Oh America... America Have you Forgotten?

In this powerful July 4th message, Pastor Anthony takes listeners on a heartfelt journey through Scripture, history, and the spiritual identity of America. Drawing from Jeremiah 6:16, Hosea 10:12, and Psalm 33:12, he asks the challenging question: “Oh America… America… have you forgotten?”

With honesty and conviction, Pastor Anthony explores how our nation has reached a crossroads—choosing comfort over conviction, politics over prayer, and self over God. He unpacks how America’s soil has hardened, how our foundation has been forgotten, and why remembering our spiritual roots is essential for national restoration.

Through biblical teaching, founding father quotes, and historical insight—including the often‑forgotten Olive Branch Petition—this episode calls America back to repentance, remembrance, and restoration. It’s a timely reminder that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and that true revival begins not in Washington, but in the hearts of God’s people.

Whether you’re listening on the road, at home, or with family this Independence Day, this message will challenge, encourage, and inspire you to pray for America and to walk the ancient paths God has laid before us.

America can be united again. America can be blessed again. It starts with us returning to God.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Happy Fourth of July or Independence Day. I am Pastor Anthony, your host, and welcome back to On the Road with Pastor Anthony. And I'm super glad that you all are here. Hey, before we get started, make sure that you subscribe to the channel and to the podcast, you know, on whatever favorite platform you listen to, and make sure you hit the notification so you never miss an episode. And if you enjoy what you hear, give it a thumbs up and share the podcast with your friends. And remember, by joining us each week, you will discover practical ways to live out your faith and connect with others as we share Jesus in life, one mile at a time. As we I want to look at the title real quick, and we're going to ask some questions. You know, this episode is going to challenge us a little bit. And and I really, you know, I feel like this is a really strong message. I mean, it's taken me a while to put it together, and it's probably we're going to spend some time together today, okay? So just get ready and get buckled up as you can probably look at the time and see. But I hope you stick around and follow it all the way to the end and make sure you share this. This is something that's really been burning on my heart. I had a lot more I could say. Uh some things is just, but you know, here's where we are. This is the message I believe God has given me. But if we look at the title, Oh America, America, have you forgotten. You know, our country is hurting, it's divided, and I really believe that our history is being hidden from our young people today. And we need to remember that you know what our roots, you know, where we came from, and how we have overcome so many obstacles in our country. You know, 250 years, you know, old, you know, today. But we're still a young country when you consider other nations, and we still have much to learn and to discover about ourselves. However, we cannot forget our purpose as a nation. Again, the title, O America, America, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten the God who carried you through war and famine? Have you forgotten the faith that has shaped your earliest laws and your earliest dreams? Have you forgotten the one who blessed you, corrected you, protected you, and called you to be a light among the nations? Today is your birthday. And I'm not asking a political question. I'm asking a spiritual one. Because America, you look like well, the old song from Johnny Cash, old the ragged old flag, torn, patched, bruised, but still standing. And the reason you're still standing isn't because of presidents or parties, it's because God has preserved you. But preservation is not the same as restoration, and restoration begins with remembrance. So today, we ask the question again in the title, Oh America, America, have you forgotten? Let's pray together. Father God, Lord, we come to you now, Lord, as we celebrate 4th of July. It's our Independence Day. Lord, we thank you so much for all the blessings that you've given us and the land that we live in. It's so free. Even as jacked up as it is right now, Lord, Father, we're still one of the freest countries in the world. Everybody wants to come here. But Lord, we've kind of lost our way a little bit, and we need you to help correct it. So, Father, we ask you to bless our time together today. We ask you to open our hearts and minds and challenge us and teach us and you know let us remember and put a smile on our face, Lord, of what this country, you know, what it was founded on, and what we are and whose we are, because we belong to you. Lord, we thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Jeremiah 6, 16 says, Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient past, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. And I believe America is standing at a crossroads right now. And crossroads are places of decision, places where you must choose which direction you will go. Our nation is choosing anger over unity, division over brotherhood, comfort over conviction, politics over prayer, and self over God. Faith, virtue, humil humility, truth, and coverage, sacrifice and prayer were not side issues in America's beginning. They were a part of the very foundation on which this nation was built. These were the paths our founders walked. These were the past that shaped our Constitution. These were the past that made us the United States of America. But somewhere along the way, rebellion has replaced remembrance. And today we hear phrases like rewrite the past, erase what offends, and forget what doesn't fit into modern thinking. Excuse me. But when you erase history, you erase identity. And when you erase identity, you lose direction. Our young people are being taught fragments of history instead of the full story. The victories, the failures, the miracles, and the mercy of God that have carried this nation through. The most impossible moment. George Washington said a nation is bound to remember the God who gave it birth. When remembrance fades, rebellion grows. And this is where 2 Timothy 3 1 through 7 becomes painfully relevant. Paul writes, but he writes this, and I think this is so true of us today, but know this that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthinkful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headlong or headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power. And it also goes on to say that, you know, and from such people turn away. For this is the sort for of this sort are those who creep into households and made captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led astray by various lusts, always learning and never able to become to the knowledge of the truth. I say it many times that we are in the last days. We are living in the last days. Don't know when Christ is coming back for the church. You know, we don't have a date, but you know, it's just everything points to it. And I really think when we look at this, I mean, doesn't that not sound like the wrong path America is drifting towards? I mean, this is what we see every day. When a nation chooses itself over God, pride over humility, and pleasure over righteousness, the consequences are predictable. Confusion, division, moral collapse, and spiritual blindness. But that's that's the wrong path. But Jeremiah says there is a right path, the ancient path, when a nation walks in it, it finds rest for its soul. And the path leads to unity, blessing, clarity, and purpose. It leads to families strengthened, communities healed, and churches revived. It leads to a nation that remembers who she is and who God called her to be. America is at a crossroads, no doubt, and the path that she chooses next determines her future. If America stands at the crossroads, we must ask, what caused our hearts to drift so far from the ancient path? The answer begins here. America America's soil has hardened. Hosea ten verse twelve says, Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy, and break your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and drains or and rains righteousness on you. Hosea begins with a simple but powerful truth. You reap what you sow. And when he says sow for yourselves righteousness, he reminds us that a nation cannot plant rebellion and expect blessing. We cannot plant division and expect unity. We cannot plant pride and expect peace. America has been sowing anger, confusion, and moral compromise, and we are reaping exactly what we planted. But God loves it when God buts in. He says if we sow righteousness, he will let us reap mercy. Mercy is God giving us what we don't deserve, and that's healing what we broke, restoring what we lost, and protecting what we endangered. Break up your fallow ground is for it is time to seek the Lord. Fallow ground is soil that was once fertile, once productive, once full of potential, and has become hard, dry, and unusable because it has been left untouched for too long. And if there is one word that describes the spiritual condition of America today, it is fallow. Our soil has hardened, our hearts have hardened, our conscience has hardened, and our national memory has hardened. We have become a nation that wants the blessing of God without the boundaries of God, the protection of God without the presence of God, and we want the prosperity of God without the principles of God. There was a time when American soil was soft, when prayer was normal, when scripture was respected, when church was central, when families were strong, when mortality was not up for debate, morality. I'm sorry, where morality was not up for debate. Looking at my notes wrong here. Matter of fact, the earliest uh schools used scripture for their teaching of their lessons. You can look it up. I mean, I've seen them. I've actually had my hands on one and it was full of scripture. It was just a little pamphlet, you know, small, but it was full of scripture. I remember even back when I was in elementary school, we had a time for prayer. You didn't have to, but you were given that option. And I'm not even sure the Pledge of Allegiance is done in schools anymore. Um there if it is in the comments. But uh there were times when the Bible was read and the Ten Commandments were displayed at courthouses, when the presidents openly asked for God's guidance. But today we hear modern slogans like, follow your truth, do what feels right. You don't need God to be good, and your morality is whatever you make it. And these are not just phrases, they are simply symptoms of a hardened soil. And when the soil hardens, seeds cannot take root. And when the seeds cannot take root, nothing grows. And this is why we see so much spiritual barrenness in our nation. We see families falling apart, communities breaking down, churches losing influence and closing their doors, and young people searching for identity in everything except God. We see anxiety, anxiety on record levels, depression rising. I mean, all of these things. And the hopelessness is becoming normal. Give it a peel, it'll be fine. Hardened soil produces hardened lives. Paul warned us about this again back when we were looking at 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 7, where he described a condition of people in the last days, that lovers of themselves, lovers of money, proud, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, without self-control, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having that form of godliness but denying his power. I mean, again, does that not sound like America? We have become a nation that loves pleasure more than purity, entertainment more than holiness, comfort more than conviction, and we have become a nation that wants to feel good rather than to be good. And here's the danger. Hardened soil, it doesn't happen overnight. It happens slowly, gradually, quietly, one compromise at a time, one sin at a time, one forgotten truth at a time, and one ignored warning at a time. One generation at a time. Soil does not harden because of one storm, it hardens because it hasn't been plowed in a long time. Our founders understood the danger danger of hardened soil. John Adams said liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people. And Benjamin Franklin warned that if a nation expects to be arrogant or ignorant and free, it expects what will never was, expects what never was and never will be. And they knew that when a nation stops seeking the truth, it stops teaching history, stops honoring God, and stops cultivating virtue, the soil begins to harden, and once the soil hardens, freedom becomes fragile. History proves this. Every great nation that had fell did not fall because of an enemy, it fell because of its soil hardened. Rome didn't collapse because of an invading army, it collapsed because of its moral decay. Israel didn't lose battles because God was weak, they lost because they forgot him. Nations don't crumble when they are attacked, nations crumble when they stop plowing the soil for righteousness. And when and what does hardened soil look like in America today? Well it looks like a culture that celebrates sin and mocks holiness. It looks like a society that calls evil good and good evil, and it looks like a generation that knows more about celebrities than scripture. It looks like a nation that is offended by truth but entertained by wickedness. It looks like people who want God's blessings but reject God's authority. But Hosea doesn't just diagnose the problem. He gives us the solution. He says, break up your fallow ground. In other words, start ploughing, start repenting, start praying, start teaching the truth again, start honoring God again, start cultivating virtue again. Start remembering again. Hardened soil can become fertile ground again, but only if it's broken. Breaking ground is not comfortable. It requires effort, it requires humility, it requires honesty, it requires repentance, it requires admitting that we have drifted, it requires acknowledging that we have forgotten. It requires confessing that we have allowed our soil to harden. But if we break the ground, God will plant the seeds again. And the good news is that the hardened soil is not hopeless soil, it's just neglected. I mean, think about it. Whenever you see flower beds, it hasn't been touched in a long time. What do you see in it? You just you don't see the flowers, you just see weeds and uh just uh overtaken and just you know the dirt like really hard and you see the cracks in it. It's because it's been neglected. And neglected soil can be restored. America's soil can be softened again. America's heart can be humbled again, America's conscience can be awakened again, and American churches can be revived again. American families can be strengthened again, America's young people can be inspired again. America's purpose can be rediscovered again, but it starts with breaking ground. And if America's soil is hardened, then we must ask the next question was what was planted in the soil originally? Has America forgotten her foundation? What foundation did God give us that we must return to? If we look at Psalm 33, 12, it says declare, it declares this. It says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. That's so important. This verse isn't a slogan, it is a spiritual law. It is a reminder that national blessing is not random, it's not accidental or political. It's the result of a nation recognizing the God as its foundation. America was blessed because God was its Lord. Our founders weren't perfect men, but they believed in a perfect God. They understood that freedom without faith becomes chaos, and liberty without morality becomes lawlessness. They believed that the strength of a nation is not found in its armies, in its wealth, or in its politics, but in its character, its virtue, and its dependence on God. George Washington said once, it was impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible. And he didn't say it was difficult, he said it was impossible. You know, John Adams wrote in our constitution, or our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. That means the Constitution doesn't work without ancient past of righteousness, humility, and truth. Benjamin Franklin reminded the Continental Congress that God governs the affairs of men. Patrick Henry boldly proclaimed, this nation was founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ. These men didn't build America on politics, they built her on principles and biblical ones. But today, America has forgotten her foundation. I mean, we hear those phrases like America first. But scripture says God first. We hear, follow your heart, but the Bible says the heart is deceitful. We hear the church to stay silent, but Jesus says the church is the salt and the light. We hear truth is whatever you make it. But Jesus says truth is a person. That's Him. And His name is Jesus. We hear history doesn't matter, but God says remembrance is the key to blessing. America has forgot the foundation that made her strong. And when the nation forgets its foundation, it begins to cry. You can build the tallest building in the world, but if the foundation is weak, the whole structure will collapse. The same is true for a nation. When the foundation of faith is removed, morality becomes subjective. And when the foundation of the truth is removed, lies become normal. And when the foundation of unity is removed, division becomes expected. And when the foundation of humility is removed, pride becomes celebrated. And when the foundation of the righteousness is removed, wicked. Wickedness becomes entertainment. But we've seen that everywhere. The foundation of God is removed, chaos becomes culture. There, right again. We see this happening today. Our schools teach history without God. Culture celebrates freedom without responsibility. Our entertainment glorifies sin and mocks holiness. Our politics reward division instead of unity. And our families are under attack. Our churches are pressured to compromise. Our young people are told they can create their own identity, their own truth, their own morality, and their own purpose. Apart from God, a nation, apart from God, we can do nothing. But a nation cannot rewrite its foundation and expect to remain standing. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, a wise man builds his house on the rock, but the foolish man builds his house on the sand. And when the storm comes, not if, but when, the house built on the sand, yeah, it's going down. It's going to collapse. America is experiencing storms right now, cultural storms, moral storms, political storms, spiritual storms. And the reason the storms feel so destructive is because we have moved off the rock and onto the sand. We have forgotten our foundation. But here's the good news. Foundations, yep, they can be replaced. I see guys and boils up and down the highway all the time. They can be rebuilt. America's foundation is not gone. It's just forgotten. And we need to dust off and get to work. And forgotten things can be remembered. Forgotten truth can be rediscovered. Forgotten faith can be revived. Forgotten unity can be restored. Forgotten purpose can be reclaimed. Forgotten identity can be recovered. Again, Psalm 3312 is not just a reminder, it is an invitation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. So if America wants the blessing again, it must make God Lord again. If America wants unity again, you well, we gotta return to God who unifies, who unites us. If America wants peace again, it must turn to the Prince of Peace. If America wants purpose again, we must return to God who gave her her purpose. And if America wants strength again, again, we must return to the God who gave us the strength. You know, my favorite verse in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Same goes for our country. God is the one who can heal our land. America has forgotten her foundation, but she can remember again. And if America can remember our foundation, then the final question becomes: how do we return? What does that look like for a nation to become, you know, to come home to God? America must return to God who built her. America must return to the God who built her. And if America can remember her foundation, then the final question becomes is how do we return? What does that look like for a nation to become you know to come home to God? Jeremiah 16 or 616 doesn't just tell us to uh to look at the ancient past, it tells us to walk in them. Returning's not passive, it's intentional, it's decisive, it's spiritual, and to understand what returning looks like, we must revisit a moment in our history that reveals the heart of our founders. A moment that most Americans, well, probably don't even know. I just learned this as I was researching for this. I'd never heard this before. It's about the Olive Branch Petition. It was America's last attempt at peace in 1775, before independence was declared, before the battles were fought, before the idea of a new nation was fully even fully formed, the Continental Congress sent King George III the Olive Branch petition. And it was not a declaration of rebellion, it was a plea for reconciliation. The founders were not eager for war. They were eager for righteousness. They wanted peace with the crown. If truth, liberty, and God-given rights could be preserved. That's what they were looking for. The petition was respectful, humble, and rooted in faith, and it appealed to God's justice and asked for mercy. But even the king, I mean, he refused to even look at it. I mean, he would he rejected. He rejected the whole notion, he rejected peace, he rejected reconciliation, he rejected the chance for restoration. And when the olive branch was rejected, the founders realized something profound. If righteousness can't be preserved under man, then righteousness must be preserved pursued under God. And that moment became the turning point that pushed America towards independence. America didn't choose rebellion at first. America it chose remembrance first. It chose repentance, it chose restoration. And when restoration was denied, America chose God. And this is the part of the history of our nation that has been forgotten. And the part that we must remember again. Returning begins with recognizing where our rights come from. When a nation forgets God, it forgets the source of its liberty. You know, James Madison captured the heart of the matter when he declared, we hold it to be fundamental truth that all rights are divided are derived from the gift of God. Madison didn't say our rights came from the government. He didn't say it came from the kings. He didn't say from culture, the courts, or Congress. He said it come from God. And the same truth was later echoed in the language of the Declaration of Independence, where Benjamin Franklin himself helped sharpen the wording to say we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal. In other words, Franklin understood something powerful that the truth of liberty should be so clear that every person could see it, whether Christian or not. And if people could simply look honestly at creation, you know, conscience and the human dignity, they would see that freedom is not an invented by the government. It was built into the order of things by God Himself. If rights come from the government, then well the governments can redefine them. If rights come from the culture, then the culture can cancel them. And if rights come from politics, then well politics can definitely corrupt them. But if rights come from God, then they are unshakable. And as Christians, we understand that political freedom is not the deepest freedom. The greatest freedom is not merely freedom from tyranny, it's freedom from sin. And that's why Jesus said in John 8 36, therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. This truth that our rights came from God is the foundation America has forgotten. It is the foundation that made her strong. It is the foundation that made her free. It is the foundation that made her different from every nation before her. And it is the foundation she must return to. So how does America return? Returning to God is not political. It's not cultural, it's not generational, it is spiritual. And it begins with these three steps. America must return through repentance. This is the breaking of fallow ground. It is softening that hard soil. It is admission that we have drifted, forgotten, and compromised. Repentance is the plow that prepares the nation for revival. Second, America must return through remembrance. We must remember the God who carried us through war, famine, division, darkness. We must remember the God who blessed us, corrected us, and protected us, and called us. We must remember the foundation that made us free. Remembrance is the seed that grows in softened soil. America must return to restoration is number three. Restoration is not America fixing herself, it's America surrendering herself. It is families returning to prayer, churches returning to Scripture and teaching the truth, standing boldly on the faith, communities returning to unity, leaders returning to humility, realizing they work for us. Young people returning to the truth, a nation returning to God who gave her breath. Restoration is the harvest that comes when repentance and remembrance take root. So think about this as a closing challenge. America, come home. America's standing at the crossroads. One path leads to hardened soil, forgotten foundations, and spiritual collapse. The other path leads to mercy, blessings, and unity and revival. The Olive Branch Petition reminds us that our founders tried peace before war, righteousness before rebellion, God before government. They sought the ancient path, and when man rejected it, they followed God. America must do the same. It is time to break our follow ground. It's time to seek the Lord. It's time to return to the ancient past. It's time to remember our foundation. It's time to come home. I look back again for you know this, I mean this Psalm 3312. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. America can be united again. America can be a blessed nation again. And it starts with us putting God first and letting him call the shots. Amen. Alright, again, let's go ahead and pray again. Father God, Lord, we thank you again so much for all that you do and in our lives. And Lord, we thank you for messages like this and that you fit on my heart, Lord. And Father, I pray that it's it's going to you know reach those whom you have who you will put it in front of. We'll leave it to you. But Father, we know that it's powerful and it's a and it's the right message, and it really just I mean it's it shapes the answer to what we need in our country. Lord, not that I'm some kind of theologian. I'm just a regular dude that wants to follow you, and this is the message that you've put on my heart. So, Father, I ask that you do with it as your will. And Lord, may it bless those who have listened. Lord, we pray for our country. It is in such a dire need of you, of a spiritual restoration, redoing our foundation, remembering that you are the creator God. You are our Heavenly Father, you are the answer, the only way that we fix this. Father, on this Independence Day, 250 years our country has been around. Lord, we just pray that it's around for another 250. With your hand of guidance and blessing upon it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, well, thank you all for hanging out on this Independence Day. Uh I'm on the road, as you can probably kind of tell if you're watching the video. But if you're not listening, I'm actually sitting in uh Nebraska right now in um Big Springs. And this is where I'm and I'll be spending the 4th of July traveling. But uh I appreciate you all coming along and listening. And if this message, again, if it has encouraged you, don't forget to like it, share it with a friend, and subscribe. You know, please subscribe. That's gonna help the algorithm to get this thing out there and to share it. And make sure you hit that bell of notifications, however, you've got to do it. 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