Lessons from Church Potlucks Gone Bad: 2 Kings #06
This is an exposition of 2 Kings 4:38-44. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, July 10, 2016.
Intro:
I generally like church potluck dinners. The food is great, the fellowship sweet and what’s better than time together with church family around the table. Of course there are times you wish folks were required to put their name on their dishes. I don’t mean “Rod’s pie plate” I mean “Rod made this meatloaf.” I did hear about a church once that made sure they label a certain member’s dish. I imagine it was some coded message that clued people in without it being obvious. The practice was born out of an unfortunate incident and no, I’ll not elaborate! But the incident did come to my mind this week as I was preparing this evening’s message. In 2 Kings 4 we have this story about a church potluck gone bad. There was this deadly pot of stew served to the sons of the prophets causing some to cry out, “There is death in the pot!” Not what you want to hear at the potluck social. That story is followed by another involving another meal for the group. This time someone generously supplied the food but the provision was not adequate to feed the crowd. In both cases Elisha, empowered by God, saved the day. I must admit when looking at our text it caused me to question if Paul really meant that all Scripture is profitable. I thought maybe Paul didn’t read all of 2 Kings 4. Maybe that’s a text he just skimmed. But on further reflection I think it is indeed profitable. Our text is 2 Kings 4:38-44.
Text: 2 Kings 4:38-44
I want to remind you that Scripture is the revelation of God.
It is God’s revelation of himself.
God is the focus of the Scripture.
So as we read we should be asking, “What does this reveal about God?”
What does it say about his character?
What does it reveal about his power?
What does it say about his attitude toward sinners?
What does it say about his attitude toward his people?
We do need to use caution when working with biblical narrative. We do not want to “spiritualize” the text. We don’t want to make the text say something it does not. We do not want to read into the text and we don’t want to force some great spiritual truth onto a text where it does not belong.
With that in mind I want to walk through this passage and point out a few principles that I believe can be legitimately drawn from these two stories.
- Even the godly suffer when God judges a godless nation. (4:38)
- God cares about the common, ordinary and everyday struggles of His people. (4:38-41)
- God’s grace overcomes our ignorance and failings. (4:39)
- God ensures the presence of faith even in the midst of a faithless nation. (4:42)
- When faced with a choice between what you know to be true and what God says…go with what God says! (4:43-44)
Conclusion:
So what do we learn from these church potlucks gone bad?
In this world we will encounter trials and tribulations
God cares about every detail of our lives.
The grace of God overcomes our ignorance and failings.
God will always preserve a people for his glory.
Always trust the word of God.