California & America Are Worth Fighting For!

If you are comfortable and complicit with where our nation is at today, if you are part of the problem rather than the solution, if you are quiet and unconcerned, if you are a silent shepherd, God help you. Many of us are sick and tired of drag queen story hour. We're sick and tired of Satan clubs and LGBTQ porn in the schools.

If you've been following this week, what's in Florida, what they found in the school is appalling. A political party that says men can have babies and who protect pedophiles while killing the unborn. There is no fear of God in this place.

And I've shared this with some of you before, but some time ago, I think it was Mike Huckabee, I sat speechless as I listened to him recount his trip to the Holocaust Museum with his young daughter. They walked by photos of the death camps and gas chambers. His daughter silently contemplated the horrors that were unfolding before her eyes.

When the tour ended, they drove home without saying a word. And the father wondered, did she truly understand the significance of this event? Was she too young to view such depravity? Did I make a mistake taking my 12 year old to this? And his questions were answered nearly two hours later when his daughter finally looked at him and asked, Daddy, why didn't someone do something? Why didn't someone do something? Will we have to answer that same question in our generation? And I thought about this. I don't know if I want to share it, but I think it's appropriate.

I was actually born here in Los Angeles County where all five of my children were also born and where my parents are buried just over that hill. My dad came here in the 1950s from the farms of Oklahoma and my mom from Southern California. Back when men were tough as nails and hard work was an asset, not a liability.

Masculinity wasn't toxic, it was symbolic of God's design. I was taught how to hunt, how to fish, how to operate heavy equipment, everything from dozers, excavators, loaders, caterpillar, John Deere. My grandpa built the local Little League field and my mom prayed down heaven just over that hill.

I met and married my wife, raised our kids, and planted West Side Christian Fellowship. I taught my son to throw his first pitch, took my daughters to their first dance, and watched all of them take their first steps, shed their first tears, and commit their lives to God just over that hill. I may be buried here someday and I don't want to hear, why didn't someone do something? You see, I believe folks, and I catch heat for this all the time, but I believe California and America are worth fighting for.

I really believe that. I'm not going to flee, I'm going to fight. I'm not going to concede, I'm going to intercede.

And quite frankly, I'm tired of the critical Carys, the negative Nancys, the pessimistic Pams, and the defeatist Dannys telling me there is no hope. With God there is always hope. Now, I don't have a specific verse for California or America per se, but I have a specific biblical principle called intercession.

Called intercession. Let me tell you briefly about intercession. Moses went before the people and he interceded, said, God, stay your hand of judgment, don't wipe them out.

Abram went before even Sodom and Gomorrah. He stood between and said, Lord, do not destroy these cities. Give me 50, give me 40, give me 30, give me 20 righteous men, and I will spare it because of my servant Abram's sake.

David went before the people. Nehemiah, oh, Nehemiah, he wept. He said, the sins of my people.

Daniel wept and said, the sins of my people. Esther said, I might perish, but I've been called for such a time as this to intercede on behalf of the people. I've got biblical, credible, biblical principles that says the church needs to get on her face again before Almighty God and cry out for another national awakening.

Oh, hold on, I didn't tell you about Ezekiel. I didn't tell you about Ezekiel. God says it opens up in the book of Ezekiel, son of man, go to this rebellious people and tell them of their sins.

They will not hear you, but they will know that a prophet of God has stood among them. And he goes on to say, I've called you to be a watchman on the wall to warn, to confront. Instead of the bomb of Gilead, we have the poison of Jerusalem running through our veins.

And Ezekiel, God says, look at my prophets. They are like roaring lions, roaring lions, devouring the prey, which is the people. Look at that today.

Look at the so-called voices of God. When you stick a rainbow flag on your church, you are apostate. What you're doing to children is an abomination in the sight of God.

They are tearing them apart. Oh, and he says, look at my priest, the intercessor, the pastor, they don't even know how to tell the difference between the profane and the holy. Whoa, is that not happening today? Calling good evil and evil good, wicked abomination.

And God says, look also at my princes, which are my politicians. They are like hungry wolves devouring their prey. The heart of God, he said, because of this, he said, so I sought.

So I sought for a man from among them because of the travesties. Now I'm going to judge this wicked land. He said, yes, this is happening.

Yes, this is going. Wicked rulers, wicked politicians, ungodly pastors. And because of that for my people.

So I sought for a man from among them to build a wall and stand in the gap before me that I might not destroy the land. Could it be that God is looking for an intercessor? The word just means go between. God says, listen, my son or my daughter is going between this perversion and I want to judge that.

But now I've got an intercessor. I've got a broken, humble person crying out to God. It reminds me of Jesus on the cross, interceding for the sins of the people, the power of intercession.

And I know we offend people, but I can't apologize when we say get to morning worship, get to the prayer meeting, stop saying that pastor, that offends me. Well, get on your face before God intercede for our nation and for our state. Who told you coming to church twice a month when you feel like it and not doing anything is biblical.

No wonder we're in the condition we are in. Lord, have mercy. Ordinary prayer.

Ordinary prayer will not touch this at all. Folks, ordinary prayer will not touch this at all. I don't know how much I should say, but I was just invited to a, you know, to get the prayer, National Day of Prayer coming up.

We're going to actually have it here on a Wednesday night instead of Thursday morning. I said, I'm tired of going to these and listening to men with no power.