1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,960 Well, hey everyone, welcome to Harbor West. 2 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:04,160 Good to see you all today. 3 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:05,760 If you have a Bible, you can grab it now. 4 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:11,920 Turn to 2 Kings chapter 5 if you're using one of those Bibles under the chairs in front of you, 2 Kings 5. 5 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:14,840 Will be around page 3. My 6 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:15,720 name is Justin. I'm 7 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:18,200 one of the pastors here of our church. And I just 8 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:22,040 want to welcome you in and welcome you to July 13th. This is July 9 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:23,960 13th, and you know what that means. 10 00:00:24,220 --> 00:00:26,300 165 days till Christmas. 11 00:00:26,619 --> 00:00:29,099 Yeah, you guys track anybody else tracking it that closely? 12 00:00:29,420 --> 00:00:35,820 165 days, that's all we are out, which means we're like three weeks out from seeing decorations for sale in Costco, right? 13 00:00:35,900 --> 00:00:36,460 Like it's just. 14 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:37,920 It's right around the corner. 15 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:39,600 And I don't know if you're like me. 16 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:47,040 When I was growing up, a staple in my family that we would watch every December was Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. 17 00:00:46,980 --> 00:00:48,020 Anybody else watched that one? 18 00:00:48,180 --> 00:00:53,220 It was that one that everybody uh it kind kinda got its cycle in a lot of people's homes. And 19 00:00:53,300 --> 00:01:00,020 uh my favorite scene in that, even if you haven't seen the movie, you probably know the Chevy Chase house when when he as the dad went out and 20 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:04,320 He put out 25,000 Christmas lights on his house. 21 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:05,680 All right, at least that's what he said. 22 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:06,720 That's what he says in the movie. 23 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:08,960 25,000 twinkling lights. 24 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:12,560 And so one night he brings the whole family out onto the lawn. 25 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:16,320 For the grand lighting, like the unveiling of their house. 26 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:21,680 And so he gets everyone out, they're freezing, all the grandparents are complaining, the kids are all upset. 27 00:01:21,420 --> 00:01:25,100 But he's out there and he's full of joy, and the wife's kind of putting up with him, you know. 28 00:01:25,420 --> 00:01:27,340 And so he's out there and he goes to light it. 29 00:01:27,500 --> 00:01:29,180 He has the son do the drum roll. 30 00:01:29,259 --> 00:01:33,659 He sings joy to the world and brings the plugs together to light it. 31 00:01:33,740 --> 00:01:34,860 And what happens? 32 00:01:35,259 --> 00:01:36,060 Nothing. 33 00:01:36,380 --> 00:01:37,659 Nothing happens. 34 00:01:37,899 --> 00:01:41,899 And so he tries to do a couple things, and everybody goes in the house, and he's out there dejected. 35 00:01:42,060 --> 00:01:45,899 And so what he does over the next couple days is goes out and checks all. 36 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:48,320 25,000 lights. 37 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:53,520 Now, if that's me, if that's me, Justin White, doing that exact same thing, I would just say, This is it. 38 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:54,560 We're not getting lights this year. 39 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:55,440 Like, tough. 40 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:56,160 Like, I don't know. 41 00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:58,000 I did what I, you know, we're not doing this. 42 00:01:58,240 --> 00:01:59,440 But he goes out and checks. 43 00:01:59,460 --> 00:02:01,540 Every single light, and so he brings everybody back out again. 44 00:02:01,700 --> 00:02:04,580 Says, I think I got it, plugs it in, nothing. 45 00:02:05,460 --> 00:02:08,340 Keeps trying for this great thing to happen. 46 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:09,519 Nothing happens. 47 00:02:09,679 --> 00:02:16,959 Then if you've seen it, you know the wife figures out all that needed to happen was in the garage, one light switch needed to be flipped on. 48 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:19,599 That's all that was needed. 49 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:22,799 Just that one little switch flipped. 50 00:02:23,780 --> 00:02:25,780 And that's kind of like our story today. 51 00:02:25,939 --> 00:02:32,659 We're going see in our text today, there's a guy named Naaman who wants God to do something incredible in his life. 52 00:02:32,980 --> 00:02:35,220 And he's going to try to do it the hard way. 53 00:02:35,540 --> 00:02:37,140 When all it really took 54 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,080 Was a simple act of obedience. 55 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:49,040 And so here's what I believe: I believe that God can absolutely show up in our service today and in your life today and do an absolutely incredible. 56 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:49,920 Work. 57 00:02:50,239 --> 00:03:00,160 And a lot of times we think that for God to show up and do an incredible work, it's going to take this kind of fireworks show, or going to take this crazy big sacrifice, or God only does incredible work when 58 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:08,840 when we're at a baptism or something like that, but God does incredible work in our lives through very simple acts of obedience. 59 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:09,800 And so I'm going to pray. 60 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:17,400 I going to ask you to join me in prayer that God would show up today in our service through this text, do incredible work in our lives. 61 00:03:17,940 --> 00:03:20,260 And flip some switches on for some of us. 62 00:03:20,580 --> 00:03:23,459 So let's pray and see how God did it for Naaman. 63 00:03:24,660 --> 00:03:31,780 And so, God, we pray that you would have your way through this text, through your word, in our lives, in this church. 64 00:03:32,500 --> 00:03:40,100 We know that you are the God of miracles, and that you can work some of those miracles this morning. 65 00:03:40,740 --> 00:03:42,020 And so we pray. 66 00:03:42,940 --> 00:03:51,340 That you would lead us to truth, guide us in your way, that your spirit would work in power through your word this morning. 67 00:03:51,580 --> 00:03:52,940 We pray it in Jesus' name. 68 00:03:53,260 --> 00:03:53,900 Amen. 69 00:03:54,700 --> 00:03:55,100 Amen. 70 00:03:55,260 --> 00:03:58,460 Let's look at verse 1 of 2 Kings 5. 71 00:03:59,740 --> 00:04:06,540 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a man important to his master and highly regarded because through him 72 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,240 the Lord had given victory to Aaram. 73 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:14,280 The man was a valiant warrior, but he had a skin disease. 74 00:04:15,420 --> 00:04:27,740 Naaman's name comes from the Hebrew word that hints that he was a handsome dude, and so he's a successful military commander for Syria, whose army God used to have victory over Israel, right? 75 00:04:27,820 --> 00:04:28,540 A successful. 76 00:04:28,940 --> 00:04:36,380 handsome, valiant warrior, but he has leprosy, which is the most feared disease in the world at this time. 77 00:04:36,820 --> 00:04:40,180 If you had leprosy, you'd get a rash all over your body. 78 00:04:40,340 --> 00:04:42,340 Your nerve endings would begin to die. 79 00:04:42,580 --> 00:04:48,020 Boil would form on your skin and leave gaping wounds all over your body. And 80 00:04:48,420 --> 00:04:50,020 parts of your body would actually start. 81 00:04:50,340 --> 00:04:51,620 To fall off. 82 00:04:52,180 --> 00:04:58,100 The leprosy would leave your face mangled and deformed, and it was believed to be highly contagious with no cure at all. 83 00:04:58,260 --> 00:04:59,140 So if you got. 84 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:00,880 Lep. You would go 85 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:08,640 through all of these stages of it until you die, and you would do it alone, isolated from your friends and family. And so, 86 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:11,680 for Naaman, this is the worst news. 87 00:05:12,220 --> 00:05:24,780 This someone could possibly get in life Here's a guy who had about as much going for him as someone possibly could he had success Status looks wealth family influence. 88 00:05:25,020 --> 00:05:25,979 He had it all 89 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:32,240 If anyone had reason to believe that they had made it in life, it's Naam. And 90 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:38,160 man, we can definitely get into that space where we deceive ourselves and we believe that we're okay. 91 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:44,760 That life is just kind of humming along and it's going okay, and there's no real major problem or drama or chaos. And 92 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:47,080 we're like, okay, I think I'm good. I 93 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:48,760 think I've made it. 94 00:05:49,940 --> 00:05:58,099 Maybe we think we have life figured out and we're immune to difficulty and chaos, but Naam's story shows us all this. We 95 00:05:58,419 --> 00:06:00,259 all need healing. 96 00:06:00,860 --> 00:06:03,259 We all need healing. 97 00:06:03,580 --> 00:06:05,900 That's what we see in this story here. 98 00:06:06,220 --> 00:06:07,740 Because we all know this. 99 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:15,760 We all know that we have a deep need that can't be met by anything we found in this world. 100 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:22,320 A lot of times we just ignore that or we put band-aids on it until it gets too bad that we can't ignore it anymore. 101 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:28,000 But we all know that the success, the status, the looks, the wealth, all of it is going to run out. 102 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:33,760 We all know that eventually, eventually, we'll all die. 103 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:39,520 We've all got a kind of leprosy. 104 00:06:40,020 --> 00:06:44,979 A disease that's put us on a path that is heading toward death. 105 00:06:45,620 --> 00:06:49,139 And man, that is not the way it should be. 106 00:06:49,460 --> 00:06:51,860 That's not the way God created us. 107 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:55,400 We have a sickness of our own making. 108 00:06:55,640 --> 00:07:00,120 We've rejected God and we've decided to live in God's world our own way. 109 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:05,640 We've taken the beauty of creation and marred it with sin, death, and brokenness. 110 00:07:06,460 --> 00:07:09,740 And man, maybe you're here today and you've just kind of resigned yourself to it. 111 00:07:09,900 --> 00:07:12,380 You think, well, this is just the way it is. 112 00:07:13,020 --> 00:07:17,100 Everyone dies, and I'm going to die, and that's just part of it. 113 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:21,560 But even if you've resigned yourself to that reality, no one wants that. 114 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:24,520 None of us want that. 115 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:27,480 We all want life and life to the fullest. 116 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,400 We all want joy and peace and health. 117 00:07:34,919 --> 00:07:40,120 And we all want it, but we know that nothing in this world can give us what we want. 118 00:07:41,199 --> 00:07:41,440 C. 119 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:41,600 S. 120 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:42,560 Lewis said it this way. 121 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:51,520 He says, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. 122 00:07:53,360 --> 00:08:02,080 We all have this desire of a life that's full of meaning and full of joy and full of health and goodness and peace. 123 00:08:03,580 --> 00:08:11,420 And in this sickness of sin and brokenness and failure, we know that nothing in this world is giving us what we want. 124 00:08:11,699 --> 00:08:15,060 We are all sick and need healing. 125 00:08:15,379 --> 00:08:16,740 And so Naaman knows it, man. 126 00:08:16,900 --> 00:08:20,900 He knows he needs healing, but he hasn't resigned himself to it. 127 00:08:20,639 --> 00:08:28,639 He's not just sitting back and saying, okay, well, this is just the worst thing that could happen, and I guess I'm just going to live as long as I can and be as comfortable as possible. 128 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:32,000 No, he's going to go after the healing. 129 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:34,600 The question is, what about you? 130 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:38,600 Are you going to go after the healing? 131 00:08:38,919 --> 00:08:42,760 Are you going to go after the life and peace and joy? 132 00:08:44,560 --> 00:08:46,240 Let's see how Naaman went after it. 133 00:08:46,319 --> 00:08:47,519 Look at verse 2. 134 00:08:48,399 --> 00:08:54,480 Aaron had gone on raids and brought back from the land of Israel a young girl who served Naaman's wife. 135 00:08:54,120 --> 00:09:02,120 She said to her mistress, If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease. 136 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:06,720 So Naam went and told his master what the girl from the land of Israel had said. Therefore 137 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:11,920 the king of Aram said, Go, and I will send a letter with you to the king of Israel. 138 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:18,440 So Naaman went, and took with him seven hundred and fifty pounds of silver, one hundred and fifty pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. 139 00:09:18,839 --> 00:09:21,320 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, and it read 140 00:09:21,560 --> 00:09:27,560 When this letter comes to you, note that I have sent you my servant Naaman for you to cure him of his skin disease. 141 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:32,920 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and asked, Am I God? 142 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:37,600 Killing and giving life that this man expects me to cure a man of his skin disease? 143 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,480 Recognize that he is only picking a fight with me. 144 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:44,480 And so, Naaman, instead of going to the prophet, he goes to the king. 145 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:49,120 And he gives the king this letter, and the king of Israel says, Oh man, this is no good. 146 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:51,520 This must be a political device. 147 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,600 This must be the king of Aram trying to pick a fight with me because he knows I'm just a man. 148 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:58,160 I can't heal anybody of leprosy. 149 00:09:57,900 --> 00:10:01,900 And so he's going to know I can't heal them, and that's going to be a reason for them to attack us. 150 00:10:02,220 --> 00:10:06,060 This is just a political strategy. 151 00:10:06,220 --> 00:10:07,500 Is what the king thinks. 152 00:10:07,820 --> 00:10:11,020 But Elijah, Elish hears it in verse 10. Elish 153 00:10:11,260 --> 00:10:14,300 sent him a messenger and said, or sorry, verse 8. 154 00:10:14,540 --> 00:10:19,899 When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king. 155 00:10:20,220 --> 00:10:21,580 Why have you torn your clothes? 156 00:10:21,740 --> 00:10:27,180 Have him come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel. 157 00:10:27,420 --> 00:10:32,779 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. 158 00:10:33,100 --> 00:10:39,660 Elish sees an opportunity for the most unlikely person to encounter God, and he takes it. 159 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:42,800 And so Naaman rolls up to Elish's hut. Elisha 160 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:47,120 probably lived in a very simple hut. And now the opposing 161 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:53,680 army general of the enemy rolls into Elish's neighborhood with basically like his tanks, his chariots. 162 00:10:53,660 --> 00:10:59,660 Rolls up to Elish's hut, and so all of Elish's neighbors have got to be looking, being like, Oh man, there goes our guy Eli. He's 163 00:10:59,660 --> 00:11:01,180 done for, he's toast. 164 00:11:02,380 --> 00:11:04,460 But that's not why Naaman's coming, right? 165 00:11:04,780 --> 00:11:15,340 Verse 10: Elisha sent him a messenger who said, Go wash seven times in the Jordan, and your skin will be restored, and you will be clean. 166 00:11:15,820 --> 00:11:26,060 But Naaman got angry and left, saying, I was telling myself, he will surely come out, stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the skin disease. 167 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:32,000 Aren't Abana and Phar, the rivers of Damascus, better than the waters of Israel? Couldn 168 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:35,200 't I wash in them and be clean? And so he 169 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:37,600 turned and left in a rage. 170 00:11:38,220 --> 00:11:41,340 See, man, Elish doesn't even get off his lazy boy. And, 171 00:11:41,420 --> 00:11:46,140 you know, I'm sure that Naaman could even see him in there when he sends the messenger out. He's 172 00:11:46,140 --> 00:11:46,300 like, 173 00:11:46,820 --> 00:11:47,940 Elish's right there. Like, 174 00:11:48,020 --> 00:11:48,660 I see him. Why 175 00:11:48,660 --> 00:11:50,260 isn he coming out? And so 176 00:11:50,500 --> 00:11:52,660 Naaman's just so mad. He's 177 00:11:52,660 --> 00:11:54,260 in a rage. He's 178 00:11:54,260 --> 00:11:57,060 mad for so many different reasons here. 179 00:11:57,680 --> 00:12:05,520 He's upset because he thinks like Elish is brushing him off, disrespecting him, sending him to a muddy river. 180 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:08,959 For Naaman, this is not going as planned. 181 00:12:09,199 --> 00:12:12,959 He had a vision for what his healing would look like. 182 00:12:13,279 --> 00:12:16,639 He had his own set of kind of conditions for coming to God. 183 00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:19,680 He said, okay, if I'm going to cross the border into Israel. 184 00:12:19,660 --> 00:12:24,060 And if I'm going to go seek the God of Israel for healing, first, I'm going go to the king. 185 00:12:24,140 --> 00:12:26,140 I'm not going to some lowly prophet. 186 00:12:26,460 --> 00:12:28,300 But second, okay, I'm at the prophet's house. 187 00:12:28,380 --> 00:12:30,380 I guess that's where the king sent me. 188 00:12:30,100 --> 00:12:36,180 But he's got to come out and he's got to do some magic stuff to my liking that fits what I want to happen. 189 00:12:36,500 --> 00:12:40,100 And so when none of that happens, Naam like, that's it. I 190 00:12:40,100 --> 00:12:41,620 'm not going to do it. 191 00:12:41,540 --> 00:12:45,220 I'm not going to go to this muddy out-of-no river. I've 192 00:12:45,220 --> 00:12:50,019 got better rivers that I know of that should be able to cleanse me. So he storms 193 00:12:50,019 --> 00:12:51,540 off in anger. 194 00:12:52,500 --> 00:12:58,020 His vision for how the healing would happen is that he would do it in his way. 195 00:12:59,300 --> 00:13:02,900 But this way seems weak, and so he's out. 196 00:13:03,660 --> 00:13:05,819 Verse 13, though his servants seem to get it. 197 00:13:06,060 --> 00:13:12,300 His servants approach him and said, My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? 198 00:13:12,940 --> 00:13:16,540 How much more should you do it when he only tells you, wash and be clean? 199 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:20,040 Naam's servants understand. They 200 00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:25,800 're like, man, if Elisha had told you to go climb Mount Everest, we'd be off right now to climb that mountain. But 201 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:27,240 he didn't tell you that. 202 00:13:27,420 --> 00:13:33,019 He didn't tell you to do something that requires your strength or your money or your wisdom or your power. 203 00:13:33,579 --> 00:13:37,100 He told you to do something that only requires your humility. 204 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:40,600 So, can you go do it? 205 00:13:42,519 --> 00:13:44,040 See, that's the second key. 206 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:49,320 The second key, if we want to see God do something incredible in our lives, not only do we need healing. 207 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:53,080 But we've got to recognize that we can't heal ourselves. 208 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:54,920 We can't heal ourselves. 209 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:59,640 There's nothing at all that we can do to heal ourselves. 210 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:04,440 Naaman's a guy who's used to doing everything on his own, and he's trying to do it on his own here. 211 00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:09,640 Instead of going to Elisha, he uses his status to go to the king of Israel. 212 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:15,720 Instead of coming in alone, he flexes his power by coming in with part of his army. 213 00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:23,160 Instead of listening to the wisdom of Elish, he uses his own wisdom to decide that rivers in Syria are better. 214 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:31,840 Later, he's going to try to give Elish a ton of money, but Elish refuses it because Elisha wants to make it clear: your money can't heal you. 215 00:14:32,540 --> 00:14:38,380 Naam's status, his power, his wisdom, his wealth, none of it can heal him. But 216 00:14:38,380 --> 00:14:44,460 man, just like Naam, we try to use everything we have to find what we're truly looking for in life. 217 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:48,400 We use our money to buy houses and cars and boats and vacations. 218 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:53,520 We use our wisdom to plant ourselves firmly in our own beliefs about the 219 00:14:53,640 --> 00:15:02,200 This world and about life, and about politics, and about everything else, and we say, I don't need anyone else's advice or anyone else's way, I've found the right way. 220 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:13,360 In my wisdom, we use our power to keep us confident when we're healthy, our status to convince us that we're in control, but all of it came up short. 221 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:19,360 For Naam, and all of it's going to come up short for us. Naaman 222 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:26,320 was using all that he had as this flimsy band-aid on his leprous wounds, but he couldn't cure his disease himself. 223 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:30,800 He had to come face to face with the truth that he couldn't heal himself, and so do we. 224 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:34,240 We have to face the reality. 225 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:36,960 We can't heal ourselves. 226 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:50,320 And if you just take those two truths, man, that puts us in the worst of situations to need healing, but to be unable to heal ourselves, that means we are totally dependent on someone else to come and heal us. 227 00:15:51,360 --> 00:16:00,080 Well, Naam finally gets it, and so verse 14, he goes down and dips himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the command of the man of God. 228 00:16:00,740 --> 00:16:06,420 Then his skin was restored, and became like the skin of a small boy, and he was clean. 229 00:16:07,300 --> 00:16:11,620 Then Naaman and his whole company go back to the man of God, stood before him, and declared, 230 00:16:11,620 --> 00:16:14,820 I know there's no God in the whole world except in Israel. 231 00:16:15,140 --> 00:16:17,940 Therefore please accept a gift from your servant. 232 00:16:18,500 --> 00:16:23,380 But Elish said, As the Lord lives, in whose presence I stand, I will not accept it. Naaman 233 00:16:23,380 --> 00:16:25,779 urged him to accept it, but he refused. 234 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:29,760 The miraculous healing. 235 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:37,840 It took nothing short of an absolute miracle for Naaman to be healed, and he knows it because he doesn't praise the Jordan River. 236 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:40,880 He doesn't think something happened special from those waters. 237 00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:49,120 He's not bottling the water to take it back to Syria to heal other people or telling people to come and go to that river. 238 00:16:49,300 --> 00:16:53,460 He knows that this miracle came from the God of Israel. 239 00:16:54,020 --> 00:17:00,580 I mean, he goes back and now he's meeting Elisha for the first time, but he doesn't even mention the leprosy, doesn't mention the healing. 240 00:17:00,900 --> 00:17:03,060 Naam just wants to talk about God. 241 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:06,280 And that's the third key here. 242 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:15,560 The good news that God has shared with us all throughout the whole Bible, it's that he, God him, is our ultimate healer. 243 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:17,280 We need healing. 244 00:17:17,439 --> 00:17:22,799 We can't heal ourselves, but God is our ultimate healer. 245 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:36,520 We can keep putting band-aids on our souls, weak band-aids that are going to fall apart, piling them up until we can't even tell what's wrong anymore, or we can experience a miraculous healing that only God can produce. 246 00:17:36,620 --> 00:17:39,660 And that's something that anyone can experience today. 247 00:17:39,980 --> 00:17:46,220 I mean, if we learn anything from the story of Naaman, it's that anyone can be healed by God. 248 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:50,800 Naam was as far of an outsider as you can be. He 249 00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:52,320 's not part of the people of God. He 250 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:54,160 's not part of Israel. He 251 00:17:54,160 --> 00:18:00,880 's an enemy general, an enemy valiant warrior who actually is fighting against God's people. 252 00:18:01,519 --> 00:18:06,799 He's the most unlikely of people to experience God's healing, but God heals him. 253 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:13,039 God gives grace and mercy to Naaman, and God can give grace and mercy to any of us today. 254 00:18:14,980 --> 00:18:21,140 We can experience a miraculous healing that only God can do in our lives and heal us of our deepest need. 255 00:18:21,460 --> 00:18:27,940 When Naam comes back and is talking to Elish, he doesn't talk about the leprosy, man, because he's been healed of something deeper. 256 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:30,480 He has faith now. 257 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:32,400 He knows the truth now. 258 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:35,920 He knows that there is a God in Israel. 259 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:38,320 He has God now. 260 00:18:39,860 --> 00:18:51,700 See, what we find is that our deepest need is actually to be healed from the wound we've created in our lives from not knowing God, not worship God, and rebelling against God's design for this world. 261 00:18:52,679 --> 00:18:56,200 We've failed to live in God's world, God's way. 262 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,080 We're guilty of rebellion against Him. 263 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:04,919 We've run away from our Creator, and it's all left our souls deeply wound. 264 00:19:06,340 --> 00:19:14,899 But we can be healed from that wound, healed from our past failures, healed from our guilt and shame and our sin. 265 00:19:15,220 --> 00:19:19,220 We can be healed, restored, made whole, clean. 266 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,960 And that can happen to anyone today. 267 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:29,280 And so, listen, I believe you're here because of the fourth point of this story. 268 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:34,160 The fourth point of this story is this: God is pursuing you to heal you. 269 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,080 God is pursuing you. 270 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:45,080 See, a lot of times, maybe we think that, man, to come to God, we've got to unlock some sort of way to find him like he exists. 271 00:19:45,220 --> 00:19:47,940 Way up at the peak of Mount Everest, and we've got to get there. 272 00:19:48,180 --> 00:19:58,660 We've got to get there through holy living, we've got to get there through following a bunch of rules, we've got to get there through success or power or unlocking the perfect right doctrine. 273 00:19:59,540 --> 00:20:02,100 We've got to pursue God in order to be healed. 274 00:20:02,340 --> 00:20:04,260 That's kind of the default thinking we all have. 275 00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:09,460 But what we see all over the Bible is this: God pursues us to heal us. 276 00:20:11,220 --> 00:20:15,620 Naaman was saying, man, the Jordan River is not for me. 277 00:20:17,220 --> 00:20:22,900 He was pursuing other ways to be healed in his wisdom. 278 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:25,880 Maybe that's been where you've been at for a while. 279 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:28,120 You're like, man, I'm glad that God is out there. 280 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:33,240 I'm glad that the church works for some people, but for me, I got to try some other things. 281 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:37,400 I'm going try some other rivers, some other ways to be healed. 282 00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:44,000 And as you're pursuing other things, I want you to know this. 283 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:46,320 God is pursuing you. 284 00:20:47,140 --> 00:20:48,820 God is pursuing you. 285 00:20:49,700 --> 00:20:52,180 He's pursuing Naaman in two really big ways. 286 00:20:52,420 --> 00:20:57,380 First, he pursues Naaman through having Naaman feel his need for God. 287 00:20:57,540 --> 00:21:06,260 For many of us, we're never going to come to the realization that we need God until our dependence on some of the earthly things that we trust in is removed. 288 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:20,880 So long as we feel like we can depend on our status or our wealth or our health and so long as we feel comfortable in relying on those things, we're never going to see our need for God and so we're never going to even care about what God says, even if He is pursuing it. 289 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:29,360 And so for Naaman, man, everything that he's trusted in has been taken away through this leprosy. 290 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:34,880 God is pursuing Naam through the leprosy, and Elish knew it. 291 00:21:35,740 --> 00:21:40,940 Man, maybe God's pursuing you through some suffering and chaos in your life. 292 00:21:41,260 --> 00:21:47,900 Maybe life has just been turned upside down and you're like, ah man, I been trying to go to a bunch of places to figure this out. 293 00:21:47,860 --> 00:21:51,059 And maybe you wandered in here today just to say, like, man, I don't know. 294 00:21:51,380 --> 00:21:52,820 Maybe God's out there. 295 00:21:53,620 --> 00:21:55,539 Maybe I'll give God a try. 296 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,080 That's kind of what Naaman's doing. 297 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,880 I don't think Naaman has this deep faith or belief. 298 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:06,640 I think he just has this just barely 1% hope that God might show up and be real. 299 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:07,840 I don't even know if he has a 300 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:14,200 Faith when he goes to the Jordan River and dunks himself seven times, he's just like, okay, I'm just gonna go and try. 301 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:16,920 And maybe that's where you're at today. 302 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:20,600 You're like, okay, I'm gonna show up and I'm just gonna try. 303 00:22:22,420 --> 00:22:27,540 But man, if you're here, even with that, that means God's been pursuing you. 304 00:22:27,860 --> 00:22:30,660 That God is coming after you to heal you. 305 00:22:32,020 --> 00:22:34,740 Another way that God pursued Naaman is through others. 306 00:22:34,900 --> 00:22:39,860 I mean, think of all the other people that God is using in this story to pursue Naaman. 307 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:49,200 God's using his wife, the king of Aram, the king of Israel, letting him go see Elisha, Elish, Elish's servant, Naaman's servants. All of 308 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,720 these people are carrying Naaman to the place of healing. They're 309 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:53,280 pointing him. 310 00:22:53,620 --> 00:22:54,500 Toward God. 311 00:22:54,740 --> 00:23:04,580 And maybe God has some people in your life that have been pointing you toward God, encouraging you to go to church, encouraging you to read your Bible and learn more about Jesus. 312 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,800 But man, there's one person in this story who it all comes back to. 313 00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:13,960 It all started in verse 2, when an unnamed servant girl. 314 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,120 Brought up that there's healing with God. 315 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:27,280 The wording tells us that she was between 12 and 14 years old, and the king of Aram had just turned her life upside down. 316 00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:31,320 He went on a raid and likely killed her parents and took her as a slave. 317 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:40,760 She's a victim of human trafficking who's now forced to work in the home of the people who helped murder her family and yet amazingly, miraculously. 318 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:48,120 God has worked in her heart to forgive Naaman to such a degree that she wants the best for him. 319 00:23:49,580 --> 00:23:58,059 Man, God is pursuing Naam through what seems like the weakest, most insignificant person possible. But 320 00:23:58,059 --> 00:24:02,220 a person who loved him and who was risking her life for him. 321 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:08,560 And so look how Naaman responds in verse 17 to Elish. Naaman 322 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:16,800 responded, if not, if I can't give you this money to pay for the healing, he says, please let your servant be given as much soil as a pair of mules can carry. 323 00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:22,680 For your servant will no longer offer a burnt offering or a sacrifice to any other God but the Lord. 324 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:27,240 However, in a particular matter may the Lord pardon your servant. 325 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:39,920 When my master, the king of Aram, goes into the temple of Rimmon to bow and worship, while he is leaning on my arm, and I have to bow in the temple of Rimmon, when I bow in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. 326 00:24:40,140 --> 00:24:43,420 So Elish said to him, Go in peace. Here 327 00:24:43,420 --> 00:24:44,780 's what's happening. Naaman 328 00:24:44,780 --> 00:24:46,780 asks for a bunch of dirt from Israel. He says, 329 00:24:46,940 --> 00:24:50,460 Can I at least take a bunch of dirt back to Syria with me? 330 00:24:50,620 --> 00:24:57,980 And supposedly, I mean, to spread that dirt out so that he could now worship God on dirt from Israel. 331 00:24:58,220 --> 00:25:00,700 He could worship God on God's dirt. 332 00:25:01,020 --> 00:25:02,780 And now, listen, that's weird. 333 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:04,960 There's nothing to that. 334 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,000 Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us to do that. 335 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:11,760 But Naam has been a Christian for about 10 minutes. 336 00:25:11,340 --> 00:25:13,260 And so he's just like, this makes sense to me. 337 00:25:13,500 --> 00:25:14,620 I think I need to do this. 338 00:25:14,940 --> 00:25:15,179 All right? 339 00:25:15,419 --> 00:25:17,660 And so he's, can I just take a bunch of dirt back? 340 00:25:18,220 --> 00:25:22,620 And then he knows, he knows that once he goes back, that his king is going to ask him. 341 00:25:22,780 --> 00:25:25,179 He's going to, Naam, I need your help to go worship. 342 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:27,679 In the temple of Rem. And 343 00:25:27,679 --> 00:25:33,519 so Naaman's like, okay, I going to have to hold my elderly king up, my elderly boss. I 344 00:25:33,519 --> 00:25:35,440 going to have to help him into the temple and help. 345 00:25:35,460 --> 00:25:36,580 Him bow when he bows. 346 00:25:36,660 --> 00:25:37,540 I'm gonna have to bow. 347 00:25:37,780 --> 00:25:41,700 And he's basically telling Elish, I know that Remon's not God anymore. I 348 00:25:41,700 --> 00:25:45,140 know that Remon is a false God and means nothing. But 349 00:25:45,140 --> 00:25:48,420 so can the real God, can the God of Israel forgive me? 350 00:25:48,900 --> 00:25:55,540 If I'm helping my k, and Elisha tells him, Go, be at peace. 351 00:25:57,080 --> 00:25:59,559 You see, here's what Naaman realizes. 352 00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:04,600 Naaman realizes life is going to look different now that he's been healed. 353 00:26:04,919 --> 00:26:06,120 Life is going to change. 354 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:07,320 Things are going to change. 355 00:26:07,559 --> 00:26:14,760 It's going to be slow and messy, but Naaman is ready to live in new health that God has miraculously given him. 356 00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:16,760 And that's the last point here. 357 00:26:17,120 --> 00:26:24,320 If you've been healed by God, you've been healed to li in new health. You 358 00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:27,200 've been healed to live a new life. 359 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,760 Naaman knew there is no going back to the old way of life now. 360 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:36,880 God has healed me and I'm on a path to live healthy. 361 00:26:36,660 --> 00:26:42,180 He's on a path of growing to understand and live out his new faith in God. 362 00:26:42,500 --> 00:26:47,380 And so, man, if you're here today and you've been healed by Jesus, you are on that path also. 363 00:26:47,820 --> 00:26:50,940 You get to live in new health with new faith. 364 00:26:51,180 --> 00:26:55,180 Life will never be the same if you have Jesus. 365 00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:58,320 The way 2 Corinthians 5 describes it, look at this. 366 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:03,039 It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 367 00:27:03,360 --> 00:27:07,120 The old has passed away, and see, the new has come. 368 00:27:07,500 --> 00:27:09,419 You're a new creation. 369 00:27:09,740 --> 00:27:10,700 That's who you are. 370 00:27:11,020 --> 00:27:14,539 The new has come, new life, new health. 371 00:27:15,519 --> 00:27:20,799 And maybe that terrifies you because you're like me and you're, man, I've killed every houseplant I've ever had. 372 00:27:21,039 --> 00:27:21,840 That's what I've done. 373 00:27:22,159 --> 00:27:25,840 And so you're, if God has given me new life, maybe I'm going to mess it up. 374 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,880 Maybe you feel like you've already messed it up. 375 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:35,799 But the truth we get from the Bible is this: you can't mess it up. 376 00:27:36,460 --> 00:27:46,140 You can't mess it up because it is God who works in you both to will and work according to his good purpose, Philippians 2. 377 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:55,120 What that's saying is this, if God has healed you, he's now working in you to help you walk in new health 378 00:27:55,480 --> 00:28:02,760 Someone who's been healed by God has come into your life to produce a new health in you that you and I couldn't produce on our own. 379 00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:07,240 And so we're just going to start walking and living in new ways. 380 00:28:09,399 --> 00:28:12,120 That's what Kelly Elms experienced. 381 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:18,120 Kelly's a covenant member at Harbor Church Waip, a church we helped plant a couple years ago. And God 382 00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:22,840 healed her many years ago and put her on a path to display his glory. 383 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:23,880 In this world. 384 00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:31,080 And so for Kelly, walking in newness of life meant that she could trust God whatever came into her life. 385 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:34,520 And so check out a little bit of Kelly's story. 386 00:28:40,540 --> 00:28:42,700 My name is Kelly Elms. 387 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,320 And in 2010, I was living the dream. 388 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:53,920 I was playing softball at the University of Hawaii, and we were the best softball team in UH history. 389 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,280 We broke the home run record as a team. 390 00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:05,480 We beat the number one team in the nation that ultimately got us to the Women's College World Series. 391 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:07,720 Personally, I did really well. 392 00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:12,680 I hit 30 home runs that season, which was the most in the whole nation. 393 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:17,040 We actually got nominated for an S. It 394 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:18,880 was surreal. But 395 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:24,240 during all of that, I was starting to feel pain at the base of my throat. 396 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:25,280 Rainbow 397 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,680 Wah, All-American Softball player Kelly Major 398 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,560 Has cancer, had her thyroid removed back in July. 399 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:35,080 Papillary carcinoma on my thyroid gland. 400 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:37,320 I was confused. 401 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:38,200 Why, God. 402 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:39,559 Why was this happening? 403 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:41,240 What did I do wrong? 404 00:29:41,559 --> 00:29:46,760 My now husband, Josh, and I were reading through John 9. 405 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:53,320 And in John 9, Jesus and his disciples walk past a man that was born. 406 00:29:53,919 --> 00:29:54,320 Blind. 407 00:29:54,640 --> 00:30:00,640 And his disciples ask him, who sinned, this man or his parents? 408 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,200 And Jesus answers, neither. 409 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:07,760 This happened so that the work of God would be displayed in his life. 410 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:08,400 And that 411 00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,240 Ever really sticks with me. Maybe 412 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:16,760 this was happening because he was going to display his own power. I ended 413 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:23,160 up having a press conference to let everybody know my diagnosis. I was also 414 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:23,320 able. 415 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,679 To let everybody know that God was sustaining me. 416 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:38,480 The next day, on the front page of the sports section, is my picture next to the headline: God thinks I can handle it 417 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:39,160 This. 418 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:46,280 Right there in bold letters, God's name was glorified, and I got to be a part of that story. 419 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:53,400 And so, a lot of times in our life, we go through difficult things, difficult struggles, just like through my camp. 420 00:30:54,559 --> 00:31:00,160 I've realized that God puts these trials in our life so that He may be glorified. 421 00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,880 And it's not just physical healing. 422 00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:04,799 God is the ultimate healer. 423 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,679 He heals us from pain. 424 00:31:08,580 --> 00:31:16,580 From fear, from doubt, and now every part of my journey, I point back towards him. 425 00:31:19,500 --> 00:31:24,220 Kelly's deepest healing happened before God healed her of the cancer. 426 00:31:24,540 --> 00:31:30,780 God healed her completely, gave her new life in Jesus so that when the cancer came, she could trust him. 427 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:37,200 We don't need to wait for the tragedy to come in order to be healed. 428 00:31:37,519 --> 00:31:45,600 You can come to God today, find the anchor in your life as the storms come, and trust him when they do. 429 00:31:45,820 --> 00:31:49,660 And watch how he puts his glory on display through you. 430 00:31:51,500 --> 00:31:55,500 If you need healing today, man, God is ready, able, and stoked. 431 00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:56,280 To heal you. 432 00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:03,320 Naaman's healing started with an insignificant servant girl who loved servant girl who loved him even though he wronged her. 433 00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,960 But she told him where to find healing. 434 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:18,679 Our healing was accomplished through a seemingly insignificant Jewish carpenter who was actually God him on a rescue mission and loved us even though we wronged him. 435 00:32:19,340 --> 00:32:23,740 And who accomplished our healing him. Isaiah 436 00:32:23,740 --> 00:32:28,380 53:5 tells us this: that Jesus was pierced because of our rebellion. 437 00:32:28,540 --> 00:32:35,980 crushed because of our iniquity's punishment for our peace was on him and we are healed by his wound 438 00:32:38,559 --> 00:32:41,200 That's the simple switch right there. 439 00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:49,120 If you want to experience healing, if you want to experience deep, true healing of your soul. 440 00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:56,440 It doesn't come through anything you and I could do, anything we could seek out, anything we could accomplish. 441 00:32:57,320 --> 00:32:59,640 It comes through trusting Jesus. 442 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:05,039 Jesus took the disease of our sin, our rebellion, our guilt, our shame, our failure. 443 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:06,640 He took it all on himself. 444 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:14,000 He loved you so much that he paid that price for you so that you could be healed today and forever. 445 00:33:14,580 --> 00:33:24,980 And so, in a minute, man, if you've never experienced that healing in a minute, I'm just going to give you the space to talk to God and ask Him to be healed through Jesus. 446 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:33,720 But maybe you're here today and you've already experienced God heal you through Jesus, but you know you haven't been investing in living in new health 447 00:33:33,540 --> 00:33:38,260 You've been trying to act like a leper instead of like a healed new creation. 448 00:33:38,580 --> 00:33:46,180 And so, maybe today is part of God being faithful to his word in Philippians 2, where he says he's working in you to help you grow. 449 00:33:47,100 --> 00:33:53,419 And so maybe today you just know, you know, it's a sin that God is calling you to fight with new passion. 450 00:33:53,740 --> 00:34:00,139 Or maybe you know it's a commitment that God has been calling you to make, but you've been dragging your feet on. 451 00:33:59,700 --> 00:34:09,060 Maybe it's a hard conversation in obedience to God's word, a hard conversation with someone that you've been putting off and saying, no, I don't think I need to do it yet. 452 00:34:10,460 --> 00:34:14,460 Maybe it's obeying God in a way that you just know you need to. 453 00:34:15,980 --> 00:34:17,980 I'm going to pray for you also. 454 00:34:18,100 --> 00:34:23,780 Pray for God's grace in all of our lives that we take a next step with Him and experience our 455 00:34:23,780 --> 00:34:26,740 new life of health more fully. 456 00:34:27,620 --> 00:34:28,980 Let's pray together.