Nov 26, 2017 |Thread

Moving And Waiting In Faith

11.26.17 | Thread

Moving And Waiting In Faith

Noel Heikkinen

2 Kings

Scripture tells us that faith is the confidence of what we hope for and the assurance of things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1). Pastor Noel Jesse Heikkinen shares the story of two women who live out their faith in God in drastically different ways. Through faith we move, through faith we wait, through faith we believe, and through our faith God leverages our lives for the Gospel.

2 Kings

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One of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord. Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.” Elisha asked her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go out and borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few. Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side.” So she left. After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring. When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” But he replied, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped. She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest.” One day Elisha went to Shunem. A prominent woman who lived there persuaded him to eat some food. So whenever he passed by, he stopped there to eat. Then she said to her husband, “I know that the one who often passes by here is a holy man of God, so let’s make a small, walled-in upper room and put a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp there for him. Whenever he comes, he can stay there.” One day he came there and stopped at the upstairs room to lie down. He ordered his attendant Gehazi, “Call this Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she stood before him. Then he said to Gehazi, “Say to her, ‘Look, you’ve gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’” She answered, “I am living among my own people.” So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” “Call her,” Elisha said. So Gehazi called her, and she stood in the doorway. Elisha said, “At this time next year you will have a son in your arms.” Then she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your servant.” The woman conceived and gave birth to a son at the same time the following year, as Elisha had promised her.

2 Kings 4:1-17 CSB

The child grew and one day went out to his father and the harvesters.Suddenly he complained to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” So he picked him up and took him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon and then died.

2 Kings 4:18-20 CSB

She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut him in, and left. She summoned her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back again.” But he said, “Why go to him today? It’s not a New Moon or a Sabbath.” She replied, “Everything is all right.” Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Go fast; don’t slow the pace for me unless I tell you.”

2 Kings 4:21-24 CSB

 

So she came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his attendant Gehazi, “Look, there’s the Shunammite woman. Run out to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your son all right?’”And she answered, “Everything’s all right.”

2 Kings 4:25-26 CSB

 

When she came up to the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone—she is in severe anguish, and the Lord has hidden it from me. He hasn’t told me.” Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not lie to me?’”

2 Kings 4:27-28 CSB

 

So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your mantle under your belt, take my staff with you, and go. If you meet anyone, don’t stop to greet him, and if a man greets you, don’t answer him. Then place my staff on the boy’s face.” The boy’s mother said to Elisha, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. Gehazi went ahead of them and placed the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or sign of life, so he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy didn’t wake up.”

2 Kings 4:29-31 CSB

 

When Elisha got to the house, he discovered the boy lying dead on his bed. So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LordThen he went up and lay on the boy: he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand. While he bent down over him, the boy’s flesh became warm. Elisha got up, went into the house, and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him again. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” He called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.” She came, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; she picked up her son and left.

2 Kings 32-27 CSB

 

Women received their dead, raised to life again…

Hebrews 11:35 CSB

 

All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us. Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 11:39-12:2 CSB

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