Depraved Indifference

You see, there is a cast system in heaven. But it's exactly backward from the cast system this world naturally creates. This world applauds and esteems the wealthy and the powerful and the privileged and the talented.

THAT'S NOT HOW GOD'S SYSTEM WORKS.

Jesus came and he proved it. He took the lowest spot, and HE WAS GOD.

The bigger you get in the kingdom of heaven the lower position you will take.

The special ones in God's kingdom are the weak ones. The ones that can't fight for themselves, the ones who can't speak for themselves, the ones that don't have someone to feed them, the ones that don't have someone to protect them. And Jesus says, 'Those are the prized ones. You treat them as royalty here on earth. And the way you treat them is ultimately the way you're treating me.' What you do unto the least of these is how you're treating your God. Christianity is taking what has been purchased by the cross, the behavior of heaven, the nature of Jesus Christ and transplanting it into the heart of men and women down here on earth, so that they behave not like this world, but of heaven! So when this world sees them, they're different! There is something odd about them, they are from another realm. What does it look like? It's Noble, it's brave, it's courageous, and it's selfless. It is willing to spend itself for the weak.

I was doing some studying on Liberia. If you want to be disturbed, start studying Liberia. This four year old boy, who's sitting on the side of the road. No one to comfort, no one to take him in. No shelter, no food. Nothing. So in the middle of that night, I wake up. And it's like God had already deposited a question, it was waiting to meet me when I popped awake in the middle of the night, 2 in the morning. I had this picture of this little boy in Liberia in front of me. And God asked me a question: What if that was Hudson? My four year old. What if that was Hudson?

You don't mess with a father's heart. What if that was Hudson? If my boy was on the side of a road, across the world from me, suffering, totally alone, not knowing what's happening- he's not old enough to comprehend this! He's abandoned. He has no one to fight for his cause. No one to give him a voice. He doesn't even know how to articulate his circumstances. He's hungry and no one's feeding him. He's starving to death. If my son is in that situation, put a concrete wall in front of me, I'll claw through it with my bare hands. This is my son we're talking about, and if I couldn't get there, then I'd call up every friend I have, and I would say "I have a son, over in Liberia. You call yourself my friend, I need you to get on a plane, and I need you to get to him. I'll give you the coordinates, I'll do whatever it takes, I need you to get to him, and be a father to him."

God's response: That's MY Hudson.

That's My Hudson.

He's looking to us, and he's saying, "I'm calling up everyone I know. Everyone on my list, that calls himself by my name that says they're a friend of God. And I'm saying, my son is over there in Liberia. Are you willing? To get on the plane and get to him?"

We have our cause, but we don't want to see it. And it's when we finally acknowledge the fact that something is wrong with us, not with the world out there. If we start with this little group here, and say, "God, you need to fix this."

 I suffer from Depraved Indifference. So do you.

Oh, we care, it's not that that doesn't move us at some level, to hear about this little child, over in Liberia, we care! But we can go home tonight and sleep just fine. How is that?

It's because there is an indifference to that life. And it's naturally born within us.

That life isn't affecting us.

It's not in our backyard, we're not related to it.

It's someone else's issue.

In fact, we start quoting scripture about God being the father to the fatherless, we're like "Thank you God, you're a father to that child."

He says, "Remember, you call yourself my body. I'm not there, except through you. Your hands, those are my hands. Your feet, those are my feet. That heart? That's my heart, if it's not beating, my heart's not beating on this earth anymore.

I work through my body. I'm a father to the fatherless through my body; I rescue the weak and the vulnerable, through you. And if you're not doing it, no one is!"

There is a solution for our disease, which is known as sin. It's Jesus Christ. There's a solution for these dying children, it's Jesus Christ. Might sound overly simplistic, but that's it.

That IS the solution, because Jesus Christ will change a man, into a man that feels what Jesus Christ is feeling. And he cannot stay in Suburbia, USA any longer and do nothing.

Heroes are made because they are moved.

Not in their head, but in their heart. You have to be moved at such a level that you would shed blood.

Jesus Christ was moved.

For God So Loved The World That He Gave.

And that son that was given suffered and died, for what? For the cause that is being laid before us tonight.

It wasn't head knowledge, about the disaster that was taking place in this world.

It was life abandonment unto the cause of those that are dying, unto the eternal souls that are around us.

Do we care at the level God Cares? Do we carry a burden? When we go home tonight, will we grieve over the fact that those children are God's children?

And he is longing for an advocate to stand up and say "I'M WILLING GOD, to fight for what is yours. I'm willing, God, burden me."

When Jesus was in Gethsemane, you know what he was there for? He was there for life. He was burdened with the weight of it all, for life.

He was willing to sweat great droplets of blood.

Are we? For our King and his glory.

We will rescue these little ones.


~ Eric Ludy, Message: "Depraved Indifference"