And what I'm going to do tonight is
a little bit different.
I don't know if you've heard of this.
It's been obviously on the news and Christian
posts and different things.
But every once a year, they have what's
called Pulpit Freedom Sunday.
And a lot of churches throughout the nation
are doing it tomorrow.
And it's where the churches kind of recapture
that prophetic zeal and talking about things that
we're not supposed to talk about.
In 1954, something was passed called the Johnson
Amendment.
And it basically means that churches, me, cannot
talk about social issues, political issues, candidates and
things like that.
We can't mention it.
Or you can be in jeopardy of losing
your 501c3 tax exempt status, which everybody's worried
about.
I think if they took ours away, we'd
still be okay.
I'd just get a different job, right?
Just pay taxes, a lot of taxes to
the government.
But nobody's ever challenged that.
But that's what we do once a year.
And first weekend in October, we come and
we talk about some controversial things, just to
remind everybody that the pulpit used to be
the voice of the nation.
The pulpit, if the truth doesn't come from
here, where's it going to come from?
Hollywood?
Maybe?
The media?
No, it comes from here.
So that's what we do.
This type of sermon that is more topical,
based on what we're trying to do this
weekend.
And I really want to pray Paul's prayer
in Ephesians, that I may open my mouth
boldly as I ought to speak.
And they've been trying to silence the pulpits.
There's thousands of pastors doing this tomorrow and
throughout the rest of the month, because we're
wanting to say, listen, nation, wake up.
These things should not be, and the truth
needs to be said.
And it needs to start here.
And that's really what this is all about.
Because I want to remind you that while
we are concerned with terrorist attacks and Ebola
and all those things, and rightly so, I
believe there's a greater threat from the corruption
within our own country.
We're concerned about the outside coming in, but
there's a greater threat from what's the inside
that's coming out.
And I came across a quote from Roy
Moore, who was a former chief justice of
the Supreme Court in Alabama.
Do you know why he's a former chief
justice?
Because he put up Ten Commandments and he
would not take them down, and they removed
him from being a judge.
I think it was about 12 years or
so ago.
And he encapsulated this perfectly.
He actually has a long, this is a
lot longer, and it's included in my book
I wrote a few years ago entitled One
Nation Above God.
And you guys can grab one from the
Eshers on your way out if you don't
have that book.
Because it talks about, a lot of what
I'm talking about tonight is in there.
And he said, while truth and law were
founded on the God of all creation, man,
now through law, denies that truth and calls
it separation.
No longer does man see a need for
God when he's in full control, for the
only truth self-evident is in the latest
poll.
But with man as his own master, we
fail to count the cost.
Our precious freedoms vanish and our liberty is
lost.
Children are told they can't pray in school
and they teach them evolution.
When will they see that the fear of
God is the only true solution?
Isn't that true?
You see, it's interesting, and this is, I
love sermons like this, because it reminds me
of why I'm here.
And God has always had voices.
God has always had voices from Genesis to
Revelation.
A lot of times he would call them
watchmen, or even women with prophetic messages, with
messages warning the people.
God would call watchmen to say, listen, people,
wake up.
Sometimes we need to be encouraged.
Sometimes we need to be built up.
But sometimes we need that voice of God
crying in the wilderness saying, come back.
Because without that voice, we don't listen.
If we go along our day, there's conviction
of the soul, I know that.
But without a voice saying, thus saith the
Lord, many people do not turn back to
God.
And that's one of the points of this
type of sermon.
Recognizing that God has always had voices.
And guess what the enemy tries to do?
He tries to silence that voice.
And a favorite scripture that I've quoted often,
it won't be unfamiliar to many of you,
if you've been coming in 2 Chronicles 36
-15, right before the fall of Jerusalem.
The Bible says, And the Lord God of
their fathers sent warnings to them by His
messengers, rising them up early and sending them,
because He had compassion on His people and
on His dwelling place.
But they mocked His messengers, they despised His
word, and they scoffed at His prophets, until
the anger of the Lord arose against His
own people, until there was no remedy.
See, as much as we want to avoid
that scripture, those are actually the ones we
need right now.
In these dire times, that's what we need.
We don't need Dancing with the Stars and
Duck Dynasty reruns, folks.
That's not going to cut it.
We need men and women on their faces
seeking God again to wake us up.
God says, I sent warnings to my people.
How?
Through His messengers, not lightning bolts.
Through His messengers.
And I find it so ironic that we
love this verse, right?
If my people who are called by my
name.
But if you put that verse in context
and go back to 2 Chronicles 6, God
says, when I bring pestilence, you know what
pestilence is?
It's in the news right now.
Ebola.
When I bring pestilence, when I bring drought,
when I bring famine, if my people who
are called by my name will do these
things, I will heal their land.
So that's why I have a passion for
it, because that's our only hope.
This isn't like, well, the playing the lottery.
God says, do this and I'll do this.
If, if, if my people, if my people
do this, I will do this.
And that's I actually love that because God
doesn't leave us in the dark.
He tells us what to do.
And that's why it's so hard to do
these things.
You ever wonder why these things are the
hardest things to do?
It's because they're the most important.
And I'm going to let me just put
this disclaimer up front.
I had it towards the back.
I'm honestly not trying to be patriotic and
glorify America.
I'm trying to glorify God.
And I'm trying to bring a nation and
a church back to him.
And in doing that, we have to talk
about the foundation.
We have to talk about some of these
things.
And there was a Frenchman who came to
our country in the 1800s.
And he wanted to, and I've talked to
you guys about this before a year ago.
A lot of this isn't new, but we
need a refreshment, refreshing course now and then.
But he came to America and he wanted
to know why were they, why was it
prospering?
Why was it blessed of God?
And his book records, he didn't, they don't
know exactly who said this.
It's often attributed to him who wrote, he
wrote Democracy in America.
He said that he sought for America's greatness
in her fertile prairies and her boundless prairies
and in her harbors and her gold mines
and in her shores and all.
He sought for it everywhere.
But he says, it wasn't until I visited
the churches of America.
And I heard the pulpits aflame with righteousness
that I understood the secret to her success.
America is great because she is good.
And if she ever ceases to be good,
she will cease to be great.
Isn't that interesting?
It wasn't until I heard the pulpits aflame
with righteousness.
Now I understand why America is great.
In America, this is a patriotism.
This is God is great.
God is great.
He has built the nation.
He has sustained that nation.
And he's calling the nation back to him.
That's a very good thing.
A very passionate thing that we should be
passionate about.
And again, what happened in 1954 through the
Johnson Amendment?
Pastors lost their freedom of speech on so
-called political and social issues.
Pastors could no longer apply God's truth to
national life and policy.
And the fallout has been undeniable.
Has it not?
Think of everything that's happened since the 1950s
and the progression going away from God.
And their thought is silence the pulpits and
you silence the truth.
So really, this type of message is a
loving rebuke to both parties.
I don't care if it's Democrat, Republican, whatever
it is.
We've got to stop assuming that God is
on our side and start wondering, are we
on his?
Did you catch that?
That's what this is really about.
God's on our side.
Well, are you on his?
Because that's what's important.
Everybody says God's on their side, but the
proof is in the pudding.
Is God on your side?
Is he on our side?
And this is also a loving rebuke to
coward churches and pastors who keep avoiding controversial
topics because we need to wake up.
The church is not called to make the
truth acceptable.
We're called to make it clear.
That's it.
So it's a wake up call to those
passive churches who don't want to offend anybody
or upset anybody when that's actually our calling
is to make not make the truth acceptable,
to make the truth crystal clear.
So my job when people leave here is
to say, Lord, was your truth clear?
You see the difference?
If I say, was it acceptable?
That means I'm going to change it.
I'm going to dilute it and then I'm
going to pollute it.
So if I go, was the truth acceptable,
that doesn't work because actually God doesn't want
the truth acceptable.
He wants it clear.
And then by the clarity, we can accept
his truth.
So that's really what the point of these
types of sermons is.
It's a wake up call.
I like what Martin Luther King Jr. said
in a letter from Birmingham jail in 1963.
We will have to repent in this generation,
not merely for the hateful words and the
actions of the bad people, but for the
appalling silence of the good people.
That's that's profound.
He said we will have to repent.
You know what they were going through in
the 60s with it with with this whole
the civil rights issue and all these things
that he stood up for.
He said, we're going to have to repent
in this generation, not for the hateful words
and actions of the bad people, but for
the appalling silence of the good people.
See, we forget that by saying nothing, we
say something.
Do you realize that if I never talked
about controversial issues by my silence, I'm endorsing
them.
When we say nothing, we say something.
It speaks volumes, actually.
So what I'm going to do, I'm going
to do something a little bit different.
I'm going to hit on some some four
hot topics all at once.
And the reason I'm doing this is these
types of messages, you know, they go out
to a lot of people, a lot of
people are going to hear this thousands and
thousands of people.
And they're going to a lot of times
to get emails, you know, for what about
this?
What about that?
What about this?
What about that?
So I like to dismantle all of those
arguments right off the bat.
And I want to the reason I want
to dismantle a few misconceptions is because the
media likes to portray us as racist, not
caring about women's rights, right, disdaining the poor
and hateful protesters.
Right.
I've been called all four of those when
the opposite is true.
And you know what I want to tell?
Let's tell Al Sharpton or gay rights activists,
I'll pay for it.
Let's go get a lie detector to test
and let's see who the racist is.
Let's see who the hater is.
Really, I would I would do that without
a shadow of a doubt.
Let's pay a non biased person to do
a lie detector test.
You ask me the same questions you're asking
you.
It's going to go up the chart.
You've got you're mislabeling us, there's there's there's
there's misconceptions there.
And the big one that at least maybe
I hear a lot about it, and when
I talk about our nation, I talk about
how God did this and how God did
that and God built it.
You know, the number one issue that comes
up is the mark on our nation's history
with the issue of slavery.
How could how could change everything you say?
And they allowed that.
And I often think, well, in 100 years
from now, how are they going to say
that was there were Christians in that nation?
How did they abort millions of babies?
We say, hello, not all of us.
Don't throw us in that one.
Same thing with this issue.
And in that book, I mentioned One Nation
Above God.
I have three pages of all these quotes,
all these quotes from the people who started
our nation.
They said things like this.
This was the president of Congress, Henry Lawrence.
He said, I abhorred slavery.
I was born in a country where slavery
had been established by British kings and parliaments,
as well as by the laws of the
country ages before my existence.
The Revolutionary War was a turning point in
the national attitude about slavery.
Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Dean Woodward.
We have all this stuff.
All this stuff is history in our archives.
He confirmed that whenever the Americans had attempted
to end slavery, the British government had indeed
thwarted those attempts.
Further confirmation that even the Virginia founders were
not responsible for slavery, but actually tried to
dismantle the institution.
This was provided by John Quincy Adams.
He was known as the hellhound of the
abolition movement.
He was for he was he was pushing
to end this.
And Adams said the inconsistency of the institution
of slavery with the principles of the Declaration
of Independence was seen and lamented by all
of the southern patriots of the revolution.
Now, were there people who own slavery slaves
then?
Absolutely.
But don't throw the baby out with the
bath water and say, well, God's this nation
was not built on God's word because of
this.
That's just not true.
That is a lie.
And that's why they don't want us talking
about it.
Because the truth hurts.
So there's many people fighting against this fighting
saying we don't want this in our nation,
we don't want this in our country.
But many weren't.
But many were.
So let's look at the many that were
as well and say, listen, these are God
fearing men who saw the evil for what
it was.
And again, I'll remind you, even in 50
years from now, 100 years, 200 years, 200
years might upset those people who believe in
the rapture.
But let's just say 100 years, right?
I'm going to study on that.
So I'm going to teach on that someday.
I'm caught in the middle.
So that's a whole different topic.
But 100 years from now, right?
You see, how could you guys allow you
weren't Christians in America 100 years ago?
You'd allow the aborting of millions of babies.
You're not Christians.
What would we say?
Wake up.
Don't we're not the we're not the we're
not the the legislation that put all of
that into effect.
Don't blame us.
So the same thing fits with this issue
of slavery.
And the next, of course, I get this
all the time.
You're against women's rights.
And I say, when is murdering a child
the right?
When ever?
Never.
Thomas Jefferson, the first and primary duty of
government is to protect innocent human life.
We are calling good evil and evil good.
Abraham Lincoln, nobody has the freedom to choose
to do what's morally wrong.
Are you catching this?
This is foundational stuff.
That's why they're going after the foundation, because
you take out the foundation.
Guess what?
The whole structure comes crumbling to the bottom.
I don't know if you ever listen to
John Stone Street or read his articles.
Very good stuff.
Prolific author.
He wrote this.
I had to actually went online and pulled
it from his website.
He said the tried and true pro-choice
label, meaning for abortion, it's out of vogue
now.
So the days when abortion was supposed to
be safe, legal and rare are gone.
Now, abortion rights activists are turning the so
-called procedure into art, film and even spoken
word poetry.
I'm hoping I can read this next part.
A person by the name of Layla Josephine
joined the party with her new video entitled,
I think she was a she.
Josephine, who had an abortion as a teenager,
feels no shame over her decision.
In fact, she says she thinks her aborted
child would have agreed.
Wow.
Talk about a decadent society.
I would have supported my daughter's right to
choose to choose a life for herself, a
path for herself.
I would have died for that right, just
like she died for mine.
I'm sorry, but you came at the wrong
time.
I heard that on the radio and I
pulled my truck over.
I said, God, help us.
Really, God, help us.
Can you believe what I'm reading?
And then he quotes somebody else and they
ask, would anyone think that these comments of
a sane woman if the baby were outside
the womb when killed rather than inside?
Would a mom's right to choose Trump a
toddler's right to live?
Celebrating death like this exposes the pro-abortion
movement for what it really is.
And I hope people are paying attention.
I mean, this is this is this is
this is a decadent, sick, perverted society that
we live in.
And this is what's flowing out of that.
Psalms 139, 13, for you created me in
my innermost being or for you created my
inmost being.
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
If all the names of all the babies
who have been aborted since 1970s were placed
on a monument, much like the Vietnam Wall,
it's been estimated that that monument would span
over thirty five miles.
The womb is no longer the safest place,
but one of the most dangerous.
It's uncomfortable, isn't it?
That's why they don't want us to talk
about these things.
You talk about those things, pastor, you might
lose your tax exempt status.
Why, if I don't talk about these things,
I have to face Almighty God.
And you might say you might.
Why mention this?
Why mention the shame?
Let me tell you why.
Here's exactly why.
Because leaders in our country play a role
in our national sins.
They either lead us to repentance or they
lead us to judgment.
I don't care what your opinion is of
the current president, but he's either leading us
to repentance or he's leading us to judgment.
Don't get upset at me.
Get upset at him.
Or president's past or president's coming or leadership
or Congress or Senate or the judicial.
Don't let him get me started in the
Supreme Court.
All these leaders either lead the nation to
repentance or they lead the nation to judgment.
That's just that's biblical truth.
That's why this is important.
Proverbs 29, 12.
When the righteous are in authority, the people
rejoice.
But when the wicked rule, the people mourn.
And scripture commands us to select people.
Exodus 18, 21 told Moses select leaders that
fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness from
Moses to the kings.
God said, put these kings that will love
my law, put these judges over my people
who will love my law.
God wants.
So it begs the question, does God not
want godly leadership?
See, that's that's you know, if you take
this argument full circle and say, Shane, you
shouldn't talk about these things.
Bring judgment.
The church needs to be purified.
Really?
I don't want to live next to your
house.
What needs to be said is that God
wants godly leaders.
God wants godly leadership.
If you don't believe that, you'll have to
prove why he wouldn't.
Now he'll bring them in for judgment.
God would often use ungodly leaders to judge
his people.
And you might think I enjoy talking about
these things.
I don't.
I don't like like looking at the news.
I don't like the direction of our country.
It's the last thing I want to do.
But sometimes we need to address these things
in order for change to occur.
We can no longer hide behind the excuse.
I don't want to get involved.
As citizens, we are given the privilege for
now to place people in positions of leadership.
Whether we like it or not, we are
involved.
Here's the here's the kicker.
Millions are not registered to vote and millions
of registered voters stay at home.
We'll stand in line to see a movie,
but we won't stand in line to vote
and elect leaders who affect the direction of
our country.
One in seven Americans think they're registered to
vote, but aren't.
And this really isn't a sermon on voting
whatsoever.
It's a sermon on showing you that we
have apathy in our culture.
We are apathetic to leadership.
We love our dancing with the stars and
duck dynasty and mint chocolate ice cream and
our Starbucks.
And we're so caught up in this world
as we're going to hell in a handbasket.
That's why the Bible talks about loving the
world when people love the world.
And we try to stay busy with things,
right?
Oh, I'm getting ignored.
I'm getting ignored.
I mean, I just hearing the guys on.
There's nothing to worry about.
The guy in Texas, Ebola, it's not that
really.
Well, look at what it's doing in Africa.
And if God says it's going to do
something, you better watch out.
Have you heard the bubonic plague?
Have you heard of pestilence destroying people?
But we do.
Oh, it's no big deal.
They'll contain it.
Like I would pray to God, Lord, it's
no big deal for you.
Would you contain it?
Because if God allows something, there's nothing that
the CDC, there's nothing the government can do.
Nothing.
Nothing, nothing.
Actually, they'll be hurting the plans of God
because they think there's no God.
And they think they're God.
And that's why we need messages like this.
Could you imagine if you turned on Christian
TV tomorrow and heard this type of stuff?
You'd have people across our landscape falling on
their knees and faces before God and repenting.
But they're not.
All they're going to hear is good things
and encouraging things as we head in this
direction.
I've talked to pastors before about reading the
story I wrote about this girl with abortion.
I would have died for your right.
She died for mine.
I'm sorry, but you came at a wrong
time.
They say, Shane, why are you reading that
stuff?
Don't read, don't.
Man, you're going to you're going to make
the people upset.
You're going to bring a kind of downcast
to the service.
We don't you don't do that.
They really don't speak the truth because we're
afraid of the opinions of others is what
it boils down to.
And here's another favorite one.
And again, I want to I want to
just break these misconceptions down because I think
people's hearts are open to understand a little
bit more.
Christians don't care about the poor, right?
We don't care about poverty, really.
You know, the government wants to help all
this entitlements.
We call it where the government's helping everybody.
And why, why, why are Christians against a
lot of that?
Well, number one, we have to realize we
should all strive to defend the weak and
the fatherless, maintain the right to the poor
and the oppressed and deliver them from the
hand of the wicked.
That's Psalms 82.
But here's why the church has an issue
with it.
The church, when we do it at a
local level, we can determine if the poverty
is created by laziness or genuine need.
You see the difference there?
The Bible says if you don't work, you
don't eat.
But what the government will do is they'll
just billions of dollars.
Anybody that qualifies.
Here you go.
So hold on.
You're giving a lot of money to a
lot of people don't need it.
You are actually creating a culture of entitlement,
a culture of laziness.
People that can work hard and do things
are just going to sit back generation after
generation and collect money from the government.
That's why we have an issue.
We want to help the poor, those who
really need that.
But you can't you can't just actually that's
not biblical.
That is not biblical what they're doing.
The Bible never says to just give it
to whoever wants it or qualifies.
They're going to doctor this or doctor that.
And they'll just know it says work.
You can't work if you're truly in need,
then the church is to help.
So that's where there's a big division there,
especially in different parties.
Right.
Republican, Democrat.
They're always fighting over this.
This is one of the issues.
And the parties need to both realize that
the government is not the best entity to
handle this issue.
The church wants to help people work hard.
We want to help build esteem and worth.
But many who receive assistance don't need the
assistance.
We are creating a lazy, independent culture.
Now, am I saying that for everybody?
Of course not.
I think there's some good systems in place
and we have to help people.
I mean, nobody hearing me is going to
think that.
But those who have agendas want to twist
things.
Of course, I'm saying we should help poor
the poor.
What do you think we do all week?
We spend time visiting the hospital homes.
We take to spend time visiting people praying
for those who are dying in the sick.
We give money.
We give gas cards.
We give food cards, all types of things
to those in need.
That's what we do.
So it's funny how Hollywood wants the government
to do it so they don't have to
do it.
And then the people are actually doing and
helping.
They're they're being chastised because they're against the
government helping.
Isn't that that just does not make any
sense to me.
So we have to dismantle that issue about
poverty, too, and how we handle it.
Because anytime the government says we have money,
do you want it?
Do you think people are going to say
yes or no?
Of course, of course.
But now it's like trying to turn around
the Titanic.
I don't have answers because people say, well,
then what do you do?
I don't know.
It should have started years ago.
But if you take it to God, leaders,
he can fix it.
He can fix it.
And I've also seen in our recently a
lot of people, you know, it is hard
to get work.
So I understand that as well.
But it's interesting when I talk to people,
you know, I'm looking for this kind of
job.
I have a master's degree.
I'm not going to do this.
I'm not going to do that.
I'm not going to do this.
Hey, if you need work, you just say,
Lord, put me to work somewhere.
Remember, I dug up septic tanks for a
year.
I laid pipeline and all these things that
I want to do that.
No way I ran from that.
But when you say, Lord, I'll work wherever
you want.
He said, OK, I'll put you here.
I'll put you there.
But now I have a master's degree.
I'm not going to do that.
I'm not going to dig ditches.
I'm not going to do something that's nine
to five.
I need to be home by 12.
I'm not.
So we have all these tight parameters.
Then we say, I can't get a job.
If you ask God, he will open that
opportunity.
I guarantee it might take waiting.
It might take a lot of waiting, but
at least your heart's in the right position.
Because by doing that, you say, God, here's
what I'm going to do.
You approve it versus saying, God, where do
you want me at?
Where can you bring in the income when
he opens the door?
Watch out.
Watch out because he can open the gates.
I just think it's biblical to work hard.
It's biblical to work.
The Bible says, if you don't work, you
don't even eat.
So I think that's something we have to
look at as Christians.
We should work hard.
The next misconception, of course, you know, I
have to touch on this one is that
I'm a very hateful person because I'm against
gay marriage.
The thing is, really, I'll just be transparent
with you.
I'm not going to talk a lot about
this because I have another sermon entitled same
sex attraction, balancing truth and grace.
But we tremble.
Christians tremble because we compare our laws with
God's truth.
And we tremble because we see what the
Bible says.
And we see the culture going the opposite
direction.
Who do you think is going to win?
Think about who's going to win the cultural
war.
Is God going to go home?
Gosh, I didn't.
Is that what God's going to do?
Of course not.
But why do we act like that?
Christians have no, no, no gut for truth.
This issue of gay marriage is a lie
from the pit of hell.
It's destroying our families and it's destroying our
children.
Again, if the truth doesn't come from the
pulpit, where is it going to come from?
John Stone Street, again, he said to judge
by media coverage, the legalization of same sex
marriage is good.
Pictures of happy couples kissing and otherwise celebrating
leave the impression that only the only people
who are unhappy about same sex marriage are
the bigots and the grumps.
Us.
Well, Jana Darnell would beg to differ.
Seven years ago, her husband of 10 years
told her that he was gay and that
he wanted a divorce.
As she wrote in the public discourse, these
words in an instant, the world that I
had known and loved, the life we had
built together was shattered.
She tried to persuade him to stay and
work through the problems and fight for their
marriage.
But she writes, my voice, my desires, my
needs and those of our two young children
no longer matter to him.
We had become disposable because he had embraced
one tiny word that had become his entire
identity.
Being gay trumped commitment, vows, responsibility, faith, fatherhood,
marriage, friends and community.
And adding insult to injury, her soon to
be ex-husband sought primary custody of the
children.
While he had to settle for shared custody,
this still meant that their children, regardless of
their desires, had to become props in the
campaign for same-sex marriage.
So in USA Today, in its cheerleading article
for same-sex marriage, it ran a photo
section of her ex-husband, his partner and
her children without her consent or even told
her.
Darnell wrote, commentators explained how beautiful this gay
family was and congratulated my ex-husband and
his new partner on this family that they
had created.
She continues, there is a significant person missing
from those pictures, the mother and the abandoned
wife.
That gay family could not exist without me.
This is a heart-crushing, it's a much
-needed reminder that behind all the celebration we
see in the media, there's often real suffering
and heartache that goes unreported and even unnoticed.
And that's just one story.
That's just one thing that's happening.
But the media, again, wants to make it
like we're grumpy and upset.
And it's not a life of joy.
It's not a life of peace.
When you go against God's way, God's rule
for the family, it does not result in
peace.
It results in misery.
It results in difficulty because you're fighting against
God.
So three things I'll be out of your
hair.
The foundation.
Here's what's happening.
The foundation is what everything is built on.
The foundation and the pillars of truth are
being removed.
And Psalms 11, 13 says, if the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Now, let me just take a minute and
talk about these foundations.
Jesus said your word is truth.
And I find it so interesting that so
many people love Jesus, right?
Good teacher, this great guy.
But he said God's word is truth.
They reject the truth, but love Jesus.
But he said his your word is truth.
Alexander Hamilton, signer of the Constitution, wrote the
law.
The law dictated by God himself is, of
course, superior and obligation to any other.
It is binding over all the globe and
all countries at all times.
No human laws are of any validity if
contrary to this.
What about the Illinois Supreme Court, 1883?
Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be
based upon the embodied teachings of the Redeemer
of mankind.
It is impossible that it should be otherwise
in this sense.
And to this extent, our civilizations and our
institutions are empathetically Christian.
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, the origin, the
origination and descent of all human power is
from God first to terrify evildoers.
Secondly, to cherish those who do well.
Government seems to be to me to be
a part of religion itself.
And of course, the famous quote, John Adams,
signer of the second president of the United
States.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral
and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate to the government of
any other.
Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
I do not believe that the Constitution was
the offspring of inspiration, but I am as
perfectly satisfied that the union of the states
in its form and adoption is as much
the work of divine providence as any of
the miracles recorded in the Old and New
Testament.
So that's the foundation.
And if I could take up a whole
sermon talking about the foundation of what the
nation was built upon, actually, when they were
forming the nation, there was a man called
John Locke.
He wrote two treaties on civil government and
he referenced the Bible fifteen hundred times to
show the proper use of government.
The separation of powers, executive legislation, judicial comes
from Ezra.
It comes from, I'm not sure if it's
Ezra, but it comes from one of the
biblical texts to separate where God says, I'll
be your judge, I'll be your king, I'll
be your lawgiver.
The tax exempt status comes from Ezra.
The lawyers in the 1800s were trained by
a book called Blackstones, William Blackstone's Commentaries of
the Laws of New England.
And in those laws, he referenced the Bible
and all these things.
So the Bible was the foundation.
That was the foundation.
And now we remove it and we wonder
what's going on.
Where's God at?
What's going on?
Why is everything going haywire?
Because we're removing the foundation.
So the structure is going to come down.
That's just that's the truth.
So here's the problem.
That's the foundation.
Here's the problem.
We have lost the fear of the Lord.
We used to tremble.
Now we mock Him.
Isn't it interesting in churches?
We used to tremble at God's presence.
We used to fear God.
Now people just mock Him and put Jesus
on their T-shirt or bumper sticker.
There's no fear of the Lord.
I remember recently when Robin Williams passed away,
something came out of the media.
They text to him as if he can
read.
He can't.
But it said, Jeannie, you're now free.
And then text to Joan Rivers after she
died.
Now you're relaxing in a recliner with the
cabana boy bringing you champagne.
That's what our culture thinks of God in
heaven.
Joan Rivers is now relaxing in a recliner
with a cabana boy bringing her champagne.
People are not fearing and trembling God.
They're mocking Him.
This is mockery.
But don't misunderstand.
As a pastor, I know that the problem
is spiritual.
We cannot deny our primary responsibility.
My primary responsibility is not voting and politics
and all these things.
My primary responsibility is to encourage people to
turn to Christ as their Lord and Savior.
This is how America will truly change from
the inside out.
The number one problem in America is not
a political problem.
It's a spiritual problem called sin.
So we have to address that.
And the primary goal of the church is
not to become a political movement, but a
spiritual influence.
So that's the problem.
What's the solution?
That's why we're here.
And that's why we're starting the Monday study.
And that's why we have this up.
This is the solution.
If I bring pestilence, God says, if I
bring drought, if I bring famine, when all
these calamities come upon you, or when it
looks like you're going in that direction, if
you just look to me, if my people
who are called by my name, let me
just read it.
If my people which are called by my
name shall humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, I will
forgive their sins, and I will heal their
land.
It's interesting, it doesn't stop there.
Now my eyes shall be open and my
ears attentive unto the prayers that are made
in this place.
Now I've just briefly talked about a few
of these.
We're going to talk about them on Monday.
But humble, humble themselves.
You know, folks, it's not an accident that
the process of renewal, revival, restoration begins with
humility.
I would have to say that this is
the number one problem in people's lives.
Including mine.
We have so many excuses.
Our marriage isn't good.
We have an excuse.
I made a mistake.
I have an excuse.
We have excuses for everything.
Do you know what excuses really reveal in
my own heart?
Pride.
It's as God says, if you want renewal,
if you want to come back to me,
you must humble yourself.
And this isn't like just, oh yeah, I
guess Jane's right.
This is saying, Lord, I'm totally dependent on
you.
I've been wrong.
I'm an arrogant man.
Shane, you say that?
Oh yeah, sometimes.
Very healthy.
Because that realization draws me to the cross.
Draws me to my need.
And when you admit that, then you humble
yourself.
And then from that humility, you're filled with
the Spirit of God.
That's all humility is, is acknowledging, Lord, you're
over me.
I've made mistakes in these areas.
Lord, would you come back to me?
Pride must die in you, or nothing of
heaven can live in you.
Did you catch that?
Andrew Murray in his book, Surrender.
I dare you to read that book.
You probably won't get through the first chapter.
Pride must die in you, or nothing of
heaven can live in you.
The humble he teaches his ways.
I could do a whole sermon on this
topic, because I see it in my own
life, and the life of so many people.
We're so prideful.
We don't see it though.
That's the problem.
That's the deception of pride.
The pride of your heart has deceived you.
Old Testament says that.
The pride of your heart has deceived you.
We've talked a lot about James 1 and
22.
If you hear my word, but don't do
it, you'll live in deception.
Okay, we got that down pretty good.
But we forget this one.
The pride of your heart has deceived you.
So I can go through my marriage, being
mean to my spouse because of pride.
I can go and pastor and be mean
because of pride.
We can go to our workplace and be
mean because of pride.
God says, draw nigh unto me and say,
I don't need to draw nigh unto you.
I'm already good with God.
Pride, pride stops everything.
The pride of your heart has deceived you.
So if we truly want God, I don't
care if this reaches the nation.
I don't care if this reaches the radio.
I just want 100 people on their faces
before God, humbling themselves and saying, Lord, we
need you.
I'm a prideful, arrogant man, and I need
you on a daily basis.
God says, good, now the vessel's ready.
Now the vessel's ready.
Now I can move through that vessel.
Once you humble yourself, then he says, now
you pray.
What?
Now you can pray.
Can you imagine how I could pray now
after that?
Oh, my God.
Oh, the power of prayer.
But we do the opposite.
We get up and we pray real quick,
and we go to work.
Why is God not answering my prayer?
Why does my life seem dead?
Why does God seem distant?
Why does shame upset me every other week?
Why?
I pray, I pray.
No, humble yourself first.
Humble yourself first and then pray.
And that's where the power comes from.
Remember, Jesus said, if my people pray, and
this is why I joke about a lot,
but I'm also serious about everybody's dancing with
the stars, Duck Dynasty reruns, ice cream on
the couch.
There comes a time when you need to
turn that off and seek God.
I mean, what's it going to take?
We're all in this routine of a quick
little prayer life.
To get a deep prayer life, you've got
to make some major changes.
We have to.
Because God says, how bad do you want
it?
My house shall be called a house of
preaching.
No, my house shall be called a house
of prayer.
Jesus said that.
I was reminded this week, too, when Martin
Luther prayed, the church was transformed.
When John Knox prayed, Scotland was reborn.
When John Wesley prayed, America was revived.
When George Whitfield prayed, nations were changed.
When D.L. Moody prayed, America was repented.
When moms pray, they're chilled and the prodigal
comes home.
When dads pray, the family's restored.
When we pray, we move the hand of
God.
And this isn't just a quick little prayer,
folks.
That's why things aren't being answered.
That's why the nation is not turning around.
That's why the church is not reborn.
Five minute prayers are not biblical.
They're wonderful now and then.
I do them a lot.
But there comes a time and a place
where you've got to spend time on your
knees, on your face, on your bed, on
your couch, praying to God.
You just sit a mark two hours and
God two minutes.
It's not going to work.
I don't mean to alarm.
I don't mean to upset.
But I do mean to convict.
You show me your prayer life and I'll
show you your spirituality.
The majority of people we counsel that are
having problems, and you say, tell me about
your devotional life.
Tell me about your prayer life.
I don't have one.
And what's discouraging for me is they'll come
to church and go, boy, that sermon really
got me.
Yeah, you're going to say that for the
next year.
When's it really going to get you and
you're going to make changes?
Because when it really gets you, you make
changes.
I don't want to hear you say that.
I want to see your heart do it.
That's the whole point of preaching.
Don't come.
No, the hope, the whole point and the
power of preaching is what you do when
you leave here.
That's how I gauge the fruit.
I don't if I have another person come
up, say, oh, that just hit me to
the heart.
And then I have their spouse call and
say, you hit me last night.
We can't we can't have both of those
happening, folks.
It's one or the other.
Either hit you the heart and the heart
changes.
A prepared heart is better than a prepared
sermon.
That's so true.
A prepared heart is better than a prepared
sermon.
How do I get my heart prepared for
this exegetical studies?
Homiletic resources, listening to sermons online, they'll help,
but it's a direct reflection of my prayer
life.
That plain and simple, plain and simple, sometimes
I'll show the elders and deacons.
I don't say a lot because we don't
want to toot our own horn.
But sometimes I think it's important to say
we get this week from Germany and from
Sweden or some all these emails coming up,
people being being changed.
Pastor Shane, you speak the truth.
It's not me.
It's a prayer closet where the vessel has
to humble himself.
I have to empty myself.
Don't say good job, Shane.
Say good job, God, and get in the
prayer closet.
That's the point is prayer moves the hand
of God.
Prayer empowers the vessel.
Prayer is everything.
That's why many people avoid it.
So I just want to ask you tonight,
what's it going to take to finally change
this around?
How many more Saturdays are you going to
come and hear the same thing?
Yeah, I got to do that.
Got to do that.
He told me that in 2010, 2011, 2012.
Now, what's it going to take?
The state of our nation, the state of
our church, the state of our family should
foster the motivation.
That should be motivation enough.
I mean, I love that saying, you know,
it's not in the Bible, but the road
to hell is paved with good intentions.
I've noticed that God doesn't like a lot
of good intentions.
He likes a lot of good application.
That's what gets the job done.
Intentions doesn't get the job done.
Application.
You know, good intentions, right?
Yeah, I should do that.
I thought about, I should, I should, I
should.
I would, I would go buy some duct
tape, put it right here.
And just do.
Just do.
We should buy a roll of duct tape,
right?
And have that be a, you know, kind
of our motto.
Just go home and do it.
Because that's where the power is.
That's where the application comes in.
And of course, and pray and seek.
I've talked about this a lot, you know,
seeking with losing your child and what that
meant in the Hebrew language.
And when you, you know, you lose something
and that happens sometimes at our house.
You know, I can't find my little one
half year old.
And you're like, you know, a nice little
afternoon turned into where's Kylie?
I don't hear anymore.
Do you know she's in the backyard?
Where'd she go?
And everything changes.
But that's what parallels with seeking God.
It's really about priorities.
Look at our priorities.
All you do is look at your checkbook,
look at your calendar.
I'll tell you what you seek.
That it's about seeking God, rearranging our priorities
to seek him.
Listen, our marriages aren't going to get better.
Our families aren't going to be restored unless
we seek him and realign our priorities, humble
ourselves and pray.
And then the last point, I love what
the Benson commentary said on this.
It is profound.
Commenting about this scripture, they must humble themselves
under his hand.
They must pray for the removal of the
judgment and they must seek his face with
favor.
And yet all of this will not be
sufficient unless they turn from their wicked ways
and return to him from whom they have
revolted.
Isn't that interesting?
People pray and they appear to seek God
and they say, I'm humble.
I'm so humble.
But if we don't turn from our wicked
ways, folks, we're just playing games.
We're just going through the motions.
That's all we're doing.
We have to turn from those wicked ways,
repent.
Now, my eyes shall be open and my
ears attended to the prayer in this place.
If my people do these things, if my
people do these things.
And I'll end with what I often end
with, that repentance is our only hope.
Repentance is our only hope.
Folks, we need to start praying as well.
Because prayerlessness in the pulpit is leading to
apostasy in the church.
Prayerlessness in the pew is leading to broken
lives.
Prayerlessness in men is leading to breakdown of
the family.
And prayerlessness in Washington is leading to the
breakdown of society.
Everything stands or falls on prayer, humility, seeking
God and then repenting.
That's if you're if you're going through something
right now, I guarantee that's probably the secret
to success.
If you're upset at your marriage or this
or for your singles, you haven't found the
right person or you're dating somebody who you
know is the right person, but you'll win
them later.
Right.
Totally ignoring all the scriptures about unequally yoking
different things.
We get ourselves in our own messes.
It isn't wonderful.
God doesn't say, I told you so, because
I do that.
I told you so.
I told you this is going to happen.
God says, OK, you're stuck.
Here's how you get out.
Return to me.
Return to me and repent.
So I want to throw that out there.
If you if you're just you're visiting and
you're going to come back again, that's a
good thing.
But if you're upset at this message, we
often say it's probably because you need to
hear this message.
Many times when we're upset, it means God
is convicting.
So if you've never if you've never been
in right relationship with God, you've never repented
of your sin and you've never been able
to call Jesus both Savior and Lord.
He's he's my Savior and Lord knows he's
my Lord because I need him.
I repent of my sin.
If you've never done that, guess what?
That's why I'm here to encourage you to
turn to him, turn your life over to
him.
You don't need to say a prayer.
You don't need to come forward.
But your heart has to repent.
You have to say, Lord, I'm sorry.
I've been playing church.
I've been playing Christian.
I've been going through the motions, but I
truly repent tonight and he will hear that
prayer.
Or if you're like a lot of other
people, Christians have been caught in this lukewarm
life and this destructive life.
God says the same thing.
Repent, repent.
And also, guess what?
He calls all of us to repent.
For the sins of our nation, we have
that we have the blood of innocent children
on our hands, we do.
And God says, repent, look at Nehemiah, he
repented for his people and his people.
Lord, we repent.
Daniel repented for all his people.
Corporately, it's very healthy to say, Lord, we
are so sorry.
Lord, we repent.
Would you restore us?
Would you visit us again?
We might not see results tomorrow.
We might not see it next week.
We might not see results.
We might be seeing the decline of a
nation that will not be turned around.
But we're not supposed to go down with
the Titanic.
We're supposed to be fighting and pulling it
back up.
And I know God, apart from a national
awakening, I don't have a lot of hope.
But if God visits his people, revises people,
there is great hope.
And the only way to do that is
to reconnect those four things.
Humble yourself, seek him, pray and turn from
your wicked ways.