Greatness Unrealized
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There are three ways we learn:
Theoretically - reading/study
Practically - doing
Observing - watching others
Example: A lit candle will burn you if you touch the flame
You
You
What kind of learner are you?
Have you ever heard this statement?
“I learn best by doing it”
Unfortunately, this is true many times for us in life:
The greatest life lessons we learn are many times through the pain of doing the wrong thing
And, to make matters worse, many times we do not learn the first time.
This morning, I want us to learn something important by observation rather than participation.
If your are breathing, God is not done
We will learn by observing a king, that serving God with meritocracy is will rob us of the greatness God has for us.
God
God
Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!”
Elisha
A prophet in Isreal for about 50 -60 years
He represented the power, the spirit and the voice of God to Isreal
He took over for Elijah when God took him
At his death he had done more than twice as many miracles than Elijah had done
Joash
His name means “The Lord is Strong”
Became the king of Isreal after his father, Jehoahaz
He was the 13th King of Isreal and he reigned for 16 years
“He also did what was evil in the sight of the Lord”
Joash was not serving the Lord even though he knew better and had watched his father
Background
The death of Elisha was a great loss to Isreal because there was no successor to him as he was to Elijah and Joash knew this
God was using this tragedy to get Joash’s attention
I believe there are three reasons why we believe he is done when he is actually just getting started:
We come to him after something bad happens or we have run out of options
Each of us have those moments in our life when God has our complete attention. Our actions and our decisions in those moments are what define and shape our lives.
And Elisha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows.” So he took a bow and arrows.
Then he said to the king of Israel, “Draw the bow,” and he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands on the king’s hands.
And he said, “Open the window eastward,” and he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot,” and he shot. And he said, “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them.”
I believe there are three reasons why we believe He is done when he is actually just getting started:
We wait for tragedy before we acknowledge His majesty
We require understanding before obedience
“Our responsibility is obedience, the outcome is the Lord’s” ~ Steve Furtick
How strange this request would have been to the King, but he followed it without ever asking why and received the blessing of the Lord and the promise of victory
And he said, “Take the arrows,” and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them.” And he struck three times and stopped.
Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.”
He stopped. He did not give all he had, he did in his eyes just enough
I believe there are three reasons why we believe He is done when he is actually just getting started:
We wait for tragedy before we acknowledge His majesty
We require understanding before obedience
We are unwilling to finish what God has started in us
You
You
The next time you feel a lack of peace or lost or no purpose or that God has left you, I want you to remember that if you are breathing, God is not done!
You must walk for him daily, out side of tragedy
You must stop trying to understand him or reason with him or manipulate him and just obey him
You must not quit on Him
If you are breathing God is not finished!
Joash was unwilling to give all he had. he stopped short just like many of us do but if you are breathing God is not done
We
We
Today is our day to come back to the Lord in obedience and allow him to guide us and receive the complete victory in our lives