Johnny Hunt - Why Sit Here Until We Die? - 2 Kings 7

well thank you dr. Aiken I really came not really just to preach but to collect from dr. Aiken for the damage done to get ready and that's just a joke the cool thing is they will come again this year but they keep growing they're up to 20 so I guess if we can keep it up who knows Charlotte you'll be at 30 before you know it it is a real joy to be here I'm delighted to be here with the students and some parents time flies by it really really does I was a student on this campus and 79 gosh and some of these young students right now are thinking this man is ancient I hope you can even remember what he's going to say but it's amazing how time has just flown by I was here it was it was really different back in those days and I say very little about that because I'm so thrilled with what's happening on this campus today and I'm grateful for the way the Lord has allowed our family and our church to partner in this this campus in its ministry we had the privilege last night of staying in the Hunt house here and so our church fixed that up and so it's really really wonderful and so thank you dr. Aiken for inviting me and for allowing me to be here I was sitting there making some notes gosh 33 years ago I graduated from this institution when the Lord called me in to ministry I was 23 years old when I started as a student at gardner-webb college I'd only been converted three years and immediately God placed me in a local church as pastor that was not what I had in mind and let me just say this and I really mean that with all my heart I really struggled thinking you know I've only had a Bible in my hand for three years and I'm going to pastor people I got ready saying I'm ready to Pastor a people it's not ready and when we hear the statement that God does not call the equip God equips the caller I don't care if you have a seminary degree you're not going to be quit good pastor a church it's going to be so much that you're going to say nobody ever taught me this you just can't learn all that you're going to have to deal with in church and yet you're looking at a happy camper I absolutely love serving the Lord I love pastoring a church and being a pastor there but you have no no idea what God's going to do with you maybe one of the greatest single statements that really encourages my heart I heard John Bassanio former pastor First Baptist Church Houston say when he asked his father-in-law to be for his daughter to become his wife he said before he left the house that night he looked at him and said John be faithful you have no way of knowing where God is going to take you from here until when he's finished with you you just don't know you don't know what God is going to do with you everyone sitting in this room and when we surrender our life completely to Jesus I was in my prayer time this morning is just thinking about it again that if I deny myself and take up the cross and boy I have more trouble with me then than anyone else and I mean that with all my heart you know staying surrendered and desiring for King Jesus to use me but we really have no idea what God is going to do with us I came out of a government project raised by a single mom dad checked out when I was seven I stayed in trouble as a teenager I was converted at age 20 no purpose Direction life I dropped out of high school into tenth grade I had so violated the way I should be living when I was in like the eighth and ninth in the first part of the tenth that I really just did not take in much information those years and so I remember when I got in school and begin to take Greek and they would say you know like in the English and I thought helped me I didn't learn the English and so I've always felt at home and reading biographies of Bill moody when I thought God used him and they called him crazy moody so maybe God can use me I have no struggle when I read that God does not call the wise or the noble but he just uses something that really profound the world I mean that with all of all of my heart I was just sitting there and I just you know you're thinking you're all he's thinking about what you're going to say when you're going to speak and I wrote down God will use anybody and then I went to step for God can use anybody and I thought personalize it God will use you God can use you he's looking for those that will allow him to be himself it's not what you bring to the table that's going to make you so usable it's what God is going to do in your heart and plant in you that's going to make a difference listen to this statement somebody maybe really may need to hear this God majors on removing obstacles most people that really desire to do the will of God can come up with a list of things that need to happen before they can do what they really feel they ought to do and I thought boy if Jesus would just work in a heart and we would learn to leave the driving to him that was a good word that was a good place to say mean if you're looking insert one missed an opportunity right there so God got most easy so if you have your Bibles you want to follow along with me I want to read in 2nd Kings chapter 7 you know I entitled this message let's do something while we can let's do someone or better yet to take a text a title right out of the text why sit here until we die I don't want to come near the end of my life and we never know how close we are to that moment and just be full of the woulda coulda shoulda thoughts in our life the what-ifs but how God could use it so I want to sort of talk a little bit through the text and then kind of outline some thoughts that Lord has placed in my heart beginning in verse 1 then Elijah said hear the word of the Lord thus saith the Lord tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria now this will help us to hear this the text records the story of the Syrians and the Samaritans the Syrians Syrians had so dominated the Samaritans that things could not be possibly worse and there was I feel like what I'm going to do is speak hope out of the context of one of the worst-case scenarios in the Word of God if God can do something in this situation God can do something in your situation so it's meant to really be a word of hope there was famine futility and frustration let's see how bad it was you will not find anything this devastating anywhere else in the Bible women were bawling their children for food I'm glad I came away with inerrancy of Scripture and divine inspiration and infallibility to be able to say if God said it and if I don't even understand it I believe God said it and I really believe that this happened just like he said citizens were literally eating anything they could find I mean the Bible even referred to them eating dove wastes seemingly all hope was gone and boy people need hope did you know we can go 40 days without food I know some of you thinking now I'm by the starve I miss breakfast we can go for days without water for minutes without oxygen but I'll tell you I've found that it's hard to leave Lib for seconds without hope well we need hope these people need hope so a promise of hope was desperately needed and believe this believe this when God speaks and divine revelation to your soul through the Word of God in the Spirit of God you can believe there will always be a wrestling match with human speculation you will always throw your two cents worth in and sort of begin to create a scenario where you're saying god there's just no way this can happen and then we'll even begin to try to spiritually say the only way it could be different God would have to perform a miracle God is in the miracle business so the people of Samaria needed help they needed it now so those who know the good news are under an inescapable obligation to pass on the news to those who do not know it the Bible says in verse number 2 listen to this human speculation laid directly beside divine revelation God has sent a man of God and by the way our churches and our world in its desperation it seems like God always raises up the people of God and put such hope in their heart that they come into a desperate hopeless situation and really with this mindset I've heard from the Heavenly Father you have nothing to eat here but tomorrow about this time there will be plenty to eat so listen how human speculation responds to an officer an advisor on whose hand the King leaned answered the man of God and said look if the Lord would make windows in heaven could this thing be and might I just add God has made windows in heaven on three different occasions and I believe every one of us in the context of revival God has placed windows in heaven and God can open windows in heaven and pour out more of a blessing than you are able to receive in other words God will do more with you than you could have ever anticipated exponential and he said in fact you shall see it with your eyes but you should not eat of it here's a great one liner I don't know who to give credit so when I say something like that somebody will Google and come up and tell me afterwards here's who said it if you don't see it before you see it you'll never see it proverbs 29:18 where there's no vision the people perish or my favorite rendering where there's no divine revelation dream it translates the people cast off restraints and there is a lot of people just give up a lot of our churches we've given up on a lot of our nation's we've given up on them when God is speaking and we need to see that God can do something most people say I'll tell you I would never go to that church let me tell you about their problems to which I have responded for 25 years that's why they need you so you go in they may not have hope but if God's worked in our heart we're full of it and you stand up and you begin to tell what happens I remember going to a church that was pretty empty called First Baptist Church Woodstock it it split fired the pastor 5de ministry music why under heaven would you leave a good Church in the Carolinas that's baptizing more people than any other Baptist Church in North Carolina at that time was baptizing why would you leave that and go to a church to split the fires preachers because God sends you and God is into sending business you may be here this morning saying I'll tell you what I'm going to do I'm gonna plant a church you should not plant a church unless God told you to plant a church you may have told the Lord I tell you what I'm not going to one of these churches that have been Deacon running all these committees it's not your call I normally wait till near the end offend everybody and I'll be honest I really believe that's why we're in trouble instead of surrendering and humbling ourselves and saying oh god I need to hear from heaven let me know that this is you sending me there and by the way if God sends you there it's hard to leave it's hard to get out when things go bad you don't start sending resumes you go to the prayer closet cuz God sent you there who under heaven is this for right there I mean sometimes you just feel like God just sends you to say something it puts it in your heart to say it verse three now there was four left for his men at the entrance of the gate and I'll just throw my two cents worth the commentary in here what's so important of who the men were because if God can use sick leopardus men God can use poolroom operators kids raised with single parents guys and girls out of poverty God can use anybody so he sets it up and he said they're setting entry gate and listen to the conversation or having Bissell Bissell bless you why are we sitting here until we die sounds like a deacons meeting why are we sitting here until we die and that's what we're doing 80% of our churches are just sitting there until they dive and their finances run out they're closed their doors next couple of funerals that will all be over and then they said this if we say we will enter the city the famine is in the city and we shall die there and if we sit here we die also now therefore come let us surrender oh there's that word to the army of the Syrians if they keep us alive we shall live and if they kill us we shall but die I love language like that if somebody kills me I die if they don't kill me I get to live you do not need a Hebrew lexicon to interpret that but here's what I want you to see here's four people and daring a dilemma and you can't miss this and they're willing to obey God and go into the enemy camp even if it costs them their life and until we get to the point that we die to ourselves and we surrender to God to say whatever your will is I'm not going to allow the obstacles to keep me from moving I'm going to march at the drumbeat of glory and I'm going to do it for the glory of God regardless of what it costs me I tell you there's two things you can do something with for guys like this and then the other side is you can't do anything with for guys like this how are you going to kill people that's already died was a major obstacle I remember sitting in a pew at longleaf Baptist Church on 317 Shipyard Boulevard where I was converted in Wilmington North Carolina and there was a stirring in my heart that I couldn't explain I was a newer believer so I would ask my wife to go with me and we would go in kneel in the altar and just say Lord we feel like you're trying to show us something but I thought it was in this context that maybe you're not pleased with we are under conviction if you tell me nobody God what it is I want to confess it and come clean and so the next week we do the same thing I heard about a preacher that he would be in a service and almost every time they'd give an invitation he would respond and somebody came up to him one time said every time the preacher preaches and gives an invitation you respond why do you respond so much he said so I won't get like you so while we're in the altar on one occasion we begin to sense and this is really hard when you've quit school into tenth grade no male influence in your life there's the dad talking about insecurities and inferiorities in your life and now you sense God wants you to preach God is my witness it was sort of a joke like when I first whispered it to my wife not a hard time and I just said Janet believe God's calling me to preach she had the laughter of Abraham's wife I'm serious in Jesus name she really did and it's like yeah yeah you a public speaker you quit school because you wouldn't give a public book report God majors in removing obstacles and I struggled I really really really did struggle but I sense God moving so he removed us beyond it so the Bible says and they arose at Twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camps and this is a great word to their surprise no one was there if I had my Bible in my lap my setting where you set and I have a pen in my hand I would circle the word surprised and I don't tell you that's what God does when somebody obeys what he is challenging to do God will surprise you well I didn't think you had the money to go God surprised me how did things work out with the International Mission Board for you to end up over there if you got a moment for a story God so let me ask you something I know how long you been in the journey but when is the last time you experienced a divine surprise I mean how do you get from here to there all of us ought to be at a point of being surprised I'll tell you who is the most miserable leader in this room anyone that feels they got where they got without God's divine surprise maybe you can figure it out why I sort of ought to be there I did this right and I did this right and I did this right I want to confess this morning I've done nothing to be where I am now I'm totally surprised and if somebody says man I tell you what that church he's serving has grown by thousands I'm the first one to be surprised I preached all over the world I'm surprised they would ask me well it's a miracle I'm married to a woman that's not surprised I'll tell her sometimes you you won't believe who called and she says what you want for dinner I'm thinking I'm it's just like she don't even hear I'm serious and I'm saying no I you're not gonna believe who called where I'm going and she just says well there's a strange she'll say stuff like this I knew I've been living with you and since Scott was going to do something thank God for people this is good I'm glad I came so I can say this thank God for people in your life that believe in you when you don't believe in yourself and by the way most people that have ever amounted to something is because somebody else believed in them it's often been said if you ever see a turtle on a fence post know someone put it there so so in here it is again look at this next word verse six this message is not going to way I plan to preach it the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses and the noise of a great army so they said to one another look the king of Israel has hired against us the king of the Hittites in the King Egyptians to come and attack us therefore they arose and fled at twilight left the camp intact their tents their horses their donkeys and they fled for their lives did you notice in verses at six if I circle another word here's what I've circled caused how did how did this happen the Lord caused I'm telling you you don't talk about the sovereignty of God God's in charge God knows where you are God knows how to cause things to happen in your life how did you end up there I love it when I'm on a plane and you know you're sitting there and it's changed now but used to I was in a business suit most of the time but anyway now I be on the plane so fellow besides you will ask you so what do you do for a living he'll hand me its card why it's asking that and I'll just say I'm I'm a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and sometimes the expression on their face is like why did I ask you know and then then we get a little engaged they say so like you're like you're like a minister and I said we ought yes sir so so like do you have your own church yes yes sir I pastor a church in Woodstock Georgia so like so like what size of church do you pastor and I really wish they wouldn't ask that and so I just say you know it's a large congregation and we begin to talk so so you're in Woodstock is that your hometown no I'm from Wilmington North Carolina born in Lumberton I'm a Lumbee Indian so let me ask you then what what caused you to decide to move to Woodstock I never did you didn't decide no sir the Lord decided he caused it I believe that with all my heart no I was just minding my own business when God really spoke into my heart matter of fact I suggest to you if you're struggling about what you're supposed to do I would start a fast I'm serious I'd start a fast and I'm just I just go a day and I just say God I will end this when you want me to I've always been intrigued by that passage where it says and this type comes only by prayer and fasting read all of it you won't into it but I begin to think sometimes God what has not come as a result of not prayer and fasting so God led me on this extended fast in my life and it was during that time that God really spoke clearly into my heart about mentoring young pastors and so I've been in a relationship with this school for 18 years of ministering students got one here with me today another one back at home and so I've been ministering to students a year for the last 18 years to give credit here at the school and I don't think I'd ever known that I was in Tianjin China journaling praying fasting seeking God and in God the Bible says that God will share his secrets with the upright in heart and so I just feel like he let me in on some of his secrets for my life so God removed the obstacle and then look at verse number 8 and when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp they went into one tent and ate and drank and carried from its silver and gold and clothing and look what they did with it and went and hid them then they came back and entered another tent and carried some from there also and went and hid it the Bible introduced these four characters as setting on the outskirts of the city outside of the gate and the reason was because of their illness because according to the law in Leviticus a leopard would not come into the city gates they was set on the outside and anytime someone approached them as they were entering the city or leaving the city they were commanded to stand cut their hand over their mouths and cry aloud three times unclean unclean unclean you're talking about the misery of these four characters and and here they are sitting on the outside in their misery and yet God chooses to speak into their life through the message of the wonderful prophet Elijah you see here's where people are a lot of people are still sitting in contemplation at the gate what am I going to do in my life you're sitting here others move from sitting and complet contemplation to getting more through covetousness this is how this this passage is moving they have absolutely nothing there's nothing to eat there's famine in the city there's nothing there to eat that's why they're boiling their babies and while they're eating the waste of Dubbs in the heads of animals and God moves into that and then he gives some more than enough for themselves he not only gives them enough for themselves he goes I'm enough for the whole city I just want to go on record saying this morning if I never go to another Bible study class and I attend or teach Sunday school every week at Woodstock I've always attended Sunday school even as a pastor if I never attend another sunday-school class and never hear another sermon I have enough resources to tell everyone I meet for the rest of my life two good news of Jesus got everything but what I do is I do with the resources God's given me what these four men did once I get not only what I needed but even what I need to share back in the city where they're perishing I hide it that's covetousness I believe this is from James chapter 1 in the first three verses I looked at it's my favorite book in the Bible I believe one of the great sins that we as a nation will have to deal with at the judgment seat of Christ is the sin of loving pleasure so much in being such a covetous people that we don't support the work of Jesus as we ought to and I tell you I'll be glad to talk to you off stage about that in my recent research of how it's going south even now to underwrite ministry so they hid it but here's verse 9 and I'll talk about it and I'll wrap it up then they said one to another they're going to have another meeting they're ready to stop the sitting and contemplation they've contemplated long enough covetousness is a daddy in the great joy in life is not what you receive but what you can give it's more blessed to give than receive so they finally come to that point and they say look and listen to their language we're not doing right wow what a confession a conviction this day is a day of good news what's got good news got to do it this is the Old Testament Great Commission is second Kings chapter 7 and verse 9 and it says if we remain silent and that's what's wrong we're remaining silent it's not that we can define the gospel we must declare the gospel so why you're in the institution and believe me it's not just half in the institution it's happened in our churches we're talking about are we getting the gospel right it's a great conversation has helped me but honest to god there comes a time where you stop talking about where you got it right and go out and help people to get right in listen to this language and this is this might be our denomination if we wait until the morning light some punishment will come upon us could it be that our churches are in trouble because God has allowed calamity to come because of our lack of sharing the gospel with the neighbors and the nation's could it be it means trouble that comes it's a constant comprehensive word in the Hebrew that just speaks of the fact that your trouble that has come as a result of your sin of disobedience have collided in your your your in a major calamity Wow and it says come let us go until the Kings household I wrote these words you may just want to write them down and now pray with us verse 5 just simply reminds us of the Lord's control this encourages me Paul told Timothy that he at times is faithless but God is faithful God is in control the first time I ever spoke I can't believe I'm thinking of this the first time I ever preached at South Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary I was nominated by a student and you could nominate who you would like to address the faculty and student body to bring a message to us and so when I was a student here in about 1980 they nominated me and I won the vote and they tell me it's still in the library if somebody hasn't gotten rid of it and I preached here the message the blessing of being saved Psalm 126 and the choir sang and an african-american friend of mine did the solo and they sang he's got the whole world in his hands Wow I can't remember what I preached last Sunday and here I'm talking about what I preached here over 30 years ago as a student it was not received well among the faculty before you and that's all I'm going to say about that the Lord's control but let me let me show you something else even though God surprised them and caused some things to happen God has been good to me Augustine put it this way God has been good to me listen to this he's given me more than I need but he shown me others that need it it moves from the Lord's control and all he's done in your life and he moves to the lepers covetousness how how could I be stingy with what God has given me Deuteronomy 8 10 and 11 says it's the Lord who gives me strenght to earn wealth Paul said in tempting in Corinthians what do I have that I did not receive everything I had 1st Corinthians 15:10 I am what I am by the grace of God I have nothing to boast in I'm where I'm at in life because of King Jesus anything that's any good has ever happened or in me it's because of Jesus why would I want to take what God's given me and hide it but then they have their little meeting together and here's the words we're not doing right you know what that is old-fashioned Holy Ghost conviction have you been convicted lately when's the last time the Holy Spirit of God brought conviction that led to contrition in your life and then look what conviction did it did in their life what it's intended to do in my life it brought them to a time of confession what is their confession this day is a day of good news now if you don't believe that you won't do much with it it doesn't talk about it's a good day of good news to sit around a coffee table at Starbucks and debate theology and find out whether you reformed or not reformed or if you're one point two point three point five point five six point ever how many you've got while others are perishing and the point is they're going to perish forever so it's a day of good news but what is the good news that we go that's what they decide to do we've got to go with the good news I was talking to Josh Dorman is with me and we were carrying on a conversation yesterday about one of our friends is with the Lord now his name was Ron Dunn and Ron Dunn said there's a lot of things that you and I talked about their family secrets but most people that are alive today where you live are not part of the family why do we spend all our time talking about family secrets when there's so many not in the family so their conclusion is if we wait we're not going to wait to tomorrow morning we're going to go had time to deal with rest of it basically what it does is son everything he said would happen did happen the old fella that came up it was a naysayer churches you know you'll have a nice there you go somewhere and begin the cast vision of what you want to do for the glory of God the Coldwater Committee will call you in and they'll try to douse the flames of your heart it just happens and there'll be those that will say well god bless you young person and father the Lord would make windows in heaven like this thing be the Bible's just tasting to see that the Lord is good and the Prophet turns around I like I like a bowed preacher the preacher looks at him and says you shall see it with your eyes but you shall not eat of it I wonder how that meeting went and by the way at the end when they went out of the city to see what was happening but people got so excited when they found all the horses all the clothing and all the food that there was a stampede and the man was critical died in the Stampede and what the prophet prophesied was manifested I'm telling you God still desires to bless and to use his people and let me just close where I started he wants to use you and I will add and I was not asked to do this the students you asked pastor Johnny you may say well it shows at your alma mater no when I graduated from here I would have not sent my children here but when God brought the change that he brought here and for what is happening on this campus today I would beg now my grandchildren to come here I recommend first and foremost and we've got some wonderful institutions but there's one bright shining institution I would highly recommend this place and one of the reasons you want to come as they have me every now and then god bless you and God use you let's decide we're not doing right this is a day of good news let's not even wait till tomorrow morning's sunrise let's go and tell them we found everything that's needed to sustain our city in Jesus name we love you worship you bless you for Christ's sake amen

Channel: Southeastern Seminary

Views: 23,372

Rating: 4.6571426 out of 5

Keywords: Southeastern, Baptist, Theological, Seminary, Chapel, Message, Jesus, Preaching, God, Book, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Gospel, False Teaching, False spirits, Spirit, Danny, expository, Great Commission, Truth, Grace, Love, Discerning, Training, Education

Id: 5nY92-gVY70

Length: 36min 30sec (2190 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2015