Origin
Origin
Disarming Deception, pt 2, The American Dream
Join us as we disarm deceptions with the truth of God's Word. Today we talk about The American Dream and how we have developed many deceptive thoughts around what was possibly initially a God-given dream. We might need a course correction! The table of Origin is for you. Pull up a chair and join our conversation.
We are back around the table of Origin. It has been a long time. It's a whole new year. Happy New Year!
Jina McAfee:Happy New Year!
ReGina Johnston:2024. We are here. Like it or not. I've missed you guys. Have you all missed me?
Kyli Rose:I miss sitting around this table!
ReGina Johnston:Well, so let's just give a brief update. What has happened in our lives and in our families since we were last sitting here at the table?
Jina McAfee:Well, I had a new grandbaby since we were last sitting here at the table. We went to meet him over Thanksgiving so that was fun. His name is Jack. He was teeny tiny, but now he's growing. I don't get to hold him every day because I don't live near him.
ReGina Johnston:A new grandbaby. That's big.
Kyli Rose:We did a lot of holiday stuff, and we're still not done. I was just telling ReGina, right before we pushed the button, this is the gift that keeps giving. Thanksgiving right into Christmas. We have been a little bit of everywhere. We're actually thankful to be settling in again.
ReGina Johnston:I think you said you still have a Christmas celebration to go.
Kyli Rose:We still have one more. We "holiday" hard. So we're ready for a schedule. We're excited about the consistency of the new year
Jina McAfee:What about you?
ReGina Johnston:I've just been doing the Holiday thing. My kids
Kyli Rose:She will. How old is Tatum? and grandkids live a long way off, so they came for the
ReGina Johnston:She's a little over one. holidays. I just have to say,"My little granddaughter, Tatum, likes me so much!" So much that she wants me to hold her while I cook, while I serve, while I get ready. She wants me. And I'm so glad she wants me. Every now and then, it would be good if she'd let somebody else, but she wants me, and it's very sweet. I think about it all the time and smile. They've gone back home, and it'll be a while before I get to hold her again. And who knows, they change so quickly during this season that in six months when I get to see her again, I don't know if she'll want me so much.
Kyli Rose:That's a fun age!
Jina McAfee:She's a doll baby. She is so cute!
ReGina Johnston:I gave my mom, Tatum's great grandmother, a coffee cup with her picture on it for Christmas. The picture is her sitting in the meadow with a balloon and because it's her first year birthday, she has a"One" there and a saying that I found online. We'll put it in the show notes, but the saying is something like this, "She's a little wild flower with a whole lot of warrior inside." I thought, "That is who she is!"
Jina McAfee:That's a good thing!
ReGina Johnston:While she's really girly, she can hold her own. And so she wants her bow in her hair, but she also wants what her brother has.
Kyli Rose:She's got a big brother. She will be tough.
ReGina Johnston:She makes us laugh. So this has been a fun season. But we are actually back on Part Two of The Great
Seduction:Disarming Deception. Last season we unpacked six deceptions that we might assume are true, but we disarmed them. Because they're not true. And we did that with Scripture. And during this season, we're gonna unpack six more. The first of those is today, The American Dream. I know I heard the collective breath catching,"That's a deception?" Honestly, I'm so patriotic that I hate to declare this as a deception. You might be thinking that as well. God-given dreams can have all kinds of deceptive thought processes around them. Look at the dreams God gave in the Bible and what different people did with those dreams. Once humanity gets their hands on something, never underestimate our ability to mess it up. So God-given dreams can have those deceptive thought processes around them. Today we're going to look at and talk about how this has happened to the American Dream. But first, I just want to start with some Scripture. What does God say about dreams and plans?
Jina McAfee:Well, I really love this question. God has a plan, right? And He gives dreams. He is The Dream Giver. One of the first Scriptures I'm going to look at is very inspirational. In fact, people that don't even know the Lord have heard this Scripture. Maybe you've gotten it on a card for graduation for high school or college. I would be very surprised if you've never heard it before. It comes from Jeremiah. He's a prophet. That means, he's the voice of God for God's people. Jeremiah
29:11 says this, and this is God speaking. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" One of the things we were just talking about as we were sitting around the table, is how God has put inside of us a yearning for more, to have purpose, that we will do something great in our lives. Even people that don't know the Lord know that. They have it. It drives them on. I want to give just a little bit of context for this Scripture. In Jeremiah, chapter 29, God's people are in captivity. He gave them a way to live, but they didn't follow it. He told them, if you don't live this way, I'm going to carry you off into captivity. So He allowed enemy armies to come and conquer them, and take them off into a foreign country. But I love this. They've been taken, but God gives them an encouraging word. He sends a word to them that will hold them. He tells them you're going to be in captivity for 70 years. If He told me that, I would think, "70 years, wow, I don't want to waste this time." It's a life time for us. But God actually tells them, "I want you to build homes...plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Find spouses for them, so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away. [That's God's design that we started Origin with. God said, "I want you to fill the earth. I want you to multiply. Reign." He put that in
us. And He says:] Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare" (Jer 29:5-7). So wherever you're at, pray for where you're at. God hears and
Kyli Rose:This is interesting, because in the chapter before, He answers. in Jeremiah 28, we see Jeremiah rebuking another guy, Hananiah, a prophet froim Gibeon, who gave a false prophecy. Hananiah said that they were only going be in captivity for two years. Jeremiah said, "No, settle in. We're going to be here for 70."
ReGina Johnston:Occupy.
Kyli Rose:It was so encouraging, in a way, hard, but encouraging. It is God saying,"I'm actually not going to pull you out of it, but I promise to see you through it."
Jina McAfee:I'll be with you! I love that this, huge, encouraging word was spoken to them while they were in captivity, because sometimes we feel like we're in captivity, and God would say, "No, I have a plan for you. And it's good. It involves a future and a hope." We need to hear that!
ReGina Johnston:The dreams God gives are meant to be motivating. As we look at our forefathers who had a dream for something other than what they were experiencing in life, it motivated them to get in a boat and sail to places they had not ever known, in fact, been led to believe did not even exist. It's meant to be very motivating. There's a song that encapsulates some of what was in the heart of some of those who struck out to find something more. They knew there has to be more than this. I even think of Belle in The Beauty and the Beast, "There must be more than this provincial life." Here's what might have been part of the heart of our forefathers, this song, Coming to America. It says: Far, we've been traveling far, without a home but not without a star. Free, only want to be free, we huddle close, hang on to a dream. Home, to a new and shiny place, make our bed, and we'll say our grace. Freedom's light burning warm, Freedom's light burning warm. On the boats and on the planes. They're coming to America. Never looking back again, they're coming to America. My Country'tis of Thee, Sweet Land of liberty. Of thee I sing. Do you all go to the parades?
Kyli Rose:Yes. You get emotional when those patriotic songs play.
ReGina Johnston:I do too. I've been to football games where you all stand and put your hand on your heart and you sing the National Anthem, and the planes fly overhead. It's just majestic. Honestly, I'm really wildly patriotic, even though I can't find the notes of the song sometimes. I love the way my heart feels when we cross our chests and sing The Star Spangled Banner. I grew up saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school. We said it every morning. Now I don't think they say it at schools much anymore. But I love the rags-to-riches tales of people, immigrants whose families took the risk to come to America. I've heard this one quote from Maximo Alvarez. He said that his family fled from Spain and from Cuba, and they're now in America. He said, "I am so thankful for America, the place where I was able to build my American dream through hard work and determination. We built a future for our families. I may be Cuban born, but I'm 100% American. This is the greatest country in the world. If I gave away half of everything that I have today, it would not equal to 1% of what I received when I came to this great country, the gift of freedom." And he says this with a quiver in his voice, and a tear coming down his face. This is not pride speaking. This is a heart of gratefulness, because he realizes had he not been able to come here, the life he would have had would not have been equal to the life he now has. Our ancestors yearned for freedom. They wanted freedom of religion, freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, all of which are God-given dreams for God gives freedom of choice too. Sometimes that messes the water.
Kyli Rose:One of the things you said was oftentimes these God-given dreams when put in the hands of humans who desperately need a savior, we tend to mess them up. We can break them. We see in the Bible, in Galatians 5:13-14, Paul speaking, "You were called for freedom; only don't use your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in
this:'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Paul has spent most of this letter calling them to live in the freedom that comes with faithfulness in Christ. But then he's saying, "Don't use that freedom to serve yourself." Oftentimes, we use our freedoms just to simply serve ourselves. Cruising into a new year, you
will hear so much of this like:self-care and your resolutions and your dreams and accruing more for you. Being the best"you." And there is some truth to that. You can't pour from a half-empty cup. But I think along the way, we have gotten some things very, very twisted. And in doing that, in taking that original dream, we've tainted the American dream. We see that dreams often have a cycle: God gives the dream. He gives the promise with the purpose of expanding you, challenging you. These dreams are inspired by God. And then we begin to pursue this dream. I think we can all relate to that. Can you think of a time when God put something in you and you knew it was a God-dream because it wasn't something that you could necessarily grab easily. It wasn't something that was in your skill set. Maybe you felt a calling to try for that job or to go back to school or to start a ministry or to be a part of something, to take a risk. You know, like "God put that inside of me." And so we begin to pursue that dream. And then over time, I think all of us can relate to one of these three things. The danger is in one of these three things as you're pursuing these dreams. The first danger is that we either don't see the dream fulfilled in the timetable or in the way we believe it should be fulfilled. He put that dream inside of me, I begin to pursue it, and then it just takes so much longer, or the fulfillment of it looks so much different than I thought it would. There's a place in Scripture that says hope deferred can make a heart grow really sick. And so I think some of us are in this place of our hearts being kind of sick, because we haven't seen it yet. We become disillusioned. And some of us give up on the dream. We just walk away altogether. By doing that, we essentially give up on God. When you give up on God, other things then become your idol. So we either get disillusioned with the dream, or the dream becomes our sole pursuit. It becomes the idol itself instead of the God who gave us the dream. We pursue the dream like God. Or the dream is fulfilled, and we become so self-sufficient, we become so prideful, we actually begin to think that I did that on my own. I actually had the ability to go out and get that thing. We see that. I've done that. We become the idol. So the dream becomes the idol or we become the idol. So you see, herein lies the deception. We started with the American dream. Then you see that there's a God-dream. And somewhere along the way, you can get deceived in thinking that the American dream, these pursuits, they actually equal God's dream. Something along the way got broken.
Jina McAfee:When we started teaching the American Dream, the teachers brought forth this idea, and I thought, that's it! The American dream was likely a God-dream to begin with. If you think about it, in our Declaration of Independence, it states that we're all created equal. We're all equal before the Lord. We're going to look at a Scripture that confirms that in a minute. Also, we have a Creator, and we are given life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the tenets, the basic beliefs with the American dream. Let's look
at freedom. Galatians 5:1 says,"It was for freedom, that Christ set us free; therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." Our forefathers knew they were made for freedom. They knew it. It was in them. They knew we are all sons and daughters of the most high God. It was equal opportunity. Romans says this in 3:23-24, "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. [So we all have a need, right?] And we're all justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." Our saving is through Christ. We're all one in that.
ReGina Johnston: Keywords:all and freely. I love that.
Jina McAfee:Freely given. He paid a high price. Our founding fathers paid a high price. Christ paid a high price. Father God paid a high price. And then that pursuit of life. John 10:10 says, "The thief [which is Satan] does not come except to steal, to kill and destroy.[That's what he does. That's his goal. That's his purpose. But Jesus said:] I've come that they may have life and that they may have it more fully, more abundantly." I remember one time Kyli taught and she said, in Christ, we have life, life and more life. And I love that.
ReGina Johnston:Problems arise when the dream becomes the sole pursuit, not the God of the dream. Then the dream becomes the idol. When we're pursuing the dream, we're not becoming more like Jesus. The only way you become more like Jesus is to pursue Jesus. And when we don't pursue Jesus, we're becoming more self-reliant. I'm tough enough. I'm big enough. I have the best ideas. I'm smart enough. Or we become pursuers of prosperity, and we want the biggest and the best and the newest and the most successful. And when we get there, it's not enough. We want more. We're unsatiable. Or we can become enslaved to money, and money manages us, instead of us stewarding God's money. We can become self-focused, and think the world revolves around us and everything we do is filtered by that. It's all filtered by this thing of seeing myself at the very center of things. Or we can become led by the flesh. And that's a problem. Because as Christ followers, we're supposed to be Spirit-led, not led by our flesh, not led by our dream. For when we're led by our dream, we are led by our flesh. The dream God gives is meant to lead us back to God, not the fulfillment of the dream itself. The dream is not a means to an end. It's just something God has given us, that sets us in this growth mode and expansion mode, that actually not only ends up being good for us, but it's good for the Kingdom. It's a win win. And that's what God is trying to create. So we want to avoid this sense of pursuing anything but Jesus.
Kyli Rose:A lot of these things harken back to the origins of our country. We all know the history of our country. She's not that old, and there's moments that are heartbreaking. You see where these dreams in the hands of human hearts are sometimes at odds with God's plans. You were talking about being self-reliant, pursuers of prosperity and slaves to money. You think about these dark moments in our history where the dream got off. They highlight our need to keep Him in the center and to keep Him the focus and to continue to take our dreams to Him and surrender them to Him. If not, history just repeats itself over and over and over again. Talking about a dream, we meet Abraham, the father of our faith, in the very opening pages of Scripture. God tests him. He gives him a dream, He promises him something, and then we see Him test that. He wants to know if Abraham will surrender the dream to Him? He is basically asking, "Will you give the dream to Me?" Will you
wait on it? In Genesis 22:1-2 NIV, it says, "Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. Then God said, 'Take your son your only son, whom you love--Isaac--and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.'" A
little bit of backstory:Abraham is 100 years old. He's not 20. He's 100 years old. He and Sarah had been waiting on Isaac since Abraham was 75 years old. They were both given this promise of having a son, of having children, having offspring. They were given this promise when Abraham was 75 years old. And then he has Isaac, the fulfillment of the dream at 100 years old. Imagine waiting on that thing you know God had promised you for 25 years. When we read it, it's a matter of seconds or minutes. It's just a chapter, a flip of a page for us. But we forget that that chapter spans days and months and years and prayers, like,"Why aren't You coming through, God?" So 25 years later, we finally see the fulfillment of Isaac. And then God says, "Will you give him to Me?" Will you lay him on the altar? Will I become or remain the central pursuit? Will I remain the center? Or will you allow the dream that I gave you, the dream that I even fulfilled, will you allow that to become the idol, the God of your life?". We see the length of time waiting didn't make the dream any less a God-inspired dream. God gave the promise of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. We see that they waited and Scripture tells us that it happened. It comes to a point where the dream is tested. We are tested. In effect, God is saying, "Is it Me or the dream?" We get to walk through the same process. It's not our child. God's not asking the same things of us. But essentially, He's saying, "Will you give it to Me? Will you surrender it?"
ReGina Johnston:I believe all along God had an alternate plan. If we continue to read through that Scripture, there's a lamb in the thicket. There's a lamb waiting to be the sacrifice. Not Isaac. It's just, "Are you willing?" Not that I'm the kind of God that wants to see you lay an actual person on an altar and crucify that person. But symbolically I'd like to know, if you're willing. I have a plan. If you're willing, I already have a plan of rescue. We can look down from our perspective in the Word through the years and see that God's plan with that lamb was to show us that many, many years later, there would be another Lamb that was waiting to be the sacrifice for our sins, for us. However, Abraham did not know that. And when we're in the midst of that thing, and whatever we've waited so long for comes to pass, and God says, "Will you give it to Me?" it feels like death.
Kyli Rose:And it feels unkind. But if we don't surrender the dream, we will end up exploiting it. We will mishandle the thing that was meant to bring us life and life to the world around us. If we don't surrender it to God, then our broken motives, our fear of losing it essentially, will end up exploiting or killing that thing. It will never come to fruition. The thing that was meant to bring life to us, to those around us, will end up hurting us and those around us. We take those things, and we twist them. In His kindness He says, "Will you give it to Me?"
Jina McAfee:With the test, not only does God know that Abraham
ReGina Johnston:That's his response. That's his practiced, wants Him, wants God, wants God's purpose for him and trusts God and still has faith, but Abraham knows it. Abraham gets to discover his own heart in this test. The test is for us too. For all these years, Abraham trusted God for Isaac. The Scripture says that he believed God, and God counted it towards him for righteousness. He's really the father of our faith. Our teachers for this topic pointed out that when God makes this request of Abraham, the very next verse says, "Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey" (Ge
22:3). This is quick obedience. He didn't think about it. He didn't plan out, should I do this? Look at the pros and cons. He didn't let the enemy talk to him. When they reach Mount Moriah, "He said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you'"(Ge 22:5). His obedience was worship. And "Isaac spoke up and said to his father, 'Father?''Yes, my son?' Abraham replied.'The fire and wood are here,'[Isaac is like 12. He is not a baby.] Isaac said, 'but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?'" (Ge 22:7). Can you imagine what that would be like as a father? "Abraham answered,'God Himself will provide the lamb....' And the two of them
went on together" (Ge 22:8). God Himself is our provider. Abraham really learned that, didn't he?"Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven,'Abraham, Abraham!'" (Ge 22:10). Again Abraham says, "Here I am." habitual response when he hears the voice of the Lord calling,"Here I am."
Jina McAfee:Then God says,"Don't lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son" (Ge
22:12). And of course when we hear this, we think of God who gave His only Son in truth for us. Then "Abraham looked up[just like Regina said] and there in the thicket, he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it instead of his son. [Jesus is a sacrifice for us.] So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, 'On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.' And the angel of the Lord for a second time said, 'I swear by Myself, declares the LORD that because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed Me.'" (Ge 22:13-18)
ReGina Johnston:Obedience is God's love language. We heard that a few seasons back. Can you imagine how His heart smiled when Abraham went so far to obey the Lord even in what seemed like absurdity?
Jina McAfee:Because Isaac was the fulfillment of his dream. You know, it was God's fulfillment of the dream. And then He said, "I want you to sacrifice him." That doesn't even make sense, does it? But Abraham didn't even think about it. He just got up and went and did it.
ReGina Johnston:Because that was his habit. Because he trusted God. Because he had put God to the test many other times, and God had put Abraham to the test many other times. And each time there had been an approving of oneself in the test. Each, Abraham proving his confidence in God and God proving His confidence in Abraham. So what can we learn through Abraham's tests?
Kyli Rose:The first thing we see is God's promise will always So will we develop the habit of obedience? stand firm through every test that we endure. He is faithful. He will see us through. Second thing we see is testing isn't about revealing our failure. And this is a big one. Because sometimes we think that God is putting us through something to just watch us fail. We don't have a right understanding of His goodness, that He loves us, and that He is actually doing this for our good and for His glory, every time. Everything He does for you is for your good and His glory. Everything. It's His character. He can't stray from it. It's all about growing our faith and developing our character. I was reading about this community in preparing for this and everything in this environment was perfectly suited for growth, everything. It was inside. There was nothing that could harm anything that was growing. There were no predators. There was no wind. There was no harsh environment. Everything was perfectly acclimated and controlled for growth. And what they found is that while the trees were planted, there was no growth. And they didn't understand why. And they later discovered that because there was no wind, there was no resistance. It never gave the trees the opportunity for their roots to grow deep. He doesn't want us to just simply be planted and to be there, He actually wants us to grow as humans, to grow as believers, to grow in our understanding of His goodness, His faithfulness, His provision. There are things I know about Him in my mind. But it's not until the testing that that is solidified in my heart. I read about Your goodness, but it wasn't until I was tested and I came out on the other side. It wasn't until You became the fourth man in the fire. It wasn't until I had need and you were my provider when there was no other way out. There is something that happens in the testings of our lives. We know He is good, and He is faithful, and He will see me through. So we see that testing is not about revealing our failure, but about growing our faith and developing our character. The third thing we see is through testing, we deepen our commitment to obey God. He's probably not going to ask these massive things of you initially. Will you be obedient to speak to the person that He asks you to at Walmart? Will you get up and go to church when He's prompting you to, even though you're tired? They're these small tests, and He's growing us in the process. Here I am. Will that be the posture of our lives and hearts? Here I am, Lord. I don't understand. But here I am. I don't like it. But here I am. You've told me I need to settle in for a while. But here I am. Here I am. And then thirdly, we see that when the test is over, He might not give us what we expect. And I'll tell you from experience, it oftentimes is not always what I expected. But it's usually more than I could ask. It would have never come to fruition in the way and never in the time that I would like, but it's deeper, and it's richer. I don't always understand the"Why?" but I have always come out on the other side having a deeper understanding of the"Who?" and that holds me. It holds me through the next test and through the next season and the next hardship. So we see, He is faithful. We see, Abraham passed this test. It was hard. And words feel trite for that! It was hard. It was a challenge. God asked him to lay down that precious boy that he had waited on for 25 years. I don't even think we can adequately wrap our minds around that. Maybe for you, it's like a job or that source of income that you feel you've got to keep. Or that home, or maybe it's your children in a certain sense. Letting those things go and trusting that the Lord is doing something through that. So we see that he passed the test. He was prepared and ready. He knew the character of God. His relationship with God had been tried and tested. And he could say at the end of it, like Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:12, "I know whom I have believed." Not just my mind, not just things I've read about Him. I have experienced the goodness of God, and I know Him. So we see in the same way America is being tested. And I do wonder if she's passing. I don't know if she's passing her tests. We see on the news and just our experiences day in and day out, we need a course correction. So what is our call to action? I think it starts with repentance. That's not a word we hear a whole lot these days. Listen to this statement, "The biblical gospel exalts Jesus above everything in this world. And we've exchanged that biblical gospel for an American gospel that prostitutes Jesus for the sake of comfort and power and politics and prosperity in our country. And we see the effects of it all around us." We've traded God's dream for the American dream. In doing so, we've settled for something so far less and not something we were designed for.
ReGina Johnston:This is not just in the hearts of people that don't know God. This is in the hearts of people who call themselves believers, but still feel this sense of our pursuit is power, politics, prosperity, comfort, you know, luxury.
Kyli Rose:We were talking about this pursuit of happiness. And I think along the way we have pursued happiness over holiness. We have exalted and made happiness, the ultimate goal, and we wonder why we're falling short and never able to achieve it. We weren't necessarily promised that. I think we get to experience it through the goodness of God.
Jina McAfee:We are promised blessing, but blessing may look different than what our fleshly minds might think.
Kyli Rose:We're promised peace. I love that we started off with
Jeremiah 29:11. He was not saying, "I will prosper you in a season or they were prospering." In fact, everything about their their circumstances said,"You're not prospering, you're not doing well." He's showing us even if your circumstances don't feel good or look good, I have a bigger dream. And they supersede what we're experiencing.
Jina McAfee:When the American dream started, it was radical. And maybe in your faith walk, there was a radical change. You were so excited with the things of the Lord. And somewhere along the way, we just kind of traded that. What happens is you tend to go to the less than, if you don't put more energy and more intention in. May we return to the God of our forefathers. May we have that radical faith where we would travel miles to a place we've never been in order to live the life God's given us to live.
ReGina Johnston:There's a statement that says, "We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves, when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves." We just get it backwards and this pursuit of freedom and liberty and happiness has a tendency to tip the balance all the way to the other side to where we think we have rights that we do not have, and we use our liberties like the Bible says, "to the occasion of our flesh," and we don't realize that what we are doing is opposite of what the Bible is telling us to do. And so with the repentance, with the return, then there's a restoration. That's what God will do. Isaiah wasn't content with God's blessing. Isaiah wanted God to manifest Himself among them. So
this is what he cried:"Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence."
That's Isaiah 64:1. And may we like Isaiah, cry out to the Lord, "Lord, we want You above everything else." We actually read this in our staff prayer time this morning, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God. And all of these things will be
added unto you" (Mt 6:33). And so I just want us to close out just by praying for America. So if you're listening, just join us in prayer for our country. Lord, we bring our country to you. Thank You for the dreams you give us. Thank You, Lord, that they are bigger than us, that it takes the God of the universe to help us achieve the dreams that You give. Lord, forgive us for somehow getting it wrong. As we began to pursue the dream, that it becomes about pursuing our liberties, our comfort. We want to be able to push a button and get what we want, Lord, somehow thinking that what we think we want is the right thing for us when it could be the very thing that trips us up and turns our hearts from You. So God, we pray for our leaders. We pray for leaders that would hear Your voice and know it's real. We pray for leaders that would be willing to bow their very knee and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. God, we pray for peace in our country. We pray for the love of God to abound. Lord, we pray for You to show us how by the power of your Spirit to pursue the things that You want us to pursue but to pursue them in right measure with them not being the end, but God You being the end. Lord, turn our hearts back to You. Turn the hearts of our leaders back to You. Turn the hearts of our administrators and our school principals and our city leaders and our business owners and our dads and our moms, turn our hearts back to You. And may You be the center of it all. In Jesus' name. Amen.