Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Hosts Pastors' Lee and Jim.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
Naaman's Healing: Trusting God's Directions
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week with your hosts, Pastors Lee and Jim. It's time to inspire, uplift and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now. Welcome back to Beyond Sunday. I'm Pastor Jim sitting here with Pastor Lee. We are the hosts of the Beyond Sunday podcast and we also pastor the church Christ Family Outreach here in Amelia, Virginia, and, as always, I'm sitting across from Pastor Lee. Pastor Lee, how are you doing today? I'm blessed, brother. What's going on? How are you, man, doing? Very, very well, I'm excited to get into today's episode. We're going to be jumping back into the Old Testament, something that I know is near and dear to you, as you love the Old Testament.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man, I really do. I love preaching from the Old Testament. I love the New Testament as well, but I really like how the Old and New Testament they tie into one another so beautifully.
Speaker 1:And when you see that, you just understand that God's Word is truth. It is absolutely truth. And you know, today we're going to be in a story about trusting God's guidance, even when it feels like you might be drowning in some murky waters. And we'll be in 2 Kings, chapter 5, and we're going to be dealing with this story of Naaman and his healing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's get right into it. 2 Kings, chapter 5, verse 1, says this Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man, with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. So let's talk about that, pastor Jim. Neman being the commander of the army meant that he was the number two man in the nation, right? So Neman's got it going on, you would think.
Speaker 2:Anyway, he's got the reputation, he's got power. No doubt he and his family are financially secure, but there's a problem that he's facing that cannot be fixed. Neman has leprosy, and leprosy is not going to be fixed by Neman's reputation. Leprosy is not going to be fixed by the authority and the power that Neman has gained for himself, and it surely is not going to be fixed by the financial clout that he has. And maybe there's some listeners out there right now that feel like everything is going smoothly in your life, just like it was with Naman, right? But deep down, you've got this one thing. You've got this one issue, this one problem, this one person, this one circumstance that not many other people know about and, like Naman, your successes in life are not going to fix the problem, and so what that means is that you need a power that is not of yourself, it's a power that's not of your own to handle the situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think oftentimes as Christians we can rely so much and so heavily on our own personal experiences, especially those who get saved later on in life. If you're 35 years old and you've lived 35 years of life and you've come to a church service or you've had your experience that's changed your entire life, it can still be hard to take all of your life experiences and knowing that you can trust yourself and say I'm no longer going to trust myself, I'm going to trust my Lord.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you bring up a great point, man, because that person has had 35 years of doing it pretty much their way. You know, now, coming up as a child in their home they had to follow rules and everything like that. But you know what's the one thing that high school age kids want to do? They want to break free from their parents. They want to go live their own way, right, their own rules.
Speaker 2:I remember when Erica and I got married, it's the night of our honeymoon. We had just left the church. We're heading to a halfway point to where our honeymoon was going to be. We're going to stay the night there at a halfway point. And it was so weird man riding down the road, thinking and we even said it to ourselves like how weird this feels that we don't have to call home and check in and tell our parents, like what time we're getting home. You know what I'm saying. So like we tasted that freedom, man, and that freedom was so good, you know. So I totally get Pastor Jim, what you're saying. Right.
Speaker 2:It's like, especially, you say 35, man, think about the person who comes even later than that and like 45, 55, 65, 75. You know, I know at one of our outreaches that we did a couple years ago. There was a gentleman who, someone from our church, led to Christ he was 92 years old, I know said he never heard of Jesus, never heard of Jesus. So think about that man, 92 years old, pretty much having it your way right for 92 years and all of a sudden you've got to surrender to King Jesus, you've got to surrender to Father God and you've got to realize that it's no longer about having it your way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think something else to look at specifically for Neman is he had everything at his fingertips—power, status, success—but the one thing that he couldn't fix was his leprosy. You know he had to deal with that, and so what does that do to his mentality? You know, like I can do all these things, but I'm stuck with this disease. So what does that do to someone's mentality?
Speaker 2:I was reading a study book on this, just preparing for this episode. And he was a commander of the army, which meant he would have been in public. He would have been in public's eye. When you had leprosy you weren't supposed to be around people, right? Oftentimes it would cause you to be outcast. So in the study book I was reading on this, their take was they believe that his leprosy would not have been all over his body, because we know he was in action, commanding the army. It says that God gave success to the army through him, so it's believed that his leprosy was he was able to hide it, so it would have been somewhere under clothing.
Speaker 2:How many times in life do we hide leprosy, if you will? How many times do we hide sin? How many times do we hide our issues? And that's really, I think, what we're going to touch on a lot in today's episode is you know, these things that we hide, we truly have to give them over to the Lord, and the only way that we're going to be healed of these things, we're going to be delivered and set free from these things, is if we stop dealing with them in our own strength and we just say okay, god, here it is.
Speaker 1:Here it is man that's so good, and it's not just the surrender and the humility it takes to do that, it's also finding what God tells us to do to get rid of it, and being obedient right, exactly Doing what the instructor, god, says to do, following the instructions.
Speaker 2:So that's going to bring us to 2 Kings, chapter 5, 2 through 5. And the word of God praise the Lord says this Now the Syrians, on one of their raids, had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naman's wife. She said to her mistress, would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy. So Naman went in and told his Lord Thus. And so spoke the girl from the land of Israel, and the king of Syria said go now. Spoke the girl from the land of Israel, and the king of Syria said go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.
Speaker 2:So what I'd like to point out here, pastor Jim, is this girl who's been seized and now she's going to be a slave to Neman's wife. She may be little in size but, brother, she's mighty in testimony, right, she's been taken captive and we don't see that she's bitter to the point of shutting down. She obviously doesn't want the worst for Namon. She's not just like back off in the corner snickering and laughing that Namon's got this disease of leprosy that could be spreading.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes, leprosy would lead to death back then, right. So she could have easily just stepped back and been like well, you know what you took me. You know you probably harmed my family, you harmed my neighbors and you took me a slave in that raid. But instead of remaining silent, instead of being bitter, she offers hope. Instead of letting the enemy use her and harden her heart and shut her down, she's offering hope and love in this situation. So, pastor Jim, there's a lot to learn from there. But how many times in life have God's people remained silent because we didn't want to help people who didn't help us or who had wronged us? Right? So this girl's witness went from her lips all the way to the ears of a king. So there's power in our testimony.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know she's a child. The Bible talks to us about having a childlike faith. You know she's a child. The Bible talks to us about having a childlike faith. And I wonder how many times as grown-ups, right seasoned experiences that kind of cast doubt on the things that would be miracles. So like I'm walking through life and there's just no way that this is going to happen. But a child walks up and just says, hey, what about this? Yeah, why not? And it's innocent, you know. So she's just sitting in the corner and she's looking at this and she's like, well, why doesn't he just ask God to heal him? Amen. So scripture talks about having a childlike faith, exactly yeah. So we can learn a lot from this little girl saying have you even considered this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, from the corner of the room right Chiming in. Yeah, I think it's powerful. The point that I want to kind of retouch on and just get your thoughts on it the words, as I mentioned a moment ago, they go from her lips to the ears of Neman and his wife, to the ears of Neman and his wife, and it goes from Neman to his king, his boss, so she says something in their home and it gets all the way to the palace of the king, to the one who has the authority and the power and the say-so to be able to give Neman the blessing to go right. So there's power in our testimony and I think far too often Christians remain silent and when we've remained silent we don't offer hope, joy and love. That should be being offered through our words.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you could also attach it to prayer. Look at who answers our prayers. Where does the prayer in my quiet time reach? The King of Kings. So sometimes we just need to speak, be willing to speak out loud our prayers, our needs, and the King, who is Jehovah Jireh, our provider, will provide for us. He will hear our prayers. Absolutely, brother.
Speaker 2:Moving forward. 2 Kings 5-6-8 says this, my friends, and he bought the letter to the king of Israel, which read when this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman, my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me. But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king saying why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel. So I love, pastor Jim, I love how Elisha steps up. When the king chose not to, the king steps back, elisha steps forward Like hey, wait a minute, we have a chance, king.
Speaker 2:We have a chance to show that there is a prophet in Israel. In other words, because there's a prophet in Israel, god is still speaking to his people. So hey, let's see what God's going to do here. And just like the point that you referenced earlier with the little girl here. The little girl is all the way in this distant land, in the house of Naaman. She's a slave and she says hey, wait a minute, there's a prophet in Israel, god can fix this.
Speaker 2:And here we have the prophet that she's referencing, here we have Elisha, and Elisha's like hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, god can fix this, god can fix this. You know, I think it's very interesting how the king makes this all about him and it's like whoa, wait a minute, you trying to pick a fight with me, you trying to pick a fight with me, you know so. The king tries to make it about him, but Elisha steps up. He's like no, no, no, this is not about us. This is the fact that God is willing to speak through us and God is willing to do a work through us. Just, pastor Jim, just like he is in the church today, god is willing to speak through his people and use his people to show that there is a God alive and well in heaven.
Speaker 1:How many times in our own walk have we hit a wall and be like man? Well, this just stinks and we've made it about us and we've gotten to our own feelings and we miss blessings and we miss opportunities for testimonies to speak louder than what our words or actions could ever make, and we need to be reminded of this too. So when we're in that funk, it's important to us also as Christians, that when we see our brothers and sisters hitting this wall, when we see our brothers and sisters taking things personal, we have to be the ones that come up behind, put our arm around them and remind them how Elisha's doing to the king here. Oh, this isn't about you, look what God can do.
Speaker 2:That's right. When you hit that wall you got to get back up. I remember when I was younger, much younger, just a child and I was over at my cousin's house. They had a very wide, open floor plan, a beautiful home, and we're running around the home, the adults are all in the in the living room, living room area and they're they're they're kind of hanging out and visiting one another and the cousins are all running around the house, right, and they've got a Florida room on one end of the house and it was glass everywhere. The entire wall of the living room and the Florida room and the dining room just had glass windows everywhere and the door to the Florida room, pastor Jim, was shut and it was a glass door. I mean just glass everywhere.
Speaker 2:It's a beautiful home and my brother obviously we didn't live there so he wasn't used to it, so he didn't see that the glass door was shut. So he, literally full steam ahead, is running from someone chasing him and hide and go seek and he runs, slam into this glass door and I remember watching it, not realizing glass was there myself, everything was clean, it was daytime out so light was shining through. He hits this thing and literally bounces off of it and I remember seeing the glass in the door just kind of flex and go back and forth Right. Praise God you can get cut. Glass didn't break, he didn't get hurt, other than some pride and his forehead. He hit it with his forehead running, running forward, but he bounced back.
Speaker 2:And as you say that about picking one another up when we run into a wall, I'm reminded of that because some pickups are going to be more difficult than others. Some people are just going to need a little push forward, some people we're going to need to drag them up. You know, some people are down and out, like my brother was. Some people could be dazed and confused, but can I just say that everybody rushed over to my brother to check on him in hopes that he was well. And isn't that a great picture of the church. When someone gets knocked down, the church body should be running over, ready to do whatever it takes to make this person get back up on their feet, even if it means we've got to hold them for a while while they mourn, even if it means we've got to get under their arms and lift them up spiritually, even if it means we've got to encourage them in love, even if we feel like we don't have a whole lot to give. We've got to give what we can give.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Bible says that God's our refuge and our strength, right Amen, and that he's very present in our trouble. Yeah, and so it's just a simple reminder of hey, hey, hey, don't forget who your God is, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:He's always there when, when you're running into that wall, when you're running into that door, he's there. When you fall down, he's there. When people are there to pick you up, it's because he's there. He's present. Yeah, 2 Kings 5, 9 through 12 says so.
Speaker 2:Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. But Naman was angry and went away saying behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord, his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Farfar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. So it's almost as if Neman is looking for a show. He wants a type of ceremonial procedure in order to make this thing official. But what he missed is that the word was sent, directions to be healed of the leprosy was delivered, but Neman I know he wanted the healing, but it's like before the healing. He even wants the healing to come with pomp and circumstance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he asked for healing, but because it wasn't what he thought it should look like, he rejected it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't tell you how many times I've seen people in counseling and they want their marriage healed. But no, no, no. I want my husband to get right, but only if it comes in these terms. Or I want my wife to get right, but only if it comes in these terms. And the thing is, is that God's ways are higher and greater than our ways?
Speaker 1:We are a people that when we think of miracles, we've so glorified and made miracles something out, to be something spectacular, and we forget that miracles are in the everyday, even in the mundane. What we would call mundane are miracles.
Speaker 2:I like to say that waking up is a miracle. Exactly, I don't have the ability, the know-how, the power or the authority to make my body healthy enough to wake up every day. I mean, if we did, no one would ever die, right, we would just continue to make sure we woke up all the time. So I'm thankful that God has chosen to give me another opportunity to do today better than what I did with myself yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and because we take for granted the miracles that are what we would say mundane, we don't see the grandeur of those big like oh man, that person was paralyzed and now they're walking. What that does is it creates this doubt that speaks louder than what we think. God is speaking to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think what it has done is it has minimized the observance of miracles, and we have miracles around us all the time, but we're not seeing them because it's not coming in the fashion, the form, the pomp and circumstance that we have expected miracles to come and if we're not careful, that can cause us to doubt God's plan when it doesn't look like what we imagined it to be right.
Speaker 1:But trusting means obeying His voice, even when others question what we're doing. And the question really is where are you struggling to trust God's life? Where are you struggling to trust God's call because of doubts or pressures that you're experiencing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 2 Kings 5, 13 and 14 says this. But his servants came near and said to him my father, it is a great word. The prophet has spoken to you, will you not do it? Has he actually said to you wash and be clean? So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean, amen. I mean, it was the servants who came to him and was like hey, knock, knock Anybody home. Come on Naman. Like, wake up, call man. This thing that he's asking you to do, is it not a great word? I mean, look how easy it is. Just go down there and dip seven times in this water.
Speaker 2:Imagine the faith that it takes for Neman to go down each time only to come up not yet clean. Right, the first dip through the sixth dip, every time he came up. And not only is he coming up with his leprosy still on him, pastor Jim, but every time he comes up with his leprosy still on him, people are looking at him and he's like man. Here are these servants, here are these people right, and I'm going down. I'm doing what the man said. I'm coming up and I'm still not clean.
Speaker 2:And maybe you feel as though people are watching you, and the truth is our lives are living, breathing, walking testimonies. Yes, people should be watching us. That's why we have the light of Christ shining from us that we don't light a lamp and hide it under a bed or a table right, we keep it in the wide open, as a city, out on a hill, pastor Jim. So here's my question, as we kind of head towards the end of this podcast, this episode, here's my question what do people see when they look at you? What do they see when they watch you go through something extremely difficult? How do they see you react? How do they see you talk to other people? How do they see you treat and love and forgive people and show mercy and grace to people? Neman would go down, he'd come up and people were watching him. Pastor Jim, they were watching him, but praise be to God, brother. On the seventh time it was as Elisha the prophet said it would be. He was clean, yeah.
Speaker 1:Neman was ready to quit, frustrated by a simple command Ready to go back home, just go get in the water, yeah, dip seven times, you know. So often I think and I can relate to this, you know I've been in positions where I believe God has called me to do something and I begin to question it, ready to just quit and ready to be frustrated, in the moment of it not being what I thought it was going to be, feeling like I'm drowning, feeling exhausted, feeling distant, getting depressed, and I think that, a lot like Neman, when he was just ready to quit, all of the things that was being put into his head was just clouding his vision. Right, the enemy was just pouring frustration into his mind and causing him to doubt, and what he was failing to see is that obedience was the avenue to his healing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. If you're wavering on the line called faith this morning, can I just encourage you don't throw in the towel. Do not throw in the towel. Naman was ready to throw in the towel. He was ready to turn around and go back home. Just as simple as it was for Naman to go down there and dip in that water seven times.
Speaker 2:Can I tell you that no matter your need, no matter what you're your need, no matter what you're struggling with, no matter the fight or the battle, I'm just going to tell you this Get into prayer with God Almighty, Get into the Word of God. And it is that easy, it is absolutely that easy to read the Word and then trust in the Spirit's power, the Holy Spirit of God living in you as a Christian, to give you the power, the ability and the authority to walk out the Word in your life. Don't throw in the towel, my friends. Do not give up. It is as simple and easy as listening to the instructions and doing what the Father has said to do. Don't let your expectations block your miracle.
Speaker 1:You know, james says Expectations block your miracle. You know, james says stay humble before the Lord and he will exalt you. You know, and Naaman, he humbled himself, he ignored his doubts and he obeyed, and just like the servant girl's faith, we need to fix our eyes on God's truth, not the voices of fear or failure, or even what naysayers might say.
Speaker 2:Let me point this out you mentioned again, because here we are at the end of the story. Here we are at the end of this part of Neman's story, if you will, of his life. We're at the end, but we're mentioning something, we're mentioning someone from the beginning and I think that's a great, great point that you just referenced this girl. Naaman, is here at this river getting instructions by the prophet Elisha, because there was a willing servant girl that was willing to share faith in God. If she doesn't do that, pastor Jim, he's not healed of this leprosy. God. If she doesn't do that, pastor Jim, he's not healed of this leprosy. But God had strategically placed someone in Neman's home that would be a mouthpiece, an instrument of God for this man, neman, and because of it he's going to go back home clean and there's going to be a mighty testimony.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that what we can apply that to is, if you hear a word from the Lord or if you feel a tugging in the spirit to go say something to somebody, don't let the enemy talk you out of it. Give that word.
Speaker 2:Father, we thank you so much for this moment, this episode that you have given us to share with the listeners, this moment, this episode that you have given us to share with the listeners. So much happening here in this part of 2 Kings, chapter 5, more than what we've even touched on here. So I pray that your Holy Spirit has been ministering to our listeners and that you are teaching them how they can apply this text to their lives right now as well. Father, you are wonderful, you are glorious, you are the mighty, mighty one. We lift all of this up in the name and the blood of Jesus, and everybody, friends, said together amen and amen Until next time. God bless you.
