God, The Prophet, And The Nameless Woman

well we are part of his church for exactly what that song was just talking about and that is for service to him we're not just saved just so that we can go to heaven we are saved and we will go to heaven because we are saved but we are saved and part of his church drawn into his body so that we can serve and give ourselves the way that he gave himself away for us we then in turn give ourselves away to him and for his purpose and for his plan and and what more appropriate songs that we could sing when our theme is be the church because this is these two songs are the posture of a servant with jesus at the center and then us just giving ourselves to his purpose into his plan if you want to do that would you just lift your hands one more time i feel that i feel your response already through these songs but let's just talk to him for a moment and commit to him lord i thank you lord i thank you for giving yourself to me thank you lord for giving all of yourself you didn't withhold anything you withheld nothing and you gave everything and i thank you for that and i want to have the posture of a servant lord i want to keep you at the center not myself and not my own ambitions or dreams priorities or goals but with you at the center and then i want to give myself a way for you for your cause for your mission to be fulfilled for my field and for my family lord i want to give myself to you i thank you jesus thank you lord thank you jesus

and he receives everything that we give to him we don't have to give a perfect version of ourselves to him for him to accept it he accepts us how we are and through his spirit that transformation that happens he transforms us into the servant that he needs us to be and with the capabilities that that we need and so i'm thankful that we're not just wasting words when we pray songs like that when we see sing songs like that he receives everything that you have given him and everything you will give to him he receives all of that and i'm thankful for him

amen well it's wonderful to be in the house of the lord you can be seated i am going to read scripture because we do preach from the bible here but we're going to be working our way through a passage and so i didn't want you standing for the entire sermon so you're welcome you can just go ahead and be seated we're going to look at a couple passages of scripture to begin tonight and again just kind of really reiterating and driving home again our theme in kind of a different way but um definitely definitely aligns with our theme this year and so first of all let me read first corinthians chapter 12 verses 5 through 11 and then i will read verses 14 to 18. and i will be reading in the new living translation i believe that's what will be on the screen for you but if your device or if the screen is a little bit different the screen will be the same but if your device is different that's fine you just get a broader perspective of what is being said so first corinthians 12 5 through 11 and 14 through 18 say this there are different kinds of service it does not mean church service there that means activity or ministry different kinds of service but we serve the same lord god works in different ways but it is the same god who does the work in all of us a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other to one person the spirit gives the ability to give wise advice to another the same spirit gives a message of special knowledge the same spirit gives great faith to another and to someone else the one spirit gives the gift of healing he gives one person the power to perform miracles and another the ability to prophesy he gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the spirit of god or from another spirit still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said it is the one and only spirit who distributes all of these gifts he alone decides which gift each person should have skipping down to verse 14. yes the body has many different parts not just one part if the foot says i am not a part of the body because i am not a hand that does not make it any less part of the body and if the ear says i am not part of the body because i'm not an eye or if we say i'm not part of the body because i'm not a speaker a singer or a teacher or a fill in the blank would that make it any less a part of the body consider this if the whole body were an eye how would you hear or if your whole body were an ear how would you smell anything how would you function in society that would be super super strange but our bodies have many parts and so it is with the body of christ god has put each part just where he wants it

and so it's with this new testament apostolic church principle as a backdrop that i bring to your attention two verses from the old testament second kings chapter eight verses one and two then elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life saying arise and go get out of here you and your household and stay wherever you can for the lord has called for a famine and furthermore it will come upon the land for seven years so elisha the prophet he is warning the woman the nameless woman in the text he is warning her get out of here because a famine is coming and it's coming for seven years and so you want to preserve your family so verse two the woman arose and she did according to the saying of the man of god and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the philistines seven years

there's three characters in this story god the prophet elisha and a nameless woman these three characters none of them an accident and each of them important they these three characters work together to show some powerful truths and vital principles for application in just these two verses none of them are an accident and each of them are important god is important in the story of course we we know and we would agree with that the prophet is important in this story has vital contribution in this story the nameless woman also has vital contribution in this story so this story couldn't happen without any of them all three are necessary and so the story of course then tells us something about each of these characters as all scripture does we can always learn something about god from any text that we read we can learn something about him his character his nature his will his purpose we can learn something about god so as you read on the daily you you can you have the opportunity to learn something about god he is revealed through his word so

first of all let's talk about god for a second god is first okay without god in this story it really truly wouldn't be possible and so here's what we know about god from the story we see a sovereign god how do i know that from the story well he knows that the famine is coming and so he tells elisha to warn the woman to get out and to go to a place where she could have food and sustain and provide for her family so we see a sovereign god he he knows that the famine is coming he knows how long it's going to last and let me just pause here to say god knows what's going on in your life and he knows how long it's going to last because he's sovereign this didn't arbitrarily happen to you you didn't just find yourself in a messy situation one day no god knew it was coming and he knew how long it would last job said he sets an end to the darkness so the darkness isn't going to last forever the situation the confusion the frustration the pressure not gonna last forever there's an end to it and god knows when it is we can trust him and he's sovereign he knows what's coming next and he knows how long it will last he knows how severe it will be this is this is a hopeful statement for me i found hope as i was writing these notes he sees the other side of what i'm currently in he sees the other side of it already i don't see it yet because i'm in the murky muddy middle of the mess but he sees the other side of what i'm currently in it's that it's the another way to say that phrase that we're familiar with he sees the end from the beginning or the beginning from the end he knows what's on the other side of where i am currently is he's not only sovereign in this passage but he is we see a caring and compassionate and concerned god we see a god watching out for his creation he and he's not just watching out like oh this is about to happen but he's intervening in that situation the way that you've had him intervene in your situations because he's sovereign and he saw it coming he just provides what's needed at the right time has anybody ever had god intervene for them yeah because he's he cares and he's concerned about what we go through and what our lives produce and and what happens in our lives and so he's intervening he's warning elisha and the woman of coming hardships and he's allowing her to do what is necessary for survival he's giving her the opportunity to choose safety and protection and provision for her family and we also see there's a lot of things we can see about god but this is the last one that i'll mention we see god choosing to speak through one human to another human we see him sharing his divine plan and knowledge with humanity for the sake of preserving and protecting and saving this woman from destruction he uses one human to intervene and change the present and future of another human he did it in second kings chapter 8 and he does it today if you were not raised in church and even if you were this really would still apply how many of you had somebody share the gospel with you that brought you into the king right one human shared god's plan to intervene for salvation with another human and god's purpose was accomplished it happens through people people like you and people like me god speaks through one human or uses one human to minister to another human

let's move to the prophet elisha we see elisha a fellow human of the woman listening to the voice of the lord and obeying his instruction he's listening to the voice of the lord he heard the voice of the lord and that's key in this story because he was in a posture a frame of heart and mind to hear from the lord other voices in elisha's life no doubt had been silenced and filtered out so that he could hear clearly from god he was a prophet of god but he was not perfect like god he was human not superhuman and i know when we read scriptures and we read of the great and awesome things they did we're reading their story backwards really we're seeing from this side what that looks like and so we have the advantage and maybe it's a disadvantage to think oh they were something superhuman or they were something super special no elisha was human like you and me he was flawed i point out that though he was a prophet he was not perfect not to demean the office the position or the role of a prophet but to let you know that elisha was a person just like you and me letting me know something else about god god doesn't use perfect people so you can just go ahead and take the pressure off of yourself give up that pursuit if that's the pursuit you were god doesn't use perfect people he wants us saved and redeemed and reconciled but we don't have to be perfect for him to use us so if you're waiting until you're perfect not only are you going to miss his purpose for your life but those whom your ministry would affect would miss out as well so what does the imperfect prophet do that can help us imperfect people know what to do first of all kind of already mentioned it he intentionally positioned himself and so we can also intentionally position ourselves to hear from god we're imperfect we'll miss the mark sometimes but god doesn't use perfect people he can use somebody though that is imperfect that says you know what i'm going to position myself to hear from god and how do we do that we do that in multiple ways of course prayer is a positioning as a posture for us to take on and to practice so that we can hear from him what he would want to say through us or do through us and so prayer the word of course reading his word will position us to hear from him repentance and sensitivity and on and on many things that we can do to position ourselves to hear from him from the lord

and another thing that elisha did is he didn't just hear from god but he made himself deaf to other voices refusing to listen to other voices even the voice of his own flesh because perhaps i mean this woman was a wealthy woman and so you know imagine just trying to tell like the richest person that you know something about their life and giving them advice it might be a little daunting might be a little difficult um so we can just imagine that this may have been difficult for elisha but he didn't go by his own feeling or his own voice but he he removed that he filtered everything through i'm going to filter this through the voice of god i'm going to allow myself i want to be sensitive to the spirit i want to do what he says not what my feelings or my preferences or my expectations or traditions or any of that i'm gonna filter that out i'm gonna listen to the voice of the lord so removing other voices

consider this at some point the prophet elisha was not the prophet elisha he was simply elisha he didn't pop out of the womb as a prophet very few people do but at some point he became a prophet at some point in his life he was just simply elisha and so at some point he had to say though i'm human i'm flawed and i'm imperfect i feel god drawing me i feel him wanting to use me so i will say yes i will give myself away at some point elisha had to come to that moment where he said i i feel god doing something in me and he wants to do something through me he's drawing me to some kind of action for him even though i'm human and i'm flawed and so i want to say yes to him elisha would have had to come to the point of recognizing that god had a plan for elisha's life sometimes it's easy for us to look around oh god's got great things for them he's got great things in store for them he's going to use them he's just going to do amazing things but we have to believe that about ourselves too because if we're created and we are if we're alive and we are then we still have purpose as far as god's concerned there's something that he knows that we can contribute to the body to the kingdom to our field to our family there's something that we can do and it just comes to the point where we have to say okay god i know you've got a plan for my life and i'm gonna just agree with your plan for my life there's a there's a submission and there's a surrender process that happens and it happened for elisha he didn't just start out as a prophet but he he responded to god's invitation to do things that he'd never done before god was inviting him to do perhaps what elisha assumed only certain other people could and should do and don't we do that too well god i can't do that because that person doesn't and man they just do a great job and i would never be able to do that we assume perhaps that this is something for other people or other personalities or other temperaments and and god works with us he will he will work within our personality he gave it to us and he gave it to us for a reason so we may as well submit it and own it and know it and then allow him to use it but when we relegate certain activities or certain even spiritual activities such as hearing from god or sharing a word from god it's those things could only happen from certain people we'll miss what god is saying to us and then the recipient the should be recipient of that will also miss out so it's not just me that's affected and i i haven't yielded myself or done what i felt like god wanted me to do but then those whom my ministry would bless or my gift or my service would bless they're also missing out and so consider consider that as you think about what god may be inviting you to do i would say we can't let the enemy tie our hands and limit our impact because we think that we're not the one that god could or should use in any given situation that's a tactic of the enemy to try to tie us down and paralyze us and say oh i'm going to relegate that to the pastoral team or i'm going to relegate that to those that are licensed to preach or those that sing or those that lead and i'm just going to relegate it always to somebody else just shoveling the responsibility right on over when god is built you he he designed you specifically for the purpose that he has for you so if it's his purpose and if he's inviting you to do it rest assured you are intended to do it you are expected to do it because it is his intention and his design but so many times and i've been there i've been there myself we don't feel qualified or we don't feel equipped or we don't feel comfortable in doing and i'm sure elisha felt the same the same way it comes back to that though i'm flawed and i'm human and i am imperfect i'm going to say yes to him because he knows my life he knows what he put in me he knows who he's planned me to meet today and who who he's planned me to speak into or to help and he's going to help me through the power of his spirit we can do everything that he wants us to do what does philippians say i can do all things through christ which strengtheneth me and so sometimes we paralyze ourselves thinking that we're not important in the body of christ that somebody else can do it we will muffle and stifle and hinder the spirit of god if we say i can't be the one to go pray for that person or send that encouraging text or lead a connect group or teach a bible study because i've done i've not done all that i should do and therefore i'm not qualified to do whatever it is fill in the blank that you may be resisting or struggling with but i would ask you what is god inviting you to do and how are you responding to that what fears or uncertainties come to your mind when you think about god calling you to do some action or some thing what assumptions are you making about yourself or the activity or about god as you mull these things over

because here's the reality god wants to mobilize his church he doesn't want to put this building on wheels and that's become like god's mobile home god's mobile home comes with two legs and you got them we are the church and god wants to mobilize the church he he wants us on the move because he's a moving and an active god he wants a moving and an active body do we believe that god is a moving and acting god we believe that god is a moving and an active god and if we're created in his image oh he wants a moving and an active body and it involves all of us every part is important corinthians told us that already every part is important every person has a role and a responsibility not just the leadership not just those that seem the most spiritual among us not just those on the platform or those that preach those that sing but you are an important part of the church you are an important part i want you to say that i want i want you to personalize it i am an important part of the church yeah i'm an important part i have a role and i have a responsibility in the body of christ

we see elisha's boldness he not only heard the word but we see elijah's boldness to to give that word that god wanted him to communicate and he was obedient to the lord and he gave that word here's just kind of a synopsis of what we see out of elisha in this passage we see elisha act with a sensitivity to god and a willingness toward others he had a sensitivity to god he postured himself made sure that he was hearing from god he wasn't going to go tell somebody something that the lord didn't actually give him or tell him something out of wha oh you know what i think i i got this one god i got advice for them and just puke your advice on somebody no every person every person is important and we see elisha act with sensitivity to god hearing from him god what do you want to say to me what might you want to say through me and then a willingness towards others god cared and god was compassionate toward this nameless woman but elisha's role was to be the way that she saw and experienced god's care and many times and i will say well all of the time that is our role as well to become the way that others see and experience god his care his love his compassion that is our role it is one of our roles in life as a sanctified believer commissioned and called in put into the body of christ it is to show others the way that god sees them and so that requires a sensitivity to the god and it requires a willingness towards others we we can't just you know straight jacket ourselves when it comes to serving others and this church is great about this so i'm i don't even have anything we do this i'm just celebrating what we already do and but we can't just straight jacket ourselves and say i i'm not gonna reach out to others or i'm not gonna do i'm not gonna serve or i'm not going to give of my talents and my abilities i'm going to just keep my hands to myself i'm just going to go through life just sensitive to god no we we need to go through life sensitive to god but we have to also be have a willingness towards others to serve others as well and so we then become the channel through which god's care and his compassion flows

elisha understood that he could not fulfill god's plan and purpose in his life without understanding his responsibility to others two others and not four others we we're not responsible for other people but we are responsible to other people we're in the body of christ we're a family we're a unit we are the body we're a community and so i'm not responsible for what you do with this lesson but i am responsible to you to give it to you and to speak it and so your gifting your talent your service in the kingdom of god you're not responsible for how people respond to that or if they respond to that you're not responsible for their actions and for what they do you're just simply responsible to them to give it to them and one of the ways that we're responsible to others and you are fulfilling tonight is we're responsible to one another in just our showing up to church just our faithfulness i'm here for him and i'm here for you i'm here to be sensitive to him and i'm here to be sensitive to you i'm not here for myself do i need the preaching do i need the singing the worst yes i do but my mentality is i'm here for him and i'm here for you i'm not just here for me so that way when the alter time comes or i see somebody in the altar i don't just stand there and just gape at them thinking what in the world could they be needed i don't need anything i'm not going to go to the front no i'm here for others so here i go to the front and i'm going to pray for somebody and i'm going to look outside of myself because i'm not responsible for you but i am responsible to you and that just permeates every part of our lives it filters down into every single action that we take or that we don't take our responsibility to others brother colin crestman this past year taught or preached our graduation service and he asked this question and it has not left me in the however many months six months it's been since he preached it he said what if we purposed every moment of our life to be about others what if we purposed every moment of our lives to be about others what would that look like what would have to change in my thinking and in my priorities for that to be the way that i lived

finally the the nameless woman in the story we see the woman receiving the instruction from elisha her fellow human she received the word from a flawed imperfect human that came to her and said here's what god told me to tell you she received that word she trusted his ability to hear from god she didn't reject his effort she received it because she recognized that god was at work through another human someone just as flawed as she was someone imperfect but someone made in god's image designed by his hand and created with his purpose and so she received that word from elisha we also see the woman not only receiving the word but acting on the word that she received she obeyed what the man of god had told her to do seemingly no questions asked but i love when i see in scripture that because part of the part of the human experience is doubts and questions so i feel pretty confident saying that the woman had them when she heard what elisha said is it really going to be a fake is it really going to be that bad like do i need to leave my house is going to last for seven because i got enough provision for five and a half years i'm fairly certain because it's part of the human condition doubts and questions that she had those but what i love when i see this in scripture is that they weren't significant enough to be included in scripture as part of her story though she may have had them she still did the right thing and what is known and remembered of her life is not that she had doubts and questions but that she was obedient even though she had doubts in questions what am i saying you may have doubts and questions about how god can use you or what he has maybe spoken to you a promise that he's given to you you're not disqualified because you have doubts and questions just the same way that this woman was not disqualified for that but what is known and remembered of her life is that she was obedient even though she had doubts in questions so having doubts and questions is natural it's normal if you don't have them that may be cause for concern if you don't have them it's very likely you're doing something you're comfortable with and you don't need god notes where were you taking me okay i got off on there a second and just she was obedient and so the important lesson that we learned from the nameless woman is we may have doubts and questions about god using us or putting ourselves contributing to the kingdom of god to apc to our family we may have doubts and questions but don't let that be what's remembered about your life go to the lord and present those things he will receive those things he will let you tell him about those things and then he will also give you the power of the spirit to overcome those things and to obey even though the questions and doubts may be there she was obedient and of course that requires submission and surrender

so the point that i'm trying to make using god the prophet and the nameless woman is that others are valuable to us and we are valuable to others i need you and you need one another and me we all need each other others are valuable to me and i am valuable to others could god have spoken directly to the woman yeah did he nope why that's up to him i'm not going to answer it because it's up to him how he does his thing we're made for him not the other way around we're made for him so let's recap where we are from first corinthians 12 7 it said a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other verse 18 our bodies have many parts and god has put each part just where he wants it we believe here at apc our movement but let's just talk about apc we believe that every person is valuable and has a part to play but yet the story that i've used really weighs heavily on elisha's role and i did this on purpose because so many times our natural assumption is to only give value and credibility to activity that we think of as spiritual sacred or holy but when it's his invitation his purpose and activity that he has prescribed and designed for you to do it is holy sacred and spiritual no matter what it is baking a cake is spiritual praise the lord cooking a meal for somebody paying for somebody's gas if it's his purpose and if it's his invitation to do something for him then it is holy it is sacred it is spiritual

let me take you back four chapters and i am ending back four chapters ii kings chapter four we read from second kings eight but chapter four verses eight through ten it's the same book it's the same three characters one day elisha went to the town of shunam a wealthy woman lived there and she urged him to come to her home for a meal after that whenever he passed that way he would stop there for something to eat she must have been a good cook verse nine she said to her husband i am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of god so let's build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed a table a chair and a lamp she would have had wi-fi if they had it but she didn't they didn't have so a bed a table a chair and a lamp they built this room she said then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by same prophet same nameless woman same sensitivity to god same willingness toward others same responsibility to others but this time the roles were reversed there was a different giver and a different recipient second kings four she was the giver and he was the recipient she was the minister and he was the one minister too in chapter four she gave but in chapter eight she received in chapter four he received but in chapter eight he gave both vital and valuable both served god neither did it the same way locking ourselves into what somebody else does as the only way or the only means to serve god is a very dangerous toxic place to be you can serve god in your way in your personality in your talents and in your giftings you don't have to be anybody else god created and designed you so if you try to be somebody else the world and god's kingdom is missing the contribution that you would give both served god but neither did it the same way when he was in need she did what she could and by doing what she could building a room she made space for a miracle because it was in that room in second kings 4 21 that god raised her boy from the dead through the prophet elisha so by serving others in the way that you can you are making room for god to act and do what he wants to do you're making room for a miracle when you do when you serve how god wants you to serve how he has commissioned you and purposed you to serve and then when she was in need he did what he could each of them served god and they served their neighbor they each fulfilled their god given purpose

now i'm going to conclude with this real-life story about a woman who did a very similar thing sister toby bachmann's mother sister judy olson lived in southeast missouri southwest missouri southwest right west yes i had been invited to do in carthage missouri i had been invited to do like they did like a girls day camp and they they wanted somebody absolutely ridiculous to come and entertain them for a couple hours and so that was me i went and i even tried my hand at vitroloquism it was not pretty but i did that and i went there and i ministered in the way that i could doing what i could and i don't even remember how she knew that we were coming i guess it had been announced at her church she got a hold of us somehow and she said i want you to stay at my house i've got a place for you to stay you don't worry about a hotel you don't have to worry about anything just come and stay with me and everything will be great so christy and i we went down and we we stayed with her we got there i think we got there in the evening late she had so much food erin toby were talking about this at connect group the other day she had so much food prepared for us i mean just in snacks and there was like a basket in our room and like it wasn't even that far from the kitchen but she had it in our room and she was just so hospitable she was doing what she could but she didn't just give us a room she gave us her room it had an attached bathroom it had a patio attached to it what am i saying sister olsen ministered to us that weekend i was ministering that weekend and she was ministering that weekend neither of us were doing what the other was doing but each of us was playing a valuable a crucial role in the kingdom of god

and so i'm saying even the practical things that you and i do those are spiritual they are sacred and they are holy why because you know we're saved and we're doing it no because he's called us to do it and then he has empowered us through the power of his spirit we've been sensitive to him we've heard him speak do this just you know let that gift of hospitality i found it interesting i didn't even think of it until i was reading through the text in front of you all but in second or first corinthians chapter 12 it's mentioned the gift of hospitality but it's also mentioned the gift of prophecy they're both there from second kings chapter four imagine that how god works they're both there because it's his spirit his spirit working and moving and ministering through us and so it's not in us it's not really in what we do it's you know what i'm going to be sensitive and yielded to the lord

i'm going to invite you to stand right now and i just if you want to be the church if you want to be that vessel be the servant of god that we've heard about tonight would you just tell him that and maybe he's going to speak to you in a way that you could do that lord i thank you for your purpose thank you for your spirit that empowers us to do what we could not do on our own or what we would not think of to do on our own and i thank you that you work within the bounds of our personality or our gifts and our talents and lord you can empower us to do beyond what we think we can accomplish and so i pray that you would speak to us that you would help us lord to yield and submit to you and to say yes and to truly give ourselves away to you that we would be the church that you have designed us to be that we would purpose every moment of our lives to be about somebody else i pray that you would whisper in our ears and speak to us about ways that we can serve others it may not look spiritual but if you have been tensioned us to do it if you have called us and invited us to do it it is spiritual it is sacred it is holy and so we give ourselves to you for your purpose to be accomplished lord we're not just here on earth for ourselves and we recognize it we're here for you and we're here for others and we want to accomplish your plan i thank you jesus i thank you jesus amen amen