The Unknown Little Maid

like you turn your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 5 we're actually going to continue our series from Hebrews chapter 11 and if you remember Hebrews chapter 11 is God's Hall of Fame it's all the great men and women of faith and just a testimony of their lives and going through that and as we went through that section we looked at different people that were listed there like Moses and and uh Noah and other very well-known people but then yet we get to the end of the chapter and we the writer of Hebrews runs out of time and I know that feeling because he's got so much to cover and just doesn't have time to cover it all and so he says he he just kind of puts in there this these words and others and

there are many others in the Bible some that are well known that are not named here but also many that are unknown and as we started looking at last week and the last two weeks actually we've been talking about the Unknown People of the Bible and you know the truth is most of us in this room would fit in that category most of us people don't maybe don't know our name maybe they don't know what we do in the church maybe they don't know what we're going through in our lives but yet God knows you and God wants to use you even in your Brokenness and so we want to talk about how God heals broken people and then how God also uses broken people and so last week we looked at an unknown woman a widow

lady who gave the last of her food to the prophet not knowing what was going to happen and yet having faith to trust in God and I think we learned some great lessons from her life so today we're going to go over to 2 Kings chapter 5 2 Kings chapter 5 and we're going to look at another unknown we don't know this person's name we just know they're called the little Maid of Israel the little Maid of Israel in 2 Kings chapter 5 and beginning with verse number one it says now Naaman captain of the host of the king of Syria was a great man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given Deliverance onto Syria he was also a mighty man in Valor but he was a leper and the syrians had

gone out by companies and brought away captive any out of the land of Israel a little maid and she waited on name's wife and she said unto her mistress would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in uh Samaria for he would recover him of his leprosy and one went in and told him his Lord saying thus and thus sayith the maid that is of the land of Israel and the king of Syria said go to go go and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel and he departed and took with him 10 Talons of silver and 6,000 pieces of gold and 10 changes of reignment he brought the letter to the king of Israel saying now when this letter is come into thine hand behold I have therewith sent nonon my servant to

thee that thou M May recover him of his leprosy and it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter they rent his clothes and said am I God to kill and to make alive that this man does send unto me to recover a man of leprosy wherefore consider I pray you and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me it was so when Elisha the man of God had heard the that the king of Israel rent clothes that he sent to the king saying wherefore thou rent thy clothes let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel so non came with the horses and with his Chariot stood at the door of the House of Elisha and Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying go and wash in Jordan seven

times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shal be clean but nonon was WTH and went away and said behold I I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call in the name of the Lord is God and strike his hand over the place and cover the leper are not abana and parar the rivers of Damascus better than all the Waters of Israel may I not washing them and be clean so he turned and went away in Rage and his servants came near and spake unto him and said my father if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it how much rather than when he saith to thee wash and be clean then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to

the saying to the man of God and his flesh came again like under the Flesh of a little child and he was clean he returned to the man of God and he and all his company came and stood before him and said behold now I know that there is no God in all the Earth but in Israel now therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant but he said as the Lord liveth before whom I stand I'll receive none and he urged him to take it but he refused so we have here the story of non he's a captain a general probably the fourstar general of the nation of Syria he was in charge of all the the Army and and Syria was an enemy of Israel in fact they had just recently gone into Israel and taken away some

captives and but he had leprosy and one of the captives that they took away was this little Maid of Israel so and then we have also Elisha the prophet so I want to look at first of all the main characters of the story now Naaman in Luke chapter 4: 27 Jesus said and many lepers were in Israel in the time of el elas the Elisha the prophet and none of them was cleansed saving nonon the Syrian now remember last week Jesus said there was all kinds of widows in Israel and yet God sent Elijah to the Widow up in sidon and a non-jewish widow and now he says there's many lepers that could have been healed healed in Israel but God sent uh he healed the nonon the general of the enemy Army is the one he

chose to heal now what do we know about non if you look back at 2 Kings chapter 5 and verse number one it tells us n that now non captain of the host of King Israel was a great man with his master and honorable so the first thing we know about him is he was an honorable man now the word honor here it it means to lift up or bear to lift up or bear it it can also be translated as an armor Bearer so in those days they would have the soldier would have a young man who would carry his armor for him into battle and so he wouldn't have to carry it and then it would put it on right before battle uh that's what this word honorable means and Proverbs 18 and verse number 14 it says the spirit of a man

will sustain his infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear I I believe that rais name was described as honorable this word that means to lift up or bear because he had to bear this burden of being a leper he had to carry it with him all the time and you know when you have a a problem whether it's a disease or whether it's some other issue in your life that you're dealing with and it's a problem that just doesn't go away it it's a problem that you carry with you wherever you go and and how you bear that burden how you bear that problem says a lot about your character remember Paul holds your place in F Second Kings and go to 2 Chronicles 12 2 Chronicles 12 you remember how Paul uh said that

in 2 Chronicles CH 12 he he prays there in verse number 7 2 Chronicles 12: 7 it says unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the New Revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to Buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure for this thing I besought the Lord Thrice but it might but that it might depart from me now what we believe it was is that um when Saul got saved on the road Damascus it was a bright light and we believe that it affected his eyes cuz later on he talked about how big his handwriting was and so we believe there was some kind of disease in his eyes and Paul said this was a thorn of the flesh the the lord gave

it to him to keep him humble and he prayed he said Lord take it away from me he said I I I besought the Lord Thrice now it doesn't mean you prayed just three times but there was three times he just really got burdened and said God please take this away and then verse number nine and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect and un weakness most gladly therefore were rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ May rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and Necessities in persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake for when I am strong then I I weak you see non was honorable because he bore this disease with

character you see a lot of times when we have a problem in our life whether it's disease or whether it's some issues we're dealing with or whatever else is we let that problem control us and weigh us down the point we can't do anything at all and and non he he was honorable and that he took he was a leper but he he took it and said you know what I'm not going to let this control me and he decided he's going to live his life and he's going to do his job and he's going to get done what he need to do and not let that weigh him down it's it's hard to hold up something like that I used this illustration once before but you know weight here is only 10 lb and and I think there not much to lift up

brother Orlando can you carry this 10 can you lift this 10 pound weight come on up here and show us that all right now look at this take this 10 pound weight I want you to lift it up just show them how strong you are there all right look at that isn't that good give him a hand here he's doing a good job now I want you to take that same weight and I want you to hold it out like this and I want you to just stand there during the sermon while I do the rest of the preaching up here and hold it out like that Ah that's not so easy is it you can give back to me now all right but you know if you had to carry this R you could lift it I think everybody's room could lift this 10 PB weight but what if

you had to carry it everywhere you went what every time you stood up you had the weight whatever time you sat down there was the weight whatever you lay down at night there was the weight it never left you that's what that word honorable see he was honorable and he carried the weight the weight of the leprosy he carried it with honor and folks I don't know what you're going through and some of you maybe you're going through a situation where it's not a 10B weight it's like a 500 lb weight but most of us what we deal with is we deal with those things that are day after day after day after day and every day you got to pick up that same weight and carry it and do you carry it with honor you see

the root word here of honorable means to grow to grow somebody once said this that which does not kill us makes us stronger and and he was Honorable in that his disease instead of letting him tear him down he said I'm going to be stronger because of my disease I'm going to grow through this trial then God wants us to learn to grow in James chapter 1: 2 and 3 it says my brother encountered all joy when you fall into diverse Temptations knowing this the trying of your faith worketh patience see when you go through the trials of life when you go through those difficult times when you're when you're dealing with something especially something that is day after day after day after day after day

you want to learn to deal with honor you want to realize that this is this trial I like Paul Lord take it away but if not then give me the grace to handle it give me the grace to lift this weight give me the grace to grow through this situation and that's what it means when it says that nonon was more honorable it also tells us back in second Kings chapter 5 and verse one that he was a a mighty man in Valor the root of the word Valor here is is a word that means for pain see his Valor came through his pain he learned how to overcome the pain of leprosy he learned how to overcome the pain when people would turn away from him because he he was so you know disfigured he he learned how to deal

with that pain in his life you see I don't believe that God chose nonon to be healed because he was a great man of Valor go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 again hold your place in Second Kings but 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and look at verses 26- 28 1 Kings chap 1: 26 through 28 for you see your call your calling Brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God had chosen the weak things of the world to conf found to things which are Mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised as God chosen yay and things which are not to bring to not things that

are and so God didn't choose non because he was this Mighty Man of Val God chose nonon because of God's grace God healed him because God chose to heal him see in second cor Kings 5 and verse one it says the lord giveth Deliverance the Lord give it deliverance and even non who was a a king of an opposing Army attacking Israel it wasn't it wasn't Syria that was in control God was still in control even of that situation and no matter what's going on in your life sometimes you say well why did God allow this to happen why doesn't God fix this and you understand that the Lord is in control even in the worst situations and we need to realize that the Deliverance comes from the Lord Zechariah 4

verse number 6 then he answered and spake unto me saying this is the word of the Lord unto zerubabel saying not by might nor by power but by my spirit sayith the Lord of hosts see folks this we need to look to God for whatever is going on in our lives non was a honorable man he carried the weight of that burden day after day after day of being a leper he was a mighty man even in the pain he did not give into the pain but realized that it was going to help him to grow and to become stronger but he was still a leper and that's where it brings us to that next character in this passage and that's the little Maid of Israel it's all we know about her the little Maid of Israel look at 2 Kings 5:

2-4 and the syrians had gone by companies and brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little Maid she waited on non's wife and she said unto her mistress would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in the Samaria for he would recover him of his leprosy and one went in and told his Lord saying thus and thus sayith the maid that is of the land of Israel now when I read the Bible and I read stories in the Bible one of the things that I do to help to make them come more alive is I try to imagine someone uh being that person in the Bible I try to imagine what did they look like what what was this person like and sometimes they'll even take somebody I know and and kind of imagine that

person now the little Maid of is means that she was a young girl she could have been anywhere from her junior age up through Junior High and even to teen years probably not much older than her early 20s of that but very likely somewhere around what we would consider a 7th through 12th grader somewhere in there so I'm going to bring up one of our young ladies so Ken would you come on up here and and uh and we're going to bring her up here I asked her had of time if I could do that um because she was she's real nervous because when I bring her brothers up I dump water on her head and I do all kinds of terrible things to her but I'm not going to do this because this is a sweet young lady and uh

I love her very much now when I think of the little Maid of Israel this is the picture I get in my mind okay so I want you to think about this this is this girl about this age about this Heights this young girl had just been ripped away from her family when the enemy attacked very likely her parents had been killed and her family had been put to death right in front of her eyes and she had been dragged to a different land and now she's been made a slave so do you get the picture so put that picture in your mind if you would all right thank you put that picture in your mind so the little Maid of Israel a a a young girl seventh 8th nth grade somewhere right in there been ripped from her family

imagine it she was just a child I knew CH I know children grew up faster in that day than today but she was still just a child but a child who had a testimony in 1 Timothy 4:2 it says let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the Believers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith and Purity see this young lady was chosen to be naaman's servant Na's wife's servant she wouldn't just put in the kitchen or in the cleaning crew she's now serving the Master's wife do you not think they saw something in her of character do you not think they saw something or said this is a girl that can do a harder job a better job you know go to the Bible and some of the kids in the Bible

will Amaze you you think of Daniel in Daniel chapter 1 Daniel was also ripped away from his family as a young boy very likely again remember very likely watched his parents is being killed his village being burned to the ground dragged off to a foreign land and then the king says let's take the smartest of all these kids and we're going to bring them over a special group and train them for leadership and they were put under the charge of the prince of the Unix now if you don't know what a unic is Google it after church but he if he was the prince of the Unix and he was in charge of these young men what do you think these young men became very likely Unix so Daniel's been ripped away from his

family very possibly made a unic and now is being trained for a position of leadership within the kingdom and what is he do but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself what an amazing young man or you got somebody like Mary in Luke chapter 1 the angel comes to Mary and says congratulations you're pregnant now I had somebody tell me this morning that they're pregnant and they were happy about that but you know if you're a a about a 13-year-old girl and somebody and you're not married and somebody says you you're pregnant in a society that did not tolerate that and stone people for getting pregnant out of wedlock what would your attitude be I don't even know a man I've

never had sex but she Praises God to be used of God then you got this young man Timothy and I love what the Bible says in Acts chapter 16 about Timothy it says there was a certain disciple named Timothy you know what that word certain means it means he stood out in the crowd not because of his height or size but because of his character you know what Paul had Timothy do Paul said Timothy I want you to be my servant I want you to come with me but if you're going to come with me you have to be circumcised now again if you don't know what circumcision is Google it after church and look it up it's what they do to a baby and they tell us that it doesn't hurt the baby which is a lie it just the

baby can't tell you it hurts and to have that done to you as a Teenage young man was not a happy day and yet he submitted and did what he needed to do in order to serve God you see young people in the room can I say something you can be a testimony for God you can be used to Lord you say well you don't know my circumstances have you been ripped away from your family have you been told that you're going to have to do something that's almost impossible you see God can use you even as a young person because God used this little Maid of Israel who nobody even knows her name now can you imagine that she might have been a little bit bitter she's ripped away from her family family very likely

killed in front of her eyes dragged to a foreign country having to learn a new language a new culture and a slave I could imagine this girl easily saying you know what let him die of his leprosy I'm not going to tell him about Elisha let him die he deserves it he's the one that ordered them to come kill my family she could have been bitter she had every reason to be bitter and maybe you think today that you have every reason to be bitter as well in Ephesians chapter 4: 31 and 32 says that all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice be kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake and forgiven

you I I don't know what's happened to you in your past I don't know who's hurt you and you can choose to remain bitter or you can choose to be better and this young lady chose not to be bitter she chose to be better the Bible tells us in Luke chapter 6 it says to love your enemies to do good to them that despitefully use you and that's what this young lady did she could have kept her mouth shut she could have just said he can die as far as I'm concerned and he deserves it but she chose not to be bitter she chose to love to have compassion in Jude chapter 1 and beginning verse number 22 and it says of some have compassion making a difference and others saved with fear pulling them out of the

fire hating even the garments spotted by the flesh you know there's people that you work with that maybe you don't like maybe they haven't been really nice to you maybe they've even been mean to you but God calls you to have compassion because they're going to die and go to Hell Without Christ this girl said I don't care she could have easily said that you know a lot of us we have that attitude towards our co-workers I don't care I'm not going to invite them to church I'm not going to tell them about Jesus they've never done anything for me we become bitter and angry the Bible says we should have compassion she could have been afraid to speak up I mean remember she's a slave girl they're to

be seen and not heard don't speak unless you're spoken to she could have kept her head down and not make waves I I I know he could be healed but I I'm not going to get I'm not going to put myself in the Forefront here 1 Corinthians chap 2: 2 and three for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling C can I tell you a secret I'm a pastor been a pastor for 40 plus years I've been saved since I was 14 years old been to Bible College and still get scared telling people about Jesus my attitude is still don't say anything they're just going to get mad at you but you can't let that happen this girl had

every reason to keep her mouth shut but she spoke up because she had a message that need to be heard I realize you're scared some of you we're got all these signs out here we're gonna encourage you go out sign waving some of you are even too scared to go out there and stand with a sign and wave at people if you're that scared hold the sign in front of your face some of you too scared to give out a an invitation to church or a gospel track some of you too scared to go to your neighbors with a plate of cookies and an invitation to Easter Sunday and this little girl had every reason to keep her mouth shut but she didn't because she had a message that need to be heard now the other character of

this passage is Elisha in 2 Kings 5 and verse number 8 it was so that when Elisha the man of God had heard of the king of Israel had rent the clothes that he sent to the king saying wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel now this is a quote from I read in I couldn't find out who did this but this is the quote I read it says Elijah remember Elijah and Elisha two Prophets The J becomes before the S that's how you remember who's first so Elijah was first he was the one that was taken up in the Chariot remember and then Elisha was his his trainee and Elisha took over Elijah Elijah's bold personality and dramatic miraculous

Deeds were needed to call the nation back to God from the brink of total apostasy Elisha's compassionate miracles for the common Israelites provided them a need reminder of God's love for all of them and his faithfulness to them when they were faithful to him I was talking this morning in my startpoint class and if you're new in the church we'd love to have you come to that class and learn more about us talk about pastors and every Pastor is different and some have more preaching power and some of are more quiet some are more bold and so everyone's different but God uses these people in our lives and God used Elisha to heal non but Elisha got mad non got mad because Elisha didn't even bother

coming out of his house he just sent a message said go wash in the river and that's the miracle of the healing what happened in verses 9-4 is he went for healing now I'm not recommending Elisha's method okay in verse number 10 of 2 Kings chapter 5 it tells us that Elisha sent a message onto go and wash the Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean be kind of like somebody come to the church's office say Pastor I want counseling and then I instead of opening my door I just tell the secretary tell him to go buy a book that's what he did he said you know I didn't even go to him personally I'm not recommending that a pastor is supposed to be given to

hospitality that's what tells us in First Kings chapter 3 but you know what if in Romans 12:13 it says Distributing necessity of saints given to hospitality all of us Elisha's May methods may have work for neon but you know here at Ohana we need to go and talk to people when you have a visitor go greet them don't wait for them to come to you you go to them but this story here about non's healing is a beautiful picture of Salvation the leprosy is like sin Romans 3:23 says for all have sinned and the glory of God see every one of you has a disease and the disease is called sin and that sin is killing you in Romans 6:23 says for the wages of sin is death it's going to kill you and send you to

Hell Without Christ for the wage of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord and what you and I need is we need our sins to be washed away and 1 Peter 1: 18 and 19 it says for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish without spot we need our sins washed away but it's not through baptism baptism does not clean us of our sins the Bible says in 1 Peter 3:21 the like figure we're into even B baptism does also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer

of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ the water of Jordan River didn't cleanse non from his leprosy it was the faith to do what he was told to do and baptism doesn't save us baptism is a picture of our salvation but Salvation is by faith in Ephesians 28:9 for by grace so you saved through faith then not of yourselves the gift of God not of Works L any man should boast you're not B you're not saved by joining the church or by getting cised or baptized you're saved by putting your faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you of all unrighteousness in Second Kings chap 5 and verse1 15 non says he returned to the man of God he in all his company and came

and stood before him and said behold now I know that there is no God in all the Earth but in Israel now therefore I pray thee take a blessing of thy servant he confess God and you need to confess God in Romans chap 10: 9- 10 it says that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and Shall Believe in thine heart that God has raised the dead Thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth on the righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation in Romans 10:13 it says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved and I wonder have you called upon Christ as your savior to cleanse you of your sin now I want to close by looking at the rest of the

story go back to Second Kings chapter 5 2 Kings chapter 5 we're not going to take time to read it verses 16- 27 you may know the story Elijah Elisha said I don't want your money non turned around to go back home one of Elisha's servants said I want his money and so chased him down and said Elisha changed his mind and and took some money and some clothes from non and when Elijah F Elisha found out about it he said now this servant you're going to have his leprosy and there's a lot to the story you could go in there but there's a couple of points I want you to leave here with number one is that nonon became a worshipper of God not just a believer but a worshipper of God in 2 Kings 5: 17-18 he

said I want to take some of the dirt from Israel back with me and I'm going to build an altar with this dirt and I'm going to worship God at that Altar and even said you'll have to forgive me that when I go with the King into his Temple and hold his arm I I I'm there to Bear him up uh I have to bow with the King when he bows that God but that's not my God I believe in the one true God of Israel he became a worshipper of God see it's not just getting saved it's it's continuing to Worship the Lord now Gazza Elijah's servant he got leprosy and if you read the story in verses 20- 27 you see that gezza he excused himself for getting he says we need the money this is for the lord it's amazing how

we as Christians can excuse our sin somehow justify this for the Lord and then you have the little maid now parents let me ask you a question would your child know what to do if they were in her situation we need to raise our children to be ready to stand up for what they believe in in second Timothy chapter 3 it talks about from a child th was known the holy scriptures which will make the wise this little girl had been taught to believe in God no matter what we need to raise our children be ready to stand up for the Lord for what they believe because guess what sooner or later they're going to be walking out into that world this little girl was snatched away at a young age and taken into

the world but you know what your kids are going to head to that world too and when they walk out that door and face a hostile world are they going to be able to have a stand for the Lord raise your kids so they're ready to leave knowing what they believe and why now if the story of the little Maid of Israel were a movie today she would not only be set free for telling the pro for telling non how to be healed but she would get to marry his son that's the plot of the story but you know what we don't know what happened to her she may have been set free she may have been rewarded for her statement or she may have been forgotten because that's happened too Hebrews 610 says for God is Not

unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed towards th his name and that you have minister to the Saints and do Minister sometimes we do the right thing and nobody notices it but God does sometimes we serve the Lord and nobody says thank you but God does here's a little girl that had every right to be bitter and angry she could have easily said I don't care if he dies but instead she remembered what she had learned and she showed compassion passion for even her enemies what about you some of you are carrying around a weight every day you wake up it's there it might be medical it might be depression it might be Financial it might be work situation whatever it is

but every day you wake up you got to pick that weight up and carry it into the day are you going to be honorable are you going to be a Mighty Man a mighty woman of Valor and carry that weight by the grace of God and not let it weigh you down and keep you from serving the lord some of you in this room are bitter and you've allowed that bitterness to affect you so much that you're just angry you need to let go of the bitterness and forgive as God has forgiven you some of you in this room need to get your focus back on the Lord