Michael Youssef - Seek the Peace of the City
So many people are saying, "This is not the same America I knew". Others say, "I hardly recognize my country anymore". Whatever happened to us, certainly this is not the America as envisaged by the founding fathers. The founding fathers, who pledged their honor, and their fortune, and even their lives to found the freest and the most generous nation known to man, they would not recognize the America of the 2020s, freedom of speech, freedom of religion been curtailed, utter confusion ruling supreme in all aspects of life. We are now among the greatest and the largest debtor nation in the world. Many of the founding fathers's foundational stones are being demolished. Enterprise and personal responsibility are giving way to extortion, intimidation, and bullying.
To make things worse, the right is now called wrong, and the wrong is glorified. The founders's dream for a church not to be under the tyranny of a rogue government has now become a nightmare of silencing faithful Christians. The open encouragement for the mockery of the Christian faith, the Christian values, and the Christian morality has now become the norm. Oh, we have come a long way but not the right way. Those 56 courageous men who fixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, they did so in a total dependence on God alone. Unashamedly, they declared that with firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our fortunes and our sacred honor.
Those 56 men who gave us this great country knew very well that if they succeeded, if they succeeded, at best, it would mean many years of hardship and struggle, many years of diligently nurturing this greatest experiment in all of human history, but if they failed, they would have to face the hangman noose as traitors. And while they had varying degrees of faith in God, they all believed that it is better to live under God's authority than man's tyranny. They believed that to be born free and live free is a great privilege. They knew that to die free is an awesome responsibility.
Beloved friends, listen to me. You would not have listened to me for a very long time without realizing that I feel privileged, not just privileged, very privileged to live in this land of the free and the home of the brave. But that's not all. Because of the privilege I feel, because of the benefits I have gained, because of the blessings that their sacrifice afforded me, because of all of that, I feel a sense of responsibility of carrying the torch and legacy to the next generation.
Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Before you start accusing me of being confused or before you accuse me, as some have, as a right-wing nationalist, I need to hasten to say that I'm not confused. I'm not confused. I don't confuse America with my ultimate home in heaven. No, I'm not confusing my earthly freedom with my ultimate freedom that's only in Christ Jesus. I'm not confused. I'm not confusing my sense of privilege of living in America with the highest privilege of my eternal salvation that is in Christ alone. Please listen to me. I have and I'll continue as long as God gives me breath to burn the candle on both ends to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.
And the fact that occasionally, I loudly and boldly speak political and social truth, it does not mean that I have taken my eyes off of the prize, which is the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Well now that I got your attention, I can get to my message. I want us to look at the scripture and examine what it means to be a citizen of heaven but also to be a good, faithful steward and citizen of the country, and God gives us the answer. Thank God I don't have to come up with the answer.
Turn with me please to Jeremiah chapter 29, Jeremiah 29. I want to put this text in its historical context. Always put the text in its historical context. Those words of Jeremiah were spoken as a message to God's people who have been taken captive into exile in Babylon. They were taken captives into a pagan land with pagan leaders and pagan religions. They were pressed, suppressed, harassed, persecuted. Some of them even were killed because of their faithfulness to Yahweh for hundreds of years prior to the Babylonian exile, for hundreds of years. Just think about the incredible patience of God. For hundreds of years, prophet after prophet after prophet have said to them, pleaded with them, implored them, warned them again and again. God says to them, "Stop being unfaithful to Yahweh. Turn to the one true God, the one who redeemed you from the slavery of Egypt".
And he told them that year after year, decade after decade, for hundreds of years. When all of that warning went unheeded, when all of this imploring was ignored, when all of his invitations for them to repent were scorned, when all of this prodding was scoffed, finally, God permitted a pagan, godless power to rule supreme. Now then, I trust you found Jeremiah 29, look with me at verse 4. Here is what God said to his people in the land of demonic gods: "This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Jerusalem says to all those," listen to this, "that I have carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon".
I carried you. After hundreds of years of warnings, after hundreds of years of prodding and begging them to turn to the one living God, then he said, "I carried you into the Babylonian exile". What is God saying to them? Indeed saying to us and to all the faithful believers today. To these faithful believers who were living in that pagan culture, he told them to be faithful citizens. He told them to be good stewards, even in the midst of their exile, even in the land of captivities. Look at verse 7: "Seek the peace and the prosperity of the city," that's in Babylon, "in which I," here it comes again, "I carried you into exile".
Beloved, in a general sense, all the believers on the earth, all the believers on the earth are, in a general sense, they are in exile. We are in this exile. We are sojourners. We are travelers. We are on our way home to heaven. That's biblical from cover to cover. But that does not mean that we do nothing while we're waiting to go home to heaven. There are a lot of people think that. There are a lot of people want to put on white robes and head for the mountains. But God said, "Seek the peace and the prosperity of the city".
Listen to me. We must pray that God may have mercy on America, not its downfall. We must intercede for the lost to come to Christ, not their destruction. We must sacrifice so that men and women, boys and girls come to Jesus and thus, change America, not its demise. We are to longingly call our fellow citizens to repent, not wishing them harm. Oh, by all means, we are to stand up. By all means, we are to stand up and proclaim the truth at any cost, not wring our hands and say, "What can we do now"? We need to stand up and be counted, not to raise the white flag of surrender. We need to cry to God to save his people and then that they may experience forgiveness of their sins and God's blessings once again.
You see, those of us who have escaped the horrors of socialism, totalitarianism, and dictatorship, those of us have escaped to the land of the free and the home of the brave, we feel obligated to remind those who are born in this country, those who don't know and even my own children, not to take the privilege of being an American for granted. Don't surrender to the evil forces. Don't settle for the invasions of the antichrist, with a small A, who are invading every aspect of life. Don't abandon your stewardship for your citizenship.
In fact, that's exactly what Jesus said to the disciples in Luke chapter 19, verse 13. Here's what he said to them. He said, "Occupy till I come". He said what? "Occupy till I come," not surrender until I come, not mark time until I come, not withdraw from society until I come, not give up the fight until I come, no. For this is the very defeatist attitude that brought us to the mess that we're in. But no, we are to what? Occupy. We are to invade Satan's territories. We are to stand toe-to-toe with the enemy of our soul because he's a defeated foe. We are to count the cost and prepare to pay the cost of occupying until Jesus comes back.
Ah, but listen to me. We must do it lovingly, lovingly and thoughtfully. Seek the peace and the prosperity of the city. That means that we tenaciously proclaim that God's way is a better way, that God's way is a better way. God's way of loving people into the kingdom and rejecting hate is the best. God's way of shunning violence and loving peace is the best. God's way for family life is the best. We must proclaim it, and proclaim it, and then proclaim it again. When we come under spiritual authority of the Word of God, God can and he will change things, even 100 years, right?
A hundred years after the Declaration of Independence, exactly a hundred years to be exact. It was 1876. 1776, there was 1876, President James A. Garfield speaking to the Congress issued the following warning. He said, "Now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of the Congress. For that body," talking about the Congress, "if it be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it's because people tolerated ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. But if it is be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because people demanded those high qualities to represent them". And so, let us commit to praying. Let's commit to praying. Let's commit to working and asking God to lead us back to faith. Renew America by renewing its people.
Let me conclude by telling you this little historical fact I shared with this congregation once before. What led to that stark speech by President Garfield, that 19 years earlier, only 19 years earlier, not even 20, 19 years earlier, America was experiencing economic downturn and degradation. It was known as the 1857 run on the banks, or the Panic of 1857. It was worse Depression, read the history, than the 1920s, high unemployment, bank closings. People were angry and frustrated. But then, a layman, and I always like to emphasize that because some people think, "Oh, this is job of the preachers". No, no, no, no, job of the preachers and evangelists is call people to turn to Christ. This was a layman, a businessman, in New York City. Literally, God used him to rescue the nation through prayer.
On September 23, 1857, Jeremiah Lanphier advertised a prayer meeting in the upper room of the consistory building in Manhattan. Starting very small group of people, very few people showed up, lunchtime meeting, very few people showed up. But he persisted, and he persisted week after week, month after month. Eventually, God used that prayer meeting to spread all over the nation, and literally, swept the nation back to God, and brought us such amazing work for a hundred years. In fact, most historians tell us that we felt the effect of that awakening until the 1950s. Beloved, the very forces of hell that are being unleashed today, all of them, are no match to our God. They're no match to our God, not politicians, but God. Who? God is the one.