God's Calling Us Back to Him (Rededicate 250)

The Holy Spirit is speaking to the Church in America today — it’s time to be awakened! As America recently held “Rededicate 250,” a National Day of Jubilee, Prayer and Thanksgiving on the National Mall, in this message, Liz extends this call to us as individual believers. You’ll discover spiritual parallels between our nation today and moments throughout Scripture when God called His people Israel back to Himself.  Through biblical examples such as King Josiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the nation of Israel, we, too, are being called to individual repentance, renewal, and wholehearted devotion to God. It challenges believers to examine their hearts, return to God’s Word, and become part of His work to rebuild, repair, and restore our lives, our families, and our nations.
In This Episode, You’ll Hear:
•        How spiritual drift happens gradually in our lives 
•        The importance of repentance, renewal, and rededication to the Lord 
•        How God uses Prophets, Priests & Kings to bring revival and restoration to His people, no matter how far away from God they are.
•        The riveting story of John Howland, a passenger on the Mayflower who fell overboard but survived and changed history and shaped our nation.
•        Learn the truths about the biblical principles that influenced America’s founding by men who drew heavily on the scriptures and the teachings of the Bible when they were writing our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
•        How personal prayer, worship, and God’s Word bring personal revival and restoration 
•        How God is calling His people to awaken, rebuild, and stand for truth in this generation 

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Transcript

Welcome And Set The Theme

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Inquired and reminded that God is not coming up. You're working for hey everyone.

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It's great to see everybody here, and we had a great time in worship today. Very strong presence of the Lord. And we look forward now to getting into the word. As I sat before the Lord this morning, just trying to hear his heartbeat and what he might want to say. I had thrown my Bible open to Ezra. And then something came up on my phone, same time about the rededication 250 of America back to God, which is an event being held in Washington, D.C. today. And then I'm looking at the book of Ezra. Well, Ezra was a priest and a scribe, and God used him greatly to bring about revival in the nation of Israel at that time. It was like the Lord was

Ezra And God Calling Us Back

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putting these two things together. So let's just dive in. We won't be here long, but dive in and see what the Holy Spirit would want to be saying to us today. Because we're part of the larger church. As the people of God, as his community, we are part of the Capital C church, the larger church. And throughout Scripture, God called His people and the nation of Israel back to Himself. Now let's look at that today. Is he calling America back to Himself? Yes. Is He calling His church, his people back to Himself? Yes, He is. Yes, He is. So why did He have to do this? Because the Israelites in the Old Testament, and it happened many times, they had wandered from Him. They had wandered from His Word. They had wondered from His instruction. And they just began following their own ways, doing their own thing. They began to establish high places, which were for pagan worship. And they had their idols. They had their own ways to worship in a way that seemed right to them, though it may not have been as God had instructed. And you know, we can look at that and say, that can be us. There can be idols that come into our lives. Anything, anything in our lives that we place ahead in front of God, it's an idol. And those things can come in so quickly or so subtly. But you know, 1 Peter 4:17 says that judgment begins in the household of God. It begins in the church, in the community of believers. And so many times, so goes a nation as so goes the church. A nation is as strong as the church is in that nation. And I remember reading one time, and it said, where there is much Bible, there is much freedom. Where there is little Bible, there is little freedom. And where there is no Bible, there is no freedom. And America is the greatest nation on the face of this earth. And it has seen the hand and the prosperity and the blessings of God because no matter what you might think about it, we were founded by those people who were looking for religious freedom. They were being tortured, they were unable to live out their faith. They were being placed in communities and in societies that were godless and they didn't want their children to be raised that way. They were looking for a place where they could worship God freely and not be persecuted for it. God is looking first to his people for their hearts to be turned back and made right with him. So as I was thinking today, do I burn for him? Do you burn for him? Do you hunger for his word and for his presence? Do we hunger to hear his voice and to hear his leading and to seek for it each day? If you have to force yourself to read the word or force yourself to pray, the world is getting a gain in your heart. If you find pleasure in reading the word, if you find pleasure in praying, then God is winning ground in your heart. Now I'm not saying that every day we just can't wait to get out of bed and go pray. Um, because we can wake up and we can be tired of this or that. But are we desiring to pray? But if we're really having to force ourselves, then that could be a sign that the

When The World Gains Ground

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world is gaining ground in your heart. And if the world is gaining ground, then God and his spirit is losing ground. You know, because we can all have so many cares of life. We have worries, we have pressures, we can slack on our disciplines, we can begin listening to the lies of the enemy in our minds, and and these things can slip in and they derail us. And if a train gets derailed, that train is being taken off its track. And the lies of the enemy are one of his greatest ways to derail us and to get us distracted and to get us off track from what brought you to where you are right now. Think about where you are right now. If you're a believer, think back on how God good God has been. Think back on how many things he has brought you through. And think back to maybe when you were under pressure, you really had to pray, you really had to seek him. But he came through for you because he is so good. But if these things come in, pretty soon our walk with the Lord can suffer or it can take back seat to other priorities in our lives. So, as we can do, the Israelites did. They wandered off course, and God had to call his people and call his nation Israel back to himself. And I really feel in the spirit that today, May 17th, God is calling us back to himself. Amen. President Trump called for this day, and it was no accident. This was the day exactly May 17th, 250 years ago, that the second Continental Congress, before the Declaration of Independence was signed in the year 1776, on May 17th, the American Revolution, the wars were increasing, the fight was increasing, and they were in a battle, and they were trying to work things out and trying to figure out how are we going to gain independence from England. So they called on this day, 250 years ago, on May 17, 1776, we must have a day of prayer, we must have a day of fasting, we must seek God. And they did. And President Trump called for this day to be a rededication of America back to God. This is so powerful. And so we here in the Father's house, we want to be right in step with what the Holy Spirit is speaking throughout the nation. Amen. So when God was calling his people back to himself, he called for times of repentance. And who did God use? He used prophets, he used priests, and he used political leaders. So everything that's happening in America today is right, really in line with how the how the Lord would work. And some examples of repentance, rededication, returning, and fresh covenants with the Lord in the Old Testament are found in Ezra. As I said earlier, Ezra was both a priest, and a priest guided the spiritual life and the worship of God's people. And Ezra was also a scribe. He was a teacher. He was deeply devoted to studying the law to prevent the people from falling back into sin. That was one of the one of the duties and responsibilities as a teacher and as a scribe to study that law, to study the word of God so that they could prevent the people from falling. And

America’s Roots And Bible Teaching

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I think that that's one of the areas me personally feels that America has slipped. We have been in the church since the 70s. We have seen the Jesus revolution. We have seen the hearts on fire. We have seen the fire in the pulpits. We have seen where the word of God, I mean, you went to church, you carried your Bible, you cracked open that word, and from the pulpit, the word was taught. What does this mean? What does this mean? And the word was explained, and you got revelation from the Holy Spirit. And the word was alive in us. And I remember, you know, back in the 70s and 80s, I mean, after church, you would come home and you'd spend time talking about what was shared in church. Because it was alive in you. That word was alive in you. But I'm telling you, 30, 35, 40 years later, I see the change. I've seen over the past 20 years what the churches have let go and what the churches have allowed in to preach or to not preach. So many times you can go to church today. You don't have to take your Bible. The Bible isn't, you know, really preached from in many churches. Or if you bring your Bible, you know, you don't might not crack it open. Or why bring your Bible? Because they're going to have everything up on the screen. Or so many times the people aren't getting the good understanding of the word from the pulpit. So that was the purpose of the teachers. But Ezra was also a leader who sparked revival in Israel. Another example is King Hezekiah. He called for cleansing, he called for rededication of the temple after years of neglect, after years of idolatry. Also, Nehemiah in uh chapters 8 through 10. Ezra again, here's Ezra reading the law, leading the people to public confession, and there was weeping, and they were writing a new covenant to follow God again. And in 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 34, King Josiah leads the entire nation in renewing their covenant with God. Wow, this is powerful. And in Joshua 24, at the end of his life, Joshua challenged the people that he had led across into the promised land. He challenged the Israelites to choose that day who they would serve. And I say that today. Let God challenge us, let God call us. Choose you this day, people of God. Who are you going to serve? The Lord said through Joshua, I set before you life and death, blessings or curse. Choose you this day whom you will serve. But as for me, Joshua said, as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. And I believe today God is calling his people back to himself. In America, back to himself. He's calling his people to return to the purity of their heart and of their dedication and of their fervency to follow him with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Don't believe the lies of today that America was not founded on biblical principles. There are so many facts and truths that debunk those lies. I would encourage you to go to the website called wallbuilders.com with David Barton. The man has studied American history so deep, and the resources that are there will challenge any lie that you hear. Our declaration and our constitution were written by men, many of them were influenced by their wives biblically, who drew so heavily upon the scriptures and the teachings of the Bible when they were writing that declaration in that constitution. But about 150 years before

The Mayflower Ordeal And One Rope

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that, the pilgrims came to America for religious freedom, as I said earlier. But on that crossing on the Mayflower, their conditions were horrible. This is how much they wanted to find freedom. There were 102 passengers on the Mayflower, 41 of them were pilgrims, 61 of them were hired workers, merchants, or non-believers, and 37 of the 102 passengers were crew members. The ship was 100 feet long, 24 feet wide. It had three decks, and the middle deck was the passenger deck. There were no windows on the middle deck. It had a five-foot ceiling, and they also shared the space with a 30-foot sailboat that was to be used for exploring the coast once they reached the New World. The total living space that they had was 58 feet by 24 feet. 1,392 square feet for the pilgrims and the hired workers. This was for passengers. But picture 41 people living in a 1,392 square foot area. No windows. No ventilation. It was cold. It was damp. There was no privacy. Malnutrition set in, dehydration, scurvy set in. Scurvy was bleeding gums and painful joints. There was seasickness, vomiting, human waste, permeated the air. Permeated the air. And actually, he wasn't even one of the pilgrims. And he was a hired hand. Just brought on to to help on this voyage. And I'm not even sure if he was a believer, as the pilgrims were, but this shows the power of leaving one place to come to a new place and to be able to flourish and to grow. This story reads like this: it's called His Ordeal. The North Atlantic wasn't cooperating. Its swirling, heaving waves were tormenting the 102 men and women and children crammed into this tiny cargo ship that wasn't even designed for passengers. Sometimes the thunderous waves battering the hall would just let up long enough for the desperate or the foolish, depending on who you ask, to scramble up to the main deck for a deep breath of fresh air. For John Howland, he was a British man in his early twenties. The bracing wind and the cold ocean spray against his face helped chase away the nausea, if only for just a few moments. He had escaped the windowless, cramped belly of the ship where the stench of vomit hung in the stale air. He wasn't a sailor, he was just a hired servant for one of these many dreamers on board, this rickety vessel. But the ocean doesn't care about dreams. In a split second, John Howland is plunged into a nightmare. I'm sorry, a massive rogue wave smashes over the ship's railing, sweeping John overboard into the frigid water. He's gone, vanished in the deep, and no one even notices it first. In an era when most people can't even swim, and the ship just can't be thrown into reverse, this is a death sentence. So John is thrashing in this freezing water, his lungs are burning with the ocean as the ship labors on without him. But he catches a glimpse of a rope in the water within his reach. And instinctively, desperately, he snags that rope and clamps onto it with both fists. The rope was trailing behind the ship. It was one of its halyards used to raise and lower the sail. And it becomes his only hope. He clings to this rope for dear life, dragging through the pounding surf like a ragdoll. The salt water scraping down his throat and burning his eyes. But finally, incredibly, crew members spot him bobbing in the water. Slowly and steadily they manage to reel him in. John finally splats on the deck, rolls over on his back, he's sputtering, shivering uncontrollably, gasping, head spinning, and dumbfounded that he's even still alive. These dreamers must be insane that are taking this trip. It's 1620, and this is the main deck of the Mayflower. John Howland survives that voyage. He marries Elizabeth Tilley, who was a fellow passenger on ship. They start a family, they have 10 kids, then grandkids, then great-grandkids. Millions of descendants ripple out from that one seemingly fluke moment, but it's no fluke, because among his descendants are U.S. presidents Franklin Delanore Roosevelt, George Bush, George W. Bush, the poets Emerson and Longfellow, Hollywood stars, Humphrey Bogart, Christopher Lloyd, Chevy Chase, the Baldwin brothers. One guy's near-death plunge changes history. It's wild how much one life dangling by a thread or a rope can shape a nation. Isn't that powerful? And he wasn't even one of the pilgrims. And the stories of the pilgrims, William Bradshaw was on this ship. You need to read the story of William Bradshaw and how God so used him to help establish our early laws to govern these 41 people that came over on that first ship and then the others that would follow. Fascinating. America has a fascinating story. I just encourage us, learn it. And I would encourage you to go beyond chat, GBT, or Google or something. You have to get to the real history. Sometimes that history, just like it's taught in schools, it's not the full history because they don't want us to know the Christian foundations that we were founded upon. So back to our

Josiah’s Reform And Found Scripture

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message for today. Let's just look real quickly, real quickly into 2 Chronicles chapter 34, because this is the story of King Josiah calling his nation back to God. In verse 1, Josiah was eight years old when he took the throne. Okay, eight years old. Now just imagine your eight-year-old child or your eight-year-old grandchild taking the throne and becoming king of their nation. Let's read verses one through three. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, when he was 16 years old, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. And in the twelfth year, when he was twenty years old, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, of the pagan worship, of the wooden images, of the carved images, and the molded images. See, so King Josiah did not set out knowing the Lord. In his eighth year of his reign, when he was 16, he began to get that hunger. To seek the Lord. And I've heard prophecies and prophetic words about President Trump. He was prophesied into office by Kim Clement and that he would serve two terms back in 2008, 2011, years before he ever took office. He was a man who did not know God. He knew of him and he had some religious upbringing. But he does have something in his history that's very interesting. In uh President Trump's lineage, he comes from Scotland, and he had aunts, two women that prayed in the Hebrides revival in Scotland. Also in his lineage is John Knox, who is a very famous reformer of Scotland and Britain. So that's in his lineage. Josiah had in his lineage King David. There's greatness in people, and it comes just like in John Howland. Look when he birthed American presidents 400 years later. You know, this is powerful stuff. Now let's go on in verses 31 through 33 in 2 Chronicles 34. First, I'm going to read 18 and 19. So Josiah, he had called for the reform of the country. And what had happened was when they went into the temple and they began cleaning it all out. It had been neglected. It had been neglected. So Josiah appointed and gave the money that needed to be done to bring the temple back into order and to shape. But when they were doing this, when they were doing this, they found the book of the law. And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. Thus it happened when the king heard the words of the Lord that he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah and others, go and inquire of the Lord for me. He had to hear what the Lord was saying. This is powerful. So in verses 31 through 33, he restores true worship back to the temple, and he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not depart from serving and following the Lord God of their fathers. And in chapter 35, I'm not going to read it, but it goes on to talk about how Josiah keeps the Passover. So God used King Hosiah, a boy that came to the throne at the age of eight years old, and he sought the Lord through his kingship, and he was used mightily to restore Israel back to God. Now, King Hosiah was talking to the people of God, the Israelites. And I just want to share today, I believe that by the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit is talking to the church in America. It's time to be awakened. It's time to be stirred up. It's time to call for that fresh fire back in your hearts, that you may serve me fervently with all your hearts, because God wants to use us to restore this nation to greatness. And you know, God wants to bring reformation to our nation. Our nation has never been more divided than it is right now. But I'm actually going to stop myself because if you read where these men were when they were trying to put together the Declaration of Independence, they were as divided as we are now. Their visions, their ideas, the way they were going to bring these about, they were very divided. That's why they were calling for days of prayer and fasting, because they had to get the mind of God. And we just know the power of God. And we believe that God can change and He can work in our Congress.

2 Chronicles 7:14 And Prayer

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He can work in our senators. He can work in our courts. And his plan is prosperity. He knows the plans he has for us. And they are for our future and for our hope. It's also America's time to be rededicated back to our foundational principles based on the Word of God. And God is looking for his people to repent and turn from their wicked ways and recognize his truth and to pray. And if we pray and repent, he hears us and he will heal our land. That's 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people, not everybody in the nation, not all the non-believers, not the atheists, not the agnostics, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then the Lord says, I will hear from heaven, I will first hear, then I will forgive their sins, and I will heal their land. We believe and know, according to God's word, that he wants to bring healing to our land. He wants to bring healing where there is division right now. He wants to bring healing where there is strife and conflict and struggle. He wants to bring his peace, and his peace surpasses all understanding. So let's just pray together right now. We're going to join in with thousands, literally thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands, praying across this nation for America to hear from God again and to be restored and to be forgiven. So, Heavenly Father, first we just come to you. We come to you, Lord, by the blood of Jesus. Lord, we have sinned. We have sinned. We have fallen away from you. As your children, Father, maybe we're not burning as hard and as fast and as furious as we need to burn for you. Father, restoke the fires in our hearts. Restoke us, God. Restoke those fires in our hearts, oh Lord. Call us back to you. Lord, I pray for a hunger deep in our hearts for your word. Let us, Lord, just want to devour your word. Let us give time, even if it's 15 to 30 minutes a day, to read your word and let your word wash and purify our minds, oh God. We repent, Lord God, from letting cares of the world, pressures, daily struggles, lies of the enemy, things to crop up and to steal us and to rob us of our relationship with you. Father God, we repent. We repent from things that we may have allowed to enter into our lives that aren't holy, that aren't pure before you, that might be displeasing. Father, I don't want to call them out. You know them in our hearts. You reveal them to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. You do the cleansing work, Father. You do it, oh God. You let your purifying fire come into our hearts and purify our hearts and make us whole again and on fire for you again, God. That we would be unashamed to share your goodness with others who do not know you. That we would be unashamed to preach your word, God, and to preach your gospel and to share it with those who so desperately need you. And Father, we do pray for revival and reformation in our nation, God. We pray for a change in our culture, God. We call it forth by the power of God. We pray for a change in our culture. We pray for a change, oh God, in our hearts that we would turn back to you, Lord, and that you would bring healing and peace to our land once again. We pray for our president, we pray for all of our leaders, Democrat, Republican, Lord. It does not matter. Lord God, we pray for them. For Lord God, you say to pray for kings and all those in authority over us that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives. In Jesus' mighty name, we give you honor. We give you glory. We thank you, Lord, that you call back and you bring back and you welcome back in prodigals. You welcome us back in, Father. You wrap your loving arms around us, and we are never ashamed out of your presence, God, but we are brought nigh unto you by the precious blood of Jesus that washes all of our sins and cleanses us and purifies us and lets us catch fire once again. In Jesus' name we pray, together, and everybody said

Invitation And Farewell

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amen.

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Thanks for listening. We invite you to join us on Sundays at 1030 a.m. right here in Jetson Beach. Either way, in the show notes for all information. We'd love to see you here. And if this message has encouraged you, follow the show at every episode at 102.4.