Desperation, Part 3 Sunday, August 17, 2014
“When All Else
Fails … Read the Instructions”
28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your
old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both
men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 30 I will show wonders in the
heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to
darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. Joel 2:28-31 (NIV)
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on
Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among
the survivors whom the Lord calls.
Joel 2:32 (NIV)
“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
21 Days of Prayer and Fasting
Read the instruction manual
But also apply the instruction manual
Expert
on Bull Runs Gets Gored By Bull
Every year revelers from around
the world head to Pamplona, Spain to take part in the running of the bulls
glorified by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. The festival, a heady nine-day mix of
partying and adrenaline-chasing, draws hundreds of thousands of people from
around the world to Pamplona, a city of around 300,000. Fifteen people have
been killed in the bull-runs since records began in 1911. The most recent death
occurred five years ago when a Spanish man was gored.
Bill Hillman, a 32-year-old
Chicago-based journalist, is an expert on the event. He even co-authored a book
subtitled "How to survive the bulls of Pamplona." But on July 3,
2014, just knowing about bull running, even knowing enough to write an
instruction manual on bull running, wasn't enough. A 1,320 pound fighting bull
named Brevito lagged behind the pack just before entering the city's bull ring
at the end of a rain-slicked run in the annual festival. At the opportune time,
Brevito gored Hillman in the right thigh and a 35-year-old Spanish man in the
chest. Both men recovered, but the co-author of Hillman's book 's told The New
York Times, "We will probably need to update the book."
1 And Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the
ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the
left.
3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy,
he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began
to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved
and the metal images. II Chronicles
34:1-3 (ESV)
16 years old – began to seek God
20 years old – began to clean up the country.
8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land
and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of
the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. 9 They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been
brought into the house of God, … 10 And
they gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord. And the workmen who
were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house. II Chronicles 34:8-10 (ESV)
26 years old – began repairing the house of God
Two things close to God’s heart: REPAIR
and RESTORE.
14 While they were bringing
out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given through Moses. 15 Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the
secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. … 18 Then
Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.”
And Shaphan read from it before the king. II Chronicles 34:14-15, 18 (ESV)
Absolute Necessity:
REDISCOVER God’s Word
Question: If they had not been guided by the Word of God, what had guided them?
19 And when the king heard
the words of the Law, he tore his clothes. 20 And the king commanded … saying,
21 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah,
concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of
the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the
word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.” II Chronicles 34:19-21 (ESV)
Our first response:
REPENT
22 Do
not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone
who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks
at his face in a mirror 24 and, after
looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect
law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have
heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:22-25 (NIV)
29 Then the king sent and
gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 And the
king went up to the house of the Lord, with all
the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the
Levites, all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all
the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. II Chronicles 34:29-30 (ESV)
Our second response:
READ
7 Days of Saturation
31 And the king stood in his
place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes,
with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that
were written in this book. 32 … And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according
to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33 And
Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to
the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. II Chronicles 34:31-33 (ESV)
A Vision!
1 Now all the people
gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to
bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the
Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh
month. Nehemiah 8:1-2 (NKJV)
4 So Ezra the scribe stood
on a platform of wood which they had made for the purpose; … 5 And
Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and
when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6 And Ezra blessed
the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!”
while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to
the ground. Nehemiah 8:4-6 (NKJV)
7 Also Jeshua, Bani,
Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah,
Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, helped the people to understand the
Law; and the people stood in
their place. 8 So they read distinctly from the book, in the
Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. Nehemiah 8:7-8 (NKJV)
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who
taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor
weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law. 10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat,
drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:9-10 (NKJV)
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