At the Doorway of Disapointment

2 Kings 4:11–17 NIV

One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ ” She replied, “I have a home among my own people.” “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.” Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!” But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

At the Doorway of Disappointment

Introduction

How many of you remember the last time that you were disappointed?

If you are a Charger fan, it shouldn’t be that hard.

Ok but seriously, we’ve all been disappointed, and I know exactly why.

We are all disappointed for the same reason. Every single one of us.

How is that possible?

Here it is… we expected more. We expected more.

So when we expect more; either out of the food we ate, a concert we went to, or a potential relationship, when things are not up to our expectations we are disappointed.

Transition

And today I believe the Lord is leading me to speak to your disappointment today.

And I’m not talking about the disappointment over your sports team, or something that is trivial, I want to speak to your deeper disappointments today, and I believe that someone will be healed. I believe that someone will be set free. And someone will never be the same again.

The Shunamite Woman

We meet a woman in 2 Kings that is unnamed. The Bible refers to her as the Shunamite woman, but that was not her name. Shunem was were she was from, but her name is noticeably absent from the text.

“Call the Shunammite.”

She’s not like other women in the Bible who named; such as Ruth, Naomi, Mary, or Martha.

Whenever names are not listed in the text I believe that it gives many of a point of relation.

We can relate to this woman without a name, because we often feel like we are that unnamed person.

We don’t own a business.

We are not in leadership.

We don’t have a lot of influence.

We are just another person in the crowd, and our name is not worth mentioning.

But here is this woman, this very ordinary woman, and yet she does a very unordinary thing.

The Visiting Prophet

There is a Prophet named Elisha who is passing by her home as he is traveling to and from her city.

To give you some context about who Elisha was, you need to understand that there were men and women who were called prophets. They had such a closeness with God that God would relay messages through them to the people of Israel or the leaders of Israel. So this meant that the prophets were respected for their relationship and closeness with God.

This woman notices the Prophet, and she tells him that whenever he is hungry, he got stop in and eat with her and her husband.

Why is this an unordinary thing?

We read:

2 Kings 4:8 (NIV)

One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat.

I don’t know if it was because she was a good cook, the home was nice, or the conversation was good, but Elisha liked stopping by their house.

What I want you to see here is that this very ordinary woman went out of her way to make sure that she took care of the man of God.

The application here is that sometimes serving God can feel very ordinary.

We need to be cautious that we don’t start to believe that the only way to serve God is to be a person with a speaking gift or a teaching gift. There are many gifts in the church, and if your gift is to serve, then you are called to serve whole heartedly.

I would also say, your gift matters.

There have been studies done and it has been concluded that people will often make a decision about our church within the first few minutes of arriving at our church.

The way you make people feel will matter a lot more than what I have to say.

This is also why there is a level of excellence that we want our Team to carry. Maybe you’ve been led to believe that parking or greeting is not important, but it matters.

You matter.

Say ordinary.

This woman did a very ordinary thing, until she felt compelled to do something more.

One day she told her husband, “You know, he sure seems to like staying here. And there’s a room upstairs with your exercise bike in it. We both know the only thing that exercise bike is doing is holding up clothes you need to put away. Why don’t we ditch the exercise room and make a room for this prophet?”

Her husband had no clap back for her. He knew the only reason he went into that room was to get away from her. So he agreed…

And this woman, who began by serving a meal to the man of God, began to make room for him.

Make Room

Do you know what fasting and prayer does? It makes room for God.

Are you making room for what God want’s to do in your life this year?

This woman, after she had done a very ordinary thing, understood the gift on this man. She knew that they were keeping company with not just any person, but a Holy Person.

She decided that serving him was one thing, but to make room for him was something entirely different.

And there are so many of you who are at the place of serving, and I believe the Lord is now saying to you, now it is time to make room.

You’ve allowed the Lord to come and visit you from time to time, but now he wants to abide with you. He wants more than just your service, now he wants to make your heart his home.

This is a different degree isn’t it?

It’s one thing to have someone over for a meal, but to allow them to come and stay with you?

Now you need to get a room cleaned out. You don’t just tell your guest to help themselves, but you are preparing the room. And beyond the room, you are preparing the bed. You are putting fresh sheets on the bed. You are giving your guest a new towel. You are making sure they have what they need by way of toiletries and a place for them in the restroom.

And what we do in the natural should be a reflection of what we do in the supernatural.

Making room is creating a space for God to abide.

We are now preparing a place for the Lord to abide with us. That means, we are tidying up the parts of our lives that aren’t fit for the King. We are looking at how our free time is spent. We are looking at the company that we keep. We are looking at the voices that are speaking into our lives.

You see if you want Jesus to abide with you, you have to make room for him.

My Need is Deeper

After a time of being served by this woman we read that the prophet wanted to do something for this woman. The prophet surprisingly drops a big name… He asked her, “Do you want me to put in a good word with the King?”

It doesn’t get much bigger than that, does it? The Prophet is willing to tell the King about what she’s done for him in hopes that the King would reward her.

And here’s her response,

“I have a home among my own people.”

Basically saying, “I’m good.”

Now, this surprised the Prophet. Who wouldn’t want a King’s reward?

I’ll tell you who. Someone who has a deeper need than to be seen by people.

Do you want to know who can relate to this woman?

People with needs that money can’t fix.

How many of you understand what I am talking about?

Money won’t fix what was done to me when I was a child.

Money won’t fix the abuse I’ve endured.

Money won’t heal the sick parts of my body.

Money won’t give me the child I lost

When the woman answered like this, we are beginning to see that this unnamed woman had clearly been through some very hard things.

The Prophet is drawn into her story, and he tells his servant, “there’s got to be something I can do for her.”

That’s when the observant servant tells him, “She wants a kid. Her and her husband haven’t been able to conceive a child.

And that is when we get to climax of this story.

The Prophet once again calls out to her from this room in her house. We read that she came to him, but she stood at the doorway.

That’s an interesting detail that makes it’s way into the text, but it’s about to be understood through their conversation.

Elisha tells her that at this time next year she’s going to have a child.

Instead of her receiving this word with joy and with gladness, she is cautious. She’s guarded. She tells him, “Don’t mislead your servant.”

You see this woman had heard this before. She had hopes that her and her husband would have a home full of children. But as the years past, it became increasingly clear that having a child wasn’t going to be easy.

They sought out the best advise, and the best care.

They tried everything they could, and spent anything necessary, to have a child.

And still… nothing. She couldn’t carry a child.

You see, after you’ve held out for hope for so long, you get comfortable standing at the doorway of disappointment.

The Doorway of Disappointment represents our place of unanswered prayers.

You’ve been let down in the past. You’ve been hurt in the past. You’ve had to pick up the pieces of broken dreams and you’re not walking into that room again.

The Prophet is in the room, and he’s speaking a word of life, but she won’t go into the room because she can’t handle another let down.

She’s much more fragile than anyone else knows. And until Elisha hit the right nerve, no one knew the extend of her disappointment.

Conclusion

Now, with this information, let’s walk the story back one more time.

She’s fragile, but she welcomed the prophet into her house.

She’s fragile, but she found a way to serve.

Some of you can identify with this woman. You show up every Sunday, and you’ve even started serving others. But no one knows the extent of your brokenness. Like the woman, you don’t let anyone see the burden thats buried deep inside of you. Like the woman, if you can just occupy yourself enough with your day, you’ll forget about the deep unresolved issues in your life.

You’re not just at the Doorway of Disappointment, you’ve gotten used to being there.

I am not here to promise that God is going to answer every one of your prayer requests. That’s not where my hope lies.

My hope lies in the fact that when I make room for Jesus to come in, I’m preparing a place for him to begin to heal every part of my life.

If the woman doesn’t let the Prophet in, he can’t confront her broken dreams.

If you don’t make room for Jesus, he can’t confront your broken dreams.

Jesus won’t confront what you conceal.

I am not saying that he can’t do it, because there is nothing that He can’t do. But he won’t do it because he wants you to be a part of your healing.

Call

If you are ready to let Jesus in today, then I want to pray for you.

If you are ready to let Jesus into the parts of your life that you’ve tried your best to keep hidden, then I am going to ask you to do two things:

You’re going to start to make room for Jesus to come in.

Once he’s in, you’re doing to step through the doorway of disappointment, and you’re going to allow Jesus to heal the deepest parts of your pain.