Sermon for Sunday July 6th, 2008

What’s Happening In America? by Steve Shepherd

Psalms 33:12-33:12

Psalm 33:12 "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance."

Don’t you wish that the Lord was the God of America?

INTRO.- What’s good about America? How about peace and security?

ILL.- A lady said: Security and peace of mind were part of the reason we moved to a gated community. But both flew out the window the night I called a local pizza shop for a delivery. "I’d like to order a large pepperoni, please," I said, then gave him the address of our condominium.

"We’ll be there in about half an hour," the kid at the other end replied. "Your gate code is still 1238, right?"

ILL.- HOW ABOUT INTEGRITY IN AMERICA? One man wrote: "A package arrived in our mailbox recently. My wife opened the package because it had our address on the package and she believed it could be one of the many sample products that she had signed up for. Inside the package was a man’s wallet containing $51 and many credit cards. Someone had sent the wallet to our address because it seems the man had lived at our address prior to us moving in.

"We went through the wallet trying to get more information that might give us an idea how to return the wallet to it’s proper owner. Inside we found a business card that said the man had been a store manager at a major nation wide consumer electronics store. I once worked with the store manager of the Norman Oklahoma location of this nation wide consumer electronics store so I decided to drive to the store and see if my friend might know the owner of the wallet. My friend was not working that day so I spoke with another manager and an employee who personally knew the owner of the wallet.

"Each of the store employees we spoke with seemed to be utterly amazed that we were trying to return the wallet. The employee who personally knew the owner of the wallet told us something great was going to happen to us for returning the wallet but that is not why we returned the wallet. The reason we returned the wallet is because it was the right thing to do!

"I truly believe integrity is not lost in America. Integrity is not found on the surface you have to dig deep within in to uncover it. I hear people say all the time, ’There are no men of integrity left.’ This is not true. Men and women of integrity are everywhere. Think about this, how many people pass your car, house, and your place of business each day and do not steal from you. The majority of people do not steal and make an effort each day to do what is right. We spend too much time focusing on people without integrity and we forget to celebrate and show gratitude to those do what is right everyday. INTEGRITY IS NOT LOST IN AMERICA!" So be it.

HERE’S ONE EVEN BETTER.

ILL.- March, 2008. A Starbucks barista (server), 51-year-old Sandie Andersen, donated a kidney to a regular, longtime customer, in order to save her life. 55-year-old Annamarie Ausnes stated during a talk with Andersen that she needed a kidney transplant. The only problem was that her husband and son were not matches, meaning that they could not donate their kidneys to her to save her.

Without hesitation, Andersen offered to have a blood test to see if she matched the customer. The great thing is that she ended up being a perfect match. Andersen donated her kidney to Ausnes at the Virginia Mason Medical Center. In a few weeks, she was expected to be 100% back to normal. WOW!

Talk about integrity! That’s way beyond integrity. That’s nothing but pure love! Amazing! God bless that woman!

ILL.- Henry Ford II was commonly known as "HF2" and "Hank the Deuce", was the son of Edsel Ford and grandson of Henry Ford. He was president of the Ford Motor Company from 1945 to 1960, chairman of the board and chief executive officer (CEO) from 1960 to 1979.

He said, "What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity - intellect and resources - to do some thing about them."

PROP. - What is causing Americans great concern about our country? We all could name several things that concern us.
1- The economy
2- The moral decay
Let’s consider these and what the Word of God says in order to find some answers to the problems in America.

I. THE ECONOMY

ILL.- DAILY GAS-PRICE HIKES - OUTRAGEOUS! "It was just $4.17 a few days ago," said an exasperated Mary Martinez as she pumped $25 worth of regular unleaded into her Ford Taurus sedan at an Arco station just east of downtown San Jose. "This is outrageous. It’s not even going to fill up my tank. "It’s still outrageous!" the saleswoman said.

"Oil is on its own roller coaster," Michael Gesser for auto club said. He said, "The one big thing motorists need to keep in mind is that the price of a barrel of crude oil has risen 89 percent since last year. That’s an astounding number for any commodity."

Gas rules the economy or at least, this is the way it looks. No one in their right mind likes this. We also have house foreclosures.

ILL.- Enter stage right: Ed McMahon and Evander Holyfield. Ed said, "When you spend more than you make, you know what happens."
Yes, and a 85 year old man should know better! He said it was "poor planning." NO, I THINK IT WAS HIGH LIVING! He was living high in a multi-million dollar home. Also, after having made millions, this should not have happened.

And what about Evander Holyfield who is about to lose his $10 million home in Fayette County, GA? It’s been said that’s he probably made over $200 million in his boxing career. WHERE DID IT ALL GO? High living. Fast living.

The problem is many other Americans are no different, except on a smaller scale. When you live from paycheck to paycheck you’ve got to learn to conserve and BE A BETTER STEWARD OF GOD’S MONEY! And that’s one of the first problems that we have. We don’t consider "our" money to be "God’s" money. But it is! He’s the one who dishes out the jobs and the money!

I Cor. 4:1-2 "So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." KJV Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

ILL.- One time presidential candidate, Ross Perot, has started a Web site to highlight what he calls the "economic crisis" facing the country because of deficit spending.

In a statement Monday, Perot said the nation’s debt reached $9.4 trillion in April and is rising more than $1 billion a day.

"We are leaving our children and grandchildren with debt they cannot possibly pay," he said. "The economic crisis facing America today is far greater than anything since the Great Depression."

What’s the message for us who are in Christ? Most of all, we must trust the Lord to provide for us. He is our great provider. We must seek Him first in life and He will provide for our NEEDS. (Matthew 6:33).

ILL.- Recently, Bob Stacy, of the Spring Hill Church of Christ in Middletown, OH, wrote: HE’LL NEVER LEAVE US! "Today gasoline is selling for $3.95 per gallon. Yesterday I paid $52.99 to buy thirteen gallons of gas. Some are predicting that within two years, it will be $7.00 per gallon. Some are wringing their hands, saying, "What will we do?"

"It’s certainly alarming and even frightening for many and especially for those who have lived for years far above their means or perhaps on credit. Do you think that perhaps in all of this, there may be a return to careful spending and family budgets? Do you think that families may have to eat together at the family table instead of in high-price restaurants?

"Do you think that children may have to learn to play out of doors and even to use their imaginations, instead of expensive games, for their recreation? Do you think that walking will return as a means to get from here to there? Do you think that homes may become more important as we won’t be able to go "here and there" whenever we please?

"And do you see in all of that a blessing? I do. It’s been a long time coming, but perhaps families will again become real families again, enjoying one another’s company and learning how much fun it can be just to be together. And in it all, we may even be taught to trust God more for His blessing in our lives.

Long ago He said, (Heb. 13:5-6) "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"

"So we who are Christians will be blessed by our heavenly Father, no matter what the cost of gasoline or food. He’ll never forsake us. He’ll never leave us. Why not memorize those few words today, and store them in your heart? --"I will never leave you, nor forsake you." That’s His Word! That’s His promise!

II. THE MORAL DECAY

Gay marriage is ok in CA and may soon be ok everywhere else in America. It’s official: Some gay-marriage licenses in California were issued at 5:01 p.m. on June 16. The new license designates "Party A" and "Party B" instead of "bride" and "groom."

It’s not surprising that this has taken place in California and may spread to other states.

ILL.- I heard it said a long time ago that in the beginning God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

Romans 1:18-32 says it all and very clearly. 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

But gay marriage is not all that’s wrong in America! There is much evil in America!

ILL.- Chilling hit-and-run, June 6, 2008 HARTFORD, CONN. And you probably saw this on the news! SHOCKING! -- A 78-year-old man was tossed like a rag doll in a hit-and-run and stayed there motionless on a busy street as car after car drove by. Pedestrians gawked but did nothing. One driver stopped briefly, then pulled back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circled the victim, then zipped away.

"We no longer have a moral compass," Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts said. BUT HERE’S ONE THAT’S WORSE YET!

ILL.- As eyewitnesses watched in horror, a 27-year-old Turlock man punched and stomped a toddler to death on a darkened country road Saturday night in Stanislaus County before a police officer shot and killed the attacker. Eyewitnesses tried to stop the man, who swung and slammed the child into the asphalt behind his parked four-door Toyota pickup.

Investigators spent Father’s Day trying to understand and cope with the savage attack on Bradbury Road, 10 miles west of Turlock near cow pastures and dairy farms. The boy’s beating left police and rescue workers badly shaken, said Deputy Royjindar Singh. "Why would somebody do this?" Singh said. (I’ll tell you why? Because the devil is real!)

"In the shadows and light it looked like he had hit an animal," said Dan Robinson, chief of the Crows Landing Volunteer Fire Department, who came upon the chaos driving home from a late dinner in Turlock, in an interview with the Modesto Bee. "As we backed up again, I could see that he had blood on his arms. I could see that it was a small child."

Brothers and sisters, what has happened to our morality in America? What has happened to valuing human life? What has happened to our hatred for that which is evil? (Rom. 12:9)

No Sunday, no worship.
No worship, no relationship.
No relationship, no morals.
No morals, then what?

CONCLUSION---------------------------

What can be done to better America?

I Tim. 2:1-5 1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

What can be done? Pray hard. Live right. Stand up for what is right. Be committed to Christ as never before. Worship Him daily. Worship Him faithfully with His people every Lord’s Day. Point people to Christ. He is our only hope, no matter what.