911  (A Call For The Church To Wake UP  ) by Larry D. Wright

Zephaniah 2:1-3

A sermon delivered on the Sunday following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon

INTRODUCTION: All week we have been bombarded with the tragic news about the Attack on America. The news networks are filled with so much information on this horrible tragedy that it is impossible to absorb it all. The secular world has been telling each of us how to think about this tragedy from a worldly (physical facts) point of view. They have labeled the event “Attack On America” and refer to terrorism as “the new face of war” for this century.

However, you are here this morning because you want to hear from God and hopefully gain some insight into the spiritual angle of this terrible event. I stand before you in fear and humility as I attempt to share with you how to view the events of September 11, 2001 from a spiritual paradigm. My dependence is totally upon the One who has revealed Himself in the Scriptures and through His Spirit. I do feel strongly that I have a word from the Lord for us to hear this morning.

As we look at the Word of God this morning we are going to look at several things in relation to this tragedy. This is a message to the church. It is a 911 call to wake up!

Eddie Smith, Coordinator of the US Prayer Center located in Houston, Texas, was contacted by the Associated Press and asked, “What is God’s part in all of this?” I love his reply for it captures my message in a sentence. He said, “God is trying to wake up His wife…she’s late for work!”

In the last week, America has been shaken to her knees. In a single morning, our whole way of looking at the world was changed. Terrorists did what we never thought they could, they successfully attacked an icon of the American financial institution, the World Trade Center and they struck the Pentagon, the symbol our nation’s military might. Apparently, there were additional plans to strike the White House and/or congress as well but thankfully those plans were unsuccessful.

Last Tuesday morning, the United States of America was violated in one of the most vicious ways possible. The morning after the attack most Americans feel all the anger, violation, humiliation and abuse as a victim of rape.

Many have compared the event to Pearl Harbor but, in my opinion, it was worse than Pearl Harbor for at least two obvious reasons. First, Pearl Harbor was a military institution that housed those dressed for war. The World Trade Center housed those dressed for work. Also, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor at least we knew the identity of our enemy. In the aftermath of Tuesday’s attack we have declared war on an enemy that is among us and largely faceless. The enemy has no capital city. No borders.

WHAT DID WE LOOSE ON TUESDAY OF LAST WEEK? Obviously, we lost many lives, each with families and friends and a personal story, mostly that we will never know. We lost some innocence. We lost a sense of security. Very few people feel truly safe anymore, from the violence within our country or the insanity outside of it. Hopefully, we lost some arrogance on that day. And, I pray that we lost a casual commitment to our faith on that day.

Where are we since the events of Tuesday morning?

Our government is doing the best that it can, but our government cannot save us. I think this week’s events prove that. Our President and both sides of Congress are doing the best that they can, but their wisdom cannot ultimately stop every suicidal terrorist from crossing our borders. Our military is acting heroically, and I feel confident that they will defend us to the best of their capability, but they can’t shield us permanently, perfectly, and perpetually.

Friends, there is only one thing that can save us, as individuals and as a nation. We must focus our eyes upon Jesus Christ as never before. We are past the day in history in which our faith is a nice feature or luxury item in our lives. Our commitment to our faith is essential to our survival because…the TRUTH that I am to declare before us today is this: WE (Christians/Church) ARE THE SHIELD THAT CAN GUARD THIS NATION AND CITY AGAINST EVIL!

EXAMPLE: In Genesis 18, we’re told of an avenging God who has come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. He tells Abraham of His plan, and incredibly, Abraham begins to bargain with God. In Genesis 18:24, Abraham asks God if He would restrain destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah if 50 righteous men could be found in the city. God answers in verse 26 "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes." Over the next 7 verses, Abraham "bargains" God down to just 10 righteous men. In verse 32, God says "I will not destroy it for the sake of ten." You and I both know the story of Genesis 19. When God arrived in the teeming metropolis of Sodom & Gomorrah, not even 10 righteous men could be found. Fire and brimstone rained down and the city was judged by God and utterly destroyed because of the PRESENCE OF EVIL? NO! The cities were destroyed because the ABSENCE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

I don’t know what percentage of population 10 men were in the total population of Sodom and Gomorrah. Obviously, it had to be small. However, in the category of curiosity, I wonder if we have enough righteous people in America to keep calamity from our doorstep? On a more personal note, I wonder if we have enough righteous people in First Baptist Church of Florence to prevent evil from invading the schools and homes of our city?

We need to be reminded that the kind of horror that we’ve seen this week does not live and flourish in a vacuum. It will only grow larger and more imminent unless we rob it of the environment of darkness. Evil hides in the dark places and we are called to cast a Light in this land. Evil, like a hideous monster, has awakened and he is flexing his muscles. Church, we too must awake and meet the challenge!

Do you understand that at the heart of all evil and sin there is a SPIRITUAL CAUSE and therefore, you and I are the only thing that stands between evil Satan wishes to impose and America. Craig Barnes, Pastor of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., spoke to his congregation during a Wednesday Communion Vigil for the nation in mourning. Using 1 Peter 5:6-11 as his text under the title “Resisting Evil”, he said: “The evil that is responsible for the events of yesterday is greater than the work of a handful of crazed madmen. It is the work of Satan. Only he can destroy human life on such catastrophic levels. Only Satan can tempt a nation to be terrorized.”

In the aftermath of the attack, both patriotism and renewed spiritualism are on the rise. However, neither one of these sentiments are enough. We need more, much more! Friends, we need revival in our country…in our city…in our church! We need revival to PATCH THE SPIRITUAL SHIELD. We need revival to MEND THE BROKEN WALLS. We need revival to HANG THE GATES IN PLACE!

We need the churches of our land to awake out of a deep slumber and assume their responsibility of walking a piece of an invisible wall around their town, community and city! A spiritual revival is the only thing that will save our nation from destruction!

On a personal note: In the Old Testament the prophets warned the king when danger was imminent. The righteous kings listened and responded appropriately saving the people from disaster. The wicked kings disregarded the voice of the prophets and the people perished. Where were those voices? I am NOT talking about some 16th century voice like the Frenchman Nostradamus. I am speaking of current voices that have heard from God and report what they hear. Some in the religious world say that such voices did indeed speak but their predictions fell on deaf years. Again, that is another reason why we need a revival…so we can hear the prophets in the land!

 What I am trying to say to you (as nice as I can) is that Christmas and Easter Christianity won’t do it any longer! Feel good Christianity won’t cut it! Halfhearted commitment to Jesus Christ won’t get the job done! We have witnessed far too much of this and it has never worked!

I truly believe that the numbers “911”, represent more than the date of September 11, 2001 (another day that will go down in infamy). These numbers symbolize an emergency call (911) from God saying to those who will hear that we are in imminent danger of losing His protection for a very long time. I pray that it not be so. “I beg God to save us; I pray that we would humble ourselves and uphold His justice.”

WHAT MUST WE DO? The prophet Zephaniah mentions three things in his call to repentance recorded in chapter 2: 3. His nation also faced calamity and therefore his advice is as appropriate to us as when spoken long ago.

 1. We MUST Seek The Lord!

 There are two extreme views as to where God fits in all these events. I adhere to neither. Many have the attitude that God is totally OUT OF IT, either uncaring or powerless to do anything about the rapid fall of dominos. Others see God as responsible. They see the actions of this past week as a result of His hand of judgment because of our sinfulness.

Personally, I see none of what happened as the will of God. It was not a judgment against us, retribution for our sins, or God teaching us a lesson. According to the Scriptures, it is the will of God that man experience redemption and that evil never be given the last word. When you look for God in such tragedies, you will always find Him at work beyond the limits of evil's destructive powers taking advantage of every opportunity to bring us to full and abundant life.  

From my viewpoint, I choose to see the whole ordeal as a “911” call from heaven. It is time we answer the call and say, “Yes, Sir”.  It is time we seek His face as never before. It is time we put on our game face and show up for work before it is too late!

 We must not stay the same. We must never be the same again. We live and have our homes and our roots and our future in a nation that once declared openly that it was a nation under God.
A nation that has gone full circle and one-step at a time turned its political and social and economical and artistic, and in many cases, religious back on God saying, “We no longer need You”.

 It is time that we STOP worrying about offending everyone’s religious rights and SEEK the face of God once again! His presence need to be felt in our churches, schools and in every sector of our culture.

2. We MUST Seek Righteousness!

 When I first heard the news of what had happened in New York City and Washington, DC, I was in disbelief that this could happen. In reflection, I am sending out the call for all of us to gather together to pray, for indeed we are a shameless nation. We are a nation of greed, lust, pornography, abortion, and evil tolerance.

 I am not implying that what happened was a direct result of some specific sin. What I am saying is that our sinfulness as a nation, like a narcotic, has lulled us to sleep and we need to wake up!

 I’ve been watching television for days and I haven’t heard anyone with any sensible answers. I hear a lot about resolve and restitution. I hear a lot of opinions and theories. During one interview with General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Commander, he ended his comments with his own question; “Will we ever be the same?”

 My response: “I hope not!”

 We sit at the gates of Sodom, conducting our business and buying and selling and eating and drinking and living as though there will be no consequences to our sins and our shallow commitment to Jesus Christ. We have been deceived! We need to awake.

 Our selfishness should make us ashamed. We as believers have the cure for the world’s ills and we hoard it like a prized toy. We have the promise of heaven and we shove it way down into our pocket with a closed fist as though giving it to others will somehow ruin it for ourselves. We possess the precious jewel of HOPE and yet, we have locked in away in a vault, bringing it out two times a year, Christmas and Easter, to admire its sparkle. All the while a distressed world numbs itself with alcohol and drugs and kills itself (literally!) with depression.

 For the most part we have closed ourselves behind thick oaken doors and the nearest the outsider can get to figuring out what we’re all about, is to watch a few vague, misshapen shadows pass by our stained glass windows as we go about our very pious and religious exercises. They see our shadows pass by and wonder what we are doing behind these sacred walls. And, to a very large degree they’ve decided we have nothing to offer and no help for them except for an occasional free blanket in the winter or a turkey at Thanksgiving.

 “Will we ever be the same again?” I hope not!

 We must not go unchanged. We MUST seek righteousness.

3. We MUST seek humility.

 Our pride is so great and such and obstacle for us to receive the grace of God we so desperately need!

 We are witnessing the unfolding of some serious stuff and we must NOT bury our head in the sand thinking that the solution to the problem is found in the strong fist of retaliation. Assassinating Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire expatriate living in Afghanistan, might make us feel better for a moment in time but it is not the ultimate answer. Such actions would be like eating cotton candy at the county fair. The sweet taste would instantly dissolve leaving you with no nutritional benefit or profit. There are many more just like him who will gladly step to the front and trumpet the cause of hatred, terrorism and evil. He is but a small fish in the sea of iniquity.

 Years ago when American engineers and workers labored to build the Panama Canal, many died from malaria. Of course they did everything possible medically to fight the disease but they did something else to win the war over the dreaded mosquitoes. They drained the swamp! A nation who follows the advice of the prophet Zephaniah by seeking the Lord, seeking righteousness and seeking humility drains the swamp and robs evil of an atmosphere in which to flourish.

Can you see it? Can’t you almost feel the ground tremble as The Judgment Express comes roaring down the tracks? Do you sense the urgency? Do you feel it? We are the spiritual eyes of the world and, like the men of the tribe of Issachar, who  “…understood the times and know what Israel should do”, so must we but that takes His grace.

It is NOT enough to read the Left Behind books and gather in holy huddles to talk about how exciting the story is and speculate on what the writers will say in the next volume. At some point in time we must wake up and realize that even though the books may be largely fictional, they are based on the fact that millions upon millions of people are going to be LEFT BEHIND one day!

 
Conclusion:

We have before us a golden opportunity, Christian, to tell our country, one person at a time, that the one constant of the universe, the one unchanging truth that cannot be blown up or burned up or snatched away by any power in heaven or earth, is God’s invitation to come to Him by way of Calvary’s Cross and escape the destruction.  We have before us a golden opportunity to tell them that we know a God who wants our fellowship; a God who cares about what is important to us; a God who loves all those people who died tragically in an act of terrorism, with an infinitely greater love than we could ever hope to have.

We have before us a golden opportunity to tell them...to tell even the scoffers...that the Lord is not slack about His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward them, calls out to them, pleads with them through us, to be reconciled to Him.

 Church, our nation is hurting, and worse, it is decaying before our very eyes, and to a large degree it’s our fault. I know there are congregations and individuals all over the land, who are active in Kingdom work. They have forsaken the “empire mentality” that has divided us so that they can join with others in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ by every means and resource available to them. 

 We have before us a golden opportunity but we must understand that it will pass. People will adjust. They’ll dry their tears, and raise monuments to the dead. They’ll lay flowers on the streets of New York and go back to work. Before you know it you will be sitting in your den with a TV tray in your lap watching the evening news. Some newscaster will announce that it is the year anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. You will say to your spouse, “Has it already been a year?” The opportunity we have before us will be gone. It will be over. It will be a memory.

 Then another opportunity will arise and how many people will die without Christ in the interim?

 All of us have listened in horror to the personal and private stories of horror that have come from this event. I heard one just this morning that moved me beyond words. A husband called his young wife in the hospital and told her about the emergency and that he was reporting to work. He promised to be at her side soon. He never made it. In his absence she gave birth to their second child, a healthy girl. Since they had not decided on a name the doctors named her “Hope”.

 We have before us an opportunity to give to our world what they desperately need more than anything…HOPE.

 No, General Clark, we’ll never be the same. That is my hope.