Getting Serious With God

The year before last, in an effort to earn some extra Christmas money, I worked a temporary job at the airport in Knoxville, Tennessee over the Christmas holidays. It was a manual labor job where several us would unload tractor-trailers full of Christmas mail.

We’d take it off the 18-wheeler, separate it by destination, and reload it into large bins that would be taken to the different airlines and loaded as cargo onto the appropriate planes.

Many of the packages were quite heavy, and in order to work this job a person had to be able to lift over their heads up to 70 pounds. Another requirement of the position was that you had to wear steel-toed boots.

If a package fell or dropped on your feet, the pain was intense and would severely bruise your toes. I said all that just to say this – I hope that you wore your steel-toed boots to church this morning because God’s going to step all over your toes!

The land of Judah was in the midst of a great famine, and the scripture we read this morning gave us a description of what life was like during this terrible time.

The prophet Jeremiah described the city and its inhabitants as though they were in mourning. The people had been put to shame and were humiliated, and the country was languishing in sorrow. Conditions in the land of Judah were so bad that even the animals were suffering.

In verses 7 and 8 we are given the reason for this suffering:

7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for they name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.

8. O the hope of Israel, the Savior, thereof in time of trouble, why shoudest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?

God had turned his back on the land of Judah because of the sin of its people. Their sin as a country had become so great that God had become a stranger in their land. It was as if He had turned his back on them.

Church – I stand before you today to deliver God’s message to you, the message that God is fast becoming a stranger in the land of America. We have yet to experience a famine of the scale that Judah was going through, but I do believe with all my heart that if things do not change in this country, it is coming. We are in for severe problems in America.

America is in the midst of a spiritual famine today, and, unless our country turns back to God soon, and experiences a great spiritual revival in our nation, it is just a matter of time before God pours out His anger and wrath on our nation.

Our country has fallen to the lowest depths of immorality. Make no mistake about it, we cannot continue down this road of perdition without provoking the wrath and judgment of God!

Destruction and death have become the norm for our everyday lives. Very few people in this country today are truly spiritual in nature, and when I say spiritual I mean the things of God.

Yes, there are countless numbers of people in America today who consider themselves spiritual. Unfortunately, these people are talking about the occult, the new age movement, or scientology just to name a few.

Too many people today think that they are spiritual just because their name appears on a church roll, even though they never seem to be found sitting on the church pew.

God’s message to us today is simple – His patience with America is running out! When that happens it will include the churches in America too!

You see, when God becomes a stranger in the land, four things begin to happen. First and foremost, the churches grow cold and indifferent. Second, the preachers become silent. Third, homes are divided, and fourth, the future becomes uncertain.

Let’s take a few moments and think about these things and see if they are happening in America today.

First, the churches grow cold and become filled with scandal. The busier people get the less we see them in church. The wealthier they get the less they seem to find need for God. The doctrines upon which the churches were founded get changed. There becomes a new acceptance of sin. The rules get changed so as to not offend the minorities. Old rules are considered no longer appropriate for the church. Gay and lesbian pastors get placed in the pulpit.

All across the nation churches have split over changes in doctrine and in acceptance. Well, make no mistake about it church; this is God’s message to all churches about doctrinal issues. God has not changed! God’s Word, the Bible, has not changed! The same rules and the same doctrine that applied 2000 years ago still apply today! Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same! All may change, but Jesus never, glory to His name!