WEBVTT 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:11.599 You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:30.719 Doreed, the historian writes, the Puritan man, leading his family, endeavored to make a church out of his family, laboring that those that were born in it might be born again to God through it. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:37.119 It was Jonathan Edwards who wrote, May every home be a little church. 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:42.079 At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:46.399 For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:51.439 We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:59.439 Well, um, this is Thanksgiving week coming up. 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:06.560 And for you that have been with me through the years, you know that from time to time I do two messages in a row. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:13.280 One on the Puritans or the Separatist, and then the next week I do it on the Puritans. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:20.959 But because Advent, the first week of Advent, the first Sunday of Advent is next Sunday, which comes early this year. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:33.280 I felt that I had to make a choice because I wanted to finish Nehemiah, which we finished last week, 10 weeks in Nehemiah, to decide, okay, is it Puritans or Prims? 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:43.280 And I had done something 4th of July before on the pilgrims, and I felt like I wanted to do the message on the Puritan. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:47.359 So I'm giving you the second message as a first message. 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:53.519 And it's the only message that you're gonna get because we're going to Thanksgiving and then we go into the Advent season. 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:56.319 And by the way, Advent's gonna be so fun here, you guys. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.760 We're gonna have, it's gonna look so different when you come on Sunday. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:01.519 It's gonna be so kid friendly. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:10.879 We're gonna have a kid's sermon each week that takes the sermon that I'm giving and we bring it down to a kid's level, they're gonna all come up here, so it's gonna be really, really fun. 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:36.159 Well, because it's Thanksgiving, and because it's the year 2020, and we're in the unique position today of not knowing who the President of the United States is actually going to become, and because of all the controversy swirling around the voter count, I felt like we should open with Jeremiah 6, 16. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:41.280 So would you turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah 6, 16? 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:45.039 Now, I've done something I rarely do, but I did it this time. 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:52.879 I didn't like any of the translations that were NIV, ESV, or NKJV. 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:57.919 And that would be the New International Version, New English Version, and New King James Version. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:02:59.520 So I combined them. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:04.240 Because I like certain words that some used, and I like the other words that others use. 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:11.120 So whatever translation you're using, you normally, I mean, 95% of the time I'm using the New King James Version. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:15.360 I've actually, so you're like gonna listen and you're gonna see some different words. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:22.639 It's true to the text, it's just a different perspective, and I decided to make a composite in what I'm going to read. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:31.039 So follow along, and you'll see some words that probably aren't in your translation, but they mean the same thing in the Hebrew. 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:41.439 Stand at the crossroads and look and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:44.719 Then you will find rest for your souls. 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:48.879 But they said, We will not walk in it. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:55.360 I have set up watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:58.080 Now, what I'm doing today is I'm your trumpet. 00:03:58.400 --> 00:03:58.719 Okay? 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.240 I am your watchman as your pastor. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:04.319 I am your trumpet call. 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:19.279 And what I'm doing today is taking you back to the old past, to the ancient ways that I happen to believe are super important because America is exceptional and America is unique. 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:36.399 And what makes us exceptional and unique is not that we're good at everything or that we're perfect, do not get that impression at all, but rather we are a nation that actually was given a vision. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:05:02.879 No other nation of the world, some, what did we hear today, 195 nations or 197 nations of the world, have the vision that God gave first the pilgrims in 1620 and then the Puritans in 1630 that formed the documentation, the foundation of the documents that made the United States of America later. 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:18.879 So we're unique and then we've been given a vision, and because we've been given a vision, I feel like it's our duty as a church to remind us from time to time what that vision is. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:21.839 And I want to talk about the Puritans today. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:30.879 It's the Puritans that gave us the original vision of the founding of America as a city on a hill. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:36.079 It was the Puritans that gave us the source documents for the Declaration of Independence. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:40.160 It was the Puritans that gave us the Protestant work ethic. 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:43.600 It was the Puritans that gave us the Christian home. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:48.480 It was the Puritans that gave us integrity in the workplace. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:52.720 But who were the Puritans? 00:05:52.959 --> 00:06:13.759 The modern stereotype of the Puritans is one of being blue-nosed killjoys in tall black hats, a somber, sin-obsessed, witch hunting bigots, which one modern author writes, quote, whose main occupation was to prevent each other from having fun and whose sole virtue lay in their furniture. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:27.680 Such books as a Scarlet Letter and Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials called The Crucible carried an image of the Puritans as a people preoccupied with sin and guilt. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:35.519 Now, men and women, there's no doubt that the Puritans took sin seriously. 00:06:36.160 --> 00:07:04.560 That they believed because they were, because they were founding a new nation, because they were founding what they called a new plantation in, quote, New England, the New England, that they were acutely aware of the admonition that we actually covered last week of Deuteronomy 28, that if they chose to obey God, they would be blessed, and if they chose to disobey God, they would be cursed. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:10.240 It was this close to them, the reality of blessing or cursing. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:14.000 And so they took sin seriously. 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:18.720 But Puritan as a name was mud from the start. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:34.000 Coined in the early 1560s in England, it was always a satirical smear implying peevishness, censorship, conceit, and a measure of hypocrisy. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:42.079 But to understand the Puritans, you have to understand the Church of England in the 150 and 1600s. 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:59.040 The Church of England was smothered in tradition, was smothered in a government-paid pastorship by which it was more important that you got your paycheck than that the people had a heart check. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:07.120 And so as the traditions began to outweigh the Bible in the Church of England, there was this group of people. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:21.519 This group of men and women who believed that a spiritual movement, a kingdom revolution, a revival, though they didn't use the word revival, they used the word reformation, could happen from within the church. 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:29.360 It was based on the teachings of Tyndale and reforming Biblicism. 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.480 John Bradford's piety of the heart. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:37.120 John Knox's zeal for God's honor in the national churches. 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:41.120 John Hooper's passion for pastoral competence. 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:47.279 Richard Baxter's commitment to a godly pastorate and practical Bible teaching. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:53.759 But at the heart, at the heart of Puritanism was revival or reformation. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:54.480 J.I. 00:08:54.799 --> 00:09:06.320 Packer writes, Puritanism was essentially a movement for church reform, pastoral renewal, and evangelism, and spiritual revival. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:21.039 And in addition, indeed, as a direct expression of its zeal for God's honor, it was a worldview, a total Christian philosophy in intellectual terms, a Protestantized and updated medievalism. 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:29.120 And in terms of spirituality, as a reform monasticism outside the cloister and away from monkish vows. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:54.639 The Puritan goal was to complete what England's Reformation began, to finish reshaping Anglican worship, to introduce effective church discipline into Anglican parishes, to establish righteousness in the political, domestic, and socioeconomic fields, and to convert all Englishmen to a vigorous evangelical faith. 00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:01.600 And in the 17th century, the Puritan movement within the Church of England took off. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:14.879 Revival began to occur, and all across the countrysides, in the courts, in the magistrates, in the government, in society, there was this move of Puritanism taking over England. 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:18.159 They had been the ones who condemned the Separatists. 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:19.600 This is what's interesting about the pilgrims. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:26.960 They condemned the pilgrims who left in 1620 to come to America as leaving their country behind. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:44.399 But what was happening now was the Puritans were realizing because the persecution that was arising as the movement grew, that it might it be that they also should follow the pilgrims by the mid-1620s. 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:52.399 You see, the difference between the pilgrims and the Puritans, one was socioeconomic. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:55.679 The pilgrims came from the laboring class. 00:10:55.919 --> 00:11:00.720 They had very little to lose by coming to America. 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:09.919 And when they came in 1620 and gave us the Plymouth colony, they came, in many cases, having very, very little. 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:13.840 But to the Puritans, they came from more of the upper classes. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:19.440 They were lawyers and magistrates and government officials and medical doctors. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:25.200 And for them to leave England was going to cost them so much. 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:30.000 The pilgrims had left the Church of England, had started independent churches. 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:38.639 And so when they came to New England, when they came to America, they came with their independent church movements. 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:43.120 But for the Puritans, they were called Puritan because they really believed. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:54.240 Even by the 1620s, even by 1625, they believed that God was going to bring a revival, a reformation from within the Church of England. 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:57.200 And they actually condemned those who had left the Church of England. 00:11:57.440 --> 00:12:03.200 Thus the name Puritanism, the purification of the church. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:10.720 But the situation changed dramatically under Charles I, 1625 to 1649. 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:23.519 In 1628, William Laud, the Church of England's enforcer, was made Bishop of London, the most important bishopric in the country. 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:30.159 That year marks the beginning of the great migration from England to America by the Puritans. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:33.039 Laud presented a list to the king. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:44.960 And the list had the names of all the clergy in the Church of England with either a O, which meant Orthodox, or P, which meant Puritan. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:51.759 And if they had the P beside their name, they were thrown into prison in many cases. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:13:10.080 And so the Puritans gradually began to believe what the pilgrims had already understood, that there was a chance that possibly America was a place where they could bring religious freedom, occupational freedom, to a new land, a new England. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:21.039 But just like Israel of old, leaving Egypt, they needed a Moses, and that Moses was in a man named John Winthrop. 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:27.120 John Winthrop was Cambridge-born and owning a sizable estate in Suffolk, England. 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:30.399 Winthrop was an attorney in the Court of Wards. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:36.000 He pinned these words in 1612 at the age of 24. 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:42.799 I desire to make it one of my chief petitions to have that grace to be poor in spirit. 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:50.399 I will ever walk humbly before my God and meekly, mildly, and gently towards all men. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:14:10.799 I do resolve first to give myself, my life, my wits, my health, and my wealth to the service of my God and Savior, who, by giving himself for me and to me, deserves whatsoever I am or can be to be his commandment for his glory. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:22.639 And then in 1616, at the age of twenty-eight, he wrote, O Lord, thou assurest my heart that I am in a right course, even the narrow way that leads to heaven. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:42.720 Thou tellest me, and all experience tells me, that in this way there is least company, and those who do walk openly in this way shall be despised, pointed at, hated by the world, by my made a byword, reviled, slandered, rebuked, and made a gazing stock. 00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:50.080 So John Winthrop decided a few years later that indeed he should go to the new world. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:51.360 And here's what he wrote. 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:58.960 Every plantation his right hand hath not planted shall be rooted up. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:02.799 But his own plantation shall prosper and flourish. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:10.879 When he promiseth peace and safety, what enemy shall be able to make the promise of God of no effect? 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:20.000 Neglect not walls and bulwarks and fortifications for your own defense, but ever the name of the Lord be your strong tower. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:30.480 And the word of his promise, the rock of your refuge, his word that made heaven and earth will not fail till heaven and earth be no more. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:39.840 And so in 1630, he and a group of Puritans entered the Arbella 72 days on the sea. 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:43.519 They came to Salem, Salem, Massachusetts. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:46.799 And they were shocked at what they found. 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:54.399 Of the 200 Puritan settlers who had come in the past two years, only 85 were still alive. 00:15:54.720 --> 00:16:00.240 Over 80 had died, while the rest had quit and gone home. 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:05.360 The people were disunified, starving, and quitting. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:20.720 And Winthrop, not unlike William Bradford, as the pilgrims came into Harbor, where, still in the ocean before they set foot, he wrote that famous document called the Mayflower Compact. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:31.360 In this case, John Winthrop wrote these words, now known as a model for Christian charity. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:33.919 A model for Christian charity. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:51.039 Quote, this love among Christians is a real thing, not imaginary, as absolutely necessary to the well-being of the body of Christ as the sinews and other ligaments of a natural body are to the well-being of that body. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:17:01.200 We are a company, professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, and thus we ought to account ourselves knit together in the bond of love. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:02.320 It continues. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.839 Thus stands the cause between God and us. 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:09.200 We are entered into a covenant with Him for this work. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:11.519 We have taken out a commission. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:16.079 The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles. 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:33.599 If the Lord shall please to hear us and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath he ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:41.920 But if we shall neglect the observance of these articles, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us. 00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:42.720 You understand? 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:46.000 You see how they could understand blessing and cursing? 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:53.599 They could understand that obedience put you in the fear of God of blessing. 00:17:54.319 --> 00:18:00.799 Disobedience puts you under the curse of God and a lack of blessing. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:08.079 He continues, and this is the and this is the thesis, he moves into the thesis of his message. 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:21.920 Now, the only way to avoid the shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:27.200 For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:51.599 We must delight in each other, make one another's condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:55.920 We shall find that the God of Israel is among us. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:21.119 When then of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and a glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, The Lord make it like that of New England, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:29.039 And so Winthrop went to work, and that faltering community began to grow. 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:36.160 One writer explained it this way without a doubt, a miracle took place upon Winthrop's arrival. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:45.759 A nearly dead colony was resurrected, and from all reports, God's single instrument in this resurrection was John Winthrop. 00:19:46.160 --> 00:20:03.759 Cotton Mather would refer to Winthrop as the Nehemias Americanus, in reference to the Old Testament leader who had brought the Israelites back from their Babylonian exile to the Promised Land and had directed the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:09.519 But more important, Nehemiah had inspired them to resume their covenant with God. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:15.039 Another 17th-century report, quoted by modern Yale historian Edmund Mogan. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:17.440 So soon, as Mr. 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:35.440 Winthrop was landed, perceiving what misery was like to ensue through their idleness, he presently fell to work with his own hands, and thereby so encouraged the rest that there was not an idle person then to be found in the whole plantation. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:50.640 And whereas the Indians said that these newcomers would certainly return as fast as they came, now they admired to see in what short time they had housed themselves and planted sufficient corn for their subsistence. 00:20:50.880 --> 00:21:05.200 And so men and women, as the 1630s arrived, Puritan communities began to flourish all over the northeastern part of the United States in what then became known as the Great Migration, where over 20,000 Puritans came. 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:07.200 So what can be learned? 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:12.720 What are the lessons that we can learn from the Puritans for our own lives? 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:24.480 And maybe for the first time, because several people mentioned it was the first time after the first service, that they had heard, oh, that's where that came from. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:26.400 That's why we do that. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:27.680 So I want to give you six. 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:36.559 There's, man, I could give you like 20, but I'll give you six thoughts, six principles that I see that come from the Puritans. 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:42.240 Number one, the Puritans passionately believed that America could be a city on a hill. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:49.519 The Puritans passionately believe that America would be or could be a city on a hill for all other nations. 00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:59.759 They desired to found a land where all citizens could freely worship, freely raise their family, and freely pursue an occupation. 00:22:00.799 --> 00:22:05.920 Without undue governmental restrictions. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:17.599 Quoting Jesus in Matthew 5, 14, John Winthrop wrote these words that I've just quoted earlier: we shall find that the God of Israel is among us. 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:27.119 Lord, make it like that of New England, for we must consider that we shall be a city upon a hill. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:37.920 Ronald Reagan in the 1970s placed that line, A City on a Hill, from this sermon by John Winthrop at the center of his political career. 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:46.000 Tracing the story of America from John Winthrop forward, Reagan built a powerful articulation of American exceptionalism. 00:22:46.319 --> 00:23:09.440 The idea, as he explained it, was, and I quote, that where that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who are possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage. 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:27.279 It was because of that strong belief in creator God and the principles of freedom found in the Bible that the framers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 wrote one of the great sentences in all of the history of nations. 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:45.119 We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:51.279 Many women, I believe that God has made this nation great because this nation is good. 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:56.640 And we are good because there's something within us that still holds to that vision. 00:23:56.799 --> 00:23:58.400 There's still enough people. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:20.480 It may not even be the majority, but there's enough people that still believe it's true that God set this nation to be a city on a hill, that the kingdom of God might be here as best as we can with all the broken parts to it and all the misaligned principles that we all as sinners struggle with. 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:26.000 That it's still the greatest nation on the face of the earth. 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:31.359 Number two, the Puritans believed that all work is worship. 00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:34.559 The Puritans believed that all work is worship. 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:40.720 The banner over everything to a Puritan was holiness unto the Lord. 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:55.440 They really believed, Matthew 22, 35 through 40, that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. 00:24:55.759 --> 00:25:03.440 That when a nation is built with that kind of a conviction, it matters not what you're doing seven days a week. 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:16.880 Whether you're worshiping on Sunday morning with a host of other believers in a church, or whether you're making furniture, working as a lawyer, a doctor, or a mechanic, it's all worship. 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:19.359 You bring your worship to work. 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:28.960 The Puritans strongly believed that everyone was a missionary at whatever they chose to do during the week. 00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:46.000 This integration of life, liberty, and worship has been termed integrity, which means wholeness, which means that your private life and your public life are consistent. 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:47.039 They're the same. 00:25:47.119 --> 00:25:49.279 It's called integrity. 00:25:49.759 --> 00:25:55.599 Puritan craftsmen were considered the best craftsmen in the world. 00:25:55.920 --> 00:26:03.119 Puritan lawyers were known to be the most prepared and the most articulate in the courtroom. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:09.519 Number three, number three, the Puritans believed in the centrality of the Bible. 00:26:09.839 --> 00:26:13.519 The Puritans believed in the centrality of the Bible. 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:18.720 Because of their experience, you guys, with what had happened in the Church of England. 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:23.680 And it's still a struggle with the Anglican Church in America, where the Bible is not central. 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:25.839 It hasn't been central for hundreds of years. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:28.160 But they had personally experienced it. 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:40.400 They knew that the only way that worship would continue in spirit and in truth was that the Bible was at the center of all worship and teaching. 00:26:41.200 --> 00:26:52.319 Their verse that was the most prominent in these early years in the 1630s and 40s was Deuteronomy 30 14 through 16. 00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:58.160 But the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:22.880 See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God and to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you go in to possess. 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:31.440 All Puritan magistrates in the early colonies use the Bible for law and justice matters. 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:35.440 Puritans were known for meditation. 00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:41.519 And it's sad to see how many today think of the word meditation. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:43.680 They hear meditation, they think new age. 00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:46.160 Nothing could be so further from the truth from a Puritan. 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:56.640 If we could somehow take a Puritan from the 1630s and drop them into 2020, they would say that the most important thing you can do is meditate in God's Word. 00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:00.079 And they base that on Psalm 119 and Psalm 1. 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:06.240 That God's delight is in a man or a woman who meditates in God's word. 00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:20.880 Puritans were deep, passionate meditators of men who drank deeply from God's word and preached deeply from God's Word. 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:27.279 Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan, would go into battle. 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:31.920 And before he went into battle, he prayed deep, deep prayers. 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:33.839 Deep love of God. 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:35.200 Number four. 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:36.319 Number four. 00:28:36.640 --> 00:28:40.559 The Puritans gave us a passion for effective action. 00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:46.640 The Puritan gave us, the Puritans gave us a passion for effective action. 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:50.480 The Puritans were not dreamy idealists. 00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:56.559 They had no time for daydreaming, idleness, or passivity. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:05.200 They were strong men of action, crusading activist, without a jolt of self-reliance. 00:29:05.680 --> 00:29:14.000 Workers of God who depended utterly on God to work in through them with God working within culture. 00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:18.559 The Puritans prayed long prayers. 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:19.519 They're famous for that. 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:30.799 So if you went, if you went to trial and you had a Puritan lawyer in the 1640s, give it up for the first 15 minutes. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:42.000 Because whether it was the judge or the lawyer, they would pray for 10 to 15 minutes for God's glory to happen in that trial. 00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:48.240 And so these are not dreamy eyed. 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:50.400 You guys know what I'm talking about. 00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:53.200 You guys know how much I appreciate the prophetic. 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:56.240 I appreciate the prophetic. 00:29:56.559 --> 00:29:58.720 I've been led by the prophetic. 00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:06.079 Visions and dreams, and that's planted this church and other stuff that we've done in the past was because of God leading us in the prophetic. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:09.920 But within the prophetic, let's be honest. 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:15.759 There, I guess I've hung out in this world for 25 years. 00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:20.640 And they're not Puritans, much of the time. 00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:27.519 They can tend to be a little bit like out there somewhere, I don't even know what they're talking about half the time. 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:30.319 You know, and I'm like, dude, come on, come on. 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:31.279 Bring it down. 00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:32.960 This is where I live, you know. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:38.000 I gotta, you know, invest my money and have a church to lead. 00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:41.279 Okay, that's great about whatever you're talking about. 00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:42.880 That would not be a Puritan. 00:30:43.359 --> 00:30:48.799 Puritans were hardworking and men and women of effective action. 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:49.920 Number five. 00:30:50.799 --> 00:30:54.000 The Puritans gave us a stable family life. 00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:58.000 They gave us, fifthly, a stable family life. 00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:03.200 How many of you either have or you're aware of the family Bible? 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:05.599 Anyone have or are you familiar with the family? 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:07.200 Okay, I nearly brought ours today. 00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:10.000 I have in my office, not the one here, but the one at home. 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:17.680 When you walk in my office, there is the family Bible that's been in Liz's family, actually, for generations. 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:22.319 And it's uh it's about, if we if we close it, it's about that thick. 00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:28.240 And that would have been customary with every Puritan family, that there would be a family Bible. 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:29.119 And here's why. 00:31:29.279 --> 00:31:33.680 Because they believed in what is called, how many have heard the term family altar? 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:44.720 The family altar was the family coming together every day for worship, prayer, and Bible reading. 00:31:44.880 --> 00:32:07.279 So whether it was the morning or whether it was an evening, a Puritan family always gathered, all the kids, everybody gathered together, usually, my understanding, usually at the end of the day, because the men had to leave so early for work, but at the end of the day they came and they opened the Bible, they read from the Bible, they prayed from the Bible, and they had a stable family life. 00:32:07.519 --> 00:32:15.440 The Puritan ethic of home life was based on maintaining order, courtesy, and family worship. 00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:34.720 Garee, the historian, writes, The Puritan man, leading his family, endeavored to make a church out of his family, laboring that those that were born in it might be born again to God through it. 00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:40.880 It was Jonathan Edwards who wrote, May every home be a little church. 00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:44.960 And that was the first gift that Liz gave me when we were dating. 00:32:45.599 --> 00:32:54.000 She painted a picture of a little chapel, and then she had the Jonathan Edwards quote on it, May every home be a little church. 00:32:54.240 --> 00:33:06.720 They believed that Christ was the head of the home, that the man was the leader of his family, and Puritan men took seriously their role as leaders over their homes. 00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:14.720 And then lastly, number six, the Puritans gave us an ideal for church reformation. 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:18.480 The Puritans gave us an ideal for church reformation. 00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:24.799 The Puritans really believed that the church needed to be reformed again and again. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:28.880 Men and women, this was the reformation theme. 00:33:29.039 --> 00:33:34.400 One of the reformation themes under Luther was the church always reforming. 00:33:34.640 --> 00:33:36.079 The church always reforming. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:39.680 Every generation has to reform the church. 00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:46.720 Some of you young people that are in this room are going to be used by God to reform the church. 00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:49.920 And at this church, we welcome it. 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:54.319 Because we always need revival, reformation. 00:33:54.480 --> 00:33:59.920 And you guys know that we built this church on the vision of a kingdom of God revolution. 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:14.800 And men and women, as we look at where our country is at, we look at what's happening in our nation as it relates to governments, laws, fraud, corruption, we need a kingdom of God revolution. 00:34:15.039 --> 00:34:25.920 It may be the only hope left for our nation over the next 20 to 30 years, if not less than that, is a kingdom of God revolution happening in the church. 00:34:26.639 --> 00:34:54.480 With pastors and lay people who are on fire for God, that are not faint-hearted, but are lion-hearted, with the belief that God's the only one who can change our culture, change our future, change our laws, and transform this nation from where it is now to where it could be if we allow God to move across this land with great revival fire. 00:34:54.719 --> 00:34:55.840 So may that be true. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:57.360 May that be our prayer. 00:34:57.599 --> 00:35:07.199 And may the Puritans be an inspiration to us, to some men who came here, risking everything they had to build a land that they wanted to be, a city on a hill. 00:35:09.360 --> 00:35:13.760 You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:16.880 We hope you have been blessed by today's message. 00:35:17.039 --> 00:35:20.960 To connect with us further, visit theroad.org. 00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:24.960 If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you. 00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:32.320 Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request. 00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:40.400 Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.