Secret Sin?/Greed
2 Kings 5:15-27
“I will run after him and get something from him.” vs. 20b
LOOK! I Found A Car!
Last Tuesday I drove into the church parking lot and as I did I looked towards the shed. I normally take a quick peek around to make sure everything is okay. I saw something on the backside of the shed but I could tell what it was. I parked my truck and started walking toward the shed when I realized there was a truck parked on the back side of the shed. I pulled out my phone that has a camera on and I held it up and started talking loudly and calling out to see if anyone was there. No one responded so I looked around, took a picture and called the police. They confirmed that the truck was reported stolen and asked me to get away from it until their officer arrived but to put myself in a place where I could see the truck. They told me to be careful because it sounds like it was parked in a place where they intended to come back and get it or strip it, so be careful until the police get there. They showed up about 5 minutes later and took a report. It was interesting, they called the owner and had him come over and pull the truck out himself. I was pretty surprised by that.
So that got me thinking about crime and how often crimes happen. Here are some statistics about crime that will happen in theUnited Stateswhile we are sitting here in church today. (Based on 1 hour and 15 minutes)
There will be 2,250 crimes (1 every 2 seconds)
There will be 1,500 property crime (1 every 3 seconds)
There will be 225 vehicle thefts (1 every 20 seconds)
There will be 1,125 “things” stolen ( 1 every 4 seconds)
There will be 450 burglaries (1 every 10 seconds)
There will be 225 violent crimes (1 every 20 seconds)
There will be 150 aggravated assaults (1 every 35 seconds)
There will be 75 robberies (1 every 60 seconds)
There will be 38 forcible entries (1 every 2 minutes)
There will be 160 murders (1 every 25 seconds)
Those are pretty sobering statistics. Crime has been around since almost the beginning of time, it makes its way all the back to the garden of Eden. Two weeks ago we looked at a man named Naaman who had leprosy and was cured from it. Today we are going to continue that story and some of the aftermath of what happened after he was healed. It’s found in 2 Kings 5:15-27.
Read Passage – 2 Kings5:15-27
15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God . He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.” 16 The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused. 17 “If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. 18 But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaningon my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.” 19 “Go in peace,” Elisha said. After Naaman had traveled some distance, 20 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, “My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.” 21 So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him. “Is everything all right?” he asked. 22 “Everything is all right,” Gehazi answered. “My master sent me to say, ‘Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’” 23 “By all means, take two talents,” said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up the two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. He gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi. 24 When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the things from the servants and put them away in the house. He sent the men away and they left. 25 When he went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” “Your servant didn’t go anywhere,” Gehazi answered. 26 But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes—or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks and herds, or male and female slaves?27 Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
Tempted By Your Weakness
Crime is something that is all around us. It’s easy to look down on those who commit crime and to be somewhat judgmental about it. I’m not saying we should condone it but we should realize we all have our weaknesses. It also occurred to me that crime is something that Satan instills in us because what he does is tempt us in our areas of weakness. It makes sense when you think about it, Satan doesn’t tempt our strengths because, well let’s face it, that’s where we are strong. We either don’t struggle with that or we have the ability to get past it without much effort. So what he does is attack the weaknesses we have because that is where there you and I have greatest chance to fall.
Ill. Some struggle with cursing, some with acquiring things, some with drugs or alcohol, come with anger, etc., well, you get the idea.
Ex. In sports on thing I have been pretty good at is identifying an opponents weaknesses and attacking them. I love to play tennis. I used to play a friend of mine, Chris, regularly and one thing I always knew about Chris was that he didn’t have a very good backhand shot. If I needed a point, if I wanted to win a game, if I felt I wasn’t really on my game but wanted to maintain my winning ways over him, I would focus on hitting to his backhand. It always gave me the edge.
Funny thing about our weaknesses, we usually know them. We know our strengths but we also know our weaknesses and we can probably tell you what they are.
In our passage today we see a man named Gehazi. His struggle: wealth and possessions and lying. In our passage we saw Naaman offer Elisha anything he wanted. He was so happy to be cured of his leprosy that he was willing to give anything to Elisha as an expression of thanks. Elisha turns him down. He doesn’t want anything…but Gehazi does. He wants things; that is one of his weaknesses. So in verse 22 it says:
“Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.” vs. 22
Gehazi makes up this story that Elisha has changed his mind and some visitors came into town and Elisha wants to help them out. See how this made up story makes sense? Because of his character and attitude Elisha wouldn’t want things for himself but he would to help someone else. This seems reasonable to Naaman because it is consistent with Elisha’s character. It’s here that we learn from Gehazi the “red flags” that lead to danger, that lead to warning us that we might be heading down the wrong road.
Red Flags There Is Danger Ahead
This week I had the chance to get away for a couple of days. Along the way there was a place where they were doing road work on this two lane road. A few miles before there was a electronic sign telling us to expect delays and that the road work was coming. As we got closer there were orange diamond shaped signs warning us that the road work was just ahead. A couple hundred of yards before we got there we saws cones on the road. Those were all signs of danger ahead. I think this passage gives us those same type of warnings that in life, there are red flags that we are headed for danger and need to be cautious as we move ahead. I see four of them in this passage.
1. You Feel That You Are “Owed”
The first sign is that feeling that we get inside us that tells us we are “owed” something or that we deserve something. We aren’t told much about Gehazi expect that he is a servant to the prophet Elisha. We can surmise that he probably doesn’t have much and isn’t really in a position in life to attain much in his lifetime. So when he sees that Elisha doesn’t take anything from Naaman, he sees this as his opportunity to get what he is “owed.” Verse 20b:
“As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.” vs. 20b
His thinking is that he has the chance get some things for all his years of service and hard work. We can fall into this trap so easily. It seems that we in theUnited Stateshave fallen into this trap, even in the church.
Ex. Ever heard of the “Prosperity Gospel?” It’s the idea that God wants us all to be rich. We have preachers out there trying to convince people that God wants everyone to have riches and wealth right now. Take note for a moment that these preachers are mostly in theU.S. Most people outside theU.S. don’t have nearly what we have and these preachers wouldn’t have a voice other places but we buy into it. Why? Because we in theU.S. have this thought that we are owed or deserve that kind of thing. Did you know 56% of the world lives below the poverty line? That 20% of the world live on less than a $1 a day? The Bible clearly does not say that we should all be rich.. God wants us to have our best, now, but that isn’t necessarily mean riches.
If you have gotten to the point of feeling you are “owed” something or deserve it; it may be a red flag, be careful, you could be heading into danger. I see this often when we hear about those that win the lottery. You see others say about them that they “deserve” it as if they have had a bigger and more difficult life than everyone else. Danger! You might be heading down the wrong road. The Bible does warn us about trying to get rich quick. Proverbs 28:20 (TM):
“Committed and persistent work pays off; get-rich-quick schemes are ripoffs.”
Prov. 28:20 The Message
I love the way Eugene Peterson transliterates that for us.
2. You Justify Your Sin
A second red flag to take note of is that when you are have sin in your life, you try to justify it. Verse 20a:
“My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought.” vs 20a
In our story Gehazi was listening to the conversation between Elisha and Naaman. When Elisha doesn’t take advantage of taking things from Naaman, Gehazi seizes the opportunity and even justifies it. He tries to put it back on Naaman but really it is his own issue, not Elisha’s. He basically is saying that Elisha was wrong, that he is right, and therefore what he is doing is okay. He is probably thinking things like:
-He needs to pay, it’s the only way he’ll understand the value of it
-He won’t appreciate it unless he pays
-He needs to learn what the real world is like
-He won’t really believe it was God if he gets it for free
Ever heard things like that? Sure, if we haven’t said them, we have heard others say them. We justify our sin to ourselves and to others, or at least try to. Remember what I said earlier, that we all know our weaknesses, well, so does God. He knows. In Luke 16 Jesus is speaking with the Pharisee’s and Saducee’s and they think they are fooling everyone. They have justified their actions to convince themselves and others that they are good righteous people. Jesus tells them in Luke 16:15:
“You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.”
Luke 16:15
We can try to convince ourselves all we want. We can even convince others at times; but we cannot fool God. He can see right through us and he knows our hearts.
3. You Don’t Take The Chance To Come Clean
An interesting twist now takes place in our story; Gehazi has the chance to come clean and the red flag is that when we have the chance to come clean, we don’t take it. Verse 25a:
“When he went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” vs. 25a
Gehazi actually has two or three chances to fess up but he just can’t do it. Here is the thing about sin and those issues in our lives; you always have a chance to get out if it, to come clean, to fess up, to tell the truth. Sometimes when we are in those situations we feel there is no way out. Listen closely now, your way out may only be a split second decision. You might not always have a lot of time. Sometimes you do but many times it is a quick, momentary, spit decision. Here is how I know you always have a way out, 1 Cor. 10:13:
“When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” 1 Cor. 10:13
The Bible tells us we have a way out, a way to stand up under it. You can come clean at any time. The longer our sin goes on usually the worse it gets. And here is another thing about it, when we come clean, we realize that everyone has their struggles and everyone has their issues. AND…coming clean is tough. It’s not easy. It’s not easy to admit you were wrong, that you did something wrong, that you struggled, that you erred, that you fell. There is a lot of fear in coming clean. Will I be accepted? Will I be forgiven? Will I get a second chance? Can God forgive me? God always does. Now sometimes there are still consequences and after effects. That is a reality. But there is always a way to come clean and to start over.
Ex. Communion – the act of confessing and starting over.
4. You Lie To Cover Your Lie(s)
And the 4th red flag we see from Gehazi is that when we sin, and in his case the lie, you have to work a lot harder and a lot more to cover that sin or lie. Verse 25b:
“Your servant didn’t go anywhere…” vs. 25b
One of Gehazi’s issues was lying. First he lied to Naaman, now he is lying to Elisha.
One study that shows it takes 7 lies to cover the first lie. Another study by Roy Britt, the editorial director if Imaginova on Livescience.com from 2009 shows that lying takes longer than telling the truth. Literally. The study showed that it takes people about 30% longer to tell the first lie and then additional time later to back up the lie.
Point: When you find yourself sinning to cover up another sin, danger, danger!
Notice how Solomon states it in Prov. 14:5:
“A truthful witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies.” Prov. 14:5
Notice that the word at the end is “lies.” It’s plural because it just seems that you can’t just lie, it takes lies. The same is true of almost all sin, it rarely comes in singles, it almost always is in the plural.
Pay attention to the red flags! The warning signs are there. We have choices and options. We can choose to think that we can live in “secret sin” but the reality is there is no secret sin. We can try to fool others, we can try to justify what we do, but God knows our hearts and the great thing is that he is a loving God is gives us opportunities rto come clean, and numerous chances to start again.
I Am A 3!
Let me end today by giving you something that you can do to help yourself. (Shameless plug) My wife, Claudia, is beginning a new class tonight on the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a personality trait breakdown that helps you understand who you are and how God has created you. By knowing yourself better you can know God better and His desire)s) for your life. Let me give you a quick example. The Enneagram details 9 different personality types. I am a 3. By knowing that I understand myself and that one of my main issues is I struggle with truth and untruth. So I know I can smudge things to look better, to look successful. So I have to be careful that I always speak the truth. In doing so, I serve God better. So I do things to make sure I am always in truth. I know it. My wife knows it. I have accountability partners that know it. the more I live in truth, the better I serve God and the better I feel about myself. Maybe consider coming to the class tonight at 7 P.M. in Larson Hall.
