Can God Trust Me?
2 Kings 5:1-18 1 Timothy 6:3-10 Text 2 Kings 5:18-28
The most important thing God has given you is your abitlity to choose your actions. Can God trust you with the ability to choose right from wrong free will. Can God trust at you at school this coming year to go where you are supposed to go and do what you’re supposed to do? Can God trust you at work to be honest and faithful? Can God trust you, when you’re at home and nobody knows what you’re doing? Can God trust you when you’re away on a trip and nobody knows you’re a Christian?
There’s a funny thing about us. We have a tendency to want God to trust us in the areas we have not yet been, rather than in the areas we already are. We treat God like we treated our parents. We asked our parents, "can I go to the dance, it will be over at 11:45". The parent says " why am I going to trust you to stay out until 11:45 when you didn’t make the 10:30 deadline I gave you last week. The response is, "yes I know I didn’t make it then, but this time it’s going to be different, I just know it will." But why.
The story is told of a farmer who believed God could trust him with just about anything. The country preacher said, "Jed you really love the Lord don’t you." Jed said, "of course I do preacher." The preacher said, "Jed if you had a 100 horses and God asked you for 50, would you give them to him?" "Of course I would." Lord bless him with a 100 horses. He said Jed what if you had 50 cows, and the Lord asked you for 25, could He trust you to give Him 25 cows? Lord bless him with 50 cows.
"Just as certain as the sun rises every morning he could." The preacher said, but Jed what if you had two hogs, and God asked you for one of them. Could the Lord count on you to give it? Jed said, "That ain’t no fair question. Preacher, you know I got two hogs.
How many of us have tried a similar snow job on the Lord. God you can trust me with anything? That’s one of Satan’s great lies. There are plenty of things we cannot be trusted with. Saul could not be trusted with seeing someone else being praised. Samson could not be trusted with women. Ananias & Sapphira could not be trusted with wealth. King Uzziah could not be trusted with power. If we are smart, all of us should recognize we cannot fully ourselves to handle any and all situations.
Some of us are still walking in the Lord today, not because we can handle any and all temptation, but because the Lord has not allowed some temptations to come our way. When God does allow temptations of any form to enter our paths, can God trust us to do the right thing, or do we first look to the right and then to the left to see if anyone else is looking?
No matter what sin we may commit, keep in mind, it’s not our cleverness that keeps it hidden, it’s the mercy of God which allows it to be kept out of sight. The Bible teaches us, our sin is always seeking a way to expose itself. Our sin becomes the devil’s dirt to make us ineffective for use in the kingdom of God.
Let’s look at a man that’s fairly well known in the Bible in 2 Kings 5: starting at verse 19. His name is mentioned 20 times in the Bible, and it means visionary. His name was Gehazi, and he was the servant of the great prophet Elisha. Gehazi was preparing for the ministry. You see his master Elisha had served as a servant to the prophet Elijah before he went into heaven. Gehazi is now in the former role of Elisha. He has a great future ahead of him. Gehazi was there when Elisha did many of his miracles, such as raising the Shunamite’s son from the dead.
Gehazi was the one we met in the Old Testament reading when Elijah sent him out to tell Naaman the Syrian to go and wash in the Jordan River. But Naaman did not show Elisha or Gehazi the kind of respect Gehazi felt they deserved after he got the message. Naaman had stormed away angry from Gehazi’s presence. When he did it, Gehazi allowed some bitterness and resentment into his heart.
God had trusted Gehazi with a message to bring healing to Naaman. Gehazi faithfully gave it. But then Gehazi allowed the actions of others to twist God’s opportunity for a blessing for his faithfulness, to become an opportunity for the devil to plant a seed. When Naaman got through telling Gehazi where he and Elisha could go, and how much cleaner the waters in his own country were compared to the Jordan River, Gehazi was probably pretty hot. He would have liked nothing better for God to have struck him dead. How dare he tell them how God ought to heal him. Just who did he think he was that he knew better than God what ought to be done.
God didn’t tell Gehazi he was responsible for Naaman’s actions. Just give him the word. Don’t let the actions of others make you bitter, when you do what God tells you to do. Naaman was persuaded to follow the advice he had been given. He went to the Jordan and was healed completely of his disease. He came back and different and penitent man.
Naaman wanted to give Elisha a gift. But for some reason, God didn’t want Elisha to accept what was being offered to him, and Elisha knew it. Maybe God was trying to teach Naaman, there are some things God simply gives because God is loving and you simply can’t pay for them. Maybe God was trying to teach Gehazi, there is a time to receive and a time to say no.
Naaman begged and begged Elisha to take something. But he wouldn’t. Do you know what happened. Naaman was so impressed by Elisha steadfast refusal to take anything, he decided he wanted to serve the God of Elisha. Naaman left a different person than the one who had come to Elisha. Keep in mind saints, everything which is offered to you is not for you to grab and run with it. Elisha could have become a very wealthy man on that day, but God trusted him to say no to riches that day because it would mean the salvation of another soul. Elisha told Naaman to go away in peace.
But this thing bothered Gehazi something awful. look at part of verse 19 and 20. After Naaman had traveled some distance, 20 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, "My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought."
Notice, Gehazi didn’t see that a man had gotten saved. He was still bitter from the way Naaman had first spurned his instructions. God can’t trust some of us today, because we are still carrying around petty little insults that somebody gave to us. We think God didn’t get them back like He should have. Gehazi’s prejudice came to the forefront. Just like we have the N word, he used the A word. "Elisha should have gotten something from that Aramean". Some how, Gehazi forgot that he was the servant, and Elisha was the master. All of he sudden, "he’s the man. He’s in charge. He knows what to do go get this thing together and make it right."
Look at the rest of the verse. "As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him." Be careful when you go running after something which God did not send you after. You just might end up getting it. The Bible warns against having feet that are swift to run and do evil.
Now what does Naaman owe Gehazi. All he did was go on the porch like Elisha told him to do, and tell Naaman to go wash 7 times in the Jordan. But now Gehazi wants to claim, if it hadn’t been for him, Naaman would have never been healed of leprosy. Saints, when God use us to impact the lives of others, let us recognize we did it because we are called to be faithful to God, not to try to make the person indebted to us. God can’t trust some of us to do great things, because He knows instead of giving the glory to Jesus Christ we will claim the glory for ourselves and say " look what we did."
Look at verse 21, So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him. "Is everything all right?" he asked. 22 "Everything is all right," Gehazi answered. "My master sent me to say, ’Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’"
I want you to notice, you cannot get outside the will of God for your life and stay there without telling lies about yourself and about others. Gehazi started out by lying about the character of Elisha. He’s saying "Even though Elisha, swore to God that he wouldn’t take anything, he changed his mind and wants you to give him something after all." He’s given Naaman a false impression about the God of Elisha, in that Elisha’s God must also can be paid off if the circumstances change. Gehazi is asking for 75 lb. of silver. He only wanted about $23,000.
23 "By all means, take two talents," said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up the two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. He gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi. 24 When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the things from the servants and put them away in the house. He sent the men away and they left.
Gehazi was willing to give himself a big pat on the back. God had blessed his little secret plan so he had gotten way more money than he had intended to do so from Naaman. Naaman had begged him to take twice as much money as he had asked for. He got so much stuff, Naaman’s servants had to help him carry it. The silver alone was $56,000.. He knew Naaman would not be coming back that way and no one had seen what he had done. It was the perfect deception.
Now Gehazi could easily justify his actions. No one had gotten hurt. Naaman had really wanted to give away the money anyway. This would be the last time he ever did anything like this. From this point on, he was going to be faithful to the Lord. He wasn’t going to tell anymore lies, and he would contribute part of what He got as His tithes and offerings, so even the priests would benefit from what he had done. Gehazi had been true to his name of visionary. He saw what he wanted and he had made it happen.
The only problem, Gehazi had proved that God could not trust him. I don’t know what ministry God had in the future for Gehazi, but it would not be the one He had in mind before Gehazi decided to take matters in his own hands. Gehazi could not be trusted with his free will. Each time we fail to show ourselves faithful, we miss out on something God wanted us to have.
Jesus put it this way, 10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? God wants to give most of us far more than what we have, but we’ve not demonstrated to God that we can be trusted with what He wants to give.
The book of Proverbs was in existence at this time, but somehow, Gehazi missed verse 15:3 which says "The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good." Look at verse 25 Then he went in and stood before his master Elisha. "Where have you been, Gehazi?" Elisha asked.
Gehazi went in just like nothing had changed. He was going to resume his position as God’s prophet in training just as before. Now by posing this question, Gehazi was being given the chance to redeem himself. He could confess all that he had done and come clean and seek the forgiveness of Elisha and of God. After all, didn’t he tell God, the deception was behind him and he could trust him from now on. Sometimes the only way to bring a matter to a close is to confess it. You can never end a lie by simply telling another lie. Truth is the only thing that can effectively kill a lie.
The pressure was on Gehazi. Should he confess and risk losing his position as the possible successor to the great prophet Elisha. If Elisha sent him away, how would he be able to handle the disgrace and the shame he had brought upon himself. Saints, keep in mind, before we sin, we are in control of the circumstances and the choices we make. After we sin, we will always be at the mercy of someone else. Sin truly does make us someone else’s slave.
When we face temptation, let’s not ask, how can we get away with it. Instead let’s list all the things which will happen to us, once we get caught. Sin is never as attractive when we go through all those steps. We are all sitting in church this morning where we ought to be , but God throws out the same question to us, as Elisha did to Gehazi. "Where have you been since the last time you were here?" Where have your actions taken you? Where have you been in the secret corridors of your mind?" You see, we don’t always have to go somewhere to leave the presence of God. Can God trust us to be honest with Him about where we have been?
Gehazi was a man of God. He studied with the best prophet there was. He saw the miracles God had done. When he had to choose between confessing his sin or trying to cover his tracks, like so many of us when we trust in our own ability, he chose to cover his tracks. He told Elisha, a bold face lie without cracking a smile. "Your servant didn’t go anywhere,".
Why did he lie? He lied because he thought it was the only way he could hold on to what He had. He lied because He didn’t think God could somehow make this situation work out. Sometimes lying to hold on to what we have or to make it work out, causes us to lose far more than what we had imagined.
Look at verse 26. Elisha’s heart must have been broken, that his student whom he had poured so much time and energy into had betrayed his trust. Few things hurt more, than to have someone we truly love and care about betray the trust we put into them. Once it’s been stolen from us, its very expensive to replace it. But Elisha said to him, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants?
When Gehazi put into action operation rip off Naaman, Gehazi thought he was out of sight, but he was being watched all the time. He thought he was getting over, but he was really going under. He thought he was getting by, but he was really flunking the test. Elijah had heard the lies about him as they came from Gehazi’s lips. He asked Gehazi is this the time to take. Saints God is asking each of us this day, the same question. Is this the time to be taking, and thinking only of yourself, your enjoyment, your pleasure, and what you feel you want to do.
When Jesus issued us a call to come follow Him, he told us to keep things in proper perspective by seeking first the kingdom of God and then allow God to add the other things in our lives. God can not trust many of us because we go first after the things, and then if anything is left over, we will give it to God or then have time to seek God. Don’t think we can live in that manner forever. Don’t think simply because it appears we got away with it that everything must be all right.
Elisha had one final word for Gehazi in verse 27. Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever." Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and he was leprous, as white as snow. Gehazi got Naaman’s silver and his clothing, but he got something he hadn’t counted on. He got his disease of leprosy as well. That effectively killed his called to ministry and his call as a prophet. By attempting to lie and keep it all, Gehazi lost what was most important in his life.
Gehazi blew it because he didn’t settle who was the real master of his life. When he first felt wronged by Naaman, he felt obligated to get even. He didn’t turn his hurt over to God as his master to use it to strengthen and build him as servant of God. Instead it became a breeding ground for bitterness, envy and eventually greed. God could not trust him with being hurt by others.
How many of us are like that this morning? We are going to get even no matter what? Unfortunately, we don’t know where that desire is going to end up leading us. I do know, it will always lead us outside the will of God for our lives. If Jesus is the master of our lives, let’s submit ourselves to doing what He requires of us.
Sometimes like Gehazi, we don’t get a second chance to keep our position. Our whole world may come tumbling down. We may lose the respect of those from whom we desire it the most. But keep in mind that in Jesus Christ we can begin again where we are now. Our past may keep us from reaching the original heights that God intended. But we do not know how high we may yet go in God and in life, if we make our confession a clean one, and begin today to show God, we are willing to earn his trust by being faithful in the small things at home, at school, at work, and in those times and places in which we think we won’t get caught.
