Are You Willing To Do Your Part?

Introduction:

I need to ask your forgiveness for my negativity and pessimism that I have shown lately toward the United States of America. I want you to know I am thankful that I have been blessed to be born as a citizen of this great country.

Monday morning, the Lord and I had a woodshed session, if you know what I mean, and I was on the receiving end of that chastisement, but after our little session, I finally understood. It was as if God was asking the reason for my negativity and pessimism toward the United States, and every time I got ready to answer it was as if God said ___________ which meant for me to shutteth my mouth and openeth my ears and heart.

God proceeded to tell me how short I fall in doing my part to help America.

Without a doubt, God has blessed me, and God has blessed the United States of America.

I get up every morning with freedoms that people in most of the world can only dream of having. Why in the world would I be negative toward America?

As God was chastising me Monday, I could almost audibly hear Him. This conversation was not audible, but I promise you I heard it. God said, “Yes, America is immoral. Yes, America is ungodly. Yes, America’s institutions reek of rot and corruption, but Jimmy, are you willing to do your part to change America?”

That’s the question I pose to you this morning. Are you willing to do your part? Are you willing to do what God says for the betterment of America?

I want you to know as explained to me loudly and clearly. If you think your responsibility to America ends at the ballot box, you have not and are not doing your part. You have a spiritual responsibility to America, and voting is not a spiritual responsibility. Voting is a civic privilege, and civic privilege and spiritual responsibility are not the same.

You will not change America by voting. You will change America by living up to your spiritual responsibilities. Are you willing to do your part? Are you willing to live up to your responsibility to insure America’s creed for future generations that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness?

Are you willing to do your part? If you live up to your spiritual responsibilities, America will be changed. Most of us trust the ballot box as we cast votes for ungodly men and women expecting them to make a godly difference. Does that even seem logical?

Are you willing to do your part?

1. If Christians want to change America, they must put God first. Matthew 22:36-40.

Matthew 22:36–38 ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

Matthew 22:39–40 “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

If you want to do your part, God must come first. You must be willing to put God first in all parts of your life.

What does that mean?

It means at church, serving God is your #1 priority. At work, serving God is your #1 priority. At school, serving God is your #1 priority. At play, serving God is your #1 priority. In your marriage, serving God is your #1 priority. As a parent, serving God is your #1 priority. As a grandparents, serving God is your #1 priority.

That’s what it means.

If you want to change America, you must allow God to have preeminence.

I want you to know what Jesus was saying, and I felt so stupid when I realized what He was saying. The first commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Jesus said that was the first and great commandment.

What does that mean? It means that commandment is the foundation for all other commandments. I am telling you the woodshed was not pleasant Monday morning. Now, I want you to be honest with yourself. If you cannot be honest with yourself, how can you be honest with God?

How many of you have trouble with the command to love your neighbor as yourself especially considering as said by Jesus that your neighbor is anyone with whom you come into contact? If you do not want to raise your hand, just circle yes. YES!!!!!

Do you know why you have trouble with the command to love our neighbors as ourselves? We have trouble with it because we have not allowed God to have preeminence in our lives. You cannot love those with whom you come into contact as you love yourself if you do not love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.

That is what Jesus means when He says that loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind is the first and great command. It is upon that command that makes obeying the other commands possible. If every Christian in America loved everyone he or she came in contact with, would it make a difference in America? Absolutely!

To be able to do that, you must put God first. You must love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. ARE YOU WILLING TO DO YOUR PART?

2. If Christians want to change America, they must honor God with their lifestyles.

If you want to do your part, you must live a godly life. Matt. 5:15-16.

Matthew 5:15–16 “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Do you live a life that allows the darkness of the world to see the light of God in you? YES of NO!!!!

God is light. Sin is darkness. The definition of darkness is no light, and the definition of light is no darkness. Light and darkness cannot coexist. If you have light, you cannot have darkness. If you have darkness, you have no light.

The Apostle Paul wrote this about Christians living godly lives.

Romans 6:1–2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

Romans 6:3–4 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

If you are walking in the newness of life that you have in Christ, a difference will be made.

Sometimes, I wonder how anyone is saved. All I can say is praise God for the Holy Spirit! Many Christians do not live in the light because all they want to do is grumble about the manna God has given them. Dear friend, you can grumble about America all you want, but as God asked me Monday, do you realize with what you have been blessed? You have been blessed to be born in America where you have freedoms and easy access to God’s Word. If you want to trade, I am sure a North Korean will swap places with you.

If a Christian lives in the newness of life he or she has through Christ, it will make a difference because if we are walking in that light, if we are living in that newness of life, the Bible says this will happen.

James 2:21–23 “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.”

James 2:24–25 “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”

I know James is a little wordy, but he is saying both Abraham and Rahab lived a lifestyle that reflected their faith in God. In other words, their lives revealed the Light of God in them. James 2:21-25.

Does your lifestyle reveal the Light of God? If you do have that lifestyle, the fruit of the Spirit will be evident in your life.

Do you have a lifestyle that allows others to see that you have faith in God?

Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

If every Christian in this building loved God with all their hearts, souls, and minds and if every Christian lived godly lives, America would be changed.

Do you know how you can live a godly lifestyle?

You can live a godly lifestyle by maintaining fellowship with the Light and with fellow Christians.

You can do that by willingly confessing your sin and repenting. The Christian lifestyle should be marked by continuous confession and repentance if you want the world to see the Light in you.

1 John 1:8–9 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

When you and I sin as Christians, until we confess that sin, we have no fellowship with God or fellow Christians, but to many us, it is easier to trust the ballot for a change than it is to swallow our pride and confess to God Almighty that we have sinned, and the world will not be able to see the Light in us because that fellowship has been broken.

If you want the perfect picture of it, think of Calvary. Was it light or dark when the sins of the world separated Jesus from God the Father? Sin in the life of a Christian is serious business, but God is faithful to forgive you of that sin if you will just confess it and repent of it.

Are you willing to do your part?

3. If Christians want to change America, they must share the gospel and disciple new Christians.

Matthew 28:19–20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

I want you to know that Jesus did not make a suggestion that you go into the world sharing the gospel. He commanded you.

A command and a suggestion are different, are they not? When was the last time you went into the world sharing the gospel?

You do not have to be biblical scholar to share the gospel. If you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and you are letting God’s Light shine, all you have to do is share what God has done for you. Sharing the gospel is ultimate display of loving your neighbor as yourself.

You can share the gospel in so many ways today. You can share the gospel through social media. You can share the gospel by giving out the tracts that we have in the back in the foyer, but you will not do it if you are not motivated to follow Christ’s command.

When is the last time you shared the gospel with a lost person? Have you gotten any of those wallet size tracts in the foyer to leave behind at restaurants or businesses? Do you know what is sad? Christian parents will bring their lost children to talk to the preacher about getting saved. If you want them to be saved, you share the gospel with them by living your life every day for Christ, and you tell them about Jesus.

If you are not sharing the gospel, are you really doing your part, or are you trusting that your vote will do your part for you?

If the 100 million supposed Christians in America did their part as I have laid out this morning, America would be a light to the rest of the world.

I want to just briefly mention something else that is part of the Great Commission. Jesus says that after someone is saved, we, the church, are to teach them to observe all of what Christ commanded, and the number one way we can teach them is for them to see us obeying God’s commands.

In other words, this church has a responsibility to brothers Griffin and Liam and to sisters Jessica, Kamrie, Carlee, Cassie, Emma, Madilyn, Ali-Kate, Jasmine, Will, Olivia, and even Kelly to teach them to observe Christ’s commandments with the greatest commandment being to love God with all their hearts, souls, and minds, but we are not to just give lip service to that. We should be living examples to them.

If we are not, are we really willing to do our part?

Are you willing to do your part? I am.

We are going to do something a little different this morning. We are going to sing page 307 as a hymn of invitation with no music. If you are willing to do your part, I am asking that you come and stand with me as a witness to God and to the world that you are willing to do your part.

I do not want you to come stand with me just because someone else has. If you come to stand with me, you are making a commitment before God Almighty and this church that you are willing to do your part, and if you are not going to follow through on your commitment, do not come and stand with me because I would not want you to be like Annanias and Sapphira.

Are you willing to do your part?