"DON’T BE AFRAID"
2 Kings 6:8- 23
ILLUSTRATIONS (X2)
"Real
people - True stories" Last week, we went to Mt Carmel with Elijah -- we
saw him whoop up on 850 false prophets and we took home the lesson --
we need to get off the fence -- IF God is God
then we need to serve him with ALL our heart, mind, soul & strength.
Today’s
real person is Elisha (not Elijah) - and the true story is in 2 Kings 6
“Don’t
be Afraid." Have
you ever said those words to someone? a friend?
a spouse? or a maybe to a child who has just come into your room after a
bad dream? and you say “DON’T BE AFRAID”
Maybe someone said it to you, “DON’T BE AFRAID”
as a child or Adult?
Have you ever been afraid? There might be someone afraid right now?
FEAR is a
powerful emotion -- it can grab us and immobilize us.
One
popular story about FEAR’s power...
He was a
professional thief. His name stirred fear as the desert wind stirs tumbleweeds.
He terrorized Wells Fargo stages for 13 yrs, roaring like a tornado in & out
of the Sierra Nevedas, spooking the most rugged frontiersman. In journals from
San Francisco to New York, his name was synonymous w/the danger of the
frontier....
During his reign of terror between
1875 & 1883, he is credited with stealing the bags & more away from 29
different stagecoach crews & all w/out firing a shot
His weapon was his
reputation. His ammunition was intimidation.
A hood hid his face. No
victim ever saw him. No artist ever sketched his features.
No sheriff could ever track his trail. He never fired a shot or took a hostage.
He didn’t have to. His presence
was enough to paralyze.
Black Bart. A hooded bandit armed with a deadly weapon...
Black
Bart reminds me of another thief that’s been around for awhile -- one who is
still riding the trails today & who is found riding the trails in 2
Kings.
You know him -- but like Black Bart, you’ve never seen his face, either.
You
can’t describe his voice or sketch his profile.
He was
the thief who left your palms sweaty as you went for a job interview.
He was con man who convinced you to swap your integrity for popularity...
He got you to say & do nothing rather than deal with the problem,
He
whispered “no one cares about you” when you felt alone in a crowd.
He’s
the Black Bart of the soul. He doesn’t want your money.
He
doesn’t want your valuables and he won’t go after your car...
What
he wants is your peace of mind -- what he is after is your joy.
His
name -- Satan, the tool of his
destruction……. FEAR
He
steals your joy, takes your courage to leave you cold, naked & trembling.
His modus operandi (mode of operation) is to manipulate with mystery, taunt you
with the unknown. Fear
of death, fear
failure, fear
of defeat -- fear
of rejection, fear of
being alone, fear
of living, fear
of even GOD.
His goal? To create cowardly joyless Christians, more fearful than
Faithful
Fear will not let you make the journey to the mountain...
Today I
want to encourage with the words, DON’T BE AFRAID --
This
phrase occurs 88 times in the Bible -- and is mostly spoken by God to His
people... And when these words are spoken by God.... you can trust them
This event takes place while Israel was still divided into 2 kingdoms -
Israel
in the North & Judah in the south.
Before look at our story let me introduce to the list of characters...
Elisha
- He is a powerful prophet of God; a student & successor of Elijah -
(remember - Mt Carmel & the 850 prophets).
Elisha asked for a double portion of the Spirit upon Elijah. He healed
the sick, multiplies food -
he
even raised the dead...
Joram
- He is the King of the North - the son of Ahab & Jezebel who we meet last
week. (Elisha a student of Elijah - Joram son of Ahab & Jezebel.
it’s safe to assume these guys didn’t have any BBQ’s together.)
Ben-Hadad
- He is
the king of the Arameans - a nation that was fighting against and harassing the
Northern kingdom....
Unnamed
servant of God -
Elisha’s new servant & student.... Elisha’s last servant (Gehazi) was
fired and given leprosy for taking kick backs...
Question; Do you remember a time when you were really afraid?
Maybe
it was a time when a person was chasing you....
I was about 7
yrs old, 2nd grade, walking home with my only friend, a neighbor, who says, you
want to see the messiest, ugliest yard in the world. teenager, yelling
running our way to friends house , it seemed hrs before I braved the walk
2 houses away.
We were hunted and we were hiding....
Ben
Hadad is
the hunter - after King Joram...he’s fighting mad But he kept running into
problems. He would gather his men together and map out a strategy, but every
time he set up an ambush, Joram would always avoid that area - and this was
really starting to tick Ben-Hadad off.
What
was happening (unknown to Ben-hadad) was Elisha the prophet, was warning the
King of Israel
about the ambush because God told him.
Even though Joram wasn’t a good king &
Elisha wasn’t on good terms w/ Elisha
still revealed to him, the message God had given him.
Whenever
Elisha warned the king -- the king sent out scouts to make sure.
(he didn’t exactly like or trust Elisha either). But every time the
king of Israel checked it was always true, Ben-
hadad’s ambush always failed..
Ben-hadad
calls all of his men into his chambers, and with glowing eyes and a fiery voice,
demands “I
want to know which of you is one the side of the King of Israel?
Who is the traitor?
They
all looked at each other, afraid to speak and finally one broke the
silence
saying, “None of us My Lord the King, it is not us, It’s the Prophet who is
in Israel, He knows all the words that the King speaks in these chambers, and
tells the King of Israel.”
This explanation seemed to satisfy the enraged
King who replied,
"GO,
FIND OUT WHERE HE IS, SO I CAN CAPTURE HIM...."
The
report came back Elisha was in Dothan, a small village 12 miles north of
Samaria, the capital city of the north.
Ben-hadad
dispatched a strong force under the cover of darkness (when
evil likes to do it’s work).
Before sun up the entire city was surrounded
Early
that morning Elisha’s servant (remember he was new on job) woke up
went outside with his coffee cup, wiping sleep from his eyes ... and
caught sight of an army of horses and chariots surrounding the city. The servant
ran to Elisha who had stepped outside, & with a voice of desperation cried; “OH, MY LORD what shall we do?”
The prophet with a bold calmness said to his
trembling servant who was gripped with fear, “Don’t be AFRAID...those who are with us,
are more than those who are with them…”
And
then the prophet of God lifted up his hands to pray “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may
see.”
The Lord did open up the servant eyes. When he looked up, this time - in
addition to the Aramean army he saw the hills full of horses and chariots of
FIRE, an army
of God had come to protect Elisha...
Question; Have you, ever felt like Elisha’s servant? --
waking up to find your surrounded... the enemy came during the night, now you
are trapped, afraid and you don’t know what to do...
You need to
do what Elisha’s servant did, open our eyes to see God...
How do we open our eyes? -- we need to pray.... Pray that God will help us
through our problems, our trials, our difficulties, & see Him!!
That is exactly what James 1:2-6
If you find yourself in a situation, that
feels to overwhelming...
It
seems hard to even pray yourself, do what Elisha’s servant did,
go
to a brother or sister who is standing firm, a brother whose eyes already see
God, & ask him to pray for you.. And God will open our eyes...
I. What happens when God OPENS our eyes...
A. We will see
the TRUE NATURE OF THE BATTLE
1.
Elisha’s servant thought the battle was 2 against 1,000 armed men....
Just
him & Elisha, against all those men, swords, horses & chariots....
2. But he was wrong wasn’t
he? -- It
wasn’t just him and Elisha --
It
was Him, Elisha & the armies of Almighty God against the enemy!
(And anytime we are standing next to God we are the majority...)
B. When our eyes are open we see the true nature of the conflict. 1.
Fear grips us, steals joy, stops service, when we feel out numbered
-- Eph 6:12 we do not wrestle against flesh & blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this age, against spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places.
2. The
enemy is at work to kill & destroy, gripping us with fear....
stealing
our joy.
C. When our
eyes are open we will see, we are NOT ALONE --
It’s not us against them, BUT rather GOD AND US in the battle.
AND WHEN WE
OPEN OUR EYES…..
II. We experience the PRESENCE of GOD
We
open our eyes, we see the Lord... And
A. We are reminded that he is there, as he promised, Matt 28:20
“... I am
with you always, even to
the end of the age."
1.
There is something about being in the presence of someone who is stronger than
we are, that soothes our fear and melts our terror.
a) A child’s fears after a bad dream go away
when Mom/Dad sit on the bed.
b) boy boldly walks by the bullies
who had beat him up, because NOW his
older, bigger brother now walks beside him.
c) The wife who has had a terrible day when the whole world seems to be against
her, rests in the arms of her husband.
d) The shepherd boy
with just a sling,
faces a 10 foot giant that has an entire nation shaking in their boots, because
he knows that
Almighty
God is with Him....
2.
Remember the phrase “Don’t be afraid appears
88 times in bible --
mostly
spoken by God and by Jesus (that is significant) --
It’s
significant, that nearly every time God says, "Don’t be afraid,"…
3.
God then reassured the people of His presence:
a) When Isaac was afraid, the
Lord appeared to him & said, Gen 26:24
“I
am the God of your father Abraham, do not be afraid I am with you”
b) When Jeremiah was afraid of
the king of Babylon God said,
“Do not be afraid of
him for I am with you. Jer
42:11
c) Moses in his farewell
speech to
the people about to enter the
Promised
land said, “do
not be afraid because the Lord your God goes with you” Deut
31:6
B. When God
opens our eyes,
1.
We will experience God’s presence;
We will feel His touch,
We
will hear His voice
-- When
we know He is there (& HE IS!!)
Like
the child, the little brother, the
wife and like the shepherd boy, 2.
we
find our fears quickly subsiding as we trust the presence of God our Lord, the
one who is stronger than us, & all our enemies.
WHEN
we open our eyes…. we see the NATURE OF THE STRUGGLE, WE EXPERIENCE THE
Presence OF THE LORD AND
III. We are REMINDED of GOD’S past
VICTORIES.
Do
you ever shut your eyes to circumstances in hard times????
Maybe you don’t open
the mail, answer phones, or look at the check book?
A. When you shut your eyes (during hard
times)
YOU CAN’T SEE!
1.
You can’t see God’s Victories.
a.
God is still winning battles all around.
b.
BUT IT’S NOT MINE, (It’s NOT all about you, is it?)
2.
Deut 7 Moses is talking to the people about
entering the promise land
He anticipates the feelings
of fear,
and he says;
paraphrased)
You may say to yourselves,
"These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out."
But don’t be afraid of them, remember well what the lord your God did Pharaoh
and to all of Egypt. You
saw with your own eyes the great trials, the miraculous signs & wonders, the
mighty hand & outstretched arm, with which the Lord your God brought you
out.
The Lord your God will do the
same to all the people you now fear....
Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you,
is a great & awesome God.
B. When your eyes are shut— Try to REMEMBER.
1.
Moses says (Put the tape back in the VCR and push rewind….)
“I delivered you
from a 430 year bondage & I swept the Mighty Egyptians away, as easily as a
person sweeps the floor....”
2.
Remember what God has done in your past,
Replay the tape of your life and see all that
he has done...
Look
how Christ brought the prince of this world to his knees....
C. When difficulties come we can say,
This PROBLEM is to big for me? I can’t make it through this?
1.
There are bigger problems than we can handle by ourselves!
Cancer,
accidents, CHILDREN…. SATAN’s
attacks.
2.
We can’t drive out the problems. Israel
couldn’t, you can’t,
BUT
God can! God comes to the rescue…
Surrounded
by enemies, engulfed in storms, beat down by problems.
3. HOW LONG, before we trust
Him, immediately, without FEAR.
TRUST HIM TO BE WITH US, GET US THROUGH?
D. Elisha told
his servant
-- “Don’t be AFRAID" those
who are with
us are greater than those who are with them…
1.
The apostle John 700 yrs later says the same thing
I John 4:4
“...He who is in you is greater than he
who is in the world.
2. Does this mean with God,
we will overcome every trial
and
we will defeat every enemy.... Yes it does!!!
E. We need to understand the nature of our struggle: LUK
12:4-7
If we fear God, we don’t have to fear anything else in the world..
We don’t have to fear, people & things that can only hurt us in this
life..
No one, can take away who we are in Christ
No one, can separate us from the love of God that is IN Christ Jesus!
And no one, can keep us from spending eternity in His Heaven...
And in
case you are wondering....what happen with Black Bart and Elisha
Black Bart -- he wasn’t anything to be afraid of either. When the hood came off,
they didn’t find a blood thirsty bandit from Death Valley; they found mild
mannered druggist from Decatur Illinois. The man the papers pictured as ruthless
was in reality so afraid of horses he rode to & from robberies in a buggy. Charles
E, Boles -- the
bandit who never fired a shot, it was because he never loaded his gun....
When
the Aramean army came toward Elisha The
Lord stuck them blind,
he
closed their eyes... When Elisha met them and said, “I’ll led you to the man you are looking
for" (what
a tricky guy)
-- Elisha led them to Samaria.
And Once
inside the city, the Lord restored their sight.... They freaked out... The King
Of Israel asked Elisha can I kill them -- Elisha said no, let’s give them a
feast -- after that the Armeans stopped raiding the land of Israel...
Do you have FEAR surrounding you?
GOD
SAYS “Don’t be afraid” Let’s
take off the hood, open our eyes & see by God’s light the Horses &
Chariots of GOD’s Army
Hymn of Invitation #320 “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”