These Days - The Fall of Nations - Pt 1

So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. (Ezekiel 33:7-9 ESV). The following is the text of the speech that John F. Kennedy was scheduled to give at the Trade Mart in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. Kennedy was assassinated before he reached the destination: “We, in this country, in this generation, are — by destiny rather than by choice — the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of ‘peace on earth, good will toward men.’ That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: ‘except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain.’”

We take a bit of a turn in direction in our series today. My hope and prayer is to give you encouragement, inspiration, and hope. There may be some disagreement with my conclusions. I can assure you that my intentions are not in any way politically motivated. Those of you who know me at all also know that I have little need to be politically focused. Government is not the answer to our problem; only the redeeming grace of God is the answer. However, the more we see in our day the more we seem to ignore this truth. So, in the spirit of attempting to be “the watchman on the wall” the next few days will be some observations I have had. Hours after the most recent school shooting, here in my home state of Texas, our governor went to Santa Fe, the city where it happened, and said that unity and faith might not be enough to curb the shootings in his state. I hope I understand him correctly in that his meaning is that action must accompany our unity and faith. He said as much in his statement: "We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” Abbott said. “It's time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again.” With the last part of that, I wholeheartedly agree. The real question is “how?” His answer is to play host to round-table discussions with parents, school leaders and lawmakers to explore remedies to gun violence in Texas. As good as that may prove to be, haven’t leaders across our nation been talking about solutions enough yet? After all, since the Columbine shooting in 1999, there have been 214,000 children at 216 schools affected in school violence. There have been 141 children, educators and other people who have been killed in assaults, and another 284 have been injured in this period. In 2018 alone, there have already been 16 shootings. It seems to me we are looking in every direction except the primary source of power and change. Solomon said, “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1 ESV). JFK got it right… we need to get it right too. And, we can! Tomorrow we’ll begin to look at some specifics from Scripture that will help us see the systemic effect of our human condition and the persistent denial of the need of redemption. In “these days” we need the Gospel more than ever! And it is there for us!