August 17, 2022
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I was in a city that a hurricane had just missed. And we were very blessed to have not been hit by all that wind. But we did get two days of the wet weather leftovers. I mean, we're talking drenching rain here! One morning it was pouring, and I drove by a bank. And I saw something, and I had to laugh in the middle of the torrents coming down. The sprinklers came on right on schedule. Yeah! They were doing a beautiful job of watering the lawn, which really didn't need any water.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lots of Blessing, Not Much Impact."
Now our word for today from the Word of God. We're in 2 Kings, with this curious story that's in the 7th chapter. The capital city of Samaria is under siege, and the Syrian Army has cut off all food. So the people in the city are literally starving to death. I mean, it's so desperate in the city that people have even resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.
Now, there are these four lepers who live outside the city. And they decided since they're already going to die, they might as well try to surrender to the enemy army. If they're captured as prisoners of war, maybe they'll get fed. So when they get to the enemy camp, they discover that God has performed a miracle. The camp is empty. So they find all this food, and empty tents just standing there. And they stuff themselves all night.
Then we come to verse 9, "They said to each other, 'We're not doing right.'" It was about time they figured that out. Then it goes on, "This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let's go at once and report this." What a scene this is! These four men are sitting on this pile of food, while multitudes in the city are starving.
It reminds me of those sprinklers on that rainy day. Water wasn't really needed; it was just soaking what was already soaked. A Christian from the former Soviet Union once said to the team our daughter was on, "The problem with American Christians is that you are 'over-feeded.'" Well, he's right. We are so blessed.
We're soaked with blessings no Christians have ever had before. We've got Christian everything: Christian radio, Christian TV, Christian internet, concerts, festivals, retreats, and seminars. But it's almost all for us. We're already stuffed, but we line up for another helping of blessing don't we? We're already soaked, but we turn on the sprinklers for more showers of blessing. Something's wrong here. Let's not forget what our Master's heart is. He said, "I have come to seek and to save..." Not that which is found, but He says "that which is lost."
He talks about a harvest where "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." He says, "I can't find laborers to go get the harvest. They're too busy eating the harvest." A self-focused church, a self-focused Christian? That's not the will of God. We follow a Savior who left the comfort of heaven, to live among the lost. He laid down His life to bring them home to God.
He sure can't be very happy with us when we focus on going to our Christian meetings, going to our conferences, listening to our Christian speakers, our songs, keeping all busy with our Christian schedule and ignoring the dying people within our reach. The spiritually destitute are starving to death as surely as those people were back in the book of 2 Kings.
Like our Master, we need to live our lives for the lost people that He gave His life for. In the words of those lepers, "This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves." There are plenty of lives that get no spiritual rain. Let's not aim our sprinklers at the already soaked. Let's take them to the places where it never rains.