Sermon Tone Analysis

Memorial Day is a time each year when we pause to remember those who laid down their lives for family, friends and freedom.

One week after the Pearl Harbor attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt said,

Daniel

“Those who long enjoy such privileges that we enjoy forget in time that others have died to win them.”

Freedom is never really free; it’s almost always bought with the blood of patriots

The biggest battle we, as Americans, are facing today is the battle for the very soul of our nation.

We can see this all around us in the news every day… on our neighborhoods… our schools.

The erosion of our society has been a slow process that has sped up in the last few years.

It doesn’t really matter whether Republicans or Democrats control the government, the nation that most of us love and admire continues to erode and decline.

The position we are in today is because of what we tolerated yesterday.

The position we will be in tomorrow will be because of what we tolerate today.

History tends to repeat itself over the centuries.

In Daniel’s day, he saw a lot of what we see today.

describes the collapse of a culture.

Babylon was strong militarily and the people were comfortable behind the strong walls of the city.

However, this mighty nation crumbled from within.

In , Babylon make four huge mistakes.

They lost all remembrance.

The lost all sense of reality.

They lost all sense of restraint.

And they lost all sense of respect.

My prayer is that we would be challenged to be a people of repentance and turn back to the Lord.

Anything we do without God is empty.

Learn the lessons from the past.

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Belshazzar’s problem, as with many people today, was that he had lost all sense of remembrance.

He had forgotten the lessons from the past.

He had forgotten the lessons his predecessor had learned the hard way.

Pride comes before a fall and that’s what Belshazzar was doing… lifting himself above God.

This the same thing Neb was doing when God struck him and let him roam around like a wild animal.

Pride always leads to a fall.

God hates pride… ask Adam and Eve… David… Peter...

The USA used to honor God unashamedly and openly.

You see that in the monuments in Washington and other places.

It’s printed on our money… in God we trust.

There was a time when we gave God the credit for our successes and blessings and turned to Him in prayer during our difficult times.

“A nation that does not remember what it was yesterday does not know what it is today, or what it is trying to do.

We are about a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.”

President Woodrow Wilson

While America is still the greatest country on the planet, thanks to the men and women w remember and honor today, in many ways we have forgotten our past.

We have forgotten what made our nation the greatest nation on earth - ever.

We have forgotten what made us the nation that people from all over the world would risk everything to come here.

What makes us different from our neighbors?

Canada was settled by French Explorers looking for gold.

Mexico was settled by Spanish explorers who were also looking for gold.

America was settled by people looking for freedom… freedom from monarchy and freedom of religion.

They were looking for a home where they could worship their God without persecution.

America was settled by people of Faith

We have fallen a long way from where we began.

It’s not uncommon for Federal Courts to try to eliminate manger scenes at Christmas.

You have city governments banning travel to states passing heartbeat laws.

A couple was threatened with eviction for leading a Bible study in their assisted living.

Local governments have tried to ban Chic-Fil-A from airports and colleges because they support Biblical Beliefs and a Biblical Marriage.

However CFA does not discriminate.

Lower courts said is was ok for a school system to force students to repeat an Islamic prayer while prayer (Christian Prayer is outlawed)

Unfortunately there are too many similarities between ancient Babylon and modern day America.

Just like Babylon, there will be an expensive price to pay when we forget who were once were.

America is becoming more like Ancient Babylon

We need to be anchored in reality.

Perspective - Outside the walls of the city of Babylon, the Medes and the Persians had surrounded the city.

However inside the Babylonians were partying and having a great time because they thought their history of dominance and power were enough.

They trusted in the walls around the city which they thought were invincible.

Those walls were 60 miles in circumference.

But everywhere you looked, the enemy was surrounding the city.

But the walls were high and thick and impossible to penetrate.

They had water and 20 years of rations inside the walls.

No problem.

Belshazzar lost all sense of reality and threw a giant party with thousands in attendance all the while, destruction is at the wall.

When we feel secure in our own strength, danger is on the other side of the wall.

People think that because they got away with something, they can get away with it again.

The king (Belshazzar) was so caught up with himself… with his position and power that he forgot that the real strength of the kingdom wasn’t the walls or the military… but in the people inside the walls.

Babylon fell because they had become corrupt in the inside with no sense of remembrance or reality.

I love America, but some think God needs America to carry out his plan here on earth.

And he has for years.

American missionaries have taken the Gospel all over the world… built hospitals all over the world… built schools and orphanages… freed people from oppression… We have won all the wars and we are the lone super-power, although China is coming on.

But God doesn’t need America to do what he is going to do.

Here is what God is saying today.

We, myself included, think we are invincible but at one time, Israel was the most powerful nation on the planet.

They were one nation under God.

There motto really was in God we trust.

Three thousand years later, God gave birth to another nation.

God gave America a law built on Israels ancient commandments.

Now is the time to remember who we are at our roots and where we have come from.

It’s time for us to look at the reality of what’s going on around us and pray… for God to forgive us and for us to turn back to God … only then will God heal and restore our land.

It will not come from either political party.

We must live moral lives.

When people or nations don’t remember… when they lose any sense of reality, the will also stray from any moral absolutes and lose all sense of restraint.

The Babylonians were too blind to see the correlation between the moral decay of their culture and the national decline.