OUR NATION NEEDS A REBIRTH
By Rev. James May
228 years ago, the thirteen British colonies on the continent of North America, finally won a long, hard and bitter struggle against the most powerful nation on the face of the earth at that time and a nation was born. Since that day the United States of America has been the beacon of hope for freedom, liberty and justice for the whole world. Our nation became the shining light of democracy to the billions of people around the globe who are caught in the darkness of slavery. Even today, the USA is still a beacon of hope, but I fear that the light that we offer is growing dim, not from the power of the other nations of the world to destroy our hope, but because we are extinguishing it from the inside.
Right now our soldiers are fulfilling the call to bring liberty to other nations. In Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea and a number of other places, our men and women in uniform are standing toe-to-toe with those who are determined to destroy the ideals of democracy and liberty from the face of the earth. We are so very grateful to those who are our protectors and who stand a vigilant watch to ensure that our country remains free.
But the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard can only battle those enemies who attack us from the outside. Their battle is flesh against flesh using bombs, bullets, jets and ships, but none of the weapons of mankind can really save our country for long. We have an enemy that is far more dangerous than the militant terrorists, and the weapons of the real enemy that we battle against are far more dangerous that the nuclear missiles of North Korea.
The brutality of mankind, depicted so vividly by the beheading of those who are captured in Iraq, even as the headlines of our newspaper read this morning, is terrible enough but it pales in comparison with the brutality, pain, suffering and death that comes against mankind from our real enemy.
What we as Christians, and we as a nation, must realize is that we are not just battling against the militant Islam. Our fight isn’t just against the communism of North Korea and the Red Chinese. Our warfare isn’t just against political insurgency within our own borders. Our fight isn’t against the homosexuals and lesbians.
Yes, our freedoms are being threatened by our own Supreme Court who establish laws instead of interpreting laws, the way that our constitution declares it should be, but our fight really isn’t against the Supreme Court and its liberal judges. Our congress is mired in hopeless battles based solely on partisan politics with both sides of the aisle seeking only to further its own ideals and candidates. Whether you vote Republican, Democrat, or maybe even Independent, you will still be faced with a congress that seeks its own will, and not the will of the people. Our struggle for survival may include attempting to persuade congress to do the right thing, but that’s only the surface of our real battle. Congress needs a rebirth of righteousness.
This year, for the very first time in the history of our nation, our congress was opened on the National Day of Prayer, May 1st, 2004, by an openly gay clergyperson, Rev. Steven Torrence, with Metropolitan Community Churches, the world’s largest church group with its primary, affirming ministry to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons.
Let me read you his prayer that was said before congress:
Almighty God:
I thank you for the privilege and honor to be here this morning in these hallowed halls on this, our nation’s National Day of Prayer. We, as a people of many faiths, religions and backgrounds come together in a sign of unity to ask for your guidance and blessings on this important day.
We not only remember those who have given their lives to protect our great country in military service, but we remember the men and women in law enforcement who risk daily, and give their lives, to protect each and every one of us.
As a nation, let us remember that all people have one common origin. Fill our hearts with compassion for our neighbors and the desire to ensure justice for all. Help us share all the blessings you give us, and help us to secure justice and equality for every human being; help us bring an end to division, and continue to build our country on peace and love. Let us always remember that despite our differences we are one human family.
Almighty God, bless our leaders with vision, foresight, and with clarity of purpose as they lead our country. Bless our country on this special day of prayer, in your name we pray, Amen.
Now doesn’t that prayer just make you want to jump and shout and praise the Lord. Can’t you feel an anointing in those words? Do you think that God heard that prayer at all?
Now let me read to you what a real preacher of the gospel had to say before a group of legislators in Kansas back in 1996 and let you hear and feel the difference. Rev. Joe Wright of Central Christian Church, in Wichita, KS, delivered this prayer and I believe this time, God was listening.
Heavenly Father, We come before You today to ask Your Forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that’s exactly what we have done. We have lost our Spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that;
we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism;
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism;
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle;
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery;
We have neglected the needy and called it self preservation;
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare;
We have killed our unborn and called it choice;
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable;
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem;
We have abused power and called it political savvy;
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition;
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression;
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today;
try us and see if there be some wicked way in us;
cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of this state and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state of Kansas. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your Will.
I ask in the name of your Son, The Living Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Now there is a preacher who knows where the real enemy is and who we are really battling.
Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
The warfare that I am engaged in, right now, behind this pulpit, in this seemingly peaceful environment of the church, is vastly more deadly and dangerous than the war in Iraq. The worst that any enemy of flesh can do is to take your life and enslave us as a nation. That’s terrible to think about and yet it is far more dangerous to face an enemy that can cause you to be eternally damned.
Whether we believe it or not, or whether we accept it or not, each one of us, right now in this congregation are engaged in that same battle that is crucial to the survival of our soul, our family, and our nation, indeed, the whole world. We are in a spiritual war that has eternal consequences at stake and we can’t afford to lose this battle, not matter what the cost.
Not one of us here this morning would allow a terrorist to enter our shores and set off bombs to kill our people; not one of us would knowingly allow a dictator to take the leadership of our land; not one of us would open the doors of our home and welcome a militant soldier to kill our family and destroy our home. But how many of us swing wide the door to our heart, throw open the windows to our soul, cast caution to the wind and welcome the devil into our minds, our homes and then allow him run rampant through our family?
I want you to know that Satan is your enemy and your struggle, and the struggle of our nation and the whole world, is against that old serpent that struck in the Garden of Eden, that spewed his poisonous venom of death and destruction upon all of mankind, and who is determined to steal, kill and destroy everything that God has created and called good.
Mankind was eternally lost but God has a plan. He was not taken by surprise. My God is omniscient and that means that he knew Satan’s plan long before Satan did, and he knew what it was going to take to counter-attack the devil and defeat him. God would not allow Satan to utterly destroy what God had created.
And so, God sent his only begotten Son into the World. Jesus came as man, God in human flesh, to die upon the cross and purchase our redemption with the price of his own innocent blood. The Blood of Christ is our ultimate weapon against the devil. He can’t stand against its power.
One by one, every man, woman and child above the age of accountability have to come face to face with a decision. That decision is to either accept the cleansing power of the Blood of Jesus and allow that blood to wash away the guilt, shame and sin in their lives, or they can choose to not accept Christ and to follow the devil to the pits of hell. God has made a way but it’s up to us to choose to accept his way or not.
God has given us all that we need to be over comers in this great spiritual battle. The weapons that he has given us are invincible.
I used to spend too much time playing games on the computer. I don’t seem to have much time for that anymore. But many of the games that I once did were war games, flying fighters against a Japanese or German plane, or fighting imaginary creatures in spaceships. I wasn’t too good at it until I figured out the cheat codes. One of those cheat codes was called “God Mode”. When you entered that mode it wasn’t hard to win because you were invincible. Not bullet could harm you, and even if you made a mistake and crashed, you were back in the air in a split second.
I want you to know that I’ve discovered “God Mode” in this spiritual battle as well. As long as I depend upon the Blood of the Lamb, and I put on the whole armor or God that is described in detail in Ephesians 6:11-18, walk by faith and not by sight, and trust in Jesus, I can’t be defeated.
I’m a part of the family of God, a member of the church of God, the Body of Christ, and an heir and joint heir with Jesus Christ, my elder brother, my Lord, my King, my Savior and my God. Jesus said in “Matthew 16:18, "…upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." That rock is Christ. If I stay on him, I cannot be defeated. I’m in God Mode.
You can’t beat the devil on your own. It’s not a fleshly battle. The battle for our nation and the nations of the world are not battles that can won by military might or the arm of the flesh. That real battle is a battle in the realm of the spirit and it must be fought with spiritual weapons if we want to win.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…"
My friend, if you are going to win in this war, there is one great prerequisite to being on the winning side. YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN! You have to accept the blood of Jesus and allow it to wash your sins away.
Baptism in water won’t wash away sin. Your sin has to be gone before baptism can mean anything at all. Receiving the Holy Ghost won’t wash your sin away. Your sin has to be washed away and you have to born again before you can even receive the infilling power of the Holy Ghost.
Only the Blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse and make you whole again. Only the Blood of Jesus, applied to your heart, can give you victory over the attacks of the enemy. It’s only after you have been washed in his blood that the Word of God can come alive to you and become a mighty weapon against the devil. It’s only after the Blood of Christ has been applied to the doorposts of your heart that your prayers can be a lethal force against the powers of darkness. YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!
Since that’s the only way to turn around a sin-sick, lost and dying soul and give them a new life and a new hope, I submit to you that this is the only thing that will bring our nation back to God as well.
America needs a rebirth today! We don’t need a new birth of wealth because wealth only becomes an idol. We don’t need a rebirth of military might because our military can become an idol too. We don’t necessarily need a rebirth of patriotism because patriotism is fleeting and can often be misdirected.
We need a rebirth in the things of God. But how can a nation be born again? Can we go back and start all over again with 1776 and the ideals of our founding fathers? Can we reverse time and remove all of the effects of Madeline Murray O’Hare who took prayer out of our schools? Can we go back to a time before Roe VS Wade came into law and abortions were legalized? Can we go back to a time when it wasn’t hard for our judges and politicians to know what pornography meant?
My friend we can’t turn that around with the power of a vote anymore than we can wash our own sins away. The battle is spiritual, not carnal. Even if we could change all of those things back to the way they were, the heart of man wouldn’t be changed and it would only be matter of time until we were right back where we are now.
The only way to change this nation and bring it back to God is to bring people back to God one at a time. One-by-one, each man, each woman and each youth who fall on their face in repentance before God will have a part in turning our nation around.
You can make a difference. I can make a difference. It may seem like an impossible task, but with God all things are possible to them that will believe and then act on that belief and faith in God.
Our nation needs a rebirth this morning. We can only see that rebirth come if we will step out and tell everyone we know and meet about Jesus. One-by-one we could turn this nation around, but my fear is that we won’t do it because too many Christians are afraid to step out and become a target for the devil.
In my infantry training for Vietnam at Fort Polk back in the 60’s, there was one very valuable lesson that I learned very quickly. When you get into a firefight with an armed enemy, keep your head down and stay behind cover. Of course you can’t always do that in a battle or no one would ever win. Somebody has to take a chance, rise up, get up and get going. You have to expose yourself to enemy fire as a target if you are going to win the battle.
This spiritual warfare for the souls of men and of our nation is no different. We can’t sit in our comfortable churches, on our padded pews, patting one another on the back and proclaiming our great faith and expect to win souls to Christ or to defeat the enemy that is destroying our nation. We have to get out there where the battle is raging and go toe-to-toe with the devil. God’s army isn’t supposed to be a passive army that wins by sitting around. We are to occupy until Jesus comes and that means we must be on the offense.
We have to get off the pew and talk to lost souls and tell them about Jesus, and warn them about hell.
I think that God has to send the church into battle in much the same fashion that General George C. Patton used to fight in World War II. Patton often wanted to engage the enemy but would find himself at odds against higher authority. He didn’t blatantly disobey but he would always find a way to circumvent his orders and do what he though was necessary. He would begin by sending out a scouting party, knowing that they would come under fire. Then he would have to send reinforcements to help those who were under attack. Then the fighting would grow stronger so he would commit more and more troops until the battle was on like he wanted in the first place.
God has to force us in the same manner. We don’t want to get fully committed because of fear of failure or a self-centered lifestyle, whatever the case may be. So God brings the battle to us. At first only a few will be engaged in fighting the devil. A few will step out and get involved, start telling people about Jesus, and start taking on the devil. But after a while, the excitement will begin to build, and then more will join in because they don’t want to be left out and they love the excitement of revival. Then more and more join in until, finally, the whole church is experiencing a revival and we are all committed to the battle.
Our nation needs a rebirth today, but that rebirth must begin right here, in the church, among God’s people. When we get on fire for God and begin to take the battle to the devil, you must know that the devil won’t sit down and let you win without a fight, so get ready for it. But you also must know that you must fight, we can’t sit idly by and allow the devil to win. The blood of every soul lost in the fight will be upon our hands.
Your fight is not one that is fought by marching on congress, or picketing abortion clinics, or anything like that. You can’t defeat spiritual enemies with fleshly weapons. You have to use your spiritual weapons.
Tell others about Jesus! Plead the blood of Christ over your family, friends and neighbors. Preach the Word of God! Teach the Word of God! Let faith arise in your heart and step out to advance on the strongholds of the devil! Pray for victory and for those who are leading the fight.
Our nation is at stake! The souls of our children are at stake!
Our nations need a rebirth in the things of God and we need to get back to our God-centered roots, but the change must begin with you and with me.
God help our nation on this, its 228th birthday. God help us to do all that we can do to see morality and righteousness once again rule and reign in our lives and in the heart of our country. Help us to rise from the ashes of destruction that result from sin and rebelliousness against Almighty God. Lift our eyes above the problems in the economy, above the problems in our government, above the problems in our morally bankrupt society, and above the problems in our own lives, so that we may see Jesus and experience a mighty revival and a rebirth of the knowledge of God, the righteousness of God and the love of God in our land. Amen.
