Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon Podcast.
We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
We look today at Neyman the Syrian's life and specifically
his encounter with the Living God.
His is an example of a once in a lifetime encounter that
completely transformed him physically and spiritually.
Would you listen in today and ask God to speak to you
personally? Hi Church, It's such a joy and a
privilege to be bringing God's Word to you today.
I counted an honor to be standing here and speaking to
you. And even today, as we take some
time to meditate on God's Word, for those of you who are
watching and for those who are listening, I pray that God's
Word will fall on the good portions of your heart so that
it will bear fruit as the Holy Spirit works in and through US.
I pray for those of us who've been in the seasoned life of
being a Christian. I pray as we hear His Word,
there will be areas which He corrects, course corrects us,
where He comes in and He prunes us and teaches us to do things
well so that we'll bear much fruit in the world that we are
placed in today. I've taken my passage today from
2 Kings chapter 5 and we'll be looking specifically at the life
of Naman. One of the beautiful things we
see from Naman's life is a lot of you probably have heard the
story in Sunday school. It's usually talked around the
lines of obedience. We've also heard of how he came
and he did and he got healed from leprosy.
As this is the main storyline to the entire thing.
As I was preparing, I really sensed the Holy Spirit was
saying all of us today need to have an experience that of
Naman. One of the beautiful things that
we see in our own lives is that we all are holding positions
today, be it for those of us who are starting our careers or for
those of us who've been in our careers for quite some time, or
for those of us who are heading towards retirement.
We've all established ourselves, but can we make certain choices
like how Neiman did, so that we'll be able to experience God
on a personal level, We'll be able to experience God on a more
intimate level. We'll be able to experience God
for who He is so that He can do something in our lives.
So one of the things that I've done is I've titled my sermon
today called learning to dip, right?
Learning to dip, right? I think we're living today in a
country which dipping means a lot of things.
For those of you who watch ads, a lot of grew up watching ads,
especially for all the ads that ran in between Test cricket and
One Day internationals. You'll notice there'll be a lot
of ads with regard to tea, different key companies be
putting and one of the ingredients is dip.
You know, the the more you dip, the stronger it gets.
Culturally. Also, we see a lot of people
dipping themselves in rivers because they feel that they will
attain forgiveness, they will attain eternity when they dip in
those places. And even as I've titled my
cemetery, learning to dip, right?
The whole idea is for us to do it God's way and not our way,
and can we be sensitive enough so that we'll be able to listen
to Him and do it God's way? We see during the life of Naman,
Elijah was a prophet, and Elijah had just a couple of chapters
back, had got the impartation from Elijah.
He saw Elijah going into the clouds and he had asked for one
thing, that when you see me go up, if you catch that, you'll
get double portion of what I had.
And we see immediately after that he takes his cloak and he
hits it and the sea splits. We see as he walks through
different chapters after that, we see him perform miracle after
miracle. In Chapter 3 we see that he wins
a battle of how the enemies just see that it's it's water but to
them it looked like blood and then Israel was able to overcome
that. In chapter four, we see how the
widows olive oil, you know, helped her get out of debt and
had more than enough so that they could enjoy as a family.
We see also that same chapter of the supernatural hand of God
where he's visiting and this woman says, because you're
coming through this quite often, I'll build a room, gets shows
hospitality and generosity, and in turn she gets blessed with a
baby boy. And then one day in the field,
we see that he falls down and he dies and they bring him back to
Elijah's room. And when Elijah comes, he's
brought back to life. So we see time and again the
supernatural hand of God move through Elijah in that season.
And we are in that same season today.
The hand of God is upon us. We are seeing miracles, signs,
wonders happen whether we are close to it or further away from
it. It doesn't discount that God,
whether God is working or not, he is working today.
I don't know where you're at. You're probably in a area of a
life where you're in probably in an unbelieving state because you
are not part able to participate in this healing.
You're not able to participate in the supernatural hand of God.
But that does not discount whether God is there or not.
And so, so the first thing as we look, we see that Neyman is a
general. He is not just an ordinary, he's
a general of the entire army for the King of Haram.
And we see that there at that point, there is a certain level
of peace because there are, they're able to go back and
forth between the two countries and things like that.
But Neyman is a person of influence.
He is a person. He's literally the commander.
And so he has so many things happening under him.
So if he's a commander, he's won battle.
He's participated in so many things.
He's a person of high standing. He is a man of intelligence.
And this is who God touches. And I believe as we look into
his lives, there are four things I want to highlight.
And the first thing I want for us to see is that God helps us
deal with what we cover. God helps us deal with what we
cover. So let's look into Two Kings
chapter 5. It goes on the same Naman,
commander of the army of the King of Syria, was a great man
with his master and in high favour, because by him the Lord
had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor,
but he was a leper. It clearly gives a understanding
of who Naman was. He was a mighty man.
He was a mighty man of valor. He, the Lord was with him.
I mean, I, that's the when I was meditating, it was clear that,
you know, the Lord was with him and that's why he granted him
victory. And today we all are in that
same place where the Lord is with us.
And because of that, he is established as we probably in
whatever you're doing, everything that we're doing is
important. Each and every one of us.
Whatever it might look to another person, it might look
insignificant, but regard it is what he's caused you to do and
you're doing it. Well, it says that at the end,
but he was a leper. You know, even as I was reading
up, it probably started showing in his body.
It probably wasn't a full blown extent of leprosy.
It was probably in patches starting to come here and there
and that would have caught his attention.
That caught his attention. And as I mentioned in this first
point, when we see God helps us deal with what we cover.
I believe there are so many areas of our life that we have
seen those patches. I'm not for some of us, it could
be physical patches. Some of us, I have some probably
unspoken prayer requests, unspoken.
Nyquist. We are embarrassed to talk about
what we're going through, ailments which are embarrassing,
struggles that are embarrassing, but God knows.
And it goes on to say that when we see that he was a leper, he
probably didn't want many to know.
There were only a probably a select few you knew.
But what he did, he covered himself.
Probably the outside world didn't know his Kingdom, didn't
know his soldiers didn't know he was quietly battling with it.
And I believe God wants us to uncover that what we're
covering. Why?
Because he wants to deal with it.
So today, I don't know what in your life have you covered up?
It could be one of physical sickness, something that you're
ashamed of. It could be a scar.
Probably early on you got into some form of some kind of abuse
that happened early on in your life.
Probably there's a scar with a deep scar with you're hurt with
family, it's deep scar. You're hurt with friends.
There's a deep scar you're hurt with someone closest to you who
you didn't expect this to happen.
But what we read is that God was with him in all his
accomplishments, but he also wanted to be with him when he
found out that he was a leper. And so today I want us to come
to a place. Can we invite God into this very
own place of what we are struggling with, what we're
trying to the God who knows everything, the God who sees
everything, the God who's present everywhere is not afraid
of what we're covering. God sees it, and he wants us to
ask him to come so that he can have his hand in it, so he'll be
able to what he can do. Do not rely on man or man's
teaching or man's worldview today, as much as we run to the
doctor to get our tooth fixed, the minute it starts hurting or
when we see a scar and you want to, you know, get an ointment,
but we go and see the doctor, we are quick to fix all the things
that are physically showing up. I believe today God wants us to
do a deep inner cleaning, a deep inner touch on the things that
we are covering today. Probably you've struggled all
your life with some chronic thing.
Probably doctors have diagnosed something, or probably you can
see yourself going through that slump.
I would encourage you, don't cover it up before God.
Don't cover it up before people. You can do whatever you want,
but before God would you go and ask and say, God, I need your
help right now. Without you I cannot do it.
One John chapter 2 verses 2627 says this in the message I've
written to warn you about these who are trying to deceive you,
but they are no match for what is embedded deeply within you.
Christ's anointing no less. You don't need any of your
so-called teaching. Christ's anointing teaches you
the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and Him
uncontaminated by a single light.
Live deeply in what you are taught.
The reason why I moved and took that portion of the scripture is
today we are getting deceived by too many things of what the
world has to offer. The world will counter
everything that we are trying to cover up saying hey, this is how
we have to do it. This is how we we always are
trying to undo some things that have happened in our lives.
I've seen a time and again when you're bringing up our kids,
there were new forms of parenting that started coming,
but then we had to go quickly into what does the word say?
The word says you have to correct when they are doing
something wrong. You have to discipline them.
You are their parent. You're not your buddy.
You when you read this, it says, but they are no match for what
is embedded deeply when the new what is embedded deeply within
you. I would ask you today, is the
word of God getting deeply embedded within you or is it the
world that is getting deeply embedded within you?
The world will always find it's way today.
In a world where we are driven by technology and data and the
amount of information that we gather, they all want us to be
exposed to it. And as much as our brains are
awesomely built to process this much data, I pray that we will
embed God's Word in deep into our lives.
What does embed mean? It's deeply ingrained.
When we, when something is embedded physically onto it, it
can't be easily taken. If taken, it will destroy the
framework of what is being embedded on.
And so today I would ask you, would you allow God's Word to be
deeply embedded? Because when you're deeply
embedded, what will happen? Christ will fill you the minute
you allow the world. The world will talk about
something just for these five years, for this, for the seven
years, this, for the 10 years. It won't talk to you for what
will carry you forward into eternity.
Whereas Christ is willing. And so today, as much as I love
doctors, I love what God's allowing mankind to find through
science, all that is good. I, I love what they're able to
bring down into humanity and for the UN unprivileged, for the
places that are really struggling.
But I strongly feel as Christ followers, our dependency has to
be on Jesus than on people. Our dependency has to be on
Jesus than on the procedures that the world has to offer.
It has to be on Jesus than anything else that will take
Jesus place. So if you're a follower of
Christ and are filled with His Holy Spirit, you will listen to
him. He will tell you who to go to.
He will tell you what medicine to take.
He will tell you when to stop and for long.
We've seen time and again there's this element of where we
start acting all of our own in Naaman's life.
What we see is he was embarrassed.
He couldn't go and tell anyone. But that didn't stop him from
being who God had called me. He still was the commander and I
pray today lot of you will rise up to that position that you
won't be bogged on by what you are covering yourself with.
Rise up. For some of you could be
infertility. For some of you it could be
singleness. You've been trying to find a
spouse. For some of you it could be
walking through a hard marriage and coming out with a divorce.
For some of you, it could be the fact of not having enough all
along. For some of you, it could be
carrying the financial burden of your parents and the debt that
they've been bringing in into your life.
For some of you, it could be even the the heaviness of just
making sure your meeting ends, whatever it is.
For some of you, it could be an unspoken ailment, an
embarrassing ailment. For some of you, it could be
things that have been happening in your childhood and now it's
you're starting to have those recurrences and you're like, why
do I have to deal with it now? Everything would be embedded
alongside with God's Word because God's Word is here to
set you free. You don't need any of the
world's teaching. You need God's Word to be deeply
rooted in you. So today I would ask you, what
is deeply rooted in you? Here we see a person who is
outside of the tribe of Israel, outside who?
Of God's chosen people, because God found something in him.
He was with him. And I believe when we look in
the New Testament eyes, we see that we all are recipients of a
salvation. God sees something in US, but he
also wants us to be set free from what we've been carrying
and covering up. I ask that would you be deeply
embedded with your Holies? But for some of us, the covering
up is probably our sexuality. For some of us, it's our gender
identity. For some of us, it's the very
own mistakes that we've been. Probably we've gone through and
we've aborted a pregnancy. Probably we've done things which
we are ashamed to talk about, but would you allow God into the
mix because God wants to uncover it and deal with it?
Who can teach you without lying? That's the Holy Spirit alone.
Last week we saw as I was talking, was relentless
endurance. This is what happens when we
allow God's word deeply embed. We will move with an
understanding of relentless endurance in every season,
seeing this is what God's word says.
This is where I'll be. Suddenly you won't be as you
might have friends, you might have everyone on your speed who
can be people who can get you through situations.
But your ultimate person who you'll always go to will be God.
You will be led by the Holy Spirit.
So today would you love God to open up that which you're
covering up so that he'll be able to deal with it in your
life? The second thing would be when
we learn to dip right? God speaks through his
witnesses. 2 Kings chapter 5 verses two to five.
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
Naaman's wife. She said to a mistress, would
that my Lord were with the prophet who's in Samaria, he
would cure him of his leprosy. Now Naman went in and told his
laughters, and so 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. So he went, taking with him 10
talons of silver, 6000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of
clothing. Now, Naman was a commander, and
one of the things of being a commander is they always have
their ears to the ground. As much as they're strategically
planning to attack, as much as they're strategically planning
to see things, there are certain things that they innately are
keeping their ears to. As they're keeping their ears to
the ground, they want to know what's actually happening in the
ground tactically. How can they move through?
What are these people group about?
How do you attack them? And so you see that there's a
slave girl who they have brought into their home.
And mind you, she would have been preview to the whole thing
because Naaman's wife would have been the one who's taking care
there. It would have been a family
matter. And this girl sees it.
And I believe God is causing a lot of us.
I believe today God is calling a lot of us to be witnesses like
this little girl, this nameless little girl.
We don't know what the age looks like.
You can see she's a slave here, so she could have had
resentment. You know what they brought me
from my home. I don't deserve to be here.
But that didn't cause her to testify of what she could in the
place where she was. And so today I want us all to
come to that place. Can we take this position of
being like this nameless little girl, testifying, witnessing of
what God's done? You know, in the the last couple
of months I've been listening this song that came out right
after Passion conference called I witnessed it.
And the quote is gone, goes on to say this.
I've witnessed your faithfulness.
I've seen you breathe life with him.
So I'll pour out my praise again.
You're worthy God, you're worthy of all of it.
Your promises never fail. I've got stories I live to tell.
So I'll pour out my praise again.
You're worthy God, you're worthy of all of it.
And The thing is, this girl had probably heard of what the
prophet was doing. She probably had witnessed,
probably it was a neighbor who had had a deep encounter with
getting something healed or had a touch of God through Elijah.
And she was able to say, if only you can go and see him in
Samaria. So today are we taking that
opportunity in all the God-given places God has placed us in Many
a times today we look at this place that we work at.
You know what? I can't spoil my name.
I can't show that I'm a Christian.
I can't. But God has placed you there
specifically so you can open your mouth.
So you can open your mouth as much as you want to pursue and
climb the ladder, as much as you want to do the next big, big
thing in your company. Would you trust God that He will
make everything happen? But sometimes would you be
obedient to what God is calling you to open your mouth to if
your colleague is telling you, you know what?
I I'm discontent my marriage, I've started looking at someone
else on Tinder. Would you be able to say, you
know what? Why are you doing that?
Marriages are meant for you to be together.
Why don't you honor your marriage?
But what's wrong? How can I help you?
How can I pray for you? Let's pray so that your marriage
gets better. Why don't we start witnessing of
His? Because we are ashamed most of
the time of who we follow. But if we've been recipients of
the miracle, if we've been participants of the promises of
we've been people who've invited God and allowed his word to
embed within us, we will be people who speak of it.
Even right when the opportunity comes.
We will know when to insert because we've already been
sensitive to the Holy Spirit. A lot of us today are speaking
out of line because we're not sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
We are sensitive to our image, to our to our image that we
think you know what we know at all.
This is how we should speak. Are we sensitive to the Holy
Spirit? Are we sensitive to the Holy
Spirit to speak? And when we speak, I believe he
will give us the time to say if this could happen for them,
people will turn around. OK, I'll follow up on that.
So today, are we willing to be nameless to testify?
Even if I don't get referent in the story, even if I get left
out of that of the arid miracle story, will I be OK to be a
nameless person who will be able to testify?
I'm I ready to testify even when it's not an ideal circumstance,
when I might have a dislike, when I might have a hater and
God always allows situations for us to respond his way.
It again comes down to us whether we want to respond.
We are not here created to do it.
He doesn't always OK get from this is the situation.
I know you hate that person, but you have to respond.
You know, we get to choose and that's a beautiful thing about
free will. We get to respond in this.
And so today, outside of our caste biases, outside of our
colour biases, outside of our race biases, outside of our
appearances biases, because I'm seeing a lot of people today,
they only want to talk to other people who dress well, who put
themselves together. But God's going to take you into
places to speak to everyone. If God created everyone, he's
going to take you to speak to everyone.
Would we do that Maybe also be people who will be seeking to
hear a testimony of God's doing? There are two.
It's a two prong approach. From this particular story, from
the girl's point, will we be willing to be a nameless person
so we can testify? From Naman's point will be we
will we be in a position to listen to someone's testimony
and take it and respond to it. That's why testimonies are so
important. That's why stories of people are
very important. That's why what God's done
through something, we don't take it lightly.
We don't take it lightly. And often times when God is
doing something, he's not doing it on a stage for the world to
watch. He's doing it in seclusion.
So today, if your testimony is one where you wanted to take it
to a stage, it won't even go past a few people.
But if you have allowed God to work on you in seclusion, it
will build up so that many will be many who hear it, many who
see it, many who listen to it will want what has happened in
your life. One Timothy chapter 4, verses 11
to 14 goes on to say command and teach these things.
Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young, but
set an example for the believers in speech and conduct and love
and faith and impurity Until I come, devote yourself to the
public reading of Scripture and to preaching and teaching.
Do not neglect your gift, which was given to you through
prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
This is Paul encouraging Timothy to not take a step back, rather
to take a step forward. It's what taking a step forward
even more responsibility. Yes, you are young, but you are
called to be an example to believers in speech, in conduct,
in love, in faith and impurity. Which means the more as Gen.
Z's and people are coming forward saying I'm wanting to be
in, there is a certain call that and a certain price that is
attached to this. You are called to live with in
our speech, in our conduct, in our love, in our faith and our
purity. And it goes on to say that don't
discount yourself. And so today a lot of us are
discounting saying probably someone else will come and tell
no God has placed you with what's happened in your life.
That's why it's always important to recount his faithfulness in
your life. It's always important.
That's why we give a lot of importance to Thanksgiving
because what has happened, what happens with Thanksgiving?
We say, God, I was like this, but you've brought me out and
you've made me like this. God, I would have ended up
differently. But today if I'm here, it's
purely by your grace and mercy. Let Thanksgiving be on our lips.
His testimony will already be going out of your mouth in
different ways. You will start telling people
this is not me. This was the God who was in me.
He course corrected it. He aligned me differently and
the trajectory now looks different.
So today can we respond in these two different ways?
The way of how the girl was, where she was a nameless girl
was ready to testify of what God did, of what she witnessed.
The 2nd is through name and where He was like ready to
receive the testimony of what this person did.
A lot of times we are having doubt and we read in James also
we read that if anyone asks God for wisdom, the same thing was
if anyone doubts and I feel like a lot of times we are
ridiculing. We have a preconceived cultural
idea of all of this, but if a God is responding to faith, if
God is responding to a heart's cry of a child who's deeply
asking for a miracle, and if it comes through, we should be
encouraged by what God is doing in and through their lives.
The third thing we see is when we learn to dip right, God
strips our pride to heal. 2 Kings chapter 5 verses 8:00 to
11:00. But when Elijah 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 Naman came and his horses and
Chariots and stood at the door of Elijah's house, and Elijah
sent a messenger to him saying, Go and wash in the Jordan 7
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 is God, and wave his hand over the place and
cure the leper. Today how many of us are having
an ideal understanding of saying this is how God should respond
to my problem? All of us?
I bet a lot of you are probably sitting on a couch thinking, you
know what, until God does it my way, I'm not.
Some of us are like, it's either my way or the highway.
And I believe God wants us to come to a place where he can
strip off upright. God won't repeat a miracle the
same way He did the first time. So if you're looking for a
repeat, the process can be the same, but the outcome will be
different. The way he does it will be
different. The way he chooses to step up
faith will be different. For those of us who've been
seasoned Christians, our maturity will come into play
here where we see God diligently, where we say God,
God, even if it doesn't happen, give me the grace to walk
through this. He will take us through this
path where we'll be able to see our pride actually be broken.
And I and even as Naaman is here, I can put myself in his
shoes and think, you know what, I'm a man of influence.
The like all our Bollywood and Tollywood and Hollywood movies
have the entry of the hero. He would have had an entry into
the place where Elijah was saying that street like that
came in his valiant horses, Ness and Chariots and come there and
stand. And probably if it was a movie
making, it'll just go from, down, up and give that reveal of
the hero Naman. And there is Naaman, who's angry
because he thought, you know what, the prophet will come out.
He thought he was big enough that the prophet has to come and
ask. He thought his influence was far
bigger. But what he didn't understand
was God wanted to deal with his pride and God dealt with his
pride. Why did God deal with his pride?
He wanted to deal with his pride so that he can receive his
healing. Because if he had allowed his
pride and healing to happen, the glory would still rest upon his
pride. It wouldn't rest upon the fact
that God healed. Somewhere down the line, Naman
would have made it all about himself.
And I wonder if that's the reason why a lot of us are
struggling in our healing. Are we already having a
preconceived answer to say, this is how I will tell people God
healed? Or are we saying, God, do it
your way and I'll testify about it.
You know, a lot of us make these prayers.
And I think it's a very cultural thing, Indian cultural thing.
You know what, OK, if I get this, I'll do this lot for you.
Or if I do this, if you do this for me, I'll do this for you.
God doesn't want that kind of negotiation.
He's not here on a negotiating table to negotiate the best
deal. You know when you're negotiating
a deal, when you're in the street buying something from a
street vendor, he'll say 100, you'll say 70, and then he'll
say you know 90. You'll say 80, then you'll come
down OK, let's both settle on 85.
You feel 85. He feels happy because he's
still got a 20% profit. You feel happy that you've got a
15% reduction on the price. He's not here to negotiate your
healing here. He's wanting to give your
healing, which means he wants you to let go of your pride.
Healing cannot flow when pride is there.
His presence cannot flow when pride is there.
You can't have any of his nature flow through you is your pride
is there. And So what Elisha tells him is
simple. Go to this river and dip
yourself seven times. What if all of us have been
unable to participate in our miracle because our pride was
the one which was causing us to go to do what God's calling us
to do? We probably felt, you know what?
Hey, I've been in this church for so many years.
I've been a Christ follower. I know things I know.
But what if God's saying, would you just abide with me?
I want to know you. I want to talk to you.
I want to take you through this journey.
What if repentance is the one thing that's causing us to
receive this healing? God wants to strip our pride
'cause as we see through the life of Naaman, we see our
identity is what comes ahead before what God wants to do.
Our position in society, the image that we've built in our
families, the way that we carry ourselves is what comes ahead
before God. Somehow in our head we have
logic. Well, we know if this happens,
this should happen. This should happen.
That's what medicine will tell you, but God will tell you
otherwise. That is the supernatural hand of
God. What caused Naaman to actually
experience healing by just dipping himself seven times in a
river? It had nothing.
It all was about God. It all was about God.
When God wants to deal with the pride, the reason why he wants
to deal with the pride is one, He wants us to be removed out of
the equation. His healing will happen and will
only happen through him and not through anything that we've
done. The second thing is he removes a
pride because it's not going to happen through a person through
any other human. It only has to happen through
him. There will be people who are
probably standing alongside with you and interceding and
everything. They will witness it, but they
won't be the real reason why you receive the healing.
So if some, because I've seen time and again, lot of people be
like, you know what? I prayed him through that
healing, yes, but at the end of the day, God is the one who
healed. You prayed with them.
The church stood and prayed with them.
The church came alongside with them.
The people of God came alongside.
But God is the one. So let pride start taking.
Let's remove pride from the equation one Peter chapter 5
verses 6 to 9 goes on to say so be content with who you are and
don't put on as God's strong hand is on you.
He'll promise you at the right time.
Live carefully before God. He is most careful with you and
then it goes on to say keep a cool head.
Stay alert, that devil is poised to pounce and would like nothing
better than to catch you napping.
Keep your guard up. You're not the only one plunged
into these hard times. It's the same with Christians
all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the
faith. The suffering won't last
forever. It won't be long before this
generous God who has great plans for us in Christ, eternal and
glorious plans they are, will have you put together and on
your feet for good. He gets the last word.
Yes He does be content with who you are.
A lot of times I come up on people where you they create an
air around them and I believe God wants us to come to a place
where we are carefree before God, which means with God, I
myself, with God, I myself and I can allow God to work in and
through me. So we see here because his pride
acted up. We see and a person around him
speaks and then immediately that changes to humility and
everything changes immediately who we surround ourselves with
matters the people who are around.
And so his foot soldiers are the ones who actually knock sense
into name and this is what they say. 2 Kings chapter 5, verses
12 to 14. Are not Abna and Farfat 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, 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.
In fact, when you're reading it in the NIV, it says, wouldn't
you, if he had asked you to do something more significant,
wouldn't you have gone and done? And our response when we
actually allow God to deal with the pride is to come to a place
of one of surrender. Pride doesn't cause me to be in
a position of surrender. Humility causes me to be in a
position of surrender. Who we surround ourselves with
matters. And so today I would ask, who's
around you? Are they telling you and just
speaking to your pride? Are they walking, making you
walk towards your healing? Because if they are making you
walk towards your pride, they don't have the good intentions
for you. But if they are, if they have
the space to talk and say, you know what, let's move, Take some
step towards your healing. You are in the right place.
You've surrounded yourself, the right people.
And so today I want us to ask that question, who have I
surrounded myself with? I want people around me who'll
be able to call me out, not who'll be able to build me up,
call me up. Guess room.
This is not the way you react. This is not the way you should
do it. Hey, I think this could have
been handled differently. There has to be a willingness to
obey. A simple act of obedience is
what was required in humility. Wherever we are, we are called
to obedience. God can work in any place in any
time. And even as we see name in his
trying to point out the significance of the river, the
river had nothing to do with it. So today, even as much as you
are probably looking, you know what, if I go to this doctor, he
is like the second best person in the country or in the state
or in the city. You can go to everyone, you can
dip yourselves in every known, well known river of trying of
influence, a river of, you know, connections, a river of, you
know, finding the right person to get your healing.
And if you're unable to do what God's calling you to do, simple
act of obedience, that's where the problem will happen.
So today I would urge you, would you have people who are close to
you, who will propel you towards your healing rather than propel
you towards our feed your pride. Can we obey in all humility?
Maybe not obey only when it picks all my check boxes or not.
Maybe not obey only when things work out in my favour.
Maybe not obey only when it's worth posting about it.
Every time we obey, it's a from a place of humility, fully
committed to God with the outcome because it's God's
story. It's God's story.
God is wanting us to give up so we can give in to His story.
Holy pride causes me to give up. Humility causes me to give in.
So today at church, I would ask you if you will be able to give
in to God's story because pride will cause you to stay out of
it. Because no glory would want to
go to God but yourself. The last thing we see is when we
dip, right? God strengthens us to follow Him
wholeheartedly. I love Naaman's response.
You know 2 Kings chapter 5 verses 15 to 18 goes on to say.
Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man
of God. He stood before him and said,
now I know that there is no God in all the world except in
Israel, so please accept a gift from your servant.
The prophet answered, as surely as the Lord lives whom I serve,
I will not accept a thing. And even though Naaman urged
him, he refused. If you will not, Naaman said,
Please let me a servant be given as much as earth as of mules can
carry. For your servant will never
again make burnt offering sacrifices to any other God but
the Lord. But may the Lord give your
servant for this one thing. When my master enters the temple
of Ramon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to
bow there also when I bow down in the temple of Ramon.
May the Lord forgive your servant for this.
What a beautiful way you know of Neyman to immediately
understand. That's why the position of what
he held caused him to immediately realize what
situation happened where the power shift happened.
The power shift for him happened.
He immediately knew who the real God was as a commander.
He knew who he had to bow down to, who his ultimate authority
is. And so today I want all of us to
come to that place. Yes, God placed a seat of power.
He was under the King. But he came here to say I'm
grateful, gratefulness. He came back.
He just didn't be one who received his miracle and went
about his way. No, he came back, He said thank
you, and then he was ready to give.
More generosity started coming. This is the thing with people
are asking, why are Christians generous?
Because we've tasted His faithfulness.
We've participated in His promises.
We give and we are not concerned of where we give.
We just give because when we give, the outcome is God's.
And today I want you, church to come to that place.
A lot of you have been unable to receive your healing because
you're unable to give to God what belongs to God.
A lot of you have made promises and you're not stuck to your end
of the deal and that's why you're struggling in that debt
today. Today a lot of you are unable to
see God come through because you made those claims.
Lord, if you do this, I'll do this for you.
Stick to it. He will flourish the work of
your hands. Today they're talking to a
generation where they're like, you know what?
We don't need to give to God because these people don't know.
You're giving to God. You're not giving to people.
You're giving to God, who gives, who fulfills his promises for
you. You're not giving to man.
So today don't make your giving about people, make your giving
about God. The second thing that we see
here is Naaman goes on to say you're not accepting anything
because Elijah didn't want anything because he knew God was
the one who did everything. I'm not here to receive
anything. Elijah said I don't need
anything. What did Naaman say next?
Can I take earth from you so I can build an altar and offer
sacrifices only to the true God? Only to the true God.
His altar changed. So today if you want to enjoy
this life, I would encourage you let your altar change.
The altar for lot of us today are our paymasters.
We are unable to be people of conviction because we are bowing
down to our paymaster. We are here.
OK. You know I don't want to ruffle
the feathers. No, you have to come to a place
of saying God. You are my paymaster.
And today I want you to come to
that place. Would you come to the place that
you'll be able to say God? I will only worship you alone.
And he says this beautiful, he's going back to a king where he
knows he has to go to the temple where the king worships.
And he knows he can't convince the king, but he's asking for
forgiveness in advance. This is how God wants us to
operate. This is the wisdom that comes
knowing God holy. This is the wisdom which comes
when we allow pride to be stripped out by God and when we
respond in humility. So today when we come to that
place of coming to him and saying God, I want to build the
right altar for far too long he says here the king will hold my
hand and he will bend down and I have to bend down.
Will the Lord forgive me? Today you will go into places
where your where your convictions will be challenged,
your things will be challenged, but you will have to have a hard
conviction of what you believe in, of what you believe in.
God has placed lot of people in high positions and there will
come situations where you will take the hard call.
Some of us are in positions 5-6 years from later, you'll be
seated in a position of power. You can take bigger decisions
which can shift things magnificently if you're
listening to God. He says that now I know that
there is no God in all the world except in Israel.
So today you and I are called to strip off our pride so that we
can live these wholehearted life.
Not just what He wants to strengthen us wholeheartedly.
He will strengthen us in every step.
He will strengthen us. I believe Naaman's life turned
around immediately. His household turned.
It all so started because of someone who decided to witness
it. That nameless girl decided to
witness. I pray that even as we hear
these things, God will strengthen our faith.
There are these four things I talked.
God wants to help us deal with what we cover.
I believe some of us have been covering up too long.
God saying I want to deal with it.
Will you surrender? God wants to speak through his
witnesses. God has probably placed you in a
place where you're embarrassed to talk about him.
God saying, talk about me, share about what I've done in your
life. That appointed time, He will
give share about it. God's asking also today for
those of us who heard about a testimony, if he will respond
right. If you'll say God, if you're
able to do it for this, can you also do it in my life?
The third thing is God wants to strip upright so he can heal us.
I pray today that we won't be people who are away.
I mean, not pride. Keep us away from God's story,
but maybe give in to God's story.
Pride will cause us to give up on God's story.
We'll make it all about ourselves.
But would you give in to God's story in all humility and say,
God, I want to do what you're calling me to do?
And the last thing is, God will strengthen us to follow him full
heartedly. May the altar that we want to
build be one to the true living God always, all day long.
And maybe be clear as to where God's placing us so that we'll
be people of discernment, that we won't be swayed away, that
we'll follow him all the days of our life.
So church can I pray and can be close.
Lord, I just thank you, Lord, for your word.
Thank you for all that you're doing, Lord, right now in our
lives, even as we heard from you word, I pray we won't just
receive it, but we'll apply it. We will live it out.
I pray we would go in strength, Lord Jesus, and that we'll be
able to live this Christian life in wholeness, Lord, not in part.
So that when we meet with you in eternity, we have been people
who've been completely transformed here on this earth,
living it out here on this earth.
Lord, we thank you, go before us blessed.
I pray that you'll strengthen each and everyone this week.
Be with us, take charge. We pray that you'll be glorified
and honoured, that in everything we want to give you the praise.
We thank you, Lord. Take charge.
Lord Jesus, I pray especially that you'll be with your
children, that this word, Lord Jesus, especially for those Lord
who've been covering it, will receive healing.
I pray that the supernatural hand of God will start working.
Lord, we pray we'll hear stories as they allow you to work.
Healing signs, wonders and miracles will be occurrences in
our life. We'll be participants and we'll
witness about it for be with us and bless us.
We are mostly in any pray, Amen. Amen.
Pray that God will bless you and have a blessed week ahead.
I pray that you'll be able to live this out, that you'll be
able to dip right, and that God will enable you to have a
blessed week. God bless you all.
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