1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:21,360 Good job. Thank you all for those songs. It's now time for Children's Church. We have any 2 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:31,000 children? Looks like we got one taker back there. We're going to be in Second 3 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:43,640 Kings this morning. Second Kings chapter 5. That's in the Old Testament. Kind of 4 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:56,080 toward the front part of your Bible. Second Kings chapter 5. This section of 5 00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:01,560 Scripture where this story comes from is a section that's talking about Elisha, 6 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:07,880 the man of God, and some of the miracles that he did. And tucked away in this 7 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:15,880 story, this section about Elisha, we see this story about a man named Naaman. This 8 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:22,960 story is just kind of stuck in there and short. Not really much else said 9 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:28,360 about it other than one reference Jesus makes to this very story in Luke chapter 10 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:35,120 4. So we're going to talk about it this morning. Let's pray and we'll jump in. 11 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:40,160 God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word. I pray that your Holy 12 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:45,040 Spirit would be in this place today. I pray that your Holy Spirit would take 13 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:49,760 control of the words that come from my mouth. I pray that your Spirit would open 14 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:55,120 our ears and our eyes to see what your word says, to hear what your word says. 15 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:59,880 God, I pray that you would help us to be free from our worries and distractions 16 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:04,400 of the world. Dear Lord, whatever our burdens are that we bring into this place 17 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:08,840 today, I pray that we lay them down before you now. I pray that you would 18 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:12,360 help us to hear what we need to hear, that we would not miss your word, dear 19 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:16,480 Lord. That we would gain the encouragement that we need, dear Lord, the 20 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:20,720 guidance and instruction that we need. I pray that you would hide me behind the 21 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:24,840 cross, that I would preach and teach in a way that brings glory to Jesus Christ. 22 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:30,240 And we would all leave here today, dear Lord, drawn closer to you than 23 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:38,120 when we came in. And I ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Second Kings chapter 24 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:47,320 5 verse 1, Naaman, commander of the army for the king of Aram, was a great man in 25 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:53,000 his master's sight and highly regarded because through him the Lord had given 26 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:00,600 victory to Aram. The man was a brave warrior but he had a skin disease. Now 27 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:05,880 we know very little about Naaman but what we know about him comes from this 28 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:12,720 verse. Naaman was a brave warrior. He was a commander for the king of Aram. Now if 29 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:17,640 you don't know the Arameans or you're not familiar with Aram, you see them from 30 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:24,320 time to time in Scripture and they are kind of an arch nemesis of Israel. They 31 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:28,600 are always at odds with Israel and if you continue to read into the next 32 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:33,480 chapter you will see that play out even more. But the people of Aram in 33 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:38,360 Israel were constantly feuding and battling and at war with one another. Now 34 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:47,520 Aram was a grandson of Noah. It was the son of Shem. And Aram, the Arameans are 35 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:53,080 the descendants of Shem but not only the descendants of Shem because when it 36 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:57,680 talks about the phrase Aram, it's not just talking about Shem's descendants, 37 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:01,840 it's also talking about kind of all the people that live in that region. So when 38 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:06,800 it talks about Aram, it's really describing a region. Now the region of 39 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:11,640 Aram was to the northeast of Israel. So if you know in your mind kind of where 40 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:16,480 Israel is on the map, you go northeast a little bit from there and that's where 41 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:22,920 you will run into Aram. So these were not God-fearing people. These were people 42 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:29,120 who were at odds with Israel all the time. And so Naaman here is this brave 43 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:36,200 warrior but Naaman has a problem. And Naaman's problem is that he has a skin 44 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:43,800 disease of some sort. Let's continue on. Verse 2. Aram had gone on raids and 45 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:49,760 brought back from the land of Israel a young girl who served Naaman's wife. She 46 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:55,080 said to her mistress, if only my master would go to the prophet who was in 47 00:04:55,080 --> 00:05:01,320 Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease. Okay, so here we see a little 48 00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:07,320 more of the story. As the people of Aram were feuding and in conflict 49 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:11,940 with Israel on one of these raids that they went in to attack Israel, it says 50 00:05:11,940 --> 00:05:19,240 that Naaman had brought back this girl from Israel to be a servant to him. Now 51 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,960 Naaman's got this skin disease. We see that he's brought back this servant girl 52 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:29,800 from Israel and the servant girl remembers Elijah. She remembers the 53 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:36,320 prophet Elijah and she says, look if Naaman would go to Israel and he would 54 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:42,440 seek out this prophet, he would be healed of his disease. Now we could pass over 55 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:47,240 this passage real quickly. There's not too much information there. We could pass 56 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:51,880 over this servant girl but let's stop for a second and realize what's taking 57 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:57,440 place here. Here is a girl that has been abducted from her own land. She is taken 58 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:03,400 to a foreign land. She is forced to serve other people and yet there is some 59 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:10,120 desire, it appears, that she cares to see Naaman get well. She wants to see Naaman's 60 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,440 disease cured. She could have just said, look you guys stole me. You brought me to 61 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:17,080 a foreign land. I'm having to serve you. I don't care if your skin rots off. That 62 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:22,200 could have been her response but it wasn't. Instead she showed some care for 63 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:27,800 Naaman in saying that there is a cure for Naaman if she would only go see the 64 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:33,600 man of God. If she would only go seek, if he would only go seek out Elijah, there 65 00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:39,400 would be some cure for what was ailing him. Now if the servant girl would have 66 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:44,200 kept her mouth quiet, we wouldn't be reading this story today but I think the 67 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:48,760 servant girl is a good reminder that you never know where you might be that God 68 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:53,200 may can use you. You may be in a place you don't want to be at. You may be 69 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:57,400 surrounded by people that don't care anything about you, people that you don't, 70 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:02,160 that you don't even really like that much but you never know where God can put you and 71 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:06,520 maybe the work that God wants to do through you is not seemingly very 72 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:13,040 significant to you but maybe it has more effect than you realize. If this little 73 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:16,600 servant girl hadn't spoken up we'd never know the story of Naaman. We would never 74 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:22,080 get to see the miracle that is about to take place but nonetheless the servant 75 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:27,720 girl remembered the man of God and pointed Naaman in the right direction. 76 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:34,280 Let's continue on. Verse 4. So Naaman went and told his master what the girl 77 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:40,720 from the land of Israel had said. Therefore the king of Aram said, Go and I 78 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:45,760 will send a letter with you to the king of Israel. So he went and took with him 79 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:54,640 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and 10 changes of clothes. He brought the 80 00:07:54,640 --> 00:08:00,440 letter to the king of Israel. Okay so you can imagine this the king says, Alright 81 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:04,840 Naaman you want to go see this guy? I'll send you to this guy. Naaman had 82 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,400 told the king what the girl had said and so the king writes a letter and we'll 83 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:12,160 read that in a second and he sends all these gifts with it so you can imagine 84 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:16,080 the scene. You're a king, you're wealthy, you got a lot of gifts, you're 85 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:20,480 sending a letter to another king in another land, you're trying to seek some 86 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:25,040 kind of favor from him and so we're going to bring gifts. Okay there's going 87 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,280 to be a healing that takes place and as payment for this healing, as a reward for 88 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:33,000 this healing, they're gifts for this healing that we are anticipating that we 89 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:37,840 are expecting. We don't come looking for a handout so he sends all this silver 90 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:42,160 and all this gold and clothes to where it's going to be a long journey and all 91 00:08:42,160 --> 00:08:46,280 of these things Naaman takes with him along with a letter that the king wrote 92 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:52,800 and it read, When this letter comes to you note that I have sent you my servant 93 00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:59,480 Naaman for you to cure him of his skin disease. Now this seems a little odd 94 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:04,480 because the girl didn't say go to the king he's going to heal your skin 95 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:09,920 disease. Now maybe the king of Aram something got lost in translation. For 96 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:15,360 whatever reason he sends a letter to the king of Israel and says look my 97 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:19,360 guy's got a skin disease and it needs to be healed would you heal it? Now the king 98 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:24,280 certainly didn't have any power to heal a skin disease. Maybe the king of Aram 99 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:28,760 just assumed that the king of Israel would send him to the right spot. I don't 100 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:33,320 know but nonetheless the letter says look king I'm sending you my guy you 101 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:37,560 heal him. Well the king of Israel takes offense to this as we see in the next 102 00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:44,480 verse. When the king of Israel read the letter he tore his clothes and asked, Am 103 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:50,200 I God killing and giving life that this man expects me to cure a man of his skin 104 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:56,640 disease? Think it over and you will see that he is only picking a fight with me. 105 00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:01,000 So the king of Israel receives this letter and he does not does not 106 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:05,520 appreciate what's going on here. He thinks that the king of Aram is kind 107 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:09,680 of trying to poke the bear a little bit. Obviously they're both in conflict with 108 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:13,560 each other. This is a long-running conflict and the king of Israel thinks 109 00:10:13,560 --> 00:10:17,200 he's just trying to trying to pick at him trying to pick a fight trying to 110 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:21,440 cause trouble with it. It says that when he read the letter he tore his clothes. 111 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,520 This is something we see often in the scriptures usually when people are 112 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:30,040 grieving or it's a time of repentance whatever it may be. Perhaps he thought 113 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:33,880 this letter was blasphemy. He says look who does this guy think I am? Does he 114 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:38,760 think I'm God that I have the power to heal this man? You may remember that that 115 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:44,200 when when when those who had Jesus on trial before his crucifixion asked him 116 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:49,840 if he was the Messiah Jesus said I am and it says that the priest tore his 117 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:54,760 clothes. He thought what Jesus said was blasphemy and maybe that's the same idea 118 00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:59,400 here. Maybe the king of Israel thought that this letter from Aram was 119 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:03,560 blasphemous that he would suggest that somehow he had the power to heal 120 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:07,880 somebody. So things aren't going very well. Namens in a foreign land he had 121 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:11,720 brought all these gifts he had brought the letter he was seeking help for his 122 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:16,920 skin disease but when the king read the letter he did not have a good response to 123 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:23,520 it. He was very angry at what he read. Let's continue on in verse 8. When Elijah 124 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:28,920 the man of God heard that the king of Israel tore his clothes he sent a 125 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:35,360 message to the king. Why have you torn your clothes? Have him come to me and he 126 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:40,680 will know there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and 127 00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:46,840 chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. Alright so things are 128 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:51,480 getting a little better. Elijah hears word of what's going on. He finds out 129 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:57,480 about what the king's what that he tore his clothes and Elijah says look send him 130 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:02,240 to me send him to me and he will know the power of God. He will know that I am 131 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:08,640 genuinely a prophet of God. So Naaman goes on his way and he goes to Elijah's 132 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:16,560 house and seek of a cure for his disease. Verse 10. Then Elijah sent him a 133 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:22,920 messenger who said go wash seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be 134 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:29,680 restored and you will be clean. Alright this is this is pretty simple advice. 135 00:12:29,680 --> 00:12:34,520 This is not hard to understand. Everybody in here understands what Elijah just 136 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:39,080 said. You go to the Jordan River you dip in it seven times and you're gonna be 137 00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,080 healed. These are this is a super simple thing to do. This would have been so 138 00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:47,160 easy for Naaman to do. It wouldn't have been any trouble for Naaman to do. It 139 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:51,520 wouldn't have taken much time for Naaman to do. It's just that simple. Here's the 140 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:55,700 command you want to be healed you come to seek to be healed. Here is the way in 141 00:12:55,700 --> 00:13:00,680 which you are going to be healed. Now the story could end right here. It could just 142 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:04,920 say and Naaman went and did as Elijah had said and he was healed from his 143 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:09,260 disease but the story does not end there. Now you would think that Naaman had 144 00:13:09,260 --> 00:13:14,580 come all of this way seeking a cure that whenever the cure was presented to him 145 00:13:14,580 --> 00:13:19,800 that he would simply do what was commanded but that's not what Naaman did. 146 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:27,760 Let's read the next verse. Verse 11, but Naaman got angry and left saying I was 147 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:33,440 telling myself he will surely come out stand and call on the name of Yahweh his 148 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:40,200 God and will wave his hand over the spot and cure the skin disease. Now wait a 149 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:45,120 minute what in the world is going on here? Naaman comes to seek a cure. 150 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:52,760 Elijah the man of God says this is the cure and Naaman gets angry. Naaman gets 151 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:59,800 angry. Why? Because he wasn't cured in the way that he thought he should be cured. 152 00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:05,680 What did he expect? He said I expected the man of God to come out here and wave 153 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:11,400 his hand around and say you're cured and I would be on my way but that's not what 154 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:17,280 happened. That's not the way that God works sometimes. Do we ever get angry at 155 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:22,800 God? Do we ever have struggles and pains and sorrows and sicknesses in our life? 156 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:27,800 Do we have things that are difficult for us that we want we want to have some 157 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,640 restoration in our life? We want to have some peace in our life? We want to have 158 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:36,720 some deliverance in our life and we pray and we seek God and then all of a sudden 159 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:41,120 we're expecting God to work this miracle and wave his hands and do things in the 160 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:47,880 way we expect and God doesn't do it. God doesn't instantly wave his hand over us 161 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:53,080 and say you are healed. Sometimes God has different ways to 162 00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:58,400 fulfilling his plans. Sometimes God has different ways of bringing about healing 163 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:03,280 in our life and we have the way that we want. We want it to happen now. We want it 164 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:07,680 to happen quick. We want it to be no inconvenience of us. We don't want to 165 00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:12,320 have to do anything. We just want to say God here's what I need. God you do it and 166 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:16,600 let me go on my way. We don't really like to put in a lot of time. We don't want to 167 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:20,040 put any effort. We don't really want to have to seek God in any way. We don't 168 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:23,720 have to be obedient to God. We don't want to have to serve God. We just want to say 169 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:28,840 God here's what I want so you do it. And how many times maybe have we been guilty 170 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:33,640 of having that attitude and then God doesn't respond in the way that we want. 171 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:39,280 God doesn't do things in the manner that we want and we get angry with God. 172 00:15:39,280 --> 00:15:44,000 Naaman says look this man's a man of God. He could just wave his hand over me and 173 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,400 cure me and he was angry because he didn't have instant deliverance from 174 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:56,360 his skin disease. Let's see what he says moving forward. Art, Abana, and Farpar, 175 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:02,080 the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel. Could I not wash in 176 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:10,400 them and be clean? So he turned and left in a rage. He was missing the point. He 177 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:15,680 was missing the point that is most important. It's not so much about the 178 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:22,560 action. It's about obedience to what God was commanding him to do. What God was 179 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:28,540 commanding him to do was be obedient to what Elijah had told him. But what Naaman 180 00:16:28,540 --> 00:16:32,240 was thinking about is he was thinking about just the physical that he could see. 181 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:37,280 He says the Jordan River, that's nothing. Now there's nothing really fancy about 182 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:41,080 the Jordan River. We hear the Jordan River a lot. We see the Jordan River in 183 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:47,360 Scripture and the Jordan River is a cool place scripturally but it's not 184 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:52,000 really that great of a thing. It's a pretty narrow river. It's not a very deep 185 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:56,440 river, three feet to ten foot. It's a super small river. There is nothing 186 00:16:56,440 --> 00:17:00,040 fancy. There's nothing special. It's definitely not one of the greatest 187 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:05,080 rivers in all of the world and that's what Naaman said. Wait a minute. I come 188 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:09,400 to see this man of God. I'm expecting this great healing and of all the places 189 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:14,160 he tells me to go, he tells me to go to the Jordan River. What is special about 190 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:18,000 the Jordan River? There's nothing great about the Jordan River. He said the 191 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,600 rivers in Damascus are better. Here's a couple of rivers, Abana and 192 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:25,400 Farpar. They're far better than the Jordan. If I wanted to go dip and be made 193 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:31,120 clean, why wouldn't I go in those? But he had totally missed the point. You see, 194 00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:37,040 the healing was not coming from the waters of the Jordan River or the 195 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:42,760 Abana River or the Farpar River or the Mississippi River or any other river. The 196 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:48,120 healing was going to take place when Naaman was obedient to what God had 197 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:54,880 called him to do. How many times in our life may God be calling us to do 198 00:17:54,880 --> 00:18:01,120 something? How many times in our life do we miss what God's calling us to do 199 00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:06,320 because we don't think much of it. It doesn't look like the works of God the 200 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:10,480 way they should look, at least in our minds. And we say this is what God's 201 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:17,640 calling me to do? This is it? I don't want to do this. But what we have to learn is 202 00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:23,760 obedience to God because that is how God begins to work in our life. When we are 203 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:29,520 obedient to God and begin to listen to God, then God can begin to work in our 204 00:18:29,520 --> 00:18:35,640 life. Then God can begin to bring healing to our life. Then God can begin to bring 205 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:42,680 restoration to our life. So what about us today? Do we read the Word of God? Do we 206 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:47,000 hear the Word of God? Do we listen to God as the Spirit speaks to us and leads us? 207 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:52,520 Are we obedient to what God calls us to in our life? Maybe there's healing and 208 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,400 restoration that we're seeking today and maybe God desires healing and 209 00:18:56,400 --> 00:19:00,480 restoration in our life, but maybe what God wants of you today is for you to 210 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:06,560 stop living for yourself and to humble yourself before Him and to be obedient to 211 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:11,600 His words, to His commands. We might find a lot of our struggles and a lot of our 212 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:16,540 pains and a lot of our worries and a lot of the problems we get ourselves into. We 213 00:19:16,540 --> 00:19:22,160 make it escape a lot of those things if we simply lived in obedience to God. If we 214 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:29,480 simply did what the Word of God says. Are we doing that this morning? Maybe you say, 215 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:34,040 oh yeah, I'm doing what the Word of God says. Well, maybe you are. Maybe you're not. 216 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,160 Maybe there are some areas in your life where there's some disobedience, where 217 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:42,040 there's some things that God's Word has called you to do and you know God's Word 218 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,760 has called you to do it, but you just don't do it. You don't want to do it. You 219 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:48,800 don't like it. You don't understand it. You think it's dumb. You don't understand 220 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:52,440 why God would work this way or want you to do this and therefore you just don't 221 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:57,560 do what God's Word says. You just completely disregard the Word of God and 222 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:03,360 when we do that, we miss the blessings of God. When we disregard what God's Word 223 00:20:03,360 --> 00:20:08,280 says, when we fail to live in obedience to Him, when we fail to seek Him and let 224 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:14,600 Him guide our life, then we totally miss the blessings of God. And Naaman was 225 00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:19,240 about to miss the blessing of God. He was about to miss the restoration and 226 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,720 the healing that he so desperately wanted that he had traveled all that way 227 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:29,200 far all because he didn't like the answer that he got. All because God didn't 228 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:34,760 tell him what he wanted to hear. And so Naaman hears this. He says, look, I ain't 229 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:37,520 going to the Jordan River. There ain't nothing fancy about that 230 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:43,320 river. I'm going back home and he leaves to go back on his way. But listen to what 231 00:20:43,320 --> 00:20:50,200 the scripture says. But his servants approached and said to him, my father, if 232 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:55,480 the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? 233 00:20:55,480 --> 00:21:03,280 How much more should you do it when he tells you, wash and be clean? Praise the 234 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:06,760 Lord for a servant, sir. They spoke up and they said, wait a minute, wait a 235 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:11,000 minute, hold up Naaman. What if this man of God would have come and told you to 236 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:15,880 do some great and miraculous and mighty thing, would you have done it? He probably would 237 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,280 have. After all, he was a brave warrior. What if Elijah would have said, alright 238 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:22,680 Naaman, I want you to go and I want you to bring back the heads of ten of your 239 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:26,560 enemies. Naaman would have probably said, I'm going to do it. I'll be back tomorrow 240 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:30,020 by lunch. And Naaman would have went and done it. He would have went and done the 241 00:21:30,020 --> 00:21:33,760 great thing that would have made him feel good. It would have been this big, 242 00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:39,640 mighty, awesome, wonderful thing. But he didn't want to do the least little thing. 243 00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:43,960 His servant said, look, wouldn't you have gone and done it? If Elijah would have 244 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:48,920 told you something wonderful to do, you would have been right on it. But he tells 245 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:53,920 you to do the most basic thing, to wash and be clean, and you're not going to do 246 00:21:53,920 --> 00:22:00,880 it. What about us in our life? Are there ever things that God calls us to that we 247 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:07,200 consider too trivial for us to serve God in that way? Because we like to 248 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,640 serve in the big ways, in the good ways, and the ways that people are going to 249 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,960 recognize, and the big fancy, oh I want to serve in this way, I want to serve in 250 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:21,120 that way. But maybe the way God calls us to serve is things that are not quite as 251 00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:26,160 desirable. Maybe we say, God I want to serve you, give me an opportunity to 252 00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:29,960 serve. And in our mind we're thinking of some big grand opportunity that God's 253 00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:33,600 going to put before us, and maybe God says I want you to go minister to the 254 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:38,800 Alzheimer's patients at the nursing home. I don't want to do that God, I don't want to go 255 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:43,240 there, it's stinky, it's scary. Those people aren't even going to remember what I 256 00:22:43,240 --> 00:22:46,560 say next week. I want to do something great for you God, I don't want to do the 257 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:52,640 little thing. But maybe the little thing is something great for the Lord. Maybe 258 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,800 the little things that God calls us to that we don't consider important enough, 259 00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:02,680 maybe they're the most important things in the kingdom of God. Perhaps sometimes 260 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:07,360 we're guilty of looking at the great things that we can do for the Lord, all 261 00:23:07,360 --> 00:23:12,320 the while not recognizing that the great things we can do for the Lord may be 262 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:17,640 some of the smallest things that you could possibly ever imagine. And we can 263 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:22,600 come up with lots of excuses why we can't do the small things, but maybe it's 264 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:28,880 the small things today that God is calling you to. If God said today would 265 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:35,600 you do something great? Would you do it? Maybe. But maybe today what God's saying 266 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:42,480 is there's a little thing I want you to do. Would you be faithful to do it? If 267 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:46,160 we're faithful with a little, we're faithful with a lot. But if we're not 268 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:50,520 willing to be faithful and serve God in the small things, then we're probably not 269 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,720 going to serve God in the big things either. And if our desire is to do the 270 00:23:54,720 --> 00:24:00,520 great things, then maybe our desire is not to bring glory to God, maybe our desire 271 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:05,520 is to bring glory to us. Maybe our desire is to say, oh let me tell you about this 272 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,440 great big trip I went on, this fancy mission trip I went on, this great thing I 273 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:16,040 did, oh I did this wonderful thing. Maybe when we boast in such things, maybe we're 274 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:20,360 not boasting in God at all. Maybe we don't care about the people we serve at 275 00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:26,120 all. Maybe we just care about ourselves. So maybe there are some little things 276 00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:30,440 that God's calling you to do. Some things that you've overlooked, some things that 277 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:36,600 you didn't think were worth your time. Maybe they are. If God's put it on your 278 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:41,040 heart and God called you to do it, then you need to do it. The servants of Naaman 279 00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:45,840 said, look, if you were told to go do something great, you'd be all about it. 280 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:52,560 But what you're told to do is be obedient and wash and be made clean. And 281 00:24:52,560 --> 00:25:00,640 Naaman, listen, praise the Lord. Verse 14, so Naaman went down and dipped himself 282 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:07,560 in the Jordan seven times according to the command of the man of God. Then his 283 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:15,080 skin was restored and became like the skin of a small boy and he was clean. 284 00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:23,120 Naaman finally got it. Naaman listened to his servants. Sometimes we need people 285 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:26,880 like that in our life. Sometimes we're kind of boneheaded like Naaman. 286 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:31,280 Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees. Sometimes God's trying to work in 287 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:35,480 our life and God wants to deliver us and God wants to help us and we are 288 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:39,880 just so dead set against it that we totally miss what God's trying to do and 289 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:44,040 how God wants to deliver us. Sometimes we need people in our life to come up to us 290 00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:49,120 and say, hey, wake up. Wake up, brother. Wake up, sister. God wants to help you. 291 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:52,440 God wants to heal you. God wants to restore you. But you got to humble 292 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:56,140 yourself before God. Sometimes we need those people in our life. Sometimes you 293 00:25:56,140 --> 00:26:00,360 need to be those people to other people. Sometimes other people need to be that 294 00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:06,680 to you. But Naaman's servants came to him and said, look, would you listen to what 295 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:12,720 God has called you to? Would you just humble yourself before the Lord? And he 296 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:19,000 did. And Naaman did exactly what Elijah said. And would you believe that when 297 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:25,840 Naaman was obedient to God, that God restored him, that God blessed him, that 298 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:33,480 God delivered him? It seems so simple. It seems so simple that he should just 299 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:38,160 listen to God and that God would be with him. It seems so simple that if he would 300 00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:42,400 have just been obedient to God and humbled himself before God, he would have 301 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:47,200 experienced the power of God. It seems so simple. Why wouldn't he just do it to 302 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:53,680 start with? Why won't we just do it to start with? It seems so simple that God 303 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:59,000 gives us his commands and he gives us his instructions. Why won't we just do it? 304 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:04,720 Why won't we just listen to God in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our 305 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:10,560 sickness, and the midst of our sorrow? Why won't we just seek God and listen to him? 306 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:16,280 Why do we seek to do things that bring greatness upon us? Why are we too proud 307 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:22,880 to do the small things of God? Why are we too proud to say, God, I need you. God, I'm 308 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:28,880 struggling. God, I'm falling apart. God, I'm sick. God, I need help. And maybe today 309 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:33,360 God is telling you, if you would just seek me, if you would just humble 310 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:37,720 yourself before me, if you would just follow Jesus Christ, if you would just 311 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:43,920 follow my commands and live in obedience to me, I would bless you. I would 312 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,560 lift your burden. I would bring you peace. You could get out of so many situations 313 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:52,480 if you would stop living like a fool and start living like a wise man. You could 314 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,200 get out of so many situations if you would stop fighting with everybody that 315 00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,000 you see and start loving your neighbor as yourself. You could get out of so 316 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,560 many situations if you would just be obedient to me. You could get out of so 317 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:09,200 many worries if you would stop looking at what is before you and start 318 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:13,520 looking at my word. You'd be so much better off if you'd stop worrying about 319 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:18,000 all the junk in the world and the elections in the world and who's gonna 320 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,840 be the leader of the world and look to Jesus Christ who is the head of the 321 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:27,400 church. If we would just seek God and his word and live in obedience to that word, 322 00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:34,880 we would be so much better off. But instead we live worried and afraid and 323 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:43,080 angry and diseased because we won't humble ourselves before the Lord. God will 324 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:47,880 bring healing to our life today. God will meet us where we are. God will work in 325 00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:51,880 our life in ways that we probably can't even understand, ways that don't 326 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:56,800 make sense. He'll tell us something silly like go dip in this in this river seven 327 00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:01,240 times. Whatever it may be, sometimes the things that God calls us to do not make 328 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:05,080 any sense. It does not seem like that there's any way if we do that that it's 329 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:10,960 gonna help our situation. Yet if God calls us to it we need to be obedient to 330 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:16,880 his word. If Naaman wouldn't have listened to his little servant girl he 331 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:21,060 would have died with that skin disease. If that little servant girl didn't have 332 00:29:21,060 --> 00:29:25,080 the boldness to speak up even in a foreign land as servants of a foreign 333 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:29,920 people then a miracle of God would have never been able to take place. If Naaman's 334 00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:33,720 servants that were with him wouldn't have spoke up and said, man pay attention to 335 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:40,720 what's going on, then Naaman would never have experienced healing in his life. But 336 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:45,240 all of these people were in Naaman's life. God put all of these people in just 337 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:50,800 the right place at just the right time but something was required of Naaman. He 338 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:55,880 had to be obedient to the word of God. He had to humble himself before God and 339 00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:03,320 when he did that God brought healing to his body. His skin was made like the skin 340 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:10,880 of a young boy. Healing was brought to Naaman's life. Restoration was brought 341 00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:18,680 to Naaman's life. What about you this morning? God wants to restore you. God 342 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:23,080 wants to be with you. God wants to strengthen you. God knows what your 343 00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:29,240 struggles are. He knows what your pains are. He knows where you are and God wants 344 00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:34,040 to bring you peace. He wants to bring you restoration today. But will you let him? 345 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:38,920 Are you trusting him? Are you trying to do it yourself? That's the problem we 346 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,400 have. We try to do it ourself. We want to help God out a little bit but maybe 347 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:46,840 today you just need to humble yourself before the Lord and stop trying to help 348 00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:52,400 yourself and start trusting in God and living in obedience to his word. Let's 349 00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:57,800 pray. Father God we come to you we thank you for your good word. We thank you for 350 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:02,800 this little story that's just kind of kind of tucked away dear Lord. We thank 351 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:08,000 you for Naaman and his obedience and I pray that we can learn from his doubt 352 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:14,560 dear Lord. Maybe if we admit it we are much more like Naaman than we care. Maybe 353 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:19,400 we're a person that's it's not too good dear Lord. Those Arameans they were 354 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:25,160 pretty wicked folks but nonetheless dear Lord you still work in the life of 355 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:29,520 the wicked and what a blessing it is for us today. We praise you God that you 356 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:35,200 still work in the lives of the wicked because God we are wicked sinners today. 357 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:40,560 We come before you today and we are diseased with our sin and our anger and 358 00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:47,040 our pride and our selfishness and and God the list goes on and on. Dear Lord we 359 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:51,480 are diseased and we are burdened God and we come here today and there are some 360 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:57,400 that are hurting dear Lord and I pray that they would seek you God. I pray that 361 00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:01,560 like Naaman they would take the first step dear Lord. That today that as we 362 00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:05,720 look at this story that they would know that there is that there is one who can 363 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:11,720 bring healing to their soul to their body to their heart God. Dear Lord Naaman 364 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:17,000 heard that word from his servant girl and he listened to it God. I pray today 365 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:23,160 that that we have heard that word that we would know today dear Lord that there 366 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:27,720 is someone who can help us and dear Lord our help comes from you our help comes 367 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:32,520 through Jesus Christ who gave his life on the cross so that we could be forgiven. 368 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:37,800 So dear Lord I pray that we take the first step. I pray that you would help 369 00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:42,080 us not to doubt you dear Lord or be angry with you today because you don't 370 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:46,800 work the way that we think you should. Dear Lord we want to be delivered in our 371 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:51,360 pains we we don't like going through seasons of of just difficulty dear Lord 372 00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:55,600 and God we pray today and we know that if it be your will that you could just 373 00:32:55,600 --> 00:33:01,360 say the word and everything would be would be right in a moment and dear Lord 374 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:07,280 should you choose to work in that way then so be it. But God so many times 375 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,560 that's not your will so many times dear Lord you work in our life through our 376 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:15,840 situations in ways that we cannot understand you don't just wave your hand 377 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:20,480 you don't just say the word and things are better. Instead dear Lord we have to 378 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:25,360 run this race with endurance. So God I pray that you would help us just to hold 379 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:30,040 on to you today that you would help us to seek you today dear Lord. We need your 380 00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:35,080 blessings God we need your joy we need your peace we need to feel your presence 381 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:40,080 God. So I pray that we would step out today that we would seek you that we 382 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,960 wouldn't doubt your word that we wouldn't question your ways but we would 383 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:47,280 know that you have not forgotten about us that we are where you have brought us 384 00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:52,280 today and you have not brought us here to leave us here to abandon us God. But 385 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:54,880 maybe there's some here today and you brought them here today because they 386 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:58,360 need to seek you maybe they have never put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. 387 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:04,400 I pray that today that they would find true healing in Jesus it can only come 388 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:10,760 through Jesus dear Lord. God I pray that you would help us to never overlook the 389 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,160 things that you call us to do that we would never say that those things are 390 00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:20,320 too small for us to do dear Lord. God let us be willing to serve you in every way 391 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:26,200 even the ways that won't bring any recognition even the ways that might be 392 00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:30,160 dirty even the ways that might be out of our comfort zone that we remember dear 393 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:35,480 Lord it's not about being recognized it's not about how good we feel it's 394 00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:39,360 about serving you and serving others that they may know the love of Jesus 395 00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:44,120 Christ. So I pray God that you would help us to do everything we do for your glory 396 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:49,040 and for your kingdom and never for ourselves dear Lord. I pray God that we 397 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,680 would listen to your word today. God maybe there are those that we think of 398 00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:56,520 in our life this morning and maybe we need to be like the servants of naming 399 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:00,600 and we need to go to them and say look brother look sister listen to the word 400 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:06,660 of God. God maybe there are some of us today and and we are naming and we need 401 00:35:06,660 --> 00:35:11,940 this reminder in your word that we need to lay down our pride and we need to 402 00:35:11,940 --> 00:35:17,520 listen to you dear Lord. I pray that today that we would be obedient to your 403 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:21,480 word I pray that today that we would humble ourselves before you dear Lord 404 00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:28,160 just as Naaman did just as he humbled himself to do what you called him to do 405 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:34,360 to live in obedience to your commands dear Lord let us be like Naaman today so 406 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,200 that we can experience what Naaman experienced so that we can experience 407 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:42,720 the restoration this morning dear Lord. I pray for those who are here today that 408 00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:45,640 are that are struggling that are going through life it's tough I pray that you 409 00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:49,600 bless them that you protect them that you would encourage them today and I 410 00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:54,320 pray God that each one of us in this place would humble ourselves before you 411 00:35:54,320 --> 00:36:01,000 as we have this song of invitation and I ask these things in Jesus name amen. 412 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:05,840 As we stand and sing this morning if God has spoken to you in some way today if 413 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:10,200 you want to pray where you are that's fine use this opportunity to respond to 414 00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:14,480 the Lord maybe maybe you need restoration in your life maybe God's been working on 415 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:19,400 and maybe today you want to humble yourself before the Lord. I pray that you do so. If you need to 416 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:24,120 pray this morning come up front I'll be glad to pray for you but as we say now 417 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:51,160 is your opportunity to respond. 418 00:36:54,120 --> 00:37:09,160 I made my life to rest something surrender your all to me 419 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:15,960 wherever he leads I'll go 420 00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:23,960 wherever he leads I'll go 421 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:31,400 I'll follow in my Christ who loves me so 422 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:38,360 wherever he leads I'll go 423 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:42,720 Amen thank y'all for coming this morning I hope everybody has been blessed by being in the 424 00:37:42,720 --> 00:37:47,040 house of the Lord I hope to see you guys back tonight five o'clock we're going to 425 00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:50,920 go to Hebrews chapter 11 talk about Abraham a little bit we got food we got 426 00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:54,400 some great food so if you want to come and eat and be part of that fellowship 427 00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:59,080 study about faith be back here tonight at five o'clock. Brother Sonny would you go 428 00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:13,640 close for the prayer.