ATTACK AGAINST AMERICA

A. 2 ½ Weeks Ago Our Nation Suffered The Worst Attack And Loss In A Hundred Years.
This morning I want us to consider the spiritual implications of this event. Affected us all.
a. Dec. 7th, 1941, The day after my 4th birthday Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. We moved from Lubbock to San Antonio. Profound effect on my childhood and the development of my thinking, prejudices and attitudes. I remember huddling in my mothers arms during the "Blackouts" as Bombers practiced bombing runs at night and Americans practiced their Civil Defense. I remember, as a teenager, growing up under the dripping pessimism and terror of a nuclear cloud and the fearful threat of Soviet domination and how Americans built bomb shelters in their back yards.
(A) I had forgotten all those memories until September 11, 2001, as I watched in unbelief,
the twin towers of the World Trade Center explode, burn, collapse and bury alive over
6,000 innocent human beings. Watched my fellow Americans respond with bravery,
strength, compassion and determination beyond the call of duty..
(1) For the first time in decades, as I watched these events unfold, I have heard the
name of God spoken in a respectful way so many times. Heard prayers to God
spoken in languages and religions I never heard before.
Brought home what I knew before. There is, in the heart of every human, the need to believe in a higher power. Even when repressed and threatened by governments ruled by atheists and weak compromisers.
You can repress that need for a while, like pushing a cork under water, but
something will come along and shake people awake and that need for God
will pop back to the surface like a drowning soul grasping for air.
People who never think seriously about God are thinking about Him now.
(2) Maybe, something new, good will come out of this terrible situation. Rom. 8:28,
"All things to work together for good to those who love God and are called
according to His purpose." I believe we will be a stronger nation, a better
people because of it. Perhaps hearts will be softened and the soil of good
hearts made receptive to the Word of God.
It is a historical fact that following WWII more people turned to spiritual concerns and the Lord's Church experienced it's largest growth in American history. When I was in Junior High School my parents became New Testament Christians. Churches of Christ were the fastest growing religious group in America.
Perhaps this event in New York will bring a greater sense of the eternal to people today.
Despite all the renewed interest in spiritual matters and the seeming unity of the many religious groups coming together and praying together. Most people do not realize
or understand that you must be in a proper relationship with God for your prayers to be
heard.
God is not some kind of an old cur watch dog that you keep on a leash in the yard and throw Him a scrap or two occasionally. And when a crisis comes you can whistle for Him, and expect Him to come running.
Prayer is an intimate communication between a child of God and his father.
Matt. 6:9, Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." That address states a father-child relationship.

You do not become a child of God because you are born in America or born into a Christian home or woke up one morning and decide, "today I am a Christian."
(1) You're a child of God because you have addressed the historical facts stated in the Bible. You have heard the Word state that you are lost in your sin and God has provided a way, in Jesus, for those sins to be removed so you can receive the indwelling Holy Spirit who seals you and establishes that relationship between you and God. It does not happen any other way.
(2) Only then do you have the right to address God in prayer and expect an answer according to His eternal will. We put our trust in that will.
(3) Gen. 18:25, "God is a God that does what's right." And whether or not we can see through the smoke and rubble and see a purpose in it, we still trust God because we have done what's right in becoming His children.
(4) If you want your prayer life to be effective there is a way to make that happen.
2. Heard officials, members of Congress say, "Lets bow our heads in a moment of silence."
(1) That phrase was so transparent. We allow forces of evil to so dumb us down that we say, "Bow our heads in a moment of silence." Then someone burst out singing "God bless America" and everyone there joined in, and I was touched, moved to tears.
(1) Then I was filled with indignation. Because I remembered that when our children went to school that day, they could not bow their heads in a moment of silence and they could not sing "God bless America."
(4) Why? All of America must bow down before a small fragment of Godless people who are the tail that wags the dog in this nation.
(5) When they open both houses of the Congress and Senate, their chaplains open with prayer to God. What has happened to America? Public prayer is good enough for the Congress of America, but not good enough for us and we have been stupid enough, complacent enough and fearful enough to let it happen. And we as a people ought to be ashamed of ourselves for letting it happen.
(2) It's high time for us to thumb through the pages of our souls and wake up to the reality of what's happening in the world around us and what's happening to us in our own country.
(4) Not only do Islamic terrorist hijack our air planes and kill our people by the thousands, but spiritual terrorists have hijacked our right to worship and pray to God in total freedom and we have stood back and done nothing.
(5) Land of the free and home of the brave? I think not. How long before we have to hide in our own closets to worship God for fear of being killed? And if Islam succeeds in world domination that's exactly what will happen.
(2) God made us in His image and gave us the power of choice. Man gets drunk and kills a child. That's not God's fault. It's the result of choice. Terrorists hijack airplanes and kill 6,000 people. That's not God's fault. God honors freedom of choice and evil things happen and that's the fault of Satan and the Godless person who made the choice.
(1) Your choice is to respond to God. Regardless of what happens you're safe.
(2) Have you made the choice for God. Ready to meet Him in eternity?
(3) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 09/30/2001 am