Sermon Central
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Desperate Times Series
Contributed by Eldon Reich on Sep 13, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: We live in desperate times, this sermon helps us to deal with them.
DEALING WITH DESPERATE TIME:
RESPONSIBLE WITH OUR TREASURE
Today I want to speak
ABOUT OUR RESPOSIBLITY TO THE GOD GIVEN TREASURE HE GIVES US.
And how in our adversity our faith can help us
And we can help other in their trials as well.
We all face adversity of one kind or another.
Once upon a time there was a shepherd tending his sheep.
A brand new Cadillac Escalade screeches to a halt next to him.
The driver, dressed in a fancy suit, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and cell phone,
got out and asked the shepherd,
"If I can guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?"
The shepherd looked at the young man, then at the field of sheep and said, "Okay."
The young man parked the SUV, connected his notebook and wireless modem,
entered a NASA site, scanned the ground using his GPS,
opened a database and printed a 150 page report on his high tech mini printer.
He then turned to the shepherd and said, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."
The shepherd answers, "That’s correct! You can pick your sheep."
The young man took one of the animals and put it in the back of his vehicle.
The shepherded looked at him and asked,
"Now, if I guess your profession, will you pay me back in kind?"
The young man answered, "Sure."
The shepherd said, "You are a consultant."
The young man said: "Exactly! How did you know?"
"Very simple," answered the shepherd.
"First, you came here without being called.
Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew.
Third, you don’t understand anything about my business –
and FOURTH, I’d really like to have my dog back."
Maybe your not about to loose your dog together,
But we all face adversity of one kind or another.
The OT Book of 2nd Kings tells the story of a time
the nation of Samaria was under siege.
They were about to loose their lives.
The Syrian army had formed an unbroken wall around the city,
blocking any escape,
Conditions within the town were appalling.
Men went about the streets with blank stares, gaunt, and haggard.
Women stood in the doorways with puny, starving children,
holding them close in their arms,
Some of them had gone even so far as to eat their own children.
Crowds pressed the gates of the royal residence, crying for bread.
The king was helpless and at his wits’ end.
The siege continued.
A little colony of lepers lived just outside the wall, near the city gate.
Four of them huddled together in a wretched hut.
With famine raging, they were no longer able to live by begging.
Their desperate situation called for desperate measures.
I. DESPERATION DRIVES US TO RISK ACTION.
LEPERS WERE DESPERATE.
Vs 3-4 They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die.
Their desperate situation called for desperate measures.
The condition of the lepers represents the condition of our world.
It represents the condition of our sinful human heart.
Death has surrounded the city.
Sin has the upper hand.
If we think we can somehow save ourselves.
If we think we can get by ourselves.
If we think we can understand life, find purpose,
and choose our own ways to happiness
We are deceived and we will never find the treasure.
Hurting hearts are open hearts
Starving stomachs are motivations to find food.
Sin sick souls are the vehicle that moves us to salvation.
Recognition of our wretched condition opens the resources of heavens abundance,
Reveals the word and the spirit of God.
Gives us life beyond what we can imagine.
The lepers faced a desperate situation.
But once they recognized it they were willing to risk all.
It takes a desperate man to find a treasure.
The Lepers had one chance: The enemy CAMP.
They said:
VS. 4B. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army.
If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”LB
Who is the enemy camp to the world today?
God is seen as the enemy.
The world sees the church as the enemy.
The world see Christians as the enemy.
The world see the Bible as the enemy.
Jesus said: the world will hate you.
John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Apostle John writes:
I John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
