Let me tell you a story about what happened to some of our evangelists. Two of them took off for a remote village in the mountains near the border. When they arrived, they met with a village elder and told him why they had come. They said, “We have come to tell you about the living God, who made heaven and earth and your buffalo and your people. This is a God who loves you. We’ve come to tell you about this God.”
The village elder looked and them, and he said,
Elder: “We don’t really want to hear about this story, because we already have spirits that we worship, and we don’t need this new spirit that you’re speaking of.”
Man: So they talked on, at length, the men trying to persuade the village elder to let them come and have permission to tell about the living God. But he was obstinate and refused to allow their entrance into the village.
So, finally, the men, in desperation, just said to the village elder, they said,
“Our God is the greatest spirit of all–greater than all the spirits you fear. You need to hear about this God.”
The village elder was silent for a little while. He pondered what the two evangelists had said to him. And finally, he pointed down at the end of the village to a very large tree. Now, in our country, some of the trees are like sequoias in America: very, very large, standing sometimes 200 feet high. Beneath this tree was an altar. And upon that altar were a number of different sacrifices: some pigs, some chickens, water buffalo, flowers, that sort of thing.
The village elder said,
“That tree has been here as long as my father can remember, his father before him, and his father before him. And always, beneath that tree, we have offered sacrifices to the spirits. And so our village has been a village of peace and rest. Now, if your God is as powerful as you say he is, then let’s see if he can make that tree fall down. If he can make that tree fall down, then we will be interested in hearing about your God.”
Now, I don’t know what you would do in a case like that, but these men thought for a while, and they considered,
“What should we do?” Believing that God sent them to that village, they believed that God would do what was necessary to see that the people heard the message they came to carry.
So, looking at the village elder, they said,
“All right. Deal.” So, almost immediately, they left the village and went outside and got beneath a tree and they began to pray.
Now, it’s around about 9:00 in the morning. They’re praying. Noon comes: nothing. They keep praying. 3:00 comes and goes: nothing. 6:00, 9:00, finally midnight passes. They’re praying, but no response. 3:00 in the morning comes and goes: nothing. 5:00: nothing. 5:30, the sun is just beginning to rise over the treetops, and stirring is beginning to occur in the village as the people are waking up.
About 6:00, just as the sun is really beginning to come up, a great stillness lies over the village, and suddenly a cracking sound is heard, and the cracking sound grows louder and louder and louder. And pretty soon, the great tree begins to tremble. And looking up into the tree, they can see the branches beginning to move. And all of a sudden, with a great cracking sound, the tree begins to fall, and it falls right into the middle of the village.
When the dust clears, all of the people come running to see what has happened. The village elder says,
“I can see that the spirit of whom you speak is more powerful than our spirits. We want to hear the message you have come to tell us.” And so the two evangelists spent the better part of a week sharing the gospel of the living God in that village, and by the time they left, nearly everyone in the village had become a follower of Jesus.
