Redirecting A Nation (08)

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• We have celebrated our 232nd birthday as a nation. This is the greatest country on the earth and I do not know if there has been any better.

• We have been given a great nation, we are stewards of a nation in which others fought, sacrificed and died for.

• Our Founding Fathers sacrificed a great deal so that we could have this great nation.

• Men like Jefferson, Washington, Adams, among others paid a great price for our freedom. Throughout the years countless numbers of people have laid their lives on the line to fight for the freedoms we now enjoy.

• How are we taking care of the nation that was handed to us?

• Would the Founding Fathers be proud of what we are doing with the freedoms they fought and many died for over 232 years ago?

• What is it that has made this nation great? What is it that has allowed this country to be a bastion of freedom around the world for over 232 years? Why is it that people are flocking from all over the world to come live in a foreign land to start all over? What drove your ancestors to make the trek to this great nation?

• We have been given a great gift, the opportunity to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

• I believe in the over 43 years of my life in this country, that the country is not doing very well in a lot of areas.

• I do not have to quote the crime stats, the declining social indicators, and the declining moral climate of the nation. You can see it all around you.

• Did the Founding Fathers of our nation die for what we are living for today?

• I am not going to spend the time we have together bashing all the ills of the nation. As great as it is, we are not without problems. We each have a responsibility to be engaged in the process to make sure things get better.

• I believe we are not heading in a good direction right not, it is time for a change.

• Today we are going look at “Redirecting A Nation.”

• To paraphrase Luke 12:48, “To much is given, much is expected.” Since we have been given a great nation to oversee, what are we to do?

• It is so easy for us to point fingers, today we are going to look at what we can do to help get the nation on the right path.

• We are going to turn to a familiar passage found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 for our recipe for change.

• In 2 Chronicles Solomon is building the Temple, the Temple in which his father David was not allowed by God to build. In the end of chapter 6, Solomon gives his prayer of dedication, and then in the beginning of chapter 7, fire came down from heaven to indicate that God was pleased with Solomon and the temple as a cloud of glory surrounded the temple.

• After some time had passed and after Solomon completed the Temple and the Kings palace, God appeared to Solomon one evening and told Solomon that his prayer had been heard and that God had chosen the Temple to be a place of sacrifice.

• Let us look at 2 Chronicles 7:13-14

• SLIDE #2

• 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 ( ESV ) 13When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

Redirecting a nation:

I. BEGINS WITH GOD’S PEOPLE

• SLIDE #4

1. The nation’s problems are spiritual in nature.

• One of the things we need to understand concerning the problems our nation struggles with is the fact they are rooted in spiritual issues.

• When this country was founded, the foundation of the nation was the Word of God. The men who established this nation were God-fearing men.

• SLIDE #5

• Patrick Henry stated, “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!”

• What has happened over the last 40 plus years is the fact that as a nation we are allowing the foundation of the nation to be destroyed. The house looks pretty, but the foundation is crumbling.