We've Got Mail

We’ve Got Mail

II Chronicles 30:1-6

http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/GotMail.html

When I was a little boy my dad was a mail carrier, before he entered the ministry. And from that day to now I have had much respect for those who go door to door and street to street, carrying the mail for us. They are representing someone else who has sent them, and they bridge the gap between us and others who reach out to us.

To think that someone of the stature of Ed McMahon would care about me and want to make me rich! And I’ve got someone else who wants to give me dozens of music cds for just a penny! Seriously though, our hearts really do skip a beat when we receive a card or letter from someone far away that we love dearly.

Read 29:36 They were having revival, brought on by God.

30:1, 5-6 We read in these verses about a man named Hezekiah, who reigned over Judah from the throne in Jerusalem. His father had been king before him. He was an evil man, and when he died the kingdom was in a sad state. But Hezekiah learned from a young age what sin did to people, and he determined in his heart to bring the people back to God. He led the people to seek the Lord, and they found Him and revival ensued.

But Hezekiah was not satisfied that this revival be located just in Jerusalem. He wanted the whole world to be in on it, and so he sent word from border to border about what God was doing. V. 1 says the method chosen was letters, and v. 6 says the letters were carried by ‘posts’, or letter carriers.

You and I are supposed to be God’s mail carriers. We have a message from the King to deliver throughout the land. Today, news travels fast by the web and by email. Our church delivers God’s mail around the world to many thousands right into their ‘inbox’. But that lacks a personal touch until a man of God on the other end receives that message and relays it personally to the people around him there. It’s a personal touch when we send out missionaries to all these nations and they willingly submit themselves as letter carriers to share the good news with others.

The post office will tell you: it’s hard to find people who want to carry the mail. Most want to work behind the counter, in the sorting room, or behind 1 way glass supervising. Why is this? And why in the Christian world do so few want to ‘be the one’ to go out and personally hand deliver the mail for God?

Here’s some reasons I can think of:

• You have to show up every day, on time.

• You have to be willing to submit yourself and take orders from the postmaster.

• You must spend all your time and energy doing the will of someone else.

• You must accept the route you are given and must go there whether you want to or not.

• You have to study and memorize details, and as soon as you’ve got it down you are called to fill in for someone else and learn their job.

• You have to go house to house to those you like and those you don’t, maybe a good neighborhood, maybe not, maybe a white, maybe a black, maybe a Jew, and maybe a [Gentile] dog! But those on the other side of the tracks need to get their mail just like you do.

• You have to brave the elements in season and out of season.

Let me tell you about one who faithfully delivers the mail day after day no matter the circumstances...that one is known as ‘the postage stamp.’

The postage stamp is always faithful to bring the mail along...and it’s a good picture of the Christian. How so?

• Because of where it originated. The postage stamp can trace its origin back to a hill far away. It was invented by a man named Roland Hill who lived far away in England. And we as Christians can trace our origin back to a hill far away as well!

• Because of how it was named. The word post is the root word. Originally the post was just a wooden pole driven into the ground, and on it the king would tack up announcements and decrees and proclamations and they would stick there on public display with the king’s seal thereon so everybody who passed by would realize the king had made these official statements. For the believer, on that hill far away another wooden post stood, and on it God nailed up His love letter to the world. He put the King of kings on public display, and made the announcement of His love, the declaration of His mercy, and the decree of His grace.