Sermon "Making America Grateful Again" by Rick Shabi, November 21, 2020

well lately lately and i guess for the last several months we've heard a lot of talk about america and a lot of talk that may make us think when we hear it what what land are we living in because many of the things that i hear about america seem very foreign to me we hear things about what a bad country america is what bad people we are and how racist we are and how how how intrusive we are in other people's lives and other countries lives and i i look around and i certainly you know i understand that america has made a lot of mistakes as any nation has made mistakes in its time but i look around america and i think well you know there's a lot of good that america has done too there has been no nation on earth that has been more generous than america there's no nation that has ever done as much for other countries of the world as america there's no nation on earth that has provided a livelihood and an opportunity for people to grow and develop their potential like america there's a lot of good that america has done even though there's a lot of wrong that america has done and we could all sit here and list all the faults of america but you know we could go to any government and any nation in the world any of them and i dare say we would find even more faults with that nation and maybe less good things that they have done and and nations that have been less of a benefit to the world so this week this week you know as we have thanksgiving and i you know listen to the news like you listen to the news and you know i hear media and governors around the country saying you know forget thanksgiving this year stay home don't celebrate don't gather with people it's a totally foreign time that we live in who would have thought a year ago on this thanksgiving was coming that we would be hearing don't congregate with other people just stay at home with your people make sure that you're there and kind of putting fear in the minds of people about every about even this holiday you know which is supposed to be a time that people stop and thank god for the blessings that we've had in this country but it's the times that we live in the times that we live in there's never been a time like the time we live in now there probably will never be a time like the times that we lived in leading up to this time i mean in the decades and centuries of this country that we've enjoyed in the past like now and we look to a future that's very uncertain and looks very much when you hear all the voices and all the hate and all the contempt on each side and all the different directions that people would like to see the country go in a time that looks ahead is very very ominous in a way and we look into the bible and we see that an ominous future lies ahead for all of us but this week is thanksgiving and this week when on thanksgiving i'm going to choose to be very thankful and grateful to god for the opportunity that i've had to live in this country because with all of this faults and all of its problems i tell you there is no place else on earth i would rather have lived during my lifetime you know i've had a couple of of we've had the opportunity to travel to foreign nations during feast times i've had a couple of my kids who have studied abroad you know during college at other places who thought oh they'd very much like to live in this culture or that culture and they come home now we come home every time and many of you who have traveled in foreign areas you come back and you say there's no place like america as nice as some of these places might be there is no place like america on the face of the earth today we as a people have a lot a lot to be grateful for and sometimes we just need to stop and think about what it is that god has given us and the opportunities that we've had to live in this land in this time frankly i would not want to live at any other time in history i would want to not want to live in any other country i would not want to live under any other kingdom except god's kingdom that is yet to come than i do right now you know i i ran across i ran across a i guess a slogan or a little thing on the internet wasn't looking for it and i thought well that's really clever and i think it has to do with with a group and when i say a word you'll know kind of what group it is that that was kind of promoting itself a band type thing that is no longer i guess in existence now and i thought that's kind of clever you know we've heard a lot of talk the last four and five years about making america great again maybe it's time that we start and i'd love to see some politician or someone stand up and say let's make america grateful again and i checked it and it's not copyrighted so i i can say that but maybe it's time for america and everyone in america on both sides of the fence and the fences are getting higher and higher the wall between to stop and think about what we've had and what's been worked in this country to maybe think about god and what he's given us in this country and stop thinking all about ourselves and what the power is that we want or the things that we want or how things get done our way maybe it's time that someone stands up and says be grateful for what you have start thinking about the positive and let's not hear about all these other things because frankly you don't even know where you're planning to take this you know sometimes when we hear about some of the things that are going on so this time this time i'm going to pause i'm going to be thankful and i'm going to be grateful to god for the fact that i've lived in this country during this time in my lifetime because you know what i don't know what next thanksgiving will be i don't know that we'll ever have an america that was the way it was up until the time this thanksgiving it may be of tired different thanksgiving next year than it was this year from what we had last year i don't think anyone would have seen you know in one year's time the bitterness the animosity the violence everything that you name this that has become part of this country and it doesn't look like it's going away who knows what next year will bring only god knows what next year will bring but i'm very grateful to have been here i want to talk about just a few things today and you know i could talk about the things it's been nice to have you know a a land that we live in and all the blessings as god's given us we could list the fact that we know we haven't had famines that we none of us have really i don't think ever had a day of involuntary hunger i don't think we have involuntary you know want for anything we live in a land that we have just been richly blessed we have homes we have cars we have grocery stores we have clothes we have everything even those who who may say they have been underprivileged in some areas still have a lot and a lot more than they would be if they were living in another country and we need to stop and think of that a lot more than people all in the 6 000 years of mankind's history have had before us we live in a blessed time and even though i may not say it over and over and over again i know and you know it's because of god's blessing on this country that we live the way we do so we can talk about all the physical blessings but there's something at the core of all of it that we need to remember and be very thankful for there's one word one word you know that word is liberty liberty because it's the liberty that this country brought to the world a new concept because all the thousands of years before america came and that constitution was set up it was a world that was dominated by monarchies tyrannies kings who lorded over people none of us appreciate that no one alive today knows what it's like in america now maybe people in russia maybe people in china maybe people in some other parts of the world like north korea they understand what it's like to have a dictator and a king who tells you what you're going to do when you're going to do it where you're going to work what you're going to worship how your life is going to be none of us have any clue what that's like because we've lived in a land that was an experiment if you will and i believe blessed by god where liberty was part of the foundation of this country it was something that hadn't been tried before and it literally changed the world before that you had thousands of years of of of of kings who would tell you you know basically they wanted to be worshipped right if you're going to if you're going to worship something worship me it was all about power it's all about what they want it's all about what they did and you were relegated to a class if you were born as a farmer like chances are no matter how brilliant you were you were going to be a farmer because that was the class you stayed in there was no movement unless by accident somehow you came to someone's attention people didn't develop people didn't people didn't um become the people that they could have become as they lived in a very oppressed and suppressed society but then came america then came america let me read you a a transcript or a section here from a book by the name of the age of democratic revolution is written by r.r palmer he says there is little doubt that the american revolution of the 1770s and the formation of a republic in the 1780s served as a profound example to all european observers hundreds of books pamphlets and public lectures analyzed romanticized and criticized the american rebellion against great britain american independence fired the imagination of aristocrats who were unsure of their status while at the same time giving the promise of ever greater equality to the common man the american example served as a great lesson tyranny could be challenged man did have inalienable rights new governments could be constructed the american example then shed a brilliant light as one french observer remarked in 1789 this vast continent which the seas surround will soon change europe and the universe and indeed it did it swept liberty was the key the key word during that time the world was changing they saw what was happening in america and people around the world began to look at and say why not us why does one man who happen to have a birthright or a birth order or a birth claim on a throne have the right to tell us what we're going to do and relegate us to his thoughts his ideas his will is that what life was all about well for billions of people who lived that's what life was about until until the 17 1800s the 1900s and the 21st century and this country led the way in it none of us absolutely none of us understand and i mean none of us in this room and no one in this country today maybe some of those who emigrated from you know cuba maybe some of those from some of the socialist countries maybe some of them from the communist countries understand what it's like to live under that regime no one that was born in america understands that at all and i dare say if they did and if they talk to some people well they would say you don't want to live there you don't want to live there you know for all of america's problems there's also so many people who want to live here so many people who want to live here that we have problems even in that in that area but you know as america began to emerge as america the country began to emerge things began to explode again don't discount god's blessing i'm not ignoring that but things began to explode in america all of a sudden you had a country that was producing you had a people that people were emigrating to you had a people that could come over and they could they could develop their talents they could get an education they could do things that they never thought they could do you know my own grandfather on my father's side why did he leave hungary austria or their eastern europe where he left he left his family behind and came all the way over here just for the opportunity to get out of the kingdom that he was in there with a new one coming into ru into power because he didn't want to live under that austerity and learn a new language that was going to be pushed down their throats or for some other reasons as well and he got over here and he you know he didn't become you know an elite he didn't go to college but you know what his life was so much better here than it was over where he was before and i look at you know you look at the other people so many of them could say that same thing they left here and then they came here and they had a life they had a life and they could do things here that they could never have done before because liberty allows people to do things to become something other than that what they were born into it is something that is a very positive thing and the constitution that our fathers framed based on the bible based on the bible it did it did begin a country that has resulted in the greatest most wealthy nation the world has ever seen progressively increasing to the point that we are today where now we have so much all we can do is talk negative things about it let me read a couple of the couple quotes here from some of our founding fathers on the constitution and how it was put together because it was put together on principles that the country does not espouse much today in 1778 when james madison who was the fourth president said we have staked the whole future of american civilization not upon the power of government far from it we have staked the future upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves to sustain ourselves according to the ten commandments of god can you imagine any president saying that today so foreign so foreign to what any politician would say today and yet these were the people who were there that were putting the constitution together the government that was going to govern this people that came from england they came from suppressive states people that were held back and weren't able to do anything people like patrick henry who saw liberty so important said give me liberty or give me death that's how important it was to him in 1832 noah webster said the principles of all genuine liberty and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the bible and sustained by its authority after that's after the constitution was written after the country had been operating for a while and george washington said without faith there is no freedom without god there is no liberty and isn't that true so liberty has always marked america liberty and the right to do things taking the yoke off people so that they were free to develop their potential didn't happen in other countries didn't happen for six thousand years free to develop their potential free to get an education free to become what they could become to explore their talents do what they can be and it's set on fire an economic engine that the world has never seen the likes of and probably will not see the likes of again that's what happens when you take the yoke off people that's what liberty does it was a new thing in the world then and it came about here in this country and it teaches us something that we even hear in the news once in a while today if you bound people by regulations and throttle them you know everything just sort of stagnates but when you allow when you allow commerce to go and you take the yokes off of people and give them liberty things can fly god created all of us with talents god created all of us with the ability to do things in this land in this country in this time that you and i have been privileged to live in we've had the opportunity to do that our forefathers and the people that came before us have no idea have no idea of the lives that we live they have no idea even what they might have been capable of because they just were never given the opportunity to do that turn with me back to luke luke 4. jesus christ spoke of liberty when he stood up in the temple one day early in his ministry and he talked about he talked about it and when we go back and look at the the chapter in isaiah that he was quoting from we see some of the principles and the results of what has happened in this land that i'm thankful that i've had the opportunity to to live in in luke 4 verse 18 he stood up and he read from isaiah 61 he said the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor you know the masses the masses in life have been poor they've been suppressed they have had to live life you know from what i grow to what i eat they haven't had the things that you and i have at our disposal he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor and of course that's speaking spiritually poor as well he sent me to heal the brokenhearted i wonder what it was like to live in the 1200s and the 1300s and the 1400s i wonder what life would have been like i wonder if i would have woken up in the morning and been happy to do the job i was doing i wonder if i would have thought that's all it is and life was just a chore you just kind of live and then die and that's all it is my job is to do this and i have absolutely nothing i can progress into he has sent me to heal brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives now we know jesus christ is talking here about proclaiming liberty because sin is a yoke on us correct isaiah 58 tells us when in the fasting chapter pray fast that the yoke can be taken off of you because sin holds us down sin suppresses us that we can never realize the spiritual potential that god has for us when we remain sinners and when we sin and of our own human selves we don't have the power to take that yoke off we are powerless against sin we are powerless against satan it takes god's holy spirit for that to happen and until that yoke is removed until god through his spirit takes that yoke off we are people that are just floating through life maybe we're the presidents of company maybe we're the presidents of nations but we have absolutely no idea what our potential is because god has created potential in man as we've been talking about in the bible studies that mankind doesn't even realize you and i realize but because he's opened our eyes and because we have let him through his holy spirit teach us train us lead us to repentance take the yoke of sin off of us and realize we can't be captive to that anymore because it limits us and it will prevent us from becoming everything we or everyone we could become he sent me he says to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind how blind are so many people you know we look around even away apart from spiritual principles today and i listen to words i listen to broadcasts i listen to the news and i find myself thinking how blind are people how silly are people how unforsightful our people and recovery of sights of the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed the masses for six thousand years were oppressed you had a ruling class you had a king even those in his court that might have thought they've risen to the height of what they could become they were oppressed they couldn't say any words that they wanted to say they had to make sure that everything they did everything they saw thought everything they said in private had to be right in line with what the king is because the moment the king heard that you disagreed with him or had an opinion off could come your head there could go your position you're relegated back to whatever position in life you came from that's the life they lived christ was well aware of it to set at liberty those who are oppressed and of course he was speaking of it from a spiritual aspect as well these people they need to have sin they need they need satan the way they need to understand the future they need to have their eyes open to what god has done and no longer oppressed because god isn't a god of oppression he's not a god of captives he's a god of liberty jesus christ said it twice you know to the three times in this to set at liberty those who are oppressed who proclaimed the acceptable year of the lord he came he came to earth he made that statement he sat down and people were astonished at his words what did he mean by liberty and what did he mean that today you've heard this fulfilled in my hearing or in your hearing let's go back to isaiah 61 from where he quoted and you can read through verses 1 and 2 there and see that you know the exactly the same words that jesus christ read are exactly what's written there in isaiah 61 and verses 1 and 2. but let's pick up the rest of verse three and remember as people in the in the other times when they would hear a portion of scripture they knew the bible so well the following scriptures just actually just came into their minds so these these verses in three and four that we'll read they understood when christ read it that those followed in verse three it says you know well he says in verse three that to comfort all who mourn to console those who mourn in zion to give them beauty for ashes i come to proclaim liberty to the captives i came i come to set the oppressed free they need to know what their potential is they need to be able to do that and then look what look what the words he uses here i'm going to give them in their this life i'll give them beauty for ashes their life has been miserable it'll be beautiful when they have true liberty when they have true liberty they'll have the oil of joy instead of mourning it's a very positive thing right they'll have the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness that's a positive thing that they may be called trees of righteousness the planting of the lord that he may be glorified and all we do to kind of remember god is the one who blessed us our forefathers know that abraham lincoln you've heard that quote so many times how thanksgiving was even set up and abraham lincoln fully understood the blessings we have in this country there's no other explanation it's not because we're so smart and we're so great it's because god bless this country because of the obedience of abraham and the promise that he made to him and then look in verse four what happens as they they are are as the oppression is taken away as people have the freedom to become what they need to become to experience what god had created them to be physically and spiritually he's talking about here of course and they shall rebuild the old ruins there's energy there's a rebuilding that's going on there's there's commerce there's people interested in what's going on they shall rebuild the old ruins they shall raise up the former desolations they shall repair the ruined cities the desolations of many generations you see energy you see vibrance you see commerce you see people building and you see people wanting to do that when you take the yolks off people begin to do things when the yolk was taken off from all the tyrannies that dominated the world up until the 1700s you begin to see building happen you begin to see commerce you begin to see economies you begin to see people doing things that they never thought that they could do and so they wanted to come to a place where they could develop and become who god wanted them to become or who they thought they could become in a free land where they could develop their potential there was no place else on earth like this that's why probably many of your ancestors came from wherever they came from because they wanted to be in a land like this that's why my grandfather came here he didn't want to be where he was before he wanted to be in this country and so many and so many like him because there was and there is no place else on earth like this and no matter what people say and believe me i can list the problems of this country too is it a morally strong country absolutely not i can list from here for the rest of the day if we wanted to the faults in this country but i'm telling you even with all the faults there is no place on earth like america today no place else that i would rather live because when i take it look at the blessings that we have and the things that we've enjoyed this is the place to be this is the place to be if we're looking at it realistically with wide open eyes not a perfect place certainly a place that's so much and has repo has moved so far from what the country was in the 1718s and early 1900s can't defend that at all can't defend some of the things that i see happen with people not saying that at all not saying everything is is good but if there's a place on earth i would challenge anyone to tell me you would rather live anywhere else than here so we have you know this freedom that we've had and we'll talk of a couple of of concepts of freedom here where is it today do people in america still see freedom and liberty as a benefit or is it just kind of one of those age-old concepts that now we just have taken for granted and hey we see these problems and so we're going to focus in on that and it must be the freedom it must be the liberty that's caused the problems where is america today is there anyone in america saying today give me liberty or give me death for instance is there anyone in america that's willing to give their lives as the forefathers did to have a nation that would be able to be where people could be and the and the people rather than the king dictated what you do that you would have freedom of speech we'll talk about that freedom of religion we'll talk about that and in a land where that isn't happening and we're a land where people have so far departed from god is it even possible is it even possible for that liberty to be sustained because you know it wasn't until there was a constitution in a country that god blessed a constitution that was based on the bible and principles that people live by and there they may not have known the sabbath they may not have known the holy days but they understood the moral principles of the bible and they abided by those and the land was blessed and people were able to live in liberty as they lived by those standards let me read from one of our forefathers here john adams he said this he said the only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue and this needs to be inspired into the people in a greater measure than they have it now he said this in 1776 they may change their rulers and they may change their forms of government but without virtue they will not obtain a lasting liberty isn't that interesting that he would say that if if you have to live by some moral principles that people were living by then were they living it perfectly absolutely not can we take exceptions out and say this person did this and this person did that absolutely we can in any case that we do with human beings but by at that time that was what was being espoused in america samuel adams said this a virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people they will never be enslaved if they're living if they're disciplining themselves if they're living by a standard that is the right standard they won't be slaved they discipline themselves this will be their great security and benjamin franklin said only a virtuous people are capable of freedom as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters so we look at the world we live in today corruption right it's one of the key words when we could all talk about corruption in any way shape and form both sides of the fence no one except from it we live in a corrupt land i think the blinders will be taken off that we just see how much more corrupt it is we live in a vicious land we live in a violent land you look at the videos that we see on tv of people that are fighting and that using baseball bats and hitting each i mean it's just like ridiculous it's like we live it's like we're living in some of those third world countries that we've seen the pictures before i think how can people live that way but it's happening right here in this country why virtue is disappearing the bible is disappearing as people depart from god our forefathers had it right they saw they can't they're going to need more masters they need tyranny if they can't rule themselves if they're not living by a standard they have to have someone make that standard for them you know i remember uh vladimir putin saying years ago and i thought it was an interesting comment that he made that america just doesn't understand his people that his people need a strong ruler they need someone to tell them what to do and i thought that was an interesting comment but i thought i think you know what you're talking about i think you know that a liberty didn't work over there when they tried it in russia but they had no basis in virtue they had no basis in the bible for years they had no religion because tyranny has no religion when you have communism when you have big government religion goes out the window government becomes religion and we see that in the bible right all we have to do is look at revelation 13 we see what's coming down the pike a time where there will be a tyrant and there will be a religious figure who dictates everything you do everything you think every sabbath you keep and if you don't comply and if you don't abide by that then you're as good as dead because your life will be absolutely ridiculous that's oppression in its purest sense that's what's coming down the pike that's what people before this generation and this the last few hundred years lived with all their lives this nation was founded on principles that you and i understand and we understand much more about the bible than benjamin franklin and john adams and samuel adams and the other people that we quoted we understand what liberty is true liberty they understand that in a physical sense we understand it in a spiritual sense we turn over to second corinthians second corinthians 3 and verse 17. says now the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty so you and i we experience liberty we understand it in a physical sense and in a spiritual sense we get it if we're if god's spirit is leading us and governing us we don't need someone holding you know something over our head day and night and saying do this and do that and do this we live that because we believe it and it's become us but in this land that is departing so so so far from god that it's unbelievable actually with some of the laws have been enacted and some of the positions that people take and you look at our morals and things that we couldn't even dreamt of ten years ago would become the standard and you could be you could lose your job because you don't agree with this idea or that idea who would ever thought that could have happened in america or that america would ever even embrace some of those things yeah when a time when people lose virtue when they lose the price the concepts of what it is tyranny is the only answer tyranny lies ahead but this thanksgiving i'm gonna be thankful and i'm gonna i'm gonna thank god a lot that i've lived in this time in a country that i had the liberty to do the things because frankly i've been able to do things here that i know i never would have been able to do if i had born in the 14 15 1600s i have no idea what i would have been but i know i wouldn't have been able to do what i did today i know i wouldn't be able to travel different places i know i wouldn't have been able to progress through a career that i have i know i wouldn't have been able to do many many things my life would have been so different it would have been absolute agony when i think about it and so would yours so would yours have been and so will peoples be with the time ahead of us that the bible prophesies because we've left god and because we've forgotten him and because we're not even a little grateful as a people to him for what he's provided for us you know there are so many different parts of of of freedom let's talk about freedom of religion for a while we could go on all day about the freedoms that we enjoy let's talk about freedom of religion you know when when the when the people came over here from england many of them fled because of what they wanted to practice the religion that they believed they didn't want the king telling them i believe this therefore you believe it the bible had come had been opened up people could now read it on their own there was a protestant reformation in europe and the catholic church was being exposed for what it is that it wasn't teaching the bible and as people read the bible they wanted to live the way that lived the way of the bible they couldn't do that in many of their countries because they were told this is the way you believe king believes it therefore everyone believes it again go back and read revelation 13 that's what's ahead because the world's going back to that that's where it's been until religious freedom was part of this country they knew what it was like and they made sure as this country was built that it was going to people could come and worship as they see fit so today we have how many different religions in america we have catholics we have protestants we have muslim we have buddhists we have atheists we have every religion religion known to man here and some of them flock and some of them actually use the constitution against us you know to to have their religious beliefs that's a whole other that's a whole other issue but we can look at those things and we can say you know this is this is this has been a land that you and i have been able to do things we wouldn't have been able to do in the 1300s you know we've gone through some of the church history and what have we read if you believe the bible and people found out burned at the stake beheaded it wasn't tolerated you know you and i can come here every single sabbath you and i can talk to our neighbors about the bible and what we believe you and i can go to the feast of tabernacles in a free country no one is heckling us no one is threatening us no one is persecuting us it's our right because we live in this country can't it couldn't have happened in any other in any other country now we have the opportunity to do that did god ordain this time yes yes he did and you know we're in a minority here because we keep the sabbath and because we keep the holy days we know it's rare on this earth today for people to keep all the laws of god and all the holy days of god and all the words of the bible we're a rare commodity you know today we're still grouped in you know some people think you know we're we're christians like everyone else and now there's a big there's a big difference between us and the world's christianity i hope we all realize that and remember that you know you can say you believe in christ but unless you're doing the things that christ said you're really not a follower of christ everyone in this room we follow i hope the principles that the bible espouses others who say they believe in jesus christ don't they do the opposite and so as time goes on we will see other churches who cave to the world around them when difficulties arise and trials arise they'll cave and that our time will come our time will come and people will say you need to believe this if you want your tax exempt status this is what you need to be preaching you need to stop be preaching that you know we're not going to stop preaching what we preach we're going to still preach the gospel of god as it is no matter what comes from the government no matter what comes from the world around us other churches won't and there will be a distinction and so when you read in revelation about the beast power being drunk with the blood of the saints it won't be everyone else today who says they're christians it'll be true christians who say i'm not bowing to the power of the state i'm not going to have my beliefs and my faith and trust in god dictated by a man and so we live in that we live in a time that god has allowed us to do that it is a blessing i hope we all take that and i hope this thanksgiving we thank god for the fact that we've had the opportunity to live the way we have and worship the way that we do you know covet has had a tremendous tremendous negative effect on all of our lives tremendous negative effect i mean look at the arguments and look at the things that have have occurred because of this but i also look at the effect it's had on the church of god it's had some detrimental effects it might have been a novelty back in march it's not a novelty anymore it can have some real detrimental effects on us if we don't watch what's going on in our attitudes as we watch the news and we see governments continually attacking churches you don't want to be in church gatherings because that's where the virus spreads you hear that every time right that's always church groups and they're always on the news it isn't anything to be taken lightly it's not a coincidence there will come a time where there won't be you know where it'll be you know church you know we might find a time in nazi in future that it's like church services can't be it's not church services it's singing that's the other thing that's always attacked and i heard that this week about thanksgiving and even another state you know and another state out west where a pastor is the edict has come out if you're going to gather at church no more than 25 people no singing no shouting it's like well how do you how do you do that how do you not have any singing at all because it's always always something about the worship of god that's behind it covet has been a very very useful tool for people who are into big government pokhovit is a very very useful tool i'm not saying that there's not a real danger out there with kovid but i'm saying it's been a very useful tool a more useful tool to governments and people who want control than it is a real threat to people my opinion but you know god when he created us he created us to be free moral agents you know god could have been a very austere god and said you know to everyone he could have sold to adam and eve would they made the choice to take the tree of the knowledge of good and he could have struck him dead right then he could have created another group of human beings and every time every time they took the tree the knowledge of good and evil just strike him dead did he do that no right in the garden of eden he gave them choice they knew who he was and he said i want you to take the tree of life and hey if you're taking the tree the knowledge of good and evil this is what your life's going to be like he didn't dictate it he doesn't make any of us none of us are sitting here today because god made us be here no one has held a stick over your head or a gun to your head and said you have to be here it's because we want to be here because we know the truth deuteronomy 30 we see that in god's word and so when this country built in religious freedom people were free moral agents they didn't have to live they didn't have to worship the way the king worshiped they could worship according to their hearts and what their choice was deuteronomy 30 verse 19 says i call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you i've set before you life and death blessing and cursing this is a hallmark verse i think one of the key verses in the bible i've set before you i give you a choice i've opened your mind to it but you choose life or death blessing and cursing and he coaxes us urges us choose life that both you and your descendants may live choose it don't choose your way if you really want life if you want to realize the potential you've got choose life but if you choose the other way you know that's your prerogative over in joshua 24 joshua 24 and verse 15. you know as joshua is about to relinquish his time as leader of israel he tells israel the same thing we just read but even in even more blunt words 15 if it seems evil to you to serve the eternal if that's not what you want to do if you think you know i don't want to do god's way i don't want to follow his principles israel if that's what you choose if it seems evil to you to serve the lord choose for yourselves this day who you will serve whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the amorites in whose land you dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the lord he told him if you don't like it don't do it not going to hold a hammer to your head i'm not your king that says you must do that or i'm going to lop your head off god chose made us all as free moral agents in john 1 john 1 as jesus christ was born into the jewish nation flesh and blood to his own people who were the people of god who were in their minds keeping god's word the way that he had written it in john 1 verse 11 it says christ came to his own he was born into his own nation it wasn't as if he was born into some foreign nation that had no idea who god was or the principles of the bible he came to his own but his own didn't receive him did he make a pronouncement on them at that time you're all dead i'm gonna i'm gonna just absolutely get rid of all of you no it was their choice he they didn't follow him he still died for them still died for you and me but verse 12 but as many as did receive him like you and i did because everyone that god calls has a choice i will follow or i'll just go on with my life the way it was too hard to keep a sabbath too hard to keep holy days too hard to do these things why would i do it some people think but as many as received him to again look he gave them the right to become children of god look at the potential look what was opened up to them things they would have never known they gave them the right to become children of god to those who believe in his name and so we live you know we live in a time that we've been very blessed to live in our lives would have been so different if we were called and have the same belief and i dare say probably even a more strong and firm belief to live in times before us that we would have happened whatever would happen to us in romans 14 um romans 14 you know as god gives us opportunity it does say we will give account to him not as a threat what we do with our lives how we live them you know we will give account to god we have to keep that in mind but he doesn't make us do anything and in america we've had the right a very big blessing that i will always be grateful for that in this day and in this life been able to follow god without a whole lot of threats without any threats actually being able to keep the jobs i've had and having been protected by the government that says that this is your religious belief you have the right to do that it's been a big blessing it's been a big blessing to be able to do that and this thanksgiving i'll be very thankful to that for that as i will be for the fact that we have freedom of speech the people that founded our country they didn't have freedom of speech before they came over here they had to watch every word they said if they said something against the king their lives could be over you and i have no idea what it's like to have to have a government where everything we say can be monitored and reported and someone thinks oh if i can report him it's going to look good for me when i was growing up maybe they don't talk about it in schools anymore communism was a big thing it was the height of the cold war and we heard about communistic rule we heard about newspapers in russia pravda that this gave the opinion of the government of what it was and the censorship that went on and it was kind of like always a marvel to me that people would live in a country they had no idea no idea what really was going on just what the government wanted them to hear it was always interesting to me that people could be censored and either today you know we look at some of the countries in the world around us and we hear about people who can lose their lives get poisoned because they are speaking out against the president of another country who doesn't like what they say that was kind of the mark of everything back then that's the mark of tyranny you know we've been free to preach the gospel we've been free to preach the gospel of of um jesus christ around the world it could have only happened in a time like this where liberty was the mark of the land we wouldn't have been able to do this back in the 12 1300s people that did that you know they had some secret groups and they had to watch everything they're doing but they weren't able to widespread preach it we've been able to do that you and i can assemble together here you and i can talk about it i can talk about it with my family members who aren't in the church i can talk about it with neighbors that they ask people that i work with that they ask and you know what no one gets mad no one gets you know gets mad at me no one says i'm going to turn you into the government and yet lately i've watched the news and i see that you know i don't do this when related to covet or that in related decoding if i lived in a different state you know people could actually be encouraged to turn me into the government for that and say you know this person isn't doing that it's kind of that's kind of a foreign thing in america to so you know unless you're blatantly breaking the law on something but that you would be you know actually a champion if you run and say oh this person isn't doing this or that person is doing this it's kind of a strange thing to have happen in america so that never happened in my lifetime before back in luke luke 21 we read of a time when people will not like what we say and maybe even be told turn these people in luke 21 verse 12. jesus christ's words here about a time that's yet ahead of us before his return in verse 12 it says but before all these things they'll lay their hands on you they'll persecute you delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons you will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake can you imagine that today can you imagine that someone and that you would be brought before the mayor of your city to answer what you're talking of what you're doing here today i can't even imagine that but somewhere down the road we may be living it you know down in verse um 16 it says you'll be betrayed you know what betrayed me that means someone's going to hear what you say and they're going to run tell someone else that's in authority you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers because of what you believe because of what you say government doesn't like what you say google doesn't like what you say twitter doesn't like what you say we have to censor this this can't go out anyplace you'll be betrayed even by parents and teachers relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death hard to even fathom not if i was alive in the 12 13 14 15 hundreds it's not hard to fathom hard to fathom today looking at the direction of what's going on this thanksgiving we find ourselves at a crossroad what will it be like next thanksgiving it's far different this year than it was last year the world has come a long way what will it be like now when will freedom of speech end because it will end now what what the church of god teaches will stop the bible prophesies that back in the book of amos amos 8 and verse 11. as god says behold the days are coming that i will send a famine on the land not a famine of bread or a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the eternal they're not going to be able to find it it's going to be shut down maybe google will shut it down maybe all maybe all the governments will shut it down they shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east they shall run to and fro seeking the word of the lord but they will not find it today in any country in the world you can find it time coming that freedom disappears that liberty disappears so today just a few days before thanksgiving where where are we you know i'm going to take the time as i said i'm going to take the time for having lived in the america that was and all the opportunities that his has provided physically and spiritually to live the life i've lived and that you've lived and we should be very thankful to god for the time we've had and the opportunities we've had and the blessings that we've had it is because of him not because of any of us or our goodness to him goes all the glory always i'll also i'll also have my eyes looking ahead because i see the handwriting on the wall i see the handwriting on the wall and i'll also be thankful to god that no matter what comes in the future i know he will see us through i know that he will provide the way i know that he will provide the strength i trust him to do what he said and we will follow him no matter what comes our way so let's be thankful let's be thankful for the times that we had you know let's look back at america and be grateful to god for that let's be grateful to him for everything and as the bible says in everything in everything give thanks

Channel: United Church of God Orlando

Views: 1,258

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 8HyubioTXCA

Length: 56min 27sec (3387 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2020