Wake up America

The following is from a sermon I preached a few years ago. Although some time has passed, I believe that these words are more accurate now than ever.

Matt 26: 36-46

36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death ; remain here and keep watch with Me.” 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour ? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation ; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting ? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 “Get up, let us be going ; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”.

America is in trouble. There is so much talk of politics today; we all want our positions to be known whether we are democrats, republicans, independents, greens or tea party. Unfortunately most Christians also belong to a much bigger party, one that has had more influence over the affairs of our so-called Christian nation than all the others combined. We are the Slumber party. While evil sweeps our nation and the world, we sleep. While a world full of lost souls begging for Truth and salvation cry out under the yoke of Satan, we sleep. While someone sitting next us in church, lies beside us in the night, sits across the breakfast table in the morning or works with us all day, lost, condemned to death by their unbelief, we sleep.

We slept through the sixties when great cultural changes were taking place, changes that have destroyed the family structure in America in the name of self expression without responsibility, We slept through the rising power of organizations like the ACLU, an organization which defends anything as long as it is evil and wicked. We are sleeping through the redefining of marriage to be just about anything someone wants to call marriage. We have seen our school systems become havens for the promotion of multi-culturalist acceptance of any belief except Christianity and still we sleep.

Just as Christ’s disciples slept during His darkest hour in that garden, we sleep while America is dying, filled with sin and with men and women groaning in despair. Christ overcame death, hell and the grave on that terrible, glorious day when, nailed to a cross He gave His life for the sins of the world. No one took His life, He gave it for you and He gave it for me and Satan’s power over each and every one of us was destroyed forever on that day. He has no more power over us than that which we give to him.

Satan loves us in our slumber, he knows that he has already lost his power over us when we accept Christ but when we do nothing for the lost of the world, we are doing Satan’s work for him. That may offend many who like to think that their only requirement is to believe and show up for church once or twice a week or maybe even only once or twice a year.

When we accept Christ, we are accepting Him as Lord and Savior, but we all want to just skip over the Lord part and just thank Him for saving us. Until we do accept Him as Lord, give Him control of our lives, and allow Him to work through us we will never really understand what was given to us when He shed His blood on Calvary. It is time for us Christians to awaken from our slumber, rise up from our beds of apathy and get moving for God! God does not want us to be Sunday Christians, He wants everyday Christians. He does not want ‘someday’ Christians, He wants ‘right now’ Christians, His children willing to work, witness, to “go, tell”. We have a nation so full of lost, wandering people willing to grasp onto anything as long as it gives them hope. It is time for us to reach out to those lost, bewildered people and show them the real Hope, the only Hope there is in this world!

God loves us so much that He gave His Son for our sins and only asks that we love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and all our mind and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. In the 10th Chapter of Luke Christ tells a parable of a man, beaten, robbed, stripped of everything, even his clothing and left by the side of the road half dead. He went on to tell of two “good” men, two “righteous” men who, when they saw this poor man suffering and in need didn’t go to his aid, they turned their heads, they crossed the road so that they wouldn’t have to even get close to him. What could have been going through their heads at that moment, where was their compassion, their love, their basic human decency? I can’t say but as Christ goes on with the parable, He tells of a Samaritan walking the same road who sees that same man, someone who he might consider an enemy, and this Samaritan saw what the “good” men chose to ignore, someone in need, someone who was dying for lack of care, a neighbor. This Samaritan stopped his journey and gave the help that was so desperately needed.

Satan loved those two “good” men that day, those men who were asleep to the need of a man whose life would have been lost without the help of someone who saw the need and cared enough to give of his time, his wealth and of himself. Someone not only willing to give help for the moment but to make sure that his neighbor would continue to receive help until he was recovered from his injuries and able care for himself.

I believe that too often we believers are far too much like the priest and Levite mentioned in this parable. We too often turn our heads to suffering, too often cross the road to avoid the unpleasant prospect of having to help someone in need. Do we think that we are easing our guilt by avoiding the sight or sound of people in need. They are still there and their need is still just as great!

I’m sure that those two “good” men could have rationalized their lack of compassion that day, “too busy, afraid that the robbers might still be there, didn’t know first aid or CPR, who knows what disease we might catch if we get too near?” Sound familiar? How many times do we use the same tired excuses for not serving God and our neighbor?

James Chapter 2 says that faith without works is dead, the message being “get your life in line with what you profess to believe!!”

Christian works can be many things, our congregation has many ministries, providing transportation to church or to doctors, providing clothing to those in need, praying for those who sick or troubled and many more that we don’t always know about. Of course we must never forget that our witness for Christ is our greatest ministry. This is the one that all are called to do. Our demonstration of faith through our works is one of the most effective ways of spreading the Good News to our world. As Christians we have an obligation to let the light of Christ shine from within us and so eliminate the darkness of sin.

If we want life in our faith we must have faith in our lives, not watered down, afraid to offend, politically correct faith but instead it must be God first, last and always faith. Not Sunday faith but every day faith. Not some ways faith but every way faith!

How do we do that? We start by getting the world and the things of this world out of our lives and by getting Christ into our lives. We get the world out of the church and by getting the church into the world.

Stand up for Christ, stand up for right, stand up against Satan and let him know that he lost the war at that Calvary moment when Jesus said, “It is finished!”

We do that when we see a need and instead of saying “Someone should…”, we say “here am I, Lord, send me”. Don’t put your faith in another committee or discussion group, be a doer of the Word, not a hearer only. If God is in it, others will follow.

Don’t try to do all things, just do God things. Don’t hide behind worldly busyness to avoid God’s business. Stand up, step up, never say “I Can’t” say instead, “God can and here I am Lord, use me”.

Brothers and sisters we live in a world that needs God more than ever. We can, we must make a difference for Him.

Together let us serve a Risen Savior, not a defeated devil.