"Kicks Just Keep Gettin' Harder To Find"

                Everyone knows the story. Nebby had a bad nightmare....and wanted somebody to explain it.....but he knew they were just going to flap their gums to settle the old king down. So he demanded that they describe the bad nightmare first....before explaining it! Good luck with that....but along came Daniel to save their bacon. After Nebby died....Belshazzar's knees were shaking when he sent for Daniel to explain the handwriting on the wall. 
                Americans....even American evangelicals.....are not going to be interested in Bible prophecy until they get that bad dream.....or there is some handwriting above the television. There's been a hundred such examples as I will choose here and relate if there has been one....and it plays out the same every time. OK....aah....how about the sniper from that Las Vegas hotel a few years ago....or really any one of the school shootings? We are....almost to a man or a woman....horrified as they happen....and we all gather around the television. Folks there could be a live Steeler game on and these things will take our attention away! We offer a prayer....sort of....words anyway....and then...two or three days later....if not sooner....that mass murder is filed away in our brain somewhere....in as much as forgotten....but that Steeler game is fresh in our mind....because this is a seventeen game season.....(I think I got that right)....and every game counts to making the playoffs!
                  We are just not that interested in what so many say....(like Billy Graham....or now John MacArthur)....that God is telling us! We demand the dream or the handwriting before we commit to anything.....and folks....that didn't even help Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar that much. Nebby was in the habit of praising this powerful God....and then going about his normal business....and Belshazzar was just a criminal caught with the goods.
                   Even for people who read all the Jonathan Cahn bestsellers....we need a constant fix. We have to have a new book at least once a year from somebody. We come down off of a prophecy high....and have to light up again. I have seen this for forty years. Trump knows this....he has to shock every time he is before a camera or the people will get bored!
                   We have to have the praise music.....not for God.....but for us. We search for a church with great worship music. A Mighty Fortress Is Our God....or....O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing....just doesn't do it anymore. And forget those Psalms as songs....there's no beat there. You gotta at least have a beat.
                   In 1966 the pop/rock group Paul Revere And The Raiders took a chance on an anti-drug song.....Kicks Just Keep Gettin' Harder To Find....and this when drugs were just getting popular. You gotta keep the kicks coming....the intoxicating praise coming....the ancient mysteries explained coming.
                    So....all this just to say what I've been increasingly harping on....The preached Word of God is food....nourishment. You have to have it....and not just a hot dog and fries. I read that giving robins bread is not good because it fills them up but does not give them the nourishment they need. So I put some peanut butter on the bread now....but the other day I had to do some digging in my yard....and as I turned over some earth there were worms....big fat worms....so I put down the shovel and got out of there....and watched the robins have a nutritious feast.
                    So you will hear a sermon in about twelve hours. Try this test. When you leave....what is on your mind....the sermon you just heard....or the plans for the day? If it's not the sermon then rush home and boot-up a Spurgeon or a Lloyd-Jones or a Piper or a MacArthur sermon....and then see what is on your mind after you listen to it.