Filling the Void

00:00 - Speaker 1
Bottom line is if anybody asks you, why are we in this trouble, I'll give you an easy answer that nobody can argue. When we move as a country or as an individual, away from God, the further away we get from God, the more chaos we're going to have and conflict and anger and divisions. I talk to people that are not Christian all the time and they say, yeah, that's true. The closer we get back to God, the closer we get to God as a country or as an individual, the more peace and joy and love we have.

00:27 - Speaker 2
Welcome to the Ignite with Barry Meguiar podcast, where Barry's book and passion for spreading God's love are guaranteed to ignite your life. Now listen in and prepare to have your life ignited.

00:43 - Speaker 1
Welcome back to Ignite. You know I've been thinking about this statement how far we have fallen. When I was a kid, you know like 80% of the people around us were serving God and going to church. We were a Christian nation and that is now down to 20%. You know, only 20% of Americans believe the bible is the inspired word of god. Only 20 percent, do you know uh, it's about 50 at best of our population have a biblical worldview. Even among our pastors, some some statistics say that it's more like 45% of our pastors hold a biblical worldview, which is just, basically, jesus was born a virgin, lived a sinless life, died for our sins, rose again. It's not complicated and yet so few carry that belief today. How is that possible? Pew did a research on 50,000 sermons coming from about 6,000 churches. They found that only 10% of sermons, even coming from about 6 000 churches, they found that only 10 of sermons even mention salvation anymore. Um, I mean, it's unbelievable where we are. It's taken us 60 years to get there, of course. Um, we turned our back on god back in the 60s. We took god out of the courtroom and out of our classrooms, even the pledge of allegiance. I mean, we just, we just turned our back on god and even the Pledge of Allegiance, I mean. We just turn our back on God and Satan's taking full advantage of that 2 Corinthians 4 talks about. I mentioned it often Satan is the God of this world and he is. He's blinding the minds of our population and so they're making all the wrong decisions, thinking they're great decisions. Bottom line is if anybody asks you, why are we in this trouble, I'll give you an easy answer that nobody can argue. When we move as a country or as an individual, away from God, the further away we get from God, the more chaos we're going to have and conflict and anger and divisions the closer and everybody agrees with that, everybody, I don't care who they are. I talked to people that are not Christian all the time and they say, yeah, that's true. I said and do you understand that the closer we get back to God, the closer we get to God as a country or as an individual, the more peace and joy and love we have? Oh, yeah, so you just led people to understanding that Americans, america's problems, are not racial and they're not political. They can't be solved in Washington DC. They're spiritual. These are spiritual problems.

03:16
I work with Teen Challenge. Karen and I worked with Teen Challenge for since the 1970s and it's the largest program in the world for getting people off of drugs 86% cure rate. How do they do that? We describe it this way very simplistically I like simplistic answers to complex questions and we explain that God creates us with a void that only he can fill. And we try to fill that void with drugs or what? Sex, money, fame, whatever you name it, and every one of those things satisfies for a moment, and then you want more. That problem is solved. The reason Teen Challenge has an 86% cure rate is we fill that void with Jesus. Uh, we need to fill that void with the 80% of Americans and and, of course, the world. I don't want to just say focus on America, but that's where we are at the moment and and that 80% of our population are our target audience. That's that's, that's who we live with, you and I.

04:22
Here's the good news Again. I mentioned it and I'll mention it over and over 80% of the unchurched are searching for God. It's a huge opportunity. I have been sharing my faith, karen and I have been sharing our faiths with people for over 50 years, 51 years, every day, and I can tell you with credibility, it's never been easier. Easier, I mean, you can do it in your sleep, you can do it blind, you can't miss.

04:51
You start mentioning how god loves people. People want to know, they want, they would like to believe god loves them. They're starving for what you have. So here's the point of this podcast the most patriotic thing you can do is to lead people to Jesus. Seriously, the most patriotic thing you can do is to lead people to Jesus, because when you lead people to Jesus, the scales come off their eyes and they see evil as evil, not evil as good. They see evil as evil. That's bad. I don't want that. And they'll elect righteous leaders and they'll vote for righteous issues and we'll be a Christian nation again. Think about it, there's no question We'll be a Christian nation again. That's the truth. Wow, time to get busy. All right, see you next time.

05:40 - Speaker 2
If you enjoyed today's episode, let us know, and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review to help us reach more listeners. Remember sharing your faith ignites your faith. See you next time on the Ignite with Barry Meguiar podcast.