In God We Trust sermon teaches us that America was founded on Christianity and now we need to get back to those basic principles.

Key Verses:
Psalms 20:1-9

To begin with, we will read Psalms twenty verse seven:

Psalms 20:7: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

A Motto Based on Faith

Our coins and our currency have these words on them, “In God We Trust.” That has been the legal national motto of the United States of America since the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower during the 1950s. It may surprise you that it was not earlier than that. Well, it was used earlier than that, but it was officially an act of Congress in 1956 and 1957 that made it our official national motto. The phrase was used long before 1956 and 1957. Salmon P. Chase was the Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln. He moved Congress to place the motto on coins in the 1860s.

But long before that, and we sang it a while ago, the motto was around in 1814 when Francis Scott Key wrote, “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. And this be our motto, in God is our trust.” I am going to take you back a little bit in history. We are going to get into the Bible, but first a bit of history and tell you this nation, contrary to some lies being told today, this nation was intended to be, and always was intended to be a Christian nation.

A few years ago, a very prominent individual, during a speech made a statement that whatever America once was, it is no longer a Christian nation. That is to our shame because we ought to be a Christian nation. It was founded to be a Christian nation.

Founded on Faith

You may ask for proof of that and I am about to give it to you. On July 4th, 1776, fifty-six members of Congress declared the thirteen colonies of Britain in North America could be thirteen free states, now called the United States of America. That declaration contains this phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That marked the beginning and the birth of the nation that has stood among all the nations of the world as an example of what a nation can become when its people decide to be free.

From the beginning, it was clear that faith in God was a primary principle for this nation. The first ten amendments to the Constitution named the rights of the people and I want to share with you the wording of the very first freedom. One that they put at the top. Number one in the Constitution and here it is:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

That is the first of the ten amendments called the Bill of Rights and notice the first thing it mentions, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” We do not have in our country an official state church, and we never have had, and praise God, I do not think we ever will have. But a lot of folks these days like to use what they call the establishment clause, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” but they do not like to use the next clause, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” There is to be no law that prohibits your freedom of worship. These are the very first rights belonging to citizens, and they were written first because they are first in importance.

Worship Clauses of the Original States

But I want us to go a little farther than that. I want to read to you from the thirteen original states, the thirteen colonies that became the first thirteen states. Every one of them had a freedom of religion or freedom of worship clause in their constitution. Some of them are far more explicit than others if you listen carefully some of them may surprise you a little bit.

Virginia, 1776:

“That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, that all men are equally entitled to enjoy the free exercise of religion…”

New York, 1683:

“That no person or persons, who profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, shall at any time by any ways molested, punished, or disquieted, or called into question for any differences in opinion or matter of religious concernment…“

Does that surprise you being it is New York?

Massachusetts, 1780:

“And every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves peaceably and as good citizens of the community shall be equally under the protection of the law.”

Maryland, 1776:

“All persons professing the Christian religion are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty…”

Delaware, 1776:

“That all persons professing Christian religion ought forever to enjoy equal rights and privileges in the state.”

Connecticut, 1818:

“The exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination shall forever be free to all persons in this state…”

New Hampshire, 1784:

“Every individual has a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of his own conscience…”

Rhode Island, 1842:

“…every person shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of such person’s conscience…”

Georgia, 1789:

“All persons shall have the free exercise of religion…”

North Carolina, 1776:

“All persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God…”

South Carolina, 1868:

“That all persons and religious societies who acknowledge that there is one God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, and that God is publicly to be worshipped, shall be freely tolerated.”

Pennsylvania, 1790:

“That all men have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God…”

New Jersey, 1776:

“No person shall ever, within this colony, be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping Almighty God…”

It is pretty evident that the people who founded this country believed in God, and more particularly, they were people who believed in Jesus Christ or call themselves Christians. I am not saying every one of them is a born-again believer. I am not at all convinced that that would be true. But they were certainly not atheists or secularists. That brings us back to the scriptures.

The God of Jacob

David wrote many of the psalms and he wrote Psalms 20. Psalms 20 talks about faith and country. When David wrote this, he of course did not have the United States in mind. There was no United States in David’s lifetime, and he would not have even thought about it. His thoughts are regarding the country of Israel where he would later become king. But I think we can take some applications from what David wrote and apply them to our daily life. That is the wonderful thing about the Bible. No matter what country you are from, no matter what culture you are from, you can find truth in the Bible that is applicable to your life. So, look with me at Psalms twenty:

Psalms 20:1: “(To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;”

It is David’s desire for all those who read this psalm that the LORD, and it is in all capital letters there, the salvation name of God, it is to say, the Lord who is the Savior will hear you in time of trouble. Call out to the Lord when you are in trouble, call out to Him when you have a need, and He will hear you and He will answer you. And then he says that the God of Jacob will defend you in time of trouble. Now, that is another interesting point, the God of Jacob.

I listened to a very interesting discussion yesterday on the radio and the topic of the discussion was if Christians, Jews, and Moslems worship the same God. Many people would say it is the same God, that there are many approaches to the same God. But if you read carefully the Koran and if you read carefully the Bible you are going to find that Allah of the Koran is not the God of the Bible.

In what way is he different? Well, let’s look at this one, “the name of the God of Jacob defend thee.” The Koran teaches that Isaac was not the son of the promise to Abraham, that Ishmael was, therefore the God of Jacob would not be the God of the Koran, Jacob being the son of Isaac. So, there is a difference there and there are other differences, but that is far enough I think to settle the question.

The Place of Worship

Then we come to verse two and David says that God will:

Psalms 20:2: “Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;”

Here, David’s desire is that the Lord will send you help from the sanctuary. What is the sanctuary? That means the place of worship. In David’s time, it would have been at Shiloh, that would have been the old tabernacle, the one that Moses built many years before David was ever born. And then later in Solomon’s reign and afterward, there was the temple in Jerusalem. But the sanctuary he is talking about, the Lord will “Send thee help from the sanctuary,” the place where to worship God.

We need to be thankful that we have the freedom to worship God. And we need to exercise that freedom. We need to come and worship God. Those of you gathered here this morning, obviously, you have come to do that. David goes on to say that you will be strengthened from the sanctuary, strengthened out of Zion. Zion is the holy mountain where Jerusalem is and in Psalms and other portions of scripture, it is really talking about Heaven. You would be strengthened by God himself, from the dwelling place of God.

Consider the Offerings You Give

And then in verse three:

Psalms 20:3: “Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.”

This prayer is remembering all the offerings you have given, and that God will remember your offerings. But you will remember your offerings as well. Think about it. Sometimes, preacher, you say to put offerings in a plate, and I put my $5, $10, or whatever in the plate and that is my offering. Well, good, but do you think about it? No, I just kind of do it. You ought to think about it.

As I mentioned earlier in the prayer, that, is part of our worship, giving back to God some of that of which He has blessed us. He told us to do that. It is really not an unreasonable request when you think about it. Just to return to the Lord some of the blessings that He has given to you. He does not ask for all of it.

What He asks all of is your heart, all of your love, all of your devotion. He does not ask for all your money. Wouldn’t the money go with it? It is an interesting question, isn’t it? Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” So, it does say a great deal about what your priorities are.

Years ago, there was a book, and they made a little movie about it, about a man named Stanley Tam. The book and the movie were both called “God Owns My Business.” Stanley Tam discovered a way to recover silver from the film development process and reuse the silver. It was a great idea and it worked well for him. Stanley Tam was a Christian and began to tithe everything from his business of reclaiming silver from the photographic process to the Lord.

His business continued to grow. After a while, he decided to give God 90% and run his business on 10%. He did that and his business continued to grow. After a while he went to a lawyer and had papers drawn up to have 100% of the profits go to God, all of it, he gave it all to God. Look it up it is a true story, Stanley Tam, “God Owns My Business.”

I am not telling you to do that. I am telling you to be thankful, consider the offerings you give to the Lord, and then “accept thy burnt sacrifice.” The burnt sacrifice is obviously a total commitment. It is like the old story, the difference between a contribution and a commitment. Take a breakfast of ham and eggs where the chicken is a contribution, and the pig is a commitment. You understand the difference, don’t you?

Now here is the thing, it says the Lord will “remember all thy offerings” and he ends the verse with “Selah.” You see that word a lot in the Psalms. “Selah” is a signal for the singer that the psalm was written to be sung. It is really a signal for the singer to stop and take a breath and pause for a moment before going to the next verse. But it is also a signal to us to stop, check our surroundings, and meditate on God’s Word. Some have taken this word to mean forever, “so shall it be forever,” similar to the word “Amen.” The word “Amen” means “be it ever so.” So, it is similar to “Amen,” but it is not the same word. You will find “Amen” in scripture also. But “Selah” is a time to pause, think about, and meditate on what you just read.

Desiring the Right Thing

Then in verse four, he says:

Psalms 20:4: “Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.”

Now that is important because the Lord is going to grant you according to your own heart. David’s son, Solomon, wrote:

Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

God will give you the desires of your heart. John writes in I John that whatsoever we ask according to His will, He will give it to you. There is a key phrase there, “according to His will.” If your heart is right with God, He is going to answer your prayers, he is going to give you what you desire when you desire the right thing. Our problem is that sometimes we get caught up with greed or selfishness and we do not desire the right thing. But as long as our desires are honorable, godly, and right, he says that God will grant them to us.

You may say, “Well, preacher, I wanted something and thought it was a good thing and the Lord did not give it to me.” Maybe, He knew something that you did not. I have had that happen in my life where I prayed for something and what I prayed for did not happen and looking back on it, I am glad it did not happen. But because that did not happen, something better did happen that I had no idea about. I have seen that more than once and I could tell you stories about that.

Rejoice in Your Salvation

But then in verse five, David says:

Psalms 20:5: “We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.”

What David is saying here is that we will rejoice together “in thy salvation,” we ought to rejoice in our salvation, we ought to sing together, it is why we come to sing hymns, where we are praising God for salvation. We start each Sunday morning service with “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.” We rejoice together in salvation.

And then we name the name of God in honor, and we set up banners. What did we do here? We set up banners over here, our flag, a banner of freedom, our American flag. And over there is the Christian flag. We set up banners just as the Bible tells us to do.

So, we rejoice in our salvation, we rejoice in the name of our God, we set up banners, and “the Lord will fulfill all our petitions,” and I want you to know and understand that. God is interested in what you care about, what you pray, and He promises to answer the prayers of his children.

The Lord Will Save You

Then in verse six:

Psalms 20:6: “Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.”

The Lord saves those who trust in Him – that is the primary idea behind this phrase. “Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed,” David knew he was to be anointed as king. He knows the Lord saved him, but he will save you too if you put your trust in Him. “The LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.”

Romans 10:13: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

You call on Him, you trust Him, and He will save you. He has promised to do that. You can count on that. Verse six is where we get the idea of salvation through grace through faith.

Use What You Have for the Lord

Then, that brings us to verse seven:

Psalms 20:7: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

I always loved automobiles all my life. I had my first car before I was a Christian. But after I became a Christian, I thought a lot about my car. To be honest with you, I probably thought a little too much about my car and then somebody brought this verse to me, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” I was convicted by that verse because I thought too much about that car.

I was in a revival service and the evangelist was Michael Guido, probably not a name most of you would know. He had a radio broadcast for many years called “The Sword.” He was an excellent Bible teacher and evangelist. Michael Guido talked about surrendering fully to the Lord. I came forward during the invitation and I talked to brother Guido, and I said, “I feel the Lord would want me to give my car to Him, but how do I go about doing that for Him?”

Michael Guido said, “You use it to bring people to church.” I did that, I brought people to church. Now, understand, the car had four seats in it, bucket seats in the front and the back. I got eleven people in it to come to church. Was it legal? Probably not, there were no seatbelt laws in those days. Later, I got a bigger car, a Chevrolet station wagon which could hold more people. I got twenty-nine people in the station wagon to come to church. It was a lot of people. As I went around a corner, one of my hubcaps popped off.

You might think I was crazy, and I probably was. But I was trying to do what I thought the Lord wanted me to do, to use my car for God’s service. Back up a minute, I got a four-seater car and got sixteen people in that. Later, I got a Camaro, a little smaller than the station wagon, and got eleven people in that one. It was very crowded and uncomfortable, but we got people to church. What happened after that? I talked to the church to get a bus and we started using busses to get people to church.

What am I getting at? I am getting at, take what you have and use it. I am not telling you to do crazy things as I have done. I am telling you to take what you have and give it to the Lord and let the Lord use you. I never did get a ticket. I probably could have but it never happened and thank God, nobody got hurt, but they did get to church, and we were happy to get them there.

The verse says, “Some trust in chariots.” Maybe your trust is in a vehicle or maybe some other material thing you think is going to save you or get you through. And “some trust in horses,” some trust in the strength of arms, and I thank God for our military. But even the greatest armies in the world have lost battles. At the time of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Britain had the largest navy in the world in both of those situations and had the largest army in the world. They won a few battles, but they did not win those wars. The Roman army was once the greatest army on earth but was defeated. We could go on with that, but I think you have the idea.

The fact of the matter is, we ought to thank God for our military and thank God for those who serve, and we ought to thank those who serve, but we ought not to put all our faith in them or vehicles. Some put their strength in nature, that nature is going to take care of everything. No, nature is not going to do anything that God does not direct it to. We need to understand that.

What Do You Trust in?

Notice what the verse says:

Psalms 20:7: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

What we need to do is trust the Lord himself. If we are to be saved, we need to trust the Lord himself. If we are to have freedom, we need to trust the Lord himself. If we are to have liberty, we are to trust the Lord himself that things are going to be right.

I have said this here before and I have said it often, I believe you ought to vote. You have the right to vote in this country and you ought to exercise that right to vote. I vote at every election including national elections, state elections, county elections, city elections, whatever, if there is a chance to vote, I vote.

The people I vote for do not always win but sometimes they do. But I still vote, I do not give up on the process and you should not either. You ought to vote, as we just read, according to the dictates of your own conscience. You ought to vote for the people you believe stand for the things that are right, not because it is for one party or another, but because of what is right and what is true. You ought to vote.

You may say that you do not know who the candidates are or what the issues are. Then educate yourself. You can do that. Most of you, not all of you, have access to a computer. You can use that and get educated as to who the candidates are and what the issues are. For example, if there is an election coming up you can go to the Supervisor of Elections Office on the Internet and see everything that is going to be on the ballot, who the candidates are, what the issues are, and from there, you can go to the various websites of those candidates and look up those issues and learn what it is all about. Then you can vote intelligently according to what you believe is right. And I strongly urge you to do that.

But I have said this many times too. If we vote for all the right things and we vote for all the right people, whatever right things and people you think they are, all that is not going to save our nation. It is not going to save our society. Why not if we have the right people leading and doing the right thing? I will tell you why.

We need God. We cannot trust in human strength alone. We have to put our trust in God. And that is why the motto of our country is In God We Trust. It is not In Strength We Trust. It is not even In Morality We Trust. It is In God We Trust. What we need more than anything else in this country is a genuine spiritual revival. We need a wholesale turning back to the Lord. We have edged God out of society. It was never meant to be. I think you understand.

Those Right with God

By the way, I did not read to you from those different colonies which became states, some of them had in their requirements in their Constitutions, that for a person to hold office in that colony or state as governor or any public office, they had to profess to be a Christian. Really? Yes, they had to profess to be a Christian. Why, did they hate everybody else? They did not hate everybody else. They knew that if they were Christians, they would have, or should have, people of character leading them, people who cared about the spiritual nature of the colony or state. That is not unreasonable at all.

Someone may be wise and have good ideas and is not Christian. I would not argue that point, there are people who are wise and have good ideas who are not Christian. But we have to go beyond just wisdom and good ideas, we have to consider the spiritual nature of things. Those who are spiritually right with God are going to take you in the right direction.

Human wisdom will carry us so far but not far enough. The psalm says, “Some trust in chariots [in the strength of arms], and some in horses [horses are known for their strength]: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” So important.

I was watching an old TV show recently, it was a western, and people were in trouble, they needed a rope to tie around them to pull them out, and the hero of the show tied a rope around these two people and pulled them out. I was thinking, “You’ve got a horse right there, he could have tied them to the horse and let the horse pull them out.” The horse is a lot stronger than the man, but I guess they wanted to show the man as the hero.

But “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” We have come to a point, and it is not new, it is not something that happened in the last year. We’ve come to a point in our life, our national life, where we do not want people to pray in public. And if they pray in public, do not mention Jesus, do not mention Jesus anywhere.

Our country was not started that way. I read to you earlier how the state of New York’s original charter said that they granted freedom to worship Jesus Christ. It is very clear. And I remind you, what I said just a few minutes ago, several of them, not all of them, colonies and states required to hold public office, the person had to profess to be a Christian. Now they are never put a denominational tag on that, and they would not have. But they said that you had to profess to be a Christian.

The fact of the matter is, we have lost that, we have turned away from that, we have turned away from God. And again, it is not a new thing, it started a long time ago before some of the people in this room were even born. But it has carried us to where we are today.

Fundamentalists

More than a century ago, around 1900, a group of men was led by R.A. Torrey, he was the successor of D.L. Moody, of Moody Bible Institute, a great evangelist in his own right. Torrey wrote many books and organized a group of men together who were Christians, and they wrote a series of four books that were sold as a set. The title of the set of books was “The Fundamentals.” The group of men was from different denominations, and they believed certain things were true and are the fundamentals of Christianity, that this is what Christians believe regardless of denomination.

What were those fundamentals? One, the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Two, the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. Three, the deity of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is God. Four, Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection is the only hope of salvation, it is by grace through faith in Him, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the virgin birth of Jesus, and the promised return of Jesus. The group said that this is what all Christians believe. You may vary on other things, they did not go into those other things, but this is what Christians believe and they wrote this four-volume set outlining that.

Back in the 1990s, I am pretty sure it was, the publisher, put out a new version of that and had taken out some of the old writings and put in some newer writings and created a one-volume book called “The Fundamentals.” And I am going to tell you to read the old version, not the new version. The old one is much better, the new one is a little watered down, even though some people who I highly respect created that one-volume version, they weakened it.

I bring that up to tell you this. When they wrote that four-volume set of books back in 1900, they looked at the trends of their day. They could not see the future, they were not prophets, they just looked at the direction things were headed. Now you do that all the time. You get into your car and start down the road, you are going a certain speed, and you look at it and you know where you want to arrive and be at your destination at a certain time. Everybody does this.

So, they looked at the trends of their day, the 1800s, and the new century of their day, the early 1900s. They said that if we continue the path that we are traveling now, by the end of the 20th century, America will no longer be based on Judeo-Christian philosophy. It will be based on Eastern religious philosophy. You know what? They were exactly right. We need to get back to the fundamentals.

By the way, that four-volume set of books is where the term “fundamentalist” comes from. Today, because of our news media, fundamentalist means some whacko nut is going to plant a bomb somewhere, that is not right. It is those who believe in the foundational, fundamental doctrines of Christianity — that is a fundamentalist. We do not throw that term out a lot these days because people get the wrong idea, like being a terrorist. We do not advocate violence. We do not advocate any of that sort of thing. But weapons of our warfare are spiritual, not carnal.

Back to Basics of Christianity

I want to share this with you, and it is so important that you know and understand it. We need to get back to the basics of Christianity and we need a revival for our country to get back to the basics of Christianity. It was founded on the basis of Christianity, and we need to get back to the basics of Christianity.

We need to believe the Bible. We need to stop questioning the Bible. I do not mean reading and it and saying I do not understand that. You look for the answers and you will get them. We need to get back to believing the Bible, we need to get back to trusting the Bible.

We need to get back to honoring Jesus Christ. We need to understand that the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection are essential doctrines, that the deity of Christ is an essential doctrine. We need to understand these things. Salvation by grace through faith is an essential doctrine.

There are some things you can compromise on and some things you cannot. What kind of things can you compromise on? I’ll tell you what. I know of only one other church in Delray Beach, maybe there is more than one, that has a Sunday evening service. Where in the Bible does it say thou shalt have a Sunday evening service? It does not say that. If a church decides not to have a Sunday evening service does that mean they have gone into doctrinal error? Not necessarily so. Why do we do it? We believe it is right. We believe it is the right thing to do and meet at least three times a week to get together to really thrive spiritually.

And there is something else most people do not think about. Look around you, earlier in the service several people left and went next door. What are they doing? They are next door working with the children. When do they get to go to church and sit down? It is not Sunday morning, is it? No, it is Sunday evening when they get to have church. Does that make sense to you? And there are other people that it works well with them to come to Sunday evening service. I encourage you to do that. But again, you are not violating scripture if your church does not have a Sunday evening service.

But you are violating the scriptures if you do not believe the scriptures. You are violating the scriptures if you do not believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven. You are violating the scriptures if you do not believe in His deity, the virgin birth, and bodily resurrection. You are violating the scriptures if you do not uphold those things because you are changing what the Bible itself teaches.

Spiritual Revival

So, we need to be different than the world. We need to remember the name of the Lord our God. We need to get back to God and have a spiritual revival. In the history of this country, there have been periods of great spiritual revival.

During the colonial period, just before the Revolution, there was what was called the Great Awakening, a tremendous spiritual revival. It started with one Presbyterian congregation and spread through the colonies. Many years later, there was what was called the Second Great Awakening. Years after that, it may surprise you, but during the American Civil War, there was a great spiritual revival. Men like D.L. Moody picked up on that and continued it afterward. Why was there a spiritual revival during the Civil War? Because both sides came to realize that they needed God. Just fighting among themselves was not the answer, they knew they needed God.

Other times under great national stress, there have been revivals. After September 11, 2001, there was a short period of revival, it did not last long. There was a revival of patriotism, a revival of people getting back to the churches, but it was short-lived. I could give you a good explanation of why it was so short-lived, but we will not take time for that this morning. But that is exactly what our country needs.

You may ask yourself if it does not matter who we vote for. It does matter who you vote for. But voting, as important as it is, is not enough. We have got to get down to the spiritual nature of things. We have got to understand that it is the heart that needs to be reached. So, again, David says:

Psalms 20:7: “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

God Is Our King

And in the next verse:

Psalms 20:8: “They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.”

What is he talking about there? The unbeliever will fail, ultimately. They may have great success for a time, but it is temporary. Those who know the Lord, those who are risen with Him, those who stand with Him, they are going to be with Him forever.

Psalms 20:9: “Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.”

This is a prayer of David’s heart. He calls upon the LORD, again, all capital letters, the salvation name of God, and asks to save us.

Romans 10:13: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

But you have to call upon it in faith. Verses nine and ten before that says:

Romans 10:9: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Romans 10:10: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Some will name the name of the Lord and say they are Christian but not place their faith and trust in Him. Is there a difference? All the difference of eternity.

I heard this many times, but I hear someone say it on the radio recently, “Many people miss Heaven by the distance of the head and the heart.” They know I their head what is true and right, but they have not trusted the Lord in their heart. And that is precisely what has to be done.

So, it says, “Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.” The king is the Lord himself. In that hymn, we sang a while ago, “My Country Tis of Thee,” notice the last line is “great God our king.” Who is the king? God. God is our king, and we need to get back to that, we need to understand that, we need to act as though that is true.

God’s Messages to You

The Lord has sent us messages. Do you wish God would speak to you? He has, He has given you the Bible. He has spoken to you. Do you want to hear from God? Then you ought to read your Bible. You pray, He hears you when you pray, He will answer you in the Bible. Let the Lord send you messages and then listen to what He has to say to you about His love for you. Listen to what He says about the service He wants you to do and how to live a life that is connected to Him. It is all in the Bible.

You may want God to tell you day by day. God does tell you what to do in the Bible. There are places in the Bible that say, “thou shalt.” When you see “thou shalt,” then that is what you ought to do. There are places in the Bible that say, “thou shalt not.” When you see “thou shalt not,” then that is what you should not do. Let’s go farther, there are places in the Bible that say, “for such is the will of God” or this is the will of God concerning you. Well, guess what? That is the will of God to you. It is pretty clear, isn’t it?

You may say that it doesn’t tell you whether you should buy a certain item, to go to Walmart or somewhere else. No, it does not tell you things like that. Because if it did tell you every little thing like that, the Bible would be so thick you would never be able to read it all. God gives you the principles and allows you to make your own decisions.

The truth of the matter is, whether you are going to buy that item at Walmart or not, I am not saying it is not important, it might be important, particularly financially important for you. But what I am saying is you follow the Lord and let the Lord lead you through His Word and through His Spirit. You will not have to search to know God’s will, you will already be living God’s will and He will guide you according to His will. That is such an important thing to understand.

In God We Trust Always

We come to the conclusion of the whole matter as Solomon says. Where do you put your trust today? Is your trust in God? Or is your trust in government? I am not preaching against the government. What I am saying is, do you primarily trust God, or do you trust the government? Do you trust in God, or do you trust in chariots? Do you trust in God, or do you trust in horses? Do you trust in God, or do you trust in material things? Do you trust in God, or do you trust in your own wisdom?

Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Proverbs 3:6: “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

And He shall give you the desires of your heart because you have the right desires.

Next question. Do you know the Savior? Do you know that you have been born again? Do you know that you have been saved? If you close your eyes for the last time and breathe your last breath, where would your soul be for eternity? If you think you will be in Heaven but are not sure of that, you need to make sure. You need to understand that Jesus Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again on the third day, and what He asked us to do is believe that He paid for our sins, trust that He forgave us for our sins, and promises to give us eternal life.

Pray for Our Leaders

Third question. Will you pray for revival in our country? Pray for our leaders of this country, the Bible tells us to do that. You may not have voted for the people in office, but that is not what it is about. You know when the men who wrote the New Testament, wrote the New Testament, they were not under godly leaders. Yet they write to fear God and honor the king. Who was the king when that was written? Caesar. And Caesar was just such a wonderful godly ruler who loved Christians, No! Absolutely not. But it says to fear God and honor the king.

We need to honor and respect the government. We need to honor and respect the law. We need to do that. But we need to pray. Pray for those in leadership over you. Pray for the city council. You may not even know who they are. Find out who they are and pray for them. Pray for the mayor, pray for the county commission, pray for the state legislature, pray for the governor, pray for the president, pray for the vice president, pray for those in Congress. Pray for these people.

What are you supposed to pray? Well, for one, it would be good to pray for them to be saved, wouldn’t it? That would be a great place to start. For number two, pray for them to have the wisdom to make wise decisions because their decisions affect all the rest of us. Pray for them. Do you think some of those people are going to get saved? Listen, everybody who is not saved needs to be saved. It is that plain and simple. So, if you are a born-again Christian, there was a time when you were not. Was there a chance for you to be saved? Obviously, there was. You need to pray for other people to be saved. Pray for governmental leaders to be saved.

You may think that certain governmental leaders will never get saved. But what a testimony it would be if they did. Wouldn’t that be a miracle? Wouldn’t that be wonderful? If you think that maybe God is not going to do that, then maybe He will not. You pray in faith believing, He might.

I talked to a preacher from Miami years ago. We had a governor, I will not mention his name, I know some of you will remember him and others are too young to remember. The governor was not a terrible governor but not known to be godly either. This preacher in Miami got to meet one-on-one with the governor and he shared the Gospel with him, and the governor trusted the Lord as his Savior.

Did that governor trust the Lord? I hope so. Things did not greatly change after that. Shortly before he finished his second term, the election had been held and a new governor elected, he died. Is his soul in Heaven? I trust so. I am saying it is important to pray for that man’s soul. It is important for that Miami preacher to talk to him. Understand this, listen to what the Lord has to say to you. Pray for revival in our country.

And the third question. Will you serve Him with the best that you have at your disposal? Like Stanley Tam who gave everything he had? Start with giving your heart to God and let the Lord lead you from there.

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