Spirit Of Heaviness

THERE IS A SPIRIT OF HEAVINESS...

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

Take a two liter of soda and ask how heavy is this?

Ask a strong young man to come up and hold the bottle of soda.

How heavy is this?

Then ask him to hold the bottle straight out from his body?

Now how heavy is it?

Now hold the bottle as far away from your body as you can while I am teaching?

Will the bottle get heavy?

It is not always about the weigh, but the load and long the load has been there?

There can be a proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back?

I. DO YOU KNOW THE SONG THAT MANY THINK SHOULD BE THE CHRISTIAN

ANTHEM?

A. HOW MANY CAN REMEMBER THE OLD HEE HAW TUNE...

Gloom, despair, agony on end...

Deep dark depression, excessive misery,

If it weren’t for bad luck,

I’d have no luck at all,

GLOOM, DESPAIR, AND AGONY ON ME...

B. MANY REGARD PSALMS 88 THE SADDEST CHAPTER IN ALL OF PSALMS.

THE WRITTER FEELS ALONE, REJECTED, AND ALL PURPOSE SEEMS TO ELUDE HIM.

C. HE HAS SUFFERED MENTALLY, EMOTIONALLY AND PHYSICALLY AND HE CAN

NOT UNDERSTAND WHY? WHY? WHY?

Psalm 88:1 O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: [2] Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; [3] For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. [4] I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

D. In great faith the Psalmist declares

1. HE WILL NEVER LET GO OF GOD...

2. He confesses the Lord is still His God and God is in control.

3. As the pen is in his hand he declares that God may permit SEASONS OF

DARKNESS --- SADNESS AND DESPAIR --- God still loves him and God’s

plan is still in tact.

4. While God seems so far away, he trusts that God has not forgotten him.

5. He also trust that God keeps good records and DELIVERANCE WILL COME...

II. THERE ARE TIMES GOD SEEMS TO BE SILENT AND THERE IS NO HUMAN

REASONING THAT CAN EXPLAIN OUR SUFFERING AND OUR HEAVINESS.

A. MINDSET:

Mental attitude that can influence one’s interpretation of facts, events or situations... Inclination or a fixed way of thinking...

B. HAVE YOU EVER HAD LIFE TRY TO DICTATE YOUR EMOTIONS?

I knew a lady that hated any song about MOTHER.

If she was at church and they sang a song about MOTHER, SHE WOULD GET

UP AND WALK OUT. If she could not walk out she would put her fingers in

her ears and try not to listen...

SHE HATED HER MOM AND BECAME VERY BITTER ABOUT MOTHERS...

I knew another lady that would cry and cry when any song was sang about

Mother. She loved her Mom and had fond memories of her.

C. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Could the mindset of the individual help in the interpretations about the facts?

D. HEAVY:

**HARD

**DIFFICULT TO LIFT OR BEAR...

**of great weight or great density

**severe or intense ... heavy fighting

** doing something excessively ... heavy smoker

**very large

**needing much physical or mental effort

**serious or somber in attitude

**HARD TO DIGEST

**HARD TO UNDERSTAND OR HARD TO ENDURE

E. HEAVY GOING:

** slow or difficult progress

F. HEAVY HEARTED:

sad, doleful

G. When I was a teenager there was a song:

HE AIN’T HEAVY --- HE IS MY BROTHER...

III. WHILE WE WALK IN SEASONS OF HEAVINESS WE MUST GUARD THAT WE DO

NOT GROW HEAVY EARS: TO HAVE APATHY, TO BE INATTENTIVE, DISOBEDIENT

KJV

Isaiah 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

NIV

Isaiah 6:10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

IV. HEAVY BECAUSE I DIDN’T GET MY WAY...

SOME TIMES WE CAN GET HEAVY OVER THINGS... WE DESIRE MORE...

WE CAN POUT AND PITCH A FIT...

A. WHY DO HUMANS POUT?

B. DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT MANIPULATION REALLY IS... CONTROL...

To gain one’s own personal advantage --- usually unfairly.

KJV

1 Kings 21:4 And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.