Elisha Deals with Gehazi's Sin

Thank you, David. 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings chapter 5, as we look at how Elisha deals with Gehazi's sin.

Now remember, Naaman had just been healed of leprosy. Naaman was a mighty man of valor. He was a great warrior. He was the Syrian captain, and the king was concerned about his leprosy. He had accomplished much, and yet leprosy was what was holding this man back. Well, come to find out, through one of Naaman's raids in the land of Israel, he obtained a young Jewish girl to be a slave. And she, with a very forgiving, compassionate, kind spirit, recommended to Naaman's wife how it is he could be healed, because she knew a prophet in the king would send Naaman back to Israel, or over to Israel, to see the king.

And the king, of course, Jehoram, had no idea about what he wanted to ask. He thought he wanted to start a war. But Elisha heard of it. Elisha sent word to the king and said, send Naaman to me. When Naaman came to Elisha's house, Elisha never even went out to greet him. Instead, he sent his servant, Gehazi. And Gehazi told him, you need to go down to Jordan, and you dip yourself seven times in the Jordan River. That was 32 miles away from where Elisha lived. And Naaman was furious. He did not want to do that.

He knew about the murky waters of the Jordan. He thought it was a foolish idea. But his servants, Naaman's servants, convinced him, you need to do this thing. And so he submitted to the word of the Lord. He went down to the Jordan. He dipped seven times. And lo and behold, he came up the seventh time and was healed. And couldn't find out, because of the word of the Lord that Naaman had spoken to him, he believed in the Lord God of Israel. And he committed his life to follow Jehovah. And so he would make his journey back to Syria.

This story was instrumental in the ministry of Christ in Luke chapter 4. Because in Luke chapter 4, Christ would make sure that those Jewish people in the synagogue of his hometown would know that of all the lepers in the land of Israel, the Lord did not send Elisha to them. Instead, he sent Elisha to a pagan, Gentile captain of a Syrian army. And that man was healed because he submitted to the word of the Lord. And Israel, in Luke chapter 4, those Jews were furious with Jesus, furious because they were unwilling to submit to the word of the Lord.

And the reason they were unwilling to submit to the word of the Lord is because they were just like the Jews during the time of Elisha. They too were idolaters. They just did not see themselves as idolaters. They did not see themselves as unsubmissive to the word of the Lord, but they were. Naaman, he submitted. Naaman understood the Lord God of Israel and was committed to following him. So you can imagine the scene when Naaman goes home. His wife had to be ecstatic. I mean, after all, he's healed from leprosy.

The little Jewish maidservant in his house, ecstatic because she was able to direct him in the right place. The king, King Ben-Hadad, he too was ecstatic because his number one soldier general was healed.

You can imagine the response of the people in Syria, great rejoicing. Everybody was rejoicing, even Elisha over the hand of God upon this man. But there was one who didn't, and that was Gehazi. He did not celebrate. And the Bible tells us in verse number 20, the reason he did not celebrate, and that's because Elisha did not take anything from him. He came with 10 talents of silver. He came with all kinds of goods, and Elisha took nothing. And the reason Elisha took nothing was because he wouldn't understand the grace of almighty God.

And Elisha wasn't in it for the money, but Gehazi, he was upset. He despised the Syrians. He despised their behavior. They were Gentile pagans, and he wanted something in return. And so he begins to plot and think about how he can obtain materialistically from Naaman, this new convert, something for himself. Bottom line, Gehazi was one who coveted another man's goods. He was into covetousness, and that's what would move this man. Now, the Bible speaks a lot about covetousness, a whole lot about it.

We know it's the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, his oxen, his livestock, anything that's not his, he should not desire and want. Remember Paul in Romans 7, as he went through the 10 commandments, realized that he wasn't, in his mind, an idolater. He had only one God. That was the Lord God of Israel. He served that God. He honored that God. He honored his mother and father. He believed he didn't steal anything.

He believed he wasn't a liar. He wasn't a murderer. He wasn't an adulterer. He recognized he had done all those things in his mind until he came to commandment number 10, when it says thou shalt not covet. Now, here's the point. Listen carefully. It was Saul, then soon the apostle Paul, who realized that although he was not a murderer, he did not steal. He did not lie. He did not commit adultery. He was not an idolater in his own mind. While he did not do those things, he knew in his heart he wanted to do those things.

He was a covetous man. And so this commandment, this 10th commandment, speaks loudly to all of us and speaks loudly of Gehazi's sin and how wretched it truly was. And so in this story, the sequel to the story of Naaman, the only time that Elisha is mentioned in the New Testament is with this story and what took place with Naaman. But what follows that story is something even more profound, because Elisha will realize, I mean, Gehazi will realize that Elisha not just had remedial powers, but he had retributional powers because he'd be convicted of a sin and face the consequences of a sin.

I remember the words of Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 8 verse number 10, speaking of those in Judah, the Lord God says this, everyone is greedy for gain.

From the prophet to the priest, everyone practices deceit. That could be written across America. Everybody is greedy for gain. Nobody has enough. From the prophet to the priest, and this is what God condemned Israel for, because covetousness is idolatry. Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 5. In fact, over in Ephesians chapter 4, these words are spoken. Ephesians chapter 4 verse number 17, so this I say, Paul says, and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding and excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart.

And they having become callous have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. That's covetousness. They give themselves over to every kinds of impurity because they covet what they do not have. They want so desperately the things that they cannot touch. So over in Ephesians chapter 5 in verse number 3, Paul says, but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving thanks.

For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Covetousness is idolatry. Why? Because the covetous heart wants so desperately to have what it cannot have that all of its affection and all of its attention and all of its adoration are fixed on what they cannot have. And that becomes the one thing they worship above the one true God. So all covetousness is idolatry. Whether you covet what your neighbor has, whether you covet his wife, whether you covet his car, his house, his lawn, his income, whatever it is, whatever you covet, whatever you want, the forbidden fruit is idolatry.

Because it takes you away from the attention toward God, towards something else other than God, which then becomes your God. So let's look at Gehazi's sin and how Elisha deals with it.

Second Kings 5 verse number 20, But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, thought, Behold, my master has spared this Naaman, the Aramean, by not receiving from his hands what he bought.

As the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him. So Gehazi pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him and said, Is all well? He said, All is well, my master has sent me, saying, Behold, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talon of silver and two changes of clothes. Naaman said, Be pleased to take two talons. And he urged him and bound two talons of silver in two bags with two changes of clothes and gave them to two of his servants.

And they carried them before him. When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house. And he sent them in a way and they departed. But he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, Where have you been, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant went nowhere. And then he said to him, Did not my heart go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants?

Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. So he went out from his presence, a leper as white as snow. This is an amazing account of scripture. And you read anything, you know, isn't that just a little bit excessive? I mean, to give the guy leprosy? I mean, what about the compassion of God? What about the kindness of God? Why would Elisha bestow upon this man the curse and disease of leprosy? Not only that, it would never depart from his house forever. Isn't that just a little excessive, a little too much pain, a little too much consequence for telling a lie and coveting another man's silver?

Ah, but remember, always remember that what Gehazi did, he did under the cloak of religion. On top of that, for him to do what he did would only demean the eyes of the true and living God in the eyes of everyone else, whose prophets and priests and deities only did what they did for the purpose of material gain. So it was blasphemous against God. So while we might think it's a little excessive, remember, there are times all throughout scripture, God said to Moses, speak to the rock, don't strike the rock.

Moses struck the rock and God said, no promised land for you. I said, speak. You struck. Can't do that. With Ananias and Sapphira, they gave money for the sale of their land to the church. They probably gave more than a tenth to the church. They probably gave 20, 25, 30% of the proceeds from the sale of the land to the church. But when Peter asked them how much they sold the land for, they lied. They lied. And they were struck dead in church. A little excessive, a little overbearing. And Achan, all he did was take a little bit of the spoils from Jericho.

And God said, don't take any of the spoils from Jericho. But Achan thought, well, I'll just take a little bit. I'll hide them in my tent. But it cost Israel their next battle. They lost men in their next battle. And to fight against Ai was nothing compared to fighting against Jericho. And God said to Joshua, there is sin in the camp. So when they found out about the sin, they stoned Achan and his family. And then they burned Achan and his family. A little excessive, maybe? I don't think so. What are the wages of sin?

Death. God said that. When you sin and you don't die, that's grace. That's mercy. You probably received a lot of grace today. And you don't even recognize it. A lot of mercy God bestowed upon you today when you sinned. We should be grateful that we didn't die when we sinned. Gehazi, leprosy. It never does it depart from his house. His sin affected his entire household. So let's look at it again.

Let's look at the text and let's look at Gehazi's problem. Let's look at Gehazi's pursuit and then Gehazi's punishment.

What was his problem? Three things you're going to notice in verse number 20 about the problem that Gehazi had.

The first one was that he was careless about all the spiritual advantages that he had. Very careless about all the spiritual advantages that he had. You know, he just didn't care. Gehazi was the servant of who? Elisha, the great prophet in Israel, the hero in Israel. He was second when it came to popularity in the land of Israel.

And he was able to go along with Elisha, see miracle after miracle after miracle, hear sermon after sermon after sermon, see the grace of this man, the kindness of this man, the unselfishness of this man. He had a firsthand approach to what ministry was taking place in the life of this great man Elisha. And things were happening all around him that were supernatural. Things were happening around him that were unlike anything else that had ever happened in the land of Israel. And he had a front seat to all those things, all those spiritual advantages.

But you know what? He could care less. He just didn't care. They made no dent in his life. Gehazi's a lot like Judas, who when he was around, Jesus saw everything, heard everything, yet it made no impact on his life. Gehazi had the opportunity to follow Elisha like Elisha followed Elijah. He was next in line. He could have been the next great prophet in the land of Israel. But Gehazi was careless about all the spiritual advantages around him. How many times are there great things happening around us and we just don't see them?

We're blind to them. We're deaf to them. We just don't comprehend them. You'll note this when we are so negative about things that are happening around us and to us, instead of focusing in on the things that are great that God is doing. Gehazi didn't do that. He was so careless when it came to spiritual things. On top of that, he was contemptuous toward Elisha, Naaman, and the Lord God of Israel. He was contemptuous toward Elisha. Elisha had made it very clear that he was going to receive nothing from Naaman, that he wanted to display the grace and mercy of God upon this man.

He wanted Naaman to know that his God could not be bought. And so he wanted to demonstrate grace and kindness and mercy. And here, Gehazi would disrespect Elisha's ministry. He would throw a damp cloth on his service. He misrepresented Elisha. He misrepresented Elisha's ministry. He dirtied Elisha's reputation. He just didn't care about Elisha. And he was the first in line.

He was the next prophet in line. And he was right with Elisha, had been with him for years in his service, but he completely had contempt for Elisha's ministry. No respect at all. On top of that, he had no respect for the new convert, Naaman. He could care less about Naaman. He could care less that he was healed from leprosy. He was the Syrian captain. The Jewish people hated them. They would come over and they would rob Israel in their land and take captive girls and boys, steal them for their parents.

He had no use for Naaman. But worst of all, he was contemptuous toward the Lord God of Israel. Because whenever God says, thou shalt not covet, and you decide you're going to covet anyway, you blaspheme the name of God.

You don't care what he says. And he had contempt for the Lord God of Israel. He didn't care about the glory of God and the healing of Naaman. He didn't care about the glory of God and a man saying, you know what? I now know that there's a God in Israel. So much so that I want to take pounds of dirt with me because I want the people in Syria to know that the God of Israel is the God who lives among them as well. But he had no respect for the glory of God. He had contempt for his glory. So much so, he blasphemed his name by saying, as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.

He attributed what he did to the Lord. It was all wrong. This was Gehazi's problem. He was careless about spiritual things. He was contemptuous towards spiritual men, the God of the universe. He was also committed deeply to materialism. This is what drove the man. He says, I will run after him. The covetous man is always running toward that which is materialistic. He's always running toward the temporal. He's not running toward the spiritual, but he's running toward that which will give him some prosperity, some place of prominence, some position.

Oh, I'll run. I will catch them and I will get what I want. That is the covetous man. He's always running toward materialism. He's not running toward that which is spiritual. He's not running to church. He's not running to Bible study, but he's running to work and he's running to a place that will allow him to gain more and more and more. He's running to that which will make him happy. But does he run to spiritual things? You see, if you're running faster toward the things of the world than you are the things of God, you're a covetous person.

You're a covetous person. And that's something that should cause every one of us to wake up and say, you know what? What do I really want in life? Do I want to know my God? Do I want to be closer to my God? Do I want to run to Bible study? Do I want to run to church? Do I want to run and be with God's people? Do I want to run to ministry in the church? Do I run there as fast as I run to work on Monday, as I run to gain more and more and more? So many times our pursuits and all of our zeal are toward the things of the world and not the things of God.

And you know what makes you passionate. You know what makes you run. You see, the materialistic person sets his agenda around the things that he wants to do. He sets his schedule around the things that he wants to do to make sure he is able to get what he wants to get. Gehazi was bound and determined. I'm going to run after them. I'm going to catch them before they get out of the country. And I'm going to ask for something that I want. So he did. So you would move from Gehazi's problem to Gehazi's pursuit.

He runs after them. He pursued Naaman, verse 21. And when Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him and said, is all well? Naaman sees him coming. And so because he knows Gehazi, he says, hey, is everything okay? What's Gehazi say? All is well. Well, that's a lie. And then he says, my master has sent me. And that too is a lie. Behold, just now two young men of the sons of prophets have come to me. That's a lie. From the hill country of Ephraim. You see, he's a liar.

Covetous people are deceivers. They're liars. They don't speak the truth. They always hide the truth. They don't want to be exposed, but they lie and they deceive and they manipulate to gain what they so desperately want. This was Gehazi. My master sent me to you. Well, he knew that that would get Naaman's attention because his master had just provided a way for him to be healed of his leprosy, had just introduced him to the Lord God of Israel. So he's going to have a sensitive heart. On top of that, he prays on this new convert.

This new believer runs up to him and tells him, please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes. Now he tells them that there are two young men of the sons of the prophets. So he disguises what he is saying under the guise of religion. There are two men studying the ministry who need help. Would you be kind enough to help them to give a talent of silver, to give a change of clothes? It says in verse 23, Naaman said, be pleased to take two talents. That's 150 pounds of silver. And he urged him and bound two talents of silver in two bags with two changes of clothes and gave them to two of his servants and they carried them before him.

I mean, he couldn't carry all this himself. And all of a sudden, because of the liberality of Naaman, who recognizes there's a need and I have all these goods and the least I can do is meet the need. So don't just take one talent, take two talents. And I'll send my servants with you to help carry the load. So you have to do it all yourself. See the new convert, he just wants to give because new converts had that mentality. They want to give to the work of the ministry. They want to serve the Lord.

That was Naaman. Very generous. Oh, don't take one, take two. Here are the changes of clothes. Here are my servants. Let them go with you. And so they make their way back. It says, and when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house and sent them in a way and they departed. The hill is a tower. Now he couldn't go back to the house. He had to somehow have them deposit everything at the hill tower outside the city, leave it there, send them away because he had to think of a way to make sure that Elisha never saw the servants of Naaman back in his town again.

So he had them stop outside the town at the tower, deposit everything there, and then he would take it into the house. He would make several trips to take the 150 pounds of silver and the changes of clothes and take them and put them in his house. And this punishment. But he went in and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, where have you been? That's the one question he didn't want to face on that day. It would have been great if his master would have said, hey, we have ministry to do today.

Let's go. I need you to do something for me, Gehazi. I need you to clean this or clean that or go here or go there. But no, Elisha asked him, where have you been? And his answer was, I haven't been anywhere. Nowhere. It's when you talk to your kids and you know that they did something wrong. What are you doing? Nothing. Yeah, well, you're doing something. When they say they're doing nothing, they're doing something. Elisha says, Gehazi, where have you been? What have you been doing? What have you been up to?

Nothing. Really? Nothing. And Gehazi forgot who he was dealing with. He forgot that all things are laid open and naked before the eye of him who sees everything. Hebrews 4.13. He did not know or understand. Matthew 10 verse number 26, there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that shall not be known. He did not know that. Should have. But because he was careless about spiritual things and contemptuous towards spiritual men, that didn't really bother him much. So Elisha says, did not my heart go with you?

In other words, Elisha saw exactly what he was doing. He wasn't even with him because the Lord gave him the know-how as to what was happening. When the man turned from his chariot to meet you, how did he know that? How did Elisha know that Naaman turned to meet him and come down out of his chariot? How did Elisha know that unless God told him that? Because Elisha wasn't there. And you can imagine the beads of sweat on Gehazi's brow as Elisha begins to reiterate what took place outside Elisha's presence.

I'm sure his palms were sweaty. His pits were sweaty. His brow was sweaty. As Elisha begins to rehearse to him what took place when Naaman came down from his chariot, is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants? He knew the plan of Gehazi. Gehazi was setting himself up for retirement. Gehazi was setting himself up to be a rich man. He realized that being with Elisha, let me tell you something, being with Elisha didn't make his pockets jingle.

He realized that. Elisha would even take the money that Naaman, the Syrian, would give him. He knew that there was time that he didn't have enough food to eat or money to buy food. Well, his solution was to covet another man's silver and to take it for his own purposes. That he would have his own oxen, his own donkeys, his own servants. He was looking for his own retirement plan. Elisha knew that. Elisha called him out on it. And Gehazi says nothing. He speaks not a word. He could have said that's not true, Elisha.

But he knew that as soon as Elisha was speaking, that everything Elisha was saying was absolutely true. He could not deny it. So Elisha says, therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you. Oh, you wanted Naaman's silver. You're going to receive Naaman's sickness. You wanted Naaman's apparel. You will have Naaman's ailments. You want it that bad? You can have it. And therefore, he said, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever. Wow. So he went out from the presence of a leper as white as snow.

Remember the words of Proverbs chapter 21, verse number six, when the Lord God said, the acquisition of treasure by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor, the pursuit of death. The acquisition of a treasure by a lying tongue is just the pursuit of death. Over in Proverbs chapter 16, verse number eight, it says, better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice. And over in Proverbs 28, verse number six, these words are spoken. Proverbs 28, verse number six, better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked, though he be rich.

And Gehazi experienced the consequences of a sin. And what did he lose? Let me tell you what he lost.

The first thing he lost harmed his body. His physicality. Leprosy, that dreaded disease that was not able to be healed, except by the power of almighty God, he now had. He was going to be destroyed slowly but surely. And so it would affect his body. Not only did harm come to his body, but harm came to his ministry. He would lose all honor. Weren't you the man who was with Elisha? Weren't you the servant of Elisha? Were you the one involved in the ministry with Elisha? But he would lose that ministry.

It would be gone from him. Because of his covetous attitude, the spiritual privileges would be lost. So not only would it harm his body, but it would harm his ministry. It would harm his integrity. He'd lose his integrity. Because when people found out about it, he would become a despised man, not an honorable man. He would no longer be held in high esteem. He'd lose his status as a servant of the great Elisha. It harmed his body. It harmed his ministry. It harmed his integrity. It harmed his family.

Didn't even think of his family. Very few times do we ever think of our family when we sin. But it affects our family, doesn't it? In this instance, leprosy would never leave his descendants. That's just awful. But it affected everything in his family. His home would not only be destroyed because of his leprosy, he would be isolated from his family because of his leprosy in Israel. So it harmed his body. It harmed his ministry, his integrity, his family. It also harmed the money that he received.

What good is it to have all that money if your hands are being torn apart by leprosy and you can't hold on to the money? What good is it to have all those goods and yet not be able to wear them? What good is it to have all this money stored up and not be able to spend it? Thus, not only would he lose his money, his integrity, his family, his ministry, his body, he'd lose his joy. All joy would be gone. Why? Because the Bible says in Psalm 119, verse number one, blessed, happy is the man who is undefiled.

But he was not an undefiled man. He was a defiled man. He would lose his joy. All that because he so desperately wanted that which was forbidden to him. My friends, this speaks volumes to us today. As God said to Jeremiah, everybody is greedy for gain. Everybody wants more. There's never enough. We never have enough money. We never have enough clothes. We never have enough of this or never have enough of that. We always want more, more, more, more, and more. We cannot be satisfied. And we want all we can attain.

And Gehazi provides for us just a simple illustration of the consequences of sin. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter five, these words, verse number 10, he who loves money will never be satisfied with money.

Nor he who loves abundance with its income for that too is vanity. Now, if anybody knows that, it's Solomon because he had more money than you could ever know what to do with. He had more wives and concubines you could ever imagine. But he realized that those who love money will never be satisfied with money because money can't satisfy. See, the problem is, the curse is, the deception is, we think that it can. If we just have a little bit more each month, we'll be satisfied. No, you won't. You need to be content with the things that you have.

But we're not. We're discontent with the things that we have. We never have enough money. We never have enough of this or never enough of that. Yet we see others who have those things and deep in our soul, although we might not have them, we want them. You see, worldliness is not defined by what you have. Worldliness is defined by what you want to have. A worldly person isn't worldly because he has a lot of money or because he has a lot of houses or a lot of cars. That's not worldliness. It's wanting to have those things.

So that is my life's chief pursuit. That's worldliness. Abraham was a rich man. David was a rich man. Solomon was a rich man. Many rich men in the Bible, but they weren't worldly men. God gives you riches. You have them. But it's not about having those things. It's about wanting those things so desperately that you'll lie and deceive and cheat and steal to get what you do not have. That becomes your chief pursuit in life. That was Gehazi. That's the covetous man. And Solomon says very easily, listen, if you want money, just let you know, I have it all.

I have more than I need and it does not satisfy. Now, don't you wish that we could just read what Solomon said and say, boy, I'm just satisfied with my paycheck every month. But we're not. Just a little bit more. Solomon says it's empty. It's vain. It cannot bring you the joy, the happiness. It cannot bring you what you so desperately need. It's just all vain. So the Apostle Paul would say in First Timothy chapter six, the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.

And some by longing for it have wandered away with the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Oh, the love of money, not money. Money is not evil, but the love of money. Well, that's the root of all kinds of evil. It's not having money that's a problem. It's loving the money you have. It's the problem. See, for many of it, for many people are drawn away and experience much grief, the pangs of pain in those who just don't have enough. And so many times we forget. That's why Paul says, but flee these things.

He talked about you, man of God, talking to Timothy. Remember, Timothy is the only guy in the New Testament called the man of God. Although Paul was a man of God and Peter was a man of God, John was a man of God. None of them are called men of God, but Timothy was called the man of God. And Paul says, but you, oh man of God, you flee these things. What things? The love of money. You cannot be God's man and money's man. You cannot. You must flee these things. You must run away from the love of money, Timothy, and you must pursue, hunt down righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

This must be your chief pursuit. Let me ask you this question. What is your chief pursuit? Do you pursue faith? Do you pursue godliness? Do you pursue righteousness? Bible says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. They're the satisfied ones. Not those who love money and want money or love abundance and want more of that abundance, but those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for those are the ones that are truly satisfied. Gehazi did not want righteousness.

He didn't hunger and thirst for those things. He wanted well-being. He wanted to retire. He wanted to retire wealthy. That's what he wanted. And so he was willing to risk everything to deceive Naaman, to deceive Elisha, thinking that no one would know, but God knew because God always knows. He knows everything. And so Paul says, oh, Timothy, you man of God, you flee these things. They do not satisfy. What did Paul say in the book of Philippians? He said, I have learned to be content. Contentment is a learned attitude.

I've learned to be content. In whatever state I am in, I've learned contentment. Now, would it be that every one of us could say that, that we're content in our marriage? But how many of you are discontent in your marriage? I'm content in my ministry, or are you discontent in your ministry? I am content with what God has given to me in terms of my family. I'm content with one child. I'm content with no children. I'm content with whatever God wants to give me. I am content in my workplace. Say, but my workplace is in shambles.

Oh, yeah, but God put you there. Are you content in your workplace? Can you say, I am content with those I work with? Boy, you don't know who I work with. You're right, I don't. I don't have to know, but God knows. And Paul could say, I've learned contentment. That means he learned contentment in prison. He learned contentment when he was beaten, shipwrecked, snake bitten. He learned to be content in whatever state he was in, whether rich or whether poor. You see, contentment is the only cure for covetousness.

There is no other cure. And contentment can only come because of my commitment to the Christ. So what is it you pursue? Do you pursue God or do you pursue this world's goods? Do you pursue the Lord or do you pursue this world's lusts? Because you can go beyond just the money thing to coveting another man's wife because you're discontent with your wife. And so you want her instead of the one you have. And God says, that is a sin.

You can't do that. But Lord, you don't know my marriage. You don't know my situation. Oh yeah, I'm sure he knows. Believe me, I'm sure he knows. But can you say that I would be content with that husband or that wife, that job, that situation, that paycheck? It doesn't mean that you don't seek to get a better job if the opportunity arises. But sometimes, you know, the Lord doesn't open the door someplace else until we're content right where we're at. And he teaches us to be content with what he's given to us.

Poor Gehazi, he had everything. He was with Elisha, the great prophet. Not only did he have everything, he saw everything. Nobody saw what Gehazi saw except those who experienced the miracles of Elisha. And to be able to hear the sermons that Elisha preached, the messages from God, he had everything. He had all the advantages right here at his disposal, in his hands. It was all right beforehand, but he was discontent. He just wasn't satisfied with the spiritual. He had to have the material. He had to have something in his mind that was substantial, something that would affect his future.

So he showed his discontent for God, his discontent for Elisha, and he just pursued that which was selfish gain. He ran after it. He wanted it so badly. And where did he end up? Losing everything that was dear to him simply because he would not be content with the place and the ministry and the situation God had placed him. This story speaks to all of us. Every single one of us needs to understand that where God has placed us is where he wants us. What God is doing in your life right now is what he wants to do.

And we need to be the kind of people who sit back and say, Lord, thank you. Thank you. When was the last time for those of you in rocky marriages said, Lord, thank you for my husband or for my wife? Those of you who are in financial distress say, Lord, thank you for our financial upheaval because some way, somehow there's something you want to teach us. We want to really rest in this situation. We want to be content with what you've given to us. We don't ask for more. We don't ask for less. We just thank you for what you've given to us.

We are satisfied. The Psalmist said in Psalm 17, Oh, I'll be satisfied when I awake, when I awake with your likeness. That's what the Psalmist said. That's the way we should be. Our chief pursuit in life should be the Lord. We should run to him. It should be spiritual, not material. It should be a drive and it should be a desire and a passion to be like the Christ, to live for him, to honor him. Elisha, that was his ministry. Gehazi, he's off the scene. He's done. His ministry is over. And that's unfortunate.

Was there any repentance on his part? No. Any remorse on his part? No. Did he fall down before Elisha saying, you know, Elisha, I was so wrong. Please forgive me. I was sinful. No, nothing like that. Because his heart had become hardened and calloused to the point where repentance was not even possible now for him. Elisha, his ministry would continue on. Vibrant, successful in the eyes of the Lord, bringing glory to his name. My friend, my prayer for you and me is that truly we would be content with what God has given to us and that we would rejoice in his provision every day.

Let me pray with you. Lord, we thank you for today and the opportunity you give us to study your word. Lord, you put this illustration in the scriptures to show us how thankful we need to be for what's happening around us, how grateful we need to be for the things you've done for us, to us, through us and in us. Help us to be grateful people. Our prayer, Lord, is that we'd realize that nothing satisfies except you. The only thing that the soul desperately needs is the true and living God, your residence in us.

My prayer for every man, woman, boy and girl in the room is that that would be their prayer. And that, Lord, we would truly be grateful for the job we have, the family we live in, the marriage that we have, the home we live in, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear. We sit back and say, Lord, thank you. You've given it to us. We are content. We are satisfied because, Lord, what we really want more than anything is only Jesus. And we have you. And for that, we will always be grateful. In Jesus' name, amen.