2 Kings 2 is the beginning of Elisha's ministry there.
When you read the Old Testament and read the Bible, you start to pick out your favorite characters.
A lot of times that changes over time.
I have to say, last time I read up on Elisha.
I think Elisha is probably, at least for the time being, my favorite Old Testament character.
Just because he has a multitude of miracles.
He did even more miracles. He prayed that he would have a double portion of Elijah's spirit.
If you read the story, that truly was given unto him.
He had that and he did a lot of miracles.
So many of those miracles are so unique and so many of them are obscured.
We lose sight of them because they are in the scope of all the miracles that you read about in the Bible.
One in particular I always think about is the fact where they are hewing the wood and the axe head falls off into the river.
The guy says, alas master, for it was borrowed.
He said, where is it? He throws the stick in and the iron did swim, the Bible says.
Hopefully I can preach a sermon about that.
That has nothing to do with what I preached about this morning.
I just love this character.
In particular, there is a really great miracle here.
I think it can teach us a lot of things about how we should approach God and the nature and method in which God helps us.
If we look here in 2 Kings chapter 2, look there in verse 18 and 19 where it says,
And when they came again to him, for he tarried at Jericho, he said unto them, Did I say unto you, go not?
We find Elijah this morning, he is beginning his ministry, he comes back from having followed Elijah and seeing him taken up in the whirlwind.
He comes back and now he is in the city of Jericho and there is some significance to that.
These men come back and tell them not to go. In verse 19,
And the men of the city, the men of Jericho, said unto Elijah, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of the city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water is not, and the ground barren.
What we can first notice here about this passage is that they say to him, the city is pleasant, but the water is not.
When he says the city is pleasant, he is saying, look, you can see how nice this place is for situations, you can see how well placed it is,
you can see the surroundings, what a beautiful city this city of Jericho is, but it goes on and says, but the water is not.
And there is a drought, the ground is barren. And what that shows us is that in life, things aren't always what they seem.
Situations or appearances can often be very deceiving. And if you would, keep something there.
Let's just turn over real quick to a familiar passage, but one that we should be reminded of in 1 Samuel chapter 16.
See, man has a way of looking at a situation or looking at something and allowing himself to just be led along simply because of the way it appears.
And not understanding that sometimes behind that veneer, you know, there's problems, there's situations, there's difficulties.
And that's why it's important that we learn not to look as man seeth, but try to learn to see as God seeth.
And if you look here in 1 Samuel chapter 16, let's look there at verse 7.
But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance.
Of course, this is when Samuel is told to go and anoint the next king of Israel.
And he brings the seven sons of Jesse before him.
And he sees Eliab and he said, Surely the Lord has anointed us before him. Verse 6.
And the Lord said unto him, Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature,
because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
And that's what we need to learn this morning. It's kind of a similar situation.
These men, they saw Jericho, they saw how nice it looked, and they just went on in and they moved there.
And then they find out, well, it's got these problems.
There's problems with the water, which leads to problems with the land.
It's inhabitable. You know, it looks nice for a situation, but it's not right.
And what the problem was is they're not looking as God looks.
You know, God doesn't just look on the outward appearance. God looks upon the heart.
He looks beyond just the situation, as it were.
So, what that often leads to, of course, we should try to look like this, but we don't always, do we?
Quite often, we just look at the way, we like the way things look, we like the way a situation's played out, and we just go with it.
And we never really stop to pause and consider, you know, what does God want in this situation?
Or maybe we should be praying about it.
And what that leads to is that people often are surprised by life, aren't they, when the trials come?
You know, these men that moved to Jericho, you know, they were probably a little surprised when they got there and went to the tap and, you know, brown water came out or whatever.
You know, they were surprised by life's trials, and that's often what happens to us when we fail to look and see as man seeth.
And if you would, turn over to James chapter 4. James chapter 4.
And when you get to James, if you would, keep something there, because we're going to come back to James several times throughout the sermon.
But, you know, people can be surprised by life's trials. They can take us by surprise.
And really, Scripture warns us against this. You know, Scripture warns us to expect the unexpected.
You know, not to just assume that everything's going to go perfect, that life's just going to be this primrose path all the way to glory.
That there's going to be trials, that there's going to be tribulations, and that that should not come as a surprise to us.
That when we run into difficulties in life. The Bible says in Proverbs 27,
Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
You know, everything's going great today, everything's good today, but you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Some situation could come up in some relationship, you know, the economy could take a turn, the job suffers, whatever it might be.
You know, a medical problem could arise. This happens to people all the time.
Things come out of the blue, and they surprise us, and they shock us.
And if you look there in James chapter 4, verses 13 through 16, we'll read a little bit more about this.
You know, the Bible says, hey, boast not thyself of tomorrow. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
You don't know what a day may bring forth.
He says in James chapter 4, verse 13, go to now, ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain.
This reminds me of the men of Jericho.
You know, we're going to read a little bit and be reminded of the city of Jericho, and that it was a city that God had destroyed and put a curse upon.
And yet these men, they just moved there.
You know, they said, hey, we're going to go to Jericho, it's pleasant there, you know, everybody's moving there.
You know, there's probably some kind of gentrification going on, right?
They're trying to build that place back up and make it not such a slum anymore.
You know, maybe the government even incentivized people moving there, you know, gave them some tax cuts or something.
We're going to go there, we're going to get gain, we're going to set up shop, and it's going to be good.
Like, well, what does God say there in verse 13?
Go now, go to now, ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there and buy and sell and get gain.
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. You don't know what's going to happen.
For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.
For we ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.
You know, God's encouraging us here to say, look, you should probably look and see what it is that God wants before we make these major life decisions.
We should probably pray about it.
And we should probably be prepared that when we make a decision that there was something, maybe there's something that's going to come later that we didn't expect.
You know, we see this so often in life, so often in life, you know, we're surprised to find our expectations may be a little misplaced.
Maybe a little, set a little too high.
You know, in all these different areas, you know, you can think about your jobs.
We're always so often excited about a new job.
Let me just preface this by saying I love my job, okay?
Well, you know how it is. We get a new job, we're all excited about it.
Six months in, it's not everything it cracked up to be.
It's not everything they said in the interview.
Oh, you're going to climb the ladder, you're going to make management, you know.
The sky's the limit here.
And it's just a carrot that they're dangling out there.
And the rug gets, this happens in life, doesn't it?
So we shouldn't always go into life with these high expectations, you know, or these overly high expectations.
I mean, it's good to have a positive, I'm not saying let's all turn into pessimists this morning, you know.
But let's be realistic about what can happen in life because so often this is what happens in life.
You know, church life. We join a church, everything's going to be great, you know.
Then you realize, you know, now it's about walking the walk.
It's about living for the Lord.
It's about, you know, it's not as easy as it might have sounded, you know, when you first got into it.
You know, this area of what about child rearing?
You know, my, I remember when we had our first child, she's going to be the perfect little angel.
I asked my wife about this.
I said, hey, you got any thoughts about, you know, and she gave me permission to share this.
I said, you got any thoughts about, you know, thinking things were going to be one way and then being surprised to find them to be another way?
And, you know, one of the things she brought up was child rearing.
You know, you know, we're going to raise this little angel of ours and we're going to do the right thing all the time.
She's going to turn out perfect.
That's an over the top expectation.
Let me tell you, they don't turn out perfect.
They take you by surprise quite often.
You know, you think you got it nailed down with the first one and the second one comes along and it's a whole other bag of tricks.
You know, you say, hey, I figured out how to get them to go to bed and lay down and be quiet.
And the second one comes, you know, or the third, you know, I'm not trying to pick on anybody, you know, comes along.
And next thing you know, you know, it's, you got a battle on your hands.
Well, the first one wasn't like this.
Well, that's the way life is, though, in this area of child rearing.
Everybody's different.
And you have to be ready to expect the unexpected.
You know, we could talk about that job, church life, child rearing.
What about marriage?
You know, I was surprised she brought this up when I asked my wife about it.
This is another example.
I couldn't believe it.
I said, oh, you know, it was way better than you expected, wasn't it, right?
Not so.
But, you know, and she shared a thought with me.
Maybe this would be more appropriate for a marriage sermon.
But something she said, and I'll just throw it out there, you know, because we have, there's wives in the building.
And she said, you know, being submissive, she was surprised to find that being submissive to your husband, obeying him, does not always mean that you agree with him.
I could appreciate that.
I mean, I could see why she would think I was going to be wrong about making a decision, you know.
And was surprised later to find out I was right, you know, because I'm never wrong.
Right?
No, I'm wrong about that.
But, you know, this is, I'm just trying to throw this out there as an illustration that this is a practical, you know, sermon this morning.
This is something to think about is that, you know, by all means, have an expectation, have a goal, have a desire, have something, you know, be hopeful about a situation or whatever it is.
But understand that often, you know, there's going to be some surprises along the way.
There's going to be some difficulties that come up, and we don't want to be naive.
But here's the thing about human nature.
We start out naive.
And it's something, you know, that we grow out of.
You know, naive is not you being stupid.
You know, naive is not just being somebody being dumb.
Naive is something that's just part of human nature that has to be grown out of.
All it means is just a lack of experience.
And as we go through life, we gain that experience, we start to find out something.
Things aren't always what they seem.
There's often unforeseen circumstances.
There's often difficulties that, if we're not careful, will take us by surprise.
So this is the example of our text.
You say, what has this got to do with 2 Kings 2?
But this is what the example of our text is here.
Look there again in 2 Kings 2, verse 18, and he says,
And when they came to him, the men of Jericho, for he tarried in Jericho, he said unto them,
Did I say not unto you, Go not?
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of the city is pleasant.
But as my Lord seeth, it's obvious to anyone who looks at Jericho, this place is a nice place to live, to the eye.
But the water is not, and the ground barren.
I mean, these guys are drawn by its pleasant situation, these people that came here.
And they are later surprised to find out that the water is not.
They're later surprised, as beautiful and as pleasant as the city seemed, that the ground was barren.
And really, we don't want to make light of this, because this sounds like a very desperate situation that they're in.
I mean, you turn off the tap and see what happens to a society.
We should probably think about that living here in the Southwest.
I always hear about that.
I have some family members that are a little bit more liberal and leaning in their thinking and stuff,
and they're very much into the environmental thing, and they hear all the scare tactics,
and they say the Southwest is unsustainable.
That place is going to dry up.
But you learn things when you actually move here and live here that only the locals get first-hand knowledge of.
And that's that the city of Tempe is sitting on one of the biggest aquifers in the state, and they haven't even begun to tap into it.
Now, why they haven't tapped into it is probably because they're just sitting on it,
because they know maybe eventually that will turn into a proverbial gold mine.
But that is a desperate situation when the water dries up.
Whole groups of people get up and move to entirely different parts of the world to avoid drought,
and it's a very desperate situation.
And their situation here was hopeless.
That probably came as a surprise to them.
It probably came as a shock when they saw how beautiful Jericho was to get there and get settled,
and then all of a sudden the water turns to not, and the ground becomes barren.
And they do hear in this text what many people do in a hopeless situation.
When things are tough, when the trials come, when the troubles come, they do the right thing.
They turn to God for help.
That's why it says they set unto Elisha.
Now, we know Elisha is not God, but he's God's man on the earth.
He represents God's counsel and God's help to mankind at that time.
They find themselves, they're taken by surprise, and now they come to Elisha and they say,
here's our problem. Can you help us?
So they're doing the right thing, aren't they?
When we get into that situation in life where something takes us by surprise,
we weren't prepared for this, that's probably a good time to go to God.
It's probably a good time to get into the Bible if we haven't been already
and start to search the Scriptures and look for encouragement and look for counsel and look for advice.
It's probably a good time to go to our other brethren in Christ and spiritual elders
and ask counsel to them if they've gone through these things.
It's probably a good time to get down on our knees and pray to God that he would help us.
So they're doing the right thing, aren't they?
But let me say this, it's poor timing.
The timing's a little poor, isn't it?
It's after the problems come that they want to go seek counsel from God.
And that's so often what we see in our own experience.
I wonder, in Elisha, he's not cynical, he's not quick to rebuke them, he helps them.
He doesn't get after them like, hey, did you pray about moving here?
Well, that's what you get for coming to Jericho, didn't you know about Jericho?
And I'll remind us, in fact, let's just turn over to Joshua chapter 6.
Maybe they were ignorant of this passage, maybe they were ignorant of the city's history,
but that's really not an excuse.
In Joshua chapter 6, if you recall, Jericho was the first city the children of Israel
conquered and destroyed when they came into the Promised Land.
If you look there in Joshua chapter 6, let's look at verses 25 and 26,
this is after they've destroyed it, they've saved Rahab the harlot alive,
and it says in verse 26, and Joshua adjured them at that time saying,
cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city of Jericho.
He said, not only is this city going to have problems,
but the guy that attempts to rebuild this city is going to be cursed.
And it was a heavy curse that he laid upon that man.
He says, he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn,
and in the youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.
He's saying, look, the man that comes and rebuilds this city,
it's literally going to cost him his sons.
It's going to cost him his firstborn.
And it's going to cost him another son after that.
That's a heavy toll to pray.
Now, did the guy that built that, was he aware of that curse?
I certainly hope not.
I wish he would have been.
We might have found this city to still be in a pile of rubble
when we get to Elisha's life.
But whether he was ignorant or not, that's another lesson we can learn from the scripture.
Ignorance is not an excuse.
God's given us the word.
God's given us all the counsel and knowledge, the warnings that we need for life.
You can't just plead ignorance with God.
Especially this day and age that we're living in.
We talked about it already this last Thursday,
where the word of God is just in abundance.
In this country especially, there's churches all over.
If we wanted to know the things of God, it'd be very easy to find out.
Even in the age of the technology that we're living in.
With a few touches of the finger on your smartphone,
you could learn a lot of the word of God.
Ignorance really is not an excuse with God.
What we see here is that these men in Jericho,
they're suffering, be it because of ignorance or not.
But they're suffering because they've chosen to dwell in a city.
If you would, turn over to 1 Kings 16.
They're choosing to live in a city that was cursed by God.
Just another little mini-lesson here is that God follows through.
When God says something, he means it.
God does not make empty threats.
Does God sometimes pull back?
Does God repent of the evil that he thought to do unto men at times?
Sure. God can be swayed, but we have a part to play in that, don't we?
If we don't, often God just follows right on through with what he said.
That's exactly what happened when it came to this curse with Jericho.
He said, look, the guy that builds the city is going to be paying with his firstborn.
It's going to cost him two sons.
So he says there in 1 Kings 16, look there at verse 33, God follows through with it.
And Ahab made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were gone before him.
In his days did Hiel, the Bethalite, build Jericho.
So a guy comes along in the time of Ahab,
and maybe if Ahab hadn't been the most wicked ruler that had ever been,
he would have seen what was going on and said, hey, you don't want to do that.
Another lesson. It pays to have good godly counsel.
You could spare other people.
But Hiel comes along.
He builds Jericho.
He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram, his firstborn,
and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son, Segub,
according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua, the son of Nun.
So this is the city they're living in.
A city that God said, look, whoever builds it is going to be cursed.
And it's no, it's no, you know, if you'd known the city history, maybe these guys wouldn't have moved there.
You know, if they'd gotten on Zillow and looked at the last time it was sold,
you know, the previous selling price and what the local taxes were and everything like that,
maybe they'd have said, hey, you know, this Jericho thing doesn't sound like such a good idea.
I know it looks nice over there, but this place has got a history.
And maybe we shouldn't go there. Maybe if they had, you know, prayed about it.
And here's the thing that we need to learn from this is that God will let you make bad decisions in your life.
You know, God will let you go ahead and make that bad decision.
And that's why it's so important that we understand and know the word of God for ourselves and think,
you know, look before you leap and understand what it is, you know, that we're getting ourselves into.
You know, obviously some decisions are bigger than others.
And when it comes to certain decisions, you know, we better be very careful about what we're going to decide.
Because often decisions we make have permanent consequences.
You know, life's biggest decisions are often the biggest decisions because the consequences are permanent.
And we could talk about all of those and we won't for sake of time.
But here's the thing. If you make a bad decision, God's going to let you go ahead and make that bad decision.
And you know what else he's going to let you do? Pay the consequences.
God's going to go ahead and say, okay, you made that decision.
You didn't want to know what I had to think about, what my thoughts were.
Would none of my counsel, I'm going to let you go ahead and do that.
And now, because you did that, now you can go ahead and pay the consequences.
And we can't have this attitude in life where we think, well, I'm just going to do whatever I want.
And when the bill comes due, I'm just going to ask somebody else to pay it.
That I don't want to have to, you know, get the checkbook out and pay the dues that are due.
I mean, this is the example of our text. Even after the men of Jericho decided to move to a cursed city once destroyed by God.
He lets them pay the consequences. Now, let me say this.
Yes, they made bad decisions. And when we make bad decisions, God's going to let us pay the consequences.
What I'm not saying is that God's not still willing to help you.
You get yourself in that situation, you get yourself into something difficult, you make a bad decision, you're backed into a corner.
It's not like God's just going to say, well, now you're on your own.
I mean, you're still going to pay the consequences, and now you're going to say, Lord, I'm in this situation, whatever I may be.
How do I get out of it? And he's going to say, okay, I'm glad you're listening now. Do this. Do this. Do this.
But what he's not going to do, and I want to remind us of a verse, and I'll just read it to you from Lamentations.
And you know, God knows this about us. This is human nature, that we often make these bad decisions.
We disregard wise counsel, and we get into a tough spot.
And it's not that God's going to just sit back and watch us squirm.
God is still willing to help us. The Bible says it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion fails not.
You know, God just looks down and just says, you dummy, I'll help you.
You know, just like a father with his young son, and even maybe a little bit older, I don't know yet. I'm hoping that's not the case.
Sometimes as dads we just sit there and we go, what are you doing? And then it's like, oh my goodness.
But then we just say, well, you know what, you figure it out.
You know, say, hey son, let me help you with this. When you see what you did wrong here, let me show you how to do it the right way.
And help them out of that situation.
And that's the way God is. His compassion fails not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
So if you would, turn back to 2 Kings chapter 2 if you haven't kept something there.
So God is willing to help, but what is the thrust of the message here this morning?
The thrust of the message is the method and nature of God's help.
We find, we've looked at the fact that, you know, people, they don't expect the unexpected.
They make bad decisions. They get into these situations and now they need God's help.
God's willing to help. How's he going to go about it?
Is God going to just, you know, take care of it without any help from you?
Well, again, it begins at the man of God, right? That was a good starting place for these men of Jericho.
They went to Elisha and made known their requests. Hey, this is the problem we're having. Can you help?
So they did the right thing and that's where it starts.
You know, we get into a situation like, let's get into the Word. Let's start there. Let's get into church.
You know, people often when they get, you know, church is not even on their radar until life gets hard.
Often. Not always the case, I know that.
But a lot of people, they, you know, life starts coming down on them.
You know, the wages that stand start piling up.
Maybe if they're saved, you know, they're already saved, they know, man, I need to get in church and get my life straightened out.
And you know what? You know, that's a good purpose for church.
I say, come on in. Come on in. Sit down. Let's reason together.
And let's look at it from the Word of God. Let's get God's perspective on your situation and let's start to do something about it.
So getting into church, you know, that's a great start.
And also, you know, that's a great start. But it also, it begins by asking, doesn't it?
When God starts to help, you know, it begins by you going to the source of that help and then what?
It's not just enough to walk in. Then you have to also begin to ask, don't you?
You have to begin to ask. That's what they did here.
They, you know, they came to Elijah and they said, Behold, I pray thee. Right?
What does that mean to pray? It means to ask.
You know, they're imploring them. They're saying, Hey, I pray thee. They're asking help of the man of God.
And if you would, if you kept something in James, keep something in James.
Continue to keep something in James. But go back there to James chapter one. James chapter one.
I'll begin reading in verse five. You know, it begins by asking. You got in a situation life that's a little difficult.
Something's caught you by surprise. You weren't expecting this. You got trouble going on.
You know, get in church, get to the man of God, get the Word of God.
But you know what? It's time to start asking for help, too.
And God is faithful. God will help us first.
First, excuse me, James chapter one, chapter chapter one, verse five.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God to give it to all men, liberty and brave not.
And it shall be given him. It shall be given him. Ask and you shall ask and you shall receive.
Seek and you shall find. That's a guarantee.
That's the promise of the Word of God, that if you need wisdom in some situation, it's there for you.
But are you willing to go ask? God's not just going to download it into your mind.
You know, this isn't the matrix. You're just going to plug in and wake up and all of a sudden you've got all the answers.
You're going to have to ask. You're going to have to go to the source.
You're going to have to, you know, crack this book open and drag your eyes across the page and start to understand what it says.
Get some comprehension. He says you give to all men and brave not and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea,
driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
So it begins by asking, doesn't it? You can go ahead and keep something in James, but turn back to,
well, actually, if you would turn to Second Kings chapter five, Second Kings chapter five.
It begins by asking. Because think about it, what's the opposite of asking? I mean, besides not asking, right?
What's another way to go about trying to get somebody to help you? Demanding it.
Hey, I'm in the, you need to help me. You have to. Oh, God, you know, the Bible says you're faithful.
You have to help me. That's not the attitude you want to come to, to God with. It's asking. It's imploring.
You know why God wants us to ask? You know why you can't just go and make demands?
It's because asking requires humility. Asking puts you in the mindset to actually be willing to receive
the help that God is going to give you. If you just say, well, I'm just going to make these demands,
you know, it's like people that just show up at church and demand money.
They've never darkened the door before. But then there they are in the middle of a work week,
knocking on the church door because somebody's in there working. Hey, you got any money?
I'm hungry. Well, you're a church. Yeah, I know I'm a church. I'm not a bank.
And this isn't an ATM. God's not some spiritual vending machine where you get to just come in
and put in your two cents of your sob story and, you know, get something.
You know, you have to ask. You know, and asking requires humility.
And it's not just making demands of God. Gimme, gimme, gimme. You know, hey, God, what do I need to do?
How do I get out of the situation? Where did I go wrong? You know, I'm sorry. Can you help me, please?
That's humility. You see the difference between asking somebody and demanding something of somebody?
It takes humility. So that's the method of God's help. But there's also the nature of the way God is going to help you.
You know, here's the thing. You know, God is willing to help us out of these situations that we, you know,
we're going to find ourselves in as the beginning of the sermon was reminding us of that life, you know,
has its unexpected surprises and difficulties that come up. And, you know, God is willing to help us out of them.
You know, whether they're our own fault or, you know, by no fault of our own, God wants to help us out of them.
We have to understand something is that we still have a part to play in that resolution,
whatever it is, whatever situation, whatever difficulties we're trying to get out of.
You know, God's going to help, but you still have a part to play in it.
God's going to help you by using you to get yourself out of that situation, help you in making things right.
Now, if you would, you're there in 2 Kings, chapter 5, 2 Kings, chapter 5.
We need to look at the example of Naaman. All right. Here's a guy who had a problem.
If you recall, Naaman the Syrian was a guy who had gotten struck with leprosy.
You know, he was going to die of this horrible disease.
And here's tale of the fact that there's a prophet named Elisha over in Judah and Israel.
And he decides, hey, I'm going to go talk to this guy. I'm going to go see this guy. He's going to heal me.
Right. But notice how he goes about getting this help.
I think he illustrates several of the things we were looking at.
We'll begin there in 2 Kings, chapter 5, beginning of verse 5, where he says,
And the king of Syria said, Go and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel.
And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment.
So why is he bringing all this? It's not because it's an expensive journey.
It's because he's going to go there and try to buy the help that he needs.
He says, well, I've got all this abundance. Now, to him that probably wasn't a lot.
You know, when you're the king's captain, you're probably making a pretty hefty salary.
Or maybe even the king saying, hey, you know, Naaman, I want to help you out here. Just take him all these riches.
Is that really costing him anything? I mean, to us it sounds like a lot.
But to him it might have been just pocket change.
So how is he going about trying to get the help that he wants?
He says, I'm just going to go buy it. I'm just going to give him and he'll just take care of me because I know I can just give him some money and he'll do it for me.
And it says in verse six, and he brought the letter of the king of Israel saying,
Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee,
that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
So first of all, they're going to the wrong source. He's going to the king.
Well, the king's not going to fix the problem.
And it came to pass, and the king knows this, that when the king of Israel had read the letter,
that he rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man does send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
Wherefore, consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
And the king reads the letter and says, This guy's trying to pick a fight. He's asking me to do the impossible.
He just wants to go to war. That's how he takes it.
And it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes,
that he said to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes?
Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
Again, you want to get your problem solved? You've got to go to the right source.
You know, Dr. Phil isn't going to fix it for you.
You know, I'm not saying there isn't a time and place to seek professional help.
I don't know if that's Dr. Phil or not, right?
But, you know, you need to get to the right source, being the point, and that's what we see here again.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying, Go, no, I'm sorry, verse 9.
So we see Naaman, he's looking for the help, right? He's got a problem. He wants it taken care of.
It doesn't seem like he's going about it the right way. He's going to buy it. He's going to the wrong source.
And finally, he starts to find, oh, Elisha's the man we need to see. Let's go see him.
So, yeah, he's starting to get on the right path towards recovery, right?
He's saying, well, here's the source of my solution. It's the man of God. It's the word of God.
It's the Bible. It's church. These things are going to help me. It's God.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto, I'm doing it again, verse 9.
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and this guy's, you know, he's not lowly riding on an ass and a, you know, a coal, the fault of it.
I can't even get it right. He's not coming meek and lowly, you know, like Jesus did upon a mule.
Let me just bring it to the modern vernacular and try to, you know, misquote it here.
He's showing up with horses and with his chariot, and he just comes pulling into the driveway, you know.
Mustang. And parks it there in front of his house.
And then look at this. And stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
That's it. Doesn't say he knocked. Doesn't say he implored. Doesn't say he called out.
This guy's dying of leprosy. And look at his attitude here.
And he just shows up, just pulls, comes charging in and just stands there at the door of Elisha.
I'm here, you know. I've, you know, I've graced you with my presence.
I've granted you an opportunity to come out and bless me, Elisha.
Like, he's almost expecting Elisha to come out. Oh, thank you for coming.
Like, wait a minute. You're the one with the problem. You're the one with leprosy.
You're the one who's going to die a slow and painful death. You're the one that needs my help.
And he comes in just and stands there.
No humility here. Do you see why God tells you to ask?
Because it requires humility. It brings people down a few notches.
And we see that, you know, Elisha, before he deals with the problem, before he gives them the solution,
he knows, hey, I'm going to humble this guy a little bit.
So he knows who to give the glory to.
Look there in verse 10. And he says, And Elisha sent a messenger unto him.
I mean, Naaman's the king's captain. And you're going to send the messenger unto me?
Like, he wants Elisha to come out and meet him. He sends a messenger to him saying,
Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again.
But Naaman was wroth. Now, did he not just give him the solution?
We already know the story. If we've read it, it works, right?
He's not playing games with them. He tells them exactly what it is he needs to do.
But Naaman's so proud, even though he's got the answer to a debilitating, deadly disease in his life,
he's so proud, he walks away in a rage because it didn't come from the right guy.
You know, so often we get the phone calls and emails.
I would really like an opportunity to speak with Pastor Anderson.
Well, you know, get in line.
When you have, and I'm not trying to sound braggadocious here,
but when you have the influence online that you have, there's a lot of people texting and calling every day,
saying, Hey, I got, you know, this Bible question, this Bible question, that, and this situation.
And you know what? You've got to filter through all that.
And I've called people back and said, Hey, you know, I'd like to help you here.
Unfortunately, Pastor Anderson, you know, pastor is a church with 400 people.
He's got a family of 11? That's 11 now, right?
Okay. Hopefully he's not watching this. Hopefully he is now.
But, you know, he's a busy guy, you know, and he's trying to do all this work.
So I'm sorry if you can't personally answer every phone call and every email that comes in.
But I can help you. I'm the deacon here. I'm a staff member here.
You know, I read the Bible. You know, I get counsel from him.
Maybe it's something I could go talk to him about.
Oh, well, I was really hoping to talk to him.
Okay, well, have a nice day.
You know, the sources are good enough for you.
I'm going to say the exact same thing he's going to say.
By and large, you know, it's not exactly the most difficult questions
often that are coming in or that, you know, most, you know,
we need the wisest man in the land to discern some of these situations.
You know, they're often very short answers.
But some people, they only want to hear it because it's come from the wrong person.
You know, and that's, it's no skin off my back.
You know, go ahead, go live your life then if you don't want the answer.
But that's exactly Naaman's attitude here, isn't it?
And it's an attitude of pride that just says, you know what?
You're not the right guy. I got to hear it from so and so.
You know, it's got to be from this guy.
Naaman was wroth and went and said, Behold, I thought he shall come to me,
come out to me. He shall come out to me.
He's not going to send some messenger. Doesn't he know who I am?
He's going to come out to me and stand and call in the name of the Lord his God
and strike his hands over the place and recover the leper.
You don't want Elisha. You don't want the man of God. You want Benny Hinn.
That's what you want.
You want Elisha to come out and take his coat off and, you know, hit you with that mantle.
The same one that split the river Jordan. That's what I demand. I want to be struck.
You know, that's what you want. You want a Pentecostal revival or something like that.
A bunch of hocus pocus.
I wouldn't want to get hit by that mantle. That thing split a river.
Probably knock you into orbit, man.
Right? Look out for that guy.
But that's his attitude here, you know.
Don't you know who I am?
Don't you know what I am capable of?
And you should be coming out to me and doing all of this.
You know what Naaman wants?
You know, Naaman here in verse 11, he's showing us that
he thinks he's done enough by just showing up.
By just taking the time out of his busy schedule to get in his chariot
and come down here from Syria and come all the way up to your doorstep
and I brought all this stuff with me and that's enough.
What else do I need to do? You need to get humble.
You need to learn to ask.
You need to get the right attitude before God's going to help you.
You know what Naaman wants?
Naaman wants the same thing so many people want today when it comes to their problems.
They want a magic wand.
They want the preacher to just pull out, you know,
Oh, you got a problem? Let me just help you with that.
Abracadabra.
You know, what's the other one?
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo, right?
Whatever it is.
That's what they want.
Just some hocus pocus.
Oh, what's your problem?
Oh, just a little fairy dust on you.
There. All done. Painless.
Right?
You didn't have to do anything.
Just stand there. Just like Naaman. Just stand there.
Let me at it.
That's what they want.
That's the same problem. They want a magic wand.
And let me just clue you in on a little secret.
Preachers don't have a magic wand.
We don't have a magic wand.
No man of God or anybody else in your life has a magic wand.
That they're just going to pull out and fix all your problems overnight.
You know what they have?
They have something way better than a magic wand.
They got this.
This is better than any magic wand.
Not that there even is one.
I'd take this over some fairy tale.
Magic wand.
The Bible says in Hebrews 4,
The word of God is quick and powerful,
and sharper than a two-edged sword,
piercing even to the binding asunder of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It's better than a magic wand.
Not only is it going to fix your problem if you obey it and do what it says,
it's going to show you why you have that problem to begin with.
It's going to discern your heart.
You're going to start to look at it and say,
Oh, that's why I have these problems.
Because of what's in here.
Oh, that's what I need to do to fix this.
That's what I need to get out of my life.
That's what I need to get in my life.
And you know what I really like about that solution?
Is that it lets you play a part in it.
That you get the satisfaction of having actually done something to fix your problem.
Magic wands don't do that.
Who do you have to thank if all they do is just wave a magic wand over you?
The magic wand.
That's it.
You didn't have anything to do with it.
You have no sense of accomplishment.
You don't develop any sense of having overcome something in your life
and gotten things right in your life.
That builds confidence.
And that teaches you where to go the next time the problem comes up.
You keep your magic wand.
I'll take the word of God any day of the week.
But people want the wand, don't they?
They want it. That's what they want.
Why is it?
Because the magic wand, you know what it does?
It lets you hide from the work of repentance.
And yes, I said repentance is a work.
I'm repenting every day.
And it's work. And I'll be doing it my whole life.
The Bible calls it work. Yes, it's work.
That's a little mini note right there for you.
But that's what the magic wand does.
It lets people hide from the work of repenting
and getting their life right.
Say, well, I don't have to do anything
if I just show up to church
and just get the magic spell put on me, the hocus pocus,
and all my problems are just going to magically go away.
People walk around with this mentality, friend.
Maybe it's foreign to most of us, if not all of us in this room.
But people walk around with this kind of mentality.
That church is just some...
You just walk through the doors and all of a sudden life's perfect.
It doesn't work that way.
It's not a magic wand.
It's not going to let you hide from the work that you have to do
to get yourself, get your life where it needs to be.
And not only does it let them hide from the work,
it lets them hide from what they really are.
It doesn't discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
That's why people hide from the Word of God.
They don't like what they see.
The Bible likens the Word of God into a mirror.
We'll look at it here in a minute.
We hold our face as in a glass.
And people don't like what they see often.
How do you know the Bible's God's work?
Because it casts man in a pretty bad light?
And man's way too proud of a creature to write these kind of things about himself?
I mean, think about the way the Bible describes man from Genesis on.
It's not exactly the most flattering book on humankind.
And, you know, nothing's changed. We don't like that.
We don't want to look into the Word of God because we feel,
oh, it's not so good.
But if I could just find that magic wand,
you know, if I could just get another 50 bucks out of some church somewhere,
and then I could just forget about my problems,
and I don't have to deal with anything,
and I don't have to face up to what I really am and where I'm really at.
And God doesn't use a wand because it'll rob you of that sense of accomplishment
that I was talking about.
And, you know, yes, it's God helping,
but here's the thing, it's God helping through us.
That's the wonderful thing about the way God helps us,
the nature of God's help,
is that God helps us through us.
And if you would, let's see, let's just turn back to where we were.
You know, people, they want the help without having to do anything.
And this is something I heard years ago,
and it's just one of those, you know, those sayings that just stuck with you.
You know, the best, and this is what it is,
the best place to pray for your potatoes is on the end of your hoe.
Now, let me break down that agricultural term for all you city slickers, okay?
I guess he had no effect.
They're all like, what's a hoe?
That's not what I think it is.
I'm talking about the garden tool, okay?
Good night. Right?
And to plant potatoes, you gotta, you know, you gotta make that furrow, put it in.
That's the best place to pray for those potatoes,
is when you're out there doing the work,
when you're doing your part,
when you're putting in the sweat, when you're, you know, digging in the ground,
getting your hands dirty.
That's the time to pray.
It's not laying in bed, you know, the field's all overgrown,
the seed's in the barn,
the tools have got cobwebs on them.
Lord, I need some potatoes, I'm hungry.
Please give me some potatoes.
I'm glad you're asking, I'm glad you're going to the right source,
but you still have a part to play.
So get out there, you know, and do your part.
That's the application here.
Do your part to provide the solution, and that's what God does for us.
Look here in our text here in 2 Kings.
He says, in verse 19,
The men of city said,
And Elijah, behold, I pray thee, the situation of this ground is pleasant,
as my Lord seeth, but the water is not, and the ground is barren.
And Elijah presents them the solution.
They've come to the right source, they've asked with the right attitude,
and he's going to help them.
Verse 20, and he said,
Abra kedabra,
and go have some water.
No, he said,
Bring me a new cruise, and put salt there in.
And I know I don't think I gave the title, but the title is,
Carry Your Own Cruise.
And that's what he tells them.
Bring me a new cruise.
Oh, you want help? You want me to help you?
Okay, go do this.
Bring me, and notice he didn't say, bring me a cruise.
He said, go bring me a new cruise.
You know, one that might be a little bit harder to find.
Something that's never been,
go get the brand new one that's fresh off the line.
Don't go grab that one you have in mom's cupboard
that's missing the lid, you know.
I don't know if anyone else's mom was like that.
We just collect Tupperware, you know,
and anything plastic, you know, every yogurt thing.
I could put food in that, you know.
It's got spaghetti stains in it.
It's been used so many times.
Like, they make these while we sleep, you know.
So, anyway.
That's another throwback to that environmentalism
I was alluding to earlier.
But he says, look, don't bring me the old one.
Don't go dig up, go through mom's cupboard
and find some dusty old thing that she's not gonna want.
Bring me a new one.
That's gonna cost you a little something.
They probably had to go buy it of somebody
unless, you know, the cruise maker was one of the guys.
I don't know, he was a volunteer one.
Still cost him something, didn't it?
He didn't get to sell it.
He had to give it to this man.
And not only that, he said, full of salt.
Now, I don't know how big it was.
If it was that heavy to carry around, probably not.
But, you know, salt, we take that for granted today.
I mean, we've got coconut sugar over there this morning.
Never even heard of that, you know.
There's all kinds of spices and sweeteners and everything.
Seasonings just all around us.
But back then, you know, there was a time when salt was a means of currency.
It was that valuable.
That's how, you know, it was a means of exchanging goods and services
was through, you know, salt.
So he's saying, look, get me a new cruise.
It's gonna cost you something.
And not only that, put some salt.
It's gonna cost you a little bit more.
It's gonna be something that's gonna cost you something.
That's how the solution comes out.
God asks us, he says, here's the solution, and guess what?
It involves you.
It involves you doing something.
Going and getting a cruise and bringing it to me.
Just like Naaman, right?
Naaman was told, go take a dip.
Essentially told him, go jump in a lake.
Go jump in a lake, Naaman, and he'll be fine.
Naaman had to go walk down to the river, dip himself seven times.
He had work to do.
He had a part to play in it.
And you know, this is the concept that we find throughout all of Scripture
where God is helping people with their problems.
And we don't have time to look at them all,
but if you would, just turn a few pages over to 2 Kings chapter 4.
You find this concept throughout Scripture.
You know, Naaman's told to take a dip.
These guys are told, hey, bring a cruise full of salt.
A new one.
Elijah told the widow, make me a cake first.
First you go make me a cake.
Remember the widow story?
She's going to die.
She's going to go eat the last bit of her meal and her and her son are going to die.
There's drought in the land.
And he says, you know what?
That's fine, but first take that little bit of that meager substance
that's the last of what you have and bring it to me.
And she had to go.
I mean, I don't know if that was probably the hardest cake to make in her life.
She's probably good at making cakes.
You know, but she's probably worried why she's making it
because she knows, like, this better work.
But she had a part to do in it, didn't she?
Look at there in 2 Kings chapter 4, verse 1.
Elisha is another guy who does this.
This is a concept that's out in Scripture.
He does the same thing.
And now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying,
Thy servant my husband is dead, so another widow.
And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord,
and the creditors come now to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
So she's going to lose her sons to go work off debt.
And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee?
Tell me, what hast thou in the house?
And she said, Thine handmen hath not anything in the house,
save a pot of oil.
She's got nothing to offer.
You know, so often we come to God, we mightn't want help,
and he says, Well, Lord, I don't even have much to work with.
This is pretty bad. Can you help me out?
Sure, but it's going to cost you even that little bit that you have.
You're going to have to do your part, even if it seems like you have nothing to offer.
Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few.
And we know the story.
She goes and borrows them, and they fill up, and they keep filling up,
and she sells it all, and she pays off the debt, and her sons get to stay with her,
and she has more than enough to live on.
Great story, but she had to do some work, didn't she?
You know, and going around, Hey, you got a vessel I can borrow?
Can I have every vessel you have to spare in your house and bring them all back?
That took some effort on her part, didn't it?
You know, the word probably got out in the local Facebook group.
You know, Look out, the widow's borrowing. She was just at my house, too.
She asked for all your vessels? Yeah.
I think she's headed up the street now.
She's going around the community, and there's a little stir going on.
She's borrowing all the vessels, right?
She had a part to do.
That's what we see throughout all scripture.
What did Jesus tell Peter? Cast out the net.
He didn't just make the fish jump in the boat.
Could he have? Yeah.
He had just snapped his finger, and the fish had just been there, filleted, ready to go.
Descaled, de-headed, gutted, just dropped him on the fire.
He could have put fried fish in that boat.
With tartar sauce, ready to go.
Side of fries.
No, he says, you know what, Peter, go drop the net for a drought.
And for a draft, excuse me.
This is what we see. What did he tell Moses?
Lift up thy rod.
Yeah, God did all the miracles, but he used Moses, didn't he?
He said, you've got a part to play, Moses.
That's the way it is.
Because as cliche as this saying is, it's true.
And it's what we find in scripture.
You can't help those that won't help themselves.
Yes, that's overused.
Yes, we hear it all the time, but it's true.
You can't help people that aren't willing to help themselves.
I need help. Okay, do this.
Oh, I'm not willing to do that. I can't help you.
That's the way it is. That's what we see.
Jesus said in Matthew 16, and turn over to James, chapter 1, and we'll close here.
He says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself.
That's you having to do something.
I want to be close to Jesus. I want to follow him. I want to do what he wants.
I want to be his disciple.
Okay, deny yourself.
Take up his cross and follow me. That's work, friend.
We understand salvation is by grace through faith, but the Christian life is work after that.
James, chapter 1. Let's turn over there and we'll close.
So what's the sermon about this morning?
About the fact that we make decisions in life and we're surprised sometimes by the unexpected circumstances that arise because of those decisions.
Even if it's a good decision, sometimes there's things that come along that we just did not see coming with that good decision.
And we need God to help us.
But what is the attitude that we have when we go to God for help?
Is it humility? Are we going to the right source in all these areas of life?
In James, chapter 1, look there in verse 22, where it says,
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man, beholding his natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
We want to be doers of the word, not just hearers only.
It's not enough to just go to the Bible and read, oh, that's the solution to my problem.
I hear it. Now you've got to go do it.
Now you have your part to go play in that situation, whatever it is.
So that's what I'm imploring you this morning.
I don't know everyone's situation in relation to life, I don't know, but I know the way life is.
Maybe we're not in that situation today, but tomorrow we might be.
Because we don't know how today will bring forth.
We wake up one day and we find out that the water is not.
If we find out that in our life the ground is barren, we need to go to God.
And we need to ask for help, humility.
But you know what else we need to do?
We need to be prepared to do the work that he tells us to do.
Let's go ahead and pray.