The Church's Role in Helping America

You know, I want to begin today by quoting from actor, writer, lawyer, commentator Ben Stein, and I quote. Ben says, I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful, lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened, and I don't feel discriminated.

against. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say Merry Christmas to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.

It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country.

I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. I want prayer in our schools, and we said okay. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school, and we said okay. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped, and we might damage their self-esteem.

He said an expert should know what he's talking about, and we said okay. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, Mr. Stein says, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.

I think it has a great deal to do with we reap what we sow. End of quote. Now you say, well, you know, Lon, I think Ben Stein is spot on here. I agree with what he's saying, but Lon, we're not sitting in Congress this afternoon.

We're not sitting in some state legislature today where we could pass laws to change all of this. We're in church. So I mean, what in the world does the church have to do with all of this? Well, I believe much in every way. William Bennett, the Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan said, and I quote, he said Dostoevsky reminded us in Brothers Karamazov that, quote, if God does not exist, everything is permissible. End quote. In recent years, nothing has been more consequential than large segments of American society turning away from God. And as a result, we are now seeing everything here in America. Therefore, Mr. Bennett says, in my view, the real crisis of our time is spiritual.

End of quote. Now folks, if the real crisis of our time were political, or if the real crisis of our time were economic, or if the real crisis of our time were military, then indeed the church would have very little, if anything, to do with it. But if Mr. Bennett is correct, and I believe that he is, if the real crisis of our time is spiritual, well then suddenly the church of Jesus Christ has everything to do with it. And this is what I want us to talk about this July 4th weekend, 2010. I want us to talk about the church's role in helping America.

But before we do that, let's talk for a moment about how we got to where we are in America today. You know, I think just about everybody here knows who Terri Schiavo is. In 1990, Terri, at the age of 26, collapsed at her home, and she was pronounced to be in a persistent, vegetative state and put on a feeding tube. Eight years later, in response to a petition by her husband, the Florida Circuit Court ordered the feeding tube removed.

And after multiple appeals by her parents, saying that if the husband didn't want to take care of her, her parents would, after all those appeals failed, the tube was removed by court order. And on March 31st, 2005, Terri Schiavo died of starvation and dehydration. Now in April of that year, the very next month, 2005, right after Terri died, I was in Europe leading a Footsteps to Paul tour, and while we were in Rome and we had a little break in the action, we were talking to one of the tour guides. And she said to me, and I quote, she said, you Americans pride yourselves on how spiritual you are compared to us in Europe, she said, but you know, here in Europe, we don't starve people to death, end of quote. And folks, really, there wasn't a whole lot I could say to her, because honestly, I was as shocked and I was as embarrassed about what had happened.

I didn't know what to say. How could something like this happen in America? Well, folks, how did we get to the place in America where homosexual marriage is now legal? How did we get to the place in America where abortion on demand is our accepted national policy? How did we get to the place in America where a teacher in the public schools in their classroom can talk about Satan worship and witchcraft and Islam and New Age philosophy and voodoo, but if they even mention Jesus Christ and the Bible, they'll lose their job? How did we get to the place in America where we need armed policemen walking up and down the hallways of the public schools in America?

How did we get to the place in America where premarital sex among college students is so common that they actually give out free condoms on the bulletin boards in college dorms like they did at Johns Hopkins University where my youngest son John went? And finally, how did we get to the place in America where people can burn the American flag on public property, but on that very same property, we can't post a copy of the Ten Commandments? Well, whose fault is it that America's gotten to this point? You say, Lon, I know whose fault it is. It's the ACLU's fault. It's the National Organization of Women's fault.

It's Barry Lynn and People for the American Way. It's their fault. It's the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. It's their fault.

It's the National Education Association. It's their fault. Well, I don't believe that any of these groups are at the base of the fault for how America got to where it is today, friends. I believe the fault for where we are in America today must be laid squarely at the feet of the church in America.

And let me tell you why. For the first 175 years of America's history, the church occupied a position of almost complete cultural dominance in America. And from that position, the church was able to exert a unique moral influence over all of American society.

But friends, as we all know, it is not that way anymore. Sadly, in America today, what the church says makes little difference both to public policy and to popular opinion. And how did we lose this position of cultural dominance as the church in America?

I have three reasons to suggest to you. Number one, partly because the church lost its moral credibility in the eyes of most Americans. This, the result of corruption and greed and inauthentic behavior on the part of so many of the church's leaders, coupled with sex scandals and misuse of funds and the sexual abuse of children.

It happened, number two, we lost our position in American society. Partly, number two, because large segments of the church in America drifted into liberal theology. And instead of being the enemy of people, liberal people, who were trying to undermine biblical values in America, those liberal churches actually became the allies of these people who were trying to undermine biblical authority in America. And finally, number three, I believe it happened partly because evangelical churches in America, we didn't drift into liberal theology, but evangelical churches in America lost their focus. We became so interested in church growth and money and power and allowing preachers to self-promote themselves into national figures, that we abandoned our God-given role as the moral anchor for American society.

You say, all right, Lon, you know what, I think you've got a point, but to lay the primary responsibility for America's moral decline on the church alone, I mean, I just kind of think that maybe that's going a little too far, don't you? Well, no, I don't. Let me tell you, and I want to do a little bit of syllogistic logic here with you.

You're like, a little, a little, a little, what was that? You know, if-then. Just a little if-then. See if you don't follow this. All right, here we go. If the church in America was fearlessly preaching biblical truth, then we would be training people in the pews to see all of life with a biblical worldview. Now, if the tens of millions of Americans sitting in church pews were looking at life with a biblical worldview, then all these people would vote for politicians who espoused a biblical worldview. Let's keep going.

And if these millions and millions of Americans sitting in church pews all voted for politicians with a biblical worldview, then our legislatures and our Congress would be full of politicians who had this kind of biblical worldview, and they would sponsor bills, and they would pass laws, and they would appoint judges that uphold a biblical worldview of society, which would mean that there would be no gay marriage in America, which would mean that there would be no abortion on demand in America, which would mean that we could read the Ten Commandments and we could read the Bible anywhere we wanted to in America, and it would probably mean that Terri Schiavo would still be alive in America today. Did you follow that? Yes? All right. No, my friends, I stand by what I said earlier. I believe the fault for where we are in America today must be laid at the feet of the church in America. And you know what's interesting is somebody at the Washington Post actually agrees with me.

Yeah. His name is William Raspberry, who often wrote in the op-ed section of the Washington Post, and here's what he said, and I quote, in an article entitled The Moral Center. Here we go. He said, I quote, The church in America, Mr. Raspberry says, is endlessly involved in things that other agencies might do just as well, but the church is neglecting the position that it is uniquely qualified to hold, namely the moral center. He said the point of this is not to criticize churches that run nursery schools, but to caution them that their more important work is the inculcation of moral values. He says, I know this must seem a strange message coming from a not particularly religious writer in an utterly secular newspaper.

Well, hello. Yeah. But I am increasingly struck, he says, by the growing sense that America's major failings are not political or economic but moral. Then he concludes, listen, he concludes with this question, he says, Shouldn't organized religion take the lead in being the moral center for our nation? End of quote.

And I say yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. Friends, one of the core responsibilities of the true church of Jesus Christ is to be the moral center not just for American society, but to be the moral center for every single society in which the church exists. And so that brings us to our final question of the day, and that is how are we going to do it? How in the world are we going to fulfill our responsibility to be the moral center of American society as the church? Well, I have four suggestions for us, and then we're done.

Here we go. Suggestion number one, want to be the moral center of a society? Then here's what the church can do.

Number one, we can lead as many Americans as possible to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 5, Paul, the apostle Paul said to Timothy, he said, But you, Timothy, be sober in all things, endure hardship. Look now, do the work of an evangelist. Tell everybody you meet, Timothy, everywhere you go, Timothy, about the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, Jesus said the very same thing. Mark 16, 15, commonly called the Great Commission.

He said, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, every person. See, when we as Christians faithfully carry out the Great Commission in a society, folks, that society changes. And the reason that society changes is because the hearts of the men and women in that society change, and as a result, the kind of society these men and women want to build changes. The point is that transformed people build a transformed society.

And the church is the only institution in America that can produce these kinds of transformed people. This is why in 2 Timothy, chapter 4, the apostle Paul did not say to Timothy, Timothy, do the work of a reformer. He did not say, Timothy, do the work of a legislator. He didn't say, Timothy, do the work of a moral crusader.

He didn't say, Timothy, do the work of a political activist. He said, Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. And here at McLean Bible Church, we are thoroughly committed to doing the work of an evangelist here in Washington, D.C., as God helps us. This is why we do the Internet Campus, so that we can do the work of an evangelist with a lot of people who can't actually show up at one of our campuses.

And this is why we do Daybreak down in northeast Washington in the projects. And it's why we do the house in Anacostia with young men and women that are there. It's why we do Access Ministry in Jill's house and Soaring Over Seven summer camps.

Because we are out to reach out to these children with disabilities and to their families and do the work of an evangelist for those families. And it's why we do our junior high ministry with camps and outreaches. It's why we do our senior high ministry with camps and outreaches. It's why we do Metro Blitzes at metro stations handing out tracts and cards. It's why we do the gathering on college campuses all throughout the metro area. It's why we do turkey outreach at Thanksgiving and angel tree at Christmas. And it's why we do our food pantry and our clothing ministry. And it's why we're trying to get all of you to take Christianity 301 so we can teach you how to do the work of an evangelist in your own personal life. And you know what?

Alright. It's why we spend $500,000 a year on secular radio with ads and programming that is not aimed at promoting McLean Bible Church but that is aimed at declaring people's need for Jesus Christ. You know, XM Radio, we actually have, not a sermon, just a thought, on four XM Radio station channels.

You say, well now wait a minute, you say that's not possible. XM Radio doesn't take advertising. Well, there are four channels that do and we found them and we're on them. And I got an email, we got an email from a gentleman who heard us and listened to what he said. And I quote, he said, just heard your ad on XM channel 22. I have to admit, he says, I did a double take. I was in my office flipping from one channel to another when I heard a man say, it's simple.

You're either going to heaven or hell when you die and your relationship with Jesus is what decides it all. He said, I thought, has XM somehow been hijacked? How funny is that? And the answer is no, XM Radio hasn't been hijacked. This is just McLean Bible Church taking seriously our responsibility to do the work of an evangelist. This is us taking seriously core value number nine which says our church must have not an economic or a political but an evangelistic impact on our community. And this is something we are utterly, completely, passionately obsessed about in this church and it's a way we can help America, number one. Number two, suggestion number two is if we want to be the moral center of a society, then number two, we need to declare biblical truth to that society. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, Paul writes Timothy and says, I solemnly charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God and Jesus Christ, preach the Word, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction, but Timothy, preach the Word. And folks, as the Church of Jesus Christ, one of the greatest services that we can perform for America is for us to preach the Word of God and teach the Word of God and stand firm for the Word of God at all times. Which means that here in Washington, D.C., every time McLean Bible Church opens our mouth, any time we say anything in this town, the anything we say needs to be God's truth, God's whole truth, and nothing but God's truth in this town. No waffling, no fudging, no watering it down.

We must be loving the way we say it. But friends, we must also say it firmly and without compromise. You know, remember all those if-then statements that we did?

All right. Remember the first one was this. If the church in America were fearlessly preaching biblical truth, okay, but you know, honestly, there is a premise that belongs before that one. That shouldn't be the first one.

There's another one that should be first, and it should be this. If preachers in America were fearlessly preaching biblical truth, then the church in America would be doing the same. Every time I think of this, I think of George Whitefield. George Whitefield, who led the Great Awakening here in the 13 colonies between 1730 and 1770, this man literally turned the 13 colonies around for the Lord Jesus Christ to an open air preaching. But you know why he did open air preaching? He did it because the pastors of the churches wouldn't let him preach in the churches. And you know why they wouldn't let him preach in the churches?

Well, listen to what he said, and I think it might make sense to you. George Whitefield, and I quote, he said, The reason why we have so many dead congregations is because they have dead men preaching to them. And dead men cannot beget living children. End of quote.

You get it now, right? Why they wouldn't let him preach in the churches. Well, George Whitefield is right. Friends, everything starts with the pulpits of America. We cannot build strong churches that have strong impact on America. We can't build those kinds of churches on anemic pulpits.

It'll never work. And let me just say that I don't have anything to say about what happens in other churches in America, but I do have something to say about what happens here at McLean Bible Church. And friends, I want to say to you by the grace of God, as long as I have the privilege of being the pastor here, you have my solemn commitment that any time we open our mouths here at McLean Bible Church, we are committed to the fact that what's going to come out of our mouth here is God's truth, God's whole truth, and nothing but God's truth. So help us God.

That's how we're going to do it here. This is the second way that we can help America. Number three, suggestion number three, want to be the moral center for a society? Then the third thing we can do is train up young people in the knowledge of the written Word of God. 2 Timothy 3 verse 14, Paul says, But you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned, watch, for from a child you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation. Our goal here at McLean Bible Church is to see every young American grow up with the very same heritage that Timothy had.

And what was his heritage? From a child he knew the holy Scriptures. And our goal is both by the programming we run in Kids Quest and Awana and our children's ministry and our teenage ministry, and by training and encouraging parents to do the very same thing at home in their homes, our goal is to see a whole new generation of young American men and women raised up who know the Word of God, and they love the Word of God, and they obey the Word of God, and they want to build a society that is based around the Word of God. This is what we're committed to doing here at McLean Bible Church. Now if you look very carefully here at the resources that we spend at McLean, you will find that unapologetically our resources, the vast majority of them, are dedicated to people under 40 in this church.

I'm talking Kids Quest and Awana and junior high and senior high and the gathering ministry on college campuses and frontline, our ministry to young men and women in their 20s and 30s, and our future leader program. Why do we do that? Well friends, it's because these are the future leaders of America. We don't do it because old people like me aren't important.

We're important, but we had our chance. This is the future of America, and if we really want to contribute to the moral reformation of America, we have to produce a new generation of young men and women, and that's why we do it. Number four, and finally, if we want to be the moral center of this country, then fourth, we need to support political candidates that stand for biblical values. You know, nothing is more helpful in our struggle as the church to restore the moral equilibrium of America than to have allies in the political arena, and yet it is scandalous, in my opinion, how poorly we as Christians mobilize ourselves to get these people into office. You know, all those liberal groups I mentioned to you earlier, they know how to mobilize their people.

They know how to concentrate their people to get the folks elected. They want to get elected, and yet I want to say to you that all those liberal groups I mentioned earlier, the National Organization of Women, the ACLU, the People for the American Way, listen to me now, all of them put together don't have enough voters to elect one single politician if we as Christians mobilized and concentrated our votes throughout America. To put it another way, my friends, if everybody in America who says that they're a Christian, if we were all to vote together in a block, we could elect any candidate in any election anywhere in America. Now, as a church, we cannot be formally involved in this, in actually supporting and actually helping political candidates get elected for two reasons.

Number one, it's illegal for us to do that. And number two, political action is not the mission of this church. The mission of this church is evangelism and discipleship of Washington. However, this doesn't mean that you and I as individual followers of Christ can't be involved in this, and we should. If we're serious about turning our nation around morally and spiritually, we as individual Christians need to get serious about voting for and helping to elect political allies at every level of government. When you hear figures like 60 million Americans go to church but only 20 million of them voted, I'm sorry, that's scandalous.

And it explains why some of the people who get elected get elected. Listen, we need to forget about voting our party. We need to forget about voting our pocketbook as Christians in this country. We need to forget about voting our race, and we need to forget about voting our gender. And we need to vote for people. I don't care what gender they are. I don't care what race they are.

I don't care what party they are. We need to vote for people that stand for a biblical agenda and get them into office. And I stand by that.

Okay, I'm sure I'll get a few cards and letters, but just keep them coming. I'm sorry, this is what I believe. I'll say that humbly, and this is what I'm going to preach, because this is what I believe. Now, let's conclude and say nobody can say for sure what the future of America is and the plan of God.

I look in the Bible, you know, searching for America in the last days. I don't see it. Well, I can't – people say to me, how do you explain? I don't know. I'm not God.

How can I explain? I don't know what God's going to do in the end of the age. But you know what? It doesn't matter, because as long as America exists and as long as we are the church of Christ in America, then friends, it is our responsibility to do all that we can to promote moral and spiritual values, to promote the moral and spiritual well-being of this land that we love so much, this land that so many of us have gone into harm's way to defend, the land that we have young men and women today as we speak in harm's way defending this country. And if we don't have as much courage as the church as they have out there where the bullets are whizzing, then shame on us.

Shame on us. So how can we help? Number one, we can get out there and lead as many Americans as possible to a saving knowledge of Christ, because transformed people produce a transformed society. Number two, we can faithfully hold up the truth of the word of God in America so that at least America knows what God says on every single subject. Number three, we can train young people in the knowledge of the word of God and hopefully produce a whole new generation of young men and women who want to stand and build a society on the word of God.

And number four, we can support individual political candidates as individual followers of Christ that stand for biblical values. And folks, let's remember, as McLean Bible Church, God has given us the most significant city in America, maybe in the world, to go after and be the moral center of this city and be a lighthouse for this city. And that's what we have to do. Folks, we've got to be salt and light for this city and not put it under a barrel.

We've got to stand out and say, you know what, it doesn't matter what it costs us, it doesn't matter how people may think of us or slander us, it doesn't matter whether people agree, and it doesn't matter whether people like us. We'll say it as nicely as we know how, but we're going to stand for what God says in this town. And I hope you believe that, because that's what we believe, and by the grace of God, that's what we're intending to do. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for challenging us today with the need to stand as the church, firmly, unashamedly, uncompromisingly, here in Washington, D.C. Dear Lord Jesus, it's sad that we once had that position of being the moral center of this society, and we lost it. It's our fault as the church.

So, Lord, help us to work hard to get it back with authentic behavior, with godly attitudes, with courage, with fortitude. God, make us the kind of church you want us to be in this society. And use us, Lord Jesus, here in Washington, not for the glory of McLean Bible Church, heaven forbid, but Lord, use us for the glory of the living, risen Christ in this town. And Father, we pray you would turn America back to you. Lord, show us mercy, show us longsuffering, and turn this land back to Christ. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said? Amen. Would you say? Amen. ...