Gratitude for Our Heritage

Gratitude for Our Heritage

Please turn with me in your Bibles this morning for our scripture reading to Psalm 136. I'd like to begin the reading there in verse number one.

O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, for His mercy and duraeth forever. O give thanks unto the God of God for His mercy and duraeth forever. O give thanks to the Lord of Lords for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him alone are who alone doeth great wonders for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him that by wisdom made the heavens for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him that stretched out the earth above the waters for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him that made great lights for His mercy and duraeth forever. The Son to rule by day for His mercy and duraeth forever. The moon and stars to rule by night for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him that smoked Egypt in their firstborn for His mercy and duraeth forever. And brought out Israel from among them for His mercy and duraeth forever. With a strong hand and with a stretched-out arm for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him which divided the Red Sea into parts for His mercy and duraeth forever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it for His mercy and duraeth forever. But over through Pharaoh and His hosts in the Red Sea for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him which led His people through the wilderness for His mercy and duraeth forever. To Him which smoked great kings for His mercy and duraeth forever. And slew famous kings for His mercy and duraeth forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites for His mercy and duraeth forever. And Og, the king of Baysion for His mercy and duraeth forever. And gave their land for inheritage for His mercy and duraeth forever. Even inheritage unto Israel His servant for His mercy and duraeth forever. Who remembered us in our lowest state for His mercy and duraeth forever. And hath redeemed us from our enemies for His mercy and duraeth forever. Who give a food to all flesh for His mercy and duraeth forever. Oh, give thanks unto the God of heaven for His mercy and duraeth forever.

Let's mark our Bibles if you will to Psalm 136 as our text this morning. And let's acknowledge the Lord and prayer.

Our gracious Father, Lord of heaven and earth, creator of the universe and all things that are created. We thank you today, Father, for this privilege that we have to just read and recount all that you've done. And even this is just the surface, Lord, but so much of your mercy that we're even here today. I can't help but think of a head of state, Nebuchadnezzar. And how when He was truly brought to His rightful mind, His healthy, sane way of thinking, Lord, not in pride, but in humility He would say. He would say that He has got a loan that rules over all. And those that walk in pride He is able to obey. This Lord, the kings of the earth would do well to kiss the Son and acknowledge everything we have, the very breath of life that we have. We give thanks. We ought to give thanks. We ought to acknowledge that it all, everything we are, everything we have comes from the thank you, Lord, that you have enabled us to see that today. You've enabled us and help us to see it more clearly. Lord, help us to give thanks for your abundant blessings and mercies to us. We pray and ask now that you've got us as we continue with another hymn. And we continue in worship in Jesus' name we ask. Amen.

This morning it's been, it is my desire to give thanks to the Lord for the heritage that we have in Him, and the heritage that He's even given us in this nation. As a American people, the American people, the country that He's given to us. We read this morning from Psalm 136. Psalm 136, and we saw in that Psalm an unfolding. First of all, giving thanks to God for who He is. That we, this past year I spoke on the two subjects of praising God for His character and praising God for what He has done. This, there's times in our lives where it may not seem like God is doing anything. It may, or it may not seem like God is doing what we want Him to do. Lord, deliver us. Lord, give us this. Lord, help us with that, and it may be, wait, wait, but we can still raise the Lord for who He is. And we see that He is always good. He is good as we read there in Psalm 136 verse 1. For He is good, verse 1, and do it forever. And then to begin to unfold that it is He alone that does these great wonders. He alone is the source of all of these magnificent works, the creation itself. Of course, we read in verse 6 about the heavens stretched out, the great lights for seven. The sun, the rule of the day, moving the stars the real night. He alone has made all of these great wonders. And when we look up in the heavens, like the Psalmist, when I consider the stars, the work of thy fingers, and then the thought comes to Him, what is man? That that were mindful of Him. The God who made all of this, we think of that Him. How great thou art. When we look, we cannot help. I cannot help, but think that when I look up at the grandeur of space, when I look at the topography of the earth and even down to the microscopic level of the detail of the God and the design that God has placed in this created earth, it's marvelous, marvelous to look at and to observe. One would have to suppress the truth to not see that there is a creator God behind all of these many merciful things, and wonderful things that we see that He's done.

And then the progression of the passage moves forward into this matter of the Lord giving birth to a nation, the nation of Israel. The Lord delivering Israel from the hand of the enemies that would have crushed her, would have smitten her. And He overthrew them. He overthrew Pharaoh. He overthrew Saihan of the Amorites, odd King of Baysion to say nothing of, of course, as we look in the land of Canaan and the look of Joshua, all the kings there, how God delivered them from these manyites that dwell in the land. The many nations greater, mightier, stronger than they were, and He, they shouldn't have been there. Let's just put it that way. They shouldn't have been there. Humanly speaking, have inhabited the land. They should have been crushed. But we see God's mercy. God was merciful. I mentioned to my prayer that even a proud man like Nebuchadnezzar came to see that it was all the mercies of the Lord that He was. What He had the nation that He did. And He no longer viewed Himself. Look at me. I'm the head of gold. No praise God from whom all blessings flow. to the gratitude, the humility that we saw in the change in His heart and how He rightly acknowledged. And the Lord does want the kings of the earth. The Lord does want the rulers of the earth to acknowledge Him, embrace Him, and give glory to Him for He rules over all. He is the king of kings. He is the Lord of Lords. Overall, whether or not man acknowledges it, that is the truth. He is the one, the supreme. He's a supreme ruler. He sets up kings and he puts them down. He raises men to positions of power that He brings them back to the dust again. We see in this passage here that the Lord did that, and we see many nations have been dispossessed in the history of this planet. Many nations have been overthrown. Many nations have come to an end. And when you really stop and look at it, they were overthrown maybe by another wicked nation, but it was… It was the fact God was very long suffering and merciful even to the Canaanites, wasn't He? And yet the time came. He said, I've had enough child sacrifice. This is my land. The earth is mine, the fullness thereof, and all they're in, and I will remove them. This is not a cruel God. This is a just God. This is even a loving God that would do this. The same God that had been long suffering. And yet we see people that trusted in the Lord from among those. So we'll get a rehab, for instance. You know, you have individuals that dwell among them and yet turn to the true God of Israel. But this morning I look at this passage, and I cannot help but think, I don't want to superimpose the United States of America on Psalm 136. Because it's not talking about the United States of America, but there are principles found here that I think parallel, or that there are principles found here that are true. That should be acknowledged by us as well.

I was not born in Israelite. I was born an American. And yet I know this same God that blessed and was merciful to all those in the past, including, and especially we think of His beloved Israel. He did not set His affection upon her because she was more number than any other people. Just because He was merciful to her. It was not because they were better than any other people in the earth, but He chose to place His name there upon them and to set His temple there in their midst. I thought of the word this week, heritage. The heritage. No Webster defines heritage as inheritance. And it's state that passes from an ancestor to an heir by dissent or, of course, of law that which is inheritance. In Scripture, the saints are called the heritage of the Lord, being claimed by Him. We have the words in our English language such as, air. That's one who gets the inheritance, right? One who receives an inheritance is an heir. We have words like, airloom. Some of you have heirlooms in your home that have their items, their articles of possessions of sentimental value to you as a family that have been passed down from a maybe multiple generation. Sometimes they've been passed down, at least from your parents, they've been passed down. And you hold those things dear because they are valuable to you. They might not be valuable even to me, but they're valuable to you because, and that's not the things that are heirlooms in our family might not be of any value to you. Sadly, I've talked to people, even people in our church, and they said, well, if you want to take it because my children wouldn't appreciate it. My children wouldn't want it. That's a sad thing to hear, but that's what's been said. It's not something of great monetary value, but even pictures. People said, nobody else is going to appreciate these pictures. You can just get rid of them. Well, what a blessing it is to have children or grandchildren that value heirlooms. They say that they understand there's a story behind this. There's a meaning behind it. Maybe it's something associated with a sacrifice that was made or something that took time and effort to build or something like that. And maybe it's something that signifies and is associated with the spiritual birth, new birth of an individual, a Bible that I treasure the Bibles that I have from Pastor P.cock. My great uncle, those things he passed on to me, they're treasured. There's the word hereditary, something that he is or maybe transmitted from a parent to a child.

I think of the words, one of you brethren passed on, actually, sister passed on to me this week. The story of Francis Scott Key just the other day. I had heard this story before, there was a couple things in that that really stood out to me. But I was thinking back over the last, we sang it this morning, the last stanza of the Star Spangled Banner. What became known as the Star Spangled Banner National Anthem, that Francis Scott Key of Christian wrote about the Battle of Fort McHenry, the shelling of Fort McHenry. In 18, what was it, 14, I believe it was the Battle of 1812 anyway. He said this, all of us be it ever when free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation. Blessed with victory and peace may the heaven-rescue land praise the power that have made and preserve this a nation. That's not all of that verse, but that's the part I wanted to see. Praise the power that have made and preserved this a nation. And today, I have gratitude in my heart and praise to the Lord for making us a nation. We wouldn't be here if God didn't put us here. If God did not give us the ability, it doesn't mean that everything that's happened in this history, that God approves of it. I'm just saying that He has made us a nation. He has given us this nation. And we have much good carer- we have many good things in our heritage that point us to God. It point us to Jesus Christ in fact, without God's sovereign, benevolent, merciful hand in our nation's history. I've watched a documentary of presentation by a man named William Federer. I think I shared it with a couple of you this week. How He documents some of the miracles that God did and the founding of our nation. And we wouldn't even be here if God had not intervened quite a number of situations. We shouldn't be here, you know? Think about George Washington crossing the Delaware and all of those things. But we, God is the source of our heritage. He's the one from whom all the blessings in our lives individually or as a nation flow. And he good thing, it's come from him. And we get the understanding. Even in the Bible as we look at the understanding of the word heritage of the scriptures, it has the idea of a divinely apportioned portion. Divinely divine allotment that's been apportioned to us, and it's received as a specific share. Something that God has apportioned to us. I think about how He appointed to the various tribes through Joshua, but He appointed different allotments in the land of Israel. And that was their portion. That was their part, if we can say, of the heritage, or the inheritance of what He gave. But then we also, we see that idea running through scripture. It's even the idea is tied up in the word of something that flows to us. And if you think about it, naturally speaking, there's things that flow to you as inheritance in a family. Maybe you have a rich family, maybe you have a poor family, maybe you don't, you know, somewhere in the middle. But there are things that are passed on. They flow to you as you're allotment. And you're allotment, maybe you want to parent a father, a mother, a grandfather, a grandmother, pass away. And now it becomes your portion of that inheritance. It becomes yours to having to hold and to steward and to take care of it. It may not even be the tangible items, but it may be the intangible memories. The things you were taught, the principles that were passed down, the truths that were given to you, and now you must carry them forward, right? You must hold these things dear, especially their value. You must hold them dear because they have worth, thank God for our Christian heritage. Thank God that if we have a family where the gospel was passed down, not everybody has that privilege. I thank God that we have it. It doesn't flow through the bloodstream, but it is taught by parents to children. It's taught by grandparents to children. They become the bridge from the generation before. Paul, he even talked about this in the churches. He's committing the faith, the faithful men who will be able to teach others also, passing it forward, passing it onward to the next generation. So it may be preserved.

We hear a lot about preservation of heritage in our world, don't we? They could be talking about coral reefs for that matter. They might be talking about any number of things that are a society to preserve a certain type of animal. So it doesn't go extinct, but there is a value to that thing, right? And somebody has to see, there is value. We don't want to lose this. So let's, even the idea of conservatives, right in politics, the ideas they're supposed to be conserving some things. They're supposed to be holding on to those things which will value and not letting them slip away. Not letting them pass by appreciating, and valuing those things. When our founding fathers signed the declaration of independence, they wrote among many other things there, but they wrote with a firm alliance on the protection of divine providence. We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Oh, what a variety of signers there were. You know, not all of them were Christians, but there was a mutual acknowledgement of a divine hand that was making all of this possible. Whatever all of the Benjamin Franklin and the Thomas Jefferson may not have seen it the same way as George Washington saw it. Or John Adams for that matter. But I think about the, in New England, you have the Puritans. You have the Anglicans in Virginia, even North Carolina early on. Then the Baptist came in with the first grade of awakening. And you have the Scott Cyrus. I think Brother Nice Walker went with his family to see some of the things about the Moray in this recently. And more than the western part of the state, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, you got the Lutheran's a Dutch reform, the Minunites, and Jews sprinkled in. The Catholics and Maryland's. Then you got deists and rationalists and enlightenment people all in the mix. What a hodgepodge of. But there was a common acknowledgement in many of our, yes, there's some enlightenment wording and things as well. But there's a lot of reference to God and even Jesus Christ in our country's founding. And the prayers, as you looked in our bulletin today, the prayer offered in the first continental Congress. What does it say? All of this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son and our Savior, Amen. Well, by signing the Declaration of Independence, we see, and there's a memorial at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia that says this by signing the Declaration of Independence, the 56 Americans, pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. It was no idle pledge. Nine signers died of wounds during the Revolutionary War. Five were captured or imprisoned. Wives and children were killed, jailed, mistreated, or with endless twelve signers. Houses were burned to the ground. Seventeen lost everything they owned. No signers defected. Their honor, like their nation, remained intact. You know, a number of those founders, they believed it was worth it to leave this, to leave their native land to start a new one, start a new country. I thought back of even men like Ben Franklin, who never confessed that Jesus Christ is a Savior, he genuinely believed that there was a divine providence that intervened in the beginning of this country. And out of many, he flew up his unum out of many walk. They joined together, they joined together to start this new nation. I read what George Washington said though about it. If something is worth anything, if it's a value, and obviously they must have considered to be worth something invaluable to lay their lives on the line to begin a new nation, and even losing family, and losing money, and losing many things because they valued liberty. Not all of them came for the freedom of worship, but a number of them did. They wanted to be able to worship. So we'll see that with the Puritans in the early days of our nation, even before it became a nation. But as we look back at that, I think of if you have something that's worth keeping, kind of like Maybaugh, did not want to sell his vineyard. He would not sell it. There was no price for which he would sell it. Then there must be a willingness to, there must be a willingness to preserve it. There must be a willingness to stand for it. George Washington said, and when I say stand for it, I'm meaning something more than the Second Amendment. George Washington said this, human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy and all garky. Ersdocracy or any despotic or oppressive form, so long as there is any virtue in the body of the people. It's impressive to read some of these quotes by the founding fathers for a number of years. Patrick Henry said, bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience is incompatible with freedom. No free government or the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, and he made clear that when people forget God is when they lose these things. John Adams said, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

We read in our text today that God alone is the source of our blessings. God alone is the source. We read in that text that he created all the hope in everything in it. We read in that text that he delivered Israel out of bondage. We read in that text that he gave them their land. He gave them their land. We have it baked right into our national anthem. Praise the power that hath made and preserved the nation. We don't often sing that forth verse, but it is my favor to all of them. What an acknowledgement that him by a Christian who wrote the anthem. And we also saw in that text today that we ought to give thanks to the Lord who is the source of our many blessings. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 2 though. Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 4. In Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 4, we read this. Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 4. The prophet says, of course, he is talking to a people who ought to have been thankful to the Lord for the heritage they had been given. They ought to praise the Lord for his mercy and cleaved to him. But he says, here you the word of the Lord, or house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel, thus, say of the Lord, what aiquity have your fathers found in me that they have gone far from me. And have walked after vanity and are become vain. Neither said they, where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt? That led us through the wilderness through a land of deserts and of pits through a land of drought and of the shadow of death. Through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwells. I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and goodness thereof. But when he entered, he defiled my land and made my heritage and abomination.

When we have a good heritage, one of the saddest things is for us to forget. It is said that I don't know about today, but in my lifetime I have heard it said that in the Philippines even many of the young people still, they've been taught about General MacArthur and what he did there. And there's a greater appreciation, at least there was from reports I got there. Generally speaking, then there has been even among the American youth for the victories that have been won. The sacrifices that have been made. You ever go to the Jack Lockery Memorial and Rocky Mount for Veterans Day or for any kind of event. You will see no young people there. They're all well up an age. I would dare say in large part, I'm not saying completely, but the greater portion for the greater portion of the leaf are gotten our heritage. We've forgotten how blessed we are to have this nation. And I think that's the influence of the breakdown of holes and then of course the multiculturalism that gets taught in education system and all of that. And now it becomes more important to know what multiple fluid genders you are than actually things we ought to be thankful for, like the country that God has given to us. We would want to acknowledge that even God has given us this land. God has been merciful to us in this country's history. But I want to name this morning some things that we ought to be thankful for as we think back of God. And we must see God in this. We must see God allowed us to happen. There's no way this country, I don't believe we would be here if it was not for the Christian principles and values that even affected. You can see it affected the thinking of him. Benjamin Franklin was very influenced even though he never made a clear confession of faith. He was influenced by the preacher George Whitfield. How much of even the influence of the awakenings had on our early years as a country? But I think of it, we have individual freedoms here in the country. Thank God for that. We have the freedom. Now, yes, in places and at times, that's being encroached upon. Depending on what the current administration may be, that may be inhibited more. Five, six years ago we were having trouble just getting in the church building because of some of those things. Because of what they were trying. But I'm thankful we have a sheriff in our county that said, no, we're going to follow the Constitution. And they can meet if they want to meet. And several other counties did that. Thank God we even have a Constitution where we have individual liberties that we can say whatever we believe needs to be said. We have the freedom of religion. We've been able to send out many missionaries into the world. How many countries could say they were even, they had the freedom to do that? Some can't even leave the country to say nothing of send out a missionary to another country. So we have that blessing. We need to thank God for that. We need to thank God for the equality of opportunity. We're being taught under this multicultural Godless system now. More and more they're trying to shove this idea down the throat that it's equality of outcomes. No, it's equality of opportunity. I founders believed it. I won't read it. Today, by John Quincy Adams, to a German named von Fistenwother, who were to come here and basically mooch off of the American system. And he said, unless you've come to contribute, you can just stay at home. Unless you have something to contribute to these United States. We don't need any freeloaders. You know, pretty much is what he told him. That's maybe updating the language a little bit. This is a nation that was founded upon individual responsibility. The right to privacy and private property. Thank God for the many ways that he's been able to work through that. Freedom, we even see. I thought it was interesting. I was reading this week about Ben Franklin. Was it Ben Franklin? I think it was John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were commissioned on the same day the declaration of independence was approved July 4th, 1776. On that same day the Continental Congress formed a committee to design a national seal. They formed a committee to design a national seal. And these two men that maybe Jefferson possibly came a little closer, but he was more of a rationalist. He was not a, I don't think I've seen clear evidence that he was a Christian. But because of the influence of Christianity upon him, he and Franklin, Jefferson and Franklin working independently both came up with a proposed seal for this country. That depicted the children of Israel fleeing Egypt and coming into the promised land. I thought that was interesting. I thought that was just very interesting. That shows you the influence of Christianity even upon their thinking. There's a common work ethic. Not an expectation of freebies in this land that we've seen. What a blessing that is. You go to many places in the world and you're going to get robbed blind before you can get all the airplane. Because that's not the ethic they have. The ethic is if you can take it, get it. But thank God for the heritage we have here. We have a common language. We have a common world of country and gratitude for the blessings bestowed upon this land. And yet now we see that that's in competition with hatred for our founding fathers. Disrespect for the flag. Hatred for the traditional family. Tearing down statues of those who built this nation and to even distrust one another. Looking at one another with distrust. That's all a lot of the fruits of the multiculturalism that has come in. We have very much like Israel did for sake in the fountain of living waters and if you and ourselves out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. And as a result of that we see that there is a great, there's an increasing amount of confusion in our land. And distrust and uncertainty. Because it seems that in God we trust on our nation's motto doesn't actually live out by the majority of Americans in our time.

We said heirlooms are irreplaceable, aren't they? Heirlooms are irreplaceable. You can't destroy an heirloom and say, well we'll just go get another one. No, it doesn't work that way. They are valuable because they're irreplaceable. And I think about this nation. There's nowhere else for us to go folks. The world is taking up. There are no new frontiers. There are no new places for us to go. And while we do, we do pray for our country. We do pray that God would humble our leaders and would humble the hearts of men. I also understand. I understand in many senses we are seeing some of the aspects of the judgment of God. Because of our turning our back on him as a nation. And yet that should not cause us to respect any less or love, any less what God has given us as a nation. God has given to us. I am a Christian first. I'm an American second. My true heritage is in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I look back as I look back over what God has done in His great mercy. Even for this nation many times. I thank God today. I thank God that I was born here. I thank God that I live here in this land. And I pray for my leaders. We must pray for our leaders. Whether you like them at the current time or not, we must pray for them. We must pray that God would do like He did for Nebuchadnezzar. We don't know what He will and can do or what hearts will respond. We must pray that God would humble. I'm sure nobody thought Nebuchadnezzar was getting saved. We must pray for the salvation of our leaders. That do not know Him. We must pray that God would humble their hearts and get ahold of them. There is an eternity ahead for them to face. And we must not be ashamed of the blessed things that we see as we look back into our country's history. Knowing that every good thing is a result of God's mercy. And for that we give things. Ultimately we read in Psalm 16, verse 5. In Psalm 16, verse number 5 we read these words. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. And of my cup, thou maintainest my light. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yay! I have a goodly heritage.

Sometime ago I shared with you the story of George Washington Carver. He had a lot of bad things having to him in his life, especially early on. Somehow he always found something to be thankful for. I just said it's really amazing. He did not make his entire life about, you know, I'm going to be bitter and jaded about all the bad things that happened to me in my life. And you know as I think about that example, I think about what is it that if there's anyone who has ever been a blessing to me, it's been a pastor, a teacher, a father, grandfather, or whatever, that has blessed my life in some way, a mother, a grandmother, any number of people in my life. There's something of value. If there's something to hang on to and say, thank God for that. Well, the source of it, we know where that was. It was God. It was Christ working in and through them. That was a blessing to us. And when I look at our country, I know we are not necessarily, we're never fully a Christian nation, so to speak. But we were heavily influenced by Christian principles and Christian truth that was very much a part of the fabric of who we were as a nation. And as I look at that, I think God, and you know we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to pass that on. We have a responsibility to tell our children. We have a responsibility to tell people that we rub shoulders with. I think about the season in our country. What better time to talk about the work than to talk about what God has done for us as a nation? And so maybe we have that gratitude in our hearts. Maybe we not just focus on the negative and that certainly is there. We need to preach against sin. We need to pray for our leaders. But at the same time, we do need to give thanks.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you. Thank you for your hand of provision, your good hand of providence that has made us and preserved us a nation. We thank you for that, Father. Thank you that we have come up in a place where we were able to hear the gospel preached. Thank you that we've come up in a place where we were able to see men and women living for Christ before us and were able to do so without being shot down and killed for their faith. Well, we know that that's a blessing even those who were martyrs or we don't want to diminish that either. But where we think that there was the ability that we've had as a nation, even now, to send missionaries to other places to shine the gospel light. And yet, we just pray for our country today. We thank you for it. We pray for it. And we thank you that you have given us the liberties that we do have. Bless us now as we conclude this service with a final hymn. May we keep our eyes upon thee as we go forward into this new week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.