Sermon Notes, October 30, 2016
Rev.
Garry McGlinchy
Pastor
Garry continued the sermon series based on the book Kings and Presidents:
Politics and the Kingdom of God by Timothy R. Gaines and Shawna Songer
Gaines. This week’s sermon is titled
“The Economics of Plenty,” and is based on 2 Kings 6:8-7:2.
In
the first story (verses 8-23), where Elisha is telling the king of Israel where
the king of Aram plans to attack, we see that the Aramean king’s rage is a
symbol of his narrow vision. He could
only focus on what was right in front of him. Usually when we are angry, the
thing at the forefront of our mind is the very thing that’s getting under our
skin. All we can do is think about how
to eradicate that irritating thing.
We
see that Elisha’s servant was fearful—all he could see was the army of the king
of Aram surrounding them. However, we
also see the faith of Elisha, and how his vision is focused on the Kingdom of
God. When we are seeing things through
the eyes of kings, we only see what angers us, and what we are afraid of. When we see things through the eyes of the
Kingdom, we see that God is everywhere and that He will protect and provide for
our every need.
In
the second story (verses 24-7:2), the king of Aram laid siege to Samaria for so
long that there was nothing to eat. The
people were in despair, bartering their children for food, and some turned to
cannibalism. As the king of Israel is
surveying his dying kingdom and looking on the horizon as the Aramean army
prepares for yet another attack, a woman cries out to the king. “Yasha” in the
Hebrew literally means “Save us!” The woman was looking to the king for
salvation from the desperation of the kingdom.
It seems that we Americans cry out every four years—we cry out for
someone to save us, for a new leader to place our hopes on. We put our faith in the flesh and blood of
political leaders, and then what? We
find ourselves still in want. Our
financial security doesn’t really change, and we find ourselves crying out for
change in another four years.
Notice
that the king is looking down. It’s easy
for us to see things negatively when we are always looking down. Our vision is limited when we look down, and
sooner or later we throw up our hands in despair, and we begin to go through
drastic measures to get what we want.
However, when we look up, our vision broadens, and we begin to realize that
it is through God, Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, that all will be okay. We regain hope.
It
is interesting that the woman in this story is crying out to the king to save
her. We might remember another story
about another woman who speaks a word that is very similar. In Matthew 1 we read a story about a young
mother who calls her son “Yeshua,” literally meaning “He will save!”
The
main point to focus on in these two stories is VISION. When we view the world through the eyes of
kings we see that provisions are meant for consumption, that we must compete
for those provisions, that there will never be enough, and that everywhere we
look we see lack. However, when we view
the world through the eyes of the Kingdom we see provisions are meant for God’s
redemption, that we receive provisions as a gift, that God has always provided
enough in all things necessary to our salvation, and we see that we will always
have plenty. How is our vision? We need to see it all through the eyes of
God. He provides! He is in charge.
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