I Want it Back
Scripture Reference: 2 Kings 6:1-7
Preached at Mount Zion Baptist Church on October 18, 2020
Delivered by Rev. John Daniel Johnson
Read Text:
This morning I want to minister to you on this idea, “I Want it Back.” There is one thing that we can be assured of. This message is not about returning salvation to us. The Bible tells us that salvation is a gift from God. We did not nothing to earn it, therefore, we cannot lose it.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:38-39
For the last several days I've been hearing these words in my spirit, "something is missing".
As you all know, I have a good wife. She has a lot of good qualities, but she will openly admit she had one small flaw. Before I reveal her flaw, I want to about my grandmother and mother. My mom always cooked for us growing up. Every night we could always look forward to a wonderful 3-course meal. There was no one that could ever cook as good as my mom, except my grandmother. Usually on Sunday afternoons or other special days during the year, we’d visit my grandmother. She didn’t just have a three-course meal; she’d have a 10 course meal.
Now my wife’s flaw isn’t that she can’t cook. She can do that, but her flaw is in the flavoring; adding the salt, pepper, and the other “just right stuff” that makes it go from good to licking your lips.
The other night I got home late from work and my wife had made our little family homemade chicken and rice. In that bowl, it looked so good. The rice was still steaming. The chicken looked like it had just fallen off the bone. I was about to starve, so I scooped out a little more for my bowl. I sat down at the table, grabbed the tablespoon, and loaded that thing up. As I put that food-filled spoon into my mouth, I spoke without thinking. I looked at Jessica and said, “Something is Missing.” Added a little salt; well a lot of salt and pepper, and almost just as good as mama made it.
Have you ever eaten one of your favorite meals made by someone else and said to yourself, “Something is missing?”
How many know that when you taste that something and it tastes different, you immediately recognize something is missing. You can still eat it. It won’t hurt you, but brother it is bland, tasteless and not the flavor that you were expecting.
It leaves you disappointed, lets you down. Your taste buds were ready for a party but instead they experience a funeral.
Now the swing that over to the spiritual. If you’ve ever experienced real worship with the LORD, real fellowship with a family of Christians, real encouraging time with the LORD, there is nothing…nothing that can replace it. Nothing can come close. Sure you can have a substitute, but nothing satisfies that the real thing.
It’s like homemade ice-cream. You can taste all brands of ice-cream, but only one is the original. The sad part is, sometimes we can get so used to the bland, the substitutes, the “not as good” and can get adjusted or get used to it.
Sadly, the same thing is happened to the church today. We’ve grown accustomed to not the best. I can't speak for everyone today, so I'll just speak for myself and speaking for myself, in these last few weeks I've tasted authentic worship again, the real love of God, etc.
Something has been missing: Something has been missing for a long time. Some people have been missing. True fellowship have been missing. The Bible says that we are one body, and unless all part of our body work together, we’ve not been working right.
I want to talk to you about what is missing. What is missing? Well lets go to our text and find out.
In our text we are told of the problem. In Chapter 5, we see where Naaman had leprosy. He came to be healed by Elisha, but he was just told to go wash in the Jordan River. After overcoming his doubt, he did as Elisha had told him. After coming out of the Jordan, he was healed.
Elisha returns back to his educate his young prophets, but the place has become too small. These prophets decide to build beside the Jordan River, the same place that had washed away the leprosy.
Catch This:
Leprosy throughout Jewish culture was believed to mean sin. If you had leprosy, you were believed be a sinner. Ironically, the place the sinner was made clean, was the place where these young ministers wanted to build their Bible school.
As a church, we’ve done the same thing. Our church is built on the fact that our sin has been washed away. Our sins have been cast as far as the East and West. The blood of Jesus Christ was spilled, His life was sacrificed, and His body was raised to free us from the burden of sin. We are built on that solid rock.
However, while building this new preacher school, one of the minister’s axe head fell off an fell into the river. The young Prophet immediately recognizes that something is missing. His work is ineffective. He could have just kept going through the motions but he refused to continue without the axe head.
We may look at this story and wonder if there is anything here for the modern church. I believe there is plenty here for us to learn.
You see, the axe head represents the power to get the job done! No man can chop down tress by flailing at them with an axe handle! It takes the sharp, cutting power of the axe head to cut through the wood and fell the tree.
Immediately after losing the axe head, this minister stops working. He cries out to Elisha that he is no longer effective in building the house of God. He sees that something is needed. He knows that something is missing.
Could he just pretend to keeping cutting? Could he continue to attempt to chop at the tree, without even causing a dent in it? Could he just keep going through the motions and act like nothing was wrong? Yes, but this prophet decided that the only way to be effective was that he needed his axe head back.
This morning I want us to be like that young prophet. He realized that something was missing, and without it, the efforts were in vain. I want us to be like that young prophet this morning. I want us to say, “I Want it Back.”
? I want it all back that has slowed my work for the LORD.
? I want my passion back
? I want my fire back
? I want my burden for the lost back
? I want my joy and happiness back from being in the presence of the LORD and His children.
? I want my devotion to God back.
? I want my desire to glorify God back.
? I want my prayer life back; my alone time with God back.
? I want my church fellowships back.
? I want my complete church family back!
Somethings been missing and now I know what it is, and I refuse to carry on without it, I want it back!!
How to Get it Back
1. First, Realize that Something is Missing.
2. Second, Cry Out For Spiritual Help.
3. Third, Go Back to the Place You Lost It
4. Fourth, Make the Effort to Take it Back Again.
The early Church Father Jerome records:
"When the blessed evangelist John, the apostle, had lived in Ephesus into his extreme old age and could hardly be carried to the meetings of the church by the disciples, and when in speaking he could no longer put together many words, he would not say anything else in the meetings but this: "Little children, love one another!"
