Three Questions to Consider

Opening Story: Story about escape room, there was a time limit and we made it out, but the reality is that is not how the Gospel works, you can’t figure your way out, divine revelation has to come from the outside and it will never be found inside, but our only hope is what God has done on the cross

Pastor’s meeting starts with prayer and bible study

Romans 10:1 ESV

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

Read prayer from journal

Big Idea: God’s people are tasked with urgency taking the Gospel to those who are lost and have no hope, and this task fully depends on God

2 Kings 7

Will we listen to the word of the Lord? Vs1-2

What is the situation?

2 Kings 6:24–30 ESV

Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” And he said, “If the Lord will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?” And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.” When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body—

Huge inflation for worthless food

No sense of shame for the actions of the people, expecting the King to side with her

We see the divine judgement of God as experienced in places like Deuteronomy 28:53-57

Deuteronomy 28:53–57 ESV

And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.

Who does the King blame?

2 Kings 6:31 ESV

and he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”

Often when we are presented with less than favorable circumstances, we look for someone to blame, to be the reason for all the hurt and calamity, and the prophet speaks into this situation.

The prophet steps into this situation, he is in the city with the elders, and what does he say

He has a word from the Lord, this was the prophets job, now we don’t seek an extra word from the Lord, but we rest upon the finished work of Christ for our salvation and we heed his words.

I & II Kings B. Syria’s Siege of Samaria (6:24–7:20)

But this was not the predictions of a person, but the promise of a prophet, speaking in the name of the Lord. To make that point clear, Elisha pronounced a judgment on the cynic: You will see it with your own eyes … but you will not eat any of it! In the midst of the chaos and confusion of a city under siege, Elisha modeled a deep-seated confidence in God.

John 8:47 ESV

Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

The question before us is will we hear the word of God and commit our lives to the fulfillment of the Great Commission as God has clearly spoken to do what?

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So, with that in mind we have a second question, we will keep the goodness of God to ourselves?

Will we keep the goodness of God to ourselves? Vs 3-8

I & II Kings B. Syria’s Siege of Samaria (6:24–7:20)

God keeps his promises, but he does so in the most unexpected ways. During a famine people on the edge of society such as lepers were the most vulnerable. They were not allowed to enter the city, but even if they did, only death awaited them. If they remained outside, they would be the victims of famine or of the first attacks of the enemy. Since they had nothing to lose, the lepers of the city decided to defect to the enemy.

The enemies of God had jumped to conclusions, they thought the Isralites had hired the Egyptians for the south and the Hitties from the North, they panicked and they were wrong…

when we lose the sober minded the Spirit brings, we too jump to conclusions, and get our mind wrapped around everything else, even good things and will not get distracted from keeping the main thing the main thing which is the proclaimation of the Gospel to the street corner and around the world,

These lepers found a good thing, and they were blessed, and for a while they did what most did, they kept it to themselves, they feel into the trap that may are in today, the “me” ism of our culture

the looking out for #1, but forgetting that even though they were outcasts, they were to be a blessing to others, that was their heritage.

Genesis 12:3 ESV

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Isaiah 49:6 ESV

he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Will we share the good news with others? Vs. 9-20

These men had a water shed moment, a crisis of conscience:

I & II Kings B. Syria’s Siege of Samaria (6:24–7:20)

But a guilty sense of responsibility came upon them. Let’s go at once, they declared, and report this to the royal palace.

So what happened, they went and told all that they saw, and the word of God came into being of all that God said,

the skeptism of the day rolled over into belief and all that the prophet said came to be.

There will always be those who see the circumstances and the inabilty of God to save them , there will be people who leave, quit out of frustration, there will always be distractions, there will always be seasons of discontent or discounting what God can do, but all we do is point to the man from Nazereth we let God speak for himself from the cross of Calvarry

Like the Samartian woman who exclaimed these words found in

John 4:39–42 ESV

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Or Thomas who experienced the risen Christ in

John 20:27–29 ESV

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

And there are those shut in my their sin and struggle, who need to ehar the call of the Lord and experience the goodness of God, so I pray you experience the goodness of God, and may we live lives not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.