S2 Episode 26 | Are you a strong American?

S2 Episode 26 | Are you a strong American? In this episode Pastor Leon discusses the 250 years of freedom and what it represents for the rest of the world.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Unqualified Podcast with Leon Wilson. That's me. Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate every single person who has come by and and dropped those likes and subscribed and followed and all those other things. We're on every social media, and today we're live streaming to TikTok, which has been um a blessing. And you wouldn't even think about TikTok being a blessing. You wouldn't think about most social media as being a blessing, but um there's been folks who have reached out and and shown support and um some of our and helped us to uh get the word of Christ out there on uh on the platforms that we can and and in the open where the name of Jesus belongs. That's exactly what we're trying to do. Uh today I preached on um Peter being imprisoned and and having the uh angel of the Lord appear to him and and taking him uh setting him free and and his chains dropping and uh and all that. And it was incredible to be able to stand in front of my church on July 5th and um being a veteran and and we have veterans in our church and and being able to talk about my service and uh and things like that and referencing you know the the freedoms that we have in this in this nation, 250 years of uh being a free nation, and that's pretty amazing to uh be able to say. And I've been to third world countries and I've seen some of these people and and what they're dealing with and and things like that, and what we take advantage of and for granted um on a daily basis is stuff that they say, man, I wish I had that. Um and think about it, you know, we we get mad when our toilet seats loose. They don't have toilet seats in a lot of these countries, and um they have holes in the floor, little porcelain holes in the floor. Some of them, if they're if they're highfalutin, they might have porcelain. But uh oftentimes all they have is an outhouse. And if you've uh gone and used an outhouse, then you know what I'm talking about. And I'm not talking about a porta potty, I'm talking about like a uh little um, it's a it's really like a little mobile miniature um yard by yard by one yard uh building, so three feet by three feet by three feet by three feet by about seven feet, and that's where they use the toilet. And you go in there, winter, spring, summer, whatever, and um whether it's raining, whether it's snowing, whatever you got going on, and and you do whatever you have to do, and then they move it sometimes seasonally to a different spot, and there's just a hole in the back side where whatever you do in there goes right down the hill. That's what they do. And they're they come to this country or they go to a restaurant and they feel fancy if they have, and some of the restaurants have the same kind of holes in the floor kind of toilets too. But you know, if they go to someplace that has an actual toilet, I mean they they're like, whoa, you know, how'd we get so fancy? You know, we we can't afford to eat here, or you know, we can't afford to be here. So uh we take that for granted. We took running water for granted. I've I've seen people have to walk miles or walk a mile to get running water and and bring it home so that they can feed their cattle and everything else. And those kids, you know, 16, 17 years old, you know, they're walking two, three miles just to um work and and they're earning a living for their home. And that's that's how all this goes. But you know, you you take advantage of that, you know, when you're over there, you're like, man, I want to take advantage of this. I I need to work, I need to do whatever, I need to, you know, earn a living and whatever. And you live in a home that's been bombed out on the top, so you live out of the bottom, the bottom of the home and you're fixing it up and all this other, and um, you know, it's family land, so you don't want to leave it. And here we are in America, we throw a place away in a heartbeat and move on to something else. And you know, we we just there's so much that we take for granted in this country, and then we have people in our streets who just um are just disrespectful. And uh, we have people in our in our stadiums uh, you know, who we pay hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars a year to disrespect us and disrespect what this country stands for. Um make no mistakes, y'all. We live in the most blessed nation in the world. Um to be able to have a platform that we can say whatever we want. And there's people on to get on here and they you know, they infuriate other people by just um you know being disrespectful to our nation, to our veterans, to our um to people here, and and and you know what, they get applauded for that. But you get somebody on here who just wants to share love and and stuff like that, and they run their names right through the mud. And and that's the the backwards way that America has gotten. Um, and that's not stuff that's popular to say. Uh everything I just said is a very unpopular thing to say, um, but it's the truth, nevertheless. But in another country, that'd get you thrown off of a roof or something, or or taken to a uh, you know, to a ditch somewhere, and they'll off you and just bury you right there. And we've seen it, mass graves that we've uncovered in other countries and uh several. Um just in in Bosnia, when I was over there, there were mass graves being discovered all the time, where Karadic and Um and Milosevic and all them who had um just wholesale um murdered a lot of people and and they ended up burying them right there in in roads and stuff like that. And you know, that's not popular to talk about either, but it's the truth, and it's what happens in all these third world countries and stuff. We we live in a country where we can say whatever we want, almost do whatever we want, and we you know we don't have a whole lot of repercussion. And that's pretty amazing. I mean, you look at England right now, just a few years ago, in fact, um it started real bad where they were saying if you say anything against certain um certain categories, and I mean you you know what categories I'm talking about, um, they would they would get you um it would get you locked up because they would come to your doors and say, well, you offended somebody on social media, you know, you're gonna have to come with us. And uh, you know, here in America, we can offend the fire out of people, and it nothing's gonna happen. You you might get a strike on one of these soft platforms, but you're not gonna get um you're not gonna get like arrested. And uh, and that's something to be thankful for. Uh grateful for. We live in the greatest nation that's ever existed on this planet, the most powerful country in the world. And uh and we live in a in a time where um we have leadership who can push a button and then wholesale just destroy any area that comes against us. And uh, and that's pretty significant. It's never been the case in the history of this planet. You've never seen a country that is more powerful than the United States of America is right now. And that's just a fact. So um I'm grateful to be an American. I'm grateful that I was born in this country. I'm grateful that I live in a country that has uh goals and and it, even if they're lofty goals, uh, to be a peaceful nation, um, peace through strength, and to have a a citizenry who, if just given the right platform, can push further than the stars. Uh for the longest time in history, the stars were the limit. Um now we we are sending contraptions to stars. That's pretty amazing. Um, so all of the fundamentals that um that make up this country are pretty amazing. It's uh it's not a very astute uh observation. It's just an observation that this country was founded on pure ideals, and the uh ideology that this country was founded on is that a free people ought to be able to govern themselves, which is pretty significant if you think about it. Um and don't get me wrong, where there are politics, um, you know, where there are people, politics will get perverted, which is why they that has happened. I mean, um the politics of this uh of the world that we live in, if if you think about it, it it is a pure idea that people should be able to discuss things together and work out um issues to come to a common ground so that we can move forward. That's politics. That's all politics is or. Um it's the perversion of those politics that get us into the conditions that we are right now. Let me uh let me just explain that for a second. And I won't take much more time on this. I'm just saying the perversion of the politics is why you have such heavy swings one way or the other. Um you have a very high swing in things, like for instance, you know, we'll we'll say the right and the left, if it's a very big swing to one end and then a very big swing to the other end, um, you have to ask yourself the questions are there outside motivations that are bringing us into these different uh quorums, if you will. Um and and all of this is a little bit different than what I normally talk about, but if you bear with me just a second, I'll explain, you know, I'll get to the back of this. Um but, anyways, when politics has become so perverted that we have big swings and that um the basis that this country was founded on becomes um extreme, and um the basis that this country was founded on uh becomes uh something that is seen as uh dangerous, then you um you have to take that into consideration and you you have to push, if you will, as hard as you possibly can to basically get away from whatever is dividing the nation. And if you think about it, where did the the big change come from that our country became so divided? I gave that pause, it was a deliberate pause. The change happened when we started deviating from the founding fathers. And the founding fathers set this country up to be a Christian nation. Wow, how radical. That that we could come to a place and exercise our religious liberties to serve God, not beholden to the crown, not beholden to um a nation's government that was um several thousand miles away, trying to um keep us under their thumb and under whatever their mainstream way of belief was, which was failing right and left. Well, then our founding fathers said, Hey, I'll tell you what, here's a here's a here's a novel idea. Let's just go ahead and base our entire existence off of this Bible, these Ten Commandments, essentially, and and the fact that we can govern ourselves. And that we would say, um, based off of our God-given rights and our God-given capabilities, um, what we want to do is just live unmolested, unbothered, and rule ourselves, and then hold each other to a standard that is already set based off of those Ten Commandments and roll from there. Well, then over the years, the ideology became more conglomerate, and folks who had no business in politics because they were self-driven and and all that started manipulating the system. And they wanted nothing to do because dishonest people want nothing to do with morality. Dishonest people want nothing to do with principle. Dishonest people especially don't want anything to do with that Bible because in their minds they are their own God. That's a little g god, not a capital G God. So they want to have full reign over themselves, say and do whatever they want, because they are the center of the universe, they are the star of the show, they are the uh the the book is the is the subject of their life. And that's how they feel. They're the main character, and that's where we go wrong. Because the main character is driven by vanity. That mentality that that folks have and and that they exhibit is just simply them being vain and living their lives based off of me, me, me. And what stimulates me ought to be what I want, and then I should be able to get it. Those are the same people who fuss when mommy and daddy don't give them money, and uh when they when they don't get the job and all this other, or they um they don't get a free meal or something like that. Um those are the people. The vanity drives our culture, and uh, we don't like to think about it, but it it's the truth. And vanity is why politics got perverted, because folks got into office wanting to line their pockets, and it became instead of being public servitude, which it's supposed to be service, it became the public serving dudes, and uh it should have never gotten that way, and that's how you pervert something. Now let me back this uh uh bring this car a little bit closer to home. The reason why the church isn't so powerful these days is because it it went from being an act of servitude to trying to serve a dude, and it can it it gets out of line real quick. Here's the deal This is not popular. If if you're a pastor, if you're in service to a church, it shouldn't look ever like the church is serving you. It should always be, and it should it should be super easy to tell that you are serving the church. And the moment that it goes something different than that, you gotta set it straight. Because if it goes off the rails, it's too hard to get back on the rails. So you gotta be able to show that congregation love, you gotta be able to show that congregation support, you gotta be able to hold them accountable, and and that's the other thing. But also, and here's here's the deal, when you when it becomes about you instead of about them, then what they ask you to do or what they're asking of you becomes too much. Here's how you know your preacher is too high for his own good. He's up on a pedestal and he shouldn't be. If he is unavailable, if your pastor is unavailable, then you got a problem because you should not have an unavailable pastor. No matter how busy that man is, you ought to be able to get a hold of him. You ought to be able to reach out to him. You're not a pastor if you cannot um be there and support your congregation. Um and and that's a that's a stiff pill, but I don't care. You gotta swallow it because it's the truth. And uh you tell me when a disciple had an issue that he couldn't approach Jesus. Even folks who were outside of his his circle, if you will, the disciples, they were uh people were trying to press toward him and everything, and he would say, Let them come, let them come. The woman with the issue of blood, she got up, she went, you know, she had to get pushed through the crowd to get to him and touch the hem of his garment. And and when she touched that border of his of his robe, um, she was healed because um his virtue and his blood. And he said, I've um, for I perceive virtue has has gone for me. Um he said, Who touched me? And and then, you know, he was able to talk to her, but then the little children, he says, suffer the little children to come under me. That means be patient with those kids as they come over here. You're gonna have to put up with them coming to me. Everybody should be available to the under shepherd, just like we're available to the shepherd. Uh, you know, or it and uh it's an attainable thing. We should not have to fight to be with those who are there to support us. I am uh I'm excited to say that our church is a church that is growing and we're on the move. And um I covet your prayers because we are um looking at a building. We're gonna be having church in this building um and um as kind of like a trial to to see um if the if the current congregation um you know show them who we are and then also um show our congregation what what it would be like to have church in this building. And uh our congregation is incredible. We have just such amazing people that are members of Mercy Church. And um I I couldn't be more proud to be a be a pastor of uh uh of Mercy Church than I am um today. There's there's absolutely it's just having them kids, having uh the parents and and the other adults there that just want to love on you, man. And and that's what we're all about. And our church is just such a great congregation, and we're excited to be growing, and we're excited to be pushing into this new direction. And um, if y'all would just pray that um the Lord be all over this and that it goes uh in accordance with how he wants it, um, I'd I'd be super appreciative. The um the world is changing, the very fabric of what we have going on in this world is uh is ever changing and be in prayer for our country, be in prayer for um for our our dealings overseas and all these other things. Uh right now, we should not be taking our foot off the pedal. We should be full steam ahead seeing where we can pray and where we can petition the throne room of God for movement for each other's lives. So, anyways, I love you. God loves you. Enjoy your Independence Day weekend. Don't forget 250 years is a long time for a free country. And uh to live in the greatest nation ever is a super big blessing. All of you who live in other countries, uh I'm praying for you. I'm praying that your country will say, hey, we want to be free. We want our people to have a voice and all of that so that you can get to experience it too. I love you. God loves you. This has been the Unqualified Podcast with Leon Wilson.