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Pastor Henecke's Sermon Outlines

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Pastor Henecke's Sermon Outline

The Woodland Street Pulpit

Gary Allen Henecke DD

July 4th, 2010, AM

Blessed is the Nation

  1. Seventeen Seventy Six

    1. 234 years ago today

      1. The Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, as a statement of the principles that 2 days earlier had led Congress to vote for the independence of the American colonies from Great Britain

      2. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston presented it

    2. The opening sums up the statement

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

    1. The appeal to what is natural

    2. The appeal to Nature’s God

    3. Concluding:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States

  1. Before this moment we already had a long history

    1. The tide of history

      1. The discovery of new worlds and rediscovery of God’s will

        1. 1492 – October - Columbus misses Florida when he changed course to Bahamas – San Salvador

        2. 1517 – October – Luther published his 95 thesis launching the free church and open Bible

      2. The hearts of men dared to dream – a world free in God

    2. They could read their own Bibles

      1. It brought conviction – a dream of a new order

        1. They could read Psalm 33:

Psalm 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

        1. It went on to say:

Let all the earth fear the LORD, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!

        1. The Word of God said

No king is delivered by his vast army; a warrior is not saved by his great might.

        1. They saw this as a key element

          1. Isaiah – Tilgath-pilezar. Ahaz.

          2. The end of Israel – the sign to Judah

Truly the eye of the LORD is on those who reverence [fear] him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

    1. The nation was to be under God

      1. “In God we trust!”

      2. “One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

    2. It was not ‘Freedom From Religion,’ but ‘Freedom Of Religion’

      1. For the first time in history the state did not dominate faith

      2. America has not failed – the church has

        1. We need to christianize America

        2. We need to not react but act!

    3. This nation must not perish – it must not fade

    4. Our government is only as good as its people. America without a vibrant church is doomed – it must never be!

      1. We need only one ally – We need only one truth

      2. Let freedom and humility fill this land

III







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Last updated: August 5, 2010