Psalm 11:3 – When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Alexander Fraser Tyler in The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic (1801):“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with a result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy.

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

(1) From bondage to spiritual faith(2) From spiritual faith to great courage(3) From great courage to liberty(4) From liberty to abundance(5) From abundance to selfishness(6) From selfishness to complacency(7) From complacency to apathy(8) From apathy to dependency(9) From dependency to bondage.”

Rick Warren: “Every civilization has a starting point and an ending point. All great civilizations, at some point, die. And ours has outlived most.”

Gov. Mike Huckabee: “For the last fifty years we’ve systematically attempted to have God removed from our schools and our public life, but when disaster strikes, we always ask, ‘Where was God?’ It’s more than taking prayer and Bible reading out of public schools. It’s that people are suing to have nativity scenes removed from public areas, that lawsuits are filed to remove a cross from a memorial to fallen soldiers.

“We’ve gotten to a place where we’ve abandoned bedrock moral truths; then we ask, ‘Where is God?’ From where I see it, we’ve escorted God out of our culture and marched Him off the public square and then we express our surprise that a culture without Him reflects what it has become.”

2 Chronicles 7:12-15, 19-22 – Then one night the Lord appeared to Solomon and said, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this Temple as the place for making sacrifices. 13 At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you.

14 Then if My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. 15 My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to every prayer made . . .

19 "But if you or your descendants abandon Me and disobey the decrees and commands I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, 20 then I will uproot the people from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor My Name. I will make it an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations.

21 And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled. They will ask, 'Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?' 22 "And the answer will be, 'Because His people abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why He has brought all these disasters on them.'"

2 Chronicles 7:14 – Then if My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – Then if My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

1. 1st Great Awakening (1733-35)• Jonathan Edwards• Northampton, MA• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God• 30,000 New Englanders• 1/3rd of the 13 Colonies• Moravian Prayer Meeting

2. 2nd Great Awakening (1800— )• Cane Ridge Revival (KY)

James B. Finley, a Methodist circuit rider:“The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers all preaching at one time, some on stumps, others in wagons, and one was standing on a tree that had fallen. Some people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy, while others were shouting most boisterously . . .

A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass collected there. I stepped up on a log, where I could have a better view—the scene that presented itself was indescribable. At one time, I saw at least five hundred people fall to their faces in prayer, as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them and then immediately there were shouts and prayers that rent the heavens.”

2. 2nd Great Awakening (1800— )• Cane Ridge Revival (KY)• Charles Finney

2 Chronicles 7:14 – Then if My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – Then if My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – Then if My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

Conclusion

Vance Havner: “The reason America doesn’t have revival is because while the situation is desperate, the saints are not.”