Pray For Your Country!

2Chron 7:11-15

Subject: Prayer

Theme: Our generation of American Christians must desperately cry out to God to save our country from spiritual, moral, economic, and political disaster. If God does not intervene in a gracious and merciful manner, we have no other hope.

Introduction:

There has been a great deal of talk in recent months about our economic crisis in American.  Indeed the collapse of our economy has negatively impacted much of the world.  People are afraid for their future because of the current economic and energy disaster.  Anger, disillusionment, frustration, fear and anxiety are running wild in all sectors of our national life.  While it is true we are in a recession, there is still no need to live in fear and anxiety because our God is much bigger than these challenges, but we must make ‘break-through’ appeals to Him for His help.

Truly we serve an awesome sovereign almighty and righteous God who love us and desires to meet our every need in full accordance with His good will.  He is a prayer hearing God and a prayer answering God and is greatly interested in time with you.  Since God is so good, merciful, loving, and kind, you would think more people would look forward to spending time with Him in prayer.  But the truth is that many people only pray during a crisis, or an emergency.  They have failed to cultivate the holy habit of communion with God because of His greatness and availability to us.  Well, currently we are living in a crisis and we need to cry out to the Lord for His help.  The need is urgent.

What do you pray for regularly?  Is it merely me, myself, and I?  Perhaps you are faithful to pray for your family and a few church members, but do you pray regularly for folk outside of that circle? What will it take for you to pray regularly for your country?  Where does prayer fit into the situation of our nation?  What will it take to motivate you to cry out to God on behalf of your country?

Message:

I.                  The Condition Of Our Nation Is Evidence That We Need To Pray

A.     Think about the many challenges we face as a nation that directly affect our lives.

1.                  The high price and availability of gasoline.  Can we supply our own needs?  Why are we still dependent on foreign oil?  How long will we rely on the oil supply from countries who support terrorism?

2.                  The mortgage and banking financial collapse.  Thousands of people have lost their homes because of a few greedy individuals who influence policy and manipulated the housing market to line their own pockets and fill their own accounts with millions of dollars from average and honest Americans.

3.                  The collapse of the auto industry in America—Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.  They all have consistently lost market shares to foreign import competitors, they are closing production plants across the nation, and thousands have lost their jobs and pensions.

4.                  Inflation has rocketed through the roof also.  Cost of fuel, food, and fresh produce is soaring by huge percentages.  Currently we are dragging through the remains of a serious recession.  Small businesses, family owned restaurants, markets, and Art museums are closing their doors.  These jobs are evaporating rapidly. 

5.                  Health care cost is still steadily climbing.  The cost of insurance, drugs-prescriptions, medical care is racing upward. The needs for medical care are steadily growing. The Affordable Care Act insanely shifts medical expenses to others through obligatory taxation….

6.                  Weak-cowardly leadership on the state and national levels.  They seem to have no principles, core beliefs, values, or sense of what is good and best for the country.  They do whatever will get them elected or re-elected.  They care more about their reputation in the media, than they do the real issues facing the country.    

7.                  The current war on terror will continue as a protracted conflict.  Many more lives will be sacrificed, and we need real answers, strategies, and resources to sustain it.  At home we live with the constant fear of another successful attack on American soil.  We grow increasingly unpopular with Europe and other parts of the world as we wage this war.

8.                  The value of the dollar on the world markets is far from strong.  It is not competing as vigorously as it has historically on the foreign markets.  The dollars buys less overseas.

9.                  There has been an uptick in the number and magnitude of natural disasters directly affecting our country.  Everything from hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, floods, and mudslides have wreaked havoc on our citizens and costing multi-millions of dollars of damage annually.

10.              Retirement loses from the sluggish stock market have been experienced by people you know well, live near, and work with.

11.              55 million babies have been aborted in our country since abortion was legalized (1973) and backed with federal funding.  People’s ‘rights’ of choice seems to be more important than babies' right to live.

12.              Divorces in our country have steadily escalated over the last four decade with minor declines periodically.  About 40 percent of American marriages end in divorce or a second divorce.

13.              There are more single parent homes in America currently and this is being promoted in the modern media as desirable and preferable to the traditional nuclear family.

14.              Crime and punishment—justice—seems to be displaced by a growing ambition to protect the rights of the guilty criminal, while ignoring the rights of the victims and the innocent. The interpretation of laws and new legislation seem to consistently aid or favor the criminals.

15.              The nuclear threat and potential disaster is a growing and looming threat from places like North Korea who love to draw media attention through new nuclear tests.  Iran is also clearly attempting to build nuclear weapons to use against Israel.  Again there is a growing hatred of America as we attempt to oppose these developments. Even countries we have poured billions of tax dollars into hate us and want to see us destroyed.

16.               America’s Bill of rights freedom of speech is being censored and silenced categorically and systematically.  We are being silenced and this freedom is vanishing in our land. Historically where despots have risen to power and dictators have ruled, the number one priority is always to control and eliminate the freedom of speech.

17.              The movement to redefine marriage is another threat against core Christian values and national strength. Recently the SCOTUS ratified “gay marriage” nationwide. While strange unnatural ‘weddings,’ ‘marriages,’ and ‘couples,’ are being portrayed as victims of civil injustice and inequality, Judeo-Christian morality is being snubbed. God has already defined marriage! Sodomy is still sin.

18.              Illegal immigration is a major problem; millions of unregistered people are currently living and working in America.  Politicians use this issue as a political football during election seasons, but none of them are doing anything meaningful to resolve the real problems of national security.  Economic growth through guest worker programs, and legitimate avenues of pursuing citizenship in our country still stand unresolved after more than thirty years.

19.              An entire ‘Christian denomination’ is accepting and promoting sodomy-homosexuality and even ordaining such individuals to the ministry.  Apparently they follow the values of our declining culture instead of the Scriptures.  The Bible is clear on this.

20.              False Prophets in the land are predicting positive prospects.  Everything is wonderful, prosperous, healthy, positive, and improving in their eyes.  Life is clearly not ‘peaches and cream’ in our country. They mislead thousands who could be concentrating their prayers on revival—a real spiritual awakening sent from God. 

      21.  Teen pregnancies are trending downward, but AIDS, STDs, promiscuity, adultery, and sexual rebellion plague our land as judgments on our ‘lose society.’ Ages 16-19 are when late adolescent boys and girls typically become sexually active. Among 18–19 year-olds, 63% of males and 64% of females reported vaginal sex at least once during their lifetime. One out of every two American girls between the ages of 14-19, has had premarital sex—that’s fifty percent.  One out of every four girls in America is infected with some form of STDs—that is twenty-five percent.
      22. Racial tensions are high, ethnic/interracial trust is gravely degraded, injustice is felt deeply, and respect for authority and law enforcement are extremely low--this condition is more dangerous than nuclear war! 

B.     The reality is that all of these problems should convince any honest person that we are under the judgment of God.  All of these things collectively should convince us of our need to pray for our country.  We have problems bigger then we are and we desperately need God to intervene on our behalf.  We cannot fix these problems on our own.  They scream to us that we are a rapidly deteriorating nation without any hope except God Himself.

II.               Our Condition Moves A Righteous and Just God to Actions of Judgment

A.     2Chronicles 7:12-13—clearly God will undertake to discipline and judge a nation for its national sins and moral failures.  Someone will say, “Surely God will not judge us, we are America…”  This is a statement of pride and error.  Others may say, “A good and loving God will not punish people….”  But, verse 13, is clear, God will confront and judge nations for their sins.

B.     Duet. 8:1, 6, 11-14, 16-20—Morally God must act against our nation.  If he saw fit to judge Israel whom He esteem above all other nations in the earth, then certainly he will deal with America’s sinfulness also. We have deliberately chosen to walk contrary to God’s will in every area of our national life.  I believe God has begun a corrective act of judgment on America.

C.     2Chronicles 7:19-22—If God allowed our nation to come to destruction, what will the rest of the world say?  We would be a symbol of those who forsake their God—“a proverb and a byword among all nations.”

D.     2Chronicles 7:22—in many ways we, as a nation, have forsaken the Lord!

1.      We have abandoned prayer in our homes and education system and adopted a humanistic philosophy.

2.      We resist Bibles and the Ten Commandments in our homes, public schools and in any federal government agency—they are considered hostile because they breed intolerance.

3.      Many have worked hard to remove the influence of Christian beliefs, symbols, and values from public life and policy.  This is the agenda of the ACLU!

4.      Constantly Christian values are attacked and belittled in the media.

5.      As a result, the nation has declined continually since the early sixties!

E.     America has enjoyed huge blessings and massive privileges at the generous hand of God.

1.                  We are individually and personally responsible to God for our economic and spiritual prosperity.

2.                  We are more accountable to God because of the abundance we have enjoyed.

a.       We have the Bible—KJV.

b.      Christian churches who preach the pure unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ.

c.       Missionary vigor of the last sixty years is the greatest in Christian history.

d.      Christian periodicals, TV, movies, broadcasts, radio, ect.

e.       The Devil would love to destroy our nation and destroy all of this potential for reaching the world with the Gospel.

F.      The weak and wicked politicians have no answers or solution—stop looking to them.

1.                  They believe in preferences instead of principles.

2.                  They build on sinking sand instead of solid rock principles (Matt. 7:24-27).

3.                  They are more interested in their personal advantage then the welfare of the nation.

4.                  They have no real answers for the challenges confronting us today (Ps. 118:8-9).

5.                  Vote according to Bible principle when electing officials

III.           The Conditions that will Secure the help of God in our Country

2Chron. 7:14, What are the conditions for God to hear us?

A.     God’s People Need to Get Under this Burden and cry out to Him for an awakening, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.      Israel is God’s earthly people, but real Christians are His spiritual children.

2.      We are the “household of faith”

3.      We as believers are a “holy nation”

4.      We are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ

5.      Our nation could be spared “if” enough Christians will understand and fulfill our role.

B.     Humble ourselves before the Lord, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.                  Humility is not weakness, but wisdom

a.                   Prov. 16:18-19 (prideful or humble)

b.                  Prov. 29:23 (Pride or humility)

c.                   Job 35:12-13 (God will not honor pride)

2.                  We cannot handle the mess we are in currently; we desperately need God to intervene!  Do not allow pride to hinder our need to cry out to God.  Do not say, we are Americans and we can handle it….

C.     Pray—Cry out to God on behalf of our Country, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.                  Why are we still praying small selfish prayers?

2.                  What about praying for Godly leadership on the state and national levels?

3.                  What about praying for your country? 2Tim 2:1-8—Intercession?

4.                  What about old fashion revival praying?

a.                   Ps. 34:15-19, Cry out to God, cry out to God; He will deliver the righteous!

b.                  The burden is to be heart-felt, our heart is broken over the condition of our nation.

                                                                                       i.      Pray like you would pray for a loved one who is seriously ill and facing death.

                                                                                     ii.      With all your strength cry out to the only God who can save our nation.

c.                   The circumstances are impossible for man to resolve—we need God’s intervention.

d.                  If you do not like the way things are going, then cry out to God to change it!

D.    We Must Turn From Our Wicked Ways, 2Chron. 7:14.

1.                  Wicked?  Deliberate disobedience or rebellion against God in any form.  Not just murder or adultery, but also a hateful attitude, an unforgiving spirit, gossip, and doubting and questioning God’s Word.  These too are wicked in the eyes of a holy God.

2.                  Repentance is required if God is to hear our cry.

a.                   Confession is not enough!  Confessing all the time is not what God wants.

b.                  Repentance is a change of heart, mind, and attitude, that lead to a change of behavior.  We ultimately stop the wicked practices.

c.                   If God has convicted you of sin, then make a clean break with that sinful practice.  This is turning from our wicked ways.

IV.            God’s Threefold Promise, 2Chron 7:14

A.                      God will hear our prayers

B.                      God will forgive our sins

C.                      God will heal our country

Conclusion:

Every honest Christian will have to admit that our country is in a deadly decline.  We have been going down, down, down, down… There is no evidence at all of our slowing down, much less turning around.  You can make a difference in the future of our nation if you will cry out to God.  Every believer needs to get under this burden—somebody needs to go and get God.  We desperately need Him right now!

Do you really believe this promise? Do you truly love your country?  Do you care about the future of your children and grandchildren?  Do you really love your freedom? Are you willing to get on your knees and cry out to God?  Are you too proud to humble yourself and pray?  Somebody needs to get under a burden and trust God for a mighty spiritual awakening. Will it be you? This generation of American Christians must answer the call to pray for a mighty spiritual awakening and a moral revival.  Someone needs to commit to this ministry on behalf of our nation and future.  Will you be that intercessor?

Pray for your country regularly—weekly have a special time of national prayer. God is our only national hope....