A Remnant On Our Knees

Bible Text 2 Chronicles 6:21 May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.

A praying remnant can change everything. A remnant of believers has the ear of God, it’s just that simple. And I believe one of the reasons in these desperate days why God has restrained a hand of judgment upon our land is because of a remnant of pray-ers.

We need to understand how serious the times are. We need to understand that this is a serious and difficult day. We need to understand that the church has often fallen asleep, and we need to pray that God would turn the hearts of His people back to Him. Unless the hearts of His people return to Him the nation will never turn back to Him. The nation will not turn because we say, “You’re doing bad and terrible things.” The nation turns when the hearts of God’s people turn to Him in repentance and say, “Lord, have mercy on us.” A heart that is humble before God, is a heart that God can use to change and motivate the hearts of others. 

Take Him seriously and understand the critical nature of this hour. Come before the Lord in constant prayer recognizing that politics will not change the future, but prayer turns the nation around. Prayer is heard by God who does incredible things. If the prayer of Elijah could turn Israel back from drought to fruitfulness, then the prayer of a remnant can change our land as well. Rather than spending our time moaning and groaning about what is happening, and what is going on with our morality, and what is taking place in our culture, I believe God is calling us to be on our knees before Him, and to understand when the enemy says, “Oh, one person can’t do anything about this,” that that one person with God is a majority! One person with the living God is one who is equipped with power to change the future!

I believe the Lord is calling us to take Him seriously and take prayer seriously. Because you can vote, you can express your opinions, you can display your flag, but in the end the prayers of God’s people alone can turn the land around, beginning with the church.

Prayer: Join with us as we get down on our knees today to pray for America.

By Pastor Christopher Dodge

Excerpted from “Light to My Path” https://youtu.be/8OhCp5DlQ_4

Heal Our Land

Bible Text 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV) “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Our land, our country, the U.S.A. needs healing, do you agree?  There is a brokenness that goes beyond the political, the economic, the social, do you sense it, too?  Will the right candidate, another law, more funding, etc., heal our brokenness?  Throughout history when God’s people recognized their country going down a destructive path, they called on God, their Father, for help.  They recognized their profound need and cried out to God out of desperation.  

God, out of his deep love for US(A), who has called us to be His own, spoke these words of promise.  He said, “If we will humble ourselves before Him, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways…”(stop!).  Can we do that right now?  Wherever you are, would you pause, pull over, stop for a minute, and tell God you are sorry for the things we have done, for turning away from Him and for making decisions and pursuing paths that were and are not good…(pause).  Can we confess our waywardness on behalf of our country?…(pause).  

Prayer:  Lord, we recognize we’ve made a mess of things.  We need your help.  We have turned from You and even pursued evil.  We are sorry.  I am sorry.  Thank You for Your promise that You HEAR US, that You FORGIVE US, and that You desire to HEAL OUR LAND!  We stand on that promise.  Thank You for Your Son, Jesus, who took on Himself the punishment of humanity when He went to the cross.  Thank You for the hope we have in His resurrection.  Heal our marriages, heal our schools, heal our business, heal our government, heal our country, through Jesus!  We believe You can and will, through Jesus!  Amen

By Pastor Kevin Schuessler

Unclean Lips

Bible Text Isaiah 6:5 (NLT) Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

”I’m sure glad I’m not like THAT guy”…”he’s got real problems”…”I’ve got troubles, but that guy’s a MESS…!”  How “natural” it is for us to compare ourselves to others and come out smelling sweet!  We can always find someone “worse off” and think that by that standard, we are “good” with God.  But the prophet Isaiah had no such illusions.  He saw a vision God showed him.  In it, angelic beings were worshipping the living God with the words, “Holy, holy holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory”.  Isaiah instantly recognizes he’s in the presence of a holy God, and he is undone!  What convicts Isaiah?  His mouth.  He says, “I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  He recognizes just how serious the problem is, both for himself and his people!  

Are we any different in the U.S.?  Are we even shocked anymore when someone uses “J….C…” God’s most precious name, as a swear word?  Or when we joke about sexual things, describing private, intimate things that belong in couples’ bedrooms?  Has it become perfectly acceptable to tear apart a person’s reputation by gossip, by calling it “being honest”?  When we carelessly get sarcastic or insult a person, are those meaningless words, or have we done real damage?  Do words actually have the power to kill, or give life?

Maybe we also need to confess our personal and national sin of “unclean lips” before our Father in heaven.  As Isaiah came clean before God, look what God did.  One of God’s angelic beings brought a live coal and touched Isaiah’s lips, and declared Isaiah forgiven!  

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, I confess that I have used my lips, my mouth, my words to destroy, to lie, to mock, to blaspheme, to curse.  And I am sorry.  Forgive me, forgive us, through Jesus and the awful price he paid on the cross!  Forgive America’s people, Lord, for the careless, even destructive words out of our mouths.  Touch our lips with a coal and cleanse our words, that they speak only life.  And honor you, Father.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Additional Bible passages:  Ephesians 4:29; Proverbs 12:18, James 3:5b-8

By Pastor Kevin Schuessler

The World is Shaking

Bible Text James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

The world is shaking, today, because we have wandered so far. However, the Lord is calling His children back to Himself. Sin is in this world and we need the only One who can redeem and reclaim us and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming King. 

In Hezekiah’s day, Hezekiah saw that reality, and he took to heart what God was saying. Today, God is calling you and me to do the same, to take to heart what we are seeing and what He is saying and to be people who hear His voice and respond to His truth, and follow where He leads.

The Bible says, “The prayers of a righteous man avail much before the living God.” The scripture says that the Lord listens to the prayers of His people. God is saying to us in these dangerous days, “Turn to me all the ends of the earth and be saved.” God is saying to us at this time, “Look to the one who is the Holy One of Israel, the One who is faithful and just and true, the One who loves His children, the One who desires to deliver them from tragedy, from danger, and from the might of the enemy.”

Prayer: Humbly come before God today and prayer earnestly for America. Be assured, He hears your prayers for the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective. 

By Pastor Chris Dodge  

Excerpted from Hezekiah: Intercession. For the rest of the sermon go to https://youtu.be/kz6JS5TwuuI

A Word from Patrick Henry

Bible Text Philippians 3:9 (NIV)  And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

On May 1765, Patrick Henry (a Founding Father, “Give me liberty or give me death..”) spoke:

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

What do you think Patrick Henry might say about the shift America has made, away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Prayer: Pray for revival for America. Pray for God to turn our hearts back to Him. Pray for Him to point us back to Jesus.

By Pastor Chris Dodge

A Word from John Quincy Adams

Bible Text Psalm 33:12-15 (NIV)  Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.

July 4, 1821, John Quincy Adams (6th President of the United States) declared:

“From the day of the Declaration…they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.”

Prayer: Father, You have said, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” May this be so for America. Bring us humbly before You. Cause a revival over this land! Draw us to Yourself and hold America tight in Your strong arms. Protect her and defend her. And may we, may America, proclaim Jesus as her Savior once again.  Amen 

By Pastor Chris Dodge

Songs of Patriotism

Bible Text John 8:36 (NIV)  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Does your patriotism need a boost today? Sing-a-long to this playlist of patriotic music. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTaaqrC3dMOy24adtTeIr1soqirx1-kPL

Does your heart for God need to be encouraged? Sing-a-long to this oldies but goodies list.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTaaqrC3dMOwEIAh1RydF5QK3evRVfJsX

Prayer: Thank the Heavenly Father for the blessing of living in America and for the freedoms we have been given. Thank God for your freedom in Christ Jesus.

 By Pastor Kevin Schuessler