 There are those that think very highly of this country. I am one included who thinks highly of this country, at least in comparison to other countries. I don't think that there's a greater country on the planet, but that doesn't mean that this country is perfect. But there are those that would love to see this country enact laws and rules that would govern people to behave and to comport themselves like Christians. Well, is that even possible? In Psalm 3312 it says, bless is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. But is that necessarily saying that we should be what he's speaking of, bless is the nation whose God is the Lord? In other words, the people who are in it, who have by and large selected or chosen or have decided to live as though God is their Lord, our God is the Lord. Well, that's not going to be totally the case for all of the people here in America or really any other country. I know we think a lot about America, but guys, let's just be honest. America, though it may seem godly in some respects, and even our history may seem that way. But remember, it's still full of men who have done diabolical things. And that's just the case with everybody. All men do diabolical things, including men who would happen to go into government and who would lead. The problem comes in is when we want government to replace God. In other words, we want government to be the instrument by which we get the things that we want to have happen in society. We want government to do those things. Well, the Bible is clear about us being the light of the world and people seeing our good work, and then they in turn are a fine guy. It's hard to work. It's harder for us to do it individually and to spread the gospel and to share the goodness and the love of God. It's harder doing it that way than to have some all-powerful entity like the government to do so. It's easier if the government could just dictate and tell people how they ought to do, how they ought to live. But let's just be honest. We see that now, don't we? Before we get more into it, let's just see even where this came about or one of the genesis of this idea. In 1 Samuel chapter 8, 4, we've got this prophet Samuel whose sons are not living the way they're supposed to do, which indicates that when there's a failure of the breakdown of at home, when there's a failure at home, when there's a breakdown of the family system, when the father's not being the kind of father he should be, though he might be busy doing other things, providing and so forth, even busy at church. But he's not taking care of his first command, and that is his family. And so you see what's happening with his son. He says, behold, they said, behold, you have grown old verse 5 and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now, appoint a king for us to judge us like other nations. But the thing that was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, give us a king to judges. And Samuel prayed to the Lord, the Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voices of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. And so here we see them saying, well, number one, make us a ruler. We want to be like other nations, which we see here even here in America. We want to be like European nations. We want to be like some of the Scandinavian nations. We want to be like these people. We want to be like those folks, even like people in Canada, even like people over here. Well, no, this is our country. Our country is different than that country. That's just kind of the nature of a individual country, a sovereign nation. We use this term sovereign loosely, though we're not sovereign, but America is not Canada. Canada is not Mexico. Mexico is not Australia and so forth. And so if you want to be a part of those countries, if you want a society like theirs, you would literally have to move to those places. Rather than trying to make something here, what is over there, that's not going to happen. I understand when people are saying some good things over there we would like to bring over here. Is that possible? Well, first of all, you're looking for the solution in man. And what did God say? He said they're not rejecting you. They're not rejecting your leadership. They are rejecting me as being king. Remember, bless is a nation who's who's God, or in this case, the king is the Lord. They don't want that. Why? Because to live holy is not what they're after. They want the creature comforts of life without having to honor and respect the God who creates all of us as creatures. There are some people who are well-intentioned, people who want the government to make sure certain things are taken care of. And then there are those who would rather government just kind of take a hands-off approach, but just make sure that certain rights are not encroached upon. Like our right to just one, be a family. To not tell us what we have to do with our children. You know, where the Bible says, well, one of those are called good, evil, evil, good. Well, we've got a government now that wants to promote evil and call it good, and tell us what is good is not good. It's evil. We've got people who want to have the government to pay our bills, to give us food, to give us transportation, to give us retirement, to give us inheritance, to make sure that we are safe from any dangers. As a matter of fact, to make sure we are safe from having a bad day, to make sure that there's no one there to offend us. Well, I can promise you this. The government will do every single thing that you want it to do. The government will take care of your children if you want to do it. The government will get rid of your children if you want them to do it. But I can promise you this, there's a cost. You want the government to take care of the roads? Fine, that's probably what the government should do. They're going to charge you for it. You want the government to take care of your children? Sure, they'll do it, or they'll mandate who will do it, and they'll charge you for it. You want the government to tell you how to run your life and other people's lives. They have no problem with doing it, but they're going to charge you for that. Look at what God tells Samuel to tell the people what a king or, in our case, what a government will do. He says in verse 10, he says, so Samuel spoke to the words of the Lord, to the people who asked, whom he asked of the king. He said, this will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen, and they will run before his chariots. In other words, there's going to be men and women who are going to serve in his army, and he will decide if you don't. Verse 12, he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of 50s, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers, and he will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his servants. And so you're going to see some people who are going to work on behalf of him, and he will bless them with what you have. He will take what you have. He'll take the choices lands. He'll take the best areas. He'll take all the things that are the best of, and then what he doesn't need, at least for the time being, you can have. But rest assured, he's going to want more. That's just the nature of a king, the nature of a government. That's just the nature of man. Continuing though, verse 15, he says he will take a tenth of your seed. He will tax you. Wouldn't it be great though if all he took was a tenth? He will take a tenth of your seed and of your servants and give to his officers and to his servants. So those that are in leagues with him, he's going to reward them for serving him as well. He will, and he'll get the money from you. He will take of your male servants and of your female servants. I'm sorry, take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks and you yourselves will become his servants. In other words, you will be servants of your king, servants of the government. There used to be a famous, David, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. We have a government who is asking or even mandating what we will do for it. Sounds good with what he said, but the government wants from you. The government, especially today, is not what it was envisioned on being. But then again, that was always the plan of the enemy. Whatever we put our hands in, he is going to soon corrupt it. Matter of fact, he didn't have to try very hard because that's just the nature of men continuing though. He says, then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day. And then even still you give people warnings as he says in verse 19, but the people will not listen. You can tell them that yes, you can have this program and then there will be those that were warned people that's going to be too costly. It's going to be even more of a problem than the people going to cry out about it later on and wish that there was something to be done about it. And God says that I won't hear you in that day. Why? Because there is no such thing as a king or a government that can replace God. There are those that want us to eventually have a government that is run by Christians that mandate or force the nation to be a Christian nation here in America and in other nations. Is that going to happen? No. Why? Because everybody that's going to occupy that office, whatever office you can think of is going to be a human being and the human being is fallible. The human being will be prone to sin. The human being will be prone to having an ego and will make himself even more of a God in his own eyes and will oppress the people. That's just the nature of a leader of kings. That's the history of the world. Even when someone has professed the name of Christ, we see that. And so to think that this nation is going to become a godly nation is not going to happen. The only way that we can have a leadership that is trustworthy is when the prophecy is ultimately fulfilled and Christ is on the throne and we see him as our king. That's the only godly nation that we could ever have because it will be a nation that is actually ran by God. So again, if you're looking for God to do it for you with an amen, but if you're looking for the White House to do it, if you're looking for Parliament to do it, if you're looking for somebody to do it for you to take care of you, they'll try. They won't do a good job. They'll mess up and you'll ask for more. And each time that you want more, they're going to tax you more. But what they won't give you in return is safety. They will not also give you an inheritance in heaven. So the only way that we are ever going to be a godly nation is when God leads the nation. Amen.