Faith of Our Fathers - Pastor Sandra Roach

America's foundation, the Church's responsibility, and the Kingdom of God... In this episode, Pastor Sandra Roach shares how they all fit together. Let's tackle the controversial debate over Christian nationalism, examine our nation's spiritual heritage, and discover why our ultimate allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ. It's a timely, biblical conversation that will challenge your perspective and strengthen your faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Today we are going to continue the weekend celebration of 250 years as a nation. And on this monumental weekend, we are celebrating 250 years as a nation. So we're going to today go back and look at a vital part of our nation's heritage. The faith of those who forged this land, we call the land of the free and the home of the brave. We're going to look at the faith of our fathers. When the pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in 1620, they sought freedom to worship God according to his word. In the Mayflower Compact, they declared that their monumental journey was undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of Christian faith. Isn't that glorious? You know, those are things that we that we don't talk about enough because there are too many people that are saying that we did not have a Christian foundation. And I want to say this before I start reading some of the statements our our forefathers made. Our heritage is not a claim of earthly perfection, but an ongoing challenge to be a people characterized by justice, mercy, and humility before God. Listen to this one. I love this. Patrick Henry stated, it cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Isn't that glorious? I love that. For this very reason, people of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here. I want you to remember that. For this reason, people from other nations and all different ethnic backgrounds have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom to worship here. John Adams wrote, the general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite. And these principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me and my answer. And what were those general principles? I answer the general principles of Christianity, in which all these sects were united, and the general principles of English and American liberty. John Hancock. Do you know why we say put your John Hancock there? Because when you look at the Declaration of Independence, you see one name that was written like I write. My family make fun of me because I write so big and curly and everything. And they always say it takes me forever to sign my name. That's okay. John Hancock did it. They'll say, put your John Hancock right here. He was the first signer of the Declaration of the Independence, and he wrote, Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. Continue steadfast and with proper sense of your dependence on God. Nobly defend those rights which heaven gave and no man ought to take from us. Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, pinned these words. I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe, that he governs it by his providence, that he ought to be worshipped. Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of the American Revolution. And as it is our duty to extend our wishes to the happiness of the great family of man, I conceive that we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the supreme ruler of the world that the rod of tyranny may be broken in pieces and the oppressed made free again. So as Christians, how do we process this? How do we walk in this? We remember our roots with profound gratitude. I want you to know that I stand here before you boldly and without shame, being very patriotic. I remember may have told you all this before, but it's bearing telling again. I didn't realize how other people saw our nation from other nations until I was in the second grade, and we were living in Indiana at the time. And they would have PTA meetings where everybody, not just in the school, but the community came. Is that crazy? That's how it happened in Indiana. So the assembly room, the auditorium was packed, and we would stand and pledge allegiance to the flag, and then we would sing the national anthem. And there was a little couple from a foreign country. Everybody knew them. They lived two houses down. They were elderly. They lived two houses down from the school, and they were out there every morning and every afternoon when I would pass walking home and they'd wave. They spoke in broken English. But when we would stand to pledge allegiance, he was up first. She was up second before anybody got up. And when we would sing the national anthem, he would weep. Every time. And I've never forgotten the look on their faces of gratitude for the nation they had been brought into. Makes me think of Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty. Says, give me your tired. Give me your hungry. That's this nation. I stand here today as your pastor, called by God, risking that I will be labeled a Christian nationalist. Just for being a Christian and being patriotic, for loving my nation and loving God. And you see, it's just like all of those labels. You know, we're hearing new labels all the time. Have you noticed that? We're hearing new labels all the time. We're hearing about, you know, I'm going through Christians who are saying, well, I'm going through deconstruction. I'm deconstructing my faith. Most people don't even know what they're talking about. And they'll say, Yeah, have you heard so and so deconstructing their faith? They don't even know what they're talking about. Okay, well, it's the same thing here. It's labels that are floating around today, and it's called propaganda to divide the church. Beloved, don't hear me wrong. Now I know, and I'm going to tell you, for those who don't know, what a Christian nationalist is. We throw around these titles up here in the pulpit, and people come and they don't have any idea what you're talking about a lot of times. But we're gonna we're gonna talk about it, we're gonna spell it out today so you will understand and get a hold of what's being said. Christian nationalism is the belief that America was founded by and for Christians, that the government should actively promote and enforce, hear me say that, and enforce Christian values. And so my question to this is when has the church ever preached we should enforce Christianity in America? Maybe you've gone to a church where they preach that they're wrong. But it's gotten now to where we're being squeezed so tightly that we're told that anybody that's patriotic and stands in this place to preach that we're off, we shouldn't, we've got to choose. I've got to choose whether my allegiance is to God or to this nation. Well, every time I stand and pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, every time anybody in the military, we have military people here, who fought for this nation. And so now they want us to choose who our allegiance will be to. I think that's interesting. You may be thinking, those of you who are profoundly more intelligent than I, you may be thinking, oh, you're simplifying it, but I don't think I am. Let me tell you what the world does. They take a simple thing and they build it up to be something so horrific that the church lives in fear. Do you all hear that? And so we are so easy to bribe the propaganda and to live in fear instead of live in faith. And it's time for us to stake the ground and say, I am a Christian, I am in the United States of America, I love this nation, I love my forefathers, I love what this nation stands for, and I will not budge, and I can still completely serve the Lord with all my heart. Come on. I believe the proof is strong that America was founded on godly principles. But America has never been founded as a nation only for Christians. I want you to think of all the different religions in this nation. And a true Christian doesn't burn down a synagogue or a mosque. But we sure do live like Christians to make people hungry for him. See, I believe when people quit living in such a way that makes the world hungry for Jesus, we need an excuse like Christian nationalism to make up for us being bold in our faith. Being bold in wanting to live in a nation that loves Jesus. When it comes time to vote, I look at what politicians stand on. If they're about things that are ungodly, I don't vote for them. I vote for the nearest to godly principles. It's my right. Isn't it wonderful that we have rights? We have rights, people. We have rights, 250 years of rights that's glorious. A young baby nation. And we've always for 250 years had rights. Now there were some that went through a time that did not have rights, and God judged this nation. And he's continuing to judge the things that this nation does that are so far from godly. They are ungodly. Slavery, ungodly. Abortion, ungodly. Changing the gender of your children, ungodly. Come on. And if there are politicians that say they're for that, they don't get my vote. Because you see, I answer to God. Okay, let's get off voting, okay? It seems as if patriotism has become a bad word in the evangelical community. I do believe that as a Christian, I should have the right to speak what I believe. But we must never make the mistake of equating America or any other earthly nation with the kingdom of God. Ever. Ever. No flag, no political party or system of government. Jesus said, His kingdom is within us. Hallelujah. You see, his kingdom is already here on the earth, inside sons and daughters of God. We live in such a high level of authority. When we pray, God moves. Do you all believe that? See, I think the saddest thing in the world is for people to get together and pray, not really believing God moves. I just stay home. But you see, song we sung today about he's he's always been good. He has always been faithful. Come on. Always. The apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3 and verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved earthly nations will rise and fall, but the kingdom of God endures forever. Amen. Forever. I love this nation. Generations of my family, grandfathers, my dad, and my uncles fought in wars to keep America free from the evil tyranny of evil men. And they were glad to. When you look at these men that signed the Declaration of Independence, some of them fighting for a nation of freedom, lost their lives, lost their homes, lost their families in battles because they believed in this nation. You look through all history of this nation. There are people that went to war. I think of my dad. He had run from God all of his life. He was wild. He was in a gang in Chicago and had a scar from his knee all the way to his ankle all his life, where he was cut open by a switchblade in a fight in Chicago. When he went to World War II, he was in the Navy and he was on a ship. And he said, bombs were dropping, it was horrible. He said, I'm looking around, I'm seeing people killed on either side. And he said, Lord, if you'll save me, I'll give my life to you. And he did. And he said, when he got home, he tried to forget about it, and the Lord wouldn't let him. Hallelujah. In God that way. When you finally commit to the Lord, man, he's going to keep on. He's just going to keep on until you finally submit to him. I thank God for 250 years of one nation under God. You hear that? That hasn't been taken from us yet. One nation under God. Glory to God. But our hope as a people does not lie in politics or policies, in presidents or politicians. The hope of this nation lies in Jesus Christ our Lord. And I believe that everyone that signed that declaration believed that. They knew that and they believed it. From the shores of America, we sent out the first missionary, George Lely, in 1782 to Jamaica. America still dispatches missionaries overseas each year more than any other nation in the whole world. What a heritage. More than any other nation in the world. Psalms 33 and 12 says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. Jesus came and brought us back into the family. We are the Lord's inheritance. In that glorious, that is so wonderful. We're in this glorious family. We live in a nation of freedom and we are born into the kingdom of God where the ultimate freedom is. Wow. Now we know why the attack is so strong on the church. Now we know why God is cleaning up his church. He's purging the sin of the church. And we all ought to say thank you, Lord. Unless we're the one getting caught. He's doing that because of the impact we have on this nation. You see, it's the church that has to strongly impact the nation. Sons and daughters of God, do we look like the world? It's a good question. Do we come to church on Sunday, but the rest of the week we look like the world? Maybe after we drive off, we look like the world. Maybe we live with one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. But you see, beloved, the Bible says a house divided against itself will not stand. And if you're going through some things, you're trying to live in both worlds. I live in this world, but I'm born from above. I'm seated. I am seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, far above all principalities and powers. When I'm seated in my position in heaven, I can pray and take authority over every demonic force in this world, and it has to move aside. Hallelujah. If the church could get a hold of that truth, we talk more about demonic attacks than we do about the power of God that dwells in us. Hallelujah. We talk more about, oh, I tell you what, I've been beat up by the devil. You're standing there telling me that when the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in your mortal body. And you can't tell the devil, get off my property, get off my body, get off my life, hallelujah. Listen, we've got two people in this church we are fighting and contending for and will not give up. They will not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. Come on. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You see, so sons and daughters of God, do we look like the world? Live in fear of being labeled? Are we afraid of being labeled? Oh, they're gonna think this about me. I don't. Let me say this last word with emphasis. Care. You see, I answer to but one in his name is Jesus. And how can I stand before him in prayer when I have bowed to the fear of the enemy? Come on. Maybe we're waiting for the rapture, or possibly we're hoarding food and supplies for the tribulation. And I know both kinds of people. Well, I'm not worried about my debt. Jesus is coming soon, and I'll be raptured out of here. And if he lingers, you're in trouble. Man. They're knocking on your door, wanting to be paid, and you go, and they don't care when you say, listen, Jesus is rapturing me out of here soon. They're thinking they're crazy. And it does sound pretty crazy. Or how about, listen, there's a there's a whole look go on YouTube. Don't put in hoarders. Let me think of what they're called.

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Preppers.

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Preppers. You'll find all whole hundreds and hundreds of preppers getting ready for the tribulation. Got their guns, got their ammo, got their food, got, I mean, that food's gonna go bad before they need it all. They take you and they show you, and I'm just amazed. I watch them just in amazement, like, look at that. Wow. And then I get to thinking, Lord, help them to share with the community if that happens. I remember, remember Y2K, anybody here old enough to remember that? Everybody, everybody was hoarding. Everybody was getting stuff, they were getting guns, they were going and practice and shooting because they were gonna, they were gonna shoot you if you tried to get their hoarded stuff. I mean, they were serious about it. And then we were at a night watch service. Y'all know what that is. That's when you're watching the new year come in. And I remember Zach, he was just a kid, and he's sitting right here, and that you can see out the door, and he was sure that the traffic light would go dark. He kept looking. It's getting close, it's almost midnight. He kept looking. Five after midnight, traffic light still working. What's happened? And and we and everything, everything continued to work. And and and I had a friend. She had hoarded so much water in these big containers and flooded her whole house. She had to get all new flooring. Listen, people do crazy stuff. They just, so I thought, I will get a few things. I was at the grocery store and I was going to get a few things, and I picked up, I saw they had pinto dried pinto beans. I picked up a bag, put it in my cart, and said, Yeah, I'm a prepper now. Never bought another thing. I don't know. I guess I was expecting it to be over soon. So is this what we've become? Are we living in this kind of fear now? Or will we stand and be light in darkness? Will we continue to be expressions of Christ to the world? Fearless, fearlessly and boldly speaking the truth in love. Will we continue? You see, that's what this nation was founded on. And what we must continue to be, light. Ephesians tells us one of my favorite scriptures is just so, I see it so beautifully. You were once darkness. Do you know before you got saved you were dark? You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. What in the world does that look like? Walk as children of light. Why don't you walk like Jesus did? Now, Pastor, that's getting a little crazy. That was Jesus. I know he came to show us the Father's love and show us how to live. Isn't that beautiful? He came, the Father didn't give us a book and say, try to figure it out. We have the gospels. Show us how Jesus lived. And he said in John chapter 14, and greater things than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask the Father in my name, He'll do it for you. Church, do we really believe that? Do we really live this out that we ask in the Father's name and He'll do it for us? Or do we just do it hoping it might come true? Maybe if I had a rabbit's foot in my pocket, it might help me out a little bit. Beloved, so much of the church lives that way. You know why? It's on the paper, but it's not here. The Bible said, write his word on the tablets of our heart. You know what happens when I get up every day and I'm writing, I'm writing on the tablets of my heart every day. I pick up the word and I'm writing on the tablets of my heart. Every situation I face, the word comes up out of me. The Bible tells us in Psalms 119 that he holds his word higher than his name. That's powerful. Listen to this. Matthew 5, 13 through 16, you are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father. Without the church being salt and light, America will lose its moral compass. That's the power of the church, beloved. That we have to be salt and light in a dark world. Presidents, courts, and legislation cannot regenerate hearts and transform lives. Do you hear that? Because sometimes people talk about their politicians like they can, they talk about their presidents like they can't. I honor our president and I pray for him, but he ain't Jesus. I pray for him fervently to hear from God and to speak the counsel of the Lord. And I know many in this nation do, but he is not my savior. He's the president of the United States. And we should see him as such. We must shine as a beacon of light, guiding the nations of the world to a savior. So what's our responsibility as the church? Number one, stand firm. 1 Corinthians 16, 13, and 14 says, be on guard, stand firm in faith, be courageous, be strong, and do everything with love. Be strong and courageous and do everything with love. How do you do that? You got the love of God in you, let it guide you wherever he takes you. Understand that the person before you that is acting like a crazy demon is that way because no one showed the light and the love of Christ. If we can reframe our thinking about people, we will see souls get saved. Instead of getting offended and talking about their crazy self. You know we do that. Boy, they're odd. Some people said that about me. And they are right. I'm oddly made in his image. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Second thing, pray for spiritual awakening. The church must lead the way in repentance and humility. Praying for spiritual awakening and reformation in our land. Are you doing that, beloved? Are you so focused on you and your four and your little family and how the devil's beating you up? Are you looking further into the nation and the nations of the world? Ask of me, God said. Ask of me, and I'll give you the nations.

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Come on.

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Just ask. He'll give you the nations as your inheritance. Isn't that glorious? Praise the Lord. And the third thing is make faithful disciples. The mission is to make mature disciples. The church strengthens the nation by keeping our focus on Jesus and the gospel. Making mature disciples, what's that? When you get saved, you're a baby. And there are some things you need to do. You need, if you're mature, to walk alongside the baby. This is so sorely lacking in the church. Everybody, I had someone come to me one time and said, I want us to start this discipleship program. Now, I want this how I am. If you got a good idea, God didn't give it to me, guess who's going to do it? Let me go here because I don't think you all know. If you come to me with a good idea, I got a pastor, it's needed bad. And this is what I think we ought to do. Okay. Well, go ahead and start doing that. Won't you do that personally and let us see it as a model? Well, I thought, I thought we could have like 20 people do it. Well, we want you, I want you to do it so they can say, hey, I'm gonna do that too. Everybody has a good idea. So here's what we do. We carve notches on our belt every time we lead someone to the Lord. And we get into church and we start saying, Oh, I won three to the Lord this week. I was in, I was taking a very unsuccessful Spanish class. It was speaking Spanish, and here's what happened to me. I thought, won't that be fun? I can talk to even more people. So I'm gonna take, well, the speaking Spanish, okay? I was all up for it. I I had a couple friends, we all went, we were having a great time, you know, nothing like having a good time in a class, okay? My problem was I learned to read Spanish, but I couldn't speak it. I I remember when I had to take Zach to everything's about you today, Zach. I had to I had to take Zach, he was a senior or a junior in high school, had to have shots that year because he was an athlete, you know, you had to have these shots and everything. So I took him in there and I said, look, that says blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He had taken Spanish, he couldn't read a thing. But I couldn't speak it. That stinks, okay? All right. So, anyway, what does that have to do with this sermon? I actually don't know. But it was fun telling you a little segment of my life, anyway. Praise the Lord. Talking to people about Jesus. Talking to people about Jesus. There's nothing, there's nothing like it. And you know, if you if you purpose in your heart, you can. But you know, we've got to start, we we talk about discipleship and and we get them saved. Oh, we love getting them saved. Oh, now I remember. Thank you, Lord. If you keep talking, you'll you'll circle around when you're a certain age. Yeah, if you keep on talking, you'll circle around and go, there it is. So I arrived just now. So there was a girl in my class, and she was telling me, she said, I led four people to the Lord this week. I said, Glory to God. Did you have you got them hooked up with the church? Well, no, that's not my job. What is it? Do you realize when you go out and you're just a machine gun, or you're just going out to lead people to the Lord? And if you don't have someone who can grow them, if you don't lead them to a church, what you've done is you put a big bullseye on their back. And they'll end up saying, hey, this Christianity thing, it's killing me. I'm done with that. You know why? Because people don't want to pour their lives into other people. It's needed, it's needed in the church. It's needed. You may lead somebody in your work to the Lord and then walk with them for a year. Wouldn't that be glorious? I remember I used to go uh downtown Knoxville. There was a lady that uh was sitting by me in this big choir I was in at the time, and the Lord said, I want you to ask her. Uh no, he said, she's gonna ask you if you'll disciple her. I'm sitting in the choir. He said, She's gonna ask you, and I was so excited. Yes. And so after it was over, she said, Can I speak to you? I said, got right in her face, yes, you can. She said, Will you disciple me? I said, I'd love to. For one year, I made a trip downtown Knoxville, and on her lunch break, we opened the word. We talked about her week, we talked about what the word says, about things she's going through, what she had read and didn't understand. For one year I walked her through this, and she has never given up on God. It works, it's mature, maturity. I believe with all my heart she did it for others. As you know, this isn't my typical sermon, but I did not want us together on this momental, monumental weekend and not come together as a family to be thankful and to pray for America.