Sermon Central
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Who Stopped The Rain
Contributed by Jeremy Farmer on Mar 7, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: Who, more importantly what stagnated the Holy Spirit rain of Jesus Christ in churches across the world today?
Who Stopped the Rain?
If we take this title literally into consideration, we are talking about the rain of the Holy Spirit. We are going to be taking a look at tonight, an inward display of our lives and the church across America as a whole and we are going to find out, who stopped the rain.
7 Dear brothers and sisters, you must be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who eagerly look for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They patiently wait for the precious harvest to ripen. 8 You, too, must be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near
Tonight we are going to be looking at some reasons why the fountains have been turned off as far as the rain of the holy spirit is concerned. I praise God that that is not happening here, but I do know how fast it can happen if we begin to take for granted that which God has blessed us with.
I believe the rain of Jesus Christ has been gradually turning off, because of the compromise of the church. Just as the church has inch by inch compromised what they know is right, the holy spirit is stifled, and the rain begins to secede and eventually completely dry up.
We must not give in in any way to satan but we must continue to press on in confidence - we must not COMPROMISE ANYTHING.
What stopped the rain?
1. Lack of focus
Bottom line: our focus should always be on the lost. It shouldn’t be how many people we have on Sundays (and I’m guilty of that bigtime) but how many people from that number gave their hearts to Jesus Christ. We have to make sure our focus is on the lost and bringing them to Jesus Christ as the saving knowledge of Him.
We have to know and understand that the harvest is many but the workers are few. Seeds that were planted years and years ago, I believe are at the appropriate time to be harvested. I sincerely believe with all of my heart, that we are shifting back to our focus on Christ.
We’ve lost our focus completely! We have to make sure that our focus isn’t simply a tunnel vision on what we see happening, but it’s a vision that is God-given and that He is the one that supplied the vision.
When I go to work and look at the eastern sky - we should be affixed - our eyes should be looking up, not down or at others, but up to God.
If we are focused on Christ, our priority is the lost. If we are focused on Christ, our priority is His priority.
If we are focused on other things, we are distracted and not looking for Jesus Christ to come back with the SHOUT He promised us.
2. Lack of persistent prayer
Let’s face it - alter times and devotional lives have become a Burger King drive-thru. Cheap and quick.
Am I saying that we constantly have to be in prayer 24 hours a day 7 days a week? yes - because the Bible says that we should pray without ceasing.
This is for those people who will pray right before they go to bed, and do the "Lord thank you for this day...than" KONK - and before you know it, they are knocked out.
If we expect prayer to make a difference, and if we expect our altar times to literally usher in the holy presence of God and revival, they have to be heartfelt. Am I saying they have to be an hour long? no way, but what I am saying is they have to be more than a quick, I’m doing this out of obligation thing.
We have taken for granted prayer to Jesus Christ as being an obligation instead of a privilege. I’m sorry - I am NOT worthy to even be in the same country or galaxy as Jesus Christ, because i am so undeserving of His love and grace and mercy, but He has allowed me to be here in this place with Him - because He loves me. That’s a privilege, not an obligation.
3. Lack of urgency
I don’t know if anyone has noticed or not, but the time is almost up when Jesus will be coming back to get His church -
Now is BY FAR the time to be lazy. It’s do or die folks. Don’t leave it up to someone else - it’s OUR job - right now in this moment and in this second - we HAVE to step up and pick up the slack.
There are, if Jesus were to come back today, hundreds of people in Pomona, KS who would be going to hell, and never gotten a chance to meet Jesus Christ.
