WEBVTT 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:06.360 So just for a few moments, we're going to think about these verses, recognizing here an invitation 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:11.519 ! to pray about the little things in life and the big things. Here's another one of these great moments 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:16.559 ! where God in his providence gives us a text that directly connects us with what Rudy was talking about. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:23.519 Let me start with the kind of big idea takeaway, and then we'll get into it, and it's this. When faith 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:30.620 connects us to the God of the Bible, we can confidently pray about all things, the little 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:38.399 things and the big things in life. In the October holidays, we went down to the Lake District, we 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:43.519 went to an old slate mine, which they turned into an adventure area, and one of the things that we 00:00:43.519 --> 00:00:51.120 got to do was to do an infinity bridge. So it was walking on a steel cable across a 1,000-foot drop. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:57.679 Now, I'm not an adrenaline junkie, and I'm not a trapeze artist, so how was it that I could do that? 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:03.199 And the answer is easy. I was locked on by a harness and by a carabiner. 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:13.239 Faith is locked on to God, the God that we meet in the Bible, the God of grace and resurrection power. 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:20.319 Our faith locks us onto God, our Father in heaven, a God of compassion, who knows us and loves us. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:28.180 Faith locks on with reliance to the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. And when we are locked on 00:01:28.180 --> 00:01:33.800 in faith and dependence, then it allows us to pray with confidence. Now, we can follow the example of 00:01:33.800 --> 00:01:42.180 Elisha, the man of faith and of prayer. We've just been encouraged to be praying, to be active 00:01:42.180 --> 00:01:47.960 participants in God's mission. I wonder how we would describe our prayer life at present. 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:53.299 I imagine many of us, when we're honest, would say, well, we'd love to make more time to pray, 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:58.879 to have more focus when we pray. Maybe we're at a stage where we never or we hardly ever pray. 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:06.459 I hope and I pray that what Rudy was sharing will be an encouragement to us. And I also hope that 00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:12.099 Elisha's story is an encouragement to us, that it would motivate us and help us to be a praying 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:17.180 people about the big things and the little things in life. I've got three simple questions. The first 00:02:17.180 --> 00:02:22.780 is this, why do we pray? So, I'm going to use these two stories as examples to give us principles. So, 00:02:22.819 --> 00:02:29.400 in the first story, it was there in the first seven verses, we've got a prophet, and a prophet who's 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:35.539 helping to build an extension to a meeting room. And he's gone to his neighbor and he's borrowed an axe 00:02:35.539 --> 00:02:39.639 and he's gone down to the river because that's where the trees are. And as he's trying to cut down 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:46.339 one particular tree, the axe head flies off and sinks to the bottom. And we have his response recorded, 00:02:47.519 --> 00:02:54.339 oh no, my lord, he cried out, it was borrowed. He brings the problem to Elisha, who is God's 00:02:54.339 --> 00:03:00.659 representative. This is a form of prayer. And now we read this, this seems a small thing. It's one 00:03:00.659 --> 00:03:06.099 prophet and it's one tool. I am sure the rest of the prophets would a man is just fine without him, 00:03:06.099 --> 00:03:18.060 but the fact is, this matters to God. And the second story, verse 8 to 23, sounds very different. 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:25.039 So, we've had this move. We've gone in chapter 5 to the story of Naaman, a great political figure. 00:03:25.500 --> 00:03:30.680 We've got, you know, global politics involved. Then we go to one prophet and one axe head, 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:37.080 and then we go political again. We've got the king of Aram who wants to attack again. 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:43.460 But what happens is that Elisha isn't able to act as if he was a spy in the camp. You know, 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:48.680 the king asks the question, who is it among my advisors who's advising the king of Israel? And 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:55.020 the reality is it's no one. God is giving those messages to Elisha so he can warn the king of Israel 00:03:55.020 --> 00:04:05.400 time and time and time again. Well, Aram's response, as we see it there, is to send an army to go and 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:13.620 capture Elisha. In verse 13 and 14, when he discovers he's in Dothan, he sent horses and chariots and a 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:19.040 strong force and they went by night and surrounded the city. So, Elisha's servant wakes up the next 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:28.040 morning. Verse 15, we hear the same words, oh no, my Lord. What shall we do? Same words, same idea. 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:33.500 Here's a problem. Let's take it to Elisha, the man of God. It's again, it's a form of prayer. Now, 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:38.840 this is definitely not a small thing. This is a big thing. This is the threat of capture and death and 00:04:38.840 --> 00:04:46.439 fear. Isn't it interesting these two different scenes are deliberately placed by our authors side 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:54.600 by side. Why is that? To say to us that God cares about it all, the little things and the big things. 00:04:56.040 --> 00:05:01.779 I've almost finished a really gripping book called The Wager, which tells the story of an 18th century 00:05:01.779 --> 00:05:08.319 British naval ship sent off to try and capture some Spanish gold, but it ends up getting shipwrecked 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:13.180 and there's storm and there's disease and there's all kinds of things. Well, at one point in the story, 00:05:13.180 --> 00:05:19.180 a group of sailors build themselves a makeshift boat from their wreckage and they try and set sail 00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:26.340 some 1,200 miles to reach port in Brazil. And there's a point where a sudden storm whips up, 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:33.199 the boat almost floods and capsizes, but then it writes itself. And the guy who's in charge of this 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:39.199 little party on this desperate little boat is a guy called Bulkley. And he's a Christian man 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:47.819 and he wrote in his diary. And here's what he wrote. He said, we prayed earnestly for the storm to clear 00:05:47.819 --> 00:05:55.899 up for nothing else could save us from perishing. He prayed and God answered. And when they found land, 00:05:55.899 --> 00:06:04.819 he goes on in his diary to say, we call this harbor the port of God's mercy. The most abandoned among us, 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:12.319 no longer doubt of an almighty being and have promised to reform their lives. And we've probably 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:21.019 heard stories like that. People who pray in storms. We pray when we face crises. We pray when all hope 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:30.600 seems lost. But we also pray for lost property. We also pray when there's transport connections we want 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:36.460 to make. When there's a good conversation that we need to have. When we simply want enough energy to 00:06:36.460 --> 00:06:43.800 get through the day. Because we believe in God's sovereign rule and we believe in his father-like 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:52.760 care for each of his children. His eyes on the sparrow and we know he watches us. So just by way of 00:06:52.760 --> 00:06:58.860 connecting this with mission for a moment, I like to use the Prayer Mate app and I've got a few mission 00:06:58.860 --> 00:07:10.560 feeds. And so on Thursday, my prayer diary included these. To pray for the failure of signal jamming. 00:07:10.780 --> 00:07:16.379 So there's gospel radio that goes out in northern China and the authorities are trying to stop those 00:07:16.379 --> 00:07:24.360 signals. And so we're invited to pray that they would fail to jam those signals. The next prayer feed was 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:32.540 praying for an end to the hateful ideology of Islamic State in Mozambique as they persecute the Christian 00:07:32.540 --> 00:07:40.420 minority there. He was praying for ways for Christian kids in persecuted countries to be able to take part 00:07:40.420 --> 00:07:48.860 in simple activities with other Christians. To pray encouragement for a team working in northeastern 00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:59.080 Thailand where it's very hard to share the gospel. Praying courage for a group who've heard the gospel in 00:07:59.080 --> 00:08:09.160 Senegal that they would have the courage to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior. All of life matters to God. 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:15.139 And so all of life can be taken to him in prayer. And that applies personally, but it also applies 00:08:15.139 --> 00:08:25.419 as we think about mission. So that's why we pray. Second question is this, who do we pray to? And this 00:08:25.419 --> 00:08:35.340 is crucial. You know the buses or the posters that say try praying on them, sometimes outside churches as 00:08:35.340 --> 00:08:42.179 well, is really helpful. But I would love if somebody would add some brackets or just give a little bit more 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:50.219 detail. Try praying to the one true and living God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Or, you know, 00:08:50.259 --> 00:08:56.099 try praying to God the Father through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now that would be less 00:08:56.099 --> 00:09:02.159 catchy, and if you're, a bus is passing, you're not going to get it. But I think it'd be really helpful 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:10.819 because prayer is an invitation to connect with the personal God, the God who is. And that means we need 00:09:10.820 --> 00:09:17.100 to know the God who is to know the God who is. And the better we understand the one whom we are 00:09:17.100 --> 00:09:22.980 connected to, the more confident, the more bold, the more persistent our prayers will be. 00:09:24.540 --> 00:09:30.980 When Jesus gives the Lord's Prayer, he begins with our Father, and begins with his holiness, 00:09:30.980 --> 00:09:33.400 and begins with his kingdom and his will. 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:44.959 It's why we pray Scripture. Because we're catching hold of God's character and God's promises, 00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:51.679 and we can claim those promises as God's people. And so that strengthens our faith in God and encourages 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:59.019 us to pray. So I just want to think about these two stories and what they tell us about the God that 00:09:59.019 --> 00:10:03.899 we pray to for our encouragement. And this is going to be really brief. So think about what we learn 00:10:03.899 --> 00:10:11.579 about God in story number one. Well, don't we discover he's the God who is in control over nature? 00:10:12.059 --> 00:10:19.559 Because he works a nature miracle. You know, iron does not generally float to the top of the surface 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:22.579 when a stick is thrown into the water. That's a miracle of God. 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:31.020 When we believe that God is the sovereign creator of all things, that he is self-sufficient, 00:10:31.379 --> 00:10:39.240 and that he longs to and actively involves himself in the world, then we can confidently and boldly pray. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:47.500 Because God's in control over nature and over everything. We also pray to the God who can redeem 00:10:47.500 --> 00:10:58.399 bad situations. What did the guy say? Oh, no. I was borrowed. Now I've amassed some debt. Now my 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:06.460 neighbor has lost his property. But what God does in this very simple story, miraculous story, is to 00:11:06.460 --> 00:11:12.480 redeem a bad situation. Now there is no debt. Now there is no loss. That's just a really small example 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:19.060 of God being able to bring good from evil. Principle we first see in the story of Joseph. 00:11:19.259 --> 00:11:24.320 Joseph would say to his brothers, you intended evil by selling me into slavery, but God intended it for 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:31.500 good to save many lives. And of course the cross stands as the ultimate example. You conspired 00:11:31.500 --> 00:11:39.100 to kill Jesus, the author of life, but God intended it for good, for the saving of many lives. 00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:45.300 So we pray to a God who can redeem a bad situation, and he's shown it to us in the cross and the 00:11:45.300 --> 00:11:53.659 resurrection. We also pray to a God who shows mercy to meet needs. So we've been thinking in the story 00:11:53.659 --> 00:11:59.980 of Kings that this is a time of famine. This is a time when resources are scarce. This guy does not 00:11:59.980 --> 00:12:05.480 have, like we do, screw fix city to nip around to to get another axe head. And even if he did have one, 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:13.440 he probably didn't have the money to buy it. And wonderfully, in this very simple story, we see 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:24.039 God cares and God extends mercy in response to prayer. Story number two, we discover some new things 00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:31.519 about God, but they are related. We discover God's total wisdom and God's total sovereignty. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:38.860 Verse nine again, the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, beware of passing that place because 00:12:38.860 --> 00:12:45.279 the Arameans are going down there. How did he know that? Because God told him. It's really striking, 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:50.600 if you go back to chapter five, verse one, and the story of Naaman, we discover that in the past, 00:12:51.220 --> 00:12:59.799 God had actually given the nation of Aram victory and success. But now, God is passing on military 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:07.459 intelligence via Elisha so that Israel has success. God is totally in control and is altogether wise. 00:13:09.719 --> 00:13:16.679 Here's another thing we discover about God, that he is the divine warrior who is for and with his church. 00:13:18.379 --> 00:13:24.399 It's that remarkable moment when the servant is in a panic and he sees the city is surrounded, 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:36.059 and Elisha prays. Verse 17, open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see. Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses 00:13:36.059 --> 00:13:48.100 and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Unseen protection for just that moment becomes visible to strengthen that servant's faith. 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:57.540 Here is the Lord of heaven's armies, deeply caring for his church, acting to ensure that his prophet will not be lost. 00:13:57.620 --> 00:14:07.500 And he is the same God who continues to defend, to protect, to sustain his church today so that eternally not one of his own will be lost. 00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:17.879 But we also discover we are praying to a God of surprising protection, salvation, and grace. 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:24.059 And that's there as the story draws to that perhaps surprising close, verse 20 to 23. 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:31.720 So Aram's soldiers, Elisha prays, strike the army with blindness, and immediately they are. 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:35.660 So they have no power. All of a sudden they're in Israel's hands. 00:14:37.060 --> 00:14:43.200 And they're led right into the heart of Samaria. And so the question comes, now that they're in our hands, 00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:51.639 Elisha, should we kill them? Elisha's answer is, no, don't kill them. Rather, give them a feast. 00:14:52.980 --> 00:14:54.060 Show them kindness. 00:14:54.059 --> 00:15:00.759 And after, verse 23, after he prepared this great feast, he sent them away. 00:15:01.719 --> 00:15:10.079 And notice, and this is connected, they returned to their master so the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:15.799 Because God worked for his people's good through this surprising act of them showing hospitality. 00:15:15.799 --> 00:15:23.699 And those soldiers who were deprived of their ability to see and thought they were in ultimate peril, 00:15:23.819 --> 00:15:28.959 they're sent home with a new knowledge of the true God and his character and his grace. 00:15:31.319 --> 00:15:34.919 The point for our prayers is simply this. We need to behold our God. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:40.859 To know as we pray that we pray to the God of resurrection and new creation. 00:15:40.860 --> 00:15:43.419 The God of all power and all wisdom. 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:47.240 The God who fights to build and to guard his church. 00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:49.600 The God of amazing and surprising grace. 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:55.759 And to understand that this God, he's our Father in heaven when our faith is in Jesus. 00:15:56.820 --> 00:16:00.100 Try praying to this God, the true God. 00:16:01.139 --> 00:16:04.100 Well, that makes all the difference in the world. 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:07.139 One last question. 00:16:07.139 --> 00:16:08.960 That's a really simple answer. 00:16:09.139 --> 00:16:10.820 What do we pray for? 00:16:11.860 --> 00:16:17.560 Two simple little phrases that connect to our stories that can make a big impact, I think, as we pray. 00:16:17.800 --> 00:16:18.680 Here's the first thing. 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:20.419 That we can pray to our God. 00:16:21.360 --> 00:16:22.000 Help me. 00:16:22.580 --> 00:16:24.060 Or help us. 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:25.800 Or help them. 00:16:27.100 --> 00:16:30.019 Whatever needs we become aware of. 00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:32.820 Personally, corporately, in society. 00:16:33.240 --> 00:16:36.240 We are encouraged to take those to the Lord. 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:37.240 However small they might seem. 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:39.419 However small they might seem. 00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:45.120 God is big enough to care and to act for his glory and for our good. 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:53.320 We can be a person of prayer for others. 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:59.120 as Rudy was sharing, that we can stand side by side with missionaries, 00:16:59.720 --> 00:17:04.620 but we can stand side by side with one another. We can provide strength as we pray, 00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:10.220 when perhaps someone else's faith is weak. And we can pray for those outside of the church who 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:18.960 never pray for themselves. We can pray in a battle against sin, in a struggle with an illness, 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:24.140 needing wisdom for a decision, or simply when we can't find our phone and our keys. 00:17:24.860 --> 00:17:33.000 In all of those situations and so many more, we can pray to God, help me. And secondly, 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:45.200 we can also pray with Elisha, open my eyes, open our eyes, open their eyes, 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:53.160 to what? That we would see the glory and the goodness of our God and our Father. 00:17:54.299 --> 00:18:01.819 Open our eyes to see the reality of His presence with us, His promises for us to experience and 00:18:01.819 --> 00:18:09.400 to claim. Open our eyes to see the reality of a God who is more than capable of redeeming what is lost, 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:16.259 who can rescue when all seems hopeless. Open our eyes that we would believe the gospel, 00:18:17.040 --> 00:18:24.120 and we would boldly go to share it with others, even to the far ends of the earth. We want to live 00:18:24.120 --> 00:18:31.040 with eyes wide open to the God who is there, to the God who cares. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:43.299 And we also want to pray, and with this we'll close, open our eyes to see Jesus, the one who prays for us. 00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:47.779 Isn't it interesting that in both of these stories, the impulse of the person in need, 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:53.019 let me turn to God's prophet, God's prophet, the man of prayer. 00:18:53.019 --> 00:19:01.279 And for us, we turn to the one who is greater than Elisha, the greater prophet, the Lord Jesus Himself. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:05.460 The one who died to redeem us by His resurrection power. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:09.480 The one who fought and won a great spiritual victory for us on the cross. 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:13.700 And as we pray to Jesus, we understand that what He's doing now, 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:15.980 is He's praying. 00:19:16.980 --> 00:19:19.700 He ever lives to make intercession for us. 00:19:19.700 --> 00:19:23.420 Jesus is always praying for His people. 00:19:24.120 --> 00:19:25.840 Always praying for His church. 00:19:25.940 --> 00:19:27.759 While we sleep, Jesus prays. 00:19:28.140 --> 00:19:30.559 When we serve, Jesus prays. 00:19:30.600 --> 00:19:33.779 When we're in need, Jesus prays. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:40.360 And so may it be true that Elisha, this story, these stories here, 00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:43.940 remind us, encourage us, that when faith connects us 00:19:43.940 --> 00:19:46.680 to this God, to our Father in Heaven, 00:19:46.680 --> 00:19:49.580 to Jesus, our Lord and Savior, 00:19:50.100 --> 00:19:54.560 we can confidently pray about the little things and the big things in life. 00:19:54.900 --> 00:20:00.100 And we can also pray for missionaries 00:20:00.100 --> 00:20:03.779 and for one another and all to the glory of God. 00:20:05.080 --> 00:20:06.700 Let's pray together briefly now. 00:20:06.700 --> 00:20:06.799 Amen. 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:06.799 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:06.799 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:06.799 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:06.799 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:06.799