This post is a chapter from the book, Seeking the Cure, Finding the Christ, which is the book version of multiple sermons preached from 2022 to 2025. Since this book was meant to bless the church I am also making it available on this blog.
- Irredeemable
- Naaman the Leper
- The Servant Girl
- Naaman's Wife
- The King of Syria
- The King of Israel
- Elisha
- Elisha's Servant
- Naaman's Servants
- Naaman the Cleansed
- Gehazi
- Jesus
- Still Working
- Conclusion
Conclusion
There is a lost and dying world full of men like Naaman who
will perish in their sins unless someone tells them of Jesus, mighty to save.
Your call is to be one part of their redemption. I’m not proposing some magical
formula of seven touches to salvation; for some it is far fewer and others it requires
many more. However many it takes, God uses human beings to publish his peace
and redemption to the world.
What a blessing it is to be used as an instrument of
redemption in the master’s hand. Don’t make excuses:
The Israelite Girl was too little and too young.
Naaman’s Wife had been hurt one too many times.
Ben-Hadad had burned too many bridges.
Jehoram didn’t even know God.
Elisha was too busy and too important.
Elisha’s Servant hadn’t graduated seminary yet.
Naaman’s Servants only knew one verse.
If they didn’t make excuses, neither should you; God has put
you where you are to be a faithful ambassador. Maybe you’re not as famous or
fruitful as you’d like to be. Some of the most famous men of the first century
were Paul and Apollos, yet look at how Paul addresses their fame:
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. ~ 1 Corinthians 3:5–7
I believe in heaven we’ll be enthralled as we are able to continuously
hear the intricacies of the interweaving of testimonies and how God used
unremarkable people and events to change eternal destinies. Will someone say to
you, “Because you prayed for me I had the boldness to go talk to this person
sitting next to me?” Or will a tribulation in your life that seemed to have no
heavenly purpose be linked to your future faithfulness that put you in just the
right place to share just the right verse?
People talk about the glories of heaven as the streets of
gold, gates of pearl, and walls of precious stones, and I do look forward to
that, but so much more I want to hear how God has used you and I to seek his
lost sheep and shine his light to the world. If you want to find me in heaven,
I’ll be somewhere on the right side of the throne listening to testimony after
testimony while I praise my Saviour through it all. I know we’ll sing a new
song in heaven, but I’d be content to just sing Hallelujah, What a Saviour
(also known as Man of Sorrows) by Philip Bliss:
“Man of
sorrows!” what a name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Guilty,
vile and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
Full atonement! can it be?
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
And I expect the best part will be when the Holy Spirit will
fill in all of the details that we could not possibly imagine here on earth. I
once led a man to Christ who called my office phone number on New Year’s Day; I
should not have been in the office, but I had just stopped by before I
officiated a wedding. I’m so thankful I was in the right place to answer that
desperate caller. He sought hope in a hopeless situation and God blessed me to
help him find salvation in Christ.
On another occasion I counseled a man in the evening because
it was the only time that worked with his schedule. As we concluded well after
dark and were walking to the parking lot, I was surprised to find another man
sitting in the lobby hoping to talk. He had been on his way to commit suicide
at a lake near my office when he saw the lights on in the chapel and had the
random thought, “I wonder what God thinks about what I’m about to do?”
I try not to stay at work late or work on holidays so that I
can spend that time with my family, but on both of those occasions God had me
right where I was supposed to be. Some of my hardest and most uncomfortable
situations have led to the greatest ministry opportunities.
I pray regularly, “Lord, give us the words to speak, the
boldness to speak them, and the people to speak them to.” Why would God use us
to publish his peace to the world? Because his Word is the word of life,
whether it be spoken by Jesus himself, an angel from heaven, or just a nobody trying to tell everybody
about somebody who can save anybody.
God uses unlikely people.
He uses flawed people.
He uses failing people.
He uses sinful people,
because if he didn't,
He wouldn't have any people to use. ~ John MacArthur
Beloved, are you a
faithful servant to your master? When he calls you to speak, do you speak? Are
you loving the people he’s put in your life? Are you part of their story as
they’re part of your story as they are part of Christ’s story?
If the gospel be not preached, Christ is, as it were, buried. Therefore, let us stand as witnesses and do him this honor. ~ John Calvin
Above all else, make sure that you don’t miss Jesus in this story or your story. He is still mighty to save, no matter your malady and sin. If you’ll seek him, I guarantee you’ll find him when you seek him with all of your heart.
I can’t guarantee healing from leprosy, but I can guarantee cleansing from sin, because my God is living and able to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
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