America The Beautiful

Thank you, Wes.

When he sang, I saw the light,

I could almost picture Hank Williams with his white hat on singing.

I was teasing him about that at the 8 o'clock service.

But Fred Stone and I have been friends since before both of us were married.

And over the years, talked and carried on.

And you heard him say something last Sunday about my attire, didn't you?

Pray that I wear the proper attire.

So we email back and forth this week

and doing the things that we typically do.

But I've got a photograph I need to show you.

Or you have it.

Now he says he's not fond of bow ties,

but a picture is worth a thousand words.

And after having done that,

I'll probably be my last Sunday here.

I do want to share with you something this morning

that's really important, I think.

And I don't know what to call it,

so I just call it America the Beautiful.

And we have been blessed

within the confines of our borders.

But the question is,

why are we the beautiful?

Why have we been blessed?

And it's not because we're just special.

It's not because we work hard.

It's not because we fought.

But it's because God in his infinite wisdom

decided to show us his faith.

And so he's blessed.

So I want you to look in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

I believe there is such a thing as a proper patriotism

where you love your country,

but you don't worship it.

You worship God.

And if you can see in your country,

whatever country that is,

the blessings of God,

then that should attract our attention.

Over 20 years ago,

when we went to Utica Baptist Church in Seneca,

we brought a practice with us

that we had started in Spartanburg,

and we would have an annual

God in Country celebration.

And it just grew to the place

that we had to have two services.

And at one time,

we had over 1,000 people coming to it.

And especially had a lot of people coming to it

when you gave away free barbecue.

But it was one of those flag-waving things.

But here's what it did.

We had all of these people coming

and packing the place out,

singing patriotic songs,

but we transitioned,

and the second half of the program,

we presented the gospel.

And some of those people

might not have ever given us a hearing

if we hadn't had that for them.

But I want you to look in Acts 17.

Paul is in Athens.

That's important.

He's doing his sermon on Mars Hill.

He's talking to a group of philosophers

and intellectuals

who wanted to debate issues

just for the sake of debating issues.

They weren't interested necessarily

in anything life-changing.

They just wanted to talk about different things.

So if you look in verse 24,

well, back in verse 23,

he says to these Athenians,

he notices that there's pictures of God,

statues of God all around in the city.

And he said in verse 4,

you even have an inscription

at one altar to an unknown God.

So there are all kinds of gods and goddesses

they worship in Athens.

And then just to make sure

they covered all the bases,

they had one that said altar to an unknown God.

But when you look in verse 24,

the God who made the world and all things in it,

since he is Lord of heaven and earth,

does not dwell in temples made with hands,

nor is he served by human hands

as though he needed anything,

since he himself gives to all people

life and breath and all things.

Now in verse 24 and 25,

this is what Paul is preaching.

God is the creator of people of the earth.

God is the creator.

So he does not live in temples

that we could make for him,

and he does not need our help.

He's not served by human hands.

Now sometimes the question will come,

people will ask this question,

why did God create people?

And the answer will come back,

because God was lonely.

Well, that's not true.

Well, because God needed us

to accomplish his purpose.

Well, that's not true either.

God created people for the same reason

that God created the rest of creation,

and that was for his glory.

But we're made to honor God.

Well, in verses 26 and 27,

that's the center of Paul's message

in the Sermon on the Mount.

God is sovereign over humanity,

and man is responsible to God.

That God in his sovereignty over humanity

gives good gifts to people.

James 1.17 said,

every good and perfect gift

comes from the Father,

from which there's no variable or light,

or changing light.

God is a giver of all good gifts.

Then you come in verse 26,

and it says,

and this is the verse I want to camp out in

for a minute this morning.

And he made from one man

every nation of mankind

to live on all the face of the earth,

having determined their appointed times

and the boundaries of their habitation.

The Greeks considered themselves

to be superior people.

They thought they were better

than the other races

and the other people.

They thought highly of themselves.

Now realize that when Paul is preaching

this sermon at Mars Hill,

these are the people that he's talking to.

This is the attitude they have.

They're thinking they're superior.

And what Paul basically says is,

there is no room for racial prejudice at all.

Why?

Well, I look out among all of us today

and we're pretty much the same.

But every one of us

comes from a common ancestry.

Let me ask you a question.

In the beginning,

God made,

when he made people,

who did he make?

Adam,

and then he made...

So if those are the first two people,

then where did we come from?

But we all,

today we look so different.

We're very different,

but we have a common ancestry.

And if we have a common ancestry,

and God is the creator,

and God is the one

that created humanity,

then there is no room

for this racial indifference

of any kind.

Well, as G. Campbell Morgan says,

in Acts 17,

Paul is standing at a great moment

and a great location.

As he stood to preach that day,

he would have looked to his right,

and to his right was the Acropolis.

And in the Acropolis

was the Parthenon.

And the Parthenon was that place

primarily for the worship

of Athena,

the goddess.

And they would,

some of the population

would worship her.

Some would worship other gods.

Some would worship themselves.

Some would worship nature.

And what Paul is writing,

he's wanting them to know

that the reason they even exist

is because of God.

Paul reminds them

they were not living in Athens

because they studied hard,

because they were smart,

because they worked hard,

or just they were the recipients

of some favorable accident.

They were able to live in Athens

that some have called

the cradle of philosophy

because of the grace of God.

We live in America today

with all of its blessings

because of the grace of God.

So I want you to look at

just a few things about America.

First, at the first

Constitutional Convention,

Ben Franklin was 81 years old.

During the course of that meeting,

when things got rather heated,

he stood up and said this,

I have lived a long time, sir,

and the longer I live,

the more convincing proof

I see of this truth

that God governs

in the affairs of men.

If a sparrow cannot fall

to the ground without his notice,

is it probable that an empire

can rise without his aid?

Did you know that

when the pilgrims came

to this country,

they had a purpose statement

for their mission?

They came here

with a purpose statement.

It is recorded

in the Mayflower Compact,

which was written in 1620.

Here's their purpose statement.

Having undertaken

for the glory of God

and the advancement

of the Christian faith.

There's no doubt

why they came here.

That's why they came here.

We live in America

not by mistake,

but through the providence of God.

Every nation's boundaries

are determined by God.

A.T. Robertson,

the great Greek Southern Baptist

teacher and theologian,

said,

nations rise and fall,

but it is not blind chance

or hard faith.

Behind it

is the movement of God.

So I want you to look

at five things real quickly

about America the Beautiful.

The first one is

our land.

We have 50 states,

50 state government,

12,383 miles of coastline

where the waves of both

the Atlantic and the Pacific

touch us,

four different time zones,

three divisions of the equator.

We have marvelous works

of God in nature,

Yellowstone Park and Old Faithful,

Mount McKinney, Alaska,

20,000 feet above sea level,

and Death Valley, California,

282 feet below sea level.

We have mountains and deserts

and plains and lush valleys

and water from stream to springs

and everything else in between.

Niagara Falls,

the Mississippi River,

the Shenandoah Valley,

the San Joaquin Valley,

the Redwood Forest,

the Petrified Forest,

the Rocky Mountains

with its Grand Teton Range,

the Pocono Mountains,

the Great Smoky Mountains,

the Great Lakes,

the Grand Canyon,

the Florida Everglades,

the Great Plains,

the Frozen Tundra of Alaska,

the Tropical Paradise of Hawaii,

and South Carolina.

We are blessed naturally

by this land that God has given us

in our boundaries.

But make no mistake,

Acts 17, 26,

He made from one man every nation

of mankind to live on all

the face of the earth,

having determined

their appointed times

and the boundaries

of their habitation.

And God has given us

3.7 million square miles

of land full of treasures.

Did you know that

following World War II,

America produced twice as much oil

as the rest of the world combined?

We have a great land

that God has given us.

The second thing is our heritage.

Now, it would be dangerous

to say that America

is a Christian nation.

In fact, it would be a lie

to say America

is a great,

is a Christian nation today.

And not everyone

that lived in America

from the very beginning

was a Christian.

But America could be called

a Christian nation

in its beginning.

And here's why.

Because about 95%

of the Founding Fathers

were Christians.

Some people go so far

to say,

some scholars say,

that maybe 90%

of those were not just Christians,

they were Calvinists.

They were hardcore believers

in the sovereignty of God.

But God was at the core

of the thinking

of the Founders.

Now, what difference

does that make?

Well, when they begin

to write something like

the Declaration of Independence

or the Constitution,

the Bill of Rights,

when they begin to pen

all of these things,

in their thinking

is the influence

of God's Word of Truth

in what they wrote.

And so in those

founding documents,

we have a reflection

of those values

and those ethics,

the documents

that they gave them.

Patrick Henry,

did you know

that he was a Baptist?

How many of you knew

Patrick Henry

was a Baptist?

Oh,

somebody knew that.

Patrick Henry

was a Baptist

and he said this,

America was not founded

by religionists

but directly

on the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

John Adams,

our second president,

said this,

Our Constitution

was designed only

for a moral

and religious people.

It is wholly inadequate

for the government

of any other.

52 of the 55 signers

of the Declaration

of Independence

were Christians.

George Washington,

our first president,

said,

It is impossible

to govern the world

without God

and the Bible.

Reason and experience

both forbid us

to expect

that our national morality

can prevail

in the exclusion

of religious principles.

And John Jay,

who was a member

of the very first

Supreme Court,

said this,

Providence has given

to our people

the choice

of their rulers.

It is the duty

as well as the privilege

and interest

of our Christian nation

to secure,

select,

and prefer Christians

as their rulers.

In 1782,

the Congress

of the United States

passed a resolution

and this is what it says.

We recommend

and approve

the Holy Bible

for use

in all schools.

We've come a long way

since then

because now

the Gideons

have nothing like

the freedom

they used to have

just to pass out

these Christians.

And in very many places

they can't go

on the property

and have to stand

on the sidewalk.

But it wasn't

always that way

and we had

a congressional resolution

that said

they wanted the Bible,

thought it was

a good thing

to teach

in schools.

Of the first

108 colleges

founded in America,

106

were Christians.

James Madison,

who you might have

read from history,

is regarded

as the father

of the Constitution,

said this,

We have staked

the whole future

of our new nation,

not upon the power

of government

far from it.

We have staked

the future

of all our

political constitutions

upon the capacity

of each of ourselves

to govern ourselves

according to the

moral principles

of the Ten Commandments.

If any people

just took

the Ten Commandments,

the moral teachings

of the Ten Commandments,

and they said

this will be the basis

for our laws,

that nation

would automatically

become a better nation

as they followed

those laws.

The Bible says

in Psalm 33

and verse 12,

Blessed is the nation

whose God is the Lord,

the people

whom he has chosen

for his own inheritance.

Now remember

speaking to the Athenians,

the Greeks,

he said,

Blessed is the nation

whose God is the Lord,

but their gods

were not the Lord.

They're all kind of gods,

but they did not have

a God that was the Lord

and Paul is teaching

to them about

the one true God,

the Lord.

And so that's what

Psalm is talking about.

We have a great land,

we have a heritage,

but we also have

a great history.

Our history is filled

with stories of God's providence

and man's faith

and man's faith

in a sovereign God.

The revisionists

have,

in later years,

tried to

take away

references

to God

or to the Christian faith

or the Christian values

from history books.

And you say,

Oh,

are you a conspiracy theorist?

Where are you going with this?

Well,

let me give you an example.

There was a best-selling

American history text

by Kenneth Davis.

It was,

and still is used

widely in schools.

In there,

he quotes Patrick Henry

in a 1775 speech.

This is what he quotes.

Is life so dear

or peace so sweet

as to be purchased

at the price of change

and slavery?

I know not what course

others may take,

but as for me,

give me liberty

or give me death.

That's what he said,

Patrick Henry said.

But we know

that's not exactly

what Patrick Henry said.

Here's what Patrick Henry

actually said.

Is life so dear

or peace so sweet

as to be purchased

at the price of change

and slavery?

Forbid it,

Almighty God.

Why did somebody feel

inspired to take out

that phrase,

forbid it,

Almighty God?

except to try to remove

references of God

from the fabric

of our history.

One of the things

that has baffled people

throughout the ages

has been how America,

which was made up

of farmers

and merchants

and others

like the French

that helped us,

how could they come together

on this vast

piece of property

and actually defeat

the world's superpower

of the time?

And the only answer

for that,

and as you read

some of the history books

like Collins,

for example,

has written a series

of history books,

God in American History

and things like this.

But the only answer

for that is because

of the grace of God.

We were outgunned.

We were outmanned.

They had greater supplies.

They had greater logistics.

They had better training.

They had everything else.

The British should have

destroyed us,

but they couldn't.

They could,

but they didn't.

So what happened?

How could

a government

in a new land

be established

so quickly,

rise so rapidly,

and then,

in just a short period

of time,

actually become

the envy of the world?

What some historians

have called

this experiment

in democracy

that actually worked?

How could that happen?

Only,

only,

by the grace of God.

Remember what Paul said

in Mars Hill.

Acts 17,

Acts 17:26

verse 26,

He made from one man

every nation of mankind

to live on all

the face of the earth,

having determined

their appointed times

and the boundaries

of their habitation.

when James Smith,

the founder of

Jamestown,

Virginia,

1607,

came to this country

and looked at the land

where he was going

to build a settlement.

He said this,

Heaven and earth

never agree

to a better frame,

to better frame

a place

for man's habitation

than here.

He looked at the land

and he said

what Dr. Kelly,

the president

of the New Orleans Seminary,

used to say,

an old Hebrew word.

Wow!

He said,

This is great.

He was carried away

by the beauty,

by what the land

had to offer.

And then something stunning,

in the course

of the revolution,

and some of you I know

have studied

some of the details

of that,

but in the course

of the revolution,

there are so many stories

that never get told

that happen

in the revolution

that have no explanation

other than God.

There was a stunning thing

that happened

at Valley Forge.

It was what some

have called

the Gethsemane

of our struggle

for independence.

And one of the famous

paintings of that day

was George Washington.

And whether that painting

was actually him doing that

or somebody just thought

that's what they should paint,

there is a painting

of George Washington

kneeling and praying

in the snow.

But in this

battle that was fought

at Valley Forge,

Washington decided

to take his troops

across a partially frozen

Delaware River

and lead a surprise

against the British

at Fort Trenton.

The British were not

expecting that.

In fact,

that was the last thing

from their mind

that somebody would do

something so foolish

as that.

And Washington,

it is said,

being led by what

he believed was God

did that

and defeated the British.

One person recorded

that,

recorded his thoughts,

and he said,

until that hour,

the life of the U.S.

flickered like a dying flame,

but the Lord of hosts

heard the cries

of their distress

and said,

an angel for their deliverance.

A British soldier

wrote in his diary

these words,

the hand of God

is against us.

Our history is filled

with his providence.

The stuff that he prepared

beforehand

that we should walk in.

Providence.

God preparing

beforehand.

And then there's

our freedom.

Sometimes if you ask

an American today,

what does America

mean to you?

You might get the answer

that means freedom.

But what does freedom mean?

You might get this answer.

Well, it's the right

to do as you please.

And that's somebody

that does not

understand freedom.

Freedom is not

the right to do

as you please.

It is the power

to do what is right.

And so our freedom

is based on a simple

and yet profound concept

that God is the author

of real freedom.

In John 8, 32,

Jesus said,

you will know the truth

and the truth will make you

so you can't have freedom

apart from truth.

So freedom is

knowing

the right thing

to do.

In recent years,

the ACLU has established

itself as pretty much

an enemy of the church,

of the Christian faith.

And especially for some reason,

the Ten Commandments.

I don't know if you remember it,

but when Roy Moore

was the Chief Justice

of the Alabama Supreme Court,

anybody remember that saga

that happened down in Alabama?

Yeah,

and he takes,

he brings into the

judicial,

state judicial building

a monument

of the Ten Commandments

that weighed

5,280 pounds.

You talk about boldness,

this guy had that thing

delivered

and set up

in the judicial building.

And the media

went bonkers

and the ACLU

went ballistic.

They were firmly

against that.

And they fought

and they fought

and they fought

and they claimed

that Roy Moore

was just this weird,

eccentric,

and they got

the Ten Commandments

removed.

But another question,

and maybe a better question,

is what about

all of those references

to God

in Washington, D.C.

in all the federal buildings?

What are we going

to do about that?

You cannot remove.

You might remove

commandments,

you might remove

statues,

you might remove

photographs,

you might remove

statements,

but you cannot remove

the fact

that God

in His providence

gave us this land,

saw that it came

to a good birth

and a good growth

and even into

good blessings.

It was all

by the grace of God.

Well,

in 1987,

Ted Koppel,

does anybody remember

who Ted Koppel was?

He was at ABC News,

he was a sort of

an intellectual

commentator,

I guess.

Well,

this is what he was

speaking at commencement

at Duke University.

Now,

I think you know

that Duke University

is not the citadel

of fundamentalism.

It is not.

And he was there

speaking at commencement,

and this is part

of what he said

to the students.

What Moses brought down

from Mount Sinai

were not

the ten suggestions.

They are commandments,

are,

not were.

The sheer brilliance

of the ten commandments

is that they codify

in a handful of words

acceptable human behavior,

not just for then

or now,

but for all times.

Language evolves.

Power shifts

from one nation

to another.

Messages are transmitted

with the speed of light.

Man erases

one frontier

after another.

And yet,

we and our behavior

and the commandments

governing that behavior

remain the same.

Because no matter

how technologically

advanced we become,

there are certain

moral principles

encoded

in the ten commandments

that will always

be helpful

to mankind.

our national freedom,

our freedom

is

the envy

of the rest

of the world.

But we've got

to understand

what our freedom is.

And it is not

the power to do

as we please.

It's to know

the truth.

It's the power

to do what's right.

That's our freedom.

But our freedom,

all those freedoms

we have

will not

be able,

will not have

the strength,

will not have

the power

to endure

unless those freedoms

are anchored

in God

and His Word.

Because that's

where those freedoms

come from.

Well, the last thing

I want you to see

is our opportunity.

Our opportunities

today are vast.

But,

I'm over here

in the darkness

now

because I escape

from the light

sometimes

just for a brief

reprieve.

Our opportunities

are like

this great treasure

that's out there.

If we go looking

for them,

we'll find them.

There's so many

things.

What can we do?

Well,

here's what we can do.

We can vote.

We can vote.

We can put people

in the office

that are not going

to be self-perpetuating

but are not going

to be looking out

for their interests

or not going

to be bought off

by lobbyists

but we can put people

into office

that really believe

in moral principles.

We can protest.

We can write letters.

Why,

you could even get a blog

and 10 to 15 people

would listen to you.

But most of all,

what we have the freedom

and the opportunity

to do,

what we have the obligation

to do is to seek God.

Why did God establish us

and why did He put

these boundaries

where He did?

Look in verse 27.

It begins,

that they would seek God.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33,

seek first His kingdom

and His righteousness

and all these other things

will be added to you.

Where does that start?

What is this?

Taking our country

for what it is.

A gift from God,

by God's grace.

And we live in it.

But what are we going

to do with it?

Do you know that still today

the greatest potential

for reaching the world

for Jesus Christ

is in the United States?

We have the resources,

we have the wherewithal,

we have all the things

that God has in His providence

provided for us

to reach the world.

And yet,

we are so fragmented

and we are so distorted

and we're so disagreeable

among ourselves

that we're not able

to accomplish it.

Do you think that the answer

for America's woes

in the current time

is going to come

from Washington, D.C.?

I know I'm in the

magazine business now,

so I've got a news flash

for you this morning.

Washington, D.C. is broken.

And even though Trump

came in to clean out

the swamp

and make America great,

it's still broken.

What about Columbia?

I see Davey Hyatt

sitting back there

and he works in Columbia.

And I hate to say this,

but I hope he'll agree with me

that Columbia

is pretty much broken too.

Washington is not the answer.

Columbia is not the answer.

God in Jesus Christ

is the answer

and his church

is the biggest one.

If the churches

across this land

rose up together

on these moral principles,

carried them into the streets,

carried them into

the halls of government,

carried them across

this nation,

permeated society

with this freedom,

with this truth,

we would see a difference

in America

that would be

not a long time

in developing.

It could be,

it might be

just like the beginning

when a nation

rose so rapidly

it mystified

the rest of the world.

Maybe it could be

when the church,

when the church

comes together,

when the church

gets strong,

when the church

goes out

to be salt and light,

that the world

would see a different

picture of America.

Well,

I love America.

I really do.

But it's not my God.

My God gave us America

and he wants us

to worship him

and use the place

that he's given us

for his glory.

So I just ask you today

as I close this,

when Jesus said,

seek first

the priority

above all priorities,

seek first

his kingdom,

his righteousness.

Are we doing it?

Are we doing it?

Are we seeking first

his kingdom,

his values,

his principles,

and his righteousness?

And if we're not,

just a moment

when we bow our heads

and close our eyes,

it might be

that God would

nudge your heart

just to say a prayer

to him and say,

you know,

that's what I want

to be.

I want to be somebody

that seeks first

your kingdom

and your righteousness.

And I want to make

a difference

in this country

which I live.

Would you pray with me?

Father, thank you.

Thank you for your grace

and your wisdom

and your great power

that has been displayed

in the way you have

worked through the ages

and the rise and fall

of many nations.

And thank you

that today

we have the privilege

to be living

in a nation

that has been so blessed

by your grace.

Give us eyes

to see

the origin

of our land,

of our country

and give us

the strength

to be people

who seek first

your kingdom

and your righteousness

as the priority

of our life.

Bless us,

bless the church

that we might in turn

become a blessing,

a leader

for our country.

with our heads bowed

and eyes closed

if you'd like to

spend a moment

and pray to God

make a commitment

to Him

something along those lines

I hope you will.

Musicians are going to play

and as they play

if you have a decision

to make

if you have a commitment

that you want to make

if you have something

you want to share

Mike's going to be here

would invite you to turn

to join.

Thank you.