THE PRIMARY PROBLEM IN OUR COUNTRY TODAY 8 12
Isaiah 1
I thank the Lord for allowing me to be born in the United States of America. I am grateful that He allows me to live in a country where we do not have to have security guards at every store and barbed wire around every yard. I am grateful that I live in a country where I do not have to wonder when the power is going to go out, if I’ll have internet service throughout the night, and if gas will be available tomorrow.
I am grateful that I live in a country where I know I can purchase food tomorrow, water will still be available, and it will be clean enough to drink. I thank the Lord that I live in a country where we can have screen on our windows, ac in the house, and a car parked in the yard. I thank the Lord for living in a place where we give clothes to Goodwill that people in other countries can only dream of owning. I thank the Lord for allowing me to live where most of our citizens fish for recreation, instead of necessity; where many allow food to fall from their trees and rot, and rags are used for dusting instead of for blankets.
I thank the Lord for medical care, paved roads, and public education. I’m grateful for cel service covering most of our land; fire services and Law Enforcement being just a phone call away, and most of citizens owning multiple phones. I’m grateful that I can drive for most of a year, without worrying about having a flat tire.
I’m grateful that our youth and children can walk most of our streets without fear, and that I can travel without worrying if I’ll be kidnapped. I’m grateful that we have a military that can whip most folks who threaten us, an economy that other countries only dream of, one of the most highly understood languages in the world, and freedoms that many will never see this side of heaven. I am grateful that we can have elections and transference of power from one party to another, without bloodshed.
I am grateful that the majority of our youth have the opportunity to get an education before they have to work full time, that none have to work in sweat shops, and that most have the opportunity to be children and play before they have to face the adult world. I thank the Lord that He was gracious enough to allow me to live in the United States of America.
We have been truly blessed. Tell someone, “GOD HAS BEEN GOOD TO US”.
My friends, God has been good to us.
God has been good to us, but let’s be honest; we do have some issues in our country.
I. ISSUES IN OUR COUNTRY
1. We are having some weather issues – We are having some issues with the weather in the United States.
A couple of days ago I talked to a friend of mine in TN. He lives near the Mississippi River. He told me that he recently sold his boat. Now, I didn’t know he had bought a boat in the first place. You see, my friend is blind. He can’t pilot the boat himself, so I wondered why he had bought it in the first place.
He told me that last year, on the day he bought the boat, the Mississippi River had tied for the highest it had ever been in the area where he lived. The Army Corp of Engineers had every dump truck in the area, pressed into service hauling gravel to the levy to keep it from breaking. Even after he bought it, the river rose another 1 ½ feet, setting a new record. He bought the boat because he was concerned that the town he was living in was going to flood.
He sold the boat last week, because of the drought. In one year the Mississippi has gone from it’s highest to nearly the lowest level it has seen in recorded history. Many places in our country are suffering from the drought.
Food prices are going up. Livestock feed prices are also increasing, so the cost of meat and eggs will soon be increasing. Gas prices have already increased, partially because of the corn that goes into the ethanol.
We are having some weather issues.
2. We are having some moral issues –
This past week I had to go talk to our insurance carrier. The church’s insurance just increased by $1,600 per year. The largest part of that was due to hurricanes and other weather-related issues, but part of it is also due to the moral issues sweeping our country.
Every one of the people who work with children in this church will now have to have a criminal background check. There are so many perverts and people trying to prey on our children that our universities are not the only one’s suffering. And by the way, one of the primary similarities you find in the backgrounds of those professing to be homosexuals, is that they were sexually abused as children or teens.
Pornography is sweeping our nation. It hits the internet where an estimated 40 – 50% of adult men view it on a regular basis. It hits books and movies – Like all of the Shades of Gray. It hits our TV shows, our music.
A growing number of people in our country have little trouble with lying. We’ve seen that in the recent political season, and we can only expect it to get worse between now and November. Our children see little wrong with cheating on tests. Our adults see little wrong with cheating on their tax returns. Honesty is a virtue disappearing in our country faster than cheap gas.
We are having some moral issues.
But the weather and the moral failures are just symptoms of our real problem. The real problem is that our nation has forgotten God.
II. OUR NATION HAS FORGOTTEN GOD
God has blessed the United States of America. It was founded by Christians. It was led by Christians, and it was intended for Christians.
1. George Washington once said "I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, then those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."
2. Patrick Henry "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here."
God led Christopher Columbus to find this land. He led Christians to seek religious freedom here. He gave us victory over the greatest military in the world during the American Revolution. He protected us, when through our own sin, greed and stupidity and attacked each other in what we called a “Civil” war. He protected us through 2 world wars and numerous other battles and wars and has brought us through them all. He has blessed us militarily, economically, and spiritually, allowing us to send missionaries through most of the world. But sadly, our nation has forgotten God.
Who would have ever imagined that our justices would have kicked prayer and the Bible out of our schools, when the very building they sit in is covered with quotes from the Bible? Who would have ever imagined a people allowing their children, created in the image of God, to be aborted in the name of convenience? Who would have ever imagined politicians, convicted of crimes being reelected?
Our nation is blessed by God, but it has forgotten our God. We, however are not the first to do so, and from their lessons and God’s promises to them we also find hope.
- Read Isaiah 1:2-6
III. ISRAEL’S PROBLEM
1. They forgot God and suffered – 2-6
Doesn’t that look much like our country today?
2. They performed meaningless religious rituals – 10-15
God had told them to do certain things in their worship of Him. There were certain sacrifices they were supposed to make. They were certain holidays they were to celebrate. They were doing all of those, but they had forgotten that how they lived their lives, and how they treated one another, were also to be acts of worship and that if they failed to live out one part of His commands, that it undid the part they did obey.
My friends, going to church, reading your Bible, and giving, or whatever, do not make up for disobedience during the week. Giving to the church does not undo what you stole on your taxes, how you cheated a customer, or what you gossiped about your friend. One does not undo the other. Going through religious motions doesn’t undo a rebellious life.
A country, a nation is made up of citizens. It is made up of its people. As a result, a country has issues and a nation has problems because the people within that country have issues and problems.
Fortunately, there was a cure for Israel and there is one available for America as well.
IV. THE CURE FOR OUR ILLNESS
- Isaiah 1:15-19
1. Stop what you’re doing – v16
Quit it. Don’t make excuses. Don’t look back saying you cannot change. Stop it.
2. Learn what is good – v17
Spend time in your Bible. Spend time around people who you know are walking with God. Learn what is good from the Good Book, not from popular opinion.
3. Seek God – v18
Come – an invitation. In spite of everything Israel had done, God still wanted a relationship with them. He wanted things undone, fixed, restored. He said, “Come”. He issued an invitation.
He is issuing that invitation to you today.
Let us discuss this – God wants to talk with you. He is not some unapproachable God way up there that you cannot approach. He is your heavenly Father. He is, Abba, Daddy. And, just as a Daddy wants to talk with His children, so your Heavenly father wants to talk with you.
> Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.
> 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, a man, Christ Jesus,
- Father of the prodigal son welcoming, greeting …
V. PROMISE
- Isaiah 1:18-19
1. Clean – white, clean.
2. Good things – not too late.
