"A HOPE
FOR ALL OF US", Restoration Fellowship, October 30, 2016"
CONNECTION
Who are you going to vote for next week? Are you going to vote? Many are disgusted with the choices presented
and are in a quandary as to what they should do. Most people I know can't wait for this
campaign to be over and the nastiness that has marked these days to end! The problem is that there is no guarantee the
rancor will end with the election!
TENSION
Many in our country today believe we are
heading in the wrong direction. Others believe
we are moving onward toward a better future.
Both parties are filled with fear: one fearful of what we will become;
another fearful of going back to what we were!
The divisions are real and the animosity palpable!
SOLUTION
Psalm
33:12a (NKJV) Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord...
God does not need America; America needs God! He doesn't need us; we need Him!
INSTRUCTION
My purpose this morning is not to make a
political speech or do a study in prophecy!
My purpose is to speak a word of hope to our country and to us. In this current adversarial climate, we must
remember that...
God is sovereign in the affairs of men.
Psalms
75:6-7 (NIV) No one from the east or the west or from the desert
can exalt themselves. 7 It is God who judges: He brings one down, He
exalts another.
Daniel
2:19-21 (NLT) That night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a
vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven. 20 He said, “Praise
the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. 21 He
controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars.
Romans
13:1 (NLT) Everyone
must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and
those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.
Brothers and sisters: our hope is not in any
certain political philosophy or economic system; it is in the Lord God
Almighty. For years we have pinned our
hope for change in our country on getting involved politically and seeking to
force cultural reformation through the ballot box and the courts. In the late 1970's many churches that Alba
and I were involved in adopted the slogan: "Christian Americanism, the
hope of our republic". Although
well-intentioned, we have not seen a reformation in our nation. If anything, it has gotten worse!
Some are talking revolution today. That is not the answer. Our only hope is revival!
Assyria was one of the cruelest, blood-thirsty,
pagan nations on the earth. Its capital
was Nineveh. Isaiah prophesied that God
would use Assyria to bring judgment on the nation of Israel.
Isaiah
7:17–20 (NKJV) The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and
your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that
Ephraim departed from Judah.” 18And it shall come to pass in that
day that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest part of the
rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19They
will come, and all of them will rest in the desolate valleys and in the clefts
of the rocks, and on all thorns and in all pastures. 20In the same
day the Lord will shave with a hired razor, with those from beyond the River,
with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the legs, and will also
remove the beard.
Assyria brought humiliation to Israel, yet
they also rebelled and God spoke judgment to them.
Isaiah
10:12 (NKJV) Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has
performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, “I
will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the
glory of his haughty looks.”
Payday someday, yet God called a prophet,
Jonah, to go there and preach. At first,
Jonah did not want to go; not because he was frightened, but because he did not
want this enemy of Israel to live. He wanted them to be totally destroyed! If he went and preached, he knew God would
show mercy and let them live! So Jonah
rebelled against God and went to Tarshis.
Sometimes I see this attitude in me. I want God to rain down fire and destroy
those who speak out against Him, and me!
The disciples had this problem too!
Luke
9:51–56 (NKJV) Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him
to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52and
sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of
the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53But they did not receive Him,
because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54And when
His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord,
do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them,
just as Elijah did?” 55But He turned and
rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what
manner of spirit you are of. 56For the Son of Man did not come to
destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
I forget that I am not better than them. I am not better than anyone. I do not deserve God's grace. How can I take the attitude that they do not
deserve God's grace, only judgment! The
only problem with those who hate God is that they don't know Him yet! A current term is 'pre-Christian". They have not experienced His love yet, His
grace yet, His life-changing power yet!
The great Baptist preacher and soul-winner, John R. Rice, said that 'the
only problem with any sinner-man is that he just needs to get saved"!
God would not allow Nineveh to go through
judgment without hearing the Gospel. So
He dealt with His recalcitrant prophet! After
spending some time in the belly of a great fish, Jonah had a different
response!
Jonah
3:1–4 (NKJV) Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second
time, saying, 2“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to
it the message that I tell you.” 3So Jonah arose and went to
Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly
great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4And Jonah began to enter
the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days,
and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
What was the result? Repentance and revival!
Jonah 3:5–10
(NKJV) So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a
fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6Then
word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside
his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7And he
caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of
the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor beast, herd nor
flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8But let man and beast
be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let everyone turn from
his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9Who can
tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that
we may not perish?" 10Then God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said
He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
Revival comes when God's people go where God
sends them and proclaim the message God gives them!
Matthew
28:18–20 (NKJV) And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (so be it).
Mark 16:15
(NKJV) And He said to them, “Go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Luke
24:46–49 (NKJV) Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus
it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third
day, 47and
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48And you are witnesses of
these things. 49Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you;
but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on
high.”
Acts 1:6–8
(NKJV) Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7And He said to them, “It is not for you to
know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8But
you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall
be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end
of the earth.”
INSPIRATION
St. Clements prayer meeting... "The
problem is not up here!"
"Why Revival Tarries" by Leonard Ravenhill...
"We don't have revival because we really don't want it!" We don't have revival because we are willing
to live without it!"
ACTION STEPS
Pray for revival!
HASHTAG #hope&pray
