Dear Friends of our Savior and fellow citizens of the greatest nation in this world:

Gracious God, wonderful Lord, we praise your name for the blessings of living in a free country. Keep our country free, great, and prosperous according to your will, and lead citizens everywhere to acknowledge you as the only source of true freedom and the provider of all blessings. The only reason our country is great is because we are a nation under God – under You! God bless America and bless us in Jesus! Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Surprisingly, sadly, there has been much debate over the last few years about whether the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is a violation of the U.S. Constitution because it creates an "establishment" of religion.

The phrase "under God" causes conflicts for those who don’t believe in God, like the atheists, or for those who believe in lots of gods, like the Hindus. The politically correct believe that we should remove the phrase "under God" because it can hurt people’s feelings.

However, you and I are first and foremost citizens of God’s kingdom before we are American citizens. When I speak the Pledge of Allegiance or sing "God Bless America," I believe what I am pledging and singing. I believe with all my heart that this nation was founded by God, is great because of God, and God has blessed our nation and made it the greatest nation in the world. I don’t care if it’s politically incorrect to say that our nation isn’t a nation under Buddha or Allah or Mother Earth or no god. Our nation is a nation under God, the true God, the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And if that offends people, tough. Jesus told us that we would be criticized and we would offend unbelievers when we stand up for the truth. Well, today, we are standing up for the truth – the truth that we are one nation under the Triune God, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

"In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some off-the-wall, Christian, Right Wing, political slogan - it is our national motto. It is engraved in stone in the House of Representatives in our Capitol and it is printed on our currency. We adopted this motto because … it is the truth!

God is in our pledge, our National Anthem, nearly every patriotic song, and in our founding documents. We honor the Son of God’s birth, death, and resurrection as holidays, and we turn to him in prayer in times of national crisis. If God offends then tough, because God is a part of our culture and we are proud to have him.

But isn’t it sad that we even have to spend time talking about this in our nation. We are one nation under God. That is what we are here to celebrate in our Independence Celebration. However, sadly, our nation has often declared independence from God. As Christians, we see that our nation needs to once again declare dependence upon God.

In our sermon text we have the words of the Almighty God spoken through his faithful prophet Moses. God was telling the children of Israel that when they conquered the land of Canaan, settled in it, eaten from the productive land, built homes and could enjoy what God had given them, they should praise the Lord. He reminded them of the mighty acts he had done for them in their history.

Moses reminded the people of how God had shed his grace on them. He made the nation of Israel great. He rescued them from slavery in Egypt. He led them safely through 40 years of wandering in the desert and rescued them from snakes and scorpions. He fed them manna when they were hungry and gave them water from the rock when they were thirsty. Now, he was going to give them victory in war over their enemies. And all God asked in return is that they not forget him. That they don’t become proud and think that it was their power that caused them to become great. That they don’t declare independence from their God.

You see, God knew what would happen if they forgot him. "If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God." God warned the people, but they still forgot him. They were conquered, carried off, and then forgotten. It happened just as God said.

Our forefathers fought, bled, and died at places such as Bunker Hill, Antietam, San Juan, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Korea, Vietnam... Why? To give us freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God allowed this to happen to make our nation great. And we are great. God has blessed our nation with education available for all children; the best healthcare in the world; the technology to fly and drive and call around the around the world and have running water in our bathrooms. (That’s pretty cool.) We have freedoms in our country that most other countries in the world don’t enjoy: A democratic society, the right to bear arms, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion.

However, there are many in our society who want to have freedom from religion. We as a nation have often declared our independence from God. We eliminated God from the equation and what are the results?

In the ‘40’s and ‘50’s, student problems were chewing gum and talking in class; in the year 2004, rape and murder and guns in school are the trend. America is now number one in teen pregnancy and violent crime. The fabric of the American family has been torn by divorce, abuse, and drug use. Every day a new holocaust of 5,000 unborn die through abortion. Bibles, prayer, and the Ten Commandments are banned while pornography floods our homes like open sewers.

What has happened to America? Haven’t we done exactly what God warned his people about centuries ago? Have we forgotten that the Lord is the God who made this nation what it is today?

Since we have taken God out of society, we are in danger of becoming like God’s chosen people. People protest that prostitution and marijuana should be legalized. Gay marriages and gay bishops in the church are starting to become the norm. The lines of right and wrong have been blurred. When God fades from a nation’s conscience, one can justify almost anything.

God says: You shall not kill, yet America has given murder a new name – family planning. We in America like to camouflage sin with new terminologies. God calls it drunkenness, we call it alcoholism or a social disease. God calls it "unnatural sexual relations", we call it homosexuality, gay rights or an alternate lifestyle. God calls it perversion, we call it adult entertainment. God calls it immorality, we say there are no absolutes. We could go on and on with so many more examples. But the cold hard fact is that we are living out the truth of God’s Word in our sermon text.

Our problem in America isn’t with the degenerates, the atheists, the courtrooms or the schools. The problem is us. We are American citizens. We can’t blame this problem on other people. It is our problem just as much as theirs. We are guilty by association. We have often joined with our nation in declaring independence from God.

The only hope for America is God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The only hope for our country is God – if we repent of our ways, stand firm and say, "We need God in America again!"

They keep it in under glass that seals out any air getting to it. When it’s not on display, it’s kept underground in a vault, actually a bombproof vault. It is the most important document in our American history. It is, of course, the Declaration of Independence. The men who signed it that hot July 4^th in Philadelphia knew it was very important, but I wonder if they could have possibly conceived what a sacred piece of paper it would become to the nation it launched. Here were subjects of the English king daring to declare their independence from their king. It changed their lives forever. It changed the world forever. And once a year, every Fourth of July, America stops to remember that Independence Day.

For America’s Founding Fathers, it was a Declaration of Independence from their king that changed everything. For you, as a child of God, it is your Declaration of Dependence on your King that changes everything.

God wanted his children of Israel to declare their total dependence upon him. That is exactly what he desires from us. "You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today."

Sadly, though, when it comes to God running our lives, we’ve all declared our independence. Even if our theology compels us to officially trust God, we are, for the most part, Sinatra-ites. You remember Frank Sinatra’s signature song "I did it my way." Even for us Christians, that’s often how we really live. We’ll figure this out by ourselves… we’ll find a way… we’ll make it happen… we won’t wait… we’ll find a way to get it now. We tend to depend on our plans, our talent, our cleverness, our persuasiveness, our hard work, our connections, or our strength.

That’s why we need to declare our dependence upon God daily! Jesus made it very clear that we must depend on him. He said, "I am the vine; you are the branches." (John 15:5) In other words, the fruit of your life does not come from you; it comes from Jesus through you, like the life of the vine comes through the branch.

He goes on to say, "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing." Nothing that matters. Nothing eternal. Nothing that really works over the long haul. Nothing will work in our nation. Nothing will work without being connected to Christ – not our government, our schools, society as a whole. Jesus didn’t say, "Without me, you can’t do much." Nothing! He says it all comes from him.

If you want your life to be great, depend on Jesus. If we want our nation to be great, we must depend on Jesus.

God allowed us to be free from Britain’s tyranny by using George Washington and his troops. Jesus freed us from Satan’s tyranny with his own blood and righteousness. Today we are in a war against terrorism. Every day Jesus fights alongside of us in the war against the terrors of drugs, disease, and death. Our forefathers fought at places like Bunker Hill, the shores of Normandy, the jungles of Vietnam. Jesus fought the battle against sin on the hill of Calvary. He won the battle against Satan and his armies on the cross. He crushed death with his resurrection from the hole of the grave. The crosses at Arlington National Cemetery are monuments to brave men and women who gave their lives for their country. The old rugged cross is a monument to the brave soldier Christ who gave his life for our souls.

We are dependent upon God. Without him, without Christ, without the Holy Spirit, we are nothing. Our nation is nothing and will eventually go the way of the nation of Israel. But with God and with Christ, we are great. Our nation is great. Every morning we must stand in the presence of our Almighty God in our prayers and confess that we are nothing without him. We must daily sign the Declaration of Dependence to our King – King Jesus.

The only hope for America is Jesus. The only hope for our nation is him! We must repent of our evil ways, renounce our pride, declare our dependence upon him, and declare from the Church house to the White House, "We need God in America again!" We need to put Christ first … in all things. We need to declare our independence from Satan and our dependence on Christ. Then our nation is under God. Amen.

Glory! Glory, hallelujah! Our God is marching on! Amen.