Grace for America

He is Lord

Our world and our nation is filled with people who have no relationship with the Living God. We once lived by the imperative that we needed to go tell people the Gospel so they could understand God’s plan for their salvation and be rescued from their sin.

But the sad reality is this...Many around us are aware of God’s existence, have rejected Him and embraced their sin. They love their sin and do not want to repent of it. They celebrate it and many even demand others celebrate it with them as well.

We are living in a time when the world seems to be turned upside down. Who in their right mind believes we can live without police? Only those who have rejected the basic tenants of God’s law written on their hearts.

Only people who have rejected the depravity of man, embraced relativism and godlessness could ever come to a place where police aren’t necessary and prisons eliminated.

And people all around us are afraid. People are experiencing fear like they never have in their life. Just try and buy food from “My Patriot” right now, a popular prepper site on the internet, and you will find a 4-6 week delay in the delivery of any orders because demand is so great.

People are scared rioters are coming for their house. There are people in churches this morning who are fearful their services will be interrupted by protesters. There are people fearful our nation will soon cease to exist as it has been.

Like generations of Christians before us we live in a world of great uncertainty. We live in a time in which people are increasingly desperate to save their life, families and communities.

America was founded by men who feared God and wanted a better way of life than what they had experienced under the rule of monarchies. They were desperate for freedom of religion, speech, the right to defend themselves and pursue happiness for themselves and their families. They were desperate to save their life, families and communities.

Was God in what they did? Absolutely. Were they perfect in what they heard and how they obeyed God…not at all. But they left us a groundwork from which to work and build a nation.

God raises nations for His purposes and the history of the United States has been a story of moments in which we fought for His righteous causes and moments in which we pursued our own sinful ends. No nation is perfect and we are far from it. But in the course of history there has perhaps been no more righteous cause than that of the American people.

There has never been a kingdom, nation or empire in the history of mankind that has provided its people more freedom, opportunity, security and prosperity than the United States of America.

There are many people who want to destroy our history; a history which records some of the greatest achievements of human history.

In the 19th century we fought to free the slaves in our own country through a bloody civil war.

In the 20th century we defeated the Nazi Reich which destroyed the lives of millions of human beings because they were the wrong color, practiced the wrong religion, were a gypsy, disabled, homosexual or otherwise undesirable.

We defeated the Empire of Japan; an empire that enslaved millions of Chinese and Korean people. An empire that went to war and killed millions out of a sense of racial superiority.

Communism killed about 100 million people in the 20th century. The United States fought the Korean and Vietnam wars to spare millions more such a fate.

We have provided food, medicine and assistance to millions. The Marshal Plan alone was one of the greatest benevolence projects in the history of man as we worked to rebuild Europe following the terrible destruction of World War 2.

But now we are in the 21st century. This is our time. We have been handed the torch. The responsibility and stewardship of what God has given the American people is upon us. If the church does not lead in this responsibility our nation will cease to be what it has been.

The gift of nationhood, like any gift given from the hand of God, must be cherished, appreciated and given back to Him. We must recognize God’s sovereignty and that this gift was from Him.

The church must pray, seek God’s face and lead our nation to humility before God. We must lead our nation to Christ.

Seek the Kingdom

Our priority is not the United States but the Kingdom of God. It is in seeking God and His way of doing things that we lead our nation to pursue the same.

Jesus told His hearers to seek first the Kingdom of God. This means to “persistently and wholeheartedly devote one’s life to the realization of God’s reign in your life.”

Our nation suffers from the lack of Christians who are doing just that…persistently and wholeheartedly realizing and living in light of God’s reign in our life.

We sing, “He is Lord” but the question is an obvious one…Is He truly Lord? Is our relationship with God our priority? Do we seek the heart of God and His way of living more than anything else?

I would propose this morning that we got off base some years ago and our nation has suffered the result. We allowed ourselves to become identified as a political movement in which we pursued candidates that parroted our stated priorities and morals without any real sense of devotion to them.

We became the “Moral Majority” and the “Religious Right” and in so doing gave up the claim to our real identity, “Christians” and “Followers of the Way.” We became known for our politics and political candidates rather than our Jesus, His salvation and life. We ceased being a people of the Gospel; a people of the Book.

Becoming a believer became mental assent to a series of propositions. No longer was it a necessity to seek Christ first and devote one’s whole life to Him in order to call oneself a follower of Christ.

All the things of which we have need are found in Jesus. He is the answer to our nation’s ills. But too often, we have been like the gentiles in Jesus’ sermon. We have been focused upon our houses and quality of life. We have been focused on work, comfort and the necessities of life. We have not made Christ the priority and the world around us knows it.

When Christians stop making Christ the priority of their life the world ceases to look to Christ for the answers to the spiritual and physical needs of their own life. And this is where America is right now…it is where the church is right now and it is why even the church is living in so much fear.

What the world needs is to see a new expression of the church living their life in Christ. Persistent seeking of God, His heart and His way of doing things. A church which refuses to live in fear and instead lives in faith.

We are salt and light. We are the preservative of the nation and the light upon which it finds its way. If we won’t seek God, His ways and lead the lost to Him then what will become of their soul, our nation and our life?

Conclusions

Our nation’s history isn’t a perfect one but we must remember that the only unpardonable sin is unbelief. All of those imperfect, broken people who make up the story of America were fallible, depraved human beings. Every single one of them were in need of the same grace that we ourselves need for life in Christ.

We must be both bearer and herald of the grace which has changed us and given us a heart to pursue Christ and His reign in our life.

God brings grace to the lost through His Spirit and His church. We must live in His grace and show others the real and lasting nature of it.

The "Battle Hymn of the Republic", also known as "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory" outside of the United States, is a lyric by the abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe using the music from the song "John Brown's Body". Howe's more famous lyrics were written in November 1861 and first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. The song links the judgment of the wicked at the end of the age (through allusions to biblical passages such as Isaiah 63 and Revelation 19) with the American Civil War. It is an extremely popular and well-known American patriotic song.

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free While God is marching on

Let us seek Jesus first and His way of doing things…Let us not be afraid…may we lead the way and bring the souls of our neighbors and the heart of our nation to the Christ who sets men, women and children of every race truly free.