A Dry Tree

I've lived most of my life in the hardwood capital of America which was the Mid-South and every autumn the many trees would go brown and dry and lose their leaves. It was a big job just raking leaves and it seemed you could never get them all into bags. There was always some more leaves on the ground.

Then I moved to South Florida and the leaves on the trees stay green all year and I have grown accustomed to that. I believe a people can grow accustomed to something and not miss something else. I believe that's what has happened to America over the years.

When a nation loses its fear of God it is because the church has lost her consciousness of God and replaced it with something else. I've watched the deterioration of America over the last 60 years and we have all grown accustomed to the violence in our cities, the moral decay in our communities, and the spiritual declension in our churches. I have witnessed a society that once had modesty and honesty deteriorate into immorality and dishonesty.

Why the very social fabric of our society has unraveled at the seams and filth and perversion spill out over the land like an open sewer and few seem to care. I've witnessed the church go from a God-honoring gospel to a man-centered one and I've watched the church get rid of her God-glorifying hymns, close down her weekly prayer meetings, and in essence escort God to the back door of the church and give him a shove to let the world in. Laughter and entertainment occupy our sanctuaries whereas in former times one could see people of God on their knees in brokenness, humility, and prayer leaving tears on the carpet as they cried out to God in desperation for the sins of the land and the salvation of the lost.

America has been blessed in former times by seasons of the green tree, in times of great spiritual awakenings. The last time America was in the grip of revival was way back yonder in 1859. Since that time we've had some sparse rainy seasons of the green tree but for the last hundred years of this country it has become a time more and more of the dry tree.

A few are getting truly saved today and we as a people of God have lost our consciousness of God. At the time of Christ when he appeared to the Jewish nation the religious leaders of that day had lost their consciousness of Jehovah God and they carried out the duties and ceremonies of their religion without God. When God appeared in their midst through Christ Jesus they not only did not recognize him nor acknowledge him but rejected him and put him to death on a ignoble cross.

Jesus makes mention of this in the gospel of Luke. You can turn your bibles there now friends we will be in Luke chapter 23 and in verses 26 through 31 and let me read us a striking passage of scripture and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. And as they led him away they laid hold upon one Simon a Cyrenian coming out of the country and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus and there followed him great company of people and of women which also bewailed and lamented him but Jesus turning unto them said daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for yourselves and for your children for behold the days are coming in which they shall say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bear and the paps which never gave suck then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us for if they do these things in a green tree what shall be done in the dry the title of my message today friends is a dry tree and I want us to see several aspects from our passage today it's related to our day the Jewish leaders felt threatened by the popularity of Christ and they felt conviction under his parables about them and they grew in their hatred towards him they had for years operated the Jewish rituals of temple worship under no obligation nor honor to God but as a means to draw recognition and honor to themselves when the son of God appeared in their midst they did not recognize him here God had appeared to man and man rejected him and plotted to destroy him to be rid of him for good Jesus stands amazed at their spiritual ignorance and he states that if they can crucify him in this time of his visitation this remarkable season of the green tree where his very presence is among them what will become of them when he has been removed from them well we know because Jerusalem fell under siege and attacked by Titus and his army in 70 AD and the temple was destroyed literally thrown down stone upon stone and so was the way of life they had to such degree that the city was uninhabitable for the next 60 years they crucified the Lord of Glory I look around today friends at what we call the church and I see dryness everywhere some churches are deader than others but nevertheless it is a dry time for the church in America today most people in the churches have grown accustomed to dry teaching and it reminds me of a line Vance Hafner used to use he said a country pastor ran into one of his missing members on the street one day and asked oh where have you been Jim I haven't seen you in church lately to which the man sheepishly replied uh well you know pastor it has been raining a lot lately to this the pastor replied well Jim it's always dry at church and that's the situation today friends it is dry at church we exist as a people of God in a season of the dry tree God has withdrawn himself from among us and we have grown accustomed to his absence come Sunday morning we try to work things up in the flesh as best we can our music has gotten louder our platforms have gotten strobe lights our messages have geared themselves to the happiness of man and we try to be as entertaining as we can so folks will make it back next Sunday but eternity waits souls perish into hell and the church has lost her consciousness of Almighty God and because of that the nation has lost its fear of God and sends all it wants to as it advances towards certain ruin and destruction all it would take is an intercontinental missile from one of our enemies like North Korea or Russia to reach our shores with a nuclear holocaust that would turn our heartland into a wasteland if we as the people of God fail to realize the danger we're in and if we refuse to do what is necessary to alter the status quo and repent of our sins and turn back to the God of the Bible then we are to blame for the demise of this nation the politicians in Washington and all the liberals in the west coast and east coast combined did not ruin America friends but the dry church surely has only a heaven-sent revival can turn this nation back to God and with it bring once again a God consciousness to the land all for his glory let us pray