PASTOR HOLLY FURTICK SERMON ITS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT : Have you ever gotten angry because things didn’t turn out the way you thought, I thought college would be fun, i thought marriage would make me happy, I thought a new job would make me fulfilled, I thought we could save our marriage, I thought if I ate healthy, i would never get sick, I thought if I went to rehab, I wouldn’t struggle anymore, this was not how Naaman thought he would get his healing. So Naaman takes his letter from the king and he gathers up all these gifts gold and silver and beautiful clothes and he gets his entourage together and they travel down to the land of Israel and waited at the door of Elisha’s house but Elisha sent a messenger out to him with his message go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan river then your skin will be restored and you will be healed of your leprosy.
A simple direction but Naaman our mighty warrior, you know he’s probably a very passionate person, you have to be if you’re a mighty warrior, he was not happy with this direction, Naaman became angry and he stalked away, I thought he would certainly come out to meet me he said, I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the lord his God and heal me aren’t the rivers of Damascus and Habana and the far better than any of the rivers in Israel. Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed, why did it come all this way so Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
Naaman is so angry because this is not how he thought his healing would come, ever been angry because it didn’t turn out the way you thought, Naaman wanted attention, Naaman wanted drama and what he got was a simple instruction, something in fact we’re supposed to do every day wash, for some reason it’s a hard thing for certain people.
it’s a simple thing wash and be healed, naaman said “I thought” Pastor Holly Furtick said, do you know how many times those two words have gotten me into trouble? you see i am a best case scenario kind of person and Steven and i we love to hike nothing big, we live in charlotte so there aren’t exactly like peaks to climb in our backyard but we like to go for little hikes and so one year for Christmas I thought it would be awesome to include the kids in our little hikes it could be like a family thing. so i got them all hiking boots and i got them those backpacks with the the straw, the little water bladder in the back. it wasn’t anyone’s favourite gift that they received for Christmas but I was okay with that because i knew the gift was going to be in the experience that we were going to have together.
finally February came around and we went to this mountain house and the night before our hike, i studied the map and i figured out which trail we were going to take and i got everyone’s bladder filled and their bags and their bags packed with snacks and then the day of i made sure everyone had the right socks on because i just I didn’t want anything to get in the way of our fun this was going to be fun
Five minutes in, the question started and now these are not preschoolers okay my kids are teenagers and almost teenagers so the questions start, how long is this and they’re like wait we’re just walking, you and dad do this for fun, how far is this walk, when are we going to eat, my hands are cold, can i take my jacket off, then they started fighting like literally every conversation somehow turned into a fight or a competition and finally several hours later we returned to the house and everybody like dispersed and like went their separate ways i went and found Steven and i said that wasn’t how i thought it would go.
Have you ever gotten angry because things didn’t turn out the way you thought, have you ever gotten angry because magic Jesus didn’t show up? Pastor Holly furtick wants us to understand that God requires us to participate in our own healing, that’s why he does not do abracadabra over our situation because if he did we would just end up right where we started.