Introduction: The Joy of Discovery

Church family, today we continue our series in Proverbs, and I want to thank you for your prayers. This is the first time I'm preaching on a chemotherapy week. With stage four cancer, the doctors say my being asymptomatic is unheard of. As the doctors say, "We don't have an explanation," I'm quick to point out we do — there are thousands of people praying for me. Praise God for your prayers and for His sustaining grace. I'm going to do this with every breath I've got.

Today it's a joy to open up God's Word on this special weekend as we look at the wisdom of Solomon — the wisdom of God, the wisdom of Christ — as it applies to our nation.

Speaking of our nation, we've seen an interesting phenomenon during the World Cup. Fans from 47 other nations have come to the United States expecting, based on the media they consume, an unwelcoming country full of drug deals and gun violence. Instead, they've discovered things like Buc-ee's with 120 gas pumps, unlimited refills, and American air conditioning during a European heatwave. They've even fallen in love with ranch dressing — so much that the TSA started confiscating it from carry-on bags, prompting Kraft to make TSA-approved travel packets.//

It's called the joy of discovery — you think something is one thing, then you experience it yourself and find something completely different. I'd argue the same is true of God's Word. Much of our world looks at Scripture and says God just wants to give us a bunch of rules, that He's a cosmic killjoy. But in reality, when you live in God's world God's way, you flourish. You thrive. It's the best way to live because it's the way He ordained us to live.

The Foundational Proverb

As I've been reading through Proverbs, I've taken notes on not just how these truths apply to our individual lives, but how they apply to us as a nation. Today, in honor of America's 250th, we'll read one proverb and look at three others that help frame our prayers for our nation.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. (Proverbs 14:34)

History Is the Why

I was called to ministry at 19, studying humanities and social studies education, thinking I'd be a bi-vocational teacher, coach, and pastor. I've always loved history, and I was tempted to cram two semesters of U.S. history into one sermon today — but I resisted.

One of our church members, Stephen Mansfield, wrote a book called More Than Dates and Dead People, and he's right — history is the why. Most immigrants came to this nation searching for religious freedom. Most of the founders understood that the foundation of any strong culture was the Judeo-Christian worldview, in which sin had to be restrained and good had to be promoted. We miss so much in our discourse today because we miss the why — the stories behind why things are the way they are.

The Big Idea

A great nation of any kind restrains sin and pursues righteousness.

Any nation that does this will be blessed by God, because that is God's plan — He wants us to flourish and thrive. In Jeremiah 29, God tells His people to flourish, to pray for the nation to which they've been sent, to plant gardens, build houses, and engage in the welfare of their nation.

There are only three institutions ordained by God:

1. The family/home — the foundational building block of culture.
2. The church — reflecting the home for the flourishing and spread of the gospel.
3. Government — ordained to restrain evil and promote good (Romans 13), freeing the church and home to do what God has called them to do.

As these institutions go, so goes our culture. Everything comes from a foundation.

Where Does Righteousness Come From?

Righteousness exalts a nation and its people — but what kind of righteousness? Turn to Romans 3:23:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

From the president to the peasants, from coast to coast, everyone has sinned. This is why our government has a system of checks and balances — our founding fathers had watched the tyrants of Europe abuse power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that truth is rooted in Romans 3:23. Give too much power to any one person, and the temptation to be corrupted will overtake them.

So where does righteousness come from if not from our own perfection? Romans 3 continues — we are justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, who was presented as the atoning sacrifice to demonstrate God's righteousness. Our righteousness comes when we're repentant, when we recognize we can't attain that standard on our own, and by faith we receive the righteousness won by Christ on the cross.

This produces real transformation — not mere morality, not a list of rights and wrongs, but a changed heart. The greatest problems in our culture are not economic, military, or even political — those are symptoms. The greatest problem is sin. God made a way to solve that problem through His Son, Jesus Christ. When we're redeemed, we bring that changed heart to our families, our churches, our communities, and our nation.

The self-governing Christian who is governed by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God is the most powerful person in any country.

Ronald Reagan often quoted, "America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." John Quincy Adams, in an 1837 Fourth of July speech, asked, "Is it not that in the chain of events the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior?"

Three Prayers for Our Nation

As we read through Proverbs, we can pray the Proverbs. Here are three specific prayers God gives us for our nation.

1. Pray for Unity

Without guidance a people will fall, but with many counselors there is deliverance. (Proverbs 11:14)

Unity is not uniformity. Look to your left and your right — we're all built a little differently, and that's part of the beauty of God's plan. He gives us different gifts, talents, perspectives, and experiences, and when we bring those together, there is wisdom.

Abraham Lincoln put ideological rivals on his own cabinet on purpose — a "Team of Rivals" — because he knew the Union needed a variety of voices working together. Our Constitution is stronger because of vigorous debate between those who wanted a stronger federal government (Adams, Jay, Hamilton) and those who championed states' rights (Paine, Jefferson, Franklin). They didn't agree on everything, but the creative tension produced a Constitution that has stood 250 years.

We need different voices working together for a shared common cause — just as the church is diverse, yet unified around the glory of Jesus Christ. We're better together than apart.

2. Pray for Wisdom

Without revelation, people run wild. But one who follows divine instruction will be blessed. (Proverbs 29:18)

In the King James, this is rendered "Without vision, the people perish." The Hebrew word for vision refers to divine revelation — God's vision, God's ways for us as a nation — not something we dream up ourselves. Without it, people run into anarchy, fractured and moving in a million directions.

One heresy of our day is that truth is relative — "you do you." But remember the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident." There must be a foundational, common truth. This is what theologians call natural law (Romans 1) — truth observable in how the world works.

The Declaration states all men are created equal — a radical departure from nearly all of history, where might made right. This flows from the Judeo-Christian teaching that all people bear the imago Dei, the image of God. Paul declared in Galatians 3:28 that in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free — the ground at the foot of the cross is level for all of us.

Our unalienable rights are endowed — a gift from the Creator (note the capital C the framers used). Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness flow from divine revelation undergirding the founding documents.

3. Pray for Servant Leaders

When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, people groan. (Proverbs 29:2)

We need to train up a generation of young people to be active in the public square — to bring their Christian values as salt and light, to exercise their right to vote, and to make their voices heard. We need to raise up not only ministers and missionaries, but missionaries to the public square — to law and government — who serve not for their own power, but for the good and flourishing of the nation and God's people.

First of all, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good, and it pleases God our Savior. (1 Timothy 2:1)

We pray that God would raise up not merely politicians, but statesmen — leaders who understand that they are there to restrain evil and promote good.