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True Contentment: In God’s Higher Way
Pastor Rollan Fisher
We’re speaking about this today because this concept is the foundation of our interrelating with God.
Focus: True Contentment Comes When We Acknowledge God’s Higher Way that Leads to Healing
When we say this, you may or may not think of yourself as someone in need of healing.
Yet when we’re speaking about healing, we’re talking about not only physical relief, but the restoration that Jesus brings to all areas of our lives that are broken as a result of sin.
This includes healing of the damage that comes to our psyches - our minds and our emotions, as well as to our relationships and to our bodies.
Most importantly, Jesus brings an eternal healing to our souls.
Our Need for Healing
The Challenges to Healing
Christ our Healer
Our Need for Healing
True contentment flows when we acknowledge our need for healing.
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:1-14
You can have great success in life and still be desperately in need of healing.
This was Naaman’s story.
Naaman was a great and mighty man of valor.
As commander of the army of the king of Syria, Naaman was in high favor because God himself had given Naaman victories in his battles.
Yet Naaman did not know or serve the Lord.
God allows victories, even for those who don’t acknowledge him, for his overarching plans throughout history.
Yet God has times of reckoning to bring even the great into moments of repentance and faith.
Despite all of his great success, Naaman’s leprosy was part of his moment of reckoning with the Lord.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines leprosy for us as:
a chronic infectious disease caused by a mycobacterium (Mycobacterium leprae) affecting especially the skin and peripheral nerves and characterized by the formation of nodules or macules that enlarge and spread accompanied by loss of sensation with eventual paralysis, wasting of muscle, and production of deformities
— called also Hansen's disease
There is a spiritual parallel.
Through our separation from God, our consciences become seared and deadened by repetitive wrongdoing so that we no longer have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
You see it in our daily interactions with one another.
For example, the very basis of international law and crimes against humanity has its foundations in the value of all human life, which itself is a derivative of the Judeo-Christian ethic that all humanity is made in the image of God.
Neither scientific materialism nor liberal humanism can be credited as the pedigree of this thought.
It has a theological history.
When divorced from the source of this Imago Dei reality, we find that situations like the Ahmaud Arbery shooting can take place in a nation like ours.
Undercurrents of discrimination, bigotry and racial profiling are a part of the sickness ingrained in humanity separated from the God of all mankind, the God of love.
Being separated from God leads to a loss of spiritual awareness and sensitivity.
It is an inner sickness and is what the Bible describes as us being “dead in our transgressions and sins“ (Ephesians 2:1-7).
It matters not only to your eternal destination, but because as Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can't Wait
The sad thing is that we both inflict and receive pain in the fallen world in which we live.
We have a natural proclivity as human beings to try to avoid pain, and when we can’t, we try to dull and deaden any part of us that feels the pain.
American psychiatrist and author of the book The Road Less Travelled, Morgan Scott Peck stated:
“The avoidance of pain is the beginning of all unhealthy behavior.”
Morgan Scott Peck
The trouble is that avoiding pain can cause more problems than good in the long run.
It is this avoidance of pain that is the root of destructive life patterns that we see expressed in substitutionary outlets like addictions.
There are many types of addictions to which people succumb in attempting to numb their pain and some of you may find yourself there today.
We readily think of addictions like drug abuse, the pursuit of illicit sexual encounters, alcohol dependence and uncontrolled gambling as harmful.
Yet there are equally nefarious addictions that our culture tries to normalize even as they have similar detrimental effects.
For example:
At one point, former basketball star Lamar Odom seemed to have it all.
He was a two time NBA champion with the LA Lakers, married to Khloé Kardashian and had a reality TV show documenting their lives.
Yet Odom’s entanglements with porn, alcohol and drug addictions led to him losing it all.
On a site called Covenant Eyes, Odom recently posted specifically about his struggle with porn, which is physiologically poisonous to libido and known to have links to things such as ED in men.
Odom said he was so hooked on porn that he would need to get in one more scene each day before heading to practice late, knowing that each time that he was late, he would be monetarily fined.
But it didn’t matter to him.
He was bound by sin, and because of this and other addictions, would lose his family as a result.
This is what spiritual leprosy looks like.
Though providing momentary relief, these habits simultaneously destroy intimacy and trust with our closest family, friends and romantic interests.
The problem will always be that when we try to simply avoid or cover over our pain, it is merely a temporary solution.
Left unchecked, the pain continues to fester and usually comes back with a greater vengeance.
It results in our inability to connect effectively with others and unravels other aspects of our lives along the way.
But thanks be to God - remember that through the gospel Jesus comes to set you free!
God wants to deliver you, heal you and usher you into his Kingdom to enjoy the righteousness, peace and joy found only in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17)!
Yet to do so, we have to acknowledge the challenges to healing.
The Challenges to Healing
We miss true contentment when we resist God’s prescription for healing.
What we need to understand is that:
Our great challenge to healing is pride.
The great solution to accessing God’s healing is humility.
If you are in the medical community, one of the greatest frustrations that you face are people who consider themselves experts because:
They read a WebMD article and think that they can now diagnose themselves better than you.
They have an expertise in some other area of life like business or law, and now think they have the same competence in regards to their health.
“We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right.”
Ravi Zacharias
As someone in the medical community, it’s also frustrating when you know exactly what’s ailing your patient, know they’ll get better through your prescribed treatment, but they refuse to follow your instructions and complain as they suffer through their continued ailment.
As a physician, my father would describe, without names, scenarios like this all of the time as I grew up in his home.
This is exactly how God feels.
Now in this II Kings passage, people most often focus on Naaman and Elisha.
Yet there is another important part of the lesson to enjoy.
This passage is also a fantastic story of redemptive pain and divine placement.
Naaman’s wife had a servant girl who was removed from Israel during one of the Syrian raids.
She was one of the people of God, yet she was captured.
This undoubtedly provided the girl great pain.
However, this divine placement was the very thing that God used to show mercy to Naaman bringing about his healing.
In this way, the girl was somehow a foreshadowing of the redemptive sufferings of Christ on behalf of Naaman.
Yet would she have chosen this for herself if she could?
Would we if we were placed in an equally uncomfortable position to help a co-worker or neighbor?
You want to ask yourself how similar scenarios are playing out in your own story.
Just like the Israelite girl’s, your testimony being shared is important to the healing of those who don’t yet know God.
In this context, the answer to Naaman’s affliction came from an unexpected and an undesirable source.
As commander of the army, Naaman was used to having all the answers. Yet now, the answer for his healing came from his servant girl.
In this instance, Naaman was wise enough to receive it.
The question is, when you finally recognize your need for healing, will you be open to receiving the Word of the Lord?
Or will you miss the healing of God because you think it’s coming from those you think beneath you socially, financially or academically in their present station in life?
Naaman had an expectation of how God should heal him by the hand of Elisha.
Naaman thought that God should heal him on Namaan’s terms.
How often do we act the same way?
God told Naaman to dip in the water of the Jordan. The Jordan was seen as unclean and beneath Naaman.
That may be how you’ve looked at the Bible, previously considering it too narrow, rigid or superstitious.
That may be because you haven’t read it.
“Here, then, is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God's Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or a lack of passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.”
R. C. Sproul
What Elisha was suggesting by the word of the Lord to Naaman challenged Naaman’s pride and intellectual sensibilities.
As commander of the Syrian army, he would have had a certain self perception and public reputation.
Naaman suggested other rivers in which to dip other than the Jordan.
You might have your own suggestions of more politically correct or sanitary ways to your wholeness, but God in his infinite love, wisdom and goodness is not looking for them.
You can get offended when you‘re confronted with the Word of the Lord just like Naaman did, but God’s prescription for healing will not change.
Naaman knew that the leprosy was eating away at him and was desperate enough to get God’s solution.
God required humility of Naaman.
He will require no less of you.
Humility looks like obedience.
If we know this to be the case, what does God actually tell us to do? Jesus makes it plain.
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Matthew 5:27-30
What is God telling you to do for your healing today?
Is there access to certain media outlets or apps that you need to cut off?
Is there a certain toxic relationship that you need to end?
Are there certain places that you no longer need to go because you know you always end up in trouble there?
Or going back to our original example, is there a certain type of ethnic hatred or subconscious discrimination from which you need to repent?
Whatever you know God’s telling you to cut off, do it it today for your salvation, the preservation of your relationships and your healing in Jesus.
Naaman’s servant had to encourage Naaman to obey in faith after Naaman was tempted to leave in a huff.
As a Christian, you need to be ready to do this for others, reminding them of God’s gracious appeal:
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:6-9
When Naaman obeyed the Word of the Lord, he was healed just as Elisha said he would be.
It will be the same for us today.
Christ our Healer
Jesus is God’s higher way that leads to healing.
When we turn to Jesus Christ, we find true contentment because we find him to be our healer both now and in the life to come.
And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
Mark 1:40-42
You might have thought yourself untouchable because of your past mistakes, unlovable because of your habits and irretrievably condemned because you have been bound by sin, but Jesus Christ comes to heal!
Jesus touches the leper who would have been familiar with isolation and rejection to heal not only his physical state but minister deeply to his emotions and soul.
In essence, Jesus was saying to the leper,
“You are not too far off. I draw you near.”
Jesus touches us so we can be healed.
The cross of Jesus Christ is the clearest depiction of this invitation.
And in the time of the pandemic, it gives us a sure confidence in God’s heart to heal in the midst of all the suffering.
“In the meantime, prominent British pastor John R. W. Stott, who acknowledged that suffering is “the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith,” has reached his own conclusion: I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ . . . is God’s only self-justification in such a world’ as ours.”
Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity
Jesus’ perfect, sinless life shows us God’s higher way to truly living an abundant life.
Christ’s death on the cross was the foolishness that made provision for your forgiveness.
Christ’s resurrection from the dead made new patterns possible and true contentment available within that reality.
“Faith (in God) doesn’t make things easy, but it does make things possible.”
Luke 1:37
Repent of (turn away from) any stubborn pride and what the Bible calls sin today.
In humility, turn to Jesus and his higher wisdom to be healed both now and in the life to come!
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Second City Church - True Contentment - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2020