2 Kings 5:1-17
1The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories. But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.
2 At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. 3 One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”
4 So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. 5 “Go and visit the prophet,” the king of Aram told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter to the king of Israel said: “With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”
7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and said, “Am I God, that I can give life and take it away? Why is this man asking me to heal someone with leprosy? I can see that he’s just trying to pick a fight with me.”
8 But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel.”
9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”
11 But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! 12 Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
13 But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” 14 So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!
15 Then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”
16 But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts.” And though Naaman urged him to take the gift, Elisha refused.
17 Then Naaman said, “All right, but please allow me to load two of my mules with earth from this place, and I will take it back home with me. From now on I will never again offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to any other god except the Lord.
Introduction
There are a lot of different reasons
to come to church. Some people come to
church to find fellowship with other people.
Some people come to church because their parents or their spouses make
them! Some people come to church out of
habit because it just seems like the right thing to do. Going to church has become way of life for some
Americans—people’s parents attended church and it has just became ingrained in
some people that Sunday is not complete without a morning trip to church. That way of life is fading for many; church
attendance is down for every Christian denomination across America compared to
past decades. Going to church has to be
about more than just tradition or else what’s the point? That’s why so many have stopped coming.
I hope you come to church because
you want to encounter the living God. I
hope you came to church this morning expecting to hear a word from God. Do you think about what you expect to happen
at church when you are at home brushing your teeth and fixing your hair and
getting dressed? Do you think to
yourself, “Today I am going to encounter the Living God. I wonder how that’s going to change me?” For if you truly encounter God, something is
definitely going to happen.
What if as you are worshiping here
today, you hear God speaking to you as clearly as you hear me speaking to you? What if there’s no doubt at all in your heart
that it was indeed God’s voice you heard?
What if He asked you to go on an amazing quest—something spectacular,
something glorious and yet also treacherously dangerous that might even cost
you your life? Would you do it?
In the early centuries of the
church, Christians were heavily persecuted.
Many of them lost their lives and became martyrs because of there
faith. Even today, in some countries,
Christians are severely persecuted and loose their lives simply because they
believe that Christ is their Lord and Savior.
But sometimes I think it might be easier to die for your faith than it is to live for your faith. Now death seems frightening and dreadful; but
if we die, the struggle is over and (if we believe in Christ) we go home to
paradise with God where there is no more pain and no more tears. But to live
for your faith requires you to be willing to die a little every day. To live for your faith requires that you
suffer a lifetime of deaths as we die to our own sinful desires and are reborn
in the Spirit. To live for your faith
requires that you grow old and watch your friends and family die while your own
body slowly breaks down. Yet this is the
quest that God gives most of us—not to become martyrs, but to take up our cross
daily and follow Christ.
A Girl I’ll Call Kayla
This is the life of the young servant girl in our
Old Testament reading from 2 Kings 5.
Unfortunately, we don’t even know girl’s name and it seems wrong to talk
about her story without knowing her name so I’m going to take the liberty of
calling her Kayla. Kayla was kidnapped
from her family and forced to live her life among her enemies in a foreign land
as a humble maid to her capture’s wife. Some
might think it better to die than to live such a life of humility and
suffering. Yet Kayla bore the suffering
and even helped her master. When she
hears Naaman—her master and the commander of the raiding party that kidnapped
her—is suffering from leprosy, Kayla suggests a way that he can be healed. She already understood the words Jesus would
speak hundreds of years later, “Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you.” So Kayla suggests that
Naaman go see the prophet Elisha.
Naaman
Who was this guy Naaman? Naaman was a mighty warrior—the commander of
the Aramean army (the Arameans were the enemies of God's people, the Israelites). When Naaman led an
army into battle, his army was victorious.
I imagine everyone admired Naaman—he was successful, wealthy, powerful,
and popular. I bet he was even good
lookin’! The Bible says even the king of
Aram admired Naaman (and when the king admires you, you must be pretty
admirable—at least by worldly standards).
Naaman achieved a lot in his life. He was proud of his achievements too. He expected respect wherever he went—whether
it was by kings or prophets. Naaman felt
he deserved respect. I mean, look at all
he had accomplished! Doesn’t a man of
Naaman’s stature deserve respect? Yet
for all his accomplishments, Naaman was really just a rotting corpse waiting to
die from leprosy.
So what’s a man of Naaman’s fame to
do—just lay down and accept death?
Absolutely not! No, Naaman would
proudly fight it to the end. He would go
to the ends of the earth if he had to.
He would climb the highest mountains.
He would seek the most skilled physicians and the most powerful prophets
if that’s what it took. He would face
this disease with the same heroic pride and dignity he’d faced his enemies in
battle.
Yes, Naaman was a man worthy of this world’s
respect. And he insisted on being
afforded the dignity he deserved. And so
he secured a personal letter of introduction from the king of Aram
Yet when he arrives at Elisha’s
house, the prophet won’t even come out and talk to him. Instead, he indifferently sends out a lowly
messenger to instruct Naaman. “Surely,”
Naaman must have thought to himself, “Elijah will come out and perform some
elaborate healing ceremony. He will
chant and wave his arms and anoint me with the most expensive oil he owns. And surely he will ask or even demand that
his God heal me. Doesn’t he know who I
am?”
But Elisha instead sends a mere
messenger to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan
River. This is an insult to a great man
like Naaman. The Jordan River was just a
muddy creek compared to the majestic rivers of Naaman’s own country. How could such a puny, insignificant river have any type of
healing effect on such a great man as Naaman?
Naaman probably thought Elisha was just blowing him off. And so he stormed away in conceited rage.
A True Miracle
We, like Naaman, expect dramatic
miracles from God, but we look right past the miracles that He performs
everyday—miracles of natural healing, miracles of mercy on our sins, miracles
of the natural laws of nature. Do you
know that right here in this sanctuary, in the air that you just inhaled, that
there is enough germs and bacteria to kill you.
However, by God’s natural design, we have an immune system that can
fight off these diseases that would normally kill us. Yet do we thank God for this miracle? No.
Most of the time, we aren’t even aware of it. We only see dramatic cures from cancer and
miraculous recoveries from near fatal accidents as miracles and we take the
more common miracles for granted—even though God is at work in them all the time.
In a similar way as Naaman, we
often look for God to ask us to do something grand to earn His mercy, but we
hesitate to do the little things God asks of us every day. Luckily for Naaman, his officers reasoned
with him and convinced him to give Elisha’s cure a try. And when Naaman washed in the Jordan seven
times, God healed Naaman’s leprosy just as Elisha said.
You Can’t Impress God
I believe God healed Naaman of another disease that
day too—the disease of thinking he was good enough to impress God. Finally, God broke through Naaman’s armor of
overachievement and showed him you can’t do anything to win God’s favor. You can’t impress Him with all your trophies
and accomplishments. You may impress
people, but you can’t impress God.
Who are you trying to impress with your life? If you are trying to impress people then you
may succeed, but to what end—it’s all in vain.
But if you decide instead that you will try to impress God—the one who
really matters—and if you consider even a fraction of who God is, you are faced
with the devastating fact that you can’t even begin to make a minor
impression on God. He is the one who
scooped out the valleys, filled the oceans with water, and built up the
mountains. To Him, all your glorious
triumphs, all your great victories, all the admirations of your friends,
family, and colleagues are but child’s play.
And when you realize that, you are finally at a place when you are able
to fall down on your knees before God and say—“Lord, I am utterly
helpless! Save me Lord! Save me!”
And that’s what Naaman, the overachiever, finally realized. And that’s why he said in verse 15, “I know at last that there is no God in all the world
except in Israel
Sometimes we need to be reminded, like Naaman, that
no matter what accomplishments and achievements we have, what it all boils down
to is we’re all just the same—a bunch of rotten, leprous corpses waiting to
die because of sin. And the only thing that stands
between us and death is the mercy and grace of God. He has the cure. And we don’t have to and we can’t do anything
grand enough to earn the cure. We don’t
have to climb the highest mountain. We
don’t have to be martyred for our faith.
We only have to realize that there is only one God in this world and He
is the only one who can save us. And we
have to trust Him and ask Him to save us.
Tell the World
Today, you have the opportunity to
do just that. You have the opportunity
to fall down on your knees and cry out to God, “Lord, I am utterly
helpless! Save me Lord! Save me!”
For all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
There are some right here in this
sanctuary who have not yet come to Christ; for you, today could be the
day. And there are a multitude of others
out there in the world who have not yet come to Christ. And for those of us who have already cried
out to the Lord for salvation, we hear God’s specific message to us today in Romans
10:13 -14 - 13For “Anyone who
calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 But how can
they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they
believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about
him unless someone tells them?
So, if you already believe in Jesus Christ, God wants me to give you this message: God is sending you to tell the everyone that
there is hope and healing through Jesus Christ.
Go tell the world.
And if you have not yet give your life completely to God through Jesus Christ, God has this message for you today: Today is the day. Don't put it off any longer. Decide today who you will serve--whether it will be the empty and useless and petty idols of this world--money, fame, power, prestige, things, drugs, alcohol, sex... Or will you realize these cannot save you and you cannot save yourself. Turn to God through faith in Jesus. He died on the cross for your sins. He rose from the grave to conquer death. He offers forgiveness and everlasting life. And Jesus will give true meaning to your life. So decide today to worship him and him alone. Do not spend one more minute of your life sacrificing to any other god.
