2 Kings Chapter 4:1-44
Resurrection & Restoration
Ch.4
is a Chapter that deals with the subject of Resurrection & Restoration.
A) Two women One that is a widow 2kids
Another Not a widow but no kids
B) Then Chapter ends with a focus on
food
1) Poisonous stew & 20 loaves of
barley bread
C) We looked at the first story already
on Sun am two weeks ago.
1) Woman who
was a widow
.. Lose her two sons to Creditors
D) Asked what do you have in the house
Jar of oil
1) Borrow empty vessels
E)
She did so believing that God was going to fill them
1) Great story of faith Believing and
responding to the word of God
F) God filled those empty vessels
enough to pay her debt and to live on the rest
Pick it up in V. 8-10 We meet woman #2
RD V.8-10
She
is called a Notable woman or GREAT IN KJV
A)GREAT (gadol, gaw-dole). She is the only
woman in Scripture called Gadowl.
B)
The word is used in the Bible to speak of SPIRITUAL greatness, MORAL greatness,
1)
MATERIAL greatness and MENTAL greatness.
C)
She is the ONLY woman in the entire Bible described by this word.
One of the things that made her GREAT was
that she was a woman of hospitality.
A)
She persuaded Elisha to eat at her home
B)
Then she sought. with the approval of her husband, they
made a room for Elisha to stay in on his frequent travels through the
area.
C) Elisha prophesies that she will have
a son
RD v.11-17
So along came this son He was the child of PROMISE, the product of PRAYER,
A) He was
the PRIDE AND JOY of his parents; he was PRECIOUS to the prophet.
B) The birth of this child further
validated the ministry of Elisha
C) But now this great
woman. Great trial! V.18-21
Now
I want you to notice what she did She takes her dead son lays him on the
Prophets bed
A) Why? Not Preparing for a burial she was preparing for a MIRACLE.
B) This shows that she was a woman of
faith She was preparing for the Rez of the boy not his burial
C) Something in your life that has died?
What are you preparing for?
1) Burial or
Resurrection
2) Preparing that it is going to get
better or are you thinking it is going to get worse.
She was a
woman of Great faith!
A) Great faith is mentioned in
B) She is ONE of the two Old Testament women who
saw their sons raised from the dead.
1) We saw this other woman in
C) This woman was the other one SO we make note
she was preparing for a miracle RD V.22-26
Now this is interesting: Her son is lying
on the Prophets Bed Dead & yet she tells her husband and Gehazi that all
is well ?
A)
What is up with that? - Was she lying? Was she delusional?
B)
There are many Christians who will give you that answer when in reality they
are a mess.
1)
But I do not believe that is the case here. I believe that she is responding in
faith.
C) Though she was experiencing the WORST
possible thing that could happen to a mother she was GREAT in her faith & submission to the Lord.
D) She knew that Gods plan for her and
her husband and son was a PERFECT plan and thus this death would work to those
loving ends.
I
also believe that she was also EXPECTING a miracle
Hebrews
11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen.
B) She was believing for that which was
not yet seen.
Notice where she finds Elisha {
A) He was dwelling on the mount. Here is an IMPORTANT picture for us.
B) THAT is where you ALWAYS find men of
God. They are up on the mountain.
{Figurative
quiet spot
1)
Quiet place / quiet time / quiet heart receive Revelation from the Lord
C)
Examples in Scripture: Moses MT Sinai
1)
Peter on the Roof top / Paul in desert
Jesus Morning Prayer
D)
Are you a man or woman of solitude? Do
you know how to slow down? -
IF
you desire to be a man or woman of God, you must learn the secret the place of
ISOLATION...
A) The place of getting away with the Lord.
B) The place where there is nothing to
obstruct your view of God.
C) WHERE did Elisha, this mighty prophet
hang out?
1)
In front of the MTV? At the gym? NO!
2)
He was on the mountain with the Lord.
D)
So that is where she finds him { RD v.27-28
Here
we see something that is very important..... Something that Jesus spoke of
Here
we see in this GREAT WOMAN that her flesh is beginning to fail
QUESTION: Can YOU relate to this? I sure can!
A)
One minute you make a great proclamation of faith....
B)
You KNOW that the Lord is going to do something.... You KNOW that it is well
1) But the next minute your faith falters
C)
NOTE: When that happens, know this: You are NOT alone.
Every man and woman of faith in the Bible
had their times when their faith faltered.
A)Here,
this great woman was doing so well,
but now that she is in the presence of Elisha she falters: Didnt I tell you, Dont deceive me?
B)
NOTE: When this happens, RUN to your place of strength - PRAYER
Turn
to Psalm 77
Remember
your works
Remember
your wonders
Meditate
on your works
Talk
on your deeds
Hold
on to what you know is true: Promise given
Back to 2 Kings
RD V.29-37
Several things to glean from this story!
1)
Elisha is a Picture of Jesus
"Of course, there is a profound and beautiful use
to be made of the prophet's action in laying himself upon the dead child, mouth
to mouth, and hand to hand, if we regard it as symbolic of that closeness of
approach to our nature, dead in sins, which the Lord of life makes in His
incarnation and in His continual drawing near." (Maclaren)
When we were dead Jesus drew near He inhabited
our world
A)
The word became flesh and dwelt among us
B)
He became death experienced the fullness of death So we could experience
the fullness of his life
C)
He was the vessel conveying spiritual life to dead souls.
#2 A Picture of evangelism:
A) Identification
B)
It was PERSONAL CONTACT that made the difference. He touched this child
personally.
C)
He involved himself personally with this lifeless dead body!
1)
He THREW himself wholeheartedly into this situation. He
poured himself out.
D) For our purposes in witnessing you could
say that there was a total identification with this boy
Intensification
of Prayer
35 He returned and walked back and forth
in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him;
We need personal identification and
contact, personal touching of the lives of those who dont know Jesus.
A)
But that must be accompanied by INTENSIFICATION in prayer. Elisha was into it.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much
B)
NOTE: Many people might want to see
souls saved, but they do NOT see intercession as an
integral part of that work.
C)
Power of intercession: Pastor Chuck One ½ hr in
1)
Another in
D)
These things are badly needed in our lives as we seek to touch those dead in sin
1)
Identification / Intensification in Prayer
#3 Be Patience & Persevere
A)
We then read that the little boy sneezed seven times. Why is that important?
B)
When spiritual life begins to happen, it does NOT always come with a big bang.
1)
Sometimes its just a little sneeze.
C)
APPLICATION: Dont be disappointed if you only hear a sneeze after pouring your
life into reaching a lost soul.
D)
Some of you are witnessing this very thing in the lives of some of your
friends, or family members.
1)
When we hear the sneezes.....We can know that these first signs of reviving.
Most forest fires start with a little spark
A)
Most Revivals the same {little spark a few gathered to pray.
B)
SO this Great woman with a great need reveals great faith experiences a
great miracle
Move on to the poison stew
RD V. 38-41
A)Probably
not the smartest move Elisha says to one of these young guys go into the
wilderness and gather some stuff for a stew
B)
Young men not good at gathering eating yes
.
1)
They sit down to eat There is death in the pot!
We could say that today about
There is death in the Pot Something amiss
A)
Judge Alito Stand on Abortion
B)
Intelligent Design banned from schools
C)
The 10 Commandments like a mirror
1)
Mirror shows you if you are dirty
D)
The 10 commandments show us where we are dirty
1)
1981 our nation said We dont want to know we are dirty out of our Schools
/
E)
Out of the court houses
Death
in the Pot!
All
but two of the first 108 universities founded in
Harvard
today Coed Bathrooms in their dorms
Harvard
published it own Magazine featuring Nude Students Harvard Playboy
Death in the Pot!
Jesus said in the last days 2And because lawlessness will abound, the love
of many will grow cold
A) We
are living in those times all the Problems that we see in our Country
forsaken the Law of God.
B) 1980 10 commandments out of
schools - courts
B) Black
white white black {GRAY!!!!
40 +yrs ago 35 Americans were victims of a violent
crime each hr.
today 200 Americans are victims of violent crime every hr.
40
+yrs ago Violent crime made up 16.1% of the crimes committed in the
today
40+yrs later violent crime makes up 75.8% of crimes
committed
40
+yrs ago only 5.3% of the births in
today
40+ yrs later the # is 26.2 % - and that doesnt take into account the
thousands of babies that are aborted every day in the
#
4 in Divorce recent time Mag./
#
1 Violent crime
#
1 in Illegal drug use
#1
in Teenage Pregnancy.
#1
in Abortion
#1 in Illiteracy of the modern countries
There
is death in the Pot!!!!!!
Entertainment
World
Titanic
$600,788,1882
Star Wars $460,998,0073
Shrek 2 $436,721,7034
ET: $435,110,545
Phantom Menace
$431,088,2976
Spider-Man $403,706,3757
Revenge of the Sith
$380,262,5558
The Return of the King $377,027,3259
Passion of the Christ, $370,773,86711
The Two Towers $341,784,37713
Finding Nemo $339,714,97814
The Fellowship of the Ring $313,837,57717
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion,
the Witch and the Wardrobe, The
$271,700,000
BrokebackMountain $42,131,000
There is death in the pot Church goes
There
is a FAMINE on the land concerning the hearing of the Word of God.
It
is amazing how few places there are that simply TEACH
the pure Word of God.
There
is a lot of HYPE and Religious Activity but
very few places where the Word is taught and studied systematically.
Programs
and stuff for everything under the son
Church
is a social club ---
All
sorts of winds of doctrines and Christian fads (Laughing in the Spirit, barking
in the Spirit)
What do we do? Follow Elishas example
A)
Took some meal and thru it in the pot
B)
Meal symbolic of the word of God Get back to the Bible
C)
Our founding fathers believed this
Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of "The
Declaration of
Immediately
after creating the Declaration of
The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by
which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social
transactions....
The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to
form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws....
All the miseries and evils which men suffer from, vice, crime,
ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising
or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible....
Samuel Adams
The
rights of the colonists as Christians...may be best understood by reading and
carefully studying the institutes of the Great Law Giver and Head of the
Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written in the New Test.
Benjamin Franklin Address at the Constitutional Convention Thursday
June 28, 1787
"I
have lived, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I
see of this truth -- that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow
cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it
probable that an empire can rise without His aid?
We
have been assured, in the Sacred Writings that "except the Lord build the
House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I
also believe that without His concurring aid
we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of
I therefore beg leave to move -- that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance
of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly
every morning before we proceed to officiate in that service."
A)
John Adams Entered into his diary February 22, 1756
"Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for
their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the
precepts there contained! Every member would be obliged in conscience to
temperance, frugality and industry: to justice, kindness and charity towards
his fellow men: and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God....What a Utopia,
what a
Pt. When the Bible is
believed & obeyed it Changes lives
Death
in your marriage?
Death
in your friendships?
What
does the Bible Say?