Remembrance Day

Do you know what this flower is called? It is a poppy. The poppy serves as a reminder that this week we will celebrate a very important holiday. How many of you know what holiday we will celebrate? We will celebrate Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is a day on which we honor the men and women who have served in the military and who have fought to defend our freedom. The poppy was chosen as a symbol for Remembrance Day because it reminds us of a place called Flanders Fields where many soldiers from the first World War are buried. The poppies grow wild there between all the crosses that mark their place.

We enjoy a lot of freedom. We are free to come to church and worship, we are free to choose what we want to be when we grow up, we are free to choose where we want to live, we are free to choose most of the things that affect our daily lives. This might come as a surprise to some of you -- but did you know that freedom isn't free? Someone had to pay the price for us to have the freedom that we enjoy. There are men and women right here in this room this morning who have helped to pay that price. Some have served in the military and many of them have fought in wars. There are probably some people here this morning who had loved ones who gave their lives fighting for our freedom. These are the ones that we honor as we celebrate Remembrance Day.

We have a lot of freedom, but the greatest freedom that we have is the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. The Bible teaches that the penalty for sin is death, but you and I have been set free from this penalty. We have been set free because Jesus paid the penalty. The Bible tells us that Jesus died to set us free from the penalty of sin. Instead of death, we have been given eternal life. This freedom wasn't free, Jesus paid the price.

This week as we celebrate Remembrance Day, let us remember to stop and thank God for those who have paid the price for our freedom. Let us also remember to thank God for Jesus, who has set us free from the penalty for sin, because he was willing to pay the price.

Dear Father, thank you for the freedom that we enjoy. We are thankful for those who paid the price for that freedom, but even more important, we thank you for the freedom we have because Jesus was willing to pay the penalty for our sin. Amen.