Elisha's Ministry

to you. And the word that we hear, God, would be you speaking directly to us this evening. And I just pray this in your name. Amen.

I wasn't made to be for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace was running my way for more? Salvation was only the star. Earth rejoiced and darkness tries to hide and trembles at his voice. Trembles at his voice. Is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. And all will see how great. How great. Sing with me. Does love see how great? God, I just pray that, Lord, you would just continue to reveal yourself

to everyone so that when they find out how great you are, Lord, that they will be following you and not deceived by the devil. I just pray this in your name.

To the book of, oh, there it is. To the book of 2 Kings, chapter 3. 2 Kings, chapter 3. The last time that we were together, which was last week, right? Yeah, it was last week. The last time that we were together, we saw the end of Elijah's ministry. Elijah was taken up in the whirlwind in a chariot of fire. Actually, he was taken up in a whirlwind. He was taken up by a chariot of fire.

And as he did so, Elisha took up the mantle and really is going to carry on the work of Elijah. And so today, we start part one of what I'll call Elisha's ministry. Because over the next set of chapters, it'll really cover a lot of what Elisha had to do as a prophet of the Lord. And so we pick up in chapter 3, verse 1, and it says this. Now, Jehoram, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel at Samaria in the 8th.

The 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. And he reigned 12 years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and his mother. For he put away the sacred pillar of Baal, which his father had made. Nevertheless, he clung to the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin. He did not depart from them. So, it starts off by giving us a little bit of a clue about the next king.

Remember, Ahaziah had been king. He was the son of Ahaziah. And Ahaziah had a very short reign, and he died of that tragic accident. And so, one of Ahab's other sons, this guy Jehoram, took over for him. And we read something about him. First of all, he's the son of Ahab. But he kind of had a little bit of a half-hearted spirituality. Because it says that he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

He wasn't as bad as his parents, right? He wasn't as bad as Ahab and Jezebel, which is quite the bar to set for evil. He didn't do quite as bad as them. And yet, we find that while he put away the Baals, he did not flee from the sins of Jeroboam, who set up those golden calves. And in that, we have kind of an interesting picture of what we can have a tendency to want to be.

And that's half-heartedly spiritual, right? Like, we put away enough evil to make ourselves feel a little bit better about ourselves, but not enough evil to be completely different from the world around us. Sometimes we can have that little bit of half-heartedness in us to where we're like, yeah, but at least I'm not as bad as my parents were. At least I'm not as bad as they are.

And we forget that it's not about... It's not about whether or not we're better than somebody else. It's whether or not we are where God wants for us to be. So we see this in Jehoram. He puts away the sacred pillar of Baal, and yet he clung to the sins of Jeroboam, who had set up those golden calves. And so it says in verse 4,

And King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and he mustered all Israel. And he went and he sent word to Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me and fight against Moab? And he said, I will go up. I am as you are, and my people are as your people. My horses as your horses. He said, Which way shall we go?

And he answered, By the way of the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah, and the king of Edom. And they made a circuit of a seven days journey. And there was no water for the army or the cattle that followed them. Now the first thing that we see is a story about a war that's going to take place with Moab. It's kind of interesting because chapter 1 starts in a very similar way

that Moab began to rebel or began to try to put off the restraints that Israel had put on them, which actually had started way back with King David. But because of a weak political situation due to the lack of morality within the nation, Moab wants to get rid of the king of Israel. And Moab again felt confident to sort of rebel against the power of Israel. And so they stopped paying tribute.

If you will, they stopped paying taxes to Israel. And so as they stopped paying taxes to Israel, Jehoram said, We can't let this go. We have to deal with this. And so what he decided he was going to do is he's going to go to war. But he knew he needed an alliance of kings. So he went down to that familiar king, Jehoshaphat, who's been ruling in Judah this entire time.

Remember, Jehoshaphat was a really good king. Jehoshaphat's biggest problem is that he had a tendency to go to war. He had a tendency to align with the wrong people, right? He had a tendency to align with really bad people. The good thing is his heart was always in the right place. But he had a tendency to keep bad company. And so Jehoram goes to him and says,

Hey, would you go to war with me against the Moabites? And rather than him saying, No, you go fight your own battle. You're pretty evil. I don't want to join with you. He says, Absolutely. We're brothers. My house is your house. My soldiers is your soldiers. So on and so forth. So they form this alliance with the two of them. And then they also add the king of Edom,

which is an interesting choice to make. But these three kings decide that they're going to go to war. And so they begin to go down by this through this route that's going to take them through the wilderness. And as is pretty common in the land of Israel, you go through the wilderness in a desert area and there's not any water there. And so as they show up, there's no water for the army

or for the horses or for the cattle or anything that's with them. And once you notice the reaction of Jehoram, he says, Then the king of Israel said, Alas, for the Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Elisha, the son of Shaphat, is here.

And he used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. Jehoshaphat said, Ah, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. Now I want you to notice the reaction of these two different individuals. They're both in the same situation. They're both in the middle. They're going through the desert on a horse with no name.

That's a terrible song reference right there. There's no water for the horses, right? And so there's about to be a horse with no life. And so they're going, Great. What are we going to do now? But there's two different reactions. Did you notice it? Jehoram, who had followed after idolatry, says, Surely God's brought us out here to kill us. Jehoshaphat, who is following the Lord, says,

Well, maybe we should find out what the Lord has to say. And isn't it kind of interesting, those two reactions? And can I just tell us that maybe those reactions that we have in our lives, are a good indication of where our heart is. When trouble hits you, what is your first thought? God's judging me right now? Or let's seek the Lord and see what he has to say.

I would venture to say, and I can't promise this, but I would venture to say that if you're living in sin, if you're living in rebellion against God, and something bad happens in your life, the first thing you think to yourself is, Maybe God is judging me. Now, that happens sometimes with people that aren't walking in sin. Some of us just live with a guilty conscience all the time because we overanalyze everything in our lives. So, this isn't a hard and fast rule, but it is something kind of interesting to pay attention to, isn't it?

Because your reaction to bad things in your life is usually an indication of what's going on in your life. Because Jehoshaphat has a very different reaction. He says, Let's seek the Lord and see what God wants to do about this. This is almost a complete replay of a situation that happened in 1 Kings, right? With Ahab. Honestly, Jehoshaphat should have learned his lesson the first go round.

Because do you remember what happened with Ahab? With Ahab, they were told, You're going to go to war, and Ahab, you're going to die. The king will not make it home alive. And so Ahab said, Jehoshaphat, you make yourself look like a king. I'm going to look like one of the other guys, one of the other soldiers. And he's like, okay, right? And he goes into battle, and he almost gets killed.

You would think he would have learned his lesson by now, but he didn't. But he did remember one thing. Anytime something's bad, you better seek the Lord. And that's what he does. He's like, isn't there a prophet of the Lord around here to see if we can figure out what's really going on in this situation? To see if God has something to say. To see if God has something to say to us in this situation?

And all of the idolaters, people kind of look at each other, but there is one guy who's like, I know who's around here. Elisha's nearby. He was the one who used to pour water on the hands of Elisha. Now, sidebar, an interesting little point to make. What is Elisha known as? He's known as a servant. Isn't that great? When they needed to hear a word from the Lord, who did they look for?

A servant of the Lord. That should tell you something. And that's that if you want to be one who other people look to, you should probably start by being a servant. Jesus said something really similar to that, didn't he? He said, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, then you need to learn to be a servant of all. And so it's kind of an interesting point that's made here,

that Elisha was chosen not because he was such a fantastic speaker, not because he was such a fantastic prophet, but because he was such a fantastic servant. And as soon as they said he used to pour water, on the hands of Elijah, he said, the word of the Lord is with him. Let's go see what he has to say. I also find it interesting that Elisha just happened to be nearby at this particular point in time.

It's almost like God had put him in the right place at the right time because God is so faithful to do that. And so that's what happens. So they go down to see Elisha. And I want you to take notice, it says, now Elisha, verse 13, said to the king of Israel, what have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother. The king of Israel said,

no, for the Lord has called these three kings together to give them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look at you nor see you. Man, I just love how harsh this guy is, right? He's like, why are you coming to see me? Don't you have a bunch of false prophets that can tell you

something that you want to hear? Aren't there other people that can tell you these things? After all, that's kind of a lie. That's kind of a lie. That's kind of who you worship anyway. Why is it that when you need something, you come and seek me, but not when it's going to be sacrificial for you, right? And that's kind of the way that we can tend to be, right?

And so he says something really interesting. He says, if it weren't for the fact that Jehoshaphat was here, I wouldn't even look at you. Now, I love this because God is so patient with us as human beings, isn't he? Jehoshaphat's somewhere he should have never been, right? He should not be aligning himself with the king of Israel because the king of Israel is idolatrous.

He's idolatrous in all of his ways. He should have learned his lesson the first time around. But Jehoshaphat's a lot like us. Sometimes we can be a little soft-hearted towards people, and sometimes we give people a second chance when maybe they don't really deserve it. And sometimes we align ourselves with the wrong people because sometimes we have bad discernment

or we just made a bad decision. And yet sometimes in the middle of that, our heart was actually in the right place. And even though he was in the wrong place, his heart was in the right place. And God recognized that about Jehoshaphat. And Elisha recognized that about Jehoshaphat. And I appreciate that as a leader because sometimes I make the wrong decision.

Sometimes I find myself in the wrong place. Sometimes I lack discernment. Sometimes I just plain make mistakes. But God sees my heart, and he says, he's in the wrong place. He maybe made a wrong decision, but his heart's in the right spot. And so I'm still gonna minister to him. I'm still gonna use him. I'm not done with him yet. And that's what he does with Elisha here.

And so, or with Jehoshaphat here. So Elisha says, I don't like the New American Standard version of this. It says, bring me now a minstrel. In the New King James, it says musician. I like that better. I just don't, I don't know why, I just do. So I'm just gonna say musician because I like that word better. But now bring me a musician. And it came about that when the musician played,

that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he says, thus says the Lord, make this valley full of trenches. For thus says the Lord, you shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain. Yet you shall see this valley filled with water. So that you shall drink, both you and your cattle and your beasts. This is but a slight thing in the sight of the Lord. He will also give the Moabites into your hand.

And you shall strike every fortified city and every choice city and fell every good tree and stop all springs of water and mar every good piece of land with stones. And it happened in the morning. We'll get to that in just a second. So the first thing he says is bring me a musician, right? Now, I found this to be kind of fascinating because there is just something kind of powerful

about music, isn't there? And this reminds us that there's something pretty powerful about music in our lives, especially when it comes to music that glorifies the Lord. There is something about the stirring of the Holy Spirit during a really good time of worship, right? There's something about hearing somebody that really loves the Lord playing to the Lord and it just kind of stirs your spirit within you.

And having grown up in the home of not just a musician but a worship leader, I can really appreciate that the first thing that he asks for is that a musician would be brought to him. I remember going through a very, very hard time in my life and I've shared it before. But one of the things that I used to do, I had just moved back into my parents' house at that point in time. I was renting the basement from them.

And at that point in time, when I was going through some tough stuff, I would just, every now and then, I would just sit down and say, Dad, could you just play some music for me? Could you just play some worship? Could you just play some worship songs for me? And so he would sit down at the piano, which was one of his favorite things to do anyway. He would just sit down at the piano

and he would just start playing and he would start singing. And I gotta tell you, the feeling of peace that would wash over me in that moment was pretty unexplainable by words. It was just simply a moving of the Holy Spirit. And it was just so powerful to hear that. It's still one of my favorite things to do is to listen to him sing music like that because there's just something powerful about a musician.

I was actually telling my wife yesterday, I said, you know, I want Nora to become that for me, my youngest daughter. I want her to become that for me because she has that same gifting, she has that same talent and I keep trying to convince her that that's who she is. This stays with us. You won't tell her, right? This stays with us and all of the people on the internet.

So I thought about that with her and I'm like, this is what I've been trying to convey to her is that there's just something powerful. Think about it. When David was in the wilderness, what did he find himself escaping to oftentimes? He found himself, escaping into worship, right? And he would play those music. When Saul was in those distressed places, what did he do?

He called for David. He played some music for him. I have a playlist that I listen to early on Sunday mornings when I'm putting everything together and it's just a bunch of, I call it my reflective playlist and it's just a bunch of worship songs, some old, some new, a little bit of everything mixed in there because there's just something powerful about that worship music playing and it just sort of stirs the spirit. And that's what happened with Elijah.

You can kind of picture it, right? Or actually, maybe he just kind of sits back and listens to this music. Sidebar, I love that he's not in a hurry right now, right? He's like, bring me a musician. Well, where are we gonna find one of those? I don't care, go find one. Bring him here. I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna listen to what he has to say and when I'm good and ready

and when the Holy Spirit's good and ready, he's gonna minister to me because God's not in a hurry and neither are his servants. And so he's sitting back and he's listening and as he's listening to this music, this is what comes out. He says, make the valley full. Full of trenches because there's about to be water that fills up this entire valley and it's not gonna be because of a rainstorm.

It's not gonna be because of anything else. It's gonna be because, it's going to be because God does it because this is a small thing in the sight of the Lord. Oh, and by the way, by the way, you're gonna defeat the Moabites too and absolutely wreck their land. That's what you're gonna do in this entire moment. I always wonder, did he sing it at that point in time?

Was he singing this whole thing? So I don't know if I'm gonna get myself in trouble by saying this or not, but I've never let that slow me down before. So I ushered a funeral the other day on Saturday at a Catholic church. Again, I'm not trying to be offensive to anybody at this point in time, but the priest sings a lot in a Catholic church. And I was like, that's reason number 597

why I can't be a priest, right? Like the first 596 are mainly theological and then you get to 597 and I'm like, no. No, I can't be. No, I can't be. I can't be a priest because I can't sing. This is why we don't go Christmas caroling, right? So this is, I mean, at that point in time, I'm like, well, I don't know if I could be a prophet of God either because we can't go Christmas caroling

because of my singing. Surely I can't be a prophet because of that. I'm just gonna have to stick with spoken word. That's all I got. So he says all of these things and he says, and this is a small thing in the sight of God. Listen, can we just remember that? That whatever it is that you're stressed about, it's a small thing in the sight of God. It's a slight thing in the sight of God.

We blow our problems so out of proportion. We blow everything out. Lord, this is a huge thing for you. I don't know if you can do this, God. It's so big. Meanwhile, God's over here like creating things with the word of his mouth, right? It's a small thing in the sight of God. But there was one thing that they were supposed to do. Did you take note of it? He says, you go dig trenches.

Go dig trenches. Why are they supposed to dig trenches? Well, they may not know the full plan yet. Part of it's that God's gonna fill them up with water, but there's a whole other thing that's gonna go along with that. And we're reminded of something in this. Our job is to prepare. God's job is to provide the miracle, right? Our job is to prepare. God's job is to provide the miracle.

All they had to do is dig ditches. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where you are so thirsty that you feel like perhaps you have days left. But it's a rough situation to be in when you're just like, oh my gosh, all I want is water. I could just drink it out of a hose for the next 25 days and that would still not be enough water. Be that thirsty and then have God say,

dig trenches in the desert where there's no water. But that's what they had to do. It didn't make much sense. It sounded really hard, but they needed to do the hard work of preparation because God was about to provide the miracle. I was reminded of what we talked about Sunday morning, disciplining ourselves. It was towards godliness, for the purpose of godliness.

See, that's digging the trenches. But then our hope is in God, who's going to provide the miracle. Maybe you are trying to have devotion times and you're like, man, God's word doesn't make much sense to me. I still don't really understand all the things that I'm reading. I don't always know if I'm getting a lot out of it. Prayer feels like they all hit the ceiling

and so it doesn't feel like a lot's going on there. Worship feels really dry. I don't feel like a lot's happening there. And yet God calls you to continue to praise him. In song and to seek him in the word and to seek him through prayer and to seek him in all these different kinds of ways. Why? Because you're digging the trenches. Because your job is to prepare.

His job is to provide the miracle. And so that's what he tells them to do. And so that's what they do. It happened, verse 20. In the morning, about the time of the offering of the sacrifice, that behold, water came by the way of Edom and the coming of the Lord. And the coming of the Lord. And the coming of the Lord. And the coming of the Lord. And the coming of the Lord.

And the coming of the Lord. And the coming of the country was filled with water. And all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them. And all who were able to put on armor and older were summoned and stood on the border. And they rose early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood.

And they said, this is the blood that the kings have surely fought together, and they have slain one another. Now, therefore, Moab to the spoil. But when they came to the camp, the Israelites arose and struck the Moabites so that they fled before them. And they went forward in the land, slaughtering the Moabites, and they destroyed the cities. Each one threw a stone on every piece of good land

and filled it, so that they stopped all the springs of water and felled all the good trees, until in Kir Haraseth, only they left it stoned. However, the slingers went about and struck it. Now, I love what happens here. It says that water appeared out of Edom. From the direction of Edom and filled up the valley and filled up all the trenches. I love the way that the Amplified Bible translated this.

It says that water came miraculously. In other words, there was no rain. There was no reason. Nobody opened up a dam somewhere. God was just like and threw a bunch of water down on them. Nobody knew how. And it filled up all of the trenches. So that when the Moabites looked down, somehow the way the sun shone off the water, obviously miraculously by God, it appeared to them as blood.

And they're like, oh my gosh, look at the valley. They've all slaughtered each other. Let's just go take the spoils. And so they went down completely unaware that there was an army waiting for them. And they were able to absolutely destroy the enemy. Why? Because they dug the trenches. See, they took time to hear what God had to say. They took heed to his instructions and obeyed them.

And then God provided the miracle. And brought not only the water that they needed to sustain life, but he gave them victory over their enemies. Well, it goes on from there to say, when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. And he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him there as a burnt offering on the wall.

And there came great wrath against Israel. And they departed from him and returned to their own land. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene.

And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene. And so a horrific scene

husband is dead. You know that your servant feared the Lord, and the creditor has come to take away my two children to be his slaves. Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil. He said, go borrow vessels at large for yourself from all of your neighbors, even empty vessels,

and don't just get a few. And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full. So she went from him, and she shut the door behind her and her sons, and they poured, bringing the vessels to her, and she poured. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son, bring me another vessel.

And he said, there's not one vessel more, and the oil stopped. And she came and told the man, and he said, go sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest. Now, before we get into the story of Elisha, I want to tell you a little bit about the story of Elisha. Before I get into this story, I just want to share something with you real quick, okay?

This is a fantastic story. All these stories about Elisha, I just love them. I could read them over and over again because they're so cool. And it reminds me, I want to recommend a book to you, okay? I'm just about done with it. I've been reading it for quite a while now, because it's one that you can read for a little bit, put down, and then come back to. And it's actually by a lady

named Jean McClure, who is Don McClure's wife. Don McClure is one of the original kind of big Calvary guys, one of my top five favorite pastors of all time. And his wife, wrote this book called The Trunk. And The Trunk is all the stories of their life about how God has done really pretty miraculous things in their lives and through ministry, things that are just wild. And listen, I'm an emotional human being, right? So I can't read this book in public,

because I've tried several times. Matter of fact, I was in the middle of reading this book in a coffee shop one day, and somebody came up to me to ask me a question. And I looked up, and I got tears all over my face, and they're just like, are you okay? And I'm like, I'm fine. It's just a good book. That's all. God's faithful. How are you? Right? Because that's what it does. So you might

want to read it on your onesies if you're an emotional human being. I really want to recommend it to you, because it's fantastic. And that's sort of what chapter four is. It's kind of like Elisha's trunk, right? These are just stories of God's faithfulness, and they're so good for us to read, because every time I get into things like this, I am just reminded of how faithful God is.

And it makes me kind of think back on areas of my life that I've been through, and I'm like, own life where he's shown himself faithful, areas of my parents' life where he's shown himself faithful, areas of this church's life where he's shown himself faithful, because there's just so many stories of what God does. Because listen, God is faithful. And this is one of those stories. So there's this woman, right? And she's a widow. Her husband was a servant of the Lord,

a faithful servant of the Lord. He'd passed away, but unfortunately, he'd passed away, leaving a great debt behind. And the creditor had done what was really pretty lawful for a creditor to do at that point in time. He told her, if you can't pay the debt, then I'm going to take your sons, basically as indentured servants, until they could pay off, or they could work off the debt. But as a widow, that would have left no one to take care of her.

See, we don't think about that in our culture. But if she's left without a son, she's left without anyone to care for her. She would have been on her own and completely destitute and even poorer than she was at this point in time. And so she's very stressed right now. And because she cared, it was important to God. Because it was important to God, it was important to her.

It was important to God. It was important to God's servant. So she called for Elisha, and he said, what do you want me to do for you? Because he said, I have a question for you. What do you have in the house? And she said, I have a jar of oil. Now, my study this go-round taught me something. And that's that, you know, when I thought of a jar of oil, I thought of like either a jar of oil or

like a jar of oil, right? I thought of something big. But that's not what this word actually means. This word actually means something. It would have been something that was used simply for anointing, whether it be the anointing of another prophet or the anointing of an individual who was sick. This would have been a small flask of oil. And so what he tells her to do, he says, okay, take what you have and go and borrow a bunch

of vessels. And I love this because God uses what we have, right? Like sometimes we look at ourselves and go, I don't have that much. Well, what do you have? Because you can give to God what you do have, and he will do amazing things with it. Sometimes we think, well, I've got to go get all this other stuff. I've got to get this education. I've got to be able to have these things. I've got to be able

to have that. What do you have? Let's do something with that. Because that's what God's faithfulness is, taking what we have and doing something amazing with it. So she goes and gets all of these vessels. It's a different Hebrew word, and it speaks of larger jars. He says, now, fill all of those vessels with oil out of a little flask. Fill those vessels with oil, take it, sell it, use the proceeds to not only pay off your

debt, but also to live off of. And so she goes and gathers as many vessels as she possibly can. Again, she has to prepare, but God's going to provide the miracle. And so she goes and she gathers all these vessels and brings them into the house, right? And closes the door, because she kind of wants it to be in secret, because it's going to look a little wild if she's trying to fill up an oil jar with it, right?

That's what she does. And she fills, and she fills. Can you imagine filling the first jar up, right? Like, you've got this little thing like this, and you go to start pouring into this jar, and you're like, and it fills up. Bring the next one over. It had to have been an amazing moment. And so she's pouring, and she's pouring, and she's pouring, and her sons are bringing her all these jars, and she says, okay, guys, this one's about

full. Bring me one more jar. That's it. Sheep. Well, it's empty. She says, now, take that and sell it. And she was able to take it and sell it, pay off the debt, and live off of everything else. You know why? Because God takes what we have that's incredibly insufficient, and He makes it more than enough. I want to dovetail this with what we talked about last week. God wants

to use every person in here, whether it be within the church or outside of the church, to do something for the Lord, to do something powerful. And you're probably asking yourself, I don't have what it takes. I'm never going to be sufficient for that. And God just has one question for you. What do you have? What do you have? Because what you have, He's able to take it and make it more than enough. And

I know that because I'm standing up here in front of you right now, because when I felt like God wanted me to do something, I was like, Lord, I don't have much. And He said, well, what do you have? Sarcasm and caffeine. I mean, that's about all I got, right? And He's like, I can make it more than enough. Because that's what He does. He takes our our insufficiency. And in his hands, it becomes more than sufficient. And so she's able to pay

off the debt and provide everything that they need. And they lived on the rest. Well, now comes the next story, the story of the Shunammite woman. It says now, verse 8, there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunamm, where there was a prominent woman. And she persuaded him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food. And she said to her husband,

behold, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually. Please let us make a little walled up chamber, or walled upper chamber, and let us set a bed for him, and a table and a chair and a lampstand. And it shall be when he comes to us that he can turn in there. And one day he came there and turned into the upper chamber, and he rested. So it starts off with

the description of this woman. It describes her as a prominent woman. And that can mean several different things. It can mean in a material way she was prominent. It can mean in a dignified way that she was prominent. Or it can mean in a very moral way she was prominent. In other words, this was quite the lady, right? Picture Proverbs 31 in a person. This is who she

is. A very giving, hospitable sort of a person. So she was watching the ministry of Elisha, and she said, I want to be able to serve. Why don't you come into my house and have a meal? So every time he'd come by, she would persuade him. She'd say, come over and eat tonight. So he'd come eat. And one day she said to her husband, she says, I feel like he needs a place to stay, right? Like he needs a little place where he can have a little

bit of rest, but a little bit of sanctuary, something kind of his own, at least when he's in this area. So her husband constructs this room on the top of their house, and you can imagine how proud she is on the day that he shows up. She's like, come over for dinner again tonight. He comes over and she eats, and she goes, I've got a surprise for you. You're going to love this.

Takes him outside, because that's probably how it would have been, outside up the stairs on the outside of their home and up to the rooftop where they built a little room for him. She takes him upstairs. She goes, look, this is for you. Anytime you're here, you don't even have to ask. This is your place. And it blessed him so much. You know how I know it blessed him so much? Because of what he does next. He says,

verse 11, one day he came there. He turned into the upper chamber and he rested. He said to Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. He said to him, say now to her, behold, you've been careful for us with all of this care. What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you? What can I do for you?

This is how I know it was such a blessing to him. Would you be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the army? She answered, I live among my own people. He said, what then is there that can be done for her? And Gehazi answered, truly, she has no son and her husband is old. He said, call her. When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. He said, at this time next year, you

will embrace a son. She said, oh, no, my Lord, do not lie to your maidservant. The woman conceived, and she bore a son at that season the next year, as Elisha had said to her. He's like, I just want to do something to bless her. She's done so much to bless me. What can I do for you? Can I put in a good word for you with the king or the captain? He said, I don't have any problems with those kinds of things. And finally, he says, so what can I do?

He was thinking, right, probably in the upper chamber, she'd gone away. And he's talking to Gehazi, and he goes, what do you think? What does she need? And she goes, he said, well, she doesn't have any kids. Her husband's old, and she doesn't have a son. And that would mean two things for a woman at that point in time. Number one, there was a great stigma with barrenness. At that point in time, it most agreed that it

seemed as though God had an issue with you, like there was something in your life that was wrong. So there was a great stigma that went with barrenness. But not only that, he said, your husband's old. Well, what does that mean? It means soon there would be no one to take care of her. He said, I've got the idea. Let's give her a son. So he calls her, and he says, hey, listen,

this is what the Lord says. You're going to have a son. He says, I've got the idea. Let's give her a son. You're going to have a son at this time next year. And it's just too good for her to believe. But sure enough, a year later, she has a son. Can you imagine the joy that came into her life at that point in time? Well, time goes by, verse 18. When the child was grown, the day came that

he went out to his father, to the reapers. He said to his father, my head hurts. He said to his servant, carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, he brought him to his mother, and he sat her on his lap. And he sat her on her lap until noon, and then he died. She went up, and she laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door behind him, and went out. She called her husband and says, please send

me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and return. He said, will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath. And she said, it'll be fine. She saddled a donkey and said to her servant, drive and go forward. Don't slow down the pace for me unless I tell you. And she went, and she came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a

distance, he said to Gehazi, his servant, behold, there's the Shunammite. Please run now and meet her and say to her, is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child? And she answered, it is well. Quick moment just to catch up with where we are. Of course, this woman's son grows up, and undoubtedly the joy of her life. And then in all, then all of a sudden,

one fell swoop, it all came falling apart. Because in that moment, he passed away. And she knew she had one hope and one hope only. And that was that God would move through Elisha, the servant, the very one who gave her the son. So she laid him on Elisha's bed. She runs out to where Elisha is staying on Mount Carmel. Doesn't even really tell her husband what had happened. Everything's fine

because she believed that God was able to deal with it, that God was able to handle things. And as she went, Elisha sees her from far off and says, that's the Shunammite woman, Gehazi. Run out and find out what's going on. And do you notice the statement that she made as soon as she saw Gehazi? He said, is everything well? And she said, it's well. You know what we call that?

We call that a statement of faith. Because even though in her world, nothing seemed well, she knew that by God's power, everything is well. And so she goes to see, Elisha. When she came to the man of God, to the hill, she caught hold of his feet and Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, let her alone for her soul is troubled within her.

And the Lord has hidden it from me and not told me. And she said, did I ask for a son? Did I not say, don't deceive me? He said to Gehazi, gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go your way. If you meet anyone, don't salute him. If anyone salutes you, don't salute him. If anyone salutes you, don't answer him. And lay my staff on the lad's face. Do you notice the reaction?

She gets to where Elisha is and she falls at his feet. And basically she weeps before him and says, did I not tell you not to lie to me? Don't put me through this. And you're probably thinking, Ryan, but you just said she made a statement of faith. She said, it is all well. It's well. Because she knew God could move. Can I just remind us of something? Just because you have faith,

it doesn't eliminate your emotions. Just because you believe, that God could do something doesn't mean that you don't still deal with the emotions of what you're going through. You see, sometimes we think if you have faith, it makes you stoic and you don't have any emotions to deal with things. But the fact of the matter is faith doesn't eliminate that in our lives. And just because

you believe that God will move doesn't mean it doesn't hurt what you're going through in that moment. My friend Levi Lesko put it best when he said, just because there's hope doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. And so she cries out to Elisha. She's like, what did you do? I told you I didn't want a son. I didn't ask for this. I said, don't deceive me. And in that moment, Elisha knew what had happened. And he looked at Gehazi and he gave him the

instructions, go and go fast. Don't stop. And lay my staff on his face. I want you to notice how she responds. The mother of the lad, verse 30 said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. And he arose and followed her. Gehazi passed on before them, laid the staff on the lad's face, but there was no sound or response. So he returned to me.

I met him and told him the lad has not awakened. And when Elisha came into the house, behold, the lad was dead and laid on his bed. So he entered and shut the door behind them and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay on the child and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him and the flesh of the

child became warm. And he returned and walked in the house back or once back and forth and went up and stretched himself on him. And the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes. He called Gehazi and said, call the Shunammite. So he called her and she came and he said, take up your son. What a fantastic moment. Gehazi lays the staff of Elisha on him. Nothing happens

because this is a bad situation. Elisha, I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do in this moment. Elisha says, just clear out. Give me a little bit of time. He basically lays himself completely on the child, sort of an identification thing with the child. And he prays. And did you notice what happens? The first part of the miracle is that the child is laid on his back. And he prays.

And the second part of the miracle is that he began to feel the warmth in him. And yet he wasn't alive yet. So he got up and he prayed again. And as he got up and he prayed again, he put himself back in the same position. And as he put himself back in the same position, the next time God brought the healing. You ever notice how many times in scripture the healing doesn't always

come the first time? That God works things slowly but surely. That God does things in his own time. It reminds me of the story in the New Testament where Jesus, seeks to heal a blind man. And as he lays his hands on him and prays for him, he says, open your eyes. He said, what do you see? He says, I see, but I see men as trees walking. He says, close your eyes again. And he touches them again. He says, now open your eyes. And he says, ah, I can see

clearly. Why? Well, because sometimes God's healing is immediate, right? Like sometimes he works immediately in our lives and we're like, ha ha, everything's great. But oftentimes God's healing is slow in our lives and it takes time and it's a process. We have to remember that, that, that sometimes things don't happen in the time we think it should happen. It happens in the time God thinks that it should happen. And that's the way he works in

this moment because oftentimes God works. And this is a little statement I've developed that I've lived according to my entire life is that God works slowly but surely. It's not always right away. He works sometimes very slowly but surely in our lives. And we'll see little bits of progress. We'll see little bits of healing until God finally brings us back to where we were.

And that's what happens. So this woman's son is brought back to life. And she went in and she fell at his feet. She bowed herself to the ground and she took up her son and she went out. Well, one more little story here. Actually, it's kind of two of them put together of miraculous provision. I want you to notice what happens. It says, when he, when Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in

the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. Then one went out into the field to gather herbs. And he found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds. And he came and he sliced them into the pot of stew. They did not know what they were. So they poured it out for the men to eat. And as they were eating of the stew, they

cried out and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they said, and they were unable to eat. He said, now bring meal. And he threw it into the pot and said, pour it out for the people that they may eat. And there was no more harm. And he said, now bring meal. And he threw it into the pot and there was no more harm in the pot. The famine's going on, right? This is an issue because of the

unholiness in the land. Is that God's judgment? And yet the sons of the prophets still needed to eat. He said, man, let's make a pot of stew. We'll use what we can find. And so they found something that was a little bit poisonous out in the field. And as they began to smell it and started, oh, this is going to be bad. This is going to end really bad for all of us. And now there's nothing

to eat. And so Elisha took something very common. He took this as meal, literally some flour, threw some flour in there. As he threw the flour in, it brought healing to the pot. And they were able to eat the food. Isn't it kind of interesting that once again, he took something common and God did something miraculous with the most common thing. Have you noticed that theme throughout all these things with Elisha? That God takes the common things of

life and he does very powerful things with them. And so that they're able to eat. Well, there's one more story along those lines. And it says he went in, excuse me. It says, now a man, verse 42, came from Baal Shalisha and he brought the man to the pot. And he took the pot and he put it in the pot. And he said, give them to the people that they may eat. And his attendants said, what will I

set this before? What will I set this before a hundred men? He said, give them to the people that they may eat for that says the Lord, they shall eat and have some leftover. So he said it before them and they ate and they had leftover according to the word of the Lord. Does this story kind of sound familiar? Again, he brought them some loaves of bread, only not a loaf of bread like what we're thinking of. It

would have been a loaf of bread. I think it even in some of the translation says a cake of bread and some ears of barley. And he says, ah, some food for the prophets in his service going, there's like a hundred dudes here, right? This is not going to feed all the guys that we got here right now. Elisha says, hey, don't, don't worry about it. God's going to take the insufficiency

and he's going to make it more than enough because thus says the Lord, not only will everybody eat their fill, but there'll be some leftovers. And so they prayed and blessed the meal and everybody ate. And according to the word of the Lord, if you're an underliner, you should underline that. According to the word of the Lord, not only were they able to eat their fill, but there was some leftover, almost a foreshadowing of a miracle that we see take place in the New Testament, right?

Two times where Jesus took that which was insufficient and he made it more than enough for everybody. Only of course, he's Jesus. It was way more than a hundred people, right? Because that's what God does. Brothers and sisters, think about those stories of faithfulness that God has shown you in your life. Sometimes we, sometimes we struggle with worry because we

forget how faithful God's been to us. Amen. Father, we come to you now and Lord, I just thank you that you are so good to us. Lord, that you have recorded these stories so that we can look and say, man, God is so good and I just want to see his faithfulness in my life. I thank you for your provision. I thank you for your goodness. And Lord, may you continue to work your word deep into our souls.

And Father, we just praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.