Elisha: the Man, the Myth, the Legend - Week 4

Welcome to church today. We're so glad to have you

and just so glad to be together to celebrate the

goodness of the Lord all that he's doing for us

and doing in us. I know that this message may

be finding you in preparation for a snowstorm or in

the middle of a snowstorm. But however this message finds you,

I pray that it will encourage you as we journey together.

Let us pray, Father, we do thank you, we glorify you,

we honor you, we magnify your name, and we pray,

Lord God, that you would meet us here. Holy Spirit,

Come speak, have your way, do what only you can

do in this place. To the congregation and to us individually,

those who are in this room and those who are online.

May we be transformed by your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.

As you know, this is another installment of the series

about Elisha. Elisha is the protege of Elijah and what's

so unique about his stories that he picks up where

Elijah takes off. If you would, and he asked the

Lord for a double portion of the blessing of Elijah.

And those who do research, and if you read the Bible,

you actually discover that when we look at the miracles

miracles of Elijah, that Elisha has double that portion. Both

of these prophets came and served as part of the

Northern Kingdom. And what God did in the time of

the prophets was that he would establish a prophet during

the time of a king so that the king could

always follow the covenant that had been established between God

and his people. And so prophets were not as these

are two popular prophets, but they were not popular among

the kings most times because there was a lot of

corruption that was going on. And so tonight we are

continuing this series that we have been diving into and

about this man, this myth, this legend, this man of God,

as Pastor Andrew would like to call him. This prophet

had a powerful story and always was willing to declare

the word of God. He was a steady prophet. And

so tonight we pick up in chapter seven of the

Book of Second Kings, and this is the thought I

want you to walk away with. Don't get stuck at

the gate good news in bad times. I don't know

if you've ever had a gate experience, but gates are

created either to keep people out or to keep people in.

And in my life I have seen a lot of gates,

but recently I had my own gate experience. I was

going to support one of our rising young adults who

is about to become a young adult at this summer.

This summer, he's going to be a part of the

young adult group and I'm so excited about that. But

this was his last bad performance at the Lucas Fieldhouse

the stadium, and so after Thursday night service, my wife

and I we hopped in a car and we ran

down to Lucas Filhouse because we wanted to make sure

that we saw him perform. But when we arrived, we

got there and there were gates, as you can see

in this picture, all around the Lucas Oil Stadium, and

so we're trying to figure out how do we get in?

Why are there gates up? Anyway, So we're walking around

and we see this stream of band groups going in

and people coming out, and so we started walking and

following the bands, but we discovered you can't go in

where the bands go, right, and so there was this

one door, this one lonely door that was there, and

so my wife and I we go into that door,

and there's a security team and they said, do you

have a pass? No, we don't have a pass. Not

only do we not have a pass, but we don't

have a ticket. And so we're talking to the lady

there and I said, you know, we've been around this building.

We can't find a way in. How do you get

in to see the band? I got? I got a

young man who's about to be on the stage. I

think he might even be on the stage right now,

on the field taking the field. Can we can we

get in? How do we get in? And then another

lady came in and she had a ticket, She had

more than we had, and so they they looked at

a ticket, and then somebody said, well, let's call the supervisor.

So they called the supervisor, and the supervisor says, you

know what, there yet, some gates are around the place.

Just just just let the in let her in. And

so the lady had a ticket, and so she looked

at her ticket. She said, okay, let me see your ticket.

Let me see your phone. See your ticket. The lady

shows her phone. And then the lady looks at me

and Melanie and says, can I see your phone? And

I was like, we know that have a ticket, and

she said, go right ahead. So we got in the

performance and we got to see Jace perform. And that's

him on the other side, performing his last performance and

we didn't have to pay a dime to see him.

Look at God, he didn't know that part of the story.

All he knows that we made it right. But we

almost would not have made it if we had been

held up, or we could have been stopped by the gates.

And in this passage of scripture, the city is being surrounded.

The city of Samaria is being surrounded, and what's going

on is that the an army has sieged them. And

in this siege, the goal of a siege is the

lockdown all resources. It's a form of warfare. It is

so a person doesn't have to battle with the people.

All they have to do is stop supplies from coming in.

So they surround a fortified city, They cut off food, water,

they cut off trade routes. They cause the people to

get into a state of starvation. Disease happens, internal collapse happens,

conflict happens, psychological pressure. This is all happens, and so

all of us happens without even fighting. And so they

have sieged the city, they have sieged the gates, and

there's a famine that is going on in the land.

But I want to let you know that this famine

that they were going through was not just a physical famine,

but it was also spiritual. People have fallen away from

the ways of the Lord. They had stopped doing the

things and following the covenant that had been established with

the Lord. And so Elisha had challenged them in so

many ways that hey, you got to get right. He

has shown him. He had gotten them out of wards.

He had done so many things, but now it was

time to pay the piper, and the Lord was holding

them accounting, accountable and allowing this to happen at this time.

But even in the midst of crazy times, in chaos,

God always steps up. He always shows up. So Israel

is in this space. They're starving. Cannibalism has become part

of the conversation. Actually, it's actually happening in the city.

The city is around it, and the leadership has become reactive.

They don't have a step, they don't know what they're

gonna do next, and the people have become desperate. And

yet there's a prophet in the city who is steady.

Elisha is steady. He's not panicking. The reason why he's

not panicking because he knows God. He's not bargaining for

the people with God, and he's not blaming the people

for anything. He stands flat footed in faith and declares

what God will do even when people are not ready

to hear it, when things are going bad. Sometimes people

I don't know if you've ever been in a situation

where you want to encourage somebody and when you get

ready to encourage them, their faith changes, like, Oh, don't

tell me that God's stuff right. But he said, I'm

gonna tell you what the Lord is gonna do, no

matter what's happening in your life, in your world. I

know what's going on, but this is what I am

going to declare. Even still, so, this chapter teaches us

one vital lesson. Faith doesn't wait for conditions to improve

before it speaks and moves or obeys. Faith doesn't wait.

Faith is always moving and waiting for us to move.

We must move. Yet in all of this chaos, Elijah

speaks in this time and speaks something that sounds impossible.

Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the

Lord says about this time tomorrow, a seal of flower

will sell or shekel, and two seers of barley will

sell for shekel at the Gate of Samaria. Remember this,

At the Gate of Samaria, God announces and pronounces abundance

to an unrepented people through a steady prophet. While nothing

in the environment suggests change, God will move. Even when

conditions do not change, the results don't change. The mri

comes back wrong. God will still speak truth. He still

will declare a word. But listen, the miracle that is

being declared doesn't come through the palace. It's not moved

because of an army. It does not happen because of gatekeepers.

It moves through four leopards sitting at the gate. Let's

read the chapter of Scripture just to get insight about

what's happening in Second Kings. The seventh chapter the Bible

says this, Elisha replied, hear the word of the Lord.

This is what the Lord says about this time tomorrow.

Looking at the time frame, a seal of the finest

fire will sell for a shekel, and two seas of

barley for a shekel at the Gate of Samaria. All

of this is gonna go down at the gate. The

officers on whose arm the king was leading, said to

the man of God, look, even if the Lord should

open the flood gates of heaven, could this happen? There

was doubt from this man, and the response was, you

will see it with your own eyes, answered Elisha, But

you will not eat of it. Now there were four

leopers at the entrance of the city gate. They said

to each other, why stay here until we die? If

we say we'll go into the city, the famine is

there and we will die. And if we stay here,

we will die. So let's go over to the camp

of the Aramaians and sen render. If they spare us,

we live. If they kill us, then we die. I

don't know if you noticed something. There was a death

plan in this scenario. Their options was to die, to die,

or to die. And I don't know if you've ever

been in a situation where you felt like there were

no answers and maybe everything around you seemed problematic from problematic,

But these guys were in that situation now in second Kings,

while they are at the gate. I love this because

it says now there were four men with leprosy at

the entrance of the city gate. They were at the entrance,

and I need you to understand why they were at

the entrance. They were sat outside of the camp because

of the livitical law. The levitical law required that they

be separate from the general community. They could not commune

with everyone that was living what you would call normal

life inside the city gate. The city gate functioned as

a boundary space. It was outside of the city proper,

but so near that they could still receive the resources

and support of the city. So although they were not

in the city, they still would received the resources of

the city. Let's think about the spiritual context of this.

The gate is a place of decision, not destiny. Some

of you are in this room tonight and you are

at the gate of something. Some of us are at

the gate of a major decision that we need to

decide whether we're gonna go left, or we're gonna go right,

or we're gonna stay, or we're gonna go We gotta

figure out what is the next move. And so I

wanna let you know your gate is not your destiny.

It is a place of decision. It's between where you

were and where God is taking you. It is not

a place to stay, but God is taking you somewhere.

It is a place to identify the next thing that

God is doing in your life. Too many people hear

the prophetic message and they stay parked at the gate.

There are some things that God has been telling us

for many years, things that we need to do, ways

that we need to move, and we have not moved.

We stay parked at the gate. But check these guys out,

the leopards. They face three options and one opportunity, Three

options and one opportunity. Now, I know I just said

they had a chance to die, to die, or to die.

But let's dig a little bit deeper in this passage.

And I want you to know this that many of

us in this room are facing the same decisions today.

Decision one, Stay where you you are. They said, why

stay here until we die? And I say the same

thing to you. Why stay here until we die? Why

stay in the situation that you're in until you die

in that situation till there is no hope, till you

cannot move. Well, guess what, every time you make a decision.

I don't know about you, but I like to create

a pros and a cons list. I like to decide

what's gonna be good about this decision or what's bad

about decision? So why stay here until we die? Pros

It's familiar, it's predictable, it has no risk. Sometimes people

stay because I know, I'm familiar with these chains, I'm

familiar with the situation. I'm familiar with this circumstance. I'm

familiar with my surroundings. I'm familiar. It's predictable. These leopards

were doing the same thing every day. They knew their lifestyle,

They had a way of operating outside of the gate,

so there was no risk involved with anything because they

knew what to expect. Now let's go with the cons

staying at the gate. Certain death, slow decay, no breakthrough.

You know what it is. I love young people when

they talk to me. I love to talk to young

people because I'll say something, and when I'm saying, like,

you know, you really need to think about your future,

I'm already knowing. I love when they say that already knowing.

Already knowing that means they have already considered it. These

leopards were already knowing. They knew that this was going

to turn into certain death, that this was going to

be a slow decay. We are decaying. We are going

to die, and so they say it in that statement,

We're going to die. You stay because staying feels safe.

But staying is actually spiritually lethal. I'm gonna say that again.

Staying in the situation that you are in is spiritually lethal.

You're killing your soul. You're killing the potential that God

has placed in you. You're killing the anointing that is

on your life because you refuse to move from the

place that you are a spiritual reality when we become

comfortable in these places without obedience, our disobedience is a

coffin prepared for the grave. Well, guess what, some people say,

you know what, don't even make any decisions. I don't

want to make a decision. I don't want to make

a choice. And maybe you've been there before where you say,

you know what, this is too crazy. I'm just not

going to make a decision. I'm not gonna make a choice. Well,

I want to let you know that your inaction is

not neutral. It's not neutral. It's still a decision. It's

still a decision. If I see someone fall, I have

a decision whether to help them or keep on walking,

or I can stand there and watch. I made a decision.

And every day we are making decisions, and God is

calling for us to do something, Just do something. The

New Testament helps us to understand this and frame it

a little bit better. The Bible says in James, James

is very wise. He says this, and I'm not just talking.

I'm not talking about Pastor James, even though I can

flow him up a little bit. He's very wise, but

not Pastor James. But in the Book of James, he

says this, to the one who knows the good they

ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin.

So when I was learning in ministry about sin, I

always thought that sin was what I did. But sin

can also be what I don't do. What is the

thing I am failing to do? What is the thing

I am not following the spirit. The Spirit is talking

to me and I am failing to do it. Am

I not calling that person? Am I not reconciling with

that person? Am I not fixing that situation? Am I

avoiding that person? Am I avoiding sending in the application?

Am I avoiding sending the text message? Am I avoiding

showing up to church? Am I avoiding. What am I avoiding?

Do I go down that island instead of that all

because I know they're in the out? What am I avoiding?

Do I not go to Thanksgiving because I just don't

want to talk to that one person? What am I

of my o mission is also a sin? I want

you to take away this. If nothing changes, nothing changes,

faith that never moves eventually will die sitting down. I

know that staying feels very safe. But safety without obedience

is disobedience. Safety without obedience is still disobedience. Decision to

go back if we say we'll go into the city,

the famine is there and we will die. Decision too.

They could go back into the city. They can go

inside the gate. They can find their way and get

past the gate to get back inside the city. The

city represents what wants to sustain them, but can no

longer do it. What are the pros of this decision?

It's a familiar system, but they're still leopards. Their condition

hasn't changed, their circumstance hasn't changed. The way that they

are viewed in society is still the same, So going

in the city is not much help. They have familiar

relationships with the city, they have family probably in the city.

They have been alienated, isolated, they have been put out

of the city, but still have a distant relationship if

you would. There are old patterns that are still there

in the city. So there's not much help. Those pros

don't sound good. Are these even pros? Well, let's talk

about the cons. Well, the cons are same famine. Everybody's

in the famine. So going in the city. In the

city will not help you. Going in the city is

not gonna fix the circumstances because they're in the same

famine that you're in. Outside the gate, it's the same death.

They said, Hey, if we go inside, we're gonna die

the same despair. Nothing changes. I wanna say to somebody

here tonight that going back is not gonna fix it.

Some of you may be on the boundary line of

like do I want to continue to walk with christ.

I've talked to one of my friends recently and he

said he was in a place of indecision because so

many things were happening in his life and he was

ready to walk away. I want to let you know

there's nothing back there. Most times, when I do youth

conferences and I teach youth conferences or our work with

young adults who are incarcerated. I have to remind them

that you have changed, but where you're trying to go

back to it has not changed. The same trauma is there,

the same abuse is there, the same abuser is there,

The same situation is there, the same poverty is there,

the same circumstances there. The same teacher who told you

you'll never be anything is still there. All of those

people are still there. Though you have had a change,

though Jesus has grabbed a whole of your heart, no,

Jesus has grabbed the whold of your life. The circumstances

that you came out of have not changed. So you

must be prepared for that reality. Sometimes going back is

not the answer. Sometimes going back is not going to

fix it. So we have to be of people who

are not looking back. The most dangerous place to be

is in a car with a driver who drives looking

through the rear view mirror. Now, if you glance at it, fine,

But if the whole rod you're looking in the rear

view mirror looking at who's in the back seat. You

ever been guilty of that? Having a good conversation with

the person in the back seat and you forget. Oh,

I need to look at the road. I want to

let you know. You have to look forward. You cannot

look back. Going back is tempting when Ford feels uncertain,

when we're nervous about moving forward going back. We remember

some things about going back. But guess what. Don't confuse

nostalgia with direction. Just because it's nostalgic. Just because Grandma

baked cookies doesn't mean you need to go back home

and live with Grandma. She really don't want you anyway.

She loves when you visit, but she don't want you

to come back. Take your cookies to go, Take you

cookies to go unless God says otherwise. What didn't work

then will not work now. Faith never moves in reverse.

Faith never moves in reverse, which leads me to decision

number three. Move forward, Move forward, So let us go

over to the King of the Arameans and surrender. Okay,

sound a little crazy outside the box. It looks frightening

and faithful all at the same time, like I got faith.

But this is a frightening decision. Matter of fact, it's

a little cuckoo for cocoa puffs. These are the people

who have the city under siege. These are the people

who are using this particular type of warfare. Why would

they show kindness to you? This is crazy thinking, This

is outside of the box thinking. And sometimes I want

to let you know that the Lord will give you

a crazy thought that will give you your breakthrough, a

crazy thought that will give you your breakthrough. Look what Jesus do.

He got down in the dirt, made mud, spit in

the mud, made a pace and put it on somebody's eyes,

and he saw some of us would never see if

we knew that's what he was gonna do us. Oh

while you spit, you spinning in the ground, That sound

like you just did you? Just what did you do? Jesus?

We would run from the thing that sounds insane, different

whereas we would categorize it crazy. Well, guess what. They

are also pros and cons to this situation, and I

kind of combined them a little bit. At the same time,

it's the unknown thing, but they're staying guaranteed death. They're

going back guaranteed death and moving forward, introduced hope even

if exist, even if there's a small fear that exists.

At the same time, while we are excited about moving

for fear may be there. There was an author by

the name of Susan Jeffers, and she wrote a book

that was entitled Fill the Fear and Do it Anyway.

Oh My God. I want to encourage somebody tonight that

God will be speaking to you about some decisions and

some steps you need to take. And those steps will

make you afraid. Those steps will cause fear. But even

though you are afraid, do it anyway, though you have doubts,

though you have concerns, though you don't have all the answers,

do it anyway, because when God speaks, if we will move,

we will see the blessing and the miracle of the Lord.

We need to be willing to do it anyway. So

this is the least logical choice and the most faith filled.

I want us to stretch ourselves tonight. Where's your faith

that you need to stretch? What area of your life

do you need to stretch your faith? Some of us,

it might be our finances. Some of us it might

be our education, our work. It might be among people,

it might be ministry. There might be some things that

God is asking you to stretch your faith. You've consulted

every doctor, every lawyer, every book, every how to, You've

looked on the internet, You've seen all the results from

all these different people. It was so funny. My dad

sent me this video today this morning, and it had

Denzel Washington in it, It had John Travolta in it.

It had all these guys and promoting these pills for

older men who will you know, it will help them.

You all go to the bathroom and you have a regular,

you know thing when they go instead of getting up

in the middle of the night, right and whatnot. And

so he sent that to me. First of all, I

was concerned, like, why did you send that to me, sir?

Are you trying to tell me something? And so, but

when I was looking, I looked in the lips and

I realized that the lips and the words weren't matching,

and I said, oh lord, this is AI. Indeed, I

looked it up and I said, is this a real

thing or a scam? AI scam? And so I sent

him that back. He said, you know your stuff. I said, well,

the lips weren't matching, right, And so I want to

let you know that sometimes we can sole all the

other answers and the only answer is Jesus. He's still

the answer. He has been the answer at the beginning.

He was the answer in the middle, and he's the

answer at the end. If you are looking for an

answer for your situation, you have to step out in

faith and trust that Jesus will lead you into the

place that you need to be. The Bible says this.

It says at dusk they got up and went to

the camp of the Aramans. I want to just pick

this for a minute. Ain't got much time, but let

me just for a minute. They got up. Baby, you've

been sitting down too long. You've been sitting in your

situation too long. You've been sitting in your mess too long.

It's time to get up and clean up and get

it right. There's so many things that are around you

that you just become comfortable with. I don't know if

you've ever been in a house that smells. You ever

went into a house that smells, And it seems like

nobody in the house knows it smells. But the people

that are new to the smell, they notice the smell.

They can smell the funk. Every now and then, you

should have a stranger coming in your house and say,

do you smell anything, because maybe you got familiar with

the funk, right. So I want to let you know

that we can get used to a system or a

way that things are, and we get so comfortable that

we don't even know that it's problematic anymore. God help us.

But they got up and they went to the camp

of the Aramaans. This happens at dusk, when there's just

a little light left. Can I say something to you,

Move now, don't wait till night, don't wait till night.

Move while you can still see your way through. Move

while you still have a path in front of you.

Move while they're still an opportunity where you can still

see where you're going. And so they moved at dust

and got to the place. But this is the hidden miracle.

The Bible says this. It says this in the sixth verse.

It says for the Lord had caused the Aramaans to

hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army. So,

in other words, while these gods were getting up, right,

while they got up and started out to the camp,

these Aramaans who were in their camp, they were there,

and they started hearing these noises that sounded like Chariot's

and they thought, oh my, I believed that they probably

hired out some assassin, some people to come and war

with us, and so they fled. I want to let

you know there's no battle like the battle that the

Lord will do for his people. I want to let

you know that the Lord will do battle for you.

The Bible tells us that the battle is the Lord's,

it's not your battle. All you gotta do is show up.

The Lord will fight for you. Well, guess what. These

guys got up and left the gate, and the Bible

helps us. I like James James. I'm sticking with James

because he's really wise. Right. The Bible says this faith

by itself, if it is not accompanyed by action, is dead.

These guys believed something. They believed. They didn't know what

was gonna happen, but they knew their circumstance could change.

There was a possibility for their circumstance to change. That

was their faith. But guess what their faith got them

up to say, I'm gonna go take a walk over

to this camp. They moved in action. I want to

let you know it's time to take action. It's time

to take action. It's time to take action with your kids.

It's time to take action with your family. It's time

to take action with your loved one. You have to

take some action and move in obedience, because obedience, the

movement of obedience, will unlock the doors that you never

saw coming. Said. They had three decisions and one opportunity,

the one opportunity that they had as God moved while

they were walking. As they walked, God was moving right.

But here comes their opportunity. They get there, they find

the place is deserted, abandoned. There is no Armenians, nobody's there.

Nobody's there, and now they see all of this stuff

they can plunder. They ran in and they started to eat.

Then they ran and hit some stuff. They were like,

let's hide this stuff because they couldn't believe this was happening.

And so they were doing all these things. And while

they were doing this, something comes to them and they're like,

hold up, this is not good. And so they have

the opportunity to become a facilitator. I want to let

you know, a facilitator is somebody who does the will

of the Lord. They heard the word, but they realized

then while they were eating and doing the things that

they were doing that this is not okay. So they

said this. Then they said to each other, what are

we doing? What we're doing is not right. This is

a day of good news and we are keeping it

to ourselves. I want to let you know the worst

thing a Christian can do is keep the news of

Jesus to themselves. You need to tell the world about Jesus.

I'm telling you need to tell the people at work.

I know it's not popular to talk about Jesus at work,

but I tell young adults all the time. Create curiosity

where the I Love Jesus T shirt on T shirt Day?

Why because somebody gonna say, oh, you love Jesus And

guess what that person was like? Well, pray for me.

I want to let you know that God will open

doors for you to become a facilitator. Check this out

and say, they say this, if we wait until daylight,

punishment will overtake us. Let us go at once and

report this to the Royal Palace. So these gods become facilitators.

These overlooked leopards, criticize isolated, push to the side. These

leopards have good news in a bad time. This I

want you to take with you. Your obedience may be

the key God uses to bless others before it ever

blesses you, before you receive the blessing, God might use

you to be a blessing. You don't need all the details,

just enough faith to take the next step. Tonight, I

wanted you to ask yourself. It's application time ask yourself

these three questions. One, where have I settled because movement

feels too risky? Where have I settled because movement feels risky?

Where has comfort become disobedience? I just want to be comfortable.

I don't want the extra Where has it become disobedience? And?

Third question, where is God waiting for me to take

a next step? Not a leap, just a step, a

step of faith. Breakthrough is often on the other side

of obedience, and it feels uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to obey. Tonight,

God isn't in need of perfect faith. He honors obedient movement.

Don't get stuck at the gate waiting when God is

calling you to move. He's calling you to move. As

I was preparing this message, this chapter kept speaking to

me and kept asking the question of me. And I

want to ask the question of you, Where are you stuck?

Where are you stuck tonight? Are you stuck in fear, disappointment, shame, offense?

Maybe you're stuck waiting for conditions to change instead of

trusting God to move. God is saying tonight, it'll change

if you move. Don't stay until you die, because today

the spirit is saying, staying where you are is not neutral.

It is costly, It costs too much. Because God is

still turning famines into abundance. God is still speaking hope

to desperate places. God is still working through unexpected people.

God is still asking for movement tonight. So would you

stand on your feet with me tonight? Well, praise you Lord, hallelujah.

Think your word. If you know that God has been

calling for you to move, I want you to fight

against fear tonight. I want you to fight against all

the things that the enemy has tried to throw your way,

and I want you to respond. I want you to

move in faith, move towards obedience. Don't allow the fear

to stop you any more. Would you buy your heads?

And if you know the Lord has been calling you

to move, can you just pop your hand up and

put it right down. If that's you tonight. You know

the Lord is calling to move. I see that hand,

I see those hands. I see those hands, I see

those hands, see those hands, Hollyood. Yeah, then you chooses.

Will you repeat this prayer with me? You can whisper

it to the Lord tonight. Lord, I refuse to stay stuck.

I choose obedience. I trust your word in Jesus' name. Amen,