Practical theology

Introduction

Good Morning, if you have your Bibles please turn to

2 Kings 5:5–14 (NKJV)

Then the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand 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.”

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.”

Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, 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, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He 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 the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. 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 then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he 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.

Humanity is has the very unique ability to have a set of beliefs and then act in a way that contridicts those beliefs. This is why Jesus says that we need to look at our own hearts before we look at our own outside actions.

This is also why head knowledge that is not acted upon is useless. If you know the correct answer and yet fail to put that answer down during a test, the teacher will fail you.

what we are talking about is taking our knowledge and putting it into action. The Bible is a book of action, God sends us out. But we must internalize our beliefs about what the Bible says.

It is one thing to believe in God, it is another thing to believe God.

R. C. Sproul

I think R.C. Sproul sums this all up with that quote. It is one thing to believe in God, to believe there is a creator. It is a much bigger decision in your life to believe God.

Do you believe Jesus loved you so much that He died for your sins? or do you just believe in that sentiment. Look at our own lives, this is why divorce is so hard on kids. Do you know it in your heart that your parent love and will protect you? Or do you believe it because someone told you that ? Do you believe in your heart that you are saved because of the work of Jesus, do you believe God loves you so much that He would do all of this for you? Or do you just hear the message from the pulpit and it sounds good and it makes sense of a chaotic world. Essentially what I am putting to the test is that Christianity isn’t a mere set of common religious beliefs but 1. it is an ability to have a relationship with God and 2. it is a complete way to live and navigate through this broken world while being in that relationship with God.

We are going to look at only one lesson through our journey with Namaam

We are going to look at what beliefs vs Practical theology. Through the story of Namaam we will look at beliefs vs their actions.

So Naaman was the commander of the King of Syria. He is described as an honorable man and the Lord had given victory to Syria. There was one problem with him though. He had leperosy. Now a young captive girl told of how great the prophet was in Israel.

2 Kings 5:5–7 (NKJV)

Then the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand 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.”

Now the king of Syria is sending a letter with Namaam , this letter is important, it states the intention of the people coming from Syria and it will come into play.

Now look at what Namaam departs with. Look at all that money and material things that Namaam brings. Here we see our first set of beliefs vs practical theology. Namaam believes that the prohpet Elisha can heal him. He is going to undertake this journey to travel to him. Travel in this period of history wasn’t easy. Yet practically though he doesn’t understand God. He is bringing all of this wealth and material things to give to Elisha. He is trying to buy his healing. So there is a belief it will happen but he believes it will happen because of who he is and the wealth that he posseses.

Now we come to the King of Israel. His practical theology completly disreagds God. what drives this man is simple. Self-presevation. He only cares for himself. He doesn’t see the opprunity standing in front of him to show the true power of God to a syrian. He only cares that Syria isn’t trying to pick a fight. He misses the God moment presented right to him.

Now Elish hears of this and sends for Namaam to come to him.

2 Kings 5:9–14 (NKJV)

Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, 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, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He 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 the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. 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 then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he 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.

Let us take this a little at a time. We talked about Elisha two weeks ago. And here he is again as a major prophet of God. First off Elisha doesn’t even leave his house. A messenger goes out to tell Naaman what to do. His instructions are to go to the Jordan and wash 7 times.

We have established that Naaman believes the healing can happen. Yet when the instructions come, his reaction is anger and rage. It wasn’t going to happen like he thought it was going to happen. What God was going to do wasn’t good enough for Naaman. Naaman is the commander of armies, he deserves more pomp and ciructstance. He wants it to be a spektecal. He came all this way, brought all this gold and presents. The least Elisha could do was come outside. As matter of fact the rivers of Damascus are better. Naaman’s pride and his view of himself is conflicting with his belief of God. They aren’t aligned and thus it is making him angry. He feels that he deserves more than he is getting. This is a sentiment that is very prevalant in the world we live in today. We deserve something. God is presenting Naaman with a mircle and yet it isn’t the method that he wants it. It is to simple. Its not the correct river according to Naaman. Yet isn’t this what he wants? Doesn’t he want to be healed?

To go back to R.C. Sproul, does he believe in God? or does he believe God.

This is the fundamental issue most of us face. We believe in mircales, we believe in God but the execution and daily life of believing doesn’t quite add up to our personal theology. We have to take our personal or practical theology and line it up with God and not the other way around.

God granted Naaman’s request but he’s angry not because of God but because of his own views. We looked at the armies of Israel , Edom, and Judah 2 weeks ago. Those men had to dig ditches to get the miracle. We cannot equate oursevles with God, we aren’t the same. He is the creator of all, we follow His will and not the other way around. Sometimes that means putting our own pride aside because that is what is called for.

Now luckily Naaman was smart enough to listen to his servants who corrected him. We do not all have that humility. We need to listen to other people in our lives. We aren’t always the smartest person in the room. God puts in community for a reason and one of those reasons is that other people can help us. There is no doubt that Naaman was a great general, but in this instances he was wrong. He listened and was cleansed.

Now what about all of those gifts that Naaman brought with him. Well Elisha doesn’t want them. However Naaman’s servant didn’t think that Elisha was correct and he went and got some of that treasure for himself and even lied about it. We fastfoward to the end of the story

2 Kings 5:26–27 (NKJV)

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 groves and 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.

The servant felt that he deserved something for what happened. But who did all the work? Did the servant or Elisha do any of the work? No not at all. It was God who cured Naaman. Elisha didn’t even leave the house. While the servant left the house, he basically went outside the front door. This notion that we deserve things and God owes us one is just not true. We owe God more than we could ever repay. I fear in our current world this is running rampant. that there is this notion that the world someone how owes all something. They miss the forrest for the trees. Jesus already gave us everything we could ever need when He went to that cross. Eternity has been secured not because Jesus owed us but because Jesus loved us.

This servant was a man that dedicated himself to Elisha and the Lord and yet his practical theology betrayed. Elisha tells him is it time to receive money or clothing? Elisha is telling him that all of this in in God’s time and God’s will.

So as we move through this week, look at things that you believe in your life or situtations you maybe facing as go to God. Where are places in your life where your fears, or your pride get in the way of following God. When you find yourself angry, or upset at God, what makes you feel that way? As we know God is perfect in His love and justice, so it is something in us that is causing the issue and sometime that is soemthing deep in our hearts, most of the time it is something buried deep inside us that we need to bring out to God and give it over to Him so that he can heal that as well.

Let us Pray.