GOD BLESS AMERICA

TEXT:  "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." - Psalm 33:12

This message is being attached on my blog site on July 4th, the anniversary of our nation's independence.  This is a celebrated national holiday in America.  Our nation's independence from Britain in 1776 was a miracle, directed by God, obtained by our forefathers at a great price and is maintained through the sacrifice of many.  God has truly blessed America.

We need God to bless America again.  When Irving Berlin wrote the song, "God Bless America," he probably never envisioned the day when the song would become a spiritual hymn of desperation.  While God is blessing America right now to a certain degree, most Christians would have to admit that the tide of God's blessings is being withheld.  Although I don't like to be the voice of gloom and doom, I must agree with many Christians and say that I believe that His blessings will be completely removed very soon.  Unless something drastic occurs, God's judgment will soon fall on America.

While many are deliberately removing God from the American scene, born-again believers realize that this is a foolish and lethal act.  We need God to bless America.  However, we have given God little reason to bless us.

Our nation has openly encouraged, embraced and endorsed the very sins that God has specifically condemned.  Billy Graham once said, "If God doesn't bring judgment on America soon, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."  Christians are ridiculed as being a "hate group" because we will not compromise our convictions about the Bible.  If God calls something sin, we dare not argue the point with Him.  He is the final authority on the subject. 

Sadly, many well-known mega-pastors are compromising with the world.  While they seek to be respectable to the world, they are losing favor with God.  Which is really more important:  the praise of men or the praise of God?

Despite the rapid moral, ethical and spiritual decline of our nation, I believe that there is only a faint hope that America can be saved from God's judgment.  This hope does not lie with the next election or the appointment of a conservative Supreme Court justice.  Instead, our only hope is found in the person of Jesus Christ.  Here are some things that Christians need to desperately seek:

1.            REVIVAL IN OUR CHURCHES

We need old-fashioned, heaven-sent, God-honoring, Christ-exalting, sin-hating, Spirit-led, saint-edifying, Bible-driven revival in our churches.  We need revival that will drive away all compromise and hypocrisy.  We need fresh conviction of sin that leads to true repentance.  We need deliverance from the stale religion that has dishonored God for so long.  We need revival that will awaken saints to the need of the hour and the peril of lost souls.  We need believers to fall in love with Jesus rather than their bank account.  We need believers to be devoted to God's Book rather than Facebook. 

I strongly believe that the American Church is greatly responsible for the mess this nation is in today.  If we had been about our Father's business instead of our own business, the spiritual climate of our nation would be far better today.

2.            SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN AMERICA

A spiritual awakening is slightly different from revival.  Revival is a divine work, specifically designed to awaken believers, produce repentance in the church and bring believers to renewed vigor for the Lord & His kingdom.  A spiritual awakening is a widespread move of God to save souls and transform lives by the power of the Gospel.  Often revival precedes a spiritual awakening.  God's people usually have to get right with Him before there is a large-scale spiritual awakening.  Yet apart from a spiritual awakening, our nation is doomed for judgment.  Millions of souls are lost and will soon perish unless a spiritual awakening occurs. 

I believe God wants to bring revival and a spiritual awakening.  Like most miracles, revival will never come until God's people get desperate for Him.  Perhaps the events of the last few weeks (and years) have been permitted to get God's people on their knees.  If there has ever been a time that God's people need to get serious, get right with God, and get on their knees, it is right now. 

Our nation's woes will never be resolved at the voting box, but in the prayer closet.  It is time for the American Church to repent.  Let us look to the Lord and pray, "God Bless America."