Elisha's Ministry Pt 2

well welcome everyone please stand with us hello lord god we thank you for bringing us here this evening lord i believe that you have a reason for each one of us to be here lord so open our hearts lord just clear our minds from all the craziness of the week and the day and and just give us hearts to to worship you in jesus name amen is it true that you are thinking it's amazing sing that again that you hear me is it true that of me that you hear me it's amazing tonight if you'd like to continue to stand please do if you want to sit down that's however you desire to worship is is great so james chapter 2 23 says this and the scripture was fulfilled which says and abraham

believed god and it was credited to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of god you know i think if you ask most people if you just went around said is god your friend they would say yeah god's my friend they wouldn't say god's my enemy obviously right but when god himself the creator of the universe lord god almighty says you are his friend well that's a whole different thing and that is only for those as we see here where you abraham believed those who gave their life to christ made peace with god are god's friend how beautiful how beautiful so powerful your glory fills the sky your mighty words display for all the sea the beauty of your majesty awaits my heart to sing how marveling that again

you captured my heart with this love and nothing on earth is as beautiful as to your wonders and you captured my heart with this love there's nothing on earth is as beautiful so if we read through some of these verses we're going to read through some of these verses and we're going to see some leadership and some Eduardawa's words so again let's take a look at some of these verses again let's get right into the preaching here and let's see what Justice has for us so gat Bar such a role play time

rejoice rejoice Billy uh nor am yet acknowledging knowing account n Portia my sin claim this evening how great you are lord we sing from our souls oh lord god what an awesome awesome god lord we just are so grateful for what you give us and how you gave your life for us for people that we just don't deserve it so thank you lord lord god just uh be with pastor ryan as he shares his word and that we would uh have hearts and to hear it and uh and to be doers of what you say in jesus name amen good evening if you would open up in your bibles to the book of second kings chapter five second kings chapter five well last week uh can we can we get some lights in here there they are i love it that's good stuff i like to be able to see all right

so last week when we gathered together we started into the ministry of elisha elisha of course took over for elijah he picked up the mantle and now he's been carrying on and and honestly he takes up a little bit more of second kings than elijah does of first kings of course he asked for a double portion of the spirit that's exactly what god did so we pick up tonight in chapter five and the first story that we come to tonight is the story of a military man not from israel and his name is naaman so in chapter five it starts like this now naaman captain of the army of the king of aram was a great man with his uh was a great man with his master and a highly respected man because by him the lord had

given victory to aram the man was also a valiant warrior but he was a leper now we're introduced to this character and it's kind of interesting how he's described he's described as a a valiant man a mighty man a warrior it's interesting because the language that's used of him the only other person that it's used of is is gideon that exact same word a mighty man or a valiant man and he's also used of gideon so it's kind of interesting that that this guy who was uh who was a gentile a part of a foreign kingdom a kingdom that israel had been at war with at one point in time is is described in such a positive way by the writer of second kings i also found it kind of interesting

that the lord had given victory through him to a foreign army obviously because god had used this foreign army in judgment of the nation of israel and as far as the world was concerned naaman had

the power to do what he wanted to do he had the power to do what he wanted to do he had the wealth he had the valor he had the status he had everything that anybody could have imagined at that point in time but he had one problem naaman was a leper meaning that he had this disease that that ultimately would eat away at his flesh and eventually would take his life it was it was something that no matter how great he was no matter how many victories he had won no matter how successful he was as an individual as a person as a military man he always had this one problem this one problem we

eventually take his life and that problem was leprosy it's kind of interesting when you think about that because that honestly describes the world right it honestly describes the average sinner in the world they can have everything in the world everything going for them they could be someone who is successful as far as the world is concerned they could be someone who is mighty as far as the world is concerned they can be someone who has great status as far as the world is concerned but whether you're a great person in the world or just an average person in the world there's still one problem one problem that everybody deals with it that's it's at the heart of everything and that problem is sin because sin

eats away at your life until it eventually destroys you but it's also kind of interesting to think that that same problem can exist within the church today it can exist with people in the church today because you can as far as everybody else in the church is concerned have everything going right for you on the outside you can know all of the scriptures you can you can maybe have the status or a position in the church of wonderful family all those kinds of things but if you have sin in your life you've still got that one problem that no matter how great you are no matter how good you look to everyone around you if you have sin in your life you have a problem a problem that needs

to be dealt with we sort of saw that again this week with another famous Christian person didn't we it's been kind of interesting to to see how that starts to happen because you can hide it for a really long time but but eventually you can be sure that your your sin will find you out and so and so this is the problem that Naaman has well there's going to be a solution for the problem it says in verse 2 that the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel and she had been waiting on Naaman's wife she said to her mistress I wish that my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria then he would cure him of his leprosy and Naaman went in and told his master saying thus and thus

spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel now the second person that were introduced to in this story is simply known as a little girl taken from Israel the Arameans had been going on their raids and in one of the young ladies that was captured was this little girl who was brought into Naaman's home and essentially became the the personal servant of Naaman's wife and it's kind of interesting to see how she responds to things perhaps she was watching as time went on and in watching perhaps as the disease was progressing in the in the life of Naaman and and and she was watching as the disease was progressing in the life of Naaman and and she saw what was happening and one day she thought you know I remember my parents talking about this

prophet I remember hearing about the great things that that this prophet had done you know I wonder if he would be able to help name it and one day in the middle of conversation or while she's going about her chores she she says to her her master's wife she says to the the lady that she's serving gosh I wish Naaman could be able to go see the prophet I think he would really solve this problem and you know this little story about this little girl we're gonna find that that this is exactly what prompts Naaman to to do what he's going to do as far as being healed it it reminds us of a couple of things it doesn't matter how insignificant you think you are God can use you this young lady

is not known by name the only thing we know her of is she was a little girl taken from the land of Israel and yet God is going to use her to do something very powerful God is going to use her to do something incredibly amazing in the life of one of the most powerful men in the land that she was living in at that point in time and so it doesn't really matter how insignificant you think you are in the eyes of God he wants to do something very significant through you even if it doesn't feel significant to you because I think sometimes we feel like well well God can never use me because I'm too insignificant I don't I don't have a good enough story I don't have a good enough

testimony I don't know enough about the Bible and listen you just let God use you you just keep pointing people to God and God will use you in a very powerful way but it reminds us of a second place even in the worst of our circumstances you could probably imagine the day that she was taken captive probably the worst day of her entire life maybe her entire family was killed we're not really told but she's taken away from her family taken to a land where she doesn't know anyone to an enemy that she fears and she becomes a servant a slave if you will of this enemy and yet no matter what her circumstances were she still was pointing people to God it's kind of like Joseph right when

when Joseph had been sold into slavery he did not let that first of all dissuade him from his faith in God but second of all it did not dissuade him from serving God and everything that he did and sometimes we look at our circumstances and say well if my circumstances were a little bit better I'd probably serve God but you can serve God right where you are no matter how bad your circumstances are as a matter of fact I would tell you this the worst that your circumstances are the brighter that your light is going to shine and so this little girl who's incredibly insignificant in terrible circumstances because she has love and compassion points her master to

God and someone that can help and so Naaman goes to his master the king and he says I need to go to Israel and the king verse 5 of Aram said go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel and he departed and took with him ten talents of silver six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes he brought the letter to the king of Israel saying and now as this letter comes to you behold I have sent Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him of his leprosy when the king of Israel read the letter he tore his clothes and said am I God to kill and to make alive that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy consider now and see how he

is asking for a fight with me two things I'll point out to you number one is the amount of wealth that Naaman takes with him I don't really know how much all of the gold and silver that he is but smarter people than me do and I read this in a commentary that that according to the price of these things somewhere in the last 20 to 30 years it would have been somewhere in the range of about 1.2 million dollars that he that he brought with him dude had some wealth right he was a mighty man which meant he would have been wealthy and and being healed was really important to him so he brought a lot of money thinking I need to make sure I can pay for whatever this prophet is going to do to me and he shows up to the king with this

letter that says we've heard that there's healing in the land of Israel uh could you do something and you can imagine the king who by the way has no relationship with the Lord has probably no good relationship with Elisha and doesn't really understand the power of God all he can see is the inability of the idols that he worships and he looks at this problem that's presented to him and says what am I supposed to do this guy must be trying to pick a fight with me can you imagine how discouraged Naaman is at this point in time he's like oh great I come to you for help and you just think we want to fight but it happened verse 8. when Elisha the man of God heard that

the king of Israel had torn his clothes he sent word to the king saying why have you torn your clothes let him come to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel so Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and he stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean but Naaman was furious and he went away and said I'm going to go and I'm going and said behold I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord is God and call on the name of the and call on the name of the Lord is God and wave his hand over the

place and cure the leper are not abana and farpar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel could I not wash in them and be clean so he turned and went away and rage all right did you take note of how Naaman showed up first of all he's got about 1.2 mil on him right he's he's got he's got some serious drip rolling in with him and so he so he rolls up there and he's in did you notice the plural words that are used horses and chariots plural there was lots of them an entourage just rolled up right okay so in today's world like like like 12 black uh Escalades just rolled in right and he's in one of them they're not really sure which one because that's how he rolls

in right Secret Service all around him because that's the kind of guy he is right he comes rolling in with an entourage and Elisha sees him and Elisha doesn't even go out himself did you notice that Elisha doesn't go out and talk to him who does he send he sends his servant you can imagine Elisha sitting there perhaps enjoying a good cup of coffee because that feels like the right thing to do in that moment perhaps reading some Scrolls and he looks and he sees the entourage roll up and he says hey come here buddy yes sir hey listen that guy needs to be healed of leprosy okay this is what I want you to tell him to do go out there and says thus says the Lord if you wash in the Jordan River seven times

basically baptize yourself seven times in the Jordan River you'll be completely clean aren't you gonna go feels like a pretty important guy yeah he thinks he's too important he needs to do this and you're the one that needs to tell him it's okay he goes out there with the with the message and and Naaman is furious I think it was John Corson his commentary that said Naaman was actually sick with two diseases he had the disease of leprosy and he had the disease of pride

and he was like what am I what am I supposed to do I thought he was going to come out and that was his first problem is he thought he thought he knew how God was going to move he thought he knew what the prophet was going to do he thought of the grand idea right how many of us are how many of us are guilty of that right like oh this is how it's going to be and it's going to be grand God's like no it's not he says I thought he was just going to wave his hand the leprosy was going to go away and everybody's going to go ta-da we have way better numbers in Damascus than this I'm not going to do that can you imagine doing this like you're you have an incurable disease and he says do something very simple but your pride is so great but you're

like I'm not going to do that that's ridiculous well luckily the the the wisdom of his friends present prevails notice what it says in verse 13. and his servants came near and spoke to him and said my father that the prophet told you to do some great thing would you not have done it how much more than when he says wash and be clean so he went down he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according to the word of the man of God and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean his servants are kind of like hey I'm not trying to like tell you what to do I mean you're still naming and everything but if he told you to do something that's sweet like standing on

your head like you would absolutely do that right why won't you just go down throw yourself in a river a few times like it feels like a pretty simple thing to do and wisdom prevailed and he went down and he did a simple act of faith and he was cured brand new from the leprosy you know I see a couple of very interesting things that we pay attention to here the first thing that I see is is why so many have such a hard time with salvation because it just seems too simple because it just seems like no no I thought I was going to have to do something I I thought I had to do something I I thought I had to do something to be saved it can't be that easy be that simple you see the gospel is actually an affront to pride the gospel is actually opposed

to pride because pride says i will do and then be saved the gospel says it has been done just believe and you will be saved just a simple act of faith and yet for the one who is willing to humble themselves before the lord they are made brand new i love the way that that it words it here it says restored like the flesh of a little child that he was clean because after all when we're saved what's it referred to as being born again right being being restored as if a little child born again with that childlike faith so that's the first thing that i see here the second thing that i see here is that naaman presents for us the perfect picture of the gentile believer naaman was a gentile he was separated from the commonwealth of israel he was

separated from the covenants he was separated from the promises and he was an enemy of the people of god kind of says something incredibly similar to that in the book of ephesians and yet by faith all of that wall came came falling down and he was made brand new again and he presents for us just a really perfect picture of the gentile church right here in the old testament matter of fact jesus will use this as an example to the jewish leaders when he says there were many lepers in israel in the temple of the Jerusalem kingdom there were many lepers and he said there was a problem in the temple king's temple it was a transformer he was the one being healed and he was named like the prophet named like the prophet named in the book of egypt

the one who came and came before him he was named the prophet name was the son of elisha and yet naaman is the one that was healed kind of cool so he gets really excited he just wants to do And he urged him to take it, but he refused. And Naaman said, if not, please let your servant at least be given two mules load of earth for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord. In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of Ramon to worship there and he leans on my hand and I bow myself down or when I bow myself in that house, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. He said to him, go in peace.

So he departed from him some distance. So he says, man, can I do something for you? I know that there's no other God besides the God in Israel, which as a sidebar, can we just say every time a true work of God takes place, it is God who truly gets the glory. Let your good deeds be done in such a way that they see your good works and they glorify your father who is in heaven.

So beautiful moment showing us exactly what that's supposed to look like. But he says, can I just give you something? And Elisha says, listen, I'm not a prophet for sale. Which was a really big thing at that point in time because prophets usually were for sale at that point in time, which is why he separates himself from that idea. He says, listen, I'm not for sale.

You just go and may the Lord bless you. And he says, well, can I take some earth back home with me? After all, he felt like the land of Israel had been blessed by God and he wanted to be able to worship God on the earth of Israel. It's kind of interesting because so many people think that God is set up in a location and so he wants some of that location to go with him.

And isn't it beautiful? That Elisha doesn't go, that's a dumb idea. You don't need to take any dirt home. No, he just says, sure, why not? You do that. Because we have to realize that as older believers, those of us that have walked with Jesus for a little while, you hear a new believer say something that's perhaps a conviction of your heart. And yet you want to say, you know what?

You know what? It doesn't violate God's word. If that's what you feel like you need to do, then I'm going to let God grow you in that. And that's kind of what Elisha does with him right there. He says, but hey, listen, I still got to go with the king, help him out when he goes and he worships this foreign God. And he says, go in peace. So he sends him away.

Everything is beautiful if we could just leave the next part of the story out, right? But Gehazi, verse 20, the servant of Elisha, the man of God thought, behold, my master has spared this name in the Aramean by not receiving from his hands what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and I'll take something from him. So Gehazi pursued. And when Naaman saw one running after him,

he came down from the chariot to meet him and said, is all well? He said, all is well. My master has sent me saying, behold, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes. And Naaman said, be pleased to take two talents. And he urged him and he bound two talents of silver and two bags,

two changes of clothes and gave them. So he took them to two of his servants and they carried them before him. When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, deposited them in his house, sent them in a way and they departed. But he went in, stood before his master. Elisha said to him, where have you been Gehazi? He said, your servant went nowhere. He said, did not my heart go with you?

When the man turned from his chariot to meet you, is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants? Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. So he went out from his presence, a leper as white as snow. What an unfortunate story for this to have to end with.

You see, Gehazi found himself going, we missed it. We could have been set for life. He could really help God out in this situation. We could really help out the prophets. He could have justified it however he wanted to, right? That's what our flesh is really good. That's what it's doing is justifying. But at the end of the day, he cared more about the money

than he cared about God's glory. And so he goes after him and says, hey, listen, my master, oh man, he put the lie right in the mouth of Elisha, right? Or of Elisha, right? He said, my master said, two servants of the prophets have shown up and they could use a little something. He goes, oh, take as much as you want. And then he went home and he hid it. And he thought everything was going to be great.

No one would ever know the difference. But as we've said, before your sin will always find you out. And this is what happens to him. His sin found him out. And Elisha said, what, didn't I go with you when that happened? Now listen, Naaman may have been cleansed, but you're going to have to deal with the punishment. The leprosy of Naaman will be on you. And one unfortunate thing, because when somebody sells

their soul, which is exactly what Gehazi did, it ultimately eats them up. And so he gives us this warning about the problem with greed. Well, now we come to a little bit happier of a story. The first part of chapter six is the axe head recovered. Now, I promise it's going to get a little more interesting than that. It says, now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha,

behold, now the place before you where we are living is too limited for us. Please let us go to the Jordan and each of us take from there a beam and make a place there for ourselves where we may live. And he said, go. And one said, please be willing to go with your servants. And he answered, I shall go. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.

But as one was felling a beam, the axe fell into the axe head fell into the water. And he cried out and said, my master, it was borrowed. The man of God said, where did it fall? And we showed him the place where he had cut off. He cut off a stick and threw it in there and he made the iron float. He said. Take it for yourself. So he put out his hand and he took it.

Man, what a what a great story, right? A wonderful problem that they were having. God's work was progressing. The sons of the prophets were growing and they couldn't remain in the house. They're like, listen, the congregation is growing. We need a little bit more space. What do you think about us building a place? And Elisha said, I think that's a great idea.

Let's build a little bit of a place a little bit bigger so that we can house more of the sons of the prophets. And they're like, would you go with us? Be great to have you with us on this. Right. Sometimes just the presence is what you need. And he said, sure, I'll go with you. So they're working away. Right. And and as they're working away, fell in these beams, everything

is going great. I bet they were singing a song while they did it, perhaps talking about the great place that they were going to build. And right there in the middle of all of the work, everything was going great. God was in it. Everything was going smoothly. A problem happened. And that's the way it goes sometimes. Like God blesses God's growing things and right in the middle

of the. Growth, you lose the ax head in the middle of the water and you're going, what am I going to do now? I borrowed that thing. I heard it was pretty expensive at that point in time and not real plentiful in the land of Israel. So losing an ax head would have been a really big deal to that guy, especially since he borrowed it, because there's no way he would have been able to pay it back.

And so he got really concerned. And so they go to Elisha there. What are we going to do? I lost that. I there's no way we can recover this out of the bottom of the Jordan River. And so he says, show me where, show me where it happened. He showed him and the Elisha cuts a stick, he throws a stick into the water and the ax head floats. Now I can assure you with every fiber of my being, I have never

seen metal float, right? Like, especially something like that. It just sinks directly down to the bottom. I know because I've lost a lot of sinkers in a lot of rivers, right? And I've never recovered any single one of them. I have thrown sticks in the water. Nothing comes back, right? God's like, you do. You do not need that sinker that bad. It is not as important as that ax head was, but that ax head comes

floating to the top. He says, reach out and grab it. So he reaches out and he grabs it. Isn't that cool? I think it's a really cool story. I think there's really two really cool points that can be made from this story. The first point is this. If it's important to you, it's important to God. And I think that that's a really good one for us to remember because, because like I said, usually we put problems into two

categories. Things are either really big for God or too small for God, or they're just right. And, and a lot of times we especially think that things are too small for God to be concerned with, but I just want you to know that if it's a concern to you, it's a concern to God, that the, the things that weigh you down, the things that, that hold you down, the things that cause you concern, the things that cause you angst, the things that cause you worry, everybody else in the world may think it's ridiculous. Everyone else in the world may think it's silly, but if it's important to you, it's important to God.

And I think that that's so neat for us to know, because I know some of the things that, that I worry about, I don't worry nearly as much as I used to. I used to be a little bit more of a worrier, but, but God has delivered me from so much of that. But, but the things that I know that I used to worry about, it was always good for me to re to remember that, that God cared about those things. And so if you're worried about something here tonight, if there's a concern on your mind, just know nobody else in the world may understand it, but God does.

And God cares, and he sees, and he knows, and his heart aches just like yours does. But the second thing that I will tell you is this, it's wonderful that God always includes us on the miraculous things that he does, because the ax head floats, but the guy still had to reach out and grab it. God did all of the work, but he brought that guy in on the miracle. He brought him in on this little miracle, and it's so wonderful when we are willing to be used by God, how he will bring us in on his miracle.

His little miracles, when he will bring us in on the crazy things that he does, if we are simply available. Elisha just went along with them. He was available to be a part of the work party, and God used him in a powerful way to do something that no one had ever seen before. The guy with the ax head, the guy who had borrowed it, all he had to do was reach out and grab it.

He was there, he was working, and God included him on something really, really powerful. And I keep saying it, and I'm going to keep saying it, God wants to use you. God wants to do amazing things through you. You just have to be available for him to do it. You just have to be there and be available and watch what he's able to do and what he brings you in on.

Well, one more story that we'll cover tonight. In verse 8 it says, Now the king of Aram was warring against Israel, and he counseled with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. The man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Arameans are coming down there. The king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God had told him.

Thus he warned him so that he guarded himself there more than once or twice. And the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this. He called his servants and he said to them, Will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, No, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king about the words that you speak in your bedroom.

What a great reputation to have, right? All right, so the king of Aram, who was always at war with Israel, which is kind of amazing that he did this miracle for one of his generals in the last chapter, right? That's the grace of God. He keeps going to war against Israel, and he keeps making plans, right? And he sets up where the battle is going to take place to try

to maybe have a sneak attack. And Elisha keeps sending word to the king and saying, Hey, listen, this is where you need to not be because this is where the attack is going to take place. Now, I think this is kind of interesting that Elisha does this. Why would Elisha go and warn a king who is living in idolatry, who is ruling a land of people in idolatry? Why would he still warn the king about a coming attack?

Because you can be a good citizen without agreeing with what the government does. Now, listen, kids. I need to pay attention to that because I don't care if you like the guy in charge right now or if you don't like the guy in charge right now. I don't care if you liked the last guy in charge or you didn't like the last guy in charge. I don't care if you're going to like the new guy or lady that's

going to be in charge after this or whether you don't like him. You still need to be a good citizen whether you agree with the government or not. Because whether it's hoping that the United States of America is a blessed country, whether it's hoping that somebody living in some other nation is going to be a blessed country, you should still care more about the government. You should care more about people than you care about your politics.

And that's where Elisha was. He was in this place where he cared more about people than he did his politics. Because he could still be a good citizen while maintaining his witness and still disagree with what the government was doing. And that's exactly what he did. So Elisha keeps sending him word. And now I view everything as a comedy, right, because that's the

way my brain works. And I just kind of picture every time. The king kind of going, how do you know this time, right? Sort of a space balls kind of a moment. And so he's going, okay, that's it. Somebody is telling the king of Israel, we have a traitor in our midst. And someone, I want to read this again to make sure that I didn't miss something here. Nope, it was just one of his servants said, dude, it's none of

us, okay? Here's what you need to know. Elisha just knows stuff. He just knows things that are going on. He knows. What you say in secret, and he tells everybody about it. Listen, that's called the witness of a man of God. The witness of a man of God is that he just knows things. Have you ever been around someone like that? They just know stuff without anyone telling them.

Like the Holy Spirit just tells them things ahead of time. Like I enjoy talking to people like that because I'm like, so tell me what's going on. Tell me what the Holy Spirit is telling you right now. And they tell me things about you guys. That's why I'm just kidding. But I really enjoy being around people like that, that have that spirit of discernment because they do say, hey, these are some

things that are coming up right now. I think that you need to pay attention to this sort of thing. And it's wonderful to be around people. And my mom was always one of those. She always knew what I was going to do before I did it. She always knew what I did before I would even try to get away with it. God would just tell her things, and it irritated me. Now I'm really happy about it because it probably kept me out

of a lot of things I shouldn't have done. But she was just one of those people. That's the way Elisha was. Listen, Elisha knows everything that's going on because he's a true servant of God. And so this is the plan of the king. He said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and take him. And it was told him, Behold, he is in Dothan. He sent horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by

night and they surrounded the city. Now let's think for just one quick minute, okay? I like critical thinking. I don't always use it as well. But I do enjoy critical thinking when it comes to things like this. Elisha knows what you're going to do before you do it. You're sending an army to take him captive. Quick deductive reasoning would tell me that if he always knows

what I'm going to do before I do it, he probably knows I'm sending an army to take him, right? Would we all agree that's good deductive reasoning at this point in time? Can we all say that perhaps the move of the king of Aram was not a wise move on his part, and yet what he does? So. He sends an army, a large army, chariots, horses, and they came by night, and they don't just surround his house.

They surround the city, right? Most would take this as a moment of a really good time to worry. Elisha does not. It says, Now when the attendant of the man, probably not Gehazi, probably a new one. When the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, My master, what shall we do?

Can we all just give this kid a little bit of a break for a minute? Like, like some people are just like, Hey, shut up now, right? It's like, dude goes out first thing in the morning, right? I just, I imagined him walking outside.

That's not good, right? Quick story. So, so we had a crazy storm Friday night. Was it Friday night into Saturday when that whole thing happened? I slept through the whole thing. I can, I've slept through earthquakes and not just like Kansas earthquakes, like California earthquakes. Like I can sleep through anything in the world. I slept through that entire storm.

I woke up the next morning. I was like, no power. That's a bummer, right? That's not totally uncommon after some lightning and wind in Kansas. I didn't think too much about it. I had heard it rain a little bit at one point in time and I went back to sleep not knowing anything had happened. And so I wake up and I'm like, shoot, I'm going to need coffee and I can't make coffee.

Like, well, let me see what's open. Maybe Starbucks or a gas station or something like that. Maybe they've. Maybe they've got power. So, so I go and I walk out my back door. I can't push the button from my garage door opener because there's, there's no power. So I walk out my back door to go around and I walk out my back door and I'm like, and I go in my front yard and I'm like, you

could have knocked me over with a feather because I had no idea all that had happened. I was in shock. And so I get in my truck and I go to the end of my driveway and I move an entire half a tree out of my driveway and I go around it and I go get my cup of coffee. And I come back. And as I'm driving, I'm like, oh, this was bad, right? I had no idea. That's kind of how I picture the servant at this point in time,

right? He's going out to make his coffee and he's like, well, he comes back in and he's like, do we have a problem? What are we going to do? So he answered, meaning Elisha, don't fear for those who are for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Elisha prayed and said, well, Lord, I pray open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the servant's eyes and saw, behold, the

mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Can we just take a moment and just say those who are with us are more than those who are with them, that we can have some rest in our lives because we can know that we are surrounded by the armies of God. Doesn't mean nothing bad will ever come into your life, but it does mean that anything bad that does come into your life has already been filtered through the hands of a loving God because nothing can get to you that God does not allow and nothing can get to you that God won't use for your good and for his glory because there are more with us than there are with them. But much like this servant of Elisha, we are so focused on what

we can see that we fail to look beyond to what we can't see. Every now and then, I think about this during worship on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night, I think I wonder if all of the things were peeled back and I could just see the war that was going on, how intense it would be. You know, I think about that when I show up at a high school or something and I know I'm going to give a little devotion to point people to Jesus. And I think I wonder how great the war is that's going on all around me.

Because we forget that the armies of God are going to be the armies of the living God are at war with the armies of the enemy. But there's more of us than there are of them. The army that surrounds us is greater than the army that surrounds them. And Elisha tells him that he says, he says, listen, I'm not too worried right now because there's a whole lot more of us than there are of them.

And you can imagine the kid going, the math's not mathing, right? That's what the kids say today. I think the math isn't mathing on that one. I don't understand it. And he says, oh, I know the problem. He says, Lord, would you give him a vision of the spiritual reality of what's going on around him? And the Lord opened his eyes. And around him there were chariots of fire surrounding the

place. And he went, oh, we're going to win this one. And brothers and sisters, I need us to know something. We're going to win this one, okay? I'm not talking about the conservative party. I mean, God, he's going to win this one. I know there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of fear right now about what's going to happen with things. There's a lot of fear right now about what's going to happen in

the world and our nation and all these different kinds of things. And can I just tell you right now, do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. That the spiritual battle that's going on around us has already been won by God. And he's just doing this. He's doing the cleanup work now. And I pray that we would have that vision to understand that

greater is he that is in you and he that is in the world. And so he he prays that he'll have that vision. It says when they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, strike this people with blindness, I pray. So he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Elisha said to them, this is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me.

And I will bring you to the man whom you seek. And he brought them to Samaria. I've never seen a scene in the Bible that looks more like Star Wars than that moment right there. Right. Like like Elisha is this like this like holy Yoda who's who's strike them with blindness. Right. I mean, that's how I picture this thing and strike them with and they're all blind.

I had read one commentator and I don't know if I agree with him or not. He said clearly he didn't totally strike them with blindness because he was able to lead them to Samaria. And I'm going. I struck with blindness, but maybe they form, you know, how like little kids have to. OK, grab the hand of your neighbor. Maybe they just form the longest line of grab the hand of your

neighbor ever. And they all just followed each other to. So I don't know how that worked. Maybe it was only a partial blindness to where they could still see enough to get to Samaria. I just go with what the Bible says. He struck him with blindness. He says, strike them with blindness, right? They can't see. And he says, this is not the people. This is not the way.

I'll take you to the one that you need to know. I remember telling this to a group. Of youth group kids one time, I just referenced the story because I was talking about spiritual warfare and how God is so much greater and how powerful God is. And I told him about this story and this and this kid goes, you're going to show me that one. I'm going to see that one for myself.

So we looked it up and I showed him and he was just like, that's the greatest thing from Star Wars I've ever seen right now. I kind of got that from him. And he was just amazed by it because this is how powerful God is, right? And this is how powerfully God can use people. So he leads them down there. He brings them all to Samaria. He says, when they come to Samaria, Elisha said,

Oh, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. And so the Lord opened their eyes and they saw and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. That's why I think they actually got struck with blindness and not just like they were just kind of blind because they didn't know where they were. And they're standing in the middle of an enemy city surrounded by enemy soldiers.

And they're going, well, this is bad, right? We're in a bad spot right now. So the king of Israel, when he saw them, said to Elisha, my father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? The answer don't kill them to kill those you've taken captive with your sword and with your bow, set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

He prepared a great feast for them. And when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away. They went away to their master. And the marauding bands of Arameans did not come again into the land of Israel. Isn't that a great story? He just he leads them down there and he's like, what do I do? Do I kill them now? And he's like, why would you do that? Come on, use your head, son.

Give him a little food. Send them home. It's amazing what a little love will do, right? That's exactly what he does. So we'll get into the next story next week because it goes along with chapter seven. I want to keep all of that together. But but it's beautiful how God is able to do all of this through Elisha. All the powerful things that God is able to do.

These are faith builders for me. Are they for you? I hope they are for you, too, because it reminds me I'll always go back to that line out of James that that Elijah, I know we're talking about Elisha. But Elijah was a man just like us. He has the same passions that we do. And yet he prayed and God answered because God can do the same thing with us. Amen. Father, we come before you and I thank you, Lord, for what your word has to say.

I thank you for these faith building stories, how powerful they are and Lord, how much it just makes me want to see you glorified. I want to see you do amazing things to be more and more surrendered to you. And so, Father, do that work in our hearts, I pray. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.