Bible Study: Seeing Love In What God Does, 1 Kings 17:1-17

 

   

SEEING LOVE IN WHAT GOD GIVES

 

2 Kings 7:1-17

 

I grew up in the south in a city with steel mills. It was a place

Where the poor stayed poor and the rich got richer.

 

We were poor, but I never knew it. My mom and dad knew how to

Make a little bit of nothing be enough. It was a bad situation

all around us, but we learned how to have fun in the mist of trouble.

 

I grew up in ignorance unaware of my poor situation. I grew up seeing

the best in what I had.

I saw my first used car as the best. My first small apartment was the best.

My first small house was the best. I wanted more but what I had was

the best for me,

 

Looking back, I can see that it was God that gave me the attitude

of satisfaction with my poor situation.

 

In this text we find 4 poor leprous men in a bad situation making

best of it.

 

In Bible times, people suffering from the skin disease of leprosy were treated as outcasts. There was no cure for the disease, which gradually left a person disfigured through loss of fingers, toes and eventually limbs.

 

   

       Lev 13:45-46

       "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let

        his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out,

       'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains

        unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.

 

There was a famine in Samaria . These four leprous men were cast outside

the city walls with a powerful army ready to destroy Israel, camped closed by.  

 

 

    

 

1. Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord . This is what the Lord  says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."

2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord  should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?"

"You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it!"

3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, 'We'll go into the city'-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."

5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!" 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

9 Then they said to each other, "We're not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let's go at once and report this to the royal palace."

10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, "We went into the Aramean camp and not a man was there — not a sound of anyone — only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were." 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

 

 

CHURCH AND STATE WORK TOGETHER

V:1

A. Your state (you) must work with the Church (Body Of Christ).

    1. We are all in this together.

    2. God expects us to work together

    3. We cannot exist without God

            

        Acts 17:28-29

        For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of   

        your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

        Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think  

        that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and

        man's device.

 

B. Your poor, bad situation is part of God’s plan to bless others.

      1. God planed for you to be where you are today to bless the nation.

      2. God put you into the line of fire, to show you His glory.

 

V:2 

UNBELIEF FORFEITS BLESSING

            

        Jer 32:27

        I am the Lord , the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? 2

 

        IF Word Said It, Its True, don’t need proof

   

V:3.

COMMUNICATION IS THE FIRST COPING SKILL.

   1. We must talk to each other.

   2. The four lepers were poor with sores over their bodies,

       but they talked to each other.

 

V:4

PLANNING IS IMPORTANT DOING TOUGH TIMES

  1. The four lepers discussed their options.

  2.  They made a plan.

 

 

PRAYER IS IMPORTANT

   1. Talk to God

   2. Listen to His voice

   3. Believe that God is protecting you.

   4. Believe that God is in control.

   5. Believe that God has worked your plan out

   6. The four lepers didn’t know it, but God was using them

        to save the nation.

 

Verse 5-7

PUT YOUR PLAN INTO ACTION

 Put your plan into action.

    1. A plan without action is no plan

    2. Be unified in your plan.

 

  

 GOD GIVES THE INCREASE TO YOUR PLAN

            

         Proverb 16:9

         In his heart a man plans his course,

         but the Lord  determines his steps.

 

 

         God can put fear in the strongest men.

          At God’s hand, your enemy may become irrational

                 and abandon any pursuit of you.

 

BE SMART STORE UP TREASURES FOR YOUR SELF

V:8

The lepers were the first to be blessed because of their planning.

      1. Without a plan they were poor lepers.

      2. With their plan they became rich lepers

      3. God blesses those who work together for the common good.

 

BLESS OTHER WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

V: 9 -11

 Your blessing is an opportunity to bless others.

 

  Even though the city had no compassion for them, the

  lepers had compassion for the city.

 

SHARE THE GOOD NEWS

    

 FIND YOU PURPOSE THROUGH SERVICE.

     Outside the city gates was the purpose of their leprosy

 

     Your poor, bad situation is part of God’s plan to bless others.

      1. God planed for you to be where you are today to bless the nation.

      2. God put you into the line of fire, to show you His glory.

 

 

THERE IS RICHES IN COMMUNICATING WITH GOD

 They became rich by communicating with each other.

    1. You and I are rich people. I am not talking about money.

    2. I am rich in eye sight

    3. I am rich in strength

    4. I am rich in wisdom

         66 book  in the bible there are 783,000 words

    5. I am rich in friends

           I got a friend in Jesus

           I got a friend in you

     6. I am rich in God’s love

     7. I am rich in God’s mercy

     8. I am rich in God’s grace

     9. I am rich in eternal life

    10. I am rich in houses, I got a mansion in heaven

 

 Don’t let your riches separate you from others

    1. Even though they were rich, they stayed together

    2. By considering the needs of those who rejected them,                     

       they found greater riches in serving their nation

    

SHARE THE GOOD NEWS

Not only do you have tell peoples about the riches in Jesus,

But you have to lead them to His riches,

 

Rev. M. Mitchell

Asst Pastor Of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church