A Tale of Two Hearts – & Two Dangers

We are in the book of 2 Kings, if you would like to find a Bible and open that to chapter 5. We've also got some scripture journals in the back. If you're new with us, we'd love you to take one of those.

It gives you a place to have the scripture on one side and maybe some notes that you can take on the other. And if you were, I know it's been October, a lot of fall breaks and things going on.

So some of you we've seen one week and then gone the next and I've been gone and now I'm back. So if you were with us last week and you were able to catch the message, we were in 2 Kings chapter 5 and we met this man named Naaman.

2 Kings 5 · chapter mention

Let me just try to recap a little bit of what's happened thus far. Naaman, in the first 14 verses, we learn was a mighty man of valor, a war-hardened, battle-scarred man, but also highly regarded and we're told highly favored by the king.

He's the king's right-hand man. He's fought wars. He's a national hero. But the end of verse 1 tells us that he was a leper. Now the geopolitical situation right now in the Near East here is somewhat stable at the moment.

What that means is that relations between Israel and Syria are kind of peaceful. They're still sworn enemies, but it's a time of relative peace.

And yet there have been border skirmishes. Raiding parties are happening. And on one of these raids, we learn in verse 2, a little Israelite girl has been taken captive and put into slavery.

And yet as providence would have it, whose household does she end up serving but Naaman's? In fact, she seems to be pretty well treated by this family.

And she feels bad for her master that he has this condition. And so she says to her mistress one day, you know, if only. If only my lord could see the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.

And the story picks up pretty quickly after that. It doesn't take much for Naaman then to go to his king, get permission. The king supplies him with an official letter to the king of Israel.

And also with what ends up being millions and millions of dollars worth of payment. Silver, gold, clothing. A whole caravan of treasure is loaded up and brought into Israel.

And after we saw what happened last week, how initially when by the time Naaman got to Elisha, to his house, and Elisha wouldn't come out and meet him personally, he was a little offended and frustrated at what seemed to be bizarre instructions

that he was supposed to go down to the muddy Jordan River and wash himself seven times. But even though he's all but ready to head for home, his faithful servants get through to him.

They humbly convince him to go ahead and give it a try. Basically, they say to him, what do you have to lose? And so he does. And coming up out of the water on that seventh and final time in verse 14, we read that his skin is completely restored.

Baby soft skin like the skin of a little child. So that's where we are. We're going to pick up reading in verse 15. If you'd like to follow along with me as I read for us.

Then Naaman returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.

So accept now a present from your servant. But he said, As the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused.

Then Naaman said, If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth. For from now on, your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any God but the Lord.

In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant. When my master goes into the house of Ramon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Ramon.

When I bow myself in the house of Ramon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. He said to him, Go in peace. But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said,

See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian and not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.

So Gehazi followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, Is all well? And he said, All is well.

My master has sent me to say, There have just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.

And Naaman said, Be pleased to accept two talents. And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of clothing and laid them on two of his servants.

And they carried them before Gehazi. And when he came to the hill, he took from them from their hand and put them in the house. And he sent the men away and they departed.

He went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, Where have you been, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant went nowhere. But he said to him, Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you?

Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? Therefore, therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.

So he went out from his presence a leper like snow. Would you pray with me once more as we seek the Lord's help? Heavenly Father, we come to you recognizing your word has authority and it has power to change us, Lord.

We recognize that all of it is inspired. The teachings of the New Testament, the Psalms, the Old Testament history, the law, it's all here for us.

And so, Lord, show yourself today in it. Teach us, Lord, according to your ways. And most of all, draw our focus to your Son and to the work that you have done in salvation through the cross.

And we pray this in your name. In Jesus' name. Amen.

I don't know about you, but I read stories like this one and I'm like, you know, maybe it should have stopped at what? Verse 19? It should have stopped at verse 19, at least for Gehazi anyway.

But before that, before things take the negative turn, we're seeing some pretty incredible things in Naaman. I mean, let's start with Naaman and his confession that he makes in the very first verse.

More like a profession. Because with Naaman now returning to the cities, come back from the Jordan River to Samaria. And now he is finally able to be face to face with Elisha.

And he makes this profession in verse 15. He says, Behold, now I know there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Think about what that's saying.

That's like saying, all the other gods, including our Syrian national god, Ramon, who by the way was like their Zeus, the chief of their pantheon.

Naaman is saying, they're all nothing. They're all fake. There's no other gods at all. Only one true God. And it's in Israel. I mean, that's pretty impressive that he would rightly acknowledge that it wasn't the prophet who healed him.

It was the Lord. And it's right about now that we realize that Elisha's method, his deliberate absence from the healing, his distance from the sight of the miracle, we now understand the purpose.

So that precisely, this would be the result. That Naaman would clearly understand God had healed him and not some holy man with a wave of a hand.

And when we stop and think about the significance of this profession from our Syrian general, it's pretty impressive. And honestly, it makes Israel at large look pretty pitiful in comparison.

Pagan Naaman is able to recognize what so many in Israel somehow can't or won't, that there's only one God. And it's in Israel. He is in Israel.

But then interestingly, he goes on, Naaman does, at the end of the verse, we look at how he tries to offer Elisha a gift. He says, so now accept a present from your servant.

Accept a present. You ever been around somebody who was really, really, really wealthy? And maybe that person wanted to give you something. In fact, they were begging to offer you something.

I've not had that happen to me. Have you? Think about what that would be like. Don't underestimate how hard it would be to refuse this. And remember the time.

Remember right now that it is a time of famine in Israel. Remember, just a chapter ago, we see the prophet having to multiply food to try to feed these sons of the prophets.

Things are meager and austere. And people are hungry in Israel. Can't you just think about the ways that Elisha could have rationalized accepting this gift now?

Think about the good I could do, Elisha might have thought. All the food that this millions and millions of dollars worth of gold and silver could buy.

I could feed and take care of the sons of the prophets and their families. I could do so much good with it. But Elisha knows that he cannot accept it.

He will not accept it. And this is not because Elisha is some kind of insensitive jerk who doesn't care about people or because he thinks that Naaman's money is somehow tainted.

No, it's not that at all. His refusal to accept any gift, any payment is very, very purposeful. It's to reinforce that it was God and God alone who graciously healed Naaman.

In fact, he's so emphatic in wanting to drive that point home to this euphoric general that he even resorts to oath language in his answer. He says, as the Lord lives.

In other words, that's like saying, don't try to convince me otherwise. As the Lord lives, I will receive none.

Well, in verse 17, Naaman gets the message. He stops trying to convince him. And now there's an interesting turn with the man because he turns from trying to offer Elisha something to now making requests of the prophet.

A couple of requests. He starts out in verse 17. He says, if not, if you won't receive anything, then please, if you don't mind, let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any God but to the Lord.

I don't know if you guys know this. I've shared this story a couple of times in my life and my property. My wife and I have tried to grow a garden.

And we've had a little bit of success but this year was terrible. Absolutely terrible. We grew some weird hybrid of a green bean that wasn't even edible.

And so the forest animals got it. But we blame not our own gardening skills of course. We blame the soil. And maybe you've heard me talk about the soil that we have in our subdivision where they trucked in dirt and pushed stuff around.

And so basically what we have is we have about an inch of pretty good topsoil and underneath that we have beach sand. Beach sand. And so we're not very fruitful with our crop.

And you know, we have family back in the state called Iowa. And when we go back to Iowa and to the family farm there we just feast our eyes on the dirt.

Because it's the richest and the blackest and literally they say the most nutrient dense soil not just in America but in the whole world. And so we go back and we see this farmland and we literally covet the ground.

If I had a pickup truck I would load it up and bring it back. We've actually talked about doing this. Bringing back some of that dirt. But I want you to understand for Naaman here it's not the agricultural quality of the dirt that is having him want to bring these mule loads of earth back.

It's the spiritual quality. And by that what I mean is it's the spiritual significance. We have to understand that people back in this day in the ancient world made a big deal of the land that they were in.

The land they were in and even its borders and they often thought that deities were tied to even kind of confined to land. And that they didn't have authority that extended past its borders.

So there might be a little bit of this at play in some of Naaman's sort of infantile new believer thinking. But what he really wants these two loads of earth for is something that actually fits what we see in the Mosaic law.

Check this out from Exodus book of Exodus chapter 20 verse 24. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings your sheep and your oxen in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

Exodus 20:24

Now it's highly doubtful that our Syrian war commander is familiar with the Mosaic law but the idea I want you to get this the idea was pretty far reaching altars of earth were very common and that's presumably what Naaman intends to do with this dirt that he's

bringing back to build for himself an altar back home to Israel's God with land from the territory of Israel to the true God to the only God as he says that's his first request but it's not his only one he goes immediately on in the next verse verse 18

also by the way in this matter in this little thing I'm going to tell you about can I please get some advance pardon when my master goes into the house of Roman to worship there leaning on my arm and I bow myself in the house of Roman the Lord pardon your servant

in this matter now again Roman is the Syrian national god and apparently we're learning that part of the official duties for this man Naaman part of the duties attached to his role as the top general in the land is that he has to accompany the king to these religious events

this talk about the king leaning on my arm it could be literal it might be that the king is aged and he needs help but you know a lot of scholars actually think it's just a nod to the official duties the status that Naaman has and the official duties that would be

expected of him as the right hand man of the king basically when they march in procession he's supposed !

Elisha this is part of my duties it's what's expected of me but I want you to know when I do it I promise I won't mean it it will mean nothing to me because that god Ramon is not the god I am going to be worshipping now no it's simply by virtue of my position that I must accompany

the king in this kind of official capacity but but when I do it can I please get advanced forgiveness for this wow from a brand new believer what a bold statement what a request his conversion seems very very real

already we see that he's got a sensitive conscience he's got a pure heart in what he's asking for and Elisha's response I'll be honest with you it's made a few theologians kind of nervous you're like you know Elisha maybe you shouldn't have said that because he says go in peace go

in peace in other words he's telling Naaman you may be at peace in what you're saying and what you're asking for Elisha seems to get it the complexity of worshiping God and yet having to live in a very pagan culture and with his heart's intent Naaman's heart

intent stated so clearly Elisha doesn't want this brand new believer to overly burden his conscience what he wants is for Naaman's mind and his heart to be at peace well again if only the story ended here at verse

19 but it doesn't it goes on because no sooner does our prophet wish Naaman well and wave goodbye to the caravan taking all the treasure away that he's refused he disappears over the horizon and somebody's got a plan his name is Gehazi

this is Elisha's assistant his main servant and we're told that in verse 20 Gehazi grumbles to himself and says it like this he says my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian and you can just kind of hear the contempt in his voice the ethnic superiority

as he is a true blooded Israel over against this pagan Syrian and he goes on he says he might not accept any reward from his hand but but dog on it as the Lord lives and that's that's pretty much the sense that we have here it's like he's taking the Lord's name in vain

my God if I don't go after him and get something that's literally what he says chilling words from a chilled heart he quietly follows Naaman's caravan outside the city doesn't want to be seen by anybody leaving town they all get far enough

away that now he's running after the chariot to catch up and meanwhile someone in Naaman's party notices and informs the general hey we got a guy running after us Naaman looks out recognizes Gehazi after all they had met they had been conversing he knows who this is and we're told that he

dismounts his chariot he comes down to give a very warm personal greeting and the first thing that he's concerned about is that something is wrong and so we ask in verse 21 is all well everything's fine Gehazi answers in verse 22 but you know my master has sent me

to tell you that we just had these

no country of Ephraim and you know we've reconsidered we'd actually like to take you up on your very generous offer but we just need maybe one talent of silver and then you know a couple of changes of clothing for these two guys here's where the deceit and the conniving of Gehazi

stands in stark contrast to Naaman's generosity he's just made up a lie on the spot probably nothing of the kind has happened and he's certainly not certainly not accurately reporting any of Elisha's instruction to essentially tell Naaman yeah we've had

a change of heart on the money no Elisha has not had a change of heart it's Gehazi's heart that's speaking here and besides what seems like a small amount one tenth of what was offered one talent of silver actually less than that by today's buying power let me remind us again how much this is worth

this is like seven million dollars I don't know about you but I could be pretty comfortable with seven million dollars you need seven million dollars to help take care of a couple of house guests the story doesn't even really add up Gehazi is basically trying to set himself

up for life but Naaman desperately wants to Elisha takes the man at his word and so he not only willingly gives Gehazi the one talent of silver he says no no no let me double it please accept two talents and so

with those two talents of silver now tied up for him in two bags along with those couple of changes of clothing Naaman sends two of his servants to help Gehazi transport all this loot !

hill and what this is this is basically the last big hill outside of Samaria this is the hill where once you crest it and come over it everybody in town is going to be able to see you coming in and cleverly Gehazi says to these two servants you know what guys I'm feeling a burst of energy I don't know what he told them

I think you know I can take it from here why don't you just go ahead and load me up and I'll go ahead and carry it the rest of the way you just stay here on this side of the hill and just go back and nobody needs to really see you maybe it was too much for him to carry all by himself I don't know maybe Gehazi cooked up

another story about why he needed to have them stay there and he would make a couple of trips back and forth who knows but here's the thing Elisha knows he knows exactly what Gehazi has been up to almost like he's been watching

I don't think they had drones back then but it's almost like maybe there was a supernatural something watching and that he had a view because the way he speaks later he says basically you know when I saw what you did and I saw that chariot stop and name and turn my heart sank what he says to him

first in verse 25 is where have you been Gehazi oh your servant went nowhere nowhere special nowhere in particular you know it's like when you're a parent you've got young kids and you maybe walk down the hall where the bedrooms are and your child suddenly comes out of their room and maybe shuts the door and you're

like what are you doing in there nothing you know better and Elisha certainly knows better and so he I imagine he stares at Gehazi penetrates the soul of his greedy servant and he goes on to tell him he says in verse 26 did not my heart go

when the man turned from his chariot to meet you almost like he was there watching supernaturally able to witness the whole event he goes on was it a time Gehazi to accept money and garments all of orchards and vineyards sheep and

oxen male servants and female servants and maybe you're money and clothes well it was but this is basically a catalog of all the things that Gehazi has been dreaming about that he'll do with the money Elijah perceives a lot in this man he perceives that he wants all these

things all the stuff all the marks of wealth that's what they are you probably aren't interested in a sheep or an ox but back in this day this was wealth he knows that he wants to take this nearly what 14 15 million dollars worth of loot that he

has in the meantime secretly stashed somewhere in the house kind of like Achan once did you remember his story he says this was no time to take gifts Gehazi because you haven't just defrauded a man you haven't just defrauded a new brother in the

Lord which is what general name and is you've defrauded God what you've done is you've received payment and essentially taken credit for God's work and in doing that you've completely robbed God of his honor his

glory and you know really when we step back and think about the complexity of what Gehazi has done he's done a lot wrong in fact even just by a standard of the Ten Commandments he's broken about half of them third commandment he's taken the Lord's name in vain

fifth commandment you could say that he's failed to honor his spiritual father Elisha eighth commandment do not steal ninth commandment bear no false witness tenth commandment you shall not covet !

And thus Elisha somberly pronounces a sentence in verse 27 he says the leprosy of Naaman shall now cling to you and to your descendants forever and just like that we see how a case of leprosy kind of really

frames our whole story in the beginning verse one in the end verse 27 literally it bookends the whole chapter because now we're learning that not only has some wealth transferred from the hand of Naaman to the hand of Gehazi here at the end the uncleanliness

has to the skin disease itself has come upon Gehazi as a judgment from the Lord Gehazi may now be a richer man but he will forever after always be plagued by a condition that as Naaman himself

could testify no amount of money can heal or clear up was it worth it today I think the best way to take stock of what we're seeing here is to focus our attention on a couple of pairs of things

that we see here so again I'd like us to kind of take our focus off of Elisha for a moment because really I think what we should focus our attention on are these two different men because they have two very different hearts and as we look more deeply

into one of these men's hearts I think you know which one I think we're going to find ourselves warned against some very real dangers a couple of dangers so in many ways you could call today a tale of two hearts and two dangers to taking some notes let me just kind of start with the hearts

of course I'm talking about Naaman the Syrian and Gehazi the Israelite let's start with Naaman what is this Syrian man's heart like I think we can describe Naaman's heart with a few key softening softening

I mean remember what we saw last time with Naaman a pretty gruff guy pretty aggravated kind of upset that he wasn't getting the respect from Elisha irritated at the instructions to go dip in a muddy river 25 miles away but that has changed his heart

is softening it's softening so much that he's even now got a soft conscience and even if you've noticed a very polite and soft demeanor so much so that when a servant runs up to him outside of town Gehazi he himself gets down out of his chariot

yes the first thing I think we see in this battle hardened veterans heart is that it has a new found spiritual softness here's another word humble humble Naaman has certainly humbled !

himself it took some prodding took some prodding from a servant or two but now he's changed his heart is different I mean no less than five different times he refers to himself as your servant Elisha's servant God he has his skin has healed but

his heart has been healed too and it's been greatly humbled and please understand in as much as he demonstrates a humility in front of God's man Elisha this is really a humility before God pure if nothing else with this strange

request that he makes for an advance pardon I think we can see that he has a renewed pure heart his conscience is uneasy about his role back home he's bothered by the thought of what he will do what he's going to have to do when he's back home on duty although he says I'm only going to be walking !

through the motions my heart's not going to be in it he still thinks it's necessary to ask the man of God for advance pardon may the Lord pardon your servant that's because he wants to remain pure and undivided in his devotion to Yahweh to the God of Israel

generous I think that's pretty clear Naaman's heart is generous I mean the sheer amount of wealth that he tries to give to God's ! I mean he would have offered enough money to take care of all the sons of the prophets

but Elisha won't receive it and yet the generosity in Gehazi's heart comes out later when Gehazi tries to con him he successfully cons him because he says don't just take one tower please at least let me give you two I insist he's got a generous heart

and finally I would use the word sincere sincere requesting two loads of Israelite dirt this is a very sincere worshipper remember he's got all of his servants in the caravan watching what would they have thought as they're just packing you know digging loading up

into bags dirt to put on these two mules well they would think my master is very sincere in his devotion to God the God of Israel he and we know exactly what he intends to do with this dirt he's going to take it back home and build an altar for the exclusive worship of his new God

sincere so that's one heart but there are of course two hearts here let me turn your attention to the other heart that's on display this would be Gehazi what is this israelites heart like well

it's kind of an opposites game because the first word we would use to describe it is hardening rather than softening look at his heart Gehazi now is the one who is getting upset he's dissatisfied that his master has spared this guy spared as in

Naaman owed us nothing you let him off the hook my master has done this work for free gratis we shouldn't be doing things for free and certainly not for a foreigner his heart feels a sense of entitlement to the point that he actually in verse 20 is criticizing his

master see my master has done this dumb thing sparing this name in the Syrian hardness proud not only does Gehazi not like what his master has freely given this man Gehazi has a proud sense of disdain

for who and what this man is he refers to him as this Syrian this name in the Syrian he says that because he knows that he himself is a pure blood a true blood !

Israelite one of God's chosen people and he looks down on people like foreigners because he has a proud heart impure impure any heart filled with this kind of a desire for gain is an impure heart not to mention all the lengths that he

goes to to be so sneaky this is not pure behavior he wants that worldly wealth and he seeks out that worldly wealth in a very worldly kind of way we witness some very impure behavior because it's coming from Gehazi's very impure heart greedy

you could say that that's the seed of his impurity the seed of greed Gehazi wants wealth even in his crass words in verse 20 what's he say I've got to get something from him he's all about the money

and by the end again Elisha is able to list off all his greedy heart has been dreaming about money and garments and orchards and vineyards and servants and sheep and oxen all that a greedy heart could desire and finally deceptive

deceptive I mean what kind of a man a servant no less goes to such great lengths to try to pull the wool over his master's eyes and this just isn't any old master it's Elisha the prophet the man of God and he's supposed to be one of

his sons but his deceptive heart resorts to lies to made up stories and tall tales about non-existent visitors who show up unexpectedly every move he makes demonstrates carefully planned secrecy to the point of

outright lying to Elisha's face about his whereabouts deceptive so that's the tale of two hearts Naaman's and Gehazi's but there is a little more to see here because I think we need to look at a couple of the dangers specifically

that are present in Gehazi's actions dangerous moves that he makes that are very much a part of the story here too so it's a tale of two hearts but it's a tale of two dangers and let me just highlight what these dangers are here's the first one danger number one when someone

seeks personal gain from God's work they rob from God this is a danger when someone seeks personal gain from God's work they rob from God God I think

that's the crux of what's so wrong here in Gehazi's terrible ploy is that he's seeking personal gain his hardened proud impure greedy deceptive heart just wants that money that reward that's bad enough but really the deeper problem though is the message

it risks sending to Naaman and his men because after Gehazi has paid his visit and taken some of the loot it could appear to Naaman and his servants with him that apparently the man of God is kind of for hire I mean this is supposed to be someone representing the ministry of the word he !

actually shows up and says ! my master had a change of heart he is misrepresenting God's man God's word you know in the New Testament we're warned about this about being peddlers of God's word meaning trying to use God's word to get things for ourselves

there's this passage in Paul's letter to the Corinthians let me read 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 17 for us Paul says it this way he says for we are not like so many peddlers of God's word but as men of sincerity as commissioned by God

in the sight of God we speak Christ and there's that warning that James gives us over in his letter chapter 3 James chapter 3 verse 14 he says if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts do not boast and be

James 3:14

false to the truth he goes on a verse later verse 16 he says for where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there will be disorder and every vile practice haven't we seen that today with Gehazi's heart selfish ambition and some pretty

vile practices my friends when we do the work of ministry whatever that looks like in your life when you do the work of ministry in someone else's life in your church in your workplace in your neighborhood or somewhere else across the world

when you do the work of ministry we don't do it for an earthly reward not for an earthly reward we don't do it for the praise of man we don't do it for accolades and recognition and honor because when we get to be a part of God's work in some way whether it's a big

part or like Gehazi just a small part we cannot do it with a motive for any kind of personal gain because it robs from God whether it's a pastor like me hoping to see a church do well the church grow or maybe a new pastor

who's planning a church church planners are very tempted by this to want to see exciting fruit in a community missionaries sometimes are tempted by this because they're sent out with so much hope and support and we want to hear back how's it going but the glory isn't for

us the work of God is not for our personal gain or our own advancement in any way so that we'll look good or be spoken well of or be highlighted at a conference or in a newsletter or written about in some way or talked about and the same goes for all of us who are not in full time

ministry or just again a part of the work of God whether you serve somewhere here in this church or you serve somehow a neighbor in your neighborhood or another member of this church family we don't do the work of the Lord or support the work of the Lord for our own personal gain because if we do it

that way we are robbing from God because God needs to get all the glory it needs to be God's amazing grace that is on display and people's personal ambitions and desires that get in the way of his free grace

run the risk of perverting it and obscuring free grace and our God is a God of free grace and we don't want to distort that for personal profit or gain that's the first danger let me give you the second one number two number two also from Gehazi's actions

danger number two when someone pursues worldly things in worldly ways they get the world's uncleanliness with it they get the world's uncleanliness with it as we read down to the very last verse of our story

we see this very visibly in snow like skin flaky skin worldly ! things what are those? worldly gain what is that? it could be many different things it could be again recognition it could

be people's praise it could be our own personal advancement climbing the ladder somewhere making more money getting more prestigious posts in whatever your field is it could be financial gain financial payments I mean don't people of the world want to be

more important I think we're in a time right now a season they call it where a lot of people want to gain power they want to win an election worldly game worldly people want to have more power they want to make more money they want to have more things in this life

they want to be thought more highly ! of these are worldly goals and worldly pursuits they are the types of things that the worldly people people of the world spend their whole lives chasing after don't take it from me just look around but if we as Christians

pursue such things and if we pursue them in ways that look just like our world worldly ways unseemly ways ungodly ways selfish ways ways that mirror the kind of heart that we see here in this servant Gehazi

proud ways impure ways greedy ways deceptive ways if we pursue worldly things in worldly ways guess what we get with it we get the world's uncleanliness we find ourselves tainted and afflicted

with the world's uncleanliness and sometimes it passes to those looking at us the next generation our children and grandchildren we must be about different goals goals that glorify and advance not ourselves not our own lives and

interests but his kingdom and glory this morning we have a chance to come to the Lord's table and I'm going to ask those some of you that are going to be serving us this morning if you would come forward and stand

a couple of instructions we're going to pass around the cups to the seats so it's coming to you and as they come around you can pull out one cup it will be double stacked the juices in the top and the bread is in the bottom if you could separate those cups hold on to them until we're all served we want to partake

together I know we have some children with us so parents we leave it to you to decide if your kids are ready if they understand what they're doing as the cups begin to come around give you some time just to prepare your hearts

the Lord's table is a place ! where we remember what our Savior did for us it's a time for you to remember what your Savior has done for you personally will you take a

moment will you thank him the Lord's table

is a place where we come to proclaim something too we proclaim that Jesus God's only son took on not just an unclean skin condition an outer condition he took on an unclean inner condition the Bible teaches us that he took on the uncleanliness of our very

hearts Jesus took on the sins of this world that he so loved he carried them to the cross and he paid for them there and he took upon himself the very wrath of God by suffering in our place and in doing this he provided for all the

washing all the cleansing that we need the book of Hebrews reminds us that Christ entered once for all into the holy places

not by the means of the blood of calves and goats but by the means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption the writer goes on in chapter nine to say that Christ

is now the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance

whereas the old testament sacrificial system was an annual event

year after year we're told in Hebrews that Christ suffered once for all our story this morning reminds

us that the Lord accepts all who come someone born and raised in the faith someone from the homeland I guess a pure blooded Christian you might see yourself as but it also reaches to the foreigner and it makes two people one so whether you've

come to the table this morning as a foreigner to God's people unfamiliar with the church with little background maybe no background in the faith when you come to Christ your heart is washed you are new you are part of the family

today we remember what kind of heart Jesus blood cleanses and renews that only his blood can wash us

only his broken body on the cross can provide for our atonement let me ask you if you would bow your heads with me and let's pray

heavenly father we thank you for your generous sacrifice of your son for us we praise you Jesus we praise you for the humility that took you to the cross to bear its shame we praise you that you not only died for us but you also rose again

and we know that that's a signal of acceptance and victory and it's a hope of what all of us can expect one day to be raised again with you and even now we want to walk in newness of life let us walk that daily walk with you by your spirit we

pray this Jesus in your holy name amen ! Paul's words to the Corinthian church he writes in 1 Corinthians 11 he says what I received from the Lord I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread

and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me shall we eat together

Paul goes on and tells us that in the same way after supper he also took the cup saying this cup is the new covenant in my

blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes let's drink together Jesus

we thank you for providing this cup for us to drink the cup of forgiveness of sins the newness of life that we celebrate you give us this cup while you drank the cup of wrath Lord we remember your words in the garden you submitted and obeyed the

father the father's will you took for us you drank for us what we couldn't and we thank you and Lord we do ask you to help empower us Lord give us new hearts fresh hearts Lord that show the kind of purity and sincerity and generosity Lord all the fruits and virtues

that we see coming from the life of name and today let us give you may your grace be evident to us Lord and we pray this in the powerful name of our King and our risen Savior Jesus Amen