So, of course, 2 Kings 5 is one of the better-known passages, one of the better-known stories
in the Old Testament with Nahum and the Syrian, and him being healed of his leprosy.
And we're going to get into 2 Kings 5, but if you would, just very quickly turn over
to 2 Kings 4, just one chapter back, and we'll start the message there in 2 Kings 4.
2 Kings 4, beginning in verse 8, the Bible reads,
And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to shoot him, and there was a great woman, and
she constrained him to eat bread.
And so it was that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
And she said unto her husband, Behold, thou I perceive that this is an holy man of God,
which passeth by us continually.
But let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set him there a bed,
and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick.
And it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither.
And it fell on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.
And he said to Gehazi his servant, called to Shunite, when he had called her, she stood
before him.
And he said unto her, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for all this care.
What is to be done for thee?
And the subject of the sermon this morning is specifically the character of Gehazi.
And I turn us back to 2 Kings 4 because I want to see some of the things about Gehazi.
We're all very familiar with what happens to Gehazi, how it ends with him there where
he gets the leprosy and becomes white as snow for the sin that he sinned.
But back in chapter 4 we learn a little bit more about Gehazi, who he was.
We see first of all that Gehazi had a position, he had a very important position, he was positioned
as the servant to the man of God, as it says there in verse 12.
And he said to Gehazi his servant, so we see that Gehazi is the servant of Elisha, the
man of God.
And he also served as his messenger, that was part of the role, the capacity of that
role that he had as the servant of the man of God was to be his messenger.
That's why he says to Gehazi, call this Shumanite.
And when he called her, he stood before her, and he said unto him, Say now unto her.
So he's using Gehazi as a kind of a go-between between himself and this Shumanite woman.
So we see that Gehazi had some responsibility, that he had a very important role in the Scriptures
as the servant of the man of God.
He was kind of, as we might say today, he was in the know.
He was close to the man of God, he would have known what the man of God perhaps was planning
more than others were, he would have known the communications that had taken place.
He would have had his finger on the pulse of the man of God more so than others that
Elisha might have been associated with.
Gehazi was very close.
As it said in 2 Kings 5, we notice when Naim the Syrian comes to be healed, it says that
he sent a servant unto him.
And then later in that same passage, it talks about Gehazi the servant of Elisha, but making
a distinction between just a servant and Gehazi the servant of Elisha.
So we see that Gehazi was an important person and he was given important jobs on behalf
of the man of God.
And Gehazi was also, if we notice here, he was witness to the miracles of the man of
God.
If we were to continue to read on here, we would see the great miracle that takes place
for this woman where she's given a child, and we'll come back to it later, and then
later that child dies, and then Elisha comes back and heals that child and raises him back
to life.
It's one of the great miracles in the Old Testament.
And Gehazi was a first-hand witness to that.
He was there in the house when it happened, when Elisha opened the door and came out and
said call the woman, and she was reunited with her son who had died.
So we see that Gehazi was a very important person.
And it's my opinion, you know, this is strictly an opinion, I don't have any scripture to
back this up, but if we look at the pattern in scripture and we consider who Gehazi was
and the role that he had in scripture as the servant of the man of God, it's likely that
Gehazi was going to precede Elisha.
That's my belief, that if he had not fallen into the sin that Gehazi would have become
the next great prophet in Israel.
Now I might be wrong about that, I'm open to correction on that, but that's my belief,
is that Gehazi would have followed him.
Because we see that often, you know, Elisha himself was a servant to Elisha and then himself
became the prophet of the man of God.
We see the same thing happening with Joshua, how he preceded Moses, but prior to that he
was the servant of Moses.
So we see that being a servant of the man of God is a very important position.
It's often, in the scripture we see that it's somebody who's being groomed or somebody who's
being trained, it's their protege so to speak, it's somebody that's being brought up under
the man of God so that they one day can also go on and be the great man of God.
Now the problem with Gehazi here, of course we know the story ends very badly for him,
and the problem with Gehazi is that he lost sight of what mattered most.
And that's what happened to Gehazi, and that's why he ended up in the position that he was
in, having leprosy.
We saw that in 2 Kings chapter 5, that when he saw a name in the Syrian kung, and offered
all that abundance of wealth, all the changes of raiment and the silver, and we saw the
man of God Elisha refuse it, then he became covetous in his heart, and he began to lose
sight of what mattered most.
And we wonder why.
How is it that Gehazi had that great fall?
Why did he have that lapse in faith?
Why did he covet after that thing?
Why did he want those riches that that name in the Syrian had to offer?
And I think maybe it was that he just lacked faith in God's provision.
You know, maybe Gehazi had been following a live show around and he made some sacrifices
in his life, he wasn't out learning a trade or anything like that, or finding a way to
provide for his home other than the provision that came in through the man of God.
And maybe he lacked faith in God's provision, and maybe when he saw that silver and those
changes of raiment, he said, hey, here's my opportunity to get a little stash and put
something aside for a rainy day.
I think that's kind of maybe what his thinking was.
And that's probably why he came and took that stuff and took it to the tower, and it says
that he hid it, and it says he went and bestowed those goods in his home.
So why is it that he had hid that stuff?
Why did he not run off and spend it?
Why did he say, man, I've got it, run over to Reno or Las Vegas or something and try
to strike it rich?
Why didn't he immediately just go out and go off the rails and forsake the man of God
and go out and live riotously?
There must have been some reason why he was motivated to take that stuff, but I don't
think the reason why he took that was so that he could just go out and live a sinful life
or that he could go out and just enjoy the pleasures of sin.
I think that maybe the Gehazi had started to experience a lapse in faith, and maybe
despite all the great things he'd gotten to see, all the great preaching he probably got
to hear, all the one-on-one maybe counsel he had with Elisha, that he started to lack
faith in God's provision and he started to covet after that thing, and when he saw an
opportunity to maybe, like I said, have that rainy day fund set aside, he coveted and went
after it.
And really the surface lesson on that is that we can't justify covetousness.
There's no way to justify it.
Obviously, if a person's being covetous so that they can go out and live a sinful life,
that's very obviously wicked.
But a lot of times we try to hide behind this veil of financial responsibility.
You know, I'm curing all this wealth and I'm paying off all this debt and I'm putting
away all this money, not because I'm greedy or covetous, but because I'm very financially
responsible.
And you know, I'm all for financial responsibility.
I think that's a good idea.
I think it's good to have some money set aside.
I think it's great if you can operate outside of debt in a debt-based economy.
I mean, that's how our whole system works is on debt, but if you can manage and live
your life in a way where you live debt-free or mostly debt-free, that's great.
But we should not allow those things to become a veil of, you know, I'm being financially
responsible, therefore it's okay for me to put the riches and the wealth ahead of things
of God.
And I think that's what Gehazi kind of fell into.
He fell into saying, you know, I need some security here.
And he lost sight of what mattered.
He lost sight of the fact that God can provide all those things that he needed.
And that he could take care of them, even in his latter days.
As he became an old man, he would have found a way to take care of Gehazi.
And I think a lot of Christians today, we fall into that.
We start to worry about, you know, our finances a little too much.
We start to worry about, you know, how we're going to provide for this or that in the future.
Our retirement fund.
That's like the big one.
Everyone's got to have a retirement fund.
You know, that retirement fund's kind of a newer concept.
It wasn't something that people have always had.
And we've made it through many, many, many, many thousands of years of human history without
retirement funds.
And people have served God, you know, through all of time without a retirement fund.
When we start to say, oh, I've got to have my retirement fund.
I've got to have name in the Syrian silver stashed away.
I've got to bestow that in a house somewhere so that I can, when I get older, you know,
I have something I can fall back on.
When we start to say, that's more important to me than being faithful to God, then we're
going to start to have a problem.
That's when we're going to start to see us maybe pull back on the soul winning.
You know, I can't go soul winning today because I've got to get those hours in at work.
You know, or I can't be in church in this service because, you know, I got to get this
business built or I've got to get, I've got to be at work.
I've got to earn this money and we start to put off the things of God so that we can bestow
some things in the house for later.
We try to hide these things from God and say, well, this is just me and we do it all over
the veil of financial responsibility through being a good steward.
And again, it's great to be a good steward.
It's great if you can do that.
I'm just saying you don't have to do one or the other.
You can do both.
You don't have to pull like a hay's eye and go and take, you know, and take those things
which, you know, the man of God refused and have that lapse in faith.
You can serve God.
You can keep your focus right and maybe you won't get there as quick to achieving your
financial goals or maybe you need to just stop and reevaluate.
What are your goals?
You know, what are your priorities in life?
Is it more important for you to live debt-free than to be a soul winner?
You know, if me saying, well, I've got to be debt-free by a certain date and that means,
well, I just don't have the time to go out and do my soul winning or, you know, I've
got to work so many hours now that I just don't have time to read my Bible or I've got
to do so much I don't have time to pray or be in church or spend time with my family
and raising my children, the nurture, the admonition of God.
If those are our priorities, then, you know, we're pulling like a hay's eye and that's
not what we want.
And I'm not saying that we shouldn't do any of those things or that it's sinful to have
some money stashed away.
I think it's a good thing, but I don't think we have to have all these riches.
We don't have to have, you know, a year's worth of income stowed away.
That's a lapse in God's provision to take care of you.
And really, the question that Gehazi is asked there in 2 Kings chapter 5, the beginning
of verse 25, it says,
But he went in and stood before his master.
So after he takes the silver that he bestows in the house, he goes back into Elisha and
just acts like everything's normal, nothing's changed.
And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou Gehazi?
And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
So he's trying to hide it.
He's trying to say, you know, hey, I didn't go anywhere.
I've been here the whole time.
What are you talking about?
And he said unto him, When in thy mind heart with thee, when the man turned again from
his chariot to meet thee?
And then he asks him this question, Is it a time to receive?
And that's the question I want to ask us this morning, and that's the title of this
sermon.
Is it a time to receive?
See, Elisha's asking a very pointed question, and I think Elisha asked that because he understood
the times that he lived in.
Elisha had an understanding of the times that he lived in, and if we were to take this portion
of scripture in the context of the book of 2 Kings and elsewhere, we would see that the
nation of Israel was very backslidden, that the nation of Israel was very wicked, that
they were in a very sad state spiritually.
And Elisha understood that, and I believe that's why he asked this question.
He said, Is it a time to receive?
Now, you could think of another time where perhaps that would have been, the answer to
that question would be, yes, it is a time to receive.
We think of King Solomon and King David when Israel was doing right, when they were following
the Lord, when they had a righteous king reigning over them, and he was following the
commandments of the Lord as God, and doing the will of God, and God blessed them.
And Solomon was able to receive all those riches, and the kings of the earth came and
brought all their gold and their vestures and their raiment and all of these gifts to
him.
And he was able to receive.
That was a time to receive when things were going well, when things were right.
But Elisha here asked this question because he understood that he was living in a time
when there was more important things to do than just trying to receive.
As he says there, money, and garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and
oxen.
Because the nation was ungodly and wicked.
And we live in a similar time as that.
We are living in a time, we're living in a nation that is ungodly and wicked.
And if you can't see that, then you need to come back again and again and start to hear
some preaching of the Word of God.
Because I don't have time to go through all the proofs of our nation being ungodly and
wicked it is.
I mean you need to open your eyes and look around.
If you can't see it, it's because you're brainwashed because you've been watching too much television
and listening to too much of the media.
If you can't see it, you don't know the Word of God.
If you cannot understand and look around and see that we are living in a wicked and evil
and adulterous generation.
And Elisha understood this and that's why he asked this question.
Is it a time to receive?
And so because we also are living in such a time as Elisha did, in an ungodly and unholy
nation in the midst of a wicked and adulterous people, that we need to ask ourselves this
question.
Is it a time for us to receive?
Is that the priority in our life?
To have the house, to have the second car, to have the bank account taken care of, to
have all the debt paid off, to have all these things lined up.
Is that our priority in life?
Is that what we need?
And the answer is no.
But the thing is, many Christians seem to think so.
And you can tell by their lifestyle, the things that they do and how they spend their time.
And what they do is they allow the riches of this world to rob them of the riches of
heaven.
You know, we're living in a time when we need people to make sacrifices, when we need people
to rise up and live for God and not make the priority in their life, you know, the vacation.
They want to make their priority in their life, the two car garage and the basement.
Now there's nothing wrong with those things.
And if we can afford those things and have time, great.
You know, if God can bless us with those things and we can enjoy those things, they are not
in and of themselves sinful.
But what the point I'm trying to make is, is that our priority in life?
To receive those things, to receive the homes and the olive yards and the riches and to
have all these things stored up.
Because when we make that our focus, when we make earthly treasure, and if you would
turn over to 1 Timothy 6, when we make earthly treasure our priority in life, it ends up
robbing us of the true treasures which are in heaven.
When we make storing up and having financial stability and making sure that all our finances
and all our ducks in a row financially, that we make that the priority in our life, then
we're going to rob ourselves of some true riches.
You're turning to 1 Timothy 6, let me just read you several scriptures here that warn
us about being greedy, that warn us about desiring riches.
1 Timothy 3 says, this is the qualifications of course for the bishop, not giving to wine
or a striker, not greedy a filthy lucre.
So a pastor man who desires the off of a bishop needs to understand and determine in his heart
before he ever enters into that position that he's not going into it for what he can gain,
for what he can get out of it, financially especially, what he can get out of it financially.
That would be to go after a filthy lucre, because if you're going into the position
of a pastor desiring what you can get out of it, a comfortable living, to have a nice
bank account, you're going to start preaching things that you ought not.
You're going to turn aside out of the way after vain jangling.
You're going to start preaching things for filthy lucre's sake, and you're going to preach
false doctrine and heresy, and you're going to harm people that have come to you to hear
the word of God preached.
Because you're more concerned with your pocketbook than the welfare of the people under your
ministry under your preaching, you're going to compromise.
Just thinking here, and that's why I'm so grateful for the example of our pastor.
I was thinking about this, I've known several pastors throughout the years, and we have
a pastor here at Faithful Word that has not made the wealth of this world and the comfortable
living of this world his priority.
When you're talking about a man that has his tenth child in the way and is living in
a two bedroom house, and I believe part of the reason he's done it is to set an example
for those that would come after him.
I know that one day if I'm able to go out and start a church somewhere, me and my wife
would talk about it, I'm not looking to move into some nice suburbanite neighborhood where
I could have the three story house and the full basement and the two car garage, that's
not the priority.
I want to live as meager of a means as I can so therefore keep my expenses low so that
there's more to do in the work of God.
I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but I just believe that's part of the reason
why we should, as those that desire the office of bishop, should not be greedy of filthy
lucre.
It says in 1 Timothy 3, likewise must the deacons be great, if not double tongue, not
given too much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, then again the same warning.
Titus 1, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-wooled, not so
angry, not given the wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre.
1 Peter 5, 2, when he was speaking to the elders that were among them, feed the flock
of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly,
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.
He said, if you're going to be a feed the flock of God, you need to make sure you don't
do it by constraint, you need to make sure you want something that you want to do, something
you're willing to do.
And not for filthy lucre state, not saying, well you know I need a new career, something
that might pay me well, let me go to the pastor and see if I can, you know, glean the riches
of this world.
Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, one who is ready to preach the whole counsel
of God.
You're there in 1 Timothy chapter 6, look at verse 6, but godliness with contentment
is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry
nothing out, and having food and raiment, let us be there with content.
We have to be content with food and raiment, that's the scripture, that's the plain teaching
of the Bible, that we shouldn't desire to have this great gain, that we should be content
and have godliness.
Then we can begin to understand what it means to be truly happy, when we begin to value
and appreciate the things that we do have, the good things that we do have.
Our family, our health, our ability to go out and serve God and see great things done
to the glory of God and his kingdom.
You know, it's interesting, I was told recently by somebody that, you know, your wife's going
to have to stop having kids someday, just can't afford them.
And I've even been told in the past by a Baptist preacher that I should only have as many kids
as I can afford.
That's a wicked philosophy, friend.
That's a Gehazi type of philosophy.
That's somebody who lacks faith in God's provision.
And they can pontificate, and they can talk about how they're blue in the face, about
how they pray and how wonderful God just answers all their prayers and everything.
But when you're telling somebody in your congregation that you should only have as many children
as you can afford, my friend, you're sowing the seeds of doubt in somebody's heart.
You're saying, you're telling that person, you know, God can't take care of you like
he says he can.
God is, you know, God can take care of us.
God will provide all our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.
And he commands us to be fruitful and multiply.
The Bible says that the, you know, the fruit of the womb is his reward.
So we should learn to be content with the things that we have and not to be desiring
of great gain.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9 that they that will be rich, now notice
it says will be, not that, you know, we don't want to just write off everybody that has
wealth that's just wicked and evil.
Now it's true that the most wicked and evil people are very wealthy people in this world.
But you can be plenty wicked as a poor man.
But they that will be rich, meaning those that have made, like a Gehazi that made the
riches of this world their focus.
They will be rich.
They're not rich, but man they want to get rich.
And that's what they're striving after, to be rich.
But they that will be rich fall into a temptation and a snare.
You can get into a lot more sin once you start to have that money coming in.
Once you start to being able, hey man, I've been working really hard for a long time and
now this thing is really starting to pay off and now I can kind of sit back and take
my knees.
You know, I can go bigger barns so that I can store even more of my substance as the
parable goes.
And then we have that idle time, then we're not as busy and then we can, and a lot of
times people say, well I'm just going to work really hard now where I can take it easy and
then I'll start serving God.
But what you don't understand is that when those riches come in and life starts to get
a little easier, there's that nice cushion, there's that pad in the bank account and now
all those things start to, all those toys start to, they have that extra little shine
to them.
All those little hobbies you've always wanted to do, those things start to take over.
And if we're not careful we can fall into a temptation and a snare as it says there
in verse 9.
And to many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for
the love of money.
Not money itself.
You see, money can be a very useful tool.
A person can use money to accomplish great things for God.
I believe that Faithful Word Baptist Church is a great example of that.
A church that has kept its expenses very low.
Oh, you need a strip mall, that's the knock on us, right?
Well yeah, we'll be in a strip mall with about 300 people on a Sunday morning and we go out
and we send people all across the world, we send out DVDs and preaching CDs and MP3s all
across the world and we'll be able to go out and do so many marathons and do great things
and all those things are financed.
All those things require money.
So money itself is not evil, it's the love of money.
When just a calving money is what you want.
It is the root of all evil.
While some cavitate after it, they have burred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things.
Don't be a Gehazi.
Don't go after them.
When you see the riches over there, when you see Nahum and the Syrian trotting away with
his servants and his raiment and his silver, don't go running after it.
The Bible says you need to go in the opposite direction.
You need to flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience,
meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also
called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Turn to verse 17, charge them that are rich.
So there's even a charge to those that already have riches in this world.
Charge them that are rich, that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches.
And that's a very telling trait of somebody that has riches.
I can tell you in my line of work that I've been around a lot of people that have, they've
got money.
And I go into their homes and people, I mean it's just amazing, people live in what the
average home in like Chandler, Tempe, parts of Gilbert, I mean the average home down there
would have been just like a king's mansion back in the day.
I mean it was just luxurious, pools, high ceilings, tiles, just thousands of square
feet and they got the two people living there and the kid in college.
And they're very high minded and they trust in uncertain riches and they can be very condescending.
Some of the most just condescending people I've ever met have been wealthy people.
But also that's not to say that we should write them all off because I've met very kind
and nice people that are very down to earth.
It's just something about when you have the riches of this world, you know if you've worked
very hard to amass this wealth, you know you can kind of get this attitude, well I'm just
better than everybody else.
That's why all these other people are poor.
You know there's a lot of very humble men of God, I believe that if they wanted to go
out into the business world, could become millionaires.
If they put the same amount of energy and dedication into some private business as they
do into their serving God, they would become very wealthy people.
So rich people, people that have the riches of this world, I'd be careful not to just
think that everybody who isn't as they are, you know that they're somehow less than them.
They're not to be high minded nor to trust in uncertain riches, but to live in God who
giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
But that they do good, that they'd be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing
to communicate.
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come.
They should use those riches that they have, that wealth, as it says they're ready to communicate
rich and good works, ready to distribute, ready to give of those riches, those that
God has given.
It's God that gives you the strength to get wealth.
And it may be that God puts individuals in a position to gain wealth and gives them strength
and ability and wisdom to gain wealth for the sole purpose that they might turn around
and use it to the glory and honor of God, to accomplish His work, that they may lay
hold on eternal life.
Turn over to Matthew chapter 6.
The Bible talks a lot about riches, the Bible talks a lot about the danger of falling into
covetousness.
Bible, you're turning over to Matthew 6, I'll read to you from Proverbs 11.
He that trusted in his riches shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.
You know, he that trusted in his riches are things that, you know, because, one, it makes
me think of the Catholic Church, you know, people that are trusting in their riches.
Well, it's got to be true, I mean, look at this just cathedral, look at Vatican City,
look at all the wealth, look at the, the throne of gold, look at all the garments, look at
all the, just the pomp and all the, all the beautiful buildings that they have.
Obviously this is the true Church, they're so blessed by God, they trust in those riches
and guess what?
They're going to fall one day.
They're going to fall right into the pit of hell because they're trusting in their works.
The Bible says that the righteous shall flourish as a branch, and the one who trusts in Christ
the Savior, and not in his own self, but just believes on him that justifieth the ungodly.
You know, when he comes into the kingdom with Jesus Christ and sits down with him, he's
going to flourish.
You know, he's going to see those true riches.
Proverbs 22, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.
Isn't that, I mean, poor Gehazi, too bad he didn't hear that one, too bad he didn't take
heed to that.
Now, he goes down in Scripture as this just has been, as we'll see in a minute.
The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is maker of them all.
Labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom, will thou set thine eyes upon that
which is not for riches, riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an
eagle toward heaven.
I love that verse.
It's so true, I mean, it says that about money, it says that about riches, and isn't that
the truth?
You know, you get that bi-weekly paycheck and it's got that nice comma in it, you know,
and four figures, right?
And it just seems like it just takes wings and it just immediately, as soon as it comes
in, it just goes right back out.
And that's just the way life works.
So if we set our eyes on that which is not, you know, if we labor to be rich, then, you
know, just expect disappointment, expect a fall, expect to see that money come in and
go out.
And what will you have in the end?
Food for me, vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient
for me, lest I be full and denied and say, who is the Lord, or lest I be poor and steal
and take the name of my God in vain.
Now Matthew chapter 6, if you're there, look at verse 9.
We're talking about, is it a time to receive, is it a time for us, considering the time
that we live in, to begin to amass wealth, is that the goal of our life?
That we would begin to have riches on this earth?
To be a Gehazi, to pursue after the silver, to forsake the man of God, to lie in the man
of God, to try and hide that, to bestow it in the house and save it up for a rainy day?
Is that the motive in our life?
To doubt the provision of God?
And if we doubt the provision of God, His ability to provide for us throughout our whole
life, we're going to end up seeking after earthly riches.
And we're going to rob ourselves of the true riches which are in heaven.
Matthew 6, verse 19, Jesus warned of this.
Matthew 6, 19, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt
and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal.
Why?
Why is that important?
He tells us why.
He doesn't just end it there and say, you know what, just do this, just trust me.
He explains why.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
And that's the problem with it.
When your heart goes after the earthly riches, that's what it's going to be about.
And you're going to grow cold to the things of God.
You're going to grow cold to the soul winning.
You're going to grow cold to the reading of the Word of God, to understanding and knowing
the Word of God.
You're going to grow cold to seeking after the benefit of others.
You're going to seek only the benefit of yourself.
Because that's where your heart will be.
But if you're hard to set upon heavenly things about storing up earthly treasures, obviously
we can't send a check to heaven, we can't write this out to Jesus Christ, from Corbin
Russell, X amount of dollars, and put it in the mail, it's just not going to make it.
He's talking about if we really want to store up treasures in heaven, there's a way to do
it.
And it's through doing good works that you can lay up and store against the wrath of
the time to come.
That's how we lay up treasures in heaven.
It's through caring for others, for doing good deeds for others, for tithing even, which
is just a commandment, something you should be doing.
But even if you consider that, tithes and offering, giving to the work of God, that
is fruit that will abound in your account, that God will see, hey, maybe you weren't
over to get over the Jamaican's mission trip, but you bought somebody else a plane ticket
who could.
But you got somebody else over there.
You're a father, you're a busy man, you're providing for a family, you don't have that
much vacation time, you can't just take time off and fly to some foreign country and be
part of a great soul-witting marathon.
But over here there's this poor guy, this single guy, who wants to go, but can't afford
to go, has the time, doesn't have the responsibility of a family to take care of.
Maybe that guy could write the check out and say, hey, why don't you go in my stead?
Everything that that young man or whoever, what might be, that goes there and accomplishes
that great wisdom, that would be fruit abound in his account.
That would be a way to store up treasures for heaven, that's just a practical example.
There's many ways that we can store up treasures in heaven, the point is, that's what we want
to do.
We want to store up treasures in heaven and not upon this earth, because that will determine
where our heart is.
Matthew 13, and he spake many things into them imperable, saying, behold, the sower
went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came
and devoured them up.
Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung
up because they had no deepness of earth, and when the sun was up they were scorched,
and because they had no root they withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them.
Verse 22, He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and
the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choked the word, and he becometh
unfruitful.
He gives this parable and explains it, specifically regarding the seed that falls among the thorns.
What's interesting about the seed that falls among the thorns is that it tells us a couple
things.
One, that the problem is never with the seed.
Wherever the seed falls, it germinates, it works.
The word of God, of course, is that seed.
If we were to look deeper into this parable, we would see that the seed there is referring
to the word of God.
The word of God has powers quick and is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing
even the piercing asunder of soul, spirit, and the joints of marrow.
So we know that the word of God works.
It's never without power.
It's like that seed.
Wherever that seed falls, whether it be on the stony places, whether it be on the wayside,
whether it be among the thorns, it takes root and begins to grow.
But it's the soil that determines how well it flourishes.
It's the heart in which it's sown that determines whether or not it brings forth any fruit.
And the seed here that fells among the thorns, it's interesting to note about that soil,
that there is not a problem with the soil.
With the stony places, the problem was that it had all that stone, or the wayside that
was just hard packed, it couldn't get that deepness of root.
It was bad soil, it was a bad place to sow seed.
But the thorns, the thorny ground, obviously that soil must have been good because it was
growing thorns.
That's good soil.
It was already supporting life.
It was already allowing thorns to flourish.
It was good soil, it was good seed.
The problem was the thorns that were there, the care of this world, the deceitfulness
of riches.
You see, there's plenty of people, there's plenty of Christians, I believe, that could
be very fruitful, that could accomplish great things for God, that could do great works,
in some degree they have a good heart.
They want to see God glorified.
But they will never do so because the thorns are there, the cares of this world, the riches
of this life, the deceitfulness of riches choke that word out in their heart and they
become unfruitful.
You see, Keziah was not a wicked guy, Keziah was not some worshipper of Baal, he was not
some reprobate that was just tagged, he wasn't some Judas in the crowd, I don't believe,
honestly I believe he probably would have proceeded Elisha had things gone differently
for him.
But there was that root of bitterness, there was that care, the deceitfulness of riches
got to him and he turned aside for filthy lucre and he probably would have been a compromiser
if he hadn't been struck down with leprosy.
You see, plenty of people could be fruitful but they just never will be.
Eventually they're just going to get choked out of those thorns.
And if that's us today, we need to get the garden hoe out, we need to get the shears
out, we need to put on some gardening gloves and get out there and roll up the sleeves
and start working in our lives to pull those thorns out so that the word of God, that seed
that's been sown in our hearts can flourish and not be choked out and bring forth much
fruit.
Maybe we need to weed out that Saturday afternoon that we would want to work those extra hours
that we're not required to and say that's going to be my slowly time.
Or maybe we need to just pull out the weeds of saying I can't give like I want to give
because I've got to make sure that I have six to nine months of savings in the bank
at all times.
Maybe we could scale back something else, we've got to pull out some of those roots
of the deceitfulness of riches in our life so that the seed that's been sown can flourish.
Because if we don't, because if we don't do those things and if people continue to just
let the cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches choke out the word in their life,
they're going to end up like a Gehazi, spiritually.
If you would turn back to 2 Kings chapter 8 and we'll end there.
2 Kings chapter 8, if we don't get the root of the deceitfulness of riches out of our
life, we're going to end up like a spiritual Gehazi.
2 Kings chapter 8, Then spake Elisha unto the woman whose son he had restored unto life,
and say, Rise up thou and thine household, and sojourn, wheresoever thou canst sojourn,
the Lord hath called for a famine, and it shall also come upon the land seven years.
And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household,
and soldiered the land of the Philistines seven years.
And it came to pass, now this is after, of course, you know, Gehazi has been struck with
leprosy and he went away white as snow, right?
And it came to pass at the seven years end that the woman returned to the land of the
Philistines, and she went forth to cry to the king for her house and for her land.
And look who's there.
Look who's there with the king, right?
And the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray
to you, all the great things that Elisha hath done.
Past tense.
Not all the great things that Elisha hath done.
You see, if we allow ourselves to become a spiritual Gehazi, and just covet things and
become more concerned with the riches of this world, we're going to end up living in the
past like a Gehazi, talking about all the great things that Elisha, that somebody else
hath done.
People that can start out very well can finish poorly, if at all, like a Gehazi.
And they end up just living in the glory, just rehearsing the glory days, because they've
fallen off spiritually.
He said, Tell me all the great things that Elisha hath done.
Verse 5, And it came to pass, when he was telling the king how he had restored a dead
body to life, telling the king about that miracle that we read about earlier, where
Elisha raised that boy back to life for the Shumenite woman.
He's telling about somebody else's great exploits.
We'll end up with no miracles of our own.
We won't be able to tell about, if we become a spiritual Gehazi and allow the deceitfulness
of riches and the cares of this life to choke us out spiritually, we'll never have that
fruit.
We'll never be able to sit down with somebody and say, Let me tell you about this great
experience I had out soul winning.
Let me tell you about what our church is doing.
We'll never have that great story to tell about all the great things that God is doing.
We'll be living in the past and living through somebody else's experiences.
We'll never have any miracles of our own.
We'll end up living vicariously through others.
We'll just end up watching the services online and not attending.
There are church win souls, right?
What a shame it would be to be in Faithful Word Baptist Church or any other great soul
winning church and to be sitting in that church week in and week out and allow the riches
of this world to choke you out to the point where you're not even winning souls, where
you're sitting in a church like that and you don't go soul winning.
You're sitting in a great church like that and you're seeing all these great things being
done for God and you've never seen anything done for yourself.
You never have a part in it.
You end up just living vicariously through others.
Their churches will win souls, but they will not.
They'll watch others be blessed.
Look at verse 6.
And when the king asked the woman, so the woman comes and Gahia's eye says, Hey, this
is the woman I was just telling you about whose son Elijah raised a life.
And she's coming back to the king to restore the lands that she had lost when she obeyed
the man of God and went to the land of Philistines during the time of the famine.
Verse 6.
And when the king asked the woman, she told him, so the king appointed to her a certain
officer saying, restore all that was hers and all the fruits of the field since the
day she left the land even until now.
He says, give everything back that was hers and anything that anybody harvested, all the
equivalent of anything that might have grown, give her that as well.
So she didn't miss a beat, she didn't miss out, like maybe she was growing beets, but
she literally did not miss out on any of the fruit of her land.
She got everything, even the stuff that she missed out on during the seven years she wasn't
there, he said, on all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land even
until now.
So she comes back and she gets everything back and everything that she missed out on.
And what's Gahia's eye doing?
Just sitting there watching it happen.
When Christ comes to reward his servants, there will be many people that are only going
to gaze on the sight like a Gahia's eye.
They're going to see people rewarded for great things.
You know, I believe there's men in this church that could go out and be pastors.
You know, they could go out and they could start churches that we desperately need and
they could go out and they could do a great work for God and they could win that crown
of glory that was reserved only for pastors.
There's certain, the crown that only a pastor will receive is that crown of glory.
And they could go out and do that, but they might pull a Gahia's eye and they'll be more
concerned with the riches of this world and the cares of this life and that'll get choked
out in their life and they'll never have that fruit.
And one day when Christ returns, those men that made the sacrifices that maybe they weren't
able to take the vacations, maybe weren't able to have that hobby, maybe weren't able
to live in the nice house and do all those things, that they made those sacrifices, they
were willing to go out in the land of the Philistines and suffer some loss by faith,
they're going to be rewarded and they're going to be restored tenfold for their labors.
And those men that could have had it, like a Gahia's eye, they're just going to sit there
and watch it happen.
And they're going to realize how robbed they were.
Turn to 2 Kings chapter 4.
I want to look at one more thing about this Shubenite woman because she's a very good
example of what we need to be.
We don't want to be like a Gahia's eye when it just coveted and went after earthly riches.
The Bible says in 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 8,
And it fell on the day that Elisha passed to shoot him.
And there was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread.
And it was so that as odd as he passed by, he turned and thithered to eat bread.
And she said unto her husband, Behold, now I perceive that this is the holy man of God,
which passeth by us continually.
Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him a little
bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick.
And it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn and thither.
So she's giving him this place where he can take a break from his journeys, and she's
feeding him, and she's making a little guest chamber for him.
You see, this Shubenite woman, she was unselfish.
She was one that was willing to give.
She wasn't going to him saying, hey, what can I get out of this situation?
She wasn't a Gahia's eye who just wanted to see what he could get from the man of God.
Let me hang around the man of God, and maybe there will be an opportunity for me to get
some silver, some gold, some raiment.
No, the Shubenite woman, she was willing to give.
She was one that was willing to sacrifice.
And in turn, she was provided for.
She was given something.
It's said in Kings 4, verse 13.
And he said unto him, Behold now, say now unto her, Behold thou hast been careful for
us with all this care, what is to be done for thee?
So Elijah's saying, hey, you know, you've been treating us very well.
What can I do for you?
How can I return the favor?
Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or the captain of the host?
And she answered, I dwell among my own people.
See, she had this opportunity to receive.
She had this opportunity to get something back.
And I don't believe that she started out giving the bread and making the chamber so that she
could see what she could get out of it.
She was just saying, hey, this is a man of God.
Let's do him some honor.
Let's be good to this man.
So finally she gets this opportunity to receive something in return.
And what does she do?
She doesn't ask for riches.
She's like, you know, it reminds me of when King Solomon with God came to him and said,
hey, what will thou do that I should do for thee?
You want riches?
Do you want honor?
Do you want all this?
Do you want freedom so that I can help your people, lead your people?
He was unselfish, just like she is here.
She uses this unopportunity to receive something and to be even further unselfish.
And he said, what is to be done for her?
And Gehazi answered, verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.
And he said, call her.
And when he called her, she stood in the door.
And he said, about this season, according to the time of light, thou shalt embrace the
sun.
And she said, nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.
And the woman conceived, embarrassed at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according
to the time of light.
So she uses this opportunity to get something from the man of God, to do something very
unselfish by bringing another child into this world.
And that's a very unselfish act.
For a woman to desire to become pregnant and go through the great struggle of carrying
a child in a room and going through the morning sickness and all the pains and all the possible
trauma that can happen to her body, and to go through all that discomfort, and then to
go through childbirth itself, and to take on the duty and the responsibilities of raising
that child, and all the hard work that goes into it.
This is a very unselfish woman, this Shumanite woman.
And her act, and her one act, preserved her life and her inheritance.
And she was willing to even go out and obey the man of God.
And she preserved her own life.
And when she came back, she even got all of her inheritance.
What an unselfish woman.
Because of her attitude, she was able to receive that child that she longed for.
And she was able to see her lands restored and the fruit in a time of famine.
And it preserved her.
Because she was trusting in the provision of God.
Unlike Gehazi.
What did he get?
What did Gehazi end up with at the end?
He got some old stories and leprosy, white as snow.
The Bible says, a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of the
many wicked.
We ought to be careful and not allow ourselves to think that we're missing out on something.
When we see the riches of this world, and the people enjoying all these things.
My perfect example for me is bull hunting.
I really want to, I mean I'm living in Arizona, one of the best states for big game hunting.
More record game animals are taken out of Arizona than anywhere else in the world.
Right?
And there's a big outdoor community here.
And it'd be really easy for me to say, you know what, I'm just going to get comfortable
here.
I'm just going to get really comfortable here in Phoenix, and work hard, and I'm just going
to do some bull hunting.
I'm just going to become a mighty hunter before the Lord.
Right?
Probably become a complete failure.
And I know that's not in the cards for me.
That's not, because that's not what God wants.
That's not what we need.
That is not the time for this.
It is not a time to receive trophy amounts.
It's not the time for that.
And I don't know whether there will ever be a time for that.
To make that the focus, not to let the cares of this world and deceitfulness of the riches
choke that in my life.
So we ought to be careful and not allow that to happen in our lives like a hay's eye.
By seeking our own game, what can we do, how can we enjoy the pleasures of this world.
It will rob us of our true rewards in heaven.
You know?
That we are going to, we could potentially inherit one day in heaven, the great riches,
the eternal riches.
Where moth and rust doth corrupt and we're thieving not rape, hoard nor steal.
We need to be selfless like that Shumanite woman.
And if we do that, if we seek the glory of God, if we seek the benefit of others, if
we seek to please God with our lives and to serve Him, and to live a humble and meager
existence financially speaking, it might be that I have to go live in a ghetto to serve
God some more some day, in a very meager home, in a rough neighborhood.
But if doing that will bring other people to Christ, it may be that I never get to draw
back on a six by six in the pines of Arizona.
But if I can go out and do great work for God, I mean do you think in heaven when I'm
receiving that crown of glory, or any pastor, if that's how it plays out for me, or any
man of God who's made those sacrifices in his life, or even just any person who's going
to be rewarded, be crowned in heaven by Jesus Christ, do you think I'm going to think back
and go, this is nice, but man, I really would have liked if God had some of that help in
me.
Man, friend, that won't even enter my mind for a second.
We need to be selfless like that Shumanite woman, and God will bless us here and in heaven.
We need to trust Him for provision, not be a Gazi, don't worry about that silver, don't
worry about mayhem and silver.
God can provide for you, and let's not worry about that, and let's seek the benefit of
others, and let's see God bless us and provide for us in this life as we do that.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, again, thank you for the Bible, thank you for the preaching of it.
Lord, I pray that you would help us to always be mindful, Lord, of the cares of this world,
the deceitfulness of riches.
If we see these things springing up in our heart and our life, help us to be too quick
to root it out and get it out of our lives, help us to have the right priorities in serving
you and understanding, Lord, that we have this one life to accomplish what we're going
to accomplish for you.
We have this one life to be rewarded for it, glory.
Father, I pray that you would help us to just serve every moment of our life, just spend
every moment of our life just serving you, Lord, to the benefit of others, not seeking
our own gain, not seeking what we can get out of it, Lord, not worrying about whether
or not you can provide for us, but, Lord, just trust by simple faith that you are able
to take care of us, Lord, that we are of more value than many sparrows, Lord, and you take
care of all of them, Lord.
The Bible says that you clothe the grass, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into
the oven.
Father, how much more will you not care for us, Lord, and clothe us and give us those
things that we need.
Help us never to be worried about that or to be deceived in the following after, Lord,
vain riches, to fall into that temptation and snare.
Help us to serve you, Lord.
Help us to be humble.
Help us to seek, Lord, your glory.
We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.