Sound of Faith

R. G. Hardy: The smoke and debris, that acrid stuff going down into your lungs, but somehow or another, they managed to get out to the halls and start trying to work their way down. It was like a group that they were all with together, and he began to pray, "Lord, help us to find a way out. Lord, help us to find a way out."

To make a long story short, he managed to get in with a group of people and he said to them, "You need to start praying to Jesus right now. Call on Jesus right now. He will save you. He's the only way," because he was convinced he was going to die. He thought they were all going to die, so he was going to try to get as many people saved as he could. They were saying Jesus. They were calling on Jesus.

They kept going along, but then they began to get separated. Somehow or another, he came up with a man who had a light, and it happened to be an FBI agent who had a light. Somehow or another, he got hooked up with him and he got separated from that group of people that he got to pray. They managed somehow to get down to the bottom, but then when he got down to the bottom, things came down and he was under all the rubble and the debris.

Miraculously, he got rescued out alive. Now he's rescued out alive. All those people that he told to pray to Jesus, they got lost. They were killed, but they prayed before they died. He got out, but now he's worried about his wife. He knows she's in Tower 2, and by this time that tower's had its thing. He's thinking, "Oh my goodness, I survived. Now my wife and my unborn child are going to be dead."

To make a long story short, she was late getting on her train. Her train was late getting there, and they were told they couldn't come, so she never even got to work on time. Give the Lord a clap offering. Remember that complaining email about how I feel a call of God on my life, but God's not opening up any doors?

ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, CBN—on and on and on. Even in India, because remember, he's from India, the boy from home. He's been all over. He's been called to preach all over cities all over the country. He's been outside of the country in churches. He's been preaching the gospel. A golden door was opened to him.

What I want you to see is he was prepared. He was prepared before one door opened. He was prepared, and when that door opened, he was right there to bring those people to Jesus Christ. I'm sure that the majority of those people that perished in those towers in those places were not saved when they went to work that day. I think it would be safe to presume that, don't you?

I also think it would be safe to presume that in that time they started walking down those crowded stairwells and of course they didn't make it out on time, that many of them called on the name of Jesus because there were Christians there that God had there that were ready for an open door. The next thing he says is redeeming the times. To redeem something is to buy it back.

In the Greek, it's very intensive. It means this is absolutely vital that you buy it right now. Take hold of it right now. Seize the opportunity right now. Don't waste one precious moment. Whatever you lived in sin, you can't go back and get it. Whatever mistakes you've made as a Christian, you can't go back and fix them. Why do you want to lament over that? Get up and redeem the time and walk in wisdom and walk through the door that God has opened to you. Redeem the time. How many say amen?

Let me tell you something, Islam hasn't taken a backseat. They're not hiding in the corners. At first they were because you had some people backlashing and doing stupid things like going and hurting them, which is not going to solve anything. But now, I am amazed. All of the media now are soft-pedaling it. I watched something on TLC the other day. I had to turn it off as I was getting so upset. They were trying to show you, they called it Inside Islam. We're going to give you the real scoop about Islam.

They so soft-pedaled it. They made Allah equal with God. They twisted everything. They made it that we all have the same God and all of that. I preached a sermon on that before, so I won't get started on that. Buy the tape. But what I'm saying is they haven't taken a backseat.

In California, we need to get a burden for California. I just noticed that everything I'm telling you these people live in California. We need to pray for them. In one of the school districts in California, they decided that they were going to have a course on religion and they were going to examine the different religions. They're not teaching the religion supposedly, they're looking at it philosophically, which is okay.

Here's the problem. When they did Christianity, they went through it and this is what they believe. But when they did Islam, they made the children adopt an Islamic name. They made the girls wear the burqas. They made the guys wear the things. They made them recite the Islamic prayers. They made them fast. They had to fast their lunches like they do at Ramadan.

The other thing was, and this is the worst part of it, they made them chant about being in a holy jihad and a holy war. Naturally, when some of the Christian parents got wind of this, they were highly upset and they proceeded to go up there. These were very highly educated parents. I think the one parent was a teacher herself. She was very upset.

She said, "If you want to teach Islam to show them what it is, fine. But when you taught Christianity, you didn't tell them to take one of the apostles' names. You didn't tell them to dress like them. You didn't tell them to learn Bible scriptures." They had to learn certain verses out of the Quran. She said, "You didn't tell them to learn Bible verses."

Don't you see they're trying to present their doctrine and infiltrate these people so that we'll just say it's just a few of those radical nuts? We cannot afford to be complacent. We've got to seize the opportunity. We've got to seize the door. He says redeeming the times because the days are evil. That word "time" is not talking about chronological time. It's not talking about time and sequence.

It's talking about opportunity. The word in the Greek is *kairos*. It doesn't mean day, night, ordinary time. It means opportunity. It means a very specific time, a time that only comes once and you've got to grab it when it comes. It's used other places in the New Testament. Remember when Jesus was being tempted and after the devil finished, the Bible says he left him for a time, for a season, for a time—the same word.

In other words, he didn't leave him for good. He thought, "This didn't work this time. I'll come back another time when maybe it'll be more favorable for me to tempt him." Do you see the understanding of the word? The Bible says that when Judas was going to betray Jesus, he'd already made up in his mind, he'd already talked to the men that he was going to betray him to.

The Bible says he waited for an opportunity to betray Jesus. The same word, *kairos*. It means a specific time when you can do something within that set time that you could not do outside of it. When he says redeem the time, he's talking about that kind of time. Seize that opportunity. There are people that you have not ever witnessed to that it's too late now.

There were opportunities for you to give your testimony and you squirmed a little bit and you thought, "Well, I'll wait for a sign. I'll wait for an angel to come or I'll hear God or a trumpet or something," and the opportunity went by and you don't get it back. You've got to seize every time. How many say amen? For some people, there'll never be another opportunity.

Jesus said, "Work while it is yet day," because we're the children of the day and the children of the light, as we read in the beginning. You are the light of the world because the night comes. That is emphatic. The night will come when no man shall be able to work. That's what Jesus said. And so that's why we've got to take hold of these things.

All of these lawsuits that I've talked about—the "God Bless America" thing, the "under God" in the pledge, the taking away of the chaplains for the Senate and the Congress—listen to this. I couldn't believe this. Remember at George Bush's inaugural address and he had Franklin Graham pray? Then he had that Black minister pray, his name was McCollum or something, I can't remember his name, but I know it's a "Mc".

They both prayed excellently and they both prayed in the name of Jesus. Do you know that the ACLU sued Franklin Graham for praying that? Now, they didn't sue the other man, and the other man's prayer was probably even a little more powerful. But those people aren't dumb. They knew that they could sue Franklin Graham and it probably won't be that much of an outcry.

But if they were to sue that other guy, they'd probably have a big outcry, so they didn't sue him. They just sued Franklin Graham. The other preacher called Franklin Graham and he said, "I heard they're suing you." Franklin Graham said, "Yeah, are they suing you?" He said, "No, they're not suing me." They're just going after him, a big target, to give them a name.

Can you imagine suing somebody because at the inaugural address of the president they prayed in Christ's name? You saw how all the inaugural addresses they've got to put their hand on the Bible and say, "So help me God." What I want you to see is we've got to seize the opportunity. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you might know how you ought to give an answer to every man.

I don't have time, I'm going to close, but I want to say this. It's very important that we let our conversations be seasoned with salt. Salt is purity and righteousness, and seasoned with grace. Some people really have ruined their testimonies on their jobs. They have bad mouths and criticize and whine and cry and they've joined in all kinds of corrupt stuff.

Their conversation has not been seasoned with salt and they've killed their opportunity to give a witness for Christ. But he said that we're supposed to know how we're to answer every man. Our conversation should always be with grace. I don't care if you're discussing something with the boss about a job and you don't like the way it's going down and you can voice your opinion. Do it, but do it with grace and do it with salt.

When the time comes for you to stand up and witness for Christ, they'll respect you and admire you and they'll listen to what you have to say. When they have a crisis come in their life, they'll know to whom they can go for a word of encouragement and a word to build them up and edify them. Paul said in Ephesians, "Let your conversation be without corruption. No corrupt communication come out of your mouth, but only that which is gracious and edifies and ministers grace to the hearers."

That's the only way we can have a witness for Christ, that we might know how we ought to answer every man. Finally, along with this, 1 Peter 3:15 says, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you for a reason for the hope that you have in Christ with meekness and fear."

Give an answer to every man. It begins in the heart. If you have a sanctified heart, from the abundance of a sanctified heart, your mouth will speak. Your speech will be seasoned with grace and salt. You've got to get the work done in your heart. If you've got issues in your heart of bitterness, anger, wrath, resentment, if you hate your boss, you hate that person on your job, get over it, as Sarah would say and the teenagers would say.

Get over it and get sanctified in your heart so your speech can be seasoned with grace. Now, here's the thing I want you to see: that you might be able to give an answer to every man that asks you. Do you see the significance of this? He's presupposing that someone's going to ask you. He's presupposing that someone is going to come and ask you, "What is that reason of hope that you have? What is the source of your hope? What is the source of your joy? What is the source of your peace?"

If he's presupposing that someone's going to ask you, there must be something about you to motivate them to ask you. Don't you see? It's because you're the light of the world and you're the salt of the earth and because you exhibit the fruit of the spirit. You exhibit what the carnal, natural, unregenerated man cannot do in all circumstances.

In the worst possible situations, you exhibit that grace of Christ and that causes them to want to come to you and ask you, "What is the reason of your hope?" You can say, "It's Christ in me, the hope of glory." How many say amen? Because we are the light of the world. Because we are the salt of the earth. Because there is a lamp. We're the light that's lit beside the golden door.

Politically speaking, for the sake of the immigrants and people looking for political asylum and religious freedom, they come to America. You all know that right nearby there is Ellis Island. Literally millions of people—Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian, German, etc.—came to America and pulled in the harbor of New York.

They had to stop at Ellis Island and receive their immigration papers, but as they came in, they saw that lamp beside the golden door that told them that they were coming to a land of liberty and freedom and privilege. What they couldn't do in their own country—serve God out of the dictate of their heart—they could do.

You and I, we are the lamp beside the golden door that leads to that city set on the hill. Upon that city set on the hill is an old rugged cross where at Ground Zero where Jesus Christ shed his blood. Red and yellow, black and white, they are all precious in his sight. He loves every one of them. You and I have got to be the light shining.

We have a golden opportunity. What are we going to do with it? Are we going to be ready? Are we going to seize it? Be sure, everyone knows it. Everyone knows another terrorist attack is going to come. When, where, how, we don't know, but we know it's coming. Will you be ready? Will you be ready to seize the moment and be a light to shine for Jesus?