This sermon emphasizes the importance of remembering in various aspects: remembering God's commands, the nation's history, and the need for revival. It calls for prayer, fasting, and seeking God's intervention to address the moral decline and challenges faced by the nation. The speaker highlights the critical role of prayer and fasting in seeking God's guidance and restoration.

I'm going to talk about remembering in this sermon tonight, and then we'll get back into Matthew 25, 26. But just for Memorial Day, I think it's important to remember. If my memory serves me correctly, I don't know in the New King James, but the NIV has 167 times where God is telling the people to remember, or the word remember comes up. And remembering is powerful for a couple of different reasons, but primarily is it takes us back and we remember what's important. And often throughout the Bible, you'll see remember and return. They go together. Remember and return. Remember the God who brought you out of bondage and return to Him. Remember what God did for you and return to Him. Remember and return. And I've talked about it before, and you remember, there's that word remember, on with marriages. It's healthy. We tell couples that are struggling in their marriages to just take a date night and remember when you first met. Remember when you fell in love. Remember all the roses, and you opened the door, and you were so nice because you were trying to impress. So remember. Go back. It changes things. And the reason I have pictures of my kids when they were younger is to remember and to get me in that state of slowing down. I don't want to rush ahead. God's slow. Man, my son was two years old. What happened? It goes by too quick if you don't just stop and remember. And I'm going to do that tonight. I'm just going to talk about three areas that we need to remember. But before I get into that, I was reminded this week of the words of Mr. O'Brien who served in World War II, talking about Memorial Day. He said, it's the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It's the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It's the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It's the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. Yeah, wow. He's right. I had to read that a couple times this week, first to get the tears out so that wouldn't happen here. Because there is a special heart, a place in my heart for veterans and for Memorial Day. And I get a little upset when people think it's all about warmongering and Christians shouldn't support this. They don't read Romans 13. That God has actually instituted government to be a tear to those who do evil. That's the whole purpose. The purpose of a Navy SEAL is to go and do tear to those who terrorize. That's the whole point of government, is to protect those who do not break the law from those who do break the law. And it's very biblical. Now, do the governments go sideways and people do things? Of course, but let's never throw the baby out with the bathwater at all. So I'm a big fan and a big proponent of patriotism and honoring our soldiers. God first, then country, of course. And I think there's a big difference between a proud American and American pride. There's nothing wrong with saying, Lord, look at what you have done. We acknowledge you. We acknowledge your sovereign hand and we thank you. We thank you, Lord. We are humbled by what you've done. You have no clue how blessed you are unless you travel the world, which I haven't done much. I've only been to a few different places, but just looking at the pictures. And I was also reminded that the vast majority of the men and women who died for our country did not die for what we've become today. They wanted to be one nation under God, not above God. And that's what hurts a lot, to see that what they actually gave their lives for is now one nation above God rather than under God. I don't know if you remember Roy Moore, Chief Justice Roy Moore. The Alabama Supreme Court was removed from office because of keeping the Ten Commandments up. And I think he's back in office. And I want to just read something he wrote many years ago. I wrote a book, actually, One Nation Above God. I was going to bring copies just to give you, but I forgot. So maybe I'll remember for tomorrow morning. And it has this quote in there. He gave us permission back then when I asked to put it in the book. He said this, One nation under God was their cry and declaration. Upon the laws of nature's God they built a mighty nation. For unlike mankind before them who had walked this earth and sod, these men would never have questioned the sovereignty of God. I'm glad they're not here with us to see the mess we're in, how we've given our righteousness up for a life of indulgent sin. For when abortion isn't murder and sodomy isn't deemed a right, then evil is now called good and darkness is now called light. While truth and law were founded on the God of all creation, man, now through law, denies that truth and calls it separation. No longer does man see a need for God when he's in full control, for the only truth self-evident is in the latest poll. But with man as his own master, we fail to count the cost. Our precious freedoms vanish and our liberty is lost. Children are told they can't pray in school and they teach them evolution. When will they see that the fear of God is the only true solution? Our schools have become a battleground while all across the land, Christians shrug their shoulders afraid to take a stand. And from the grave, their voices cry, the victory has already been won. Just glorify the Father as did his only Son. And when your work on here is done and you've traveled where we've trod, you'll leave the land we left to you, one nation under God. Wow, that is powerful. What about slavery? What about what they did to the Native American Indians? I'll get to that. And again, let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I don't know if you saw in the news this week that, I hope I wrote it down, I want to quote exactly what it said. It was in the Christian Post and some other organizations picked it up. Muslims think, and this is outside the United States, Muslims think the United States has gone completely insane over the LGBT, over the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender agenda. The world is laughing, they are mocking at us. And again, the baby with the bathwater. They just throw us all in there. There you go. Look at America. No, no, no, no. That's like equating Christians with those who blow up abortion clinics. All you Christians, no, no, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. So be very careful. Yes, our nation, there's atrocities on her hands, she's shed innocent blood, but the foundation that it was built on and how far we've drifted is something I think we need to remember and return. Three important areas of remembering, you'll always, always want to go back to these if you can. The first area, and I've talked about often, I won't spend a lot of time here, but the church, the church, and you've heard me say before, I remember when the church walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. I remember when we weren't in a hurry. I remember when we prayed. I remember when the altars were filled. I remember when there were tears coming down our cheeks. I remember when we couldn't get enough of God. I remember, I remember seeing those times. I've preached at those times. This church has experienced those times. Unless we remember, we don't return. So the point of bringing this up is to say, remember, didn't Jesus say something about remembering in Revelation? Remember where you have fallen and return. Remember your first love and return. Remember and return. It's very powerful. Cross-referencing Acts 9.31, the church lived in the fear of the Lord and was encouraged by the Holy Spirit. And I just want to encourage you to remember, not the church collectively, but you individually. Do you remember when God was everything? What happened? He didn't leave. Priorities crept in. And I'm as guilty as most, sometimes with the time factor and in a hurry. You see people waiting Star Wars lines for 12 hours. And we're just, we're thinking, we've got to do, do, do. And I don't think we need to do, do, do. I think we need to wait, wait, wait. Because once you wait on God, then when it's time to move, there's power in that waiting. I can't explain it, but I know when I wait on God and I trust in Him, I get into worship and the Word. And as you're waiting, that waiting time, it's like Samson. The hair grows back and the strength comes back and that anointing comes back. So when you walk out, you're walking in the power of the Holy Spirit because you waited on God. And there's a worship song I would encourage you to listen to. I hit rewind. I guess that's my fault. People say, I don't want to hear the same song twice. I can't, I have to hear it 10 times. Rewind, rewind, rewind, and just get on my face. After the eighth time, I'm on my face before God and God's just pouring into me and the sermon's coming to God. I can just write down things and He's just pouring into me. Because waiting. Now I've got 12 other things that can be done. People say, well, now the two campuses, has your schedule doubled? No, quadrupled. So you don't have...I have to pray, I have to seek God. And the song I was listening to this week, all week, we come with expectation, waiting here for you. You're the Lord of all creation and still you know my heart. The author of salvation, you've loved us from the start. I'm waiting here for you. I think it's Christie Knuckles and just keeps singing that song, I'm waiting here for you. And there's something that happens. The flesh eventually submits and the spirit takes over and you're filled with the Spirit of God and you're waiting for God. You will not find any scriptures on rushing through devotional, rushing through meditation, rushing through your time with God. It's actually all about waiting. Do we read, was it in the newspaper, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength? Was it in today's newspaper? No, it was in today's reading. Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. And when you're sick, do you just renew your strength within 20 minutes, I'm feeling really good. No, if you've been sick, you know it's days. You have the flu and you're out for a week and you just get right up and no, it's days and you're, I'm starting to get my strength back. So that's the imagery we see is waiting. And waiting is that strength. And Lord, I don't know what to do and I'm just waiting on you. And that's remembering. Do you remember, I don't know, maybe you haven't experienced, but do you remember when the power of the Holy Spirit was in your life? And I've been at stores and people just, I don't know who you are, but I just need to pray. Or where you go, you're bringing, it doesn't happen very often. But you know that there's a glow. And I'm not being weird, but there's a difference. There's a distinction. There's something about that person. Last week, I talked about Peter's shadow falling on people and they'd be healed. Was it because the shadow was timed just right with the sun? And if they just, you know, just right, oh, there's a shadow, the shadow heals? No. The anointing, being close to God. She said, if I just touch the hem of his garment, I will be made whole. There's something that happens when you spend time with God. That's why it's so hard. That's why we're... Let's look at the typical morning. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Oh, man, snooze, get back up or go back to sleep. And, you know, the kids are already up. This, I got to be here, I got to be here. And then you're just striving throughout the whole day. And the night comes, well, what's that big fix-it show now, Holmes and Joanne Gaines, or Joanne? Everybody's watching this at home. What's it called? Fixer-upper, there we go. You know, rushing home to get that and then rushing home. Now, that's a good show. If you're going to watch a show, I probably won't put that one down. But when it competes for our time with God, and then we go into this, and what's going on in Fox News, and who's it going to be, Trump or Hillary or Bernie, and neither of those are good choices, by the way. I'm just now lesser of two evils, you know, and I don't want to, you know, get off on that rabbit trail. But my point back to...the enemy is trying to sidetrack me, I think. Back to the point of, look at how, when is it time to wait on God? There's never time because we're always too busy. So, at some point in your life, you've got to say, enough. I'm restructuring everything, everything. And I thought of this, it was so ironic. I went and I saw Lindsey. Many of you know Lindsey broke her hip and fell, and I went and visited with her, and it's just fun to talk with her. I don't know why. She just talks so many different things, and it just intrigued, this conversation. But she said something. She said, Shane, this changed my whole life. It stopped life. All my plans are out the window. All my plans are this, everything's over. You're not going to go do this. When you're breaking a hit, you're in the hospital. So, everything changed. Now, she's got tons of time to be into the Word. She was listening to worship when I went in there. Why? Because something altered that course. So, something has to alter your course. How about, and I joke, and I'm really not joking, but put the television in the garage for a month because you have to do that. I'm not disciplined enough either to just, like, I just won't turn it on today. You have to remove it and then begin to seek God and begin to readjust things, get to bed earlier so you can get up earlier. People, you know, they've, well, let's just say that I haven't really promoted this too much because people say things sometimes, but you've got to put things in your calendar such as God, your family, important things. Everything else is in the calendar. And they say, well, Shane, you just fit God whenever and, you know, you don't have to, you know, we've got important things, we're busy, but that's the problem. The church used to wait on God. I mean, look, if people camp out for those big sales at wherever, Target, nobody's going to Target anymore, but, you know, the Christmas sales and all those things, we camp out, we wait. We wait on those things, we wait on things that are important, is what I'm trying to say. The church waited in an upper room and that's when the power fell. Peter waited for direction. Then lives were changed. Paul waited. Were you aware that Paul waited in the Arabian Desert? I think most theologians would say that for three years. The Bible says, I did not immediately convey with flesh and blood. Paul says, I didn't immediately talk to people. When God met me on that road to Damascus, I went into the Arabian Desert, and I spent time with God. And then he came out, the apostle Paul. Look at Jesus, away to secluded places, a wilderness for 40 days. Why do you have to do that? So if he has to, how do we think we can just get by without praying, without fasting, without spending time with God, deserted places? Jesus did all of this, but we got it down now. No, we don't have it down now. That's why I believe that we don't see the power of God in our lives to the degree that we can. I believe that Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and to evermore. I believe that God can heal. I believe that I can pray for people and see those prayers answered. I believe that God can move on our behalf if we're seeking him with all of our heart. And that's why Jesus said, remember and return. That was his call to the churches in Revelation. Actually, it's interesting. If you study that, the seven churches, five of those churches were not going in a good direction. Two were. And in all those situations, the way Jesus said to get back on track was to remember and return. Remember and return. Because there's something about remembering. And if you see old photos, you see things that really brings you back. A.W. Tozer said, the weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. I better read that one again because some of you didn't quite get this. You know what? I'll make this hit home. The weakness of so many of us is that we feel too much at home in the world. See, you should never feel at home in the world. There should be just like, you know, uncomfortable clothing, really. Like these pants are too tight. These shoes don't fit right. There's something that just doesn't match. So why doesn't somebody do something? Back to the sermon. Why don't we do something about this? And I'll share this with you, and it's no surprise, but people often, you know, they'll, if I run into them and they don't come to this church, you know, they'll say, God, you know, those messages, I hear them online or whatever, they're kind of hard. You know, they're convicting, they're this. But the reason isn't to beat up people, it's to motivate and to challenge and to draw out of you what God has put in you. And that's not going to be drawn out unless it's confronted. Because most people are saying, amen, I want that. If you're not saying you want more time with God after that last 10 minutes, I even want to go back into worship. I mean, my heart is just drawing closer to God. And as you begin to wait on God, the power of the Holy Spirit somehow falls upon your life, and the fear and the depression, and I get, well, I'll say it, but you can relate. I get sometimes in such as, with worship and anything, the concerns, ISIS, all, it's like, let me pull the trigger. You know, you bring me, I want to go see my master. You couldn't scare me with anything, anybody. But there's other times throughout the day where that fear grips, and it's usually when I'm walking in the flesh, walking in the world. You got all the media on, scaring the living daylights out of you, and you're not walking in the spirit there. So there's something about remembering and returning. Another thing that's been on my heart a lot lately, and we want to make it a prayer focus at some point, is the family. Remember, I don't want to get too sentimental, but do you remember when the hero, and I said this a few years ago, I remember, the hero was the father. The hero in the home was the father. That's who the kids looked up to. Not drunk rock stars, not actors playing a gay lifestyle, not wrestlers or pro baseball players that beat their wife. The hero was the father in the home. And we've lost that connection, the father and the mother and the children. And now, you look out what's going on, and it just saddens me. I don't know if it saddens you, but remembering how God created the family. And something interesting he wrote, God wrote through the Bible, through the inspired authors, that fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. And that would take a whole sermon, but the title, or actually the meaning of provoke is to stimulate a reaction or an emotion in someone. Usually, that has a negative tone to it. So, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. And if you want some imagery, think of a rattlesnake on the ground, and you get to grab a big stick. What are you doing? You're provoking. And men, we've got to stop provoking our children and our spouses to anger. Provoke, and you know, I call it throwing gas on the fire. You know, you just, you know the right buttons to push. Husbands, do not provoke your wives. Love them. Wise respect. Wise respect your husbands. You know, it's interesting, I never realized this, but when I read the study, it made sense that that's one of the top needs of a man, to feel respected. And people have this definition of respect means, you know, like machoism. You can do whatever I told you. You respect me. Respect is just...respect is...that can go a lot of different directions, right? But respect is just, you know, I respect that God has put you in our home as a spiritual leader. I respect that position. I know it's hard. I know it's difficult. I'm showing honor. I'm respecting. I'm not mocking. I'm not making fun. I'm not putting down. I'm trying to build you up as you're trying not to provoke me. And we see this wonderful example of...especially the feminist movement and different things took this way out of perspective of the biblical perspective. The man is supposed to love his wife like Christ loved the church and lead the family. The wife comes alongside and respects and they compliment each other. It's not about male domination and this mean submission. It's this wonderful picture. And, of course, there's exceptions to the rule, so don't email me. But most wives I've talked to want their husbands to lead. Would you lead? Would you lead us to God? Would you lead us in study and would you lead us in the right decisions? Would you make the wise decisions financially and lead us in that direction? They're starving for that. And so I remember, and you need to remember what the Bible says about this area. We don't have any children in here tonight, I don't think, a few here. But children, obey your parents. Children, obey your parents. And this is probably one of the saddest things. We see such, I mean, and we're not talking hundreds of years. Just from when I was growing up, you know, yes, sir, no, sir, and walking on the road and you move out of the way. Now I've got to get out of the way. You know, their pants are down to here and they're on skateboards and they're just, I've got to get out of the way. Or I'm turning, come on. They just walk slower across the crosswalk. The little swag, you know, the little arrogant, little swag they got going. It's just, there's no respect. There's no, there's no, and the parents, what parents? Mom, look what the media, because look what the media makes it out to be. And somebody actually emailed me a while back and said, Shane, it's not the media's fault. The media just resembles what's already going on in the culture. I said it does, but it also influences. It's a double-edged sword. Listen, you get rid of all this junk and you put back, leave it to Beaver and I love Lucy and whatever else on there, you'll see some change in the behavior because it's being modeled. How do children go? It's called modeled behavior. They see a certain way, the thing, and that's how they're supposed to act. So you either have Hannah Montana influencing them or Laura Ingalls. Look how far we've drifted, remember, and it's not getting any better. I told you this, you didn't believe me, but now you've got transgender issue, you've got guys thinking they're dogs, puppies, and they're dressed up as puppies and they're going on talk shows dressed as a puppy, and that's what they want to be. They want to be a dog. That's what God created them to be, a dog. And if it wasn't for my kids and my wife, I'd say, Lord, just, can you come, please take me. I can't handle this very much longer. You are not a dog, you're a man. Proverbs 5.18, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. We forget, sometimes when the Bible says rejoice in the wife of your youth, it actually, a lot of times it's saying that because we have the tendency not to do that. So it's remind, here's that word again, remember, it's reminding us to rejoice in the wife of your youth. Or, why is it rejoice in the husband of who God gave us many years ago and rejoice in that, and rejoice in that. That's a biblical model that's healthy. The confessions of one Christian father, I pulled this from John MacArthur's website. It's a confession of a Christian father. And I'm actually having my wife make something for me, and I want to post this in my office because it's a good reminder. He said, my family's all grown up and the kids are gone, but if I had to do it all over again this is what I would do. I would love my wife more in front of my children. I would laugh with my children more at our mistakes and our joys. I would listen more, even to the littlest child. I would be more honest about my own weaknesses, never pretending perfection. I would pray differently for my family, instead of focusing on them, I'd focus on me. I would do more things together with my children. I would encourage them more and bestow more praise. I would pay more attention to the little things like deeds and words of thoughtfulness. And then finally, if I had to do it all over again, I would share God more intimately with my family. Every ordinary thing that happened in every ordinary day, I would use to direct them to God. Not to burst anybody's bubble, but the sad thing about if we don't remember and return, we will remember and regret and go back to that. So use the power of memory, remembering. Gosh, if we would just remember God's promises. Look at all the worship songs. I was just back there, just all these, the Lord, you love me. You honestly love me. And it's hard for me. And people say, oh, that's sappy. That's for women. No, it's for men. Men need to hear, especially depending on how your view of a father. I shared before, my dad wasn't there. He didn't hug. I mean, he was there, but he wasn't. He never hugged. He never said, I loved you. I had this view of dad, what was always trying to please and probably a codependent. I haven't looked at the checklist yet, but probably there. And the person you have to please and always please and always please and never saying, I love you. But to hear that God does. He really does. He loves us. Oh, how I love. And yes, it's emotional, it's worshipable, but you get more emotional at the Dodgers than worship. There's something wrong there. Emotions are God-given and created so we can express and remember, remember, Lord, what have you done for us? You're a good, good father. You're a loving father. Your mercies are renewed. I don't know about you, but I could sing Amazing Grace every day. If it was up to me, I would tell Brant, Amazing Grace, every worship set, beginning of the message and after the message. Amazing Grace, how sweet it is that he saved a wretch like me. Many of you know John Newton who wrote the song. He was a slave trader and God saved him with William Wilberforce and they were friends. And God saved him and when you've truly experienced God's grace, you can't get through that song without being touched, especially if you understand a wretch, being a wretch, and he saved me. He didn't have to. That would change all of our worship if we could just realize that God could just pass us all over and just a life without God. That in and of itself should motivate tremendous praise and worship. Thank you, God, for choosing me. Thank you, God, for loving me. So why doesn't somebody do something and help to rebuild the families? Then the third point, in honor of Memorial Day, I want to talk about remembering about the nation. Deuteronomy 28.1 says this, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord and observe all that he has commanded you, he will set you high above all the nations of the earth. Psalm 33.12, blessed is the nation whose God is Lord. And anytime I speak on this, inevitably somebody will come up and say, well, Shane, that's to Israel, not America. And you know what? Contextually that's true. The context is God is blessing and rising up, but the principle still applies. And if you look, if I had two hours and you want to sit through a two hour sermon, I could take you back to 1620, 1630, the Mayflower Compact, the pilgrims, the Puritans coming over, escaping persecution from Great Britain, then they went to Holland, then they came to America to escape persecution. Their first act on bended knee was to give God thanks for what he has done. They didn't go and rape and plunder and all these things that they want you to think that the pilgrims did. They gave God all the recognition. John Bradford, you can read his journals, you can talk about what their hope was, and God, this is what we want to do, and all these things. It was built on, that's why the big debate you're probably seeing a lot of times is, is America a Christian nation? Was America a Christian nation? And to me it's pretty simple, a nation can't be a Christian because a Christian is an individual who's given their heart and their soul and their mind and everything to the Lord. That's a Christian. So a nation itself can't be a Christian, but the nation can be built on Christian values, on God's principles, on Judeo-Christian values. Absolutely. So seeing a nation drift is not much different than seeing a person drift. Is it? You see the nation, how far we've drifted in 150 years, or 50 years, or 30 years, and it's the same seeing a person drift spiritually. Now, you don't think there's a drift? Let me read a few things. 1875 is when Henry Wilson died, he was the 18th U.S. Vice President. He said this, remember ever and always that your country was founded by the stern old Puritans whose first act on touching the soil of the new world was to offer on bended knees thanksgiving to Almighty God. Alexander Hamilton, who's that? Sign of the Declaration of Independence. The law, the law dictated by God himself is of course superior in obligation to any other law. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and in all times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this. Could you call our President and the Supreme Court and let them know about this quote? No, he's right. Any human laws, if they're contrary to God's laws, they do not supersede God's laws. Benjamin Franklin, and if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? Now, some of these men were not Christians, they were atheists, or agnostics rather, and deist. What a deist is, is it's kind of like this concept of God just put everything in motion and then walked away. But the majority of the founders, actually, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, if you had time you could find out how many of them actually went to seminary. It's amazing. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1892, hold down, sit down, and buckle up for this one. The Supreme Court, 1892, from the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation that this is a Christian nation. 1790, Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, said this about the public schools, but the religion I mean to recommend in this place is the religion of the New Testament. 1647, the old Deluder Law established the first biblically based public school in America. The colonists believed that they could protect their civil liberties by eliminating biblical illiteracy. I don't know if you caught that, but the whole reason the public school system was founded was to teach children the Word of God. And you're going to tell me we haven't drifted. This is a 180. This is completely unacceptable. And people, you know, they're saying you shouldn't talk about these things. I'll get emails. I'll just tell you up front. You shouldn't talk about these things. The church shouldn't be political. Well, really, what should we talk about? Everything but the things that matter? And the big question is, is God pleased? Is God pleased with where we're headed and what we're doing and just wants me to talk about the good things and not mention any of this? Because what we need to remember is politics, the definition of politics. Here, let's get a little controversial. The definition of politics means, look it up, leading or directing a group of people. So you're telling me then that God's Word says nothing about leading or directing a group of people. Hmm. Okay. John Jay, I love this quote, he's the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, said, unto him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for his manifold and unmerited blessings and especially for our redemption and salvation by his beloved son. Could we please have these people back on the courts? The funny thing is, what is trying to be passed now would just be laughed out of the, it wouldn't even, it wouldn't even have a chance. I've read this before, I've quoted it, but not the exact terms. The rules, is Harvard University pro-God? Harvard, Princeton, do you know that all of those were founded as seminaries? They were founded to teach God's Word. I think it still exists today. The rules and precepts of Harvard University, founded by Reverend John Harvard, 1642, let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the maimed end of his life and studies, is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. What would those at Harvard say today? And here's why people don't like this. You ever hear, you ever hear that saying, don't confuse me with the facts? When you start talking about this stuff, they start saying, don't upset me with the facts. Because if the truth is there is a God and there is, and the truth is the reason the nation has been so blessed is because God has blessed the nation, and that's true, and that our Judeo heritage and rich biblical history is true, and God is true, and then we've drifted off course. So they don't want, they're embarrassed by this. The secular media, liberalism, all these things, they're embarrassed by God that doesn't exist. So they say. Newsweek Magazine, 1982, an article entitled How the Bible Made America, said historians are now discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution, is our founding document. And I believe the signers of the Declaration of Independence, or the framers that put the They quoted or referenced the Bible four times more than any other source when they put everything together. I don't know about you, but to me it was a wake-up call. That's why I wrote that book, One Nation Above God. That's why I speak on this issue. Because I don't think God is happy with the direction. I don't think he wants us to remain silent. Because if he does, then Isaiah was wrong, and Jeremiah was wrong, Ezekiel was wrong, Daniel was wrong, Joel was wrong, Obadiah, Jonah, well he went to Assyria. The prophets, their whole point was showing the people, here's where you were, here's where you're going, not good, turn back. Turn back. That's why every time I read the Bible, it jumps out, it parallels with what's going on today. You can look at Jeremiah, just read the book of Jeremiah tonight or tomorrow, just the first few chapters, 10 minutes. You'll see in the opening chapter, Jeremiah, God says, before I called you, I formed you in the womb, and I made you a prophet to my nation, to call the people back. Jeremiah said, I'm just a youth. God said, you're not a youth. You go to who I send you to, and you speak my word. And God says in chapter two, do you tell the people, Jeremiah, tell the people to remember. Remember when I pulled them out of Egypt and they were just a little baby, a little infant, I nursed them, I took them, I held them, I guarded them, and I loved the faithfulness of their youth. I loved the engagement. When we were married, they sought after me in the wilderness, in a barren wilderness, and Israel was the first fruits of my supplication. He says, Israel was holiness unto the Lord. When the enemies came in against them, I crucified the enemies. I slaughtered the enemies because they were my people. And then he says, but tell them, tell the people, actually he says, Jeremiah, cry out. Where's that preaching anymore? Crying out to the people. And he says, what error has your forefather found in me? What error have they found? Where did I mislead them? I took them through the drought and through the barren desert. I took them through everything. And then when they walked into the land, they defiled it. They became, they followed idols. And it's so, it gets so bad where God actually says, I have two evils against my people. They have forsaken the true God, the fountain of living water, and they have hewn out cisterns for themselves that hold no water. Basically what he's saying is they have forgotten God, the source of all life, and they're trying to fulfill that void with things that do not fulfill. Saying to the trees, you are my father. And to the stones, you nursed me. You are my mother. How can a people drift so far? The Delaware Constitution said that everybody appointed to public office, should we try this today? It's not going to work. If you want to run for public office, you must make this declaration. I do profess faith in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ and his only son. The Delaware Constitution required that everyone appointed to public office must make that declaration. Folks, this is not make-believe. This, I'm not just pulling, you can, it's everywhere. They're trying to get rid of some of the books. There's a lot of revisionist going on now that they want to rewrite different things. Many other constitutions, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut, all acknowledge a reliance on God in the same type of oath. So somebody's going to be appointed to office, I do believe in God the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, and then you could run, you could actually be appointed to that office. Now it's actually the other way. If you think about it, you could be laughed out, you would be laughed out of the presidential debate. Fox News, CNN, wherever you're at, well, Mr. Eidelman, what's your position? Well, I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to govern based on biblical principles. Oh my gosh, oh, Field Day, lunatic, lunatic, narrow-minded, arrogant, get him out of here. How did he even get up here? But 150 years ago, it would have been the other way around. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I want to talk about that for a minute, because people do bring up slavery, and it's a mark in our nation's history, it's deplorable. But let's not forget all the Christian men and women who brought it to an end. Watch William Wilberforce, read a lot, I've got 12, I've got footnotes, about three pages of footnotes of founders who abhorred the practice of slavery and fought to abolish it. So are we just going to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say, oh, all the founders were slave owners? And look at, no, no, they fought for this to be ended. As President of Congress, Henry Lawrence explained, I abhorred slavery. I was born in a country where slavery had been established by British kings and parliaments as well as by the laws of the country ages before my existence. Benjamin Franklin, in a 1773 letter to Dean Woodward, said, whenever the Americans had attempted to end slavery, the British government had indeed thwarted those attempts. And that's a lot of link. We don't have time for that, maybe on Fourth of July, but 1776, Independence Day, the colonists tried to cooperate with Great Britain for many years and many years, and they realized that, because some people say that the Revolutionary War was not biblical-based, and there's sides to that. But what about the Native Americans? Many people were missionaries to them. David Brainerd was an American missionary to the Native Americans, particularly with the Delaware Indians of New Jersey. And it was just a, if you look at the early writings, it's evil men who would go in and abuse and rape and pillage, there we go, I got the pilgrims on my mind. And it's not all facts. The facts are, yes, there are many travesties. Yes, we didn't do things. And that's, you know what, this is in my notes, but I might as well go here. That's why you're seeing a huge disconnect, I believe, in who they're voting for. You've got one side is not voting for your guy, and this side's voting for your guy, or this side's really confused on who to vote for, because they don't have a good choice. The reason is, one group thinks that America is evil and wrong, and they're going to do whatever they can to get back at the nation. That's why you're seeing the welfare system increase. That's why you're seeing government dependency. The government owes me. The government needs to pay me, and we're creating lazy citizens. So you have this side that says America was founded on evil. They had slaves. It's an evil empire. It's trying to oppress all the other nations, and we need to get America back, and we need to take everything we can. And we need to just have it equal, take everybody's pay, equal it out, make it fair across the board. Socialism. That's what you'll get with Sanders, and probably Clinton, just telling you, just being up front. With Trump, I will be in a mess of trouble as well. So it doesn't matter. So and you've got this side who understands that America wasn't necessarily evil, because it's the people in positions of leadership that determine the course of the nation. So we see that America sought out God. They were trying to follow God, and we respect, and you look at a lot of the men who serve and women who serve in our country, they're strong believers, and you see this wonderful God-fearing nation that used to be, and we want to go back to that. We don't look at it as evil, because God put it in place. So that's why you see, because Democrat and Republican, you know, even back when John Kennedy was the president, I take him above what we have, you know, today on both sides, regardless of what your view is. But they were arguing over corporations, and money, and the blue collar, Democrat normally was blue collar, you know, and white collar was, you know, and there was this corporate structure, and the money, and the small farmer, and different things. Now it's changed to where now it's moral, huge moral issues. And that's why, because one group thinks America's evil, and they want to repay everybody. They want to even out the odds, per se. So that's why you'll see a big divide in this area. Now something we need to remember is that God judged nations. God judges nations that continually tolerate sin. Does he not? Arnold Toynbee wrote a large volume called The Study of History in 1961. Now granted, this is 1961. He said, of the 22 civilizations that have appeared in history, all of history, 19 of them collapsed when they reached the moral state that America is in today, 1960s. Now fast forward 50 years. So see, at least from what I read the Bible, God's not happy. He doesn't like the course of the nation. Yes, there's wonderful believers. Yes, we're praying, we're fasting, I hope for the best. But there should be a desire. Why should we not, like Nehemiah, be sad when the place of our father's tombs lies in waste? Why should Ezra would weep over the condition of Israel? Jesus, oh Jerusalem, you are not willing. So there's something that should be saying, you know what, this is not right. We're sad that what was initially, have you ever seen somebody on fire for God and then drift and possibly die with a heroin overdose? That's the same thing that's happening. It's the same, you see this on fire for God and then this drift away from God. Now, I don't have the answers. I'm not telling you who to vote for. So people say, you know, what should we do? What about this? Well, the Titanic's been struck. What do you mean, what should we do? The Titanic is struck. The water's leaking in. You just can't turn this vessel around. What you do though is you start praying and fasting, everything I'm talking about. Because I am a firm believer in Micah 6.8 that it says, what does the Lord require of you, oh man, but to live justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God? That's how you fix a nation. Because you fix the individual on fire for God, loving God, the family is affected. And when the family's affected, the community's affected. And then you get people start making quality movies and influencing Hollywood versus the other way around. Why do you think all these Christian-based movies are coming out now? Because they see it works. Hollywood's not interested in making a good Christian-based movie. They're interested in the bottom line dollar. So why doesn't somebody do something? You know, at the risk of being repetitive, and sometimes I probably do it to myself, but I worry like, well, people don't want to hear this again. But I feel convicted to share it with you again. But we need to pray and fast for our nation. We need to pray and fast for everything I just talked about. Prayer is more powerful than protest. We should not rely on political power, but on the power of God through prayer. C.H. Spurgeon once said, I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach. Isn't that interesting? And fasting, our sincerity is measured by what we are willing to give up. Our sincerity, when we say, God, we're serious about this, it's only that sincerity is not measured by the words that come out of our mouth, but by what we do. So we can all sit here and go, man, yeah, Shane, you got me really pumped up. This is ridiculous. I can't believe this. We're going to, you know, I'm ready. And then that doesn't do anything. God sees the broken heart. He sees the fasting. And the reason I mention fasting is because we have to give up something. And I run into people all week that say, oh, I juice for a month because my doctor told me I had heart problems. Oh, you'll juice for heart problems, but not for the heart of the nation. Or you'll juice for, I got to lose 30 pounds. And we just avoid, we do it when it fits, but not when it fits, probably maybe we're not understanding biblically what fasting does in prayer. It opens heaven. When you fast, when you starve the flesh and you pray, and we get people doing, actually, if we had time, we could go back to the first great awakening with Jonathan and Edwards and Whitfield and Wesley. And how did these revivals start? Prayer and fasting. Welsh revivals, prayer and fasting. Scotland revivals, prayer and fasting. I think some people were in an upper room praying and fasting when the church was born. Second great awakening, you have names like Charles Finney, Billy Sunday, prayer and fasting. Argentina experienced revival in 1950s. It started from a prayer and fasting. They go together because you're saying, God, I'm serious. I am serious about this. I'm going to seek you with all of my heart. From Moses to Daniel, from Jesus to Paul, and from me to you, fasting is crucial in these dire times. Everybody I just mentioned fast. Ezra fast. Nehemiah fasted. Jesus fast. Moses fast. Daniel fast. Elisha fast. King David fasted. It's prayer on steroids. So fasting does. I know I say it a lot because hopefully it's going to take one of these days. A book written, One Nation Under God, the history of prayer in America said that prayer stands as one of the most critical and indisputable factors to have influenced the course of American history. Prayer. And I'll just leave with this, back to the sermon title, why didn't somebody do something? Why didn't somebody do something? And I remember, I think it was actually, I don't know if he was a governor then, but Huckabee, I heard, I listened to him down in 2008 in Los Angeles, and he talked about taking his 12-year-old daughter to the memorial for the Holocaust, and she was walking through this memorial seeing the dead bodies. I don't know if you've ever seen the pictures, but it's horrific. It's life-changing if you can visit Auschwitz and those different places. And she was just seeing all this horror unfold, a 12-year-old, I mean, he's brave. I don't think I would do that with a 12-year-old. And he said that she was silent on the two-hour drive home. So he's thinking, what did I do? I scarred her. What was I thinking? So he's going through all this in her mind. I think it was when they pulled into the driveway or something. She said, Daddy, why didn't somebody do something? And that's my concern. Will we hear those same words? Our grandchildren, for some of you, what is wrong with you guys? Why didn't somebody do something? Sadly, we may not be able to answer. And Judges 2.10, it says, and there arose a generation after them who did not know the Lord. And that's my concern, that when we look back, why didn't somebody do something? So this ship's not going down without me doing something. I can look back and say, son, daughter, I fasted, I prayed, I taught, I led the church. The church was great. We did all that we could do. We left in God's sovereign hands. Why didn't somebody do something? May I end with that. Lord, I thank you so much. Lord, I thank you for your word. God, and I just publicly thank you for blessing us, God. Thank you so much. Millions and millions of people without running water, without electricity, without air conditioning, without supermarkets. God, we became so prideful and so arrogant and so self-righteous. Lord, we've aborted millions of children. We've killed our own. God, help us. We are glamorizing what your word calls an abomination. The church is lethargic and dead and paralyzed. God, we have no excuse. So like Nehemiah, Lord, I want to just publicly confess the sins of our nation. Say, Lord, we have the blood of innocent children on our hands. We've been given this wonderful gift passed on to us. And somewhere, we dropped the ball. But God, we're praying for revival. We're praying for renewal. We're praying for restoration. Lord, we've given up on our nation, but we have not given up on you. God, you need to quicken us. You need to alert us. You need to get us back into prayer and fasting and meditating and waiting on you. And you will change this state. You will change this nation if it's within your sovereign plan. So God, I don't know what, but start something tonight. Start a burning fire. A burning fire in us saying, not on my watch. We're going to pray. We're going to love our families. We're going to love our spouses. We're not going to be comfortable in the world. And when people say, why didn't somebody do something? We're going to say, we did. We did. We trusted in you. We repented of our sin, and we trusted in you. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Maybe it's just harder when you have little kids. I don't know if it's selfish, but sometimes I wish I didn't have kids because of what they're going to go into. But knowing that God is faithful, knowing that I'll trust him, he's their dad. So I've got this battle inside, hating what I see in this nation. Listen, when you can pull baby parts out of the womb and throw them in a trash can, then something's wrong. Something's wrong. They're looking for a guy on the news that beat up his dog out on the sidewalk and got him on camera, and the dog died. Yes, find him, please. But what about something far more horrific? Far more horrific. Folks, at some point, we have to wake up. We have to wake up and stop saying, yeah, that's sad, I know, and have a change of heart to where you say, Lord, I'm going to pray, I'm going to fast, I'm going to seek you. I'm done with life as I know it. I'm done with loving the world and not loving you to full capacity. Because I will tell you, as God is my witness, you do not want to be on your deathbed or 20 years from now living with tons of regret because you didn't do something. And I'm not saying, I'm not talking about protesting, and please don't misunderstand, or getting involved. But get involved if God's called you to do that. But knowing that you prayed, and you fasted, and you sought God, and you tried to reverse what we see by seeking Him.