Heartbroken For Humanity

Heartbroken for Humanity

Introduction: Keith Green once said: "This generation of believers is responsible for this generation of souls." Think about that for a moment. To say it even better, you as a believer will one day be responsible for the lost souls that stray into your daily path. I hate to use the word stray because I do not believe anything happens by accident in God’s perfect plan and time. You remember well the meeting Jesus had with the Samaritan woman. This meeting was conceived in the mind of God before time began. That is why Jesus had to go through Samaria. He was acting in direct obedience to God’s plan.

Have you ever been at that place in your life where you didn’t know why you were where you were but you knew you were right where you ought to be? That is because you acted in obedience to the direction of God. He led you there for that special encounter. We must learn to sense God, hear God, follow God.

When Jesus told Peter come on to me, Peter responded by jumping out of the boat. He could have held tight and waited for Jesus to get to him but he was eager for that special encounter. I believe everything changed for Peter on that night. We need that same out of boat experience with the Lord. As we do, we will develop His heart, His passion, His crazy love for all humanity. And out of this intense passion for humanity will come a heartbreak for the hurt of humanity.

As we look at our text passage, we are going to see, acted out before our very eyes, what it means to be broken and moved with compassion. As we look at this text, think about the general condition of our nation right now compared to Israel at the time.

Text: Numbers 16:42-48

Introduction: The Scripture indicates that the people had come together in opposition to or against Moses. Moses was God’s representative. Moses represented God’s law, God’s ways and God’s purposes. As we observe our world, we see so many people gathered in opposition to or against us, against God’s plan, His law and His purposes.

The result of this opposition was a plague that began to sweep the land. As Moses and Aaron stood there looking out at the crowd of people gathered against them, people began falling dead in multitudes. Moses and Aaron had a choice to make. They could step back and allow God’s judgment to continue to fall and wipe out all the people or do something about it. Because of their crazy love for this people, their heart’s broke and Moses sent Aaron out into the crowds to seek atonement before God.

Aaron had to break out - he could have stepped back into the tent and just let the judgment fall but he couldn’t do it. His heart was motivated by love for this people and he ran right into their midst. By lighting the censer and running into the midst, Aaron became an intercesser before God for this people. The heart of the true believer will cry out: "I will either live with the living or die with the dying but I must do something!" This is a radical way of thinking - this radical living! It is this explosive compassion bursting forth out of God’s people that is going to make the difference in this indifferent world we live in.

Ezekiel prophsied these words from above:

"And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." (KJV)

Moses and Aaron responded by standing in the gap and the judgment halted. God couldn’t find any gap-men in Ezekiel’s day. No one cared about anyone else. There was no compassion, no concern, no heartbreak over the lostness of humanity; thus, judgment fell and the Babylonians invaded and conquered Israel.

What about today? We are standing on the threshhold of God’s judgment. What will it take for you and I to halt this judgment falling on our fellow man? Are we willing to sacrifice what is necessary? Are we willing to pay the price that this is going to cost us? It’s not cheap. In fact, it is very costly. It cost Jesus His life. It may cost you your life. It will definitely cost you a total commitment of your life. With that in mind, how far are you willing to go? Are you willing to take the plunge? For those of you considering such a commitment, let’s take a look for a few moments at what it takes to turn a nominal believer into a phenominal gap-person.