Drought - Its Cause & Cure

Bunbury

Sun am

17/10/10

“Drought – its cause & cure”

Intro: *** One of the constant topics coming up in the news at least every week if not every day now w/ the approach of summer is the obvious drought we’re facing. Rainfall has been perilously low this last winter, dams are low & we’re still only in spring!

B/c of this the govt has initiated water restrictions. Nothing new for us but this time they are more severe than b/4. People are being urged to conserve water ..... (a good thing anyway) we are constantly being told that every drop counts. We now have inspectors that are apparently patrolling our suburban areas even after business hours in an endeavour to detect people breaking sprinkler bans.

One thing troubles me in all this ..... that is the fact that the govt is being reactive instead of proactive.

In other words we are being told to conserve, adapt to the drought conditions but we’re not taking any action to combat the drought.

Having to deal w/ a lack of rainfall is nothing new to us here in Australia but it’s strange that year after year we simply adapt to the drought rather than countering the drought.

This got me thinking about personal droughts.

They are another thing that we’re familiar w/ ..... getting to the place where we are spiritually dry / arid / shrivelled.

The truth is, like the land we live in, we may not be able to do a whole lot about the onset of a drought but we can take positive action to battle a personal / spiritual drought.

So I want to speak t/m about ‘Drought – it’s cause & cure’.

In this time we want to look at what 1. Drought is. 2. How it affects us. 3. How to overcome a drought.

Text: 2 Chronicles 7:12-14 (NKJV) 12Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

# 1. What drought is.

A. Our urban lifestyle hardly even allows us to realise what drought is .

a. The fact is that to a very large degree we are shielded from the reality of its affects / consequences on our land.

i. The supermarkets have food, reticulation keeps lawn green & we don’t have to worry about bathing or drinking water.

ii. So what’s the big deal? Why is everybody talking about it? Does it really mean anything to us?

iii. But even though we may not see it & experience it firsthand ..... the lack of rain gives birth to a close relative that causes big trouble for everyone – famine!

b. When a land is in the grip of a famine crops fail & livestock languishes & people die.

i. The ultimate & universal affect of famine is death – death of feed & grass, death of livestock & death of people / cities / nations.

*** I remember as a kid, it seemed as though there were constant appeals to save some nation or another from starvation. I particularly remember the fund raising appeals to save the starving millions in India & Pakistan.

In the 1960s, many observers felt that widespread famine was inevitable. In 1963, just such a devastating famine had threatened India and Pakistan. In the 1970s, rice cost about $550 a ton; in 2001 when there was no famine it cost under $200 a ton. That’s what famine does!

ii. Most of us can think back to times where worldwide appeals have been made for nations in the clutches of famine.

c. In the O/T we have some very adequate picts of a land in the grip of famine – no rain, no grass, no hope!

1 Kings 18:3&5 (NKJV) 3And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house. ......5And Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go into the land to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, so that we will not have to kill any livestock.”

i. Again we find Samaria being devastated by famine ........

2 Kings 6:25 (NKJV) 25And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.