Keion Henderson - Changed by a Child

And here’s what the Bible says in 2 Kings chapter 5. The Bible states that Naaman was the captain of the host of the king of Syria. He was a great man to his master; he was an honorable man because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but here was the problem: he was a leper. The Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captives out of the land of Israel, and a little girl, a little maid, waited on Naaman’s wife. She said unto her mistress, «Would God my Lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! For he would recover him of his leprosy.» And one went in and told his Lord, saying, «Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.» Without reading all of that, what ends up happening is they end up following her advice, and Naaman goes to the place where she suggests, and he is healed. Notice that none of this would have happened if he had not heard the voice of a little child. I want to talk about this for a few moments, and I hope that it’ll make sense later on. Our young people, you know we’ve got a couple hundred people over in the youth church, and I want to announce to you all today-I neglected to say this-that we have made Jason Bowie our teen pastor. Amen! Jason Bowie is our youth pastor, and he has 50 or 60 teens upstairs right now that are going through the Word of God on their level. Can you say «amen» for that? Although all of our children are dispersed throughout this building and most of us are adults in this room-except for those adults-we have children that won’t go anywhere. They said, «Mama, I ain’t going to youth church.» They said about you anyway, and he goldfish all the service. I understand that, but I want to use for supplication, there he is right there, our teen pastor, Jason Bowie! Come on and praise God for him. I want to use this for a subject: «Changed by a Child.» You 'll get this later on, but I won’t be speaking to you about a child outside of you; I really want to speak to the child inside of you. Just give somebody a high-five and say, «Changed by a Child.» You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. I feel the Holy Ghost in this room, y’all. The most well-known story in the life of the prophet Elijah — Elisha’s mentor. Last week, we talked about how Elijah was caught up in a whirlwind and did not die, but went directly to heaven in a chariot of fire at the voice of God. If you were here with us, remember that we ended our story by helping us realize that there is no success without a successor, or no successor without success, vice versa. We meet an older gentleman who has a relationship with the younger gentleman, and he leaves to be with God. Without asking for money or materials, when asked what he wanted, the young man simply says, «I just want a double portion of your spirit.» We left off last week talking about how you have to be careful with people who don’t have your spirit. Not only do you have to be careful with people who don’t want it; this young man says, «I want a double portion of your spirit so that I can do with my anointing what you did with your anointing.» So we look at this text and pick up right where we left off. This is the most well-known story in the life of the young prophet Elisha. The Bible lets us know something interesting: Naaman, who is the captain of the guard-in other words, he has made it to the highest level of the military that is possible-would be like our Joint Chiefs of Staff in America. This young man has made it to the top of his game; there is nobody in the military more powerful than this young man named Naaman. He is a leper, and that is the problem he has. A circumstance that really doesn’t match his position. He is rich, famous; he has all the money in the world. He has become a great leader in the military. If he says we are going to war, we are going to war. If he says we are not going to war, we are not going to war. This young man has risen to the top of his game and has been decorated with every medal that can be given to a person in the military. He is the captain of the hosts of Syria; he has his finger on the nuclear button. Nothing happens without Naaman. He was a great man, an honorable man, and a rich man. By him, God used him to deliver the hands of Israel from Syria, a country even right now that has odds with Israel. Even to this day, they’re still in battle, and I want you to hear what the scripture says about him in verse 1. The Bible states he was a mighty man of valor. Somebody say, «Mighty man.» He was a mighty man of valor, but he was also a leper. So he has a position that does not match his circumstance, and it would seem that as rich as he is and as well-known…