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Will God Bless America? - Part 1 (Psalm 33)
13 Plays4 months ago
Sunday Message recorded 30 June 2024
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Impact of Vacation Bible School on Children
00:00:06
Speaker
Wow, I told you it's going to be a good morning already. I've been so blessed. Thank the Lord so much for Vacation Bible School. Many of you are you're teaching your children in the home and it shows. They answered questions in a really deep and accurate way. We were so amazed in the Bible study station where I was and each of the days we were just blown away by how many truths that the children were picking up. We divided into small groups after the Adam and Eve session that I taught and we had a stuffed snake that was wrapped around a tree and I told him that Satan had disguised himself like a snake and I said maybe it was like this one.
00:00:52
Speaker
and it was a coral snake. It was stuffed animal, okay? Don't worry, we're not going to mistreat the kids. We're not snake handlers around here. But anyway, he was in the he was in the tree and he was just stuffed animal, but he was painted like a, you know, a coral s snake. So I told him, you know, if you ever see one of these in the yard, you got to be careful. I said, red on yellow, kill a fella, red on black, venom, lack. So I said, just know that these you got to be careful with. Well, in the small group, the the the small group leader asked the kids, what who was it that came and tempted Adam and Eve? And one of them raised his hand really quickly. And he said, it was that old coral snake. And he said, you can't trust anything he says. He'll lie to you every time.
00:01:40
Speaker
like If you see a coral snake, maybe you should remember that one.
National Blessings and Honoring God
00:01:45
Speaker
But I want to invite you to open God's word to Psalm 33. You know, I believe that this nation was built by people who would share the words from Scripture with not only their children, but with one another. And so it's a real joy as we have July the 4th, Independence Day coming up. There's no doubt in my mind that God has blessed America. But I think the question we're facing is, will God continue to bless America? I think that's an important question. And I think the answer is found in God's word. It's not found in political parties. So nothing I'm talking about has to do with political parties. But Psalm 33 was written during a time of national crisis.
00:02:32
Speaker
And we don't know who the author was, but it's interesting that if you were to begin with Psalm 11 and read all the way through Psalm 32, all of those Psalms were written by David. But then Psalm 33 does not have an autograph. It's not signed by David. But then when you start with Psalm 34 and you go from Psalm 34 all the way to Psalm 41, all of those also were written by David. So as we go through Psalm 33, I want you to notice something about it. It was not written to individuals. It was written to nations. It was written to all the nations, all across the globe. Any nation that will humble itself before God and align its ways with him and his word, they may receive blessings from him.
00:03:26
Speaker
So we answer the question with another question, and that is, will we honor the Lord or will we forget the Lord? Psalm 3312, it's found right here in this chapter we're going to read or this Psalm. It says, blessed is the nation. whose God is the Lord. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. But you could add to that one some other verses, for example, Proverbs 1434, this is righteousness exalts a nation.
00:04:00
Speaker
But sin is a reproach to any people. Psalm 917 says, the wicked shall be turned into hell in all the nations that forget God. That's why the crucial question that we must ask each generation of Americans, each generation of people all around the world need to answer this question. Am I going to honor God? Will we honor God? Psalm 33, 12 says that the nation that honors him is going to be blessed. Proverbs 14, 34 says that if we honor God, then we're going up. He will exalt the nation that honors him. If we dishonor him, then we're going down.
00:04:44
Speaker
He says it will be like a reproach. You know, Derek Kidner, he's an Old Testament professor. He says that it's like reproach there means disgrace. Another Old Testament scholar named Walkie, Bruce Walkie, says it's like the word shame. Or Longman, another Old Testament scholar, says it's like the word diminish. And so we can either be diminished as a nation because of sin, or we can see things go up as a nation by honoring the Lord and seeing what he wants to do and doing it. Let's see how God reveals when he will bless a nation, our nation, any nation, through Psalm 33. Would you stand in honor of God's word? Let me read through this Psalm.
00:05:31
Speaker
It says in verse one, shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with a lyre. Make melody to him with the harp of 10 strings. Sing to him a new song. Place skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap.
00:06:16
Speaker
He puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm. The Lord brings the council of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The council of the Lord stands forever. the plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man. From where he sits and thrown, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
00:07:10
Speaker
The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The warhorse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might, it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope.
00:07:59
Speaker
in you. Would you join me in prayer? Oh God, thank you so much for this passage of Scripture. ah Lord, just open it up to us and show us what can we do to encourage the the blessing of God to come our way as a nation. Would you speak to each one of us that we might say, as for me and my house, We're going to serve the Lord. We're going to honor the Lord. As for my life and my heart, I'm going to honor the Lord. As for our city, as for our community, we want to honor the Lord. And I pray that as a nation, we would say we want to honor the Lord. We don't want to forget you. So bless us, O Lord. Thank you so much for how our hearts were blessed by you.
Biblical Influence on National Heritage
00:08:41
Speaker
through our children today. Thank you for their songs. They were so meaningful. They were so packed with truths. Thank you so much for these two fine young men who stood before us, not to say they're perfect, but to say they're forgiven, to say that they're on a new journey, that their lives are being changed one day at a time. Thank you so much for those who are serving you, giving up their summer so that they could work in a camp and work with children and with students and to work with families. So, Lord, you're working all around us. Help us not miss out. Help us say, I want to be a part of what God is doing. Bless us now, Lord, as we look at your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:09:31
Speaker
Psalm 33 can serve as a biblical compass. It's gonna point us, we as a nation, back to the Lord, providing us with six directives that I think will realign us with this word. Don't worry, we're not gonna get all six in today. But I already checked with Josh and said, what if I go over next into next Sunday with a message? He said, that's fine. But did you know this? Did you know that just down the road at the University of Houston that scholars there reviewed 15,000
00:10:03
Speaker
15,000 original writings by the founding fathers of our country. And you know what they found? They found that the Bible was the most common source that those founding fathers cited. Whenever they were writing, it didn't matter who they were writing. And so today, as I share these truths from God's Word, I want to sprinkle in a few examples of how people in the past have put the Lord first as they followed Him. If we want God to bless America, then I think one thing we need to do is we need to sing His songs of praise. Would you look with me at verses 1 through 3? You can see in these verses that we need to sing the Lord's praise like these kids did with enthusiasm. We need to sing the Lord's praise with excellent with excellence. Whatever instrument you play, play it to the very best that you can for the Lord. We need to sing songs that express our thanks to God. That's what is written here in verse two.
00:11:09
Speaker
And we certainly need to say everything I sing, I want to sing it for His glory. Do you know that's not happening across America? Do you know that I looked up Billboard for the week of June, this past week in June of 2024, and I thought what were the most downloaded or streamed songs I don't want to tell you the five I found were at the top because they're not things that I want to highlight, but all I'm saying is America needs to get back to singing for the Lord. You know what the tallest building in our nation's capital is?
00:11:45
Speaker
It's the Washington Monument. It stands at 555 feet in the air. It's pretty hot. I'd hate to have to put shingles on that roof up there. But if you were to go up there to that capstone that's at the very top, see at the very top of it, it's kind of hard to see there maybe. But at the very top, there's two Latin words written, Laus Deo. And it means, praise be to God. Isn't that amazing? That the highest point over our nation's capital says, we're going to praise God. I think that's a message that they're trying to say to us. Do you know that Psalm 33, the entire Psalm is like a praise. Only one verse, verse 22, if you look at it, verse 22 is the only prayer
00:12:33
Speaker
It's so filled with truths and praise and thanksgiving to God. And I thought, wow, that's important. As a matter of fact, one Bible scholar says, really, if you wanted to outline this whole psalm, you could say, verse one, who should we worship? Verses two through four, how should we worship? Verses five to 19, why should we worship? And then the last few verses, 20 to 22, what happens when we worship? You know, definitely it's all about God. It's all about Him. And that's why all of the songs that the vacation Bible school children just sang, they're all about the Lord. You know, before our nation adopted the national anthem, did you know that we sang another song? There was a song written by a Baptist seminary student, maybe like Josh Hill, who is named Samuel Francis Smith. And he wrote it back in 1831.
00:13:30
Speaker
It was the song, My Country, to his of thee. They ask him, why did you write this song, Samuel? He said, I wrote this song to express my gratitude for blessings given to my country and offer up a prayer for guidance. You ever write a song that says, thank you, God, for how you've been good to my country? Thank you, Lord. But also, would you guide us as we go into the future? I think that's amazing that he did that. And he said he did it in 30 minutes. So it didn't take him long. Can you imagine writing something like this? You know, the thing I like is where it says in that song, our Father's God to the author of liberty.
00:14:10
Speaker
To thee we sing, long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light. Protect us by thy might, great God our King." You ever write any songs like that? Do you ever hear any songs like that? Do you know that during the War of 1812 at the Battle of Baltimore, there was a really tough battle going on, and so what the American troops did at Fort McHenry, they raised this large American flag, and there were British warships that just pounded that fort for 25 hours.
00:14:48
Speaker
And so they were thinking, well, probably Fort McHenry will be just like the White House, just like the Capitol building, just like the Treasury building, because weeks before the British troops burned those. And so I don't know if you realize, but at one time they were all destroyed. But a young attorney named Francis Scott Key was there. He was there whenever that was happening. He was on a ship. He wasn't at Fort McMurray. But the next morning, he said, I looked out there and I couldn't believe what I saw, clearing the smoke. And after the dawn began to to come out, he said, right there in the early light, I saw that our flag was still there. He says, in the Star Spangled Banner, one of the verses say, oh, thus be it ever.
00:15:34
Speaker
When free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war's desolations, blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven rescued land praise the power that hath made and preserved us as a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto, in God is our trust, and the stars bangle banner and triumph shall wave, or the land of the free and the home of the brave. You know, although born just prior to the harshness of the Civil War, Catherine Lee Bates wrote the words to another song called America the Beautiful. As a young adult at 33 years of age in 1893, she wrote of the beauty of this country that she saw
00:16:27
Speaker
on a trip to Pike's Peak over in Colorado. Do you know that she wrote four stanzas, and in every stanza that she wrote, you know who she thanked for America being a beautiful country? God. She put God in all four of the stanzas, but for some reason, I really like the second stanza, where it says, oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress, a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness. America, America, God mend thine every flaw, confirm thy soul and self-control thy liberty in law. Will God continue to bless America? Well, I think the answer to that question hinges on another question. Will America continue to praise the Lord in her songs? Let me give one more before we dismiss today.
00:17:23
Speaker
If we stand upon his standards, I know that God will bless us, verses four and five. Do you know that in 1778, James Madison told the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, we've staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We've staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments. That's what they were saying back then. You know, if you were to visit the Supreme Court building over the top, you would see the gable. It's called a pediment. Up there on the pediment of the exterior of the Supreme Court building,
00:18:08
Speaker
On the east east entrance, Moses is seated holding the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. And written beneath there, I don't know if you can see it, but written beneath there is this saying, justice, the guardian of liberty. Wow. You know, actually there are five different locations within the Supreme Court where you will find the Ten Commandments being referred to. How many of you this summer will visit a public library? I remember my mom always just say, we're going to go to the library, we're going to check out five books for the summer, and I want you to read those books. And so anyway, that was just our way. But I don't know if you're planning to go to the library, but if you ever wanted to go to the largest library in the whole world, where would you go? Do you know that the Library of Congress is the largest library in the entire world?
00:19:00
Speaker
It actually holds 162 million different items. And in the main reading room there, there's a visual reminder of God's Word that was entrusted to Moses, at least part of it. And there he is standing with the Ten Commandments. But also in there, you would find that there's an exhibit. in the Library of Congress. It's called the Gutenberg Bible. It was printed in 1455. And it's actually not only the oldest Bible that was printed, it's the oldest book that was printed. And that's why it's a big deal.
00:19:37
Speaker
But you know, the Founding Fathers believe the Bible when it said in Jeremiah 17.9, that the heart is deceitful above all things. So at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the division of the government. He said it's not good that the government would all be just one man, just one place. So he said, I think we need three branches so that there can be greater accountability. So that's why they have the judicial branch, the legislative branch, the executive branch. But do you know where they got that idea?
00:20:12
Speaker
Well, it's written, Isaiah 3322. That's in the notes from the constitutional constitutional convention of 1787. When James Madison presented it, he said, here's why. Because Isaiah 3322 says, the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, and the Lord is our king. He will save us. They believe that we should stand upon the scriptures. You know, speaking of standing, if you were to go into the National Archives building in Washington, D.C., it holds our nation's most important documents. And so, I mean, all of the big ones are in there. And to remind our citizens and our leaders to stand upon biblical standards as you enter the building, guess what the first image that you will stand upon is in the floor. It's implanted in the floor. It's a bronze reference.
00:21:11
Speaker
to the 10 commandments that are right down there in the floor. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that this this word of God right here, it tells us how we can experience God's blessing going into the future. We can either forget what he said or we can honor what he said. And I'm thinking, wow, you know what? I want to stand. I want to continue to stand on the scriptures. But also, I want to continue to see younger generations of Americans say, if I'm going to sing, you know what I'm going to sing? I'm going to sing thanks to God. I'm going to sing His praises and honor Him.
00:21:53
Speaker
I believe that God will bless America when we sing His songs of praise, and I believe He will bless America whenever we stand upon the Scriptures. If you were to read verses four and five, you know what you would learn about the Scriptures? In Psalm 33, four and five, you would learn that they're right. You would learn that they're reliable. You would learn that they're refreshing because they remind us of God's steadfast love. The whole earth is full of it. Have you forgotten that God loves you? Have you forgotten that what he wrote so long ago? It's so true. Listen, I believe that God wants to bless you as an individual. He wants to bless your family. He wants to bless our church. He wants to bless our community. He wants to bless our state. He wants to bless our our country. He wants to bless the world. But he's not a bless me anyway type God.
00:22:47
Speaker
We have to decide, am I going to say yes to Him or am I going to ignore Him and
Personal Commitment to God
00:22:53
Speaker
forget about Him? Am I going to honor Him? No matter what calling you have in life, will you honor the Lord and glorify Him? You know, the first step is like that step that we saw with Keegan Grissom, Jacob Coleman. Both of those two young guys said, you know what we did? We surrendered to Christ as our Lord and Savior. And we're trying to follow Him one step at a time. We're not perfect, but we're trying. And when they got baptized today, they said, I want to show other people what He's doing in my life. What about you?
00:23:27
Speaker
Have you ever said, I surrender to you, Lord? That's the first step to say God have made so many mistakes. Remember when the children were singing? A, admit to God that you're a sinner. B, believe in Jesus Christ and his son. see, confess your sins, and confess that Jesus Christ came as God's provision. That's what we need to do even today. So I want us to stand together, going to invite our musician to come back and to lead us in this closing prayer, closing song, and it's called, I
00:24:03
Speaker
surrender all. Would you say to the Lord Jesus Christ today, Lord, I made a lot of mistakes, but you know what? I made the mistakes because I was doing things my way, but today I'm ready to surrender all to you. Let's pray and then we'll give an opportunity to anyone who needs to follow Christ and surrender to Him. Thank you so much, Lord, for this time to look into your word. Thank you for the praises that have already happened. Thank you again for the baptisms. But Lord, we know your spirit is always working around us, honoring your son. And so I pray that today we would honor you by surrendering to you.
00:24:41
Speaker
Lord, is there another student here? Is there a boy or a girl here? Or is there a man or a woman here? And if they were honest, they would say, you know what? I have yet to surrender control of my life to Jesus Christ. I'm still on the throne. I'm still calling the shots. I'm making all the decisions. And I've made a mess of things. But Lord, if they would just simply come to you humbly, and say, forgive me, Lord, I thank you that you said, if we'll confess our sins, you're faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It can all be clean. It can all be wiped away. So bless this time of response as we respond to you. May some surrender to you this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:25:32
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.