We had a wonderful few days in Timaru and we plan to go to Geraldine next time...to Grumpys Retreat actually...sounds like fun!
Now here is July's first sermon:
Introduction
God Governs the World
One night when an ambassador and his valet were obliged to sleep in the same room in a hotel, the valet noticed his master tossing and turning in bed. "Sir, what bothers you?" he asked.
"Oh, I have so many things on my mind. The burden of my responsibility is hard to bear."
"Forgive me, sir, but do you think God has been governing the world up till now?"
"Of course."
"And do you think He'll manage even after you've left this world?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Then don't you think it's possible for you to trust Him to do it even during your lifetime?"
The ambassador got the point and was soon fast asleep.
(e-Sword Bible: Topic Notes: Faith)
The Lord is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), which does not mean what it may sound like. The GNB has it this way: “I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis.”
So far as faith in God is concerned, it does not matter whether you are an important leader in society or a person without a job or social standing.
God respects all human life. He treats all fairly, with the same standard, and with the best possible outcome. Whether we are young or old, weak or diseased, like Naaman the important man with leprosy, a distasteful skin disease, still God treats us all the same. For those of you who like Mathew Henry's comments, here is what he says: “Our Saviour's miracles were intended for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet one, like a crumb, fell from the table to a woman of Canaan; so this one miracle Elisha wrought for Naaman, a Syrian; for God does good to all, and will have all men to be saved.” (e-Sword Bible, Matthew Henry Com. on
5:2 “And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the
What You Say Matters
This servant girl from
She was just a servant of Naaman’s wife. Although in those days the commanding officer’s wife may have had some standing in Syrian society, her servant was a slave had none whatever.
Yet such was the misery and growing desperation of the leper Naaman, that he was willing to try the unlikely: the possibility of a cure from
We learn from this that no matter who you are or who you think you are it matters what you believe and say. And whether you are prepared to say it like this servant girl!
It is from a godly heart of compassion that good things come and good words help people.
A word at the right time can save a life; can save a human soul from hell.
5:4 “And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, ‘Thus and thus said the girl who is from the
5:5 Then the king of
5:6 Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.
5:7 And it happened, when the king of Israel read the letter, that he tore his clothes and said, ‘Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy? Therefore please consider, and see how he seeks a quarrel with me.’
The servant girls’ words resulted in a political incident between the two countries!
But thankfully that was not the end of the matter.
5:8 “So it was, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying,
‘Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in
5:9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house.
Picture it…
“There’s Naaman,” the people said as his horses and chariots went by…yes, people noticed Naaman! No doubt his horses were the finest looking animals in
Well, here he was, right at the prophet’s door.
“I am waiting, Elisha! Are you coming out soon?”
5:10 “And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash in the
5:11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, ‘Indeed, I said to myself, “He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.”
“Now look here, I am the commander of the army of the king of
5:12 “Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of
5:13 And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, “
5:14 So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” ’ ”
Child’s Faith, Child’s Skin
When told how puffed up he was, Naaman repented of his former proud thoughts and humbled himself and did what the prophet Elisha commanded.
Only then was his leprosy healed. Only then did he have clean skin.
It took faith like a child to have skin like a child.
The story is told about: Childlike Trust
“A frantic mother phoned her pastor one day. She was experiencing a bad case of ‘nerves’ as so many of us do. He thought he heard a child's voice while she was speaking, so he asked,
‘Is your child as upset and worried as you are?’
‘No, of course not,’ she replied.
‘But why not?’ persisted the pastor.
‘I suppose she puts her trust in me and lets me do the worrying,’ she answered.
‘Then make a transference. Try to think of yourself as a child of God and, just as your child puts her trust in you, put your trust in God.’ ”
(e-Sword Bible: Topic Notes: Trust)
Which would you rather have: the health and vitality God offers you or the sickness of the sin you chose to hold on to?
He wanted the prophet to come to him: the great and famous commander of the king’s army.
He was a proud man and you may think:
“Well I’m not like that!”
Ok, you’re not proud like Naaman…
So what is your sin?
What is stopping you from receiving all that God has to bless you with?
As they say in the vitamin supplement ads: “Are you 100%?” Spiritually speaking, of course none of us are. And we would be fools to think otherwise.
Childishness, on the other hand, is as Paul says, something we should be growing away from: I Cor 13:11 “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”
We need God as a flower needs rain. We need to be open to God as a child reaches up to her Father and says: “Daddy, Up, Up!”
Pastor Russell Walden says: Jesus said "come as a little child" (Mark 10:15). Failing this, you cannot enter into the
(From: RESTORATION OF CHILDLIKE FAITH By Pastor Russell Walden: http://www.barr-family.com/godsword/childlike.htm )
So what is this childlike faith like?
It is believing, simple and open to what God has to say as He says it in His Word, the Bible.
Here are some sayings attributed to children that illustrate childlike faith:
Dear GOD, Are you really invisible or is that just a trick? - Lucy
(“Immortal, invisible God only wise…” (From the hymn With One Voice No. 80)
Dear GOD, What does it mean You are a Jealous God? I thought You had everything. – Jane
Dear GOD, I bet it is very hard for You to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it. –
(There’s a telling point to that one for us all)
“On the first day of school, about midmorning, the kindergarten teacher said, ‘If anyone has to go to the bathroom, hold up two fingers.’ A little voice from the back of the room asked, ‘How will that help?’ ”
http://www.letterfairy.co.uk/sc/cont.nsf/pages/tlf001dscs-6fqc87
“A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, ‘I'm drawing God.’ The teacher paused and said, ‘But no one knows what God looks like.’
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, ‘They will in a minute.’
http://www.letterfairy.co.uk/sc/cont.nsf/pages/tlf001dscs-6fqc87
Dear GOD, Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? – Norma
(Goto: http://www.barr-family.com/godsword/ Then click on the ‘Jokes’ link in the frame on the left.)
So don’t be afraid to believe like a child, speak up like a child with a child’s faith for you may be surprised at the heavenly reward! Amen.
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