Gratitude for Our Heritage

Gratitude for Our Heritage

Please turn with me in your Bibles this morning for our Scripture reading to Psalm 136. Psalm 136. I'd like to begin the reading there in verse number 1. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks unto the God of gods, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endureth forever. To him alone, or who alone, doeth great wonders, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that by wisdom made the heavens, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that made great lights, for his mercy endureth forever. The sun to rule by day, for his mercy endureth forever. The moon and stars to rule by night, for his mercy endureth forever.

To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn, for his mercy endureth forever. And brought out Israel from among them, for his mercy endureth forever. With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, for his mercy endureth forever. To him which divided the Red Sea into parts, for his mercy endureth forever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for his mercy endureth forever. But overthrew Pharaoh, and his host in the Red Sea, for his mercy endureth forever.

To him which led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy endureth forever. To him which smote great kings, for his mercy endureth forever. And slew famous kings, for his mercy endureth forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his mercy endureth forever. And Og, the king of Bashan, for his mercy endureth forever. And gave their land for an heritage, for his mercy endureth forever. Even an heritage unto Israel his servant, for his mercy endureth forever.

Who remembered us in our lowest state, for his mercy endureth forever. And hath redeemed us from our enemies, for his mercy endureth forever. Who giveth food to all flesh, for his mercy endureth forever. Oh, give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his mercy endureth forever.

Let's mark our Bibles, if you will, to Psalm 136 as our text this morning. And let's acknowledge the Lord in 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… A healthy, sane way of thinking, Lord, not in pride, but in humility. He would say, he would say that it is God alone that rules over all. And those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. Lord, the kings of the earth would do well to kiss the sun 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 thee. Thank you, Lord, that you have enabled us to see that today. You've enabled us and helped 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 guide us as we continue with another hymn, as 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 has 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. This past year I've spoke on the two subjects of praising God for his character and praising God for what he has done. There's times in our lives. Where it may not seem like God is doing anything. 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 praise 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. Mercy endureth forever.

And then it began 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. Verse 7. The sun to rule the day. The moon and the stars to rule the night. He alone. He alone. He alone. He alone. He alone. He alone. He alone. He alone. He alone. He alone. 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 thou art mindful of him. The God who made all of this. We think of that him. How great thou art. 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. The microscopic level of the detail that 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. 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 Sihon of the Amorites. Og king of Bashan. To say nothing of. Of course as we look in. The land of Canaan. And the book of Joshua. All the kings there. How God delivered them from these many ites. That dwelt 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 should not. Humanly speaking. Have inhabited the land. They should have been crushed. But we see God's mercy. God was merciful. I mentioned in my prayer. That even. A proud man like Nebuchadnezzar. Came to see that it was all the mercies of the Lord. That. That he was what he was. That 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. The gratitude. The humility that we saw. And 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. Over all. Whether or not man acknowledges it. That is the truth. He is the one. The supreme. He's the supreme ruler. He sets up kings. And he puts them down. He raises men to positions of power. And he. 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. This is my land. This is my land. And all they dwell therein. 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. People that trusted in the Lord. From among those. Look at a Rahab for instance. You know. You have individuals. That dwelt among them. And yet turned to the true God of. Of Israel.

But this. 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. That there are principles found here. That are true. That should be acknowledged by us. As well. I was not born an 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 on the earth. But he. He chose to place his name there upon. Upon. Upon them. And to set his temple there in their midst.

I thought of the word this week. Heritage. The heritage. Noah Webster defines heritage as. As inheritance. An estate that passes from an ancestor to an heir. By descent or course. Of law. That which is in. Heritage. 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 heir. That's one who gets the inheritance. Right? One who receives an inheritance is an heir. We have words like. Heirloom. Some of you have heirlooms in your home. That have their. Their items. Their articles. Of. Possessions of sentimental value. To you as a family. That have been passed down. From maybe multiple generations. 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. That's not the. You know. Things that are heirlooms in our family. Might not be of any value to you. Sadly. You know. I've talked to people. Even. People in our church. And they said. Well. If you want it. Take it. Because my children wouldn't appreciate it. My children wouldn't want it. That's a sad thing to hear. But they. But that's what's been said. It may. 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. 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 there was 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. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. The Bibles. I have from Pastor Peacock. My great uncle. You know. That those things he passed on. To me. They're treasured. There's the word hereditary. Something that is or may be. Transmitted from a parent to a child. I think of the words. One of. 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 remember. I had heard this story before, but 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, our national anthem, that Francis Scott Key, a 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, Oh, thus 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-rescued land praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation. That's not all of that verse, but that's the part I wanted to see. Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

And today, I, 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 the history of this country 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, we have many good things in our heritage that point us to God. That point us to Jesus Christ, in fact. Without God's sovereign, benevolent, merciful hand in our nation's history. I've watched a documentary, a 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 in the founding of our nation.

We wouldn't even be here if God had not intervened in 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. Any 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 your lot and your allotment. Maybe when a parent, a father, a mother, a grandfather, a grandmother passes away, and now it becomes your portion of that inheritance. It becomes yours to have and to hold and to steward and to take care of. 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 if they're of 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. But thank God. 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 even talked about this in the churches. You know, committing the faith to 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. We hear a lot about preservation of heritage in our world, don't we? They could be talking about coral reefs for that matter. You know, they might be talking about any number of things. 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. They're supposed to be holding on to those things. 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 reliance 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, although Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson may not have seen it the same way as a George Washington saw it. Or John Adams. Or John Adams, for that matter. But, I think about the, in New England, you have the Puritans. You have the Anglicans in Virginia, and even North Carolina early on. You have, then the Baptists came in with the First Great Awakening. And you have the Scots-Irish.

I think Brother Niswonger went with his family to see some of the things about the Moravians recently in more of the western part of the state. The Quakers. The Quakers in Pennsylvania. You've got the Lutherans, the Dutch Reformed, the Mennonites and Jews sprinkled in. The Catholics in Maryland. Then you've 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 at the First Continental Congress. What does it say? All 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. There's a memorial at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia that says this. By signing the Declaration of Independence, the 56 Americans pledged 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 left penniless. Twelve signers' houses were burned to the ground. 17. 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 their native land to start a new one, to start a new country. I thought back.

Even men like Ben Franklin, who never confessed that Jesus Christ is his Savior, he genuinely believed that there was a divine providence that intervened in the beginning of this country. And out of many, e pluribus unum, out of many, 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 of value, and obviously they must have considered it to be worth something and valuable 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. Certainly we see that with the Puritans in the early days of our nation, even before it became.

But as we look back at that, I think of if you have something that's worth keeping, kind of like Naboth 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 preserve it. There must be a willingness to stand for it. George Washington said, and when I say stand for it, I'm meaning, 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, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any despotic or oppressive form, so long as there is any virtue in the body of the people. It's impressed me to read some of these quotes by the founding fathers for a number of years, as 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, frugality, and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence. 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, frugality, and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. 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 world and 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 us a nation. We don't often sing that fourth verse, but it is my favorite of all of them. What an acknowledgement in that hymn by a Christian who wrote, 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 number 4, we read this. Jeremiah chapter 2 verse number 4. The prophet says, of course, he's 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 cleave to him. But he says, hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity 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 dwelt. I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and goodness thereof. But when ye entered, ye defiled my land and made mine heritage an abomination. When we have a good heritage, one of the saddest things, is for us to forget. For-get.

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, than 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 in Rocky Mount for Veterans Day or for any kind of an event, you will see no young people there. They're all well up in age. I would dare say, in large part, I'm not saying completely, but the greater portion, for the greater portion of it, we've forgotten our heritage. We've forgotten. We've forgotten how blessed we are to have this nation. And I think that's the influence of the breakdown of homes. And then, of course, the multiculturalism that gets taught and the 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 wouldn't want to acknowledge that even God has given us this land, that God has been merciful to us in this country's history.

But I want to name, 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 this to happen. There is 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, that even affected the thinking, you know, Benjamin Franklin was very influenced. Even though he never made a clear confession of faith, he was influenced by the preacher George Whitefield. How many, how much of even the influence of the awakenings had on our early years as a country? But I, as 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 incremented. That's being imposed upon. And depending on what the current administration may be, that may be inhibited more.

We, you know, 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, we can, we can say whatever we want. 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, we're being taught under this multicultural, 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 our founders believed in. I won't read it today, but I read a letter by John Quincy Adams to a German named Von Furstenwother, who wanted to come here and basically mooch off of the American system. And he said, unless you come to contribute, you can just stay at home. Unless you have something to contribute to these, these United States. We don't need any freeloaders. 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, you know, 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 he even, 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 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 gonna get robbed blind before you can get off the airplane, because they're, that's not the ethic they have. The ethic is, if you can take it, get it. You know, but thank God for the heritage we have here. We have a common language. We have a common love 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 land, this nation, and to even distrust one another, looking at one another with distrust. And that's all a lot of the fruits of the multiculturalism that has come in. We have, very much like Israel did, forsaken the fountain of living waters and have hewn 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, as our nation's motto doesn't actually get lived 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. 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 taken 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, 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 still 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, we're not God. We don't know what he will and can do or what hearts will, how 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. For there is an eternity ahead for them to face. And we must not be ashamed. 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 thanks. Ultimately, we read in Psalm 16, Psalm 16, verse five. In Psalm 16, verse number five, we read these words. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The lions are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. Some time ago, I shared with you the story of George Washington Carver. He had a lot of bad things happen to him in his life, especially early on. Somehow, he always found something to be thankful for. I just, that's really amazing. He did not, he did not make his entire life about, you know, I'm gonna, 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 has ever been a blessing to me, has it been a pastor, a teacher, a father, grandfather, whatever, that has blessed my life in some way, a mother, a grandmother, any number of people in my life, if there's something of value, if there's something to hang onto 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, work, and faith. we were heavily influenced by Christian, work, and faith. we were heavily influenced by Christian, work, and faith. by Christian, work, and faith. 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 this season in our country. What better time to talk about the Lord than to talk about what God has done for us as a nation.

And so may we have that gratitude in our hearts. May 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. So, Lord, we don't want to diminish that either. But, Lord, we thank you 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.