II King 6:1-7 (NKJV)
Recovery is in Reach
February 12, 2023
Setting: The school of the prophets had grown to the point that they needed a new place. As they are in the process of cutting down trees to build their new school, one of the ministers loses his ax head in the Jordan River. He becomes distraught because the axe head was borrowed. He cries out to Elisha and the prophet performs a miracle, the ax head floats to the surface and the man reaches out and picks it up from the river.
I. v. 1 – We Must CONSIDER – The bible teaches that it was the ministry workers, the students, that considered their facility need and requested change. They said let us add to our current ministry more work because what we have now is not meeting the need. So, the students engaged in a great work. They got busy! Yet, there was a flaw in the ministry: One was working, but he was not watching! If you have ever chopped wood before with an ax, with just a little inspection, before you begin to chop you would know that the ax head is not secure to the handle. Consequently, during a full swing, he lost part of his tool to the river and was unable to continue his ministry. No man can chop down tress by beating them with an ax handle! It takes the sharp, biting power of the ax head to eat through the wood and cut the tree. In the church, we need to realize that without the proper tools for ministry, we will never be able to serve the Lord at our best. We need God and His anointed tools to get the job done for His glory! Sadly, the modern church has become so tied to its traditions and its programs that, we have found ourselves trying to cut trees of ministry with broken tools. As a result, there is no power in the church, no power in the lives of the saints and no power in our witness for His glory. Most of what we do in the church can be done without any real Holy Ghost power! If we have money in the bank, it does not take Holy Ghost power to pay the lawn man. If we have an education, it does not take Holy Ghost power to read a Sunday School lesson. If we don’t work on Sunday, it does not take Holy Ghost power to tune in to the service. What takes Holy Ghost power is to give your time, your talent, and your tithe to the Lord instead of saving it to please yourself or enrich your family. What takes Holy Ghost power is to teach the doctrines of God without a Masters in Divinity or a Doctorate in Theology! What takes Holy Ghost power is to be engaged in worship, when you just worked the night shift and have only had an hour of sleep! This lesson is about the tools that God has anointed every one of us with and how if we are not careful with them, we will look up one day and see that we are holding an ax without the ax head. The gifts of God are irrevocable, so is the anointing of God. 1 John 2:27 says, “But as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you;” But we will never be able to serve the Lord in an effective manner with a broken tool! God can help us recover what is missing because it is not lost, it’s just out of reach.
II. v. 5 – We Must CONFESS - As soon as this brother feels the ax head fly off, he cries out in despair. He knows that he cannot continue what he is doing until he recovers the ax head. If we ever want to recover the power of the Spirit of God in our ministry, we must come to the place where it went missing. Some of us believe we have lost our zeal, some of us our will, some of us our testimony and others believe they lost their way. I am convinced that many people are trying to live for God and to do His work in the power of the Flesh and not the Power of the Spirit. When this man realized the ax head was gone, he immediately told Elisha what had happened. He confessed the fact that he had lost the cutting edge. By admitting that the ax head was gone, he was also admitting to the fact that it had become loose, and he had not bothered to tighten it. After we discover that we are lacking something, we must come to the place where we can admit that lack. This is hard, but it is necessary for recovery. I think one of the hardest things for any of us to do is to admit lack. We want everyone to think that we are on top of everything; that we need nothing; and that we are in control. Someone today needs to confess, “I just don’t have the zeal I used to have? I am not as close to the Lord as I used to be! I need the power of God operating through me to get this ministry moving!” What we need are honest hearts that will tell the truth about our condition. Before we will ever recover what is missing as individuals and as a church, we must first come to the place where we can honestly admit that we can’t fix it, but God can! We must find that place of total and absolute dependence upon God and His power! When we do, we will see souls saved. We will see the manifest power of God in our services. This is when the student confesses that the ax was not his own! When we are working for the Lord as we should, we are operating with borrowed tools! Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” The power to serve the Lord does not come from within our own human nature, but it comes from the Lord. May we never take it for granted! Your salvation does not declare that you will be effective in ministry! Paul tells us to be filled with the Spirit, which lets us know that though the Spirit dwells in us richly we must be active in His filling power! Peter says add to your faith some virtue and knowledge and self-control and perseverance and godliness and kindness and love! When we confess that we don’t have it all together, only then are we ready to confront the issues.
James said, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
III. v. 6 We Must CONFRONT - As soon as Elisha heard about the problem, he called the worker to go back to the place where it fell. Where did it fall? Before it could be recovered, they had to go to the place where it was mishandled. In Christian Counseling we are taught to discover the “root cause.” Was there abuse in their home? Was there neglect or abandonment in their youth? Was there a trauma event during their early childhood development? The reason Christian counselors must take you back is so that you can see for yourself that the problem is greater than your ability to repair on your own! Only when we confront the issue will we be able to accept that we need divine intervention. Even the good book of alcoholics anonymous teaches that, “We came to believe that only a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” There must be a confrontation with the divine! There must be a total abandonment of all human agency and power. Trusting a stick to make an ax head float is crazy, but by definition a miracle is not explicable by natural or scientific laws! We have to trust God to fix it! The last thing this young man did was to reach down and take the ax head in his hand. And when he did, he found that what he needed was within his reach! I know you broke it; I know you dropped it in the river of life, but it is not lost! You simply need God to put it within your reach! Trust God, for He alone can bring it near! If you can’t reach it, put your trust in Jesus today, He can put it within your reach! I once was far but Jesus brought me near!
