This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to the fifth week of our look
through First and Second Kings. We started a little bit into Second Kings last
week, and this week we get into it big time as we look at chapters three and
four today. We're really beginning a deeper look at what we began last week, the
life of Elijah we looked at.

Now we're into the what life of Elisha. I don't know why these two prophets had
to have just these names that were so close to each other. I think it's to make
us sure that we are good Bible students.

But as you look at the life of Elisha, you really begin to see a sense of the
miraculous. And as you begin to see the miraculous, you begin to think, what
does that mean for me? How do miracles become a part of my life?

How do I work a miracle or see a miracle? What class or school do I go to to
learn? What special words do I use?

Well, the truth is you don't, you can't, and there isn't. You cannot work a
miracle. You cannot work a miracle.

Only God can work a miracle. That's what makes it a miracle, the fact that God
works it. How can you guarantee that a miracle will happen?

You cannot. You cannot. Only God can guarantee God's work.

How can you be open and responsive to the Lord when he's working a miracle? Now
you're asking the right question. There's the question that the Bible gives us
the answer to again and again and again.

The Bible doesn't tell us how to force God's hand so that we can get him to do
what we want when we want it. It tells us how to depend on God for our needs.
And although you may not know when or how God is going to work a miracle, you
can see it when you're right in the middle of one.

And you can be ready for it in your heart, in your attitudes, in your faith.
What do you do when you're in the midst of something that God is doing? How do
you respond?

You know, when you think of being ready for a miracle, whether you know it's
going to Some people think, well, why don't I just wait until it's going to
happen? Well, think about a disaster. Think about a natural disaster.

We're great at being ready for natural disasters, even if they might not happen.
So we've got the fire alarms in place. We've got the earthquake drills going.

We've got the tornado sellers in place. We're ready in case the disaster comes.
You need to be ready in case the miracle comes.

You need to be ready for the supernatural and not just the disasters of life.
And as we look to the life of Elisha, we're going to see some different kinds of
miracles that teach us how to have our hearts ready for whatever God wants to
do. We're going to look at miracles of provision, miracles of healing, and
miracles of protection.

Miracles of provision, God providing for people's needs, healing, God healing
people who were hurting, protection, God protecting people from the hurts of
life, from the enemies of life. And through it all, we're going to be really
focusing on how do you keep your heart ready? How do we keep our heart ready?

For whatever miracle, God might want to work in your life. Now today and
tomorrow, we're going to look at some miracles of provision. And as we look,
we're going to see just how you can become involved in the miraculous working of
God.

I promise you, you're going to be surprised when you see how you can be involved
in the miraculous working of God. Three things we're going to look at from three
stories of God's provision, three miraculous stories from the life of Elisha
these next couple of days. Three truths.

Truth number one, you want to be involved in the miracle? Truth number one is
you dig some ditches. Let me show you what I mean from the story.

Chapter three, verses 15 to 24 really is the focus of this story, but let me go
back up to verse six so you can get into why this happened and what happened. So
at that time, King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all of Israel. He
also sent this message to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

So you have the king of Israel talking to the king of Judah, the north and
south. And he says to Jehoshaphat, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me.
Will you go with me to fight against Moab?

I will go with you," he replied. "I am as you are, my people your people, my
horses as your horses. By what route shall we attack?

" he asked. "Through the desert of Edom," he answered. So the king of Israel set
out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom.

After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for
themselves or for the animals with them. "What? " exclaimed the king of Israel.

"Has the Lord called us three kings together only to hand us over to Moab? " But
Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there no prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of
the Lord through him? " An officer of the king of Israel answered, "Elisha, son
of Shaphat, is here.

He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. " Jehoshaphat said, "The word of
the Lord is with him. " So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of
Edom went down to him.

Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What do we have to do with each other? Go to
the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother. " "No," the king of
Israel answered, "because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to
hand us over to Moab.

" Elisha said, "As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not
have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not even
look at you or even notice you. But now bring me a harpist. " While the harpist
was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha and he said, "This is what
the Lord says.

Make this valley full of ditches, for this is what the Lord says. You will see
neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your
cattle and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of
the Lord.

He will also hand Moab over to you. You will overthrow every fortified city and
every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs,
and ruin every good field with stones.

" The next morning, about the time for the offering of the sacrifice, there it
was, water flowing from the direction of Edom, and the land was filled with
water. So they're going up, they're going to have this battle, the army's going
through the desert, they're going to sneak attack through the desert, and
there's no water there. Of course, it's a desert.

The army is thirsty. How are they going to attack? And they begin to pray for a
miracle.

Now Elisha knows how evil the king of Israel is, so he says, "I don't have any
respect for you, but because Jehoshaphat, who I do have respect for, is here, I
will listen to the Lord. " He told them, "Here's what you're to do for this
miracle. You're to dig some ditches.

" For God to work the miracle, they had to dig some ditches. Now does that sound
like God helps those who help themselves? If you dig the ditches, God will show
up?

That is not at all what this means. Digging ditches really means God is at work,
and He allows you to be involved. God is at work, and He allows you to be
involved.

It wasn't a matter of them helping themselves. There was no water there. They
were digging ditches where there was no water.

It was a matter of them trusting God. They were digging ditches in a desert. So
when you think about God's miracles in your life, one of the questions is, are
you willing to dig ditches?

Are you willing to become involved, really involved, in what God is doing? It
took sweat and toil and calluses for them to be involved in this miracle.
Somehow we've decided that miracles are something to watch.

They're a show. They're this entertaining spectacular like fireworks. That's not
at all true.

Miracles require your involvement. They had to dig a valley full of ditches.
Now, why do we become involved?

Why does God involve us in the miracle? Because He wants us to trust. He wants
what the miracle can do in our hearts, in our lives.

When we really believe that God has an ability, a desire to be at work in our
world, and we trust Him and say, "God, what do you want me to do? " and we act
on that, that is when God works the miracle. They were thirsty.

They were facing a battle. If they hadn't trusted God, they weren't going to dig
any ditches. They weren't going to waste one amount of energy on digging a ditch
in a desert.

They were going to go find water somewhere else. But instead, they trusted God,
and they obeyed God, even though it didn't make sense to them. They did what God
had told them to do, or what the kings told them to do, because the kings
trusted in what God was telling them to do.

So the question for my life, for your life, is this. Are you willing to be
involved in the miracle? Not just wait for it to happen, not just watch for it
to happen, but to trust God, and to do whatever work He's asking you to do.

Now, it's not going to be spectacular many times. In fact, most of the time,
it's going to be digging ditches in the desert, trusting God when it doesn't
make sense, obeying God in a circumstance that it doesn't make sense. Where do
you need to be doing that in your life right now?

As we pray today, I want to spend some time together just asking God to give us
wisdom. Would you pray with me? Lord, as we pray, we ask that you would give us
wisdom for what you want us to do.

Instead of trusting in ourselves, we want to trust in you. So Lord, help us to
know how to do that. What step do you want us to take?

Help us to know from your word what to do, how to speak to people, how to trust
you with our money, how to trust you with our time, how to trust you with our
integrity. All of those can be the digging of a ditch in our life, the trusting
you instead of trusting ourselves. And then give us the faith to take that step
because we know that is one of the keys to being involved in a miracle.

We pray for this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, join us tomorrow, we're going to
take a look at a second key truth that we learned about how miracles work in our
life from the miracles of Elisha.