Originally published on the Electric Gospel on July 4, 2014
I decided to post something nation-related on the 4th of July in 2014, abridged and adapted from a sermon I once delivered.
Speak to Your Nation’s Soul
by David Sellnow
The country in which we live has its share of problems — problems of crime, of corruption, of callousness. In every direction, from drug abuse to abuse of power, from security threats at airports to random shootings at schools, we are a nation in need of more decency and order, more right and less wrong, more truth and less media spin. But we won’t bring about a more God-fearing populace by passing new laws. We won’t remedy human problems by authorizing more funding for education or social programs. We won’t be redeemed by a change of administrations in the government. Whatever happens in our national politics and elections, we can be quite certain that the day after any votes are counted, we still will have our work cut out for us as people who speak for God in this world. “In these last days” (Hebrews 1:2), we are called to speak the word of Christ in whatever nation where we live. And our nation — like nations all through history — is full of people who need that message spoken.
The prophet Ezekiel serves as an example for us. The LORD God said to Ezekiel:
“I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been among them” (Ezekiel 2:3-5).
The nation in which we live and speak for the LORD is not much different than the nation in which Ezekiel prophesied. We Americans likewise are proud. We are stubborn. Our biggest weakness often is the very thing that made this nation strong — we are so fiercely independent. That independent streak goes beyond national pride. Our independent streak becomes a strong will set against the will of God. “I am independent and self-sufficient,” we say. “I can do what I want to do, have what I want to have.” It’s not just other Americans who take such an attitude. You and I are cut from the same stubborn cloth. Every one of us is instinctively rebellious and obstinate, resistant to the words of God. We all share the same human problem. We bristle and balk at whatever God commands. Our souls (all human souls) are naturally in a state of revolt against God.
But while human hearts naturally don’t want to listen to God, the only way to redeem human hearts is by the words that God speaks. So we keep speaking — whether others listen or fail to listen. And we keep praying that the Spirit will do his work — one by one, convincing one soul at a time, just as he has convicted us with God’s law and convinced us with hope in the good news of Jesus. The word of Christ has spoken to our hearts … and we will speak those same words to our neighbors. “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45).
