All right, so I think I'm good. I don't think I forgot anything, so let's open up our Bibles to 2 Kings, and we're gonna be in 2 Kings chapter six this evening. I normally don't entitle or title these midweek services with titles, but I think this is sort of a good title for this chapter, or a portion of the chapter we're gonna look at this evening. And it's called Seeing Through Spiritual Eyes. And you'll see why we, or why I entitled it that here in a little bit. But that is something I think that all of us can be praying for, that we can see things through spiritual eyes or that the Lord will open our eyes to see things the way he sees things, to look at life the way he looks at life, to look at people the way he looks at people. And so often I find myself that I don't do that, but I want to do that. Sometimes I look at people through the flesh, right? We have a tendency to do that. We judge by appearances. The Lord has shown me a few different times not to do that at all. Not to judge the book by its cover because you don't know what's going on on the inside. But that's why I kind of titled that this evening, Seeing Through Spiritual Eyes. Now, all through Scripture, We're taught about faith. Another thing we're gonna learn about in this chapter is faith, right? And we're taught about faith. We're taught about what faith means. We're taught about, all through scripture, what faith looks like, how faith lives its life, how it's displayed in our lives. In fact, faith is so, so important that the book of Hebrews chapter 11 says this, that without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The book of Romans chapter one verse seven says this, for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. And so when we ask the question as a Christian, how important is faith? Well, the word itself is found 775 times in scripture, 514 times in the New Testament alone. And that doesn't even count all the instances or examples where people actually lived out or showed their faith by what they did. And so faith is going to be evidenced or will be evidenced, if it's genuine, it'll be evidenced in our living. 2 Corinthians 5.7 says, we live by faith, not by sight. Now that's a tough one, isn't it? We live by faith or we walk by faith, not by sight. And then 2 Corinthians 4.18 says, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Hebrews 11.1 gives us this definition of faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. And so walking by faith and not by sight, that's faith, right? We have a tendency to look at everything and look at it through the eyes of our flesh or the circumstances of the things going on around us, rather than looking at life through the eyes of faith. So faith, is really having eyes of a different sort, or eyes that are opened to the spiritual, or to the unseen. We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. That's faith. Eyes fixed on God, believing God, trusting God. The Amplified says it like this. Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see, and the conviction of their reality. faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. And so this is the, I say all of that because this is the kind of life that Elisha was living. And he shows us that he was living with his eyes opened, that he lived with the conviction of the reality of things not seen to the natural eye. His faith perceiving as real, fact what was not revealed to the senses. And so Elisha really did have spiritual sight. He was walking by faith. He was not walking by the things that he saw. And thus we've witnessed through our study in 2 Kings, already a whole plethora, I like to use that word plethora, a whole plethora of miracles, Elisha was directly involved in himself. He was a man of faith and thus we know that he was a pleasing to God, a man of faith and a man of miracles. Now personally, I hope that I can attain to a life of faith. That's what I hope I can attain to. I can't say that I've arrived there or I'm even close to that right now. But I hope to grow in faith as time goes forward. I hope the same for you as well, that we all grow and learn to walk by faith. And we're exhorted. about faith a ton of times. If you're taking notes, I don't know if you'll be able to keep up with these, but I'm gonna give you a whole bunch of little, just sound bites of faith in the scripture. And that we're exhorted to, for example, excel in faith, 2 Corinthians 8, seven. We're exhorted to grow in faith. 2 Corinthians 10, 15. We're exhorted to live by faith. Galatians 2, 20. To express faith. Galatians 5, 6. To take up the shield of faith. Ephesians 6.16, to progress in faith. Philippians 1.25, to contend for the faith. Philippians 1.27 and Jude 1.3, to continue in faith. Colossians 1.23, be strengthened in faith. Colossians 2, 7. Produce good works by faith. 1 Thessalonians 1, 3 and James chapter 3. To hold to the deep truths of the faith. 1 Timothy 3, 9. To keep the faith. 2 Timothy 4, 7. We're to be active in, and this is neat, when we've been doing this on Saturday mornings, we'll be having that class again this Saturday morning. But we are exhorted to be active in sharing our faith. Philippians 1.6, stand firm in the faith. 1 Peter 5.19, add to your faith. 2 Peter 1.5, build yourself up in your most holy faith. Jude 1.20. So we see that's just a little snapshot. We see how important faith is and how essential it is. Faith is to be added to and we are to be growing, not stagnant, but growing in our faith. Now how do you grow in your faith? Well I would say the simplest answer to that question, the simplest way to grow in your faith is to increase in faith is Romans 10 17. Faith comes by hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. So there's a direct connection and a correlation of spiritual growth and faith increasing by spending time in God's word and reading it, hearing it, meditating upon it, memorizing it even, the Bible needs to become our priority and a daily habit, our daily bread if we are going to increase and grow in faith. It's just the way it works. And so it's so important for us to get this. Somebody was telling me this week that they know a person that goes to church, but they never read their Bibles. They go to church and they depend upon the pastor to give them a little, you know, a feeding once a week, and that's all they get. Well, imagine if you did that just in a physical sense, and you only ate once a week. I can tell you, you wouldn't look like me, if you know what I mean. I went to the doctor today, and my weight's way up, and I was so bummed out. I'm like, I gotta stop eating so much cherry pie. I've been eating cherry pie like crazy, and ice cream, and all kinds of stuff that's bad for me. But the thing is, is if we need to feed ourselves spiritually, Because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So that's how we're gonna grow in faith. Now let's go ahead and look at our text and see Elisha's faith on display tonight. Okay, so we're in 2 Kings chapter six. It says in verse one, the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, see now, The place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please let us go to the Jordan and let every man take a beam from there and let us make there a place where we may dwell. So he answered, go. Then one said, please consent to go with your servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. And he cried out and said, alas, master, for it was borrowed. So the man of God said, where did it fall? And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. Therefore, he said, pick it up yourself. So he reached out his hand and took it. Now, as we look at this, some have asked the question, we see a bunch of miracles that Elisha was involved in. And some have asked the question, why was Elisha involved in such a seemingly trivial miracle? Well, I believe because it's a beautiful picture of how God cares about even the small stuff in our life. We see what happens. These guys, they go there to build a bigger place for them to have their meetings or for them to live, the school of prophets. And as they're working, the ax head flies off and falls into the river. And the guy's all upset because it wasn't his, he borrowed it, right? We'll talk about that here a little bit more. And why would the Lord do a miracle like that and have the ax head float back up? Well, if the very hairs of your head are all numbered, then God cares about the small and the insignificant things of our lives. And these sons of the prophets, obviously, you know, we might call it today, they were like a Bible school. And so verse one tells us that they had a need and it was growing and they had a need for more room. And it was probably growing, likely inspired by Elijah and Elisha. They were very, very well known. And I think it's always a blessing. Apparently they're experiencing this. It's always a blessing to see spiritual growth. It's a blessing to see spiritual growth with numbers and depth as well. And so these guys had influenced Israel. in a good way and sparked an increase in the desire to get to know God. Remember, the northern kingdom of Israel had really fallen into gross idolatry. But now these guys, I believe, were having a godly impact on their culture, which is a really cool thing. because I think all of us are called to do that. So there's sort of, it seems like there's a spiritual awakening happening and they need a bigger place to stay. And I wanna remind you guys, for all of us that are believers, why we're here. I hope you realize why we're here. We don't get saved just to go to heaven. We don't get saved just to enjoy the wonderful blessings of being a child of God and experiencing in life all that God has for us in blessings and in the end we get to go to heaven and spend eternity with God. That's part of the package deal, but we're here to be salt. We are here to be salt in the midst of corruption. We are here as Christians to be light in the midst of darkness. Our purpose is to have a godly influence in our culture. Our purpose is to make a difference. Robert Furrow. He's on our radio station and I heard him say in one of his sermons, he said, we may not be able to change or affect the whole world, but I can change and affect Robert Furrow's world for Jesus. Same with you and same with me. We can be a godly influence at home, in our families, in our workplaces, in our community. And that's what we're all called to be doing as believers. So the school was too small. They needed a bigger one. And look who builds it. I like this as well. Notice who's building it. They said, we need a place to stay. And so they said, can we go down to the Jordan River and build a place there? They go down, they start cutting down trees so they can build a bigger place. But the students are building it. And I love that because schools are so different than back then. The students built their own school, how opposite today's schools are usually built for the students, not by the students, but look at verse two. And so we see in verse two says, please let us go to the Jordan and let every man take a beam from there and let us make there a place where we may dwell. So he answered, go. You know, I love this. I just wanna say a little bit here since they were working, right? They were working and they were building this facility or this place for them. And I wanna say something about work ethic. I have an opportunity lots of times to talk to people in our town that own businesses. And I always ask them this question. Is it hard for you guys to find good workers? And almost across the board, every one of them says the same thing, that they feel like the American work ethic has gone down the tubes and we need to change quick or we're gonna be sunk as a nation. And so hard work has become for many a dirty word. I think it's infecting our culture, but these prophets, they worked. And that's what the Bible teaches us in the book of Proverbs 14, 23, it says, all hard work brings a profit, but more talk leads only to poverty. And so I always like to say this, I remember when I worked in the secular community and I would go to work, I worked at Honeywell for eight and a half years, and I would go to work every day and the Lord would remind me, you are here to work for me. You are here to represent me. So I want you to be the best worker possible. I want you to shine for your boss. I want you to do what the boss tells you. I don't want you arguing with him. I want you to be a witness for me at work. And I remember going to work every day saying, okay, Lord, I commit my day to you and I wanna honor you in the way that I work. Then I worked at Olympus for another year and a half before I went into the ministry full-time. But it's been a blessing to realize that God calls us to this. Proverbs 20, 21, 25 says, the sluggard's craving will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work. Another proverb says, as the door turns on its hinges. You ever heard a door that squeaks and turns on its hinges? You know, as a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, but he's too lazy even to bring it back to his mouth. And that's pretty darn lazy. And then Paul writes to the Thessalonians, if a man does not work, he shall not eat. I think one of the bad things that happened in our culture as a part of, was COVID, during COVID, so many people were out of work and they just started getting handouts. The government was giving everybody money in handouts. And then when it came time to go back to work, people didn't want to go back to work because they were getting everything for free. So hard work in the Bible is commanded. It's commended and commanded. Laziness is reprimanded. Now, in the building process, notice what happens. We talked about it, touched it already. Verse five, but as one was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water, and he cried out and said, alas, master, for it was borrowed. That's probably why he's so upset, right? The axe head flies into the water, And it's a lot different back then having an axe head versus having an axe head today. If you were working and you had borrowed an axe head and it flew off into the water, well, most likely what you would do is you would go down to Ace or I still call it Mystery Heads. It's not Mystery Heads anymore, is it? Whatever it's called now. You know, the old Mystery Heads. What's it called now? Sunland? Sun Valley, yeah. You go to Sun Valley or you go to Foxworth, and you can buy a new axe or a new axe head for, you know, a few bucks or, you know, 15, 20, 30, whatever. But the axe heads, they're common today, right? Not back then. You know, that was before really the Iron Age even hit in Israel, and an iron axe head was not only hard to come by, it was very expensive, and this is a poor student, right? So he cries out because he probably didn't have the means to buy another one, and he had borrowed it, so he felt a sense of responsibility to return it. And now it's gone. It's in the bottom of the dirty Jordan River. And so he freaks out. I remember one time me and Rusty and Shane, and was there four of us or three of us? We went on a float trip. And we were floating the Gila River. and we had a little bit of a mishap and I think the boat kind of tipped or something and or we were pushing I can't something and then we got down the river about two or three hundred yards and Shane realized that he had lost his sidearm he had a 357 on or something and it fell in the river And it was like, no. And so we prayed. It was so cool. We prayed. You remember that, Rusty? We prayed, and we went back. And we started walking to the river, and we were praying, Lord, where is it? And the river happened to be pretty clear, thank God. And we saw it shining in the bottom of the river, and we found it. And it was kind of neat. But another side note along that one, I don't know about you guys, but I lose stuff a lot. I lose my keys all the time and blah blah blah and so now my wife's got me this little noise maker thing to find my keys. It's like a, I forgot what she calls it, font or font, I don't know what it's called. It's, I don't know technology, but here's what I've done for years when I lose stuff, here's my prayer. Lord, you know where it is, could you please show me? That's my prayer, right? I don't know how many times the Lord has answered that prayer and it's been such a blessing. So anyway, this guy loses the accent and what he does is Elisha hears him cry out. right he can it says he says the last master for it was borrowed so the man of god said where did it fall verse six and he showed him the place so he cut off a stick and threw it in there and he made the iron float. Therefore, he said, pick it up for yourself. So he reached out his hand and took it." So this is just another amazing miracle that Elisha was involved in. And you know, Elisha to the rescue again, he makes an iron ax head float. Now, this of course, what's a miracle? A miracle is something that is impossible in the realm of the physical. Axe heads still sink in 2007. I don't think we've invented a floating axe head yet. And so this overrode the physical laws. There are spiritual laws, there are physical laws, and this overrode that law. And so it floats now. And God does that. He overrides the laws of nature. And so the student gets his axe head back, and what's the big deal? Well, this shows me again that God cares about the little things in our lives. And what may seem trivial, this is another thing the Lord showed me lots of times. What may seem trivial to me, or maybe even trivial to you, or when it concerns God's children though, it's not trivial. And I've noticed this many times where something may be very heavy on a person's heart, it may be a burden for them, it may cause heartache for them, and we're looking at it and we're going, What, why? And I always need, I always pray, Lord, give me compassion. I love this definition of compassion when someone else is going through something, and even though I might look at it, it's like, why are you freaking out about that? But for them, it's a big thing, it's a big deal. And I love this definition of compassion. Compassion is feeling another person's pain in my heart. feeling their pain in my heart. That's compassion. And so these things aren't trivial to God, and I'm thankful that God hears our cries for the big stuff, and I'm glad that God hears our cries for the little stuff. Like I said, lost keys, all kinds of stuff like that. I remember one time, I probably told you this story before, but I used to own a really cool truck. My dad helped me get it when I was only like 19, 20 years old. Probably shouldn't have helped me get it, but I got this truck and it was a 55 Chevy pickup and it was a cameo. And they only made like a thousand of them or something. And it was a fiberglass back end. It had a 327 Corvette engine. It was 411 zoom gears. And I just balded the tires in a matter of weeks. It was fast. It was super fast. And anyway, I got this truck. And Dia and I got married. And I had the truck still. And I would take it to work every day. And one day, Dia said, hey. How about we go out to dinner after work on Friday and I'll come pick you up?" And then she said, then I'll just take you to work the next morning and we'll leave your truck parked in the parking lot at Motorola where I worked at. And I'm like, all right, that sounds fine. And so we did that, you know, we went out to dinner and there had been a whole bunch of trucks being stolen in Albuquerque back then, and it still happens all the time. Albuquerque is just crime city, right? So Dia came to pick me up and we got in the car and I said a little prayer. I said, Lord, would you please put your angels around my truck and protect my truck so no one steals it? Now, someone might go, that's a stupid thing to pray or that's a selfish thing to pray or whatever. In fact, I came in the next morning to work and my truck was all full of frost from the night before. So someone that when I got there said, did you leave your truck in the parking lot last night? I said, yeah. And they said, don't you know that people steal trucks like that all the time? I said, yeah, but I prayed over it. And she goes, you can't pray like that. She tells me, and I said, well, I did, and God answered. But I just, I love the fact that we can talk to the Lord about anything, and so here's this ax head, and all of a sudden, what may seem like a little issue to us was a big issue to him, but it was a big issue to God, too. Now, next, the next set of miracles, I love this story. Let's continue on as we get to verse eight. Let's read down to verse 12. Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel and he consulted with his servants saying, my camp will be in such and such a place. And the man of God, and the man of God sent to the king of Israel saying, beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are coming down there. Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him, thus he warned him and he was watchful there, not just once or twice. Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing. And he called his servants and he said to them, will you not show me which one of us is for the king of israel and one of his servants said none my lord oh king but elisha the prophet who is in israel tells the king of israel the words that you speak in your bedroom So let's stop there. Next miracle on the docket here. And this sounds like a kind of a headline from maybe today's newspaper, right? The king of Syria is making war against Israel. Today we know that Israel is under all kinds of attack. They've always pretty much always been that way. You know, Israel almost since its inception, has been the target of a myriad of enemies, old and new. Why? I believe that the reason that Satan hates Israel and the reason that Satan hates Israel is they are God's covenant chosen people. The Bible calls them the apple of God's eye. And I want to say this as clear as I can because some people believe this and I believe it's wrong that the church has taken the place of Israel and God has thrown Israel aside. I believe that is really bad theology. We have not replaced Israel, we've simply been grafted in to Israel. And what God loves, Satan hates. Know that. What God loves, Satan hates. God loves Israel, Satan hates Israel. God loves the church, Satan hates the church. And that's the spiritual reason I believe that Israel seems always to be under attack. And it's going to be that way. Jesus warned until he returns that that's what's going to happen. In fact, it's interesting that Syria today is still an enemy of Israel, pretty much. There's Hezbollah, there's Iran, there's Lebanon, Al-Qaeda, the Palestinians, the Arab nations, and then of course soon Ezekiel 38 and 39, Russia and all the Islamic nations from the north are going to come and attack Israel prophetically, it's what we're told. So war has just, against Israel, it's nothing new, it's really old, and this is what was happening in our story. The king of Syria is going to war against Israel, But as he gets set up for these ambushes, the Lord speaks to Elisha and tells Elisha to tell the king what's going to happen before it happens. And so, you know, it's kind of interesting what's going on in this story. Now, as we look at this story, all these plans, these surprise attacks against Israel are given away, the secret is given to Elisha. Elisha then turns and tells Israel, but the thing is, is that the king of Syria thinks he has a snitch. in the camp. He thinks that someone is a spy and telling Israel what's going to happen because they keep, you know, knowing what's going on. And so every time he wants to plan this surprise attack, the plans are thwarted. And so you look at this and what's kind of cool about it is you think about it, you can't fight against God and win. And that's what this guy was trying to do. He was trying to fight against God and Elisha was being told what was going to happen. And so he does the natural thing, he thinks there's a spy, there's a traitor, but verse 11 tells us what's really going on. Therefore, the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, will you not show me which one of us is for the king of Israel? And then one of his servants said, none, my lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom. Now, I love this. This still holds true. There are no secrets to God. God sees and knows everything. He knows exactly what you're thinking, you right now, this very second. He knows what you're thinking. He knows what's going on behind closed doors in our homes. He knows the words we speak, wives to their husbands and husbands to their wives. He knows, he's listening to our phone conversations. The CIA and the FBI have nothing on God. Eat your heart out. God knows everything. He knows what's said even in our bedrooms. Hebrews 4.13 says that nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, but everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Psalm 139 says this, you perceive my thoughts from afar before a word is on my tongue you know it completely oh lord proverbs 5 21 says for a man's ways are in full view of the lord and he examines all his paths psalm 11 4 the lord is in his holy temple the lord is on his heavenly throne he observes the sons of men His eyes examined them. So as we live out our lives, every single day, and this was the normal living for these guys, right? The king of Syria is wanting to attacks Israel. Elisha is putting a bug in Jerusalem. the King of Israel's ear, telling him what's going to happen. All of this is going on, but God is in the midst of all of it. God is directing Elisha, telling him what to do and what's going on. But as we live our lives daily, I think it's a good thing to be reminded of this. God sees, God hears, and someday we're going to give an explanation to Him for why we did what we did. Jesus said this what you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight What you have whispered in the ear and the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops I think it's gonna be pretty embarrassing for some people when they get to heaven and the books are open and everything in your Life is then exposed to all of heaven. I think it's gonna be a kind of embarrassing There are no secrets with God and we're gonna give an account to him for every the Bible says even every careless idle word we have spoken I wrote this down on my Facebook page today. Secrets on earth are open scandals in heaven. Now, one of his leaders rightly tells the king, it's not us. We're not betraying you. It's Elisha, the prophet. God shows him everything and tells him everything that you're saying, even in your bedroom. And so, God and Elisha were the real spies in this story. And so the king decides to try something, and this is kind of, I'm looking at this story, the king decides to try something that if you really think about it, it's not very smart. In fact, it's pretty stupid. Look at verse 13, how he decides to fix the issue. So he said, go and see where he is, where Elisha is, that I may send and get him. and it was told him saying, surely he is in Dothan. Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. Now, If the Lord had been telling Elisha what every move he was making, how did he think he was gonna be able to sneak up on Elisha, right? How stupid is that? But he decides, we'll capture him, and then we'll bring him over here, and then he won't be able to tell the king what we're doing over there, right? And it just kind of makes me laugh how sometimes people, when it comes to the things of God, are so dumb, right? And so we're gonna capture him, and like if God didn't know what was going on, And I think about this a lot, how so many people, when it comes to the things of God, They're so ignorant and so not understanding who God is. It's crazy. And so I was thinking about this guy fighting against God, fighting against Elisha, trying to outsmart God. And I think to myself, this guy had a few screws loose in his head. You probably heard some of these sayings, right? You've heard the saying, there are a few cards short of a full deck. If you're from Texas, here's one. There are a few cowboys short of a dude ranch. They're not the brightest bulb in the box. They're not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Their elevator doesn't go all the way to the top. They don't have both oars in the water. They're a few bricks shy of a full load. They're a few fries short of a happy meal. If you like Mexican food, they're one taco short of a combination plate. If you're a sports person, they're one player short of a full team. You know, you kind of get the picture. That was this guy, right? And let's see what happens. And they say, Elisha's in Dothan. He's the guilty one, so the king of Syria says, okay, well, let's just go get him. We're gonna sneak up on him, and we're gonna capture him. Look what happens in verse 14 and verse 15. So that's what they do. So he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And notice what happens in the morning in verse 15. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, alas, my master, what shall we do? Now stop there just for a little bit. They get there and they're gonna do a surprise attack, right? Psalm 139 says, I love it. It says, if I say surely the darkness will hide me, the light will become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. So they came at dark, under the cover of darkness, but the Lord is aware of what's going on. So they surround Dothan, and Elisha's servant gets up early in the morning, and he goes outside. I'm thinking to myself, I wonder what he was up to, right? We can spiritualize this and say, well, he might have gotten up really early in the morning because he was going to go outside and spend some quiet time with God. Or probably he was going to do what most people do in the morning when they wake up in the morning and they didn't have indoor bathrooms back then, so he was going to go out and as he's going out he sees something that disturbs him, right? And it's funny what he does though, he freaks out, he panics, he becomes afraid and he says, oh no, we're surrounded by our enemies. Now why is he afraid? The reason he's afraid is because he's seeing things with the natural eye only. We talked about the very beginning of this study that God wants to teach us to see things through his eyes, through spiritual eyes. But he's seeing it through the natural eyes only. That's why he's afraid. Not eyes of faith, but eyes of the flesh. And so what does he see? He sees an army. and that causes him to become fearful because he's not seeing God, he's seeing the army. Now, we know he's afraid because of what he says to Elisha in the very next verse. Look at verse 16. So Elisha answers him, do not fear. Why did he tell him do not fear? Because he could see that he was afraid. Alas, my master, what shall we do? Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Now, I love this because we could do a whole study, I'm telling you guys, a whole series of studies on how detrimental and how paralyzing and how anti-faith fear is. But a few verses will suffice. You know what I think, one of the things that we saw during the COVID pandemic, not amongst everybody, but a lot of it surfaced, is we saw a whole lot of fear exposed in people's lives. Now, why is fear bad? Because fear places a undue emphasis on circumstances I'm talking about for believers, rather than the ultimate and absolute trust in God that we should have, in God's sovereignty. You know that we have as God's people, we have been given God's promise of protection and his providence over our lives. So what fear is, is fear is a breakdown of trust and confidence in the power of God. It's a breakdown of confidence in the goodness of God, the love of God, the faithfulness of God, that God is ultimately in control of what happens in our lives. And so I hope we realize that as a child of God, God does not want us to live with fear or have a spirit of fear. See, fear is wrong for God's people because fear is giving into what ifs. That's what it's doing. And it's very common to live, for people to live enslaved by fear of what ifs. I heard of people literally during the pandemic that were so afraid they would never even leave their house. They were so afraid. So fear is giving into what ifs. F.B. Meyer said this, God incarnate is the end of fear. and the heart that realizes that he is here in our midst and in control will remain at peace and quiet even in the midst of alarm. Psalm 27, one says, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? A guy named Alexander McLaren said, only he who can say the Lord is my strength can also say of whom shall I be afraid. Isaiah 12.2, Psalm 56.11, two great verses. Probably good for you to memorize them maybe, because we're probably going to be faced with more fear in the future, and the government, and pandemics, and plandemics, and all that kind of garbage that's going to be thrown at us. We need to be aware of these things. But these are two great verses that teaches us how to overcome whenever fear, that we're faced with fear, right? And these verses are incredible. Isaiah 12, two says, God is my salvation, my deliverer, my safety, my rescue. I will trust him and not be afraid. Psalm 56, 11 says, in God I trust, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? In the New Testament, Hebrews 13, 6 says, we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Psalm 3, verse 5 and 6 says, I lie down and sleep. I wake again because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear tens of thousands. drawn up against me on every side. 2 Timothy 1.7 says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind. So fear is for the believer out of character. It's not what we're called or who we're called to be. Proverbs 3.25 says, have no fear of sudden disaster. or the ruin that overtakes the wicked. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared. So why can we be confident? Because the Lord has us. Our days, everything are numbered by the Lord. We don't have to live in fear. He is our protection. He even uses angels to protect us. If you ever start to feel fearful or worried, I would encourage you to mark this in your Bible and read it every night or every morning. Psalm 91, powerful. It's an amazing psalm. Knowing that God loves us, knowing that God is committed to our protection, gives us peace and confidence. 1 John 4 says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. So we see two opposite responses here in this story for the same exact circumstance. Right? The servant responds in fear. He's freaking out. What shall we do? Elisha responds in faith and says, do not fear. For those who are with us are more than those who are with him or with them. And I love this. He sees things through spiritual eyes. The servant was looking circumstantially at the things from a fleshly perspective. And I can almost hear the servant saying, oh, what are we gonna do? I mean, just the tone of his voice and all of that. And Elisha has spiritual vision and spiritual sight. And yes, he sees, he goes outside and yeah, there's the army. The army of the Syrians are surrounding Dothan. But there was also, and Elisha could see this, there was also a spiritual army surrounding Syria's army, a spiritual army surrounding Elisha. Look at verse 17. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes so that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And so they were surrounded, the Syrian army is surrounded by God's army or angels, Right? And so that's why Elisha didn't freak out, but the servant did because he couldn't see that. And so Psalm 34 7, we have wonderful promises about God's angelic help in our lives. Psalm 34 7 says, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. And the Bible is clear that we as God's children have angelic help and protection. Hebrews 1.14 says, are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? So I believe that angels play a huge role in our daily lives even though we can't see them. They're protecting us, they're watching over us, they're delivering us, and some of you probably need extra angelic help the way that you live. Uh-oh, like I said Sunday, they're getting in the car, you know, get ready, or uh-oh, they're climbing up a ladder, or whatever, you know, crazy stuff that we do all the time, and the angels are alert to protect and watch over us. Now let's go ahead and finish our story. So Elisha prays the prayer, Lord opened his eyes, Open his spiritual eyes. And folks, if our eyes were open spiritually, I believe we would be blown away and amazed at all the activity in the spiritual dimension, both evil and good. angels and demons in conflict. So God opens his eyes and he saw God's angelic army, a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around. And so now the fear is gone out the door because the guy realizes, Elisha, that God is in control. Look at verse 18. Let's finish this off. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, strike this people, I pray, with blindness. He was being nice. He didn't say kill them. He said, strike them with blindness. And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Now, imagine an entire army instantaneously being struck with blindness, right? Now Elisha said to them, this is not the way. Now he starts talking to them. They're all blind and he starts talking to them, goes out to them. This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. but he led them to Samaria. So it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and there they were inside Samaria. Now, when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, my father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? But he answered, you shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master. So Elisha has mercy on them. They're there to take Elisha, but Elisha, he takes them and they're now, they're captives. He takes him to the king of Israel and the king of Israel is like, can we slaughter him? And he's like, no, don't slaughter him. Give him some food and we're going to send him back. And Elisha's act of kindness here, notice what happens in verse 23. Then he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had ate and drank, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel." So, you know, when you're in a spiritual battle like this, and I love the way this gets handled, you know, God gave the victory, but it didn't necessarily have to be by killing them. Right? He kind of like killed them with kindness. He gave them food, took care of them, sent them back, gave them their eyesight back. I'm sure they were pretty happy about that. I was at work one time. I've only had in my whole my lifetime, thank God, probably two or three migraine headaches. but one time I was at work and working at Honeywell and I got a migraine headache and I'd never had one in my whole life before and I'm sitting there looking at the, I was an inspector and I was looking at the blueprints and all of a sudden my eyes, like stopped working and I was going blind, I thought. Man, I freaked out. You ever had that happen to you, where you can't see? Man, and so losing your eyesight, man, would be horrible. So these guys were all blind for a period of time, and now they get their eyesight back, they get fed, they don't get killed, they go back, and the king of Syria leaves them alone from that point on. I just think, you know, What a glorious victory, as the Lord, someone said this, the most glorious victory over an enemy is to turn your enemy into your friend. I like that. Turn your enemy into your friend. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But this time it worked. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time in your word and this great story and how you work so amazingly in Elisha's life. Through Elisha's life, as he walked by faith, as he lived trusting in you, and Lord, he was able to see with spiritual eyes. I pray for all of us. Open our eyes spiritually. Help us to understand who you are. Help us to live by faith and to trust you in everything. Help us, Lord, not to look at circumstances, but to look at you. Lord, even as David, when he went before Goliath, everybody in the army of Israel saw Goliath and they were trembling in their sandals. David saw you and realized that Goliath was nothing. So help us to see you, Lord. and help us to live by faith, trusting you daily. We ask all these things and we give you glory and honor and praise in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you guys, love you.