Today, I would like to honor actually two groups—the temporal and the spiritual.

A heartfelt salute goes out to those men and women who have dedicated their lives to the cause of patriotism. We have military stationed at home and abroad that work daily to protect those “certain unalienable Rights” which were endowed by our Creator. We gladly live in a nation that bases its freedoms on the ideology that men can disagree with governmental decisions and make that disagreement known—broadcasting it venomously to all who will listen. I believe, however, that we ought to offer our heartfelt support to our military personnel wherever they may serve. They are heroes with a capital HEART. We should be thankful to God and to these people that they are on the job protecting our American ideals whenever they serve.

On the other side of the coin, serving around the world are people who take their relationship with Christ so seriously, that they have surrendered their lives, their careers, even their families, to the spread of the gospel. These people are known as missionaries. They carry the message of Jesus Christ to the world around them, whether it is at the corner store in Backwater, North Carolina, or at an outpost in the Zambizi desert. We as a church have romanticized missionary work to the point of placing missionary personnel on a pedestal picturing them as demigods. The reality is that missionaries are simply heroes—ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The difference between missionaries and ordinary believers is that they live to advance the Kingdom of God.

One group protects our Constitutional freedom.

The other advances our freedom in Christ.