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Collierville First Baptist Church
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a beautiful song with a very, very important message. Trusting God I hope and pray that you have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ your personal savior and Lord.
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Open pray that all of your sins have been blotted out. All of your sins have been separated from you as far as the east is from the west. Open pray that you can lay down tonight and know that if you were to die you would instantly be with Jesus. Now if you don't have that confidence at the end of this service
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we're going to have a time of worship and I'm going to ask you to come to one of our staff members and just tell them that you want to be saved. That you want to trust Jesus as your personal savior and Lord. I'll tell you, you'll never regret it. I've been saved for let's see 30, 20, 52 years. And I can tell you this, I do not regret it at all. Jesus has made an incredible difference in my life and he can do the same for you. So I want you to take your Bible today and I want you to turn to Psalm 33.
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Psalm 33.
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I want to speak to you on a subject that God laid on my heart.
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It's been heavy on my heart.
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The title of today's message is America's Only Hope.
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Psalm 33 verses one to 22, we're going to look at it today. On July the 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed in the city of Philadelphia.
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It marked America's desire for independence from Great Britain
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and the desire to be birthed as a new nation.
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That same document declared our nation's dependence upon Almighty God. Did you know that?
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In this Declaration of Independence, we see these words.
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain and unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In another part of the Declaration it says, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
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The founders of this great nation realized that government must recognize the rights that God has given to people.
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In their minds, the role of government was to restrain evil and to promote a strong moral framework. Now they lifted that idea straight from the page of Scripture.
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They found that in Romans 13, verses 1-4, and 1 Peter 2, verses 13-17.
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Christianity, now don't let the woke mob make you think or convince you that this was not a Christian nation when it started. It was. Now I'm not saying everybody was a Christian, but I am saying that the basic fundamental belief system of the early founders of this nation was Christian. They were Christians.
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Now Christianity had a profound influence on the founders of this great nation and on the governing ideals of America. John Adams, the second US president, wrote the following in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated June 28, 1813.
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Here's what he said, I quote, "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God Himself."
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Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a ratifier of the US Constitution made this statement.
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He said, "I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration." Talking about human inspiration.
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"But I am as satisfied that it is as much the work of divine providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testaments. Without a doubt, God has blessed America through its history.
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The question that hangs over us today is this, will God continue to bless America?
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Think about it.
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Who would have ever believed that the day would come when this great nation would see men claiming they could get pregnant?
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Drag queens reading to children in libraries.
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The rise of socialism and Marxism.
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A viral movement to defund the police. The radical left support of Islam.
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People cheering Charlie Kirk's assassination.
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75 million babies aborted. Who would have ever believed that these things could happen in America?
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In the past, Christians in America seemed to always have the home field advantage.
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And any time we challenged the culture on cultural beliefs, we felt like we had an edge. We were fighting on the home field.
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But that's changed. It's changed drastically.
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I want to tell you, dear friend, today, believers tackle the cultural issues of our day on the enemy's turf.
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All the time, we're on the enemy's turf. So what has happened to us? What happened to the America that the founders of this great nation
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etched into the life of this nation? What's happened to us? I'll tell you what happened.
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We've turned our back on God as exactly what's happened. That's as simple as I can put it. We as a nation have turned our back on God because we believe that we have better answers and better solutions.
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We're paying a price for that today.
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So we've come to a fork in the road. I honestly believe that we've come to a fork in the road as a nation.
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Our choice is simple.
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If we choose to follow the Lord and obey Him,
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His blessings will return to us.
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If we choose to continue to forsake the Lord and disobey Him, He will judge us severely.
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This message has weighed on my heart like a heavy anvil this week.
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I've prayed about speaking prophetic truth and having a good balance with pastoral truth also. As we get into the heart of the sermon, I want to drop this thought in your heart.
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America's only hope is the Lord.
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Listen, for what else America, Republicans and Democrats cannot fix it.
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For what else America, a strong, vibrant economy cannot fix it. For what else America, a strong military cannot fix it.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we need God.
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We need God in our homes. We need God in our church. We need God in our schools. We need God. The Bible says in Psalm 33, 12, "Blessed is a nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance."
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Now this Psalm applies to Israel first. God made Israel a covenant nation. And He had never rescinded that covenant, no matter what anybody says, God has never rescinded that covenant. In fact, the Bible says that as long as there's night and day, as long as the earth revolves around the sun, the moon revolves around the earth, as long as that stuff happens, there will always be a nation of Israel. Nobody can stamp out the nation of Israel.
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There's a strong sense that the principle of this blessing of a nation, however, expands beyond Israel to other nations also.
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And this chapter certainly proves that. Our desire for a future filled with hope and blessing
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can only be realized if we turn to God.
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I want to share with you three reasons
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why we can have a hope and future based upon our relationship with God.
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Reason number one, the Lord's power.
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I want you to look at verse one, "Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous one." Who's He writing to? He's writing to righteous ones.
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"Praise is becoming to the upright."
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He's writing to those who are upright in their walk with God. "Give thanks to the Lord with a lyre. Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song, play skillfully with a shout of joy." I praise God that we come into this worship center every Sunday and we worship the Lord our God. I praise God that we have an orchestra full of people who are skilled and they can play music to the glory of God. I praise God for a choir that sings to the glory of God and a congregation who also joins in congregational singing. I praise God that we come into this place expecting every Sunday to worship the Lord our God. I'm so glad that we've not decided that worship is a noun, but we've decided that worship is a verb. It's something we do as a congregation.
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Now, I want you to look at this. I want you to look at verse 4.
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"For the Word of the Lord is upright
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and all His work is done in faithfulness.
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He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord. As a nation, we have abandoned the truth of God's Word in favor of doing what feels good,
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doing what the woke mob wants us to do. As a result, a strong sense of morality of right and wrong has been lost as a nation, as a whole. As a result, God's design for the family is ridiculed.
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Sexual perversions are being celebrated.
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Corruption has seeped into the justice system. Gender-affirming care is being given to minors. Parental authority is being dismantled before our very eyes."
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Look at verses 6 to 9.
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"By the Word of the Lord, the heavens were made,
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and by the breath of His mouth all their host.
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He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast." You go to Genesis 1 and you see that God spoke everything that exists into existence. He spoke it and it happened. It's the power of the Lord's Word.
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The Pacific Ocean covers 64 million square miles with an average depth of about 14,000 feet.
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The Lord our God created that.
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He spoke it into existence.
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And by the power of the Lord's Word, the stars were created and placed in their proper locations throughout space. And the Bible says that God even named every single star, billions and billions of stars. That's the power of God's Word.
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Listen, the impact of the Lord's power should create within each of us a profound reverence and awe for Him.
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That's what the Bible says in verses 8 and 9.
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"Let all the earth fear the Lord, have a reverence for God. "Let everytri level and power of them have a reverence "for the worldTis the representation of him for He spoke "and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast."
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Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot as a nation pull ourselves out of the quagmire that we find ourselves in today, we can't do it.
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We need help and our help comes from the Lord like it says in Psalm 121.
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Here's the truth.
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America's only hope is the Lord. I pray that every teenager will hear me.
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I pray that every child will hear me. I pray that every parent will hear me. Every grandparent will hear me. I pray that every person within the sound of my voice
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would realize their only hope is the Lord.
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I say this because of the Lord's power.
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Secondly, I say this because of the Lord's providence. You say, "Pastor, what is the providence of God?"
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Well, I looked it up in a systematic theology and here's what it says. We may define God's providence as follows. God is continually involved with all created things in such a way, number one, that he keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them. Number two, he cooperates with created things and every action directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. And number three, directs them to fulfill his purposes. That's the providence of God. Now, ladies and gentlemen, basically it means this, God governs everything, everything. Every nation is in his hand. Let me tell you, everything that exists, all of creation was not created by blind fate. It was created by a sovereign God who is providence, providential over everything he created.
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Every nation is in his hands. He has the authority to plant nations. He has the authority to uproot nations. He has the authority to put a ruler into office and bless God, he has the power to take a ruler out of office. He can do that anytime he chooses, he's God. He's the creator God.
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In Psalm 33, verses 10 to 12, listen to the word of God.
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The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations.
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He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart from generation to generation. Bless is a nation whose God is a Lord. The people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
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Now read these verses,
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and I am absolutely amazed in and awe of God.
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His providence and sovereignty extend to nations who reject him, who say there's no such thing as God, nations like China, nations like North Korea,
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nations that are filled with atheists like France and England and Iran, and even the anti-God contingent that is fomenting the radical rebellion in our own country.
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Let me tell you, dear friend, his providence
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and his sovereignty rules over all these groups. But the Lord's providence and sovereignty also extend to nations that choose to trust him and obey him as it says in verse 12.
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It results in blessing.
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But you say, well, how does God know all this? Well, God is omniscient.
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He knows everything.
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Look at verses 13 to 17. The Lord looks from heaven.
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He sees, look at this. If this don't blow your mind, I don't know what will.
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He sees, look at this, he sees all the sons of men.
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God is in heaven today. He've established his throne into heaven and his sovereignty rules over all. And he's looking today and he looks at every individual on this planet, every individual.
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Verse 14, "From his dwelling place, "he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. "He who fashions the hearts of them all, "he who understands all their works, "the king is not saved by mighty army, "a warrior is not delivered by great strength, "a horse is a false hope for victory, "nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength."
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Let me tell you, friend, God knows the hearts of every ruler of every nation on this planet. He knows the heart of every person who is populating this world today. Nothing escapes his attention. He knows their heart, their actions, their motives. Let me tell you, world affairs are not ultimately decided in Washington, DC.
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World affairs are not ultimately decided in London. They're not ultimately decided in the Kremlin. They're not ultimately decided in Beijing. They're not ultimately decided in Tehran or in Tel Aviv. God is on his throne. God is sovereign and God has providence over all. John Phillips explained, listen to what he said, he said, "The God who guides the paths of the stars, "who brings into being countless stars and their satellites, "who tosses them into intangible space, "who keeps them whirling and plunging "at inconceivable velocities on prodigious orbits "with such mathematical precision "that we can foretell years in advance "the visit of a comet or the occasion of an eclipse." That God, ladies and gentlemen, that God also holds the destiny of nations in his hands.
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I gotta say it again.
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You gotta hear it.
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You gotta believe it. You gotta act upon it.
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America's only hope is the Lord.
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I say this because of the Lord's power because of the Lord's providence, but thirdly, I say it because of the Lord's provision.
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Psalm 33, 18 to 22.
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"Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
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"on those who hope for his loving kindness, "to deliver their soul from death
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"and to keep them alive in a famine. "Our soul waits for the Lord. "He is our help and our shield, "for our heart rejoices in him "because we trust in his holy name.
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"Let your loving kindness, O Lord, be upon us "according as we have hoped in you."
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I want you to see that our Lord promises and provides for us hope, genuine, authentic hope, not some kind of vague wish, but genuine hope. The idea of hope here carries the idea of waiting
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or looking forward to something. This hope does not point to a pious wish. Our hope is anchored to the throne of our Lord's grace and mercy and to the unfailing love of our God.
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Our Lord also promises right here in this text to provide the help of his presence
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and the hedge of his protection that we desperately need as a nation.
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We can't pull ourselves out of the mess we find ourselves in.
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We need supernatural help and supernatural protection.
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Like our forefathers who signed the Declaration of Independence,
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we must realize that our great nation
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has come to a very real fork in the road.
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Now listen, I want you to understand that those men who signed this Declaration of Independence signed it in 1776,
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but the American Revolutionary War officially ended on September the 3rd, 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
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Do you realize that these men who signed the Declaration of Independence put their lives on the line.
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They put their money on the line.
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They put their family on the line.
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And they did that because they believed that God wanted to create a new nation.
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Here in this land that we call America.
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We as individual as families and as a New Testament church must drive a proverbial stake in the ground in effect saying that we are going to follow the Lord because we will not survive without his blessing.
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That's what we've got to do.
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It's gonna require three things from us. For me, everybody within the sound of my voice is gonna require this, it's gonna require courage.
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Oh, that we had the courage of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. It takes courage to take a stand against evil when the enemy has home-filled advantage all the time.
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It takes courage to stand up for Jesus and the Word of God and the gospel when the whole world has rejected it and said it's foolishness. It takes courage.
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I open pray that the Holy Spirit
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will create that kind of courage in your heart. But it also takes conviction.
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The only way we can follow through on this bold adventure
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is to have solid biblical convictions that we absolutely refuse to compromise.
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The pressure that you're experiencing today, the pressure that believers are experiencing here in America and other parts of the world, it's very, very difficult. It's hard.
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People are looking for us to fail.
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There are people in this community
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who want to see you fail,
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who wanna see you compromise, who wanna be able to wag their finger in your face and say you're a hypocrite.
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There are people who wanna see that happen.
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I tell you, dear friend, we've gotta have convictions that are not up for grabs,
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convictions that we're willing to take a stand for.
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Then thirdly, there has to be commitment.
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Our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ must leave no room for the powerless idols fashioned by the world, the flesh and the devil.
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We must trust Jesus as our savior and our Lord. I open pray you've done that. If you haven't, you ought to be the first one down this aisle. You ought to be the first one to say to one of our staff members, "Today, I give my heart and my life to Jesus. I commit my life to him."
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We must share the gospel with as many people as we can, and we must do it as soon as possible.
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Time's running out. There's an urgency about what's happening in our world, what's happening in our nation.
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And we must love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul and with all of our mind. We must do these things. We must have a strong devotional life. We must commit ourselves to consistently reading and studying the Bible. We must commit ourselves to praying in the name of Jesus, praying big audacious prayers that require faith on our part.
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That's the kind of praying that we must be involved in.
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When our nation celebrated its bicentennial in 1976,
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W.A. Criswell preached a sermon at First Baptist Dallas entitled "Leading America Back to God."
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He closed with these words. I give you his words.
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He said, "I am part of a nation,
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"and the nation cannot repent unless I repent.
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"The nation cannot believe unless I believe.
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"The nation cannot be baptized unless I am baptized. "The nation cannot turn to God unless I turn to God."
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The nation cannot be saved unless I am saved.
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The devotion and the fire and the flame must start with me. And ladies and gentlemen, it's gotta start with you.
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It's gotta start with me.
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You say, "Pastor, it's too late."
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Well, who told you it was too late?
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The Bible says nothing is impossible with God.
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I believe with all my heart that if a church, an individual Christian gets on his face before God and desires this courage and these convictions and this commitment that God will honor that and send revival to that individual and to that church. And I pray that when it strikes this church that the fire will become an inferno and the fire will jump to other Bible believing Christ and honoring gospel centered churches.
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So if we really believe that our only hope is the Lord,
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America's only hope is the Lord,
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what are you gonna do today?
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There's some of you in this room.
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You need to be saved.
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You've been playing around with this thing.
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You have a form of godliness, but you deny the power thereof. You honor God with your lips, but you deny him with your life.
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And right here today,
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you need to be the first one to come to a staff member
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and say, "I'm tired of playing games."
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"I wanna commit my life to Jesus Christ
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"and I wanna serve him with everything I've got."
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There's some of you here today, you've been generally born again, but you've never been baptized.
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You've convinced yourself it's no big deal. Well, listen, my friend, the Bible says it's a big deal.
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You're not baptized to be saved.
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You're baptized because you are saved and you wanna profess Jesus publicly as your Lord and Savior. You're not ashamed of him, are you?
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Come to one of the staff members
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and just tell them today that you wanna be baptized biblically.
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Or maybe you're here today
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and you've got a sin problem. You're a believer, but you've got a sin problem. And that sin is eating your lunch day after day. I tell you on the authority of the inerrant, inspired, infallible word of the living God, I tell you that Jesus has a power to set you free. We just sang about it.
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He set you free.
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I wanna invite you to come to the altar
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and just hand that to Jesus and say, "Jesus, please set me free from this addiction,
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"this sin, this stronghold in my life." You'll answer that.
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Or maybe you're here today
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and you're a believer, but you're not a member of the church.
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You say, "Well, it's no big deal." The Bible says it's a big deal.
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And you need to come today to one of our staff members and say, "I wanna be a part of this Bible-believing, "gospel-centered church." Or maybe you're here today and you're a believer, but you're not tithing.
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You're not tithing.
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Darlene and I started tithing when we were dating.
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That's a long time ago.
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We've never quit. You know what? The Lord has blessed our lives. We've never lacked for anything.
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I wanna challenge you to invest in the kingdom of God with your talent, your treasure, and your time.
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I'm gonna ask our staff to come, our worship team to come.
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Listen, this is a point. This is a fork in the road for you individually.
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What will you do?
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Let me pray, heavenly Father,
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in the name of Jesus,
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I pray that we would not twiddle our thumbs
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while we see our nation descend into foolishness.
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Oh God, in heaven, I pray that every person in this room will drive a stake down and say, "As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord."
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Oh God, have your way in our hearts and our hearts.
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I pray that in just a moment when we stand to sing, Lord,
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that there'd be a flood of responses that would honor and glorify you.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and sing. You come as God leads you.
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