Experiencing God s FAVOR and INFLUENCE Naaman s Servant Girl 2 Kings 5 When I became McBIC s Senior Pastor in August of 2001, I observed that our church had a lot going for it. There was a strong base of worship and prayer; there was much health and unity; and excellent ministry was happening for children, teens and adults of all ages. I saw a lot of positives, but I didn t see much focus on equipping people to reach out or on designing ministries that built bridges into our community which sought to draw people who didn t know Jesus into our church family. Several years into my time as senior pastor two staff positions opened that we needed to fill. Most of our staff was homegrown, but I thought we could benefit from some fresh, outside perspectives. In the summer of 2003 we hired John King as our Pastor of Young Adults and about 6 months later in February of 2004, Dave Truitt began his time as our Kids Pastor. They were two of the best hires we ever made. Tru & JK shared our church s values and priorities. They were very effective ministering in the areas we hired them for. They were great team players. And they brought fresh passion and ideas. Shortly after these guys came on staff we did a little exercise in which our staff (and later other leaders in the church) ranked worship, discipleship, fellowship, service and outreach from 1-5 based on how they saw these values being emphasized in our church. We did this for McBIC and once for our personal lives. Among the 24 staff members and leaders who did this assessment there was a lot of variance on worship, fellowship, discipleship and service, but every one of us ranked outreach last in our church and in our personal lives with the exception of Tru who had it ranked 3 rd for him personally. Earlier in the week JK, Tru and I reflected on our impressions of this assessment and how God has led us to live out the value of outreach in our personal lives INTERVIEW From cover to cover the Bible challenges followers of Jesus with our responsibility to share the faith we have with others. A passage of Scripture that grips my heart is Matthew chapter 9 verses 35-38: 1
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Matthew 9:35-38 Jesus had compassion on the crowds of people He saw that word speaks to a deep, guttural, almost physical pain. He had compassion on the people because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep without a shepherd are in deep trouble. They re anxious and afraid, they wander aimlessly because they have no purpose or direction and they re extremely vulnerable to attack by predators. Harassed and helpless describes a lot of people I know who are outside of relationship with Jesus. Jesus heart was moved, but He didn t just observe their plight and then move on. He offered a remedy. He said, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. In other words, the problem isn t that there is a lack of people who need help. The problem is that there are too few people actively seeking to help those who need it. And then Jesus went on to give his disciples this instruction, Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field. The solution Jesus offers to the need for additional workers is to pray that God would raise up workers and send them out. Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons in our arsenal as followers of Jesus. When we pray, we invite God to meet whatever problem we re bringing to Him with his resources. But prayer can be an excuse for inaction when we fail to recognize the role we ourselves play in answering the prayers we pray. Praying for God to raise up workers doesn t absolve us from the responsibility of being one of those workers. Do you know what happened immediately after Jesus told the disciples to pray for workers to go into the harvest field? The very next verse says, He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. Matthew 10:1 My passion for my life, for my family and for our church family here at McBIC is that we would be Jesus workers who go into the harvest fields all around us to help those who are harassed and helpless find life and hope in Jesus Christ. We can be the answer to Jesus prayer. Our church s mission is, Helping people connect with Jesus. Most people s starting point for a relationship with Jesus isn t my preaching or our inspiring worship singing or our wonderful 2
ministries and programs. Those are tools that can help, but most people s initial connecting point with Jesus is seeing evidence of Him in your life and mine. This subject of sharing our faith with others is a passion of mine. For a number of years I ve taught an on-line course for the BIC on the subject of evangelism for ministers and prospective ministers who haven t attended seminary. I begin the course with a video in which I identify common myths people have about evangelism. Some of the myths I identify are: Evangelism is for those with the gift of evangelism or the personality of used-car salesman. Evangelism requires an advanced Bible degree. Evangelism is for my pastor to do. There s another myth I want to debunk which immobilizes many of us, keeping us from embracing the role God has for us to play in pointing people who don t know Him toward a relationship with Him. A complaint I hear is, I don t have the influence or position or personality to point people to Jesus. The enemy uses this idea to thwart Jesus prayer that workers would be sent out into the harvest field. Too many of us buy into the enemy s lie that when it comes to sharing our faith with others, we re powerless because we don t have the position or the influence to make a difference. In contrast to this myth, the Scriptures are clear that power and position aren t requirements for doing God s work. Our age, our job and our station in life don t prohibit us from sharing our faith in Jesus with others. What we look at as a hindrance or obstacle, God often views as a platform. My favorite example of people with little status or position who clearly operated with Jesus favor is found in Acts chapter 4 verse 13. The Jewish religious leaders who had just killed Jesus made this observation about Jesus disciples, Peter and John: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Peter and John were ordinary and unschooled backwoods fishermen but they exhibited an authority that led their adversaries to recognize they had been with Jesus. 3
I ve titled this sermon series, Experiencing God s FAVOR and INFLUENCE. Over the next 4 weeks we re going to look at 4 people in Scripture who didn t have positions of influence or power, but they did great things for God as they operated in God s favor and influence. I think we all know what influence is the ability to impact others but the word favor isn t as commonly used. Favor in the way I m using it is given to us by God and attracts others to us. It s God s blessing bestowed on us in such a way that others notice us. The people that we re going to look at over the next 4 weeks had God s favor, and God s favor allowed them to have influence on others in ways that went far beyond their status or their position. Today we re going to look at an account in the Old Testament Book of 2 Kings chapter 5. Here we read about a Jewish girl serving as a servant she was really a slave, because she had been taken captive from her family by force in the home of an Aramean Army commander named Naaman. I ll read verses 1-8 of 2 Kings chapter 5: Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman s wife. She said to her mistress, If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy. Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. By all means, go, the king of Aram replied. I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy. As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me! When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel. Naaman was a powerful man the commander of the army of Aram (also known as Syria), but he had leprosy a skin condition that would eat away the skin and nerves of people s hands, arms and legs. Leprosy was a terminal condition and it was feared to be highly contagious. People with this dreaded disease were usually forced to live in isolated colonies removed from healthy people who might catch what the lepers had. There was no known cure for leprosy. Naaman was a powerful man, but because he had leprosy, he had no hope for his future. Naaman had no hope for his future until his young, Jewish servant girl recommended that this great man visit the Jewish prophet, Elisha, whom she claimed would cure Naaman of 4
his leprosy. Naaman took the young girl s advice. He went first to Joram, the King of Israel, and then he was directed to Elisha. Elisha gave Naaman instructions to wash himself in a local river 7x and after dipping into the water for the 7 th time Naaman was cured. Naaman s healing and the events preceding it and following it are very interesting if you re not familiar with the story I encourage you to read all of it but for our purposes I want to focus on the young slave girl who directed her master to visit Elisha. The events depicted here occurred around 850 B.C. Israel and Aram/Syria were arch enemies. Map Even when they weren t officially at war, they had frequent skirmishes. In verse 2 of our text we read, Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel. It s hard for us to imagine how distressing this was to the young girl and to her family. Not only was she taken from her home, she was taken to a pagan nation that would have been foreign to her in every way food, clothes, customs, education and probably most significantly for her religion. This young girl had every excuse to pout, complain and be depressed. And yet we see that she grew to love her master and his wife. In the midst of her personal heartache, she maintained her connection to God and her belief in his power. When she learned that her master was sick, she approached Naaman s wife and encouraged her to have her husband go to see the prophet Elisha, who she said would cure him of his leprosy. In verse 7 of this passage we see a fascinating contrast between this girl in slavery in a foreign nation and Joram, the King of Israel. Listen to verse 7 again: As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me! 2 Kings 5:7 King Joram, who was living in Israel s capitol city of Samaria, seems to have been unaware of the Prophet Elisha. He interpreted King Ben Hadad s letter as an attempt to incite a battle. It wasn t until Elisha the prophet heard about King Joram s response and went to him that the king understood what his adversary was asking for. Meanwhile, this little Jewish girl, who was a captive in Syria, was fully aware of the Prophet Elisha s reputation. People viewed King Joram with respect. He was after all, the King of Israel. This Jewish servant girl, on the other hand, had probably been forgotten by everyone other than her family and closest friends. But when God wanted to bring a pagan army commander to an awareness of his power, He 5
didn t choose Joram the King of Israel. He chose a little-known slave girl, living in a foreign country. You and I would look at the king and assume he must be operating under God s favor. He had power, wealth, prestige and fame. If we didn t know better we d wonder whether the family of the slave girl had sinned against God and perhaps angered Him. Maybe that would explain her unfortunate circumstances. But who truly had God s favor resting on them? Who did God choose to influence the commander of the Syrian army to turn to Elisha? Naaman s interaction with Elisha not only led to his healing from the dreaded disease of leprosy, it lead him to become a worshiper of God and who knows how many people this man introduced to God. The implications of this story for us are pretty obvious. You and I don t need power, position or prestige to point others to Jesus love. What we need to do God s work in pointing people toward his love for them is God s favor and the influence that comes with that. Every one of us here who is in relationship with Jesus is part of the answer to Jesus prayer in Matthew chapter 9 Ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into his harvest field. As God s favor rests on us we can have influence for Him in pointing people to Jesus in our schools, in our families, in our neighborhoods and in our workplaces, regardless of what we perceive our position or platform to be. But here s the challenge life is distracting. The joys and the difficulties of life tend to consume our thoughts and we lose sight of Jesus call to be workers who point the people around us to relationship with Him. Think about Naaman s servant girl. She had every reason to be distracted consumed with grief over her less than ideal circumstances missing her parents and her siblings and her friends; away from her homeland; uncertain what her future would hold; perhaps feeling like God had abandoned her But she was able to stay attuned to God s purposes for her life and for Naaman s life. And she pointed her master to a relationship with God. A large part of you and me experiencing God s favor and influence is staying attuned to Him and his heart for others (prayer, worship music, community with other followers of Jesus, reading God s Word connection with Deut. 6) in the midst of the distractions of life the joys and the heartaches. 6