{"id":33469,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/question-facing-us\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"question-facing-us","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/question-facing-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The Question Facing Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/18829.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;We,\nthe people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,\nestablish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense,\npromote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves\nand our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution of the United\nStates of America.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;m\nnot going to ask you to raise your hands, but how many have read the preamble\nto the Constitution in the last year? The preamble just read, to me, is one of\nthe most remarkable paragraphs ever conceived by the human mind. It is my hope\nthis bicentennial of the Constitution will draw us in the United States back\nnot only to our legal and political roots, but back to our moral and spiritual\nroots as well, perhaps even more than the bicentennial in &#8217;76 did.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">What happens when we cut ourselves off from our roots?<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Rarely\nin the 43 years that Doris and I have been married have I purchased for her an\norchid corsage. The corsage is always handled the same way. It&#8217;s worn on the\noccasion for which it was purchased. When we get home she places it in the\ncotton batting in the box, sprinkles a little water on it, and puts it in the\nrefrigerator. She wants to preserve the fragrance and the beauty of that orchid\nand wear it as often as possible. But both of us know sooner or later that\norchid is going to have to be consigned to the trash can because it is dead. It\nhas been cut from its roots.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In the\nthirty years I have lived in Washington, D.C., a conviction has been growing\nand deepeningand come to a kind of explosive climax in my heart in the last\nfive years since I&#8217;ve been the chaplain of the Senatethat this is precisely\nwhere we are in national life today. We are seeing a futile effort to preserve\nthe beauty and the strength and the order of our national life, forgetting that\nif we cut ourselves off from the roots, there is no life in us, and we are\ndoomed to the trash can. I hope the bicentennial of the Constitution will bring\nremembrance of, and commitment to, our roots.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;We,\nthe people of the United States . . . do ordain and establish this constitution of the United States of\nAmerica.&#8221; We the people establish and ordain this. Can you imagine the\nrevolutionary, radical sound of those words at a time when monarchy was the\npolitical system? When kings were sovereign, and people were subjects? When\nthrones were ascended by royal progeny and everybody else was a commoner? Can\nyou imagine how radical and revolutionary those words were? &#8220;We, the people\n&#8230;&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>To the extent that our government becomes godless, human\nrights go out the window.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now\nof course it would be wonderful just to explore what lies behind that\nincredible, revolutionary idea in the preamble: &#8220;We, <em>the people . . . <\/em>do ordain and establish [the] constitution . . .&#8221;\nCertainly we can see its origins in the first chapter of Genesis, where God\ncreated a perfect world, a perfect environment, a perfect universe, a perfect\nhuman couple; and placing them in this perfect human environment, made them\nstewards over everything on the earthin it, over it, under it, and around it.\nThe people were partners with God in governing the earth! <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">There\nare two sentences in the Declaration of Independence that bring this into\nfocus.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;We\nhold these truths to be &#8220;that is, they&#8217;re indisputable; they&#8217;re\nobvious; there&#8217;s no debate about them&#8221;that all people are created equal, that\nthey are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights&#8221;those rights\nare sacrosanct, in other words; they cannot be touched, because they are given\nby God the Creator&#8221;among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of\nhappiness.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;To\nsecure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just\npowers from the consent of the governed,&#8221; or the consent of the people. The\npeople in our political system consent to the powers that government has. It\nhas no power not given to it by the people. That&#8217;s our incredible political\nsystem.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now\nlet me work my way back through those two sentences. Sovereign people, not a\nsovereign government. Sovereign <em>people <\/em>who\nconsent to the power their government has. The purpose of this government is to\nsecure human rights, because those rights are endowed by a Creator God who\ncreated all of us equal. Take God out of the equation, and the whole thing\ncollapses. No equality. No human rights.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Illustration:\nRecently in the main rotunda of the Capitol we received Anatoly Scharansky,\nfresh from his liberation in Russia. Bob Dole, the majority leader; and Robert\nByrd, the Democratic leader; and Tip O&#8217;Neill, the Speaker of the House; and the\nsenator who was responsible for the serviceevery one of those speakers\nreminded us that Anatoly Scharansky was the victim of a godless government.\nGodless governments couldn&#8217;t care less about human rights, and to the extent\nthat our government or our political system becomes godless, human rights go\nout the window. The whole political system of the United States rests upon\nthose two sentences: a sovereign people; a government receiving its power from\nthe people; its purpose to secure human rights, which are ordained by God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">If we disconnect from our roots, our destruction is absolutely certain.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now,\nif we disconnect from those roots, our destruction is absolutely certain. I\nwant to read first from the Torah: the fifth book of the Torah, Deuteronomy;\nthe eighth chapter; beginning with the eleventh verse. Moses, who has led the\npeople of Israel for forty years, is preparing them to cross into the Promised\nLand. Even he, because of his disobedience, is not going to get in; he can only\nsee the land. And this is one of his instructions to the people. Now hear this:<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Moses\nsaid, &#8216;Take care lest you forget the Lord your God and fail to keep his commandments.&#8217;\n&#8221; Now this was written, or said,  hundred years ago. &#8221; &#8216;When you\nhave eaten your fill and have built fine houses to live in, and your herds and\nflocks have multiplied and your silver and gold have increased, and everything\nyou own has prospered, beware.&#8217; &#8221; Isn&#8217;t that incredible? Beware prosperity?\nWell, isn&#8217;t that what it&#8217;s all about in America?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Moses\nsaid, &#8220;Beware prosperity, lest your heart grow haughty and you forget the Lord\nyour God, and you say to yourselves, &#8216;My own power and the might of my own hand\nhave won this wealth for me.&#8217; Remember that it is the Lord your God that gives\nyou power to get wealth.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Just\na footnote here: There&#8217;s nothing wrong with wealth. You can&#8217;t build a case\nagainst wealth from the Bible. As a matter of fact, Moses reminds us that it is\nGod who makes wealth possible. The problem is, wealth replaces God. Wealth\nbecomes God. So Moses&#8217; warning: &#8220;Remember that it is the Lord your God who\ngives you the power to get wealth. If you do forget the Lord your God, and\nfollow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that\nyou shall certainly perish. Like the nations that the Lord will cause to perish\nbefore you so shall you perish.&#8221; Because you&#8217;re wealthy? No. Because you did\nnot heed the Lord your God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus said, &#8220;No one can\nserve two masters.&#8221;<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus\nunderstood this. &#8220;No one can serve two masters, for he will worship the one and\nreject the other, or he will love the one and hate the other. You cannot serve\nGod and mammon.&#8221; <em>Mammon <\/em>is a Semitic\nword for money. Jesus said, &#8220;You cannot serve God and money.&#8221; You have to\nchoose. Money, more than anything else we handle, can become God in our lives\nand push God out of our lives. The peril in prosperity.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nthe book of Revelation, God speaks to the seven churches of the Revelation. The\nlast one is Laodicea, and he says to the Laodicean church, &#8220;You are neither\ncold nor hot. And because you are neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of\nmy mouth.&#8221; Lukewarmness is an abomination to God. A lukewarm church is\nintolerable to God. It makes him want to vomit.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">One\nof my dearest friends, now in heaven, was president of Mutual of New York. Roger Hull used to say,<span style=\"\" class=\"\"><span style=\"\" class=\"\"><span style=\"\" class=\"\"><span style=\"\" class=\"\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> &#8220;I\nbelieve that the greatest danger we face in America is the casual Christian.&#8221; I\nbelieve it. You know, I&#8217;m not bothered at all by atheists. They&#8217;re not the\nproblem in America. The problem in America is the people who profess to believe\nin God and live as though God is nonexistent, the people who profess faith in\nGod and live as though it doesn&#8217;t make any difference. I&#8217;m not concerned about\nthe secularists and the humanists and the secular humanists in America. I&#8217;m\nconcerned about the evangelical who with all of their protestations about\nsecularism and secular humanism, themselves have embraced the secular way of\nlife: materialism, the love of money. That&#8217;s where the danger is in America.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now\nwhat was the symptom of that Laodicean church? &#8220;For you say, &#8216;We are rich and\nincreased with goods and need nothing.&#8217; &#8221; Not even God. That&#8217;s lukewarmness: needing\nnothing. And God&#8217;s assessment of that church was, &#8220;And you don&#8217;t know that\nyou&#8217;re blind and naked and poor and wretched.&#8221; It is to that church that he\nspeaks when he says, &#8220;Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hear my\nvoice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with\nme.&#8221; I&#8217;ll tell you, America has a lot of lukewarm, casual Christians who need\nto listen to the knock of Jesus Christ and open the heart&#8217;s door and let him\nin, or we&#8217;re doomed as a nation.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Four quotations emphasize our country&#8217;s dire need for God:<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwant to conclude by reading four quotations. <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nfirst is a <em>Life <\/em>magazine editorial\nwritten April 11, 1949. Here is the paragraph: &#8220;Communism is not the only\nthreat to Western civilization and perhaps not the greatest threat. The\ngreatest threat to our civilization comes from within that civilization itself.\nOur  euphemism for it is <em>secularism<\/em>.\nA much blunter word is <em>godlessness<\/em>.\nOur civilization, for all its churches and all its churchgoers, is\npredominantly a secular, godless civilization.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">David\nLawrenceone of my favorite people; he&#8217;s in heaven nowwas the only nonsenator\nwho was a member of the Senate prayer breakfast. He never missed and often was\nasked to speak. He was the founder, and at the time he wrote this, editor, of<em> U.S. News and World Report<\/em>. David\nLawrence wrote this editorial on May 5, 1956, on the subject of the North\nAtlantic Treaty: &#8220;It is a temporary answer to the threat of world disturbance\nthat we face. The North Atlantic Treaty is temporary. The United Nations is\ntemporary. All our alliances are temporary. Basically there is only one\npermanence we can all accept. It is the permanence of a G world, for\nthe power of God alone is permanent. Obedience to his laws is the only road to\nlasting solutions to man&#8217;s problems.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nnext quote is from General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, on the deck of the\nbattleship <em>Missouri <\/em>at the surrender\nceremonies with Japan. He said, &#8220;Military alliances, balances of power, leagues\nof nationsall in turn have failed, leaving the only path to be by the crucible\nof war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative. We\nhave had our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable\nsystem, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological\nand involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that\nwill synchronize with our almost matchless advance in science, art,\nliterature, and all of the material and cultural developments of the past two\nthousand years.&#8221; Here&#8217;s his last sentence: &#8220;It must be of the spirit, if we are\nto save the flesh.&#8221; Are you hearing this?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\n1863 President Lincoln designated April 30th as a day of national humiliation,\nfasting, and prayer. National humiliation, fasting, and prayer. Let me read a\nportion of his proclamation on that occasion. &#8220;It is the duty of nations, as\nwell as of men, who owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to\nconfess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope\nthat genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the\nsublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by a history that\nthose nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. The awful calamity of\ncivil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon\nus for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as\na whole people. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too\n to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too\nproud to pray to the God that made us. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and\npower as no other nation has grown, but we have forgotten God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jefferson\nsaid, &#8220;God, who gave us life, gave us liberty.&#8221; That&#8217;s indisputable in his\nmind.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Now\nthe question: &#8220;Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the\nconviction that these liberties are the gift of God?&#8221; Now you&#8217;d better answer\nthat. And I&#8217;d better answer that. And we&#8217;d better answer that.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">He\nthat has ears to hear, let him hear. God bless you.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The late Richard Halverson\nserved as Senate chaplain and  pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church\nnear Washington, D.C.<\/span>\n      <\/em>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">(c) Richard Halverson<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today Tape #46<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A resource of Christianity Today\nInternational<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n\n\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n          <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&nbsp;<\/span>\n        <\/span>\n      <\/span>&#8220;that&#8221;\nis a word often deleted in the decluttering process.<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n          <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&nbsp;<\/span>\n        <\/span>\n      <\/span>Contractions\nare fine, but &#8220;it&#8217;ll&#8221; is an informal and not preferred contraction<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n          <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&nbsp;<\/span>\n        <\/span>\n      <\/span>&#8220;humans&#8221;\npreferable to &#8220;man&#8221; since &#8220;man&#8221; is understood by some readers as &#8220;males only&#8221;<\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n          <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&nbsp;<\/span>\n        <\/span>\n      <\/span>Hull\nwas speaking not to meetings like the one Laodicea was in, but to meetings like\nthe one Halverson was speaking in<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[2780],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3713,4018,4235,4366,4613,4660],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33469","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-richard-halverson","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-creator","tax_ctp_tags-freedom","tax_ctp_tags-independence","tax_ctp_tags-liberty","tax_ctp_tags-patriotism","tax_ctp_tags-politics"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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