Sermon Brief
Date Written: July 02, 2009
Date Preached: July 05, 2009
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: Seasonal Sermon Series
Sermon Title: Serving God IS Serving Your Country
Sermon Text: 2 Chronicles 7:12-15 [ESV]
Introduction:
This weekend is a HUGE weekend in the history of our nation. Some 233 years ago, we declared our independence from the English Empire and struck out as an independent nation… governing ourselves and seeking our own way.
Some 300+ years ago, people came to these shores yearning for religious freedom! You see in England in the late 1600’s there was an oppression of sorts being waged people who believed that the Roman Catholic Church was apostate and they had established a new church based solely on Scripture alone!
The Catholic Church and the Church of England both began to persecute these new believers in many ways. One way of persecution was they were afforded the chance to go to this harsh new land… for them to worship as they wished they would have to uproot their families and sail across the ocean to a land where they had NO idea of how harsh and difficult it was going to be….
However, our nation was founded by many who came to these shores seeking and yearning to worship God as they believed Scripture dictated…
These people established colonies with laws based on the foundations of biblical principles and Judaeo-Christian ethics. As they submitted to God they prospered and in the late 1700’s a group of men gathered together in what is now known as the Continental Congress. These men sought to separate themselves and the states they represented from the tyranny and tax oppression of the English Empire.
A group of 56 men gathered and commissioned the writing of a document that fundamentally changed the way Gov’t was done…and what they came up with… we now know as the Declaration of Independence… and a new nation was born!
These men knew full well that this would cost them dearly… and it did, most of these founding fathers died either broke or near poverty and some were even imprisoned for their stance for freedom.
But out of their bravery our great nation was born! It was a nation founded on godly Christian principles. Everything used to form our nation was derived from the principles derived from Scripture.
The founding fathers called for prayer and God’s direction and providence to help them to establish this nation! This is why still today we declare to the world that we ARE a Christian nation! This is why I stand here today appalled and angered at our sitting president who has declared that we are NOT!
Now with all that being said… with all the history and facts that we now know WERE the founding elements for our nation… is our nation living up to its claim of being a Christian nation? I believe we can see that we have fallen from where we started!
But this is not the 1st time a nation has fallen before God. You see Abraham was called by God to start a nation… a nation He would call His people. God made a covenant with Abraham, Moses and David for Israel to be a great nation.
Israel enjoyed many years as a prosperous and powerful nation but Israel fell on many occasions when they turned their back on God. Our nation was founded on godly principles and Christian ethics, but over the past 100 years we have slowly but surely moved away from God and toward our own way.
Our passage for this morning is the final part of the dedication of the new temple Solomon had built for God. Solomon was serving God and God instructed him to build a Temple and blessed his efforts.
In chapter 6 Solomon had offered up a prayer to God and in that prayer Solomon recognized that God’s blessing was determined on their obedience to Him… let’s look at some of that prayer:
2 Chronicles 6
22 "If a man sins against his neighbor…
24 "If your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you…
26 "When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you…
28 "If there is famine in the land…
28b if their enemies besiege them in the land at their gates, whatever plague, whatever sickness there is…
30 "If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near…
Solomon understood and was praying to God before the entire nation so that they would understand that obedience was a prerequisite to God’s favor and God’s blessing. If they obeyed God, He was going to honor His covenant and bless them… but if they were disobedient God was also going to honor His covenant and He would discipline them!
I believe that our Founding Fathers sought the guidance and leadership of God in the formation of this nation and I believe that God honored that diligence on their part. I believe that most who came to this land sought to worship God in a true spirit of worship and praise and God honored that desire.
For the 1st 150 years of our nation, we were solidly a Christian nation and governed by Christian principles and ethics, but over the past 83 years we have strayed from the guiding example of our founding Fathers… Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and many others were of the belief that if we placed God first, that God would honor this nation.
Over the past 233 years our nation has experienced a meteoric rise to power and prestige, all under what I would consider the blessings and protections of the Almighty!
America has become the beacon of freedom and light in this world, a bastion of hope in a world where hope is dashed by famine, starvation, civil war, dictators, persecution and political unrest! People seek to come to America because we are known world wide as a nation where you can prosper!
I believe our prosperous reputation came from our prosperous and obedient relationship with God. Our people and our leaders trusted God and sought His counsel. However, our prosperity has led many to believe that it was US that made it happen… that it was men who brought about our success and prestige.
I believe that our arrogant attitude as a nation has led us down a path of destruction and will ultimately lead to the demise of our nation, if we fail to turn back to God. Today in our nation, murder is rampant… murder of 2 sorts happen in our nation.
Did you know that in 2007 there a total of 16,929 reported murders in America? That calculates to about 46 murders every day or almost 2 murders every hour of every day in our country! And that is only the reported and investigated murders!
In 1973 our nation took a giant leap away from God when our Supreme Court ruled that abortion should be made legal and available to all women who desired one. Now in our nation today, we have government funding that supports the killing of the unborn.
Did you know that in 2005 which is the latest year we have complete numbers for… there were 4,138,339 babies born in America, but there were also 921,910 abortions reported. Almost 1 million babies were murdered before they ever had the chance to breathe their first breath.
Over 23% of all healthy pregnancies were terminated by abortion… that is 1 in 4 babies who never ever get to breathe because they are killed before they are born!
Murder is a heinous and terrible crime to commit… to take another person’s life is a horrible offense, one that God Himself has said is wrong. But today in our country we have legalized the murder of the innocents… since 1973 over 45 million babies have been murdered! 45 MILLION!
Now does this sound like a nation that is focused on the principle of Scripture? Do you think that the Founding Fathers would approve of what we have become? Do you think God is pleased with what our nation stands for and approves of today?
This is but just ONE example of where our nation has stumbled, I could give you many, many more such as how homosexuality is now viewed by many as a legitimate life situation and that it is not a choice but that is WHO they are…
Another is theft or stealing… there was a time in this country when honesty and integrity meant something to EVERYONE and a person’s good name was important. However, today in our country it is common place for things to disappear and be taken… and in certain situations almost EXPECTED! I find the integrity and moral character of our nation to be spiraling downward and getting worse and worse!
I have heard many Christians make comments about the ungodly leaders we have, and how God is being taken out of our society and how terrible things are getting.
Many believers point the finger of blame at Satan and his influence over those who are not saved. Many believers point the finger of blame at our society that has abandoned God… but today I want to share with you who is TRULY to blame for the downward spiral of our nation! It is WE the church! We are to blame! You are to blame! I am to blame!
As a body of believers we have sat idly by and allowed so many things to be taken away and changed and altered because we thought it was unimportant OR that it wouldn’t affect us… but I tell you it is WE who are to blame!
Today… THIS generation is the generation that is going point the direction for future generations…so the question is, “where are we pointing the future generations?” How are we in our generation serving God and leaving a godly legacy?
We started out so great in our nation, lifting God up in EVERYTHING we did… all the way from Government offices to the everyday lives of its people… God was proclaimed!
However, today is a different story! Today, our Congress is attempting to pass what they call the “Hate Crime Initiative” and although the implication of the bill seems to be focused on hate mongers such as the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist groups…
This also has the potential to be much more wide reaching… and there is a fear… and a well founded one at that… that this bill if signed into law would potentially focus on what pastors say about things like sexual sin or homosexuality or any other sinful activity.
In fact, when an official from the Justice Department was asked about this potential law, that if a minister was attacked by a radical homosexual faction because of the ministers stance against homosexuality, would this bill protect the minister under the Hate Crimes statute?
The answer was a shocking NO! That this bill will NOT protect ministers or white people. And this is what the Justice department is pushing for legal justice for all people?
We live in a fallen and broken world, where there is never going to be total peace or harmony. The reason for that brokenness is the sin in our lives… the reason the world is getting worse instead of being on the mend… that is OUR fault! We… the Christians of the world have abandoned our role in society…
In our passage Solomon had prayed for God’s dedication and indwelling of the Temple… Solomon had laid out areas where the people had fallen in the past and where they could fall again in the future…
His prayer was based on the covenant made between God and Israel, that if they would follow and serve God that He would bless and keep them, but if they strayed He would chastise them!
In our focus passage this morning we find God answering Solomon and laying out a template for any and all believers to follow and implement if they wish to experience the blessing and favor of God. Let’s look at those passages:
12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.
13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.
God’s answer to Solomon was clear and concise… obey and I will honor and bless you but disobey and I will curse and discipline you.
People, this is where America stands today. Our nation was founded on the godly and Christian principles of Scripture but we have strayed. We have strayed SO much that the Bible is ill spoken of and any mention of God is shunned under the misleading concept of separation of church and state.
First I want to challenge all of you hear today to actually get a copy and read the Constitution of our nation… it is our founding document and it is steeped in biblical principle and ethic! I challenge you to find ANYWHERE in the Constitution where church and state are dictated to remain separate.
The ACLU will say that the 1st Amendment has the ‘establishment’ clause that prevents the country from establishing any religion, but theirs is a perverted and twisted interpretation of very clear language.
The 1st amendment does tell us that Congress shall make NO law that establishes a religion, and I am in full agreement with that statement because I do not want the government telling our churches how they can worship… this statement was to protect the churches FROM the Government, not to protect the Gov’t from church or religion.
But what many ACLU lawyers seem to forget is the completion of that 1st amendment where it states that Congress shall make no law establishing a religion OR preventing the free exercise thereof… in other words they cannot stop you from your faith.
The courts have determined… wrongly I might add… that any display of God in the public sector is tantamount to establishing a Gov’t sponsored religion! To this I say HOGWASH! Our people have a faith and to forbid them to express that faith in public is a violation of their Constitutional rights and it is a quenching of the Holy Spirit!
But again I go back to the church… this has all happened since 1960 and it is because the church sat by and did NOTHING. But preacher what can we do? What can I do to change things? I have no power… I have no position…who is going to listen to me?
Well I am sure that this was the position of many faithful believers in Israel and God knew their heart and in v.14 we find God giving Solomon a road map (so to speak) on how a nation can find its way back to Him…
In v.14 God says if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
if my people …If MY people… believers… those who claim God as Father! MY PEOPLE
if my people who are called by my name …Christians, followers of Christ, those people whom the world associate with God…
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves…they need to stop looking to themselves for answers, they need to stop looking to the Government for answers, they need to stop looking to humanity for the answers… Believers we HAVE to realize where our strength comes from…we need to understand our frailty and sinfulness… we need to submit in humility to the God of Creation… we need to deny ourselves…
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face … if we would seek the face of God, if we would hit our knees about all things, if we truly would believe in the power of our Savior and the power of our prayer to Him…if we would once again fully place our faith and trust in God to answer our prayers… and then follow His answers…
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways… If MY people, called by MY name, shall turn from their wicked ways… not only are we to humble ourselves before Him but we are called to turn away from our sin…turn away from our self centeredness… turn away from our self reliance… We have come to the point in the church that so many of us accept what the world presents as good… we need to reject the world and fully turn TO God!
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven…God is clear in His answer. If we want to hear from God in heaven… if we want deliverance… if we want blessing… if we want His favor… we have to humble ourselves and pray and submit to His Lordship… only THEN will He begin to move on our requests and prayers!
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land… Not only will God hear us… not only will we rec’ve an answer from God but God is going to ‘heal’ our land! For the nation who honors God is a nation that God will honor!
This answer by God is basically God restating His covenant for the nation. It is given in the form of an IF, THEN statement… Here we find that God says IF they will humble themselves and pray… it states IF they will turn from their wicked ways…THEN He will hear from Heaven and heal their land!
People until the church in America gets serious about seeking the face of God…
Until the church in America submits to the Lordship of Christ…
Until the church in America stops trying to do things man’s way and submits to God’s way…
Until this happens, our churches will not grow, will not prosper and will not spread the Gospel. And when the churches are suffering the nation suffers! This is because serving our God and being Obedient to God is serving our nation. Our nation deserves people who submit to God!
So what about you this morning? Are you a believer who is simply sitting on the sidelines? Are you a believer who is content in watching from your comfortable pew? Are you a believer that believes that there is NOTHING we can do…that the world is TOO filled with evil?
If you are in those categories today, I am here to tell you that the God you claim to serve is FAR too small… FAR too weak… FAR too timid to deserve your praise!
The God of the universe and the Savior of this world, Jesus Christ is all powerful and can turn our nation around, but He is not going to honor our nation until our nation gets back to honoring Him. Are you honoring God today in your actions?
As bro Steve comes this morning… I call on all believers here today to step out and make a commitment to God… I call on you to join ME in the Fellowship of the UNASHAMED! Cast aside your doubt and fear… humble yourself before God and confess you sin… allow God to lift you up… Step out boldly in this world proclaiming the God of your Salvation!
I call on you to TURN your eyes OFF the world today and TURN YOUR EYES UPON Jesus and I challenge you to COME forward and commit yourself to the Lord as we begin to sing!
