God Bless America

God Bless America!

Jeremiah 18:1-10

Introduction: American composer Irving Berlin, formerly, Israel Isidore Baline from Mogilev, Belrus (near Russia), penned, in 1938, the words and music to one of our best-loved patriotic songs "God Bless America."

While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,

Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,

Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.

God bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America, my home sweet home.

He said, "God bless America!" Certainly, this is a true statement and prayer. God has truly blessed this great country of ours. On Wednesday, America will celebrate her 231st year of freedom. I thank God I was born in America!

The freedoms we take so lightly today were bought and paid for with the blood of men and women who died to keep us free.

Truly, we live in a country that has been blessed of God as long as she has been in existence. Today, America exists because of God's grace, mercy, and blessing. How has God blessed America?

1. By bringing her into existence.

- The truth is, we could still live under the oppressive hand of a government that would deny religious freedom and require a state church.

- The truth is, we could still live under the oppressive hand of a government that would not allow us to assemble freely in the name of the Lord Jesus.

- The truth is, we could live in a nation that denied us every right and freedom given to us by God Himself.

* In some countries, a Christian can be tortured and put to death for proclaiming the name of the Lord Jesus.

* In one country, boys and girls, who heard the Gospel, had chopsticks forced into their ears causing them to be deaf for the rest of their lives.

* In another country, children are told lies about God and told that He cannot answer prayer nor care for their needs.

* In some countries, there is only one church, and you are required to attend it.

- Certainly, it is by the grace of God that America is here today. God has blessed America!

- Though Americans do not exercise their freedom of worship as they should, all still have the right.

- We sit in this auditorium today not fearing gunmen who could come and take our freedom and our lives.

- We sit here today free to worship, sing, pray, praise, and say amen without any threat by God-deniers.

- I say, God has blessed America by bringing her into existence!

2. By giving her a chance to grow up.

- Many nations have never existed more than 200 years, and America has been in existence for 231.

- If you go back and check history, you will find that many of the great nations of the world fell to great wickedness long before their 200th birthday.

- Just like all children, America made her mistakes while growing up; but God, in His great grace, allowed this great country to continue to grow.

* America has lived through revolutions and civil wars.

* She has made it through days of slavery and oppression.

* She has even lived through days of great selfishness and greed.

* All of this is because of God's blessing our great nation.

- God let America take three steps forward and two steps back but always blessed America for going forward.

- Having observed America and her people, French diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville said, "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good; and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

- In America's early days, the men, who led this great country, sought God on every hand.

* George Washington said, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

* Benjamin Franklin said, "I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held in the assembly every morning."

* Abraham Lincoln said, "But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

* President Grover Cleveland said, "All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship."

* President Ronald Reagan said, "If we ever forget that we are One Nation under God, then we will be a Nation gone under."

* Even President Theodore Roosevelt said, "I believe that the next half century will determine if we will advance the cause of Christian civilization or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism."

* Lastly, Thomas Jefferson said in 1781 in his notes on the state of Virginia, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."

- I say, God has blessed America by allowing America to grow up!

3. By allowing her to backslide.

- One might say that God is not just in allowing this, but the Bible says that God is slow to wrath and great in mercy.

- America has had her chance to be born, grow up, and now, in many instances, turn away from the very God Who brought her into existence.

- It was never considered in the Constitution of the United States of America to allow for:

* The burning of the American flag by anti-American rebels.

* People to choose the immoral lifestyle of homosexuality and lesbianism.

* The self-destruction of our country by allowing anti-American men and women into the White House.

* The killing of innocent untold millions of babies.

* The defense of a woman's right to choose by the taking of her baby's life.

* Pornography, in any form, child or otherwise, to be rampant and legalized as a legitimate form of entertainment.

- Yes, God has brought America into existence, allowed her to grow up, and now even backslide in hopes that she will soon repent and turn back to God.

4. By God's giving her the opportunity to repent.

- Our opening text from Jeremiah 18 teaches us there is hope for backslidden America. Look at verses 7-10, "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them."

- Notice what these verses said in that God says "at what instant" a nation decides to repent, that nation can be restored by God.

- This is a very powerful passage, and it shows that God's grace and blessings can be poured out on a wicked nation that returns to Him. A nation, who has denied God and murdered her innocent unborn and promoted Godlessness and immorality, can be restored in an instant if only that nation will repent and return to God.

* Can a nation actually turn to God? How can this be done?

- It can be done one person at a time. America will not turn to God collectively; America must turn to God individually, one person at a time.

- I want to ask you a question today: are you one of those Americans who may cause God's judgment to fall on America, or one who may stay His hand?

- Salt is a preservative, and God has called us to be salt, "Ye are the salt of the earth: BUT if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." (Matthew 5:13)

Conclusion: No one can deny that God has blessed America. The sinfulness and backsliddenness of her people will bring His wrath. Let's determine to be of that number seeking His blessing. May our prayer be as Irving Berlin wrote: