Welcome to worship today at Morrison Zion Lutheran Church. We exist to glorify God. We have set out to do this by gathering around the Gospel so that we may grow in the Gospel and go to others with this Gospel.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.
In Christ, dear fellow redeemed:
I have a morning routine that I go through every morning. Of course it involves coffee; quite a bit of coffee actually. One of the things I do as I’m drinking my coffee is Bing searches on Bing to get points so I can get a $5.00 Amazon gift card once or twice a month. It amuses me. It kills time and it lets my coffee cool off.
This last Thursday as I was doing those searches, I was confronted with a phrase that kind of bugged me. One of the searches was about the first case of Monkeypox found in the United States. Monkeypox—my mind first of all went to “You put monkey in front of everything and it sounds worse.” If you go to the doctor and they say you have monkey flu or a monkey fever or that was a monkey sneeze, I’d be a little more worried than just the regular one of all those things.
Then I thought about how over the last few years we seem to have had a lot of things that we can’t see that we have to kind of worry about. This virus, that virus, and now Monkeypox here and yesterday I read that there is Monkeypox in New York or something like that too. There are all these things that we can’t see that all of a sudden we have to be all worried about. That kind of bugged me and irritated me. I guess I was in a cranky mood Thursday morning.
Then I thought about what I was preaching on Thursday night. Those Who Are With Us Are More than those who are against us, even when we can’t see it. Those Who Are With Us Are More than enough to get us through the things that we can’t see because those who are with us are sent by the God, who loved us so much that He Himself left heaven and came to earth and lived and died in our place to take away our sins and open the perfection of eternity to us. So then I started thinking about how often I forget about these things that you can’t see that are there always as a blessing to you and me as Christians.
What about you? Do you often forget about all these things that God has said and all these things God has done and these servants, these ministering spirits that He says are there to serve those who will inherit salvation? Do we forget about all these things that God is doing that we can’t see that are for our eternal good?
As we think about that and we think about what happened with Elisha and his servant there in the City of Dothan, let’s remember that Those Who Are With Us Are More. They are more than enough to sustain us and they are more than those who oppose us.
Elisha, “sha” not “jah,” that’s Elijah; Elisha is the prophet we are dealing with in 2 Kings 6 here today. Elisha was born in the Northern Kingdom, which was known as Israel. I don’t know if you remember that. God’s children of Israel were the Twelve Tribes and Saul and then David and then Solomon ruled over all Twelve Tribes. But Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, went off in a different direction and God took the Ten Northern Tribes away and Jeroboam, who had tried to revolt against Solomon, now ruled over the Ten Northern Tribes. That kingdom became known as Israel. That is where we are in 2 Kings 6, up north in the Kingdom of Israel.
The Southern Two Tribes were known as the Kingdom of Judah. That’s where Jerusalem was. That’s where Jesus would come from, the Tribe of Judah. They had good and bad kings. The Northern Kingdom was all Packer fans, all the kings. They were all godless kings. Not a single one of them served and worshiped the Lord the way God wanted them to because when Jeroboam set up the kingdom, he thought to himself, “Hey, if these people keep going back to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices to the Lord, they’re going to go back to the House of David. I don’t want that.” So he set up golden calves in Dan and in another city and he said to the people, “Here is how you worship the Lord that brought you out of Egypt. This is the god that brought you out of Egypt. Here is how you are to worship the Lord.” God never liked it because God had said, “Here is how I want to be worshiped…” Jeroboam tried to turn worshiping the Lord into a political tool and God doesn’t really care for that. So the Northern Kingdom had all godless kings. Some of them were worse than others, like Ahab, who set up Baal and the Asherah poles. Others had done other things, but not a single one of them worshiped the Lord the way God said He wanted to be worshiped.
When you study the history of this Northern Kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel, you see how incredibly merciful and gracious the Lord is because even though these kings had turned their back on God, God didn’t turn His back on them. He continued to send prophets to them to call them back to Him and even prophets to be a blessing to them, first Elijah and now Elisha. Elijah had earlier (in 2 Kings 2) gone to heaven in that whirlwind with chariots and horsemen of fire taking him directly to heaven. Now Elisha is the prophet of God. Elisha had been serving the king of Israel by saying, “Joram, the king of Aram is trying to attack you and he is in this place so don’t go there.” Elisha would go to the king and say “Now he’s over here, don’t go there. Now he’s over here, don’t go there.” The king of Aram brought all of his advisors together and said “Which of you is the traitor? Who is telling the king of Israel where I’m going to be so that he never goes there?” The people said “It’s none of us. It’s Elisha, the prophet, who is telling him where you are going to be. It’s as though the prophet Elisha hears all the words spoken in your bedroom, king.” So he says, “Okay, find out where Elisha is and let’s kill him.” He was in Dothan. He and his servant were in Dothan and that’s where we find them here.
They wake up the next morning and the servant looks outside and wonders if there is going to be rain or if it’s going to be sunny and what it looks like out there today. “Oh, it looks like death!” Chariots and horsemen from the king of Aram surrounded them. His army is there just for them. That’s got to be a frightening thing. So naturally the servant is worried. “Oh, my lord, what are we going to do?!”
Elisha seems to still be calm because he knows that love for God means obeying His commands AND trusting in His peace and His promises. He prays “Lord, open my servant’s eyes so that he can see. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” He prays and his eyes are opened. His eyes of faith are opened to see that the king of Aram’s chariots and horsemen are surrounded by the chariots and horsemen of fire, and Elisha and the servant are surrounded and protected by these chariots and horsemen of fire. These are God’s angels. These are the angels like those that had taken Elijah to heaven in the whirlwind. These are the angels that God speaks of in Psalms where it says, “He will give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.” (Psalm 91:11-12) These are the angels He speaks of in Hebrews when He says “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation; sent to be a blessing to God’s people.” (Hebrews 1:14) Elisha either trusted that they would be there or God had told him that they would be there, but he asked God to open his servant’s eyes and his servant sees them and relief comes.
Then it gets kind of interesting. Go home and read the rest of this chapter, Chapter 6, because Elisha kind of starts using (I wonder if this is where George Lucas got it from) Jedi-like mind tricks. When the horsemen and chariots of Aram come in, he says to them, “This is not the town you are looking for. Come with me and I will show you the place that you are looking for and the man you are looking for…” because all these people were then struck blind. The servant’s eyes are opened to see. Those that were attacking him had their eyes shut and blinded. Then he leads them to the king of Israel and says “Lord, open their eyes. Open their eyes.” They are in the citadel of the enemy that they want to attack and they are at their disposal. The king says “My father, Elisha, should I strike them dead?” He says “No, you didn’t capture them. You feed them and then send them on their way.” And that’s what happened—spiritual sight for God’s people; physical blindness for those who were attacking God’s people. Those Who Are With Us Are More.
Our God is more powerful and if it’s His desire, He will deliver us from whatever threatens us. But even if He doesn’t, Those Who Are With Us Are still More because this is the promise of our God. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28) That’s God’s promise to us as Christians. Satan wants us to take that promise and warp it and say “If it’s supposed to be for my good, then THIS thing that I’m facing (fill in the blank for yourself—this health issue, this relationship issue, this work issue, this whatever issue it is), God wouldn’t let this into my life if He’s going to work all things for my good. So He doesn’t keep His promises. God’s a liar.” That’s what Satan is whispering into your ear as he’s sitting on your shoulder. Because you and I are sinners, all too often we buy that lie at times. We call on God to keep a promise He has never made.
He has never promised to keep all difficulty away from us but we will call on Him to keep that promise. He has said all things will work for our good. That means even the bad things you and I go through our God is Those Who Are With Us Are More. He’s more than the problem we’re facing and He can turn it around so it works out for our eternal good. If it draws us closer to Him, it’s for my eternal good. If the challenges I face in my life lead me to look at God more closely and cling more fiercely to His Word and His promises, that’s my eternal good. That’s your eternal good.
Did you ever notice when things are going good and we don’t feel the need to cling fiercely to God’s promises? We slip into a Laodicean kind of life. We become kind of spiritually apathetic. “I’ve got this. I’ve got that. Things are going pretty good. You know what? I don’t need you right now Jesus. I’ll just tuck you away over here on the shelf and if things start going bad, then I’ll come to you and say ‘Why did you let this happen?’ But I don’t really need you right now.”
Didn’t Jesus pretty much speak directly to that? “If you love me, you will obey what I command”? (John 14:15-17) What He commands is for us to hang on tight, cling to His promises at all times, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He lays it out for us so clearly in Scripture, but we at times tend to be Laodicean lazy, apathetic Christians and don’t get into Scripture and see those things until the problems come. Then we get mad at Him because we’re sinners.
Right here is where you guys (like I’ve told you before) can be so glad I’m not God. If I was God and you all came running to me after you had ignored me all that time, I’d say “Handle it yourself since you’re so smart.” That’s not what our God does! He doesn’t do it to me. He doesn’t do it to you. He doesn’t do it to His people. He comes and says He longs to, He has this great desire for us, to say “This is my body; this is my blood poured out for you FOR the forgiveness of your sins. (Matthew 26:26-29) Even those times when you’ve turned your back on my promises and on my commands, you’ve wandered away from me, you’ve doubted me, you’ve blamed me; all these things you’ve done to me are forgiven. That’s why Jesus died for you. And that’s why the Spirit gave you the gift of faith—so that you can know and rejoice in the truth that My love for you is unfailing.”
When that unfailing love sets our apathetic hearts aflame, then it’s not a chore, then it’s not a task to cling fiercely to God’s promises. Then it’s not the axe behind the glass “Break this in case of emergency” and hold on to God’s promises. Then it’s a daily activity. I want to be close to Him because this love He has for me is so incredibly amazing! So then to cling to His promises and obey His commands, that isn’t a burden. That’s a joy. That’s a delight. That’s how I say “thank you” to this God who has loved me and loved you so intensely, so perfectly, and so unfailingly.
Now, as we love what He commands, we hang more tightly to His Word. We make time for His Word, for worship, both by ourselves and corporately with our other brothers and sisters in Christ. We make time for Him. Not because we have to but because we love the one who loved us first. He’s more than enough. Amen.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7.) Amen.