THESIS: To show that the state of the nation is a reflection of the state of the church.
INTRO:
A. Each year the Pres. addresses a joint session of congress and the senate and brings his "STATE OF THE UNION" message. He attempts to show where the nation is and where it should be going. Before he does so this year, I would like to assess "THE STATE OF THE UNION" from a biblical viewpoint.You say"He is the President!" Who are you?" I am God's man! I have God's Word to provide a spiritual perspective he does not have!
B. Communism for years boasted they would bury our nation. But God is burying communist nations because they forgot God.
QUOTE: Evgeniy Kurkin, Deputy Min. of Ed. for the Russian Republic: "It is true that our country has many problems; however, the greatest problem we have is that God does not live in our land...70 years ago we closed Him out of our country and it has caused so many problems in our society we cannot count them. It has undermined and caused great caverns to run beneath our society and made it collapse. There are so many caverns that we do not even know where they all are yet. We must put god back into our country and we must begin with our children."
💥Meanwhile, back in America we continue to legislate God our of OUR society. The communist bloc nations are begging for us to bring God back to them while we continue to exclude Him here.
C. America has enjoyed "favored nation status" with God because in the past she has honored God. One South American Pres. commented: "The difference between North and South America is that S.A. was settled by men seeking gold, and N.A. was settled by men seeking God." Our nation has an undeniable Christian heritage. But now God is being forgotten and God will bury America. Ps. 9:17
TRANS: We have forgotten God and so we have a...
I. PERVERSION OF MORALITY:
A. Undermining the Home:
1. When marriage collapses in society so does morality. 2.God clearly defines a home in Script. as being one man, one woman together for life (barring death) with their children and their successive offspring.
ILLUS:
✨Compare this to Hollywood's definition... Goldie Hawn, living with a man said: "I have a personal relationship with God and He (or She) approves of it." ✨The politician's definition came from the Rev. (!) Jesse Jackson at the Democratic Natl. Conv. who compared the Virgin Mary to a single mother in a slur against V.P. Quayle statements concerning having a baby out of wedlock. He was mobbed by an immoral media. ✨Or how about the new First Lady (!) who compared marriage and family to slavery. ✨Barbara Bush didn't do any better when she said that if you so much as live in a community you are a part of a family.
B. Trivializing Life:
1. God is the Author of all life. 2. The Bible sets forth the sanctity of all life. 3. Every day 4000 (!) Americans die in their mother's womb at the hand of the abortion butchers.
ILLUS: 🔹Bumper stickers read: Pro Family, Pro Child, Pro Choice! What a contradiction. 🔹The democrats campaigned on a pro-death platform of the right to kill innocent infants and won! That is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue it is a right and wrong, moral and immoral issue! 🔹God says "Woe to the nation that sheds innocent blood."
C. Disgracing Sexuality:
1. God created men and women for each other. 2. Our nation is about to launch a policy which will decriminalize sodomy, make it a respect-able lifestyle, put queers into the military and even force them upon churches and schools. (2020 Update: Far Worse! 'rm')
ILLUS:
💥Remember the queers motto: "sex by eight or its too late."Homos don't reproduce they recruit.Magic Johnson said God allowed him to get AIDS so he could be a prophet for "safe sex." God had nothing to do with his AIDS it was his immoral behavior! Safe sex is spelled HOLY MATRIMONY! 💥God still hates all immoral sexual behavior and especially sodomy. His commentary on it can be found at the south end of the Dead Sea! His statements about His view of any society is that He "(gives) them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient..." because "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge..."Rom. 1:28
TRANS: We have forgotten God and so we have a...
II. PERVERSION OF THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE:
A. Separation Doesn't Mean Discrimination:
1. Our Founding Fathers wrote God into our freedom documents, today's leaders are writing Him out. 2. Our Founders used the Bible as the foundation of our society and invoked God's blessings on our nation. 3. Now our Supreme Court has banned the Bible and prayer from the school system.
ILLUS:
👉The Ten Commandments and Prayer are out and metal detectors and security police are in. 👉The big problems in school used to be talking in class and chewing gum, now it is dope, AIDS, assault and arson! 👉Since the Bible has been outlawed pregnancies among 10-14 year old(!) is up 533%, single parent families have increased 160%, unmarried couples living together 544%. The only thing that hasn't increased are the SAT scores, they have declined!
4. Our Founders intended freedom OF religion not freedom FROM religion. 5. The Pilgrims didn't found America to establish atheism!
B. Church and State:
1. The New Testament is against a Church/State and a State/Church. 2. The Constitution never meant to prohibit the church's existence but to prohibit the state's interference in the church's business! 3. The Founders wanted to protect religious freedom not anarchy and immorality.
ILLUS: Those who cry "you can't legislate morality"are legislating immorality. Perversion is first tolerated, then allowed then legalized and encouraged: free needles for druggies, free condoms for teens. This moral insanity is producing social anarchy. (L.S. riots, etc.)
TRANS: We have forgotten God and so we have a...
III. PERVERSION OF NATIONAL LEADERSHIP:
Is. 3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
A. Weakness At The Top:
QUOTE: Harold Vaughn: Christ-Life Ministries Report, Jan.-Mar. '93: "What does it say about America when the top brass are homo-hugging, baby-killers?"
1. When the leadership doesn't provide a high standard of morality and acknowledgment of God the nation is ripe for judgment. 2. But when the leadership provides a negative standard of morality and forgets God the nation is bound for judgment!
TRANS: We have forgotten God and so we have a...
IV. PERVERSION OF PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY:
Laying the Ax at the Root of the Tree:
1. We can blame government, society, neighbors, etc. but the root of the problem lies in the church. 2."As goes the church, so goes the nation" continues to be a biblical principle. 3. Go gives us the government we deserve and permit. 4. Since the church is made up of individual believers the question is have YOU and I forgotten God? 5. Revival must begin with basics.
B. YOU Have Forgotten God if...
1. You are more interested in your business than God's business!
a. We are more preoccupied with the here and now than eternity. b. We are more interested in personal comfort than in spirituality.
ILLUS: Parents spend more time, effort and money getting their kids to Disney World than getting them to Jesus Christ. They buy every latest Disney release tape and paraphenalia but rarely buy them a Bible or Christ centered book to read to them while their hearts are tender.
2. You have more knowledge of truth than experience of its power.
NOTE: "The best place in the world to hide from God is in church." We get "busy, busy, busy" but never sit at Jesus' feet.
3. You are more afraid of man than of God.
a. We are often more concerned about what man thinks of us than what God knows about us. b. We are more concerned about our reputation than our testimony.
CONCL: God warns us:
Ps. 50:22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
💥💥Regardless of what the Supreme Court decides or left-wing, liberal politicians or immoral leaders do, WE MUST NOT FORGET GOD!
"THE STATE OF THE NATION" can never rise any higher than the state of the believer in that nation. Have you forgotten God?