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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Song number 63 All together on that first verse, nice and strong 🎵There is coming a day🎵 🎵When no heartache shall come🎵 🎵No more clouds in the sky🎵 🎵No more tears to dim the eye🎵 🎵All is peace forevermore🎵 🎵On that happy golden shore🎵 🎵What a day🎵 🎵Glorious day🎵 🎵That will be🎵 🎵What a day🎵 🎵That will be🎵 🎵When my Jesus I shall see🎵 🎵And I look upon his face🎵 🎵The one who saved me by his grace🎵 🎵When he takes me by the hand🎵 🎵And leads me through the promised land🎵 🎵What a day🎵 🎵Glorious day🎵 🎵That will be🎵 🎵There'll be no sorrow there🎵 🎵No more burdens to bear🎵 🎵No more sickness no pain🎵 🎵No more parting over there🎵 🎵And forever I will be🎵 🎵With the one who died for me🎵 🎵What a day🎵 🎵Glorious day🎵 🎵That will be🎵 🎵What a day🎵 🎵That will be🎵 🎵When my Jesus I shall see🎵 🎵And I look upon his face🎵 🎵The one who saved me by his grace🎵 🎵When he takes me by the hand🎵 🎵And leads me through the promised land🎵 🎵What a day🎵 🎵Glorious day🎵 🎵That will be🎵 Alright, great singing, just a few announcements here before we sing our next song which will be song number 29 at the cross, song number 29 in your songbooks if you want to get that ready Our services are as follows Sunday morning is at 1030, Sunday evening is at 5pm and then we have our Thursday night bible study at 7 o'clock and then you see the so many times and teams, the list of expecting mothers if you can continue to pray for them and some of the important reminders there the upcoming church events, we have the ushers training coming up this Saturday February 19th and that will begin at 11am with lunch and then thereafter we'll have the training sessions and so if you are involved in the ushers ministry it's mandatory that you're there for that training it's a yearly thing that we do just to brush up on some protocols of our church and then brother Don and Miss DJ's wedding is coming up on Saturday February 26th please RSVP by February 20th with brother Maury Lemons and if you have any questions about that you can see him Ladies prayer night is coming up Friday March 4th it will be here at the building and dinner will be provided for all the ladies who come birthday breakfast and Judea soul winning is coming up on Sunday March 6th and then we have our music training on Saturday March 19th that will be for anybody who is just involved in the music ministry whether you're a song leader, you play in the orchestra, you play piano if you're involved in any way in the music ministry we want you to be there and so we'll have lunch provided for you and all that and so just keep that in mind we'll give you more details as we approach that you see the little reminders there of course at the bottom no loitering in the foyer and fellowship hall during the preaching services if you need to step out to get some coffee to get some water that's fine and dandy but make sure you're just not hanging out there chatting it up the only ones who are designated to be in the foyer during the services are the ushers and so just keep that in mind and then please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service let's go ahead and take some soul winning numbers from this past week salvation is from Monday up until Thursday we got one, is that from the Thursday one? okay, anybody else? for Monday through Thursday how about Friday and Saturday? one more right? okay so two for Thursday Friday and Saturday, any salvations for Friday and Saturday? how about this afternoon? salvation is from this afternoon, brother Mark? excuse me, four for brother Mark's team? four for brother Mark's team? three for brother Mark's team? five for brother Mori's team? one for brother Glenn's team? one for brother Ulysse's team? did I miss anybody else? okay, keep up the great work on soul winning, let's go ahead and sing our next song song number 29 at the cross, song number 29 song number 29 at the cross alas, and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote that sacred hand that sacred head for such a worm as I. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes that I have done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well, might the sun in darkness hide, and shut his glories in, when Christ the mighty Maker died, for man the creature sinned. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time the ushers will come forth to collect the offering. Tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. Amen. Amen. Good evening. Tonight we're in 2 Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings chapter 4, and the Bible reads, Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant, my husband, is dead. Thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditors come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, and what is thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow the vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her, Son, bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunem, where it was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was that, as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her, Husband, behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick. And it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither. And it fell on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay there. And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunemite. And when he had called her, she stood before him. And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care. What is to be done for thee? What hast thou bespoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people. And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old. And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door. And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shall embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaiden. And the woman conceived and bare a son at that season that Elijah had said unto her, according to the time of life. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to the lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he was taken to him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon and then died. And she went up and laid him on a bed of the man of God and shut the door upon him and went out. And she called unto her husband and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, one of the asses, that I may run to the men of God and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well. Then she saddled an ass and said to her servant, Drive and go forward. Slack not thy writing for me except I bid thee. So she went and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel. It came to pass when the man of God saw her afar off that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet her and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well. When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said unto her, Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her, and the Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me. Then she said, Did I desire a son of my Lord? Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins and take thy staff in thine hand and go thy way. If thou may meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not again, and lay my staff upon the face of the child. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose and followed her. And Gehazi passed on before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was neither voice nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him and told him, saying, The child is not awake. And when Elisha was coming to the house, behold, the child was dead and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore and shut the door upon him twain and prayed unto the Lord. And he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands. And he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned and walked in the house to and fro and went up and stretched himself upon him. And the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come unto him, he said, Take up thy son. And she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground and took up her son and went out. And Elisha said, Came again to Gilgal, and there was a dearth in the land. And the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot and seeth pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered there of wild gourds, his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot, and they cannot eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot. And there came a man from Baal-Shalisha and brought the man of God bread of firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat. And his servitor said, What, should I set this before one hundred men? He said, Give the people that they may eat, for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat and shall leave thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this church, Lord, and thank you for pastor that you've given us, Lord. And we pray that you bless him as he preaches your word, and bless every aspect of this service. And we just pray that you fill him with the Spirit, and pray that we have ears to hear for the preaching of your word, Lord. Pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Second Kings, Chapter four. We'll come back to the story in just a bit. Hold your place there and go to First Corinthians, Chapter fifteen, if you would. First Corinthians, Chapter fifteen. The title of the sermon this evening is The Greater Works of Elisha, The Prophet, Part Two. If you remember from last week, we were going over the greater works of Elisha, and we went over the first couple of miracles that he performed. And the reason it's called The Greater Works of Elisha is because of the fact that he is the successor of Elijah, the prophet. The prophet who came before him was Elijah, and Elijah was used greatly of God. He was a great prophet of the Lord. He was a great preacher, but he also performed a lot of miracles. Well, when Elijah came on the scene and was disciple of Elijah, he asked Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. And of course, we know that the spirit that he's referring to is the Holy Spirit. And what he's really requesting is that he's able to do twice as much as what Elijah did. It's not because he wanted to become better than Elijah or kind of outdo him. He just understood the quality of miracles that Elijah performed and wanted to do twice as much. And so we see that he gives him the double portion of his spirit. And because of it, Elisha is able to perform twice as many miracles as Elijah did. Now, the reason I had you go to First Corinthians chapter 15 is because Brother Mark was actually pointing this out to me last week when I preached this sermon. And I thought it was a great point, great little nugget of truth that we see here is that, when we look at Elisha, as I mentioned last week, he's kind of like the picture of the believer. Elijah can be a picture of Jesus Christ because in order for him to receive that double portion of his spirit, Elijah has to go up into heaven in like manner in the New Testament in order for the disciples to be filled with the spirit, to have the indwelling of the spirit. Jesus Christ had to ascend up first and then they could receive power from on high, etc. And as I mentioned, Elisha did twice as much. Well, let me read you from First Kings chapter 19. You're in First Corinthians. This is when Elijah first sees Elisha and it says, Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. So he departed thence, and listen to this, and found Elisha the son of Shaphath, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. So remember the concept here is that he's doing twice as much than what Elijah did. Well, really from a physical perspective, he's actually doing that even prior to actually performing these miracles because he's plowing with twelve yoke of oxen and he's actually the twelfth one. In other words, he's putting in most of the work, right? Well, when you look at the New Testament and you see the disciples of Jesus, there's twelve, and of course Judas was the son of perdition, but really the twelfth disciple was who? The apostle Paul. And who's the apostle who did more than all the other apostles? More than all the other oxen, so to speak, it was the apostle Paul. And in fact, it says in First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 8, it says, And last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not me to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me, the Bible says. And often the Bible describes Christians in the New Testament as being yoked up with Jesus Christ, being in the yoke with the Lord. And here the apostle Paul obviously performed way more works. He did way more missionary exploits and so many exploits than all the other disciples, him being the twelfth one. Well, in like manner, that's what we see with Elijah. So I think this is a picture that we're looking at here with Elijah as just emphasizing the fact that he just did twice as much. He put in more work in his ministry. Now go back to 2 Kings, if you would, 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 4, if you would. I'm going to just quickly review some of the miracles that he did in the beginning of his ministry. Of course, last week mentioned the fact that he parted the waters of the Jordan River. And what he did was he took the mantle of the prophet Elijah and he smote the waters with the mantle and they basically split in half and he was able to walk on dry ground. And that was actually the last miracle that Elijah did. And it was actually the first miracle that Elijah performed as well. And the picture there is the fact that he is that new man. Because the mantle, you think of a cloak that goes over, it's like a cloak, it could be somewhat of a hood or a cloak or a clothing, and really what it signifies is the fact that he's putting on the new man. And that's a principle for us to learn that if we're going to do anything of significance, we have to be walking in the new man. If we're going to divide the waters and do great exploits and get people saved and live for God and raise children that love the Lord and live a righteous life, we need to have on the mantle, which is Jesus Christ. The Bible says, put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof, the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us that we should be renewed in the spirit of our minds that we put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. And then we put on the new man, which after God has created in righteousness and true holiness. The emphasis there is that we need to be conscious of the fact that we are putting on on a daily basis so we can do great works for him. Put on that new man, that mantle. So he parted the waters of the Jordan River. In 2 Kings 2, he purified the waters at Jericho as well. And then also in 2 Kings 3, he filled the dry land with water and gave victory over the Moabites. And of course, in the New Testament, the Bible says of believers, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. You know, we as Christians, we come into a city, we come into a state, we come into a country and we're coming to quench the thirst of the lost by giving him the waters of eternal life. You understand what we see in John 4 and that's exactly what we see that Elisha did in 2 Kings 3. He also gave an endless supply of oil to the widow in 2 Kings 4. And then he also gave her the promise of a son, right? He gave us the promise of a son in 2 Kings 4. And then of course, the son dies. You know, he's working with his father and he says, my head, my head. And then he comes home, he lays on the lap of his mother and dies. Okay. They call for the prophet, the man of God, Elisha. He comes and he performs this kind of strange ritual, right? Where he lays on top of the boy twice, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, just kind of laying on top of him. He does it twice and the child resurrects. He comes back to life. And the principle that we learned there last week is the fact that he's basically picturing Jesus Christ because Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. You know, he tasted death for every man, the Bible says. And so he lays there and the Bible even says that Elisha stretched forth his hands, just as Jesus Christ stretched forth himself on the cross, bearing the sins of the whole world upon his own body that we may be saved and we can come back to life. We can be quickened in our spirit. Okay. And then the last miracle that we looked at was the healing of the death in the pot. And the principle we learned there is the fact that, you know, a lot of people, when they come to church, maybe they're not saved or they are saved, but they've been in the world for quite some time. They come with some death in the pot. You know, everyone can be looked upon as a vessel. And that vessel throughout the years will accumulate worldliness and sin and iniquity and transgressions. And people come with baggage, okay, emotional trauma and all these things that people can experience in the Christian life or just in life in general. And it's the responsibility of the man of God to heal the death in the pot, to remove that which is in the pot that can be detrimental to the person in their Christian life and so that they can enjoy serving the Lord. Okay. So those are the miracles that we looked at. We're going to conclude the miracles this evening. Look at 2 Kings 4, verse 42. So one thing that I want you to notice is that Elisha, there's like no dead time with Elisha. When you read the story of Elisha, it's like one miracle right after the other. You can literally just read every single chapter and it's just like once one miracle finished, he's carrying on with the next one, okay, which makes it for a very interesting read. Look at verse 42. It says, And there came a man from Baal-Shalisha and brought the man of God, bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full of ears of corn and the husks thereof. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat. And his servitor said, What should I set this before a hundred men? He said again, Give the people that they may eat. For thus saith the Lord, they shall eat and shall leave thereof. Another way of saying that is they shall have leftovers. Okay. So he set it before them and they did eat and left thereof according to the word of the Lord. So what did he do here? He multiplied the loaves. Now it's amazing to me to see these prophets doing these miracles and how similar they are to what Jesus Christ did. Because obviously in the New Testament, we have Jesus Christ multiplying the fish and the loaves for five thousand people and then for four thousand people. Five thousand men, four thousand men. Some would say it's actually more approximate to fifteen thousand just because the Bible typically only counts males. It's not including women and children. And so he multiplies the loaves. Now, that's a great miracle and we're going to look at some principles that we can learn from that. But I want you to notice here is that it's a hundred men that he's multiplying the loaves for, right? Jesus Christ did five thousand. He did four thousand, which is far greater than what Elisha did. And what does the Bible tell us in the book of Hebrews chapter number eight? It shows us or throughout the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is better. He's better than any prophet. He's better than any man of God. He's better than Moses. He brings in the better covenant. Why? Because he's able to do that much the more. Elisha did a great miracle with multiplying a hundred loaves. Jesus Christ did five thousand. You understand? And so it's just showing how much more in quantity and quality Jesus Christ does. But anytime I look at a story where resources are being multiplied, it's a wonderful truth to learn from because it shows us that God can multiply our resources. So don't ever think that, well, you know, I just don't have enough. Well, here's the thing is that they shall eat and shall leave thereof, the Bible says. God will always provide for you. He will always be there to help you pay your bills, to put groceries in the refrigerator, food on the table. You will never be lacking. In fact, David said this, I've not seen the righteous forsaken nor see begging bread. Should never read a time when Christians ever begged for bread, right? He said, why is that? Well, because if Christians are serving God, they're reading their Bibles, they are serving the Lord, they're in church, they're doing the best that they can to serve God. God will always provide for their needs. The Bible says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and these things shall be added unto you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and these things shall be added unto you, the Bible says. So as long as we take care of our responsibility of just obeying the Lord, okay? Now obviously there's some commands in the Bible that are pretty crazy and maybe sometimes hard to do, but you know what God expects for us to do just as much as we possibly can. And if we can just do that which we can do, He promises to keep us in the bargain of providing for us. You see, there's a teaching out there that says, well, God will always be happy with you and you know, He will always provide for you. Well, not necessarily there are stipulations to that. In order for God to provide for you, you have to obey Him. In order for God to protect you, you have to obey Him. In order for you to have access to that type of provision, you have to be in the right place. You understand? Now when it comes to salvation, there's no condition to that. No condition to salvation other than believing on Jesus Christ. But when we talk about condition, we're talking about something that you have to do on your part, some form of effort that you have to put into salvation. There is no effort that you have to put in on your part. But after that, in the Christian life, there's all types of conditions, okay? If you want to raise at your job, if you want to be blessed to the Lord in your resources, in your finances, with your possessions, with your family, no matter what, you know, there's a condition that's placed upon that if you want God to multiply the loaves. And you know what? This man had to obey Elisha in order for those loaves to multiply. But rest assured that when he multiplied them, not only was there enough to feed the hundred, there is left over as well. You know, the Bible tells us that He came to give us life, but life more abundantly as well. You know, we not only have everlasting life, folks, we have more than that. I mean, think about that for a minute. We not only have eternal life, which means we get to live forever, we get to have a great time while we're down here too. Now some Christians are just miserable down here. It's true. They just live miserably, they're just not happy, but I'll be honest with you, I don't know why. There's so much happiness and joy and wonderful things to experience as a Christian here in this life. You know, the millennial reign is not the only thing to look forward to. Now I look forward to the millennial reign. I look forward to the new heaven and the new earth, especially when you're, you know, in the midst of a trial, you look forward to those future events, right? But the truth is that you can have a good time here too. The truth is you can experience joy here as well, you can laugh here as well, you can experience happiness and joy and peace and all these wonderful virtues that God has to offer. We can enjoy God here. We don't have to wait for the millennial reign to enjoy the Lord, amen? And so just remember this is that God can multiply the loaves. There should never be a time in your life where you feel like, well, you know, I only have five of this or there's only a couple bucks in the bank or there's only, you know, so much I can do. Well, you know, the Bible tells us and it shows us that we never have to beg for bread. He'll provide for our needs. We need to basically examine ourselves to see if we're in the right position to be blessed with the Lord though. Can't expect to just be out in the world, being involved in sin, not in church, and still be blessed of God. Understand? Things need to be obeyed and so we see the multiplication of the loaves which is obviously a picture of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Go to chapter 5 if you would, chapter number 5. Now we're going to look at the healing of Naaman. It says in verse number 1, Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria he was also a mighty man in valor but he was a leper. So this guy, you know, has some great things under his belt, some great exploits, but this is just one minor thing. The guy's a diseased leper, okay? Not necessarily the coolest thing to be struck with. It says in verse 2, And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captives out of the land of Israel a little maid and she waited on Naaman's wife and she said unto her mistress, Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria? For he would recover him of his leprosy and one went in and told his Lord saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel and the king of Syria said, Go to go and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel and he departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment and he brought the letter to the king of Israel saying, Now where this letter is coming to thee behold I have there with sent Naaman my servant to thee that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. It came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that he rent his clothes and said, Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider I pray you and see how he seeketh the quarrel against me. So what's going on here? You know the king of Syria wants his general, his captain so to speak, to be recovered of this leprosy. Okay so they send a letter to the king of Israel so that they can get in contact with Elisha who's the man of God there and this king is like this guy wants a quarrel with me I can't make anybody alive I can't you know kill I can't really do anything about this I can't heal him of his leprosy I'm not God. Which by the way is a great principle that the answers are not found with politicians and kings and magistrates. There's certain issues there's certain problems that can never be solved by kings and magistrates and presidents because they're all they're just men. He said who should they go to? Well according to this verse they need to go to the man of God. They need to go to the man of God. Yeah but the man of God is not that prestigious he's not that important you know what can he do that the king can't? Well here the Elisha the man of God has the answer and it's the word of God. Okay but even this king understood I can't do anything you know and and people have to stop depending on the government to help them in their in their situations and their problems. I mean obviously now people are losing a lot of faith in the government obviously you know because the the head of the United States of America you know Biden is is a leper himself you know he's he needs help himself so he's like he's coming to me to recover a man of his leprosy but he's like he probably just wants to quarrel with me because I can't do anything about that. Look at verse 8 and it was so when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes he said to the king saying wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. And you know what every generation needs someone like Elisha to say hey don't worry you don't have to go to the White House you don't have to go to Tucker Carlson you don't have to go to Alex Jones amen amen oh man yeah you don't have to go to all these conspiracy theories you can just go to the man of God. And he's like look there's a prophet in Israel now look in 2022 we have more than one prophet in the United States of America there's dozens of prophets here that can give you the answer don't put your faith in the shadow of Egypt. He says in verse 9 so Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots and stood at the door of the house of Elisha and Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shall be clean. I love Elisha's attitude he's not like oh man there's a king oh man this guy's a politician he just sent the guy to go tell him he's like I got other things to do I'm going to delegate this to a messenger instead okay which shows us that Elisha is not a respecter of people he doesn't care who this guy is this guy has leprosy and by the way leprosy is a picture of what it's a picture of sin so this shows us that politicians and and magistrates mayors governors the common people they all have sin everyone's plagued with this with this thing of leprosy okay everyone has sin it says in verse number 10 so he tells them look go into the wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shall be clean verse 11 but Naaman was wroth and went away and said behold I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper he thought this is like some sort of charismatic like meeting or something like that he's like I should have just gone to the pentecostal church at least there they would do the whole theatrics and you know swing their coat around and slap me a couple times and you know he's upset at this and here's the thing what Elisha is asking him to do or telling him to do is not hard at all just go into the Jordan seven times and you'll be clean well this guy has has had leprosy for who knows how long and he's mad that he's not asking him to do something more difficult he says in verse 12 are not Abana and Parfar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel may I not wash in them and be clean so he turned and went away in a rage and the servants came near and spoken to him and said my father if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it how much rather than when he say to thee wash and be clean so he's basically saying like look it's an easy thing for you to do why would you want to make it hard on yourself now obviously this is a beautiful picture of salvation right because of the fact that you know salvation is easy we believe in believe easy believeism because it is easy to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ it's easy to be saved you place your faith in Christ plus nothing minus nothing you believe you can never lose your salvation and boom you have eternal life simple in fact salvation is easier than what Elijah asked Naaman to do we don't have to go into any river to wash seven times all we have to do is believe on Jesus Christ and then we're washed with the blood of the lamb seven times to completion to perfection when we're forgiven of all sins past present and future you see the blood of Christ doesn't only forgive of past sins the Bible tells us in Romans chapter number four blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin referring to future sins whose sins are covered you know the Bible tells us that his sins are covered that is his iniquity shall not be imputed upon him all you have to do is believe it's something very simple the blood of Christ washes all the sins away okay now look you'll run into people out sowing that they they kind of don't like this message or it kind of bothers them rubs them the wrong way like all you're saying that all you have to do is believe all you have to do is place your faith in Jesus you know it can't be now let them say that because they're just unsaved what what really ticks me off is when you have so-called Christians who claim to believe in the Bible you know Calvinists and those who believe in Reformed theology and these Pentecostal charismatic types who will make that argument and say oh are you saying that that's all you have to do to believe hey the devils believe and tremble that's what they'll tell you right they'll bring up James chapter 2 no you have to have works coupled with your faith and what are they saying they're saying that's too easy well yeah it's too easy because of the fact that Jesus Christ did the hard part he already did the hard part you know and think about this how prideful and arrogant do you have to be of a person to say well it's not enough that Jesus Christ died and the cross was buried went to hell for three days and three nights and resurrected on the third day I have to do something as well you're basically saying that his death burial and resurrection isn't sufficient to save you that it requires something on your behalf aside from the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ the son of God somehow you have to partake in your own salvation you have to go to Parfar you know you got to go to Parfar you got to go to Abana you have to do some great exploit to merit salvation it's foolishness it's nonsense for by grace are you safe through faith and that not of yourself it is the gift of God not of works the standing man should boast and you know a lot of people get this stuff mixed up because of the fact they just don't understand the simplicity that is in Christ they downgrade salvation by by making it seem as though it's it's you know what he did is insufficient but they also don't understand that their righteousness are as filthy racks because they say well you have to repent of your sins because nothing unclean can enter into heaven well yeah that's what I'm saying too so it's funny you know you know that nothing unclean can enter into heaven and you're an unclean person and the reason you're unclean is because you can't repent of all your sins yet somehow by your logic you think well if I could just repent of this one sin if I could just stop drinking fornicating you know gambling smoking that'll help me to merit salvation if I could just go swim in the rivers of of Parfar then that would make sense that salvation would be given to me based upon that action folks there's something called the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the only type of righteousness that God accepts is the righteousness of Jesus Christ it doesn't accept your righteousness there's there's none righteous no not one the Bible says there's none that do with good no not one and so if you think you have to do something on your part you're saying I have to exercise my own righteousness to earn eternal life but hold on a second you've not submitted yet to the righteousness of God because the righteousness of God is Jesus Christ it's his righteousness that you need that's why you need the imputation of his righteousness in order to be saved because God is not going to look at you say okay yeah this man's a righteous man I'm gonna let him into heaven no he looks at to see do you have the righteousness of Jesus right because it's the only righteousness that he accepts I mean point to me you know show me an example of an Israelite in the book of Exodus that's you know put his own blood on the post not one example of that it's not one example of an Israelite who put his own blood on the post of the door so that you know Apollyon wouldn't come and kill him no they put the blood of the lamb which was symbolic of Jesus Christ the lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world okay you know to say that you have to do your part is to say well you have to shed your own blood too then right but your blood can't save you okay you have sinned against God and you know you've been slain by the law according to Romans chapter number seven and the law is not meant to save anyone therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law right the law is meant to help you to understand that you need a savior it's meant to remove all the excuses so that you stand guilty before God and recognize it's a schoolmaster to bring you unto Christ but yet there's people out there still you know oh no you got to go swim in the in Abana and Parfar rivers of Damascus you got to go do some crazy thing in order to be saved you got to speak in tongues you got to get baptized and the same people believe you have to be baptized believe you could lose your salvation explain that so how many times are you baptized throughout the year good night because at that point how many times do you think you sin I mean the bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin people are guilty of presumptuous sins people sin with you know what they look at what they say what they think and so you know we need the forgiveness of all sins past present and future that only comes through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ when we believe on him okay not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing regeneration and renewing of who of you no the holy ghost okay but it takes humility that's why it takes humility to get saved the number one factor the element that's necessary for salvation aside from Jesus Christ himself the only element that you need on your part is humility to humble yourself as a little child and you know what that's the main reason a lot of people don't get saved because it's so prideful and arrogant they think they can do it their way they think that it's the you know it's their way or the highway and look you can show them verse after verse after verse after verse you can show them some of the most clear scriptures on salvation and they will pick some obscure scripture from like Hebrews 10 or something it's like what in the world do you want salvation he says in verse number 14 then he went down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God look what it says in his flesh came again like into the flesh of a little child and he was clean the bible says this is like he was born again right he's born again he's washed he's a child of God but as many as receive them to them give you power to become the sons of God even unto them that believe on his name says in verse 15 he returned to the man of God he and all his company and came and stood before him and he said behold now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel now therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant but he said as the Lord liveth behold whom I stand I will receive none and he urged him to take it but he refused so Naaman you know he has a lot of gratitude he's thankful for for Elisha and the miracle that he was able to perform and he wants to give him a gift out of gratitude and you know sometimes you'll meet people like that at the door or they're just like let me get you a water let me get you something you know they're just they're just they're so grateful for what you've done by showing them the gospel and how easy it was that they want to give you something in return and but he refused it he's like no verse 17 says a Naaman said shall then not then I pray thee be given to thy servant two mules burden of earth for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offerings nor sacrifice unto the gods but unto the Lord this actually reminds me when we did the sony marathon in south central I was with my family and we're out preaching the gospel and we ran into this lady and and she was saved like you know it's always a blessing to run and save people when you're out sony and you know she was saved she gave all the right answers I don't know if she was a Baptist but she gave all the right answers she didn't believe you could lose your salvation and it was it was just a blessing it was a good conversation it was encouraging and then we moved on we finished our block and then we're coming back we're coming back to our vehicle because we're done with the with the our area and there's a truck that was pulling out and there's like two cars behind that that that truck and they're kind of parked kind of crooked and they're like honking right and my family and I were walking and then the this lady gets out and she's all you you and I'm like oh man it's about to get crazy here what's going on you know because I'm in south central LA you just never know but I realized it's the lady who I preached the gospel to who was saved and she's like take this and she I think it was like 20 bucks she goes go take your kids out for ice cream she was like I I'm so glad I'm so thankful there's people out here preaching the gospel she's like I'm already saved but I see you doing the work take this I was like no no no no no you know I don't want to take that she's like take it for your kids and and the guy was like honking at her right and he was like honking at her because she's like keeping up traffic and then I was just like well I appreciate it so I took it and we never went to go get ice cream after that I used it for something else or something I'm just kidding this is for daddy I'm just kidding muzzle not the ox that's right now I'm just kidding but it was funny because the person was like really upset and then she turned around and she said something like the man of god or he's a christian and then he stopped he was like right on man right on and then he just stopped honking he was just happy after that you know but you know sometimes sometimes people are just grateful they're just thankful and even if they're saved you know don't don't don't condemn people who are saved who are not preaching the gospel who you'd knock the door of because you coming to their door because sometimes actually challenge them to go sowing you know because they see it they're like man this is what I should be doing you don't even have to tell them because they know that's right they already know like I should be doing this and so it encourages them that you're out there and it's you're it's it's it's hot outside and you have a suit on you got your kids and it's a challenge until you're you're being a light unto them to go out and preach the gospel right okay have a sweet spirit when you go out and it says in verse number 18 in this thing the lord pardoned thy servant that when thy master goeth into the house of rima and to worship there and he leant on my hand and I bow myself into the house of rima when I bowed down myself in the house of rima the lord pardoned thy servant in his thing in other words he's like you know I just you think god will forgive me because I'm gonna go back and I have to go into this pagan house to go worship there but I'm just gonna you know I'm just gonna I'm gonna bow myself he's basically making excuses in other words now it doesn't mean he believes in rima or he worships rima in his heart he's just doing it because that's what they do over there he said well that's not right yeah but you know how many catholics you've won to the lord who probably still go to the catholic church because of their wife or their husband or whatever happens all the time okay you know it's just sometimes the nature of people and you can't expect someone to get saved and just no doctrine right off the bat understand they just they don't know everything that you know right off the bat they have to come to the house of god and learn these things amen and he sends him go in peace so he departed from him a little way so notice elijah's response he didn't tell him oh dude you're wicked you're gonna go to the house of rima did rima save you did rima wash you and make you clean is that what he did for you and you're gonna go over there and do that he didn't do it he just said go in peace he didn't like he didn't even address what he said he's just going in peace he's just like whatever you know just and look folks we win we win people to christ every single week and a lot of them don't come to church i know that they're saved then but because they made a profession of faith to call upon the name of the lord but they should be in church yeah they should be but i mean what do you want me to do you claiming out all these salvations where they at at their home i can show you their address where they live they're they're still where we left them it's so stupid you know but the reality is we can't expect people at the door to know everything it's not like okay let's bump heads and biosmosis you just know everything that i know or something they have to come to the house of god to learn these things and look some of you came to the house of god not knowing certain things that were wrong you came you learned that they were wrong you're like oh man i didn't know that but now i do all of us myself included what do you mean amen just kidding go to chapter five i'm just kidding chapter five so what we have is he multiplied the loaves he healed naman and then he also cursed gehazi with leprosy woke up moses look at verse 21 so gehazi who's gehazi gehazi is is elijah's servant he's kind of like his go-to guy he's his right-hand man it's like his messenger okay his servant it says in verse 21 so gehazi followed after naman and when naman saw him running after him he lighted down from the chariot to meet him and said is all well and he said all is well my master has sent me saying behold even now there be come to me from mount ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets give them i pray the talent of silver and two changes of garments actually before i get into this i forgot to mention this in the beginning of the sermon from last week you know when when uh the the widows woman uh the widow woman excuse me the widow's son died they asked her is all well and what did she say it is well that's actually the inspiration for the song it is well with my soul because the the writer of that song actually lost his children he lost his children so that's actually the inspiration for that song is from the woman who lost her child because she said it is well so even in the midst of losing her her her child they said how are you doing she's like it is well it is well so i just want to mention that it's a beautiful little parallel there but he says there all is well my master has sent me saying behold even now there be come to me from mount ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets give them i pray the talent of silver and two changes of garments so what's going on here is this really happening no gehazi's lying because naman wants to be a blessing to elisha for healing him and elisha doesn't care about possessions he doesn't care about money he doesn't care about offerings he doesn't care about possessions or resources he's just content with just serving god right content with what he has but gehazi hears about what was going to be given to elisha and he's like i gotta i need to have some of that so he goes after naman and he makes up the story that the sons of the prophets would want the talent of silver and the two changes of garments it's actually for himself and he says in verse 23 but naman said be content the irony in that statement take two talents and he urged them and bound two talents of silver in two bags and with two changes of garments and lay them upon two of his servants and they bear them before him and when he came to the tower he took them for from their hand and bestowed them in the house and he let the men go and they departed but he went in and stood before his master and elijah said unto him whence comest thou gehazi and he said thy servant went no wither he's lying again it's like i didn't go anywhere and he said unto him when not my heart with thee when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee is it a time to receive money and to receive garments and olive yards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and men servants and maid servants the leprosy therefore of naman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed forever and he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow and so the principle that we can learn here from gehazi is that greed is a dangerous thing covetousness which can lead and manifest itself and greed can be a dangerous thing and it's it's almost it pictures leprosy pictures that covetousness because it just covers you it can plague you right and gehazi i think gehazi is a safe person you know he's a safe person he's serving the man of god but this shows us that even the servants of god the servants of the the the man of god and the prophet can still fall into this trap of being covetous which the bible also refers to idolatry and you know often we think of the most worst sins that a christian can commit right fornication or drunkenness and sometimes we neglect to think about one of the most dangerous sins is actually covetousness the desire to have something that doesn't belong to you or something that you should not have at this moment covetousness can destroy your life it's like leprosy and unfortunately with gehazi you know he ended up becoming covetous greedy and what will it cause you to do lie cause you to just lie and and make up stories and become unrighteous in your in your in your pursuit for possessions go with me if you would to uh chapter six chapter number six look at verse number one of second kings it says the sons of the prophet sent unto elijah behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us let us go we pray thee unto jordan and take thence every man a beam and let us make a place there where we may dwell and he answered go ye so what we see here is that elijah is building up a following not only just a general following but a following of prophets so he's inspiring other preachers to preach the word of god they're following him and he's accumulating so many of these prophets that they're saying hey you know where we're dwelling here it's too narrow for us like not all of us can figure so let's go to jordan and then make a place there so we can dwell there you know it can suffice the growth of the prophets here it says in verse three and one said be content i pray thee and go with thy servants and he answered i will go so he went with them and when they came to jordan they cut down wood and as one was felling a beam the axe head fell into the water and he cried and said alas master for it was borrowed so he's working the guy's a good guy he's trying to just you know create a dwelling place for the prophets and as he's doing this the beam of the axe head falls off and it goes into the water obviously it has weight so it just sinks right and he's like i borrowed that it's not even mine you know and the man of god said where fell it and he showed him the place and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither and the iron did swim therefore said he take it up to thee and he put it out of his hand and took it go to exodus chapter 22 hold your place here in second kings chapter 6 very interesting story and i'm gonna say this again you know some of the miracles we see with elijah is just weird sometimes you know it's like random stuff like it's just like laying on the kid or like twice and just strange strange things but they have such a beautiful picture behind it though and this is a very strange story you know the fact that the accent fell into the water it sunk it was borrowed and elijah came and he broke off a stick and he put it in the water and by a miraculous occurrence basically the axe had started floating again now what is the significance of this story okay well he said it is borrowed okay and according to levitical law if something if you borrowed something well let's read it exodus 22 verse 14 it says and if a man borrow out of his neighbor and it be heard or died the owner thereof be not with it he shall surely make it good but if the owner thereof be with it he shall not make it good if it be in higher thing it came for his hire so it's basically the same you know if you borrowed something and you broke it you messed it up or you borrowed some ox you borrowed something that belonged to someone else for for work and you damaged it you killed the ox you killed the animal something happened to it it's not yours you borrowed it well you're gonna have to make it good in other words you're in debt to that okay now here's the thing is that because these prophets are actually men of god they probably don't have a lot of money you understand what i'm saying you know these aren't this doesn't get hay's eye right here or something you know these are guys they're just serving god and they probably don't they probably just have enough for the day or you know they're probably just kind of you know living off of whatever people give them and so this guy who borrowed this axe obviously he doesn't have enough money because he's borrowing the axe so now he's in debt and you know this puts him in a very difficult position because he's in debt so what does elijah do he performs this miracle to cause the axe head to float so now he's basically redeemed of that debt okay you obviously know where i'm heading with this because of the fact that this is basically what jesus christ did for us you know our sin put us in debt right and it was a debt that we could not pay you say how deep was the debt well that axe head probably sunk all the way down to the bottom to the point where you could not retrieve it back again but it wasn't until the wood of that cross came that we were redeemed and we no longer had to pay that debt why because jesus christ paid it for us you know and this is always something good to just kind of ponder on think about you know is the fact that uh there was a time if you remember the story in the new testament where we were indebted because of our sin are we we you know our sin placed us in this sin debt where we deserve to pay that wage which is death we deserve hell and there's no amount of money that you could ever pay there's no amount of righteousness that you can do there's no amount of works that you can complete to redeem you of that sin debt what do we need we need the cross we need jesus christ to pay for us and to to redeem us back unto himself okay so thank god for that amen go to chapter six i must hasten here the next miracle is the striking the enemies with blindness look at verse eight it says the king of syria warred against israel and took counsel with his servants saying in such and such a place shall be my camp and the man of god sent unto the king of israel saying beware that thou past not such a place for thither the syrians are come down the king of israel sent to the place which the man of god told him and warned him of and saved himself there not once nor twice therefore the heart of the king of syria was sore trouble for this thing he called his servants and said unto him will ye now shall be my servants will ye now show me which of us is for the king of israel and whatever servant said none my lord oh king but elisha the prophet that is in israel tell it the king of israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber this is funny so you know he's basically saying like because god's on his side elisha it doesn't matter if you speak something in secret if god wants the prophet to know about he's going to let him know about it okay and he said go inspire where he is that i fetch him and it was told him saying behold he is in dothan therefore sent he thither horses and chariots and a great host and it came by night and compass the city about and when the servant of the man of god was risen early and gone forth behold and host come past the city both with horses and chariots and his servant sent him alas my master how shall we do now i love this story here because you have all this entire army and then you have elisha one man with his little leper friend here this guy has lepers he's like what shall we do geheziah is not going to help him in the city like what is he going to do but obviously he's afraid and he answered fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them this is an amazing statement and i'm sure uh you know the servant's like those guys are there they're not for us i don't know if that's what you're thinking elisha prayed and said verse 17 lord i pray the open his eyes that he may see and the lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about elisha so elisha wasn't scared why because he understood that god's angels were protecting him and you know the servant is like scared he's like what are we gonna do there's more of them to be with than then you know than us and elijah tells us don't be afraid there's actually more of us than there are with them he prays for them to open his eyes and he sees this heavenly host of angels that are protecting them and look folks the miracle that we see here is obviously something that's subject only to the old testament as far as him being able to see it but the fact that angels protect god's people is still a thing in the new testament okay it will always be a thing in the new testament ten thousand can follow your right side ten thousand can fall on your left but it shall not come nigh unto thee the bible tells us so anytime you feel like you're outnumbered by the enemies of god anytime you feel like there's more of them than they are of you just just mark it down there's more of us than they are of them and let me say this let's just take the the the variable of angels out of the equation you and god still make the majority if god before us who can be against us but it's not like that because he still sends his and he promises to send his angels to protect us okay you know and i think of course that last year the whole protest and the bombing you know it's very easy to just get caught up in what you see it's very easy to get caught up and what your eyes are beholding and how there's people out there and they're doing all this but you know what it takes discipline to stop and think wait hold on a second there's a lot of them out there but there's actually more of us than there are of them and i'm not referring to those who are in the congregation i'm talking about the congregation and the heavenly hosts that are protecting us right now i believed it beyond a shadow of a doubt that when i walked outside of those doors there's a host of heavenly angels and i'm not talking about the police either i'm talking about the the angels who are watching us i i believe it beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was the case for sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that that was the case okay and you know at the end of the day you say well but you guys are just a church we're god's church you know if you know if you need to understand how this works you need to revisit the sermon from this morning okay we're being persecuted by you know that the sons of belial and i truly believe that there was a heavenly host now were they on chariots of fire uh yeah i think so amen he was like you got you got you got the chariots of fire then you got the against the flamers amen fear not for they that be with us are more than they be with with them a lot of faith and actually it takes more faith in the new testament than it did for them because we will we probably will never see that in our lifetime obviously something we have to accept by faith okay when they came down to him elijah prayed unto the lord and said smite this people i pray thee with blindness now we didn't have to pray that during the protest because they're already spent with blindness their heart was darkened okay he said smite them with blindness i pray thee with blindness and he smote them with blindness according to the word of elijah and elijah said unto them this is not the way neither is this the city follow me and i will bring you to the man whom you seek but he led them to samaria so he's just like hey you're in the wrong place let me take you to the right place okay now here's the thing is that this particular army wasn't as bad as the army that met us in omani okay these are still people who can be saved these are not reprobates this is just a matter of war this is just a matter of warfare here and so he begins to lead them and he takes them to samaria which is a which is an enemy of that army okay and he says in verse 20 and it came to pass when they were come to into samaria that elijah said lord open the eyes of these men that they may see and the lord opened their eyes and they saw and behold they were in the midst of samaria and the king of israel said to elijah when he saw them my father shall i smite them shall i smite them because it's like he they just brought it to us on a silver platter he's like should i just kill him should i just kill him now and he answered thou shall not smite them what is thou smite those whom thou has taken captive with the sword and with thy bow set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master and he prepared great provision for them and when they had eaten and drunk he sent them away and they went to their master so the bands of syria came no more into the land of israel what does this show what does this show us it shows us that you know jesus christ in the new testament for example is good on the evil and on the just understand and even though they're smitten with blindness he showed them mercy okay and this is a principle for us to learn that the people who are smitten with blindness out there people who are just not safe because the god of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe not we need to lead them by the hand to a place where they can come to the saving knowledge of jesus christ all right we need to take them kindly and bring them to the truth that's what we need to do okay you know we're obviously in general christians are the enemies of the world but not everyone in the world is our enemy you understand we need to have a compassionate heart towards those who are lost even those who may hate us sometimes not because they're reprobate just because they have a bad taste in their mouth because of christianity we need to be kind to them and and not seek for an opportunity to just slay them spiritually speaking we need to lead them and bring them to the bread and water which is jesus christ okay and if they want to eat they can eat if they don't they don't but we do our part to make sure that they get to that point okay go to chapter 6 verse 31 uh actually let's see here because i'm i'm pretty much out of time go to chapter 8 go to chapter number 8 i'm going to skip some of this because we we see in chapter 6 where he prophesies of relief of course there is a famine in the land and he brings relief to the people he also prophesies of the death of ben haydad and and you can read that story there in uh chapter 8 as well here is the coolest miracle in my opinion though which is the last miracle this is an awesome miracle that he that he accomplishes here and he actually does it without even being alive because he's actually dead at this point look at verse number 14 now elijah was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died and joash the king of israel came down into him and wept over his face and said oh my father my father the chariot of israel and the horsemen thereof and elijah said unto him take bows and arrows and he took unto him a bow and arrow and he said to the king of israel put thine hand upon the bow and he put his hand upon it and elijah put his hand upon the king's hands and he said open the windows eastward and he opened it then elijah said shoot and he shot and he said the arrow of the lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from syria for thou shall smite the syrians in affect till thou has consumed them and he said take the arrows and he took them and he said unto the king of israel smite upon the ground he smote thrice and stayed the man of god was wrought with him and said thou should have smitten five or six times then has thou smitten syria till thou has consumed it whereas now thou shall smite syria but thrice he's basically gave him an option as many times as he would smite on the ground is that that's how many times he would have conquered his enemy verse 20 and elijah died and they buried him and the bands and the moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year and it came to pass as they were burying a man you know burying a man in other words a guy who was dead that behold they spied a band of men and they cast the man into the sepulcher of elijah so they're trying to bury this guy they're trying to do the ceremony but then their enemies are coming so they're like we got to hide this body because if not you know maybe the the the our enemies are basically going to desecrate the body or something so they throw them into the sepulcher of elijah elijah has been dead for quite some time at this point and they cast them into them cast the man into the sepulcher of elijah and when the man was let down and touched the bones of elijah he revived and stood up on his feet so they're like hide them hide them they throw them into the grave and then he hits the bones of elijah in other words he's been dead for a long time right and then what happens he just comes back to life that's an amazing miracle now what does that tell us it tells us that elijah had influence and power even after his death he being dead yet speaking and obviously that's a picture of jesus christ right because even after his death and his resurrection his ascension he hasn't been on this earth for 2 000 years he's still influencing getting people saved and doing a great work but you know i i also believe that this can picture us as well that we can leave a legacy where we're still getting people saved even after we die i mean there are men of god of times past who are still affecting people's lives to this day even though they're dead think of brother hyles for example who he's been dead for quite some time but people are still talking about him today he's still leading people to righteousness today he still has power in his preaching even unto this day and so one of the greatest miracles and you know one thing that we can learn from this is that we we should want to leave a legacy behind a legacy that when someone runs into our preaching or runs into our name you know it brings them back to life so to speak it inspires them whatever and so elijah great prophet of god did a lot of great miracles uh that we should strive to to do in a spiritual sense not in a literal way okay and of course the greatest miracle that he really did in a sense is the fact that he was able to bring someone back to life which is exactly what we should be doing when we go out and preach the gospel we quicken them by the gospel amen let's pray father we thank you so much for the life of elijah and all the miracles that you performed through him what a great example to us lord i pray that you help us to strive for that in our lifetime lord and bless us as we go home as we prepare for the following week lord and to take to heart the things that we heard tonight in jesus name amen please hear your song books the song number 175 it's just like his great love song number 175 as our last song all together nice and strong on that first verse a friend i have called jesus whose love is strong and true and never fails our tears shrine no matter what i do i've sinned against the this love of his but when i knell to pray confessing all my guilt to him the sin clouds rolled away it's just like jesus to roll the clouds away to keep me day by day it's just like jesus all along the way it's just like his great love sometimes the clouds of trouble oh the sky above i cannot see my savior's face i doubt his wondrous love but he from heaven's mercy seat beholding my despair in pity burst the clouds between and shows me he is there it's just like jesus to roll the clouds away it's just like jesus to keep me day by day it's just like jesus all along the way it's just like his great love when sorrows clouds or take me and pray upon my head when life seems worse than useless and i were better dead and i take my grief to jesus then nor do i go in vain for heavenly hope he gives that cheers like sunshine after rain it's just like jesus to roll the clouds away it's just like jesus to keep me day by day it's just like jesus all along the way it's just like his great love oh i could sing forever of jesus love divine of all his care and tenderness poor life of mine his love is in and overall and wind and waves obey when jesus whispers peace be still and rolls the clouds away it's just like jesus to roll the clouds away it's just like jesus to keep me day by day it's just like jesus all along the way it's just like his great love amen wonderful singing wonderful singing you are dismissed