Wake up America! Or We need God in America Again!
Isaiah 1:2-20
2 {A Message for Rebellious Judah--} Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! This is what the LORD says: "The children I raised and cared for have turned against me.
“Everyone listen, the children I raised and cared for have rebelled against me!” This text may have been written about the nation of Judah all those years ago but it applies to America today!
From our founding fathers, through Civil and world wars we were “One Nation Under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”; but oh how we have turned. We have rebelled against our roots, we have turned from our founding principles and we have abandoned our Christian faith.
3
Even the animals-- the donkey and the ox-- know
their owner and appreciate his care, but not my people Israel. No matter what I
do for them, they still do not understand."
I see this even today in our world. Dogs know who loves them and care for them and will fight a grizzly bear to protect their human master. Cows come to know their owner and come to their feeding point when his truck appears. Horses know their owner and his touch as he grabs the reigns and the horse will respond even to the slightest input from their master.
Humans, on the other hand, have become rebellious against their master. We are too afraid to even speak the Name of Jesus Christ in public, much less fight for Him. We forget where our protection, sustenance and care comes from, no matter how many times we see Him. We will not obey any instruction, even if it leaves us at the bottom of a pit.
4
Oh, what a sinful nation they are! They are
loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil and corrupt children who have
turned away from the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel, cutting
themselves off from his help.
“Oh, what a sinful nation America is! We are loaded down with the guilt of millions of murdered babies, sexual perversion and greed. Pride rules our hearts and we are a evil and corrupt creation that have turned away from the LORD. We despise the Holy One of America and have cut ourselves off from His help.”
This would be the prophecy of Isaiah today if he were still here. This is a sad but true commentary on our America.
This is not God’s America anymore. We are living in a mess of our own creation. America, as a nation, must turn back to God or it will soon be too late.
5
Why do you continue to invite punishment? Must
you rebel forever? Your head is injured, and your heart is sick.
This is a very good question! Why do we keep living in the muck and mire of flesh, challenging God to bring judgment upon us? Lets try to figure a few reasons out:
This is the list God gave us in Galatians 5:19-21. A quick survey will show us that pride is the key element of all these sins f the flesh.
We must also understand that these are sins that we commit. We cannot blame them on our past, our family, our circumstances or our enemy. They are our burden to bear and we will be called to account for what we did, not what someone else did. There is no excuse we are to blame.
How long will we rebel? Forever? No just until one of two things occurs.
· We repent and receive the restoration God has waiting for us
· The end comes and we are called before Him to be judged for our sins
We must choose for ourselves and our country now! Soon it will be too late.
Many do not even realize how injured and diseased we really are. We try to hide it, cover it up or simply remain blissfully ignorant or our situation.
6
You are sick from head to foot-- covered with
bruises, welts, and infected wounds-- without any ointments or bandages.
Here the prophets words and let them sink in past the arrogance and pride of our humanity.
We are sick from coast to coast and border to border, there is no section of the body of this America that is unaffected by this raging disease of apathy and evil.
Idaho and Montana are covered with sores.
California and North Carolina have festered and oozing wounds
Welts are risen up in Texas, Ohio and North Dakota.
There is no medicine for these ailments. No matter how hard we, or our government try we cannot heal this country. Only God can.
7
Your country lies in ruins, and your cities are
burned. As you watch, foreigners plunder your fields and destroy everything
they see.
A wave of pain washed over me as I read this scripture and thought about the devastation of September 11, 2001.
Our Pentagon burned and the World Trade Center collapsed and hundreds perished through their heroism to destroy a plane before it could strike its intended target. Foreigners destroyed our buildings and murdered thousands of people.
Do I “blame” God for this? No. We reaped the fruit we had sown. In our arrogance we did not think this could or would happen to us.
Evangelist Billy Graham’s daughter spoke about this on the
CBS’s Early Show with Jane Clayson . According to the transcript of the
broadcast, Clayson asked, "I've heard people say, those who are religious,
those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you
say?"
Lotz replied, "I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I
would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their
fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our
business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has
just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life.
Removing his hand of blessing and protection. We need to turn to God first of
all and say, God, we're sorry we have treated you this way and we invite you
now to come into our national life. We put our trust in you. We have our trust
in God on our coins, we need to practice it." (from truthorfiction.com)
The truth is very simple for all who will look – We Need God In America Again!
8 Jerusalem stands abandoned like a watchman's shelter in a vineyard or field after the harvest is over. It is as helpless as a city under siege.
This must have been how New York felt during and immediately after these attacks and how Oklahoma City felt when the Murrah Building was blown up.
Helpless
Under siege
Frightened
9
If the LORD Almighty had not spared a few of us,
we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah.
I praise God for the faithful few that have remained His obedient and faithful believers. There is a remnant faith alive and working in America. A vocal minority who are not afraid to cry out to Him and call a wayward nation to repentance.
If it were not for these God fearing souls I fear that judgment would have already fallen on our once great country. We need to head their warning and answer the cry of God to return to Him and His Will for our lives…for our country.
10
Listen to the LORD, you leaders of Israel!
Listen to the law of our God, people of Israel. You act just like the rulers
and people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Here is a Word directly from God to our leaders in this country, be they political, religious or corporate; “STRAIGHTEN UP! You have giving into the wiles of the flesh for too long. Political correctness has no place in the Kingdom of God. Follow God and His precepts and you will succeed, follow man’s way and you will perish!”
11
"I am sick of your sacrifices," says
the LORD. "Don't bring me any more burnt offerings! I don't want the fat
from your rams or other animals. I don't want to see the blood from your
offerings of bulls and rams and goats.
God is disgusted with the paltry tributes we pay Him out of a feeling of duty or remorse. We try to placate our own conscience with giving and showing up at church for publicity shots. Our leaders should spend more time on their prayer rug than in the board rooms, city halls and oval offices.
Our vanity has given us false hope built of false religion. We believe that our sacrifice is enough. The truth is that we could never sacrifice enough to redeem us from our failures. God desires faith over sacrifice.
The stuff we do is of no value without a solid faith built through a relationship with Him
We come to know God by experience as we obey Him and He completes His Work through you.
12
Why do you keep parading through my courts with
your worthless sacrifices?
13
The incense you bring me is a stench in my
nostrils! Your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath day, and your
special days for fasting-- even your
most pious meetings-- are all sinful and false. I want nothing more to
do with them.
God is saying here that everything we do out of tradition, religion, holidays and festivals are rotting garbage in His holy eyes. Without faith and a focus on Him they are just so much rubbish that should be taken to the curb and hauled to the dump!
Our nation spends billions of holiday gifts, parties and decorations and forgets all about God.
We celebrate “x-mas” because we don’t want to think about Christ during the celebration of HIS BIRTH.
We may go through a ritual celebration of the Passover or the deliverance of Israel but we do not have faith in the God who delivered them.
We may observe the great festivals and feasts of Leviticus 23 and miss the whole point of worshipping the Creator, Deliverer and Sustainer. We must study and know why they are so important and how God is their focus and not us or the feast.
How far do we think we can go with false worship and holidays? God wants no part of them. They have become ours, not His.
God has no room or time for false religion or flesh based faith. If we decide to do it ourselves, He will let us try but He will have no part of it.
He will not look. The turning of God’s Face away from a people is extremely significant. We are lost and without hope when the Creator is no longer looking after His creation. We desperately need God’s guidance and direction, we NEED His correction and discipline; but if we will not receive His love given help we will perish.
He will not listen. Our cries to Him are in vain unless they are cries of repentance and faith. We need a relationship with Him that is so real and personal that we KNOW He is listening all the time.
Our hands are covered with the blood of the innocent. How damning is this scripture upon a country that murders hundreds of innocent babies every day; or allows the murder of the aged and infirmed.
In the name of tolerance and acceptance our laws have released millions into abhorrent lifestyles. We file lawsuits against someone who uses calls upon God at a football game while we invite homosexual groups to give talks at our schools about their lifestyle. Children’s television now promotes homosexuality as normal.
Millions have died, families have been ripped apart by their seams and billions of dollars have been spent on alcohol, yet it remains not only legal, but glamorized in our movies, books and televisions.
The blood of the innocent is on our hands.
What can we do? Is there any hope? Can America return to its’ Godly foundation before it is too late?
Maybe.
Here is the path way back into righteousness.
Repent. A religious term that many of us do not understand. God Himself defined it for us in 2 Chronicles.
2 Chronicles 7:14-15 “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. I will listen to every prayer made in this place” (NLT)
God has promised us that is the believers of this country will
He will:
· Hear us
· Forgive us
· Heal our land.
Note that this is not my plan, or a Baptist plan, a Jewish plan or any religions plan; it is GOD’S PLAN. His is the most important plan there is. His Will is much more than our petty plans could ever be.
Get cleaned up America!
Learn to do good. God knows that we have strayed far from His teachings and need to learn what good is again and how to obediently work His Good in His Will for His people.
Seek justice. Not political correctness, not some sort of “touchy feely” equality for all or even what benefits us the most. Seek God based Justice for everyone. This is justice based on God’s Laws and not mans; on God’s precepts and not the Supreme Courts thoughts and decisions on the matter. I could really care less what 9 sinful men and women or even worse, that 5 of them are a majority and decide the direction of our country, think about any issue when I have God’s Word and His presence to guide us.
Help those who are oppressed. We have a duty to aid and assist those who are under attack and chained by others. We have often gone to war to protect those who cannot protect themselves. This is God’s way.
Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of the weakest among us, the parentless child who has no one to stand up for his or her rights. Children have a special place in God’s heart, and even more so the orphan. He wants us all to be His children and find the love and hope we are looking for in Him.
Fight for the rights of widows. God calls us to stand firm for the rights of those who cannot or will not fight for themselves. Ladies in this time who had no husband had no rights and were often ignored and discarded. They owned no land and no shelter and were often left to beg for food and shelter until a kinsman redeemer could come and deliver them from their pain. Often this never happened.
We are to help those who are in need. The young, the old, the infirmed and the unjustly treated must be restored into an active and functional part of society
Lets argue this issue to it’s conclusion! God wants us to know that no matter how sin stained and filthy we have become, individually or as a country, there is forgiveness available to us. But this forgiveness is available only from Him. There is no other way in heaven or earth to be forgiven except through faith in God.
He can restore the faith and power of America beyond the best it has ever been! We can know new levels of joy, prosperity and hope when we repent and return to Him.
How many people go hungry in America today? How many in the world? We could supply their needs through His bounty if we only had faith to believe and trust to obey.
The “final warning” if you will. If America, and its inhabitants do not turn to God and listen to His Word we will falter, fail and be destroyed.
God has spoken.
We Need God In America again!
i. Humble ourselves
ii. Pray
iii. Seek His face
iv. Turn from our wicked ways
i. Do what is right
ii. Do what is moral
iii. Do what is just
i. He will hear us
ii. He will forgive us
iii. He will heal our land
iv. He will cleanse us from our unrighteousness
v. Restore our harvest
We need God in America Again! More than we need new politicians. More than we need new programs or initiatives. With out a mighty and nationwide return to God they will be useless. Look at your life, look at the life of our nation and cry out to God for forgiveness, reclamation and restoration of the faith, hope and love that has been lost.
It is not too late America, we can begin again.