2 KINGS 5 GOD WORKS MIRACLES BY SIMPLE OBEDIENCE2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Kings 5 God Works Miracles By Simple Obedience

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. As we look at this incredible account here in 2 Kings chapter 5, Naaman, this foreigner from Israel, he is healed of leprosy, which was an incurable disease.

And as he's healed with leprosy, there's a few things that happen and there's some great things to learn. He provides for us a really good example for us. But as I was considering this passage, I began to think, to contemplate, to wonder about the reasons why I eat. You ever think about why you eat? I don't know about you, but as I was thinking about the reasons that I eat, I think I come to the conclusion that primarily I eat for the pleasure of it.

Like, that's the major factor in the decision-making. What sounds good? What tastes good? What's going to be enjoyable? That's kind of the primary factor, I think, that I consider when it comes to what I'm going to have for dinner or lunch or breakfast or any other time in between that I feel like. It's mostly for...

the pleasure of it. Now, there's another reason that I eat, and that is sometimes it's just to stop my stomach from growling. I don't really care so much what it is. I just, I'm hungry. I don't like that feeling. I don't want that feeling. And so I just need something to make me stop feeling that way. And so I eat sometimes for the pleasure of it, most of the time. And then sometimes just, I just need to get something in to stop that growling, to stop that feeling from going on.

It's pretty rare for me, I think, that I would look at a plate of food and say, you know, I'm going to eat that for the nutritional value that it provides me. Maybe it's not my favorite food. I don't necessarily like the taste of it, but, you know, I'm going to eat it anyways because I know it's good for me. I don't know. I have a wife who helps with that kind of part of the aspect of my life, and so she is better at that than I am, but I don't know.

But that's not high on my, you know, priority list. It's not on my radar. I need to have, you know, and they try to teach you that. I don't know how it's like these days, but you know, back in the day, they had the plate and it was categorized in different groups and you need to have some and, you know, supposedly all that's supposed to work together. And you can see, like, that's just not high on my priority list, right? It's not high on my focus. Now, for some of you, however, you have a different take. You

You are making deliberate decisions and saying,

I don't really like the taste of this food or I don't really want this food, but I know it's good for me and so I'm going to have this salad or I'm going to partake of this thing, right? And you know what that's like. And I think that provides for us a really good illustration to consider as we look at the life of Naaman and this account of his healing here in 2 Kings 5. I think it's a good illustration for us to think about spiritual disciplines, right?

For us to think about the work of God in our lives. That the work of God in our lives is very similar to food in a lot of ways. And although I don't think about things in the sense of, well, this has good nutritional value. I'm going to do it because it's good for me. I get hungry. And so kind of by accident, I get the nutrients I need, right? In the same way, we have a need. We have a spiritual hunger, right?

Sometimes we don't fill it with good things, and so we don't get what we need nutritionally, spiritually, and there's a need for us to start to evaluate some things and to learn some spiritual disciplines, to look at things and say, you know, it's not my favorite thing to do right now. I'm not doing this because it's just I'm so excited about it, but I know it's good for me.

And there are spiritual disciplines that we need to walk in that would help us to grow and to experience what God has for us. I've titled the message this morning, God Works Miracles by Simple Obedience. This miracle that we see take place here in chapter 5 is amazing. And there are many who would love to see this kind of miracle in their lives. And God continues to work these kinds of miracles in our lives. Healings and transformations and deliverance and healing.

salvation, and you could go on and on and think about the miracles that perhaps you're praying for and desiring in your life. But this morning, I would ask you to consider that God still works those kinds of miracles. He still wants to work transformationally and radically in your life. But the important thing to note about this is that the way that God does that, the means that God has chosen is

is not through some extraordinary, you know, radical experience or activity or effort, but it really comes down to simple obedience. I was thinking about it in the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy. He tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.8, "'For bodily exercise profits a little, "'but godliness is profitable for all things, "'having the promise of the life that now is "'and of that which is to come.'" Bodily exercise profits a little.

And so if you're, you know, all into and excited about things of bodily exercise, Paul says that's great. It profits a little, but its context is limited. But godliness, focusing on your relationship with God, your walk with God, your life with God, that profits you in every aspect of your life.

If you're excited about nutrition, you're like, man, I just can't get excited enough. I can't tell you enough about this combination of berries and vegetables. And if you put these together and then the value that it gives you and you look at the charts and wow, it's amazing. And I don't know any of that stuff, but maybe you're excited about it and that's great. It profits a little. It's limited in its context, but godliness profits a

In every aspect of your life. And that's what Paul is encouraging Timothy here. We need to not neglect the exercise altogether, but we also need to recognize the importance of godliness. Knowing God and walking with God and experiencing his work in our life. And it comes back to very easy, very simple things.

obedience. It's not complex. And that's what we see demonstrated here in 2 Kings 5. We're going to work through a few different things, a few different thoughts here about this idea of obedience through the example of Naaman. And starting in verses 9 through 11, here's point number one, and that is simple obedience begins with humility. As Naaman is on this journey to experience this miraculous healing in his life,

He starts out really with a more urgent need, and that is for his pride to be dealt with. Just jumping back a little bit to get the context of 2 Kings 5 here, if you'll look with me at verse 1, it gives us some insight about where he's coming from. In verse 1, it says, Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria.

And so here we are introduced to this man, Naaman. He was a great man, it says. He was an honorable man. He was honored by the king. He was over the army of Syria. He was a great man with lots of power, with a great position, with notoriety, because it was by him that God had given a great victory to the people of Israel.

There was another nation nearby called Assyria that was ruling over Syria for a time and then Syria threw them off and they became independent around this time that we're looking at here in 2 Kings. And so it's likely that Naaman was a huge part of that deliverance of that war, of that battle that set them free from this other nation that was ruling over them.

And so he was known throughout the nation. He was well known. He was honored. He was revered. He was the commander over the armies. But he has this blemish. He's a leper. He has this disease which is incurable. And so it's for certain he is going to die a really agonizing death from this disease. But there's a servant girl in his house. She is from Israel. And she says to her servant,

Master, if only you were in Israel, Elisha could pray for you and you could be healed of this leprosy. And Naaman tells the king of Syria about that. And the king of Syria says, well, let's go to Israel then. He sends Naaman to Israel to now meet up with Elisha and be healed of this leprosy. And God is going to heal him. First, he needs to work on his heart.

The position from which he's coming from, he doesn't really understand God. He doesn't really understand his place in God's rule, in God's kingdom. In verse 9, it says, So Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house. So he shows up with all of his entourage. He's showing up as the important man from Syria that is here to be healed. But then verse 10 tells us that Elisha sent messengers to him.

saying, go wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean. Now we can look at that and say, wow, that's great. You know, awesome. But Naaman is furious. It says in verse 11. Why? Well, he says, I said to myself, he will surely come out to me and stand and call in the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy. Here, Naaman shows up

And he gets the instruction for how to be healed, but instead of being excited about that, he's furious because he's been offended. He's been offended by how he's been treated here in the land of Israel. First of all, he went to the king of Israel, and the king of Israel had nothing to do with God and wanted nothing to do with Elisha. And so he was just like, oh man, Syria is trying to provoke a war between us, trying to say, you know, I have to heal this leprosy. But Elisha intervened and brought him over.

But then he comes to the door and Elisha wouldn't even come out to greet him. Just, you know, stop and think about that for a moment. You know, if you come over to my house and I send Kim to the door and I refuse, no, no, I'm not going to see you. I'm not going to talk to you directly. No, no, no, you're not good enough for that. I'm just going to send my servant Kim. She's not really my servant, but...

He's an important person. Important person shows up at your door. You know, you don't just, you know, send one of the servants to talk to him, to deliver a message. No, no, no. You greet them. And that's the kind of honor and respect he's accustomed to, but not here. And Elisha doesn't treat him that way. And then he's also offended by the instruction to go wash in the Jordan.

I have to go get in the water. I imagine this completely differently, Naaman says. Indeed, I said to myself, and you can think about Naaman, right? He's journeying down from Syria into Israel. He's heard the reports of this prophet who, you know, it's just the hand of God moves mightily through him and

You understand, he's imagined this a thousand times in his head. Well, maybe it'll be like this. And he's excited, right? I'm going to be healed from this disease that's incurable. I mean, it's just so exciting. I just can't wait. And he's probably going to do this, and there's going to be all this fanfare, and trumpets are going to blow. It's going to be amazing. But now he gets here, and his expectations, what he had kind of built up in his mind, it's not playing out that way.

I was thinking he would come out to me and he would wave his hand and there would be this miraculous thing that would take place right then and there. Big show, big exciting event. But instead, here comes the messenger with the instruction of go get in the water. And that's it. No fanfare, no welcoming committee, no party, no. Naaman's offended. He felt disrespected. Go wash in the Jordan seven times.

Go do something very simple. Naaman had to come face to face with this thing that the Lord calls humility, that he calls us all to. That in order for God to work in his life, in order for Naaman to be in a place where God would work in his life, he needed to kind of step out of, I am important person. You know, I am prominent person. I am this that deserves all of this. And instead come to a place of,

I'm here to be healed, and I'm willing to follow some simple instructions, even if they don't make sense. I'm here to be healed by the Lord, for God to do a work in my life. You know, God continues to work miracles, but he continues to follow the same pattern. The method that God will choose to work in your life will probably be simpler than you imagine. You're praying for things, right? You're praying for God to work, maybe get you out of debt,

Maybe perform some kind of healing. Maybe do some deliverance from habits or addictions. Maybe do some transformation and draw you near to him. Maybe, you know, build you up in some gifting. You're praying for God to do a work, right? How is God going to do that? It really starts with humility because it's going to be a simpler thing than you're probably imagining.

I like the way that Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. He says, God's method is simpler from the beginning with salvation, the message of the cross. It's simpler than we would expect. It's simpler than we would imagine. How do I get right with God? And we can imagine all kinds of things. Remember the rich young ruler came to Jesus?

How can I get, I've got everything, I've been walking with the Lord, I've been obeying all the commandments, how can I get right with God and enter into heaven? And he had imagined something spectacular that could be done, but no, no, it starts with humility, it's foolishness, it's faith in Jesus. Well, that doesn't make sense. How is that going to work? How is that

What do you mean believing in Jesus and then I'm forgiven and then I have access to the presence of God and then the promise of eternity? But what do I have to do? And what can I do? What can I give? And there can be on our part this need for a humbling to take place, for us to be reduced back to remember it's God who has done the work. It's God who has what we need.

Paul will go on in a couple verses from here in 1 Corinthians 1 to say that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. He's chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. The things that we esteem. We're backwards. We have a different perspective than God's perspective and our perspective is wrong. We want God to work miracles. We want God to work mightily. It happens by simple obedience and that can't take place without some humility.

For us to bring ourselves off of our, you know, highly esteemed position that we have in our own mind and for us to simply do what God instructs us to do even if it doesn't make sense. It's not about what you can do for God as far as like what you want to do. Sometimes we can come to God and offer so much. Here's what I can do for you, God. You're welcome. But it's really about coming to God and saying, God, what do you want? And being willing to walk in that.

Going right along with that, considering verse 13 for point number two, here's point two, simple obedience is not about what you have to offer. And these two points really go hand in hand. They're intertwined. It's about humility. It starts there. And it's not about what you can offer to God. Here, Naaman is furious. I mean, it describes him really upset, right? It says that he's furious. He says he departs in a rage. This guy is just exploding. But his servants...

care for him, and they kind of call an intervention and sit him down and have a little talk with him. In verse 13, it says, his servants came near and spoke to him and said, my father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more than when he says to you, wash and be clean? Because they care for Naaman, he's about to head back to Syria, still a leper, not having been cleansed,

They are bold enough to challenge him a little bit and say, well, if the prophet had told you to do something great, if he had challenged you to do something difficult, something that would cost greatly, something that would be a huge endeavor, you would have done that, right? Yeah, you would have done that. Now, the instruction he gave you is simple. So how much more should you just go ahead and do that since it's a simple instruction? Now,

Stop and think about the money that Naaman brought. If you'll jump back to verse 5, we get some record of that. In verse 5, it says, the king of Syria said, go now and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold, and 10 changes of clothing. Naaman, as he comes from Syria to Israel, he brings with him

good amount of money six thousand shekels of gold now that doesn't mean a whole lot to us we don't use that value of shekels but that was a weight and there was different amounts that the shekel you know was considered or what was considered a shekel over the years but kind of using the the typical average standard six thousand shekels of gold would probably be about a hundred and sixty pounds of gold and

Now, I don't know how quick you are with math, but looking up today's value of gold, it's worth about $1,240 an ounce. And so you work that out to be 160 pounds, and it's a little over $2 million worth of gold. Then he also had 10 talents of silver.

That would work out to be about 800 pounds of silver. So he's coming not just, you know, with the clothes on his back, but he's got a caravan carrying a thousand pounds of precious metals worth probably about two and a half million dollars once it's all said and done, you know, using today's values. For us to kind of be able to relate to that, think about that. He comes, he shows up in Israel. He shows up at Elisha's door with two and a half million dollars saying, I've come here so that you can heal me.

And he's willing, he brought that money for the purpose of giving for the healing. I think it'd be easy for us to understand. Yeah, I would pay that. If I had two and a half million dollars to give in order to be cured of an incurable disease, worth it for sure. So he comes with that money ready to pay. He would have rather paid that money than dip in the Jordan seven times. Just stop and think about that for a minute, you know.

If you go to the doctor, the doctor says, all right, you can pay me two and a half million dollars, or you can go dip in the fountain out in the front, you know, seven times. Which do you do, right? It's like, well, give me the fountain, right? Let me, yeah, I'll do the dipping. But Naaman was there focused on, consumed with what he had to give, expecting that would be impressive, that would be sufficient for this healing to take place.

And that brings us to the point. Simple obedience is not about what you have to offer. It wasn't about what Naaman could bring and what he could give. He would have preferred to give the money, but Elisha wouldn't take it. Maybe he would have preferred instead some type of epic journey, some quest. Well, here's what you got to do.

Go find this rare flower in the woods. You got to fight through thousands of enemies to get there. But when you find that rare flower, then climb up to the top of the mountain and then you will be healed. He would have preferred that. Give me the epic journey that we can make a movie about later. You know, give me the money that I can pay rather than the simple obedience of dunking myself in water seven times in order to be healed. Simple obedience.

It's not about what you have to offer, what you can give, some extravagant thing that you can do, some great sacrifice that you can make. God wants to work miraculously, supernaturally, transformationally in your life. But it's not going to be through what you have to offer. It is going to be through simple obedience.

And what God says to you. This is the way that God continues to work. Again, referring back to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1. I mentioned verse 27 earlier. Here's what it says. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen.

And the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. Here's the point, verse 29. That no flesh should glory in his presence. Here's the thing. If Naaman's healing took place by some quest that he undertook, he could then later on glory in what he did for that miracle.

Oh, here's what you got. You got to hear the story. Here's what I did. I had to fight through these enemies and find this rare flower. And I had to climb up. It took me four months to climb up this mountain. And I got to the top and I was healed. And he could glory in what he did. If it was the money that he gave, I had $2.5 million. Have you ever seen $2.5 million? I rolled around in it. I played with it. And then I gave it. Great sacrificial gift in order to be healed. Right?

And God worked miracles in my life as I gave to him. And there would be room for him to glory. God deserves and demands the glory for his work in our lives. And so for him to work in our lives, it's not going to be through some extravagant, crazy, sacrificial, you know, thing that we can boast in. It's going to come back to simple obedience. What has God said? It's not about what you have to offer.

Moving on to verses 12 through 14, here we get point number three, and that is simple obedience involves basic materials. This becomes more and more offensive to our fleshly, our sinful nature, because what's required is humility. It's not about what I have to offer and the means by which God chooses to work miracles. Well, it's through things that everybody has access to. Basic materials, basic

Not some special rare flower that can only be found once every 10 years. You know, like that's not the way that God works his miracles. He works his miracles through everyday things and situations and scenarios. Elisha tells him, go dip in the Jordan. And he says, the Jordan? Are you crazy? I had to cross the Jordan. I know what the Jordan is. I crossed the Jordan on the way into Israel.

There was nothing special about that. In verse 12, he says, are not the Abana and the Farpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned away and went in rage. He's upset, man. That is not the river. I mean, if cleansing by water is what was needed, that is not the river to go into. Boy, there's better rivers back in Damascus where I'm from. I could wash in those if that was going to cure me.

For those of you who have not been to Israel, the Jordan River is probably not what you imagine and you picture in your mind. Naaman, he really does have a point. I was looking back through our photos from 2006 when we went to Israel. I was like, what pictures do I have of the Jordan River? You know, I have hardly any pictures of the Jordan River. It's like, why is that? The only pictures I have, well, I'll show you a sample, was of the baptisms that we did at the Jordan River.

And this one is a picture of Kim's grandmother who was with us on the trip and we got to baptize her and it was incredibly special. The event was special, not the river. The river was just water. So, you know, sometimes you go to a place and you're like, oh my goodness, this place is so beautiful. I need to take a picture.

I need to capture this. Let me Instagram it. You know, like this is like, and we did that on our recent trip, Kim and I. I mean, it was like, look at that sunset. Look at this view. You know, there was like, whoa, these incredible sights. And there's even places in Israel, you go up to Dan and you go, wow, look at the spring. And it comes out. It's like fresh and clear. This water, oh, it's beautiful. Take a picture. But you get to the Jordan and it's not beautiful.

bad. It's just not one of those places you go, I can't believe I'm here. Look at that beautiful scene. You know, that's just not typically what the Jordan looks like. Pastor J. Vernon McGree agrees. He says, look, this is one place where I agree with Naaman. He says, I saw those beautiful rivers in Lebanon. I went up to the city of Byblos and I walked along the river there about a half mile and looked at the beautiful clear water. I said,

The Jordan is a muddy little stream, friend. I wish I could do his accent, but it's not nearly as pretty as some of the streams in Lebanon. He says, look, it's just, it's a muddy little stream. It's not glorious. It's not amazing. It's not the, you know, some special holy water that has been blessed by the priest or whatever. You know, it's just, it's just water. And so Neheman goes, the Jordan, it's just the Jordan. It's just water. There's nothing.

bigger rivers. There's, you know, fresher rivers. There's rivers that are more impressive. The Jordan's just regular. It's just basic. And so he wasn't going to do it. But his servants challenge him and they say, hey, if he would have asked you to do something great, well, why not just try it? And so he goes in verse 14, he goes down, he dipped seven times in the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.

He experiences the miracle, not because there was some special molecular aspect to the water in the Jordan, but notice in verse 14, it says, he went down, he dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. The reason why Naaman was healed, dipping seven times in the Jordan, was not because the Jordan had some medicinal value.

It was because he followed the instruction that God had given to him. It was about that simple obedience. It was about that step of faith. Faith is obedience to God at his word. This is what Naaman does. He believes and he goes and he's obedient. It's a simple thing. But in doing this, he receives this miracle from the Lord in a way that it's clear. And he knows that.

This was a work of God. This was not the work of a prominent religious man or some special prophet or some special property or some. No, no, no. This was, everything was basic materials. It was all just normal stuff. But God used that to do something miraculous. Simple obedience involves basic materials.

Things that are accessible to everyone. Listen, God wants to work miraculously in your life, supernaturally, transformationally. He wants to do radical things in your life and through your life. The means by which God does those things though, well, they're through basic materials, simple obedience. Think about what the prophet Micah shares in Micah chapter six, verse eight.

He says, Micah there is recording the question that's being asked. What shall I do to come before the Lord? How can I have access to God? How can I walk with God? How can I grow in a relationship with God? How can I experience this? And he says, he's shown you. You know God.

Because it is simple obedience, you know what God desires and requires of you. To do justly, that's doing what is right. To love mercy, that's doing what is right and good to others around us. And to walk humbly with your God. You know what God requires of you, Micah says. It's not some mystery. It's not some radical thing. If you buy my book, my materials, my special materials, my

Then you will finally have access to what you need to experience that next level of relationship with God. Now listen, there is no special materials. It's basic materials. Things that every one of us have access to equally. And through those normal common things, God is able to work miraculously. Think about the tabernacle. Do you think about like, you know, the most holy and revered elements?

You go back to the tabernacle, fashioned by Moses in the wilderness. You look at the Ark of the Covenant. The very presence of God dwelt there. You know what it was made with? It was made with gold. Yeah, precious, valuable gold, right? Where'd the gold come from? It came from the people. It wasn't some exclusive thing. God didn't say, okay, here's what I want you to do. Go dig in this mountain, and you're going to find this rare material that's never been seen before. You're going to mine this thing.

metal and you're going to fashion it into the Ark of the Covenant. That's not what it was. No, no. It was, hey, everybody, Israel, you all have gold. God's called us to make a tabernacle. Why don't you donate whatever gold you're willing to donate so that we can make the instruments that God's instructed us to make? And so everybody pulled out their earrings and, you know, put the gold they had and put it all together. And then they took, it was common. Everybody had it.

It wasn't some rare material that nobody had. It was basic materials. Valuable, sure, but basic. Everybody had them. And the Ark of the Covenant was holy not because it was some special material that had never been seen before. It was holy because that common basic material was then devoted to God and used exclusively for the purposes of God. That's what made it holy. Not the materials, not the substance.

Sometimes people get caught up in these special materials, and there is that special book, and we're all looking for that, you know, quick, easy fix. The two-minute diet. I'm going to write that book. The two-minute diet. I'll sell millions. It won't work, but...

Oh, we all want that. The two-minute, you know, guide to holiness or, you know, whatever. And it's like, yes, be holy in two minutes or less. It's like, yes, I want that. Be delivered in two minutes or less. Yes, I want that. We all want that. But there's no quick, easy, this is a secret, you know. Everybody's been missing it for thousands of years. But if you'll only follow my instructions, then you'll experience. No, no, no, no, no. That's not the way that God works.

You don't need some very special, blessed, holy water in order to be cleansed. You don't need some super special Bible, right? Listen, brothers and sisters, I fasted and prayed over each page of this Bible. If you'll buy it for $19.99, you read this Bible that I fasted and prayed every day for each page in this Bible, you'll really begin to experience the presence of God. No, no, no, no, no.

It doesn't work like that. God doesn't work in those ways. He uses regular, use your Bible. Doesn't matter what translation. Sometimes we get worked up about that. You want to use the NIV? Go for it. New Living Translation? Sure. Yes, there is translations that do not accurately represent God's word. So those ones would be out. But it doesn't really matter, the translation. You read what you can understand.

Spend time with God and His Word. And it's regular materials. Everybody has access to it. There's no special access that somebody else has over you. No, we all have access to the resources that God has given for us to experience the work of God in our lives. You can think about the different aspects of our spiritual life, the spiritual disciplines, as I began talking about at the beginning of service. Things that we do...

in our walk with the Lord because we know it has value. It's good for us. And it may not be the most exciting thing every time, but I do it because it's good for me. And time in the word, you know, Psalm chapter one talks about the one who is meditating on the word of God day and night, how he's planted like a tree by the waters and he is fruitful. He doesn't wither and he is prosperous. And you can be that person in Psalm one.

Rick doesn't have better access to the scriptures than you have. I don't have better access to the scriptures than you have. You can be the one who meditates on the word day and night. That's available to you. It's basic materials common to everybody, accessible to all. The word of God is huge and instrumental in our life and our walk and our relationship with God and in God's work in our lives. You can think about prayer. There is nobody who has better access to God than you have in prayer. We all have access.

access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. You may admire the prayer life of others. Be careful with that because your perception of their prayer life may not be accurate to reality. The reality is you have the same access to God as that person that you admire for their prayer life. And some people will think, well, what I need to do is I need to pray the prayer of Jabez. And I'll really be blessed if I can learn how to pray the prayer of Jabez.

Then, oh my goodness, God will unleash miracles and work radically in my life. It's not about a formula. It's not a combination or series of words. If you get just the magic sequence right, then boom. No, no, no, no. You have access to God. With your own words, you don't have to have a special vocabulary.

With your own personality, your own relationship with God, you can communicate with God. You can spend time receiving and listening to God. You can communicate with God and have a prayer life with God as good as anybody else who has ever existed. That's an important aspect of your spiritual life. You know, another important aspect of your spiritual life is fellowship. This is something that we lack sometimes in our American Southern Californian culture.

of individualism and independence. God has developed in us a need for one another. That we cannot be all that God wants us to be. We cannot receive all that God wants to do in our lives all by ourselves. It can only be accomplished linking arms with one another as believers. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4 that

The whole body is joined and knit together by what all the joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share. And that's what causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. It's us coming together, working together, praying together, seeking the Lord together, serving the Lord together, worshiping together. It's us together. It has a huge impact. And it doesn't have to be, you have to have the special access to this exclusive group.

I mean, if you really want to be blessed, here's what you got to do. You got to fellowship with Russell. If you can't fellowship with Russell, oh, you're not his friend? You're not in the popular circle? Yeah, sorry. You're not going to be as good of a Christian as you can be. No, that's not how it works. Link up with other believers. This is one of the reasons why we gather together on Sundays and Wednesdays at men's studies and women's studies and different events and fellowships. But even beyond the church-related things, spending time together as believers is

Well, it's incredibly beneficial. Now again, sometimes it's like eating your vegetables. Maybe you don't want to spend time with Russell, but maybe it's good for you. So maybe you should do it. But it's basic materials. It's not exclusive. It's not off limits. It's not something that somebody else has access to that you don't have access to. Listen, simple obedience, the kind of obedience that puts you in a place to receive God's miraculous work in your life, it involves things that you have access to, just like everybody else.

God works miracles by simple obedience. Well, finishing up verses 14 through 17, here's point number four. Simple obedience develops spiritual disciplines. Verse 14 says, Here, Naaman continues to provide for us a good example of

He goes to the Jordan out of obedience to the word of God. God's spoken to him. He goes and does what he's instructed and he dips in the Jordan. But he doesn't just go one time under the water in the Jordan. He dips seven times because that was the number he was instructed to dip. And think about that.

Try to picture what's going on. Remember just a few moments ago, he's raging away, furious, walking back to Syria, still going to be a leper until his servants intervened. I mean, that wasn't months ago. That was moments ago. And he comes down to the Jordan. He dips in the water. He comes up. He looks. Nothing's changed. Okay, I'll do it again. He dips. He comes up. Nothing's changed. I kind of expect, I kind of think that probably after three times, he was ready to call it quits. Yeah.

He's like, what am I doing here? This doesn't make any sense. There's better rivers. Why is this going to do anything? I'm not seeing any change. There was lots of reasons for him to quit after three times. J. Vernon McGee puts it this way. I think every time he went down into the water, he would come up and look at himself and probably said, this is absurd. I'm not getting clean. I'm not getting rid of my leprosy. What am I doing? It doesn't record that he had those kinds of struggles, but I imagine that he did.

Here's one of the aspects of simple obedience. One of the aspects of spiritual disciplines, repetition. Repetition is so valuable for us. And what God instructs us to do is going to involve repetition.

And we're going to do it a couple times and then be like, why am I doing this? This is absurd. This doesn't make sense. I don't see any change. And we are going to be tempted to get out of the water and to quit. Paul writing to the Philippians told them, hey, it's not tedious for me to write these same things to you. It's safe for you. It's necessary for you. It's good for you for me to remind you of the things that you already know.

I was talking about the word and prayer and fellowship as part of the aspects of our spiritual life, right? But one of the huge parts of that is not just you read the Bible and then you're done. I tried that and then that was it. One of the aspects that's really important, that's necessary in this simple obedience is the spiritual discipline of continuing and continuing and continuing to spend time with God and his word.

to spend time with God in prayer, to spend time with God amongst his people, to seek after God, to walk with God in an ongoing way every day. Simple obedience is going to develop in you spiritual disciplines. Again, thinking about what Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, in verse 7, he says, but reject profane and old wives' fables.

and exercise yourself towards godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. There Paul tells Timothy, reject profane and old wives' fables. Those are not just things that were around in Timothy's time. Old wives' fables of how you can be godly and

of how you can have access to God, how you can have some special relationship to God, how you can have some incredible experience in your life. There's all kinds of fables and made up things about how you can experience that and encounter that. Paul says, throw all that stuff out and exercise yourself toward godliness. That word exercise is interesting. Exercise yourself. Your spiritual life really is a lot like exercise.

Just considering reading the Bible for a moment. Reading the Bible is more like exercise than it is education. And sometimes we get confused because of the format. And we relate to it as if it's any other instructional book or any other history account or any other academic thing. And we can approach it from that perspective and keep it in that context in our mind. And so you can come and say, well, yeah, I read this before.

I've heard the teaching on this passage. I've read through the whole Bible. I've read through the whole Bible seven times. I think I'm done. I know it all. I'm familiar with it all. I've learned all the material. I've often shared, there's a co-worker I used to have when I was working at Paychex, and he said, oh, I can tell you're still a new Christian because you still read the Bible. As if you get to the point where, hey, I've been a Christian long enough. I don't need the Bible anymore. I don't need to spend time with God and His Word. That's the wrong perspective. Listen, I

I've been in a Christian home my whole life. I've been walking with God for many, many years. I still need the word of God. It's exercise. It's not academic. It's not education. You don't do a bench press and you go, okay, I'm done. I've done. I don't need to do a bench press anymore. I did one already. You don't go for a run and then say, well, okay, that's it. I did it. I went for a run. That's it. No, no. If you're going to be exercising, you

You do the same things repeatedly over and over and over and over and over again. And you mix it up. You have leg day and arm day and core day. And I don't know about you, but on my leg day, I give the couch legs a good hard workout. But you keep going back and you do the same things in the same way. These spiritual aspects of our life, the growth that we need doesn't come by doing something once.

dipping once in the Jordan, but going back to the word of God, going back to prayer, even when you don't see change. And it's not just limited to seven times. That's the magic number. No, it was seven times because that's what God said. When it comes to the word of God, here's what he says, day and night. That's it, day and night. Meditate on the word of God. When it comes to prayer, Paul says, pray without ceasing. But I've been praying. I've prayed a lot. I've prayed over this, you know. Pray without ceasing.

Yeah, it's a discipline. You keep on doing it, and you don't always feel excited about it. It's not always your favorite vegetable to eat, but you do it because it's good for you. You do it because God deserves it. He's worthy of it. He's done so much in your life. You do it even though it's not your favorite thing, but you do it because you need it. It developed some discipline in his life and a new relationship with God for Naaman. In verse 15,

It says, he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him. And he said, indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now, therefore, please take a gift from your servant. And he tried to give him a gift, but Elisha wouldn't take it. But notice, he comes to a new understanding. He knows that there is no other God now. He goes on in verse 17. He says, I'm not going to worship any other God any longer. I'm only going to sacrifice to the Lord God. I'm not going to worship other gods.

This was the beginning for him of a new spiritual life. That was not just a one-time thing. I went to Israel. I, you know, encountered that God. I dipped in the Jordan and then that was it. But now, for the rest of my life, every time I worship, I'm going to worship God. I'm going to pray to God. I'm going to walk with God. And yeah, he was a new believer, so he didn't know anything. And he thought taking some dirt back in verse 17, he's like, can I take two mule loads of dirt, you know, back to worship God? And hey, he didn't need the dirt to be able to worship God. But

He thought he did. Elisha didn't even bother correcting him because, hey, sometimes you don't have to deal with every issue that's outstanding. God will direct and leave room for the Holy Spirit to grow them. But hey, he's saying, I'm going to go back and I'm going to be faithful to walk with God and worship God. He's developed some spiritual disciplines through simple obedience. This is what we need. Repetition. The simple things, not crazy, extravagant, radical, sacrificial things. The simple things.

You know what God's spoken to you. You know what God has shown you. You know how to walk with God. See, the issue for someone's prayer life versus your own is not that they have more access to God, but they might take advantage of that access to God to a greater degree than you do. They might put that into practice in their lives more than you do. You don't have better access to the word of God than I do. Listen, God has called me to teach. I have a gift to teach you.

That's not the same as a gift to understand. You don't have to wait for me. Listen, if your understanding of the scriptures only comes through somebody else's teaching, you're missing out. You need to learn to spend some time with God in his word in a way that you understand what God is saying. That's what the author of Hebrews wrote to the Hebrews in Hebrews chapter five. He says, look, you should be teachers by now. You've been around a long enough time. You should be teachers by now.

You're not mature enough. But those who are mature, it's by reason of use, by repetition. They've gone back and simple obedience and spent time with the Lord. And they've learned through that how to walk with God, how to pray, how to know him, how to hear his voice, how to experience what he wants to accomplish in their lives. It's not some exclusive thing that somebody else has that you don't have. God works miracles by simple obedience. First of all, it starts with humility.

It's not about what we can offer, what we have to give, and some special position that we have. It's about us coming to God in our actual condition. I have leprosy. I have sin. I have fallen. I am messed up. And coming to God in humility begins the opportunity for God to work. And as he gives us instruction, it's going to involve basic materials.

Not some radical thing that you've never heard of before and has never been introduced. And so for the previous 6,000 years, everybody's been missing out. But I have the key to life. And no, it doesn't work like that. It's the same things. Relationship with God that we need. It's walk with God. Time with God. Serving the Lord. It's the spiritual disciplines that need to develop as we obey God. And if you'll do that, God will work in your life.

exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think. It's a discipline though. And again, going back to the diet, you may not approach food in a way that, hey, this is nutritional, it has great nutritional value, so therefore I will consume it. That's not how I approach food. But that is how I approach things of the Lord. Listen, God's been speaking to me about worship. I haven't shared this with anybody yet, but I'm going to share it now apparently.

I'm going to be stepping in to start leading worship on Wednesday nights again. I'm not that gifted in worship. I'm not really good at it. It's not because I have something incredible to offer, but because God has reminded me it's good for me. I need to be leading in worship. So it's a discipline I'm going to start walking in. It's not my favorite thing, but it's a discipline. In a similar way, I would encourage you. What's the Lord laid upon your heart? Walk in those things. It's simple obedience. It's not some crazy...

access that nobody else has. It's just really investing yourself to relate to God in the way that he's instructed you. Simple obedience brings about the miraculous work of God in your life. Let's pray. God, I lift up each and every one of us and I pray that you would help us to have a clear understanding of what it is that you're asking of us. Lord, what have you called us to? Lord, we recognize and we can understand that you desire to work miraculously, supernaturally,

transformationally in our lives, God. You're capable, you desire it. And Lord, what is required of us is not some huge, great, grand gesture, but Lord, for us to come to you in humility with a willingness to simply be obedient to what you set before us. So God, I pray that you would help us to do that. Help us to hear your voice clearly, to hear the instruction that you're giving to us, and then to walk in it. I pray, Lord, that you would lead us

by your spirit into this life that you've called us to. Help us, God, to be disciplined, to develop those spiritual habits and practices that we would continue to walk with you, to grow in the relationship that you've called us to. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.