Don’t give up, dear friend. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop hoping and believing. But also, don’t believe that your way of getting to the other side of your circumstance is the only way. God has a perfect plan for a path to a renewed joy and a redeemed future that’s probably one you can’t even fathom. Trust Him.

God is here. God is near. God can absolutely be trusted with it all.

With a country divided, the Republican risk and morality being redefined, it’s time to gather around the camp fire, get back to basics, and spark the revival that this country so desperately needs.
This is the American Camp Fire revival with Cook Cameron.
This is this is our chance to get off the defense, get on the offense, and say, what’s my plan?
What’s your plan? What is your plan?
Instead of instead of just crying in the corner at the way we see things going in our nation, let’s come up with a plan.
And I believe that when we look to god and
and with our whole hearts cry out
to him, and do what he says.
He’ll lead us down the path of victory, and he’ll fight our enemies both outside, uh, our nation and inside our nation on our behalf because he is for, um, liberty and justice and goodness and righteousness and peace and truth, not corruption, not lies, not deception, not hypocrisy, and not tyranny.
He’s he’s he’s not down with those things.
So let’s let’s pray and start our, uh, our the evening here tonight.
Father, Because you live, we can live.
Lord, you say that because of the stubbornness and the selfishness that lives within us, We have died and we are dead because of pride and ego.
And rebellion and wickedness.
Lord, we know the demons that live within us, and yet you’ve defeated every single one of them.
And you give us your spirit and your power to come alive, to come alive to you, to come alive to what is good, and what is right.
God, we are so thankful that you haven’t, uh, overlooked us.
And all the important things, that you are accomplishing.
We are so personally grateful that you’ve accomplished in us the overwhelming of our sin and, uh, bringing us to life by faith.
And we ask you to continue to, to nourish us and feed us by your spirit and and with your word so that we can live in a way uh that says thank you and that honors you.
In Jesus’ name. Amen? Well, uh, I’m really excited.
I can’t wait to jump into this lesson this evening, uh, out of this book called the American covenant.
And again, the American covenant is is is a is
a is a term that this author uses for The untold story of how our founding fathers, our forefathers before them, made these sacred promises with god, and that the secret to the success and blessing of America to its its its liberty.
Uh, the reason for its pros prosperity and it’s thriving and it’s growing and its beauty is because of the relationship that they had with almighty God.
And they made a promise, a sacred contract. That they would honor him and live for his purposes.
And to the degree that we keep that covenant as as a descendants of our founders I believe that we will see
the blessing of god in our nation. And when we get away from it, uh, we incur this suffering.
That we’re experiencing right now and we can get back to it.
I believe that god is long suffering and patient and he’s longing for us to return to his ways.
So Uh, in this book here, there’s this wonderful
concept called, uh, a chapter called what your history books never told you.
And it’s a reference to how often history classes are are just about about a bunch of dates and dead guys and brute facts that happened a long time ago, and I was never very interested in those but I met a man who actually wrote this book who said that our our founding fathers had a providential view of history and that is they believed that god was actually writing a story and he’s still writing the story and you and I are characters in that story right now and it’s being played out on the greatest stage uh in the universe right here on planet earth.
And that house in the background is a prop on the stage and that this fire pit and that flag are are, uh, are set pieces on the stage.
And they believe that god was was working all things together to accomplish his purposes and goals.
I mean, even think of the pilgrims. Uh, they believe that when they landed, in the new world.
Uh, there there was a famine had struck the land and and and there were resources there for them with no one that that seemed to own them and they believe that god had provided for them these hidden uh pits full of corn and they had fish and streams and and they were able to survive, but things got worse and worse.
And then they met someone named squanto. This was an Indian. This was a native American who spoke English.
And they were in trouble with the other tribes and this this, uh, squanto actually had been, uh, removed from the the new world and taken to England where he earned English and providentially came back, found out that his whole family had been wiped out by a plague and was able to speak with the pilgrims and it helped them to, uh, negotiate peace treaties with the other Native Americans.
And it was this amazing story.
And listen to what the governor of the pilgrims wrote in his own journal about squanto.
He didn’t say, man, we sure lucked out.
He said, no, he said, squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument of god for their good beyond their expectation.
They saw squanto as as being sent onto the stage by god himself knowing English no less to help them beyond their wildest expectations and they were so grateful.
So, uh, this is this is the point for us to consider this evening.
I believe the same thing that our founders believed that god’s version of history,
which is the only true version
of history. There’s false views of history, twisted by people with biases, but real history is his story.
It’s god’s story And he’s working all things together for good since the beginning of time to demonstrate his goodness and his justice and his glory so that those of us who are on the stage at this moment can see it.
If only we will remember what he’s done, and have eyes to see what he’s doing right now.
So what if what if history is not just a bunch of random facts and things happening by happenstance.
But what if it’s the great author of life writing the story that includes you and me at this very moment And we may be in a chapter of the story where things are exciting and positive or maybe like now, we’re in a chapter of the story where things look look dark and they’re foreboding and and danger looks like it’s just it’s it’s it’s cresting over the horizon.
And we’re not sure what to do.
Well, those are some of the best chapters in some of the very best books that we’ve read. Aren’t they?
Check this out. Noah Webster.
He was the great educator in early America.
He was actually the author of the first American dictionary, the the websters they listen to what he said, uh, in eighteen seventy, uh, eighteen twenty eight.
He defined god’s providence as, quote, the care and superintendents of god.
The care of god and the superintendents of god. What’s a superintendent?
Uh, he’s the one who watches over the school. Right? He’s in charge of the school.
It’s like it’s like this world is a school that god is superintending as we learn how to love him with all of our hearts and love our neighbors as our self.
He exercises this care over his creatures. Webster said some people admit a general providence but deny a particular providence.
They think God’s watching over the big picture, but he’s not involved in the details.
He says, but they forget that uh, a general providence consists of the particulars. Right?
The the whole thing is the ocean, but it’s made up of all the little droplet if you’re gonna control the whole thing, if you’re watching over the whole thing, you’re watching over the little details as well.
A belief in divine providence is a source of great consolation to good men.
And by divine providence is understood god himself.
He’s saying the fact that god’s watching over and caring for things is great news for good men and women.
And by watching how he cares for things, you know who god is.
If I wanna know what kind of a man you are, I watch over how you treat your wife and how you treat your children.
That’ll tell me about what kind of a man you are.
If you wanna find out what kind of a woman you are, what kind of a of a mother, what kind of a friend, what kind of a wife, what kind of a daughter of the king are you?
As I watch the way you care for others and care for your relationship with god that tells me about you and the way god cares for his world tells us a lot about god.
Noah Webster of Webster’s dictionary, the great educator and statesman was a devout Christian, a brother in the family of faith who had a providential view of history.
It wasn’t just random stuff. It was god working it all out.
And notice that he said it’s a good comfort to good men. Isn’t that interesting?
There should be a peace in your heart and in my heart, knowing that god is watching over everything.
And the converse is true too. If If god’s watching over everything, well, that’s bad news for the bad guys.
Because he’s watching over everything to bring about his good purposes where the bad guys lose.
Now, you may be thinking, uh, I just don’t see how all of this could be working together for good.
Listen to this beautiful explanation from a from a historian named, uh, the Reverend s w full Jambae.
He was, uh, writing in eighteen seventy six.
He said it has been said that history is the biography of the world. What’s a biography?
What’s the story of someone’s life? So history he said is like the story of the life of the world.
If the world had a life story written, it would be history, but he said it’s even more than that.
In a profounder sense, it’s the autobiography. That’s just someone who writes a story about himself.
The autobiography of him who works all things after the counsel of his will.
That’s what it says in the Bible. God’s working all things after the council of his own will.
That’s what we’ve been saying. He’s the blessed controller of all things.
He is he is the author of the great story. His story, history, and it’s his autobiography.
What a beautiful way to look at the events of the world
God’s autobiography. Now, you may be thinking, I don’t know.
If I was the god of history writing the story, I’m not sure.
I’d I’d include the chapter we’re in right now and chapters that have been in the past that have been horrific.
I mean, we are headed down the wrong road, and it looks like the bad guys are winning, though There are people in power who are bad guys and there are good guys who are losing.
Well, listen, think of it like this. Did you see lord of the Rings?
Frodo and the fellowship of the ring.
They’re trying to make it to the mountain, to destroy the ring.
But but all of the odds are against them. Sauron is too powerful.
It looks like he’s gonna lose And then all of a sudden, against all odds, when all hope seems lost in the darkest chapter of the story.
Almost miraculously the tables turn, and they secure the victory.
Now let me ask you, Would the story have been a better story if you had just cut out all the parts and all the chapters about the bad guys and Sauron?
No. That would have ruined the lord of the rings.
If you had no sauron, there would be no challenge.
There would there would be no there would be no tension. There would be no fight.
There would be no need for character development. For Frodo and for his friends.
The fact that Sauron is there is an integral part of the story, and the fact that there is evil in the world and that there is difficulty and that there is a need for a fight and the need to develop courage and character and virtue and you and me is all part of the great story, which makes it so brilliant.
Trust the author of the great story that you and I are in right now.
Trust the author of history because it is his story. This is
our great consolation. And this is the bad news for the bad guys.
Because the pits that the evil people dig for others are the very pits that they themselves will fall into.
Because god is the author of the story.
And the good guys win, we just have to stick around long enough to see the closing chapters.
And you and I get to play an important role in that story.
So if you don’t know
the author, you’re gonna be confused. You may be frightened and full of fear.
My recommendation, become friends with the author of life.
And then you’ll understand who you are and why you’re on the stage of the world at this moment in time and what he intends you to do.
Let’s pray. God, we thank you that you are the great author.
We thank you that that, uh, life is not full of just random, happening things.
We are not the product of chance, but of a great intelligent beautiful mind, and you have purpose for us.
Lord, help us to play our role as a mom, as a dad, as a movie maker, as a as a singer, as an artist, as a poet as, uh, a technician, as a builder, as whatever it is that we are, lord, we are playing significant role in in the great story of life.
Bring it all together to the great crescendo of victory and liberty.
For us here in America and for those of the family of faith all around the world, and let our victory be the victory for everyone.
We love you, lord, and we pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you guys.
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