For example if you look into Isaiah 13-3 the scripture says I God speaking have commanded my holy ones. I have summoned my warriors the Lord Almighty is mustering an army for war. You also have 1 Chronicles 5-22 says for their fell down many slain because the war was of God. That's a hard thing for some people to accept that there might be a war that is of God but people say well you know that's all Old Testament. We're Christians we don't live in the Old Testament. Okay let's go to the New Testament for a minute. Let's take something like Revelation 1911 where the scripture says I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who said unto him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war present tense. So we have a lot in the scriptures to which we can look. It's also significant that as you survey the scriptures you'll find that some of the greatest miracles performed in the scriptures were performed in times of war to help an army win. For example recall the Red Sea. God used that instant to destroy the Egyptian army and allow the army that Israelites to win. You also have the battle where that Moses led the battle against the Amalekites and as long as Moses could keep his hands in the air God would defeat the enemy. So you had Aaron and her that had to come actually hold his hands up but God performed a miracle to defeat the Amalekites. You also have the people under Joshua. God used a major miracle to knock down the walls of Jericho so that the Israelite army could go in and destroy the Canaanites to the enemy. You also have the miracle that happened when they fought the Amorites where that they needed more time to finish the battle and so God held the sun in the sky for an extra day. For an extra day it stayed there in the sun in the sky so the sun would shine so that they could defeat the Amorites. You also have the introduction of Abraham and Genesis 11 and by the time we get to Genesis 14 we see that he has come into contact with a high priest Melchizedek. Hebrew tells us that that is Jesus. That is the figure of Christ that many believe it literally was Christ but Melchizedek blessed Abraham. The father of faith was blessed by Melchizedek. Why was he blessed? Because he had given a tithe. He gave a tithe to Melchizedek and Melchizedek blessed him. Where did he get the tithe? If you read the scriptures Abraham had just returned from the slaughter of the kings and the valley of Sodom and he took the spoils of all the slaughter of those enemies. He brought them and gave a tithe out of the spoils of war to Melchizedek. Melchizedek Jesus the high priest blessed him and honored Abraham the father of faith. You find that so many of the heroes that we do talk about in the Bible are warriors. David for example. David is a great warrior. He's also a man after God's own heart. Those two things are not oxymoronic. So as you look across the scriptures there's so many examples of God intervening, performing major miracles in times of war, times of military conflict. And then when you get over in the New Testament you look at Hebrews 11. Now Hebrews 11 we call our faith hall of fame. It's the heroes of the Christian faith. These are the ones held up to us that you can be like these guys. Hebrews 12.1 we're told that the great cloud of witnesses is cheering us on. And as you go through the list of heroes by the time you get to the latter part of Hebrews 11 the chapter says this. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah also of David and Samuel who through faith subdued kingdoms became valiant and battled, turned to fly at the armies of the enemies. These are the heroes of the Christian faith that through faith had major victories in battle and war and overcame enemies. So this is what we have throughout the scriptures, many other verses that you're probably well familiar with. And this is why it's no surprise that across American history we have had so many sermons that dealt with war and military and soldiers. This for example is called an artillery sermon. For 170 years in American history once a year we would preach a sermon on what the word of God said about war, about the military. We went through all the scriptures and looked at that annually at a regular basis. Here's another early sermon on the Christian patriot. And this is a sermon that was preached in 1755, religion and patriotism, the constituents of a good soldier. See across American history we've dealt with the issue of what the Bible says about the military, what the Bible says about the issues of war. You know it's an interesting thing but even as we look at those who serve in the military a verse struck me recently and I've not even recognized the significance of this verse. And I guess if I take you back to Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 we know that God gives giftings of all types. There are Oscar played the trumpet up here. I'm not gifted to play the trumpet, that is a gifting. We know the musicians are very gifted, not many of us can do what they do. We know that certain athletes are very gifted, not many can do what they do. We know that God has given them a gift. We know that those for example who can take a brush and make something really pretty appear on a canvas as a gifting. A lot of us can't do it. We understand that God gives a different kind of gifting. But if you look at Psalms 144 verse 1, here's a gifting I had never considered before until I read the scripture. The scripture says, "Praise me to the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle." I'd never thought of the fact that that is a gifting of God. That God gifts certain individuals to be warriors, to be soldiers, to be in the military as we would say today. And as we look back across our own history there's ample evidence of several times where God has literally raised up warriors, has gifted their hands and their fingers for war and for battle. Let me take you to the first major military conflict that we had in America where the two armies faced off against each other. That happened in the French and Indian War, which is a ten-year war that ran. At that time we had all the Americans, the British colonists, settled along the eastern seaboard in our thirteen colonies. But over in the central part of the United States the French were there and the French claimed the identical land on which all the American colonies settled. So the French moved into Pennsylvania and said, "You English, get out of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania belongs to us." They moved into Maryland and said, "You English, get out of Maryland. Maryland belongs to the French." They said the same thing about Virginia. And so the conflict was over who owns those colonies. Who's going to be able to live there? Can the French chase the English out or do the English get to stay? Well, because there was no significant standing army in America, Great Britain took their most experienced veteran general, General Edward Braddock, gave him several thousand troops, put him on shifts, sent on America, said, "Drive the French back to the endlands. We're going to stay in those colonies that we've settled." When he landed, he landed in Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was there that he called for the leader of the Virginia militia. That was the young 23-year-old Colonel Washington who led the Virginia militia, not a very big militia, but Washington and his 100 Virginia buff skins joined up with General Braddock. Those two forces marched off to go defeat the French, chased them out of the areas in which the English were already living. Well, as they lined up and marched off, they marched toward the city of Fort Duquesne, which is now the city of Pittsburgh that was a French fort at that time. And Washington said that the line of the army was over four miles long as they marched off. Can you imagine seeing an army? Four miles of soldiers marching by. That's how large that army was. And by the way, Washington said that he said at one time as they were crossing river, he said on top of mountain looking down. And he saw four miles of redcoats. The Americans were also redcoats at that time. We were British citizens. Four miles of soldiers winding back through the woods along the path, brightly colored uniforms, marching to the five and drums. He said it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his life. It was that day as the army was crossing the river and spread back. Well, as they marched, they finally got hundreds of miles of marching. They got within seven miles of the French fort. As they were going through the Pennsylvania woods, they walked right into a waiting French and Indian ambush. The French and Indian opened fire on them from both sides, and that should not have been a problem for these are experienced British veterans. The problem was they were experienced British veterans in European wars. European warfare was always fought out in the open. Two armies on opposite ends of open fields looked at each other, took aim and fired. Here they are in the Pennsylvania woods in Woodland warfare. They don't know how to do that. So General Braddock did what he was trained to do. He took all of his soldiers. He lined them up in the open and marched at the woods. Not a smart thing to do. Of course, the Indians and French stayed behind the trees. And I mean, how can you miss a target like that? You got thousands of soldiers marching at you, not taking cover. So it literally turned into a slaughter, as you can imagine. Now, Washington and the Virginia buckskins took to the woods immediately. They knew that a fight in the woods. They were accustomed to this kind of warfare, but the troops were slaughtered. Well, when General Braddock was finally shot down after two hours of battle, you have to recall this is all single shot battle. It takes you about 15 seconds to reload your rifle. This is a very deliberate, very methodical form of battle. And it was a slaughter that went on for two hours. When General Braddock was finally shot down, Washington took command of the rest of the troops, what remained of them. They retreated. They went back to Fort Cumberland and Western Maryland to reorganize there. And along the way, General Braddock died. Now, the British did not allow chaplains in the military, but Washington decided he would become a chaplain. So Washington himself, he said the prayers over the funeral grave, he gave the sermon, he read the scriptures, he was a chaplain. And by the way, when he became the commander-in-chief of the American military, the first order he gave when he was given command was to institute chaplains over every regiment, over every group, he wanted to make sure we had that spiritual support system for our soldiers. So Washington became the chaplain there. When he reached back to Fort Cumberland, it was the 17th of July, 1755, and Washington there wrote a letter to his family. He talked about the brutality of the battle. He talked about the slaughter that had occurred. As a matter of fact, more than half of the British were shot down, and they only shot 30 of the French and Indians. There were 86 British and American officers in that battle, and George Washington was the only mounted officer not shot down off his horse. He's the only officer left remaining on horseback when the battle's over. And it wasn't because they hadn't tried to shoot him down. Now being directly under General Braddock, he had to take the General's orders to every part of the field riding back and forth out in the open where all the troops were. So they had singled him out and shot at him. Matter of fact, Washington said that when the battle was over, he took off his jacket and he had four bullet holes through his jacket, but not a single bullet he touched his skin. If I had bullet holes in my jacket, I'd be looking for leaks somewhere. I mean, that would make me nervous if I had bullets. And matter of fact, this is what Washington told his family. He said, "I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care providence that protected me beyond all human probability or expectation. I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me yet escaped unheard." Now this was such a miraculous intervention that it became the subject of sermons. For example, the Reverend Samuel Davies, part of the first grade awakened in that huge revival in American history. Samuel Davies considered the best pulpit preacher in American history. In 1755, he preached this sermon about military and war because we were in war at that time. And then he had a little footnote. He said, "By the way," he said, "we've just heard the account of this 23-year-old Colonel Washington." Now we don't know much about him, but we have seen God intervene sovereignly and divinely in his behalf. He said, "Would God intervene in such a way in a person's behalf?" That probably means that he has great plans for that person. So we really ought to keep our eyes in this young wash and see what happens within the future years. Very prophetic type statement considering what came out of that. So, and by the way, if you're interested in that sermon, a classic sermon, it's reprinted us out back in a book called Celebrate Liberty. We've reprinted 10 of those classic sermons and orations, patriotic sermons and sermons dealing with these type of issues. Well, Washington fought that battle in 1755. 1770 was a time of peace and he returned back into that same area, back toward the same woods where he'd been in that battle 15 years earlier. When he got back, an old Indian chief, having heard that Washington was back in the area, traveled across the state to meet Washington. That old Leatherface chief sat down with Washington over a council fire and he looked at Washington and said, "You don't know me." He said, "But 15 years ago, you and I were in these woods together." He said, "I was the chief in charge of the Indian you were fighting that day." He said, "We saw you right into the woods. We knew that if we could shoot you down, we could scatter the rest of the troops and slaughter them later." He said, "So, I called to my young men and said, "Quick, let your aim be certain and he dies. Our rifles were leveled. Rifles which, but for you, knew not how to miss. It was all in vain. A power mightier far than we shielded you. I'm come to pay homage to the man who's the particular favorite of heaven who can never die in battle." Pretty significant accountant and that's given by the opposition who tried to shoot him down. Another one of the chiefs testified. He said, "Washington was never born to be killed by a bullet. I had 17 fair fires at him with my rifle and, after all, could not bring him to the ground." Now, this account, we used to study in our textbooks, it's called the Bulletproof George Washington. We brought all that back out, made it available if you want to see this miraculous account. But the point being that God sovereignly intervened to save George Washington. George Washington became the greatest military warrior of that era. Had it not been for what he did with the American military, we don't even have America today. So, we can look at Washington and say, "That truly is a man where God trained his hands for war and his fingers for battle." And we've all benefited as a result of what God did militarily wise with George Washington. Another example is Dwight David Eisenhower, General Eisenhower. When he was 13 years old, growing up in Kansas, this is back in the early 1900s. As a 13-year-old, he was running across the farm. He fell and he scanned his leg, scraped it up, had a little cut on it. We wouldn't think much about that today, but that's a pretty serious thing back then. You may not be aware, but antibiotics were not even used until D-Day in World War II. We're so used to antibiotics, we don't worry about it. Back then, you got to scrape on the farm. That's serious stuff. Well, it did turn out to be quite serious. He got an infection in his leg. The infection started spreading. His legs started swelling up and it turned black and it just started moving up and down the lace. They called the doctor to see what they could do to stop the infection. Again, no antibiotics available. The doctor got there, said, "This is really serious." The leg continued to swell. The blackness moved up the leg. His leg just day after day got bigger and bigger. It's like it's going to burst and he had a high fever and was becoming unconscious. The doctor said the only possible way to save his life is to take that leg off. If we can amputate the leg and get the infection out, we can save his life. If we don't amputate his leg, he will die. Well, Dwight heard that, 13-year-old that he was, and when he heard that, he went to his older brother, Edgar. He said, "Edgar swear to me that you will not let the doctor take my leg off." Edgar made that promise to his younger brother. Edgar then went outside the bedroom where they had and were watching over Dwight, went outside the bedroom. For the next several days, stood guard at the door, wouldn't eat, wouldn't leave that door, and absolutely, physically, would not let the doctor come back in that room to perform the amputation. The doctor was angry. He said, "You're sentencing to death. You'll be responsible for his death. You're murdering your younger brother." They got really to a super critical stage. At that point, his mother, his father, his brother, his sister, they started round the clock praying and fasting. And if they round the clock, prayed and fasted. From the time they started at 24-hour prayer vigil over here, praying and fasting, his leg started to go back down. The color started coming back into it. Several days of prayer and fasting, his leg becomes normal again. Now, divine intervention of God, miraculous healing, saved his leg. Dwight Eisenhower's president used to give this testimony. But if he had lost his leg at the age of 13, he never would have gone on to be an officer in the military. He would not even have got into the army had he lost that leg. Had he not got into the army, he would not have been the commander-in-chief over the European theater, and the outcome would well have been different. The loss of life would have been much greater. Eisenhower truly was a man raised up by God. God trained his hands for war, his fingers for battle. One other example I'll give you involves the U.S. Army Transport Ship Dorchester. It was setting off from America over to Europe. It had 902 soldiers on board. It set off on February the 2nd of 1943. It was going to northern route, just below Iceland, Greenland, across the frigid waters of the Atlantic. Going across those icy waters in Atlantic in February, that night with very antiquated radar sonar, the captain thought he detected a little ping, a little sonar ping, indicating that there was a German U-boat out there somewhere. They knew they were in the waters where the wolf pack ran, and he thought he heard a ping that indicated that there was a German U-boat somewhere around. So he told all the soldiers that night, he said, "All of you sleep with your life jackets own." They didn't want to do that. They were in a steam-powered ship. It was very hot inside the hull of the ship, and so most of the soldiers officers went to bed without having put their life jackets on. The next morning about dawn, a German U-boat, U-233, fired torpedoes at the Dorchester, hit it direct, and within 15 minutes the ship was completely underwater. Well, that 15 minute period of time, you can imagine the panic that set out on board. Soldiers started running everywhere trying to find life jackets. There was panic on board the ship that would jump into the lifeboats. There were so many in the lifeboats. The lifeboats were sinking in the frigid waters of the Atlantic, and just turmoil and confusion everywhere, and four chaplain steps forward. These four chaplains took charge. They started preaching courage. They started preaching calm. They started preaching peace. They started handing out and distributing the life preservers to all these soldiers. When they ran out of life preservers, they themselves took their own life jackets off and gave them to the soldiers. And the ship continued to sink, and within 15 minutes it was completely underwater. There were more than 700 that went down on the ship, having been killed with the ship. But the 230 that were saved said that as, and they credit those chaplains with having saved their life, they said that as they were moving away from the ship on what remained of the lifeboats, they looked back and the last man off the ship, all four chaplains were there, and those in the boats looked back and saw the four chaplains, link arm and arm, going down under the frigid waters of the Atlantic, praying and praising God as they went down. Those four guys gave their life. They saved the lives of 230 others in so doing. They became literal typical faces of what sacrifice was all about. You see, when you look at faces like that, those four chaplains in the Dorchester, you can think of verses like Romans 14-7. The scripture says, "None of us lives to himself alone, and none of us dies to himself alone." Nowhere is that more true than in the American military. Those who put on the uniform don't do it for themselves. They may be called on to die for all of us. They don't live for themselves. They live for other people. They don't die for themselves. They die for other people. Now as you recall the kind of sacrifices have been made and that God does gift people for military and war, let me quickly take you back to a survey of the type of sacrifices that have been made across our history to bring us to what we enjoy today. For example, if I take you back to the first conflict, the American Revolution, the American Revolution was a war that ran for eight years, and in that period of time, you need to understand America wasn't large then. We only had three million people in all of America. That's smaller than Houston. I mean, Houston had more people than America had at that point. We had 200,000 Americans who took up arms and went to war to fight against the British for our independence. 200,000, that's kind of like the city of Waco. Out of 200,000 we had 6,100 that were wounded, nearly 6,200, but we had 25,000 that were killed. That's like the city of Waco losing 25,000 of his sons in war. What a devastating, everybody would know many, many, many, many people who died in times of war. That was a high casualty rate for back then since we were such a small nation. We also had 18,000 Christians of war, and Christians of war were brutally treated. We lost thousands and thousands of Americans to the torture of prisoner of war camp. So you look at the sacrifice made in the first conflict we had in America, the American Revolution. Without their sacrifice, we don't even have a nation today. The second major war we fought was a 32-year war against Muslim terrorists. It's called the Barbary Powers War. That war ran from 1784 until 1816 for 32 years. We fought Muslim terrorists who attacked American interests. We sent four special expeditions, military expeditions, into the same part of the world where we're fighting right now, and it was brutal hand-to-hand conflict in so many cases. What we're doing right back in that part of the world is exactly what we had to do 200 years ago. It took us 32 years that time. It took several military expeditions. Four Presidents, the United States, conducted that war, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison all had military troops on the ground during that war against Muslim terrorists, costly battle. The third major war we fought was the war of 1812. You see, the British, having signed the peace treaty and the Revolution, were not honoring that treaty. They kind of had a change of mind, decided they didn't like the way this was going, losing the colonies. They wouldn't honor the treaty. We had to go back to war to make sure we didn't become British subjects again. That war was also a costly war. We had about 3,400 that were made prisoners of war. We had thousands wounded. We had thousands killed to preserve the independence that we had so fought for and wanted at the beginning. The next major war we had was the Mexican War. The Mexican War, you had Texas who had won its independence in 1836. After nine years of being an independent republic, we said, let's join the United States. We joined the United States in 1845. And when we did, Mexico attacked the United States. Send her troops across, started attacking the American military. So the Mexican war ensued. It was a war that spanned actually a three-year period of time. But we had battles that were fought in Texas, in New Mexico, in California, down in Mexico itself. And the casualty rate was very high. Out of 840 POWs, 4,100 wounded. But we had 13,000 that were killed in that war to preserve the independence of Texas, to preserve the southwest from Mexico having taken it back, much like the war of 1812 when Great Britain wanted to take it back. The next major war we fought was that of the Civil War. And the Civil War conducted for five years inclusive. We had brother against brother, tried to determine what the philosophy of government would be in the United States. In that war, we had 431,000 prisoners of war. We had 354,000 wounded, and we had 620,000 killed in the Civil War. Following the Civil War, the next major war we had the Spanish-American War. In the Spanish-American War, down in Cuba, for 10 years, Cuban freedom fighters had been trying to throw off the yoke of Spain. Spain had Cuba as a slave state. They treated them as a slave state. They were very brutal to them. Finally, after 10 years, the revolutionaries won against Spain. And Spain ceded the land and said, "Okay, you have autonomy. You can rule yourself. We won't rule you anymore." Spain quickly went back on its promise. And in 1895, went back in after the revolutionaries put them in concentration camps and did much the same thing that happened in World War II with Hitler. Brutal stuff on the concentration camps. The Spanish also destroyed American property and interest down there. Americans living there. And when finally the U.S. battleship Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor, President William McKinley said, "That's enough. You come after America. You come after Americans. We're going to protect American interests." And so we had the Spanish-American War. It was conducted in less than a year. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, the charge up San Juan Hill. But in that one year, it too was a costly period of time. 1600 wounded and 2400 killed, again, to preserve American interests from those who had been attacked from without. The next major battle we had was World War I. You're familiar with the causes of World War I. It's a battle that ran for a number of years. And in that period of time, we had 4,100 prisoners of war. We had 204,000 wounded. And we had 116,000 killed to preserve our form of life. The next major war we had was World War II. World War II, again, you know the time period, you know the causes. Five-year inclusive war, World War II. 130,000 prisoners of war. We had 671,000 wounded. There was a man here last night. I talked to him after the service. He was part of the Marine Raiders in World War II, a very elite group. He was shot down three times and managed to get up, go back, rejoin, and go again. He kept after that. You've got heroes among you that you may not even recognize some of the things that they've done. These are guys who have taken bullets for all of us who have been willing to go back and get shot a second time and a third time to preserve the very freedoms that we enjoy. But in addition to 671,000 being wounded, you had 405,000 killed in World War II, again, to preserve what we just often take for granted today. The next major war we had was the Korean War. It's often called the Forgotten War. It was a very brutal war, very hard part of the world in which to fight. And in that war, we had 8,200 POWs. We had 103,000 that were wounded, and we had nearly 40,000 who were killed in the Korean War. That war was followed by Vietnam. Vietnam War really kind of started in the 1950s, but Congress officially declared war in 1964. And over that period of time, we had a number. And a number in this room served in Vietnam. One of the guys I work with right now was a helicopter pilot. He was shot down three times in Vietnam and kept going back and going back and going back and fighting. I mean, God puts it in the hearts of people that they're willing to die for the rest of us. Now, Vietnam was a tough time, but it was not high with prisoners of war. You find that we had only 766 prisoners of war. That was because the Viet Cong didn't take prisoners of war. They killed Americans. They didn't capture Americans. The few that were captured, one of those captured Americans is living right here close to us, Congressman Sam Johnson. If you don't know Sam Johnson, he I think is probably the most godly man I know. Maybe the most godly man I've ever met. Strong character, courage, conviction. He was the top gun in the air force when he was shot down over Vietnam. He spent seven years as a prisoner of war, three years in solitary confinement. The picture on the left is when he was released, when they got him back after seven years of confinement in Vietnam. When you talk to Sam today, if you ever get opportunity to shake hands with him, every part of his body's been disfigured. His fingers were broken so many times in torture that nothing quite works right. His shoulders don't sit quite right because they would torture him so many times. They tied his elbows behind his back till his shoulders would pop out of joint, and they popped his shoulders out. It's just unbelievable what this guy went, and he's one of the greatest patriots, one of the greatest lovers of America, and he'd put the uniform on and go do it again for all that he went through. By the way, we now know because of intelligence that came out after the Vietnam War, what's happened in the last few years, the records we have from Russia and elsewhere, that the Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, were probably within a month of surrendering. Had we done one more bombing run across there, they were ready to give up. It's just that we quit before they gave up. So we now know that we were that close to victory in Vietnam, and it would have changed the whole complexion of that corner of the world. From Vietnam, we moved into a period, and I showed you those who were prisoners of war, but we had 304,000 wounded, we had 58,000 killed, nearly 2,000 that are still missing in action to this day. We have the Persian Gulf War, you know the cause of that, it lasted less than a year, and that Persian Gulf War, we had 23 prisoners of war, we had 467 that were wounded in that war, we had 382 that were killed in that war, which brings us to the current war on terror. The war on terror did not start on 9/11. For 28 years before 9/11, Muslim terrorists had been attacking America regularly, just attacking American interests across the world. The culmination of 28 years of attacks came on 9/11 with the attack on the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon. Now with what happened there, we've gone to war since 2001, we've declared war on Islamic terrorism across the world where they've gone after American interests, and as you see what has happened there and soldiers on the ground, one of those who suffered as a result of this is a guy from here in full-worth, very close friend, his name is Brian Burdle. Colonel Brian Burdle was in the Pentagon the day the plane hit. As a matter of fact, you see that circle there, he was standing right behind there when the plane hit. When that plane hit, fully loaded with jet fuel, he was completely engulfed with jet fuel, he was set of flame. He was a blazing human torch, burned the skin off his body in every direction. He went through several months in hospital, after several months in hospital, some 39 surgeries to put skin back on where he had no skin. 39 surgeries later, he's back now. He's a strong, godly Christian man, has one of the most fantastic testimonies I've ever seen. He's actually telling how he just walked across that area there when the plane hit. Now Brian, who is an expert on what has gone on, is very good at pointing out something that we have forgotten and the media certainly does not tell us. The war on terror did not begin in 9/11. If you look prior to 9/11, as I mentioned, there were 28 years where that we had terrorists attacking American interests. You go back to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, the Marine barracks, the Embassy in Beirut, the Achilles Laurel, TWA flight, U.S. servicemen in Spain, the Berlin bombings, the Pan Am flight, the World Trade Center the first time, just 28 years. They just kept pounding away at Americans every time they got down, and we didn't do anything for 28 years. And finally, after 9/11, we said, "You know, we lost 4,000 Americans prior to 9/11. 4,000 Americans, we didn't do anything about it." Well, since 9/11, we've decided, "All right, we've had enough. We're going on the offensive." And since 9/11, we've also lost 4,000 Americans. But now, as a result, we have Republican forms of government set up in nations like Afghanistan, Iraq. We also have Libya as the site is going to give up all its nuclear weapons, because it doesn't want to have to go through that. I mean, we're starting to get something positive. We had the losses either way. But now, we're getting positive things out of it. Brian Verduel, when he looks at that part of the world, where the Islamic terrorists are so abundant, he says, "It's much like a swamp." And you can either learn to live with the mosquitoes that come out of the swamp, or sometimes you can just decide, "You know, I'm going to go in and drain the swamp and take care of the mosquitoes permanently." That literally is what we've done with the war on terror. We decided we're going to go drain the swamp. We're going to take care of those mosquitoes on a permanent basis. We're not going to put up with this anymore. Do you know, we've been having attacks regularly against American interests prior to 9/11. We've not had an attack in six years. That's the longest period of time we've had in decades, with a terrorist attack on American interests. So, as you look at the war on terror, even now, we've had high casualties. 3,780 to this state have been killed. And I will point out that that casualty rate is not nearly as high as what it's been for many, many other wars. And this is a really rough war across the world. It's not being conducted just in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is what the news often tells you. We have troops on the ground in 30 different nations going after Al Qaeda and Taliban around the world. 22 Muslim nations have sent their freedom fighters to Iraq to take out the Americans. I mean, this is a global war, even though it's localized in one region. I much prefer that we fight 22 nations in one area, rather than have to fight them over here. So, it is a global war on terror that has gone on. Now, with the sacrifices that have been made, and these guys are fighting to preserve us from the attacks that we've had for the last 28 years prior to 9/11. Do you look across what we have here? We've got guys who are willing to put on a uniform, willing to go die for the rest of us, and those guys are guys to be appreciated. As the scripture tells us very clearly in Romans 13, we're to give honor to those to whom honor is due. We shouldn't take the military for granted ever. I mean, what we have and we take for granted comes because they don't take it for granted. So, while we do recognize and salute the military, we really recognize, especially on this weekend, those who have given their life. The scripture says, "No greater love has any man than he laid down his life for his friends." And the military, those guys who are willing to lay down their life, not only for their friends, but for strangers that they've never met, for those in generations to come, that they may never meet. They're willing to lay down their lives. And so, that's what we celebrate on Memorial Day. And again, I don't use the word "celebrate" in a positive way. That's who we honor on Memorial Day. In closing out, I think there's a good challenge given by President Abraham Lincoln back when he dedicated a national cemetery full of American soldiers. This is what he said, "It is from these honored dead that we take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth. We ought to take their death as a commitment for us to recommit ourselves to make sure we preserve what they were willing to die for. We don't take it for granted. We need to preserve the very things they've been willing to die for. And I recently spoke with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and I did not recognize the fact that I think he told me we have 41 American cemeteries and other nations where Americans have gone to fight for all of us. They've died overseas. Their body was not brought back. We have 41 cemeteries and other nations. And so on Memorial Day, we do salute those who have given their life for the rest of us. We honor and appreciate what they have done. We do remember their sacrifice. And I hope that tomorrow on Memorial Day, you'll not only pray for their families, but you'll thank God for their willingness to love us enough to give their life that we can enjoy what we do in America today. God bless you.