Transcription
Don't you open your Bibles with me to Second Kings chapter five. Second Kings chapter five, and we're going to talk about this, this guy named Naaman. And what I'm going to do is, I'm gonna kind of read the end of the story and then go back and we're going to pick through the beginning of the story. And it says this:
Now then, Naaman went with his horses and his chariot and he stood at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean."
Verse 11 just really puzzles me though. But Naaman became furious, and he went away and said, "Indeed, I said to myself, come on, stop talking to yourself. He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and heal my leprosy. Are not the Abana and the Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be made clean?" So he turned away and went in rage.
I just want to pause there for a second because here we have a man who is desperate. We have a man who's hurting. We have a man who is literally struggling with an incurable disease. He, he, he, you know, there's no prescription that he can take. There's no place or no clinic that he can go. And God comes to him and tells him, "I'm gonna heal you." But it's not the way that he wants to be healed. It's amazing to me how many of us struggle with stuff, and the presence of God shows up, and God gives us this unction to get healed, but they were like, "I want it that way." Come on, somebody! "I want hands laid on me. You know, I don't want it that way. I don't want to have to forgive people that don't deserve it. I just want to be healed." And so we're learning from this God, Naaman.
And it goes on to say, "And his servants came near and spoke to him, saying, 'My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, you would have done it. How much more when he says, wash and be clean, that you should do?'" And it says, "So he went down. He went down to the Jordan. He listened and he dipped seven times in the Jordan according to the man of God, and his flesh, I love this, was restored like the flesh of a little child." I love the fact that when God heals us, he also redeems the time that we lost. Come on, somebody! Your doctor can't do that. Come on, somebody! Your physician can't do that. But the Great Physician is not just the restorer of wounds. He is a restorer of time. He's a restorer of time. And he was clean.
Shoreline City, those who are watching online today, I want to preach to you from the topic: Just Add Water. Just Add Water. As I was preparing for this message, the Lord reminded me that there are some products that have been invented that without the interaction of water, never flow or function in their purpose. Let's take instant pancake mix, for example. The gentleman or the person who invented instant pancake mix, come on, somebody, he had this great idea. We're going to make something that instantly, come on, somebody, will satisfy you in the morning. Or if you eat breakfast at night. But the qualifier is, is in order for this pancake mix to operate in its purpose, it must interact with something that it didn't create. It must interact with water. Somebody said, "Just Add Water."
There's also something like Lipton Onion Soup. Come on, y'all. That's the ingredient you use for everything: meatloaf, come on, barbecue sauce, cream of mushrooms, whatever it is. But guess what? Lipton Onion Soup could never be all that the uh inventor created it to be unless it interacts with water. Come on, some of y'all, you've had that season where you got uh something going on in your stomach, you're a little gassy. Come on, somebody. You're a little gassy. You're like, "Man, I need to stop and get me an Alka-Seltzer." And you go and you get the Alka-Seltzer. But what's the use of getting the Alka-Seltzer if you're not gonna buy a bottle of water? You cannot digest that. What the, what the Creator created Alka-Seltzer to do unless it is coupled up with water.
Pastor, why are you talking about this? Well, let me first go to my college students or those who used to be in college and you were broken and broke. Come on. This is before DoorDash. Where my people? Where are my pre-DoorDash folks at? Where y'all at? All that way, all that. You know the power of a cup of noodles. Come on, come on. For a dollar, cup of noodles, a cup for about five for five dollars. But what's the use of having a cup of noodles unless you have some water? In fact, on the instructions, it says, "Just add water."
Could it be that God has produced and God has spoken your healing? And God has spoken your deliverance? And God in heaven, come on, somebody, has given you a prescription for freedom, but we fail to read the instructions? We go to this person and we go to that person and we seek, come on, somebody, healing and that thing. But God says, "Could it be that just when my presence shows up, I just want you to just add water?" I don't want you to add your opinion. I want you to add water. I don't care what they think about it. I just want you to add water. I feel like God is in this place that says, "It's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by my Spirit," says the Lord. Somebody shout, "Just Add Water!" Just add water.
Water is powerful. From Genesis to Revelation, water was used as a sign of the Holy Spirit. And if it was used as a sign of the Holy Spirit, when we see water, we see refreshing. When we see water, we see freedom. When we see water, we see the presence of God. Even before anything that was made, it says, "And the Spirit of God in Genesis hovered over the face of the waters." All throughout the ministry of Jesus, John baptized Jesus. And when John baptized Jesus in the water, the Holy Spirit descended down upon Jesus. Water started his ministry. I came to tell you that if it's the presence of God that calls you, if it's the presence of God that heals you, if it's the presence of God that that satisfies, let me tell you something, then it's the presence of God that's going to maintain what he started.
We cannot just dip one time, come on, somebody, and expect God to keep moving the way he moves in a church service. We have to just add water. Water symbolizes the day of the Messiah. Water symbolizes the anointing. Water symbolizes your freedom. Water even really redeems your history. How do I know that? Because in John 4, Jesus met a woman at the well, and he starts talking to her about her history. But before he does that, he says, "Can I get a drink?" She says, "Can I get a drink?" Water will dignify you. Water unifies you. Water, I'm telling y'all right now, water is the thing that we need. You cannot live without physical water, so you think we can live without spiritual water? Come on, somebody.
What happened here in worship service this morning? That was just a drip. That was just a taste of what God wants to do. But he wants to change your worship from a bunch of lyrics to a whole lot of lifestyle. So you can have water in the mall. You can have water in the car. You can have water in the shower. Come on, somebody. You can, when the city water is turned off, there's another city come outside called the Kingdom of God. Come on. Says, "If my people were called by my name, are humble themselves and pray and seek my face, he says, I'll heal their land. I will rain down my kingdom from heaven to earth."
And where we find Naaman in the story, his name is a warrior. But where we find the, the nation of Israel, they were in a place where they started worshiping false idols. There, there, they're not taking care of the city. They're not taking care of the orphans. They're not taking care of the widows. They start demanding kings. And Naaman is working for a Syrian king. Syrians were against the Israelites and Judah. And God is using Naaman as the enemy as a prototype for how God's people need to get set free. Huh? Hey, yo, y'all have been mad that God blesses somebody that don't go to church. Come on, y'all. "Man, I tithe. I read my Bible. Come on, y'all. I did my devotions. I'm loving my neighbor as myself, and God ain't blessing me." And then somebody come in, just live all kind of way, been in the club, and just God bless them. And you like, "Is this Christian thing really real?"
And I think because God's people, God doesn't want you to seek his hand to give you something. God doesn't want to give you a present. God wants you to seek his face so that his presence shows up and begins to heal everything that is about you. And that's where we find Naaman. Naaman is a warrior. Naaman is a commander. Naaman out here winning, y'all. Naaman's got a blue check. Naaman's got millions of followers. Naaman has the ear of the king. And if you read this passage of scripture, I've read this a thousand times and never seen this before. And I was like, "Okay, God, what do you want to say to me through Naaman?" And the Lord spoke this to me: "I'm no longer going to allow you to win on the outside and not deal with the wounds on the inside." Y'all like, "I'm wet, but you still wouldn't." Naaman has trophies, but he's still got trauma. Naaman, he, he, he's a strategist, but he's not a realist.
Come on, church people. You come to church. How you doing? "I'm blessed. God is good. Look what the Lord has done." I can't wait for worship. But you stressed. You discouraged. You're disappointed. Come on. You got some people in your life that if you see them today outside of church, come on, somebody, them earrings coming off, them shoes coming off, and we about to turn it out. Come on, somebody. You just prophesied, but now you cussing somebody out. Why?
Because yes, I've got a purpose and a future, and God's created me for amazing things. But for some reason, although I made it through it, I still ain't over it. And today, the Lord is is propelling me to talk to you as if you're Naaman. How in the world, if we look at this passage of scripture, Naaman has proximity to a king, but keeps himself hidden underneath as the if he's my prototype. That how in the world if I'm going to have proximity to the king and not expect him to work it all together for my good? I just don't want to be free. I want to be free indeed. Come on, somebody. I just don't want to be through it. I want to be over it.
And I want to talk to somebody in church today who's going to be real enough that says, "I'm in church. I got my makeup on. I gotta shape up. I got deodorant on. I got my best outfit on. But I got some stuff in my past that I ain't over." Is there anybody in here that says, "Come on, you in your second or your third marriage, but you can't really enjoy it because the hurts and the habits and the hang-ups from your first marriage, and you can't really be all that God has called you to be because of what happened in your past?" Am I the only one with a past?
What I feel the Lord's saying today is, "I want to bring revival to your residuals." Uh-huh. I'm talking about the stuff that you got going on. I was watching TikTok the other day, and I saw, y'all, this girl playing a trick on her girlfriend, and she, her girlfriend was in the grocery store, and she, tired, y'all know when you go get the bag for the for the vegetables? She tied the bag on the back of the girl's pants without her noticing, and she was dragging around, come on, somebody, this bag all throughout, come on, somebody, this grocery store, going down aisles, just dragging stuff. Everybody looking. And guess what? She don't even know it.
I came to talk to the people that's been dragging stuff through seasons and dragging stuff through disappointments and dragging stuff through years and years and years, and you don't even know it. You have been leaking on people. Pastor, is there good news? There is. I came to tell you that Naaman is the prototype for us to get set free. And number one, if you're taking notes, you says, "Man, I, I'm gonna be honest, Pastor, yeah, I, I got some stuff. I got some stuff that I haven't been talking about. I got some stuff that keeps me up late at night. I got some emotional wounds. I, I got some, some depression. I got some anxiety. I got some fear. I got some insecurities. I got some doubt." We are singing this morning, "You're too good for us not to believe." But if I'm honest, I don't all the way believe.
If you want to get healed, number one, you gotta wear your wounds. You have to wear your wounds. You have to evaluate, "What am I not over that's costing me freedom in this season?" What's your insecurity costing you? What's your doubt costing you? Remember, I'm preaching to myself. What's that unforgiveness costing you? Oh, scripture says that if we don't forgive people on Earth, then our heavenly Father won't forgive us. And heaven, my attitude against them, could it be costing me him? What's that wound? Come on, look at the person next to you and says, "What's that wound costing you?" Is it costing you your joy? It's costing, come on, they, they dead and gone. They in the last season, but they still living in your head rent-free. What is it costing you? Uh-huh. What is those, "I don't do people no more"? Come on. I know some of y'all are in the room and you're like, "No, I'm a nine on the Enneagram. I, I, I, I, I, I just don't do people. It's my makeup. It's how God made me." No, you hurt. No, you mad. Mm-hmm. You don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers because you're codependent. Uh-huh. Come on, y'all. And it's costing you relationship, and it's costing you blessing, and it's costing you freedom.
The Bible says, "Confess your sins to God that you may be forgiven. Confess your sins to one another that you may be healed." Too many Christians walking around forgiven and not healed because they ain't got nobody to confess to, because they still mad at the pro, the person in the last season. Come on. I'm down your road. I'm up in the balcony right now, walking on your toes. Uh-huh. Because for so long, I am telling you, unforgiveness cost me favor. It cost me God. It cost me spiritual promotion. It cost me my anointing. It cost me my authenticity. It cost me my joy. Come on, some of y'all got a smile on your face in public, but you somebody else in private. You don't even, you can't even be the real you. And I've come to discover, it's impossible to keep up with who I pretend to be. It's time for you to come out. It's time for you to deal with it. But you got to weigh your wounds.
Let me help you. It wasn't just costing me what God had for me. It was costing what God had for my children. And the Lord just gave this for me. I'm not telling you this, it could be a little offensive if you take it as if I'm telling you this. But what God was telling me this, "Listen, Jimmy, if you not gonna get free for you, will you get free so it doesn't get passed down to your children or your children's children?" I am telling you right now, will you get healed? Will you get delivered? Will you, come on, somebody, get secure? Will you just say, "You know what? I'm gonna be emotionally and spiritually and physically well"? I'm telling you right now, the weight of carrying around your past is costing your children. It's costing your co-workers, and you are contagious. Your jealousy is contagious. Your insecurity is contagious. Your fear. Have you ever been around somebody and you're not even insecure, but then you find yourself saying, "How do I look? Is this the right outfit?" That's not even you, but your girlfriend, come on, somebody, who is still dealing with the residuals of what she used to deal with, it's rubbing off on you. Naaman, there's an army at stake. There's a generation at stake. Jimmy, you can't be mad. You can't have unforgiveness. Your anointing is diluted. From preaching to me, y'all know that my wife has been sober for seven years this November. And it was about three years ago that the old season started bothering me again, looking at old pictures, remembering thoughts and seasons. And rather than feeling like the scar was God, that God healed it, the scar was this, that it still hurt. God pulled me to the side. I was like, "Man, you got to deal with that."
I came to tell you that His word says, "I work it all." Somebody shout, "All!" Everything. "I work it all together for your good and for a purpose that's bigger than you." All of it. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All of it. The hurtful, the harmful, and the habits. All of it. "I'm gonna bring a testimony so that you don't have to walk around with a testimony. I am going to work all of it together for your good." That's why you need a shout right now. If it ain't good yet, God's not done yet. God is still working it all together for the good. He got a way. Weigh your wounds.
Yo, when I was young, I used to be scrappy. Which I could throw the hands a little bit, just back in the day. Now I can't because I just get tired quick. Come on, somebody. You, I gotta, if I'm gonna win, it's gonna be 30 seconds. Come on, somebody. Hey, I'm gonna need a timeout. But when I was young, I didn't lay hands, I threw them. Y'all. And I got in a fight with this guy in the field. I remember his name, Craig Agella. Craig is about two or three years older than me. Craig was wearing me out. No, he was peppering me up. I was getting peppered up. Craig was all small. Craig was awesome. He was moving around, jumping, bobbing, and weaving. And I was like, "My cousin came home from school, and he, I thought he was gonna jump in and help." He's like, "Nah, okay, this one you're gonna have to win on your own. This one, I'm gonna stand back." And why have you ever been a part of messing up God's process because you want to jump in to save somebody? Come on, somebody. Oh, my cousin's like, "Ah, you'll have to fight this one."
And so I'm fighting. I'm trying to hang in there. And y'all, I didn't give up. And I don't know how, but I caught Craig with a right hook. Bye! Craig fell out. I jumped on Craig. I don't condone fighting. It just feels good in this moment. And I'm wearing Craig out. All my big, I'm overweight. Come on. So I'm here. I'm sitting on top of him. He ain't got no wind. I go home. I'm bleeding out of my nose. I'm all bruised up. I'm, I'm hurting. The wound that I'm, I'm tired. I'm my mom was like, "Oh my gosh, what did you get in a fight?" She's addressing my wounds and giving me antiseptic and and putting the alcohol. Come on, somebody. I'm talking about that I had a real black mama. The alcohol, not the peroxide, the alcohol. Yeah. You know, because sometimes the pain of recovery is far worse than the pain of the injury.
I said, "Sometimes the pain of recovery is far worse than the pain of the injury." Y'all like, "It hurts too bad." That's because God is working right now. Come on, somebody. I feel it right now. You're like, "It hurts, Pastor. I don't think you understand." Because God is in there right now, no anesthesia. Come on, somebody. Working it all together. Then my dad comes out and he's like, "You get in a fight?" I'm like, "Yeah." "Look at you." He don't care about the injury. He don't care that I'm bleeding. He wants to know one thing: "Did you win?" And I'm like, "Yeah, one, Dad." And he says, "Don't look like it."
How many blood-bought, Bible-believing, grace-covered, cross-redeemed Christians are walking around not looking like you won? I am telling you right now, it is time for you to not cheapen the cross anymore and the redemptive work that God did and start looking like you won. You didn't just win. You are more than a conqueror. You didn't just win. No weapon that is formed against you is going to prosper. Is there any winners in the room? Come on, somebody that says, "Sometimes I don't look like it, but greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." Come on, somebody. I'm not just made it through it. I'm also over it. I'm gonna start praising like I already won. I'm gonna start worshiping not from a place of defeat, but like I already won. I'm gonna show up to church like I already won. I'm gonna show up to work like I already won. When the battle comes before me, God is already funded. And you're gonna look at it and says, "No devil, I am telling you, guess what? I already won." Because all I do is win, win. No, you gotta weigh your wounds.
You've never experienced joy. I'm talking about joy where I can now look at my beautiful wife, knowing what we've worked through, knowing how we called each other out of our names, knowing how I almost left, knowing that she was in rehab, knowing that I struggled with pornography while she was at rehab, and say, "It's all good. I am so glad we went through all of that." How do you know you're healed? When you can look at what hurts you and thank God for it. "God, thank you for the answer me. Thank you that they lied on me. Thank you that they betrayed me because I wouldn't be who I am today unless I went through that. Thank you."
Number one, you gotta weigh your wounds. Number two, you got to work your word. Work your word. I'm not gonna stay here long, but I want to read this scripture to you. "And the Syrians had gone out on raids and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife. Then she said to her mistress, 'If my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria, he would heal him of his leprosy.'" Did y'all just hear what I said? This Syrian commander got a word from a little girl who was a slave in her house, in his house. Could you be missing the word that God has for you because you're seeking it in the wrong places?
The Lord told me to tell you, the word is coming through an unlikely person, in an uncommon way, in an unfamiliar place. God says, "I'm going to give you a word." And when I give you a word, it might be a whisper. It might say, "It sounds something like this: You will live and not die. No weapon formed against you is going to prosper. I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beg bread. By my stripes, you are healed." You can't get a word without reading His word.
I am telling you right now, I got a word from God this week, and it's in Proverbs chapter 16. It says, "Even when a man and woman's ways please God, even his enemies are at peace with him." I'm telling you right now, you gotta learn how to work your word for the promises of God. For yes and amen. And in Isaiah 55, it says, "A word goes out from my mouth, it shall not return unto me empty." What I love about a word is maybe I didn't get a word, but God gave my grandmama a word. Come on, somebody. My grandmama ain't even living no more, but I looked at her old Bible and I saw the notes that she put in there. And if He promised it to her, and she is in my lineage, that word is mine too.
I came to tell you, you got to learn how to work your word. "I don't have a word." Yeah, you do. Yeah, you're a child of God. You're the head and not the tail. You're above and not beneath. Come on, somebody. You got to learn how to work your word. "I'm first and not last. I'm a child of God. If God said it, I'm gonna have it. If God spoke it, I'm gonna walk in it." It just hasn't happened yet. Not that it's not gonna happen. It just hasn't happened yet. Not that I'm always gonna be single. I'm just not married yet because I got a word from God that I'm gonna work instead of my worry. Mm-hmm. Some of y'all just work in the wrong word. We got to learn how to work God's word.
Yo, I'm telling you right now, I'm not a product of excellence. I'm not a product of talent. I can barely read. I'm not a product of college. I got kicked out of Bible College. I am a product that when I was in my mother's womb, y'all don't hear what I'm saying, God spoke to my mother that says, "One day I'm going to use this boy, no matter what he goes through, to preach to the nations." God says, "I have set him apart for such a time that when you don't think it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen." And I'm telling y'all, when I got kicked out of Bible School, my mama said, "You got a word over you." Y'all, when I was messing up, when I was smoking the wrong thing and drinking the wrong thing, all of a sudden God's word began to activate in my heart. When I didn't want to forgive those who betrayed me, I started working God's word.
I came to tell you, there's a word working on your behalf. Like three of y'all. Like, "Great. I don't. I want my residuals healed. I don't want to preach and leave the stage and not live it. I don't want God to use me on Sunday and then be abusive on Monday. I want this thing to be real. I want my kids to know that God is real. I want them to have an encounter with Jesus. And I don't want their encounter to be held back because I'm angry." How about this? Because we're petty. Uh, recently, I'm, I'm a grown man. I'm 49 years. I'll be 49 years. I'm a grown man. I'm a grown man. I felt myself a little insecure because a homie like says something that I found out about. I'm a grown man. Y'all say he a grown man. But I felt myself a little petty. I ain't talking to him no more. I'm a grown man. But this pettiness came up. And we was at lunch with some friends. And God used my friend, another friend, to give me a word. He said, "Hey, you can either be petty or walk in favor, but you can't have both." It was like, "We're not going to let this residual hold you back."
So now we gotta get to the water. Naaman walked, come on, somebody. He weighed his wounds. He had a word. And now he got to the water. I'm gonna read this, y'all, because this is so good. It says, "So he went down." Come on, worship team. "And he dipped seven times in the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a child, and he was clean."
Here's what I have come to understand: Pastor, you cannot be fully submitted unless you're constantly submerged. It is impossible to be fully submitted unless I'm constantly submerged. Let me tell y'all something. Me without the Holy Spirit ain't a good me. So every day I gotta wake up and say, "Spirit of God, give me the kind of eyes that only desire the body of my wife." Come on. I gotta say, "Let me not cuss somebody out today that does me wrong." I gotta say, "Holy Spirit, I need you." See, I don't want to be real. Come on. I came to preach to the real folk. I came to preach to the folk that will, come on, take an earring off and and turn this whole church out. I came to preach to the phone, come on, that's been discouraged too long. And it is time to dip in the well of healing. It is time to dip in the well of refreshing. It is time to dip not one time, not two times, not three times, but seven times because seven is the number of perfection. I came to tell you that He who the Son sets free will not just want you to be free, but want you to be free indeed. I break every generational curse and every generational stronghold that I have been a part of bringing along to my kids. And I repent and I renounce every negative word that has come out of my mouth.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I get my notes back? I just need to prophesy something that I wrote down for your church because I'm not smart enough to remember because somebody get my iPad. I'm telling y'all right now, this is not a preacher coming to preach a word to you. I feel like that there's an anointing on Irene and I's life that you don't have to deal with the junk that you've been dealing with. And we are a living, walking testimony that God can use anybody and do anything. And I'm telling you, I'm not perfect, but I'm free. I'm not the best, but I'm free. And guess what? Freedom looks good on me. Irene, freedom looks good on you. And freedom can look good on you.
Here's the Lord told me that there were seven prophetic dips. Then I'm gonna get someone sent us to Pastor Onika. But the first dip, God is moving you from dry to drenched. You have been in a season where you have been dry, and God says, "I'm gonna move you to a season that should have been drenched." The second dip, he says, "I'm gonna move you from being from covering up to being covered by my blood." You don't have to hide anymore. You don't have to, come on, somebody, you don't have to shrink down anymore. You don't have to hide yourself anymore. The third dip, he says, "I'm gonna move you from crippled to compassionate." I'm gonna unstick your hands and tell you how to serve people. The fourth step, he says, "I'm gonna move you from no feeling to be in faith." Feel number five, from being a victim to having vision. Number six, from being paralyzed to praise. Number seven, from having leprosy to having a legacy. I came to tell you that He who began a good work in you is gonna be faithful to come. Please.
Listen, we gonna sing. And you better, this next song, don't you dare look too cute. You better sweat. You better jump. You better shout. Because if you always do the thing you've done, you'll always get the same thing you've gotten. So go ahead and tell the person, "Excuse me, cause I'm about to give the kind of praise that's gonna break the chains of strongholds." I'm telling you, the kind of worship. Me and Irene, we took our family to an amusement park. I hated amusement parks, but I love the smoked turkey wing. So while I'm watching my kids, Irene get on the water ride. They get on the water ride. And I start noticing, Savannah, all these people in the water ride. Nobody has a bathing suit on. All of these people on a water ride. Eric, nobody has a towel. And then they get on the water ride, stood in line for three hours, and they go down to the first hill where the water's coming, and everybody ducks the water that they stood in line for for three hours with no towel, no bathing suit. And if you're black and dark like me, no lotion. And I thought to myself, this is kind of like the church when the presence of God shows up, but nobody shows up with expectation. I feel like God's saying, with all the water that I'm about to pour out, don't you dare leave this place dry today.