Ridiculous Faith Series

Ridiculous Faith

Elisha, Week 2

Today, we are in the 2nd week of a series

looking at the old testament prophet Elisha.

If you missed last week,

we talked about burning plows,

in other words

leaving behind anything

that would keep us from following God.

So last week, we burned plows.

Today, we're going to talk about digging ditches.

Our goal in this four-week series.

is that God will build the faith of our church

to be greater than it ever has been.

Because, we know without faith,

it’s impossible to please God.

Now, before we dive in,

I'm wondering how many of you have played

the "if only" game.”

"if only" I had this, if only I had that,

then life would be better, easier, and happier.

How many of you have played the "if only" game?

"If only" I had a better job,

"if only" I had more money,

"if only" I had more hair,

or at least hair in the right places.

Some ladies might say, "if only" I had a husband.

Others would say "if only" I had a husband with a job.

Others would say "if only" I had a husband with a job who looked like Brad Pitt.

I don't know what your "if only" would be.

But I do know that throughout our lives,

we will always have needs,

we will always be tempted to play the “if only” game,

and think that life would be so much better,

if only.

What I want to do today

is encourage you to listen to this message

through the lens of your greatest need,

as we talk today,

think about how it applies to your greatest need,

maybe an area where you’ve been thinking,

if only.

Now in this story, we're going to see that

there were 3 kings

who joined forces to do battle against the Moabites.

3 against 1, and they thought,

This should be an easy victory.

But often in life, things don’t go as planned.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

You think you've got it figured out

but, "whoops,"

things don't turn out the way we thought.

That's what happens with these 3 kings.

Before they even get to the battle,

the 3 armies run out of water

while they’re marching through the desert,

They're about to die of thirst,

they are in big trouble,

They have a huge need.

And this story demonstrates a faith principal

that is actually great news to many of us.

And that is:

Your Greatest Need Becomes A Blessing, When It Drives You To Depend On God.

Let me say that again.

Your greatest need becomes a blessing, when it drives you to depend on God.

Look at 2 Kings 3;9-12

"So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom; After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for their animals with them. "What," exclaimed the king of Israel, "has the Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?"

In other words, we thought we'd win easily

but now it looks like we're going to be destroyed.

And of course, who gets the blame?

God does.

…has the Lord called us three kings together only to deliver us into the hands of Moab?"

Of these 3 kings,

Jehoshaphat was the only one

that worshipped the true God at all,

the other two worshipped Baal,

Jehoshaphat wasn’t a great example of faith,

but at least he didn’t worship idols.

So the story continues…

"But Jehoshaphat, one of the kings, asked, 'Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?" An officer of the king of Israel answered, "Elisha, son of Shaphat, is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah."

And all of sudden, when they're in trouble,

they do what a lot of us do,

"Um, God, I’m in big trouble.

Can you help me?"

But see the problem was,

they didn’t have much of a connection to God,

they hadn’t been serving him.

So they said,

"Is there anybody around who is in good with God?

Anybody who can do a little rain dance for us,

pull some spiritual strings?"

And they said,

"Oh yeah, there's Elisha, the prophet.

Maybe he can help us out."

Now, if you missed last week,

Elisha started out as the servant of Elijah.

We talked about Elijah a few months ago,

You may remember the story,

when the nation was in a great drought,

Elijah prayed to God, for rain,

but nothing happened,

and he prayed again and again,

finally after praying for 7 periods of time,

God sent a heavy rain that ended the drought.