about tonight to Elisha. Elisha is the prophet
of God and he has this really interesting interaction
with a lady that we're gonna learn about, the
Shunammite woman. How many of you guys ever heard
of Shunammite? The Shunammite woman. This is
like one of those stories that I've read and
I've heard about but today I read all the way
through and really thought about and it's a pretty
cool story. And we're in this, a series called
Seeing God's Hand at Work, walking through this
character study in Elisha. Here's the big idea
for today's lesson. If we want to see God's hand
in our lives, one of the ways we can see God's
hand at work is in the meeting of the needs of
others. Sometimes God uses us, sometimes God
gives to us so that we can be a blessing. to
other people. That's part of what God does and
one of the ways we can see God work in our lives
is to allow him to use us to impact other people.
And so if we're going to do that, if we want
to see God's hand in the meeting and the needs
of others and being a part of that, we must have
the kinds of motivation shown to us in the life
of the Shunammite woman as she interacts with
Elisha. So if you have your Bibles, 2 Kings Chapter
four is where we're going to be. This helps us
to kind of learn about Elisha and what happened
here. Now, interestingly, and I think this was
the lesson last week. Elisha at the beginning
of chapter four, were you in the second chapter
four last week? I came in late. I paid really
close attention. But yeah, second king, chapter
four. Elisha in that story is dealing with a
woman who is impoverished. She doesn't have a
lot. Today's lesson, he's dealing with this Shunammite
woman, and the Bible says that she's a great
woman, or she's a rich woman. She does have a
lot. And the reason why I put, as I kind of crafted
this objective statement, this sermon in a sentence
that we do, we're talking about kinds of motivations.
We can see in this particular story, This woman
interacting with Elisha and interacting in her
circumstance based on certain motivations of
why she's doing things. And I kind of want to
point out that her motivation here, these are
right motivations. These are not the total number
of right motivations you can have to see God's
hand in meeting the needs of others. You can
have other motivations other than the ones I'm
going to say. But it's these kinds of motivations
that God uses to help us to really work through
us to help meet people's needs. How many guys
have ever been in a situation where you had the
opportunity to help somebody out and you did
it and you're like, that was awesome. You ever
had that happen to you? The Bible quotes Jesus,
not in the gospels, but Paul quotes him in one
of his epistles, and he says, what Jesus said
was that it was better to give than to, what?
Receive. It really is better to give than to
receive. I'd rather be in a position where I
get to give than to be in a position where I
have to receive, right? Now, receiving's fun,
too, right? It's not that it's always bad, we
like to receive, but it's definitely better to
give than to receive. You guys wanna just dive
into a story? That's what we're gonna do tonight.
The first motivation we're gonna see is that
this lady, this Shunammite woman, she was motivated
by, first of all, in this first section, she's
motivated by honor. Motivated by honor. Now,
look at 2 Kings chapter four, starting in verse
eight. Here's what it says. And it fell on a
day that Elisha passed to Shunamm. She's a Shunammite,
cause she's from. Shunem, there you go, right?
Are we Finleyites? What are we? Finleyians? Are
we Finleyians? Right? What's someone from Faustoria?
What are the? Huh? The Foe Towners, okay. I think
you just made that up, but that's pretty cool.
What are the New Regalians? New Regalians, okay,
very cool. All right, I like that. So it fell
on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem. Where
was a great woman? Now that great there, it means
that she was notable, she was rich. This is not
talking about her being a large lady. She's a
good lady, okay? She's a rich lady, right? And
she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was
that as off as he passed by, he turned in thither
to eat bread. As I was reading this text, I was
like, this lady sounds like kind of like a country
folksy. down south southern lady. Hey, come on
in. Like, here's Elisha. Hey, I got an extra
seat at the table. Come on, I got extra food.
We got another seat, right? How many of you guys
have ever had hospitality like that? Like you
just happened to be around at dinnertime and
said, no, you can stay. Come on, come let's eat,
right? She constrained him. You ever have someone
that's so nice they don't take no for an answer?
That's what's going on here, right? And so it
was that as often as he passed by, he turned
and thithered to eat bread. What does that mean?
I think I might come around here a little bit
more. Every time I come out here, she's asking
me to come and have some bread. Verse nine. And
she said unto her husband, now this is pretty
cool, this great woman, the Shunammite woman,
said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive
that this is an holy man of God which path is
passeth by us continually. She's she's saying
this guy is a guy who walks with God. This guy
is a guy who has a connection with God. So I
got a plan. Verse 10. Let us make a little chamber.
I pray thee on the wall and let us set for him
there a bed and a table. a stool and a candlestick
and it shall be when he cometh to us that he
shall turn in thither." So what does she say?
Hey if he's gonna come by here all the time and
he's not from here you know back then they didn't
have Motel 6 or Hampton Inn or that kind of thing.
Hey let's make it really high not only does he
come by and get bread and eat with us, let's
make it so that he has a place to stay. He's
got a bed, a little nightstand, Gideon Bible,
you know, candlestick, the whole nine, right?
Let's make it comfortable for this guy. In a
lot of churches, maybe one day we'll get one
of these, they have... They have missions apartments.
Everybody's heard of a mission apartment. What
it was is that sometimes at some churches they
put a little, they have an extra room somewhere
and they put a basically a living area, couches,
that kind of thing and a bed maybe. We call it
a missions apartment and years before that they
would call that a prophet's lodge or a prophet's
chamber. That's what some people would call that
thing. It may have come from this little thing
right here this idea of this guy that comes through
and we're going to be hospitable saves the church
on a hotel bill and lets us use this room and
do that kind of a thing I believe and we're going
to see this as we go through here this lady was
a lady it literally tells us that she and we're
going to see more evidence that she was she had
some means that she was wealthy in the sense
of That time, I believe I'm reading between the
lines, okay? So this is not convictional like
the virgin birth for me is convictional. But
it seems to me that when I read this story, that
this is a lady who maybe wouldn't have been able
to express it this way, but understood this idea
of sowing and reaping. That when you're generous
and you're giving and you're helpful, that tends
to be reciprocated. Right? This is a lady that's
looking for an opportunity to be a blessing.
I don't believe, and we're gonna keep reading.
You'll see why I'm saying this. I don't believe
that she is motivated by greed. I don't think
she's motivated to be generous to the man of
God, the man of God here, the prophet, that he's
being generous so that she can get something
back. Like she's trying to like manipulate God
into doing something for her. You may have heard
me say recently, you can't manipulate God, right?
But I do believe that she's motivated by, hey,
this is a man. In fact, she says, she gives in
verse nine, her motivation or her reasoning for
verse 10. Do you see that? I see that this guy,
Elisha, I perceive, and she says, behold now.
Behold. What does behold mean? Look at this.
Think about this. Hey, honey. I want to tell
you something. This is important. I get that
this guy is a man of God. This guy is a guy that
walks with God. He comes by here all the time.
Let's make provision for him. Let's be a blessing
to him. I want to be generous to him. And I think
there's some, it seems like, again, reading between
the lines, I love the Lord. He loves the Lord.
He walks with the Lord. God's using him. we need
more of that in our lives, right? I wanna be
around people and I wanna honor people that honor
the Lord, that walk with the Lord, that live
for the Lord. Does that make sense? And so it's
her motivation, I think, and her generosity is,
and by the way, when you are around those kind
of people and you bless those kind of people,
aren't they a blessing back to you? I think there's
a little bit of that there. Again, I'm not saying
she's, Trying to get that back in her life as
the motivation, this greed motivation, I think
she's actually motivated and wanting to honor
Him and running to honor the Lord. So I think
she's motivated by honor. I believe that God
uses us to be a blessing to others when we have
a heart to want to honor the good, to want to
honor the godly, okay? Second thing. motivated
by humility look at verse 11 now check it out
verse 11 and it fell on a day that he came thither
he meaning Elisha he came thither to her place
and he turned into the chamber and lay there
and he said to Gehazi his servant call this Shunammite
and when he called her she stood before him so
he's got this Elisha has this servant that's
going with him, and he goes in there, and you
can, okay, I'm painting between the lines here.
He goes into this prophet's lodge, this place
that they've set up, and you can tell it's almost
like, hey, this is comfortable. Hey, we need,
hey, get that lady up here. This is a good idea.
This is so nice. She was being so kind to us.
I wanna talk to her, right? So he goes and gets
her, she comes up, verse 13. And he said unto
him, say now unto her, So apparently he's communicating
through the servant. Behold, thou hast been careful
for us with all this care. Careful here, we use
the old English word, we use the English word
now careful as like, don't be dangerous, don't
do something dangerous, be careful, right? Oh,
I see Jeff go up on a ladder. Be careful, Jeff,
right? That's what we do, I'm sorry. Be careful,
right? But here, I think the idea here is you
have taken pains to care for us. You've been
full of care for us, right? What is it to be
done for thee? Wouldest thou be spoken for the
king or to the captain of the host? So what's
Elisha saying? Elisha essentially is saying,
hey, you have been so kind. You've been so good
to us. I want to be a blessing back to you. Do
you want me to put a good word in for you with
these notable people that I have influence with,
with the king or with the captain of the soldiers,
the security of the area. What do you want me
to do? And she answered, I dwell among mine own
people. Now every time I, every commentary I
looked at that, looked at that, essentially says
the same thing, that this expression was her
saying, I have everything I need. I'm with my
people. My people care for me. I care for them.
I don't need anything. I don't need any favor
from anybody notable. I'm fine. Again, that tells
me that she wasn't doing the honoring to get
something back from Elisha. This is a lady that
is understanding God's own care for her and is
understanding that she's not trying to do what
she's doing to garner any kind of favor, right?
Isn't that a good thing? It's nice when people
are like that, right? And he said, and this is
apparently to a servant, verse 14, and he said,
what is to be done for her? Well, we gotta do
something. What do we do for this lady? She's
been so nice. And Gehazi answered, verily she
hath no child and her husband is what? Is old.
Now, I kinda mentioned something like this on
Sunday. Again, in this particular time, in ancient
times, probably even this way around the world,
for someone to be a widow, they don't typically
go out and farm, especially the older they get,
they don't go out and farm, they don't go out
and work, right? Give us this day our daily bread.
If I'm gonna eat now, I gotta work so that I
have enough to eat, right? And as she's getting
older, if she doesn't have any children and her
husband is gonna die, maybe, okay, maybe she
is a person of means, but she doesn't have a
long -term security plan. There's not like stocks
and bonds. Does that make sense? She's a person
of means, but that's connected to her husband
and she doesn't have a child. If her husband
is old, Is she young? She may be. We're never
told how old she is. You can say, oh, she's young
because of what happens later. But in the Bible,
that's the thing I'm leaving kind of mysterious
now. Happens to old people too, because sometimes
God does miracles, right? So anyway, Gehazi just
goes right at that. This is the thing that she'll
never say, but is her greatest need. Does that
make sense? If she was really candid with probably
what kept her up at night, what kept her up at
night was, I got an old husband, I have no kids,
I don't know how this is gonna work out for me
in the long term. And Gehazi just says something
about it. When she's asked, what do you need
from the man of God, she doesn't say anything.
When Gehazi said, what do we do for her, he knows
what her need is. Does that make sense? Okay,
verse 16, and he said, So now he says this to
her about this season according to the time of
life thou shalt embrace a son Okay, so essentially
he she says you don't have a son about this time
next year you're gonna have a baby and She said
name my lord thou man of God do not lie unto
thine handmaid again what she's saying This is
again me reading between the lines, but as you
read the whole text is kind of where it's almost
like There's no way Are you kidding me? I'm not
there's no way I'm gonna have a kid, right? Why
is it because her husband's old is it because
she's old in whatever way of her thinking that
particular Need being met was something she never
considered that could have been met. Does that
make sense? That's kind of wish and she says
don't lie to me essentially I think what she's
saying is That's so good that you can't play
with me about that kind of a thing If you're
saying if you're saying I'm gonna have a kid
That's what I've longed for my whole life If
you're gonna don't play with my emotions to say
I'm gonna have a kid if that's not actually gonna
happen It's like too good to be true. Does that
make sense? That's kind of what it's going on
there verse 17 I Love how the Bible just skips
forward Right? Verse 17. And the woman conceived.
Like, not right at that moment in the doorway.
Right? Later on, this is what happened. She conceived
and she bare a son at that season that Elisha
had said under her, according to the time of
life. That's pretty cool. Who thinks that's cool?
God met her needs. She didn't even ask for it.
Didn't ask for it. God used Elisha to respond.
To her actual need without her even asking for
it right I Believe there's humility here. Okay.
Why do I believe that I believe there's humility?
Yes asking you shall receive Because I really
feel like her generosity to Elisha the first
part even when he's asking her what she wants
she's not she is not living as someone to go
on okay finally my plan has come about I bless
the man of God and now he's gonna grant me a
wish all right I want mmm right she is very much
like I'm I'm good and he's like so excited about
helping her that it's reciprocated back right
have you ever Felt like it's easier to help somebody
when they don't expect it than to help somebody
when they like feel like they are entitled to
it right Man, I I love I love helping people,
but when they're like yeah, you better help me.
It's like Maybe I won't right So I think there's
some There's some humility here now. This is
where the story gets really good Okay. She's
motivated by honor. She's motivated by humility.
Here's number three. I believe she's also motivated
by faith. Motivated by faith. Look at verse.
Another way you could say it, I kind of went
back and forth, because if you're a Baptist preacher,
you got to do all H's, right? Honor, humility,
hope, right? And I think hope's there too. But
hopeful faith. Let's just kind of, let's do that.
All right. Verse 18, and when the child was grown,
okay, this is probably, grown doesn't mean 18,
grown probably means 12, 11, like hitting the
age where they consider boys to become men. He's
still young. When the child was grown, it fell
in a day that he went out to his father to the
reapers. What does that mean? This means it's
reaping season. what we would call fall, autumn,
whatever. It's time to harvest Dad, who was old
when he was not even born, so he's apparently
pretty old now. He's out there managing all the
people doing the harvest. Is Dad preoccupied
with work? That's what's going on. He's managing
the reapers. Verse 19, and he said unto his father,
my head, my head. Now this is where, don't read
the Bible boringly. Okay? Is boringly a word?
Don't be boring when you read the Bible. My head,
my head is not, my head, my head. It's like,
I think he's, something's going on and he's hurting.
Oh, my head, ah! Right? And he said to a lad,
so this is somebody else that's there, carry
him to his mother. So you can imagine the scene.
Dad's out there managing the harvest. Here comes
son pulling on his robe. My dad, I'm hurting
so bad, my head's hurting. And he's maybe even
crying. It's like, okay, hey you, take him to
his mama. His mama will take care of him, right?
This is a mama problem. I like doing that too.
Zeke, this is a mama problem. Go ask your mother,
right, exactly. Verse 20, and when he, this is
the lad, the guy he asked, had taken him, the
son, he brought him to his mother. He, the son,
sat on her knees till noon and then died. Mama,
does that make you a little bit emotional? Can
you imagine? Are you hurting, son? Yeah, just
come sit on my knee. Son? Son? Ezekiel? Shadrach?
Bill? Whatever. He's not alive. Verse 21, and
she went up, this is interesting, and laid, I
just lost my part, verse 21, and laid him on
the bed of the man of God and shut the door upon
him and went out. So they had made this prophet's
lodge, remember the prophet's lodge? She took
him and put him on the bed. that Elisha normally
laid on, Elisha wasn't there, and she closed
the door and she leaves. Now look at her, this
is so interesting. I sat with Caleb, a young
man who's with us for a couple weeks, and we
were talking through this passage and we were
just like, why did she do that? Why did she do
that? And there's a lot that's not said that
you're trying to have to figure out. Check this
out. By the way, mama's in here. Would you be
pretty much freaking out if that happened? Who
thinks you'd be pretty upset? What in the world
is going on with this kid just died and here's
probably part of your questioning like if this
is it if I was just supposed to have him for
three or four Years five six seven however old
he was I don't know how what he was I'm thinking
closer to 10 11 12 What was that all about why
would God give him to me in this miraculous tremendous
way only for him to Die like this, like randomly,
my head, my head. Here he is, sit on my lap,
and then he dies. That's just very, what, what's
this all about? Why would the prophet of God
be used of God to give me this kid and then all
of a sudden he's gone? But here's where you see
this faith. Check this out. Verse 22, so she
leaves the son's body on the bed of the prophet
and leaves. Verse 22. and she called into her
husband and said, send me, I pray thee, one of
the young men and one of the asses that I may
run to the man of God and come again. That would
be like the equivalent of, give me a driver and
one of the trucks. We're gonna go see the preacher.
We're gonna go see the prophet. We're gonna go
talk to Elisha. And his response is the equivalent
of, well, we'll talk about it. He says, and he
said, wherefore would thou go to him today? It
is neither new moon nor Sabbath. That would be
the equivalent. I was like, why are you going
up to the church on Tuesday? It's not Sunday.
What are you doing? What does she not say? She
doesn't say my son died and he's in the prophets
lodge. I got to go talk to him because he's dead
She doesn't she just lets him keep reaping Does
that make sense? She said it shall be well did
she lie I Believe that's a it's not a lie. It's
a faith proclamation. I got to go to him cuz
that's how it's gonna be okay She didn't say
that she's saying this is gonna work out. It'll
be well She gives them a non -answer Which shows
me how much Like today The Bible is sometimes
because sometimes my wife gives me non -answers
When she doesn't want me to know certain things
Anyway Verse 24 Then she sat on an ass and said
to her servant, drive and go forward, slack not
thy writing for me, except I bid thee. She says,
put the pedal to the metal and only slow down
if I get too scared. If I tell you to slow down,
slow down, but other than that, you get going,
get on it. Why is she in haste? I gotta get the
profit to my dead son. That's why she's in haste.
Verse 25, so she went and came into the man of
God to Carmel, and it came to pass when the man
of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi
his servant, behold yonder is that Shunammite.
Run now I pray thee to meet her and say unto
her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy
husband? Is it well with thy child? So he tells
Gehazi, go, I see him. That's that Shunammite
woman. Go ask if she's okay. Make sure everything's
all right. So Gehazi goes out there and he says,
he skips this part, but he assumes you understand
that that's what Gehazi did. He goes out to her
and she goes, it's fine. It's fine. I'm fine.
Everything's fine. Right? And the way I imagine
it is like, is like, I'll be the Shunammite woman
back here and you're Gehazi. So you're in the,
Justin, you, yeah. Right? Hey, is everything
okay? That's your line. Yeah, fine. I'm fine.
Everything's fine. Right. She's still get...
You can't help me. Husband can't help me. The
only one that can help me right now is God and
the man of God. I'm fine. I'm not gonna have
a... I'm not gonna stop and go, my son died.
My son died. My son died. Did you hear my son
died? That's not what she's doing. It's fine.
What she's saying is, essentially, you can't
help me. You can't help me. You can't help me.
You can't help me. God's who can help me. Does
that make sense? Thank you. Give Justin a high
five. All right. It's well. Again, is she lying?
I believe it's a statement of faith. Verse 27,
and when she came to the man of God to the hill,
she caught him by the feet. That's funny that
you think, I don't think that means she tripped
him. Sorry Donna, you're fine. I think what it
means is she dove. Like she is like, I'm desperate,
right? She falls at his feet. She's begging.
She's pleading. Does that make sense? What does
it say? But Gehazi came near to thrust her away.
Crazy woman, what are you doing touching the
man of God, right? Like that's maybe what Gehazi
thinking. And the man of God, Elisha, said, let
her alone, for her soul is vexed within her.
It's obvious something's going on. What is wrong
with her, right? and the Lord hath hid it from
me and hath not told me." So apparently Elisha's
walk with the Lord, and maybe this is what the
Shunammite woman was perceiving before, I perceive
that this man is a holy man of God. He's a man
that's in touch with God and he's saying, apparently,
God didn't want me to know what was going on
with this woman until now, okay? She's obviously
upset and I didn't know anything about it. Now
this is interesting. I thought a lot about this
verse, 28. Then she said, did I desire a son
of my lowercase L, Lord? What is she asking?
When you ask me what you could do for me, I said,
I'm content. When you asked me what I wanted,
I never said I wanted a son. That doesn't mean
I didn't want a son, but I didn't ask for a son.
Are you with me? Now, yes, and you said, okay,
where am I? I just lost it. 28, did I not say,
Do not deceive me. What does she mean? When you
said, I'm gonna have a son, I said, don't lie
to me now. That's so good. That is what I desire.
I'm putting, I'm reading between the lines. That's
so good. Don't mess with me. Don't tempt me with,
if that's what you think I should have you, if
that's the blessing I'm gonna get. then I really
hope I get that." And then she did get it, but
here I am now, and I never asked for this son
that I love, and you gave me this son that I
love, and now you're going to take him from me?
Now he's going to be gone? Is this how this thing
ends? Do you get it? It's a pretty cool story.
Verse 29. He didn't even answer. Then he said
to Gehazi, gird up thy loins, and take my staff
in thine hand, and go thy way. If thou meet any
man, salute him not, and if any salute thee,
answer him not. Answer him not again, and lay
my staff upon the face of the child. What's he
saying? He's saying, so the woman is at his feet.
begging and pleading for the life of her son.
And his answer is, okay, Gehazi, get my staff.
You go up there and you do what you can. Put
the staff on his face. And you can get there
faster than I am. I can. Apparently, Gehazi is,
sometimes you look at two different people and
you can tell which one's faster, right? Like,
okay, anyway. And I think that's what's going
on. So, and so it says, and he says, oh, and
by the way, go with haste. If anybody says, why
are you, what's, you're on the move, what's going
on? Hey, I hadn't seen you in a while. Don't
even answer him. Don't stop, don't stop at the
gas station for a Gatorade. You just keep going,
right? Now. Verse 30, so he tells Gehazi to do
that, verse 30, and the mother of the child said,
as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I
will not leave thee. What's she saying? I think
what she's saying is, okay, and then, I'm not
leaving you, Elisha, and he arose and followed
her. I think what's going on here is, Kehazi,
you can go, this is the Shunammite woman. Okay,
she didn't say this, it's not quoted here, but
this is the tenor of it. That's fine, you can
send him with your staff, but you're coming.
We're all going. As long as the Lord with it,
liveth, you're with me. If Kehazi can figure
it out when he gets there, fine, but you're coming.
I'm not content with you just send on plan B.
You're plan A. And plan A is going with me to
the, are you with me? Does that make sense? I
think that's what's going on. You can have a
different opinion. That's just my way of thinking
about it. And Gehazi passed on before them 31
and laid the staff on the face of the child,
but there was neither voice nor hearing. Did
it work? Did Gehazi work? Did the staff work?
No. Wherefore he went again to meet him and told
him saying, the child is not awake. And when
Elisha came into the house, behold, the child
was dead and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore
and shut the door upon them twain and prayed
unto the Lord. And he went up and lay upon the
child, put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes
upon his eyes. His hands upon his hands, he stretched
himself upon the child and the flesh of the child
waxed warm. This would be like a really interesting
movie. You know, the kids slowly come into life.
Then he returned and walked into the house to
and fro. So he like leaves the prophet's chamber
where the body is. It's almost like describing
he's doing this over a certain time. Certain
thing this and that he lays on him. He's he's
touching him. He's Almost like recess putting
like his breath into his lungs and these right
and then he goes downstairs It seems like this
is like an upper chamber this prophets chambers
like upper and they're down in the house and
Then the kids flesh goes from cold, you know
bodies aren't when they're dead. They're cold
now starting to get warm again He returned and
walked in the house to and fro and went up and
stretched himself upon him. I love this. What
a weird way to resurrect. Verse 35, and the child
sneezed seven times. You ever been so happy to
hear somebody sneeze? I don't even know. And
the child opened his eyes. If you're a mama,
What do you say to the baby open in their eyes?
None of you? Nobody contributes an answer? What
do you say? Just like that, probably, dude. Hey
man, this is awesome! And he called Gehazi and
said, call the Shunammite. So he called her.
And when she was coming unto him, she said, take
up thy son. Then she went in and fell at his
feet and bowed herself to the ground. Whose feet?
Elisha. I believe Elisha. When she went out to
him, she fell at his feet, begging for help.
Here she falls at his feet, I think, in gratitude.
And took up her son and went out. Now that's
an interesting thing. She says to him, when he
sends Gehazi, as the Lord liveth, I'm not ever
leaving your side. The part that's left out,
I'm not leaving your side until my son is alive
again. But she doesn't say that. I'm not leaving
your side, right? Then he's alive, what happens?
Then she leaves. The Lord answered her prayers.
I believe there's a motivation of faith and hope
here. In the moment of need, in the moment of
tragedy, in the moment of difficulty, her hope,
I don't even believe really truly her hope was
in Elisha the man. I believe her hope was in
God. And that, as far as she understood, Elisha
was a man that walked with God and would seek
God to help her out. Now, one of the things that
we do when we study the Bible is, and one of
the things, this is like on my brain every day
as I study trying to present the word of God
to you. And it should be on your brain as you
study the Bible. And I put it in two words, authorial
intent. Authorial, the author, intent. Why is
this written now, here, there? What do we need
to learn from this story? What did the author,
who's the author? Well, 2 Kings, there's an author
of 2 Kings, a human author, but there's another
author. Who is it? The Holy Spirit. This is God's
Word, right? So, how do we actually know what
the authorial intent is? How do we know what
that is? Well, we have to think about who it
was written to and when it was written. Those
are all part of it. We have to look at... the
context, we have to look at all those things.
But we know that at least in some part, there
is a part of this that's keeping a record of
the history of what actually happened. But is
this just about us knowing a fact that there
was a guy named Elisha, who is a prophet of God,
who resurrected a kid? Is that the whole point?
Well, that's a cool story. What does it mean?
Well, we kind of understood what it means, but
what are we supposed to learn from this? Huh?
What do you think, Dave? Okay. Donna? Who agrees
that God is pleased with faith? Right? And part
of faith is I believe bound up here in her generosity,
right? In the early part, like I want to be around
the man of God. I want to be around, and for
our application, I want to be with people who
are walking with God. I want to walk with God
myself. I want to... I want to be kind to people
who are like that. I want to help people who
are like that. I want to honor people who are
doing that. So I think there's that motivation
of honor. I also think there's that motivation
of humility that like, there is this, there's
this spirit that understands that grace is exactly
that grace. That anything I have that's good,
I don't deserve it. Right? I don't deserve it.
God gives it to me. Praise the Lord. I'm so thankful
for it. There's a gratitude that comes from that.
I believe that we ought not be entitled. I believe
that. I'm entitled to nothing. Right? I can take
God in His Word. God said, if I call Him the
name of the Lord, I'll be saved. And so... I
feel entitled to that only in that he promised
it and I'm taking it as a word, but I didn't
get that because I deserve it. God wasn't like,
well, that prayer was fancy enough. Good, you
did a good prayer. I'll give you something. That's
not how that works. Does that make sense? Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom.
That's all it took for the man on the cross,
right? So there's this example of humility. And
then there's this example of faith. that if something
bad happens, I'm going to go to the source of
blessing and that source of blessing is God.
Does that make sense? And I'm going to do that.
All these motivations, humility, honor, faith,
hope, all of these motivations prohibit greed.
Does that make sense? If your motivation is humility,
then a humble person, you can't be humble and
greedy at the same time. Does that make sense?
Greed says, I deserve this. Give it to me, it's
mine. Humility says, I'm thankful for this, I
don't deserve it. Thank you for giving it to
me. Does that make sense? And then faith and
hope, it's like, I hope for it, I'm looking for
it, it's not in me. Greed sabotages the kind
of receiving that comes from God by faith. Money,
this is one commentator put it this way, money,
paint, fame, material goods, guilt. Belonging
often move people to act either positively or
negatively. These are short -term motivators
that are horizontal in nature. Yet as a Christian,
we are called to a higher standard, to a vertical
motivator. God calls us to be motivated by fear
of Him, which in turn motivates us to honor,
to humility, and to hope. And so I think sometimes
God allows us, and it's such a blessing when
God allows us to be generous, to work in people's
lives. And I believe I've seen it my whole life.
Different people, different things. Seen it in
my parents, seen it for my parents when people
have done things for them, seen it in my own
life. You've heard people say it, you can't out
give God. You ever heard that before? That's
not like God's a slot machine and if you put
the coin in, you get triple cherries every time.
That's not what that means. What it means is
when you give for the right reasons with the
right motivation, God resists the proud, but
he gives grace to the humble. God resists the
proud. but He gives grace to the generous. The
kid that's entitled, you owe me ice cream, Dad.
I want ice cream. I don't want to give that kid
ice cream. But the kid that's like, Dad, you
work so hard, thank you. Thanks for being a good
dad. You know what I think? Let's go get ice
cream. Let's go. Right? Let's go get salad. Come
on, salad. Cucumbers. That was for you, Meg.
We'll even let you have ranch dip. Woo! Right?
We resist the proud and show grace to the humble.
God does it way more, right? And so, can I, can
I just encourage all of us? to be open -handed
with our lives. To just be like, hey, God gave
it to me, and since he's a source of everything
I have, if I see somebody in need, I'm gonna
give if I can, when I can, sometimes even if
it hurts, because I believe that God can supply
my need according to his riches and glory in
Christ Jesus, right? And so if I'm open -handed
with what I have and I give, I don't do it because
I expect God to give back to me because I'm entitled
and He owes me. But I just know how my God is
and how my Father is. And He's loving and gracious
and kind and He wants to bless me. And if He
doesn't, He's already promised me heaven. If
I die, listen, I'm not going hungry. But if I
die because of that, I know in the next life
He's going to be so generous. Not because I deserve
it, but because He promised it. Isn't that good?
Let's be generous. Are you behind me? Just close
your eyes with me. God, I love you tonight. I
thank you for this example of this woman who
had faith, faith enough to believe in your goodness,
faith enough to honor and be generous. because
she saw you working in a man, faith enough to
be humble, to not be demanding for your blessing,
but to receive it as a good gift undeserved.
I pray that you'd help us to be those kind of
people of faith, to have the faith enough to
be willing to be generous, to be willing to be
generous, even when it costs us, because we believe.
that you are the source of our needs, not us.
I pray that you help us to do that. We love you.
We thank you for all you do for us. I pray now
that as we enter into this prayer time that you
would have your will and way. We love you in
Jesus' name. Amen.