Lessons from the Story of Naaman: Finding the Helpers

In this sermon, Reagan explores the story of Naaman the Leper from 2 Kings 5, emphasizing the often-overlooked roles of the 'little people' or helpers in biblical narratives. He discusses the faith and compassion of Naaman's servants and contrasts their attitudes with those who focus on material gain. Reagan concludes with a call to embrace simple obedience and faith in God's plan for salvation.

00:00 Introduction
03:40 Finding Helpers in the Bible
04:16 The Story of Naaman the Leper
07:22 Lessons from Naaman's Servants
08:17 Naaman's Journey to Healing
12:56 The Power of Simple Obedience
33:31 The Warning of Gehazi's Greed
39:45 A Call to Humble Submission

Transcript

When I was a kid growing up in West Texas we didn't have television. And it was really as much a financial decision as it was a moral one. I mean, we had an actual television set in our house, but we had to use movies on VHS if we wanted to watch anything. And there were a number of reasons for that.

At that time, there was no cable in the area where we lived, and so you had to buy satellite. Satellite was very expensive and so, my dad wasn't gonna do that. Now out at the farm, at my granddad's house. He had satellite but not like the DirecTV satellites you know about Now he had like a six foot across satellite.

You had to put G five and then it would actually move to like point to the right satellite in the sky. But at our house we didn't have that. Except for a couple of exceptions through the years. When my dad became superintendent, my parents are educators. When he became superintendent as part of his benefits package, the school actually paid for DirecTV and so we had TV at that time.

And then we lived for a year and a half when I was in kindergarten in Katy, Texas, just outside of Houston. And so we could pick up TV on just some rabbit ears. I think we had six. Or seven channels, including PBS. And so some of my early memories as a child are getting up on Saturday morning and watching PBS because that was the channel my parents said I could watch when they were still sleeping in.

And my favorite show the favorite show of five-year-old Reagan was Mr. Rogers neighborhood. Now maybe you're saying to yourself, oh yeah, you seem like a Mr. Rogers guy. To which I say thank you. Yes, absolutely. That's how I want to be known. And there are lots of legends about Mr. Rogers. Some of them are made up.

You've probably heard some of the made up ones that he was a sniper in the Marine Corps and he killed so many people. That's why he started his show. That's not true. Maybe you've heard the rumor that he wore cardigans because he had sleeves of tattoos on both arms and he didn't want the kids to see that.

So he wore, wore the cardigans. That wasn't true either. But there are some legends about Mr. Rogers that are true, that he basically single handedly saved public television by insisting that he was gonna go and testify before Congress about how important it was to teach children from all different backgrounds, some important life lessons.

He also had a number of quotes attributed to him. You know, some made up as you can find on the internet, but some were real. And among the real ones, this is perhaps my favorite. He said in a book that he wrote, and he repeated this in a number of interviews that he was that he gave when I was a boy, I would see scary things in the news, and my mother would say to me, look for the helpers.

You'll always find people who are helping to this day, especially in times of disaster. I remember my mother's words. I'm always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers, so many caring people in this world. The helpers, the small people who aren't doing it for any praise from people are always there, but we have to look for 'em if we want to see them.

And there is a sense in which I suggest. We should do this when we read our Bibles too. The Bible is filled with big people doing big things, but the Bible is also filled with little people helping in small ways. And if we look for them in the various biblical accounts, we can find and see them as well.

But without these small people, none of the things that did happen in so many of these big stories with big people would've happened at all. Without the small things that they did and said for others. So I'd like for us to consider one example of this phenomenon this morning using the story of Neem and the Leper in two Kings, chapter five.

I'm so grateful for the presence of all this morning, especially those who are visiting with us. And I would ask you, even if you're visiting, if you would make the effort to turn to Second Kings chapter five. We're gonna spend almost the entirety of our lesson this morning from that text. If you have a Bible with you, if you have a Bible on your phone, you may turn there.

If you'd like to use one of these little red bibles that are provided for you there in the pew. If it's one that looks like this with the gold lettering on the front, you can find second Tink Kings five on page three hundred and sixty three, three hundred sixty three there in your Bible. And if you're here this morning and you don't have a Bible, just a little plug, just find me after services.

We have some, some leather bound bibles that would be happy to give you for your very own that you can take home with you because this book has the words of life. And maybe the first place you would think to go to for the words of life is not two Kings, chapter five. But if we're looking for those helpers, if we're looking for those little people, I think we can find the words of life even in this story.

Now, maybe you're very familiar with the story of Neman the Leper. Maybe this is a story that you'll be reading for the first time this morning. Just a quick summation, maybe a few spoilers in this Neman was a Syrian commander, very high in the army of Syria, which was an enemy of Israel, but he had a neurological skin condition that was both incurable and also eventually was going to be fatal.

And so he ends up going to Israel in order to try and find a prophet who can cure him of this incurable disease. And there are all sorts of connections that hopefully will make to the New Testament here in just a little bit. But that's the gist of this story. Now, for those of you who know this story well, my question is who do you think of yourself as as you read this story?

Nothing in the Bible is there by accident, and God intends for us to put ourselves into this story in order to make application. I think it's appropriate to see ourselves as the main character as Neman needing a cure of a disease that slowly is killing us as we harm ourselves. I mean, that's what sin is, right?

And he is so desperate to find that healing as we should be so desperate to find healing for our sins. Like us, Neman is still proud and he's still bringing baggage and his own expectations of how he thinks things ought to be done, and it is only when he submits to God and his will and his way that Neman actually finds his healing.

So yes, put yourself in the shoes of Neman, but I want you to try this morning to put yourself in the shoes of some of the other characters as well, not the kings. Not the prophet, not even neman, but the three servants or group of servants that we find in this story when the helpers are the main characters.

Maybe we read the story just a little bit differently, and so let's consider this morning the servants. The three servants, well, two servants, and then a group of servants that we find here in Second Kings chapter five. And the first half of this story, we look at those three groups as an encouragement.

To serve Fatefully because they are servants who are bringing salvation to naman. Let's, let's read together beginning in verses one through three, all of these servants brought salvation by the things that they said. They were speaking a message of salvation to the greater quote unquote characters in this story.

Begin reading with me in verse one, two, Kings chapter five, beginning in verse one. Now Neman commander of the Army of the King of Syria was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master because by him, the Lord had given victory to Syria. Now, it's interesting, the true God, Yahweh is inserted into this story.

Apparently, God is using Neman to fulfill his purposes, and I would suggest one of his purposes was recording this story so that we could read it and make application. Isn't that amazing? He was also a mighty man of valor, but there's a problem. He was a leper verse two. And the Syrians had gone out on raids and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel.

She waited on Neon's wife. Literally she served before Neon's wife. So this young girl had been captured, brought back, and now she's a servant for Neon's wife. Verse three. Then she, the servant girl, said to her mistress, if only my master was with the prophet who is in Samaria, where she was from, for he, the prophet would heal him neman of his leprosy.

So this young girl speaks up and says, look, I know a guy who can heal our master of the leprosy that he has. Now, my first question. Thinking about this girl and what she does here, how did this girl come to be in Neon's household? Well, she was kidnapped. There was a raid in Israel as a, as often happened in this time, and the text is a little unclear as to who exactly was leading the raid.

It could be, you know, kind of an unofficial, just some outlaws from Syria going into Israel and raiding various towns. But it's also just as likely. I would suggest maybe more likely that this was official government business and that the king of Syria sent his army into Israel to raid and pillage and bring back possessions.

Now, here's my question. If that's the case, who was leading the raid? In all likelihood, it would've been emman himself. And so this young girl is kidnapped out of her bed in the middle of the night, taken into a foreign country where she has made a slave, a servant to Naaman's wife. And yet, what does she do to these captors, these enemies, she speaks up for their good and for their benefit.

I. Can you imagine how terrible and traumatizing that would've been? And yet this girl is so gracious to her captors and the fact that she would care for Neman after everything that had happened to her shows something greater in her than any of the greatness that is described in Neman himself. And I suggest this captured servant, Israelite girl speaking.

This message of salvation has two very powerful things in her heart. She has, first of all. Faith, and second of all, love or compassion in her heart. She had faith in God despite what had happened to her. Notice the way she puts this to her mistress, does she say, look, maybe I know we're desperate. I know we're willing to try anything, so maybe there's a prophet.

Who's in Samaria? Who could possibly help my master? Did she say, you know, I'm hoping against hope here, but let's throw a hail Mary. Maybe the prophet in Israel could help my master. No, that's not what she said. What did she say for he would heal him of his leprosy? She knew Elisha could do this, not because he was Elisha, but because he was the prophet of God.

She knew it by faith. I would suggest if we put ourselves in the shoes of this little servant girl, that our message of salvation to those who are in sin that we're trying to preach and proclaim to them is much more powerful when it's delivered in faith. Not faith that is holier than thou not faith that knows more than anybody else.

Not faith that has all the answers, but faith that knows who has all the answers. A faith that points people to God in his words saying, these are indeed the words of life. And if you wanna be saved, you wanna be saved from sin. If you wanna find a life of hope and peace and contentment and purpose, it's gonna be found among God in his prophets as we point those who are seeking in the right direction.

She also had love. Compassion for Neman, and I would suggest that those two qualities must be present for anyone who would speak on behalf of God or his Christ. She had concern for Neman and suggested how he might be healed, her enemy, her oppressor, the one perhaps who was the cause of so much suffering in her life.

You know, there's no mention of this girl's parents in this passage. What, what do you think happened to her parents? It's likely that her parents were killed as she was taken, and yet she is the source of information that leads naam into salvation. And again, so too with us, we sow the seed, we sow the seed of God's word.

We sow the seed of truth. And we do so speaking that truth in love and concern for the souls of people, and sometimes good and honest hearts are found in the most unexpected places among the very people who have chosen to be our enemies. Among the very people who make things difficult for us at school or at work, among the very people who we think they're never gonna turn to God.

Sometimes those are the very people who know they're in need. Are just waiting for someone to point them in the right direction, and we're tempted to ask, well, in this day and age, who would listen to this message of salvation. But I want you to notice in this passage at the word of this little girl, at this marginalized little girl who was a foreigner in a strange land, who was young and a slave at her word, masters and generals and kings and prophets, took action.

You know, later we're gonna read about how Naman comes with all of these gifts for the prophet. And, and people have done some study on this and suggest $3 million worth of gifts were transferred or intended to be transferred from Syria to a prophet in Israel at the word of this one little girl who spoke up to her mistress and said, oh, if only our master went to the prophet in Israel.

I know desperate people grasp at straws, but clearly this young lady had lived her life in such a way that she was believed that she did have love and concern in the best interest of her master at heart. This was not some trap saying, oh, go speak to the prophet in Israel so that he could be killed along the way.

And ultimately, it was not just masters and generals and kings and prophets. A miracle was ultimately worked. God himself worked. Neman was saved because she spoke up, because she opened her mouth at a difficult time, and God can work today if we point people toward salvation,

and I understand how difficult that can be. It's difficult to speak up. It's difficult to suggest that people, the way that people need to be saved, because if we speak that up, what does that imply? It implies that they need savings. It implies that they're lost, that they're not right with God. It can be difficult to do that.

And, and preachers through the years have used all sorts of metaphors to try and help us say, see and, and compartmentalize, okay, this is how important it is. I really need to do this. I heard this at camp last week with one of the campers, and, and when I was a, a younger preacher, hear that younger preacher I use this metaphor myself, but it, it always just kind of irked me in the back of my mind.

Something's not right about this metaphor. Have you heard this one before? If you had the cure to cancer, wouldn't you tell people all about it? Well, let me ask you, if you had the cure to cancer, wouldn't you tell everybody about it? Of course you would. But how would people respond if you had the cure to cancer?

Well, there would be some, of course, who would be dubious that you really have it, but for the most part, how would the world respond to that? There would be celebration, there'd be parades. You would be wealthy beyond your wildest imagination and all likelihood if you had the cure to cancer. So of course we would tell people that.

And yes, we wouldn't be motivated by those other things. We'd be motivated by a love and concern that we want people to be saved from this disease, all those sorts of things. But may I suggest that the real metaphor there. Is yes. If you had the cure to cancer, that's like this idea that we have the cure to sin, and we're sharing that with people, but it's more like if you had the cure to cancer.

But everybody in the world has cancer and almost everybody in the world denies that they have it and are offended if you suggest that they do.

But even in that situation. What's the loving thing to do? It's almost like. The girls and I in the car, a lot of times we listen to a, to a podcast called Greeking Out and it's got all these Greek myths and it's, it's interesting and we're both kind of interested especially Brooklyn and I are interested in those Greek legends and those sorts of things.

Do you remember in Greek mythology, Cassandra, who was one of the princesses of Troy and Apollo falls in love with her? And he loves her so much that he gives her the gift of prophecy, that she can see the future, but she rejects his advances. And so he's already given the gift. He can't take it away.

You remember what he does? He, he then curses her and her curse is, she can always see the future and it's right, but nobody is ever gonna believe her. And she ends up going mad about that. She goes crazy because she sees what's gonna happen with the siege of Troy and the Trojan horse and all these sorts of things.

She sees all of that. She tells everybody, nobody will believe her. And maybe sometimes that's what it feels like to proclaim the gospel. I, here we have the words of life. Why? Why won't people believe it? But that's not quite a right metaphor either, because somewhere in the middle there are good and honest hearts who will hear the message of salvation.

Our job as Christians is to be seed sowers, to sow that seed everywhere. So that God's word might work to find those good and honest hearts. There will always be some who believe if like this young lady, we are willing to speak up. All right, let's keep reading. Read there in verse four with me. And Neman went in and told his master, the king, saying Thus, and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.

And the King of Syria said, go Now, I will send a letter to the King of Israel. So he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver and 6,000 shekels of gold and 10 changes of clothing. That's that $3 million we talked about earlier. Then he brought the letter to the King of Israel, which said, now be advised.

Now this is king to king, right? When this letter comes to you that I have sent Nam and my servant to you that you may heal him of his leprosy. In recent years, I've almost read that like a, like a tweet from Trump, right? Like, Hey, this is what you gotta do or else, right? And it happened when the King of Israel read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, am I God to kill and make alive that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy?

There. Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me. This is just an excuse to start a war. So it was when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the King of Israel had torn his clothes that he sent to the king saying, why have you torn your clothes? Don't be so dramatic. We might say, let him come to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

Then name and went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house and Elisha sent a messenger. Maybe your translation says a servant to him saying, go wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean. So here is our second of the three servants, Elisha's servant, and he too is coming out and speaking a message of salvation there in verse 10.

And maybe we ask the question, well, why didn't Elisha himself come out? Well, because that was not God's purpose. For one thing. We aren't told exactly why Elisha himself didn't come out. But I can't help but think how representative this second servant is of us. Speaking the gospel of salvation. You know this servant, he's not God.

He's not even God's prophet, the mouthpiece of God. He is just repeating the prophet's words that the prophet has from God to someone else who needs to hear them. And that's us too, isn't it? We are not the source of salvation, and we certainly don't need to be so arrogant to think that we are, but. We are like Peter in Acts chapter 11 to Cornelius's household.

We are to speak words by which they who need those words will be saved. That's our role. We don't do the saving. We couldn't do the saving if we wanted to, but we speak words by which they will be saved. So let's keep reading verses 11 and 12. But Neman was so excited he just went and did, did it. No. Neman became furious and went away.

Saying Indeed, I said to myself, he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord, Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy. No doubt the whole way to Israel and the whole way to the prophet's house. Naman had this scenario running through his mind and saying, this is the way I'm gonna be saved.

This is how it's gonna happen. I thought this way he was gonna do it, and I'm mad. That's not what he did. He just sent a servant out to tell me. And then he asked the question, verse 12 are not the abna and the far par the rivers of Damascus. These are two rivers of Syria that run through Damascus better than the waters of Israel.

Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. Well, let's see if we can answer his questions. They're they're legitimate questions. Are not these Syrian rivers, these rivers of Damascus. Are they not better than the Jordan River? Now if you're visiting with us, you might not be used to this.

Timberland people. This is old hat, but thumbs up, thumbs down based on what you know, are the rivers in Syria better than the rivers in Israel? Absolutely. Especially when compared to the Jordan River, you know, the Jordan River is kind of romanticized because it's in all these stories and we know this river and oh man, it must be really beautiful.

This is the Jordan River, such as it is. Right? And my dad and I had the opportunity to go there. I show this picture, not just to show how handsome we are in this picture, but. But to show you just how dirty and nasty this river is in West Texas, we'd call that a dirty old creek, right? That's, that's the Jordan River.

And it's interesting, you know, people come on pilgrimages and they want to be baptized in the Jordan River. This is believed to be the place where Jesus himself was baptized by John the Baptist. And they come in these beautiful white garments and they go down into the water. And you can kind of tell here, here's before.

And you can't quite see, but you're starting to see when they come up out of the water, those garments aren't white anymore. What color are they? They are brown. They are nasty. They need to be washed. It's almost like an anti baptism. You know, you go in clean and you come out dirty.

The Jordan River was not a better river than the rivers in Syria, but that wasn't the point. Let's answer a second question. Could I not wash in them and be clean? So, thumbs up, thumbs down. Could he have washed in one of those rivers instead and been made clean of his leprosy? I like it when people do it with authority.

Of course not because that's not what God told him to do.

God, through Elisha, through Elisha's servant. Told Naman, you go dip in the Jordan River seven times and you'll be made clean. And what does this whole song and dance show us? Well, among other things, it shows us that the power never really was in the water. The power is not in how clean or how good the water is.

And I think maybe that's part of what bothers so many people about baptism. For remission of our sins. We, we, we think to ourselves now getting dipped in water is supposed to wash away my sins. Like, how does that even work? Surely this just must be like symbolic of what has already happened to me. By God, we reason those things to ourselves, just like Namin was reasoning to himself about, well, this is what I thought was going to happen in order to be made clean, and yet this is what God chose to wash away Mayman sins.

Baptism is what God has chosen to wash away our sins, and that's not me saying that that's the word of God, but I don't want us to get the wrong impression. Again, the power is not in the water itself. Turn to one Peter chapter three. Mark your spot In two Kings, chapter five. I told you we'd stay there almost the entire lesson.

Well, here is the almost part. Go to one Peter, if you would, in the New Testament toward the very end of the New Testament one Peter. Oh dear. I can get there too. One Peter, chapter three, one Peter chapter three. We're gonna begin reading there in verse 21, Peter chapter three and verse 20. That is on page 1,190.

If you're using one of these Bibles, 1,190. Let's read together in. What Peter's doing here is he's making a comparison, we would call it type and anti type, a shadow and a reality between what happened with Noah and the flood and the arc, and then what happens with us in baptism. So verse 20, there were spirits who formally were disobedient when once the divine long suffering weighted in the days of Noah, perhaps for as long as 120 years.

We're not sure exactly but, but God waited a long time to destroy the earth with water. While the ark was being prepared, in which a few, how few is few, that is eight souls were saved through water. Verse 21. There is also an anti type, a greater reality, which now saves us in the Christian age baptism.

Then he has this long, parenthetical thought because he wants to make clear that it's not, baptism was just a Greek verb. It didn't have religious really connotations necessarily. It just meant to dip or to plunge, to submerge. So, so being submerged in water now saves us, is what he's saying. But he's saying now it's not about taking a bath.

It's not, I've used the image before. It's not about going down to the Lufkin public pool and tackling people into the water, submerging them so that they can be saved. No. His parenthetical thought is not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This dipping in water has power because of the blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's not just making ourselves physical clean, that is under consideration. It is that our conscience has answered God and we have a, a pure conscience that says, I wanna do what God tells me to do in order to be saved.

So Peter makes clear the power is not somehow in the water itself, the power is in God, the power is in the blood and resurrection of Jesus. The power is in the answer of a good conscience. But when all of those take things take place is when I am baptized, submerged in water, in response to what God has told me to do.

So too with Naman, this leper, the power was in God, but he still required naman to do what he commanded him to do, to receive his promise of salvation. And without dipping in the Jordan, he would not have been saved, and Naman resists that. So notice what his servant says in verse 13. If you turn back to two Kings, chapter five, two Kings chapter five and verse 13.

His servants. So apparently several, at least two of them came near and spoke to him and said, my father, I love that, don't you? It shows that Naman was a man with a good heart. Now, he didn't react right to the servant's prophet, but they didn't give up on him. They kept after him. My father. If the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?

How much more then when he says to you, wash and be clean. Now, there are actually two ways of translating this verse from Hebrew into English. One is, and the more common way is what we just read in the new King James version, where basically he says, Hey, you came prepared to give him $3 million.

You came prepared to do whatever it was he asked you to do. You came prepared to do something incredible and great and big. Well, how much more? When he asks you to do something easy and simple, why don't you just do what he says to do? He, he's telling you to wash and be clean. Just do it. And that's certainly true, isn't it?

But the other way of translating this particular passage is we think about naam and servants and how they too are speaking a message of salvation. The other way of translating it is like in the ESV, my father, it is a great word. The prophet is spoken to you. Will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, wash and be clean.

Now there's a little bit of difference there, but the ultimate point is the same. He's saying to him, this isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's a great thing what he's told you. Listen to what he says. Don't get. Don't get hung up in the how. Look and consider the end result. He's saying, wash and be clean.

He's actually told you how to be healed. It's a great thing that he said, won't you just do it? It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing because it is so simple and so easy. What sound and reasonable advice, just do what God says to be saved. Don't overcomplicate it. That That's where I really try and start when we have a conversation about.

What it is God requires for salvation. I, I just say, are you just willing to do whatever God says to be saved? And to this day when we've gotten to the point of asking that question, I've never had somebody say no. You know, it's just, there's some things I'll do, but some things I won't do. No. Everybody always says yes, whatever God says, I'll do it.

Well if that's what we say, that's what we need to do. And we could stop the sermon and the story there, but there is kind of a postscript at the end of all of this. There is this encouragement to serve faithfully and bring this message of salvation. But for those of us, especially who are already Christians, who already know God and his grace, there's also a warning to be found in the second half of this story.

I say second half, like the sermon's only halfway over. No, no, we're almost done. But I want us to read verses 15 through 27 to get the postscript the, epilogue. What happens after neman is saved? Well, notice in verse 14 what actually happens. So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the sayings of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean and he returned to the man of God.

He and all his aids. And stood before him and said, indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the Earth except in Israel now. Therefore, please take a gift from your servant. But he said, as the Lord lives before whom I stand, I will receive nothing. It wasn't me who did this. It was God, so don't pay me.

And he urged him to take it, but he refused. So Namin said, if not, then please let your servant be given two mule loads of earth. Will you give me something for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or sacrifices to other gods, but to the Lord, what he says is, let me take some of Israel back to Syria so that I can build an altar and worship God when I get back there.

Yet in this thing. May the Lord pardon your servant. He asked very respectfully, he says, look, my life has changed. I'm only gonna worship God, but I've got a work situation. Let me just ask you if this is okay. When my master goes into the temple of Ian to worship there, and he leans on my hand and I bow to the temple of Ian.

When I bow down in the temple of Ian, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing. He says, I'm only there with my boss. I'm not really worshiping. Is that okay? He is so respectful in asking that, I really think that he would've been willing to say, okay, sorry King. I can't go with you anymore if that's what the sur what the, the prophet required.

But the prophet says, verse 19. Then he said to him, go in peace. So he departed from him a short distance. Now this is the happy ending of the story, but again, there's a warning at the end. But Gai, I, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, look. My master is spared Neman this Syrian, while not receiving from his hands what he brought, but as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.

He's mad about the grace that was shown to this man. So ga the, I pursued Neman when Neiman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, is all well. He said, all is well. My master has sent me saying, indeed just now, two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of efrim.

Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments. So Naman said, please take two talents. And he urged him and bound two talents of silver in two bags and two changes of garments. And he handed them to two of his servants and they carried them on ahead of him. When he came to the citadel of the city, he took them from their hand and stored them away in the house.

Then he let them in go and they departed. Now he went in and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, where did you go? Gazy eye? And he said, your servant did not go anywhere. And he said to him, did not my heart. Maybe your translation says, did not my spirit go with you? When the man turned back from his chariot to meet you, he says, I, I know what you did.

Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing? Olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, male and female servants? Are we supposed to be getting rich over sharing this gospel message with others? Therefore, the leprosy of Neman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. And he went out from his presence Lepers.

As white as snow. Again, I think the servant of Elisha is representative of us, a warning to us who are saved in Jesus Christ. Gaia let his greed and spiritual arrogance get in the way of his faith. He started putting other things before God and God's simple words of salvation. This Syrian, he calls Neman.

He wasn't gonna let him get away with salvation without paying more than what he had paid. And while Namon obviously was willing to pay whatever that payment, missed the point that salvation is a gift of grace given on the basis of simple obedience by faith. What a contrast Gai Eye named in the text is to the servant girl who wanted so desperately just for her master to be healed.

She didn't say, I'll tell you how you can be healed, but you gotta let me go home. I'll tell you how you're gonna be healed, but I don't wanna be a servant anymore. And humility, and in grace and love, she tells him The way of Salvation House says of this contrast, one man goes away healed because of his obedience.

The other man, indeed, the one who should have known what matters most walks away with leprosy. Yet another Israelite has made the tragic mistake one of God's own people of choosing a substitute for the Lord. When a gentile convert has discovered that what his servant girl said about the Lord's prophet is true.

And so as we bring our lesson to a close, which will you be this morning, the servant. Who knew little but gained much, or the servant who knew much, but lost it all in. In the pursuit of other worldly things, will you hear words by which you'll be saved? Will you like Nam and listen to the words of a servant who calls you to wash and be made clean?

If you're not yet a Christian, humbly, I ask you to come and wash. The waters of baptism to be made spiritually clean. And if you're a Christian already and you've abandoned the simple words of Christ in pursuit of physical things come back before your sin, sickness becomes far worse, perhaps even leading to your death spiritually.

Who's the main character in this story? Well, you can make arguments in a couple of different ways, but here's what I know in the eyes of God. You are the main character this morning. He knows you personally and intimately, and he desires to save you and can and will if you're willing to come now in humble submission, and we encourage you to do so.

While together, we stand and while we sing.