National Blessing Is Directly Related To National Lifestyle!

7.6.2025

Introduction

Since we just celebrated Our nation’s 249th birthday, I want to talk about America, our freedoms, and our path forward.

I have friends in other nations who walk with God with hunger and zeal: In Europe, India, Russia, Africa, Central America, and Asia.

Their governments are not all friendly to Christianity and the freedoms we have in America. But the Lord works in their lives and gives them favor and blessing. Sometimes they live with great sacrifice.

We have been given the gift of freedom here in America that few nations enjoy. In fact, because of our financial strength, we lead the world in so many ways.

With our freedoms comes a huge responsibility to honor the God who gave our freedoms to us!

We as believers must lead a call God is giving our nation to repent of our wayward path!

Proverbs 14:34 (NKJV)

Righteousness exalts a nation,

But sin is a reproach to any people.

Proverbs 14:34 (AMP)

Righteousness [moral and spiritual integrity and virtuous character] exalts a nation,

But sin is a disgrace to any people.

John Adams

1798 – Address to the Military

(http:patriotpost.us/fqd/results.asp)

 

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Back in 1983, a person who defected from then communist Russia told school students at our church – If you want to keep your nation, keep your morals. When you lose your morals, you will lose your nation.

Europe lost its evangelistic edge, and now churches there are bars and booze halls.

It’s the same way in England.

What will we do in America?

God’s desire is to bless nations! But we must live in such a way that we attract His blessing and help.

Psalm 33:12-22 (NKJV)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen for His inheritance. (13) The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. (14) From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; (15) He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works. (16) No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. (17) A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. (18) Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, (19) To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. (20) Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.

Our once great nation is in trouble. A rapid downward spiral – politically, economically, spiritually, socially, morally, is upon us.

What are the answers?

We live in a totally divisive age. Our nation is as divided as ever. Republican versus Democrats. Rich versus poor. Black versus white. Conservatives versus liberals.

The adage fits: United we stand, divided we fall.

Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand.

What is the role of the church in government?

The Church of Jesus is called to be salt and light in every nation it lives!

We are NOT to put any nation above the Kingdom of God! The Kingdom of God is like salt and light in every nation, including America!

Notice what Jesus said to Pilate:

John 18:33-36 (NLT)

Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him. (34) Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?” (35) “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?” (36) Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”

We are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven first!

1 Peter 2:11-12 (AMPC)

Beloved, I implore you as aliens and strangers and exiles [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges (the evil desires, the passions of the flesh, your lower nature) that wage war against the soul. 12 Conduct yourselves properly (honorably, righteously) among the Gentiles, so that, although they may slander you as evildoers, [yet] they may by witnessing your good deeds [come to] glorify God in the day of inspection [when God shall look upon you wanderers as a pastor or shepherd looks over his flock].

Notice what Peter said in living in a culture under Roman control:

Many of the leaders in Rome were cruel tyrants, but that did not stop the church of Jesus!

1 Peter 2:13-17 (NLT)

For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority—whether the king as head of state, (14) or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right. (15) It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you. (16) For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. (17) Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God, and respect the king.

God did not call us to win the political debate first of all! He called us to represent Jesus in our culture, regardless of where we live, or who is in control!

Our life as a Christian should transcend or supersede the country where we live and its values.

Erwin Lutzer – Is God on America’s Side, p. 9

We need to warn against a kind of “God is on our side” nationalism that makes the success of the church dependent on the favor of the state…The time may come when we will have a presidential administration that is hostile to Christianity.

(from Is God on America’s Side by Erwin Lutzer (Chicago, Il: Moody Publishers, 2008) , p. 9)

During New Testament times, Rome ruled the nation of Israel. The Roman emperors were godless men in a pagan culture. Roman culture was hostile to Christianity from its beginning, yet the church thrived under great persecution there.

History has shown that the best spiritual advancements in the church happen during periods of great persecution.

Christianity became a shadow of what it was after Constantine declared it the “State” religion in 325 AD.

We often use the phrase God Bless America. But the God of the average American is just a bit different than the God of the Bible!

The God of American civic life is distinct from the God revealed in the Word of God!

Our politicians frequently mention God Bless America, but what exactly do we mean by that statement?

Our ideas about God and His blessings are often separate from the Word of God!

Psalm 50:16-21 (NKJV)

But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth, (17) Seeing you hate instruction and cast My words behind you? (18) When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers. (19) You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. (20) You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. (21) These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes.

Erwin Lutzer: Is God on America’s Side, p. 12

God is consistently banished from science, economics, history, education, and government. The role of religion, we are told, is to bless the soul, but not to interfere with our lifestyle or public policy.

The God of the American public has been described by R.C. Sproul as a “deity without sovereignty, a god without wrath, a judge without judgment, and a force without power.”

Or, as many people put it, “a bigger one of us.”

Almost every State of the Union Speech since 1984 has ended with God Bless America.

When the average American says God Bless America, it means various things:

(from Is God on America’s Side by Erwin Lutzer (Chicago, Il: Moody Publishers, 2008) , p. 14).

It may simply mean:

Lord, I pray that you protect us; especially I pray that my family might not die; or may I live in good health, may I be able to pay my mortgage, and above all, Lord, may the stock market not fall so my retirement is secure.

They implore the God who does not call upon us to forsake our cultural idols, but rather invites us to indulge ourselves … In contrast, the God of Moses and of the Old Testament Scriptures is the God who invites us to choose: “Choose Me and receive my blessing; disobey Me and be cursed.”

In contrast, listen to the God of the Bible:

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (NKJV)

Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: (27) the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; (28) and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

Jesus introduced to us the concept that Satan is a thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy life, happiness, and property.

When we obey God, the curse of the broken law cannot come near us. But, if we disobey, we inherit the natural default of the fallen world, Satan and ruin.

Could it be that those who speak of judgment are simply using these terse terms to describe what happens when a nation turns away from light and follows darkness?

Isaiah 63:10

But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, and He fought against them.

Nature turns against those who disobey God’s moral law.

Erwin Lutzer, p. 16 (from Is God on America’s Side by Erwin Lutzer (Chicago, Il: Moody Publishers, 2008)

The God of the Bible will not endlessly tolerate idolatry and benign neglect. He graciously endures rejection and insults, but at some point, He might choose to bring a nation to its knees with severe judgment.

Is that what is happening in America right now?

Notice what happened to Israel when they walked away from God and His blessing and chose their own way…

Hosea 4:1-6 (NKJV)

Hear the word of the LORD, You children of Israel, For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. (2) By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed. (3) Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away. (4) “Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; for your people are like those who contend with the priest. (5) Therefore you shall stumble in the day; the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother. (6) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

America is not immune to destruction and decline! We live and act as though we are not in trouble, and we are!

What should our response be as Christians to our national decline?

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)

If My people who are called by My name will 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.

Matthew 5:13-16 (NKJV)

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. (14) You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. (15) Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. (16) Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Listen to the call to repentance that preceded the word of a coming revival:

 

Judgment was coming. After calling for repentance, Joel prophesied a great move of the Spirit. (Joel 2:28-32)

Joel 2:12-17 (NLT) – A Call to Repentance

That is why the LORD says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. 13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. 14 Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse. Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine to the LORD your God as before. 15 Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem! Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. 16 Gather all the people— the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room. 17 Let the priests, who minister in the LORD’s presence, stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar. Let them pray, “Spare your people, LORD!Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery. Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say, ‘Has the God of Israel left them?’”

So, what do we do now?

Action Points: 4 Ways You Can Make a Difference:

Light a candle instead of cursing the darkness!

1. Be a light to others.

Show them a different way to live by walking with God!

Bless and encourage others with your words, be unselfish, choose sexual purity, be truthful, treat others the way you want to be treated.

Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

2. Pray for our nation.

Would you join me in repentance for where we the church have allowed our nation to go?

Would you be willing to take some time every day to devote to praying for revival that begins with a repentant church in America? We will determine the future move of the Holy Spirit in America by what we the church choose to do, or refuse to do.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT)

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 (NLT)

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.

1 Corinthians 4:5 (NKJV)

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts…

3. Live in a way that makes Jesus interesting.

People are looking for what is real, truthful, and bare bones honest.

1 Peter 3:15-17 (NIV)

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, (16) keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. (17) It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

1 Peter 3:15-17 (TPT)

But give reverent honor in your hearts to the Anointed One and treat him as the holy Master of your lives. And if anyone asks about the hope living within you, always be ready to explain your faith 16 with gentleness and respect. Maintain a clean conscience, so that those who slander you for living a pure life in Christ will have to lie about you and will be ashamed because of their slander. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if it is in God’s plan, than for doing evil.

4. Tell people what Jesus has done for you.

1 John 1:3 (NLT)

We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

Don’t be afraid for people to disagree with you.

Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. (19) Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (20) Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Mark 16:15-16 (NLT)

And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.

(16) Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.”

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NLT)

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. (19) For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. (20) So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

Colossians 1:28-29 (NLT)

So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. (29) That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.