Turn your Bibles, if you would, the second Kings. We're going to be looking at a story this morning as we begin that's very familiar to you, and I want to read it. And then really, what I want to do is just make a two or three points about it, maybe some practical applications that will help us. But it is a familiar story. It is the story of a Syrian army commander named Naaman. We are very, very familiar with this story, but let me read it, and I'd like for you to follow on your Bible. I'm, of course, reading, as I always do, from the New King James Version, but I want to begin reading in verse one, and I want to read about the first 14 verses. Okay? And I'd like for you to follow along. I don't have charts this morning, so you're going to have to do it the old fashioned way. You're going to have to work a little harder this morning. And I think that's good every now and then for you to do that.
Okay, let's begin in verse one. "Now, Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master. By Him, the Lord, had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper and the Syrians had gone out on raids and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. And she waited on Naaman's wife. Then she said to her mistress, If only my master were with the Prophet who's in Samaria, for he would heal him of his leprosy. And Naaman went in and told his master, saying thus, and thus said the girl, who is from the land of Israel. Then the king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So, he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver, 6000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothing. Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, now be advised when this letter comes to you that I have sent them and my servant to you that you may heal him of his leprosy. And it happened when the king of Israel read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and make alive? That this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy. Therefore please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me. So, it was when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha house, and Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean. But Naaman became furious, and he went away and said, Indeed, I said to myself, he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy. Are not the Abana and the Pharpar, 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, and his servants came near and spoke to him and said, My Father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more than when he says to you, wash and be clean. So, he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and His flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."
Most who are in this audience this morning could tell that story. It's a story that we have not only read, but that we've talked about for years in our children's classes, in our adult classes. You've heard sermons about it. You've had classes about it in various ways. You've read it yourself, and you've thought about that. It is an interesting story, but I think it's an interesting story, really, for a variety of reasons. This man is a commander, as I've mentioned. He's a commander of the Syrian army, and I want you to think about this. He's a commander of the army, and he has leprosy. Would you think about that? Most of the time, when we think of leprosy, we think about something that would have separated you from all aspects of society, so that you would not come in contact with anybody else, and no one would want to come in contact with you. But apparently this case was different. And we don't know the exact degree of leprosy that he had, but there were varying degrees. But whatever it was, Naaman wanted to be cleansed of that. He wanted to be healed. And he hears about a man of God from a girl that apparently, he and his army had taken hostage while they were capturing the people they were capturing in Israel and the land that they were capturing. And the girl comes back and and she comes into Naaman's house, and she becomes, I guess, in a sense, she becomes friends with Naaman's wife. She may have been forced into that role, we don't know. But while she is there, she apparently is wanting to help, and she's trying to do everything she can to help anyone that needs her help. And she knows about a man in Israel who is a prophet. He's a man of God, and she knows that what Naaman is asking about can happen if she meets, or if he meets, rather, Elisha.
And so, Naaman finds out about that, and Naaman goes to his king, and his king apparently is willing to allow Naaman to go and talk to this man and to find out what this man can do. And this man, the king, sends what amounts to over a $100,000 of material, really, of gold and silver, specifically, and 10 changes of garment as well, to take to this man of God, if this man of God could actually heal Naaman. So, Naaman goes to that King and gets what he wants. And then he goes, what amounts to at least minimally, 20 miles from the Syrian, where he was in Syria, to possibly where Elisha is. And he goes, and the king of Israel, who at the time is Jehoram gets mad about it. He tears his clothes. He feels like probably what Ben-Hadad is doing is prompting him into a war. So, the king tears his clothes. The king of Israel tears his clothes. And what ultimately happens is, is that Elisha hears about what Naaman has come to do, and Elisha sends word to his king, to Jehoram. He says, Send him to me. I can take care of him. I can help heal him. I can do what he's asking us to do. So, Elisha, when Naaman gets to his house, and he gets to his house, apparently, with chariots and with horses, and he makes a, pretty much, a grand entrance. He stands, apparently, in front of Elisha house, and Elisha sends out, the text says, he sends out a messenger. I find it interesting, he doesn't come out himself. He he just sends a messenger. And the Hebrew text emphasizes that when the text tells us that he sent out a messenger, Naaman expected him to come out, not just send a messenger, but to come out and talk with him. And that's not what happened. And Naaman, as you know, becomes furious when he's told simply to go and dip seven times in the Jordan River. And he asked himself, are not the rivers in Damascus just as good as the Jordan River? And of course, you know the answer yourself, and the text tells us that he, my translation says, that "he said to himself." Other translations say that he says, "Behold, I thought." "Behold, I thought, are not my rivers in Damascus just as good." And so, he goes away. And he's mad, he's furious. The text says that he goes away in a rage, and his servants, they call him father, but that's a term of endearment that says, This is someone I respect. But his servants go back to say, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. If he would have told you to do something grand and something great, would you not have done that? And so Naaman begins to think about what they're telling him, and the text tells us that ultimately, Naaman went to the Jordan River, and he dipped seven times, and his skin became as clean as a child's skin. What a remarkable story. What a remarkable story.
Let me just, briefly this morning, let me just mention two or three things that I think are important for us to think about in reference to Naaman and his healing. First of all, let me suggest to you that that Naaman had a condition that he wanted to be healed. He wanted to be healed. And sometimes we think about this, well, of course, he had leprosy. He would obviously want to be healed. I don't know that that's the case, but he heard from this, he heard from this young girl that there was a man in Israel who could heal him, and he did not, Namaan, apparently did not want to live with it, because he said, here is an opportunity for someone to heal me. And here's a very, very easy, I think, point for us to understand, but a point that I think is important. He wasn't satisfied with his circumstances. In other words, he didn't want to just settle with this disease and this problem that he had, and here's an opportunity for him to take advantage of someone who can help with that. Sometimes, sometimes, I think we just settle with our circumstances. Let me just mention a couple things that in my mind, help us when we when we think about Namaan. Here is a man who said, here's an opportunity for me to have something done for me that would help me. And he did not settle and just maintain the life that he had. He did not settle with his circumstances. And I think sometimes we do that.
I, most of you know, I have a 2012 Ford pickup truck. I bought it brand new, so I've had it for, let's see: 2012, 2024 this is extended my math. 12 years. Over half that time, the check engine light's been on in that truck. I know you're laughing about that. I just want to show of hands, real quick. How many of you right now have some light on your dashboard that indicates some problem? Raise your hand. Yeah. Yeah. We've probably got 200 people here this morning. 175 have the problem. No, not really, but I've had the diagnostics done on that truck. I've taken it. I've taken it to every auto parts store that I know, and they, you know, they always stick in that thing that tells you what the problem is. And basically, what they're saying is it's a problem that doesn't need to be corrected. And I'm thinking, Well, then why am I going to spend the money to correct that problem? It doesn't even be corrected. So, I've been driving this truck with this check engine. Now I can't that that's just one of the lights that's on. Okay, I've got other lights that are on, but I've been told that those lights don't matter either. Okay, then so, so I'm thinking, then, why does the light come on? And what I've been told is, well, there's sometimes that the light comes on that you really do need to be aware of that, and you don't need to drive that vehicle. But I have settled. I just settled with the circumstances on my truck. And I would suggest this morning that all of us have things in our life that we wish were different, don't we? Don't you have some things in your life that you probably wish were different, but there's a sense in which you've kind of settled. You've kind of settled. And I'm not saying that that's right or wrong, but I'm saying in this case, Naaman had a problem, and evidently he'd had it for some time, and what he decided is, I'm going to try to help take care of that. Naaman really wanted to change his circumstances, but he needed help in order to do that, so he goes about making that happen.
I want to be careful about this, because I think a lot of times we want to change our circumstances, and quite frankly, we can't. We can't because a lot of times there may not be a way to help our circumstances, or it may be that well, our circumstances could be helped, but it's going to take some other people's involvement and some other people's willingness to change and some do something in order for my circumstance to be what it needs to be, and so I understand that. But one thing that we can do, that I want to suggest to us practically, is that we can do what Peter reminded his first century audience who were going through what I believe was some serious Jewish persecution. He talks about it in Second Peter five, where he would say, "you need to cast all your cares on Him, for he cares for you." I think that verse has given a lot of assurance to a lot of us through the years. What does that mean? What does that mean? I think a lot of us have prayed, I know I have, when situations occur in my life, and circumstances occur in my life, and I want to see change. And so, and I do, I think, I make many times, oftentimes, I do what I do, and circumstances really don't change. And so, what I remind myself is that Peter said what you need to do, Kenny, is you need to cast all your anxieties. You need to cast your cares upon God, because He cares for you. May I just remind us today that if you hurt, that if you are unsettled, that if you are sitting there and you're saying Kenny, you're talking to me. Well, I'm talking to me too, but I want to tell you something you need to turn to whatever degree you can, you need to turn those cares and that anxiousness and that concern, you need to turn that over to God, because He cares for you. He wants to carry that burden. And I think the idea of cast. Cast your cares on Him. That's the idea of this is something that's weighing on you. I think that's the idea of cast your cares. Cast your burdens upon him, because it weighs heavy on you. And if you want to be healed to whatever degree you can be, and I understand this is not a okay, just cast your cares on Him and all will be well. But why would Peter say that? Because he's talking to people who have faith, but they're suffering. And he tells them, give it to Him. Give it to Him.
Can I just tell you, personally, if there are things in my life that I've done that with. It's not that I don't think about them anymore. It's not that I'm not concerned about them anymore, but what I have decided is, God knows. He knows my heart. He knows what I, what I think I need, but he knows best for me. So, I'm going to put it, I'm going to give it to him, and I'm going to let him handle that for me. Now, that doesn't mean it doesn't affect me, but I reached some solace because I have said, Okay, I'm going to do what you want me to do, because I know you care about me, and you'll do what's best for me, even if I don't know what's best for me. So, the first thing that I would suggest, as we think about Naaman is he didn't settle with his circumstances. He didn't settle for that. And I don't think we need to settle with ours either. Do what we can. And part of that is turn it over. Turn it over to God.
Well, secondly, let me just briefly say this. Naaman went to the right source. We've already talked about the story. He had the problem with leprosy, and he goes to the right source. There may have been doctors in Damascus. There may have been doctors in Syria. I'm confident that there were. But there weren't any doctors who could heal him of his leprosy. And when the girl says, I have a person that you need to go see, he was willing to go to that person. He went to the right source. Now let me, let me make an application. When you need help, when you need help in your life, and I'm thinking now primarily of a spiritual application, but we can apply this all over the place. If you have some physical problem that you need help with, who do you go to? You go to a source. You go to, typically, we would go to a doctor, and he or she can help you with that. That's typically what happens. We know the source we need to go to. And my question is, when you need spiritual advice, when you need spiritual direction, when you need spiritual help, who do you go to? There are a lot of illustrations. I think of Rehoboam getting advice from younger people when the elders of his father had told him what you need to do, you need to unburden the people. And that's not what Rehoboam did. He got bad advice. He went to the wrong source, and we remember what happened in that situation. But I would suggest that we go to spiritual people. May I just say this? This is all, this is really the only reason I want to make this point this morning. If you have some spiritual need, especially. It may relate to a practical need in your life that you have. And there are all sorts of things that we could be talking about here. You know what's happening in your own life. Let me encourage you to do this. Go to the people who know what is best. And the people who know what is best are the people who are following God. They are the people who have your spiritual well being at the top of their mind. They may even tell you things that you don't want to hear. That's happened to me before. I go to people and ask for advice, and they tell me what they think and I don't want to hear that. Well, if you don't want to hear it, that may promote another problem, that may be stating another problem, but go to the right source. Naaman wanted to be healed, and he went to the right source. Not every source is reputable. We live in a world where it seems like what everybody does is they have a problem. They go to Internet. Let's go find out what, let's go find out what the internet says. I can't think of a worse place to go for, especially, for spiritual advice. Can you think of a worse place? Because you can get anything you want on that. So, understand if you're having difficulty, or if you have a question about something, especially as it relates to your spiritual well being, go to people who can help you with that. And I think you'll find a lot of those folks here. I found a lot of those folks here, but be willing to go to those people.
And then let me get to this final point that I think is important. Naaman got past his own thinking. He got past his own reasoning. You know when what he was told is, go dip. He said, You know what, I got rivers. I got rivers in Damascus. What in the world are they telling me to go to the Jordan River? And I will tell you, I saw the Jordan River. Not but a couple, about a month ago, five weeks ago. I saw it. There's not anything there. It doesn't look like much, quite frankly. So, if he'd seen what I saw, he probably thought, well, this river, this river, just like the rivers in Damascus. Why do that? And I would suggest this, that instructions that God gives are given for a reason, and our willingness to accept those by faith, it seems it's what Elisha was asking Naaman to do. I'm just telling you, I think what he's saying, I'm telling you what God wants you to do. So, simply go do that and don't think about what it is that you want. Because what Naaman said, is well behold I thought, or I said to myself, and I've done that plenty of times, haven't you? Haven't you done that plenty of times? I said to myself, I thought to myself, this is this is what I ought to do. And typically, especially when it relates to things of import in my life, oftentimes when I think what I should do, it's not, ultimately, what God wants me to do, and I've got to change. I've got to think about that. The passage that Mike read from Second Timothy three, where Paul said to this, to Timothy, he said, "You need to continue in the things that you have learned and that you have been assured of, knowing that those things will make you wise to salvation through Christ, Jesus." Remember that passage in Second Timothy three, that Mike read? What Paul tells Timothy is, don't go back to, don't go back to your thinking. And it seems to me, even in Second Timothy there is a possibility that Timothy might have been, I'm not saying he was departing from the faith in any kind of way, but there's some things in that first chapter that make me think that he might not be as strong about it as he should have been. And Paul writes that letter to encourage him, don't be ashamed. Stir up the gift that's in you. Those were some phrases that he said. And I think he said those things to remind Timothy of what had happened to him in his early childhood. And you need to stay the course, because later on in that same chapter, he talks about what the Word of God is for. All scriptures given. "All scriptures given for reproof and for correction, for instruction and righteousness." Why? "That the man of God would be complete and thoroughly furnished into every work." What the Bible tells you is, what's going to make your life the best you. And if we remember that, it will help us.
Acts 26 and verse nine, the text tells us, as Paul stood before Agrippa, when Paul's talking about his former life, the text tells us in verse nine, that Paul said, behold, I thought, I thought that I was doing the right thing. May I encourage you this morning to align your thinking to God's way of thinking. And as you sit here this morning, you can think about all sorts of things. You can think about all sorts of areas in your life where, if you just align yourself, I can do the same thing. It may be a complete alignment. It may be a tweak, a tweaking of something that I need to do, but all of us, given enough time, and it won't take long, we can think of ways. If I would do this, if I would follow God's will in this way, in this full way, think about how my life would change. All of us do that. Let me give you a quick example, if you're here this morning, this always steps on, this always steps on toes. And I'm not intending necessarily step on toes, but it always affects people. You ready for this? I'm going to mention this while my wife's not here, if your marriage is not what it ought to be. And I guarantee you, I'm talking to some people that fall into that category. You know what will make your marriage, what it ought to be? You follow God. You follow what God said. And I know it takes two to tango. I know it takes two to do that, but you, to the best of your ability, you follow that. You get your own reasoning and your own thought pattern out of that, and say, You know what, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to follow, I'm going to listen to what God said. If you'll do that, that'll be your best hope to help your marriage be what it ought to be. And all of us who are married need that, right? All of us. I mean as good a husband as I think I am, and as good as husband as I tell my wife that I am, I make a lot of mistakes, and without exception, without exception, when I do that and when I give my mind to why the things have happened that have happened, it never fails I go back and I think to myself, if I'd just done what the Lord told me to do, this wouldn't have happened the way it happened. Because I get my own thought and I get my own reasoning in my way. And it can happen to spiritual people. I'm not talking about people who live by the world standards, people who live with with the fleshly idea primarily. I'm talking about any of us. If we choose to not follow what God wants, we'll have that problem. And of course, that relates to everything that we do. Everything that we do. It can relate to our salvation.
A lot of times we do what we do because it's what we've seen other people do. It's what other people say that we need to do. For instance, when it comes to what I need to do to obey the gospel, we may follow what we see somebody else do. We may follow what we hear somebody else say about that. And while all of us can be influenced in that way, here's what we all need to do. Let's go back and read what the Bible says. Let's go back and see what the Bible says. I have a lot of friends, and you do too, who say, you know, Kenny, the way you need to be saved, you just need to pray the sinners prayer. I have one question. I just have one question. Show me in Scripture, just one time. Show me in scripture where that offers me the solution for my sins. That's only question I have. If you can answer that question, I will agree with you. But I don't see that anywhere in Scripture, not anywhere. That may be what somebody thinks, that may be, how somebody reasons, but I don't see that anywhere. What I see in Scripture is people would believe that Jesus is the Christ, and they understand that he can do something about their sin problem, and they've got to be willing to cast that aside, to get rid of that sin, and to be sorry for what they've done, and to be convicted enough to say, I'm not going to, I'm gonna do my best not to do that anymore. And then they need to let the whole world know that, that I believe that Jesus is a Christ. I want to make him the Lord of my life. I want to make him my Savior. I want to make him my king. I want him to rule over me. And then what washes away their sin is they're buried with him in baptism. That's what I read in Scripture. Why would I encourage people to do that? Because that's what I read. When I study the Bible, that's what I that's what I see people did, and that's why I want to encourage people to do that. If it was all about what I thought, then I might change my mind. I might encourage people to do something else. But it's not about what I think, unless it's based upon what I see and what I read. And that's why, until, if somebody can change my mind based upon what the Scripture says, may I say this, have at it. I'm open to hear, but you're gonna need to change my mind. And right now, I will tell you what I read in Scripture is what I just mentioned to you. That's not my reasoning. That's what the Bible says, and that's what I've deduced based upon what I read.
So, if you're here this morning, and that's something that you would like to do, if you're convinced that that's what the Bible says, then that's a decision that you can make, but it needs to be your decision, and then you focus on what God would have you do for the remainder of your life. I pray that these thoughts this morning may have been helpful to you. Give you something to think about. Maybe give you something to help you over the course of the week. If you're in this audience this morning, you'd like to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We would encourage you to do that. We'd ask you to do it this morning, while we stand and while we sing.
