I am honored that Pastor David has given me the privilege of speaking to you on this special day.  Each year we celebrate what God has done with this church on Homecoming Sunday.  This will be our fifty-third year!  Don’t forget that we’ll be meeting at 9:30am instead of our usual time.  We’ll have lunch after the service.

This Sunday will also be the anniversary of a sad day for America, when terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center
towers and over three-thousand people were killed.  For a while we stood together and across the land was herd, “God bless America.”  But that time was all too brief, and we have forgotten the reasons why God has blessed America.  In 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, after Solomon dedicated the newly built temple in Jerusalem, God gave him both a warning and a promise.

13 “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

The warning was of judgment which He will bring upon the nation when it acts wickedly.  The promise was that if His people will repent, He will restore them.  I believe that just as Israel is called as a nation by His name, we as the church are called.  God will act faithfully according to His promise.  I believe that America is in danger of judgment from God if it has not already begun.  How can it be otherwise for a nation that has slaughtered fifty-three million innocent unborn children?  Hitler only killed six million people.  We as god’s people cannot absolve ourselves of this guilt simply because we have not personally participated in it.  If we have not prayed; if we have not warned; if we have not done all that we can to spread the truth of the Gospel, we must bear responsibility for the resulting downward spiral that our country has taken.
Across our land this Sunday there will be memorials for those we lost on 9/11.  It is my prayer that as Christians we will do all that we can to prevent calamity far worse than what happened in New York City that day.  God will not tolerate evil forever.  Pray for your nation, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, even your enemies.  Don’t miss any opportunity to share with them the good news of what Jesus has done for them.

This is a topic I am becoming increasingly passionate about and I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to you about it on this special day.  I hope you will come and be motivated to pray for our nation and to do your part to bring it back to Jesus.  Let us also celebrate the good things God has done in our little congregation as we remember all that He has brought us through.  Though Linda and I are still newcomers compared to most of you, we are amazed and encouraged by what we have found at Bartimaeus Baptist Temple and we are excited to be a part of whatever God is going to do next.  Come and celebrate with us this Sunday.