PSALMS 33:12
A BLESSED BENEFACTOR
BLESSES BOUNTIFULLY
I. OUR BIOGRAPHY:
A. Birth.
B. Beliefs.
C. Brevity.
II. OUR BLESSINGS:
A. Benefactor.
B. Beginnings.
C. Bountifully.
III. OUR BEHAVIOUR:
A. Beacon.
B. Bastion.
C. Banishment?
The Psalmist was correct when he uttered our text so long ago. A nation is blessed when it claims God as its Lord. History has been ripe with examples of the many nations who have served God and the results when those same nations have drifted away from their moorings and have ceased to follow God as a nation.
This sermon is not about other nations, as such, but it is about America and how blessed it has been, still is, by a Blessed Benefactor who still Blesses our country Bountifully. While we can enjoy these blessings daily, one has to wonder just how long the favors of God will last as we continue on our path way of liberalism and rejection of godly ways in so many areas of our national life.
I see three things here in this verse about a nation whose God is the Lord as the verse applies to America. The first thing I see is in regard to OUR BIOGRAPHY, what have we written, and what are we writing in the annals of history about God, His blessings and His care for us? How have we responded to His blessings? What will history say about what we wrote while we were a nation on this Earth? The next thing I note has to do with OUR BLESSINGS that God has given America over the years of our existence. While we cannot enumerate all of His blessings, there are many we can mention which have marked our land as a special land, which has been bountifully blessed by God. Lastly, I have to note OUR BEHAVIOUR as a nation in the light of so many mercies given to us by a great Bountiful Benefactor
I. OUR BIOGRAPHY: If there is one country who has written a well developed biography, it is America. From the first new comers to these shores, to the settlement at Jamestown, to the formation of our government, it seems that certain thing have been noted in the annuls of our history. Time has dulled some of the facts but by and large, the BIOGRAPHY of our land is open for all to read. The question then arises as to what is contained in these writings of ours?
The first has to do with our Birth of a nation. No other country started like ours. It started with the desire to worship God as one wanted to do and the notion grew until hundreds, thousands flooded our shore with the intent of honoring God as they wanted. There were many who came for other reasons but by and large, this was the driving force which helped create our nation and gave birth to a new land. From the first to the last movement of our new nation undergoing birthing pangs, the end result was that our Creator would be recognized as the One who created the government and set the course for a new ship of state.
With the birthing process under way for years only to be culminated in 1776, the rock bottom anchorage that guided this new land was the fact that we held certain Beliefs as a nation which were to become part of our very fiber. Without a State Church being organized and promoted, the underpinnings of our core Beliefs are that there was/is a God in Heaven and He sent forth His Son, Jesus who is called the Christ, to be the Redeemer of all mankind.
Many and separate groups, although differing in governmental philosophies and hierarchical orders, came together to form a core of creeds about God and Christ which molded this land as no other nation has ever been molded. From the man on the street, to the President of the country, there were by and large certain core beliefs of doctrine that wielded this conglomerate nation of immigrants into what could be called a Christian nation. The bottom lined rested on the premise that God was our Lord and this nation was founded on that one main principal which gave it guidance and purpose in the society of nations around the world. And, as our BIOGRAPHY is being written from the earliest days until now, one cannot but ascertain that our beliefs are slipping away at an alarming rate. The Brevity of our Beliefs seems to be gathering speed in these last few years.
As God looks upon the nations of this world, He sees time in a completely different manner than what we do. The last two hundred years plus may seem long, but they are really very brief. If we look at a generation as comprising twenty years, it becomes obvious that it has taken only about 25 generations from our birth to our bane. The core concepts upon which we were founded seems to be slipping away from us surely as night follows day. What will the writers of history say in the future as they look at America and her beliefs in God?
The BIOGRAPHY which we are writing is indeed for the world to see and especially for God to read. How quickly we have declined from that in which we once believed. The Brevity of our creeds is alarming. Can we honestly say that we are blessed because our God is the Lord? We have been able to claim that for years, but is that time running out? Is God our Lord? Is our nation claiming that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still our God? The writing we are doing for posterity is simply this: we started as a nation from our Birth, our conception as claiming God to be our God. Our Beliefs in Him was our guiding force for decades-we could rely on Him. However, these articles of faith are slipping and the Brevity of these former creeds of faith are now relegated to the annals of memories. Our BIOGRAPHY is interesting to read but it is short.
II. OUR BLESSINGS: Yet with all of our past and present decline, we still are a blessed nation and for millions of Christians we still claim that the God of our land is indeed the Lord. Perhaps it is due to so many common Christians who stubbornly cling to this position that gives God the pleasure of blessing this land.
There is, in spite of all of our down sitting, many BLESSINGS of our God upon our land. We still are the envy of the world. Millions of the world’s populous would do anything to be among us. This country, although racked by internal discord and division, still holds out hope for the masses of the world’s poorest who dream of getting to America to enjoy our bountifulness bestowed on us by our God who is the Lord. God cannot and will not forget the saints who congregate in small and big churches who pray weekly for His help. He cannot turn His back on the millions of people who kneel in their homes, who bow their heads in prayer daily and seek His favor. He cannot turn His back on the millions of common, ordinary people who work the farms, the factories, the furnaces of the driving engines of our commerce who read His word, who trust in Him for everything, who proudly proclaim Him as their God, because He is our God, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. His BLESSINGS are given because He is the One and only true Benefactor of America.
All of our bountiful harvests, our mighty production of durable goods, our waving grains of wheat, our abundance of harvest from apples to zucchini, are all traceable to Him-our Benefactor. Who has carved out the rivers and generated the springs from which our water supply comes? Who sends the rain, the sun, the winter gales all for one purpose to keep things abundant in America? Who has created the trees, the coal, the oil, the natural gas, the ores of our land to make us the richest nation on the face of the earth? Our Benefactor, that is who!!!
He has taken great strides to bless this land, to set godly people in its midst to work the fields, mine the mines, fish the streams, cut the trees, tend to the soil and to worship Him. America owes everything to Him-our bountiful blessed Benefactor.
Long before this nation was discovered and settled, our God was busy creating wonderful things in this land. From the Beginning of time, He had a purpose for this land. Only He could have done what we now see as evidence of His handiwork. The Bible tells us that in the days of Peleg, (I Chronicles 1:19) when the earth was divided, it appears that God split the Americas off from the rest of the world-especially Europe/Africa, to send it adrift to where it is now. He did so because He had a purpose for the future furthering and formation of His Church and for a homeland for His people, the Jews, when they had no place to call “home” as history has recorded. Scientists have now come to the conclusion that our land was once part of Europe and Africa, but something happened and we are now here, separated by the oceans yet not forgotten. From the Beginnings of time and the isolation of America for specific purposes, God had plans for this land and He incorporated Blessings that are still being enjoyed today. No wonder we American Christians, by the score, claim Psalms 33:12 as our mantra: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” He is our God and He is our Lord.
Time is of the essence and it is necessary to move on, but before I leave this second main point of my message, I want to say something about the Bountiful blessings of our God. While we have enjoyed these undeserved BLESSINGS of our God, one has to wonder about the future. Are we using these resources wisely? Are we saving enough for our future generations to enjoy? Are we so engrossed with what God has done for this land that we are using the riches He has given as if there is no tomorrow? What will history say about us? The BLESSINGS this Benefactor has given us are many and great; but, will they last forever? Will God grow weary with us as we turn from Him to a more secular society and will He will dry up these blessings He has provided for us? He gave them to us-He can also take them away. If we, as a nation turn from Him, will He cease these riches He has bestowed upon us? If we do not stem the tide of secularism and our drift towards a “me” society, will He withdraw His hand from our land? Will our children’s children proclaim Him as the God of America? Will they claim Psalms 33:12 as their slogan? What are we teaching our children about A Blessed Benefactor and how He Blesses Bountifully?
III. OUR BEHAVIOUR: I come to the last part of my sermon which concerns our actions in the light of all which God has done for us. How is our BEHAVIOUR doing in the world today? Are we still the same nation that God intended for us to be after all He has done for us? First let us look at our past BEHAVIOUR.
Ever since America was formed, indeed before it was a nation, our stand for God as being our Lord was a Beacon to the world. Religious liberty!!! Who would ever dream that there could be a place on this globe where one could practice his/her religion according to the dictates of one’s own conscience?
Europe had many nations and many State Churches. England had the Church of England; the Scandinavian countries and part of Germany had the Lutheran Church; Many of the eastern nations along with Belgium, France, Spain, and Italy and part of Germany, had the Roman Catholic Church; Holland had the Reformed Church; Russia had the Russian Orthodox Church; Greece had the Greek Orthodox Church, and parts of Egypt had the Egyptian Orthodox Church; Ethiopia had the Ethiopian Coptic Church and for awhile Jerusalem had the Jerusalem Orthodox Church. Within the confines of each nation it seemed imperative that each citizen worship what was told one to worship. Religious freedom was not appreciated by the organized religious bodies of these various states. Yet, America-how different! The masses came and they brought their way of worshipping. Some carried on in the faith in which they were raised, while others were of a different stripe and worshiped in ways they felt were best for them. They were not denied their right to worship as they chose; they were not denied entrance; and, they were not turned away from these shores: they came because America was a Beacon of hope and religious freedom to all.
What about our BEHVIOUR now? Are we still the land that beckons the world’s people to come and worship as they wish? What about the millions of Moslems who are filtering into our land? Will they welcome any deviance in their appeal to the masses to come and worship as they choose? Will they claim that the God of our land is the Lord? Will we be blessed because we have abided by this openness? Will they allow this principle to be applied to the future? We need to pray for our land and its future and to keep God’s blessings on us because He is our God and Lord.
How is our land now as compared with its history? Are we the Bastion of moral rectitude as we once were? Will God continually bless us because we claim Him as our God and Lord and still be a stronghold for right and truth? What ways will be taken as we come to many crossroads in our national life? Will our leaders still stand for truth? Will they be a rock solid representative of honesty? Will our churches be proclaiming the truth about sin, forgiveness, Christ, Redemption, Heaven and Hell? If we fail to be a Bastion of truth for God, we will lose our way like many other nations who have lost their way before us.
As I close this sermon, I cannot help but call on America to proclaim that we, as a nation, are blessed because God is our Lord. If we fail to claim Him as our God and Lord, We will be suffering the ultimate price-our Banishment, our ceasing to be a force for Him in this world. As long as we proclaim Him to be our God, we will survive and prosper; when we cease to honor Him as our God and Lord, we will decline. Our Banishment will be as other nations who have forsaken the God of all Gods. Our decline will be swift and sure.
May I call on you to join with me in a moment of introspection? First, what about our own hearts and our own lives? Is God still our God on a personal level? Have we submitted all to Him? Are we living our lives according to His wishes to the best of our ability? What about us-individually-as we look deep into our hearts? Is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-our God? If not, He can be, if we open our hearts to Him now.
Then, what about our land? Is this God our God across the length and breath of these blessed, bountiful shores? Are we doing all we can to promote Him to be the God of our land? Are we living daily, weekly, monthly and year to year within the framework that the Almighty God is the God of America and we are doing our best to keep Him in that revered spot? If we can honestly say yes to all of these questions, then we can be assured that God knows and He will extend His hand of mercy a bit longer if every Christian can affirm the truth of my text, that this god is our God and our Lord.
