WEBVTT 00:00:21.019 --> 00:00:23.259 I love it when announcements feel like sermons. 00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:24.300 That's good stuff. 00:00:24.699 --> 00:00:27.740 David's passionate about this, and he is the right man for the job. 00:00:27.820 --> 00:00:28.939 We appreciate you, David. 00:00:29.019 --> 00:00:31.500 And are we still doing axe throwing or is that off? 00:00:31.579 --> 00:00:33.579 Are we doing axe throwing? 00:00:33.740 --> 00:00:34.780 He left that out. 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:35.820 I don't know why. 00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:36.700 What's that? 00:00:37.739 --> 00:00:38.859 I I can't do it. 00:00:39.099 --> 00:00:40.620 Can you believe these people? 00:00:40.859 --> 00:00:41.500 Anyways. 00:00:41.659 --> 00:00:41.980 All right. 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:46.060 So listen, uh Exodus chapter uh 19, verse number four. 00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:47.820 I'm going to join you there in just a moment. 00:00:48.140 --> 00:00:53.899 Let me just tell you, this is a difficult day for preachers to preach most of the time. 00:00:54.140 --> 00:01:05.180 Holidays are always difficult because the go-to sermons, the go-to passages have been done, and like we always want to provide something new and something fresh because, you know, we're arrogant, and that's just what we do. 00:01:05.259 --> 00:01:20.140 And we, you know, this is a great opportunity for us to humble ourselves by trying to try to take a message that is so true and so rehearsed year by year, and and to give it to give it new legs when reality it it only has it only has like two legs. 00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:29.659 It's this is that what we're going to see today is that the truth of what we celebrate today has the foundation of scripture, or it's not going to stand. 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:31.260 And so that makes it difficult. 00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:37.980 But it's difficult for another reason, and that is because for me, like I understand what scripture says about countries. 00:01:38.060 --> 00:01:44.540 I understand what scripture says about nations, and I understand what scripture says about the kingdom just as you do. 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:59.739 And so, like when Jesus stood before Pilate and said, Hey, my kingdom is not of this world, then that causes me to like to look at patriotism through a certain lens, just like it does you. 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:07.900 But at the same time, as Mike pointed out as he read that passage in Romans, like there is a place for patriotism. 00:02:08.060 --> 00:02:16.780 There is a place to, uh, according to what God told Jeremiah in the Old Testament, to seek the welfare of the place where you're being planted. 00:02:17.019 --> 00:02:20.780 And we are called to love people, to love our communities. 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:34.139 And mixed into all of that, while the word patriotism does not appear in scripture, whenever you take the component parts of what God tells us to do, the idea of patriotism is there properly placed. 00:02:34.699 --> 00:02:54.300 But of course, patriotism, like every other good thing, can be misused and leveraged for idolatry, where patriotism becomes for us an end, an end to a selfish means rather than an end to bring God glory. 00:02:54.620 --> 00:03:07.579 And so, as we get started, what I want you to know right out the front is that patriotism is appropriately placed whenever it is a resource for the glory of God. 00:03:08.139 --> 00:03:12.860 When it is instead used less as a resource to glorify God. 00:03:13.660 --> 00:03:14.379 Are you all with me? 00:03:14.540 --> 00:03:26.860 Like being in this country, having the freedoms that we have and the opportunities with prosperity, with wealth to share that, to make a difference in the world around us, that's a blessing. 00:03:27.100 --> 00:03:35.019 And blessings are called to be stewarded because they are resources that God has given us to bring God glory. 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:39.100 But too often, and we have to be careful with this, we have to be very careful. 00:03:39.259 --> 00:03:48.060 Whenever patriotism becomes less a resource to glorify God and a rescue to make our life better, that's totally different. 00:03:48.300 --> 00:04:00.699 See, the the ends to the means here, why God gives us nations, while he gives us governments, as we are going to read out of our Declaration of Independence here in a few minutes, is to bring him glory. 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:03.819 It's why God brings people together. 00:04:04.139 --> 00:04:06.060 Exodus chapter 9, verse 4. 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:13.180 And I'm just going to encourage you, like leave your Bibles open or your Bible apps open, because we're going to go through this pretty quickly. 00:04:13.259 --> 00:04:28.620 And I want you to see the verses that just leap out of Scripture and direct us to celebrate and leverage this incredible resource that God has given us. 00:04:28.779 --> 00:04:30.060 Exodus chapter 19. 00:04:34.139 --> 00:04:39.500 God looked down and he saw the oppression of who he called his people, Israel. 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:44.620 Now let me be very clear to you that the United States is not Israel. 00:04:44.860 --> 00:04:47.740 We are not replacement theologians. 00:04:47.900 --> 00:04:50.780 Israel has its own place on God's time clock. 00:04:50.939 --> 00:05:05.740 Some of the promises for Israel that extend through the church make their way down to us, but you can't and I can't take the promises that are given to Israel, wrap them in an American flag, and assume that they apply the same way to us as they did to Israel. 00:05:05.900 --> 00:05:13.420 God did a unique work through Israel, just as he is also doing a somewhat unique work in this country himself. 00:05:13.740 --> 00:05:21.900 But what you see here is the heart of God in Exodus chapter 19 for the work that he's doing among all people. 00:05:22.139 --> 00:05:25.100 Look at we, if you will, at verse number four. 00:05:25.420 --> 00:05:28.699 God is about to give the people his law. 00:05:28.939 --> 00:05:32.540 And as he does, he comes to Moses and he says, Here's what I want you to do, Moses. 00:05:32.780 --> 00:05:34.220 I want you to say this to the people. 00:05:34.300 --> 00:05:36.699 I want you to share this to the people. 00:05:37.020 --> 00:05:48.220 You yourself have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:59.500 Whenever you and I look back at the history of this nation, we should be observing and quickly looking for the places where we can see the fingerprints of God. 00:05:59.660 --> 00:06:01.100 The founders did that. 00:06:01.259 --> 00:06:18.699 They attributed so much of their success and the miraculous opportunity, the miraculous turn of this small band of ragtag militia to overthrow, to cast out the most, the most powerful military on the planet. 00:06:18.860 --> 00:06:22.780 They did not attribute that to their skill in battle. 00:06:22.939 --> 00:06:27.500 George Washington wasn't the hero of the Revolutionary War in their mind. 00:06:27.580 --> 00:06:29.660 They attributed it to providence. 00:06:30.220 --> 00:06:35.900 Here God is turning to his people and he's saying, You need to remember what I did for you. 00:06:36.139 --> 00:06:41.819 Because if you don't remember what I did for you, you're not going to be able to do the next thing. 00:06:42.220 --> 00:06:43.660 Have you got that church? 00:06:43.980 --> 00:07:05.500 If we don't remember what God has done for us as a people, as a community called the United States, then we are not going to be able to do the next thing, the thing that we are called to do, because living out the gospel, living out the obedience to Christ is always done as a reaction to the work of God in and around us. 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:06.460 This is what God does. 00:07:06.540 --> 00:07:13.259 He says, Because I have brought you out, because I've delivered you and I've I've set you up on eagle's wings. 00:07:13.340 --> 00:07:15.580 You have flown above all of this. 00:07:15.900 --> 00:07:28.699 Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth is mine, God says. 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:30.300 That's to Israel. 00:07:30.460 --> 00:07:38.300 They are his treasured possession among the earth, but all the earth being his includes this land. 00:07:38.699 --> 00:07:45.420 And he has a plan for this land, and he has a plan for you and I in this place, in this land. 00:07:46.060 --> 00:08:05.340 Now, of course, our story started long before the declaration of independence, but it really was, it really was that words which pointed this nation to a place where it would take an equal standing on the world stage, as they said. 00:08:09.259 --> 00:08:14.379 Most of us had to memorize at least the preamble whenever we were in school. 00:08:16.939 --> 00:08:30.139 And as an adult, looking at this and comparing it to what I have been able to see in my short 50 years around the world throughout history. 00:08:30.460 --> 00:08:38.299 I think if we pause and look at this objectively, we know that this document is truly unique in human history. 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:45.259 It did for this nation what no other nation was able to do for itself. 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:47.019 Look at the words with me, if you will. 00:08:47.100 --> 00:08:47.899 Because here's what I want to do. 00:08:47.980 --> 00:08:51.659 I want you to know like we're preaching God's word, so don't go out here today. 00:08:55.659 --> 00:08:57.500 That is not what we're doing. 00:08:57.659 --> 00:09:06.620 We are laying the Declaration of Independence out and then bringing scripture understanding alongside of it to compare where do these words come from? 00:09:06.779 --> 00:09:08.620 What do they mean to the founders? 00:09:08.860 --> 00:09:11.980 What do they mean to us today as a nation? 00:09:12.139 --> 00:09:13.259 And what should they mean? 00:09:14.620 --> 00:09:15.659 The founders. 00:09:16.060 --> 00:09:19.580 What what what do they mean for us today? 00:09:20.300 --> 00:09:21.899 And what should they mean to us? 00:09:22.060 --> 00:09:22.940 So here it is. 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:26.300 We hold these truths self-evident. 00:09:26.620 --> 00:09:30.779 The original words there were uh sacred and undeniable. 00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:36.060 They were crossed out to make the document a l uh a a little more earthen. 00:09:36.379 --> 00:09:37.659 They are self-evident. 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:52.379 This is logical, this is reasonable, and mixed into this small phrase is the understanding that there is truth, that there is a reality that tells us what is right and what is wrong. 00:09:52.620 --> 00:09:58.300 And they are these truths, according to what the founders say, are sacred and undeniable. 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:00.139 Now, of course, you know what happens next. 00:10:00.220 --> 00:10:03.500 He talks about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 00:10:03.740 --> 00:10:06.700 And here's the thing that sort of grabs at my heart. 00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:20.940 Whenever you think about self-evident truths, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, if they are so self-evident, why do we see so little of it throughout human history? 00:10:21.740 --> 00:10:31.580 We live in a bubble where life is guaranteed, where liberty is guaranteed, where our ability to pursue happiness is guaranteed. 00:10:31.659 --> 00:10:35.980 And I'm here to tell you like I understand, this is not an American hurrah moment. 00:10:36.060 --> 00:10:51.180 I understand we have our problems, and they are significant problems in our history and in our present, the way we're treating people, the way we're treating the sojourner, the way we're treating, in many cases, the marginalized, the way we treat uh people of faith. 00:10:51.580 --> 00:10:53.980 Like it disturbs me very deeply. 00:10:54.060 --> 00:10:59.019 But I'm here to tell you those are problems which history is replete with. 00:10:59.740 --> 00:11:08.300 I mean, the the fact that you and I are able to critique the failures of our government is a unique experience. 00:11:09.100 --> 00:11:16.860 In history past, you would have lost life and limb because there was no such thing as freedom of speech. 00:11:17.180 --> 00:11:19.019 This is unique for us. 00:11:19.180 --> 00:11:29.019 These are not self-evident truths unless you're operating from a perspective of a biblical worldview. 00:11:31.259 --> 00:11:37.580 The founders saw these as self-evident truths, I would suggest to you, because they had a biblical worldview. 00:11:37.820 --> 00:11:44.940 If they had had a secular worldview of their time, they would not have seen these as self-evident truths. 00:11:47.340 --> 00:11:57.180 Because twelve years after the Revolutionary War, our French neighbors across the pond had their own Revolutionary War. 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:01.740 And the outcome of that, if you know your history was radically different. 00:12:02.379 --> 00:12:23.580 Where the Revolutionary War in this country cost the lives of only 7,000 British soldiers and a little over 20,000 American soldiers, most of whom died in prisoner of war camps because of the horrible conditions that were there, less than 30,000 people who died. 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:33.259 In France, 17,000 people were beheaded during their fight for revolution. 00:12:33.580 --> 00:12:40.779 Historians put the death toll in the French Revolutionary War at over a quarter million people. 00:12:41.580 --> 00:12:57.500 Now, there may be a lot of reasons for this, and you may be a historical uh buff uh expert who can point to a lot of factors that distinguished what happened here in the colonies versus what happened on the mainland of Europe. 00:12:58.300 --> 00:13:14.060 But one of the principal causes that is laid out for the distinction, that is suggested for the distinction among some historians, is that the French had a very different perspective on humanity. 00:13:14.539 --> 00:13:29.899 See, uh, the French were informed by uh the writings of uh men like Voltaire, who were saying things like, people were basically good, and it's our responsibility to unchain them to be good. 00:13:30.379 --> 00:13:40.620 I'm here to tell you, you know what happens whenever you unchain people to do what they declare or imagine to be good, is they execute 17,000 people by cutting off their head. 00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:51.659 By contrast, in this country, the founders of this document, as well as the Constitution, did not see people as basically good. 00:13:52.060 --> 00:14:05.580 They saw people as tempted, as evil, as wicked, who needed a government to help create boundaries and separation and to encourage people to do what is right. 00:14:06.060 --> 00:14:11.019 One of the founders said that if men were basically good, they would not need government. 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:14.860 And then he went on to establish or help establish this government. 00:14:15.019 --> 00:14:21.019 Here's what I'm saying to you these are self-evident truths, but the self-evidence comes from a source. 00:14:21.419 --> 00:14:24.860 And that's what I want to talk to you about here in the next few minutes. 00:14:25.180 --> 00:14:34.539 These self-evident truths must arrive from somewhere outside of us, they're not going to come from the government. 00:14:34.779 --> 00:14:36.779 So that's what happens here, right? 00:14:37.180 --> 00:14:45.580 We imagine that these self-evident truths are provided for us by the state. 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:49.580 But government does not provide these rights. 00:14:50.060 --> 00:14:51.820 That's not what the document says. 00:14:52.379 --> 00:15:10.700 We hold these rights as sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and are endowed by the state, by DC, by the president, by the Congress, by the government, by the governor. 00:15:10.940 --> 00:15:18.860 No, they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable and the ideal there being it cannot be separated. 00:15:18.940 --> 00:15:20.300 This cannot be pulled from you. 00:15:20.379 --> 00:15:24.379 These are your rights given to you by a creator. 00:15:24.539 --> 00:15:26.700 Our rights do not come from the government. 00:15:26.860 --> 00:15:32.539 The government instead is in is established to protect them. 00:15:32.779 --> 00:15:35.899 That's what the next line of the Declaration of Independence says. 00:15:36.060 --> 00:15:46.300 To secure these rights, governments are established among men, deriving their power, their just power, from the consent of those who are governed. 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:54.700 Now that's a that's that's an essential understanding for us to grasp concerning the founding document of this country. 00:15:54.940 --> 00:16:05.500 That they look at these things which we all claim to be ours and say, they are yours, but they are not yours because the state says they're yours. 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:11.419 They are yours because there is a higher power, there is a God who has given them to you. 00:16:12.300 --> 00:16:25.899 Now, in a society that is becoming increasingly secular, I would say to the extent that the society becomes increasingly six uh secular, these rights become increasingly in danger. 00:16:27.340 --> 00:16:35.259 Because if the government determines, if it's determined that the government is the one who extends these rights to you, then they can de-extend them. 00:16:35.580 --> 00:16:37.180 They can define them. 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:46.860 You need something outside of the government, you need something outside of you, we need something outside of us that tells us what is right or what is wrong, because democracy is not going to do it. 00:16:47.419 --> 00:17:00.379 I listen, I believe in the right to vote, I believe in the right of free speech, I believe in the right for you and me and every other wacko on social media to be able to say whatever it is they want to do. 00:17:00.700 --> 00:17:09.980 But the truth is, the truth is, those rights, those rights cannot derive from us. 00:17:11.019 --> 00:17:22.059 Because if they derive from us, if they come from us as a group, then all you need is 40 million people or so to determine that Jews should be executed, and suddenly that becomes okay. 00:17:23.979 --> 00:17:25.500 Democracy does not get it done. 00:17:25.659 --> 00:17:28.139 Looking around us does not get it done. 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:32.539 The rule of law has to come from something outside of us, something greater than us. 00:17:32.779 --> 00:17:38.139 Because, listen, I'm here to tell you, like you, you know this to be the case, 50 million people can be wrong. 00:17:38.459 --> 00:17:40.619 300 million people can be wrong. 00:17:40.779 --> 00:17:46.059 And whenever 300 million people go wrong, they go wrong in horrific ways. 00:17:46.299 --> 00:17:50.939 Left to our own devices, according to Scripture, we need this type of government. 00:17:51.339 --> 00:18:00.219 This type of government, this type of God who has given us this government, extends to us these rights given to us, extended to us by God. 00:18:00.299 --> 00:18:05.339 So here they are very quickly: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:12.939 The understood that the founders understood that this government does not secure rights. 00:18:13.259 --> 00:18:17.019 God extends, God secures rights. 00:18:17.259 --> 00:18:24.939 See, the Declaration of Independence did not come out of someone's random thought, like it wasn't something they just derived on their own. 00:18:25.179 --> 00:18:32.859 There were influential writings circulating around the world at the time that laid the groundwork for the Declaration of Independence. 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:37.899 One of the most important works of that time was written by a man named John Locke. 00:18:38.219 --> 00:18:43.659 The document, I believe, was entitled Two Treaties on Government. 00:18:43.979 --> 00:18:49.019 And in that document, the founders found the foundation for the Declaration of Independence. 00:18:49.179 --> 00:18:56.059 In fact, many of them have attributed the words to the Declaration of Independence to the writings of John Locke. 00:18:56.219 --> 00:18:56.939 Now stay with me. 00:18:57.019 --> 00:18:57.979 Why is that important? 00:18:58.219 --> 00:19:02.139 It's because John Locke, especially in his early years, was a Christian. 00:19:02.219 --> 00:19:11.259 It's because in that two treatise on government, John Locke cited the Bible more than 1,500 times. 00:19:11.740 --> 00:19:20.059 That means that this document that you and I hold in our hands finds its root in John Locke's writings, which finds its foundation in Scripture. 00:19:20.139 --> 00:19:27.339 And you can see this as we examine these rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 00:19:27.659 --> 00:19:28.299 Life. 00:19:34.219 --> 00:19:51.579 Now that's a significant idea for us today, because today, increasingly, it's becoming the case that what is life and a person's right to it is not determined by the idea that all life has value because God has extended it. 00:19:51.819 --> 00:19:59.579 It is instead determined, life, the value of life, is determined by what that person can bring to society. 00:20:00.299 --> 00:20:07.419 Or worse, what others think about the right of that individual to live. 00:20:08.539 --> 00:20:09.979 Follow me on this for a minute. 00:20:10.139 --> 00:20:20.379 You probably have seen examples where you have a a mother, a pregnant mother, who uh is is uh loses her life. 00:20:21.019 --> 00:20:36.619 And in fact, there's a popular documentary on Netflix right now uh that is just gripping and heart-wrenching, where a mother loses her life, and whenever the perpetrator was tried, she was not tried for the death of one person. 00:20:37.259 --> 00:20:39.979 She was tried for the death of two people. 00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:58.059 And yet, in that same state, at that same time, if that same mother had gone into a doctor's office and approached a man with a white coat and said, I want this life inside of me to be taken out, then that would have been legal and the state would have sanctioned that execution. 00:20:58.779 --> 00:21:08.379 Which means at its core, what is happening is that the mother is determining whether or not that being inside of her is an actual life. 00:21:08.619 --> 00:21:17.979 I don't know about you, but I am not comfortable living in a society where someone other than me determines whether or not my life is valuable. 00:21:19.819 --> 00:21:22.299 I feel like I may have gotten on some toes there for a moment. 00:21:22.379 --> 00:21:23.740 So let's just move on. 00:21:23.819 --> 00:21:26.699 But you get the point, you get the tension that's there. 00:21:27.099 --> 00:21:39.339 Samuel Adams, uh, the uh cousin of John Adams and one of the influential members of the Sons of Liberty uh said concerning this. 00:21:39.500 --> 00:21:52.699 He said, the grand end of civil government, that's what we're talking about today, from the very nature, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support and protection and defense of these rights. 00:21:52.859 --> 00:21:56.379 And the very first one he lists is the right to life. 00:21:56.459 --> 00:21:58.379 That's why governments exist. 00:21:58.539 --> 00:22:01.339 They exist to protect life. 00:22:02.379 --> 00:22:08.619 Paul touches on this, and this is this is one of the areas where the founders pulled this phrase from in Acts chapter 17. 00:22:08.699 --> 00:22:17.259 When Paul is standing on the great, the great uh uh pinnacle of Greek thought on Mars Hill, and he's arguing for the existence of God. 00:22:17.500 --> 00:22:41.179 He explains to those Who are listening, that um that God, that this God, this unknown God who is out there that they all know exists, but they can't quite pinpoint who he is, that he's not served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 00:22:41.819 --> 00:22:44.139 God is the source of life. 00:22:44.299 --> 00:22:45.419 Why is that important? 00:22:45.659 --> 00:22:54.859 It's important because whenever someone with the highest authority says your life has value, no one no one usurps that. 00:22:55.099 --> 00:22:57.179 There's no court that's going to supersede that. 00:22:57.339 --> 00:23:04.779 There's no judge's gavel or legislator's pen that is going to diminish the fact that you have value. 00:23:07.019 --> 00:23:11.500 That those of us who have disabilities have value. 00:23:12.219 --> 00:23:17.419 That those of us who have a little more age on us have value. 00:23:17.740 --> 00:23:18.219 Why? 00:23:18.459 --> 00:23:23.740 Not because the state extends it, but because God has extended it. 00:23:23.899 --> 00:23:25.339 Number two, liberty. 00:23:26.059 --> 00:23:34.059 Now, the idea of liberty in the period of the Declaration of Independence is not the same idea of freedom. 00:23:34.539 --> 00:23:42.219 You can pull up Victor Hanson's recent interview on Big Think, and he covers this in just incredible uh clarity. 00:23:42.619 --> 00:23:45.019 That there was a distinction between freedom and liberty. 00:23:45.099 --> 00:23:46.939 We make the same distinction today, don't we? 00:23:47.099 --> 00:23:53.500 We don't always see it, but you you you have liberty, but you know you don't have the freedom to do just anything you want to. 00:23:54.219 --> 00:23:58.779 Some years ago, Kim and I had a membership to Planet Fitness. 00:23:58.859 --> 00:24:08.299 And whenever you walk into Planet Fitness, there is this these big words on the side of the wall that say judgment-free zone. 00:24:08.699 --> 00:24:11.899 The idea is you can just, like there's no judgment here. 00:24:11.979 --> 00:24:15.740 You can come in any body shape, any experience, right? 00:24:16.299 --> 00:24:23.579 No matter what health level you're at, you can come in and be safe because this is a judgment-free zone. 00:24:23.819 --> 00:24:27.419 But how many of you know that judgment-free does not mean rule free? 00:24:27.819 --> 00:24:36.539 There were a couple of years ago, I read an article where an individual came in and walked up to the treadmill and began to disrobe. 00:24:36.939 --> 00:24:41.899 Stripped all the way down, got onto the treadmill, and began to enjoy his run. 00:24:41.979 --> 00:24:51.659 And whenever he was approached by people who felt like that this is not appropriate, he pointed to the wall and said, This is a judgment-free zone. 00:24:51.979 --> 00:24:54.139 Liberty does not mean freedom. 00:24:54.379 --> 00:24:58.859 Liberty means that you have the right to do what you want to do. 00:24:59.019 --> 00:25:03.579 You have the right to choose within the bounds of law. 00:25:03.979 --> 00:25:07.259 Who would know this better than a Supreme Court justice? 00:25:07.500 --> 00:25:18.379 James Wilson, the first Supreme Court justice, said that without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name. 00:25:18.939 --> 00:25:21.819 There's no such thing as liberty without law. 00:25:22.059 --> 00:25:23.419 It's chaos. 00:25:24.059 --> 00:25:26.459 It's every woman, every man for themselves. 00:25:26.539 --> 00:25:28.619 How many of you want to live in that kind of society? 00:25:28.859 --> 00:25:30.139 No, no, we need law. 00:25:30.299 --> 00:25:33.179 Liberty does not mean an absence of rule. 00:25:33.419 --> 00:25:35.259 It doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want to do. 00:25:35.339 --> 00:25:49.099 It means you get to do whatever you want to do and choose whatever you want within the boundaries of law because liberty, Wilson continues, without law leads to licidiousness. 00:25:50.619 --> 00:25:56.379 It leads to this cancer of seeking more. 00:25:57.339 --> 00:26:03.419 This disease of pursuing what I feel like is right in my own heart. 00:26:04.139 --> 00:26:24.619 This endless, bottomless pit of wanting to feel the darkness in my heart with whatever joy, whatever perversion, whatever addiction seems to be right to me at the time. 00:26:25.500 --> 00:26:30.379 Now, for those of us who understand this, we also understand that our liberty comes at a cost. 00:26:30.939 --> 00:26:32.779 Liberty has boundaries. 00:26:33.019 --> 00:26:36.859 Galatians 5, verse 13, again, this is one of these principal passages. 00:26:37.019 --> 00:26:48.299 This idea comes from Paul's writing concerning law and its necessary place, but the value of liberty and how that liberty also has its boundaries. 00:26:48.459 --> 00:26:54.219 Paul says, For you were called to be free, to freedom, brothers. 00:26:54.379 --> 00:26:59.979 Only do not let your freedom become as an opportunity for the flesh. 00:27:00.139 --> 00:27:02.619 The King James Version, I think, says lasidiousness. 00:27:03.179 --> 00:27:14.459 But through love serve one is a radically different perception of liberty from that which is espoused today. 00:27:14.699 --> 00:27:21.579 Now, I'm not here to tell you that we as Christians should be imposing biblical principles on non-biblical people. 00:27:22.219 --> 00:27:26.299 Sometimes the best thing we can do is to do what God does. 00:27:26.459 --> 00:27:27.579 Can I get a witness? 00:27:27.819 --> 00:27:36.139 And just allow people to live with their decisions so that they can feel the weight of their lostness and separation from God by doing things their own way. 00:27:36.219 --> 00:27:40.219 If there is a God who created us, then perhaps it's the case he has a plan for us. 00:27:40.459 --> 00:27:43.259 Perhaps it's the case that he may know better than I do. 00:27:43.500 --> 00:27:49.099 And my liberty in Christ is given so that I can choose to do the right thing. 00:27:49.259 --> 00:27:51.659 God allows us to why does he do that? 00:27:51.819 --> 00:27:56.619 God allows us to choose because he wants us to love, and love requires choice. 00:27:56.779 --> 00:28:07.259 We've talked about that before, and that's why God in the Old Testament constantly, He didn't people, He just simply said through His prophets, I'm laying before you life and death and blessings and cursings. 00:28:07.500 --> 00:28:08.779 You can choose. 00:28:09.099 --> 00:28:23.740 If you want to go back and worship the gods God just destroyed, or if you want to go and worship the the child murdering the family, destroying gods of this land who I've just conquered, then knock yourself out them. 00:28:24.139 --> 00:28:29.339 So I just think it'd be a good idea if you worship me, if I become your God since I brought you here to this place. 00:28:29.419 --> 00:28:32.059 It's a very reasonable argument, isn't it? 00:28:32.379 --> 00:28:34.059 But God gives us the choice. 00:28:34.299 --> 00:28:35.500 Finally, we're almost here. 00:28:35.579 --> 00:28:37.419 We're going to draw this in here real quick. 00:28:37.659 --> 00:28:39.179 The pursuit of happiness. 00:28:39.339 --> 00:28:52.539 This might be, as a Christian, the most awkward piece of this puzzle because the idea of happiness we know has been so perverted as to be defined by whatever it is that I want in my life. 00:28:53.019 --> 00:29:18.219 And yet the scripture does say in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 12, Solomon, who probably more than any other character in the Bible, you and I can identify with in wealth and prosperity, he speaks that there is nothing better than uh for uh for them than to be joyful, talking about us, right? 00:29:18.379 --> 00:29:33.419 For us to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, also that everyone should eat and drink in all his toil, this is God's gift to man. 00:29:35.579 --> 00:29:37.579 We could camp out on that statement for a while. 00:29:37.740 --> 00:29:38.379 What does he mean? 00:29:38.459 --> 00:29:40.139 This is God's gift to man. 00:29:40.379 --> 00:30:04.459 Here's what he means he means that if you and I really are sinful, and we are, and if our sin really is an affront to the glory of God who exists everywhere in all places, and it does, then the fact that we get to experience any joy at all, any pleasure at all, is an incredible gift from God. 00:30:05.740 --> 00:30:07.979 I I don't I don't deserve it. 00:30:08.459 --> 00:30:11.819 I I don't deserve to hold a newborn grandbaby. 00:30:12.059 --> 00:30:15.979 I don't deserve to enjoy my belly being full. 00:30:16.219 --> 00:30:22.139 I don't, I don't deserve to enjoy air conditioning, which I am really enjoying right about now, right? 00:30:22.219 --> 00:30:29.179 I don't, I don't, though, those are not things that that that are rights to me as a human because I am a fallen, broken human. 00:30:29.259 --> 00:30:33.819 They are a right to me because God has gifted them to me. 00:30:34.859 --> 00:30:39.179 That means your ability to pursue happiness, to to find your way. 00:30:39.419 --> 00:30:57.899 You know, sometimes you and I, we think of God as some ogre, some joy uh stealing, some pleasure absorbing uh ogre in the sky who is just like some upset neighbor trying to figure out how to get you to be less annoying so that he can enjoy his quiet heavenly spaces. 00:30:58.059 --> 00:30:59.500 That's not it at all. 00:30:59.819 --> 00:31:07.179 God wants you to have life and to have life more abundantly, but he is the one who knows what brings real joy and real happiness. 00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:17.819 And for those who are pursuing happiness as an end, you know, if you pursued it very long at all, you know that's an endless, bottomless pit that cannot be filled by human experience. 00:31:17.979 --> 00:31:22.539 It can only be filled by experiencing the joy that comes through Christ. 00:31:23.179 --> 00:31:26.539 Now, this is also known by our founders. 00:31:26.699 --> 00:31:31.179 They understood that the pursuit of joy hedonism was not a healthy end in itself. 00:31:31.419 --> 00:32:01.259 John Adams, one of the one of the men who put pen to paper to critique this document after Jefferson had wrote it, said later in 1776, later that year, he said, All sober inquiries after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man as well as his dignity consists in virtue. 00:32:03.339 --> 00:32:07.659 Which means our definition of happiness is not their definition of happiness. 00:32:07.899 --> 00:32:15.659 Their definition of happiness is living within the bounds that God has given us to exist and enjoying it richly. 00:32:15.819 --> 00:32:17.419 This is what God wants. 00:32:17.740 --> 00:32:32.539 The government is not a rescue, the government is a resource for us to put forth the truth of life, to put forth the truth of liberty, to put forth the truth of what it really means to pursue happiness. 00:32:33.019 --> 00:32:34.779 By the way, it's very interesting, right? 00:32:35.019 --> 00:32:37.899 That uh he doesn't say life, liberty, and happiness. 00:32:37.979 --> 00:32:40.299 It's life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 00:32:40.459 --> 00:32:42.939 How many of you know happiness isn't guaranteed? 00:32:43.179 --> 00:32:44.379 No, it's not. 00:32:44.699 --> 00:32:54.939 But God extends to you the right to pursue it even in times of brokenness, even in difficulty, even in life-shattering circumstances. 00:32:55.099 --> 00:32:59.179 True joy can be found in the promise of Jesus Christ. 00:32:59.339 --> 00:33:01.339 This government is not a rescue. 00:33:01.419 --> 00:33:08.299 It's not going to provide for you life, it's not going to provide for you uh liberty, it's not going to provide for you happiness. 00:33:08.699 --> 00:33:09.819 It cannot do it. 00:33:10.059 --> 00:33:11.419 It is not the source. 00:33:11.579 --> 00:33:15.579 Government is not the source of these rights. 00:33:15.899 --> 00:33:16.859 God is. 00:33:17.500 --> 00:33:23.099 So let me close with two words of exhortation to you. 00:33:23.419 --> 00:33:24.539 Here they are. 00:33:25.019 --> 00:33:28.699 Seek the source, trust the rain. 00:33:29.899 --> 00:33:33.339 Seek the source, trust the rain. 00:33:34.059 --> 00:33:57.019 Fathers, can I just say to you and mothers as well, parents, grandparents, if you are attempting to pass your patriotism to your children without passing your faith to your children, you're passing them something that is hollow and will not stand the test of time. 00:33:57.659 --> 00:34:02.219 Patriotism is toxic without faith. 00:34:03.179 --> 00:34:14.139 That's why we seek the source and we show the source, because the source, right, somewhere in their heart, they're going to find a God to worship. 00:34:14.380 --> 00:34:24.300 And whenever you open up the pages of scripture, what you see over and over again is God is setting himself up against the institution of government. 00:34:24.460 --> 00:34:26.460 Go back and read your Bible again and you'll see it. 00:34:26.619 --> 00:34:27.820 It just pops out at you. 00:34:27.900 --> 00:34:30.380 That's, oh, this is God facing the government again. 00:34:30.539 --> 00:34:32.220 It's God facing the government again. 00:34:32.300 --> 00:34:38.059 It's God facing the, it's God standing before the government saying, You have no power that my Father in heaven has not given you. 00:34:38.220 --> 00:34:41.980 So don't you think for a moment, Pilate, that you're the one in control here. 00:34:42.220 --> 00:34:44.059 My kingdom is not of this world. 00:34:44.220 --> 00:34:46.539 It's God against the government. 00:34:46.780 --> 00:34:47.340 Why? 00:34:47.660 --> 00:34:53.260 Because the government constantly sets itself up as the source of these rights, and it's not. 00:34:53.420 --> 00:34:55.579 Government is a protector of these rights. 00:34:55.740 --> 00:35:00.140 And I'm here to tell you as an American, I think our government has done an outstanding job. 00:35:00.300 --> 00:35:05.500 Not perfect, but an outstanding job, the best job of any nation on the planet, so far as I know. 00:35:05.660 --> 00:35:06.700 Show me another one. 00:35:06.940 --> 00:35:10.539 Take me to the corner of Marxist-ruled countries. 00:35:10.700 --> 00:35:21.579 Take me to the fields of despot uh empires and show me where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have been more attainable than they are right now. 00:35:21.900 --> 00:35:23.180 Right here in this place. 00:35:23.420 --> 00:35:28.780 But we we don't seek this government as the source because this government did not provide this for us. 00:35:28.940 --> 00:35:31.260 We seek the source who is God. 00:35:31.420 --> 00:35:34.140 Without that source, our patriotism is hollow. 00:35:34.300 --> 00:35:40.300 Seek the source and finally trust the rain, the R-E-I-G-N. 00:35:41.019 --> 00:35:43.340 So we don't put our hope here in this place. 00:35:43.820 --> 00:35:47.019 This place here, we're told, is one day going to end. 00:35:47.340 --> 00:35:53.820 Do you know, fun fact for you, do you know that even now, right here, we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of this country? 00:35:54.059 --> 00:36:08.539 And even right now, this continent, as far as European involvement is concerned, this continent has still been colony longer than it's been a nation. 00:36:08.780 --> 00:36:12.620 From 1492 to 1776, 280 years. 00:36:12.780 --> 00:36:16.059 From 1776 to today, that's 250 years. 00:36:16.300 --> 00:36:18.940 This is, we're young, right? 00:36:19.260 --> 00:36:28.380 And yet most of us are able to look and see the trajectory of this country and realize that, man, I don't know if we can make it another another 250 years. 00:36:29.019 --> 00:36:36.780 If we do make it another 250 years, it's because we're doing point one, it's because we've turned to seek the source of these rights. 00:36:38.700 --> 00:36:47.980 But beyond that, we know eventually, even if this country does make it another 250 years, at some point it's going to collapse under its own weight. 00:36:48.220 --> 00:36:56.380 Or it is as foretold in Daniel going to be crushed by that great stone that falls from heaven and crushes all governments. 00:36:56.620 --> 00:36:57.820 One day it will end. 00:36:57.980 --> 00:37:00.140 Do you know that the founders knew that too? 00:37:00.780 --> 00:37:03.420 I mean, it's written right there into the Declaration of Independence. 00:37:03.500 --> 00:37:04.700 Can you see that? 00:37:06.059 --> 00:37:08.940 It's that that final line of the preamble. 00:37:09.660 --> 00:37:20.940 That whenever any form of government he doesn't say, they don't say any form of government except for the one we're about to establish here because this one's going to work. 00:37:21.980 --> 00:37:32.620 That any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to what's the word? 00:37:33.579 --> 00:37:40.700 Now I'm not suggesting that we take up arms and start a revolution here in this right here on Christiansburg Mountain. 00:37:40.780 --> 00:37:48.059 I'm just saying to you, even the founders knew that every nation at some point makes its way to tyranny. 00:37:48.220 --> 00:37:48.700 Why? 00:37:48.940 --> 00:37:52.539 Because that's the entropy of our heart. 00:37:52.700 --> 00:37:53.660 That's what we do. 00:37:53.740 --> 00:37:59.500 We erode to a place where eventually there has to be this reset. 00:37:59.660 --> 00:38:01.579 There has to be this alteration. 00:38:01.900 --> 00:38:03.180 The founders knew that. 00:38:03.260 --> 00:38:19.180 And so if you're putting your hope in this country, I'm here to tell you like you are, if you're treating this country, if you're if your patriotism isn't about this is a resource for the gospel, but instead it's a rescue for me, you're probably not feeling real well right now. 00:38:19.740 --> 00:38:22.460 Because you're concerned, and understandably so. 00:38:23.180 --> 00:38:24.539 Not because of the state of the country. 00:38:24.620 --> 00:38:34.220 I think, I think I'm optimistic that we're going to turn a tide and that church attendance is going to continue to increase and the gospel is going to continue to flourish. 00:38:34.300 --> 00:38:36.860 Like I've I want to believe that. 00:38:37.579 --> 00:38:40.700 But my concern for you isn't this future of this country. 00:38:40.860 --> 00:38:54.860 It is the fact that if you are using your patriotism as a rescue for your future for your kids, then that is a difficult spot to live in. 00:38:55.019 --> 00:38:59.900 Because government was never meant to fill the shoes of savior. 00:39:00.539 --> 00:39:02.539 Seek the source. 00:39:02.860 --> 00:39:04.780 Trust the rain.