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.
They reap in field didn’t even plant. Sound familiar? That is a promise that we are given!
You have been asking God to respond to your praise. You have been hoping He would respond to your faithfulness. You have been depending on God to respond to your gift. I am here to tell you that God responds to hunger. When someone is willing to risk everything. When someone becomes desperate enough to step out God steps in. When are you going to stand up and do something? When are you going to prove your hunger?
I also want you to notice who the vessels of unlikely miracles were . . . the unlikely are the used. Lepers - outcasts - sitting at the gate of the city because they aren’t allowed into the mainstream of society. These are the ones God gives the miracle to and used to break a famine in an entire region. It wasn’t the strong. It wasn’t the gifted. It wasn’t the spotless. It was the desperate.
We may not be the brightest and the best. We may not be the strongest or the slickest. We may not be the bravest or the best. We may not be most gifted or the most gorgeous. However I will trade all the brightest, best, strong, slick, brave, gifted, and gorgeous for some desperate folks. Because I know that desperate people garner the attention of God! I am not sure your gift can get His attention. I am certain your hunger does. I am not sure your eloquence will turn His ear toward you. I am sure a guttural cry of help will. I am not sure your strength impresses Him. What I am sure of is that when weak, desperate people call on the name of the Lord He will remove armies, obstacles, sickness, and anything else to arrive on the scene on our behalf!
C. Leftovers are for the left out
You will remember that last week I mentioned I would come back to leftovers. Every time Jesus dealt with hunger He blessed to a leftover level. The same is true in the Old Testament account too. These lepers walk into a blessing that is so great they can’t possibly contain it (even though they tried) and they come to the conclusion that leftovers are leftover on purpose.
Too often we become satisfied when our need is met. When we have a good altar time. A few moments in His presence. A little taste of His goodness and we settle, we soak, we devour what we need and stop. I want and need you to come to the place where these 4 lepers came to. Now that you’ve got yours and your need has been met it is time for us to realize that leftovers are for the left out. When God provides leftovers He is positioning us to reach out to the left out.
In fact, one of the most piercing statements (that should cut us to the quick) from this account is when the lepers look at each other after an amazing altar service, after they have experienced powerful spiritual warfare, after they have sung the song that has pushed their buttons is "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."
Our hunger leads to a place of filling, but it must also lead to a place where we begin to care enough for those who are left out of this move that we take to the streets and share what we have with others. We want to use a move of God up on us! You are to be carriers of the provision, the healing, the breakthrough, and the chain shattering goodness of God to those who are starving but have no clue where to go to find food! I am glad you think our worship is awesome. I am thankful and humbled that you think the preaching is helpful. I am excited that you think our youth ministry is the bomb. However, when is the last time you told anyone or better yet took the spirit of this house to your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers? We are the delivery system God wants to utilize to share the harvest we are enjoying!
In fact, what was true for the lepers is true for us . . . if we fail to share we are doomed! We cannot escape sow and reap! We cannot believe that the principles that God gives us in regards to money don’t apply to every other spiritual aspect of life! He just won’t continue to bless the stingy!
