We Have a Window in Heaven

How you doing.

Yeah, there's the people who talked from the people who didn't.

It's understandable. I mean, if this whole service up till

now has been an indication you and I no matter

where we come from, no matter for Christian or not,

we're all like looking for some good news.

Right.

Question isn't really about whether we're looking for good news

or not. It's where we were going to figure out

what the good news is and whether we could trust

it or not. This especially true today. I don't know

if you know much about artificial intelligence, but the crazy

thing about AI is that it is a terrible source

of authority.

Twenty twenty five.

Just last year, a lawyer in the state of California

was fined ten thousand dollars. It's not the only case.

These cases keep stacking. This one's just particularly interesting because

why did you get fined ten thousand dollars? Well, because

twenty one of his twenty three quotes in his opening

statement we're found to be fake. Where'd he get those

fake quotes that he used with all kinds of authority?

Simple from AI? And thank god the judge was like,

uh yeah, no, somebody's very state in the courts and

halls of justice depending on a human who used AI

just make a bunch of stuff up. Now, you got

to know that like AI does this continually. The weird

thing about AI, and this is not a lecture on AI.

This is just short ted talk before we get started,

just kidding. One of the crazy things that we found

is how much we are willing to grant authority to

whatever the machine smits back at us. And while it

can be helpful to determine, for example, who the best

pickleball player is in the world, it can't really help

us solve a lot of complicated questions, you know, like

is there a God? And if so, does he have

anything to do with us? And if so, do we

have any access to him? As weird text buried here

in the middle of what I am sure is all

of your favorite book Seven Kings, has an answer to

that question. It's going to tell us that we've got

a window in heaven. But it's going to do it

in one of the strangest ways possible. And you and

I are looking for some good news, so were the

people in this text. It was a wild time.

There is a great need for salvation. You just look

at it with me.

Beginning in Tewod King, chapter six, verse twenty four. Afterward,

ben Hadad, the King of Syria, mustered his entire army

and went up and besieged Samaria.

There was a great famine in Samaria, and.

They besieged it until a donkey's head sold for eight

shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a cab

of dove's dung for five shekels of silver. Now, as

the King of Israel was passing by on the wall,

a woman cried out to him, saying, help my lord,

o King. And he said, if the Lord will not

help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor,

from the wine press. The king asked her, what's your trouble?

She answered, this woman said to me, give your son

that we may eat him today, and we will eat

my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and ate

him the next day. I said to her, give your

son that we made him. But she has hidden her son.

The king heard the words of the woman, he tore

his clothes. Now he's passing by on the wall. People

looked and behold he had sackcloth beneath on his body.

And he said, may God do so to me and

more also, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shafat,

remains on his shoulders today, there is a great need salvation.

I don't know what you know about the Bible. Maybe

you wrestle with like is this stuff like.

Actually real or whatever? And the answer is.

If this is any indication, yes, don't ever, if you're

a Christian, don't be scared of stuff like this, because

I think the stuff like this is what most like

quickly demonstrates how true the Bible is. Doesn't shy away

from the ugly stuff. The situation in Samaria is desperate.

Why Well, because the Syrians have come in and camped around.

It's easy.

They don't need to attack the city. They just need

to wait them out. So they are starving the city out.

How bad is the situation. I don't know how much

a donkey's head goes for in San Antonio. Well you

need to know about here is that it was going

for an absurd amount of money. If people were so

desperate that they were paying absorbitive amounts of money for

dove poop, or are they using it for Some people

are like, oh, they're eating it. Some people are like, oh,

they're burning it. I don't know what they were doing

with it. All I know is I've never said, man,

do I have enough money to buy the bird.

Poop I'm looking for?

The situation is really bad. Not only the situation bad,

but you know, king can't help. You would think if

anybody could help, it be the king.

And there's a woman. Help. She says verse twenty six,

help my lord, o king, And.

He says, in essence, what could I possibly if God

ain't helping us?

So the Lord isn't helping. But what can I do?

Should I help you?

From the threshing floor where the grain is by the

way that's empty, or the wine press nothing in there either?

What can I possibly do? He's completely lost, but he

has some compassion.

He can't do much.

He's a rather helpless king, but he does ask what's

the trouble? I wonder if he ever regretted asking the

question in verse twenty eight, what's the trouble? How bad

are things in Samaria? How desperate is the need for salvation?

Simple?

They're eating their own children, by the way, the lady's

not like we had to eat my child, that's like

a given. This is how bad the situation is. It's like, okay,

so me and this lady we made a deal. We

eat my son today, your son tomorrow. We ate my

son as if that's normal. The problem is that she's

hiding her son.

What's a king to do? Tears his garment. The writer

tells us that he's on a wall verse thirty Why

does that matter?

Because everybody can see what he has on. It's sackcloth,

which is the kind of garment they would wear in

times of mourning and distress. He's wearing the right kind

of thing, and yet the craziest thing comes out of

his mouth.

Verse thirty one, may God do so to me?

And more Also, if the head of Elisha, the son

of Schaeffat, remains on his shoulders today, what why that?

The answer comes from the story before there were.

These skirmishes with Syria, and Elisha does this crazy thing

where he goes, hey, God, show the Syrians what's up.

They see all.

These angels everywhere, and he goes, now blind them and

they're blinded, and then he, like the pied piper, like

leads the people right into Samarian goes now open their

eyes again.

Boom, their eyes are open. They're like, oh no, we

are in the wrong place, and the king goes, let's

kill him.

And Eliza goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no.

Let's make him a feast. So the king does what

he says, gives them a feast. It's right there in

the verse, right before this section. And the Syrians, it says,

right before we get tar text did not come again

on raids into the land of Israel. Happily ever after

seems great. Who knows how long the peace lasted. But

verse twenty four begins afterward the king goes, now, let's

go get them from Syria. We went from bad to worse.

It's Elisha's fault. We could have taken them out back.

Then Elija said, no, I'm gonna kill Elisha.

I can't do anything about the situation, so I'll do

what I can.

Maybe I can't fix the Syrian problem, but I can

kill the man who's responsible.

Well, you might be like that sounds like a crazy king.

It is also are you really all that different.

I can't fix the world, but I can beat you up.

I can't fix the world, but I can yell at

my kids. I can't fix the world, but I can.

Steal from my job. You see, you and I aren't

that different.

The only difference is you ain't got enough power to

direct the world.

Neither do I. The King does know. Let's go get Elisha.

There's a crazy need for salvation, not only for the

people in the text, but for the people who got

the text, he says. Booking First and the Second Kings

is all about answering this crazy question, how did.

We get here? Where's here exile?

How did we end up on the edge of nowhere,

conquered by a foreign nation?

And this book is the answer.

It's like, oh, you had terrible leaders, and y'all were

terrible yourself. It started well, high Peak of Israel, First Kings,

Chapter ten Solomon, everything is awesome, and then it goes

off a cliff and is just a train wreck. These

people in the text needed good news. There's a great

need for salvation. The people who got the text had

a great need for salvation. It seemed like God was absent.

And in light of this great need for salvation, there's

an incredible word of salvation that comes that Elisha guy.

As the scene shuts down with the King on the wall,

his shirt torn open, Let's kill Elisha. Camera swings, and

there's Elisha giving a word of salvation. Not immediately, though,

in this desperate time of a need for salvation, the

word for salvation comes from Elisha. But at first we

just see Alisha with his elders, and he goes, guys, time.

Out, hold the door. That's what it says.

In verse thirty two, Elisha was sitting in his house

and the elders were.

Sitting with him.

Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence.

But before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders,

do you see how this murderer has sent to take

off my head? Look when the messenger comes, shut the

door and hold the door fast against him.

It's not the sound of his master's feet behind him.

And while he was still speaking with them, the messenger

came down to him and said, this trouble is from

the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?

But Elisha said, hear the word of the Lord. Thus

says the Lord, tomorrow about this time a sea a

fine flower shall be sold for a shekel, and two

seas of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.

Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned, said

to the man of God, if the Lord himself should

make a window in heaven, could this thing be? But

he said, you will see it with your own eyes,

but you shall not eat of it.

Hold the door. Hold the door.

You imagine being one of the elders and being like, why, oh,

there's an assassin coming.

Take off my head, Elisha, how do you know that.

Don't worry about it, just hold the door. Sure enough,

big bad wolf knocks on the door. Open up, I'm

here to cut off Elishah's head. And Elisha shouts to

the door. Uh no, it's pretty clear who's to blame

for this.

It is Elisha.

But even more than that, according to verse thirty three,

his trouble is.

From the Lord God sent it. I'm not waiting around

any longer. King sent me to kill you. Let's go

open up and a desperate need for salvation.

The word of salvation comes, and it's an interesting one.

It's all about weights and measures and how much like

wheat and stuff costs. What does all that mean? Here's

what it means. In essence, Elisha says, Hey, here's the

good news. Tomorrow, not today. Tomorrow things will be better,

not perfect, not great.

I'm not even gonna tell you how it's just gonna.

Be better, And the commander rightly at least understandably responds.

We lived in a closed universe. I don't know what

you're talking about.

There are no windows in heaven, which is weird because

he thinks God's to blame for everything. If I was Elisha,

I'd be like, make up your mind. Either God's to

blame and he has something to do with the world,

or there's no window in heaven and he's just up

there and we're down here and he can't do anything.

You pick but no, we like she says, Oh, you'll

see it, but you won't get the benefit.

Friends, do you believe that there's a god? Hope? So?

And I know some of us are like, I do

believe there's a God.

I just don't believe he has any to do with

us because I've got problems and he's not answering him.

And if you're like I can't believe there's people like that,

wait for it.

Your day's coming.

You see, we are all tempted to believe that maybe

there's a God, maybe there's not.

But is there any window in heaven?

Is there any access to him and him to access

to us, like because I don't care what I know.

I see what I see. And Elisha says, Oh, I'll

just wait till tomorrow.

It'll be better rather good news.

The question is is Elisha a good authority? The word

of salvation has come in a time desperate, time of

a needed salvation. What we end up seeing is a

wild demonstration of salvation. Seeing closes with Elisha and opens on.

Some of the weirdest characters in the entire Bible. Chapter seven,

verse three.

Now there were four men who were lepers at the

entrance to the gate, and they said to one another,

why are we sitting here until we die? If we say,

let us enter the city. The famine is in the city.

We'll die there. If we sit here, will die also.

So come on, let us go over to the camp

of the Syrians. If they spare our lives, we shall live,

and they kill us, we shall but die. So they

arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians.

When they came to the edge of the camp of

the Syrians, behold, there was no one there, for the

Lord had made the army of the Syrians.

Hear the sound of chariots and of horses, and the

sound of a great army.

So they said to one another, behold, the King of

Israel has hired against us, the king of the Hittites,

and the kings of the egypt to come against us.

So they fled away in the twilight and abandon their

tents and their horses and their donkeys, leaving the camp.

As it was, and fled for their lives.

And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp,

they went into the tent and ate and drank. And

they carried off silver and gold and clothing, and went.

And hid them.

And they came back and entered another tent, and carried

off things from it, and went and hid them.

Then they said one another, what we're doing isn't right.

This day is a day of good news.

If we are silent and wait until the morning light,

punishment will overtake us. Now, therefore, come, let us go

and tell the king's household. So they came and called

the gatekeepers of the city and told them we came

to the camp of the Syrians. And behold, there was

no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but

the horses tied the donkeys tied, and the tents were there,

and the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within

the king's household, and the king rose in the night

and said to the servants, I tell you what the

Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry.

Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide

themselves in the open country, thinking when they come out

of the city, we shall take them alive and get

into the city. One of his servants said, let some

of the men take five of the remaining horses, seeing

that those who are left here will fare like the

multitude of Israel who have already perished.

Let us send and sea.

So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them

after the army of the Syrians, saying, go and see.

So they went as far after them, as far as

the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with

garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in

their haste.

And the messengers returned.

And told the king, what a wild demonstration of salvation?

Why wild? Four lepers outside the gates? What what's a leper?

Why are they outside the gates? Lepers?

Are were anybody in this time who had like some

kind of crazy incurable skin disease. There wasn't a lot

of medicine back then. And by it not a lot,

I meant they put honey on things and prayed okay,

And so this was a quarantine situation. It's infectious and

so the only thing you could do is quarantine them.

So they're outside the gates and they have a simple conversation, Uh,

we're gonna die.

So we've got a few options. We go in the city,

but they're eating babies in there, so that's not a

good idea.

Even bird poops expensive not an option. We could stay

here and die, or we could go over to the Syrians.

What's the worst they could do? Kill us? So they

march on over to the camp of the Syrians.

And when they get there, everybody's gone. You gotta love

the way the Bible is written because essentially it forces

you to ask the question, how the heck did that happen?

And it only tells you once they know that they're gone. Oh,

here's what happened. As these four lepers are tracking across

the woods. Right by woods, I mean desert, there's walking along.

Camera swings over to the Syrians and the Syrians are like.

Yo, you hear that the crazy starving people in Samaria

have hired.

The kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt,

which makes no sense.

These people are broke, they're buying donkeys heads for bags

of cash, and yet.

It's like they're coming, we gotta go. Camera swings back

and it's just the four lepers going like, okay, let's

see what happens. They take off running, They leave everything behind.

Can you imagine being one of the lepers walking into

the camp. You're like, okay, all right, this doesn't make sense.

Everybody's gone. You go into a tent and you're like, yo,

dinner's on the table, high five in each other, just

shoving it in, taking stuff like squirrels in the fall

and hiding it and going into another one being like

more stuff, more stuff, dig the hole, and the guy's like,

I don't even fingers, so I'm not good with the shovel, right, bummer.

They get through a few tents and they're like.

Oh, we are not doing the right thing. We better

go tell the king or else we're gonna get in

trouble for this. We got good news, they say, so

they trek back. Imagine being one of the gatekeepers. You

got the early shift clalk in. You go up on

the gate and you look down and you go, where.

Where are the four stooges? And the guy goes, you're

not gonna believe this. Last night, as someone was going down,

they trecked off and went to the camp of the

Syrians and like good luck. And you're there for a while,

and all of a sudden you see four dudes limping

across the wilderness towards you.

You're like, who.

The lippers, and the leippers shout out, hey, the Syrians

are gone. Good news, questionable authority. But gatekeeper's got a job,

so he's like, all right, you wait there, turns around,

go tell the king. Apparently the Syrians are gone. They

wake up the king, and the king I think you

gotta feel some sympathy for the king. He's out of

his mind. He demonstrates that by saying, there's no way

they're playing a trick on us. They want us to

go out of the city so they can get into

the city. Can you imagine being one of the political

advisors this city. You do remember that you got sackcloth

on and there's people eating babies around here.

Who wants to get in here.

Let's at least just take some people and send them

out to go see. Thankfully, the king concedes and he goes,

all right, just go and see. And what they find

isn't just that the Syrians aren't in the camp. It's

that they ran and kept on running, chucking off everything

they took with them as they went. In a time

where there was a desperate need of salvation and a

wild word of salvation, there is this crazy demonstration of salvation.

It's pretty crazy. What do we do with it? Though?

What does it matter for us?

I wish I could tell you it was all good news,

but this wild demonstration of salvation tips over into some

sobering results of salvation. It's right here, starting in verse

sixteen and chapter seven. And the people went out and

plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a sea of

fine flower was sold for a shekel, and the tussias

of barley for a shekel, according to the word of

the Lord. Now the king had appointed the captain on

whose hand he leaned, to have charge of the gate.

The people trampled him in the gate, so that he

died as the man of God had said, when the

king came down to him four And the Man of

God had said to the King, Tu, sias of barley

shall be sold for a shekel, and see the fine

flower for a shekel.

About this time tomorrow in the Gate of Samaria.

The captain had answered the Man of God, if the

Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a

thing be? And he said, you shall see it with

your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.

And so it happened to him, But the people trampled

him in the gate, and he died. These are some

sobering results of salvation. I mean, on one hand, it's

delightful for the people. They run out and see, just

like Elisha said, he's a man who's got a wild word.

But he's a good authority because it was exactly like

he said. It wasn't perfect.

There's still enemies around, but not the Syrians and man.

While things aren't.

Perfect, it's better, just like he said. But as delightful

as it is for the people, and it ends up

being deadly for the captain. The authors decided to keep

from you a key detail until the very end of

the story. It's right there in verse seventeen. Now the

king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned.

To have charge of the gate. So what.

Well, it's through that gate that the people ran and

trampled him to death. Why tragically because he didn't believe.

In God's word through the prophet Elisha. What's this story about? Well,

what's this have to do with you and me?

I mean, it's a wild story. It's an entertaining story.

But the people who got this book, just like.

You and me, need to be reminded every once in

a while.

And the gravest of terms that are lie depend on

believing in God's word, even when that word is wild.

Friend, do you believe it? Your life depends on it.

Especially because this isn't the only word we've been given.

The crazy thing is you and I have been given

a much better word, with better promises.

What is that word?

You can find it all over, but for our purposes,

I'll just read one section from Jesus in John chapter fourteen.

You think second kings as wild, you ain't seen nothing,

Jesus tell us his followers in chapter fourteen, beginning of

verse one, Let your hearts, Let not your hearts be troubled,

believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's

house are many rooms. If it were not so, I've

told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and will take you to myself,

that where I am you may be also.

And you know the way that I am going. Thomas

said to him, Lord, we do not know where you

are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to.

Him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. In

other words, Thomas.

I get it. You think you don't know the way.

But I'm the window in heaven.

I'm the promises of God sent into the world. And

i am not only the promises of God sent into

the world. I am the promises of God that is

going back to God. I'm the window in heaven. And

he doesn't say things will be a little bit better tomorrow.

He says it'll be better than you could ever imagine.

Why should you believe Jesus.

Great news, good authority, the only reason, the only good

reason to believe in Jesus. Now, it's not because he

simply calls his shot, but.

Because he is off on it.

We know that because of one of the weirdest events.

In the Gospels.

From a group less likely than lepers, a group of

women who come to the tomb simply wanting to anoint

the body of Jesus. When they get there, though, there's

an angel there who's got a message, he goes, Oh,

you're looking for Jesus.

Yeah, he's not here.

He's risen, just as he said. You see, friends, we've

got much better news about much better promises. That we've

got a window to Heaven, that God has access to us,

and we have access to God, and our lives depend

on believing God's word, even when that word is wild.

Let's pray God, we thank you for this word, as

wild as it is.

Thank you for the promises that you've given over and

over and over again, and that you.

Have paid off on them.

And so we pray that we would believe them, that

we would believe that we have a window in heaven,

that Jesus is that window.

Help us to trust in him.

I pray for those who today are struggling to believe,

would you give them hope? And for those who do believe,

help them to continue to believe, knowing not simply that

there is a window in heaven, but that the entire

hirety of our lives depend on believing your word, even

when that word is wild.

In Jesus name, we pray Amen, Amen,