Sermon Tone Analysis
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Faith Journeys
II Kings 5:1-16
Every person can understand their faith journey by seeing the factors that influenced Naaman.
Introduction:
In the movie US Marshall’s, the actor Tommy Lee Jones is responsible for capturing an escaped prisoner.
Because of the status of the prisoner the US Marshalls are given a man from another agency to assist them.
They work together throughout the movie trying to capture this man.
For the sake of drama there are many near captures.
The fugitive is not captured until the end of the movie.
You also come to discover at the end of the movie that the added personnel is not a good guy like you might think.
He is really a man who is in place to cover the tracks of a crime and place the blame on the fugitive.
The one, who appeared to be trustworthy, was really one of the bad guys.
In the passage we are looking at today, a man named Naaman is in trouble, but he is a man that has a lot of things working for him.
These things don’t get Naaman what he needs.
There are some factors that could have stood in the way of him coming to faith in God.
Factor I.
He was a powerful man
A. A pastor friend was telling me about a brother who had a nice house that was paid for, he had a good marriage, and he seemed to be very content.
His question was why would someone like this need salvation?
I think this man was a lot like Naaman.
Naaman was a powerful man.
He was clearly a very good military leader.
He was such a good leader that his superiors regarded him highly.
Naaman seemed to be a guy who had lots of good things going for him.
It really does not seem that he has a problem until toward the end of v. 1 we come across that little three letter word “but”.
Even though he had all of things working in his favor he had a problem.
There was something that was not right.
B.
Powerful people tend to have the opinion that they can take care of anything by themselves.
They are often highly independent.
They take care of themselves, until that word “but” come into their life somewhere.
That person’s obstacles might be a doctor’s report.
It might be news of a layoff.
It might be something related to someone close.
At those times that powerful independent person finds they can’t do anything about it.
C.
A person can be someone of power and influence.
These are the types of people who have little or no need for outside help.
These kinds of people seem to be the kind o9f people who don’t need God.
Even Christians are people who can get very comfortable in their life, such that they don’t sense a strong need of God.
We should be aware of this danger.
We also need to be aware of this situation that can arise in the lives of people who don’t know Jesus.
No matter how good or how bad things get, don’t lose sight of your need of God in your everyday life.
Factor II.
He needed help
A.
Not long ago I decided that I needed to change the spark plugs in our car.
I got five of the six plugs changed and I hit a wall.
I was not able to do the last plug by myself.
It was in a position that I could not reach.
I knew I was going to need to get some help to get the rest of the work done.
When Naaman discovers that he has leprosy he hits a wall.
Leprosy is used in the Bible to describe a number of different kinds of skin disorders.
We often like of Leprosy as a disease that steals you body parts from you.
It sounds like it almost makes parts of your body rot away.
Naaman’s leprosy might have been something like this, or it might have been something more like shingles.
B.
Naaman had hit a wall.
With all of the ability this man had been given he was not able to deal with this one by himself.
He needed someone who could do something more for him.
In Jewish culture, anyone found with a Leprosy disease was required to be removed from society.
Maybe this was the track that Naaman was going to have to follow.
Maybe he had been hiding his disease for a period of time.
Now it was almost impossible to keep his problem hidden.
Not only was this a problem Naaman could not deal with, but it was a problem society did not know how to deal with either.
C.
It can be hard for a person to admit that they don’t know where to turn.
They don’t know what they ought to do.
For some people this is an easy place to seek help.
Others don’t like to admit they are stuck.
So they just keep plugging along.
Maybe they just don’t want to admit they can’t do it alone.
They really need help.
It’s not wrong to seek help when you are stuck.
What can be wrong is when you don’t seek help when you need it.
D.
When you are stuck, is it easier for you to ignore the problem and hope it will go away?
Maybe you are a person who readily admits you need help.
Before a person will become a Christian they need to admit they can’t make it to God on their own.
They need to accept the assistance God is giving to them.
That becomes a part of every person’s faith journey.
When Naaman saw that he had a need he could not deal with on his own, he was taking a first step in his faith journey.
Factor III.
He had powerful connections
A. Just recently we learned of the brain cancer that has infected Senator Ted Kennedy.
Many times I think we get the idea that if we have all of our things in order things like this will not happen to us.
He is a wealthy man.
He is also a man with a lot of influence.
It can be hard for us to grasp the fact that a Ted Kennedy is susceptible to the same diseases and the same ailments that affect you and me.
Even with all of the great medical attention Mr. Kennedy is receiving his odds are not really great.
The truth is that the things that can change my life and yours can also change the life of someone with a great deal of power.
B.
Naaman was a man like Ted Kennedy.
He was a man who had a lot of influence.
We are told in v. 1 the “He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded.”
When Naaman asks permission to go seek out Elisha, he speaks to the king of Aram to ask for permission to make this trip.
The king doesn’t just give him permission to go, but he sends with Naaman a letter to the King of Israel.
Naaman is carrying with him authority from the King of his country to seek out Elisha to ask for healing.
He was a man who could do great things.
In this one instance he is caught.
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