Only God Knows Her Name Series

INTRODUCTION:

1. It was the day before Thanksgiving when an elderly man in Phoenix called his son in New York and said to him, “I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother & I are getting a divorce. Forty-five years of misery is enough. We’re sick of each other, & so you call your sister in Chicago & tell her.” The son frantically called his sister, who exploded on the phone. “Like heck they’re getting divorced,” she shouted, “I’ll take care of this.” She called Phoenix immediately, & said in his most “I’m in charge voice” Dad, “You’re NOT getting divorced. Don’t do anything until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, & we’ll both be there tomorrow morning. Until we arrive, don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?” The father mildly accepted the orders from his daughter, hung up his phone & said to his wife. “Okay, honey, the kids are coming for Thanksgiving this year and for a change this year they’re paying for their own flights.”

Cell #1: II Kings 5 is found on page 286 of the Bible in your pew.

2. Don’t you love it? Sometimes people can be real characters can’t they? Some-times the people you least expect can find ways to get the job done in the most unexpected ways.

3. Today we begin a new series of messages that will deal with a wide variety of very different characters who have been used by God in a wide variety of ways. You probably won’t relate perfectly to every single character in the series, but I suspect you’ll find a little of yourself in several of these Bible characters.

4. Not all of them are a great example and did everything the right way. In fact, some of them are an example of the kind of person you don’t want to be. Others, are the story of people who didn’t start out the right place, but who ended up the right place. Still others, started out well, but ended up going the wrong direction. Some of the characters we’ll be studying are famous, you’ll recognize their names: Solomon, Paul and Zacchaeus. Others, aren’t well known at all: Gehazi, Ahithophel, Tamar, and even the little girl we’re talking about today who is never named in scripture.

5. However, as I said a few moments ago, each one has something valuable to teach us, whether it’s a positive example that we should follow or a negative example that shows us behavior we should avoid.

6. If you have found 2 Kings 5 in your Bibles would you please follow along with me as we read the first 17 verses together.

Read the passage

7. Let’s pray together before we begin this morning’s study. PRAYER

TS— This morning I want us to focus on the little girl in the story and see what we can learn from here. Let’s begin with this…

Cell #2:

I. We Need to Show COMPASSION

1. The narrator sets the stage for the story of Naaman with only a few words. In these 1st verses of the story, he introduces the main character & supplies the information that establishes the story's direction. Naaman is described in glowing terms. He is named commander of the army of the king of Aram & is portrayed as highly esteemed by his master the king. He is a great man & a valiant soldier… but unfortunately, he’s a leper. There is an entire string of positive things said about Naaman, but with that 1 word, “leprosy” he captured the attention of the Jews, because leprosy was so dreaded. (1)

2. There is another detail in the story that is worth taking a moment to mention as well, we learn that it was the Lord who gave Naaman his victories. At first this claim may seem startling because Naaman wasn’t an Israelite. In fact, he was the military leader who led the Armenian forces against Israel. However, 1 & 2 Kings emphasize God's sovereignty over all nations & people groups repeatedly. The Lord also had sent the prophets with His message to non-Jews before & He would do it again, so it’s not surprising that He dealt with Naaman here. (4)

3. Now we get to the point for us, the little girl who was going to be most in-fluential in helping Naaman, was a little Jewish girl. It would be hard to overstate the differences in the two of them. She was an Israelite, he was an Aramean; she was a “young girl who was a maid.” He in contrast was described as a “mighty warrior.” She was a captive servant, he was a commander. She was in captivity, he was her captor. He was well known to the king; her king had been killed & the Israelite nation dissolved. Yet, with all Naaman had going for him, he illustrates a very important principle…