True Contentment: In a Faith You Finally Own

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True Contentment: In a Faith That You Finally Own 

Today is what is known on the church calendar as Pentecost Sunday, fifty days after the time that we honor the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross. 

As Jesus’ death and resurrection provided humanity an opportunity to be reconciled with God, what happened at Pentecost provided the engine for that reconciliation to wrap itself around the globe. 

Last week we spoke about the international spread of Christianity through a living faith.

Today we’re going to talk about how that expansion takes place through a faith that you own. 

Focus: True Contentment Comes When We Finally Own Our Faith

1. A Borrowed Faith

2. An Owned Faith

3. A Savior To Whom We Belong 

We’ll do this by reflecting on the historic ministry of Elisha, words from the prophet Isaiah, a charge from Jesus to the New Testament church and some of the words of the Apostle Paul, all of these which point to a faith that we can own. 

A Borrowed Faith

2 Kings 6:1-7 

Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.

The sons of the prophets were the company of gifted ministers who were learning to minster in their prophetic giftings/offices/callings. 

They were being trained by a seasoned prophet named Elisha, who himself had been mentored by the prophet Elijah so that he might walk in the anointing of his ministry.

They ministered 800+ years before Jesus. 

From this we know that we also should have people with whom we are growing in the gifts, ministry and call of God on our lives. 

The question is:

Who are those people for you?

As the sons of the prophets were being trained, they were concerned about expansion.

It’s natural to want to grow and expand - in your personal life, in your career, in your faith and in your relationships - the most important one being your relationship with God.  

To be sure, ungodly discontent is always talking about what you don’t have vs. thanking God for what you do have. 

There is, however, also a place of godly desire for growth, when your ambition is aligned with the heart of God and leads to the expansion of Christ’s Kingdom.  

This is a heart that says, “There is more to be done for the glory of God.” 

Sometimes this desire is stirred because God himself is trying to expand us and bring us into something new.  

Like the meeting place of the prophets, the things to which you’ve been giving yourself may be too small.  

They most certainly are if they are not being utilized as vehicles to serve God’s objectives of eternal value.  

An Explore God article shed light on the nature of our desires: 

“Some religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, suggest that desire is the explanation for all human suffering.  But Christians believe the problem is found not in desire itself but in the human heart. Our hearts seek the fulfillment of our desires in all the wrong places.” 

Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs put it this way: “The reason why you have not got contentment in the things of the world is not because you have not got enough of them . . . but . . . because they are not things proportionable to that immortal soul of yours that is capable of God himself.”

Again, the place where the sons of the prophets were meeting was too small.

God foreshadowed the expansion of his Kingdom 700 years prior to the arrival of Christ. 

The Israeli prophet Isaiah spoke by the Holy Spirit about Jesus, the Messiah:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Isaiah 49:6

When Jesus spoke about this expansion, he said that he intended the spread of the gospel to take place by the baptism and power of the Holy Spirit.  

The historian Luke, who also penned the Gospel of Luke, records it this way:

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:1-8

Now, some may balk at this when they hear such a statement. 

Yet we should remember the words of Billy Graham during his 1973 outreach in apartheid laden South Africa:

“Christianity is not a white man’s religion. And don’t ever let anybody tell you that it’s white or black. Christ belongs to all people! He belongs to the whole world!”

—Billy Graham in Johannesburg, South Africa ,1973

In the same way, the person and power of the Holy Spirit is the promised inheritance to all Christians who believe God’s Word. 

Amongst other things, the baptism in the Holy Spirit to which Jesus refers is vital because it provides the boldness that believers require as they humbly serve as witnesses to the truth claims of Christ’s identity and work, even as portions of the world vehemently reject his benevolent exclusivity. 

When considering this phenomena, it is good to ask:

Do I have this loving boldness operating in my life?

If not, it may mean that you need to be filled for the first time or afresh with the power of God’s Holy Spirit (Acts 4:8;13:9).

As the Apostle Paul exhorted:

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit

Ephesians 5:18 

To even think about participation in such a work necessitates a discussion concerning borrowed faith vs. an owned faith. 

A borrowed faith, like the axes that the sons of the prophets were using, can be useful at the beginning. 

It can come from family, friends or the community in which you live. 

However, if you simply rely on someone else’s faith in Jesus, than that which you are using, when tested, can be lost.  

How often have you seen people go out into the world, challenged by the alternative ideas and lifestyles to which they were previously unexposed, end up losing the borrowed faith on which they were standing?

It happens more often than we’d like. 

It is because people do not do what is necessary to take ownership of their own faith. 

Now when the work on the expansion of the meeting place of the sons of the prophets was to begin, Elisha was invited to oversee the work.  

No one needs to be a Lone Ranger when pursuing the truths of God.  

You have God given teachers and authority for a reason. 

Yet..

• How do I know if I have a merely borrowed faith? 

• You know that you have a borrowed faith if you are just repeating the things that you’ve heard all of your life without having ever really searched out God in the Scripture allowing the Bible to speak for itself.  

This can present obstacles to growth - both for you as an individual and in the church. 

When considering Pentecost specifically, we need to ask:

Has the church lost an axe head that was sharp and meant to cut through the firmly rooted trunks of disbelief in our culture by the power of God?

My testimony of coming to Jesus suggests the great benefit of this “sharp axe.” 

Pastor and theologian A.W. Tozer is credited as saying this: 

“If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

— A. W. Tozer

As we see in the Scripture, Christ’s goal for every believer is to become intimately acquainted with the third member of the Trinity - God, the Holy Spirit.  

This empowers us to own our faith. 

An Owned Faith

You will find true contentment when you take ownership of your faith. 

How do I work with God to own my faith?

We find clues in the celebration of Pentecost.  

The very day of Pentecost commemorates the expansion of the Kingdom of God to the nations. 

And this is God’s purpose - to bring salvation to the world that he loves. 

Pentecost has its roots in the annual convocation of the Feast of Weeks, where no other work was to be done. 

Author Jeff Oliver explained it this way:

“Exactly 50 days after Passover is the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which begins on Pentecost. The word Pentecost simply means "50th" day. This festival commemorates the descent of Moses from Mount Sinai when God gave his law (the Old Covenant) to the children of Israel. This event occurred 50 days after Israel's exodus from Egypt. The Feast of Weeks was also a celebration of the grain harvest and offering of first fruits to God. It was a season of great jubilation and celebration. Likewise, exactly 50 days after Christ delivered God's people from both bondage and death on the cross, you guessed it, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven and ushered in a New Covenant and a new season of harvest and joy began—the church age.”

— Jeff Oliver

What we must know is that before God expands us, he usually slows us down in some way to reflect and pray. 

This is what happened with the disciples prior to Pentecost. 

This is what has happened to us as a result the Pandemic. 

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Acts 1:12-15

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said...

This was a time of prayer, preparation and reorganization for God’s Kingdom expansion to come. 

Even in this shutdown we see this to be true as going virtual has not caused us to go backwards, but has expanded the reach of the global church. 

We encourage you to study the book of Acts, an early account of the history of the church.

There you will see that the gifts of God were released to the followers of Jesus when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. 

Throughout the Scripture we find that sound theology was meant to lead to an experience of the realities of Christ (John 5:39,40). 

God never meant doctrine to be an end in and of itself. 

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Acts 2:1-12

It culminated with the Apostle Peter preaching the gospel and God birthing the New Testament church. 

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Acts 2:36-41

So we must ask:

• What are we to do if we are unexposed or have lost these truths?

• What if we had bad experiences with caricatures of what God actually intended?

We are to remember that God’s solution for abuse is not disuse, but proper use. 

If you have questions about God, go to someone who is actually walking with God and knows his Word to help you find answers. 

Don’t make your first option to go to an antagonist of God. 

This would be like if I heard something deriding about you on social media, and instead of talking to your close family and friends to find out who you really are, I speak only to the person who is trolling you online.  

And even worse, I never speak to you!

I would, at best, walk away with a negatively tinged perspective of who you are, and more than likely choose to have nothing to do with you - because of course that’s easier.  

Has anyone ever been there before?

How often are we guilty of treating the Holy Spirit and one another that way? 

You learn from those who ARE FAITHFUL TO THE WORD OF GOD and can help you DEVELOP your own faith in God’s miracle power. 

The key Is that when the sons of the prophets lost the axe head and needed a miracle, they went to Elisha who had a history with miracles.  

They did not go to someone who was opposed to miracles to see if the miracle could be done.  

It would be like wanting to start a new business for yourself during the pandemic, but only speaking to someone who has solely worked a 9-5 job all of their lives.  

There is a beauty in how they’ve made a living. 

Their faithfulness is to be commended. 

Yet you may not gather the entrepreneurial know how from one who is committed to and only feels comfortable in that construct.  

Elisha took a stick and went to the exact place where the borrowed axe head had fallen.  

He threw the stick in and the axe head began to float.  

He then told the prophet to pick up the recovered axe head. 

God performs miracles when we allow the revelation of God’s Word to infuse our understanding with new life.  

When we see something in the Word of God that was missing in our walk with him, we need to pick up what was lost. 

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.  Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

Acts 17:10-12

Let’s just say that we long for God to move mightily as he did in Scripture. 

If this is so, may we study the Word in a precepts manner, allowing the Bible to speak for itself regarding what God has done and can do again. 

May we stay tethered to the texts, laboring to unpack what is there (exegesis) rather than imposing our own interpretation on the text (eisegesis).  

Then, may we contend for what we see in Scripture. 

May we cry out to God as the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha for help when the axe head was lost.  

What happens when I begin to own my faith?

I find my role to help the expansion.  

Every one of the sons of the prophets had a role - they each got a log to help build.  

• Have you picked up your log?  

• What is your part?

• What are the gifts of God that he wants to release to you by the power of the Holy Spirit?

If you are looking for a catalog of Biblical options, we encourage you to read:

• Romans 12:3-8

• I Corinthians 12-14

• Ephesians 4:1-16

• I Peter 4:7-11

As you study these passages, the question is not whether these gifts are present or available.  

The question is whether you are owning your faith, obeying the admonition of Scripture to be in pursuit of these things (I Corinthians 12:1; 14:1). 

We can do this all confidently through our trust in Jesus, the Savior to whom we belong. 

A Savior To Whom We Belong

True contentment is the product of belonging to a benevolent Savior. 

If this is true, how then shall we live?

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19b,20

This posture of not being my own includes embracing the parts of God with which I am not comfortable.  

It includes laying down any borrowed thoughts and picking up any lost truths that I need from God’s Word. 

Just as Elisha was invited into the expansion project of the prophets, the Holy Spirit needs to be invited into all of our efforts.  

By itself, the axe head in Elisha’s story sinks.  

So do our efforts without the intervention of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. 

When Elisha threw the stick in the water, God lifted the axe head to float. 

The stick that Elisha threw into the water foreshadowed the cross that can bring us into God’s supernatural realities.  

Through the cross of Christ, God resurrects our drowning efforts in life and in ministry. 

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:22-33 

When Jesus enters the mix, we are lifted to do things that in the natural we could not do on our own. 

Jesus called Peter onto the water. 

Jesus calls us into the power of the Holy Spirit today. 

How should I respond? 

I should humbly pursue:

1. The Precepts of God found in his Word

2. The Power of God given by the Holy Spirit 

3. The People of God with whom I build

4. The Purpose of God which governs my pursuits 

Have you received the Jesus of the Bible as Lord? 

Are you continually being filled with the Holy Spirit so that you can be a powerful witness for Jesus?  

Are you committed to a church, a company of believers with whom you’re growing?

Are you engaged in God’s good work to see his gospel go to the nations?

Jesus paid for our sins on the cross so that through repentance and faith, we could be forgiven of our wrongdoing. 

When you come to God not on your own merit, but the merit of Christ, you now have access to God’s supernatural power. 

The Holy Spirit is a gift to those who would believe. 

Let’s own our faith today to come into true contentment by the grace of Calvary and the power of Pentecost. 

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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

True Contentment: A Living Faith

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True Contentment:  In a Living Faith

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus:
True contentment is found when leave dead religion and develop a living faith in Jesus

There’s a big difference between mere inherited religion and a living faith in God.  

“Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.”

And he urged him to take it, but he refused. Then Naaman said, “If not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord. In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.”

He said to him, “Go in peace.” But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “See, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.” So Gehazi followed Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, “Is all well?”

And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me to say, ‘There have just now come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’” And Naaman said, “Be pleased to accept two talents.” And he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants.

And they carried them before Gehazi. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and put them in the house, and he sent the men away, and they departed. He went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.”

But he said to him, “Did not my heart go when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male servants and female servants? Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow.

2 Kings 5:15-27 

What we immediately learn about God is that he is a supernatural healer and that he uses miraculous encounters throughout history to bring people into relationship with himself. 

The primary purpose of the gifts of God operating through Elisha, the prophets of Israel and the ministers of New Testament times was this - to turn the Israelites back to the Law of God and to bring those who were previously uninitiated into saving faith. 

As we head towards Pentecost Sunday next week, it is good for modern believers to remember this.  

It is also good for us to heed the admonition of the apostle Paul to the Corinthian church when he said...

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.

1 Corinthians 12:1 

and

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
1 Corinthians 14:1 

As was the goal, Naaman’s response to his supernatural healing was repentance (meaning a change of mind) and trust in the living God. 

He now declared “that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15). 

It did not mean that this God had to be worshiped in Israel, but that the God of Israel was the one true God.  

Naaman had a history with the worship of false deities in the land of Syria who had been previously unable to help him.  

Thus Naaman left these former foundations in search of real hope.  

This is the same reason why many people today choose to leave their faiths, cultural paradigms, ethnic and geographic norms because they fail to see the pragmatic benefits.  

So this brings up the discussion of inherited religion vs. a living faith. 

What God desires is true worship through a living faith. 

You may have heard the thought that as people become more educated and the world becomes more globally connected, conservative faith would inevitably be on the decline.  

Yet sociologists are finding the opposite to be true. 

What is on the decline throughout the world today is inherited religion, where people ascribe to a certain faith simply because it what was passed down to them. 

What is on the rise is chosen faith, based on people’s encounters, like Naaman’s, with the living God. 

This is why we’re calling it a living faith.  

For example, in a study found in the 2015 book From Every Tribe and Nation: A Historian’s Study of the Global Christian Story, Notre Dame professor Mark Noll reported that there were more Christians attending church in China (a nation having traditionally Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, folk and non-religious influences) at that time than were in all of historically, culturally “Christian Europe”. 

Another study from Gordon Conwell Seminary’s Center for the study of Global Christianity reported that:

“By 2020 Christianity will have grown from 11.4 million Christians in East Asia (China, Korea, Japan) in 1970 and 1.2 percent of the population, to 171.1 million and 10.5 percent of the population.  

In 1910 only 12 million people, or 9 percent of Africa’s population, were Christians, but they will number 630 million, or 49.3 percent of the populace, by 2020.”

When the study was released, it was reported that, “Last Sunday, in each of the nations of Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa there were more Anglicans in church than there were Anglicans and Episcopalians in all of Britain and the United States combined.”

Why is this happening?  

My testimony has been like Naaman’s.  

My faith is not the result of global imperialism, but was one that I came into while studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

I have been throughout my lifetime surrounded continually by various worldviews and religions. 

Yet through perpetual research and encounters with the power of God, Jesus’ claims have over and over again proven themselves to be true. 

In my research, every claim that Jesus has made about his identity and divinity has been substantiated. 

In my personhood, every promise that he has made in Scripture has been effective to positively transform all areas of my life by the love of God.  

I’ve found that the Biblical worldview is not separated from the situations of the day, but instead rightly interprets them. 

It is the only worldview that answers questions of origin (how things are made), ontology (how they were designed to function) and epistemology (how you know what you know) in a scientifically consistent and historically faithful manner. 

At the same time, with brutal honesty, it deals with the realities of sin in the world while still providing a hope found in the redemptive work of Jesus at the cross. 

A modern scholar and dissector of popular philosophy, Ravi Zacharias summarizes it this way: 

Faith in the biblical sense is substantive, based on the knowledge that the One in whom that faith is placed has proven that He is worthy of that trust. In its essence, faith is a confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in His power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is.
- Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

The lesson here:

Like Naaman, to truly be content, you must have a time of reckoning with God to serve him because the identity and claims of Jesus are true, not just convenient.  

You must come to a moment where you transition from inherited religion to a living faith in Christ. 

We urge you to pursue this as your eternal destiny depends on it. 

We have resources on our website that can assist you on this journey. 

We would love to help you walk through any obstacles or questions should you choose to contact us. 

We do this simply as a service. 

Elisha refused the gift from Naaman at the inception of his faith to ensure that he knew that it was God, and not Elisha, that had brought about the healing.  

As Naaman chose to worship the God of Israel, he could learn later through the Scripture about giving to the Lord and his work in tithes and offerings, yet this was not the moment for that.  

Naaman was learning who God is and how to worship him. 

Naaman said in right response that he would no longer offer sacrifices to any god but the Lord, the God of Israel. 

Naaman asked for the two mule loads of earth to be able to build a mud-brick altar that we see prescribed in Old Testament times. 

An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

Exodus 20:24

In our lives, the question becomes:

• To what are we building altars? 

• How are you building your altar to the Lord today, even when you are separated from the place of worship as Naaman would be?  

• How is your home becoming a place for an altar to the Lord?

We all need to build altars in our homes as we wait for the regathering of the church. 

This is where you will find true contentment.  

Even so, Naaman had concerns. 

Naaman was asking to be pardoned when he had to go into the house of Rimmon in service of the king of Syria.  

Rimmon was the storm god also known as Baal-hadad, a false deity worshiped in Syria at that time. 

Naaman’s heart was intent on solely serving the one true God of Israel.  

Elisha said to go in peace which meant that God would be looking at the worship of Naaman’s heart and would not be judging Naaman by his environment. 

This is good news because you can be in a family, a friendship group and a workplace where people do not honor God, yet still be a worshiper of God in Spirit and in truth. 

What Naaman would come to learn is just as he was helped by the Israeli servant girl, he would now be placed back in his original environment to be a witness to the King of Syria. 

This is God’s methodology for outreach and discipleship. 

We should never long for a Christian ghetto. 

We should be rooted in a local church. 

Yet we should also understand that simultaneous to God working to cleanse us of our sin, he puts us back into contact with other sinners so that they too can come to a living faith in Jesus. 

When we see this as the framework of our lives, this then is when we will be truly contentment. 

So the question is, whatever happened to Gehazi?

It seems that Gehazi was a man of discontent.  

Gehazi showed us that we can be surrounded by the things of God, but lack a demonstrable love for God.  

This is a warning to us all. 

As opposed to Naaman’s living faith, Gehazi is an example of one who ended up in the displeasure of the Lord because he exemplified the symptoms of a mere inherited religion. 

Gehazi seemed to have simply lived off of the second hand smoke of Elisha without having depth of conviction in his own relationship with God.  

This is common for people who have grown up around ministry and the church but have never come to Jesus in repentance of their own sin to be born again. 

You must understand that just as in Gehazi’s case, God will judge those who are wicked in the name of religion. 

The caricatures that you see of hardened, hypocritical religious zealots without compassion are not modeling Jesus nor do they represent his word when they act in this manner.  

Our appeal is that you not walk away from the faith because of them. 

At the same time, you need to test yourself...

In what ways are you living on second hand smoke and the trappings of mere inherited religion?

We can find clues in the discontent that shaped Gehazi’s actions.  

Gehazi was driven by greed. 

Rather than being content in the Lord, he lied, using his privileged position for untimely financial gain and was judged by the Lord as a result. 

Gehazi could be a metaphor for what I’ll call a “greater high syndrome”.

What do I mean by this? 

The “greater high syndrome” is what equates to a lack of contentment. 

It is when someone lacks a general gratitude in life. 

Gehazi was surrounded by the miracles of God but felt like he needed more.

Enough was never enough for him. 

You may be able to recognize the “greater high syndrome”. 

You see this when people are trapped in certain addictions always needing a greater high to feel the same rush they did in a previous hit. 

It is when you see someone with overstimulation attached to entertainment and dulled sensitivities in the dopamine zone. 

You may see this in adrenaline junkies. 

You may see this in kids and their poor responses when they are told to turn off video games or various forms of media because their reward sensors have been overloaded. 

Or in couples lacking satisfying physical intimacy when pornography is their standard.

You know that the “greater high mentality” has taken hold if:

• You’re always looking for the next entertainment opportunity to feel alive. 

• You feel like you need to eat out or order in with alacrity to finally “be free”.

• You must have a certain type and number of vacations in a year to feel truly be at rest. 

Now none of these things in moderation is a problem.  

In fact, they are a blessing and can be therapeutic.  

Yet if they become the foundation of your happiness, there is an issue.  

This was at the heart of Gehazi’s sin. 

Gehazi was in essence looking for “his best life now.”

Contentment is Illusive in this state of mind because if you’ve already been living in near vacation mode on a weekly basis - going to nice restaurants, being a foodie, etc. - then you’re not going to be satisfied with the likes of a stay-cation whenever something like a pandemic demands it.  

Today, it’s almost expected that most upwardly mobile people are taking what our parents would have called “trips of a lifetime” - but annually. 

The challenge is that if you live this way, you’ll need to take a trip to some exotic location every year to satisfy you and make you feel like you’ve actually done something.

A walk in a park won’t suffice because you do the over-the-top things all of the time. 

And even these things gets old. 

What is especially sinful is when you secretly disregard God’s edicts, mishandling your position, resources and opportunities in pursuit of these greater highs. 

This is what Gehazi did.  

What was going in Gehazi’s heart can also be in ours.

These mentalities cut against the very heart of godly contentment. 

“The current understanding of happiness identifies it as a pleasurable feeling. Pleasant feelings are surely better than unpleasant ones, but the problem today is that people are obsessively concerned with feeling happiness; people are slaves to their feelings. Feelings are wonderful servants but terrible masters. When people make happiness their goal, they do not find it and, as a result, start living their lives vicariously through identification with celebrities.”
- J.P. Moreland, The Lost Virtue of Happiness: Discovering the Disciplines of the Good Life

This is why we must find true contentment in our lives. 

When you live in the manner of mere inherited religion as Gehazi did, sadly the same issues that cling to the world begin to cling to you.  

This is what happened as Gehazi was struck with Naaman’s previous leprosy. 

What does all of this mean for us in regards to God, and specifically our relationship with Jesus Christ?

Jesus comes to heal us and set us free from a life of sin and discontent. 

Rather than running after the next high, you can experience the same worldview shift as did Naaman.  

You can honestly look to God to find the basis of your need for value and your foundation for that value in the world. 

By God’s design and will, he grants you the necessary framework for your purpose in life. 

When you serve him, he also empowers you to glorify his name by fulfilling that purpose.  

Jesus helps you in your anxieties, comforts you in your fears, frees you from your resentments, stands in your place at the cross for your guilt and by his resurrection from the dead strengthens you through your discouragements. 

He does so because he made you and understands you. 

So for every one of these there is a Scripture that ushers you into the liberty and life of God!

When the Apostle Peter was speaking to a crowd after the Lord healed a man who had been crippled and was over forty years old (Acts 4:22), he spoke about how to come into this contentment.  

First, like Elisha, Peter wanted to make sure that the people knew the one true source of the man’s healing, the one who could really help:

And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Acts 3:12-16

Next, Peter wanted the people to know what they should take from that healing for themselves:

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”

Acts 3:17-21

So we see the good news that it’s never too early and it’s never too late to turn to Jesus!

Whether you started in ignorance or rebellion, your time is now!

Jesus is the one in whom we can find true contentment. 

So what are we to do?

1. Altar - Like Naaman, begin to build an altar in your home to the one true God. 

2. Alter - Both Naaman and Gehazi needed to repent.

   So do we.

   Identify the things outside of Christ that you have depended on to give you joy.  Give thanks to God for what he has given you instead. 

   Alter the basis of your contentment to transition from a place of inherited religion to a living faith. 

3. Alternate - Embrace the fact that there is no alternative to Jesus for salvation because of what had to happen on the cross to reconcile you to a holy and righteous God. 

Having grown up in the pluralism and relativism of India, Ravi Zacharias goes on to say of his own epiphany in Christ:

“I came to Him because I did not know which way to turn. I remained with Him because there is no other way I wish to turn. I came to Him longing for something I did not have. I remain with Him because I have something I will not trade. I came to Him as a stranger. I remain with Him in the most intimate of friendships. I came to Him unsure about the future. I remain with Him certain about my destiny. I came amid the thunderous cries of a culture that has 330 million deities. I remain with Him knowing that truth cannot be all-inclusive.”
- Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

This is what contentment looks like because as the Apostle Peter proclaimed, 

“...there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12 

Jesus went to the cross to take your punishment for sin. 

In love, Christ endured the justice of God for you so that you might become clean. 

Because he was himself sinless, Jesus rose from the dead three days later to provide forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who would believe. 

Like Naaman, you can turn away from empty philosophies unable to truly heal you and turn in living faith to the one that can make you truly content both now and forevermore.

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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

True Contentment: In God’s Higher Way

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True Contentment:  In God’s Higher Way 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

We’re speaking about this today because this concept is the foundation of our interrelating with God. 

Focus: True Contentment Comes When We Acknowledge God’s Higher Way that Leads to Healing

When we say this, you may or may not think of yourself as someone in need of healing.

Yet when we’re speaking about healing, we’re talking about not only physical relief, but the restoration that Jesus brings to all areas of our lives that are broken as a result of sin.  

This includes healing of the damage that comes to our psyches - our minds and our emotions, as well as to our relationships and to our bodies.  

Most importantly, Jesus brings an eternal healing to our souls.  

1. Our Need for Healing 

2. The Challenges to Healing 

3. Christ our Healer 

Our Need for Healing

True contentment flows when we acknowledge our need for healing. 

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

2 Kings 5:1-14

You can have great success in life and still be desperately in need of healing.  

This was Naaman’s story. 

Naaman was a great and mighty man of valor.  

As commander of the army of the king of Syria, Naaman was in high favor because God himself had given Naaman victories in his battles. 

Yet Naaman did not know or serve the Lord.  

God allows victories, even for those who don’t acknowledge him, for his overarching plans throughout history.  

Yet God has times of reckoning to bring even the great into moments of repentance and faith. 

Despite all of his great success, Naaman’s leprosy was part of his moment of reckoning with the Lord. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines leprosy for us as:

a chronic infectious disease caused by a mycobacterium (Mycobacterium leprae) affecting especially the skin and peripheral nerves and characterized by the formation of nodules or macules that enlarge and spread accompanied by loss of sensation with eventual paralysis, wasting of muscle, and production of deformities 

— called also Hansen's disease

There is a spiritual parallel. 

Through our separation from God, our consciences become seared and deadened by repetitive wrongdoing so that we no longer have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.  

You see it in our daily interactions with one another. 

For example, the very basis of international law and crimes against humanity has its foundations in the value of all human life, which itself is a derivative of the Judeo-Christian ethic that all humanity is made in the image of God.  

Neither scientific materialism nor liberal humanism can be credited as the pedigree of this thought.  

It has a theological history. 

When divorced from the source of this Imago Dei reality, we find that situations like the Ahmaud Arbery shooting can take place in a nation like ours. 

Undercurrents of discrimination, bigotry and racial profiling are a part of the sickness ingrained in humanity separated from the God of all mankind, the God of love. 

Being separated from God leads to a loss of spiritual awareness and sensitivity.  

It is an inner sickness and is what the Bible describes as us being “dead in our transgressions and sins“ (Ephesians 2:1-7). 

It matters not only to your eternal destination, but because as Martin Luther King, Jr. said:

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can't Wait

The sad thing is that we both inflict and receive pain in the fallen world in which we live.  

We have a natural proclivity as human beings to try to avoid pain, and when we can’t, we try to dull and deaden any part of us that feels the pain.  

American psychiatrist and author of the book The Road Less Travelled, Morgan Scott Peck stated:

“The avoidance of pain is the beginning of all unhealthy behavior.” 

Morgan Scott Peck

The trouble is that avoiding pain can cause more problems than good in the long run.  

It is this avoidance of pain that is the root of destructive life patterns that we see expressed in substitutionary outlets like addictions.  

There are many types of addictions to which people succumb in attempting to numb their pain and some of you may find yourself there today.  

We readily think of addictions like drug abuse, the pursuit of illicit sexual encounters, alcohol dependence and uncontrolled gambling as harmful.  

Yet there are equally nefarious addictions that our culture tries to normalize even as they have similar detrimental effects.  

For example: 

At one point, former basketball star Lamar Odom seemed to have it all. 

He was a two time NBA champion with the LA Lakers, married to Khloé Kardashian and had a reality TV show documenting their lives. 

Yet Odom’s entanglements with porn, alcohol and drug addictions led to him losing it all. 

On a site called Covenant Eyes, Odom recently posted specifically about his struggle with porn, which is physiologically poisonous to libido and known to have links to things such as ED in men.

Odom said he was so hooked on porn that he would need to get in one more scene each day before heading to practice late, knowing that each time that he was late, he would be monetarily fined. 

But it didn’t matter to him. 

He was bound by sin, and because of this and other addictions, would lose his family as a result.  

This is what spiritual leprosy looks like. 

Though providing momentary relief, these habits simultaneously destroy intimacy and trust with our closest family, friends and romantic interests.  

The problem will always be that when we try to simply avoid or cover over our pain, it is merely a temporary solution.

Left unchecked, the pain continues to fester and usually comes back with a greater vengeance. 

It results in our inability to connect effectively with others and unravels other aspects of our lives along the way.  

But thanks be to God - remember that through the gospel Jesus comes to set you free!

God wants to deliver you, heal you and usher you into his Kingdom to enjoy the righteousness, peace and joy found only in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17)!

Yet to do so, we have to acknowledge the challenges to healing. 

The Challenges to Healing

We miss true contentment when we resist God’s prescription for healing.  

What we need to understand is that:

Our great challenge to healing is pride. 

The great solution to accessing God’s healing is humility. 

If you are in the medical community, one of the greatest frustrations that you face are people who consider themselves experts because:

1. They read a WebMD article and think that they can now diagnose themselves better than you.

1. They have an expertise in some other area of life like business or law, and now think they have the same competence in regards to their health. 
   

“We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right.”

Ravi Zacharias

As someone in the medical community, it’s also frustrating when you know exactly what’s ailing your patient, know they’ll get better through your prescribed treatment, but they refuse to follow your instructions and complain as they suffer through their continued ailment. 

As a physician, my father would describe, without names, scenarios like this all of the time as I grew up in his home. 

This is exactly how God feels. 

Now in this II Kings passage, people most often focus on Naaman and Elisha. 

Yet there is another important part of the lesson to enjoy. 

This passage is also a fantastic story of redemptive pain and divine placement. 

Naaman’s wife had a servant girl who was removed from Israel during one of the Syrian raids. 

She was one of the people of God, yet she was captured. 

This undoubtedly provided the girl great pain. 

However, this divine placement was the very thing that God used to show mercy to Naaman bringing about his healing. 

In this way, the girl was somehow a foreshadowing of the redemptive sufferings of Christ on behalf of Naaman.  

Yet would she have chosen this for herself if she could?  

Would we if we were placed in an equally uncomfortable position to help a co-worker or neighbor?

You want to ask yourself how similar scenarios are playing out in your own story. 

Just like the Israelite girl’s, your testimony being shared is important to the healing of those who don’t yet know God.  

In this context, the answer to Naaman’s affliction came from an unexpected and an undesirable source. 

As commander of the army, Naaman was used to having all the answers.  Yet now, the answer for his healing came from his servant girl. 

In this instance, Naaman was wise enough to receive it. 

The question is, when you finally recognize your need for healing, will you be open to receiving the Word of the Lord?

Or will you miss the healing of God because you think it’s coming from those you think beneath you socially, financially or academically in their present station in life?

Naaman had an expectation of how God should heal him by the hand of Elisha. 

Naaman thought that God should heal him on Namaan’s terms. 

How often do we act the same way?

God told Naaman to dip in the water of the Jordan. The Jordan was seen as unclean and beneath Naaman. 

That may be how you’ve looked at the Bible, previously considering it too narrow, rigid or superstitious.  

That may be because you haven’t read it. 

“Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.”

R. C. Sproul

What Elisha was suggesting by the word of the Lord to Naaman challenged Naaman’s pride and intellectual sensibilities. 

As commander of the Syrian army, he would have had a certain self perception and public reputation.  

Naaman suggested other rivers in which to dip other than the Jordan. 

You might have your own suggestions of more politically correct or sanitary ways to your wholeness, but God in his infinite love, wisdom and goodness is not looking for them. 

You can get offended when you‘re confronted with the Word of the Lord just like Naaman did, but God’s prescription for healing will not change. 

Naaman knew that the leprosy was eating away at him and was desperate enough to get God’s solution. 

God required humility of Naaman. 

He will require no less of you. 

Humility looks like obedience. 

If we know this to be the case, what does God actually tell us to do?  Jesus makes it plain. 

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matthew 5:27-30 

What is God telling you to do for your healing today?

• Is there access to certain media outlets or apps that you need to cut off?

• Is there a certain toxic relationship that you need to end? 

• Are there certain places that you no longer need to go because you know you always end up in trouble there? 

• Or going back to our original example, is there a certain type of ethnic hatred or subconscious discrimination from which you need to repent?

Whatever you know God’s telling you to cut off, do it it today for your salvation, the preservation of your relationships and your healing in Jesus. 

Naaman’s servant had to encourage Naaman to obey in faith after Naaman was tempted to leave in a huff.

As a Christian, you need to be ready to do this for others, reminding them of God’s gracious appeal:

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:6-9

When Naaman obeyed the Word of the Lord, he was healed just as Elisha said he would be.

It will be the same for us today. 

Christ our Healer

Jesus is God’s higher way that leads to healing.  

When we turn to Jesus Christ, we find true contentment because we find him to be our healer both now and in the life to come. 

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

Mark 1:40-42

You might have thought yourself untouchable because of your past mistakes, unlovable because of your habits and irretrievably condemned because you have been bound by sin, but Jesus Christ comes to heal!

Jesus touches the leper who would have been familiar with isolation and rejection to heal not only his physical state but minister deeply to his emotions and soul.  

In essence, Jesus was saying to the leper,

“You are not too far off.  I draw you near.”

Jesus touches us so we can be healed.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the clearest depiction of this invitation. 

And in the time of the pandemic, it gives us a sure confidence in God’s heart to heal in the midst of all the suffering.  

“In the meantime, prominent British pastor John R. W. Stott, who acknowledged that suffering is “the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith,” has reached his own conclusion: I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ . . . is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.”

Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity

Jesus’ perfect, sinless life shows us God’s higher way to truly living an abundant life. 

Christ’s death on the cross was the foolishness that made provision for your forgiveness. 

Christ’s resurrection from the dead made new patterns possible and true contentment available within that reality. 

“Faith (in God) doesn’t make things easy, but it does make things possible.”

Luke 1:37

Repent of (turn away from) any stubborn pride and what the Bible calls sin today.  

In humility, turn to Jesus and his higher wisdom to be healed both now and in the life to come!

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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

True Contentment: In Simplicity

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True Contentment: In Simplicity 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

We’re all trying to find Contentment in the Time of COVID

Last week it was reported that 30 million+ in the U.S. alone have now filed for unemployment. 

May 30 is the soonest that the modified shelter in place is looking like it will be lifted in Illinois. 

That’s a long time and we need to know what to do to maintain our sanity, spiritual vitality and growth in Jesus. 

Focus
True contentment comes when we allow God to simplify our lives

1. Discontent with Boundaries

2. Contentment with the Bare Essentials 

3. Contentment with the Bread of Life

Discontent with Boundaries

And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. He said, “Then bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot. A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

2 Kings 4:38-44 

The famine in the land hit the righteous as well as the unrighteous.  

God was still in control for the good of those who would turn to him. 

As Elisha was God’s representative at the time, we see that God comes to meet with his people in times of famine.  

Yet careful readers immediately ask the question, “Why does God allow this suffering if he is so good?”

“People tend naturally to assume that if God exists, then His purpose for human life is happiness in this life. God’s role is to provide a comfortable environment for His human pets. But on the Christian view, this is false. We are not God’s pets, and the goal of human life is not happiness per se, but the knowledge of God—which in the end will bring true and everlasting human fulfilment. Many evils occur in life which may be utterly pointless with respect to the goal of producing human happiness; but they may not be pointless with respect to producing a deeper knowledge of God.”

William Lane Craig, Hard Questions, Real Answers

In the famine, we need to know with whom we need to eat. 

God meets the needs of his people before, during and after the famine in community!

The company of the prophets were to eat together. 

This is a challenge not only in our world of social distancing, but understanding the regular rhythms of the local church. 

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Proverbs 18:1-2

God intends to protect us with his commands and lead us to good with his ways.  

We suffer when we throw off his boundaries. 

Though this is true, we often don’t see the death in the pot until we’ve suffered from the food poisoning. 

It starts with moral philosophy:

One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were.

2 Kings 4:39

It was when one of the sons of the prophets went out on his own and brought back some food unvetted by the community that the poisonous root came into view.  

This is what happens when people leave the pleasant boundaries of orthodox faith and community to have a private and independent spirituality. 

The Word of God gives us our healthy boundaries. 

The prophet filled the pot not knowing what the wild gourds were...

You have to know something about botany to know what vines are edible and which are poisonous. 

Have you ever been in the woods or field and been tempted to eat a berry, mushroom or root that you thought might be ok, but in fact it was poisonous?

This is what we can be like without the Word of God.  

In this case we see that even one gifted prophetically, one who hears the voice of God clearly, can fall into error and their contribution can be poisonous if detached from the Word of the Lord. 

Wild can imply that which is without boundaries or restraint.

Many times, the things that you thought would feed you, can end up killing you.

We can all have good intentions, but bad results. 

“Tolerance has come to mean that no one is right and no one is wrong and, indeed, the very act of stating that someone else’s views are immoral or incorrect is now taken to be intolerant (of course, from this same point of view, it is all right to be intolerant of those who hold to objectively true moral or religious positions). Once the existence of knowable truth in religion and ethics is denied, authority (the right to be believed and obeyed) gives way to power (the ability to force compliance), reason gives way to rhetoric, the speech writer is replaced by the makeup man, and spirited but civil debate in the culture wars is replaced by politically correct special-interest groups who have nothing left but political coercion to enforce their views on others.”

J.P. Moreland

The things you’re saying are ok and sharing with people about God can be poisonous if untethered from God’s word by which he governs and judges.    

We can think that we’re doing right in our relationships, are on the right trajectory in our careers, are taking up all the right causes and are being a part of all the right organizations.  

Yet over and over again, things don’t feel quite right, our relationships break down and we have a growing sickness in our hearts.  

This is the product of cultural group-think separated from the boundaries of God’s Word.

This is what sin looks like. 

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. 

Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. 

The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways. 

The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. 

One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.

Proverbs 14:12-16 

Again, the very thing that you thought would be feeding you, can feel like it’s sucking the life out of you.

In your new home environment it may be the same:

You might have thought to yourself, 

“Finally, I have my remote, work at home experience!”

But it’s unintentional death in the pot!

Many of us are battling screen fatigue and are tempted to reduce our communication with the life saving community that the sons of the prophets represented. 

It’s because in our temporary format of connection some are even facing new anxieties.

An April 29th article in the Smithsonian helped explain why:

"When we're actually face to face, we don't stare at each other's eyes for that long," Stanford psychologist Jeremy Bailenson tells NPR. "People have very dedicated personal norms about the proper space one should leave between themselves and others," but video calls can push that line depending on how someone chooses to frame their face.

Video calls also remove several nonverbal cues that humans rely on for communication. Micro-expressions don’t come through on oft-grainy video feeds and sitting at a desk leaves little room for body language. At the same time, you’re aware that you’re being watched.

“When you're on a video conference, you know everybody's looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform.” Clemson University psychologist Marissa Shuffler tells the BBC. “Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-video-calls-are-surprisingly-exhausting-180974773

This anxiety spills over into our relationships: 

Some of you have had even more challenges balancing family life. 

You’ve searched for quiet, but found none.  

Some of you who live alone feel like you’ve had too much quiet. 

The pressure points of interaction have intensified so that people don’t even know at times what’s offending you.  

Many people, including your spouse, family members, friends and co-workers are trying to interact appropriately. 

We’re having to dig new wells to find ways to give people grace in confined spaces. 

We also hate these types is forced boundaries.  

Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 19:11

He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.

Proverbs 22:11

This wisdom needs to be employed even while enjoying time with family (as we should be).

May has been designated mental health awareness month. 

It’s designed to raise awareness, fight stigma, educate the public and provide support to people with mental illness and their families.  

As a whole, mental health during the time of Covid is a challenge. 

The stress has produced detrimental results for many.  

For some listening today, and for all of our prayers, this is important:

There has been a rise in domestic abuse during this time.

This includes child abuse. 

An April New York Times article reported this: 

“As quarantines take effect around the world, that kind of “intimate terrorism” — a term many experts prefer for domestic violence — is flourishing.”

Authorities report between a 20 and 30 percent spike of incidents of domestic violence during the lockdown. 

“In addition to physical violence, which is not present in every abusive relationship, common tools of abuse include isolation from friends, family and employment; constant surveillance; strict, detailed rules for behavior; and restrictions on access to such basic necessities as food, clothing and sanitary facilities.

It also said victims should “disregard orders to stay at home if they need to seek immediate refuge.”

Eventually, the lockdowns will end. But as the confinement drags on, the danger seems likely to intensify. Studies show that abusers are more likely to murder their partners and others in the wake of personal crises, including lost jobs or major financial setbacks.

With Covid-19 ravaging the economy, such crises are set to become much more frequent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/world/coronavirus-domestic-violence.html

But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

II Kings 4:40

The sons of the prophets cried out when death was in the pot so that Elisha could intervene.  

If you are suffering during this time, do not do so in silence.  

If you are the victim of abuse, dealing with depression or even suicidal ideation please reach out.  

Let people know who can help.  

Contentment with the Bare Essentials 

When looking to deal with the unintentional death in the pot, God gave Elisha the solution of simplifying to the bare essentials.  

The famine resulted in the sons of the prophets taking inventory of what they had and simplifying their lives to find contentment.    

The stew was a simple dish and the sons of the prophets stayed together to make it. 

Death in the pot didn’t result in the sons of the prophets abandoning one another. 

Instead, as they came together, it provided God the opportunity to purify what was in the pot. 

Flour is a bare ingredient for making bread.  

It lacks the yeast (temptations found in entertainment, sinful habits) to make a loaf rise. 

SIMPLIFY your life with the bare essentials. 

Some of you feel like you’ve been working more with shelter in place order

We didn’t realize what down time commutes offered!

In this case, we long for the boundaries we used to have!

It might seem like a miracle for you to simplify, but God can help you do it!

“A skeptic once said to me, 'I don't believe the Bible because it has miracles.' I said, 'Name one.' He said, 'Turning water into wine. Do you believe that?' I said, 'Yeah, it happens all the time.' He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Well, rain goes through the grapevine up into the grape, and the grape turns into wine. All Jesus did was speed it up a little bit.”

Norman L. Geisler

Where do I begin?:

MayoClinic gives these recommendations: 

• Keep your regular routine. Maintaining a regular schedule is important to your mental health. In addition to sticking to a regular bedtime routine, keep consistent times for meals, bathing and getting dressed, work or study schedules, and exercise. Also set aside time for activities you enjoy. This predictability can make you feel more in control.

• Limit exposure to news media. Constant news about COVID-19 from all types of media can heighten fears about the disease. Limit social media that may expose you to rumors and false information. Also limit reading, hearing or watching other news, but keep up to date on national and local recommendations. Look for reliable sources such as the CDC and WHO.

• Stay busy. A distraction can get you away from the cycle of negative thoughts that feed anxiety and depression. Enjoy hobbies that you can do at home, identify a new project or clean out that closet you promised you'd get to. Doing something positive to manage anxiety is a healthy coping strategy.

• Focus on positive thoughts. Choose to focus on the positive things in your life, instead of dwelling on how bad you feel. Consider starting each day by listing things you are thankful for. Maintain a sense of hope, work to accept changes as they occur and try to keep problems in perspective.

• Use your moral compass or spiritual life for support.

• Set priorities.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/mental-health-covid-19/art-20482731

We need to take inventory of our lifestyle patterns. 

When Elisha put flour in the pot, it not only fed their hunger in the famine, but there was no harm in the pot.  

This meant there were no more poisonous roots or seeds that remained.  

Anyone who bakes knows that there was nothing miraculous about the flour itself, but it was to WHOM the flour was pointing that made all the difference. 

Contentment with the Bread of Life

Jesus is the miraculous flour added, the bread of life that will bring true contentment in our lives.  

The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.

Exodus 12:33-34

When the Israelites were escaping their slavery in Egypt, they were to take the bare essentials, the unleavened bread.  

It is what is used as a part of the Seder meal, the annual celebration of that deliverance in the Passover each year.  

The bread and the lamb eaten as a part of that meal to celebrate the deliverance from slavery are wrapped up in the person of Jesus.

The Israelites were not to hesitate, but were to leave their land of slavery with this bread in haste. 

In the same way, Elisha told the sons of the prophets to immediately add the flour before they tried to eat any more food.  

We are to do the same in our reach for simplification and repentance from deadly patterns of life today. 

Remember, what you need in good times, but especially times of famine, is food for your soul. 

This is why Jesus made it a point to clearly say  that he is the bread of life. 

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 6:35-40 

You can have true contentment in Jesus Christ.  

It’s not only because he helps simplify your life by focusing you on what’s most important, but because through the cross he deals with the metaphysical need of reestablishing peace with your Creator. 

Even when thinking about the community where he calls us to deal with the death in the pot, we need to remember this:

“Many people seek fellowship because they are afraid to be alone...let him who cannot be alone beware of community. He will do harm to himself and to the community. Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer that call; alone you had to struggle and pray; and alone you will die and give an account to God. You cannot escape yourself, for God has singled you out.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God Almighty comes to clean our pots (our hearts) by the blood of Jesus, cleanse our palates by the Spirit of God and make sure that the Word of God is what we’re feeding on for nourishing life. 

Yet there was more.

Once we add Jesus to the mix to both simplify and purify our lives, he has us help to feed others. 

This is a call to make disciples. 

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

2 Kings 4:42-44

When you simplify and prioritize, giving your firstfruits to the Lord, he multiplies that which you have to feed yourself and those in need.  

He does this because you actually have room now to be a blessing. 

Again, we know that people are suffering from screen fatigue. 

But if the very first thing you do to relax when you finish work is go to Netflix for your down time, the space that you would otherwise have for God is gone. 

You’ve lost the emotional bandwidth to prioritize in the area you most need so that you have nothing left to set before others in your community group, outreach or other points of vital fellowship. 

In the end, binge watching various forms of media doesn’t end up giving something to me, it actually takes something from me.  

That’s the deception. 

Don’t let social media influencers and political pundits grab more of your attention than God and his eternal Word. 

Have a set time each day that you meet with God - in worship, in prayer and to read your Bible. 

If you are able, a physical Bible may be a good option for you during this time.  

It will cut down on screen time and provide necessary limits to distractions.  

We worry we won’t have anything left in the tank to give.  

Yet when you prioritize going to Jesus first as the bread of life, you have what you need for your family, job, friends and something left over for the world that needs the bread to be shared. 

Don’t quit while you fight to prioritize and simplify!

“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it. If you quit ONCE it becomes a habit.  Never quit!!!”

Michael Jordan

Jesus died on the cross to taste death for you so that In exchange, through your choosing to follow him, you might have eternal life. 

Trust the cook!  

Cling to that which he says is right and enjoy the stew. 

Turn away from what he calls the wild gourds which look good, but bring death as they try to meet the world’s felt needs.  

When you turn away from what the Bible calls sin and come to the cross, your simplifying your life. 

You are acknowledging that God, the life-giver, is who you need, and his ways, even in the midst of famine, are what will sustain you.  

Even if to this point you’ve been feeding on the poisonous root, Christ’s resurrection from the dead means you can have forgiveness of your sins and new life in him.   

Repent and believe the good news today!  

Study

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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

True Contentment: In the Winning and the Losing

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True Contentment: In the Winning and the Losing 

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus:  
True Contentment Comes When I Learn to Worship God in the Winning and in the Losing 

1. Contentment in the Win 

2. Contentment in the Loss

3. Contentment in the Resurrector  

I. Contentment in the Win

One day Elisha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way. Let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.” One day he came there, and he turned into the chamber and rested there. And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.” And he said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” He said, “Call her.” And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway. And he said, “At this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your servant.” But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Elisha had said to her. And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is continually passing our way.

2 Kings 4:8-17

Let’s start out by being real. Some of you have been discontent with Christianity because you’ve seen the wrong things.

The Shunammite woman had an ambition to be a part of whatever God was doing in whatever way she could. She even arranged things so that her family could be in proximity to the benevolent influence of God.  

 This should be our heart. That’s why they built the room. 

This is a much different attitude than the confusing one many of you saw growing up.  You threw off religion because you were surrounded by the hypocrisy with which it can be associated. You had people claiming Christ but who never read their Bibles, never attempted to put into practice what Jesus said with any seriousness and were some of the most hateful, spiteful out of touch people that you could meet.  And therefore you threw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.  

The reason why many people live in this hypocritical manner is because they have rules without an actual relationship with God.  

“Rules without relationship leads to rebellion.”

- Josh McDowell

This is the antithesis of what the Shunammite woman exemplified.

Regardless of what you feel like you’ve seen, like Elisha with the Shunammite woman, God has been continually passing your way. This is your call from the Lord to look past the poor examples, to see Jesus clearly and to make your way back to God.  

It is important that we do so because:

“A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will come out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping, we are becoming.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

True Contentment comes when I worship the God of Israel with my first and best in all things. 

When we make room for God, he is sure to show up.

Elisha, who was God’s representative, would stop in whenever he passed that way. The woman made a room to host Elisha as a priority simply because he was a servant of the Lord.  As a wealthy woman she had what she needed in terms of material wealth and civil security.  The room was built to honor God because he was God, not because the Shunammite was looking for anything in return.  Essentially, the Shunammite woman learned to worship God while she was “winning” in life. 

We get it twisted. Most people do what they want and ask God to bless it. This is not lordship, the very thing God requires. God has no obligation to follow the pursuits of your heart. When we act like he does, it’s why we end up in so much trouble in our relationships, in our careers, in our finances and in our mental states.

God actually tells us to order our lives like the Shunammite woman so that he can give good things to us.

Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:3-4 

We need to be about God’s business and then he’ll be about ours.

What’s interesting is how God responded to her priorities. Some of us, like the Shunammite woman have gone so long without certain experiences in life, that we’re scared to even ask for the desires of our hearts.  

When we find contentment in and delight in Christ, the blessings we weren’t even looking for, the ones the rest of the world is running after, often find a way of showing up in our lives (Matthew 6:33).  

II. Contentment in the Loss

When we feel like we’re winning, it reveals how aware we are of the source. When things are lost, it reveals what’s in our hearts.  

When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God and shut the door behind him and went out.

Then she called to her husband and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.” And he said, “Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.” She said, “All is well.” Then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, “Urge the animal on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite. Run at once to meet her and say to her, ‘Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?’” And she answered, “All is well.” And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me?’” He said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not reply. And lay my staff on the face of the child.” Then the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, “The child has not awakened.”

When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Then he summoned Gehazi and said, “Call this Shunammite.” So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.

2 Kings 4:18-37

Much like this pandemic, the boy’s tragedy seemed to come out of nowhere. The woman was sure to be hoping for a recovery as she held the child in her arms. But the child died. Should she have been content with that?

I can be content when things are taken away from me when I know it is not because of God’s lack of love that things are lost. It is in the midst of his love.  

• How often does pain lead us to consider what is most important in life?

• How often are our lives reordered for the better when we remember what is most important?

God is ultimately using the circumstances in our lives to lead us to eternal freedom in Jesus.

 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

To set us free, Jesus has to change our perspective on sin. 

Sin isnʼt only doing bad things; it’s more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry.

-Timothy Keller

We focus on these good things because they give us some sense of joy and fulfillment.  

We miss the mark and sin when we begin to find our contentment in the good things rather than the giver of those things. When I’m in sin, God can allow that which I am worshiping before him to be taken away. The good things that we would turn into idols would eventually disappoint and enslave us if left to be worshipped.

For example, how often has your happiness, state of well being or peace of mind been destroyed by the loss of a job, a relationship or even something that you put your confidence in, like your looks? 

This does not imply that all loss is God taking things away. It does however, speak of the larger picture of God’s sovereignty and eternal ends that are being worked out beyond our individual experience.

Our contentment is found when we understand that we are a part of God’s redemptive meta narrative, not the central figure.  Jesus Christ is the star, the protagonist and plays the key role. Our culture today promotes a pronounced sense of myopia and narcissism.  

Though deeply loved individuals, we are humbled to realize that we are mere beneficiaries, supporting cast members in God’s grand history.  

What we have to embrace is that whether it be the passing of a loved one, a financial collapse or a health challenge, loss will at some point hit all of us.

It is inevitable. This can be particularly challenging for those who are used to succeeding in life, who wouldn’t characterize their journey by major setbacks. When you’re used to winning, it can be an especially difficult task to find contentment in the worship of God when this “winning streak” is disrupted.

The woman began to flail because unbeknownst to her, though she appreciated God, she wasn’t as secure in his heart towards her as she may have previously thought. 

How often have you heard of people making decisions to distance themselves from the faith and contentment in God when the things that they cherish are lost?

In those moments, our convictions become emotional rather than logical.  It becomes a challenge not to forget the testimony of all of the goodness God has shown us before the moment of pain. We begin to question God’s care, his character, his intentions and even his existence. 

Temporary loss is a part of life. I must learn to worship God in the midst of it. 

What are we to do? We are to remember that:

“While it looks like things are out of control behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered authority.”

– A.W. Tozer

The first thing the woman knew to do was to set the child that had been lost before God, on Elisha’s bed.

“I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.”

Ravi Zacharias, Has Christianity Failed You?

When you’ve cultivated a relationship with God based on his Word to you, you have confidence to go to him outside of the confines of tradition and dead religion.  

When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite. Run at once to meet her and say to her, ‘Is all well with you? Is all well with your husband? Is all well with the child?’

2 Kings 4:25,26

The point is that, just like Elisha, God cares about our well being.  

And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Gehazi came to push her away. But the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

2 Kings 4:27

We need to commit to not suffering alone. 

In the past, I’ve been guilty of getting angry when I shouldn’t - in times of need getting offended with people for not showing up at my door when they no idea there was even any trouble. 

Have you been there before?

The boy had been growing for years in good health. Up to the point of his head injury, “no news was good news.”   

Don’t expect even the most gifted or intuitive people in your life to be mind readers. In loss, you have to communicate your need to the people of God who can help you. God leaves it to us to reach out. This is the activation of our faith. 

Then the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”

2 Kings 4:30

What the Shunammite needed was an eternal perspective in her devotion to God so that when things were out of her realm of control and understanding, her response was still to worship.

Don’t make God your last resort or plan B. 

The woman hastened to God. God hastens to answer our cries. Gehazi wasn’t supposed to greet anyone on the road - he was to make haste to the child’s dead body. 

While you’re looking for a solution to your situation, involve God with earnest.  The staff was putting a stake in the ground saying ‘I’m determined to get God involved’.  If the first thing you do doesn’t work, God is not done. Keep pressing. This is worship in the loss. 

When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the Lord. 2 Kings 4:33

The Shunammite woman couldn’t see what was going on behind the closed door.  In fact, she probably would have misunderstood it if she did see. This is how it is for us when God is working behind the scenes. All we know is that he’s able, we’ve made a petition and we have to trust him with the results.  

Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. Then he got up again and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

2 Kings 4:34-35

Elisha stretched out on the boy multiple times.  We need to P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happens), whether in our circumstance or in our hearts. 

Sometimes God wants to change the circumstance. Sometimes God wants to change me.  

Elisha touched the eyes, the mouth and the hands of the dead boy. 

God wants to change what we’re setting our eyes on, what we’re feeding on and our behaviors in our losses. This is repentance that brings life.  

God wants to bring you into alignment with his Word. 

• In your losses, are your habits? 

• Are your relationships? 

• How about how you spend your time and resources?

III. Contentment in the Resurrector

The woman’s response was worship after the resurrection of her son. It should be ours as well as we serve the resurrector. 

The Son of God himself won against the forces of darkness in his earthly ministry life, was taken away at the cross, only to be resurrected, ascend and is preparing to one day make his ultimate return.

Think of the track record and promises of Jesus in regards to winning and loss. There are several times that Jesus said that loss, though incalculably painful, leads to his redemptive purposes. This is why our contentment can always be found in our resurrector. 

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

John 12:24-25

This is making sure the good things aren’t ultimate things. 

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

John 16:6-7

Jesus our resurrector came into the world and took on flesh. This was the gift of the incarnation. He became just like us in every way to become a merciful and faithful high priest.  

He never sinned. 

He showed God’s compassion by opening blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears, delivering those tormented by demons and giving deceased children back to their widowed mothers.

Yet he also died a gruesome, substitutionary  death on the cross for our sin against God. This was great loss. 

Like Elisha who came face to face with the death of the child by stretching out his body on the boy, Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross to literally absorb death for us.  

Just as the Shunammite’s son was resurrected from the dead, God raised his only son Jesus so that we might find true contentment in him.

We do so because he, the giver of all good things, is looking out for our best interests and remains worthy of worship in the winning and in the losses.

Jesus said:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” 

John 11:25

Repent of sin today and trust in the one who whether in gain or loss will ultimately lead us to life. 

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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

True Contentment: In the Hustle

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True Contentment:
In the Hustle

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus:
True contentment comes when you mix faith with hustle

Sometimes people figure contentment to mean passivity.  We want to let the Bible redefine that misunderstanding.  When we think about hustle, we can think about an athlete giving their all on the court or field. What we mean by hustle today is faith in action leading to contentment. 

We want you to understand Jesus, the Kingdom of God, and the life of God.  The question that I need to be asking is what can I do during this time as I wait for things to change?  

The answer is: I can find contentment in the hustle.

There are three parts to this message:

1. When Faith and Hustle Meet

2. Contentment in the Hustle

3. Hustle in the Kingdom of God

I. When Faith and Hustle Meet

Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

2 Kings 4:1-7

What we notice about the life of Elisha is that there were continual miracles in the midst of turmoil when people sought the God of Israel. It will be the same for us today. Contentment with hustle needs to be understood as a pairing that brings a strength that God wants in us all.

True contentment:

• What it is - Hustle in the midst of trusting God for the outcome,

• What it is not - Waiting for God to do everything 

True contentment is in the hustle. True contentment does not mean a lack of effort. Nor does receiving the grace of God mean that you don’t have to do anything for the miracle of God to occur.  The power of resurrection life in Jesus is that the righteous rise from death in the midst of tragedy. 

What we know is that this woman’s story started in tragedy. She had lost her husband, a man of God, and was left alone with two children who were under the threat of being conscripted into slavery. In tragedy, we have to make moves towards God.

Elisha asks the question of what he can do for the woman WHEN she first makes a request of him, as a proxy for God, to whom the woman was actually looking for help. She went because she believed that he could actually do something about her situation. We, in the same way, must make an approach towards God for help, not just wish that something were different.  

This is a picture of prayer.  This is faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:1-2, 6

When we approach God, he’ll start with what we have. This is true even when the woman thought little of the oil that she had to work with. The miracle starts with what you have, not what you don’t have.  The woman was asked what she had in her house - what she already had in her possession.

We need to ask ourselves this question when looking to God to change our situation:

• What do I have as a skill, ability, or resource that can now be miraculously multiplied with the touch of the Lord and some creativity? 

Even when things are stable in your environment, look to build an extension to the house.

The woman was told to get empty vessels and not too few. Begin with the things in your world that were previously being neglected or underutilized. Everyone is adjusting.   

You should be asking yourself the question:

• What new innovation can you bring to your company or business that will help it prosper and fulfill the purpose of God during this time? God has a purpose in your work!

You will be content when you feel like you’ve sought God for the benefit of those whom you serve and don’t resign the people to whom you’re attached to either slavery or obsolescence. This is what the woman did in seeking out Elisha.

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

-Steve Martin 

In times of trial, you want to have a Miracle Mentality (like Kobe’s Mamba mentality). Only when each jar was full was the woman instructed to set it aside. We need to maximize every opportunity that we are given to their FULL potential to be content with each stewardship we are given.

God wants the oil of the Holy Spirit to touch every opportunity that he places in our hands.  

Be encouraged!

So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her.

2 Kings 4:5

It was while the woman and her sons were shut in, locked away with God, that the miracle began to take place. 

“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”  

- Pablo Picasso

When you maximize one opportunity, go on to the next. In this instance with Elisha, the miracle reached its limit WHEN the effort in gathering the jars in which to put the oil stopped.

II. Contentment in the Hustle 

When I’ll be content:

I will be content when I realize that I’ve done EVERYTHING that I can to see God move, not just waiting on my condition to change or for something to happen. The threat of the woman’s sons being sold into slavery drove her to seek the Word of the Lord. I will be content when I realize that I will be rewarded for my acts of faith, not my wishing something would be different.  

The woman had to get into gear. She had to humble herself, asking to borrow the jars from her neighbors to help get her new oil business started.  

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

-James 2:26

What act of humility is God calling you to make?  Are you too prideful to get the help where you need it?  Or too lazy? Are you too reserved for your miracle?  Will your lack of motivation keep you from your miracle?

God uses these types of provisions to break us EVEN AS he advances us so that the glory can belong to him alone. In the end, it is a protection for us. I will be content when I realize I will be judged according to my obedience, not my results.

The woman couldn’t produce the supernatural supply of oil herself.  She needed God to move in response to her obedience.  This can be seen clearly in the hustle expected in team sports. You’re always looking for the good of the team and not just standing around.  You’re readying yourself to contribute when the ball comes your way. You are CONSTANTLY ENGAGED, encouraging those who are currently making plays, while looking to make plays of your own.

Don’t get isolated!

The jars were borrowed to create in the woman not dependency on people, but an interdependent lifestyle where she looked to God and his ways as her source of provision. 

“You’re free when you realize you’re willing to go the length that is necessary.”

-Wendell Berry

(born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer.[1]

I will be content when I realize that as I follow God’s instructions, he will meet EVERY NEED of mine according to his riches and glory in Jesus.  Supernatural provision is released when I follow God’s instructions. For example, when I refrain from living beyond my means and tithe, God takes care of my needs.   When I obey the unction of the Holy Spirit to sow in times of famine rather than eating my seed, God supernaturally multiplies what I have in him (Genesis 26). 

God-given needs must be the standard of our contentment. Not every desire is a God-given need. In fact, some of the things that are mere desires are what get us into trouble in the first place. We don’t know what caused the debt of the prophet. As a result of following God’s instructions, the woman was able to pay off her debts AND to provide for her family with what remained.  

(Moral of the story: Don’t blow your stimulus check.)

At the end of the day, God had the woman start a new business in the midst of her grief to overcome her tragedy. Her contentment would come from a new chapter starting in her life. 

It is true that this type of thinking can be exhausting.  

However, you can imagine the mother thinking the following when she was tempted to throw up her hands: 

Who’s watching?:

Our children, loved ones, the world AND Jesus - the Lion of the tribe of Judah!

III. Hustle in the Kingdom of God

How does this apply to the Kingdom of God?   

First there has to be an understanding of the oil of the Holy Spirit - that God will fill you as often as you come to him to meet your needs and those of your family.  

Second, God deals with debts that are owed.  

We all had a debt that could not be paid.

Because of our rebellion against God, we were sold into slavery to sin and were headed for an eternity separated from God in hell. 

Jesus, the anointed One, full of the oil of the Holy Spirit, came with miracle power to pay our debts so that we might live by faith in the merits of his life. 

On the cross, Jesus ultimately paid the debt that all of us inherited, sinful patterns of life passed down to us from our fathers. 

As we turn from our sin and self-sufficiency, we can put our trust in the fact that God not only forgives us, but calls us to his family business by the power, the oil, the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  

What now? 

Should we be content in the midst of a plague? Yes and no. We should be content that God cares and will meet our needs in the midst of this tragedy. We should not be content in regards to what we are to do.  We need to apply the same hustle to Kingdom activity as the woman did in seeing the oil jars filled. 

Plagues in the Scripture represented death and judgment. The cross of Jesus Christ represented no less as Jesus took the death and judgment that we all deserve. Now God is calling people to the cross for the forgiveness of sins even in the midst of this plague. God now calls Christians a royal priesthood in the Lord. 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

-1 Peter 2:9 

What did the priests of God do in times of plague? They were great intercessors who cried out to God for mercy and brought the sword to the people to end the source of the plagues (Numbers 16:41-50; 25:1-13). 

The Word of God is called the sword of the Spirit that cuts away sin and allows people to see the miracle hope found in the gospel. When our salvation is secure (when we receive the payment of our debts by Jesus), God calls us to intercessory activity on behalf of the debts owed by others.  This is like the woman who took what she earned from the jars of oil to pay for what her deceased husband owed while also providing for the needs of her family who remained.  This activity begins with prayer.

“God has given us prayer as a wartime walkie-talkie so that we can call headquarters for everything we need as the kingdom of Christ advances in the world. Prayer gives us the significance of front-line forces, and gives God the glory of a limitless Provider. The one who gives the power gets the glory. Thus prayer safeguards the supremacy of God in missions while linking us with endless grace for every need.”

- John Piper (theologian)
Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions

This intercessory activity continues with the sharing of the gospel.  While content with our own salvation, we need to hustle to make the most of every opportunity that people might meet Jesus and have their eternal debts paid. 

“...left to ourselves we lapse into a kind of collusion with entropy, acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse but that there's nothing much we can do about them. And we are wrong. Our task in the present...is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.”

-N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

The reality that we see in the Bible is that tough times hit the righteous as well as the unrighteousness.  All the while, there is a divine solution for our present needs!  The people of God are able to access this supernatural provision as they maintain contentment in the hustle, keeping their anchor in eternal things.

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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020

True Contentment: Needs and Fears

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True Contentment: Needs and Fears

Pastor Rollan Fisher

Focus: True contentment comes as Jesus meets our greatest needs and puts to rest our greatest fears. 

The Oxford American Dictionary Definition

Contentment : A state of happiness and satisfaction Of late Middle English Origin denoting “the payment of a claim”

Ironically, it is daily that we have things making claims on our contentment, primarily in the way of our needs and our fears. 

Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

-2 Kings 2:19-22 

The Scripture

The city was pleasant but the water was bad. 

The water hadn’t always been bad, lest the ancient city could not have grown up around the source.  Something had changed.  

The water was what was used to meet the needs of the land.

The lack of fruitfulness came from the water that was contaminated in some way.

Elisha called for a new bowl. 

The answer was to throw salt in the bowl for the supernatural healing of the water so that the land could be fruitful.

We’re going to come back to this...

Our Greatest Needs

God designed our greatest needs

Relationship, Provision, Purpose.

When we have these things in life, we are truly content.  

A 2018 Psychology Today article by Dr. Suzanne Degges White summarized  our greatest needs to achieve a state of contentment with these highlights: 

1. Human beings need relationships to enjoy optimum well-being and happiness. 

2. Being kind to others is essential to finding a sense of personal happiness. Our human brains are wired so that we feel joy when we behave in altruistic ways. 

3. Acknowledging the abundance of your own life—no matter how austere or extravagant it might be—and experience gratitude for these people, experiences, and things also positively contribute to a sense of well-being.

4. Finding a sense of meaning and purpose in your pursuits in life are necessary to contentment and happiness. Believing that you are contributing to something beyond yourself and being a part of something larger than your individual existence is also necessary to experience a feeling of peace that is a part of happiness.

5. Making healthy lifestyle choices in terms of your basic needs—sleep, nutrition, and exercise—also contribute to your happiness in life.

Source here.

Whether acknowledged or not, all of these insights have their roots in Biblical mandates.

Our Greatest Fears

God knows our greatest fears. 

*When the water is bad, the counterpart to our needs are the fears that our needs won’t be met, choking out our contentment.  

The needs and their counterparts:

Relationship - Loneliness

Provision - Lack

Purpose - Death (the end of all earthly purpose)

The good news is that God gives us a remedy to deal with every need and fear.  

Loneliness

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”

-Mother Teresa

Fear: Am I Going to Be Forgotten?

The cataclysmic shift in our culture: 

If people don’t see what you do, it doesn’t count 

If I’m not seen (on social media, etc.) I don’t matter 

Even as we look forward to being together again in the flesh, embrace virtual community. 

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

-Hebrews 10:24-25

Lack

When you have provision, there’s instruction for contentment:

Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

-Luke 3:14

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

-1 Timothy 6:6-12

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

-1 Timothy 6:17-19

When provision is momentarily reduced, there’s equal instruction:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

-Philippians 4:11-13 

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

-Hebrews 13:5-6

Death

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

-Hebrews 2:14-15

Jesus’ gospel is the salt that goes into the bowl to heal the water.

 From the ExploreGod.com website:

“So,” the Apostle Paul wrote, “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”19

C. S. Lewis hinted at this idea when he famously suggested, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”20

What kind of “another world” did Lewis mean? The new world described for us in the book of Revelation:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” . . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

-Revelation 21:1,3-5

https://www.exploregod.com/articles/the-importance-of-contentment

Meeting Our Needs and Ending Ours Fears

Our greatest needs are met and our greatest fears are overcome in Jesus Christ. The city is pleasant but the water is bad making the land unfruitful. The water is what we use to meet the needs of the land (our needs)

The lack of fruitfulness comes when the water is bad (fears destroying our contentment) 

Elisha called for a new bowl (new habits and disciplines). 

The answer was to throw the salt (the Word of God, the gospel, holiness) in the bowl for the healing of the water so that the land could be fruitful (contentment)

Out of its contentment, the church has a divine purpose during this time.  Because my needs are met and my fears laid to rest in Christ, I can live this way during this time:

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

-Matthew 5:13-1613

The cross of Jesus Christ made this all a possibility for us.  At the cross, Jesus became a substitutionary sacrifice that we might first be reconciled to God.  As turn from our sin and put our faith in Jesus, we’re adopted into the family of God with a Heavenly Father who provides saying that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we have a heavenly home being prepared for us so that death no longer has a sting.  And in these ways, we can live all of our days contented and full of praise.  

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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020