The Work of Faith and Power
Veterans Day Message
2 Thess 1:11-12
This week we honor our nation’s as we celebrate Veteran’s Day. We celebrate and recognize this American spirit that is willing to tirelessly defend our nation against any threat to our boarders and or to our freedom. I am privileged to work with these men and women 5 days a week. I can tell you that the majority of them fit this description. They are highly trained and ready to deploy within an hour’s notice to anywhere they are called to defend freedom. We give praise and thanksgiving to our God for those who have served and those who continue to do so.
Today I want to talk about a different kind of veteran that is needed and that is the veteran of Spiritual Warfare. For some time I have been emphasizing the need for a concentrated effort in holiness. Last week I challenged you to a week off of the media but it wasn’t just to turn off the TV, the internet or the cell phone. It was to turn them off and turn Him on, to turn your attention to the Lord, to seek His face. We desperately need Christians who are ready, willing and able to do spiritual battle so that we can turn this nation back to its foundations, to God, the Bible and Biblical morality.
Let me call your attention to 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a great deal to be said from this passage but one thing that stood out to me as something that not only applies to our walk with Christ and supporting the work of the Kingdom of God, but also speaks to the Christian in his or her duty as a citizen of this great nation. That is, that God’s calling is to fulfill His good pleasure, a work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in us and us in Him.
I don’t believe we are Americans by accident anymore than I believe life is an accident. I believe we live in this nation by providence. I believe we were created for such a time as this. I believe God our Father has designed us to engage the current culture of rebellion and lovingly but boldly with firm, educated understanding, point this wayward society to the Gospel truth.
Listen to this absolute truth from Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Israel was destroyed not “delivering knowledge” but for abandoning knowledge. So I challenged you last week to give up some media time in order to gain some Godly knowledge time. I did this because I believe we are entertaining ourselves into oblivion and have relinquished the education of biblical values to a few hours a week in church while hundreds of hours are spent in an anti-Christian brainwashing society. We are far too comfortable allowing a godless government and an anti-Christian media strip away the foundations that hold us together.
I make no bones about it, I am a proud, Freedom seeking, Bible believing Gun toting Flag waving American. I love this country. I am proud to be an American! My pride does not stem from any one person, or from the military, certainly not from any political figure. My pride in being an American stems from our roots, the foundations that have made us great. I’ve not always been this way, but I didn’t always know what I know today. Today, my knowledge of those foundations is much greater than it used to be. And, the more I discover about the creation of America the more awed I grow of God’s handiwork and the more proud I am to be an American. There are many foundational truths about this great nation that, sadly, a very limited number of people know and understand. The fact that our nation was built, structured from the ground up, on Judeo Christian principles, is something we are not taught outside the church, nor have been for many years. As a matter of fact, you have to go back before the turn of the 20th century, back before John Dewey, back to when the William McGuffey Readers were the primary source for education to find teaching that combines Judeo Christian values with public education.
I am sure many of you know the story behind the construction of the Constitution of the United States of America. How a group of dedicated men met together for months debating the details of what would govern our nation. What you may not know is that in the process, the framers, those trying to pen the document, got into a frustrated and heated battle. They were getting nowhere until 81 year old Ben Franklin called them to adjourn for prayer and fasting. This is what he had to say:
“We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exists And we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
"In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights, to illuminate our understandings.
"In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men.
“And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?
"We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the House they labour in vain those that build it.' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel:
“We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; (imagine that, without God, political leaders will be divided by special interest) our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.
“And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
"I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."
When they returned they began each of their sessions with prayer. The stirring speech of Benjamin Franklin marked a turning point in the writing of the Constitution, complete with a Bill of Rights.
Ben Franklin could stand in the halls of Congress and speak those biblically based comments and people accepted them as authoritative. They made a difference because these people were not only veterans in respect to a war for freedom and independence, but they were veterans to the hand of God, to divine providence, to spiritual warfare. They had bourn witness to the hand of God that led farmers and tradesman with no military experience at all, to defeat the greatest military in the world. There was none of this ridiculous discussion about tolerance. They didn’t worry that if they didn’t also seek the spiritual guidance of Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius or Mohammed they might offend someone. They had knowledge of God’s Word, they knew the Almighty hand of God and unashamedly sought His guidance.
Let me again call your attention to 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we need to step up to the calling and “and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you know that in 1983, by joint resolution, 97th Untied States Congress authorized President Reagan to declare 1983 as the “Year of the Bible?” That resolution passed with an overwhelming majority.
Did you know that in 2009, just 27 short years later, a group of 16 congressmen introduced another “Year of the Bible”? I didn’t know about and to my it wasn’t talked about in any major media outlet. But, OneNewsNow of the American Family News Network conducted a poll of 7681 people and asked the question if what chance they thought a resolution for another “Year of the Bible” might have? Their response, 86% said “slim to none.” They were spot on because that one didn’t make it. It didn’t make headlines; it didn’t ruffle feathers, or cause outrage in the Christian community. It just went away.
In David Jeremiah’s book “I Never Thought I’d See the Day, which is where I got the previous from, he demonstrates how the Bible has become what he calls, “marginalized.” That’s a big word we don’t often use today but the textbook definition is:
“to relegate or confine to a lower or outer limit or edge, as of a social standing.”
The Bible has not been banned in America like in North Korea, or Iran, but there has been a slow methodical reduction of its importance and usage in prominent places in America. Jeremiah explains this action of “marginalization” somewhat like a social click at school that wants to reduce the popularity of another student. They don’t have to banish the student. All they have to do is spread rumors and make that particular student the brunt of jokes or a laughing stock.
Isn’t that where the Bible is in our society? For that matter, isn’t that where Christianity is? Let someone stand in Congress today and try to pass a motion based on biblical philosophy and the wrath of the media will descend like a hailstorm.
Last week Republican lawmakers and conservative activists expressed outrage because the Obama administration announced its objection to adding President Franklin Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The objection was noted during a congressional hearing on Rep. Bill Johnson’s (R-OH) bill – the “World War II Memorial Prayer Act of 2011.” Source: Fox News
“It is unconscionable that the Obama administration would stand in the way of honoring our nation’s distinguished World War II veterans,” Johnson said. “President Roosevelt’s prayer gave solace, comfort and strength to our nation and our brave warriors as we fought against tyranny and oppression.” ditto
Roosevelt asked the nation to join him in prayer as U.S. and allied troops launched the invasion that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. He asked God to give the allied troops courage and faith, saying, “With thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy.”
At that time in history, the nation as a whole still recognized the Almighty hand of God in providing freedom and victory.
But Robert Abbey, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, said any plaque or inscription of the prayer would “dilute” the memorial’s central message and therefore “should not be altered.”
There is an environment rising in our land that is hostile towards American history – but in particular towards Christianity,” Perkins told Fox News. “I hope America wakes up and realizes what this administration is doing to this country and how they want to radically and fundamentally change America.”
“They want to erase every aspect of America’s heritage,” Perkins said of Obama’s administration. “any president, any official in history that has embraced Christianity, is no longer welcome in this administration. That’s the environment they are creating.”
Folks, please I am not being political. The anti-Christian and morally perverse legislation coming out of the highest offices of this land have been coming on for a long time. It’s just more in our face today than we have ever seen. Not only that, the dumbing down of our society, the inability to educate our children because the most important thing in their life consist of socializing on facebook and cell phones, because their greatest knowledge is what’s playing on TV, or in the XBOX or Playstation, the inability to stop the crime and the escalating drug wars, all these destructive forces are killing us from within because we don’t know, don’t care to know, won’t take time to know personally and actively share the Gospel Truth of God’s Word.
We certainly need a movement of the hand of God. This country needs a Spiritual Awakening that will make the Great Awakening of the 19th century look like a tent revival. We need people to take this statement that God said thru the Prophet Hosea to heart:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
Parents look at your children; grandparents look at your grandchildren. This country needs godly people who will live “worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Our business is not to change the government or even to save the world. The godless corruption that is evident from the Whitehouse to the local city hall is not confined to one political party; it is ingrained in the hearts of all who have not surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The men who framed our government were not all “born again believers,” but their writings demonstrate a great respect and awe for God’s Word. They men of integrity because they believed in and feared a righteous God. That is simply not the case today. Wherever you go in this land you will find government office buildings worth millions to billions and not far from those buildings you’ll find heartbreaking areas of poverty. The people who say, “elect me so I can remove the poverty” never remove the poverty. The government grows larger and so does the poverty. Why? Corruption! The human heart without Christ is corrupt.
Our business is to live humbly before Almighty God and in loving obedience deliver the message of salvation in word and in deed. The Gospel will not heal the government. The Gospel heals the heart that sits in the government seat. The Gospel does not clean up the corrupt prison system. The Gospel changes the heart so imprisonment is no longer needed. Implementing standards of Christianity will not improve our school systems, but changing the hearts of those who govern the school and those who attend the school will.
America is in the hands of those who have no knowledge of the Spiritual Heritage of this great nation.
British Statesman and Philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797) said, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it."
That’s a great statement and the history of civilizations will back its validity.
However, God Almighty spoke thru His prophet Hosea 1800 years earlier and said:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
We can go back another 700 to 800 years and God spoke thru His prophet Moses and said:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
And in verse 24 God tells us why this so very important:
24 And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’
Nations rise and survive because our Father strengthens and empowers and protects and provides for those nations.
One more story and I will close with this. In his Book, “I Never Thought I would See the Day”, Jeremiah tells about a missionary named Ruby Scott who worked as a Bible Translator in a southern Mexico. The people group there had never seen God’s Word in printed form.
When the project was nearly finished, the church she had planted there was eager to for the Bible and constantly asking “how much longer before we have the Book?”
She had a helper named Aureliano who helped her with translation as well physically creating the Book. One day as they were putting the Book together Aureliano walked over to the table where a foot-high pile of printed pages were stacked and said to Ruby with a sense of wonder, “I’m the first Tila man to have all of this book in my hand. I feel like a king of the throne as I sit here day after day and read God’s Word.”
Ruby later wrote, “That night I lay awake remembering the soft like in Aureliano’s eyes and the awe and reverence in his voice as he read God’s Word—God’s Holy Word. What had happened in my heart? Had I become so used to reading that beautiful message that I no longer felt the wonder of it? Had I allowed some of the awe and marvel of the Book to slip away? How long had it been since I felt like royalty because I could read the most important Book in the world? Tears filled my eye’s “Oh God,” I prayed, ‘make my heart tender toward you—tender toward Your word, the Living Everlasting Word.’” Pg 179
What we need today brothers and sister in Christ is people of the Book who understand our “calling,” and who are willing to humbly submit to God so that He may “fulfill” all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I want to challenge you to sign the card at the altar and commit your life to let Him do His work of faith and power in and thru you once again..
Heavenly Father, I commit to meet with You every day at _____________. I commit to study Your Word and ask for daily strength to be guided by Your Truths. I ask You Oh God that You will give me a sense of wonder over Your Holy Word and that I may understand my calling in Christ that You may fulfill Your good pleasure and the work of faith with power in my life.
Signed Your Servant
