Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Well, it's a tremendous honor for me to be with you, Lansdale Life family.
So I am so impressed with Pastor Chris and Jill, and join me in thanking the Lord for your pastors
right here. So I write history books, but I also like to focus on the Christian faith
in there. My wife and I put together some books called Miracles in American History,
have a few in the back. And there's a movie, The Great Awakening. How many of you have seen that?
You've heard about it? And I know some of the people that helped inspire and put that together,
so I encourage that. But that was one of the situations that Europe was Catholic,
and then you had a reformation. And then you had each country in Europe choose one denomination as
the state denomination. So Germany and Sweden were Lutheran, Switzerland, Calvinist, Scotland,
Presbyterian, Holland, Dutch Reformed, England, Anglican, and Italy, Spain, France, Austria,
Poland, Catholic. And if you did not believe the way your king did, you're persecuted, you fled.
They spilled over and founded colonies. Every colony was started by a different
Christian denomination. Virginia was Anglican. Massachusetts was Puritan. Rhode Island was
Baptist. New York was Dutch Reformed. Connecticut, New Hampshire were Congregationalist. Delaware
and New Jersey were originally Swedish Lutheran, until they got taken over by the Dutch and
taken over by the English. And then Pennsylvania was Quaker, and it was unique. As you know,
William Penn was a Quaker and put in the Tower of London for eight months. And he says,
force makes hypocrites. Tis persuasion only that makes converts. In other words, believing
something because your government, the king, tells you to believe it is one thing, but
you might say that you believe when you really don't, just because you don't want to get
canceled. Imagine getting canceled, right? And so William Penn, his dad, helped defeat the Dutch
in the Anglo-Dutch Wars. And the king owed him, but didn't have any money. And so the king,
Charles II, gave Admiral William Penn some land in the New World that they had taken away
from the previous owners, right? The Swedish, the oldest church in Philadelphia is Old Swedes
Church. So it used to be part of the old New Sweden, Gustav Adolphus of Sweden. But anyway,
this land is now English. And so King Charles II gives a bunch of it and names it after Admiral
William Penn, called Pennsylvania. But the dad dies. And so he gives it to the son, William Penn.
And so William Penn comes over and does a holy experiment to see if Christians of different
denominations could live together in the same geographic area. Like, whoa, what a novel idea.
You mean my neighbor could actually be going to a different church? It's like, yeah, so the
attitude before the revolution was, if you don't like our denomination, fine, start your own
colony. It was one. But then when the revolution starts, they all began to say, hey, we need to
work together against the King. Otherwise, we're all going to lose out. But the Great Awakening was
prior to the revolution. It helped unite the colonies. And so you would have George Whitfield
come and he would preach and he was a new light. So the old lights were the Puritans who said,
you know, it's our way or the highway, right? I mean, he was a Puritan uniformity. And so
they closed the doors. So George Whitfield couldn't preach inside of a church. So he
preached outside and would draw crowds and sometimes 20,000 and he would preach without
a microphone. Could you imagine that? And so he'd have sometimes people throw fruit at him.
People would be hiding in trees and blowing a trumpet trying to drown out. I mean, he had
opposition, but he would say things like, there's not a Baptist Presbyterian, you know,
Methodist in heaven. And of course, everybody would drop their jaw and say, what did he say?
And then he'd finish the sentence that upon entering those gates, we don't lay aside the
badges of schism and join together and worshiping our savior Jesus. It's like, okay, okay, I get it.
And so it began to unite the colonies realizing, Hey, Jesus, we have something in common,
even though we're different denominations. So this Great Awakening revival swept the
colonies. George Whitfield preaches seven times up and down the colonies. But he's the first
one to preach to mixed race crowds. And now all these universities are started as a result of
this Great Awakening. And so the blacks that got saved under George Whitfield wrote the
Negro spirituals. This is a whole genre of songs. And one of the black men that got saved was a free
black teenager, John Morant. And there's the book, a narrative of the Lord's wonderful dealings
with John Morant, a black taken from his own relations. And so he was born in New York 1755.
His father dies when he's young. He travels with his mother to Florida, to Georgia, South Carolina.
He learns how to read, play the violin, the French horn. He's educated. And then in 1768,
at the age of 13, he heard George Whitfield preach in Charleston, South Carolina. And he
experienced a dramatic conversion to Christ. And so he's unable to speak or move for half an hour.
He was carried home. The doctors were called in, but he refused medicine.
He got better by constantly studying the Bible. But this troubled his family. And his family
treated him as if he was mentally unstable. And disagreements about religion caused him
to leave home. And so he wanders away and he's living in the woods, trusting God to provide for
him. And he's befriended by the Cherokee Indians. And he learns how to speak their language and he's
living amongst the Cherokee. And then the revolution begins to heat up and the British
would incite the natives to attack the Americans. It's one of the items listed in the Declaration.
The King is excited, incited the savage to butcher the inhabitants of our frontiers.
And so the Indians, the Cherokee see John Morant and they said, well, you're obviously not an Indian.
So you must be with the Americans and we've sided with the British. And so they capture
John Morant and the chief has him tied up and they're about to execute him when he starts
preaching to the chief in their own Cherokee language, the gospel. Talk about preach like
your life depends on it. And the chief's like, well, don't kill him just yet. Let me hear a
little bit more. Let me hear. And finally the chief converts and has him untied, lets him go,
and then gives him permission to preach throughout the tribe. And then preached through the other
tribes in the area, the Catawba and the Creek and the Husaw Indians. And then after a few years,
he decides he wants to go back to South Carolina and preach among the slaves. Well, now the
British are there and they capture John Morant. They have a press game. Now this takes a little
explaining. The British ship would pull into the harbor and you would have these rough and tough
sailors get off and wander through the streets. And if they saw, especially at nighttime,
if they saw some young man all by himself, they would come alongside and grab him and drag him
onto the British boat, lock him below deck and they would get a bunch of them, right? It was
called being pressed into the British Navy. And then they would take off and they'd sail and
a hundred miles out to sea, they'd open the hatch and they say, if you want to eat anything,
get to work. And they would put them to work, uh, taking, you know, would pull in the ropes
and the sails and so forth. And for six years, John Morant was in the British Navy. And then
he finally is taken to England and he gets off and he works for a cloth merchant. He studied for
the ministry and he was helped by the missionary minded Countess of Huntington. And he got ordained
to the ministry and 1785. And then he returns to preach the gospel in Nova Scotia.
He founds a church after the Countess of Huntington names it Huntington. And then he preached to quote
a great number of Indians and white people at greens Harbor, Newfoundland. And so, uh, after
overcoming six months bout with smallpox, he preaches in Boston and he writes his amazing life
story in a narrative of the Lord's wonderful dealings with John Morant, a black, it goes
through 17 additions. And he says, God often hides the sensible signs of his favor from his dearest
friends. Real Christians, wilts they are among fiery serpents are waiting with desire and holy
expectation for the good of the promise. This is a miracle in American history. Have you ever
heard that story before, right? So God loves to take little nobodies and do great things with them.
And, um, and so the revolutionary war does start and we have what's called the declaration of
independence where we break away from the King. The King of England was a globalist. He was a one
world government guy. The son never set on the British empire, right? They had India from 1714
when they landed there and opened the trading post. And then they had, uh, Hong Kong and eventually
parts of China. And, uh, they had, you know, all countries stretched all around the world. And, uh,
an America decides we don't want a globalist King telling us what to do. So we broke away and
flipped it. And so instead of a top down government ruled by some King that claimed to be divinely
appointed, we flip it and we have a bottom up form of government called government from the consent
to the governed. They actually look back to the pre King Saul part of the Bible. So we have an
old Testament and you have 400 years where you have millions of Israelites and no King it's
called the Hebrew Republic. It's the book of judges, right? Uh, and then when the, the priest
went woke and stopped teaching the law and Eli, the high priest, his own sons are sleeping with
women in the tent to meeting. That's when they all go to Samuel a prophet and they say,
we want it to be like the other countries. We want a King. So the founders of America
looked to the pre King Saul part of the Bible. And so instead of it being the creator gives
the power to the King and he dispenses it to his subjects, we skip the King and we say the
creator gives the rights to each one of us and he's not a respecter of persons and we're all
leaders. And, um, and so the declaration mentions God four times law. All men are created equal.
The King of England didn't believe that he believed he was created extra special,
right? The divine right of Kings. All men are created equal and they're endowed by their
creator with certain unalienable rights. It's not a social contract where the group gives you
rights. No, they come from God and therefore the government's purpose is to protect our creator
given rights. Uh, laws of nature, nature's God appealing to the Supreme judge of the world for
the rectitude of our intentions. That's a prayer. We have a prayer inside of our declaration of
independence and reliance on the protection of divine providence. So the revolution is heating up
and the continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia has a day of fasting. We are
initially recommend the 17th of may 1776 to be observed as a day of humiliation, fasting,
and prayer that we with United hearts confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions
and by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease God's righteous displeasure.
And through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ obtained his pardon and forgiveness,
right? This is a month, a month or so before the declaration unanimously pass a day of fasting
through the marriage and mediation of Jesus Christ. Did you know that? All right. So they
were Christians of different denominations. And so lots of battles, lots of miracles. I just
picked out one. It's the battle of cow pens. You have some cows, put them in some pens. So it's in
South Carolina and the movie, the Patriot that Mel Gibson did highlights this battle.
And so you have a British Colonel, he's 26 years old. His name's Tarleton,
nicknamed the butcher, because at a battle of walks, ha, you have 300 Americans surrendering
and he has his dragoons. That's the light cavalry. Um, they have, uh, their sabers.
He sends them into the surrendering Americans and has them hack them to death.
All right. 300 of them. And so in the movie, the Patriot, he's like portrayed in there that
Colonel Tarleton him. And so, uh, the British are chasing the Americans and, um, the, uh,
Americans have the general Daniel Morgan and he says, they have light cavalry that travels
really fast. We have an army with wagons and we're going really slow. So they're going to
catch up with us and we're going to have to fight, but I'm going to choose where.
So Daniel Morgan decides to pick a spot in front of a river. Now you never want to fight a battle
in front of a river because if you're losing, it makes it really hard to run away. So it looked
foolish, but he did it on purpose as to set a trap. And so he has two groups of soldiers.
One are called militia and they're straight off the farm. They're sharp shooters,
but, uh, they fire a couple of times and run away. And then behind them are the continental
soldiers that have been in lots of battles and they won't run away. And so here's this
Colonel Tarleton, his light cavalry. They've been riding 24 hours nonstop and they see
the Americans in front of a river and they say, what fools. And he orders his men to charge
and the sharp shooter militia shoot once you shoot twice and then run away. And, uh,
but they don't really run away. They run in a circle. So the blue is the Americans, the red
or the red coats. And so they're charging. And so the, uh, the militia run away and the
continental soldiers act like they're going to run away. They take a couple of steps and then they
stop, they turn on their heels, they lower their guns and at point blank range, they shoot and kill
a hundred of the British dragoons. The ones that run away just circle around and hit the British
from the other side and 800 of the British throw down their weapons and surrender. And
Colonel Tarleton rides away. Well, when word gets to Lord Cornwallis that his dragoons is like
cavalry were captured, um, he was leaning on his sword. He leaned so hard, the sword snapped in half.
And so he's furious and he's going to chase the Americans. And so he now has an army with wagons
and so he begins to leave his wagons, um, and burn them because he doesn't want the Americans
to get the supplies so he can move his army faster. And he gets to the Catawba river two hours after
the Americans head cross, excuse me. And the Americans cross, but before the British can
cross, there's a flash flood. And so the British are delayed and then it's a race to the Yadkin
river. The Americans cross before the British can cross another flash flood. The river overflows,
the British are delayed. They finally crossed and now they're chasing the Americans to the
Dan river into Virginia and, uh, another flash flood. So here's the historical marker.
Boyd's and Irwin's fairies to the west were used by Nathaniel Green in his passage of Dan
river in mid February, 1781 while Cornwallis was in close pursuit. And so the Americans cross
and another flash flood and the British are delayed. And so the British commander,
Henry Clinton writes here, the Royal army was again stopped by a sudden rise of the waters,
which had only just fallen almost miraculously to let the enemy over who could not else have
eluded Lord Cornwallis his grasp. So close was he upon their rear. This was a miracle
in American history. And so Yale president Ezra styles, right? Should we not ascribe to a supreme
energy, the wise generalship displayed by general green, leaving the roving Cornwallis to pursue
his helter skelter ill fated March into Virginia, right? And Washington writes, we have abundant
reasons to thank Providence for its many favorable interpositions in our behalf.
It has at times been my only dependence for all other resources seem to have failed us.
So here we are fighting the most powerful military in the world. And we just have a thrown
together army, but God intervenes because we have days of fasting and prayer through the
merits and mediation of Jesus Christ. Well, let's fast forward. We have the war of 1812
and the British just got done fighting Napoleon and they decide they're going to now refocus back
on America. And so they send ships to Lake Erie and the president is James Madison.
And he recommends a day of public humiliation and prayer. Whereas in times of public calamity,
such as that of the war brought on the United States by the injustice of a foreign government,
it is especially becoming that the eyes of all be turned to that almighty power in whose hands
are the welfare and destiny of nations that they assemble on the second Thursday in September.
I had to look it up that September 9th in their respective religious congregations.
Well, what happened on September 10th? Well, the 28 year old Oliver hazard Perry,
and we had to build our ships on land and drag them into Lake Erie because we had no port
on Lake Erie. And, uh, most of his crew are free blacks from Ohio and they've not fought
in any major battles before. And so the, um, uh, have some pictures, but evidently they
didn't transfer. So the, uh, American ships are facing the British, but, um, the British
have long range cannons and they're splintering the American ships to pieces. And, uh, this
Colonel, uh, Oliver hazard Perry gets on a rowboat and goes to his second ship called the Niagara.
Well, the wind changes directions and the British ships have to turn around
and they're so close, they turn around, they bump into each other
and they get their sails entangled and they're just sitting ducks. And so Oliver hazard Perry
has his ships, uh, fire every cannon like a madman and, uh, they're shooting it and shooting it
and shooting it. And, um, one cannon didn't even have a wick. And so he takes his musket is pistol
without the musket ball and he sticks it over the little hole where you stick the wick and
fires it. It shoots the sparks into the cannon and it fires the cannon. And, um, after 15 minutes,
the smoke clears and he had disabled the entire British squadron. Never before had an entire
British squadron been disabled at one time. He tells the men on deck, the prayers of my wife
are answered. He writes to the secretary of Navy, it is pleased the almighty to give the
arms of the United States, a signal victory over their enemies on this lake.
The British squadron consisting of two ships, two Briggs, one schooner, one sluke have this
moment surrendered to the force of my command after a sharp conflict. And then the president,
James Madison writes, it is pleased the almighty to bless our arms on Lake Erie,
the squadron under the command of captain Perry, having met the British squadron of superior force,
a sanguinary conflict ended in the capture of the hole. Sanguinary means bloody. And, um, now
that victory meant that the British had to abandon Fort Malden and then Fort Detroit.
And so on land, you had an Indian chief Tecumseh make a treaty with the British.
Remember how the British were stirring up the Indians to attack the Americans.
And so the Americans win, uh, the battle of the Thames and then they reclaim Detroit.
And then the British have to give up land out of which we make six States, right? So Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, all came out of land that we got
because of that 28 year old Oliver hazard Perry, right? His wife praying and the president having
a day of prayer on September 9th and the battles on September 10th. This is a miracle in American
history. And so we have this rich heritage where you have some one young guys that says,
I'm going to stand up. I'm not going to surrender. We're, you know, uh, but God loves to wait until
things look hopeless. And then he raises up little nobodies with faith and courage to turn
things around. Now we're not done yet. Napoleon, uh, was conquering in Europe. He goes into Russia
with a half a million men comes back six months later with 50,000. It's like, how do you lose
that many men in six months? Well, Napoleon did. Uh, the, the Russians had burnt all the fields in
front of the army. So the French had nothing to eat. And then the, the Russians abandoned
Moscow. So Napoleon comes into Moscow and there's nobody to surrender to him. And they hang around
for a couple of months. And his, his men say, well, it's winter's starting to come. We need
to think about getting back to France. And there's, and, um, he decides to take the same
path back that he took there across the burnt out fields. And then the Russian winners hit
the Russian soldiers attack in the storms. Uh, Napoleon had crossed the Berezina river
before his men and he couldn't even give them commands and they get killed. And
anyway, so he comes back to France and he has to abdicate the throne, which means he
surrenders. He's now on this Island of, of Elba in the Mediterranean. Well now the British, um,
have, uh, uh, uh, anyway, I could tell you the whole French, uh, revolution story,
but the British, um, are freed up because Napoleon is now out of the picture and, uh,
the British decide to invade our Capitol. And so this Admiral Cockburn, uh, is riding into the
US Capitol. Our soldiers sort of run away this time. And Dolly Madison is in the White House
and her husband's directing troops on the field. And they had just set the table to eat dinner
and there's a panic in the street. Everybody's running out, running out and they go,
the British are coming. So she has them take the painting of George Washington down,
the only one he stood for while they painted and roll it up. And she's riding out of town on a
carriage when the British ride into town. And the British Admiral goes to the White House,
goes inside, sees the table set with food, and he sits down, eats the food, and then
sets the White House on fire. And then he goes to the Capitol and has his men sit in the seats
where our Congressman had run away. And he goes to the podium and he says, who votes to burn the
American Capitol? And they all say, I, and they burn our Capitol. And then they attack the Navy
yard and they, uh, attack the library of Congress and they're setting our Capitol on fire.
And, uh, then you have a dark clouds roll in and wind and thunder grow to a frightening roar.
Lightning begins striking at the British troops. Uh, roofs and chimneys are blown off on the
British troops. The wind is so strong. It lifts British cannons and drops them yards away
and slaps horse and rider to the ground. And the book, Washington Weather Recorded,
British Admiral George Cockburn exclaiming to a lady, great God, madam, is this the kind of storm
to which you are accustomed to in this infernal country? To which the lady replied, uh, no, sir,
this is a special interposition of Providence to drive our enemies from our city. Well,
the British are driven out and they go back to their ships across roads filled full of down
trees and the rains come and extinguish the fires. And they found out that two of their
ships were blown ashore and the rest had damaged rigging. And a British historian wrote more
British soldiers were killed by this stroke of nature. Then from all the firearms,
the Americans had mustard in the feeble defense of their city, right? This was God intervening,
right? The storms come, drive them out, the rains come, extinguish the fires.
And so James Madison says the enemy by a sudden incursion has succeeded in invading the capital
of the nation during their possession. Though for a single day only, they wantonly destroyed
public edifices. Independence is now to be maintained with the strength and resources which
heaven has blessed. So we see these instances of God moving. Now, a lot of it's been removed
from our textbooks because who writes the textbooks? I was just recently at a convention in Texas
and they had clips from the head of the natural teachers association,
the national testing board. And these are video clips of them talking about, um, talking to
them. Channel is one, one of them wrote a book and has an endorsement from, from Walt Disney
and mother Mary. And she said she channeled the endorsements of her book. This is like somebody
that's way up in the, I mean, we need to get back to the real history, not trying to produce
citizens for the next world global government. But when you read the history, you see it's
filled full of stories of times in our country's past where the whole world from Nimrod on it's
Caesars and Pharaohs and Kaiser's and Sultan's all ruling top down through fear. And America's
founders flipped it and made it a bottom up government. And they got their idea from
ancient Israel that first 400 years out of Egypt before they got King Saul. Anyway,
um, so here's Madison. He says the two houses of the national legislature expressed that in
the present time of public calamity and war, a day may be recommended to be observed by the
people of the United States as a day of public humiliation and fasting and prayer to almighty
God. His blessings on their arm and a speedy restoration of peace of confessing their sins
and transgressions and strengthening their vows of repentance that he would graciously be pleased
to pardon all their offenses. I have deemed it proper to recommend a day of humble adoration
to the great sovereign of the universe. Now, if you notice the line of confessing their sins
and transgressions, why would it be important that they confess their sins? Well, have you ever
played with magnets and you stick them together, but if you turn one of them, what happens?
They repel. You can like push them and they just won't touch. And so if you picture there's
two magnets, one is God and the other is you. And the God magnet has two sides. One side said,
I want to bless you. And the other side says judgment, right? Deuteronomy 28, blessings and
cursings. And the you magnet has two sides. One side says repent and believe, and the other side
says doubt and sin. And if you have your repent and believe side facing God's I want to bless
you side, the magnets stick together. But if you flip and have doubt and sin, God cannot bless
doubt. Remember Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth and could do few miracles there because
of their unbelief. This is Jesus. He wants to do miracles, but they didn't have any faith, right?
And so if you have doubt, it makes it really hard for God to bless you, but then sin.
That's where you get to children of Israel coming into the promised land and this King
Balak wanted to stop him and gets the prophet Balaam to curse him. But it comes out of blessing
three times. And then the a couple lines later, you see where Balaam tells King Balak that you
can't defeat Israel on the battlefield. But if you send young mobile by women into the Israeli camp
and lure them into sin, then you can defeat him. If they sin against their God and God was so mad
at Balaam for letting him in on the secret that even the Book of Revelation talks about this sin
of Balaam. So anyway, if we have doubt and sin, God still wants to bless us, but the magnets don't
touch because if God blesses our sin, blesses us while we're in sin, he's giving his tacit
approval to the sin. It's like silence equals consent. So in a wedding ceremony, if you're
silent, you're giving your consent. So if there are sins and God is silent, not judging the sin,
he would effectively be giving, be giving consent to the sin. And if God gives consent to one sin,
one time, he denies his just nature. He denies himself and he cannot deny himself. So he has
to judge every sin. And so that's where the gospel comes in, right? That Jesus took the
sin in our place. So God still just, he judges every sin, but Jesus took the judgment for us.
Anyway, so back to this magnet example, if people insist on staying in doubt and sin,
God magnets flips through his judgment side because he is a just God after all. And so
he judges. And so the founders realized, hey, we're going to have a day of prayer and fasting.
We need to confess our sins first. And anyway, I'll share a little bit more about that.
Is this interesting? So then an often overlooked one is a cholera epidemic. It's a pandemic.
Have you ever heard of those? And the British empire did become the biggest empire in the
world. And they took over India and India had the Ganges river and people bathed in this
sewage filled Ganges river and would catch a waterborne disease called cholera. It was just
local to India. But when the British took over India and put in railroads, people infected could
quickly travel back to Europe and took cholera with them. And it was the disease of the 19th
century. And you had millions dying across Europe in Russia and Germany and England, Wales,
France, Hungary, Philippines, Netherlands, Canada, I mean, all across the world millions are dying
of cholera. And they didn't know at the time that it was spread in water. So a doctor in
England had a map of all the cholera cases that he put a little X and he noticed they were all
sort of around and a circle around in the middle of the circle is a well. And he said, take the
handle off that well. So people would go to get water and they couldn't. So they have to go to the
next next neighborhood to get the water. And then the cholera rates drop off and he goes,
it must be in the water somehow. And so it comes to America, this cholera disease,
we have a day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting. But then it spreads. We have 12,000
cholera on the California Gold Rush and the Oregon Trail in 1849. The wagons would pull
around the water hole and somebody infected with cholera and they would get in the water.
And the next wagon train would drink from the water. And then Harriet Beecher Stowe,
who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, she had an infant son die of cholera, former president Polk dies
of cholera, 5,000 die in New York, in St. Louis, in Chicago, New Orleans, 150,000 Americans died
of cholera. And so here's Ohio cholera cemetery and 8,000 died in Cincinnati. The Ohio state
fair had to be postponed. The Dayton mayor, John Howard proclaimed a day of fasting,
ordered stores closed. And hundreds of people knelt openly in the streets and prayed.
I mean, could you imagine going through Dayton and you see all these people just
kneeling on the streets, just praying, right? And then the president, Zachary Taylor, has
a day of national, day of fasting. At a season when a fearful pestilence is spreading itself
throughout the land, it is fitting that a people whose reliance has ever been in his protection
should humble themselves before his throne. And while acknowledging past transgressions,
ask a continuous of divine mercy. It is therefore earnestly recommended that the first Friday in
August be observed throughout the United States as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.
And then the New Jersey governor, Daniel Haynes writes, whereas the president of the United States,
in consideration of the prevailing pestilence, has set a day of fasting.
And whereas I believe that the people of this state recognize the obligations of a Christian
nation publicly to acknowledge their dependence upon almighty God, that abstaining from their
worldly pursuits, assemble with humble what? Confession of sin. And fervently implore the
almighty ruler of the universe to remove us from the scourge and speedily restore to us the
inestimable blessing of health. So they have the day of prayer and the death rates drop off.
And so you can see it says return of cases Saturday in September, they go from 1700 down to one and
745 down to one. Right. And so this was a miracle in American history, that you go from, you know,
military attacks to now here's a health attack. But it's the same thing. We turn to the Lord
in prayer, we repent of our sins, and then we have faith. And we trust that God is going to
move on our behalf. And he does. Do you want to hear another one? Am I talking too fast?
World War One, the president is Woodrow Wilson, and he passes out New Testaments.
And he writes the foreword to the New Testament. It says the Bible is the word of life. I beg
that you will read it and find this out for yourselves. When you have read the Bible,
you will know it is the word of God, because you will have found in it the key to your own heart.
This is the president of the United States passing this out. And then he orders in 1918,
the president, commander, chief of the army and navy, and joins observance of the Sabbath.
The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights
of Christian soldiers. The best sentiment of a Christian people demand that Sunday labor in the
army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. And then he has a day of fasting,
May 11th, 1918, in time of war, humbly to acknowledge our dependence on Almighty God
to implore his aid and protection, a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting.
Exhort my fellow citizens of all faiths and creeds to assemble on that day in their
several places of worship and pray Almighty God that he may forgive our sins.
And so he says this, this is the time for America. I hope that the clergymen will not
think the theme of it unworthy or inappropriate subject of comment and homily from their pulpits.
So that's what we're doing. We're talking about our country turning to God.
So World War I, there's the trench warfare, and then you have October 6th, 8th of 1918.
You have the American battalion is pinned down by machine gun fire along the DeKalville
railroad line north of Chateau-Choré, France. And there's a Sergeant Alvin York.
And he writes, the Germans got us. They stopped us dead in our tracks. They're machine guns.
We're up there on the heights overlooking us and well hidden.
We couldn't tell for certain where the terrible heavy fire was coming from.
Those machine guns were spitting fire, cutting down the undergrowth all around me.
All but eight of Sergeant York's group were killed. But he single-handedly takes out
32 machine guns and killed 28 of the enemy. And so he is from the backwoods of Tennessee
and Kentucky, and he is a sharpshooter. And so at first he's lying down and he's
shooting at him, but then the machine gunners wouldn't stick their head up.
And so he began to make Turkey calls. Gobble, gobble, gobble. And the guy would stick his
head up, boom, he'd shoot him. And then he says, I realized I could shoot better standing up.
And so then he stands up and he's shooting. And then he gets charged from behind with six guys
with bayonets. And he has his pistol. And he said, I shot him the way you shoot Turkey.
You shoot the furthest away one first. Because if you shoot the closest one,
the other ones will scatter and you'll never get them. And then finally up comes a little white flag.
And down marches all these German soldiers. And they're like, where's all the rest of you guys?
And it's just him, maybe another guy crawls out of the bushes. And so he's marching them down
the road, 132 of them. And they're not about to run away because they know he's a sharpshooter
and he'll get them. And he gets the medal of honor. And then he writes, some of them officers
have been saying that I being a mountain boy and accustomed to the woods,
done all these things the right way just by instinct. I had never got much learning from
books except the Bible. Maybe my instincts are more natural, but that ain't enough to account
for the way I come out alive with all those German soldiers raining death on me.
I'm telling you the hand of God must have been in that fight. Just think of them 30 machine guns,
raining fire on me point blank from a range of only 25 yards and all them their rifles and pistols
besides those bombs. And then those men charged with fixed bayonets and I never receiving a
scratch and bringing 132 prisoners. I've only got one explanation that God must have heard my
prayers. Well, he comes back to America and he starts a Bible school, the Sergeant York Bible
Institute. And then you have Eddie Rickenbacker. He's a race car driver,
Indianapolis 500 type. And he is a chauffeur over in World War I for General Pershing.
And he sees these things going around in the sky. He'd never seen a plane before.
And he decides that he wants to fly a plane. And so he just goes over there and learns how to fly
and he becomes an fighter ace. And so they shoot down all these different enemy. And afterwards,
he comes back, writes a book called Fighting the Flying Circus because they'd fly through
the clouds. But in there he writes, three quarters of an hour of gasoline remained and
no compass. Then I thought the North Star cause he had been going the wrong direction.
Glory be there. She signs. I had been going West instead of South, keeping the star behind my rudder.
I flew South for 15 minutes then found myself above the river muse, picked up our faithful
searchlight and 10 minutes later I landed. As I walked across the field to my bed,
I looked up and repeated most fervently. Thank God. I could see would have run out of gas
on the wrong side. He would have been a prisoner. And he said, I had seen others die brighter and
more able than I. I knew there was a power. I believe in calling upon it for aid and guidance.
I'm not such an egotist as to believe that God has spared me because I am I, I believe there
is work for me to do and that I've been spared to do it just as you are. Well, then World War
two starts president Franklin Roosevelt passes out Gideon's new testaments and book of Psalms
by the millions. And he writes the forward to it. He says, um, to armed forces as commander in chief,
I take pleasure in committing the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of
the United States throughout the centuries. Men have found in the sacred book, words of wisdom.
It is a fountain of strength signed Franklin D Roosevelt. Here's the president passing out
new testaments and book of Psalms. And so back to Eddie Rickenbacker,
he became the president of Eastern airlines, uh, head of the Indianapolis 500 Speedway.
But now with world war two, they send him out to the Pacific to inspect the airbases.
And the plane's compass was a tiny bit off. But when you're hundreds of miles out to see that
tiny bit off means that you're hundreds of miles away and they run out of gas and they have to
ditch in the ocean. And he's floating with, uh, seven men. He, there was an eighth one,
but he, uh, died, but there are seven of them and, um, they are out there for 28 days.
And one of them has one of those new testaments in his pocket. And so Eddie Rickenbacker says,
we'll pull it out and start reading it. And so every day they would read it. And, uh, now
they're running out of fresh water and they're, they don't have anything to eat. And so they're
reading from Matthew six where it says, you know, God will take care of the birds of the air.
He's going to take care of you. And, um, and so this is what, um, uh, this Johnny Bart,
Bartek wrote in his book, um, life out there. He says, but as we went on, we all began to
believe in the Bible and God and prayer. We prayed and prayed for the seagull to land so we could
catch him. So here they are, they're starving and just above their head is a seagull that
keeps circling and circling. And he said, um, after reading the passage about 20 minutes later,
that's when the seagull landed on Eddie Rickenbacker's head. And so like really slow,
he like reaches up and catches it and they wrestle it and kill it. And then they, you
know, rip it apart and they eat it and everything. And, and then they, somebody has a key ring and
they bend it and make a fish hook and they take some of the innards and they they're catching
fish and, uh, and then they're out of, um, water and there's a cloud burst like a hundred yards
away and they're like watching it and our tongues are so chapped and they pray and the water
comes right over their three little dingy boats and the quenches their thirst and, uh, and then,
finally they're rescued after 28 days. And, uh, Rickenbacker says, I prayed to God every
night of my life to be given the strength to inspire in others the obligations we owe to
this land for the sake of future generations, for my boys and girls so that we can look back
when the candle of life burns low and say, thank God I've contributed my best to the land that
contributed so much to me. So these are again times in our history where God likes to take
small people, young people who are 28 year old Oliver Hazard Perry, uh, 60 year old guy,
Eddie Rickenbacker, and do great things. There's more stories with the, you know,
the Philippines are invaded and General Douglas MacArthur says to the weeping mothers of his
dead, I can only say that the sacrifice and halo of Jesus and Nazareth has ascended upon
their sons and that God will take them unto himself. That was after the, the March of Bataan
where a lot of thousands of men died. Uh, there's the turning point in the war where we figure out
their secret code and can, um, know where the Japanese are going to be heading and so forth.
And, uh, there's the battle of Midway, uh, just a famous battle where, uh, we end up destroying
the Japanese carriers and so forth. And, um, I'm skipping past some of the stories for the sake
of time here. And, um, uh, and then we go to Europe and the Nazis capture Paris and, uh,
they capture almost all of Europe and Winston Churchill says the battle of France is over.
I expected the battle of Britain is about to begin upon this battle depends the survival of
Christian civilization. And then FDR says, I wrote a whole book on him preservation of these rights
is vitally important to the whole future of Christian civilization. And then we have the
bombing of Pearl Harbor. We entered the war on D day and, um, 9,000 die on D day. Um,
a friend of mine, Chris Long has the Ohio Christian Alliance and I sent out a daily
email called American minute. And, uh, I had written how this world war two memorial in DC
had no mention of God. I mean, they had all the States represented. They have all the carvings
and not one mention of God. They even had one of FDR speeches where it ends right before he
mentions God. And they said, Oh, we didn't have enough space to put the whole quotes like,
yeah. And so my friend, Chris Long, uh, got his Congressman, uh, and a Senator
to introduce a bill to add FDR's D day prayer to the world war two Memorial and it passed.
And then they had to raise money. It took him 10 years to raise a couple of million dollars.
And then about three or four years ago, they finally dedicated it. And so if you go to
Washington DC to the world war two Memorial, about 50 yards off to the right is the circle
of remembrance. And, um, this prayer is there. And, uh, it says, almighty God, our sons, pride
of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic,
our religion, and our civilization. Well, what's the civilization? Well, he's passing
out Gideon's new Testament and book of Psalms. Um, and so there is a Senator Rob Portman and
this plaque and there's Chris Long on the side. And, and in the background you can see the,
the main world war two Memorial. And so FDR says those forces hate democracy and Christianity as
two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian.
They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy. Uh, then FDR said the whole world
is divided between pagan brutality and the Christian ideal. We choose human freedom,
which is the Christian ideal. And then there's Europe battle of the bulge. What's,
it's not, uh, eating fatty foods. Um, it's, um, uh, the Americans landed at D day and we're pushing
the Germans back toward Germany, but they decide they're going to make, they're running out of
gas. And so they want to make one last blitzkrieg push to try to get to Antwerp Belgium to the
port so they can get ships full of gas. So they do it with eight different, you know,
divisions and they do it really fast. And so the line on the map bulges.
And so they're like doing this. Uh, so we have, um, uh, Eisenhower by rushing out from his fixed
defenses, the enemy may give us the chance to turn his great gamble into his worst defeat.
So I call upon every man of the allies to rise to new heights of courage with unshakable
faith and the cause for which we fight. We will with God's help go forward to our greatest victory.
And so we drop in the 101st airborne and the Nazis had moved so fast. Our guys are now behind
enemy lines and they're completely surrounded and they're at Bastogne and they send a message
to our general Anthony McAuliffe saying you're completely surrounded surrender. And he gave a
one word response nuts. You can just picture the German messenger and, uh, he says, well,
what does this American general say? He says nuts. He said, yeah. Anyway,
the German delay for awhile, but then they start attacking. Uh, it's freezing cold. Our
guys couldn't even get shovels into the ground. I talked to a guy who had fought in the battle.
He says they were down to rationing eight bullets a day to his men. They had to be really, uh, you
know, and, uh, and so coming to their rescue is patent, but he's pinned down with the weather
being so snowy and rainy that the airplanes can't fly to give him cover. And so patent gets
his chaplain James O'Neill and tells him to compose a prayer for the weather to clear.
And the chapel is like, well, I don't know if I can do that. He goes, do it. And so anyway,
he writes this prayer and they print it on a quarter of a million index cards and they pass
it out to the soldiers. My father-in-law before he would died was in a, uh, you know, nursing
home and all these guys would have their military service, you know, posted. And the one
had this card and he had fought with Pat and so that's the prayer card. And, um,
and then the flip side had patents, Christmas greeting, and it says almighty and most
merciful father, we humbly beseech thee of thy great goodness to restrain these
immoderate reigns harken to us as soldiers to call upon thee established thy justice among
men and nations. Well, after they all pray that the sky clears and the planes can fly
and bomb the artillery. And then the soldiers can march and they marched like
hundreds of miles in a real short time. And they come to the rescue of the 101st airborne.
And, um, uh, the Nazis then run out of gas and the, uh, we push them back and then finally by
April, uh, the war is over. Eisenhower said, uh, any group that binds itself together to awaken
all of us is a dedicated patriotic group that can well take the Bible in one hand, the flag in
the other and march ahead. And, um, I have one more story. I forgot to ask pastor what time
I'm supposed to end my past time. No, it's 11. No, we'll, we'll do is 11 30. We'll tell the
parents to go get your children and bring them back in. All right. Well, I'll, um, if you need
to do that, feel free to, uh, this is, let me, all right. So we're all familiar with Apollo 13
where the oxygen tank exploding actually years ago, uh, ran for Congress and I met a, a very
nice, wealthy billionaire foster freeze. He since passed away, but he would invite me to
go pheasant hunting with him with a small group of people. Um, you know, uh, and, but one time we
went hunting with Gary Sinise and he's the Lieutenant Dan on the Forrest Gump and, uh,
and the Apollo 13 movie had come out recently. I said, how did you do those weightless scenes?
And he goes, Oh, the vomit comment. I go, what? Evidently the military is a plane that goes up
to 70,000 feet and then drops for two minutes and then does it again and then does it again.
And so, and those two minutes you're, you're, you're, you're in a free fall. So you're weightless.
And they would did the, all those scenes in these little two minute clips. And, um, anyway,
so when the Apollo 13 had this oxygen tank explode, uh, the, uh, message was Houston,
we've had a problem and they remotely moved them, uh, you know, the, the electrical charge from
the landing module, cause they're not going to land back to the command module. Uh, they've
pieced together an oxygen filter. They have to turn off all the electricity so they don't waste it.
And they're like freezing in cold space and all the moisture from their breath is like condensing
and getting on all the instruments. And anyway, the president is Nixon and he has a day of prayer.
And, uh, then finally the, um, uh, the whole world is praying at the whaling wall and the Vatican.
And, um, you know, here's a church and it says, uh, special prayer for Apollo 13.
And, uh, then they, it lands and near a hurricane and the whole world is celebrating and, uh,
they have a prayer. And so Nixon says, when we learned of the safe return of our astronauts,
we asked that the nation observe a national day of prayer and Thanksgiving today.
This event reminds us that in these days of growing materialism deep down, there is still
a great religious faith in this nation. I think more people prayed last week than have prayed
in many years in this country. We pray for God's assistance of the assistance of God when faced
with great potential tragedy. And so here they are praying on deck. And if you look at the
screen at Houston, they're all praying there at the command center, but on the, on the screen,
you see the, the men, the astronauts praying on the deck. And then Time magazine has a front
cover and the bottom is those astronauts praying after splashdown. And, um, and Apollo 14 left
a microfilm copy of the Bible on the moon and Apollo 15 is James Irwin. Um, I actually spoke
at a event with his, his wife and daughter and big, uh, in Sarasota and they said he left the
Bible on the lunar Rover. And, but James Irwin basically came back and became a preacher.
And, uh, he says being on the moon had a profound spiritual impact on my life.
Before I entered space with Powell 15 mission, uh, July 1971, I was a silent Christian,
but I feel the Lord has sent me to the moon so I could return to the earth and share his son,
Jesus Christ. And then he said, uh, Jesus walking on earth is more important than men walking on
the moon. And then just a week or so ago, uh, the Artemis two pilot, uh, Victor Glover, uh,
they're circling the, um, the moon. And, uh, he says a great quote, but evidently
the font color isn't there, but, um, he says, uh, we all need Jesus and, um, uh, whether we're on
the earth or, or circling the moon. Uh, you, did you hear that? It is a great quote. I have to
fix my slides, but, um, I, um, I wanted to end with one thought. Um, the first thought is
everything God made, he made with rules. And so there's laws of planetary motion,
laws of gravity, laws of physics, laws of optics, and he has laws for human behavior. It's called
being just, and he can't help it. He's a just God, which means he has to judge every sin
because if he doesn't judge a sin by default, his silence will be giving consent to the sin.
And if God gives consent to one sin, one time, he denies his just nature. He denies himself,
right? And he, and since he lives outside of time, if God were to deny himself one time,
he would be denying himself for all time and God cannot deny himself,
which means he has to judge every sin and mathematical equations. There's constants
and variables in the equation of redemption. The constant is God is just was, is, and forever
will be just. You can leave that, um, okay. Um, uh, the star picture back up when you get a chance.
Um, so God is just was, is, and forever will be just. That's the constant. The variable is who
takes the judgment. You are a substitute, right? So God is just, he judges every sin, but he's love
and that he provided the substitute. He provided the lamb to take the judgment for the sin.
So, um, I have a degree in accounting, so I like things that balance.
Uh, you take any eternal being, Jesus, who is innocent suffering for a finite period of time.
It's equal to all of us, finite beings who are guilty, suffering for an eternal period of time.
Let me say that again. An eternal being who is innocent, suffering for a finite period of time
is equal to all of us finite beings who are guilty, suffering for an eternal period of time.
Infinity times finite equals finite times infinity. An unlimited being, suffering for a
limited period of time, is equal to all of us limited beings suffering for an unlimited period
of time. Jesus suffered the equivalent of eternal damnation in all of our places. He's the only one
who could have done it. And out of love for the Father, and out of love for you and me,
He became the Lamb. And He took the wrath of an eternal just God upon Himself on the
cross in our place. Because God is just, He has to judge every sin. Abraham and Isaac,
going to the top of Mount Moriah, and Isaac says, Father, we have the wood for the sacrifice,
and we have the coals for the sacrifice, but where's the sacrifice? And Abraham says, Son,
God will provide Himself a Lamb. And it has a double meaning. I'm trusting God will have a ram
up in the bush, but the other is God will provide Himself. And that's what happened. Jesus,
the second person of the Trinity, the only begotten Son of God, in the plan of redemption
that was hidden from ages, it was a hidden plan. It says, if the princes of this world had known,
they never would have crucified the Lord of glory. The apostle Paul called it the mystery
of the gospel, hidden from the foundations of the world, now revealed in us His saints.
In this hidden plan, Jesus, the Son of God, became man, and only as a man could God
die on a cross to pay for our sins. Charles Wesley wrote to him, amazing love,
how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me.
And a day with the Lord is as a thousand years. Jesus experienced that day on the cross as if
it was a thousand years. You can take it a step further. You read the book of Revelation.
I'm still trying to figure it out, but one thing seems clear. It's God that is pouring
out the vials of judgment in the book of Revelation. Lamb breaks the seal. Angel throws
the center. Angel blows the trump. It's like, why is it? Well, God's a just God. He has to
judge every sin. He may not have judged along the way, so you can't get 10,000 years into
eternity and say, God, there was a sin way back when and you didn't judge it and you were silent.
Were you giving consent to that sin? Is there a party that's unjust we didn't know about?
It says the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, and the angels cry out,
righteous and true are your judgments. Oh, Lord, nobody's going to question for the rest
of eternity that God judged sin, but that's the final judgment. He won't do any more judging
for the rest of eternity. But in that sense, Jesus had the equivalent of the book of revelation
judgment poured out on his head. Jesus took the judgment for every sin that everybody would ever
do upon himself on the cross. Experience it as if it was a thousand years. That's why we sweat and
drops of blood. So God is just, he has to judge every sin. But another question is, well,
why did God, but he's loving that he provided the lamb to take the judgment for the sin.
But an even deeper question is why did God make us in the first place?
You know, uh, in 2003, they focused the Hubble telescope on a spot in the sky where there was
nothing. It was a tiny spot the size of a grain of sand held between your fingers at arms length
against the night sky. Teeny little spot, nothing there. After 11 days, they developed the images
in that teeny spot was 10,000 galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy.
And this is the picture. It's the Hubble ultra deep space field. And every dot you see is a
galaxy with hundreds of billions of stars all in the space of the little size of grains. And
then they began to look in other areas. They hadn't looked before and they now estimate
the observable universe is 93 billion light years across and still expanding at the speed of light.
And so then they launched the James Webb telescope and they can see the red shift.
So light travels in waves with blue being the shortest, red, the longest,
and the red shift means you're seeing these galaxies moving away from us.
And the largest star they found is Stevenson two hyphen 18. It's the one in the middle.
It is so large. If you were to place Stevenson two hyphen 18 in our solar system,
it would engulf the orbit of Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun. We're the third planet
from the sun. Could you imagine one single star that enormous and God made it all. And he made you.
Why would he make you? What could you possibly offer a being that is that powerful? Nothing.
Except maybe something. What's a galaxy anyway? It's a bunch of rocks, hot rocks,
cold rocks, vaporized rocks, molten rocks. A rock cannot love you. So it's almost like at some
time in eternity past, God said to himself, then they're done that I can make everything.
I would really like someone in my image who could love me. Now it gets interesting because love by
definition must be voluntary. The moment it's forced, it evaporates. So in the context of
everything God controls, time, matter, space, energy, he intentionally created one tiny thing.
He does not control your will. I mean, he's powerful enough that he could control it if
he wanted to, but that would defeat the very reason he made us different than everything else.
And he doesn't need our love. He's not incomplete in our love somehow completes. He doesn't need
our love, but he wants it. Like parents don't need the love of their children, but they want it.
And the more you love somebody, the more you want that somebody to love you back.
God loves you infinitely. He has an infinite desire for you to love him back,
but he'll never force you because the moment he would force you, he himself would know he's
forcing you and he would know your response is not a love response, but he wants your love,
but he's not going to force you, but he wants your love.
What's the most important thing in your life? Well, somewhere near the top of the list,
it's loving and being loved. And so could it be that we're made in God's image? Could it
be that loving and being loved is a big deal to God? Now God loves everything he created,
but the question is, could what he created love him back? Galaxies can't love. Rocks can't love.
Electrons can't love. Animals follow instinct and they're not made in God's image.
You know, you look up the word angel in the Bible, it appears 289 times. Not one time is the word
love used to describe an angel's relationship with God. They worship God. They praise God.
They glorify God. The word angel means messenger. They deliver God's messages. They deliver God's
judgments. Did you know that angels cannot forgive? God said, I'm sending my angel with
you into the promised land and you better obey him because he's not going to overlook your offenses.
They sang when the stars were created. They rejoiced when a sinner converts. Jesus says,
I'll confess you before the angels are heavenly witnesses. They do not forget anything.
They're mighty beings. They're incredibly intelligent beings, but they're not made
in God's image and Jesus did not die on the cross for angels. They were made for a purpose.
What purpose were you made for? We're not very strong and we're not very smart.
You know, a king can have a castle with really powerful soldiers and then he can have children.
A billionaire can have a corporation with a hundred thousand employees and then he can have children.
There's a different relationship. The word love is used all throughout the Bible
to describe men and women's relationship with God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
soul, mind, and strength. Psalm's 91 because he said his love upon me, therefore I will deliver
him. Jesus rose from the dead and said, Peter, do you love me? We are beings uniquely created with
the ability to love God back, but for love to be loved, it must be voluntary, which means that
there's two more things. How can God give us free will to love him back yet him still
be in control of everything. God created light. Light is a photon, which is a perpendicular wave
in the electromagnetic field that travels at 186,000 miles per second. And Einstein's theory
of relativity is the closer you could travel approaching the speed of light for you, time
would slow down. And if you could travel the speed of light for you, time would stand still.
Well, God created light, so he's faster than light. So for God, time stands still.
We'll never comprehend that, but the closest we can get is a day with the Lord is as a thousand
years. Imagine experiencing one day as if it was a thousand years. In other words, we are
living in slow motion compared to God. God exists in the ever present now. I am that I am.
And when you're in his presence, you cannot think about the past. You cannot think about the
future. You can't even think. You just experience all the love in the universe.
You know, we have computers now on your cell phone where you can give a question. It'll go out
to the entire internet, gather all the information on that subject, organize it and put it on your
phone in a fraction of a second. We have quantum computers now that can do a billion
times a billion computations a second. Is God that fast? Yeah, God can do infinity
times infinity computations a second. He's so fast, he's faster than fast. He's so fast,
he's outside of time. We make our little free will decisions in time, but we're moving so slow.
He can readjust every electron and every variable in the universe before he lets time move forward
to the next nano frame. Time is moving. Jesus said, I'm the first and the last. Even the demons
crowd out. Have you come to torment us before the time they know we're like in a river headed
toward a waterfall, right? But God's outside of time. So we make our little free will decisions
in time, but he can readjust all the variables. It's sort of like a GPS on your phone and you
make a wrong turn. It recalculates. What if the guy in the car next is making a wrong turn at
the same time that his is recalculating? What if everybody in the city is making wrong turns
and it's all recalculating at the same time? What if everybody in the world's? So we make good
decisions. We make bad decisions. God's outside of time. He can readjust all the variables.
And God has a plan for our lives. And if we yield and surrender to him, his will is
done through us. But then we can fudge and it says some produce 30 fold, some 60 fold,
some 100 fold. And then we can harden our heart and say, no, God, I am not going to do that.
He's like, fine, I'll use somebody else. Like Mordecai told Esther, if you don't let God use
you to deliver the juice, he'll raise up somebody else. And then we can repent and say, God,
forgive me. I should not have hardened my heart. Give me another. And he'll rearrange all the
variables to give you another chance. I mean, God knows the future and he knows all the possible
futures. And he tells you what they are. And he lets you choose, right? Dude,
on army 28, if you hearken to the voice of the Lord, this will be your future. You'll
be blessed coming in and blessed come out. If you don't hearken to the voice of the Lord,
this will be your future. The diseases of each will come upon you. And God's smart enough to
know how we're going to choose. But the fact that he knows how we're going to choose does
not take away the fact that we still have to do the choosing. Because if he were to judge
somebody before they chose, he would be unjust for judging somebody who had not sinned
yet. So we still have to live it out, right? Is this getting too complicated for you?
So God created time. So we get to make our little free will decisions, but he's still in control. And
we sort of know that God's outside of time. Because if you're with somebody at some place
and you say, this is not a coincidence. This is a God ordained moment. This is
providential that you and I are here right now at this moment. God plans this.
And you feel the goosebumps of the presence of the Lord. And because God is outside of time,
God himself can be with each of us all the time. God himself, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be with each of us all the time. There's another thing. God has to hide himself
behind his creation because he is so incredibly awesome. If he were to appear to you in all of
his universe, creating omnipotent power, brighter than a trillion, trillion sons,
your response would be involuntary. I mean, all the power in the universe, if he were to give
you a glint, boom, you'd be down. You'd be like the apostle Paul in the book of Revelation.
I fell at his feet is dead. It would be an involuntary response. And God's like,
I can do involuntary responses all eternity long. Been there, done that. I'm interested
in this voluntary response. So he has to hide himself. People say, if God's real,
why doesn't he show himself? Because the moment he shows himself, your free will is gone.
And the same hiding of himself that allows us to have free will necessitates that we have faith.
People say, I wish I knew the future. No, you don't. If you knew the future,
you wouldn't seek God. You wouldn't pray. I know it's going to happen. Why pray? I know
it's going to happen. No, he intentionally hides the future. So we have to turn to him.
And that's the whole goal of it. He wants a relationship with us.
I was thinking of a way of explaining how God has to hide himself for our response to be a
love response. Imagine a billionaire has a son who goes to college and he flies in on his
private jet, drives up in his Lamborghini. He's got a Rolex watch, gold rings, fancy clothes.
He's going to have every girl on campus wanting to meet him. But if he lays that aside and drives
up in a clunker, he's got holes in his jeans. All the uppity girls are going to ignore him.
But then there's a girl that likes to study with him in the library and they eat together
in the cafeteria and they become friends. And she takes heat from the click for hanging
around this nobody guy, but she believes in him. They fall in love. They get engaged.
And then one day he says to her, I want to take you back to meet my dad. And they're driving up
to this castle mansion estate and the girls like, whoa, you didn't, you didn't tell me about all
this. He knows that she loves him for him, not because of all of his stuff. If Jesus would have
come in his glory, every political ladder climber would be, I'm your friend. I'm your friend.
No, he's born in a manger. It says in Isaiah 53 of the Messiah, there was nothing in his
countenance that would make us want to desire him. He only wants those that love him for him.
So God is just and that he judges every sin, but he's loving that he provided the lamb to
take the judgment for the sin. But why did he make us? He made us for a relationship.
What makes a stranger into a friend, a relationship?
When we seek God and, but we're sinners, what we deserve judgment. Yeah. And Jesus is the way.
The lamb is God's way to love you without having to judge you.
It's his plan. He came up with it before the foundations of the world. He came up with it
so God can continue to be just, but he's love. And Jesus, I love for the father and I love
for you. And he became the lamb. He took the wrath from an eternal, just God upon himself
on the cross in our place. The lamb is God's way to get around his own just nature.
So he can continue to be a just God for all eternity because he's a loving God because
Jesus took the judgment in our place. And then he rose from the dead to prove he was who he
said he was. And then the Holy spirit, the third person of the Trinity comes and indwells
on the inside of us. And we feel this undeserved love of God that overwhelmed
that we're accepted by God. And it's not based on us being good enough. It's based
on us approaching him through Jesus. We feel this acceptance from God and then we can't contain it.
We have to share this love with others. It's like the song we sang during the beautiful
praise and worship. And it talked about that loving others through us.
So today, the God who created time arranged for you to be here so that you could hear
of his infinite love for you and how he desires so much for you to love him back.
And he's made a way that it's not based on you being good enough. It's made a way that you
approach him through Jesus that took the judgment in your place. So let's bow our heads and let's
come into the presence of the Lord and just say this prayer with me. Heavenly Father,
I thank you for making everything. I thank you for creating me.
But I have sinned. I deserve your judgment. Thank you for sending your son Jesus
to die on the cross to pay for my sins. Jesus, I confess you as my Lord and Savior.
I believe you were crucified. You died. You were buried. And you rose from the dead.
And I am risen with you. You're my Lord and Savior. Fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, fill me. Let your presence dwell in me as the temple of the Holy Spirit
for the rest of eternity. Use me to share God's love with the hurting world.
Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!