Jentezen Franklin - It's Time to Stand Up - Part 2
I want you to open your Bibles back to the book of Acts. This is a time when we need clarity. This is a time when we need to understand what the Bible teaches us as Christians. Do you believe that? In verse 14, "But Peter standing with the eleven, raised his voice". And wasn't just the preacher standing. Number one, we need preachers to stand up and preach the truth in this critical hour. And then the eleven though, I don't know why, I preached a long time. I never saw that the eleven stood with them. Luke, the physician, stood with them. A professional, physician, standing up with the gospel, and its clear message of "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost".
And so, it takes all kinds. Matthew, who was wealthy, stood with them. I don't have time to break it down, but all of these different people stood with them. Even when others got upset like Judas and sat down, Matthias stood up and took his place. And this is an hour when the preachers need to be standing up and preaching the truth of God's word, and the congregation needs to be standing up right with the preacher. Give me a big amen. Alright. With that in mind, I want you to go over quickly, turn right to 1 Corinthians 14:8. "For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle"?
How will the troops know what to do if the trumpet being sounded by leadership is uncertain? So, one of the biggest lies in America that I believe has messed up the mindset of a whole generation is "Don't talk about politics and religion". I did not just throw this sermon together because I saw something on the news or whatever. I have been holding on to this for several weeks, I've been adding and working to it. So, I'm done with apologizing. I'm gon' preach the truth of God's word. Don't talk about, the lie, the lie says, "Don't talk about politics and religion".
Because of this mindset, for 30 years, extreme, liberal, anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-life, anti-Israel, pro-same sex marriage, pro-LGBTQ agenda has completely taken over our universities, and there is risen in America, a spirit that says our country is evil, that America is racist, that we had our beginning as a evil beginning, and certainly we had sin, the sin of racism, and still do. And the sin of slavery, and we fought a war, and we had 613,000 plus men die fighting over slavery, and thank God for the outcome of that leadership from Abraham Lincoln and the people who led that war. The one world government that is coming is prophesied in remarkable accuracy in the Bible. It talks about an Antichrist leader that will rise, full of Satan. It talks about how currency and money will be done away with and there will only be one world currency with a one world government and a one world leader, and there will be a microchip.
All of this in so many words is described with remarkable accuracy. We did not understand it 50 years ago when I heard my daddy preach sermons like I'm preaching right now. But there will be microchips that are already happening in Europe, that are implanted into people's bodies, and without it, you cannot buy, without it you cannot get food or gas or the essentials of life, the necessities of life. That is happening as I speak, and socialism is the mechanism that will bring it to pass. For there to be one world government, hear me big now, America must be destroyed. We are the superpower with military strength, economic strength, and spiritual strength of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And in order for the evil to take over, America must be diminished and destroyed. America must be, and freedom must be shackled. There cannot be a strong economic nation and one world government, one world currency, and a one world leader have the opportunity to take over. The spirit of freedom has to be defeated. All of this will take place, that's why I'm standing here preaching with great conviction. All of what I just said will take place in the political arena. How can the church not stand up and speak up in such... we will have to apologize to our children and our grandchildren when they read what we have lost and what we sat silent and watched happen to a nation that was free and had the greatest, not perfect, but had the greatest opportunity for prosperity, and blessing, and freedom that the world has ever known.
And we let it go down on our watch. It's very important that Christians open their eyes. It's very important that Christians wake up and do more than stay on Facebook all day and look at stupid stuff, and then be uninformed and unconcerned and apathetic. Psalms 22:28 said, "The kingdom is the Lord's and He rules over nations". This generation has come to believe that the church has no part in determining how people should vote, and that the church has no say so in it. When a minister or a Christian speaks out like I'm doing this morning against voting for a bill in congress that is not Biblical, many believe that that preacher is out of line, and that he should be silent. But that was not how this nation was founded and formed. When they started the colonies for one reason, religious freedom. They came here and they established the colonies. It's amazing, they really were religious sanctuaries for various denominations of Christians.
For example, Pennsylvania was founded by the Quakers because the Quakers, which was a religious, Bible teaching, preaching group of people, they wanted to practice their faith without being interfered by Britain and the Church of England and their doctrine, they wanted their own doctrine. That's where Pennsylvania came from. Maryland was established as a Catholic state for the Catholics. Massachusetts was established by and for the Puritan denomination. There was no separation of church and state. Reverend John Witherspoon was one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Out of 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, one of 'em was a preacher. We need not to fight with bullets and bones, but to fight with wills and words, and to tell the truth of God's word. We need, in this critical hour, Matthew 22:21, "Render unto God the things that are God's, and render unto Caesar," or the government, "The things that are the government's".
What does that mean? That means, in America, the government is not Washington D.C., the government is not the democrats or the republicans. The government is we, the people. And he's addressing, Jesus said that verse, by the way. He said, "If you're fortunate enough to get to be the government, to live in a nation where it's not a president, it's not a king who has all authority and all power, but if you are the government, give to the government what you, as a great citizen, ought to give to the government". And that includes doctrine from the Bible, which is love, and freedom, and deliverance. And why would the church not do that? There are two reasons why God raised America up.
Number one, He knew that we would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and spread the gospel all over the world. And in order for that to happen, it had to be a economic system that would cause great wealth and prosperity to come upon the people that would finance the spreading of the gospel, and churches by the millions built in every nation of the world. It did not come out of Europe, it did not come out of South America, or Africa, or Asia. It came, the spreading of the gospel... God has His own purposes, and He said, "I choose America to be the spreader of the gospel of Jesus Christ". The second reason that God, please hear me, that God raised up America is not only would He raise up Billy Grahams, and organizations, and denominations. Every mighty one has been birthed out of this nation. But the second reason is God knew that in order to birth the nation of Israel, it would require a nation mighty with military power, with economic power, and with great Biblical convictions to stand with the nation of Israel so that it could be reborn.
That happened in 1948. And the only real friend that Israel has on this planet, and that's why I'm proud to be an American. Because Israel would have already been overcome by terrorists, and taken over had America not given them the weapons, had America not helped them, had America not stood with Israel. God has blessed America because we have blessed and stood with the nation of Israel. And when you vote against, let me say it like I want to. When you vote for anyone who is anti-Israel, you literally are voting against every part of this book from Genesis to Revelation. That is not a political thing, that is a Biblical fact. Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those that bless you, I will curse those that curse you, and out of you all the nations of the world shall be blessed".
Can I give you one more quick one since I got the hornet's nest stirred up, I might as well go on and kick it real hard. Socialism is an economic system where government is in charge. The government begins to own, by regulations and controls, the dreams, and the businesses, and the entrepreneurial spirit, it begins to own it little by little. Socialism distributes money among the people. Socialism says that everybody ought to get the same, whether they step up and stand up and risk and work harder, it does not matter. Government intervenes into the labor market in socialism. The government state becomes the primary employer. These are just, you can read this, well, you used to could, now you can't even trust the history books. But it's just a historical fact what happens.
Go ask the people in Venezuela how it worked out. It's happened in our lifetime. They switched from Capitalism to Socialism, they're devastated. They do not have any food, it's devastating. They have no freedom. They have a dictator. Cuba. How's that going for them? Do you want that in America? It is happening and people don't even see it. The Bible teaches, "Six days shall you work". Some of you think you get two days off. The Bible says, "Six days thou shalt work". I want my staff to hear that. "Six days thou shalt work". Kidding. The Bible teaches personal responsibility. I want somebody to get happy over this like you do John 3:16. The Bible teaches reliability, excellence, dependability, not entitlement. Not entitlement.
What America ought to do is make sure everybody gets a chance. And I know I don't know everything. I know I don't understand every perspective. I know I was born a white man and there's no way I can understand the prejudices, but this is the possibility, if we could ever get beyond these walls we build up and sit at the table and say we can work these things out. We have middle ground we can find to give everybody a chance. I'm almost done. But can I give you these three and I'll quit? Alright, throw up for me, real quick, Ecclesiastes 5:18-20. "Now here's what I've seen: it's good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and enjoy the good of his labor," hallelujah. How many of you didn't ride a mule to church this morning? Let me see your hand. How many of you know you're blessed 'cause you had an automobile bring you to church this morning? Let me see your hand. "Enjoy the good of his labor which he toils under the sun".
That doesn't sound like he's lazy. "And all the day for it is his heritage. For every man to whom God has given riches," there's some people that God has blessed, and God gave it to 'em. "Well, why not me"? There's a lot of things that go into that, but I do believe there's a spark of genius in every human being, but you gotta feed it. "Great riches, wealth, given power to eat of it, receive and leave as an inheritance, rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God". How many of you believe that? That if the Lord's blessed you with homes or anything, it's the gift of God. "He will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because He keeps him busy with the joy of his heart". And it goes on to say, "Celebrate it".
Let me show you another one. Proverbs 31. Watch this woman. This is capitalism, Proverbs 31. This is what he said is the perfect woman. Not only is she a housewife and takes care of the family and stuff, but she's an entrepreneur too. "She considers a field and buys it," well, she didn't have to do that. Yeah, this is what I'm trying to get you to understand. That's capitalism right there. "She profits, she plants a vineyard, she girds herself with strength, strengthens her arms, perceives that her merchandise is good," gets it all together, opens a stand in the market, starts making money, starts doing this, "And her lamp does not go out". She works so hard, but she's a go getter. And that's fine. If you don't wanna do that, and that's all good too. God has different plans. But I'm trying to say you cannot say that's Socialism.
Let me give you one more and I'm done. Matthew 25, Matthew 25. You know the story of the talents. He gave one five talents, gave another two talents, gave 'em all ability. And one of 'em took his talents five and he turned it into ten, one took two, he turned it into four. But the other guy took the one talent, buried it in the ground, said, "I was afraid". And God said, "You're a wicked servant". Jesus said this stuff. He said, "'Take from him who does not have and give to him who knows how to do something with what he's got.'" Jeez. That's hard, isn't it? So, is what we're being told biblical when we hear certain people say things? Absolutely not. And stand to your feet, I don't know what else to say. But at least stand firm.
Now that you've heard reinforcement from God's word, stand firm. What I didn't get to preach is don't vote for anybody, and I'm not mad at anybody, but don't vote for anybody who would back the LGBTQ agenda. Genesis 1, "He made them male and female". Romans 1, please read it. It'll give you great clarity. It's not an uncertain trumpet on their whole agenda. I don't know what to do except to say Jesus is the answer. The Bible is the answer. Can we end in a prayer this morning? This is so unusual. For you who are visiting, normally we have altar calls and tons of people come down. But I'm gon' lead you in a prayer, you can receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior because you're not promised another month, another week. Jesus could come today. So, I want us to pray this prayer out loud and say:
Jesus, I surrender all. I give you my life. And Lord I'm standing in the land of the free. The home of the brave. The men and women. By the millions Americans who shed their blood, been maimed and they've died for our freedom. May we never turn our back on you and on your word. Give me courage to stand up with the preachers, to stand up, to stand up in all the influence in the world that I'm in and be a light in the darkness. In Jesus' name God bless America. I pray, amen.