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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Chelsy Schauer

The Purpose of the Church:  A Drastic Contrast

If you would bow your heads with me, I want to have 1 more quick word of prayer before we begin.

Father God in heaven, thank you for who you are, that we know you are a God of love, of mercy, of truth.

Lord this morning, I don't want to speak a message at all.

So Lord, this morning, we want to hear from you.

And we're gonna open your word, so I know that you've promised that when we do, you will speak to us.

So this morning, I just thank you for the promise that your word does not go back to you void.

So I ask for the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, convict our hearts, Lord, in whatever area we personally need to be.

You may have heard the story in Pittsburgh, they were building a post office in a small town there, and this was a big event.

They were building this multimillion dollar post office, and when the day came, the grand opening, you could say, the town gathered, the mayor came out to give a speech, they cut the red ribbon, everybody was excited, and when it came time for the first letter to be mailed.

The man who had the privilege of mailing it had it in his hand and he was walking forward and when he got to the place where the drop box should be, to the embarrassment of the engineers, They had forgotten to put it in.

Here was this multi-million dollar post office and they couldn't even mail a letter.

It was a minor thing to overlook, but it negated the very reason for its existence.

A minor omission negated the very reason for its existence.

Why has God called you personally into existence and are we making omissions in our life that may even negate the reason for our existence?

There's a quote in Acts of the Apostles, and I know sometimes when we hear a quote, our mind starts to wander, we don't listen as carefully, someone's reading.

But this morning I want you to listen very carefully.

The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men.

The appointed agency for the salvation of men.

It was organized for service and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world.

From the beginning it has been God's plan that through his church shall be reflected to the world his fullness and his sufficiency.

The members of the church, those whom he has called out of darkness into his marvelous light, are to show forth his glory.

The quote in saying the church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ and through the church will eventually be made manifest the final and full display of the love of God.

So there's this two-part for our existence.

To bring the gospel to the world for the salvation of men, to serve our mission is to share that marvelous light that we have come to.

To manifest his glory, his character, For us to become like Jesus and for people to see, it says, the final and full display of the love of God through us.

For us to be changed, to manifest his character.

As we behold his character, as we know God, we are changed into his likeness.

And this morning we're gonna look at 2 stories in 2 Kings and we're gonna look at the the difference between them the contrast and I want you to to see this in light of our mission second Kings chapter 6 second Kings chapter 6 and we're gonna begin in verse 8 a little background.

Israel and Syria were at war, constantly at war.

And right now, Syria has the upper hand, so to speak, and they're going to attack.

So here, verse 8, now the king of Syria was making war against Israel, and he consulted with his servants, saying, my camp will be in such and such a place.

And the man of God said to the king of Israel, beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there.

Then the king of Israel sent someone to that place of which the man of God had told him.

Thus he warned him and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.

Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing.

And he called his servants and said, will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?

And 1 of his servants said, none, none, my Lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.

They're going to attack and they have these secret plans and God tells Elisha where they're going to attack.

So Elisha tells the king, the king sends someone and this doesn't just happen once or twice but many many times.

But instead, God is revealing to this prophet, what you say in your bedroom, that was the most secure place where not even his closest friends would know what he spoke.

So they find out where Elisha is and the king decides he's going to send all his armies, all his chariots, and he's going to go destroy this man.

You know the story, but let's pick up in verse 15.

Elisha and his servant are there, verse 14, therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there and they came by night and surrounded the city.

And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots and his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?

So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.

Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Reality is in what we see with our fleshly eyes, is it?

So there Elisha's there, and the servant's afraid, and he says, Lord, open his eyes, and he sees all of the angels, the chariots of heaven protecting them in between them in the camp up on the mountains.

Those who are with us are more than those who are against us.

And so Elisha prays And he sees this and then Elisha asked God to give them blindness and he leads them where?

He leads them right into the Israel's camp into Samaria, and it's interesting He leads them right in he asked God to then open their eyes They open their eyes, and they're standing in their enemy camp, right?

What would they expect that these enemies are gonna do to them?

I mean, you have all your enemies right there.

They've been at war for so long against these people.

Oh, Now, now is our time to overthrow them.

Through Elisha, the king's asking Elisha, shall I kill them, should I kill them?

And verse 22, Elisha says, you shall not kill them.

Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow, set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

God did not allow Elisha to bring them into the camp only for them to kill them.

And it would actually be a crime for him to take prisoners of war and just kill them.

I mean prisoners of war may be taking captive but not to kill them in cold blood right there.

So he says no don't kill them but instead he even goes a step further feed them as if they're guests to this place.

So here he is feeding his enemies, but look what happens as a result.

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The Purpose of the Church: A Drastic Contrast

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