Jerry Watts is an Associational Missions Director serving in Mississippi. He is a gifted communicator who has spent over forty years as a Minister of the Gospel. In a message he once preached based on Proverbs 14:34 and Isaiah 5:20-23 and titled "America: An Upside-Down Nation", he tells the following story…
"As a kid, I used to love the 'jungle gym' - you remember that? We, as the less sophisticated people, called them the monkey bars. And they were rightly named so because we would hang upside down for extended periods of time. Have you ever hung upside down? The world looks different. If you stay in that position for an extended period of time, you'll discover some unusual things happening.
Instead of citing all the physiological problems which could occur, just make a note that the big problem is our circulatory system. The way the body is made up with its veins, arteries and heart, it uses gravity to get the blood to your feet and pump the blood to your head. Reverse your body and some damaging things can happen.
According to Professor Ashley Grossman of the Barts Medical School (Queen Mary, University of London) this may happen, 'Fluid will start to ease out of your blood vessels, you can't get oxygen, and the lungs will become rather still so you will get breathless.' By the way, to remain in that position can lead to a stroke or death."
Dr. Watts then goes on to make this observation:
"To take an honest look at this great country is to see that things are 'out-of-whack', 'unusual', 'out of sync', and 'upside down'. We have become like the Apostle Paul and seem to do what we shouldn't while not doing what we should. We seem to declare right wrong and wrong right. (Like Isaiah 5:20: 'Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!')
Why is this? The writer of Proverbs explains it in simple terms 'Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.' It has been said that America will only be great as long as she is good, and when she ceases to be good she will no longer be great. Righteousness is up and sin is supposed to be down - in a normal world."
I share this on Veteran’s Day weekend because I am greatly concerned about the moral and theological state of our country. Our nation has changed so much in the last few decades that I sometimes wonder if the country in which we now live would be even be recognized by those brave men and women who served and, in so many cases, sacrificed their lives in order that America might be a great nation.
If they somehow came back and walked among us, would the world seem as if it had somehow turned completely upside down? Would they ask themselves whether who we now are and what we have now allowed ourselves to become was worth their sacrifice? Would they say, “Do you mean to tell me that I died for this?!”
I may not can control what others value or how they behave; but for my part, on this Veteran’s Day weekend, 2018, I want to live a life that is worthy of the sacrifice that was laid down for me! I want all those brave men and women who came before me, especially those who served so faithfully and who sacrificed so willingly, to know that I am appreciate of what they valued and how they proved it.
And I want to prove this by the choices I make and by the way I conduct myself in my own time, even as they did in their day and age!
They say the best way to change the world for the better is to draw a circle, get inside of it, and change everything inside that circle for the better! Want you join me in upending your own little portion of this great big world?
If so, perhaps it can be said of us what was said of those first followers of Jesus Christ (in Acts 17:6): "These are the ones who have turned the world upside down!"
SCRIPTURE SOURCES:
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/14-34.htm; https://biblehub.com/context/isaiah/5-20.htm; https://www.biblehub.com/acts/17-6.htm.
AUTHOR SOURCE:
http://jerrywatts.net/about.html.
STORY SOURCE:
https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/77603/america-an-upside-down-nation/.
"As a kid, I used to love the 'jungle gym' - you remember that? We, as the less sophisticated people, called them the monkey bars. And they were rightly named so because we would hang upside down for extended periods of time. Have you ever hung upside down? The world looks different. If you stay in that position for an extended period of time, you'll discover some unusual things happening.
Instead of citing all the physiological problems which could occur, just make a note that the big problem is our circulatory system. The way the body is made up with its veins, arteries and heart, it uses gravity to get the blood to your feet and pump the blood to your head. Reverse your body and some damaging things can happen.
According to Professor Ashley Grossman of the Barts Medical School (Queen Mary, University of London) this may happen, 'Fluid will start to ease out of your blood vessels, you can't get oxygen, and the lungs will become rather still so you will get breathless.' By the way, to remain in that position can lead to a stroke or death."
Dr. Watts then goes on to make this observation:
"To take an honest look at this great country is to see that things are 'out-of-whack', 'unusual', 'out of sync', and 'upside down'. We have become like the Apostle Paul and seem to do what we shouldn't while not doing what we should. We seem to declare right wrong and wrong right. (Like Isaiah 5:20: 'Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!')
Why is this? The writer of Proverbs explains it in simple terms 'Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.' It has been said that America will only be great as long as she is good, and when she ceases to be good she will no longer be great. Righteousness is up and sin is supposed to be down - in a normal world."
I share this on Veteran’s Day weekend because I am greatly concerned about the moral and theological state of our country. Our nation has changed so much in the last few decades that I sometimes wonder if the country in which we now live would be even be recognized by those brave men and women who served and, in so many cases, sacrificed their lives in order that America might be a great nation.
If they somehow came back and walked among us, would the world seem as if it had somehow turned completely upside down? Would they ask themselves whether who we now are and what we have now allowed ourselves to become was worth their sacrifice? Would they say, “Do you mean to tell me that I died for this?!”
I may not can control what others value or how they behave; but for my part, on this Veteran’s Day weekend, 2018, I want to live a life that is worthy of the sacrifice that was laid down for me! I want all those brave men and women who came before me, especially those who served so faithfully and who sacrificed so willingly, to know that I am appreciate of what they valued and how they proved it.
And I want to prove this by the choices I make and by the way I conduct myself in my own time, even as they did in their day and age!
They say the best way to change the world for the better is to draw a circle, get inside of it, and change everything inside that circle for the better! Want you join me in upending your own little portion of this great big world?
If so, perhaps it can be said of us what was said of those first followers of Jesus Christ (in Acts 17:6): "These are the ones who have turned the world upside down!"
SCRIPTURE SOURCES:
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/14-34.htm; https://biblehub.com/context/isaiah/5-20.htm; https://www.biblehub.com/acts/17-6.htm.
AUTHOR SOURCE:
http://jerrywatts.net/about.html.
STORY SOURCE:
https://www.sermonsearch.com/sermon-outlines/77603/america-an-upside-down-nation/.