Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction -
What would you do if you all of a sudden recieved a fortune in money?
Would you keep it all to yourself?
Would you share it?
Would you donate some of it?
What would you do?
Four men in the ran into a situation in which they had to answer this question.
And I think this question and how they answered it has some lessons for us, today!
Review background of situation found in
Text: 2 Kings 7:1-11
Main Idea - God’s Provision is So Great We Simply Cannot Keep it to Ourselves!
1. Promised Relief (vs.
1-2)
2 kings
As you can imagine, these were welcome words for the elders and the king to hear.
The famine was a severe as they come, and the hope of relief was...
Prices returned to normal and because of the excessive prices they had been experiencing.
But that was all about to change.
They would once again have the staples of life that they had been without.
They would not be forced to eat the unclean donkey head or cook with animal dung.
And the prophet said this would happen overnight.
They doubted God.
Remember what the king’s captain said?
“Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?”
In other words, “There is no way God can or will do this!”
Elisha assured him that in fact this will happen in a glorious dramatic way!
Unfortunately for the captain, he would see it but not benefit from it because of his blatent disbelief!
They doubted God.
Remember what the king’s captain said?
“Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?”
In other words, “
In verse 20, you can see how the captain, the king’s right hand man, met his demise...
2 Kings
The king of Israel, Joram and his captain, were not nice men and they certainly were not men of faith.
Having said this, however, I think I would have been tempted to have a lack of faith as well.
When things are hard, faith can be hard to come by!
Ladies and gentlemen, I do not think we can comprehend as well fed Americans, what their suffering must have been like...
Their suffering was because they had turned their back on God and God said this kind of thing would happen.
As gross and disgusting as it was, God gave them over to their own ways and the ramifications of sin took over.
Remember, sin brings forth death!
deut
Israel’s rebellion against God brought forth this kind of degradation.
This is not God’s fault, this is the natural outgrowth of life given to rebellion against our God.
But our God is a compassionate God who graciously offers relief from our sin!
Elisha promised relief from their physical starvation!
God promises relief for our insatiable spiritual hunger!
And there is nothing that satisfies that hunger, there is nothing that brings relief to the longing of our hearts, than Jesus...
“Our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.”Augustine of Hippo (354–430), in Confessions.
But I hope you realize the spiritual starvation you endured or even now are enduring.
For those of us who are in Christ, this morning, we were so hungry for truth...
It wasn’t until I understood the gospel that my soul was satiated.
When I first understood the gospel…That I was in trouble with a holy God because I had sinned against Him over and over.
I broke His commandments over and over.
And when I came to the realization of the cost of breaking His commands was eternal prison in Hell, I was terrified!
But then I heard the good news of relief.
Relief from my eternal death sentence...
I am so grateful God sent someone to me to give me the hope of relief.
Someone who shared the hope of the gospel...
Listen, the prophets of old had a job to do, they were commissioned to warn of impending judgment.
They were to let people know there was one and only one place relief could be found from the wrath of God and that was though God Himself.
“Turn to God and enjoy relief from His wrath!” Elisha was no different.
He spoke the truth and what he said came to fruition.
Hope was found in his words.
Whether his words were believed or not was not His responsibility.
His job was to bring hope to the hopeless!
His job was to offer relief to a people who desperately needed it!
Friends, we have a responsibility to be like Elisha.
We need to bring the message of hope to a spiritually starving world...
The question for you is, are you?
Are you not just living the gospel, but are people hearing the gospel from your lips?
God’s Provision is So Great We Simply Cannot Keep it to Ourselves!
2. Unlikely Recipients (vs.
3-4)
Promised Relief
2. Unlikely Recipients (vs.
3-4)
2 Kings
Jewish lepers?
Why Jewish lepers?
They were ostracized from their community...
They were stained with the physical ramifications of a sin cursed world.
They were the rejects that were potentially harmful to their own people.
And these Jewish men are facing a poignant reality…Death!
And the sad and pessimistic conclusion they are reaching is whether they sit where they are at, go into the famine riddled city, death, from their perspective, is inevitable.
The only chance they believed they might have is to go into the enemy camp.
If the Arameans kill them, oh well!
They were going to die anyway.
But, perhaps they might take them in they will at least have some food.
Honestly, I don’t think there chances were very good (especially because they suffered from leprosy).
But hey?
What did they have to lose?
Nothing!
They were lepers for Pete’s sake!
And leprosy was not a nice disease!
3. Unbelievable Provision (vs.
5-8)
LEPROSY Generic term applied to a variety of skin disorders from psoriasis to true leprosy.
Its symptoms ranged from white patches on the skin to running sores to the loss of digits on the fingers and toes.
For the Hebrews it was a dreaded malady which rendered its victims ceremonially unclean—that is, unfit to worship God ().
Anyone who came in contact with a leper was also considered unclean.
Therefore, lepers were isolated from the rest of the community so that the members of the community could maintain their status as worshipers.
Other physical disorders or the flow of certain bodily fluids also rendered one unclean (; ).
Even houses and garments could have “leprosy” and, thus, be unclean ().
Chad Brand et al., eds., “Leprosy,” Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 1025.
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