Worship Service – Sunday, July 27, 2026
What are the four most dangerous words in scriptural growth? “I thought God would.” I thought God would do it this way. I thought God would fix them. I thought God would open the door. And I thought God would remove the struggle. I thought God would heal me instantly.
“I thought, I thought, I thought.”
Sometimes the biggest obstacle to hearing what God is saying is what we’ve already decided he should say.
That’s exactly where Naaman found himself in our scripture from today. He was a captain of the army and a great warrior, but he suffered from leprosy.
I’m going to read verses 9 and 10 again:
“So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ‘Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you, and you will be clean.’”
Naaman came expecting the prophet Elisha to come outside and wave his hand and call on God and perform some dramatic miracle. But instead, Elisha didn’t even come to the door. He sent his messenger with simple instructions: go wash in the Jordan River seven times.
The Jordan River, one of the nastiest rivers around.
Naaman was furious—not because God hadn’t answered, but because God answered in a way that he didn’t expect.
Then one of Naaman’s servants speaks up, which is bold considering he was a servant. Verse 13:
“Then his servant came near and spoke to him and said, ‘My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then when he says to you, “Wash and be clean”?’”
This part of the story is awesome in that a miracle almost came through the prophet, but the breakthrough came through a humble servant.
The servant basically says, “If he would ask you to do something difficult, you would have done that, right? You were willing to do something hard. You just weren’t willing to do something humble.”
There’s that word: humble. Now that’s the word for the church.
So many times, people of the church are willing to climb mountains, travel across the country to attend conferences, buy books, watch videos, and listen to podcasts. But these same people aren’t willing to forgive or repent, won’t apologize, and won’t submit, won’t obey the simple things that God has already said.
Aren’t we at times like these same people? We love complicated answers because those answers let us stay in control. God often chooses simple obedience because it requires surrender.
Verse 14 tells us:
“So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
Naaman walked down into the muddy Jordan, not once, not twice, but seven times. And every dip is a funeral. A funeral for pride. A funeral for control, for expectations, for self-sufficiency. A funeral for “I thought God would.”
After the seventh time, he didn’t just have new skin. He had a new heart. Because God wasn’t healing Naaman’s leprosy. God was healing Naaman’s biggest problem. His biggest problem underneath the leprosy was his pride.
I know there are times we get frustrated because God isn’t moving the way we expect. We can even become angry because the answer doesn’t look like the answer that we needed. Just because, maybe, just maybe, God has already spoken but we’re not hearing.
Maybe God has already provided direction, but we aren’t following. Maybe God has already sent us help.
Kind of like the fellow who was stuck on the rooftop in the flood. He was praying to God for help. You might have heard this one.
Soon a man in a rowboat comes by, and the man shouted to the man on the roof, “Jump in. I can save you.”
The stranded fellow shouted back, “No, it’s okay. I’m praying to God and he’s going to save me.”
So the rowboat went on.
Then a motorboat came by. The man in the motorboat shouted, “Jump in. I can save you.”
To this, the fellow says, “No thanks. I’m praying to God and he’s going to save me. I have faith.”
So the motorboat went on.
Then a helicopter came by, and the pilot shouted down, “Grab this rope. I will lift you to safety.”
To this, the stranded fellow again replied, “No thanks. I’m praying to God and he’s going to save me. I have faith.”
So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.
Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss the whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, “I had faith in you, but you didn’t save me. You let me drown. I don’t understand why, God.”
To this, God replied, “I sent you a rowboat. I sent you a motorboat. And I sent you a helicopter. What more do you expect?”
But the question isn’t whether God has answered, but can we receive an answer that doesn’t look like what we have in mind?
Such as when we pray for more money and we don’t have as much money as we want, and when we don’t have as much time as we want. But you know, there is one thing we can have as much of as we want. And it’s the one thing that most of us are pursuing the least. What might that be?
Unlike money and time, God’s not a limited resource. He’s not rationing himself like he’s on spiritual food stamps. He’s not in heaven saying, “I’ll give you 10% access because that’s all I can afford.”
No, he’s the Father running down the road to meet us. He wants to bring us near. He created us to be with him. That’s what we need to remember and ask for.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” That’s a promise resting on top of a condition. Seek with your whole heart and you will find. Right? A condition. Seek—the promise—you will find.
But most of us are not going after God that way. We may believe in him, and we’re grateful for salvation, but so many of us have learned to live without God directing our lives. We are fueled by yesterday’s encounters, last year’s conference, that altar call, that moment way back in the day.
God is always inviting us to draw near. God is not in the business of withholding anything from us. Any limiting factor in our relationship with God is on us.
Now, the question isn’t whether God is available. You know what? He is. He has always been. The question is whether we’ve become satisfied with something less than what he wants to give us.
I know that things of this world play heavy on our minds. We read it and hear about it all week, all day long. All the natural disasters and wars happening all around us. We can feel lost and alone, afraid and unfulfilled.
But I think we lose sight of what God has given us, even when it isn’t what we think we want. It comes down to this: he gave the ultimate sacrifice for us. Can’t we at least give him the benefit of the doubt?
So let’s not ask what we think God would or should do. So I say, starting today, we ask and do our best to trust what God is doing with all our heart.
Amen.
