Why I Went Off

I'm gonna give you my title right up front. Title of this message is why I went off touch Somebody tell him. It's a long story. When I first decided to preach on this topic of triggered, I figured that it would help me personally and then we could do group therapy. But I wanted to do it from the Word of God because I am not a psychologist, certainly

not a neuroscientist or anything like that. I interviewed a neuroscientist a few days ago and that is now on the Elevation Church YouTube, so you can go and watch that.

I asked her questions related to the clinical reasons that sometimes we do the things that we do, and had a conversation with her about not just understanding things with cliches and jargon that we sometimes used to cover up our lazy thinking, and sometimes we spiritualize issues that are practical in the same time sometimes try to sell things practically that are spiritual. And so it's just a great talk that's on the Elevation Chirch YouTube and you can

check that out. But this week I want to share a character study on a Bible character who is so familiar to me. And by that I mean not only have I read this story quite a few times, but I feel like I know this guy. I feel like I've met him one time in the mirror, and certain things about him really spoke to me, And so I just pray that the same will happen for you today as I read this text. I want to just tell you the spoiler alert right up front. Naman in Second

King's Chapter five has leprosy and gets healed. But that's just the headline, and so there's a lot to learn in the midst of it, and I want to read a few verses and kind of drop in and explain and move along in this narrative. The Bible says in Second King's Chapter five, verse one. Now, Nayman was commander

of the army of the King of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master, and highly regarded because through him the Lord had given victory to aerm It's interesting the way that is phrased, because it says it wasn't by him that the victory was one, it was through him. And I think understanding that is very critical if you were to have any hope of remaining sane in your life, just to know that God's

going to do it through you. You know, half of the time that I'm messed up is because I'm trying to do it for God, and He's trying to do it through me. But he can't do it through me when I'm trying to do it for him, and so I just start forcing situations and then I'm frustrated and irritated and agitated, and I'm mad at everybody and everything because I'm trying to do stuff for people and for God that God would like to do through me if

I would yield myself and yield my will. And this is even more interesting because Maemon is not an Israelite. He's not one of these chosen people, as they understood it at the time, he's actually a commander of an enemy army from Arim that would consistently raid the Israelites and not only do damage to their crops, but many times take their people away in bondage. At the end

of one of these raids. Bible says he was a great man in the sight of his master, and highly regarded because through him, he was highly regarded because of what he did. He was highly regarded because of the results that he achieved. He was highly regarded because of the outcomes that were brought about through his skill set. And so he was a great man in the sight

of his master, and highly regarded because through him. I'm reading it over and over on purpose, because it's so profound that if we skim the surface we will miss the meaning. He was a great man in the sight of his master, and highly regarded because through him the Lord had given victory to aerm and he was a valiant soldier. But he had leprosy and incurable skin disease, a non lethal form of it in this case, but

a problem. Nonetheless, he was great. But and depending on when you see someone in the setting that you meet them in, you might be he sometimes more acquainted with their victories than their vulnerabilities. That's why I advocate just a little bit of time dating, just a little bit of time to see them in pressure filled situations, just a little bit of time out of the candlelight, under the harsh neon glow of some of the trials of life. Just a piece of advice. But I can't prove it

in the Bible. But I think you know, depending on where you see someone determines what you see. And I realize this more and more now because I think people think that they should behave in front of a pastor. So when I meet people, a lot of times I realize I might not be meeting the truest version of them, do you know what I mean? They might not always speak in Hebrew and Greek, they might sometimes speak in

other tongues. But when when I really want to know about somebody, especially on staff, I don't go off of my first impression, because I don't really trust my first impression of people any more. I used to I used to say I have discernment. Now I realize that a lot of what I thought was discernment was really me just vibing off of somebody or maybe they reminded me of somebody, and I didn't like some people that were really cool, consistent people, but I thought they were boring.

But the reason they were boring is because they're not always having to create drama in their life. And I found out that drama works good in movies, but in real life, I don't want the ticket to that show. So now am my preaching already? This is just the first verse. And what I learned about myself is I need to ask others. I need to get references. And at times i'll meet somebody on our staff and it's not a small staff, and I don't know everybody on

the staff anymore. I used to. I used to hand select people, and oh man, when I hired the first staff member, I got the opportunity to spend just hours and hours getting to know him, so I knew his

strengths and weaknesses pretty well. But now I will ask someone about someone, ask somebody that works with them and has had to work with them in a pressure hopefully if I can, if I can get somebody that has had to work with them when there was a deadline involved, or has seen how they managed a disappointment, you know, and how they treat others and things like that. So I will ask how is so? And so let's say that I wanted to know about JT. I would ask.

I would be like, hey, how's JT? And I would wait for the person who knows them, not the person who met them, but the person who knows them to I would wait for them and see how long they hesitate before they answer the question, because I want to see how long they're going to scroll through, you know. And sometimes people will say the right thing, but it's the inflection in their voice they say it with that lets you know there's something else. I'd be like, hey,

I've noticed JT on our staff. He seems like he seems like a great guy. And if the person's voice goes up when they answer, you got pay attention to that. And so it's like how's JT? And they'll go, oh, he's great. And when they hit that falsetto like unnatural soprano note, he's great, it's the sounds like axel rose, you know. Up there. I'm like, but what everybody say?

But what? Because one thing that has really helped me in ministry and in life is to realize that everybody has two eyes, two ears, one nose, one neck, most people two arms, two legs, and everybody has at least one. But he was a great man. But it's in the Bible, people, I'm not making it up. It said that this great man, he's great. But the problem with being a preacher is

I can see your eyes. I can see your ears, I can see whether or not you're taking notes, and if you don't have a pin out, I'm judging you so hard right now. I hope you feel the vibrations of the flames of hell. The issue with this arrangement is I can't see your but and it's probably better that way. It's been a lot of my ministry preaching to people's heads, preaching to people's intellect. And I messed around and pastored this church now for over twelve years.

And I messed around and got a few stray grays in my beard, and I messed around and got involved in a few people's lives. And I messed around and found out that everybody has a butt. And the only way I knew it is that a few people showed me there there. I know it's awkward, and you know, half the reason that sermons don't really register more than two hours. Sometimes is because we're all trying to cover our butt. That's the strategy most people come to church with.

See why b cover your butt? You cover it behind a big smile and appraise the Lord in a Chand you know I could do that? Do you know what I'm saying? He was a great man, but he had a skin issue, and nobody can see that on the battlefield because on the battlefield I got armor. We all have something that we use to cover a spot in our life. Let's be honest, we're not talking about human anatomy. You have multiple bucks, You are great with people, but

you don't take care of yourself. You see what I'm saying. You are really good at succeeding and really bad at being content. So I'm successful, but I'm miserable. I'm killing it at work, but my fifteen year old do I even have to finish this? I got a great marriage, I'm great, but I'm not making any money right now. And I'm a good emotional provider, but financially, you know,

I never learned how to do that. And the thing about a really good encounter with God, you can tell when you've encountered God it will expose your and the way it happens, it'll often be an unlikely way. Let's talk about this in three stages. The first is exposure. Nayman is perhaps changing one day in his own home, and verse two says, bends of raiders from aarm Remember he's a captain, he's a commander of these armies from Aram, which would often go out and take different people captive.

And on one particular such occasion, the raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel. And she served Nayman's wife. And she said to her mistress, if only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy. And so the Bible says something really important

in verse four. Because you are not blessed based on the word of God that you hear or the word of God that you understand, you are base blessed, and your life is changed in accordance with the word of God that you apply, obey, and act on. That's why you can hear thirteen years of teaching and still be

mean as the serpent in the garden of Eden. No, that's why you can hear a lot of teaching about love, but if you don't make the decision to forgive, the teaching about love will be snatched up by the birds of the air and will not take root in your heart.

So verse four becomes really important if we really want to change, if we really want to get beneath the surface, and you know, not just have a skin deep spirituality and a skin deep relationship with God where we can fake it for a little while, and we create stages to impress people, and we have armor that we put on to go out into our job, but we come home and feel like miserable, miserable people to live with, or we feel like we don't know how to be intimate,

but we know how to be impressive. And so as long as people only see us from a distance, they don't really notice we're starting to cover our skin and cover our souls and things that are just leaping out of us at all the wrong time. Verse four says that Naman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. And this took courage, and it took humility for Naming to go to his master and show his butt, to show his vulnerability when

he was a man with so many victories. I just want to stay there for a minute, because sometimes I feel like we use prayer as an opportunity to read God our resume, you know. And while I think it's great to celebrate all the gol Elias that we killed, sometimes the giants in us are kicking our butt and we don't say anything about it until it's too late.

And I'm getting bolder every year I passed her, as I commit more and more to preaching to the part of you that you would just as soon hide and never mention, because I think that's where real help is found. And Naman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. I mean, this is a servant girl. And Naman is what a great man?

A great man. He's a great man. But he's got these spots that are starting to spread, and if he doesn't do something soon, there's no telling what might happen next. And since there are no essential oils for this particular form of leprosy at this point in antiquity, Naman has to take the advice of a little girl. And now we have a great man going to an enemy nation in Israel, because of the advice of a little girl.

Are you willing to obey God even if he speaks through something that seems smaller than you, because I notice a lot of us won't. A lot of teenagers will listen to me preach and roll their eyes at their parents. And I don't understand that because I'm not paying for your college or your bracest. I'm not even buying you ramen noodles. And sometimes I've noticed that men will listen to me preach, but their wife knows them better than I do and could say some things that would actually

help them. It's getting quiet, and even the women left me out on that one. It's like that, I'm ana cancel reflective, y'all, don't help me with this sermon. It's something about exposure and when a spot in your life everybody says spot a leprous spots, something that is consuming you that others can't see when it is exposed by

an experience. That's the second stage I wanted to mention is experience, because things will happen in your life and you'll come up upon situations that will expose something that you would prefer to hide. And what you do next determines whether you get healed. So Naman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. Verse five says that the king said, by all means go, I will send a letter to the King of Israel. So Naman left, taking with him ten talents of silver

six thousand shekels of gold. That's like seventy five pounds of each. So Naman is going to Israel with his resources to attain healing. He's gonna he's gonna deal with this like he always deals with things, because he's a great man. He's a persistent man, prepared man. He's a powerful man. These other things that start with the letter P as well and the letter that he took to the King of Israel read with this letter, I am sending my servant naming to you so that you may

cure him of his leprosy. There's all kinds of stuff wrong with that sentence. It's like the telephone game we used to play when you pass a message along to somebody and it starts out We're having jo chicken for lunch, and it ends with I'm dying of cancer, and you pass it down and it only takes three people. This chain of communication has polluted the message itself because number one, the servant girl didn't say the king can heal him.

It said the prophet can. And sometimes we run to the wrong people because we have our own ideas about where our help comes from. Talk to me, and it's not the king that is going to have the faith to get him healed. It's the prophet. His name is Elisha. But the king sends the commander to the king because you know, this is to me, the most logical way to get him healed. We'll go straight to the top.

But watch the king's response. And this is kind of interesting because when the king gets the letter and Naman shows up with all of the accumulated wealth that he believes it's gonna take to get him healed. You know how, we have our own ideas about what it's gonna take to make a change in our life. And I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna get my degree. I'm gonna go back. I'm get my degree. I'm gonna eat. I'm gonna eat so much Kal it's gonna be coming out of my nose.

I'm not eating gluten again until twenty twenty four. I'm gonna do hot yoga and cold yoga and powerlifting, and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it all. Mariema Bible. I'm gonna delete every social media off my phone. I'm never going on Facebook again. I've got my face in the book. And he shows up with a lot of stuff that he thinks he canna need to get healed. But as soon verse seven, as the King of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, am I God, you want me to do what? I got?

This friend, y'all, his name is Alex Early. He was my college roommate and he used to make prank phone calls in college and they were hilarious. Most of them were clean. We were Christians, but he had the ability to push people to their breaking point. He was a big fan of a guy at the time who did prank calls named roy D Mercer, and this guy was famous for taking people right to the edge, and so

we would laugh. And we still have these phone calls recorded and one day I'm going to release them on SoundCloud. And these phone calls to me just bring me joy At times in my life, because everybody's reaction was the same. He make up a million scenarios. You know. He would use this name, this alias duw Wane McGraw, Duwaine, and put a thing over the e because it's French. My

name is Dewane McGraw. And he'd say, my boy Bobby is throwing up all over the shag carpet because I came to the grocery store and I bought bad milk. And they would always say this, no matter what scenario he made up. One time it'd be Bobby's throwing up on the shag carpet. One time it'd be I took my trousers to your laundromat and they shrunk up and now they're coming up around my thighs and I look like a European and you know, but whatever scenario he

would bring up, their response was generally the same. What do you want me to do about it? The king? The king is like, you brought me a leopard? Do you think I'm God? I'm not a doctor, I'm a king. Have you ever felt like life brought you something that was above your pay grate to handle? God? They're doing that thing again where they sit there and look at me like they always have it together and they have all the answers. Because I looked at my kids the other day and said, I am not Google. I am

not a search engine. I do not know. Furthermore, I do not care. Get out of my face. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and replay things that I've said to my kids and feel so bad that I have to get up and baptize myself in the bathtub and get saved again, just as I am without one plead, O Lamb of God, what do you want from me? I'm only a man, And the King says, I know what this is, this man, watch

can I kill and bring back to life. He's triggered because he is confronted with a situation that he is unable to transform. And whenever life presents you with something that you were not equipped for. So you got to be a dad and you didn't have a dad. You got to pay a bill, but God didn't give you a job. You've got to step into something that you've never seen before with the faith to believe that it's already done. And it can be exasperating to the point.

Watch this that you allow your past experience to contaminate your perspective of the present moment. Remember what I said. The King of Aaron, Benedett the second would often go and invade Jehoram's land jahormas king of Israel. And so when he gets the letter saying, hey, can you help my guy name in can you heal my guy naming? It triggered within him a traumatic memory of the last time he was attacked, and so he goes off, not because of the situation that he's experiencing, but because of

past experiences. Do you ever wonder why you go off? And it's inexplicable, like the level of the offense does not match the level of the outrage, And you wonder why what was that all about? Hell? You ever with the elevation church sticker on your car said some words that weren't blessed the Lord, Oh my soul? And wonder you know how y'all think Holly is so sweet? What time in college she was singing a worship song in her Ford contour, and the song said I was there,

I was in the passenger seat. The song said, you are so patient with me? Lord. She didn't get to Lord before she was screaming at the at the dodge ram that pulled out in front of her, and she's loud. Holly is like when she's up here a reflect she be smiling. But I'm gonna tell you something about Hollyford. What what is that all about? Where did that voice come from? We? And then the devil starts telling you all, well,

you know, not a real Christian, you're hypocrite. Some of y'all are gonna lose it before the day is over because of your fantasy football lineup. No, not because of anything significant to anything having to do with real life in any way, because of other men that have absolutely no effect on you other than one hundred dollars at the end of the season. And you wonder why did I go off like that? It's understandable because we live in not only the age of anxiety, but if you noticed,

we live in the age of outrage too. How trendy it is now to just get mad about anything that you don't like the first time you hear it. Well, you'll aren't going to like this part of the sermon. I don't think too much, but can I be honest with you, I don't really care what shoes you were to church today. No, maybe my perspective is different, but I spend too much time seeing people's butts to care

about what you have on your feet today. So I don't have time when teen suicide is in an all time high to check and see if you're wearing Adidas or Nike, if you got yeezes, or you want to just do it. I don't really have time to debate with you about a sluice or a commercial or getting mad about I really don't have time for it up

here when people's lives are on the line. I really don't have time for it in here, when people are on antidepressants in a rate that's making them more depressed, but they don't know where else to turn, and we're run into all kinds of places that are leaving us empty, but we want to. There will be at least one comment on this YouTube video about the holes in my jeans? Are you for real right now? But it triggers something. You're not fighting me over shoes, You're not fighting me

over jeans. One moment told me until you save your beard, I can't watch you anymore. This is psychotic, she said. I'm praying for you. I want to say, I'm praying for you. I'm a fast forty days. If you're that messed up, I don't know why I went off. I think like for me, this is just what I'm working through,

and so this makes you think I'm crazy. You're right, but I'm going through this season of my life where I don't want to keep blaming my environment or consulting things that happened in my life, because the cross of Jesus Christ gives me a new reality and it really changes everything in the sense that all of my life has to be viewed through that lens of what He

did for me and who he says I am. If I'm not careful, I'll be like the King who, when confronted with an impossible situation that reminded him of a past hurt, he inflicted the opportunity of his present moment with the pain of his past. Do you see what I'm saying He projected. See every time he dealt with aerm, it was an attack. And now it's an opportunity for this man to be healed and see what God can do.

But if what you went through isn't healed by what Christ did for you, you will treat the opportunity like an attack. And I've noticed that, like I spend a lot of my time fighting stuff that God is actually sending into my life. I spent a lot of my time fighting against people that I'm not really mad at. It's really not them. Tell the person next to you,

it's not you, it's me. It's me. I'm a perfectionist, and so sometimes when things aren't just like I want them to be, or here's what really happens, it really happens with my expectation. Put that word up there, because when I expect it to be one way and it's the other. Like when I went off on my dad a few years ago, it was because I rented him a house. I moved him and my mom to Charlotte. Well, I didn't move him, I hired movers and then they got fired because my dad was crazy and it was

so funny. It really wasn't funny. It's funny now, can we laugh about it? Ah? Okay? But the day I went to see him, and the story has a happy ending, and then we ended up being together and it was good and all that. But in between remember name and

gets healed at the end of this story. But there's some stuff in the middle that I want to talk to you about, because in the middle of that, that whole messy situation with my dad, I remember going over to check on them one day and I was so proud of the house that Holly had found that we rented for them, and my mom liked it and she was happy. And my dad. The first thing he said, I walke through dough. He said, this ain't gonna work, Bo. And I know honor your father and mother and the Lord.

I know that Bible verse, I promise you, I know it. I even know that that honor is Cavat and Hebrew, and it can also be translated glory and wait. But the only thing I wanted in that moment, I'm gonna just be honest with you. I don't like to be disrespected, and it felt disrespectful to me, and so I went off. And it really wasn't what he said, because really what

he wanted was just a few small tweaks. But I couldn't hear that anymore, you know, because my expectation was that he was going to meet me at the door and give me a big ol' hug and say, my son and whom I am, well pleased and the duff with the sin, But he didn't read my script. What do you do when people don't read your script? Meet

your expectation? And here's where the story gets good, because I want you to notice that the same event that triggered the king and made him go into fear mode, which is usually what's happening when we're lashing out or withdrawing, because not everybody fights outwardly. Some of us bobble it up inwardly, and then we never go off. One day, we just tap out, and you wonder, how did they drop like that? Well, it's usually a series of un

met expectations. In this case, the King of Israel, jehosh he's traumatized to the point that he thinks that everything is a fight. It says it in the text. See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me. That's verse seven. See how they're looking at me. See they didn't even wave at me. See I told this is a Southern thing. You're supposed to wave at people when you drive by them. The town I grew up in,

you waived at everybody. And the first time that we were driving through the neighborhood and Holly didn't wave at people. I corrected her. I was like, what is wrong with you? She's not from Monks Corners, She's from Miami, and it's a different culture. It's an inferior culture of rudeness. And so anytime that you've been used to in your life,

you've been used to fighting. If life has really been a fight for you, if you've had to fight for your mental health, or you've had to fight for your emotional health, or if you've had to fight through issues of bitterness and forgiveness because of abuse, if you've had to fight for your own and fight to make it, or if you had to fight your own family, when you've had to fight over and over again, everything looks like a fight. Everything looks like a threat. Everything sounds

like an insult. Every time somebody doesn't check on you, it feels like abandonment. It's the trauma that's being triggered. But what's encouraging to me and what I got up here to tell you about today, because this is pretty depressing so far. But the same stimulus that triggered fear in the King's heart triggered faith in Elisha's. The Bible says in verse eight. When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the King of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message. Now watch this king. The

king said, who do you think I am? You think I can? You think I'm a healer? Elisha said, I know God is a healer. So watch this. Have the man come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel. This man said, where you see, where you see opposition, I see opportunity. And the same thing that triggered you to tear your robes and freak out and fall down in fear triggered Elisha to rise up in faith. Elisha said, send him to me, because the word of God is with me. Now Elisha has

an experience to build this expectation on. Elisha has healed the waters at Jericho. Elisha has multiplied the widow's oil. Elisha has spoken to parent wounds, and when that child died, spoke life and it resurrected from the dead. Elisha has dug ditches in dry valleys and seen God bring water from the direction of edom. Elisha has seen God do things that only God can do. And so when an impossible situation that is beyond him shows up. Elisha knows what thed. Bring him here to me. I got something

for nameMan. I heal lepers for breakfast. Bring him to me, and he will know not how great I am, but how great God is. And so watch verse nine. I love this story. Namon went with his horses and chariots and his expectations and his leprosy and his greatness and his butt, and he brought it all because he wanted to be healed. I know you want to be healed of something today, even though you've been covering it up. And I know you use your charisma to cover your cracks.

And I know that nobody knows how dark the thoughts can really get for you sometime. But I've been doing this too long to sit there and preach to your armor. Because a business leader walked up to me and told me that he had to kick his teenager out of his house. He said, we almost got in a fistfight, he said. I swung at him and missed. I realized this has gone way too far. And the man had

on khakis while he was telling me. Pleaded khakis, double pleated khakis, no tattoos, but didn't look like the kind of guy that would swing on his kid. But I don't even really think you've seen your own butt until you've been through certain things. And then the weird thing is we all have short term memory loss if we have one devotion and read our Bible one morning. Now we start judging other people when they flip out. And so naming is on the verge of some travel a

long way to get here. It's like a ninety mile trip. And he's got a big crew with him, and he needs a miracle, and we admire him because he went. I do, at least I think to even get to this point takes faith. And maybe one of the reasons I don't put a lot of condemnation or I try not to in my preaching, is because I'm pretty proud of you who decided to show up anyway. I know how many things could have kept you from being here, and I'm pretty proud that you made the decision to

bring your butt to church. Give yourself a hand for bringing your butt to church. And if you're watching online, you don't get to clap'stif. So Namemn went his horses and cheriots stopped at the door of Elicia's house, and Elciaus and a messenger, Oh, this is not gonna go well, because Naming is a great man. And when a great man comes to your doorstef, you give him a great greeting and you welcome him by name. Man. I'm a

retired This is my last sermon. Y'all enjoy it. He sent a messenger to say to him, go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan. In the what in the Jordan? You mean that muddy little excuse for a river that y'all like to celebrate so much in this nation of Israel, which I don't even like anyway. And he didn't even come to the door and name. It went off. No, he literally went off, not in the figurative sense. He literally decided, I would rather go home with my leprosy.

I'd rather go home and my arm fall off. I would rather go I would rather die than be disrespected like this. And when he heard this ridiculous command, he says, some very important in the instruction. It was a simple instruction. It was a stupid instruction. It didn't make much sense, just like it doesn't make much sense when God tells you to forgive somebody so that you can be forgiven, and you want to say well, God, if they ask for it, I'll give it. And God says to you,

I'm not talking about what they deserve. I'm talking about your deliverance. I'm talking about your clean heart. I'm talking about your clear mind. So if you want to get cleansed, I need you to do something that makes no sense, because there is no cure for leprosy. It can't be cured. It's got to be cleansed, and it can only be cleansed if you obey this command. And verse eleven starts so sad, But there it is again. I'm gonna preach a whole series one day on the butts of the Bible.

Stand in front a miracle standing. I mean, the guys around him are like, Okay, that's all we gotta do. Nayan. You could keep the seventy five pounds of silver and the seventy five pounds of gold, and you can pass out the ten sets of clothing and we could go home. We can start back home. That's easy. Somebody start running the water naming. You want it hot, you want an extra hot naming. You want a rubber ducky, get the towel ready. You want some sunscreen. But it's a funny

thing about pride. It's a funny thing about the small things. It's a funny thing about something that seems beneath you. Remember the King was triggered because of something that seemed beyond him. Am I God? And naming is triggered because of something that seems beneath me. You want me to do what? Uh? Huh uh I'm not doing that. Huh huh. No. See, because when your heart is filled with pride, you try to write your own prescriptions. This is how I want God to bless me. This is how I want God

to come through. This is how I want God to heal me. This is how I wanted to respond this opportunity I want. This is so Naman went away angry, said, this is two very dangerous words. By the way, this is this is maybe the two most dangerous words for you to interpret your life through. I thought, I thought, maybe those two words are the two words that are standing between me and peace today. I thought I thought my dad was going to be grateful for the house.

Now he's telling me about getting somebody over here to fix the Huh. I thought I thought you'd say thank you. I thought you'd grow up and play piano and put you in lessons, I thought, I thought. I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord is God. See, nay men had it all planned out, because that's what great men do. Great men make great plans, and when those plans don't go the way that they were supposed to go,

great men go off, great women go off. Because I had this family picture, and here's where you were supposed to stand, and here's where you were supposed to smile, and here's where you were supposed to and here's where you were. I thought, could those two words be standing between you and healing today? I thought, God says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and

my ways above your ways. But Naman went away angry and said, I thought that I thought he'd come out to me. I thought, I thought he would see because I had this worked out. He comes to me, and then I give him the gifts and I get the healing. This is how this works. Not this time, name it, not this time. This transformation is not going to happen on your terms. God's not going to do it like you expected. He's not going to be held hostage to

what you thought. So I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call him the name of the Lord is God, and way his hand. See he's supposed to wave, he's supposed to wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. He doesn't like the place God told him to get healed. Are not Abna and far part of the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel. I didn't have to come here for this. Couldn't I watching them and be cleansed. So he turned and went off in

a rage. And one of his servants, this guy needs a raise, by the way, went to him. Notice how beautiful the story is told. It's chronicled like this. Namon went to his master and said, I need permission to go to Israel. So he went to the king, and the king said I can't do it. Then he went to Elisha with his chariots and horses. And now Namon went off in a rage, and he's about to He's about to miss the opportunity to be healed. Because he

is going off. And here's why he went off, because he didn't go in, and he went off because he made his decision about what he thought about it, but he didn't go in. You know, I've noticed something about myself when I don't go into the presence of God, when I don't go in and ask God, what are

you doing in this situation? When I don't go into myself and seek for the spirit of God to leave me, I start going off, and then I spend the next week fixing stuff that if I would have taken one moment and worshiped, if I would have taken one moment and sought God's wisdom, if I would have taken one moment and said, you know what, I don't want to fight about this. I don't want to be right. I want to be healed. I don't want to prove my

own power. I want to receive your power God. And what happens next is really beautiful because some of you are going to do it today. Stand with me. The servant came to Namen and says something that I think is very prophetic, and I hope you can hear it on the level which it is intended. The servant Chase naming down Naman is on his way back to Damascus.

He's gonna walk ninety miles back home with leprosy still on his skin because of something that seemed too small and insignificant for a great man like him to do. He's gonna spend the rest of his life with this disease because he didn't want to do what he was told to do. And the servant said, hey man, sir nayman, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? Well, of course I would,

because I'm a great man. Well, if you're a great man, how much more should you be able to do a small thing? So when he tells you washouldn't be cleansed, why not give it a try? You know, you've been fighting so hard justifying your side of the story and justifying yourself and why is all right? And why is okay? But hey man, why not if we already came ninety miles, if we already came this far, and that profit is telling you that if you dip in the Jordan you

can be cleansed, isn't it worth a try? You already went to your master and got the letter. You already went with your horses and chariots. Now you now you're going off in a rage. But verse fourteen is the happy ending, and I believe it's a new beginning for many of us today. The Bible says, so he went

down and dipped himself in the Jordan. I'm glad after Naman went off, he went in, and he went in not just once, not just twice, not just three times, not just four times, not just five times, not just six times, but all seven. Often, when you're in the process of obeying God, you see no immediate effects of change. It's not like your skin gets healed a little bit with every dip. Woo woo woo. You got to have the faith to go through the motions even when you

see no evidence. Go am I talking to him? You gotta have the faith to go down and pray again, to lift up your hands and worship and say, I don't feel a thing right now. But God is with me, and God is for me, And who can be against me? And I will not fear though a host of enemies and camps upon me. I will not be afraid. The Lord is my helper. I lift my eyes to the hills. My help comes from the Lord. By your head and

close your eyes for a moment. I believe this is a significant word for someone in the room who is about to go off. Maybe you've been going off, maybe you already went off. I don't just mean temper tantrums, breaking stuff, throwing pictures around the room. I mean that there is something that God has given you to do in your life that seems so ridiculous that you, like naymen,

are at the point of frustration. I want to speak a word over your life today that in this moment, the only way to receive healing is through your surrender. As long as you want to stay in control of those situations, they will continue to consume you. And that's what the presence of God is for. This is the Jordan river that you can dip in seven times. The Bible says that when he did it, his flesh was

restored like a young boy. Isn't that amazing that the great man became like a young boy and he was healed? And isn't it interesting that God's greatest golden Nayman's life was not to heal his skin, but to produce faith in his heart lift your hands in this moment, Father, I thank you for every person, and I thank you for every problem. I thank you for the great things, and I thank you for the butt. Somebody in this room has an addiction. Somebody in this room has an illness.

Somebody in this room has a heavy depression, and they see no signs of change, and they have really, really attractive armor, and so nobody can see but you what they're fighting with on the inside, and they keep pushing people away that you send to help them. In this moment, God, may this be the first dip in the process of

their deliverance. And thank you for the Cross of Jesus Christ that we stand under and look to today for our healing and forgiveness and redemption has already been accomplished. I thank you that we are not healed, cleansed, or cured by achieving, but by receiving. Stretch your hands high as you can stretch them. We receive your grace in this moment. Your mercy in this moment waters wash over our soul. Well. I hope you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did, there are just a couple things I'd

love for you to do. Number One, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for you ready when you are. And secondly, if this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue to reach others, you can click the link in the description and you can give now and I'll see you next time on the Elevation podcast