What Is Going On Here...why America Is In The Shape She Is In

Text: Romans 1:18-32

Title: What Is Going on Here: Why America is in the shape it is in.

Subject: Salvation

Proposition: Rejecting God brings dire consequences.

Interrogative: What are the consequences of rejecting God?

Objective: Therefore, be convinced that God is real.

Transition: Lets look at the consequences of rejecting God.

Introduction

As Paul begins writing to the Romans he deals with the problem of God being rejected by their society.

Ro 1:18 The wrath of God o is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

Ro 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. s Ro 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools t

Ro 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images u made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Those to whom Paul was writing were dealing with men suppressing the truth by their wickedness.

The society also abandoned worshipping God.

They did not recognize the sovereignty of God and failed to give Him thanks – which means they credited all their blessings to themselves.

They replaced God with idols.

America is in a similar situation.

America has been slowing removing God from society.

Court decisions already rendered have resulted in:

• Removal of student prayer: "Prayer in its public school system breaches the constitutional wall of separation between Church and State." Engel v. Vitale, 1962

• Removal of Bible readings: "[N]o state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord’s Prayer be recited in public schools or a State at the beginning of each school day." The court went on to say, "[I]f portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be and ...had been psychologically harmful to the [student]. Abington v. Schempp, 1963

• Removal of the Ten Commandments from view: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effects at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments...this...is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause." Stone v. Graham, 1980

• Removal of benedictions and invocations from school activities: "Religious invocation...in high school commencement exercise conveyed message that district had given its endorsement to prayer and religion, so that school district was properly [prohibited] from including invocation in commencement exercise." Graham v. Central, 1985; Kay v. Douglas, 1986; Jager v. Douglas, 1989; Lee v. Weisman, 1992

Lower court rulings and state and local officials have gone even further:

• Freedom of speech and press is guaranteed to students unless the topic is religious, at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. Stein v. Oshinsky, 1965; Collins v. Chandler Unified School District, 1981

• If a student prays over his lunch, it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud. Reed v. Van Hoven, 1965

• It is unconstitutional for a Board of Education to use or refer to the word "God" in any of its official writings. Ohio v. Whisner, 1976

• In Alaska public schools, students were told they could not use the word "Christmas" in school because it had the word "Christ" in it, nor could they have the word in their notebooks, nor exchange Christmas cards or presents, nor display anything with the word "Christmas" on it." William J. Murray, "America Without God," The New American, June 20, 1988, p.19

• Public schools were barred from showing a film about the settlement of Jamestown because the film depicted the erection of a cross at the settlement, despite the historical fact that a cross was erected at the Jamestown settlement. John Eidsmoe, "Christianity and the Constitution" (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), p. 406

Our rejection of God brings dire consequences.

Lets look at what Paul show us as the consequences of rejecting God.

God gives us over to sexual impurity.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. (Ro 1:24)

Sexual impurity has been around for some time.

In the 1940’s and 50’s Alfred Kinsey began talking openly about sexuality and a revolution began.

In the 1960’s that revolution revved up and promiscuity, premarital sex, group parties became popular and even accepted.

Today, we have taken what should be in the bedroom and put it on Main Street.

We have accepted people living together as just a sign of the times.

I found an unscientific study in USA Today that asked: Which best describes your views? Cohabitation is ...

Living in sin – 26%

OK if there are plans to marry – 14%