Question 5: What's Happening to Faith in America?

Greetings and welcome to the Faith Chapel Podcast. My name is Jason and I am

the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In the podcast right now, we are going through a sermon series from 2021 entitled Questions.

The congregation of Faith Chapel was asked to submit any questions they had

about Christianity or the Bible, and the answer to those questions was given in the form of sermons.

Today, the question is all about the change that we have experienced in the

United States in terms of faith, freedom, and Christianity.

Thanks for joining us today.

Heraclides was a Greek philosopher, and he famously said, change is the only

inevitable thing in life.

Change is the only thing that is unchanging.

We can always expect change, and change is not always something that we enjoy or we like.

And as I pondered this week's question, we're doing a series,

just to recap, on questions that you guys have asked and we've put on the bulletin

board out in the fellowship hall.

We're just going through them one at a time because I really want to encourage

you to ask questions about your faith, to really dive deeper into it.

And there is no better way, in my opinion, than to really ask questions.

It shows curiosity. It shows that you are thinking and processing through all

of these things, and so we're going through a series of the questions that you have submitted to us.

And so when we get to today's question, it is all about change for me.

And the question is this.

What is happening to us? This country, faith, freedom, and Christianity seems

so different from my youth.

And you can see how this question is all about change.

Now, change can be good, and I hope you agree with me that when Abraham Lincoln

signed the Emancipation Proclamation,

that it was a positive change that happened, abolishing slavery and making all

people in the United States of America free.

I hope years before that, when the Declaration of Independence was signed,

declaring our country's freedom from England and Britain as a positive change. It was hard.

Both of those events were hard, and it went through a lot of turmoil,

our country did, in those moments, but it produced a positive change in this world.

In the same way, Jillian and I are reading through the autobiography of George

Mueller, And in it, he talks about how he couldn't visit people who were more

than two miles away from him.

He wrote this in the 1830s and 40s in that timeframe.

And it just made me laugh to say that it was really hard for him to get and

visit people who lived more than two miles away from him.

Think about our society now and how we can get down to Florida in like a 24

hour period if we drive straight through.

And yet in the 1830s, going two miles was just too extravagant.

That's a positive change.

Think about all the people who were born in our area who've never saw the ocean

before. There was commercial flights and vehicles.

And so there are positive changes that happen in our country and in our world.

And because change is inevitable, it's the only thing that's unchanging,

then we need to expect and we need to gear the changes towards the positive.

But the way this question is framed, it makes me think about the negative,

the negative changes that happen because inevitably they do happen.

And in our current culture, I found two examples this week that really stood

out to me as a negative change.

One is that there is in our culture what is called cancel culture.

And a person got canceled this week, a professor from the University of Chicago,

because he dared to say that students should be graded based upon their own merits,

based upon what they produce, what they learn, what they show they can regurgitate back to a professor.

Isn't that preposterous that MIT would cancel a visit from this teacher who

was giving a lecture based upon him saying that students should be graded upon what they do?

Just crazy change that's happening and change, in my perspective,

that is bad, that is negative.

I also learned this week about colleges who are planning separate dorms based

upon your skin color to elevate those who have been marginalized in the past.

They are going back to segregation.

And to me, that is regressive. That is a preposterous, ridiculous change.

And so change can obviously be bad. And so we really have to process through

whether or not the changes in Christianity,

whether or not the changes in our faith or our country are positive or negative.

Because change is going to happen.

It's the only thing that's guaranteed.

But when we process through the negative aspect of this, there were two things

that came to my mind really quickly.

One is 2 Chronicles 7.

And in this, God is talking to Solomon, the third king of Israel,

when he says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, will seek my face,

will pray, then I will heal their land.

This was a very quick thought that came to mind, but as I was processing and

studying really that scripture passage this week,

for us in this day and age, it's not really applicable because God was talking a thousand years.

Before Jesus walked this earth, before his death on the cross and his resurrection

from the grave, before the new covenant was initiated.

And this was a thousand years before that.

It was a time and a place where the Israelites were living in the promised land.

And that's the land that God is really saying, I will heal their land,

your land, the promised land.

And so for us, as I was processing through it, that's really not where we need

to go to answer this question.

The second thing that really came to my mind quickly is an audio recording that

was first broadcast on April 3rd,

1965 I really want to reiterate that this was written and said on the air in 1965,

It is by a famous broadcaster by the name of Paul Harvey And it's entitled,

If I Were the Devil And I really want you to understand.

I really want you to listen to these words because I think it's part of the

answer to this question, what is happening to us? So please listen.

If I were the devil.

If I were the prince of darkness I'd want to engulf the whole world in darkness

And I'd have a third of its real estate And four-fifths of its population But

I wouldn't be happy until I had seized The ripest apple on the tree The,

So I'd set about however necessary To take over the United States I'd subvert

the churches first I'd begin with a campaign of whispers With the wisdom of

the serpent I would whisper to you Do as I whispered to Eve, do as you please.

To the young I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince them

that man created God instead of the other way around.

I would confide that what's bad is good and what's good is square.

And the old I would teach to pray after me, our Father, which art in Washington.

And then i'd get organized i'd educate authors in how

to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would

appear dull and uninteresting i threatened tv with dirtier

movies and vice versa i peddle narcotics to whom i could i'd sell alcohol to

ladies and gentlemen of distinction i'd tranquilize the rest with pills if i

were the devil i'd soon have families at war with themselves churches at war

with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each in its turn was consumed,

and with promises of higher ratings,

I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects,

but neglect the discipline emotions. Just let those run wild.

Until before you knew it, you'd have to have drug-snipping dogs and metal detectors

at every schoolhouse door.

Within a decade, I'd have prisons overflowing.

I'd have judges promoting pornography. Soon I could evict God from the courthouse,

then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress.

And in his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science.

I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.

If I were the devil, I'd make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

If I were the devil, I'd take from those who have and give to those who wanted,

until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

And what'll you bet, I couldn't get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich.

I would caution against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, in moral conduct.

I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is

more fun, that what you see on TV is the way to being.

And thus I could undress you in public and I could lure you into bed with diseases

for which there is no cure.

In other words, if I were the devil, I'd just keep right on doing what he's doing.

Very fascinating words. Very fascinating words. And so part of the issue that

we're facing when we try to answer this question is the aspect of spiritual forces of darkness.

They are at work, they are at play, and they are really, really having a heyday, it seems like.

And to me, this is part of the answer to this question. What's happened to us?

Well, we've let the spiritual forces of darkness, Satan, the devil,

however you want to describe it, really run wild in and through us.

And that's a detriment. That's a detriment, especially when we think of us as

a redeemed people purchased by Jesus's own blood and we're getting our cues.

We're getting our answers from secular devil run words.

And so as I continue to process through this, as I continue to really try to

understand the biblical answer to this question, I was driven to James chapter four.

It's a verse. There are verses here that I've really tried to commit to memory over the past few weeks.

And it's words are wise, I think, to help us to ask what is happening to us.

And so before I start reading in James 4 verse 1, let me pray.

James 4:1

Lord God Almighty, I come before you today and I ask you to reveal your truth to us.

Help us to know what our response to an ever-changing world should be.

Help us to understand what you want us to do.

Give us eyes that see you, ears that hear you, and hearts and minds that know you and love you.

And really drive us, Father, really drive us to be obedient to you and your call upon our lives.

Jesus, we ask this in your name, amen.

James chapter four, starting in verse one.

And these words are coming to us, the first words of James.

He talks about how he is writing to the diaspora.

This is the dispersed Jews that are all over the world.

And this happened earlier on in Jewish history when they really went through

two rounds of being exiled from the land. The northern ten tribes from Assyria,

they got taken and dispersed all over the world.

And then the southern tribe of Judah and Benjamin, they were dispersed by the Babylonian Empire.

And so James is writing this letter to Jewish Christians who are not around

Jerusalem. They have not returned to their home country.

And so he's writing this to believers in Jesus.

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you?

Don't they come from the evil desires at war within you?

You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it.

You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it, so you fight and

wage war to take it away from them.

Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it.

And even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong.

You want only what will give you pleasure.

And this is really a lie from Satan.

That our life should be easy. It should be comfortable.

It should be the way we want it exactly.

And he's talking about how in our culture today, it's instant gratification.

And I'm as guilty as anybody of this. In fact, last night, one of my daughters

said she would make hot chocolate for Jillian and I.

And I was like, hey, that sounds great. Thank you.

But she takes so long to make things.

It's infuriating. So I put the ingredients there and I just said,

hey, stir this, add the water, put it in the microwave, do that.

Because I didn't want to wait. It's that instantaneous pleasure that I want

and that we all have the temptation to really run after.

And so James is saying, it's all internal.

Like you really need to guide your own steps, your own thoughts,

your own wants, your own desires.

You really need to take them through the lens of Jesus and his cross and his teachings.

And this is very similar to what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

He is being in this chapter, the religious leaders are accusing his disciples

of not following man-made traditions of washing their hands before a meal.

And Jesus tells them, you don't need to do that because your teachings also

nullified the word of God.

And he says, you, if there is a parent in need from one of your students and

they've fallen on hard times,

maybe they can't plant or plow their field that year because of an illness or

an injury, then it's okay according to your standards.

Even though God says to honor your father and mother, it's okay because your

man-made standards say if people promise to give money to God,

then they don't have to give that money to their parents.

They don't have to give up their time, their talents, their treasures to help

that parent who can't plow their field that year, who can't reap and who can't

harvest because something has come up to them.

And he says, you nullify the word of God with these man-made traditions and

it shows your inner ugliness.

In verse 17 of Matthew 15, he says this, anything you eat passes through the

stomach and then goes into the sewer, but the words you speak come from the

heart. That's what defiles you.

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality,

theft, lying, and slander.

These are what defile you.

Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.

And so he's talking about, hey, you guys really need to care about what your

thought processes are. You really need to understand the inner motives of what

you're doing and why you're doing it.

It is imperative to you to really comprehend and understand this.

And James is reiterating that as well. It's because you want pleasure.

You don't want sacrifice.

You don't wanna follow the example of Jesus all the way to the cross.

You wanna do what you wanna do. You want pleasure. You want to feel good about yourself.

And so you put all around you people who will speak that into you.

What Paul says to Timothy, people who have itching ears, they go to what they want to hear.

And part of the problem with how we've gotten to where we've gotten today is

that the people of God, they just want to hear what they want to hear.

They want to hear that everything in this life is going to be good and pleasant.

They're going to have a pleasurable life.

This is a lie from Satan. This is a desire that we are at war with and we need to keep it at bay.

Because it will drive us to people, to teachers, and you can find them out there

still today, who are all about, I want you to feel good. I want you to just think positively.

Instead of rooting ourselves in what the Word of God says.

So James says, yeah, you are going to be counter-cultural.

You are Christians living in a broken, sinful world, a world where Satan, when he tempted Jesus,

he said, I will give you every kingdom on this planet and they will bow down

and they will worship you if you just bow down to me first.

And you know what that means? It means that Satan has control down here,

that he has some sort, it's God-given, but he has some sort of say in matters on this earth.

And he is attacking us. Peter, when he writes about Satan, calls him a ravenous

lion who is prowling this earth, searching for his next victim.

And we have to root ourselves in God.

I want you to know that I pray for you every week.

And I pray, one of the things I pray for you is, I take it right from the Lord's prayer.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

I pray that God will protect your heart and your mind from spiritual attacks from the adversary.

This is a constant prayer I have for you.

Because it's out there. It's real. And we really need to guard ourselves from it.

James continues, and he uses really harsh language here. So just be prepared for that.

You adulterers, don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an

enemy of God? I say it again.

If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

What do you think the scripture means when they say that the spirit God has

placed within us is filled with envy,

but he gives even more grace to stand against such evil desires as the scriptures

say, God opposes the proud, but favors the humble.

This is a quote from Proverbs God

opposes the proud He stands

against them His face is against their face And He's standing in their way God

opposes the proud But gives grace to the humble And when I was researching 2

Chronicles 7 If my people who are called by my name Will humble themselves.

I think the way that we revert and we change the course of change in this country

and in our lives is we've got to humble ourselves.

We've got to fall before God and we've got to say, God, I can't do this.

I need your spirit inside of me directing me and leading me.

I need your protection from attacks from the adversary.

I need you to really guard my heart and my mind. I need you to set my heart on fire.

Come before God, pray and ask him, tell him, I can't do this, but I can if you help me.

And then live into the spirit that he gave to us.

Live into the spirit that he set inside every true believer and walk according

to him and not according to the flesh.

He continues, So humble yourselves before God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come close to God and God will come

close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners.

Purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep, deep grief.

Let there be sadness instead of laughter and gloom instead of joy.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

This is a really challenging, challenging verse.

And my idea of humility is not to think less of yourself.

Please know that you are made in God's image, that you are beautiful in his

sight, that he died to redeem you so that he could be with you forever.

And you can never lose sight of that. You are precious to God.

And so my idea of humility is not looking upon yourself in a low estate,

but looking at everybody else and saying, you're equal to me.

You're made in God's image too. He cares about you and I should care about you as well.

And so it's not a lowering of yourself, but it's a raising up of the other people.

And if we really want humble hearts, we're looking at people in the eye.

We're not on different levels. we are all the same.

And yes, we're not always going to agree on what we think is the best option.

And that's one of the wonders that God made us unique and different from each other.

But we still look to each other and we still say, you're made in God's image.

And so I respect you. I respect you.

Not looking down our noses at people. We're looking them in the eye and we're

saying you have value, you have worth, and to try to bring this all back.

What is happening to us? Why is faith, Christianity, why is our country,

why are freedoms so different from they were long ago?

I really think it comes down to people in the church, people who follow after Jesus.

We're not humbling ourselves. I really think that's the important part here.

That we need to take home. That we can get on social media. that we can proclaim

loudly in any platform we choose, I'm right, you're wrong.

And while there is ultimate truth, while it does take faith in Jesus Christ

to get up into heaven, and while that is offensive to some people,

there are better ways to go about it than just a standoffish,

holier-than-thou attitude.

It's gotta be contrite. It's gotta be really from your heart where you say,

I care about what's going to happen to you.

I don't want you to spend eternity away from God because I know the richness

that God provides for us.

And so I beg you to please humble yourselves before God.

Please just pick up this book and read it and see for yourself if it comes true.

Pray for these people, really, authentically, genuinely, lift them up in prayer

every single day because ultimately you can't save them, but God can and God does.

In Sunday school class, we talked about how God still works miracles today and

how it's really hard in our culture to see that God's in the miracle business.

We are filled with luxuries. We are filled with scientific answers and reasons

for why somebody is healing again.

We can think it's human ingenuity in modern medicine instead of thinking,

God put that curiosity inside of us.

God really devoted time and effort to put us as people who ask questions,

as people who seek and search for answers to really difficult problems.

It's really remarkable when there is a breakthrough in medicine,

that people have patience, that people have endurance, and that people have

all sorts of ideas that lead to amazing happenstances.

And we need to give God thanks for that. And it's really easy to just say to

thank the doctor instead of thanking God.

And so humility is coming before God.

It's saying, God, I've tried this on my own. Or maybe, God, I know better than to try this on my own.

I need your wisdom. I need your direction. I need you to take the next step for me.

Use my body as a vehicle and just take it over with the Holy Spirit and tell me what to do.

We need to know God and what he wants us to do.

And the best way to do that Is for us to pick up this book And for us to read

it To get to know God better and more intimately There's nothing more humbling

Than reading about how God judges,

How Israelites were taken into captivity Because they rebelled against God There's

nothing more humbling Than reading the story of Jesus on the cross He didn't

deserve it He did it for us,

There's nothing more humbling than taking this book and realizing that God created

everything we see and even everything we can't.

Next year, we're gonna go through the New Testament together.

We're gonna have a reading plan. We're gonna have everything worked out.

Last year in 2020, when we went through the year of the Bible,

it's gonna be a lot like that, except it's gonna be a lot shorter reading because

it's only the New Testament and 365 days.

And so I wanna encourage you to really be preparing your hearts and your minds

to encounter the word of God with us.

And if we want to shift the tides of change in ourselves, in our families,

in our communities, we gotta get back to the basics.

We gotta get back to the word of God.

So this week, I just really wanna encourage you How can you humble yourselves before God?

How can you come before him and say, God, we need you desperately?

It's the most important thing we can do. I know the promise was for Israel,

but God told Solomon, who had so much wealth and so much splendor,

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves.

James picks up on that. Humble yourselves before God.

Exist the devil and he will flee from you. It's the only hope we got to make

the change that is coming, a change that promotes God instead of the world. Let's pray.

Lord God Almighty, we come before you today and we ask you. We ask you to search our hearts.

We ask you to know our anxious thoughts. And we ask that you will point out

anything in us that offends you.

May our motives be pure when we come before you.

May they not be out of fear. May they be out of love for you and out of reverence for you.

And may our actions and our thoughts, our words, our deeds, may they all be

stemming from your spirit that you have placed inside of us.

Lead us. Father, please lead us.

We need you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you again for joining us in our discussion on what has happened to faith,

freedom, and Christianity in the United States.

This series was designed to promote questions in and amongst followers of Jesus.

Remember, it is good to ask questions.

Questions show you want to learn. be curious, and always ask questions.

In our next episode, we will look at the question of pain and suffering and

answer, why do innocent children suffer from serious circumstances?