The Theft of America's Soul Lie #10: Christians Should Shut Their Traps

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The Theft of America’s Soul

Lie #10: Christians Should Shut Their Traps

Jeremiah 20:7-12

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Ezekiel 33:1-9

We are now starting week number two of what seems to be turning into a long fight against the dreadful virus known as Covid-19. While this virus seems to be more of a curse upon our world, I think that it can be viewed as a blessing as well. Yes, many people are out of jobs, unable to go to work, and unable to leave their homes unless they are deemed an “essential worker” for the well-being of the country’s infrastructure. Both blessing and curse my position at Belle Tire has been deemed as essential so while I am able to go to work, I also risk exposure to the virus to my self and my family. Churches are no longer able to meet for the time being for worship. I have heard one pastor say that this used to be his worst nightmare that he would one day preach to an empty church. Well that now is the case for all of us ministers. Though we are preaching to an empty building we do not have to preach to an empty church as the building is not the church but the community of believers is the church. I say that this virus is a blessing for the church because it has forced us to become creative and in a sense go “underground.” Only our persecutor is not any government or principality per say but instead the acts of nature. Now is the time more than anytime that the church must speak. Christians must speak to a world that is very much dying and living in fear.

For the last few months, we have been going through a book written by Phil Robertson called The Theft of America’s Soul. He lays out 10 lies that that have been destroying our country and destroying our freedoms. This week we are on lie number 10, which the enemy says that Christians should shut their traps. However, the truth is that God’s people are his prophetic voice in the world. Now more than ever this is not a time that Christians should shut their traps. We all have a voice if we would use it. Not only that the Word of God has its own voice if we would read it and share it.

Phil talks about a time before Duck Dynasty he had received a phone call from a customer that desired to order a shipment of duck calls. However, as he listed off what he wanted he would end each selection by cursing God’s name. Phil said that he knew what he needed to do. First, he needed to get this man’s address and credit card information then after he had what he needed he ask the man why he would “curse the only One who could save him from eternal death.” The man was silent and then after making sure that Phil had got all his information, he hung up the phone. A few minutes later the man called back and Phil told him that the question was still on the table. The man was still silent and then said that he never really thought about it. Phil told him that he should drive down to Louisiana so that Phil could tell him a story and that after that he just might not feel like cursing God anymore. The man took it as a challenge and said “Well, I might do that, Hoss!” Phil yelled back and said that maybe he should and then hung up on him.

A week after that phone conversation he got a knock on the door and it was this man who had cursed the Lord over the phone. He brought a friend along as well. He told Phil that he wasn’t leaving until he told him why he shouldn’t curse the name of God. Phil told him that he came to the right place and proceeded to share with him the gospel. By the end of it both men were in tears and Phil asked them if they wanted to be baptized. So, he baptized both of them in the river by the house. He offered them dry clothes to drive back to Alabama but they said they didn’t need them. Seventeen years later Phil was at a church in the same city this man was from to preach. He was eating a meal with some of the brothers and he learned that this man whom he baptized was now a leader in that church. They told him that when he got back home after that he gave it to those church leaders real good for never sharing the gospel to him. This man went from using his voice to curse the Lord to using it to praise and spread the Gospel to others. This all happened because Phil in his obedience decided not to shut his trap.

The prophet Jeremiah is one who would probably have rather shut his trap if he had his choice in the matter. In chapter 20 Jeremiah was beaten and put in the stocks for prophesying the word of the Lord. In verses 7-12 he says,

You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire. A fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!” All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.” But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause.

Jesus has called us to preach the Gospel to all nations, teaching them to obey everything that he has commanded. In order to do that we must use our constitutional and God given right to speak. However, be aware that many in the world and the enemy will tell us that we should remain in silence. They will tell us that it is ok to pray as long as we do so in silence. However, I don’t know about you but sometimes a fire shoots up from my bones that forces me to speak. This is something that I think we all need. The United States Constitution say “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech.” Our forefathers put this in our constitution because they new that the one of the ways to prevent the government gaining too much power was to empower its citizens to speak. However, the problem is that many leaders do not read the constitution in this way. They more or less read this amendment to say that no religion will influence any law respecting the establishment of government nor freely speak against thereof government decisions or policies. Unless citizens actually read the constitution, themselves they would never know the difference.

 Many of us remember a fiasco way back in Duck Dynasty in which Phil was temporarily suspended from the show because of what he said in an interview. In the interview the conversation came to the subject of modern-day America. Phil as he always does gave it to the man straight. He told the man that we have believed in the lies of the devil and that we have blurred the lines between right and wrong and have changed the definition of sin. The man asked what he thought was sinful. Phil’s next answer was the quote that got him in trouble. However, Phil didn’t use his own words. He used the words of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

From that Interview and what that magazine printed a ruckus was raised over the things that Phil said. He called homophobic and misinformed. Some accused him of shaming young homosexuals. He was called a hate-monger and many had suggested that he shouldn’t be allowed the freedom of speech. It was like a modern-day Jeremiah response. However, Christians and other viewers spoke out and because of their voice Phil was reinstated to the show and he never missed a single episode from the time he was suspended and to the time he was reinstated.

I am not saying that we should all go out marching with a Holy war to the world. However, I am saying that as Christians in the United States we not only have a right to speak but we should speak the truth of the Living Word. We should do so not in anger or hatred for the world but we should do so out of love for the souls of lost people in the world. Ezekiel 33:1- 9 says,

The word of the Lord came to me: “son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against the land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchmen, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.

We as Christians are called to be the watchmen for the world. As we still do live in a free nation this should be even easier for us to do so. We are not yet subjected under tyranny as some believers in some places. Yet believers will still risk their lives to speak the truth into the lives of those needing the gospel message. We really have little excuse for not using our voice in the world to speak the truth about sin and the cure for such sin. Who knows what might have happened if the watchmen had sounded the trumpet on abortion before it became widely accepted in our country? Who knows what would have happened if the watchmen sounded the trumpet when homosexuality began to take over our country? Who knows what would have happened if the watchmen would have blown the trumpet before many of our loved ones died in their sins without knowing the saving grace of Jesus Christ? Who knows what might happen now if we do not sound the trumpet and continue to spread the Gospel message even though Covid-19 is keeping us in our homes? We have a prophetic message to share and we should not let anyone or any virus keep us from sharing it. Let us sound the trumpet and tell the world that Jesus came to save.