July 5th, 2026

Pastor Michael Crocker

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:09

You know, last week if you were here, I said that we were going to spend the entire summer in the book of Philippians. And I just should tell you, never trust a pastor. Um, because we're not. Uh we changed things a little bit today. And and I will say it threw Natalie a little bit. Uh, she didn't know what to do. She was reaching out to me. She's like, what are we gonna do today? And I told her, she's like, I have no idea what to do with that. Um, so she went the jinger route. By the way, I would have said Lincoln logs. Come on, it's 1776, remembrance of July 4th, Lincoln logs is what I would have built with, just saying. Um but today is a special day. And so I just felt like uh God said, Hey, stop with what you're doing and acknowledge um some things. And so I did want to stop with what we were doing this summer in um in Philippians, a defiant joy, and take a moment to really acknowledge two things. Right? One, we'll get to, um, but two, as we all know and we all remember, today is a horrible, or this weekend's a horrible weekend for a lot of people in our community. It's the remembrance of what happened last year. And many of us in this community were affected adjacently, but there are some in our community, in our church, that were directly affected with unimaginable loss, be it someone who was very young, way too young, or someone who was much older. The loss didn't discriminate, but it was just as painful. And so I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that, and if you would indulge me to offer prayers for God's peace and comfort during this time, for those who were so greatly affected by it, for those of us who were affected by it, and for a community that continues to mourn. Would you pray with me? Gracious and heavenly Father, we don't understand all that happens in this life or in this world. At times there is pain unimaginable, there is a darkness that seems to overwhelm. When moments where the kingdom of the world rears its ugly head and it seems like it's winning, where tragedy strikes families and communities. We can't explain. But God, what we can explain is your goodness, your faithfulness. The kingdom of the world does not have the last say. While it does not take the pain away, the hurt away, the heartache away, the loss away, while it does not replace what was stolen, Father, let your peace overwhelm all who remember bitterness this weekend. Let your comfort and love surround all who mourn this weekend in ways they never thought they would. Remind them, Lord, that there will be a day when death is swallowed up in victory. There is no victory or seeing of death any longer because Jesus lived, he died, and he conquered death. And while there is momentary hurt, let it not be the sentiment that drives us forward. Let us move forward with your hope, your peace, and your comfort. Let those of us who are able surround those who are hurting in your love and your arms and care. May we rejoice that one day we will see those we love once again. Father, we thank you and praise you in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you for allowing me uh to do that. Um, but today also is uh it's a celebration. And it's kind of a weird term, but it is a celebration, and I'm sure I hope you've been doing wonderful things to celebrate the 250th birthday of our country. And if you know anything about me, you know that I am not a political pastor. I I in fact I try very hard to stay out of that lane because I feel like God hasn't called me to step into it. And in my life and in my world, I'm only allowed to wear red, white, and blue together one time a year. Jenna won't let me wear it any other time. And so today I'm I went all out. Like I got that you can't see from far away on camera. So this is a red striped shirt with my blue, my blue pants. I'm either ready to go march in a parade or get on a yacht with Buffy. You know what I'm saying? Buffy. Um, and it is just it's just wonderful, it's it's a wonder. I hope you've been having a wonderful celebration, watched fireworks, done all those things, and and it's great. And I, as I was thinking about this, I really kind of went back uh to well, okay, here's the thing. We're gonna walk through my family history today. And and tell you that I am not the only pastor in the lineage of my family. In fact, there's a lot of them. Um we go back deep, hundreds of years. I'm the first one in a long time, but before me, there were a lot of them. And some of them were good. Um, some of them were Baptists, you know, some of them were. Thank you. I thought that was kind of funny too. Um But but there is one arguably who stands amongst all of us as the greatest in our lineage of pastors. There is a clergy, he's my great-great, great, great, great, great-grandfather. And yes, on this side of the stage, you could have seen I was using my fingers to get that right. And that's six generations. He is my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. We call him Grandpa John in our family. It's actually literally not what we call him, but we're gonna call him Grandpa John for today's sake. Grandpa John was born February, as all great people are born, 5th, 1722, in Yester, Scotland. And if I had a Scottish accent, I would do the rest of this sermon in that. Um, but I don't. But he's born in Yester, Scotland, to James and Anna. And James and Anna both had clergy in their lineage. In fact, James was a Presbyterian minister for the parish of Yester. So where he was born is his dad was the priest there in that parish. Anna had a long list of clergy folks, clergymen in her lineage traced all the way back to John Knox, if you can believe it. He came from a line of very big clergymen. Anna, they had multiple kids, I think six kids. Um, and Anna was their teacher. She was, they homeschooled, right? Back because there were no schools in 1722. So she was a homeschooled teacher, and John was very adept and very intelligent. At the age of four, he could read the Bible. At the age of six, he could recite the New Testament. Yeah, where's a six-year-old in here? Um, yeah. He's like, I'm coloring, leave me alone. Um, yeah, he could recite the New Testament. That's huge. Like he was incredibly intelligent, so much so that at the age of 13, because of his scores in English, the classics, math, Greek, and French, he was awarded an opportunity to go to university in Edinburgh. So he attends university at Edinburgh and in three years, three years, completes his master's degree. So at the age of 16, he was already had his master's degree, Master of Arts. I know, look to your child and go, whatever you're doing. At the first service, there's a college student over there, and his dad immediately went like this. Like, because he's taking a victory lap, and that was just awesome. That was so great. Um, but he has his master's degree at the age of 16, and he follows in line with the rest of the family and becomes a clergy member. Um, at the age of 20, he's awarded his doctorate of ministry, um, and then gets very shortly after that, a few years after that, his first church in um Beath, Scotland. He's there from 1745 until three years later when he meets his wife Elizabeth. He and Elizabeth have nine children together, five of whom survive. 1700s, that was typical. Five of whom survive to adults. Um, and John begins his ministerial career there. He's known for two things. He's known for his fiery preaching. He was a guy who would stand up in front of it, it didn't matter how many people were there, he would tell you that you essentially before the Enlightenment and the age of turn or burn sermons, he was a turn or burn kind of guy. Because he was a Presbyterian, he believed in the total depravity of man because of original sin and the great need, therefore, of redemption through a Savior. He believed that man had fallen, and the only way for us to reunite with the Father was through a sacrifice of the Son. And so his sermons always revolved around that. They always revolved around the fact that you are totally depraved, you're not going to make it on your own, but Jesus and the necessity of Jesus in our lives. The other thing that he was really well known for was his writing. As we've already established, dude was incredibly smart. Went through school way quicker than most of us did. Um, he was the doogie houser of his day, if you will. Um, and he wrote all these treaties and essays, and he would he would engage intellectually with people that were far superior to him, supposedly in intellect, but definitely in maturity and length of service in the church. And he would debate theologically these huge concepts with folks. A lot of times he would do so anonymously. And he would do, his main trick was satire. That he would take these peoples, David Hume being one of them, that he was one of his arch enemies, and he would just pick apart his whole theology and ideas, but he would do so tongue-in-cheek way, in a way that made everyone just laugh at him. You can see satire runs in the family. Um his whole point was a satire without a bite to it doesn't make sense. And so that's kind of his Scottish sensibility. And because of this, word got around about him. And it spread across the pond. And in the 1760s, 1767, there were two men that were charged with reaching out to him. Their names were Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton. And Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton were given the job of recruiting Grandpa John to come run a fledgling college in New Jersey, one that was about to close its doors. It was in a dishamble, it was way underwater financially, in debt, all these things. They needed someone from the Presbyterian Church to come in, to bring some sort of fiery personality, to get everybody excited in this College of New Jersey and to turn things around, as this was the flagship institution for Presbyterianism. They go to him, they write to him, they plead with him. He's all on board, but Elizabeth says, I'm not moving my five kids to a savage land across the ocean. Even in the 1700s, we know who runs the house. So Benjamin crosses the ocean, and in 1768, he pleads with him once again. And John's fired up about the opportunity, and finally Elizabeth says, okay, let's go. And they move their five kids across to New Jersey. John becomes the president and chancellor of the college in Princeton, New Jersey, that would later become known by the name of the city where it is. And he finds the college in a shambles and he goes about restructuring everything. They'd been following this kind of mysticism before, mixed in with intellectualism. And John brings this kind of stoic Presbyterianism to the forefold. And he says, no, no, no, the day for students begins at 5 a.m. And we don't stop. You're complaining about an 8:30 a.m. class next semester. 5 a.m., right? And we don't stop. And he brings this sensibility of Presbyterianism in this Scottish economic sense of if we don't have it, we won't spend it. Because the College of New Jersey was severely in debt. And in three years, he turned the entire thing around. They were known for an intellectualism and curiosity based on the foundation of the Bible. They went from being severely in debt to having an endowment that lives on today. My Grandpa John was responsible for turning that around. Now we can say, way to go, Grandpa John, or the way things are going. Yeah, maybe you shouldn't have. But he turned everything around. Because of that, people knew him. He went from Pennsylvania, he traveled north, he traveled all the way down into the southern colonies, preaching his fiery sense of revival. He never left that. He mainly did lectures to the students. And he never thought of them to be written down and saved for posterity. He meant them to be some sort of educational tool to use in conversation to push the mind forward with what God is doing in the world. And he never talked about politics until May 17th, 1776. May 17th, 1776 was a general day of fasting for the entire colonies, all the colonies. The American Congress had decreed this day be a day that we fast and we pray and we bring humble supplications to God to give us direction on our path forward with England. And all the churches surrounded, and everyone delivered sermons. This one is called the foundational sermon that triggered what would happen two months later. There was so much in this that was heard from Philadelphia that it shook the colonies. He says this. This is the scripture that the sermon is based on. This is what I gave Natalie the other day and why she went to Jenga instead. Psalm 76, 10. Human defiance only enhances your glory, for you use it as a weapon. That just screams children's message, doesn't it? Like human defiance. It's like, I'm not cleaning my room and I'm screaming the glory of God, right? That's what I interpret that as. You know, human, just kidding, kids, don't do that. Human defiance. And he and he delivers this really lengthy sermon about this and around this, and he's showing that the hand of God, when the hand of God is present, it doesn't matter if you're against it or not, God will get the glory. You are not going to quiet the glory of God. So throw his picture up there, by the way. This is Grandpa John. Do you see the family resemblance? I know I wanted to wear my robe today just for this effect, but I don't have the Presbyterian little collar thing going on there. But this is Grandpa John, and he stands up there and he delivers his sermon, and he's hitting on Psalm 76, which, by the way, is one of the Psalms of Asaph that's talking about the victories of God when God comes in. There is no army that can stand against it, and they would just wipe him out. And you can see maybe where his head is in the time period of the day, in 1776, right? You have this tyrant across the world, across the ocean that's kind of oppressing, everything's bubbling up, and Philadelphia is really an epicenter, one of the epicenters of everything going on. And you can see why maybe your preacher would pull this out. Even if they don't talk about politics, everyone in there is going, I know what you're saying, preacher. I know what you're saying, preacher. Preach on, preach on, right? But then he gets to this part. Proceed now to the second general head, which was to apply the principles illustrated above to our present situation by inferences of truth for your instruction and comfort, and by suitable exhortations to duty in this important crisis. Aren't you glad I don't talk like that? Like that's just, I gotta tell you, this is a long sermon, and I read it like four times, um, trying to figure out everything that he was that he was dropping down. Um but this is not going to appeal to many of you, but I'm going to read his sermon, much of it. He says this in the first place, I would take the opportunity on this occasion and from this subject to press every hearer to a sincere concern for his own soul's salvation. There are times when the mind may be expected to be more awake to divine truth, and the conscious more open to the arrows of conviction than in others. A season of a public judgment is of this kind, as appears from what has already been said. That curiosity and attention at least are raised in some degree, is plain from the unusual throng in this assembly. He's talking about how many people are in church today. Can you have a clearer view of the sinfulness of your nature than when the rod of the oppressor is lifted up? And when you see men putting on the habit of the warrior and collecting on every hand the weapons of hostility and instruments of death? I do not blame your ardor in preparing for the resolute defense of your temporal rights, but consider, I beseech you, the truly infinite importance of the salvation of your souls. Is it of much movement whether you and your children shall be rich or poor, at liberty or in bonds? It is of much moment whether this beautiful country shall increase in fruitfulness from year to year, being cultivated by active industry and possessed by independent freemen, or the scantity or the scanty produce of the neglected field shall be eaten up by hungry publicans while the timid owners tremble at the tax collectors gather? And is it of less moment, my brethren, whether you shall be heirs of the glory or heirs of hell? Is your state on earth for a few fleeting years of so much moment? And is it of less moment what shall be your state through endless ages? Have you assembled together willingly to hear what shall be said on public affairs and to join in imploring the blessing of God and the council of arms of the United Colonies? And can you be unconcerned what shall become of you forever when all the monuments of human greatness shall be laid in ashes, for the earth itself and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up. Wherefore, my beloved hearers, as the ministry of reconciliation is committed to me, I beseech you in the most earnest manner to attend to the things that belong to your peace before they are hid from your eyes. How soon and in what manner a seal shall be set upon the character and state of every person here present, it is impossible to know. For he who only can know does not think proper to reveal it. But you may rest assured that there is no time more suitable, and there is none so safe as that which is present, since it is wholly uncertain whether any of any other shall be yours. Those who shall first fall in battle have not many more warnings to receive. There are some few daring and hardened sinners who despise eternity itself and set their maker at defiance. But the far greater number, by staving off their convictions to a more convenient season, have been taken unprepared and thus eternally lost. I would therefore earnestly press the apostles' exhortations from 2 Corinthians. We then, as workers, together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain, for he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I secured thee. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. Suffer me to beseech you, or rather to give you warning, not to rest satisfied with the form of godliness, denying the power thereof. There could be no true religion till there be a discovery of your lost state by nature and practice, and an unfeigned acceptance of Christ Jesus as he is offered in the gospel. Unhappy they who either despise his mercy or are ashamed of the cross. Believe it, there is no salvation in any other. There is no other name under heaven given amongst men by which we must be saved, unless you are united to him by lively faith, not the resentment of a haughty monarch, but the sword of divine justice hangs over you, and the fullness of divine vengeance shall speedily overtake you. I do not speak this only to the heaven, daring profligate or groveling sensualist, to every insensible, secure sinner, to all those, however decent and orderly in their civil deportment, who live to themselves and have their part and portion in this life, in fine to all who are yet in a state of nature, for except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The fear of man may make you hide your profanity. Prudence and experience may make you abhor intemperance and riot. As you advance in life, one vice may supplant another and hold its place. But nothing less than the sovereign grace of God can produce a saving change of heart and temper or fit you for his immediate presence. Now, again, that was long. And some of you like that kind of thing, my wife doesn't. But I hope you hear what he says. In all of this, when he has this gathering, and he says, There's more people in church today than there's ever been. It's after crises or during crises that people come to God most often, and he's like, Why are you waiting? It doesn't matter that a king across the pond is holding a sword over us, it's the divine judgment you should be worried about, not King George. Do you know who Jesus is? Have you accepted him? Because all of us will be asked that question one day Who is Jesus to you?

unknown 21:59

And why?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

What did you do with them? See, Grandpa John was very secure in his understanding that we all needed Jesus. And that it didn't matter what the kingdom of the world was throwing at us, we still needed Jesus. However, there are times when the kingdom of the world gets so loud that maybe the kingdom of the God needs to be louder. And so he stood there on May 17th, 1776, and said, I know there's stuff coming down, but let me remind you about Jesus. It doesn't change the fact that we need him, it doesn't change the fact that we are lost without him. So why are we waiting? See, for Grandpa John, it was all about Jesus, and he didn't care what church you went to as long as you were pursuing Jesus. If you needed to pursue Jesus through the congregationalist church that was big of the day, great. If you needed to go down the Anglican path, that's fine. But Jesus is the answer. And there is a foundation and a truth that cannot be erased. And if we miss that, we miss everything. But then he goes further. And this is where Grandpa John crossed the line that he never went back from. If your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord and entreat him to plead it as his own. You're all my witnesses that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary. And I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the Confederacy of the colonies has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently, in a great measure, the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity, depended upon this issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely, confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen. And great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle from the imperfection of human society and the unjust decisions of usurped authority. There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost and religious liberty preserved. If, therefore, we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage. You shall not, my brethren, hear from me in the pulpit what you have never heard from me in conversation. I mean railing at the king personally, or even his ministers or the parliament and the people of Britain as so many barbarous savages. Many of their actions have probably been worse than their intentions. That they should desire unlimited dominion, if they can obtain or preserve it, is neither new nor wonderful. I do not refuse submission to their unjust claims because they are corrupt or profligate, although probably many of them are, but because they are men, and therefore liable to all the selfish bias inseparable from human nature. I call this claim unjust, of making laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever, because they are separated from us, independent of us, and have an interest in opposing us. Would any man who could prevent it give up his estate, person, family to the disposal of his neighbor, although he had liberty to choose the wisest and best master? Surely not. This is the true and proper hinge of the controversy between Great Britain and America. It is, however, to be added that such is their distance from us, that a wise and prudent administration of our affairs is as impossible as the claim of authority is unjust. Such is and must be their ignorance of the state of things here. So much time must elapse before an error can be seen and remedied, and so much injustice and partiality must be expected from the arts and misrepresentation of interested persons that for these colonies to depend wholly upon the legislature of Great Britain would be like many other oppressive connections injury to the master and ruin to the slave. In this he makes a turn and he goes political. And he states unequivocally that he believed the cause of America was just, and if it was just, then Psalm 76 comes into play. If we are just, then God will get glory through our efforts. If we are not, but he believes the cause of the American people to be just in their pursuit of religious freedom. Because for him it was all about religious freedom. It was about the ability to pursue God in our own way and in our own time and to find Jesus who we desperately need. Now, I don't know if you heard some of James Madison in there. But when James Madison sits down to write the Constitution, he sets up these balances of this checks and balances because in his mindset he man is ultimately flawed, and we cannot have a government based upon flawed men because eventually they will choose themselves. And that comes through James Madison's writings, and there's a reason for that. Because Grandpa John was James Madison's teacher. Madison went to the College of New Jersey at the age of 18 and, like John, got through in three years, but he chose to stay longer to study under Grandpa John, as did many others who would become leaders of our country. John, five days later, was elected to represent Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress that would sign the Declaration of Independence. And if you come to my office right now, you'll see this picture if you look to the left of my office. There's a painting right there. It's actually a print from 1900. It's on the back of it. My mom has all the history written down. It's like from 1900 a print. And this print, it's very hard to see, is of this the picture from John Turnbull and the rotunda of our U.S. uh Capitol building. And this, as you may know, is his famous signing of the Declaration of Independence. And the reason that hangs in my office, and the reason I talked about Grandpa John today is because if you look at the next picture, that's Grandpa John. The little red arrow. His name is John Witherspoon. And he was, of the 56, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. So much importance he put on the freedom of liberties in America that he was there the moment and he argued for the signing of the Declaration of Independence. One of his famous lines is someone says that we are not yet ripe for this moment. And he comes back in his Scottish drawl and says, Not only are we not yet ripe, we are about to get rotten for want of it. He went on to serve in the Congress until 1782, and he served on over a hundred committees. Just because he's a pastor. That's all we do is serve on committees. I like, I just love that. I think it's hysterical. But he served on more committees than anyone else, including he was a leader of the Council of War and the Council of Finance. When James, uh when Alexander Hamilton is putting together the banking system, he goes to two people for advice. One of them is James Madison, the other is John Witherspoon. He was so highly regarded in those ways. I'm kind of proud of that. Like I did nothing to earn it, just to be born into it. But what I love about this is that there is a lineage, not just in my life, but in yours, of people who stood and said, Jesus Christ matters, and because of that, we have to ensure that we have a country that never stifles that. And that was his point. Was to get Jesus into the hearts and the minds of all people to ensure that religious freedom would always follow with civil liberties. Because you can't have one without the other. If you look through the documents of the Founding Fathers and you hear the argument today that our country is not based on biblical beliefs, that's wrong. It was founded on the foundation and the cornerstone of our faith. Was Benjamin Franklin a believer? He was when he grew up and he drifted away from it. Thomas Jefferson, you can throw some questions in about him later in his life. But those 56 men who gathered to set our country on a course believed that there was a God, that he was real. And the majority, vast majority of them, including my great-grandfather, said that there was no salvation other than that that is found in Jesus Christ. You bet we are a country founded on biblical beliefs. You bet we are a country that needs to continue to say that Jesus Christ matters because he matters in 2026 as much as he did in 1776. And so today, as we come to his table, we get to share in that life that he offers us. And as you come, be thankful for the life of Jesus, for the life of John, but for the life of all who have come before us to give us the opportunity to come here on a Sunday and say that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let us pray. Gracious and Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for the ways that you move in our life. God, we thank you for being a God who offers us freedom and life. We pray, Lord, that you would be with us as we come to your table. On the night in which you were to be betrayed, you sat around the table with your disciples. You took the bread, you gave thanks to God, you broke it, you said, Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. After supper was over, you took the cup. You blessed God for it. You said, Take, drink this. This is the blood of the new covenant poured out for the forgiveness of sins. As often as you drink this, do so in remembrance of me. And so we come in remembrance of these mighty acts of salvation. We give you honor and praise. As we receive this gift. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, make this help us to be a holy and living sacrifice, proclaiming your glory to a world who needs to hear. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. If you're helping with community,