National day of Prayer Message May 7th, 2009

Message Delivered on the National Day of Prayer in Palmetto Historical District
Isaiah 1:10-18

I have been asked to bring the homily today for our community’s observance of the National Day of Prayer. I count it an honor to do so. When the Mayor’s office asked me to bring the homily I jokingly replied that, “I was not sure what a homily was but that I would be glad to preach.” They agreed; and that is what I intend to do: to preach in the allotted time God’s eternal truths for our day and need.
Truly we are living in times when answers to prayers are desperately needed. I suppose that throughout the generations people have felt that their times and their troubles were the worst and signaled the end. I cannot answer for their part, but for our part I can say without caution or qualification that we are desperate times: times that our nation has never seen before. We are, today, in need of the intervention and power of a holy God. Abortion has stained the hands of our nation with the blood of innocents that can never be washed away nationally; Sexual sins (homosexuality, fornication & adultery) are rampant and there are few if any to blush at the foul and vulgar images laid bare for all to see; Violence like an acrimonious stench is permeating the air that we breathe; Materialism has made us financial vagabonds and slaves while our homes have become storage vaults for “stuff” rather than havens of love. Our once great Nation is being led, for the greater part, by men who are moral jackals roaming the halls of our once great government. Religion is making little difference as a whole on our nation; the sanctuaries are larger, the programs are more relevant, the use of technology is more accessible – yet – for all these things are land is void of prophets who stand without fear or favor and declare the goodness and severity of God in august passion. We need God to rend the heavens and come down among if ever we are to see more glorious and righteous days. We need God to answer Prayer
Yet just because we gather to pray is no guarantee that God will answer. God is not an automated being forced into action by the mystic energy of prayer; nor is God inconsistent with Himself so that His love and mercy trumps and lays aside His holiness and justice. Prayer is only answered when God’s Conditions are met. One may pray a thousand prayers, gather in all the prayer days one can hold in a year, weep and lament- yet never hear from God or see the hand of God move. Prayer is never answered unless the conditions for God to answer prayer are met. What are those conditions? What and how are we to adjust to God and relate to God so that we can with assurance and trust and know that God both hears and acts upon the prayers that we offer Him this day?
First, God only hears our prayers when we come to Him on the grounds of Jesus Christ the Son of God. It is the cross of Calvary that grants one access to the Throne of God. You can be religious, ethical, moral, charitable and sincere yet none of these things will grant you access to the ear and heart of God. Mankind is sinful: sinful by nature and sinful by the standard of God’s law. Sinful man cannot have access or fellowship with a Holy God. God’s word states that God will not “look on sin” and we are separated by our own sin and His holiness. The only mediation, the only way sinful man can have access to a holy God is through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ died for sins; Christ died to appease the ire of God; Christ died to satisfy the demands of the law. It is only when you have a saving encounter with Christ that you have right and access to God. Today, regardless of your religious affiliation, regardless of your own assessment of your righteousness – if you do not have Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord – you are eternally lost and God will not hear your prayers however noble and sincere they may be. Today – the one great prayer that should be uttered from a broken and repentant heart is: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Mercy is available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Second, God only hears the prayers of those repentant of sins. The Bible says: “if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear.” Far too many Christians are far too quick to ask God to do something without acknowledging our sins and failure before Him. I have two children whom I love dearly. I love to see them happy, blessed and fulfilled. But though they are my children and though I do indeed want to bless them they are required to be obedient in order to have full access to those blessings and joys a father has prepared. So it is with us as Christians. As Christians today we have embraced convenience, relevance, worldliness, selfness and indifference- rather than embracing a life lived and dedicated to God. We all fail as Christians. But we are not to ignore or shrug our failures off as if they were pesky annoyances. We are to come to God and ask for his forgiveness; we are to be humbled and sorrowful for our sins; we are to recognize that God is not be trifled and that holiness is a key and vital component to relationship and blessings from God.
Third, God only hears prayers when the lips praying match the heart. Matthew’s gospel states: “this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Another passage states: “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say.” Yet again Christ states: “If ye love me keep my commandments.” It is not one day of prayer but a life of prayer that captures the ear of God; it is not one worship service Sunday morning but a life of worship that moves the heart of God; it is not words gloriously spoken that stirs God to move on our behalf. It is our heart – passionately in love and willingly obedient – that rouses the jealously of God for His people’s behalf. We say a great deal and say it well, but do we live great and live it as well? The question before us today is what will our heart and motives and lives be like after this ceremony is over? Have we no shame? Are we not embarrassed by our own hypocrisy? We pray and feel religious, but ignore the one thing God demands: “thou shalt have no other gods before.” From Mt. Sinai’s thunderous peaks, across the expanse of time, down through the valleys of the Grand Canyon and across the tree gilded edges of the Blue Ridge – God’s warning echoes to us from sea to shining sea: “thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Do we not realize that man may look upon these proceedings today as religious and noble, but God looks upon the heart? Obedience is better than sacrifice; prayer without the corresponding action is a futile enterprise. I declare unto you as a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that if we are to secure the ear of God this day we can only do so on the conditions God has set: sinners finding salvation in Christ alone, Christian’s repenting and dealing with sin and God’s people living what they claim they believe. Please allow me to close in prayer.

"Waiting for it to Change"

I was recently reading the book, Atlas Shrugged, when I came across an interesting scene that caught my attention. Dagny Taggart is riding a train that comes to an unscheduled stop in the middle of nowhere. The reason for the train stopping was due to a broken red signal light that was stuck in the on position. Dagny Taggart is impatient and ready to get the train moving again. Her discussion with the conductor, who stopped the train for an hour, is an interesting one:

Conductor: “I don’t think the signal is going to change. I think it’s busted.”
Dagny Taggart: “Then what are you doing?” (She asks this with frustrated impatience.)
Conductor: “Waiting for it to change.”

The signal light was broken and it was not going to change. But the conductor was so paralyzed that he was willing to wait for it to change even though he knew it wouldn’t.
The conductor’s absurdity seems to be common. There are some signal lights that are broken, yet, we look on in vegetative inaction waiting for a change. Marriages, parenting, spiritual lives and relationships are stuck in the on position but not working. The strange thing is not the failure of the signal lights, but rather, those who stand there complacently staring: the minutes and moments of life passing them by.
Waiting for the signal light to work is not reasonable. How can one define the madness of our social and personal apathy? Watching a red light that you know is broken –“waiting for it to change”.

Judges 17 Question

The real reason I decided to drop you a line is that I am not making any sense out of Judges 17 thru the end of the book of Judges. I keep asking why this story is in the Bible. I understand what it's saying, but can't understand what it ties into. Can you tell me?

As far as Judges 17 – is concerned there are several reasons and principles that I think can be drawn from the passages:
First – it shows the ugliness and sin that Israel was engaged in. Very often “sin” is abstract and theoretical in our thinking but in these stories we see sin in its real nature and gore. Sin affects lives. And I feel when I read those passages that we see sin in it effects and consequences.

And that is important to remember. Sin is not just a religious idea that only has bearing upon the conscience prone to religion. Sin has real results in the world and in the lives of humanity.
Second – it shows the decay of a people who took God for granted. Israel had every reason to live right, yet, they chose to go down the path of hedonism and heathenism. As Christians we are always in danger of having all the outward trappings of faith and yet not experiencing the inward transformation and reality of that faith. There is a danger of living on the symbols and the past rather than living on the strength of a current and vital relationship with Christ.
Third – what is most interesting is the phrase “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” I feel like that is a perfect statement and illustration of where “relativism” leads to. They were not intending to do wrong per say, they were doing right – what “they” thought was right. So the Bible says: “there is a way which seemeth right unto man but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Right is only truly right when it is according to God’s commands and principles. In this current day and atmosphere everyone assumes they are doing right; however, that is a false assumption. Man is not bent naturally towards right; man is bent naturally towards sin. That is why it is so vital to make sure that our opinions, feelings, actions and attitudes, no matter how religious we may think they are, are in fact in line with scripture.

Fourth - these passages show us that God's grace and justice deals with man on the stage of human experience. By that I mean that these people in the Bible were not "characters" without feeling, without context, without psychological baggage and without the struggles of human existence. God's work of redemption and man's interaction with God is not played out in a vacuum. In passages like these we see God's grace in that He is dealing with man in all of man's failure and frailty - and how vile that can be the text clearly shows. True Christian experience is a human experience. Christian faith and obedience to God is not just something we "think" about in our private studies and church pews on Sunday morning. The Christian life is lived amidst the collisions of life and death, sin and righteousness, victory and struggle. We must not allow the Bible and its teachings to be separate from our lives, but rather, it must shape our lives and direct our lives as we live.

In the fury and bluster of troubled times there is, for Christians, a danger of becoming carried away with the moment and losing sight of eternal biblical principles that transcend political principles. This is just such a time. I do not believe that Socialism, nor any of its off shoots, is a viable political approach. The founding political principles of America has been and is the best, although not without problems, political approach to the human experience. But Socialism is not the great danger facing America. The cries of angst against bigger government, bail outs, environmentalism run rampant and political corruption are things that should not be our greatest fears. In short, Socialism will not destroy our nation - Sin will. It is not the political corruption in the halls of our government, but rather, the moral corruption within the the walls of our homes that will bring this nation to its knees. It is not bigger government but bigger "religion" that hides the face of God. Christianity has flourished under an array of political schemes: monarchies, oligarchies, republics, democracies and dictatorships. It is righteousness not rightness of politics that procures the blessings of God. Political change, no matter how noble is not the true and deepest answer to the issues we are facing. The only real issue is not grass roots political change but grass roots spiritual transformation. Christianity transcend politics. True morality and spiritual power is the result of an encounter with God and not the result of legislation. Tomorrow many Christians will attend "Tax Tea Parties" but that will, in the end, have little lasting impact. Far better would it be for Christians to attend prayer meetings, fast and seek God. We are facing times that call for a "rending of the heavens" if ever we are to be saved. We are facing challenges that can no longer be dealt with by newer methods. I believe it is very dangerous for Christians to be swept away in the fight for American Capitalism. The fight is not against flesh and blood. The fight of faith is one of righteousness. We must keep our focus clear and balanced. Socialism may be a symptom; but Sin is the disease. Only Calvary, only truth can truly cure the disease.

What in the world is a, "Soul Trap."

The "soul trap" was a phrase used to describe Whitefield's Tabernacle in the eighteenth century. That was a time when "souls" were brought under conviction & conversion through the power of the truth and the Holy Spirit. They were captured for Christ by His power alone. In these days of political dismay, economical trouble and anxiety at every turn, it is easy to be distracted from the real issues at stake. For all the symptoms we are faced with today, two things are true. First, this is not the first time in history great problems have faced a nation. Second, the real answer and cure has always been and will always be mankind rightly related to God through saving faith in Christ Jesus. This blog may deal with a myriad of issues: some personal, some political, some practical. But the answer to the true problems we are facing must always bring us back to the Gospel. The need now is not simply political reformation, more church programs and methods, lower taxes, health care reform -the need now is for churches to once again become "soul traps" - places where men and women are captured by the weight, reality and love of God displayed through the cross of Christ.