Leading Them To Water

Introduction

I want to start this morning by asking you two questions. And I think I probably know the answer to both of these questions, but we’ll see. And I ask these questions because I’m concerned about your dental hygiene. And so the first question is do you understand the importance and the need for regular flossing? You know how important that is to your dental hygiene and health. Do you know that you need to be flossing? Now the second question, and you probably know what’s coming next. Do you floss? Do you floss every day? Like the dentist and the dental hygienist encourages you to.

Where it is, but they give that to me. I know the need. But if you’re like me, you probably have to admit, I’m not real good at it. I’m not as consistent. I know I should, but I don’t. And if we’re honest, there’s parts of our Christian life that are like that. That we would uniformly answer the question, yes, as a Christian, I know I need to be doing that. But if we were being honest, we would also say, probably with our head hung down, I’m not doing real good. And I think one of those areas would probably be personal evangelism. We took a survey and we would say, do you know that you need to be sharing the gospel? Do you know that your neighbors and friends and family members and classmates and co-workers need the gospel and the truth of the gospel and the salvation that can only be found, as Paul said, in the gospel.

I think uniformly we would raise our hands and say, yes. But if we’re being honest, many of us, maybe most of us, possibly all of us would say, but it’s kind of like flossing. I’m not doing real good at it. And I wonder why that is. Why that disconnect between what we know we ought to do and the reality of what we’re really doing. And I don’t know all the answers, but I think maybe here’s possibly one answer is that we’re overwhelmed by the task. We’re overwhelmed in two senses that we see the Great Commission go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And that’s a big ask. And then we just look at specifically the idea of teaching somebody the gospel.

And we have this vision of sitting down at some table, maybe a dining room table, or maybe a table at a Starbucks or a McDonald’s or a Chick-fil-A somewhere, and our Bible open between us and the other person sitting across the table and sharing the gospel, and we immediately get this flush, and our heart rate increases, and our blood pressure goes up, and we think, but I don’t have all the answers. What if they ask some question and I don’t have the answer to that question? And we just feel so overwhelmed and so intimidated that we just bow out and we do nothing. I think there’s where we’ve made a grave mistake in the area of personal evangelism. That we’ve made the task too big, virtually impossible.

And so unintentionally, we’ve given ourselves the excuse to bow out because I can’t do that.

But I want to share with you, I don’t think that’s what God intended. That when the Apostle Paul talks in places like Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12 about the differing gifts in the body, whether that’s first century spiritual gifts or 21st century natural gifts and talents and abilities, that he recognizes that we’re different. And we do have different gifts and abilities and tasks that we can perform in this body. That’s equally true when it comes to the arena of personal evangelism. And so I think we can make the task simpler and more doable. And to get rid of the excuses.

You old Testament scholars will immediately recognize this text and the story that takes place in this text that were introduced to a man by the name of Naaman. Naaman is a commander of the army of the king of Syria, one of the most powerful armies on the planet at this time. And he’s not just the commander of one of the most powerful armies on the planet at this time, but the text tells us that he’s good at his job. He’s been very successful in that. And because of that, the king, and this is very important in a monarchy, the king likes him. But all is not well in Naaman’s life. Because Naaman has leprosy. You know about leprosy. You know, particularly leprosy in the ancient world of how horrendous this at that time incurable disease was, and how horrible of a disease that was where your flesh was literally just rotting away in this shameful and disgusting and deadly disease that would eventually take your life.

And again, we must repeat that at this time there was no cure. But there’s good news in the story of Naaman because one of the benefits of being a successful commander of the army is that when you go and you conquer these other cities and towns and nations, you get to bring back the loot. And sometimes a part of that loot is people, and they get to be your slaves and your servants. And there was a little maiden girl who had been brought back from one of these raids, who was now serving at the behavior of his wife. And at this point, she just makes the comment to Naaman’s wife. I wish my master, referring to Naaman, I wish my master could be in Samaria. Because in Samaria, there’s a prophet who can heal leprosy.

Then, as in now, when you have such a horrible terminal chronic disease, you’ll do anything. If you or a loved one has that. And so understandably, Mrs. Naaman goes to Naaman and reports what this maiden girl said. And Naaman understandably takes that message to the king. Probably Ben Hadad or Haziel, the king of Syria, and the king of Syria needs his commander, and so he sends a message, a letter to King Jehoram, king of Israel, and says, I understand that you, King, can heal leprosy. Well, he got his wires crossed a little bit. That’s not what the maiden girl meant. And King Jehoram goes into a little bit of a panic and is upset, thinking that the king of Syria is being a trap. He’s trying to pick a fight with me.

He knows I can’t heal leprosy, and when I can’t heal the leprosy of the commander of his army, this will be an excuse to invade us. He’s just picking a five. But the prophet, Elisha, hears. And he sends word to the king and says, basically, send Naaman to me.

And he’ll know that there is a prophet in Israel. Naaman had come with, at the request of the king of Syria, had come with about 750 pounds of silver and about a hundred and fifty pounds of gold, and thrown in for good measure was a tin change of clothes in the king of Israel’s size. And so Naaman and his entourage make their way to the house of the prophet Elisha. But Elisha doesn’t come out. Elisha just sends a messenger with this message. Tell Naaman to go wash seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman becomes furious. Not what I thought was going to happen.

Beyond that, aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abanah and the Farpar, aren’t they far better rivers than this dirty Jordan River? And so he goes away in a huff. But his servants go to him and say, Naaman. If he’d have told you to do one of those great things that you imagined, you would have done them, right? Then what to do.

And Naaman says, You’re right. And he humbles himself and finally goes to the Jordan River. And seven times does what the prophet of God tells him to do, washes himself in the Jordan River. And in some beautiful words, it says that he comes out, and his skin is like that of a little child. Cleansed of that leprosy. You may be familiar with that story. I want to use that story as an illustration of how I think evangelism needs to take place and how God really intends for evangelism to take place in his church today. Let’s do that by looking at, there’s really five classes of peoples involved in the healing of Naaman. Let’s go back through the story and think about those five classes of people.

First, there’s the little maid. We’ll call her the initiator, the instigator, the starter of this whole thing. Nothing would have happened to affect the healing of Naaman if she hadn’t just spoken up and said, I wish my master could go to Samaria because there’s a prophet in Samaria who can fix leprosy.

I don’t know that she knew how Elisha could do that, how it all worked. I doubt, very seriously doubt that she knew that Elisha would send a messenger out and say, go wash seven times in the Jordan River. I don’t think she knew any of that. But she knew enough. She knew there was a source of salvation, a source of healing in the prophet in Samaria. And if we can just get the two of you together, that’ll change your life. And I’m confident of this. If she’d have never spoken up, she’d have never said anything to the woman she was serving. Naaman would have died a horrible death of leprosy. And then in our story, there’s of course Elisha, the prophet. It’s important to point out, and I feel pretty confident that Elisha would want me to point out that Elisha did not heal Naaman.

That he was just the messenger. But he played a very important role. He imparted the message. He gave the formula, the plan whereby Naaman could be saved from his leprosy, could be healed. And I know this from reading the text that Elisha was faithful to that message. That he told Naaman exactly what God wanted him to tell. And that Elisha wasn’t intimidated or pressured into changing that message. When a very powerful and maybe even threatening man like Naaman came into his presence, he didn’t change the message to make it more fleshy. And when Naaman went away in a rage, he didn’t chase after him and said, wait, you’re right, you’re right. Here, let me change, let me craft the message to make it maybe a little bit more palatable to your Syrian ears and to someone of your position that he stayed true to the message of God and did not waver at all.

I’m gonna tell you this. Naaman better be thankful that he had those good and caring servants who chased after him when he went away in that huff. They were the persuaders, they didn’t have the power to save him, they didn’t even know the plan. But they did their part in saying, Naaman, you’ve been told what you need to do in order to be saved of leprosy. Do you want to go back to Syria, a leper? Or do you want to do this simple thing and be healed of your leprosy? Come on, man. Do what you know you need to do. And we cannot tell this story without the most important person involved. There was God, the healer. It was not the little maid, it was not Elisha, it was not the servants, it was God, the only one who could cure an incurable disease.

The only one who could heal and make this man’s disease disgusting, rotting flesh instantly look like that of a little child. Only God could do that. And we also have to give a little bit of credit to Nahman. Oh, he was stubborn at first. And probably if he had been left alone to his own devices, would have gone back home and died of leprosy, though the cure had been laid out for him. But he finally came to his senses, didn’t he? He finally listened to reason and humbled himself and turned around and went back to the waters of that Jordan River and did what the prophet of God told him to do so that God could cleanse him of that leprosy. Now, are you ahead of me yet?

1. We Need Initiators Like the Maiden

Or do I need to finish the sermon? Humor me. I prepared to finish it, so let’s finish. When it comes to the preaching of the gospel, I think we need this same formula. We need initiators like the maiden. You might be so overwhelmed and intimidated in saying, you know, I don’t know that I know enough about the Bible to teach someone. And I don’t know if I have the talents to be able to do that. And I’m a little scared if they ask some question that I might not know the answer to. And you know what you do know? You know as much as that little maiden girl. You know somebody. You know somebody who has the plan of God and can impart that plan of God.

And you know somebody like Naaman who is dying of a horrible, deadly disease. And you know the one thing we know about that maiden girl, or what we can assume about that maiden girl? She was probably the one person closest to Naaman who could help affect that healing. And it’s a scary thought, but it’s true. There are people in your life who are dying of a far more dreaded disease than leprosy. And you may be the only person in their life that could put that in contact with God. You might be the only person they’ll ever encounter, or at least the closest person that they’ll ever encounter that knows the truth of the gospel, or at least has a finger, like this maiden girl can point it and say, I wish you would go here.

I know somebody.

I know a place where the truth of God’s gospel is being taught on a weekly basis. Would you come? And I’m going to tell you, do not dismiss the power of a simple invitation. Most people will come to a service such as this or sit down at a Bible study with Jared, myself, anyone, simply because someone asked. I can’t conceive of a circumstance that would have put Naham in contact with Elisha if not for this little maiden girl. Now, let’s dispel some notions first of all. First of all, don’t sell yourself short. You may be an effective teacher of the gospel. You might be the one who needs to be sitting at that dining room table opening up scripture. But maybe you’s think about it this way.

I know. I know it’s not the right way to think of your preacher as the kind of the hired gun when it comes to evangelism.

But let’s be honest, we kind of do, don’t we?

And we place upon him that responsibility. And it’s an unfair responsibility. Because you move someone in from out of city, out of state, and parachute that person in and say, go teach all the lost in Orlando. And you know who I know in Orlando? You I’m old. I don’t have kids in school. I don’t have kids that are playing on a ball team. I don’t have a job. And so I don’t have co-workers that I come in contact with. Now I’m not making excuses. There’s things I can do and should be doing, and Jared does and should be doing to get involved in the community to get these knows these. But do you recognize how we’re so disadvantaged when it comes to that of people who have lived here for years, maybe your whole life, and know people that you went to school with, you go to work with, that your kids went to school with, and you played ball with.

We need initiators of people who can say, Come and see.

2. We Need Messengers Like Elisha

You know what else we need? Is we need messengers like Naaman. Or like, excuse me, that should say Elisha there. I don’t know why that says Naaman. I’m gonna fire the guy who does my PowerPoint. We need messengers like Elisha, who will be faithful to that word. Who will, like Peter said, let if anyone speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, who will tell the plan of God as it has been spelled out in the scripture, who will not be intimidated or swayed by anyone’s status or position, who will just simply say the truth of what needs to be said. We need persuaders like those servants. I’m gonna think this is a minimized position, I think, an overlooked position when it comes to the area of personal evangelism.

3. We Need Persuaders Like Those Servants

You know, sometimes someone may come to our services and a Bible study is set up, someone is studying with them, and that study goes on and on and on, and the teacher, that messenger like Elisha, like the PowerPoint should say, is is wondering what’s happening? Nothing, why aren’t they responding? Sometimes you just need somebody like those servants to just walk up and say, waiting on. I’m gonna leave names out because I know this is bandied on the internet, and these people may who know this person may see it, but I know someone who heard hundreds of gospel sermons, who attended services over and over again, but for whatever reason, unknown to me, never obeyed the gospel, never stepped out into that aisle, never responded in private, never for decades, until one day.

A brother in Christ called this person up. Said, what you doing? And he said, Ah, nothing. Just hanging out here at the house. He said, You’re gonna be there a while? He said, Yeah. He said, Well, good. I’m gonna come over and baptize you today. He said, What? He said, Your daughter’s got the swimming pool, right? He goes, Yeah, yeah. He said, I’ll be over there in about 30 minutes, and I’m gonna baptize you. Now that’s a bit unorthodox, and I’m not necessarily advocating that as a way, and I understand this. He didn’t go over and you know twist the guy’s arm behind his back. But here was somebody he knew, knew the truth of the gospel, had heard that. And just he just needed a little persuasion.

4. We Need God, the Healer

He just needed somebody like you, or are you or are you over there that just woke up and say I know you’ve been studying, I know you’ve been listening to these sermons. Why? Why not now? Can we do something to help you? Obey the gospel. We need God, the healer. And let us never forget whatever role you play, whatever task you can perform, it’s all about putting the person dying of sin in contact with God who can heal them. What can I do to do that? Can I point them to a messenger? Maybe I have the ability to be that messenger. Maybe I can be the after the fact, uh after the fact persuader that says, Come on, what are you waiting on? But it’s all about getting people in contact with God, and the power of God fulfilled through his plan.

5. The Humble Heart That Naaman Had

And then finally, we need you to have that humble heart that Naaman had. I know the gospel plan. And what you hear when you’re taught, or what you need to do in order to obey the gospel. You might could relate to Naaman. You might say, well, that’s not what I thought it was going to be. In fact, that’s the complete opposite. It’s not what I’ve always heard. That’s not what mama said. It’s not what grandma’s church taught. That’s not what I used to believe.

And you have two choices. If very important if. If the message is what’s contained in God’s word. And you can go away angry, as Naaman started to do and die in your sin. Or you can have a change of heart like Naaman did. And say, I’m going to do what God says.

There’s no way out. And I want to live. And I want to be washed and made clean. And so I’ll do what God tells me to do. Even if it’s not what I thought and what I wanted. And it’s not fancy enough and big enough and flashy enough. But I’ll do what God said.

Conclusion

I can’t imagine what that horrible flesh eating disease would beyond ecstatic.

That God loves us enough that He’s given us a cure for sin.

He’s told us what we need to do in order to be reconciled to Him. Told us to trust in Him. To believe that He is and that He’s the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. He’s told us to not be ashamed of that fact, to confess it in front of men openly, to turn our back on the pathway of sin. He’s told us, kind of like Naaman, to just simply go to the water and to wash. And we’ll come up out of that water as clean as a little child. Not having our flesh restored, but our spirit cleansed from the sin that was condemning us. Will you humble yourself as Naaman did? Would you say, Yes, Lord, I want to be clean. And we help you to that regard or in any way this morning as together we stand and as we sing.