"Treasured Servants"

Multitudes, Multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. Joel 3:14
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In 2 Kings 5 we find the account of Naaman being healed of his leprosy and coming to serve the Lord. As a youth pastor it is one of my all time favorite accounts to teach on because I do love that little maid! See, had to mention her even though we won't be talking about her in today. What the Lord directed me to can be found in this passage; ...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 then, when he says to you, 'Wash and be clean'?" So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordon 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. 2 Kings 5:13-14

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, today we are going to talk about decisions. In particular, the decisions we make every day about whether or not we will obey the instructions of the Lord even when they don't make sense to us.

Naaman had a decision to make in this moment when the servants confronted him about his attitude. He almost missed his opportunity to be restored and made clean because he was about to make a bad decision because of the attitude of his heart. His heart had decided that he should get the pomp and ceremony that he, in his opinion deserved. He was standing there at Elisha's door to get his healing but he also had his own plan in mind for it to happen ...But Naaman became furious, and 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.' Did you notice the key phrase here as to why he got angry? "Indeed, I said to myself." Which tells us that he had played the scene out in his mind as to what would happen. The way that he had envisioned it was that he would show up at the door. Elisha would come out, make a big production of calling on the name of the lord. He would wave his hand over the infected areas and whaaa-laaa he would be healed. He wouldn't have to do anything except show up and stand there. That was his plan and the fact that Elisha didn't perform to plan infuriated him! He had a plan and that was all he could see.

The thing is it wasn't God's plan. God's plan was to heal him! ...And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, " Go and wash in the Jordon seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean." 2 Kings 5:10 He didn't even noticed that God gave him a way to not only be healed but to be clean as well. He didn't even notice that he was about to miss out big time!  

I want to stop and take a quick second to say, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you for the servants you've put in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the servants you have used to give me my second chance opportunities to heed your word and to not miss out on your amazing blessings! Thank you, Lord, for my treasured servants who always turn my focus back to your amazing grace, mercy, and provision by being brave enough to take on my heart attitudes."

Sorry, had to take care of that. See, we all have moments like Naaman where we decide the outcome or the how and where of it. We all have those heart attitude moments where we forget that his plan, even if it might seem ridiculous to us at the time, is the best plan possible and if followed, it will bring about the best possible outcome! The servants recognized that Naaman was about to blow it and they where brave enough in the face of his anger to speak up and remind him that he had come there for a purpose. These treasured servants stand redeemed his opportunity because they reminded him that if it had been a hard thing, he would have done it. Why not a simple thing? By speaking up they put Naaman once again in that moment when he had to choose. He had to make a decision, will he or won't he do what God requires?

God's plan has Naaman taking a step of faith. It causes him to choose God. It has Naaman taking action towards the thing he hoped for and causes a step of faith that aligns him with God. Naaman's way, he doesn't have to choose God, he just receives. God's plan forces him to choose Him because it forces him to trust His words and to obey them. It forces Him to Agree to submit to God's direction and causes him to take a step of faith. The dipping seven times in the Jordon is the action required for him to be in agreement with God. It is the action that forces Him to choose to surrender and obey the word of the Lord.

When confronted by his servants, Naaman is given a second chance to agree to God's provision and this time he says, "Yes." He obeys the word of the God and the outcome is ... and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his aids, and came and stood before him; and he said, "Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel;" By forcing him to take those steps of faith and agreeing to God's plan it brought him to a place knowing God that comes through when we hear, trust, and obey because we know that He will do what He says He will!  

Don't you love how God is even in the details? I looked up Naaman's name and it means; pleasantness and it comes from a primitive root word (5276) that means; to be agreeable. In the end Naaman was agreeable to God's way and not his own. In the process of things he learned to choose to heed God's word. He decided to agree with God and to listen and obey.

We all have times when we have the plan. The question we need to be asking is, "Is it His plan?" Are we making decisions to be in agreement with His word no matter how simple or how silly it might sound? Are we missing out on opportunities to be restored because we won't recognized His word to us as the best plan possible. Are we missing out because we've already made our decision ahead of time on how it should play out. Will we heed the words of our treasured servants and not miss opportunities to choose to obey? Here's the question He told me to ask at the very beginning of this message.

"Are we missing out on His miraculous outcomes because we won't come as a little child, believing, that what he says, He will do!"