Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19).
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will 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 (2 Chronicles 7:13-14-NKJV).
The challenges we face in our culture today must be owned by us in the church of Jesus Christ. If we are preaching the truth as we should from our pulpits, then the results will be conviction and lifestyle change in our country.
But let’s get real. In a lot of churches truth has been replaced by a message void of strong conviction that challenges our culture’s problem’s and sins. There are of course many churches that do preach and teach the unbiased truth of God’s word! The seeker friendly message has taken the punch out of Biblical truth that is designed by God to produce conviction of sin.
Don’t get me wrong, we certainly should not preach or teach in a mean spirited fashion, but really, the Bible cuts right to the core of the fleshly and self centered tendencies we all have. And we can speak the truth in love.
Listen to Charles Finney speaking to pastors about their responsibility to speak into the sins of a culture:
From Decay of Conscience, by Charles Finney:
Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation."
Again, it’s time for us to own up to our responsibilities as the church of Jesus, get on our knees, and ask God to forgive our nation for its sins. To whom much is given, much is required.
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that gender orientation and transgender rights are equal to the rights afforded to male and female genders. They changed thousands of years of human relationship with the stroke of a pen! Do you really think God will overlook this? We have aborted over 63,000,000 babies because we love sex more than life itself. Can God overlook that? I don’t think so.
The money in our bank accounts, the nice homes we live in, the fine cars we drive, the entertainment we enjoy, the sports events we watch and attend, have become more important than any eternal values we once held as a nation.
Perhaps God allowed the Corona virus lock down over the last year to get our attention and put us on notice that our national idolatry of sex, selfishness, greed, money, etertainment, sports, and eating at fine restaurants has gotten His attention. And He is desperately seeking to gain our attention now!
Lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, fornication, pornography, have beome entrenched into American values over the last few years. Do what you want to do and everything is ok. And now looting, defaming property, harming people through riots and street violence is not being resisted by law enforcement in many cities around our nation. My friends, these are symptoms of the depths of sin we have fallen into in America.
God is allowing this. He has stepped aside and allowed us to reap the fruit of our own way. What we are seeing is only a foretaste of a future in America where God will on purpose step aside and allow us to harm ourselves and our prosperous way of life. We’ve left Him out, now God will leave us alone.
Listen to the terse words that God gives to those who hear Him but refuse to live by God’s standards. This is America right now:
Proverbs 1:24-33 (Passion Translation)
I’ve called to you over and over; still you refuse to come to me. I’ve pleaded with you again and again, yet you’ve turned a deaf ear to my voice. (25) Because you have laughed at my counsel and have insisted on continuing in your stubbornness, (26) I will laugh when your calamity comes and will turn away from you at the time of your disaster. Make a joke of my advice, will you?Then I’ll make a joke out of you! (27) When the storm clouds of terror gather over your head, when dread and distress consume you and your catastrophe comes like a hurricane,(28) you will cry out to me, but I won’t answer. Then it will be too late to expect my help. When desperation drives you to search for me, I will be nowhere to be found. (29) Because you have turned up your nose at me and closed your eyes to the facts and refused to worship me in awe— (30) because you scoffed at my wise counsel and laughed at my correction— (31) now you will eat the bitter fruit of your own ways. You’ve made your own bed; now lie in it! So how do you like that? (32) Like an idiot you’ve turned away from me and chosen destruction instead. Your self-satisfied smugness will kill you. (33) But the one who always listens to me will live undisturbed in a heavenly peace. Free from fear, confident and courageous, you will rest unafraid and sheltered from the storms of life.
Would you join me in repentance for where we the church have allowed our nation to go? Would you be willing to take some time every day to devote to praying for revival that begins with a repentant church in America? We will determine the future move of the Holy Spirit in America by what we the church chooses to do, or refuses to do.