Isaiah 33:6 “He will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;”

I think that if we could all agree on one thing today, it would be that our nation is in trouble. From whatever angle you may be looking from, America is falling apart. Economically, emotionally, morally and most importantly, spiritually. America is headed for destruction.

As individuals, there is not much that we can do about this, but as the Body of Christ, His church, there is Hope. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ” The church is the moral conscience of the nation. She is not the master and she is not the servant.” When the church remains silent, when pastors are too timid to speak out and when the people of God don’t want to do anything, the states will see this and will begin to see just how far they can push their agenda. They will continue to push and push until they’ve achieved their goal of eliminating the voice of God’s people. At some point, we as a church HAVE to PUSH BACK! That is how wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of these times.

We as a church cannot live in the fear of man. We must not let Satan get a foot hold amongst the brothers and sisters of our churches. We must not cower in silence. We cannot allow anything to stand in the way of shining the Light of the Gospel on the sinful condition of a wayward people. Ephesians 5:11 says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead EXPOSE THEM.”We aren’t just supposed to roll over every time one of our God given freedoms are stripped away, we are to fight for them.

Notice that I didn’t use the word “rights”, I specifically chose the word “freedoms”. Rights are something that we talk about when speaking about something that we are owed or something that we have earned. It is a sense of entitlement. We as Christians are called to die to self, so in one sense we shouldn’t really even have rights. God given freedoms, on the other hand, are something that have been given to us by God (i.e. the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness that our forefathers spoke of, the freedom to live is why we speak out against the slaughter of innocent babies, the freedom for purity and innocence is why we guard our children, etc.).

God given freedoms are to be fought for. The freedom to worship is definitely something we should fight for. Daniel was told not to worship anyone except the king and he went against that order and prayed openly to God. Although he was sentenced to the lions’ den, God intervened because of his obedience to stand up for his God given freedom to worship, and he was miraculously delivered from a certain death.

In the same way, we have the opportunity to show the world our great God who still works miracles today. However, if we give up our freedom to worship together and fail to minister to those who are hurting when the world needs Christ the most, I believe that as a church, we will be fueling our own irrelevance.

Maybe some of you are thinking about Jesus’ commands to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Maybe you are thinking of the passage from Colossians 3 that says to clothe yourself in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. I absolutely LOVE that passage, but you need to remember that even the apostle Paul fought for his freedom. He said, “I appeal to Caesar” when he was unjustly arrested.

Maybe you are convinced that Jesus was only a timid, mild-mannered man that only spoke loving and tender words. He was not a pacifist just going with the flow! How about these direct quotes from our loving Savior, “You brood of vipers…” and “You white-washed tombs…”. He often had the message of, “I love you. You are a sinner. Turn and repent.” We are to speak out against anything that is an attack on God’s character and his Word.

Perhaps Leonard Ravenhill said it best when he said, “If Jesus preached the same message ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” Don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying that every single preacher in America is silently cowering in fear. I just think that there is a vast majority of men who call themselves pastors out there that are catering to what the people want to hear in order to avoid confrontation. The pulpit once set the tone for our great nation. Now we can hear the echos of Psalm 94:16 ringing across the land, “Who rises up for Me against the wicked? Who stands up for Me against the evil doers?”

Let it be us! Let it be the church! Oh, that we would not be willing to be led as lambs to the slaughter! “Boldness is a direct reflection of the Holy Spirit working in your life.” (unknown) We need to rise up and fight! This is a spiritual battle and we will need spiritual weapons with which to fight it. We need to fight from a Biblical perspective; with praise, worship, prayer, fasting and seeking God. As Pastor Shane Idleman said, “We don’t need full gun safes (at least not yet) we need full prayer closets!”

Isaiah 30:27 says, “Behold the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with His anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a devouring fire; His breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.”

Nothing can hold back the hand of God but a broken and repentant people. We need a revival of brokenness and dependence on Him. These are hard times, but pandemics aren’t something new to God’s people. Locusts, famines and plagues were all in the Bible! When God’s people went through these things, what did they do? They CRIED OUT TO GOD!

Church! Rise up! Arm yourselves with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God and get ready to fight. The best place to start our battle? On our knees.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14