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Living Hope SDA Church

Mark Finley

A Moment of Destiny

So when surveys are taken, and the average American is asked, can you define the difference between right and wrong?

Many Americans will say, I'm not sure what that difference is.

Maybe right and wrong is something you determine in your head.

Maybe your right is different than my right.

Maybe your perception of reality is different than my perception of morality.

So there seems to be no standard basis to evaluate what's right and what's wrong.

The Barna Research Group is 1 of the most famous research groups in America.

80 percent of Americans, regardless of ethnicity, gender, social economic status or political ideology, express concern about the nation's moral condition.

So 80% of your neighbors, 80% of Americans say America is headed in the wrong direction morally.

That there's something that's, there's some screws loose, some moral screws loose, that the foundations of our society are shaking beneath our feet.

In 1960, approximately 72% of the United States population said they trusted the government almost always to make the right decisions.

Today, only 19% of the population say they trust the government to almost always do the right thing.

What they're saying is you only have 19% of all Americans that are saying we trust the government to do the right thing.

But yet back in 1960, it was 72% of all Americans.

I'd like to suggest to you, when popularity is more important than purity, a nation is in trouble.

When money is more important than morality, a nation is in trouble.

When entertainment is more important than ethics, a nation is what?

When pleasure is more important than Purity, a what?

When there is confusion of sexual roles and sexual orientation in God's original plan, it is still God's original plan, of 1 man married to 1 woman for a lifetime is flagrantly violated, a nation is in trouble.

When crime is rampant in our streets and Christ is mocked in our schools, a nation is in trouble.

Have you noticed the uptick in murders in our schools?

Have you noticed what's going on in our society?

And the book of Revelation provides answers.

It provides answers for those of us that are living on the knife edge of eternity.

The ancient prophets speak in trumpet tones to this generation, and echoing and re-echoing down the centuries, the words of the prophets speak to us.

Proverbs, the 16th chapter in the 24th verse, read it together with me please.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

When the morality of a nation is eroded, the judgments of God hang over that nation.

Not simply because God is a vindictive judge, but because when a nation is righteous, it exalts that nation, it builds that nation.

A number of years ago I was traveling in South America and as I was traveling there, I was invited to come to Congress to speak to that Congress and I came there, Congress had been over, 1 of the congressmen said to me, Pastor Mark, would you be willing to counsel with the Vice President of our nation?

Our nation's in a terrible crisis right now.

And so we got in the congressional limousine, we drove to the capital of that particular country.

And as I got there, I just prayed and I tried to learn as much as I could about the vice president of that nation.

Was not a Jewish nation, was not Israel, but it was in South America.

And So when I came to see him, it was an interesting meeting.

His tie was, he didn't even have a tie, and his shirt was unloosed, you know.

And the nurses were on strike in the country.

And as I sat there with him, I thought to myself, righteousness exalts a nation.

We prayed together, we shared the word of God together.

I pointed out to him how in ancient Israel when the prophets spoke and they spoke the truth and there was revival in the nation, it exalted that nation.

Nations are great because nations are good.

And when a nation ceases to be good, it ceases to be great.

The judgments of God are hanging over America today.

Nations are not corporate wholes necessarily, although their laws speak corporately, but nations are you, nations are me.

And the book of Revelation points out that this is a decisive time, a time of judgment, a time when God is calling us to deep repentance, a time that God is calling us to be serious about faith.

You know Proverbs 26 verse 2 says, as the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

If a nation is cursed, it's because it's lacked its moral foundation.

It's because purity is gone and honesty is gone and integrity is gone.

There are some significant parallels in American society with Rome's collapse.

And if you look at the collapse of the Roman Empire, it was in 1787 that Edward Gibbon finished 20 years of research writing his monumental volumes, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

And he lists 5 great reasons why Rome fell.

In ancient Rome, the family unit fell apart.

The rapid increase of divorce, the undermining of dignity and the sanctity of the home, the basis of, was the very base of human society.

So in Rome, ancient Rome, what took place in that society was rampant immorality, rampant homosexuality.

When you look at the ancient Roman society, the family unit was crushed and fell apart.

The second thing about ancient Rome is that it had major financial problems.

And public monies for free bread, they had a welfare state.

You had the rich getting richer, you had the poor getting poorer, put more people on welfare, and as the result of that, the government had to support those more people that didn't have adequate opportunity for jobs.

The third thing that Edward Gibbon talks about is the mad craze for pleasure.

Sports became extreme and more brutal every day.

Now, for example, you had the chariot races, and I read about 1 Roman writer who said this, if your favorite driver in the chariot race lost the race, you could be depressed for days.

Anybody sense the sport craze in America today?

The Romans didn't have the movie called The Gladiator.

And so you have this pleasure crazy society.

And we see that today in video games, in TV, in violent and sex ridden movies.

They built gigantic armaments in Rome when the real enemy was within.

The decadence of the people, they over extended their military.

They, the money was lavishly spent to build an army and as the result of that, the citizens free of Rome.

Do you know that 35 to 40% of Rome were slaves?

A Moment of Destiny

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