Getting Worse Before it Gets Better
Jan 7, 2005 – Getting Worse Before it Gets Better
By Steve Atwood
Christian Charity Center
Good morning and welcome to Christian Charity. This is a hard message for me this morning, so please bear with me and forgive me if I misspeak.
I am saddened, as I’m sure many of you are, about the things that have changed in this country and even the world in the last 20-30 years. It may be true that the good old days are never really as good as you remember them. Not all change is bad - I would not go back to the days when discrimination was so institutionalized that we required blacks to sit in a different section of the bus from whites, or drink from different water fountains. There are still race issues here in America, but we have come a long ways from where we were. It does not take an overly intelligent man to realize that this is good. But in some areas, this country, and the world, has taken a huge step in the wrong direction. Because of lawsuits, and a few court decisions, this country is being turned into something it’s not. Primarily because of fear of lawsuits and because of the way certain lawsuits have turned out, we have now become more concerned with being politically correct than we have about truth and God. The church is partly to blame, we don’t preach against sin too much anymore, we have become afraid of offending or losing our congregations. We speak of the love of God and omit the wrath of God. We become obsessed with the size of our church, the location of our church. I have seen churches torn apart because they got their eyes on the worldly things. Some feel we have to have a huge traditional church building to draw people. You know folks, the best most loving church building I ever attended church in was an old abandoned truck stop. It was only when the congregation became ashamed of the location that God had provided that the trouble started. Somehow we feel we have to change to draw people. And that is our mistake, we don’t have to do anything to draw people. We have to only lift Jesus up, God will do the drawing. We make the same mistakes sometimes that our nation has made, we become wise in our own eyes.
(Isa 5:21) Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
I am talking today, not about individuals, but a nation, the nation we live in, and the direction it is going. And I am here to say, take heart faithful Christian, you are right, the world is getting worse, but it has been preordained.
As a nation, it seems we have certainly become wise in our own eyes. With our technology we have put a man on the moon, we have mapped out the very codes of life in DNA, we are on the verge of major medical breakthroughs. We hold debates and conferences and decide what is right and what is wrong. We try to use reason to figure everything out, we dismiss faith as being a crutch for the weak and the fools.
(Rom 1:22) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Well, we’ve certainly heading down the path to foolishness. Most of us feel it’s just a matter of time before our technology turns on us. We can put a man on the moon, but we can also deliver a nuclear bomb there, or anywhere in the world. With the same medical tools and knowledge that we use to map out the human genome, we also build biological weapons. Now, in this day and age, we fear both atomic and biological weapons falling into terrorists hands. . Although it would be a tragedy, many feel it’s just a matter of time before an atomic bomb or a biological weapon is set off somewhere by terrorists. But it is not our technology that will be our downfall. It is not our knowledge that will get us in trouble; it is our lack of wisdom, our lack of true knowledge.
(Psa 111:10) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
(Pro 9:10) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
(Pro 1:7) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
We are neither wise nor knowledgeable. We are becoming wise in our own eyes, a very dangerous thing. Although there were many things wrong when this country was founded, at least a few things were right. One, is that the founding fathers were wise enough to acknowledge God as being the giver of any rights we have. We are now making the worst mistake we can make, in that we are now turning from God, denying God. We are turning from His ways and turning to our own understanding. We feel we have grown to wise to believe in God. How have we turned from God? As a country? Are we not one of the greatest Christian countries in the world? I would not discount the many Christians that live in this country, of which I am one. But I would dispute that the Christians are in the majority in this country. I do not believe the recent laws passed show a country turning back to God, but farther away from God. Yet as a nation, we pay great lip service to God.
(Mat 15:8) This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
(Mat 15:9) But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
As a nation, we pay lip service to God, yet we are turning away from Him. Yet we expect him to bless us and protect us. Because we pay lip service to God, we think He will be fooled.
(Pro 30:11) There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
(Pro 30:12) There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
(Pro 30:13) There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
(Pro 30:14) There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Is the Bible referring to Israel or us? Let’s go on.
(Exo 20:13) Thou shalt not kill.
Which nation kills more unborn children than any other? I don’t know the answer to that, but I suspect it is America. And it’s legal. Is there truly any Christian out there that can defend abortion? Yet it’s legal in this country. We claim right to choose. Well, yes, I guess we do have the right to choose death, it really does come down to God’s grace and our choice. But we trumpet this right to abortion under the guise of freedom and we hide the fact that we are talking about the death of the most innocent of all. And it is getting harder and harder to speak out against it, or to hold protest marches against it. How much longer before it becomes illegal to speak out against it? And we allow it. Shame on us. And it’s just beginning. We’ve all heard of abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. Get used to the terms, they’re not going away.
(Lev 18:22) Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
There were certain things that were illegal for almost the entire history of the country, that are now called good and normal. Things that were considered shameful. Abortion is one of them, homosexuality is another. How far this nation has changed it’s stance! The homosexual has more rights than a Christian in this country? Don’t believe it? Try talking about Christ in school, at least in some states. Thank God we still acknowledge God in many of our smaller Midwestern schools. Think about our nations stance on homosexuality, and then consider – Aren’t we worse than Sodom or Gomorrah? Some denominations are ordaining homosexual ministers. How Satan loves to mock God with the evil he can cause here on earth. How it must hurt God, but oh how it must anger God. And how foolish we are not too be afraid, because His wrath is coming, oh is it coming! We have seen God’s love, we shall also see God’s wrath.
But the Christian should not be discouraged. The world is on a path outlined in the Bible so many years ago. These things had to happen, but they don’t have to happen to you. We don’t have to choose sin. We can choose life. It is written by God that those that love their sin will be given up to it and will think nothing of it because He will give them over to a reprobate mind. We should not wonder that the world cannot see, it is blind, it does not want to see. They have closed their ears and eyes so that they might not see nor hear.
(Rom 1:21) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
(Rom 1:22) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
(Rom 1:23) And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
(Rom 1:24) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
(Rom 1:25) Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
(Rom 1:26) For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
(Rom 1:27) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
(Rom 1:28) And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
(Rom 1:29) Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
(Rom 1:30) Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
(Rom 1:31) Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
(Rom 1:32) Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
But beware of God’s wrath – we don’t have to go to Revelation to know what’s coming, let’s read from Isaiah
(Isa 5:20) Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
(Isa 5:21) Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
(Isa 5:22) Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
(Isa 5:23) Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
(Isa 5:24) Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
(Isa 5:25) Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
(Isa 5:26) And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
(Isa 5:27) None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
(Isa 5:28) Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
(Isa 5:29) Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.
(Isa 5:30) And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
But for those that do not love their sin, that do not glory in it, there is still hope.
(Joh 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(Joh 3:17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
(Joh 3:18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
(Joh 3:19) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
(Joh 3:20) For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
(Joh 3:21) But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Where are you today? If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, but have felt the drawing, I urge you please accept him now. You hear the truth of this message, you’ve heard it before but you’ve resisted. Please listen to that drawing in your heart, it is God that draws you. Listen to the Word of God, it is the only real truth in this world. The world will tell you to look our for yourselves, to be independent and to be free. That is not freedom. Submit to God and truly be free. Free from the burdens of sin you’ve carried around for so many years. You will still have pain in this life, but God will wash away your sins from his memory, and he will one day wash away your tears. It’s true that the world may be literally going to Hell, but you don’t have to. Jesus gave you a choice. Accept Jesus now. May God bless you and keep you.
© 2005 GOD and Steve Atwood
By Steve Atwood
Christian Charity Center
Good morning and welcome to Christian Charity. This is a hard message for me this morning, so please bear with me and forgive me if I misspeak.
I am saddened, as I’m sure many of you are, about the things that have changed in this country and even the world in the last 20-30 years. It may be true that the good old days are never really as good as you remember them. Not all change is bad - I would not go back to the days when discrimination was so institutionalized that we required blacks to sit in a different section of the bus from whites, or drink from different water fountains. There are still race issues here in America, but we have come a long ways from where we were. It does not take an overly intelligent man to realize that this is good. But in some areas, this country, and the world, has taken a huge step in the wrong direction. Because of lawsuits, and a few court decisions, this country is being turned into something it’s not. Primarily because of fear of lawsuits and because of the way certain lawsuits have turned out, we have now become more concerned with being politically correct than we have about truth and God. The church is partly to blame, we don’t preach against sin too much anymore, we have become afraid of offending or losing our congregations. We speak of the love of God and omit the wrath of God. We become obsessed with the size of our church, the location of our church. I have seen churches torn apart because they got their eyes on the worldly things. Some feel we have to have a huge traditional church building to draw people. You know folks, the best most loving church building I ever attended church in was an old abandoned truck stop. It was only when the congregation became ashamed of the location that God had provided that the trouble started. Somehow we feel we have to change to draw people. And that is our mistake, we don’t have to do anything to draw people. We have to only lift Jesus up, God will do the drawing. We make the same mistakes sometimes that our nation has made, we become wise in our own eyes.
(Isa 5:21) Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
I am talking today, not about individuals, but a nation, the nation we live in, and the direction it is going. And I am here to say, take heart faithful Christian, you are right, the world is getting worse, but it has been preordained.
As a nation, it seems we have certainly become wise in our own eyes. With our technology we have put a man on the moon, we have mapped out the very codes of life in DNA, we are on the verge of major medical breakthroughs. We hold debates and conferences and decide what is right and what is wrong. We try to use reason to figure everything out, we dismiss faith as being a crutch for the weak and the fools.
(Rom 1:22) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Well, we’ve certainly heading down the path to foolishness. Most of us feel it’s just a matter of time before our technology turns on us. We can put a man on the moon, but we can also deliver a nuclear bomb there, or anywhere in the world. With the same medical tools and knowledge that we use to map out the human genome, we also build biological weapons. Now, in this day and age, we fear both atomic and biological weapons falling into terrorists hands. . Although it would be a tragedy, many feel it’s just a matter of time before an atomic bomb or a biological weapon is set off somewhere by terrorists. But it is not our technology that will be our downfall. It is not our knowledge that will get us in trouble; it is our lack of wisdom, our lack of true knowledge.
(Psa 111:10) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
(Pro 9:10) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
(Pro 1:7) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
We are neither wise nor knowledgeable. We are becoming wise in our own eyes, a very dangerous thing. Although there were many things wrong when this country was founded, at least a few things were right. One, is that the founding fathers were wise enough to acknowledge God as being the giver of any rights we have. We are now making the worst mistake we can make, in that we are now turning from God, denying God. We are turning from His ways and turning to our own understanding. We feel we have grown to wise to believe in God. How have we turned from God? As a country? Are we not one of the greatest Christian countries in the world? I would not discount the many Christians that live in this country, of which I am one. But I would dispute that the Christians are in the majority in this country. I do not believe the recent laws passed show a country turning back to God, but farther away from God. Yet as a nation, we pay great lip service to God.
(Mat 15:8) This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
(Mat 15:9) But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
As a nation, we pay lip service to God, yet we are turning away from Him. Yet we expect him to bless us and protect us. Because we pay lip service to God, we think He will be fooled.
(Pro 30:11) There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
(Pro 30:12) There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
(Pro 30:13) There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
(Pro 30:14) There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Is the Bible referring to Israel or us? Let’s go on.
(Exo 20:13) Thou shalt not kill.
Which nation kills more unborn children than any other? I don’t know the answer to that, but I suspect it is America. And it’s legal. Is there truly any Christian out there that can defend abortion? Yet it’s legal in this country. We claim right to choose. Well, yes, I guess we do have the right to choose death, it really does come down to God’s grace and our choice. But we trumpet this right to abortion under the guise of freedom and we hide the fact that we are talking about the death of the most innocent of all. And it is getting harder and harder to speak out against it, or to hold protest marches against it. How much longer before it becomes illegal to speak out against it? And we allow it. Shame on us. And it’s just beginning. We’ve all heard of abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. Get used to the terms, they’re not going away.
(Lev 18:22) Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
There were certain things that were illegal for almost the entire history of the country, that are now called good and normal. Things that were considered shameful. Abortion is one of them, homosexuality is another. How far this nation has changed it’s stance! The homosexual has more rights than a Christian in this country? Don’t believe it? Try talking about Christ in school, at least in some states. Thank God we still acknowledge God in many of our smaller Midwestern schools. Think about our nations stance on homosexuality, and then consider – Aren’t we worse than Sodom or Gomorrah? Some denominations are ordaining homosexual ministers. How Satan loves to mock God with the evil he can cause here on earth. How it must hurt God, but oh how it must anger God. And how foolish we are not too be afraid, because His wrath is coming, oh is it coming! We have seen God’s love, we shall also see God’s wrath.
But the Christian should not be discouraged. The world is on a path outlined in the Bible so many years ago. These things had to happen, but they don’t have to happen to you. We don’t have to choose sin. We can choose life. It is written by God that those that love their sin will be given up to it and will think nothing of it because He will give them over to a reprobate mind. We should not wonder that the world cannot see, it is blind, it does not want to see. They have closed their ears and eyes so that they might not see nor hear.
(Rom 1:21) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
(Rom 1:22) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
(Rom 1:23) And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
(Rom 1:24) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
(Rom 1:25) Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
(Rom 1:26) For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
(Rom 1:27) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
(Rom 1:28) And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
(Rom 1:29) Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
(Rom 1:30) Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
(Rom 1:31) Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
(Rom 1:32) Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
But beware of God’s wrath – we don’t have to go to Revelation to know what’s coming, let’s read from Isaiah
(Isa 5:20) Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
(Isa 5:21) Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
(Isa 5:22) Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
(Isa 5:23) Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
(Isa 5:24) Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
(Isa 5:25) Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
(Isa 5:26) And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
(Isa 5:27) None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
(Isa 5:28) Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
(Isa 5:29) Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.
(Isa 5:30) And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
But for those that do not love their sin, that do not glory in it, there is still hope.
(Joh 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(Joh 3:17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
(Joh 3:18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
(Joh 3:19) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
(Joh 3:20) For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
(Joh 3:21) But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Where are you today? If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, but have felt the drawing, I urge you please accept him now. You hear the truth of this message, you’ve heard it before but you’ve resisted. Please listen to that drawing in your heart, it is God that draws you. Listen to the Word of God, it is the only real truth in this world. The world will tell you to look our for yourselves, to be independent and to be free. That is not freedom. Submit to God and truly be free. Free from the burdens of sin you’ve carried around for so many years. You will still have pain in this life, but God will wash away your sins from his memory, and he will one day wash away your tears. It’s true that the world may be literally going to Hell, but you don’t have to. Jesus gave you a choice. Accept Jesus now. May God bless you and keep you.
© 2005 GOD and Steve Atwood
posted by Linda Pearson at
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