“HEALING RAIN”
DANIEL 5:21B-28A
Abortions are on the rise, Divorces are on the rise, perversity, such as adultery, homosexuality and pornography, is on the rise, but yet we look at the numbers over the last few years for the SBC and salvation and baptisms are down and it leaves us asking “What’s happening?” In fact, I read last week that 1 out of 4 people in the world today are Muslims. That figured out to be 1.5 billion people in this world are Muslims. Where have all the Christians gone? Christians make up 2.1 billion people in the world. Then you add the economic mess. This past year and a half our nation has found itself in an economic crisis, our nation is currently in such an economic mess that people are scared and worried. People are wondering if they will have a job or not, wondering where they will get the money to pay their bills, put food on the table and keep their heads afloat. In the comics several months ago there was a cartoon that had a son standing on his parent’s doorstep and the father says to him, “we can’t let you move back in with us because we’re moving back in with our parents.” You read or turn on the news and the news is doom and gloom and we are left asking, “Where did it all go wrong?”
Then on top of all this you add the stress of the healthcare reform. Whatever your stance is on it I’m ready for it to be over with because I’m sick of all the negativeness between both parties and let me add it’s both sides that are being negative, not just one. So pretty much these last few weeks I have found my self just shaking my head thinking how much longer until Jesus comes back to take us home? But the reality is we don’t know when Christ is coming back so we could be left here on this earth a little longer then what we expected. These things that we are going through could very well just be the beginning of birth pains, which means the worse is still yet to come. Taking all that into consideration, I was reading the Book of Daniel and as I read it the Lord impressed upon my heart some words of warning that we as individuals as well as our churches and our nation all need to hear. These words are found in Daniel 5:21b-28a.
We must remember these words that Daniel spoke to a godless king, Belshazzar, many centuries ago. He said: “The Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes.” Sometimes God will allow us to have what or who we want and let me just say that’s not always a good thing. “But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.” Daniel spoke these profound words just before he translated the writing on the wall and understand that when God gave this message through Daniel it was God’s message to Babylon, who happened to be the world’s super-power at that time. “This inscription that was written: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin. This is what these words mean: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided…” (Daniel 5:21b-28a).
The same can be said for our nation today. We’re the world’s strongest super-power, but we have not measured up to God’s standard of being a beacon of righteousness to the world. To say our nation is divided is an understatement. November 4 of last year showed a nation that was split, 52% of the nation for Obama and 48% of the nation for McCain. These numbers reflect a deeply divided nation.
That fact right there plus all these things I spoke of weigh heavy on all of our hearts and as I said earlier we are left with the question of where did it all go wrong? Could it be that where it went wrong was when we as a nation began to make the things of this world, like money, sex and power, our God. Church is it possible that we could see a repeat of what happened to Babylon, or Greece, or Media and Persia. Who are they you ask? They were all once super-powers who chose to do it there way rather than God’s way. They chose to follow the God’s of the world rather than God the Father and they paid the price. When will we learn? Now some of us will set there and say God won’t do that again because He’s a loving God. Yes, God is a loving God but he is also a Just God. Remember the Israelites, God’s chosen people, they chose to do it there way rather than God’s way and because of their choice there was a generation of Israelites that didn’t get to enjoy the wonderful gift of the promise land.
Church, I can stand up here in confidence and say to you from this pulpit, that it is very plain to see that when we take a step back and look at the world what we will see is that we as individuals, as churches and as a nation have found ourselves in a spiritual drought. We are spiritually dry and we need the healing rain of Jesus Christ to begin to fall down from heaven. We need to let it fall again on our lives, on our churches, and on this great nation. However, in order for us to receive the healing rain of Jesus Christ we have to cry out and ask Him to soak us with His healing rain.
I. We need to ask Him to come soak our dry hearts with healing rain.
For many of us our hearts have become spiritually dry. Even some of us as Pastors have allowed our hearts to become spiritually dry. We have allowed apathy to take up residence in our hearts. Where’s the concern for the lost? If there is no concern there then your heart is spiritually dry. Church, there are people dieing and going to hell because they don’t know about the gift of eternal life and the reason they don’t know about it is because you and I are not telling them. You and I should be tripping over each other trying to get to these people that are lost and share with them how they can be found. Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Pastors, what has happened to our excitement, our motivation, our passion? For crying out loud church our Savior Jesus Christ is A-L-I-V-E He is Alive! So let’s start living like it!
You want to know why some of us as Christians are in a spiritual drought right now. It’s because we have chosen to hide sin in our lives rather than repent of them. By the way God knows that they are there. It’s because we have chosen to listen to man rather than God. It’s because we have gotten away from the Word of God. It’s because we have gotten away from getting down on our knees and praying. It’s because we have chosen to make church and Sunday Morning Bible Study just another one of our activities rather than a priority. A Churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I’ve gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" One of the reasons people are spiritually dry today is because they don’t make church a priority. Some of us here this afternoon need to ask God to come soak our dry hearts with the healing rain of Jesus Christ.
II. We need to ask Him to soak our dry churches with healing rain.
As a whole the church in today’s society has become spiritually dry and I believe the main reason our churches have become spiritually dry is because we no longer get on our knees and pray. When was the last time you had a good prayer meeting? Sadly there are other reasons why churches have found themselves in a spiritual drought. Let me take a little time to share them with you. Let me start out by saying that today, I find myself sometimes being ashamed of the Church. I am ashamed of the way churches build buildings while neglecting the hearts and souls of men and women. Our churches are dry today because we cling to tradition rather than clinging to the Almighty God. Churches are dry today because we idolize and follow the messengers instead of the Messiah. Churches are dry today because they fixate and worry about the budget of the Church instead of fixating and trusting in the blood of Christ. Churches have become spiritually dry because they are more willing to pledge their allegiance to their denomination instead of pledging their hearts to the Kingdom. Church, one of the things that will keep us from being spiritually dry is remembering that it was Jesus Christ that died on the cross and saved us not our denomination.
Churches are dry today because the people in the churches make excuses when it comes to serving God rather than realizing what an honor and a privilege it is to serve God. Our churches are dry today because we have made church all about us rather than about the Lord Almighty. Our churches today are spiritually dry because we want to be politically correct rather than scripturally correct and we don’t want to offend nobody, but on the other hand most people don’t want to hear sound doctrine either. In fact, 2 Timothy 4:2-4 says, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
We are seeing that in our churches today. People want their ears itched and I’m sad to say that there are Pastors that have given into this myth and they are no longer preaching the truth because they don’t want to offend anyone. Instead, they preach a watered down gospel that makes people feel all tingly, warm and fuzzy inside. I’m here to tell you today that you’re not my dog so I not going to scratch your ears I’m going to preach the truth. Last time I checked the Bible says that, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). However, in order for that to happen the truth of God has to be preached in our churches.
Pastors, we need to get back to the days of the original NT church found in Acts 2. When it was about getting on your knees and praying, when it was about studying the Word of God, when it was about sharing the gospel to a lost and dieing world. When it was about being a church that had God at the center of it a church that had God as its foundation a church that was willing to do it God’s way and not man’s way. But in order for that to happen we need to come before God this afternoon as a body of believers and ask Him to come and soak our dry churches with the healing rain of Jesus Christ.
III. We need to ask Him to soak our dry nation with healing rain.
I think we all would agree this afternoon that the United States of America is in major need of the healing rain of Jesus Christ. Think about it pastors, we are a nation which declares “In God we Trust and One Nation Under God” but yet we are far from trusting in God or being one nation under God. We won’t allow our children to pray in public school however; other children are praying in schools in far away nations which only 20-30 years ago declared “there is no God.”
We need to begin to pray that God will open the floodgates of heaven on this dry nation that celebrates immorality. To flood this nation that claims to be open minded, but has closed their minds to the teachings of Jesus. We need to pray that God will send healing rain to this nation that says that everyone is entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and yet we’ve prevented 50 million innocent lives from ever pursuing any of these ideals. Please Lord; send your healing rain on this nation that says marriage is between two people that love each other rather than between a man and a woman that love each other.
One of the reasons our nation has become spiritually dry is because we have begun to search for answers to our problems in the minds of men rather than the heart of God. Our nation has become spiritually dry because we as Americans have decided to put more trust in the Democratic/Republican party rather than the God Almighty. As Dr. Richard Land stated, “Ultimately, our loyalty belongs not to any political party or candidate, but to God Almighty.”
Church, can I be honest with you? I’m am worn out and tired of how both of our parties having to belittle each other, tear each other down and make the other party look as bad as possible to be elected or to stay elected. I’m also tired of how when elections roll and it’s time to vote we vote our party rather than getting on our knees and asking God who He wants us to vote for. We need to begin to vote for who God tells us to vote for and not for who we want just because they belong to the Democratic/Republican party. It’s not about which party they belong to, the economy, the housing crisis, the war in Iraq, healthcare, or gas prices. It’s about what does God want. But in order for that to happen that means you and I are going to have to get on our knees starting now and begin to pray about it and ask God to send His healing rain and to ask God to begin to intervene. What it boils down to is that we need to ask God to soak this dry nation with His healing rain.
As I close this afternoon, it’s time that we as Christians, as churches and as a Nation return to the mercy seat of God the Father where it all began and begin to look at our lives, at our churches and at our nation through the eyes of God and when we do that we will begin to see the sin and the pain that we are causing God Almighty. And once we see the pain that we are causing Him it should drive us to our knees as Christians, as a church and as a nation and we should begin to cry out to God the Father. We need to begin to repent and come back to God. Why? You ask, because according to the Word of God He’s the only one that could take a crippled and make him stand, He’s the only one that can take a leper and make him clean and He was the only one that could take a dead man and raise him from the dead. And He is the only one that is going to change and heal our lives, our churches and our nation.
Church what I’m getting ready to say is not a slam towards our president and it may offend some of you, but one of the themes that our nation has bought into from our president is CHANGE! I’m going to blunt with you right now, people we as a Christian, as a church and as a nation would be a fool to believe that a man can change the mess that we have gotten ourselves into. We have to realize that the only one who can change this nation, our churches and our lives is God the Father. He is the only One that CAN help us and He’s the only One who WILL help us! We must realize that America’s ultimate solution is spiritual awakening, not Washington politics.
This afternoon we need to come to these altars and repent as a Christian, as churches and as nation and when we do that I promise you that all those sins and all those tears of shame will be washed away forever in Jesus name. This afternoon we need to come to these altars and lift our hands in repentance and let our hands be held again by someone greater THE GREAT I AM! THE ALMIGHTY GOD THE FATHER, THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA AND THE BEGINNING AND THE END. And if we do that pastors I believe our God will send His Healing Rain to fall down upon our lives, our churches and our nation in fact He promised it “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14). We need to ask God to let it rain down on us. We need to ask Him to open the flood gates of heaven and let it rain, let it rain, let it rain down. Let it fall on our dry hearts, our dry churches and this dry nation. We need the healing rain of Jesus Christ.
For invitation I played the video Healing Rain by Michael W. Smith
