A HOPE FOR ALL OF US

"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