“The Tragedy of the Small Story vs the Blessing of the Larger Story” - Dr. Del Tackett

I hope it's okay with you.

I'm more comfortable standing down here than up there.

And I apologize if some of you in the back can't see me.

Actually, that's probably better that you can't see me.

So I am thankful for the opportunity to be here.

Mark and I have this privilege.

We've been able to go, quite frankly, all over the world.

And we have the privilege of meeting brothers and

sisters of all different kinds of stripes and flavors everywhere,

all over the world.

And it's always amazing to me,

it's a blessing to me to see that the spirit of God is the same.

And whether it's in South Africa, whether it's in Cairo, Egypt,

or whether it's in IF, which is not far from where I grew up,

just south of here around Blackfoot.

So I'm thankful to be back at home and among all of you today.

We have what I think is an incredible event for us to look at.

I'm just a tour guide, by the way.

I love to take people on a tour, so I'm gonna take you on a tour today.

It's never about the tour guide, it's always about the tour,

it's always about the things.

And I'm gonna be pointing some things for

you to see today that I think are just absolutely quite amazing.

The tour we're gonna take is in the Old Testament,

2 Kings Chapter 5, if you wanna turn there.

2 Kings 5 · chapter mention

We will be going through the whole chapter today, so

we have to move a little quickly.

But this is an amazing event.

We need some ramps to get up to this event.

So we're gonna take three quick ramps before we can get up to this event here.

The first ramp has to do with the fact that of all the events and

people that are in the Old Testament,

Naaman is one of the few that Jesus points back to.

And he does that in a familiar passage for you, no doubt, in Luke Chapter 4,

Luke 4 · chapter mention

if you keep your fingers there in 2 Kings Chapter 5.

2 Kings 5 · chapter mention

Because it is here in Luke 4 that Jesus points us back to Naaman.

And something very interesting happens as Jesus is doing this.

You may recall the context of Luke Chapter 4 is that Jesus has returned to

Luke 4 · chapter mention

his hometown, the hometown boy, Jesus has returned.

And he's not received well, at least not in the end.

But in the beginning he was.

Remember, this is the famous point where Jesus stands up in the synagogue and

reads from the scroll of Isaiah.

And when he finishes that, he says, I tell you the truth,

this day, this scripture is fulfilled.

And the scripture says that all the eyes of the synagogue were looking on him.

And they were saying good things about him.

Until Jesus said two things.

And he pointed them back to a widow in Elijah's day when there was a famine.

And Jesus said there was a famine in all of Israel, but

it was only to the widow in Sidon that Elijah served.

And then he speaks of Naaman.

Because he says there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elijah.

But the only leper that was healed, Jesus said, was Naaman, the Syrian.

Now this and then, so then let's read what happens.

As soon as Jesus finished saying all of those things.

So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things,

were filled with wrath.

And they rose up and tried to throw him off the cliff.

Some of you may have been to Israel,

you may have gone to Nazareth, to the Mount Precipice.

I've stood there and I said I certainly would not want to be thrown off of this

cliff, and that's what they were trying to do.

And so this first ramp that Jesus points us back to Naaman leads us to the second

ramp because this ramp leads us to a question, this is why

did these people all of a sudden become filled with wrath?

And I want to give you a clue.

First of all, a clue, we'll talk about this a lot today.

When someone is filled with wrath, when someone is angry,

that's a clue that tells you someone has just stepped on their script.

And so, let's first of all, what is, there's a script that got stepped on here,

stomped on by Jesus that caused them to be filled with wrath so

that they wanted to kill the hometown boy Jesus.

Well, what was happening here is that they thought it was all about them.

And now Jesus is saying, I'm telling you,

that in Elijah's day it wasn't to any of you that he went.

It was to the widow in Sidon.

And I'll tell you this, all the lepers in Israel,

none of them were cleansed by Elisha.

But the person who was cleansed was a pagan man in a pagan land.

See, when you think it's all about you, and

all of a sudden somebody says it's not about you, then it can cause you to be angry.

So anger is a clue, next time you get angry,

next time you get angry, ask if it's not because somebody just stepped on your

script, it happens to me all the time when I'm driving.

>> [LAUGH]

>> When I drive, I have a script associated

with how fast I'm supposed to be able to get down the road,

whether that's my parking place rather than somebody else's.

So this second ramp has to do with the fact

that fallen people have a tendency to be very self-centered.

And we have a tendency to believe the lie, we call it the Death Star lie,

that if I can just get my script fulfilled, I will be happy,

and content, and pleasured, and at peace.

And we write these scripts all the time.

If my husband would just, right?

If my husband would just then, if my wife would just then,

if my kids would just, if my parents would just,

if the cute boy at school, cute girl at school, if the president would just.

So we have these scripts, because we think it's all about us.

And somehow we think that our peace, and contentment, and

pleasure will come if we can just get our script fulfilled.

Another way to say it is if we can just get our way.

If we just, our will.

And we now live in a culture where we have really flipped good for

evil and evil for good, have we not?

But I will tell you the most prominent way that we have flipped good for

evil and evil for good is that we have exchanged the notion that selfishness

is something that's not good to now selfishness is a goal.

And celebrate it.

That we are to seek our own heart.

We're to follow our heart.

If we want to be content and filled with peace and joy, we follow our heart.

Now think how the contrast to Jesus who says, deny yourself.

See that doesn't fly in our culture, because Jesus said deny yourself and

follow me.

We think pleasure myself and we want the world to follow us.

Isn't that, by the way, isn't that interesting, the word follow, right?

We make a video and you want people to do what?

Follow.

We want the world to follow or like us,

even though Jesus says the world will hate you.

If you follow me, the world will hate you.

We want the world to like us.

We don't want the world to follow us because we have slipped into this

deep self-centeredness associated with the lie that says,

if I can get my way, if I can be significant, if people follow me,

then I'll be happy, I'll be contented, I'll be pleasured.

And so here, this second round points us back to this reality

that when we have a script and we're vested in that script and

someone stomps on that script, then we will react with some negative

emotion.

So the clue here is when you suffer from a negative emotion,

if you suffer from anger, ask yourself, who just stepped on my script?

If all of a sudden you find yourself disappointed,

I'm just so disappointed in you.

Why?

Because you didn't fulfill my script.

All of those negative emotions.

So when you come to the scripture, for example, and

now we find that the people were worked up in a rage,

it's not surprising to us.

We look back and find out why.

Because Jesus said there were all kinds of lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha,

but he didn't heal any of them.

He healed a pagan man in a pagan land.

And they thought it was all about him.

So the third ramp is a short one because it leads us right into this event.

And on this ramp, all we want to do is to say that there

are consequences associated with both of these ways.

It's like Jesus told us,

there's a narrow path and there's a wide path.

Enter by the narrow gate.

My personal opinion is that the narrow gate says

something entirely different than what it says on the wide gate.

The wide gate says it's all about you.

And Jesus said the wide gate leads to what?

Death and destruction.

And that's exactly what the enemy wants us to do.

He wants you and me to be on this path of it's all about me.

And we become a manipulator.

We try to manipulate people to get our way, to get our script fulfilled.

And Jesus says that way ends up in death.

The narrow gate, I think written on the gate is, it's all about him.

And what he wants to do through you.

So when we believe the lie that it's all about me,

that will not lead to anything but death and destruction.

When we're caught up in the larger story of God,

it will lead to peace, true peace, true contentment.

And those are the pathways that are continually laid before us.

One is a lie, and the lie is told to us by the angel of light.

It looks good, it looks like the way we should go, and it's not.

The narrow way looks narrow, but it says deny yourself.

Then we live in a culture where we do not want to deny ourself.

We think as we were speaking yesterday that the heart speaks divine things.

And you must follow, if I say I'm a woman, you must follow,

you must bow down to that.

So we now come to this story because the event of Naaman in 2 Kings 5.

And what I want you to take note of as we go through this is you will see

two different people here.

You'll see people who are caught up in their own little story.

It's all about them, and it does not end well.

And you'll see people who are caught up in the larger story of God.

People who are willing to deny themselves,

caught up in the larger story of God.

And there is true blessing, okay?

So here we go.

2 Kings 5.

Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and

honorable man in the eyes of his master.

Because by him, the Lord had given victory to Syria.

He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.

Let's stop for a second.

You think about this.

We are now introduced to Naaman, a pagan man in a pagan land,

who is the commander in chief.

He is the sink, the commander in chief of the Syrian forces.

He cannot go any higher in his vocation.

Only the king is higher than, he has achieved everything.

He is a valiant warrior.

And just as an aside here, I've been looking at this event for

a long, long time, and I'm so caught up in this event,

I decided I was gonna write a play called Naaman.

And so I see these things from the perspective of a movie.

So Naaman is cast, he's this handsome guy, he's a warrior.

And did you notice who has been giving him victory?

God was giving a pagan man a pagan land victory.

Whoa, the sovereignty of God.

And then, I wanna be careful here, but I'm gonna say it, so

I hope you'll understand.

And then we get to the big but.

He had everything.

Naaman was at the top of the heap, a valiant warrior, victorious.

He had everything.

But.

He was a leper.

In the scripture, leprosy is oftentimes used as a symbol of sin.

You couldn't do anything about it.

Even though he was a mighty warrior, he couldn't do anything about leprosy.

He couldn't get cured, nothing could cure him of that.

Nothing could take it away, no matter how much money, no matter how strong he was.

No matter how many warriors he could send into battle.

There was a big but in his life.

And there may be a big but in your life.

You may have achieved a whole lot of things, and it is possible.

All the things that you've achieved, there is a big but in your life.

And this is Naaman's condition.

He has everything, but he's a leper.

Now, the Syrians had gone out on raids and

had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel.

She weighed on her name, it's my wife.

Then she said to her mistress, if only my master were with the prophet,

who is in Samaria, he would heal him of his leprosy.

And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, thus and

thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.

Then the king of Syria said, go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.

So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver,

6,000 shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said,

now be advised when this letter comes to you that I have sent Naaman my servant

to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.

And it happened when the king of Israel read the letter that he tore his clothes

and said, am I God to kill and make alive that this man sends a man to me

to heal him of his leprosy?

Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me.

Okay, so let's stop for a second.

Look at what's happened here.

There's this young maiden who's been taken captive from Israel.

And she, now the commander in chief listening to

a prisoner of war, but he does, he listens to her.

There's a lot of things here that God's hand is all over this.

And he goes to the king and say, this is what this little maiden girl said.

And the king of Syria, the king of the pagan lands says, well, great,

I'll send a letter with you down to the king of Israel for

you to get healed of leprosy.

And the king of Israel, think about this, the king of Israel receives a letter

from the king of Syria saying the commander in chief is coming down to get healed.

The king of Israel should have held a party.

He should have said, my goodness, look what God is doing.

The commander in chief named and has leprosy.

And for some reason they realize he can come down and Yahweh can heal him.

Can you believe this?

Let's celebrate.

Instead, what does the king of Israel do?

He tears his robe.

Because why?

It's all about him.

And remember, he ends up saying, see, he's trying to pick a quarrel with me.

Instead of seeing the larger story of God.

And by the way, here we have this entourage that's coming down to Syria.

And the king of Israel, of course, is caught up in his larger story.

But look what we find from Elisha.

So it was when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had

torn his clothes that he sent to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes?

Please, let him come to me and

he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

See, Elisha's caught up in the larger story of God.

He sees what's going on here.

When you and I get caught up in our own little story,

the only thing we can see is ourself.

The only thing we can see is our own circumstances.

And we could lose sight of what God is doing.

And it destroys the joy that is supposed to be ours, even in the midst of suffering.

Even in the midst of trials, as Paul would tell us.

We're to be caught up in the larger story of God.

Not filled with anger, like the king of Israel who's angry.

Because a guy has leprosy and he's coming to be healed.

But Elisha says, why?

He's caught up in the larger story of God.

Naaman went with his horses and chariots and

he stood at the door of Elisha's house.

And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, go and wash in the Jordan seven times and

your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean.

But Naaman became furious.

Okay, what's the clue?

Furious.

So we're about to find out if Naaman's caught up in his own story or not.

If he's furious, he is.

And that's exactly what this is going to tell us.

So, Go wash in the Jordan seven times, your flesh shall be restored to you and

you shall be clean.

But Naaman became furious and went away and said, okay now listen.

Naaman is about to read his script to us.

Listen to this.

Indeed, I said to myself, he, Elisha, will surely come out to me and

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

wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy.

Are not Abana and Farpar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of

Israel, and by the way, the Hebrew word for waters there,

we'll clean it up a little bit and say better than the sewage of Israel.

Could he not wash in them and be cleansed?

So he turned and went away in a rage.

See, Naaman has come down with his own script.

He even tells us the detail of how this is supposed to work.

Elisha's going to come out.

Then he's going to wave his hand over the spot.

And then I'm going to be healed of leprosy.

But instead of that, Elisha doesn't even come out.

He sends his servant out.

Now, in the play, in the movie, this servant,

his name is here as well, we'll see that, is Gehazi.

And Gehazi is a little beaver of a man who's all caught up in his own story.

It's all about Gehazi.

And instead of Elisha coming out, the man himself coming out,

Gehazi comes out and says, go wash in the River Jordan seven times.

>> [LAUGH]

>> Now, For

some strange reason, I found myself at the White House,

appointed by Bush one in the White House.

One of the things that I love to do was when we had an arrival of a head of state.

So the president of a foreign country, the king, the prime minister,

was coming to America and they would make a courtesy visit to the White House or

maybe that was the purpose of their visit.

And the White House was decked out.

The old guard was there in their dress uniforms, the military band was there,

the trumpeters would line the spiral staircase on the south side of the White

House, and all of us would be given little flags of the visiting country.

And we would line the driveway, and

then the limousine carrying the head of state would come in, and

the trumpeters would trumpet, and the band would play.

And we would wave our flags, and the limousine would pull up, and

the president himself would walk out, and

the president's own hand would reach out and open the door.

And then the president himself and

the visiting dignitary would do their little kissy, kissy thing.

And the band would play, and the trumpeters would trumpet, and

we'd wave our flags.

It was a grand, grand reception.

And I think Naaman was expecting something like this.

>> [LAUGH]

>> And instead,

Gehazi comes out.

And you go watch the River Jordan seven times.

It's nowhere near Naaman's script.

And Naaman is furious.

And at this point in the movie,

Naaman turned and went away in a rage.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Naaman is walking away from his salvation here.

He's walking away from the cleansing.

And by the way, I said salvation.

This is a picture of the gospel hidden here in the Old Testament.

And because he's caught up in his own little story,

he's about to walk away from it.

And his servants came near and spoke to him and said, my father,

if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?

How much more than when he says to you, wash and be cleansed.

Now, you'll have to read the play to find out why these servants.

See, this is not the time to go pull on the cloak of the commander in chief who's

in a rage and say, sir, excuse me, you are really stupid.

>> [LAUGH]

>> But they do in the sovereignty of God.

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

according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh was restored,

like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

What an amazing thing.

The gracious hand of God has reached into a pagan land, taken a pagan man,

and he has washed him clean.

And not only is Naaman cleansed outwardly, but he's cleansed inwardly.

Look at this.

And he, Naaman, returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and

came and stood before him, and he said, indeed,

now I know that there is no God on all the earth except in Israel.

Now, therefore, please take a gift from your servant.

See, one of the things that happen when we come to Christ,

it doesn't mean that we lose all of the lies that are kind of caught.

Naaman still believes that you have to pay for this.

He thinks you've gotta pay for what God has done.

Now, let's look at this next one.

But he, Elisha, said, as the Lord lives before whom I stand,

I will receive nothing.

And he, Naaman, urged him, Elisha, to take it, but he refused.

Let's stop for a second and think about, again,

who's caught up in the larger story of God?

Do you not think that Elisha could have somehow rationalized?

Now, you say, no.

Well, quite frankly, we have the school of prophets here, and

we're getting a little run down in the dormitories here.

And we've got some more prophets coming in, and it'd be really nice to

have a little place that we can have some quiet time over here.

So yeah, I think maybe a couple of pounds of silver and

some gold would really be helpful to us here.

But Elisha refused.

I think because Elisha knew what was going on here.

He knew that this was a clear presentation

of the full grace of God poured out upon Naaman.

And Elisha was not going to destroy that picture,

even though he could have rationalized it.

And oftentimes, you and I do rationalize.

So Naaman said, if not, please let your servant be given two mule loads of earth.

For your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or

sacrifice it to other gods, but to the Lord, to Yahweh.

Yet in this thing, may your Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into

the temple of Rime to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and

I bow down in the temple at Rime.

When I bow down in the temple of Rime,

may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing.

You see, the heart of this man has changed.

Then he said to him, Elisha said to him, go in peace.

So he departed from him a short distance.

But Gehazi, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said,

look, my master has spared Naaman the Syrian,

while not receiving from me his hands what he brought.

But as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.

So Gehazi pursued Naaman.

When Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to medium,

and said, is all well?

Do you see Naaman's changed?

Now Gehazi's, and Naaman gets down from the chariot, say hey, is everything okay?

And look how quickly people caught up on their own little story can lie.

And he, Gehazi, said, all is well.

My master has sent me saying, indeed just now two young men of the sons

of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim.

Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes, of garments.

So Naaman said, please take two talents.

And he urged him and bound two talents of silver and two bags with two changes of

garments and handed them to two of his servants and

they carried them on ahead of him.

When he came to the citadel, he took them from their hands and

stored them away in the house.

Then he let them in go and they departed.

Now he went in and stood before his master, Elisha, and said to him,

where did you go, Gehazi?

Oh, he said, your servant didn't go anywhere.

Then he said to him, did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from

his chariot to meet you?

Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing?

Olive grows in vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants.

Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.

And he went out from his presence, leprous as white as snow.

Now, Just because you get caught up in your own little story doesn't mean you're

gonna get leprosy, that's not what this story is telling you.

But what it's doing, it's warning us.

And it's telling us that the broad pathway

with the gate that says it's all about you and all the promises associated with

what you think we've found at the end of that road will not be found there.

Now, we left out the most important part of this story.

We didn't leave it out, we read it, but we stopped, we didn't stop.

Because I wanna take you back to the hero of the story.

Do you remember in the beginning there was a little maiden?

Do you not think, and by the way, in the play, her name is Rebecca.

The scripture doesn't even name her.

But do you realize this story wouldn't have happened?

Rebecca, you think about Rebecca, do you not think she had a story?

In the play, Rebecca is this just beautiful little girl.

She lights up a room when she comes in, she's got a little thing for

Benjamin down the road.

In fact, the parents have already arranged for something for them.

And then the raiders come charging into town, and

poor Rebecca is pulled up, laid over the horse, and she's gone.

And her story is over.

You understand that?

Her story is gone.

It's not just a page or two taken out, the whole story is gone.

And she's now a prisoner of war in a pagan land.

And in the play, Naaman's wife is a Jezebel.

And this is her life now.

Rebecca has every right to be a bitter,

shriveled up old woman.

And when Naaman gets leprosy, she had every right to say yes.

And I hope you live a long life.

I hope your nose falls off.

I hope you suffer.

>> Wow.

>> And we say, well, I think she has a right to be bitter like that.

But she wasn't.

Now you have to read the play to find out why.

Rebecca, amazing enough, isn't caught up in her own little story.

She's caught up somehow in the larger story of God so

that when her owner

gets leprosy, she says, if my master could only see the prophet

in Samaria, he could cure him of his leprosy.

And he tells the king, the king writes a letter,

and Naaman goes to Samaria, and God cleanses him.

Do you understand?

There would be no Naaman story here if it were not for

a little maiden who had made a decision

in the midst of her terrible, terrible circumstances

that she was going to live in the larger story of God.

You and I have the same decision before us every day.

Are we going to be caught up in our own little story?

Are we going to be angry because our parents don't?

Are we going to be disappointed because our kids don't?

Are we going to be upset because the president doesn't?

Are you going to be angry at your neighbor?

Or are we going to say, hmm, I wonder what God's up to here?

Because you and I have the opportunity to be Rebecca.

You have no idea what God might do when you just get caught up

in His story and refuse to say yes to your own will,

to your own script, and to simply say yes,

I will deny myself and follow you.

And there, my friends, you will find true peace

and true happiness.

And maybe beyond that, you may find that God is going

to use your faithfulness.

You may never be named.

You may never have a name in the world's history of anything,

but you have a name in the heart and mind of God

because you were the hero of the story without a name.

And this is what God calls us to.

This is what He lays before us every day of our life.

Will we make the right decision?

And we make those decisions wrongly, you know that.

But every day we get up, His mercies are new every day.

And every day we say, God, help me today, not my will.

Remember three times Jesus said in Gethsemane,

not my will, but yours.

In the context of what we're saying here, Jesus said,

not my script, not my strip, your script, your story,

not mine.

We have to say that constantly.

May that be our prayer.

Now, I'm going to pray and close in prayer.

And my understanding is that there'll be some people up here

who will pray with you if you want to.

If the Lord is calling you out of your script, I hope He is.

I hope He's calling you and me out of our script.

And we're willing to lay down our script before Him.

If you want to do it up here, if you want to do it there,

if you want to do it at home today,

I encourage you to do it because we needed it every day.

Father, thank you so much for allowing

us to have recorded this event in the life of Naaman,

but especially, Father, in the life of this little girl

we call Rebecca.

We thank you that she was caught up in the larger story,

your larger story.

Lord, we pray that we might do the same today.

We might walk away from our script, all those things

we've been invested in, things that end up causing us

to be manipulators of others, to be angry at others,

to be disappointed, to be worried, to be depressed,

to be bitter.

Oh, Lord, that we would lay all that aside, flush it away,

and turn and rejoice in your story,

that we, Father, are your servants.

Thank you for the atoning work that's been given for us,

that we might be called your children.

And your love has been poured out upon us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

[APPLAUSE]