Make America Godly Again
Ps. 33:12-22
Get all resources for this sermon at:
https://www.gracenotessermons.com/sermons/patriotic-sermons/make-america-godly-again/
Recently when I entered a voting booth I felt intimidated, like someone was watching me. Outside the polling station were many signs and even some people standing there offering literature. But the experience to which I am referring was inside the building, in the ‘privacy’ of a booth. I got the feeling that someone else could see my choices. And I felt pressure to vote the way THEY wanted me to.
But before you make out a police report, just know my experience wasn’t an unwelcome problem for me, for it was the eyes of my heavenly Father that were watching me, and I fully agreed with His promptings.
America is in a real mess, but my Father makes my choices really simple. It’s so straightforward. It’s obvious. For this reason I don’t have to tell you how to vote…God already has!
For America to be great again, America will have to be Godly again!
Hold on, are we supposed to be talking about this?
Well, there are three God-ordained institutions: the home, the church, and the government. Nobody says boo when we preach about the home or the church, but they try to assert that we can’t preach about the government. They say that church and state are to be separate. They should be reminded that our forefathers had just escaped government persecution of the church, and they wanted to keep them out of their business…not the other way around. Quite the contrary, our entire moral code was founded on the Bible!
Some Christians have been intimidated…and they’ve heard the ACLU and media talk soooo much about the separation of church and state—that they’ve actually started to believe in it.
In case you don’t know, that phrase never appears in the Constitution!
(however it is found in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto!) It was coined in the U.S. from a letter the principle framer of the Constitution and Third President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association assuring them that he would keep the Government out of the Church (NOT the Church out of the Government). He was saying, never again will there be a government sponsored church like you had back in England, where everyone is forced to attend and support!
This is why the first amendment says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…
There IS such a thing as separation of church and state, and it is intended as a one-way street!
Some say, no, they wanted to keep both separate!
Well, let’s think about that.
1. First colonies – Jamestown, Va. First community bldg was a church. It’s the only bldg there with wall still standing today.
2. Puritans first act at Plymouth Rock = kneel, praise God, and dedicate the new colony.
3. Roger Williams (Bapt. Minister) est. Rhode Island.
4. Lord Baltimore held church service in establishing Maryland.
5. William Penn (Quaker) est. Penn, NY, DEL, Conn, NC, SC, Georgia.
Ill. -- When you read their writings you see no doubt that God birthed America.
6. William Penn in writing gov’t policies for PA made sure “all treasurers, judges, and all elected officials professed faith in Christ.”
Our Founding Fathers consistently spoke of the need for utilizing the Bible and Judeo-Christian values in defining and preserving this nation:
* Twelve of the original 13 colonies incorporated the entire Ten Commandments into their civil and criminal codes.
Our first president, George Washington, took the oath of office and put his hand on what? (the Bible)
What was his first official act as President? (kissed the Bible, then held a 2 hr. praise/worship session in Congress)
How did they determine to open sessions of Congress? (in prayer)
Who would lead in those prayers? (chaplains)
How would they be paid? (tax dollars)
Does all of that sound like they wanted to keep God out of government?
By the way, opening in prayer is an ironic subject…why is it that the little boys and girls cannot in school, but the big Congressmen can?
Who decided to put “In God We Trust” on our coins? It was adopted by Congress in 1956!
*In 1776, 11 of the 13 colonies required that one had to be a Christian to be eligible to run for political office. [what if today?!]
*In 1777, the Continental Congress voted to spend $300,000 to purchase Bibles for distribution in the nation.
* President John Adams stated, “The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal code as well as a moral and religious code.”
*94% OF THE WRITINGS OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE U.S. CONTAINED QUOTATIONS FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
*THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS OF ALL 50 STATES MENTION GOD.
*The famous "Liberty Bell" [desecrated this week by pro-Hamas rioters who would be raped and killed by them if they were to meet] has part of Leviticus 25:10 inscribed on it: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."
*Proverbs 14:34 is inscribed above the L.A. city hall door: "RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION: BUT SIN IS A REPROACH TO ANY PEOPLE."
*An image of Moses the lawgiver faces the Speaker of the House of Representatives. This is where Netanyahu spoke this week.
* The Supreme Court [bldg. entrance features Moses at the center of several lawgivers…some of the justices MUST enter from the back or something!] itself begins each of its sessions with the phrase 'God save the United States and this honorable court,'
*The entering President takes his OATH OF OFFICE with his right hand on the Holy Bible, and concludes his vow "So help me God."
*First Vice President and Second President, John Adams wrote in 1798:
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." [how true!]
*His son and our sixth President, John Quincy Adams said:
"No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible."
* President Thomas Jefferson:
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - 1781
*Theodore Roosevelt, America's 26th President, wrote:
"In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at, or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid down-grade." - 1917
*Woodrow Wilson, our 28th President and Governor of New Jersey, said this:
"America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scripture." - 1911
*Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, said this about our founding fathers:
"They were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principle of self-government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness... Who can fail to see it in the hand of destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence." - 1923
*Franklin Roosevelt prayed this prayer on a national radio hookup on D-Day, June 6, 1944, as our troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France:
"Almighty God... with Thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance. Lead us to the saving of our country. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen."
*Harry Truman, our 33rd President, not known to be a committed believer, understood the spiritual heritage of this nation:
"If men and nations would but live by the precepts of the ancient prophets and the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, problems which now seem so difficult would soon disappear.”
*Gerald Ford, our 38th President, quoted a 1955 speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower on December 5, 1974:
"Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first - the most basic - expression of Americanism. Thus the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be."
*President Ronald Reagan:
"If we ever forget that we are 'One nation, under God', then we will be one nation gone under."
*George W. Bush was asked to name the greatest influence on his life, this was his answer:
"Christ, because he changed my heart"
*Soon after he was hit by a would-be assassin’s bullet, Donald Trump said it was “God alone” who spared his life. “I stand before you only by the grace of God.”
If the intention of separation of church and state was to keep the church from influencing the government, then the vast majority of our founders, leaders, and presidents have ignored that directive!
Our text in Psalm 33:12 begins: “Blessed is the nation whose…”
And how does it continue? “…whose president is Trump”?
Whose economy recovers? / whose border wall is built?
No. Read it with me: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”!
v. 22 ends “we hope in thee”
It is vain to trust in kings [Psalm 146:3]
Yes, it is vain to trust in men…especially prideful ones with no record of righteousness and with personal morals only rivaled by Bill Clinton. This doesn’t mean I won’t support him. We don’t elect a pastor-in-chief, but a president. But as I see conservative America ‘hero worship’ a ‘king-like’ man and put their hope and trust in him I shudder in fear. We should be seeking God’s blessings. Would He vote for us?
If we truly want to be great again, we must seek to be Godly again! Our once Christian nation seems to be lacking, well, Christians! [you?]
The Bible teaches that we should vote for principles, for morality, and righteousness which exalts a nation. We should vote for principle over pocketbook. Is it wrong to want to be prosperous? No, but the Scriptures are very clear that it is God who brings the increase, not politicians.
During the Clinton years all America cared about was Dow Jones, when we should have cared about ‘Paula Jones’. Have we come full circle? Will you really rejoice as long as you prosper, even if your leaders have the morals of alley cats? Pray that he is revived, that we all will be!
I am hopeful for America to be great again…and it will only happen if America becomes Godly again.
You can know how to vote by looking at one single issue: abortion. And it’s a losing issue today. But we must ‘win’ the praise of heaven! Innocent blood cries out to God. Which president should I choose?
Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
America is being force fed a pot-smoking female candidate, childless, whose record is the most liberal in history, especially when it comes to the unborn. Our choice is easy, based on this one issue. And yet there are so many other issues, like support of Israel. She chose to visit a sorority! We must stand for God’s people. We must stand for the unborn.
The United States of America is over 240 years old. That’s young in a historical perspective, but it's a long time for a nation to remain free. [are we overdue?] But really, when you look at our history in the context of world history America is just a CHILD among the nations. Egypt, China, Japan, Rome, Greece: they all make America’s history seem so short. Consider what a brief time we’ve really been here as a nation: When Thomas Jefferson died, Abraham Lincoln was a young man of 17. When Lincoln was assassinated, Woodrow Wilson was a boy of 8. By the time he died Ronald Reagan was a boy of 12. Reagan died 10 years after Kamala Harris was dating Willie Brown, the speaker of the house in California, who was married. Her career began as he appointed her to some lucrative government posts before she then dated Montel Williams, her next stop in ‘sleeping her way to the top.’
Point is: The lives of four presidents can take you all the way back to the beginning of our country. We are so young. And yet we stand tall among the nations because of the principles on which we were established. But we are moving away from those blessed principles.
There are now two Americas. Half of our nation is now drenched in ignorance. Many are angry and protest simply just to vent. When you look at this American Flag please realize that these red stripes are bars of blood, a price paid for you to be free! And when people today burn that flag in ignorant demonstrations, it’s not freedom of speech, it’s high treason against the land of the free and the home of the brave, and should be prosecuted as such! If we truly want to be great again, we must seek to be Godly again!
Revisionists want to rewrite history to undermine our Godly heritage. They try to tell us this nation wasn’t really founded upon God.
Why can’t some Americans accept their roots? Even a South American president years ago said, “People came to my continent looking for gold, but those who came to America were looking for God!”
1620—1st pilgrims arrived. A little band of people crossed the Atlantic in a sailboat 26 X 113 feet…they landed on the Atlantic coast in the bitter cold of winter. As they stepped off the Mayflower they signed a compact, the 2nd paragraph of which begins: “For the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith.”
The Puritans: they gave their reasons for coming to America as well. In the opening sequence of the New England Confederation it says: “Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in liberty and peace.”
Benjamin Franklin, when once challenged about having a political session opened with prayer said, "I've lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth —That God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who build it.”
Who said the following?
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”
1863—Abraham Lincoln, in proclaiming a national thanksgiving day.
It would be easy to lose hope, except for the fact that our hope is in the Lord, and not in man. It’s in God’s hands, and yet, He said…
II Chron. 7
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Here’s a NT version:
1 Peter 4:17
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Our hope is not in the white house, state house, court house, but in God’s house, and your house and my house!
If we want America to be great again, we must be godly again! We need spiritual freedom. We must be born again!
Get all resources for this sermon at:
https://www.gracenotessermons.com/sermons/patriotic-sermons/make-america-godly-again/
