One Nation Under ???
Notes
Transcript
TEXT: Nehemiah 1:1-3
TOPIC: One Nation Under ???
Bobby Earls, First Baptist Church, Icard, June 30, 2002
BIBLE SURVIVOR SERIES – Message 33
SLIDE 1 – TITLE SLIDE
This past year our beloved America experienced the greatest human tragedy in our nation’s history. The terrorists’ attacks on NYC and Washington were an assault on all we hold dear as freedom-loving people. Following September 11, we saw the true strength of our country as faith and freedom came together to lift us above those who would seek to destroy us. We were truly “One nation under God.”
As Americans prepare to celebrate our country’s independence, faith-loving, God-fearing people, have once again been shocked by the news that the 9TH U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California consisting of three judges ruled 2-1 that our nation’s pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional because it contains the words, “under God.”
Thankfully, there has been an immediate and overwhelming backlash of outrage from the White House to the Church house. President Bush responded by saying, “affirming his own faith in a Sovereign God and his support of the Pledge as it is. Then, the United States Senate voted 99-0 in support of a Resolution supporting the Pledge of Allegiance. The Congress, likewise showed their solidarity for the Pledge of Allegiance by standing together on the steps of the Capitol Building and quoting together our Pledge.
As people of faith who also happen to be American citizens, what should be our response to these days?
Nehemiah faced such tenuous times. In the year 445 B.C., in the palace of King Artexerxes I of Persia, Nehemiah heard the devastating news of his own beloved homeland. He learned how Jerusalem lay like a wasteland, it’s walls broken down and its gates burned.
What was Nehemiah’s response? What did he do?
If we want to return America back to truly being “One Nation Under God,” there are three steps we must take, as did Nehemiah.
SLIDE 2-3, Point One and Scripture
First, we must visualize. By this I mean we must be able to see clearly the serious condition of our nation.
VISUALIZE, 1:1-3
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel, 2 that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
Now, Nehemiah is in Persia and he has seen certain brethren who have recently been in Jerusalem and they had no television, they had no radio, they had no newspapers as we know them. They had no telephones. And so, he's wanting
some news. He said what is the city of God like? The people of God, what is their condition? I want to know. Tell it to me so I can visualize it, so I can see it. And they brought this report.
They wept I'm certain as they said Oh, Nehemiah,you cannot believe the degradation, you cannot believe the desolation, you cannot believe the danger, you cannot believe the poverty, the cities in disarray, the gates have been burned with fire. The walls have crumbled. The streets are filled with weeds and trash and debris. The people are discouraged. The people are in poverty. The people are in hunger. And Nehemiah saw this, a city with walls that had crumbled.
And you're going to find out that the book of Nehemiah, a large part of the book of Nehemiah is the story of the rebuilding of these walls and that's the reason I have chosen it to preach a short series of messages beginning today.
Now, these walls were literal walls in that day but walls are also symbolical, walls stand for protection, walls are symbolic of separation, of salvation, walls in the bible and especially the walls around the city of Jerusalem had a symbolic meaning. They spoke of the protection of God over his people. And the walls had fallen.
Now, what does this mean to us today? We too are called to rebuild some walls that in decay. I want you to think with me for a moment about some walls today that have fallen to the ground, some walls that are in disarray.
SLIDE 4, Mask 1
For example, I believe the walls of national security have fallen. Or at least they have been broken through. We must face the grim fact that America is in danger. Just this past week, another threat has come from the members of Usama Ben Laden’s militant Muslim group.
I believe that America has a general trend which is towards Sodom and Gomorrah and I believe that the wrath of God is in the imminent foreground for America unless we repent and get right with God. We are losing our freedom in America by the degrees every day that we live and freedom is like health. You must lose it sometimes in order for it to be appreciated.
One of the main reasons we are losing our freedoms is the fact that we have forgotten God. And what has been the result? You look around us. We have collapse of morals, we have seen the denigration of morality. We have the highest crime rate of all time and the bloodiest century in human history. This is the harvest that we've reaped because we have forgotten God.
We no longer face the godless threat of Communism but of humanism. A liberal, secular, humanistic society that has done everything conceivable to rub out the existence of God. You see, once you've done away with God, then man doesn't
really matter. He is simply amoral matter. A human being who is not made in the image of God, is free to act in any manner they choose without moral or eternal consequences.
What a lot of people don't understand is that humanism is an idea and you cannot kill an idea with a bullet. The only thing that will shoot down an idea is a better idea and that better idea is not capitalism, but it is Christianity. And we need to be preaching and teaching the Lord Jesus Christ and the only answer to militant, Godlessness is militant Godliness.
Now, I know you've heard this before, but they tell us at the average age of a nation in civilization is two hundred years. We've just passed our two hundredth birthday. And they tell us that nations decay and the walls of national defense fall in nine cycles and here they are. Number one, people go from bondage to spiritual faith. Number two, from spiritual faith to courage. Number three from courage to liberty. Number four, from liberty to abundance. Number five, from abundance to selfishness.
Number six, from selfishness to complacency. Number seven, from complacency to apathy. Number eight, from apathy to dependence and number nine, from dependence back again to bondage. And I believe we're somewhere right now between seven and number nine.
SLIDE 4, Mask 2
Secondly, not only have national walls fallen, but domestic walls have fallen.
May I tell you ladies and gentlemen, the American home today is a disaster area. In 1870, a little more than a hundred years ago, only three percent of our homes ended up in the divorce court. Today, over forty percent of our homes end in the divorce court.
There is a militant war being waged against the home. The feminists today are anti-family, many of them. Let me read what one of them has written. “With the destruction of the nuclear family, must come a new way of looking at children. They must be seen as the responsibility of the entire society, rather than individual parents.”
We need to respond to such liberal thinkers that pervert God’s plan for the home and say to them, it does not take a village to raise a child today. It takes a family.
What we need to see, or visualize today is that this is not just a few people out here on the edges of society, but a mighty, militant, dynamic movement in America. We can't be like an ostrich with our head buried deep in the sands.
SLIDE 4, Mask 3
Next, I believe the walls of decency are decaying. Look what's happening to us. Past the news stand and the average corner Quickstop and pornography will stare you in the face as if a broken sewer line were overflowing in he news stands.
We have ceased to be shocked and what use to amaze us now just simply amuses us. And what was horrible yesterday is acceptable today and has become a stepping stone for something worse tomorrow.
But I'm telling you that the walls of moral decency have fallen.
Look if you will at the decency in our educational system. What's happened to our educational system? Why are students running wild? I'll tell you why. We have put prayer out of our schools. We put God out of our schools and with that, with the bible out, and with God out, evolution is in. Homosexuality is in. Elicit sex is in. Murderous abortion is in, venereal disease is in. And God is out.
I feel sorry for a school teacher who stands up and tells kids, you must do right and they say, teacher, what is right and where do you get right from? Who says what is right and who says what is wrong unless there's a God in heaven who does.
We've got to get back to God. How can we, morally govern anybody unless we come back to the moral foundations. The bible says if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do.
In 1960, one hundred and fifty thousand high school girls went from the desk, the school desk, to the maternity ward. A hundred and fifty thousand. By 1965, that one hundred and fifty thousand had changed to one quarter of a million and today over one million high school girls become illegitimate mothers, one million, in just a short time. And God only knows how many abortions are taking place. What's happening in America? We have forgotten God.
The liquor dealers are having their way. Beer has become an acceptable thing. We can’t have a cigarette commercial on TV but beer commercials are the major sponsors of most major sporting events. And everyone tries to tell us that the way to enjoy life, to get the most out of life is to drink their product. They try to tell us that they use only the choicest products to make their beer. They try to tell us that they care about their customers and so they say, “Don’t drink and drive.” I tell you that if they really cared about those who drink their poison they’d say, “Don’t drink.”
They forget to tell us, dear friend, that we have more alcoholics in America than we have drug addicts. Every twenty minutes someone is killed on the highways of America because of the drunken driver. We have more bar maids in the United States of America than we have college girls.
Then we sing God bless America. Why should He unless we repent. So the walls of decency have crumbled. Do you see it? Can you visualize it?
It is time that God's people started to rebuild America’s walls.
Many today are preaching tolerance to other views, other people’s choices. Now I know that there are certain things that we need to tolerate. But if we keep on tolerating before long we who hold any convictions at all will evaporate.
Now, I'm not saying we ought not to love people as individuals. Whoever they are, wherever they are, whatever their philosophy, whatever their creed, whatever their race,
whatever their color, they ought to be loved for Jesus Christ loves them. I don't care who they are. But we are not to tolerate Godless philosophies that are taking our country apart, a stone at a time, the walls have fallen, and it is time that we open our eyes and that we see the things that motivated and moved Nehemiah so long ago was that he was able to visualize. He saw the situation as it was.
SLIDE 5, Point two and Scripture
II. AGONIZE
Now, the second step we need to take if we are to see our nation be one nation under God is this. We must agonize. Not only must you visualize, but secondly, you must AGONIZE, you must agonize.
Continue to look here in the scripture. We left with verse three, so let's begin in verse four. "And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven."
What kind of a prayer was this?
SLIDE 6, Mask 1
It was a prayer of contrition. It was a prayer where Nehemiah wept salty tears over the condition as it was.
Do you know what's wrong with our society? Society has forgotten how to blush and the church has forgotten how to weep. No longer do we weep. When's the last time you spent a night in prayer? When's the last time you fasted and prayed? When's the last time you shed a tear over some soul that was mortgaged to the devil?
We pray without crying. We give without sacrifice. We live without fasting. Is it any wonder that we sow without reaping?
There is no way that America will come back to God until God's people begin to pray a prayer of contrition, a prayer of brokenness. One preacher preached a sermon entitled a dry eyed church in a hell bent world.
Not only was Nehemiah's prayer a prayer of contrition, it was a prayer of confession.
SLIDE 6, MASK 2
A Prayer of Confession
Look how he prays in verse 7.
"let now thine ear be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house have sinned."
Now, I want you to notice the confession in this prayer. It was national and personal. He said Israel had sinned and I have sinned. And I tell you ladies and gentlemen, we must pray for our communities, our cities. We must pray for our state, for our nation, and we must nationally repent but that is no good unless we individually repent. Have you repented? Don't you sit here and weep and mourn and bow your head and mourn over the condition unless your willing to repent. Because if you don't repent, you'll never be a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem.
Nehemiah prayed a prayer of contrition and he prayed a prayer of confession, but notice that he also prayed a prayer of confidence.
SLIDE 6, MASK 3
3. A Prayer of Confidence
Notice in verse eight. "Remember I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, if ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations, but if ye turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast out unto the utter most part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence and will bring them into the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand."
Do you notice what he's doing? Do you know what he's doing? He's saying, God, remember what you said in your word? Do you remember those promises you made in your word? God, I'm holding you to your word.
Isn't that great? You see, that's what real prayer is. Real prayer is not just letting your mind wander and thinking up some things that you want and going to heaven with a little shopping list. Real prayer is rooted in the rock ribbed promises of the word of God. It is finding a promise in the word of God and standing on it.
God says concerning the words of my mouth, command ye me. Nehemiah audaciously came to the father and he said, father, I am praying a prayer of confidence, I'm believing you God because you promised and because you promised Lord, I am holding you to your word.
Oh, listen, we serve a great God and someone has well said that prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it is laying hold of his willingness. Find a promise in the word of God. That means it's something God wants to do and then stand upon it and pray big prayers. Thou art coming to a king, large partitions with thee bring, his power and wealth are such thou canst not ask too much. And so, he prays a prayer of confidence, but I want you to notice also, and pay attention, he also prays a prayer of commitment.
SLIDE 6, MASK 4
A Prayer of Commitment
Look in verse eleven. "O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer."
Nehemiah had a very important job. He was the king's cupbearer. Here was a fantastically, lavishly, wealthy king, so wealthy that he had a cupbearer who would come in with his wine and with his goodies and offer them to the king. This was a job that paid well. This was a job, a very high elevated job because you were right there with the king in his most intimate moments. And here was Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer and he had a job of luxury. He was so far removed from the poverty and the degradation and the fallen walls. Here he was in his little place of security. Here he was in his own little warm nest,but he couldn't stay there. God had burdened him.
And when he saw the condition of the fallen walls, he said by the grace of God, I'm going to get involved. And he says Lord, I'm starting to do something. Lord, I feel a fire burning in me. Lord, I feel something welling up in me. God, you're calling me now and you prosper me now in what I'm about to do because I'm about to get out of my warm nest. I'm about to get committed.
Now, let me tell you something friend, it's not enough for you to pray the prayer of contrition, the prayer of confession, and the prayer of confidence, unless you're also willing to pray the prayer of commitment. Prayer is no substitute for commitment. Prayer is not a smoke screen in which you can hide your lack of commitment. Do you think we're going to be able to do what we've called ourselves to do and what we feel God is leading us to do? We can if you'll do more than pray.
You can't do more than pray until you've prayed. But you should do more than pray after you've prayed. You should he committed. It will take all of us. Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice, a commitment. So many of us don't want to get out of our little warm nests, but I tell you, your nest may disappear before you know it sir. You won't have a nest to go back to anyway. It's time that we got committed.
Flip Wilson, the comedian, in one of his little monologues said, somebody ask me what my religion was. I told them I was a Jehovah's Bystander. He said what. He said yea, they wanted me to be a Jehovah's Witness, but I didn't want to get involved. Remind you of anybody you know? I know a lot of folks who are just Jehovah's Bystanders. They don't want to get involved. They don't want to get committed, but here was a prayer of commitment.
Now the first step in turning your problems to opportunities is to visualize. The second step is to agonize.
That's what Nehemiah did. The third step, are you listening? Is to ORGANIZE.
SLIDES 7-8 – POINT 3
III. ORGANIZE
You know sometimes people get so spiritual minded that they are no earthly good. They can't do anything practical. And the thing I like about Nehemiah was that he was deeply, spiritual, and intensely practical. And so, when God began to move in his heart and he saw that the walls were in disarray and he saw that there was a need, his mind began to work. And he started to plan and he was thinking the thoughts of God after him and he made some plans.
Look here in chapter two, beginning in verse one. "And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, the king, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art now sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. And I was sore afraid."
Why would he be so afraid just to look sad? I'll tell you why. No cupbearer or no servant for that matter would dare to come into the presence of an oriental king with a sad face. That would be to make the king sad, to reign on the king's parade. And it was an unforgivable sin. Punishable by death. No wonder Nehemiah was afraid. The king says, you're not sick, why are you looking so sad. Nehemiah had a burden on his heart so big he couldn't hide it. And what was on his heart came out in his face, but Nehemiah had prayed and he'd sought the face of God and so, I want you to continue to read.
"Then said unto the king, let the king live forever, why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, for what dost thou make request? So, I prayed to the God of heaven."
The king says, what is it you want Nehemiah? Old Nehemiah, can't you see him? He's praying and at the same time. Have you ever done that? I do when I preach. I'm up here praying and preaching at the same time saying oh, God, help me to say it right. And here'Nehemiah saying, OH, God, here's my chance. Lord, the king wants to know what it is I want.
Now, do you think he just suddenly blurted it out? For four months he'd been planing it. He knew exactly what he wanted and I, he ask for three things of the king that everyone of us need to ask. Are you ready? Are you listening?
SLIDE 9, MASK 1
The King’s Permission
The first thing that he asked for was the king's permission. Look in verse four. "So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said unto the king, if it please the king, and if thy servant hath found favor in thy sight, that thou would ascend me unto Judah, unto the city of my father's sepulchres, that I may build it."
I want your permission to go. Now, friend, before you do anything in the name of Jesus, you better get his permission. It's as dangerous to run ahead of God as it is to run behind him.
And, so, he ask for the kings permission. Oh, you say, well, he didn't need an earthly kings permission. Friend, it wasn't the earthly king who was giving him permission. It was Jehovah God. Don't you know that an earthly king is in control of a heavenly king? The king of kings. The bible says the kings heart is in the hand of the Lord and as rivers of water, he turneth wither so ever he will. That's the reason Nehemiah had just prayed to the God of heaven. And he was asking, number one, for the king's permission.
SLIDE 9, MASK 2
The King’s Protection
Number two, he was asking for the king's protection. I want you to look in verse seven. He also says, 'moreover I SAID unto the king, if it please the king, let letters be given to me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over until I come into Judah, or unto Judah."
He's saying as I go, these people are going to say, who are you? And what is your authority? What right to you have to travel here. He said, I want a letter that I can pull out. I want something that I can show to say that king Artaxerxes sent me. I want your protection. My dear friend, aren't you glad that as his children, we have that protection.
Aren't you glad that he's given us his letter, God's holy word. Aren't you glad that he has given us his authority. Jesus said behold I give you authority over all the power of the enemy. Go and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the age.
He wanted the king's permission. He wanted the king's protection and he also wanted the king's provision.
SLIDE 9, MASK 3
The King’s Provision
Look in verse 8. And he says, "a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give him timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall enter into." He said, I need some building materials, king, and I want you to give them to me. And then just put a star by the last part of verse eight. "And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me."
You see, it wasn't this earthly king. This earthly king was only a tool in the hand of the king of kings. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and as rivers of water He turneth it, withersoever he will.
Dear friends, if you will visualize until God gives you a burden and then if you will take that burden and agonize until you know that you have confessed your sins and
made a commitment, then you have every right to come and organize and go to work. You have every right to look into the face of your God and say God, I want your permission. I want your protection. And oh, God, I want your provision because I'm getting ready to rise up and build.
And when enough of God’s children across this great land do that, then, and only then will we be able to truly say that America is one nation under God.
SLIDE 10 – TITLE SLIDE