Happy 4th of July. You know, we're living in a time when less and less of our fellow citizens appreciating the incredible sacrifice that our founding fathers have given in order that we may have the freedoms we have. This 4th of July, be intentional about protecting the freedoms that they, with God's help, have given us. Blessed 4th of July. Welcome to Leading the Way, the worldwide Bible teaching and evangelism ministry of Dr. Michael Youssef. Well, as this nation celebrates Independence Day, the meaning of freedom has been lost for many, masked by the smoke from the barbecue or the sounds of boats on the water. But maybe this year, with ongoing reminders about wars and conflicts around the world, perhaps a message about peace will draw eyes toward heaven once again. Today, a challenge from a recent Independence Day message taught by Dr. Youssef, a challenge to seek the peace of the city.
Let's listen together as Dr. Michael Youssef begins. So many people are saying, this is not the same America I knew. Others say, I hardly recognize my country anymore.
Whatever happened to us? Certainly, this is not the America as envisaged by the founding fathers. The founding fathers who pledged their honor and their fortune and even their lives to found the freest and the most generous nation known to man.
They would not recognize the America of the 2020s. Those 56 courageous men who fixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, they did so in a total dependence on God alone. Unashamedly, they declared that with firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our fortunes and our sacred honor. And while they had varying degrees of faith in God, and yet they all believed that it is better to live under God's authority than man's tyranny. They believed that to be born free and live free is a great privilege.
They knew that to die free is an awesome responsibility. Beloved friends, listen to me. You would not have listened to me for a very long time without realizing that I feel privileged. Now we're mocking people who are privileged. Let me tell you something. I am very privileged, not just privileged, very privileged to live in this land of the free and the home of the brave. Because of the privilege I feel, because of the benefits I have gained, because of the blessings that their sacrifice afforded me, because of all of that, I feel a sense of responsibility of carrying the torch and legacy to the next generation.
Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Before you start accusing me of being confused, or before you accuse me, as some have, as a right wing nationalist, I need to hasten to say that I'm not confused. I'm not confused. I don't confuse America with my ultimate home in heaven. No, I'm not confusing my earthly freedom with my ultimate freedom that's only in Christ Jesus. I'm not confused.
I'm not confusing my sense of privilege of living in America with the highest privilege of my eternal salvation that is in Christ alone. No, I'm not confused. I'm not confusing this earthly life with my eternal home. I'm not. No, no, no, no. I am not confusing my citizenship of heaven with my citizenship here on the earth.
Please listen to me. I have, and I'll continue as long as God gives me breath, to burn the candle on both ends, to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. The fact there are millions of people in 195 countries watching us now live didn't just happen. It took long hours, hard work, sacrifices on part of some. And the fact that occasionally I loudly and boldly speak political and social truth, it does not mean that I have taken my eyes off of the prize, which is the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Turn with me please to Jeremiah chapter 29, Jeremiah 29. I want to put this text in its historical context.
Always put the text in its historical context. Those words of Jeremiah were spoken as a message to God's people who have been taken captives into exile in Babylon. They were taken captives into a pagan land with pagan leaders and pagan religions. They were oppressed, suppressed, harassed, persecuted. Some of them even were killed because of their faithfulness to Yahweh.
And yet, in the exile, that exile did not happen in a vacuum. That capturing of God's people into captivity did not happen in a vacuum. For hundreds of years prior to the Babylonian exile, for hundreds of years, just think about the incredible patience of God, for hundreds of years prophet after prophet after prophet have said to them, pleaded with them, implored them, warned them again and again, God says to them, stop being unfaithful to Yahweh, turn to the one true God, the one who redeemed you from the slavery of Egypt, that their continuous compromising of their faith, that their continuous and constant worshiping false God and Yahweh, that their compromise of worshiping Yahweh on the Sabbath and Baal for the rest of the week, that all of that rebellion and compromise will bring about God's judgment and he told them that year after year, decade after decade, for hundreds of years, when all of that warning went unheeded, when all of this imploring was ignored, when all of his invitations for them to repent were scorned, when all of this prodding was scoffed, finally God permitted a pagan godless power to rule supreme.
I know that the judgment of God has already begun for the compromising church of Jesus Christ in the west. Three times in the book of Romans chapter one, God gave them up, God gave them up, God gave them up and my beloved friends, please listen to me, all you need to do is open your eyes and you'll see how company after company after company, how corporation after corporation, how institution after institution who are willing to sacrifice billions of dollars and losses in order to please the pagan gods of sexual perversion and demonic invasion. Jeremiah 29, look with me at verse four, here is what God said to his people in the land of demonic gods, this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Jerusalem says to all those, listen to this, that I have carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
I carried you. After hundreds of years of warnings, after hundreds of years of prodding and begging them to turn to the one living God, then he said I carried you into the Babylonian exile. What is God saying to them? Indeed saying to us and to all the faithful believers today, to these faithful believers who were living in that pagan culture, he told them to be faithful citizens, he told them to be good stewards, even in the midst of their exile, even in the land of captivity. Look at verse seven, seek the peace and the prosperity of the city, that's in Babylon, in which I, here it comes again, I carried you into exile. Beloved there's one thing that always, always brings me to tears when I'm reading the story of Noah and I remember Jesus saying, he said, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days before the return of the Son of Man. And Jesus returns around the corner because we're seeing the days of Noah happening right now and when they refused to respond the Bible said, God shut the door.
Not Noah, God. You see I'm not here to make Jesus look good. I'm not here to market Jesus.
Jesus is loving, Jesus is caring, Jesus proved his love and hanging on that cross the sinless perfect Son of Man died for sinners. But the day is coming when they refuse to accept his invitation to come and repent and believe in him, the door will be shut. The day is now, beloved, in a general sense, in a general sense, all the believers on the earth, all the believers on the earth are in the general sense, they are in exile. We are in this exile, we are sojourners, we are travelers, we are on our way home to heaven. That's biblical from cover to cover.
But that does not mean that we do nothing while we're waiting to go home to heaven. There are a lot of people think that. There are a lot of people who want to put on white robes and head for the mountains. There are misguided people on both sides of the spectrum, on the extremes. On the left, we have people who hate America and wish its demise. On the right, we have people who say America has turned away from God and it deserves God's judgment.
Others still have misplaced their hope and placed it on politicians. But God said, seek the peace and the prosperity of the city. Listen to me, we must pray that God may have mercy on America, not its downfall. We must pray, must intercede for the lost to come to Christ, not their destruction.
We must sacrifice so that men and women, boys and girls, come to Jesus and thus change America, not its demise. We are to longingly call our fellow citizens to repent, not wishing them harm. Oh, by all means, we are to stand up. By all means, we are to stand up and proclaim the truth at any cost, not wring our hands and say, what can we do now? We need to stand up and be counted, not to raise the white flag of surrender.
We need to cry to God to save his people and then that they may experience forgiveness of their sins and God's blessings once again. Even some of my friends, some of my friends, believe it or not, are saying to me, Michael, it's just too late. Give up. Give up. Why? Oh, listen, here's what they don't understand.
Okay? And I'll explain it to you. And if you understand it, God bless you.
If you don't, God bless you. You see, those of us who have escaped the horrors of socialism, totalitarianism, and dictatorship, those of us have escaped to the land of the free and the home of the brave. We feel obligated to remind those who are born in this country, those who don't know, and even my own children, not to take the privilege of being an American for granted. Don't surrender to the evil forces.
Don't settle for the invasions of the antichrist with a small a who are invading every aspect of life. Don't abandon your stewardship for your citizenship. In fact, that's exactly what Jesus said to the disciples in Luke chapter 19 verse 13. Here's what he said to them. He said, Occupy till I come.
He said what? Occupy till I come. Not surrender until I come. Not mark time until I come. Not withdraw from society until I come. Not give up the fight until I come.
No. For this is a very defeatist attitude that brought us to the mess that we're in. When evil forces took over academic institutions, Christians withdrew. When evil forces took over the media, Christians withdrew. When evil forces took over the halls of government, Christians withdrew.
But no. We are to what? Occupy. We are to invade Satan's territories. We are to stand toe to toe with the enemy of our soul because he's a defeated foe. We are to count the cost and prepare to pay the cost of occupying until Jesus comes back. My beloved friends, God has shown us, he has shown us, he proved to us how 50 years of praying and crying to God and acting and working.
He has shown us that the impossible happened after 50 years. And when everybody says Roe v. Wade is a subtle law, God in his mercy heard and answered the prayers of the faithful one and he deleted Roe v. Wade out of the screen. We need to do the same thing in every aspect of life. But listen to me. We must do it lovingly, lovingly and thoughtfully.
Seek the peace and the prosperity of the city. That means that we tenaciously proclaim that God's way is a better way, that God's way is a better way. God's way for marriage is the best. God's way of sexual purity is the best. God's way for accepting his created order of two genders, men and women, is the best. God's way of loving people into the kingdom and rejecting hate is the best. God's way of shunning violence and loving peace is the best.
God's way for family life is the best. We must proclaim it and proclaim it and then proclaim it again. You know every now and again I do remind this congregation historically that America has been in trouble before morally, spiritually, ethically.
In fact, several times in American history where we've reached a very low ebb, very low ebb. And then because of the faithful prayer of the faithful children of the living God, because of people cry to God for mercy, he sent us awakenings. The first great awakening took place under Jonathan Edwards and then the second great awakening, I'll be telling you about it in just a few moments. You see when God's people obey God's word, that's who I care about. I care about God's people because we ought to know better.
When we come under spiritual authority of the word of God, God can and he will change things. Even a hundred years, right a hundred years after the declaration of independence, exactly a hundred years to be exact was 1876. 1776, that was 1876. President James A. Garfield speaking to the Congress issued the following warning. He said, now more than ever before the people are responsible for the character of the Congress, for that body, talking about the Congress.
If it be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it's because people tolerated ignorance, recklessness and corruption. But if it is be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because people demanded those high qualities to represent them. My beloved friends who know and love Jesus more than any other citizens, more than any other citizens, we the believers in Jesus Christ, we the believers in Jesus Christ have absolutely double responsibility. We have double responsibility. We are to be committed to being good citizens. But secondly, we have an added responsibility that's only for the believers.
And that is because we know that God can do and great and mighty things and will answer faithful prayer, we must cry to God. Now, you've heard this formula before, some of you at least, and it's written some years ago by a Scottish thinker regarding the history of nations. He said it goes something like this, nations go from bondage to faith, from faith to courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back to bondage. We're sadly the generation, we are the generation that is experiencing certainly apathy which is leading us to dependence, can bondage be far away? Can bondage be far away? When you think that we're probably already here and the trillions of dollars that we owe, we are in bondage.
The very fact that we're one of the greatest detonations in the world is a clear indication that bondage is not far away. And so let us commit to praying. Let's commit to praying. Let's commit to working and asking God to lead us back to faith. Renew America by renewing its people. Let me conclude by telling you this little historical fact I shared with this congregation once before.
It's my hard hope that would encourage us in these dark days. Oh, I wish I've shared more details but I'll give you just the headlines here. What led to that stark speech by President Garfield that 19 years earlier, only 19 years earlier, not even 20, 19 years earlier, America was experiencing economic downturn and degradation. It was known as the 1857 run on the banks or the Panic of 1857. It was worse depression, indeed the history, than the 1920s. High unemployment, bank closings, people were angry and frustrated. But then a layman, and I always like to emphasize that because some people think, oh, this is job of the preachers.
No, no, no, no. Job of the preachers and evangelists call people to turn to Christ. This was a layman, a businessman in New York City. Literally God used him to rescue the nation through prayer. On September 23, 1857, Jeremiah Lamphere advertised a prayer meeting in the upper room of the Consistory Building in Manhattan, starting very small group of people. Very few people showed up, lunchtime meeting.
Very few people showed up. But he persisted, and he persisted week after week, months after months. Eventually, God used that prayer meeting to spread all over the nation and literally swept the nation back to God and brought us such amazing work for 100 years.
In fact, most historians tell us that we felt the effect of that awakening until the 1950s. Beloved, the very forces of hell that are being unleashed today, all of them are no much to our God. They're no much to our God. Not politicians, not even good policies which I admire and support, but God. Who? God.
Who? God. God is the one who can rescue us and take us safely to the harbor through shore of the other side of heaven. A challenge to stand up to the forces of hell with prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for listening to Dr. Michael Youssef and the Bible Teaching Ministry known around the world as Leading the Way. You can listen to this message again. You can also browse the audio and video archives for other messages that will deepen your walk with Christ when you visit ltw.org.
Now while you're there, learn how to get the Leading the Way app and find out about podcasts available from Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way. The greatest threat to America is the wrath of God on a wayward nation. Is there still hope for America?
Change can happen, but only when our nation repents and turns back to the God of our founding fathers. The Price of Liberty, Dr. Michael Youssef sounds the warning bell to call God's people to wake up, repent, and return to reliance on Him. Contact us today to get your own copy of The Price of Liberty at ltw.org. That's ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.
