The Cure for Spiritual Barrenness
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Intro
Intro
Text - Galatians 4.26-27
26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children Than she who has a husband.”
Title - The Cure for Barrenness
The Problem of Barrenness
The Problem of Barrenness
What is “barrenness”
What is “barrenness”
barrenness is infertility; the inability to produce;
barrenness was considered a tragedy, a big misfortune, and a curse in Bible days
a barren womb is considered a dead womb.
It cannot produce a child to continue the name/life of a family
ex - Abraham’s body and Sarah’s womb were considered dead at their age
barrenness is worse than being “unfruitful” - it is a condition similar to being dead
unfruitfulness - can be resolved by careful farming
good soil - by cultivation
good seed - by choosing the best seed
good attitude -
barrenness - needs life; needs a miracle;
a barren land cannot be cured by cultivation
Spiritual barrenness is a big tragedy
Spiritual barrenness is a big tragedy
We should never take it lightly.
Indications of barren Christians
a powerless testimony - when your testimony is despised and spurned
a stagnant knowledge of the truth - when you are not growing in your understanding of Bible truths
a useless/non-functioning life - when your life have no useful function in the body of Christ
a defiled Christian life - when you have been influenced by worldly principles and ideas
The Cure to Barrenness
The Cure to Barrenness
Ideally, no Christian should be spiritually barren because he/she has the Spirit in him/her.
It is like Canaan, the “Land of Milk and Honey.”
11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven,
12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.
12 “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.
13 And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.
14 You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
But when it happens, we need to find the root cause in order to find the cure.
The cure to barrenness depends on the type of barrenness that is going on in one’s life
generally, barrenness are of 2 categories
first, those that God uses to serve a purpose in His plans; this is entirely in the hand of God
second, those that cannot be cured without the proper action on our part
Questions
Are concerned when our life becomes unfruitful in spiritual matters?
Do we want to come out of spiritual barrenness?
Types of Barrenness
Types of Barrenness
1./ Sarah type of barrenness
1./ Sarah type of barrenness
God is waiting for the right time to open the womb and make it fruitful
however, the person involved must be actively living in faith
Examples
Sarah herself - she gave birth to Isaac at exactly God’s time Genesis 18.10
14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
Manoah’s wife - she gave birth to Samson at exactly God’s season
Elizabeth - she gave birth to John (the Baptist) at the right time
The CURE - just wait for God’s time
Do what God tells you to do
be there when God does His work
2./ Rebekah type of barrenness
2./ Rebekah type of barrenness
God is waiting for someone to claim the promise
Example
Isaac - he pleaded with the LORD Genesis 25.21
21 Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Isaac’s situation was different from his father’s
he was not an old man
The CURE - plead with God; PRAY
"take God at His Word”
Isaac claimed a promise of God, and God granted his prayer
3./ Hannah type of barrenness
3./ Hannah type of barrenness
God is waiting for a commitment, a vow
Example
Hannah - she made a vow to God 1 Samuel 1.10-11
10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.
11 Then she made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.”
unlike Isaac’s prayer, Hannah did not receive answer from God until she was desperate enough to make commitment before God.
The CURE - your commitment; when God answers your prayer, what will you do for God in return?
commit - make a promise to do something
desperate people make promises
Hannah was desperate, but her promise was faithful and true
The Firstfruits of the Barren Womb
The Firstfruits of the Barren Womb
What you do with the firstfruit is important to God.
The firstfruits of the barren womb have special roles in the plan of God
Notice - all children born by barren women served God in special ways
Isaac - he became the seed of Abraham in the natural
Jacob - he produced the 12 tribes of Israel
Joseph - he became the savior of their family and the whole region in a time of great famine
Samson - he judged Israel
Samuel - he became a judge, a prophet, a kingmaker
John the baptist - he became the forerunner of Christ
The firstfruits belong to God
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.”
15 “Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.
The firstfruits must be set apart for God
30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”
Isaac was separated from the rest of Abraham’s children
4./ Idleness type of barrenness
4./ Idleness type of barrenness
God is waiting for your action
Signs of a barren Christian life
Signs of a barren Christian life
a powerless testimony
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
a stagnant knowledge of the truth
a useless/non-functioning life
a defiled Christian life - influenced by worldly principles and ideas
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
barren - grk. ARGOS; useless; having no beneficial use; incapable of functioning usefully
having a form of godliness but without power
ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth
Example - the fig tree parable: it was the only one in the field that would not bear fruit; the problem was not the ground, but the itself.
a Christian SHOULD BE fruitful in his/her understanding
useless/unused in the kingdom
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
barren - grk. ARGOS, useless, idle, incapable of functioning usefully
Christians who do not function to become useful in the body of Christ are unfruitful
10 For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11 whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.
12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
Idleness is a sickness of spirit; a disease of attitude
Cretans are said to be “lazy gluttons”
13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
14 not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.
15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
its cure lies in the person himself
Idle/barren Cretans are “defiled”
The CURE - time for some action
they have been influenced by non-apostolic ideas, making them useless in the body of Christ
2 Peter 1.5 - giving all diligence
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Paul warned Titus not to appoint Cretan elders who were insubordinate and “idle” talkers
Example - defiled/contaminated soils
Conclusion
Conclusion
Back to the text -
The Church is the freewoman from heaven
The joy of the church is her children - not her material possessions.
SONG
Heal me O Lord
What a Healing Jesus