God Bless America - Sermon Continued

Well, hello church family and welcome to the CFBC Sermon

continued podcast. I think that's a great way to

put this inaugural episode that we are starting this week after

the first sermon in the series that we've titled Under God for

the month of July. It's such a special time in our

nation that we're celebrating our 250th anniversary as a

nation semi quincentennial. Think I said that right?

I actually can't believe I just said that, right?

I'll mess it up before it's over.

But I'm joined by our worship pastor, John Huff to my right.

And further to my right is our creative arts director, Haston

Mckissick. So man, these guys are such

great friends and an integral part of what we do here at CFPC.

Obviously, some of us from the stage and then some of us not so

much from the stage, but behind the scenes on Haston.

This is a cool change of pace for you to be in front of a

camera. So thanks for joining, but

church family and beyond church family, if you're not part of

the CFPC family, that's awesome. We're glad you're joining us.

We're wanting to do something to where we continue to provide

some follow up content during the week leftover, if you will,

that didn't get shared from the pulpit.

It's not that this is secondary or less important information,

but really, to be quite honest, Shaw, the hours that I put in to

prepare, I don't get to represent everything that comes

to the surface. I've got 3540 minutes, but often

times there's so much more that could be said or shared.

And sometimes the questions or conversation that could be a

great follow up. We don't have time to process.

This podcast gives us an opportunity to do just that.

So we're we're grateful you're joining us and I hope that this

is encouraging. It's edifying, it's challenging

for you as a disciple of Christ for your understanding of the

word of God and your application in your life as a believer.

So with that said, I don't know what you guys thought about

Sunday. I mean, number one, we had a, we

had a really funny incident on Sunday during the that which in

my Third Point of the message, which was we need God to

sovereignly and spiritually awaken America.

I had something happen I've never had happen in my life.

And I've been preaching since I was in my 20s.

I'm 41 and I had AI had a an individual in in the audience

immediately loudly laugh. I think you could use the word

cackle. I think you could almost use the

word. It was elongated so loud that it

picked up on the live stream. I don't know what you guys

thought, but I I think I just responded before even thinking.

I just kind of instinctively said what I said, which was I

didn't think that was funny, is what I said, because I

legitimately thought they were laughing at the content of the

point, which this lady actually responded back from her seat in

the audience to me in the pulpit.

That, oh, it was the fact my husband and I were bantering

back and forth on what the answer in the point, the fill in

the blank of the notes that we have in our worship guide.

And either he or she had gotten it right and wouldn't have

gotten it wrong as they had, you know, tried to predict what I

was going to say. They end up coming up to me

afterwards in the welcome area. And I hugged her.

I gave her, I prayed over them as a family.

They were about to leave on a mission trip.

I, I don't know how that all came about to laugh out loud in

such a moment, but it definitely was awkward.

I don't know what you guys thought but.

Oh, I mean, I've, I've not had that happen that I can remember

in the service. Yeah.

And then not only that, have the interaction back and forth where

there was follow up from the person you know.

So that's just unusual. Yeah, So hasting, we obviously

posted the first service. Yes, we did.

Yeah, instead of the second. So, hey, you just never know

when you're when you preach God's word.

I mean, that's an exciting part of it, but we are an exciting

point in our history. I think it's worthy of our

attention. I mean, cause seriously, we are

citizens first of the Kingdom of God.

That's what we're arguing. We are believers.

We are not citizens ultimately of this world, but of heaven.

And yet in God's Providence, He has put us here in the here and

now, in a specific nation over which he reigns in rules that

He's sovereignly overseeing the rise of.

We are Americans because of, because this is where and when

God has placed us. And I think that there's a lot

to be said for that and how we live out our faith in the

context and identities that God has given us as believers first.

So with that said, I'll just be honest, I didn't get a chance to

really share with everybody on Sunday that the really the

burden that I felt like we ought to as a church, take time to set

aside to process this from God's word.

And I knew that would be so much content that we could possibly

cover and had to really narrow it down.

But I've been really excited about doing this.

I think that I think that Sunday went well overall.

I know that you step into challenging waters a little bit

whenever you embark upon something that so closely

connects to politics and history and the arguments and the things

and the different perspectives and Christianity or not and all,

all the stuff. So part of what I wanted to

process was just as kind of, as we walked through the sermon,

some stuff I didn't get a chance to say.

And let me just invite you guys to interact, question, say, hey,

I disagree. I agree.

Here's what I'd have said differently.

Here's how they could have been better, you know, stuff like

that. So obviously we, we we dove in

out in Psalm 33 and and pulled out some principles out of that

chapter. We didn't expose it the whole

thing. But the first one was that God

is sovereign over the rise and fall of nations.

And in a course David makes that really clear in verse 10 and 11.

And by deduction from that and you know, we, we get that God

has also been sovereign over the rise and fall of our nation.

And how historians look back and see this clear providential

engagement of the hand of God that superintended our rise, our

birth and our prosperity and our blessing and protection as a

nation. I shared a few of those things.

Couple things that I didn't share was, one, even going back

all the way back to 1492, and if you read about why Christopher

Columbus was motivated to do the four voyages that he did in

total. But he actually writes in a

book, he began in 15-O2 that he writes that he and his in this

book, he had personally assembled all these Bible

references that he had personally studied.

And, and he writes that part of his motivation was actually the

propagation of the Christian gospel in distant lands.

Now, historians attribute all sorts of motivations and I'm

sure they were multifaceted, but I think there's no doubt from

his own word, in his own words, he actually does say, as

imperfect as a man as he was and as we all are, that he was

motivated in part by the propagation of the truth of the

gospel to distant lands. And he wrote this.

I love the statement that no one should be afraid to take on any

enterprise in the name of our Savior.

If it is right and if the purpose is purely for his holy

service, it's amazing. So Christopher clearly had a

identity as a Christian and as a motivation for you could even

say the Great Commission, like he was looking for the Christian

gospel to spread to other things.

I talked about our date of birth and how the timing after the

Reformation made it so available to be impacted by the ideas that

were rooted in the Reformation, which all go back to the

Scripture. What I didn't get to say is

another key ingredient in our birth was the influence of the

Mayflower Compact. So, you know, Fast forward from

1492 to 1620. I mean, listen to how this

reads. This is the first governing

document written in the New World in English, OK.

It says in the name of God, Amen, whose names are

underwritten, having undertaken for the glory of God.

And listen to this and advancement of the Christian

faith and the honor of our king and country.

A voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of

Virginia do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the

presence of God and one another covenant and combine ourselves

together into civil body politics.

I mean, notice the multiple mentions of God, notice the

mentions of for the glory of God in the advancement of the

Christian faith. And it was this, this was the

first governing document that many people say the DNA of even

our governing documents, our Constitution, go back to this

one, which was clearly rooted in in the ideas of the Christian

faith. So.

Can I ask you a question? Why do you think that the

Pilgrims sought to to influence this government that they were

establishing with faith? Why?

Why couldn't they do what England had done?

You know, why? Why didn't they think that we

can just remove this, we can do a faith separately?

Why do they think that faith had to be integrated into the

government of this new world? Well, that's a great question

and I'm no Pilgrim expert, but what I do know is that they're

driving foundation was freedom to live according to their

convictions. That was the restraint that they

were under in their homeland. And so I don't think for the

Pilgrims that they could conceive of a higher ideal than

for their religious convictions to form the bedrock of the way

they did life. So if you put what's the first

big rock into the jar for life, well, the first one would be our

religious convictions. And so no matter how we do

politics, if we can't do our lives according to the

foundation of our convictions, then there's no way we can

really do civil politics, not rightly, not according to

conscience. And so they realized that there

was a natural law before national law and that natural

law was God's law, IE things like the image of God built into

man in women, right? The fact that we were made to be

able to choose to serve God or not, and then we were made to be

able to experience freedom. That was first freedom that God

had given us and and ultimately a spiritual freedom.

So I think for them it was just a right ordering of life, that

it was first of all religious freedom.

And then after they sought that, then they sought to organize

what they knew was God's God. It instituted government.

They knew their Bibles. They knew that government was an

institution by God set up by God for good to restrain evil, and

therefore is a natural ordering of life in the way they they,

they knew the Bible directed. So I think that was part of,

again, and that's really, when you think about it, how America

unfolded. That was at our beginning,

right? I feel like I would have been

very aware of the almighty. You think they're not getting on

a airplane? You know, you're sailing across

the Atlantic in whatever condition the ship was in with

whatever was going on you at the mercy of the sea.

They can like probably questioning a lot like what are

we doing? Oh, and to land not where they

thought they were going to land. To face what they face when you

read about the Mayflower and, and the disease, the struggle on

the wild frontier. I mean, they, they basically

sacrificed everything. And also I was going to mention

it was the encouragement of their pastor that before they

sent and he had to stay behind. That is, they followed his

instructions to organize themselves, you know, in a civil

manner. They, he knew they would need

that. But the first conviction was

that we if we can't worship God freely, then what do we have?

And and that's what they, you know, they, they forsake

everything to be to do that. So one of the big questions that

I didn't get a chance to answer, I'd love to dive into this is

this this was just going to take a straight into some little bit

of controversy. All right, which I think great,

not necessary from the pulpit, but people want to ask and

answer is America a Christian nation?

And this question may be a good question, may not be a good

question. I think it's a question and I

think it's worth pastoral engagement and guidance.

I think a well thought through biblical answer from a biblical

worldviewer lens is necessary. So John, what I thought I'd do,

maybe you and hasten, I would just pop quiz you on 10

questions and the test is, is America a Christian nation?

So I just want you to answer from your gut like this is a

rapid fire. This is not look at this up in

your Bible or look it up in these 10 pages of notes you

printed to try to be ready. I'm praying.

So just give me your and and hasten.

If you disagree, I need you to. I need you to give an

alternative answer. All right, but I think here's a

way for us to think about is America Christian nation?

Let's ask some more nuanced, some more specific questions.

Are you guys ready? All right, John, number one is

Christian teaching, the primary religious system that influenced

the founding of the United States.

I would say yes on that one. I think you would be correct.

I don't think it's arguable that another religious system was the

most influential beyond and beyond Christianity in our

founding, right? So yes, right?

The truth is, Christian teaching was the primary religious system

that influenced our founding #2 where the majority of the

founding fathers of the US Christians who generally

believed in the truth of the Bible.

That. I feel like that one's a toss

up, but I would probably say yes to that too.

You said the majority. We're the majority of the

founding fathers of the US Christians who generally

believed in the truth of the Bible.

I would say yes to that. I think I would say yes to that

too. Obviously not all were

evangelicals. Some were clearly deist.

I think if you put the question like this, where the majority of

them, once you recognize the general truths of Christianity

as written in the Scriptures, I think that the answer to that is

yes. And you can't help but say yes

to that based on the way they worded, you know, our original

documents and some of the actual historical writings that they

produced #3 is Christianity or various sorts, the largest

religion in the US? At that time or now?

Then and now, the largest religion in the US but

especially then what? Do you want to say?

I would say yes, it's, it seems like to me, I mean I, I would

say, I mean we've. Obviously, is there a religion

that more people adhere to in the US today than Christianity?

I don't think so. OK, Yeah.

So there's your answer. So then and now, essentially the

one major, if you will, overall religion would have been

Christianity. In other words, there's not.

Islam is not more adhered to in the US right now than

Christianity or claim to be, etcetera.

So #4 Did Christian beliefs provide the intellectual

background that led to many of the cultural values still held

by Americans today? Rights.

Absolutely yes. The roots for individual

freedom, protection of individual rights, respect for

personal freedoms, the value of hard work.

We even call that the what the Protestant work ethic, the need

for strong National Defense, the share and the show of care for

the poor and the weak, the value of generosity, of giving aid to

other nations, respect for the rule of law.

All these things are rooted in biblical principles.

I'm. Afraid, they continue.

Pray they continue, Absolutely. Whole like swearing in a

ceremony which you know that there's, you know, ramifications

about all that, but they're not they don't have a Quran up there

or like, you know it's. They don't, and there have been

a few exceptions where some presidents have chosen a

different book than the Bible, but it's been the rare

exception. And some were sworn in without a

Bible present when they didn't have a Bible present.

But the vast majority have been sworn in as the ultimate office

of our nation, their hand on the book, the God of the Bible

inspired, right? So #5 So we've had four yeses so

far out of our 10 questions. Number 5, was there a Supreme

Court decision? This is a more difficult one at

one time that affirmed that the United States is a Christian

nation are. You well well versed in Supreme

Court cases? Say it one more time.

Was there a Supreme Court decision at one time that

affirmed that the United States is a Christian nation?

I, I can't recall like I feel like it's a yes because I feel

like I, I don't know it. So it probably is, yes.

Your gut would be right. I'm not going to go in the

details about it for the sake of time, but you guys can look this

up. But there was, and it was a 1892

decision, Church of the Holy Trinity versus the US.

And the ruling established that a church had the right to hire a

minister from a foreign nation, IE England.

And thus the church was not in violation of an 1885 law that

had prohibited hiring foreigners and aliens to perform labor in

the US. And the court's argument was

that there were so much evidence showing the dominant, quote,

Christian character of this nation that Congress could not

have intended to prohibit churches from hiring Christian

ministers from other countries. There was so much Christian

influence, basically. So number six, all right, I

think that the nature of these questions is going to change.

So just hint him, are a majority of people in the US Bible

believing evangelical born again Christians?

Yes or no? That's a no.

Especially increasingly, no. Estimates range from 18 to 42%.

To be born again. Obviously, only God knows the

status of the charge. Range 18 to 42.

Most argue that probably closer to 20% is more accurate.

That sounds. 2 out of 10. 2005 Gallup poll came up with 22%.

Again, like our best efforts will never be able to do a

perfect read on that, only God knows.

But I do think that sounds pretty accurate to me.

That's interesting because I read a statistic yesterday that

29 average, 29% of adults in the United States say they have

excellent mental health. I wonder if there's a

correlation there. Oh, less than about 3 out of 10.

So they have excellent mental health and obviously 7 out of 10

don't believe they have mental health.

And you know, compared. To that's fascinating #7 is

belief in Christian values the dominant perspective promoted by

the US government, the media, and universities in the US

today? I I would definitely would say

no currently. You would be correct.

When it when some of these institutes were founded, they

were founded on Christian morals and intended to be Christian

schools that have now kind of gone secular and would never

promote biblical values. That's right #8 does the US

government promote Christianity as the national religion?

I don't think so. Not very publicly.

This one shouldn't be there. Let me let me ask you like this

national. Let me ask you like this.

You may be a little bit of shock mode because on podcast first

one, but does the does does America have a nationally

endorsed religion? No.

No, I would say no. No, obviously not so.

So the US government does not promote Christianity as our

nationalized, you know, endorsed religion #9 does the US have an

official state sponsored religion?

I jumped ahead. That's no.

That's no absolutely #10 does a person have to profess Christian

faith in order to become AUS citizen or to have equal rights

under the law in the US? No.

We've asked 10 questions, we've had five yeses and we've had

five Nos. So the fact is, right when it

comes to is the USA Christian nation, well, it really all

depends on what someone means by Christian nation.

You got to define what are you really asking because in five

possible meanings, the answer is yes and five other possible

meanings, it's no. And in one sense, I think it to

be clear that the question really isn't all that helpful

because the question isn't all that clear.

And we need to be more nuanced and thoughtful and, and, and

specific when we talk about this because it can lead to arguments

and misunderstanding and confusion.

What what I can tell you is that the five yeses is no doubt that

the ideas and the principles and the values of the Christian

faith, we're part and parcel to the DNA in the format formative

times of our nation and have continued to be.

Let me just give you something. These aren't subjective things.

Let me just tell you some objective things.

OK? Engraved on the metal cap of the

top of the Washington Monument are the words praise be to God.

Bible verses are lining the walls.

OK, in the famous address the Bible in Progress delivered in

Denver on May 7th by Woodrow Wilson, he told, he said, I mean

a president, the US told America was born a Christian nation.

Now again, what does he mean by that?

We got to be clear. What does he mean by that?

But they but then a president said that he says America was

born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness

which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.

OK, President Jimmy Carter told reporters in June of 1976, we

have a responsibility to try to shape a government so that it

does exemplify the will of God. 1931 we already mentioned the US

Supreme Court noted the United States.

That was again another Supreme Court decision that noted the

United States as a Christian nation.

And then President Roosevelt in a Mid-Atlantic summit with

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the darkest hours

of World War 2, described the United States as the lasting

concord between men and nations founded on the principles of

Christianity. Pope Pius the 12th 1947 wrote to

President Truman said flatly there this is a Christian

nation. I can tell you the history of

how Eisenhower attended a sermon and heard a Presbyterian pastor

in DC arguing that omitting under God in the Pledge of

Allegiance stripped the definitive factor from the

American way of life. Claiming this pastor claimed

that an atheistic American is a contradiction in terms.

That was then some of the the the the fuel to the fire of

under God being added to the Pledge of Allegiance. 2 years

later he made in God we trust the US official motto.

I mean on and on we we could go. Congress declared in 1983 the

year of the Bible. The crier who opens each session

of the Supreme Court closes with the words God save the United

States and the honorable court again like the US doesn't have a

national religion. You don't have to be a Christian

to be AUS citizen. Christianity birthed the value

of religious freedom. So you'll hear this argument

sometimes about secularists on the, you know, kind of the far

progressive side. They want to say Christian, the

US was founded on religious liberty.

And in some degree that's true. It really was.

But what's deeper than the first rock in the jar prior to

religious liberty was the principles of Christianity.

Islam didn't give us religious liberty.

Hinduism did not give us religious liberty.

Buddhism didn't give us religion.

Christianity gave us the image of God, that we're made in the

freedom before God, of conscience, of worship, that the

fact that faith is a matter of the heart.

That's what gave us religious liberty.

And I think as when we when we think of the values of the

United States, justice is one of the things that we hold closely

is like everyone, no matter who you are innocent until proven

guilty, you will stand before in court and you will be able to

testify and give a defense. And that's biblical values is is

justice that is something that that is from God is to give

equal justice to all, just like we read in Psalm 33.

I mean God saying like he loves righteousness and justice, and

those are values that I see everywhere in the United States.

We, we try to cling to the righteous side of things.

We try to make sure that everyone has a fair trial at at

every every identity when presented in court.

We obviously have and do fall so far short of the ideal of

perfect justice as any human enterprise would.

And we're not sugar coating over those things or turning a blind

eye to our downfalls as a nation.

But we are arguing is that the ideals that come from the

inspired Word of God have been our ideals, however far short

we've fallen of them. But that has been our starting

point, you know, as a nation. So well, you know #2 in the

sermon we talked about how God is the blesser of nations and

God has blessed America. Like, you just can't argue

against that. God is the one who ultimately

blesses and God has blessed our country.

We talked about that in the context of of the Old Testament

versus the New and how 2 truths are still true, that God is

still the blessed are of nations.

No, America is not a theocracy the way Israel was, and yet

every nation still chooses a God.

I think that's probably one of the most controversial things I

expected to say on Sunday. I did not say America was a

Christian nation, but I did say that every nation still chooses

a God. And what I really, what I meant

by that, and I explained this, is that underneath the founding

of every civil body or governing structure is a worldview.

And that worldview has a theology.

And that theology has a God. And it doesn't mean that we have

a nationalized state sponsored religion.

That's not what I mean, but it does mean that we have an

ultimate authority. There is that in a worldview by

which one is ordering one's life or one's country or one's

government, government, government.

So this is what I mean. In fact, the the famous Geneva

born political philosopher Rousseau made the statement,

which I find fascinating, but he said no state has ever been

founded without a religious basis.

That's quite a statement that there has been no human

organized leading governing system that doesn't have within

it. I mean, you think about, let's

just say you tried to start a purely secular state.

Well, that that state has a God. Who is it?

It's man. It's it's a man centered, not a

God centered. It's where our ultimate

authority. We are the standard setters of

truth and justice and righteousness.

We are our own God. This was the lie in the garden.

Satan wanted Adam and Eve to set up a philosophy of life that had

a religious conviction to it. Just not one with God at the

center, you at the center. I mean, there's never been a

state. And I think he's exactly right.

So. I think that's human nature too.

Is is we're born with a desire to to follow something greater

than ourselves. You know.

We, we just human nature. I mean, you can look at any

isolated tribe and they have idols that they worship.

I think it's just if we gather as a society that we're going to

ingrain those things into our thinking.

That's right. And so why not the ultimate guy

creator you know to to follow and base a religion off of or

base a government off of? It goes back to that reality

that God made mankind to worship.

Yeah. And our hearts are, as one,

famous theologians that are idol factories, like our hearts don't

know how to do anything but worship.

And John, as a worship pastor, you know, you lead us in singing

each week, and of course, that's one manifestation of worship.

But all we do is done in worship to the glory of something or

someone, to the allegiance of someone or something, to the

loyalty of something or something, you know, So we human

beings can't escape worship. It's just a matter of whom we

are choosing to worship, and that even effects our.

We we have to fight that battle daily of of self.

Right. You know our our self esteeming

ourselves more highly than we ought.

This is, you know, infinite perfect holiness.

Yeah, and righteousness, you know.

That's right. So what did you guys think about

some statistics I shared about if you talk about ebb and flows,

there's an ebb of patriotism in our nation, especially among the

younger generation. We see this.

I think I, I, I, when I read these statistics and studied

these, I didn't go into deep dives, but they resonated with

me as objectively as true to my subjective experience.

What did, what did you guys think?

Anything shock you? You disagree with you found.

Well, as I, as you know, if I think about the perspective of

folks, you know, a generation or so younger than myself, you

know, they're, you know, born in the era of 911, You know, they

school age potentially or probably during, you know, COVID

shut down. There's been a lot of, you know,

recession, just angst and turmoil.

Social media has made that, you know, you know, exponentially

worse. And so it doesn't surprise me

that it's low, but there are I, I think pockets of folks that

regard, have a high level of patriotism regard for the

country. I'm not talking about, like,

the, you know, Christian nationalism thing, but people

that feel like being a good citizen is biblical, people that

feel like loving your country isn't wrong and that there's

still, you know, ideals and things that we can hold fast to

that are biblical and, you know, loving of people and the nation

we've been blessed with too. I feel like there's a lot of,

you know, slandering of the country, even intentionally and

unintentionally online that people are quick to comment

before we know exactly what we're even saying, right.

So I do, I do sense that the people are just weary a lot of

the, the conversation, you know? Right, right.

I think a lot of it, you're right, is driven by some of

those factors. I think some of it is driven by

a naivety to what true historical things went into the

founding and the sacrifice that made our country what it is.

I feel like a lot of it is driven by entitlement.

If someone doesn't feel like their country is quote blessing

them, then they feel like it's depriving them of, you know,

prosperity or maybe because you know.

But what have you done for me lately?

Yeah, that's just entitlement you run into so often that I

think is a it it, it was just as a such a wrong, wrongly oriented

perspective. And I think some of it is truly

driven by a desire to see the principles that we were founded

on undone and a revision of some of that history.

I do think like you mentioned, even like a Christian

nationalism, I do think there is an overreaction to some of that

whereby, you know, sometimes you can take quote the Christian

approach or principles. And I think what we have to be

careful is what we're not trying to do as Christians in our

nation is superimpose our convictions on anyone else.

We are wanting the righteousness of God's truth to allow for

human flourishing in our land. But that doesn't mean forcing

someone to believe in Jesus. It doesn't mean coercing someone

to have to, according to their, you know, against their

conscience assent to things we believe the Bible says are true.

And so I think sometimes really technically Christian

nationalism is when we may go to the point of seeking to impose

Christianity in such a way that would infringe on someone's

religious liberty. But that's what the founders

were so clearly protective of, right?

The truths that informed the freedom for someone to be, to

operate according to conscience was Christianity.

But we don't take that Christianity and infringe on

someone's, you know, but we are wanting to see the truth of

Christianity influence every facet of our life and society.

Why? Because we know that those

things will lead to human flourishing, but we can't force

them. So I think there's, there's more

I want to talk about on that in future podcasts, but I think

that that is one of the questions.

And one of the controversial things that it would be helpful

for us to process is what is that?

What is that line between the principles of our founding and

then how those principles gave us a landscape where people have

the freedom to operate according to conscience.

And then where are the boundaries of that?

Where are the boundaries that when you can't operate according

to your conscience cause your conscience is bad for society

and actually you're engaging in wrong and it's harming you know?

So where what are those boundaries?

We all have to wrestle with Jesus and what he said because

he said radical things. That's right.

You know, and so, but also the things he said are life giving

and so you everyone must wrestle with, you know, the things that

he said and how he walked and talked in the country and areas

he was in. And you?

Know he there's things he said about, you know, render to

Caesar, give God, what's God Caesar, Caesar's and there's

things that are important for us to ponder.

You know, why were those things included in scripture?

These things have great value to us, you know, and that's part of

that, you know, conversation, too.

I think to quote Mufasa, he would say, remember who you are.

And for my generation and younger, you know, we've kind of

forgotten who we are, whether that's because of cancel culture

or, you know, people want to change the ideology that we're

founded on because they're trying to demonize or make it

more secular. And so they take aspects of the

Founding Fathers, which a lot of them had slaves.

Like. The sins of these men of having

slaves, and they say they could say nothing, right?

Exactly. That was like throwing the

country out with the bathwater comment that I made, Yeah.

Yeah, so I think that's a wrong way to view it.

There are no good people. And we have all created great,

you know, done great sin. That doesn't mean that we can't

have honest confessions, honest values, right, and truths that

we can speak from. And, and a lot of these men

spoke on their convictions, young men, mind you, these these

founding fathers were young men. I mean, George Washington was 44

whenever he assumed the presidency.

A lot of these founding fathers were in, you know, 18 if you go

all the way back to Alexander Hamilton.

And so these were young men that were thinking these things

through. I mean, they were heavily

influenced by the Bible, but as well as they were very well

studied a lot more than probably I am or any of us in this room

are. But these were men that care

deeply about this nation and we and they were like you said.

And, you know, they were putting their lives on the line, their

fortunes on the line. They mentioned that right in the

Declaration of Independence that they were risking life and limb

and fortune and honor, and we're doing so independence on God's

divine help because they knew it would be at stake if there was

not victory. So when they when they they

stood where they stood, obviously they were making a

choice to rebel against the crown.

They believe they had a right to do so.

They knew their Bibles, they knew what Romans 13 said, and

yet they believe they had warrant to seek to obey God

rather than man when man was in an unjust way operating in

government leadership right as as king in that case, but.

I think suffering is a part of it, too, because you think about

like, I think about my granddad on both sides, you know, being

in World War 2, you know, some call it the greatest generation.

And those folks, the things that they encountered from age, you

know, kids to 1830, depression, you know, war, you know, the

draft, all these, all these things that allowed us to be

where we are today. We're a part of the story.

But it's just like we don't have that concept of, you know, that

level of fighting for what's right.

Yeah. It's almost like that we have in

our generations haven't had the call to a sacrificial investment

that has caused us to say, hey, our blood, blood, sweat and

tears have gone into the formation the making of this

country as sometimes other generations have that have

caused a patriotism and love of country and willingness to serve

and sacrifice to rise up. And in a lot of ways you're

right that that's been that's been lacking y'all.

The third final place that we landed, which I kind of started

us with that got the laughter, was that we need God to

sovereignly and spiritually awaken America.

You know, we as a church have a mission statement to love people

to life in Jesus Christ in a vision statement that says we

want to see our growing community saturated with the

gospel of Jesus Christ. What happened in the 1st and 2nd

Great Awakenings was a saturation of the gospel of

Jesus Christ in our country and in every community.

And it was the wholesale inversion towards Kingdom things

that happened as a result from worldly things to Kingdom things

and values that really set the culture of our nation on such a

trajectory that allowed us, I believe, to flourish in ways

that we have and did. So I mentioned, you know, I was

able to go into some detail on the first Great Awakening that

that happened and. And some individuals involved in

that I, I didn't get to quote all of some of the things that

Edward said. Let me let me say one that I, I

left out this word. This, this was Edward Edwards

describing some of the results. He says our assemblies, that

means of the church were beautiful.

Our public praises were greatly enlivened.

Our young people when they met, were want to spend their time

talking about the love of Jesus Christ they had abandoned.

I love this terminology that abandoned their frolicking,

their night walking, their impure language and lude songs,

and among all, young or old, there was seem to be a change in

their habits of drinking, Tavern haunting, profane to speaking

and extravagance of apparel. Notoriously vicious persons have

been reformed. The wealthy, the fashionable,

the great bows and fine ladies have relentless wished their

vanities. You know he's just describing

this wholesale change in their community and culture.

He specifies things like people took a new interest in reading

the Bible. Worship services greatly

increased in attendance. Feuding colonists settled their

differences. Argumentative neighbors

apologized to each other, neglected debts were paid.

Families and friends were reconciled.

It was a time of joy and families on account of salvation

being brought unto them. Parents rejoicing over their

children as newborn and husband over their wives, and wives over

their husbands. The gospel was leavening.

We use that metaphor of like the leaven and dough to make bread

rise. The gospel was leavening

society. It was leavening America in such

a way that America was changed by a mighty movement of the Holy

Spirit of God. I can't imagine what our country

would have been like had God not done that on 2 occasions prior

to our birth and soon afterwards, as the Word of God

said, and we mentioned that righteousness exalts a nation,

but sin is a reproach to any people.

You know, I left out quotes from Ben Franklin and others at the

Continental Convention that I could have said, but even George

Washington you referenced earlier, I left this out, but I

love this statement. He said it is the duty of all

nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to

obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to

implore His protection and favor.

I mean, it's things like that that came out of a culture

saturated with the gospel, the principles of our faith.

And so this is when I made a statement.

The God that America trusted in was the God of biblical

Christianity. I wasn't saying that Christian

that that America was officially a Christian nation.

I wasn't saying that every founding father is an

evangelical born again believer. I wasn't saying that you got to

be a Christian to be an American.

What I'm saying though, is that the world view most central to

our nation and our founding was the world view of Christianity.

This was the God. It wasn't a different God.

It was the God of the Bible that.

So let me also read a quote from Alex de Tocqueville because this

is about as objective as it gets.

Like I'm just quoting what a guy who came and studied America and

published this in 1835. So this is, you know, gosh, it's

like 60 years after our founding.

This is what he says. The Americans combine the

notions of Christianity and liberty so intimately in their

minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one

without the other. There is no country in the whole

in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence on

the souls of men than in America, and there can be no

greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human

nature, then that its influence has most powerfully felt over

the most enlightened and free nation on the earth.

Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of

the country was the first thing that struck my attention, and

the longer I stayed there the more did I perceive the great

political consequences resulting from the state of things to

which I was unaccustomed. In France I'd almost seen always

seen the spirit of religion in the spirit of freedom, pursuing

courses diametrically opposed to each other.

But in America, I found that they were intimately united and

then they reigned in common over the same country.

Back to your question over what the pilgrims did.

They saw these two things of the reigning of the government and

of the principles of Christianity so, so intimately

intertwined. They couldn't conceive of the

two separate from one another. They never they, they, they did

not see these things as incompatible.

And, and so they allowed the one to inform the other.

And so, you know, I want to finish and see what comments you

guys have, but I did make a statement that the soul of

America is in trouble. And I really do believe that.

I think that's a controversial statement depending on who you

ask. But if you're asking about are

we remembering and are we continuing in the trajectory

from which we were the rock from which we were hewn, I think

there is no question that we are more removed today from those

principles of our faith in forming and driving and

saturating our culture, our communities and our leaders than

ever before. So that obviously is, is a

concern. And you know, the the, the

essence of a quote, Christian America or Christianity

influencing America. Is this right?

That just kind of conclude and and recap is that what we're

saying is that the ethical system adopted by Americans and

embedded in our social order rested in a biblical moral

order. What we're saying is that the

philosophical foundation of colonial American culture and

law was the judeo-christian ethic worldview sourced in the

scriptures. Not all founders were born again

believers, but it's clear that their view of man had a deeply

religious foundation, that human rights were God-given, that man

was endowed by his Creator, that they were natural laws and

natural rights, and that freedom was a natural result of the

sacredness of human life. And the development of a free

man was not divorced from the idea of moral man any more than

religious man could be separated from moral man.

So this is what we mean by Christians, Christianity's

influence in America. And so no one listen, no one

argues that America was heaven or ever has been heaven on

earth. But the the history is clear.

America's Christian history is clear.

And it was America's moral choice that made this nation the

envy of the world and a haven for the oppressed seeking to

live life in accordance with the freedom that was God-given.

And to be honest, the moment that you take away the right of

a human being to be free as a God-given right, then what

you're doing is you're essentially saying within the

state has the ability to give or take that right.

And you just totally changed the foundation by going from a God

centric view to a man centered view.

And if you lose, and we'll talk about this in the future, but if

you lose religious freedom, quite honestly, you've really

lost every freedom because that's really the, I've heard

religious liberty described as the Canary in the coal mine,

which of course is like, if the Canary dies, that means there's

not enough oxygen for you to live.

And so and you're in trouble. And that's where, of course,

we're seeing religious liberty and these things under attack

and we're at a thin margin of retaining that thing, which was

the founding principle. I think that's made our our

nation so great. So any final comments, thoughts,

questions as we wrap up guys? I think that for me, something

that's really hard to balance is my desire for people to come to

Christ and also my desire as a citizen of the United States to

welcome in and be a melting pot of faiths and different

backgrounds, because that's who we are as an American spirit is

You can have immigration, immigrants come and bring and

influence and bring, you know, their culture with them and

assimilate into the United States, but comes with that

comes their faith too. And so I'm, I'm always, you

know, at fighting over which one, you know, wins ultimately.

And I know that I'm a dual citizen, like we said at the

beginning, like I'm first and foremost a citizen of heaven and

secondly, citizen in the United States.

And so I believe that we have a unique opportunity in the United

States where the people come to us and we have a great

opportunity to share the gospel so that we can one day see these

people come to faith in Christ. Where we can have these cultures

and their influence and the things that make them their own

people, right? Come and bring in and create the

American culture, which isn't a melting pot.

Sure. But also hopefully see them come

to Christ as well, which is a a great joy that we get to have

here because, you know, we we want to see every tongue and

tribe right? Profess Christ as That's right,

yeah. Yeah, those tensions between

freedom to worship according to one's conscience, and yet we're

praying like mad that one's conscience is convicted by the

Holy Spirit to trust Christ. And I think until our

citizenship is united and ultimately only in heaven, then

we'll face that tension as living as aliens in exiles on

earth. Not everything will feel

natural. And we live in that balance, you

know, as Kingdom citizens here and now based on the principles

of heaven, saying, Lord, let your will be done on earth as

it's done in heaven, while ultimately being someone to

choose how they choose to live before God.

So Johnny, Nina, the pop quiz before we go or are you good?

I just thinking honestly, the, the bringing back the

conversations around the meal table, yeah, versus our first

impulse as a society to go online and, you know, get the

gotcha comments in or the theme or whatever.

And somebody's Jesus again modeled that for us.

It's like people greatly disagree with him and disagree

with who he had at the table around him or who's, you know,

house he would go to and all that.

I think he modeled for us that very thing.

It's like if we're unwilling to have a conversation with someone

right face to face from the get go, you know, where do we think

we're going to? Sure, Yeah, we hope and pray

that God sends 1/3 Great Awakening.

Can you imagine if Cartersville, our community, our state, our

nation was saturated with new believers?

You know, that does things legislation can't do, that does

things that nothing else touches.

The Holy Spirit alone can change the human heart.

That's the hope of the world. It's the gospel.

It's not a country, it's not a nation.

God has blessed America, and ultimately I believe that

blessing has been for the propagation of His gospel in

such ways. It has not gone forth from any

other nation quite like it has gone forth from the US.

And I just pray God continues to to move in our nation in a way

where his will can be done. So well folks, thanks for

joining us. I hope this has been helpful.

Further clarifying for you, we're going to keep going this

month as we follow up each sermon.

Let let me suggest if you've got questions, maybe put those in

the comments. If you are a CFBC attender, our

emails are on the back of the worship God.

You could send an e-mail with questions you have for you'd

like for us to address. That'd be fun to try to do.

I'll make sure John gets all of those.

If he gets them wrong, Hasting can correct.

So we'll have fun with that. But hey, let's pray for our

country. Let's pray for an awakening.

Let's pray for the Holy Spirit to move.

Don't forget to share the gospel, right?

To actually speak the words that you know can change someone's

eternity and also impact even our nation, our neighborhoods,

our homes, our families, marriages and kids and life

right now. So that's a wrap as you go.

You go to make disciples. We'll see you next time on the

sermon continued here at CFBC.