State of the Union-Empty Houses

Empty Houses

Happy Fathers Day!

Thank you for showing me who God is

Will live to know Him and make Him known

Everything we do it to help you know God on a personal level

A win for us everyday is meeting with God

Knowing the heart of the Father is our number one priority

We can know Him by reading His word

Prayer

Reflection

Worship

Gratitude

When we know God we can’t help but tell others about his goodness in our lives

I’m talking to everyone this morning but to you Dad’s I want you to pay extra attention this morning

Ladies take a break

Fellas you know what I’m talking about

Poke your husband and say pay attention

I want to talk to you about your house this morning

What does your house look like?

Our house reflect the seasons that we’re in

I’m a clean person within reason

My closet I keep organized and I actually keep organized by color

I like things in order and put away

I’ve had some terrible roommates in my life

Cutting hair and leaving it on the floor

never taking the trash out

Used to almost get into fist fights over dishes

I could live in a tent

We live in a 5th wheel

I can handle the bare minimum

A mattress on the floor one chair and fishing tackle is all you need to keep you occupied

My wife is constantly moving stuff around and making everything better

My kids are by far the worst roommates

Now think about your house spiritually:

What does your house sound like- mine is Loud (hearing aids)

Is it laughter and joy?

Is it filled with I love you’s

Is it filled with worship and prayer?

Or is it yelling and strife, contention

What does it feel like?

Does it feel welcoming

Is the presence of God in your house?

Or can you feel tension, strife, division

I want to talk to you about your house this morning:

This can be your own life

This can look like your actual household/family

This can look like the church

This can look like America

Luke 11:14–23 NKJV

14 And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” 16 Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven. 17 But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. 18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub. 19 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. 22 But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils. 23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

A kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation

A house divided cannot stand

If the enemy can’t get you with sin he will seek to divide you

Divide you from God-between something between you and Him

Divide your relationships

Unity is so important

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace his goods are peace

Are you armed against the enemy

Not are you capable, sure a lot of us are capable of fighting

But are you prepared?

Are you prepared to go to war for your house? Spiritually

Naturally some of you are well equipped!

For your kids

For your wife

Are you ready?

Getting choked out in jiu jitsu

It’s not looking like your bigger

It’s being prepared!

In Matthews account of the continuation of the parable:

Matthew 12:43–45 NKJV

43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

Think of America as a house

Abraham Lincoln, quoting Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand

I can’t remember a time in History when America has been so divided

We’ve burned the middle ground and we’re just left throwing stones at each other

John Winthrop was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony :

A Puritan Lawyer during the 17th Century

"Beloved, there is now set before us life and death, good and evil," in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it.

George Washington said:

Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Literally everything we were founded on was on Biblical principles and on God:

We rid our house of outside influences, going back to time in Isreal

I don’t have time to get into it but we rid our house of pagan worship

Which even goes far back as Romans times

But it’s applicable to us now

Put God inside the house

In 1776 We declare our Independence God is mentioned 4 times:

A stable society with a common values base

“All men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” The word Creator is a reference to the Creator God.

“The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” The “laws of nature” refer to the natural laws God instilled in man and creation. The laws of nature’s God is a reference to God’s laws as found in the Bible.

We were founded on Godly principles:

We had common morality

We were not without error

Struggle or

Problems but

We became the most prosperous nation the world has ever seen

We had an agreed set of rules when it came to Godliness and decency

Tv broadcasts often ended in prayer

Liberal newspapers would write about sermons in the Sunday paper

Again, not perfect, far from it but God was something we agreed upon as a majority

We were no longer in darkness spiritually

We made Godliness the Occupying force for Good in America

We’ll now fast-foreword to 1960:

Public schools had prayer for nearly 200 years before the Supreme Court ruled that state mandated class prayers were unconstitutional in the landmark case of Engle vs. Vital in June 1962.

“Almighty God we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg thy blessings on our parents, our teachers and our country.  Amen.”

They were most concern with who the God was that the children were praying to, who was never specified, nor was any distinction of religion ever made.

5 families from new York were upset by the prayer sued the school board and they banned the prayer from School

Further down the road the 10 commandments would be illegal to be on display in all government building, public schools and the

Spiritual decision have natural consequences:

And spiritual decisions have natural ramifications

You can call this coincidence or you can call this correlation

I put myself in the latter group

You can decide for yourself

But I want you to see what has happened since 1962

Correlation:

This is not a condemnation

But I want you to realize there has been a shift spiritually and culturally in the last 60 Years

From 1950-1962 divorce rates were on the decline

Then in 1963 divorce rates rose 117%

By the 1980’s America became number one in the World in the rate of divorce

23% of kids live in a single parent household which is the highest of any other country

The next closest is Russia at 18%

Unmarried couples living together is up 536% (this is an old study) Probably way higher

Its gotta be way higher than that now

SAT scores are way down

We’re now changing the Standards that we once had for education and learning

Internationally, the US ranks 125th for literacy. 54% of Americans between 16-74 read below a sixth-grade level.

And we currently have more information available to us in our pockets than there was in all of NASA when we landed on the moon

If you believe we landed on the moon

Dying of thirst for wisdom while drowning in a Sea of knowledge

In 1962 there were only 1,000 christian schools now there is somewhere in the range of 32K christians schools

Increase in school shootings

Abortion

William Bennet, revealed in his cultural indexes that between 1960 and 1990 divorce doubled, teenage pregnancy went up 200 percent, teen suicide increased 300 percent, violent crime went up 500 percent and he maintains that there is a strong correlation between the expulsion of prayer from our schools and decline in morality.

Instead of fighting for prayer in schools, we’re not fighting against the lack of it

This is spiritual

Keys

Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When we took God out of schools we left an empty house

Matthew 12:44–45 NKJV

44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

It’s time to get our houses back in order

It start in your house and your own life

Revival starts in the church

Revival starts in your house

It’s not good enough that it’s swept and tidy and it looks nice

It’s not enough that things are put away and swept

We work so hard for our houses to look nice

While their termites eating down our walls

It has to be filled with God

The enemy will do everything he can with 7 stronger cause he wants your house

The enemy wants your house

He wants your children

Where are the Dads

Where are the Moms

That aren’t going to stand to for it

It just takes on leader

Luke 11:21 NKJV

21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.

What are you willing to fight for?

Not just what are you willing to

What are you prepared to fight for

You walk with God should be militant

Joshua 24:15 NKJV

15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The world is coming for you house

What are you going to do about it?

Where are you at Spiritually?

Get your house in order

Alter Call:

Romans 10:9–10 NKJV

9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Sinners Prayer:

"God, I know that I am a sinner.

I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin.

I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior.

I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness.

I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior.

Thank you Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!"