When I approach Memorial Day, I take the time to gratefully pause and reflect on the “Heroes” that have served our country in the armed forces. I thank God for the men and women who have put their lives on the line for the freedoms we enjoy in our great country. I encourage you as you see these men and women to express your thanks for their service.

As I have thought about our country as we approach this holiday, I have been led to the phrase “In God We Trust”. You see it on our dollar bills and even on the pennies you leave at the cash register for the next customer that needs one. Do you know where the phrase originated? How it came to be on all of our currency?

A look at the Legacy Moses' mother left and how Mother's today can leave a Godly legacy.

Child Dedication Sunday, is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. Parents come bringing their children to acknowledge them as a gift from God and to dedicate them to the Lord. In turn, parents commit their lives to the Lord and to raising their children up in the love and nurture of the Lord. I believe with all my heart that this act of dedication by the parents is honored by the Lord and He places His special “mark” upon their lives as one of His own.

Jesus said “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

You see, the Christian life is often a paradox. We die to live, we give to receive, we lose life to gain it, we humble ourselves to be exalted, we are willing to be last to be first. And here Jesus said we are to become like little children in order to mature.

Weekly sermon from Henry Christian Church (HCC) - located in Eminence, Kentucky.

9 Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering.

10 But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.

20 “When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat.

21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task.

What a wonderful revelation we have received from the Lord and from the Gospels these past few weeks, “He whom the Son sets free is free indeed”, John 8:36. We have seen that an integral part of Jesus’ mission on Earth was to “set the captives free and to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and release the oppressed”, Luke 4:18-19.

This Sunday, we will draw together the main themes of these messages and offer specific steps you can take to find true freedom from the attacks and oppression of the enemy.

Is there any bondage in your life? Do you want to be free? Then this is the Sunday and the message you have been waiting for, one that points us down the road to freedom.

Lets say one night you are upstairs in your bedroom and you hear the door bell ring. You go downstairs and peek through the peep hole and see a robber there. A real robber. He has a stocking cap over his face and eyeholes cut and everything. He has a 44 magnum pistol in his hand and it is pointed at your door. He is carrying an empty sack for the keepsakes from your house and a big sign that says, “Danger I am a robber. I want to harm you.”

What would you do? You would undoubtedly barricade the door, call 911 and lock your self in an upstairs room, after you got your baseball bat in hand.

What wouldn’t you do? You wouldn’t open the door just a crack so you could see him more closely. You wouldn’t have a conversation with him to learn more of his evil ways. You wouldn’t invite him in your house so he could make himself comfortable in your living room. In our lives, there are times we undertake certain activities or influences, that leaves the door open to the devil.

I want to invite you to join me as we identify spiritual “doors and windows” in our lives that we may inadvertently leave open, those areas where Satan is given legal grounds, so that we can forever close them to his demonic influences. The Good News is that if the trouble in our lives has a spiritual root, then Jesus can easily deliver us and make true freedom possible.

Have you ever lost something that was very valuable to you? When Kelley was born I gave Tish a tennis bracelet that she treasured. Not long after, we went on a weekend trip to Bowling Green. At some point on the weekend, Tish looked down at her wrist and realized the bracelet was not on her arm. She had no idea when it was lost or where. We began a diligent search of our hotel room, taking the sheets off the bed, shinning a flashlight under and all over the carpet and room. NO LUCK! We then went to the car making a similar but now more frantic search, taking out the mats, combing over and around the seats, carpet and every last crook and cranny. Still no success. As I write this note, I have felt the desperate, sad and ill feeling we had that day of losing something that was priceless.

There is only one time in the bible that records GOD running for something. Something that HE lost. Do you want to know what it was?

Being the youngest of 3 brothers, I always wanted to tag along with Dad and my older brothers when we would do anything, especially, hunting, fishing or exploring the farm. It made me feel older and prouder when I was with my heroes.

Since we didn't own a farm, it meant that we would be using the farm of another family member, a friend or neighbor. Each time we would go, Dad would remind us of the privilege that we were being given to use someones else property. He would stress the importance of leaving the farm in better condition that we found it, to be very careful to shut and lock every gate we used, to pick up our trash and any trash we might see, to let the farmer know if we saw anything that concerned us with the farm animals, equipment or buildings and to always personally thank the owner for allowing us the privilege of using their property.

While I didn't know it at the time, Dad was teaching me a principal. The principle that any privilege brings with it responsibility. The church is to be a place where we are thankful for the privilege of being a part of a growing community and body of believers but we are also to be aware of the responsibility's that go with it.

There is a spiritual hunger in every human heart that longs to be filled just as surely as there is a physical hunger. Are you hungry for God? Are you looking for the abundant life Jesus promised? Are you craving more in your walk with the Lord?