You Missed Something Extraordinary
If you weren’t in your seat at the Ocean City Tabernacle this past Sunday, here’s your gentle but firm notice: you missed one of the most powerful mornings this summer stage has ever seen.
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin — founding member of Delta Force, decorated combat veteran, and one of America’s most compelling Christian speakers — delivered a message that left the packed house silent, stirred, and in many cases, in tears.
Who Is General Jerry Boykin?
For those unfamiliar with his story, Lieutenant General William “Jerry” Boykin is one of the most decorated soldiers in American military history. A founding member of the U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force, Boykin served 36 years in uniform and participated in some of the most consequential special operations missions of the 20th century — including:
• The Iran Hostage Rescue Mission (Operation Eagle Claw)
• The U.S. Invasion of Grenada (1983)
• Operation Just Cause in Panama (1989)
• The Battle of Mogadishu — immortalized in Black Hawk Down
He later served as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and is the author of the autobiography Never Surrender. On Sunday morning at the Tabernacle, he came to talk about the faith that carried him through every one of those missions.
A Memorial Day Message Built on Real Sacrifice
With Memorial Day weekend as his backdrop, General Boykin opened with a charge straight from Scripture — grounding everything that followed in a biblical call to action:
“Exodus 15:3 says, ‘The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is his name’… Don’t you think we ought to be warriors in God’s kingdom? Now is the time.”
What followed was not a political speech or a military briefing. It was a deeply personal, at times raw, testimony of a warrior’s faith — tested repeatedly in some of the most dangerous places on earth.
Grenada, Panama, and the Miracles in Between
General Boykin walked the Ocean City Tabernacle congregation through mission after mission — not to boast, but to bear witness.
He described being shot during the 1983 Grenada operation, the helicopter he was riding in sustaining 54 bullet holes during the assault on Richmond Hill Prison. When doctors told him they needed to amputate his arm, he refused — telling them he had prayed and trusted God for healing. On Sunday, he held that arm up for the congregation:
“It’s about a half inch shorter than the other one, but I still got a good arm here.”
He described Operation Just Cause in Panama — the 1989 mission to rescue CIA-connected journalist Kurt Muse from a Noriega prison — where his team blew through the roof of a prison, extracted their target, and survived a helicopter crash, all in a single night. Every member of the team made it out alive.
“God loves the warrior,” he told the congregation. “And we’ve got to be warriors.”
The Moment That Broke Him: Mogadishu
The emotional center of the service — and the moment that brought the room to absolute stillness — was Boykin’s account of the Battle of Mogadishu on October 3, 1993, the engagement later known worldwide as Black Hawk Down.
Boykin described stepping off the plane in Somalia and immediately feeling what he called “the presence of evil” — something he said any missionary who has worked in regions of spiritual darkness would immediately recognize. He set up a chaplain to preach the Gospel daily before any operations launched. He prayed before every mission with a megaphone, leading his troops in prayer and ending with God Bless America.
Then, 15 minutes after he gave the code word “Irene” to launch the operation into the Bakara Market, 100 Americans were locked in an 18-hour battle with thousands of Somali fighters. At the end of it, 15 of his men were dead.
“My most vivid memory of Mogadishu was a five-ton truck coming back in on our airfield. I knew what was in it. The dead were on the bottom and the wounded were on top of the dead — and the blood poured out like water. And it broke me. All I could say was, ‘God, where were you?'”
The Answer That Changed Everything
That night, sitting alone on his bunk with his Bible, Boykin reached his lowest point — and told the congregation with raw honesty that he wanted to tell God how angry he was. In a moment of despair, he uttered something he never thought he would say: “There’s no God.”
The moment he said it, he heard what he describes as the audible voice of God — the last time in his life. The answer was simple, direct, and devastating in the best possible way:
“If there’s no God, there’s no hope.”
“I just began to weep,” Boykin told the congregation, his voice breaking. “And here’s what I want you to take away this morning — before I even said ‘forgive me, God,’ he was reading my heart. He had already forgiven me. And there is nothing — nothing — that God won’t forgive you for.”
A Doctor Who Flatlined — and Lived
General Boykin closed with one final miracle. The day after the battle, a mortar round landed feet away from him, killing his master sergeant and wounding his lieutenant colonel. Boykin himself was knocked down, his legs full of shrapnel. Beside him in the field tent, a doctor — also caught in the blast — was bleeding out from a femoral artery wound.
Boykin held his hand and prayed as the man flatlined. A nurse urged him again and again to let go. He wouldn’t. He prayed one simple prayer:
“Lord, can you just save this one?”
That doctor — declared dead in a field tent in Mogadishu, Somalia — was, as of 2014, the number one country doctor in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He is alive today.
A Closing Invitation — and a Room That Responded
General Boykin ended his time at the Ocean City Tabernacle not with a standing ovation moment, but with a quiet, sincere altar call. “There are people in here today that need to be right with Jesus,” he said simply. And he meant every word.
It was the kind of morning that reminds you why the Tabernacle has been a cornerstone of Ocean City, NJ since the city’s founding in 1879 — and why people come back, Sunday after Sunday, summer after summer.
Watch the Full Service — Ocean City Tabernacle on YouTube
If you missed General Boykin’s message in person, the full service is available now on the Ocean City Tabernacle’s official YouTube channel. This is one you’ll want to watch in full, share with someone who needs it, and come back to more than once.
Partner With Us
Each season, the Tabernacle becomes a place where people gather to hear the Word of God, worship together, and be renewed in their faith. Your support helps make that possible—strengthening a ministry that proclaims the Gospel, invests in the next generation, and provides a place where residents and visitors alike can encounter truth, encouragement, and community. By partnering with the Tabernacle, you are helping ensure that this work continues with clarity, purpose, and lasting impact.
