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You You You You You Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Dear Lord, thank you for watching us in your blood and the salvation is so easy I thank you for allowing us this opportunity to come back to church this evening I pray that you would bless our service and our singing and be pleasing in your sight Turn to our next song which will be song 97 in your handbooks I need the ever-hour On the first I need the every hour Most gracious Lord No tender voice like mine Can peace afford I need the, oh I need the Every hour I need the Oh bless me now my Savior I come to Thee I need Thee every hour Stay thou here by Temptations lose their power When Thou art mine I need Thee, oh I need Thee Every hour I need Thee Oh bless me now my Savior I come to Thee I need Thee every hour Enjoy your pain Come quickly and abide For life is made I need Thee, oh I need Thee Every hour I need Thee Oh bless me now my Savior I come to Thee I need Thee every hour Most holy one Oh make me mine in Thee Thou blessed Son I need Thee, oh I need Thee Every hour I need Thee Oh bless me now my Savior I come to Thee We will be in Galatians chapter 5 this week. Hope you can make it out to our midweek service. Soul winning opportunities are listed there as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up the salvations for today. If you have any salvations, slip your hand up real quick. And we had two, so that's seven. Seven salvations for today. Praise the Lord. Good job out there preaching the gospel. It's what it's all about. Is there any other, any other salvation that we need to report that just weren't reported yet from the week, any other day that we might have missed? Very good. Alright. Keep up the good work. Don't forget we got that challenge this month so every day this week if you're going to participate in this challenge, you got to try to find someone to attempt to give the gospel to. And it is just an attempt. You don't have to, you don't even have to quote a verse, right, in order to meet the requirement of this challenge. So, but you do have to have some type of contact with a person. If you're not going to go where no one answers, that's not, that's not going to qualify as an attempt. They have to at least answer and say I'm not interested or something. That's an attempt. Okay. You've actually had some communication with someone. Right. But you don't have to knock on doors. It could just be anywhere out in public, anywhere in your day to day. I like gas stations. It's just sometimes you see a lot of people who just kind of milling around, not much to do. Smoking cigarettes, whatever. Like any areas where you see people like that, parks, whatever. Places, sometimes I'll drive home on my way home from work and there's a nice little street I could just, we'll quickly get out, knock on some doors and you got to at least just try to talk to one person. So that's the, that's the goal. That's the objective for this month. Continuing on, I know we'll skip over that when we actually get to that in the, in the announcements. We got the prayer requests. We had a few updates this morning. Toby is having that treatment, his infusion on Wednesday. So please say an extra prayer for him then. It's a really, really big deal there. And then Mrs. Mosteller's sister, unfortunately, is having more problems with infection and the wound is still okay, but needs to now receive the more thorough treatment with everything else that's going on, the infection that she's fighting, the high white blood cell counts and stuff. So please, we'll put her back on the list and continue to pray for her. Any other updates for the people who are on the list right now? We heard a couple others this morning. I think there were some good updates, but if not, we'll move on to the next page. Of course, I already talked about the June challenge. Oh, I should have asked this this morning. Who completed the digital detox? Can you hand up real high? We're going to get a good count. One, two, three, four, five. I see that hand. God bless you. I see that hand. God bless you. I didn't see. So six. I got you guys. Where's Sarah? Seven. You didn't raise your hand. How come? You did it. Seven. All right. Good job. To those of you that completed it and the rest of you slackers, you got problems. No, I was kidding. All right. I'll confess my faults. I failed that challenge, too, so. It's a hard one. The important thing, though, is making sure you're not, like, addicted to stuff that's just... Obviously, it's not a sin to go on social media or something, but the whole point is to make sure that you're not just wasting tons of time and whatever, so. Continuing on here. Six year anniversary is scheduled for June 23rd. We're going to celebrate on the 23rd. We'll have all kinds of fun. I don't have to know right now, but just think about it if you want to volunteer. There's a little bit of help that we could, you know, there's a little bit of help with setting up and maybe just cooking burgers and dogs and stuff like that. And then also monitoring the water slides and the inflatables out there. That is a necessity. Kids love the water slides, but need adult supervision in order to use them safely. So, we can take shifts. We can do whatever. I just want to make sure that we do have an adult out there at all times during the in-between while all the kids are playing because it's easy for things to get out of hand and for kids to lose their minds when they're having so much fun on the slides. But I really, really don't want people getting hurt, so that's going to be a must. So parents, just kind of think about that. Especially parents, if you've got kids that are going to be involved, take a little bit of time and make sure that you're out there and put forth that sacrifice to make sure things are going well. Alright, but that's going to be a blast. We're going to have a lot of fun with that. Greenville Church plant details are there. The only thing I wrote that was incorrect is a midweek service is on Thursday, not on Wednesday, just in general, moving forward. But everything else, we're going to be moving in and setting up on Saturday, June 29th. We're going to have an ordination service where Brother Carter is going to be ordained as an evangelist for our church on June 30th, Sunday. That's right here. That's not at the new plant. We're going to do the ordination service here in the morning on June 30th. And then that Saturday, July 6th, we're going to have a big soul-winning event, so we're going to hit the Greenville area, especially right around the church building, and just spread the word, try to get people saved, let them know, hey, we're having this service, grand opening service on the 7th. Sunday morning service, 10 a.m., Sunday afternoon service, 4 p.m. I haven't decided how I want to do this, but I kind of want to get people's feedback on if you plan on attending that service. I might put a sign-up sheet up here or something just to get an idea of who intends on being up there for that, just so I can get a good idea of how many people it is, and then I might request some of you to not attend, if it's a lot of people, to just hold off for a week or whatever and then go up the following week and show your support. It is a good idea to support that church plant and to have a lot of people there. It's a lot more comfortable if new people show up to church and there's already a decent amount of people there as opposed to almost nobody being there. It does a lot to help the church growth when that's the case, right? So when it's not real empty, you kind of feel it. Like in my house and no one else is there except for one person, that is uncomfortable for the people who show up. It was fine for me, but I've been there and I've done that, and it's not easy for the people showing up to a house and things like that. So we have a great advantage here, a great head start, and it already is going to show, hey, this church is established, it's good, and anybody that wants to help and go out there and just support that plant is going to be much, much appreciated. So I'll bring a lot of effort into this because we want this to be a huge success and just to be able to reach that many more people with the gospel. So I appreciate everyone's help there, but like I said, I think I'll just do a sign-up sheet just so I can get a good idea of that. And then also for the help, I'll give more details next week. I'll also probably want at least a show of hands on who's going to be helping here or there or at both places on June 29th. So we'll take care of you if you want to help, but the more people we have, the quicker it's going to go. Obviously, we just get a bunch of people, load up a truck, awesome, and then a bunch of people on the other side to unload and set up. We should be in good shape. So everything should be done with the construction by that point, too. It's going to have to be, but we'll have flooring in place. We'll have all the demo work done. We'll have all the stuff pretty much ready to go. So that's the plan there, and you can see, again, all the details are there. If you have any questions about it, just talk to me. Hebrews chapter 11, verses 33 and 34, we've got a few weeks left to get this complete, and you'll be able to earn a prize for being able to do that. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are down there at the bottom of the page, and that is about it for announcements. So who's leading our next song? Brother Will. All right, Brother Will, come on up here and lead us in our next song, please. Turn to Psalm 232. Psalm 232. Tell me the story of Jesus on the cross. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest. Peace and good tidings to earth. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Ask things alone in the desert. Tell of the days that are past. How for our sins he was tempted, yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor. Tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted. Hopeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they nailed him, riding in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where they laid him. Tell how he lived and loved him. Love in that story so tender, clearer than ever I see. Stay, let me weep while you whisper. Love gave the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Amen. The ushers now bring up the offering. While the rest of the church turns to 2 Kings 4. Again, 2 Kings 4, which Brother Holman will read for us. All right, that's 2 Kings 4 again. The Bible reads, Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow these vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few, and when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more, and the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, where it 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 that this is an 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 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, Call this Shunemite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And 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 is thou bespoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. 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 he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to Elad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward. Slack not thy riding for me, except thy bid thee. So she went, and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet. But Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her. And the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way. If thou meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again, and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child. But there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awake. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them, twain, and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child, and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro, and went up, and stretched himself upon him, and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her, and when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out. And Elisha came again to Gilgal, and there was a dearth in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seeth pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds, his lapful, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat, and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot, and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. And there came a man from Baal-Shalisha, and brought the man of God, bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn, in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat. And his servicer said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat. For thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and he left thereof, according to the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for this church. Thank you for the Bible. Thank you for giving us the ministry of reconciliation. Please help us to glean something from Pastor's message, and fill him with boldness of the Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so this evening, I'm going to preach a sermon that's a lot more fun for me than this morning's sermon. This is the type of stuff that I like to dig into in the Scripture. And the title of my sermon this morning is The Miracles of Elisha. So we're going to be doing a, kind of a Bible study through these first few chapters of the book of 2 Kings that are going to talk about all these great miracles that Elisha had done. And we're going to start actually in chapter 2. We just read chapter 2 last week, and kind of went through getting that double portion in your life. So I'm not going to cover the same material, obviously, but we start kind of in the same chapter, because chapter 2 is where Elijah is carried up to heaven in a whirlwind, and then Elisha does receive the double portion of the Spirit that God had put on Elijah, and he starts doing his great work in chapter 2. So I've got a lot of references here, and I don't know if we'll get to them all or not. I might just kind of go quickly near the end, but these miracles are great. Not only are they awesome miracles in and of themselves, like the actual physical miracles that happened that took place, real things that happened in real life recorded for us here in the Scripture, but then the underlying truths and the symbolic meanings that go along with each of these miracles, and when I was studying this out, I realized there's actually an overall theme to all of the miracles that Elisha performed. So this is pretty neat when you actually get into this. So without further ado, let's kind of dig in. Go back to chapter 2 real quick. We're going to spend a lot of time in chapter 4. Obviously, there's a lot that happens in that chapter as well, but the first miracle that is performed by Elisha is right after Elijah is taken up into heaven by that whirlwind. In verse 14, the Bible says, And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and smote the waters and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elijah went over. So this is where we see that he's seeing, he's getting that answer for sure, that blessing, because when they had just crossed the Jordan, he went with Elijah. Elijah had smote the river, and they went over on dry ground, and now Elisha is returning without Elijah. He saw him go up, and that was what he needed to see in order to be confirmed that he would receive that double portion of his spirit. So he just calls like, Hey, where is the God of Elijah? Boom, the waters part. So clearly, the power of God is resting on him, and this is kind of confirmation for Elisha that the Spirit of God is with him and that he's receiving that request that he had asked for. And this is also reminiscent of the children of Israel. There's one other time that the Jordan River was parted. There's four times, I believe, total in the Bible where waters have been parted. The first time is going to be when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, right? But that was the Red Sea. So the Red Sea was parted when they came out of Egypt and were headed towards the Promised Land. Then you have the Jordan River crossing with Joshua leading the children of Israel out of the wilderness into the Promised Land, and then they have that first battle at Jericho. So that's when the Jordan River was crossed. Same exact thing. The waters were parted, right? And then you have Elijah going back and Elisha coming the other way. So four times, if you think about it, four times, we often just think about Moses being the one that you think of when waters are parted and people are walking on dry land because it's such an awesome miracle, but it actually happened four times in Scripture. So it's kind of neat when you think about that. But here we see that first one is confirmation to Elisha and then jump down to v. 19 there in chapter 2. The men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord seeth, but the water is not and the ground barren. Now where they're at, in fact, if you just go up one verse to v. 18, it says that when they came again to him, for he tarried at Jericho, he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, go not? Because they wanted to go find Elijah, and he's like, no, you don't need to. He's not there. But they couldn't find him, of course, because God took him to heaven. But it says here that the old parenthetical statement, he tarried at Jericho, so this tells us where he's at. He's at Jericho. And if you remember from when the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land, Jericho was at first battle. That's when they march around the city, the walls fall down, but they were supposed to just completely destroy that. In fact, Jericho was cursed, so they were told not to rebuild Jericho at all. But Jericho does get rebuilt. In fact, not too much prior to these events that we're reading about here with Elisha. And keep your place here in 2 Kings. Turn, if you would, to Joshua chapter 3, because this is all relevant. There's a few more verses I want to read, actually, in 2 Kings chapter 2, but keep your place there. You're turning to Joshua chapter 3. So the sons of the prophets talk to Elisha, and they say, hey, this is a great place. This is a pleasant city. It's a nice place to be, but the problem is that when they say the water is not, it means the water is no good. So you think of like naughty, someone's bad. So when they say the water is bad, the water is not good for consumption. It's not good for their use. And the ground is barren, and the ground being barren is going to be a result of not having good water source, right? So it's just not bringing forth anything. But they're like, hey, isn't this a great place, a great city? And he said, bring me a new cruise and put salt therein, and they brought it to him. And he went forth under the spring of the waters and cast the salt in there and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. There shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake. So basically, he gets some salt and throws it into their water source where the fountain is, where the spring of water is, and now that heals the water. Now they're able to use it again, and that heals the land. It heals the water, and they're going to be able to use that land again in Jericho. Now, there's so many interesting things when you dig into this. Like I said, that's just a simple, like, hey, that's pretty cool. He healed the waters. Now they can live there. You help them out, right? And you just keep on reading. But when you dig into this, everything has a meaning. Everything has more depth to it than just the surface level, what we see happening here. Joshua 3, look at verse number 15. The Bible says, And as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan. This is the first crossing. This is the children of Israel crossing over Jordan. And the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Zeratan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea failed and were cut off and the people passed over right against Jericho. So we have this division of the waters, but saying that the waters that came down toward the sea, which is the salt sea, so they were divided off from the salt sea, those waters failed and they were cut off. And they were stopped. And then of course the people passed over Jordan. And Jericho of course was cursed and the waters were cut off and from that point forward, Jericho wasn't a good place to be inhabited after the razing of the city and the waters going bad, right? The waters being no good there. But it's interesting that it was cut off from the salt sea and how did he cure the water? He cured the water with salt. All right, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Jump over to chapter 6 there in Joshua. Chapter 6, verse number 24. And they burnt the city with fire and all that was therein, only the silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and all that she had and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And Joshua adjured them at that time saying, cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho. He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. So Joshua pronounces this curse against anyone that's going to try to rebuild Jericho. Jericho obviously has a lot of meaning. It's symbolic. It's their first victory. God has this great victory and it's that destruction of the first destruction of the people of the land that were extremely wicked. When the children of Israel were given this land as their inheritance they were also bringing the judgment of God unto an extremely wicked nation. The land of the Canaanites in God's law when you read about the things and again Leviticus 20 I brought it up this morning but when you read Leviticus 20 it has most of the capital crimes listed in that one chapter and that chapter also says that hey by the way the people of the land they committed all of these things and read the chapter there's some pretty weird things that I think most people almost go like does this really need to be written down like we need a law against this? I mean do we really need to have it written down that a man shouldn't lie with a beast like with an animal? And yes we do. Because God put it in the Bible we do need that and because there are people who do such horribly bizarre wicked perverted things and the people of the land had gotten so messed up and so wicked that all the things that are listed there and it talks about lying with family members and all this other stuff like just really weird bad stuff they were in to all that and God just said okay the judgment's coming so he used the children of Israel to judge the people of the land and Jericho is like symbolic then of the whole west of the country so the command was you're not building this and you're not taking any of the spoil the first fruits go to God you destroy the city raise it and anything that you get out of it that went into the treasury of the Lord that's God that belongs to him and that's what they did and Joshua of course curses this saying hey look anyone who's going to try to rebuild this place they're only going to be able to do that in the death of the first born and their youngest son so like they're not going to be able to finish rebuilding this without losing two of their children that's a pretty high price to pay I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to sacrifice any of my children to build a city like sorry not worth it but if you want to you can turn to 1 Kings chapter 16 I'm just going to read then where it's rebuilt 1 Kings chapter 16 actually I'll give you a minute to get there because I do kind of want you to see this 1 Kings chapter 16 someone does rebuild Jericho and this curse happens like this pronouncement of rebuilding Jericho it literally takes place during the time of King Ahab and King Ahab was an extremely wicked king of Israel verse 33 the Bible says and Ahab made a grove and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him so this is the type of king Ahab was in his days did Heil the Bethelite build Jericho he laid the foundation thereof in a biram his first born and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segov according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun and then that ends that chapter but then look at verse number 1 of chapter 17 the Bible says and Elijah the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead said unto Ahab as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be due nor reign these years but according to my word and I just find this really interesting because that reference in verse 34 chapter 16 of this guy Heil that rebuilds the city the verse prior to that talks about how wicked Ahab is and then the verse after that is talking about the waters being cut off and the waters were cut off right after the rebuilding of Jericho you know obviously the water we're talking about rain not raining for three years but we also saw the waters being cut off when they went in to destroy Jericho the first time and the way that it was healed was with the salt now the Bible says this in Mark chapter 9 verse number 49 for everyone shall be salted with fire and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt salt is good but if the salt have lost its saltness wherewith will you season it have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another and the fact that the salt was used Jericho was rebuilt during the time of Elijah Elijah is probably alive at this time because he takes up the mantle for Elijah Jericho had been cursed that entire time the land was no good the land was bad it gets rebuilt but it still doesn't have good water and then of course that curse comes of there's no rain for three years and it's again happening right after the rebuilding of Jericho but now with the title of Elijah it's the sons of the prophets that are going to want to try to use it and they're there for a good reason they're there for a good purpose and God decides to allow Elijah to heal and what you're going to find is especially with Elijah we're going to see this what's being done what you'll see and I'll just say it now the one main theme is life from the dead bringing back to life things that were no good things that were dead things that are cursed so Jericho was dead Jericho was cursed but now we have this opportunity with the sons of God to stay in this place and what happens he heals the land heals the water you know there's there's obviously it was done for the Lord hey every sacrifice shall be salted with salt we're supposed to be the salt of the earth and the salt was good and it healed the land and it kind of brought back the salt that was cut off from that place when it was destroyed and when it was cursed so going into a place that had been kind of given up on now they're able to make some good fruit come out of that place that was cursed and had been cursed for a long time and one of the things that you'll see too about these about these miracles is just literally the ability to bring life back from the dead Jericho was a dead place dead land barren unfruitful but now it's going to be able to reproduce again it's able to bring forth life they're able to use it it's going to be habitable again through the mirror only through the miracle of God using a man of God to bring that miracle 2 Kings chapter 4 let's go back to 2 Kings 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 1 the Bible says Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha saying Thy servant my husband is dead and now knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord and the creditors come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen and Elisha said unto her what shall I do for thee tell me what hast thou in the house and she said thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil then he said go borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors even empty vessels borrow not a few and when thou art come in thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons and shalt pull out into all those vessels and thou shalt set aside that which is full so she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured out and it came to pass when the vessels were full that she said unto her son bring me yet a vessel and he said unto her this is not there is not a vessel more and the oil stayed then she came and told the man of God and he said go sell the oil and pay thy debt and live thou and thy children of the rest so again the surface story here is that this woman's husband died they had this great debt her children are going to have to be bondmen to pay off this debt that her husband accumulated but he wasn't a bad guy he was a servant of the Lord and now she goes to Elisha just asking for help hey what can we do and he's like well what do you have and basically I have nothing but this pot of oil all I have is some oil it's all I have left so he tells her okay get as many vessels as you can borrow vessels of people she keeps pouring out the oil and then miraculously it just keeps on filling keeps filling keeps filling until she runs out of all the vessels that she had borrowed and then it stays and then they're good and he's like okay now you've got all this oil go ahead and sell it because it has value and you could pay off the debt and you could just live of whatever else you have left over from the sale of all of those vessels that you're able to sell the oil to right that's the surface makes sense cool again and now she's she's free of her debt but obviously so much more packed into the story now oil in the scripture is representative of the spirit like the Holy Spirit people being filled with the spirit people receiving the spirit the anointing of oil represents that over and over again throughout scripture so basically is this lady who's saying well I've got all I have is this pot of oil all I have is my salvation all I've got is the Holy Ghost well guess what that's enough that's all you need and there's enough of the spirit to reach everyone everyone that you come in contact with so he says hey borrow not a few go out and get as many vessels as you can you think about vessels as being people right go out and reach as many people as you can and all these empty vessels all these unsaved people go out to them and you can pull out the oil and you can give the spirit to them and guess what there's going to be enough and if you keep on going and keep on doing and keep on reaching you'll never end up having a lack of the spirit there is enough of the Holy Spirit to go around for everybody and for everyone to be filled with the spirit there is enough measure it's supernatural it comes from God and we'll just keep going and going and going he says you know what borrow not a few borrow not a few I want you to get as many vessels as you can and that's a teaching for us hey we have so much more you know you can pour out into all of those vessels it doesn't fail it doesn't decrease it never diminishes also hey the oil covered her debt right God was able to cover our debt anything that you owe hey bought and paid for how many sins how many sins do you have how much are you indebted to the Lord how much have you transgressed Holy Spirit comes wash your way clean it's done your debt is forgiven and not only is your debt forgiven hey go live with the rest the Bible says in Matthew chapter 6 you know seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you and when you decide to live for God and live you know your life according to the way that God would have you to do you get saved and you say you know what I'm going to serve God and that's my priority and I'm going to make sure I serve God first then God makes sure that all of your car leads are going to be met God makes sure you'll never be hungry you'll never beg for bread that you will be at least have your needs covered and look it's not God never promises you're going to have all these riches earthly riches and all this other stuff and you're going to have become a millionaire look it's not a prosperity gospel that we're preaching here however the promise is there to meet your needs God absolutely knows what you need before you even ask for it and as a child of God he wants to listen to you he wants to hear you if you're a good child of God he will hear you and respond in order what father is it that if his son asks a piece of bread he's going to give him a stone right or a serpent or a score like like if you ask for something good you ask for something God's going to give it to you what an awesome miracle we have here let's continue on because there's there's so many of these that have but notice too what was what was her problem they were going to be going into debt and her children are going to be taken away from her debt's all paid everyone's free and they're good second uh jump down to verse number 16 this is uh with the shunammite woman so this woman had decided to be a blessing to elisha and to his and to his helper and um they would travel by the same way and she noticed them and was like hey let's make a place for him like like he's walking by let's let's give him a place where he could have a meal and he could take a nap or have a rest on his journeys as he keeps on traveling by this way and you know she was she was a great woman she was a woman of means she had some wealth for you know in her family and she's like hey let's let's cut out a little place for him let's give build a room for him to have while he's driving and uh and be a blessing unto him so as a result of this she did this for him now elisha wants to bless her like hey you this is great thank you for doing this how can i help you what can i do for you verse 16 he's talking to his to um we talked to his servant gehazim and he said like hey she doesn't have a son her husband's older and she doesn't want she doesn't have a son she doesn't have a child so he makes this promise to her in verse 16 and he said about the season according to the time of life thou shalt embrace a son and she said nay my lord thou man of god do not lie unto thine handmaid she's like don't lie to me because she's gone this long hasn't had a child right and and does it she's like don't mess with me right i don't want to hear this because how can you give me a son right but of course he wasn't lying he was blessing her verse 17 says and the woman conceived and bear a son at that season that elijah had said unto her according to the time of life and when the child was grown it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers and he said unto his father my head my head and he said to a lad carry him to his mother and when he had taken him and brought him to his mother he sat on her knees till noon and then died so now this child she didn't ask for him but he blessed her with her anyways he grows up a little bit he's still not i don't think he's very old at this time he's grown up a little bit though obviously able to speak and go out maybe help his dad in the field and he dies he dies really young here and of course she decides to go get elijah and see what he can do and verse number 30 if you want to jump down to verse number 30 and this is relevant especially with last week's sermon as well about getting the double portion it says the mother of the child said as the lord liveth and as thy soul liveth i will not leave thee and he arose and followed her so her dedication her commitment to the man of god also she's steadfast saying hey look i'm not gonna leave you like no i'm in this and remember that's what elijah said to elijah hey i'm not gonna leave you as the lord liveth i will not leave thee and that's also what ruth had said to her mother-in-law to naomi nope not gonna leave you i'm with you and now she's saying hey look i'm not gonna leave you she's invested she needs to she wants her son healed she wants that um the power of god in her life so she says i'm not gonna leave you and he arose and followed her verse 31 and gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child but there was neither voice nor hearing wherefore he went again to meet him and told him saying the child is not awake and when elijah was come into the house behold the child was dead and laid upon his bed and like when the narrator of the bible here like we're just reading this and there's just a third person there's a narrator says the child was dead the child was dead is that like the child looked like he was dead it's not like the child was alive barely breathing or anything like the child was dead literally dead and laid upon his bed verse 33 he went in therefore and shut the door upon them twain and prayed unto the lord and he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands and he stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm so we see here now look i wish i could tell you that i know what all the symbolic references is of this i've thought about it quite a bit and i just don't know but what he does is he puts you know his hands on his hands his face kind of covering his face and he puts that child head to head hand to hand you know face to face right over that child and then you know he feels the child start to warm he gets up he walks back and forth kind of paces back in the house verse 35 says then he returned walked in the house to and fro and went up and stretched himself upon him and the child sneezed seven times and the child opened his eyes now look this isn't there one day if i figure it out if god opens up my understanding i'll preach on it okay but for now i don't know what the significance is seven is a really important number in the scriptures it comes up has significance for sure but here of course the child is brought back to life and he called Gehazi and said call this eunamite so he called her and when she was coming unto him he said verse 35 the bible says women receive their dead raised to life again and this is in the faith chapter the hall of faith of all these great stories that happened because people had great faith and this woman this eunami woman had great faith in order what does she do when she finds out that her child's dead she goes straight to the man of god and not just that she wanted her to have this child and now her child's dead and instead of getting angry getting bitter yelling at god blaming god why would you do this to me I wouldn't have even wanted a child you're gonna have him die so young you know as many people might do what did she do she went straight to the man of god said hey I'm not gonna leave you please come and help she turned to the lord and then he comes in and he's able to again through the power of the lord he prayed unto god and brought this child back from the dead and this is a great theme of these miracles we see with elisha is bringing life back from the dead and of course that's also symbolic and also all these people are performing like these same miracles jesus brought uh... lazarus back from the dead and we're gonna see in the next one to jump down to verse number thirty eight in chapter four uh... jesus healed people jesus fed people and we're gonna get into the feeding part now to see in all of these verse number thirty eight and elisha came again to gilgal and there was a dearth in the land and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him and he said unto his servants set on the great pot and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets so he's hanging out with the sons of the prophets there seems to be a lot of time elisha is spending with these guys and um to get this great pot together we're gonna make some food we're all gonna eat and one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full and came and shred them into the pot of pottage for they knew them not so he goes out and finds this gourd and it's growing on let's throw this into the pot and they chop it up they're making this big soup and and he's like oh man look at all this food we're hungry right they're hungry they're looking for something to eat great these gourds we'll eat these gourds they didn't know what they were not a good idea by the way too and this is just a little and i'm not a cook okay but a little cooking lesson mushrooms great example some are good some are not if you don't know what it is don't just go like hey cool mushrooms let's just throw this in for like our church potluck meal that everyone's gonna eat from you gotta do that at home be my guest but you're gonna make a meal that everyone's gonna partake in be like wait what does this taste like what is this what is this gonna do i don't know because what happens when food's ready come and get it right they start serving out the food and it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage that they cried out and said oh thou man of god there is death in the pot and the last thing you want someone saying when you feed them a meal is that there's death in the pot right that's that's not a compliment to the chef at all like this is gonna kill me like i know kids don't like eating into this pot there's death in the pot they could not eat thereof now i believe that this probably was like some poisonous gourd some poisonous plant like that's why they said there's actually there's death in the pot it wasn't just that it tasted really bad but they were just like we can't eat this and then you know in a soup it just ruins all of it it's not like you could be you know it's like when you put pineapple on a pizza you can't just pick it off it just soaks in to everything else like you just you just can't do that there i said it it's an abomination okay you're ruining the pie okay but seriously now so so they go to elijah and like it's like we're pooling our resources there's there's a industry that says you know we're pooling our resources there's a darth in the land and without going to eat this food and now we can't eat any of it but he said then bring meal and he cast it into the hot and he said pull out for the people that they may eat and there, was no harm in the pot so here is able And they don't even know about it, but it's just gonna bring them death There's there's you know so many things that this could could symbolize you think about you know how about just going out just finding some Strange gods some false gods some other they like hey, here's something this looks kind of neat Here's some religion that looks kind of neat. Here's some false god. Here's some idol. Here's some oh, this is pretty cool We see that happening over and over again at least with the children of Israel Going out and experimenting and don't think that this can't happen today Someone goes on some trip some kid goes out to Thailand or goes out to some some Asian You know or Indian or whatever just goes out somewhere else in the world and goes wow check out this temple Hey check out. This is pretty cool. I Like that and we were out soloing today, and there's some little garden. There's this cool little garden And they just have this little Buddha statue in there. It's like. Oh, there's that nice Zen garden or whatever and People think that stuff is cool and like oh wow that's that's neat. Well. What do you know about that? Well not really anything? Not that much. I don't know Well, it could be pretty dangerous You know when you when you start bringing in these idols or get into some other false religion or something That's that can't save some other god that can't save Literally, then you want to serve that up to people We death But a little meal a little manna some of the bread of God will You know bring forth that salvation and bring forth that life So don't be messing with stuff if you don't even know anything about it It could be very very dangerous, let's keep reading here verse number 42 There's a lot of miracles that he performs remember He got the double portion of the spirit of Elijah, so we see even more miracles being done by Elisha Verse 42 and there came a man from Baal Shelisha and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits 20 loaves of barley and full ears of corn in the husk thereof And he said give unto the people that they may eat and his servitor said What should I set this before and hundred men? He said again give the people that they may eat for thus saith the Lord they shall eat and Shall leave there of so he said it before them and they did eat And let there of according the word of the Lord and this is just like the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand With Jesus Christ in the New Testament now It's not on the same scale because he's saying he's talking about setting it before a hundred men But it's only 20 loaves Here of barley is what it says. There's 20 loaves and some corn. We don't know exactly how much Someone else brings it in just like there's a child that came in a New Testament It was just offering up his his five loaves and two fishes, right? And just like oh, yeah Here's what we have and they give it unto the man of God and you know What God is able to then provide and provide meat for everyone so much that they're not even still hungry They're fully satisfied and there's leftovers and again The great symbolic references here as much as you can apply to the feeding of the five thousand four thousand can be applied here, too And this is real similar to the oil that was being poured out Hey, you want it you want to? You want to be fed by God God's got plenty for you God has enough God has enough to satisfy and You won't be wanting you won't be needing anything more. He can satisfy you completely The bread of God the bread of life. Are you Jesus is the bread of life? Hey, all you need is that bread and then you'll never hunger again. Like Jesus said to the woman at the well Hey, if you drink of this water, you're never gonna thirst you eat of this bread. You're never gonna hunger You'll have exactly everything that you need and you know What the fact that there's leftovers means all the other people that chose not to come there still would have been enough for them to Because the Lord's not willing that any should perish but they all should come to repentance God wants everyone to have life. God wants everyone to be fed at his table and there was enough for everyone It's not it's not like sometimes when I'd miss plan or miscalculate going like, okay guys, let's make sure everyone gets some Try to eat too much yet. Let's make sure there's enough to go around. That's not the case with God He knows exactly how much he needs and he has more than enough for everybody and God is able to provide God is able satisfied. Let's go to chapter 5 2nd Kings chapter 5 verse number 8 Verse number 8 it was so when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes That he sent to the king saying wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes Let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. This is when Naaman the Syrian so there's a this guy in another country is a captain of the host. He's a Syrian He was a leper. So he suffered from leprosy had this disease, right? Very serious disease and This there's this little maid that they had as a servant of the Hebrews and She was just like hey You know, if you were in Israel, there's a man there that would be able to heal you There's talking about Elisha that he had this great power of God. He was able to heal so the king of Syria sends this letter the king of Israel and he's like Sending these gifts and stuff. He's like, hey, I'm sending them in to get healed the Kings like He's trying to pick a fight with me like we back in my god I can't heal people like I don't have this power to heal lepers and Then Elisha finds out about it and he's like Why are you ending your clothes like send them to me? You know and then they'll know that there is a prophet in Israel and that you know God is real and God's gonna get the glory for this Verse 9 so Naaman Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha and Elisha sent a Messenger unto him saying go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean But Naaman was wroth and went away and said behold I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call the name of the Lord is God and Strike his hand over the place and recover the leper and this is the problem when people want to be cleansed when people need Healing that they have their own thoughts in their own way that they think the healings gonna come There's so many people that their mind. Well, no, no, no, that's not how salvation works No, you I think that it should happen like this and I think that you know, it's like but you're wrong You're still not healed Naaman you're still a leper So you think that he's gonna come and he's gonna put on this big show and he's gonna call on God And he's gonna slam down his hand and there's gonna be this great experience and then you're gonna receive this great He was like that's not how it works That's not how God's gonna hear you So whatever it is that you have you know in your mind and unfortunately a lot of times people have things built up in their Mind and how things ought to be or how they think things should be and it prevents them from actually just receiving the truth Cuz actually the truth is a lot simpler than that And notice like Elisha didn't even go out to him. He sends a messenger and You know for a humble man That's not a problem but for a proud man, that's a big deal Like you couldn't even you couldn't even come out to meet me Right Naaman and look he's the captain of the host. I mean, this is like the general I mean, this is this is a pretty high up guy From Syria that's coming to meet with Elisha. Elisha is just like yeah, I'll just send my messenger Yeah, yeah, here's what you got to do But it doesn't matter If it comes to you know from Elisha or whatever this messenger brings it It's just like the way we receive our healing We don't have to receive it directly from Jesus Christ and so I for me to be saved. I just I think Jesus should just show up right here and He's gonna have this personal experience with me and I'm gonna you know, he's gonna tell me he's gonna hold my hand He's gonna do whatever. No, there's a messenger that he'll send to you In the form of some humble servant That's just gonna go and do the bidding of Jesus Christ and they're gonna tell you the message of how to be saved They're gonna tell you how to be healed. They're gonna deliver the message of oh, hey, by the way Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's all you got to do. It's that simple. Look Here's the good word. Here's a good news. We're just the messengers. We're ambassadors. We're representing Christ That's what Elisha did the man of God he sent a messenger He sent someone else this guy's thinking well No, I need to have this big experience and some people are thinking well in order to be said I don't know. I didn't have this big experience. I need to see God. I need to have this or that happen No, you don't No, you don't you need to receive the truth. You need to receive the message that God's giving you and then you could be healed So He thinks it's gonna be this great thing And then he says this over summer 12 are not a banner and far power rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel Wait, these rivers are better than this stupid Jordan This you know this other real this this dirty river this this river like like we've got way better rivers Your rivers can't heal You might have your fancy gods. You might have your fancy temples You might have all your fancy stuff. It might look real pretty and real ornate and real nice, but guess what they can't heal What were they they didn't hear of your leprosy did they know because there's a God in Israel There's a prophet in Israel They serve the true God these other nations that had other gods had false gods that can't save they can't do anything They're dumb idols. They can't speak they can't do anything So No, you can't just go in these other rivers and wash and it's not because the Jordan rivers Magical it's not because it had special minerals and properties that healed lepers Because it didn't because there were plenty of other lepers in Israel That probably did even after hearing about this. They probably did go. Okay. I'm gonna go dip seven times into the river and See if I would be healed and I doubt that happened But here we see Naman is being told here's what you need to do. So he's like well can't I just washing them and be clean? So we turned to one way it went away in a rain. He got angry It's like he's getting angry at the message. He went to get healed. He heard here's the okay Here's what you need. You are be healed. You can be healed Here's what you need to do and then he gets angry It's no different than people who get angry When we preach the gospel And you just tell them how easy it dog. It's not that easy I don't know you you mean to tell me That's someone who does this in an accident and then they believe all of a sudden they're gonna get saved No, no way That's out there But the message is true You get angry you take it or leave it you leave it you're still not cleanse you're still not healed you still got a problem Get cleansed Verse 13 and his servants came near and space So now his servants who have a little bit more humility are gonna talk some sense in him They speak and said my father if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing What is thou not have done it like if he told you you need to go climb up to this mountain and do this and do you like some really hard thing it's like Wouldn't you have done that? And yeah, I mean he doesn't want to be a leper anymore So if he had made it like really difficult he's thinking like well Yeah, you would how much rather when he said to thee wash and be clean like Why would you have done some great thing some hard thing? But when he says Washington, why don't you just wash and be clean then like that's so easy It's kind of like you know, people want to make salvation so hard And they're willing to try to do that. Well, no, I'm just gonna keep working. I'm just gonna keep trying I'm gonna keep on trying to keep the commandments and I'm gonna keep on looking to the law of God I'm just gonna keep on trying to do my best You're willing to do that Instead of just going yeah, but but what's the truth? Hey, you're never gonna be cleansed Because you're still a sinner What you're gonna find if you want to keep on trying to keep the law in order to be saved is you're gonna keep failing Because you're a sinner because you need to just be cleansed By the one that can provide the cleansing by the only one that can actually heal you Because you can't heal yourself. You're in the condition and the conditions only gonna get worse We're sinners You need to go to the great physician you need to go to the one that can provide the healing for you and it is just as simple as Going down the river and getting washed It's just as simple as walking through a door. It's just as simple as taking a bite of bread Taking a drink of water Because all it is is putting your faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ trust in what he did Trust in him to be your Savior and you will be healed. You will be cleansed That covers you completely But I thought it should be harder than no, but you know what? It doesn't matter what you think because God made it this way. This is the truth Salvation's by grace through faith in Jesus Christ Verse 14 then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God Look at that and his flesh came again like under the flesh of a little child and he was clean That's it. It's all took He did it and it worked Hey, oh Jesus also healed some lepers as well Ten of them remember the story They wanted to be healed they came to Jesus and he said be thou clean And then they left and only whereas it went on the way they were healed and only one of them turned around to thank him And people who believe in this works out that they must not have really been saved. They're all healed Just cuz one returned to like give respect and give regard and thank Jesus Doesn't mean the other ones weren't healed they're all healed Let's go on move on to the next I Include this as a miracle because it's supernatural But this is a little bit of an exception to the you know, he's bringing he's bringing good. He's bringing life He's bringing healing right? He's essentially bringing salvation in all these miracles. He's saving people in one regard or another through all the things that he does but here with with Gehazi And because I'm trying to be thorough and go through all these miracles. We'll read this one to verse 26 and he said unto him What not mine heart with thee when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee Is it a time to receive money and to receive garments and olive yards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and men servants and maid Servants the leprosy therefore of naman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed Forever and he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow. So what happened was A Man wanted to reward or pay the man of God for receiving The cleansing for receiving the healing and they and and Elisha refused. He says nope No charge no money Nothing. Why because salvation is free You don't have to pay anything For it all and he's just making it clear and making it known. This is the gift of God there is no Reimbursement, there's no payment. There's nothing you have to give But get his eye is a little greedy and he doesn't like the fact that this rich Syrian comes down and he's able to get away scot-free and doesn't have to pay anything And he's like, you know what? I'm gonna go and he lies to him and says oh, yeah My master said can you do a spare? You know a couple towns of silver and change of garments because we got some people that showed up They just showed up and they need some help So he lies to him Doesn't say anything Elisha Elisha knows what happened and he's like, hey, where'd you go? He's like I didn't go anywhere And that's what we just read here He's like look. It's not a time to receive money Now you're cursed right you think that You know, he's screwed up this symbol. He's screwed up this picture By now receiving this money and he says guess what you can have that curse now You think that that cleansing can come with a payment? Nope. Now you're cursed You are not cleansed if you think that there's any work or payment involved in your cleansing or in anybody's cleansing for that matter So more symbolism there, let's go to chapter 6 Chapter 6 verse number 4 And we're almost done Verse number 4 so he went with them and when they came to Jordan they cut down wood But as one was felling a beam the axe head fell into the water and he cried and said the last master for it was borrowed and the man of God said where fell it and he showed him the place and he cut down a stick and cast it into There and the iron did swim So this is kind of something that's right here and be like why is this even in here right it is a story They're going and they need to need some wood because they're gonna build a house and this guy's just using an axe He's cutting down some wood and the accent falls off and it falls in the water and he's like It wasn't mine For my neighbor like this other guy It's not even mine and now and now it's I don't even know what is it fell in the water like What am I gonna do? I? Can't pay this back, right so Elisha throws a stick in the water and then and then the the Axe head the iron comes up to the top, right? It just rises up so he's able to grab it and cool or he's all he's all taken care of now but Thing about this. What does he throw in a stick and then what happens after that it rises up? So here to me is a picture of the resurrection of Christ, right? He Was died and buried right and the sinking down like Jesus's soul going to hell but then being resurrected again from the dead and Making everything right right like he's made whole he's made right even with other people Where now it's and it's kind of like a debt that he would have for this person Hey, the debts wiped clean because of this Resurrection of the axe head that he's able to give back to The guy he borrowed it from right. So just just really cool stuff when we look at this jump down to verse number 17 So this is when So Elisha had been warning the king of Israel like where his enemies were going to attack him and He kept on telling him and warning him so This this other king of who was it? Was it the Assyrians maybe I forget which army it was that were around them and You Know the the Kings like hey who's telling who's who's the snitch who's telling the king of Israel where I'm gonna be? and they're like no one is it's Elisha's fault, so then they go to try to find Elisha and they surround him and verse number 17 the Bible says Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray thee open his eyes that he may see Because his servant freaks out and Elisha is just like no, we're good There's more with us than be with them So He just prays that God would open up eyes of a servant and the Lord opened his open the eyes of a young man And he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha The Elisha is a man of God. He's following God's will he's doing what God would have him to do and what does God provide his protection and You know, we got to realize that too when you decide to just serve God with your life You serve the Lord He has work for you to do And he's gonna make sure that you get the work done that he wants you to do so there are Angels, they're real the Bible talks about him. We see a story about them right here and Elisha knew they were there. I Don't think that he had to physically see them I doubt he actually did but he wanted to make sure that his servant knew because Elisha was just full of faith He knew that God was there with him. He knew that he was being offended He's like, you know what? There's more here with us than with them But he prays to God and asked God. Hey open up his eyes so Another miracle where this guy is actually able to see these angelic beings that we can't normally see and he sees how They're completely surrounded and being protected by these creatures by these chariots and Verse 18 says that when they came down to him Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said smite this people I pray thee with blindness and He smote them with blindness according the word of Elisha Elisha said unto them This is not the way neither is this the city follow me and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek But he led them to Samaria and it came to pass when they were come into Samaria that Elisha said Lord open the eyes of these men that they may see and the Lord opened their eyes and they saw and behold They were in the midst of Samaria, so he brings them to the capital city where you know, they're looking to destroy Elisha. He's like wait Yeah, I just got here. I'll take I'll take you where you need to go after they've been blinded and He leads them to the way, but he leads them to Israel he leads them to You know God's people and their eyes are opened and then they realize they're not in the position of power that they thought they were in and Then the king of Israel, of course wants to kill him is like hey, what should we do should kill him? And Elijah's like no Feed them be good to them and send them away just like you would if they were prisoner of war Some other way which by the way, you know the United States could probably learn from this How you treat your prisoners of war? You know, you don't torture them and and do all these just Horrible things to people that you that you capture in war you ought to just take care of them and send them back There's no You know no reason to do these other things I mean, this is this is and when you look to the Bible for your final authority and things Show me where there's a man of God torturing someone Show me where there's someone doing that in Scripture anywhere and I can show you where we have Prisoners and people who are taken captive and they're treated well Last place chapter 13 There's more I could go on chapter 6 I'm not gonna go further on that I've preached on this story in the past quite a bit and we're kind of out of time here But this is this is the last one This is the last miracle and this miracle happens after Elisha passes away after Elisha dies And this is just kind of a culmination of all these miracles Verse number 20 chapter 13 The Bible says and Elisha died and they buried him and the bands of the Moabites Invaded the land at the coming in of the year and it came to pass as they were burying a man that behold They spied a band of men. So the Moabites were invading Elisha has been dead He's in the sepulcher and they have this other guy that died that they need to take care of But now they're in a hurry Because they see this other troop these other soldiers coming in and advancing and they're under this thread to go Oh, no, we don't have time for this So we got to deal with this body really quickly It says and it came to pass in verse 21 as they were burying a man Behold, they spied a band of men and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha It was like well We'll just throw him in this sepulcher where Elisha is and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha He revived and stood up on his feet life from the dead Just in coming into contact there with the man of God Brought back to life and I would say that's also symbolic of coming into contact with Jesus, right? Jesus touches you Jesus is there Jesus heals right you go to the the the cross of Christ and He could bring you back to life. We're dead in our sins and He can revive you and he can heal you and even the resurrection right there's the hope of the resurrection Just as Christ resurrected from the dead our dead bodies will Come back to life and we'll be reunited when our spirit and our soul separate from our body and our death We'll be brought back together one day when Jesus comes back with them. So lots of cool miracles I hope maybe you learned something or saw some some extra symbolism there There's a lot to this don't just read over these passages, you know, look at them study them out They're they're fun. It's it's cool to just kind of dig into all this stuff and you can see all these various references and underlying meanings and truths Built in and packed into these great miracles and it just helped us understand that much more you know not that these aren't just Stories for fun in the Bible. They're not just stories to me. Oh, that's kind of interesting But obviously the miracles show the power of God or what God that nothing is too hard for the Lord God's capable of everything but also just the great foundational fundamental truths of salvation especially Are just packed into so many of these stories it's like God really really wants to drive the message home of how to be saved and It's it's it's built in to like every part of the Bible So where I mean this the message is there no matter how many ways you try to unravel it Hey salvation is a free gift salvation. It provides full healing All your debt is covered all of your your illness and sickness and anything you have is completely Washed away wiped clean the leper skin became like baby soft skin that you know Perfect, the the debt completely paid and then some you're fed You're satisfied you have everything you need and it's all for free and it's all Bought and paid for by the Lord and it's available to you. Just Put your faith in Christ That's it Great message much better than this morning's let's say that's my words that were prayer to Heavenly Father Thank you so much for the free gift of salvation We thank you for these great miracles by these men of God that trusted you and served you dear Lord, and we thank you for Recording all these events and and delivering them for us here unadulterated today in 2024 that we could still learn from them. Please open up our eyes. We continue to read the scriptures and help us to see More of the truths that you have packed in there for us to learn and God guide us Help us help us to reach the lost Help us to reach the sick that need Healing from the great physician dear Lord We love you. Please. Keep us safe as we go our separate ways this evening in Jesus name. We pray. Amen All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed who is Brother will come on up and lead us, please Oh Oh Oh Oh You