What in the Word is Going On?

When I was in elementary school, I remember the teacher saying, “Stop, Look and Listen” as she taught us to read. When you were learning to drive a car, the instructor may have said, “Stop, Look and Listen” at all railroad crossings. 

Some parents have said to their children, “Wake Up. Stop what you are doing. Look at the consequences. Listen to me.” 

When I was in the business world, my boss, Clifford Grum, Chairman of Temple would call me and ask, "What's going on?"

We live in such a fast-paced, high tech world that most of us never stop and look at what is going on around us, and we certainly don’t listen to what God is saying to us in the Bible. If we did stop long enough to answer the question of “What’s going on?”, we might be tempted to make the same statement David Jerimiah makes in the title of his recent book, I Never Thought I Would Live to See the Day. The book was a result of Dr. Jeremiah’s observing the world around him, looking at the signs of the times and listening to the Bible. His conclusion is that the people in the sinful culture around us are literally going to hell, and for the most part, we Christians are doing little about it. 

 A few Christians aren’t the only ones who are asking “What in the world is going on?” Secularists are beginning to write articles about the decline of America and, depending on their individual view of the world, proposing solutions to the problems around us. And because their world view does not include God, their solutions are not based on the Bible. 

 We live in most unusual times: the richest nation on earth seems to have lost its way in the world. Nothing seems to be going right. We have reached the point where the leader of Russia, Putin, has lectured us on how to act like a Christian nation. And so, the question is very relevant, “What is going on?” The more important question is, “What do I do about it?” 

THREE PROMISES REGARDING PRAYER 

1. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteousness man availeth much. James 5:16. 
2. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.1 John 5:14. The key phrase is “according to His will. This assumes that we are in a right relationship with God. 
3. Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7. 

 These are strong promises in the Bible. And they are 100% true because God does not lie. God answers prayer. 

GOD’S COVENANT WITH US 
The Bible is a record of God working through Jesus Christ to reconcile a lost world to Himself. The Old Testament or Old Covenant is primarily the record of God working through a nation – Israel and points forward to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus as the Hope of the world. The New Testament or New Covenant primarily depicts the work of Jesus and then the Holy Spirit through His church. In both Testaments (and Covenants,) God works through people. That means you and me. People who are Christian in name and action. To carry out that purpose, He leaves us here on earth with these commands: 

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. 
• Love your neighbor (as you) 
• Love yourself 
• Make disciples as you go. God’s assignment for us – the church, is found in Acts 1:8 and Matt. 28:19-20. God expects us to carry out our part of these commands. 

GOD HATES SIN 
 God hates sin. Period. He cannot tolerate sin. He says that we can’t serve two masters. And He is a jealous God, and He will not allow us to willingly, long term bring dishonor to His name. 

FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES 

• We are all unique. God communicates with us in a unique way – specific to us and our times. We might call this communications “signs of the times.” 1 Chronicles 12:32. …”men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” 
• The Bible tells us that God is Love. It also says that He is Truth and Mercy and Righteous. Many of our churches and TV and radio evangelists talk about his love, but never mention about God being Righteous. That can be misleading, because without talking about God’s righteousness we overlook his Judgment. 

WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON? 
I believe that America has been under God’s judgment for 50+ years and time is running out for our nation. Our churches need revival; if we Christians do not humble ourselves and repent; America is doomed. This is a strong statement, but it is balanced by God’s love and mercy. He will respond if we do what he tells us to do. 

The text for this morning is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and repent from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and answer their prayer and heal their land. 

Is the entire Bible applicable in today’s world? Although the Old Testament contains a lot of history, its primary purpose is to demonstrate the covenant relationship between God and Israel. The New Testament emphasizes the covenant between God and individual Christians. I think the same principles apply in both the OT and NT. In 2 Timothy Paul says that all scripture is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, reproof, etc. 

Is America broken? There were numerous articles and pundits on cable shows last December reflecting on America and the problems we face. Secularists are looking for ways that government or science or education can save America. I hear more and more people say that Christians must pray for our country. Pastors throughout America are calling us to pray as never before. About 250 pastors gathered to pray in Dallas before Christmas and there were 400 present in Atlanta in January. My conclusion is, “Yes,” America is broken. Our land needs to be healed. 

What is the evidence that America is broken? Futurists look at five areas to forecast trends: demographics, economics, politics, technology and spirituality. 

• Demographics. We are growing older; baby boomers are slowly passing from the scene. Soon there will be no by majority ethnic group in the U.S. or Great Britain. The percentage of adults working continues to decrease. 
• Economics. Debt is about to destroy America. We have fewer adults as a percent of the population working today than any time since the Depression. Wages are stagnant. We cannot pay for the coming increases in costs for Medicaid, Social Security and Affordable Care. 
• Politics. There are no strong principled leaders today. Time Magazine's cover story in 1987 asked, “Where have all the leaders gone? Those in leadership positions seem to make foolish decisions. By the way, we don’t have time to go there this morning, but the first sign that God is dealing with a nation in the Bible is the removal of wisdom from its leaders.
• Spirituality. Barna statistics tell us that 80 percent of people believe in God but the number of people who believe in Jesus and pray daily and read their Bible daily is less than 10 percent. America cannot realistically call itself a Christian nation anymore. 

When we decide that our country is broken, we ask the question, “How did we get off track?” Until about a year ago, I blamed the Congress or the President or the Governor or Legislature. “They” I realized one day that most of these people do not profess to be Christian. If I believe that God is in control, how can they be the problem? 

Os Hillman recently wrote in a blog entitled Paneled Houses, “We have a crisis in the house of God. The moral fiber of our churches and consequently our country has decayed. Today there is no difference in our church and the world. Both are filled with greed, idols and pleasure as the gods of the day. This is a dangerous place to be with God. Haggai 1:4 and Matthew 21:12 -13.

In our Bible reference, who is “my people called by my name”? Isn’t the verse talking about Christians? Could it be that the problems in our country are the result of us not following God’s commands? Consider the spiritual condition of the majority of our churches using statistics from Barna: 

• There are 430,000 churches in the U.S. and surveys show that 80% of them are stagnant or declining.
• There are 43,000 SBC and 70-75% are dying. The definition of a dying church is less than 10% of the church's budget going to missions, baptizing fewer people than funerals and the church's membership not representative of the surrounding community. 
• Southern Baptists are planting about 1000 churches per year and closing the doors of about the same number. Simple math tells us that unless we Christians change our ways, the U.S. will be like Europe in less than one generation: there is no pretense of any country in Europe claiming to be Christian. Even today, the U.S has the fourth largest population of unbelievers in the world.
• Millennials have dropped out of church and on any given Sunday less than 20 percent will be in church. Compare that to the older generation where 65% of people 65+ years will be in church unless they are sick or out of town.
• Polling by Barna shows that divorce, pornography, and sexual misconduct are is prevalent in our churches as in the world. 

We baby boomers have allowed America to stray far from God's commands. 100 years ago, our grandparents called a sin a sin. Today we practice therapeutic deistic moralism. We have allowed the world to become such a part of our everyday lives that we cannot separate that which pleases God from that which God hates. We have lost our salt. We have lost our ability to influence. 

I believe there are three reasons for this. 1.)  We have become arrogant and in our arrogance, we have lost our fear of God. Our arrogance is based on a lie that says “I can handle this myself.” It is a lie that says, God is not necessary. And if God is not necessary then there is no need to pray and if God is not necessary, then there is no need to read the Bible. Our forefathers would be shocked today to see the debates about the relevance of God in our everyday lives. If you read history during the 100 years between 1750 and 1850, God and prayer and the Bible were a routine part of everyday life in the U.S. 2.) We have forgotten our accountability to God. Doing everything for God’s honor and glory is totally ignored today. 3.)  We have forgotten that God expects us to be holy and pure in heart. Most churches in America act more like a social club than the bride of Christ. 

Can we really expect God to bless America or to bring revival when we who call ourselves Christians have ignored his commands to us? 

Could it be that God never changes and that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament? In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with Israel and said, "If you keep my commandments, I will bless you and if you do not keep them, you will suffer the consequences." He always showed the Israelites the signs of the times, warning them about consequences if they did not repent. 

Could it be that God's people, Christians, in America have turned their back on God, and he is not answering our prayers because we are out of fellowship with Him? Perhaps we have told God by our actions that we don’t need Him? 

Could it be that God is allowing us to run our own lives? Could it be that in fact, 9.11, Katrina, Rita, Sandy, two major recessions, unusual weather patterns and the lack of leadership are signs of God's attempt to wake us up. 

Could it be that God is giving us one last chance to repent? 

REACTIONS TO THE QUESTIONS 
The initial reaction of most people to these questions goes something like this. “My God would never punish Christians because He loves us.” Or, “I'm going to heaven and don’t have to worry about anything” “America is not really broken, we are just going through difficult times.” “When the economy improves . . . “ Until about six months ago, these responses to the questions were mine. Last August, I heard John Franklin teach on the subject, “God have mercy on America.” I listened as he showed from the Bible why America is under God’s judgment. Three days after returning home, the Holy Spirit convicted me: “David, the problems of America are not the fault of science or education or of the president or congress or governor or legislature or anyone else you have been blaming. They are the result of your disobedience and sin.” I could not blame anyone else. And then a voice – Holy Spirit, inside of me, asked a simple question, “Could it be that John Franklin is right?” “What if his message is directly from God?” When the realization hit me that John Franklin is right; God is trying to wake up his sleeping churches. I totally broke down, and I could only pray, “What do I do?” 

The only hope for America and the world for that matter is a revival – a great awakening. Awakenings have occurred a few times in history. The formula for true revival is found in our Bible reference and was the topic last Sunday. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is in the format of an If - Then statement. From your logic class, you remember that if all elements of the If portion of the statement are true, the Then portion is true. In this verse, there are four elements of the If statement: Humble themselves. Chuck Swindoll in a recent sermon from Matthew said that when Jesus encourages us to be “poor in spirit” he is saying that we should be humble in all areas of our life, recognizing who we are in light of who God is and what he expects from us.

1. Seek God's face. Ask for the presence of God. Be aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
2. Pray. Talk to God. Listen to the Holy Spirit. Confess our sins.
3. Repent from our sins. Chuck Swindoll also said that when Jesus said “blessed are you who mourn,” he means we should passionately lament because of our sins. I don't know about you but I don't see too many people who are lamenting over their sins, who are broken-hearted because of what they have done against God The tense of these four verbs in the original Greek indicates a lifestyle. Humble and keep on humbling, seek and keep on seeking, pray and keep on praying and repent and keep on repenting. 

When we signed up to be a Christian we agreed to work for Jesus, and He expects us to carry out that commitment every day. If we do our part God will do his part.