God Bless America

If you have your copy of God's Word, let me invite you to open

up to the approximate middle of it.

That's the book of Psalms. There's 150 chapters there, and

we're going to make our way to Psalm 33 this morning.

So go and find your place there in Psalm 33.

As you know, yesterday marked the 250th anniversary of our

Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation, the

most blessed and prosperous nation that has ever existed in

human history, the United States of America.

At such a milestone in our nation, in our lives as

Americans believe that God would have us process the milestone

moment through the lens of His Word.

In fact, as we were approaching this milestone, and I was just

praying personally and pastorally about it, I just no

doubt that I've just felt the burden from the Lord to lead us

through this time in celebration and moment in history in our

lives from the lens of God's Word and what His Word would say

to US. Wine.

Well, for the purpose of seeking God's will for our lives and our

nation, all for God's glory. And our text today is going to

be a portion of Psalm 33, and I'm going to read it in its

entirety, but we're not going to be processing all of it, but we

will be pulling out principles from it that I believe will give

us the right biblical lens to process through God's Word where

we are as a country and as a nation.

But listen to the entire Psalm as I read it.

David Wright. Shout for joy in the Lord, O

you, righteous praise benefits the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the liar.

Make melody to him with the harp of 10 strings.

Sing to him a new song, and play skilfully on the strings with

loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is

upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice.

The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the

breath of His mouth all of their hosts.

He gathers the waters of the sea as a heat.

He puts the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord.

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in all of him.

For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm.

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever the plans of His heart

to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God

is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage.

The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man

from where he sits in throne. He looks out on all the

inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all

and observes all of their deeds. The king is not saved by his

great army. A warrior is not delivered by

his great strength. The War Horse is a false hope

for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those

who hope in His steadfast love that He may deliver their soul

from death and keep them alive and famine.

Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield,

for our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy

name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord,

be upon us even as we hope in You.

My purpose this morning is not our usual method of operation.

I'm not planning to expose it, this Psalm in its entirety.

But what I am going to do is pull out and point your

attention to some principles that the Word of God clearly

communicates here that will allow us to process this moment

and where we are and where I believe God would have us go as

a nation. One of the first principles we

learned out of the many in this Psalm, but the first one in your

notes is this. You can write this down.

God is sovereign over the rise and fall of nations.

God is, this psalmist declares, sovereign over the rise and fall

of nations. This comes right out of verses

10 and 11. Here David affirms that the

existence and the authority of all nations is an existence, and

it is an authority that is always, and I repeat always,

under the sovereign authority of Almighty God.

Let me just tell you where else in Scripture this is so clearly

affirmed. Psalm 22, verse 28.

Psalms 22:28

For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the

nations. Psalm 47 Eight God reigns over

the nations. God sits on his holy throne.

Daniel 221 He that's God changes times and seasons, and he that's

God removes kings and sets up kings.

Let me tell you what a man by the name of George Bancroft,

often referred to as the father of American history, wrote about

this and even about God's sovereign Providence in our

nation. He writes that God rules in the

affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science.

Nothing is by chance, though men and their ignorance of causes

may think so. The fortunes of a nation are not

under the control of blind destiny, but follow the steps by

which a favoring Providence, calling our institutions into

being, has conducted the country to its present happiness and

glory. Friends, if God is sovereign

over the rise and fall of all nations, and he is, then mark it

down. America owes its birth to the

divine hand and plan of Almighty God.

America owes its birth and our very existence and all our

prosperity and any good that has ever taken place and takes place

now, we owe to the Divine hand of Almighty God.

In fact, the work of God's divine hand in America's birth,

in her rise and prosperity has been so overwhelmingly obvious,

the many have referred to it throughout history as the

superintending Providence of God, referred to as a golden

thread woven throughout America's history.

I wish I had time to walk you through all the examples I came

across in my study over the last five 6-7 weeks of the evidence

of this sovereign hand of Almighty God in our formation,

in our birth and rise and prosperity.

But I just want to name a few, a couple really, that you may not

read in textbooks. All right, the first one is the

date of our birth. Here's something you may have

never considered, but just a small evidence of the

providential hand of God concerning the date of our

birth. Let me put it like this.

Many historians recognize that if God had not held North

America free from European colonization until after the

Protestant Reformation had grown and taken root, then America

might have become just as corrupt and tyrannical as most

other place in the world. It was the ideas of the

Protestant Reformation that led America to being a place unlike

almost every other place where things like this could be found.

Religious freedom, representative limited

government, free enterprise, jurisdictional authority, rights

of conscience, and private property protections that

appeared in many of the civil documents of the 17th and 18th

century that all had their roots of those ideas.

Back to the Protestant Reformation, which had its roots

in a rediscovery of this right here and it being in front of

people's eyes because of the printing press and the

proliferation of the ability of the Word of God to get into home

and the hearts and the minds and its effects to spread.

Had God not allow the birth of our nation to happen until after

that, many of the ideals we know and love would not have been in

the seeds of the soil for the birth of our nation.

Let me tell you a second thing concerning the Constitution of

the United States. I'm going to quote several men

here because if it was just a couple, that would be one thing.

But over and over again we see this providential hand of God.

Listen to what these men say. Signer William Samuel Johnson of

Connecticut declared that the finished constitution was the

result of what he described as a signal.

That means obvious intervention of divine Providence.

Alexander Hamilton affirmed quote.

For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which,

without the finger of God, could never have been suggested and

agreed upon by such a diversity of interest.

Let me keep going. Benjamin Rush, another signer of

the Declaration from Philadelphia, He says, and I

quote, I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring

of Divine inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the

union of the States, that in its form and adoption is as much

listen to this the work of a divine Providence, as any of the

miracles recorded in the Old and New Testaments were the effects

of divine power. I keep going.

James Madison says it is impossible for the man of pious

reflection not to perceive in it.

He means the Constitutional Convention, a finger of that

almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended

to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.

And let me quote one more. A man by the name who was

obviously not a born again believer by the name of Thomas

Paine, but he wrote this and I just quote part of it.

There has been such a chain of extraordinary events in the

discovery of this country at first, and then in the peopling

and planting it, afterwards in the rearing and nursing it to

its present state, and in the protection of it throughout the

present war, that no man can doubt.

But Providence has some nobler in to accomplish then the

gratification of the petty Elector of Hanover, or the

ignorant and insignificant King of Britain.

He wasn't real nice right there, but he's saying you can't miss

the providential hand of Almighty God in the birth and

rise and existence and prosperity of this nation.

That's the truth coming out of a principle of the Word of God,

that he and he alone is ultimately over and overseeing

and response for the rise and fall of every nation, including

our own, in the hand of God was so clearly in it despite all our

imperfection. So God is sovereign you all over

the rise and fall of nations, and God has been sovereign over

the rise of America #2 The second principle we see, and I

want you to to hear from this Psalm out of verse 12, is that

God is the blesser of nations and God has blessed America.

God is the ultimate blesser of nations, and God has blessed

America. Listen to verse 12 again.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He

has chosen as His heritage. Now, when King David writes

these words, Israel was a theocracy.

Say, Kyle, what is that? Let me tell you plainly, that is

simply a nation with a government led by God as their

ultimate king. To be more clear, there would be

no separation between the spiritual and the civil in a

theocracy. There's no separation between

the religious and the political. So now in the New Covenant, in

the New Testament, God is no longer organizing his people by

theocracy, by national government.

He's organizing his people by his church, the assembly of the

believers, gathered physically and locally together throughout

any and all and every nation around the world.

But here's the reality, whether it be theocracy, whether it be

democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, or dictator, 2 truths of this

text are still true based on what David writes.

I want to tell them to you. And here that's how they go #1

God is still the blesser of nations.

God is still the blesser of nations.

God is still the one and only sovereign who overseas the rise

and the prosperity and the fall of every nation.

And let me tell you a second one that you might not think about,

but I believe it's true based on the Scripture with all my heart.

Nations still choose a God. Nations still choose a God.

Let me be more clear. Every nation, collectively

speaking, is established on a specific world view, and that

world view has a view of God, whether a right one or a wrong

1. You see, every nation has an

authority by which they choose to judge right and wrong.

They're choosing a standard, and where they get that standard

from is their higher allegiance is the God of their choosing.

Every nation's going to choose a system by which they determine

justice or injustice, and every nation's going to possess a

system by which they choose to operate, principles by which

they choose for their founding. In other words, every nation,

whether they realize it or not, has a spiritual foundation

whereby God is either honored or he's not.

Nation still choose a God, and still to this day, blessed is

the nation whose God is the Lord.

You say how does that work? How is it that God is the

blesser? How is it that blessed is the

nation who's God is the Lord? How does that blessing flow?

What does that look like? Well let me tell you what it

looks like cuz David describes it.

I don't have time to get into every detail but just listen

again and listen in the context of this is what it sounds like

when God is the blessed of a nation.

Listen to verse 13 through 19 again here's what he writes.

The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees how many of the children

of man, all of them from meaning every, every nation from where

he sits and thrown. He looks out on all, how many,

how many inhabitants of the earth is he looking upon?

All the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the

hearts of how many of them, all of them, observing all of their

deeds. And the King, the President, the

Prime Minister, the Parliament, the Congress, is not here saved

by his great army or military. A warrior, the Army Ranger, the

Air Force fighter pilot is not delivered by his great strength.

The War Horse, the tank, the Blackhawk, the FFF 18 or

whatever number it is now, or the B52, or whatever it is, is a

false hope for salvation and by its great mind it ultimately

cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is

on those who what those who fear Him, on those who hope and his

steadfast love that He may deliver their soul from death

and keep them alive. And family, ladies and

gentlemen, the absolute beyond shadow of a doubt reality is

that God is the blesser of nations.

He always has been, always and only will be.

And God has blessed America, and it's still true that blessed is

the nation whose God is the Lord.

Now you would think that since this is so obvious, that every

American, especially every Christian American, would be

proud to be an American, but that is not the case.

Let me quote you some statistics.

In America, pride has fallen to an all time low, especially

among the young. The Harvard Youth Poll reports

41%. Less than half.

Four out of 10 of 18 to 29 year olds are proud of their country.

29% are embarrassed of their country, a Gallup poll finds.

Only 38%, only 38% of Americans are extremely proud.

That's the lowest number reported since 2001 since Gallup

began asking the question. Disenchantment with the American

experiment is at an all time high.

Can I put it like this? The nation that God has blessed

the most has become a nation. Most of its citizens are not

proud of. I want to speak to this just for

a moment. There are two types, I believe

primarily two types of disenchantment with America.

I want to speak to both of them quickly.

One is wicked. I believe one is mostly

righteous. The first one I want to call

wicked disdain. And here's what I mean.

This view hates America and wants to see her undone.

Much of the embarrassment among the younger generation in

America is a result. Not that they're primarily

responsible, but is a result of a wicked agenda.

And it's propaganda to take the sins of our past and claim that

anything and everything must be seen through the sins and

imperfections of our past, and that the country ought to be

thrown out with the bath water. And there's an effort to undo

and to take away from any and every principle that was good,

that did make our nation and has made our nation great, but that

all that should now be thrown and overthrown.

And this agenda, I believe with all my heart, is an agenda

driven by the devil who is out to kill, steal and destroy.

And there is a war against so many of the ideals that we have

fallen far short of in our history.

But there is a war against those ideals, claiming that because of

our mistakes that everything should be colored by that lens.

There's a second type of disenchantment with America that

I believe is is more proper. It can grow to a unhealthy

degree, but it's like this. It would be what I call a godly

sorrow. And this one, this view loves

America, but is, and rightly so, honest about her sins.

This view rightly recognizes the sins of our past and present,

but says just because we've messed up doesn't mean we should

give up. It doesn't mean that we

shouldn't be proud of where God has blessed us and where we have

gotten things right, but we ought to be honest about where

we've gotten things wrong. The sins of our past and present

don't have to define us if we're willing to repent, recognize

them, and make them right and just.

While I'm at it, what have been our sins of the past and

present? I think to be honest as a people

and before God, it's only right to be honest.

I'm not. I don't have time to name them

all, but I'm going to name some things that we obviously have

not gotten right much of the treatment of Native Americans.

Slavery, segregation, abortion, materialism and greed.

The redefinition of marriage. The twisting to where gender no

longer means a thing. The sexualization of our

children. Fatherlessness, The breakdown of

the family. Political corruption,

polarization and violence. Do I need to go on now?

We've always been far from perfect.

And let me just tell you, you know, from our inception, we

have never perfectly extended the unalienable rights to all.

And we still don't today, especially to the unborn.

We've never been perfect. Praise God He hasn't given up on

us. And praise God, we've made

massive changes in our nation. And you know what's mainly

responsible for that? The effects of the gospel of

Jesus Christ coming to fruition in and through our nation.

That's not secularism. That is driving fruits that

we've enjoyed for our good. That has been the truth going

back to the Word of God. We've are and always have been

so far from perfect. We have sinned in some

extraordinary ways, but let me remind us that the Bible says

all have. What did we think we were an

exception? As Americans, do we think any

human enterprise is going to be without sin?

No. So the right route is to always

be willing to look within and look at the word and say God,

how would you have us change? Repent and continue to say where

we're sorry, where we've been wrong, and say yes to where

you're calling us to be right. I read 1 author who said the

political scene doesn't look encouraging right now, but by

God's grace we are still here. Let him who boast, boast in the

Lord like Paul says. But we can, and hear me rightly,

should love our homeland. She still deserves it and even

more, she needs it. God is sovereign over the rise

and fall of nations. God is the blesser of nations,

and God has blessed America. I'm going to give you one more

principle that we see out of this text that I believe we need

to process in this moment #3 we need God to once again

sovereignly and spiritually awaken America.

We need God desperately to sovereignly and spiritually

awaken America. This is verses 20 through 22.

Listen to what they say, our soul.

Listen to how David describes what it would mean to seek the

Lord. Our soul waits for the Lord.

He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in Him

because we trust in His holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us even as we hope in

You. The truth is, the soul of

America is in grave danger. The soul of America is in grave

danger. Why?

Because collectively speaking, we are no longer a nation doing

these things on a whole that David describes, waiting for the

Lord, looking to the Lord as our help and shield, finding our

gladness and hard on him, trusting in his holy name,

hoping in him, asking for God's steadfast love to be upon us.

The cynic might ask Kyle, have we ever been?

I'm glad you asked. Have we ever been?

Many a modern day politician in the media for sure will tell you

no. But the facts of history don't

lie. And the facts are that in God's

Amazing Grace, He gave America not one awakening, but 21 prior

in the decades immediately prior to our birth, the First Great

Awakening, and then soon after our birth, the second.

Can I just take a moment? I want to tell you a little bit

about what that First Great Awakening was like.

Follow with me. Throughout the 13 colonies, 18th

century America was reported to be drifting spiritually.

A couple preachers put it like this.

One said the people are generally through the land,

careless at heart and indifferent about the great

concerns of eternity. Would you say that's true today?

Another said the difference between the church and the world

was vanishing away. In 1734, the first stirrings of

a true culture changing event occurred in Jonathan Edwards

Church in New England. Some of the congregation's young

people had responded to his salvation message, and then they

responded by holding prayer meetings.

We're talking about the youth group at Jonathan Edwards

Church, the youth group where they were gathering to pray for

the revival in their church and elsewhere.

And in December of the same year, six people from

Northampton and suddenly prayed to receive Christ.

Within a few months, that salvation number it was

averaging 30 people being saved a week.

In six months, approximately 300 people were said to have

professed faith in Christ, including almost every adult in

the town. Northampton.

And surrounding communities were transformed in the spring and

summer that followed, the town seemed, and I quote was full of

the presence of God. From Northampton, the revival

spread to the other towns, and everywhere it went, it changed

whole communities, turning them upside down.

Fast forward to 1741, when some expected the revival, the

awakening, to die down and subside.

God fanned the flames to all 13 colonies.

How did it happen? One night, Jonathan Edwards

preached A sermon. You might know the title off.

Sinners in the. Hands of an angry God, most

people think, Well my goodness, what kind of preacher was he?

But they say this topic was not a normal topic for Jonathan,

that he normally preach so much more cheerful topics.

But on this one, he was describing the wrath of God that

we rightly deserve as sinners, as those that have sinned

against God, including you and including me.

But in God's great love, he makes the way of escape for

sinners who have sinned against him, who deserve death, who

deserve punishment, who deserve separation from him forever.

But he was describing a way for lost men and women to be saved.

And across the crowd, men and women cried out, what must I do

to be just like they did in Acts chapter 2 at the first Christian

Acts 2 · chapter mention

sermon when the Holy Spirit was poured out.

And guess who stood up to preach?

The man who had denied Jesus three times.

And Peter stands up and said, nobody's inebriated here.

This is the Holy Spirit. They're speaking in the tongue

of native language of everybody gathered and 3000 people.

Get what? Get saved.

Have you been saved? Can I just ask you?

If you realized you must ask the question, what must I do to be

saved? And that the answer to that is

to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be

saved. The Bible says if you've not

been saved, you're facing an eternity separated from God

because of your sin. This is what Jonathan preached

and all of the sudden people cried out, what must I do to be

say? The mighty wind of change swept

through all of New England. It was the greatest revival in

American history. It reinvigorated the biblical

fate for decades to come in colonial America, permeating

city, town, village and frontier.

And it was during those days that God used another man from

another country by the name of George Whitfield.

If you watched the movie A Great Awakening, If you haven't, you

ought to. It'll tell you the story of

God's work in his life in friendship with Benjamin

Franklin, as I love the story. Somebody asked Benjamin, hey,

why do you come to hear George Whitfield preach?

You don't believe anything he says he says?

Yeah, but he believes it. And he didn't miss a.

Sermon he also profited by publishing those sermons.

But guess what, God may allowed him to profit, but people

profited more by reading them and getting said God will you

hit a straight lick with a crooked stick.

Whitfield's first spot, You know where he landed the first place

in America over 7 trips. 1st place he landed.

Was Georgia. He'd makeover over 7 trips, I

believe over 30 years preached an average of 40 hours a week.

And there in the wake of Whitfield's preaching,

Philadelphia, just to name one city, was so saturated with new

believers. Hear that.

Saturated with new believers. What if Cartersville was

saturated with new believers? What would happen?

Philadelphia. There was a reason why it's

called the City of Brotherly. You know where that comes from,

Not secular progressivism, that comes from the Bible.

Ladies and gentlemen, Philadelphia saturated with new

believers that daily life in America's largest city was

dramatically altered. Ben Franklin said this is a non

believer. Listen to this.

At least not born again from what I can tell.

It is a wonder. It is wonderful to see the

change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants from being

thoughtless or indifferent about religion.

It seemed as if the whole world were growing religious so that

one could not walk through the town in an evening while hearing

Psalms song and different families of every street.

What if Cartersville was saturated with new believers?

What if God sent an awakening to America?

What if the Great Awakening left colonial America awash in a

flood of faith, transforming the hearts and minds of the American

people? Let me just cite you some

results of what happened when the Holy Spirit of God blew

across our country. Hundreds of new churches were

planted. A wave of missionary activity

that impacted the world was unleashed.

Ministries to the poor were created.

A faith-based movement in slavery arose.

Orphanages were established. The revival inspired the parade

of new colleges. Listen to the colleges

established for the propagation of the Christian Gospel and

biblical knowledge. Princeton, Columbia, Brown,

Rutgers, Dartmouth and others all dedicated to instilling

knowledge from a biblical perspective.

More devotion, catechisms, pamphlets and sermons were

published in the wake of the revival, then all the works of

history, law and science combined.

Can you imagine? If God were to send a Third

Great Awakening to America, what would happen?

Can you imagine? Despite denominational

differences, the deal was this. Essentially, Christianity and

the truths thereof reigned throughout the land.

The best way to put it is that the God America trusted in was

the God of Biblical Christianity.

It wasn't Allah, it wasn't Buddha, it wasn't the Hindu God.

The God America trusted in was the God of the Bible.

That doesn't mean all of them were born again, and it doesn't

mean the ones who were born again were perfect.

You could find flaws in everyone to a man and woman, but the God

they were trusting in was the God of the Bible.

What made America great was despite all her her

imperfections, was the leaven of the gospel.

Let me tell you what that means. We don't bake bread a whole lot

now, so we don't really know what leaven is.

And I don't even really know what it is.

I just know it makes bread rise when you add it to dough.

Is this right, Lauren? It infects the whole thing.

It infects the whole. Thing you don't have to have a

whole lot of it. But you put the.

Leaven in the bread, and all the bread is impacted by the leaven.

What made America great was a the leaven of the gospel.

It wasn't that everybody was saved, but the salt and light

and the illumination and the preservation and the promotion

of righteousness that comes from the gospel.

When people's hearts are transformed, that's what made,

that's what instilled the values.

That's what allowed God's hand a blessing to be but despite all

our imperfections. The Bible puts it.

Like this Proverbs 1434 Righteousness exalts a nation.

Where does righteousness come from?

Human nature, Secularism. Where does righteousness come

from? From God and through a

transformed heart by the gospel. Proverbs 612.

A throne is established by righteous.

The government that can stand and last and have God's blessing

on it is only established by righteousness.

Proverbs 29. Two, when the righteous

increase, how did the righteous increase?

By the spread of the gospel? When the righteous increase, the

people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Do we have more rejoicing or groaning in our land right now?

The soul of America is in trouble because we've forgotten

where we've come from. Can I show you a picture?

I don't know if you would have see this real.

Well I hope you can. I found this cartoon drawing so

this is hard to see there. So let me just give you a little

description. What you have in the top left

hand corner is the church house. What you have in the bottom are

two buzzards. What you have in the middle is a

man in a car driving towards what the sign says.

There is a glorious future and the Buzzard, big Buzzard, the

little Buzzard is saying this. Patience, my son.

History tells us that we're in for a treat when they forget

where they came from. The soul of America.

Is in trouble because we've forgotten where we've come from

and the remaking of America will not come.

With any elected. Official.

The remaking of. America won't come with any

legislation. The remaking of.

American can only come by the leaven of the gospel and the

power of the Holy Spirit blowing through every neighborhood,

city, town, church, state and our nation, transforming the

hearts and minds of men and women, boys and girls, so that

righteousness could exalt a nation.

If America is to have a bright future, she will have to

remember the God of the Bible and His righteousness.

I want to finish out in some of the time I have left with the

words of one of our most famous US presidents.

And then I've saved our prayer time and response time to the

end. So what I'm going to do is as

soon as I'm done reading this, I'm going to call John and

praise team out. I want you to listen to these

words. I don't, I don't know that I

could imagine a president speaking or writing words like

you're about to hear. But I think this points us in

the right direction of a right response.

And so when I'm done reading, I'm going to have John and just

praise team play for a moment. And then I'm going to invite us

to stay seated, have heads bowed and eyes closed.

And I'm going to ask for us to just have a time of prayer.

And you're going to see why after I read what I'm about to

read. If you're comfortable praying

out loud, I'm going to invite you to pray out loud.

Pray where everybody can hear you if you want to.

If not, I'm going to ask you to maybe come to the altar and

kneel or come with your family, or come with your spouse, or

come with a child, or come with a friend, or come by yourself if

you're by yourself, or if you want to gather up on your Rd.

where your family is. But I believe you're going to

see how if there's any response we have to today in celebrating

the birth of our nation and God's blessing, it ought to be

to pray on behalf of our nation. So now let these words kind of

prepare you for that type of response.

And all the while I'm going to stand here and if anybody needs

to say what must I do to be saved, I'm going to be waiting

on you right here and then. After we pray, we'll.

We'll sing and close out with whatever song John and them have

planned. On April 30th, 1863, Abraham

Lincoln appointed a National Fast Day, a national day of

humiliation, fasting and prayer. He says whereas the Senate of

the United States listen this, the Senate devoutly recognizes

the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God and

all the affairs of men and of nations.

Can you imagine the Senate saying that today?

Has by resolution. Requested the President to the

Senate has requested the President to designate and set

apart a day for national prayer and humiliation.

Whereas it is the duty. Of nations as well as of men, to

own their dependence upon the over ruling power of God.

To confess their sins and transgressions and humble

sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will

lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime

truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all of

history, that the nations, that those nations only are blessed.

Whose God is the Lord. That's a president of the United

States quoting Psalm 3312. And in so much as.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are

subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.

May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war

which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment

inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful

end of our national reformation as a whole, people have we.

We have been the recipients. Listen to this.

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.

We have been preserved these many years in peace and

prosperity. We've grown in numbers.

We've grown in wealth. We've grown in power as no other

nation has ever grown. But we, Abraham Lincoln says not

I. But we, he says, have forgotten

God. We have forgotten the gracious.

Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and

enriched and strengthened us. We have vainly imagined in the

deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were

produced by some superior wisdom or virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we've become too

self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and

preserving grace. We're too proud to pray to the

God that made us. He says it behooves us then to.

Humble ourselves before the offended power to confess our

national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

He. Goes on to describe.

Setting a sign, a day of fasting and prayer, and of Sabbath

thing, and of public worship, and He closes like this.

All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest

humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings.

That's the Bible, that the United cry of the nation will be

heard on high and answered with the blessings no less than the

pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now

divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of

unity and peace. In WITNESS whereof I have

hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to

be affixed the President Abraham Lincoln.

That was not a pastor. That was the president.

I don't know how God would lead you to pray, but may we not be

too proud to do it. And if ever our country needs

it, it is. It is now we're.

Not praying for the right. Politician, we're not praying

for the right legislation. We're praying for the Holy

Spirit to be poured out. That's what made our country

great from the beginning was the movement of God that He gave in

our land. We're praying for the gospel to

go forth like leaven, to touch every sector of society, to

change every family and every marriage, for every lost person

to cry. What must I do to be to be

saved? May God do it.

Again, would you bow if you? Want to come pray at these?

Steps. If you want to pray out loud,

we're just going to keep eyes closed and heads bowed and we're

going to pray for a few moments. I'm going to ask you to pray and

be bold as you do it. If you need to come talk to me,

I'm going to stand right here as we do.

If you need to say, Pastor Kyle, what do I need to do to be

saved? You come, let's pray.

Somebody start us.