March 20, 2016 It Was No Small Miracle by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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And the entire passage, which is found on page 380, if you're using the Red Tree Bible.

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And then our next passage is Philippians 4, verses 1 -9, which is on page 791 of the

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Red Tree Bible. When you arrive at Psalm 34, please stand for the reading of God's Word.

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I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

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My soul shall make a boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad.

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O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the

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Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.

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This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

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The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.

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O fear to see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him. O fear the

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Lord, you His saints. There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the

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Lord shall not lack any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me.

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I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good?

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Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good.

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Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.

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The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them in the earth.

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The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a conflicted spirit.

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Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them from them all.

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He guards all of His ones. Not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.

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The Lord redeems the soul of His servant, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

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Amen. May you be with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the

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Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always, again

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I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men, the

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Lord is with you. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, in the quest to be made known to God.

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And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, can guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

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Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

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The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the

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God of peace will be with you. Amen. Please be seated. Dear brothers, thank you for your awesome works in the

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Lord, and for your faithfulness, that you redeem the soul of your servants, and that none of those who trust in you will be condemned.

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Lord, we thank you that you keep all of those promises. And I pray that as you come here, from our daily lives, that you come into this place distracted and often with hearts and minds full of many things.

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Lord, I pray that you would help us to focus on the things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, full of virtue and deserving of all praise.

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And that, Lord, is your Word. And I just pray that you would be with Pastor Josh as he opens your

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Word and teaches us from it. Lord, that you would give him truth and power,

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Lord, that he would deliver your message directly, that there would not be a wrong word that falls from his lips or wrong teaching.

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Lord, I pray that you would bless him and strengthen him, and open our hearts to receive your

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Word, and not only receive it, Lord, but to do it. Amen. Amen.

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Thank you, Joseph. If you would, please turn to 2

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Kings, for the text of our message this morning. 2 Kings 6, verses 1 -7.

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2 Kings 6, these seven verses is what we will consider this morning.

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And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us.

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Please let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell.

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So he answered, Go. Then one said, Please consent to go with your servants.

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And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to the

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Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, an iron axe head fell into the water.

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And he cried out and said, Alas, Master, for it was borrowed. So the man of God said,

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Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. So he cut a stick and threw it in there, and he made the iron float.

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Therefore he said, Pick it up for yourself. So he reached out his hand and took it.

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May God bless the reading of his word, the preaching of his word, and the hearing of his word this morning.

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We're coming home from prayer night last week, or this week, excuse me.

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Of course, we were in two different cars. By the time we got home, my wife was telling me about a message she was listening to a preacher.

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She was listening to it on the radio on her way home. I'm not going to go into his name. He's a local man here in the

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Bay Area. And he was making the point from somewhere in 1

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Corinthians. I can't remember the exact text he was on. You could probably guess if you're familiar with that book.

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And he was making the point very vociferously, very firmly, very loudly, very repetitively that miracles are over, that the word of God is finished, and therefore don't expect these miracles anymore because the miracles were to confirm the word of God and the word of God is complete, therefore no more miracles.

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It's over, it's over, it's over, he said time after time after time. I was listening to my wife telling me about this, and she actually has a very good ear for messages.

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She can pick up what's going on, and she can understand the point that's being made really before the preacher gives as many repetitions of the point as I tend to do.

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And so she has a good way of bringing forth what this message was really about. And it was pretty simple.

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This man was saying it's over, it's over, it's over, don't expect any more miracles. And I wonder to myself as she's explaining this to me, what does this man do with praying always in the

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Spirit? What does this man do with let your requests be made known to God? What does this man do then?

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What does he teach his church to do with my God shall supply all your needs? What does he do with an iron axe head that floats?

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You see we worship this morning a living God. We worship a God who today speaks, who today works.

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Jesus says I'm working to this day, my Father's working to this day. God didn't put the last period on the book of Revelation, close the book, make sure we all had our

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Bibles, and then go take a long vacation. I hope as we go through this floating axe head, these seven verses, too often passed over too quickly

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I'm afraid, that we leave here this morning with confidence that we worship a God who is working in and through his people, and he's working sovereignly to do things for his people.

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God is a God of miracles. And the miracles didn't stop when

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John in Revelation put the last amen in the book. Miracles by definition are rare, they're unusual.

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It's something that could only be attributed to God, it's a work that God does in response to our prayer, not because of our prayers, he does what he will do.

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And yet somehow he reacts to prayer, he honors prayer. When we talk about miracles,

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I try to tell you this morning our God is alive, our God is a living God, our God is a working

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God, here and now we cite the same miracles over and over. I remind you of the same things, there's a reason for that because miracles are rare.

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They don't happen every day. God doesn't honor himself by doing those sorts of things constantly, though everything he does brings honor and glory to his name, but miracles are a different class.

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The passage this morning is one that I would present to anyone who claims that God doesn't do miracles anymore.

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We always have to put on there. Think of the passage I just read, these seven verses.

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A building project is proposed, the building project is approved, and that same project is then commenced.

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They go to the prophet, say, we need a bigger place, can we build it? He says, yes, go build it. And they get started.

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During the course of the work, a borrowed tool is lost and then miraculously recovered. As with so many incidents recorded in our

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Bibles, the incident that has our attention this morning is related to us in language that's so plain, is so straightforward, that the whole thing is so lacking in drama and histrionics that we might just skim past and search for something with more excitement.

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Maybe thunder from heaven, maybe prophets passionately calling men to repent, that sort of thing. We might, if we hurry past and don't stop to consider why

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God the Holy Spirit made sure that these seven verses have been preserved for us, just go past it too quickly and look for something that catches our attention a little bit more.

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But brethren, these seven verses from the living God, from the Spirit who today still speaks, can hold our attention.

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And they well should. To not stop and really consider what

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God is saying in this part of 2 Kings 6, it would be sort of like driving to Yosemite but never stopping at the scenic turnouts where you can grasp the extent of this extraordinary tapestry that God has woven together.

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Because it's the turnouts where we see the grand design, and from there we get our bearings once we proceed into the valley and look at the individual sites.

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Sort of like a diamond of perfect quality and cut, the size of this passage belies its worth and its significant place in the outworking of redemptive history.

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So I want to take time this morning to stop on this long journey that we've been through, this series on Elijah and Elisha.

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I want to stop and take time to understand what this is about and how this paves out for us the road ahead.

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I want to examine this pearl and enjoy the treasure that God has given us here in His Word. See, the floating axehead spoke to those who first read this record in profound ways.

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And as the author of the Hebrews reminds us, that same Holy Spirit speaks to us today in this church by and through this living

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Word. And by and through His living Spirit, who dwells in and amongst us.

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You heard Joseph read Psalm 34, which extols God's help to His people. You heard

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Philippians 4, 1 -9, which tells us to bring our needs to God. And these seven verses for this message were just read to you.

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There's one more, and we'll begin. And actually, it's the first half of the first verse of Psalm 127.

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And then with God's blessing, we'll start in on this text. Unless the

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Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the

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Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. But let us add to that what

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Jesus said, I will build my house. So it's the Lord building His house.

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There are three platforms I want to come from to look at this text.

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First is the immediate context. The immediate context, what it meant then.

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We cannot ask what it meant to those people actually at that time, because 2

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Kings wasn't written until some 300 years later. We know we're handling

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Scripture inspired by God that tells us something about God. So although it wasn't written for the people who lived at the time that this happened, but for those who came some three centuries later, and we'll talk about them a little bit, it does tell us about God's working in a particular context.

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So that's first. It's the immediate context. What was God doing then because of what happened at that time in that place?

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And second, we'll go forward those 300 years, or 300 or so years, and we'll look at the ones who read this first.

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Now who read it first? Not the sons of the prophets.

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Not even Elisha. He was not what we call a writing prophet. 1 and 2

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Kings wasn't recorded until some three centuries later. The first people who read this were the

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Jews who were in exile in Persia sometime around 550

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BC. I'm not going to give you a whole lot of dates, so don't worry about that. But about three centuries after this, in 550

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BC is when it was written and presented to those people who were in exile. And in a few years from the time they got this, they were going to hear

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Cyrus's decree that was going to commission them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, the one which had been ransacked, destroyed by the

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Babylonians in 586. They're the first audience of this text. It meant something to them then.

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God, by His Spirit, made sure this incident was recorded for them about a decade before they returned to Jerusalem.

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Just hold that in your mind as we go through this. That's the second platform, though. It's the first audience, those people then.

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And third, trusting that we handle a word that is living, that is powerful, that was meant for us, we'll apply it to us.

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We will see what this tells us about ourselves and our trust in God here in this place.

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So start with the passage in its own time, on its own terms. We're given no cue here, like we have in so many places in Acts, where we read of a steady growth of believers.

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We don't know why there's so many prophets coming to Elisha, disciples. They call them the sons of the prophets.

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They're not prophets in the classic sense. They're His disciples. They're His sons because they're trying to emulate

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Him. And we don't have something like in Acts where it talks about this constant multiplication of the word of God as it's being broadcast.

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But it does seem to be implied by the fact that they need more living space, that Elisha is attracting more and more men who want to hear and study and know and propagate the word of God.

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So it sounds like good news, right? They work in Israel, which is a backslid nation, yet God is not finished with His people.

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The school of prophets, if not all members of the remnant, must at least be largely of that group.

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And through them, there's this visible presence of godly men determined to live under the precepts of God's law and teach it and demonstrate it as it's taught and demonstrated to them by their master, who is

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Elisha. So they're growing.

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And wherever it is that they're housed, whatever school building they have, I don't know how to picture it for you, but whatever it is, it's too small.

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They come to them, they say, we need more room, this place is too small for us. We're too constrained. The Puritans would say, it's too straight for us.

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And so they see this need, and they do a couple of things right away about it. First, they devise a plan to build this bigger house, and that's logical, that's straightforward.

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And any church benefits from members who see a need and then do something about it.

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I mean, too many pastors simply burn out too often because people present only problems, only needs, and no solutions.

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There's no shoulder being put to the plow, as it were. All too often, all they've uncovered is it's a matter of real concern.

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And then they just leave it there. They say, hey pastor, did you know that such and such isn't working? No, really, you didn't know?

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Well, it's not, so hey, gotta run. Lunch is getting cold. Have a nice day. Hope you get this solved before your next review.

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That sort of thing. These men aren't like that. They've come to Elisha with a solution.

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They say, let us go, let every man. In other words, we'll do the work. But of course, before they do that, they check with Elisha, they check with the master of the school.

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That's no mere submission to authority, nor are they hoping Elisha knows something about building. What they're doing is setting an example for us.

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What they're doing is checking their plans against what? Now, you thought I was gonna say the pastor. No, against God's word.

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They're checking their plan, their ambition, the thoughts, the intents of their heart against God's word.

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Now, we're not saying that Elisha had a nature different than any of ours. As great a prophet as he was, as much as God worked through him in these marvelous, miraculous ways, he was a sinner in need of redemption as much as anyone.

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He needed Jesus Christ to die for his sins as much as you did or do. But during his ministry, he was the sole mediator of God's word in Israel.

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He was the prophet. He represented and mediated God's word and God's presence.

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God himself in a very real way, the few if any other prophets other than maybe

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Elijah ever did. Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, affirmed this back in 2

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Kings 3 when he said, rightly, we must add, he said, rightly, the word of the

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Lord is with him. Parenthetically, we could say, and at that time in no other in that land.

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Checking with Elisha was really the same as checking with God because for that time, God's word was vested exclusively in him.

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So how much pain would we all be spared as individuals or as a church if we did the same thing?

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Why is it we must more often repent of having run headlong with our own plans than take the designs of our heart before God?

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Could it be that we maybe don't really expect an answer? I ask that as we plow forward, as we move ahead in this message to an ax head that's going to float up out of the river and the prophet's going to reach out and take it back.

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I ask that in that context, do we run headlong into our own plans, not opening our scripture, not bending our knees because at some deep fundamental level, we really don't expect an answer from the living

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God? It's like we see other people have these answers. They're so confident. God has confirmed for me through all these ways, through prayer, through study of the scripture, through talking to brothers and sisters in the

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Lord, but when it comes to ourselves, we think, well, that's not going to happen for me. That's just that special one.

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Do we really not expect an answer? Could that be why we don't stop and check first?

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Do we just play at religion, but when it comes time to prove our confession by actually consulting with God, I mean by his word, which they didn't have in its fullness back then,

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I mean by prayer, which we have as much as they did, yet have we even more because we pray to God in the name of his son,

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Jesus Christ. I mean, when our wishes must be placed on hold, do we do as they do or as they did?

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There's really a test of faith. They're waiting to hear what God the Lord will speak, and he does speak.

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We need to hang on to this. What does it mean to wait on the Lord? Well, we could go into a long theological discussion of what that means in some technical terms, but really what it means is to wait.

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It means to wait. It means to be confirmed by God, not by some special message which only you can understand.

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It means something confirmed by Scripture. It means something where you have peace in your heart, not because I have peace in my heart and it feels good, but because you've prayed and you've checked with others.

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In many counselors, there's safety, says the Scripture. It's really a test of faith, waiting to hear what

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God will say or do or speak, and he does speak. He speaks through his word. He speaks through his spirit.

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He speaks to our spirits when we pray. He speaks through counselors he's provided. You see, the question is not whether God will answer.

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The question is whether we'll wait. These men seem to very much want to build this house.

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They're ready to go. They're gung -ho, but they check.

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They check first. I think it's a good example for us. The answer they get, of course, is positive, immediate, and very simple.

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He just says, go. So they go and they start the work in earnest. They jump right into it.

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Well, we have to slow down just a little bit. Do they get right to work? Do they just jump into it?

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No, the prophet has okayed the plan, and if we're outside of God's will, he, of course, would have said so, and he said, go, so we go, right?

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Wrong. That's not what happened. That is not what should happen, and again, they set for us an example that we need to pay some attention to.

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Even with their idea approved, they're not ready to go. They say what? Please consent to go with your servants.

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Now, again, understand that Elisha is no better or worse than you or me, a sinner who needs

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Jesus' redemption as much as we do, yet God, in his sovereignty, has chosen that during that time, his word and his presence was mediated by and through the man,

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Elisha. When they insist that the prophet comes with them, it's not for another pair of hands to do the work.

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It's because he represents the presence of God himself. Elisha represents the presence of God, and here they fall into very good company.

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They think of Moses. Moses had been told, go. Go to Pharaoh. Go out of Egypt. Go to Canaan. He had his marching orders, but what did he pray to God?

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God had said, go, and he said, if your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.

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Yes, we will go. We will do as you have said. Now, Lord, be with us as we obey. God's given the order.

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God's told us where to go, given the direction, everything we need to have, and yet before footsteps on path, we need to join these prophets.

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We need to join Moses and say, please consent to go with us. This is really nothing more and nothing less than to pray

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God's word. Is anything more pleasing to God than to hear his people standing faithfully and confidently and expectantly on his word, the word that he's given us?

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What did he say to Moses? He said, I will do this thing that you have prayed. He goes on to say to Moses, be strong and of good courage.

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Do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

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And did God not keep his word? Didn't he keep his word? Did not manna fall from heaven?

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Did not water flow from rocks? Did not quail come into the camp? Was not the poison of the fiery serpents neutralized, negated?

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Did not God turn Balaam's curse into a blessing? Did not all their enemies fall before them?

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And Jesus already promised this to the church, has he not? If we pray to God, if we pray to Christ and say, please consent to go with us.

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If we join Moses and say to him, unless you go with us, unless your spirit is with us, we will not move.

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What did Jesus say? He says to the church just what Moses heard, I will never leave you or forsake you.

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What does that mean to us? It means that Jesus Christ by his spirit will never leave us or forsake us.

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It means that he is with us. John 14 verse 16 to 18,

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Jesus said, I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever.

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The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

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I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. What do we have here?

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We have the abiding presence of Jesus. As we abide in him, he abides with us. And here we have the promise that we'll be with him forever.

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I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you, I will return. As I said earlier this morning, when he returns, it's on that white charger and he's armed for battle and he's conquering and to conquer, and yet he will come back.

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He will not leave us here alone and he does not leave us here alone now. And here's how we tend to fail here.

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We put together our plans, we pray about them, we study God's word to see what he has already said on the matter, whatever that matter may be.

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Everything looks good. The Bible confirms what we're going to do. At least it seems to give us freedom to take our course.

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It all looks good, so off we go. And we have to say, no, that's wrong. That's wrong.

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Let's learn from the sons of the prophets. Everything looks good.

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We've been approved. Scripture confirms that we're following the intents of God's mind and not our own devised hearts.

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Please consent to go with us. Otherwise, no matter how good our ideas or how concise or complete our plan, we must stay put until we hear,

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I will go. Or, this thing also I will do for you. Today, we don't have a man's voice to tell us this.

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Instead, we have the complete word of God in our Bibles and the spirit of God dwelling within. We have the church full of brothers and sisters with whom to take counsel.

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We can be as sure as they were, as these sons of prophets were, of God's pleasure with our designs and as certain of His presence as they were of Elisha's.

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It's simply a matter of, will we look first? Will we wait? We can press on.

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The prophets get to work. Everything seems to be going very well when, as one was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water.

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Now, this is no small problem. This is no small deal.

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They're not going to run down to Home Depot and just buy another one. Of course, there are no Home Depots, but that's still not what they're going to do.

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You see, this is their only tool for doing the job. The language says something like, the iron tool, the one and only one that they had, fell into the water.

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This exclusive tool, the sole one available to them for cutting down the trees, that's the one that got lost.

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So all the work comes to a halt. That's the first problem. They can't carry on the work.

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It's all come to a stop. But there's another problem. A last master for it was borrowed.

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Not, now we can't finish, but the concern is for the integrity of the school of the prophets. They had borrowed something very, very valuable.

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Think of it today. If we were doing a project here at the church and one of you borrowed for us one of those lawnmowers that you can ride on, or some tool, some piece of equipment of that kind of value, and we drove it into a pond or something like that.

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You see, there's more at stake here than just the embarrassment of not returning the tool or being unable to afford to replace it.

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It's the integrity of the school itself that's at stake. Elisha's integrity is at stake.

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It was borrowed. We borrowed it on your behalf. We went to someone. We don't know who it was.

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So loan us your tool. We need it to build a house for the Lord so we can continue to learn the word of God through his prophet.

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So it was loaned to them, and now they're going to have to go back and say, sorry. It's in the river.

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We couldn't find it. You know, it came off the ax head. You didn't keep it up correctly. If you would just tie those leather thongs on more tightly.

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No, none of that. What do they do? What's their first point of repair? It's back to God.

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God's presence mediated by Elisha, a last master, for it was borrowed.

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That's amazing. What would we do? Especially we, what do we call ourselves?

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Type A type men? Ones who want to get things done. The ones who take charge. We see that thing flip off of there.

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We're going to send one guy to go get a leather thong so when we recover it, we can tighten it up again. Right? And then we're going to jump in the water.

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We're going to start finding. We're going to make plans. We're going to get this thing recovered. That's not what they do. No one jumps in the water.

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No one blames the owner for not maintaining the tool. They turn to Elisha. They turn to the

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Lord whose word is mediated by Elisha. No splashing around.

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No panic. They go to the prophet. They go to the man through whom God was speaking and working at that time in that place.

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Now we mustn't let the sheer simplicity of what came next obscure its importance. Elisha, we know what he does.

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He throws a stick on the river and the axe head rises to the surface and he tells the young man to pick it up and we're done, right?

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Go back to work. But it's so much more than just a simple miracle of making a piece of axe or a piece of iron in the form of an axe disobey the laws of buoyancy.

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There's so much more there. See, God had confirmed the young man's ambition when the prophet said go.

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He was pleased that they needed not only more room but were ready to do the labor in order to provide for it.

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And without this valuable tool, this one sole exclusive tool that they had, they were completely stymied.

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Where we're at is Augustine's famous adage, aren't we? That God provides what he commands.

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He didn't exactly command it but the affirmation of go confirmed that it was his will that they build this house.

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When the prophet speaking for God said go, it was a confirmation that it was God's will that this house should be built.

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So he reaches in, he picks it up off the water and presumably the work went on and the extra space was built.

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I assume that's the case. Scripture's silent here. We don't read of the school again but it sure seems like he reached his hand, picked it up out of the water.

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We assume he put it back on the handle and they get the project done. There's much here that applies to us today which

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Lord willing we'll get to but first I want to talk briefly about the lives of those who first read this.

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Remember I talked about the exiles in Persia, about 550 BC who in 10 or so years, roughly a decade give or take, were going to hear

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Cyrus, the king of Persia, tell them return and build the house of the

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Lord and he's going to finance it for them. You read about that in Ezra and Nehemiah. I'm not going to go into that into a lot of detail but if the original historical setting of a narrative is important, and it is, then it's also important that we understand how this must have been or should have been understood by those for whom

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God first intended it. Now it was intended for us, it's a living word that we have, it was first intended for those who were in exile, about to be returned.

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A particular people in a particular time, in a particular place, with a particular need who saw this first just as God intended it to be.

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So I mentioned them at the start Jewish exiles in Persia and in about 10 years going to be returned to Jerusalem and they read about this floating axe head.

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Before they go, before they hear this decree from Cyrus returning them to this great job, this great project, this great ministry if you will of rebuilding the house of the

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Lord, they read about the floating axe head. And now we have to ask why.

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I mean it was, I think we'll all warrant, we'd all agree, no accident.

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Some scribe didn't suddenly remember some old tradition, just plug it into the scroll that he was recording.

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Because all scripture is inspired by God. If every jot and tittle is placed according to his will, then so also is every incident we have recorded in these scriptures.

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So first, as the prophet's ambition was confirmed by the word of God through Elisha, so was their return back to Jerusalem.

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The prophet Jeremiah in chapter 25 verses 11 and 12 of his prophecy, he said that the exile would last for 70 years.

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When the spirit of God began to bring this about, he did it by having Cyrus issue the decree to exactly that purpose.

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Just as the sons of the prophets heard God through Elisha say go, so did these people by the word of God, by the inscripturated word of God, hear

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God tell them go. When Cyrus gives the decree, it's confirmed by scripture.

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You go. And they went there just as it was in Elisha's day to what purpose?

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They went there to build a house, to build the house of God. That's first. Next, just as did the sons of the prophets, they had to be sure that God was with them.

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Remember, we're talking about the exiles in Persia who were going to be returned. As Elisha brokered

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God's presence at the Jordan, so also another man you've all heard of, Ezra, the trained scribe and priest, came with them to be sure they were taught how to properly worship

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God, to be sure when the temple was rebuilt that worship was put together correctly, that the law of Moses would be followed.

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Ezra also preached to them so that they'd have God's word before them always. Just as the sons of prophets had

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God's word with Elisha's presence. There's more.

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Because once they got there, and again, we're not going to go into a lot of detail. You can read Ezra and Nehemiah on your own.

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But once they got there, they were beset with difficulties. How were they to manage when they were surrounded by enemies who plotted against them?

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What were they to do when the crops failed? How could they possibly deal with all that and still get the job done?

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Because these things did happen to them. I mean, in 540

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B .C., if someone asked how they were going to accomplish so great a task, the answer could be,

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I mean, if a young man was asking his father, how are we going to do something so monumental as this?

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The answer could very well be, son, God has said, go. 70 years of exile, just as Jeremiah prophesied,

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God says, go. The king of Persia has financed all of this. God says, go.

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Enemies' plots are thwarted because God said, go. If one of them asked how they could be sure a good answer could have been, the

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God who sent us to build his house in Jerusalem is the same who sent the prophets to build theirs in Israel by the

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Jordan. And if he made the axe head float so they could finish, he'll do no less for us.

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Such is the confidence that we have when we're sure we're in God's will. And I truly believe that this floating axe head written to us today in a living word was first intended for them so that as they were on their way to Jerusalem and when they saw the problems that they were going to have there from within and from without, they might remember that God made the axe head float so that his will for that house then to be built would be accomplished.

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What a strengthening this is. What confidence we're going to have that when we're sure we're in God's will and we've asked his presence to be with us, to know that God who made the axe head float will, what did

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Paul say? He shall supply all your needs. Doesn't say he'll give you everything you want.

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He means he'll supply all your needs to accomplish the things that God has set us about to accomplish.

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God will not abandon us. God will not leave us orphans. That's what Jesus Christ himself said. God, when we run into difficulties, as we are in his will, confirmed as I've been saying, he will make the axe head float.

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Do we take from this that God's will, that his care for us is minute? You know, for so long

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I loved this passage because it meant that God cared about the small things. No matter how minor it seemed.

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And of course, as you can tell by the way I'm preaching this, as I looked at this more carefully, this is no small thing.

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It's not just a piece of metal. It's not a pebble that flew in there into the water. Do we take from this the minutia of the sovereign

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Lord of the universe's care for us? That while Jesus Christ is upholding all things by the power of his word, he at the same time is concerned for the sparrow that falls from the sky or the deer that is about to give birth or the tool that suddenly fell into the water?

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You see, 2 Kings 6, 1 -7 would answer yes to these. Is God's care that small?

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Is God's care that detailed? We say yes, it is.

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Even while Jesus Christ by the power of his word is holding together every molecule in all creation, he's concerned about the axe head that we lost, the tool that we were using in the accomplishment of his will.

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The answer is yes. How focused is

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God upon his people? There's nothing that passes his concern. There's nothing that passes his willingness to provide for our needs.

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The Philippians passage Joseph read to you says, let your request be made known to God. The preacher

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I mentioned at the beginning, I didn't give his name and I won't. What do you do with this?

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What if I need a miracle? What if I need God to reach down from heaven and help me get an axe head out of the water?

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My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. See, the axe head wasn't a trivial matter, not by any stretch.

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Too often we read past this passage, we think of it as small, but it wasn't small at all.

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It was crucial to a work that had been set before God and authorized by God. The residence where God's word would thrive in that spiritually barren land was of huge importance.

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How small is God's attention to us? Let me think of another way to ask that question, please.

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How small a matter can we have that will gain God's attention? How small a matter can we have that will gain

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God's attention? You know, my wife has a habit to pick on her again. I think this is the second time in 10 years

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I've mentioned her. Sorry. But this will be okay.

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She has a habit of praying for a parking place. We're going to the store, we're going to Safeway, Raley's, whatever it is, and she prays for a parking place close to the store.

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Now, with my mobility limitations because of my MS, you know, this is more than just a convenience.

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I mean, I can exhaust myself by walking across a parking lot and then I can't shop and we, like everybody else, need the food.

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And so she prays for a parking place and I often think as she does this, in the back of my mind I think, well, we ought not to bother

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God with that. God's got other things on his mind.

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Like I said before, Jesus right now upholding everything by the power of his word. I think, you know, honey, that's a sweet prayer.

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But let's find something that's more appropriate to the

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God of the universe. Isn't he busy ruling nations, saving souls? Isn't the administration of every molecule enough right now?

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The axe head which was brought to the surface commends her and rebukes me.

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Master, it was borrowed. And the God of the universe, the same one holding every molecule together, wanted that one to raise up.

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No, I thought about this and I thought about my wife's habit. I'll never again, Lord willing, even think what a trivial matter that is.

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Anyone who would preach, as this one we were talking about at the beginning, just pounding on this fact that God doesn't do miracles anymore.

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I can't imagine what he does with that. I can't imagine what he does with Paul pleading with us to fall down and pray before God before we move ahead and then promising that God will supply our needs.

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We speak about miracles. Miracles, by definition, are rare. That's why we have to bring up the same one.

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Doesn't make it any less dramatic. A man in this place had blastoma glioma and the doctor at Stanford, one of the nationally known experts in that field, told him, get your affairs in order.

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Take time off work. Be with your family. You are going to die. We prayed for this man.

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We begged God on his behalf. Was it a week later? I think it was a week later.

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It was gone. This thing that was his death warrant was gone. Brethren, if that's not a miracle, what is?

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Does that make me not a reformed pastor? No. I'm as reformed as anyone.

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I'll stand on that. We are in this church. But brethren, we saw that.

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And if we don't attribute it to God, to what do we attribute it? And if we do attribute it to God, if the doctors couldn't do it,

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God did. And if God did that, that's a miracle. That's a miracle of healing. That's what the

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Acts of Ed teaches us. To wait on God, to check with God, to ask God's presence to go with us, and then to count on God, to trust

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Him, that no matter what happens, He will supply our needs.

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He will make that axe head come back to the surface. We've seen this in this place.

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You know, when Pastor George left us, he resigned from us. We were left without a pastor.

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We barely knew how to conduct a service, and what we knew was really just from watching him all those years.

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And he insisted that we close the doors here. What was this, 16 years ago now, roughly?

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He insisted we close the doors because we didn't have a pastor. We didn't have him anymore. And 13 of us, led by one man who said, who wants to stay?

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I won't mention names right now. 13 of us said, no, this is our church. We believe God wants us to stay together.

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And here we were, 13 untrained laymen on two and a half acres in Sunnyvale trying to continue.

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And we had some good men helping us out with advice and counsel, showing us, encouraging us, telling us what to do, but it was

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God who day by day and week by week supplied what we need. And one huge advantage we gained from all this is

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I believe that we learned first an utter dependence upon God. Please consent to go with us.

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Stay with us, Lord. We can't do this without you. We learned here what it means that we are utterly incapable of anything unless the

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Lord is with us. And so often, it did seem like we had lost an axe head.

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We had lost everything we needed. We had people leave, people who were pillars of the church, people who took part in the ministry that were important to us, who needed to go to a bigger place where their kids could have more friends and that sort of thing.

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So often, the axe head seemed lost, but every time it was God who saw us through.

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You look out at this beautiful lawn that God has provided us, and I mean God provided that lawn. You might not believe this, but back then, the whole thing turned to scrub.

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We were a blight in the neighborhood, and God provided that at an affordable price, and look what we have now.

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I'm not boasting about it. I'm not saying, look at us in the neighborhood. We're the gem, but we're no longer the blight.

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Why? Because the axe head had fallen in the water, and we begged God, and this is what he provided.

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So that's the message of the axe head. That's what it meant to the people who first read it.

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That's what it tells us about God when he first did it, and that's what it tells us for us in this church today, that God is alive, and there's nothing too small for him to take notice of it, and as long as we are in God's will, as long as we have waited on God, looked first to his word, as long as we've prayed and said, your presence must be with us,

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Lord, there's nothing that he won't provide us. Let all of us who had my attitude towards those small prayers, those childlike prayers, oh,

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Lord, give me a parking place that's close so my husband doesn't have to drag himself all the way across the parking lot.

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Let those be constant prayers. Let all our needs be made known to God.

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Let's not forget that we serve a God who lives and is living and acts and responds and makes axe heads float every day.

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Amen? Lord God, again, thank you for bringing us together, and thank you,

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Father, for the encouragement we can take from your word, knowing, Lord, that because of Christ Jesus, we are in your will.

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This is the work of God, that we believe in him whom you sent. So, Father, we pray that you would keep us in your will, that we keep our scriptures open, and most of all, that your presence would be with us as we proceed in life and in ministry.

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Lord, help us in all this. We stand on your word, which says you will be with us. For two or three gathered in your name, there

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I am in the midst of them. Ensure confidence in what you've revealed of yourself to us in the scripture.