Citizens of Heaven: Blessings for Our Nation

It was so good to be with you this morning.

Glad that you're with us. If you have your Bible,

was turning with me to Jeremiah Jeremiah twenty nine. We

are going to maybe take a little break and transition

to nine Jeremiah twenty nine. This morning we have been

in Timothy, and this morning I thought it would would

be perfect for the kind of the setting of what

we in today to think about what God's word says

to us about our citizenship. You know, as just yesterday

we celebrated two hundred and fifty years of the signing

of the Decoration of Independence, and our country, United States

was founded on believers. Believers who came here looking for freedom.

You know, most of the people who were living in

the early colonies, they came from England looking for freedom.

Many Puritans, Baptist Presbyterians that they grew dissatisfied in England

because church and state were not separated, and because of

the persecution there. They came to America. They came to

the United States, that came to this country at that

time looking for religious freedom. It wasn't long after the

colonies were developed, the state controlled colonies that they began

actually even though they came here looking for freedom. The

thirteen colonies actually started official churches and these were state

controlled churches. Out of the nineteen to nine out of

thirteen colonies had what they called state supported churches, which

they considered the official church, and the other churches, like

the Baptists and Methodists were restricted in what they could do.

So not long after that the Great Awakening came, and

the Great Awakening changed the colonies. The Baptists grew there

was one of the largest Baptist and Methodists were one

of the largest Christian groups in the colonies at the time,

but the persecution would remain. Actually ten years leading up

to the seventeen seventeen seventy six and the signing a

Decoration of Independence. It was said that there were five

hundred Baptist preachers that were arrested for preaching. So religious

freedom was still a problem for the early colonies. After

the Revolutionary War, there's a man named Jane Madison. James

Madison wanted to revise the constitution in a new constitution,

but he knew one of the problems was that he

didn't have support. So you know who we went to.

He went to a man who was a Baptist preacher.

His name was John Leland. He sat down with John Leland.

John Leland was in Virginia. He preached throughout all through

the South and through Virginia, and he had a huge

influence among Christians, among the Baptists. James Madison knew without

support of the Baptist the Constitution would not be revised.

He met two hours with Leland to convince Leland to

support and to get the churches to support. He would

convince Leland to support on one condition that in the

rat take in amending the Constitution, ratifying the Constitution, that

there would be religious freedom. Do you know the Constitution

was written and the first amendment in the Constitution is

religious liberty. I tell you that this morning because as

we come this morning, I think it's important understand as

we celebrate two hundred and fifty years, it was the

Christians that had a foundation in establishing the country as

it is today. They were a huge instrument in shaping

the foundation of our country and really furthermore shaping the

future of our country. As we celebrate two hundred and

fifty years, I think it's important for us to remember

first in Philippians three twenty, Paul talks about our citizenship,

and Paul says in First Philippians three twenty, but our

citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a savior.

The Lord Jesus Christ just sung of that, didn't we,

You know, our citizenship, even though we may be American

citizens or citizenships in different places across the world. Our

citizenship first is in heaven. But just because our citizenship

is in heaven doesn't mean we shouldn't seek the blessings

for our nation. And this morning, as we come to

Jeremiah twenty nine, we see God writing a letter to Israel,

to the exiles of Israel. So turn to Jeremiah with me,

or go look at that in just a minute, Jeremiah

twenty nine. In Jeremi twenty nine, we understand the history

of this passage, or kind of the backdrop of this

passage is that King nebucan Ezra the Babylonian had came

into Jerusalem, and they'd captured Jerusalem. They had carried away

the king and the queen and priests and prophets in

many of the people from Jerusalem, and they carried them

to back to Babylon, carried them to Babylon. God in

Sparish Jeremiah to write to the exiles in Babylon. And

in writing this letter to the exiles in Babylon, he's

leading them to how do they find God's blessings while

living in Babylon? Why listen to this while living not

in their home? Today? We are citizens of Heaven. This

America or whatever country that we live in is not

our home. Our homes in Heaven. But God calls us,

just as he called the exiles in Israel, to seek

the blessings of God where they are. God calls us

to seek His blessings where we live. So the title

of my sermon this morning is citizens of Heaven's citizens

of Heaven, blessings for our nation. So let's look at

God's letter to us as exiles, as he wrote a

letter to his people. And let's see how God calls

us to be faithful citizens of Heaven, but seek the

blessings of our nation. We stand with me Jeremiah twenty nine.

We think of it, Jeremih twenty nine. We think of

Jeremi twenty nine to eleven. This is leading up to that.

And let's look at verse four. This is the word

of the Lord. Jeremiah twenty nine, thuring the verse four.

Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel,

to all the exiles and who I've sent into exile

from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses, live in them, plant guards,

eat their produce, Take wise, have sons and daughters. Take

wise for your sons, and give your daughters their marriage,

that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there.

And do not decrease, but seek the wherefoll of the

city where I have sent you into exile, and pray

to the Lord on its behalf, for it's the welfare

you will find. You will find your welfare. Let's pray together. Lord.

We thank you Lord for this morning. We thank you

Lord for this passage. We thank you Lord your calling

upon us. God, we thank you today. As believers we

have a citizenship in Heaven. God. This is not our home,

but God, you have a calling to us. Lord where

you've placed us. And Lord, I pray Lord, lead us today,

just as you led your people of Israel your exiles

in Babylon. Lord, May you lead us today. Lord by

your word. May Lord today we hear Lord the message

you have for us May you stir in our hearts.

May you draw us closer to you. Lord. May we

consider God what you are doing in and through us.

And Lord, may you use us right where you've placed us. Lord,

we love you, We thank you Lord, for today in

your name we pray. Amen, you may be seated first

as we think about how do we seek God's blessings

for the nations where we live as citizens of Heaven.

Would you think is important as you start this passage,

you look at this passage, you look at with me

in verse one, in verse one and Jeremiah twenty nine,

and listen to what says. These are the words of

the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to

the surviving elders of the exiles, to the priests, to

the prophets, and all the people whom Nebucondezer had taken

into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. So we understand the

Bible says that God, I mean God inspired Jeremiah to

write a letter. I think it's important for you to

think about this is just understand scripture and understand the

history of God's word. This is the first letter in scripture. Now,

if we go to the New Testament. We know many

of the letters of Paul that he wrote to different

area like Colossians and Corinthians or Romans, were letters he

wrote to churches that became God's word. And we know

that God would inspire letters that he would be written. Well,

this is the first letter that God inspired a prophet

named Jeremiah to write to exiles that were in Babylon.

We know the Bible says that God used this inspiration.

Scripture First Peter one twenty through twenty one says, knowing

this that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man,

but men who spoke from God as they were carried

along by the Holy Spirit. So the Bible tells us

that Jeremiah wrote the letter. But God inspired Jeremiah to

write this letter, and we see that in just a moment.

So I think it's important to understand these this is

a letter. I think it's important understand that transmissions of

letters were happening at that day. It was roughly eight

hundred to nine hundred miles from Jerusalem where they were

captured and carried to Babylon. It was eight hundred and

nine hundred miles, and so this letter would be able

to be transmitted. Sent from Jerusalem, it was roughly taken

two and a half to four months to get from

Jerusalem to Babylon where they were captive. But God inspired

Jeremiah to write this lary. He had inspired Jeremiah to

have this letter sent. But if you think about it,

that's a lot of work. I mean, it's not like

an email you press, you write an email, sent a

button and it's there to someone in the second or

send a text message. This took months for this letter

to get to them, So this there was a great

lengths to get this message from Jerusalem to Babylon. So

why would God inspire Jeremiah? What was so important that

God wanted to exiles to hear. The first thing that

I think is important to notice here that the very

first thing that he says to them was listening to

this very he explains in verse one and two. But

then the contents of the letter really begins in verse four.

Look at what the Lord says to them. First, listen

to this This the letter was sent by the hand

of I'm sorry. Verse four. Thus said the Lord of

hosts the God of Israel to all the exiles, and

who I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

First message is, it's a kind of a greeting. Who's

he writing to? Who's writing to the exiles who were

in Babylon. And then he says in whom Notice is

the wording here He says in verse four, whom I

have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Now, if

you go to verse one, notice in verse one, as

Jeremiah's talking about this letter and the description of this

letter and who he's writing to and who was carried on,

listen to what it says in verse one that Jeremiah

the Prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of exile,

to the priests, the prophets, and the people. Now listen

to the verse one, and whom Neba Canzar had taken

into exile from Jeruserusalem to Babylon. See, Jeremiah gives us

a history. If you go to First Kings twenty four,

I believe, and you can read the history of what happened,

how King Nebuconazzar came in and swept through Israel and

came in Jerusalem, and he captured the kings and carried

the king and everyone back all the way to Babylon.

And it was the king who did this. But God

explains in verse four, although the king may have captured you,

it was I. It was my sovereign hand who had

taken King Nebuconazar as my instrument. And he may have

been the process that got you to Babylon, but it

was I who took you there. It was me who

led you to there. I wonder as you think about this,

it was Babylon was not their home. They were brought

there by a king. But God wants them to know

that although a king may have brought them there, it

was a God who placed them there. It's God who

brought them there. If you recognize this morning, as we

think about where citizens of heaven, but we seek the

blessings of where we are, do you recognize or accept

this morning that as we seek the God's blessing for

work where we are today? Do you recognize or accept

God's providence that God has placed you uniquely right where

you are? Do you know it's not a mistake that

God's put you in the home that you live in

in the neighborhood that you live in. You know, it's

not by mistake that not only do you live in

the neighborhood that you live, that you work where you work,

or you go to school where you go. Do you know,

it's not by chance that you sit byside that coworker

that you you know all those things. May you may

have thought, well, you know, I chose that house. I

went on Zilo and I looked and we found that

we picked out that house, and no, no, we bought

that house, and no, yeah, I chose that. I did

a lot of job interviews and I thought a little

bit of the job, and yeah, I chose that job.

It may have been you that you thought you chose

that home. You may have thought you chose that job.

You may you thought you chose that class. But God's

sovereign hand is placing you right where he wants you

to be, around the people he wants you to be around.

Is God's providence that you're here this morning. It's God's hand.

And so as we think about right now, living where

we live and in the time and place where we

live in, we support for us, recognize God is in control,

God is sovereign, and God has placed us right where

he wants us to be. You know, one of my

favorite missionary stories was I was at a board a

few months ago meeting and there was a missionary there

who works from NC Baptists and they do mission trips

through Romania. And I don't know if I've ever told

you the story. I know I've told some one day.

The missionary they do this mission trip to Romania, and

mostly it's a medical mission trip where they gather medical

supplies and they do medical things, different things for the

people of Romania. All the supplies they get together to

take to Romania's mostly medical stuff. And because that's their

main mission, they really just don't have a lot of

room to carry anything else Whereas the little church in

Roxburgh and they have a sewing ministry, and they decided

that they would make some baby dolls to carry to

send to the mission troop. So they came and told

the mission coordinator and says, hey, I know you you've

got some medicool supplies, but we've got some baby doss

and when and he said to them, listen, that's not

what we're going there for. We're going to we're going

to take medical missions and and but yet, if we

have any room, we'll take some baby doss. Where they

found a little bit of room, and they took the

baby dolls and they go into Romania and they get

in these villages and you can imagine that people are

coming there. They're coming for for medical treatment, and there's

a lot of people there. And at the very end

they decide they're going to start maybe giving out some

baby dolls. And they come and next thing, you know,

the line is out. I mean, and you know, there's

nothing worse than you're going to to do something for

someone and to give them something you run out. Well,

they had thirty baby dolls, and they said, they prayed together, says, Lord,

help us make sure we have enough baby dolls for

everybody in this village. They had exactly gave out just

the right amount. Well, you know, the interesting thing. There

was one little girl named there and I think I

forgot her name, But the little girl was blind and

she got her little baby doll and she took her

hand and she raised she put it over the face

of that baby, and she brought it together and she

said Virginia. Well, they thought, we do you know that's

a Romanian girl. Virginia is not a common name in Romania.

That's kind of interesting, you know what. You know, that's

just kind of unique. The next time they you know,

they had a great trip that came back and the

coordinator who coordinated to getting the baby dolls, they went

to the church. She'd tell them of how they were

able to give out the baby dolls, and they said,

and all the little ladies there in the soul ministry

where they and they were so excited, and they were

telling the stories, and they said, well, you know what

we hate. There's one lady who was missing today and

she made some of the baby dolls, and she's not here.

I really wish she was here. Well, what was her name?

Her name was Virginia. You see, listen, many times we're

just like that mission team. We think we've got our

plans and how we're going to live our life in

our community, in our home, at our workplace, at our job,

and we think we've done this. We're living our life.

We've got our plans. But can I tell you God's

got a sovereign plan for where you live today. He's

got a sovereign plan for you and your community. He's

got a sovereign plan for you to minister to your neighbors,

to your coworkers, to your classmates. And many times, part

of us being the blessing to where God's placed to

today is first recognizing that God, this is not by mistake. God,

you are sovereign in God, I don't want to accept

that you. You are sovereign over my life. And I'm

going to an set your providence in my life that

you're working in leading me where you want me to

be today. There may be some today and you you

know what, There was a people in the exiles. They

didn't want to be in Babylon. They didn't ask to

be in Babylon. God brought them to there, and they

were not happy about it. And for some of you today,

you're not happy where God's placed you. Maybe it is

that job today, maybe it is that school, Maybe it

is that neighborhood, mayhbor what. I don't know what it

is for you, And maybe today is just accepting God.

I don't like where my life is right now, But God,

I accepted You're in control. And God, You've placed me

here for a purpose. And God, I want you to

use me right where I am. I want you to see. Secondly,

this morning, as we seek to be faithful citizens of heaven,

but seek the blessings of where God puts us. I

think it starts with us accepting first God's providence, but

secondly we must live faithfully where God's placed us. Look

at what the Bible tells them. The Bible says the

verse five, Build houses and live in them, plant gardens

and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters.

Take wives for your sons, and give daughters in marriage

that they may bear sons and daughters multiply. There, do

not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where

I sent you into exile. He tells them to just

notice there he build houses, live in them, plant gardens,

eat produce. Kind of think of he kind of first,

and maybe if you break this up a little bit,

he tells them to kind of build a house, plant

a garden, start a family. Right, So you kind of

think about maybe settling where they're supposed to be, buy

a house, find a house, the planting guards farms. You

kind of think of occupation, will get to work, find

a job, provide for yourself, and then the family part

is start your family right be faithful to your family.

If you think about what's happening in this passage. Here,

these exiles have come and they've not you know, this

is not their home. They're almost in Jerusalem. That is

not their home. Here, they're in this foreign land and

there's different foods that they're not used to. There's different

languages they're not used to. They don't speak the language.

And listen, they're missing home. They've lost their homes. They've

been take cared away from their houses. They've been carried

away from their family. They've been carried away from their

community and carried them to foreign land. They don't like it.

They're not happy about it. They're upset. We know, and

Paul is Paul Wright to Timothy. One of the main

motivations that Paul writes to Timothy was the dangers of

false teaching, the concerns that the false teachers were misleading

the people. This is too is really one of the

primary concerns that Paul The reason why Jeremiah wrote this letter.

He wrote that God wanted them to know that he

had placed them there, that they were there for a purpose.

He secondly wants them to know that he calls them

to be faithful. And one of the problems was there

was false teachers. Look at what happens in verse I

think it's verse eight. Verse eight. Read with me, Thus

said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel. Do

not let your prophets in your devin airs among you

deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams that they dream,

for it's a lie that they are prophesying to you

in my name. I did not send them, declares the Lord.

What was the false prophets telling them? False prophet was

telling them, Hey, I had a dream last night. You

know what dream was. Don't don't settle, don't settle where

you are. God's about to take you back. God's about

to come and he's going to rescue you from Babylon.

He's going to carry you back home. So don't don't

plan a house. Don't you go buy a house, don't

don't you go start your job, don't you go start

a family, because God's coming and you need to wait

on the Lord. Because I had a dream, and God's

going to carry you back home. And in this passage

of scripture, he's telling them not to listen to the

false prophets because the false prophets are telling them lies,

and the lies is that they're not going back home.

God is placing them for a purpose, and therefore God

calls them to be faithful right where He's planning them.

He tells them to be faithful, be faithful in being

a good steward by a house, look for a house

of us. Settle in to your house, build a house,

settle down, he tells them. Secondly, plant gardens, eat the produce,

get to work. Find a job. Find a job that

you can take care of your family. Secondly, mary, have children,

establish your family. He's calling them to be faithful, be

faithful stewards of possessions a house or home land, Be

faithful to take that, be faithful to it. He's calling

them the faithful work ethic. Find a job and be

faithful at it. Find a job and produce good work ethic. Thirdly,

he's calling them to be faithful families. A few years ago,

many many years ago, probably ten plus years ago, when

we first caught out seminary, we went to Conway. We

were living in Conway, South Carolina for a few years,

and God called us away from there to rock Hill,

and we were serving there and we bought a house

when we first moved to Conway. Well, when we left Conway,

the housing market crash and we got upside down on

that house. So we couldn't sell it. So we rented it.

And I remember the first renter we had. We had

one renterer that was great. We had them for templus

almost ten years. The renner before that was terrible. He

wouldn't take care of the property, wouldn't bear the grass,

the house of like a wreck, wouldn't keep it clean,

and we eventually had to victim. You know, the problem

with the renters was for this renter was he didn't

take care of it. Why what they take care of it?

Because it wasn't his It wasn't his home, and because

it wasn't his home, he didn't want to show you

any effort in making it look good and being faithful

to the property and taking care of the property. Well,

there's a tendency for the exhausted to think, this is

not my home, this is not where I want to be.

I don't want to live here but temporarily, and so

I'm not going to do what I'm supposed to do.

I'm not gonna I'm gonna find a job I'm not

going to start a family. I'm not going to be

good at my job because I don't like where I God,

You've placed me. And here, Paul, I mean here. Jeremiah says, listen.

God first says, submit that I've placed you there. And

once you submit that I've placed you there, listen, be

faithful where you are, even if you don't like it.

Be faithful to be a good steward of what I've

given you. I will give you a home, I'll give

you things, and sometimes you may not like the things

that I give you, But when I give them to you,

be faithful to be good steward what I've given you.

And when I've given you not only a home, but

I've given you a job, be faithful to the job

that I've given you. When I've given you a family,

I give you a wife or a husband of children,

be faithful to what I've given you. Even if you're

in a place, maybe in your life or where you live,

maybe you don't like where God puts you. You say, God,

right where I am, I'm going to be faithful, you know.

Today as we think about being citizens of heaven, but

being seeking blessings for our nation, and being blessings for Durham,

blessings for North Carolina, blessings for United States. You ask,

and one of my main motivations of doing this message

is sometimes we think so much that this is not

a home. Sometimes we're not. We don't care as much

as we should about where we live. And you know what,

you know, what the world needs today from the church

is the same thing that the world needed from the

Church and it began. It needed faithful Christians who were

faithful to settle where God placed them, who were faithful

in their jobs, and who were faithful to their homes

and being godly homes. I'll never get when I was

first came to this area, was back in two thousand

and one and Brandon and I had just gotten married

and we were in seminary and I was we were

young and didn't have a whole lot, and so I

needed to get a job. And I had an interview

on nine to eleven and I was the first employee

that it was a golf course that opened and wait

Forest and I was the first employee that they hired,

and not long after that hired me, they began hiring

more seminary students. You know, What because they found that

seminary students were good workers because of their character and

their work ethic. They sought to hire believe and they

would hire me, and they would hire a friend of

mine and other friends of mine. Why. Because they saw

that believers and Christians can impact the world around them.

That's what our country needs, That's what our city needs today.

Church members from Bethesda who are faithful right where they are.

Maybe it is a job that you don't like, Maybe

it's a school that you don't like. Maybe it's your

neighborhood you don't like. But God calls you to be

faithful right where you are because a loss and watching

world is watching whether you'll be faithful or not. May

we be Christians who are faithful? We're faithful where God's

placed us. Lastly, as we are citizen of heaven, how

do we seek God's blessings for our nation? Now we

accept God's providence, we live faithfully where God's placed us.

But third, we seek the prosperity and peace of your community.

Think's really interesting here. This is not their home. They're

in Babylon. This is a wicked country. This is a

wicked nation. This nation took over God's people, God's land.

They defeated the lord that killed people in war. Now

they've cured their king and their prophets and their priests,

and all these people back to Babylon to a land

that's not their land, and they're out of their homes.

They're living in this foreign land. And what does God

tell these exiles to do in the place that they

don't want to be. He tells them to seek the

prosperity and peace of their community. Look what it says

in verse seven, But seek the welfare of the city

where I've sent you into exile and prayed to the

Lord on his behalf. He tells them to seek the

welfare of the city, seek the prosperity of the city.

Seek that the city might thrive, do well, prosper Not

only that they seek the prosperity of the city, but

they are in this passage of scripture, they are to

seek the prosperity of the city. How by praying to

the Lord on his behalf. Look what says, seek the

welfare of the city where I sent you in exile,

and pray to the Lord on its behalf. You know,

as you think about this idea, the Jews this would

not be the first nor the last time Israel would

be taken captive. It would not be the first or

the last time that exiles would be carried into captivity.

And from this passage the Jews would build a custom

or tradition and their worship. What was the their tradition

that every Sabbath, when the Jews would come to worship,

they would pray for the city that they lived in.

They would pray for the leaders that they that were

in control of the city. They would seek whether God

carried them to Babylon, to Syria, to the ends of

the earth and disperse them in exile wherever God had

placed them. Every Sabbath worship they would pray for their

city and their pray for the leaders of their city.

You see, they understood that God had sent them and

placed them in different places, and God called them to

be faithful where they are. But God called them to

pray for their city. You know, as we are citizens

of heaven, but we want the blessings of our nation.

It comes when we see the prosperity of our city,

and we do that by praying. We should pray. You know,

Timothy tells us that we just read that a few

weeks ago First Timothy. Paul tells Timothy this First Timothy,

Chapter two, verses one and two. First of all, then

I urge you, with supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be

made for all people, for kings, and all who are

in high positions, that we might lead a peaceful and

quiet life, godly and dignified. In every way. God calls

us to pray for all people, and in particular, Paul

commands us to pray for our leaders, our kings, and

those who are in high position. Ask you today, how

do you pray? How do you seek the welfare of Durham.

How do you seek the welfare of your community, your neighborhood.

How do you seek the welfare of North Carolina? How

do you do that? By praying? You pray for our governor?

Do you pray for our mayor? Do you pray for

our state senators, our state House representatives? Those our president?

Those are senators in d C, our House representative in

d C. God calls us to pray for them. God

calls us to pray for our city. You know, and

after the after the signing, the decoration of Independence, and

after the Constitution, we ratified, there would be another great awakening.

It was called the second grade Awakening. You know where

it started. It actually started in New York City. There

was an association there called the Shaftspierre's seventeen ninety Shafesbeer

Baptist Association of New England, and there there were a

revival it would break out that would change our world.

It's called the second grade Awakening. You know how it started.

It started in that little association. When they begin to pray,

listen to this. They would pray these words. They would

pray this prayer, pour down His Holy Spirit in the

land and revive and purer and undefiled. Revive a purer

and undefiled relegend. Simple prayer by a Baptist association in

New York would start a revival that was spread throughout

our land. They believed, God, you've placed us here. God,

you called us to be faithful, and God, you called

us to pray. And God, is there any hope for

our nation to be blessed. It's only by your hand.

So we, as believers less unite together to pray for

our land, to pray for our leaders, to pray for

our city, to pray for our state, to pray for

our country. I wonder today, how do you pray for

your neighborhood? How do you pray for your neighbors? How

do you pray for your city? Do you pray for

your state? Your community? You know, God's planted you there

here for a purpose. He's called you to be faithful,

a faithful citizen, faith for our steward, a faithful worker,

faithful family to what God has given you. He calls

you to see the blessings of your community, to your state,

and your country by praying to Him. You done that?

How are you faithful in that? You know? As we

finished today, I think we think about our country and

we think it's important for us to think about God.

How might you bless us, how you might bless our nation?

But what's the long term goal? What's the purpose? Not

just just that we would continue to be blessed as

a nation. I believe that God causes us to seek

the blessing of our nation that we might bless others.

Probably one of the greatest stories of the Great Awakening

is it swept through New York, and it swept through Kentucky,

Kentucky and all the way through the South. There in

the South, there was a man from Georgia. He was

a freed slave. His name was George Lyle. In seventeen

eighty two he was the first missionary ever. He was

from Jamaica. In seventeen eighty two he would travel back

to Jamaica and there George Laa a loved. One of

the things about George Lao that George Lale believed wherever

God had put him, his first and foremost calling was

to be a Baptist preacher that would share the gospel

in plant churches. And when in seventeen eighty two when

he went back to Jamaica, he did just that. He

preached the gospel and he planted churches. In seventeen ninety one,

his church grew to over three hundred and fifteen members.

At the time of his death in eighteen twenties, the

Baptist had swept over Christianity had swept over the island

like a major force. And it came listen when revival

in a association New York began to pray that God,

might you revive of our nation. That revival swept over

the land and swept into the heart of a man

named George Lyle and it not only changed America, but

it changed other countries for Christ. And may we today

as we seek God. May we are citizens of heaven.

But God, we want blessings of our land. God, we

want the blessings of our land. That we might take

the Gospel to the ends of the earth, that it

might not only change our land, but it might change

our world. Amen, would you pray with me? Lord, We

love you. We thank you Lord for this morning. We

thank you Lord that you have placed us here for

this time, for this place. God. We thank you Lord

that you want to use us here. Lord, we are

exhaust Lord. We this is not our home. But God,

I pray that Lord, today we would recognize your providence

that you've placed us here for a purpose. God, you

call us to be faithful today right where you've placed

us and our jobs and our unity and our schools. Lord,

help us be faithful. Lord, help us be a church

Christians that seek Lord, the prosperity of our nation, our city,

our state. Lord, that the Gospel might go out to

the ends of the earth, that it might change our world,

may change our city, might change our country. But God,

it would change thy world, and that people would come

to know you through Lord, Lord, your blessings of what

you've done for us. Lord, we love you. We thank you,

Lord for this morning or I pray Lord that we

would take this time now in the invitation to respond

to Lord how you're leading us. Lord. We thank you

Lord for your word. Lord, we pray, Lord, may you bless,

May you draw us to you. May we surrender Lord

to you now? In your name we pray and all

to him.