“GOD@WORK” 2 Kings 3:4-27
When I was in school, I was a part of several plays and musicals.
If I wasn’t on stage acting and singing, I’d want to still be involved with the production as one of the coolest groups there was—the stage crew! The stage crew is made up of people who can’t act or sing, BUT can move scenery, start the fog machine, run the lights and sound. And when the show was going on, they were partying back stage the whole time! In between scenes, the cast was going over lines, listening for cues, but the stage crew was playing cards, drinking a Coke, telling jokes, or making plans as to what they were doing later that night!
One interesting point I’d like to make here: On the final night, when the cast came out, least important to most important, and the applause always got louder and louder for each, the applause from the audience was never as loud as the cast’s applause when the stage crew took their bows.
This message today is for the unsung stage crew, not of any musical, but of your life.
Without the stage crew, how well do you do think the musical would go? And without a very special stage crew in your life, where would you be? How well do you think your life would be going right now without some of the behind the scenes work that went on? Today’s message isn’t really about the individual contributors that make your stage crew as much as it is about The Director of your stage crew: God.
God is very much at work behind the scenes of our lives!
If we don’t get that, if we miss this wonderful truth, we are going to go through life missing cues, acting in front of the wrong sets, or worse, not showing up for our part at all!
Also, if we don’t get that God is at work behind the scenes of our lives, when it comes to an end, we will miss out on giving the greater applause that is due.
The account given in 2 Kings 3 shows how God was at work behind the scenes for Israel. Let’s look at this event again.
2 KINGS 3:1-25 FROM THE MESSAGE.
[21-23] God is at work BEHIND THE SCENES!
Moab rebelled [all Israel saw], so they marched out to take care of the problem, but ran out of water.
Could God have been behind the scenes here, working out a better plan? A plan that included him? Up to this point it was just God’s children doing ministry. No prayer. No sacrifice. No worship. And now no water! How often we go on ahead of God and do His ministry in our name, or our ministry in His name!? How often do we go on with our day and never once think about God and his involvement in our lives?
Why wouldn’t God be at work to make little speed bumps in our lives for us to slow down, think about Him and talk to him, find out what His thoughts are and His agenda is, get ore familiar with his ways and his voice speaking to us?
God supplied water for Israel, but he also was at work invisibly to the Isralis, but God used his blessing to draw the enemy out and in closer so they could be dealt with. With God’s one answer was a dual purpose! Supply and victory!
When Moab got up in the morning and saw what looked red --like BLOOD! “That’s blood!”
Where do you think they got that idea?
Q. “What is God doing over there?”
A. We don’t know, and may never know,
BUT we do know OUR GOD IS ALWAYS AT WORK!
What is God doing over there?
We don’t know; but we can be sure He IS doing something!
Whatever you are going through right now, KNOW that God is at work behind the scenes setting you up for GOOD THINGS to come in the next ACT of your life!
What you need to do is STAY FAITHFUL! Ask the right questions, “Is there a prophet of God here? What does God’s word have to say to us about this? Where is God’s Spirit moving us to?
As Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I’d like to share a personal story, and as I do I want you to see if you can see how God was at work behind the scenes:
Was God at work behind the scenes?
Could God have been at work behind the scene of:
--my father’s car accident?
--my feeling like I was dying while living back at home/Little Caes
--my aimlessness in ministry and life?
--my discouragement and drop out of ministry?
I can stand here today and tell you that our God can do anything
Our God IS always at work doing something behind scenes for his children, and believe me GOOD THINGS are on their way!
Listen, no matter what scene is playing on stage in your life right now, no matter how discouraging it may seem or hopeless, or disheartening it looks to be,
FOR THE CHILDREN OF GOD and followers of Jesus Christ
There is HOPE, there is JOY, there is PEACE in knowing
OUR GOD IS AT WORK BEHIND THE SCENES!
When the curtains close on THAT scene you are in right now, the future scene will reveal a greater work going on—because your story is connected to a greater story and
that story is the story of God and His faithfulness to his children!
And one day, when the curtain call is given, and all the cast and crew has been called forth onto the stage to receive their applause,
There will be one who was behind the stage making it all happen, and when He comes and takes his place on stage
YOU WILL WANT TO OFFER HIM THE APPLAUSE HE IS DUE!
But you only be able to do that if you
Ask the right questions
Remain faithful
Dig the ditches he has for you
Keeping hoping in your God!
Because GOD IS AT WORK on your behalf behind the scenes of your life! You can trust Him, You can believe Him, you can Go with Him, you can bank on him!
And that’s the WORD of GOD I have for you today.
