In an episode from the classic TV series, The Andy Griffith Show, Andy Taylor, the Sheriff of Mayberry, is out of town. His deputy, Barney Fife, is in charge, and he has deputized Gomer, the local mechanic. The two deputies are walking down the street one evening when they see someone robbing the local bank. They hide behind a car. They are afraid and don't know what to do. Finally, Gomer looks at Barney and says excitedly, “Shazam! We need to call the police.”
In utter exasperation, Barney shoots back: “We ARE the police!” (Stephen Mansfield, Mansfield's Book of Manly Men, Nelson, 2013, page 12; www.PreachingToday.com).
As we look around our world, we see so much wrong, and we think, “Someone ought to do something.” Then we realize that we are that “someone.” Jesus calls us, His followers, to be salt and light in a dark and decaying world, to slow the decay and shine a light in the darkness.
So how do we do that? How do we put the brakes on our own country’s slide into moral ruin? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans 1, Romans 1, where God’s Word describes the downward spiral of every civilization that rejects Him like many in our country have.
Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse (ESV).
They are without excuse, literally, they have no defense, because God has clearly revealed Himself in creation. No one can claim ignorance, because God’s creation clearly reveals His justice and His power.
In his book, A Million Little Miracles, Mark Batterson believes we’re walking through a world brimming with the miraculous—we just don’t have the eyes to see it.
“There are miracles happening all around us all the time, hidden in plain sight,” Batterson says. “If you miss them, life can become a little bit of a chore and a bore. But if you rediscover the miracle that is life, it takes on a different dimension.”
It’s not just the big, cinematic miracles—the Red Sea parting or a blind man seeing. It’s the fact that we’re currently spinning at 1,000 miles per hour on a planet hurtling through space at 67,000 miles per hour, all while our bodies conduct trillions of biochemical reactions every second.
What if the real problem isn’t that miracles are rare—it’s that we’ve trained ourselves not to notice them? Psychologists call it “inattentional blindness.” If something is constant—like the sun rising, our hearts beating, or our lungs breathing—we stop paying attention to it. Batterson explains, “We should be startled by the sun, not the eclipse.”
The same is true of our own bodies. Batterson says:
Right now, you have 37 sextillion biochemical reactions happening inside of you. Your heart will beat 100,000 times today, pumping six quarts of blood through 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries—that’s twice the circumference of the Earth. And yet, we go about our day saying, ‘Well, I’ve never seen a miracle.’ With all due respect, you’ve never not seen one. In fact, you are one.”
So how do we start seeing the miracles around us? Learn to take nothing for granted. To wake up each day and marvel at the ordinary. To stop waiting for the grand, spectacular moment and realize that the spectacular is happening all around us, all the time. And maybe, just maybe, if we start paying attention, we’ll realize that life itself is the miracle we’ve been waiting for (Emily Brown, “Think You've Never Witnessed a Miracle? Think Again,” Relevant Magazine, 3-10-25; www.PreachingToday.com).
The universe and your own body reveal the divine power of God all the time! The problem is most people “suppress the truth” (verse 18). It’s not that they CAN not see the truth. They WILL not see it.
Romans 1:21-22 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools… (ESV).
Their willful ignorance leads to actual ignorance, to lunacy. They started by suppressing the truth to the point that they now stupidly pursue a lie.
In our culture, that lie is Evolution. In 1859, Charles Darwin first proposed the theory of evolution. In it he suggested that through natural selection, there was slow gradual change from one species to another over millions of years.
Paleontology was a new field of study back then, and scientists expected the fossil record to show thousands of transitional forms. However, after more than 100 years of digging, they found no transitional forms whatsoever in the fossil record.
So, in 1972, paleontologist Stephen Gould proposed that evolution happened in sudden bursts, too fast to leave behind any fossil evidence. His theory, called punctuated equilibrium, or the “hopeful monster theory,” actually suggests that one species gave birth to another, that some reptile laid an egg and out hatched a bird, or a monkey gave birth to a man. Instead of discarding the theory for lack of evidence, scientists derived even more absurd ideas to explain it.
The latest theory, suggested by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, is that we “are almost certainly living in a computer simulation” (like in the movie The Matrix). Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tysan gave the Simulation theory credibility by saying it was a 50-50 possibility with biologist Richard Dawkins taking it seriously. Elon Musk jumped on the bandwagon in 2016 saying he thought it was true (Marvin Olasky, “Who Programmed the Computer? The Weakness of Simulation Theory and the Logical Alternative,” Christianity Today, January/ February, 2024, p. 69; www.PreachingToday.com).
How ridiculous can you get, but that’s what happens when people willfully suppress the truth. Like the Bible says, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).
So, how do you counter such lunacy in our culture? How do you stem the tide of decay? Well, if the culture suppresses the truth, then we must…
SHARE THE TRUTH to counter its willful ignorance.
Declare the truth about God, His power, and the judgment to come. Speak the truth IN LOVE, to be sure, but speak the truth in the hope that God opens the hearts of some to really hear it.
Over the last few years, people in our culture have warned Christians that they’re “on the wrong side of history.” This is especially true when we oppose same-sex marriage. Robert P. George, a law professor from Princeton and co-author of What Is Marriage, said:
I do not believe in historical inevitability… No good cause is permanently lost. So, my advice to supporters of marriage is to stay the course. Do not be discouraged. Do what the pro-life movement did when, in the 1970s, critics said, ‘The game is over; you lost; in a few years abortion will be socially accepted and fully integrated into American life…' Speak the truth in season and out of season… Keep challenging the arguments of your opponents, always with civility, always in a gracious and loving spirit, but firmly.
If you are told that you are on ‘the wrong side of history,’ remember that there is no such thing. History is not a deity that sits in judgment. It has no power to determine what is true or false, good or bad, right or wrong. History doesn't have 'wrong' and 'right' sides. Truth does. So, my message to everyone is that our overriding concern should be to be on the right side of truth (Ryan Anderson, “Robert P. George on the Struggle Over Marriage,” Public Discourse, 7-3-09; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear believing friends, be on the right side of truth and continue to speak it in season and out of season. Keep challenging the arguments of those who suppress the truth, always with grace, but firmly as God gives you the opportunity.
If you want to help stem the tide of decay in our culture, 1st, share the truth to counter its willful ignorance. Then 2nd…
SHOW GRATITUDE to counter its ingratitude.
Let people know that you are thankful for God’s work in our world. Demonstrate an attitude of gratitude for God’s amazing power displayed in His amazing creation. For when people suppress the truth, they stop giving thanks. Look at verse 21 again.
Romans 1:21 …although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him… (ESV).
When people ignore the truth, they stop giving thanks. They lose the awe and the wonder of God’s creation. However, you can slow people from sliding into that pit by showing gratitude yourself.
I like what Paul David Tripp says in his book Do You Believe. He says:
It is impossible to do justice to the wonder of the creation of the world and everything in it. You and I have to work hard to make anything. Even when you buy a piece of furniture from IKEA, with all the pieces properly designed and a booklet of instructions, you are driven to the edge of your sanity trying to follow the instructions and assemble what you bought.
All of our DIY projects require mental focus, physical dexterity, and perseverance. We struggle to make things, even though we always start with raw materials, are following instructions, and have collected the appropriate tools. But you and I have never created anything; we do not make something out of nothing. C. S. Lewis said it this way: “Creation, as it is for God, must always remain totally inconceivable to man. We only build. We always have materials to build from.”
The truth of creation should fill us with awe, humble us, and drop us to our knees. God, with nothing more than his will and his word literally spoke the universe into existence. Think of huge galaxies and little ants. Think of the body of an elephant and the translucent creatures that swim in the deepest trenches of the sea. Think of huge, towering trees and microscopic organisms. Think of the technology of the human eye and the intricate design of your hand. (Paul David Tripp, Do You Believe? Crossway, 2021, pp. 195-196; www.PreachingToday.com).
Let it create in you a profound sense of awe and gratitude for your Creator. Then express that gratitude to anyone who will listen.
If you want to help stem the tide of decay in our culture, 1st, share the truth to counter its ignorance. 2nd, show gratitude to counter its ingratitude. Then 3rd…
SERVE THE CREATOR to counter its idolatry.
Be solely devoted to the one and only God of the universe. Worship the true and living God, not man-made images of Him.
Romans 1:22-23 Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things (ESV).
God made men in His image, but when men make God in their image (or other animals), they degrade their ignorance into idolatry. For idolatry is the inevitable result of willful ignorance and woeful ingratitude. Instead of worshipping God, people worship themselves; or even worse, they worship their own created images.
Anthony Levandowski makes an unlikely prophet. Dressed in Silicon Valley-casual jeans, the engineer known for self-driving cars, is laying the foundations for a new religion. Artificial intelligence has already inspired billion-dollar companies, far-reaching research programs, and scenarios of both transcendence and doom. Now Levandowski is creating its first church.
Levandowski created the first Church of Artificial Intelligence, which he called Way of the Future. It was founded in 2015 but shut its doors a few years later. Now the recently rebooted church, which shares the original’s name, has “a couple thousand people” coming together to build a spiritual connection between humans and AI, its founder said.
Papers filed with the Internal Revenue Service in May of 2015 state that the church’s activities will focus on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.”
In a 2017 interview with Wired magazine, Levandowski said, “What is going to be created will effectively be a god. It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”
Levandowski goes on to say, “There are many ways people think of God, and thousands of flavors of Christianity, Judaism, Islam… but they’re always looking at something that’s not measurable or you can’t really see or control. This time it’s different. This time you will be able to talk to God, literally, and know that it’s listening.”
Levandowski said he’s rebooting his AI church in a renewed attempt at creating a religious movement focused on the worship and understanding of artificial intelligence.
He said that sophisticated AI systems could help guide humans on moral, ethical, or existential questions that are normally sought out in religions. “Here we're actually creating things that can see everything, be everywhere, know everything, and maybe help us and guide us in a way that normally you would call God,” he said (Jackie Davalos and Nate Lanxon, “Anthony Levandowski Reboots Church of Artificial Intelligence,” Bloomberg, 11-23-23; Mark Harris, “The First Church of Artificial Intelligence,” Wired, 11-15-17; www.PreachingToday.com).
Since Adam and Eve, people have looked for a god they can control, not one who controls them. But such gods always leave them worse off than before. Whether you worship yourself, AI, or your money, you become a slave to that which you worship.
How much better to serve the real and living God, who loved you enough to enter your world, die on a cross for your sins, rise again, and now offers you an eternal, abundant life just by putting your life into His hands.
Please, if you haven’t done it already, trust Christ with your life, and experience the eternal, abundant life only He can provide. Then live your life for Him, because such servitude sets you free to be all that your Creator created you to be.
Jesus Himself said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” (John 8:36), that is, free to do what’s right and free to change your world for the better.
So, if you want to help stem the tide of decay in our culture, 1st, share the truth to counter its ignorance. 2nd, show gratitude to counter its ingratitude. 3rd, serve the Creator to counter its idolatry. And finally, if you want to help stem the tide of decay in our culture…
SET THE EXAMPLE OF PURITY.
Show people a godly lifestyle to counter its immorality. Demonstrate God’s righteousness in your life.
Romans 1:18-23 describes a culture that rejects God. Romans 1:24-32 describes what God does in response. Take a look.
Romans 1:24-32 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them (ESV).
Three times in this passage, it says, “God gave them up.” Verse 24—God gave them up… to impurity. Verse 26—God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Verse 28—God gave them up to a debased mind.
When God judges a nation, He doesn’t have to inflict the pain Himself. He just has to let it go. He just has to let it experience the consequences of their own actions.
Just a couple of years ago, on March 26, 2024, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed when a container ship hit one of its piers. Six people died as a result and the debris stopped shipping out of the Port of Baltimore for 11 weeks.
The whole bridge came down all at once, but its design led to its inevitable collapse. The designers constructed it without any redundant support structures, so knocking out just one of the supports caused the whole thing to fall (Sam Allberry, “Sexuality is Not a Minor Issue,” Christianity Today, July/Aug, 2024, pp. 86-91; www.PreachngToday.com).
In the same way, when a nation turns against God, its inevitable collapse is certain. It may look good for some time, but just one hit can bring it down.
Is that where we are as a nation? Has our willful ignorance of the truth, with its resulting ingratitude, idolatry, and immorality, made us just one hit away from total collapse? Or are there enough Christ followers shining in the darkness and salting the decay to hinder the inevitable until Jesus comes.
My dear Christian friends, please, shine that light and shake that salt. Perhaps, God may use you to stem the tide of decay in our culture. He can if you counter the culture by sharing the truth, showing gratitude, serving the Creator, and setting the example of purity.
C. H. Charnley, in the Skylark’s Bargain, tells the story of a young skylark who one day discovered a man who would give him worms for a feather. He made a deal—one feather for two worms. The next day, the lark was flying high in the sky with his father. The older bird said, “You know, son, we skylarks should be the happiest of all birds. See our brave wings! They lift us high in the air, nearer and nearer to God.”
But the young bird did not hear, for all he saw was an old man with worms. Down he flew, plucked two feathers from his wings and had a feast. Day after day this went on. Autumn came and it was time to fly south, but the young skylark couldn’t do it. He had exchanged the power of his young wings for worms.
That’s what happens when a culture, even our own nation, exchanges God for idols (vs.23), exchanges the truth for a lie (vs.25), and exchanges the natural for the unnatural (vs.26). If we don’t stop it soon, the day will come when this Eagle will no longer be able to fly.
My dear friends, let’s show our country a different way and lead them back to God, who alone can save it.
