Becoming a great follower

May 18th 2025

Series:   

Sermon Title: Becoming a great follower

Topic: Journey through the life of Elisah to learn how he became an incredible man of God.

Key Passages: 2 Kings 6: 24-33, 2 Kings 7:1-20, 2 Kings 8: 1-6

Topic: Elisha, Miracles, Following,

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will hear about how Elisha followed God’s leading at all times and how we need to learn how to do the same.

***1st week ODD months add communion & target message at 15 pages.

***1st week EVEN months add space for dedication, baptism, or ministry highlight & target message at 15 pages.

***Green in sermons means illustration, something we are looking for a response from, and/or a picture that goes on the screens.

***Yellow means what is yellow will be on the screens and in the handout.

Dedication, Baptism, or Ministry Highlight (1st Sunday, even months):

Sermon:

Hello Family Church!

Family Moment –

Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.

Celebrate salvation / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

PAUSE

I hope all mothers had an AMAZING Mother’s Day last weekend!

It was great having ADD PERSON preaching last week!

Today, we enter the final two sermons on Elisha's life.

        Believe it or not, this marks the 13th sermon of his life.

        It has taken us so long to walk through his life because he performed more miracles than anyone else in the Bible, aside from Jesus.

If you have your Bible with you, and I hope you do, would you open it with me today to

2 Kings 6

New Person Bible Connection:

If you do not have a Bible, that is ok!

        After service, we will give you an AMAZING leather-bound study Bible!

Just go to ADD YOUR CAMPUS PLACE and get one for FREE!!!

As you are getting to 2 Kings 6 today, let me say this.

        Today, we are going to cover a lot of scripture.

        We are not going to be able to read everything.

        I will paraphrase what happens in parts, and I encourage you to read it fully later today.

PAUSE

Two weeks ago we read the story at the start of 2 Kings 6.

        Where the Arameans came to try and trap Elisha.

        God did an amazing miracle, and things did not go the way the Arameans thought it would.

        Elisha was NOT captured, and it ended with the Arameans stopping their raids on Israel.

PAUSE

Then look in your Bibles at verse 24…

        This is why you bring your Bibles to church because we cannot put everything on the screens!

        But starting in verse 24 another kingdom, the king of Aram, decides to invade Samaria in Israel and a famine breaks out.

        And toward the end of the chapter in verse 31 things are going so bad the king calls for Elisha’s head and we will pick up there.

2 Kings 6:31-33 He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”

32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived,

Stop here….

        Elisha has no idea the king wants him dead.

        However, one thing we have seen throughout his life is that Elisha clearly hears things from God.

        Elisha clearly knew the voice of the Holy Spirit.

        Because look at what comes next…

Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head?

Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him.

The king said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

So, God told Elisha what was coming, and he was yet again prepared!

        So, what will Elisha do now that HIS king wants him dead?

        Well…let’s read and see.

2 Kings 7:1-20 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says:

About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

Stop there.

Elisha speaks two prophecies here.

Prophecy 1 - He says… this time tomorrow, the famine will be over, and food will be UBER cheap!

        Does anyone wish our food cost problem could be over by tomorrow?

Prophecy 2 – The officer he is talking to will see this come true but not eat any of plentiful food they will have tomorrow.

PAUSE

Let’s put this into context…

        Trump says he is working on bring food prices down.

        We would all love that to happen but it has not yet…

        This would be like if today we had NO food because there was a war…

        Think like the great depression…

        People dying left and right…

        Imagine that was going on…

        And then someone like me got up and said….

        He everyone…

        Worry NOT…

        The DEPRESSION is OVER!

        Tomorrow there will be SO MUCH FOOD that it will be like a penny for eggs not $6!

PAUSE

Let’s be honest…

        We would all think…that is impossible.

        There is literally no way that could happen.

Just like we all think there is NO way we are going back to pre-covid prices on housing or food.

PAUSE

Well….

        Here is the point church…

        Write this down.

        With God nothing is impossible.

        Repeat

You are about to see that come true!

        Let’s read the rest of the chapter.

3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?

4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die.

So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there,

And listen to why church…     

        It is 100% God…

6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another,

“Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!”

7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank.

Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.

If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there

—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.”

11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us.

They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking,

‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’”

13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city.

Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”

14 So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.”

15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight.

So the messengers returned and reported to the king. 16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans.

So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.

EXACTLY what God said through Elisha would happen comes true!

        Prophecy #1 comes 100% true…

17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway,

and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.

Stop there.

        Prophecy #2 comes 100% true!

        Exactly what God said through Elisha came true!

18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”

The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!”

20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

The man of God, Elisha, exactly what God inspired him through the power of the Holy Spirit to speak came true.

        With God…

        What everyone considered impossible came to life!

        So, there is hope we can all afford eggs again one day!!!

        And if that prophecy comes true…well then you all know I am a prophet!

PAUSE

And what happens next in Elisha’s life, I think, can teach us all a good lesson in life.

        So, let’s read part of chapter 8, and then I will explain.

2 Kings 8: 1-6 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life,

“Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.”

2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

The famine we were just talking about, that is what he is referring to here.

        He told a woman that famine was coming 7 years ago and that she needed to leave the land so her family would survive.

        You might remember that story!

        We walked through it last month.

        It is the story in 2 Kings 4.

In 2 Kings 4, you can flip back and look at it if you want.

        But there Elisha did a few miracles.

        He went to the home of a widow who was about to lose her sons to a creditor for her deceased husband’s debts.

        He performed this miracle by asking her to step out in faith and ask all her neighbors for jars because God was going to multiply the tiny bit of olive oil that was left.

        And God did!

        And she could pay her debts and live off what was left!         An AMAZING miracle!

Then he went to Shunem, and another woman adds onto her house to build a room for Elisha as he passed through their area.

        Then Elisha says God is going to bless her with a son…

        And she has been childless her whole life.

        So, needless to say, she is EXCITED!

        And it comes true!

        She has a son.

        Then one day, tragedy strikes, and her son dies.

        And Elisha goes and raises her son from the dead!

        Another CRAZY miracle!

That is the family Elisha told to leave their home because the famine was coming.

        From 2 kings 4 to 2 kings 8…7 years passes…

Let’s keep reading, and then I will explain how this relates to everyone’s life who is listening to this.

3 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.

4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.”

And check out this church!

        Check out God’s timing.

5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”

6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Stop there…

        Does anyone think that was mere coincidence or divine timing set up by God?

        Which one church?

PAUSE

Go back to where we started to day church.

        We started today with a story where a king wanted Elisha dead because life was not going the way he wanted it to for his kingdom.

        But just because OTHER people wanted Elisha to do things.

        Because other people said things about Elisha.

        Because other people threatened Elisha.

        It did NOT change what he did.

Elisha, his entire life was one of the most incredible followers.

        He followed Elijah.

        Not he simply follows God.

        He follows the leading of the Holy Spirit in his life.

And the CRAZY part is…

        As Elisha simply follows he leaves this trail of miracles!

        As he follows God.

        As he follows the Holy Spirit.

        As he does what God calls him to do.

        Nothing more or less.

He leaves a wake of miracles through out the nation.

PAUSE I mean look at what we just read….

        Something he did 7 years ago through the power of God.

        Is now coming full circle in his life.

        A bless 7 years ago for another is now 7 years later helping Elisha.

PAUSE

Which begs a question for all of you.

        Which is how this applies to all of you.

        You will see this in your notes.

How well are you doing at following the Holy Spirit’s leading in your life?

Who could stand up and give testimony from your life for how God has worked through you?

        Repeat

I want you all to think about that.

        How are you doing at following God?

        How are you doing at discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit?

        How have you and others seen God’s activity in your life?

And if you would say….

        I do not think God has ever done anything through me.

        I do not think anyone else would think God has ever worked through me.

Maybe today you need to look at if you are really following God.

        Is God really leading in your life.

        Who are you really following?

        Who is being blessed by the way you follow God.

PAUSE

Because this story ends with this..

Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him,

“Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Wow, this lady is UBER blessed!

        Because she listened to this man of God she was given a son.

        She saw her son raised from the dead.

        She avoided a famine.

        And now is blessed by her king getting her old home and land back and all the money that would have been made on it over the 7 years she was away!

And this woman…

        Simply followed.

        She was generous.

Listened to a man of God.

        Trusted the advice of a man of God.

        And endless blessings have flowed into her life.

PAUSE

How are you doing at following God?

PAUSE

This leads us to our life application today….

        If you are new, or newer, to Family Church we LOVE to end our messages with something for you to talk about with someone else.

        Something to help you apply the message to your life.

So here is this week’s Life Application…

Life Application:The Holy Spirit wants to work through you. How could start following the Holy Spirit’s leading more in your life? As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Prayer:

        Make sure to do a salvation call!

Offering: