Can I Know God Personally?

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Today's reading is from the book of 2 Kings, chapter 5, verses 1 to 19.

2 Kings 5:1–19

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram.

He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded,

because through the Lord had given mercy to Aram.

He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and taken captive a young girl from Israel,

and she served Naaman's wife.

She said to her mistress,

If only my master would send the prophet who is in Samaria,

he would care him of his leprosy.

Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.

By all means go, the king of Aram replied.

I will send a letter to the king of Israel.

So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver,

six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing.

The letter that he took to the king of Israel read,

With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you,

so that you may care of his leprosy.

As soon as the king of Israel read the letter,

he tore his robes and said,

Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life?

Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy?

See how he is trying to pick a coral with me.

When Elisha, the man of God, heard the king of Israel had torn his robes,

he sent him this message.

Why have you torn your robes?

Have the man come to me, and he will know there is a prophet in Israel.

So Naaman went with his horses and chariots

and stopped at the door of Elisha's house.

Elisha sent a messenger to say to him,

Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan,

and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.

But Naaman went away angry and said,

I thought that he would surely come out to me

and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God,

wave his hand over the spot,

and cure me of my leprosy.

Are not Abana and Farpar,

the rivers of Damascus,

better than all the waters of Israel?

Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?

So he turned and went off in a rage.

Naaman's servants went to him and said,

My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing,

won't you have done it?

How much more then, when he tells you,

wash and be cleansed?

So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times,

as the man of God had told him.

And his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God.

He stood before him and said,

Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.

So please accept the gift from your servant.

The prophet answered,

As surely as the Lord lives,

whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.

And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.

If you will not, said Naaman,

please let me, your servant,

be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry.

For your servant will never again make burnt offerings

and sacrifices to any other God but the Lord.

But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing.

When my master enters the temple of Rimon to bow down,

and he is leaning on my arm,

and I have to bow there also.

When I bow down in the temple of Rimon,

may the Lord forgive your servant for this.

Go in peace, Elisha said.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Can I know God personally?

That is the seventh and the final question

in this Explore God series.

Can I know the author of the Bible,

the God of the Bible?

Can I know him personally?

And I want to engage that question

looking at this biography we just read,

looking at the life story of this one particular person

and his pathway, his process for exploring God.

Jesus preached about this guy in his first sermon

that he ever preached,

so I think we're on firm footing looking at Naaman.

Naaman was like many people in the Bay Area.

He was brilliant.

He was sophisticated, accomplished, successful,

had an incredibly impressive CV.

And he was a person that you would least expect

to be seeking the God of the Bible.

In fact, he's surrounded by many smart people

who think that the God of the Bible

is irrelevant and even ridiculous.

And so it's kind of astonishing

that he's exploring God

and by the end of the story,

converting to God and confessing his faith in God.

So who is this guy, Naaman?

Well, verse one says that he's the commander

of the army of the king of Aram,

the general of the Syrian army,

the mortal enemy of Israel.

And for him to go to Israel,

which, by the way, is losing the military conflict

that's currently going on,

and to think that the losing team's God

is going to help him,

that's sort of a crazy part of the story.

But it says, in addition, it says,

he was a great man in the sight of his master

and highly regarded,

because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram,

and he was a valiant soldier.

So this guy's great in the eyes of the king.

He's admired in the eyes of the people.

He's won victories.

He's a valiant soldier.

He has military prowess and skill in battle.

He's athletic.

He's like many of the people

that come to the Bay Area for school or for work,

you know, to get that degree, to get that job.

And he's just overflowing with physical,

social, intellectual, economic capital.

But in spite of having everything

that the world could give you,

in spite of having all that he could possibly need or want,

there's something missing.

There's something off.

There's something that's not the way it's supposed to be.

The description of Naaman ends with,

but he had leprosy.

Here's this remarkable man,

natural abilities, natural powers, special skills,

highly successful in his career and in his life.

And then this little word, but.

But he was a leper.

He has a great life,

but there's something spoiling his life.

And that's like many of us.

Here we are, we're living in

the most peaceful, prosperous era

in all of human history.

Did you realize that?

Life expectancy and wealth has never been higher.

Thanks to the Industrial Revolution,

modern medicine,

various breakthroughs in science and technology,

we are less poor and sick,

and we are more healthy and wealthy

than we've ever been.

And yet I've never met anybody who says,

well, everything's all right.

That fatal word, but, always comes in, doesn't it?

The world's never been so wonderful, but.

We've never had so many amenities, but.

All people are being lifted up in an unprecedented way,

but something's wrong.

Something spoils it all.

But he had leprosy.

But he was a leper.

And so I just want to take a deeper look

at Naaman as kind of a picture of us.

A picture of who we are.

And I want to look at these three questions.

What causes us to seek God?

How do we find God?

And what is required to meet God?

What causes us to seek God?

How do we find God?

And what is required to meet God?

First of all, what causes us to seek God?

Again, Naaman has it all,

but in spite of having everything the world could possibly give,

he has leprosy.

He's got this terrible, wasting disease.

He's literally falling apart.

And no human being can cure him.

And this tells us that, you know,

no matter how well we design our lives,

there's always going to be something

to come in and ruin it,

to come in and spoil it.

No amount of success,

no amount of power or achievement

can keep these things from happening to you.

People you love are going to die.

Devastating illness is going to come in.

Relational betrayal, financial reversal,

divorce, addiction.

We know this.

If you just ask around.

We in this room know that

these things are going to happen to us

no matter how self-sufficient we think we are.

One day we're going to wake up

and realize that self-sufficiency was an illusion.

And that all along,

even though we thought we were in control,

we weren't in control.

We actually were vulnerable

and we were fragile.

But it was not always like this.

Right?

According to the Bible,

none of this happened in the Garden of Eden.

Human beings were made

in a perfect relationship with God

and they enjoyed life with God

and there was nothing lacking.

There was no disappointment,

no unhappiness,

nothing ever went wrong.

And in many ways,

Naaman's leprosy is a sign

that we are living in a sin-sick world.

I want to be careful here

because the Bible does not directly

and specifically connect this sin

with that suffering.

Right?

In John chapter 9,

John 9 · chapter mention

the disciples come to Jesus and say,

Jesus, was this man born blind?

Is he suffering because of some specific sin

that he did or his parents did?

And Jesus says emphatically,

no.

But it is true to say

that when sin entered into the world,

the wholeness of life was broken.

And disease entered into the body.

Trouble entered into the mind.

Heartbreak entered into the family

and into our friendships.

Difficulty entered into our work.

And alienation entered into our relationship with God.

And so Naaman's leprosy on the outside

is in many ways a picture of our sin on the inside.

Right?

We're struggling not just from these problems

up on the surface that are right here at our skin.

We're struggling with problems down in the depths,

down in the heart.

All of us have something that's really wrong

and really bad

that we kind of know about

but that we're also sort of masters at minimizing

and denying.

But you see it come out of Naaman.

He goes to the prophet Elisha

and he's expecting a certain outcome.

And then he doesn't get what he wants.

And then how does he respond?

Right?

If you ever want to see

what exactly is in your heart,

just pay attention to how you respond

when you don't get what you want.

Right?

Why is he so angry?

He arrives with his entourage.

He thinks,

I ought to get special treatment.

And Elisha doesn't even come out to talk to him.

He just sends an intermediary.

He gives him a message he doesn't want to hear.

It feels insulting to him.

It feels beneath him.

And what happens in that moment

is Elisha's touching on a raw nerve.

Right?

He's touching on the raw nerve of his pride

and his self-centeredness

and his sense of superiority.

And really all of us have that kind of stuff

down in the depths

that's far worse than we think it is

and it's ruining our lives.

But of course at this point,

Naaman just thinks that his problem is skin deep.

All he knows is that his condition

is detracting from all that's good in his life.

It's just making him more and more miserable.

And so he's exhausting all of the options

to get better.

Right?

He goes to the king of Syria.

He goes to the best and brightest in the land.

All the doctors that have all the ability

and all the ingenuity

and they're baffled.

They can't deal with his problem.

They can do nothing for Naaman

and his suffering and his disease.

It's just getting worse and worse and worse

until finally he gets so desperate

he hears that there's help in Israel.

And so where does he go?

He goes from this king to that king.

Right?

He goes to another person at the top.

And how does he go?

He goes with a letter from his king.

He goes with more money

than all the money that currently exists in Israel.

He goes with all these fine clothes.

And he thinks I'll leverage all my connections.

I'll leverage all my wealth.

I'll leverage all my power

that the world has given me.

And yet that doesn't work either.

See most people will not seek the God of the Bible

until something goes wrong in our lives.

And we wake up to this illusion

of our own self-sufficiency

and we realize

that we actually can't handle life on our own.

And so we turn to the world for help

like Naaman turns to these two kings

and other people in power.

And then you realize like Naaman

that the world is actually completely failing you

and totally inadequate

to help you with your deepest problems.

And it's until we see

what the world cannot give us

that we'll never really be a seeker after God.

Unless we learn

that the world cannot help us.

And until we stop looking to the world

and all of its power centers and power brokers

to give us what only God can give us

will not really make any spiritual progress.

Does that make sense?

Amen.

Yeah, thank you.

What causes us to seek God?

It's problems that are way beyond us.

Problems that other people can't fix.

Well, how do we find God?

How do we find God?

Well, Naaman will not find God

until he stops trusting in himself.

He won't find God

until he stops trusting in his way

that he thinks he should be cured.

Right?

There's a definite remedy for him.

There's an absolute solution.

There's a certain cure,

but neither Naaman

nor the greatest people in all of Syria

know what it is.

They're brilliant,

but they're unaware

and they're ignorant

of the one crucial thing.

Right?

And the reason that they can't,

the reason for that

is because the signpost to the solution

and the solution itself

is utterly different

than what anyone imagines

that it ought to be.

This cure comes to Naaman

in a way that just doesn't fit

his plausibility structures

and really subverts

the dominant paradigm of his people.

Everybody thinks that

the cure is going to come from kings.

It's going to come from power.

But who's the signpost

that points to the solution?

Right?

The only reason Naaman

goes to Israel for help

is because this God

whom he does not know

has given him victories in the past

and it just so happens

that in one of those victories

this little nameless Hebrew servant girl

was captured in a skirmish

with Israel.

And that's one of the great ironies

of this story

is that here's this girl

who's in the eyes of everybody else

is an unimportant nobody.

Who absolutely does not matter

and counts for nothing

in the world's eyes.

She's the signpost

to the solution.

What Naaman most needs

is not up here in the palace

where he thinks it is.

What he most needs

is down here in the kitchen.

Right?

What he needs

is down here in the lowest place

and in the humblest place.

And that's the story

of the Bible

from beginning to end

that God's salvation

comes where we least expect it.

Right?

We think it's going to come

from the great empires

of the world

and all the great dynasties.

Egypt

and Assyria

and Babylon

and the Greeks

and the Romans.

But the scriptures tell us

that the key

to the history

of the world

is in this little

insignificant people

of Abraham,

Isaac,

and Jacob.

These people

that were enslaved

and these people

that were exiled

just like this little girl.

And God says,

the solution,

my solution

is over here.

It's over here.

The world thinks

that a savior

and a lord

is going to come

and when he comes

he's going to come

from Rome.

But when he actually comes

he comes

in the least important town

of Bethlehem.

He comes as this little

helpless baby

in a manger.

Right?

The salvation of God

comes in the place

where absolutely

no one

is looking for it.

And Naaman gets

this signpost

of this servant girl

but he completely

misreads

the signpost.

Right?

It says in

verse 3

she says

to her mistress

if only my master

would see the prophet

he would cure him

of his leprosy.

She doesn't say

if only he'd see the king

but she says

if only he'd see the prophet

who could tell him

the word of God.

But he doesn't listen.

He goes to the king instead.

In verse 7

as the king of Israel

read the letter

from his other king

he tore his robes

and said

am I God?

Can I kill

and bring back to life?

Why does this fellow

send someone to me

to be cured

of his leprosy?

He says

you've come to the wrong place.

Only God can give life.

Only God can make whole.

But this king

like so many of the kings

in Israel

he's spiritually lost.

And so he tears

his robe

in complete despair

that this guy

is going to get

what he needs.

But

verse 8 says

that when Elisha

the man of God

heard that the king

of Israel

had torn his robes

he sent him

this message

why have you

torn your robes?

Have the man

come to me

and he will know

that there is a prophet

in Israel.

You see what Naaman

needs the most

is this unknown

unexpected little

Hebrew servant girl

to bear witness

to him

that there is

a man of God.

and he needs

to know

that this man

of God

is a prophet

with a word

from God.

A prophet

who has the truth

the divine truth

of God

a prophet

who can reveal

to him

the solution

to his problem.

And so he goes

to the door

of the prophet

and is the problem

solved?

Does the story

end?

No

it's just kind of

heating up

in verse 9

it says

Naaman went

with his horses

and chariots

and stopped

at the door

of Elisha's house.

Elisha sent a messenger

to say to him

go wash yourself

seven times

in the Jordan

and your flesh

will be restored

and you will be

cleansed.

But Naaman

went away angry

and said

I thought

he would surely

come out

to me.

You see

he expects

special treatment

and attention

but Elisha

the prophet

intentionally

does not

go out

to him

and give him

that.

He intentionally

does not

bow down

and express

pleasure

at seeing

this very

important person.

He sends

an intermediary

with a message

and treats

him like

ordinary

common

human

clay.

And I think

the prophet

is deliberately

hurting

his pride

and humbling

him

and this is

in fact

a key step

in finding

God

is to realize

that no matter

who you are

no matter

what your

status is

in the eyes

of the world

no matter

what you have

accomplished

before the

eyes

of God

you are

a helpless

and hopeless

sufferer

and sinner

like everybody

else.

And Naaman

is super

annoyed at that.

He is super

irritated

right?

He gives

this outburst

that kind

of betrays

where his

thoughts

truly lie

and he gives

us his view

of how he

thinks

he ought

to be cured.

In verse 11

he says

I thought

surely he

come out

to me

and stand

and call

the name

of the Lord

his God

and wave

his hand

over the

spot

abracadabra

and sort

of cure

me of

my leprosy.

And you see

he's suffering

not only

from a leprosy

of the skin

he's suffering

from a leprosy

of the soul

and it nearly

robs him

of the cure

and causes

him to miss

the salvation

of God.

The problem

that's ruining

Naaman's life

is his

self-centeredness

maybe

I mean I relate

to this

I don't know

if you can

relate to this

the self-centeredness

where he thinks

that other people

and that God

should revolve

around his

way of doing

things

and his

ideas

of how God

should bring

the cure.

But of course

Elisha does not

do it

Naaman's way

because he doesn't

want Naaman

or anybody else

to think

that the cure

comes from

human power.

No he says

you're going to

have to go out

into the desert

man.

You're going

to have to

go out there

where nobody

is and you'll

experience the

power of God

directly for

yourself.

Well

Naaman

he's still

ticked

and he says

in verse 12

are not Abana

and Farpar

the rivers

of Damascus

better than

all the waters

of Israel

couldn't I

wash in them

and be

cleansed?

And so he

turned

and went

off

in a rage.

You see

Naaman still

trusts

in himself.

He still

trusts in

his thoughts

about what

the cure

should be.

And that's

absolutely crazy

isn't it?

Because the

most powerful

people in the

world have

told him

we cannot

cure you.

And yet he's

fool enough

to look at

the one

remedy

the one

solution

the one

cure

that's been

given to

him

and criticize

it

and object

to it

and protest

against it.

And you know

what?

This is how

it always

is.

This is

what people

were doing

in Jesus'

day as

well.

They said

you know

God's salvation

should come

in this

way.

He should

send a

conquering

Messiah

and gather

up this

massive

army of

soldiers

and whip

up on

the Romans

and drive

the pagans

out of the

holy land

and set up

this kingdom

to dominate

all the

nations.

But that's

not how

God operates

at all.

Instead

God comes

how?

He comes

incognito.

He comes

in the

flesh

in Jesus

Christ

small

and weak.

He comes

born in a

manger.

He comes

and he

spends his

time

outside of

the halls

of power

in Galilee

preaching to

ordinary

common

everyday

poor

broken

people

like us.

And he

shows them

what it

means to

live a

life in

the world

without

this

self-centeredness

on the

inside.

And yet

at the

climax of

his life

the people

see him

nailed to

a tree

and die

in utter

agony

and weakness

and they

see his

body taken

down and

buried in

a grave

and they

say this

is not

the way

that the

salvation of

God should

come into

the world.

This is

ridiculous.

This is

insulting.

The signposts

of God's

salvation should

not come from

a servant

girl and a

humble prophet.

God's

salvation should

not come from

Bethlehem's

manger or

Golgotha's

cross.

Are you

crazy?

No, I

know the

way that

salvation

ought to

come.

But friends,

if you

insist on

your own

way and

you keep

trusting in

yourself like

Naaman trusted

himself, you're

never going to

find God.

The world is

looking in

every direction

except the

one direction

that has

the cure.

And like

this little

insignificant

servant girl,

all I can do

today is just

point you to

this humble

prophet in

Israel and

say that Jesus

has the cure

for your

disease.

He can

cleanse you and

he can restore

you.

Like Elisha,

all I can do

today is just

tell you that

salvation comes

in a way that's

different than

you think it

should be and

it comes not

in power but

in the weakness

of the cross.

It comes not

in victory but

in the sacrifice

of self-giving

love.

And you have

but one thing

to do in the

depth of your

disease and in

the agony of

your need and

that is just to

go to Jesus,

the Son of God

and you'll be

cured.

He can heal

you.

He can remove

whatever curse

is on your

life.

He can restore

you and he

can give you

new life and

he can give

you new power.

Your one

need is to

go to him

and he can

rid you of

the leprosy

of your soul

that's been

spoiling life

for you and

he can give

you life

abundant.

You say but

surely there's

another cure but

no, the

apostle Peter

says this in

Acts 4, he

says salvation

is found in

no one else

than Jesus

Christ for

there is no

other name under

heaven given to

mankind by

which we

must be

saved.

You'll never

find God if

you insist on

your own way.

What causes us

to seek God?

How do we find

God?

And let me just

finish by saying

what is required

to meet God?

What's required

to meet God?

Verse 13 is

beautiful.

It says Naaman's

servants went to

him and said my

father if the

prophet had told

you to do some

great thing would

you not have

done it.

How much more

than when he

tells you wash

and be cleansed.

Thank God for

these servants

right because

otherwise Naaman

would have gone

home diseased and

without the cure.

But in love they

question his pride

with common sense

and they say to

him look Naaman you

came here expecting

to pay a whole lot

of money.

You came here

expecting for the

prophet to tell you

some to do some

great deed and you

would go out and

perform it and you

would earn your

cure and you would

merit a new life

for yourself.

But this prophet has

actually given you a

much simpler way to

be cured.

You don't have to go

do some great thing

to earn your cure.

You can get cured

for free.

I mean yeah Naaman

yes compared to the

cold rushing rivers

in Syria that we all

love and are so

beautiful.

These rivers of the

Jordan are kind of

tepid and lethargic

and a little less

impressive than you

would hope.

But man it's free.

I mean yes the

prophet is asking you

to submit yourself to

a ritual bath of

cleansing that just

might humiliate you.

And yes the prophet

is inviting you to

take a step of faith

that might cause you

to feel foolish or to

look ridiculous in the

eyes of other people.

But Naaman what do

you have to lose?

What do you have to

lose?

It's so easy.

And in the same way

the gospel of Jesus

Christ can be so

insulting to us and so

humiliating because it

tells us that we cannot

pay money and we cannot

go out and perform some

great deed and live a

good life and follow the

example of Jesus Christ

or practice his teachings

or make some great

sacrifices and then we'll

be cured.

No the gospel is so much

simpler and yet so much

deeper than that it just

says look to the cross.

Look at Christ and him

crucified.

That's God's way of

salvation by free grace.

grace and it doesn't cost

you a penny.

Friends we don't have to

go out and do some great

thing because the great

thing has been done for

us.

Just look at Jesus dying on

the cross for you,

bearing your sins in his

body, receiving the just

judgment that your sins

deserve.

Look at God laying on him

your pride and your self

sinerness and your self

righteousness and dealing

with all of it there.

Just believe that he did

that for you and you'll be

cleansed.

You'll be cured.

Right?

We sang it earlier.

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of

Jesus.

What can make me whole?

Again, nothing but the

blood of Jesus.

And you might say well

that's ridiculous and that

is insulting.

But friends, Naaman tried

everything else and it led

to nothing.

All the attempted cures

failed him.

And the same will be true

for you.

You can keep trying all the

other religions and all the

other philosophies but you're

never going to find peace.

You're never going to find

rest because here and here

alone is the cure and there's

no other alternative.

If Naaman turns away, he'll go

back home a leper and leprosy

will spread all over his body

until it kills him.

And if any of us turn away from

the one cure, the one remedy that

God has provided in his son Jesus

Christ, we too will remain spiritual

and moral lepers for all eternity

without God and without hope.

And so as I close, just allow me

to plead with you to take the

position of Naaman's servants and

just plead with you not to turn

away from the cure when it's right

here for you.

Try it.

Just try it.

And you'll find that it works.

You just confess your sins.

You just say, I'm unable to cure

myself.

And you just receive the free gift

of God to be cleansed and to be

healed and to be whole and to have

a new life and to be a child of

God and have the Holy Spirit

enter into your soul.

Verse 14 says that, so he went

down.

He went down and he dipped himself

in the Jordan seven times as the

man of God had told him and his

flesh was restored and became

clean like that of a young boy.

Then Naaman and all his

attendants went back to the man of

God.

He stood before him and said, now I

know.

Now I know that there is no God in

all the world except in Israel.

He doesn't say, now I know that your

God is more powerful than my God.

He goes through this massive worldview

change.

His map of spiritual reality has been

fundamentally altered and he says,

there is no God in all the world

but this one God.

And you see, that's the

transformation because he starts by

thinking that his most fundamental

need and his most fundamental

problem was that he was a sufferer

with a disease but then he realizes

in the end, no, the need beneath the

need, the problem beneath the problem

is that I never knew the one true

and living God.

And so the question, can I know God

personally?

Can I have a relationship with this

one God of the Bible?

Well, if you ask Naaman, he would say, no.

He would say, no, you can't.

Not if you think the world's gonna cure

you.

Not if you think you know how it's

supposed to happen.

Not if you're unwilling to pay attention

to God's unexpected signposts

in his servant people

and his prophetic word.

Not if you're unwilling to submit

to God's unlikely solution

in the cross of his son, Jesus Christ.

But Naaman would say to you,

if you lay down your pride

and if you humble yourself

and if by faith you receive this cure

as a free gift from God,

then yes, you can know God personally.

Yes, you can know personally

that there is no God in all the world

but this one God of the Bible

made flesh in Jesus Christ.

In the name of the Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit, amen.