Our text is in Deuteronomy 8, and I'll read the whole chapter, verses 1 through 20. Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you today. Lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, And when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might test you to do you good in the end. Then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is this day. Then it shall be if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them. I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish as the nations which the Lord destroys before you. So you shall perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your Word. It stands as a reminder of all that has gone on before, and we pray, Lord, that we would learn from it, that we would never tire from learning from it. We ask you now to open our ears, have us to absorb your words, and to take them seriously. We give you thanks for this, for the power of your Spirit at work in our hearts, and for the gift of your Son, in whose name we pray, amen. Some people saw me this morning with the program, and they thought I was hurriedly developing my sermon or finishing it, and that's not unheard of. But I was actually, I told them coloring, and what I wanted to do is this. What I just read to you, these 20 verses, Some words occurred quite a bit, and when you meditate on something like I have the last few days on this, they eventually really pop out at you. They become kind of like lights on an airplane. You know, when you're walking down and the lights go out, you're supposed to see that little runway that guides you down to the emergency exit. It has a different color. That's kind of what words do in text. They really do. They guide you. They structure everything. So it's important that we pay attention to them, that we let them guide us, we let them do their job. I read the word, you, in only 20 verses, I read the word, you, 40 times. And so that word, you, occurs 40 times in only 20 verses, on average, twice in every verse. I read the word, your, 24 times. And so in these 20 verses that Moses wrote through God, 64 times, you or your. And so what we take from that is that this has been very personalized to these people. Where we are in time here is before they're entering the promised land. They've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They are now about to go over the river. Moses is writing this, but he's about to die. He's not allowed to go over. And so, who Moses is speaking to is that next generation, the one that Phil just referred to in his community meditation. It is these people that have weathered all of this difficulty. And so, it's a very personal chapter, these 20 verses. The Lord your God occurs ten times. Again, it's like every other verse, we hear this, the Lord your God. And this is Jehovah, Jehovah your God. There are a few unique words. They're not as common, but where they are, where they appear, and what they stand for is important. The word live occurs twice in the first three verses, and you contrast that with the last two verses that uses the word perish twice. So you have live compared with perish, contrasted with perish. At the start and at the end, you have the word remember occur. And the word forget comes in at the middle, and it's repeated three times. The book of Deuteronomy has been called the book of remembrance. Deuter, two, the second law, nomos is law. And so in Deuteronomy 5, the Ten Commandments was repeated. We have it in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy is this recap of everything that's occurred. There are four sections that I've read, and in the New King James, it structures it in the same four places that I believe it's appropriate to structure it. Verses 1 through 5, 1. Verses 6 through 10, 2. Verses 11 through 17, 3. And then the last three verses is the fourth section. Now, I'm going to read these four sentences that give you like a summary view of each of these four sections. This is not what I have in your handout. This is a more elaborate version of each one. The first section, in a sentence, remember that God rescued you and treated you as his son. The second section, obey God and thank him for blessing you with good land and food. The third section, don't forget God, thinking you're wealthy through your own efforts. and the fourth section, remember God, for if you forget Him, you will perish from the land. So that's the summary statement of each of those four sections. We'll go into more detail, or this will be a very short sermon. Twice, as I said, we're commanded to remember, and thrice we're commanded not to forget. Let me just read those sentences again, verse 2. and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you." And verse 18, and you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives. I just want to take each sentence that far. It's God who led you, and it's God who gives to you. We should remember those things. Thrice the command to not forget is given. And let me again read each one of those to you. Verse 11, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God. And what is it specifically that they're not to forget? By not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, so they're not to forget that they are to obey God. Verse 14. your heart, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God." Again, what is it that they're forgetting in this instance? And he explains, who brought you out of bondage, who led you and fed you through that great and terrible wilderness. So what they're forgetting is how God has blessed them immensely in the past. And then the last one in verse 19, if you by any means forget the Lord your God." So this is a warning. This is going to say what happens. And follow other gods and serve them and worship them. And here again what they're forgetting is that God is their God. He is their only God. And instead of being faithful to Him, they're being faithless to Him, and they're honoring other gods, gods of other peoples. That's what He's warning them against. So they are warned not to forget to obey, to remember God's blessings, and to remain faithful to Him. And so all of this in sum, the whole of Deuteronomy 8, really, is one big reminder to these people that God Important and he should be important to you for these reasons. I Want you to imagine That each one of you can imagine this that a few weeks ago you asked somebody to do you a favor or a task and they agreed and They agreed to do this. Now, I think for the sake of family harmony, you ought not imagine that it was your husband, or your wife, or your parents, or your children. Just imagine that it was some neighbor that you barely know, and yet this neighbor had committed to doing you a favor, doing something which you'd asked them, and they'd said, okay. But so, time passes, a week or two passes, and you ask them if they have done you that favor, and this is what they say. It's one of two things that they're gonna say to you. I forgot, or I didn't have time. This is commonly what people will say to you when they haven't accomplished what it is that you've asked them to do, and they had committed to do, they had agreed to do it. You might not believe that they didn't have time. And I think that's honestly what many of us think. Well, you know, everybody has time. But I want you to get past that. Don't think about the fact that they said they didn't have time. Think about what they said. Think about that sentence. I didn't have the time. What does it mean? What are they implying by making that statement to you in response to their saying that they didn't complete the favor or task for you? As a programmer, you become familiar with certain numbers. And every programmer in here, when I say these numbers, they'll think to themselves, yeah, especially if you've worked with scheduling and calendar apps. 60, 3,600, 86,400, 1,440, Those numbers all have meaning in terms of time. 60, of course, is the number of seconds in a minute, the number of minutes in an hour. 3,600 is the number of seconds in an hour, 60 times 60. 86,400 is the number of seconds in a day, 60 times 60 times 24. 1,440 is the number of minutes in a day, 60 times 24. 10,080 is the number of minutes in a week. 604,800 is the number of seconds in a week. If you're a programmer and you've dealt with calendar apps, anything having to do with scheduling, these numbers are important because typically, you'll tell time in seconds, and then you'll subtract time, and then you'll try to find some way of conveying that to people. So see, what they're telling you when they say, I didn't have time, is that they live in a different world from you. Because those numbers don't make any sense to them. There is a rift in time in their world alone. They didn't have the same time you do. And so you should have compassion on them because they're mentally incompetent, probably. So, what they're doing by saying they didn't have time is blaming God, right? That's really what they're doing. The God who made the world, the God who devised the mathematical relationships involving time has cheated me. And I didn't have time to accomplish this task that I told you that I would do. They might not even apologize. After all, it's not their fault. What would they tell you if they were entirely honest? I remember once seeing little snippets of video where it was that if people truly told the truth, what it would sound like, and this is what they would really say, did you get that task done? No. I didn't make doing your task a priority. I didn't value doing your task above everything else that I've done since you asked me to do it." That's really what they're saying. That's what they're saying when they said they didn't have time. So don't believe them when they tell you they didn't have time. They did have time. You and your task just weren't a priority for them. Now, I read through another statement. I said they might tell you one of two things, right? Does anybody remember what the other one was? I forgot. I forgot. Fair. We've all said that. We've all heard that. It is a typical, typical excuse. Even at work, even in a professional environment, that is a typical excuse. There is a man by the name of Israel Wayne. Anybody recognize the name? He is an author. He wrote a book called Raising Them Up, Parenting for Christians. And in an online article entitled Forgetting, Removing the Excuse of I Forgot, he writes this. The fact is children and people in general remember what they want to. Have your children ever forgotten when you promised to buy them ice cream? or to take them to the park? Not likely. Why? Because it's important to them. What they tend to forget are things they dislike and never really committed to, in their heart, to do in the first place. When children, in their selective memory, choose not to retain their parents' words, they are showing dishonor for their parents, which is a sin. Forgetting God's commands is a sin. It shows a dishonor of Him and a lack of value for His words. So now, sadly, children, what I'm going to advise your parents to do is not accept the excuse that I forgot anymore. You ought to hold their words in high esteem, and you ought to remember your parents' words and their directions. And so we all may forget from time to time, but It is not something we ought to rely upon. Again, we choose to remember or we choose to forget. And this choice that we make reflects our heart. It reflects where our desires rest. We had four sections, remember, and these are the titles of those sections now, and I kind of stripped them down to just the essence. The first section, verses 1 through 5, remember that God rescued you. The second section, obey God and bless Him for His generosity. The third one, don't forget God, thinking you did it all. And number four, remember God. If you forget Him, you'll perish. So I want to just recap those four sections briefly. So verses 1 through 5, I'll read it again. And then again, focus on this. Remember that God rescued you. Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you." Verse 1, you must be careful to observe every commandment, and then listen, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land. So, the blessings of God require obedience to God. And so when we stop being obedient to God, we stop receiving His blessings. And actually, we can then receive His rebuke. Possession of the land and multiplying within it was predicated on obedience. in verses 2 and 3, they're to remember that God led them, fed them, and tested them as a father. And so that statement, as a father, is important. I want to read a story to you from this book. It's a book by Dobson called A Father, A Hero. And I think it's the first story in the book. It's told from the perspective of a man who is telling it when he was 16 years old about something that happened to him. He moved to a new town. He's 16. He's very tall. He loves basketball, and he's playing basketball in a pickup game. Yet his father has already told him that he's not allowed to try out for the team because he'd brought home his report card and he had a D on his report card. And dad's rules were, you cannot play sports if you have any grades below a C. So the coach sees him at this pickup game and tells him he wants to try out for basketball. And he said, I'll try out next season. And the coach said, no, I want you to try out now. He said, I'm sorry, coach, but I cannot try out now. My dad forbid it. Let me call your dad. So he calls his dad. This kid knows he's going to get a no. And yet, the next day, the coach sees him, and this is what happens. The next morning, the coach came up to me in the locker room. I talked to your dad yesterday afternoon, and he wouldn't budge. I explained the school eligibility rules, but he wouldn't change his mind. In other words, you could have a D and still play. I don't have very much respect for your father." That's what the coach said to him. This young man said, I couldn't believe my ears. This coach didn't respect my father. Even I had enough sense to know that my dad was doing the right thing. Sure, I wanted to play ball, but I knew that my dad was a man of his word, and he was right to not letting me play. I couldn't believe this coach would say such a thing. I can tell you that I highly respect my dad, and I also want you to know that I will never play basketball for you." And he said he never did. Prior to the coach coming up to him that day, he was looking forward to playing basketball the next season for him. He knew that his dad told him no. His dad told him the night before he told him no. And yet now he's lost all respect for the coach. He is not going to play. And he said this in the end. He said, the coach wanted to win games. My dad wanted to build a sun. All of us, I think, have heard stories or experienced ourselves where we might have grown up in a home that was more strict than someone else. And sometimes kids can be cruel. Kids know how to punch parents' buttons. And so they'll say, but you know, I want to go here. My friend wants to go there. I'm allowed to go, right? No, you're not allowed to go. I've told you before, you're not allowed to go there. I don't let you go there. And so then the child will say, I wish I was not your child. I wish I was their child. And that can be hurtful to a parent. Usually, later in life, the young person comes back as an adult to their parents to say, thank you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for laying down the law, making the rules that protected me from these harmful avenues down which I was wanting to go. Now I've seen my friends go down them, and it wasn't such a good place to go. So, see, that's what God did. Throughout Deuteronomy 20, He has a couple spots where that's emphasized, where God chastens these people like He's their Father and they're His children. God doesn't chasten necessarily all the people on earth like that. He's chastening His children. He holds them to a higher standard. And so, don't be envious of other people getting away with things because God is holding you accountable. The second part, verses 6 through 10, is obey God and bless Him for His generosity. And I'll read this portion again, too. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you." This section doesn't contain any of those words that I told you about it doesn't have remember or forget live perish But it has a word that occurs seven times and was very very important to these people land The word land occurs many times here Remember at this point they have not set foot on that promised land yet but they have been captive in Egypt for hundreds of years and They want land. They want freedom. They want a place that they can call their own. And God is telling them that they're about to get it. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments, it says. So, in other words, God is blessing you. God treats you like He's your Father and you're His children. Therefore, He's going to give you this great blessing. Be mindful of that. brooks, fountains, springs, wheat, barley, grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, olives, honey, eating bread without scarcity, whereas they had just endured this deprivation in the wilderness. They did tire of eating that manna. They did complain. They wanted the meat. They wanted all of the variety of food that they'd had in Egypt. You will lack nothing. The stones are made of iron. There's copper in the hills. He's telling them, you will become wealthy. I'm taking you into this land. Obey God and bless Him for His generosity. And then the next portion is verses 11 through 17. Don't forget God thinking you did it all. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you today, lest When you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you, and that he might test you to do you good in the end. Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. Beautiful houses to dwell in herds flocks silver gold everything you have is multiplied But then your heart is lifted up, and then you forget that all of this was given to you by God You think instead that it came about by your own hard work? by your own wisdom My power the might of my hand have gained me this wealth and this is a No, you're not to forget. How do we forget God? It's stated right there in the first verse, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments. So see, forgetting is, like I said at the beginning, purposeful. These people would eventually choose not to obey God, thereby forgetting Him. When you read Kings and Chronicles, is it not astonishing to you that these people don't even know God? They don't even know what the temple is for. They find the book of the law under King Josiah, and they bring it to Him. And he's shocked. When did this happen? It's just astonishing. We see in history, in Israel, which was a nation formed expressly for God, people forgetting God. How can that be? And how can we not forget God when we are not necessarily even a people who are the apple of God's eye? When I'm speaking of this, I'm speaking of America. It's like we weren't there 300 years ago when these people were covenanting with God. We might read it in a dusty history book. And for the bulk of Americans, it doesn't mean anything anymore. It means nothing. They don't even teach it in schools anymore. Thankfully, homeschoolers know, we have to teach this stuff. It is important. We must remember, we ought not forget. And then the last portion, remember God. If you forget him, you will perish. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant, which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day, that you shall surely perish. as the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God." Verse 18 is a statement, a command. You shall remember the Lord your God. And then, God gives power to get wealth. And what's the next word? It's very interesting. God gives you power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant. In other words, God wants to bless his people, and he's given us the resources by which we can be blessed. But obedience connects that blessing to us and to our future. And should we be disobedient, God then disconnects us from the ability to create that wealth. Don't you think it's astonishing what's going on in America right now? That all these young people who have grown up in a tremendously blessed culture. America has a population of about, what, 330 million people. The world has over 7 billion people. We are less than 5% of the Earth's population. Yet America has consistently been 50% of the international GNP. It's just amazing how productive America is as a nation. It's remarkable. But it will not remain so for long, given where we're headed. And it's as if we're on a roller coaster heading down a steep slope. We're in the cars. We see where this is going. But so many don't. It's just really kind of scary, but we must not fear. We have to realize that Jeremiah knew where Israel was going. The priests and prophets often knew where the king was taking them, and sometimes it was even the elders of the land going to the king, saying, we want to worship other gods, and then the king letting them. So see, we might know, there are people in the know about this. And so, because we know God, it allays our fears. We can still be amazed at the stupidity of the mass of Americans, but we can look at it from the perspective of God. Is this just what's happening to America? God promises to drive the Israelites from the land, promises, just as He'd driven the nations out before them, should they be disobedient. Moses, like I said, spoke these words to the Israelites even before they'd entered the promised land. And now we can read the history of the time, the hundreds of years in which they were in that promised land. Yet I believe as we now look and can apply all of these principles to the Israelites, we can also apply them to other nations on earth. We can apply them to nations that have not covenanted with God. We can apply them to nations that have covenanted with God, as we have, as America largely has. We have been a Christian nation for a long time, though many now choose to deny this. Remember that God rescued you. Obey God and bless Him for His generosity. Don't forget God, thinking you did it all. Remember God. If you forget Him, you'll perish. Let us not forget to remember. For 200 years, America was a beacon of hope to the oppressed world, and in many ways it still is. The America that people come to now is a bit different than it has been, but still, compared to much of the world, it is still the land of opportunity, the land of freedom. There is no land to which you really can compare America. Now, I know people, several of you hate Abraham Lincoln. I admire Abraham Lincoln. I admit it, you know. Paint a bullseye on my back and start shooting your arrows at me. Like all people, he had his flaws. This was his annual message to Congress, a portion of it, obviously, December 1st, 1862. And I'm reading it because it's just so, I think, interesting to read this relative to what's going on right now and has been for the past two or three months. Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free. honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve, we shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth." Now, I think his words have stood the test of time. He was prescient in many ways. We were, at worst, the fourth nation in the entire world to entirely abolish slavery. And yet now, it is as if we are a lightning rod for the world relative to the history of slavery. It's just odd, is it not? And yet, that is how black Americans tend to view America, even though they've been here for generations. And I even have black Christian friends who just don't, they refuse today to see the good in America. They want to burn it down. And they're Christians. If they were in Africa still now, 200 years after they'd been kidnapped and brought over here, they probably wouldn't be Christians. And so there is tremendous blessing that came to many of the black people that survived. It was a difficult trip. Now this next one is from President Reagan. This was his address to the nation on Independence Day, 1986. This was right in front of the Statue of Liberty. It had just been renovated, you know, because it had been standing now for a century. The French had given it to us a year before the centennial in 1875, yet it took 10 years to build and get placed on that pedestal. And then it had been run down so much by the 70s that it was rebuilt. You know, there was a scaffold all around it and it was rebuilt such that it had reopened just before this event. And this is Ronald Reagan. For just a moment, let us listen to the words again. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Last night when we rededicated Miss Liberty and relit her torch, we reflected on all the millions who came here in search of the dream of freedom inaugurated in Independence Hall. We reflected, too, on their courage in coming great distances and settling in a foreign land and then passing on to their children and their children's children the hope symbolized in this statue here just behind us, the hope that is America. It is a hope that someday every people and every nation of the world will know the blessings of liberty. The things that unite us, this is further along in his speech, The things that unite us, America's past of which we're so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world and this much-loved country, these things far outweigh what little divides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that, Jew and Gentile, we are one nation under God. That black and white, we are one nation, indivisible. That Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world. Now, this is where the band would strike up, right? So now, Deuteronomy 8 was written to Israel, but it applies to us. I mean, I believe when you read Deuteronomy 8, you see that it applies to us. We are entering that third and fourth stage where we have denied God, we have forgotten God for so long now that He is now disconnecting that by which we as Americans can generate wealth. And instead we appear to be squandering it on a scale that has perhaps the world has never seen. Like I said, Israel is waxed and waned as a nation. And then they split, they had a civil war, they divided into two and it continued. They abandoned God and he impoverished them and sometimes sent them into captivity. Many of our political leaders today are not faithful to God. Some are, and we really must pray for those that are, because they're in a difficult situation. And yet too often, the leaders that go to Washington that are Christians don't have a depth of understanding of what it is that they're really there for. And so we want to pray for that too, that they would be influenced for the good by Christians who know better. So, Joshua called the people to openly covenant with God at this point, right after Moses died, right as they're about to go over, and this is what Joshua said. At the end of his life, they've taken the promised land, they've gone across the river, Joshua has led them all this way, and yet Joshua is concerned that they are still prone to disobedience, prone to accept other gods. And this verse is especially meaningful to me. God used me reading this to convert me. Joshua 24, 15, if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And then, of course, they go on to covenant with God, very vocally. These people had lived through a lot, and they were personally experiencing God's blessing. Our God is mighty and worthy of praise. Many in our land have ignored the warning from this third section about forgetting God, what comes when we forget God, and we instead in our pride puff up and say, look what I have done. And I believe now collectively we are experiencing this fourth section, this abandonment by God, on a scale that I do think is amazing. We dare not allow, as Christians, we dare not allow our praise of God to be drowned out by these people who are out rioting in the streets and wanting shackles to be placed on them. We dare not forget to remember that our God is good God. He's done great things for us and will continue to do great things for us, and especially if as a nation we repent. He will collectively do great things for our nation. And so, let's pray to that end. Let's not lose hope, and yet let's also be wise. Let's oppose the evil that we're faced with in our nation, and yet let's not be overcome by it. Let's not be silenced by it. We must be vocal at this time. Let's pray. Father God, we thank You for Your Word, for the way in which it speaks to us, even today. So many complain about Your book being dusty and applying to past cultures, and yet, Lord, those are people that obviously have never read it, never really read it for understanding, never been awakened to the truth of it by Your Holy Spirit. And so we thank You, Father, for Your Word. We thank You for the power that You have to change all things in an instant. And we pray, Father, for our country. This is and has been a great nation, and we pray, Lord, that You would draw it back to Yourself, that You would overwhelm the voices in the streets now calling for its destruction and calling it all kinds of evil and heinous things. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for your blessings. We pray that we would not forget them. We want to honor you with all that we do, and we pray that you would equip us to that end. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.