Rebuild the Ruins: A Renewed Call to Anguish

Rebuild the ruins, a renewed call to anguish. And some of you might recognize that title, but a lot of other people probably don't. It was a famous sermon given in 2002 in New York City, in Times Square Church.

The title of that message was a call to anguish. And it has profoundly shaped countless lives. I've ran into people over the years.

I send the clip, there's about an eight minute clip I send out often. We've played it here before at Morning Worship. I try to listen every few years.

And it's just such a great reminder of this desperate need, this call to anguish. And you don't want to live there. You know, we want to be positive.

We want to be uplifting. And we love mountaintop experiences. But how many of you know the valleys come? And there's also a time, the time to really get the heart of God is during this time, a renewed call to anguish.

And how you rebuild the ruins of something. Isaiah, I don't know if I included it here. We'll see in a minute.

I believe it's chapter 58. He said, you will be called rebuilders of the breach. Rebuilders of the ruins.

And through fasting and prayer and seeking God. But those, to rebuild something, to rebuild a marriage, to rebuild your family. Many of us, I'll do it till the day I die, contending for revival in America, in California, a spiritual awakening.

I know that's not gonna be utopia and things are great, but my goodness, there should be a desire for God to pour out His Spirit in more areas of our life, in our state. And none of those things come, though, without anguish. A desperate call to God.

And it grabs the heart of God. And that's how you restore a home. You restore a marriage.

You contend for the prodigal. That call to anguish. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this at the beginning or the end.

But it might be a good way to set the stage. And it's a little meaty, but I wanna read to you. It's an excerpt from that sermon 24 years ago now.

And you can imagine, it was David Wilkerson. And that same call goes out today. And basically, just kind of sit back and take this in for a minute of what we would be hearing today.

And he basically began by saying, folks, I'm tired of hearing about revival. I'm tired of hearing about awakenings of last day outpourings of the Holy Spirit. I've heard that rhetoric for 50 years.

Just rhetoric, no meaning whatsoever. I'm tired of hearing about people in the church who say they want their unsaved loved ones saved. I'm tired of hearing people say I'm concerned about my troubled marriage when it's just talk.

I don't wanna hear anymore about how immoral America has become. I look at the whole religious scene today, and all I see are the inventions of ministries of man and flesh. It's mostly powerless.

It has no impact on the world, and I see more of the world coming into the church and impacting the church, rather than the church impacting the world. I see the music taking over the house of God. I see entertainment taking over the house of God.

An obsession with entertainment in God's house. A hatred of correction. A hatred of reproof.

Nobody wants to hear it anymore. I can picture him saying these things. Tell me now, how many churches have you visited recently when you walk in and the Holy Ghost's presence is so strong that every one of our sins are brought before our face and the loving grace of God? When was the last time you've been to a church where you've seen young people under such conviction because the people of God have been on their face before God and there's such a concern, such an agony that young people are falling on their faces and calling on God because the spirit of conviction has been called down from heaven and is upon them? How many churches have you been to lately where you hear a word come forth that burns so deeply in your soul that you know it came from heaven and it came from the heart of God? And he asks the question, whatever happened to anguish in the house of God? Whatever happened to anguish in the ministry? And I'll keep reading here in a minute, but we should clarify, I should, that it's not coming in and being depressed.

What it is, it's a heaviness about the condition around us, the culture around us, the world, what's going on around us. There should be a heaviness because the opposite of that is apathy. I don't really care.

It doesn't affect me. This word anguish, it's a word you don't hear anymore in this pampered age. Anguish means pain and distress the emotions so stirred that it becomes painful, deeply felt pain because of the conditions about you, in you, or around you.

All true passion is born out of anguish. And I would have to agree with that. The passion for God is usually birthed in the womb of anguish and crying out in desperation.

You search the Scriptures and you will find that when God determined to recover a ruined situation, He would seek out a praying man, I'll add a praying woman, and He'd take that person down into the waters of anguish. He would share His own anguish for what God saw happening to His church and to His people. He would find a praying man and He would take that man and literally baptize him in anguish.

And you find this in the book of Nehemiah. Jerusalem is in ruins. This is the center of God's interest on earth.

His holy city is wasted and full of iniquity. The house of God is polluted with filth. The high priest is in bed with the world.

Does it matter to you today that God's church is now married to the world? There's such a coldness sweeping the land. So many people I know that were my friends, I see them go astray. The sign of ruin is that we are slowly drained of spiritual power and passion.

Does it really matter to you that your unsaved loved ones are dying and getting closer and closer to the end? Does it really concern you? You see, a true prayer life begins at the place of anguish. A place where lifetime decisions are made. If you set your heart to pray, God is going to come and start sharing His heart with you.

He's going to open up His heart. And I'll tell you, there's pain in His heart. What He sees in so few of us here.

Everyone hearing me, you're going to have to make a decision. And then of course He goes into the message about this call to anguish. Really, it's a renewed passion for the heart of God.

Lord, give me a heart for what breaks your heart. Give me a desire for what you desire. And this is a great example.

I wish I could get through all of Nehemiah 1, but I'm just going to start there for you. If you don't know who Nehemiah was, he was a cup bearer. This beautiful city of Jerusalem.

This holy place. The place that God has put His seal of approval. He called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and out of the land of Egypt many, many years later.

And they came and they built this incredible land known as Israel. The northern kingdom. The southern kingdom.

But because of debauchery, idolatry, walking away from God, they actually fell to their enemies. The Babylonians, the Assyrians conquered this great city. And now Nehemiah is taken away.

He's a cup bearer. He works for the king. And so it's quite disturbing because this incredible gift that was given to them has now been taken from them.

And it says, as it came to pass, as I was in Shushan, the citadel is a main place there. The Hanani, one of my brethren, came from the men of Judah. So he came all the way from Judah.

And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and who had survived the captivity. And concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the survivors who are left from captivity in the providence are there in great distress and reproach.

In other words, this beautiful city, this place that God has built, this place that was blessed by God, now lays in ruins and reproach. And guys, although we're not there necessarily with our physical buildings in our country and in our state, we are there with our moral collapse. The ruins of our moral collapse.

And the wall of Jerusalem is also broken down. This great wall that represented safety, it represented security, is now broken down. And all the gates are burned with fire.

So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and I wept. Think about how important that is. We hear about things and we're like, ah, oh well, life's good for me.

And that's how we miss that call to anguish. We miss that desperate call to grab the heart of God and make a difference. And he heard these things.

This great city had been desolate and destroyed. And he sat down and he wept and he mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

There's that word again we talked about, Sunday. It's a powerful, fasting is a powerful, powerful spiritual weapon. Because as you starve the fleshly appetites, you're more in tune with God's Spirit, prayer requests and seeking Him.

You give up one hunger for a greater hunger. There wasn't a time for feasting, it was a time for fasting. But we learn from this that concern is the key.

Concern is the key, indifference quenches the Spirit. And that's my thought for you this evening is there's a lot of indifference in the church of America. It doesn't really impact me, it doesn't really, yes, I know there's terrible things going on, but oh well, and that indifference will quench the Spirit because it's not the heart of God.

God's heart, He wants us to have a heart for others for what's going on. Without that anguish, you don't start a pregnancy resource center. Without that anguish, you don't start a homeless ministry.

Without that anguish, you don't come to prayer meetings and begin to intercede for your prodigal. And without that anguish, you don't set your alarm clock early and get up and begin to go to battle for your family. That's what does it, that desperation, that anguish.

And Jerusalem lies in ruins because of disobedience. It's a good reminder for all of us that there is no fruit that is going to be well worth your time from disobedience. It leaves ruins in our lives.

Desperation is directly tied to our spiritual diet. Guys, if we're not desperate for more of God, it is directly tied to what we've been doing spiritually throughout the week. And how many of you know, let's say you fast, or let's say you're putting on worship all day today.

In the Word, like, Lord, I just want to hear from you tonight. You come to church hungry for more of Him. You come expecting, God, what are you going to do? You're hungry.

You've been feasting on Him, so you come and you want to experience more of God. And so a lack of desperation really is a reflection of our spiritual health. Becoming indifferent and callous, a sure sign that pride is slipping in.

And all of us can do this. This is not a rebuke from the pulpit per se. We can all become indifferent and callous.

And that's why we pray, God, keep me tender. Keep me close to Your heart. I love Psalm 18.6, in my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried out to my God, and He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.

I mean, I don't want to go into this because I did Sunday, but the God who created everything, this vast universe listens to little old you and me. Isn't that amazing? That we can grab the heart of God. Now, He's not a genie in a bottle.

He's not a butler, go get me this, go get me this. But you're engaging with the Creator of heaven and earth. And even in those moments, you call upon the Lord and you cry out, and He heard your voice.

Guys, you can take comfort in that. Many times we pray and the prayers aren't answered, but He still hears our voice. Trust me, I've got some big prayer requests lately.

And I'm not getting answers. But you know what I do? I dig in deeper. I seek harder, I knock stronger.

I seek more fervently, because that's the only answer. And sometimes He uses that waiting period to get you to pursue Him even more. But just to know, I don't know about you, but just to know He hears my cry, He hears your cry, just for Him to know that.

Isn't that incredible? But we got, He's not listening, He's not answering, He's not, we go into our pity pot, we go into our party. I'm just thankful He hears. And that's why I tagged that line many years ago, His sovereignty is my sanity.

It's the only way to stay sane in this world. The only way to stay sane. His sovereignty, Lord, I know You hear my cry.

I'm on Your timetable with what You're doing if it comes to healing or deliverance or family members. God, You hear me. You hear me.

And I do believe there's a pressing in that happens from time to time. I mean, we press in. We seek Him rarely, I don't know about you, but rarely are prayers answered the next day.

Have you seen that? I mean, wouldn't that be nice? I just pray, okay, tomorrow's fixed. Then tomorrow I got some prayers, Tuesday it's fixed. I'm way off tomorrow, Thursday.

And you just, you know, and just prayers answered, prayers answered, there's a wrestling. There's a waiting. And what it also does, you capture the heart of God.

The more you press in, the more you pray, the more you seek Him, the more that He does, He literally baptizes you in anguish. That passion for more of Him. And so the problem is we have a lot of concern, but we don't have a lot of compassion, amen? We have a lot of concern in the church, but we do not have a lot of compassion.

And here's where definitions matter. Concern, we are concerned. Most of us here are concerned.

It's an emotional state of worry, care, or interest in someone's well-being. We are concerned with the direction of our nation. We are concerned with the state of California and legislation.

We are very concerned about what they call trafficking and things like that, the things we can't even imagine. Like I see how far it's went in the last 30 years, I can't imagine the next 30. And so there's great concern, but compassion is active.

See, concern is I think a certain way, compassion is I act a certain way. And the heart of God is compassion. It's active, it's a deep emotional response that includes recognizing suffering and being strongly motivated to alleviate it.

So because there's compassion, compassion in the heart of God, because you're compassionate, you want to pray, you want to seek the heart of God, you want to say, Lord, how do you want to use me? How do you want to use me? How can I be used of you, God? And God often takes the least likely. That's what stops a lot of people. They think, well, I'm not a pastor, I didn't go to seminary, I didn't do this, I'm not educated, I can't really, God's actually looking for that person.

Because then you know it's God and God alone that does that, that raises you up. Concern is thinking, I hope they're okay, while compassion is acting to make them okay. Is that a huge difference? And I realized that this week, there's a lot of concern in the church, and rightly so, we should be concerned.

But compassion is that next level. That's what takes us to the prayer meetings. That's what gets us up early.

That's what has us passionately pursue God. It's that compassion, that call to anguish. And here's something about anguish, you can't just whip it up like a pep rally.

Remember those pep rallies? Okay, let me just get loud, let me turn the music up. Okay, anguish has to be developed while you're pursuing God. And repentance is an incredible door that opens that.

Because you repent for your apathy. Lord, I'm sorry for being apathetic, because we're good as Christians to come and get the Word, get fed, get podcasts, three different translations of the Bible. I did my daily devotional, I listened to this, and we get fed.

But we're also designed to give in response to what God is giving us. And so to rebuild, to rebuild a family that's in chaos, there's so many families, you look around, are they not just, the devil's having a heyday. They're devastated.

They're on their detour to destiny. They are broken down, and they need to be rebuilt. But to rebuild something, there must be compassion for it.

And then Nehemiah continues. Now remember, he sat down, he wept, he heard the bad news. He could have just said, oh man, that's tough.

I'll pray for you guys. Have a good day. And that's okay sometimes, I know.

But he was so heartbroken because of, I mean, shouldn't it break our heart when God's word is mocked? And blasphemy on the internet and social media and people with their fist up in the air in God's face and pride month and all these things that should break our heart. And so that happened to Nehemiah, and he wept, he didn't know what else to do. He mourned for many days.

He's fasting and he's praying before God, okay, he's fasting, he's praying. And then he said, I pray to the Lord God of heaven. Oh, great and awesome God.

You keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments. Please, please, please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant which I pray before you now. That's powerful, isn't it? Day and night for the children of Israel, your servants, and we confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you.

Notice, this is amazing. He begins to intercede. He owns the sin of the people.

We as a people, that's a wonderful thing to do even for our nation. God, we have sinned. We have the blood of innocent children on our hands.

Lord, as a people, we have done this. God, hear our prayers. Hear our cry to experience more of you.

And he said, both my father's house and I have sinned. His father's house meaning the nation of Israel. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statues, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses.

And then if I continue, if I wanted to go on later, it goes on, and it's pretty incredible. It might actually be fun to go through Nehemiah. He gets this anguish.

He seeks God through prayer and fasting. He repents. Hear my prayer.

Basically, Lord, what can we do? We're confessing our sin. And then God, because of that, raises up Nehemiah to leave the king as a cupbearer. Basically, they would check the king's food and drink.

And if Nehemiah fell over dead, well, then the king would throw the food away and get a new cupbearer. Kind of a tough job. And so God calls him to leave, to go out and make a difference.

And I wonder, what about if he didn't do anything? Like, well, of course God can raise someone else up, but he took this least likely person in this position. He had favor with the king. And the king asked him, why are you so sad? And you're not supposed to be sad in the king's presence.

It actually could be a death sentence. And he told the king, why should I not be sad when the place of my father's tombs lies in waste? And I think it's okay to say that today. I'm not talking about nationalism and draping the cross with the flag, but there should be an appreciation for what God built here on these shores.

How He's blessed people. The greatest nation that has ever existed because of Him. And so why should we not be sad when the place of our father's tombs lies in waste? Why should we not be sad what the public school system teaches now when it was actually began in 1620 to teach kids the word of God? God has built an incredible thing here for us to be thankful of and steward.

Well, what about slavery? Well, have you ever read all the founding fathers who abhorred the practice of slavery and fought against it? Why do you never hear about them? Taking land from people. Do you ever hear about the Christians who tried to stop that? Do you ever read the constitution of Virginia, Delaware, New York, all the first constitutions said you couldn't run for office unless you believed in God. 10 commandment monuments were in the courthouses.

A man by the name of Justice Kent gave a man six months in prison because he called Jesus a bastard. And he sentenced him to six months. He said, nothing can be more dangerous to the morals of our youth than to call such profanity lawful.

Why should we not be sad for the place of our father's tombs that lies in waste? When they would honor God, they would call days of prayer and fasting, they wouldn't light up the White House with rainbow colors. Why should we not be sad when the place of our father's tombs lies in waste? Just for fun sometime, Google New York City lit up on Easter. There were crosses on the Empire State Building and different things for Easter.

Now you're going to see all kinds of mockery. You might see green with the new Muslim mayor. Why should I not be sad when the place of my father's tombs lies in waste? God-given freedom.

The freedom to worship. And that's what's happened. We're indifferent.

We need to turn that indifference into compassion and get on our face before God and say, Lord, what do You want me to do? How do you know, young adult, that you might not start a revolution with your age group? Or an older person, write a booklet that inspires many. How far we've drifted. How far we've drifted.

That's where I get sad, is look at how far we've drifted. We would never have called these things free speech now. Pornography would never have been called free speech.

God is mocked and sexual sin is glorified. Where's the anguish for that? They would quote the Bible before forming the Constitution. Did you know that? They referenced the Bible four times more than any other source they used.

They called on God. They called on God even when they were having a difficult time forming the initial stages of America. I don't remember exactly who it was, but he said, gentlemen, gentlemen, we need to get back on track with God.

We need to pray. We need to fast. If a sparrow cannot fall without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We need to seek God again.

And they sought God. And they sought God. And now we mock God.

Our government is against God. We should be sad. We should be burdened.

Oh, Lord, help us. God, help us. Look up something called William Blackstone's Commentaries of the Laws of England.

Every law in the 17, 1800s had a Scripture reference. Why did they have a lot less crime? Because they had a lot more punishment. Hey, I'm all for rehabilitation.

I'm all for this. But soft on crime is not a good response. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

There's a penalty. Well, Shane, I don't know if that really makes a difference, does it? What's that country in South America? It's got the biggest mega prison now. El Salvador.

Yet their crime rate is like the murder capital of the world. Of the world is like down to nothing. People are walking in their streets, doing all these things.

That's tough on crime. And we've drifted in so many different areas. Why should we not be sad when the place of our Father's tombs lies in waste? Parents, why should you not be sad when your kids are gonna have kids? What's it gonna look like? Can you even picture that? I remember just growing up in Court Sill with almond orchards.

Lock your front door. Why? Remember leaving keys in the car? Does anybody ever remember that? Just right on the... And that's not that long ago. I didn't live in the 1700s.

Why should I not be sad when the place of my Father's tombs lies in waste? But again, we don't stay there. We don't stay negative. We don't stay in woe is me world.

But we use that to propel us to a powerful prayer life. And from that prayer life, from that call to anguish, there's gotta be anguish before there's a deep work of the Spirit in your heart. I don't like to be repetitive too much, but there's so many new people that many of you don't know this.

But I'll never forget, I think it was the LAX Hilton 2008. I was there. I was invited by a friend of mine.

By that time, I'm running heavy equipment. I'm just digging ditches with the big loaders and excavators. I'm happy.

But I'm writing books and speaking a little bit, and I go to this, and they show, I've never really, but they showed partial birth abortion. And I was bothered. So bothered.

I said, are you kidding me? Do you know what they do? They pull out the limb by limb. And I'm sitting there like gonna go vomit. What did I just watch? And I remember crying myself to sleep in that hotel room.

And I said, God, if you give me a voice, I will be a voice for those who have no voice. That was such deep anguish. Such deep anguish.

I couldn't believe that we would do things like that. I couldn't believe it. And so what does God do? Okay, hotshot.

Not only are you gonna get a voice, you're gonna be a loud, bold, in your face voice. And that came from that anguish. That came from that anguish.

The brokenness over sin probably played a role because I know half of you can relate. But when I conceded to my girlfriend's request to get an abortion, I was probably 22, 1992, 91. I still remember the clinic in LA off the 405 freeway down by El Presidente Restaurant in Sepulveda.

I still remember that clinic. And I remember the baby was probably six weeks. And so that anguish and letting all that out and weeping over that and just being, you know, that pain.

And it drives you. It drives you. And the thing I opened up about 30 days ago and YouTube shut me down.

And that, boom, you know, that anguish, that pain, it propels us. I wish it didn't, but I don't wanna fight when the sun's out and I'm doing great. I don't wanna, this is how I fight my battles when you're going into deep waters, anguish, pain, disappointment.

That's where you get prepared for battle. That's where you stir the hornet's nest. William Wilberforce, who ended the slave trade after many, many years, was in such anguish.

Shame with John Newton when he wrote his famous hymn, Amazing Grace, How Sweet That Is, That Saved a Wretch Like Me. Anguish for what he did. It captures the heart of God.

That's how you rebuild the ruins in a marriage, in a family, in our nation, in our state. It's a renewed call to anguish is what the church needs, doesn't it? The church, from time to time, yes, potlucks and rejoice and fellowship, but you can't live there because you don't do much in that state. We have to get back to that place of saying, God, give me a heart for what breaks your heart.

Maybe something will be sparked in you in a prayer meeting or a Bible study or something. I mean, we need all kinds of things to come along, single moms and mentor, or help mentor their kids, just little things. But see, we're concerned, but we're not in anguish.

Because when you're concerned, you'll say, okay, I'll pray about it. When you're in anguish, you'll say, let me do something about it. Big difference, and that's what God is looking for.

And so that's what we can take away from Nehemiah. And again, I know it's heavy, it's a heavy topic, but you look at any movement really that God has done throughout biblical history, an axe, where an axe was a church experiencing great time. No, it was under great persecution.

These great movements, and then Nero begins to burn Christians at the stake. Herod kills James, he puts Peter in jail. The church grows, and any time in China, there's pressure, the church grows.

Iran, and there's that, there's just a renewed call to anguish and seeking the heart of God through that. And I think it's like valleys and mountaintops. Thank God for the mountaintops, enjoy them.

But if you're always on the mountaintop, you don't do as much for God. You're enjoying what God has done. But it's the valleys that renew call to anguish.

So maybe that's the prayer tonight, as I close, is that you pray. You say, Lord, I have become indifferent. I have become cold, I have become callous.

Lord, I'm concerned, but I'm not compassionate. I want your heart for, what breaks your heart, Lord? Redirect me, fill me, and here's the amazing thing. From that, that anguish actually doesn't produce depression.

It produces spiritual excitement. Because you think, oh, I'm angry, oh my God, I'm angry. Down in LA, I came out, I woke up that morning like filled with the fire of God, like I'm ready.

Like there's a zeal, there's a filling of the Spirit that takes place. Now you're going to war, you're ready for battle. You've wept a little bit, you've cried, and now you put on the breastplate and the sword, and you go to war.

That's why Nehemiah, as they go on, it says, with one hand, they worked to build the wall. With the other hand, they guarded with the sword. What an incredible manual for leadership as well.

So much there. But that's what you have to pray. God, I want that brokenness, basically.

I want that heart of worship. How can I make, can you, what about if you, do you ever see people and you're just, you're concerned, but Lord, give me a heart for my neighbor who's raising her kids by herself. Give me a heart for that lady, that 70-year-old at the store that just barely gets inside and has nobody, and through that anguish, you begin to make a difference in the lives of others.

It almost has to happen. Without that, we're too comfortable. Without that touch of anguish.

So again, the title was Rebuild the Ruins, A Renewed Call to Anguish.