Is There Hope for America? - Pastor David Houck | July 5, 2026

Is there hope for America? In this message, Pastor David explores what the Apostle Paul wrote about a society strikingly similar to our own, examining the spiritual condition of our nation and revealing the only path to true change.

Transcript

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So this morning I was able to watch a little bit. I didn't watch the entire thing, but I was able to watch a little bit of the president's speech that he gave last night, uh, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So the speech was uh full of a lot of optimism about uh where we are now as a nation and uh the future of the nation and where he wants to lead us and hopes that the nation goes in. And um, I will say, you know, it is encouraging to see all the people in the crowd just supporting the United States, regardless of how you view politically. It is encouraging um to see that. I'm the type of guy that whenever they walk uh a veteran who's over a hundred years old on the stage and the music playing, you know, I get a tear to my eye, you know, something like that. But it was full of a lot of optimism. Now I know that optimism and that that hope and positivity about um where our nation is and where we're going isn't necessarily shared among everyone. Uh it we live in a very diverse politically climate, uh, to say the least, and people have very different feelings. And you might have different feelings, and I might, my feelings might differ from yours regarding our nation politically or economically or socially. But we know as Christians that above the politics, above the candidates, above the presidents, above the leaders of other nations, there is truly one person who is in control. Amen. And we know that God, our God, the creator of the universe, is in control over nations. He's in control over politics. He has the ultimate authority. And we might be able to establish plans that we think, hey, we'll lead our nation in the right direction, or maybe won't lead our nation in the right direction. But the only one who's truly in control, the only one who can truly control the trajectory of our nation is God. And so, as Christians, this wasn't an ask me anything submission, but I would like to pose the question for us this morning: is there hope for America? Is the hope that some people have for the future of America, is that founded? Is there a basis for anything? Or is it all doom and gloom? You might say, well, come on, this is church, let's keep it separated. But saying, seeing and considering the fact that we have in God we trust written on our money, and in our Pledge of Allegiance, we say one nation under God. Thank you, I was forgetting it. That was embarrassing. I feel that it's fitting to examine what the Bible has to say about perhaps where we are as a nation. And I think it's fitting to talk about, especially because you will hear different political leaders and figures, and you'll see it on streets, and we sing it in songs, you know, God bless America, and will God bless America, and pray that God will bless America. And people, some people are really strong about referring to this nation as a Christian nation and promoting biblical values. And so there's lots of mixed signals out there regarding the religion, regarding the relationship between our nation and our heavenly father. And so, to begin to answer this question, I want to very quickly address the history of our nation. And I want to start with this, and I want you to listen uh carefully to how I follow it up. But I think in order to really approach this conversation, we need to address that while the United States has never been a Christian nation, it was founded upon many Judeo-Christian values. There's a lot of people, even today, who label the United States of America as a Christian nation. I don't hold to that opinion. In fact, I truly don't even understand what they mean by that. If the definition of Christian is one who has placed their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then I'm not really sure how any nation on this side of eternity or this this side of before Jesus Christ returns, how any nation could truly be a Christian nation. Does that mean that everyone in the United States is a Christian? Well, some people might claim that that's how it works, but that is not how it works, and we know that. We say in God we trust, we say one nation under God, but none of the founding documents in our nation's history are clear about who that God is. They never identify that God. And they certainly never say Jesus. If a Christian is someone who acknowledges Jesus as Lord and Savior, nothing in our nation's history, no official documents in our nation address Jesus as Lord and Savior. Many of the founding fathers were not Christians. In fact, most of the founding fathers were not Christians. They were theists, maybe. They believed in some sort of God, they believed in some sort of uh divine creator, but they were not devout followers of Christ. Most of them rejected that Jesus was the Son of God. So they were not Christians. We've had some Christian leaders, devout Christian leaders throughout the history of our nation, but it's far and few between. The United States is not a Christian nation. That being said, the United States was founded upon many Christian values. And this is true of all of Western civilization. All of Western civilization, our ideas, our understanding of love and justice and freedom and equality is all rooted in the teachings of Jesus. And the United States is rooted in the teachings of Jesus. In fact, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1813 in a letter. He said, The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite. And these principles only could be intended by them in their address or by me in my answer. And what were these general principles? I answered the general principles of Christianity, in which all these sects were united. Now, to be clear, again, the founding fathers did not all worship Jesus. Most of them did not. Not everyone, and it wasn't everywhere, especially during the Enlightenment period, but there still was respect for the core tenets of what Jesus taught. And the United States was founded upon many of those core tenets. And so it's foolish to try to separate Christianity from the history of the United States. This nation would not exist without Christianity. But, and this is why I have a problem with the label Christian nation. We must be careful not to view America as some sort of wholly chosen nation, because that we are not. So, secondly, when examining the history, I want us to be on the same page that America has been blessed, not because we deserve it, but because God has been merciful. It's impossible to read about American history and not see God's sustaining power and provision in our nation's very short history. It's clear that God had a plan and a purpose for the U.S. But we need to guard our thinking when it comes to our nation's relationship with God. The United States is not biblical Israel, okay? Israel, biblical Israel, was God's chosen people. They are a covenant nation, meaning they were given specific promises by God and they entered into agreements with God. Essentially, God said, If you follow me in my commands, I will bless you. If you ever rebel and disobey my commands, I will curse you. And that was a special relationship that they entered into with God. And we see throughout Old Testament history and even just human history, we see that relationship at work, that covenant at work. There were times of faithfulness and blessing for Israel. And then there were times of rebellion and cursing. We see very similar patterns to this in the United States. We see a lot of parallels between the US and Israel, which has led some people to apply promises and prophecies given to Israel also to the US. Don't do that. There might be similarities. But we cannot just snatch a promise God gave to Israel and said, well, he's saying it to the American people too. No, he isn't. We're not Israel. We are not a covenant nation. God hasn't signed a contract with us. We aren't promised success and security dependent on our obedience. We've been blessed by his mercy and grace and sovereign will. That's just the power that God has over all nations. Job chapter 12, verse 23 says, He makes nations great and he destroys them. He enlarges nations and leads them away. That's just the power God has. That has nothing to do necessarily with the nations themselves. That is God's divine sovereign will. He can raise up a nation at any times and he can destroy that nation at any time. Now, throughout our very short history, God has enlarged and made our nation great. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke to this. He said, We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. All by God's grace. And so I believe as Christians and as citizens of the U.S., we should be grateful for the nation we live in. Truthfully, I think that's the responsibility of every Christian, whatever nation they're a part of. But we're not perfect. We often see people want to return to the good old days in American history. There were no good old days in American history. We have a tendency to look at our history through rose-tinted glasses, but there has always been evil. There has always been wickedness. There has always been disobedience against God's will. We were never a perfect nation to begin with. Really look into American history and you'll see that. Now I also don't think we are the worst nation in human history, as some people like to paint us as. I don't agree with that either. I think we're flawed people, but we've been blessed by God. But we have strayed far from the righteous standard that God requires of humanity. And so to think that we've earned our place on the global stage through good deeds and obedience to God is foolish. It's been by his mercy alone. We're not a Christian nation. But we've been founded on many Christian principles, and we've been blessed by God. But now where are we today? And not the state of our nation in terms of uh economics or politics or foreign affairs, but spiritually. In chapter one of the book of Romans, Paul reflects on the spiritual state of the Gentile, non-Jewish world of his day, a world where Rome was supreme. And what he authors in Romans chapter one, and you can turn there with me if you'd like to follow along, what he authors is really a diagnosis of a culture that has abandoned God and the resultant consequences. And as we read through this passage together, you really won't need any commentary from me to come to the conclusion on your own that what he wrote 2,000 years ago about Rome and the pagan nations of his day is happening here in the US now. And I'm sure by the end of it we will arrive to the same conclusion that first of all, the United States is experiencing the wrath of God. What is the state of our nation from a biblical perspective? We are experiencing the wrath of God. Now many of us don't like that term. We don't like to think of God's wrath. We want love, peace, grace, but not wrath. But we cannot ignore the fact that God is also powerful, just mighty. And his righteousness and purity demands that he unleashes his wrath against evil. And God's wrath shouldn't be seen as just a sudden outburst of anger, but a continual, deliberate response to sin. And so why would he be unleashing his wrath against the US now? Well, in Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18, Paul wrote, The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. So why is God unleashing his wrath against the wicked? Because they suppress the truth. Paul says they know God exists. That everyone deep down knows that there is a God. I mean, all of creation points to the existence of a creator. We call this general revelation: God revealing himself to all people. People ask, well, what about someone who's never, you know, been taught about God? No, deep down everyone knows that there is a God. And Paul is saying no one is without excuse. But because we are naturally rebellious, we suppress that truth with wickedness. We deny that there's a God. We run from him. We fight him. We try to drown him out with our own desires. We would rather believe that everything came from some cosmic explosion of nothing than believe we were created by God. Why? Because that demands accountability. That means your life is not your own. We don't want to live life that way. So we suppress the truth. Everyone knows deep down. You know, that's why the Bible begins with, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It doesn't start with an argument or a defense of the existence of God. Because people know. People know. But we suppress the truth. Why do you think all these atheist teachers and professors and scholars are so angry all the time? They're so angry. God's not real, and I'm angry about it. Because they know the truth. And they just want to try to convince everyone and themselves that he isn't. But no one is without excuse. And every person who denies God will be held accountable because he has made his eternal power and divine nature plain to them. But it's even worse for the world today, even worse for the United States today. Because we don't just have God's general revelation. We have what we call God's special revelation through Scripture. We have the entirety of God's word neatly organized and bound together in a book we call the Bible. We even have it on our phones. Everyone in the nation has access to it. So we not only know as a nation that there is a creator behind creation, we know exactly who that creator is. And we know what he requires from us, but we still reject him. And as a result, we are experiencing his wrath. Now, God's wrath has and can manifest itself in many ways. We often will think of, you know, disasters and calamities, or perhaps you might think of the eternal wrath of punishment in hell. But as we'll see, Paul explain, God's wrath often takes the form of abandonment. God doesn't need to send a disaster our way to teach us a lesson. All he has to do is remove his hand. All he has to do is stop blessing us, stop protecting us. Leave us to our own foolish devices. I don't have to send something in the path of my eight-month-old child for him to get hurt. All I would have to do is leave the room for literally 15 seconds and he would do something to get himself hurt. We are absolutely no different. The only reason we aren't all dead right now is because God sustains us by his grace and his mercy. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow. Their own counsels. He does this with entire nations. He does this with individual believers as well. When we choose to repeatedly ignore his counsel and go our own way, if we're not careful, he'll let us. There will come a point in our journey where God says, All right, you want to do it your own way, have at it. I'll be here when it's over. And thank God He is. When we need to come crawling back to Him. I believe this is what is happening with the United States right now. Especially as we follow Paul's words in Romans, describing God's wrath. Because, like the wicked people he spoke about, as a nation, we have forgotten God. We have forgotten God. Continuing in verse 21, Paul said, For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. We founded the nation upon the teachings of the Bible. We claim to be one nation under God, and yet we don't glorify Him. We've experienced blessing after blessing, victory after victory, all by His gracious hand, but we don't give Him thanks. Instead, we've looked inward to our own strength and wisdom and power, thinking it was all our doing. We become prideful and self-centered, like the Israelites had become when God said in Hosea chapter 13, verse 6, when I fed them, they were satisfied. When they were satisfied, they became proud, then they forgot me. That's exactly where we are as a nation. Abraham Lincoln's words, written 163 years ago, seem perhaps even more fitting today. We read the first part already. We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. And we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. And as Paul wrote, as a result of our arrogance, our hearts have become darkened and we have become fools. Why? Because thirdly, we have rejected the truth. Verse 22, he said, although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles. As a nation, we pride ourselves in access to information. That there's never been a more informed generation. It's all at our fingertips. We view ourselves as the most intellectually advanced society and generation. Our schools produce doctors in practically every study imaginable. But we're fools. We reject the truth. We've rejected the notion that humans are created in the image of God, and instead embrace that humans are cosmic accidents. Which then leads us to reject the idea that we have minds and souls and the freedom and ability to make our own decisions, and instead embrace the idea that we're just responding to chemical reactions happening in our bodies. There are no decisions, there is no free will, there is no love. It's a chemical reaction. We are just bones and cells and body just following this predetermined path by our biological chemistry. Really? All this thinking, all this intellect, where has it led us? As Paul says in Ephesians, it's futile. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 through 18. He said, Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. That is our nation. That is our world today, darkened in our understanding due to the hardness of our hearts, and that condition only worsens. Number four, as a nation, we have been consumed by idolatry and sexual immorality. Verse 24, Paul says, Therefore God gave them over. We chose foolishness over truth, idols over his glory. And so God's response, he has given us over. To what? To idolatry and sexual immorality. Verse 24 said, Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen. There comes a point in every great nation in society where at the peak of their pride and hubris, they are given over completely to idolatry and sexual immorality. Paul saw it happening in his day and age in Rome. It's happening today in the US, especially within the last few centuries. The pride and sexual immorality have and idolatry have always existed in the US, but America became completely engulfed by these things in the 20th century. We had the introduction of TVs to homes, the so-called sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s, the creation of the internet, the creation of video game consoles, major sporting events, and it has all just been a losing battle since. We are a nation of idolatry, which Paul says idolatry is covetousness, a nation of consumerism and greed and discontentment. We want and we want and we want, and we're never satisfied, so we want some more. They're on our desks. They're in our pockets. And we have no limit to our creativity and imagination when turning things into idols, turning things into gods to worship, sports, hobbies, wealth, work. And sexual immorality often goes hand in hand with idolatry. In Paul's day, pagan religions often involved both the worshiping of idols and sexual debauchery. It's not much different today. Look at how hyper-sexualized our culture is. It's everywhere. Everything has become perverse and pornographic. Books, games, TV shows, movies have become incredibly explicit. You can't go shopping anywhere without being bombarded by these massive, provocative, sexualized advertisements. Look at America's biggest religious event, the Super Bowl. You really cannot get much closer to an ancient pagan festival than the Super Bowl. It has everything. It has gluttony. It has idolatry. It has drunkenness. The commercials cover the greed. The halftime show, there's a sexual impurity. Pornography isn't just a problem in our nation, it's an epidemic that has consumed all of our nation. The result of all of this is a mass desensitization over an entire society. So that what was once perverse and shameful to even talk about behind closed doors soon becomes a part of the conversation in the workplace, in the dinner table. And then it's normalized. Then it's celebrated. And then it's commonplace. Continuing in verse 26, Paul said, Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way that men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Now, Paul here is not saying that homosexuality is a worse sin than others, but he is saying that it is a symptom of a much larger issue in society. Homosexuality is a rejection and reversal of the natural order of things. It is physically and biologically unnatural. And the effect of the normalization and celebration of it leads only to further perverse behaviors. Once you start to go down that road to reject the natural order of things, it's a slippery slope. Paul said in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 19, they've become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity because it doesn't fulfill. And you become sensitized to it. So you need more and more and more. And so what was once shameful is now normal. And so what do you need? You need something more. I mean, being gay or lesbian is nothing now. I mean, that's old news. That's not even cool anymore. The old people are gay and lesbians. It's not what the young people do now. Now the conversation isn't about men being attracted to men and women to women. Now it's that there is no man and no woman. Forget all the biology, it's just a social construct. And this has been so detrimental to the health of our nation in every single way. This is the effect of sexual sin. This is why Paul said, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. We could spend weeks going into the detrimental impacts, any kind of sexual expression outside of God's intent, which is a man and a woman in marriage, can have on a person physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. But because we have continued to follow this path, number five, we have seared our conscience. Paul's not done here. He says in verse 28, furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossip, slanderers, god haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. As a nation, we have lost our shared conscience, our national sense of right and wrong. We have become depraved to the point that we can't even discern what is right and wrong now. Read that list. That is our nation as a whole. We invent ways of doing evil. You watch the news and you see some horrific, vile story of this terrible thing someone did, and you wonder, how could they even come up with that? It's simple. There is no conscience. There is no objective morality. We've stomped God out of nearly every aspect of our public society. So now nothing is pure. Everything is wicked, defiled, and perverse. As Paul wrote to Titus, to the pure, all things are pure. But to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. As we said, we don't just partake in these evil deeds in the dark, ashamed and embarrassed of them, hoping no one knows. No, now we celebrate and promote them. June is an entire month to celebrate sexual immorality. They want teachers to celebrate it in schools. Teach it to children. Paul said in Romans chapter 1, continuing in verse 28, although they know God, or 32, although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them. That is our nation. Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20 says, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Promote evil to the fact that you're the one demonized when you don't partake in the celebration of sin. Lots of nods, lots of emphatic yeses. That's our nation. What are we gonna do about it? Well, Paul's letter is not over. Because then he directs his attention to the religious people in the crowd. So let's turn our attention to the state of the American church. I only have two points for us this morning. First of all, we have grown hypocritical. Because Paul continues, chapter 2, verse 1. You therefore have no excuse. You who pass judgment on someone else for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself because you who pass judgment do the same thing. Same thing. Alright, we might not have openly gay homosexual people in our church with sexual impurity of lust. When you look at the statistics of pornography use within the church, it comes closer and closer and closer to the statistics outside the church. And they're not honest. You know people are lying on those things. We go to the same movies, we watch the same shows, we play the same games, we read the same books, we shop at the same stores, we listen to the same music, and yet we wag our finger at people who sin just a little bit differently than us. And we justify it. Well, I'm not them. No, you're worse. I'm worse. Because we not only know the truth, they know the truth, but we not only know the truth, we have been given the power to live out that truth, and yet we continue to walk in filth. Well, it's not a big deal. I mean, what what what's a little what's a little nudity in the show or in the movie or in the game? In fact, you hear so often someone will talk about a TV show and they'll say, Well, you know, if you can get past, no, no, no, no, no. We should be full stop. It should be turn off the TV. There's no getting past it. Would you sit next to Jesus watching that? Like, well, you know, Jesus, if you can get past this, season three is really good. You'll like it. And there is no difference. It's we've become so desensitized, it's insane what is on TV and what is in movies and what's in video games. Well, the story's really good. Yeah, so is the Bible, so is good stories about positive people. Read something about a Christian leader in the past, an American hero, anything else. But we don't see it as an issue. We're fine with it. It's sick. That's how far we've come. That's how far the church has fallen. We've become like King David, who is as consumed by hypocrisy and pride after he had an affair with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband. He didn't think anyone knew. Prophet Nathan knew, and he came to David and he told them the story about a guy who, you know, stole some sheep, or you know, it wasn't a big deal. And so he he he tells a story to David. Then we read, then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. And Nathan said to David, You are the man. Are any of us that different? They deserve what's coming to them. Do we? We've forgotten. Very simple words of Jesus: the outsiders of the church like to quote way more than we do. Matthew chapter. 7 verses 1 through 5, when Jesus said, Judge not that you not be judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite. Look, we focus on the sexual impurity, but go back and read all that list. Disobeying your parents, slanders, gossips, envy, jealousy, hatred. It's everywhere. But if someone sins a little bit different than us, we'll jump to it. You know, we'll sit and I'll preach something and I'll talk about the issue of homosexuality. Some of you are like, well, I'm really glad I didn't invite someone today. Others of you are like, yeah, give it to them, Pastor. But you'd probably feel a little bit different the moment I brought up divorce. We don't like to talk about that anymore. We gave that up long ago. Hypocrites. Secondly, we have settled into apathy. And I don't need to get into this. A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Mike uh preached a message on being lukewarm in the faith. Go back and listen to it. But just to share the words of Jesus, who said, I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot? So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. That's us today. So where does this lead us? What is the future of our nation? America is heading towards destruction. Continuing in verse 2, Paul said, Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will repay each person according to what they have done. Where is America headed? Destruction. We are following the path of so many societies before us who abandoned God, were given over to impurity and idolatry, and then were destroyed. We see this happen throughout the Bible. Happened to all of the earth in Noah's day. God had to send out a flood to wipe out everyone. The Canaanite nations, Babylon, perhaps most famously, Sodom and Gomorrah. In the Old Testament, Sodom and Gomorrah were cities that became so wicked and vile and evil. Honestly, I don't really know that they were very much different than us today. But what did God do? He completely wiped them out. And Peter wrote, by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. And that is ultimately the fate of all nations that turn their back on God. Psalm 917 says, The wicked shall return to Sheol all the nations that forget God. If things don't change, I am telling you, not a prophet, I'm just telling you that that is where we are headed as a nation. But there is still hope. Paul continues in verse 7. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. Peter, when speaking about Sodom and Gomorrah, said, and if he rescued righteous Lot, there was one man, there is one man in his family who was allowed to leave Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, And if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials. There is still hope. Now at this point, some of you might expect me to quote 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 14. A lot of people are going to preach on it today. It's probably familiar. It's not in your notes. It's not in your notes for a reason, but the verse is if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will hear their land. But we are not Israel, are we? Jeremiah 18, verses 7 through 10. God said, If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do it. So there still is a hope for other nations and a warning to other nations that God might intend to send disaster and calamity upon a sinning and rebelling nation, but if they repent, he'll save them. We see this happen with Nineveh. God sent Jonah, mess of his own, but God sent Jonah to Nineveh to tell the people, you're evil, God's gonna wipe you out. How did the king respond? He said, Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. So there's precedent here that even other nations besides Israel can be saved. But how? We'll close with this. True change comes not through political reform, but through personal repentance. What did Nineveh do? They repented. But that's not how we think change happens, is it? We think true change in a nation, especially looking at our history, happens through civil disobedience or protests or boycotts or debates. Speak your mind, share your opinions online, argue in the comments. That's how we will change the trajectory of things. That's how we can be involved. We need to share, we need to uh be so vocal about promoting Christian values. You know, we need to we need to post online about how abortion is evil. We need to protest the pride parades, we need to do all these things. But what does the Bible actually say? Read these a few months ago, so we'll go through it quickly. Peter said, Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God. That by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free. Hey, we're great at that as Americans, right? Not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants, living as slaves of God. Honor everyone, love the Brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. And Paul said, first of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, and all who are in positions that we may lead what? A peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Quiet, peaceful, submissive. That's not how change happens. We're Americans. That's not how we do things around here, but it's what the Bible says. And we're so tempted to think that wouldn't work. Paul doesn't know what he's talking about. Certainly, Paul was not dealing with the government we were dealing with. No, again, he was dealing with Nero. Peter was dealing with Nero. Guess what? Paul and Peter were both killed by Nero. But they changed the world. In the book of Acts, there's this one line that I love. That the disciples, people preaching the gospel, came to a city, and the city was an uproar, and they said, Look, the men who turned the world upside down are now here. That's what the apostles did. That's what the first century did. They turned the world upside down, they flipped everything on its head. How did they do it? Through protests, through political reform, through boycotts, through civil disobedience? No. By living quiet lives. By being submissive to the authorities above them, by praying, by being thankful, by loving, by repenting. Abraham Lincoln understood this. Because he said, Whereas when our own beloved country, once by the blessing of God, united, prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy, to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved. Humble repentance, sorrowful repentance. How did he do it? Well, after they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, he went out and preached. In Acts chapter 2, verse 37 says, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, vote Republican. Make your voice heard. Go door to door. Get people to in the polls. Share your opinion online. Point your finger and act angry. No. He said, repent. Repent. What does this mean? It means to turn away from something, to change your mind in regards to something. To turn away from your old life, your old way of living, and to align yourself completely with God. It's making the decision to live the way Jesus lived and think the way Jesus thinks. Modern evangelical Christianity, we've gotten rid of repentance altogether. We don't like to talk about it. We say, hey, here's the gift of Jesus. Do you want it? Awesome, you got it, you're saved. But the Bible's clear you need to repent. You are not saved if you've never repented, if you've never actually come to terms with the fact that I am a wretched sinner, that I am leading myself straight to hell. That I cannot do this on my own, and that I need a savior. A lot of the church today has not done that, and I think that's why we are where we are, because we want Jesus, but we want our old life as well. We've never actually turned away from it. So we'll close with Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is in your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian or American, slave free. But Christ is all and in all. Change the world by being a kingdom-first Christian, not a nation-first citizen. And it begins with personal repentance. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Challenging, convicting. It hurts, but it hurts because it's cutting away the pieces that need to be cut away. It's piercing our cold, stubborn, darkened hearts. Lord, I deliver this message with humility. Knowing that I'm just as much a part of the problem as anyone. And I pray that we would all repent. And that maybe this change would just start here in Lambston Road. Yes, Lord, we're in a place where we have a democracy, where we can vote, where we can engage in politics, and we should make use of that. That's a gift from you. But it's not how true eternal change happens. Through eternal change happens through repenting and turning to you as our personal Lord and Savior. We pray for healing for our nation. And Lord, we know that that will only come that could only come through repentance. So we pray that the Holy Spirit would do a mighty work in these people and in our nation. That we could turn our hearts once again to you. Jesus' name we pray. Amen.