INTRODUCTION
• PC VIDEO
• SLIDE #1
• As we celebrate this 4th of July holiday we should thank all those who have fought for the freedoms that we have.
• We live in the greatest country in the world. I believe that we live in the greatest country that has ever been.
• I want to thank all of you who have sacrificed to keep us a free nation. I hope that if our freedoms are in jeopardy again that we will respond with the same selflessness that you have.
• I want us to consider what made this country great. I believe the greatness of our country emanates from three sources.
• The foundation on which the nation was built upon, the great leaders who saw fit to build the nation on those principles, and the great people of the nation who were willing to see the wisdom of the leaders who set forth this nation.
• As great as our nation is, I am saddened when is see where this nation was to where it is today. I am afraid if the American people do not wake up and start to see where we have been going over the last 50 years that we will reach a point of no return.
• I am not convinced that our founder fought for the rights of pornographers to put their trash out.
• I am not convinced that our founders fought so that we could take God out of our schools and society.
• I am not convinced that our founder fought for Gay rights. I am not convinced that our founders fought so that a class of elitists could force their will on the people.
• I am not convinced that our founders fought for a government that intrudes into every aspect of our lives.
• Do you think the founders of this great nation fought and died for what has been done to this nation?
• God was important to our Founding Fathers, they were far from perfect men, but they knew our nation needed to have its foundation built upon Christian principles.
• SLIDE #2
• Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, editor (Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, p. 297, April 17, 1787.
• SLIDE #3
• 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. (Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XIII, p. 292-294. In a letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813.)
• SLIDE #4
• As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and His religion as He left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see. Benjamin Franklin, Works of Benjamin Franklin, John Bigelow, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904), p. 185, to Ezra Stiles, March 9, 1790.
• SLIDE #5
• The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evil men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 339, “Advice to the Young,” ¶ 53
• I can give you quotes for days. But let us move on.
• The founders fought for freedom. They felt that freedom was found in Jesus. They built this nation on Christian principles. The foundation of the Country is the Bible and faith in Jesus. This fact cannot be disputed.
• When this nation was being formed we had leaders who stepped up and answered the call. These men though not perfect were great men to whom we owe a lot for the sacrifices they made in helping form this great nation of ours!
• Today we are going to be in Exodus 18:21.
• I go to this passage because it gives us principles that we can use when we choose those who will lead our nation.
• Moses was leading the Israelites in the wilderness; he was trying to do all the work of leadership himself.
• One day Moses father-in-law Jethro saw that Moses was spending all day dealing with judgments and disputes among the people.
• Jethro confronted Moses and told him he needed to find others to help in the role of settling the disputes and making the judgments. In essence Moses was told to find men to help him lead.
• Well let’s turn to Exodus 18:21 to see what we can learn.
• SLIDE #6
• Exodus 18:21 (ESV) Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
• What can we do to see that the country quits destroying our foundation?
• An organization, a church or a country will only go as far as its leaders take it.
• SLIDE #7
SERMON
To be a leader who can answer the call we must elect:
I. Leaders who are able to lead.
• Moreover, look for able men from all the people,
• Jethro tells Moses the first thing to look for is people who are ABLE from all he people.
• Notice he does not tell Moses to get any warm body, he suggests that he looks for (in this context) men who are able.
• Moses authority would have been damaged had he just picked his buddies or other people who were not able to lead.
• The word ABLE in implies that Moses was to look for men that possessed qualities character, leadership and success.
• We see that in the church we are called to look for the same qualities in leaders and servants.
• SLIDE #8
• Acts 6:3 (ESV) Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
• We need to ask folks before they run for office, what success have you had? What qualifies you to do this job?
• When you think about our country today, who has gotten us in the mess we are in? the “professional politicians.” They are the ones who are racking up debts, voting to do all kinds of things that hurt the country.
• Too many times our “leaders” try to regulate or write laws about things they know nothing about. Remember the Baseball steroid issue and most recently one of our leaders called for congress to regulate boxing, like that would make the sport better?
• It is time that we demand and chose real leaders who are capable of leading, who have a track record of success!
• Our country is at a crossroads, we need to really search for people who have been successful in life before we put them in charge of a country!
• SLIDE #9
To be a leader who can answer the call we must elect:
II. Leaders who fear God.
• John Jay the first Chief Justice of the Supreme court stated
• SLIDE #10
• Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. William Jay, The Life of John Jay (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833), Vol. II, p. 376, to John Murray Jr. on October 12, 1816.
• SLIDE #11
• No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.
--Excerpt from the Tennessee constitution of 1796: Article VIII, Section II. The Constitutions of the United States of America with the Latest Amendments (Trenton: Moore & Lake, 1813), pp. 342, 344
• SLIDE #12
• Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits . . . it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers. Fisher Ames. Framer of the First Amendment (Source: Fisher Ames, An Oration on the Sublime Virtues of General George Washington (Boston: Young & Minns, 1800), p. 23.)
• SLIDE #13
• The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible. Patrick Henry, Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches, William Wirt Henry, editor (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1891), Vol. II, p. 592, to Archibald Blair on January 8, 1799.
• We need leaders who fear God because people who do not fear God are left to their own devices, they feel they answer to no one but self.
• SLIDE #14
• Proverbs 1:7 (ESV) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
• A person who does not fear the Lord has nothing to keep him from doing whatever they want to. A person who does not fear God does not have a moral compass to keep them straight.
• SLIDE #15
• Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet. Robert Winthrop Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives (Source: Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions(Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his "Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.")
• WE need people of conviction as leaders, we need to quit putting folks in who just care about re-election. Real leaders will do the right thing because they know who they really answer to.
• SLIDE #16
To be a leader who can answer the call we must elect:
III. Leaders who are trustworthy.
• who are trustworthy
• We need people in leadership that can be trusted. In your marriage relationships, you want to be able to trust your spouse.
• Think of the breakdown that happens when the bond of trust is broken.
• If we cannot trust our leaders, we will question everything they do, we will look at everything that they do with suspicion.
• SLIDE #17
• Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime & pure, [and] which denounces against the wicked eternal misery, and [which] insured to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments. Charles Carroll of Carrollton Signer of the Declaration of Independence (Source: Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers, 1907), p. 475. In a letter from Charles Carroll to James McHenry of November 4, 1800.)
• It is a sad commentary when in the greatest nation in the world, that we EXPECT our leaders to lie.
• We do have to take this! IF we want to restore or keep the wonderful country we have, we MUST hold our leaders accountable for being truthful.
• When those in leadership KNOW they will pay a price for lying and for being untrustworthy they will change or be removed.
• When a person campaigns for office, they should be able to be trusted, it is sad that a person can say ANYTHING they want to get elected and yet we do not hold them to their word.
• I had a politician lie to my face in my home about the Missouri Lottery.
• He was from the side of the isle I did not usually vote for. He promised he would not support the lottery, then he because the deciding vote for it.
• I called his office and was given a lame explanation, it boiled down to Joe breaking his promise because of party pressure. I NEVER voted for him again. JOE MAXWELL
• SLIDE #18
To be a leader who can answer the call we must elect:
IV. Leaders who are honest.
• and hate a bribe
• It is so important that the people who we elect to political office are people who hate dishonest gain.
• Once again, this is something that we hear from people. “They are all dishonest and they are only out for themselves.”
• There was a time when people would serve as leaders and would not come out millionaires.
• I am not saying that people have to lose everything, but you have to wonder why a person would spend millions for a job that pays under $300,000.
• Politicians on both sides are just raking in the money with insider information.
• Our leaders should be above reproach. Just think what would have happened if Moses had picked men who were dishonest?
• They could have been bought off and their decisions would have been influenced.
• When we perceive our leaders are dishonest, we owe it to those who sacrificed for us, men like Jefferson and Washington, to get rid of them and replace them with honest men.
• We had people who keep getting put in office because they could deliver the money to their districts. We have sold out our country for 30 pieces of silver.
• People who are fond of dishonest gain should be run out of office and not be allowed to hold office again!
CONCLUSION
• Our founding fathers left us with a great nation. The question is, “How long can we hold on to it?”
• Our founders left us with a great nation based on religious principles. The founders plainly stated that this country was meant to be a Christian nation. They believed that without this foundation, the country would fall apart.
• DO you think they knew what they were talking about.
• SLIDE #19
• Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. In this sense and to this extent, our civilizations and our institutions are emphatically Christian. -- Richmond v. Moore, Illinois Supreme Court, 1883)
• I want to once again thank those who have fought for our freedom. I think we all know people who have fought and we know those who have died for our freedom.
• Whenever you think that you can’t make a difference or that we can’t change the status quo, remember those who gave of themselves for us.
• The way to change things is to makes sure that we chose leaders who fear God, who are men of truth and who hate dishonest gain!
