Here is a summary of the message this morning...
What if you went on a two week mission trip and when you came back, you landed at the airport in Atlanta, and they flopped open the door and you began to walk across the runway. You thought this was interesting because usually you walk right into the terminal. But, then you realize its because there is no airport. It has been destroyed and all that’s left is heaps of rubble. As you leave the airport, you begin to see that the entire city has been devastated. All the skyscrapers are piles of debris. You can only go about 20 mph because the interstate has been destroyed. The forests are burned. Even the lakes are gone because the dams have been destroyed. No wildlife. Everywhere people are walking by the side of the road in tattered clothes. There is destruction everywhere. Your house is gone. Everything is destroyed. What would you think? How would you feel?
You’d have a sense of loss. You’d want to fix it, and put it back right, because you knew what it used to be.
Now, what if you grew up in this same place. You’d be used to it. You would never have known its glory, its beauty, its richness; you’d simply be satisfied. This is all you knew things could be. You wouldn’t feel the same need to rebuild what used to be.
Now, think of the desert in the West. When you see it, you accept it as desert. But, what if you had known an area to be a lush, fertile plain and then came back and saw it as a desert. It would take your breath away. You would feel that something was lost. It would be completely different than just supposing that the desert always was and always will be wasteland.
We live in a spiritual wasteland. A spiritual desert. Many vibrant and powerful Christians have come from the East to America and described a feeling of real demonic presence here in our churches, more than they felt back in China in a communist prison. They feel more persecution here from the American Christians than they felt from their communist persecutors.
The reality is, we really do live in a spiritual wasteland. Our country is a rubble heap, but we’ve never known any different. We are fine with how it is. We must take action!
Now, imagine trying to rebuild a huge city, repair the damage of a flattened city. Brothers and sisters, we have to change our life style. We cannot dedicate ourselves to rebuilding our country without rearranging our priorities and putting time, energy and money into repairing the damage. We may feel very overwhelmed at the thought of trying to repair our country, but the reality is that we have One on our side Who has all the resources, and people that we could need. He’s there and waiting to give to us what we need if only we’ll ask!
So what can we do? We must stand out, and stand up for our country. But what is our direction? How can we figure out how to begin making a difference in the millions of people who need us so badly? We must pray! Prayer is the key by which all things can be reached. Prayer can move things that aren’t possible. Prayer is an instrument that allows us to directly move the Spirit of the Living God, the Creater of the universe, the Maker of all mankind. We must pray!
