Lead While It Is Today - Pastor Richard Leahey

Pastor Richard Leahey’s sermon delivered in anticipation of America’s 250th anniversary, weaving together national history and spiritual awakening. He reflects on personal memories from the Bicentennial to emphasize the importance of prayer and repentance for the nation's future. By examining the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, he argues that American liberty is rooted in divine endowment rather than government decree. He tracks how historical movements, such as the Reformation and the Great Awakenings, provided the moral framework necessary for the country’s founding and survival through the Civil War. Ultimately, he characterizes modern political friction as a moral crisis rather than a legal one, calling for a return to faith to bridge national divisions 

Transcript

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It's great to be here with you today. And I thank Pastor Steve for allowing me to have this opportunity as we get ready for the Pray America 250th anniversary of America. I remember the 200th anniversary. I was 20 years old. Deborah and I were just saved. We got saved around night when I was 19. She was 18, I think. So when the 200th anniversary came in uh 1776, we were, as I said, 20 years old, just newly saved, going to the Pentecostal church, but still involved in our Catholic church, St. Francis Xavier, where I was playing uh folk masses with guitar, you know, the going thing back in the 70s. And so I went up to the priest of our parish, and uh, because I was attending there, that's the church I attended all my life. And so I was just so enthralled with the whole idea of 200 years anniversary of America. And uh uh the Lord just put it in my heart to do, you know, they all had these parades, and so I asked the priest, I said, uh, Monsignor, I said, is it okay? Do I have your permission? We'll put together some floats and trucks and some landscape friends I have, get their trucks and trailers, and we'll just put up banners and have a message of Christ. And he looked at me a little awkward because no one really did that in that church, but I was just so full of Jesus and excitement. I said, Let's go preach Jesus. Amen. So he gave me permission, and we had two or three trailer trucks and signs and banners, and uh, we entered the parade, uh, St. Francis Xavier in a cushion at Mass, and we declared Jesus, had a bunch of people, kids and adults, passing out candies with tracks uh taped to them all the time. And uh, so that was the 200th anniversary. Now here we are, the 250th anniversary. And so I would ask you if you can join us next, this coming Saturday, 9 to 10. It's gonna be a time of prayer. We won't have fancy uh banners or fancy uh technology, but we are going to reach out to God in prayer, in intercession, crying out and in repentance for our nation and our own sins. Someone say amen. And we're gonna believe God to move in America. Amen. I would like us to turn to Psalm 33, 12. I was uh telling the uh the sound booth and technology people in the bag there, whenever I preach a message here or everywhere, uh usually I have 15 or 20 messages on, so they have to plug in, right? So this morning I went to them and uh I think it was Vinny and Ryan, one what one of my last messages here. Uh I gave them the list, and there's 15 or 20 scriptures, and I said, Now remember, guys, I don't always use all of them. And they looked at me and said, Pastor, we actually sometimes have a little bet going on, like, how many will he really get to this Sunday? Amen. And so my good news is this. I told them, I said, sit down when I tell you this news. This Sunday I have like six. God does move, amen. So we have six, and we're gonna read three or four right now. Psalm thirty-three, verse twelve. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Matthew twelve, twenty five. Jesus said, and he knew their thoughts, and he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself will not stand. Every kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Matthew 16, 1 through 4. Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing Jesus asked him that he would that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening. Hypocrites. You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the times you live in. Acts chapter one. Verse nine. Received them out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. And they said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you will come again in the very same manner as you saw him go into heaven. Precious Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus, your dear Son, who you sent, the first incarnation, born of the Virgin Mary, angels, shepherds, wise men, and a host of ordinary citizens all beheld their first incarnation. Now we are here, in particular here in America, waiting for the second great return of Christ to come. And things as we know it will be no more, and eternity shall rule and reign forever and ever and ever. So, Lord, today speak to our hearts and everyone in this congregation. Whoever turns their heart to a place of fresh humility as they hear the word of God, touch them, overwhelm them with your grace and mercy. Hearts and minds pull down strongholds, cast down imaginations that have bogged down some people with minds that just are not free. They're not free to think. And Lord, just deliver people's minds to a place of peace and quietness and sanity of thinking. Whoever is sick and diseased, may the Holy Spirit march through them as they turn and ponder the things of God and the return of Jesus Christ. And in that great joy, a fresh sense of humility, overshadow their sick body, cast out disease, cast out sickness, and just heal. Bring salvation to the lost, baptism the spirits of those who seek your power to finish their race in strength and grace and mercy. We thank you now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. What a title of this message this morning. Lead while it is today. Lead while it is today. The Declaration of Independence. It's not their fault in some to some degree, they never are taught that in school. They don't grasp what the declaration of independence really is. They don't even know really what it is. Why? But a lot of historians say that the declaration of independence and our constitution are two of the greatest documents of human history. Unlike other governments who were founded for different and on different premises, the declaration and constitution clearly state that this particular country, known as the United States of America, was founded solely and completely on the reality that there is an Almighty Creator, and all men are born in this great world because of him, and these words we assume among the powers of the earth to separate an equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain, with certain unalienable rights. And among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These words, penned by what young people are told today, just self-mongering, arrogant, imperialist, were so profound to have a group of people say that they're going to separate from the strongest kingdom on earth, the British Empire. So the 13 colonies were ruled by Britain. You could put up the 13 colonies there, Vinny, if you want. So that territory there, you see, all of North America, what became later as the United States of America, but the 13 colonies since 1516, early 17, that's what America was before she became America. And these 13 colonies got together and told the Empire, the British Empire, who ruled over them from England, that we choose to be separate and become a nation and take our place, and that's what's referring to, take our place separate and yet an equal station, which the laws of nature and nature's God. That all men are created equal, created by a God, not evolved by chance. And they are endowed by their creator, not a government, not a man, not a class system, not a dictator, but all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable, unsurrenderable, unable to take away unalienable rights, and those three are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now the pursuit of happiness, people can understand life, liberty, but that pursuit of happiness is so butchered today. Some people think, see, whatever makes me happy, that's a right. I have it in the Constitution, you are dead wrong. Whatever I decide for myself, that's my pursuit of happiness. That's a right I have, you are dead wrong. Any form of lifestyle that I choose, that's my right because that will make me happy. You are dead wrong. That phrase, the pursuit of happiness, many believe it had a connotation of owning land, and the real emphasis was because if you own land, you become a functional, responsible, producing citizen among many, and you will be a blessing to society. So, in essence, the pursuit of happiness wasn't so you could do whatever you want to make yourself happy, it was to become a functioning part of society, and you turn and add a blessing to society, that would be a cause of my happiness. Leave that map up until we go to the next one. Okay, Vinny, please, thank you. Thirteen colonies. In that total land mass was a population of two and a half million people. Only two and a half million. And many of you know Rhode Island has one million, a little over one million. So in all that land mass was two and a half million people, and that included roughly 500,000 slaves. And you see Rhode Island there, right now we have a million there. So you can see that there was quite a lot of uh land and uh space in between those two and a half million people. The Declaration and the Constitution, as we said, have proven to be two, among many others, but two of the greatest documents of human history. We must fully understand what led up to these writers of the Declaration stating such profound truths about God, the Creator, and him being the sole author of this nation. Before the American Revolution, which occurred 1776 to 1783, eight years of battles, over 230 individual battles. Many war, uh those that study war figure there was 50 major battles that literally had a great impact on determining the outcome of the Revolutionary War. But before we became a United States of America, 259 years before that, another revolution took place. We must understand that, otherwise, we will lose what we truly and how we got here. So before the American Revolution, 259 years before that, a spiritual revolution took place over there in Europe, what was called the Holy Roman Empire. In 1517, a Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther in his monastery, he was a theologian and the head of 11 monasteries, he was no dummy, he was seeking God, and he read Romans 1:17 that said, the just shall live by faith. And reading that scripture, because remember, most people, the vast majority of people had no Bible, they did not have a King James Version, they did not have the New Living, they did not have the NIV, they had no translation. The Bible was basically in the hands of the priest of that day. But he reading the just shall live by faith, the Holy Spirit began to come upon him and teach him. And he had this revelation that salvation was not by works, it wasn't by trying to be good, it wasn't doing all these religious rituals, it was simply by faith in Jesus Christ who paid the full price of all my sins. That revelation of Martin Luther turned out to be called the Reformation in 1517. And in a brief statement, the Reformation was the greatest earthquake of the day, if not the 200 years. The Reformation, the gospel message, and in 1517, Martin Luther was aided by the printing press, which was invented in 1440. He was one of the very first people who loved the word of God. He printed and had his writings printed, and the gospel message went out, they say in two weeks. All of Germany read his 95 theses. In six weeks, all of Europe read what Martin Luther had to say about Jesus, the blood, and free salvation by the cross. Can you say, man? A mighty spiritual revolution in the 1500s. Well, after 120 or 40 years of dire persecution to try to wipe out this new found freedom in Christ, 120 or 50 years went by of total persecution. Martin Luther was condemned. And when you were condemned as a heretic, you would be put to death. But by God's grace he was spared. And after this persecution continued, hence we read, we used to read about the Puritans coming in the late 1500s. Because of that spiritual revolution in 1517, the Puritans came here to get away from England's heavy-handed king and the oppression of putting people to death that wanted to believe in Christ and not just church rituals. So they came here in 1620 the Mayflower people. Now let me say this, my dear friend. No group of people is perfect. God uses ordinary people. I'm always amazed with the people that try to trash all the early settlers, especially the people at New G. I'm always amazed at how quickly they want to trash them, and yet they always want to give themselves so much grace. It is amazing. Older and younger people, how much they trash. Those Puritans, those Mayflower people, those early settlers in Christ in primitive conditions, how much they love to trash, and yet they will demand God to give them grace. Their family grace. The same grace that washed your sins and walked with you and me through my dilemmas is the same grace that was with them. Amen. So, my dear friend, what took place? These pilgrims came over from England and they brought the gospel message here to America. We must clearly understand that before the American Revolution in 1776, so from 1550 to 1775, these pilgrims were coming in with a gospel message. And then God, in around the 1730s and the 1740s, what was known as the Great First Awakening. And in these 13 colonies, uh uh uh where's Pastor Steve? Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards, a preacher from Western Mass, and George Whitfield from England. He came, and the Holy Spirit used uh George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards, and what's called the first great spiritual awakening went up and down the 13 colonies before the American Revolutionary War. Before they penned those words, we believe that all men are created equal and were endowed by their God with certain before that was penned. They were experiencing by the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. They experienced God. Before you can write good things, you've got to experience divine things. Before you can write a document that can keep a country for 250 years on basis and on heading in the right direction, you've got To have a connection to Almighty God. So, my dear friend, that first Great Awakening came 1730s to the 1740s, and it swept America. They entered this the American Revolutionary War and fighting the British armies for eight years, the massive army that they were outnumbered, outclassed, outtrained, outsupplied, those 13 colonies of farmers, preachers, business people, getting their muskets and hunters defeated the mighty British Army. Now, my dear friend, there are so many divine encounters. I just want to share one with you. You know, George Washington, our first president, he became the general of the militia of the colonist army when we entered that American Revolutionary War. How did George Washington that we know, the first president, the great general, how did he become that? How did he get that position? I'm glad you asked because I did not know myself till just recently. So I read about him. In 1755, the revolution took place, remember, in 1775 and 76. So this is 1755, almost 20 years before the revolution started. Britain ruled the 13 colonies. The colonists were underneath Britain in a mutual understanding. And there was called the French and Indian War. France, with their native Indian allies, wanted to control North America. They wanted to control the 13 colonies and eventually more of North America. Because you can see the French territory to the left, they already owned a chunk, which we bought later on. They wanted to come and control more, so they they started this war. George Washington was a young man of 23 years old, and he was out in uh Pennsylvania fighting this battle with the British uh military column, and he was the military aide to the General Brodock, and so he was in charge of delivering all the orders among the soldiers. So while they're in this particular area, the French and Indians had planned an ambush, and so they ambushed the British column in Pennsylvania, and George Washington, 23-year-old soldier, was running back on his horse, going back and forth of this ambush, bullets flying all over. And so the French and the Indians had communicated with him that tried to kill the men on horses. They are the generals, the cap, kill them as much first as you can. So most of those men and the officers on horses were slaughtered dead. George Washington is riding up and down, delivering his orders as a young man and aid from the general. And by the time the whole bloody mess was over, George Washington was still alive, did not have one wound. His coat was filled with four bullet holes. His two horses were shot out from underneath him, but he himself was still very much alive and not wounded. And then almost 20 years later, George Washington, after independence was won, he goes back to Washington and he's going back there to Pennsylvania where that war took place, and history states that he met an Indian chief. We had 17 shots at you, and none of them hit you. And then finally we gave up and we said, that man must be protected by the great spirit above. Stop arguing about them. That God created all men equal. Can you say men? Well, you would think America would just sail on with such divine interactions. Well, they did sail on in 19 in 1857. Well, remember the Civil War. Let's put that slide up. The Civil War occurred in 1861. In 1860, so picture. These are states now, right? So we have we have 23 northern states, eleven eleven southern states, and this strip right here, Delaware and Maryland belong in this group, but this strip right here in Missouri called the border states. 11 southern states fighting the 23 northern states. This strip here, these were called the border states, hence border on each side. They didn't vote for Lincoln. So this Missouri is here. They didn't vote for Lincoln, they weren't in agreement with Lincoln. They wanted slavery, but they also believed a little bit more in having a strong federal government to keep the nation together. Those border states supplied the Union soldiers, the the North, with food, railroad transportation was a great asset. The Civil War was a great time of great division. But before we get to that, remember 1860. The Civil War. In 1857 to 58, one two years before the Civil War, something else occurred. Part of that spiritual revival again, part of that whole heritage of America, God intervening in the affairs of America. Do not let anyone tell you that God did not watch over our country as imperfect as we are. Someone say amen. 1857 to 1858 is what called the prayer revival of ordinary people. The prayer revival. It started in Lower Manhattan, New York, with six people. Six people chose to get together at lunchtime to pray for one hour and pray for God to pour out his spirit in this country. Because the tensions of the Civil War were already burning. People knew that there was great trouble coming about slavery. Are we going to keep slavery or end it for all once and for all? And so this was a gigantic dividing line. This prayer started with six people in several weeks. 10,000 people weekly met together informally wherever they could during business hours of lunchtime. 10,000. And it wasn't long before one million people came to Jesus Christ. The great reformer, Martin Luther, with the gospel message in 1517. Now in 1857 and 58, the gospel message, and people turned to Jesus as Savior. Be right before the Civil War. Can you say men? God knew the Civil War was coming. He knew man hazard dilemmas, but he wants to show that he is greater and the grace of God. Can you say men? My dear friend, the Civil War. Many of the northern states said we've got to kill this issue. We've got to put an end to slavery. Most of the southern states want to keep it. Six hundred thousand men. Six hundred thousand men died in the Civil War. But before the Civil War came, another spiritual revival came called the Second Great Awakening. The Almighty God that helped birth the nation and kept watching over the nation. And before the Civil War came, thirty years before, he sent a man called uh uh Charles Finney and a man named Gil Moody and they crisscrossed the whole eastern coast. Charles Finney had a man named Father Nash, who was his prayer warrior. And wherever Finney would go to preach somewhere for days or a week, this Father Nash would go a couple months ahead, and all he did was pray. All he did was pray. And they say that you could you could have heard him pray outside the house. You could have heard him down the street when he was praying. He was crying out to God for God to have powerful mercy and grace, that souls would be one. So Charles Finney had a magnanimous ministry, supernatural things. People would shake and shake with conviction that they were sinners and cry out to God in their homes, in the church where he was, but all over anywhere and everywhere. God brought the second great awakening right before the Civil War. And then during the Civil War, what did God do? These preachers, these preachers would ride, ride through the southern armies where they were. The preachers would ride through the northern armies, their military camps, and they would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to men that were planning to fight each other because these men were dictated by their government, the ruling people over them. God had so many revivals take place in the northern and in the southern armies, ready to go fight each other, but God brought revivals and uh salvations and transformations. That's why I bring up all the time. When you read about the Civil War, you could hear stories that soldiers from the north and soldiers from the south would be camping out for the night with a river running between them, and they would sing the same spiritual songs with each other, knowing the very next day they were going to go to war. What is it? It's either that's insanity or somehow the Holy Ghost get a hold of them more than the politics of the day. And my dear friend, you and I have got to be captured by the Holy Ghost more than the politics of the day. Can you say amen? You and I must be persuaded that I serve the living Jesus, that He is my God, He is my King. My dear friend, we hold these truths to be self-evident. Susan B. Anthony. How many ladies do we have here? How many of you ladies vote? Raise your hand. How many ladies vote? You know why you vote? You know how that started? That's right, Susan B. Anthony. Before 1870, you couldn't vote. You were not able to vote legally. Talk about voter suppression. Well, there was real suppression. Susan B. Anthony. And she in 1870, she started the woman's suffrage movement. That a woman which you know what document she used? The Declaration of Independence. She stood on that document and said, God has created men and woman to be equal. Therefore, our voting rights are not in the hands of a man or even the hands of the United States government. Our right to vote is founded in the fact that we belong to God and He has given us the certain unalienable rights that we are equal to men and not below them. All the ladies should say amen. Many are smiling, they're too afraid to say amen out loud. What can we say about Martin Luther King? Civil rights founder. Started in 55, assassinated in 1968. If you were born then, great time of uh trouble, chaos, Vietnam War, rebellion with the young people, rock and roll, sex, drugs, wood stock, all kinds of stuff going on. Rebellion against mom and dad and the civil rights. Martin Luther, what did he stand on? Was he standing on Black Power? Did he try and organize an army to pull down statues? You know what he did? My son's father-in-law, who was Liberian, we were very good friends in the 90s before our kids stayed and got married. And he gave me Martin Luther's speech that he wrote. I should say it was a letter. Martin Luther King's letter that he wrote to the American preachers of his day from the prison in Alabama. It's pretty fake. What was his argument? We hold these truths to be self-evident that God created all men to be equal. Can you say man? He wrote his document, his letter, which became a legal document in my mind. Just hold America accountable, not to some black power, not to some new black right, but all we're asking and demanding is that you have sinned. All men are created equal. So now we're holding your feet to the fire. We should be equal now, can you send amen? We should be equal. We are number less than, we're number less than. We are equal in the eyes of God. All we're asking is, can we be equal in your eyes? All we want to be is equal in your eyes. That's all we want, can you say men? He was assassinated. Because when a man or woman speaks divine truth, those that argue against such truth will fail. Can you say amen? Because if you hold on to divine truth after all the foolish arguments are done, after all the nonsensical accusations are weeded out, they're left naked and standing wanton against the truth of God's eternal word. My dear friend, we're going to close in two more hours. Just gonna get together and pray over different categories to seek God. So all of the assemblies of God nationwide will be joined together. A time of repentance, a time of asking God to forgive America for her great sins. I told you about Abraham Lincoln saying in 1860 that this country called the United States of America cannot survive much longer under this fight we have going on about slavery. He wrote in a letter that the United States of America cannot endure this permanent division, half slave and half free, living. He said, I believe with all my heart that this great nation will not be dissolved over this issue. But I am persuaded this division will end and we will be unified. But he said, the outcome I'm not sure, but we will either be all slave or all free. We know the results of what happened. But I must say, for our dear brothers and sisters in the black community, the reality is even after the Civil War was won, you do realize it took another hundred years before blacks with Martin Luther King took another hundred years for many whites to understand what that really meant. There's 20 whites. And believe me, I don't bash whites, that's just reality. I'm not into this white thing. I'm glad to be white, just like you're glad to be black. It is so, so divided. For the last 20 years, it's almost like we have our own civil war going on. But I'm gonna cut to the chase. It's not really a civil war of Democrats and Republicans. No, it's not. It's really not a war of uh the ideology of every little category of politics. The war is if we turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. I will close. I'm serious. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1. I'm gonna read these fast. We know that in the what days? In the last days, perilous, dangerous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, strangers without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than loves of God, go on and on. That's the world we live in, don't you agree? We have half of our country who wants to live like that. Which in essence, you know what John Adams said? About 20 years after the revolution was won, John Adams wrote, he said, our constitution was written for a moral and religious person. A moral and religious people. And he wrote and said, It is totally inadequate to govern any other kind of people. Notice he didn't say it's only good for whites, or it's only good for blacks, or it's only good for Hispanics, it's only good for Guaneman. He said our constitution was written for a religious, no matter what color you are, what ethnic background, a religious and moral. John Adams went on to say, when a people forsake morality, it's almost impossible for a constitution to survive. And that's what we see now. How many people have you heard we're in a constitutional crisis? No, we're not we're not. No, we're not. We're in a moral crisis. We're in a moral where men do not want to submit to God, and that is creating a crisis of laws, a crisis, it's not a constitutional crisis, it's a moral. I refuse to submit my life to God. Half our country doesn't want to have a God, half our country doesn't want to acknowledge the Almighty God, and the other half, maybe a little less, maybe only 30 or 40 percent, still love God and want to worship Him. That's the battle we have going on, and my friend, that's why we need to join together and pray and make intercession to God for another move of God's grace and mercy. It's not a political rally. I'm gonna say this quite clearly. We're not gonna be talking about Trump, not gonna be talking about Mandini, we're gonna be talking about Jesus Christ. Period.