​“IT’S TIME TO CALL 9-1-1!”

TEXT:  Jeremiah 2:11-13
 
THESIS:  To reveal the crisis in the world, the church & among Christians.
 
INTRO.: 

​A.  There is a crisis in America! We are talking about a global economic meltdown & a national leadership vacuum!  But the roots of all our troubles are found in our text:  "We have forsaken the Lord & replaced him w/broken cisterns!"  (v.13)  It is indeed “TIME TO CALL 9-1-1!”

B. Wrong rules the land & lady justice weeps. America has problems & the reason is, we have thrown out the Bible & have lost our moral guidelines.
✔“God is disfigured, blasphemed & held in scorn. 
✔We are not responsible for anything.
✔We think we are not bad, that we are merely sick;
✔Hence, we make our own rules.” Austin Sorensen   
✔We can’t rely on the liberals, the charismatics or the evangelicals,
✔we need to stir up our indignation & call upon our God.  “IT’S TIME TO CALL 9-1-1!” 
✔A fundamentalist has been defined as “an evangelical who is angry about something.” It’s time to get angry. 
✔We have been suffering too long from “indignation fatigue.”
✔Apathy describe our generation. It is said: “There are opportunities for the lion when the herd is confused."

🔅🔅Winston Churchill said:  “I may not be a lion but it is left to me to give the lion’s roar!”  Some of us need to be roaring.  America needs a spiritual 9-1-1!
 
I. IT’S TIME FOR OUR COUNTRY TO CALL 9-1-1!  

A. There Is A Moral Crisis:  

Prov.14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
 
   1. The problem in the White House is not the President or her (1998) husband 🙂, but the mentality that we don’t need God or His Word.
   2. All our leaders not only ignore what God says, but flaunt their immorality & appoint sodomites & perverts to positions of leadership.
 
ILLUS.:  More than guided missiles, America needs guided men to show us the way. 👿Clinton’s pastor & church refuse to discipline him! 
📣As Carl McIntyre used to say:  “As goes the church, so goes the nation.”
           
B. There Is A Spiritual Crisis:  

QUOTES:
🔶Pres. Reagan: “We are told God is dead.  Well, He isn’t. We just can’t talk to Him in the classroom anymore.”
🔶Newt Gingrich describes our culture:  “It is impossible to maintain civilization ▶w/12 yr. olds having babies, ▶15 yr. olds killing each other, ▶17 year olds dying of AIDS, or ▶18 yr. olds getting diplomas they can’t read.”
▶▶We wring our hands & cannot discern that the problem is spiritual.  “It’s the Bible, stupid!”
🔶Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth: “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” Sorensen (IBID)
   🔸“It has been said that 70% of Americans no longer believe in moral absolutes.
   🔸The result is that character is no longer the measure of a man or nation for pure logic reasons.
   🔸If there is no God, nothing can be immoral. We can thus desire evil w/out hell & heaven w/out God.”
      
II. IT’S TIME FOR THE CHURCH TO CALL 9-1-1!  

1 Pet.4:17
17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
 
A. There Is A Doctrinal Crisis:  

   1. The blame for our problems goes beyond the political leadership in the land, to the churches & preachers.
   2. Sin thrives on soft terminology, 'smooooth' preaching (Carl LoTurco) & a characterless Christianity. 
 
QUOTES:  Sorensen: “A doctrine that is agreeable to the natural man can never be the doctrine of Scripture, because Script. is contrary to human reasoning.”
🖤Our generation boasts of painless dentistry, a pill for every pain, a tranquillizer for every frustration;  and a pleasant death w/a beautiful corpse in every casket.  it is all so beautiful & nice.
🖤And it has spilled over into our churches.  🖤Oliver Greene spoke of pastorettes who preach sermonettes for christianettes who smoke cigarettes!
 
B. There Is A Character Crisis:  

   1. Many preachers are like Pilate at Christ’s trial:  “and so Pilate, willing to content (satisfy) the people released Barabas…& delivered Jesus… to be crucified.”  Mk.15:15
   2. Baby boomers join a church ▶not on the basis of doctrine (because they haven’t heard enough!), ▶but on a child-care program, carnal entertainment, music & preaching that can compete w/TV, aerobics,
et.al., ad nauseum.
 
ILLUS.:  Christians leave churches for frivolous reasons or because they stumble over sound doctrine. Usually a complaining backslidden wife drags her husband into the preacher’s office & lays out her list of complaints. He just sits there & says “That’s right, preacher.”  ▶The problem is she can’t run the preacher like she runs her husband!!!!!
 
III. IT’S TIME FOR THE CHRISTIAN TO CALL
9-1-1!  

A. There Is A Conviction Crisis:  

ILLUS.: When Jonah was in the whale’s belly he suddenly discovered that he had an abundance of what he lacked all along;  he now had an abundance of guts!

   1. You can blame the White House, or the church house, but the real problem is often in your house!
 
ILLUS.:  The Supreme Court may have ruled out Bible reading & prayer in the public school, but the tragic truth is there is little of either in Christian homes!
 
   2. We can’t look for revival in the White House, or the church house, until it begins in your house!
 
      a. What we need are some Christians w/some real old-fashioned, bedrock conviction, which no-one can shatter or shake.
      b. We need to put aside our pride & respond to red-hot preaching when the altar call is given.
 
ILLUS.:
💥Some Christians haven’t been down the aisle so long they don’t even know what color the carpet is down there. Maybe today instead of blaming the leadership in the White House or the leadership in the church house, we just renew the convictions which will guide us in our house, & in the world.
💥You say: “Why don’t you just back off, preacher?”  Times have changed. But truth hasn’t changed. It is static. The truth, standards & convictions of our forefathers build this country & are good enough for us today. It is better to be old-fashioned & right, than up-to-date & wrong!
💥The King James Bible is still God’s Word, 💥men are still supposed to dress like men & women like women.
💥Soul-winning is still in the Bible. 
💥Tithing is still a Bible doctrine.  Maybe if God’s people who are called by His Name would get back to basics & make the main things the main thing again, America wouldn’t be in the mess she is in!!!!!

B. There Is A Commitment Crisis:  

   1. Most churches have a tough time getting enough workers or in keeping the workers they do have working!
   2. Paul made a commitment when he got saved & at the end of his ministry & the end of his life he could say:  “I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished the course.”
                       
      a. This church is just 'ONE' generation away from becoming extinct. 
      b. If we fail in our commitment our children will fail in compromise.  

ILLUS.: 🔶You say I just don’t make commitments. Yes you do! You commit yourself to 🔹car payments, 🔹utility bills, 🔹house payments, 🔹etc. You make commitments about everything but church & the things of God!
                  🔶We have no business complaining about the state of the nation if the state of our Christian commitments is in disrepair or non-existent.

CONCL.:
Yes
IT’S TIME TO
CALL
9-11! 
America…Church…Christian.  How will YOU respond?!