Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the spiritual leprosy that afflicts everyone, regardless of their status or accomplishments, using the story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5 as a powerful illustration. He points out that while Naaman was a great man, he still needed healing from his leprosy, which symbolizes sin and uncleanliness in our lives. The sermon challenges listeners to recognize their own leprosy and to seek healing by surrendering to God's way rather than their own expectations. Beach Jr. stresses the importance of humility and obedience to God's commands, even when they contradict our thoughts or desires. Ultimately, he calls for a collective acknowledgment of our need for God and a commitment to look to Him alone for healing and guidance.

There is a leprosy that we all have that will not be cured unless we learn and heed the words that our brother spoke. Second Kings, Chapter five. Second Kings, Chapter five. Now, Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. Listen carefully, verse one, Chapter five, Second Kings is something that God is speaking to each one of us today. No matter who you are, no matter what introduction can be given about you, we see Naaman was the captain of the host. You might be an entrepreneur, you might be a student, you might be an electrician, a plumber, you might be a great man, you might be honorable in the eyes of some people, and you might be a mighty man of valor. But you and I are lepers, and the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife. God chooses to speak to great people through little maids. Are you listening this morning? And she said to her mistress, Would God my Lord or with the prophet that is in Samaria for he would recover him of his leprosy. Something's starting to happen now, no matter what you have done, where you are, what God has done in your life, we must all come to realize that there is a leprosy in us. Leprosy represents that which is unclean. Leprosy is that which is sinful. Leprosy is that which is not pleasing to the Lord. God has to make us to see that we have leprosy. Now, this leprosy did not hinder God from using Naaman. Didn't hinder God from Naaman becoming an honorable man and a man of valor, did it? But he had it, and God wanted to heal him of the leprosy. This is a picture of the church today. There's a measure of honor, there's a measure of valor, there's a measure of victory, there's a measure of success, but we're lepers. And we're not getting cured. And we're going to discover why, which is nothing more than a reiteration of what the Lord spoke through Alan. Verse three, 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. Now, something's happening. You've got to be follow this. Please follow this. This really won't mean much to you unless you've seen your leprosy. And the king of Syria said, Go to go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver and 6000 pieces of gold and 10 changes of Raymond. And and he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now, when this letter is come unto the behold, I have therewith sent name and my servant to the that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. Now, listen, we've got a man who knows he's a leper. We've got a man who found out where he can be healed. And now we've got a lot of misguided direction, don't we? And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter that he ran his clothes and said, Am I God? And the Spirit of God would want anything that he uses and raises up to rend its clothes. This is what the Spirit was saying through Alan. Nothing that God has done in the past, nothing that God has used yesterday or last Sunday, albeit a song, a ministry, a sermon can ever, ever, ever be that which we look to. Am I God? The music ministry should every day cry out, Am I God? People that you should look to me, the preacher every day. Am I God that you should look to me? The exhorter, the structure, am I God that you should look to me? Is it in me to heal you? Is it in me to bring to you what you need? We know we have leprosy. We've heard there's one in the midst of the church who can heal us. But who are we running to and what are we running to? Oh, yes, God's bringing us to this place. Am I God to kill and to make alive? Oh, God, help us. Does that mean God doesn't want to use people? Of course not. Does that mean God doesn't want to use you to speak a word? Of course not. Does that mean God doesn't want to use music? Of course not. But oh, how God has to tear it to pieces until everything that God uses is crying out. Am I God? Everything's got to die so that it becomes only a vessel. And there's never a looking to it. And when there is a looking to it, as the Lord had to do with Uzziah. You know, Isaiah was a great prophet of God, but he loved the king so much he couldn't see the Lord. But in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. There is a death that's going on in our midst. And this is why many perhaps are saying, oh, this is dry. I'm going somewhere else, whatever. What's happening? God is letting that which you are looking to die. You can't look to anything but him. Some of us know, some of us were here, some of us weren't. Back in the early 90s, for eight months. The Lord personally spoke to me and said, leave the ministry and leave public ministry. Why? Am I God? That I could heal. Everything has got to die, beloved. This morning, we're going to continue. This morning, I felt miserable. I had a dreadful, sore throat, so I asked Colette, go ahead on and have Christina come back and get me a quarter to nine, quarter to ten. Soon as she left, remarkably, the spirit of the Lord came upon me and I felt better. And I said, all right, Lord. So I jumped in the shower and got myself ready. And I went into my office and I went into my file. And I found. An account of the great visitation of God in Eastern Bible Institute, 1950 to 1951. And I felt the wind of the spirit read it, son, I had read it 15 years ago. Fifteen pages. Of the account of God moving in a Bible student, do you know what reverberated on every page, Alan? God did not allow them to look to anything but him. No. Nothing. He frustrated everything until they were able to look to the Lord alone. For all that they had need of. Until they were able to gather together and look to the Lord, oh, yes, we know the Lord uses this brother, we know the Lord uses this brother, we know the Lord speaks through this brother, but woe unto us if we gather together and look to the brother. Or brothers. Or sisters. Oh, yes, we know the Lord moves through our dear saints who have devoted themselves to worshiping Jesus, don't we? We know the Lord moves to him, but woe unto us if we come looking to them. So this is what God's saying. I'm so thankful our brother Alan got up not knowing really how or what to say. I'm so glad he got up and spoke it by faith because it came out, didn't it? Everybody understood. I heard clearly. In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. I want to say amen. This is exactly what God is saying to us. Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Everything that God uses has to end up with this heart, this heart attitude, or else eventually God has to set it aside. Everything that God uses. He's not opposed to using things, but he cannot let that which he uses or those who observe it look to it. And so God is in the process of doing a multiple amount of things. He might withdraw himself from a certain vessel who was used of the Lord. And it might not even be because that vessel thought he could do anything. It might be that everyone else thought he could. And so how important it is not to function in a role, but to function by obeying the Lord. This is what God is going to do in the church in this late hour as he prepares us to be partakers of his glory. So don't be amazed. Don't be surprised. Don't be distressed. Don't think something's wrong when God begins to move in this manner because he is simply making a safe place for himself. A safe place is a place where he can move, but where the eyes are upon him alone. Do you want to be in that place or do you like people looking to you? Do you want to be known? Men, if you think you're the only person in your wife's life who can speak to her and bless her, God's going to humble you. And someone's going to give a testimony and she's going to look and say, that blessed me so much. And you're going to move with jealousy. I want that ministry in your life. I want it. What's being exposed? I want her to look to me. You do? I thought we were supposed to lead our wives to Christ and to hear him speak through whoever may speak. See, this goes deep. This goes much deeper than just a gathering. This is the Lord's, not after just a gathering where we're looking to him. This goes into seven days a week. Wherefore, consider, I pray you and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. Oh, God. I pray that you will work the spirit of verse number seven in every one of us, every vessel, whether individual or corporate. That may be used of you to see how it is not us. It's you. God, work it in us. And it was so when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes that he sent to the king saying, wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. Every person who gets the Lord's attention by letting the Holy Spirit work this deep grief in them, this deep, deep despair. How could they be looking to me when it's wrought sufficiently? When God is satisfied, the great prophet himself, the Lord Jesus, will come to you and whisper to you and say, send him to me. And I'll show him that there's a prophet in Israel. Every vessel that is used of God in this late hour, when God is going to pour out his spirit and men are going to shine with the glory of God. Every vessel will be enabled and instructed by God to point people to the great prophet. One of the overwhelming signs of a true vessel, individual or corporate, will be their capacity through divine teaching, through divine leading to lead people to the great prophet. And those who fail to do that will be set aside by the Lord because he will not share his glory with anyone. He won't share his glory with anyone. Now, here's the conflict. Listen carefully. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was what? Wroth, angry. He was burning up. He was cussing. Oh, yeah. Why? It's captured in two words. But Naaman was wroth and went away and said, Behold, I thought, I thought, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord. His God and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. I thought that he was going to do it this way. But when I heard him speak, he was speaking through a servant. And then when I heard the servant speak, he told me to do something that was very, very against what I thought he should do for me. There's coming a crisis in our lives as families, as individuals and as the church where we're going to have to come to accept the fact that the prophet in Israel does as he pleases. And we cannot come telling him how and who and when and where we can't do it. Are not Abana and Farpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? In other words, he's saying, Granted, he tells me to go dump in the Jordan, but the Jordan is a filthy river. These rivers, Abana and Farpar, aren't they better? His leprosy is not leaving him until he comes to grips with this deep, deep, deep area of rebellion against the Lord. But now watch the mercy of God, watch the mercy of God. Verse 12, are not Abana and Farpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. There is a rage that is in our lives and in the church corporately. It is a quiet rage. It is a rage that is inside. But it but religion continues as normal. But there's an inner rage because we've come to a point where the Lord told us the way he's going to do it. And we resented it and we've gone away and we're not healed. Some of us go to another form of religion or another kind of church or whatever it is, but we're not healed. Because we got offended, offended at Jesus's word. Now watch this, and his servants came near and spoke unto him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have gone, have done it? How much rather than when he sayeth to thee, wash and be clean. The ministry of mercy, the Lord will always raise up someone to speak into our life in order to try and talk sense into us. You'll find that when you turn from God because you've been offended at God's command, He didn't do it the way you thought. He didn't do it the way you asked. He didn't do it the way you expected. And in your heart, you get angry and you go away in a rage. You watch how God will raise someone up and you're going to hear God say to you, Come on, my son, my daughter, just do it God's way and he'll heal you. He'll heal you. He'll heal you. Just do it his way. Swallow your pride. Swallow your pride. Have you ever heard that messenger of mercy come to you? Come on now, I've heard it so many times. You've turned from the Lord and you've got angry. And then down the road, you hear God saying, Why have you done this? Do it my way and I'll bless you. That's God's love and mercy. He's speaking that now to many of us. Watch what happens to this man. Through the messenger of mercy, Nahum experiences a change in heart. And watch what he does. Then went he down and dipped himself. He went down. He went down. You see, you're going to have to go down. You're going to have to go down. Now, whenever God offends you, it means you're too high. It means you're too high. If ever the Lord's way offends you, it's because you're up too high. You've got to come down more. You've got to come down. You've got to be willing to get down and dip yourself. Get down. Get down. The water of Jordan is a picture of death. Listen, whenever you get offended at God's word, you've got to pray, Lord, help me to reaffirm my baptism into death. My baptism into dying to myself. The Jordan is a picture of death. It's a picture where we leave the old life behind. You want to go God's way? You've got to go into the river Jordan and reaffirm that in Christ, you've died to your way. He dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child. And he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him and he said, Behold, now I know there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Now, therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused. I thought God was going to do it this way. If you've been offended at God because he didn't do it your way, you've gotten angry. There's anger in your spirit. You need to confess it to the Lord and ask him to remove it. Get to the root. A number of years ago, we wrote a printed message entitled, When God Makes You Mad. It was from this text. God makes us mad when we thought he should have done it this way, but he decides to do it another way. As we continue to look to the Lord in our families, in our relationships with one another, as we gather together, the Lord will continue the process of stripping us and delivering us from hearts that are looking to something other than him. And that's what he's doing in our midst now. That's what he's doing in our midst now. And he's doing it because he wants to bring his glory. But our eyes must be upon him and him alone. Let's look to the Lord for a few moments now. Ask him to search our hearts. As our brother was sharing that word, the Holy Spirit really prompted my heart and spoke something in my spirit, and I wanted to share it. I think that for most of us, and I include myself in this, is that we learn to function with our leprosy. In other words, we have that unclean thing in our life, but we still find ourselves being effective, and other people still perceive us as being effective. As the first verse that we read said, he was a mighty man of valor. He was honorable. He was effective. He was this. He was that. Many men noticed him as being this wonderful person, but then the very end said, but he was a leper. And I think that's the thing that tanks onto myself, and if I can get an amen, I tell you, that's what happens, I believe, is the fact that we learn to function with it, and we start to suppress that, and then the Lord has to do something drastic. The Lord has to bring us to that position where we say, well, I thought this. And the Lord says, well, that's what you get for thinking, basically. You know, you learn to function with this sin in your life. You're still effective. God still uses you. People still see God's blessing on your life. But there's going to be a time where the Lord's going to offend us. He's going to bring that offense on our life, and I know that He already has in my own, and as I'm talking right now, He is. And I'm saying, Lord, well, I thought. I had these preconceived ideas of what was going to happen. And just like Naaman, I'm going to have to go down, down, down, seven times. It's the number of completion in the Bible. That's what seven times represents, the number of completion. Seven times God made that man go down into that nasty death of the Jordan River. Die, die, die. And he had to do it so many times until he finally got it and said, you know what? I can't function with this anymore. It's starting to affect me. It's starting to affect the people that I lead, and it's starting to affect the people that have their eyes on me, and I can't do it anymore. I don't know about you guys, but I don't just want to learn how to cope with my sin in my life. I want it out of me. I don't want to learn how I can function with that leprosy and still be effective, and still be used, and still be called an honorable man. I don't want it in my life anymore. God, I pray, Father. Lord, as a corporate body, we ask you, Lord, Father, that you would just remove this sin out of our midst, God. Father, right now we acknowledge our leprosy, God, and, Father, we pray that you would bring us down, down, down. Father, as many times as you have to, Lord, to break that out of us that we would no longer look to a man, to a structure, to a ministry, to anything but you, Lord. And, Father, as we do that, we know, Father, we have the faith that you're going to fulfill your word in our lives and in our midst, and we thank you for bringing that completion to our lives, God, for rooting out that leprosy in our life, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord.