Are You Sleeping?

Introduction: This is the 4th of July Holiday weekend, and by the looks of our attendance today, several families must be out of town. The 4th of July is when we celebrate the fact that we as a nation won our Independence from the British. Our forefathers feared God and founded this nation on Christian principles. As a result God has blessed this nation beyond anyone’s imagination, and yet today we as a nation are so far away from God that we are on the verge of experiencing His Wrath and Judgment. Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers said, “Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” Billy Graham once said, “If God does not judge America, He may have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

In many respects America is no longer “One nation under God,” but instead we are a nation of many gods. In an attempt to keep from offending anyone, we have become a multi-lingual, multi-cultural and polytheistic society. In fact it seems to me that many American’s are more tolerant of other religions than they are of Christianity.

I read in this week’s Western Recorder about a High School Student named Brittany McComb from Las Vegas, Nevada. Brittany was one of three valedictorian’s in her High School graduating class. School policy required her to give a copy of her speech to school officials to be approved before being able to give the speech during the graduation ceremony. When the school officials read her speech they edited it by taking out six references that she had made to God and to two passages of scripture. However, like Peter and John, Brittany decided that she should obey God rather than men. So when she stood to deliver her valedictorian’s address she went ahead and delivered the speech the way she had written it. When school officials realized that she had deviated from their pre-approved speech, and was talking about God, they turned her microphone off, and refused to turn it back on, even though the graduates and their families pleaded with them to do so.

If I’ve said this before but I’m going to say it again, what we need in America today more than anything else is a Revival and Spiritual Awakening of Biblical proportions. The only hope we as a nation have of making it through the 21st Century is to repent of our sins and turn back to God. If we do, I believe He will keep His word, and will heal our land. But if we don’t I believe He will bring America to her knees just like he did the Roman Empire, and more recently, the Soviet Union.

This morning I want us to look at 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 for our text.

Most of us are very familiar with verse 14, and we often read it or quote it when we talk about revival. But we aren’t as familiar with the 13th verse. In this thirteenth verse God informs King Solomon that He will use the weather or even insects like locusts to discipline His people and try to get them to repent of their sins.

I believe that’s what God has been trying to do in the United States for over a decade now. But unfortunately we still haven’t made the connection. It’s much easier to blame the increase in the number of Hurricanes on Global Warming or El Nino, than it is to believe that we are experiencing the discipline of God. It’s much easier for us to blame Osama Bin Laden and the terrorists for September 11, 2001 than to believe that God has taken away His protective Hand from our nation. It’s much easier to blame the threat of “Bird Flu” on the government than to believe that God may be trying to get our attention.

Despite all of the negative things going on in our nation and around the world I believe God wants to Bless America. But I’m not talking about a material or economic blessing; I’m talking about a spiritual blessing. I believe He wants to send another great revival, but unfortunately He can’t do it unless we His people wake up, and realize that our sins, and our refusal to repent of those sins, are why we as a nation have not experienced a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit since 1858.

The church in America has fallen asleep and doesn’t even realize it. Satan has successfully lulled us to sleep and most of us are oblivious to the seriousness of the situation. We have no idea how close we are to the “Coming of the Lord.” The Apostle Paul chastised the church in Rome for the same thing. In Romans 13:11-14 he wrote: “Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.