DEALING WITH DESPERATE TIME:
RESPONSIBLE WITH OUR TREASURE
2 Kings 7:1-16
Today I want to speak
ABOUT OUR RESPOSIBLITY TO THE GOD GIVEN TREASURE HE GIVES US.
And how in our adversity our faith can help us
And we can help other in their trials as well.
We all face adversity of one kind or another.
Once upon a time there was a shepherd tending his sheep.
A brand new Cadillac Escalade screeches to a halt next to him.
The driver, dressed in a fancy suit, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and cell phone,
got out and asked the shepherd,
"If I can guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?"
The shepherd looked at the young man, then at the field of sheep and said, "Okay."
The young man parked the SUV, connected his notebook and wireless modem,
entered a NASA site, scanned the ground using his GPS,
opened a database and printed a 150 page report on his high tech mini printer.
He then turned to the shepherd and said, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep here."
The shepherd answers, "That’s correct! You can pick your sheep."
The young man took one of the animals and put it in the back of his vehicle.
The shepherded looked at him and asked,
"Now, if I guess your profession, will you pay me back in kind?"
The young man answered, "Sure."
The shepherd said, "You are a consultant."
The young man said: "Exactly! How did you know?"
"Very simple," answered the shepherd.
"First, you came here without being called.
Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew.
Third, you don’t understand anything about my business –
and FOURTH, I’d really like to have my dog back."
Maybe your not about to loose your dog together,
But we all face adversity of one kind or another.
The OT Book of 2nd Kings tells the story of a time
the nation of Samaria was under siege.
They were about to loose their lives.
The Syrian army had formed an unbroken wall around the city,
blocking any escape,
Conditions within the town were appalling.
Men went about the streets with blank stares, gaunt, and haggard.
Women stood in the doorways with puny, starving children,
holding them close in their arms,
Some of them had gone even so far as to eat their own children.
Crowds pressed the gates of the royal residence, crying for bread.
The king was helpless and at his wits’ end.
The siege continued.
A little colony of lepers lived just outside the wall, near the city gate.
Four of them huddled together in a wretched hut.
With famine raging, they were no longer able to live by begging.
Their desperate situation called for desperate measures.
I. DESPERATION DRIVES US TO RISK ACTION.
LEPERS WERE DESPERATE.
Vs 3-4 They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die.
Their desperate situation called for desperate measures.
The condition of the lepers represents the condition of our world.
It represents the condition of our sinful human heart.
Death has surrounded the city.
Sin has the upper hand.
If we think we can somehow save ourselves.
If we think we can get by ourselves.
If we think we can understand life, find purpose,
and choose our own ways to happiness
We are deceived and we will never find the treasure.
Hurting hearts are open hearts
Starving stomachs are motivations to find food.
Sin sick souls are the vehicle that moves us to salvation.
Recognition of our wretched condition opens the resources of heavens abundance,
Reveals the word and the spirit of God.
Gives us life beyond what we can imagine.
The lepers faced a desperate situation.
But once they recognized it they were willing to risk all.
It takes a desperate man to find a treasure.
The Lepers had one chance: The enemy CAMP.
They said:
VS. 4B. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army.
If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”LB
Who is the enemy camp to the world today?
God is seen as the enemy.
The world sees the church as the enemy.
The world see Christians as the enemy.
The world see the Bible as the enemy.
Jesus said: the world will hate you.
John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Apostle John writes:
I John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
The church, the kingdom of God, is the enemy of the world.
Apostle Paul writes:
Philippians 3:18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.
Unless the world truns to the Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. It is on the road to armageddaon and destruction.
The Hope is : Desperate men find a treasure.
Lepers were desperate.
They decided to abandon their pride,
And their safe position.
They said:
There is plenty of food where the Syrians are.
They may save our lives. At the worst, they can only kill us,
and we’re going to die anyway.” II Kings 7:3-4
They crept out of their hut in the evening twilight
and moved slowly toward the enemy camp.
Every moment expecting to be captured.
Every moment expecting to be killed.
But it didn’t happen.
The tents were deserted.
But packed with food and drink.
Fresh water and all sorts of good and possession.
The bible says they gorged themselves.
IT TAKES A DESPERATE MAN TO FIND A TREASURE
I. DESPERATE DRIVES US TO ACTION.
II ACTION PRODUCES A GREAT REWARD.
First in to one tent, then into another.
EATING AND GATHING
They were flabbergasted.
(PUT UP VERSE AT THIS TIME)
Vs. 8.
When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. II Kings 7:8NLB
Piles of silver, gold, and clothing were scattered on the ground,
abandoned by men fleeing in panic,
Beyond their hearts wildest dreams were tables set
with the finest of food and utensils.
Was the Prophet Malachi thinking about this when he said:
“Test me now in this SAYS THE LORD: See if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.
The Apostle Paul translates it for the NT church.
Philippians 4:19 My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Glory by Christ Jesus.
The lesson of the Lepers is for us.
You and I may be desperate today.
Our lives may be at wits end.
We may be starving for purpose.
Famished for the bread of life.
For soeting that will give me some significance.
We will never see the miracle until
We act obediently and move to the living God.
As the Lepers moved from one tent to another
the truth began to dawn upon them.
For some reason, the Syrian army had fled, leaving everything behind.
It was at this moment they recognized their greatest treasures.
Could then in turn be the treasure that would save their world.
The lepers were desperate: and
I. LEPERS DESPERATION DROVE THEM TO ACTION.
II LEPERS ACTION PRODUCES A GREAT REWARD.
III REWARDS PRODUCED A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
It takes a desperate man to find a treasure,
But it takes a Man of character to use that treasure for the good of mankind.
Benji is a bright four-year-old,
His mother was talking to him about receiving Christ.
“Benji,” she asked quietly, “would you like to have Jesus in your heart?”
Benji thought for a few minutes and then rolling his blue eyes answered,
“No. I don’t think I want the responsibility.”
LEPERS RECOGNIZED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY IN THE TREASURE
Mature people of God recognize their responsibility.
To share the treaures.
Lepers said:
9“This is not right. This is wonderful news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.”
II Kings 7:9 NLB
They immediately went and shared the good news with the authorities.
The Lepers became shepherds:
The Hebrew word for shepherding is often translated, “feeding.”
Shepherds lead sheep to feed in green pasture
To drink at the still waters.
We are the Lepers in the church today.
We have been desperate, wretched, lost in our sins.
But we have found in Christ the precious treasure of salvation.
Experienced the reckless spending of Christ blood on the cross
For our salvation.
God has given us a message that will set the world on fire.
A fire that will burn up the spiritual hunger and emptiness.
A fire that will burn up the filthiness, decadence,
The destructiveness of sin and unrighteousness..
G.K. Chesterton declared. “Christianity, even when watered down, is hot enough to boil all modern society to rags.”
1`.“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
That the good news
2. While we were starving
Jesus brought to us the bread of life.
3. While we were dying of thirst
Jesus brought to us the water of life.
4. While we were living in this world.
Sorring ourselves with the pleasures that just don’t satisfy.
Jesus was being hung on a cross.
His body was broken for us.
His blood was shed for us.
Its something to sing about.
The energy is there.
Let us not allow the world to scorn our message of salvation.
Let us not allow the inclusiveness of world religions desecrate our celebration.
That our faith is based upon the “Scandal of Particularity,”
That only in Christ and him crucified
Can the soul assurance of salvation be guaranteed?
The world see you as the enemy,
The media and wisdom of the world will try to intimidate you
Stereotype you
distract you
But in our desperation we have found a treasure.
These lepers found a treasure: And they leapt upon it.
Gorged themselves.
But we must not hid the treasures.
Or just store our own closet with silt and linens.
Wardrobes of clothes.
WE MUST SHARE IT>
Leper
0So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened—
Note the gatekeepers did their job.
11Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.
They shouted the good news.
16Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that five quarts of fine flour were sold that day for half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain were sold for half an ounce of silver, just as the LORD had promised.
Oh Friend the Lord is waiting to do that today for you as well.
The banquet table has been prepared.
The body of Christ has been broken.
The blood of Christ has been shed.
The greatest tragedy in our lives
Would be to stay in our tents
And starve on the world meager fair.
The communion table is open.
Come and eat and drink and
accept Jesus invitation
Find the treasure of life.
And then take the responsibility and go and share that treasure with others.
