Naaman's Servant Girl [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. There's something in our nature, in the design, that God has made us in His own image that we are just at our best when we give. And we're actually at our happiest when we can give something. And even though we're marred and broken by sin in this world, have you ever noticed that most people, unless they just have a totally seared conscience and horrible heart, you know, most people like to give you directions if you ask them.

You've ever noticed that? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series titled, God Used Who?

And You May Just Be Surprised, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright.

Are you ready for some good news? The gospel is simple. It's not complicated. It's deep.

It's not complicated. The gospel is free. Not partially free, utterly free.

So free that our inability to believe how free it is, is one of our greatest obstacles in growth. And the gospel is powerful. And God can use anyone at any time, in any place, to point people to this beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ. We're looking at a hidden jewel today. An unnamed, unheralded little girl. Naaman's servant girl. The story is in second Kings chapter five. Second Kings chapter five tells the story of a great military commander who is healed miraculously of his leprous condition. And where our thoughts center today, as we're thinking about hidden jewels, these unheralded women in the word, is that we're going to focus our attention on how God uses this little servant girl. And like other great Old Testament stories, we really need to make our way through this whole chapter to be able to grasp the narrative and see what's going on here.

It is a fascinating, amazing story and can be seen on many, many different levels. Second Kings chapter five. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

Let me pause here, as I'll do as we read, to make some comments along the way. So Naaman is probably number two in command in Syria. Ancient Aram, the Aramean people. And he is described here as someone who is exceedingly powerful and probably is not only like military commander, but sort of like prime minister in the land. And everything is wonderful for him, except he has leprosy. And in the Old Testament, leprosy is actually a word that is used to describe a variety of skin diseases. So this is not necessarily Hansen's disease, the highly infectious condition that is known as leprosy, but it could be one of a variety of serious skin diseases.

Obviously he is still able to function and is obviously not quarantined as was often the case with those with Hansen's disease. Verse two. 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 her mistress, would that my Lord were with the prophet who's in Samaria?

He would cure him of his leprosy. So Naaman went in and told his Lord, told the king, thus 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 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold and 10 changes of clothing.

By the way, scholars have spent much time trying to identify just how wealthy was Naaman and how much had he taken with him. And it's hard to wrap your mind around this exactly with any precision, but the bottom line is he was enormously wealthy and what he had taken with him, some would say could be the equivalent of the wealth in all of Samaria and all of the northern kingdom of Israel. So he travels with all this wealth and verse six, he brought the letter to the king of Israel and this was one of the kings during the time of the divided monarchy. And he brought the letter to him which read, verse six, when this letter reaches you know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant that you may cure him of his leprosy. And when the king of Israel read the letter he tore his clothes and said am I God to kill and make alive that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?

Only consider it and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me. So the king of Israel goes into great grief and angst because he assumes that the king of Syria, this very powerful nation, has established a sort of political ruse by which he wants to provoke a reason to attack Israel because the king is going I can't heal anybody what is this all about? Verse eight, but when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes that sign of angst and grief he sent to the king saying why have you torn your clothes let him come now to me that he may know that there's a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.

So Elisha didn't even go out and speak to him himself just sent a messenger out there and said go wash in the Jordan. Verse 11, but Naaman was angry and went away saying behold I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper or not Abana and Farpar 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 my father that's a great word the prophet has spoken to you will you not do it has he actually said 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. So Naaman was all angry about this thought it was beneath him but his servants essentially were saying if he'd asked you to do something fancy and great or pay a great sum you would have done it but he's giving you something very simple to do why not do the simpler thing the simpler thing and so he does and he is utterly healed. Verse 15 then he returned to the man of God he and all his company and he came and he stood before him and he said behold I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel and this is an astounding confession of faith of a converted man who was second in rulership in Syria a pagan nation who has come to faith in the true living God. So he said second half of verse 15 except now a present from your servant but he said as the Lord lives before whom I stand Elisha said I'll receive none and he urged him to take it Naaman begged him to take it but Elisha refused. Verse 17 Naaman said if not please let there be given to your servant two mules loads of earth for now from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any God but the Lord. We're not real sure why he wanted to take this dirt home with him is maybe kind of a keepsake you know I mean you just kind of remember one of the things beautiful about this story is so real is that this is a brand new believer and he doesn't know what all to do he's just been so touched he's like I want to take some of this this is holy ground we'll take some home with me we don't really know for sure but what he's saying is I want to remember this because I'm never going to offer a sacrifice to a pagan deity again there's only one God and he's the one who's healed me wow.

That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. God's love you've heard about it with your ears you've believed it in your mind now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end you are the spiritual bride of Christ the perfect bridegroom the Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you to win you and to walk with you hand in hand for any man who has fallen in love with a woman you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like for any woman who has searched for true love what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman renowned author of the five love languages says the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart accept Christ's proposal enjoy his embrace revel in his love after all it's a match made in heaven it's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The Gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright verse 18 he continues this name in the Syrian commander he continued by saying in this matter may the Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the house of Ramon who was sort of the Syrian version of the pagan deity Ba'al when my master goes into the house of Ramon to worship there leaning on my arm and I bow myself in the house of Ramon when I bow myself in the house of Ramon the Lord pardon your servant in this matter and he said Elijah said go in peace I'll explain that later but when Naaman had gone from him a short distance Gehazi the servant of Elijah the man of God said see my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian and not accepting from his hand what he has brought as the Lord lives I will run after him and get something from him so Gehazi followed Naaman and when Naaman saw someone running after him he got down from the chariot to meet him and said is all well and he said all is well my master has sent me to say they have just now come to me from the hill they've just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophet please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing you're just making up a story and lying in order to get some financial gain and Naaman said be pleased to accept two talents and he urged him and tied up two talents of silver and two bags with two changes of clothing laid them on us two of his servants and they carried them before Gehazi and when he came to the hill he took them from their hand and put them in the house and he sent the men away and they departed they went in and stood before his master and Elisha said to him where have you been Gehazi and he said your servant went nowhere but he said to him did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you Elisha had seen the whole thing in the spirit you see was it a time to accept money and garments olive orchards and vineyards sheep and ox and male servants and female servants therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever so he went out from his presence a leper like snow what a story and it's a story of healing but it's also a story more importantly even more dramatically of unlikely conversion of somebody you would thought have been the last person that would ever come to the knowledge of the one true living God all because that little all because that little girl how do you get people to come to church you know we live in a culture now where it just happens so fast for all of us church goers it just happens so fast it just almost took our breath away and caught us by surprise that especially here in the southern part of the united states just kind of most people my age in order just kind of grew up most people went to church not so anymore a good majority of people don't go to church and increasingly for a lot of people in our culture it's not even on their mind how you get people to go to church one time there was a seminarian who was in a preaching class and the professor was reviewing sermon titles he was talking about the importance of having a good sermon title something catchy that makes people want to really listen to that sermon so this one student had brought in a sermon title and the professor said no this is not catchy it's not doesn't sound important he said try something else so the student came back the next day brought another sermon title professor said no i don't think that works either he said listen think of it this way imagine you're the pastor of a church and you've got a sign out front where every week you put the title of your sermon now imagine that a bus full of people pulls up and stops in front of your church and they read the sign of the title of that sermon think about what is something would make them want to jump off that bus and just run in your church so the student came back the next day with his new sermon title it was it was called there's a bomb on your bus you know we don't want to trick people to come to church so how are people going to come to church well the answer is actually very very simple tom reiner a church growth expert and author has done a recent massive survey in which he found something quite startling really that 82 percent of people unchurched people who were surveyed said they were at least somewhat likely to say yes if a friend invited them to church it's almost unbelievable isn't it really but if you think about it that's kind of why we do almost anything a friend tells us about it right i mean if a friend says you know he's a trusted friend they say we had a great meal at such and such restaurant last week you're probably likely to try it out if a good friend says hey i've heard this is a good movie you want to go see it with me most people probably say yes and basically we shape so much of our lives around what what our friends invite us into and yet tom reiner said and this is maybe even more startling that only about two percent of christians ever really invite people to church so this is not rocket scientist stuff is it if most people say yeah i'd probably go if a friend or family member somebody i really like and trust invited me to church i'd probably go i'd probably give it a try but very few people are doing that how are we going to get people into church not by tricking them and not by saying there's a bomb on your bus but by inviting them at the center of this story today is this little girl and she is amazing in the way that she so simply points this great commander to the lord and i want to kind of walk through the story and its principles with an eye on this little girl to be reminded how simple and how free and how powerful the gospel of jesus christ really really is the river jordan was not magic it was just a river but it symbolized the grace of god the river of the grace of god that we can point everybody towards so simple there's a contrast in the story between naman and this little girl that is very stark he's in she is an israelite he is a syrian um she's a little girl that's what the text calls her a little girl but the text calls naman a great man she's a captive he's a conqueror she's a servant he's a commander of armies she's unknown and unnamed his name is famous throughout syria she is poor and he is rich and one of the things that's so shocking and beautiful about this story is that this little girl would want her captor let's put it plainly the one who had enslaved her unjustly the one who had raided israel and some scholars think according to the way the syrians would engage in engage in battle that there was a very reasonable chance that this little girl had seen her parents killed at the hands of the syrians and she was captured and taken back to be a servant and naman was responsible for all of that that she away from her homeland orphaned hurting mistreated and enslaved would want her captor to be blessed by her god that's how the world's going to be changed what love is this a love for the enemy is startling you'd think that she would be unquenchably embittered and you know somebody in that position could almost be justified and just saying i'm glad he's got leprosy hope he dies from it you know but she wasn't she was so small and she was so poor and she was so seemingly helpless and yet she had something of eternal value to give so fun to to give something valuable and precious away oh to discover the the meaning of jesus's words it's more blessed to give than it is to receive it really is there's something in our nature in the design that god has made us in his own image that we are just at our best when we give and we're actually at our happiest when we can give something and even though we're marred and broken by sin in this world have you ever noticed that most people unless they just have a totally totally seared conscience and horrible heart you know most people like to give you directions if you ask them you've ever noticed that now it's a little different now that we get the gps and we don't stop and ask for directions uh very much not that i myself ever needed directions but um you ever notice that Alan Wright i sense a story coming on we'll have to pick up with that on the next teaching it is from the series god used who and the teaching on deborah alan will be back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and today's final word god's love you've heard about it with your ears you've believed it in your mind now experience it in your heart with alan wright's beloved book lover of my soul the bible is a love story from beginning to end you are the spiritual bride of christ the perfect bridegroom the bible tells about a god who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you to win you and to walk with you hand in hand for any man who has fallen in love with a woman you've tasted the sweetness of what god's love for you is like for any woman who has searched for true love which you long for can only be found fully in god gary chatman renowned author of the five love languages says the incredible reality that god pursues us in love comes to life and lover of my soul ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart accept christ's proposal enjoy his embrace revel in his love after all it's a match made in heaven it's lover of my soul by alan wright the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org well alan i don't know if you want to give us a sneak preview or maybe just answer this question are we going to find direction uh in our next teaching we're gonna find direction and it is a funny story of the time i was lost and needed some directions a hilarious story but yeah we all need direction uh today's teaching really daniel in the end what a contrast between this mighty powerful general naman who uh in all his pride and bluster uh gets upset at the simple command the prophet had given him and how god uses this unnamed young servant girl that god puts on display his grace you can't pay for healing you can't buy salvation naman can't earn it by being an important figure the secret comes from a little girl and it's all about about grace i think it's a word of hope and a word of healing for many today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries you