Who Stopped the Rain?
If we take this title literally into consideration, we are talking about the rain of the Holy Spirit. We are going to be taking a look at tonight, an inward display of our lives and the church across America as a whole and we are going to find out, who stopped the rain.
James 5:7-8
7 Dear brothers and sisters, you must be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who eagerly look for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They patiently wait for the precious harvest to ripen. 8 You, too, must be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near
Tonight we are going to be looking at some reasons why the fountains have been turned off as far as the rain of the holy spirit is concerned. I praise God that that is not happening here, but I do know how fast it can happen if we begin to take for granted that which God has blessed us with.
I believe the rain of Jesus Christ has been gradually turning off, because of the compromise of the church. Just as the church has inch by inch compromised what they know is right, the holy spirit is stifled, and the rain begins to secede and eventually completely dry up.
We must not give in in any way to satan but we must continue to press on in confidence - we must not COMPROMISE ANYTHING.
What stopped the rain?
1. Lack of focus
Bottom line: our focus should always be on the lost. It shouldn’t be how many people we have on Sundays (and I’m guilty of that bigtime) but how many people from that number gave their hearts to Jesus Christ. We have to make sure our focus is on the lost and bringing them to Jesus Christ as the saving knowledge of Him.
We have to know and understand that the harvest is many but the workers are few. Seeds that were planted years and years ago, I believe are at the appropriate time to be harvested. I sincerely believe with all of my heart, that we are shifting back to our focus on Christ.
We’ve lost our focus completely! We have to make sure that our focus isn’t simply a tunnel vision on what we see happening, but it’s a vision that is God-given and that He is the one that supplied the vision.
When I go to work and look at the eastern sky - we should be affixed - our eyes should be looking up, not down or at others, but up to God.
If we are focused on Christ, our priority is the lost. If we are focused on Christ, our priority is His priority.
If we are focused on other things, we are distracted and not looking for Jesus Christ to come back with the SHOUT He promised us.
2. Lack of persistent prayer
Let’s face it - alter times and devotional lives have become a Burger King drive-thru. Cheap and quick.
Am I saying that we constantly have to be in prayer 24 hours a day 7 days a week? yes - because the Bible says that we should pray without ceasing.
This is for those people who will pray right before they go to bed, and do the "Lord thank you for this day...than" KONK - and before you know it, they are knocked out.
If we expect prayer to make a difference, and if we expect our altar times to literally usher in the holy presence of God and revival, they have to be heartfelt. Am I saying they have to be an hour long? no way, but what I am saying is they have to be more than a quick, I’m doing this out of obligation thing.
We have taken for granted prayer to Jesus Christ as being an obligation instead of a privilege. I’m sorry - I am NOT worthy to even be in the same country or galaxy as Jesus Christ, because i am so undeserving of His love and grace and mercy, but He has allowed me to be here in this place with Him - because He loves me. That’s a privilege, not an obligation.
3. Lack of urgency
I don’t know if anyone has noticed or not, but the time is almost up when Jesus will be coming back to get His church -
Now is BY FAR the time to be lazy. It’s do or die folks. Don’t leave it up to someone else - it’s OUR job - right now in this moment and in this second - we HAVE to step up and pick up the slack.
There are, if Jesus were to come back today, hundreds of people in Pomona, KS who would be going to hell, and never gotten a chance to meet Jesus Christ.
We have an urgent deadline - we don’t know when it is though - therefore, we must live everyday like the deadline is today.
When I was in school and I knew that a deadline was approaching - it was easy to procrastinate and act like I could wait until the last minute. Put it this way, there are way too many people who aren’t saved who think that they can wait until the last minute, because we are waiting until the last minute.
If we want to see the rain of Jesus Christ even stronger in our lives, we MUST deal with the lost as if they are something urgent, because they are.
What is the value of one soul worth to you? Why would you be willing to let one soul go to hell because of a lack of urgency on your part? Someone better get excited in this place tonight.
4. Lack of surrender
This is God’s territory. Satan comes to seek, kill and destroy, but God has come to give life and give it more abundantly. I’m going to use another illustration that I heard from somewhere else, but it goes a little bit like this. We have to start taking the Kingdom of God by force - check this out.
We are the sheep and Jesus Christ is our shepard. Sheep are the most vulnerable of animals. Sheep are stupid, and they don’t have a clue of anything that’s going on around them. Without their shepard they are dazed and confused. The Bible says to submit to God, draw near to God and He’ll flee from you, and resist the devil and he’ll flee from you.
We are sheep and if He is our great shepard, we must full rely on Him if we want to live. Because the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, our only hope of survival is surrendering everything to Jesus Christ. He won’t lead us down a wrong path, we MUST trust Him with our lives! All of our lives!!
The enemy is seeking whom he may devour - your only hope of survival is Jesus Christ
5. Lack of humility
This is probably a biggie - the church has become all about certain people and focus of the church and everything in it has been on the presbetyr, or the section leader or the superintendent for answers.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church. The church isn’t about the music, or the carpet, or the pews, or the soundboard, or the doors, or anything - the CHURCH IS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST. We don’t come to church to stare at the lovely carpet. Hopefully we don’t come to church just to be seen by other people and just to say that "hey, we went." Hopefully we come to church expecting to meeting and have a personal meeting with Jesus Christ, and that we would leave different than we came in that day.
6. Lack of Black and White in our lives
Matthew 5:46-48
46 If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
There must be a difference in the way we act vs. the way that non-christians act.
There is too much gray in the lives of Christians - It’s: I’m ok to do this because I can just ask for forgiveness later and keep doing it again.
There is too much grey in our weekly lives vs. our weekend lives.
We have to set ourselves apart from the world while in the world, not a part OF the world while in church. Let me say that again...
We don’t have to stand out as being better than everyone else, but as shining FOR everyone else.
We must WHITE OUT the grey in our lives and let our light shine that we have been washed as white as snow.
