Amen. When I live in the United States of America, how many of you are citizens of another country? Heaven, maybe? Okay. We know our citizenship spiritually is in heaven. Psalm chapter 33 and verse 12, I believe Brother Ken referred to that earlier after the wonderful song. if my people, which are called by my name, beautiful song. And the harmony was great. All of you just sang right in there and did a great job except for brother Ken. And so at any rate, Psalm chapter 33 and verse number 12, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. America claims that. And I know a lot of people would think this would be referring to Israel, but it says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. And it's hard to divide America or dissociate America from Israel. We've seen a lot about the Holy Land in the last few weeks, and the battle that is going on there, and God's protection upon His people. And we are the nation, the big brother, that the Islamics, when they pray, they pray in their prayer every day, death to America and death to Israel. Israel is considered the little Satan, and our nation is considered the great Satan. The interesting thing about Iran is there's 90 million people there, and in the last few years, over 8 million people have come to Christ. So I know while we want Israel to be safe, we also need to pray for God to send revival to those nations Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. When I was in Bible college, yes I did go to Bible college years ago, back in the dark ages, back before they had printed Bibles. But I remember I had a friend that invited me to a lecture at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. And the lecture, the speaker was a professor from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. And he was very arrogant. And there was about 30 students there, and I was the only guest. And the topic of his lecture that night was Israel's existence, divine or human. And the interesting thing about his whole premise was he was mocking the fact that people claim that God was watching over Israel, and he tried to tear it down. In fact, he even mentioned 1 Kings 6 and 7, where the people of Israel built the temple. How many of you know how many years it took to build the temple? Seven. How many years did it take to build Solomon's temple? 13 years. And so his mocking was, well, looky here. They spent very little time building the temple. And so, you know, I didn't know any better. I raised my hand. And this wasn't a Christian college, by the way. I went down the street to a college called Tennessee Temple University. It was an independent Baptist college. And I raised my hand, and I said, well, If you understand, I want to tell you what I think, why the reason that they built the temple in seven years, like in Nehemiah's day, the people had a mind to work. They were excited about getting the temple. They weren't too much concerned. 13 years for Solomon's Temple. No doubt it was a little bit bigger. And he looked at me in scorn, and he said, I know what your problem is. And I thought, you have no idea. I've got problems that I don't even know about. And my sarcasm and my mockery hasn't just come all about in the last year. I've developed it through the years. It's a gift, OK? And so he said, I know what your problem is. And then someone would say, well, should we call ourselves the sons of God? And he said, yes, you can, but it's a little bit immature to do that. And so I often wonder if that man, who was a Jew himself, ever came to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we think of Independence Day, we need to focus on what God has done and then what He is continuing to do and what he is going to bring about as far as the independence that we celebrate. Great message by our dear brother concerning being a, I am a dependent Baptist. I'm depending on the Lord, but I'm independent from, you know, I'm not a Protestant, and thank the Lord for that. A history, very short history lesson on America, to be able to understand its past, where we are right now, and what is going to happen in the future. First, we need to understand God's blessings upon America's past. God birthed America. We sing the song, my country, tis of thee. where the writer of that song was acknowledging the fact that our country was given to us by God. And as I said, we are the main nation that watches over Israel. And I believe the reason God blesses America is because of Genesis chapter 12 verse 3. God will bless Israel, bless His people, and He'll bring a curse on those that don't. And I'm thankful for our country that we can stand up and watch over this small nation of nine million people. In the first colonies of Jamestown, Virginia, the first community building was a church. And to my knowledge, it is the only building built back during that time that is still standing today. The Puritans act at Plymouth Rock was to kneel and praise God and to dedicate their new colony to the Lord. Roger Williams, who was a relative of mine, I don't believe, was a Baptist minister who established Rhode Island. Lord Baltimore held a church service in establishing Maryland. William Penn, a Quaker, established Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia and Connecticut. We don't want to leave those out. So when we read their writings, we see that there is no doubt that God had his fingerprints upon the birth of America. And thank God for that. William Penn, in writing Government Policies for Pennsylvania, made sure that all treasurers, judges, and all elected officials profess faith in Jesus Christ. That's a far cry today from what we have with some of our elected officials. But they had a desire back then that they would follow Christ. In our institutions, we call them institutions of higher learning, Harvard When it began, their motto was truth for Christ and his church. Yale was started by 10 pastors, and their motto was light and truth. The University of Pennsylvania was started by the great evangelist, George Whitefield, if you've heard of him, and Benjamin Franklin. Princeton was a seminary that was started for pastors. And we see back during the founding of our nation, these men and the places of institution were started or began in order to teach the word of God. Our founding fathers consistently spoke of the need for utilizing the Bible in defining and persevering this nation. Twelve of the thirteen colonies incorporated the Ten Commandments into their civil and criminal codes. President John Adams said this, the law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal code as well as a moral and religious code. These are laws essential to the existence of men in society, and professed in society and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws. Vain indeed would be the search among the writings of secular history to find so broad, so complete, and so solid a basis of morality as the Ten Commandments laid out. The American Bible Society was started as an act of Congress. And John Adams, our second president, served as the first leader. Our laws are based upon the Ten Commandments and the Bible. Charles Finney, that great evangelist of years gone by, he was studying law. And he fell under conviction while he was studying law because the law books in that day were filled with Scripture. And he became convicted by the power of the Word of God. And as a result, in his latter life, or not latter life, early life, came to know the Lord. The Supreme Court building which was built in 1935, has a carving on the front of the building of Moses and the Ten Commandments. In the House of Representatives, across from the Speaker of the House's seat, is a sculpture of Moses. They recognized, in the early stages of our nation, and even in the early 1900s, that we are under the Lord's law, the Lord's rule. George Washington said, it is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are indispensable supporters. In 1782, the United States Congress voted in favor of a resolution recommending and approving the Bible for use in schools. Henry Lawrence, fourth president of the Continental Congress, said this, I had the honor of being one of the framers, one who framed the Constitution. In order effectually to accomplish these great constitutional ends, it is especially the duty of those who bear rule to promote and encourage respect for God and virtue. Patrick Henry, the first governor of Virginia and a member of the Continental Congress stated, it cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not by religion but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we need to understand our past and God's fingerprint, His handprint, even on our monetary system, has the phrase, in God we trust. Our pledge, one nation under God, was inserted in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower. By the way, he was from Kansas. Amen. I'm from Kansas. I thank you. He's a good man. I've been to the museum there of the president and the old phrase, I like Ike. I was reading an article that they had on the wall there, a newspaper clipping, that during his inauguration, he did not want them to use their Bible. He wanted them to use, and this is the, if you ever go through Kansas and go to Dwight Ike, go to the museum, you'll see that article. And he said, I want to place my hand on my mother's King James Bible, the one that was read to him when he was a child. And I thought that was rather interesting. And so, You know, yes, God did birth America, but he blessed America as well. And for sake of time, you know, you can look around on your own and see how God has blessed us. Think in 1953, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and how God watched over our nation. But you could also see a decline in our nation when we took prayer and Bible out of the school And then John Kennedy was assassinated. Our moral decline has gone down tremendously. We lead the nation. One out of every 10 Americans are addicted to drug and alcohol. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world, the largest prison population in the world. I wonder if any of us will ever get a visit Alligator Alcatraz. Now, I've been across Alligator Alley, and I guarantee you if they do get to the highway, they'll be very, very fortunate, because the alligators are quite feisty down there. Not that I know, but I just kept on driving. We have the highest abortion rate by a large margin. Three million reports of child abuse in America. One out of every four houses, homes, is without a father. 62% of Americans support same-sex marriage or union. Yet there are 380,000 churches in America. And it seems like the church is not having an impact on the morality of our nation. The only hope isn't the government, it's Jesus. Let's not worry about making America great again. Let's allow God to be great in our nation. It's not about riches. It's not about being the biggest and the best. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate our president. I think his wife needs to wash his mouth out with soap. But at any rate, I pray for him as you do. But I want to close with this. As present, what do we do now? What the Bible tells us in John chapter 14, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now how do they do that? You and I are called to go out into the world and tell others about Christ. America is a land where anyone can hear the gospel. I heard the gospel when I was 19 years of age. I didn't hear it before that time, but I heard the gospel at the age of 19. Do you realize there are some nations and some third world countries where there are individuals that have never, not one time, heard the name of Jesus? And yet you and I, we've taken it for granted what God has done in our lives. When I pastored a church up in Bentonville, in fact, I was thinking about that, it was September the 14th, 1994, yeah, 2014, that we started that new church and it's still going there. Paul Frisby is the pastor. I prayed for that church, Crossroads Baptist Church. And our motto was, meeting God or crossroads where you meet God at the end, I can't even think of it now, it's been so long ago. I think, do you want a biggie fry? I don't know, maybe that's what we used to put on it. But I used to not only do the janitorial work, but also, in a small church, do everything. I mowed the lawn. I had a young man that worked for me at that time, Dennis. And Dennis and I would go over and mow the lawn. And we got there one day, and there was a note or a letter stuck in the door. And I pulled it out, and it had a $20 bill in it with the note that said this. I come by your church every morning and we had a lighted cross on the front of the church was a glass brick that was probably 20 feet high and 10 or 15 feet across and it had four lights. And very beautiful, it would shine at night. But this man said, I notice a couple of your light bulbs are burnt out, and I want to give this money for you to be able to replace the light bulbs. I felt a little bit embarrassed. Wasn't long after that, the young man and I, I said, we need to hurry and get over there, because I want to check and see if the light bulb, just a few months later, I want to see if the light bulb burned out. And sure enough, the light bulb had burned out, and there was a note on the door. And it said, here's some money to change your light bulbs. And then we realized later, you could put LED lights on. You wouldn't have to climb up in the attic. It was very difficult for a skinny man like me to get up into the attic and change the light bulbs. And on that note, and it really spoke to my heart when this man said, I appreciate the lighted cross. It brings joy to my heart. And of course, we know just a lighted cross, but the emphasis, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and shining the light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he signed his name at the bottom and it was on his stationery, Retired General or Army General David Blackaby. And I thought, you know, here I was worried about getting to the church and the light bulbs would not be burned out for a human general. What about Jesus, who is the light of the world? He said, I am the light of the world. But you know what he also said? You are the lights of the world. And you and I are reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. And I am so thankful. This week, I've just enjoyed myself. Someone asked me, how come you didn't come down to the the picnic and and I said, you know, I just kind of stayed around house and enjoyed myself and and But you know, I'm thankful I had the freedom and you and I had the freedom to be able to worship God today We can go home rest. We can go to work without a government watching over us and placing us in jail we take our freedoms for granted and And God placed His hand upon America. And let's pray that He will continue to bless America in the future.