Pastor Doug: Hi friends. Do you want to hear some amazing facts? Well, right now we are on the bridge of a ferry, that is transporting across Manila Bay about 26 miles to the Island of Corregidor. This was the eye of the Pacific storm during World War II.
You know in the years before World War II, the United States had invested over $200 million in fortifying this island to protect Manila against an invading army. To get an idea how fierce the fighting was here in Corregidor, all you have to do is look at these bombed out barracks that once housed the American, and Filipino soldiers, this building was built in 1915 strong enough to withstand a hurricane, but in December 1941 it was the first target for the Japanese bombs.
These were some of the scenes of the most fierce fighting in the Pacific battle during World War II, fact it's said that Corregidor was the virtual eye of the storm, and after weeks of fighting against the Japanese, eventually leaders in North America told General
Douglas MacArthur that he would have to go to Australia leaving General Jonathan Wainwright in charge of the forces here.
General Douglas: I said to the people of the Philippines once I came, ''I shall return'' Tonight, I repeat those words. I shall return.
Pastor Doug: General Jonathan M. Wainwright was an amazing soldier, he was the grandson and son of soldiers, and he was so courageous in the way that they withstood, and fought against the Japanese invaders, but after a while the vastly superior numbers depleted their supplies, after constant bombardment, running out of water, running out of food, running out of ammunition, he knew the only thing he could do to save his soldiers would be to surrender.
Following the surrender of the US and Allied forces, the prisoners were transferred from Corregidor across to the Bataan Peninsula by ferry, where thousands of them died during what is historically known as the Bataan Death March. They were overwhelmed with hunger, thirst, disease, and killed by the brutality of their captors. After the brutal Bataan Death March, Wainwright was transferred from one prison of war camp to another, eventually ending up in Manchuria China guarded by the Japanese where he endured all the privations of his men.
They were being starved, they were being brutalized, and after enduring this terrible conditions, eventually word reached the POW camp that the Americans had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Japanese had offered an unconditional surrender, as soon as Wainwright heard that he stood to his full six feet two inches, he marched into the commodores office, the warden of the PWO camp, and he said, ''My commander-in-chief has defeated your commander-in-chief. I am in charge now.''
From that moment on, he was in charge of everything that happened around the POW camp. Because he believed the word of his commander, because he believed in the victory, he claimed the victory, and it became real. Friends you know, we have received the same kind of promise in God's Word, because of the victory of Jesus, we know that He's defeated the devil, we need to claim the promises in His word, and no longer be brutalized by the enemy. You don't have to live lives of sin. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:57, "Thanks be to God that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," So claim that victory today.