How many of you read the newspaper each morning? And how many of you read the obituary column? And how many of you are happy to find that your name is not listed in the column? I thought that would be the case! This morning I want to speak for a few minutes about another name in an obituary that I am going to refer to as “The American Dream.” Now I’m not talking about the opportunity to get ahead, although that is certainly one of things that appeals to those who want to enter this country. (Russia, China and Cuba do not have illegal immigration problems) No, what I am speaking about is the Dream that was America, the dream that our founders had when they first came to the wind swept shores of New England 300 years ago, the dream that led 56 men to gather in Philadelphia to write and sign what we call the Declaration of Independence. They recognized in this document that all our rights come from our Creator and not from the state and that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! Let me read:
“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.”
There are most likely some in our congregation this morning who think that this preacher is over dramatizing his subject and that the dream that we call America is not dead. I am willing to admit that sometimes preachers are prone to that to some degree but if the dream of America is not dead then it is in its death throes, it’s on life support and if something radical is not done the dream will die!
“Obituary: The American Dream”
Isaiah 59:1-8
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
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I. The Problem
Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
a. Our separation
Deuteronomy 11:26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
America the beautiful and the blessed is showing serious signs that His blessings have been withdrawn because of our rejection of His Word. Verse 2 says that He will not hear our prayers!
Psalms 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
b. Our sins
1. Verse 3 says “…your hands are defiled with blood…” and verse 7 says “…they make haste to shed innocent blood…” Ladies and gentleman, 7,000,000 Jews were put to death by Nazi Germany and we call it a “Holocaust” What name can be applied to describe the deaths of 35,000,000 children who have died since the Supreme Court declared “open season” on the unborn? The following is an article entitled the;
Religion of Carthage (modern day Tunisia) by Roy Decker
Human Sacrifice
The sacred precinct of Carthage, called the Tophet, was the location of the temple of the goddess Tanit and the necropolis. Even today, visitors to the Tophet describe it as a "very spooky" place! (There are thousands of small headstones) Beginning at the founding of Carthage in about 814 B.C., mothers and fathers buried their children who had been sacrificed to Baal Hammon and Tanit there. The practice was apparently distasteful even to Carthaginians, and they began to buy children for the purpose of sacrifice or even to raise servant children instead of offering up their own. However, in times of crisis or calamity, like war, drought, or famine, their priests demanded the flower of their youth. Special ceremonies during extreme crisis saw up to 200 children of the most affluent and powerful families slain and tossed into the burning pyre. During the political crisis of 310 B.C., some 500 were killed. On a moonlit night, after the child was mercifully killed, the body was placed on the arms of the god, where it rolled into the fire pit. The sound of flutes, lyres, and tambourines helped to drown out the cries of the anguished parents. Later, the remains were collected and placed in special small urns. The urns were then buried in the Tophet. Recent excavations discovered a great number of these urns, proving the accusation of child sacrifice true. The area covered by the Tophet was probably over an acre and a half by the fourth century B.C., with nine different levels of burials. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of child sacrifice also in Sardinia and Sicily. The ritual of burning was called "the act of laughing" perhaps because when the flames are consuming the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seemed almost to be laughing. There is a strange parallel here to the Egyptian ritual performed on the dead called the "opening of the mouth" by which it was thought the soul was finally freed of the body.
We can only imagine the anguish and grief of the parents who were required to offer their children to these demonic deities. As a culture we need to ask ourselves how the murder of so many millions of unborn children is any different. “Isn’t abortion our cultures sacrifice to the gods of “choice, greed, convenience and materialism?” Quote from Dave Kinney
2. Second, notice how many references in these verses there are to “truth.” Verse 3 “…your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness…” Verse 4, “…nor any pleadeth for truth…” and the last reference says everything that needs to said about the conditions that exist in our nation for Verse 14 declares that, “…truth is fallen in the street…”
Lying and cheating have become a way of life in our country and even many sociologists say it’s no big deal to lie – as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. Ever since William Jefferson Clinton was president we have had this silly debate about private and public morals. We have been told that character doesn’t matter in a president or public servant, just his or her ability to govern effectively. Can I tell what I think? If a man lies and cheats on his wife with some floozy then he can’t be trusted to run the school house, the church house or the White house! The Scripture says;
Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
There is a great deal more I could say this morning about what is wrong in America. Verse 5 speaks of snakes eggs (cockatrice) and spiders webs. We are caught in a web of wickedness and we are being poisoned more and more every day! What or who is at the heart of this poisoning of America? The answer is easy! Satan, who is introduced to us in the form of a serpent in Genesis is the liar and the “father of all lies.”
CHANGING THE PRICE TAGS
One year, my best friend and I devised what we thought was a brilliant and creative plan for mischief. We decided to break into the basement of the local five-and-dime store. We did not plan to rob the place (Sunday School boys would never do that sort of the thing); instead, we planned to do something that, as far as the owner of the store was concerned, would have been far worse. Our plan was to get into that five-and-dime store and change the price tags on things.
We imagined what it would be like the next morning when people came into the store and discovered that radios were selling for a quarter and bobby pins were priced at five dollars each. With diabolical glee, we wondered what it would be like in that store when nobody could figure out what the prices of things really should be.
Sometimes I think that Satan has played the same kind of trick on all of us. Sometimes I think that he has broken into our lives and changed the price tags on things. Too often, under the influences of his malicious ploy, we treat what deserves to be treated with loving care as though it were of little worth. On the other hand, we find ourselves tempted to make great sacrifices for that which, in the long run of life, has no lasting value and delivers very little gratification. Sometimes I think that one of the worst consequences of being fallen creatures is our failure to understand what really is important in life.
SOURCE: Jeff Strite, Church of Christ at Logansport, IN. Citation: Anthony Campolo’s "Who Switched The Price Tags?"
c. Our strife
Notice that Isaiah says that “The way of peace they know not…” and “…they have made for themselves crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.”
Isaiah 48:22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.
HUNGRY FOR PEACE
Much, if not most, of the social turmoil of our culture is due to a hunger for peace, which is sought for in all the wrong places. According to Ronald Hutchcraft, the Director of Youth for Christ in New York and New Jersey, in the next thirty minutes-
57 kids will run away from home.
29 children will attempt suicide.
22 girls under 19 years of age will receive an abortion.
14 teenage girls will give birth to an illegitimate baby.
685 teens will use some form of narcotic.
These tragic statistics reveal that we are a nation in perpetual war.
SOURCE: Glenn Pease in THE FRUIT OF PEACE. http://www.intohisword.net/pauline/galatians13.shtml
We are a nation at war with itself. We have made crooked paths socially, economically, politically and culturally; we are walking in these crooked paths and the price is a lack of peace. Think of what has happened to this country in just the last few years; 9/11, Katrina, floods, tornados, fires etc. The advance of the homosexual agenda, Occupy Wall Street, the rise of radical groups on the left and the right. Abortion, euthanasia, and the list goes on and on.
II. The Prescription
Dave Kinney said: “The only cure for the crookedness, the craziness, the chaos, and the confusion in America is the cross! And the key is every Christian and every church needs to depend on the old rugged cross as the only beacon of light in these dark days.”
Psalms 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
a. Repent thoroughly of our sins
2 Chronicles 7:14 If 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.
Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate that was shared by Paul Harvey.
When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
Heavenly Father,
We come before You today to ask Your Forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ''Woe to those who call evil good,'' but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our Spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that; we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism; We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism; We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle; We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery; We have neglected the needy and called it self- preservation; We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare; We have killed our unborn and called it choice; We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable; We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem; We have abused power and called it political savvy; We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition; We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression; We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of this state and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state of Kansas. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your Will.
I ask in in the name of your Son, The Living Savior, Jesus Christ
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
b. Return to the Truth
Scientific textbooks change every year but the Bible never changes. It is the inerrant, infallible, inspired Word of God that is the only standard of objective absolute truth.
Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
The truth is the only things that can set us free. Truth is the only weapon against the snakes poison and the spider’s web! If we will preach and teach the Truth again we can bleach America clean again!
c. Repeat
Revelation 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
In conclusion: If America is not dead then it is close to it. The dream we call America is hanging on by a thread! There have been good men and women who recognized the danger our great country is in and have tried to sound the alarm. Maybe some of them went about it the wrong way but at least they tried to do something. It is estimated that there are 7,000,000 humanists and about 180 million who would consider themselves to be Christian. On the surface it would appear that the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor yet we are losing the struggle for the soul of America. The question is why?????
In 1795 Edmund Burke said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
Dante said that: “The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of crises.”
It is plain that the real problem is that we have been silent too long. We haven’t had the courage to take a stand for the Truth.
ILL - Survivor Eva Hart remembers the night, April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic plunged 12,000 feet to the Atlantic floor, some two hours and forty minutes after an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in the starboard side: "I saw all the horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning people."
Although twenty life-boats and rafts were launched-too few and only partly filled-most of the passengers ended up struggling in the icy seas while those in the boats waited a safe distance away.
Lifeboat No. 14 did row back to the scene after the unsinkable ship slipped from sight at 2:20 A.m. Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few. Incredibly, no other boat joined it.
Some were already overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their half-filled boats aimlessly in the night, listening to the cries of the lost. Each feared a crush of unknown swimmers would cling to their craft, eventually swamping it.
"I came to seek and to save the lost," our Savior said. And he commissioned us to do the same. But we face a large obstacle: fear. While people drown in the treacherous waters around us, we are tempted to stay dry and make certain no one rocks the boat.
WHAT GOD CAN DO
"When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend upon education, we get what education can do; when we depend upon man, we get what man can do; but when we depend on prayer, we get what God can do."
A.C. Dixon
