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Good evening everyone, welcome to the space for more Dr. Stewart. Great to see you all here. How are you all? It's a four Thursday evening service. If you all please have a seat and grab a hymnal and open up that hymnal to song number 38. You can begin this evening's service by singing song number 38. Hallelujah, we shall rise. Song number 38. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. From the rapture, actually morning, the good, the holy, the broken. We shall rise. We shall rise. In the rapture, actually morning, what a meaning it will be. We shall rise. We shall rise. Let us all to give our voice, and in the low earth we shall see. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. From the rapture, actually morning, the good, the holy, the broken. We shall rise. We shall rise. In the rapture, actually morning, what a meaning it will be. We shall rise. We shall rise. I shall see my blessed Savior, who shall freely die for me. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. From the rapture, actually morning, the good, the holy, the broken. We shall rise. We shall rise. In the rapture, actually morning, we shall live in the air. We shall rise. We shall rise. And be carried unto glory, to our home so bright and fair. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. We shall rise. From the rapture, actually morning, the good, the holy, the broken. We shall rise. We shall rise. Amen. The fellow has time to work here. Here to work. Thank you for the stage. Thank you for our soul in the church. Please bless our service today. Bless the city. In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Let's turn our handles to song number 143. 143, bless our service. Song number 143. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what the floor saves the glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of his Spirit, watching with my eye. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect divine. Visions of rapture now rest on my side. Angels descending, we will rise. Visions of rapture now rest on my side. Angels descending, we will rise. Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior, all living on the last. Perfect submission, all lives at rest. I am my Savior and happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above. Doing with his goodness, lost in his love. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Amen. This is how we'll go over the announcements. We will be following and we'll be singing a song of the 270. If you need a bulletin, slip up your hand. Brother Andrew will bring you one. As always, service time is listed above. Soul winning time, salvation, baptism, offering totals, attendance. Happy birthday to everybody celebrating this month as well as the wedding anniversary. Keep working on the Bible memory passage. Those of you that are working on it and also on the back. Don't forget tomorrow is the baby shower. These are going to be setting up here tomorrow afternoon as well. So looking forward to that. Have a good time there. And then of course there was the mention about Mrs. Cuevas who passed away. Adam's mother. And they had the service today. And I got word from Brother Adam. Haven't had time to reply to him yet. But he said that it went well. He actually ended up conducting pretty much the whole service himself from what I understand. So he definitely was thankful for everybody's prayers that helped him. And there was definitely some receptiveness there. So I don't know. I just got a quick text. But it sounds like everything went well. And he's looking forward to getting back here of course. But continue to pray for him and his family and the seed that was planted. That it would continue to take root in their hearts. And they would continue to think about the gospel. And then also we've got just a reminder about the Sunday morning series. Our vision for 2023. And we're going to be in part 2 this Sunday. And then we'll finish it up in the following Sunday. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning going back to Monday. If there's anything from Monday. Or Tuesday. And Wednesday. And then was there anything today? No. Alright. That's going to do it for announcements. So go ahead and have another song before we get to the preaching tonight. Alright. So number 217. He included me. Number 217. I'm so happy that Christ today. That I go singing along my way. Yes I'm so happy to always say. Jesus included me too. Jesus included me. Yes he included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Jesus included me. Yes he included me. Yes he included me. Jesus included me. He included me. wireless wireless wireless Jesus included me, too. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said, Whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said, Whosoever, he included me. When the Lord said, Whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said, Whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said, Whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said, Whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said, Whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. So I'm just going to end there. I know we've already read this chapter last week. But I'm really just going to be focusing on verses 8 through 17. And I just want to look at that. There's just so much in this chapter. There's so many things. I don't want to just gloss over some things just for the sake of trying to get through a chapter quicker. But I do want to focus on the story about this Shunammite woman. She comes out and she sees that this man is going back and forth from time to time near her residence. And she goes out and she says, hey, come in and eat bread. And over time she finds out that this is actually a man of God. And then she makes this chamber and then of course this great miracle at the end where in her old age she's able to conceive and finally have the child that she was never able to have growing up. And there's a couple things we can learn out of this quick story here. And one is that ministry is about give and take. That's how ministries work. The man of God gives and the people take. But it's also the other way around as well. The people give of themselves in ministry and the man of God also is benefited by that. So ministry is a very, it's not a one way street. There's a lot of give and take here. And I think this is a good example of that. And just real quick before we get into it, just some things about the story and about this woman. Obviously when it's saying there that she was a great woman, this isn't talking about her physical attribute. I know the Bible uses that word great that way. But what it's talking about is she's a woman of stature. She's a woman of wealth obviously. I know it's constraining him to eat bread but that's not what it's talking about there. It's not talking about the fact that she was great in a physical sense. But that she had this abundance. We see throughout the story that she has servants. She has reapers going out. And there it says that she said let's build him a chamber upon the wall. Now I don't believe that's talking about let's build him a guest room in our house. What he's talking about is build it on the wall. Meaning probably this is how I understand it. This great wall that would have been built around their property. We know that she probably had a lot of land. Later in the story her son is going out to his father amongst the reapers. So when it says she's a great woman, she's a woman of fluent. She's a woman of wealth. She has sustenance. She has great property. She has this, I don't know what you want to call it, a hacienda. She's got a nice spread or whatever it is. But she has this wealth. She has this ability to take care of even passers by. And I just want to look at how it is that she gave. Because again, if we're going to title this sermon, it's give and take. It's a great representation of how the ministry ought to work. That it's a give and take type of thing. And I want to look at how the Shunammite specifically gave. How is it that she gave? What kind of an attitude did she have when it came to doing her part and helping the man of God? First of all, what you can notice is that she gave out of respect. She gave out of respect. And she again did for the man of God what she would have done for anyone. It says there in verse 8, And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunamm. 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, now I perceive this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. So this passing by that Elisha did to Shunamm, this is something that took place. It appears on a regular basis, at least from time to time, with some consistency. And it makes sense because, and we're not going to take the time to go there, but in Joshua, I think it's 19, where the inheritances are being given out in the promised land. Shunamm is a city that's mentioned being given unto Issachar, that tribe. Issachar at this point in the divided kingdom is pretty centrally located in Israel. So you can see why it is that Elisha is coming and going past this woman's home. This is obviously just because he's still busy doing the ministry, he's still doing the work of God. We don't know all that he did, what all was involved in his ministry, but obviously it required of him to do this traveling, to judge here, to go there, to preach here. He's going through the land. And he's passing by this great woman's house, this Shunammite's house, and as she's seeing this stranger, just like anybody else that she would see walking around, she would constrain this man to eat bread, not because she knew who he was, but just because that's what good people do. They take care of strangers. This is her just being hospitable, this is just her saying, I have enough, let's take care of this man, we see him from time to time. And this is just something that she did not because he was a man of God, this is just something that she did that she would have done for anybody. And she gave out of respect. This was, of course, this constraining to eat bread, again, was something she would have done for anyone. And if you notice there at the end of verse 8, or verse 9 rather, it says, Behold, now I perceive that this is an holy man of God. It was after she had brought him in to eat bread, after she had spent time with him, that she began to perceive who Elisha was, what his job was, and then she goes to that next level where she begins to provide more than just the bread. But it starts out she's giving because of the fact that this is just something that you would do. This is just something that a good-hearted person would do. This is what you would do in order to fulfill the royal law, to fulfill the law of God. And if you would, go to Galatians chapter number 6, Galatians chapter number 6. You know, loving your neighbor is just par for the course. So obviously she's giving to the man of God out of respect, but initially this giving of bread, obviously this is just something she's doing because loving your neighbor is just something that ought to be in us inherently. It's just something that ought to come to us naturally, not because we're trying to gain things out of people, not just because we think that that person might advantage us something, but because that's just what we're supposed to do. The Bible says in Galatians chapter 6 verse 7, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. Now this is the context of this chapter. I'm backing up a few verses so we can get an understanding that we are to be sowing in our lives, that we sow and that we reap in our lives. He says there in verse 8, For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit. So what's Paul talking about here is about sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit. A lot of times we preach about that, we talk about that, but we don't get real specific about what that might mean. In this context here, one thing that's pointed out specifically is that we do what in verse 10? That we do good unto all men. He's saying there, He that soweth to his Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting, and let us not be weary in well-doing. He's saying, look, if we're going to sow in the Spirit and we're going to reap in the Spirit, then let's not be weary in well-doing. We have this promise from God. God is not mocked. Whatever we sow, we're going to reap. Therefore, let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we therefore have opportunity, let us do good unto all men. So how do you sow to the Spirit? By doing good unto all men, not just to people that will advantage us something, not to just people that maybe we have an affinity for, not just to people that we have a preference for, that we like, or that we think that we can gain something from them. The Bible says that we are to sow by doing good unto all men. But notice how it ends. Especially unto them who are the household of faith. So when I say that she gave out of respect, when she gave that bread, when she's constraining Elisha, who at that point in their relationship was just another stranger of Israel that she saw passing by, that she was just trying to fulfill the royal law, that's what was taking place when she was just giving the bread. But eventually she started to give unto this man of God out of respect for the man of God because he was what? Of the household of faith. Look, we should of course do good unto all men. But is that really something noble? It's funny, we go out and talk to people all the time, we knock on the doors and ask them how they know they're going to heaven. Well, I'm good to my neighbor. Well, how noble of you, good job! I haven't slept with my neighbor's wife, I haven't committed a murder, I haven't stole anything from them. Well, let's just swing the pearly gates wide open and come on in. You know, that's par for the course, folks. She gave out of respect, you know, the giving of the bread, the constraining, that's not the respect that I'm talking about there. But when she noticed, when she came to understand, when she began to perceive that this man, this stranger that she took in out of the kindness of her own heart to fulfill the law of God, that she began to perceive that he was a holy man of God, she said, let's take this giving to the next level wide because he's of the household of faith. You know, we can apply that not just to the man of God, but to all that are household of faith. You know, we should of course do good unto all men, and it's important to point that out because sometimes people get an attitude of, well, they're not saved and they don't go to church, so, you know, whatever. You know, they can go chew tinfoil. You know, but that's not the attitude that we should have. We should always be trying to do good unto all men, being a light unto this world, being kind, you know, being humble, being meek, helping others, but when it comes to the household of faith, how much more so? You know, we should be even more willing to stretch ourselves for the brethren, more willing to put ourselves out there for the brethren, to be inconvenienced for the brethren because who else do we have on this earth? Who else out there is going to believe, believes like we believe? Who else, you know, has the philosophies and the approach to life that we have from the word of God that's not out there? So when she sees that this is a man of God, and again, you're going to want to keep something, I believe, in Galatians, or not, go to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3. When she sees that this is not just another stranger, but this is a holy man of God, someone who is of the household of faith, she goes beyond what is just expected of her on behalf of him. She said, look, I wouldn't give anybody bread. I would help anybody, some wayward stranger making his journey through this land. I see you coming and going all the time with your servant. Let me give you some bread. She would do that for anybody, but when she realizes this is a man of God, she goes beyond that. And she says in verse 10, Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick. To us, we're thinking, well, what about the router? What about the laptop? Where's the Wi-Fi? Where's the AC? Where's the fridge? Back then, these were the accouterments that you would get in life, and if you had the bed and the table and the stool and the candlestick, you were living high on the hog. And she sets this all up for him not because she was trying to make a gain of him, but just because she had respect unto the man of God. Look, ministry is give and take, and so why should I give? Why should we go above and beyond for the ministry? Because we have respect for it. Because we ought to respect the fact that we have this ministry. Look there at Galatians 6. Well, I'll just read you from Galatians 6. I had you turn away to 2 Timothy 3. It says in Galatians 6, As we therefore have opportunity, let us do unto God our old man, especially unto those with a household of faith. You know, and this is lost in a lot of people today. You know, a lot of people would even mock at the idea of having respect unto a man of God. They would say, oh, you know, he's just another man. And it's true. But what does the preacher, what does the pastor, what does the man of God represent? He represents the ministry. He's the one that's holding it together. There ought to be a certain level of respect for that. And it's lost on people today. It's lost. And people will even mock at it. Look at 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. It says, This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. What's going to be so perilous? What's so bad that's going to happen? Is hell going to split open and demons are going to come out and all this supernatural stuff going to take place? That's what's going to make things so perilous? The Nephilim? You know, these giants that are, you know, now they've got these crazy theories that mountains are giants that lay down and are overgrown. It's crazy out there, the things people believe. It's so far removed from Scripture. That's what people think. Oh, perilous times are going to come. Wild things are going to happen. And look, I understand during the great tribulation when God finally pours out his wrath, there are going to be some supernatural things that happen on this earth. But what Paul's referring to here is before that. This is something that can happen in a person's lifetime. This is something that can happen within a lifetime of a church. This is something that can happen to humanity at a certain point in time. That perilous times will come. What makes up those perilous times? Look at the first singing list. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. They're not going to want to do good unto all men. They're going to love their own selves. And look, as we read this list, it's just like, well, that's us. That's us. This is the world we're living in. And I'm sure, you know, it's probably always been this way and maybe it's been worse in the past. But there's no doubt about it. Today we have people that are what? Lovers of their own selves. They're obsessed. The level of narcissism is off the charts. Where people are just constantly obsessed with their appearance. Constantly obsessed with the way they look and what they're doing and what their life's about. What they're going to get out of it. And it's all about me, me, me, me, me in this culture today. I mean, just go look at social media. People can't even do nice things for people without making sure somebody sees it on social media. And social media is just full of narcissism. People just obsessed with themselves today. They're lovers of their own selves. They're not willing to do good unto all men. Can't be bothered to help this guy. Can't be bothered to be put out. I've got more important things to do. They're covetous. They're boasters. They're proud. They're blasphemers. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Unholy. Look, that's a pretty nasty list. And I'll point it out since we're going by it right there. Disobedient to parents. You know, park it there for a second. Disobedient to parents. When you're doing that, you just put yourself on a list of some pretty bad people. Covetous. Well, I'm not covetous. I'm not a boaster. I'm not a blasphemer. Yeah, but right after that is disobedient to parents. So keep that in mind, children. Unthankful. It's funny how that follows disobedient to parents. Unholy. Without natural affection. Truth breakers. False accusers. Innocence. Incontinent. Fears. And notice the last one there. Despisers of those that are good. Not only are they obsessed with their own selves. They're not willing to do good unto all men. They're certainly not going to have any respect for they that are the household of faith. They're actually going to be despisers of those that are good. They're going to look at a preacher. They're going to look at a man of God and say, I despise that individual. They're going to have what? No respect. So this woman, this Shunammite woman, she's giving out of respect. Not because of, you know, Elisha's charming personality. Not because, you know, Elisha was just, had just won her over. But because she was already somebody who understood the law that you should do unto others and you'd have them do unto you. That all the law of the prophets is, you know, hangs upon loving the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength. But also the second, that's the first and great commandment, the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. She got this. And that's why she was constraining him to eat bread. But when she realized this is a man that is of the household of faith, she said, well now I'm going to take it to the next level. Why? Because of Elisha? Because of who he was? No, because of what he represented. Because he was of the household of faith. She had respect for it. And today, that's lost. Today that's something that we just see going by the wayside. And I'll point out to, and this is something that maybe would apply more to myself, but it is something that I thought about. You know, is that Elisha wasn't looking for it either. Like I said in the beginning, you know, ministry is good, is give and take. You know, Elisha's not like, maybe if I walk by this house enough, I notice she's got this big spread here. I notice she's got a reaper. She's probably got more than she needs. Maybe if I just keep walking by and have that sad doleful look on my face, she'll eventually take pity on me. And then I can tell her, oh by the way, I'm a man of God. And then she'll set me up nice. You know, Elisha was going to be making this trip, whether she gave him bread or not. Elisha was going to keep making that trip and doing the work of God and what needed to be done. Whether she had respect to him or not. Because he was there, what, not to take, but what to give. You know, the work of the ministry doesn't need to be appreciated in order to get done. Because ultimately, we need to do things for the Lord and not because we're, what, seeking recognition. You know, this woman, she gave out of respect and she gave without, what, seeking recognition. Oh, you're a man of God? Well, let me just set you up a nice little place up on the wall. And then you could tell everybody about me and all the nice things that I do for you. That's not why she did it. She did it out of respect. She did it without seeking recognition. It says there in verse 11, and it fell in a day, that he came hither, and this is, of course, Elisha, and he turned into the chamber and he lay there and he said to Gehazi, his servant, call this Shunammite. And when he called her, she stood before him. It's interesting in this story, we never find out her name. I mean, obviously, she's got some clout. She's a great woman. She has influence. She has some prosperity. And even we'll see that it appears by the end of this chapter and even later on that Elisha has become very endeared to this woman. But notice how he addresses her. Call the Shunammite. I read that and I wonder, did he even know her name? He probably did, but it's interesting. Maybe he didn't know. And when he called her, she stood before him. And this is what I mean by serving without recognition is that if people are going to have respect under the ministry and say, hey, I'm going to get involved here, they need to do it with the right motives. And not to get some kind of vain glory. Not to get some kind of vain recognition. You know, guys want to go into the ministry to be preachers or something like that, and what they really want is just to see their name on YouTube. And let me tell you, that's a fleeting reason to want to get involved in the ministry. And you know, I want to see my name on the internet. Well, you might want to think twice about that. Because you might see your name on the internet in some places that maybe you weren't hoping you'd see it there. Baptist preacher says, you know, death to homos. You know, you might see your name on the internet and think, well, that's not what I meant. I just want everyone to talk about how great I was. And I just wanted to serve in the local church so that everyone would just see what a humble servant I am. Look, if we're going to serve, and again, the ministry is give and take, we need people to serve. We need people who are willing to give, and not just take. But make sure if you're going to do that, that you serve with the right motive. You know, Elijah calls her and says, well, call the Shunammite. Who? You know, that lady that gave us this place. That's been feeding us. That has been giving, and gave us this room, and this stool, and this candlestick, and everything else, and this bed. You know, in ministry, sometimes people can get real needy. And this is something I've seen, and what people need to understand in the ministry, I understand that it's give and take, but some people are just all take. They're just take, take, take, and there's never a lot of give. And look, that's going to be unavoidable to a certain degree. Ministries are just going to have a certain level of that. You know, when you get in trouble is when that becomes the majority of people. When no one wants to give, and everyone wants to take, you know, that's when things get out of hand. The other thing I'd point out about this is that not every issue needs a personal touch. You know, people always want to get the pastor involved in every issue. And I understand in smaller ministries, you know, where it's just the pastor, that's probably the way it has to be. But, you know, God has given us deacons as well, such as myself. And that's why it's important that, you know, I be present in Tempe. You say, why do you go up there every Wednesday? Well, it's, you know, it's not for my health. I'll tell you that much. You know, and I can get in and out down here just as I can easily up there. And it's not because I like, you know, the environment up there better. You know, Tucson's better. It's like 10 degrees cooler down here. At least that's what I like to tell them up there. But I go up there because of the fact that, you know, it's good that the people there know that they have somebody else to come to. That not every single thing that comes up has to be taken to the pastor. And look, that becomes more important as you grow as a ministry. When you start running three, four hundred people regularly, you know, and you start to have issues, you need more people to be there. You know, it's like otherwise he's going to wear away. It's like Moses. He had to be told, look, you need to appoint captains. You need to have people handle the smaller issues and then the harder things that can pass up the chain. But, you know, and that makes sense from our perspective. It's just sometimes people in the pew don't get that and they just feel like, well, the pastor's just so out of touch. Or maybe it's just that you're too needy. Or maybe it's just that you're not really wanting help, you're just wanting attention from a specific person. And look, people do this. And it is crazy the things that people do. Well, I'd get baptized if Pastor Anderson would baptize me. Look, if he's there to baptize you, great. But did you know that you're not getting baptized for Pastor Anderson? And look, I don't say this with any, you know, But did you know that you're not getting baptized for Pastor Anderson? And look, I don't say this with any, you know, hopefully everyone understands I'm saying this respectfully towards Pastor Anderson. But he's expressed similar things. Like, who are you getting baptized for? Are you getting baptized in the name of faithful word? Are you getting baptized in the name of Pastor Steve? No, you're getting baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. You're being baptized for Jesus Christ. What does it matter who's laying his hands and dunking you under the water? Not every issue is going to need a personal touch. You know, but is that why we serve? Well, I'll serve just so I can get, you know, more attention. Just so that I, because I want more attention given to me. No. Notice there it says in verse 13 of 2 Kings 4, it says, And he said unto him, Say now unto her. So this isn't even something that Elisha is, and you think, well, wait a minute, Elisha. Why aren't you speaking directly to this woman? I mean, she's been feeding you bread. She gave you that place upon the wall. You know, you're up above. You're safe up on her wall. People aren't bothering you. She's giving you a candlestick and a stool and a bed and all these nice things that some people don't even have. She's gone out of her way for you, and now you're just going to send your servant down there and have this conversation through a, you know, an intermediary? And some people will get really offended by that. Look, I see it all the time, you know, online. You know, through the email. You know, the email just comes in. It's like it's me and a couple other staff members that deal with that. If there's something hard, we'll pass it up the line to pastor if it's something that he has to actually get involved with. But sometimes you'll respond and say, well, I've got, and you're giving them the answer. They have some issue. They have some question. You're giving the answer. You say, well, I wrote specifically to speak with Pastor Anderson. Oh, I see. So it's not that you wanted to actually get any help. It's just that you wanted to get him on the phone or you just wanted to get his attention. But this woman, you know, she doesn't mind this. That Gehazi is the one that's coming to her and say, hey, Elisha told me to tell you. Because she's not serving to be recognized. She's serving out of respect for the ministry, for the work of God. You know, another extreme example, this doesn't happen very often, but I've seen this just in the few years I've been a staff is where people will call or leave a voicemail and they'll want to leave estates to the church. And this happens from time to time. And I remember there was this one guy, and he called, he was at one of the Dakotas, North Dakota, I think. He said, well, I got all this land up here and I don't have anyone to give it to and I'm getting older and I want to get the church in my will and I want to give you guys mineral rights to all the gas and the natural gas up here and I want to give you hundreds of acres. What are we going to do with 100 acres in North Dakota? I went and visited my dad a couple of years ago and he said, hey, I just want to let you know that I inherited 10 acres on the Pine Ridge Reservation and I was thinking about leaving it to your son. I was just like, thanks. I didn't even for a second go, my son? Well, what about me? Why can't I have 10 acres on the poorest reservation in the United States? But it's kind of like, okay. The funny thing about this guy, I went back, I called him back and said, yeah, sure, go for it. What do you need from us? Well, I understand a few things, but I just really need to talk pastor. Well, he's busy. He doesn't have time to just talk to everybody. And I told pastor, look, this guy wants to talk to you. And he came back and says, yeah, he wants to be a big shot. What he really wants is Pastor Anderson to get up and pull up and go, this guy in North Dakota so and so left us all this land. He left us all these mineral rights. We got all this money coming. Isn't this guy great? That's what he wanted. What did he want? Recognition. You say, how do you know that's what he wanted? Because there's been other people who say, you know what, I want to leave my estate to the church and they just send it all in the mail. They say, here's the paperwork, fill it out. Do we need a phone call? No, just do it. Just here's the paperwork. Don't need to have a meeting face to face. Don't have to have a phone conversation. Just here's the paperwork. Just take, why? Because they're doing it because they have respect. They have the right motives for wanting to serve. And not just to have their name. Just so they get the plaque, you know, on some cabin somewhere or something. On some pew somewhere. You know, so and so bought this pew. They spent $180. It's $360. They gave so much money and now we have immortalized them on our wall. You know, people need to serve for the right reasons. And this woman, she served without seeking recognition. Oh, he's just going to refer to me as the Shumanite? The Shunamite? Okay. Oh, he's not going to fall all over himself because of everything I've done for him? It's fine? Why? Because she has the right motive. The Bible says in Galatians, this is something I think about quite often in this verse. Galatians 6, 4. Let every man prove his own work and then shall have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. Let every man prove his own work and then he shall have rejoicing in himself alone. People want recognition. People want, you know, they want that. But if that's all we're after in life, you know, we're not going to be doing things for the right reasons. You know, do your own work. Prove your own work and then you can rejoice in the fact that you did it. You got that done. I got to wrap this up. What we see this evening is that, you know, ministry is about give and take. You know, the man of God gives. You know, Elisha's walking around all through Israel. He's out there serving God. He's out there, you know, he's going to give something here to this woman at the end. There's going to be some, he's going to reciprocate, you know. But also, you know, the one that was being served, the Shunammite, she was the one that she had to give too. But she had to be careful about how she gave, the reasons why she gave. The reasons why she wanted to get involved with Elisha. You know, she gave out of respect. She gave without seeking recognition. And the last thing I'll point out is that she gave not looking for reward. And you say, well, it's kind of the same thing as recognition, I guess. But she's not looking for reward. She's not just looking to get into Elisha's good graces. She's not just looking, trying to get close to him. Let me do this nice thing for the man of God so that, you know, we can be best friends. You know, I'll point out she built him a place on the wall, you know, not, she didn't put him up in the guest room in the same house. But notice, when Elisha does call her, and she, you know, they're having this conversation, I believe through, at this point in the story, through Gehazi, he's saying, you know, what's going to be done for you? It says in verse 13. He said unto him, say now unto her, behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care, what is to be done for thee? What do you want? He's asking, you're doing all this for us, what do you want out of me? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king? Or to the captain of the host? Do you want some big shot to recognize you? Do you want to have the king applaud your efforts? And she answered, I dwell among my own people. She said, I don't need any of that. But notice she didn't go on and say what it is that she wanted. It seems to me like she just said, I don't need anything. Because I'm doing it for the right reasons. I'm doing it out of respect. I'm not doing it for recognition. I'm not doing it for reward. She just said, well, I dwell among my own people. I don't need anything. She wasn't going into serving just trying to see what she could get out of it. Notice in verse 13, he said unto him, say now unto her, behold, thou hast been careful. Oh, I just read that. Let me jump ahead here. Go to verse 15. And he said, call her. So he gets the answer back. Well, she doesn't want any of that. She doesn't want to be spoken to the king. She doesn't want to be spoken to the captain. She didn't ask for anything. Elisha. And he said, well, call her. And when he had called her, now she stood in the door. And he said, about this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace the sun. So now it seems like, oh, so she's not in it for recognition. Well, then I'll talk to her myself. And he's just having this conversation directly with her. And he's saying, look, about this time, thou shalt embrace a sun. I'm missing a verse here. Verse 14. Where did that go? Verse 14. Yeah. And he said, what then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, verily she hath no child and her husband is old. And this kind of goes back to that first point I was making about, you know, not every man of God is going to have this, you know, be the people person that you want. Is going to have this extra personal touch. He's got to ask his servant. Well, what does she want? And Gehazi, it seems like, has more of a bead on this lady than Elisha does. He's like, well, she's old and she doesn't have a kid. Gehazi knew that. He understood this. Without her having to even say anything, he's kind of familiar with her. But, you know, Elisha, you might say, well, he's just so aloof. He's just so distant. He's just so cold. Or maybe it's just that, you know, he's busy ministering to so many other people. And so he calls her and he says, look, at this time next year, you're going to, according to time of life, thou shalt embrace the sun. And I love her response. And she said, nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. Now, she's not accusing him of being a liar. This is just, I think she's kind of overcome and saying, you know, it's just showing that this is what she really did. That she really did want a child. She really did want to have a son. And she's just thinking, this sounds too good to be true. Don't lie to me. I think that's what the expression is there. Not like, you're a liar. You know, she's just overcome. You know, she doesn't really know what else to say. But notice how she addresses him. And she says, nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And again, we've already established that this is a woman who's probably got her own handmaids. She's got servants, she's got reapers, she's got people that are working for her. She's got property, she's got a wall. She can afford to build, you know, little chambers for strangers and feed them bread. I mean, she's well off. And here she is calling herself his handmaid. And it all goes back to the fact that, you know, she served out of respect. And she never lost that respect for him. Because it was never about reward. It was never about recognition. And let me just say, you know, if you're going to serve in a ministry with the hopes that, you know, the man of God is going to be everything you want him to be, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. And you're doing it for the wrong reasons. And when that recognition doesn't come, when that earthly reward that you wanted doesn't come, what will happen is, you will lose respect. And you'll actually become embittered. That's happened to people. I moved all the way across this country. I've been listening to your sermons for years. So what? I thought you were here to serve God. You know, and that's something I've seen, obviously, in Tempe. We've never had to really deal with that here. But, you know, let me just go on the record and say, if you're serving in this ministry for my sake, you're serving for the wrong reason. If you're serving because you're trying to get the deacon's attention. And again, it would shock me if anybody was. Because who am I? And probably everyone has a pretty good understanding of that right there. Who is deacon anyway? I'm not some big mover and shaker up here. Oh, deacon acknowledged me. But I'm just saying, look, if that's why you want to serve in a ministry, you're in it for the wrong reasons. And you might find out that maybe I'm a little aloof. You're going to find out maybe I don't have the personal touch that you would like. Or I'm not going to recognize and praise you for every single thing that you do around here. But, you know, I don't have the personal touch that you would like. But, you know, I don't have the personal touch that you do around here. But, you know, I don't get a phone call every week either. I don't get done preaching and immediately get a phone call from pastor. That was a great sermon. That was a good sermon. You're doing a good job. Because I don't need that. And if that's all I was looking for, then I'm in this for the wrong reason. And if all I'm doing is for is so that other people will recognize me and what I'm doing, then we're doing things for the wrong reason. And look, we need to do things. Ministry is give and take. You know, I know I've said this before. It's not a one man show. You know, a congregation is an assembly of believers. It takes a church to build a ministry. It takes multiple people, everyone, fulfilling their role and doing things. But let's make sure we're doing things for the right reasons. Why? Because we respect ministry. Because we respect the fact that we have a faith. That we have this church that's respected. And let's not do things in church just for recognition. For other people to see that we're doing this role. We're fulfilling that role. And let's not do things for reward either. I mean, let's do things for eternal rewards. You know, I was going to go to Luke 14, but I'll just read it to you. Jesus said, when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. Let me back up and just read all of this here. Verse 12. Then he said to them that bade him. And he's at this feast, right? This is who he's saying it to. To people that bade him. When thou makest a generous supper, call not thy friends. It's like, why did you call Jesus? And he's saying, look, when you make a feast, call the poor. Jesus wasn't that. He wasn't out on the street. I mean, I know he had nowhere to lay his head at times. He wasn't maimed. He wasn't lame. He wasn't blind. He's saying, make sure that's who you call. And not just the people that can do something for you. Or that you want to get in your corner. And when you do that, when you have respect, when you do things for the right reasons. And you're not just in it for recognition or reward. And thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense you. For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. That's where we want our reward, folks. Not here on earth. We don't want to compromise and have no respect for the ministry and do things for the wrong reasons. So we can get some kind of vain, earthly reward. We're going to get there and we're going to say, that was a lame trade. That was weak. So make sure we're doing things for the right reasons. What are those reasons? Again, out of respect. Out of not seeking recognition for reward. And at the end, the irony is that she did receive, didn't she? She did things for all the right reasons. But at the end, she did receive. She got what she wanted more than anything. A son, a child. Without even asking. God gave her the desires of her heart. But why did he do that? Because of the fact that she was serving for all the right reasons. That she had respect for it. Let's go ahead and pray. Dear Lord, again, thank you for this great story. This short story. All right, go ahead and sing one more song for a little bit. Take a look at the rules. Son of 400 to 5. Son of 400 to 5. Battle of the Cross. For the cross. Where's the royal banner given for display To the soldiers of the King? As the nation, where we belong today All the friends of what we see Marching on, marching on For Christ, out everything belongs And to come with me, for they sing In the letter of the cross From the golden age and forever as the one That has never been displayed Can we lead this world as soldiers of the Lord For the truth be not displayed Marching on, marching on For Christ, out everything belongs And to come with me, for they sing In the letter of the cross From the land and sea, where ever they may find In the Lord's mighty throne All the friends down there and round this morning town For the Lord shall bring this home Marching on, marching on For Christ, out everything belongs And to come with me, for they sing In the letter of the cross From the golden age and forever as the one That has never been displayed Can we hold our faith up first and disappear And the cross of truth shall sway Marching on, marching on For Christ, out everything belongs And to come with me, for they sing In the letter of the cross Marching on, marching on For Christ, out everything belongs And to come with me, for they sing In the letter of the cross For Christ, out everything belongs And to come with me, for they sing