2 Kings Chapter 5:20-6:23
Seeing What God Sees
We have been working our way
thru 2 Kings on Wed pm -
A) Sunday in-depth look at Elisha-
B) We saw a couple of Sunday’s ago – Story of Namaan
Syrian General
C) Great man / Honorable man
/ Mighty man of Valor – {Self made man –But a
Leper
D) NO CURE – doomed – {Servant go see Elisha
So Namaan goes to
A) He is going to approach this the way that he
doesn’t everything else – Make it happen
B) Elisha doesn’t even come out to meet him –
1) Go wash – 7 times – Namaan is Furious
C) Servant – If he would
have told you to do something great …………………
D) Namaan Humbles himself – goes to wash
1) He is cleansed
Great lesson in how God
resist the Proud and gives grace to the humble
A) Namaan rushes back to Elisha and wants to give him
a gift a present
B) Elisha refuses the gift: Can’t pay God – you can’t
buy grace.
C) Namaan wants some dirt – Wants to take some of
1) He is now going to worship Jehovah.
D) Namaan is more excited
about the dirt he is bringing back than the silver & gold
1) He is now more excited about eternal things than
all the treasures this world has to offer.
E) The story of Namaan is a great story- Ended there
awesome – but it doesn’t
1) The story is tainted by Gehazi the Servant of
Elisha {Covetous servant
F) Gehazi is earthly minded – Gehazi thinks Elisha is
wrong not to take the money
1) He sees this as an opportunity to capitalize on the
grace of God
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man
of God, said, "Look, my master has spared Naaman this Syrian, while not
receiving from his hands what he brought; but as the LORD lives, I will run
after him and take something from him."
Now can you hear the disdain in
Gehazi’s voice here. Naaman this Syrian,
A) Gehazi doesn’t see Namaan as a brother
now – but as a Syrian
B) Interesting that Gehazi – uses the phrase that
Elisha says in V.16 as the Lord lives –
1) but leaves off the last part – before whom I stand.
C) See we know that God lives – but do we stand in his
presence.
D) Because Gehazi has no real desire to be surrendered
to the Lord in that way
1) Gehazi Sees Namaan as someone he can get something
from – not give something to.
E) So he runs after Namaan's Chariot and catches it
1) Amazing how fast someone can run when there are
pursuing money.
RD v.21-27
Talk about being Busted
A
"His wife who was sitting next to him in
the passenger seat – said Oh, don't listen to him," "He's a smart aleck when he's drunk."
This woke up the guy in
the back seat, who took one look at the cop and moaned, "I knew we wouldn't get far in a stolen car." At that
moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a voice said, "Are we over
the border yet?"
BUSTED
27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall
cling to you and your descendants forever." And he went out from his
presence leprous, as white as snow.
Now why did God Judge
Gehazi so harshly here.
A)Gehazi is presenting a picture here of a God who is
in need.
B) God hates that – TV preachers–
We are going to go off the air – if you don’t give
1) Great go off the air!
{Don’t prop up
C) Listen God is not about to file bankruptcy!
1) And yet there are those
who make it seem that way.
God is a giver – He paid
the price – Finished
A) Nothing we can do to add to the work of God
B) But when a person or ministry makes God seem like
He is in need – Biggest insult in the world
C) God owns cattle on a thousand hills – He doesn’t
have need – He meets Needs
Question: Why does God
ask us to give – to tithe?
A) Answer not because He the need for us to give
B) But God knows that we need to give – Giving makes
us a giver like Him
C) And although God doesn’t need us to help Him do
anything – He likes to give us the Privilege or Partnering
D) He knows that things we invest in – Mean more to
us. - He
wants us to invest in the Kingdom
1) Building – God can & will miraculously provide
But at the same time – He wants to work thru us!
We see an example of that in
the Next story Ch.6
RD V.1-7
A) We looked at this story in our last Sun am time
together – from the personal individual pt of view
B) How we can lose that cutting edge – Steps to get it
back – {Power that is borrowed – Power of HS
Tonight I want to consider
this story from the perspective of what we can glean about building
A) This is great at a time when the nation is
suffering from Apostasy – School of ministry is
growing
B) There is a need for a larger facility –
1) They are going to start a building project
C) Question could God have miraculously had a new
facility appear? Absolutely –
1) But that is not what he chooses to do – Instead
these guys are going to work & sweat together
D) But when they are finished – They are going to be
closer to the Lord – Closer to each other
1) That
building is going to mean so much more to them because of the investment they
would make in it
E) Lessons about Building {What is needed
1) There was a
WILLINGNESS to Work
. A) These students in
Elisha's college knew how to work, and they were not above doing their own
work.
B) Willingness to get their hands dirty – God was going to unify in this
work
2) There
was a UNITY of Purpose – Nehemiah – they had a mind to work – to pitch in.
1) Our Building project – Aspects that we do.
2) Unified in the work
3) The project was
approached in a DISCIPLINED MANNER.
A) They sought Elisha’s
counsel before starting the project –
B) Godly counsel – from other
Leaders
3) The project ENCOUNTERED
DIFFICULTIES that were UNEXPECTED.
A) Guy lost his Axe head –
Problem – that stopped the work
B) Every expansion project
encounters such problems –
1) Hang ups – We need to cry
out to the Lord
4) They OBTAINED SUPERNATURAL
HELP when needed.
A) Elisha throws in a stick and the Lord caused the iron
to float.
B) God is going to provide supernatural help when
needed –
1) Look forward to hearing
the testimony of God’s grace and what he does.
C) But note – once God caused the iron to float –the man had to pick it
up.
1) Conceivably,
God could have arranged a way for the ax head to
appear right in the man’s hand without any effort on his part.
D) But this miracle worked in
a familiar way – God did the part only He could do, but He left to man the part
that he could do.
1) The man needed to reach
out and retrieve the Ax head
Pray for wisdom: Project –
God needs to move in the miraculous - - Provision/ approval
A) Project has been moving a long with out any hip
cups –
B) But it has been going a snails
pace –
1) Part of the way it is now in
C) We might be able to do some things that could help
speed up the process
1) Need direction – don’t want to strive
2) Not a Politician
C) Pray for wisdom: I
know that there are things that only God can do –
1) But I want to make sure that we are doing all that
God would have us to do.
2) Sensitivity to know the difference.
D) See God is way more involved in things than we
think!
1) The next Story illustrates that perfectly.
RDv8-17
The King of
A) But each time his plan is carried out it seems that
B) The Syrian King is convinced that there is a traitor in his midst –
1) Until one of his servants possibly Namaan says – It
is not a traitor it is Elisha
C) He tells the king of
So the King of
A) This is another reason I think the servant might
have been Namaan –
B) I am sure if this was Namaan he probably talked
about the greatness of Jehovah & his Prophet
1) Consequently the Kings sends a massive group
Big enough to surround the whole city
C) Well early in the morning Elisha’s servant goes out
and sees this massive army freaks –
1) Alas – Gadzooks
……………….
When Elisha comes out – He is
all calm – He is not alarmed –
A) I am sure the servant is thinking – what is wrong
with this guy we have had it.
B) Elisha responds – Hey
don’t fear man – those who are with us are more than those with them
1) Again the servant doesn’t get it – “There isn’t
anyone with us” –
C) Elisha Prays – open his
eyes –
What he sees is an army
of Angels
A) We need that spiritual perception – there is any
Army of Angels around us constantly
B) The Spiritual battle – Pull back the clouds
C) Quantum Physics –
talking other dimensions – they say you are so insightful
1) Christian starts talking about other dimensions and
we are nuts ….KOOKS
But it is true right now – in
the spiritual realm there is a battle
A) Daniel Prayed – Satan delayed the angel who was
bringing the answer– Michael came to the rescue
B) Angels are Ministering spirits – Battling
C) Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the
world.
We need to pray for
Spiritual perception.
A) Job said I look to the right hand Don’t see you
Look to the left – I don’t see you
B) But I see your work happening all around me!
For that reason Job declared
11 My foot has held fast to His steps;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the
commandment of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth
More than my necessary food.
C) We need to have that spiritual perception that
comes from the Word of God
Unless a person is born again
can’t see the kingdom
The things of the Kingdom are
nonsense
A) Those who are Born again – Spiritual perception
begin to see God’s hand
B) Learn from Studying God’s word that God often moves
in the Mysterious
C) So when we are in a tight Jam we need to remember –
Jesus words
For He Himself has said, "I will
never leave you nor forsake you."
6 So we may boldly say:
"The LORD is my
helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to
me?"
Psalm 27:1, 3, 5-6
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
3 Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.
5 For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me;
NKJV
So this servant's eyes were
open to see the Spiritual dimension that Elisha saw – that the Syrians saw
A) Then Elisha prayed that the Syrians would be blinded
RD V.18-23
Instead of SMITING them Elisha FED them
Great provision was made for them.
A) Paul the Apostle tells us how we are to treat our
enemies.
"If
your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If
he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For
in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head."
21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
B) COALS OF FIRE
ON HIS HEAD does NOT mean: “I’ll burn him by
being good to him; I’ll torture him with kindness”
C) In Biblical times, if the fire in your house went
out, you would go from house to house with a pot on your head and borrow some coals in order to rekindle the fire in
your house.
D) SO you would place burning coals upon their head -
NOT to burn them out, but to WARM them up.
E) They needed the coals because the fire had gone out
and things had grown cold.
So the implication here
spiritually is that your kindness to them is going to bring them around
A) It is going to get the fire burning in them again
B) You will win them over by good – not destroy them
by evil.
C) So Elisha says feed them and send them home
1) result was they didn’t attack again for a while
D) There is a time lapse between V.23-24
4 Things in closing:
1) God is able to deal with those like Gehazi who seek
to fleece the flock of God.
Sheep & Goats – We cast out demons –did miracles
He will say: Depart from me………
2) God is able to restore the cutting edge
3) God is able to take care of a whole Army.
4) Elisha is a type of Christ in dealing with sinners
In this story we see a picture of Salvation
A) We were blinded eyes opened – he fed us
Song of Solomon 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting table, and his banner over
me was love.