Discovering God's Plan for America: Isaiah 60:1-2

Discovering God's plan for America

Understanding the nation's heart condition

Recognizing the importance of a God-first mindset

Finding hope in Jesus as the way out of darkness

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Today is July 5th, yesterday was July 4th, our nation's birthday, or the day that they consider the nation's birthday. If you listened to Saturday morning's press yesterday, a little bit of it, we did a lot of different historical facts and stuff about America. America, and there was a consensus, because the Declaration of Independence was like Simon Moe II, that that was the day that should be considered Independence Day. Somewhere along the way, we got July 4th instead of July 2nd. But that's neither here nor there. But it is interesting to see those things. The nation's birthday, a day when we consider the fact that we broke away from the tyranny and became free. And in that time yesterday, when I looked, and I'm on social media, I like Twitter, I like to see what's going on and what people are talking about. And yesterday, it burned my heart. it really broke my heart when I looked at it. When I looked at social media and I saw some of the stuff trending. I'm not going to say it because it was downright disgusting, but some of the stuff that was trending about the 4th of July was just heartbreaking. And I mean, let's face it, it's an old statement, and maybe it's not popular to say it, especially in this generation, but when I see people that are disparaging America and saying all kinds of bad stuff about America, I want to sit there and say, well, if you don't like it here, what are you doing here? If you don't like it here, go to some other nation. Go get your citizenship and put it somewhere else. You don't have to stay here. Does America have problems? Yes. There's a lot of problems with America, but let's face it, I would much rather be here than anywhere else in this world. Because I'm going to tell you, as bad as we may happen here in America and as bad as there is stuff going on in America, this is still the best place to be in all the world. Because we think we got it bad here, we don't know. People don't know. the racial tension, the racial hatred and all the stuff that's going all around this place, America, it's a whole lot better than anywhere else. And to see stuff trending that was so disgusting broke my heart about this nation. It proved to me that this nation is in torment. This nation is in trouble. And we've got to do something. We're living in a time when we're seeing an upheaval, a brother against brother. We're seeing Christian churches being persecuted. Maybe not to the point of being thrown into prison and bars being put on the doors, but we are being persecuted in a very light way. We're seeing babies being aborted in the name of convenience. We are seeing a nation that is just literally staring down the barrel of a gun. That's what we're doing. We're staring down the barrel of a gun and we are too dumb to realize it. Or many people are too dumb to realize it. They just keep the upheaval going. They just keep, instead of saying, you know what, let's protest in a quiet way. No, we've got to bust up windows and we've got to try to hurt people. Oh, that's going to make a lot of difference. We're seeing a very, very tumultuous time in America. It is time for us as a nation to do something. And I love what Isaiah said. Isaiah wrote to the Israeli people, but it goes along for us, for America here in 2020. In verse 1 of chapter 60, Isaiah writes and he says, Arise, shine, for the light has come. I love that. Arise, beautiful word, arise from depression, if you will. We're living in darkness, and even Christians are living in darkness. so many Christian people we look at Christians and we see them going through the dark places and look we all go through dark places we all go through the valley as we know there are dark times in Christians experiences we know that but if you're living in the darkness every single day 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year, something's wrong. We're going to go through maybe long periods of the valley, but we should get out of the valley at least for a little bit. We should have those times when our hearts rejoice at least for a little bit. If we live in the valley and never come out, we need to start checking why we're never coming out of the valley at all. See, too many Christians are living in the darkness. It's time to come out of the darkness. And come into the light. I love what Jesus said. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man comes unto the Father but by me. He's the way out of the darkness. Hallelujah. He's the way out of the darkness. We're living in a time in a miracle when it's dark. and we sit and we go, how are we going to get out of this darkness? And this world, all the people in this world, they think the way we get out of darkness is to eliminate the police force. There's a big push for that, right? They think that a way we'll get out of the darkness is if we change the national anthem. They think the way to get out of darkness is if we pull down Confederate statues. Now look we know all about that and I not getting into that Maybe that wrong maybe it wrong I not getting into that The point is that not going to change anything We can pull down everything there is to pull down. We can level this whole nation to where nothing stands, and it's not going to change what's going on, because what's going on in this nation is a heart condition. That's what's going on. The problem with this nation is a heart condition. We don't have a heart for God. We've got to change our hearts. When we change our hearts, we change the minds. And when we change the minds, we change the actions. That's what it comes down to. But see, we don't want to do that. We don't want to run to Jesus. We get too many people sitting there saying, oh, that Jesus character is just a fairy tale character. Well, God bless you. I hate to be you on Judgment Day. Because I'm going to tell you, there's coming a day when we're all going to stand before Him. And we will all bow. We will all bow. It doesn't matter whether you've said all your life, that's just a fairytale character. You're going to find out He's a real character. He's a real man. He's a real warrior. He's a real singer. He's a real king of kings and lord of lords And you will bow before him Whether you like it or not You will give him the respect and the honor that he deserves It's going to happen And that's why I want to do it now I want to do it now I don't want to wait until it's too late Because if I wait until it's too late Then when I bow I'm going to hear Depart from me I never knew you Instead of enter into the joy of the Lord I'd rather hear those words then depart from me. I never knew you. The reason we're living in darkness is because we haven't changed our hearts. I love this. Arise, come out of the depression. Shine, get a glory about you, get a happiness about you, for the light has come. And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. I love that. When Jesus rose from the dead, he made a way for mankind to have victory. And see, if you go back into history and you look at history, there were times when America was strong financially, military, the whole nine yards. Strong nation. Strong nation. We were not so far in debt that we were going to be bought out of it or taken over any time. We were near out of debt. We were a good nation. We were a strong nation. What was the difference? What was the difference between then and now? the difference was we had a nation that had a mindset about God first. That's what the difference was. See, back in the day when this nation was founded, they founded it as one nation under God. Now what's become of this nation? We're one nation under ourselves. That's what we are. We don't want God to be in our decision making. You got these politicians all coming together and going, oh, well, we know how to run this nation. Well, if you know how to run this nation, then this nation would be strong and we'd be out of debt. But you don't know how to run this nation. That's the point. That's the point of why we are in such a bad shape and why we're out. Because we don't know how to run the nation. We can't do it in our own strength. Oh, we try, but we mess it up. We do it time after time after time after time. We messed up. And we're too dumb to realize that we need to put a knee down. And not in protest. But put a knee down and say, Lord help us. You can see I'm on fire today. But the idea is that's the point. That's what the problem is with our nation. we got too much of a mindset of us first instead of God first we got to have a God first mentality I've said that many times but that's what we need we need a God first mentality in this nation and maybe just maybe we may get flack for this but the point comes down to this and I'll say it we need to get to a point where we sit there and say, hey, if you don't want to be part of the solution here in America, then leave. That's probably harsh, but that's, I mean, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. You know, God wants us to have a victorious way, a glorious way. He wants His people to be victorious. 1 John 5, 4 tells us this when he said, For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. But the reason we don't have victory is we don't have faith. And what I mean by that is if a nation doesn't believe in God, they don't have faith. Right? And so this nation is basically being taken over by other faiths or people that don't believe in nothing. I mean, I'll tell you something. And this is harsh, but I'm just saying to me, the idea of this is all there is is a sad thing. if this is all there is in life just this life right here this is sad I mean I'm not being mean about life I mean God gave us life but there has to be something more this can't be just it but you've got people that believe that this is all it is that when your life ends it's just like taking a candle out I don't believe that I don't believe that To me there has to be something more There has to be something more You just don't wake out like a Lighting out a candle It doesn't feel that way to me Now Isaiah said something about darkness though That really affected me when I read this And I'm going to share with you something I don't think maybe you never thought of this But this is so cool In verse 2 he said For behold the darkness shall cover the earth Now can you think of more of a time Where darkness has covered this earth Than now We are living in a dark world It is a dark place What is the darkness This dark cloud. It's a dark cloud of rebellion. That's what it is. It's a dark cloud of rebellion that has settled over this world. It's a dark cloud of rebellion that says we know what we want to do and we're going to do what we want to do and whatever you want, too bad. we're going to do what we want. Kind of reminds you of Adam and Eve. God gave them paradise. But when Satan came whispering in their ears and said, oh, this is a good thing. You need to eat that. It all went downhill. Because what? Because they had rebellion. They said, well, we want to do what we want to do. followed suit right after that, that their son, Cain, got so disgusted that his brother's sacrifice was accepted and his was rejected, that he got so filled with hatred and anger that he killed his own brother. Talk about darkness. We're seeing that right now. It's a rebellious cloud that has settled over top of America and over top of our world. The sad part is when you sit in the darkness for any length of time, you get activated to it. Have you ever sat in the dark? I mean, when the lights go out, maybe the lights go out, all the lights go out, and it's pitch black at night, and you're sitting in the dark for a little bit. Have you ever sit in the dark? Now, this is really interesting, but it's true. I've done it before. When you sit in the dark, pitch dark, for any length of time, and you just watch the darkness, eventually your eyes will begin to acclimate to that dark a little bit and it will be able to see some of the things in the dark. Right? What's happened in America? We have sat in the dark so long that we're not seeing the disgusting things that are going on. We're just accepting it. We're not saying, hey, this is wrong. We're just accepting it. That's what's happening. Every time we turn around, it's more stuff that we're just accepting Oh, well, we've got to change the names of schools Oh, we've got to pull down this Oh, we've got to take the Confederate flag off of the Duke's hazard bar You know, dumb, but anyway That was really stupid to me But anyway, you know, you've got to do that We've seen so much It's crazy It is so crazy It drives me great I mean, I saw a report, and this is so amazing to me. There are racial things and racist things that I think we should get rid of, yes. But this amazes me. I saw a report that there's a show called Golden Girls, right? And in one of the episodes, two of the ladies had mud packs on. And they said, oh, we've got to take that off the television because it's racist. it's mud pack. It's a mud pack. It's not blackface. It was a mud pack. We're going so far that it's just, it's terrifying. We think that somehow if we eliminate all this, what are we going to have? Peace. No. There's only one way America's going to have peace, and that's when the prince of peace comes into hearts. And that's it. It's not going to come from us tearing down statues, removing things, changing names on schools. That's not going to bring peace. Only Jesus is going to bring peace. And we've got to change hearts. That's the point. We're just becoming acclimated to it. We're becoming acclimated to the darkness. We're accepting it. Instead of saying, let's change it. Let's bring the light in. I'll look what he says here. The gross darkness of a people. This comes down to moral degradation by our people. And that is exactly the truth. It's sad. A nation that used to be founded and follow this God's word, now looks at this word and says, oh, it's just a book. If you want to read it, go ahead and read it If you don't want to read it, go ahead and read Brim's Fairy Tales You'll get just as much from it That's what we're hearing from people They fail to realize that this book here Is more than just a bunch of stories No, it is a road map of how we get to heaven And people don't want to accept that Because why? Because they don't want to line up That's the reason They want to live what they want to do They want to do what they want to do They want to continue to lie. They want to continue to cheat. They want to continue to steal. They want to continue to commit adultery. They want to continue to do whatever they want to do and continue to do it. And it's okay. We'll still make it happen because we don't hurt anybody. But the problem is when you lie, you hurt somebody. When you cheat, you hurt somebody. When you commit adultery, you're hurting somebody. When you're killing somebody's character, you're hurting somebody and you don't realize it. we're just thinking it's just a word, it's just a thing we don't have to do it and it ain't going to make no difference but the point is this is how God told us to live and if we don't live by this book we ain't seeing heaven and that's the point and people don't want to accept it people don't want to believe it they want to do what they want to do and they're going to wake up one day and they're going to stand before God and they're going to go maybe, just maybe, I should have lived my life by the Ten Commandments. But it will be too late. It's sad. Because we have no morals. We're a gross darkness of people. But I love what he says here in the final part of verse 2. He says, But the Lord shall rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. I like that. That is the Shekinah glory. I love that word. Shekinah glory. You don't hear Shekinah glory. When is the last time you heard a preacher or somebody say Shekinah glory? You just don't hear that word. What is Shekinah glory? It is a visible manifestation of God on earth or on his people. That's what it is. It's a visible manifestation. You see somebody and they're just like glowing You've heard that term Oh you're glowing That's a Shekinah glory That's a Shekinah glory I want to have a Shekinah glory I want to have that kind of glory on me That people can't come to me and look me straight in the face Because I'm just glowing You know in the beginning That the kind of glory I want to have I want to be so blessed by God that people can look upon me because they afraid to go and burn up because God has looked us all over me what a blessing that would be to have that visible manifestation can that happen in 2020? yes it can there is no difference why do I say it can still happen like it happened to Moses why can it still happen in 2020? Because, right here in this book, it says, God the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. So if he doesn't change, then the Chicago glory doesn't change. And it means it can still happen today if we have a heart to accept it. The heart that says, I want it, and we are willing to have it be a part of us. earlier on in Isaiah in chapter 9 verse 2 Isaiah said something very interesting about people that live in darkness he said these words the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light those who lived in the land of the shadow of death on them the light has shined we are living in a world of darkness and death. But we can be the change. We can be the change. We need to be the solution and not part of the problem. So how do we become part of the solution and get away from being part of the problem? Well, how do we do it? We pray. And today I'm going to share with you three prayers, very short prayers, but three prayers we need to pray that will help us change this nation around. Number one, we need a prayer of repentance. Psalm 33 and verse 12 says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. We need to change that. We need to change this nation and even if it is just us, But have a nation that says, Lord, maybe we're in the minority, but with you backing us, we're in the majority. And that's what we need to do. And when we, as the people of God, true believers, not these so-called Christians, not these ones that flirt and go in and out and kind of just live like the devil six days a week and come in on Sunday and raise their hand and do their thing and go back out and do what they want to do. Not those kind of Christians. that's not a Christian in my opinion. That's a person that plays church and I don't like people that play church. We need to have a prayer of repentance. The ones of us that truly believe in the power of prayer and that truly believe in what God can do, we need to begin to start laying on our face before God and begin to start praying for repentance. Lord, help us to be a repentant nation so that we can be a nation under God once again. Number two, we need to pray a prayer of grace. A prayer of grace. James 4 and 6 says, But he giveth more grace, wherefore he sayeth God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. I like that. We need to humbly come before God and pray for grace. Grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You can't boast. You've got to be humble. You've got to humbly come before God and say, God, I need you more than anything else. Our nation needs you more than anything else. And give us this grace. And then the final one today that we need to do. We need to pray a prayer for the impending collapse. Because if something doesn't change soon, and this is not a prophecy, I'm just saying I see it right before me. I can see it happening. I can see it happening. If we don't change something here in America, this nation is going to collapse. Psalm 1133 says this When the foundations Are being destroyed What can the righteous do? This nation was built on God And little bit by little bit The foundations are being destroyed And this people The people that believe in God Must change by praying Pray God Do not let this nation Collapse Help us to build up a strong foundation. As the evil is beginning to try to wipe out our foundation, help us, Father, to build it back up before it's too late. Those are the three things we need to pray for in this nation as we look upon, as we have celebrated our nation's birthday and as we go forward. We need to pray, Lord, help us. Because Jesus is the only one that can help us. Jesus is the only way out of this nation's problems. It's the only way. It's not going to come from politicians. Can politicians be used by God? Yes. But it's not going to come from a politician. It's not going to come from people. Jesus is the only way to save this hurting world. and we need to be part of that solution. Let's bow our heads before the Lord to support. Amen. Thank you.

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