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.
ii. But what’s interesting here is the deeper issue of famine ....
B. What we need to u/s is that these outward signs are a reflection of inward & spiritual reality.
a. Listen to how God links the outward presence of drought & famine w/ the inward spiritual condition of people & nations.
Deuteronomy 11:13-17 (NKJV) 13‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’
16Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17lest the LORD’S anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.
i. Again & again in the W. of G we find drought & famine being linked to the sin of God’s people.
2 Chronicles 6:26 (NKJV) 26“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them,
ii. Again our text makes the connection b/t drought & sin.
Vs 13-14. 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.
iii. If there is a drought in your life ..... if dryness has overtaken your r/s w/ Jesus, if the famine is beginning to eat into your soul & leave you empty – there’s a reason for it!
iv. One of the picts God gives of the blessed believer is your life like a flourishing green tree by the river bank.
v. When that river of God’s blessing / favour / presence begins to dry up you need to begin to ask – why?
vi. Paul speaks some fitting words to Christian when he says ....
1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NKJV) 19Do not quench the Spirit.
# 2. The effects of drought.
Think about how this spiritual drought can affect you & what it might mean in your life.
A. A drought of sensing God’s presence & approval.
a. If you are going to survive & thrive as one of God’s people you need the ongoing sense of God’s presence & His approval.
i. Think about why people want to hear a prophetic word from God about th/s???
ii. One of the common references people make about their spiritual condition when they are struggling is the sense of being / feeling dry.
iii. It’s a simple reference that relates to experience ...... experiences that we’ve once known / had.
iv. Most of us can think back to & have reference points of times & seasons when we sensed what could best be described as ‘showers of blessing’.
v. Times when we’d wake up every morning & God would seem so near & real.
vi. But now we wake up every morning & God seems so far & distant from us – why? What has changed everything?
vii. These are the effects of spiritual drought!
b. The effects on our lives is so adequately captured by the Scriptures when it says ....
Leviticus 26:19 (NKJV) 19 ...... I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
i. One of the perishing signs of a born again believer is that you go through the ritual of r/s w/o enjoying the blessings of r/s.
ii. This is contrary to what God promises to us as His people!
Joel 2:23-24 (NKJV) 23 ........ rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you— The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month. 24 The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.
iii. This isn’t just an image of agriculture ..... it’s an image of the blessings of our r/s w/ the Lord!
B. A drought of hearing from God.
a. When spiritual drought takes over what happens is that people cease to hear from God.
i. Instead of the spiritual showers of God’s presence & His word showering our lives we no longer hear the voice of God.
ii. This is what God promised the people in the days of the prophet Amos ....
Amos 8:11 (NKJV) 11“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.
b. Think about that ..... a famine of hearing the words of God!
i. You can be sitting in the same service where others are hearing from God / being fed / refreshed blessed ..... but famine is stopping you from hearing from God!
ii. If you read your Bible & don’t find y/s being fed ..... you’re probably experiencing famine.
iii. Think about it! When was the last time you heard from God? When was the last time His word laid a hold of your heart?
iv. When God’s people aren’t hearing from God it can be b/c of a spiritual drought in their lives.
v. T.B.S. when Saul wanted to hear from God he couldn’t – why? B/c spiritual drought had taken a hold of his life.
1 Samuel 14:37 (NKJV) 37So Saul asked counsel of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You deliver them into the hand of Israel?” But He did not answer him that day.
vi. The frightening thing church is that this can be the pict of our lives too if we allow spiritual drought to rule our lives.
C. A drought of God’s favour upon our lives.
a. Our text is a solemn warning from God to His people & to Solomon the king saying – I will withdraw My favour from your lives!
i. We see firstly that Solomon is enjoying a place of favour w/ God.
Vs 12. 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.
ii. Solomon has just finished the temple & God says ..... I’m hearing you & I have chosen the place you have built Solomon for My abode.
iii. That’s favour right there! Think about God’s desire to make us His favoured people.
Matthew 3:17 (NKJV) 17And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
iv. When we’re in right r/s w/ our heavenly Father there is a sense of His ‘well pleased’ upon our lives.
v. But when spiritual famine takes a hold of our lives there is no sense of God’s pleasure in us.
vi. So what is the cure for spiritual drought, how can we break a famine of the spirit?
# 3. Start digging.
A. You can’t make it rain but you don’t have to die of thirst either!
a. Think about another man who found himself in the midst of a drought.
i. His name is Isaac & he has a heritage of blessing but now he finds h/s in the midst of some dry times.
ii. The Bible tells us that his godly father Abraham had dug many wells in the dry places he lived but .......
Genesis 26:15 (NKJV) 15Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth.
iii. Isaac comes to those wells only to discover that they had been filled in by his enemies which teaches us an impt lesson ....
iv. The blessings of yesterday won’t provide you w/ the life you need today ...... you are going to have to keep seeking / desiring / hungering for God!
v. Remember being a Christian is all about a r/s w/ a real / living God!
vi. Like a marriage ...... You may have had wonderful times last year but you’re going to have to seek / work at / labour for more of those in your r/s.
b. Isaac realised that there was only one answer here ..... he was going to have to re-dig those wells that were a blessing to his father.
i. If the drought was going to be broken & famine avoided he was going to have to do something about it!!!
ii. You can’t make it rain but you don’t have to die of thirst either!
iii. If you’ve got a famine on your hands – do something about it!!!
B. Here are things you can do to break the drought & reverse the famine.
a. One of the mistakes people make in famine is that they do nothing to counter it.
*** One of the images often used to promote famine relief appeals is a starving person, a pitiful look on their face w/ an extended hand pleading for help.
I must admit ..... I am far more likely to donate to an appeal where they show picts of men / women who have farming tools provided for them & bores dug so they can grow their way out of famine!
i. If you are facing a personal drought ..... if you’re dry & the landscape of your life is arid & dead – begin seeking God for answers!
*** I read a book a few years ago called The Forgotten King, about Sir Sydney Kidman. Syd Kidman was an outback drover who started w/ nothing but by the end of his lifetime b/ca the largest land owner in the world. The strange truth however is that Sydney Kidman acquired his wealth b/c he u/s two things. Firstly he u/s that drought was an ongoing reality in Australia. He saw during his years as a cattle drover in the outback that drought was going to strike somewhere year after year in Australia. Secondly he u/s that there was a way to beat the drought. He knew that there would always be rainfall somewhere & wherever that rainfall was there would be feed for livestock. So he purchased one by one seemingly desolate / near worthless stations in the deserts of three states; S.A., NSW, Qld. By u/s the seasons & how they affected the land he managed to graze his livestock in areas where rainfall had produced vast areas of feed.
ii. This is a similar revelation that you as a believer need to have when you’re feeling dry – God has a place for you to be nourished in dry times.
b. You can start believing God.
i. Elijah comes to a poor widow woman who is about to prepare & eat her last meal – the famine has claimed everything.
ii. But the man of God comes to her w/ a challenge from God – believe Me, trust me to sustain you & meet you in drought!
1 Kings 17:15-16 (NKJV) 15So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 16The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.
C. Finally, discover the things that cause spiritual drought & deal w/ them.
a. Drought comes for a reason.
Vs 14. 14if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
i. Firstly – if you want to break drought you need to humble yourself....... for a drought free life you’re going to have to live by God’s plan ..... not yours!
ii. God’s presence / favour / direction evaporate in an atmosphere of pride ...... pride took the devil down to an everlasting famine of God’s presence in hell.
iii. Secondly – pray in the showers of blessing!
iv. Elijah got down on his face b/4 God & prayed until the skies were black w/ clouds & the floods descended.
v. Thirdly – turn from your ‘wicked ways’ the very things that caused a dearth of God & His goodness to begin w/.
vi. Anything wicked in your life that might hold back the floodgates of his goodness?
b. The one thing that we need to remember is that drought will last as long as you allow it to.
i. If we will deal w/ these drought makers God will bring the promise of His blessings to our lives.
Vs 14. .......then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
