One Life
ss021002
Commentary
After the French and Indian war ended in 1763, the British had gained control and claimed sovereignty over nearly all of France’s empire in North America.
The British attempted to restore their authority over the American colonies and thus began to tax them more heavily than before.
During the next ten years organized American colonist refused to pay many of these unfair duties. Taxes such as the Stamp Tax in 1765 and the Townsend duties on imports in 1767 were protested. In 1773 revolutionaries dumped incoming tea into the Boston harbor rather than pay taxes levied by the British government.
Great Britain responded by sending more troops to support it’s authority.
On April 19, 1775, a group of colonist assembled to fight the British soldiers at Lexington, Mass. Just hours later in Concord, American revolutionist fired the ‘shot that was heard around the world’.
Over a year afterward, The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, breaking ties between the American colonies and the mother country.
Britain launched a great offensive to crush the rebellion. The American Revolutionary War had officially begun and would last eight years ending on October 19, 1781, when British General Cornwallis’ army surrendered at Yorktown.
John Adams, the second president of the United States of America, later wrote: “The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.” (The World Book Encyclopedia, Cywrt 1983 by World Book. Inc. Q-R. volume 16. p 254)
The years leading up to the war were marked by historians as the period of the “Great Awakening”, earmarked by a series of religious revivals.
The movement began in the middle colonies in the 1720’s and spread both north to New England and south to the lower colonies.
Leaders of the Great Awakening included such men as Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitefield. The messages they preached and the lives they changed set the stage for great men & women of God to emerge.
This period produced a new and exciting form of preaching never before experienced by the colonist. The structure was such that allowed more involvement and participation by the common Christian and the laity. The revival message focused more on the individual experience of salvation rather than on the religious doctrines of any particular church.
The issue of personal experience of salvation verses church membership split many congregations and created a platform for supporters and opponents alike.
One belief in particular of those revivalists was that God was no respecter of persons. This unsettled the upper class, so called in their day as ‘gentry’ to which pastors and church leaders belonged. This message brought fear that equal status in God somehow lessened their authority and right to rule.
The message of equality in Christ appealed to the lower classes and gave them hope that no matter their economic, academic or social state and status, they were still accepted by God and could freely obtain salvation through Christ right along with everyone else and also at the same identical price. All it would take is faith which was free to all.
Born out of the wake of those revival years were men who went on to become renown figures of the American Revolutionary War. Men such as:
Ethan Allen John Paul Jones George Washington
John Adams Benjamin Franklin John Hancock
Patrick Henry Thomas Jefferson Paul Revere
And one other man, a man whom we understand placed great and valued importance on the bible, whose message will speak to us this morning, this man, a patriot of the American Revolutionary War, a hero, a martyr for his cause and country, Nathan Hale.
Nathan Hale born on June 6, 1755 as one of 12 children to a Connecticut family, was a strong bodied athletic type, educated under the tutorship of the Reverend Joseph Huntington as a student of the classics. In 1769 at age 14, Nathan entered Yale College where he distinguished himself for his interest in reading and for his physical skills.
In 1773, after graduation, Nathan moved to East Haddam, Conn., where he taught school for one year before moving on to New London, Conn.
In July of 1775, one year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, he left his teaching job to take a commission as a Lieutenant in the Connecticut Army. He even fought in the siege of Boston where he was recognized for his courage under fire while capturing a supply-loaded vessel right from under the guns of a manned British war ship.
Later at the rank of captain, his outstanding service awarded him a position on a small ban of elite fighting men called Rangers. The Rangers were responsible for the completion of dangerous, secret missions.
On such a secret mission of spying behind the enemy lines which Nathan had unhesitatingly volunteered for, he was disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster. During his return trip to General George Washington with the mission’s information, Nathan was captured and sentenced to hang the next day.
Many believe that a member of Nathan’s own family, a cousin, sympathetic to the British cause, contacted the British Army and told them of Nathan’s secret spying mission.
In New York City, near what is now 66th Street and Third Ave., Nathan Hale was taken by Major Cunningham of the British Army to the place where he would be hanged. Denied his last request, to have a bible, Nathan Hale made his last speech at age 21.
The final words uttered before his martyrdom were reported to be with remarkable calmness of mind and spirit on September 22, 1776. He said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
(Source: James Kirby Martin, "Hale, Nathan," World Book Online Americas Edition, http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wbol/wbPage/na/ar/co/242720, February 9, 2002. )
One Life
I. You have only
A. One Life to Live and
B. But One Life to Give
II. There are but two types of people
A. Those who read history
B. Those who make history
III. Allow me to speak to you this morning as though it were my last message.
A. As a dying man to dying men
B. As a mentor to a martyr
IV. 1 Corinthians 1:1 ¶ Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
A. Called to be
1. Paul was called to be something special for God much like:
A. Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Deborah & Jael
B. Perhaps Nathan Hale was called to be what he became
2. Maybe you too are called to be
A. If you are called to be …Then you are called to become.
B. Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Note: Many are called to be but few become what they are called to be.
C. What is your calling: If it is from God, It’s Out Of This World!
B. Called
1. Greek Word: klhtov kletos klay-tos’
1) called, invited
1a) invited (by God in the proclamation of the Gospel) to obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom through Christ
1b) called to (the discharge of) some office
1b1) divinely selected and appointed
2. Modern Definition: Selected, Invited and Appointed
C. God did not call His extra son, but His Only Son
1. Jesus experienced disappointment
A. with friends and family
B. with co-workers
C. with the preachers of His day
D. with organized religious groups
E. with people who He came to help
2. Jesus experienced frustration
A. with His calling
B. with His followers
3. Jesus was crucified by the people He came to help
4. But Jesus never abandoned His calling
A. Jesus became all that He was called to be
B. He had but one life to live, one life to give
C. He showed us that One Life Can Get The Job Done
V. We Have All Been Selected, Invited and Appointed To Live and To Give Our Own ‘One Life’ … It is with purpose that:
A. You are saved from the world (2 Peter 2:20 escaped the pollutions)
B. You are called out of the world (2 Corinthians 6:17 come out )
C. You are chosen to go into all the world (Matthew 28:18ff)
D. You are anointed to overcome the world (1 John 4:4 overcome)
E. You are destined to rule the world (Revelation 5:10 kings & priests)
VI. Your Part
A. Acknowledge and Accept the Call
1. Selection
2. Invitation
3. Appointment
B. Become What You Are Called To Be
1. Give priority time and attention to preparation
A. commit to daily prayer, praise, bible and service
B. weed out the old man and his habits of life & thought
2. Set goals for yourself in the basic areas of life
A. make a living
B. make a life
C. make a difference
C. You have but one life to give and one life to live … live it for Jesus!
