Holding to American Heritage
2 Chronicles 7:14

Lamentations 5:21-22 


Introduction: America is at war! I’m talking about more than a guns and bullets war. William Bennett, former head of the U.S. Dept. of Education, writes, "America is engaged in an on-going & intensifying cultural war. Over the last two decades there has been waged an all-out assault on common sense & on the common values of the American people. We now stand at a crossroads," he writes.

If America is standing at a crossroads of a cultural war, then it seems to me that Gods people need to know what to do, and in what direction to proceed.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we received part of those directions, and they were given to God’s people, not the world, not the unbelievers but to Gods people.

Now we read in the book of Lamentations, where the prophet Jeremiah has witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem, he watched as its walls were torn down, the city lay in rubble, and its people were carried off into captivity to Babylon. Then in the last two verses of Lamentations Jeremiah utters a prayer that comes straight from his heart.

He prays, "Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure" [Lamentations 5:21-22].

So this morning I want to preach for a little while about some of the things we can’t continue do to if we want to reclaim the Christian heritage that has made America great. I have 5 things for us to consider.

I. This Heritage can’t be forgotten.

Christian heritage has been forgotten!

History is being rewritten today; we’re being told that the founding fathers of America were deists or secular humanists. Now a deist is someone who believes in God, but he believes that God has removed Himself from us & is no longer involved in the happenings of mankind. Secular humanists are people who replace biblical right and wrong with manmade ethics, reason and justice.

So those who are rewriting history would have us believe that our founding fathers were all deists. They would teach us that our country was founded as a spiritually neutral land, where all religions would be accepted, and that one religion would not be regarded as any better than another.

They would also teach us that the founding fathers advocated strict adherence to separation of church & state, which the church should have nothing to do with government, and that government should have nothing to do with the church.

People of our nation need to know the truth, that our country has a rich spiritual heritage.

There is a little town in Va. Called Jamestown. It is one of the earliest English-speaking settlements in America; it has been carefully restored so that we can see what life was like around 350 years ago.

At Jamestown, you can see first hand the history and heritage of our country. One thing was first a foremost in the hearts of the people of Jamestown; the people of Jamestown put God first.

They had 2-hour worship services every day of the week, attendance was mandatory. If you didn’t show up for the daily service, your day’s ration of food would not be given you. Their reasoning was, if you were too sick to go to church, you were too sick to eat.

They had a 5-hour service on Sunday; you were expected to be there all 5 hours. If you missed church for 3 weeks, you were put in stocks for 6 weeks in front of the church. The stocks are still there for all to see.

It could be argued they went too far but the people wanted to make it clear that God came first.

When our earliest universities began, most of them were founded to train preachers. The parson or preacher was considered the most educated & wisest person in the community. They were men who were respected by the community and who respected themselves. I wish we could get back & reclaim that part of our heritage, too.

ILL. When Harvard was established in 1636, their statement of purpose said that every student’s main aim is to know God & Jesus Christ, and to recognize that Christ is the foundation of all learning.

When Yale came into existence in 1701, they said that "God is the source of all wisdom," and they required all their students to attend daily public prayer services both morning & evening.

When Princeton came into existence in 1746, Princeton proclaimed, "Cursed is all learning contrary to the cause of Christ."

Our founding fathers were convinced that the Psalmist was right when he wrote in Psalm 33:12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."

ILL. Patrick Henry said, "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."

ILL. William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, said, "If we aren’t governed by God we will be ruled by tyrants."

ILL. John Jay, first justice of the Supreme Court, said, "It is the duty as well as the privilege and in the interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

ILL. Schools in our country used one primary textbook, which was the Bible. In fact, history tells us that the Delaware Indians came to George Washington and requested that their children be permitted to study in his schools because they wanted their children to learn morality and integrity. Even though they didn’t understand the Bible’s message about Jesus, they wanted their children to learn the principles taught in the Bible.

ILL. Interestingly, that same kind of thing has happened in the Soviet Union. After communism fell, the new leaders requested that Christians come & teach the Bible in their schools and universities, not so much because they were interested in God or Jesus Christ, but because they wanted morality, honesty and decency taught to their people. And they knew they would get that from the Bible. In the process they were taught about God & Jesus Christ, do you know a revival has broken out in many parts of the former Soviet Union.

ILL. Thomas Jefferson, when he was president of our land, also served as head of the school board in Washington, D.C. Jefferson insisted that two books be used - the Bible and the Watts Hymnal which was rich in Bible teaching.

ILL. The New England Primer, which was used as the primary book for elementary education until 1900, has in it the system of learning & teaching that took place in the early days of our nation. Children in the first grade were expected to learn the alphabet by memorizing Scripture verses.

A - "A wise son maketh a glad father."
B - "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and
trouble therewith."
C - "Come unto Christ all you that labor and are heavy ladened."

In the back of the Primer there are numerous questions and answers that first graders were expected to know: "Who was the first man? Who was the first woman? Who was the first Christian martyr?" Most people today wouldn’t be able to pass the first grade test given back then.

SUM. So don’t let anybody ever tell you that our country was started by a bunch of deists. Don’t let anybody ever tell you that our country is to be spiritually neutral and that one religion is as valuable as another. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that our Constitution says, "Separation of church & state." It doesn’t! Our country has a rich spiritual heritage.

II. This Heritage can’t be defeated

Christians too often behave like we are defeated. We watch crime increase, we see the family disintegrating, we look around at all the pain & sorrow, and it just seems like evil is winning and righteousness is losing. We have convinced ourselves that we are on the losing side! I’m here to tell you this morning that ain’t so, I have read the end of the book and we win.

ILL. There was a father who went to watch his son’s T-ball game. Arriving in the middle of the first inning, he saw his son and asked, "How is your team doing?" The boy replied, "Well Dad, we’re behind 20 to nothing." His father said, "That’s pretty bad, isn’t it?" "Oh no, we haven’t even come up to bat yet."

It’s time for us to come up to bat. God has given us the power to win. The Bible says, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."

ILL. Nineveh was a city full of cruelty & sin, & God said He would destroy it because of that. But He told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach. Jonah finally obeyed, when he preached the city repented, from the peasant to the palace they all repented before God. And the result was that God spared Nineveh - all because of the preaching of Jonah about God.

ILL. The Soviet Union wouldn’t allow Bibles to come into the land. Remember the stories we used to hear? How they smuggled Bibles, the people hid them, risking imprisonment? How Christians were not free to witness or share their faith? How churches were strictly monitored by the K.G.B.? Now, today, in that land they have more religious freedoms than we have in the U.S., today they’re asking, "Please come, and teach us the Word of God."

The war is not over. We may loose some battles but the war is not over we need to realize that God has given us the victory all we have to do is claim it, proclaim it and never be silent about it.

Go back with me in time and stand at the cross. Look at Jesus Christ hanging there, doesn’t it look like defeat. "We can’t win. Our leader has been crucified." But 3 days later the tomb is empty. "He is not here. He is risen." Christ is victorious. He has conquered both sin and death.

SUM. The Bible says that we are "more than conquerors through Him who loves us." "This is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith." "If God be for us who can be against us?"

III. This Heritage can’t be silenced

We must communicate the truth, proclaim the gospel, preach the word, refuse to be silent. We have been commissioned to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel. But instead of being aggressive, most of the time we have been passive.

Maybe that is because it has become politically incorrect today to share our faith. The only reason it’s incorrect is because we have allowed it, Christians are still a majority in this country, if we don’t start letting our voice be heard loud and clear we will become a minority. Are you going to allow your Heritage to be silenced?

Well, guess what, in the First Century it wasn’t politically correct to share your faith, either. Go back to Acts 4 & you’ll discover the story of Peter & John being so excited about their faith they couldn’t keep it inside. They went out into the streets of Jerusalem & started sharing their faith with anyone who would listen.

Hundreds of people started coming to Jesus Christ. The Jewish government became concerned because of what was taking place & arrested Peter & John. They couldn’t find anything to condemn them for legally, so finally they had to release them. But first, they commanded them in vs. 18, "...not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus."

"But Peter & John replied, `Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’"

Here is what I want you to see. That story is very close to what’s happening in our society today.

ILL. In 1994 there was a bill in Congress that fortunately was defeated. If it had passed, it would have become law that the workplace is to be religion-free. Which means that we couldn’t leave a Bible on our desk at work, nor could we talk about or share our faith at work without breaking the law.

Some are trying to tell us today that we are not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus Christ. So we must decide. Are we going to respond as Peter & John did? Will we say as did they, "We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard?" Or will we crawl into the corner & be silent?

I tell you, the ACLU & the Gay Rights groups, & the NOW movement & the humanists are all speaking with loud voices. They’re shouting what they believe & what they think ought to happen in this country.

We outnumber them, but we aren’t speaking up as we should. We’re remaining quiet, and the result is that we’re losing battles we should be winning.

Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation." Are you ashamed of the Gospel, or do you believe that it is the power of God unto salvation?

ILL. A few years ago a high school valedictorian wanted to pray during her valedictory address and was denied the right to do so because she was told it was against the law. So she and her classmates plotted together. Right in the middle of her speech she sneezed, and the entire senior class said in unison, "God bless you!" Thus they had a prayer during their Commencement Service.

ILL. Also in Rockingham County, VA, Jason Nosnan was valedictorian and president of the Student Council. He requested permission to say a prayer at the close of his address, and was told by the principal that he couldn’t do that because it was against the law. He was told that if he went ahead and did it anyway they would be sued by the ACLU. Therefore, if he started to pray, school officials would have no choice but to escort him from the stage.

Well, Jason decided to investigate further. He contacted Jay Sekulow, president of ACLJ - American Center for Law & Justice. This is a group of Christian lawyers who have gotten together to study the rights of Christians and to advise Christians as to what they can and cannot do.

They advised Jason that the law said he couldn’t bring in a clergyman to pray, and none of the school administrators or teachers could pray. But there was nothing illegal about a student praying. In fact, they would be denying him his First Amendment rights if they did not permit him to pray.

So Jason went ahead and prayed a humble and heartfelt prayer at the conclusion of his speech. Officials did not escort him off the stage, and as he walked off the stage he was greeted with a standing ovation by students and parents alike. The rest of the story is that the ACLU did sue the school and lost the suit. We can win. And we need to be bold in communicating the Gospel.

IV. This Heritage can’t ignore our families

Christian and American Heritage needs to influence our families. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

ILL. James Russell Lowell was asked how long the American Republic would endure. He responded, "As long as the ideas of the fathers be dominant."

Now what’s happening today is that the ideas of the founding fathers are no longer dominant.

ILL. A few years ago, the U.S. Dept. of Education released a 680-page report about teaching History in our schools. Researchers had taken the 60 most popular history textbooks, used by 88% of the nation’s students, went through them to see what we’re teaching the kids in those textbooks. Adding them all up together, those 60 history textbooks contained 670 stories or vignettes dealing with personalities in our nation’s history.

Now of those 670 stories, just how many of them do you suppose came out of the founding era of our nation - the days of the 13 colonies, of Patrick Henry, of George Washington & Benjamin Franklin?

Out of the 670 stories in all these history textbooks, only five dealt with the founding era. Only five! And three of them were about Sybil Ludington. Have you ever heard of Sybil Ludington? Evidently she was a girl who hopped on a horse in 1777 and warned her neighbors that the British were coming. Three of the 5 stories were about her.

The 4th story was about a girl who wanted to be in George Washington’s army, but Washington wouldn’t let her join. So she ended up carrying food to the soldiers at Valley Forge.

The fifth story was of a young boy who caught a British soldier stealing vegetables out of his garden and single-handedly captured him.

Those were the only five stories found in the history books dealing with America’s Heritage. There was not a single story about Patrick Henry, or Paul Revere, or Nathan Hale. Not even a story about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson - not in any of the textbooks.

That is the Dept. of Education’s documentation on what is now being taught in the history books of most of our nation’s schools.

APPL. If our children are going to learn those stories they will have to be taught in the home. They are not being taught in most schools anymore. So we need, as parents, to teach our children Christian and American heritage.

SUM. That is why the Fourth of July is becoming more and more important. When you put out your flag you need to explain to your kids what you’re doing. You need to explain to them the heritage of this land, The Christian beliefs of the founding fathers, the rich history that we enjoy as citizens of America.

V. This Heritage can’t ignore the gospel

America needs to focus on the power of the Gospel to save us. Our job as the church is to preach the Gospel. We’re not trying to take over the government. We are trying to change hearts from within.

The problem is on the inside, not the outside. We can’t just change the educational system and fix it. We can’t just change the welfare system and fix it. Legislation will not fix any of this, you can’t legislate morality. The only way we can fix it is to change the hearts of people. That’s our job.

And as people are changed then there will be Christian teachers & Christian principals, Christian writers writing textbooks, Christian lawyers and judges, Christian politicians and businessmen and executives, even Christian reporters who bring the news into our homes each day.

But it must begin from within, that’s our responsibility. So as parents we need to teach our children to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Honor our country. Recognize the rich heritage that is ours as Christians and citizens of the U.S., and realize the power of the Gospel to change the world.

The Bible says, "Righteousness exalts the nation but sin is a reproach to any people." Righteousness builds up. Sin tears down. So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to seek out the enemy, do battle with him, realizing that God has given us a victory through the Lord Jesus Christ?

Conclusion: One of these days you’re going to die, and so am I. And one of these days we’re all going to stand before the Lord for rewards or judgment, and all that will count in that moment is what we’ve done for Christ.

What about now? Are you doing anything now to build His kingdom? Are you trying to reclaim our heritage as Christians in this great land? We have the promise of victory. It’s time for us to begin.

I want to ask our musician and song leader to come and prepare a closing hymn for us and as we close I want to give you an invitation, an invitation to live for God, an invitation to reclaim the true heritage of America.

This morning, if you’re here and don’t know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that is the place to begin - by making Him your Lord and Savior. Maybe you’re saved but you know you haven’t been living for Him like you should; you can fix that today. So if you need to so business with God we invite you to come, make that decision, right that wrong, now as we stand and sing.