They Don't Know

Intro:

Church we live in a day and time in which things have moved from a place of God first to me first. A place in which political connections and affiliations seem to be more important than being obedient to God and God’s word. You have to be politically correct or else the hounds of whomever will be on your trail. People often times want justice and grace for themselves, but want Judgment and Hell for all who don’t agree with them. Paul warned us of such when he told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” People seem to be at a place where they hear what they want to hear and hear who they want to hear. If you are politically affluent you only listen to one media outlet that always agree with your perspective. if you are of a certain denomination then you can only hear people who are of that perspective. If you are of a certain ethnicity then you can only hear and receive from people who are of that ethnicity and/or willing to identify culturally with them. The funny thing about all of this is when do we or how can we hear what God is saying. If we are so full of our own interpretations, ideologies, theological strongholds, and perspectives then how can we hear God? It’s very simple but not easy we have to drop ourselves in order to receive HIM. His ways are not our ways nor his thoughts our thoughts, because God is God all by God’s self. If we are going to hear and receive God we have to hear and receive whoever he sends, however they say it, and whenever he decides to do whatever God decides to do. We say if God says it that settles it, but when what God says becomes contrary to what I want, what I enjoy, and what I believe that’s when the rubber meets the road. Will I hear God or hear my flesh. Will I hear God or listen to man. Will hear God or will I follow the political agenda. Will I hear God or will I listen to the culture. Will I hear God?!?!?!?!?!?! Tap your neighbor and say hear God!!!

Text Work:

In the text today the Prophet Elisha is surrounded by a Syrian army of raiders. The Syrians were well know for raiding and pillaging lands and countries. They had been ravaging all of the area for some time now. As they grew in number, wealth, and power they got a little too big for their britches as my grandfather would say. They decided you know what let’s take seige of Israel and it’s king. So the King of Syria Ben-Hadad according to most historians decided to go to war against Israel. His plan was to ambush the Israelite army and their king when they traveled. The Bible says that the king of Syria said when they travel to such and such set up an ambush and we will capture them there. The plan was great and detailed even to the point of not even telling us where it was. Notice they said such and such. This does two things in reading this text one is either the location didn’t matter or it was none of our business. LOL! But what the king of Syria didn’t know was that the Prophet Elisha was having private conversations with God. So God heard the king and in prayer as the Doma or the office prophet God revealed to Elisha what they were up to. This brings me to my first point. Sometimes your enemy has a great plan and is working on taking you down, but when you have a real prayer life God will spoil the plans of your enemies. I don’t know who all this is for, but let me tell you something God is a revealer and when your enemy think they have you they don’t have a clue that God already told you what they were going to do! When you remove all of the distractions and hear God he will Show you what is going on. So every time they set up a trap God would reveal it to Elisha and Elisha would warn the king. Israel and the king would slip through every time. I love God church. He will let you slide on by. The devil is camping out and waiting and then God will cause you slide by like James Brown performing on stage! Tell somebody God made it fail!!!!

So Israel slid by, but the King of Syria became angry! He called all of his army together and asked them ok which one of y’all snitching? Which one of y’all has an Israelite girlfriend, auntie, baby momma, or friend. Somebody is snitching! Finally one of the officers spoke up and said King I am sorry to tell you but Israel has a prophet by the name of Elisha and everything you say including that you say in your bedroom he hears. The soldier said bedroom because it denotes the most private thing to people of Eastern culture. The bedroom was completely private. The soldier also said that to exonerate all of them, because they haven’t been in his bedroom and so they couldn’t have revealed what was said. The king of Syria became angry. My cousin would say he got as hot as fish grease LOL! He said where is he? We need to find him and I need to take him out. They told the king surely he is in Dothan. This is another point I would like to submit. The enemy is mad at you, because your anointing spoils their plans to siege you and kill you. The other thing is your anointing is so divine that you can’t hide. Notice they quickly said he’s in Dothan. So the enemy is angry because God keeps allowing you to slip by because your discernment spoils their plans, and is aggravated because they know where you are. Can I help somebody in here stay anointed! Don’t allow the enemy to distract you or frustrate you allow God to lead you! Can I preach to my own self! Encourage two or three people and tell them to keep praying, keep studying, keep fasting, and keep hearing God!

Close:

As I get ready to head to my seat, I want to remind you church that God has you! So the king of Syria Ordered his army to go down to Dothan where the prophet Elisha was. While it was night they came and surrounded the whole city. The reason the enemy is always trying to surround you is because that’s a fear tactic. Notice they didn’t just bust in the city and go get Elisha but they encamped around the city to show off. They was like yeah we are big and bad. We are so big we can surround your entire city. What you going to do now. That’s how the enemy sees it. The enemy think they have you surrounded and it’s over. The Bible says that the servant of the prophet got up early to handle business like he normally does. When the Old Testament says servant that’s not slave like the New Testament, but this comes from the word Na’ar which means ranked official. So when the Na’ar came back to Elisha and told him that the city was surrounded it came from a credible source. It came from someone with rank and authority. There were horses, chariots, and a huge army sitting and waiting to siege the man of God. The servant got scared, and said oh Prophet oh Master what are we going to do. Can I just be honest we would be scared too! If we were honest we have been scared, frustrated, agitated, aggravated, and tore up from the floor up because of our predicament with the enemy. This is a natural response. This is human nature, but we have to remember that we serve a supernatural God! Which means sometimes we need to pause our emotions, pause our calculations, pause our thoughts, and pause our plans and trust in the Lord! Because what seems like the end is just the beginning! What seems like it’s lost is a supernatural victory!

Elisha told the servant do not be afraid, because who is with us is more than they have. I can see it in my spiritual imagination that the servant said this fool must be crazy. Can’t he see this army, can’t he see those chariots, can’t he see we are surrounded. He was focused on only what he could see, because his sight was spiritually limited. His sight was only carnal, but the Prophet could see spiritual! Sometimes church God will give vision and no one can see it but you! People who can see spiritually see things differently. You see and old beat up car they see a classic masterpiece. You see an old run down barn, they see a million dollar a year wedding chapel. You see an old raggedy house they see a mansion. See my point with this is sometimes you can sight, but don’t have Vision! Sight is what’s there now vision is what God is getting ready to do with it! Don’t miss your shout!!

I am closing. So the servant couldn’t see it, so Elish prayed and said Lord let him see what I see. Sometimes you have to pray for people to see what God is showing you. When Elisha prayed the servants eyes was opened and he saw a greater army of horses and chariots of Fire all around the Prophet Elisha. They don’t know church! Help me close say they don’t know! They don’t know that you have already had a little talk with Jesus. They don’t know that just because it looks like they have you surrounded doesn’t mean you are alone! They don’t know that God has an army ready to defend you. They don’t know that even when they move against you that God has already made provisions for you. They don’t know because they weren’t apart of your private conversation with God. So keep moving forward. Keep working in the kingdom. Keep being positive. Keep praying! Keep fasting, because they don’t know what God is about to do in your life!