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Praying for America
Well, good evening, hope you've had a good afternoon got some rest today and especially kept cool on this very warm late summer September afternoon well to get down to business here we have Designated this time together tonight as an opportunity to pray for our nation.
And I came across something the other day that really struck me as a parallel to what's going on in our country today. I Started reading a book not long ago entitled the age of decadence the age of decadence a history of Britain from 1880 to 1914 and when you look at the Size of this volume you can tell it's probably gonna take a while for me to actually get through this thing.
But excuse me just for a moment. There we go. Anyway, I'm not in a hurry I'm reading a few pages at a time but the other evening as I was reading in the prologue to the book I came across a paragraph that really struck me as a parallel between Great Britain in the first decade of the 20th century and the United States of America in this Second decade or we're into the third decade I guess of the 21st century.
So he's writing about Great Britain and this is what he says. The obsession with show the importance of the pose the decline of the spiritual and the rise of the material. An Undue concentration of wealth among a privileged few many of whose new recruits lacked the philanthropic impulse of an earlier generation.
All these provided the stuff of the moral intellectual and Industrial decline that made this an age of decadence. The mid-victorians had worked relentlessly had been motivated by religion to acts of philanthropy.
Had striven to improve the lot of the poor had transformed Britain's infrastructure radicalized its education system reformed its institution and expanded its Empire. But after 1880 until the apocalypse.
Apocalypse came in 1914. There was among the up of the upper and the upper middle classes a resting on laurels a decision literal and metaphorical. To live off dividends rather than work that little bit harder and improve more.
Religion retreated further. The maintenance of appearances brought with it hypocrisy standards of public conduct and private behavior returned to where they had been in the 18th century and Decay began with the highest in the land and was imitated by the rising middle class.
Britain's industrial performance slipped behind first Germany then America as Its enemies and note this as its enemies within and without sensed its power and its resolve waning. They sought to take advantage.
Though still recognized as an awesome power its cracks were showing though it had avoided revolution. Its common people were increasingly angry and politically motivated. Though blessed with the world's most powerful Navy Its confidence was sapped by fears of a German invasion for more than a decade before the largely accidental outbreak of the Great War though called a united kingdom a Substantial part of it wished to break away.
Britain learned by the first decade of the 20th century that being a great power meant inviting rivals and challenges and with them in securities. Do you hear any parallels to where we are? Here in this third decade of the 21st century I think there are many to be noted and one thing that struck me is the retreating of religion.
Retreating from religion not only in the practice of those who professed it But in the desire for it in the public square and here we are in our nation today and therefore we need to pray and We could spend a lot of time talking about specific things to pray about but let me just share with you four categories of ideas of prayer and Within these categories give a suggestive list so the the the the categories are not exhaustive you could come up with more than four I'm sure and The list of things within those four categories again is suggestive.
You could add to that In fact, I would encourage you even to discuss among yourselves After we finish here and you go to prayer think about some ways some things in those categories to pray for Regarding our nation.
So I would suggest four areas pray for repentance pray for revival. Pray for justice and pray for governmental authorities. First of all pray for repentance and why because Proverbs 14 34 says righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people and There is an ample A plethora of ways in which our nation needs to repent of its sins.
Here are some ideas. We need to pray for repentance from for the scourge of Abortion this of course is a tremendous scourge millions and millions of lives snuffed out by the Authority and the auspices of our government and even most recently This this milestone law passed in Texas that prohibits abortion once a heartbeat is heard to think that our Justice Department wants to challenge that and say no.
Even though you hear a heartbeat kill the child if the mother wants to kill the child. This is Horrific. This is a horrific sin for which we need to repent. We need to pray for the repentance for the exaltation of What is evil and an abomination to the Lord and we could talk about a lot of different specific kinds of sin but you know full well that in our nation we have we have legitimized what God calls an abomination and we have and we have given status of a protected class to those who are so practicing those sins and that Abomination.
We need to repent for calling good evil and evil good to think that it is considered an evil thing for a person to live by and conduct their business by their religious convictions that they won't bake a cake or Photograph a wedding for a same-sex couple.
This should not only be Acceptable for them to do so, but they should be lauded for their convictions instead of being taken to court sued and Charged with criminal behavior. We need to repent of calling good evil and of calling evil good.
We need to pray for repentance for the dishonesty the deception The lying at the highest levels of our government in our government and we need to pray for repentance for for the greed the profiteering the elevating of profit over principle so many times in the last year and a half or so.
When things have just not made sense one of the comments I've heard many times is hey just follow the money. Follow the money. If we knew how many decisions were made how many orders were given and so on and so forth out of a desire for profit it would it would likely shock us and Thoroughly anger us.
We need to pray for this kind of greed. So pray for repentance. Secondly, I would suggest we need to pray for revival pray for revival. We have churches all over this land that Claim to be Christian churches, but they are apostate churches.
They do not uphold the the authority and inspiration and infallibility of the Bible as God's Word. Some will deny the the deity of Christ the virgin birth of Christ and yet want to hold themselves out as Christian churches these So-called leaders of such churches they need to be they need to be converted.
There are believers in those churches that are there because it's where their families always been and that kind of thing these believers need to repent of Of their loyalty to an apostate Institution and they need to they need to turn from that they need to be revived in their spirit.
So that they they hold up. They hold up conviction and and loyalty to God's Word and God's truth above any other loyalty even in religion. And to pray for revival for the true church to hold forth The Word of Life in the midst of the darkness.
Oh, what a sad thing that so many of our churches have Have decided to capitulate to the culture and to reflect the culture rather than to confront the culture. This is not what the church is called to do to be like the world.
We are called to confront the world. We need to pray for revival so the Christians will be the salt and light that is so vitally needed in this culture and for revival that confused Anxious Fearful sinners would be converted by the grace of God.
That God's people would hold forth the Word of Life the gospel of Jesus Christ do so faithfully look for opportunities be burdened for such a An endeavor and then the God in his grace would bring many to himself Through that proclamation of the gospel.
We need to pray for revival and then thirdly We need to pray for justice for justice. You share with you some verses from Proverbs in this regard. Proverbs 16 12 says it is an abomination to kings to do evil.
For the throne is established by righteousness. Proverbs 20 verse 26 says a wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them. Notice the emphasis on justice here. The key the the king wants to his his king is his kingdom is established.
His throne is established by righteousness. He winnows the wicked. Proverbs 29 14 says if a king faithfully judges the poor his throne will be established forever. He doesn't look upon the poor as being somehow Unworthy of the justice that someone with more money might have and so forth and Proverbs 25 5 says take away the wicked from the presence of the king and his throne will be established in righteousness.
There is a need in a nation for Justice to be meted out and It doesn't doesn't demand necessarily that the nation as a whole is a nation full of converted people. But it is a nation like our nation was founded upon biblical principles of justice and righteousness.
These need to be upheld and we need to pray for a return to such justice. So let's pray that the rule of law would be restored rather than law being flouted and being ignored for whatever political reasons that those in authority might have pray that the rule of law would be upheld and restored and then secondly pray that the glut of Illegal immigration would be stopped.
I meant I emphasize illegal immigration because illegal immigration is Unjust it is not just to our to our citizenry to allow for illegal immigration to go unchecked. Justice would demand that anyone wanting to come into our country go through the proper channels.
That's justice. That's fair. That's equitable and what we're what's going on now in our southern border with the just the openness of that border is as is Unjust it is unfair to those southern states and to the rest of the nation that will be burdened by all of that illegal immigration.
And then thirdly regarding justice pray that the that the injustice done to legitimate Afghan immigrants and the US citizens that are left in Afghanistan would be rectified. We committed a horrific injustice to thousands of people when our president and military leaders just abruptly pulled out of Afghanistan and left all those people stranded.
This was this was a horrific thing to do. This was unjust. We are guilty of injustice in in that behavior. And we need to pray for justice to prevail in in the matter of Afghanistan and then fourthly we need to pray for justice that the scores of law-breaking activities by high-ranking officials would be uncovered and We know that there were there have been a lot of those things Pray that they would be uncovered that the lawbreakers would be brought to true justice.
All of us are frustrated when we know that there are people who seem to get away with illegal activity and Do so because of their position because of their rank and this we need to pray would stop. Then we need to pray for justice that the full truth about the 2020 election Discrepancies would come to light.
I'm not prepared to say what all that means and everything else but We know full well from election Audits that have been conducted in the last few months that there have been some Significant irregularities and it's being it's being poo-pooed.
It's being dismissed. This is not fair. This is not just and so we need to pray for a just Resolution to these matters if there has been fraud We need to pray that it be uncovered and if there has been fraud that it would be dealt with in a just Manner we need to pray for justice.
And then we need to pray for the full truth about COVID -19 and all of the connected issues with it would be exposed. We have been We have been lied to we have been we have been deceived we have we have had Contradictory things given said we have we have we've had data covered up.
We've had We have had data massaged and statistics manipulated and all the rest of this stuff to the point where it is a it is a jumbled mess to try to come to any semblance of Confident truth. We need to pray for justice here.
This is not the way to treat the citizenry fair. Fairly I'm to pray for justice and we need to pray for justice that the injustice of mandated Injections would be overturned what one does with the vaccine and and Injections and so forth on a personal level that should be up to that individual.
It is not just to tell someone. You have to take something into your body that you don't think is good for you and May not be good for you because of your conditions or so forth. Or because you just convinced that it's not good for you.
It is in job. It is unjust to demand that they do such or lose their job. Or have to somehow suffer tremendously economically or some other way just because of a governmental mandate. This is not justice.
We need to pray that that injustice would be overturned pray for justice and then fourthly pray for governmental authorities for governmental authorities and We should pray here that those in our government that are corrupt that are Doing what they're doing for selfish purposes.
For their own Self-aggrandizement and the Relishing their own power and that kind of thing. We need to pray that those corrupt politicians and governmental leaders would be exposed and expelled If they will not repent.
What a wonderful thing it would be to have government authorities actually step to the podium and say I have been wrong. I Have deceived and I am sorry. I'm asking that. I'm asking my constituents to please forgive me.
Wouldn't that be refreshing? Let's pray to that end or let's pray that they be removed. Secondly in in light of 1st Timothy 2 verses 1 through 4 Where Paul says I exhort first of all that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for kings and all who are in authority.
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and reverence for this is good and acceptable. In the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth from that passage.
What we can see is we need to pray for our governmental authorities that they would uphold a climate in our nation for the peaceful pursuit the peaceful pursuit and practice of godliness. So that we who are God's people who live by the principles and guidelines and commands and so forth of God's Word.
To grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ to live out a godly Christian life. We need to pray that our governmental leaders would work in such a way that the climate in which we live allows for the peaceful pursuit and practice of that godliness.
And then secondly in this passage pray that they would uphold a climate for the unhindered proclamation of the gospel the unhindered proclamation of the gospel. Thirdly in praying for our governmental leaders.
Pray that they would pursue or pray that they would punish that they would punish wrongdoers and praise righteousness. So in Romans 13 verses 3 and 4 Paul writes that rulers are not a terror to good conduct.
But to bad that's the way it's supposed to be. Rulers are supposed to be a terror to bad conduct and not to good conduct. This all got upended a year ago didn't it in in all of the riots and everything else that the people who opposed him were bad people and.
The people who are doing all the rioting that the police officers who are trying to provide some measure of control. They're the bad guys and the rioters and so forth. Well, they're just peaceful protesters and excusing and all that kind of stuff.
No, the government is the government is to be a terror to bad conduct and not to good conduct. Paul goes on to say would you have no fear of the one who is in authority. Then do what is good and you will receive his approval provided that the government is actually rewarding good conduct and.
And and punishing bad conduct. He goes on to say for he the governmental authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
So we're going to pray is that the Governmental authorities would punish wrongdoers and praise righteousness. Get that ship corrected and Then finally as we pray for our governmental authorities, we need to pray that they would make wise decisions wise decisions.
Proverbs 12. Proverbs 21 verse 1 Says the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. I'm going to pray that our Lord would turn the heart of the king to wisdom to wisdom and make wise decisions.
For the sake of national security. For the sake of economic prosperity. For the sake of international stability. For the sake of national unity. For the sake of righteousness. We need to pray that our leaders would make wise Decisions.
We need to pray for our country. We are in dire need of our of a praying people. Let's let's be that people so I will end here and close in a word of prayer and then we encourage you to take some time where whatever size group you have and just have each of you take a few minutes to pray and Pray for some of these things.
Add to that list. Add to that list our father and our God. How we need your intervention in this land. We are a needy people. Would you please would you please? Bring us to our knees bring us to repentance.
Would you please bring revival? Father, would you please. Would you please do a work of? Grace so justice will prevail in the land. Would you work in the hearts of the governmental leaders in our? Communities and our state in our nation.
We pray these things in Jesus name. All right. Well have a good season of prayer and I trust the Lord will bless you. Good night.