ABC Baccalaureate

Good afternoon to all of you. Good to be here with you. I'd like to thank all the parents and families that came to watch their younger ones graduate. It's always a pleasure to be here with them. It's always hard to follow them as an act. This is my first baccalaureate sermon. I managed to... I guess they ran out of other people. So it's my turn to do that. I had a sermon prepared for the baccalaureate, and I actually gave it a few weeks ago at the ABC thing, and some of the kids that was in the morning.

I'll probably give it in the afternoon sometime down the road. But some of the students said, No, you can give it again. I said, No, I'll give you something else. So normally about this time we're halfway through the sermon, so I can just skip to page four. No, it's a special occasion to be here. I'm dean of students at ABC, and so I get a lot of contact with the students. And I love them all and appreciate all of them to come at whatever age they are. We have a few older ones this year as well. There's an old adage that says, when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember you were there to drain the swamp.

Paul tells us how we can drain the swamp. Romans 12, verse 1, he starts out with, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's reasonable to present yourself to him as a sacrifice, a holy sacrifice, like his son who is acceptable to the Father. It's what it takes to drain a swamp.

We have to really believe those promises enough to step out on faith. And I ask the young people who've graduated today, as I do all members, to step out on faith, believe those promises, to realize your cause is truly worth the effort you're going to put into it. It's worth dying for, and more so it's worth being a living sacrifice for. I want to tell a story of a young man, slightly younger than our ABC students this time. True story. But I want to tell it because I want you to understand that you're going to face trauma ahead of you, and you have no idea what it's going to be like.

In this world where the Teach a Health Wealth gospel, where everything goes up wonderful if you do it right, I'm here to tell you that you can do it right, and things can be difficult. But it doesn't change what you need to be and what you need to do. You'll face challenges. Your parents have faced challenges. The older ones have. You've either faced them or will face them in the future. But it's part of God saying, now I know about each of us. He has to know, like you do with Abraham, about you and about me, before He can give you that reward of eternal life and your future.

What we taught you here is to give you the tools to reach that and attain it. I assure you it will not be easy. The world is a swamp. The young man I'll talk about was born in 1925. He was taught a sense of duty to his country, just like we teach a sense of duty to God here for you to follow.

The world was at war, and he was 17 years old, and he was excited, and his two older brothers enlisted in the army. He thought it was special. He joined what would prove to be the most elite unit of the war, the screaming eagles of the 101st Airborne Division. He thought it was a great deal. Not only did you get your regular pay, but you got $50 a month hazard pay.

He did not know the hazards that he was going to face. When I was baptized, I didn't know what hazards I would face either. His unit, 101st, when General Eisenhower spoke to them, he gave them the Distinguished Unit Citation, the first time it had ever been given to a whole battalion. And that's what he was joined in. He would face some of those things. He became a paratrooper. He would be dropped from planes at night or day time, landing, who knows where.

He would carry a 100-pound pack on his back and a 75-pound bag strapped to his leg with ammunition and other supplies. Ted Jomone couldn't swim. It's surprising that he joined the Air Force. When I signed up and got baptized, I had no idea what I would face. All of you had no idea what you might face either. Because we all face different things as God molds us and shapes it. I thought it was a good deal.

Just like young Ted Jomone thought, this is a good deal. I'm getting extra pay. With me, I'm offered eternal life. All I have to do is keep 10 commandments. In fact, Christ made it too. Love God, love your neighbor. Not so tough. But I didn't really know what I was getting into. It says just he didn't. But we have to recognize what God is doing and trust Him to see us through.

Leave things in His hands. Follow His orders. Trust Him as your Commander-in-Chief. Ted Jomone's first duty was the Normandy invasion. He wasn't on the beach because the Hundred and Foursters dropped at night, the night before, behind the enemy lines. They were considered expendable. They wanted the Germans to go back the other way so the beach launch would be a success. And so he was in the airplane flying that night.

Before they got to their destination, his plane was hit like many of them were with fire from the ground. It was going to come down until they rang the green light. Told them to jump. They were going too fast. When he jumped out of the plane, the bag was ripped off his leg. He opened his parachute as he started down. He could hear the feel the bullets around him as they were shooting up at them.

The bullets didn't bother him, he said, but bothered him as a tracer bullet. About every 20 shell was a tracer, and if a tracer hit your silk parachute, it went up in flames. And he saw some of his comrades fall to the ground, dying.

When he landed, he landed in water. Thankfully, it was only waist-deep. I'm sure what went through his head scared him to death because he would have drowned with all the weight that he was carrying.

God puts you through these type of tests to see where you'll be dropped, and whether you can swim with his help. You have the tools to have faith that he'll help you.

When Ted got out of the water, he was walking, trying to figure out where he should go, and he'd memorize the map. And he found a young man. He didn't know who it was. He saw him, and he pulled his gun up to fire. And the first man he almost shot wasn't even an enemy. It was a fellow 17-year-old who was terrified, who didn't click his little clicker. They gave him these clickers to click. So you'd know if you came up to somebody, you'd click yours. If they clicked back, it was one of yours. The man didn't click, but he pulled up, and he thought something's wrong. And so he yelled out in English, and the boy finally answered him. He was scared. He didn't know whether it was the enemy or not. We oftentimes mistake people for the enemy. They're trying to help us. Sometimes we see the enemy and think they're trying to help us. Paul in 2 Corinthians 11, 13, says we should expect these things. Be prepared for them. Verse 13, Paul says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself has transformed us an angel of light. Yeah, the world makes things look good. Therefore, it's no great thing for his ministers also to be transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose ends shall be according to their works. Satan knows our crickets. He knows and he counterfeits them. He draws people to stray. Are we close enough to God to see the truth, to understand who the enemy is, and who our friends are? We have those people among us sometimes. We have them the past 2,000 years, people who cause anger and division among God's people. Well, you know the difference between a friend trying to help, someone who's trying to help or someone who's trying to destroy.

You'll face that choice more than once. Those of us who have been in the church a number of years have. Somehow, Tejimo didn't shoot his comrade and they marched together to get to their units. He finally caught up with his unit, headed by Lieutenant Wudbowski. They were ordered to take a section of land behind enemy lines, the place where the troops would be coming through.

They came up and there was an enemy machine gun, pillbox, ahead of them, in a minefield.

His lieutenant got shot in the leg and Ted took his lieutenant and dragged him back to safety.

But they had to take it. Lieutenant said, Jomone, you're lucky. Run through there and take it out. And he did. He ran right through the minefield, took out the machine box, didn't suffer, didn't get shot. He was put in for a silver star for that, but he didn't do it for the reward. He was scared, terribly scared. But it was this duty and it was the right thing to do, just as we have a duty to God to do the right thing, now and forever. I don't know why God protected him. Maybe it was chance, maybe not, but his sense of duty was very admirable. Will you keep the sense of duty that we've tried to instill in you this year and beyond in what you have to do to make God and to keep your allegiance to Him? Hebrews 12.1 tells us part of that. And I ask you, will you obey when it seems hopeless? Will you run through the minefields? Will your cause let doubt and fear stop you?

Or will you go on? Hebrews 12.1 says, where foreseeing we are also encompassed about, with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight, the sin which does so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. All of these stories in the Bible are for you to look at and realize that the God who did it then is the God who does it now.

It's the same God. We often think back then is when God did all these things, but no, He does it today as well. He'll do it in your life if you trust Him and put it there.

Your race is often a lot of little things. Everybody wants to slay Goliath, but it's the little things you do. Are you too important to do those little things? Whatever they are, will you have a sense of spiritual duty that transcends human ability? We started in Romans 12.1. I'd like to read verse 2 and 3 of Romans 12 as it began. After we're told to be a living sacrifice, He goes on and says, Be not conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to Me, to every man that is among you, not to think himself more highly than you ought to think. Think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.

What is your measure of faith? Is it growing? Is the cause worth it? As it was to all those people in Hebrews 11 before this chapter, the faith chapter, they faced issues the same as you.

Will you pick yourself up after one battle and be ready for the next one? Ted Gebo's next battle was after Normandy was the Battle of Carrington. When I mentioned Carrington, Carrington, the first thing he said, oh, Purple Heart Lane. Purple Heart Lane. So many men got hurt there. Colonel Cole of San Antonio saw that their ammunition was very low. If they didn't take the hill and secure it for reinforcements, the men coming off the beach would be slaughtered. And so instead of hunkering down and waiting, he said, let's move on. He ordered the men to put their bayonets on and charge the hill. Seven hundred and fifty men, bayonets on their rifles, charged directly into the enemy stronghold. At the end of the charge, 125 men were left standing.

Ted Gebo was one of those. From the archives I read, the Purple Heart Lane Airborne Museum will be located at the northern side of Carrington, in the field where the 101st Airborne Division's First Medal of Honor recipient, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole, led his heroic bayonet charge of the 502nd Para Street Infantry Regiment. First Medal of Honor. I asked him why he survived, expecting him to say, oh, luck. But no, he said training. What do you mean, training? He said, my father had been in World War I. He saw World War II coming. And he took his three boys out, taught him how to use a bayonet. I can imagine teaching my son something like that.

But that's what he did. They knew how. Are we trained for the challenge we have ahead of us?

You spent nine months trying to be trained, preparing you, preparing you with what you need to make it. If you trust in God and you have the faith, he can help you.

Turn to 2 Timothy 3 if you would, because Timothy was trained as a young man. And your training, your history, your faith will get you through if you trust God. Paul said that Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

But evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And that's the world we live in. But continue you in the things which you learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them. And then from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

And he finishes with all scripture. He is given by inspiration of God, is profitable for a doctrine, reproof, for correction, and structures in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished for good works. The last nine months our young ABC students have gone through the entire Word of God, and they'll have to keep going through it because they'll learn more every day of their life as they study it. Ted Germone's training saved him at Carrington. Your training and your study of God's way will save you. So I ask, will you Matthew, Bryce, Breiston, Ariel, Ariella, Venetia, Brian, Winston, Audrey, Vanessa, Crete, Jacqueline, Seth, David, Sue, Alan, will you be standing? You can. I believe you will. But trials only prepare you for the next challenge. It's not an end in itself.

The stories from the Bible gave me strength. I continue to pray, God, please let this be my trial, not my preparation for one. Because they always get tougher. God has to know where you stand. Ted Germone's next assignment was market gardens. Those of you who are familiar with the war, it was the September 1944 invasion of Holland to drive back the German troops. I'm going to read from the World War II database. The plan called Operation Market Garden was for the largest airborne drop in military history. Three Allied divisions would be involved. The U.S. Army 101st airborne would drop on Eindhoven and take the canal crossing at Weghel. The Canal Road is also known as Hell's Highway. The airborne units had suffered heavily in the Normandy campaign. We're still reorganizing in their camps in England when the order came down. They had returned in early August after 40 days of fighting. Some 40 percent of their members would never leave Normandy or the coast of Carrington, resting in the Allied cemeteries. On September 26, Montgomery ordered the first airborne to break out of Arnheim, join the Allied lines to the south. Out of 10,000 men dropped in Arnheim, only 2,300 came out. 1,400 were dead and over 6,000 were prisoners of war.

It truly was Hell's Highway. It was in Market Gardens that the second Congressional Medal of Honor was given to a scout named Joe Mann. Joe Mann had been shot in the arm and the leg, and he was wounded, and the men with him were going to take him back to the hospital.

But he said, no. He said, you have to attack tomorrow. Just wrap me up. I'll be fine. I'll stand guard overnight. So he did. In the morning, instead of them attacking the enemy, the enemy attacked them.

And a grenade was thrown into the foxhole with Joe Mann. He was next to it. He turned to the man, he said, I'll take it. He rolled over on the grenade. He died. Now, you may wonder why.

That's why I tell the story of Joe Mann. Ted Jomann was in the foxhole with Joe Mann.

Joe Mann saved his life.

John 1512. He had turned there.

I hope you have friends and you keep them close to encourage you to carry on. Christ, in talking to His disciples right before he died, He said, this is my commandment. You love one another, I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. Christ is our friend.

The next day, Ted Jomann was in a foxhole with his best friend, the one he had gone through training in the fort in Georgia, dropped with him in the plane. They'd made it so far, and his friend was concerned about the fact that the grenades were being thrown in, and he kept popping up to look to see. Ted told him, stay down, don't look up. Finally, he just reached up and grabbed him to pull him back in the hole, and as he did, the sniper's bullet went right through his friend's head. He died in his arms. Ted Jomann was asking himself, why me? Turn to Acts 12, if you would, with me. Others have also asked, why me? In some way, each of us will ask, why did God call me?

Why did He put me through the things that I've had to go through?

James, the brother of John, was beheaded, and Peter escaped. He had to ask, why me, not him?

In Acts 12, too, it says, and he, Herod, killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

And because he saw it please the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.

Those were the days of unleavened bread. And when he apprehended him, he put him in prison, delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Passover to bring him forth to the people. Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, and prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. When Herod would have brought him forth the same night, Peter sleeping between two soldiers bound with chains and the keepers before the door of the prison.

And behold, the angel of the Lord came to him, and the light shined in the prison. He smote Peter on the side, raised him up, and set a rise quickly, and the chains fell off his hands, and he escaped. Peter had to say, Why didn't you do that for James? Why me? Why didn't I die?

Do you ever ask why me? If you do, you're not alone. All of us have.

Good deeds and character often come out in warfare. Some are recognized, some are not.

Will you allow God's Spirit to do the deeds in your spiritual warfare?

Will you be willing to take the hits for others? Will you be willing to make others look good, to eliminate your pride and ego and your vanity, which gets in the way of God's Spirit?

Do we get tired and want to stop? Of course. It's work. It's not easy. I can't ever say it's easy for any of us. But God doesn't want to make it easy. He wants to know what you're made of. Will you stand up forever for Him? You'd think this was enough for one man, but his next stop was the Battle of the Bulge. He was at Bastogne. From the record, the seizure of the harbor in Antwerp with encirclement and destruction of the Allied armies required the German Army mechanized force to use the roadways in order to maintain the speed of their offensive.

All seven roads in the Ardennes mountain range converged on the town of Bastogne. Control of the crossroads of Bastogne was vital to the Germans to speed up their advance and give their resupply to their troops. As poor weather and conditions made cross-country travel very difficult, the battle lasted from mid-December 1944 to January 1945. 501st was the first to fight at Bastogne, one of its battalions ran into the enemy near Neff, a few kilometers outside of Bastogne, and thus began the heroic defense of Bastogne in which the 501st gave up not one foot of ground.

And in the division, its comrades in arms stopped cold everything the Germans could throw at them.

It ruined Hitler's offensive and his timetable and won the 101st the Presidential Union Citation. All seven highways leading to Bastogne were cut by German forces by noon of December 21st.

By nightfall, the conglomeration of airborne and armored infantry forces were recognized by both sides as being totally surrounded. The American soldiers were outnumbered. They lacked in cold weather gear. They lacked in ammunition. They lacked in food and medical supplies and leadership, as many officers, including the 101st commander, Major General Maxwell, were elsewhere. And due to some of the worst weather in years in the winter, the surrounded U.S. forces could not be resupplied by air, nor was tactical air support available. The most famous quote from the battle came from the 101st acting commander, Brigadier General McAuliffe. When confronted with the written request of the German General Lutwist to surrender Bastogne, he simply replied, NUTS. The commander of the German infantry interpreted that to the German S. Go to hell.

After the battle, newspapers referred to them. That division is the battered bastards of Bastogne.

Ted Gemon told me Bastogne was hell. He said, that's where he got his shrapnel rune, the tree verse. They shot into the trees. The tree hit him in the leg. It's the only purple heart he got. He had been hit a dozen times, but you had to go to the hospital to get a purple heart. After Bastogne, he managed to go to the hospital and get a purple heart.

He waited for supplies. He said it was terrible. Cold, freezing cold. He said, men, freezing all around him, just waiting. He said they were waiting for supplies to be dropped, and they'd hear the planes go over, but the planes didn't know where to drop. Most of the time, the supplies would come down, they wouldn't even hit them. It was terrible. They subjected amputation for his feet after the war. He's one of the only people in his unit that kept his feet.

The supplies, he said, they felt so alone out there.

Always look at the story of Elisha's servant. I always love that story in 2 Kings 6.

2 Kings 6, I'll paraphrase a bit and read a couple verses of it because of the time.

The king of Syria is at war against Israel, and Elisha is telling the king of Israel where they're going to be all the time. The king of Syria decides he has a spy in his midst, and he says, who's telling you where I'm going? Every time I get there, they're gone.

Somebody tells him, no, it's Elisha, the prophet. He tells you where you are. He's sitting in a little town called Dothan. Verse 13, we're told that. And so, the king of Syria said, we're going to get this guy. Verse 14, therefore he sent horses and chariots and great hosts. They came by night, and compassed the city round about. Elisha had a servant. I've been a servant. I know what that's like. And the servant and the man of God rose up early, went out, and behold, the host compassed the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, my master, what shall we do? This little tiny town, nobody around. And he answered, fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

The servant's looking around, you've got to be kidding me. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. The Lord opened the eyes of the young man. He saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. I'd like to be able to see the angels in here. I'm sure they are. The hosts of heaven are with us. In your mind's eye, you have to see those chariots around you. You have to know that God is there and seek his help in all things, small things, large things, everything. It's not only big things. Do we know that God will supply our needs? Ted waited for help with Bastogne, and he said sometimes the supplies would land down there. Most of it went to the enemy because they couldn't tell with the cloud cover. But I asked him, it was so bad, I said, how did you survive? Again, I expected luck, as most people say. He said, socks. Socks. He said, they saved my feet. I said, what do you mean?

Well, he said, between Carrington and Market Gardens, my mom sent a care package.

And she had cookies and food in there, but she also had a pair of wool socks.

I was the only one in the unit that had a pair of wool socks. The rails had cotton socks, and the water and the moisture froze. That's why so many lost their toes, and he didn't lose his. Wool socks, saved by mom.

Often, that's another person that gives us comfort. A kind word, a small gift, a pair of socks, so to speak, or a small scripture that carries you through. Will you give that comfort to others, as it did for him? That's what we're called to do.

We know in Romans 8, 28, that all things work together to the good of those who love God.

We are part of the things that help other people, that work together to comfort one another and make things work.

You may ask, how do I know this man's conflict? Well, Ted J'mon was my wife's father.

He suffered a paralyzing stroke, and for two years we had to take care of him. We'd been married 35 years by then, and I had never heard a war story. I knew he'd been in the war, but he never, ever would talk about it. And all of a sudden, with his stroke, it came out. And he started laying out these things that happened to him. I didn't necessarily... It was so incredible. I didn't necessarily believe it. We had to look up all the documents. We were trying to get help from the veterans, and so you had to prove what you did and where you were. So we had to look all these things up. But with the stroke, all the stories came out. And I had to take care of him. Michelle did all the medicines for him, and I took care of washing him and cleaning him. And every day when I washed and cleaned him, I had to see his feet. Some of his toenails were still black. They'd been black for 50 years. But he still had his toes, at least. They were curled and gnarled a bit, misshapen toenails. And every time I could see him, I could recognize Bastogne and what he did for our country. Turn to John 20, if you would. I saw Christ washing his disciples' feet, and I thought of the price he paid for you and me. And I thought of doubting Thomas, who, even though Christ has spent three and a half years with his disciples, they didn't necessarily believe everything. They didn't see it. Verse 24 of John 20, Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them. When Jesus came, the other disciples therefore said to him, We've seen the Lord. And Thomas said to them, Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger in the print of those nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again, the disciples were within and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the drawers being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. He just showed up through the wall. And I'm sure Thomas thought, Wow! And he walks over to Thomas, and he says, Thomas, here, reach in, put your finger in, behold my hands, reach in, thrust it in my side. Don't be faithful, but believing. And Thomas answered, My Lord and my God. And Jesus said, Because you have seen me, you believed, blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed. Seeing is believing. He reminds us that you and I have to see some things without, or believe some things without seeing them. It's difficult. We have those moments, but you have what it takes to do it. If this wasn't enough, the 101st Airborne was now ordered into Germany. Ted your mom was made a staff sergeant at this point. His next challenge was not being shot at, not freezing, not being able to get out of the air.

Not freezing, not starving. It was here that he led a scouting patrol into Germany, and his patrol found one of the death camps. He made him sick, tried to feed them, but when they fed them, some of them died. Because they couldn't handle any food. They hadn't had anything nourishing for so long. They were simply too weak, and they clung on to him. He said they grabbed their uniforms, they held on to him, begging for help. We're spiritual soldiers. We're here to help. When Jesus Christ returns, we'll help the whole world. For now, we help each other. What we teach here at ABC is to give you the courage and the faith to be able to do those things, to prepare you to help other people. For selfish, it's not about selfishness. It's about selfishness. Christ wouldn't have died for us.

People are going to come to you eventually and want to know what you were taught, what you believe. We're told that in Zechariah 8, 23. It says, out of every nation, they'll take hold of the skirt of him that's the Jew and say, we want to go with you because we have heard that God is with you. And God indeed is with each of all of us that are baptized, that qualify. Those people yearn for the physical food. People will yearn for spiritual food from those who have trained and know it. Tejamon didn't do it for the reward. He had five bronze stars, purple heart, silver star, metal of honor. He had the metal of France, the metal of Holland, a whole bunch of metals. But heroes don't brag. They seldom even talk about it. Without the stroke, I'd have never known these stories. There's a lot of fakes out there. You can't make yourself a spiritual hero. You can't buy it. Simon Magus tried that when he said, give me the power. If you want power, you'll fail. He wanted to be seen. There have always been people that want to be seen, that want to be in charge, that want to take over for selfish reasons. You have to have the humility to wait for God to do things. Turn to Matthew 6. We're told that by Jesus Christ Himself. Again, people that want to be seen. It's not what Christ taught. Matthew 6, verse 2, When you do your alms, do not sound the trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do. They do that why? So they can have the glory of men. Your motive has to be right. A lot of good things can happen off the tree of knowledge and good and evil, but the motive has to be right. And he says they have the reward. Verse 5, when you pray, don't pray like the hypocrites. They love to pray standing where everybody can hear them, in the corners and the streets that they can be seen of men. When you pray, enter the closet. Talk to God. Don't try to show off. God sees what you're doing. Verse 17, when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face. Don't look like you're fasting. No. That's a difficult thing to do when you're a little kid. Every little kid I know, when I started my first fast when I was five years old, and I made it by the time I was six. But I thought I was going to die, and everybody knew I was fasting. But we're not superior that way. We're supposed to do it in secret, because it's about God.

It may seem like Ted Gemon was a giant. He was a hero. And off the tree of knowledge of good and evil, some people can be heroes in the sense that they do what they do for their cause. But our cause is greater than that. But he, like all of us, had weaknesses. Weaknesses are not good in warfare. He told me in Holland he had a problem.

He was a sleepwalker. And one night he walked out in the middle between the enemy, and he was by a windmill when he woke up. And the Germans were on one side, and the allies on the other, and he said, if I walked either way, I'd get shot. And he sat there huddled up in the cold all night. How many times do our weaknesses, our humanity, our making heroes of men instead of heroes of God and Christ, put us in the middle where we don't know where to go?

We have to wait in faith and listen. And then we know, let God lead us. When we took Shell's dad to the VA, we stood in the back of the line. We gave the paperwork to him. It wasn't long before they called us up to the front. They said, Jomone, come up. When they saw his record, we could hear him whispering, he's one of them. Only about 20 percent of his unit survived. There was a noticeable respect. Not many returned. We were trying to get him help, and they asked about his wounds and things like that, and he had a stroke.

And he had had shrapnel in his head, but we figured we might be able to turn that into something to help him out. And they said, well, it's not in the book. It's the only thing we have in the book is his purple heart for his leg. We don't doubt anything that you said. We know, because they asked him, where are you hitting? Here, here, here. Yeah, different places. But his leg of purple hearts healed up so much, you couldn't even tell he was hit there. That was the one thing that looked good still.

But they said, if it's not in the book, it didn't happen. It wasn't written down. It didn't happen. There's a book that we all want to be written in called The Book of Life. We're told about that in Revelation. The book's open. People are judged out of the Bible, but a book of life. And those who aren't written in it, if you're not in it, you didn't happen. We want to make sure that all of you are in that book. We want to make sure the graduates of ABC, the baptized members in the church, young and old, make it to that book.

There's only a few of Christ's elite firstfruits. I would say God's 101st Airborne Division. ABC graduates are joining that elite force, his Medal of Honor recipients. Blessed are those that have part in the first resurrection. That's the chance you have. What will be the reaction to us when people see us? They'll ask, how did you do it? Did you survive luck? It won't be luck. You'll use what you learned through the years to help others get in the book of life. We're told in Hebrews 5.8 that Jesus learned by the things he suffered.

He learned obedience by the things he suffered. He didn't need to suffer. He didn't deserve to suffer. We, he paid the price for us. Is that our attitude? We're told in Philippians 2.3 what our attitude should be and how we should act, to let nothing be done through vain, nor strife, but in lowliness of mind let him, each of us, esteem others better than ourselves.

That's difficult, but every morning and every night for two years when I helped my father-in-law with the things that were not of his or my choosing, tasks were tedious. Many were unpleasant and it was difficult. Many people pay others to do those tasks. Some refused to do them. If you take that road, you miss out on the lesson of foot washing, the lesson of humility, the lesson of Christ's death, the lessons of our commander in chief. I tried to give him dignity.

I'd try to cover anything that was messed up. I'd help him hold the hose. He had one good arm that he could use to water the plants and wash things, and I took him to the Home Depot because he liked tools and we could look at things there. We're all in the same boat except for the grace of God there go all of us. Do you do the things that are unpleasant and difficult? Don't take the easy things, things that may seem impossible. Do we give others dignity and respect?

You have to see it as an honor, not as a punishment. Your spiritual war is a little at a time. You see, each of you will have your normities, or your drop, and you're with the enemy, and all you have is your spiritual bullets. You'll have your carantans where you charge the enemy with only a spiritual bayonet. Your market gardens you'll have, where the courage of someone else may take a grenade for you. The Bible story saved me. I hope your story can help save someone else.

You'll have your best owns, where it seems you're alone, the enemy and the elements are against you, and all you have is a pair of socks, your Bible, what you studied, and God's promise to comfort you. But that's all you need. You'll find this world's death camps held captive by Satan, and you're going to be able to liberate them with the truth. People today don't even know they're in that death camp. They don't understand what the world has become. And you'll have your sleepwalking at windmills, where you have to overcome, and you don't necessarily know where to go. But hopefully you'll be like in Philippians 4 and 9 when Paul said, those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. And may the God of peace be with you. I hope you'll be able to say that and be that to other people as you leave here. Maybe no one but God will know the wars you'll have to fight, but He's the only one that counts. Live or die, you can win, and the God of peace will be with you, and we need to help each other. Do you want to be in that book of life? I want all of you to make it, and I think you will. I know you can. You have to have the faith, the endurance, the patience, the things that are there, and you can't do it alone, but you're not alone. Trust God. I mean, really, really trust God, no matter what the situation is. And I always remember what Paul wrote when he said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthened me. He went through a lot. You will, too. As with all stories, the way you tell them makes a difference. But even more so, it also makes a difference in the way you see them.

How do you see them? It's important to know how you react. Oftentimes, I'd see people go through something, and I'd say, well, God's testing them, and I started realizing, no, He's testing me. How do I treat them? Do I forgive them? Am I comforting to them? Paul in Philippians 4-8 tells us what to think on. You probably memorize it. What's over things are true. What's over things are lovely. What's over things are honest, just, pure. Whatever things are a good report, think on those things.

That's what we're to do. Your reaction is what counts. How you choose to face adversity. How you choose to face inequity. How you choose to face those who may wish you harm.

Because if you're not in the book, you didn't happen. When you're up to your neck and alligators, it's hard to remember your goal was there to drain the swamp. This world is full of alligators, and there's more and more all the time. But you learned how to drain the swamp here at ABC, and all of you who are studying God's Word know that as well. And so you will be in the book. As you return home, I ask God to bless and guide you, and to keep all of you safe. And we'll see each other in the kingdom.