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You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Thank you for coming tonight, I appreciate that Just kind of terrifying, but we'll move on ready other Then when would you open the service in prayer You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Greet the folks that around about you make sure visitors are welcome For the run You The bottom line His name is Jesus and he's ever the same He is I'm sorry His name is wonderful counselor mighty God that bottom line once you get it bigger and bigger. Okay ready? Here we go. There is a rest in every woe There is a refuge From the foe there is a peace this world can't know It's in you There is a glow In darkest night a dawn of hope a guiding light There is a hell in helpless plight it's in his name Get ready And in his name, here we go His name is wonderful bigger counselor mighty God his name is jesus and is ever the same There is a calm when fear assail There is a power all nature hails. There is a love that never fails It's in his name It's in his name Thank you Thank you for being here tonight, let's pray Dear father. Thank you for this day. Thank you for your word father Help us as we look at that here in just a little bit I pray that you just be with the offering help each of us to Be faithful at giving father giving cheerfully and giving as you lay on our heart Help the offering to meet the needs of this church and the different missionaries and all the different things going on here We ask all of this in your son's name. Amen. Have you seated? You You You You You You You When the harvest has been gathered And all my work is done when the last Mile is traveled And i've sung my final song If i'm called to give an answer And heaven's judgment seat Then let the blood of calvary Speak for me May it write me down as righteous Where no Righteousness has been Shielding me from wrath and judgment As it covers All my sin There's no work That i've accomplished Nor my goodness I would plead Just let the blood of calvary Speak for me There may be Some friends who'd witness and speak A word so kind But their voices would sound so feeble at such An awesome time, but there's a voice that calls for mercy ringing through Eternity just let the blood of calvary Speak for me May it write me down as righteous Where no Righteousness has been Shielding me From wrath and judgment As it covers All my sin There's no work I've accomplished nor my goodness. I would please Just let the blood of calvary Speak For me May it write me down as righteous Where no Righteousness has been Shielding me From wrath and judgment As it covers All my sin There's no work That i've accomplished nor my goodness. I would plead Just let the blood of calvary Speak For me Me Turn take your bibles this evening. We're gonna go to the book of second king This evening second king's chapter number six the second king's chapter six And we'll look at our text here in just a few moments to find your place as best you can Tonight's title is problem or opportunity. We all know problems come in life It's a part of life whether you like it or not And we're going to see tonight how god wants us to respond to them because god has a way In faith that each of us are to react whether we like the problems whether they're big whether they're small God has a certain way that he wants us to respond to them But tonight we'll be looking in the book of second kings to give you context of what is going on For those of you that know your bible at this point in history. Israel is a split nation Uh when israel was first founded with abraham and different things There were one nation the nation of israel and then as things progressed they wanted a king So god gave them saul from saul progressed david david and then solomon after solomon Became king and after his reign of 40 years He passed away and then his son took over the kingdom after that point the kingdom split And it became the nation of judah which represented two tribes the tribe of judah Which you guessed in the name and the tribe of benjamin and then the other 10 tribes formulated the nation of israel And this story takes place in the nation of israel during the split kingdom Again, as you'll see this this evening the context is israel had no good kings judah had a couple They had seven or eight good kings out of the 25 or so that god had given them The nation of israel had fewer kings, but every single one of them was bad. Not a single king did good after solomon This chapter chapter six is a lot in it. It's a very rich portion of scripture We have the famous story of elisha and the lost axe head. You have some interesting things take place here tonight We're going to look at our text in verse 24 so find your place there again life happens in troubles happens with problems. Let's look at verse 24 The bible says this and it came to pass after this That ben hadan king of syria gathered all his hosts and went up and besieged samaria So again, as I mentioned we have problems whether we like them or not problems are a part of life If you're like me, you like to plan everything out and plan out every little detail and you hate problems Because they throw your plans off and they throw a wrench right in the middle of it, right? I'm curious how many of you tonight are like me you're a planner you like to have everything planned out Put your hands on how many of you are the opposite? You have no idea what's going on, but you're here for it, right? You're just here for the ride, right? Put your hands down Well, if you're like me when problems come they frustrate you one because it's a problem and two because it throws off your schedule Right your schedule's ruined and if you're like me if my schedule was ruined my whole day's ruined I might as well toss in the towel and try again tomorrow because my entire day is over because of one slight inconvenience Well tonight we're going to see not just a slight inconvenience But a major one and how god asks the children of israel to respond and how unfortunately they didn't And finally they end up kind of getting the hint before it is too late But again, we go from one trouble to another sometimes it's several at once when it rains it pours as the expression goes Especially here in florida In our story, we're going to see a large problem and how god fixes it and the challenge tonight is pretty simple I'll tell you that right off the bat Is we can treat our trials as problems we can't escape and we have to go through and they're a part of life Or we can treat them as opportunities for god to work and we're going to see that tonight So again, second king 624. I have six points this evening Uh, we'll fly through them as quick as we can and get you out of here before seven o'clock So usually when you hear six points, we all panic and think we're going to be here for a while But I promise i'll have you out of here before seven o'clock But number one problems come when we least expect them Uh to make sense of this let's look here at the previous verses. Let's go back in chapter six And let's look down At verse 21. So go back in the chapter chapter 6 verse 21 And the king of israel said unto elisha When he saw them my father shall I smite them shall I smite them and he answered thou shalt not smite them What is thou smite those whom thou has taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master So earlier in the chapter, there's a nation called syria Syria has just attacked israel They've been attacking them and destroying city and capturing city one after the other The king finally gets the hint that hey elisha is a prophet of god. I should probably go talk to him So israel's king goes and talks to elisha and elisha reveals to him every location Syria is going to be at where they're going to attack So israel's king says you know what if they're going to attack the city? Let's all retreat and they would leave the city and syria would show up and there was no people there to attack And syria would carry out the same plan the next day and it says this happened many many times That the king of syria would send an entourage to go attack an israeli city and nobody would be there And it would be a ghost town And finally after several cities the king catches on and thinks there's got to be a spy Somebody is revealing this to it But there's no way anybody could know that i'm attacking these certain cities and how can israel figure these things out? It's impossible Well one of his men one of his advisors gets the hint and says hey There's a prophet named elisha and he knows god very well, and maybe just maybe god's telling him these things So the king of syria gets angry he sends several thousand men to go surround elisha's house Elisha is surrounded he wakes up in the morning surrounded by several thousand men ready to kill him And god sends down chariots of fire to scare the men away God sends blindness on the men and elisha takes these syrian soldiers that are out to kill him And you can read this for yourself in chapter six I won't read it for sake of time But elisha takes them and walks them right into the capital city of israel Being sumeria and he tells them i'm here to take you to elisha And he asks god to open their eyes and they open their eyes and suddenly they see that they're surrounded by israelis So these several thousand sumeria these uh, several thousand syrians who are out to kill The israelis are now surrounded by an entire city ready to kill them back And the king is like should we kill him elisha? What do we do? And elisha says no we're going to throw a feast for them. We're going to give them water We're going to give them food. We are going to throw a meal for these guys and send them on their way In the following verses syria's king thanks israel for their kindness and says that was foolish of me for attacking you I'll never do that again And then as we picked up our story verse 24 again, and it came to pass after this that ben haydad king of syria Gathered up all hosts and went up and besieged sumeria So something had happened and syria's king went from accepting kindness to i'm here to kill israel I'm here to show them who's boss and destroy this nation because of what they've done And we see that they've sieged or surrounded the city Siege warfare is where an enemy would blockade a city to where no one could come in and nobody could come out Usually you would win by starving out the enemy to the point that they had no food or water and the only option left Was to surrender and syria has done that the problems have began and let's look now at verse 25 And let's see what happens next the bad news gets worse And there was a great famine in sumeria and behold They besiege it until an ass's head was sold for four square pieces of silver And the fourth part of a cap of dove dove's dung for five pieces of silver So at the same time they're being sieged a famine shows up So they're thinking we can survive as long as there's water to water our crops and fill up our wells So we can have something to drink But the moment they get sieged and surrounded and can't escape god's art. It's time for a famine So things go from bad to worse and worse to worser and worser to worsest, right? And things get really bad again the end of verse 25 the economy tanks So not only are they surrounded and can't escape then they have no food or water And now their economy is tanked and things are not going well for them. It's double bad news triple bad news In our life. It's the same way, isn't it? Right, usually your car never your car tire never goes flat until your refrigerator or some appliance breaks on the same day, right? I know i'm not the only one those things happen to in life Where one bad thing happens and then you're trying to fix it and then the process the next thing breaks And then the next thing and everything when it rains it literally is pouring on me because nothing can go right And for israel, they felt that way and maybe tonight you feel like everything is going wrong in your life And everything is falling apart And you're trying to fix this mess and the process of fixing this mess the mess gets worse And you try to fix the second one and then the third one shows up and israel really is it within? They're surrounded. They can't get it out. They're surrounded by enemies ready to kill them The economy is tanked. They have no money. Their money is worthless if they have anything and things are not going Well, look again the end of verse 25 giving you an idea of this It says that things were so bad They were so hungry that it says in asses or donkey's head was sold for four score pieces of silver Uh, the head of a donkey is not something you typically eat. It's a delicacy That's what I guess you would eat if push comes to shove, right? You typically don't go over to somebody's house and they whip out this silver platter and they take off the tray and there's a head Of a donkey sitting there, right? If you went over to somebody's house and they served you that you'd probably be thinking who are these people and why am I here? And what is going on but things were that bad. That's all they had left It says again that things were so bad that a fourth part Of a cab of doves dung for five pieces of silver So people were literally eating dove poop and donkey's heads because they had nothing left And that 80 pieces of silver today is 300 bucks All right, that's 300 dollars in our money for the head of a donkey or a piece of poop would be worth 11 today The economy is tanked, right? Doesn't that seem like our time? Every so many years the economy tanks or things go bad and you think how on the world can I ever make it? And things just seem to be getting worse and israel is at a bad time Their money they have is worthless. They're surrounded things are not getting any better Needless to say people are desperate. We've all been desperate but not this desperate, right? We've all had a bad day, but not quite like israel They thought their day couldn't get any worse and then it did And they thought it couldn't get any worse on top of that and things got even worse and maybe your life like that Can't get any worse and somehow it seems that way. Let's continue on because things get even worse verse 26 And as the king of israel was passing by upon the wall There cried a woman unto him saying help my lord. Oh king And he said if the lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor out of the winepress And the king said unto her what aileth thee and she answered this woman said unto me Give thy son that we may eat him today and we will eat my son tomorrow So we boiled my son and did eat him and I said unto her on the next day Give thy son that we may eat him And she hath hid her son And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the woman that he rent his clothes and he passed by upon the wall And the people looked and behold he had fat cloth within Upon his flesh so things are getting even worse Not only are they eating the heads of donkeys and other things and their money is worthless, but things are so bad They're so hungry that it says women are giving birth to their children and eating them the next day And this woman gives a situation there woman comes to the king saying i've got a problem That me and this woman agreed that we were going to eat our kids and survive and I Sacrificed mine and ate him and she was going to do hers tomorrow and she's hit And all this is your fault king and everything is all your fault and things are getting worse Have you ever had a bad day before right? We all have Hopefully today isn't that bad day for you, but all of us have had bad days some more than others Hopefully it's not as bad as the nation of israel at this time So that puts things into perspective, doesn't it? We can have bad days, but this is a really really bad one here Maybe like the nation of israel. You've had a problem with no way out You're stuck between a rock and a hard place. You're thinking what in the world can I possibly do? Well, let's go on to number two. Here's number two when problems come Unfortunately, we tend to blame god for them. Let's look at verse 31 of the storm We're going to be all throughout chapter 6 and 7 this evening. So I would encourage you keep your bibles open Let's look at the end of chapter 6 verse 31 Then he said god do so and more also to me if the head of elisha the son of shephat shall stand on him this day But elisha sat in his house and the elders sat with him and the king sent a man from before him But ere the messenger came to him and he said to the elders see he how this son Of a murderer has sent to take away mine head Look when the messenger cometh shut the door and hold him fast at the door Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? And while he yet talked with them behold the messenger came down unto him And he said behold this evil is of the lord. What should I wait for the lord any longer? The king is so upset. He's so frustrated what's going on. He tells everybody. Hey Elisha is the most wanted man in israel You have till this time tomorrow to give me his head on a platter because I want him dead It's all elisha's fault It's all god's fault And unfortunately like myself and like many of us at times when things go wrong The first person we point the finger at is god and we say god. This is all your fault You're the reason i'm going through this and you're the reason everything in my life is falling apart And i'm not going to ask for a raise of hands But i'm sure all of us have been there from the most spiritual to the least All of us have had times that are like this that we blame god for our problems The king here is obviously upset. I mean he's in a very deep situation a very bad situation here Something none of us have ever faced before and here he is blaming God and before we get too mad at this guy and say how dare you do that. What if you were in his shoes? I'm sure I know myself. I would be afraid that I might end up doing the same thing And as soon as we don't get our way we say it is always god's fault We aren't the only ones to think this let's go to psalm 73 We're going to come back to second kings to put a bookmark there. Let's go to psalm 73 And we're going to see a psalm that a man by the name of asaph put together the lord laid in his heart to write And asaph was david's song leader Wrote several of the psalms in this book and a couple of them. He's very honest in and he Kind of outlined some of his own struggles. Let's look at psalm 73 verse 1 We see that not only is the king of israel one who says these things. So is this man? So is each of us I'll give you a second to find your place there, but psalm 73 The bible says this truly god is good to israel Even to such as are of a clean heart But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps said well and I slipped so here he is This song leader of israel saying god you're good to everybody Except for me you're good to the people over there and you're good to my neighbor and you're good to everybody else But me you let me fall and everything is your fault And here this guy is the song leader the leader of the temple of david's day saying god it's your fault Let's look at psalm 74 so up a chapter Asaph is the same author of this and look at verse 1 again another psalm that he writes in the same struggle Oh god, why hast thou cast us off forever? Why does thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? So here he is struggling saying god. Everything's your fault God this problem is here because of you and many times if we are not careful when problems come Instead of turning to god for our help. We turn to god and point the finger at him and say god This is you you're the reason i'm struggling You're the reason i'm failing and problems are going to come whether we like them or not Whether we invite them into our life or not and it's our job to respond properly We can either accept the problem is there trust god to fix it or we can point the finger and get bitter at him And unfortunately the nation of israel has chosen the latter option of getting bitter in trials We have two choices again. We can trust or we can blame the lord in this story. It's interesting to me. The king blames god And elisha doesn't elisha is living in the same city. He's facing the same problems here He is facing the same famine here He is facing the same tanked economy surrounded by the syrians and look back with let's go back to second king And let's look here at verse Uh 30 or verse 30 32, excuse me Look at what his elisha is doing, but elisha sat in his house and the elders sat with him So here everybody is panicking running around the king's pacing back and forth afraid for his life And elisha is just sitting there He's just sitting there. There's a picture this peace of mind like everything's going to be okay Keep in mind He's trapped in the same city that the king is in the same city These women are in and the same city that everybody else is in and everybody else is panicking but elisha is sitting there In his mind in his perspective god's going to work this out He has the faith that god is going to deliver when nobody else sees that way The king is blaming god get elisha trust him Elisha again is just sitting on his porch during this whole thing While the king is pacing back and forth the same seeds the same famine the same tanked economy, but two different responses And as christians, that's our job where we are to respond properly You know, we can't change our circumstances. Israel couldn't change what happened syria decided to attack them But they could have decided to respond differently when we have faith in god. We can rest assured in our deepest values Again, elisha is facing the same problem as everybody else many of us We have different problems, but the same earth the same everything else the same economy the same state We live in the same everything the same god yet. We respond differently Some in this room, maybe you're really struggling with bitterness and anger at certain situations others of you You're trusting god for it and the the goal of these is that will trust the lord I think of jesus christ when he's asleep on the boat, right? The storm comes the disciples are panicking. They're saying master We're gonna die everything's falling apart and jesus is sitting there just sleeping He's there calm in the situation and it's our job to be calm during these times as well We'll either trust the lord like elisha or blame god like the nation of israel The choice is yours this evening number three moving on as quick as we can when problems come Unfortunately, we tend to doubt the lord. Let's go to chapter seven So chapter six ends, but the story doesn't the story really concludes the end of chapter eight here But we'll stop it at chapter seven. Let's look at verses one and two Then elisha said hear ye the word of the lord thus saith the lord tomorrow about this time Shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel And two measures of barley for a shekel and the gate are in the gate of samaria So when problems come we tend to doubt the lord god promises good news But let's look at verse two israel tends to doubt it then the lord on whose hand the king leaned Answered the man of god and said behold if the lord would make windows in heaven might this thing be And he said behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereupon God promises good news, but the nation begins to doubt it. Isn't that like us? We ask god for help and then doubt he's going to do anything All right. I know i'm not the only one maybe you've prayed certain prayers, but in your mind You know god's not going to answer that prayer and you're saying lord help this situation But you've already given up in your mind and you're already doubting those things. So that's where israel is at Elijah says god has given me a word and by this time tomorrow The economy is going to be so much better that you're going to buy all the barley and all the wheat and all the Flour that you want for just a penny You're going to go from donkey's heads for three hundred dollars to all the wheat you need to make all the breads you need For just a few pennies a day's wages. That's it And this man is so dumbfounded. He says there's no way that can happen The only way this can happen is if god literally begins to rain flour from the sky And it begins to rain food because that's the only way it's possible Verse two that if the lord would open the heaven make windows in heaven might this thing be he even says Even if god opened the windows of heaven, it still might happen maybe but I don't know and Like myself I find myself in that man's shoes quite often I know i'm not the only one here that you're asking god to do something and god lays it on your heart But then you're thinking lord. There's no way there's no way this is the prayer you want me to pray There's no way you can possibly answer if you find that you see this man's unbelief in this It kind of reminds you of the sermon we've been in this this morning and last week about mary and martha with lazarus, right? They're saying jesus if you'd only been here Four days earlier this whole thing could have been fixed, but it's too late now Here they are talking to jesus christ the messiah of the world their savior and they're doubting him to his faith And how much more do we when problems come we tend to doubt the lord? The problem is we have a lack of faith problem. Let's go to psalm 78 So we'll be jumping back through psalms and things coming back to second kings, of course, but psalm 78 And we see a question posed here that like myself many of us i'm sure have asked let's look at psalm 78 And let's look at verses 19 and 20 This is a psalm of history again also written by asaph the lord used him there And in this psalm, we find him asking some questions giving israel's history talking about their shortcomings their triumphs and different things And here he is listing some of the shortcomings And he says in verse 19. Yea, they spake against god. They said can god furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smoked the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people right here? They are the people of israel admitting Oh, yeah. Well god made it rain manna from heaven, but can he give us water? And well god gave us this but can he do the next thing and many of us when problems come we begin to doubt and think well god You've worked for my neighbor and you've worked for my friend and you work for the person sitting next to me in church this evening But you're not going to work for me and you might have given us bread in the past But you're not going to do it today And you might have given us, you know manna from heaven, but there's no way you're going to give us the water we need And you've delivered here, but there's no way you're going to cross this burden for me and get this removed Right and many times we think that way we have a faith problem We think well god you worked yesterday, but you're not going to work today And god you work for this person, but there's no way possible. You can work in my life. Let's go to hebrews 11 Let's see what god has to say about faith. Why it's necessary in our life hebrews chapter 11 And let's look at a famous verse verse number six Jumping around several texts this evening, but it says this but without faith It is impossible to please him For he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him god requires faith I love it. God doesn't require big results from me or any other things. God just says colton all I need is faithfulness I need you to have faith that I can work right the working isn't in my hands It's in god god just says trust rely on me Trust in me and god says he'll work out all of the details and instead of trusting god to deliver We tend to doubt and say our problem is too big for god back in second kings chapter 7 looking at verse 2 Elisha tells the man when the man says it's impossible. Elisha tells him you're going to see it with your eyes But you're not going to eat of the food You're going to see everything take place, but you're not going to get to experience it It reminds me of moses in the promised land, right? He doubted god god allowed him to see the promised land But he couldn't go into it and many of us miss out on the blessings of god We get to see it happen to everybody else But it doesn't happen to us because we don't have the faith Because we don't tend to trust god as we ought to when we doubt god we miss out on him working in our life Doubters see god work for everyone, but themselves and it's a sad way to live Seeing god work for everybody around you, but yourself god says all you need is faith Faith is what is required faith to move mountains, right? Faith is a grain of mustard seed mustard seed All god needs is a little bit of faith just a little bit as all the lord asks and god says that's all I need You do that all work god does the mountain moving god does the healing here in second kings god does the miracles? All we do is the trusting and that's all god asks of us tonight. It's just say hey take some time and trust me I know you're struggling. I know you're going through different burdens And i'm sure if we were to sit here and share all of our burdens would be blown away at the pain and suffering in This room this evening, but all god says is no matter how small or no matter how big it is. Trust me rely on me That's what the nation of israel is having to learn the hard way and god is teaching the same lesson to each of us God uses these moments to stretch our faith the faith that is never tested is never grown We want by faith not by sight charles spurgeon once said great faith requires great trials And I think it's safe to say the nation of israel at this time is going through some great trials and many of us Can say the same as well, but god is testing us But unfortunately many times instead of trusting him we tend to doubt him Number four moving as quick as we can when problems come god uses unlikely means back to chapter 7. Let's look at verse 3 Because god works it out like he promised But not how I would pick it out to be and not how you would pick it out to be And let's look at verse 3 There were four leprous men at the entering end of the gate and they said one to another why sit we here until we die If we say we will enter into the city then the famine is in the city and we shall die there And if we sit still here we die also Now therefore come and let us fall under the host of the syrians if they save us a life We shall live and if they kill us we shall but die And they rose up in the twilight to go under the camp of the syrians when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of syria Behold, there was no man there For the lord had made the host of the syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses Even the noise of a great host and they said one to another low the king of israel has hired against us the kings Of the hittites and the kings of the egyptians to come upon us Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their horses and their asses even the camp as it was And fled for their life. So here again, the syrians are surrounding israel They're ready to attack ready to starve out the enemy and conquer the city and defeat israel once for all and god sends A vision in the night the men begin to hear the sounds of chariots and hear the sounds of enemies and it scared them So bad the entire nation of syria the army of syria rather takes off running And they're in such a hurry. They left everything behind Maybe you've been in a hurry before and you've left your keys and you hop in the car And you get ready to pull your keys out of your pocket your keys aren't there Or you get in such a hurry you're running to work and you realize you left your lunch at home And right we've all made those mistakes. These people were so busy. They left their tents. They left their gold their silver They left many of the clothes behind they left everything behind and these four lepers show up and find that everything is forsaken Here is all the food we need here are all the tents We need all the provisions and god has provided it in a way that might not make sense to us But god is working god can use anyone or anything He chooses to get his will accomplished if he can use these four lepers who were kicked out of the city Or the city of samaria who were left as outcasts God can use me and god can use each of us how he pleases god uses the weak things to confound the wise We need to trust that god will do what is best for us whether it is our plan Or not i'm sure the king of the king of israel was thinking elisha There's got to be a way you can work this out Maybe you can you know send some angels to kill these men or you can give us strength as we fight Yet god says nope i'm just going to scare him I'm going to send a sound in the night to scare syria away so that you guys will have the victory And oftentimes in life when we trust god god works in such a way that only god can work You can't look back at the problem and say that I fixed it or that you fixed it It's only through god and maybe tonight some of us are struggling We need to trust the lord more with some problems that we have The nation of israel unfortunately learned this lesson the hard way and being too late The only one who trusts god at this time was elisha the faith of one man That's all it took and god is looking to use our faith to trust him with our problems as well And then number five when problems come god shows out. Let's look at verse 15 So continuing on the chapter here in our study. Let's look at verses 15 and 16 And they went after them on the jordan and lo all the way was full of garments and vessels Which the syrians had cast away in their haste? And the messengers returned and told the king And the people went out and spoiled the tents of the syrians So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel according to the word of the lord I love this what elisha said back at the end of chapter six and the beginning of chapter seven and all this thing was going To take place by tomorrow Here it is happening And god is saying the same thing to each of us god reminded them. He was in charge not israel He reminded them that he was in charge not syria Not elisha even not the king of israel not the king of any nation Not anybody the only one in charge was god And god is trying to teach each of us the same lessons tonight as well that we're not in charge of our life That yeah, I can make decisions But ultimately god is the one doing those things and god is the one moving behind the scenes God is the one reminding the nation that he's in charge Here he is one moment turning the economy around to where everything is tanked and everything's falling apart And the only thing they have left is god So now god is working it out where they're succeeding and everything is going great and just like he had said going from a 300 donkey and $11 dove poop for food to For a few pennies now Here is all the wheat and barley that you need to survive on and here is everything that you need god reminded them He was in charge Israel could not fix the situation on their own if israel were to outstrength or outfight the syrians They were outnumbered. They were hungry. They were starving. They would have lost The only way they could have won was with god And many times god puts us in situations so that we can look back and say the only reason we got through that was because Of god it wasn't because of me or because of you but because god worked on your behalf And god wants to do that in every one of our lives Yet many times we don't let him We're like the nation of israel. We push him aside and say god. I don't want that and god It's your fault and god you can work for him But not for me and god everything is on you instead of trusting the lord like we ought to God uses our trials to remind us that he is in charge We must have the faith that he will deliver it reminds me of ephesians 3 20 Where he talks about exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think And god wants the same thing for each of us God knows what you need now and is working it out behind the scenes And then lastly this evening when problems come again god reminds us he is in charge. Let's look at verse 17 Because back at chapter 7 at the beginning of it the man who doubted god told him All right, you're going to see everything but not partake in the faith of it. Let's look at verse 17 And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate And the people trod upon him in the gate and he died as the man of god had said who spake When the king came down to him verse 20 And so it fell unto him for the people trod upon him in the gate and he died So this man who laughed at elisha said elisha There's no way you this god can work everything out and everything's just your fault and this isn't going to happen And the only way god can even work this out is if it may be rain from heaven But even then that's kind of a farce and there's no way god could work this out And here he is just like god had told him you're going to see everything but not partake in it And it all went back to him doubting and when we doubt god working in our life and doubt that god can do anything It hinders us and we unfortunately miss out on many of the blessings that god wants us to have God challenges each of us to live the length of faith Don't be so crippled by fear this evening that you can't take god at his word God says you're just to trust him You are to rely on him yet This man doubted and didn't get to experience the blessings of god And how many times in my own life have I missed out on the blessings of god because i've doubted him at times And god has worked but I didn't get to experience the full blessings because I wasn't all there And each of us i'm sure could share stories of the same thing of us not trusting god And saying well god I can fix this myself I I can do it myself and fix this project on my own and I can Just out muscle the way out of this problem and I can just fix it myself Yet like israel the problem gets worse And the problem gets bigger and it goes from one problem to two And two to three and three to four and next thing you know, you're so over your head You don't know what's going on when if we would have just trusted in god in the first place Everything would have been fixed. So tonight in conclusion is this we all have problems big and small But are we trusting the lord with him? If we do god will show out just like it in the nation of israel If we don't like this man at the end of the story, unfortunately, we'll see the blessings of god But not experience them the way that god wants us to this nation spent all their time focusing on problems They couldn't fix they couldn't make it rain. They couldn't stop the seeds. They couldn't fix everything yet God could and they should have spent their time focusing on what god could and would do in that moment So the challenge tonight is very simple. Do you have faith? When problems come do you treat them as an opportunity for god to work in your life? Or is it just another trial another problem that just piles up to the list of problems that you have and things just get worse And you're ready to quit We have a choice to make we can make one of those two either you can trust them tonight And say lord, I don't know how this is going to work out I'm sure the nation of israel was perplexed. We see it in our text They were yet god worked it all out and in our life god is wanting to do the same thing But we have to trust him let your trial become an opportunity for god to show out Instead of a problem to trudge through the choice Is yours trust that god knows what he is doing and have the faith to believe that he will take care of the trial. Let's pray Your father