Beat the crisis!

Second Kings chapter 7: "Then Elisha said: Hear the Word of the Lord, thus said the Lord: Tomorrow at this time the seah of fine flour will be worth a cycle, and two seahs of barley a cycle at the gate of Samaria. And a prince on whose arm the king was leaning, the man of God answered and said: Could this be so? And he said: behold, you will see it with your eyes, but you will not eat of it."

"There were at the entrance of the gate four lepers, leper men, who said to each other: why are we staying here until we die? If we try to enter the city, because of the famine that is in the city, we will die in her, and if we stay here we will also die. So let's go now and go to the camp of the Syrians. If they give us life we will live, if they give us death we will die."

"So they got up at nightfall to go to the Syrian camp, and when they arrived at the Syrian camp there was no one there" say with me: no one, hallelujah. Because? "For the LORD had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sounds of chariots, the sounds of horses, and the sounds of a great army, and they said to one another, Behold, the king of Israel has hired the kings of Israel against us. the Aetheans, and the kings of the Egyptians to come against us, and so they arose, and fled in the evening" say with me: in the evening. Later you will understand why I am asking you to repeat these words.

"And they left their tents, their horses, their asses, and the camp as it was, and had fled for their lives." When the lepers arrived at the entrance of the camp, they entered the tent, ate, drank, took from there gold, silver, and went back into another tent, and there they also took, and went, and hid it.

"They said to each other: today is a day of good news and we are silent, and if we wait until nightfall our wickedness will catch up with us, let's go now; let us go in and tell the news in the king's house; so they came and shouted to the guards at the gate of the city, and declared, saying: We went to the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there." No men, but tethered horses, tethered donkeys, and the camp intact.

"The gatekeepers shouted and announced it inside the king's palace, and the king got up at night, and said to his servants: I will declare to you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry and have come out of the tents , and they have hidden in the field saying: When they have left the city we will take them alive and enter the city.Then answered one of the servants and said: Take now five of the horses that are left in the city, because those who remain here will also perish like all the multitude of Israel that perished; let us send and see what there is."

"So they took two chariot horses and the king sent to the camp of the Syrians saying, Go and see. And they went and followed them as far as the Jordan, and behold, the whole road was full of clothing and articles that the Syrians they had thrown out in haste, and the messengers returned and reported it to the king." Word of Jehovah, amen? Glory to God.

It was around the year 850 B.C. when Samaria was experiencing tremendous famine, and besides the city was under siege, there was a Syrian government siege that was waiting around to attack. The other situation was that the king named Joram was far from the ways of the Lord, he was far from the concepts and principles of the Word of God; the nation was destroyed. There was terror, there was hunger, there was nudity, there were overwhelming situations and not very different from the situations we see today in many nations and in many countries, in many neighborhoods that we know in many countries. In my nation, in our nations, we know suburbs that experience overwhelming situations very similar to the situation that Samaria lived in the days of Joram.

Samaria was experiencing one of the most difficult and critical moments in its history, in addition to the fact that its enemies were all around it. And as we unfold this sermon I want us to think about thousands and thousands of people that we know who are suffering, people that we know and people that we barely know from the news that are suffering some kind of suffering. Perhaps right here, in this house, this afternoon there are people sitting, right there close to you who suffer from suffering. I had the pleasure today of meeting Brother Euclid who is sitting here. Euclides is from Cape Verde. I was in Cape Verde many times, a country where it stopped raining for many years, for many years, and in which seventeen and eighteen year olds did not know what rain was, for many years.

Israel's overwhelming situation encompasses at least a few factors that I want to highlight in this introduction. First in chapter 6 if you turn the page a little bit, in chapter 6 in verse 25, it shows the first sign in verse 25. It says, "And there was a great famine in Samaria in consequence of the siege, so that the head of a donkey was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a quarter of pigeon dung for five pieces of silver." Do you understand what is happening here? pigeon dung was sold at the price of caviar, at the price of sancocho. We all know that language right? at the price of arepas, at the price of pupusas. Oh my God, we're already hungry, right? Hallelujah, how do those people know how to cook.

At the price of a Brazilian churrasco. Feijoada right? Pastor, now you know the thing right? pigeon dung sold for the price of gold. The Word of God says that the head of a donkey was sold for eighty pieces of silver, that is, there were no more cavalry, there were no more animals. According to the story, there were few animals left because the horses had already been eaten.

The second situation that happened in Samaria, also reflected in chapter 6, was the tragic situation of the absolute misery of the nation documented by the episode of two mothers in verse 26, "And the king of Israel passing through the wall, a woman shouted at him. and he said: save my king, and he said: if Jehovah does not save you, from where can I save you, from the barn or from the wine press? She said, "Bring your son here and let's eat him today, and tomorrow we'll eat yours. So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to him: Give your son here and let's eat him, but she has hidden her son." Do you understand what is happening here? the situation was so serious, so overwhelming that two women agreed to eat their own children.

The third item of the tragedy, the third item of the tragedy appears in verses 27 to 30 that describes the internal defeat and the complete decadence of the leader of the nation: "When the king heard the words of that woman, he tore his clothes and passed thus by the wall, and the people saw the cilicio that he wore inside over his body. And he said: God do so to me and more to me if the head of Elisha, son of Shaphat, remains on him today."

The king thought that the whole situation was due to Elisha. The man was decadent, there was a complete failure in the government. Beloved, and many times when we look at crises, when we look at calamities, the first thing we think of is that there is a failure in the government and the political system of the nation. We first accuse the leader of the nation. Second, we blame the government system. Thirdly, we begin to think that there is no complete agenda that is honest for all generations, but we never think that we, as the Church of Jesus, have a responsibility to rise up with power and authority to make a difference in this world.

Situations such as: high cost of living, hunger, dissolutions, decline of leadership, reveal absolute pessimism, bitterness, pain, lack of possible options, all this leads the king to say: if Jehovah does not save you, where can I save you? If God is not with you, what should I do? said the king.

Another aspect was that the situation of Elisha, the prophet, the man of God, was not so good in the eyes of the leadership and here we enter the sermon. Because God always, throughout history, God always looked for a man, a woman, and raised them up with power and authority. This man today, this woman today can be you, it can be me, it can be us to do what God has for us to do.

I want to highlight some lessons that I was able to draw from this precious passage. We could preach a sermon on each verse because it is a very rich passage, but I want to highlight some points. In times of crisis, of calamities, of difficulties, of pain, God needs, requires that we be believers of determination. God doesn't need men and women sitting around waiting for something to happen, we have to be determined.

Elisha believed that God could do what would be impossible in human eyes, impossible, absolute hunger, absolute misery, there was no hope, there were no more horses to eat. And Elisha prophesies and from there the blessing begins. "Then Elisha said" verse 1 of chapter 7: "Hear the Word of the Lord:" Whose word? do not go out there saying a word that is not from God, do not prophesy what does not come from the Lord, do not say what God did not tell you. Do not profess what you were not given authority to profess, if God gives the Word speak the Word of Jehovah.

"And Elisha said: Hear the Word of the Lord: Tomorrow at this time" not later, not earlier "tomorrow at this time the seah of fine flour will be worth one cycle and two seahs of barley one cycle at the gate of Samaria." Elisha said: tomorrow we are going to sell flour, barley here, at the price of bananas, right? Can I say banana, banana? at the price of bananas in Brazil. Tomorrow it will be worth almost nothing. Tomorrow people are going to buy flour, barley at a very cheap price at the gate of Samaria. And the Word says that there was a king there, a prince that the king had his arm resting on him, kings are very comfortable. And the prince turns to Elisha and says: is it possible? Is it possible for God to do something tremendous like that?

Are you one of those who say: is it possible? Is it possible for God to heal a sick person? Is it possible for God to raise someone who died? Is it possible for God to heal someone of cancer? healed my wife. Is it possible for God to make a blind man see? I was blind You tell me amen, I was really blind and God healed me. Worship the one who lives.

It's possible? it's possible. Elisha said: "Behold, you will see it but you will not eat" you will not eat. If you doubt the power of the Lord, of what God can do in this generation, you will see God's operation and miracle in many, but if you doubt, you will not eat, you will watch.

To live in abundance, it is enough to be only human, right? It is easy to live in abundance when we have a job, food at home every day, you get up, breakfast: ready, right? every day ready at the table, employment, work, his check every week arrives in his account, he is not hungry. If you get hungry, you go somewhere and eat something, right? and can pay, it's easy to live like this.

But in order to live in days of calamity or face crisis situations, we need to be men and women capable of believing in miracles, capable of believing in the supernatural and walking in a dimension other than the one the world presents to us: the dimension of God. . Elisha had this vision. He valued everything that was worthless, everything that was worthless.

And the Word of God says that Elisha was not afraid to tell the prince: you are not going to eat, because at the end of the passage, do you know what happens? when the people experience prosperity, when the people bring the spoils of war, the Bible says that this prince was at the gate, the people came with all force and ran over him at the gate, and he died, did not eat, according to the Word of Jehovah did not eat.

Number two: in times of crisis, action becomes the visible manifestation of our faith. We are not just sitting brothers, you are comfortable sitting right? listen to the Word, come on Sundays, sit there, praise. You don't know how much it costs to have a praise team, you don't know. You don't know the headaches that a Pastor has, the worship leader and the musicians, all of them, right? (laughs). But to sit here and enjoy everything is wonderful.

When I read this passage and see those lepers getting up, and the Bible says that there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate, verse 3, and at that time leprosy was a tremendous disease, and there was a place called a leper colony where they put the lepers, there separated from society, and they were at the entrance of the door; people did not approach, they did not approach a leper because it was scary to get sick. The lepers looked at each other and said: things here are dark. There are no more doves, there is nothing. If we stay here we will die. If we enter the camp of the Syrians and they let us live, we will live, if they kill us, we will die.

Brothers: when I read that passage I see that God has called men and women without fear, who are not afraid of death, who do not have their own life as something special other than dying in Christ Jesus, they are already dead; They no longer belong to this world, to this life, you are dead, it doesn't offend you anymore. Offenses do not depress him. "Oh, I'm depressed, Pastor, they spoke ill of me" that they shouldn't speak, because if they speak ill of me, it doesn't make me depressed, right? If they speak ill of me, it does nothing to me. Depression, it doesn't do anything to me, amen?

But some factors in the life of lepers that I want to bring up this afternoon, the heroes of that passage, are not capable men, they are not learned men, they are not men with a good theology, they are not men with a good ability to speak in public, to lecture a subject at a university; They are talking about four lepers, sick men, men who could hardly walk because the leprosy had eaten their flesh. But in this case he's talking about four sick men, four men in a difficult situation.

But the Bible says my brothers that they got up, verse 5, "So they got up in the evening" at what time? "to go to the camp of the Syrians. And coming to the entrance of the camp of the Syrians, there was no one there." Now look with me at what happened here in verse 7: "And so they arose and fled" at what time? what happened here? The four lepers walking to the camp and one looked at the other and said: do you know if we are going to live? I don't know right? but they are dying. I can't stand it but I get up, I no longer have human power but I get up in the Power of God. We sang today this morning: "I raise my hands even though I have no strength" those lepers said: I raise my body because I am going to win, I get up and walk, I go, nothing prevents me, I have a purpose, I have a purpose in me life.

If you don't have a purpose you are going to stop all the time, but if there is a purpose in your life you are going to walk on God's purpose and on the Word that God has for your life. And there was a wonderful simultaneous action in that passage: the lepers rise up; at the same time, the Syrians rise up. "And so they arose, and fled at nightfall forsaking their tents, and their horses, and had fled for their lives."

Now I want you to look at verse 6: "Because the Lord had caused the noise of chariots to be heard in the camp of the Syrians" can you imagine? four lepers walking and they hear that they are carts and horses, they are not horses! they are four lepers full of expectation! They are four men that leprosy ate their flesh but did not eat their dreams!

And the Word of God says that the Syrians said to each other: Behold, King Joram is setting up an ambush against us. King Joram. Look what they did. This passage also teaches us that to overcome crises, problems, God is looking for men and women, people who believe that action is the most dignified way to face life. The lepers said to each other: let's get out of here, come on, let's act. We are not going to accommodate ourselves anymore. How many people do you know, I know, who do not know Jesus? there are many, right?

There was a simultaneous action. The weak got up in faith and hope in the Name of the Lord, in the name of God and of life, they got up at nightfall, God stood up before them. The Word of God is fulfilled in First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 which says: "My grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in weakness." God uses the weak and the skinny. First Corinthians chapter 1 from verse 28 says the Word of God: "And the vile of this world, and the despised God chose, and what is not to undo what is, so that no one can boast in his presence. Through Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has been made unto us by God wisdom, justification, and redemption so that, as it is written, he who boasts may glory in the Lord." Praise the one who lives, hallelujah.

The simultaneous action occurred in three aspects: the lepers rise up, the Syrians rise up to flee, why? because God rose up in his favor. When you get up; Oh Pastor, I can't! you can. I met a sister in Brazil that I went to visit her at a certain time and she was sick, she was in bed and she said: I can't, get up in the Name of Jesus! I can't. And I challenged her and said: look sister, when you go to the doctor, you go to the doctor, he gives you a prescription with medicine and what you have to do is clear, take it. I can give you a pastoral recipe, okay?

Oh okay Pastor. And I wrote on a piece of paper: now that he was going to get up in the morning, make breakfast at home, clean the house, right? But in the recipe he had to go out every day and he had to share with his neighbors for thirty minutes. He told me: Pastor is too much. I called her during the day, the next day to find out how the procedure was, right? He told me: I'm trying, I'm doing. I already read the Bible today, I already cleaned the house and everything, and later at night he calls me to tell me about his experience sharing Jesus with his neighbors.

The next day he told me: Pastor, I can't stand staying at home, I want to share that, I want to talk about Jesus. Do you know what happened? I was healed. He had the disease of comfort, waiting. Oh, I want Pastor Roberto to pray for me; glory to God, seek the Lord. Fast, have times with God, times alone with the Lord, precious times, just you and God. Allow God to speak to you, allow God to minister to your heart when you are not here in the community.

God gets up and reminds me of the song of Mary in Saint Luke chapter 1, from verse 46 it says: "Then Mary said: The Lord magnifies my soul. My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, because he has looked at the lowliness of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for he has done great things, the mighty saint is his name, and his mercy is from generation to generation to those who fear him. And his prowess, with his His arm scattered the proud, in the thought of their hearts, He removed the mighty from their thrones and exalted the humble, He filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty, He helped Israel, his servant, remembering mercy. "

Reading the song of Mary I think of the third point of this message. I think that the third point of the message, the third way for us to overcome the crisis is through the exercise of generosity. God gave you to share.

Let's imagine you and me, give me your sister name, Evelicia. Let's imagine that I give Evelicia a gift, and I give her $500, what do you think? it's good isn't it? $500, wonderful isn't it? Evelicia is going to go and tell some brothers: look, the Pastor gave me 500 dollars, and she is going to count to two or three because 500 dollars is 500 dollars. But let's imagine that I give Evelicia $10,000. Uh holy right? Evelicia is not only going to count to three or four, she is going to call Florida (laughs) and she is going to call Santo Domingo and she is going to say: look, a rich Pastor here gave me $10,000.

But let's imagine that I am a man of silver, hallelujah, and I decide to give Evelicia a million dollars, wow. How many people do you think can find out? Do you think that Evelicia will tell more people about the gift of $500, $10,000 or $1,000,000? Well, the $1,000,000 lot of people are going to find out because she's going to buy a big car. Do you understand the difference when the gift is important? according to the value of the present, of the gift we share to the people.

And sometimes I get the impression that many Christians receive a gift and it has no value to them. They receive healing, they receive salvation and they shut up, and they become secret agents of the Gospel, nobody knows, nobody knows, secretly, hidden. What is the correct attitude for those who benefit from the Lord's favor?

What did the lepers do? We are going to learn with the lepers. They said, verse 9: "Then they said to each other: we are not doing well, today is a day of good news." Hallelujah. The day the Lord showed himself to you, the day favor came into your life is the day of good news. Healing day is the day of good news. The day of salvation is the day of good news.

And what did the lepers say? "If we wait until dawn, if we wait until tomorrow to share this blessing that we have here, our evil will catch up with us." God have mercy. I do not want my evil to reach me because I do not share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

Verse 8 says that we are to possess what God gives us. The lepers entered the store and began to take possession: look at the clothes here cool, look at the gold and silver, I imagine they had nothing, now they have everything. They had no food, now they have food, and they left everything because they fled in haste, says the Word of the Lord. I possess today what God has available for my life. Today, don't wait for tomorrow, today, the promise is for today. Refuse to live in a spiritual comfort zone. I don't want to, it's not for me Lord, I know that You have more for me and I'm going to live the life that You want. Get up today and start marching towards the Syrian camp because God has the best for your life.

You look at the Syrian camp and say: Lord, I can't. I told a brother who is here today, I am not going to say his name for ethical reasons, I told him this week and I told him twice: you brother are experiencing a crisis situation, a difficult situation. You see a wall, it is very high, right? oh yes Pastor is very high; you will pass Praise the one who lives. Then you will look back and you will realize that there was a brick, it was not a wall. It was a brick.

The attitude of sharing prosperity evaluates our responsibility, that is, light equals responsibility. The more light, I am more responsible. If there is no light I have no responsibility. Is there light in your life? amen? Is there light in your life? Hallelujah. We are responsible, don't wait until dawn. Get up today in the Power of God, get up today.

To an American philosopher from New York, his name is William James, he said that the greatest utility in our life is to use it for something that lasts longer than it, do you understand? in the lives of others, in eternity, what is eternal. For the Christian, what you think is easier: if I sit here quietly, the Pastor preaches, I am blessed, he puts his hands on me, I am healed, right? but through those lepers I learn brothers, that only men and women who have died to themselves are capable of getting up in an attitude of faith and saying: I am going. I do not have my life as more precious but I go, I get up in the Power of God.

Answer tomorrow, an experience I had with a friend of mine, Pastor Tom de Jesús, we were missionaries together in northern Brazil for a few years. He came here to visit me and we went out together, we ate, our ministry is to impact the Church with this vision that you are responsible for the person next to you. It's his responsability.

His message is this: God did not put you in this university to study, it is to preach; by the way: study. God did not put you in this factory, in this company to earn money, buy new cars, new houses, get rich, God put you to be light, and by the way you earn money, make your market. And I went to eat at a cafeteria with Pastor Tom and my wife, and there was his wife and his son. And we were there in line to order the food, and the boy that was at the register, the cashier that was taking the orders was not yet known to us, and Pastor Tom was here behind me and the boy turned, and he looked his name, he had a name here and he said: hey so-and-so. The boy looked like: where did you know me from, right?

I wanna tell you something. You are God's idea. Yeah, you're an idea of God. The boy said: thank you, thank you. Put that message in your heart: God thought of you, you are an idea of God, and people looked in line there, right? wow, what is that man over there yelling in that row? and I missionary there, standing. And we went to sit there to eat something, and Pastor Tom said something shocking to me, he said: Nick, those few words are like a bucket of cold water in the heart of that boy, and today he is going to be converted.

We hadn't finished eating, the boy came with a gift box with biscuits, and the Pastor looked at me and said: woohoo! and he stood up and said: thank you so much, he stood next to the boy and said: I told you that you are an idea of God, that God thought of you when he was dying on the cross. And we all stay like this: wow. He says: I love you Jesus, and that boy standing there in the middle of the store gave his life to Jesus. We prayed for him and the Pastor looked at me and said, Nick, it's always like that. It's always like that, it's that simple. The world needs, the world is hungry, and you and I have the bread the world needs (applause).

As simple as that. How many of us are going to get up today? in the Power of the Lord, with all your weaknesses, with all the diseases that you think you cannot overcome, you can, you can. Let me tell you: that cancer that torments you is not greater than Jesus. And you who are listening to me now at home on the Internet, sitting at home, let me tell you: that disease that torments you is smaller than my Lord who died on the cross. Praise the one who lives forever.