Foundations of Freedom

Presented to:

Bethel Chapel Pentecostal Church

Auditorium Sunday School Class

Granite City, IL

1 July 2018

Updated: June 30, 2018

By:

Boyce Belt

Foundations of Freedom

Opening:

• Star Spangled Banner
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Prayer

Text:

Hosea 4:6 (KJV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Introduction:

Lack of both Biblical and historical knowledge.

The Great Awakening: It had been estimated that approximately 80% of the people in the colonies heard George Whitefield preach.

1. Purpose

1. Spread the Gospel

1. In 1607, Robert Hunt planted a cross in the sand at Cape Henry and prophesied that the Gospel would go forth, not only across this nation, but to all the nations of the earth from these shores. You probably weren’t taught that in your history class. But, our nation was born under that prophetic decree. That is the destiny of America—to be a beachhead for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world. We are to be a city on a hill, a light to the nations. That destiny has never changed! Many have tried to abort it. It has never changed!^[1]

2. Freedom of Worship
3. Freedom from Tyranny

2. Dependence on God

1. Benjamin Franklin:^[2] About five weeks into the Constitutional Convention of 1787 when they were attempting to draft the U. S. Constitution, their efforts were a signal failure. As things were beginning to break up and delegates return home to their states, Franklin challenged them and called them to prayer. He told them:

In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. . . . And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. . . . I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.

Notice that Franklin openly acknowledged that their frequent prayers throughout the Revolution had been answered. Hence, America became an independent nation rather than remain a subjugated British colony. That is just one example of how answered prayer changed the course of the nation. But to return to the Constitutional Convention, Washington recorded that they went to church to hear an address.  At the church, the Rev. William Rogers had a special prayer for the Constitutional Convention:

[W]e fervently recommend to thy fatherly notice . . . our federal convention. . . . [F]avor them, from day to day, with thy immediate presence; be Thou their wisdom and their strength! Enable them to devise such measures as may prove happily instrumental for healing all divisions and promoting the good of the great whole; . . . that the United States of America may furnish the world with one example of a free and permanent government. . . . May we . . . continue, under the influence of republican virtue, to partake of all the blessings of cultivated and civilized society.

Franklin believed their prayers over the Convention had been answered. After five weeks of failure, following the recess and time of prayer, they reconvened and in only ten weeks produced the document that has become the longest on-going constitution in the history of the world. Franklin definitely saw a difference after the recess and prayer. While he was not willing to say that the finished Constitution was inspired in the same sense as the Bible, he nevertheless believed that it was the product of God’s direct intervention…

Alexander Hamilton is reported to have declared:

For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.

James Madison agreed, and reported:

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty Hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the Revolution.

2. The Power of Great Britain
3. An Appeal to Heaven

1. Genesis 21:33 (KJV) And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.

1. Source of Government

1. Appointed by God

1. 15,000 Representative writings out of the Founding era
2. 8.3% Montesquieu French Christian Philosopher
3. 7.9% Blackstone
4. 2.9% Locke
5. 34% Bible

2. Representative Government (Ex 18:21)
3. Three Branches — Isaiah 33:22 (KJV) For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.

2. Revival

1. V.P. Pence: Constant prayer in Whitehouse
2. A Second Chance

Conclusion:

Battle Hymn of The Republic

Vacation Plans

22 July 2018: Providing—Protecting—Physician Mark 6:30-56

Prayer