I'm going to talk about remembering in this
sermon tonight, and then we'll get back into
Matthew 25, 26.
But just for Memorial Day, I think it's
important to remember, if my memory serves me
correctly, I don't know in the New King
James, but the NIV has 167 times where
God is telling people to remember, or the
word remember comes up.
And remembering is powerful for a couple different
reasons, but primarily is it takes us back
and we remember what's important.
And often throughout the Bible you'll see remember
and return.
They go together.
Remember and return.
Remember the God who brought you out of
bondage and return to Him.
Remember what God did for you and return
to Him.
Remember and return.
And I've talked about it before, and you
remember, there's that word remember, with marriages, it's
healthy.
We tell couples that are struggling in their
marriages to just take a date night and
remember when you first met.
Remember when you fell in love.
Remember all the roses.
And you opened the door and you were
so nice because you were trying to impress.
So remember, go back, it changes things.
And the reason I have pictures of my
kids when they were younger is to remember
and to get me in that state of
slowing down.
I don't want to rush ahead.
God slow us.
Man, my son was two years old.
What happened?
Life is just, it goes by too quick
if you don't just stop and remember.
And I'm going to do that tonight.
I'm just going to talk about three areas
that we need to remember.
But before I get into that, I was
reminded this week of the words of Mr.
O'Brien who served in World War II,
talking about Memorial Day.
He said, it's the soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It's the soldier, not the poet, who has
given us freedom of speech.
It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who
gives us the freedom to demonstrate.
It's the soldier who salutes the flag, who
serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is
draped by the flag, who allows the protester
to burn the flag.
Yeah, wow, he was right.
I had to read that a couple times
this week.
First, to get the tears out, so it
wouldn't happen here.
Because there is a special place in my
heart for veterans and for Memorial Day.
And I get a little upset when people
think it's all about warmongering and Christians shouldn't
support this.
They don't read Romans 13.
That God has actually instituted government to be
a tear to those who do evil.
That's the whole purpose.
The purpose of a Navy SEAL is to
go and do tear to those who terrorize.
That's the whole point of government, is to
protect those who do not break the law
from those who do break the law.
And it's very biblical.
Now, do the governments go sideways and people
do things?
Of course, but let's never throw the baby
out with the bathwater, at all.
So I'm a big fan, a big proponent
of patriotism and honoring our soldiers.
God first, then country, of course.
And I think there's a big difference between
a proud American and American pride.
There's nothing wrong with saying, Lord, look at
what you have done.
We acknowledge you, we acknowledge your sovereign hand
and we thank you.
We thank you, Lord.
We are humbled by what you've done.
You have no clue how blessed you are,
unless you travel the world, which I haven't
done much.
I've only been to a few different places,
but just looking at the pictures.
And I was also reminded that the vast
majority of the men and women who died
for our country did not die for what
we've become today.
They wanted to be one nation under God,
not above God.
And that's what hurts a lot, to see
that what they actually gave their lives for
is now one nation above God, rather than
under God.
I don't know if you remember Roy Moore,
Chief Justice Roy Moore.
The Alabama Supreme Court was removed from office
because of keeping the Ten Commandments up.
And I think he's back in office.
And I want to just read something he
wrote many years ago.
I wrote a book actually, One Nation Above
God.
I was going to bring copies just to
give you, but I forgot.
So maybe I'll remember for tomorrow morning.
And it has this quote in there.
He gave us permission back then when I
asked to put it in the book.
He said this, One nation under God was
their cry and declaration.
Upon the laws of nature's God they built
a mighty nation.
For unlike mankind before them who had walked
this earth and sod, these men would never
have questioned the sovereignty of God.
I'm glad they're not here with us to
see the mess we're in, how we've given
our righteousness up for a life of indulgent
sin.
For when abortion isn't murder and sodomy isn't
deemed a right, then evil is now called
good and darkness is now called light.
While truth and law were founded on the
God of all creation, man, now through law,
denies that truth and calls it separation.
No longer does man see a need for
God when he's in full control, for the
only truth self-evident is in the latest
poll.
But with man as his own master we
fail to count the cost, our precious freedoms
vanish and our liberty is lost.
Children are told they can't pray in school
and they teach them evolution.
When will they see that the fear of
God is the only true solution?
Our schools have become a battleground while all
across the land, Christians shrug their shoulders afraid
to take a stand.
And from the grave their voices cry, the
victory has already been won.
Just glorify the Father as did his only
Son.
And when your work on here is done
and you've traveled where we've trod, you'll leave
the land we left to you, one nation,
under God.
Wow, that is powerful.
What about slavery?
What about what they did to the Native
American Indians?
I'll get to that.
And again, let's not throw out the baby
with the bathwater.
I don't know if you saw in the
news this week that, I hope I wrote
it down, I want to quote exactly what
it said.
It was in the Christian Post and some
other organizations picked it up.
Muslims think, and this is outside the United
States, Muslims think the United States has gone
completely insane over the LGBT, over the lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender agenda.
The world is laughing, they are mocking at
us.
And again, the baby with the bathwater.
They just throw us all in there.
There you go, look at America.
No, no, no, no.
That's like equating Christians with those who blow
up abortion clinics.
All you Christians, no, no, don't throw the
baby out with the bathwater.
So be very careful.
Yes, our nation, there's atrocities on her hands.
She's shed innocent blood.
But the foundation that it was built on,
and how far we've drifted is something I
think we need to remember and return.
Three important areas of remembering.
You'll always, always want to go back to
these if you can.
The first area, and I've talked about it
often, I won't spend a lot of time
here, but the church, the church.
And you've heard me say before, I remember
when the church walked in the power of
the Holy Spirit.
I remember when we weren't in a hurry.
I remember when we prayed.
I remember when the altars were filled.
I remember when there were tears coming down
our cheeks.
I remember when we couldn't get enough of
God.
I remember, I remember seeing those times.
I've preached at those times.
This church has experienced those times.
And unless we remember, we don't return.
So the point of bringing this up is
to say, remember.
Didn't Jesus say something about remembering in Revelation?
Remember where you have fallen and return.
Remember your first love and return.
Remember and return.
It's very powerful.
Cross-referencing Acts 9.31. The church lived
in the fear of the Lord and was
encouraged by the Holy Spirit.
And I just want to encourage you to
remember, not the church collectively, but you individually.
Do you remember when God was everything?
What happened?
He didn't leave.
Priorities crept in.
And I'm as guilty as most, sometimes with
the time factor and the hurry.
You see people waiting Star Wars lines for
12 hours.
And we're just, we're thinking we've got to
do, do, do.
And I don't think we need to do,
do, do.
I think we need to wait, wait, wait.
Because once you wait on God, then when
it's time to move, there's power in that
waiting.
I can't explain it, but I know when
I wait on God and I trust in
Him, I get into worship and the Word.
And as you're waiting, that waiting time, it's
like Samson.
The hair grows back.
And the strength comes back.
And that anointing comes back.
So when you walk out, you're walking in
the power of the Holy Spirit because you
waited on God.
And there's a worship song I would encourage
you to listen to.
I hit rewind.
I guess that's my fault.
People say, I don't want to hear the
same song twice.
I have to hear it 10 times.
Rewind, rewind, rewind.
And just get on my face after the
eighth time.
And I'm on my face before God.
And God's just pouring into me.
And the sermon's coming together.
I can just write down things.
And He's just pouring into me because waiting.
Now I've got 12 other things that can
be done.
People say, well, now the two campuses, has
your schedule doubled?
No, quadrupled.
So you don't have to.
I have to pray.
I have to seek God.
And the song I was listening to this
week, all week, we come with expectation, waiting
here for you.
You're the Lord of all creation, and still
you know my heart.
The author of salvation, you've loved us from
the start.
I'm waiting here for you.
I think it's Christie Knuckles.
And just keep singing that song.
I'm waiting here for you.
And there's something that happens.
The flesh eventually submits, and the spirit takes
over, and you're filled with the spirit of
God.
And you're waiting for God.
You will not find any scriptures on rushing
through devotional, rushing through meditation, rushing through your
time with God.
It's actually all about waiting.
Do we read, was it in the newspaper,
those who wait upon the Lord will renew
their strength?
Was it in today's newspaper?
No, it was in today's reading.
Those who wait upon the Lord will renew
their strength.
And when you're sick, do you just renew
your strength within 20 minutes?
I'm feeling really good.
No.
If you've been sick, you know it's days.
You have the flu, and you're out for
a week, and you just get right up,
and no, it's days.
And I'm starting to get my strength back.
So that's the imagery we see is waiting.
And waiting is that strength.
And, Lord, I don't know what to do,
and I'm just waiting on you.
And that's remembering.
Do you remember?
I don't know.
Maybe you haven't experienced it, but do you
remember when the power of the Holy Spirit
was in your life?
I've been at stores, and people just, I
don't know who you are, but I just
need to pray.
Or where you go, you're bringing, it doesn't
happen very often.
But you know that there's a glow.
And I'm not being weird, but there's a
difference.
There's a distinction.
There's something about that person.
Last week I talked about Peter's shadow falling
on people, and they'd be healed.
Was it because his shadow was timed just
right with the sun, and if they just,
you know, just right, oh, there's the shadow,
the shadow heals?
No.
The anointing, being close to God, she said,
if I just touch the hem of his
garment, I will be made whole.
There's something that happens when you spend time
with God.
That's why it's so hard.
That's why we're, let's look at the typical
morning.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Oh, man, snooze, get back up, or go
back to sleep, and oh, the kids are
already up, this, I've got to be here,
I've got to be here.
And then you're just striving throughout the whole
day, and the night comes, well, what's that
big fix-it show now, Holmes and Joanne
Gaines, or Joanne, everybody's watching this at home.
What's it called?
Fixer Upper, there we go.
You know, rushing home to get that, and
then rushing home.
Now, that's a good show.
If you're going to watch a show, I
probably won't put that one down.
But when it competes for our time with
God, and then we go into this, and
what's going on in Fox News, and who's
it going to be, Trump or Hillary or
Bernie, and neither of those are good choices,
by the way.
I'm just, now, lesser of two evils, and
I don't want to get off onto that
rabbit trail.
But my point, back to, the enemy's trying
to sidetrack me, I think.
Back to the point of, look at how,
when is it time to wait on God?
There's never time, because we're always too busy.
So at some point in your life, you've
got to say, enough, I'm restructuring everything, everything.
And I thought of this, it was so
ironic.
I went and I saw Lindsay, many of
you know Lindsay, broke her hip and fell,
and I went and visited with her, and
it's just fun to talk with her, I
don't know why.
She just talks so many different things, and
it just intrigued, this conversation.
But she said something, she said, Shane, this
changed my whole life.
It stopped life.
All my plans are out the window.
All my plans are this, everything's over.
You're not going to go do this.
When you break a hip, you're in the
hospital.
So everything changed.
Now she's got tons of time to be
into the Word.
She was listening to worship when I went
in there.
Why?
Because something altered that course.
So something has to alter your course.
How about, and I joke, and I'm really
not joking, but put the television in the
garage for a month.
Because you have to do that.
I'm not disciplined enough either to just, I
just won't turn it on today.
You have to remove it and then begin
to seek God and begin to readjust things,
get to bed earlier so you can get
up earlier.
People, they've, well, let's just say that I
haven't really promoted this too much because people
say things sometimes, but you've got to put
things in your calendar such as God, your
family, important things.
Everything else is in the calendar.
And they say, well, Shane, you just fit
God whenever and you don't have to, we've
got important things, we're busy, but that's the
problem.
The church used to wait on God.
I mean, look, if people camp out for
those big sales at wherever, Target, nobody's going
to Target anymore, but you know, the Christmas
sales and all those things, we camp out,
we wait, we wait on those things, we
wait on things that are important is what
I'm trying to say.
The church waited in an upper room and
that's when the power fell.
Peter waited for direction, then lives were changed.
Paul waited.
Did you, were you aware that Paul waited
in the Arabian desert?
I think most theologians would say that for
three years.
The Bible says, I did not immediately convey
with flesh and blood.
Paul says, I didn't immediately talk to people
when God met me on that road to
Damascus.
I went into the Arabian desert and I
spent time with God.
And then he came out, the apostle Paul.
Look at Jesus, away to secluded places, a
wilderness for 40 days.
Why'd he have to do that?
So if he has to, what makes, how
do we think we can just get by
without praying, without fasting, without spending time with
God, deserted places?
Jesus did all of this, but we got
it down now.
No, we don't have it down now.
That's why I believe that we don't see
the power of God in our lives to
the degree that we can.
I believe that Jesus is the same today,
yesterday, and to evermore.
I believe that God can heal.
I believe that I can pray for people
and see those prayers answered.
I believe that God can move on our
behalf if we're seeking him with all of
our heart.
And that's why Jesus said, remember and return.
That was his call to the churches in
Revelation.
Actually, it's interesting, if you study that, the
seven churches, five of those churches were not
going in a good direction.
Two were.
And in all those situations, the way Jesus
said to get back on track was to
remember and return.
Remember and return.
Because there's something about remembering.
And if you see old photos, you see
things that really brings you back.
A.W. Tozer said, the weakness of so
many modern Christians is that they feel too
much at home in the world.
I better read that one again, because some
of you didn't quite get this.
You know what?
I'll make this hit home.
The weakness of so many of us is
that we feel too much at home in
the world.
See, you should never feel at home in
the world.
There should be just uncomfortable clothing, really.
Like these pants are too tight.
These shoes don't fit right.
There's something that just doesn't match.
So why doesn't somebody do something?
Back to the sermon.
Why don't we do something about this?
And I'll share this with you, and it's
no surprise, but people often, if I run
into them and they don't come to this
church, they'll say, God, those messages, I hear
them online or whatever.
They're kind of hard.
They're convicting.
But the reason isn't to beat up people.
It's to motivate and to challenge and to
draw out of you what God has put
in you.
And that's not going to be drawn out
unless it's confronted.
Because most people are saying, Amen, I want
that.
If you're not saying you want more time
with God after that last 10 minutes, I
even want to go back into worship.
I mean, my heart is just drawing closer
to God.
As you begin to weight on God, the
power of the Holy Spirit somehow falls upon
your life and the fear and the depression,
and I get, well, I'll say it, but
you can relate.
I get sometimes in such as, with worship
and anything, the concerns, ISIS, it's like, let
me pull the trigger.
You know, you bring me, I want to
go see my master.
You couldn't scare me with anything, anybody.
But there's other times throughout the day where
that fear grips and it's usually when I'm
walking in the flesh, walking in the world.
You got all the media on, scaring the
living daylights out of you and you're not
walking in the Spirit there.
So there's something about remembering and returning.
Another thing that's been on my heart a
lot lately, and we want to make it
a prayer focus, at some point, is the
family.
Remember, I don't want to get too sentimental,
but do you remember when the hero, and
I said this a few years ago, I
remember, the hero was the father.
The hero in the home was the father.
That's who the kids looked up to.
Not drunk rock stars.
Not actors playing a gay lifestyle.
Not wrestlers or pro baseball players that beat
their wife.
The hero was the father in the home.
And we've lost that connection, the father and
the mother and the children.
And now, you look out what's going on
and it just saddens me.
I don't know if it saddens you, but
remembering, remember, remembering how God created the family.
And something interesting He wrote, God wrote through
the Bible, through the inspired authors, that fathers
do not provoke your children to wrath.
And that would take a whole sermon, but
the title, or actually the meaning of provoke
is to stimulate a reaction or emotion in
someone.
Usually that has a negative tone to it.
So fathers, do not provoke your children to
anger.
And if you want some imagery, think of
a rattlesnake on the ground and you get
to grab a big stick.
What are you doing?
You're provoking.
And men, we've got to stop provoking our
children and our spouses to anger.
And you know, I call it throwing gas
on the fire.
You know the right buttons to push.
Husbands, do not provoke your wives.
Love them.
Wise respect.
Wise respect your husbands.
You know, it's interesting.
I never realized this, but when I read
the study, it made sense that that's one
of the top needs of a man, to
feel respected.
And people have this definition of respect means,
you know, like machoism.
You can do whatever I told you.
You respect me.
Respect is just, respect is, look, that could
go a lot of different directions, right?
But respect is just, you know, I respect
that God has put you in our home
as a spiritual leader.
I respect that position.
I know it's hard.
I know it's difficult.
I'm showing honor.
I'm respecting.
I'm not mocking.
I'm not making fun.
I'm not putting down.
I'm trying to build you up as you're
trying not to provoke me.
And we see this wonderful example of, especially
the feminist movement and different things took this
way out of perspective, of the biblical perspective.
The man is supposed to love his wife
like Christ loved the church and lead the
family.
The wife comes alongside and respects and they
compliment each other.
It's not about male domination and this mean
submission.
It's this wonderful picture.
And of course, there's exceptions to the rule,
so don't email me, but most wives I've
talked to they want their husbands to lead.
Would you lead?
Would you lead us to God?
Would you lead us in study?
And would you lead us in the right
decisions?
Would you make the wise decisions financially and
lead us in that direction?
They're starving for that.
And so I remember, and you need to
remember what the Bible says about this area.
We don't have any children in here tonight,
I don't think, a few here, but children,
obey your parents.
Children, obey your parents.
And this is probably one of the saddest
things.
We see such, I mean, and we're not
talking hundreds of years, just from when I
was growing up.
You know, yes sir, no sir, and walking
on the road and you move out of
the way.
Now I've got to get out of the
way.
You know, their pants are down to here
and they're on skateboards and they're just, I've
got to get out of the way.
Or I'm turning, come on, and they just
walk slower across the crosswalk.
A little swag, you know, a little arrogant,
little swag they got going.
It's just, there's no respect.
There's no, there's no, and the parents, what
parents?
Mom, look what the media, because look what
the media makes it out to be.
And somebody actually emailed me a while back
and said, Shane, it's not the media's fault.
The media just resembles what's already going on
in the culture.
I said, it does, but it also influences.
It's a double-edged sword.
Listen, you get rid of all this junk
and you put back, leave it to Beaver
and I love Lucy and, and, uh, whatever
else on there, you'll see some change in
the behavior because it's being modeled.
How do children go?
It's called modeled behavior.
They see a certain way, the thing, and
that's how they're supposed to act.
So either have Hannah Montana influencing them or
Laura Ingalls.
Look how far we've drifted.
Remember, and it's not getting any better.
You're, I told you this.
You didn't believe me, but now you've got
transgender issue.
You got guys thinking they're dogs, puppies, and
they're dressed up as puppies and they're going
on talk shows dressed as a puppy and
that's what they want to be.
They want to be a dog.
That's what God created to be a dog.
And if it wasn't for my kids and
my wife, I'd say, Lord, just can you
come, please take me.
I can't handle this very much longer.
You are not a dog.
You're a man.
Proverbs 5.18 Let your fountain be blessed
and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
We forget, sometimes when the Bible says rejoice
in the wife of your youth, it actually,
a lot of times it's saying that because
we have the tendency not to do that.
So it's reminding, here's that word again, remember
it's reminding us to rejoice in the wife
of your youth.
Or why is it rejoice in the husband
of who God gave us many years ago
and rejoice in that.
And rejoice in that.
That's a biblical model that's healthy.
The confessions of one Christian father.
I pulled this from John MacArthur's website.
It's a confession of a Christian father.
And I'm actually having my wife make something
for me.
And I want to post this in my
office because it's a good reminder.
He said, my family's all grown up and
the kids are gone.
But if I had to do it all
over again, this is what I would do.
I would love my wife more in front
of my children.
I would laugh with my children more at
our mistakes and our joys.
I would listen more, even to the littlest
child.
I would be more honest about my own
weaknesses, never pretending perfection.
I would pray differently for my family.
Instead of focusing on them, I'd focus on
me.
I would do more things together with my
children.
I would encourage them more and bestow more
praise.
I would pay more attention to the little
things like deeds and words of thoughtfulness.
And then finally, if I had to do
it all over again, I would share God
more intimately with my family.
Every ordinary thing that happened in every ordinary
day, I would use to direct them to
God.
Not to burst anybody's bubble, but the sad
thing about if we don't remember and return,
we will remember and regret and go back
to that.
So use the power of memory, remembering.
Gosh, if we would just remember God's promises.
Look at all the worship songs.
I was just back there, all these, Lord,
you love me.
You honestly love me.
And it's hard for me.
And people say, oh, that's sappy, that's for
women.
No, it's for men.
Men need to hear, especially depending on what
your view of a father.
I shared before, my dad wasn't there.
He didn't hug, I mean, he was there,
but he wasn't, he never hugged, he never
said, I loved you.
I had this view of dad that was
always trying to please and probably a codependent.
I haven't looked at the checklist yet, but
I'm probably there.
And the person you have to please and
always please and always please and never saying
I love you, but to hear that God
does.
He really does.
He loves us.
Oh, how I love.
And yes, it's emotional, it's worship, but you
get more emotional at the Dodgers than worship.
There's something wrong there.
Emotions are God given and created so we
can express and remember, Lord, what have you
done for us?
You're a good, good father.
You're a loving father.
Your mercies are renewed.
I don't know about you, but I could
sing Amazing Grace every day.
If it was up to me, I would
tell Brant, Amazing Grace, every worship set, beginning
of the message and after the message.
Amazing Grace, how sweet it is.
He saved a wretch like me.
Many of you know John Newton who wrote
the song.
He was a slave trader and God saved
him with William Wilberforce and they were friends
and God saved him.
When you've truly experienced God's grace, you can't
get through that song without being touched, especially
if you understand a wretch, being a wretch,
and he saved me.
He didn't have to.
That would change all of our worship if
we could just realize that God could just
pass us all over and just a life
without God.
That in and of itself should motivate tremendous
praise and worship.
Thank you God for choosing me.
Thank you God for loving me.
So why doesn't somebody do something and help
to rebuild the families?
Then the third point, in honor of Memorial
Day, I want to talk about remembering about
the nation.
Deuteronomy 28.1 says this, If you diligently
obey the voice of the Lord and observe
all that He has commanded you, He will
set you high above all the nations of
the earth.
Psalm 33.12, Blessed is the nation whose
God is Lord.
Anytime I speak on this, inevitably somebody will
come up and say, Shane, that's to Israel,
not America.
You know what?
Contextually that's true.
The context is God is blessing and rising
up, but the principle still applies.
And if you look, if I had two
hours and you want to sit through a
two-hour sermon, I could take you back
to 1620, 1630, the Mayflower compact, the pilgrims,
the Puritans coming over, escaping persecution from Great
Britain, then they went to Holland, then they
came to America to escape persecution.
Their first act on bended knee was to
give God thanks for what He has done.
They didn't go and rape and plunder and
all these things that they want you to
think that the pilgrims did.
They gave God all the recognition.
John Bradford, you can read his journals.
You can talk about what their hope was.
And God, this is what we want to
do.
And all these things, it was built on.
That's why the big debate you're probably seeing
a lot of times is is America a
Christian nation?
Was America a Christian nation?
And to me it's pretty simple.
A nation can't be a Christian because a
Christian is an individual who's given their heart
and their soul and their mind and everything
to the Lord.
That's a Christian.
So a nation itself can't be a Christian,
but the nation can be built on Christian
values, on God's principles, on Judeo-Christian values.
Absolutely.
So seeing a nation drift is not much
different than seeing a person drift.
Is it?
You see the nation, how far we've drifted
in 150 years or 50 years or 30
years, and it's the same seeing a person
drift spiritually.
Now, you don't think there's a drift?
Let me read a few things.
1875 is when Henry Wilson died.
He was the 18th U.S. Vice President.
He said this, Remember ever and always that
your country was founded by the stern old
Puritans whose first act on touching the soil
of the new world was to offer on
bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God.
Alexander Hamilton.
Who's that?
Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
The law, the law dictated by God Himself
is of course superior in obligation to any
other law.
It is binding over all the globe and
all countries and in all times.
No human laws are of any validity if
contrary to this.
Could you call our President and the Supreme
Court and let them know about this quote?
No, he's right.
Any human laws, if they're contrary to God's
laws, they do not supersede God's laws.
Benjamin Franklin.
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without his notice, is it probable that
an empire can rise without his aid?
Now, some of these men were not Christians.
They were atheists, or agnostics rather, and deists.
And what a deist is, it's kind of
like this concept of God just put everything
in motion and then walked away.
But the majority of the founders, actually the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, if you
had time you could find out how many
of them actually went to seminary.
It's amazing.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1892.
Hold down, sit down and buckle up for
this one.
The Supreme Court.
1892.
From the discovery of this continent to the
present hour there is a single voice making
this affirmation that this is a Christian nation.
1790.
Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of
Independence, said this about the public schools.
But the religion I mean to recommend in
this place is the religion of the New
Testament.
1647.
The old Deluder Law established the first biblically
based public school in America.
The colonists believed that they could protect their
civil liberties by eliminating biblical illiteracy.
I don't know if you caught that, but
the whole reason the public school system was
founded was to teach children the word of
God.
And you're gonna tell me we haven't drifted.
This is a 180.
This is completely unacceptable.
And people, you know, they're saying you shouldn't
talk about these things.
I'll get emails, I'll just tell you up
front.
You shouldn't talk about these things.
Your church shouldn't be political.
Well really, what should we talk about?
Not everything but the things that matter?
And the big question is, is God pleased?
Is God pleased with where we're headed and
what we're doing and just wants me to
talk about the good things and not mention
any of this?
Because what we need to remember is politics,
the definition of politics.
Here, let's get a little controversial.
The definition of politics means, look it up,
leading or directing a group of people.
So you're telling me then that God's word
says nothing about leading or directing a group
of people.
Hmm, okay.
John Jay, I love this quote, he's the
first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said,
unto him who is the author and giver
of all good, I render sincere and humble
thanks for his manifold and unmerited blessings and
especially for our redemption and salvation by his
beloved son.
Could we please have these people back on
the courts?
The funny thing is, what is trying to
be passed now would just be laughed out
of the, it wouldn't even, it wouldn't even
have a chance.
I've read this before, I've quoted it, but
not the exact terms.
The rules, is Harvard University pro-God?
Harvard, Princeton?
Do you know that all of those were
founded as seminaries?
They were founded to teach God's word.
I think it still exists today.
The rules and precepts of Harvard University founded
by Reverend John Harvard, 1642, let every student
be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider
well the main end of his life and
studies is to know God and Jesus Christ,
which is eternal life, and therefore to lay
Christ in the bottom as the only foundation
of all sound knowledge and learning.
What would those at Harvard say today?
And here's why people don't like this.
You ever hear that saying, don't confuse me
with the facts?
When you start talking about this stuff, they
start saying, don't upset me with the facts.
Because if the truth is there is a
God and there is, and the truth is
the reason the nation has been so blessed
is because God has blessed the nation, and
that's true, and that our Judeo heritage and
rich biblical history is true, and God is
true, and then we've drifted off course.
So they don't want, they're embarrassed by this.
The secular media, liberalism, all these things, they're
embarrassed by God that doesn't exist.
So they say.
Newsweek Magazine, 1982, an article entitled How the
Bible Made America said historians are now discovering
that the Bible, perhaps even more than the
Constitution, is our founding document.
And I believe the signers of the Declaration
of Independence or the framers that put the
Constitution together, they quoted or referenced the Bible
four times more than any other source when
they put everything together.
I don't know about you, but to me
it was a wake up call.
That's why I wrote that book, One Nation
Above God.
That's why I speak on this issue.
Because I don't think God is happy with
the direction.
I don't think he wants us to remain
silent.
Because if he does, then Isaiah was wrong,
and Jeremiah was wrong, Ezekiel was wrong, Daniel
was wrong, Joel was wrong, Obadiah, Jonah, well
he went to Assyria, Naaman, the prophets, their
whole point was showing the people, here's where
you were, here's where you're going, not good,
turn back.
Turn back.
That's why every time I read the Bible,
it jumps out at parallels with what's going
on today.
You can look at Jeremiah, just read the
book of Jeremiah, tonight or tomorrow, just the
first few chapters, 10 minutes, you'll see in
the opening chapter, Jeremiah, God says, before I
called you, I formed you in the womb,
and I made you a prophet to my
nation, to call the people back.
Jeremiah said, I'm just a youth.
God said, you're not a youth, you go
to who I send you to, and you
speak my word.
And God says in chapter two, do you
tell the people, Jeremiah, tell the people to
remember, remember when I pulled them out of
Egypt, and they were just a little baby,
a little infant, I nursed them, I took
them, I held them, I guarded them, and
I loved the faithfulness of their youth.
I loved the engagement.
When we were married, they sought after me
in the wilderness, in a barren wilderness, and
Israel was the first fruits of my supplication.
He says, Israel was holiness unto the Lord.
When the enemies came in against them, I
crucified the enemies.
I slaughtered the enemies, because they were my
people.
And then he says, but tell them, tell
the people, actually he says, Jeremiah, cry out.
Where's that preaching anymore?
Crying out to the people.
And he says, what error has your forefathers
found in me?
What error have they found?
Where did I mislead them?
I took them through the drought, and through
the barren desert.
I took them through everything.
And then when they walked into the land,
they defiled it.
They became, they followed idols.
And it gets so bad, where God actually
says, I have two evils against my people.
They have forsaken the true God, the fountain
of living water, and they have hewn out
cisterns for themselves that hold no water.
Basically what he's saying is, they have forgotten
God, the source of all life, and they're
trying to fulfill that void with things that
do not fulfill.
Saying to the trees, you are my father.
And to the stones, you nursed me.
You are my mother.
How can a people drift so far?
The Delaware Constitution said that everybody appointed to
public office, should we try this today?
It's not going to work.
If you want to run for public office,
you must make this declaration.
I do profess faith in God the Father,
and in the Lord Jesus Christ, and His
only Son.
The Delaware Constitution required that everyone appointed to
public office must make that declaration.
Folks, this is not make-believe.
I'm not just pulling, it's everywhere.
They're trying to get rid of some of
the books.
There's a lot of revisionist going on now
that they want to rewrite different things.
Many other constitutions, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut,
all acknowledge the reliance on God in the
same type of oath.
So somebody's going to be appointed to office,
I do believe in God the Father, the
Son, Jesus Christ, and the power of the
Holy Spirit.
And then you could actually be appointed to
that office.
Now it's actually the other way.
If you think about it, you're going to
be laughed out.
You would be laughed out of the presidential
debate.
Fox News, CNN, wherever you're at, well, Mr.
Eidelman, what's your position?
Well, I believe in the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to
govern based on biblical principles.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, field day.
Lunatic.
Lunatic, narrow-minded, arrogant.
Get him out of here.
How did he even get up here?
But 150 years ago, it would have been
the other way around.
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I want to talk about that for a
minute because people do bring up slavery, and
it's a mark in our nation's history.
It's deplorable.
But let's not forget all the Christian men
and women who brought it to an end.
Watch William Wilberforce.
Read a lot.
I've got footnotes, about three pages of footnotes,
of founders who abhorred the practice of slavery
and fought to abolish it.
So are we just going to throw the
baby out with the bathwater and say, oh,
all the founders were slave owners?
No, no, they fought for this to be
ended.
As President of Congress, Henry Lawrence explained, I
abhorred slavery.
I was born in a country where slavery
had been established by British kings and parliaments
as well as by the laws of the
country ages before my existence.
Benjamin Franklin, in a 1773 letter to Dean
Woodward, said, whenever the Americans had attempted to
end slavery, the British government had indeed thwarted
those attempts.
And that's a lot of link.
We don't have time for that, maybe on
4th of July, but 1776, Independence Day, the
colonists tried to cooperate with Great Britain for
many years and many years, and they realized
that, because some people say that the Revolutionary
War was not biblical-based.
And, you know, there's sides to that.
But what about the Native Americans?
Many people were missionaries to them.
David Brainerd was an American missionary to the
Native Americans, particularly with the Delaware Indians of
New Jersey.
And it was just a...
If you look at the early writings, it's
evil men who would go in and abuse
and rape and pill...
I'm trying to think of that word.
Rape and pillage.
There we go.
I got the pilgrims on my mind.
And it's not all facts.
The facts are, yes, there were many travesties.
Yes, we didn't do things.
And that's...
You know what, this is in my notes,
but I might as well go here.
That's why you're seeing a huge disconnect, I
believe, in who they're voting for.
You've got one side is not voting for
your guy, and this side's voting for your
guy.
Or this side's really confused on who to
vote for because they don't have a good
choice.
The reason is one group thinks that America
is evil and wrong, and they're going to
do whatever they can to get back at
the nation.
That's why you're seeing the welfare system increase.
That's why you're seeing government dependency.
The government owes me.
The government needs to pay me.
And we're creating lazy citizens.
So you have this side that says America
was founded on evil.
They had slaves.
It's an evil empire.
It's trying to oppress all the other nations,
and we need to get America back, and
we need to take everything we can.
And we need to just have it equal.
Take everybody's pay, equal it out, make it
fair across the board.
Socialism.
That's what you'll get with Sanders, and probably
Clinton, just telling you, just being up front.
With Trump, we'll be in a mess of
trouble as well.
So it doesn't matter.
And you've got this side who understands that
America wasn't necessarily evil because it's the people
in positions of leadership that determine the course
of the nation.
So we see that America sought out God.
They were trying to follow God, and we
respect, and you look at a lot of
the men who served, women who served in
our country, they were strong believers.
And you see this wonderful God-fearing nation
that used to be, and we want to
go back to that.
We don't look at it as evil because
God put it in place.
So that's why you see, because Democrat and
Republican, even back when John Kennedy was the
president, I take him above what we have
today on both sides, regardless of what your
view is.
But they were arguing over corporations and money
and the blue collar, Democrat normally was blue
collar, and white collar was, and it was
this corporate structure and the money and the
small farmer and different things.
Now it's changed to where now it's moral,
huge moral issues.
And that's why, because one group thinks America's
evil and they want to repay everybody.
They want to even out the odds per
se.
So that's why you'll see a big divide
in this area.
Now something we need to remember is that
God judge nations.
God judges nations that continually tolerate sin.
Does he not?
Arnold Toynbee wrote a large volume called The
Study of History in 1961.
Now granted this is 1961.
He said, of the 22 civilizations that have
appeared in history, all of history, 19 of
them collapsed when they reached the moral state
that America is in today.
1960s.
Now fast forward 50 years.
So see, at least from what I read
the Bible, God's not happy.
He doesn't like the course of the nation.
Yes, there's wonderful believers.
Yes, we're praying, we're fasting, I hope for
the best, but there should be a desire.
Why should we not like Nehemiah be sad
when the place of our father's tombs lies
in waste?
Why should Ezra would weep over the condition
of Israel?
Jesus, oh Jerusalem, you are not willing.
So there's something that should be saying, you
know what, this is not right.
We're sad that what was initially, have you
ever seen somebody on fire for God and
then drift and possibly die with a heroin
overdose?
That's the same thing that's happening.
It's the same, you see this on fire
for God and then this drift away from
God.
Now I don't have the answers.
I'm not telling you to vote for it.
So people say, you know, what should we
do?
What about this?
Well, the Titanic's been struck.
What do you mean?
What should we do?
The Titanic is struck.
The water's leaking in.
There's, you just can't turn this vessel around.
What you do though, is you start praying
and fasting, everything I'm talking about, because I
am a firm believer in Malachi or Micah
6, it says, what does the Lord require
of you, oh man, but to live justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly before
your God.
That's how you fix the nation.
Because you fix the individual on fire for
God, loving God, the family is affected.
And when the family's affected, the community's affected.
And then you get people start making quality
movies and influencing Hollywood versus the other way
around.
Why do you think all these Christian based
movies are coming out now?
Because they see it works.
Hollywood's not interested in making a good Christian
based movie, they're interested in the bottom line
dollar.
So why doesn't somebody do something?
You know, at the risk of being repetitive,
and sometimes I probably do it to myself,
but I worry like, well, people don't want
to hear this again.
And, but I feel convicted to share it
with you again, but we need to, we
need to pray and fast for our nation.
We need to pray and fast for everything
I just talked about.
Prayer is more powerful than protest.
We should not rely on political power, but
on the power of God through prayer.
C.H. Spurgeon once said, I would rather
teach one man to pray than 10 men
to preach.
Isn't that interesting?
And fasting, our sincerity is measured by what
we are willing to give up.
Our sincerity, when we say, God, we're serious
about this.
It's only, that sincerity is not measured by
the words that come out of our mouth,
but by what we do.
So we can all sit here and go,
man, yeah, Shane, you got me really pumped
up.
I'm, this is ridiculous.
I can't believe this.
We're going to, you know, I'm ready.
And then that doesn't do anything.
God sees the broken heart.
He sees the fasting.
And the reason I mentioned fasting is because
we have to give up something.
And I run into people all week.
I juice for a month because my doctor
told me I had heart problems.
Oh, you'll juice for heart problems, but not
for the heart of the nation.
Or you'll juice for, I got to lose
30 pounds.
I got to lose.
And we, we, we just avoid, we do
it when it fits, but not when it
fits.
Probably maybe we're not understanding biblically what fasting
does in prayer.
It opens heaven.
When you fast, when you start the flesh
and you pray and we get people doing,
actually, if we had time, we could go
back to the first great awakening and with
Jonathan and Edwards and Whitfield and Wesley.
And, and how did these revival start?
Prayer and fasting, Welsh revivals, prayer and fasting,
Scotland, revivals, prayer and fasting.
I think some people were in an upper
room praying and fasting when the church was
born.
The second great awakening, you have names like
Charles Finney, Billy Sunday, prayer and fasting.
Argentina experienced revival in 1950s.
It started from a prayer and fasting move.
They go together because you're, you're saying, God,
I'm serious.
I am serious about this.
I'm going to seek you with all of
my heart.
From Moses to Daniel, from Jesus to Paul,
and from me to you, fasting is crucial
in these dire times.
Every, everybody I just mentioned fast, Ezra fast,
Nehemiah fasted, Jesus fast, Moses fast, Daniel fast,
Elisha fast, King David fasted.
It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's prayer
on steroids.
It's what fasting does.
I know, I know I say it a
lot because hopefully it's going to take one
of these days.
A book written, One Nation Under God, The
History of Prayer in America said that prayer
stands as one of the most critical and
indisputable, indisputable factors to have influenced the course
of American history.
Prayer.
And I'll just leave with this.
Back to the sermon title.
Why didn't somebody do something?
And I remember, I think it was actually,
if, I don't know if he was a
governor then, but Huckabee, I heard, I listened
to him down in 2008 in Los Angeles.
And he talked about taking his 12 year
old daughter to a, the memorial for the
Holocaust.
And she was walking through this memorial, seeing
the dead bodies.
I don't know if you've ever seen the
pictures, but it's horrific.
It's life changing.
If you, if you can visit Auschwitz and
those different places.
And she was just seeing all this whore
unfold between 12.
I mean, he's, he's brave.
I don't think I would deal with my
12 year old.
And he said that she was silent on
the two hour drive home.
So he's thinking, what did I do?
I scarred her.
What was I thinking?
He's, so he's going through all this in
her mind.
I think it was when they pulled into
the driver or something.
She said, daddy, why didn't somebody do something?
And that's my concern.
Will we, will we hear those same thoughts?
Will we hear those same words?
Will our grandchildren for some of you, what
is wrong with you guys?
Why didn't somebody do something?
Sadly, we may not be able to answer.
And judges two 10, it says, and there
arose a generation after them who did not
know the Lord.
And that's my concern.
That when we look back, why didn't somebody
do something?
So this ship's not going down without me
doing something.
I can look back and say, son, daughter,
I fasted.
I prayed.
I taught.
I led the church.
The church was great.
we, we, we did all that we could
do.
And we left in God's sovereign hands.
Why didn't somebody do something?
Let me end with that.
Lord, I thank you so much.
Lord, I thank you for your word.
God.
And I just, I just publicly thank you
for blessing us.
God, thank you so much.
Millions and millions of people without running water,
without electricity, without air conditioning, without supermarkets.
God, we became so prideful and so arrogant
and so self-righteous.
Lord, we've aborted millions of children.
We've killed our own.
God help us.
We are glamorizing what your word calls an
abomination.
The church is lethargic and dead and paralyzed.
God, we have no excuse.
So like Nehemiah, Lord, I want to just
publicly confess the sins of our nation.
Say, Lord, we have the blood of innocent
children on our hands.
We've been given this wonderful gift passed on
to us.
And somewhere we dropped the ball, but God,
we're praying for revival.
We're praying for renewal.
We're praying for restoration.
Lord, we've given up on our nation, but
we have not given up on you.
God, you need to quicken us.
You need to alert us.
You need to get us back into prayer
and fasting and meditating and waiting on you.
And you will change the state.
You will change this nation.
If it's within your sovereign plan.
So God, I don't know what, but start
something tonight.
Start a burning fire, a burning fire in
us saying, not on my watch.
We're going to pray.
We're going to love our families.
We're going to love our spouses.
We're not going to be comfortable in the
world.
And when people say, why didn't somebody do
something?
We're going to say, we did.
We did.
We trusted in you.
We repented of our sin and we trusted
in you.
I pray this in Jesus name.
Amen.
Maybe it's just harder when you have little
kids.
I don't know if it's selfish, but sometimes
I wish I didn't have kids because of
what they're going to go into.
But knowing that God is faithful, knowing that
I'll trust him, he's their dad.
So I've got this battle inside, hating what
I see in this nation.
Listen, when you can pull baby parts out
of the womb and throw them in a
trash can, something's wrong.
Something's wrong.
They're looking for a guy on the news
that beat up his dog out on the
sidewalk and they got him on camera and
the dog died.
And yes, find him, please.
But what about something far more horrific?
Far more horrific.
Folks, at some point we have to wake
up.
We have to wake up and stop saying,
yeah, that's, no, that's sad.
I know.
And have a, have a change of heart
to where you say, Lord, I'm going to
pray.
I'm going to fast.
I'm going to seek you.
I'm done with life as I know it.
I'm done with loving the world and not
loving you to full capacity.
Because I will tell you, as God is
my witness, you do not want to be
on your deathbed or 20 years from now,
living with tons of regret because you didn't
do something.
And I'm not saying, I'm not talking about
protesting and, and don't, please don't misunderstand or
getting involved, but get involved if God's called
you to do that.
But, but knowing that you prayed and you
fast and you sought God and you, you,
you try to reverse what we see by
seeking him.
Amen.