The Man of God
10/28/07 am
I would like to take the opportunity this morning to welcome our guest to Central.
Let’s make our profession, “this is my Bible, God’s holy word….
OPENING
Andrew Cruz – I’m a man of God.
The greatest comment that anyone could give me is not you are a good preacher, or you have a great church, it’s not that you love your people, or even that you are a good Pastor.
All of those are wonderful, I desire to be all of those and I work hard to achieve them.
Yet the greatest thing that I want said about me is that I am a man of God.
If I am a man of God, the other things will follow.
A man of God’s ministry will validate who he is.
2 Kings 4:8-34
8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us."
11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call the Shunammite." So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, "Tell her, `You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’" She replied, "I have a home among my own people."
14 "What can be done for her?" Elisha asked.
Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old."
15 Then Elisha said, "Call her." So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 "About this time next year," Elisha said, "you will hold a son in your arms." "No, my lord," she objected. "Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!"
17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19 "My head! My head!" he said to his father.
His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
22 She called her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return."
23 "Why go to him today?" he asked. "It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath." "It’s all right," she said.
24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, "Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you." 25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, "Look! There’s the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, `Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’" "Everything is all right," she said.
27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why."
28 "Did I ask you for a son, my lord?" she said. "Didn’t I tell you, `Don’t raise my hopes’?"
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face."
30 But the child’s mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.
31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not awakened."
32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
V. 7 The man of God, v. 9 a holy man of God, v. 16 O man of God, v. 21 the man of God, v. 22 the man of God, v. 25 the man of God, v. 25 the man of God, v. 27 the man of God, v. 27 the man of God, v. 40 O man of God, and v. 42 the man of God.
The term “man of God” is used 77 times in the Bible.
75 times in the O.T. 2 times in the N.T.
Moses – 4 times Angel of the Lord – 3 times
Samuel – 4 times Shemiah – twice
David – 3 times Prophet in Jereboam’s reign – 11 times
Elijah – 8 times Elisha – 31 times
4 other times, un-named Timothy twice
This much is for sure, when the term “man of God” was used, something miraculous always happened.
In this one chapter alone where we took out scripture reading from this morning, we find four incredible miracles, and we also find the term “man of God” used 11 times.
Miracle #1
The widow woman has a debt and the creditor is coming.
Her sons would have to be slaves until the debt is paid.
What’s in the house? A pot of oil. Go and borrow as many vessels as you can.
Miracle #2
The Story from our Text
Miracle #3
The pot of pottage for the school of prophets where the cook accidentally put poisonous plants in it.
Elisha put meal in the pot, and they ate it and were ok.
Miracle #4
Elisha fed an 100 man army with 20 loaves of bread and a few ears of corn and they had food left over.
With this scripture in mind, how could we describe a man of God?
1. A man of God is a man of Prominence
Elisha was a man of prominence – (influence, distinction, or fame).
We often spend too much time and energy attempting to validate ourselves, when it is our God given ministry that validates us.
Illustration
Our General Suprentendient Bro. Trask speaking to the leader of one of the nations largest denominations.
This overseer told Dr. Trask, you people are the fastest growing and most successful movement in the world.
You are known for your Pentecostal distinctiveness. Stay who you are.
Men of God are distinctive, known, and people of influence.
2. A man of God is a man of Prophesy.
Elisha told the woman, “about this time next year you will hold a son in your arms.”
She told him, “don’t mislead me, or don’t tease me or just tell me what I want to hear.”
It cannot happen; my husband is an old man.
When the angel came and told Mary, you’re going to have a son, she asked, “How can this be, I have not slept with a man?”
He answered her, “With man things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”
A man of God looks into the impossible and sees the possible.
It is through the work of the Holy Spirit.
You see later on when her son died, she laid a dead boy on the man of God’s bed physically, but a live child spiritually.
He was a child of possibility.
3. A man of God is a man of Prayer.
When Elisha heard the boy was dead, he did not go to Shunem with the intention of performing a funeral, but to speak the possible back into the impossible.
When Jesus got word that Lazarus had died, he did not head to Bethany to pay his respects or to do his funeral, he already knew what He would do.
He was a man of God.
He went to the tomb of Lazarus and prayed.
Lazarus closed the door to the room and he and his servant Gehazi prayed.
Men of God are men of prayer.
4. A man of God is a man of Promise.
• The widow woman’s debt was paid.
• The weeping woman’s son was raised.
• The dying prophet’s poison was stayed.
• The meal to feed the 100 man army was made.
A man of God is a man of Prominence, Prophesy, Prayer, and Promise.
Why is the term “Man of God” used 75 times in the O.T. and only twice in the N.T.
In the O.T. we do not find miracles as often and prominent as in the N.T.
In the N.T we see miracles beginning with the ministry of Christ.
Then after the Day of Pentecost we see an explosion of miracles.
Why?
Mark 16:17-18
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
1 Timothy 6:18 NIV
v. 20 … keep that which has been committed to thy trust ….
God has committed the Holy Spirit to our trust; therefore, we should all men and women of God.
Isaiah 61:1-3 KJV
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
At the first of this message Andrew did a song his grandfather wrote for him and taught him, I’m a man of God.
He is growing up, from a small child realizing the possibility in Him.
We live in a world of impossibility, therefore we must learn to see through impossibilities and see the possible within.
