What does the world need right now?
Maybe a better first question is…
What do you do when you need help? What do you do when you’re hurt?
What we do when we’re hurting is we call for help. We reach out to someone who can help us make the pain go away!
But what happens when you don’t know who to call for help?
Maybe the worst feeling in the world is being hurt & not knowing where to get help. Not knowing who to talk to, where to go, how to find the answers you need when you’re the one hurting.
Some of you know what this is like, or you know people who are going through something like this. Maybe it’s a sickness of some kind. Some kind of rare disease or problem.
We see people like this on these tv doctor shows all the time & it’s always amazing how they’re able to solve every problem in a 30 minute tv episode with commercials!
But in real life, it doesn’t work that way.
Sometimes it’s not a sickness, at least not a physical sickness. Sometimes its a relationship. And it’s broken. And you don’t know where to turn for help. You don’t know who to talk to to make it better.
Sometimes it’s financial. Sometimes it’s your employment. Sometimes its a decision. It’s always complicated. It’s always difficult. And what you need are answers. But all to often the problem grows & the answers are hard to come by.
HELP!
There’s actually an ancient story found in the Bible in 2 Kings 5 about a man named Naaman who was in this kind of situation. He needed help. He had a problem he couldn’t fix.
Here’s what happened…
Naaman is the military leader of the enemy army. He is a person of power & position, someone who is held in high regard by his king because of his military success & victories on the battlefield against Israel.
You may not know Naaman, but you know his type. This guy has it all figured out. He knows what to do & how to be successful. And he is held in high regard by others because of his success.
But Naaman has a problem he can’t fix. He has leprosy.
2 At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. 3 One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”
Now this is where the story starts to get interesting, because we learn right here that Naaman & his armies have raided Israel & have been successful in their battles against Israel. And in one of those successful campaigns, children were taken as captives & made to be slaves. And one of these young girls who has been taken is a slave in Naaman’s house.
What’s amazing is that this young girl has a hope for her gentile master, the one who conquered her people & captured her as a salve, to receive healing from her God though His prophet.
You know, it’s often through the faith of children that we learn the most about God.
And I wonder, did she somehow know in her youth, her innocence, God’s desire for ALL people to be saved? For all people to be delivered from suffering & pain. For all people to experience life on earth as it is in heaven?
This girl does what Israel was always supposed to do. God’s desire has always been for HIS people to be a light to ALL people. For them to show & tell the world about the one true God. To share the love & mercy & grace & healing of God with the people of God, yes, but also with the whole world!
But so often what happened was that the people of God turned INWARD instead of shining OUTWARD.
[Tweet “God’s desire has always been for HIS people to be a light to ALL people.”]9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”
**11 But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! 12 Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.*8
Naaman is angry because he didn’t get FaceTime with Elisha & he didn’t get immediate healing. He wanted immediate results.
Naaman wanted a person-centered experience with Elisha.
Elisha wanted Naaman to have a God-centered experience with Yahweh.
13 But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” 14 So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!
Naaman throws what he feels like is a Hail Mary & obeys Elisha’s instructions. But this is what happens when you take God at his word. When you humbly obey & simply do what He is asking you to do, you experience the life that He always wanted for you!
Humble obedience to God always leads to the healing of God. Not necessarily physical healing. But when you obey God in humility you will experience things being made right in your life simply by doing His will.
[Tweet “Humble obedience to God leads to the healing of God. “]And maybe, this is where some of you are today. Maybe you need to take God at His word & just see what happens.
If we as the people of God could get back to simple trust & simple obedience, I wonder what would change about us & what God could do in us & through us.
Naaman obeys. Even in his doubt. Even in his frustration. And… drum roll… he is healed!
If anyone ever told you that you weren’t healed because you didn’t have enough faith, then I’d like to ask them to talk to Naaman.
Do you think he really believed this was going to happen? No way! Did he want it to happen? Absolutely. He probably even wanted to believe it could happen. But when it did happen, my guess is that no one was more surprised or more delighted than Naaman.
And I bet God took great delight in seeing him completely healed that day.
What the World Needs Now..
I love this story because it reminds us that God’s heart for people is unchanging.
[Tweet “God’s heart for people is unchanging.”]What the world needs now is undoubtedly the healing of God. And that can happen through the local church.
When we love others, especially our “enemies,” & share the hope of God with them, we open the door for them to be eternally changed.
After being healed by Yahweh, Naaman asks Elijah if he can take dirt from that place home so he can build an altar on top of it so he can worship YAHWEH! So he can worship God & God alone!
Naaman came as an enemy but left as a friend.
He came as a leper but he left healed.
He came as an unbeliever but he left as a worshipper of Yahweh!
Today, people still need the healing of God.
We need healing from racism. Healing from violence. Healing from poverty. Healing from sickness. Healing from homelessness. Healing from… you name it. And God can use His church to bring healing to people in our world through us.
May we have the courage of the slave girl, the faith of the prophet, & the love of Christ to bring healing to our world.
[Tweet “When we love others we open the door for them to be eternally changed. “]
