Zeroes to Heroes 2 Kings 7:3-16

 

Zeroes to Heroes 2 Kings 7:3-16

The Legend of Lawnchair Larry Walters

In the early 1980s, Larry Walters was a truck driver from the Los Angeles neighborhood of San Pedro. He wanted to be a pilot growing up and tried to join the Air Force, but his eyesight wasn’t good enough. But, he never gave up his dream of flying. One day Walters decided to go for it, He took his life’s savings, $4,000 and bought 45 weather balloons and filled them with helium. He tied those to an aluminum lawn from Sears He called his airship Inspiration I. on board he had “a large bottle of soda, milk jugs full of water for ballast, a pellet gun to shoot out the ballons and land, a portable CB radio, an altimeter, and a camera. Then on July 2, 1982, Walters untied the chair from its earthly anchors and shot off into the wild blue yonder.

He thought he would rise to an altitude of around 100 feet, level off, eat some sandwiches drink the soda and then shoot a balloon or two and land. But that isn’t what happened, instead, Larry Walters, the first cluster balloon pilot in history, shot skyward at about a thousand feet a minute and didn’t level off until he’d reached 16,000 feet.

The Inspiration I floated entered the airspace of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) where it was spotted by the pilots of a Delta flight and a TWA plane. The crews radioed back to LAX to say, “We can’t land there is a man flying in a lawnchair outside our cockpit.”

Walters was now scared to shoot any balloons, but the thin air and cold temperatures became too much for him, he used the pellet gun to shoot the balloons one by one, and dropped back to Earth. He crashed into some power lines, causing a blackout in Long Beach,

Of course he was arrested and eventually charged with operating an aircraft near an airport “without establishing and maintaining two-way communications with the control tower.” The original $4,000 fine was reduced to $1,500.

When the Long Beach Police Department arrested him a reporter asked Lawnchair Larry why he did such a crazy thing. Walters thought a moment and then said, "Well, a man can't just sit around."

Lawnchair Larry is kind of a hero of mine, though I won’t be imitating his ballon flight. His answer to the reporter, “You can’t just sit around.” Is an echo of our text this morning in 2 Kings 7. We need to remmber Lawnchair Larry because often we get too comfortable in our own ways,  in our own pew, in our own circle of friends, family and church members. We come to a certain place in our lives, our relationships and even in our walk with the Lord and then just stay there, still and unchanging. But the truth is, “You can’t just sit around.” Living means not being sedentary.  To remain inactive, to remain still, to decide not to move is to die a prolonged death of immobility and lethargy.

As it’s been said, “The only time you can coast is when you’re going downhill.” As a child of God, a pastor, a member of this great church, I don’t want to coast downhill. I want to set my sights on upward and climb.

No as long as we’re alive we have to move, we have to go forward, onward, upward.  Spiritually, physically, in our relationships, and in our church, it is move and live, or stay still and begin to die.

Turn with me to 2 Kings 7:3 and look at this truth in a story which lays it out very clearly.

Hopelessness of Sitting Still  2 Kings 7:3-4

Lepers Dying At the Gate

Background

This story takes place around 850 BC, and about 200 years after King David. It occurs in the during the divided kingdom of Israel in the Northern Kingdom of Samaria, which is ruled by Joram, the son of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Ahab is dead but Jezebel is still living.

During this time the Kingdom of Syria is rising in power and looking for other kingdoms to conquer. The King of Syria is Benhadad and he has besieged the capital city of Samaria. The siege is very long with no food being allowed into the city and the conditions inside the city walls are shocking in their horror.

The Famine 2 Kings 6:25-29 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. 26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 28 And the king (Joram) said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

The Four Lepers. 2 Kings 7:3-4 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

In the midst of this terrible national catastrophe, the Bible and God shift focus to the outside the city, to the city gates. From the most important person to the least important, from the King to four unnamed, unknown, unimportant lepers.

Customarily, the lepers would have been fed by their friends or relatives in the city, but now, because of the famine, there is no food for anyone in the city, much less the lepers outside the city.

The four have a discourse and in the course of that discussion, they realize they must do something. They had 3 choices.

They could stay where they were. They could complain or wail or wish things weren’t the way they were. That there was no war, no famine, no siege. They could just sit there in their present condition, and if they did that, then they knew they would die, slowly perhaps but they would die.

Alternatively, They could try and go to another city, leave the problems of this location behind them, but they knew that they Syrians had invaded all the Kingdom. War and famine were everywhere and besides they would still be who they were, starving lepers. Going to another place wouldn’t change that. They would just be taking their problems with them to a new location.

The Third choice, they could go into the camp of the Syrians! Now that was a wild and bold idea. Instead of avoiding or ignoring the problem they would instead go into the very teeth of the problem by walking into the Syrian camp.

Why did they choose this?  Yes, they were desperate, but their course of action makes sense. They understood that to remain inactive was a sure death, but to move, to take action, even take a risk was the surest means of a chance at life.

Lethargy At The Gait

There are so many applications in our lives to these lepers who made the decision to not sit still and die.

You could apply it to physical life. They tell us and I believe it that sitting all day long is worse for your health than smoking a cigarette. If you want to have better health then you got to get up and move. If you sit too long, you’ll die instead of live long.

You could apply it to your mental life. The best thing to avoid Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, depression, anxiety, stress and the list goes on, is to exercise, especially to get out of the house, into the fresh air and walk, bike, run in the sunshine, trees and grass.

But we are here to talk about our spirit, that part of us that God breathed into Adam and the application is even stronger when we speak of spirituality. When it comes to the people of God, the church of God and the service of God, sitting still means death. It may come slowly but if we aren’t moving, risking, striving, serving then we are dying.

Here is the principle we find in God’s word, here and all through the Bible, “Standing still is simply dying slowly.”

It’s true in our physical health, it true in our church and its true our relationship with the Lord. If you’re not moving, you’re dying.

This is what God’s word tells us. We are commanded to grow, to change, to not stand still.

2 Peter 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Philippians 3:13-14  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Here at Calvary Baptist and in our own lives, we’ve got to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Looking and moving from one opportunity to the next. It’s not as simply as it was in the past, but at least we’re not at war and suffering through a famine. I could be a lot worse, and we have to face the challenges and make use of the opportunities God gives us.

I don’t exactly what will work or what the future holds, but one thing is absolutely sure, “You can’t sit still.”

As terrible as it would have been to stand still and die there is even a greater sin, Standing Silent and Letting Others die.

 Harm of Staying Silent  2 Kings 7:5-9

And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. 6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 7 Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. 8 And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. 9 Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household.

Lepers Rejoicing At the Camp

They quit sitting and dying, instead the stand up and seek life. The go to the Syrian army’s camp and find it deserted. The Lord caused them to hear the noise of a greater opposing army moving against them and they ran for the Jordan river, leaving everything behind.

The lepper find the deserted camp and they spoil it, they loot it, they eat, they drink, and they take treasure and hid it.

Then realize that they can’t keep this to themselves a moment longer. If they wait till someone in the city discovers the enemy host gone and all these blessings then the people in the city will hold them responsible for not sharing what God had done.

Just the day before Elisha the prophet who had been in the city during the siege had made this prophecy. 2 Kings 7:1 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

Someone would remember the words of the prophet of God and they would pay the price for not spreading the good news. Or even worse the Lord God of Israel would deal with them for their greed and unconcern for others who were dying as they had been.

Zilches to Riches

If you were in the place of the lepers would you not go back to the city?  Would you not take the good news to your family and friends, in fact to anyone, even someone who you considered an enemy? Why would you hold back the good news when the blessing of God was so rich and deep?

Not hard to see the application here is it? People are dying spiritually from a famine of the Word of God. They are dying from the sickness that comes from being cut off from the supply of God’s love. They are killing one another and acting worse than animals because they are starving away from God’s grace.

And we, the redeemed of the Lord, the people of God, the church of Jesus Christ, we have found the enemy’s camp deserted. There is no power there anymore. God has driven away Satan and his host by the power of Calvary. And it is our task now to go to those who are still starving and dying and tell them the Good News, the Gospel. “Come and see, God has driven away the enemy. You only have to believe, leave death behind and accept the gift of eternal life He has provided in His Son Jesus Christ.”

The Lord put those unimportant lepers right where they needed to be so that they could go from zero to hero. And he has put you and I and our church right where we need to be that we might also be Gospel heroes.

Just like the lepers we must realize that God has blessed us, chosen us and will requires from us duty of telling others the Good News, The Gospel. What is a camp full of earthly treause in comparison to eternal life in Glory. We bear the greater responsibility, a duty with eternal consequences.

This is what Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, 12 -- That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

Walk worthy not sit comfortably. Walk worthy of the blessing God has given us.

Dead Sea Christians

If we fail in this task, instead of being Gospel Heroes, we will be Dead Sea Saints. The Dead Sea receives the same fresh, life giving water that the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan river receives. Yet it is not living. No fisherman fish it’s waters not crops are grown from on it’s shores.  Why, because the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River pass on the life giving water but the Dead Sea holds all the water that come to it. 

We don’t want to be Dead Sea Saints. We want to be a church filled with Gospel Heroes. We are people who had nothing, no better than those lepers at the gate, just waiting to die, but we have found the blessing of salvation. Now its time to be Heroes in the sharing of God’s grace. If we wait too long, sit too still then as the lepers understood, the blessing will turn on us.

This was not the choice of the lepers and this will not be our choice.  We chose to go from Zeroes to Heroes.

Heroics of Shouting Strong - 2 Kings 7:10-11, 14-16

2 Kings 7:10-11 So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. 11 And he called the porters; and they told it to the king's house within.

2 Kings 7:14-16 They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. 15 And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. 16 And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.

Lepers Acting Like Heroes

They return to the city and shout the good news to the dying people inside. They had to shout because there was no way the city gates were going to open for them. But they acted as heroes and they shouted to make the good news heard, to save those caught in the famine and death.

The King sends soldiers to investigate, they see the evidence, they believe the good news and they are saved.

The city and the dying people in its walls were saved, not because the lepers were influential, nor because they were persuasive, but because what they reported was true.

Saints Sharing the Story of Salvation

Isn’t this just like us? You don’t need to be important, these people were lepers, they were worthless and avoided at the best times and now during the siege it was doubly so, but God used them to prove His word from Elisha was true.

You and I don’t need to be influential, educated, popular, great speakers or even good looking. All you need to do is determine you will no longer sit still and die, Stand up and walk right into the enemy camp, the hearts of those lost and dying held in death’s strong grip and tell them the Good News, tell them the truth of Jesus who died to give them eternal life.

When Jesus prayed in the Garden, the night before he was crucified, in John 17 we hear him as he speaks to the Father, vss. 1-3 Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent

We are studying Romans on Wednesday night and the theme of the book is Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

The Gospel is the power of God to salvation. God saves people when they hear the Gospel and believe it and he has chosen you and I to be the heroes who carry that message back to a dying world.

  The dying Samaritans had to go to the camp to find salvation, those we share the Gospel with must go to Calvary. There they will find the truth. There they will find salvation. There they will find the over abundance of God’s eternal blessing.

 Sergeant York.

Let me tell you about a hero Sargent Alvin York.  Sargent York was the most decorated hero of WW1.  In a battle where half of his 17 man patrol was wiped out and his commanding officer killed, York took command.  While the rest of his men were pinned down by enemy machine gun fire, he risked his life by running in through the machine gun fire, until he found a good firing position. Then completely by himself with only his rifle, Sargent York took out 9 machine gun bunkers, killed 25 enemy soldiers and forced the others to surrender.  On his way back to the American lies he captured another 132 enemy troops.  When asked why he did it, he replied, “Well those machine guns were picking off my buddies and I realized that if I didn’t do something a lot of people were going to die.”

You know what it takes to be a hero, not intelligence, or ability but just the realization that if we don’t do something a lot of people are going to die. They will die physically because this world is filled with the sins of death, they will die emotionally because of bitterness, anger and betrayal, and worst of all they will die spiritually because they never heard the good news of the Gospel, there is salvation in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion 

The Question we still must face is the same as the lepers in 2 Kings 7:3 "Why sit we here until we die?" God did not send Jesus to die for us, so that we could just sit here till we die. He did not save us to just sit still. He did not found this church and fill it with loving, caring Christians so that we can just sit comfortably enjoying the blessing of being a child of God, while there is a famine of sin and death in the homes and lives of so many around us.

To paraphrase Lawnchair Larry, “A Christian can’t just sit around.” May each of us everyday think of all the ways God has blessed us and then go and shout the good news to those who don’t know.