Jared Kirby - Our responsibility as Free People

I always question when I have a sermon near a

holiday as to whether I should address the holiday

or not address the holiday because people expect

certain things at certain lessons. But with 250

years for a celebration of our nation, I think

it appropriate that we reflect on some of the

things that have brought us to this point. That

is. quite an amazing accomplishment. Why is it,

you have to excuse me, I'm fighting off a little

bit of something. Why is it that America has

prospered the way that it has? There have been

a lot of nations that have gone out and conquered

and amassed wealth at the expense of others and

that's not to say that it hasn't been done at

any point in our history, but There's There's

no other nation that has built this level of

prosperity for Pretty much everybody this system

that we operate under is unlike any that history

has ever seen We've borrowed different things

from different places. We have learned from a

lot of sources We have learned from a lot of

mistakes that other nations and peoples have

made Brought about the United States of America

So I want to look at a few things this morning

as far as our responsibility is free people It's

no one thing that has brought us to this point

and it is Paramount that we understand what it

is that has made the United States of America

in Deuteronomy chapter 1 if you would Turn there

Deuteronomy 1 · chapter mention

in your Bible's Deuteronomy chapter 1 12 through

Deuteronomy 1 · chapter mention

18. I don't like putting the long passages up

on the PowerPoint It's always profitable for

us to turn together Fifth book in the Bible Moses

second sermon these are the words that he is

given Before the children of Israel go from they're

wandering around in the wilderness and fighting

with various things there, crossing the Jordan

River and beginning to conquer the land of Canaan.

Moses gets one more opportunity to speak to them.

And he starts at the beginning and he runs through

much of their wandering and through some of their

history to remind them of where God brought them

from and what he has promised to give them. In

Deuteronomy chapter 1 beginning in verse 12,

Deuteronomy 1 · chapter mention

how can I make myself alone bear your cumberance

and your burden and your strife? Take you wise

men and understanding and known among your tribes,

and I will make them rulers over you. And ye

answered me and said, The thing which thou hast

spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief

of your tribes wise men and known and made them

heads over you captains over thousands captains

over hundreds and captains over fifties and captains

over tens and Officers among your tribes and

I charged your judges at that time saying here

you the causes between your brethren and judge

Righteously between every man and his brother

and the stranger that is within him that is with

him I'm sorry you shall not respect persons in

judgment, but you shall hear the small Well as

the great you shall not be afraid with the face

of man for the judgment is God's and the cause

That is too hard for you Bring it unto me and

I will hear it and I commanded you at that time

and all things which ye should do Moses basically

sets up a government The nation of Israel heretofore

has not been a nation They were a family group.

They were a tribe Abraham left the place where

he lived wandered around they became a small

tribe even though they were great in number Abraham

had 300 men that carried a sword They were his

servants and when he went to rescue lot he took

his own small army He hands it to Isaac Isaac

hands it to Jacob and Esau Esau and Jacob multiplying

their own rot They wind up in Egypt, but until

Moses goes down there and brings them out. They're

not a nation They've lived under God They've

served him. They know about him to some extent,

but God has to bring them out and remind them

of a lot of things One of the things that he

has to do in order for this nation to prosper

is to set up a government And he says you need

wise people you need smart people you need people

that you know and trust you pick them out and

We'll put them over these matters and we'll let

them judge and we'll put the fear of God in them

So that hopefully they put the fear of God in

you and you can live and prosper in this nation

Before I go much further in this though In preparation

for the sermon I was looking back at a lot of

the original writings and we're gonna I'm going

to cite several things. We're trying to not spend

too much time on that. But I found this quote

interesting. This was from a collection of things

called the pulpit of the American Revolution.

This particular sermon is from 1749. So it's

been around for a minute. Jonathan Matthew. This,

by the way, is so old that Matthew is spelled

with a Y, M -A -Y -H -E -W. It is hoped that

but few will think the subject of it, that is,

this sermon that he is about to present, an improper

one to be discoursed on in the pulpit under a

notion that it is preaching politics instead

of Christ. However, to remove all prejudices

of this sort, I beg it may be remembered that

all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for

reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Obedience to the civil magistrate is a Christian

duty, and if so, why should not the nature and

extent of it be considered in a Christian assembly?

There were a lot of things that were discussed

before this country was founded. so 250 years

What does that mean? We're celebrating our 250th

anniversary there were a lot of things that happened

before and even after Independence Day on July

4th the 1492 All the kids remember adults remember

1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue And when

they got to this island anew they found they

weren't even number two I made that last part

up in the shower this morning. I hope you enjoyed

that. We weren't the first ones here. We weren't

the fifth ones here. There are lots of people

groups from other parts of the world, various

parts of the world that have come into the Americas

at various points. So what are we talking about?

Well, in 1775, in April of that year, the group

that was here in the First Continental Congress

actually declared war on Great Britain. It was

considered a high act of treason punishable by

death by seizure by Any means necessary to quell

this rebellion that was going on across the pond

Well, we fought that war and we did fairly well,

which was amazing Because America wasn't a nation

We were colonists We didn't have a military to

speak of We didn't have ships hardly at all other

than for merchandise We certainly did not have

a Navy that didn't come until several years later

How is it that these fledgling colonies were

able to throw off? The most powerful nation in

the world at that time It is by the hand of God

And it is accounted that way time after time

after time in the writings of the men that founded

this country But on July 2nd in 1776 the Lee

resolution also known as the resolution resolution

for independence Was the formal assertion of

the second Continental Congress, so they got

together again, and they said hey, we're winning

this thing We are free That was as far as it

went for a while now previous to this There were

five men that were selected Thomas Jefferson

and Benjamin Franklin were two of them and they

were commissioned with writing something that

would state why it was that they were doing what

they would do and this was presented and debated

for several days and on July 4th the Declaration

of Independence or the unanimous declaration

of the 13 United States of America Was adopted

and signed by all of the people that were there

at that first Continental Congress and thus we

have our independence we said We're not serving

you and in this declaration There are many references

to God and 27 reasons why it was that this group

of colonies decided to organize themselves as

United States and throw off whatever it was that

the crown wanted to. Among them was that King

George III would come in and arrest whoever he

wanted. He wouldn't try them here in the States.

He would haul them back across the water to be

tried in front of whoever it was that he chose.

And so for that reason we have the right to be

tried by a jury of our peers. That's what that

means That means that you can't carry me off

to somebody that doesn't like me in the first

place to pass judgment on me It was property

rights Because the king of England and anybody

that he picked to come over here could go up

to your place and take anything that they wanted

They could take quarter in your residence. They

could take your sons. They could take your stuff

They could burn your house down and there was

nothing that you could do about it because he

was the king and he owned everything And these

men having studied having read having copies

of the Bible themselves, which was a new thing

at the time. The printing press was invented

in the early 1500s. The Bible was translated

into a language that they could understand, English

for them, German for others, those were the first

two, so that they could then read the scriptures.

And they're looking at the Bible for themselves.

And they're not letting the Church of England

or the Roman Catholic Church tell them what it

is that the Bible says and what they need to

do. They're reading it for themselves and they

say, I have independence. I have rights from

God. I am made in His image. I have the right

to a relationship with Him. I have a right to

the things that are mine. I have rights of my

family to raise and conduct matters. Have the

right to conduct business with other people We

have rights My stuff is not your stuff And with

all of the things that they went through over

this period of some 300 years They took notes

and they made rights But where did they come

from we'll get to that On March 1st 1781, the

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union

were adopted again by the Second Continental

Congress. The Constitution that we live by is

not 250 years old. It came a little bit later,

March 4th 1789, the Constitution of the United

States was made because there were problems with

the Articles of the Confederation. It was great,

but it had some issues. That was their first

attempt and so they come back and they made a

document that is one of the most consequential

in history the Declaration of Independence if

you have not read it at all or even this year

I highly recommend that you go and you read the

Declaration of Independence it is extremely well

stated potent words that talk about God and our

relationship with him and with each other What

that should look like the relationship of government

with the people that are under it Patrick Henry

is an example of one that quoted and again Pick

your founding father Pick a writing pick a letter

pick a sermon pick basically anything that you

want from the 1700s and It's gonna have this

feel of independence in it already There was

something that the Bible did for this nation

There was something that scriptures did for the

people that lived here out from under Almost

the rule of the king. It was close enough that

they could taste it They had an understanding

of what independence should be because again,

they're reading the scriptures They're looking

into the Bible and they're saying this is how

I need to treat my neighbor. This is how the

government should treat me This is how God thinks

of me. This is what I have the right to do together

with the people that are around me. And these

things are ruminating and building. And an appreciation

for the Bible is baked into every single household

and society. That's why there was a church in

every little town. That's why even if you didn't

go to church, you knew. Somebody that did you

you had respect maybe you went yourself from

time to time just out of curiosity if nothing

else But in appreciation for the scriptures and

for worship not just for the scriptures themselves

It's all over the place and appeal the arms into

the God of hosts is all that has left us This

is just before they go to war There's a just

God who presides over the destinies of nations

He's quoting scripture in the various things

that he's talking about Benjamin Franklin the

Constitutional Convention June 28 1787 again,

they're coming up with they are debating over

the language that should go into the Constitution

which is Not as poetic as the Declaration of

Independence. It's the way that government should

look It's what they wanted to do because of their

understanding of the scriptures. He says there

this quote in this Situation of this assembly

groping as it were in the dark a reference to

scripture going on the father of lights Talking

about prayer the kind Providence the God that

governs in the affairs of men Time after time

as they would debate about what to do They recognized

and reverence the authority that God had over

them That he was the one That was moving the

pieces George Washington Intend during this homage

to the great author of every public and private

good I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments

not less than my own nor those of my fellow citizens

at large less than either No people can be Bound

to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which

conducts the affairs of men more than the people

of the United States Every step by which they

have advanced to the character of an independent

nation seems to have been distinguished by some

token of providential agency Everywhere they

went everything that they did They said that

the providence of God the hand of God the actions

of God was guiding them and helping them along

They had overcome such tremendous odds not just

in the sheer survival But in throwing off Great

Britain in organizing themselves, you know how

hard it is To get the Eastern seaboard to agree

That's what they did those first 13 colonies

That was over there everybody that's on the Atlantic

except for Florida was involved in this thing.

Well, there's a couple others, but details. They

all came together and they said, we're going

to operate together under this thing. This is

what we want. This is a government that we can

operate under. The Declaration of Independence

talks about the laws of nature and of nature's

God. We hold these truths to be self -evident

that all men are created equal, that they are

endowed by their creator. They appeal to the

supreme judge of the world as they make their

cases of why they are declaring this independence

With a firm reliance on the protection of divine

providence Don't tell me that our founding fathers

were deists By definition a deist is somebody

that believes that there is something bigger

than they are there are atheists that believe

that They believe that this earth was seeded

by aliens or by some other higher and more intelligent

race of things. They were not deists by any stretch

of the imagination. They believed firmly in the

hand and the providence and the love of the God

of this universe. They put it in the Constitution

of the United States. Again, it's not this poem

to the world. It is what they want the government

to look like and all throughout. There are provisions

for religion, for worship, acknowledgments to

God. No bill shall be returned by the president

within 10 days, Sundays accepted. Why? Why Sundays

accepted? Because they all knew what was going

on on Sundays. And it wasn't the business of

making a country as important as that was. They

did not convene on Sundays because they had something

else that they were doing They were going to

go and worship and study together. They were

going to Do whatever it was that they did they

did that on Sunday? And they made provisions

for it in the way that they set up the government

of this nation that they dreamed about The Bill

of Rights the most important Some would say part

of the Constitution after they make this Constitution

This is what they want the government to do.

This is what we want the government to not do

this is what it can't do and Congress shall make

no law respecting an establishment of religion

or Prohibiting the free exercise thereof that

means that they can't come in and tell us to

not do it now there are Certain situations and

periods of time where that's happened to one

degree or another But it's not supposed to We

have a document That we all supposedly agree

to that says you can't tell me to not come here

You can't tell me to not assemble with people

out in the community and also I have a right

if you're a government official to go and Peacefully

make some grievance with you and let that be

known Thomas Jefferson Said to be the one that

came up with separation of church and state It

did not mean that religion Cannot be understood

by the government. He meant that the government

can't tell you what to do as the King of England

had done The Church of England broke off from

the Roman Catholic Church Because King George

didn't want to do what the Roman Catholic Church

told him to do He said I'll go do my own thing

and he made his own religion and he made that

a law You had to be part of the Church of England

And if you weren't it was punishable by death

Now ironically States Would put in a particular

religion. There was nothing that prohibited that

in fact in some ways it was encouraged And again,

ironically, there was a certain amount of religious

persecution that went on. And so it wasn't perfect

in its beginning. And again, we'll talk about

that a little bit later. But Thomas Jefferson

never said that you couldn't put church in the

state. He said that the state can't tell you

what to do in the church. Those two things are

different institutions. And this is what Moses

said. He said there's going to be laws. There

needs to be a governing body, but they need to

do it righteously. And they can't come in and

tell you and your family what to do. There are

limits. There are guidelines. The state constitution,

45 of them have preambles. We have 50 states,

45 of the state constitutions, which is required

to be a state in the United States of America,

make references to God. All 45 preambles of those

that chose to have a preamble before their constitution

made references to God. in some fashion or another.

Donald Lutz in 1982 wrote an article. He did

some fantastic research. He went back and looked

at a lot of these documents. He looked at the

writings. He looked at the letters. He looked

at the notes. He looked at many, many different

documents and his conclusion was that Historians

are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even

more than the Constitution, is our founding document.

And that's because it's in everything that they

wrote. They went back to Scripture for the God.

George Washington said, of all the dispositions

and habits which lead to political prosperity,

and that's not being elected, that the polity

would be the group of people that are under this

particular thing. So, for the good of the people,

Religion and morality are indispensable supports.

Let it simply be asked. Where is the security

for property for? reputation for life if the

sense of religious obligation desert the oaths

which are the instruments of Investigation in

courts of justice you can lie to somebody you

can lie about somebody you can take their property

You can pay off a judge you can pay off a government

official unless You have a God. Religion and

morality are necessary supports for the operation

of a free people. Slander or, oh wow, what's

the legal word? If only I had a lawyer in the

audience. There we go, that's one of them. Defamation

of character. You don't get to just go and say

whatever you want. You don't get to lie about

a company You're not supposed to be able to do

those things. Why? Because the Bible says that

you should love your neighbor and you should

respect his stuff. You shouldn't covet your neighbor's

things You shouldn't covet your neighbor's wife.

You shouldn't lie about him lying about your

neighbor was a punishable offense under the law

of Moses And guess what the men that founded

this country they looked it up and they said

hey This is how I should treat my neighbor and

and we shouldn't be able to just lie about it

because That was part of what the king did Bring

me the man. I'll show you the problem. All right.

No, I'll show you the So many things come into

mind Bring me the man. I'll show you the crime

It's kind of how it operated we're not gonna

do that here we're gonna put that in the Constitution

We don't operate that way. Continuing on, let

us with caution indulge the supposition that

morality can be maintained without religion.

Whatever may be conceded to the influence of

refined education on minds of peculiar structure,

reason and experience both forbid us to expect

that national morality can prevail in exclusion

of religious principle. If you don't have the

Bible, you don't have a standard. That's what

he's saying. You can't make a country that's

going to exist. You can't make a free people

if they do not self govern That is where our

Liberty comes from That's what this nation was

founded on Was the belief that you are gonna

go and serve God and I'm gonna go and serve God

and we are gonna operate together freely Because

we know how to operate Know how to treat you

I know how to treat your business. I know how

to treat my neighbor I know what the government

should and shouldn't do And we're gonna do all

this thing together. That's called a society

For a society to properly function it has to

have three things Three institutions that God

made he made the home first He made government

second and he made the church third You have

to have those three institutions and they have

to know what it is that they need to do in order

for this to operate and that's what set up in

This these two documents that we hold so highly

and various other things They wrote about those

institutions and how they should operate together

Morality without scripture is a house with no

foundation because man changes The thing that

I think is right is different than the thing

that you think is right and that's why I speak

your truth is such an absurd thing It's either

true or it's not true. It can't be true for you

and not true for somebody else Now maybe you

like it and this other person doesn't like it

Maybe it's good for you and it's not so good

for this other person. That's completely different

You're not talking about the same thing, but

it's either true or it isn't true If it isn't

true and it is true at the same time Then there

is no absolute truth Which is a self -defeating

statement because the only thing that's true

is that there is no truth But this is the insanity

that you get When you try to say that man can

be moral without God It is a self -defeating

argument there must be a standard and that standard

must be the Bible Where your society is gonna

fall on its face every society that's never tried

it Without God has fallen on its face and we've

done it with God and we've been around for a

while The further that we get from God the closer

we get to face planning in this society Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 30:11–20

30 Verses 11 through 20 Had Colton read that

this morning, and I appreciate that reading motives

is presented to them Life and good and death

and evil We read the beginning of it when he

told him you came together you came out of this

nation and I set up people for you and We went

and we wandered and we did this thing together

and we conquered And you're getting ready to

go into this land And I've given you laws I've

given you correction. I've given you blessing

and protection I've presented you with life and

good and with death and you and you get to pick

He's standing before this nation. He says you

get to pick Moses couldn't force them to do it.

You can't force somebody to be moral. You can't

force somebody to be good. You can't write enough

laws to make a moral people. The reason that

we have such a bloated government and so many

laws is because through the years somebody did

something they shouldn't have done and you've

got to write a law about it. Some business did

something that they shouldn't have done and you've

got to write a law about it. Some group of people

came in and did something that they shouldn't

have done and you've got to write a law about

it But if you self -govern and you treat your

neighbor like you're supposed to you don't have

all of these laws You don't have all of these

regulations and difficulties and problems Moses

said there I've given you good And if you want

to choose the good it'll be good for you. It'll

be good for your families. It'll be good for

your crops It'll be good for the whole nation.

It will be good for the entire world because

of the blessings that I will pour out on you

Those things will flow out and bless other nations

because they will see the good and They will

be influenced by it and they will receive blessings

because of it Jeremiah 10 verse 23 the other

Jeremiah 10:23

thing that our founding fathers realized is that

the way of man is not within him Whenever we

choose our own way we fall flat Jeremiah 10 23

Oh Lord I know that the way of man is not in

himself It is not a man that walketh to direct

his steps And so time after time even when they

had discussions with each other they would quote

scripture in their arguments against each other

Educated people They didn't have as many distractions

as we have which I find to be amazing because

they had to survive I mean, I don't know about

y 'all. I'm gonna go off topic here just a little

bit for a second. I don't know how many times

y 'all think about how much you don't have to

fight to survive. My garden is like this wide

and this long. I say mine, Sarah Beth has put

blood, sweat, and tears in that thing and it's

doing fairly well. And then we got another row

of stuff. We got some volunteer things. You know

what happens if all that dies? I go to the grocery

store I We think about the things that they had

to go through And still they had enough education

to write the things like we've read about this

morning To think deeply about a particular thing

To realize that there is a God that governs To

realize that they were within reach of Having

something that possibly nobody else had ever

had in the history of the world That they could

do it and make it if they relied on God Again

the three institutions that God made the homes

in Genesis to that old chapter there talks about

God making Everything days one through six. He

makes man. He looks at man He says it's not good

for you to be alone after man looked around at

everything else and said hey, this is cool But

you know, I'm still out here by myself. God said

I'll fix that I'll make a help meet for you.

I've got one more thing I want to do and it's

gonna be awesome. You're gonna love it Adam And

he did and the home was made institution number

one it's critical you cannot have a society without

a home it takes a village is only true to a point

now no man is an island and it's really really

hard to do everything by yourself not that it

can't be done some people have but if you want

a society that does take a village And that's

profitable for people. It's good for people.

It's good to live in a society It's good to have

other people that you can depend on other people

that can help you out But to have that You have

to have a home It needs to be led by the father

He's the one that has the responsibility of teaching

his children of protecting his wife of following

God of doing what he's supposed to be doing The

wife is to help me the children are to Come up

to obey to prepare themselves to be the men and

women that are going to carry on society and

have homes The reason that there is such a tremendous

attack on the home today is because it is one

of the three necessary pillars for a society

that follows God and If you can knock any one

of the three legs of this stool out from under

it it's gonna fall down And people that want

to build something in their own image are gonna

attack the home Because it's necessary the government

in Romans 13 a lot of that chapter talks about

What we are to do how are we are to? Reverence

the government says the powers that be are ordained

of God not that he puts every leader in power

But that government is of God. He did it with

the children of Israel It is necessary that someone

bears the sword. That's not the place of the

church to bear the sword That's how we got the

dark ages It's not the place of the family or

the home to bear the sword because that's how

you get the Hatfields and McCoys It is the role

of government to bear the sword You select a

group that makes righteous judgments that come

before God in their own personal lives and then

come before God in their judgments and make righteous

judgments and Say this was wrong And this is

why and this is what's going to happen That's

the role of government. It's necessary for a

society the church Pretty much everywhere Acts

2 is the founding of the New Testament Church

First Corinthians 10 talks about the church that

was in the wilderness talking about the children

of Israel Moses leading the church through the

wilderness It's the group of God's people that

follow him that operate together that I'd hear

and maintain and make a devotion to the will

and Word of God Those are the three things that

you have to have you take any one of those Out

of a society and it's gonna be an ugly place

not that it won't function not that you won't

have children and and Pets and crops and you

know businesses and whatever else. It's not that

it it just decays into sand It's that it will

not prosper in the way that God intended for

us to prosper These things are necessary there

must be a guidebook There must be a rule and

if the Bible is not that rule it's some man's

rule and It's gonna look like whatever he wants

it to look like It is not going to be the benefit

that God wants God defines all of these roles

I've given lessons on each one of these and That

it still doesn't do them justice To talk about

the roles and guidelines for government for the

home for church and the people that founded this

country devoted decades to this idea Pull pits

discussions assemblies as we read about We're

dedicated to this idea of bringing ourselves

in line with what God wanted for a society Now

a lot of people put hope and trust in various

things and if we're not careful then we we uphold

the Constitution and we say that our Liberty

comes from the Constitution or maybe it comes

from our system of Enterprise from capitalism

now Capitalism is the most productive system

that you can have if government controls everything

they are notorious for doing it terribly Because

typically you're not involved in the processes

that go on from day to day if it crashes You

don't care you go get another business and you

hope that it does better. It's not yours But

if it's your business if it's your thing that

you're doing you're highly involved and highly

dedicated to its success Capitalism It promotes

wealth and we have tremendous unimaginable wealth

in this nation Especially compared to others

in recent history in distant history The closest

that you might be able to come is the Babylonian

Empire when Nebuchadnezzar made a 90 -foot statue

out of gold Anybody ever heard of Fort Knox We

had so much gold we had a big holes in the ground

And put it in gigantic Caverns That doesn't happen

so much anymore and my point is Just the amount

of stuff of creature comforts You know how interesting

it is to go into your house and push a button

like this because you're hot or you're cold You

know that ain't been around forever Mark tells

the story of him asking his mother to tell him

about when she was a kid and One of the best

lines is Well, then the lights came on and nothing

else was ever the same You know how interesting

it is to go like this And lights come on how

many times do you go like this when the power's

off to try to get the light to come on in the

closet? There's a lot of things that we get used

to There's a lot of creature comforts that we

have a lot of things we have access to Music

entertainment Anytime anywhere as much as you

want for 30 to 60 bucks a month It's astounding

at the things we've been able to do but capitalism

isn't the answer That's not where liberty comes

from that's not where freedom comes from it's

not where prosperity comes from What about from

the political system when we have our Constitution

and it's an amazing document? And we have all

these different ways that we go about operating

under this Constitution the way that we do things

now is not the way that we've done things in

the past It's close similar. We've changed it

a little bit as we've gone down. You know what

that's not where liberty comes from It's not

where prosperity comes from It's not where freedom

comes from. What about from the righteous war

that we fought? We threw off the Britons. We

freed other nations. Other oppressors have come

in. The Germans tried to take over the world

with the Japanese. We went out and we fought

it. It's called World War II. One of the ugliest

things that's ever happened on this planet. Terrible.

It's not where liberty comes from. It's not where

freedom and prosperity come from. They come from

one place. Only one. You can have vestiges of

these things. You can have little bits and pieces,

depending on how you operate your life and where

you are. But life, liberty, and the pursuit of

happiness come from the God above. That's it

Blessings that we have are because we're made

in his image and because he doesn't just throw

us into the pit right now God cares for us, and

he blesses us. It's raining right now. What do

we do about the rain? Now there may be some people

here like hey I flew a seed cloud over or I ionize

the atmosphere to try to make it rain I want

to tell you that's not what makes it rain You

can't make it rain You can influence the conditions

that are around you and we do that in various

ways We can't make it rain. We can't make the

Sun come up or go down The blessings that we

enjoy are because of God Because of the pattern

that he made because of this creation that we

dwell in It operates the way that it does because

God has the character that he does He is a loving

and perfect God, and we are not. And this creation

has fallen, and it continues to be defiled and

destroyed and wrecked by the choices of the people

that dwell here. But peace, prosperity, life,

family, friends, that's from God. You're not

gonna find it anywhere else You're not gonna

find the things the best things You won't find

the best things anywhere else You want good friendships

I Have some really good friendships Went out

jumped out of a plane with a couple of friends

yesterday I jumped twice They each went once.

I've got some friends that I've cried with. I've

got some friends that I try to go and help out.

I've got some friends that come to my rescue

on more than one occasion. And the friends that

I have, the best friends, those that are going

to come and do those things with me, they're

in the church. They operate by the rules and

regulations and love of God They care for me

because God loves them The family that I was

raised in They love God Made me a balanced mostly

person Made me who I am the country that I live

in It's amazing I've been to other places not

me I've been to a few I've seen a few There's

no place like here There is no place like America

You go anywhere And it ain't like it is here

The world has come with FIFA You know what they're

experiencing the awesomeness of America Because

there's no place like it and that's because a

Group of men a couple hundred years ago Decided

that they were gonna make a nation based on God

And if we decide that we no longer need God we're

not gonna have the nation that we have It'll

be something else, but it won't be the America

that was founded We got to get back to scriptures

We're supposed to live it in our lives It is

incumbent on Christians to live the Christian

life We as individuals are the church We as individuals

uphold that standard we as individuals are the

government officials. We are the people in the

home We are the people in the church. We have

our individual roles and responsibilities, but

those things play out in the decisions that we

make and the way that we conduct ourselves, our

business, our family. And if we don't do it,

it won't be done. God's children, we have a responsibility

to everything that we see because we know the

standard. It is our responsibility to familiarize

ourselves, to live within that standard. Because

when we do that, we'll go out and we'll make

Christians. And we'll make better families and

better homes and better countries. It is incumbent

on us. We have to do it. If you want to be part

of it and you're not, if you want to know more

about it, if you want to come with this group

of friends that I've been talking to and about,

Make your need known come forward sit on the

front row while we stand