Copper Hill celebrates our country for Fourth of July
Watch the service
Both at Plymouth Rock and Jamestown, VA, the first European settlers dedicated their colonies and the land they found to God. Their Christian values heavily influenced the founding documents and the early values of of our country. So it is appropriate to celebrate that heritage and talk about preserving America at a fourth of July service. Pastor Kelvin included the pledge to the Christian flag and to the American flag in our service, He reminded us that our first loyalty is to Christ. And he suggested that repeating the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag is really just promising to do what we are instructed to do in 1 Peter 2:13, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority.”
Pastor’s message gave us three ways to help preserve America. The first is to pray for our country as Paul urges us to do in 1 Tim. 2:1,2. Paul emphasized this with four words for prayers. Pastor also noted that we needed to maintain a delicate balance between truth-telling and peace-making. Both Peter’s and Paul’s ministries reflected this insight. Jesus also urged us to be peacemakers while at the same time being “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). If we are too heavy on truth-telling we will unwittingly contribute to the divisiveness of our age. But without truth-telling, we cannot bear witness as we need to.
Finally, Pastor asked us to continue doing good. Good deeds are referred to five times in 1 Timothy. Rev. Jones told us to to remember that America will not be preserved because the party we like is in power, but rather because good people are at work living out their faith in practical ways that make a difference. He asked us to think of practical ways we each and our church collectively could serve others.