How Long Will God Strive With America?

HOW LONG WILL GOD STRIVE WITH AMERICA?

Judges 10:10-14, Ezekiel 16:47-52, Genesis 18,19

INTRO: I started the series in Judges partly because I saw America in the period of the Judges. And as I was studying for this week’s installment, I saw the ultimate future of America if she doesn’t change her ways. In fact I almost had everything together for the sermon on Jephthah and the Lord brought this to my mind. I think it was the Lord and the combination of current events. But I was reading over Judges 10 in preparation and came across these verses again…

Judges 10 10 Then the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.” 11 The LORD said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? 12 Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hands. 13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.”

I sat there and thought about these verses, and first of all, I looked at my own life. How many times have I put God in the situation the Israelites put Him in? To get God so angry that He would make a statement like this, they had to really tick Him off. And it hit home for me Tuesday night when I was driving the kid’s home from Bible school. One of children (who shall remain nameless, but he’s male and our firstborn) was doing something to one of his siblings, and I told him I don’t know how many times to stop, and he continued. Finally, I had enough. And in that moment when I was about to lose it, I realized what God must feel like when we continue to do the same things over and over. But as I explained to the kid’s, God is patient, and sometimes daddy needs to learn some patience too, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that they don’t listen or disobey.

Then Wednesday rolled around, and this verse hit me like a ton of bricks. The Supreme Court had ruled against the Defense of Marriage Act, and even though they didn’t necessarily legalize gay marriage, they basically opened the door for it to be legalized not too far down the road. And my thoughts went to these verses again and I thought about our country and the direction we’re heading in; not only the ruling that came down, but the reaction to it.

The church bells of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC rang for an hour straight on Wednesday. People around the cathedral were dumbfounded and wondered what was going on, maybe the bells were broken or a practical joke was being played. But the bells in the National Cathedral were ringing for an hour straight in celebration of the Supreme Court decision to basically overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. And I thought to myself, where is this country heading, and how long is God going to put up with America?

Then I read something from a letter Billy Graham wrote about a year ago, and it was posted on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website: “Some years ago, my wife, Ruth, was reading the draft of a book I was writing. When she finished a section describing the terrible downward spiral of our nation’s moral standards and the idolatry of worshiping false gods such as technology and sex, she startled me by exclaiming, “If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” I don’t know exactly when she said those words, but she died in 2007, so it was before that. Look how much deeper into spiritual decay this nation has plunged into since then. She was so right by what she said, and that is what we’re going to be looking at today.

The 4th of July is Thursday. America will be 237 years old. Look at the path we’ve taken in those 237 years. Look at the path we’ve taken in the past 50-60 years. America is on a downward spiral. America is circling the drain. It’s exactly the same as we talk about in Judges, but how long will God extend His patience toward our nation? Those verses in Judges, the Lord said He wasn’t going to deliver the children of Israel anymore. Has America gotten to that point? Have we become like Sodom and Gomorrah? That’s why this morning I ask, “HOW LONG WILL GOD STRIVE WITH AMERICA?”