Hey guys, it is good to be with you again. And as we celebrate Constitution Day and look at the things that go with Constitution Day, we have a longevity that is unknown. And other nations you’ve already heard that we’ve had 221 years under the Constitution to 119 years since that document was ratified. And in that period of time, America has enjoyed stability unlike any other nation. If you look at where we are compared to other nations, we are the only nation in the world that’s not average revolution every 20 to 30 years. In the same period of time we’ve had that piece of paper. France has gone through 15. Afghanistan went through five. Just in the 20th century. Poland went through seven since 1921, Russia has gone through four since 970, were the only one that doesn’t have a revolution every 20 to 30 years. That is called American exceptionalism. It’s just means that we’ve had an exceptional track record of stability unknown by the nations. That term was given to us back and 830 is by Alexi de Tocqueville who did the book Democracy in America. And as he traveled American looked across the nation, he saw all the things going on here. This is a statement he made. He said the position of the Americans is quite exceptional and it may be believe that no democratic people will ever be placed and a subtler one. That’s where we get the term American exceptionalism. That was something he saw 50 years after and now even a 180 years after that, we still have that track record of being an exceptional nation with all the stability we have now, with all the stability that we’ve enjoyed here in America, go all that the Constitution is done. It’s significant that there was a period of time where it looked like it would not get done at all. And as you go back to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, they came together. They were not a nation. There were 13 states who sent their delegates and everybody came with their own idea. So you had the Alexander Hamilton who came with the New York plan on how to fix that. The nation you had. James Madison came with the Virginia plan on how to fix the nation. And William Paterson came with the New Jersey plan on how to fix the nation. And Roger Sherman came and got New Jersey for sure. Roger Sherman came with the Connecticut Plan and there you go. Now you’re into it. Everybody had their own plan and everyone was unwilling to compromise and work with anyone else. And so after about five weeks, four to five weeks, it was breaking up and they were going home. People like Alexander Hamilton from New York, George Mason from Virginia said, I got a lot of Virginia. Said, we’re tired of fighting. We’ve had enough. We’re leaving, we’re out of here. And it was at that time that the old man himself actually stood and gave the speech. You have Ben Franklin, 81 years old. Now, just to put this in context, you can see the screen. He was 81 years old. He was by far the oldest guy up there. You know what the average lifespan was in America back then? It was 35 years old. That means that you guys would already have had your mid-life crisis by now, you’d be way over the hill. You’d be on the decline. Can you imagine 35 years old being the average lifespan in America? That’s what it was. He was 81. He was by far the elder statesman. He gave a speech that really changed the tone of the convention, have invent through a lot, had been experienced a lot. This is what he said and by the way, he was one of only six folks who had been in that room 11 years earlier when they signed the Declaration. Franklin was one of the six who had been there when they signed the Declaration. And back at the beginning Congress, they had daily prayer. They had paid Chaplains. As matter of fact, if you look at the first parent Congress and look at what happened in that first parent Congress. Historical records indicate they prayed for several hours in that session of Congress. They also had Bible studies that session, etc. And Ben Franklin had been part of all those early sessions. So here he is in this room and most of the guys that are with him, right in the Constitution had not been in that room before. Not having been in that room, he wanted to stop and say, Guys, you need to understand a little bit of history about this room and what we used to do here. And that’s when he turned and spoke to George Washington, the president of the convention, and addressing George Washington, this is what he told President Washington. He said Mr. President, president the convention. He says the small progress we’ve made after four or five weeks, close attention and continual reasonings with each other are different sediments on almost every question is me, Thanks, a melancholy proof for the imperfection of human understanding. We have just proved how flawed people are, because we’ve gone for five weeks and we can’t agree on anything, we’re fallen apart. People are going home, the conventions breaking up. He says we indeed seem to fill our own. One of political wisdom is since we’ve been running about in search of it. He said we’d gone back to ancient history from models of government. We’ve examined the different forms those republics was now no longer exist. And they did, they went back and said, What can we learn from Rome or from Sparta for Greece, and went through all the ancient republics that none of that really applies to what America is facing right now. He says, and we viewed modern states all around Europe, but we find none of their constitution suitable or circumstances that we’ve looked at, what’s going on with all the revolutions in Europe and the Constitution they’ve come up with. And that’s really not what America needs. In this situation and this assembly, groping as it were in the dark defined political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us. How does it happen, sir, that we’ve not once hitherto thought of applying to the father of lies to illuminate our understanding. We used to pray all the time, the revolution, we haven’t prayed once here. He said in the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection. He said our prayer, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. Is that all of us engaged in this struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintendent providence in our favor. And have we now forgotten this powerful friend, or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? He said, I have lived, sir, a long time and he had 81 years old by far and away more than any other in that room. He said, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. He said, If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We’ve been assured in the sacred writings that accept the Lord build the house. They labor and vein that build it. I firmly believe this now also blue without his concurrent Aid wishes to see then this political building no better than the builders of Babel. He says, I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven. And this deliberations on our assembly beheld him this morning, this assembly every morning before we proceed the business. Now what Franklin did was to gas. We’re not praying like we should. We’ve got problems and we should have been praying all along. And that’s where they had an interesting discussion. Because they said, you know, everyone in Philadelphia and across the region knows who were having problems are seen it break up. If we start praying now, then we’re disrespecting prayer. We’re saying that we only pray when we have problems and that’s the wrong message to send about prayer. Some the other said, You know, we don’t have a paid chaplain this time. We always had paid chaplains before and we don’t have any money that was appropriated. So they talked about what to do and as a result of the talk and conversation, what they did was they take it took a three-day recess to cool off. They dismiss for three days, and according to George Washington’s diary, they went to church at that time. They’ve particularly went to the church of the Reverend William Rogers. And at church having gone dismissed for three days, they go to church across that time. And being in his church, being in the Reverend William Rogers church. They listen to the lessons and then listen to the orations. And then Reverend Roger sprayed a specific prayer over the Constitutional Convention. As you’ve heard, we’ve been very blessed to have a number of original documents. I have their 787 prayer the printed out that he prayed over the convention. So really cool prayer. A time of impasse. They can’t agree with each other to get manage other things aren’t going right. And the words across a city. So here they are in His church, the convention sitting right there in front of him and he offers his prayer over them. This is what he says and this is part of the spirit was a long prayer, but this is the part I want to focus on. He says, As this is a period oh Lord, big with events and penetrable by any human scrutiny, we fervently recommended that fatherly notice that August body assembled in this city who compose our Federal Convention. Will it please the, Although eternal I am to favor them from day to day with thy immediate presence, without their wisdom and their strength, enable them to devise such measures as it may prove happily instrumental for healing all divisions and promoting the good of the great hall. And he went through any prayed, he said, Look, these guys are having trouble. They’re fighting, they can get along. It’s all in division. God will you heal that division? Will you bring them back together? After three days of having gone to church, heard the sermons, been prayed over. They reassembled. And when they reassembled, delegates like Jonathan date and at the Constitutional Convention said the whole atmosphere, it was different. The tone had changed somehow. They started cooperating together. They started saying, you know, that’s really not that bad of an idea. I can live with that. And they started proceeding to get the document that we now have today. Now, the document we have the day that we’ve had for 221 years, that we’ve lived under as a nation for 219 years. The guys who actually saw what happened had a lot to say about what they thought God had done in that document. Matter of fact, even Franklin himself, Franklin who called him to prayer their recess for three days than what the church they had prayer. This is what Franklin said after his thought was over and done with we got the final dock means that now I beg that I may not be understood to infer that our general convention was divinely inspired when it formed the Federal Constitution. He said, I’m about to tell you something, but I don’t want you to think that I’m saying the constitution is like the Bible. The Constitution is not divinely inspired like the Bible, but he says, I have so much faith in the general government of the world by providence that I can hardly can see the transaction of such momentous important should be separate to pass without being influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent beneficence, ruler and whom all in fierce, fierce live loop. And have there been he just quarter Vmax 720 AD says, I’m not telling you the Constitution is divinely inspired, but I’m telling you there’s no way it came to be without God having guided and directed and overseeing everything that we did in that convention. And he said that as an eyewitness, I saw it. I was there and I’m telling you, God did this time. Alexander Hamilton, full donation? Same thing when he wrote the Federalist Papers in Federalist Number 37, he told the nation what he had seen at the Constitutional Convention. He said the real wonders of the Constitutional Convention overcame so many difficulties. He said, and to overcome them with so much agreement was his unprecedented as it was unexpected, we’d been arguing for weeks and suddenly we started green on everything after that three-day recess. He says, it’s impossible for the pious man not to recognize. And an, a finger of that almighty hand was so frequently extended to us and the critical stage of the revolution. He said it’s, if you have any fear of God at all, it’s impossible for you not to see what God just did in riding this Constitution. The finger of God was all over that just like we saw the hand of God all over the revolution. And then finally Dr. Benjamin Rush, who lived in Philadelphia, a signer of the Declaration. He was with the delegates everyday. He saw the fights that were going on when it was finished at the end, this is what he said. He said, No, I didn’t. I bleed the Constitution was the offspring of divine inspiration. Again, I don’t think the constitutions like the Bible. I’m not saying that this divinely inspired, he says, But I missed perfectly satisfied that is too much work of divine providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old or New Testament. He said the Constitution goes up there with any miracle you want to fight. Any where in the Bible, anything, Jesus did anything Elijah did. It’s that high of a miracle. It is absolutely done by God. We recognize that we knew that. And this remarkable document under which we live. It’s interesting to see what we have because these gas in that period of time where they finally started cooperate came out with a number of provisions that are still, they still lead the world in so many areas that with all the separation of powers and checks and balances and full republic isn’t all the things that our Constitution has. There’s so many other nations lack and you go, Where did these guys get these novel ideas? Because obviously nobody 200 years ago it was using those ideas otherwise that have Constitution that still exist today. So where they get those ideas, Political Science Professor said, You know, we think if we can read their writing, these 55 guys at a full read their writings and see who they quoted, will know where they got their ideas. They collected Fifteen thousand of the writings of the founding era. They read those Rodin’s found 3 thousand 154 direct quotes. They took every quote back to its original source. And at the end of that time they said We now know where they got their ideas. The number one sided source in that period of the founding era, that period one who wrote the Constitution, they found and it’s reported in this book’s a great book, the origins of American constitutionalism. But the number one source was the Bible. 34 percent of all political quotes came out of the Bible. And if you look at the Constitution, you’ll find, for example, that George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams said that they got this concept of separation of powers. It was based on Jeremi 709. You’ll find the three branches of government listened Isaiah 33, 22, 200 years ago, they gave us tax exemptions for churches. We still enjoy that today. You’ll find that natural 724. You’ll also find that in Deuteronomy 715, in Article 3 of the Constitution, the provision that we have, that, excuse me, the provision we have an article three that deals with capital punishment. You’ll find that in Deuteronomy 715, you’ll also find that excess 821, article four section for the US Constitution, which deals with what we call full republicanism. Excess 820 one says, when you have an election, you choose leaders of 10’s, 50’s, hundreds and thousands. You choose local, county, state, and federal. That is the basis of Article 4, Section 4 in the Constitution says, when we have elections in November, we get to elect local officials, county official, state officials, and national officials. That’s the same provision. That’s the verse they quoted and write an article for section 4, you’ll find that excess Ezekiel 820 is the basis of the article 3 provision that deals with what’s called a bill of attainder. You’ll find that directly out of the Bible. Deuteronomy 706 is executive qualifications for the executive officer. The United States came right out. It didn’t run. All these passages in the Bible. We find directly placed into the Constitution side-by-side. So these guys were very clear on what they thought and that’s what’s produced. American exceptionalism were different nation because we have a different set of ideas. But those ideas came directly out of the Bible and they came as result of gas. We turn to God and said, it’s outside our wisdom bene. We’ve got this great document. There’s no guarantee that we’re going to last 250 years. I mean, there’s no guarantee. We’ve lasted 221, but what keeps us going? Well, there’s a great scripture course in Psalms 113 that says that the foundations be destroyed or to the righteous do. So. How do we preserve the constitutional foundations? We have.
