Youth Camp Sermon

Introduction

I’m going to start by telling you a little bit of my story and how I became a person who is “not of this world,” but got saved, set free from my past and now live in a place of peace.

I grew up in a Christian home, but my parents struggled in their marriage and in parenting. They really didn’t spend time with me and spent most of their free time watching tv. (which is the equivalent of being on your phone all the time now).

If I had attended a camp like this at 14, my story may have turned out differently. I didn’t. My parents divorced at 14 and that was one of the hardest moments of my life. I hated my dad and held a lot of bitterness toward him. Later I learned the truth of what happened and I had hate in my heart towards my mom too. I was miserable and searched for answers in drugs and alcohol. I entertained demons and witchcraft with my sisters and friends.

I spent several years looking for something to fix me. I didn’t find it right away, but I did end up at a camp and God used that to change my life. I’ll tell you more a little later, but first let’s jump into the Word.

Main Text

2 Kings 2:19–22 ESV

Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

The City Is Pleasant - It looks good. The NIV says it’s well situated. What does this mean?

First History -

This is Jericho. Jericho is a city in the Bible located just north of the Dead Sea and west of the Jordan river. It was at a crossroads type of area. People would travel south through the valley from areas like the Sea of Galilee and then they would turn west to go towards Jerusalem through the hills of Judea. So when they say well-situated, that is what they mean. It was in a fertile plain, which was good for farming and it was along a major thoroughfare.

Elisha, the man of God, was relaxing in this city after his mentor Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind. Remember though the first time we hear about Jericho?

Jericho was destroyed by God through Joshua and the people of Israel. Joshua 6. You remember, the walls came down? Well not only did the walls come down, but Joshua prophesied a curse on the city.

Joshua 6:26 ESV

Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. “At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.”

What happens next is that the city lies dormant for over 500 years. Literally, it was cursed.

Even though a curse was pronounced on this city, eventually, during the reign of Ahab, a man named Hiel of Bethel decided to rebuild Jericho and we find in 1 Kings 16, that it did indeed come at the cost of his children as Joshua had prophesied.

Now this rebuilt city is really nice. It’s pleasant they say to Elisha. It looks good. This rebuilt city was likely bigger than the original Jericho. It probably had all of the latest technology and some nice parks and play areas for the kids. You can try and rebuild things, but God’s curse remains.

So even though on the outside the city looks great, it’s well situated, it’s got a lot of promise, the problem is what’s going on underneath the surface. The outside looks good, but underneath, there is a problem…

The Water Is Bad - Water is life.

In both the OT and today, water is the thing you need most. You can’t live without it. You might be able to go more than a month without food, but you can’t go but a day or two without water. This is even worse in a desert climate like where Jericho is located.

Water is that important, but the water in and around this city was bad. That means instead of life-giving it was causing death.

Bad water was coming from a spring that supplied the whole area. Remember this is a desert community so a bad water supply is detrimental. It’s likely killing the people and the animals.

So the principle here is that if the source is bad, everything around it is bad too.

The Land Is Unfruitful - The text says that is actually miscarries. The picture here is this. The local farmers would till the ground, weed the soil, remove the rocks, plant the seed, water the ground, plants would start to spring up.

The expectation for fruit would be high. Everything was pointing toward it being fruitful, but it wasn’t. It would die. It wouldn’t produce anything of value.

So here’s what the town leaders are saying in a nutshell. Elisha, this a great town in a great location, it looks great on the outside, but the water is causing death and the land to be unfruitful.

So If This Is The Problem, The Solution Is Salt?!

Does Anybody Else Read This As Weird? Why does he grab a new bowl, put some salt in it and then take it and throw it on the spring? What is going on here?

This a prophetic action. Now, you might not be familiar with prophetic actions, but they are littered throughout the Bible. This is one of those places.

A New Bowl = A Clean Vessel. When he asks the men for a new bowl, it’s not just because he is being “extra” or bougie. He’s asking for a new bowl, because that means it’s never been used before. It hasn’t been contaminated with the bad water. It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s clean.

The Salt = The Holy Spirit

Salt Purifies. Salt is mentioned throughout the Bible. They would rub their babies in salt as an act of purification immediately after birth. Ezekiel 16:4 “And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.” It was a way to make something that was unclean into something clean.

Salt Flavors. Salt was used in the daily grain offering at the temple and it was referred to a Covenant of Salt. Lev. 2:13. This was likely to add flavor to the bread. The Salt was added to taste, so that when the priest would eat the bread, it tasted good.

Salt is a preservative. It was used to preserve food to keep it fresh. They would take meat and put salt all over it to keep it fresh before modern refrigerators.

Salt as a healing agent. They would use salt when it came to healing wounds. They would pour salt water on your wounds. It would help to sterilize it.

Now look at how the Holy Spirit operates in our lives. The way He works in our lives is similar to how salt works as a Purifier, a Preservative and a Healer.

The Holy Spirit as a Purifier. As a purifying agent, the Holy Spirit sanctifies or purifies or makes us more like Jesus. He is active in the sanctification process. 1 Corinthians 6:11 “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

The Holy Spirit as a Preservative. The Holy Spirit keeps us, protects us, preserves us until the day of our inheritance. Ephesians 1:13–14 “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

The Holy Spirit as a Healer. The Holy Spirit heals our brokenness and restores us to fullness in Christ. He binds us up and redeems us.

Jesus goes as far to describe Christians in the kingdom as salt. In other words, we take on the quality of our creator.

Matthew 5:13 ““You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

Salting the Ground - Another interesting use of salt was when someone conquered a city they would destroy the buildings and then they would literally salt the ground. They would put salt everywhere and in part this meant the city was totally conquered.

We see this done in the Bible in Joshua 9 when Abimelech, Gideon’s son, salts a city. We also see this is extra-biblical history with Rome salting Carthage after it’s defeat.

In this case, the Salt represents barrenness. I like the way one commentator put it in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, (I & II Kings [OTL, 2nd ed 1970], pp. 478f) that this practice was connected with the ritual use of salt to symbolize a “complete break with the past”: when a city was sown with salt it was separated from its past and from common use. Gray suggested that Elisha’s use of salt to purify the water of Jericho (2 K. 2:20f) was likewise a ritual of separation: it separated the city from the curse of Joshua.

Jericho Represents Us

Here’s what I think is happening here. Jericho represents many of us.

We Are Under A Curse. If you are not a Christian today, let me tell you, you are living under a curse. If nothing else, you are living under the curse of Adam. He broke God’s law and now we are dealing with the consequences of our own sin in our lives and it has separated us from God and caused pain and suffering in ourselves and others.

We Are Not Fruitful. Our lives are not producing the life that it should. Every person has a purpose. God is expecting us to be fruitful and multiply. If our lives show no fruit, we need to be asking, what is wrong?

We Are Drinking Polluted Waters - What is wrong is that we are going to the wrong source! We are not of this world, if we are drinking the polluted water of this world, we are lost and/or dealing with the barrenness of this world.

If we look at our lives, what do we see?

Do we see love or do we see anger? Anger at our parents, anger at friends, at the politics of this world.

Do we see joy or do we see depression?

Do we see peace or do we struggle with anxiety?

We are fearful, not faithful.

We are damaged, not healed.

Like Jericho, We Look Good On The Outside, But On The Inside, We Know Something Is Broken.

What’s The Answer?

A New Bowl - God Wants Us To Be New Bowls. We Must Become A New Creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” THE ANSWER IS BECOMING A NEW CREATION. If you don’t know Jesus today, I want to give you the opportunity to meet him tonight.

Salt - The Holy Spirit, needs to be in our empty vessel. The Holy Spirit’s job is to heal us, to empower us, to equip us and to sanctify us so that we won’t look like this world, but we will look like and act like Jesus.

The Prophetic Word - Elisha takes the bowl full of salt and he throws it in the spring. He changes the source. Some of you need a new source tonight. He then speaks a prophetic word…he says, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water. From now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.”

End of Story - I went to a concert a Christian camp, found the meaning of the word GRACE and my entire life was changed. Quit drugs and alcohol. Stopped entertaining dark spirits. Story of forgiving my dad and eventually my mom.

John 17:15–18 ESV

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

Decision

God’s asking for you to make one of three decisions tonight.

The first is for those that may be dabbling with magic, the occult, demons, witchcraft, healing crystals. If you are hearing voices tell you to kill yourself or to hurt others, that’s demonic. You need to be delivered. If you want to be set free from the past, salting the ground, we will pray for you.

Secondly, we have talked about sin and how it creates brokenness in us. The only solution is Jesus. Tonight if you recognize your own brokeneness and want to repent/turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus, I’m going to invite you to come.

God’s also wanting to baptize you in the Holy Spirit. If you are just an empty vessel and want to be filled with Salt, with the Holy Spirit. Tonight is the night. God is here.