Naaman's Gospel, Leprosy to Healing: Part 1

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Jesus Feeds The Multitudes: Part 2

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So the title of my sermon today is Naaman's gospel leprosy to healing part one.
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I know we've been talking at least at least this year as I've been doing I've been going through Matthew 11 Holy violence, but today this
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I'm just gonna take a this is a quick break We'll have a I'm gonna do one or two more in this. It's gonna be a series. So Please turn to my text daily second
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Kings 5 so go ahead. Please turn there So how many of you are familiar with the condition
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Known as savant syndrome. I'm not sure if that's something a lot of people have heard of Savant syndrome is a very rare condition
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It's a physiological disorder where a person actually has an imbalance in their brain And so what this leads to is if people have extreme brilliance in certain areas and in other areas they have serious very serious handicaps
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People with this condition often have photographic memories and a lot of people say they have a photographic memory But savant people actually do have photographic memories.
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They've I've watched a few documentaries They've been able to like, you know, they'll play a piece of music once and the person play it back perfectly, right?
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They can this one person master language in a week So there's you know, the this one
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TV show. I watched this PBS. This guy went to Iceland. It's a very difficult language They gave him one week there at the end of a week.
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He gave an interview in Icelandic on if it was fluent in it Right, so that's as I mean, that's really incredible There was another man that and this is one
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I've heard of if you told him a date anytime forward or backward He could tell you instantly what day of the week it was whether it was the 1900s or day
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He just had that memorized the most famous one. There's a man named Kim Peake. He's an American from Salt Lake City He spent he can speed read books in a few hours
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He can recall any line from any of the 12 ,000 books he's ever read in his life If you ask him what's on this page, which in this chapter, he will read it out to you
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That's how good his brain is, right? But what's interesting about these people as people with this condition they often need a caretaker for their entire life
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They struggle with very simple tasks. A lot of them can't feed themselves A lot of them can't you know, go to the bathroom unassisted.
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They have to have help shower They like it so they have extreme brilliance and they have an extreme handicap This is as you can imagine it spawned the juxtaposition or combination of extreme intellect and serious handicaps
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This is really fascinating researchers for years. There's many articles and videos out there
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If you go search savant syndrome, you'll see a lot about there In the Old Testament we see the story of the man who was a brilliant commander and an honorable man
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But his life was marred by a serious handicap namely namely leprosy and so we're going to focus on that today
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The story of Naaman in the Old Testament as I was looking at it. There's many similarities I believe with this his life in the process of justification believers life in my sermon today
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I want to catalog these similarities and uncover the gospel message that's being preached this narrative
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Something I've noticed I think and I there's a there's a book called the old became new or some or the
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Word became fresh that talks with the Old Testament Historical near historical books like Kings and Samuel I think are often the hardest to preach from I mean
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It's very easy to at least for me to preach from Romans or for second Peter when you get to the historical narrative It's like how do I preach from this?
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It's a story Law is easy to preach from poetry gospels and the epistles, but when you get down to a historical narrative
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It's like what is the Lord trying to teach us here? It really I really I struggle with it I'm not sure. I'm sure other pastors do as well
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You know the applications or commands in these books. They're not like they're given indirectly
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It's not like where Roman says do not steal You know Hebrew says do not forsake assembling yourself together like the other books about was are clear
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Historical books are a narrative and you have to draw biblical truth out of them However, the narrative in the
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Old Testament They are just as important because the Bible says all the Bible is important for teaching preaching teaching reproof
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Correction and training and righteousness you have to put in more diligence to dig through the Old Testament narrative to find the application there but when you do
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God will reward you so there is the reward is equivalent like whether you read the Philippians and get something out quickly or the
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Old Testament have to dig more and it's still rewards. You don't give up on the historical books Let's turn to second
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Kings 5 and I'm gonna read verses 1 through 12 Sorry. Oh, yeah second
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Kings 5 starting in verse 1 in the read through 12 Now Naaman captain of the army the king of Aram was a great man with his master and Highly respected because the by him the
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Lord had given victory to Aram This man was also a valiant warrior But he was a leper Now the
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Arameans had gone out in bands and taking captive a little girl from the land of Israel and she waited on Naaman's wife
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She said to her mistress. I wish that my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria Then he would cure him of leprosy
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Naaman went in and she told and told his master that saying thus thus and thus spoke the girl who's from the land of Israel The king of Aram said go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel He departed and took with him ten talents of silver six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes
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He brought the letter to the king of Israel saying and now as this letter comes to you behold I have sent
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Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him of his leprosy When the king of Israel heard this he tore his clothes and said am
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I God to kill and make alive? This man is sending word to cure a man of leprosy But consider now he is seeking a quarrel against me
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It happened when Elijah the man of God heard the king of Israel had torn his clothes He sent words the king saying why have you turned your clothes now?
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Let him come to me and he shall know there's a prophet in Israel So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elijah Elisha sent a messenger a lot sent a messenger to him saying go and wash her in the
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Jordan seven times and your flesh will be Restored to you be clean, but Naaman was furious and went away and said behold
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I thought surely he will come out to me and stand and call him the name of his God and wave his hand over me and cure me are
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Not the Abenash and the par for the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel Could I not wash in them and be clean so he turned and went away in a rage
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So my first point I'm gonna talk about today is number one is an intrepid soldier
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Second Kings 5 one says now Naaman commander of the army of Syria was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master
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Because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper
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In this first verse of second Kings We learned many important facts about Naaman name it was a Syrian who commanded the army of the army of Syria the nation of Syria should not be confused with the
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Assyrians who conquered the northern kingdom in 721 BC the Assyrian Emperor the
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Assyrian Empire included Syria because they took over the world They took over Syria, but a Syria the nation and Syria the nation are totally distinct
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The Assyrians came from modern -day Iraq while the nation of Syria So if you think of the Assyrians you think of modern -day
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Iraq, that's the Assyrians the Syrians Is a Canaanite nation that still exists the border of Israel like if you this capital
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Syria is still Damascus. It's still right there Switching back to our
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Protagonist Naaman had experienced great success in battle which made him popular with his subordinates and the king
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The Bible uses the superlatives great and honorable which indicates that he was not just a man of X He wasn't just an excellent leader, but he was a man of characters as well
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This is a rare combination in the pages as the pages of Scripture are Replete or there's many examples of leaders that had only one or two of these qualities
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Let's consider the case of David's general Joab, right? He was a superb military leader. Very good
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But he was also rebellious and treacherous He defied a direct order of David to kill Absalom and he deceitfully murdered his rival a
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Mesa because he thought he'd be a threat He said well, I'm not gonna be replaced by a Mesa. So he killed him as well On his deathbed
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David actually commanded Solomon. He said go back and kill Joab for what he did So he was a good commander views on honorable man turning book to the book of Judges We find a military officer who was the antithesis of Joab So Barack was a righteous man yet his refusal to go to battle without Deborah cost him a chance at greatness
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His courage rests on the presence of a woman. He wasn't just Deborah said God will go with you That wasn't enough for him. He said
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I'll send Deborah with me This flaw cost him a chance at greatness as God allowed JL to kill
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Sisera as punishment for his unbelief and cowardice and if you remember what Deborah says in that chapter
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She says I will go with you But because you're because of this the glory is gonna go to a woman which was a curse on him
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The glory doesn't go to the commander. The glory goes to woman because you didn't trust God The author of Kings most likely
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Samuel most people say it Samuel indicated the Lord had given Syria victory by him The scriptures are not clear.
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I don't think it's very clear here if this means by name and skill Because he was a very talented general because the
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Lord was showing him favor because you know when God gives when God says the Babylon king I've given these people to your hands
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It doesn't matter how skillful they are so either the Lord was with Naaman or he was a good commander or a combination of both Regardless of God's reason though It's clear that Naaman's military successes had greatly benefited his country and made him a favorite of the king
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Our verse said he found favor in the eyes of his master This same language is frequently attributed to God throughout the pages of Scripture Proverbs 15 3 says the eyes of the
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Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and the good 2nd Chronicles 69 says the eyes of the
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Lord roam through the earth so that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his It's a great gift to be celebrated by the
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God -ordained leaders of your country. That's that's quite a gift However, finding favor in the eyes of God of universe is infinitely superior to that God's favor is unalterable
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It's everlasting and unlike the favor of men God's favor persists beyond the great once Naaman died
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That was it but God's favor will follow you into eternity God's favor is the only sure foundation for our souls like that is the foundation we're on Finally Naaman he was known as a man of valor
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This was not a leader that cowered in the baggage while his men went out to fight He had gained the respect of his subordinates because he was a very intrepid man in the heat of battle
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You know people lead by examples If you think about you know famous general throughout history, especially in the olden times
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They would be out there in the front leading Alexander great. He fought in front of his men They said fight in the back. He said no
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I fight in the front. So he was a very brave man as well He had a lot of advantages, but he had a very significant weakness
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He had a highly contagious skin disease called leprosy Leprosy resulted to suffer being isolated or permanently separated from his friends and family
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While the king of Syria could mitigate or solve some of the consequences of having leprosy
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The king of Syria could not cure the infection because leprosy is a disease only God can cure My first application though is
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Sin is an incurable disease Right, that's because that's how we apply this to us. Leprosy was Naaman's condition sin is our condition
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The word leprosy in the Old Testament actually did not refer to a single disease, but a collection of diseases, right?
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So if you read the Old Testament like Leviticus where they talk about the leprosy There's a lot of different symptoms because it's actually collection, right?
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But the main leprosy if you look at like how modern medicine defines leprosy It's also called
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Hansen's disease. It's much more narrow than that Leprosy is a specific strain of bacterial infection that attacks the patient's nervous system
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So if you if you have leprosy, you'll lose feeling in your hands. You'll lose it in your feet all over Without the ability to sense or feel pain.
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You're gonna be susceptible to repeated injuries or unnoticed wind wounds So lepers don't really die of their disease leprosy kills their nerves and they kill themselves
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They cut off their finger without feeling it. They burn their hand without knowing it because they don't have pain receptors anymore You know
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You think of every time you have a wound or a cut you feel it you don't pull away if you don't if you have Leprosy you wouldn't this catching this disease in the
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Old Testament times is basically a death sentence Because there's no cure and the social isolation was inevitable since people would not associate the leper
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They just wouldn't associate it. The Mosaic law had very strict requirements that quarantine leprous people off from the rest of society
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So numbers 5 -2 says command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and Everyone who is unclean because of a dead person numbers 5 -2.
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They said if you have a leper get out of the camp Additionally when the leper was cleansed from his defilement He was required to be inspected by the priest and they had to make a series of offerings
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He had to make a grain offering had to make a burnt offering He had to make a wave offering and then a sin offering to pronounce clean These instructions are all laid out in Leviticus 19
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When Jesus cleansed the lepers in the Gospels, what do you say? He said go show yourselves the priest and fulfill these
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Mosaic laws Leviticus 19 says the priest shall make a sin offering and make atonement and then he shall kill the burnt offering and after that he
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Shall make a burnt offering the grain offering the altar. So the priest shall make an atonement for him. He shall be clean It was not an easy process to be pronounced clean from leprosy
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Verse 1 of 2nd Kings 5 ends with this phrase It says but he was a leper that little little clause there pretty puts everything else in perspective
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All these great accomplishments he had but he was a leper. This is an apt description of man's fallen nature
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Sin has disfigured or to turpate or destroyed the image of God a man to kind There's a wall between God and man and it's poisoned every relationship on this earth
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This same thing could be written of every man and woman who's ever lived on this earth She was an excellent wife and mother, but she was a sinner
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He was the smartest scientist in his field, but he was sinful Her his charity and kindness were an unmatched, but he could not achieve perfect righteousness
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That's that's all of us sin is a you know, there's a word malediction Which means curse sin is just a curse it on all of us and it mars every faculty every faculty
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We have all of our thoughts and feelings are marred by sin the writer of Ecclesiastes in Hebrew They call him the
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Coleth which can be translated the collector of sayings if you look at older commentaries They'll say the Coleth says so the word there means he collects a he's got him in a book
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Here's a saying from his collection He says dead flies putrefy the perfumers ointment and it causes it to give off a foul odor
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Sin sin is the dead fly that destroys the ointment of human endeavors it just does if you throw the fly away and you know if a fly touches your ointment and then you throw it away and Pretend it didn't touch the ointment
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It doesn't erase the defilement that the fly was there and it matters not you know in the same way
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Sin affects everything we do it doesn't matter if you're if your achievement is secular or sacred whether you become a pastor
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Whether you you know do stuff at home for your family Everything you touch is defiled and the same way lepers the same way with lepers everything they touch they'd spread their disease
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That's why the Lord was so strict about them not touching stuff Our fallenness is like poisonous gourds if you think later on in the book of Kings in Samuel The prophets are having a stew and someone throws poisonous gourds in that one poisonous gourd poison that whole pot
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Right and when it touches the pot the whole stew is corrupted whether your motive is good or bad
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Death is still the result like if you if you think about those gourds in the pot you eat that stew you're gonna die unless the
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Lord saves you it's the same percent sin is mixing everything we do without a miracle from God You're dead This but the phenomenon, you know of sin mixing with everything is very vexing to God Saints, you know
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I know you know this and I do too weren't able to worship God without constantly being harried or tempted Harried or tempted by the enemy within I like this the
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Puritan prayer from the valley of vision I forgot the title of this prayer, but I like this what it says here It says this should be
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I think this should be the heart cry of every true Christian He says I need to repent of my repentance I need my tears to be washed
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I have no robe to bring to cover my sin no loom to weave my own righteousness I am always standing clothed in filthy garments and by grace
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I'm always receiving change of raiment for you always justify the ungodly That's on page 136 and 47.
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If you look at how the scriptures are complete are complete One complete message
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Paul says something very similar in the epistles the Romans He says Oh wretched man that I am Who will deliver me from this body of death?
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That's the connection, you know going back and forth across the Bible our Internal corruption and leprosy they both have a dudded deadening or dulling effect on us leprosy deadens the physical nerves which alerts us to pain or danger and Unrepentant sin stifles our conscience which warns us of eternal peril.
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It's the same way It's imperative that we keep short accounts with God and we confess each day's sin before it fades from our memory
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We should every day seek to confess the sins. We've sinned against God Jesus what
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Jesus said work in the daytime for a night is coming when no man can work He said that in first in John 9 for in a similar manner
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We must for a habit of constant confession because the eternal age is almost upon us
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In the age that succumb Confession is no longer needed. You don't need confession in heaven.
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You're fixed. Let the righteous be righteous still let the wicked be wicked still There's no more need for that So now is the day of confession now is the day of repentance and Christians should be habitually repenting
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Finally, you should avoid presumptuous sin against at all costs Like we should really strive against those if you sin if you sin in ignorance or haste against God you sin against his law
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But if you sin presumptuously against God you both sin against his law and you trample God's mercy under his feet
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We should heed the test new testament examples of Ananias and Sapphira Whose premeditated sin was met with instant judgment from God JC Ryle says nothing darkens the eyes of the mind and nothing deadens the conscience more than a loud sin
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That's what JC Ryle says My second point is an unexpected. Hope We're gonna go let's proceed to 2nd
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Kings 5 we'll read verses 2 and 3 again and The Syrians had gone out on raids and brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel She waited on Naaman's wife
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Then she said to her mistress if only my master were with the Prophet who was in Samaria for he would heal him of his leprosy the capital of Syria Damascus it only lies a hundred and thirty five one hundred and thirty four miles northeast of Jerusalem So in our terms, it's probably the distance from here to make it it's not that far
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It's inevitable that conflict would spring up between these two nations because they're close. They're right next to each other
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Naaman's wife had slaves and she had servants. She was a woman who was married to a high -ranking officer
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That was very common, you know Potiphar's wife also had slaves and servants So as the lady of the most important general the army she would have lots of attendants
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The Bible records that one slave was a Jewish girl who had been captured in the Syrian raids on Israel As commander of the army of Syria name was either directly or indirectly responsible for this girl's enslavement
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The Bible doesn't say, you know Well the raid that separated the girl from her family or killed them it could have been led by Naaman It could have been planned by Naaman or received his approval before it started.
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It's highly unlikely that He had no knowledge or input in this raid given his position the army of Syria when you plan an operation
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It goes up to the highest level and the generals sign off and then it goes down So Naaman had knowledge of the raid if maybe he didn't lead the raid himself, but he signed off on it, right?
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It would be this is not necessarily noteworthy that Naaman knew about it But what is noteworthy is the girl showed a keen interest in the welfare of her mistress and master
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It would be very natural for her to harbor bitterness toward her captors or even celebrate the fact that he was afflicted with leprosy
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I mean if you were in the girl's shoes, it would be very tempting for me I'd be like, well, he's got leprosy good. He deserves it.
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I'm his slave, right? But instead she felt compassion for Naaman and offered advice on how it could be cleansed from this infirmary infirmity most
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Bible translations They use the word Raiders bands of Raiders marauding bands in second
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Kings 5 Verse 2 to describe the guerrilla warfare that was waged by the Syrians against Israel These units seem to have practiced what's called hit -and -run tactics
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It wasn't like they're marching full -scale force in Israel They'd send small bands in raid take stuff and then leave if you think about the
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Vikings the Vikings did something very similar They come ashore steal a bunch of stuff, you know murder people take slaves and get out of there.
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They never held land, right? Smaller units the reason they do that smaller units can escape the attention of the
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Israelites and would be less likely to provoke an all -out outright war So if you send a small unit in a couple small units of the
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Vikings would you can say to them? Well, it wasn't us. It was these small bands It wasn't like we declared war on you. These people just went right so The government of Syria could even disavow the acts of these bands it while secretly supporting their actions
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So they could support them and let him go in there and Israel complained about it say well, I was a small band They're just robbers.
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They're not like necessarily fighters As a fallen archangel
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Satan is incredibly intelligent and habitually he uses the exact same tactics against us in a
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Christian walk Satan knows that a large temptation would provoke a visceral or immediate response from a justified soul
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So he's not gonna throw a large way if he knows you're being holy in your walk and you're really following God He's not gonna send something larger way
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He'll send a little small temptations to us because he knows maybe this one will slip under the radar and escape our notice
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If by God's grace we managed to intercept these bands Then Satan starts in them and increasingly large numbers hoping to wear us down What he tries to do is like he tries to cut you, you know, you've heard death by a thousand cuts
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That's what Satan does. I know this big temptation. I'm gonna take him if I send a thousand small ones. That'll take him down To be victorious over these small bands of sin.
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We must keep a continual watch over our souls with God's help We need wisdom and strength from above We really do to discern these external temptations and effectively resist them when they assault us on mass
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So we need the Lord's help to resist these small these small sins What was the root of the great relationship between a man's family and the slave girl?
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The first verse of the chapter states that the king viewed a man as an honorable man Respected people
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I've noticed this in my life are usually characterized by an even -handedness They treat both their superiors and subordinates with kindness.
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So great leaders They don't treat people below them terribly and people above them with deference. They treat everyone there
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They're no respecter of persons. God doesn't respect persons either should we? Certainly, this is a possible explanation here, but I don't think that's the main reason
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I believe the primary reason this slave girl was she wasn't just ethnically Jewish. I believe she was a child of God That's why
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I think she felt this way toward him Most Jewish people at that time were very familiar with Elisha and his ability to perform miracles
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Fewer Jewish people would think that Elisha would have any interest in healing and in circumcised idolater
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Whose nation was a sworn enemy of Israel only a small minority of Israelites would tell their master about Elisha After being enslaved by Syria and forced to serve name his family.
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That's a very small group of people This slave girl not only knew the abundant loving -kindness of God, but her life shown with the mercy of God as the moon reflects the
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Sun She was separated from it separated by many generations. I believe this girl could still echo the words of her ancestor
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Joseph Joseph told his brothers in Genesis 50, but as for you you meant evil against me
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But God meant it for good and that's what was happening here as well Although this slave girl lived before the
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New Testament era her heart upheld the same New Testament commands that were given regarding slave master relationships
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Thankfully, none of us are slaves today. That era is over and it's gone. That's good I'm glad that but however, we are still commanded to show the same honor and respect to the earthly bosses which
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God places over us Colossians 3 says bond servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh not with eye service as man -pleasers
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But in sincerity of heart fearing God, that's Colossians 3 22 Second Timothy 6 says let as many are bond servants under the yoke count their own masters
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Worthy of all honor. So the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemous
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Also, it doesn't just talk about servants. It has the following to say about masters It says in you masters do the same thing giving up threatening
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Knowing that you haven't your own master in heaven and there is no partiality with him.
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That's Ephesians 6 9 There's an organic continuity in the hearts of God's people that could be traced from the
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Old Testament to the New Testament That's the that's one of the you know, Jesus connects the Old New Testament, but you can see the hearts of people as well
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We don't we don't follow the Old Testament civil and ceremonial law anymore. God abrogated that we don't have to go to the priest for Leprosy, we don't have to you know participate in the temple feast anymore
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But and we see our redemption clearly they saw it darkly But we all must swim against the currents of a sinful world
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That's the same struggle we have just like the little girl the the slave girl had name is a we had the same thing as well loving our enemies practicing self -control putting pride to death
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Praising God in trial and desiring eternal rewards over uncertain riches.
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These are all hallmarks of God's elect You will not have these in your life if you don't love the Lord, you know
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The non -christian may fake them once in a while, but they're not going to keep this up their whole life The mask will drop someday because someday there will be a bigger idol than God and these things go by the wayside
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Only a true Christian will persist in that the Bible is clear about that. That's how we know them by their fruits The natural man he cannot understand this frame of heart his heart is focused on the temporal horizon
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You know The temporal horizon is if you look out in the distance you see the spot where you can't see anymore It's just a line. That's that's where they stop.
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They does not go beyond that, right? God's children will always be aliens in this world because the behaviors we practice go against their own self -interest
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People say why do you do that? That's not in your self -interest. Why do you do this? Why do you give time to God? Why do you keep away from this?
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There's nothing wrong with it. But because we don't we're not looking to the horizon We're looking past it. They're just looking here When a heavenly mindset becomes your earthly culture
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At that point, you know for certain that you have passed from death to life. That's how you tell
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I like what the the Puritan divine Samuel Rutherford said He said if you were not strangers here the hounds of this world would not bark at you, you know, you're a strange
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You know dogs to bark people. They don't know the dogs of this world. They bark at Christians because you're not from here They don't recognize you
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The second application I want to talk about is undeserved favor Presumably all of you would agree with me that this slave girl.
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So it showed name in favor. That was not deserved I mean if he did not deserve the favor this Grace is the theological term we use here.
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It's used to describe either a merited kindness or a merited favor God shows common grace every day to both believers and non -believers
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When he sustains us when he provides for us when he protects us from harm However, Naaman and his slave girl were both sinners who started out separated from God due to their sinful nature and actions
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How much greater is the favor that God has showed us though that are believers in the incarnation and death of his son
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Jesus Christ Paul writes this in the letter to the Romans He says for when we were still without strength in due time
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Christ died for the ungodly for scarcely for a righteous man one will one die yet perhaps for a good woman man
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Someone would even dare to die But God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners
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Christ died for us this Jewish girl She probably saw name as an honorable man who deserved to be healed from his leprosy
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Or she at least had some affinity for him or you know, she took kindness on him But Jesus saw nothing lovely in us
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There was nothing lovely in us to make God to bring our favor that way and yet he still became incarnate
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He lived a perfect life and he died for our redemption Naaman's healing could bring this slave girl freedom riches and powerful connections if he she got healed they could benefit her
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She had nothing to lose and everything to gain when she made the suggestion However, when Jesus became incarnate he had everything to lose and he had nothing to gain
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There's nothing Jesus gained from becoming incarnate as Almighty God. Jesus is self -sufficient
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He doesn't gain anything from redeeming us for the slavery of sin his communion with the Trinity and the praise from the angels
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It negates the belief like he doesn't need our I mean, he likes our praises, but he's got people praising an alternative
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He doesn't need that right? Imagine name and leaving his position his family home in Syria to go die in Israel that his slave girl might be free from leprosy
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Naaman's great sacrifice would just be a grain of sand on the everlasting seashore of Christ atonement
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That's just one grain if they were to do that, which is a really strange thing to do That's a single grain on the shore of the atonement that Christ did for us
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Name and desert desire to be healed from leprosy and was grateful for the advice from his slave Jesus came to earth to die for those who were his enemies and they will have a treat
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Jesus gift apathy Idle curiosity outright hostility, right? Paul put this inspired truth in chapter 5 of his epistles to Romans He said for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son much more
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Having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life. That's Romans 5 10 Finally this slave girl sought to save Damon's physical life from the scourge of leprosy
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That's a worthy goal, right? But it's really all for naught if a healthy name in Returns to idolatry dies in his sin and which sentenced to eternal punishment in hell
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I mean, what's the point of him being healed if he goes to hell forever? Jesus is the same thing in the Gospels. Do you want to go to hell? Would you rather go to hell with a full body or how about go to heaven with your eye plucked out and your hand cut
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Off the point there is no sacrifice is too great on the way to heaven you sacrifice whatever you have to you know
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If something is tempting you get it out of the house You know one of my friends said, you know
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If you're being temp like one of my friends that he was being tempted my image in the computer Got rid of social media got rid of his phone got rid of his computer said no more electronics for me
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I said that's what Jesus means when he says a cut off your arm to poke out your eye you take sin
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Seriously, you say this is not a small thing. This will send me to everlasting. Hell you you have lust in the flesh
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You'll burn forever in hell. God says kill it get rid of it. Be serious about it But how much greater honor, you know name in you know
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How much greater honor is due to Jesus who came to this earth to give us both peace and fulfillment in this life and glorious?
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expectation of eternal life forever with him throughout the Gospels Jesus always couples his miracles of healing with what a call to repentance
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The miracles are not ends in themselves. If your miracles are ends in yourselves All you've done is help someone out on the way to eternal health
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They are intended to point us to the one that has power over Sickness and death and hold the keys of heaven and hell in his hands
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He's got heaven here and he's got hell here and he's got the keys for both of them Jesus knew all of his sufferers need a justification even more than they needed healing from sickness
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What it lets us know what Jesus said in Matthew's Gospel and I briefly mentioned this as well earlier But he said if your hand or foot cause you to sin cut it off and cast it
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It's better to enter life lame or maimed than having two hands or feet To be cast in everlasting fire and if your eye caused you to sin pluck it out and cast it from you
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It's better to enter in life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast in a hellfire
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It's better to go to hell as a cripple than to go to hell and it's better to go to heaven as a cripple Sorry, then to go to hell as an athlete
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Olympic athlete use these Olympic athletes I don't care how good their bodies are if they end up in hell It's worthless what what what use are gold medals someone who's roasting in hell for all attorneys?
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No, there's nothing there's no benefit But if you go to hell, I think of miss Lillian's daughter
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Candice who was all of her life in a bed bedridden had to have someone take care of her. She was you know, what?
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She's in glory now and she'll never be she'll be free from that. So, you know the world will say Candace versus Olympic athlete
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I'm taking the Olympic athlete every time but God says Candace is with me forever. She's the wise one not this one here
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God will give all people a new body of at the resurrection So if you're maimed or wounded this life
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You'll have a new body then the offer of a new heart that expires the moment you pass into eternity
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Once you cross that switch, that's it first comes death then will come the judgment.
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You will be judged. There's no more chance There's no and the thing is after that point mercy ends that offer expired
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My third point I want to talk about a kingly gift Starting I'll pick up back up in verse 4
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Naaman went in and told his master saying thus and thus the girl who's from the land of Israel said
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The king of it Syria said go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver six thousand shekels of gold and ten shades of clothing
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They brought the letter to the king of Israel Which said now be advised this letter comes to you I have sent name of my servant to you that he may heal that you may heal him of his leprosy
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Then it happened when the king of Israel read the letter He tore his clothes and said am I God to kill and make alive this man sends a man to heal me on leprosy
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Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me Once name and heard there was a prophet
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Israel could heal him He went to the king of Syria and said can I have permission department on a journey? Even a general has to get permission from the king.
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He's got it. He's got a ruler, too Two things grabbed my attention when I read this text
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First it seems name and went immediately to the king to tell him this wonderful news, right? The scripture does not say he went the same day or the following day
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But the flow of the text seems to indicate he didn't waste any time. It was immediate How quickly do we seek the
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Lord's face when we receive great news? Do we go to him immediately or do we tell everyone else in our life?
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Before we bring an offering of praise to God as children of the Living God We have a double responsibility to God because he's our king and our father.
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He's not just our father. He's our king as well There's a dual responsibility for the Christian there God delights to hear from his children and we should not make it a habit of only bringing our
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Supplications or our bad news before his throne, right? So imagine if all you were told your parents is I need something
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Here's bad news. No, you bring your good news to your parents as well When something goes right in your life, you bring it to God and you thank him
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You know, God is you know, God is infinite. He's the only one that has being in himself, you know You can imagine if you treat your dad like that.
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He wouldn't like it How much more we treat God like that you bring good news to him What is I like what Proverbs 15 8 says it says the sacrifice of a wicked is an abomination to the
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Lord But the prayer of the upright is a delight God delights in our prayers Thomas Watson described prayer in this manner
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He said prayer delights God's ear it melts his heart and it opens his hand. God cannot deny a praying soul
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Prayer is one way That we show our reverence to God, right? It acknowledges that we are a creature and we are dependent on our
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Creator not just in one thing everything Spiritually physically emotionally all of our needs we are dependent on God God does not need our permission to act
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God does does what he pleases in the heavens There's no he doesn't ask us before he does stuff But we need his sustaining hand every day if we didn't have
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God's standing hand We would merely perish name and showed his obeisance or his respect to his earthly monarch by informing him of his plans
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Before he left Israel, so he didn't just take off to Israel and come back and say oh by the way, I left right
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Once again, I think we can draw a biblical parallel from these actions to our own spiritual lives
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Unlike the king of Syria God is omnipotent and he does know our thoughts and actions before we take them, right?
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We can tell them but and one of the ways we make sure that our actions in the line of God is we measure our
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Plans by Holy Scripture, right? So they even went to the king of Syria and told them when we have plans
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Lay the Bible out and read the Bible does the Bible conflict with what I want to do That's how you check with the king and then you pray about it.
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That's how you ask the king You don't just go and say I'll do it. You know, you ask the Lord first If after praying and reading the
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Bibles you find no direct prohibition for your course of action Then the next thing is you should weigh is our motive godly or earthly because you know, our hearts can deceive us
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But sometimes we know this is not the most godly motive or I have an earthly motive The writer of Psalms says this is
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Psalm 119 9. He says how can a young man cleanse his way by taking heed?
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According to your word. That's how we take heed according to God's Word My final application is the priceless gift of salvation
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How much would you pay to be cured of an incurable disease just think about it millions tens of millions
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For most people the limit is the amount of money they have Plus what they can beg borrow steal from others, right in the case of Naaman He brought a king's ransom with him a lot of times the old the older versions will translate at shekels
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There's in the footnotes. They'll tell you what it is. But do you know how much money name and brought with him? 750 pounds of silver 150 pounds of gold and 10 changes of clothes.
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That's an enormous amount of money Even today that'd be a lot of money and back then things were cheaper You know, that's a truckload of gold basically in silver
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It also shows you how it all shows you how costly clothes were that he brought just 10 pairs of clothes now It's considered an excellent gift
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The passage is not really clear if all the money came from name and possessions or if some of it came from the king of Syria's Treasury.
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We don't really know just as he brought it So it could be name and brought the money of the king gave I don't know but either way the vastness of this sum
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Showed how much name and valued a healthy life. He was willing to pay a king's ransom to be cured if Naaman was prepared to give a king's ransom in exchange for healing how much more dogged and or determined and passionate
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Should we be about preparing our soul for our eternal dwelling? Thomas Watson said this and you're gonna hear a lot of quotes from Watson.
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He's by my favorite Puritan He said hell will be taken without storm the gates of hell like the iron gate open up their own accord
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People just walk right in there. They just slip into there But if we go to heaven, we must force our way in we must besiege it with sighs and tears
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We must get the scaling ladder of faith to storm in we must not only work, but we must fight
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You know you have you know the old days if you watch older movies They put ladders up on walls to get over him. You can't you know, you can't go through the day you open the wall
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It's like get that ladder of faith and you go over the wall into heaven You storm it The most valuable gift though of all the stuff that Naaman took over to the king of Israel The most valuable gift was the letter of introduction.
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That was it right because the gold and silver is great But the letter of an introduction was important this missive or letter
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It ensured that Naaman would have free passage and any assistance He might need on his mission if you mistreated or hinder
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Naaman on his journey That's tantamount to an act of war the king says I'm sending this person
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If you mess with him, we're gonna be at war, right? So that was very very clear to the king of Israel when
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Israel when he got the letter What did he do he tore his clothes? He said we're in trouble, right?
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He incorrectly viewed this letter as a pretext for invasion, right? Like I you know, I Didn't write down who the king was in here
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I don't remember exactly who if it says just as the king of Israel, I guess but You know from the king of Israel perspective probably not a
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Christian because probably because most the kings of Israel were wicked kings He probably saw this as a potential for invasion send a guy that has leprosy
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Everyone knows leprosy can't be cured. You don't heal him We're gonna invade you people do that all the time like when
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Hitler wanted to invade Poland He made up he took some German soldiers dressed up as Polish soldiers attacked the border and said, oh the
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Polish attacked us And then he attacked so he made up a pretext to invade Poland. It was a lie Well, you know the king of Israel perspective.
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He's like the same thing is going on here He's sending a servant an uncurable disease because he won't start war with me. You see something very similar in Matthew You know,
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I've always wondered when the Magi came to visit Herod Did you hear like when when Herod read the letter and said in Matthew 2 he was troubled and all
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Jerusalem with him Have you ever wonder why all Jerusalem was troubled? well When I've read various commentators a lot of commentators say that the reason
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Herod and Jerusalem are troubled is because they viewed it as the pretext for war these people are coming in and saying we're looking for the
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King of Israel and it's like they were scoping out the Land for war or they were trying to start a quarrel because the Magi came from a very vast and powerful nation
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I'm in modern -day Turkey. So they thought that this is a pretext for an invasion It was a very sad commentary on the state of pre -exilic and Messianic Israel that Israel fear of being conquered
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More than they rejoiced in a God who works miracles and became incarnate for them They shouldn't have been like worried about being invaded by the
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Magi the nation of Magi. They should've been like, oh God's here Let's go see him Yeah, and the nation there
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I put this in my notes I kind of skipped over it but the nation that the Magi came from was this was the Scythian Empire and some commentators say that that they would think that the
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Scythians were coming and say where's the King of Israel? Maybe that would destabilize Israel cause revolts and stuff and the Scythians could swoop in and take it now
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That's we know the Magi weren't doing that the Magi were there to see Jesus But from Herod's view whose view was just on the horizon political.
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How do I maintain power? He looked at this is like these people are trying to invade and destabilize my empire before they attack us
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But however, you know if Jehoram Actually, I did put his name down if Jehoram and Herod were rending their robes and sorry over their own personal sin and the sins of their nation
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They would not have to fear a foreign invasion God would fight for Israel if they were if they were paying the if they were worrying about their own sins
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The Lord nullifies the plans of the nations and he frustrates the plans of the people in order that his internal counsel will stand forever
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The fear of man is a deadly snare. It can even stare believers on occasion Charles Spurgeon had the following insight on fear
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He said the fear of God is the death of all other fears like a mighty lion. It chases all the fears before us
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Similarly the author of Proverbs, right? He says the wicked flees when no one pursues
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But the righteous are as bold as a lion Proverbs 28 1 This King's letter was probably the best gift that Naaman could receive on this earth
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Outside of being healed of leprosy to have a letter from the king Right consider what God has done for those of us who were believers though by justifying us
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He healed us of a spiritual malady that leads us to earthly misery death and eternity of suffering apart from God Leprosy cannot reach beyond the grave the curse of spend the penalty of sin though when you die as an unbeliever
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That's it. It's stamped. You're done. You're finished, right? Naaman's letter could only open the door of earthly kingdoms, right?
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But Jesus's blood has opened our way to his father's throne and ensures us of a permanent home in the everlasting
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Kingdom of God Although Christians have the Bible as a physical letter from God We also possess the greater privilege of being indwelt by the
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Holy Spirit Martin Lloyd -jones writes this in his book title authority He said the coming of the
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Holy Ghost The gift of the Holy Spirit is the final proof that Jesus is the Lord of glory
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That goes right along with what our pastors preaching in John. The Holy Spirit is one of the seven or six proofs
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That's the final proof. We have the Holy Spirit in us Naaman's letter was a perishable piece of paper
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Provided by a mortal monarch monarch whose memory has long since faded away Does anyone here know the name of the king of Syria in Naaman's time?
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Anyone remember that? He was he was a big deal back then but not today When Jesus sealed his sacrifice with us
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He sent us the Holy Spirit to stay with us to sanctify us and to be our passport the gates of heaven
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We don't need a letter from a king to open doors We have the third person of the Godhead who lives inside of us and ordains all things for our good
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Naaman traveled a hundred and fifty miles in hope of being healed of leprosy Many Americans are unwilling to drive more than 15 minutes away from their house to go to church
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They just they think 15 minutes is too far 20 minutes. I mean 30 I mean, it's like oh, that's a long way to go to church
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You know layman name went 150 miles to cure leprosy and people don't want to go 15 minutes to church It's a sad commentary on our culture though that Unbelievers will at times work harder for perishable rewards than Christians you for eternal wars
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They will work harder for treasure that fades and we do for eternal treasure Saying that if you say that earthly things are fleeting But you said justly or diligently stockpile goods and sit there and sideline your sanctification.
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You're a practical hypocrite I mean you can say all you want that the turn is important But if you're sitting there building your house bigger getting more expensive cars, you're like your focus on this world
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I can tell right there. You're a practical hypocrite You if you really care about eternal life, would you pour all that time in your possessions and nothing into your soul?
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In the Gospels Jesus actually contrasted the passivity of many Christians to the doggedness displayed by unredeemed men
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Think about the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16 The master commends the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly for the sons of this world
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I you fallen man are more shrewd than the generation the sons of light He said that the people that aren't saved are more clever about their earthly possessions and you are about eternal possessions
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It's this is an interesting parable because God's not commanding the steward for lying. That's wrong.
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It's always wrong to lie But what God's saying is the super was ingenious. He was smart. He was clever
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He said I'm gonna prepare a way when my master cast me out I'm gonna make it so all of his debtors will take me in but do you have the same attitude kingdom of heaven?
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I'm gonna use every means the Lord has given me for my sanctification. I'm gonna read the Bible. I'm going to pray I'm gonna talk about the
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Lord. I'm gonna leave no stone unturned if I'm not sure about my salvation I'm gonna read some more. I'm gonna pray some more. I'm gonna study some more, you know
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If you're not working as hard as the unjust steward, then you don't really regard attorney. Is that important? You just don't Do you expend less preparation to enter heaven than you would on your vacation plans if your vacation planning takes up more time in your
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Preparation for heaven something is wrong in your life We need to heed the scriptural call to examine ourselves and renew afresh our repentance their merciful father
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In closing, let's please turn with me to Psalm 103 I Was reading through the Psalms and I thought this
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Psalm really nicely encapsulated what I'm trying to say here Psalm 103 and we're gonna skip down to verse 3 start there
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It says who pardons all your iniquities who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from the pit?
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Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion who satisfy your years of the good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle
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Do you know what we see in this verse? We see an incurable disease right number one you have an incredible disease right there disease who part heals your diseases we see
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Unexpected favor who redeems your life from destruction and we see a kingly gift Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfies your mouth with good things?
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That's the exact same thing. We just read in First Kings here. You see the same thing in song.
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That's what was given us. Please bow and pray with me Generally father
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Lord, I thank you for this day. Thank you for this word You've given us on Naaman. I pray you just be with us Lord help us to pursue salvation and our eternal homeless or as passionately as he desired to be free of cancer of As passionately as he desired to be free of leprosy
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Lord I pray that you would help us to always seek you first put you first and strived into the narrow way.
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I pray that we would not be Slackers and we would not be sluggers in our salvation that we would press hard and the kingdom of your son