Thank you, Wes.
When he sang, I saw the light,
I could almost picture Hank Williams with his white hat on singing.
I was teasing him about that at the 8 o'clock service.
But Fred Stone and I have been friends since before both of us were married.
And over the years, talked and carried on.
And you heard him say something last Sunday about my attire, didn't you?
Pray that I wear the proper attire.
So we email back and forth this week
and doing the things that we typically do.
But I've got a photograph I need to show you.
Or you have it.
Now he says he's not fond of bow ties,
but a picture is worth a thousand words.
And after having done that,
I'll probably be my last Sunday here.
I do want to share with you something this morning
that's really important, I think.
And I don't know what to call it,
so I just call it America the Beautiful.
And we have been blessed
within the confines of our borders.
But the question is,
why are we the beautiful?
Why have we been blessed?
And it's not because we're just special.
It's not because we work hard.
It's not because we fought.
But it's because God in his infinite wisdom
decided to show us his faith.
And so he's blessed.
So I want you to look in Acts chapter 17.
I believe there is such a thing as a proper patriotism
where you love your country,
but you don't worship it.
You worship God.
And if you can see in your country,
whatever country that is,
the blessings of God,
then that should attract our attention.
Over 20 years ago,
when we went to Utica Baptist Church in Seneca,
we brought a practice with us
that we had started in Spartanburg,
and we would have an annual
God in Country celebration.
And it just grew to the place
that we had to have two services.
And at one time,
we had over 1,000 people coming to it.
And especially had a lot of people coming to it
when you gave away free barbecue.
But it was one of those flag-waving things.
But here's what it did.
We had all of these people coming
and packing the place out,
singing patriotic songs,
but we transitioned,
and the second half of the program,
we presented the gospel.
And some of those people
might not have ever given us a hearing
if we hadn't had that for them.
But I want you to look in Acts 17.
Paul is in Athens.
That's important.
He's doing his sermon on Mars Hill.
He's talking to a group of philosophers
and intellectuals
who wanted to debate issues
just for the sake of debating issues.
They weren't interested necessarily
in anything life-changing.
They just wanted to talk about different things.
So if you look in verse 24,
well, back in verse 23,
he says to these Athenians,
he notices that there's pictures of God,
statues of God all around in the city.
And he said in verse 4,
you even have an inscription
at one altar to an unknown God.
So there are all kinds of gods and goddesses
they worship in Athens.
And then just to make sure
they covered all the bases,
they had one that said altar to an unknown God.
But when you look in verse 24,
the God who made the world and all things in it,
since he is Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in temples made with hands,
nor is he served by human hands
as though he needed anything,
since he himself gives to all people
life and breath and all things.
Now in verse 24 and 25,
this is what Paul is preaching.
God is the creator of people of the earth.
God is the creator.
So he does not live in temples
that we could make for him,
and he does not need our help.
He's not served by human hands.
Now sometimes the question will come,
people will ask this question,
why did God create people?
And the answer will come back,
because God was lonely.
Well, that's not true.
Well, because God needed us
to accomplish his purpose.
Well, that's not true either.
God created people for the same reason
that God created the rest of creation,
and that was for his glory.
But we're made to honor God.
Well, in verses 26 and 27,
that's the center of Paul's message
in the Sermon on the Mount.
God is sovereign over humanity,
and man is responsible to God.
That God in his sovereignty over humanity
gives good gifts to people.
James 1.17 said,
every good and perfect gift
comes from the Father,
from which there's no variable or light,
or changing light.
God is a giver of all good gifts.
Then you come in verse 26,
and it says,
and this is the verse I want to camp out in
for a minute this morning.
And he made from one man
every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined their appointed times
and the boundaries of their habitation.
The Greeks considered themselves
to be superior people.
They thought they were better
than the other races
and the other people.
They thought highly of themselves.
Now realize that when Paul is preaching
this sermon at Mars Hill,
these are the people that he's talking to.
This is the attitude they have.
They're thinking they're superior.
And what Paul basically says is,
there is no room for racial prejudice at all.
Why?
Well, I look out among all of us today
and we're pretty much the same.
But every one of us
comes from a common ancestry.
Let me ask you a question.
In the beginning,
God made,
when he made people,
who did he make?
Adam,
and then he made...
So if those are the first two people,
then where did we come from?
But we all,
today we look so different.
We're very different,
but we have a common ancestry.
And if we have a common ancestry,
and God is the creator,
and God is the one
that created humanity,
then there is no room
for this racial indifference
of any kind.
Well, as G. Campbell Morgan says,
in Acts 17,
Paul is standing at a great moment
and a great location.
As he stood to preach that day,
he would have looked to his right,
and to his right was the Acropolis.
And in the Acropolis
was the Parthenon.
And the Parthenon was that place
primarily for the worship
of Athena,
the goddess.
And they would,
some of the population
would worship her.
Some would worship other gods.
Some would worship themselves.
Some would worship nature.
And what Paul is writing,
he's wanting them to know
that the reason they even exist
is because of God.
Paul reminds them
they were not living in Athens
because they studied hard,
because they were smart,
because they worked hard,
or just they were the recipients
of some favorable accident.
They were able to live in Athens
that some have called
the cradle of philosophy
because of the grace of God.
We live in America today
with all of its blessings
because of the grace of God.
So I want you to look at
just a few things about America.
First, at the first
Constitutional Convention,
Ben Franklin was 81 years old.
During the course of that meeting,
when things got rather heated,
he stood up and said this,
I have lived a long time, sir,
and the longer I live,
the more convincing proof
I see of this truth
that God governs
in the affairs of men.
If a sparrow cannot fall
to the ground without his notice,
is it probable that an empire
can rise without his aid?
Did you know that
when the pilgrims came
to this country,
they had a purpose statement
for their mission?
They came here
with a purpose statement.
It is recorded
in the Mayflower Compact,
which was written in 1620.
Here's their purpose statement.
Having undertaken
for the glory of God
and the advancement
of the Christian faith.
There's no doubt
why they came here.
That's why they came here.
We live in America
not by mistake,
but through the providence of God.
Every nation's boundaries
are determined by God.
A.T. Robertson,
the great Greek Southern Baptist
teacher and theologian,
said,
nations rise and fall,
but it is not blind chance
or hard faith.
Behind it
is the movement of God.
So I want you to look
at five things real quickly
about America the Beautiful.
The first one is
our land.
We have 50 states,
50 state government,
12,383 miles of coastline
where the waves of both
the Atlantic and the Pacific
touch us,
four different time zones,
three divisions of the equator.
We have marvelous works
of God in nature,
Yellowstone Park and Old Faithful,
Mount McKinney, Alaska,
20,000 feet above sea level,
and Death Valley, California,
282 feet below sea level.
We have mountains and deserts
and plains and lush valleys
and water from stream to springs
and everything else in between.
Niagara Falls,
the Mississippi River,
the Shenandoah Valley,
the San Joaquin Valley,
the Redwood Forest,
the Petrified Forest,
the Rocky Mountains
with its Grand Teton Range,
the Pocono Mountains,
the Great Smoky Mountains,
the Great Lakes,
the Grand Canyon,
the Florida Everglades,
the Great Plains,
the Frozen Tundra of Alaska,
the Tropical Paradise of Hawaii,
and South Carolina.
We are blessed naturally
by this land that God has given us
in our boundaries.
But make no mistake,
Acts 17, 26,
He made from one man every nation
of mankind to live on all
the face of the earth,
having determined
their appointed times
and the boundaries
of their habitation.
And God has given us
3.7 million square miles
of land full of treasures.
Did you know that
following World War II,
America produced twice as much oil
as the rest of the world combined?
We have a great land
that God has given us.
The second thing is our heritage.
Now, it would be dangerous
to say that America
is a Christian nation.
In fact, it would be a lie
to say America
is a great,
is a Christian nation today.
And not everyone
that lived in America
from the very beginning
was a Christian.
But America could be called
a Christian nation
in its beginning.
And here's why.
Because about 95%
of the Founding Fathers
were Christians.
Some people go so far
to say,
some scholars say,
that maybe 90%
of those were not just Christians,
they were Calvinists.
They were hardcore believers
in the sovereignty of God.
But God was at the core
of the thinking
of the Founders.
Now, what difference
does that make?
Well, when they begin
to write something like
the Declaration of Independence
or the Constitution,
the Bill of Rights,
when they begin to pen
all of these things,
in their thinking
is the influence
of God's Word of Truth
in what they wrote.
And so in those
founding documents,
we have a reflection
of those values
and those ethics,
the documents
that they gave them.
Patrick Henry,
did you know
that he was a Baptist?
How many of you knew
Patrick Henry
was a Baptist?
Oh,
somebody knew that.
Patrick Henry
was a Baptist
and he said this,
America was not founded
by religionists
but directly
on the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
John Adams,
our second president,
said this,
Our Constitution
was designed only
for a moral
and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate
for the government
of any other.
52 of the 55 signers
of the Declaration
of Independence
were Christians.
George Washington,
our first president,
said,
It is impossible
to govern the world
without God
and the Bible.
Reason and experience
both forbid us
to expect
that our national morality
can prevail
in the exclusion
of religious principles.
And John Jay,
who was a member
of the very first
Supreme Court,
said this,
Providence has given
to our people
the choice
of their rulers.
It is the duty
as well as the privilege
and interest
of our Christian nation
to secure,
select,
and prefer Christians
as their rulers.
In 1782,
the Congress
of the United States
passed a resolution
and this is what it says.
We recommend
and approve
the Holy Bible
for use
in all schools.
We've come a long way
since then
because now
the Gideons
have nothing like
the freedom
they used to have
just to pass out
these Christians.
And in very many places
they can't go
on the property
and have to stand
on the sidewalk.
But it wasn't
always that way
and we had
a congressional resolution
that said
they wanted the Bible,
thought it was
a good thing
to teach
in schools.
Of the first
108 colleges
founded in America,
106
were Christians.
James Madison,
who you might have
read from history,
is regarded
as the father
of the Constitution,
said this,
We have staked
the whole future
of our new nation,
not upon the power
of government
far from it.
We have staked
the future
of all our
political constitutions
upon the capacity
of each of ourselves
to govern ourselves
according to the
moral principles
of the Ten Commandments.
If any people
just took
the Ten Commandments,
the moral teachings
of the Ten Commandments,
and they said
this will be the basis
for our laws,
that nation
would automatically
become a better nation
as they followed
those laws.
The Bible says
in Psalm 33
and verse 12,
Blessed is the nation
whose God is the Lord,
the people
whom he has chosen
for his own inheritance.
Now remember
speaking to the Athenians,
the Greeks,
he said,
Blessed is the nation
whose God is the Lord,
but their gods
were not the Lord.
They're all kind of gods,
but they did not have
a God that was the Lord
and Paul is teaching
to them about
the one true God,
the Lord.
And so that's what
Psalm is talking about.
We have a great land,
we have a heritage,
but we also have
a great history.
Our history is filled
with stories of God's providence
and man's faith
in a sovereign God.
The revisionists
have,
in later years,
tried to
take away
references
to God
or to the Christian faith
or the Christian values
from history books.
And you say,
Oh,
are you a conspiracy theorist?
Where are you going with this?
Well,
let me give you an example.
There was a best-selling
American history text
by Kenneth Davis.
It was,
and still is used
widely in schools.
In there,
he quotes Patrick Henry
in a 1775 speech.
This is what he quotes.
Is life so dear
or peace so sweet
as to be purchased
at the price of change
and slavery?
I know not what course
others may take,
but as for me,
give me liberty
or give me death.
That's what he said,
Patrick Henry said.
But we know
that's not exactly
what Patrick Henry said.
Here's what Patrick Henry
actually said.
Is life so dear
or peace so sweet
as to be purchased
at the price of change
and slavery?
Forbid it,
Almighty God.
Why did somebody feel
inspired to take out
that phrase,
forbid it,
Almighty God?
except to try to remove
references of God
from the fabric
of our history.
One of the things
that has baffled people
throughout the ages
has been how America,
which was made up
of farmers
and merchants
and others
like the French
that helped us,
how could they come together
on this vast
piece of property
and actually defeat
the world's superpower
of the time?
And the only answer
for that,
and as you read
some of the history books
like Collins,
for example,
has written a series
of history books,
God in American History
and things like this.
But the only answer
for that is because
of the grace of God.
We were outgunned.
We were outmanned.
They had greater supplies.
They had greater logistics.
They had better training.
They had everything else.
The British should have
destroyed us,
but they couldn't.
They could,
but they didn't.
So what happened?
How could
a government
in a new land
be established
so quickly,
rise so rapidly,
and then,
in just a short period
of time,
actually become
the envy of the world?
What some historians
have called
this experiment
in democracy
that actually worked?
How could that happen?
Only,
only,
by the grace of God.
Remember what Paul said
in Mars Hill.
Acts 17,
verse 26,
He made from one man
every nation of mankind
to live on all
the face of the earth,
having determined
their appointed times
and the boundaries
of their habitation.
when James Smith,
the founder of
Jamestown,
Virginia,
1607,
came to this country
and looked at the land
where he was going
to build a settlement.
He said this,
Heaven and earth
never agree
to a better frame,
to better frame
a place
for man's habitation
than here.
He looked at the land
and he said
what Dr. Kelly,
the president
of the New Orleans Seminary,
used to say,
an old Hebrew word.
Wow!
He said,
This is great.
He was carried away
by the beauty,
by what the land
had to offer.
And then something stunning,
in the course
of the revolution,
and some of you I know
have studied
some of the details
of that,
but in the course
of the revolution,
there are so many stories
that never get told
that happen
in the revolution
that have no explanation
other than God.
There was a stunning thing
that happened
at Valley Forge.
It was what some
have called
the Gethsemane
of our struggle
for independence.
And one of the famous
paintings of that day
was George Washington.
And whether that painting
was actually him doing that
or somebody just thought
that's what they should paint,
there is a painting
of George Washington
kneeling and praying
in the snow.
But in this
battle that was fought
at Valley Forge,
Washington decided
to take his troops
across a partially frozen
Delaware River
and lead a surprise
against the British
at Fort Trenton.
The British were not
expecting that.
In fact,
that was the last thing
from their mind
that somebody would do
something so foolish
as that.
And Washington,
it is said,
being led by what
he believed was God
did that
and defeated the British.
One person recorded
that,
recorded his thoughts,
and he said,
until that hour,
the life of the U.S.
flickered like a dying flame,
but the Lord of hosts
heard the cries
of their distress
and said,
an angel for their deliverance.
A British soldier
wrote in his diary
these words,
the hand of God
is against us.
Our history is filled
with his providence.
The stuff that he prepared
beforehand
that we should walk in.
Providence.
God preparing
beforehand.
And then there's
our freedom.
Sometimes if you ask
an American today,
what does America
mean to you?
You might get the answer
that means freedom.
But what does freedom mean?
You might get this answer.
Well, it's the right
to do as you please.
And that's somebody
that does not
understand freedom.
Freedom is not
the right to do
as you please.
It is the power
to do what is right.
And so our freedom
is based on a simple
and yet profound concept
that God is the author
of real freedom.
In John 8, 32,
Jesus said,
you will know the truth
and the truth will make you
so you can't have freedom
apart from truth.
So freedom is
knowing
the right thing
to do.
In recent years,
the ACLU has established
itself as pretty much
an enemy of the church,
of the Christian faith.
And especially for some reason,
the Ten Commandments.
I don't know if you remember it,
but when Roy Moore
was the Chief Justice
of the Alabama Supreme Court,
anybody remember that saga
that happened down in Alabama?
Yeah,
and he takes,
he brings into the
judicial,
state judicial building
a monument
of the Ten Commandments
that weighed
5,280 pounds.
You talk about boldness,
this guy had that thing
delivered
and set up
in the judicial building.
And the media
went bonkers
and the ACLU
went ballistic.
They were firmly
against that.
And they fought
and they fought
and they claimed
that Roy Moore
was just this weird,
eccentric,
and they got
the Ten Commandments
removed.
But another question,
and maybe a better question,
is what about
all of those references
to God
in Washington, D.C.
in all the federal buildings?
What are we going
to do about that?
You cannot remove.
You might remove
commandments,
you might remove
statues,
you might remove
photographs,
you might remove
statements,
but you cannot remove
the fact
that God
in His providence
gave us this land,
saw that it came
to a good birth
and a good growth
and even into
good blessings.
It was all
by the grace of God.
Well,
in 1987,
Ted Koppel,
does anybody remember
who Ted Koppel was?
He was at ABC News,
he was a sort of
an intellectual
commentator,
I guess.
Well,
this is what he was
speaking at commencement
at Duke University.
Now,
I think you know
that Duke University
is not the citadel
of fundamentalism.
It is not.
And he was there
speaking at commencement,
and this is part
of what he said
to the students.
What Moses brought down
from Mount Sinai
were not
the ten suggestions.
They are commandments,
are,
not were.
The sheer brilliance
of the ten commandments
is that they codify
in a handful of words
acceptable human behavior,
not just for then
or now,
but for all times.
Language evolves.
Power shifts
from one nation
to another.
Messages are transmitted
with the speed of light.
Man erases
one frontier
after another.
And yet,
we and our behavior
and the commandments
governing that behavior
remain the same.
Because no matter
how technologically
advanced we become,
there are certain
moral principles
encoded
in the ten commandments
that will always
be helpful
to mankind.
our national freedom,
our freedom
is
the envy
of the rest
of the world.
But we've got
to understand
what our freedom is.
And it is not
the power to do
as we please.
It's to know
the truth.
It's the power
to do what's right.
That's our freedom.
But our freedom,
all those freedoms
we have
will not
be able,
will not have
the strength,
will not have
the power
to endure
unless those freedoms
are anchored
in God
and His Word.
Because that's
where those freedoms
come from.
Well, the last thing
I want you to see
is our opportunity.
Our opportunities
today are vast.
But,
I'm over here
in the darkness
now
because I escape
from the light
sometimes
just for a brief
reprieve.
Our opportunities
are like
this great treasure
that's out there.
If we go looking
for them,
we'll find them.
There's so many
things.
What can we do?
Well,
here's what we can do.
We can vote.
We can put people
in the office
that are not going
to be self-perpetuating
but are not going
to be looking out
for their interests
or not going
to be bought off
by lobbyists
but we can put people
into office
that really believe
in moral principles.
We can protest.
We can write letters.
Why,
you could even get a blog
and 10 to 15 people
would listen to you.
But most of all,
what we have the freedom
and the opportunity
to do,
what we have the obligation
to do is to seek God.
Why did God establish us
and why did He put
these boundaries
where He did?
Look in verse 27.
It begins,
that they would seek God.
Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33,
seek first His kingdom
and His righteousness
and all these other things
will be added to you.
Where does that start?
What is this?
Taking our country
for what it is.
A gift from God,
by God's grace.
And we live in it.
But what are we going
to do with it?
Do you know that still today
the greatest potential
for reaching the world
for Jesus Christ
is in the United States?
We have the resources,
we have the wherewithal,
we have all the things
that God has in His providence
provided for us
to reach the world.
And yet,
we are so fragmented
and we are so distorted
and we're so disagreeable
among ourselves
that we're not able
to accomplish it.
Do you think that the answer
for America's woes
in the current time
is going to come
from Washington, D.C.?
I know I'm in the
magazine business now,
so I've got a news flash
for you this morning.
Washington, D.C. is broken.
And even though Trump
came in to clean out
the swamp
and make America great,
it's still broken.
What about Columbia?
I see Davey Hyatt
sitting back there
and he works in Columbia.
And I hate to say this,
but I hope he'll agree with me
that Columbia
is pretty much broken too.
Washington is not the answer.
Columbia is not the answer.
God in Jesus Christ
is the answer
and his church
is the biggest one.
If the churches
across this land
rose up together
on these moral principles,
carried them into the streets,
carried them into
the halls of government,
carried them across
this nation,
permeated society
with this freedom,
with this truth,
we would see a difference
in America
that would be
not a long time
in developing.
It could be,
it might be
just like the beginning
when a nation
rose so rapidly
it mystified
the rest of the world.
Maybe it could be
when the church,
when the church
comes together,
when the church
gets strong,
when the church
goes out
to be salt and light,
that the world
would see a different
picture of America.
Well,
I love America.
I really do.
But it's not my God.
My God gave us America
and he wants us
to worship him
and use the place
that he's given us
for his glory.
So I just ask you today
as I close this,
when Jesus said,
seek first
the priority
above all priorities,
seek first
his kingdom,
his righteousness.
Are we doing it?
Are we seeking first
his kingdom,
his values,
his principles,
and his righteousness?
And if we're not,
just a moment
when we bow our heads
and close our eyes,
it might be
that God would
nudge your heart
just to say a prayer
to him and say,
you know,
that's what I want
to be.
I want to be somebody
that seeks first
your kingdom
and your righteousness.
And I want to make
a difference
in this country
which I live.
Would you pray with me?
Father, thank you.
Thank you for your grace
and your wisdom
and your great power
that has been displayed
in the way you have
worked through the ages
and the rise and fall
of many nations.
And thank you
that today
we have the privilege
to be living
in a nation
that has been so blessed
by your grace.
Give us eyes
to see
the origin
of our land,
of our country
and give us
the strength
to be people
who seek first
your kingdom
and your righteousness
as the priority
of our life.
Bless us,
bless the church
that we might in turn
become a blessing,
a leader
for our country.
with our heads bowed
and eyes closed
if you'd like to
spend a moment
and pray to God
make a commitment
to Him
something along those lines
I hope you will.
Musicians are going to play
and as they play
if you have a decision
to make
if you have a commitment
that you want to make
if you have something
you want to share
Mike's going to be here
would invite you to turn
to join.
Thank you.