Sunday's Response

Response from Todd Asaad’s Message from Sunday 9/4/05

2 Kings 6:24-33
24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels. 26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, "Help me, my lord the king!" 27 The king replied, "If the LORD does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?" 28 Then he asked her, "What's the matter?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we'll eat my son.' 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give up your son so we may eat him,' but she had hidden him." 30 When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and there, underneath, he had sackcloth on his body. 31 He said, "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!" 32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "Don't you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master's footsteps behind him?" 33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, "This disaster is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?"

2 Kings 7:1-2
1 Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria." 2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?""You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it!"

Note: The king wanted to blame God & his prophet instead of taking responsibility for his own heart & relationship of the people. In times of trouble, it’s easier to blame shift. The king was conflicted – he wore sack cloth (a sign of mourning & humility before God) under his royal robes (a sign of worldly wealth & power).

1 Samuel 13:7-13
Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. 8 He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter. 9 So he said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings." And Saul offered up the burnt offering. 10 Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. 11 "What have you done?" asked Samuel. Saul replied, "When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, 12 I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering." 13 "You acted foolishly," Samuel said.

Note: Because we fear, Saul didn’t want to wait for Samuel to offer the burnt offering.
Wait (verb):

1. To remain or rest in expectation


2. To remain or be in readiness


3. To remain or stay in expectation of


4. To delay (a meal or an event); postpone

When I don’t want to wait for God, I:

1. Want to do it my way.


2. Don’t trust God.

Trust (noun):

1. Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing.


2. Custody; care.


3. Something committed into the care of another; charge.


4. The condition and resulting obligation of having confidence placed in one.


5. One in which confidence is placed.


6. Reliance on something in the future; hope.


7. Reliance on the intention and ability of a purchaser to pay in the future; credit.

I placed the last one in, I just thought that God has given me a credit limit, and it is my responsibility to make good on that extension. God does not want to foreclose on the loan he has given me, or anyone else for that matter. Just an interesting thought…
Trust (verb):

1. To have or place reliance; depend.


2. To be confident; hope.


3. To have or place confidence in; depend on.


4. To expect with assurance; assume.


5. To believe.

Job 14:14 If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.
Psalm 5:3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.
Psalm 27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
Psalm 33:20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
Psalm 37:7, 34
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
34 Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
Psalm 38:15 I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God.
Romans 8:23-25
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Answer (noun):

1. A spoken or written reply, as to a question. (A correct reply)


2. A solution, as to a problem. (A correct solution)


3. An act in retaliation or response

Expect (verb):

1. To look forward to the probable occurrence or appearance of.


2. To consider likely or certain.


3. To consider reasonable or due.


4. To consider obligatory; require.

Patient (adj.):

1. Bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness.


2. Marked by or exhibiting calm endurance of pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance.


3. Tolerant; understanding.


4. Persevering; constant.


5. Capable of calmly awaiting an outcome or result; not hasty or impulsive.


6. Capable of bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance.

Patiently came up twice in that series of scriptures, so I definitely had to include that in this series of definitions. It doesn’t sound as though patience is something that is actually fun. When I have thought of a patient person, I thought of someone who in good spirits, and that meant that whatever they went through, they kept a happy demeanor. I have heard it said “patience is a virtue,” and so patience is a good thing. Pain does not sound like a good thing. But then, who said following God was going to be easy? What will it take for me to understand that all I’ll ever need is God? Why is fasting so important? Because, fasting makes me wait. When I wait, God wants me to wait patiently and lovingly. Another thought that I personally have is that when I used to lift weights, work out, have the six pack, the whole works. I lifted weights and it hurt. I was patient with my results, because of the expectation of what I knew would come. I knew that I would be healthier, I knew that I would look better, and I knew that to get there, pain was going to be a part of the picture. Now, God has a perfect answer (solution). Fasting causes me to wait (be in readiness; expectation) and be patient (tolerate) for what is to come. It seems to make so much more sense now when I break it down to the basics.

2 Kings 7:3-11
3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, 'We'll go into the city'-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."
5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!" 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
9 Then they said to each other, "We're not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let's go at once and report this to the royal palace."
10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, "We went into the Aramean camp and not a man was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were." 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

If the lepers waited to share the good news, then they’d be in sin. What I have is a blessing from God, let me share it with others. I have beyond physical blessings, I have spiritual blessings (the good news of God).
Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

As devastating as the hurricane was, can it still bring good to our nation, our church?

Psalm 147:1-3
1 Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! 2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.