Rick Warren said, “There are three stages to helping people in tragedies like this. The first is RESCUE. The federal government is in charge, and it usually takes a few days. The second stage is RESUMING. This is the restoration of utilities, water, services. The local government is in charge and it takes a few weeks. The third stage is REBUILDING. This is the duty of everyone including the churches and it takes years.”

Rebuilding is harder than building, Warren said. When you build, you have the fun of seeing something rise where there was nothing. But in rebuilding, you first have to tear out, muck out, and clean out. It’s messy. It’s the same for restoring human lives. It’s harder to rebuild a life after a great loss.

Rick Warren was speaking to a roomful of Louisiana Baptist leaders who had gathered last Tuesday in the fellowship hall of Florida Boulevard Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. He and his wife Kay and several members of the staff at Saddleback Church in Southern California had just visited the Astrodome and spoken to the thousands who found shelter there, then in Memphis to a large group, and in Jackson, Mississippi. They had come to Baton Rouge to sit down with local leadership to hear our plans for rebuilding the Lord’s work in New Orleans, and then to decide how their church and the vast numbers who make up the Purpose-Driven network will respond.

“Over the next 90 days, people will be more open to the gospel in this state than at any other time in your lifetime,” Rick Warren said. People are most open to the Lord when they are under tension or in transition. Today, the entire population of our city–and large numbers in other places–are both.

Rick added, “We came to Louisiana to say to you, ‘Don’t miss this moment. God is giving you an opportunity to model to the rest of the nation what a church ought to be doing.” This city is about to become the recipient and partners with the greatest army of volunteers ever. This city is about to be showered with love as perhaps no American city has ever been honored.

The people we will be ministering to, he said, do not need an explanation for what has happened. We are not sent to defend God or to argue theology. What the people need is encouragement.

That night, as Rick Warren spoke to a church packed with local believers, most of whom seemed to be volunteers working with the evacuees in one way or another, he picked up the theme of encouragement.

The greatest foe of the Christian life is discouragement, he said. God has never used a discouraged person. People say, “I can’t help it; I’m discouraged.” They need to know that discouragement is a choice you make.

According to the Old TEstament book of Nehemiah, when the Israelites home from exile were rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, they grew discouraged when they were halfway finished. (Neh. 4) That’s the time when discouragement shows up, when you’re halfway through with a project.

Here in Nehemiah 4, we see four causes of discouragement followed by the four cures.

1. Fatigue. Makes cowards of us all. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to bed. 2. Frustration. “So much rubble.” Rubble is whatever is hindering you from doing the will of God. 3. Failure. The best test of maturity is how a man deals with failure. 4. Fear. “Our enemies said….”

Now, we can sit around and play the blame game or we can get to work. (Know how to spell blame? B-Lame.)

The cures for discouragement. 1. Rest your body. Cure for fatigue. Rest is so important God actually put it into the commandments. The fourth tells us to rest on one day a week. 2. Reorganize your life to cure the frustration. 3. Remember the Lord. His goodness in the past, His presence now, and His power in the future. 4. Resist the discouragement. Will overcome the fear. Refuse to give in. Fight.

Great people, Rick Warren said, are just ordinary people who refused to give in to discouragement. The best measure of a man is not the list of his talents or an audit of his abilities, but what it takes to discourage him.

One of the couples in Saddleback Church gave a testimony of the tragic time when a dam burst in their California town and took with it their home and the church they were serving. In a meeting they attended, a local minister stood up and blessed God for missing his house. He said, “God said to the water, ‘This far and no farther.'” The speaker said, “I wanted to ask him how come God didn’t say this two blocks earlier, which would have spared my house.” He added, “Believers must be willing to praise the Lord and give HIm credit for being in control both when the water misses us and when it sweeps us away. Either way, Jesus is still Lord.”

Rick Warren said he prays every day, “Lord, are you going to be doing anything great today? Can I be in on it?” He said, “We have a lot of surfers out in Southern California. But the surfer does not create the wave; he just catches it. I’m not out here creating waves; I’m just trying to catch on to the ones God has created.

“It’s time for the church to be known for what it’s for, not against. God has called us to be the Body of Christ. But sometimes we have been a body without arms and legs; just a big mouth–telling others what to do and what we are against. My prayer is for a new reformation in which the hands and feet are attached to the Body of Christ. That way, we will not just talk about it; we will do the work of God in our world. We need a new reformation of behavior. Not of creeds but of deeds. A church that is pouring out it heart in love to the world.”

That was Tuesday when Rick Warren spoke those words. Thursday, I heard that Rick and his great team of partners are committing their resources to provide the salaries of our New Orleans pastors for three months after they return to their homes. Deeds, not words.

Rick likes to say, “The most dangerous prayer you can ever pray is ‘God, use me.’ Because He will take you up on it. In fact, if you mean that prayer, God will wear you out!”

Today, I received an invitation to come to Dallas later this month for the semi-annual meeting of all the Texas directors of mission and invite them to come to New Orleans and help us rebuild. I predict that when they get there, they’ll find brothers and sisters from all over the nation working alongside them. What sweet fellowship that will be.

My other prediction is that nothing in New Orleans is ever going to be the same.

Let’s pray for that.