Introduction
There’s an old lady in
Cardiff with a budgie who can sing the first few lines of “What a Friend We
Have in Jesus.” She invites visitors to her house to put £1 in a little box when
it sings for them. And every now and again the money collected is sent on to a
missionary in Kenya. That budgerigar has raised hundreds of pounds!
Actually, that bird is a
better disciple than some Christians; it’s praising God every day, it’s
spreading a bit of joy and it’s supporting mission in Africa. But for all its
effectiveness, it doesn’t have faith.
It just repeats words…
What we’ve been seeing in
the life of Elisha these last few weeks, is what faith can achieve.
Elisha was a
prophetic leader, called by God, to minister in Israel at a time of national
spiritual decline. Every now and again God raises up people with unusual
anointing and faith for works of power.
There’s a well-known church leader who once shared a
platform with Kathryn Kuhlman. She was an American evangelist who hosted
healing services. She dressed somewhat eccentrically, her makeup was unusual,
and she had a slightly strange style. She was, let’s say, unorthodox.
And this guy remembers her walking up and down,
seemingly in deep and intense communion with God, not really present to anyone
else. She was praying under her breath, seeking what God was doing, and where
he was leading.
He remembers looking at her and thinking, “this is
officially weird. She’s odd.” Until finally she stopped, looked up at him and
simply said, “Are we ready now?” And instantly he clattered to the floor in a
heap, under the power of the Holy Spirit.
That’s the sort of guy Elisha seems to have been. I
don’t think we’ve seen the likes of Elisha in our country since Smith
Wigglesworth. But every now and then God raises one of these characters up.
We saw a few weeks ago how Elisha was mentored by
Elijah. He didn’t just learn how to say the words
right like that singing budgerigar. For ten years they walked
together as one passed on faith and spiritual authority to the other.
Jesus called 12 disciples, and the Gospels say, “he
called 12 to be with him.” Over three years they went from being learners
to leaders. He took a dozen lame ducks and dragged them up and down the Middle
East till they could barely stay awake for an hour, but then they had all they
needed to turn the world upside down.
He designated them “apostles” which means sent ones.
He didn’t call them prophets or patriarchs or priests or even pastors - but
apostles. They were to be sent from one place to another, to reproduce in the
new place what they learned in the place they came from, until the place they
went to looked like the place they left.
That’s why we are sending a team to Newtown in April
2021. We want, under God, to give birth a new, life-giving, Jesus-centred
community 3 miles down the road. There are some great people getting on the
bus. The team is up to 18 now. But we are asking God to be able to send 30. Is
God calling you? There is still room for a dozen more - at least.
If you take away the signs and wonders from the
stories we have of Elisha, to be honest, there’s not a lot left.
Actually, when we open the Gospels it’s striking how
much space is devoted there to the great works Jesus did. Matthew records
41 miracles, Mark reports 34, Luke also includes 34, and John describes 20.
Some are duplicated of course from Gospel to Gospel. But that’s a lot of
miracles.
From Genesis to Revelation, our God reveals himself as
a God of mighty wonders and if you remove the miraculous from of the Bible,
you’re left with little more than the cover and the index.
Elisha and Jesus both used their anointing from God in
small, insignificant situations as well as in matters of life and death.
Losing Your Axe Head
One everyday miracle in Elisha’s ministry was the one
we’re looking at today. Some students go down to the river Jordan, which was
surrounded by forest in those days, to fell some trees for a building project. While
chopping wood, one young guy overenthusiastically swings his axe, and to his
great dismay, the blade flies off the handle, falls into the muddy,
fast-flowing Jordan and sinks without trace.
What could possibly be more banal than losing a
household tool? What a bafflingly unspiritual thing to find in the word of God!
But God is just as concerned about our small, mundane problems
as he is about the really big, important ones. If you felt God never helped you
in the little things, would you ever trust him for the big things?
All of us know the experience of losing something. Maybe
something costly or of sentimental value, or perhaps something ordinary and replaceable.
We have all looked for something we had misplaced. You
search through every room, down the back of the sofa, in coat pockets, in the
bin…
As an unexpected bonus, you find other stuff you’d lost
and not missed but the object of your search remains stubbornly nowhere to be
found.
Someone asks you that most of annoying of all
questions; “Where did you have it last?” Like it hadn’t occurred to you to think
about that till now! Then in desperation, you start to look again in the same
places you’ve already looked, knowing it’s futile.
Here, in 2 Kings 6, it’s a big deal for the man who
loses this axe head for two reasons.
Firstly, it wasn’t his to lose. The students at this
prophetic school were probably young adults, they lived simply and didn’t have
much. The guy starts to think with dread about how he’s going to explain to whoever
lent it to him that he’s lost it – and cannot afford to replace it.
When we lived in London, Kathie had a small guitar. She
didn’t use it much, in fact she never really learned to play it and since it
was gathering dust, I lent it to a guy who told me he wanted to learn. A few
weeks later, I asked for it back and – with neither embarrassment nor apology –
he said I couldn’t have it back because he’d sold it. That was 35 years ago; I
still don’t understand how he thought that was somehow OK.
But most of us feel mortified to break the news to an
owner that we’ve damaged or lost something we’ve borrowed. Having concern for
other people’s property when we’ve been entrusted with its safe keeping is normal.
By the way, whoever borrowed my Aladdin DVD - I can’t remember who it was, it
was years ago…
The second reason this was a big deal was that there
was a shortage of iron. Iron ore was not mined at that time in Israel so this
axe head was imported and was therefore costly. You couldn’t just nip down to
the local store and get another iron tool even if you had the means to, which
this young student (as we’ve seen) did not.
As this distraught lad cries out, “Oh no! It was
borrowed” and Elisha asks him “Where did it fall?” I imagine him looking at this
muddy river and asking himself, “Now then, where did I lose it?”
It’s something we say when we’ve drifted in faith or
find our spiritual passion has waned. Where did I lose my cutting edge?
Can you look back at a time when you were really on
fire in your faith? “I used to know God’s power resting upon me. Where did that
zeal I had when first I met the Lord all go? I used to be so fired up. There
was a time when I could walk through walls for the sake of the gospel.”
I have a friend in Barbados who once said, “I want to
be so full of Christ that if a mosquito bites me it flies away singing, “oh, there
is power in the blood!” Is that what you want? Where did I lose my
cutting edge?”
Where did I wander from the Lord and lose the sense of
his presence and power? Was it when I got too busy or too weary for Life Group
or for church? Was it when I fell out with a brother or sister and didn’t make
it right? Was it when I when I knowingly sinned or compromised my faith? Was it
when I nursed a cynical attitude instead of fixing my mind on things above? “That’s
where we lose our cutting edge.”
Losing your edge spiritually almost always happens
over time. It’s rarely instantaneous. That young man will have been hacking
away for hours, slowly, millimetre by millimetre, the axe head slips down the
handle – it all happens so gradually – until you look down and… it’s gone.
Everyone can be restored, reinstated and re-equipped
for the service of God. You can recover your zeal, your passion, your first
love, your cutting edge – it starts when you go to the Lord and tell him just
where you lost it. Is that what you need to do today?
REACh Phase 3
Let me change tack now for a bit. If you’re new here, a
few years ago we started a four-phase project to bring this building up to
scratch. It’s called REACh which stands for reorder, extend and advance the
church.
Our aim is to modify this building in ways that will
maximise its potential for worship and mission for the rest of this century,
should the Lord not return beforehand.
Phase 3 is about reclaiming this underused space
behind me. We want to:
·
Create a place of prayer here at the heart of
the building
·
Install an inspirational coloured glass feature here
·
Allow our musicians, preachers and leaders to be a
little more visible by raising the floor area here
·
Install a sunken baptistery here for full-immersion
baptisms
·
Bring the Communion Table forward to about here
for greater proximity between president and people – not 20 yards away like now
·
Add new TV screens both sides of the arch for sharper resolution
·
Vastly improve lighting options and enhance sound
reproduction
·
Bring the wiring and heating up to modern standards
Due to the amazing generosity of people here, we have
about £110,000. A few weeks ago, we received quotes from companies tendering
for the phase 3 contract. When you add on architect’s fees, VAT and all the
stuff in fine print, we’re about £40,000 short. That means we’re over two
thirds there but that’s not enough which is why we have not gone ahead this
autumn.
When we discussed at PCC what we should do next, I
looked at the set Bible readings for the weeks coming up and noticed that
today’s was about having to modify the physical space of this school of
prophets in Jericho. These readings were chosen and published a good month
before any quotes came in.
Verses 1-2; “The company of the prophets said to
Elisha, ‘Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let
us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a
place there for us to meet.’”
Their building is too small. Why is it too small?
Presumably, it’s because Elisha’s ministry is bearing fruit. God is giving the
growth. More and more of these young people are training for public ministry.
It’s a good problem to have. But it’s still a problem.
They need more space to accommodate the blessing God is pouring out on them. And
they have a vision that will fix their problem. Three things, very briefly.
Firstly, they name the problem. “We have grown and
grown as God has blessed us - and now our building is inadequate. We cannot go
on like this.”
Secondly, they identify a solution. And it’s not, “We’ll
have to restrict numbers to fit the limitations of our building.” No, they say,
“Here’s what we need to do: we have to expand the space we have for worship,
for teaching, for prayer, for training.”
And thirdly, they come together and they combine their
efforts to build this annexe. No one thinks it’s someone else’s problem. They
all join forces to fix it. “Will you come with us please Elisha?” “Yeah, all
right, I’ll come.” “OK, let’s go then, let’s get this done.” So down they all
go and they feverishly begin to cut logs.
We were in a similar place about 18 years ago to where
we are now. We had to build a new centre because the old one was riddled with
asbestos. The bill came in at half a million pounds. People gave huge sums of
money, but we still had only two thirds of what we needed in the bank. How did
we get over the line?
We asked the congregation then if anyone had it in
their heart to offer an interest-free loan. People responded. The money came
in, the centre was built, and the last penny was repaid shortly after I arrived
here in 2008.
We’d like to go ahead with phase 3 in February if we
can. So, I’m asking you – if you haven’t yet given to this project and you feel
moved to do so now – to go ahead and offer a gift for God’s glory.
It may be that you have already given to REACh, or are
simply not in a position financially to do so, but you can offer an
interest-free loan. If you can do that, that would be such an encouragement and
it could make all the difference.
There are flyers like this with more information in
the narthex and in the foyer. Please speak with ... as soon as you can if you’d like to explore this further. I’m
sorry, I cannot help you train your budgie to raise the money for you!
Ending
I’d better wrap this up. Think about that poor young
man at the moment he sees his borrowed axe head sink into that river. “Oh no!” –
and his heart sinks with it. Has something gone terribly wrong for you recently?
Do you have some really bad news to break? Have you lost your cutting edge,
your passion, your fire?
There is good news today for anyone who is distraught,
who is worried, who is fearful, who is downcast, who shakes their head saying,
“Where did I lose it?”
Ask someone to pray with you today. Welcome the Holy
Spirit; the one who can make iron float, and let him do the impossible in your
life.
Let’s pray…
Sermon preached at All saints' Preston on Tees, 17 November 2019
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