The year before last, in an effort to earn some extra Christmas money, I worked a temporary job at the airport in Knoxville, Tennessee over the Christmas holidays. It was a manual labor job where several us would unload tractor-trailers full of Christmas mail.
We’d take it off the 18-wheeler, separate it by destination, and reload it into large bins that would be taken to the different airlines and loaded as cargo onto the appropriate planes.
Many of the packages were quite heavy, and in order to work this job a person had to be able to lift over their heads up to 70 pounds. Another requirement of the position was that you had to wear steel-toed boots.
If a package fell or dropped on your feet, the pain was intense and would severely bruise your toes. I said all that just to say this – I hope that you wore your steel-toed boots to church this morning because God’s going to step all over your toes!
The land of Judah was in the midst of a great famine, and the scripture we read this morning gave us a description of what life was like during this terrible time.
The prophet Jeremiah described the city and its inhabitants as though they were in mourning. The people had been put to shame and were humiliated, and the country was languishing in sorrow. Conditions in the land of Judah were so bad that even the animals were suffering.
In verses 7 and 8 we are given the reason for this suffering:
7. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for they name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
8. O the hope of Israel, the Savior, thereof in time of trouble, why shoudest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
God had turned his back on the land of Judah because of the sin of its people. Their sin as a country had become so great that God had become a stranger in their land. It was as if He had turned his back on them.
Church – I stand before you today to deliver God’s message to you, the message that God is fast becoming a stranger in the land of America. We have yet to experience a famine of the scale that Judah was going through, but I do believe with all my heart that if things do not change in this country, it is coming. We are in for severe problems in America.
America is in the midst of a spiritual famine today, and, unless our country turns back to God soon, and experiences a great spiritual revival in our nation, it is just a matter of time before God pours out His anger and wrath on our nation.
Our country has fallen to the lowest depths of immorality. Make no mistake about it, we cannot continue down this road of perdition without provoking the wrath and judgment of God!
Destruction and death have become the norm for our everyday lives. Very few people in this country today are truly spiritual in nature, and when I say spiritual I mean the things of God.
Yes, there are countless numbers of people in America today who consider themselves spiritual. Unfortunately, these people are talking about the occult, the new age movement, or scientology just to name a few.
Too many people today think that they are spiritual just because their name appears on a church roll, even though they never seem to be found sitting on the church pew.
God’s message to us today is simple – His patience with America is running out! When that happens it will include the churches in America too!
You see, when God becomes a stranger in the land, four things begin to happen. First and foremost, the churches grow cold and indifferent. Second, the preachers become silent. Third, homes are divided, and fourth, the future becomes uncertain.
Let’s take a few moments and think about these things and see if they are happening in America today.
First, the churches grow cold and become filled with scandal. The busier people get the less we see them in church. The wealthier they get the less they seem to find need for God. The doctrines upon which the churches were founded get changed. There becomes a new acceptance of sin. The rules get changed so as to not offend the minorities. Old rules are considered no longer appropriate for the church. Gay and lesbian pastors get placed in the pulpit.
All across the nation churches have split over changes in doctrine and in acceptance. Well, make no mistake about it church; this is God’s message to all churches about doctrinal issues. God has not changed! God’s Word, the Bible, has not changed! The same rules and the same doctrine that applied 2000 years ago still apply today! Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same! All may change, but Jesus never, glory to His name!
In recent months we have learned that the Catholic Church has covered up sexual abuse of children for years. Those in the highest positions of leadership – those given the greatest opportunity to positively affect the lives of the youth of America, have taken advantage of their positions, and they are just as guilty as the very priests that have defiled their religion and preyed on young children.
Scandal is not unique to only the Catholic Church. It is everywhere! Satan has infiltrated some of the best, God-loving churches in all of America. We must always we on guard against the forces of Satan.
Moving on now, secondly I said that preachers are silent. You say, now wait just a minute there Pastor Rick, there are preachers all over the place running their mouths everywhere.
Well I’ll tell you what – they may be running their mouths but that’s all that’s happening. Very few who are supposed to be about proclaiming God’s Word tell it like it is. I mean if they did, most congregations in America today would run them off.
There are way too many preachers in the pulpits today preaching goody goody messages, messages that are pleasing to their congregations. What happens when a preacher stands in the pulpit and preaches a nice, warm message to his congregation telling them how good they are doing?
The congregation leaves the church smiling and happy, content that their lives are in tip top shape and that all is well with their soul. Preachers need to preach the Word of God, as written. Sometimes we just have to step on people’s toes to get God’s message across, and don’t you doubt for one minute that we’re stepping on our own toes too! For preachers aren’t perfect and they aren’t without sin in their lives.
If the preacher happens to preach a message that step all over your toes, then you have to be like Cinderella – if the shoe fits, wear it! Then, realize the error of your ways and ask God to help you overcome the shortcomings in your life, for God still answers prayer.
How many TV evangelists do you see today that still preach it like it is? I watched TBN the other night and at times I wanted to throw my shoe through the TV set. They preach a prosperity gospel, that all God’s children should be prosperous, and never have a need of any kind. They preach a feel good gospel with messages filled with what the people in the pews want to hear.
That kind of gospel is caffeine free. They need to preach it like it is! Let me tell you here this morning that a caffeine free gospel won’t wake you up! It won’t shake you up! And it won’t take you up either!!! Heaven is very real folks, but so is hell. When our days here on earth are over, we are all going to one or the other. There is no in-between place. There is no other option.
Then these goody two shoes preachers always close their services asking you for your money, and you look at them in their thousand dollar suits, with rings on many fingers and expensive jewelry being worn and you wonder – is this where the money goes? They fly all over the world in their private jets and live luxuriously. Be on guard people, for God has warned us in His Word, beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.
We need less of these false prophets and more Billy Grahams in this world. Billy and his wife still live in the same N.C. home they lived in when he first began his evangelistic ministry. His salary has not changed in 40 years. I saw him interviewed on TV a few years ago and he was asked, “What do you hope to get when you get to Heaven?” His answer was quick, simple and humble. “I hope to hear the words, well done thou good and faithful servant.” We need more men of God like Billy.
You know what church, I don’t know of anyone that truly got saved after listening to what they wanted to hear, do you? A person gets saved by hearing the complete and unaltered Word of God.
A person gets saved by realizing that they are lost without God, and doomed to spend an eternity in hell.
A person doesn’t get saved by listening to someone tell them that the Christian life is just peachy, and that everything is going to fall into place and that they’ll never want for anything again.
The Christian life is not an easy life. Satan will do everything he can to humiliate you, bring down your spirits and to steal your joy. He will wreak all the havoc he can on your life and on your family, and on your job. But Satan’s days are numbered. The good news for us is if we keep to the things of God and stay on that straight and narrow path, we will spend eternity with our Creator.
What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see – when I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace, and He takes me by the hand and leads me to the promised land, – what a day, glorious day, that shall be.
When God is a stranger in the land, its homes are divided. Fifty percent of all marriages in the United States ends in divorce, Christian and non-Christian.
Too many children are living in single parent homes, and it’s all the result of sin and Satan’s attack on God’s institution of the family and marriage some 6000 years ago in the Garden of Eden.
Teenage crime and pregnancy rates have skyrocketed as a result of so many homes being divided. Children need a mother and a father in the home if they are to receive the upbringing that they need to become successful adults in today’s society.
And yes, I know that there are times when circumstances in people’s lives are unavoidable, but that is the time that the church has to step up to the plate and help those parents in need of support, to help raise those children. And the church can help in many ways, and through this type of ministry, reach many people for the cause of Christ.
When God is a stranger in the land, the future is uncertain. Who knows what the future holds for America, only God does, but for us the future becomes more uncertain all the time.
The possibility of war looms over our heads more and more each and every day. The distant drums can be heard in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in North Korea.
I want you to listen very closely to what I am about to say: The only way to be certain of anything is to know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. This is the only way to know for sure that you will make it no matter what happens.
Church – we are in a spiritual famine in this country right now. If Christians do not take a stand for what is right, if we do not get down on our knees and pray for revival in our land, America stands on the brink of God becoming a stranger in our land.
You need to go home today and pray for a spiritual revival in our land and a turning back to God. If we think things are bad now, just wait and see what will happen without a spiritual revival in America.
God’s patience with us will soon be exhausted, the same as it was with the people of Judah. Every day, America gets a day closer to the point of no return.
There will come a day when we He will no longer hear our prayers, hear our cries or accept our offerings. Barring a spiritual revival in the hearts of our people, God will one day say enough is enough.
Out of all the history of God’s chosen people. He had always heard the prayers of His people, or at least the prophet of the times.
He heard Abraham’s prayer for Lot before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah; he kept Joseph’s family alive during the famine in Egypt. He kept 8 people as a remnant during the great flood of Noah’s time.
Nowhere else in the Bible did God refuse to listen to the prayers of His prophet, or even instruct him not to pray for his people.
Listen again to verses 11 and 12:
11. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
12. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
God was done with them! He was no longer going to listen to their prayers or accept their offerings. So what makes us think that God won’t get tired or our immorality as a nation?
Church – we could be on the verge of a situation just like this in our country. We Christians need to come out of the pews and stand firm and pray like we’ve never prayed before, and we need to do so before God becomes a stranger in our land.
Things were so bad that God told Jeremiah that it would not matter if Samuel and Moses stood before Him and pleaded on behalf of the people of Judah. He was done with them and He would not change His mind.
15:1 Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
Things are getting worse in our country every day. Our country needs to repent and to repent quickly. It is up to we Christians to pray for revival of the church and for the repentance of our nation.
It is up to us to get God’s message out to the people of our land, no matter what the cost, because the cost of not delivering God’s message is even higher.
Church – let’s get serious about God! Christians, we need to be about God’s business instead of our own. We need to be watchmen for our country and not fall asleep and become stumbling blocks.
We need to pray without ceasing that God will send revival instead of becoming a stranger in our land. We need to pray that progress towards Him becoming a stranger in our land will stop where it is and turn around.
Folks, we need to get on fire for Jesus, right here in Mountain View Union Church. We need to live what we believe and spread the word while there is still time, because time is running out.
This country needs to stop publishing the slogan “God Bless America.” We need to change it to “America Bless God!”
God gave us our freedom but He can take it away.
God gave us our prosperity but He can take it away.
God gave us our power but He can take it away.
God gave us His presence but He can take it away.
Dwight L. Moody once said, “We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man.”
What is your ambition in life today? Is it to get rich? Is it to make a name for yourself? The highest desire that can possess any human heart is a longing to see God.
Don’t quit praying just because the answer hasn’t come yet. Keep on praying until God hears your prayer and speaks to you.
We treat God like we’re going thru the drive-thru at Burger King. They say, “Have it your way” and that’s how we seem to want it with God. But God says to us, “Have it my way.”
I don’t want to meddle in people’s lives, but how can folks be renewed on a daily basis without picking up God’s Word and reading in it on a daily basis, or praying on a daily basis?
Finally church, what I am going to say next is to you, not the church down the street or the one across town.
We have two services a week here, Sunday school at 10 and church at 11. 80% of you only make church.
We have no Sunday evening worship service, but other churches do. Have you found a place to worship on Sunday nights?
We have no Wednesday night prayer service, but we could. Why has no one stepped forward and offered to hold Bible study on a weeknight? How do we justify that? Why couldn’t we swap around and have Bible studies at different homes each week?
Why is it that we have not begun a visitation program? Are there no families you know in this area that are unchurched? Has everyone been saved and the need is no longer so great?
Is it that we only need an hour a week of God? Are our lives in such good shape that we don’t need a daily dose of God? Shame on us if we are too busy for God except for an hour on Sunday mornings.
As Dora and Roger come forward to lead us in a song of invitation, I ask that we all examine our own hearts and lives. It’s time to get serious about God. It’s time to pray for the fires of revival in our lives and for a spiritual awakening in our country.
