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God Bless America · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

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If you have your copy of God's Word, let me invite you to open
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up to the approximate middle of it.
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That's the book of Psalms. There's 150 chapters there, and
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we're going to make our way to Psalm 33 this morning.
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So go and find your place there in Psalm 33.
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As you know, yesterday marked the 250th anniversary of our
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Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation, the
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most blessed and prosperous nation that has ever existed in
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human history, the United States of America.
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At such a milestone in our nation, in our lives as
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Americans believe that God would have us process the milestone
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moment through the lens of His Word.
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In fact, as we were approaching this milestone, and I was just
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praying personally and pastorally about it, I just no
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doubt that I've just felt the burden from the Lord to lead us
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through this time in celebration and moment in history in our
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lives from the lens of God's Word and what His Word would say
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to US. Wine.
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Well, for the purpose of seeking God's will for our lives and our
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nation, all for God's glory. And our text today is going to
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be a portion of Psalm 33, and I'm going to read it in its
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entirety, but we're not going to be processing all of it, but we
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will be pulling out principles from it that I believe will give
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us the right biblical lens to process through God's Word where
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we are as a country and as a nation.
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But listen to the entire Psalm as I read it.
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David Wright. Shout for joy in the Lord, O
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you, righteous praise benefits the upright.
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Give thanks to the Lord with the liar.
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Make melody to him with the harp of 10 strings.
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Sing to him a new song, and play skilfully on the strings with
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loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is
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upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
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He loves righteousness and justice.
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The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
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By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the
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breath of His mouth all of their hosts.
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He gathers the waters of the sea as a heat.
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He puts the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord.
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Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in all of him.
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For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm.
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The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.
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He frustrates the plans of the peoples.
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The counsel of the Lord stands forever the plans of His heart
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to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God
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is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage.
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The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man
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from where he sits in throne. He looks out on all the
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inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all
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and observes all of their deeds. The king is not saved by his
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great army. A warrior is not delivered by
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his great strength. The War Horse is a false hope
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for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.
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Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those
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who hope in His steadfast love that He may deliver their soul
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from death and keep them alive and famine.
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Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield,
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for our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy
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name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord,
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be upon us even as we hope in You.
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My purpose this morning is not our usual method of operation.
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I'm not planning to expose it, this Psalm in its entirety.
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But what I am going to do is pull out and point your
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attention to some principles that the Word of God clearly
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communicates here that will allow us to process this moment
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and where we are and where I believe God would have us go as
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a nation. One of the first principles we
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learned out of the many in this Psalm, but the first one in your
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notes is this. You can write this down.
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God is sovereign over the rise and fall of nations.
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God is, this psalmist declares, sovereign over the rise and fall
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of nations. This comes right out of verses
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10 and 11. Here David affirms that the
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existence and the authority of all nations is an existence, and
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it is an authority that is always, and I repeat always,
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under the sovereign authority of Almighty God.
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Let me just tell you where else in Scripture this is so clearly
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affirmed. Psalm 22, verse 28.
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For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the
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nations. Psalm 47 Eight God reigns over
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the nations. God sits on his holy throne.
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Daniel 221 He that's God changes times and seasons, and he that's
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God removes kings and sets up kings.
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Let me tell you what a man by the name of George Bancroft,
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often referred to as the father of American history, wrote about
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this and even about God's sovereign Providence in our
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nation. He writes that God rules in the
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affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science.
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Nothing is by chance, though men and their ignorance of causes
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may think so. The fortunes of a nation are not
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under the control of blind destiny, but follow the steps by
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which a favoring Providence, calling our institutions into
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being, has conducted the country to its present happiness and
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glory. Friends, if God is sovereign
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over the rise and fall of all nations, and he is, then mark it
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down. America owes its birth to the
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divine hand and plan of Almighty God.
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America owes its birth and our very existence and all our
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prosperity and any good that has ever taken place and takes place
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now, we owe to the Divine hand of Almighty God.
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In fact, the work of God's divine hand in America's birth,
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in her rise and prosperity has been so overwhelmingly obvious,
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the many have referred to it throughout history as the
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superintending Providence of God, referred to as a golden
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thread woven throughout America's history.
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I wish I had time to walk you through all the examples I came
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across in my study over the last five 6-7 weeks of the evidence
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of this sovereign hand of Almighty God in our formation,
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in our birth and rise and prosperity.
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But I just want to name a few, a couple really, that you may not
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read in textbooks. All right, the first one is the
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date of our birth. Here's something you may have
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never considered, but just a small evidence of the
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providential hand of God concerning the date of our
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birth. Let me put it like this.
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Many historians recognize that if God had not held North
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America free from European colonization until after the
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Protestant Reformation had grown and taken root, then America
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might have become just as corrupt and tyrannical as most
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other place in the world. It was the ideas of the
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Protestant Reformation that led America to being a place unlike
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almost every other place where things like this could be found.
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Religious freedom, representative limited
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government, free enterprise, jurisdictional authority, rights
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of conscience, and private property protections that
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appeared in many of the civil documents of the 17th and 18th
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century that all had their roots of those ideas.
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Back to the Protestant Reformation, which had its roots
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in a rediscovery of this right here and it being in front of
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people's eyes because of the printing press and the
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proliferation of the ability of the Word of God to get into home
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and the hearts and the minds and its effects to spread.
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Had God not allow the birth of our nation to happen until after
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that, many of the ideals we know and love would not have been in
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the seeds of the soil for the birth of our nation.
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Let me tell you a second thing concerning the Constitution of
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the United States. I'm going to quote several men
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here because if it was just a couple, that would be one thing.
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But over and over again we see this providential hand of God.
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Listen to what these men say. Signer William Samuel Johnson of
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Connecticut declared that the finished constitution was the
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result of what he described as a signal.
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That means obvious intervention of divine Providence.
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Alexander Hamilton affirmed quote.
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For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which,
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without the finger of God, could never have been suggested and
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agreed upon by such a diversity of interest.
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Let me keep going. Benjamin Rush, another signer of
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the Declaration from Philadelphia, He says, and I
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quote, I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring
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of Divine inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the
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union of the States, that in its form and adoption is as much
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listen to this the work of a divine Providence, as any of the
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miracles recorded in the Old and New Testaments were the effects
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of divine power. I keep going.
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James Madison says it is impossible for the man of pious
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reflection not to perceive in it.
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He means the Constitutional Convention, a finger of that
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almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended
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to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.
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And let me quote one more. A man by the name who was
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obviously not a born again believer by the name of Thomas
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Paine, but he wrote this and I just quote part of it.
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There has been such a chain of extraordinary events in the
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discovery of this country at first, and then in the peopling
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and planting it, afterwards in the rearing and nursing it to
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its present state, and in the protection of it throughout the
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present war, that no man can doubt.
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But Providence has some nobler in to accomplish then the
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gratification of the petty Elector of Hanover, or the
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ignorant and insignificant King of Britain.
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He wasn't real nice right there, but he's saying you can't miss
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the providential hand of Almighty God in the birth and
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rise and existence and prosperity of this nation.
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That's the truth coming out of a principle of the Word of God,
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that he and he alone is ultimately over and overseeing
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and response for the rise and fall of every nation, including
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our own, in the hand of God was so clearly in it despite all our
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imperfection. So God is sovereign you all over
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the rise and fall of nations, and God has been sovereign over
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the rise of America #2 The second principle we see, and I
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want you to to hear from this Psalm out of verse 12, is that
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God is the blesser of nations and God has blessed America.
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God is the ultimate blesser of nations, and God has blessed
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America. Listen to verse 12 again.
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Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He
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has chosen as His heritage. Now, when King David writes
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these words, Israel was a theocracy.
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Say, Kyle, what is that? Let me tell you plainly, that is
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simply a nation with a government led by God as their
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ultimate king. To be more clear, there would be
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no separation between the spiritual and the civil in a
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theocracy. There's no separation between
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the religious and the political. So now in the New Covenant, in
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the New Testament, God is no longer organizing his people by
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theocracy, by national government.
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He's organizing his people by his church, the assembly of the
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believers, gathered physically and locally together throughout
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any and all and every nation around the world.
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But here's the reality, whether it be theocracy, whether it be
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democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, or dictator, 2 truths of this
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text are still true based on what David writes.
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I want to tell them to you. And here that's how they go #1
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God is still the blesser of nations.
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God is still the blesser of nations.
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God is still the one and only sovereign who overseas the rise
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and the prosperity and the fall of every nation.
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And let me tell you a second one that you might not think about,
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but I believe it's true based on the Scripture with all my heart.
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Nations still choose a God. Nations still choose a God.
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Let me be more clear. Every nation, collectively
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speaking, is established on a specific world view, and that
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world view has a view of God, whether a right one or a wrong
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1. You see, every nation has an
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authority by which they choose to judge right and wrong.
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They're choosing a standard, and where they get that standard
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from is their higher allegiance is the God of their choosing.
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Every nation's going to choose a system by which they determine
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justice or injustice, and every nation's going to possess a
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system by which they choose to operate, principles by which
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they choose for their founding. In other words, every nation,
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whether they realize it or not, has a spiritual foundation
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whereby God is either honored or he's not.
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Nation still choose a God, and still to this day, blessed is
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the nation whose God is the Lord.
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You say how does that work? How is it that God is the
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blesser? How is it that blessed is the
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nation who's God is the Lord? How does that blessing flow?
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What does that look like? Well let me tell you what it
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looks like cuz David describes it.
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I don't have time to get into every detail but just listen
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again and listen in the context of this is what it sounds like
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when God is the blessed of a nation.
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Listen to verse 13 through 19 again here's what he writes.
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The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees how many of the children
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of man, all of them from meaning every, every nation from where
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he sits and thrown. He looks out on all, how many,
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how many inhabitants of the earth is he looking upon?
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All the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the
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hearts of how many of them, all of them, observing all of their
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deeds. And the King, the President, the
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Prime Minister, the Parliament, the Congress, is not here saved
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by his great army or military. A warrior, the Army Ranger, the
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Air Force fighter pilot is not delivered by his great strength.
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The War Horse, the tank, the Blackhawk, the FFF 18 or
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whatever number it is now, or the B52, or whatever it is, is a
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false hope for salvation and by its great mind it ultimately
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cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
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on those who what those who fear Him, on those who hope and his
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steadfast love that He may deliver their soul from death
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and keep them alive. And family, ladies and
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gentlemen, the absolute beyond shadow of a doubt reality is
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that God is the blesser of nations.
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He always has been, always and only will be.
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And God has blessed America, and it's still true that blessed is
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the nation whose God is the Lord.
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Now you would think that since this is so obvious, that every
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American, especially every Christian American, would be
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proud to be an American, but that is not the case.
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Let me quote you some statistics.
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In America, pride has fallen to an all time low, especially
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among the young. The Harvard Youth Poll reports
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41%. Less than half.
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Four out of 10 of 18 to 29 year olds are proud of their country.
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29% are embarrassed of their country, a Gallup poll finds.
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Only 38%, only 38% of Americans are extremely proud.
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That's the lowest number reported since 2001 since Gallup
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began asking the question. Disenchantment with the American
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experiment is at an all time high.
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Can I put it like this? The nation that God has blessed
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the most has become a nation. Most of its citizens are not
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proud of. I want to speak to this just for
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a moment. There are two types, I believe
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primarily two types of disenchantment with America.
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I want to speak to both of them quickly.
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One is wicked. I believe one is mostly
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righteous. The first one I want to call
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wicked disdain. And here's what I mean.
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This view hates America and wants to see her undone.
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Much of the embarrassment among the younger generation in
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America is a result. Not that they're primarily
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responsible, but is a result of a wicked agenda.
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And it's propaganda to take the sins of our past and claim that
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anything and everything must be seen through the sins and
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imperfections of our past, and that the country ought to be
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thrown out with the bath water. And there's an effort to undo
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and to take away from any and every principle that was good,
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that did make our nation and has made our nation great, but that
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all that should now be thrown and overthrown.
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And this agenda, I believe with all my heart, is an agenda
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driven by the devil who is out to kill, steal and destroy.
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And there is a war against so many of the ideals that we have
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fallen far short of in our history.
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But there is a war against those ideals, claiming that because of
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our mistakes that everything should be colored by that lens.
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There's a second type of disenchantment with America that
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I believe is is more proper. It can grow to a unhealthy
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degree, but it's like this. It would be what I call a godly
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sorrow. And this one, this view loves
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America, but is, and rightly so, honest about her sins.
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This view rightly recognizes the sins of our past and present,
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but says just because we've messed up doesn't mean we should
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give up. It doesn't mean that we
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shouldn't be proud of where God has blessed us and where we have
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gotten things right, but we ought to be honest about where
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we've gotten things wrong. The sins of our past and present
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don't have to define us if we're willing to repent, recognize
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them, and make them right and just.
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While I'm at it, what have been our sins of the past and
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present? I think to be honest as a people
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and before God, it's only right to be honest.
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I'm not. I don't have time to name them
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all, but I'm going to name some things that we obviously have
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not gotten right much of the treatment of Native Americans.
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Slavery, segregation, abortion, materialism and greed.
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The redefinition of marriage. The twisting to where gender no
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longer means a thing. The sexualization of our
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children. Fatherlessness, The breakdown of
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the family. Political corruption,
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polarization and violence. Do I need to go on now?
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We've always been far from perfect.
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And let me just tell you, you know, from our inception, we
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have never perfectly extended the unalienable rights to all.
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And we still don't today, especially to the unborn.
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We've never been perfect. Praise God He hasn't given up on
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us. And praise God, we've made
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massive changes in our nation. And you know what's mainly
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responsible for that? The effects of the gospel of
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Jesus Christ coming to fruition in and through our nation.
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That's not secularism. That is driving fruits that
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we've enjoyed for our good. That has been the truth going
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back to the Word of God. We've are and always have been
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so far from perfect. We have sinned in some
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extraordinary ways, but let me remind us that the Bible says
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all have. What did we think we were an
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exception? As Americans, do we think any
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human enterprise is going to be without sin?
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No. So the right route is to always
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be willing to look within and look at the word and say God,
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how would you have us change? Repent and continue to say where
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we're sorry, where we've been wrong, and say yes to where
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you're calling us to be right. I read 1 author who said the
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political scene doesn't look encouraging right now, but by
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God's grace we are still here. Let him who boast, boast in the
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Lord like Paul says. But we can, and hear me rightly,
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should love our homeland. She still deserves it and even
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more, she needs it. God is sovereign over the rise
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and fall of nations. God is the blesser of nations,
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and God has blessed America. I'm going to give you one more
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principle that we see out of this text that I believe we need
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to process in this moment #3 we need God to once again
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sovereignly and spiritually awaken America.
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We need God desperately to sovereignly and spiritually
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awaken America. This is verses 20 through 22.
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Listen to what they say, our soul.
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Listen to how David describes what it would mean to seek the
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Lord. Our soul waits for the Lord.
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He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in Him
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because we trust in His holy name.
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Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us even as we hope in
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You. The truth is, the soul of
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America is in grave danger. The soul of America is in grave
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danger. Why?
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Because collectively speaking, we are no longer a nation doing
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these things on a whole that David describes, waiting for the
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Lord, looking to the Lord as our help and shield, finding our
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gladness and hard on him, trusting in his holy name,
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hoping in him, asking for God's steadfast love to be upon us.
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The cynic might ask Kyle, have we ever been?
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I'm glad you asked. Have we ever been?
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Many a modern day politician in the media for sure will tell you
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no. But the facts of history don't
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lie. And the facts are that in God's
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Amazing Grace, He gave America not one awakening, but 21 prior
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in the decades immediately prior to our birth, the First Great
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Awakening, and then soon after our birth, the second.
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Can I just take a moment? I want to tell you a little bit
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about what that First Great Awakening was like.
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Follow with me. Throughout the 13 colonies, 18th
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century America was reported to be drifting spiritually.
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A couple preachers put it like this.
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One said the people are generally through the land,
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careless at heart and indifferent about the great
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concerns of eternity. Would you say that's true today?
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Another said the difference between the church and the world
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was vanishing away. In 1734, the first stirrings of
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a true culture changing event occurred in Jonathan Edwards
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Church in New England. Some of the congregation's young
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people had responded to his salvation message, and then they
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responded by holding prayer meetings.
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We're talking about the youth group at Jonathan Edwards
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Church, the youth group where they were gathering to pray for
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the revival in their church and elsewhere.
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And in December of the same year, six people from
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Northampton and suddenly prayed to receive Christ.
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Within a few months, that salvation number it was
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averaging 30 people being saved a week.
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In six months, approximately 300 people were said to have
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professed faith in Christ, including almost every adult in
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the town. Northampton.
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And surrounding communities were transformed in the spring and
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summer that followed, the town seemed, and I quote was full of
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the presence of God. From Northampton, the revival
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spread to the other towns, and everywhere it went, it changed
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whole communities, turning them upside down.
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Fast forward to 1741, when some expected the revival, the
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awakening, to die down and subside.
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God fanned the flames to all 13 colonies.
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How did it happen? One night, Jonathan Edwards
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preached A sermon. You might know the title off.
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Sinners in the. Hands of an angry God, most
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people think, Well my goodness, what kind of preacher was he?
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But they say this topic was not a normal topic for Jonathan,
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that he normally preach so much more cheerful topics.
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But on this one, he was describing the wrath of God that
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we rightly deserve as sinners, as those that have sinned
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against God, including you and including me.
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But in God's great love, he makes the way of escape for
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sinners who have sinned against him, who deserve death, who
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deserve punishment, who deserve separation from him forever.
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But he was describing a way for lost men and women to be saved.
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And across the crowd, men and women cried out, what must I do
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to be just like they did in Acts chapter 2 at the first Christian
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sermon when the Holy Spirit was poured out.
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And guess who stood up to preach?
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The man who had denied Jesus three times.
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And Peter stands up and said, nobody's inebriated here.
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This is the Holy Spirit. They're speaking in the tongue
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of native language of everybody gathered and 3000 people.
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Get what? Get saved.
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Have you been saved? Can I just ask you?
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If you realized you must ask the question, what must I do to be
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saved? And that the answer to that is
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to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in
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your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be
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saved. The Bible says if you've not
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been saved, you're facing an eternity separated from God
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because of your sin. This is what Jonathan preached
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and all of the sudden people cried out, what must I do to be
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say? The mighty wind of change swept
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through all of New England. It was the greatest revival in
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American history. It reinvigorated the biblical
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fate for decades to come in colonial America, permeating
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city, town, village and frontier.
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And it was during those days that God used another man from
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another country by the name of George Whitfield.
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If you watched the movie A Great Awakening, If you haven't, you
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ought to. It'll tell you the story of
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God's work in his life in friendship with Benjamin
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Franklin, as I love the story. Somebody asked Benjamin, hey,
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why do you come to hear George Whitfield preach?
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You don't believe anything he says he says?
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Yeah, but he believes it. And he didn't miss a.
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Sermon he also profited by publishing those sermons.
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But guess what, God may allowed him to profit, but people
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profited more by reading them and getting said God will you
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hit a straight lick with a crooked stick.
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Whitfield's first spot, You know where he landed the first place
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in America over 7 trips. 1st place he landed.
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Was Georgia. He'd makeover over 7 trips, I
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believe over 30 years preached an average of 40 hours a week.
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And there in the wake of Whitfield's preaching,
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Philadelphia, just to name one city, was so saturated with new
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believers. Hear that.
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Saturated with new believers. What if Cartersville was
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saturated with new believers? What would happen?
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Philadelphia. There was a reason why it's
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called the City of Brotherly. You know where that comes from,
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Not secular progressivism, that comes from the Bible.
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Ladies and gentlemen, Philadelphia saturated with new
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believers that daily life in America's largest city was
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dramatically altered. Ben Franklin said this is a non
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believer. Listen to this.
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At least not born again from what I can tell.
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It is a wonder. It is wonderful to see the
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change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants from being
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thoughtless or indifferent about religion.
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It seemed as if the whole world were growing religious so that
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one could not walk through the town in an evening while hearing
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Psalms song and different families of every street.
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What if Cartersville was saturated with new believers?
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What if God sent an awakening to America?
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What if the Great Awakening left colonial America awash in a
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flood of faith, transforming the hearts and minds of the American
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people? Let me just cite you some
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results of what happened when the Holy Spirit of God blew
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across our country. Hundreds of new churches were
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planted. A wave of missionary activity
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that impacted the world was unleashed.
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Ministries to the poor were created.
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A faith-based movement in slavery arose.
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Orphanages were established. The revival inspired the parade
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of new colleges. Listen to the colleges
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established for the propagation of the Christian Gospel and
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biblical knowledge. Princeton, Columbia, Brown,
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Rutgers, Dartmouth and others all dedicated to instilling
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knowledge from a biblical perspective.
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More devotion, catechisms, pamphlets and sermons were
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published in the wake of the revival, then all the works of
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history, law and science combined.
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Can you imagine? If God were to send a Third
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Great Awakening to America, what would happen?
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Can you imagine? Despite denominational
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differences, the deal was this. Essentially, Christianity and
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the truths thereof reigned throughout the land.
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The best way to put it is that the God America trusted in was
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the God of Biblical Christianity.
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It wasn't Allah, it wasn't Buddha, it wasn't the Hindu God.
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The God America trusted in was the God of the Bible.
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That doesn't mean all of them were born again, and it doesn't
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mean the ones who were born again were perfect.
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You could find flaws in everyone to a man and woman, but the God
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they were trusting in was the God of the Bible.
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What made America great was despite all her her
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imperfections, was the leaven of the gospel.
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Let me tell you what that means. We don't bake bread a whole lot
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now, so we don't really know what leaven is.
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And I don't even really know what it is.
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I just know it makes bread rise when you add it to dough.
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Is this right, Lauren? It infects the whole thing.
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It infects the whole. Thing you don't have to have a
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whole lot of it. But you put the.
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Leaven in the bread, and all the bread is impacted by the leaven.
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What made America great was a the leaven of the gospel.
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It wasn't that everybody was saved, but the salt and light
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and the illumination and the preservation and the promotion
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of righteousness that comes from the gospel.
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When people's hearts are transformed, that's what made,
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that's what instilled the values.
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That's what allowed God's hand a blessing to be but despite all
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our imperfections. The Bible puts it.
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Like this Proverbs 1434 Righteousness exalts a nation.
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Where does righteousness come from?
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Human nature, Secularism. Where does righteousness come
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from? From God and through a
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transformed heart by the gospel. Proverbs 612.
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A throne is established by righteous.
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The government that can stand and last and have God's blessing
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on it is only established by righteousness.
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Proverbs 29. Two, when the righteous
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increase, how did the righteous increase?
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By the spread of the gospel? When the righteous increase, the
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people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.
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Do we have more rejoicing or groaning in our land right now?
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The soul of America is in trouble because we've forgotten
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where we've come from. Can I show you a picture?
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I don't know if you would have see this real.
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Well I hope you can. I found this cartoon drawing so
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this is hard to see there. So let me just give you a little
33:12
description. What you have in the top left
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hand corner is the church house. What you have in the bottom are
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two buzzards. What you have in the middle is a
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man in a car driving towards what the sign says.
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There is a glorious future and the Buzzard, big Buzzard, the
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little Buzzard is saying this. Patience, my son.
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History tells us that we're in for a treat when they forget
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where they came from. The soul of America.
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Is in trouble because we've forgotten where we've come from
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and the remaking of America will not come.
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With any elected. Official.
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The remaking of. America won't come with any
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legislation. The remaking of.
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American can only come by the leaven of the gospel and the
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power of the Holy Spirit blowing through every neighborhood,
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city, town, church, state and our nation, transforming the
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hearts and minds of men and women, boys and girls, so that
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righteousness could exalt a nation.
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If America is to have a bright future, she will have to
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remember the God of the Bible and His righteousness.
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I want to finish out in some of the time I have left with the
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words of one of our most famous US presidents.
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And then I've saved our prayer time and response time to the
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end. So what I'm going to do is as
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soon as I'm done reading this, I'm going to call John and
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praise team out. I want you to listen to these
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words. I don't, I don't know that I
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could imagine a president speaking or writing words like
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you're about to hear. But I think this points us in
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the right direction of a right response.
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And so when I'm done reading, I'm going to have John and just
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praise team play for a moment. And then I'm going to invite us
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to stay seated, have heads bowed and eyes closed.
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And I'm going to ask for us to just have a time of prayer.
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And you're going to see why after I read what I'm about to
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read. If you're comfortable praying
35:15
out loud, I'm going to invite you to pray out loud.
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Pray where everybody can hear you if you want to.
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If not, I'm going to ask you to maybe come to the altar and
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kneel or come with your family, or come with your spouse, or
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come with a child, or come with a friend, or come by yourself if
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you're by yourself, or if you want to gather up on your Rd.
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where your family is. But I believe you're going to
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see how if there's any response we have to today in celebrating
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the birth of our nation and God's blessing, it ought to be
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to pray on behalf of our nation. So now let these words kind of
35:39
prepare you for that type of response.
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And all the while I'm going to stand here and if anybody needs
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to say what must I do to be saved, I'm going to be waiting
35:47
on you right here and then. After we pray, we'll.
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We'll sing and close out with whatever song John and them have
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planned. On April 30th, 1863, Abraham
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Lincoln appointed a National Fast Day, a national day of
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humiliation, fasting and prayer. He says whereas the Senate of
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the United States listen this, the Senate devoutly recognizes
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the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God and
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all the affairs of men and of nations.
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Can you imagine the Senate saying that today?
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Has by resolution. Requested the President to the
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Senate has requested the President to designate and set
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apart a day for national prayer and humiliation.
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Whereas it is the duty. Of nations as well as of men, to
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own their dependence upon the over ruling power of God.
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To confess their sins and transgressions and humble
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sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will
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lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime
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truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all of
36:50
history, that the nations, that those nations only are blessed.
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Whose God is the Lord. That's a president of the United
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States quoting Psalm 3312. And in so much as.
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We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are
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subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.
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May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war
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which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment
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inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful
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end of our national reformation as a whole, people have we.
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We have been the recipients. Listen to this.
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We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.
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We have been preserved these many years in peace and
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prosperity. We've grown in numbers.
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We've grown in wealth. We've grown in power as no other
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nation has ever grown. But we, Abraham Lincoln says not
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I. But we, he says, have forgotten
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God. We have forgotten the gracious.
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Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and
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enriched and strengthened us. We have vainly imagined in the
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deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were
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produced by some superior wisdom or virtue of our own.
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Intoxicated with unbroken success, we've become too
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self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
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preserving grace. We're too proud to pray to the
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God that made us. He says it behooves us then to.
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Humble ourselves before the offended power to confess our
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national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
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He. Goes on to describe.
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Setting a sign, a day of fasting and prayer, and of Sabbath
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thing, and of public worship, and He closes like this.
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All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest
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humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings.
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That's the Bible, that the United cry of the nation will be
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heard on high and answered with the blessings no less than the
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pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now
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divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of
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unity and peace. In WITNESS whereof I have
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hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to
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be affixed the President Abraham Lincoln.
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That was not a pastor. That was the president.
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I don't know how God would lead you to pray, but may we not be
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too proud to do it. And if ever our country needs
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it, it is. It is now we're.
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Not praying for the right. Politician, we're not praying
39:40
for the right legislation. We're praying for the Holy
39:42
Spirit to be poured out. That's what made our country
39:45
great from the beginning was the movement of God that He gave in
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our land. We're praying for the gospel to
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go forth like leaven, to touch every sector of society, to
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change every family and every marriage, for every lost person
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to cry. What must I do to be to be
40:00
saved? May God do it.
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Again, would you bow if you? Want to come pray at these?
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Steps. If you want to pray out loud,
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we're just going to keep eyes closed and heads bowed and we're
40:14
going to pray for a few moments. I'm going to ask you to pray and
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be bold as you do it. If you need to come talk to me,
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I'm going to stand right here as we do.
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If you need to say, Pastor Kyle, what do I need to do to be
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saved? You come, let's pray.
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Somebody start us.