PROVERBS 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people
PROVERBS 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan
The title of this sermon is ’Why didn’t somebody do something?’ I took this from a story we heard at a conference that Pastor Rhonda and I attended this week. Most of you know we attended the ’Pastor’s briefing’ conference in Austin and we had a wonderful time. It was very moving and very motivating, and I want to share some things with you here this morning that I pray gets us all motivated!
Former Pres. candidate Mike Huckabee spoke Thurs night about a trip that he took his family on back in 1992 to Israel. His daughter was about 12 at the time, and they had gone to a museum about the Holocaust. As they moved from various display to display, picture to picture, he said he was watching his daughter to see how it was effecting her. We all would.. after all, most (I hope all) of our children didn’t grow up with that kind of behavior, or even dream those kinds of things could happen. Things like that don’t happen in our own little world....
Anyway, he observed her as she looked closely at the exhibits. It was hard to read what she was thinking and he, like all parents would, wondered what was going on in there. Sometime pastor Rhonda will ask me what I’m thinking and I say ’nothing’. She has a hard time believing that I guess because she always says ’you HAVE to be thinking something!’ Listen, this is for you wives/girlfriends....when a man says he’s not thinking, you should take that literally! I don’t know why you find that so hard to believe...you accuse us of that anyway!
Gov Huckabee said he couldn’t get a read on her until right at the end, where there was a ’visitors’ sign in book that had a place for comments. He said she took his pen from his pocket and wrote their names in the book....and then he watched as she wrote in the comments ’why didn’t somebody do something?’ That’s a good question, isn’t it? I pray that after today we all realize that ’somebody’ needs to be us! Now!
You might be saying to yourself ’preach’a! don’t go a-mixing religion and politics now...you know...there’s separation of church and state!’ Well, actually...there’s not! And the purpose of today’s sermon is not to tell you who to vote for...just to tell you that it’s your duty as a christian and an American to vote....and encourage others to do the same.
’Look, preach’a...we don’t want the church to get too political!’ We don’t? Did you know that if our founding fathers had taken that attitude, we probably we still be speaking English in this country...oh, yeah, we DO speak English...I mean English with that funny accent! I want to share some things that we learned and I pray that you get as excited about this coming election as I am!
Do you know that in England, the beginnings of the American Revolution was called the ’Black Regiment’. Why? Because of the black robes that preachers wore in those days. The pastors were preaching truth from the pulpits, and the church of England tried to shut them down...tell them what to preach. Censor the church...hmmm....
Ask anybody what the Revolutionary War was about and they’ll tell you...’taxation without representation’...and they are partially right. But listed in the Declaration of Independence (which is been used as the longest ever document for a government/nation) eleven times more often than taxes is the abuse of representative powers. The abuse of military powers is listed 7 times as often, and the abuse of judicial powers 4 times. Taxation without representation was simply grievance #17 out of 27...listed alongside the colonies problems with immigration and foreign trade.
In 1762 America tried to establish a missionary program to the Indians. King George III vetoed it because he thought it would compete with the church. Most any attempt to start a missionary society, or Bible study society, or even Sunday School was squelched by the King. Founding father Charles Carroll and Samuel Adams, both signers of the Declaration, cited religious freedom as the reason they joined the revolution. Remember, the government WAS the church and the church was the government.
Separation of church and state...that sounds like a good idea, huh? Founding Fathers didn’t think so. As a matter of fact, whenever elections were approaching pastors would publish their ’election sermon’ which was then sent for all to read. These sermons would usually speak to the relationship of government and God’s law...and make sure that both were in agreement. Many of these documents are still around and they were preached to our founding Fathers! Many have their names on them!
One preacher, Peter Muhlenberg preached a sermon, pulled off his robe at the pulpit revealing his revolutionary uniform and armed with his guns (clinging to religion and guns you might say) and as he marched out to join the fight, 300 of his congregation went with him! Separation of church and state? I think not! Whenever the state starts pressing the church, it’s time to fight back! By the way, his brother Frederick Muhlenberg pastored a church in NY and advised Peter to stay out of such ’government affairs’. Later, as British troops yanked him out of his church and made him watch it burn, Frederick not only joined the Revolution, but was a member of the continental congress that ratified the constitution. He was also the first speaker of the house of representatives.
Out of the 54 signers of the constitution, 29 of them had attended a seminary and were ordained ministers! The clergy took the lead and the church followed! Whenever they first came together at the constitutional convention, they could not reach an agreement. What did they do? History tells us that Benjamin Franklin (probably the most secular one there!) suggested they.....go to church! And so they did, and were able to come back and ratify our most precious man-made document...the longest governing document ever...the Constitution of the United States of America.....after meeting at the church and hearing a sermon!
God handed down to the children of Israel 613 laws to live by. These laws were what was adapted into our constitution, and they cover everything from health care to welfare (dealing with the poor). From banking and economy to abortion and definition of marriage. God even covers the environment for those that are ’green’ here today!
Out of these 613 laws God handed down to Moses 10 commandments. That doesn’t mean all these other laws are not important, just that God knows that if we live by these 10, the rest will follow. Out of these 10, I want to show you these two, the 6th and 7th ones. You know them...thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery.
Let’s look at the sixth commandment. The Greek word translated ‘Kill’ here is ’Phoneuo’, which means: To be a Murderer, to Murder. Many christian today think that abortion is ok under certain circumstances. I have to confess that I held this view before I became a christian. That is before I realized that the difference between killing and murder is innocent blood. How can I be for capital punishment but against abortion? Innocent blood! Someone who commits murder and is on death row has been found guilty. A baby is never guilty, and if we believe that life begins at conception (all men are created equal) (God knew you when you were formed in your mother’s womb) then abortion is....murder of the innocents!
By the way, anyone born after 1972 please stand up. Congratulations, you survived the abortion holocaust of Roe vs Wade! You could have been one of those that didn’t make it because your mother wasn’t financially ready to accept responsibility for a child. Or maybe you weren’t the right sex....we wanted a boy...Whenever we raise a generation of young people and make them believe that it’s ok to murder for ANY reason, then parents, don’t be surprised if whenever you become a financial burden or too much trouble then euthanasia becomes an acceptable practice for older people.
One more thing on abortion.....if you tell me your view on abortion, I can pretty much know how you view other issues of the day. I know where you are on government entitlements, health care, the environment......
Let’s look at 7....no adultery. You say ’preach’a....I don’t cheat on my spouse’ and I say good...she’d murder you! But it means more than that. God has defined marriage as one man, one woman. If you will read Genesis chapters 1-3 God set out the order of marriage, as He sets order in all He does. He created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!
The people of Cali voted in 2004 on an amendment to make marriage one man, one woman. It passed and was instituted into their state constitution. Earlier this year, the 4th District Federal court overturned the will of the people and redefined marriage as any union between consenting adults. The people of Cali were successful in getting it on a ballot again, and they will vote on it once more on Nov 4th. Preach’a, I don’t live in Cali...pray for that state, because if marriage gets redefined there, we will be facing the same issue here in Texas! Don’t forget, people will get married there and come here to live....and that will pressure Texas and all other states to do the same. Soon, polygamists will want the same rights that gays have. Even child molesters...It must stop here!
Why do I bring out all this stuff? Here’s why. There are 60 mil evangelicals in the U.S. Less than half 29% are registered to vote. Now, about half of that number %15 actually voted in the last 2 elections. Think about it. 60 mil votes can change an entire election! Hillary is proud of the 18 mil she had....60 mil! Christians should have no problems in this country...if we would just vote! How did our country get so far left? Why didn’t somebody do something?
I want to bring this closer to home now. We are in an economic crises. Have you heard about it? Let me show you something. Germany before WW II was in a mess. The stock market crash of 1929 affected everybody. Germany, because of the reparations it was forced to pay from WWI, had trillions of dollars invested in the American Stock Market, when the market crashed, so did Germany’s hopes of paying off their debt. This paved the way for Hitler to convince the German people that he would put Germany back on the right track by taking back what rightfully was theirs (land taken away by the armistice agreement).
Hitler rose to power quickly because he had an answer for the people. One of the first things Hitler did was to take religion out of Germany. Every good dictator knows that where truth stands, it impedes tyranny. Look at Stalin or Marx. Burning Bibles, churches....it’s important to eliminate God from society if you want to take over. By the way, Our first commandment says ’I am the Lord your God’ and that commandment alone over-rides any ’law’ established by man. You say ’the Bible says to obey the laws of the land’.....
God’s law has to come first, because men will try to legislate God OUT of our society. They got God out of school and now they want God out of society. It is our duty Christians to fight any law that would over-ride the law of God! I would remind you also that Germany was a ’refined’ nation and very highly regarded at that time. Some of the smartest people in the world were in Germany.
Whenever Eisenhower liberated one of the death camps, there was a village just down the hill from it. He made every citizen of that town march through that camp so they could see first hand what was going on. They had been denying that anything was happening while millions of Jews were being murdered in the most horrible ways imaginable. Denial.....
Back to our economic mess.....created by the greed of men....here are some facts: Our government bailout of 700 bil changed everything. It made the government of the U.S. the biggest ’banker’ in the world. Now, it’s the gov that will approve your home loans..and by their power to do that, they will be able to decline yours if you don’t submit to the ’civil’ law of the land. There is a ’hate crime’ bill that could keep me from preaching this sermon today. They could come in here and take me to jail because I preach against abortion and homosexuality. They better come on, because I’ll go to jail before I compromise the Word of God!
China holds a lot of our debt. China is wanting the world to go on a one currency system. The global markets are too diverse. They want to quit dealing in dollars, euros,...they want one currency only. Did you know that a world banking system was prophesied in the Bible? A one world government as well? You’ve all heard it all your lives...now your living it!
The world is looking for a Saviour. Some think they have found one. Louis Farrakan called one candidate ’the messiah, the one we’ve been waiting for’. By the way, he made that statement at a church...a ’christian’ church where he was the fearured speaker even though he is the self-proclaimed leader of Islam in America.
Today church has been too silent for too long! this is a call for action! It’s time to take politics and religion. It’s time to tell your neighbor what these candidates stand for! It’s time, christian, to get yourself out and vote....and to challenge those who make statements that are anti-God and anti-country!
Listen, I know that there are more issues than gay marriage and abortion. You might say look, preach’a....that one candidate is gonna give us some money...and I need free health care. This country is great because of sacrifices, and if you put your own well being above that of the moral issues of today, then God help you. You’re gonna need His help, and maybe He will respond to selfishness....maybe He won’t.
I would like to know that we christians have done all we can do. Some day, all these things are going to happen. It is end-time right now, but I believe that God would have us in there slugging it out for His names sake rather than just sit back and watch as our country embraces Godlessness and pagen laws.
We can’t just sit on our hands and deny that things are going on! And if God tarries His coming, I pray that 20 yrs from now someone doesn’t have to look at our current time in history and ask the question..’why didn’t somebody do something?’
< CHR 7:14If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
