Elevation with Steven Furtick - Why I Went Off

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

We all go off from time to time, but do we ever stop to ask, “Why?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. A series is called Triggered. This is week four, and I just trust that you came expecting today for God to speak to you. Let's look at Second King's Chapter 5. I'm going to give you my title right up. front. The title of this message is, why I went off. Touched somebody tell them, it's a long story. When I first decided to preach on this topic of Triggered, I figured that it would help me personally, and then we could do group therapy. But I wanted to do it from the Word of God,

because I am not a psychologist, certainly, not a neuroscientist or anything like that. I interviewed a neuroscientist a few days ago, and that is now on the Elevation Church. YouTube. So you can go and watch that. I asked her questions related to the clinical reasons that sometimes we do the things that we do and had a conversation with her about not just understanding things with cliches and jargon that we sometimes used to cover up our lazy thinking. And sometimes we spiritualize issues that are practical. And we in the same time, sometimes try to solve things practically that are spiritual. And so it was just a great talk. That's on the Elevation Church YouTube and you can check that out. But this week,

I want to share a character study on a Bible character who is so familiar to me. And by that, I mean, not only have I read this story quite a few times, but I feel like I know this guy. I feel like I met him one time in the mirror. And certain things about him really spoke to me. And so I just pray that the same will happen for you. Today, as I read this text, I want to just tell you the spoiler alert right up front. Naiman in 2nd Kings chapter 5 has leprosy and gets healed. But that's just a headline.

And so there's a lot to learn in the midst of it. And I want to read a few verses and kind of drop in and explain and move along in this narrative. The Bible says in 2nd Kings chapter 5, verse 1, now Naiman was commander of the army. of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. It's interesting the way that is phrased, because it says it wasn't by him that the victory was one, it was through him. And I think understanding that is very critical. If you were to have any hope of remaining sane in your life just to know that God's going to do it through you.

You know, half of the time that I'm messed up is because I'm trying to do it for God and he's trying to do it through me, but he can't do it through me when I'm trying to do it for him. And so I just start forcing situations and then I'm frustrated and irritated and I'm mad at everybody and everything because I'm trying to do stuff for people and for God that God would like to do through me if I would yield myself and yield my will. And this is even more interesting because Naiman is not an Israelite. He's not one of these chosen people, as they understood it at the time.

He's actually a commander of an enemy army from Aram that would consistently raid the Israelites and not only do damage to their crops, but many times take their people away in bondage at the end of one of these raids. The Bible says he was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him, he was highly recognized. regarded because of what he did. He was highly regarded because of the results that he achieved. He was highly regarded because of the outcomes that were brought about through his skill set.

And so he was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him, I'm reading it over and over on purpose because it's so profound that if we skimmed the surface, we will miss the meaning. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because he's so much he's so through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. And he was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy, an incurable skin disease,

a non-lethal form of it in this case, but a problem nonetheless. He was great, but. And depending on when you see someone in the setting that you meet them in, you might be sometimes more acquainted with their victories than their vulnerability. That's why I advocate just a little bit of time dating, just a little bit of time to see them in pressure-filled situations, just a little bit of time out of the candlelight under the harsh neon glow of some of the trials of life.

Just a piece of advice, but I can't prove it in the Bible. But I think, you know, depending on where you see someone determines what you see. And I realize this more and more now because I think people think that they should behave in front of a pastor. So when I meet people, a lot of times I realize I might not be meeting the truest version of them. Do you know what I mean? They might not always speak in Hebrew and Greek. They might sometimes speak in other tongues. But when I really want to know about somebody, especially on staff, I don't go off of my first impression because I don't really trust my first impression.

people anymore. I used to. I used to say, I have discernment. Now I realize that a lot of what I thought was discernment was really me just vibing off of somebody, or maybe they reminded me of somebody, and I didn't like some people that were really cool, consistent people, but I thought they were boring, but the reason they were boring is because they're not always having to create drama in their life. And I found out that drama works good in movies, but in real life, I don't want the ticket to that show. So now, am I preaching already? This is just the first verse. And what I learned about myself is I need to ask others. I need to get references. And at times, I'll meet somebody on our staff, and it's not a small staff, and I don't know everybody on the staff anymore. I used

to. I used to hand-select people. And, oh, man, when I hired the first staff member, I got the opportunity to spend just hours and hours getting to know him. So I knew his strengths and weaknesses this pretty well. But now I will ask someone about someone, and I ask somebody that works with them and has had to work with them in a pressure, hopefully if I can get somebody that has had to work with them when there was a deadline involved or has seen how they managed a disappointment, and how they treat others and things like that. So I will ask, how is so-and-so, let's say that I wanted to know about J-T, I would ask, I would be like, hey, how's J-T? And I would wait for the person who knows them, not the person who met them, but the person who knows them.

I would wait for them and see how long they hesitate before they answer the question. Because I want to see how long they're going to scroll through. And sometimes people will say the right thing, but it's the inflection in their voice they say it with that lets you know there's something else. I'd be like, hey, I've noticed JT on our staff. He seems like a great guy. And if the person's voice goes up when they answer, you got to pay attention to that. And so it's like, how's J.T.? And they'll go, oh, he's great.

And when they hit that falsetto, like unnatural soprano note, he's great! When they start sound like Axel Rose, you know, up there is, I'm like, but what? Everybody say, but what? Because one thing that has really helped me in ministry and in life is to realize that everybody has two eyes, two ears, one nose, one neck, most people two arms, two legs, and everybody has at least one butt. He was a great man. But it's in the Bible, people. I'm not making it out. It said that this great man, he's great.

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

preaching to people's intellect. And I messed around and pastored this church now for over 12 years, and I messed around and got a few stray grays in my beard, and I messed around and got involved in a few people's lives, and I messed around and found out that everybody has a butt, and the only way I knew it is that a few people showed me there, I know it's awkward and, you know, half the reason that sermons don't really register more than two hours sometimes is because we're all trying to cover our butt. That's the strategy most people come to church with.

CYB. Cover your butt. You cover it behind a big smile and a praise the Lord and a shandala about kosher rabiette. You know I could do that. Do you know what I'm saying? He was a great man, but he had a skin issue. And nobody can see that on the battlefield, because on the battlefield I got armor. We all have something that we used to cover a spot in our life.

Let's be honest. We're not talking about human anatomy here. You have multiple butts. You are great with people, but you don't take care of yourself. You see what I'm saying? you are really good at succeeding and really bad at being content. So I'm successful, but I'm miserable. Killing it at work.

But my 15-year-old, do I even have to finish this? I got a great marriage. But I'm not making any money right now. And I'm a good emotional provider, but financially, you know, I never learned how to do that. The thing about a really good encounter with God, you can tell when you've encountered God, it will expose your... And the way it happens, it'll often be an unlikely way. Let's talk about this in three stages.

The first is exposure. Naiman is perhaps changing one day in its own home. And verse 2 says, bands of raiders from Aram. Remember he's a captain, he's a commander of these armies from Aram. which would often go out and take different people captive. And on one particular such occasion, the raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naiman's wife. And she said to her mistress, if only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria,

he would cure him of his leprosy. And so the Bible says something really important in verse 4 because you are not blessed based on the word of God that you hear or the word of God that you understand. You are blessed and your life has changed in accordance with the word of God that you apply, obey, and act on. That's why you can hear 13 years of teaching and still be mean as the serpent in the Garden of Eden. That's why you can hear a lot of teaching about love, but if you don't make the decision to forgive, the teaching about love will be snatched up by the birds of the air and will not take root in your heart. So verse 4 becomes really important if we really want to change, if we really want to get beneath the surface and not just have a skin-deep spirituality and a skin-deep relationship with God where we can fake it for a little while and we create stages to impress people. and we have armor that we put on to go out into our job, but we come home and feel like miserable, miserable people to live with, or we feel like we don't know how to be intimate, but we know how to be impressive. And so as long as people only see us from a distance, they don't really notice what's starting to cover our skin and cover our souls and things that are just leaping out of us at all the wrong time.

Verse 4 says that Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. And this took courage and it took humility for Naiman to go to his master and show his butt, to show his vulnerability when he was a man with so many victories. I just want to stay there for a minute. Because sometimes I feel like we use prayer as an opportunity to read God our resume. And while I think it's great to celebrate all the Goliaths that we killed, sometimes the giants in us are kicking our butt and we don't say anything about it until it's too late. And I'm getting bolder every year I pastor as I commit more and more to preaching to the

part of you that you would just as soon hide and never mention. Because I think that's where real help is found. Namon went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. I mean, this is a servant girl. And Namon is what? A great man. A great man. He's a great man.

But he's got these spots that are starting to spread. And if he doesn't do something soon, there's no telling what might happen. Next. And since there are no essential oils for this particular form of leprosy at this point in antiquity, Naiman has to take the advice of a little girl. And now we have a great man going to an enemy nation in Israel because of the advice of a little girl. Are you willing to obey God even if he speaks through something that seems smaller than you? Because I notice a lot of us won't. A lot of teenagers will listen to me preach and roll their eyes at their parents. And I I don't understand that.

Because I'm not paying for your college or your braces. I'm not even buying you ramen noodles. And sometimes I've noticed that men will listen to me preach, but their wife knows them better than I do and could say some things that would actually help them. It's getting quiet. And even the women left me out on that one. It's like that. I'm going to cancel reflect if y'all don't help me with this sermon.

It's something about exposure. When a spot in your life, everybody say spot, a leprous spot, something that is consuming you that others can't see when it is exposed by an experience. That's the second stage I wanted to mention is experience because things will happen in your life and you'll come up upon situations that will expose something that you would prefer to hide and what you do next determines whether you get healed. So, Naiman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel said. Verse 5 says that the king said, by all means, go.

I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So, Naaman left, taking with him 10 talents of silver, 6,000 shekels of gold. That's like 75 pounds of each. So Naiman is going to Israel with his resources to attain healing. He's going to deal with this like he always deals with things. because he's a great man. He's a persistent man. He's a prepared man.

He's a powerful man. He's other things that start with the letter P as well. And the letter that he took to the King of Israel read, with this letter, I am sending my servant, Naiman, to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy. There's all kind of stuff wrong with that sentence. It's like the telephone game we used to play when you pass a message along to somebody,

and it starts out we're having chicken for lunch and it ends with I'm dying of cancer and you pass it down and it only takes three people. This chain of communication has polluted the message itself because, number one, the servant girl didn't say the king can heal him. It said the prophet can. And sometimes we run to the wrong people because we have our own ideas about where our help comes from. Talk to me.

And it's not the king that is going to have the faith to get him healed. It's the prophet. His name is Elisha. But the king sends the commander to the king because this is to me the most logical way to get him healed. We'll go straight to the top. But watch the king's response, and this is kind of interesting, because when the king gets a letter and Neiman shows up with all of the accumulated wealth that he believes it's going to take to get him healed,

you know how we have our own ideas about what it's going to take to make a change in our life. And I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to go back. I'm going to get my degree. I'm going to go back. I'm going to get my degree. And I'm going to eat so much kale.

It's going to be coming out of my nose. I'm not eating gluten again until 20, 24. I'm going to do hot yoga and cold yoga and powerlifting. And I'm going to do it. I'm going to read my Bible. I'm going to delete every social media off my phone. I'm never going on Facebook again. I'm going to get my face in the book.

And he shows up with all the stuff that he thinks he needs to get healed. But as soon, verse 7, as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, Am I God? I need to do what? I got this friend, y'all. His name is Alex Early. He was my college roommate, and he used to make prank phone calls in college, and they were hilarious.

Most of them were clean. We were Christians, but he had the ability to push people to their breaking point. He was a big fan of a guy at the time who did prank calls named Roy D. Mercer. And this guy was famous for taking people right to the edge, and so we would laugh. We still have these phone calls recorded, and one day I'm going to release them on SoundCloud. And these phone calls to me just bring me joy. times in my life because everybody's reaction was the same. He'd make up a million scenarios, you know. He would use this name, this alias, Duane McGraw, D-U-W-A-I-N-E, and put a thing over the

E because it's French. My name is Duane McGraw. And he'd say, my boy Bobby is throwing up all over the shag carpet because I came to your grocery store and I bought bad milk. And they would always say this, no matter what scenario he made up. One time it'd be Bobby's throwing up on the shag carpet. One time it'd be I took my trousers to your laundromat and they shrunk up and now they're coming up around my thighs and I look like a European and I, you know. But whatever scenario he would bring up, their response was generally the same. What do you want me to do about it? What thing is like, you brought me a leopard? Do you think I'm God? You ever felt like life brought you something that was above your pay grade to handle? God, they're doing that thing

again where they sit there and look at me like they always have it together and they have all the answers. Because I looked at my kids the other day and said, I am not Google, not a search engine. I do not know. Furthermore, I do not care. Get out of my face. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and replay things that I've said to my kids and feel so bad that I have to get up and baptize myself in the bathtub and get saved

again just as I am without one plea. Oh, Lamb of God! What do you want from me? I'm only a man. And the king says, I know what this is. This man, watch, can I kill and bring back to life? He's triggered because he is confronted with a situation that he is unable to transform. And whenever life presents you with something that you were not equipped for, so you got to be a dad and you didn't have a dad.

You've got to pay a bill, but God didn't give you a job. You've got to step into something that you've never seen before with the faith to believe that it's already done And it can be exasperating to the point watch this That you allow your past experience To contaminate your perspective of the present moment Remember what I said the The king of Aram binidad the second would often go and invade Jehoram's land Jehoram's king of Israel and so when he gets the letter saying hey can you have

help my guy, name it? Can you heal my guy, Naman? It triggered within him a traumatic memory of the last time he was attacked. And so he goes off, not because of the situation that he's experiencing, but because of past experiences. Do you ever wonder why you go off and it's inexplicable? Like, the level of the offense does not match the level of the outrage. And you wonder why? What was that all about? Have you ever with the elevation church sticker on your car said some words that weren't bless the Lord, oh my soul? And wonder, you know how y'all think Holly is so sweet?

One time in college, she was singing a worship song in her Ford contour. And the song said, I was there. I was in the passenger seat. The song said, You are so patient with me, Lord. She didn't get to Lord before she was screaming at the Dodge Ram that pulled out in front of her. And she's loud. Holly is light. When she's up here at Reflect, she'll be smiling, but I'm going to tell you something about Holly Ferdie.

What? What was that all about? Where did that voice come from? And then the devil starts telling you, oh, we're. you know you're not a real Christian you're hypocrite some of y'all are going to lose it before the day is over because of your fantasy football lineup no not because of anything significant to anything having to do with real life in any way because of other men that have absolutely no effect on you other than a hundred dollars at the end of the season and you wonder why did i go off like that it's understandable because we

in not only the age of anxiety, but have you noticed we live in the age of outrage, too? How trendy it is now to just get mad about anything that you don't like the first time you hear it? Well, y'all aren't going to like this part of the sermon. I don't think too much, but... Can I be honest with you? I don't really care what shoes you wore to church today. Maybe my perspective is different, but I spend too much time seeing people's butts to care about what you have on your feet today. So I don't have time when teen suicide is in an all-time high to check and see if you're wearing Adidas or Nike.

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

You're not fighting me over jeans. One woman told me, until you shave your beard, I can't watch you anymore. This is psychotic. She said, I'm praying for you. I want to say, I'm praying for you. I'm going to fast 40 days. If you're that messed up, I don't know why I went off. I think, like, for me, this is just what I'm working through.

And so this makes you think I'm crazy or right. But I'm going through this season of my life where I don't want to keep. blaming my environment or consulting things that happened in my life because the cross of Jesus Christ gives me a new reality. And it really changes everything in the sense that all of my life has to be viewed through that lens of what he did for me and who he says I am. If I'm not careful, I'll be like the king who when confronted with an impossible situation that reminded him of a past hurt, he inflicted the opportunity of his present moment with the pain of his past. Did you see what I'm saying? He projected, see, every time he dealt with Aram, it was an attack.

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

I'm a perfectionist. And so sometimes when things aren't just like I want them to be. Or here's what really happens. happens with my expectation. Put that word up there. Because when I expect it to be one way and it's the other, like when I went off on my dad a few years ago, it was because I rented him a house. I moved him and my mom to Charlotte. I, well, I didn't. I didn't move him. I hired movers, and then they got fired because my dad was crazy. It was so funny. It really wasn't funny. It's funny. It's Now. Can we laugh about it?

Ha ha ha ha ha. Okay. But the day I went to see him and the story has a happy end and then we you know ended up being together and it was good and all that. But in between, remember Naiman gets healed at the end of this story, but there's some stuff in the middle that I want to talk to you about because in the middle of that that whole messy situation with my dad, I remember going over to check on him one day and I was so proud of the house that Holly had found that we rented for them and my mom liked it and she was happy and my dad, the first thing he said, I walked through the door, he said, this is a That ain't going to work, Bo.

And I know honor your father and mother in the Lord. I know that Bible verse. I promise you, I know it. I even know that honor is Kavad in Hebrew, and it can also be translated, glory and wait. But the only thing I wanted in that moment, I'm going to just be honest with you. I don't like to be disrespected. And it felt disrespectful to me. And so I went off.

And it really wasn't what he said, because really what he wanted was just a few small tweaks. I couldn't hear that anymore, you know? Because my expectation was that he was going to meet me at the door and give me a big old hug and say, my son, and whom I am well pleased, and the dove would descend. But he didn't read my script. What do when people don't read your script? Meet your expectation. Here's where the story gets good, because I want you to notice.

that the same event that triggered the king and made him go into fear mode, which is usually what's happening when we're lashing out or withdrawing because not everybody fights outwardly. Some of us bottle it up inwardly, and then we never go off. One day we just tap out. And you wonder how did they drop like that? Well, it's usually a series of unmet expectations. In this case, the King of Israel, Jehoash, he's traumatized to the point that he's He thinks that everything is a fight. It says it in the text. See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me. That's verse 7

See how they're looking at me. See they didn't even wave at me See I told this is this is a southern thing you're supposed to wave at people when you drive by them The town I grew up in you waved at everybody and the first time that we were driving through the neighborhood and Holly didn't wave at people I corrected her I was like what is wrong with you? She's not from my She's from Miami. And it's a different culture. It's an inferior culture of rudeness. And so, any time that you've been used to in your life, you've been used to fighting,

if life has really been a fight for you, if you've had to fight for your mental health or you've had to fight for your emotional health or if you've had to fight through issues of bitterness and forgiveness because of abuse, if you've had to fight for your own and fight to make it or if you had to fight your own family, when you've had to fight your own family, when you've had to fight fight over and over again, everything looks like a fight. Everything looks like a threat. Everything sounds like an insult. Every time somebody doesn't check on you, it feels like abandonment. It's the trauma that's being triggered. But what's encouraging to me, what I got up here to tell you about today, because this is pretty depressing so far, but the same stimulus that triggered

fear in the king's heart triggered faith in Elishes. The Bible says in verse 8, when Elisha, the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his ropes, he sent him this message. Now watch this. The king, the king said, who do you think I am? You think I can, you think I'm a healer? Elisha said, I know God is a healer. So watch this. Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel. This man said, where you see Where you see opposition, I see opportunity. And the same thing that triggered you to tear your robes and freak out and fall down in fear triggered Elisha to rise up in faith.

Elisha said, send him to me because the word of God is with me. Now, Elisha has an experience to build this expectation on. Elisha has healed the waters at Jericho. Elisha has multiplied the widow's oil. Elisha has spoken to barren wounds, and when that child died, spoke life and it resurrected from the dead. Elisha has dug ditches in dry valleys and seen God bring water from the direction of Edom. Elisha has seen God do things that only God can do. And so when an impossible situation that is beyond him shows up, Elisha knows what to do.

Bring him here to me. I got something for Naman. I heal lepers for breakfast. Bring him to me, and he will know not how great I am, but how great he will know. great God is. And so watch verse 9. I love this story. Namen went with his horses and chariots and his expectations and his leprosy and his greatness and his butt. And he brought it all because he wanted to be healed. I know you want to be healed of something today even though you've been covering it up. And I know you use your charisma to cover your cracks.

and I know that nobody knows how dark the thoughts can really get for you sometime, but I've been doing this too long to sit there and preach to your armor. Because a business leader walked up to me and told me that he had to kick his teenager out of his house. He said, we almost got in a fist fight. He said, I swung at him and missed. I realized this has gone way too far. And the man had on khakis while he was telling me. Pleaded cackies, double pleaded cackies, no tattoos, but didn't look like the kind of guy that would swing on his kid, but I don't even really think you've seen your own butt until you've been through certain things.

And then the weird thing is we all have short-term memory loss. If we have one devotion and read our Bible one morning, now we start judging other people when they flip out. And so, Neiman is on the verge of something. Now, they travel a long way to get here. It's like a 90-mile trip. And he's got a big crew with him, and he needs a miracle. And we admire him because he went. I do at least. I think to even get to this point takes faith.

And maybe one of the reasons I don't put a lot of condemnation, or I try not to, and my preaching is because I'm pretty proud of you who decided to show up anyway. I know how many things could have kept you from being here, and I'm pretty proud that you made the decision to bring your butt to church. Give yourself a hand for bringing your butt to church. And if you're watching online, you don't get to clap. So, Amen went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. And Elishess and a messenger. Oh, This is not going to go well because Naman is a great man and when a great man comes to your doorstep you give him a great greeting and you welcome him by name man I'm a retired this is my last sermon y'all enjoy he sent a messenger to say to him go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan in the what in the Jordan

you mean that muddy little excuse for a river that y'all like to celebrate so much in this nation of is Israel, which I don't even like anyway, and he didn't even come to the door and Naaman went off. No, he literally went off. Not in the figurative sense. He literally decided, I would rather go home with my leprosy. I'd rather go home and my arm fall off. I would rather die than be disrespectful like this.

And when he heard this ridiculous command, he says something very important. And the instruction, it was a simple instruction. It was a stupid instruction. It didn't make much sense, just like it doesn't make much sense when God tells you to forgive somebody so that you can be forgiven. And you want to say, well, God, if they ask for it, I'll give it. And God says to you, I'm not talking about what they deserve. I'm talking about your deliverance. I'm talking about your clean heart.

I'm talking about your clear mind. So if you want to get cleansed, I need you to do something that makes no sense because there is no cure for leprosy. It can't be cured. It's got to be cleansed. And it can only be cleansed if you obey this command. And verse 11 starts so sad. But there it is again. I'm going to preach a whole series one day on the butts of the Bible.

But Naman, stand in front of miracle. I mean, the guys around him are like, okay. That's all we got to do. You can keep the 75 pounds of silver and the 75 pounds of gold, and you can pass out the 10 sets of clothing, and we could go home. We could start back home. That's easy. Somebody start running the water. Namon, you want it hot, you want it extra hot, naming you want a rubber ducky, get the towel ready.

You want some sunscreen. But it's a funny thing about pride. It's a funny thing about the small things. It's a funny thing about something that seems beneath you. Remember, the king was triggered because of something that seemed beyond him. Am I God? And Naiman is triggered because of something that seems beneath me. You want me to do...

What? Uh-uh. Uh-uh. I'm not doing that. Uh-uh. Nope. See, because when your heart is filled with pride, you try to write your own prescriptions. This is how I want God to bless me. This is how I want God to come through. This is how I want God to heal me. This is how I want him to respond. This is the opportunity I want. This is how I pray. So, Naman went away angry and said, this is two very dangerous words, by the way. This is maybe the two most dangerous words for you to interpret your life through. I thought. I thought. Maybe those.

two words are the two words that are standing between me and peace today. I thought. I thought my dad was going to be grateful for the house. Now he's telling me about getting somebody over here to fix the, huh? I thought, I thought you'd say thank you. I thought you'd grow up and play piano. I put you in lessons. I thought. I thought he would surely come out of. out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord is God. See, Namon had it all planned out because that's what great men do. Great men make great plans. And when those plans don't go the way that they were supposed to go, great men go off.

Great women go off. Because I had this family picture and here's where you were supposed to stand and here's where you were supposed to smile and here's where you were supposed to. And here's where you were. I thought. Could those two words be standing between you and healing today? I thought. God says my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways. But Naman went away angry and said, I thought that I thought he'd come out to me. I thought he would, I thought he would, See, because I had this worked out. He comes to me, and then I give him the gifts, and I get the healing.

This is how this works. Not this time, Neiman. Not this time. This transformation is not going to happen on your terms. God's not going to do it like you expect it. He's not going to be held hostage to what you thought. So I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord is God. and wave his hand.

See, he's supposed to wave. He's supposed to wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. He doesn't like the place God told him to get healed. Are not Abina and far par of the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? I didn't have to come here for this. Couldn't I washing them and be cleansed? So he turned and went off in a rage. and one of his servants.

This guy needs a raise, by the way. Went to him. Notice how beautiful the story is told. It's chronicled like this. Naiman went to his master and said, I need permission to go to Israel. So he went to the king, and the king said, I can't do it. Then he went to Elisha with his chariots and horses.

And now Neiman went off in a rage, and he's about to miss the opportunity to be healed because he is going off. Here's why he went off because he didn't go in. He went off because he made his decision about what he thought about it, but he didn't go in. You know, I've noticed something about myself. When I don't go into the presence of God, when I don't go in and ask God, what are you doing in this situation? When I don't go into myself and seek for the Spirit of God to lead me, I start going off. And then I spend the next week fixing stuff that if I would have taken one moment and worshipped,

If I would have taken one moment and sought God's wisdom, if I would have taken one moment and said, you know what, I don't want to fight about this. I don't want to be right. I want to be healed. I don't want to prove my own power. I want to receive your power, God. And what happens next is really beautiful because some of you are going to do it today. Stand with me.

The servant came to Neiman and said something that I think is very prophetic and I hope you can hear it on the level which it is intended. The servant chased Neiman down. Naman is on his way back to Damascus. He's going to walk 90 miles back home with leprosy still on his skin because of something that seemed too small and insignificant for a great man like him to do. He's going to spend the rest of his life with this disease because he didn't want to do what he was told to do. And the servant said,

Hey man, sir. Naman, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? Well, of course I would, because I'm a great man. Well, if you're a great man, how much more should you be able to do a small thing? So when he tells you, wash and be cleansed, why not give it a try? You've been fighting so hard justifying your side of the story and justifying yourself and why it's all right and why it's okay. But hey man, if we already came 90 miles, if we already came this far and that prophet is telling you that if you dip in the Jordan you can be cleansed, isn't it worth a try? You already went to your master and got the letter. You already went with your horses and chariots.

Now you're going off in a rage, but verse 14 is the happy ending. And I believe it's a new beginning for many of us today. The Bible says, so he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan. I'm glad after Naiman went off, he went in. And he went in not just once, not just twice, not just three times, not just four times, not just five times, not just six times, but all seven. Often when you're in the process of obeying God, you see no immediate effects of change. It's not like your skin gets healed a little bit with every dip.

You've got to have the faith to go through the motions. Even when you see no evidence, who am I talking to? You've got to have the faith to go down and pray again, to lift. up your hands and worship and say, I don't feel a thing right now, but God is with me and God is for me and who can be against me? And I will not fear, though a host of enemies and camps about me, I will not be afraid. The Lord is my helper. I lift my eyes to the hills. From the Lord, by your head and close your eyes for a moment. I believe this is a significant word for someone in the room who is about to go off.

Maybe you've been going off. Maybe you already went off. I don't just mean temper tantrums, breaking stuff, throwing pictures around the room. I mean that there is something that God has given you to do in your life that seems so ridiculous that you like Neiman are at the point of frustration. I want to speak a word over your life today. That in this moment, the only way to receive healing is through your surrender. As long as you want to stay in control of those situations, they will continue to consume you.

And that's what the presence of God is for. This is the Jordan River that you can dip in seven times. The Bible says that when he did it, his flesh was restored like a young boy. Isn't that amazing that the great man became like a young boy? And he was healed. And isn't it interesting that God's greatest goal in name is? His life was not to heal his skin, but to produce faith in his heart. Lift your hands in this moment.

Father, I thank you for every person, and I thank you for every problem. I thank you for the great things, and I thank you for the butt. Somebody in this room has an addiction. Somebody in this room has an illness. Somebody in this room has a heavy depression, and they see no signs of change. And they have really, really, really attractive armor. And so nobody can see but you what they're fighting with on the inside. And they keep pushing people away that you send to help them.

In this moment, God, may this be the first dip in the process of their deliverance. I thank you for the cross of Jesus Christ that we stand under and look to today. for our healing and forgiveness and redemption has already been accomplished. I thank you that we are not healed, cleansed, or cured by achieving but by receiving. Stretch your hands high as you can stretch them. We receive your grace in this moment, your mercy in this moment, healing waters, wash over our soul. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry.

is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

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