Untitled Sermon (2)

2 Kings 4:18–23 NKJV

18 And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. 19 And he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. 21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. 22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.” 23 So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” And she said, “It is well.”

Icebreaker - Clip that shows humorous examples of people responding to fear. Followed by discussion question…share a time that someone or something startled you (or you startled someone) and the reaction was memorable.

2 Kings 4:18–24 NKJV

18 And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. 19 And he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. 21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. 22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.” 23 So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” And she said, “It is well.” 24 Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.”

The passage of scripture that we are using for our study tonight is a small part of a much larger story within the ministry of Elisha. The bigger story surrounding this particular instance is that of a woman that recognized the anointing upon the man of God and had her husband add a room onto their house to provide a place of rest and renewal for Elisha whenever he would pass by. As a result of her recognizing the anointing and her kindness toward the man of God, God rewarded her with a child. Now, the child has grown and on this certain day experience some sudden infirmity (likely a brain aneurysm).

What an incredibly unexpected tragedy in the life of this mother. A son that had literally been a gift from God, now taken in an instant. Certainly we can all sympathize with this mothers grief. None among would be so calloused and cold of heart that we could not feel her pangs of grief. Yet, in may ways, in this present time that our nation is in, we can also empathize with her feelings. A sudden unexpected tragedy. Feelings of fear, great concern, sudden loss and overwhelming grief. Undoubtedly, we are each dealing with these emotions in one way or another.

yet, more than just sympathizing with her hurt or even empathizing with her grief…I believe that we can also learn from her response.

She took her dilemma to the place that had already built. Moments like the scenario our nation is facing right now, are why we have spent our lives building the relationship with God. In Matthew chapter 7 vs. 24, Jesus tells about the man that built his house upon the rock, and when the storm came the house stood. It wasn’t the storm came, and then he built the house…but he built for the storm. Whatever prayer life you have built…its not about how elaborate or amazing the house is…you don’t have to have the worlds most incredible prayer life…its what it is built upon. In these times, we need to take our worries, our cares to the room that we have already built.

She brought water to the fire. A recent statement that I heard in a training conference stated that we all show up to the fires (the crisis) in our lives with two buckets. One is a bucked of water, the other is a bucket of gasoline. This fearful, grieving, hurting mother could have panicked and escalated a bad situation into an emotional frenzy. She simply called for the servant to bring her the dinkey so she could go see the man of God. Her husband is inquisitive…why are you going to see the preacher? What is the special occasion? Instead of panicking and elevating the situation, she simply said “It is well”. She wasn’t ignoring the problem…she was choosing not to make a bad situation worse.

She went to the source. We find that the Shunammite woman was set in her pursuit. She left her home and headed straight for the one person that had the ability to change the situation. The man of God. She knew that having an emotional episode would not change her situation. Talking about how bad it was would not change her situation…She knew that the man of God, or more importantly, the God of Elisha, was the only one that could change her situation.

We are facing a crisis. There is no question. But we built a room for this. We chose years ago, months ago, weeks ago…however long ago it was that you decided to build your life upon Jesus Christ…for this moment. We have a room to take our dilemma to! We could choose to bring the gasoline to the fire…feast on the Facebook experts that are declaring this to be an impossible situation. Those that are choosing to feast on negativity and escalate what is undoubtedly a bad situation into a worse situation, or we can bring water to the fire. It is well! God is in control! He is going to bring us through this. I’m going to make my way to the source. I’m going to continue to put my trust in the almighty God who ensures that the sparrow has food each and every day, how much more is he going to care for me!

Questions for discussion:

What disciplines and habits in your relationship with God have brought you comfort and security in this time? (prayer, the bible, songs of worship, the voice of a preacher, etc…)

Are there certain environments that you notice lead you to be more fearful in these times? (Facebook, news, negative people)

What is the danger of ignoring that there is a problem? (even if you don’t believe that coronavirus is a real problem…there are still real problems…economy....jobs…etc.) - What is the danger of bringing gasoline to the fire?

What can we do to bring peace to those around us? (Go to the source. Speak faith. Don’t ignore that there are problems…but lets be solution focused)