GOD BLESS AMERICA . . . WITH WHAT?

 

CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH

DIRECTOR OF CALVARY BOYS HOME

POST OFFICE BOX 834

 

Everywhere you go, you see the signs, God Bless America.  I see it in chain link fences made with red, white, and blue cups.  I see it on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and signs of all kinds.  “God Bless America.”

Thank the Lord that some Americans have begun to appreciate this country again, but let me ask you this about your “God Bless America” motto. With what?  What do you want Him to bless it with?  I would imagine the world would have a different opinion than us.

The Bible says in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”  If America were as righteous as she ought to be, we wouldn’t have suffered the attacks we have taken recently.  Whether it be an individual or a nation of people, it doesn’t make any difference.  Sin is a reproach to any people, but righteousness exalteth a nation.  We don’t have to have a theologian come in and explain that to us.  What’s the right decision to make?

We have to be reminded by bracelets and all kinds of things like WWJD.  What would Jesus do?  I know what He would do!  He would do the right thing!  He is righteous!  He’d make the right decision.  Jesus is always righteous.

God never does anything wrong.  Every decision and everything He does, is right.  He expects the same thing out of His children.  Righteousness exalteth a nation.  Righteousness brings a nation up, it exalts a nation.  America has been the top nation in the world because of one thing – righteousness.  Because we have served God and because of our Christian influence.

We’re seeing a time when America is suffering, and though I love my country, I must admit that we’re getting what we deserve.  We haven’t always been what we ought to be, we are far from it.  I understand America is now about fourteenth on the list of countries sending out missionaries.  In 1960, we were number one.  Wonder what’s happened to us?  Wonder why we are suffering these judgments of God?  Wonder why thousands of people had to die?  There’s never been such an influx into Heaven and Hell as there was on September 11^th.

Righteousness exalteth a nation.  Don’t get to looking at the word and thinking this is something you can’t understand.  Righteousness just simply means to be right.  The only perfectly righteous person who has ever lived on the face of this earth is the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is our example of righteousness.  He’s the only One who ever lived a perfect life without sin.  He was righteous!  In order for a man to go to Heaven, he must be righteous.  In order to get in the pearly gates, he must be righteous.  You can’t do it, but you can with Him.  You can put on His righteousness.  You can be saved and born again.  So, I want you to understand a little bit about righteousness before we get into the message.

Righteousness is something that can happen in your life by taking Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour.  By repenting of your sin and allowing Him to come into your life, you become righteous in the sight of God.

Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  Isn’t that wonderful?  You know that you aren’t righteous, and that you make mistakes.  You sin.  You’re not righteous all the time.  You are in the sight of God if you are saved.  It’s because of the blood of Jesus Christ.  God looks down through that Holy of Holies of Heaven and looks through that Mercy Seat in Heaven where Jesus sprinkled His blood, and sees us righteous.  We know we’re not righteous, and that’s why it’s exciting to be saved.  It is because of nothing that we have done.  That’s why it’s exciting to be born again.  It is because of God’s grace.  Grace says I get to go to Heaven.  Mercy says I don’t have to go to Hell.  Thank God for that!

Now what’s it going to take?  It’s going to take some righteous people deciding that it is more important to live for God than anything else in this world.  What do you want God to bless America with?  What do you want Him to do?  I think everybody’s thoughts would be somewhat the same, but there might be a lot of different answers.

God Bless America . . . With What?

 

WITH COURAGEOUS

PREACHERS LIKE PAUL

 

Let me tell you a few things that I would like to see God bless America with.  I’d like to see God bless America with preachers like Paul.  Men who are willing to stand and preach the truth.  In Acts 9 we find where the Apostle Paul was saved.

“And he said, Who art thou, Lord?  And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do”?  He got saved!

May God bless America with saved preachers like the Apostle Paul.  Paul got saved here on the road to Damascus.  Then what did he do?  He said, “Lord, what will thou have me to do?”

After he goes down to Damascus, he meets Ananias who prays for him because his eyes are as if they had scales on them.  He isn’t able to see like he needs to see.  It seems we have a lot of preachers like that.  After Ananias prays for him the scales fall off.

Down in verse 18, it says, “And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.  And when he had received meat, he was strengthened.  Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.”

He knew God had something for him to do, and he was anxious to do it.  That’s what every preacher ought to do.  He found out what God wanted him to do and did it.  He wanted to do something for God.

The next verse says, “And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.”  Boy, what a preacher he was!  He had courage to stand.  Don’t you wish preachers had Paul’s courage to stand and preach that people are lost and going to Hell?  He didn’t care what people thought.  It didn’t make any difference.  He wanted people to know about Jesus.  He wanted people to know they were wicked in their sin.

By the way, there are still bold preachers with the courage of Paul to be soul winners and to be concerned for others.  We have too many wimps in the pulpits of our land.  Oh, that God would bless America with preachers of courage like Paul.

Look at Acts 17:23.  Paul is in Athens.  He walks down the street and sees all kinds of idols – a god to this and a god to that.  “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”

He wanted to speak to them.  The Bible said they came every week to hear or learn some new thing.  They knew there was another god, beside their gods, that they sere serving and the inscription said, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Paul said, “I want to preach to you about Him.”  “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ Hill, and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.”  He begins to preach to them about Jesus.  He was a bold preacher.

Today we need boldness among men of God across this land.  We need to pray for it.  This is one thing most folks don’t pray for.  They don’t pray that God will give preachers across this land boldness.

I’ve always appreciated Balaam’s donkey.  He would at least say what God told him to say.  There will be some who will stand in pulpits across the land today that won’t even have sense enough to say what God said to say.  They don’t have any convictions.

Some of the old preachers did in the Old Testament days.  They preached, “Thus saith the Lord.”  Some say they are preaching, “Thus saith the Lord,” and down in their hearts, they know it’s not true.  We need preachers like the apostle Paul, preachers bold to stand and preach the truth, no matter who hears it.  No matter who it might offend.

We need boldness to tell it like it is!  They need to preach about sin and rebuke sinners.  That’s what preaching is all about.  They need to name sin, preach separation, and holy living.  God bless America with preachers who will be bold.

In Acts 20:21 it is talking about the Apostle Paul.  He is still preaching the Word of God, speaking to the elders of Ephesus.  “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”  That verse will help you on repentance.  “And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.”  Paul said that it didn’t make any difference.  In verse 26, it says, “Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”

I promise you that there are preachers across this land that are not pure from the blood of all men, because they are not preaching the truth.  They’re not warning people.  They’re not causing people to take heed.  They are not preaching to unsaved men to see themselves as sinners, as God sees them, lost and without any hope apart from Him.

He said in verse 28, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”  That’s what preachers need to do today, but many are not doing it.  “Feed the Church of God.”  Folks don’t need seminars.  They need to be preached to.  They need God!

In verse 31, he says, “Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”  May God bless America with preachers who will weep over souls of men.  We need preachers who care enough to cry.  We need preachers who will weep over America, weep over churches, and weep over souls that are dying and going to Hell.  May God give us preachers who have a heart for people, preachers who care.

We need preachers with faith.  In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul says to young Timothy, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”  Faith to reprove and rebuke, to preach the Word.  We need preachers across America who will preach.  Preachers with convictions.  You won’t find one on television rebuking anybody’s sin.  It hurts the love offering.  We need Preachers in America who will stand true to the Gospel and preach the Word.

You young preacher boys, if you aren’t going to preach the Word, quit!  Don’t even preach!  Every male staff member we have is a preacher.  If you are called of God, PREACH THE WORD!  Be instant in season, out of season.  Brother Roloff used to say, if they close it, open it.  Preach it anyhow.  God bless America with preachers like Paul who have a heart to weep over the souls of men.  That’s what we need in America today.

 

WITH EXEMPLARY FATHERS

LIKE ABRAHAM

 

God bless America with fathers like Abraham!  We need fathers in our country today like Abraham.  Genesis 18:17 says, “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?  Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.  For I know him . . .”

Aren’t you glad that God knows us?  He knows your innermost thoughts.  He knows your reasoning for everything you do.  He said, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”

Now isn’t that something? You know what God is saying about Abraham?  He is saying that Abraham is going to set the example.  All the nations of the earth are going to be blessed by him.  He’s going to be the father of all nations.  He said to Abraham, “If you number the stars, you can number your generations to come.  Your seed is going to be as the sands of the sea.”  Because Abraham commands his children and his household so well, he’s going to be the example for everybody else.  He’s a good daddy!

Abraham is a good father.  He instructed his family religiously.  He led his family in prayer.  God bless America with fathers like Abraham, who will lead their families in prayer.  Your children go to church an hour or so every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.  But that’s not enough!

They need the influence of personal example.  You need to teach your children at home.  If nothing else, go over the sermon the preacher preached.  Talk about it all week to your children.  Tell them that we know the world says the opposite of the preacher, but we’re going to stand with the man of God.  It’ll make a difference in your household.  Abraham was a good father.

He not only prayed with his family, he provided a living for his family.  1 Timothy 5:8 says, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”  We have some around here that we’re having to feed.  They don’t work.  Guys, be good workers.  You’re going to work all your life.  Be a good worker.

Abraham was a good worker.  He was an example to his children.  He provided a living for his family.  He dealt honestly before his family.  His family watched his life.  Whatever happened to personal example, dads?

God said, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”  He’s going to do right.  And do you know what?  God is going to do right by him.  We need fathers like Abraham.  We need fathers who will take a stand and be counted for the glory of God.  It doesn’t make any difference what other families are doing.  We’re going to serve God!

Joshua was a good father.  He said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  David was a lousy father, and it came back on him a number of times.  Two of his own sons tried to take his kingdom away from him and kill him.  Saul wasn’t his only enemy.  David’s own household was his enemy.  His son, Amnon, raped his daughter, Tamar.

My how his heart must have broken.  Listen, we need some fathers today that will treat their families right and teach them right.  Be an example.  Be a leader in the home.  Be an example of a God-fearing man.

Adonijah, one of David’s sons, said, “I will be king.  I will exalt myself, I will take away my dad’s throne.”  It says, “And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?”  Do you know what the Bible is saying about David?  David never told him no.  David was a lousy father.  We need fathers like Abraham that will be honest and live an honest life before their children, that their children might be able to see it.

Whatever happened to example?  You don’t know of a better way to teach anything than by example.  That’s the best way.  You can talk and talk and talk from now till dooms day and they may get a little bit of it and they may not.  But it’s that example, D.L. Moody said, “A holy life will produce the deepest impressions.”  He said, “A lighthouse blows no horns, they just shine.”  You can’t tell them one thing and live another.  We need the example of godly fathers.

Edmund Burke said, “Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.”  If parents are a good example, it’s going to rub off on you.  Some of you guy’s parents are doing better now since you’ve been here than they were when you were home because of your testimony of serving the Lord.  It ought not have to be that way, but thank God at least it is that way.

One young man’s dad got saved because he was here.  He kept talking to his dad about what God has done for him, and how he had gotten saved, and how it had changed his life.  His dad got saved.  Now his dad is faithfully in church, and he is out.  That’s the truth.  His dad is as faithful as he can be, and this dumbbell is out.

Can a father be like Abraham, in our society today?  Absolutely!!  He’ll be going against the grain.  He’ll be different.  But he can if he wants to.  If he wants to produce some good kids, he can change.  God bless America with preachers like Paul.  God bless America with daddies like Abraham!  That’s what we need.  It will make a difference in our country.  It seems like everybody is having trouble with their kids.  Bring your kids up right.  Tell them this is the way it is.

My dad never had to say a whole lot to me.  My dad never had to whip me a lot.  The example of his life made so much difference in my life.  Example is worth more than a million words.  Live it moms and dads!  Boy, the first time you let down, they will see that, too.  Honesty.  Integrity.  We’re living in a day that the home is broken down and family values are gone.  We need fathers with leadership ability.  God bless America with fathers like Abraham.

 

WITH GOD-FEARING MOTHERS LIKE HANNAH

 

Not only that, but God bless America with mothers like Hannah, Samuel’s mother.  What a mother!  She’s found in 1 Samuel 1.  Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah.  Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.  God wouldn’t allow her to have any, but she prayed.

In verse 11, it says, “And she vowed a vow, and said, LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.”

You won’t find in the Bible any better example of faith promise than right there.  “God, if you’ll give to me, I’ll give it back to you.  By faith.”  She was pretty specific – not just a child, but a man-child.

It’s a lengthy story, so we don’t go into all of it, but she calls his name Samuel in verse 20.  “She bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, because I have asked him of the LORD.”

She waits until he’s weaned in verse 22, “But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and there abide for ever.”  Verse 27, “For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him.  Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD.  And he worshipped the LORD there.”

She took Samuel to the temple and gave him to God.  You say, “Why would she give her only child to God when she doesn’t have children?”  Because, when you give to God, God will bless you, and she had made a vow.

Over in chapter 2, verse 21 it says, “And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters.  And the child Samuel grew before the LORD.”  God gave her five more.  That’s pretty good, isn’t it?  Take your faith promise to God and give it to Him and see what God does.  God will give back and more so, won’t He?  That’s exactly what she did.

God bless America by giving us mothers like Hannah!  Mothers who love God.  She gave Samuel to the Lord, and God used him as a great man of God.  You see a godly woman in Proverbs 31.  She was the right kind of woman, a woman who took her sorrows to the Lord, like the example of Hannah.

My, what an example she was.  The woman in Proverbs 31 had great influence.  Do you know why she had influence?  Because of the life she lived for God.  That’s why Hannah had great influence.  1 Samuel 1:18 says, “And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight.  So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.”

The reason I read this is because she had stopped eating.  She was fasting.  She said that she wasn’t going to eat because she wanted to have a baby.  His other wife was having children, and she was not, so she prays to God, “Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight,” and left it there.

We worry and fret.  She went to god and prayed and told him what she wanted specifically.  She prayed.  Trusting God will change your countenance.  I’ve seen people with their countenance down over this thing in New York City.  They say, “Aren’t these bad days?”  Yes, it’s terrible that people died.  I’m sorry for those who lost loved ones.  I’m telling you that it’s the beginning of the end.  But it’s exciting to the Christian that Jesus is coming soon.

Hannah was so burdened about being childless that she couldn’t eat.  Every time they tried to get her to eat, she would say that she didn’t want to eat.  “I’d just as soon die if I can’t have a child.”  So she goes up to the temple and prays.  She tells God what she’ll do specifically.

“Now, God, if You’ll give me this child, I’ll give him back to You.”  It says she just trusted in God.  She got up from there, walked out, cleansed herself, and began to eat and trusted in God.  How come you fret and worry about everything?

God bless America with preachers like Paul, with fathers like Abraham, and with mothers like Hannah.  That’s the kind we need today.  Godly mothers.  Mothers that will take their sorrows to the Lord and leave them there.  Mothers of example and influence.

Several years ago in Yerevan, USSR, a mother was buried alive in an earthquake with her three-year-old child.  For eight days she kept her baby alive by puncturing her own fingers repeatedly and having the child suck her blood as a source of nourishment.  The doctor said that it kept the child alive.  May God bless America with mothers who love and care for their children.

 

WITH CHURCHES LIKE

PHILADELPHIA

 

And then, God bless America with churches like Philadelphia.  My what a church in Revelation 3.  This was the sixth of the seven churches.  That John was instructed to write letters to the seventh church, which is the Laodicean church, is in the last part of chapter 3.

That church represents the age we live in right now, that lukewarm church.  This church of Philadelphia, is the sixth church and its name means brotherly love.  It represented a period of time in the 1800’s when we had a great missionary effort around the world.

Verse 7 says, “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”  Well, that can’t be said about the churches in America today.  We have not kept His Word!

He said, “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.  Because thou hast kept thy word of my patience.  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Churches better listen.  We need churches like this one.  God bless America with churches like Philadelphia.  Missionary minded, who care about sending the Gospel light out to a lost and dying world; churches that are concerned about our responsibility to the great commission.

Thank God our church is missionary minded.  You folks have been giving well to missions.  That’s what church is all about. (Matthew 28:19-20)  Giving those faith promise offerings to missions.  God will bless.  Thank God for the good missionaries that we are able to help and the work that’s being done.  God bless America with churches that care about missionaries.  We are to either go or send.

I got a letter from a church the other day that is moving to a new location.  They have dropped all their missionaries until they can get moved and settled.  That’s the last thing you want to do!  Any time you have a financial bind, you know what you ought to do?  Give MORE to missions.  When you give more to missions, God is going to bless you.

Since our church has been giving more to missions the last several years, God’s blessed us a hundred fold.  It’s unbelievable what He’s done.  It started back when we really started getting excited about missions and doing more for missionaries.

A church ought to be in revival all the time.  I’ve heard evangelists say that they didn’t bring a revival with them.  I don’t do that.  I tell them when I get there, I brought a revival with me and I’ll have it when I leave.  You don’t have enough wet blankets in your church to get my revival out of me.  I’m excited about what God’s doing for me, and you aren’t going to snuff it out.  If you want revival, you an have it, too, this week.

We ought to be in perpetual revival all the time. Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love, was in revival.  Even independent, fundamental Christians can love people.  We ought to love and care about people.  Aren’t you glad somebody cared about you?

Jesus’ name is more important than anything.  But He places His Word, in the book of Psalms, above His name.  Psalms 138:2 says, “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

His Word is important.  Many are doing harm to His Word today.  All across this land they are using perverted translations.  That’s wicked!  The King James Bible is the Word of God!  Why would a man want to use anything else but the Word of God?  It’s the one that brings revival.  It’s the one that caused revival during the church age Philadelphia represents, the 1800’s.

The old King James Bible!  Why not just stick with it?  God bless America with churches like Philadelphia that stayed with the Word of God, the truth.  And lastly God bless America:

 

WITH HUMBLE, PRAYERFUL PEOPLE IN SEARCH OF REVIVAL

 

God bless America with people that will meet the conditions of 2 Chronicles 7:14.  The Lord says in verse 13, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people.”

The Lord is describing some things that could happen, judgments of God that could come.  We are seeing some of the harsh judgments of God on our country at this very moment.

But praise God for verse 13, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

This is what we must do.  It’s hard to get people to humble themselves, isn’t it?  We are a proud people.  Proud and wicked.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we’d see on the television as the President goes in and addresses both houses that they would all get on their knees and humble themselves before God, confess their sins and have a word of prayer, rather than that Chaplain standing there with his piece of paper and reading his prayer.  That makes me mad!

Don’t let the conditions that are happening get you down.  The conditions of the world will change.  Just meet God’s conditions.  We must humble ourselves before Almighty God!  What does it mean to seek His face?  It means to do it God’s way.  We have done it our way long enough.

Do you know what the word turn is?  Repentance.  Repentance means to turn around and go in another direction.  That is repentance!  That’s Bible repentance, going in the opposite direction from the way you were going.  God bless America with a people that will meet the conditions of 2 Chronicles 7:14.  A people that will repent.

Paul said in Acts 20:21, “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”  That is the need of America.  Repent toward God and put our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.  May God help us to repent.

May God bless America with preachers like Paul, fathers like Abraham, mothers like Hannah, churches like the church of Philadelphia, and people that will meet the conditions of 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

That’s how God can bless America!

 

 

ABOUT THE PREACHER

 

 

Dr. Jerry McDonald is pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, Eufaula, Oklahoma.  He is also founder and director of the Calvary Boys’ Ranch, Calvary Church Ministries and Calvary Enterprises.  He is President of Calvary Baptist Bible Institute and Seminary.

He holds a Bachelor of Ministry degree, Master of Ministry degree, Doctor of Divinity degree and a Doctor of Philosophy in Biblical Psychology degree.  He has pastored for over 36 years and for the past 25 years he has pastored and also traveled in Evangelism along with his wife, Jan.  They have been married for 44 years.

Dr. McDonald was saved at the age of nine and surrendered to the Ministry at the age of 26.  He has a daughter, Vicki, who along with her husband, Wayne Porter, and their two sons are missionaries in Mexico.  A son, Jerry Jr., his wife Jenny and their five daughters work in the Ministry at Calvary and also travel with Dr. McDonald.

Dr. McDonald’s youngest daughter, Martha, along with her husband, David Bahre, and their son work in the Ministry at Calvary and also travel with Dr. McDonald.  He preaches revivals, missions conferences and Camp Meetings.  You can contact Dr. McDonald at: P.O. BOX 834, EUFAULA, OKLAHOMA 74432 or by calling (918) 689-9403.