GOD BLESS AMERICA
I Tim. 2:1-6
INTRO.- Here is some of America’s craziness.
ILL.- Someone wrote these interesting words entitled, "Only in America."
1- Only in America can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
2- Only in America are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
3- Only in America do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions, while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
4- Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.
5- Only in America do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our junk in the garage. Hello.
6- Only in America do we use answering machines to screen calls and have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.
7- Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
Here is some of the sadness of America.
ILL.- It’s written by George Carlin and entitled "Paradox of Our Time."
- The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
- We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less.
- We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
- We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
- We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
- We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
- We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
- We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years!
- We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
- We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
- We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
- We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
- We write more, but learn less.
- We plan more, but accomplish less.
- We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait.
- We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
Brethren, even though there are a lot of negative things about America I still believe that America is the greatest country in the world. We are blessed to have been born and raised in America.
ILL.- Someone has said, "We keep asking God to bless America. He already has. Now it’s our turn."
It is our turn to bless America. In our turn to do something good for America. God has and still is blessing America. But we need to do our part to bless America!
We can do many good things. We can be good citizens, vote, be patriotic, salute the flag, sing the national anthem, show courtesy to all people and especially, the elderly, obey the laws, pay our taxes, respect the law and its leaders, and please don’t park in handicap parking places when you’re not handicapped!
PROP.- The apostle Paul gives us some specific things we can do to bless America. They are:
1- We must pray unceasingly (1-2)
2- We must live righteously (2)
3- We must evangelize fervently (3-4)
I. WE MUST PRAY UNCEASINGLY
Vs. 1-2 "I urge that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority."
ILL.- A teacher went into her classroom about fifteen minutes before the class was supposed to begin and caught a bunch of boys in a huddle on their knees in the corner of the room. She asked what they were doing, and one of them shouted back, "We are shooting craps." She replied, "That’s all right. I was afraid you were praying."
This is a part of the sadness of America. People often huddle together here in America, but it is not for prayer. They are generally huddled together to play something, to attend something, to watch something, but seldom to attend church and pray.
ILL.- Samuel Chadwick said, "The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray."
ILL.- Andrew Murray said, "The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history."
ILL.- Charles Spurgeon said, "I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach."
ILL.- E.M. Bounds said, "What the church needs today is not machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use - Men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men of prayer." And we might add, through women of prayer.
We must be a people of prayer if we are going to see any good come to America and our own lives.
We must pray. We must pray for everyone who means anything at all to us and for some who don’t mean anything to us. We must pray for our mates, for our children, for our family members, for our ministers, for our church members, for our church leaders, and for our country’s leaders.
We must pray at home! We must pray at church! We must pray at prayer meetings! We must pray while driving our cars, while doing our laundry, while cleaning our houses, while doing our chores! We must pray when we get up in the morning and when we go to bed at night! We must pray every chance we get if we want to see some good things happen to America and in our own lives!
James 5:16 "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." How powerful is prayer? How effective is prayer?
ILL.- in 1872 the famous American preacher, Dwight L. Moody, went to England, not to preach, but to listen to others preach. One Sunday morning he was asked to preach in a London pulpit. But somehow the right spiritual atmosphere was not there. He confessed afterwards that he never had such a hard time preaching. Everything seemed dead. He said to himself. "What a fool I was to consent to preach. I came here to listen and here I am preaching."
Then the awful thought came to him that he had to preach again that night, and only the fact that he had given his promise to do so kept him faithful to the engagement.
But when Moody stepped into the pulpit that night and faced the congregation, he was conscious of a new atmosphere. He said, "The powers of an unseen world seemed to have fallen on the audience." As he concluded his message and offered the invitation, he said, "If there is a man or woman here tonight who will accept Jesus Christ, please stand up." AND ABOUT 500 PEOPLE STOOD UP! Now for the rest of the story! Or the story behind the story.
When Dwight L. Moody preached at that morning service there was a woman in the congregation who had an invalid sister at home. When she returned home she told her invalid sister that the preacher had been Mr. Moody from Chicago. "What!" she exclaimed, "Mr. Moody from Chicago! I read about him some time ago in an American newspaper, and I have been praying for God to send him to London, to preach in our church. If I had known he was going to preach this morning I would have eaten no breakfast. I would have spent the whole time in prayer. Now, sister, go out of the room, lock the door, send me no dinner. And no matter who comes, don’t let them see me. I am going to spend the whole afternoon and evening in prayer."
And so it was that Sunday night when Dwight L. Moody preached that there was a completely different atmosphere and 500 people said they wanted to accept Jesus as their Savior.
DOES IT DO ANY GOOD TO PRAY FOR PEOPLE? What do you think? Perhaps we need to spend more time in prayer and less in eating! More time believing and less straying!
We must pray! We must pray for people most of all!
If we pray long enough, hard enough, fervent enough, and faithful enough God will change some things for the better! Never doubt. Never doubt the power of God or the power of prayer! We must pray unceasingly!
II. WE MUST LIVE RIGHTEOUSLY
Vs. 2 "That we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." God wants us to be godly people, holy people.
ILL.- A preacher wrote, "the ugly part of me sure showed his beastly face the other night. I was driving on a two-lane road that was about to become a single lane. A woman in a car beside me was in the lane that continued. I was in the one that stopped. I needed to be ahead of her. My schedule was, no doubt, more important than hers. After all, am I not a man of the cloth?
"So I floored it. Guess what? She did too. When my lane ended, she was a fender ahead of me. I growled and slowed and let her go ahead. Over her shoulder she gave me a sweet little bye-bye wave. Grrrr.
"I started to dim my headlights. Then I paused. The sinister part of me said, ‘Wait a minute.’ Am I not to shed light on dark places? SO I PUT A LITTLE HIGH BEAM IN HER REARVIEW MIRROR.
"She retaliated by slowing down. To a crawl. This woman was mean. She wasn’t going to go beyond fifteen miles per hour. And I wasn’t going to take my lights out of her rearview mirror. Like two stubborn donkeys, she kept it slow and I kept it bright.
"After more unkind thoughts, the road widened and I started to pass. Wouldn’t you know it? A red light left the two of us side by side at an intersection. What happened next contains both good news and bad news. The good news is, she waved at me. The bad news is, her wave was not one you’d want to imitate.
"Moments later, conviction surfaced, ‘WHY DID I DO THAT?’ I’m typically a calm guy, but for fifteen minutes I was a beast!"
Brothers and sisters, is that you? Are you a beast at times? At home? At work? At Wal-marts? While driving or shopping?
We can be pretty good people at church most of the time, but God is very much interested in how we act and react outside the church.
I Pet. 2:12 "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds (and your good life) and glorify God..."
ILL.- Max Lucado tells this interesting story about his encounter with a prophet. "I wanted breakfast. I got a prophet. I went to the deli to order some breakfast. For a couple of bucks you can get all the eggs and sausage you can handle... A prophet had the same idea. He was short and thin - a wispy fellow with cropped, unkempt hair, and a bushy, red beard.
"By the time I got there, he was already ordering his food. Meticulously ordering his food. ‘Do you serve a breakfast taco with no meat? Just potatoes and eggs? Is it salted? How many potatoes?’ The deli lady lifted the pan so he could see.
"Maybe he wanted to be sure he got his money’s worth. Maybe he observes a religious diet. Or maybe he was just picky. I couldn’t tell. But I could tell that he was polite, painfully polite.
"As someone was preparing the prophet’s food, a second worker appeared. He thought the prophet hadn’t been waited on and asked if he needed help. ‘No, I’ve been helped. But since you asked, may I ask you if you are a believer in Jesus Christ? I am his prophet and I am sent to you.’
"As the prophet was about to leave, he turned to the deli lady and said, ‘I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ for your kind assistance.’ And he caught a glimpse of the deli man and said to him, ‘I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.’ He didn’t say what for. Perhaps a generic blessing.
"As I was about to leave I bumped into Lawrence. Lawrence is a friend from my church. Bumping into Lawrence is no small matter. He’s an ex-pro football player. Everything about Lawrence is big, and everything about Lawrence is kind. A strong hug from Lawrence can last you a week.
"And that’s what he gave me...a good hug, a warm handshake, and a genuine question about my well being. Not much, just a couple of minutes of kind concern.
"As I was leaving, I was struck by the contrast of the two encounters. Both the prophet and Lawrence are followers of Christ. Both are unashamed of their faith. Both love to carry a Bible. Both like to bless people. But that’ where the similarities end.
"One wears sandals and a robe, and the other wears tennis shoes and jeans. One dresses like Jesus, BUT THE OTHER ACTS LIKE JESUS. One introduced himself as an ambassador for Christ; the other didn’t have to. One stirred my curiosity, but the other touched my heart."
If we want to change America for the better and all people for the better, we must live righteously or holy lives but without presenting a "holier-than-thou" image. We must kill the "beast" within us.
1- We must pray unceasingly
2- We must live righteously
III. WE MUST EVANGELIZE FERVENTLY
Vs. 3-4 "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
God wants all people to be saved, not just a select few. And evangelism is presenting some kind of witness for Christ with the idea that perhaps they will come to believe in Him, trust and obey Him and be saved.
ILL.- Leighton Ford, one of Billy Graham’s associate, said one time, "I was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the next night and had arrived a day early. He came incognito and sat on the grass at the rear of the crowd. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses, no one recognized him.
"Directly in front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening intently to my presentation. When I invited people to come forward as an open sign of commitment, Billy decided to do a little personal evangelism. He tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, ‘Would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you if you want to.’ The old man looked him up and down, thought it over for a moment, and then said, ‘Naw, I think I’ll just wait till the big gun comes tomorrow night.’
"Billy and I have had several good chuckles over that incident. Unfortunately, it underlines how, in the minds of many people, evangelism is the task of the ‘Big Guns,’ not the ‘little shots.’"
Brothers and sisters, evangelism or leading people to Christ is the job of every Christian! It matters not whether we are considered to be a "big gun" or a "little shot."
ILL.- Have you ever heard of Rockin’ Roland Stuart? How many of you have ever watched a sporting event on TV such as a Super Bowl or a Monday night football game, and have seen the giant sign reading "John 3:16" in the audience?
Rockin’ Roland Stuart is responsible for that. At one time, Roland Stuart was a drunk, an alcoholic. Somehow he was introduced to Christ and became a Christian. God healed him of his alcoholism.
One day, the idea struck him that if he could just get into major sporting events and put the Word of God before the hundreds of thousands of people it might do some good.
So today, Rockin’ Roland Stuart and his wife, Margaret, and a friend named William James, live a very strange life. They drive 55,000 miles a year in an old beat up van, using their money to buy tickets to major sporting events in order to hold up a sign reading, "John 3:16."
I don’t know if what he is doing has done any good to help lead people to Christ or not. BUT HE IS DOING SOMETHING!
ILL.- One time many years ago preacher Dwight L. Moody was criticized because of the evangelistic methods he used. Moody replied, "I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."
The sad truth is most Christian people do little or nothing to present a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. While the unbelieving world is shouting out its message, we go to church but do little outside the church to spread the message of Christ.
And if all we’re doing is saying "Amen" to the sermon inside the church and doing nothing outside the church to witness then we’re not accomplishing much as far as evangelism is concerned.
I have read that 95% of all Christian never try to lead anybody to Christ in their entire lifetime! That means that 5% of all Christian people do 100% of the work of evangelism. IN WHICH GROUP ARE YOU?
The Lord doesn’t expect us to do everything, but He does expect us to do something. He expects us to be more alert to the opportunities around us to witness for Christ.
I Pet. 3:15 "In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have..."
ILL.- One Sunday as they drove home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, there’s something about the preacher’s message this morning that I don’t understand." The mother said, "Oh? What is it?" The little girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. He said God is so big that He could hold the world in His hand. Is that true?"
The mother replied, "Yes, that’s true, honey."
"But Mommy, he also said that God comes to live inside of us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Is that true, too?" Again, the mother assured the little girl that what the pastor had said was true. With a puzzled look on her face the little girl then asked, "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?"
If God is on the inside of us, He will show through to the outside! If the fire of Christ is burning on the inside of us, then that fire will spread to the outside and to those around us. We must constantly look for opportunities to witness, to testify, to invite, to encourage, and point people to Christ! We must evangelize fervently!
CONCLUSION-----------------------------------
ILL.- When George Bush was our Vice President he represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev’s wife performed an act of great courage and hope. She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest.
Apparently, she hoped that there was another life, and that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
Christ is the only hope for anybody and for any country! Including America! And we must do whatever we can to bless America and others with the love of Christ!
