This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to day two of our sixth week of looking through 1 and 2 Kings. We're going to move to 2 Kings chapter 6 today and we're going to begin a look at a miracle of God's protection. Remember, we're looking in the life of Elisha at miracles of provision. We've looked at that together and learned some things about how God works, how we're available for miracles. We saw that in the life of Naaman and now in chapter 6 we see a miracle of God's protection. Many times God works the miracle of protection in your life. Have you ever had that sense of God's protection? Maybe something happened and you avoided an accident in a car and it was more than just happenstance. You had a sense that God worked to protect you. Or maybe you had a feeling about one of your children and you run ahead of them to find a danger or you keep them from being in a place that was going to be dangerous. When these circumstances come into our lives, we wonder, was that just luck? Was it just some kind of a situation that happened where I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and I didn't really know what it was? Or was it God at work? Well sometimes we do notice something out of the corner of our eye and we avoid something that's headed our way. But not just thousands but millions and millions and millions of times. God has worked in the hearts and minds of believers to protect us from circumstances that would be harmful to us. It's one of the greatest miracles that God does. One of the most powerful miracles that he desires to work in your life. And Elisha's story of God's protection is here to remind you and I that God is still in the business of working miracles today. Miracles of protection. Miracles of provision. He supplies our needs in miraculous ways. Miracles of healing. He heals us emotionally, spiritually, physically, relationally, but also miracles of protection. Satan is the evil one and the Bible says he's like a roaring lion after Christians. What would Satan do to you without the miracle of God's protection? How would the world around you with its selfishness steamroll you? You're like a lamb, Jesus said in this world. How would it eat you up without the protection of the Almighty God? In the story in 2 Kings 6, we see in striking fashion just how wonderfully God protects his children. These next two days we're going to look together at three things that you and I can do to make ourselves available for the miracle of God's protection. Now remember, miracles are not a matter of making it happen because you can't make it happen. It's something that only God can do. They're a matter of making yourself available and then watching God do what only he can do. How can we make ourselves available? Three principles. Number one, you listen to God's warnings. That's the first principle. Listen to verses 8 to 10 in chapter 6, 2 Kings. Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, "I will set up my camp in such and such a place. " The man of God sent word to the king of Israel, "Beware of passing that place," because the Arameans are going down there. So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and time again, Elisha warned the king so that he was on his guard in such places. So here's Israel being protected because they knew in advance where the attack was going to come from. Elisha would give the king of Israel the inside story and the king of Aram was always attacking where Israel wasn't. Now just a sidelight to this, remember Naaman was the captain in the army of the Arameans. He had this miracle of healing that was wonderful but was also personally challenging because he had this gift of a miracle and now he has to go back and figure out, "How am I going to serve in my country? How am I going to trust God when my job is to attack this country of the God that I'm trusting? " Now we don't know the end of this story. We don't know the decision that he made. Did he leave the army? Did he decide to do something else within the army? Did he lose his faith? We don't know what happened with Naaman at the end of this story but we do know that because he had faith he was put in this challenging place. That's what happens when you have faith in life. That's just an aside to this story. Now back to this miracle of protection. The true miracle of protection that happened to them is they were protected because they didn't even have to face the enemy. God warned them in advance and I believe that is the number one way that God protects us as believers. You may not even see it as a miracle but I believe it is. Almighty God gives you specific advice about how to stay out of trouble in your life. And I'm not talking about staying away from foreign kings who might attack you. He warns us about how to stay away from worry, from inner turmoil, from feelings of depression, from uncontrolled anger, from unforgiving hearts. All of those things will tear your life up. They will ruin your life and family. God says stay away from these things. Here's how to do it and he protects us. It's like this huge sign that says warning, bridge out ahead. And you see the sign and you stop and you turn around and you don't go that way. God's warning is to us. Where are they in scripture? Let me just give you a couple of examples. There are literally thousands of examples of this in scripture. In fact, I decided, I hardly ever do this, but I decided just to open my Bible and see a warning that was on each page that I opened to because there's a warning from God that leads to our protection in almost every page of scripture. So I opened up to Colossians 2. 8 that says, "See that no one takes you captive through hollow, empty, selfish philosophies. " There's a warning. Watch out for the philosophies of selfishness in this world. They will take your heart captive. I opened again, Luke 12. 1. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees," that said. What's the yeast of the Pharisees? That's legalism. That's thinking that I can get close to God by the good things that I can do. God warns us. He protects us against the dangers of that in our lives. Opened up again, Old Testament, Nehemiah 8. 10. "Don't grieve," it says there, "for the joy of the Lord is your strength. " Joy is one of the greatest protections of God in your life. Opened up again, Isaiah 44, verse 9. "All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. " If I treasure things in my life, I'm going to be devastated. But Jesus taught us this also. "Don't," he said, "seek after things, but seek my kingdom, seek my righteousness. " And then all the things will be added to you as well. But seek first the kingdom of God. Now these warnings that God gives to us, just a couple of quick truths about these warnings. These warnings are given to protect us, not to imprison us. What Satan wants you to believe, what he's got a lot of the world believing, is that the warning that God gives to us is sent to imprison us. That God is really trying to keep us from having fun or having joy or enjoying life. So he gives us a warning, for instance, against sex outside of marriage, sex outside of a commitment, a lifetime commitment to another person. He gives us a warning against that because he wants to not let us have any fun. But when you look at the hurt that's in this world because of sexual sin, sex outside of marriage, when you look at the devastation, physical, emotional, relational devastation, you understand God is just lovingly trying to protect us. He made marriage for a man and woman to be able to enjoy a commitment for life. And he made sex to be enjoyed in that commitment. If it's not enjoyed there, it's going to rip your heart out. Sometimes it's going to physically destroy you, but it will certainly emotionally rip your heart out. God's just protecting us. Just one example, they are given to protect us, not to imprison us. And these warnings of God, they come with clarity, not confusion. A lot of people want to add their warnings to God's warnings. You'll see that happen many, many times. That's the legalism I was talking about just a moment ago. God's very clear about what he says and what he doesn't say. So whenever you hear anybody saying, "Well, I know God said this, but let me add my little list to it," that's not the warnings that God is protecting you from. What he wants to protect you from sometimes is their list because their list is what's going to ruin your life. It's a legalistic list. It's a pharisaic list. So God warns us. That's one of the ways that he protects us. And when I listen, because you've listened, think of the things he's protected you and your family from. You know some of them. There are hundreds that you don't know. Let's tell God thank you right now. God, there's nothing we can say but thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for your spirit that speaks to us. And for those times, more than we know, that you have protected us from going the wrong direction, doing the wrong thing, taking the wrong step. Lord, what would have happened? Who would we have been? How would the hurt have overwhelmed our lives? So thank you, Lord, for the hurt we haven't faced because you've protected us from it in advance. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to look together at two more truths about how God's protection is made available in our lives.