Hunger Sickness - Hunger Games - Part 2 Series

The Hunger Games – Pt. 2

Hunger Sickness

Intro:

Last week I laid down a gauntlet so to speak. I challenged your hunger level. I declared to you that unlike the folks discussed when Jesus fed the hungry crowds that our issue isn’t a supply issue it is a demand issue. We have not because we ask not. We have allowed apathy to overtake our appetite. Therefore, I challenged you to become hungry again. To refuse to settle for spiritual encounters that you had 20 years ago, but to press into new encounters with God for today. I trust you are hungry! Let’s go further!

Text: 2 Kings 7:3-9

Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.” At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also. Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. 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 to the royal palace.”

A. Desperate measures reveal the desperate

These 4 lepers are overtaken by hunger sickness. They become sick of being hungry.

Until we come to the point of being so sick of less than, partial healing, partial breakthrough, partial victory, partial freedom we will remain half way healed, half way set free, then we will continue to remain famished.

They become so sick of hunger that they conclude that they could either sit and die or get up, try something and possibly die in their attempt. They come to an important moment . . . "Dead if you do . . . dead if you don’t"

Famine is on the land! It isn’t that people don’t know about God or even spend time in His house. There are plenty of people going to church. The problem is the simple fact that hanging out around God isn’t having any impact on their walk, their attitude, their habits, their relationships, or their finances. There is famine outside the church too. Crazy people shooting strangers, economic destruction, prescription drugs abused to mask pain and no hope. So, we are surrounded by famine and we find ourselves in the same situation as the lepers. We can sit here and die or we can become so desperate for nourishment, change, a move of God that we will get up and doing something. You can either sit here and die or take a chance and risk possible ridicule, failure, or death. It is better to die trying!

What reveals your desperation? Does your worship reveal it? Does your calendar reveal it? Does your giving reveal it? Is there anything in your actions, attitude, or life that reveals any desperation towards God?

Get up and do something. We can sit here and embrace death, throw away any hope, languish in despair, accept starvation or instead get so desperate that we do some desperate things to get a touch from God. The proof of desire is pursuit so what are you proving by your level of pursuit?

Singing about hunger doesn’t prove your hunger. Talking about hunger doesn’t prove your hunger. Even church attendance doesn’t prove your hunger. It is what happens in your heart when you sing about hunger. It is your desire when you talk about hunger that matters. It is your expectation when you arrive at church that reveals your hunger! Your actions prove your hunger or lack of it. Let desperation increase! Why?

B. Desperation drives God

The lepers must have had great, earth moving, earth shaking faith . . . right? Maybe you see it. I don’t. What I see is some desperate guys getting up and doing something! Simply getting up and proving hunger causes God to respond! Hunger brings harvest. Willingness to step out and chase God brings about a route of the enemy that they didn’t even plan or fight.